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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30607-8.txt b/30607-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..74050c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/30607-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12292 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Australia, its history and present condition, by +William Pridden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Australia, its history and present condition + containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies, + with their respective inhabitants + +Author: William Pridden + +Release Date: December 5, 2009 [EBook #30607] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALIA--HISTORY, CONDITION *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Wall, Anne Storer, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: +1) Morrumbidgee/Murrumbidgee each used on several occasions + and left as in the original. 'Morrumbidgee' is the aboriginal + name for the Murrumbidgee. +2) Used on numerous occasions, civilisation/civilization; + civilised/civilized; civilising/civilizing; uncivilised/uncivilized: + left as in the original. +3) Same with variations of colonisation/colonization, and a few other + "z" words that should be "s" words in their English form. + + + * * * * * + + + + + The + Englishman's Library. + XXVI. + + + + + AUSTRALIA, + + ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION; + + CONTAINING + AN ACCOUNT BOTH OF THE BUSH AND OF THE COLONIES, + WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE INHABITANTS. + + BY THE + REV. W. PRIDDEN, M.A. + VICAR OF BROXTED, ESSEX. + + + "_Truth_, in her native calmness and becoming moderation, shall + be the object of our homage and pursuit; and we will aim at the + attainment of knowledge for the improvement of our reason, and not + for the gratification of a passion for disputing."--_Address of + the Bp of Australia in 1841 to the Church of England Book Society._ + + + LONDON: + JAMES BURNS, 17, PORTMAN STREET, + PORTMAN SQUARE. + 1843. + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY R. CLAY, BREAD STREET HILL. + + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: Map of Australia] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +A few words by way of Preface are requisite, in order that the objects +of the present Work may be stated to the reader, and that he may also +be made acquainted with the sources whence the information here +communicated is derived, and from consulting which he may still +further inform himself concerning Australia. The aim of the writer of +the following pages has been,--while furnishing a description of some +of the most flourishing and interesting settlements belonging to the +British Crown, which, at the same time, exhibit in contrast to each +other the two extremes of savage and civilised life;--to call the +attention of his countrymen, both at home and in the colonies, to +the evils which have arisen from the absence of moral restraint and +religious instruction in colonies of civilised and (nominally) +christian men. And although it must in many ways be a disadvantage +that the person professing to describe a particular country should +have gained all his knowledge of it from the report of others, without +ever having himself set foot upon its shores; yet, in one respect at +least, this may operate advantageously. He is less likely to have +party prejudices or private interests to serve in his account of the +land to which he is a total stranger. In consequence, probably, of his +being an indifferent and impartial observer, not one of our Australian +colonies wears in his eye the appearance of a perfect paradise; but +then, on the other hand, there is not one of those fine settlements +which prejudice urges him to condemn, as though it were barren and +dreary as the Great Sahara itself. And the same circumstance--his +never having breathed the close unwholesome air of colonial +party-politics--will render it less likely that his judgment +respecting persons and disputed opinions should be unduly biassed. +There will be more probability of his judging upon right _principles_, +and although his facts may (in some instances, unavoidably) be less +minutely accurate than an inhabitant of the country would have given, +yet they may be less coloured and less partially stated. Instead of +giving his own observations as an eye-witness, fraught with his own +particular views, he can calmly weigh the opposite statements of men +of different opinions, and between the two he is more likely to arrive +at the truth. With regard to the present Work, however impartial the +author has endeavoured to be, however free he may be from colonial +passions and interests, he does not wish to deceive the reader by +professing a total freedom from all prejudice. If this were desirable, +it is impossible; it is a qualification which no writer, or reader +either, possesses. But thus much may be stated, that all his +prejudices are in favour of those institutions with which it has +pleased God to bless his native land. In a volume that is intended to +form part of a series called "The Englishman's Library," it may be +permitted, surely, to acknowledge a strong and influencing attachment +to the Sovereign, the Church, and the Constitution of England. + +The object and principles of the present volume being thus plainly +set forth, it remains only to mention some of the sources whence the +information contained in it is derived. To the Travels of Captain Grey +on the western coast of New Holland, and to those of Major Mitchell in +the interior, the first portion of this Work is deeply indebted, and +every person interested in the state of the natives, or fond of +perusing travels in a wild and unknown region, may be referred to +these four volumes,[1] where they will find that the extracts here +given are but a specimen of the stores of amusement and information +which they contain. Captain Sturt's "Expeditions" and Mr. Oxley's +"Journal" are both interesting works, but they point rather to the +progress of discovery in New Holland than to the actual state of our +local knowledge of it. Dr. Lang's two volumes upon New South Wales are +full of information from one who has lived there many years, and his +faults are sufficiently obvious for any intelligent reader to guard +against. Mr. Montgomery Martin's little book is a very useful +compendium, and those that desire to know more particulars concerning +the origin of the first English colony in New Holland may be referred +to Collins's account of it. Various interesting particulars respecting +the religious state of the colonies in Australia have been derived +from the correspondence in the possession of the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, free access to which was +allowed through the kind introduction of the Rev. C. B. Dalton. Many +other sources of information have been consulted, among which the +Reports of the Parliamentary Committee upon Transportation, in 1837 +and 1838; and that of the Committee upon South Australia, in 1841, +must not be left unnoticed. Neither may the work of Judge Burton upon +Religion and Education in New South Wales be passed over in silence; +for, whatever imperfections may be found in his book,[2] the +facts there set forth are valuable, and, for the most part, +incontrovertible, and the principles it exhibits are excellent. From +the works just mentioned the reader may, should he feel inclined, +verify for himself the facts stated in the ensuing pages, or pursue +his inquiries further. In the meantime, he cannot do better than join +the author of the little book which he holds in his hand, in an humble +and earnest prayer to Almighty God, that, in this and in every other +instance, whatever may be the feebleness and imperfection of human +efforts, all things may be made to work together for good towards +promoting the glory of God, the extension of Christ's kingdom, and the +salvation of mankind. + + [1] Published, all of them, by T. and W. Boone, London, to whom it is + only just to acknowledge their kindness in permitting the use that has + been made of these two publications in the first portion of the present + Work. + + [2] See Dr. Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, especially at p. 5, where it + appears that the judge was not quite impartial in one of his statements. + Dr. Ullathorne himself has, in his 98 pages, contrived to crowd in at + least twice as many misrepresentations as Burton's 321 pages contain. + But that is no excuse. The Romish Church may need, or seem to need, + such support. The cause defended by Judge Burton needs it not. + + + + +#Contents.# + + +INTRODUCTION. + +[Page 1.] + + Subject of the Work--Discovery and Situation of New Holland--Its + Interior little known--Blue Mountains--Conjectures respecting the + Interior--Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania. + + +CHAPTER I. + +[Page 8.] + + The Bush described--Remains of it near Sydney--North-western Coast + of New Holland--Sandy Columns and Fragments--Recollections of + Home--Gouty Stem Tree--Green Ants--Fine Volcanic District--Cure + for Cold--Travelling in the Rainy Season--Rich sequestered Valleys-- + Plains near the Lachlan--Falls of the Apsley--Beauties of Nature + enjoyed by Explorers--Aid afforded by Religion--Trials of Travellers + in the Bush--Thirst--A Christian's Consolations--Plains of Kolaina, + or Deceit--Bernier Island--Frederic Smith--A Commander's Cares--Dried + Streams--Return from a Journey in the Bush--Outsettlers--Islands on + the Australian Coast--Kangaroo Island--Coral Reefs and Islets. + + +CHAPTER II. + +[Page 42.] + + Forbidding aspect of coast no argument against inland beauty and + fertility--River Darling--The Murray--Other Rivers of New Holland-- + Contrasts in Australia--The Lachlan, Regent's Lake, &c.--Sturt's + Descent down the Murray--His Return--Woods--Difficulties and Dangers + of Bush travelling--Wellington Valley--Australia Felix--Conclusion. + + +CHAPTER III. + +[Page 72.] + + Comparative advantages of Europeans over Savages--Degraded condition + of Natives of New Holland--Total absence of Clothing--Love of + Ornaments--Peculiar Rites--Ceremony of knocking out a Tooth--Hardships + of Savage Life--Revengeful Spirit--Effect of Native Songs in exciting + Anger--Cruelty--Courage--Indifference to accounts of Civilized Life-- + Contempt of its ways--Treatment of Women--Family Names, and Crests-- + Language--Music. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +[Page 97.] + + Means of Subsistence--A Whale Feast--Hunting the Kangaroo--Australian + Cookery--Fish--Seal Catching--Turtles--Finding Opossums--Birds-- + Pursuit of the Emu or Cassowary--Disgusting Food of the Natives-- + Vegetables--_By-yu_ Nuts--Evils of European Settlements in cutting + off the native supply of Food--Native Property in Land--Inhabitants + of Van Diemen's Land--A word of Advice to Christian Colonists. + + +CHAPTER V. + +[Page 120.] + + First Shyness of Natives natural--Their perplexity between European + Customs and their own--Health and Longevity--Old Age--Funereal + Rites--Belief in Sorcery--The _Boyl-yas_--Various modes of + Interment--Tombs--Riches of a Native--Bodily Excellences--Secrecy-- + Quickness of Sight, &c.--Kaiber and the Watch--The _Warran_ Ground-- + Various Superstitions--Mischief of bad Example, for which the British + nation is responsible--The Church, the right Instrument, and the only + one that will be found successful, for civilising the Australian + Tribes, if they are ever to be civilised. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +[Page 149.] + + Bennillong--Barangaroo's Funeral--The Spitting Tribe--Mulligo's Death-- + The Corrobory--Peerat and his Wives--Woga's Captivity--Ballooderry + and the Convicts--Native Hospitality and Philosophy--The Widow and + her Child--Miago. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +[Page 186.] + + Infancy of New South Wales an interesting subject to Englishmen--Arrival, + in 1788, of the Sirius, and the Supply at Botany Bay--Settlement + commenced in the Harbour of Port Jackson--Character of the + Convicts--Influence of Religion--Particulars respecting the Chaplain-- + His peculiar situation and efforts--A Gold Mine pretended to be found-- + Supply of Food precarious--Farming--Failure of Provisions--Erection + of a Flag-staff at the entrance of Port Jackson--Activity of + Governor Phillip--Emigration to Norfolk Island--Loss of the Sirius-- + Departure of the Supply for Batavia--Arrivals from England--Cruel + treatment of Convicts on board--Paramatta founded--Arrival of the + Second Fleet--State of Agriculture--The Chaplain's bounty abused-- + Attendance at Divine Service--A Church built--Its subsequent fate-- + Scarcity of Provisions, and great Mortality--Profligacy of Convicts-- + Harvest of 1792--Departure of Governor Phillip--Major Grose's + government--Captain Paterson's--Various occurrences--Drunkenness--Love + of Money--Spirit of Gambling. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +[Page 216.] + + Arrival of Governor Hunter--His efforts for reformation--Advancement + of the Colony towards supplying its own wants--Wild Cattle found--Coal + discovered--Governor's regulations--Incendiarism--Natives + troublesome--Difficulties in governing New South Wales--Crimes + common--Laxity of public opinion--The gaols at Sydney and Paramatta + purposely set on fire--Departure of Governor Hunter--Captain + King succeeds him--Norfolk Island abandoned--Sketch of Norfolk + Island--Settlement of Van Diemen's Land--Free Settlers--Philip + Schoeffer--The Presbyterian Settlers at Portland Head--Resignation + of Governor King--Captain Bligh his successor--Great Flood of + the Hawkesbury--Unpopularity of the Governor--Seizure of his + person--Rebellion--Usurpation--Arrival of a new Governor, Colonel + Macquarie--Improvements in his time--Road-making--Passage across the + Blue Mountains--Public Buildings--Patronage of Emancipists--Discoveries + in the Interior, and Extension of the Colony--Continued neglect of the + spiritual need of the Colonists--Governor Macquarie's Departure--His + own statement of the progress of the Settlement under his + administration. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +[Page 243.] + + Subject stated--Day-dreams of Colonization--Local divisions of New + South Wales--Its Counties--Cumberland--Camden--Illawarra and the + Cow Pastures--Argyle--Bathurst--Northumberland--Coal Pits--Hunter's + River--Remaining Counties--Sydney--Port Jackson--Buildings, + &c. of Sydney--Commerce--Public Press--Paramatta--Windsor--Liverpool-- + Conclusion. + + +CHAPTER X. + +[Page 266.] + + Description of Van Diemen's Land--Its local Divisions--Its general + Character and Aspect--Hobart Town--Launceston--Other Australian + Colonies--Port Phillip--South Australia--Adelaide--Western Australia-- + Its Towns--North Australia. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +[Page 286.] + + Climate of Australia--Drought--Agriculture--Flocks and Herds--Government + of the Colonies--Discontent--Means of National Improvement--Bishopric + of Australia--Tribute of Thanks justly due to the Whig Government-- + Effects of a Bishop being resident in New South Wales--Educational + provision made by George the Fourth--Dr. Lang's Account of it--Judge + Burton's--Church and School Corporation, established in 1826; suspended + in 1829; dissolved in 1833--Causes of this change of Policy-- + Conclusion. + + +CHAPTER XII. + +[Page 307.] + + Inhabitants of Australian Colonies--What seed has been there sown-- + Elements of Society in the Penal Colonies--Convicts--System of + Assignment--Public Gangs--Mr. Potter Macqueen's Establishment--Norfolk + Island and its horrors--These have been mitigated of late years--Means + of reforming Convicts--Prevalence of Vice among them--The class of + Convicts called _specials_ described. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +[Page 325.] + + Emancipists--Their general Character--Their conduct in the Jurors' Box + no argument in favour of bestowing upon them a Representative + Government--Free Population--Ancient Nobility of Botany Bay--Prevailing + taste in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land--Love of Gain--Land + Sharks--Squatters--Overlanders. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +[Page 338.] + + Importance of Religion--The Lord's Day--Habits of duly observing it + nearly lost among many of the inhabitants of our Australian + Colonies--Opposition to Improvement--Religious strife prevails where + religious union is needed--Sir R. Bourke's novel system of religious + Establishments--Its practical working--Efforts of the Church coldly + seconded or else opposed, by Government--Petty Persecutions--Similar + opposition to National Religious Education as to National Church-- + Blunders respecting the Irish System of Education in 1836--Attempt + in 1840 to banish the Creed and Catechism from Protestant Schools + having Government support--Schools of a higher rank in New South + Wales--King's School, Paramatta--Sydney College--The Australian + College--The Normal Institution--Proposed College at Liverpool--Other + Schools--Population of New South Wales in 1841--Emigration--Conclusion. + + + + +#Illustrations.# + + + PAGE + Map of Australia _Frontispiece_ + Reduced Map of Van Diemen's Land 1 + Travellers in the Bush 8 + Explorers finding the Bed of a dried-up River 42 + Opossum Hunting 97 + Natives of the Murray Islands in Boats 120 + Sydney in its Infancy--View from the South 186 + North View of Sydney 243 + Hobart Town 266 + Cape Pillar, near the Entrance of the Derwent, Van Diemen's Land 286 + Conveying Cattle over the Murray, near Lake Alexandria 325 + + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.] + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The vast tract of country which it is the object of the present volume +to describe in its leading features, both moral and natural, may be said +to consist of two islands, besides many small islets and coral reefs, +which lie scattered around the coasts of these principal divisions. The +larger island of the two, which from its size may well deserve the +appellation of a continent, is called New Holland, or Australia; and is +supposed to be not less than three-fourths of the extent of the whole of +Europe. The smaller island, so well known by the names of Van Diemen's +Land, or Tasmania, (from those of the discoverer, Tasman, and the Dutch +governor of Batavia, Van Diemen) is not to be compared in size to the +other, being about equal in magnitude to Ireland, and, like that island, +abounding in fine and excellent harbours. Although, strictly speaking, +the name of Australia is confined to the former of these two islands, +yet it may be understood to include the smaller island also; and under +this name it is proposed to make the reader familiar with the chief +objects of curiosity in the natural world, and likewise with the state +of human society, whether savage or civilised, in the two islands of New +Holland and Van Diemen's Land, so far as both of these have been +hitherto known and explored. + +It is by no means certain what nation may justly lay claim to the honour +of the discovery of New Holland, the coasts of which were probably seen +by the Spaniards, Quiros or Torres, in 1606, and are by some supposed to +have been known to the Spanish and Portuguese yet earlier than this +date, but were not regularly discovered until the Dutch, between the +years 1616 and 1627, explored a considerable portion of the northern and +western shores of that vast island, to which they gave the name of their +own country, Holland. To the Spaniards this land was known by the names +of Terra Australis Incognita, (The Unknown Southern Land,) or Australia +del Espiritu Santo, (The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit,) the meaning +of which last name does not exactly appear, unless it arose from the +discovery of Quiros having been made a little before Whitsuntide. Since +that time the coasts of this immense island, extending, it is said, to +no less than 8000 miles, have been gradually explored, although they +still remain in some parts very imperfectly known. Indeed, it was only +in the year 1798 that Van Diemen's Land was discovered to be an island +separated from New Holland, of which before that time it had been +thought to form a large projection or promontory. + +New Holland is situated in the vast ocean extending to the south and +east of the Spice Islands, and it lies about even with the lower part of +the continent of Africa, only at an immense distance due east of it. Its +extreme points of latitude are 39 degrees and 10½ degrees S., and of +longitude 112 degrees and 153 degrees 40 minutes E. from Greenwich, +so that it includes in its huge extent climates both tropical and +temperate, but none that are decidedly cold. It must be remembered, +indeed, that the countries south of the equator become colder at +the same latitude than those that extend towards the north; but, +nevertheless, the nearest point towards the South Pole, 39 degrees, +nearly answering to the situation of Naples in the northern hemisphere, +cannot be otherwise than a mild and warm climate. The shape of New +Holland is very irregular, its coast being much broken and indented by +various great bays and smaller inlets; but it has been estimated to have +a _width_ from E. to W. of 3000 miles, and a breadth from N. to S. of +2000, containing altogether not less than three millions of square +miles. Of course, it is impossible, in so large an extent of country, +that the interior parts of it should have been explored during the few +years in which any portion of it has been occupied by Europeans. +Accordingly, almost all the inland tracts are still a vast blank, +respecting which very little is known, and that little is far from +inviting. Indeed many hindrances oppose themselves to the perfect +discovery of these inland regions, besides those common obstacles, to +encounter and overcome which every traveller who desires to explore +new, wild, and savage countries, must have fully made up his mind. + +First among the peculiar difficulties which have opposed the Australian +explorer is the height and ruggedness of that chain of mountains, +called, in the colony of New South Wales, the Blue Mountains, which form +a mighty barrier of more or less elevation along most parts of the +eastern coast of New Holland, sometimes approaching as nearly as 30 +miles to the sea, and at other places falling back to a distance of 60 +or nearly 100 miles. These mountains are not so very high, the loftiest +points appearing to exceed but little the height of Snowdon in Wales, or +Ben Nevis in Scotland; but their rugged and barren nature, and the great +width to which they frequently extend, render it no very easy matter to +cross them at all. Indeed, although the settlement of New South Wales +was founded in 1788, it was not before 1813 that a route was discovered +across those vast ranges which shut in the colony to the west. +Frequently had the passage over the Blue Mountains been attempted +before, but never with any success; and the farthest point which had +been reached, called Caley's Repulse, was a spot that almost seemed +to forbid man's footsteps to advance beyond it. Nothing was to be +seen there in every direction but immense masses of weather-beaten +sandstone-rock, towering over each other in all the sublimity of +desolation; while a deep chasm, intersecting a lofty ridge covered with +blasted trees, seemed to cut off every hope of farther progress. But all +these difficulties have now long since been got over, and stage-coaches +are able to run across what were a few years ago deemed impassable +hills. Yet, when this dreary barrier of barren mountains has been +crossed, another peculiar hindrance presents itself to the exploring +traveller. In many parts of the interior of New Holland, which have +been visited, the scarcity of water is such that the most distressing +privations have been endured, and the most disagreeable substitutes +employed. And yet, strange to say, the very same country, which +sometimes affords so few springs, and of which the streams become dried +up into chains of dirty pools, and at last into dry ravines and valleys, +is, occasionally, subject to extreme floods from the overflowing of its +rivers, and then offers a new obstacle to the traveller's progress in +the shape of extensive and impassable marshes! To these difficulties +must be added the usual trials of adventurous explorers, the dangers and +perplexities of a journey through pathless forests, the want of game +of any kind in the barren sandstone districts, the perils sometimes +threatened by a visit from the native inhabitants, and, altogether, we +shall have reason rather to feel surprise at what has been done in the +way of inland discovery in New Holland, than to wonder that so much +remains yet undone. + +In consequence of the interior portions of the country remaining still +unknown, fancy has been busy in forming notions respecting them, and +one favourite supposition has been that there exists somewhere in the +central part of New Holland an immense lake or inland sea; but of this +no proof whatever can be produced, so that it can only be said that _it +may be so_. Certainly, unless some such means of communication by water, +or some very large navigable river, should exist, it is hardly possible +to imagine how the extensive tracts of inland country can ever become +civilized or inhabited by Europeans. And of that portion which has been +visited a considerable extent of country appears to be shut out by the +natural barrenness of its soil and sandstone-rocks from any prospect of +ever supplying food to the colonies of civilized man. So that, while +the whole of New Holland is an interesting country from its natural +peculiarities, and even the desolate portion of it adds, by its very +desolation, a deep interest to the adventures of those persons who have +had the courage to attempt to explore it; yet the chief prospects of +Australia's future importance seem to be confined to its line of +coast,--no narrow limits in an island so extensive. Hence the colonies +now flourishing on the eastern, southern, and western shores of New +Holland, especially on the first, will form a chief object of attention +in the present work; although, as will be seen by its contents, the +"bush," or wild country, and its savage inhabitants, will be by no +means overlooked. + +Respecting Van Diemen's Land much need not be here said, although, +however small in comparative extent, its population was in 1836 above +half of that of the whole colony of New South Wales. It is, therefore, +and always will be, an important island, though, from its mountainous +character and confined limits, it cannot, of course, be expected to keep +pace with the increasing population of the sister colony. Van Diemen's +Land was discovered in 1642, by the Dutchman, Tasman, who first sailed +round its southern point, and ascertained that the great Southern Land, +or Australia, did not extend, as it had been supposed, to the South +Pole. The island was apparently overlooked, until, in 1804, a colony +was founded there by the English, and it was taken possession of in the +name of his Britannic majesty. Since that time, with the exception of +those early hardships to which all colonies seem liable, it has been +flourishing and increasing. To many Englishmen its colder climate, +(which is yet sufficiently mild,) and its supposed resemblance in +appearance and productions to their native land, have appeared +preferable to all the advantages which the larger island possesses. +Van Diemen's Land is divided from New Holland on the north by Bass's +Straits, its extreme points of latitude are 41° 20', and 43° 40' S., and +of longitude 144° 40', and 148° 20' E. Its shape is irregular, being +much broken by various inlets, but its greatest extent from N. to S. is +reckoned to be about 210 miles, and from E. to W. 150 miles, containing +a surface of about 24,000 square miles. The native inhabitants of this +smaller island have entirely disappeared before the superior weapons and +powers of _civilised_ man. + + + + +[Illustration: TRAVELLERS IN THE BUSH.] + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BUSH, ON OR NEAR THE COAST. + + +All that country, which remains in a state of nature uncultivated and +uninclosed, is known among the inhabitants of the Australian colonies +by the expressive name of _the Bush_.[3] It includes land and scenery +of every description, and, likewise, no small variety of climate, as +may be supposed from the great extent of the island of New Holland. +Accordingly, without indulging in surmises concerning the yet unknown +parts, it may be safely said, respecting those which have been more or +less frequently visited and accurately explored, that the extremes of +rural beauty and savage wildness of scenery,--smiling plains and barren +deserts, snowy mountains and marshy fens, crowded forests and bare +rocks, green pastures and sandy flats,--every possible variety, in +short, of country and of aspect may be found in that boundless region +which is all included under the general appellation of _the Bush_. To +enter into a particular or regular description of this is clearly no +less impossible than it would be tedious and unprofitable. And yet +there are many descriptions of different portions of it given by +eye-witnesses, many circumstances and natural curiosities belonging to +it, and related to us upon the best authority, which are likely to +please and interest the reader, who can see and adore God everywhere, +and is capable of taking delight in tracing out and following the +footsteps of Almighty Wisdom and Power, even in the wilderness and among +the mountain-tops. It is proposed, therefore, to select a few of the +pictures which have been drawn by the bold explorers of the Bush, so as +to give a general idea of the character, the scenery, the dangers, and +the privations of that portion of the Australian islands. And, having +first become familiar and acquainted with these, we shall be better able +to set a just value, when we turn to the state of the colonies and their +inhabitants, upon that moral courage, that British perseverance and +daring, which have, within the memory of man, changed so many square +miles of bush into fertile and enclosed farms; which have raised a +regular supply of food for many thousands of human beings out of what, +sixty years ago, was, comparatively speaking, a silent and uninhabited +waste. When the troops and convicts, who formed the first colony in New +South Wales, landed at Port Jackson, the inlet on which the town of +Sydney is now situated, "Every man stepped from the boat literally into +a wood. Parties of people were everywhere heard and seen variously +employed; some in clearing ground for the different encampments; others +in pitching tents, or bringing up such stores as were more immediately +wanted; and the spot, which had so lately been the abode of silence and +tranquillity, was now changed to that of noise, clamour, and +confusion."[4] + + [3] It is supposed that the word "Sin," applied to the wilderness + mentioned in Exodus xvi. 1, and also to the mountain of "Sinai," has + the same meaning, so that the appellation of "Bush" is no new term. + + [4] Collins' "Account of the Colony of New South Wales," p. 11. + +And still, even near to the capital town of the colony, there are +portions of wild country left pretty much in their natural and original +state. Of one of these spots, in the direction of Petersham, the +following lively description from the pen of a gentleman only recently +arrived in the colony, may be acceptable. "To the right lies a large and +open glen, covered with cattle and enclosed with _bush_, (so we call the +forest,) consisting of brushwood and gigantic trees; and, above the +trees, the broad sea of Botany Bay, and the two headlands, Solander and +Banks, with a white stone church and steeple, St. Peter's New Town, +conveying an assurance that there are Englishmen of the right sort not +far from us. And now we plunge into the thicket, with scarcely a track +to guide our steps. I have by this time made acquaintance with the +principal giants of the grove. Some are standing, some are felled; the +unmolested monarchs stand full 200 feet high, and heave their white and +spectral limbs in all directions; the fallen monsters, crushed with +their overthrow, startle you with their strange appearances; whilst +underfoot a wild variety of new plants arrest your attention. The +bush-shrubs are exquisitely beautiful. Anon a charred and blackened +trunk stops your path: if you are in spirits, you jump over all; if you +are coming home serious, weary, and warm, you plod your way round. +Well,--in twenty minutes' time you reach a solitary hut,--the first +stage of the walk: you pass the fence, the path becomes narrow,--the +bush thickens round you,--it winds, it rises, it descends: all on a +sudden it opens with a bit of cleared ground full twenty yards in +extent, and a felled tree in the midst. Here let us pause, and, +kneeling on the turf, uncovered, pour forth the voice of health, of +cheerfulness, and gratitude to Him who guides and guards us on our way. +And now, onward again. The land falls suddenly, and we cross a brook, +which a child may stride, but whose waters are a blessing both to man +and beast. And now we rise again; the country is cleared; there is a +flock of sheep, and a man looking after them; to the left, a farmhouse, +offices, &c.; before us the spire of St. James's, Sydney, perhaps three +miles distant, the metropolitan church of the new empire, and, a little +to the right, the rival building of the Roman church. Beneath us lies +Sydney, the base-born mother of this New World, covering a large extent +of ground, and, at the extreme point of land, the signal station, with +the flags displayed, betokening the arrival of a ship from England. Till +now we have met with no living creature, but here, perhaps, the chaise +with Sydney tradesman and his wife, the single horseman, and a straggler +or two on foot, begin to appear." + +The general appearance of the coast of New Holland is said to be very +barren and forbidding, much more so than the shores of Van Diemen's Land +are; and it thus often happens that strangers are agreeably disappointed +by finding extreme richness and fertility in many parts of a country, +which at their first landing afforded no such promises of excellence. +One of the most dreary and most curious descriptions of country is to +be met with on the north-western shores of New Holland, quite on the +opposite coast to that where the principal English colony is situated. +The daring explorer of this north-western coast, Captain Grey, has +given a fearful account of his dangers and adventures among the barren +sandstone hills of this district. Its appearance, upon his landing at +Hanover Bay, was that of a line of lofty cliffs, occasionally broken by +sandy beaches; on the summits of these cliffs, and behind the beaches, +rose rocky sandstone hills, very thinly wooded. Upon landing, the shore +was found to be exceedingly steep and broken; indeed the hills are +stated to have looked like the _ruins of hills_, being composed of huge +blocks of red sandstone, confusedly piled together in loose disorder, +and so overgrown with various creeping plants, that the holes between +them were completely hidden, and into these one or other of the party +was continually slipping and falling. The trees were so small and so +scantily covered with leaves that they gave no shelter from the heat of +the sun, which was reflected by the soil with intense force, so that it +was really painful to touch, or even to stand upon, the bare sandstone. +Excessive thirst soon began to be felt, and the party, unprepared for +this, had only two pints of water with them, a portion of which they +were forced to give to their dogs; all three of these, however, died of +exhaustion. After a vain search of some hours, at length the welcome cry +of "Water!" was heard from one of the party; but, alas! upon scrambling +down the deep and difficult ravine where the water ran, it was found to +be quite salty, and they were compelled to get up again as well as they +could, unrefreshed and disheartened. After following the course of the +deep valley upwards about half a mile, they looked down and saw some +birds ascending from the thick woods growing below, and, knowing these +white cockatoos to be a sure sign of water very near, the weary party +again descended, and found a pool of brackish water, which, in their +situation, appeared to afford the most delicious draughts, although they +shortly afterwards paid the penalty of yet more intolerable thirst, +arising from making too free with a beverage of such quality. + +The nature of the country near Hanover Bay, where the party belonging +to Captain Grey was exploring, is most remarkable. The summits of the +ranges of sandstone hills were generally a level sort of table-land, but +this level was frequently broken and sometimes nearly covered with lofty +detached pillars of rock, forming the most curious shapes in their +various grouping. In one place they looked like the aisle of a church +unroofed, in another there stood, upon a huge base, what appeared to be +the legs of an ancient statue, from which the body had been knocked +away; and fancy might make out many more such resemblances. Some of +these time-worn sandy columns were covered with sweet-smelling creepers, +and their bases were hidden by various plants growing thickly around +them. The tops of all were nearly on a level, and the height of those +that were measured was upwards of forty feet. The cause of this singular +appearance of the country was at length discovered by the noise of water +running under the present surface, in the hollows of the sandstone, and +gradually carrying away the soil upon which the top surface rests. +Formerly, no doubt, the level of the whole country was even with the +tops of the broken pillars, and much higher; and hereafter what is now +at the surface will give way beneath the wasting of the streams that +flow below, and no traces of its present height will be left, except in +those places where the power of the water is less felt, which will rear +up their lofty heads, and bear witness by their presence of the ruin +that will have taken place. + +In wandering through a country of this description, how natural does the +following little remark of Captain Grey appear! A plant was observed +here, which, in appearance and smell, exactly resembled the jasmine of +England; and it would be difficult to give an idea of the feeling of +pleasure derived from the sight of this simple emblem of home. But, +while the least plant or tree that could remind them of home was gladly +welcomed, there were many new and remarkable objects to engage the +attention of the travellers. Among these the large green ants, and the +gouty stem tree may be particularly noticed. The ants are, it would +seem, confined to the sandstone country, and are very troublesome. The +gouty stem tree is so named from the resemblance borne by its immense +trunk to the limb of a gouty person. It is an unsightly but very useful +tree, producing an agreeable and nourishing fruit, as well as a gum and +bark that may be prepared for food. Upon some of these trees were found +the first rude efforts of savages to gain the art of writing, being a +number of marks, supposed to denote the quantity of fruit gathered from +the tree each year, all but the last row being constantly scratched out, +thus: + +[Illustration] + +But, miserable as the general appearance of that part of the +north-western coast of New Holland undoubtedly is, yet are there many +rich and lovely spots to be found in its neighbourhood; and, further +inland, vast tracts of fertile country appear to want only civilised and +Christian men for their inhabitants. What is wanting in the ensuing +picture but civilisation and religion, in order to make it as perfect as +any earthly abode can be? "From the summit of the hills on which we +stood," (says Captain Grey) "an almost precipitous descent led into a +fertile plain below; and, from this part, away to the southward, for +thirty to forty miles, stretched a low, luxuriant country, broken by +conical peaks and rounded hills, which were richly clothed with grass +to their very summits. The plains and hills were both thinly wooded, +and curving lines of shady trees marked out the courses of numerous +streams." This beautiful prospect was over a volcanic district, and with +the sandstone which they were just leaving, they were bidding farewell +to barrenness and desolation. It was near this beautiful spot, and in a +country no less rich and delightful, that the party of adventurers was +overtaken by the violent rains, which occur in those hot climates, and +which struck the men with so great chill, that they were driven to make +trial of an odd way of getting warm. Some of them got into a stream, the +waters of which were comparatively warm, and thus saved themselves from +the painful feeling arising from the very cold rain falling on the pores +of the skin, which had previously been opened by continued perspiration. + +The rains appear during the wet season to fall very heavily and +constantly in North-Western Australia, and though a good supply of these +is an advantage to an occupied country, well provided with roads, it is +a great cause of trouble to first explorers who have to find a ford over +every stream, and a passage across every swamp, and who often run the +risk of getting into a perfectly impassable region. Of this sort, alike +differing from the barren sandstone and the volcanic fertile country, +was a third track through which Captain Grey endeavoured to pass. A +vast extent of land lying low and level near the banks of the river +Glenelg,[5] and well fitted, if properly drained, for the abundant +growth of useful and valuable produce, was found, during the rainy +season, to be in the state of a foul marsh, overgrown with vegetation, +choking up the fresh water so as to cause a flood ankle-deep; and this +marshy ground, being divided by deep muddy ditches, and occasionally +overflown by the river, offered, as may be supposed, no small hindrances +to the progress of the travellers. In some places it was quite +impossible, from the thickly-timbered character of its banks, to +approach the main stream; in others they appeared to be almost entirely +surrounded by sluggish waters, of which they knew neither the depth nor +the nature of their banks. Elsewhere, unable to cross some deep stream, +the explorers were driven miles out of their way, and sometimes even in +their tents, the water stood to the depth of two or three inches. On one +occasion, when the party was almost surrounded by swamps, their loaded +ponies sank nearly up to the shoulders in a bog, whichever way they +attempted to move, and from this spot they had two miles to travel +before they could reach the nearest rising ground. The river Glenelg was +at this time overflowing its banks, and, to the natural alarm of men +wandering in its rich valley, drift-wood, reeds, grass, &c. were seen +lodged in the trees above their heads, fifteen feet beyond the present +level of the water, affording a proof of what floods in that country +_had been_, and, of course, _might be_ again. However, this very soil in +so warm a climate, only about sixteen degrees south of the equator, +would be admirably fitted for the cultivation of rice, which needs +abundance of moisture. But little do the peaceful inhabitants of a +cultivated country, well drained, and provided with bridges and good +roads, think of the risk and hardships undergone by the first explorers +of a new land, however great its capabilities, and whatever may be its +natural advantages. + + [5] This river must not be confounded with another of the same name in + South Australia. + +But it was not in the plain country alone, that Captain Grey found spots +of great richness and fertility, as the following description of the +happy vallies frequently found among the mountain-ranges may testify: +One may be chosen as a specimen of many. At its northern end it was +about four miles wide, being bounded on all sides by rocky, wooded +ranges, with dark gullies from which numerous petty streams run down +into the main one in the centre. The valley gradually grows narrow +towards the south, and is bounded by steep cliffs betwixt which the +waters find an outlet. Sometimes a valley of this kind, most beautiful, +most productive, will contain from four to five thousand acres of nearly +level land, shut out from the rest of the world by the boundary of hills +that enclose it. How great a contrast to these lovely vallies does the +description, given by another traveller in a different district, +present! Nothing, according to Mr. Oxley's account, can be more +monotonous and wearying, than the dull, unvarying aspect of the level +and desolate region through which the Lachlan winds its sluggish course. +One tree, one soil, one water, and one description of bird, fish, or +animal, prevails alike for ten miles, and for a hundred. And, if we turn +from this to a third picture of desolation mingled with sublimity, the +contrast appears yet more heightened. Among the hills behind Port +Macquarrie on the eastern coast, Mr. Oxley came suddenly upon the spot +where a river, (the Apsley,) leaves the gently-rising and fine country +through which it had been passing, and falls into a deep glen. At this +spot the country seems cleft in twain, and divided to its very +foundation, a ledge of rocks separates the waters, which, falling over +a perpendicular rock, 235 feet in height, form a grand cascade. At a +distance of 300 yards, and an elevation of as many feet, the travellers +were wetted with the spray. After winding through the cleft rocks about +400 yards, the river again falls, in one single sheet, upwards of 100 +feet, and continues, in a succession of smaller falls, about a quarter +of a mile lower, where the cliffs are of a perpendicular height, on each +side exceeding 1,200 feet; the width of the edges being about 200 yards. +From thence it descends, as before described, until all sight of it is +lost from the vast elevation of the rocky hills, which it divides and +runs through. The different points of this deep glen, seem as if they +would fit into the opposite openings forming the smaller glens on either +side.[6] + + [6] See Oxley's Journal, p. 299. + +Amid scenery like that which has now been described, varying from +grandeur to tameness, from fertility to barrenness, from extreme beauty +to extreme ugliness, but always possessing, at least, the recommendation +of being _new_, the wanderers in the Bush are delighted to range. There +is a charm to enterprising spirits in the freedom, the stillness, and +even in the dangers and privations, of these vast wilds, which, to such +spirits, scenes of a more civilised character can never possess. If it +be true,--and who has never felt it to be so?--that + + "God made the country and man made the town," + +much more distinctly is God's power visible in the lonely wastes of +Australia, much more deeply do men feel, while passing through those +regions, that it is His hand that has planted the wilderness with trees, +and peopled the desert with living things. Under these impressions men +learn to delight in exploring the bush, and when they meet, as they +often do, with sweet spots, on which Nature has secretly lavished her +choicest gifts, most thoroughly do they enjoy, most devotedly do they +admire, their beauty. In travelling some miles to the northward of +Perth, a town on the Swan River, Captain Grey fell in with a charming +scene, which he thus describes: "Our" station, "this night, had a beauty +about it, which would have made any one, possessed with the least +enthusiasm, fall in love with a bush life. We were sitting on a +gently-rising ground, which sloped away gradually to a picturesque lake, +surrounded by wooded hills,--while the moon shone so brightly on the +lake, that the distance was perfectly clear, and we could distinctly see +the large flocks of wild fowl, as they passed over our heads, and then +splashed into the water, darkening and agitating its silvery surface; in +front of us blazed a cheerful fire, round which were the dark forms of +the natives, busily engaged in roasting ducks for us; the foreground was +covered with graceful grass-trees, and, at the moment we commenced +supper, I made the natives set fire to the dried tops of two of these, +and by the light of these splendid chandeliers, which threw a red glare +over the whole forest in our vicinity, we ate our evening meal; then, +closing round the fire, rolled ourselves up in our blankets, and laid +down to sleep." + +The very same feeling of religion, which heightens the pleasures and +gives a keener relish to the enjoyments of life in these lonely places, +can also afford comfort, and hope, and encouragement under those perils +and privations which first explorers must undergo. Religion is the sun +that brightens our summer hours, and gives us, even through the darkest +and most stormy day, light, and confidence, and certainty. And when a +small body of men are left alone, as it were, in the wilderness with +their God, whatever occurs to them, whether of a pleasing or of a trying +character, is likely to lift up their souls to their Maker, in whom +"they live and move, and have their being." When the patient traveller, +of whose adventures in Western Australia so much mention has been made, +had waited weather-bound on a lonely coast, never before trodden by the +foot of civilised man, until eight days had been consumed in watching to +no purpose the winds and the waves,--when, at a distance of thousands of +miles from their native country, and many hundreds of miles from the +nearest English colony, he and his little party were wasting strength +and provisions in a desert spot; from which their only means of escaping +was in one frail boat, which the fury of the sea forbade them to think +of launching upon the deep,--when the men, under these circumstances, +were becoming more and more gloomy and petulant, where was it that the +commander sought and found consolation? It was in religion. And the +witness of one who has successfully gone through trials of this kind, is +well deserving of the utmost attention. "I feel assured," says Captain +Grey, in his account of this trial of patience, "that, but for the +support I derived from prayer, and frequent perusal and meditation of +the Scriptures, I should never have been able to have borne myself in +such a manner as to have maintained discipline and confidence amongst +the rest of the party; nor in all my sufferings did I ever lose the +consolation derived from a firm reliance upon the goodness of +Providence. It is only those who go forth into perils and dangers, +amidst which human foresight and strength can but little avail, and who +find themselves, day after day, protected by an unseen influence, and +ever and again snatched from the very jaws of destruction, by a power +which is not of this world, who can at all estimate the knowledge of +one's own weakness and littleness, and the firm reliance and trust upon +the goodness of the Creator, which the human breast is capable of +feeling. Like all other lessons which are of great and lasting benefit +to man, this one must be learned amid much sorrowing and woe; but, +having learned it, it is but the sweeter from the pain and toil which +are undergone in the acquisition." + +The mention of these trials to which travellers in the bush are +peculiarly liable, brings naturally to mind that worst of all +privations, a want of water, to which they are so frequently exposed. +The effects of extreme thirst are stated to have been shown, not merely +in weakness and want, in a parched and burning mouth, but likewise in a +partial loss of the senses of seeing and hearing. Indeed, the powers of +the whole frame are affected, and, upon moving, after a short interval +of rest, the blood rushes up into the head with a fearful and painful +violence. A party of men reduced to this condition have very little +strength, either of mind or body, left them, and it is stated, that, in +cases of extreme privation, the worst characters have always least +control over their appetites.[7] Imagine men marching through a barren +and sandy country, a thirsty land where no water is, at the rate of +about two miles in an hour and a quarter, when, suddenly, they come upon +the edge of a dried-up swamp, and behold the footmark of a native, +imprinted on the sand,--the first beginning of hope, a sign of animal +life, which of course implies the means of supporting it. Many more +footsteps are soon seen, and some wells of the natives are next +discovered, but alas! all appear dry. Kaiber, a native companion of the +party, suddenly starts up from a bed of reeds, where he has been burying +his head in a hole of _soft mud_, with which he had completely swelled +himself out, and of which he had helped himself to pretty well half the +supply. It is so thick that it needs straining through a handkerchief, +yet so welcome, after three days and two nights of burning thirst, +under a fierce sun, that each man throws himself down beside the hole, +exclaiming "Thank God!" and then greedily swallows a few mouthfulls of +the liquid mud, declaring it to be the most delicious water, with a +peculiar flavour, better than any that had ever before been tasted by +him. Upon scraping the mud quite out of the hole, water begins slowly to +trickle in again.[8] As might be expected, game abounds here, driven by +the general dryness of the country to these springs. But the trembling +hand of a man worn down by fatigue and thirst is not equal to wield a +gun, or direct its fire to any purpose; so it seems as if thirst were +escaped for a time, in order that hunger might occupy its place. At +length, however, the native kills a cockatoo, which had been wounded +by a shot; and this bird, with a spoonful of flour to each man, and a +tolerable abundance of liquid mud, becomes the means of saving the lives +of the party. + + [7] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. p. 38. + + [8] An expedient used by the natives in Torres Strait, on the + northern coast of Australia, for getting water, may here be noticed, + both for its simplicity and cleverness. "Long slips of bark are tied + round the smooth stems of a tree called the _pandanus_, and the loose + ends are led into the shells of a huge sort of cockle, which are placed + beneath. By these slips the rain which runs down the branches and stem + of the tree is conducted into the shells, each of which will contain + two or three pints; thus, forty or fifty placed under different trees + will supply a good number of men."--FLINDERS' _Voyage to Terra + Australis_, vol. ii. p. 114. + + A different plan for improving the water that is hot and muddy, is thus + detailed by Major Mitchell. To obtain a cool and clean draught the + blacks scratched a hole in the soft sand beside the pool, thus making a + filter, in which the water rose cooled, but muddy. Some tufts of long + grass were then thrown in, through which they sucked the cooler water, + purified from the sand or gravel. I was glad to follow their example, + and found the sweet fragrance of the grass an agreeable addition to the + luxury of drinking. + +Such is the picture, taken from life, of some of the privations +undergone, during dry seasons, in certain portions of the bush, and we +must, at the risk of being tedious, repeat again the witness of a +military man, of one who has seen much of the world, respecting the best +source of comfort and support under these distressing trials. At such +times, upon halting, when the others of the party would lie wearily +down, and brood over their melancholy state, Captain Grey would keep his +journal, (a most useful repository of facts,) and this duty being done, +he would open a small New Testament, his companion through all his +wanderings, from which book he drank in such deep draughts of comfort, +that his spirits were always good. And on another occasion, he shared +the last remaining portion of provision with his native servant; after +which he actually felt glad that it was gone, and that he no longer had +to struggle with the pangs of hunger, and put off eating it to a future +hour. Having completed this last morsel, he occupied himself a little +with his journal, then read a few chapters in the New Testament, and, +after fulfilling these duties, he felt himself as contented and cheerful +as ever he had been in the most fortunate moments of his life. + +As in life, those objects which we have not, but of which we think we +stand in need, are ever present to our fancy, so in these thirsty soils +the mere appearance of that water, of which the reality would be so +grateful, is frequently known to mock the sight of man. A remarkable +specimen of this was seen at the plains of Kolaina (Deceit), in +North-Western Australia. From a sand hill, not very far from the +coast, was seen a splendid view of a noble lake, dotted about with many +beautiful islands. The water had a glassy and fairy-like appearance, and +it was an imposing feeling to sit down alone on the lofty eminence, and +survey the great lake on which no European eye had ever before rested, +and which was cut off from the sea by a narrow and lofty ridge of sandy +hills. It was proposed at once to launch the boats upon this water, but +a little closer survey was thought prudent, and then it proved that the +lake was not so near as it had seemed to be, and that there were +extensive plains of mud and sand lying between it and the rising ground. +It appeared to be about a mile distant, and all were still certain that +it was water they saw, for the shadows of the low hills near it, as well +as those of the trees upon them, could be distinctly traced on the +unruffled surface.[9] As they advanced, the water retreated, and at +last surrounded them. The party now saw that they were deceived by +_mirage_,[10] or vapour, which changed the sandy mud of the plains they +were crossing into the resemblance, at a distance, of a noble piece of +water. In reading the history of mankind, how often may we apply this +disappointment to moral objects! how very frequently do the mistaken +eyes of mortals eagerly gaze upon the _mirage_ raised by falsehood, as +though they were beholding the living waters of truth itself! What +appearance, indeed, does the whole world present to one who rests upon +the everlasting hill of the gospel,--the rock upon which Christ's church +has been built,--except it be that of one vast plain of Kolaina, or +deceit? It was no long time after the explorers of the north-western +coast of New Holland had been mocked by the _mirage_ or vapour which has +just been spoken of, that they had a fearful lesson of the vain and +shadowy nature of human hopes and expectations. When they had first +arrived off the coast, on that expedition, they had chosen an island, +named Bernier Island, upon which to bury, for the sake of safety, their +stores and provisions, so that they might return to them whenever it +should be necessary. Bernier Island is a barren spot, formed of +limestone, shells, and sand, and without a single tree or blade of +grass upon it, but only wretched, scrubby bushes, amidst which the light +sand and shells are drifted by the winds. Such was the remote spot, +surrounded by the ocean's waves, yet not very far from the main shore, +upon which it was resolved to conceal their store of necessaries, +secure, as it was supposed, from every enemy. In little more than three +weeks, during which the adventurers had gone through many perils, and +much stormy weather, they returned again, not without some difficulty, +to their stores. But on approaching Bernier Island with their boat they +scarcely knew it again, so vast a difference had the recent storms made +in its outward appearance, so fearful were the pranks which the +hurricane had played upon a land which was, in fact, nothing but loose +sand, heaped upon a bed of limestone. The place where their stores had +been securely left was gone, the remains of the flour-casks, salt +provisions, &c. were scattered about in various directions; and the +whole spot so entirely altered that it could hardly be ascertained, +except by the fragments that were seen near it. How to get back again to +Swan River, the nearest British settlement, without provisions, without +water, without strength, was indeed a perplexing inquiry, and to answer +this the leader of the party, having left his companions for a while, +set himself seriously to work. Sitting down upon a rock on the shore, +he felt the gale blowing fiercely in his face, and the spray of the +breakers dashing over him; nothing could be more gloomy and dreary. +Inland, no objects were to be seen but a mere bed of rock covered with +drifting sand, on which were growing stunted, scrubby bushes; and former +experience taught him, that no fresh water was to be found in the +island. Several plans of escape, all apparently alike hopeless, offered +themselves to his mind, and, more fully to compose himself, he took +forth his constant companion in the wilderness, and read a few chapters +of Holy Writ. Contentment and resignation were thus in some degree +gained, and he soon joined the rest of the party, having resolved upon +that plan, which God's providence and mercy finally enabled him to carry +out, without losing, from a party of twelve, constantly exposed during a +very long journey to most dreadful toils, hunger, and thirst, more than +one man only, who died at no great distance from the English colony. +That one person was a youth of eighteen years of age, who had come out +from England, led solely by an enterprising spirit, and not with any +view of settling. On the return of the party under Captain Grey towards +Swan River, they were so sadly pinched by want of provisions, and by +thirst, that five of them were obliged to start with their leader, in +order to reach the British colony by forced marches, and Frederick +Smith, the youthful adventurer, was one of those that remained behind. +After undergoing extreme trials, which from his age he was less able to +bear than the others, he, at last, became quite worn out, and sat down, +one evening, on a bank, declaring that he could go no further. He was +behind the rest of the party, and the man who was with him went and told +his companions that he thought Smith was dying. The next morning that +man went back for him; but, being himself very weak, he did not go far +enough, at all events he did not find him. Probably, the poor sufferer +had crawled a little out of the track, for, afterwards, when a party was +sent from Swan River in search of him, they traced, with the help of a +native, his footsteps up a bare sand hill to the height of twelve or +fourteen feet, and there, turning about to the left, they found the +object of their search stretched lifeless upon his back, in the midst of +a thick bush, where he seemed to have laid down to sleep, being half +wrapped up in his blanket.[11] All his little articles of baggage were +very near him, and, from the posture in which he was found, it appeared +that the immediate cause of his death was a rush of blood to the head, +which would occasion no great suffering in his last moments. A grave was +scraped in the sand by the searching party, and Frederic Smith was +buried in the wilderness wherein he had died, and which he had been +among the first to explore, about seventy-six miles northward of the +Swan River. The grave was made smooth, and a piece of wood found upon +the neighbouring beach was placed at its head, and then the solitary +spot was forsaken for ever by the mourning companions of the departed +youth, who left + + "Heaven's fresh gales, and the ocean's wave, + Alternate to sigh o'er the wanderer's grave."[12] + + [9] "The most singular quality of this vapour or _mirage_, as it is + termed, is its power of reflection; objects are seen as from the + surface of a lake, and their figure is sometimes changed into the + most fantastic shapes."--CRICHTON'S _Arabia_, vol. i. p. 41. + + [10] See two other curious accounts of the effects of _mirage_ + and refraction in Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. + 56 and 171. + + [11] The artless description of this sad discovery, given by one of + the natives who accompanied the party, may be not unworthy of the + reader's notice. "Away we go, away, away, along the shore away, away, + away, a long distance we go. I see Mr. Smith's footsteps ascending a + sand-hill, onwards I go regarding his footsteps. I see Mr. Smith dead. + We commence digging the earth. Two _sleeps_ had he been dead; greatly + did I weep, and much I grieved. In his blanket folding him, we scraped + away the earth. We scrape earth into the grave, we scrape the earth + into the grave, a little wood we place in it. Much earth we heap upon + it--much earth we throw up. No dogs can dig there, so much earth we + throw up. The sun had just inclined to the westward as we laid him in + the ground."--GREY'S _Travels in Western Australia_, vol. ii. p. 350. + + [12] See a like melancholy history of the death of Mr. Cunningham, in + Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 180, _et seq._ How thrilling + must have been the recollections of his fellow-travellers in the + wilderness at the simple incident thus related: "In the bed of the + river, where I went this evening to enjoy the sight of the famished + cattle drinking, I came accidentally on an old footstep of Mr. + Cunningham in the clay, now baked hard by the sun. Four months had + elapsed, and up to this time the clay bore the last records of our + late fellow-traveller." + +It was only six weeks before this untimely end of the young explorer, +that he had set out, full of hope, on the long journey by the coast, +which the party made on their return, and had been a leading character +in such beautiful pictures of life in the Australian wilderness as this +which is given by his friend Captain Grey. "We soon found ourselves at +the foot of a lofty cascade, down which a little water was slowly +dropping; and, on climbing to its summit, it appeared to be so well +fitted for a halting-place for the night, that I determined to remain +there. The men made themselves comfortable near the water-holes, and +Mr. Smith and myself crept into a little cave, which occasionally served +as a resting-place for the natives, the remains of whose fires were +scattered about. A wild woodland and rocky scenery was around us; and +when the moon rose and shed her pale light over all, I sat with Mr. +Smith on the edge of the waterfall, gazing by turns into the dim woody +abyss below, and at the red fires and picturesque groups of the men, +than which fancy could scarcely imagine a wilder scene." + +It is no uncommon mistake, with persons who ought to know better, to +magnify the toils and hardships endured by the body, while those labours +and anxieties that the mind undergoes are disregarded and forgotten. +Every man engaged in an exploring party in the bush, for instance, has +his severe trials to go through, but their trials are not to be compared +to those of the commander of the party. How often when the rest are +sleeping must he be watchful? How frequently, while others are gay, must +he feel thoughtful! These remarks may easily be applied to the following +description of the coast near Shark's Bay, in the N. W. of the island of +New Holland. There was great beauty in the scenery, both the sky and the +water had that peculiar brilliancy about them to be seen only in fine +weather, and in a very warm climate. To the west lay a boundless extent +of sea, to the eastward was a low shore fringed with trees, not only +down to the water's edge, but forming little green knots of foliage in +the ocean itself; behind these trees were low wooded hills, and in +front of them were numbers of pelicans and water-fowl. There was only +about three feet depth of clear transparent water, through which were +seen many beautiful and large shells, and various strange-looking fish, +at some of which last one or other of Captain Grey's men would sometimes +make an attack, while loud peals of laughter would rise from the rest, +when the pursuer, too anxious to gain his object, would miss his stroke +at the fish, or, stumbling, roll headlong in the water. The fineness of +the day, the novelty of the scenery, and the rapid way they were making, +made the poor fellows forget past dangers, as well as those they had yet +to undergo. But this was more than their commander was able to do. +"My own meditations," adds Captain Grey, "were of a more melancholy +character, for I feared that the days of some of the light-hearted group +were already numbered, and would soon be brought to a close. Amid such +scenes and thoughts we were swept along, while this unknown coast, which +so many had anxiously yet vainly wished to see, passed before our eyes +like a dream, and ere many more years have hurried by, it is possible +that the recollection of this day may be as such to me." + +Among the wonders of Nature to be met with in the Australian bush, the +large rivers occasionally dried up to their very lowest depth by the +extreme drought, are very remarkable. Few natural objects can equal in +beauty and utility a river in its proper state,-- + + "Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; + Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full;" + +but few can exceed in terror and destruction a large river in time of +flood; while nothing, surely, can surpass in horror and desolation the +same object when its stream is wasted, its waters disappeared, its +usefulness and beauty alike gone. This spectacle is, fortunately, but +rarely seen, except in Australia, and even there only after very dry +seasons. One river seen in this state consisted of several channels or +beds, divided from each other by long strips of land, which in times of +flood become islands; the main channel was about 270 yards in breadth, +and the height of its bank was about fifteen feet. After the exploring +party had passed the highest point in the channel to which the tide +flowed from the sea, this huge river bed was perfectly dry, and looked +the most mournful, deserted spot imaginable. Occasionally water-holes +were found eighteen or twenty feet in depth, and it is from these alone +that travellers have been enabled to satisfy their thirst in crossing +over the unexplored parts of the bush, where no water could elsewhere be +obtained. Still, notwithstanding the extreme drought by which they were +surrounded, the strangers could see by the remaining drift wood, which +had been washed high up into the neighbouring trees, what rapid and +overpowering currents sometimes swept along the now dry channel. + +On another occasion the same singular object is powerfully described, +and the feelings of men, who had long been in need of water, at +beholding a sight like this can scarcely be imagined. Beneath them lay +the dry bed of a large river, its depth at this point being between +forty and fifty feet, and its breadth upwards of 300 yards; it was at +times subject to terrible floods, for along its banks lay the trunks of +immense trees, giants of the forest, which had been formerly washed down +from the interior of the country; yet nothing now met their craving eyes +but a vast sandy channel, which scorched their eyeballs, as the rays of +the sun were reflected back from its white, glistening bed. Above and +below this spot, however, large pools of water were found, and even +here, when a hole of a few inches depth was scraped in the dry channel, +it soon became filled with water which oozed into it from the sand. At +another stream, which the same exploring party afterwards fell in with, +they were less successful, and found all the pools entirely dry. The sun +was intensely hot, and the poor men grew faint for want of water, while +it heightened their sufferings, that they stood upon the brink of a +river, or wandered along its banks with eager, piercing eyes, and an air +of watchfulness peculiar to those who seek for that on which their lives +depend. One while they explored a shallow, stony part of the bed, which +was parched up and blackened by the fiery sun: their steps were slow and +listless, and it was plainly to be seen how faint, weak, and weary they +were; the next minute another pool would be seen ahead, the depth of +which the eye could not at a distance reach; now they hurried on towards +it with a dreadful look of eager anxiety--the pool was reached--the +bottom seen; but, alas! no water: then they paused, and looked one at +the other with an air of utter despair. The order to march from this +distressing spot was unwillingly and slowly obeyed. So fondly does the +human soul cling to the very faintest semblance of hope, that the +adventurers would rather have wandered up and down these barren and arid +banks, in vain search after water, than tear themselves away by one bold +effort from the deceitful expectations held out to them by the empty +channel. + +It was on his return from a journey attended by perils and privations +like these, that Captain Grey relates the following simple occurrence, +which may help to make men value more highly, or rather prize more +justly, the many little comforts they may possess: The Captain had +left some of his men behind, and was hastening with all speed to the +settlement of Perth, in Western Australia, in order to get assistance +and necessaries for them. Starting an hour and a half before daylight, +he reached the hut of Williams, the farthest settler, north of Perth, in +time to find the wife and another woman at breakfast. He had known Mrs. +Williams, and, forgetting how strangely want and suffering had changed +his appearance for the worse, he expected her to remember him again. But +he was mistaken for a crazy Malay, nicknamed Magic, who used to visit +the houses of the out-settlers. Hurt at his reception, "I am not Magic," +exclaimed he. "Well then, my good man, who are you?" inquired they, +laughing. "One who is almost starved," was his solemn reply. "Will you +take this, then?" said the hostess, handing him a cup of tea she was +raising to her lips. "With all my heart and soul, and God reward you for +it," was the answer; and he swallowed the delicious draught. Who can +fail of being reminded, upon reading this anecdote, of those gracious +and beautiful words of his Redeemer--"Whosoever shall give you a cup of +water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say +unto you, he shall not lose his reward"? (Mark ix. 41.) + +The mention of the out-settler's hut, in which Captain Grey met with +this small, but most acceptable, kindness, may serve to remind us of an +object, which, although not, strictly speaking, belonging to the bush, +is, nevertheless, very frequently seen in that part of the wild country +which is most visited,--the portions of it which are adjoining to the +British settlements. In these parts of the bush the small hut of the +humble out-settler may often be espied; and, while we speak of the toils +and privations frequently undergone by this class of people at first, we +must not forget that they are thus opening to themselves a way to future +wealth and comfort. Nor, be it recollected, is the condition of an +out-settler in the Australian bush any more a fair average specimen of +that of the inhabitants of the colonies than the owner of a mud-hovel +raised on some English heath would be of the inhabitants of the parish +in which he happens to dwell. One strong difference may be seen in the +two cases. In England the cottager must, in all likelihood, live and die +a cottager, as his fathers have done before him, and his children will +after him; whereas, in the Australian colonies, with prudence and the +Divine blessing, (without which a man can do well nowhere) the humble +out-settler may gradually, yet rapidly, grow up into the wealthy and +substantial farmer and landowner. Bearing in mind these facts, the +following sketch of the premises of an out-settler on the river +Williams, at the back of the Swan River settlement, in Western +Australia, may be at once instructive, and not unsuitable to the subject +of this chapter. The house was made of a few upright poles, to which, at +the top, cross poles were fastened, and a covering of rude thatch tied +upon the whole. It was open at both ends, and exposed to the wind, +which, as the situation was high, was very unpleasant. Here, however, +were the elements of future riches, a very large flock of sheep, in fair +condition, also a well-supplied stock-yard, and cattle in beautiful +order; while upwards of twenty dogs, for hunting the kangaroo, completed +the establishment. The settlers were four in number, and, except four +soldiers quartered about sixteen miles from them, there were no other +Europeans within fifty miles of the spot. All stores and necessaries +were sent from a distance of 120 miles, through a country without roads, +and exposed to the power of the native inhabitants. In this but might +be seen a lively picture of the trials occasionally endured by _first +settlers_; they had no flour, tea, sugar, meat, or any provision +whatever, except their live stock and the milk of their cattle, their +sole dependence for any other article of food being the kangaroo dogs, +and the only thing their visitors were able to do to better their +situation was to leave them some shot. All other circumstances were on +the same scale with them, and one, supposing them to have been faithful +members of the Church of their native land, must have been the most +grievous privation of all:-- + + "The sound of the church-going bell + Those valleys and rocks never heard; + Never sighed at the sound of a knell, + Nor smiled when a sabbath appear'd." + +They had but one old clasp knife; there was but one small bed, for one +person, the others sleeping on the ground every night, with little or no +covering; they had no soap to wash themselves or their clothes, yet they +submitted cheerfully to all these privations, considering them to be +necessary consequences of their situation. Two of these out-settlers +were gentlemen, not only by birth, but also in thought and manner; nor +can it be doubted that they were really happier than many an idle young +man to be seen lounging about in England, a burden to himself and to his +friends. Idleness and vice have often in England been the means of +levelling with the dust the lordly mansion, whilst industry, in the +wilds of Australia, can rear a comfortable dwelling on the very spot +where once stood the hut of the out-settler. + +Scattered round the shores of New Holland at various distances are many +small islands and rocks, the prevailing appearance of which is that of +extreme barrenness. On many of these it would seem that no human beings +had ever set their feet before the Europeans, and especially the +English, explored those coasts. In several parts the natives were +without any means of conveyance across even a narrow arm of the sea, +and thus the brute creation were left in a long and undisturbed +possession of many of the isles which lie near the main land. In the +more barren and miserable of these the bird called the _sooty petrel_, +and the seal, are the principal animals to be found, whilst in those +that are somewhat more fruitful, kangaroos, also, and emus are to be +found; the smaller breed of kangaroos being usually met with in the +smaller islands, and the larger species on the main land or in islands +of a greater extent. The following short account, by Captain Flinders, +may serve as a specimen of the lesser isles: Great flocks of petrels +had been noticed coming in from the sea to the island, and early next +morning, a boat was sent from the ship to collect a quantity of them for +food, and to kill seals, but the birds were already moving off, and no +more than four seals, of the hair kind, were procured. Upon the men +going on shore, the island was found to be a rock of granite, but this +was covered with a crust of limestone or chalk, in some places fifty +feet thick. The soil at the top was little better than sand, but was +overspread with shrubs, mostly of one kind, a whitish velvet-like +plant, amongst which the petrels, who make their nests underground, +had burrowed everywhere, and, from the extreme heat of the sun, the +reflection of it from the sand, and frequently being sunk half way up +the leg in these holes, the sailors, little used to difficulties in +land-travelling, were scarcely able to reach the highest hill near the +middle of the island. It was in the neighbourhood of scattered sandy +spots of this description that the sailors of Captain Flinders would +often endeavour successfully to improve their ordinary fare by catching +a few fish. On one occasion they were very much hindered by three +monstrous sharks, in whose presence no other fish dared to appear. +After some attempts, and with much difficulty, they took one of these +creatures, and got it on board the ship. In length it was no more than +twelve feet three inches, but the body measured eight feet round. Among +the vast quantity of things contained in the stomach was a tolerably +large seal, bitten in two, and swallowed with half of the spear sticking +in it, with which it had probably been killed by the natives. The stench +of this ravenous monster was great, even before it was dead; and, when +the stomach was opened, it became intolerable. + +Quite contrary, in many respects, to these sandy islands, and yet but +little superior to them in fruitfulness, are some of those which were +visited by the same enterprising voyager on the eastern coast of +Australia. Their shores were very low, so much so, that frequently a +landing is impossible, and generally very difficult, on account of the +mud; and often a vast quantity of mangrove trees are found growing in +the swamps that surround the shores, and choking the soil with a rank +vegetation. On one of these islands when a landing had been effected +without a very great deal of trouble, and a rising ground was reached, +the sides of this little eminence were found to be so steep, and were so +thickly covered with trees and shrubs, bound together and interlaced +with strong plants, resembling vines in their growth, that all attempts +to reach the top of the hill were without success. It appeared to be +almost easier to have climbed up the trees, and have scrambled from one +to another upon the vines, than to have threaded a way through the +perplexing net-work formed by these plants, beneath which all was +darkness and uncertainty. + +There are, however, some few islands, which promise to become, at a +future time, inhabited and cultivated spots, being neither so entirely +naked, nor yet so choked up by a poor and hungry vegetation concealing a +thin soil, as those already described. Of these more smiling spots the +large island, off the western coast, called Kangaroo Island, may serve +for a specimen. A thick wood covered almost all that part of the island +which was seen from the ship by Captain Flinders, but the trees that +were alive were not so large as those lying on the ground, nor as the +dead trees still standing upright. Those upon the ground were so +abundant, that, in ascending the higher land, a considerable part of the +walk was upon them. No inhabitants were seen in the island, but yet it +seemed, from the appearance of the trees, as though, at the distance of +some years, the woods had been destroyed by fire. The soil, so far as it +was seen, was thought very good, and the trees bore witness of this by +their size and growth; yet so frequently do travellers, like doctors, +disagree, that another explorer, Captain Sturt, pronounces this spot to +be not by any means fertile. The quantity of kangaroos found here was +remarkable enough to give a name to the island; and so entirely were +these harmless animals strangers to the power of man, that they suffered +themselves to be approached and killed without any efforts to escape. +Captain Flinders, on the first day of landing, killed ten, and the rest +of his party made up the number to thirty-one taken on board in the +course of the day, the least weighing 69 and the largest 125 lbs. The +whole ship's company were employed that afternoon in skinning and +cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful feast they afforded to men +who for four months had scarcely tasted any fresh provisions. Never, +perhaps, had the dominion held here by these creatures been before +disturbed; the seals, indeed, shared it with the kangaroos on the +shores, but they seemed to dwell peacefully together, each animal +occasionally wandering into the haunts of the other, so that a gun fired +at a kangaroo upon the beach would sometimes bring forth two or three +bellowing seals from underneath bushes a good deal further from the +water-side. The seal, indeed, was the most knowing creature of the +two, for its actions bespoke that it distinguished the sailors from +kangaroos, whereas the latter not uncommonly appeared to mistake them +for seals. Indeed it is curious to trace the total absence of all +knowledge of man in these distant isles of Australia. In another island +a white eagle was seen making a motion to pounce down upon the British +sailors, whom it evidently took for kangaroos, never, probably, having +seen an upright animal, (except that, when moving upon its hind legs,) +and naturally, therefore, mistaking the men for its usual prey. + +In another part of Kangaroo Island, which was afterwards visited, a +large piece of water was discovered at the head of a bay, and in this +water an immense number of pelicans were seen; upon some small islets +were found many young birds yet unable to fly, and upon the surrounding +beach a great number of old ones were seen, while the bones and +skeletons of many lay scattered about. So that it appeared to be at once +the breeding-place and death-bed of these birds, who, in the hidden +bosom of a quiet lake, in an uninhabited island, had long continued to +extend their race, generation after generation retiring to the same spot +where they were first brought to light, and there ending their days in +tranquillity. In this part of the island kangaroos were less plentiful +than in the other, but the soil appeared equally promising, and in all +likelihood, before many years have flown by, trees, seals, kangaroos, +and pelicans will all be forced to give up their old domains, and be +destroyed before the pressing wants and daring spirit of the British +emigrant. One important hindrance is noticed by Flinders,--the scarcity +of water,--but the presence of so many animals shows that there is an +abundance somewhere, though he could find but a scanty supply in one +single spot. In Kangaroo Island only one accident occurred which showed +any disposition or power on the part of its old inhabitants to wage war +with the intruders. One of the sailors having attacked a large seal +without proper caution, was so severely bitten in the leg, that he was +not merely laid up in consequence of this hurt, but was obliged to be +discharged, three months afterwards, when the ship was refitted at +Sydney. + +In addition to the numerous barren rocks and the few tolerably large +wooded islands, which encircle the shores of Australia, there is a third +description of isles or rocks, which must not be passed over altogether +without notice. The substance called _coral_ is well known in Europe, +but with us the name connects itself with very different objects from +those to which it is related in Australia. _Here_ female ornaments and +toys for infants are almost the only objects to be seen that are formed +of coral; _there_ it forms the most stupendous rocks or reefs, which +serve frequently for a foundation to islands of no mean size; indeed, in +one part of the north-eastern coast of Australia, the coral reefs are +known to extend not less than 350 miles in a straight line, without a +single opening of any magnitude occurring in them. + +Among these, surrounded by dangers, did Captain Flinders sail, during +fourteen days, for more than 500 miles before he could escape into less +perilous seas. Upon landing on one of these reefs, when the water was +clear, the view underneath, from the edge of the rocks, was extremely +beautiful. Quite a new creation, but still not unlike the old, was +offered to the view. There appeared wheat-sheaves, mushrooms, stags' +horns, cabbage-leaves, and a variety of other forms, glowing under +water with brilliant tints, of every shade betwixt green, purple, brown, +and white; equalling in beauty and surpassing in grandeur the most +favourite flower-bed of the curious florist. These appearances were, in +fact, different sorts of _coral_, and fungus, growing, as it were, out +of the solid rock, and each had its own peculiar form and shade of +colouring, but yet the spectators, who knew their ship to be hemmed in +by rocks of this material, while considering the richness of the scene, +could not long forget with what power of destruction it was gifted. + +The cause of these coral rocks and islands, which are slowly, but +certainly, increasing, is a very small marine insect, by which the +substance called coral is formed. These work under water, generation +after generation contributing its share in the construction of what, in +the course of ages, becomes a solid rock, exalting its head above the +face of the surrounding waters, and rising sometimes from the depth of +200 fathoms, and perhaps even more. To be constantly covered with water +seems necessary to these minute animals, for they do not work, except +in holes upon the reef, beyond low-water-mark; but the coral and other +broken remains thrown up by the sea lodge upon the rock and form a solid +mass with it, as high as the common tides reach. The new bank is not +long left unvisited by sea-birds; salt-plants take root upon it, and a +kind of soil begins to be formed; a cocoa-nut,[13] or the seed of some +other tree, is thrown on shore; land-birds visit it, and deposit the +seeds of fresh shrubs or trees; every high tide, and still more every +gale, adds something to the bank; the form of an island is by degrees +assumed; and, last of all, comes man to take possession. + + [13] "A cluster of these trees would be an excellent beacon to warn + mariners of their danger when near a coral reef, and at all events + their fruit would afford some wholesome nourishment to the ship-wrecked + seamen. The navigator who should distribute 10,000 cocoa-nuts amongst + the numerous sand banks of the great ocean and Indian Sea, would be + entitled to the gratitude of all maritime nations, and of every friend + of humanity."--FLINDERS' _Voyage to Terra Australis_, vol. ii. p. 332. + + + + +[Illustration: EXPLORERS FINDING THE BED OF A DRIED UP RIVER.] + +CHAPTER II. + +THE BUSH IN THE INTERIOR. + + +It needs only a single glance at the map of New Holland to see that, +like most other countries, and even more than most others, the coasts +are well known, while the interior parts are comparatively undiscovered, +and, to a great extent, totally so. And, although a much more minute +description of the shores of this immense island might easily be given, +although we might accompany Flinders or King in their navigation of its +intricate seas, and survey of its long line of coast, yet this part of +the subject must necessarily be passed over without detaining us any +further. A very considerable portion of the sea-coast of New Holland is +not much unlike that in the Gulph of Carpentaria, in the north part of +the island, where, when Captain Flinders had reached the highest spot he +could find in 175 leagues of coast,--this loftiest hill did not much +exceed the height of the ship's masthead! And where the shores are not +of this exceedingly level character, they are usually sterile, sandy, +and broken, so as to offer rather an uninviting aspect to the stranger. +It is obvious that, in either case, whether the coast be flat or barren, +there may be many beautiful and lovely districts within a day's journey +inland; and nothing is more absurd than to take exception against the +whole of a country merely because its borders and boundaries are +forbidding. In the case of New Holland, it is true, the same sort of +barrenness extends itself very much into the interior of the land; but, +if we pursue the patient footsteps and daring discoveries of those few +Europeans who have penetrated far into its inland parts, we shall find +many interesting scenes described, and much both of the sublime and +beautiful in nature brought before us. + +One of the principal scenes on which have been displayed the +perseverance and courage of the explorers of the interior is the banks +of the river Darling. This stream, which has its source on the western +side of the long range of mountains running parallel with the coast, and +called in the colony the Blue Mountains, carries off the drainage of an +immense extent of country, to the westward and north-westward of New +South Wales. In fact, except in the southern parts of that colony, where +the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee carry off the waters which do not fall +eastwards to the coast, all the streams that rise upon or beyond the +Blue Mountains, and take a westerly direction, finally meet together in +the basin of the Darling.[14] It might be imagined that a river into +which is carried the drainage of so extensive a district would be always +well supplied with water, and so it would be in other countries, but the +streams of New Holland are altogether different from those in other +parts of the world. Comparatively, indeed, the Darling does assert its +superiority over most of the other water-courses of that country; for, +at a season when their channels were, in general, absolutely without +water, or dwindled down into mere chains of muddy ponds, the Darling +still continued to wind its slow current, carrying a supply of excellent +water through the heart of a desert district. Along the weary plains +by which its course is bounded, it proceeds for not less than 660 +miles,[15] without receiving, so far as is known, a single tributary +stream; and, from its waters being occasionally salt, it is supposed to +owe its support, in its reduced state during very dry seasons, chiefly +to natural springs. Its bed is, on an average, about sixty feet below +the common surface of the country. There are no traces of water-courses +on the level plains, and it would appear that, whatever moisture +descends from the higher grounds, which (where there are any at all,) +are seldom less than twelve miles from the Darling, must be taken up by +the clayey soil, so as scarcely to find its way down to the river, +except it be by springs. The average breadth of the stream at the +surface, when low, is about fifty yards, but oftener less than this, and +seldom more. The fall of the country through which it passes, in that +part of its course through the interior, which was first explored by +Major Mitchell, is very trifling; and it is the opinion of that officer, +that the swiftness of its course never exceeds one mile per hour, but +that it is in general much less. At the time of the Major's expedition, +the water actually flowing, as seen at one or two shallow places, did +not exceed in quantity that which would be necessary to turn a mill. +But, with all this scantiness of supply during the dry season then +prevailing,[16] the marks of tremendous inundations were plain upon the +surface of the country, frequently extending two miles back from the +ordinary channel of the waters. And everywhere the banks of the river +displayed the effect of floods in parallel lines, marking on the smooth +sloping earth the various heights to which the waters had at different +periods arisen. The surface of the plains nearest the river is unlike +any part of the earth's face that the travellers had elsewhere seen. It +was clear of vegetation, like a fallow-field, but less level, and quite +full of holes, big enough to receive the whole leg, and sometimes the +body, of the unfortunate persons who might slip into them. Galloping or +trotting in such a country was out of the question, and as the surface +of this dry and cracked soil was soft and loose, it was very fatiguing +for draught. Six of the bullocks accompanying the expedition never +returned from the Darling. Yet, how much preferable was the country, +even in this state, to that in which a flood would have placed it; for, +had rainy weather, or any overflowing of the river, happened, travelling +upon the banks of the Darling would have become absolutely impossible. + + [14] Although the basin of this river extends so far towards the east, + on its westerly bank, that is, _towards the interior_, a desert country + stretches itself to an unknown distance, from which it does not appear + to receive any increase of its waters at all deserving of notice. From + two hills, seventy miles apart, extensive views were gained of this + western desert, in which no smoke was seen, indicating the presence of + natives, nor even any appearance of trees; the whole country being + covered with a thick bush or scrub. For the four winter months spent + by Mitchell near the Darling, neither rain nor yet dew fell, and the + winds from the west and north-west, hot and parching, seemed to blow + over a region in which no humidity remained. + + [15] So in Major Mitchell's work, vol. i. p. 298; but the same author + is quoted (more correctly it would seem from the map), by Montgomery + Martin, as stating that "The Darling does not, in a course of _three_ + hundred miles, receive a single river."--See MARTIN'S _New South + Wales_, p. 82. + + [16] By _dry season_, or _wet season_, in Australia, we are not to + understand, as in England, a _dry_ or _wet summer_, but a series of + _dry_ or _wet years_. At the very bottom of some of the dried-up lakes + were found sapling trees of ten years' growth, which had evidently been + killed by the return of the waters to their long-forsaken bed. + +But the river Darling itself, though it appears as a principal and +independent stream during so long a course, is, we have little reason to +doubt, no more than an important tributary to the chief of Australian +rivers, the Murray. This last channel collects eventually all the waters +flowing in a westward direction upon the eastern side of New Holland, +between the latitudes of 28° S. and 36° S. The Darling, the Lachlan, and +the Murrumbidgee, without mentioning streams of minor importance, all +find their way southwards into the basin of the Murray, which is really +a noble river, and does not seem subject to the same deplorable +impoverishment, which most of the others suffer in very dry seasons. It +was very earnestly anticipated that the mouth of a stream like this +would probably form a good harbour, and thus afford a reasonable +prospect of its hereafter becoming a busy navigable river, the means of +furnishing inland communication to a considerable distance. This is, of +all things, what New Holland appears most to want, but the want is not +(as we shall shortly find) adequately supplied by the entrance to the +Murray. A like failure occurs at the entrance of other Australian +rivers, as in the instance of a much smaller but very beautiful stream, +the Glenelg, which falls into a shallow basin within the sandy hills of +the southern coast, the outlet being between two rocky heads, but choked +up with the sands of the beach. We cannot, while we read of the scanty +means of inland navigation, with which it has pleased Divine Providence +to favour an island so enormous as New Holland, but feel thankful for +the abundant advantages of this kind which our own native islands +possess; but at the same time there is no reason to despair, even yet, +of a navigable river being discovered in New Holland;[17] or, at the +worst, the modern invention of rail-roads may supersede, in a great +measure, the need of other communication. + + [17] "I have myself no doubt that a large navigable river will yet be + discovered, communicating with the interior of Australia."--M. MARTIN'S + _New South Wales_, p. 99. + +It would be impossible to compress into a moderate compass the various +interesting particulars, which have been related of the rivers of New +Holland and their neighbouring districts; but for this and much other +pleasing information the reader may be referred, once for all, to the +works of those travellers, whose names have been already so frequently +mentioned. It is a curious fact that almost every stream of the least +consequence in New Holland, appears to have its peculiar features, and a +character and scenery of its own, which continue throughout its course, +so that it could often be recognised by travellers coming upon it a +second time, and at a different part of its career towards the sea. +The beautifully-timbered plains, or the limestone cliffs of the noble +Murray--the naked plains that bound on either side the strip of +forest-trees of huge dimensions, by which the Lachlan is bordered,--the +constantly full stream, the water-worn and lightly-timbered banks, the +clear open space between the river and its distant margin of reeds, +which mark the character of the Murrumbidgee,--the low grassy banks or +limestone rocks, the cascades and caverns, the beautiful festoons of +creeping plants, the curious form of the duck-billed platypus,[18] which +are to be found on the Glenelg; the sandstone wastes of the Wollondilly, +the grassy surface of the pretty Yarrayne,[19] with its trees on its +brink instead of on its bank; the peculiar grandeur of the tremendous +ravine, 1,500 feet in depth, down which the Shoalhaven flows; these and +many more remarkable features of scenery in the Australian rivers, would +afford abundance of materials for description either in poetry or prose. +But we can now notice only one more peculiarity which most of these +streams exhibit; they have, at a greater or less distance from their +proper channels, secondary banks, beyond which floods rarely or never +are known to extend. In no part of the habitable world is the force of +contrast more to be observed than in Australia. A very able scientific +writer[20] has ingeniously represented three persons travelling in +certain directions across Great Britain, and finishing their journeys +with three totally different impressions of the soil, country, and +inhabitants; one having passed through a rocky and mining district, the +second through a coal country peopled by manufacturers, and a third +having crossed a chalky region devoted entirely to agriculture. An +observation of this kind is even still more true of New Holland. And, +consequently, when, instead of _pursuing_ the course of certain similar +lines of country, the traveller _crosses_ these, the changes that take +place in the appearance and productions of the various districts are +exceedingly striking and follow sometimes in very rapid succession. A +few examples of these contrasts, which arise in Australia from the +nature of the seasons, as well as from that of the soil or climate, may +here be noticed. How great a change did the exploring party under Major +Mitchell experience, when, after tracing for forty-nine days the dry bed +of the Lachlan, they suddenly saw a magnificent stream of clear and +running water before them, and came upon the Murrumbidgee. Its banks, +unlike those of the former channel, were clothed with excellent grass; +a pleasing sight for the cattle--and it was no slight satisfaction to +their possessors to see the jaded animals, after thirsting so long among +the muddy holes of the Lachlan, drinking at this full and flowing +stream. And yet, so different are the series of seasons, at intervals, +that, down the very river of which Mitchell speaks in 1836 as a deep, +dry ravine, containing only a scanty chain of small ponds, the boats of +its first explorer, Mr. Oxley, had, in 1817, floated during a space of +fifteen days, until they had reached a country almost entirely flooded, +and the river seemed completely to lose itself among the shallow waters! +During the winter of 1835, the whale-boats were drawn by the exploring +party 1,600 miles over land,[21] without finding a river, where they +could be used; whereas, in 1817 and 1818, Mr. Oxley had twice retired +by nearly the same routes, and in the same season of the year, from +supposed inland seas![22] So that, in fact, we rise from the perusal +of two accounts of travellers of credit, both exploring the very same +country, with the impression, from one statement, that there exists an +endless succession of swamps, or an immense shallow, inland lake; where, +from the other, we are taught to believe, there is nothing but a sandy +desert to be found, or dry and cracked plains of clay, baked hard by the +heat of the sun. + + [18] This remarkable animal, called also the Ornithorynchus, is + peculiar to Australia, it has the body of a beast combined with the + mouth and feet of a duck, is to be seen frequently on the banks of the + Glenelg, and that unusually near the coast. + + [19] Water is proverbially "unstable," but what occurred to Major + Mitchell's party on the Yarrayne, may serve for a specimen of the + peculiar uncertainty of the waters of Australia. In the evening a bridge + across that stream had been completed, and everything was prepared for + crossing it, but in the morning of the following day no bridge was to be + seen, the river having risen so much during the night, although no rain + had fallen, that the bridge was four feet under water, and at noon the + water had risen fourteen feet,--a change that could only be accounted + for by the supposed melting of the snow near the sources of the stream. + + [20] See Professor Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. + Introduction, pp. 1, 2. + + [21] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. p. 13. + + [22] See Oxley's Journal, pp. 103, 244. + +Changes of this sort in the seasons, affecting so powerfully the +appearance of whole districts, cannot but have a proportionable effect +on particular spots. Regent's Lake, the "noble lake," as its first +discoverer, Oxley, called it, was, when Mitchell visited it, for the +most part, a plain covered with luxuriant grass;[23] some good water, it +is true, lodged on the most eastern extremity, but nowhere to a greater +depth than a foot. There ducks and swans, in vast numbers, had taken +refuge, and pelicans stood high upon their legs above the remains of +Regent's Lake. On its northern margin, and within the former boundary +of the lake, stood dead trees of a full-grown size, which had been +apparently killed by too much water, plainly showing to what long +periods the extremes of drought and moisture have extended, and may +again extend, in this singular country. And some of the changes in +scenery, within a short distance, and frequently arising from the same +causes, the presence or absence of water, are very remarkable. In Major +Mitchell's journal, at the date of April 10th, may be found the +following observations: "We had passed through valleys, on first +descending from the mountains, where the yellow oat-grass resembled a +ripe crop of grain. But this resemblance to the emblem of plenty, made +the desolation of these hopeless solitudes only the more apparent, +abandoned, as they then were, alike by man, beast, and bird. No living +thing remained in these valleys, for water, that element so essential to +life, was a want too obvious in the dismal silence, (for not an insect +hummed,) and the yellow hues of withering vegetation." On the next page +of the journal, under the events of the following day, what a contrast +appears:--"The evening was beautiful; the new grass springing in places +where it had been burnt, presented a shining verdure in the rays of the +descending sun; the songs of the birds accorded here with other joyous +sounds, the very air seemed alive with the music of animated nature, so +different was the scene in this well-watered valley, from that of the +parched and silent region from which we had just descended. The natives, +whom we met here, were fine-looking men, enjoying contentment and +happiness, within the precincts of their native woods." They were very +civil, and presented a burning stick to the strangers, at the moment +when they saw that they wanted fire, in a manner expressive of welcome +and of a wish to assist them. At a distance were the native fires, and +the squalling of children might be heard, until at night the beautiful +moon came forth, and the soft notes of a flute belonging to one of the +Englishmen fell agreeably on the ear, while the eye was gratified by the +moonbeams, as they gleamed from the trees, amid the curling smoke of the +temporary encampment. The cattle were refreshing themselves in green +pastures. It was Saturday night, and next day the party was to rest. How +sweet a spot to repose from their toils and sufferings, and to lift up +their hearts towards the mercy-seat of Him,-- + + "Who, in the busy crowded town, + Regards each suppliant's cry;-- + Who, whether Nature smile or frown, + Man's wants can still supply." + + [23] Another lake, called Walljeers, at no very great distance + from this, was found, with its whole expanse of about four miles in + circumference, entirely covered with a sweet and fragrant plant, + somewhat like clover, and eaten by the natives. Exactly resembling + new-made hay in the perfume which it gives out even when in the freshest + state of verdure, it was indeed "sweet to sense and lovely to the eye" + in the heart of a desert country. + +One of the greatest victories over natural difficulties that was ever +gained by British courage and perseverance, was the exploring of the +course of the Morrumbidgee and Murray rivers by Captain Sturt and his +party, in the year 1830; and since their route was through a new +country, and their descent from the high lands south-westward of Sydney, +to the southern coast of New Holland was an amazing enterprise to +project, much more to accomplish, an abridged account of it may not be +unacceptable to the reader. And when it is remembered that the sight of +the gallant officer commanding this expedition, was sacrificed almost +entirely to "the effect of exposure and anxiety of mind in the +prosecution of geographical researches,"[24] this fact may add to the +interest which we feel in his adventures. The Murrumbidgee is a river +which runs westerly from the district called Yass Plains, situated very +nearly at the south-western extremity of New South Wales. It was for +the purpose of exploring the course of this fine stream, that Captain +Sturt was sent out at the latter end of 1829, and he had reached by +land-conveyance a swampy region exactly resembling those marshes in +which the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers had been supposed by Mr. Oxley to +lose themselves. To proceed further by land was impossible, and, since +they had brought with them a whale-boat, which had been drawn by oxen +for many a weary mile, it was resolved to launch this on the river, a +smaller boat was built in seven days only, and both boats being laden +with necessaries, and manned with six hands, arrangements were made for +forming a depôt, and the rest of the party were sent back; and when the +explorers thus parted company in the marshy plains of the Morrumbidgee, +it appeared doubtful even to themselves whether they were ever likely to +meet again in this world. Of the country, whither the stream would carry +the little crew of adventurers, literally nothing was known. There +might be a vast inland sea,--and then how could they hope with their +frail barks to navigate it in safety for the very first time? Or, even +if they did so, how were they to force their way back again to the +remote dwelling-places of civilised man? The river might gradually waste +itself among the morasses; and then, with their boats become useless for +want of depth of water, how were they to walk across those endless +levels of soft mud? or, supposing that to be practicable, how were their +provisions to be conveyed, or whence, then, except from their boats, +could they hope for a supply? Questions of this nature must have offered +themselves to the minds of the daring spirits, who accompanied Captain +Sturt; nor can due justice be rendered to their courage without a +careful consideration of the dangers which they deliberately braved. + + [24] See Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. Dedication, p. 4. + +Two oars only were used in the whale-boat, to the stern of which the +skiff was fastened by a rope; but the progress of the party down the +river was rapid. Having passed, in the midst of the marshes, the mouth +of a considerable stream (supposed to be the Lachlan, here emptying its +waters out from the midst of those swamps wherein it appeared to Mr. +Oxley to be lost,) on the second day of their journey the voyagers met +with an accident that had nearly compelled them to return. The skiff +struck upon a sunken log, and, immediately filling, went down in about +twelve feet of water. Damage was done to some of the provisions, and +many tools were thrown overboard, though these were afterwards regained +by means of diving and great labour, and the skiff was got up again. In +the very same night a robbery was committed by the natives; and a +frying-pan, three cutlasses, and five tomahawks, with the pea of the +steelyards--altogether no small loss in the Australian desert--were +carried off. The country in this part is "a waving expanse of reeds, +and as flat as possible," and the river, instead of increasing in its +downward course, seemed rather to be diminishing. After some days, +however, the party had passed through this flooded region, and reached a +boundless flat, with no object for the eye to rest upon, beyond the dark +and gloomy woods by which it was occupied. Several rapids occurred in +the river; and, during great part of two days the channel was so narrow +and so much blocked up with huge trees, that, in spite of every effort, +the adventurers were expecting their boat every moment to strike. For +two hours in the afternoon of the second of these days of anxiety, the +little vessels were hurried rapidly along the winding reaches of the +Morrumbidgee, until suddenly they found themselves borne upon the bosom +of a broad and noble river, in comparison with which that which they had +just quitted bore the appearance of an insignificant opening! The width +of the large stream thus discovered was about 350 feet, and its depth +from 12 to 20 feet, whilst its banks, although averaging 18 feet in +height, were evidently subject to floods. The breadth of rich soil +between its outer and inner banks was very inconsiderable, and the upper +levels were poor and sandy. As the party descended, the adjoining +country became somewhat higher and a little undulating, and natives +were seen, while the Murray (for such was the name given to their new +discovery) improved upon them every mile they proceeded. Four natives +of a tribe with which they had met followed them, as guides, for some +distance, and, after having nearly lost their largest boat upon a rock +in the midst of a rapid, the British travellers continued their onward +course, and a sail was hoisted for the first time, in order to save, as +much as was possible, the strength of the men. + +The country in this part of their voyage was again very low, and they +fell in with a large body of savages, with whom they were on the point +of being forced, in self-defence, to have a deadly encounter, when +suddenly the four natives who had accompanied them appeared running at +full speed, and, through their assistance, though not without some +difficulty, bloodshed was prevented. Very shortly after this adventure, +when the men had just pushed their boat off from a shoal, upon which it +had struck, they noticed a new and considerable stream coming from the +north, and uniting its waters with those of the Murray. Upon landing on +the right bank of the newly-discovered stream, the natives came swimming +over from motives of curiosity; and there were not less than 600 of +these, belonging to some of the most ferocious tribes in Australia, +surrounding eight Englishmen--Captain Sturt, his friend M'Leay, and the +crew--which last had been preserved by an almost miraculous intervention +of Providence in their favour. The boat was afterwards pulled a few +miles up the recently-discovered river, which is reasonably supposed to +have been the Darling, from whose banks, some hundreds of miles higher +up, Captain Sturt had twice been forced to retire in a former +expedition. Its sides were sloping and grassy, and overhung by +magnificent trees; in breadth it was about 100 yards, and in depth +rather more than twelve feet, and the men pleased themselves by +exclaiming, upon entering it, that they had got into an English river. A +net extending right across the stream at length checked their progress; +for they were unwilling to disappoint the numbers who were expecting +their food that day from this source. So the men rested on their oars in +the midst of the smooth current of the Darling, the Union-Jack was +hoisted, and, giving way to their feelings, all stood up in the boat, +and gave three distinct cheers. "The eye of every native along the +banks had been fixed upon that noble flag, at all times a beautiful +object," says Captain Sturt, "and to them a novel one, as it waved +over us in the heart of a desert. They had, until that moment, been +particularly loquacious, but the sight of that flag and the sound +of our voices hushed the tumult; and while they were still lost in +astonishment, the boat's head was speedily turned, the sail was sheeted +home, both wind and current were in our favour, and we vanished from +them with a rapidity that surprised even ourselves, and which precluded +every hope of the most adventurous among them to keep up with us."[25] + + [25] Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110. + +Cheered with the gratification of national feeling thus powerfully +described, the patient crew returned to their toils in descending the +Murray, whose banks continued unchanged for some distance; but its +channel was much encumbered with timber, some very large sand-banks +were seen, and several rapids were passed. The skiff being found more +troublesome than useful, was broken up and burned. On one occasion, +during a friendly interview with some of the savages, some clay was +piled up, as a means of inquiring whether there were any hills near; and +two or three of the blacks, catching the meaning, pointed to the N. W., +in which direction two lofty ranges were seen from the top of a tree, +and were supposed to be not less than 40 miles distant, but the country +through which the Murray passed still continued low. + +The heat was excessive and the weather very dry, while the banks of the +river appeared to be thickly peopled for Australia, and the British +strangers contrived to keep upon good terms with the natives. After +having passed one solitary cliff of some height, they met with stormy +weather for a few days, and several tributary streams of some size were +perceived mingling their waters with those of the Murray, the left bank +of which became extremely lofty, and, though formed almost wholly of +clay and sand, it bore the appearance of columns or battlements, the +sand having been washed away in many places, while the clay was left +hollowed out more like the work of art than of nature. After a continued +descent of 22 days, the party, who were pleased with the noble character +of the river upon which they were, though disappointed at the poverty of +the country through which it passed, began to grow somewhat weary; but +upon inquiries being made of the natives no tidings could be gained +respecting their approach towards the sea. The navigation of every +natural stream is rendered tedious, though beautiful, by its devious +course, but, "what with its regular turns, and its extensive sweeps, the +Murray covers treble the ground, at a moderate computation, that it +would occupy in a direct course." The current became weaker, and the +channel deeper, as they proceeded down the stream, and the cliffs of +clay and sand were succeeded by others of a very curious formation, +being composed of shells closely compacted together, but having the +softer parts so worn away, that the whole cliff bore in many places the +appearance of human skulls piled one upon the other. At first, this +remarkable formation did not rise more than a foot above the water, but +within ten miles from this spot it exceeded 150 feet in height, the +country in the vicinity became undulating, and the river itself was +confined in a glen whose extreme breadth did not exceed half a mile. An +old man, a native, was met with hereabouts, who appeared by his signs +to indicate that the explorers were at no great distance from some +remarkable change. The old man pointed to the N. W., and then placed +his hand on the side of his head, in token, it was supposed, of their +sleeping to the N. W. of the spot where they were. He then pointed due +south, describing by his action, the roaring of the sea, and the height +of the waves. A line of cliffs, from two to three hundred feet in +height, flanked the river upon alternate sides, but the rest of the +country was level, and the soil upon the table-land at the top of the +cliffs very poor and sterile. The next change of scenery brought them to +cliffs of a higher description, which continued on both sides of the +river, though not always close to it. The stream lost its sandy bed and +its current together, and became deep, still, and turbid, with a muddy +bottom; and the appearance of the water lashing against the base of the +cliffs reminded the anxious voyagers of the sea. The scenery became in +many places beautiful, and the river was never less than 400 yards in +breadth. Some sea-gulls were seen flying over the boat, and being hailed +as the messengers of good tidings, they were not permitted to be shot. +The adverse wind and the short, heavy waves rendered the labour at the +oar very laborious, but the hope of speedily gaining some noble inlet--a +harbour worthy to form the mouth of a stream like the Murray--encouraged +the crew to pull on manfully, and to disregard fatigue. The salt meat +was all spoiled, and had been given to the dogs; fish no one would eat, +and of wild fowl there was none to be seen; so that the provisions of +the party consisted of little else but flour. And already, though +hitherto they had been performing the easiest part of their task, having +had the stream in their favour, it was evident that the men were much +reduced, besides which they were complaining of sore eyes. + +These circumstances all combined to increase the natural anxiety felt +by the little band of adventurers to reach the termination of the +Murray; and as its valley opened to two, three, and four miles of +breadth, while the width of the river increased to the third of a mile, +the expectations of the men toiling at the oar became proportionably +excited. The cliffs ceased, and gave place to undulating hills; no +pleasure-ground could have been more tastefully laid out than the +country to the right, and the various groups of trees, disposed upon the +sides of the elevations that bounded the western side of the valley, +were most ornamental. On the opposite side, the country was less +inviting, and the hills were bleak and bare. At length a clear horizon +appeared to the south, the direction in which the river was flowing; +Captain Sturt landed to survey the country, and beneath him was the +great object of his search, the termination of one of Australia's +longest and largest streams. Immediately below him was a beautiful lake, +of very large extent, and greatly agitated by the wind. Ranges of hills +were observed to the westward, stretching from north to south, and +distant forty miles. Between these hills and the place where the +traveller stood, the western bank of the Murray was continued in the +form of a beautiful promontory projecting into the lake, and between +this point and the base of the ranges the vast sheet of water before him +extended in the shape of a bay. The scene was altogether a very fine +one; but disappointment was a prevailing feeling in the mind of the +explorer, for it was most likely that there would be no practicable +communication for large ships between the lake and the ocean, and thus a +check was put upon the hopes that had been entertained of having at +length discovered a large and navigable river leading into the interior +of New Holland. The lake, called Lake Alexandrina, which was fifty +miles long and forty broad,[26] was crossed with the assistance of a +favourable wind; its waters were found to be generally very shallow, and +the long, narrow, and winding channel by which it communicates with the +ocean was found, as it had been feared, almost impracticable even for +the smallest vessels. This channel unites itself with the sea on the +south-western coast of New Holland, at the bottom of a bay named +Encounter Bay, one boundary of which is Cape Jervis, by which it is +separated from St. Vincent's Gulph,--the very part of the coast where a +ship was to be despatched by the Governor of New South Wales to afford +the party assistance, in case of their being successful in penetrating +to the sea-shore. Flour and tea were the only articles remaining of +their store of provisions, and neither of these were in sufficient +quantities to last them to the place where they expected to find fresh +supplies inland. But the first view of Encounter Bay convinced them that +no vessel could ever venture into it at a season when the S. W. winds +prevailed, and to the deep bight which it formed upon the coast (at the +bottom of which they then were), it was hopeless to expect any vessel to +approach so nearly as to be seen by them. To remain there was out of the +question; to cross the ranges towards the Gulph of St. Vincent, when the +men had no strength to walk, and the natives were numerous and not +peaceably disposed, was equally impossible. The passage from the lake +to the ocean was not without interruption, from the shallowness of the +sandy channel, otherwise Captain Sturt, in his little boat, would have +coasted round to Port Jackson, or steered for Launceston, in Van +Dieman's Land; and this he declares he would rather have done, could he +have foreseen future difficulties, than follow the course which he did. +Having walked across to the entrance of the channel, and found it quite +impracticable and useless, he resolved to return along the same route by +which he had come, only with these important additional difficulties to +encounter,--diminished strength, exhausted stores, and an adverse +current. The provisions were found sufficient only for the same number +of days upon their return as they had occupied in descending the river, +and speed was no less desirable in order to avoid encounters with the +natives than for the purpose of escaping the miseries of want; into +which, however, it was felt, a single untoward accident might in an +instant plunge them. With feelings of this description the party left +Lake Alexandrina and re-entered the channel of the Murray. + + [26] The dimensions given in Captain Sturt's map. The South-Australian + Almanac states it to be sixty miles long, and varying in width from ten + to forty miles. + +It will be needless to follow the explorers through all the particulars +of their journey upwards to the depôt on the Morrumbidgee. The boat +struck, the natives were troublesome, the rapids difficult to get over; +but the worst of all their toils and trials were their daily labours and +unsatisfied wants. One circumstance ought, in justice to the character +of the men, to be noticed. They positively refused to touch six pounds +of sugar that were still remaining in the cask, declaring that, if +divided, it would benefit nobody, whereas it would last during some time +for the use of Captain Sturt and Mr. M'Leay, who were less able to +submit to privations than they were. After having continued for no less +than fifty-five days upon the waters of the Murray, it was with great +joy that they quitted this stream, and turned their boat into the gloomy +and narrow channel of the Morrumbidgee. Having suffered much privation, +anxiety, and labour, and not without one or two unpleasant encounters +with the natives, at length the party reached their depôt, but they +found it deserted! During seventy-seven days they could not have +pulled, according to Captain Sturt's calculation, less than 2000 miles; +and now, worn out by fatigue and want, they were compelled to proceed +yet further, and to endure, for some time longer, the most severe +privations to which man can be exposed. But, under the guidance of +Divine Providence, the lives of all were preserved, and now the reward +of their deeds of heroism is willingly bestowed upon them. Among the +boldest exploits ever performed by man, the descent of Captain Sturt and +his companions down the Murray, and their return to the same spot again, +may deserve to be justly ranked.[27] Nor, however disappointing the +result of their examination of the mouth of the Murray may have been, +was their daring adventure without its useful consequences. The lake +Alexandrina is said to be navigable across for vessels drawing six feet +of water, and the entrance to the sea, though rather difficult in heavy +weather, is safe in moderate weather for vessels of the same size. The +Murray itself is navigable for steam-vessels for many hundred miles, and +probably it will not be very long before these modern inventions are +introduced upon its waters. + + [27] For the account of this voyage, see Sturt's Expeditions in + Australia, vol. ii. pp. 72-221. + +Whoever has seen any recent map of New Holland must have been struck +with the curious appearance of a vast semicircle of water, called Lake +Torrens, near the southern coast, and extending many miles inland from +the head of Spencer's Gulph. A range of hills, named Flinders' Range, +runs to a considerable distance inland, taking its rise near the head of +the gulph just mentioned, and Lake Torrens nearly surrounds the whole of +the low country extending from this mountainous ridge. This immense lake +is supposed to resemble in shape a horse-shoe, and to extend for full +400 miles, whilst its apparent breadth is from 20 to 30. The greater +part of the vast area contained in its bed is certainly dry on the +surface, and consists of a mixture of sand and mud, of so soft and +yielding a character as to render perfectly unavailing all attempts +either to cross it, or to reach the edge of the water, which appears to +exist at a distance of some miles from the outer margin. Once only was +Mr. Eyre, the enterprising discoverer of this singular lake, able to +taste of its waters, and then he found them as salt as the sea. The low, +miserable, desert country in the neighbourhood, and Lake Torrens itself, +act as a kind of barrier against the progress of inland discovery at +the back of the colony of South Australia, since it is impossible to +penetrate very far into the interior, without making a great circle +either to the east or to the west. The portion of the bed of the lake +which is exposed is thickly coated with particles of salt; there are few +trees or shrubs of any kind to be found near, nor are grass and fresh +water by any means abundant. Altogether, the neighbourhood of Lake +Torrens would seem a very miserable region, and forms a strong contrast +to the smiling and cultivated district of which it forms the back +country.[28] + + [28] These particulars are taken from the South-Australian Almanac + for 1841, pp. 68-73. + +Although Australia, in its natural and uncultivated state, abounds in +trees, like most other wild countries, nevertheless, there are vast and +extensive tracts where the plains are entirely bare, or covered only +with a low, thick, and often prickly, bush, or else are what is termed +"open forest," that is, are dotted about with fine trees, dispersed in +various groups, and resembling the scenery of an English park. The +greatest peculiarity of the native forests appears to be, that the +whole of their trees and shrubs are evergreen,[29] although European +trees will flourish in the land of the south without acquiring this +peculiarity, or losing their deciduous character. But it is rather a +subject of complaint against the woods of New Holland, that they have +very little picturesque effect in them, which may be partly owing to +the poverty of the foliage of the prevailing tree, the _eucalyptus_, +(commonly called the _iron-bark_, or _blue gum_, according to its +species,) which seldom has anything ornamental to landscape, either in +the trunk or branches. These sombre trees are, however, very useful for +timber, and they grow to an astonishing height, often rearing up their +lofty heads to 150 feet or upwards. The woods, in general, are very +brittle, partly, it may be, owing to the number of acacias which are to +be found among them; and no experienced bushman likes to sleep under +trees, especially during high winds. We must by no means form our ideas +of the appearance of an Australian forest from that of the neat and trim +woods of our own country, where every single branch or bough, and much +more every tree, bears a certain value. Except that portion which is +required for fuel or materials by an extremely scattered population in a +very mild climate, there is nothing carried off from the forests, and, +were it not for the frequent and destructive fires which the natives +kindle in many parts, no check worth mentioning would be placed upon the +natural increase and decay of the woods of New Holland. The consequence +of this is, that trees are to be seen there in every stage of growth or +ruin; and, occasionally, in very thickly-planted spots, the surface of +the ground is not a little encumbered by the fallen branches and trunks +of the ancient ornaments of the forest. Nor is it by the hand of Time +alone that these marks of destruction are scattered about in the vast +woodlands; the breath of a tremendous storm will occasionally +accomplish, perhaps, as much in a few hours as natural decay would in +many years.[30] Altogether, the forests of Australia may be said to be +in a purely natural state, and thus do they offer to the eye of the +inquiring traveller many objects less pleasing, it may be, but +nevertheless more sublime and solemn, than those with which the woods +of more cultivated countries commonly abound. + + [29] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 3. + + [30] See Account of the Effects of a Storm at Mount Macedon, + (Mitchell's "Three Expeditions," vol. ii. p. 283.) + +To travel without any beaten track through a country clothed, in many +parts, very thickly, by forests like those just described, is in itself +no easy undertaking, and the operation of hewing a way for a mile or two +through the surrounding woods, during the very heat of the day, and +sometimes after a long march, is very trying. But when the exposure +to burning thirst, and to the uncertain disposition of the native +inhabitants is added, the patient endurance of successful explorers +is still more strongly displayed. Nor, although it be only a minor +annoyance, must the pain and inconvenience felt by wanderers in the +bush from the prickly grass, which is found abundantly in the sandy +districts, be forgotten. In those barren sands, where no grass grows, +there are frequently tufts of a prickly bush, which tortures the horses, +and tears to pieces the clothes of the men about their ankles, if they +are walking. This bush, called the prickly grass, and a dwarf tree, the +_Eucalyptus dumosa_, grows only where the soil appears too barren and +loose for anything else; indeed, were it not for these, the sand would +probably drift away, and cover the vegetation of neighbouring spots less +barren and miserable. Against this evil, nature seems to have provided +by the presence of two plants so singularly fitted for a soil of this +description. The root of the _Eucalyptus dumosa_ resembles that of a +large tree; but it has no trunk, and only a few branches rise above +the ground, forming an open kind of bush, often so low that a man on +horseback may look over it for miles. This dwarf tree, and the prickly +grass together, occupy the ground, and seem intended to bind down the +sands of Australia. The size of the roots prevents the bush from growing +very close together, and the stems being without leaves, except at the +top, this kind of _Eucalyptus_ is almost proof against the running fires +of the bush. The prickly grass resembles, at a distance, in colour and +form, an overgrown lavender plant, but the blades of it, consisting of +sharp spikes, occasion most cruel annoyance both to men and horses. +Another inconvenience and danger to which exploring parties are liable, +are those fires in the bush already alluded to; which, whether caused by +accident, or designedly by the natives, are not uncommon events.[31] +"The country seemed all on fire around us."--"All the country beyond the +river was in flames; one spark might have set the whole country on our +side in a blaze, and then no food would remain for the cattle, not to +mention the danger to our stores and ammunition." "Fires prevailed +extensively at great distances in the interior, and the sultry air +seemed heated by the general conflagration;" these expressions convey +rather alarming ideas of the dangers to which travellers are exposed in +the bush, and from which it is not always easy to make good an escape. + + [31] On one occasion the progress of the fire was _against the wind_. + See this stated and explained by Major Mitchell, "Three Expeditions," + vol. i. p. 19. + +It may have been observed, possibly, in what has been related of the +country and scenery of New Holland in its natural state, that the +descriptions of very beautiful or fertile spots have been comparatively +few. Now, although it is true that a very large portion of the known +surface of that island is occupied by the sandstone rock, which is in +its very nature utterly barren, nevertheless, it is by no means to +be supposed that there is any scarcity of most rich and beautiful +land--some of it fit for immediate occupation--to be found in most +parts of Australia. In attempting to draw a picture of a distant and +remarkable region, we are almost sure to mark and bring distinctly out +its most peculiar and striking features; the scenes resembling those of +our own quiet and happy land are passed over as tame and familiar, while +the dreariness of the desert, the horrors of a "barren and dry land +where no water is,"--the boundless plains, or the bare mountain-tops, +the lonely shore or the rocky isle--scenes like these, are commonly +dwelt upon and described. In short, the very spots which are least +enticing, _in reality_, for the colonist to settle in, are often most +agreeable, _in description_, for the stranger to read of. + +But, since the reader must not be left with the erroneous and unpleasant +impression that the country of which we have been treating is, for the +most part, a mere wilderness, if not a desert, we may select two +recently-discovered districts of it to serve for a favourable specimen +of the beauty and fertility of many others, which cannot now be noticed. + +The following description of Wellington Valley (now recently included in +the limits of the colony,) is from the pen of its first discoverer, Mr. +Oxley, and other travellers bear witness that it is not overcharged: "A +mile and a half brought us into the valley which we had seen on our +first descending into the glen: imagination cannot fancy anything more +beautifully picturesque than the scene which burst upon us. The breadth +of the valley, to the base of the opposite gently-rising hills, was +between three and four miles, studded with fine trees, upon a soil which +for richness can nowhere be exceeded; its extent, north and south, we +could not see: to the west, it was bounded by the lofty rocky ranges by +which we had entered it; these were covered to the summit with cypresses +and acacias in full bloom, and a few trees in bright green foliage gave +additional beauty to the scene. In the centre of this charming valley +ran a strong and beautiful stream, its bright, transparent waters +dashing over a gravelly bottom, intermingled with large stones, forming +at short intervals considerable pools, in which the rays of the sun +were reflected with a brilliancy equal to that of the most polished +mirror. The banks were low and grassy, with a margin of gravel and +pebble-stones; there were marks of flood to the height of about twelve +feet, when the river would still be confined within its secondary banks, +and not overflow the rich lands that bordered it. Its usual width is 200 +feet; in times of flood it would be from 600 to 800 feet."[32] + + [32] See Oxley's Journals, pp. 184-7. + +In Australia Felix, as it has been called by its discoverer, Major +Mitchell, which is a much larger district than that just described, +almost every earthly delight and advantage would likewise seem to have +combined to make it a perfect dwelling-place for man. The temperate and +mild climate; the neighbourhood of the sea; the variety and fertility of +its surface; the ranges of lofty and picturesque mountains by which it +is backed; the number of rivers, small and large, by which it is +watered; the comparatively open nature of the country, yet not without +an ample supply of timber close at hand; all these and other advantages +unite in rendering Australia Felix one of the most desirable spots upon +the face of the globe. And the beauties and blessings of a spot like +this, must have stood forth in bold contrast with the dreary, lifeless +plains of the Darling, or Lachlan, which the discoverers of Australia +Felix had so long been engaged in exploring. One of the first harbingers +of the better country, to which the travellers were drawing near, was a +very curious height, called Pyramid Hill, which is formed of granite, +and, being a triangular pyramid, standing quite alone, closely resembles +the monuments of ancient Egypt. It rises 300 feet above the surrounding +plain; its point consists of a single block of granite, and the view +over the neighbouring country was exceedingly beautiful. The scene was +different from anything the travellers had elsewhere witnessed. "A land +so inviting, and still without inhabitants![33] As I stood," continues +the explorer, warming with the thoughts of his discovery, "the first +European intruder on the sublime solitude of these verdant plains, as +yet untouched by flocks or herds, I felt conscious of being the +harbinger of mighty changes; and that our steps would soon be followed +by the men and animals for which it seemed to have been prepared." +Twelve days afterwards, the whole of which had been spent in traversing +a district rich and lovely in the extreme, the first view of a noble +range of mountains (the Grampians) was obtained; they rose in the south +to a stupendous height, and presented as bold and picturesque an outline +as ever painter imagined.[34] And, during a journey of many days, the +same rich and sublime scenery still appeared, mingled together in +beautiful and endless variety. Every day the party of travellers passed +over land which, for natural fertility and beauty, could scarcely be +surpassed; over streams of unfailing abundance, and plains covered with +the richest pasturage. Stately trees and majestic mountains adorned the +ever-varying landscape, the most southern region of all Australia, and +the best. On the river Glenelg, which was discovered about a month after +they had left Pyramid Hill, the land appeared everywhere alike good, +alike beautiful; whether on the finely-varied hills, or in the equally +romantic vales, which opened in endless succession on both banks of the +river. Further on in this lovely district, the British explorers came +upon fresh scenes of surpassing sweetness. A small party of them were +out upon an excursion, when they perceived before them a ridge in the +blue distance--rather an unusual object in that close country. They soon +after quitted the wood through which they had been passing, and found +that they were on a kind of table-land, approaching a deep ravine coming +from their right, which terminated on a very fine-looking open country +below, watered by a winding river. They descended by a bold projection +to the bottom of the ravine, and found there a foaming little river, +hurrying downwards over rocks. After fording this stream, they ascended +a very steep but grassy mountain-side, and, on reaching a brow of high +land, a noble prospect appeared; a river winding among meadows that were +fully a mile broad, and green as an emerald. Above them rose swelling +hills of fantastic shapes, but all smooth and thickly covered with rich +verdure. Behind these were higher hills, all having grass on their +sides, and trees on their summits, and extending east and west +throughout the landscaper as far as could be seen. After riding about +two miles along an entirely open, grassy ridge, the party again found +the Glenelg, flowing eastward towards an apparently much lower country. +The river was making for the coast, (turning southward some miles below +the hill on which they stood,) through a country far surpassing in +beauty and richness any part hitherto discovered. + + [33] Not quite so; they soon fell in with a few of the scattered + wanderers of the bush. + + [34] See the interesting account of Major Mitchell's ascent to Mount + William, the highest point of these hills.--MITCHELL'S _Three + Expeditions_, vol. ii. pp. 171-181. + +What, in fact, is there wanting to the charming and extensive region +just described, or what to hundreds of other fruitful and lovely +districts under the power of the British crown, except _civilised +inhabitants_, and the establishment of _a branch of Christ's "one +Catholic and Apostolic Church_?" The population is ready, nay, even +redundant, in England; nor are the means deficient in a land abounding +beyond all others in wealthy capitalists. But the will, the wisdom, the +understanding heart, the united counsels, are, it is to be feared, and +are likely still to be, wanting with us. May that God who maketh men to +be of one mind in a house or nation, so dispose events, that in due time +the valleys and hills of Australia Felix may be dotted with churches, +and filled with faithful members of Christ! Then will it become a +_happy_ land indeed. Then may its inhabitants feel a lively interest, +both in the _social_ and _religious_ welfare of their country; and each +one may join, from the distant shores of the once unknown Southern Land, +in the holy aspirations of the Royal Prophet: "For my brethren and +companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house +of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good."[35] + + [35] Psalm cxxii. 8,9. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +NATIVES OF THE BUSH. + + +In most instances in which a country is taken possession of, and its +original inhabitants are removed, enslaved, or exterminated, the party +thus violently seizing upon the rights of others is considered the +superior and more civilized nation of the two. The very means by which +this advantage is gained are, usually, boldness, and worldly talent, +without which a conquest or successful invasion is impossible; and +these, when prosperous, are qualities which awaken very powerfully the +admiration and attention of men. So that, while earthly prosperity and +excellence are combining to cast a splendour around the actions of the +successful nation, adversity and inferiority do usually join in +blackening the cloud which hangs over the character of that which is +unfortunate. It is not for us to defend these judgments of the world, as +though they were, in any case, altogether righteous judgments, but this +we may safely affirm, in the particular instance of Australia, that, +upon the whole, it is a gain to the cause of truth and virtue for +Christian England to possess those wilds, which lately were occupied by +miserable natives; and, while we own that it is wrong to do evil that +good may come, yet may we, likewise, confess with thankfulness the +Divine mercy and wisdom which have so often brought good out of the +evil committed by our countrymen in these distant lands. It must be +confessed, too, that, whatever may be the amount of iniquity wantonly +committed among the natives of the other portions of the globe, for +which Europe is responsible, still, the Europeans, upon the whole, +stand higher than the inhabitants of the remaining portions, and, of +course, in proportion, very much higher than the most degraded and +least-improved race of savages, the Australian natives. True, indeed, +these despised Australians may, hereafter, rise up in judgment against +Europeans to condemn them; and when that which has been given to each +race of men shall be again required of them, those that have received +the most may frequently be found to have profited the least by the gifts +of Divine Providence. Still, without pretending to pass judgment upon +any, whether nations or individual persons,--without affecting, either, +to close our eyes against the miserable vices by which the Christian +name has been disgraced, and our country's glory sullied, among distant +and barbarous nations, we may with safety speak of the inhabitants of +those heathen lands in terms that are suitable to their degraded state. +In describing their darkened and almost brutal condition, we are but +describing things as they really exist;[36] it changes not the actual +fact to prove that, in many more respects than would at first sight +appear, the behaviour of men of our own _enlightened_ nation is scarcely +less darkened or less brutal than theirs. Nay, the Australian savage, in +his natural state, may be a far higher and nobler character than the +British convict sometimes is in his degraded state; and, nevertheless, +it may be correct to class the nation of the former among barbarians, +and that of the latter among civilized people. But in forming our +judgment respecting the real character of the natives of the Bush we +must beware lest we try them by our own standard,--a standard by which +it is unjust to measure them, since they have never known it, nor ever +had the means of reaching it.[37] Every wise man will make all possible +allowance for the effect of many generations of ignorance and +degradation upon the human soul, and when this has been fairly done, the +truly wise man, the humble Christian, whilst he reads of the deplorable +condition to which the human soul may be reduced, (as it is shown in the +instance before us,) will feel disposed to ask himself, "Who made thee +to differ from others? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" + + [36] One crime, in which the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands of + New Zealand notoriously indulge, has been charged also upon the people + of New Holland; but, since no mention of their _cannibalism_ is made by + those British travellers who have seen most of the habits of the + natives, it is hoped that the charge is an unfounded one. See, however, + M. Martin's New South Wales, pp. 151-2, and the instance of _Gome Boak_, + in Collins' History of New South Wales, p. 285; and Sturt's Expeditions + in Australia, vol. ii. p. 222. + + [37] Nay, our fellow-countrymen in the Australian colonies, can, by no + means, endure a strict trial, even by their own rule of right. Take, + for instance, the following very common case:--The kangaroo disappears + from cattle-runs, and is also killed by stockmen, merely for the sake of + the skin; but no mercy is shown to the natives who may help themselves + to a bullock or a sheep. They do not, it is true, breed and feed the + kangaroos as our people rear and fatten cattle, but, at least, the wild + animals are bred and fed upon their land, and consequently belong to + them. + +The native population of Australia is very peculiar in many respects, +not exactly resembling any other known race of human beings in the +world. They are more nearly akin to the Africans than to any others, and +they have, accordingly, been sometimes called _the Eastern Negroes_, +having the same thick lips, high cheek-bones, sunken eyes, and legs +without calves, which distinguish the native of Africa; but, with the +exception of Van Diemen's Land, and the adjoining coasts, the woolly +hair of the negro is not to be found among them, nor is the nose usually +so flat, or the forehead so low. They are seldom very tall, but +generally well made; and their bodily activity is most surprising; nor +is their courage at all to be despised. The Australian native has always +been pointed out as being the lowest specimen of human nature, and, +since, in every scale of degrees, one must be lowest, this is probably +correct enough; yet we are by no means to give too hasty credit to the +accounts of their condition, which have been given by those whose +interest it may have been to represent them in as unfavourable a light +as possible, or whose opportunities of judging have been few and scanty, +compared with their hasty willingness to pass judgment upon them. Men, +more or less busily engaged in killing and taking possession, are not +likely to make a very favourable report of those poor creatures into +whose inheritance they have come; mere self-defence would tempt them to +try to lessen the greatness of their crimes, by asserting the victims of +these to be scarcely deserving of a better fate, and, in the present +instance, the actual condition of the native population would be very +favourable to excuses of this kind. Or, even without this evil intention +of excusing wrong by slandering those that suffer it, many men, with but +few means of understanding their character, may have spoken decidedly +respecting the Australian natives, and that, too, in language even +harsher than their degraded state would justify. Disgusting and horrid +many of their habits and customs undoubtedly are, yet they appear even +more so at first sight, and to one only imperfectly acquainted with +them; especially when (which often happens) not the slightest allowance +is made for the peculiar situation of the savage, but he is taken at +once from the midst of his naked barbarity, and tried by the rules of +refinement and civilization. Recently, indeed, public attention and pity +have been more turned towards the unhappy race of natives, and many +traits have been discovered in their character which would not dishonour +more enlightened nations. The degraded position of those who are in the +midst of the white population affords no just criterion of their merits. +Their quickness of apprehension is often surprising, and nothing, +however new and strange, seems to puzzle or astonish them; so that they +follow closely the advice of the ancient poet: + + "Wonder at nought:--the only rule I know + To make man happy, and to keep him so." + +"They are never awkward," says Major Mitchell, who was well qualified +to speak from experience; "on the contrary, in manners, and general +intelligence, they appear superior to any class of white rustics that +I have seen. Their powers of mimicry seem extraordinary, and their +shrewdness shines even through the medium of imperfect language, and +renders them, in general, very agreeable companions." We may, therefore, +if our inquiry be accompanied by humility and justice, be able to form a +fair and impartial opinion respecting these people; and the result of an +inquiry of this sort must be, in every well-regulated soul, not merely a +feeling of thankfulness (still less of self-sufficiency,) that we are +far removed from the savage state, but, likewise, a sense of shame, +that, with many of our fellow-countrymen, their superior advantages +have been productive of little or no fruit. + +One very remarkable distinction of the natives of the Bush is, the +entire absence of clothing, unless the cloak, made of opossum-skin, worn +by some tribes, can deserve to be thought an exception. Their climate +being, generally speaking, a dry one, and exposure to the air, even at +night, being much less hurtful than in most other countries, this habit +of going without clothing, after the fashion of a brute beast, is by no +means so dangerous in Australia as it would be elsewhere. But, while +they can dispense with _clothes_, like most other savages, they are +extremely fond of _ornaments_,--at least, of what they esteem to be +such: these are teeth of kangaroos, or men, jaw-bones of a fish, +feathers, tails of dogs, pieces of wood, &c., fastened on different +parts of the head, by a sort of gum; while scars, and marks of various +kinds, are made upon the breast, arms, and back; or, upon certain +occasions, as going to war, or mourning for a friend, the body is +streaked over with white and yellow paint, according to the taste of the +party concerned. In two very distant parts of Australia, namely, the +gulf of Carpentaria, and the eastern coast of St. Vincent's Gulf, the +natives practise the rite of circumcision--a remarkable agreement, when +we consider that they are about 1200 miles apart, and have no means of +communication with each other. It is no uncommon custom, either, for the +natives to pierce their noses, and to place a bone or reed through the +opening, which is reckoned a great ornament. But there is another +custom, almost peculiar to Australia, which, from its singularity, +may deserve to be noticed at some length. Among many of the native +tribes,[38] it is usual for the males to have a front tooth, or +sometimes _two_, struck out at the time of their arriving at manhood, +and this ceremony is performed in a most solemn and impressive manner. +The following account of it, from the pen of an eye-witness, may be not +unacceptable to the reader: Lieutenant Collins, the historian of the +infant colony of New South Wales, was present during the whole of this +curious operation, and thus describes the accompanying ceremonies +practised by the natives of that part of Australia:--For seven days +previous to the commencement of the solemnity, the people continued to +assemble, and the evenings were spent in dancing, for which they adorned +themselves in their best manner, namely, by painting themselves white, +and especially by drawing white circles round their eyes. When the field +was prepared, and the youths who were to be enrolled among men were all +placed together upon one side of it, the business began with a loud +shout, and a clattering of shields and spears, from the armed party, +whose office it was to seize the patients about to undergo the +extraordinary operation. This was done one by one, until the whole +number, fifteen, were brought forward, and placed in the midst of the +armed body of men; then each youth was made to sit down, holding his +head downwards, with his hands clasped, and his legs crossed under him, +in which painful posture it was said they were to remain all night, +without looking up or taking any refreshment whatever.[39] The +Carrahdis, or persons who were to perform the operation, now began some +of their strange mummeries. Each one of these, in his turn, appeared to +suffer most extreme agony, and put himself into every posture that pain +could occasion, until, at length, a bone was brought forward, which was +intended to be used in the ensuing ceremony; and the poor youths were +led to believe that the more pain these Carrahdis suffered in obtaining +the bone, the less would be theirs in losing a tooth. The following day +began with the ceremony of the fifteen operators running round upon +their hands and feet, in imitation of the dogs of that country, and +throwing upon the boys, as they passed, sand and dirt with their hands +and feet. The youths were perfectly still and silent, and it was +understood that this ceremony gave them power over the dog, and endowed +them with whatever good qualities that animal might possess. + + [38] Speaking of a tribe which he found upon the banks of the Darling, + Mitchell says, "The men retained all their front teeth, and had no + scarifications on their bodies, two most unfashionable peculiarities + among the aborigines." (MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 261.) + The same intelligent traveller accounts for the custom of knocking out + the teeth, by supposing it a typical sacrifice, probably derived from + early sacrificial rites. The cutting off the last joint of the little + finger of females, (he adds,) seems a custom of the same kind. It is a + curious observation, that the more ferocious among the natives on the + Darling were those tribes that had _not_ lost their front teeth.--Vol. + ii. p. 345, and vol. i. p. 304. + + [39] This was not the fact, however, for Lieut. Collins found them in + a different place, when he went to the spot early in the next morning. + +The next part that was performed, was the offering of a sham kangaroo, +made of grass, to the fifteen lads, who were still seated as before. One +man brought the kangaroo, and a second carried some brushwood, besides +having one or two flowering shrubs stuck through his nose, and both +seemed to stagger under the weight of their burdens. Stalking and +limping, they at last reached the feet of the youthful hunters, and +placed before them the prize of the chase, after which they went away, +as though entirely wearied out. By this rite was given the power of +killing the kangaroo, and the brushwood, most likely, was meant to +represent its common haunt. In about an hour's space, the chief actors +returned from a valley to which they had retired, bringing with them +long tails of grass, which were fitted to the girdle. By the help of +this addition, they imitated a herd of kangaroos, one man beating time +to them with a club on a shield, and two others, armed, followed them +and affected to steal unnoticed upon them to spear them. As soon as +these pretended kangaroos had passed the objects of their visit, they +instantly got rid of their artificial tails, each man caught up a lad, +and, placing him upon his shoulders, carried him off in triumph to the +last scene of this strange exhibition. + +After walking a short distance, the men put down their burdens, placing +them in a cluster, each boy with his head upon his breast, and his hands +clasped together. In a few minutes, after a greater degree of mystery +and preparation than had been before observed, the youthful band was +brought forward to a place where a number of human beings were seen +lying with their faces to the ground, as if they were dead, and in front +of these was a man seated on a stump of a tree, bearing another man upon +his shoulders, both having their arms extended, while two men, in a like +attitude, were seen also behind the group of prostrate figures. These +first two men made most hideous faces for a few minutes, and then the +lads were led over the bodies lying on the ground, which moved and +writhed, as though in great agony; after which the same strange grimaces +were repeated by the two men who were placed on the further side of the +apparently dead bodies. All the information that could be gained of the +meaning of this, was, that it would make them brave men; that they would +see well and fight well. Then followed a sort of martial exercise with +spear and shield, in the presence of the future warriors, to signify to +them what was to be one great business of their lives--the use of the +spear; and, when this was finished, the preparations for striking out +the tooth commenced. The first subject of this barbarous operation was +chosen, and seated upon the shoulders of a native, who himself sat down +upon the grass; and then the bone was produced, which had cost so much +apparent pain to procure the evening before, and which was made very +sharp and fine at one end, for the purpose of lancing the gum. But for +some such precaution, it would have been impossible to have knocked out +the tooth, without breaking the jaw-bone. A stick was then cut with much +ceremony out of some hard wood, and when the gum of the patient was +properly prepared, the smallest end of the stick was applied to the top +of the tooth, while the operator stood ready with a large stone, as +though about to drive the tooth down the throat of the youth. Here a +certain attention to the number three, which had been before shown, was +again noticed, for no stroke was actually made, until three attempts to +hit the stick had taken place; and, notwithstanding repeated blows, so +firmly was the tooth of the first boy fixed in his gum, that it was full +ten minutes before it was forced out. The sufferer was then removed, his +gum was closed, and he was dressed out in a new style, with a girdle, in +which was stuck a wooden sword, and with a bandage round his head, while +his left hand was placed over his mouth, and he was not allowed to +speak, nor, during that day, to eat. In this manner were all the others +treated, except one only, who could not endure the pain of more than one +blow with the stone, and, breaking away from his tormentors, he managed +to make his escape. During the whole operation a hideous noise was kept +up around the patients, with whom, generally, it seemed to be a point of +honour to endure this pain without a single murmur. Having once gone +through this strange ceremony, they were henceforth admitted into the +company and privileges of the class of men. + +And as the commencement of manhood in this way, requires no small +exercise of courage and endurance of pain, so the remainder of the life +of an Australian savage is usually abundant in trials calling for the +like qualities, and demanding both bravery and patience. Whatever may +be the particular evils of civilized society, and however some wild +imaginations may be tempted by these to regard with regret or envy the +enjoyments of savage life, after all it must be confessed, these +enjoyments are, at best, very scanty and very uncertain, whilst the +miseries attendant upon such a state are of a nature continually to try +the patience and weary the spirit of him who has to endure them. Without +dwelling just at present upon the natural wants and sufferings to which +savage men are perpetually exposed in the wilderness of Australia, it is +deplorable to think of how many evils these thinly-scattered tribes are +the cause to each other; enormous and sad is the amount of suffering, +which, even in those lonely and unfrequented regions, human beings are +constantly bringing upon their brethren or neighbours. War, which seems +almost a necessary evil, an unavoidable scourge to man's fallen race, in +all ages and in every country, wears its most deadly aspect, and shows +its fiercest spirit among the petty tribes, and in the personal +encounters of savages like those of whom we are treating. Various causes +of misunderstanding will, of course, arise among them from time to time, +and every trifling quarrel is continued and inflamed by their amazing +and persevering efforts to revenge themselves, which appears to be with +them considered a matter of duty. The shedding of blood is always +followed by punishment, and only those who are _jee-dyte_, or +unconnected with the family of the guilty person, can consider +themselves in safety from this evil spirit of revenge. Little children +of seven or eight years old, if, while playing, they hear that some +murder has taken place, can in a moment tell whether or not they +are _jee-dyte_, and even at this tender age, take their measures +accordingly. An example of this unsparing visitation of offences +occurred not long after the settlement of New South Wales had commenced. +A native had been murdered, and his widow, being obliged to revenge his +death, chanced to meet with a little girl distantly related to the +murderer, upon whom she instantly poured forth her fury, beating her +cruelly about the head with a club and pointed stone, until at length +she caused the child's death. When this was mentioned before the other +natives, they appeared to look upon it as a right and necessary act, nor +was the woman punished by the child's relatives, possibly because it was +looked upon as a just requital. + +When a native has received any injury, whether real or fancied, he is +very apt to work himself up into a tremendous passion, and for this +purpose certain war-songs, especially if they are chanted by women, seem +amazingly powerful. Indeed, it is stated, on good authority, that four +or five mischievously-inclined old women can soon stir up forty or +fifty men to any deed of blood, by means of their chants, which are +accompanied by tears and groans, until the men are excited into a +perfect state of frenzy. The men also have their war-songs, which they +sing as they walk rapidly backwards and forwards, quivering their +spears, in order to work themselves up into a passion. The following +very common one may serve for a specimen, both of the manner and matter +of this rude, yet, to them, soul-stirring poetry:-- + + Yu-do dauna, Spear his forehead, + Nan-do dauna, Spear his breast, + Myeree dauna, Spear his liver, + Goor-doo dauna, Spear his heart, + Boon-gal-la dauna, Spear his loins, + Gonog-o dauna, Spear his shoulder, + Dow-al dauna, Spear his thigh, + Nar-ra dauna, Spear his ribs, + &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. + +And thus it is that a native, when he feels afraid, sings himself into +courage, or, if he is already in a bold mood, he heaps fuel upon the +flame of his anger, and adds strength to his fury. The deadly feeling of +hatred and revenge extends itself to their public, as well as to their +private, quarrels, and sometimes shows itself in a very fierce and +unexpected manner. In the valley of the Wollombi, between Sydney and +Hunter's River, some years ago, three boys of a certain tribe had been +persuaded to reside in the families of three of the British settlers +there. These were marked out for vengeance by the natives belonging to +a tribe in a state of warfare with them, about 100 of whom travelled +between 20 and 30 miles during one night--a thing almost unheard of +among the natives--and reached the neighbourhood of the settlers on the +Wollombi very early on the ensuing morning. Two or three of them were +sent to each of the houses to entice the boys out, but these, it +appeared, somewhat suspected the intentions of their enemies. However, +they were at length persuaded to join the native dance, when suddenly a +circle was formed round them, and they were speedily beaten to death +with _waddies_ or clubs. Immediately after which deed, the troop of +natives returned back again to their own neighbourhood. A European +happened to pass by, just as the boys were dying, but being alone and +unarmed, his interference might have been dangerous to himself, without +proving of any the slightest advantage to the unfortunate sufferers. + +Another instance of that cowardly cruelty, which will take every +possible advantage of a helpless age and sex occurred many years before +this, when the colony of New South Wales was quite in its infancy. The +father and mother of a little native girl, aged about seven years, had +belonged to a party by whom many robberies had been committed on the +banks of the river Hawkesbury, but an armed troop of Europeans was sent +in pursuit of these robbers, and when a meeting took place, the child's +parents were among those that fell, while she accompanied the victorious +party to the British settlement. Here she behaved herself with +propriety, being a well-disposed child, she was a favourite at +Government-house, where she resided under the protection of the +governor. This circumstance, and the fact of her belonging to a +different tribe from their own, awakened the jealousy of some of the +natives, who belonged to the neighbourhood of Sydney, and she was +consequently put to death in the most cruel manner. Her body was found +in the woods, speared in several places, and with both the arms cut off. +The murderers of the poor child escaped. + +But, while we justly condemn and pity the cruel and cowardly acts of +this description, which, unhappily, too often figure among the deeds of +the natives of the Australian Bush, we are by no means to suppose them +wanting in all feeling of kindness and humanity, still less would it be +correct to consider them deficient in true courage. Every allowance +ought to be made for the disadvantages of savage life, for the complete +ignorance of these people, for the difficulty which they frequently have +in procuring necessary food, and for the consequent cheapness in which +life is held among them; and when these and other like arguments are +duly weighed, we may learn not to abominate less the crimes of savages, +but to pity more the unhappy beings who commit them. Indeed, if we go +somewhat further, we may take shame to ourselves and to all civilized +nations, in many of whose practices a counterpart may be found for the +worst sins of the uncultivated, uncivilized heathens. + +Within the last few years many crimes have been recorded in our +newspapers, which, though committed in those large English towns, +by some conceived to be centres of civilization, refinement, and +enlightenment, might rival in horror and atrocity the very darkest +deeds of savages. + +Many proofs that the disposition of the native Australians is naturally +brave and courageous (however cowardly some of their barbarities may +appear,) could easily be brought forward; but none can be a stronger +proof of this than the coolness and self-possession which they have so +frequently exhibited upon meeting with Europeans, and encountering their +fire-arms for the first time. An example of this occurred in Western +Australia, when Captain Grey's party were on their return home towards +the British settlement of Perth. They were winding their way along on +the summit of a limestone hill not very far from the coast, which formed +a terrace about half a mile in width, with rich grass and beautiful +clumps of trees to adorn it; and while, on the side towards the land, +another terrace arose exactly like it, on the opposite side they +overlooked a bay surrounded by verdant and extensive flats. Their +enjoyment of the lovely scenery of this spot was soon disturbed by the +appearance of a large body of the natives on the high ground to the east +of them; and, although these strangers boldly advanced to within 200 +yards of them, all endeavours to bring about an amicable meeting proved +in vain, for the savages shouted to their companions, and these again to +others yet more remote, until the calls were lost in the distance, while +fresh parties of natives came trooping in from all directions. The +question was, how to get rid of these people without bloodshed; and +when an attempt to move quietly forward had been disappointed, by the +Australians hastening on to occupy a thick piece of bush, through which +the English party must pass, at last, Captain Grey, advancing towards +them with his gun cocked and pointed, drove them a little before him, +after which, to complete their dispersion, he intended to fire over +their heads. But, to his mortification and their delight, the gun missed +fire, upon which the natives, taking fresh courage, turned round to make +faces at him and to imitate the snapping of the gun. The second barrel +was then fired over their heads, at which they were alarmed, and made a +rapid retreat, halting, however, upon a rising ground about 300 yards +off, and preparing in earnest for action, when they perceived that they +had suffered no loss. But since they had thus learned to despise the +weapons of European warfare, prompt action was needful to prevent fatal +consequences on both sides. The captain, accordingly, took his rifle +from the man who was carrying it, and directing it at a heap of +closely-matted dead bushes, about two or three yards from the main body +of the enemy, he drove the ball right through it; the dry rotten boughs +crackled and flew in all directions, and the poor savages, confounded at +this new and unfair mode of fighting, hastily dispersed, without any +loss of life having been sustained by either party.[40] + + [40] A less serious but even more effectual method of dispersing the + natives, when they became troublesome, and would not quit the settlers' + camp at night, is mentioned by Mitchell. At a given signal, one of the + Englishmen suddenly sallied forth wearing a gilt mask, and holding in + his hand a blue light with which he fired a rocket. Two men concealed + bellowed hideously through speaking-trumpets, while all the others + shouted and discharged their fire-arms into the air. The man in the + mask marched solemnly towards the astonished natives, who were seen + through the gloom but for an instant, as they made their escape and + disappeared for ever.--MITCHELL'S _Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 290. + +On another occasion, not long after this encounter, and in the same +neighbourhood, the party of English explorers fell in with a native +carrying his spear and a handful of fish; he was lost in thought, and +they were close to him before he saw them, but, when he did so, he took +no notice of them. Without even quickening his pace, he continued in his +own course, which crossed their path, and, as he evidently wished to +avoid all communication, the men were ordered to take no notice of him, +and so they passed one another. He must have been a very brave fellow, +observes the captain, to act thus coolly, when an array so strange to +him met his eye. In like manner, when Major Mitchell was riding upon the +banks of the Gwydir, he fell in with a tall native, covered with +pipe-clay, who, although he could never have seen a horse before, +nevertheless, put himself in a posture of defiance, and did not retreat, +until the traveller galloped at him to prevent his attack. + +In a different part of New Holland, on the eastern coast, when Flinders +was exploring Pumice-stone River, near Moreton Bay, he was by no means +successful in striking the natives with awe and astonishment. A hawk +having presented itself to view, he thought this afforded a good +opportunity of showing his new friends, the inhabitants of the Bush, a +specimen of the effect and certainty of his fire-arms. He made them +understand what he intended, and they were so far alarmed as to seem to +be on the point of running into the woods, but a plan of detaining them +was discovered, for the seamen placed themselves in front of the +savages, forming a kind of defence; in which situation they anxiously +watched the British officer, while he fired at the bird. What must have +been his feelings at the moment!--the hawk, uninjured, flew away![41] + + [41] On a similar occasion, near the Darling, where the inhabitants are + remarkable for their thievish habits, when a crow was shot, in order to + scare them by its sudden death, the only result was, that, before the + bird had reached the ground, one of them rushed forward at the top of + his speed to seize it!--See MITCHELL'S _Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 265. + +It is, certainly, no easy task to awaken in the soul of the completely +savage man any great interest or concern in the ways and habits of +civilized life. The fallen nature, of which all mankind are common +partakers, renders it, unfortunately, easy to copy what is evil; +and, accordingly, the drunkenness, the deceitfulness, and general +licentiousness of depraved Europeans find many admirers and imitators +among the simple children of the Australian wilderness; but when +anything good, or decent, or even merely useful, is to be taught them, +then do they appear dull and inapt scholars indeed. Living, as they do, +in a peculiar world, as it were, of their own, they feel little or no +pleasure at hearing of what is going on elsewhere, and it has been +observed by one who had mixed very much with their various tribes, and +had gained considerable knowledge of their language, that, while they +cared not for stories respecting man in his civilized state, anything at +all bearing upon savage life was eagerly listened to and well received. +Once, having described to them some circumstances respecting England and +its inhabitants, the traveller took occasion, from the mention of the +length of days there in summer, to speak of those lands near the North +Pole, where, in summer, the sun never sets, while it never rises for +some weeks during the winter. The natives agreed that this must be +another sun, and not the one seen by them; but, when the conversation +turned upon the people of those northern regions, and the small +Laplander, clothed in skins of the seal, instead of the kangaroo, was +described to them, they were exceedingly delighted; and this picture of +half-savage life, so different from their own, threw quite into the +shade all the other stories they had heard. It is, indeed, really +laughable to find with what cool contempt some of these natives, who +have never had any intercourse with Europeans, treat our comforts, our +tastes, and pursuits. We may contemn and pity them, but they seem to +have very much the same feelings for us. We are horrified at the +greediness with which they devour grubs, and many of them are shocked at +our oyster-eating propensities! A remarkable instance of this occurred +to Captain Flinders in 1798, when he was exploring the eastern coast of +New Holland, and surveying Two-fold Bay. While measuring a base line +upon the beach, the English sailors heard the screams of three native +women, who took up their children and ran off in great alarm. Soon after +this a man made his appearance, armed only with a _waddie_, or wooden +scimetar, but approaching them apparently with careless confidence. The +explorers made much of him, and gave him some biscuit; in return for +which he presented them with a piece of gristly fat, probably of whale. +This was tasted by Captain Flinders, but he was forced to watch for an +opportunity of getting rid of it while the eyes of the donor were not +upon him. But the savage himself was, curiously enough, doing precisely +the same thing with the biscuit, the taste of which was, perhaps, no +more agreeable to him than that of the whale to the Englishman. The +commencement of the trigonometrical operations necessary for surveying +the bay was beheld by the Australian with indifference, if not with +contempt; and he quitted the strangers, apparently satisfied that from +people who could thus seriously occupy themselves there was no great +danger to be feared. + +But, whatever may be urged respecting the variety of tastes and the +want of a settled and uniform standard of appeal respecting them; +however it may be argued the rich and luscious fat of a noble whale may +intrinsically surpass the lean and mouldy flavour of dry sea-biscuit; +nevertheless, in many other matters of greater importance, it must be +confessed that the manners and habits of the natives of the Bush are +extremely wretched and evil. And the Christian European, while he dares +not _despise_ them, cannot do otherwise than _pity_ them. The fact has +been already noticed, that these miserable children of nature scarcely +ever wear anything deserving of the name of clothing; and, in many parts +of New Holland, their huts, usually constructed by the women, and +composed of little better materials than bark, or wood, and boughs,[42] +reeds, or clay, scarcely merit the title of human habitations. But it is +not so much in their outward state, as in their moral and social habits, +that this race of men are most pitiable and degraded. One subject which +has been frequently observed to mark the difference not so much between +civilized and uncivilized men, as that between Christians and heathens, +must especially be noticed. Cruel as is _the treatment of women_ in many +other parts of the globe, the inhabitants of Australia seem to go beyond +all other barbarians in this respect. From the best and wisest people of +christian Europe down to the vilest and most degraded tribes of heathen +Australia, a regular scale might be formed of the general mode of +behaviour to the weaker sex among these various nations; and, mostly, it +would be found that the general superiority or inferiority of each +nation is not untruly indicated by the kindness or cruelty with which +their females are usually treated. + + [42] See Nehemiah viii. 14, 15. + +From their earliest infancy the female children are engaged or betrothed +to a future husband, and in case of his death, they belong to his heir. +But this arrangement is frequently prevented by the horrid practice, +common among these barbarians, of stealing their wives, and taking them +away by main force. Indeed, it seems a rule for the women to follow the +conquering party, as a matter of course; so that on the return of an +expedition into the interior of New Holland, the friendly and +neighbouring natives, being informed that some of the distant and +hostile people had been shot, only observed, "Stupid white fellows! why +did you not bring away the gins?" + +Polygamy is not uncommonly practised; and an old man, especially, among +other privileges, may have as many _gins_, or wives, as he can keep, or +maintain. Indeed, the maintenance of a wife is not expensive, since they +are expected to work; and all the most laborious tasks, including that +of supplying a great part of the necessary food for the family, are +performed by them.[43] Hence, they are watched with very jealous care, +being valuable possessions; but, in spite of all precautions, they are +frequently carried off, and that in the most inhuman manner. The _lover_ +steals upon the encampment by night, and, discovering where the object +of his affection is, he frequently beats her on the head till she +becomes senseless, and then drags her off through the bushes, as a tiger +would its prey![44] This, of course, is an undertaking attended with +considerable danger; for if the intruder is caught, he will be speared +through the leg, or even killed, by the angry husband or relatives. Thus +many quarrels arise, in which brothers or friends are generally ready +enough to bear a part. But--unlike the courteous and christian customs +of our own country--the poor female, whether innocent or guilty, it +matters not, has no one to take her part; the established rule with +regard to women among these brutal creatures being, "If I beat your +mother, then you beat mine; if I beat your wife, then you beat mine," +&c. &c. The consequence of these ferocious habits is evident enough in +the appearance of most of the young women, who have any good looks or +personal comeliness to boast of. The number of violent blows upon the +head, or of rude wounds inflicted by the spear, form so many miserable +trophies of victories dearly won by these Australian beauties, and the +early life of one of these unhappy beings is generally a continued +series of captivities to different masters, of wanderings in strange +families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other females, amongst +whom she is brought a stranger by her captor; and rarely is a form of +unusual grace and elegance seen, but it is marked and scarred by the +furrows of old wounds; while many females thus wander several hundreds +of miles from the home of their infancy, without any corresponding ties +of affection being formed to recompense them for those so rudely torn +asunder. As may be well imagined, a marriage thus roughly commenced +is not very smooth in its continuance; and the most cruel +punishments--violent beating, throwing spears or burning brands, +&c.--are frequently inflicted upon the weaker party, without any +sufficient provocation having been given. It is evident, that treatment +of this kind, together with the immensely long journeys which they are +compelled to take, always accompanying their husbands on every +excursion, must be very injurious to the constitution and healthiness of +the weaker sex. And to these trials must be added the constant carrying +of those children that are yet unable to travel, the perpetual search +for food, and preparation of it when it is obtained, besides many other +laborious offices performed by the women, all which being reckoned up +together, will form a life of toil and misery, which we may hope is +endured by no other human beings beside the females of Australia. Nor is +such treatment without its ill effect upon the tempers and dispositions +of the female sex. The ferocity of the women, when it is excited, +exceeds that of the men; they deal dreadful blows at one another with +their long sticks, and, if ever the husband is about to spear in the +leg, or beat, one of his wives, the others are certain to set on her, +and treat her with great inhumanity. + + [43] The men frequently indulge a great degree of indolence at the + expense of the women, who are compelled to sit in their canoe, exposed + to the fervour of a mid-day sun, hour after hour, chanting their little + song, and inviting the fish beneath them to take their bait; for without + a sufficient quantity to make a meal for their tyrants, who are lying + asleep at their ease, they would meet but a rude reception on their + landing.--COLLINS' _Account of Colony of New South Wales_, p. 387. + + [44] Playing at "stealing a wife" is a common game with the Australian + children. + +One custom, which to Europeans seems extremely remarkable, is that of +the family name of the _mother_, and not of the _father_, becoming the +surname of the children of either sex. And another, connected with this, +forbids a man from marrying with a woman of his own family name. Each +family has for its crest or sign, or _kobong_, as they call it, some +animal or vegetable; and a certain mysterious connexion is supposed to +exist between a family and its _kobong_; so that a member of the family +will never kill an animal of the same species with his _kobong_, should +he find it asleep; indeed, he always kills it reluctantly, and never +without affording it a chance of escape.[45] This arises from the family +belief that some one individual of the species is their nearest friend, +to kill whom would be a great crime, and is to be carefully avoided. +And, in like manner, a native having a vegetable for a _kobong_ may not +gather it under certain circumstances, and at a particular period of +the year. It is said that they occasionally exchange surnames with +their friends, a custom which is supposed to have prevailed among the +Jews; and they have another practice resembling the same people, which +is, that when a husband dies, his brother takes the wife.[46] Among +beings who hold life so cheaply, it cannot be a matter of surprise that +the destruction of infants should be occasionally practised, more +especially in cases where the child is born with any natural deformity: +nor is it an excuse for these barbarians that the polished nations of +ancient Greece and Italy habitually committed the like atrocities, or +even greater,--considering it in their own choice to rear up their +offspring or not, exactly as it suited their convenience. In fact, +we may learn from this and many other instances, that it is not +_civilisation_ alone, but yet more than that, _Christianity_, by which +the difference between the European and the Australian is produced:-- + + "In vain are arts pursued, or taste refin'd, + Unless Religion purifies the mind." + + [45] These facts may account for the statement mentioned by Collins, of + a native throwing himself in the way of a man who was about to shoot a + crow, whence it was supposed that the bird was an object of worship, + which notion is, however, contradicted by the common practice of eating + crows, of which birds the natives are very fond.--See COLLINS' _Account + of the Colony of New South Wales_, p. 355. + + Two young natives, to whom Mr. Oxley had given a tomahawk, discovered + the _broad arrow_, with which it was marked on both sides, and + which exactly resembles the print made by the foot of an emu. Probably + the youths thought it a _kobong_, for they frequently pointed to + it and to the emu skins which the party had with them.--See OXLEY'S + _Journal_, p. 172. + + [46] The command in Deut. xxv. only extended to the case of eldest sons + dying without children. + +Respecting the languages spoken in different parts of New Holland, it is +doubtful whether they have all a common root or not, but the opinion of +Captain Grey, who was not unqualified to judge, is in favour of their +kindred origin. In so vast an extent of country, among wandering tribes, +that hold little or no communication with each other, great differences +in language were to be expected, and are found to exist. If three men +from the east, the west, and the north of England meet together, they +occasionally puzzle one another by their various dialects; what, then, +must be expected by way of variety in a country between two and three +thousand miles across, without much communication, and totally +differing, at its extreme points, in climate and in animal and vegetable +productions? For new objects new names were, of necessity, invented; but +the resemblance between words signifying objects common everywhere, as, +for instance, the parts of the human body, is said to be remarkable. The +Australian languages are stated to be soft and melodious in their sound, +and their songs, though rude and wild, have amazing power over the +feelings of the soul. _Noise_ would appear to have great charms in +savage ears, and, sometimes, from the high key in which our English +songs are occasionally pitched, it would seem to have charms also for +"ears polite." But an elegant and refined European song would only be +laughed at and mimicked by the musical blacks, some few of whom are not, +however, quite insensible to the sweets of civilised melody. Warrup, a +native servant, was once present when "God save the Queen" was sung in +chorus, and it so affected him, that he burst into tears. He certainly +could not have understood the words, much less could he have entered +into the noble and loyal spirit, of our National Anthem: it must, +therefore, have been the music, and, perhaps, the excitement prevailing +around him, which affected him. + + + + +[Illustration: OPOSSUM HUNTING.] + +CHAPTER IV. + +MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE IN THE BUSH. + + +One of the most important occupations of every man in this present state +of things, is the pursuit of food and necessary sustenance for himself +and those belonging to him. But this occupation, being in some respects +more difficult, or at least, more uncertain and engrossing, stands more +forward in savage life, and appears more important than ever; while, at +the same time, the contrast upon this subject between the rude child of +nature and the civilized inhabitants of the earth, becomes even stronger +than usual. In glancing over the condition of the native of the Bush in +Australia, with respect to his supply of needful support, and his means +of obtaining it, several truths are to be borne in remembrance, obvious +indeed when pointed out, and yet not unlikely to escape a casual +observer. First, the vast extent of country, compared with the thin and +scattered population it maintains; next, the very different sort of food +required by a savage and a European; and lastly, the various kinds of +food which are used by the inhabitants of the wilderness--are all +matters which must be recollected, if we would form a fair judgment upon +the subject, and do justice to the humble, and apparently scanty, bill +of fare which Nature has provided for those that dwell among her wildest +scenes and in her most secret, recesses. In these spots it is but +rarely, of course, from the mere absence of sufficient provisions, that +any large body of natives can assemble together; but, occasionally, a +feast is prepared for a considerable number, either when some particular +article of food abounds at a certain place and is in full season, or, +especially, when a whale (a fish very common on the coasts of New +Holland) is thrown ashore. In the latter case, it is impossible for us +entirely to enter into the feelings of the savage, for we have never, +unexpectedly, had so large a quantity of what is considered the greatest +delicacy placed at once before us. Hence, when the Australian finds a +whale thrown ashore in his own district, his heart warms and opens with +kind feelings of hospitality; he longs to see all his friends about him, +and large fires are immediately kindled to announce the fortunate and +joyful event. Notice of the feast having been thus given, and a due +invitation forwarded, he rubs himself all over with the blubber, and his +favourite wives are served in the same manner, after which, he begins to +cut his way into the flesh of the whale, the grain of which is about the +firmness of a goose-quill; of this he chooses the nicest morsels, and +either broils them on the fire, or cooks them by cutting them into small +pieces, and spitting them on a pointed stick. + +Other natives, attracted by the flaming signal of revelry, soon assemble +in gay companies from all quarters: by night they dance and sing, and by +day they eat and sleep, and the feast continues unchecked until they at +last fairly eat their way into the whale, and may be seen climbing in +and about the carcase choosing their favourite pieces. The fish, in a +few days, becomes more disagreeable than ever, but still they will not +leave it, until they have been completely gorged with it,--out of temper +from indigestion, and therefore engaged in frequent quarrels. And, even +when they are, at length, obliged to quit the feast, they carry off with +them as much as they can stagger under, to eat upon the way, and to take +as a rarity to their distant friends. Such is a true picture of a native +Australian feast, and the polished sons and daughters of Europe will +turn away from it with feelings of unmingled disgust. But, with how many +of these is life itself a perpetual series of feasting, less gross and +disgusting indeed, but not less really sensual than this! How many +inhabitants of civilised countries live continually as though the +saying, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die" were the whole sum +and substance of practical wisdom! Yet if it were so, who would be more +happy, who more blessed in his situation, than the savage devouring, day +after day, the food his heart delights in? + +But a whale-feast is an event of no ordinary kind in the life of an +inhabitant of the Bush, and, if we would know how the common sustenance +of life is procured by him, we must follow him through a variety of +scenes and pursuits, of which, by no means the least important or +interesting, is the chase of the kangaroo.[47] This singular and +harmless creature is now so well known to Europeans, from specimens that +have been brought over and placed in our public collections of animals, +and also from numberless pictures, that it would be waste of time to +stop to describe it. In truth, being one of the productions peculiar to +Australia, it may be said, from the figures of it to be seen upon the +back of every book relating to that country, to have become almost the +_kobong_ or crest of that southern region. In many portions of New +Holland, particularly where the country is wooded and the soil tolerably +fertile, kangaroos are very abundant; but so great havoc is made among +these defenceless creatures by their various enemies, especially by man, +that their numbers appear to be upon the decrease.[48] + + [47] The wild dog is also an object of chase, and its puppies are + considered great dainties; but they are sometimes saved, in order to + bring them up in a tame state, in which case they are taken by one of + the elder females of the family, and actually reared up by her in all + respects like one of her own children! + + [48] It is a saying among the natives, "Where white man sit down, + kangaroo go away." + +A day's hunting is often the cause of no small excitement, even in +England, among men who care nothing for the object of their chase, and +are certain of a good dinner at the end of their day's sport; but we may +suppose this to be a matter of more serious interest to the Australian, +who depends upon his skill and patience in hunting for his daily food. +His whole manner and appearance, accordingly, are changed on these +occasions; his eyes brighten up, his motion becomes quick though silent, +and every token of his eagerness and anxiety is discoverable in his +behaviour. Earth, water, trees, sky, are all in turn the subjects of his +keenest search, and his whole soul appears to be engaged in his two +senses of sight and hearing. His wives, and even his children, become +perfectly silent, until, perhaps, a suppressed whistle is given by one +of the women, denoting that she sees a kangaroo near her husband, after +which all is again quiet, and an unpractised stranger might ride within +a few yards of the group, and not perceive a living thing. The devoted +animal, meanwhile, after listening two or three times without being able +to perceive any further cause of alarm, returns to its food or other +occupation in complete security, while the watchful savage poises his +spear, and lifts up his arm ready for throwing it, and then advances +slowly and with stealth towards his prey, no part moving but his legs. +Whenever the kangaroo looks round, its enemy stands still in the same +position he is in when it first raises its head, until the animal, again +assured of safety, gives a skip or two, and goes on feeding: again the +native advances, and the same scene occurs, until the whizzing spear +penetrates the unfortunate creature, upon which the whole wood rings +with sudden shouts; women and children all join in the chase, and, at +last, the kangaroo, weakened from loss of blood and encumbered by the +spear, places its back against a tree, and appears to attack its pursuer +with the fury of despair. Though naturally a timid animal, it will, +when it is hard pressed for life, make a bold stand; and, if hunted by +Europeans, will sometimes wait for the dogs and tear them with its hind +claws, or squeeze them with its fore arms, until the blood gushes out of +the hound's nostrils; and sometimes the poor creature will take to the +water, and drown every dog that comes near it.[49] But by the natives +the poor beast is generally soon dispatched with spears thrown from a +distance, and its body is carried off by its conqueror and his wives to +some convenient resting-place where they may enjoy their meal. + + [49] Martin's New South Wales, p. 131. + +There is likewise another mode of hunting the same animal, in which many +persons join together, and which, though more lively and noisy, is not +so characteristical as the first. A herd of kangaroos are surprised +either in a thick bushy place, to which they have retired during the +heat of the day, or else in an open plain. In the first case, they are +encircled by a party, each native giving a low whistle, as he takes up +his place, and when the blockade is finished, the bushes are set on +fire, and the frightened animals fly from the flames towards the open +plains; but no sooner do they approach the outskirts of the wood, than +the bushes are fired in the direction in which they are running, while +they are driven back by loud calls and tremendous cries, which increase +their terror, and they run wildly about, until, at length, maddened by +fear, they make a rush through their enemies, who allow but few of them +to escape. When the kangaroos are surrounded upon a plain, the point +generally chosen is an open bottom encircled by wood; each native has +his place given him by some of the elder ones, and all possible means +that art, or experience, or the nature of the ground, can furnish, are +employed to ensure success in approaching as nearly as may be towards +the animals without disturbing them. Thus the circle narrows round the +unwary herd, till at last one of them becomes alarmed, and bounds away; +but its flight is speedily stopped by a savage with fearful yells; and +before the first moments of terror and surprise have passed by, the +armed natives come running upon them from every side, brandishing their +spears, and raising loud cries; nor does the slaughter, thus commenced, +commonly finish before the greater number of them have fallen. These +public hunts are conducted under certain rules; for example, the +supposed owner of the land must be present, and must have invited the +party, or a deadly fight between human beings is pretty sure to take +place. The first spear that strikes a kangaroo settles whose property +the dead animal is to be; however slight the wound, and even though +inflicted by a boy only, this rule holds good; and if the creature +killed is one which the boy may not yet lawfully eat,[50] then his right +passes on to his father, or nearest male relative. The cries of the +hunters are said to be very beautiful and expressive, and they vary at +different periods of the chase, being readily understood and answered by +all, so that they can thus explain their meaning to one another at a +very great distance. + + [50] See page 79. + +But, since the kangaroo is one of the principal articles of food in the +wilds of New Holland, there are yet other modes of taking it, which are +commonly practised. + +Sometimes they use the ordinary methods of catching it in nets or +pitfalls. Occasionally, also, in a dry district, where many animals +assemble together from a great distance to drink at some solitary piece +of water, the huntsman builds for himself a rude place of shelter, in +which for hours he remains concealed and motionless, until the thirsty +animals approach in sufficient numbers. Then kangaroos, cockatoos, +pigeons, &c. are attacked and destroyed without mercy, and the patience +of the hunter is commonly richly rewarded by the booty he obtains. + +But the mode of tracking a kangaroo until it is wearied out, is the one +which, beyond all others, commands the admiration of the Australians, +for it calls forth the exercise of every quality most highly prized +among savages, skill in following traces, endurance of hunger and +thirst, unwearied bodily exertion, and lasting perseverance. To perform +this task the hunter starts upon the track of the kangaroo, which he +follows until he catches sight of the animal, as it flies timidly before +him; again he pursues the track, and again the object of his pursuit +bounds away from him; and this is repeated until nightfall, when the +pursuer lights his fire and sleeps upon the track. With the first light +of day the hunt is renewed, and, towards the close of the second day, or +in the course of the third, the kangaroo, wearied and exhausted by the +chase, will allow the hunter to approach near enough to spear it. None +but a skilful hunter, in the pride of youth and strength can perform +this feat, and one who has frequently practised it always enjoys great +fame amongst his companions. + +When the kangaroo has been obtained in some one or other of these +various methods, the first operation is to take off the skin of the +tail, the sinews of which are carefully preserved to sew cloaks or bags, +or to make spears. The next thing to be thought of is the cooking of the +flesh; and two modes of doing this are common. One of these is to make +an oven by digging a hole in the sand, and lighting a fire in it; when +the sand is well heated, and a large heap of ashes is collected, the +hole is scraped out, and the kangaroo is placed in it, skin and all; +it is then covered over with ashes, and a slow fire is kept up above +it; when baked enough, it is taken out and laid upon its back, the +intestines are then removed, and the whole of the gravy is left in the +body of the animal, which is carefully taken out of the skin, and then +cut up and eaten. Travellers in the Bush speak very highly of the +delicious flavour of the meat thus curiously cooked. The other mode of +dressing is merely to broil different portions of the kangaroo upon the +fire, and it may be noticed that certain parts, as the blood, the +entrails, and the marrow, are reckoned great dainties. Of these the +young men are forbidden to partake. Of the blood a sort of long sausage +is made, and this is afterwards eaten by the person of most consequence +in the company. + +Another abundant source of food is supplied to the native population +of New Holland at certain seasons, in particular situations, by the +various sorts of fish which abound on its coasts, and in its bays and +inlets. From this, most probably, arises the fact observed by Captain +Flinders, that the borders of bays, and entrances of rivers, are in New +Holland always most thickly peopled. And Collins mentions a sort of +fancied superiority, which these people pretend to, above those that +dwell in the more inland parts. "The natives of the coast," he says, +"when speaking of those in the interior, constantly expressed themselves +with contempt and marks of disapprobation." So very similar are the airs +and vanity of a savage, to those in which civilised man indulges. The +three most common modes of catching fish are, by spearing them, taking +them by means of a weir constructed across places which are left nearly +dry at low water, or after a flood, and enclosing them in a net, +prepared by the women out of grassy fibres, and one of their greatest +efforts of ingenuity.[51] Nothing very remarkable is to be noticed in +these modes of fishing, except it be the speed with which they run along +the shore, and the certainty with which they aim their spears at the +inhabitants of the shallow bays and open lakes. As surely as the natives +disappear under the surface of the water, so surely will they reappear +with a fish writhing upon the point of their short spears; and even +under water their aim is always correct. One traveller, Sturt, is of +opinion that they seldom eat the finny tribes when they can get anything +else, but this idea seems scarcely to agree with the report of others. +At all events, whether from choice or not, a large proportion of their +subsistence is derived from the waters. With regard to the cookery of +their fish, the Australian barbarians are said to have a most admirable +method of dressing them, not unworthy of being copied by other nations. +If the fish are not simply broiled upon the fire, they are laid in a +piece of paper bark, which is wrapt round them, as paper is folded round +a cutlet; strings of grass are then wound tightly about the bark and +fish, which is slowly baked in heated sand, covered with hot ashes; when +it is sufficiently cooked, the bark is opened, and answers the purpose +of a dish; it is, of course, full of juice and gravy, not a drop of +which has escaped. The flavour of many sorts of fish thus dressed is +said to be delicious, and sometimes pieces of kangaroo and other meats +are cooked in the same manner. + + [51] "Among the few specimens of art manufactured by the primitive + inhabitants of these wilds, none come so near our own as the net, which, + even in its quality, as well as in the mode of knotting, can scarcely + be distinguished from those made in Europe."--MITCHELL'S _Three + Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 153. + +The seal is exceedingly abundant on many parts of the Australian coast, +and is also useful to the natives for purposes of food, while the +pursuit of this creature is an exciting sport for the inhabitants of the +southern and western shores of New Holland. The animal must be surprised +upon the beach, or in the surf, or among the rocks that lie at no great +distance from the shore; and the natives delight in the pursuit, +clambering about the wild crags that encircle their own land; sometimes +leaping from one rock to another, spearing the fish that lie in the +quiet pools between, in the next moment dashing into the surf to fight +with a seal or turn a turtle; these are to them agreeable and joyous +occupations. And when we remember that their steps are followed by a +wife and children, as dear to them, probably, as ours are to us, who are +witnesses of their skill and activity; and who, when the game is killed, +will help to light the fire with which it is to be cooked, and to drag +it to the resting-place, where the father romps with his little ones +until the meal is made ready; when we recollect, likewise, that all +this takes place in a climate so mild and genial, that a house is not +necessary, we shall feel less surprise at the difficulty of persuading +an inhabitant of the Bush to fall into European customs, and submit to +the trammels of civilised life. + +The turtle, must by no means be forgotten, in an account of the +different articles of provision upon which an Australian has to depend +for his supply. These useful creatures are to be found chiefly on the +coast in the warmer portions of New Holland, and are in high season +about December and January, the height of summer in Australia. The green +turtles are surprised upon the beach when they come to lay their eggs; +but the fresh-water turtle is found (as its name implies,) in fresh +lakes and ponds, at the season when these are most dried up, and their +margin is overgrown with reeds and rushes. Among these the natives wade +with stealthy pace, so quietly indeed, that they even creep upon wild +fowl and spear them. The turtles swim lazily along the surface of the +water, biting and smelling the various aquatic plants they meet with, +but as soon as they are alarmed, they sink to the bottom instantly. The +pursuer puts out his foot, (the toes of which he uses to seize anything, +almost as we use our fingers,) and gropes about with it among the weeds +at the bottom of the water until he feels the turtle; and then, holding +it to the ground, he plunges his hands and arms in and seizes his prey. +In this manner two or three men have been known to take fourteen turtles +in a very short time; but these are small, weighing from one to two +or three pounds each. The fresh-water turtle is cooked, after the +Australian fashion, by being baked, shell and all, in hot ashes; and +when it is sufficiently dressed, the bottom shell is removed with ease, +and the whole animal remains in the upper shell, which serves for a +dish. They are generally very fat and delicious, so that the New +Hollanders are extremely fond of them, and the turtle season, being an +important part of the year, is looked forward to with pleasure. The +green turtles, which are a much larger animal, found only by the +sea-side, are taken when crawling on the beach. If they by accident +get upon their backs, they are unable to right themselves, and perish +miserably, so that nothing more is necessary to secure them, than to +place them in that posture, and they may be taken away and devoured +at leisure. Among Wellesley Islands, at the bottom of the Gulph of +Carpentaria, in the north of New Holland, Captain Flinders obtained in +one day, in this manner, no less than forty-six turtles, the least of +them weighing 250lbs, and the average being about 300lbs; besides which, +many that were not wanted, because there was no room to stow them away, +were turned again, and suffered to make their escape. + +Opossum hunting offers another means of supplying food to the +Australians, and as these quadrupeds usually dwell in the hollows of +decayed trees, and ascend the trees when they are at all alarmed, the +mode of pursuing them is of a new and different character. The first +thing to be done is to ascertain that the opossum has really concealed +itself somewhere in the tree. To discover this the holes made by the +nails of the animal in the bark as it climbed up, are sufficient; only, +one of these footmarks having a little sand in it is anxiously sought +for, and if this sand sticks together, when the hunter blows gently upon +it, it is a proof, since it is not dry enough yet to blow away, that the +opossum has gone up into the tree that very morning. The dextrous savage +then pulls out his hatchet,[52] a rude _stone hatchet_--unless he has +been fortunate enough to get a better one from some European, and cuts a +notch in the bark of the tree sufficiently large and deep to receive the +ball of his great toe. The first notch being thus made, about four feet +from the ground, he places the toe of his right foot in it, throws his +right arm round the tree, and with his left hand sticks the point of the +handle of his hatchet into the bark, as high up as he can reach, and +thus forms a stay to drag himself up with. This first step being made +good, he cuts another for his left foot, and so on, always clinging with +the left hand and cutting with the right, resting the whole weight of +the body upon the toe of either foot, until the hole is reached where +the opossum lies hidden, which is then compelled by smoke, or by being +poked out, to quit its hiding place; when the conqueror, catching hold +of his victim's tail, dashes it down on the ground, and quietly descends +after it. As the bite of the opossum is very painful and severe, due +care is taken, in laying hold of it, to keep clear of all danger from +its teeth. Occasionally trees of 130 feet in height have been observed, +which had been _notched_ by the natives up to at least eighty feet! and +the old notches are never again used, but new ones are cut every time. +Strange to tell, this very difficult operation of following the opossum +is not uncommonly performed by moonlight, some persons moving onwards to +detect the animal feeding, while others follow, creeping after them with +fire-sticks; and it is curious to watch the dark body of the savage, +climbing the tree, contrasted with the pale moonlight. The Australians +are fond of these expeditions, the end of which is the same as of the +others conducted in broad daylight--the poor opossum is reached, and +knocked down with a stick, or shaken off the branch to which he had fled +as a last retreat. + + [52] "Their only cutting implements are made of stone, sometimes of + jasper, fastened between a cleft stick with a hard gum."--MARTIN'S + _New South Wales_, p. 147. "The use of the 'mogo,' or stone-hatchet, + distinguishes the barbarous from the 'civil' black fellows, who all + use iron tomahawks."--MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions in Eastern + Australia_, vol. i. p. 4. + +Birds form a considerable article of food in the wilds of New Holland, +and there are many various sorts of them, as well as many different +modes of killing and ensnaring them, which it would be tedious to dwell +upon; but the emu, or cassowary, is too important and remarkable to be +passed over. This bird is very large, and its covering resembles hair +more than feathers; it is not able to fly, but it can run more swiftly +than the fleetest dogs, and its kick is violent enough to break a man's +leg: it is however easily tamed. The instinctive dread which these +animals in their wild state have of man is very remarkable. It was +observed by Major Mitchell, on various occasions during his journeys, +that the first appearance of large quadrupeds--bullocks and horses, did +not scare the emu or kangaroo; but that, on the contrary, when they +would have fled from the first approach of their enemy man, advancing +singly, they would allow him to draw near when mounted, and even to +dismount, fire from behind a horse, and load again, without attempting +to run off. In hunting the emu, it matters not how much noise is made, +for the natives say that bird is quite deaf, although its sight is keen +in proportion. The kangaroo must be pursued as silently as possible. + +Emus are killed in the same manner as kangaroos, but they are more +prized by the natives, and the death of one of these birds awakens a +greater excitement in the spectators; shout succeeds shout, and the +distant sojourners take up the cry, until it is sometimes reechoed for +miles; yet the feast which follows is very exclusive, the flesh of the +emu, which, except in one part which tastes like beef, is very oily, +being thought by far too delicious to be made a common article of food. +Young men and unprivileged persons are forbidden to touch it, on pain of +severe penalties, which are strictly enforced. The emus are generally +found, like the kangaroos, in tolerably fertile spots, and like them, +also, are fast disappearing from the neighbourhood of the haunts of +Europeans. The destruction of cockatoos with the weapon, or throwing +stick, called a _kiley_,[53] the hunting and snaring of different sorts +of wild fowl, afford ample room for a display of that cunning, skill, +and amazing patience, which distinguish the character of uncivilized +man. One curious way of catching birds in Australia is certainly +original, if it be but correctly reported. It is said that a native +will, in the heat of the sun, lay down as if asleep, holding a bit of +fish in his hand; the bird seeing the bait, seizes on the fish, and the +native then catches it! But enough has now been stated respecting the +various ways in which game is taken in the bush. And although, perhaps, +enough has been said concerning Australian cookery, yet the mode in +which they cook the birds in that country, similar indeed to the methods +already mentioned, may briefly be noted. When the natives wish to dress +a bird very nicely, the entrails are taken out and cooked separately, +(being considered a great delicacy,) after the example of the admirers +of woodcocks in England. A triangle is then formed round the bird by +three red hot pieces of stick, against which ashes are placed, hot coals +are also stuffed into the inside of the bird, and it is thus quickly +cooked, and kept full of gravy. In the opinion of Captain Grey, wild +fowl dressed in this manner, on a clean piece of bark, was as good a +dish as he had ever eaten. + + [53] The kiley, or boomerang, is a thin curved missile, which can be + thrown by a skilful hand so as to rise upon the air, and its crooked + course may be, nevertheless, under control. It is about two feet four + inches in length, and nine and a half ounces in weight. One side, the + uppermost in throwing, is slightly convex, the lower side is flat. It + is amazing to witness the feats a native will perform with this weapon, + sometimes hurling it to astonishing heights and distances, from which, + however, it returns to fall beside him; and sometimes allowing it to + fall upon the earth, but so as to rebound, and leap, perhaps, over a + tree, or strike some object behind. + +But there are many other kinds of food which custom, and perhaps +necessity, have rendered palatable to the people of New Holland, but +which we can regard only with disgust and aversion. Among these it may +be scarcely just to reckon _frogs_, since they are an article of food in +one of the most polished nations of Europe, and those who have tasted +them properly dressed have usually no fault to find with their flavour. +The season in Australia for catching frogs and fresh-water shell-fish, +is when the swamps are nearly dried up by the heat; these animals then +bury themselves in holes in the mud, and the native women, with their +long sticks, and taper arms, which they plunge up to the shoulder in the +slime, manage to drag them out. In summer a whole troop of females may +be seen paddling about in a swamp, slapping themselves to kill the +mosquitoes and sandflies, and every now and then plunging their arms +down into the mud, and dragging forth their prey. Sometimes one of these +women may be seen with ten or twelve pounds' weight of frogs in her bag. +Frogs are cooked on a slow fire of wood-ashes, and being held in one +hand by the hind legs, a dexterous pinch with the finger and thumb of +the other at once removes the lower portion of the intestines, and the +remainder of the little animal is then taken at a mouthful. Muscles are +also abundant in the rivers, and in the north-western parts of New +Holland they form a principal article of food; but in the south-western +districts the inhabitants will not touch them, for there is a tradition +that some persons long ago ate them and died by means of sorcerers, +who considered that fish to be their peculiar property. Grubs are a +favourite food with some of the Australian natives, and, in order to +procure them, they are at the pains of breaking off the top of the trees +frequented by these grubs, since, until its top is dead, the trees do +not afford a proper abode for them. Grubs are eaten either raw, or +else roasted in much the same manner as the fish are. But taste is +proverbially a subject concerning which there is no accounting by +reason, as we must confess when we find _snakes_, _lizards_, _rats_, +_mice_, and _weasels_ among Australian dainties. The smaller quadrupeds +are not skinned before they are cooked, but are dressed with the skin, +the fur being only singed off; and hunger renders these not only +palatable but digestible. Salt is rarely or never used by the natives, +until they have been taught its use by Europeans; and even then they do +not relish it at first, any more than other sauces or condiments; +indeed, it is quite laughable to see their grimaces the first time that +they taste _mustard_ upon a piece of meat. + +Among vegetable productions there are many roots, which are eaten by the +natives. It is commonly the office of the women to dig for roots, for +which purpose they carry a long pointed stick to loosen the earth, and +that is afterwards scooped up by the fingers of the left hand. Their +withered arms and hands, covered with earth by digging and scraping +after food, resemble, as they advance in years, the limbs and claws of +a quadruped more than those of a human being. In stiff soils, this +operation of digging can only be performed when the earth is moist, but +in loose sandy soils it may be always done, and, on this account, the +visits of the natives to different spots are regulated by the season of +the year; as, for example, the roots that grow in the clay are not in +season, because not to be got at, in the parching and dry months of +summer. No plant bearing seeds is allowed to be dug up after it has +flowered, and the natives are very careful in observing this rule. A +considerable portion of the time of the women and children is occupied +in getting up the various eatable roots, which are either roasted, or +else devoured in a raw state; some resembling onions and others potatoes +in their flavour. One root, called the _mene_, has rather an acid taste, +and when eaten alone, it is said to disorder the bowels; but the natives +in the southern parts pound it between two stones, and sprinkle over it +a few pinches of a kind of _earth_, which forms, together with the +bruised root, a sort of paste, that is thought exceedingly good, and +quite free from all injurious properties. A kind of paste, which is +sometimes baked into a cake, is also formed of many other roots. All +these grow wild, and are used exactly in their natural state, unless +burning the leaves of one plant in dry seasons to improve the root, or +similar trifling pains respecting their growth, can deserve the name of +cultivation. The fungus is also greedily devoured by the unfastidious +natives of Australia, and a kind of gum, resembling what is in England +called _gum-tragacanth_, is very abundant and popular among them. One +traveller, Captain Sturt, who was among the first to notice the use of +this peculiar food, imagined that it was eaten only from dire necessity. +Indeed, it is an amusing proof of the occasional errors into which hasty +impressions will lead intelligent men, that he pities as "unfortunate +creatures reduced to the last extremity" those who were, in reality, +regaling themselves upon a favourite luxury. During summer the acacias, +growing in swampy plains, are positively loaded with this gum, and the +natives assemble in great numbers to feast upon it. On such occasions a +sort of fair is held among those that frequent these yearly meetings, +and fun, frolic, and quarrelling of every description prevail, as in +similar meetings of our own countrymen. + +The pulp of the nut of a species of palm is called _by-yu_, and it is a +curious fact, that, although in its natural state this is a rank poison, +the natives have, nevertheless, a method of depriving it of its +mischievous qualities, and it becomes an agreeable and nourishing +article of food. Europeans, ignorant of the mode of preparing this nut, +are sure to pay for their rashness, if they venture to eat it in its +unprepared state. The women collect these nuts from the palms in the +month of March, (the beginning of autumn,) and leave them to soak for +several days in some shallow pool; after the _by-yu_ has been +sufficiently soaked, they dig, in a dry sandy place, holes about one +foot across and nearly two feet in depth: these holes are lined with +rushes, and filled with nuts, over which last a little sand is +sprinkled, and then all is covered nicely up with the tops of the +grass-tree. And thus, in about a fortnight, the pulp which encloses the +nut becomes quite dry, and it is then fit for use: but if eaten before, +it produces the bad effects already mentioned. The pulp is eaten both +raw and roasted; in the latter state, the taste is said to be equal to +that of a chestnut; but this process has no effect whatever upon the +kernels, which act still as a strong emetic and purgative. This subject +of the sources whence the Australians derive their daily food from God, +who, whether in the north or the south, in the east or the west, is +still found "opening his hand," and "filling all things living with +plenteousness," might easily be extended even yet more; for in so vast a +tract of country as New Holland, the varieties of animal and vegetable +food, and the different modes of obtaining it, must evidently be very +numerous. Enough, however, has been stated to enable the reader to judge +respecting the means of subsistence possessed by the inhabitants of the +Bush; and it will be easily seen that this mode of living appears, at +the first view, more precarious and less laborious than it really is. It +is not so precarious a life as it seems to be, because the articles +needful for support, of one kind or another, are perpetually at hand to +those who can find them and use them, whilst Europeans, or even natives +from a distant part, are often, for want of this power, in danger of +starving in the midst of plenty.[54] At the same time, the savage, free +from servile toil and daily labour though he may appear to be, does in +truth earn his living quite as laboriously as others do; nor is he, of +all men, the most exempt from the general curse which sin has brought +down upon us: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Enough, +likewise, has been stated respecting the supplies provided in the +wilderness for its inhabitants to qualify us to perceive how very +serious an injury is inflicted upon the original people of a district in +Australia, when Europeans _sit down_, as they term it, (i.e. _settle_,) +upon their lands. We might imagine (however Utopian may be the fancy) a +body of able agriculturists settling in a country but poorly cultivated, +and while they occupied a portion of the land belonging to the first +inhabitants, rendering what remained to these more valuable by proper +cultivation, than the whole had originally been. But nothing of the kind +is possible with people accustomed from their infancy to habits of life +and means of subsistence like those of the Australians. Occupy their +land, and the wild animals must be destroyed or driven away; the wild +plants and roots ploughed up or burnt; or, at all events, the wild +owners of that land must (however rightful, however ancient, their claim +of possession) be warned off from their own soil, and, as trespassers, +made liable to punishment according to law,--to European law. + + [54] For instance, the natives on the river Bogan used the new + tomahawks, given them by Major Mitchell, in getting wild honey--a food + very commonly eaten in Australia--from the hollow branches of the trees. + It seemed as though, in the proper season, they could find it almost + everywhere. "To such inexpert clowns as they probably thought us," + continues the Major, "the honey and the bees were inaccessible, and + indeed, invisible, save only when the natives cut the former out, and + brought it to us in little sheets of bark; thus displaying a degree of + ingenuity and skill in supplying wants, which we, with all our science, + could not hope to attain." They caught a bee, and stuck to it, with gum + or resin, some light down of a swan or owl: thus laden, the bee would + make for its nest in some lofty tree, and betray its store of + sweets.--MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 173. + +We are not to suppose from the wandering character of the life usually +led by them, that these human beings have no notion of property in land. +On the contrary, it is an opinion held by men best able to judge, and +supported by sufficient proof, that, not only have the various tribes +their fixed boundaries of hunting-ground, which they cannot cross +without the risk of a quarrel with their neighbours, but that even +individual persons possess property of this nature, which is handed +down, according to certain laws, from father to son. A curious example +of this strictness about property, exceeding even the ideas of Europeans +upon the subject, was found upon the banks of the river Darling, where +different tribes occupy different portions of the stream whence all +equally derive the chief part of their subsistence. One of these tribes +desired Major Mitchell's men to pour out the water which they had taken, +as if it had belonged to them, and at the same time they dug a hole in +the ground to receive it, when poured out. Nay, so strongly are the +river chiefs possessed with a notion of the water being their own, that +they have been seen, on receiving a tomahawk, to point to the stream, +signifying that the strangers were at liberty to take water from it. +Indeed, the main difference between the property of the native and +that of the colonist, consists in the very dissimilar uses to which +the parties apply their possessions. The one holds his lands for a +cattle-run or a farm, the other employs his in feeding kangaroos or in +growing wild roots. But both agree in punishing intruders, both profess +alike to esteem the rights of property to be sacred; and yet how +questionable, how opposite to these professions must the conduct of +Europeans seem, when they fix themselves upon certain spots, without +taking any notice of the vested rights of the former inhabitants, and +then threaten, or even shoot them, if they are found lingering among +their old haunts, upon their own estates! Or, if no open violence is +offered, "the sheep and cattle," to borrow the words of a kind-hearted +traveller, "fill the green pastures, where the kangaroo was accustomed +to range until the stranger came from distant lands, and claimed the +soil." The first inhabitants, unless they remove beyond the limits of +the colony, are hemmed in by the power of the white population, and +deprived of the liberty of wandering at will through their native wilds, +and compelled to seek shelter in close thickets and rocky fastnesses; +where, however, if they can find a home, they have great difficulty in +finding a subsistence, for their chief support, the kangaroo, is either +destroyed or banished. In 1772, when the French discoverer, Monsieur +Marion, was exploring Van Dieman's Land, he found the coast well +inhabited, as the fires by day and night bore witness, and on anchoring +in Frederic Hendrick's Bay, about thirty men assembled upon the shore. +And now, only seventy years later, what has become of the grandchildren +and descendants of those unfortunate natives? Let the reply to this +inquiry be made in the very words given in evidence before a Committee +of the House of Commons, in 1838.[55]--"_There is not a native in Van +Dieman's Land._ The last portion that was secured was sent to a small +island called Gun Carriage Island, where they are maintained at the +expense of government, and I believe some attempts at civilisation have +been made.--There has been a lingering desire to come back again; but +they have no means of getting back; the island is some distance from Van +Dieman's Land; they are pining away and dying very fast.--I believe more +than one half of them have died, not from any positive disease, but from +a disease which we know in medicine under the name of _home-sickness_, a +disease which is very common to some Europeans, particularly the Swiss +soldiers and the Swiss peasantry: they are known to die from a disease +of the stomach, which comes on entirely from a desire to return to their +country." + + [55] See Evidence of J. Barnes, Esq., in minutes of evidence taken before + the Select Committee on Transportation, Quest. 417-422, pp. 48, 49. + +It may be difficult for the christian moralist to condemn altogether the +system of colonisation which has been practised; it cannot be denied +that the occupation of these vast and favoured regions by civilised and +christian nations is, in itself, a highly desirable object; yet the man +of right principles will surely hesitate before he approves, for the +sake of the good that is to follow, of the evil which has been done. In +this instance, as in many other evils to be seen under the sun, it is +more easy to perceive the mischief, than to point out the means of +avoiding or of remedying it. But, at least, it may be said, let those +who now hold the beautiful and frequently fertile lands, which once +belonged to the poor and helpless native, beware of having their hearts +lifted up with pride,--of forgetting themselves or their God. Past evils +are not to be prevented, but future events are still in their power. The +warning and reasoning of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, (Rom. xi. +17-24,) although upon quite another subject, are still not without +application here. Nor should the British colonist ever forget, while he +surveys the fruitful fields which he may now call his own, the emphatic +words of St. Paul: "If God spared not the natural branches, take heed +lest He also spare not thee." + + + + +[Illustration: NATIVES OF THE MURRAY ISLANDS IN BOATS.] + +CHAPTER V. + +MANNERS AND HABITS OF THE NATIVES. + + +The shyness which the savages of Australia frequently exhibit in their +first intercourse with Europeans is not at all surprising; indeed, it is +rather remarkable how soon they get over this feeling, if they are not +interfered with, and no unpleasant occurrences take place. As Captain +Flinders has very justly observed, "were we living in a state of nature, +frequently at war with our neighbours, and ignorant of the existence of +any other nation, on the first arrival of strangers, so different in +complexion and appearance to ourselves, having power to transport +themselves over, and even living upon an element which to us was +impassable,[56] the first sensation would probably be terror, and the +first movement flight." We should watch these extraordinary people from +our retreats, and if we found ourselves sought out or pursued by them, +their designs would be suspected; otherwise, upon seeing them quietly +engaged in their own occupations, curiosity would get the better of +fear, and, after observing them more closely, we should ourselves seek +to open a communication. This is precisely what takes place with the +native tribes in New Holland, when the discoverers conduct themselves +prudently, and no particular cause of offence or dislike occurs. But +where all appears equally strange and suspicious to them, it cannot be +wondered if they often mistake the meaning of European customs and +actions. For example, when Major Mitchell was desirous of taking the +portrait of a native in Eastern Australia, the terror and suspicion of +the poor creature, at being required to stand steadily before the artist +were such, that, notwithstanding the power of disguising fear, so +remarkable in the savage race, the stout heart of Cambo was overcome, +and beat visibly; the perspiration streamed from his breast, and he was +about to sink to the ground, when he at length suddenly darted away; but +he speedily returned, bearing in one hand his club, and in the other his +_boomerang_ or _kiley_, with which he seemed to gain just fortitude +enough to be able to stand on his legs until the sketch was finished. + + [56] This remark, which is here applied to the people on the south + coast of New Holland, does not hold good of all the natives of that + vast island. On the authority of the same able navigator, Flinders, + we learn that, in the northern part of the country, about Torres Strait, + some of the tribes are very skilful in managing their long canoes. See + an interesting account of the natives of the Murray Islands, in + Flinders' Voyage, vol. ii. pp. 108-110. + +To the observer of human nature it is, indeed, a curious spectacle to +watch the several contrary feelings and impulses by which the Australian +savage is actuated in his intercourse with the more civilised portions +of our race. Attachment, very strong attachment to his own customs, and +wild roving mode of life,--admiration of the evident superiority, the +luxury, abundance and comfort, enjoyed by Europeans,--doubt and alarm +respecting the final issue of the changes which he sees taking place +before his eyes,--an increasing taste for many of the useful or +agreeable articles which are to be procured only from the hands of the +strangers,--these and other similar feelings alternately sway the mind, +and prompt the actions, of the native of the bush in Australia, so as to +give an appearance of inconsistency, not merely to the varying conduct +of different persons, but frequently to the behaviour of the very same +person at different times. Sometimes the perplexed savage decidedly +prefers his piece of whale to all the luxuries of English fare;[57] at +another time he despises the common food of the bush--kangaroo flesh, +or fish,--and presuming upon his usefulness as a guide, nothing but +_wheaten flour_, at the rate of two pounds and a half a day, will +satisfy his desires.[58] One day, fired with a wish to emulate his +betters, the black man assumes the costume of an European, likes to be +close-shaved, wears a white neck-cloth, and means to become entirely "a +white fellow." Another day, wearied with the heat and thraldom of dress, +and tempted by the cool appearance, or stung by the severe taunts of his +brethren in the bush, off he flings his encumbrances and civilisation, +and gladly returns to a state of nature again. + + [57] See p. 99. + + [58] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 39. + +The barber's art appears, in several cases, to have caught the attention +of these savages. The following ridiculous account of an operation of +this kind, performed upon some natives of the country a little southward +of Port Jackson, is given by Flinders. "A new employment arose up on our +hands. We had clipped the hair and beards of the two Botany Bay natives, +at Red Point; and they were showing themselves to the others, and +persuading them to follow their example. While, therefore, the powder +was drying, I began with a large pair of scissors to execute my new +office upon the eldest of four or five chins presented to me; and as +great nicety was not required, the shearing of a dozen of them did not +occupy me long. Some of the more timid were alarmed at a formidable +instrument coming so near to their noses, and would scarcely be +persuaded by their shaven friends to allow the operation to be finished. +But when their chins were held up a second time, their fear of the +instrument, the wild stare of their eyes, and the smile which they +_forced_, formed a compound upon the rough savage countenance, not +unworthy the pencil of a Hogarth. I was almost tempted to try what +effect a little snip would produce, but our situation was too critical +to admit of such experiments."[59] + + [59] Flinders' Voyage, vol. i. Introd. pp. 99, 100. + +It has been repeatedly stated, upon good authority, that the health of +the natives of the bush has suffered greatly, and that their lives have +been frequently shortened, by the habits and indulgences which they have +learned from their more civilized neighbours. In their original state, +although beyond question the average duration of life was considerably +below that of European nations, yet an advanced age was not uncommonly +attained among them. Numbers die during the period of infancy, for none +except very strong children can possibly undergo the hardships, the +privations, and the perpetual travelling, which most of the infants born +in the bush must brave and endure. Besides which, there is the chance of +a violent death in some of the frequent quarrels which arise and include +in their consequences all the relatives of the contending parties. But, +due allowance having been made for these causes by which the average +duration of life in those wild regions is shortened, it does not appear +that their inhabitants are a particularly short-lived race, although by +some persons this has been thought to be the case. It is impossible +exactly to ascertain the age of the Australian savages, who have no mode +of keeping account of this themselves; but from instances of youths, +their father, grandfather, and great uncle being alive, and in the +enjoyment of tolerably good health, or from similar cases, it may be +safely concluded that they frequently reach, or even pass beyond, the +boundary term of life, three score years and ten. To one horrible mode +of departing from life, which is strangely common in more polished +nations, these barbarians are, happily, strangers. Captain Grey says, "I +believe they have no idea that such a thing as a man's putting an end to +his own life could ever occur; whenever I have questioned them on this +point, they have invariably laughed at me, and treated my question as a +joke." The period of old age must be as happy as any other time in the +life of a savage, if not more so, since aged men are always treated with +much respect, and rarely take an active part in any fray. They are +allowed to marry young wives, and to watch them as jealously, and treat +them as cruelly, as they please; and they appear to suffer less from +weakness and disease than the aged amongst us usually endure. The old, +too, are privileged to eat certain kinds of meat forbidden to the young. +Thus Piper, a native, who accompanied Major Mitchell, would not eat the +flesh of emu, even when food was scarce; but when he had undergone the +ceremony of being rubbed over with the fat of that bird by an old man, +he had thenceforth no objection to it. The threatened penalty was, that +young men, after eating it, would be afflicted with sores all over the +body; but the fact is, that it is too rich and oily for the old men to +allow any but themselves to partake of it. So that, upon the whole, in +New Holland, as in most other uncivilised countries, old age is a +period of much dignity, and of considerable enjoyment of life. + +But, whatever may be the troubles, or whatever the enjoyments, of old +age, they are, in their very nature, even above our other troubles or +enjoyments, brief and transitory. The aged warrior of Australia can +plead no exemption from the common lot of mortality, and death draws +a veil over the chequered existence,--the faults and follies, the +talents and virtues, of every child of Adam. The various customs and +superstitions, connected with the death and burial of their friends, +are very numerous among the tribes of Australia, and some of them are +curious and peculiar. It would be impossible to give a full account of +them, but a few of the most remarkable may be selected. Throughout +all the funeral solemnities of savage and heathen nations the same +distinguishing mark is to be observed,--they are the vain devices, the +miserable inventions of men who sorrow for their departed friends as +those that have no hope. Nothing, it is asserted, can awake in the +breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of the +Australians. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and +the effect produced upon the bystanders by this wild music surpasses +belief. The following is a chant, which has been heard upon several such +occasions, and which, simple though it be, fully expresses the feelings +of a benighted heathen mourning over the grave of a friend whom he has +lost (as he thinks) for ever:-- + + _The young women sing_ My young brother, } + _The old women_ My young son, } again, + In future shall I + never see. + + My young brother, } + My young son, } again, + In future shall I + never see. + +But previously to our entering upon the subject of the funeral +rites practised in New Holland, it will be necessary to notice the +superstitions respecting sorcerers, which in that country are so +intimately connected with the very idea of death. When an individual +life is taken away by open violence, then, as we have seen, it is +avenged upon the supposed murderer, or his relatives. But when death +occurs from accidental or natural causes, it is usually attributed to +the influence of sorcery, and not unfrequently is it revenged upon some +connexion of the parties believed to have practised that art. So that, +generally speaking, the death of one human being involves that of +another, which is no small check to population. In truth, it would +almost seem that the natives have no idea of death occurring, except by +violence or sorcery;[60] and these strange notions must not be dealt +with too severely, in a country like England, where (within the last 200 +years, and in no uncivilised state of society) persons have been burnt +for witchcraft; and in which, even in the present day, every vile +imposture and godless pretence of supernatural power is sure of finding +eager listeners and astonished admirers. The _Boyl-yas_, or native +sorcerers, are objects of mysterious dread, and are thought to have the +power of becoming invisible to all eyes but those of their brethren in +the same evil craft. As our northern witches were supposed to have the +power of riding upon a broom-stick, so these southern sorcerers are said +to be able to transport themselves at pleasure through the air. If they +have a dislike to any one they can kill him, it is said, by stealing on +him at night and consuming his flesh, into which they enter like pieces +of quartz-stone, and the pain they occasion is always felt. Another +sorcerer, however, can draw them out, and the pieces of stone pretended +to be thus obtained are kept as great curiosities. Perhaps the clearest +ideas of the imaginary powers of these sorcerers, and of the dread in +which they are held, will be found from the following account, obtained +from a native with the utmost difficulty, (for the subject is never +willingly mentioned,) and reported _verbatim_ by Captain Grey. + + [60] "The natives do not allow that there is such a thing as a death + from natural causes; they believe that were it not for murderers, or the + malignity of sorcerers, they might live for ever."--GREY'S _Travels in + Western Australia_, vol. ii. p. 238. + +"'The _Boyl-yas_,' said the trembling Kaiber, 'are natives who have the +power of _boyl-ya_; they sit down to the northward, the eastward, and +southward; the _Boyl-yas_ are very bad, they walk away there' (pointing +to the east). 'I shall be very ill presently. The _Boyl-yas_ eat up a +great many natives,--they eat them up as fire would; you and I will be +very ill directly. The _Boyl-yas_ have ears: by and by they will be +greatly enraged. I'll tell you no more.' + +"'The _Boyl-yas_ move stealthily,--you sleep and they steal on +you,--very stealthily the _Boyl-yas_ move. These _Boyl-yas_ are +dreadfully revengeful; by and by we shall be very ill. I'll not talk +about them. They come moving along in the sky,--cannot you let them +alone? I've already a terrible headache; by and by you and I will be two +dead men.' + +"'The natives cannot see them. The _Boyl-yas_ do not bite, they feed +stealthily; they do not eat the bones, but consume the flesh. Just give +me what you intend to give, and I'll walk off.' + + What secrets can the human breast contain, + When tempted by thy charms, curst love of gain! + +"'The _Boyl-yas_ sit at the graves of natives in great numbers. If +natives are ill, the _Boyl-yas_ charm, charm, charm, charm, and charm, +and, by and by, the natives recover.'" + +Nothing further could be learned from this terrified and unwilling +witness. The custom spoken of in the last part of his evidence, that of +sitting at the graves of the dead, is found in nearly all the known +portions of Australia, and the object of this practice is to discover by +what person the death of the deceased individual has been caused, which +is supposed to be declared by dreams or visions. A similar custom among +the Jews is reproved by the prophet Isaiah, chap. lxv. 4, 5. + +Once, when Major Mitchell had been harassed, and two of his party killed +by the hostile natives, he reached a spot of security, where, while +admiring the calm repose of the wild landscape, and the beauteous beams +of the setting sun, he was anticipating a night free from disturbance. +He was alone, waiting the arrival of his party, but his reveries were +dissipated in the most soothing manner, by the soft sounds of a female +voice, singing in a very different tone from that generally prevailing +among the Australians. It sounded like the song of despair, and, indeed, +it was the strain of a female mourning over some deceased relative; nor +could the loud "hurra" of the men, when they came up, angry at the +recent pillage and murder of some of the party, put to flight the +melancholy songstress of the woods. On these occasions it is usual for +the relatives of the deceased to continue their lamentations, appearing +insensible of what people may be doing around them. + +The rude verses, given below, and forming the substance of a chant, sung +by an old woman to incite the men to avenge the death of a young person, +may serve at once for a specimen of the poetry and superstition of the +Australian wilderness:-- + + "The blear-eyed sorcerers of the north + Their vile enchantments sung and wove, + And in the night they sallied forth, + A fearful, man-devouring drove. + + "Feasting on our own lov'd one + With sanguinary jaws and tongue, + The wretches sat, and gnaw'd, and kept + Devouring, while their victim slept. + Yho, yang, yho yang, yang yho. + + "Yes, unconsciously he rested + In a slumber too profound; + While vile Boyl-yas sat and feasted + On the victim they had bound + In sleep:--Mooligo, dear young brother, + Where shall we find the like of thee? + Favourite of thy tender mother, + We again shall never see + Mooligo, our dear young brother. + Yho, yang yho, ho, ho. + + "Men, who ever bold have been, + Are your long spears sharpened well? + Fix anew the quartz-stone keen, + Let each shaft upon them tell. + Poise your _meer-ros_, long and sure, + Let the _kileys_ whiz and whirl + Strangely through the air so pure; + Heavy _dow-uks_ at them hurl; + Shout the yell they dread to hear. + Let the young men leap on high, + To avoid the quivering spear; + Light of limb and quick of eye, + Who sees well has nought to fear. + Let them shift, and let them leap, + While the quick spear whistling flies, + Woe to him who cannot leap! + Woe to him who has bad eyes!" + +When an old woman has commenced a chant of this kind, she will continue +it until she becomes positively exhausted; and upon her ceasing, another +takes up the song. The effect some of them have upon the assembled men +is very great; indeed, it is said that these addresses of the old women +are the cause of most of the disturbances which take place. Thus, even +amid the forests of New Holland, the _influence of woman_ will, in one +way or another, make itself felt. + +The ceremonies observed at the funeral of a native vary, as might be +expected, in so great a space, but they are wild and impressive in every +part of New Holland. According to Collins, the natives of the colony +called New South Wales were in the habit of burning the bodies of those +who had passed the middle age of life, but burial seems the more +universal method of disposing of their dead among the Australians. Some +very curious drawings and figures cut in the rock were discovered by +Captain Grey, in North-Western Australia, but whether these were +burying-places does not appear. For the account of these works of rude +art, which is extremely interesting, but too long to transcribe, the +reader is referred to the delightful work of the traveller just +mentioned. + +The shrieks and piercing cries uttered by the women over their dead +relatives, are said to be truly fearful, and agreeably to the ancient +custom of idolatrous eastern nations mentioned in 1 Kings xviii. 28, +and in Jer. xlviii. 37,[61] they tear and lacerate themselves most +frightfully, occasionally cutting off portions of their beards, and, +having singed them, throwing them upon the dead body. With respect to +their tombs, these are of various sorts in different districts. In the +gulph of Carpentaria, on the Northern coast, Flinders found several +skeletons of natives, standing upright in the hollow trunks of trees; +the skulls and bones, being smeared or painted partly red and partly +white, made a very strange appearance. On the banks of the river +Darling, in the interior of Eastern Australia, Major Mitchell fell in +with a tribe, which had evidently suffered greatly from small-pox,[62] +or some similar disease, and in the same neighbourhood he met with some +remarkable mounds or tombs, supposed to cover the remains of that +portion of the tribe which had been swept off by the same disease that +had left its marks upon the survivors. On a small hill, overlooking +the river, were three large tombs, of an oval shape, and about twelve +feet across in the longest diameter. Each stood in the centre of an +artificial hollow, the mound in the middle being about five feet high; +and on each of them were piled numerous withered branches and limbs of +trees, forming no unsuitable emblems of mortality. There were no trees +on this hill, save one quite dead, which seemed to point with its hoary +arms, like a spectre, to the tombs. A melancholy waste, where a level +country and boundless woods extended beyond the reach of vision, was in +perfect harmony with the dreary foreground of the scene. + + [61] See Deut. xiv. 1, where the very spot is mentioned,--"between + the eyes,"--which is always torn and scratched by the Australian female + mourners. + + [62] This disease made dreadful ravages among the natives about the same + time as the colony in New South Wales was settled. "The recollection of + this scourge will long survive in the traditionary songs of these simple + people. The consternation which it excited is yet as fresh in their + minds, as if it had been an occurrence of but yesterday, although the + generation that witnessed its horrors has almost passed away. The moment + one of them was seized with it, was the signal for abandoning him to his + fate. Brothers deserted their brothers, husbands their wives, wives + their husbands, children their parents, and parents their children; and + in some of the caves of the coast, heaps of decayed bones still indicate + the spots where these ignorant and helpless children of nature were left + to expire, not so much, probably, from the virulence of the disease + itself, as from the want of sustenance."--WENTWORTH'S _Australia_, + vol. i. p. 311. Third edition. See also COLLINS' _New South Wales_, + p. 383. + +Indeed, to those who have been from infancy accustomed to the quiet +consecrated burying places of our own land,--spots which, in rural +districts, are usually retired, yet not quite removed from the reach of +"the busy hum of men;" to those who have always looked upon a Christian +temple, + + "Whose taper spire points, finger-like, to heaven," + +as the almost necessary accompaniment of a burial-place, the appearance +of the native tombs in the desolate wilds of a savage and uncultivated +country, must be dreary in the extreme. Scenes of this character must +appear to the eye of a Christian almost emblematical of the spiritual +blank--the absence of any sure and certain hope--in the midst of which +the natives, whose remains are there reposing, must have lived and died. +How striking is Captain Grey's description of another tomb, which was +found in a totally different part of New Holland, near the western +coast, and at no great distance from the Swan River settlement! The +scenery, not, indeed, in the immediate vicinity, but very near to the +newly-made grave, is thus described. Even at mid-day, the forest wore a +sombre aspect, and a stillness and solitude reigned throughout it that +were very striking. Occasionally, a timid kangaroo might be seen +stealing off in the distance, or a kangaroo-rat might dart out from a +tuft beneath your feet, but these were rare circumstances. The most +usual disturbers of these wooded solitudes were the black cockatoos; +"but I have never, in any part of the world," adds the enterprising +traveller, "seen so great a want of animal life as in these mountains." +It was not far from this lonely district, in a country nearly resembling +it, only less wooded and more broken into deep valleys, that a recent +grave was found, carefully constructed, with a hut built over it, to +protect the now senseless slumberer beneath from the rains of winter. +All that friendship could do to render his future state happy had been +done. His throwing-stick was stuck in the ground at his head; his broken +spears rested against the entrance of the hut; the grave was thickly +strewed with _wilgey_, or red earth; and three trees in front of the +hut, chopped with a variety of notches and uncouth figures, bore +testimony that his death had been bloodily avenged. The native Kaiber, +who acted as guide to the travellers, gazed upon this scene with concern +and uneasiness. Being asked why the spears were broken, the trees +notched, and the red earth strewed upon the grave, his reply was, +"Neither you nor I know: our people have always done so, and we do so +now,"--quite as good a reason as many who think themselves far more +enlightened are able to give for their actions. When a proposal was +made to stop for the night at this solitary spot, poor Kaiber resisted +it; "I cannot rest here," said he, "for there are many spirits in this +place."[63] + + [63] See, however, a more pleasing picture of a native burying-place, + in Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 321. + +When Mr. Montgomery Martin was in Australia, he obtained with some +difficulty the dead body of an old woman, who had long been known +about Sydney. Hearing of her death and burial in the forest, about +twenty-five miles from his residence, he went thither, and aided by some +stock-keepers, found the grave,--a slightly elevated and nearly circular +mound. The body was buried six feet deep, wrapped in several sheets of +bark, the inner one being of a fine silvery texture. Several things +which the deceased possessed in life, together with her favourite dog, +were buried with her,--all apparently for use in another world. The +skull of this poor creature was full of indentations, as if a tin vessel +had been struck by a hammer; light might be seen through these hollows, +which had been caused by blows of _whaddies_ (hard sticks) when she was +young, and some bold youths among the natives courted her after this +strange fashion. It seemed scarcely possible that marks so extraordinary +could have been made in the human skull without fracturing it.[64] + + [64] Martin's New South Wales, p. 143. + +In a society of men so simple and so little advanced in refinement or +civilisation as the inhabitants of New Holland, it is evident that their +wants must be few and easily satisfied, their stock of earthly riches +very small and humble. Indeed, these people nearly always carry the +whole of their worldly property about with them, and the Australian +hunter is thus equipped: round his middle is wound a belt spun from the +fur of the opossum, in which are stuck his hatchet, his _kiley_ or +_boomerang_, and a short heavy stick to throw at the smaller animals. +In his hand he carries his throwing-stick, and several spears, headed in +two or three different manners, so that they are equally suitable to war +or the chase. In the southern parts, a warm kangaroo-skin cloak, thrown +over his shoulders, completes the hunter's outfit; but this is seldom or +never seen northwards of 29° south latitude. These, however, are not +quite all the riches of the barbarian, a portion of which is carried by +his wife, or wives, as the case may be; and each of these has a long +thick stick, with its point hardened in the fire, a child or two fixed +upon their shoulders, and in their bags, in which also they keep sundry +other articles, reckoned valuable and important for the comfort of +savage life. For example; a flat stone to pound roots with, and earth to +mix with the pounded roots;[65] quartz, for making spears and knives; +stones, for hatchets; gum, for making and mending weapons and tools; +kangaroo sinews for thread, and the shin-bones of the same animal for +needles;--these and many similar articles, together with whatever roots, +&c. they may have collected during the day, form the total of the burden +of a female Australian; and this, together with the husband's goods, +forms the sum and substance of the wealth of an inhabitant of the +southern land. In Wellesley's Islands, on the north coast of New +Holland, the catalogue of a native's riches appears somewhat different, +from his maritime position.[66] A raft, made of several straight +branches of mangrove lashed together, broader at one end than at the +other;--a bunch of grass at the broad end where the man sits to +paddle,--a short net to catch turtle, or probably a young shark,--and +their spears and paddles seem to form the whole earthly riches of these +rude fishermen.[67] But one essential thing must not be overlooked in +the enumeration of a native's possessions. Fire, of procuring which they +have not very easy means, is usually carried about with them; and the +women commonly have the charge of the lighted stick, in addition to +their other cares. + + [65] See p. 114. + + [66] "In many places a log of wood, or a wide slip of bark, tied at + either end, and stuffed with clay, is the only mode invented for + crossing a river or arm of the sea, while in other parts a large tree, + roughly hollowed by fire, forms the canoe."--M. MARTIN'S _New South + Wales_, p. 147. + + [67] Flinders' Voyage, vol. ii. p. 138. + +It is no very easy matter for civilized man to realise the perfectly +free and unencumbered way in which these natives roam from place to +place, accordingly as seasons or provisions may serve, constantly +carrying with them a home wherever they go; and (what is far more +difficult in civilised society) leaving no cares of home behind them in +the spot from which they may have recently removed. Certainly there must +be something very delightful in this wild sort of life to every one, who +has from his early infancy been accustomed to its pleasure and inured to +its hardships, neither of which are by any means to be measured by the +standard of the cold and changeable climate of England. The grand +objects of the savage, in almost every part of the globe, are to baffle +his human enemies, and to assert his dominion over the lower races of +animals. For these purposes, the activity, secrecy, acuteness, and +sagacity of man in an uncivilised state are almost incredible; nor could +we have supposed, were not the truth shown in numberless instances, that +the senses of human beings were capable of so great perfection, their +bodies and limbs of such exertion and agility, as they gain by continual +practice and early training in the forests of America or Australia. In +these bodily excellencies, the inhabitants of the last-named continent +might safely challenge the whole world to surpass them. The natives +once approached Major Mitchell's camp by night; and though nine +fire-sticks were seen in motion, no noise was heard. At length when the +lights had approached within 150 yards, every one suddenly disappeared; +the bearers preserving, all the while, the most perfect silence. It was +then thought advisable to scare these noiseless visitors away, and a +rocket was sent up, at which signal the English party rushed forward +with a shout; and this had the desired effect. It is said that the +natives regard, as an important matter, the falling of a star, which +would account for their alarm at the rocket. On another occasion, when +an English exploring party had discovered a few traces of natives near +their place of encampment, an active search after them immediately took +place; and it appeared that they had crept up within about one hundred +yards of the camp, after which they had been disturbed, and had made +off. Their mode of approach was by a stream of water, so as to conceal +their trail; after which they had turned out of the stream up its right +bank, and had carefully trod in one another's footmarks, so as to +conceal their number, although traces of six or seven different men +could be perceived as far as the spot where they had been disturbed. +From this point these children of the Bush had disappeared, as it were, +by magic: not a twig was broken, not a stone was turned, nor could it be +observed that the heavy drops of rain had been shaken from a single +blade of grass. All efforts to hit upon the direction in which they had +fled were to no purpose, except to put the explorers more constantly on +the watch against beings who were often near them when they least +dreamed of their presence. Human wisdom would enforce this lesson from +such circumstances; but how often does heavenly wisdom lift up its voice +to us in vain, teaching us by what is passing around us to be upon our +watch constantly over our own conduct, since we are never very far from +the Almighty presence of God himself! + +To the quick-sighted natives, the surface of the earth is, in fact, as +legible as a newspaper, so accustomed are they to read in any traces +left upon it the events of the day.[68] For once, Major Mitchell informs +us, he was able to hide so that these people could not find; but then +his buried treasure was only a collection of specimens of stones and +minerals, of the use of which they could know nothing, and concerning +which they were little likely to have any suspicions. The notes written +by the traveller, and concealed in trees, seldom escaped notice;[69] nor +did provisions, nor, in short, any article which they could either use +or suspect pass unobserved. + + [68] See a most remarkable instance of this in M. Martin's New South + Wales, pp. 156-158. + + [69] Latterly, however, experience suggested to him what seems + to have been a successful mode of concealment. See Mitchell's Three + Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 271. + +In Western Australia, Captain Grey, having galloped after some wild +cattle which he had met in his journey, found, upon wishing to ascertain +the hour, that his watch had fallen from his pocket during the chase. He +waited until the rest of his party came up, and then requested Kaiber, +their native guide, to walk back and find the watch. This, Kaiber +assured the traveller, was utterly impossible, nor could his assertion +be gainsaid; nevertheless, the watch was too valuable to be given up +without an effort for its recovery. "Well, Kaiber," said the captain, +"your people had told me you could see tracks well, but I find they +are mistaken; you have but one eye,--something is the matter with the +other," (this was really the case)--"no young woman will have you, for +if you cannot follow my tracks, and find a watch, how can you kill game +for her?" This speech had the desired effect, and the promise of a +shilling heightened his diligence, so they went back together in +search of the lost article. The ground that had been passed over was +badly suited for the purpose of tracking, and the scrub was thick; +nevertheless, to his delight and surprise, the captain had his watch +restored to his pocket in less than half an hour. + +Even in the simple arts and rude habits of the people of New Holland +there are different degrees of advancement and progress to be observed. +On the west coast, a few degrees to the north of the British settlement +at Swan River, a great difference was noticed by Captain Grey in the +arrangements of the native population. The country near the Hutt River +is exceedingly beautiful and fertile, and it supports a very numerous +population, comparatively with other districts. The exploring party +found a native path or road, wider, more used, and altogether better +than any before seen in that region. Along the side of this path were +seen frequent wells, some of them ten or twelve feet in depth, which +were made in a superior manner. Across the dry bed of a stream they then +came upon a light fruitful soil, which served the inhabitants as a +_warran_ ground. _Warran_ is a sort of _yam_ like the sweet potato, and +its root is a favourite article of food with some of the native tribes. +For three miles and a half the travellers passed over a fertile tract of +land full of the holes made by the natives in digging this root; indeed, +so thick were they, that it was not easy to walk, and this tract +extended east and west, as far as they could see. The district must have +been inhabited a great many years, for more had been done in it to +secure a provision from the ground by hard manual labour than it would +have appeared to be in the power of uncivilised man to accomplish. + +It can be no subject of surprise that the various tribes of Australia, +living in a wild country, and blessed with no clear nor adequate ideas +of their Maker, should be exceedingly superstitious, as well as ignorant +and simple. The strange aversion felt by some of them to a sort of +muscle or oyster, found in fresh water, has already been mentioned; and +the horror of the native population at the supposed effects of sorcery +has also been detailed. Kaiber, Captain Grey's guide, was bidden to +gather a few of these muscles to make a meal for the party of hungry +travellers in the Bush, but at first he would not move, declaring that +if he touched these shell-fish, the _Boyl-yas_ would be the death of +him. Unable to bring any instance of mischief arising from them, he +shrewdly answered, that this was because nobody had been "wooden-headed" +enough to meddle with them, and that he intended to have nothing +whatever to do with them. At last, with much difficulty he was prevailed +to go, but whilst occupied in his task, he was heard most bitterly +deploring his fate. It was his courage and strong sinews, he said, that +had hitherto kept him from dying either of hunger or thirst, but what +would these avail him against the power of sorcery? However, the muscles +were brought, and Kaiber's master made his meal upon them, but no +persuasions could prevail upon him to partake of them. The same evening, +the half-starved, half-clothed party of travellers were overtaken by a +tremendous storm, which put out their fires, and they continued during +the night in a most pitiable state from exposure to the cold and +weather. All these misfortunes were set down by the sagacious native to +the account of the muscles, nor was it till his master threatened him +with a good beating, that Kaiber left off chattering to himself, while +his mouth moved with the effect of the extreme cold:-- + + "Oh, wherefore did he eat the muscles? + Now the _Boyl-yas_ storms and thunder make; + Oh, wherefore would he eat the muscles?" + +Among the superstitions of Australia, that feeling of awe which revolts +from mentioning even the name of a deceased person is very remarkable; +and the custom of silence upon this subject is so strictly enforced, +that it renders inquiry respecting the family or ancestors of a native +extremely difficult.[70] The only circumstance enabling the inquirer to +overcome this hindrance is the fact, that, the longer a person has been +dead, the less unwilling do they appear to name him. Thus did Captain +Grey obtain some curious information respecting their pedigrees and +family customs; for he began with endeavouring to discover only the +oldest names on record, and then, as opportunity served, he would +contrive to fill up the blanks, sometimes, when they were assembled +round their fires at night, encouraging little disputes among them +concerning their forefathers, by means of which he was able to gain +much of the information he wanted. + + [70] It is even said, that persons bearing the same name with + the deceased take other names, in order to avoid the necessity of + pronouncing it at all. _See_ COLLINS' _Acc. of Col. of N. S. Wales_, + p. 392. + +One very singular notion prevailing among the native population of +Australia, and proving that the belief in a spiritual world and in a +future state, is not quite extinct even among them, is the idea which +they entertain of white people being the souls of departed blacks. This +supposition may serve to explain the reason of the disagreeable process +complained of by Sturt, who says, that every new tribe examined them, +pulling them about, measuring the hands and feet of the strangers with +their own, counting their fingers, feeling their faces, and besmearing +them all over with dirt and grease. A more powerful feeling than +curiosity even may have prompted this conduct, and they may have +sought, impelled by superstition, to recognise in the foreigners +their own kindred. But however that may have been, most travellers in +Australia mention the peculiar idea alluded to. Captain Grey was once +vehemently attacked by the caresses of an old, ugly, and dirty black +woman, who recognised him as her son's ghost, and was obliged to endure +them. His real mother, the captain says, could scarcely have expressed +more delight at his return, while his sable-coloured brothers and sister +paid their respects to him, when the vehemence of a mother's affection +had somewhat subsided. He was convinced that the old woman really +believed him to be her son, whose first thought, upon his return to +earth, had been to revisit his old mother, and bring her a present! + +The natives believe that the _night-mare_--a subject likely enough to +give birth to superstition--is caused by some evil spirit, in order to +get rid of which they jump up, seize a lighted brand from the fire, and, +after whirling it round the head with a variety of imprecations, they +throw the stick away in the direction where they suppose the evil spirit +to be. They say the demon wants a light, and that when he gets it, he +will go away. However, besides supplying this his need, they likewise +take the precautions of changing their position, and of getting as near +as they can into the middle of the group of their companions who are +sleeping round the fire. If obliged to move away from the fire after +dark, either to get water or for any other purpose, they carry a light +with them, and set fire to dry bushes as they go along. + +A profound respect, almost amounting to veneration, is paid in many +districts of Australia to shining stones or pieces of crystal, which +they call "_Teyl_." These are carried in the girdles of men, especially +of the sorcerers or _corad-jes_, and no woman is allowed to see the +contents of the round balls made of woollen cord from the fur of the +opossum in which these crystals are enclosed. They are employed as +charms in sickness, and are sometimes sent from tribe to tribe for +hundreds of miles on the sea-coast or in the interior. One of these +stones, which was examined by an Englishman, to whom it was shown +privately by a black, was of a substance like quartz, about the size +of a pigeon's egg, and transparent, like white sugar-candy. The small +particles of crystal which crumble off are swallowed in order to prevent +illness. Many other instances of the like superstitious folly might very +easily be gathered from the writings of those who have had the best +opportunities of becoming acquainted with the manners of the Australian +tribes. + +The following is from the pen of the Rev. G. King, a missionary of the +Society for Propagating the Gospel, who speaks thus of the natives near +Fremantle, in Western Australia: "The native children are intelligent +and apt to learn, but the advanced men are so far removed from +civilisation, and so thoroughly confirmed in roving habits, that all the +exertions made in their behalf have found them totally inaccessible; but +we have no reason to conclude that they have not a vague idea of a +future state. They are exceedingly superstitious; they never venture out +of their huts from sunset till sunrise, for fear of encountering goblins +and evil spirits. When any of their tribe dies they say, 'He'll soon +jump up, white man, and come back again in big ship;' and when a +stranger arrives, they examine his countenance minutely, to trace the +lineaments of some deceased friend; and when they think they have +discovered him they sometimes request him to expose his breast, that +they may see where the spear entered which caused the life to fly away +so long."[71] Altogether, experience bears witness, in their case, of +the same fact which is to be perceived in other parts of the globe, +namely, that where there is little religion, there is often a great deal +of superstition, and that those who do not "believe the truth," almost +always fall into the snares of falsehood, so as to "believe a lie." + + [71] S. P. G. Report, 1842, p. 59. + +With all the disadvantages of having two races of men (one of which is +thought inferior to the other) occupying the same territory; with the +evils, likewise, unavoidably arising from the ease with which what is +_bad_ in Europeans may be learned and copied, and the difficulty of +understanding or imitating what is _good_ in us, the natives are placed +in a very peculiar and unhappy situation. Their intercourse with the +white men has hitherto, certainly, been productive of more injury, both +moral and temporal, than benefit to them. Into the sad and disgusting +details, affording a proof of this truth, which may be found in the +evidence before the committees of the House of Commons upon the subject +of transportation it will neither be suitable nor possible to enter. The +fact is, indeed, acknowledged by men of all parties and opinions, while, +by all right-minded men, it is deeply deplored. + +Drunkenness and its attendant vices prevail to a fearful extent among +the Europeans in New Holland, the lower orders especially; and what sins +are more enticing than these to the ignorant, sensual savage? Tobacco +and spirits, which the poor natives call "_tumbledown_," are articles in +constant request; and to purchase these of Europeans, the blacks will +give almost anything they possess, even their wives.[72] Thus, a +regular traffic in what is evil is carried on, and almost all that +the heathen people of Australia learn from the so-called Christians +with whom they associate, is to practise, with tenfold aggravation, +sins which God abhors, and will not allow to go unpunished. Like +children that have been always brought up in a family of foul-tongued +transgressors, the very first words of English which the natives learn +are words of wickedness and blasphemy; the only introduction to the name +of their God and Saviour is in order that they may insult that holy +Name, and blaspheme the Divine Majesty. And these lessons are taught +them, let us remember, by men calling themselves, and perhaps even +thinking themselves, civilised, enlightened, and Christian persons;--by +men, certainly, belonging to a nation, which justly lays claim to these +honourable epithets! But enough has been stated on this painful subject +to fill every thoughtful mind with humiliation and fear, when it +contemplates the "much" that "has been given" to civilised nations, and +recalls the fixed rule of truth and justice, that so much the "more" +will be required of them. Nor is this a matter concerning the British +inhabitants of the colonies alone, and with which the nation at large +has little or no concern. For if we inquire, who corrupt the natives? +the answer is, our vile and worthless population, the very scum of +mankind, whom we have cast out as evil from the bosom of their native +land. But a further question naturally offers itself. Who were, in many +instances, the passive, if not the active, corrupters of these very +corrupters themselves? Who have neglected to provide means for their +christian instruction, and so let them grow up to be worse than +heathens, until they could be endured no longer in the land? What +nation had within a single century more than doubled its population +without having built or endowed a score of new churches? To whose +neglect is it, partly, though not entirely, owing, that when heathens +meet, in far distant countries, with our lower classes, or when their +homes are visited in our great towns and cities, the very heathens are +sometimes forced to yield the palm to them in wickedness and in sin? +Such questions very nearly concern every Englishman, and they are, even +now, only beginning to command the attention they deserve. High and low, +rich and poor, clergy and laity, we are all alike implicated in those +evils, which have arisen from national neglect and forgetfulness of God, +and which are not unlikely to lead to national confusion and ruin. But +we are still, thank God, blessed with a pure and apostolical Church in +our native country, and this is a mighty instrument for good, if we will +but support it, and render it as efficient as it ought to be. The +children of our little sea-girt isle may almost be called the salt of +the earth, so extensively is our naval and our moral power spread. If +we can bring those children up in the right way, as dutiful children of +God and faithful members of the Church of England, then, indeed, the +blessings resulting from our efforts may make themselves felt in the +very ends of the earth--in the solitary wilds of New Holland. But +otherwise, if we continue to neglect our own people, and disgrace our +profession of Christianity by encouraging tacitly the growth of +heathenism around us, then we may judge by the moral and social evils +which have already resulted from this course what the final consequences +are likely to be. "If the salt have lost its savour wherewith shall it +be salted: it is therefore good for nothing, but to be cast out and +trodden under foot of men." (Matt. v. 13.) + + [72] The half-caste children are generally put to death by the black + husband, under the idea, it is said, that if permitted to grow up, + they would be wiser than the people among whom they would live. These + helpless innocents are destroyed, as though they were no better than a + cat or dog: one farm servant of Mr. Mudie was in a great rage at the + birth of a small infant of this description, and without any ceremony, + only exclaiming, "Narang fellow," which means, "Small fellow," he took + it up at once, and dashed it against the wall, as you would any animal. + See Evidence before Transport. Com. 1837, p. 43. + +With savages resembling those that dwell in the Australian forests, +having no means of religious instruction among themselves, the only +hope of producing an improvement in their moral and social character, +must arise from their intercourse with christian people. But it must +be repeated, unhappily, the great majority of _christian_ people +(especially in that country and among those classes where the native is +most likely to have intercourse) are by no means adorning by their lives +the faith and doctrine of that Master whose name they bear. Hence arises +the deplorable condition of the natives, who are brought into contact +chiefly with the lowest and worst of the Europeans, and who, beside many +other hindrances, have the great stumbling-block of bad examples, and +evil lives, constantly before them in their intercourse with the +Christians. And, as though that were not enough, as though fresh +obstacles to the conversion of these nations to God's truth were needed +and required, our holy religion is presented to them, not as it came +from the hands of its Founder and his Apostles, inculcating "one +Lord, one faith, and one baptism," but such as man's weakness and +wickedness delight in representing it,--a strange jumble of various +"denominations." And this unworthy course has been followed by +government itself. Without any pleas arising from _conscience_, or the +principle of _toleration_ to excuse this, the British government, in +what little they have done for converting to Christianity some of the +natives, have afforded their help to bodies of Christians bearing +different names. Nor can it be said that the Church of England and +Ireland was without any zealous ministers ready to undertake this most +difficult task, trusting in God's strength for help to accomplish it, at +least in some degree. It is the confession of Dr. Lang himself, who is +no friend to the Church of England, that the only two missions[73] to +the natives existing in 1837 were, as all ought to be, episcopalian; but +one of these was stated, on the best authority, in 1841 to be "not in an +encouraging state,"[74] although a third mission, to belong to the +Presbyterians, was about to be commenced _under the auspices of +Government_, among the natives in another station. It is fearlessly +asserted that _all_ missions to the heathen supported by Government +ought to be subject to episcopal control; and the reasons for this may +be briefly added. First, there is no tenderness of conscience, nor claim +to toleration, which can stand in the way of an English government +spreading among its native subjects the doctrine and discipline of the +English Church; supposing these willing to become Christians at all, +they cannot have a prior claim upon us to be brought up as _dissenters_ +from the Church. Secondly, since the Scotch discipline, though it +prevails over a very small part of our population, is yet established by +law in one portion of the island, it may put in (as it has done) its +claim for help from Government; but, without entering into argument +respecting this, might we not safely put it to every wise and rightly +judging Presbyterian, whether it is not better to waive this claim of +theirs, than to perplex the progress of Christianity, by offering to +the heathen Australians, at the same time, and by the same temporal +authority, the Bible, which speaks of _one_ Church, and the choice +between _two_ churches? And lastly, whatever unhappy scruples and +divisions among Christians have arisen respecting episcopacy, surely, +if men had a truly christian spirit within them, they would quietly +consent to the instruction of the natives being placed in the hands of +a Church which they cannot deny to be scriptural, and of a ministry, +which for 1500 years from Christ's birth no sect of men ever thought of +denying to be the only apostolical ministry. It is indeed a strange +spectacle which our Christianity must offer to the eyes of those that +are really desirous of becoming converts. Either we "bite and devour one +another," or else we quietly set aside our Lord's commands and prayers +for our union, and contentedly agree to divide ourselves into as many +parties, sects, or denominations, as we please; and having done so, we +go and inoculate our heathen converts with our own love of separation. +St. Paul was shocked at hearing of divisions in the Church of Corinth, +but enlightened statesmen of the nineteenth century appear to be shocked +at the idea of allowing Christianity to be offered to the heathens +without its unhappy divisions! What, it may be asked with all reverence, +would have been the success of the Apostles in evangelizing the Gentile +world, if the gospel of Christ had been offered to the heathens of that +age, under the same disadvantages with which men of the present age +prefer to clog and impede their missionary efforts? Can we wonder, under +these circumstances, at the slow progress of the gospel? Is it not +rather wonderful that it should make any progress at all? If the world +is reluctant to believe in Christ's mission, would not His own words, +(John xvii. 21,) suggest to us our miserable divisions as a chief cause +of this? + + [73] Against one of these missions Dr. Lang gives a sneer, and + it may be a deserved one, though certainly expressed in unbecoming + language; but the attentive reader of Dr. Lang's amusing work on New + South Wales will soon learn not to place too much stress upon _all_ he + says. See Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. chap. 7, p. 313. + + [74] See Bishop of Australia's Letter in S. P. G. Report for 1842, + p. 53. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +SKETCHES OF NATIVE CHARACTER. + + +BENNILLONG.--The first native who could be persuaded to live upon +friendly terms of confidence with the British settlers in New South +Wales was called Bennillong, and it was after no very long period, +(within two years after the commencement of the colony,) that this +intercourse with them began in the following manner:--In the spring of +the second year the bodies of many of the natives were found in a +lifeless or dying state upon different parts of the coast near Sydney, +in consequence of the small-pox, which had been raging among them; and +some of these having been brought up to the settlement, from motives of +pity, the disease was taken by a native who had been captured shortly +before, in hopes of opening through him a means of communication with +the others. The intended interpreter died, but the governor, Captain +Philip, still retained in his care two native children, whose lives had +been saved from the small-pox, and succeeded, within a few months, in +securing two other natives, both of them well known to the children, +through whom they were assured of perfect safety. However, instead of +remaining until they could become familiar with the English manners and +language, so as to carry on an intercourse between the colonists and +their own countrymen, these natives both made their escape, one of them +very soon after he had been taken; the other, Bennillong, in about six +months afterwards, when he had been treated with every kindness and +indulgence, and had grown somewhat accustomed to the society of the +English settlers. Bennillong made his escape in May 1790, and in the +September following he saw some of the colonists, by whom he sent a +present to the governor, namely, a piece of the whale which was then +lying on the beach, and around which the natives were assembled at a +feast. Wishing to see him again, the governor went immediately to the +spot, where he found a number of natives, and both Bennillong, and the +other one, Cole-be, who had first escaped. All went on amicably at +first, and some wearing apparel, belonging to the men in the boat, was +given to the savages, while Bennillong obtained a promise from his +excellency that more should be brought in two days, and likewise some +hatchets. The governor and his friends were retiring by degrees to their +boat, having imprudently allowed the natives very nearly to surround +them, when Bennillong, after presenting several of his friends by name, +pointed out one, whom Captain Philip stepped forward to meet, holding +out both his hands to him. The savage, not understanding this civility, +and possibly thinking that he was going to seize him, threw his spear, +and wounded the governor rather badly, but not mortally. Several other +spears were thrown, and one musket fired, but no injury was done on +either side. A few days after the accident Bennillong came with his wife +and some companions very near to the settlement, and an interview +between these and the British officers took place, in which it was +agreed that the governor, as soon as he was able, should visit the +same spot; Bennillong, meanwhile, assuring them that the man who had +inflicted the wound had been severely beaten. On the tenth day his +Excellency was so far recovered as to go to the place of the whale +feast, together with several officers, all armed. Bennillong here +repeated his assurances to the governor in person, that the offending +party had been well beaten by him and Cole-be, and added that his +throwing the spear was entirely the effect of his fears, and arose from +an impulse of self-preservation. The day before this visit nearly 4000 +fish had been taken by the colonists, and between 30 and 40 of these, +weighing on an average about 5 lbs. each, were sent to Bennillong and +his party on the north shore of Port Jackson. After this, tolerably +friendly feelings continued, with some few interruptions, between the +two nations, and Bennillong himself became very much attached to the +governor, insomuch that he and another native resolved to accompany +Captain Philip to England, when, towards the close of 1792, that +excellent officer resigned his appointment, and embarked on board of +the Atlantic transport-ship. The two Australians, fully bent upon +the voyage, which they knew would be a very distant one, withstood +resolutely, at the moment of their departure, the united distress of +their wives and the dismal lamentations of their friends. No more was +heard respecting these absentees until March 1794, when a message was +brought from them in England, requesting that their wives might be told +to expect them in the course of that year, since, though well, they had +not so completely lost their love of liberty and of their native +country, to prefer London, with its pleasures and abundance, to the +woods of New South Wales. It was not, however, until August, 1795, that +Bennillong reached his native shores, having become accustomed to the +manners of civilized life, by his long sojourn among the English people. +He declared to his old acquaintance, with an air and tone that seemed to +expect compliance, that he should no longer suffer them to fight and cut +each other's throats, but should introduce peace among them, and make +them love one another. When they visited him at Government House, he +wished they would contrive to be somewhat more cleanly in their persons +and less coarse in their manners; and he was quite offended at his +sister, who came in such haste to see him, that she positively forgot to +bring anything else upon her back, except a little nephew! Bennillong +had been an attentive observer of manners, which he was not unsuccessful +in copying; his dress was an object of no small concern to him, and +every one was of opinion that he had cast off all love for savage life. + +Upon his arrival, Bennillong made inquiries after his wife,[75] but +having heard no very good account of her conduct, he at length tempted +her by some rose-coloured clothes and a gipsy bonnet to leave her new +lover and return to her former husband. Bennillong's presents, however +pretty, were of very little practical use, and he was soon afterwards +missing, having gone into the Bush to give his rival a good beating with +_fists_ after the English method. However, all his valour was lost upon +his wife, who deserted him,--an event which did not appear to give him +great uneasiness, nor was it much to be wondered at, since she had been +stolen by him. His absence from the governor's house became now +frequent, and when he went out, his clothes were usually left behind +him, although he carefully resumed them on his return before he made his +visit to the governor. + + [75] Like most of his countrymen, Bennillong had two wives, but one of + them, Barangaroo, had died, as it appears, before his departure for + England. See page 154. + +Within a year of his arrival from England this poor creature had a +quarrel with his bosom-friend Cole-be, whose wife he had coveted, and +from whom he received some severe wounds, together with the cutting +inquiry, "Whether he meant that kind of conduct to be a specimen of +English manners?" Thus Bennillong by degrees returned again to all the +habits of savage life,--habits rendered rather worse than better by the +experience he had gained respecting those of civilized men. He could +not, however, keep on terms with his countrymen, and in 1796 he was +obliged to call in the help of the governor's soldiers to protect him +from his own people. In the following year he was accused of having been +the cause of a woman's death, who had dreamed, when dying, that he had +killed her; and by some it was said, that he actually had wounded her, +so that it was demanded of him that he should undergo the ordeal of +having some spears thrown at him. Although he denied the charge, yet it +was not thought unlikely to be true, for he was now become so fond of +drinking that he lost no opportunity of being intoxicated, and in that +state was savage and violent enough to be capable of any mischief. On +these occasions he amused himself with annoying and insulting all his +acquaintance, who were afraid to punish him lest they should offend his +white friends. But, however, his interest with the latter was fast +declining, for in an affray between the natives, Bennillong chose to +throw a spear among the soldiers, who interfered to prevent further +mischief; and one of these was dreadfully wounded by him. He was, +notwithstanding, set at liberty, but being offended at the blame his +behaviour had brought down upon him he would sometimes walk about armed, +and declare that he did so for the purpose of spearing the governor +whenever he might see him! After repeated affrays and quarrels with his +wife's lover and other natives, Bennillong, who had almost entirely +quitted the comforts and quiet of civilized life, was dangerously +wounded twice within two or three months. And although no more is +related concerning him, and it is true that he had recently recovered of +several very severe wounds, yet the probability is, that this weak and +violent savage was not long afterwards cut off in the midst of life by +an untimely and cruel death. + +_Barangaroo's Funeral._--When Barangaroo Daringha, Bennillong's elder +wife, who was above fifty at the time of her death, was to have the +funeral rites performed over her body, it was resolved by her husband +that she should be burned, and the governor, the judge-advocate, and the +surgeon of the colony were invited to the ceremony, besides whom there +were present Bennillong's relatives and a few others, mostly females. +The spot for the pile was prepared by digging out the ground with a +stick, to the depth of a few inches, and in this a heap of wood was +raised to the height of about three feet, the ends and sides being +formed of dry pieces, and the middle of it consisting of small twigs and +branches, broken off for the purpose, and thrown together. Some grass +was then spread over the pile, and the corpse covered with an old +blanket was placed upon it, with the head towards the north. A basket +with sundry articles belonging to the deceased was placed by her side, +and some large logs being laid over the body by Bennillong, the pile +was lighted by one of the party, and was quickly all in a flame. +Bennillong himself pointed out to his friends that the fire had reached +the corpse, and the spot was left long before the pile was consumed, +while the husband seemed more cheerful than had been expected, and +spoke about finding a nurse among the white women for his infant and +motherless child, Dil-boong.[76] The next day he invited the same party +of Europeans to see him rake the ashes together, and none of his own +people were present at this ceremony. He went before his companions in a +sort of solemn silence, speaking to no one until he had paid the last +duties to Barangaroo. In his hand was the spear, with which he meant to +punish the _car-rah-dy_, or conjurer, for whom he had sent to attend her +in her illness, but who either could not or would not obey the summons; +and with the end of this spear he collected the funereal ashes into a +heap. Over these he made, with a piece of bark, which served for a +spade, a small mound of earth, on each side of which was placed a log of +wood, and on the top the bark with which he had constructed it. All was +done with the utmost care and neatness, and he seemed pleased, when, in +reply to his inquiries, he was told by his friends that it was "good." +His behaviour throughout was solemn and manly, and he was perfectly +silent during the whole of the ceremony, from which nothing was suffered +to withdraw his attention. Nor did he seem desirous to get quickly +through it, but paid these last rites of affection with a care that +did honour to his feelings towards one, for whom, notwithstanding his +barbarism, he appeared to feel a sincere and strong attachment. When his +melancholy task was ended, he stood for a few moments, with his hands +folded over his bosom, and his eye fixed upon his labours, in the +attitude of a man in profound thought. What were his thoughts then it is +impossible certainly to declare, but they may have been more nearly akin +to those of the mere civilized worldling than we might at first imagine. +Death brings all men to an equality, and throws down every distinction +but one. That distinction, indeed, so far from overthrowing, death +renders more marked and conspicuous than before, clearly making manifest +the difference between the believer and the unbeliever, "between him +that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." + + [76] On a similar occasion, Cole-be placed the living child in the grave + with its mother, and having laid the child down, he threw upon it a + large stone, after which the grave was instantly filled up by the other + natives. Upon remonstrating with Cole-be, he, so far from thinking it + inhuman, justified this extraordinary act by saying, that, as no woman + could be found to nurse the child, it must have died a worse death than + that to which he put it.--COLLINS' _Account of the Colony of New South + Wales_, p. 393. + +_The Spitting Tribe._--This was the name given by Major Mitchell to one +of the most troublesome and ferocious of the native tribes, the place of +whose habitation is on the lonely banks of the Darling, in the interior +of Eastern Australia. When these disagreeable people were first met +with, the man who was taking care of the sheep belonging to the +exploring party held out a green bough; but the savage, who had before +pointed a spear at the Englishman, replied to his emblem of peace by +taking a bough, spitting upon it, and then thrusting it into the fire. +Upon Major Mitchell hastening to the spot, similar expressions of ill +will were manifested, evidently with the purpose of telling the +strangers that they must go back. The native and a boy who was with him +then threw up dust at their enemies, in a clever way, _with their toes_. +Their feelings of hostility and defiance were too plainly expressed to +be mistaken. Every effort at conciliation was useless, until, at length, +the enraged native of the Bush retired slowly along the river bank, +singing a war-song as he went, and showing by his actions that he was +going for his tribe. This happened in the morning; and during the +afternoon of the same day, a party of the tribe made their appearance, +holding out boughs indeed, but with a very different ceremonial from +what had hitherto been observed.[77] Their violent and expressive +gestures evidently were intended to drive back the intruders; and +as these last could not but feel that they were not upon their own +ground, they used every endeavour to conciliate the opposing party. The +blacksmith belonging to the expedition was at work with his bellows and +anvil near the river bank, and his labours seemed to awaken very much +the curiosity of the natives, who, however, still refused to sit down, +and continued to wave their branches in the faces of the white people, +and to spit at them repeatedly, all which conduct was patiently endured +in the hope of establishing afterwards a more agreeable and friendly +intercourse. As a peace-offering, a tomahawk was presented to the +leader, who, guessing immediately its use, turned round to a log, and +chopped it. Two other stout fellows then rudely demanded the British +officer's pistols from his belt, whereupon he drew one, and, curious to +see the effect, fired it at a tree. Immediately, as though they had +previously suspected the intruders to be evil demons, and had at length +a clear proof of it, they repeated their actions of defiance with +tenfold fury, accompanying these with demoniac looks, hideous shouts, +and a war-song,--crouching, jumping, spitting, springing with the spear, +and throwing dust at them, as they slowly retired. In short, their +hideous crouching postures, measured gestures, and low jumps, to the +tune of a wild song, with the fiendish glare of their countenances, at +times all black, but now all eyes and teeth, seemed a fitter spectacle +for Pandemonium than for the light of the bounteous sun. Thus they +retired, dancing in a circle, and leaving the strangers in expectation +of their return, and perhaps an attack in the morning. Whatever was the +cause of their hostility, any further attempt to quiet them appeared out +of the question, and it was too likely that ere long the English party +would be forced to prove their superiority by arms.[78] + + [77] The custom of holding out green boughs, which is usually a sign of + friendship among the Australians and other savage tribes, formed part of + the ceremony of suppliants among the ancient Greeks. See Potter's + Antiquities of Greece, b. ii. c. 5. + + [78] The difference in disposition between tribes not very remote from + each other was often striking. Only three days' journey behind, the + travellers had left natives as kind and civil as any whom they had seen, + and hitherto all the people on the Darling had met them with the branch + of peace. + +These troublesome visitors did not, however, make their appearance again +before the following afternoon, when their curiosity and desire to get +more presents brought them forth from their hiding-places in the woods. +By degrees, they seemed to gain a little more confidence; but signs of +defiance were still made; and as their fears diminished, their love of +pilfering appeared to increase. The blacksmith was at work this day +also; and they moved towards him, commencing at the same time a kind of +chant, and slowly waving their green boughs. There was evidently some +superstition in the ceremony, and one of the parties concerned in it +was a _coradje_, or priest, who occasionally turned his back upon the +Europeans, and touched his eye-brows, nose, and breast; then pointing +his arm to the sky, and with his hand afterwards laid upon his breast, +pouring forth a most solemn chant. The blacksmith, with whose honest +occupation all this formed a strange contrast, had been ordered not +to laugh nor stop working, which orders he obeyed as long as it was +practicable. But, gradually, the black visitors gathered round the +forge, and began to pilfer whatever they could lay hand or foot upon, +until the persecuted smith could no longer proceed with his work. The +best part of this scene was, that they did not mind being observed by +any one, except the blacksmith, supposing that they were robbing him +only. His patience, however, being severely tried, he was at last +tempted to give one of them a push, when a scene of chanting, spitting, +and throwing dust commenced on the part of the thief, who was a stout +fellow and carried a spear, which he seemed inclined to use. One or two +articles were lost in spite of all efforts, but the explorers were glad +to feel at peace with these people upon any terms, and both parties +separated that night in a tolerably civil way. + +On the following day, the travellers began to move onwards, but they did +not leave behind (as they had hoped) their troublesome neighbours. The +natives rushed forth from the woods in greater numbers than ever, _being +painted white_, and many of them carrying spears, and shouting. A horse +belonging to one of the party was so startled at this, that he galloped +away, and was with some little difficulty recovered. The threats and +defiance of the savages were again repeated; and when the party of +explorers began to proceed onwards, the whole of the woods appeared to +be in flames. Various annoyances and hindrances were experienced from +these disagreeable inhabitants of the Bush, during the next ten or +twelve days; after which an event happened, which, though sad and +unfortunate in itself, was yet calculated to fill the minds of these +impudent savages with some respect and awe for the power of the +Europeans. Joseph Jones,--the man who attended the flock of sheep, which +accompanied Major Mitchell's party in their wanderings in the interior +of New Holland,--had been sent for some water; and the tea-kettle he +carried with him was the sole cause of the quarrel that ensued. As he +was getting up the river bank with the water, another man being +stationed (as usual) at the top to protect him with his pistol, one of +the natives, with others in his company, met him half way up, and with +a smile took hold of the pot which he was carrying, together with the +kettle. This was done under pretence of helping Jones, but, on reaching +the top of the bank, the savage, in the same jocose way, held it fast, +until a woman said something to him; and then, letting the pot go, he +seized the kettle with his left hand, and at the same time struck Jones +senseless to the ground by a violent blow on the forehead, inflicted +with a club which he held in his right. On seeing this the other man, +who was stationed by way of protection, fired, and wounded the savage, +who swam across the river, and made off as well as he could; but the +rest of the tribe were now advancing. The Englishman fired twice at +them, and the second time, unfortunately, he shot the woman already +mentioned, who, with her child fastened to her back, slid down the bank, +and lay, apparently dying, in the water. At this moment three other +Englishmen arrived, who had been sent off from the camp when the noise +of fire-arms was heard, and one man among the natives was shot in the +breast, but little more mischief was done, for the tribe speedily +dispersed, having dragged away the dead body of the woman; while Joseph +Jones returned, wounded and bleeding, to the camp of the explorers. When +night arrived, "a death-like silence," says Major Mitchell, "prevailed +along the banks of the river; no far-heard voices of natives at their +fires broke, as before, the stillness of the night, while a painful +sympathy for the child bereft of its parent, and anticipations of the +probable consequences to us, cast a melancholy gloom over the scene. The +waning moon at length arose, and I was anxiously occupied with the +observations, which were most important at this point of my journey, +when a mournful song, strongly expressive of the wailing of women, came +from beyond the Darling, on the fitful breeze which still blew from the +north-west." The feelings of a brave but humane British officer, +surrounded by difficulties, with very few except convicts under his +command, annoyed by natives, yet anxious not to injure them, and just +about to turn back from the journey of discovery which he had hitherto +successfully pursued; the feelings of Major Mitchell under the +circumstances so touchingly described by him can scarcely be imagined. +The thoughts of a veteran who had served his country during many long +years of war and strife, must have wandered back to past scenes and +by-gone days, while he stood in that solitary wilderness; and when the +wild shrill cry of savage grief came floating upon his ears, he must +have felt most deeply those strange sensations which we experience + + "When, musing o'er companions gone, + We doubly feel ourselves alone." + +These savages of the Darling have the power of doing with their toes +many things most surprising to men who wear shoes, and have never been +accustomed from infancy to climb trees after the Australian fashion. +With their toes they gather the fresh-water muscles from the muddy +bottoms of rivers or lakes, and these are one of their principal +articles of food in the neighbourhood of the Darling. In the attempts of +the Spitting Tribe to steal from the English party, their feet were much +employed, and they would tread softly on any article, seize it with the +toes, pass it up the back, or between the arm and side, and so conceal +it in the arm-pit, or between the beard and throat. The hoary old priest +of the Spitting Tribe, while intent upon tricks of this kind, chanted +an extraordinary hymn to some deity or devil; the act was evidently +superstitious and connected with no good principle. Arrangements were +probably being made, and some of these strange ceremonies observed by +them, for the purpose of destroying the strangers, _intruders_ they +might be called. "And no man," observes Major Mitchell, "can witness the +quickness and intelligence of the aborigines, as displayed in their +instant comprehension of our numerous appliances, without feelings of +sympathy. They cannot be so obtuse, as not to anticipate in the advance +of such a powerful race as ours, the extirpation of their own, in a +country which barely affords to them the means of subsistence." Yet, +melancholy though the reflection may appear, it is but too true, that +scarcely any hope of improving and civilizing these barbarous people can +be at present reasonably indulged. What a picture does the same humane +traveller already quoted draw of the tribes about the lower part of the +Darling, of whose character the Spitting Tribe may serve for a specimen. +"It seldom happened," he says, "that I was particularly engaged with a +map, a drawing, or a calculation, but I was interrupted by them or +respecting them. Our gifts seemed only to awaken on their part a desire +to destroy us, and to take all we had. While sitting in the dust with +them, according to their custom, often have they examined my cap, +evidently with no other view than to ascertain whether it would +resist the blow of a _waddy_, or short stick. Then they would feel the +thickness of my dress, and whisper together, their eyes occasionally +glancing at their spears and clubs. The expression of their countenances +was sometimes so hideous, that, after such interviews, I have found +comfort in contemplating the honest faces of the horses and sheep; and +even in the scowl of 'the patient ox,' I have imagined an expression of +dignity, when he may have pricked up his ears, and turned his horns +towards these wild specimens of the 'lords of the creation.' Travellers +in Australian deserts will find that such savages cannot remain at rest +when near, but are ever anxious to strip them by all means in their +power of every thing. It was not until we proceeded as conquerors, that +we knew any thing like tranquillity on the Darling; and I am now of +opinion, that to discourage at once the approach of such natives, would +tend more to the safety of an exploring party than presenting them with +gifts." + +_Mulligo's Death._--The following curious account of the death of a +certain native of Western Australia is given by Captain Grey. Mulligo, +for such was the name of the unfortunate man, had severely hurt his +spine by a fall from a tree, and having lost the use of his lower limbs, +he gradually wasted away, until, in about two months' time, he became a +perfect skeleton, and was evidently dying. Soon after day-break, Captain +Grey came to the hut of Mulligo, and found him alive indeed, but +breathing so slightly that it was scarcely to be perceived. His head +rested on his aged mother's knees, who leaned over him in tears, while +other women were seated around, their heads all verging to a common +centre, over the wasted frame of the dying man; they were crying +bitterly, and scratching their cheeks, foreheads, and noses, with +their nails, until the blood trickled slowly from the wounds. The men, +meanwhile, were preparing their spears for the fight, which was expected +to take place respecting the two wives of Mulligo, the title of his heir +being disputed. Other native females soon began to arrive in small +parties, each one carrying her long stick in her hand, and each party +marching slowly after the eldest woman belonging to it. When they came +within about thirty or forty yards of the hut of the dying man, they +raised the most piteous cries, and hurrying their pace, moved rapidly to +the place where the other women were seated, recalling to the mind of +one acquainted with the Bible, that custom alluded to by Jeremiah (chap. +ix. 17, 18). As they came up to the bark hut, many of them struck it +violently with their sticks, producing by the blow a dull hollow sound, +and then, after joining the assembled circle, chanting mournfully the +usual songs on these occasions. Then, suddenly, one of the women in a +frenzy would start up, and standing in front of the hut, while she waved +her stick violently in the air, would chant forth curses against the +sorcerers, who, as she believed, had been the cause of Mulligo's +sufferings. It was strange to watch the effect of these wild chants upon +the savage countenances of the men; one while they sat in mournful +silence; again they grasped firmly and quivered their spears; and by and +by a general "Ee-Ee," pronounced in their throat, with the lips closed, +burst forth in token of approbation at some affecting part of the +speech. + +Time wore on; each withered beldame by turns addressed the party, +while the poor creature, whose dying moments were thus disturbed, was +gradually sinking. At last he ceased to live, and at that moment an old +woman started up, and with grief and rage, poured forth her curses upon +the _Boyl-yas_, and tore the hut in which Mulligo had been lying to +pieces, saying, "This is now no good." Her proceedings excited the +feelings of the men, and at last Moon-dee, the most violent of them, was +on the point of spearing one of the wives of the deceased, but he was +withheld by some of the women. The cause of Moon-dee's anger was +afterwards thus explained. About two or three months before this time, +a cloak belonging to Mulligo's brother had been stolen, and, it was +supposed, given to one of the sorcerers, who gained thereby some +mysterious power over either of the two brothers, which he had exercised +on Mulligo, when he caused him to fall and injure his back. Another +sorcerer was called in, who applied fire to the injured part, but +without any success; and since the poor fellow was daily wasting away, +it was imagined that the unfriendly sorcerers came every night to feast +upon the invalid during his hours of sleep. But Moon-dee chose to fancy +that if his wife had been more watchful, the _Boyl-yas_ might have been +detected, and therefore he intended to spear her in the leg, in order to +punish her supposed neglect. This outrage was, however, prevented; and +the two trembling partners of the deceased, neither of whom was above +fifteen years old, fled into Perth, to find among Europeans a refuge +from the violence of their own countrymen. After vowing vengeance +against a great many of the sorcerers, though they had no proof whatever +against any of these in particular, the men followed the widows to +Perth, to see that no one stole them away; and a few only were left with +the women to superintend the funeral. + +In about an hour's time, the body was removed to a distance of nearly +half a mile from the spot where the death had taken place, and the women +were still leaning over it, uttering the words, _yang, yang, yang_, and +occasionally chanting a few sentences. The grave was then dug, as usual, +due east and west, with no better instruments than sticks and hands; but +afterwards, when many Europeans had assembled at the spot, to the great +annoyance of the natives, these last occasionally employed a spade, +although, from the extreme narrowness of the grave, it was no easy +matter to make use of this implement. During the digging an insect had +been thrown up, whose motions were watched with the deepest interest, +and since the animal crawled off in the direction of Guildford, this was +thought an additional proof of the guilt of the sorcerers of that place, +who had before been suspected, because the cloak had been stolen by a +man living near this settlement. + +When the grave was completed, they set fire to some dried leaves and +twigs which they threw in, and old Weeban, the friendly sorcerer, knelt +at the foot of the grave, with his back to the east, and his head bowed +down to the earth in a posture of the deepest attention; his office +being a very important one, namely, to discover in what direction the +hostile _Boyl-yas_ would take their flight, when drawn out of the earth +by the heat. The fire roared for some time in the grave; and the hollow +sound of the flames arising from the narrow opening evidently aroused +the superstitious fears of the bystanders, until the old conjuror +signified by his actions that the authors of the mischief were gone off +in the direction of Guildford. The relatives of the deceased appeared +satisfied at knowing upon whom to avenge the foul witchcraft, and at +being assured of the cause of their friend's death. The body of Mulligo +was then taken from the females, his mother having, for the last time, +fervently kissed its cold lips; and the corpse was lowered into the +grave, and placed upon a bed of leaves, which had been laid there +directly the fire was extinguished; the face being, according to custom, +turned towards the east. The women continued their mournful songs, and +the grave was filled up with small green boughs and earth, until the +tomb was completed, presenting the appearance, owing to the heaps placed +at the head and foot, of three graves nearly alike in size and form, +lying in a due east and west direction. On the same evening, the old +mother was found sitting at the place where her son's remains were +interred, and crying bitterly. She had caught the _Boyl-yas_, she said, +in the very act of sitting round Mulligo's grave, for the purpose of +preying upon his miserable body, and she pointed out their tracks at the +spot from which they sprung into the air, in the direction of Guildford, +but European eyes were not keen enough to detect these mysterious traces +of mischief. + +_The Corrobory._--The natives have a dance, called corrobory, of a very +original character, and almost universally prevalent on the shores of +Australia. The dance always takes place at night; and not only in this +respect, but likewise in the preparation and excitement occasioned by +it, a resemblance may be traced between the _corrobory_ and the dances +of more civilized nations. The curious evolutions and figures performed +in these assemblies of savages, are regulated by time beaten upon +stretched skins or drums,--the only musical instrument that is commonly +seen among them; and while the light of blazing boughs is thrown upon +the scene of festivity, the rude music is accompanied by a song. +Darkness seems essential to the effect of the whole; and the painted +figures coming forward from the obscurity of the background, while the +singers and beaters of time are invisible, have a highly theatrical +effect. Each dance appears most tastefully progressive; the movement +being first slow, and introduced by two persons, displaying graceful +motions, both of arms and legs; others, one by one, join in, each +gradually warming into the truly savage attitude of the "_corrobory_" +jump; the legs then stride to the utmost, the head is turned over one +shoulder, the eyes glare, and are fixed with savage energy all in one +direction; the arms also are raised, and inclined towards the head, the +hands usually grasping some warlike weapons. The jump now keeps time +with each beat; the dancers at every movement taking six inches to one +side, all being in a connected line, led by the first, which line, +however, is sometimes _doubled_ or _tripled_, according to numbers; and +thus great effect is added; for when the front line jumps to the left, +the second jumps to the right; the third to the left again, and so on, +until the action gains due intensity, when all suddenly stop at the same +moment. The excitement which this dance produces in the savage is very +remarkable. However listless the individual may be, lying perhaps, as +usual, half asleep, set him to this, and he is fired with sudden energy, +every nerve is strung to such a degree, that he is hardly to be known as +the same person, while the _corrobory_ continues. + +_Peerat and his Wives._--A garden belonging to a soldier at King +George's Sound had been robbed by the natives of nearly a hundred weight +of potatoes. This was the first act of theft that had been committed +during the five months of Governor Grey's residence there, although +there had often been as many as two hundred natives in the settlement, +who had no means of subsistence beyond the natural productions of the +country, and what little they derived from being occasionally employed +by the colonists. And even in this theft of the potatoes, they had +purposely left the large roots, and had taken away only the smaller +ones, in the hope that by so doing they would lessen the crime. However, +the governor resolved to act promptly and vigorously upon this first +offence, and to avoid the common fault of Europeans, in confounding the +guilty and the innocent together. By the help of an intelligent native, +the tracks of three persons were found in the garden that had been +robbed, and the footsteps were pronounced to be those of Peerat's two +wives, and his son Dal-bean. These had all walked off into the Bush, +meaning, probably, to avoid suspicion, and to wait till the affair had +passed quietly over. The governor determined to pursue them, but this +required great secrecy, for Australians are no easy creatures to catch +hold of; and it was not meant to adopt the popular system of shooting +them when they ran away. Accompanied by four natives only, the governor +pressed forward, following Peerat's tracks for about nine miles in a +direction where the Bush had been set on fire by the natives, until he +met with some of these, who were solemnly informed of the theft and of +the names of the criminals, whom he had come to take prisoners; if these +were given up, it was promised that they should undergo only the regular +punishment for petty robbery; otherwise, the usual allowance of flour, +which was issued to all the natives every two months, was to be stopped; +and it was threatened that a party of soldiers should be brought out to +fire upon Peerat and his party wherever they might be found. These +threats, uttered in a very decided tone, gave occasion to a consultation +among the natives, by whom it was unanimously agreed:-- + +Imprimis. That stealing potatoes was a very heinous offence, more +particularly in women. + +Secondly. That women were notorious thieves, and altogether worse +characters than men. + +Thirdly. That beating women was an every day occurrence. + +Fourthly. That losing flour was a great bore; and, + +Fifthly. Upon these considerations, Peerat, his wives, and son, were to +be given up. + +These resolutions having been passed, the whole assembly came to the +governor to inquire whether he told the truth, when he said that he was +not personally angry with Peerat's family, and that they should not be +killed; and being satisfied upon this point, they all proceeded together +in search of the offending parties. + +Peerat waited quietly to receive them, indeed, he was not aware of the +cause of his being honoured by a visit from the governor; when, however, +he heard of this, he abused his wives, and promised to thrash them +soundly, but absolutely refused to give either them or his son up as +prisoners. The first man who might lay a finger upon him was threatened +with a spear through the heart, and the governor was obliged to proclaim +the sacredness of his own person, and to cock both barrels of his gun, +with an assurance that he would shoot poor Peerat in case of resistance. +All savage strife is noisy in the extreme; even the strife of +_civilized_ men in their _public meetings_ and _vestries_ is often +tolerably boisterous,--and a great deal of running and leaping about, +and quivering of spears accompanies the former kind of altercation. +While things were in this confusion the governor went alone to Peerat's +fire, and seized his little boy, Dal-bean, but could see nothing of the +wives, who were, most likely, busy digging roots for the family. The boy +was told that if he moved he would be shot, a threat which kept him very +quiet; but Peerat soon found out what had happened, and came running +after them. These natives are always greatly attached to their children, +and strong proofs of this were now given by the father, who first +declared that the boy had been with him, and that it was the mother only +that had stolen, producing about a dozen witnesses to prove this to be +the truth. However, the reply to this was by asking the question, How +came the child's footmarks in the garden? It was answered that Peerat's +second wife had, indeed, been there, and that she was just the size of +the boy; but that plea would not hold good, since her footsteps had been +observed likewise. + +The father now urged the tender years of the lad, and that he was under +the influence of his mother; and then fairly wept upon his child's neck, +who was calling upon his parent and the other natives by name to save +him. The governor's own feelings and those of his followers urged him +to let the little fellow go, but he wisely resolved to act with +determination, and held fast by the prisoner. Spears were now given to +Peerat--a sign of his quarrel being espoused by those who gave them, and +that he was expected to use them; and, matters having taken a serious +turn, the governor hastened away with his prisoner and two of his native +companions, but not before he had explained to the others the advantage +of an impartial inquiry and proper punishment of offenders, in +preference to their being exposed to the indiscriminating fire of +Europeans. Peerat was then threatened with a shot if he did not take +himself off, and bring his wives into the settlement to be punished; and +the matter ended, for the present, in the lodgment of the youthful +Dal-bean safe in the British gaol. In a day or two afterwards, during +which no tidings had been heard of Peerat and his wives, the little +Dal-bean made an attempt to break out of his place of confinement, by +taking up a loose stone from the floor, with which he had battered a +hole in the door. This, however, he stoutly denied, asserting that, +whilst he was asleep, sorcerers from the north, having a spite against +him, had entered through some air-holes in the wall and done this; and, +on his persisting in the story, he was told that, in future, he would +be well whipped for neglect, if he did not give the alarm when these +strange visitors came. Meanwhile, the governor was half inclined to whip +him for telling a story, but he satisfied himself with giving him a +lecture upon the crime of lying, to which the cunning little rogue +replied, by arguing upon the general usefulness and prevalence of that +vice in the world, entirely setting aside its evil nature and +sinfulness. + +The very same day Peerat made his appearance with a very pitiful +tale. He had two wives, and to govern them both was no easy task, but, +although they had been soundly beaten, they could not be induced to come +into the settlement, until he had threatened to spear them. This threat +had, at last, succeeded, and in recompense for his sufferings from the +loss of his son, and from the obstinacy and bad temper of his wives, he +begged to be allowed to beat the latter himself. They were ordered to +the spot where the robbery was committed, and there the native women +soon appeared, dreadfully cut and mangled from the beating they had +already received. One was a nice looking girl, about fourteen, but an +incorrigible thief. Peerat was going to hit her a tremendous blow upon +the head, which must have laid it open. She stood with her back to her +husband, trembling and crying bitterly. The governor caught Peerat's +arm, picked up a little switch from the ground, and told him to beat her +on the shoulders with that, instead of with his _meero_. Two slight +blows, or rather taps, were given her, in order to know where it was +that the governor meant her to be struck, but the poor girl cried so +bitterly from fear, that she was pardoned, and so likewise was the other +woman, who had already been severely beaten, and had at that moment a +little child sitting upon her shoulder, and crying piteously at the +sight of its mother's tears. Before the crowd dispersed a lecture was +given them, and they were warned not to presume upon the governor's +clemency in the present instance. + +In the afternoon, the governor, attended by Peerat, his wives, and a +crowd of natives, walked up to the gaol to release little Dal-bean. The +father and the governor alone entered the prison, and when the gaoler +was told to hand Peerat the whip, the latter took it, and said, "Yes, +yes, I will strike him; let not another beat him." The door of the cell +was then opened, and the little boy was led out: his father ran up to +him, caught him in his arms, and began kissing him; having done this, he +told him he was going to beat him. The little fellow did not answer a +word, but standing as firm and erect as possible, presented his back +to him. The father gave him one blow, and it was ended--justice was +satisfied. The criminals had surrendered to salutary laws, of which they +had but a vague and undefined knowledge; it was their first offence; the +nature of the laws they had broken was explained to them; they were +warned to be careful in their future conduct, and they were set free. +Little Dal-bean, directly they got outside the gaol, walked up to the +governor, took his hand, and squeezed it; then turning to his mother, +he just looked at her; she cried, but did not dare to kiss him, or to +show any other mark of emotion. The whole party then moved off, after +showering many thanks upon the governor, and saying, "What a good +fellow, what a good fellow," or, to give a literal translation, "one +good man, one good man!" + +_Woga's Captivity._--In Caledon Bay, upon the northern coast of New +Holland, the natives had behaved very well to the party under Captain +Flinders, which had landed on their shores, until one of those who had +been most kindly treated ran away with an axe, and from the thickness of +the forest could not be overtaken. It was indeed here, as in other parts +of Australia, no easy matter to hinder the people from stealing whatever +came within their reach; and in order to check this, two men were seized +by command of Captain Flinders, and after a little time one of these was +set free, upon his promising by signs to restore the axe, and being +made to understand that the other would be kept as a pledge of this +engagement being fulfilled. Much confusion was noticed among the +natives, and preparations were made for firing upon them in case of +necessity, but after one of the prisoners had been released, they +appeared to have less anxiety, and still no axe was forthcoming. The +prisoner, a youth of about fourteen, whose name was Woga, was taken in a +boat to a place much frequented by the savages, many of whom were seen +behind the bushes, endeavouring to entice a native who accompanied +the expedition on shore, no doubt intending to seize him by way of +retaliation. The restoration of the axe was demanded, and the prisoner +seemed to use all his powers to enforce it, but the constant answer was +that the thief, Ye-han-ge-ree, had been beaten and was gone away; and +since no axe was likely to be brought, Woga was carried on board the +ship, after a great deal of crying, entreating, threatening, and +struggling on his part. He there ate heartily, laughed, sometimes cried, +and noticed every thing; frequently expressing admiration at what he +saw, and especially at the sheep, hogs, and cats. The next morning he +was taken ashore, and attempted to make a spring out of the boat, so +that it was needful to bind him, notwithstanding his struggles; but +after a while he became quiet, and enjoyed his meal of rice and fish, +although he was made fast to a tree. A sort of attack was then made by +the other natives upon a party of gentlemen who had landed to botanize, +and who had been almost surrounded by the savages; but, however, a +couple of shots dispersed their enemies, and two of the Australians were +supposed to have been wounded. Since the prisoner was thus a cause of +mischief to his fellow-countrymen, and his being carried off would be an +act of injustice, as well as injurious to future visitors of that coast, +at length Captain Flinders, who would otherwise willingly have taken +Woga with him, resolved to release him. On that day, the third of his +captivity, Woga appeared to be a little melancholy in his bondage, but +upon the whole had not fared amiss, having been eating the greater part +of the morning and afternoon. He begged hard to be released; promising, +with tears in his eyes, to bring back the axe; and after having received +some clothing and presents he was suffered to depart. As far as two +hundred yards he walked away leisurely; but then, looking first behind +him, took to his heels with all his might, leaving his British friends +very reasonably doubtful of the fulfilment of his pathetic promises! + +_Bal-loo-der-ry and the Convicts._--In 1791, when the town of Paramatta, +about fifteen miles from Sydney, was first settled, the natives soon +began to bring in their fish and barter it for bread or salted meat; and +this proving a great convenience to the settlers, the traffic was very +much encouraged by them. There were, however, some among the convicts so +unthinking or so depraved, as wantonly to destroy a canoe belonging to a +fine young man, a native, who had left it at a little distance from the +settlement, as he thought, out of the way of observation, while he went +with some fish he had to sell. His rage at finding his canoe destroyed +was very great: he threatened to take his revenge, and in his own way, +upon all white people. Three of the offenders, however, having been seen +and described, were taken and punished, and so were the remainder of +them not very long afterwards. The instant effect of this outrage +was, that the natives discontinued the bringing up of fish; and +Bal-loo-der-ry, whose canoe had been destroyed, although he had been +taught to believe[79] that one of the six convicts had been hanged for +the offence, meeting a few days afterwards with an European who had +strayed to some distance from Paramatta, he wounded him in two places +with a spear. This act of Bal-loo-der-ry was followed by the governor's +strictly forbidding him to appear again in any of the settlements; and +the other natives, his friends, being alarmed, Paramatta was seldom +visited by any of them, and all commerce with them was (for the time) +at an end. However, in about two months afterwards, before the person +wounded by him had recovered, Bal-loo-der-ry ventured into the town with +some of his friends, and one or two armed parties were sent to seize +him. A spear having been thrown, it was said, by him, two muskets were +fired, by which one of his companions was wounded in the leg, but +Bal-loo-der-ry was not taken. On the following day it was ordered that +he was to be seized whenever an opportunity should offer, and that any +native attempting to throw a spear in his defence, (since they well knew +why he was denounced,) was, if possible, to be prevented from escaping. +Those who knew this savage regretted that it had been necessary to treat +him thus harshly, for among his countrymen they had never seen a finer +young man. We cannot finish this melancholy history with a more true +reflection than that of Lieutenant Collins: "How much greater claim to +the appellation of _savages_ had the wretches (the convicts) who were +the cause of this, than the natives who were termed so!" + + [79] Such are the words of Lieutenant Collins, from whose account of New + South Wales the narrative is taken. When will Christians learn, in their + intercourse with heathens and savages, to abstain from such falsehood + and deceitful dealing? + +_Native Hospitality and Philosophy._--After a most distressing journey +in Western Australia, Captain Grey and his party fell in with a number +of natives, at no great distance from the settlement of Perth. So great +had been the trials of the explorers that a disinclination to move +pervaded the whole party, and their courageous leader had felt much the +same desire to sink into the sleep of death, that one feels to take a +second slumber in the morning after great fatigue. However they had +aroused themselves, and had managed to walk about eight miles at the +slow rate of a mile and a quarter an hour, when they came suddenly upon +the tracks of the natives. Kaiber, their guide, announced that they were +wild natives; and, after a second survey, he declared that they had +"great bush fury" on them, _i.e._ were subject to wild untutored rage. +It was proposed, however, to fire a gun as a signal, for since the +distance from Perth was thought to be very trifling, it was hoped that +these natives would understand its meaning. Kaiber threatened to run +away, but the coward was, in fact, afraid to move five yards from the +party, so, sitting down on his haunches under cover, he kept muttering +to himself various terms of Australian scorn,--"The swan--the +big-head--the stone forehead!"--while the Captain advanced towards the +strangers, who no sooner heard the gun, and saw him approaching, than +they came running to him. Presently, Kaiber accosted one of them by +name, and at the sound of this name, Imbat, the strongest feeling was +awakened; it was well known to the travellers, and they knew that their +lives were safe, and the end of their journey at hand. Captain Grey was +in good favour with most of the natives of those parts, to whom he had +frequently made presents of _flour_, and hence his common appellation +among them was "Wokeley brudder," or Oakley's brother, that being the +name of a _baker_ residing in Perth. + +The women were soon called up, bark-baskets of frogs opened for the +exhausted travellers, _by-yu_ nuts roasted, and, for a special delicacy, +the Captain obtained a small fresh-water tortoise. He was bidden to +sleep while Imbat cooked, and though the delay which the willing +native's skill in cookery occasioned was a little trying to the +patience of hungry men, yet it was not very long before they were +all regaling on the welcome feast. In reply to the questions of the +Englishmen, the natives all told them that they would see Perth the next +morning, "while the sun was still small;" and upon finding that there +was a kangaroo hunter with a hut, and a supply of provisions only seven +miles off, Imbat and the Captain went thither together, to prepare for +the comfortable reception of the rest of the party. However, they found +the hut deserted, its owner having returned to Perth. A fire was +lighted, notwithstanding, and the Englishman laid down to rest his weary +limbs, while the Australian again began to cook, and in his chattering +mood to philosophize also. "What for do you, who have plenty to eat, and +much money, walk so far away in the Bush?" was his first inquiry. The +Captain, fatigued and rather out of humour, made no reply. "You are +thin," continued the philosopher, "your shanks are long, your belly is +small,--you had plenty to eat at home, why did you not stop there?" +"Imbat, you comprehend nothing,--you know nothing," was the traveller's +brief reply. "I know nothing!" answered the wise man of the woods, "I +know how to keep myself fat; the young women look at me and say, Imbat +is very handsome, he is fat;--they will look at you and say, He not +good,--long legs;--what do you know? where is your fat? what for do you +know so much, if you can't keep fat? I know how to stay at home, and not +walk too far in the Bush: where is your fat?" "You know how to talk, +long tongue," answered the Captain;--"And I know how to make you fat!" +rejoined Imbat, forgetting his anger, and bursting into a roar of +laughter, as he began stuffing his guest with frogs, _by-yu_ nuts, &c. +The rest of the party arrived just before nightfall, and, searching the +hut, they found a paper of tea, and an old tin pot, in which they +prepared the welcome beverage, after which, having had a good supper, +they all laid down to sleep; and in the silence of the night, fervent +thanks went up from that lonely hut in the wilderness to the Maker of +all things, whose merciful guidance had again brought them so near "the +haven where they would be." + +_The Widow and her Child._--During the journey of Major Mitchell's +party, exploring the course of the river Lachlan down to its junction +with the Murray, they had to cross several branches of the former +stream, which gave them some trouble from the steepness of their banks, +until they at length reached the main channel of the Lachlan, which +stream, together with all its tributaries, was at that time perfectly +dry. The welcome news was then heard that some ponds of water were near, +but at the same time it was reported that natives were there; so the +party approached cautiously, and having found two pools encamped beside +them. The black people had all fled, except one child, about seven or +eight years old, quite blind, who sat near a fire, and a poor little +girl still younger, who, notwithstanding the strange appearance of the +new visitors, and the terror exhibited in the flight of her own people, +still lingered about the bushes, and at length took her seat beside the +blind boy. A large supply of the _balyan_ root lay near them, and a dog +so lean that he was scarcely able to stand, drew his feeble body close +up beside the two children, as though desirous of defending them. +Afterwards an old man came up to the fire, and he directed the +travellers to some of the water-holes in their proposed route, but could +not be prevailed upon to become their guide. However, he persuaded a +widow, with the little girl just mentioned, who might be about four +years old, to accompany the party and act as guide. + +The strangers soon began to learn the value of their new guide, +Turàndurey; for within a fortnight they met with a number of the +natives, approaching in a silent and submissive manner, each having a +green bough twined round his waist or in his hand; and a parley was +opened with them by means of the widow, as she was sitting on the +opposite bank of a river to that on which they made their appearance. +Some form or ceremony, it seems, always prevents the male natives, +when strangers to each other, from speaking at first sight; no such +restraint, however, is placed upon their wives or _gins_, as they are +called. These, with the privilege of their sex, are ever ready to speak; +and the strangers as readily replied to Turàndurey; so conversation was +thus held across the river. This female guide, who had before scarcely +ventured to look up, now stood boldly forward to address the strange +tribe; and when her countenance was lighted up, displaying fine teeth, +and great earnestness of manner, it was gratifying to the travellers +to see what spirit their guide possessed. Being invited to swim over +the stream, the children of the woods complied but on condition that +the wild animals (the sheep and horses) should be driven away,--a +stipulation at which the widow and other natives in the British party +laughed heartily; nor was their laughter stopped when they watched the +awkward attempts of these heroes to show off before the females, while +they were unable entirely to conceal their fears of the silly sheep! + +It was no very long time afterwards that an unfortunate accident +happened to the little native child, Ballandella, who fell from a cart, +and one of the wheels passing over, broke her thigh. On riding up to the +spot, Major Mitchell found the widow, her mother, in great distress, +lying in the dust, with her head under the limb of her unfortunate +child. The doctor was ordered to set it immediately; but, from its being +broken very near the socket, it was found difficult to bandage the limb +so as to keep the bone in its place. Every possible care was taken of +the child, and she bore the pain with admirable patience, though only +four years old; while she gave a curious proof of her good sense at so +early an age, by calling for "Majy" (the Major), as soon as she had met +with the accident. Little Ballandella did very well, and was, after +about two months' time, fast recovering from her misfortune, when the +widow, having been travelling all that time, and being now far distant +from her own country, felt inclined to return; and was prepared to make +nothing of swimming the broad waters of the Murray, the largest known +river in New Holland, pushing the child before her floating upon a piece +of bark, nor of any other difficulties which might oppose her in her +journey homewards. No objections were offered to the woman's departure, +who appeared extremely attached to her daughter, and half afraid of +being deprived of her. Indeed, it was a tempting opportunity of trying +an experiment of the effect of education upon one of that race; for the +little savage, who at first would prefer a snake or lizard to a piece of +bread, had become so far civilised at length, as to prefer bread; and it +began to cry bitterly on leaving its European friends. However, its +absence from them was not to be a long one; for, on the third day, +the widow returned again, carrying her child on her back, after the +Australian fashion. She had seen, she stated, another tribe on the +opposite side of the river, and they had inquired very angrily, who made +the fires upon her side; after which, receiving no reply, (for she was +afraid and had hid herself,) they danced a _corrobory_ in a furious +style, during which she and the child crept away, and had passed two +nights without fire and in the rain.[80] The mother and her daughter +received a kindly welcome, and were as well treated as before, +notwithstanding the petty jealousy of some other natives, who, it was +thought, had persuaded Turàndurey to go, hoping thus to get a greater +share of food for themselves. After this, the widow and Ballandella +continued with the exploring party during almost the whole of the +remainder of their expedition, making themselves serviceable in various +ways. Sometimes they would give notice of the approach of the Major, +upon his return from an excursion, long before he had reached the camp; +their quick ears seemed sensible of the sound of horses' feet at an +astonishing distance, for so only could it be accounted for that the +widow and her infant daughter, seated at the fire, were always the first +to give notice of the Major's approach. Sometimes Turàndurey would +employ herself in a less serious, though not less useful manner; for on +such exploring expeditions the amusement of the men is a matter of the +first importance. She would exercise her skill in mimicry or imitation, +powers which the natives of New Holland possess to an amazing degree; +and she thus occasionally amused the men by acting the part of their +leader, taking angles, drawing from nature, and copying other +occupations in which Major Mitchell was frequently engaged. + + [80] This generally appears to be rather a suspicious act;--to dance + a _corrobory_ is "a proposal these savage tribes often make, and + which the traveller who knows them well will think it better to + discourage."--MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 269. + +On the return of the expedition, it was found needful, from a scarcity +of provisions, to divide into two parties, one of which was to proceed, +under the leader, by forced marches home to Sydney, while the other was +to remain behind until necessary supplies should be forwarded. The +widow was among the party to be left; but on the morning of separation +she was marked with white round the eyes,--the Australian token of +mourning,--and the face of Ballandella was whitened also. This poor +woman, who had cheerfully carried the child upon her back, when it was +offered that both might be carried in the carts, and was as careful and +affectionate as any mother could be, had at length determined to entrust +to the Major the care of her daughter. He was pleased with this proof of +confidence, and less unwilling to take the charge from the knowledge of +the wretched state of slavery to which the native females are doomed. +Besides, the poor child had suffered considerably by the accident that +befel her while with the party of Englishmen, and she seemed to prefer +their mode of living so much, that her mother at length despaired of +being ever able to instruct her thoroughly in the mysteries of killing +and eating snakes, lizards, rats, and similar food. The widow had been +long enough with Europeans to learn how much more her sex was respected +by civilised men than by savages; and it was with feelings of this +nature, probably, that she entrusted her child to them, under the +immediate care, however, of a native woman, the wife of Piper, the +guide who had accompanied them through all the journey. A match was +subsequently made between Turàndurey and king Joey, one of the native +chiefs, by which the good woman gained a handsome and comfortable +settlement for an Australian. The child Ballandella was a welcome +stranger to the Major's own children, among whom she remained, +conforming most willingly to the habits of domestic life, and showing a +very promising aptness of understanding, until she was transferred, at +the removal of the family to England, to the care of a friend; and the +last mention made of Ballandella is, that she was able to read as well +as any white child of the same age. + +_Miago._--This last sketch of native character may serve to place in a +striking, yet fair light, the perplexing situation of the half-civilised +blacks, the strong inducements for them to relapse into barbarism again, +and, consequently, the difficulty that stands in the way of their being +thoroughly reclaimed. It is impossible to do this better than in the +very words of Captain Grey.[81] "The officers of the _Beagle_ took away +with them a native of the name of Miago, who remained absent with them +for several months. I saw him on the north-west coast, on board the +_Beagle_, apparently perfectly civilised; he waited at the gun-room +mess, was temperate, (never tasting spirits,) attentive, cheerful, and +remarkably clean in his person. The next time I saw him was at Swan +River, where he had been left on the return of the _Beagle_. He was then +again a savage, almost naked, painted all over, and had been concerned +in several murders. Several persons here told me,--'You see the taste +for a savage life was strong in him, and he took to the bush again +directly.' Let us pause for a moment and consider. + + [81] Grey's Western Australia, vol. ii. p. 370. + +"Miago, when he was landed, had amongst the white people none who would +be truly friends of his;--they would give him scraps from their table, +but the very outcasts of the whites would not have treated him as an +equal,--they had no sympathy with him,--he could not have married a +white woman,--he had no certain means of subsistence open to him,--he +never could have been either a husband or a father, if he had lived +apart from his own people;--where, amongst the whites, was he to find +one who would have filled for him the place of his black mother, whom he +is much attached to? What white man would have been his brother? What +white woman his sister? He had two courses left open to him,--he could +either have renounced all natural ties, and have led a hopeless, joyless +life among the whites, ever a servant, ever an inferior being; or he +could renounce civilisation, and return to the friends of his childhood, +and to the habits of his youth. He chose the latter course, and I think +that I should have done the same." + + + + +[Illustration: SYDNEY IN ITS INFANCY--VIEW FROM THE SOUTH.] + +CHAPTER VII. + +FIRST YEARS OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. + + +One of the greatest efforts to which the industry and powers of man +can be directed is to change a lonely uncultivated wilderness into an +enclosed and fruitful country,--to occupy with civilised human beings +and comfortable dwellings those wilds which have hitherto been nearly +deserted, or at best but scantily and occasionally inhabited by savage +barbarians. The colonisation of New South Wales by the English has been +one of the most successful of these efforts; and certainly never before +did the change effected by industry so rapidly make itself visible in +the face of the new country. But, although the settlement of this colony +may now be most certainly pronounced to have been a very successful +experiment, it was by no means without hazard, and disappointment, and +suffering, to those who were first engaged in it. Indeed it would appear +to be the lot of infant colonies to cope with difficulties known only +to first settlers in uncultivated lands; and while the enterprising +colonist has to endure and struggle against these early trials, his +children or grandchildren, or often the stranger who has made a +favourable bargain of his property, are the persons who reap the reward +of his toils. It must assuredly be a subject of interest to every +inquiring mind to trace the feeble beginnings of an infant colony, +accompanying it through all its variations of hope and despondency, of +good or ill success, until it is at length conducted to a state of +greatness and prosperity quite unexampled, when the shortness of its +duration is considered. And since that colony is our own, since Britain +is, for several reasons, unusually concerned, both morally and +politically, in the welfare of New South Wales, it cannot but be useful +as well as interesting to inquire somewhat concerning the past history, +previously to our entering upon the present state, of that settlement. + +In the year 1770, Captain Cooke, in his first voyage, had touched upon +the eastern coast of New Holland, at a bay which, from the number of +curious flowers that were there found growing wild, received the name +of Botany Bay. About sixteen years afterwards, when the American war +had closed up the great outlet by which the mother country had been +accustomed to get rid of the worst of its population, it was resolved +to form a colony for this purpose elsewhere. The coast of Africa was +thought of, but wisely abandoned; and at length Botany Bay was the spot +selected by the English government, which despatched, in 1787, the +_Sirius_ and the _Supply_, with six transports and three store-ships, +having on board 565 men and 192 women, convicts, besides 160 marines, +with their officers, some of their wives, and the necessary crews for +working the ships. Provisions for two years were taken out, tools, +agricultural implements, and other articles deemed necessary were also +furnished, and the little fleet was placed under the command of Captain +Phillip, the future governor of the intended colony. Some live stock was +obtained at the Cape of Good Hope, and plants and seeds likely to be +useful were procured likewise at that place, (then under the Dutch +government,) and at Rio Janeiro. In eight months and a week the voyage +was, with the Divine blessing, completed; and after having sailed 5021 +leagues, and touched at both the American and African continents, they +came to an anchor on January 20th, 1788, within a few days' sail of the +antipodes of their native country, having had, upon the whole, a very +healthy and prosperous voyage. Botany Bay did not offer much that was +promising for a settlement, since it was mostly surrounded by very poor +land, and water was scarce.[82] The governor, accordingly, went in +person to examine the two neighbouring harbours of Port Jackson and +Broken Bay, and upon drawing near to the entrance of the former the +coast looked as unpromising as elsewhere, and the natives on shore +continued shouting, "Warra, warra,"--Go away, go away. Captain Cooke, +passing by the heads of Port Jackson, thought there might be found +shelter within for a boat but Captain Phillip was agreeably surprised at +finding there one of the finest harbours in the world; and since the +goodness of the soil and the supply of water appeared to be sufficient, +it was resolved to fix the new settlement in one of the coves of this +large and beautiful inlet. The spot chosen was near a run of fresh +water, which stole silently through a very thick wood, the stillness of +which was then for the first time interrupted by the rude sound of the +labourer's axe; and fifty years afterwards so great a change had taken +place here, that the lowest price of crown land was then 1,000_l._ an +acre, and in eligible situations sometimes a great deal more.[83] + + [82] It happened that the two French ships of discovery under the + unfortunate La Perouse came into the harbour of Botany Bay just as + the English were finally quitting it. The French stayed there nearly + two months, and after they left that harbour they were never again seen + by any Europeans, both vessels having been lost. + + [83] See Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. p. 23. + +The royal commission appointing the governor was read, together with the +letters patent establishing courts of justice; and the behaviour of the +convicts soon rendered it needful to act upon these, for, within a month +of their landing, three of them were tried, found guilty, and severely +punished. The ground was begun to be gradually cleared, a sort of farm +was prepared to receive the live stock, and a garden for the plants and +seeds; and, in obedience to the orders of the government at home, the +_Supply_, commanded by Lieutenant King, was sent to Norfolk Island, some +few days' sail to the northeast of Port Jackson, for the purpose of +forming a colony there in which the flax of New Zealand might be +cultivated. With respect to the first progress of the colony at Sydney, +it was very slow, in consequence both of the idleness and ignorance +of the great majority of the colonists, to say nothing of their +wickedness. In spite of all the efforts of the governor to prevent it, +misunderstanding soon began to arise between the convicts and the +natives, and it seemed impossible in an infant colony to put a +sufficient check upon some of the unruly spirits belonging to the former +class, while, at the same time, the thievish temper of the natives began +very early to show itself, and to provoke injuries from men possessed of +fire-arms. It must be owned, however, that proper regard was not always +paid to the rights of the poor savages; and even so late as in the year +1810, a person charged with shooting at a native and wounding him, was +tried simply for an assault; whilst another, who had committed a similar +offence against a European was tried on the same day for his life![84] +In the beginning of May, not four months after the arrival of the +British ships at Port Jackson, and at a time when death and disease were +making sad havoc among the settlers, it was found needful to cut short +the life of one very juvenile offender by the hand of justice. James +Bennett, a youth of only seventeen years of age, was executed for +burglary, and died confessing that the love of idleness and bad +connexions had been his ruin. Soon after this, three convicts were +killed, and a fourth dangerously wounded, by the natives; and upon +inquiry it was found that two of them had robbed these people of a +canoe, an act of injustice which was, no doubt, the cause of their +death. The celebration of King George III.'s birthday, on June the 4th, +gave an opportunity to the evil-disposed to commit several robberies, +and two of these afterwards suffered death for their offences, while +another, who had gone into the woods, was proclaimed an outlaw. For want +of any overseers or police, except those taken from their own class, the +convicts were getting beyond all discipline; and so utterly reckless and +improvident were some of them, that they would consume their weekly +allowance of provisions by the end of the third or fourth day, and trust +for their supply during the rest of the week to the chance of being able +to steal from others that were more provident.[85] One of these degraded +creatures is stated to have made up his week's allowance of flour (eight +pounds) into cakes, which having devoured at one meal, he was soon after +taken up, speechless and senseless, and died the following day. Among +a population like that of which we are treating, while crimes were +lamentably common, conviction was comparatively rare. There was so much +tenderness to each other's guilt, such an acquaintance with vice and the +different degrees of it, that, unless detected in the fact, it was next +to impossible to bring an offence home to the transgressors. And with +respect to their intercourse with the natives, though the convicts who +suffered from them generally contrived to make out themselves to be +in the right; yet, even upon their own showing, every accident that +happened was occasioned by a breach of positive orders repeatedly given. +In New South Wales, no less than in every other country, obedience to +lawful authority was proved to be the safest and best way, after all; +nor could that way be forsaken with impunity. + + [84] See Barrington's History of New South Wales, p. 171. See, too, + another instance at p. 385. + + [85] This conduct was so common, that, when provisions became scarce, + the supply was issued _twice_ in the week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. + +Amid the mass of moral corruption, which the British ships had thus +imported into the coasts of New Holland, the only hope of infusing +health and purity was from religion. But, unhappily, the age in which +that expedition left the English shores, was certainly not a religious +age; if there was less _hypocrisy_ then than there now is, certainly +there was less _real piety_. In the great towns of the mother country, +population and wealth were allowed to make rapid strides, without a +single thought being entertained of applying a portion of the increasing +wealth of the nation to the spiritual instruction of its increasing +population. If there was no room for the poorer classes of society at +the parish church, it was thought they might go to the meeting-house; +and if there was no room for them there, they might stay at home on +the Lord's day and be idle; it was doing no worse than many of their +betters, in a worldly sense, were constantly in the habit of doing.[86] +While notions and practices of this nature prevailed at home, it was +not to be expected that any very extraordinary attention would be paid +to the religious instruction of the convicts and other settlers in New +South Wales. Yet since, even then, it would have been thought shocking +to have left a large gaol, with 757 prisoners in it, altogether +destitute of the offices of religion, so it could not have been expected +that the same number of convicts would ever have been cast forth as evil +from their native land, and their souls left to perish on the other side +of the globe, without a single chance, humanly speaking, of receiving +those blessings of forgiveness and grace, which Christ died to procure +for all men. But, whatever might have been thought before hand, or +whatever may have been the immediate cause of such neglect, it +positively appears, that, "when the fleet was on the point of sailing, +in the year 1787, no clergyman had been thought of," nor was it without +a strong appeal to those in authority from one whose conduct in this +instance is worthy of all praise, WILBERFORCE, aided by the interest of +Bishop Porteus with Sir Joseph Banks, that the Rev. William Johnson was +appointed chaplain.[87] From whatever cause this oversight may have +arisen, whether it was intentional, or (what is more likely) merely the +consequence of forgetfulness and carelessness, it speaks pretty plainly +for the religious indifference of the government. However, the colony +was, happily, not permitted to be founded without any one present to +administer the sacraments and ordinances, and enforce the duties of our +holy religion among the first settlers and convicts.[88] By Divine +Providence, acting through the instrumentality of man, the British +nation was spared the sin and shame, which it had well nigh incurred, +of casting forth from its own shores a vile mass of uncleanness and +corruption, and forgetting at the same time to place amongst it the +smallest portion of that good leaven by which alone its evil might be +corrected. Accordingly, one chaplain[89] was sent out to officiate among +about 1000 souls, who were at first dispersed in eleven ships, and more +than two-thirds of them were in a state of extreme spiritual need, +inasmuch as they had been guilty of gross and flagrant offences. And +thus, thanks to the zeal and good feeling which had gained a victory +over the supineness of government, the discharge of religious duties on +the Sunday was never omitted at Sydney, Divine service being performed +in the open air whenever the state of the weather would permit. All +seems to have been done by the chaplain which could be effected under +circumstances of great discouragement.[90] When our blessed Redeemer +sent forth his disciples, he sent them by two and two, and how +encouraging, in the midst of an evil world, is the conversation or +counsel of a christian friend that is dearer than a brother! But the +chaplain of New South Wales had no such assistance to fall back upon; he +was left alone and single-handed--yet not alone, for Christ is ever with +his authorised ministers, to fight against the mighty power of evils by +which he was surrounded. He visited the sick and the convicts, going +from settlement to settlement, and from hut to hut; travelling to the +more distant stations, that were afterwards formed, as far as he could +reach, and assembling as many as he could for divine service. With what +success these efforts were attended we shall be better able to judge +hereafter; but one truth must be borne in mind, which is, that, in the +very nature of things, evil will make itself more prominent and noticed +in the world than good; so that, whilst it may almost appear from the +history of the colony, as though there was not one godly man left in it, +we shall do well to remember that there may have been, nevertheless, +many a one who was profited by the ministry of Christ's Church among +them, many a Naaman who had been taught to forsake the evil thing which +he once delighted in worshipping, many a knee which had not bowed to +Baal, and many a mouth which had not kissed his image.[91] + + [86] The blame of these lax and unworthy notions must not fall on the + laity alone; many of the clergy in those days deserve to have a full + share of it; but while we see and lament the faults of that generation, + we must not forget to look after those of our own, and to correct them. + + [87] See Judge Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, + p. 1. + + [88] Certainly some of the means employed for the moral improvement of + the convicts were very strange ones. For example, we are told, on one + occasion, that some of them were "ordered to _work every Sunday_ on the + highway as a punishment!" See Barrington's History of New South Wales, + p. 184. See likewise, p. 246. + + [89] In 1792, a chaplain came out with the New South Wales Corps; and + in 1794, Mr. Marsden, a second chaplain, arrived in the colony. If any + person is desirous of seeing how easily the faults and failings of + individuals may be turned into arguments against a church, he has only + to refer to Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, chap i. "The Dark Age." + + [90] See the authorities quoted by Burton on Religion and Education in + New South Wales, p. 6. According to this author, the chaplain's name was + _Johnston_, not _Johnson_, as Collins spells it. + + [91] See 2 Kings v. and 1 Kings xix. 18. See likewise, in proof of the + good conduct of some convicts, Collins' Account of New South Wales, + p. 42. + +However, it cannot be denied that the greater number of the settlers +of every description were but little disposed to listen to the words +of eternal truth, although they were ready enough to listen to any +falsehood which promised well for their worldly interests. Thus, before +the first year of the colony had expired, it was pretended and believed +that a _gold mine_ had been discovered. The specimens of this which the +impostor produced, were manufactured out of a guinea and a brass buckle; +and his object in deceiving was, that he might get clothes and other +articles in exchange for his promised gold dust, from the people +belonging to the store ships. But his cheat was soon discovered, and all +that his gold dust finally procured him, was a severe flogging, and +before the end of the year he was executed for another offence. Yet it +would not be far from the truth to state, that the British had indeed +discovered a gold mine in Sydney, by working which with industry, +ability, and perseverance, enormous riches have been obtained. When +the story of the mine was invented, the land around Port Jackson was +unproductive, and the hills wild or barren, but in little more than +fifty years from that time the imports into the Port of Sydney amounted +in 1840 to £2,462,858, while the amount of goods exported from the same +place during that year was valued at £1,951,544.[92] Where was there +ever a gold mine that was known to make a return so profitable as this +to those that worked it? + + [92] See the Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 107. + +The great object, and generally the most difficult to be obtained, +in forming altogether a new colony, is to make it begin to produce a +sufficiency to supply its own necessary wants. But, although this object +was kept steadily in view from the very first in New South Wales, yet +were there many hindrances to be overcome, and much suffering to be +endured, before it was finally gained. The land near the new settlement +is none of the best for farming operations, and persons at all +acquainted with agriculture appear to have been very scarce among +the settlers and convicts; besides which, the prevailing idleness was +so great, that it seemed almost impossible to make the men exert +themselves; and, perhaps, nothing less than the want and privations, +which they subsequently endured, could have had this effect. A regular +supply of provisions had constantly been issued from the government +stores, and the convicts, with that short-sighted imprudence by which +the vicious are generally distinguished, had never given themselves the +trouble of looking forwards to the necessity of raising a supply of food +for themselves. Meanwhile, although farming operations were going on but +slowly, and not very successfully, the stores were being lessened at a +rapid rate, not only by the ordinary issue of provisions, but likewise +by rats and pilferers. Six soldiers, and an accomplice who turned king's +evidence, were discovered, after eight months of impunity, by means of a +key which was left by one of them in the lock, upon his being disturbed +by the patrol; and these men, having betrayed their trust as sentinels, +and carried on a regular system of plunder for the purpose of indulging +themselves in vice and drunkenness, were all executed. In April 1789 the +_Sirius_ returned, bringing the first cargo of provisions received by +the colony, which was, however, only equal to four months' supply at +full rations. But full rations were not to continue much longer in the +infant settlement. In November, 1789, very nearly two years after the +arrival of the colonists, it was found needful to reduce the allowance +to two-thirds of every sort of provisions, spirits alone excepted. No +alteration was made in the allowance of the women, who were already +upon two-thirds of the full ratio of a man; and it was eagerly and +confidently expected that, after having waited so long, it would be but +a short period more before an ample supply of all that was necessary +would be received from the mother country. + +In November, which is one of the summer months of the Australian +calendar, the little harvest of the colony was got in. At Rose Hill, +(or Paramatta, as it is now called,) where the best land had been found, +upwards of two hundred bushels of wheat, about thirty-five bushels of +barley, besides a small quantity of oats and Indian corn, were +harvested; and the whole of this produce was intended to be kept for +seed. At Sydney, the spot of cleared ground called the Governor's Farm +had produced about twenty-five bushels of barley. But the evil spirit of +thieving was still as rife as ever among the convicts, and the young +crops of wheat were the objects of plunder (especially after the +reduction of the allowance,) notwithstanding the immense importance of +preserving seed sufficient to crop a larger breadth of land for the +following year. In the very beginning of 1790 the provisions brought +from England wholly failed, having just about lasted during the two +years for which they had been calculated; and the colonists then became +totally dependent upon the slender stock brought for them by the +_Sirius_ from the Cape of Good Hope. Great anxiety began to be felt for +an arrival from England, and a flagstaff[93] was erected on the south +head of the entrance to the harbour of Port Jackson, so that a signal +might be there made upon the first appearance of the expected vessel. In +hope of this welcome event the eyes of the colonists were often directed +thither, and often must their hearts have grown sick from the tedious +delay of the hope in which they indulged. Certainly, it is a remarkable +instance of the hard-heartedness and corruption of man's nature, that, +even under these circumstances, with the horrors of famine daily in +view, left alone on a remote and desolate coast, and, as it appeared, +forsaken by the rest of the world, they did not profit by the lessons +thus forcibly brought before them, nor listen with any good effect to +the warnings taught them by sorrow and trouble, those great and +awakening preachers of righteousness. + + [93] The signal-colours were stolen within a year afterwards by some + of the natives, who divided them among the canoes, and used them as + coverings. + +During the anxious interval that succeeded, everything that was +possible to be done for the public advantage was done by the governor. +Occasionally, a fair supply of fish had been brought in, and accordingly +a boat was employed to fish three times in the week, and the whole +quantity that was taken was issued out in addition to the rations, which +were equally distributed to every person, no distinction being made in +favour of the governor himself, who, when he had a party at Government +House, always requested his guests to bring their bread with them, for +there was none to spare;--in February, 1790, there were not four months' +provisions in the colony, even at half allowance. These circumstances +required thoughtful and vigorous measures to be promptly taken, and +since Norfolk Island was a more fertile spot, and much better supplied +with provisions at that time, it was resolved to send some of the +convicts thither, unless the expected supplies from England should +arrive before March 3d, the day fixed for their departure. 116 male and +68 female convicts, with 27 children, were thus sent away, and the +colony wore quite a deserted appearance. Every effort was made to +prevent the destruction of live stock, which was very rapidly taking +place, and towards the end of March a yet further reduction was +necessary in the allowances, which were then to be given out daily; an +alteration at the same time was made in the hours of public labour, and +the afternoons of each day were given up to the people to work for +themselves in their own gardens. The fish that was caught was also +issued out as part of the allowance, but at a more liberal rate,--ten +pounds of fish being deemed equal to two and a half pounds of pork. In +the midst of this necessity it is gratifying to find that the witness of +the Church, though, as usual, too little heeded, was yet not silent; +"attention to religious duties," _i.e._ to Divine worship on Sundays, +"was never omitted, and service was performed on Good Friday."[94] + + [94] According to Captain Tench, who is quoted by the Roman Catholic, + Dr. Ullathorne, "Divine service was performed at Sydney only one Sunday + in the month," and "the Rev. Mr. Johnson was the best farmer in the + country." What truth there may be in these insinuations, or in the + charge against Judge Burton of enlarging upon a Romish priest's being + a convict, while he disguises the same truth when it applied to an + English clergyman, must be left to others better acquainted with the + facts to determine. See Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, p. 5. + +But the early settlers of New South Wales were taught by sad experience +the truth of that common saying that bids us to "welcome the sorrow that +comes alone." It had been arranged that the _Sirius_ should return +immediately from Norfolk Island, and then should sail direct for China +to procure a supply of provisions immediately. But Providence never +permitted the _Sirius_ again to float upon the quiet waters of Sydney +Cove. The vessel was lost upon a reef at Norfolk Island, after having +landed most of those on board, and the others escaped with their lives, +but the ship was totally destroyed. Disgraceful to relate, it was set on +fire by two convicts who had been allowed to go on board on the second +day after the wreck, in the hope of saving the live hogs, but these men +got drunk with the liquor they found, and set the ship on fire in two +places, nor was it without great difficulty that they were themselves +rescued. This sorrowful intelligence was brought by the _Supply_,--the +only remaining hope of procuring relief for the wants of the colony. +After various precautionary measures had been taken, the _Supply_ was +despatched to Batavia, under orders to procure, not only a quantity of +provisions, but also to hire a vessel, which should accompany the +English ship on its return, and should bring to New South Wales a second +cargo of necessaries. Meanwhile, the allowances were yet further +reduced, and the governor, having reserved 300 bushels of wheat for +seed, gave up 300 lbs. weight of flour, which was his own private +property, for the public use; besides which, the expedients of fishing +and shooting wild animals were tried, but with no great success. Crime +appeared rather to increase than to diminish with the increase of +temptation and opportunities; and at this awful period of trial for the +whole population, it was judged necessary to execute one criminal. A +female convict was at this time robbed of her week's provisions, and +she was left to subsist upon the bounty of others, since it was +impossible to replace them from the public store; and if it was a cruel +offence of _one_ to rob the poor woman, it reflected credit upon _many_, +that, under such circumstances, she was preserved from starvation. + +At length, after six months of indescribable anxiety and privation, +the expected signal was made, and a boat was sent off (in very rough +weather) to direct the ship how to get safely into the harbour. It was +the transport-ship, the _Lady Juliana_, which had been no less than ten +months upon the voyage, and which brought news of the almost total +destruction of another ship, the _Guardian_, which had been sent out +previously, and well supplied with every thing necessary for a rising +colony. _The Lady Juliana_ brought very little addition to the supplies, +compared with the additional number of consumers, above 200 female +convicts, which she had with her; these had been sent upon the reckoning +of the _Guardian's_ stores arriving beforehand; and if this had been +permitted, probably the colony would never more have experienced want. +It was unfortunate, at a time when a cargo of any thing but of convicts +would have been serviceable, that scarcely any thing else should arrive. +Before the end of June, however, another ship laden with provisions +arrived, after having very narrowly escaped a wreck off the heads at the +entrance of Port Jackson; and upon the welcome arrival of this supply +the immediate scarcity ceased. Three other vessels shortly followed, +and things were thus for a time restored to their former course; but +repeated trials, arising from want of provisions, were afterwards, at +intervals, the lot of the colony. In 1794, on the very day when the +doors of the provision-store were closed, and the convicts had received +their last allowance which remained, the signal for a sail was made; +and it was the third day before the two vessels then in sight could be +got into the harbour, but their arrival brought comparative abundance to +the starving population of 3,000 people, who were beginning seriously to +reckon up how far their live stock would go towards the supply of their +necessities. Several other similar seasons of famine have been recorded, +and it is curious and instructive to look back upon the day of small +things in a country abundant as New South Wales at present is in the +necessaries, comforts, and even luxuries, of life. + +The state of health in which many of the convicts reached their place +of exile, and the numbers of them which never reached it at all, were +deplorable facts, proving too truly that men may be found capable of +doing any thing for the hope of profit. A certain sum per head was paid +by the government for each convict, and thus the dead became more +profitable to the contractors than the living were; for the expenses of +the former were less, while the stipulated payments were the same in +both cases. Out of three ships 274 convicts died on the voyage,[95] +and when they had landed, there were no less than 488 persons in the +hospital. Neglect like this of the miserable creatures who had broken +their country's laws, most justly awakens our feelings of indignation; +and these are righteous feelings, but let them not be confined to the +_bodily_ neglect to which, in a comparatively few instances at first, +the convicts were exposed. Let us recollect, with sorrow rather than +indignation, how many thousands of these unhappy creatures have, down to +the present time, been left to perish, in a spiritual sense, and that, +likewise, from motives of profit, for fear of the outcry of want of +economy being excited in a wealthy nation, if sufficient means of +spiritual instruction were provided for our banished fellow-countrymen! + + [95] Things are now, happily, better ordered. "There are frequent + instances of vessels arriving from England without having had a + single death during the voyage" to Sydney.--LANG'S _New South Wales_, + vol. i. p. 58. + +Soon after the arrival of the three transports, those of the convicts +that were in tolerable health were settled at Rose Hill, and the town +now called Paramatta was laid out; and the commencement of a system of +free settlers was provided for, although the retired soldiers, those +parties for whom it was originally intended, were not usually very +persevering or successful in their attempts at farming. In September, +1790, Governor Phillip received that wound of which mention has been +made elsewhere;[96] and this season the dry weather was so excessive, +that the gardens and fields of corn were parched up for want of +moisture. Five convicts left Paramatta in a boat, and got out of the +harbour without being discovered, having provisions for a week with +them, and purposing to steer for Otaheite![97] A search was made for +them, but in vain, and beyond doubt they must have perished miserably. +At various times, the convicts, especially some of the Irish, set off +to the northwards, meaning to travel by the interior of New Holland +_overland to China_; and many were either starved to death or else +killed by the natives, while pursuing this vain hope of escape from +thraldom. + + [96] See "Bennillong," in chap. vi. p. 151. + + [97] Another instance of like folly is mentioned by Collins, Account + of New South Wales, p. 129. + +The next event of importance to the infant colony was the arrival, +towards the close of 1791, of what is called the _second_ fleet, +consisting of no less than ten ships, and having on board upwards of +2,000 convicts, with provisions and other necessaries. These ships came +dropping into the harbour at short intervals after each other, and their +arrival, together with the needful preparations for the additional +numbers brought by them, gave an air of bustle and life to the little +town of Sydney. Various public works and buildings had been carried on, +especially some tanks were cut in the rocks to serve as reservoirs in +dry seasons, and at Paramatta between forty and fifty fresh acres were +expected to be got ready for Indian corn this year. By his Majesty's +ship _Gorgon_, certain needful instruments and powers for carrying on +the government of the colony were sent, and amongst others the public +seal of New South Wales. Two or three of the vessels which had arrived +from England, were employed, after discharging their cargoes, in the +whale-fishery, and not altogether without success; so early did British +enterprise turn itself to that occupation, which has latterly become +most profitable in those regions. During this year, the governor for the +first time exercised a power which had only recently been given him, and +several convicts were, on account of their good behaviour, released from +their state of bondage, on condition of their not returning to England +before the term of their sentences had expired. Various allotments of +land were also given to those whose terms had already expired, and who +signified their willingness to become settlers in this new country. At +the close of the year 1791, nearly four years from the first landing of +the British in Port Jackson, the public live stock consisted of one aged +stallion, one mare, two young stallions, two colts, sixteen cows, two +calves, one ram, fifty ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows, and +twenty-two pigs. The cultivated ground at Paramatta amounted to three +hundred acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in barley, one in oats, +four in vines, eighty-six in garden-ground, and seventeen in cultivation +by the soldiers of the New South Wales Corps. Thus humble were the +beginnings, even after some time, of that wealth in flocks and herds +for which our Australian colonies are now so justly celebrated. + +Very little, meanwhile, is recorded of the chaplain, Mr. Johnson, or his +doings, but that little is to his credit. He was, it appears, in the +habit of relieving from his own private bounty the convicts who were +most in need; and some of them spread abroad a report that this was done +from funds raised by subscription in the mother country; and upon the +strength of this notion, in the spirit which the poorer classes in +England too often exhibit, they chose to claim relief as though it were +their _just right_. This false notion was publicly contradicted, and Mr. +Johnson thought it necessary that the convicts should know that it was +to his bounty alone that they were indebted for these gifts, and that, +consequently, the partakers of them were to be of his own selection. +Another instance of the kindness of Mr. Johnson, and of the evil return +it met with, has also been recorded, and though it occurred some years +afterwards, in 1797, it may be noticed here. It happened that among the +convicts there was found one who had been this gentleman's schoolfellow, +and the chaplain, feeling compassion for his fallen condition, had taken +him into his service, and treated him with the utmost confidence and +indulgence. Soon afterwards, it was rumoured that this man had taken +an impression of the key of the store-room in clay, from which he had +procured another key to fit the lock. Mr. Johnson scarcely credited the +story, but at length he consented that a constable should be concealed +in the house on a Sunday, when all the family, except this person, would +be engaged in Divine service. The plan succeeded too well. Supposing +that all was secure, the ungrateful wretch applied his key to the door +of the store-room, and began to plunder it of all the articles he chose +to take, until the constable, leaving his hiding-place, put an end to +the robbery by making the thief his prisoner. + +The attention of Mr. Johnson to his ministerial and public duties +appears to have continued in a quiet and regular way, but its fruits +were by no means so manifest as could have been wished. In 1790 he +complained to the authorities of the want of attendance at divine +service, which, it must be observed, was generally performed in the open +air, exposed alike to the wind and rain, or burning sun; and then it was +ordered that a certain portion of provisions should be taken off from +the allowance of each person who might absent himself from prayers +without giving a reasonable excuse. And thus, we may suppose, a better +congregation was secured; but, alas! from what a motive were they +induced to draw near their God. And how many are there, it is to be +feared, in our country parishes in England, whose great inducement to +attend their church is the fact that the clergyman generally has certain +gifts to distribute: how common a fault, in short, has it been in all +ages and in all countries for men to seek Christ from no higher motive +than that they may "eat of the loaves and be filled!"[98] In proof of +the single voice that was raised in the wilderness of New South Wales +being not altogether an empty and ineffectual sound, we are told that +in 1790, when the female convicts who arrived by the _Lady Juliana_ +attended divine service for the first time, Mr. Johnson, with much +propriety, in his discourse, touched upon their situation so forcibly as +to draw tears from many of them, who were not yet hardened enough to be +altogether insensible to truth. Another instance of very praiseworthy +zeal was afforded by the voluntary visit of the chaplain of New South +Wales in 1791 to Norfolk Island, which small colony had never yet been +favoured even with the temporary presence of a minister of the Church of +Christ. + + [98] Religion, of course, concerns all equally, only the guilty and the + wretched seem to be the last persons who can afford to reject its + consolations, even in this world. However, the conduct of those in + authority was pretty much on a par with that of the convicts, and it + was only when one of the earlier governors was told of but five or six + persons attending divine service, that "he determined to go to church + himself, and stated that he expected his example would be followed by + the people." See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, + p. 7. + +But a yet better proof of the chaplain's earnestness was given, +after the colony had been settled for six years, in his building a +church,--the first that was raised in New Holland for the purposes of +christian worship. Even now, we often may hear and lament the ignorance +which chooses to reckon the _clergy_ as the _Church_, and which looks +upon the efforts recently made in favour of church extension, as lying +quite beyond the province of the laity; and this deplorable ignorance +was much more common in Mr. Johnson's days.[99] Accordingly, to the +disgrace of the colony and of the government at home, no church +was raised during six years, and when at last that object was +accomplished, it was by the private purse and the single efforts of +an individual,--the chaplain of the colony. The building was in a very +humble style, made of wood and thatched, and it is said to have cost Mr. +Johnson only 40_l._; but all this merely serves to show how easily the +good work might have been before done, how inexcusable it was to leave +its accomplishment to one individual. A few months before this necessary +work was undertaken the colony had been visited by two Spanish ships, +and it is possible that an observation made by the Romish priest +belonging to one of these ships may have had some effect towards raising +the first church built at Sydney. At the time when the Spanish ships +were in the harbour, the English chaplain performed divine service +wherever he could find a shady spot; and the Spanish priest observing +that, during so many years no church had been built, lifted up his eyes +with astonishment, declaring (truly), that, had the place been settled +by his nation, a house of God would have been erected before any house +for man. How disgraceful to the English nation, how injurious to our +Reformed Church, that an observation like this, coming from the lips of +one who belonged to a corrupt and idolatrous church, should be so true, +so incapable of contradiction! However, if the remark had any effect in +exciting the efforts of the Protestant chaplain, and in thus supplying +at length a want so palpable as that of a house of God in the colony, it +was by no means uttered in vain; and supposing it to be so, this is not +a solitary instance of our Church and her members having been aroused +into activity by the taunts and attacks of those that are opposed to +her. + + [99] It would appear almost as though some men _will_ not see that + churches are not built for clergymen to preach in, and live (or starve) + upon the pew-rents, but for laymen to hear God's word and join in His + solemn worship. + +Upon the opening of the humble building, which had thus tardily been +raised for the purposes of divine worship, and to consecrate which +according to the beautiful forms of our English church there was no +bishop in the colony, the chaplain preached a suitable sermon, we are +informed; but, if it may be judged from the scanty record that is +preserved of it, this discourse partook of the cold and worldly spirit +of the age in which it was delivered. Mr. Johnson began well with +impressing upon his hearers the necessity of holiness in every place, +and then lamented the urgency of public works having prevented the +erection of a church sooner. As though a building for the public worship +of Almighty God were not the most urgent of all public works in every +christian community! He next went on to declare, that his _only_ motive +in coming forward in the business was that of establishing a place +sheltered from bad weather, and from the summer-heats, where public +worship might be performed. The uncertainty of a place where they might +attend had prevented many from coming, but he hoped that now the +attendance would be regular.[100] Surely, the worthy chaplain might have +had and avowed a higher motive for building a house of God, than that of +keeping men from the wind, and the rain, and the sun; and, undoubtedly, +as the inconvenience of the former system was no good excuse for absence +from divine service, so neither could the comparative convenience of the +new arrangement be at all a proper motive for attendance upon it. + + [100] See Collins' Account of New South Wales, pp. 223-4. + +However, many allowances are to be made for Mr. Johnson, and it becomes +us, while we condemn the faults, to spare the persons, of the men of +that and of other past generations; especially when we look at our own +age, and see, notwithstanding the improvement that has unquestionably +taken place, how many conspicuous faults there are prevailing among us, +which those of future generations will justly pity and condemn. It may +be well, before the subject of the church raised by Mr. Johnson is +finally quitted, to acquaint the reader with its fate. In 1798, after +having stood only five years, it was discovered one evening to be on +fire, and, all efforts to save it proving useless, from the combustible +nature of the materials, it was consumed in an hour. "This was a great +loss," observes the historian of the colony, "for during the working +days of the week the building was used as a school, in which from 150 +to 200 children were educated, under the immediate inspection of Mr. +Johnson. As this building stood alone, and no person was suffered to +remain in it after the school hours, there was not a doubt but the +atrocious act was the effect of design, and in consequence of an order +enforcing attendance on divine service." The governor, however, with +praiseworthy zeal, would not suffer a single Sunday to be lost, but +ordered a new store-house, which was just finished, to be fitted up +for a church. One brief observation may here be added. How powerful a +witness do the enemies of Christ's Church, and of our English branch of +it, bear to the usefulness and effect of its doctrine, even in its most +helpless and lowest condition, by the ceaseless and unscrupulous pains +which they take in trying to silence its testimony! + +No apology is necessary for detaining the reader so long upon these +little details, since if the religious state and progress of an infant +colony be not an interesting feature in its history, what can we hope +to find in it that is deserving of the attention of a thoughtful and +well-regulated mind? But we return now to the temporal affairs of New +South Wales. The year 1792, which began with reduced rations of +provisions, was a time of great suffering and scarcity in the colony, +nor was it until the latter part of the year that any relief for the +wants of the settlers arrived. Meanwhile the mortality that took place +was very alarming, and notwithstanding the sickness that prevailed, +there was no abatement in wickedness and crime. At one time during this +year no less than fifty-three persons were missing, many of whom never +returned, having perished, no doubt, miserably in the woods, while +seeking for a new settlement, or endeavouring to find their way to +China! An execution for theft took place in January, and the unhappy man +declared that hunger had tempted him to commit the crime for which he +suffered. Many instances of profligacy among the convicts occurred, but +one stands forth distinguished by especial wickedness. A woman had been +trusted to carry to the bakehouse the allowance of flour belonging to +two others; and after having run in debt for flour taken up on their +account, she mixed a quantity of pounded stone, in the proportion of +two-thirds of grit to one of flour, with the meal belonging to the other +women.[101] Fortunately, the deceit was found out before the flour was +mixed with other meal at the bakehouse, and the culprit was sentenced to +wear an iron collar for six months. In April, a convict was killed by a +blow from the limb of a tree, which fell on his head as he passed under +it, and fractured his skull. He died on the spot, having earned from +those who knew him the character of being so great a reprobate, that he +was scarcely ever known to speak without an oath, or without calling on +his Maker to witness the truth of the lie he was about to utter. Are +these poor creatures, if may be again asked, to be cast out from their +own country, and left (as they too often have been,) to their own evil +devices and to Satan's temptations, without involving the nation that +has thus treated them in a load of guilt too fearful to contemplate? + + [101] A similar scheme was to have been practised by some Irish + convict women, who were to have taken their part in a proposed mutiny + on board the _Marquis Cornwallis_ during the passage out, by mixing + pulverized glass with the flour of which the seamen made their puddings! + See Collins, p. 324. + +Towards the end of the year 1792 the harvest was gathered in from +the 1540 acres of cleared ground, which were sown in the preceding +seed-time. The produce was tolerably good, and since no less than 3470 +acres of land had already been granted to settlers, it was hoped that +before very long the colony might cease to be almost entirely dependent +for its support upon the precarious supply which it received from ships. +The colonists then learned by sad experience what many Englishmen in the +present day seem unwilling to believe, that _it is one of the worst +evils to be dependent upon other countries for daily bread_. In +December, the governor, Captain Phillip, left the colony from ill +health, having acted with much prudence and vigour during his +administration, and leaving behind him a respectable character; he +returned to England, where his services were rewarded by a pension of +400_l._ a-year, and he retired to Bath, at which city he died. His +activity in exploring the neighbouring country and discovering its +capabilities, his courage and firmness on many very trying occasions, +his steady opposition to every proposal of abandoning the settlement, +together with his general character, sufficiently entitle his memory to +regard and respect from those who are now living in New South Wales, and +reaping in comparative ease the fruit of that harvest which it cost him +and others great pains and many trials to sow. + +Before the first Governor of New South Wales left that country, he had +the satisfaction of seeing its prospects of a future sufficiency of +provisions very greatly improved; and a work of charity, the hospital at +Paramatta, was completed in the month before that in which he sailed. +With the year 1793 began a new government, for as no successor had been +appointed at home to Captain Phillip, the chief power now came, +according to what had been previously provided, into the hands of +Major Grose, of the New South Wales Corps, who assumed the style of +Lieutenant-Governor. During nearly three years things continued in +this state; only Major Grose left the settlement, and was succeeded by +Captain Paterson; nor was it until 1795 that a regular successor to +the first governor arrived in the colony. In this period many things +occurred which were, no doubt, of the highest interest to the settlers +at the time, but few events which deserve our particular notice now. +A fire, which destroyed a house worth 15_l._, and thirty bushels of +new wheat;--the alternate scarcity and comparative abundance of +provisions;--the arrival or departure of ships from the harbour;--the +commission of the first murder in the colony, and other sad accounts +of human depravity and its punishment;--the gradual improvement and +extension of the colony;--the first sale by auction of a farm of +twenty-five acres for the sum of 13_l._:--these and similar subjects +occupy the history of New South Wales, not merely during the three years +that elapsed between Governor Phillip's departure and the arrival of his +successor, but also during the long period of gradual but increasing +improvement which followed the last event. + +Yet, while the improvement of the little colony was evidently steady and +increasing, when its affairs are regarded in a temporal point of view, +in morals its progress appeared to be directly contrary; and, painful +though it be to dwell upon the sins and follies of men, whose bodies +have long since passed away to their parent dust, and their souls +returned to God who gave them, nevertheless, there are many wholesome +lessons of instruction and humiliation to be gathered from the history +of human depravity in New South Wales. One of the crying sins of the +mother country,--a sin now very much confined to the lower classes of +society, but fifty years ago equally common among all classes,--is that +of _drunkenness_; and it could scarcely be expected that the outcast +daughter in Australia would be less blamable in this respect than the +mother from which she sprang.[102] Accordingly, we find that as soon as +it was possible to procure spirits, at however great a sacrifice, they +were obtained, and intoxication was indulged in,--if such brutality +deserves the name of indulgence,--to an awful extent. Whether all that a +writer very intimately acquainted with New South Wales urges against the +officers of the New South Wales Corps be true or not, so far as their +dealings in spirituous liquors are concerned, there can be no question +that these mischievous articles became almost entirely the current coin +of the settlement, and were the source of worldly gain to a few, while +they proved the moral ruin of almost all, in the colony. But, without +giving entire credit to all the assertions of Dr. Lang, who deals very +much in hasty notions and exaggerated opinions,[103] we may sorrowfully +acknowledge that, if the convicts in New South Wales gave way in a +horrible manner to drunkenness and its attendant sins, the upper +classes, in general, either set them a bad example, or made a plunder of +them by pandering to their favourite vice. The passion for liquor, it is +stated by Collins,[104] operated like a mania, there being nothing which +the people would not risk to obtain it: and while spirits were to be +had, those who did any extra labour refused to be paid in money, or in +any other article than spirits, which were then so scarce as to be sold +at six shillings a bottle. So eagerly were fermented liquors sought +after, and so little was the value of money in a place where neither the +comforts nor luxuries of life could be bought, that the purchaser has +been often known, in the early days of the colony, to name himself a +price for the article he wanted, fixing it as high again as would +otherwise have been required of him. When the few boat-builders and +shipwrights in the colony had leisure, they employed themselves in +building boats for those that would pay them their price, namely, five +or six gallons of spirits. It could be no matter of surprise that boats +made by workmen so paid should be badly put together, and scarcely +seaworthy. + + [102] Whatever may be the improvement of the middling and upper classes, + _nationally speaking_ the passion for strong liquor continues to bear + sway in the British islands to a deplorable extent. Lord Ashley has + stated in the House of Commons during the present session, 1843, that + there is good authority for estimating our annual consumption of + spirituous liquors at twenty-five millions sterling! Compare the _gross_ + amount of the revenues of the English Church, about four millions, and + those of the _poor_ Kirk of Scotland, the _plundered_ Church of Ireland, + and the "voluntary" efforts of the hundred and one sects of Dissenters, + together with those of the Romish Church:--and what is the result? + Probably, nearly three times as much is spent in these islands upon + spirituous liquors as the whole cost of religious instruction of every + kind amounts to! + + [103] Dr. Lang's opinion here is, however, confirmed by Judge Burton; + see p. 7 of his work on Education and Religion in New South Wales. + + [104] Account of Colony of New South Wales, p. 235. + +But, however commonly the standard of value might be measured by +spirituous liquors, yet it is evident that these, being themselves +procurable for money, could not altogether supersede the desire of money +itself. Hence arose those numerous acts of theft and depredation, that +improvident thirst after present gain, that total disregard of future +consequences by which many of the first inhabitants of the colony were +disgraced and ruined. The contagion of evil example forced its way into +Government House, and the steward of Governor Hunter became an awful +instance of the mischief of bad society. Against this he had been often +cautioned by his master, but to no purpose, until at length he was +discovered abusing the unlimited confidence which had been placed in +him, and making use of the governor's name in a most iniquitous manner. +At this discovery the wretched victim of evil communication retired to a +shrubbery in his master's garden, and shot himself through the head. + +From the love of money, which no mean authority has pronounced to be +"the root of all evil,"[105] arose likewise that spirit of gambling, +which ended in murder on one occasion before the settlement had existed +more than six years; and which on many occasions was the manifest cause +of misery and ruin to those in whom this evil spirit had taken up its +abode. To such excess was the pursuit of gambling carried among the +convicts, that some had been known, after losing provisions, money, and +all their spare clothing, to have staked and lost the very clothes on +their wretched backs, standing in the midst of their associates as +degraded, and as careless of their degradation, as the natives of the +country which these gamblers disgraced. Money was their principal +object, for with money they could purchase spirits, or whatever else +their passions made them covet, or the colony could furnish. These +unhappy men have been seen to play at their favourite games for six, +eight, and ten dollars each game; and those who were not expert at +these, instead of pence, tossed up for dollars![106] + + [105] 1 Tim. vi. 10. + + [106] Collins' Account of New South Wales, pp. 243, 244. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE COLONY TO 1821. + + +The month of August, 1795, was marked in the annals of New South Wales +by the arrival of the second governor of the colony, Captain Hunter, who +continued five years in power, and returned to England in the year 1800, +after having seen the colony over which he was placed prospering and +thriving enough in worldly matters, though in other more important +points it continued poor and naked indeed. It was a great object with +the new governor to check and restrain that love of liquor, which he saw +working so much mischief among his people; and several private stills +were found and destroyed, to the great regret of their owners, who made +twice as large a profit from the spirit distilled by them out of wheat, +as they would have been able to have gained, had they sold their grain +for the purpose of making bread. So common was the abuse of paying +wages in liquor,[107] that it was pretended that the produce of these +stills was only to be paid away in labour, whereas it was sold for a +means of intoxication to any person who would bring ready money for it. +At the commencement of harvest, in the November immediately following +the arrival of Governor Hunter, a regulation was made by that gentleman, +which showed that the infant colony was now making rapid strides +towards that point of advancement and independence, from which +ignorant and designing men are at present labouring to thrust down the +mother country. New South Wales was, in 1795, just beginning to supply +its inhabitants with corn, and Governor Hunter wisely thought that the +increasing abundance of the produce would now bear some little decrease +in the high prices hitherto paid for new grain at the public store. +England, in 1843, is able to supply its inhabitants with food, (except +in scarce years, when corn is let in at prices varying with the degree +of scarcity,) and many Englishmen unwisely think that this advantage and +independence may be safely bartered away--for what?--for _very low +prices_, and, their constant companions, _very low wages_, and _very +great and universal distress_![108] + + [107] The crops of the first settlers were paid for by the Government + in spirits, but Captain Hunter endeavoured to put an end to this + practice, for it was not possible that a farmer who should be idle + enough to throw away the labour of twelve months, for the purchase of a + few gallons of injurious liquors, could expect to thrive, or enjoy those + comforts which sobriety and industry can alone procure. + + [108] It may not be out of place to quote in support of this opinion the + sensible words of an Australian writer. "I confess I like to hear of + high wages, and of good prices of provisions--of the productions of the + country,--for where they prevail for any length of time, the country + must be prosperous. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is no less true, that + the poorest country is always that where provisions are sold at the + cheapest rate. To the same purpose is the testimony of Sir G. Gipps, the + present Governor of New South Wales, appointed by Lord Melbourne in 1837, + who says:--'The total amount of the grain' (imported) 'even at these + prices, amounted to the fearful sum of 246,000_l._; but that, it must be + remembered, was only the prime cost in the countries where the wheat was + grown, and to that must be added the charges for freight, insurance, and + commission, probably as much more, so that in two years the colony would + expend upwards of half a million of money for foreign bread. _The + distress of the colony was owing to these immense importations._"--See + Speech of Governor Gipps in Council. Australian and New Zealand Magazine, + No. iii. p. 163. See also ROSS'S _Van Diemen's Land Almanac and Annual_, + 1836, p. 177. + +Another addition to the means, which the country was beginning to +possess of maintaining its inhabitants, was made by the regular, +though far from rapid, increase of live stock, which, in spite of all +obstacles, and notwithstanding great carelessness and ignorance on +the part of many of those that kept it, continued to thrive and +multiply.[109] But, besides the cattle to be seen upon the various farms +and allotments in the settlement, a considerable herd of wild cattle +were found, soon after Governor Hunter's arrival, on the banks of the +Nepean River, about thirty miles from Sydney, in a district still +bearing the name of the Cow Pastures. These animals were clearly +ascertained to have sprung from a few tame cattle which had strayed away +from the colony at its first foundation; and the governor, pleased at +this discovery, himself paid a visit to the Cow Pastures, where he found +a very fine herd, upwards of forty in number, grazing in a pleasant +and rich pasturage. The whole number of them was upwards of sixty, +but the governor's party were attacked by a furious bull, which, in +self-defence, they were obliged to kill. The country where these animals +were seen was remarkably pleasant to the eye; every where was thick and +luxuriant grass growing; the trees were thinly scattered, and free from +underwood, except in particular spots; in several beautiful flats large +ponds were found, covered with ducks and black swans, the margins of +which were fringed with beautiful shrubs, and the ground rose from these +levels into hills of easy ascent. The advantages of having an increasing +number of wild cattle within so short a distance of the settlement were +obvious enough, and the government resolved to protect them to the +utmost of its power. Accordingly, it was ordered that no part of the +fertile tract of which these animals were in possession should be +granted out to settlers; and at length the herds became too numerous +even for the 60,000 acres, which the district was supposed to contain. +But, in 1813 and the two following years, so severe a drought prevailed, +that vast numbers of them died; and afterwards the government consented +to grant away the land, and the remainder of the herds betook themselves +to the mountainous ranges beyond. + + [109] About the time of Captain Hunter's taking the reins of government + a cow was sold for 80_l._, a horse cost 90_l._, and a Cape sheep 7_l._ + 10_s._ Other prices were in proportion; fresh meat was very scarce, and + the various attempts to import live stock had been far from successful. + Still a _beginning_ had been made, and it is astonishing how rapidly + rural wealth began to multiply in New South Wales, after the difficulties + of the first eight or ten years had been overcome. + +Captain Hunter was rather fond of exploring the unknown country which +extended behind, or to the northward or southward of, the narrow limits +of the British colony: and during his administration its boundaries were +considerably enlarged, and some valuable discoveries were made. One of +the most important of these was a discovery which served to prove the +claim of the colony to be called New South Wales, from its resemblance +to the country whence its name was taken, in one production at least. In +1796, some persons returned from fishing in a bay considerably to the +northward of Port Jackson, and brought with them several large pieces of +_coal_, which they said that they had found at some little distance from +the beach, lying in quantities on the surface of the ground. This was +the first knowledge obtained by the settlers of the value of the +productions of the coast at the mouth of the river Hunter, and at the +place where coals were found so abundantly there now exists a township, +furnishing the whole colony with a supply of that useful article, +besides having a large trade in lime, which is made from the +oyster-shells that are found there in immense quantities. The +appropriate name of this township is Newcastle. + +Many needful and praiseworthy regulations were made by Captain Hunter, +who endeavoured to enforce attendance on Divine service, and the proper +observance of the Sunday; and who took great pains also to discover and +punish those encroachments upon the public stores which had been +continually made. The convicts whose time of punishment had expired, +but who were unable to get a passage to England, were frequently more +troublesome and ill-disposed, being less under authority than the others +were. These emancipists, as they were called, would occasionally indeed +withdraw from receiving the ration allowed by Government; but then it +was only in the hope of avoiding labour, and living by pillage. Or else +these men, together with others not less ill-disposed than themselves, +would play every possible trick to obtain their allowance from the +public stores, when they were not entitled, or to get more than their +allowances, when they had a certain claim. To put a check upon such +practices, the governor, in 1796, had a general muster of all +descriptions of people in every part of the colony at the same hour, +so that it would be no longer possible, as on former occasions, for +one person to manage to answer to his name in two different places, +and to draw provisions from both stores. Very shortly after this +general muster, the governor made a journey to the banks of the River +Hawkesbury, where there is some of the richest land in the colony, but +on his return, he had the mortification of seeing a stack of wheat +belonging to Government burnt, containing 800 bushels, and it was not +certain whether this fire was accidental, since the destruction thus +caused made room for as many bushels as were destroyed, which must be +purchased from the settlers who had wheat to sell. In reading of these +atrocious acts--for if _this_ fire was not intentional, _others_ +undoubtedly were--the inhabitants of England must not plume themselves +upon their superiority to the outcasts of their country in New South +Wales. Unhappily, the word _incendiarism_ has become familiar to English +ears, and, ever since the evil spirits of agitation and rebellion have +been dallied with, they have made their deeds of darkness visible, from +time to time, by the awful midnight fires which they have kindled in the +land. + +But it was not only in checking the outrages of the British inhabitants +of New South Wales, that the governor was actively employed; the natives +were also exceedingly troublesome, especially at the valuable farms on +the Hawkesbury. Vigorous efforts were made to prevent that disorder, and +disregard of private property, which seemed so prevailing; and certainly +Governor Hunter appears to have been an active and energetic, but, as +might be expected in a colony like that over which he was placed, not +altogether a _popular_ ruler. The vices of the lower classes were, in +too many instances, found profitable, more or less directly, to those +who are termed the upper classes in the settlement; and since both +classes became to a fearful degree sensual and covetous, the evil was +doubly aggravated by example and contagion. And when we consider, that, +at that time, the population of the colony might almost have been +divided into those who _drank_ rum, and those who _sold_ it;[110] when +we recollect the covetousness of all classes, the hardened wickedness of +many of the convicts, the idleness of the settlers or soldiers, the +peculiar character of the natives, and the infant state of the British +colony, it must be confessed, that the requisites of every good +governor,--a wise head, a stout heart, and a steady hand,--were +preeminently needful in the governor of New South Wales. + + [110] Promissory notes were given, payable in rum instead of + money.--JUDGE BURTON _on Education and Religion in New South Wales_, + p. 7, note. + +The list of crimes, which were continually occurring during the five +years of Captain Hunter's being governor, was a fearful and appalling +one; nor can we wonder at the wish expressed by the historian of the +early days of the colony, that future annalists may find a pleasanter +field to travel in, without having their steps beset every moment with +murderers, robbers, and incendiaries. Twice during Governor Hunter's +administration was a public gaol purposely destroyed by fire; once the +gaol at Sydney suffered, although there were twenty prisoners confined +there, who being mostly in irons were with difficulty saved; and the +second time, the Paramatta gaol was destroyed, and one of the prisoners +was scorched to death. Several of the settlers declined to pay anything +towards the building of a new gaol, and it was not long a matter of +doubt which article would be most likely to bear a productive tax; so a +duty of one shilling per gallon was imposed upon spirits, sixpence on +wine, and threepence upon porter or strong beer, to be applied to the +above purpose. Building gaols is, beyond question, a necessary thing, +especially in a colony chiefly formed of convicts: and perhaps a tax +upon intoxicating liquors is no bad mode of procuring the means of +erecting them, for thus the sober and industrious are not heavily taxed +to provide for the support and punishment of the profligate and wicked. +Nevertheless, if Christ's religion be true, there is a surer and better +way of checking crime, than by trusting to gaols and police alone; but, +unhappily, this more excellent way of reforming the morals of mankind, +has, in modern times, found little favour with the great ones of the +world.[111] Certainly the power of the Gospel and Church of Christ had +no scope allowed it for its blessed effects, when to a population, +consisting in 1803 of 7097 souls, and constantly on the increase, +besides being scattered over an immense tract of country, _one clergyman +only_ was allowed during seven years to wage, single-handed and alone, +the war against evil. There were, indeed, many Irish Roman Catholics +among the convicts, and one of these, named Harrold, was a Romish +priest, but his character was too little to be trusted for him to be +of any great spiritual advantage even to those of his own communion. + + [111] Thus writes the Bishop of Australia in 1840.--"Neither can I + comprehend or approve the policy which thus leaves multitudes without + moral or religious guidance, under every inducement to commit acts of + violence and rapine, which are not only the sources of infinite misery + to the unhappy perpetrators, and to their wretched victims, but + _actually bring_ upon the government itself ten times the pecuniary + charge which would be incurred by the erection of as many churches, and + providing for the support of as many clergymen, as the necessities of + every such district require." + +In the year 1800, Governor Hunter left the settlement for England, +and was succeeded in his office by Captain King, who had been +Lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, and had conducted with great care +and success the establishment of that smaller colony. However, Norfolk +Island was abandoned altogether during the government of Captain King +and his successor; and it is said this step was taken in compliance with +the advice of the former gentleman. It was a saying attributed to him, +that "he could not make farmers of pickpockets;"[112] and whatever truth +there might be in this maxim, certainly it appears that the progress of +agriculture was unfavourable, and that the colony continued still +subject to seasons of scarcity, approaching to famine, and obliged to +put up with coarse loaves, which were feelingly called _scrubbing +brushes_;[113] and was always in a state of dependence upon foreign +supplies for daily bread. But if there were no _corn laws_, there was +abundance of discontent and misery in the colony of New South Wales; and +during the time of Captain King's government, a rebellion broke out +among the convicts, who had been induced by some of their number, rebels +from Ireland, to _strike for their liberty_. The revolt was soon crushed +by the military, but not without the loss of life to some of the unhappy +men who had been partakers in it. + + [112] "More labour would have been performed by one hundred free people + from any part of England or Scotland, than had at any time been derived + from three hundred of these (convicts), with all the attention that + could be paid to them."--COLLINS' _Account of the Colony of New South + Wales_, p. 415. + + [113] BARRINGTON'S _History of New South Wales_, p. 376. + +The six years during which Captain King held the office of governor +of New South Wales, under the crown of Great Britain and Ireland, +were rendered remarkable, as has been already stated, by the partial +abandonment of the colony of Norfolk Island; and, it may be added, yet +more remarkable by the commencement of another settlement, the first +ever attempted in Van Diemen's Land. + +Norfolk Island, which is situated about 1000 miles from the eastern +shore of New Holland, was settled almost immediately after the first +foundations of Sydney had been laid; and although but a speck in the +ocean, and without any safe or convenient landing-place, the first-named +colony was altogether more flourishing in its early days than the other. +The natural fertility of the land, the abundance of food supplied by the +birds of providence,[114] the number of free settlers, and the wise +arrangements of Lieutenant-governor King, may all be recollected among +the reasons of the superior prosperity of Norfolk Island. However, its +career of prosperity was doomed to be but a very short one. Partly upon +the plea of its having no convenient harbour, and partly because of its +very limited extent, it was decided by the home government that it +should be abandoned, and this decision was acted upon in 1805 and 1807, +when the free settlers were compelled to leave the island, which +remained unoccupied for about twenty years, and at the end of this +time it was made a penal settlement for the punishment of refractory +convicts, which it still continues to be,--one of the finest spots upon +earth degraded into the abode of the vilest of human beings,--the scum +of the outcast population of a great and civilized nation. And, to +heighten the horror of the contrast between things natural and things +spiritual in Norfolk Island, there was not, until recently, a single +minister of Christ's Church resident within its bounds; so that where +Nature's sun was shining most beauteously, and Nature's sights and +sounds were most lovely and enchanting, there the outcast souls[115] of +a rich and _christian_ population were left to perish, without being +able to catch a ray of the Sun of Righteousness, without a chance (so to +speak) of hearing the sound of the gospel of Christ: they might there +listen in their lonely wretchedness to the rise and fall of the tide of +that ocean by which their little island is surrounded, but they were +shut out for ever, it would seem, from the voice of the great multitude +of the faithful, "as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of +mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent +reigneth!" + + [114] At a time of great distress, when 270 additional inhabitants had + just made good their landing at Norfolk Island, whilst the ships and + provisions sent with them from Port Jackson were almost entirely lost, + these birds of providence, as they were justly called, furnished a + supply for the necessities of the people. Mount Pitt, the highest ground + in the island, was observed to be crowded with these birds during the + night, for in the day-time they go out to sea in search of food. They + burrow in the ground, and the hill was as full of holes as a + rabbit-warren; in size they were not bigger than pigeons, but they + looked much larger in their feathers. Their eggs were well tasted + enough, and though the birds themselves had a fishy flavour, hunger + made them acceptable. They were easily taken, for when small fires were + kindled to attract their notice, they would drop down faster than the + people could seize them. For two months together, it is said, that not + less than from two to three thousand of these birds were taken every + night, so that it was with reason that the starving population of + Norfolk Island called them birds of providence. + + [115] A peculiar language prevailed in this horrid place. It is said + that a bad man was called a good man, and that one who was ready to + perform his duty was generally called a bad man; and so, in other + respects, language was adapted to the complete subversion of the human + heart there existing. See ULLATHORNE'S _Evidence before the Committee on + Transportation_, 1838, No. 271, p. 27. + +The relinquishment of the settlement at Norfolk Island, under Governor +King's administration, after the money that had been spent upon it, and +the success which was attending that expenditure, might well appear to +be a hasty and imprudent act; but, undoubtedly, in its consequences it +turned out beneficial to Great Britain. Instead of Norfolk Island, +another much larger, and far more important spot, which might otherwise +have been occupied by foreigners, was colonized by British subjects; and +Van Diemen's Land, from the extent of its present wealth and population, +besides its nearer resemblance than other Australian colonies to the +climate of the mother country, may justly be esteemed one of the most +valuable possessions of the British crown. The history of the foundation +of this new colony may here be shortly detailed. It was resolved that +a fresh settlement, which might be free from the objections brought +against Norfolk Island, should be formed; and, in 1804, Port Phillip, an +extensive harbour on the southern coast of New Holland, was the spot +chosen for this purpose. But Colonel Collins, who had the command of the +party of colonists, found the eastern side of Port Phillip very little +suited to his object; and without examining its western side, which has +been lately very rapidly and successfully settled, the colonel sailed at +once along the western coast of Van Diemen's Land, took possession of +that extensive island in the name of his Britannic Majesty, and, after +various surveys, decided upon the spot where Hobart Town now stands, +for his headquarters. The little settlement then consisted only of a few +gentlemen holding official situations, fifty marines, and four hundred +prisoners. The place selected for headquarters was well chosen, being +upon the Derwent, a beautiful and navigable river, and having a good +supply of water. In the same year, 1804, another settlement was formed +on the opposite, or northern, side of Van Diemen's Land; it was situated +at the mouth of the River Tamar, near George Town, and was called York +Town, but it was afterwards abandoned. The usual trials to which +newly-planted colonies are exposed, fell also to the lot of that settled +by Colonel Collins in Van Diemen's Land; but its struggles into life +were by no means so intense, or so prolonged, as those of its sister +colony. At one time when a disappointment occurred in the usual +supplies, the hind-quarters of kangaroos were received into His +Majesty's store, at sixpence per pound, and it is said that in six +months no less than 15,000lbs. of this meat were there tendered. After +some years of occasional scarcity, during which, once, even kangaroo +flesh was sold at one shilling and sixpence the pound, and sea-weed, or +any other eatable vegetable, was equally dear, the colony began to take +root and to increase, still continuing, however, its original character +of a penal settlement--a place of punishment for the convicted felons of +New South Wales. Cattle and live stock rapidly increased, land became +more and more cultivated, houses were built, farms enclosed, free +emigrants began to arrive, Hobart Town became a place of some trade and +importance, and at last, in 1821, or thereabouts, _only seventeen years_ +after the first establishment of the colony, St. David's Church, at +Hobart Town, was, we read, "completed and opened."[116] What attention +was paid to the spiritual welfare of the poor creatures in this new +penal colony during the long interval that elapsed before the occurrence +of that great event, it seems hard to say; but, judging from what we +have already seen, we may be quite certain of this, that _no less care_ +was taken of them, than had formerly been bestowed upon those of a +similar character in Norfolk Island. + + [116] See Montgomery Martin's New South Wales and Van Diemen's + Land, p. 257. + +While Captain King held the government of New South Wales, a subject +began to attract the notice of the colonial authorities, which +afterwards proved to be one of the highest importance, both to the +settlement and likewise to the mother country, namely, the introduction +and increase of free settlers. According to Dr. Lang, the first free +settlers who emigrated to New South Wales arrived there during Governor +Hunter's administration, which began in August, 1795; but by other +writers it is stated that five settlers and their families arrived by +the _Bellona_, in January 1798, so that these may justly be considered +the first free emigrants that removed from Europe to Australia.[117] The +conditions under which they engaged to settle were, that their passage +out should be provided by government, that an assortment of tools and +implements should be furnished them, that they should be supplied for +two years with provisions, that their lands should be granted free of +expense, and that convicts should be assigned for their service, and +provided with provisions for two years, and clothing for one. Besides +these few emigrants, many of the soldiers and officers, and some of the +released convicts, had grants of land given to them; but, generally +speaking, their agricultural efforts were not very successful, and +_military men_ seemed as little capable of becoming good farmers as +_pickpockets_ were. Yet, as if to show what _might_ have been done +by prudence and thrift, in many cases, a few instances of proper +carefulness and attendant success are recorded; and one man, to whom, in +common with many others, Governor Phillip had given an ewe for breeding, +in 1792, having withstood all temptations to part with this treasure, +found himself, in 1799, possessed of a flock of 116 sheep, and in a fair +way of becoming a man of property. + + [117] Compare Lang's History of New South Wales, vol. i. p. 71, + and Collins' Account of New South Wales, p. 197 and 201. See also + Barrington's History of New South Wales, p. 115. + +But there was an individual, whose name and history are upon record, to +whom the claim of a yet earlier settlement, as a free person, must be +assigned. His history is instructive, and may be worth repeating, since +it is, probably, a specimen of what afterwards occurred in a vast number +of instances. Philip Schoeffer was a German, who had been sent out with +the first fleet that ever sailed to New South Wales, in the capacity of +an agriculturist, and chiefly with a view to the cultivation of tobacco +(to supersede that of Virginia,) in the proposed settlement. His first +grant of land was one hundred and forty acres; but, unhappily, he fell +into habits of intemperance, and got rid of it all. Afterwards, he +obtained another grant of fifty acres, in what now forms a very valuable +situation in the town of Sydney; but this he was induced to give up to +the Colonial Government for public purposes, about the year 1807, +receiving in return twenty gallons of rum, which were then worth 60_l._ +and a grant of the same extent with his former one, but situated at Pitt +Water, one of the inlets of Broken Bay--a large harbour to the northward +of Port Jackson. Schoeffer then married a wife, a Scotch woman and a +convict, and settled on his farm at Pitt Water, where he lived many +years; but old age, poverty, and intemperance induced him to sell it by +piecemeal, and he died at last in the benevolent asylum or colonial +poor-house. This short history may serve to show upon what mere +accidents the foundation of wealth frequently depends, and especially in +a new country; for, if the German could only have kept his farm of fifty +acres in Sydney for about thirty years longer, he or his successors +might actually have sold it for 100,000_l._! + +After the landing of the few free settlers already mentioned, which took +place while Captain Hunter was governor, the next arrival deserving +of notice appears to have been about a dozen families of Scotch +Presbyterians, who established themselves under similar conditions with +the first emigrants, and whose place of abode was near Portland Head, on +the banks of the Hawkesbury. These men seem to have been a quiet and +orderly, as well as a prudent, set of people; and their industry was +rewarded by success. The zeal and devotion which were exhibited by +them in religious matters were also very praiseworthy, and not less so +because, according to Captain Bligh, it was the only case of the kind +he had ever heard of, during his government of the colony. A building +for public worship was erected by them,[118] at a cost of upwards of +400_l._, and altogether the conduct of these Scotch emigrants reflected +credit upon the country and religious body to which they belonged. But, +while we award to these persons the praise which is their due, we are by +no means entitled to place to the account of their being Presbyterians +the good order and right feeling which they exhibited. Scotchmen are +proverbially more fond of colonization than Englishmen, and hence it +naturally occurred that almost the first respectable settlers were +Scotch farmers; but there is no reason to question,--nay, experience +has since proved,--that Englishmen of similar character, and placed +in the like circumstances, can conduct themselves not less piously and +properly, and will not yield to the disciples of John Calvin or John +Knox in their reverence and devotion for a more apostolical Church than +that of Scotland. However, it must be owned with sorrow that these +instances of religious feeling and zeal were by no means common among +the first settlers; nor is this a subject of surprise, when we recollect +that, even now, Australia is frequently looked upon as a last refuge for +those who can do well nowhere else; and if it be thought so now, much +more must this impression have prevailed in the days of its earlier +settlers. But, from whatever class, or with whatever failings, they +might come, a few fresh settlers continued from year to year to find +their way to the shores of New Holland; and, in due time, the tide of +emigration was destined to set full into that quarter, carrying with it +a portion of the population and wealth of the mother country, together +with all its luxuries, its arts, its vices, and its virtues. + + [118] "The first religious edifice that was ever reared in the + great Terra Australis, by _voluntary_ and _private_ exertion." See + Lang's Narrative of the Settlement of the Scots' Church in New South + Wales, p. 8. The Doctor, in his Presbyterian zeal, had forgotten Mr. + Johnson's church. + +In August, 1806, Captain King resigned his office, and was succeeded in +the government of New South Wales by Captain Bligh, also of the royal +navy. His name is well known from the history of the mutiny of the crew +in the ship _Bounty_, which he had formerly commanded; and he was not +less unfortunate on shore, in the art of governing his fellow-creatures. +With many good qualities and excellent intentions, his manner of ruling +men was not either happy or successful. But before we proceed to the +great event in colonial history, which brought to a sudden termination +the reign of Governor Bligh, it will be well to notice a remarkable +occurrence which happened soon after he came into power. The banks of +the river Hawkesbury have already been stated to be distinguished for +their fertility; and at this time they formed the chief source from +which the supply of wheat for the colony was drawn. Many acres of land +had been cleared there, and the whole district, with smiling farms +scattered about upon the rising banks of the beautiful stream, offered +one of the most pleasing scenes in the whole settlement. But, within +the first year of the government of Captain Bligh, the farmers on the +Hawkesbury, and indeed the whole colony, were doomed to undergo a severe +trial.[119] In March 1799, the river had been known to rise suddenly to +the enormous height of fifty feet, and the destruction of property which +had been then occasioned was very great.[120] But now, without any +considerable rains having fallen upon the eastern side of the Blue +Mountains, between that range and the sea, the river rose, in one +place at least, to the enormous height of ninety-three feet, so that +buildings, stock, or corn, which were not secured upon rising ground +equal in height to that of an ordinary church-tower, must have been +overwhelmed and borne away by the flood. It is said that a settler, +whose house stood on an eminence at a beautiful bend of the Hawkesbury, +saw no less than thirty stacks of wheat at one time floating down the +stream during a flood, some of them being covered with pigs and poultry, +who had thus vainly sought safety from the rising of the waters. The +consequences of this unexpected disaster were very calamitous, and +before the ensuing harvest could be begun, wheat and Indian corn +attained an equal value, and were sold at 1_l._ 8_s._ or 1_l._ 10_s._ +per bushel. Even eleven years afterwards, when a similar overflow, +though not equal to "_the great flood_," occurred, prices were raised +enormously, and but for an importation of wheat from Van Diemen's Land, +they would have been very little short of those in the year 1806. +Governor Bligh appears to have done all that a governor could do to +lessen the distress that prevailed, by ordering a number of the cattle +belonging to government to be slaughtered and divided among the +sufferers, and by encouraging, to the utmost extent of his power, the +cultivation of a large breadth of land in wheat for the ensuing season. +By these means, under Divine Providence, the colony again became able to +supply itself with daily bread; a capability of which, like many other +blessings, nations scarcely know the value and importance, until they +are deprived, or deprive themselves of it.[121] + + [119] One of the vain attempts of the present age is that of + entirely preventing the various fluctuations to which, from accidents, + bad seasons, &c., the price of bread is subject. It did appear as though + a certain average of moderate prices was established in England; but, + recently, the system has been again altered, and time must show how it + works. Certainly the changes in the value of corn in New South Wales + have formerly been violent enough, supposing the following statement to + be correct: "I have nine years been a landholder in this colony, and + seven years have cultivated my own farm. In this time I have twice given + wheat to my pigs, because I did not know what else to do with it; twice + I have known wheat selling at fifteen shillings per bushel, and once at + twenty shillings!"--ATKINSON _on the Encouragement of Distilling and + Brewing in New South Wales_, p. 3, ed. 1829. + + [120] It is said that the natives foresaw the approach of this + calamity, and advised the colonists of it, but their warning was not + regarded.--_See Barrington's History of New South Wales_, p. 310. + + [121] For the particulars here related of the floods of the river + Hawkesbury, see Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. pp. 98-101; and also + Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 67 and 448-9. The latter writer + speaks of wheat and maize being sold at 5_l._ or 6_l._ per bushel, but + that seems to be a mistake. + +From whatever cause it might arise,--whether from his opposition to the +practice of all the chief persons in the colony making a profit by the +sale of spirits,[122]--or from his dislike of the New South Wales +Corps,--or from his own harsh and tyrannical conduct,--whether, in +short, we listen to Governor Bligh's admirers or enemies, thus much is +certain: he was excessively unpopular with a large and powerful party +of men in the settlement. Without entering into the particulars of the +extraordinary treatment to which his Majesty's representative in that +distant colony was subjected, it may be sufficient to state that, in +consequence of the imprisonment of Mr. Macarthur, an old officer, and a +rich and influential settler, great disturbance was excited, which ended +in the seizure of the governor's person, and in the occupation of his +office and authority by Major Johnston, the commanding officer of the +New South Wales Corps, who assumed the authority of lieutenant-governor +in January, 1808, and issued some proclamations ordering various changes +among those in authority. In one of these proclamations a day of +thanksgiving is appointed to be kept for the recent transactions; and in +the same precious document the Rev. Henry Fulton is suspended from +discharging his duty as chaplain to the colony,[123] because, whatever +may have been the faults of his former life,[124] like most other +clergymen of the Church of England, on most other occasions, he had at +this time stood fast to his loyalty. + + [122] Still later the following evidence was given upon a trial: "The + governor, _clergy_, officers, civil and military, all ranks and + descriptions of people bartered spirits when I left Sydney,--in May, + 1810." What a handle do such practices give to those that love to + "despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities."--_Jude_ 8. + + [123] Here is an example of the need of a bishop in every colony of any + size or importance. What right or power had a usurping military officer + to suspend from clerical duties _one_ of the _two_ or _three_ clergymen + who were then in the settlement, and that without any crime alleged, any + trial, or proof of his misdemeanour? Would not a bishop, to stand + between the mighty major and the poor chaplain on this occasion, have + been a guardian of "civil and religious liberty?" + + [124] Respecting these, see the assertions in Ullathorne's Reply to + Burton, page 6. + +The confusion resulting from the seizure of the governor was lamentable +indeed in a colony at the best of times so difficult to be managed. All +public meetings were forbidden by the party in power, and our old +friends, the Presbyterians at Portland Head, whose loyalty to the +governor on this occasion was very creditable, had well nigh got into +trouble from their meeting together on "the Sabbath" for public worship. +The object of the intruders was to get rid of Captain Bligh as well as +they could, and accordingly he was sent off to England in command of +the _Porpoise_, but he remained from March to December, 1809, off the +coast of Van Diemen's Land, daily expecting despatches from the home +government, until at last, on December 28th, his intended successor, +Colonel Macquarie, arrived at Sydney. This last gentleman was ordered to +reinstate Captain Bligh in the government of the colony for the period +of twenty-four hours after his own arrival; but in consequence of +Bligh's absence from Sydney, this was not done. However, Major Johnston +was sent home under strict arrest, and, after various delays, he was +tried for mutiny, by a court-martial, in May 1811, and found guilty, but +was only sentenced to be cashiered, the court considering the peculiar +circumstances of the case sufficient to excuse him from a more severe +punishment. Captain Bligh was, upon his return to England, immediately +promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and employed in active service; +while the New South Wales Corps, which had certainly been long enough in +the colony from which it drew its name, was ordered home, and the 73d +regiment sent out to supply its place. + +The first acts of the new governor, Colonel Macquarie, were to declare +the king's displeasure at the late mutinous proceedings, and to render +null and void all the acts of the usurping party, most of whose measures +were, however, ratified, their bills upon the Treasury honoured, and +their grants of land confirmed. The continuance of Governor Macquarie +in power for no less than twelve years, during which peace and +tranquillity, undisturbed by any very severe trials, prevailed +throughout the settlement, offers but very few of those events which +make a figure in the history of the past:-- + + "Famine and plague, the earthquake and the storm, + Man's angry passions, war's terrific form, + The tyrant's threatenings, and the people's rage, + These are the crowded woes of History's page." + +During the period of which we are now treating, vast improvements and +extensive discoveries were made in New South Wales; and in all these, +or similar, arts of peace the governor delighted to bear an active and +leading part. Availing himself of the means at his disposal, and of the +abundance of convict-labour, he made, it is said, no less than 276 miles +of good roads during his administration; and, when the nature of the +country along which many of these were carried is taken into account, +this exploit alone reflects no small credit upon Governor Macquarie. In +the year 1813 the colony was enabled, by the courage and perseverance +of three gentlemen, to burst those bonds by which it had hitherto been +hemmed in within the limits of a narrow strip of land running along the +sea-coast. In that year a passage across the Blue Mountains, hitherto +thought insuperable, was at length made good; and the hungry sheep and +cattle which had been suffering from the prevailing drought in the +settlement, were speedily driven over the hills to enjoy the less +withered pastures and green plains of the western country. No sooner was +this district thus opened than the governor commenced making a road over +the mountains, and in this he succeeded after no very long delay, so +that a good communication was formed between Sydney and Bathurst Plains, +a distance of more than 100 miles, about 50 of which cross an extent of +country the most rugged, mountainous, and barren, that can be imagined. + +In public buildings Governor Macquarie showed no less activity than in +road-making, although his efforts in the former line have not met with +unmingled and universal approbation. Certainly, the means by which, +what was then called, "the Rum Hospital" was built were, if they are +correctly reported by Dr. Lang, disgraceful and mischievous in the +highest degree.[125] However, the improvements that were made in the +rising towns, especially in the capital, of the colony, may well demand +our admiration, even though, as usual in estimating the deeds of fallen +man, we must allow that much evil might have been avoided, and that a +large proportion of moral mischief was mingled with the improvements. + + [125] See Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. pp. 168, 169. + +The great and distinguishing feature, after all, of Colonel Macquarie's +government appears to have been the studious, and not always judicious, +patronage extended by him to the emancipated convicts, whom he generally +considered in preference to the free settlers. In consequence of this, +the last-named class were thrown into the background, a kind of check +was given to emigration, and, what was worst of all, two parties were +set on foot within the settlement, altogether opposed to each +other;--the _exclusionists_, who were free settlers, refused to +associate at all with those that had ever been convicts; and the +_emancipists_ considered that a convict, after his time of punishment +had expired, was just as good as any other man. It was absurd, indeed, +although no more than usually happens, to see men of the _humblest_, if +not of the _lowest_, classes in the mother country, suddenly aspiring to +become _exclusive_ and _grand_ in the colony. And, on the other hand, it +was a pretty sure sign that the convicts, though emancipated from their +shackles, were not well rid of their vice or impudence, when they laid +claim, even with the aid of a governor's encouragement, and often of +great wealth not very scrupulously acquired, to the highest society and +most important offices in the settlement. Undoubtedly, one great object +in a penal colony should be that of gradually purifying the population +from all disgraceful or vicious associations; but the hasty attempts of +a governor to elevate a class like that of the emancipated convicts +were sure to end rather in their depression. Time, and a succeeding +generation, would have done quietly what Colonel Macquarie, with +all his power, was unable to accomplish. If a governor cannot make +pickpockets become good _farmers_, still less likely is he to succeed in +endeavouring to make good _magistrates_ of them; but a few years, under +judicious management, might easily produce from among their children +admirable specimens of both. And nothing can be a greater hindrance to +this desirable result than hasty and ill-timed, though well-intended, +attempts to force out of their proper sphere those persons, who, if they +are really possessed of any sense, would, of all men, desire to keep +within it. + +In reckoning up the principal occurrences during the twelve years in +which Colonel Macquarie ruled the colony, the vast additions which were +made to our knowledge of the country are by no means to be overlooked. +Bathurst Plains and the pass to them through the Blue Mountains were, +as we have already seen, discovered; the district of Argyle to the +south-westward was also made known. Two rivers, named after the +governor, who was (it is reported) fond of such compliments, the Lachlan +and the Macquarie, were traced westward of the Blue Mountains, until +they were supposed to lose themselves in endless and impassable swamps. +Northwards, the River Hastings, and a large extent of country suitable +for flocks and herds, called Liverpool Plains, were discovered. Besides +which, three penal settlements for the punishment of unruly convicts +were formed, one at Emu Plains, another at Newcastle, near the mouth of +the River Hunter, and a third at Port Macquarie, at the mouth of the +Hastings. + +But the mention of new penal settlements, in which the punishment and +removal of gross offenders were the only objects, while the reformation +and salvation of those poor men were never thought of, forcibly recalls +us to a subject of which we have for some time lost sight, and which +must be once more noticed before the history of the rise and early +progress of the colony of New South Wales is completed. Where was the +Church all this time? What was the Church of England doing in the now +flourishing settlement of Australia? How far did the state follow at +once both its duty and its interest, and employ in the work of +reformation in this land of criminals those heavenly instruments, the +Bible and the Church? The reply to all these inquiries is briefly made, +but the national sin and shame involved in that short reply it might +need volumes to unfold. + +In 1821, at the end of Macquarie's government, there was scattered about +in the colony a population of 29,783, of whom 13,814 were convicts, and +among these were found ministering _seven_ clergymen of the Church of +England, with no bishop of that Church to "set things in order"[126] +nearer than the Antipodes,--the very opposite side of the habitable +globe! Nor, if we look (as unhappily now in every English colony we must +look,) beyond the pale of the English Church, shall we find either +Romish superstition or Dissenting zeal working any of their usual +wonders. Though the number of Romanists from Ireland was very great in +the colony, yet they had, in 1821, only _one_ priest residing among +them; the Presbyterians at Portland Head had a catechist only, and with +respect to the other "denominations" little or nothing is recorded:--the +_establishment_ had taken as yet so poor a hold of the soil of New +South Wales, that the _voluntary system_, which seems often to need +its support, as ivy needs the support of a tree, had scarcely been +transplanted thither. One observation, before we quit for the present +this painful subject, forces itself upon the mind. How utterly unlike +are the ways of an All-Perfect God from the ways of imperfect fallen +men! The King of kings desireth not the death of any sinner, and has +wrought miracles upon miracles of mercy to provide for his salvation; +whereas man regardeth not the spiritual life of his brethren, earthly +monarchs and nations care chiefly about the removal of the offenders out +of their sight, and, so long as this is effected, they trouble not +themselves about the future lot of those outcasts; money is more +willingly parted with for "penal settlements" than for religious +instruction, and, although the earthly wants of the criminals are +attended to, here humanity stops short;--if their _bodies_ are not cast +out to starve and to perish _their souls are_. And who cannot read in +holy Scripture the just doom of those that have acted, or are acting, +thus? "The wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I +require at thine hand."[127] + + [126] See Titus i. 3. + + [127] Ezekiel iii. 18. + +Having now brought down the history of the colony of New South Wales to +a period when it might be said to be firmly established and flourishing, +both party feeling and needless details may best be avoided by stopping +here, yet it will not form an unsuitable conclusion to this chapter to +borrow General Macquarie's account of his own doings, although this may +be somewhat tinctured with that vanity, which is said to have been his +greatest weakness:--"I found the colony," he states, in a Report to Earl +Bathurst, "barely emerging from infantile imbecility, and suffering from +various privations and disabilities; the country impenetrable beyond 40 +miles from Sydney; agriculture in a yet languishing state; commerce in +its early dawn; revenue unknown; threatened with famine; distracted by +faction; the public buildings in a state of dilapidation, and mouldering +to decay; the few roads and bridges formerly constructed rendered almost +impassable; the population in general depressed by poverty; no public +credit nor private confidence; the morals of the great mass of the +population in the lowest state of debasement, and religious worship +almost totally neglected.[128] Such was the state of New South Wales +when I took charge of its administration on the 1st of January, 1810. +I left it in February last, reaping incalculable advantages from my +extensive and important discoveries in all directions, including the +supposed insurmountable barrier called the Blue Mountains, to the +westward of which are situated the fertile plains of Bathurst; and +_in all respects_ [?] enjoying a state of private comfort and public +prosperity, which I trust will at least equal the expectations of His +Majesty's Government. On my taking the command of the colony in the year +1810, the amount of port duties collected did not exceed 8000_l._ per +annum, and there were only 50_l._ or 60_l._ of a balance in the +Treasurer's hands; but now (in 1822,) duties are collected at Port +Jackson to the amount of from 28,000_l._ to 30,000_l._ per annum. In +addition to this annual colonial revenue, there are port duties, +collected at Hobart Town and George Town in Van Diemen's Land, to +the amount of between 8000_l._ and 10,000_l._ per annum."[129] + + [128] How could public religious worship be attended to, when, in the + year after Governor Macquarie's arrival, 1810, a widely-scattered + population of 10,452 souls, mostly convicts, were left in the charge + of _four_ clergymen? And in what respect were things improved at the + time of that Governor's departure in 1821, when, to a similarly situated + population of 29,783 souls there were _seven_ clergymen assigned: + and the Romish church had _one_ priest for New South Wales and Van + Diemen's Land, while the Presbyterians at Portland Head had their + lay-catechist?--See BURTON _on Education and Religion in New South + Wales_, pp. 8, 9, 12, 16. + + We may add, by way of illustrating the regard paid to religious worship, + even in Governor Macquarie's time, that Oxley's first expedition + into the interior was permitted to set out from Bathurst on a Sunday! + See his _Journal_, p. 3. Sunday, indeed, seems to have been a favourite + starting-day with Mr. Oxley. See p. 37. + + [129] See Governor Macquarie's Report to Earl Bathurst, in Lang's New + South Wales, vol. i. _Appendix_, No. 8, p. 447. + + + + +[Illustration: NORTH VIEW OF SYDNEY.] + +CHAPTER IX. + +DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. + + +The next objects that demand our notice in Australia are the British +colonies, and their present inhabitants. We have already given our +attention to the Bush and its wild inhabitants, and the lengthened yet +rapid process by which a lonely bay was converted, within the space of +little more than forty years, into the flourishing capital of a rising +country, has been fully traced. It now remains for the reader to be made +acquainted with the natural features, civil divisions, and present state +of the British Australian colonies,--especially of the oldest and most +important of them, called New South Wales. Were we not already informed +of the sad reality of things, we might be tempted to indulge in the +daydreams of an explorer, and to join in the bright and hopeful visions +of a most pleasing writer, respecting the blessings to arise out of a +change of any district from wild bush to civilized colony. But dreams of +this nature are little better than vanity, and so our explorer himself +tells us at the end of his narrative:--"Whilst I stretched my weary +length," says Captain Grey, "along, under the pleasant shade, I saw in +fancy busy crowds throng the scenes I was then amongst. I pictured to +myself the bleating sheep and lowing herds wandering over these fertile +hills; and I chose the very spot on which my house should stand, +surrounded with as fine an amphitheatre of verdant land as the eye of +man had ever gazed on. The view was backed by the Victoria Range, whilst +seaward you looked out through a romantic glen upon the great Indian +ocean. I knew that within four or five years civilization would have +followed my tracks, and that rude nature and the savage would no longer +reign supreme over so fine a territory. Mr. Smith entered eagerly into +my thoughts and views; together we built these castles in the air, +trusting we should see happy results spring from our present sufferings +and labours,--but within a few weeks from this day he died in the wilds +he was exploring."[130] So little are the brilliant hopes inspired by +discovery to be depended upon, nor less uncertain are the expectations +which the colonization of a district awakens in our hearts. We cannot +but look for good results, yet frequently are we doomed to +disappointment. + + [130] See Grey's Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. pp. 29, 30. + For the particulars of Mr. Smith's death, see page 27. + +However, the assurance of the superintendence of Divine Providence may +check all misgivings; and under this wholesome persuasion we may proceed +to consider the present condition of that country, which has been +recently settled and civilized on the eastern coast of New Holland, +and which is known by the name of New South Wales. It is manifestly +impossible, in describing a territory like this, continually increasing +and enlarging itself, whilst at the same time much of the country +already within its bounds is barren and almost unknown, to maintain that +accuracy which we are accustomed to find in descriptions of the counties +or districts of our own well-defined and cultivated island. Yet, in +New South Wales, as in Great Britain, the territory is divided into +counties, and occasionally into parishes; and it may serve to give the +reader a general idea of the whole country, if each of these former +divisions is briefly noticed. + +The county called Cumberland is the most populous and important, +although by no means the most fertile, in the whole province. It +contains the capital, Sydney, and the thriving towns of Paramatta, +Liverpool, Windsor, Richmond, &c.; so that in population it far exceeds +all the others. It is described as an undulating plain, extending from +north to south about fifty-three miles, and in breadth from the sea to +the base of the Blue Mountains, upwards of forty miles. The coast is +generally bold and rocky, and to the distance of a few miles inland the +soil is a poor sandstone, and the country looks bleak and barren; +further from the sea its appearance improves, an undulating country +extends itself to the width of about ten miles, and this district, where +it has been left in its natural state, has the appearance of a noble +forest, but, although partially cultivated, the soil still continues +poor, for it rests upon a foundation of sandstone. Beyond this, the soil +becomes better, the trees are less numerous, the herbage more luxuriant, +the scenery beautifully varied, the hills are generally more fertile +than the valleys, and the farms and cultivated spots are very numerous. +In the valleys of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, the richness of the +soil is very great, and the plains are extensive. One great evil, the +scarcity of good water, has been very much felt in this country, but it +is expected that by boring, the deficiency may be supplied. The coast +of Cumberland is broken and indented by many creeks or inlets, the most +remarkable of which is the noble harbour of Port Jackson. The county of +Cumberland is said to contain about 900,000 acres, of which not more +than one-third is fit for cultivation, and all the good land in it has +been long since granted away. Unfortunately, that part of the country +which is most fertile and preferable, is the very part where scarcely +any natural springs are to be found, for, although these are abundant +on the coast, and in the sandstone country, beyond that line they are +rarely met with; and, since the tides flow to a considerable distance +up all the rivers, the water of these is in many parts of the district +brackish and unfit for use; besides which, in the summer-time, the +smaller streams become dry, or dwindle down into mere chains of ponds, +barely sufficient to supply the wants of the cattle. + +The next county to the southward of Cumberland is named Camden, which +continues the line of coast, extending itself about sixty-six miles in +length, and being in breadth, towards the interior, about fifty-five +miles. This is a more mountainous district than Cumberland, and abounds +in lofty timber, but, nevertheless, there are several large tracts of +great fertility contained within its limits. The district called +Illawarra, or the Five Islands, and that of the Cow Pastures, are the +most remarkable; and being both of them rural districts, they may be +briefly described here. Illawarra is a very peculiar spot: it is +situated immediately between the sea and a range of high hills, so steep +that they are almost impassable, while on the remaining side, upon which +neither of these two boundaries enclose it, Illawarra is bounded by the +Shoal Haven River. The district thus separated by nature from the +adjoining country, extends about eighteen miles along the coast, and +is said to comprise 150,000 acres of most beautiful scenery and very +fertile soil. The greater part of Illawarra is heavily timbered, and it +is said to be not well fitted for the rearing of sheep; but for the +plough its deep vegetable soil is admirably suited, and whenever the +land begins to feel the effect of repeated cropping, there are means of +enriching it at hand in the large heaps of decayed shells to be found +upon the sea-shore, which would furnish an excellent manure. The +communication between this fertile spot, and the nearest market of any +consequence, Sydney, is carried on almost entirely by water; and the +Shoal Haven River being navigable for vessels of eighty or ninety tons +to the distance of twenty miles up the country, affords the ready means +of conveying produce to the capital from many parts of Illawarra. +Besides this navigable river, the southern boundary of the district, +there are many smaller streams which issue from the mountains to the +north and west, so that the country is well watered, besides which +advantage it is said to have a larger share of rain than many other +parts of the colony, and to be sheltered from the blighting winds which +occasionally have proved destructive to the crops elsewhere. The +mountain range by which Illawarra is shut in, partakes of the general +fertility of the neighbourhood below, and it is supposed, from its +eastern aspect, and mild climate, to offer spots favourable for the +cultivation of the vine. The timber of the district is very profitable, +when felled, and highly ornamental where it is left standing. Indeed, +the immense fern-trees, shooting up their rough stems, like large oars, +to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and then suddenly putting forth +leaves in every direction, four or five feet in length, and exactly like +the leaf of the common fern,--the different kinds of palms rising to the +height of seventy or one hundred feet, and then forming large canopies +of leaves; the cedars, the undergrowth of wild vines, creeping plants +and shrubs, in rich abundance; all combine to remind the visitor of a +tropical climate, of a more _northern_, or as Englishmen would naturally +say, more _southern_, climate than that of Illawarra. + +Respecting the Cow Pastures, the rural district, which, next to +Illawarra, is most deserving of notice in the county of Camden, little +further need be added to what has been already stated in another place. +Instead of _cow pastures_, however, nearly the whole of the 60,000 acres +of good land, which form this district, have now become _sheep farms_; +and the soil appears to be very suitable to the growth and perfection of +the last-named animal. Towards the southern and eastern parts of the cow +pastures are numerous streams, which retain water even in dry weather, +and which communicate with the Nepean River. There do not appear to +be any towns deserving of mention in the county of Camden, and its +population is small and rural: it is crossed in every direction by steep +ridges of hills, which almost always tower upwards like the roof of a +house, and where the country is mountainous, meet so close as to leave +only a narrow ravine betwixt them. + +The adjoining county, which may be next noticed, is that of Argyle, an +inland district, not having any front whatever towards the ocean, and +lying to the south-westward of the county last described. Argyle is +about sixty miles in length, with an average breadth of thirty miles; it +is a lofty and broken region, and abounds in small rivulets and ponds, +containing water during the whole of the year. It is also well furnished +with timber, although there are places where the trees are scattered +sparingly, and likewise plains of considerable extent, entirely bare of +trees. Of this description are Goulburn's Plains, which consist of open +downs, affording good pasturage for sheep, and extending twenty miles +southward from the township to which they owe their name, their breadth +being about ten. There are some remarkable lakes in this county, or near +its borders, the two largest of which are called Lake George and Lake +Bathurst. Some of the old natives say that they can remember when these +lakes did not exist; and dead trees are found in the bed of Lake George, +the whole of which was, in October 1836, dried up, and like a grassy +meadow.[131] + + [131] See Major Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 317. + +Bathurst is another inland county, lying nearly due west of Cumberland, +but not adjoining it, which may deserve to be briefly described. In +looking over a map of the colony of New South Wales, it appears strange +that counties, like this, comparatively remote both from the capital and +from the sea, should be more known and flourishing than others lying +betwixt them and these important objects. But when we reflect upon the +nature of the country, and remember that the intervening counties are in +a great measure occupied by the Blue Mountains, with their tremendous +ravines and dreary sandstone wastes, all wonder will cease at finding +the green pastures and smiling country beyond the mountains occupied, +while the rugged tract is suffered to remain for the most part in its +natural state, and instead of becoming populous itself, is employed only +as a channel of communication between the consuming population on the +coast and the producing population of the more fertile interior. +Bathurst is in length seventy-two miles, and in breadth sixty-eight, +in shape somewhat approaching to an irregular square. No part of this +district was explored before 1813. It is, in general, a kind of broken +table-land, in some places forming extensive and bare downs, as, for +instance, Bathurst Plains, containing 50,000 acres. Occasional open +downs of this kind, and not unlike the South Downs in England, extend +along the banks of the Macquarie for upwards of one hundred miles. +Bathurst is reckoned one of the most flourishing and desirable +situations in the whole colony, and the view of these plains from the +high land to the eastward upon the road from Sydney is very interesting. +The prospect of an extensive district naturally destitute of timber is +rare in Australia, and therefore it surprises and pleases the eye of the +traveller. Bathurst Plains form, however, by no means a dead level, but +consist rather of a series of gentle elevations, with intervening flats +of moderate extent; the surrounding forest is rather thin, and patches +of it extend irregularly to some distance in the plains, like points of +land projecting into a lake. + +The green pastures and naturally clear state of this district, formed +the first inducements to settlers to occupy a spot, which is now distant +from Sydney by the road 121 miles, about fifty of which cross the +wildest and most barren mountains imaginable, and which then had no road +at all leading to it, except a difficult mountain-pass only recently +discovered; consequently, the district was portioned out chiefly in +large grants to persons whose means enabled them to cope with the +difficulties of approaching the new settlement; and the society at +Bathurst Plains is esteemed very good; possibly it may be all the better +for its distance from the capital. But the best proof of the goodness of +the society in this neighbourhood is the attention which the inhabitants +are stated to pay to their religious duties, and the harmony in which +they live with one another.[132] The situation of Bathurst Plains is an +exceedingly high one, being more than 2000 feet above the level of the +sea; and this elevation, rendering the climate much cooler,[133] +produces the same vegetable productions in the parallel latitude of +Sydney with those that are to be found in Van Diemen's Land, ten degrees +farther to the south. Bathurst is said to be a very healthy climate; +wonders are told of the climate of New South Wales generally, and yet we +are informed that "the cheeks of the children beyond the mountains have +a rosy tint, which is seldom observable in the lowlands of the colony." +However, notwithstanding all that may be said, disease and death can +find out their victims even in Bathurst Plains. + + "Guilt's fatal doom in vain would mortals fly, + And they that breathe the purest air must die." + + [132] See Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. p. 119. + + [133] The difference of temperature in twelve hours' journey is + stated to be upwards of twenty degrees.--OXLEY's _Journal of his First + Expedition_, p. 4. + +The county of Northumberland is one of the most important and valuable +in the colony; it is upon the sea-coast, and adjoins Cumberland, being +bounded on the south by the river Hawkesbury, and on the north by the +Hunter. Its length is about 60 miles, and its breadth about 50: whilst +its general appearance is undulating, with high table lands dispersed +among the hills, and it is well watered by many streams and rivulets. +Within this county are two great sources of worldly wealth,--the +coal-mines near one of its principal towns, Newcastle, and the rich +productive farms in the valley of the Hunter. The last-named river is +navigable for small craft for fifty miles above Newcastle, which is a +thriving little port, and boats may ascend two of its three principal +branches for about 120 and 200 miles, but the navigation is liable to +be interrupted by sudden and tremendous floods.[134] + + [134] This account of the navigation of Hunter's River is taken from + Martin's New South Wales, p. 75. Dr. Lang, vol. ii. p. 64, gives a + somewhat different account of it. + +Coal is to be found in several parts of New South Wales, but it is most +abundant in the country to the south of Hunter's River, which forms part +of the county of Northumberland. Even at some distance from the shore, +the black lines of coal may be seen in the cliffs upon the coast, and +the coal-pits in this neighbourhood are worked with comparatively little +trouble. The Australian Agricultural Company have obtained a grant of +these from government: and, as a specimen of the demand for coals some +years ago, it may be stated, that, in 1836, there were sold at the +pit's mouth 12,646 tons for 5,747_l._, being at about the rate of nine +shillings per ton. Since that time the consumption has been very +rapidly increasing, and steam navigation has now become common in the +colony;[135] so that, besides the manufactories of Sydney, and the +supply of private families, there is an additional demand for fuel +created by the steam-boats plying constantly along that remote coast, +which only a century ago no European had yet beheld. It is also reported +that iron is to be found in New South Wales, at no great distance from +the coal which is so necessary to smelt it; and, if this be true, with +these two principal causes of the wealth of the mother country concealed +within its bosom, it is quite possible that, in the course of time, the +colony may rival, or outstrip, England itself in worldly prosperity. + + [135] It was introduced in 1831. + +But, however valuable these elements may be, the riches of a country are +based upon more important pursuits than mining or manufactures, and in +those fundamental sources of wealth,--in agriculture and its kindred +occupations,--the county of Northumberland stands foremost in New South +Wales. Not even the rich valleys of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers can +excel in fruitfulness or in cultivation that of Hunter's River. Wheat +and maize are among the chief productions of this fine agricultural +district, of which Maitland is the principal town. Potatoes, tobacco, +cheese, and butter are also forwarded to Sydney for sale from this +highly favoured spot. Were it not for the fearful floods to which, in +common with many other rivers in the colony, Hunter's River is liable, +altogether this valley, and the _arms_, or branch valleys, which lead +into it, might well be esteemed among the finest situations in the +world; and now that this liability is well known, and may be provided +against, the objections arising on this score are greatly diminished. +Still, a flood rising suddenly forty or sixty feet, and pouring with +headlong fury down the peaceful cultivated valleys, is a just object of +dread, and a tremendous visitation. + +We cannot leave the subject of this rich and beautiful district, +abounding in inhabitants and rural wealth, without borrowing the words +of the Bishop of Australia in describing its recent increase in those +means of grace and hopes of glory, which are, after all, the only true +riches. In 1833, when this neighbourhood was visited, "there was but one +clergyman in the entire tract of country, extending from the mouth of +the Hunter to its source, and the great and growing population on its +banks would have appeared, (if we could have forgotten the ability of +God to raise up children to himself, and to provide them with spiritual +food even from the stones of the desert,) to be abandoned to inevitable +destitution, both they and their children. But it has pleased the +Almighty to cause the prospect to brighten, and now (in 1839) there will +be seven clergymen dispensing the pure ordinances and inculcating the +salutary principles of the Church."[136] + + [136] Bishop of Australia's Letter to the Society for the Propagation + of the Gospel, dated September 12th, 1839. + +It would be at once wasting time and presuming upon the reader's +patience to attempt to describe particularly the remaining counties +of New South Wales, which are yet but imperfectly known and partially +colonized. It will be sufficient to notice the names of the others, +which, together with those described above, amount to nineteen +in number. Besides Cumberland, Camden, Argyle, Bathurst, and +Northumberland, the counties of Cook, Westmoreland, Roxburgh, +Wellington, Phillip, Bligh, Brisbane, Hunter, Gloucester, Georgiana, +King's County, Murray, Durham, and St. Vincent's, may deserve to be +mentioned by name, but nothing especially worthy of notice suggests +itself respecting them. We may turn, therefore, from the rural +districts, and take a rapid view of the principal towns of New South +Wales. Among these the capital, Sydney, claims the first place, not less +as a matter of right than of courtesy. By a happy concurrence of events, +the very first settlement made upon the eastern coast of New Holland was +formed upon one of its most eligible spots; and accordingly that town, +which ranks first in point of time, is likely always to rank first in +population, in size, in commerce, and in wealth. The harbour alone would +offer advantages enough to secure considerable importance to a town +erected upon its shores, and before Sydney itself is more minutely +described, we may borrow the account of Port Jackson, which has been +given by one well acquainted with its scenery, and himself by birth an +Australian.[137] It is navigable for fifteen miles from its entrance, +that is, seven miles beyond Sydney; and in every part there is good +anchorage and complete shelter from all winds. Its entrance is three +quarters of a mile in width, and afterwards expands into a spacious +basin, fifteen miles long, and in some places three broad, with depth of +water sufficient for vessels of the largest size. The harbour is said to +have 100 coves, and there is room within it for all the shipping in the +world. The views from its shores are varied and beautiful. Looking +towards the sea, the eye catches at a single glance the numerous bays +and islets between the town and the headlands at the entrance of the +harbour, while the bold hills by which it is bounded end abruptly on the +coast. To the north a long chain of lofty rugged cliffs mark the bearing +of the shore in that direction, and turning southwards, the spectator +beholds, seven or eight miles distant, the spacious harbour of Botany +Bay, beyond which a high bluff range of hills extends along to the south +in the direction towards Illawarra. Westward one vast forest is to be +seen, varied only by occasional openings which cultivation and the +axe have made on the tops of some of the highest hills. Beyond the +numberless undulations of this wooded country the Blue Mountains are +espied, towering behind the whole background of the scene, and forming a +stately boundary to the prospect. This description of the scenery of +Port Jackson applies to a particular spot very near to Sydney, but the +views are similar in general character, though infinitely varied in +detail, at other places in the neighbourhood; and nearer to the entrance +of the harbour a new and still grander object breaks upon the sight:-- + + "Where the mighty Pacific with soft-swelling waves + A thousand bright regions eternally laves." + + [137] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. pp. 52-55. + +Upon this beautiful and convenient piece of water, which has been just +described, is the capital of the principal British colony in Australia +situated. It is chiefly built upon two hilly necks of land, enclosing +between them a small inlet, named Sydney Cove. The western of these two +projections divides Sydney Cove from another called Cockle Bay, in both +of which the water is deep enough to allow the approach of the largest +ships to the very sides of the rocks. On this western neck, (which is +occupied with houses down to the water's edge, besides many others which +extend into the country behind,) the town forms a little peninsula, +being surrounded with water everywhere, except where it adjoins the +mainland. On the eastern neck of land the increase of the town has been +stopped by the government-house, and its adjoining domains, which occupy +the whole of what is called Bennillong's Point. With the exception of +the portion of the shore thus enclosed, the water-side is occupied by +wharfs, warehouses, ship-yards, mills, and all the other buildings which +mark a naval and commercial town. Behind these marts of industry and +wealth, the houses rise one above the other, and, by their situation +on the slope of the hill, force themselves conspicuously into notice. +Indeed, the town covers a considerable extent of ground, although land +for building is so valuable, that the intervening spaces, formerly used +as gardens and pleasure-grounds, will soon disappear and be covered with +houses. The public buildings of Sydney are said to be neither numerous +nor elegant, and certainly no great beauty of architecture can be +reasonably expected in a town so recently built, and under such +circumstances, as Sydney. Nevertheless many of the buildings are very +large; and Mr. Wentworth says something (though not much) in their +favour, when he states that they would not disgrace the great metropolis +of England itself. In one melancholy feature, Sydney too nearly +resembles London, namely, in the immense number of its public houses, +of which, according to Mr. Montgomery Martin, there were about two +hundred in the whole town. The population in 1841 was 29,973 souls. Of +these, 16,505 were returned as belonging to the Church of England; 8,126 +to the Romish Church, while the rest were returned as Presbyterians, +Dissenters, Jews, Mahometans, and Pagans. Sydney is divided into four +parishes: St. Philip, St. James, St. Andrew, and St. Lawrence; in the +two first of which churches have long existed, and in St. James's church +the cathedral service is daily used, with weekly communion; and there is +a choir, organ, &c.[138] In the two last named parishes no churches have +existed until very recently, but through the indefatigable exertions of +Bishop Broughton, which have been not unworthily seconded by the Rev. +W. Horatio Walsh, and the Rev. W. West Simpson, congregations have +been assembled together, which will, it may be hoped, continue to +attend the divine service of the Church of England, long after more +suitable buildings than those originally used,--_a brewhouse and a +threshing-floor_,--shall have been provided for their accommodation. +In St. Lawrence's parish a regular church was begun in 1840, and is +probably completed before this time; and, to the credit of Sydney, it +may be stated, that no less than 571_l._ were collected from those +present at the meeting in which the erection of the church was resolved +upon. In St. Andrew's it is proposed to raise the cathedral church of +the diocese of Australia; and, therefore, it must necessarily be longer +before the building can be completed; but the importance of this +undertaking cannot be more clearly shown than by the recent statement +of Bishop Broughton, whence it would appear that of 7000 inhabitants in +St. Andrew's parish, 3500 belong to the Church of their fathers or of +their native home--the scriptural and apostolical Church of England. But +more of these, and similar matters elsewhere. It was a wise and useful +arrangement of our forefathers, by which our parishes were made at once +ecclesiastical and civil divisions; and since this practice has in some +measure been followed out in our colonies, the reader will excuse the +brief observations thus suggested by the mention of the civil division +of Sydney into four parishes. One more remark, and that a painful one, +may be added. The expenses of the police establishment, _in the town +of Sydney alone_, cost the government, in the year 1838, the sum of +12,350_l._, whereas the cost of the ecclesiastical establishment of the +Church of England, in the same town, (including the stipend of the +bishop,) amounted only to 3,025_l._ during that year.[139] Supposing +(what is most likely) that the former sum is by no means _too much_, +how far _too little_ must the latter be! + + [138] There are several other parishes in the _suburbs_ of Sydney. A + third new church is likewise mentioned, among those in progress at + Sydney, in the Bishop of Australia's Charge, delivered in 1841. See + Appendix A, p. 36. + + [139] Compare p. 115 of Judge Burton's work on Education and Religion + in New South Wales, with Appendix No. 12 of the same work. It may be + noticed, that the sum mentioned applies only to stipends and allowances + of the Clergy, and does not include sums voted for building purposes. + +Sydney has a very good market, which is tolerably well supplied with the +necessaries of life; but many of these, as for example, eggs, butter, +apples, &c., are very dear at present, compared with the prices usual +in the mother country; while tea, coffee, sugar, &c. are cheap in +proportion. The most expensive article of living in Sydney is +house-rent, which appears to be enormously high, so that 100_l._ a year +is considered only a moderate charge for an unfurnished house, with +ordinary conveniences; and out of the salary allowed by government to +the Bishop of Australia, upwards of one-seventh part is expended in rent +alone. The shops in the capital of New South Wales are said to be very +good, and the articles well and tastefully arranged; but the social +condition of the colony naturally tends to make the persons who keep +them very different, and a much less respectable class, speaking +generally, than the tradespeople of the mother country. The noble +harbour of Port Jackson, and the position of the capital of the colony, +unite in affording every possible encouragement to trade; and the +following account given by the Sydney Herald, last year (1842) is +about the most recent statement that has been received of the present +condition of that commerce, which is altering and increasing every year. +The shipping of Sydney now amounts to 224 vessels of the aggregate +burden of 25,000 tons, of which 15 are steamers, of an aggregate burden +of 1635 tons. This statement may give some idea of the rapidity with +which the ports of the Southern world are rising into an almost European +importance.[140] Since the year 1817 several large banks have been +established, and, from the high rate of interest which money has always +borne in the colony, it is not surprising that some of these concerns +have been very profitable. It is only to be hoped that the spirit of +speculation may not be carried out, till it ends, as it too frequently +does in the mother country, in fraud and dishonesty. + + [140] See the Morning Herald, July 5, 1842. + +There is a well-managed post-office in Sydney, and a twopenny post, with +delivery twice a day, in the town itself. There is, likewise, a Savings' +Bank,[141] a Mechanics' Institute, several large schools or colleges; +and, in short, so far as is possible, the usages and institutions of +England, whether good or bad, are, in most instances, transferred and +copied with amazing accuracy by the inhabitants of New South Wales. +"Nothing surprises a stranger in an English colony more than the +pertinacity with which our ways, manners, and dress are spread in these +outlandish spots. All smells of home."[142] Accordingly, in complete +agreement with the manners of the mother country, though not in harmony +with that Word of Truth which commands Christians "with one mind and one +mouth to glorify God," (Rom. xv. 6,) the capital of New South Wales is +adorned with several buildings for various parties in the _Christian +world_, as it is called, to meet in public worship. There is a large and +handsome Roman Catholic chapel, "a Scotch church, built after the _neat +and pleasing style_ (?) adopted by the disciples of John Knox; and the +Methodist chapel, an humble and lowly structure;" and, therefore, +according to Mr. Montgomery Martin's opinion, from whom this account is +borrowed, all the better fitted to lead men to admire, love, and worship +their Creator. How different are these modern notions from those of King +David, who, although he was blessed with quite as exalted ideas of God's +omnipresence as most men have, nevertheless deemed it wrong for himself +to "dwell in a house of cedar," while "the ark of God dwelt within +curtains," even the costly and beautifully-wrought curtains of the +tabernacle. And among the imitations of the customs and habits of home, +the love of newspapers, and the number of these published, deserve a +passing notice. The state of the public press in England, especially +with regard to its Sunday publications, is grievous and lamentable +enough to justify the assertion, that printing is a bane as well as a +blessing to our native country. And as for those persons who are weak +enough to talk as though newspapers were the great or sole means of +diffusing _truth_ and _knowledge_ among the people, they are not less +mistaken than others would be, who might affirm that newspapers were the +chief or only means of spreading _lies_ and _ignorance_ among them. But +if so much evil is mingled with the good produced by the public press in +Great Britain, how must the case stand with the same mighty agent of +benefit or mischief in a colony like that of New South Wales? To this +question let Dr. Lang,--himself a newspaper editor in Sydney for many +years, a man of what are called "Liberal principles," and a Presbyterian +teacher,--furnish a reply. His words are stronger than another person, a +stranger to the colony, would like to use, or could be justified in +using; and if exceptions against his authority be made in certain +quarters, care must be taken by them not to quote that same authority +too implicitly on other subjects. Dr. Lang, in the following passage, +speaks disparagingly of one of the great idols of his party; their +favourite toast has always been, "The Liberty of the Press; it is like +the air we breathe, if we have it not, we die,"--although it is true +they have occasionally forgotten that other parties want "air to +breathe," as much as themselves. Bearing these things in mind, we may +listen with a smile to the character which Dr. Lang gives of the +colonial press in New South Wales:--"It has, with only few exceptions, +been an instrument of evil instead of good; while, in many instances, it +has been a mere receptacle and propagator of downright blackguardism." +Accordingly, it is reckoned, (too justly, we may fear,) among the +_sources of colonial demoralization_ in the very paragraph from which +the above statement is borrowed. + + [141] This is flourishing, for the deposits are stated in recent + accounts from Sydney to have increased, between June 30, 1840, and the + same date in 1842, from 143,000_l._ to 178,000_l._, and the number of + accounts opened was much greater than in former years. + + [142] Extract from a private letter. + +The next town to be noticed is Paramatta, which is situated in the same +county with Sydney, and, indeed, is only eighteen miles by water, and +fifteen by land, from the capital; a circumstance that will, most +likely, prevent it from ever reaching that size and consequence to +which at a greater distance it might have attained. Paramatta is built +along a small fresh-water stream, which falls into the harbour of Port +Jackson, at the very head of which the town is seated. For the last few +miles the harbour is navigable only for boats of twelve or fifteen tons +burthen. The town consists chiefly of one long street, and being backed +by a ridge of hills, it has a pleasing appearance, especially from the +Sydney road, where it breaks suddenly upon the view. The population of +Paramatta is 10,052 souls, and the neighbouring country is tolerably +well cleared and inhabited. In this place is the country residence of +the governor, and here also is the station of one of the three regiments +upon duty in the colony. Besides these distinctions, Paramatta has been +chosen to be the site of several establishments of no small utility and +interest in New South Wales. On the banks of the river is the Female +Orphan School, where the little friendless daughters of the colony +are trained up to be members of Christ's holy Catholic Church, and +servants of Him who is "the Father of the fatherless, and the God of +the widow, even God in his holy habitation." Here, likewise, is another +establishment of a very different character, but if less successful in +its results, not less beneficial in its intentions. The Paramatta +factory, or rather penitentiary, is known throughout the settlement, and +has been the object of much abuse from portions of the colonial press. +Its objects are, first, to afford a home and place of refuge to those +female convicts that are not yet assigned to masters, or are out of +service; and, secondly, to provide an asylum for those who have +misconducted themselves, and to give them leisure for reflection and +repentance. At Paramatta, likewise, is the noble institution called the +King's School, which may, with judicious care, prove an invaluable +blessing to the rising generation of the colony. There are also in +this town barracks, and a hospital; an old gaol, and a new one lately +erected, and intended to serve for the whole county of Cumberland, with +the exception of the town of Sydney. Besides these public buildings, +there is a Roman Catholic chapel and a Wesleyan meeting-house; and two +Presbyterian congregations assemble themselves in Paramatta; nor in this +enumeration must the convent lately commenced by a few "Sisters of +Charity" be forgotten. The Romanists are rather numerous in this town, +and very active. In a private letter received from the neighbourhood of +Paramatta, after stating the hold possessed by the English Church upon +the affections of the people, the writer observes, "from the pretensions +of the dissenters I cannot affect any the slightest uneasiness. Our +danger is from Rome. I know not what to anticipate in that quarter. +Their exertions here are gigantic, and really do them credit." Why +should not the efforts of our purer and more Scriptural Church be +equally strenuous? On the south side of the river is St. John's Church, +which is quite removed from the principal increase of the population, +that having taken place chiefly on the opposite bank. The Rev. Samuel +Marsden, who was chaplain in New South Wales for more than forty years, +bequeathed 200_l._ and gave a piece of land to promote the erection of a +second church here; but for one reason or another, no progress had been +made towards this desirable end, and in a letter dated January 1842, +Bishop Broughton stated his resolution to commence the good work, even +with the scanty resources at his disposal, hoping that the sight of a +building in progress would awaken the liberality, and stir up the hearts +of those that were able to contribute. + +Windsor is the next town in the colony of New South Wales, which +appears to be deserving of a particular notice. It is in the county of +Cumberland, and stands upon a hill rising about 100 feet above the level +of the Hawkesbury, upon the banks of which river it is built, and is +thus placed beyond the reach of its occasional destructive floods. The +town is situated on a point of land lying between the Hawkesbury and a +stream called South Creek, running on the other side; and so numerous +are the windings of the former river, that although not more than +thirty-five miles in a straight line from the sea, the distance by the +Hawkesbury is 140 miles. The destructive propensity of the colonists to +root up and destroy all trees, whether in the way of agriculture or not, +would appear to have worked wonders in this neighbourhood, for among +other advantages detailed in an advertisement of property to be sold +there, it is stated that fire-wood is so scarce, as to ensure +considerable profit from the sale of the wood on the estate. Windsor is +twenty miles from Paramatta, and thirty-six from Sydney, and the country +around it is very rich and beautiful. In some places the cliffs that +overhang the Hawkesbury are not less than 600 feet in height; and the +picturesque scenery, the numerous vessels and boats upon the stream, +which is here navigable for ships of more than 100 tons, the views of +the fertile country in the neighbourhood, with its abundant crops of +wheat and Indian corn, the boundary of the western horizon, formed by +the Blue Mountains, the base of which is about twenty miles distant: all +these natural beauties combine to render Windsor a very agreeable spot. +Its population is about 2000, and it has the usual public buildings, a +gaol, barracks, hospital, &c.; there is also a church dedicated to St. +Matthew, which until lately was served together with the chapel at +Richmond, a little town about five miles distant, by the same +clergyman. There are also Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan +places of worship. + +The town of Liverpool, situated, like those already mentioned, in the +county of Cumberland, still remains to be noticed. It is about twenty +miles from Sydney, and is built upon the banks of George's River, a +small navigable stream which empties itself into Botany Bay, the bleak +and unsheltered inlet upon which the proposed colony under Captain +Phillip was to have been settled. Liverpool is centrally situated, but +the soil around it is poor, and the population not very large; but since +it is the intended seat of the proposed college, founded by Mr. Moore, +it will probably hereafter become a place of some consequence. There +is nothing particularly to be remarked respecting the buildings of +Liverpool at present, with the exception of the Male Orphan Asylum, +which is a very good institution, the boys being not only educated +there, but likewise brought up to different trades, and general habits +of industry. The number of the orphan children in this school in 1839, +was 153.[143] + + [143] See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 174. + +Beyond the limits of the county of Cumberland there are very few towns +which are large enough to merit particular attention, and of these the +situations of the two most important and conspicuous, namely Bathurst +and Newcastle, have already been mentioned. Instead, therefore, of +wearying the reader with an attempt minutely to describe the small towns +of New South Wales, it will be better to proceed without delay to a +description of the other British colonies in Australia. + + + + +[Illustration: HOBART TOWN.] + +CHAPTER X. + +TASMANIA, AND THE OTHER AUSTRALIAN SETTLEMENTS. + + +Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, the next important colony, is, as we +have before stated, a separate island of considerable size, nearly +all the eastern side of which is now inhabited by the English. It +was divided into two counties only, which are called Cornwall and +Buckinghamshire, but these being inconveniently large, a fresh division +into eleven counties, all of them borrowing the names of some in England +or Wales, has since taken place.[144] But without concerning ourselves +about these smaller divisions, which it would be impossible to describe +exactly and distinctly, it may suffice to state, that the two chief +towns in the island are at its opposite extremities, Hobart Town being +at the south, and Launceston at the north, and both of these are +sea-ports; so that the colony seems naturally to divide itself into two +provinces, each of which has one of these towns for its capital, but +which are both, nevertheless, similar in their appearance, character, +and productions. + + [144] According to Mr. Montgomery Martin, (Van Diemen's Land, p. 266,) + Cornwall and Buckinghamshire continue to be its only counties, and it is + subdivided into nine police districts; but Dr. Ross's Almanac for 1836 + contains, at p. 238, the governor's proclamation for the division + mentioned above; whilst a third division of the island into the counties + of Argyle and Launceston is followed in the Report of the Society for the + Propagation of the Gospel, for 1842. The above may serve for a specimen + of the obscurity and confusion upon these trifling matters, respecting + which accuracy seems almost unattainable. + +Van Diemen's Land is a more mountainous, and yet, it would seem, a more +fruitful country than New South Wales. It is, according to the testimony +of all who have visited it, a most beautiful and pleasing land; the +mountains are tolerably high, but do not run much in ranges, and the +views among them are continually broken and cheered by delightful +valleys and fertile plains. Among these hills, limestone is very +commonly discovered, and is now in considerable use; it is supposed, +likewise, that coals, and iron ore, will be found abundantly in Van +Diemen's Land, but these resources of the colony have not yet been much +explored. In the cultivated parts of the country the soil varies +greatly; in some places it is a rich black mould, in others, sand or +flint is mingled; but its general fertility is proved by the excellent +crops which, year after year, it produces. The coast of Van Diemen's +Land abounds in bays and fine harbours; nor is this island at all +deficient in rivers and streams, imparting life to the landscape, and +fruitfulness to the soil. The Derwent, upon the banks of which stands +Hobart Town, is a very fine river, without rocks or sand banks, and +always safely navigable for ships of considerable size. Both sides of +this river abound in beautiful and romantic scenery, and although the +soil is less productive than in some other parts of the colony, yet the +neighbourhood of the capital, and the advantage of water-carriage, +combine to make amends for this inferiority. The Tamar falls into the +sea in Bass's Strait, quite on the opposite side of the island to the +mouth of the Derwent; and as Hobart Town adorns the latter river, so the +Tamar is enlivened by the trade and commerce of the port of Launceston. +The navigation of this river for large vessels is not easy, in +consequence of a bar and other hindrances. The Tamar is formed by the +union of two smaller streams, named the North Esk, and South Esk, and at +Launceston, the distance from the sea is about forty miles. Towards its +mouth, the land adjoining this stream is barren and sandy, but within a +few miles this kind of soil is succeeded by rich level marshes, and +beautiful slopes of moderately wooded and rich pasture country rising up +behind these. The other rivers of Van Diemen's Land are either, like the +Huon, situated in the uncolonized parts, or, like the Shannon, the +Jordan, and the Clyde, inconsiderable streams, so as not to merit a more +particular description. Many of the Tasmanian rivers take their rise in +lakes, which are usually found in high situations in the central parts +of the island, and abound with water-fowl. + +Hobart Town, the capital of a very beautiful and lovely island, may +boast of a situation of suitable loveliness and beauty. Behind it, on +the west, stand some gently rising hills, well wooded, beyond which +towers Mount Wellington, 4000 feet in height, and having its summit, +during more than half the year, covered with snow, but yet seldom +obscured with clouds, because of the pureness and clearness of the air. +On the other side of the town, to the eastward, is to be seen the noble +Derwent, which here better deserves to be called an arm of the sea than +a river, extending with its winding banks, forming beautiful bays and +lakes, or projecting into picturesque points, whilst its waters are +enlivened by the boats and shipping of the adjacent port. The water here +is salt, and the bay on which Hobart Town stands affords one of the best +anchorages in the world for vessels, in whatever number or of whatever +burden they may be. Indeed it is said that the Derwent surpasses even +Port Jackson, or at least it is doubtful which of the two deserves a +preference.[145] The capital of Tasmania is built upon gently rising +ground, and though within the present century its site was mere +bush-land, it has now some good streets, with large and handsome shops +and houses. According to Mr. Montgomery Martin, the average rental of +these was 50_l._ each, but then we must not lose sight of the high value +which houses bear in Australia. However, at that calculation, the annual +value of rent in Hobart Town in the year 1835, when there were 1281 +houses, would be 72,000_l._[146] The public buildings are said to be, +some of them, handsome and commodious. Court-house, barracks, hospital, +orphan-schools, jails, and government house, rank among the principal +buildings of Hobart Town; and in many respects it appears to resemble a +provincial sea-port in the mother country. It has some excellent inns, +good wharfs and warehouses, and public banks, besides a few considerable +manufacturing establishments. A small stream runs nearly through the +centre of the town, which, besides turning some mills, affords at +certain seasons a good supply of water. But the town is chiefly supplied +by means of pipes, which convey water to private houses and likewise to +the public pumps, and occasionally, it would appear, some scarcity of +this needful article prevails.[147] The church of St. David's, in the +capital of Van Diemen's Land, is a large building, and so it ought to +be, since it was until lately the only church for a population +(including the suburbs) of 13,000 souls.[148] Besides the church, sundry +other buildings rear up their heads, here as elsewhere; and if any thing +could justify separation and divisions among those for whom their Divine +Master prayed "that they might be one," if in any case it were "lawful +to do evil that good may come," then dissent of every kind might find +its excuse in a place like Hobart Town, where so many thousand souls, +the majority of them in a very unhealthy state, have been formerly left +in the charge of one pastor. But instead of praying the Lord of the +vineyard for more labourers, and endeavouring themselves to furnish the +means of supplying these, men have rushed, self-sent, or sent only by +others having no more authority than themselves, into the field of +pastoral labour. And while we lament the confusion that has ensued, +while we rejoice in whatever good may have resulted from unauthorized +preachers, we members of the Church of England are compelled by truth to +acknowledge, that, if other men have been led astray by their eagerness +and ignorance, we have been not less culpably misled by our slothfulness +and apathy. Accordingly the marks of our needless divisions are every +where manifest; and like the noxious weeds which sometimes hang about +the roots of a noble tree, so are these transplanted together with our +best institutions into our colonies. In the chief town of Tasmania are +to be found separate places of worship for Roman Catholics, +Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Independents. + + [145] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 51. + + [146] See Mr. M. Martin's Van Diemen's Land, p. 274. + + [147] The following specimen of the evil art of stirring up the + discontent of those that are suffering under the dispensations of + Providence, is taken from an old newspaper, published in Hobart Town in + 1835. It may be stated, that in the very same paper we are informed that + the drought had recently been so great that scarcely a cabbage, or any + other vegetable but potato, was to be obtained in the town. Of course + water was scarce, and precautions had been taken by the Governor to + preserve some at a place whence the shipping were supplied; but this + careful conduct of their ruler is thus held up to the abhorrence of + the people. "Why," it is asked, "do not the people drink the ditchwater + and be poisoned quietly; it is quite enough that their betters should + enjoy such a luxury as pure water." And how often in England do we see + this sort of trash printed by those _dealers in knowledge_, the + newspaper-writers, who sometimes argue as though all the credit of + prosperous occurrences belonged to the _people_ of a country, and all + the disgrace and responsibility of misfortunes and trials were to be put + off upon its _rulers_! How often are we reminded of the Israelites + murmuring against Moses on account of the miseries of that wilderness + in which their own sins condemned them to wander! + + [148] From a letter dated March 4, 1841, and written by the late + lamented Archdeacon Hutchins, it would appear that two new churches, + St. Giles's and Trinity, are likely to be erected in Hobart Town. See + Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, for 1841, + p. 61. + +With respect to Launceston, which continues still to be the principal +town on the northern side of Van Diemen's Land, there is not much to be +related. It stands at the junction of the North and South Esk, and +consequently at the head of the navigation of the Tamar, which is formed +by these two streams. The town is pleasantly situated at the foot of a +hill upon a small plain of about 200 acres of land. There are a few good +houses in Launceston, but its improvement has not kept pace with that of +Hobart Town; nor is it ever likely to increase very greatly, since a +government establishment has been formed at George Town, a place about +thirty miles lower down, and consequently much nearer to Port Dalrymple +at the entrance of the Tamar, and more convenient in its access for +large ships. George Town is well situated for every purpose of +trade, but for agriculture it offers no advantages, the soil in the +neighbourhood being very poor, and accordingly most of the settlers +prefer remaining at Launceston. The population of the latter place may +be nearly 1000, but no return of this has been met with apart from the +population of the district to which the town gives its name. Launceston +has a chaplain and a church, of which no particular account is given. +There is also a Presbyterian teacher resident in the town. At Longford, +near Launceston, may be found an example of "patient continuance in +well-doing," which deserves to be recorded for the encouragement of +others. About the year 1830 the first clergyman stationed there, the +Rev. R. P. Davis, began with a congregation of five, which appeared for +some time stationary. A church had been built which it was thought would +never be filled; but in eight years afterwards, the walls could not +contain those who were anxious to hear the word of God in them. The +grain of mustard-seed had literally grown into a spreading tree; the +congregation had multiplied a hundredfold, and a large church was about +to be built, to which the inhabitants had contributed 1500_l._[149] +Other small places might be mentioned, as Elizabeth Town, Perth, +Brighton, &c., which are very pleasant and thriving little settlements; +and the penal settlements of Port Macquarie and on Tasman's Peninsula +might be described. Port Arthur, one of these, is on the last-named +Peninsula, a sterile spot of about 100,000 acres, surrounded by sea, +except where a narrow neck of land connects it with the main island; and +this isthmus is guarded, night and day, by soldiers, and by a line of +fierce dogs. Nothing particularly deserving of further notice presents +itself, and therefore we may conclude our brief sketch of Van Diemen's +Land, wishing it and all the other British colonies in Australia a +progress no less rapid in religion and morals, than their recent +progress in commerce, agriculture, riches, and luxuries has been. What +condition of a country can be more truly deplorable than that which in +holy Scripture is so powerfully set forth, when the boast, "I am rich +and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," is heard proceeding +from a land which in the sight of God is "wretched, and miserable, and +poor, and blind, and naked?"[150] + + [149] Bishop of Australia's letter to the Society for the Propagation + of the Gospel, dated May 22, 1838. + + [150] See Rev. iii. 17. + +The Australian colonies may be said to form a family group of British +origin; and although the two elder sisters are undoubtedly the most +advanced and interesting, yet some of the younger branches of the same +family may justly deserve to be noticed. We may begin with the very +recent colony called Port Phillip, which lies between New South Wales +and Van Diemen's Land, and which, as we have already seen, had well +nigh taken the place of the latter country in the honours of early +colonization. The country in the neighbourhood of the inlet named Port +Phillip is in many parts exceedingly rich and fine; the scenery is +varied by hills, woods, and water; and besides much excellent pasture +and sheep walks, there are thousands of acres ready for the plough, and +capable of growing any European grain. The situation of the principal +town here, called Melbourne, is on the Yarra Yarra river, just where its +stream flows over a fall and mingles with the salt water from Port +Phillip, from the head of which bay Melbourne is distant about six miles +by the course of the river, but across the land not more than one and a +half. The vessels generally lie at Hobson's Bay, distant by land four or +five miles, by water ten or twelve. There is a bar at the entrance of +the river which prevents large ships from coming up close to Melbourne. +The town appears to be rapidly increasing; the commerce of Port Phillip +is yearly extending; its central position, the goodness of much of the +surrounding soil, and the fact of its being less encumbered than is +usually the case with wood, all these circumstances unite in rendering +this outpost, as we may term it, of New South Wales, an important and +interesting spot. Respecting its prospects of religious improvement +and pastoral care, it is gratifying to be able to quote the following +statement from a letter of the Bishop of Australia, of whose unwieldy +diocese Port Phillip forms a part. "At Melbourne the zeal of the +inhabitants has led them to undertake the erection of a church, the +estimated cost of which is nearly 7000_l._ Although the certain and +rapid increase of the town be such as will, at no distant period, call +for a church of that importance, I greatly fear that resources may be +wanting for its immediate erection." Meanwhile the Bishop expresses his +anxiety that temporary accommodation, at the least, should be provided +for the great numbers collected at Melbourne, who are desirous of +attending the church. "It is evident," continues he, "that within a +short interval there will be in the colony few stations, with the +exception, perhaps, of Sydney itself, which will demand more assiduous +care and attention on behalf of its spiritual interests, than the town +whose streets extend over a spot where, not more than three years ago, +the Yarra Yarra flowed through an almost uninterrupted solitude."[151] +The population of Melbourne is stated in a recent periodical to be 4479, +while that of the whole settlement of Port Phillip is 11,758. By the +same authority the numbers of the members of the Church of England in +this English colony are said to be 6194; that of the Presbyterians, +2045; of the Wesleyan Methodists, 651; of other dissenters, 1353; of +Roman Catholics, 1441; of Jews, 59; Mahommedans and Pagans, 10. The +mention of Jews, who are to be met with in almost all these remote +colonies of the southern ocean, can scarcely fail to recall to mind +God's threatenings to his chosen people (see Deut. xxviii. 64). We +shall conclude this notice of Port Phillip with mentioning two +important items in the estimates of its expenditure for 1842:--Police +and jails, 17,526_l._ 8_s._; clergy and schools, 5350_l._;[152] and, +as a commentary upon these disproportionate estimates, which are by +no means peculiar to Port Phillip, the words of Sir George Arthur may be +added:--"Penitentiaries, treadwheels, flogging, chain-gangs, and penal +settlements," says the late governor of Tasmania, "will all prove +ineffectual either to prevent or to punish crime, _without religious +and moral instruction_." + + [151] See Bishop of Australia's Letter, dated June 1840, in the Report + of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for + 1841, pp. 148-9. + + [152] For the particulars here stated see the Australian and New Zealand + Magazine, No. 1, p. 51, and No. 2, pp. 111, 112. + +The next of the infant colonies of Great Britain in New Holland, which +offers itself to our attention, as the eye ranges over the map of that +huge island, is the very recently formed settlement of Southern +Australia. This is situated upon the southern coast likewise, and +consists of a large block of country, the inland parts of which have not +yet been explored, forming three sides of a square, with the fourth side +broken and jagged by the inclination and indentations of the coast, +which are here very considerable. The area of South Australia thus +marked out is supposed to be about 310,000 square miles, containing +upwards of 98,000,000 of acres; that is to say, it is double the size of +the three British kingdoms, and not much less than that of France.[153] +The mode of colonizing this extensive tract of country is proposed to be +upon different principles from those elsewhere followed in Australia. No +transported convicts are ever to be sent there. No free grants of land +are to be made, but land can become private property by purchase alone, +and the whole of the purchase-money is proposed to be spent in the +encouragement of emigration. The emigrants to be conveyed by means of +this fund, without expense to the colony, were to be of both sexes in +equal numbers, and the preference is to be given to young married +persons not having children. The prospect of having a representative +assembly was held out to the colony, but the population was to exceed +50,000 before it could be lawful for the Crown to grant this. + + [153] See Report of Committee on South Australia, p. 78. Evidence of + T. F. Elliot, Esq. Answer 733. From the same source, the report of this + Parliamentary Committee in 1841, much of the information respecting + Southern Australia is derived. + +To attempt to state accurately what the soil and capabilities of so +vast an extent of country may be, would evidently be to attempt an +impossibility. Of that small part of it which is already occupied, much +is barren, hilly land, especially upon the coast. Nevertheless, it would +appear that South Australia has, so far as we can at present judge, its +full proportion of good and available soil, both for the purposes of +farming and for pasture.[154] The situation of that part of the colony, +where the principal settlements have been commenced, is very well +chosen, for it lies upon the Gulf of St. Vincent, a very deep inlet of +the sea, and is well backed with a range of hills to the eastward, +beyond which the country yet unexplored extends to the banks of the +river Murray; so that, in fact, the Murray and the Gulf of St. Vincent, +form natural boundaries to those settlements which are already begun, +and within these limits it is said that there are the means of +supporting comfortably from one hundred to two hundred thousand +inhabitants. This statement agrees with Captain Sturt's report of the +existence of several millions of acres of very beautiful and fertile +land in the same district. The climate of South Australia is healthy, +though very warm;[155] and the usual disorders of Australia, complaints +of the eye and relaxation of the bowels, were the ailments least +uncommon among the new settlers. In March 1841, the population of the +colony was estimated at about 14,000, and the amount of land under +tillage about 2000 acres. But since that time there has been a +considerable increase in both items. The quantity of provisions in +proportion to the inhabitants was considerably greater than in England. +A small commerce is springing up, and slate, which abounds in South +Australia, and oil, the produce of the adjacent seas, together with wool +from the flocks fed upon the neighbouring hills, begin to form materials +of traffic.[156] + + [154] In these matters it is impossible to get at truth. Each man judges + upon certain data, but though the conclusion of each may be correct, yet + because the data were partial and imperfect, so likewise will the + conclusions be. Mr. Mann, who was examined by the Committee upon South + Australia, gives it as his opinion that about four-fifths of the land in + that colony were bad. However, he had never been more than three weeks + in it nor above fourteen miles from its chief town, so his judgment was + formed principally upon hearsay. Others, probably, have gone into the + contrary extreme of praising the soil too highly, and truth may, as + usual, lie between the two extremes. + + [155] It is noticed as a matter of surprise, that on August 6th, 1841, + Mount Lofty, a hill 2400 feet in height, was covered with snow, and that + the small river, called the Torrens, had been partly frozen. + + [156] During the first six months of 1841, seventy vessels, comprising + a burden of 11,139 tons, arrived at Port Adelaide. See Australian and + New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 114. + +The capital of the province of South Australia bears the honoured name +of Adelaide, and is placed upon the eastern side of the Gulf of St. +Vincent. The country around it is hilly and well timbered, but not too +thickly encumbered with wood, and the soil is generally good, with +abundance of water. The British settlers removed to this spot from +Kangaroo Island, which is at the entrance of Gulf St. Vincent, but which +they found less desirable for a colony from the difficulty and expense +of clearing away the timber there. Adelaide is supposed to be well and +centrally placed for the capital of a province, and it now has a good +port,[157] to which vessels of four or five hundred tons may come and +discharge their cargoes. + + [157] Here again reports differ. See Mr. T. Driver's Evidence before the + Committee on South Australia, p. 221, Answer, 2498, and _following ones_. + +The town stands on gently rising banks, between which flows a pretty +stream, named the Torrens, and commands a view of an extensive plain, +reaching down to the sea, over which the fresh breezes generally blow +from the south-west. Behind Adelaide is a fine wooded country, and six +miles distant is a range of hills, with the wooded summit of Mount Lofty +forming their highest point. The population of the capital of South +Australia and its immediate neighbourhood, is supposed to be about eight +thousand. The town has not yet many buildings or establishments of any +importance, but there is a hospital, and also a savings' bank, in which +last, during six months of 1841, the deposits had increased from 130_l._ +0_s._ 2_d._ to 520_l._ 2_s._ 10_d._ It had _four_ newspapers and _one_ +colonial chaplain in 1842, and the estimates for that year contained the +following items:--Police, 9112_l._ 19_s._ 4_d._; jail, 1034_l._ 8_s._; +colonial chaplain, 370_l._ But we must do the colony of South Australia +the justice to state that this is not the whole sum which is there spent +on religious instruction. The voluntary system, as it is called, has +been brought into action there, and hitherto, it would appear, +successfully enough, so far as pounds, shillings, and pence are +concerned, if it be true that in four years,--the four first years of +the colony,--upwards of 11,500_l._ had been voluntarily contributed for +religious and educational purposes, and "the clergy," (as all teachers +are now denominated,) supported at an annual charge of 1200_l._ But, of +course, the voluntary principle, as its name implies, is a little apt +to be _wilful_; and, accordingly, in Adelaide alone, with a population +of eight thousand souls, it is stated that there are ten or twelve +public "places of worship," and a corresponding number of "zealous, +highly-educated, and efficient clergymen." Every settler apportions his +mite to Paul, to Apollos or to Cephas, according as it seems right in +his own eyes; and occasionally it may happen, when any little offence is +taken, that the popular saying is actually realized, and Peter is robbed +that Paul may be paid. And to some persons, who cannot, one would think, +have read their Bible with much attention, this system appears actually +to be the very height of perfection. The following brief quotation from +a letter of the Congregational teacher at Adelaide is said to be "most +satisfactory:"-- + +"_Religion._--The whole circle of denominations is filled up with their +appropriate pastors, churches, and places of worship. Adelaide is well +supplied. The country is not altogether neglected; but, as it fills up, +will be better attended to. I do not think the religious prospects bad. +Truth and piety, I expect, will flourish in South Australia. The clergy +of the Churches of England and Scotland are evangelical; the Wesleyans +have been very active and useful. Of us, you read in the Report of the +Colonial Missionary Society. The other bodies are also making their +way."[158] Would this report of religion in South Australia be "most +satisfactory" to that apostle, who teaches that "there is _one_ body, +and _one_ Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling?" + + [158] See "South Australia in 1842," p. 19, published by Hailes, London. + +Still let us not judge harshly of the infant colony, nor reproach it for +a leprosy, with which it has been inoculated by the mother country. +While we hail with gladness the good spirit which has been shown in +raising so much money for religious objects in the very infancy of the +settlement, let us hope, that the "places of worship" may diminish in +number, while the churches increase, and that the country districts may +have a larger share of assistance than they can now receive out of what +remains of 1200_l._ a year, after Adelaide and its _ten_ or _twelve +clergymen_ have been supplied.[159] Undoubtedly, in this province of +Australia there is much zeal and good feeling awakened, and the efforts +of the South Australian Church Building Society are deserving of every +success. To the members of this Society it must be indeed a cause of +thankfulness and joy, that they can call to mind during the lapse of +only four years, the quick succession of an open spot, a tent, a reed +hut, a wooden shed, and lastly, a church capable of holding six hundred +persons, being respectively used for places of divine worship. And now, +not only do they see one church finished, but two others are, ere this +time, no doubt completed.[160] + + [159] For the facts here noticed, see the Australian and New Zealand + Magazine, No. 1. p. 53. + + [160] See Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for + 1842, p. 57. + +The British colony in the great southern land to which the attention of +the reader may next be directed, is that of Western Australia; or, +as it was called in its earlier days, during its first struggles into +existence, the Swan River Settlement. This is situated upon the coast of +New Holland, opposite to the colony of New South Wales, lying in nearly +the same latitude, but thirty-four or thirty-six degrees of longitude to +the west of it. The first discovery of this spot was made by a Dutchman, +Vlaming, in 1697, who named the stream Black Swan River, from the black +swans, which were then seen for the first time by Europeans, and two of +which were taken alive to Batavia.[161] The banks of the Swan River were +first colonized in 1830, and the mode in which this was effected is +peculiar and different from the usual course. A few gentlemen of large +property undertook to found the colony, at little or no expense to the +mother country, receiving immense grants of land in return for the +expenses incurred by them in this attempt; which grants, however, were +to revert to government, unless they were cultivated and improved under +certain conditions and in a given time. Great difficulties and many +privations were endured by the first settlers, but these appear to have +been overcome, and so soon as the stream of emigration shall have set +steadily into Western Australia, (which is, perhaps, all things +considered, the most desirable of our Australasian colonies for a +respectable Englishman to fix himself in,) there can be little doubt +that its progress will be not less rapid than that of the sister +settlements. Along the sea coast, the country is hilly and barren; nor +is it much better in the immediate neighbourhood of the principal +settlements, Perth and Fremantle; but beyond these there is plenty of +good grass country, and near the inland town of Guildford, the arable +land in the valley of the Swan River is surpassingly rich and +productive, so that it has been known to bear eleven successive crops of +wheat in as many years, without any manure, and the last year's crop +averaging twenty-five bushels to the acre. In some parts this good land +approaches more nearly to the coast; but still a large proportion of the +soil is poor and sandy, although even of this a great deal is capable of +cultivation, and is thought to be especially fitted for the growth of +the vine.[162] The climate is exceedingly healthy and delightful; +indeed, it is even superior to other parts of Australia, and rain is +more abundant here than elsewhere. Plenty of fish is likewise to be +found in the neighbouring bays and inlets, which are very numerous; and +the whales are so plentiful, only a few hours' sail from the shore, that +oil is a principal article of export, but the Americans are allowed to +occupy this fishery almost entirely, and it is stated that from two to +three hundred of their ships have been engaged in the whale fishery off +this coast during a single year. The population of Western Australia is +small, not being computed at more than 2700 souls in the beginning of +the year 1842. The number of acres cultivated in 1840 were, according +to the returns of the local Agricultural Society, 1650 in wheat, and +3296 in every kind of culture. This settlement is, more than others, +in want of that article of which England especially needs to be +relieved--population; and if a man is frugal, sober, and industrious, if +he will bear in mind that "on no part of the face of the globe will the +earth yield her increase, but as it is moistened by sweat from man's +brow,"[163] Western Australia is, possibly, the best and most agreeable +country where he can find a happy home. Although this large district is +yet so thinly peopled, it is, nevertheless, in a state of colonization +and civilization surpassing what might have been fairly expected. And +the absence of convicts, though it renders labour scarce and expensive, +brings with it counterbalancing advantages, and prevents the double +danger of immediate taint to society from the unhappy criminals, and of +future schism arising between the emancipated convicts, or their +children, and the free settlers. + + [161] See Flinders' Voyage, Introduction, vol. i. p. 60. + + [162] There is a vine in the government garden (at Perth) which, planted + as a cutting, sent out shoots 16½ feet long in the second year, and + yielded more than 4 cwt. of grapes. Another, belonging to Mr. C. Brown + of the same place, had a stem, which, in only five years' growth, was + 14½ feet in circumference. See "A Short Account of the Settlement in + Swan River," p. 15, published by Cross, Holborn, 1842. + + [163] See "A Short Account of the Settlement of Swan River," p. 33. + +Fremantle is at the mouth of the Swan River, and contains some +tolerable houses, with a jetty and various other conveniences for +trade, especially for the whale fishery; from the ships engaged in which +pursuit, (chiefly American vessels,) a great portion of its commerce is +derived. One cause of its trade and population not having increased more +rapidly may be the bar across the mouth of the Swan River, having only +a depth of six feet at low water, and preventing the approach of ships +of large burden. The soil around is sandy, and produces little or no +grass; but when well cultivated, it yields excellent vegetables. Two +miles from Fremantle, up the river, there is a ferry across to Perth, +the seat of government and capital of the colony, which is well +situated, the river extending into a broad sheet, named Melville Waters, +in front of the town. Here is good brick-earth and garden-ground, and +near the town there are some tolerable farms. But at Guildford, seven +miles further up the river, commences the rich corn-land of the colony, +and the town itself contains six or seven hundred inhabitants. York is +forty-eight miles eastward of Guildford; and King George's Sound, on the +coast, where there is another settlement, is about one hundred and fifty +miles from York. + +There are several other little stations scattered about in various +directions, especially upon the coast. In 1840 there were five clergymen +in Western Australia, and on the 1st of January, 1841, the foundation +stone of a church at Perth to contain 600 persons was laid by the +governor; its estimated cost was 4000_l._ There are churches also at +Guildford, at the Middle Swan, the Upper Swan, and at York, and a new +church erecting at Albany, near King George's Sound. Some humble little +churches have also been built of mud, and thatched with rushes, in this +colony. And although, where it can be done, we think that noble churches +are most becoming to the service of the King of kings, yet we doubt not, +in the cases where these lowly buildings are unavoidable, that since +"the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels," so +these ministering spirits are sent forth into the wilderness to minister +unto them that are heirs of salvation: we confidently trust that "the +Lord is among them," even "as in the holy place of Sinai." Wesleyan +meeting-houses are to be found at Perth and Fremantle. The governor +and executive council were authorized to "grant aid towards ministers' +stipends, and towards buildings, _without any distinction of +sect_."[164] This precious system, which would make no "distinction of +sect," between the doctrine of the beloved apostle St. John, and that of +the Nicolaitans, "which God hates,"[165] is almost a dead letter in +Western Australia, owing to the scattered state of the population, and +the great majority of them being members of the Church of England. The +duty of government to _tolerate_ separatists, (while they continue +obedient to the laws of the country,) is now denied by no one; and +toleration, one might have supposed, would have been all that those who +dislike a state church would have accepted; but the duty of government +to _encourage_ and _foster_ separation in places where it does not at +present exist, is inculcated neither by reason, policy, nor Scripture; +neither can dissenters consistently accept of aid from the state in +Australia, and exclaim against it in England. + + [164] See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 1, p. 28. + + [165] See Rev. ii. 15. + +One more commencement of colonization in the island of New Holland must +be mentioned in order to complete the circle. An attempt to form a +settlement on the northern coast was made as early as 1824, at Melville +Island, rather more than five degrees to the west of the Gulph of +Carpentaria; but this establishment was moved in 1827 to Raffles Bay, +an adjacent inlet of the main land. The new station was in its turn +abandoned in the year 1829, and a fresh settlement, at the distance of +a few miles, was planted at Port Essington, by Sir Gordon Bremer, who +sailed thither with His Majesty's ships _Alligator_ and _Britomarte_, +in 1838. The colony is still quite in an infant state. No clergyman +accompanied the expedition, although the commander was desirous +of securing the blessings of Church communion for his little +settlement.[166] In the immediate neighbourhood some native Christians +(Australians) were found, who had many years ago been converted by the +Dutch; they had churches, and appeared to behave well. Upon application +to the Bishop of Australia, 300_l._ was obtained towards a church at +Port Essington, and his endeavours to get a chaplain appointed there +were promised. It may be observed that Port Essington is situated 2000 +miles, in a direct line, from Hobart Town, and both places were until +very recently within the same diocese, that of Australia! In like +manner, when the five clergymen stationed in Western Australia had +memorialized the Bishop to visit them, that he might consecrate their +churches, confirm their children, and "set in order things that were +wanting," one great obstacle to his compliance was the necessity of +having his life insured in the interim, for Western Australia, though +within his diocese, was not within the limits of his policy of life +assurance! + + [166] Thus, as recently as the year 1838, two ships were sent from + _Christian_ England to found a colony; having on board upwards of + 500 souls, but unprovided with any minister of religion! How strange a + method, _if we really believe God's word_, of gaining a blessing from + Heaven, either for ourselves or our colonies! + + + + +[Illustration: CAPE PILLAR NEAR THE ENTRANCE OF RIVER DERWENT, VAN +DIEMAN'S LAND.] + +CHAPTER XI. + +GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. + + +Having now rapidly surveyed the various British settlements in +Australia, taking them separately, a few observations may be added +respecting their general condition. And, first, of the _climate_ of +these countries, it must have evidently appeared from what has been +already stated that this is extremely healthy and beautiful. Every one +who has been in Australia appears to be surprised at the spring and +elasticity which the climate imparts to the human frame; and although it +does not seem that the average of life is at all more prolonged there +than in England, still it would really seem, that the enjoyment of life +was greater. Such declarations as these.--"To say we are all well is +really nothing;" "the full enjoyment of health is quite a marvel;" +occur in the letters of those who are settled in the great Southern +Land; and the descriptions with which we meet in books of its +exhilarating climate, completely justify and bear out the pleasing +accounts of it given us by its inhabitants. In so vast a territory, and +in so many different situations as the British colonies now occupy, +there must needs be great variety of climate; and the warmth of Sydney +and its neighbourhood forms a strong contrast to the cool bracing air +of Bathurst, which is only 121 miles distant; the heat of the new +settlements at Moreton Bay, which is nearly tropical, is strongly +opposed to the English climate, beautifully softened and free from +damp, which is enjoyed in Van Diemen's Land. In Australia, it has been +remarked, every thing regarding climate is the opposite of England; for +example, the north is the hot wind, and the south the cool; the westerly +the most unhealthy, and the east the most salubrious; it is summer with +the colonists when it is winter at home, and their midnight coincides +with our noonday. Near the coast, the sea breezes, which set in daily +from the great expanse of waters, are very refreshing; whilst in the +interior, except in Van Diemen's Land, or in very high situations, the +hot winds are extremely disagreeable. Especially in the colony of New +South Wales, during the summer season, the westerly wind, which blows +probably over immense deserts of sandstone, or over miles of country set +on fire by the natives, is scarcely endurable at certain times, but +feels like the heated air at the mouth of a furnace, and is then far +from wholesome or pleasant. However, this blast of hot wind is said +never to endure very long, and it is less oppressive than the same heat +would be elsewhere, because in New Holland the air is dry, and in other +countries, India for instance, when the heat is exactly the same, it is +felt much more intensely from the quantity of moisture with which the +burning atmosphere is surcharged. Still we may form an idea of the +occasional violence of the heat in the interior of New Holland, from +Captain Sturt's account of his expedition across the parched-up marshes +of the Macquarie River, where the sugar which his men carried in their +canisters was melted, and all their dogs destroyed. + +The scourge of Australia is _drought_; and when a native of the British +Islands has lived a few years in that part of the world, he begins +to understand and feel better than he ever before did, the frequent +allusions in the holy Scriptures to water as an emblem and sign of the +greatest blessings. The Englishman in Australia soon learns what is +meant by the blessings of Christ's kingdom being compared to "rivers of +water in a dry place," or to "the shadow of a great rock in a weary +land,"[167] when that rock promises a spring of living water, a comfort +which in New Holland is occasionally found upon the bare top of a +mountain, where no other supply is to be had within thirty miles +round.[168] And the thankfulness of the inhabitants of our own green +islands may be awakened, the undue expectations of the English emigrant +may be checked, by reading complaints like the following, which are, at +intervals, only too well founded in many parts of the Australian +colonies. "We have now for upwards of four months been watching with +anxious interest the progress of every cloudy sky; but, overcast as the +heavens most usually are towards evening, the clouds have appeared to +consist more of smoky exhalations than moist vapours; and even when at +times they have seemed to break darkly over us, their liquid contents +have apparently evaporated in the middle air. The various arrivals in +our port (Port Macquarie) have brought us accounts of genial showers and +refreshing dews, which have visited the neighbouring districts; and even +the silence of our own parched coast has been broken by the sound of +distant thunderstorms, exhausting themselves on the eastern waves while +the sun has been setting in scorching splendour upon the horizon of our +western hills. Since the 30th of June last to the present date, October +28th, there have been but thirteen days with rain, and then the showers +were but trifling. In consequence, the surface of the ground, in large +tracts of the district, is so parched and withered, that all minor +vegetation has nearly ceased, and the wheat-crops that were sown in +June, are, we fear, doomed to perish."[169] + + [167] See Isaiah xxxii. 2. The following proverbial saying in India may + serve to show how natural such comparisons are in the mouths of the + inhabitants of hot climates: "Ah, that benevolent man, he has long been + my shelter from the wind; he is a river to the dry country." See Roberts' + Oriental Illustrations of Scripture, _ad. loc._ p. 429. How different an + idea do the words "shelter from the _wind_" convey to the inhabitant of + England's bleak shores, and Asia's parching deserts! + + [168] See an interesting passage in Major Mitchell's Three Expeditions, + vol. ii. p. 28. See likewise Oxley's First Journal, p. 75. + + [169] See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. iv. p. 234. + +How expressive, after reading descriptions like this, do those +complaints of one of the inspired writers appear: "The seed is rotten +under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken +down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of +cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of +sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath +devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all +the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee, for +the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the +pastures of the wilderness." (Joel i. 17-20.) + +Most of the productions of the soil which are to be found in the +mother country are raised likewise in the Australian settlements. The +wheat-harvest commences in New South Wales in the middle of November, +and is generally over by Christmas, so that to this festive season a +fresh cause of rejoicing is added, and men are called upon to be +thankful at once for the greatest temporal and spiritual blessings; +the same time of year supplies them with the meat that perisheth, and +reminds them of the coming down from heaven of Him who is the bread of +life. But, besides the ordinary produce of our English fields, many +productions of the soil are raised in Australia which will not grow in +the northern climate of Britain. The fruits of Italy and Spain, the +tobacco of Virginia, and the Indian corn of the southern states of +America, are all produced in the Australian colonies. And one fruit may +be particularly noticed, which is in England justly reckoned a delicacy, +but which in New South Wales is so abundant, that the very swine are +feasted upon it: _peaches_ are to be had in full perfection for full +four months in the year, the later varieties regularly succeeding to +those that are earlier. This fruit grows everywhere, it matters not +whether the soil be rich or poor; and if a peach-stone is planted it +will in three years afterwards bear an abundant crop of fruit. So +plentifully do they grow, that they are commonly used to fatten hogs, +for which purpose they answer very well, after having been laid in +heaps, and allowed to ferment a little; cider also of a pleasant and +wholesome quality is made from the same fruit. + +The chief wealth of Australia consists in its flocks and herds, and +nothing in the progress of our settlements there is more astonishing +than the rapidity with which these primitive riches have increased. +Sixty years ago there was not a single sheep in the vast island of New +Holland; and now, from a few narrow strips of land upon some of its +coasts, millions of pounds of wool are annually exported to England. The +fine climate of Australia is especially suited for sheep, and it would +appear to have an improving effect upon the quality of that animal's +fleece, which nowhere reaches greater perfection than in New South +Wales. Cattle also thrive and increase very much in the Australian +settlements, and animals of all kinds in New South Wales are exceedingly +dainty: if shut up in a field of good grass they will starve themselves +with fretting rather than eat it, they are so anxious to get out upon +the sweet natural pastures. Although it is to be hoped and expected +that, under judicious management, these colonies will always be able to +supply their inhabitants with bread, still it is confessed on all sides +that pastoral riches form their natural source of wealth, and that it is +to these chiefly, together with their mineral productions and commerce, +that they must look for a foundation of permanent and continued worldly +prosperity. + +The form of government is the same in all the British Australasian +colonies, and while the governor's authority is supreme, by virtue +of his being the representative of the British crown, his power is +restrained by an executive council and by a legislative council. The +former body, whose office is to assist the governor in carrying the laws +into execution, is composed of the colonial secretary and treasurer, +the bishop and lieutenant-governor, (if the last-named office is not +abolished,) under the presidency of the governor himself. The +legislative council consists of the same persons, with the addition +of the chief justice, the attorney-general, the chief officer of the +customs, the auditor-general, and seven private gentlemen of the colony, +who are appointed by the crown for life, and for whom, in case of death +or removal, the governor may choose a substitute, until the Queen's +pleasure be known. The office of this legislative council is, as its +name implies, that of making laws, in which, however, at least +two-thirds of the members must agree, and which must not be contrary +to the charter, or letters patent, or orders in council, or laws of +England. The proposal of new laws always belongs to the governor, who +must, however, give eight clear days' notice in the public papers, +stating the general objects of the intended enactments; nor can this +rule be dispensed with, except in cases of very great emergency. Such is +briefly the outline of the constitution at present established in the +Australian settlements, and under this form of government they have, +most of them, already run a race of prosperity, which, allowing for the +recent dates of their foundation, can scarcely be matched in the annals +of any nation. Nevertheless, the present form of government is a very +great subject of discontent among many of the colonists, and the _want_ +of a representative house of assembly in New South Wales and Van +Diemen's Land appears to give as little satisfaction to many persons +_there_, as the _presence_ of such an assembly does _here_ in +England.[170] It may easily be imagined what a fine subject for oratory +is thus furnished among a mass of people, who, whatever elements of good +may exist among them, may, generally speaking, be too truly said to have +derived their birth and education from criminals and outcasts. In the +midst of a people thus constituted, a press "unshackled by stamps, +paper-excise, advertisement duty, or censorship," is doing its daily or +weekly work of _enlightening_ the minds of the people respecting their +_grievances_; and where, as in Van Diemen's Land, there is said to be a +newspaper for every 1666 free persons,[171] the people must indeed bask +in the sunshine of political illumination. "The press," it is asserted +on good authority respecting Van Diemen's Land, and it is not less true +of New South Wales, "The press, with few exceptions, finds ample support +in holding up to derision the authorities of the land, and even in the +invasion of the sanctity of domestic privacy."[172] The result, however, +of this state of things is that, actually, in the colonies of Australia +the grievances appear worse, the "wrongs" more galling, and the "rights" +less regarded, than even in England itself; and judging from the crabbed +tone of discontent prevailing in most of the colonial newspapers, the +people who live in a land almost free from taxes, and quite exempt from +tithes and poor-rates, can without much difficulty conjure up complaints +of taxation and oppression not less piercing than those which are to be +heard in a kingdom where taxgatherers, tithe-proctors, and aristocrats, +still exist. Perhaps, there is nothing more calculated to make an +Englishman tolerably satisfied with the state of things in his own +country than the occasional perusal of the newspapers of lands so +"highly favoured" in the way of "taxation" or "liberal institutions," as +the Australian colonies and the United States of America. The christian +patriot looks down with pity upon the strife of tongues and the turmoil +of party-spirit which Satan contrives to raise in almost every country +under the sun; and while the believer can always bless God's providence +for many good things, he expects not perfection in the institutions of +mortal men; it is true that + + "Worldly reformers, while they chafe and curse, + Themselves and others change from bad to worse; + While christian souls for blessings past can praise, + And mend their own and others' future ways." + + [170] A glance over the two ponderous volumes of the evidence before the + Transportation Committee in 1837 and 1838 will satisfy every unprejudiced + person that our penal colonies are not yet ripe for a representative + government. It is curious enough to compare the fearful picture of these + settlements drawn by one section of the so-called Liberal party, which + wages war against transportation, with the more pleasing and flattering + description of their social condition which is given by that other + section of the same party which claims for the colonists "constitutional + rights." + + [171] See Mr. Montgomery Martin's New South Wales, p. 353. + + [172] See Report of Transportation Committee in 1838, p. 32. + +The great instruments by which the christian statesman will aim at +reforming mankind, and making them happy, while at the same time he +will be gaining the highest of all glory to himself, both in time and +eternity, are christian instruction and religious education. A corrupted +press and incessant agitation are instruments suitable enough to +accomplish the works of darkness for which they are usually employed; +nor are churches and schools less fit means of success in the better +and more honourable task of bringing a nation to righteousness, +respectability, and contentment. A short account of the establishment of +the Bishopric of Australia, and a statement of the means of religious +and sound education in that part of the world, will not be out of place +here; and if, as before, we are driven to speak of the neglect of "the +powers that be" upon these essential points, it is hoped that, since +this is done unwillingly,--more in shame and sorrow than in anger and +party-spirit,--it will not be done with a feeling at all contrary to the +Divine precept: "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy +people."[173] + + [173] Acts xxiii. 5. + +"It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and +ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these +orders of ministers in Christ's Church,--Bishops, Priests, and +Deacons;"[174] and the Church of England has never yet made bold to +dispense with what the Church of Christ did for 1500 years, without a +single exception, deem it necessary everywhere to retain. Never _in +theory_, indeed, has our Church made bold to work without the three +orders of an apostolical ministry, but, alas! frequently has she done +this in practice, and in no instance more openly or less successfully +than in Australia. For upwards of thirty years, no superintendent +at all was placed over the clergy and laity of our communion in New +South Wales, and when a step was taken, it was not made in the right +direction; an archdeacon was appointed, who, whatever might be his civil +authority, was, respecting spiritual authority, exactly upon a level +with his other brethren in the ministry; nor could he assume more than +this without assuming to himself that to which he was not entitled,--the +office of a bishop in the Church. Under these strange and irregular +circumstances was the infant Church, brought from the British isles and +planted in the wilderness of Australia, allowed to continue for about +twelve years. The witness of a layman concerning this state of things +may be here repeated: "I myself then saw a church without a bishop, and +I trust in God I may never see it again."[175] In 1824, the Rev. T. H. +Scott was appointed Archdeacon of New South Wales, and there were then +eight chaplains in the colony, which covered a vast expanse of country, +and contained, in 1821, (three years earlier,) 29,783 souls, of whom +13,814 were convicts. Thus was New South Wales provided with "a very +liberal ecclesiastical establishment," according to the liberal views of +one of its leading historians;[176] and as its population increased, so, +in some degree, if not in an equal proportion, did the number of its +clergy, so that, in September, 1833, the number of souls in the colony +was 60,794,[177] (of whom 16,151 were convicts, and 17,238 Roman +Catholics,) and the number of clergymen was fifteen, besides the +archdeacon and four catechists. Archdeacon Scott was succeeded, in 1829, +by the Rev. W. G. Broughton, whose zeal and activity reflect honour +alike upon himself and upon the discernment of the noble patron, the +Duke of Wellington, who, it is believed, first recommended him to that +office. After enduring labour, and toil, and anxiety, such as those only +know who have to bear the heat and burden of the day in the Lord's +vineyard, at length the archdeacon was made, by permission of the +English government under Lord Melbourne, in 1836, Bishop of Australia; +and the foundation of an Apostolical and Scriptural Church in the Great +Southern Land was at length duly laid, by the consecration of that +prelate, at Lambeth, on February 14th, 1836. The old stipend assigned to +the archdeacon was to be continued without any increase to the Bishop +of Australia; and since 2000_l._ a-year was undoubtedly a very ample +provision for the former, it was thought that it might be found +sufficient for the latter; and so it would be, if the British government +were willing to provide properly for the spiritual wants of the new +diocese, and thus preserve the provision made for the bishop from being +almost entirely swallowed up in endeavouring to satisfy the spiritual +need of his people. This observation, however, justice compels us to +make before we quit the present subject, namely, that, whatever opinion +may be entertained of the dispositions of the British government, during +the ten years following the passing of the Reform Bill, towards the +English Church, for one fact every member of that church must feel +deeply indebted to them. During the time of Lord Grey's and Lord +Melbourne's holding office, no less than _six_ new bishoprics were +erected in the British colonies, and the first impulse was encouraged +of that good spirit which has since sent forth into foreign parts five +bishops in one day to "preach the word, to be instant in season, out of +season, to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and +doctrine."[178] + + [174] See the Preface to the Form of Ordaining and Consecrating + Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in the Book of Common Prayer. + + [175] The subjection of New South Wales to the Bishopric of Calcutta + was a mere absurdity; it might just as well have been under Canterbury + at once. + + [176] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 366. + + [177] Elsewhere stated to be 60,861. Perfect accuracy in these matters + appears almost unattainable. + + [178] See St. Paul's charge to Timothy, the first Bishop of Ephesus, + 2 Tim. iv. 2. + +Among the five new sees thus recently established, the pressing +necessities of Australia have not been overlooked; and Tasmania, or Van +Diemen's Land, an island equal in size to Ireland, has been thought to +claim justly a separate bishop for itself. The capital of this island is +not less than 600 miles distant from Sydney, the seat of the bishopric +of Australia; and with a population of 50,000, rapidly increasing, a +large majority of whom are churchmen, its claims to have a bishop of its +own are undeniable. And to these just claims the British government have +listened so far as to devote the 800_l._ per annum formerly assigned to +an archdeacon of Van Diemen's Land towards the endowment of a bishop +there, in addition to which sum 5000_l._ have been set apart from the +Colonial Bishoprics Fund, and the remainder of what is necessary to +provide the occupant of the new see with a decent maintenance is now +being raised among those that feel interested in that particular colony, +or in the general good work whereof this endowment forms only a part. +Nor is it the intention of the promoters of this noble design of +founding in our Australian and other colonies the complete framework of +a Christian Church to stop short here. South Australia, a province even +more thoroughly separated from Sydney than Tasmania is, has appeared +well deserving of the attention of those that have the direction of +this important work; and the zeal of some of the landed proprietors +of the colony has already prepared the way for the establishment of a +bishopric in South Australia. The following extract is from the letter +of a layman residing in the last-mentioned colony:--"At present, we are +pronounced to be in a diocese, whilst the head of that diocese is living +nearly 1200 miles away, and has never been here, and, in all probability +never will be." One person has offered to build, at his own cost, with +the tenth part of his property in Australia, a church at Adelaide, to +endow the see with land to the amount of 270_l._ per annum, and to +furnish plans, &c. for a bishop's residence; other gifts of land have +likewise been contributed to the amount of 100_l._ per annum more. A +grant of 5000_l._ has been obtained from the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, +and it is hoped that, by the efforts of the friends of sound religion, +an endowment of 1000_l._ per annum may speedily be completed for the +intended bishopric.[179] And since the experience of the past forms a +stable foundation of hope for the future, we may form a judgment of +what _will be done_, under the Divine blessing, in Tasmania and South +Australia, by what _has been done_ in the diocese of Australia. In the +charge of the bishop of the last-named see, delivered by him to his +clergy in 1841, it is stated, that, before 1836, the date of his +consecration, there were in the colony of New South Wales nine churches, +eight chapels, or school-houses used as such, and five parsonage-houses; +whereas, in 1841, _nine_ new churches had been completed, _four_ had +been opened by licence, _fifteen_ more were in course of erection; and +twelve new parsonages had been completed, while eight others were also +in progress![180] So great a stimulus, during only five years, had the +presence of the full and effective staff of an apostolical ministry +added to the growth and increase of the Church in one single colony! + + [179] See the Report of the Fund for providing Additional Colonial + Bishoprics, dated June 25th, 1842. Should the particulars stated above + induce any person to desire to lend a helping hand to so good, so + glorious a work, any donations for that purpose, small or large, will be + thankfully received at the office of the Committee, 79, Pall Mall, + London; and a post-office order supplies a sure and easy means of + conveyance for sums not exceeding five pounds. + + [180] See Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in + Foreign Parts, for 1842. + +The history of education in the colony of New South Wales is an +important and deeply interesting subject;--indeed, in what country is it +not so?--but the struggles and disappointments of the friends of sound +religious education,--of that education which an Englishman may be +thankful to be permitted to call National,--have been very severe and +trying. To borrow the language of an able statesman and eloquent writer, +"not contented with excluding religion from the province of government, +the spirit of the age struggles with not less zeal to introduce, as its +substitute, education; that is to say, the cultivation of the intellect +of the natural man instead of the heart and affections of the spiritual +man--the abiding in the life of Adam, instead of passing into the life +of Christ."[181] This is precisely what has taken place in Australia. +Only two years after the foundations of the colony had been laid, +George III. was pleased to provide for the Church and for schools, by +ordering the governor to allot in every township 400 acres of land for +the maintenance of a minister, and 200 acres for the support of a +schoolmaster. This provision continued to be assigned, and in many cases +the portion of allotted glebe became of considerable value; but, in +1826, a yet more extensive and promising support was afforded by the +British government to the cause of religious instruction in New South +Wales. The nature of this assistance may be detailed first in the words +of a violent and not very sensible or consistent enemy of the Church of +England, and then the reader may turn to the account given by one of its +ablest and best friends. "I was utterly astounded," says Dr. Lang, "in +common with most of the colonists, at the promulgation of a royal +charter appointing a Church and School Corporation for the religious +instruction, and for the general education of the youth of the colony, +_on the principles of the Church of England, exclusively_, and allotting +a seventh of the whole territory, for that purpose, to the Episcopalian +clergy, with free access, in the meantime, to the colonial +treasury-chest. It will scarcely be believed that so wanton an insult as +this precious document implied, could have been offered to the common +sense of a whole community, even by the late tory administration; or +that men could have been found in the nineteenth century to perpetrate +so gross an outrage on the best feelings of a numerous body of reputable +men." During the ensuing four or five years, we are told by the same +authority that it was completely in the power of the archdeacon and +clergy "to have formed a noble institution for the general education +of the youth of Australia with the very crumbs that fell from their +corporation-table."[182] They might, "if they had only been possessed +of the smallest modicum of common sense, have secured the exclusive +predominance of episcopacy in the management of the education of the +whole colony, _for all time coming_." And yet, adds the sagacious +Scotchman, in the very next paragraph, "the yoke must have proved +intolerable in the end, and would sooner or later have been violently +broken asunder during some general burst of public indignation." After a +grievous misrepresentation of the expenses incurred by the Church and +School Corporation,[183] and a sneer at the want of education which is +said to prevail among its members,[184] Dr. Lang contrives at last to +land himself, if not his readers, at the desired conclusion, namely, +that "ignorance is the mother of devotion" to colonial episcopacy! + + [181] Gladstone's "The State in its Relations with the Church," + chap. viii. p. 315. + + [182] Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. p. 317, &c. See also, at 265-6, + a series of similar statements. A good specimen of Dr. Lang's veracity + occurs at p. 267, where the Church and School Corporation is said to + have consisted chiefly of _clergymen_, whereas the majority were + _laymen_. See Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, + p. 21, and Appendix, No. 1. + + [183] They are accused of spending 20,000_l._ a-year of public money, + under pretence of providing for religious instruction and education, + while nothing was really done; whereas, out of this sum, nearly + 17,000_l._ were already appropriated for the existing ecclesiastical + establishment; and, during the continuance of the Corporation, the + schools increased from 16 to 40, and the number of children educated + in them from 1,037 to 2,426. See Burton on Religion and Education in + New South Wales, pp. 24 and 32. + + [184] See the book just quoted for a list of the members of the Church + and School Corporation, p. 21. Whatever might be the education of these + gentlemen, it is evident that better educated men were not very likely + to be found in the colony than the great law officers of the crown, the + members of the legislative council, and the nine senior chaplains. + +But it is time to turn away from the pitiable spectacle of a man calling +himself a minister of God's word, but far better qualified for his other +occupation, that of editing a party newspaper in a penal colony, and +taking our leave of Dr. Lang with feelings of regret that he has not +made a better use of those talents which have been given him: let us +turn to the statement given by Judge Burton, of the Church and School +Corporation in New South Wales. It is correct that one-seventh part in +extent and value of the land in New South Wales, was intended to be set +apart for the supply of religious instruction and education to the whole +colony. It is true, likewise, that the English government, in 1826, +entrusted this endowment for these good purposes entirely to the Church +of England; and to what other body could a thoroughly English government +have entrusted it? What course could be more suitable to the principles +of the English constitution? Or who in those days suspected the very +dissenters, who in England regard the help of the state as an +abomination, of being anxious themselves to partake freely of that help +in Australia? However, the arrangements were completed, and the charter +of the Church and School Corporation was signed in 1826; and at the same +time the burden of defraying the regular expenses of the existing clergy +and schools, was immediately transferred from the parliamentary grants +and the colonial revenue to the newly formed corporation. But, whatever +might have been the future value of the endowment thus bestowed upon the +Australian Church, its immediate produce was little or nothing; the +reserves are stated to have not been fairly portioned out, many of them +were allotted in inconvenient or distant situations and unprofitable +soils; private interest was allowed to take the first place in the +division of land, and persons who would have scorned to defraud men, +were happy to be allowed to rob God of his rights and the poor of the +means of having the gospel preached to them. Nor, even although these +hindrances had not arisen, would there have been any sufficient income +arising during the first years from the property of the corporation, +unless they had sold this with utter recklessness of the means of +securing a future permanent endowment. That portion of their lands +which was most improved, was either judiciously sold, or else let; and +other parts of it were gradually being brought under cultivation, and +improved in value; but meanwhile the increasing yearly expenses of the +ecclesiastical establishment were to be met. For this purpose, some +money was borrowed on debentures, and an advance was made to the +corporation from the colonial treasury; and thus, during three years, +were the exertions of the corporation crippled and restrained. When +they were beginning to get somewhat clear of these first difficulties, +when their estates were becoming profitable, and their flocks and herds +increasing, they were directed to suspend any further proceedings, no +more lands were granted them, and they were informed that their charter +was to be revoked. This notification was made in 1829, though the +revocation did not actually take place till 1833. + +In reply to the inquiry, why the Church and School Corporation in New +South Wales should have been thus suddenly dissolved, and that, too, at +the very time when its means were beginning to be available for the +fulfilment of the intentions of its foundation, no other answer can be +found besides that suggested by Judge Burton. It was done, no doubt, by +way of yielding to the clamour of the secret and open enemies of the +Church of England; and the very opposition of Infidels, Romanists, and +Dissenters, combined, in jarring harmony, together, bears a strong +witness of the value of the object of attack. The sop that was thus +thrown to the greedy demon of religious strife, was by no means +successful in satisfying or appeasing him; like most other similar +concessions, it served only to whet the appetite for more; and it is to +God's undeserved mercies, not to her own efforts, or to the wisdom of +her rulers, that England herself owes the preservation at that time of +her national Church. And now that the Church and School Corporation in +Australia has been abolished these ten years, what are the results; who +is the better for its destruction? If this establishment had been +permitted to remain, "certainly, at this day its funds would have been +sufficient to relieve the government altogether of the charge of +maintaining the clergy and schools of the colony."[185] The estimated +expenses of "Church establishments," and "school establishments," for +New South Wales in 1842, were respectively, 35,981_l._ 10_s._, and +16,322_l._ 10_s._,[186] so that by this time the saving to government, +arising from the continuance of the corporation, would have amounted to +no trifling annual sum. But, what is of far more importance, and what +was foreseen by the enemies of the Church of England when they compassed +the ruin of the corporation, the means of "lengthening its cords and +strengthening its stakes," would have been placed within the power of +the Australian Church. And since, under every disadvantage, during the +short time in which the charter continued to be in force, "the churches +were increased in number and better provided, the schools were +considerably more than doubled in number, and their effectiveness +increased, while their expenses were lessened,"[187] what might have +been expected from the same instrument in a longer period of time, and +after the first difficulties had been overcome? However, for wise and +good purposes, no doubt, it was not permitted that the experiment should +be tried; and while we regret that the Church in Australia is not more +efficient and better supported than it is, we may yet feel thankful +that, by the grace of God, it is as it is. + + [185] See Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, p. 31. + + [186] See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. i. p. 45. The sums + mentioned above include all the expense of grants to other bodies of + Christians besides churchmen, but the greater portion of the money is + expended upon the great majority of the population who are members of + the Church of England. + + [187] See Burton, p. 37. + +It affords a sad proof of the continued enmity of the world against +Christ, to turn from the noisy outcries of the children of Mammon about +economy and ecclesiastical expenses, and to fix our eyes upon the plain +matter of fact. When it was confidently asserted, by the highest +colonial authority, that the wants of the Australian Church were fairly +supplied, the Bishop, in 1837, mentioned by name no less than fifteen +places where clergymen were immediately needed. And it is no uncommon +occurrence, as in the church at Mudgee, (quite in the wilderness,) for +a consecration to take place, the church to be filled, the inhabitants +around delighted, their children baptized, and then the building is +closed for an indefinite period, until some clergyman be found to +officiate! Some persons may hold that to _save money_ is better than to +_save souls_, but let not these men aspire to the name of Christians. + +But, in spite of such enemies, whether endowed or not, whether supported +or spurned by the state authorities, the Church is likely to prove a +blessing and a safeguard to our Australian colonies. The absence of +endowment, the want of worldly means of extension, these are losses not +to the Church, but to the state. And while each individual member is +bound to spare of his abundance, or even of his poverty, for a work +so good and holy as that of propagating the gospel in foreign parts, +especially in our colonies;[188] while every lawful effort is to be made +to do what we can to resist the progress of evil, we may be satisfied to +wait quietly the result. Nor, among other acts of christian charity, +will a faithful member of Christ's visible Church ever forget to pray +for those unhappy men whose extraordinary professions of religion are +too often found to end in fruits like these,--in opposing all extension +of what they deny not to be, in the main, a scriptural Church, in +straining at the smallest particle of endowment, or public assistance +for religious objects at home, whilst abroad they can swallow a whole +camel's load of public money or church plunder, when it serves their +occasion! May God, in his wisdom, overrule the mischief, and in his +mercy forgive the evils of which men of this description have recently +been the occasion, both in England and in its colonies! + + [188] The following striking testimony in favour of the _system_ of the + Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts comes from a + quarter by no means unduly biassed in its favour. "How have thousands + and tens of thousands been raised in Scotland, for the last forty years, + to fit out and to maintain beyond seas whomsoever the dissenting + ministers of London chose to ordain as missionaries to the heathen? God + forbid, that I should ever whisper a syllable against missions to the + heathen! But I have seen too many missionaries, not to have seen more + than I choose to mention, whom men possessed of the least discernment + would never have presumed to send forth on such an errand! _The colonies, + however, were the first field to be occupied; and if that field had been + properly occupied, it would have afforded much assistance to missions + to the heathen._"--LANG'S _New South Wales_, vol. ii. p. 260. + + If any reader of this passage should feel disposed in his heart to help + in a good work, which greatly needs his assistance, let him take at + once his humble mite, or his large offering, as the case may be, to the + clergyman of his parish, or to the office, 79, Pall Mall, London, for + the use of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +CONVICT POPULATION. + + +Whatever may be the natural charms or advantages of any region, these +are nothing without inhabitants; and however abundantly the means of +riches, the comforts, luxuries, or necessaries of life may be scattered +around, these are comparatively lost without man to enjoy and to use +them. The garden of Eden itself was not perfected until beings were +placed in it capable of admiring its beauties and rejoicing in its +blessings. And in every country, especially in a civilised country, when +we have gone through the length and breadth of the land, examining its +natural features and speculating upon its capabilities and future +destiny, there is still left a most interesting and important subject of +consideration, nor can our knowledge of any region be reckoned complete, +until we are acquainted with the present condition of its inhabitants. +In the preceding pages it has been found impossible, indeed, to avoid +frequently touching upon a topic, which is so closely interwoven with +the whole subject; but there still remains abundance of miscellaneous +information concerning the present state of the inhabitants of the +Australian colonies to be detailed, without which, indeed, the task we +have undertaken would be left altogether incomplete. + +Though intellectual man is the principal object in God's creation upon +earth, yet it is not the mere "march of intellect," but it is the +advancement of truth and righteousness,--the gradual outpouring of that +knowledge of God which shall cover the earth as the waters cover the +seas,--that can cause "the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose." +The recollection, therefore, of the sort of men with whom Great Britain +has partly peopled the lonely shores of Australia,--the remembrance that +these men, too morally diseased to be allowed to remain among ourselves, +have been cast forth to die, with little or no thought about bringing +them to the Great Physician of souls to be made whole,--these +reflections have before been offered, and must here be repeated again. +We read with pleasure and interest of benevolent travellers, anxious to +benefit the countries which they are exploring, scattering around them +in favourable spots the seeds of useful plants and noble trees, in the +hope that these may hereafter prove beneficial to generations yet +unborn. And in like manner may the mother country be said to scatter +abroad in her colonies the seeds not only of good, but of evil also. +Many admirable institutions, not a few excellent individuals and +christian families, have been planted in Australian lands; a branch of +Christ's Church has been placed there, and has taken firm hold of the +soil, and numberless other promises of future excellence may be traced +by the thankful and inquiring mind. But then, on the contrary, we must +not lose sight of the tares that are so abundantly springing up together +with the wheat; it is impossible to deny that rank and poisonous weeds +have there been scattered along with the good seed, nay, instead of it. +What might have been the present state of Australia, if all, or almost +all, its free inhabitants had been faithful Christians, steadfast "in +the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in +prayers?" How great an effect might the "salt," thus placed in those +remote parts of the earth, have had in rescuing from corruption that +mass of uncleanness, which has been removed thither from our own shores! +Now, alas! nowhere more than in some of the Australian settlements "are +the works of the flesh manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, +uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, +emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, +drunkenness, revellings, and such like."[189] + + [189] Gal. v. 19-21. + +One cause, unquestionably, of the peculiar prevalence of many of these +evil works is the strange elements of which society in Australia is +composed. In its lowest rank is found the unhappy criminal, whose +liberty has been forfeited, and who is, for a time at least, reduced +to a state of servitude in punishment of his offences. Next to this +last-named class come the _emancipists_, as they are called, who have +once been in bondage, but by working out their time, or by good conduct, +have become free; these and their descendants constitute a distinct and +very wealthy class in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. The third +and highest class is formed of men who have settled as free persons in +the colonies, and of their descendants; and between this last class and +the two first a considerable distinction is kept up, from which, (it +has already been noticed,) miserable dissensions, jealousies, and +heartburnings, have frequently arisen. To an impartial person, beholding +these petty discords from the contrary side of the globe, it is pretty +plain that both classes are in fault. + +It is well known that the system of assigning convicts to various +masters has been practised ever since the colony at Port Jackson was +first established, and thus the expense of maintaining so many thousands +of people has been thrown upon the settlers, who were amply repaid by +the value of their labour; by means of which, likewise, the land was +brought into cultivation, and the produce of the soil increased. One +great argument against the system of transportation, as a punishment, +is drawn from this practice of assignment, which, it is asserted, makes +the penalty "as uncertain as the diversity of temper, character, and +occupation amongst human beings can render it." Certain rules and +conditions were laid down for the treatment of convict servants, and if +these behave themselves well, they are allowed "a ticket of leave," +extending over a certain district, within which the holder of the ticket +becomes, in fact, a free person; subject, however, to the loss of this +privilege in case of his committing any offence. After a certain number +of years, the holder of the ticket of leave is allowed to receive a +"conditional pardon," which extends only to the limits of the colony, +but is no longer liable to be withdrawn at the will of government. The +"absolute pardon," of course, extends everywhere, and restores the party +receiving it to all the rights and privileges of a British subject.[190] +The custom of assigning male convicts has, however, been discontinued +lately in the elder colony, although women are still assigned to the +settlers by government, or at least were so until very recently. But +besides the employment of the convicts by private persons, a vast number +of these are constantly engaged in public works, and to the facility of +obtaining labour thus afforded does New South Wales owe some of its +greatest improvements, especially in roads, bridges, public buildings, +and the like undertakings. It is scarcely to be supposed that employment +of this kind, when the men must necessarily work in gangs, is so +favourable for their moral improvement and reformation as residence in a +private family and occupation in rural pursuits is generally likely to +prove; though the contrary notion is supported in the recent Report of +the Transportation Committee, since, in the former case, they are under +stricter discipline. However, it has always been customary to make the +public works a sort of punishment, and private service a reward for +convicts; and those that have been returned from the latter with +complaints, are usually put upon the roads for at least six months; +so that, if this system really stands in the way of the improvement +of offenders, it keeps those that conduct themselves well from the +beginning quite clear of the bad example of less hopeful characters. It +is a sad truth, however, in Australia, as it often is found to be in +England, that "the most skilful mechanics are generally the worst +behaved and most drunken," and, consequently, most liable to punishment +in the public gangs. + + [190] See Mr. Montgomery Martin's New South Wales for further + particulars on this subject, pp. 168-177. + +By way of introducing the reader to the kind of life led by those +unhappy beings who labour in Australia at the public roads, and to give +him also some idea of the spiritual work which the ministers of Christ's +Church in a penal colony may be called upon to perform, the following +sketch from a private letter will be not unacceptable:--"In a few +minutes I am at the stockade where more than 60 men are immediately +mustered; the [Roman] 'Catholics'[191] are sent back to their boxes, the +'Protestants' assemble under a shed, open on two sides, and filled with +a few coarse boards for tables and forms, where the men get their meals. +Their boxes are wooden buildings of uniform structure, in which the +prisoners are locked up from _sundown_ to sunrise. The roof is shingled, +the sides are weather-board, the door in the middle is secured by a +padlock, and above the door is a grating to admit the light and air, +a similar grating being placed exactly opposite to it. The internal +arrangements are simple in the extreme, where you see a gangway in the +middle, and two tiers of hard planks or dressers for the men to lie +upon; their bedding being, I believe, only a blanket. As there is no +division to form separate bed-places, the four-and-twenty or thirty men +who share these boxes lie like the pigs, and make the best of it they +can. When a prisoner has served his time in irons, he is removed to a +probationary gang; that which I am describing is an ironed gang. These +men are dressed in a motley suit of grey and yellow alternately, each +seam being of a different colour; and the irons being secured to each +ancle, and, for the relief of the wearer, made fast from the legs to the +waist. The whole stockade is sometimes enclosed with high palings, and +sometimes open. The service of the Church is performed under the shed +where the men assemble for meals. The men behave well or ill as the +sergeant in charge takes an interest in it or not. Here the sergeant +and a dozen young soldiers are constant at prayers. The responses are +given by all that can read, our blessed societies having furnished +Bibles and Prayer-books for all. Every change of position is attended +with the clank of chains, which at first harrows your soul: but time +does wonders, you know; you forget the irons after a while. A full +service and a sermon. You hear an application or two from prisoners +about their worldly matters,--chiefly from the craftiest, oldest hands; +wish them good morning, and away. + + [191] "Catholic," a most honoured term in ancient times, has in + modern days been very unfortunate. Even now the Romanists misuse it + for "Papistical," the Dissenters occasionally use it to signify + "Latitudinarian," and the members of the Church of England are either + afraid to use it at all, or else are perpetually harping upon it, as + though it were a mere party-word. + +"It is now half-past ten: there lies the hot and dusty road before you, +without shelter of any kind, and the sun pours down his fiery beams; no +cloud, no intermission. If a breeze blows, it may be hotter than from +the mouth of a furnace. Well, courage; step out, it is five miles to +the other stockade. A flock of sheep,--the dog baying, the driver +blaspheming; a dray or two of hay; a few carts loaded with oranges. Up +the hill, down the hill, and so on, till, a little after twelve, you +arrive at the other stockade. This is a probationary gang, that is to +say, it is composed of those against whom complaints have been made +by their respective masters, and who are not assignable to other +individuals for six months. In this gang are six-and-twenty persons, of +whom two are [Roman] 'Catholics.' No motley dress, but all in dark grey; +no irons. A corporal and one private for a guard, and both of them +exemplary at prayers. Here I have the afternoon service. Generally about +this time the wind is up; and here, in a state of perspiration, the +breeze gives me a thorough chilling under the open shed; and often +clouds of dust come rushing through upon us, as bad as the worst days +in March along one of the great roads in England. But the service is +attended in a gratifying manner, insomuch that it would shame many home +congregations. The corporal here teaches the poor fellows who require it +to _read and write_, so that even here we find instances of christian +charity, without sinister or vain motives, which may well stimulate us +and provoke our exertions." + +From this picture of the condition of some of those convicts that are +undergoing punishment, we may turn to the more pleasing view, which a +gentleman of large property in Australia, Mr. Potter Macqueen, has drawn +of the condition of his own assigned servants. Of course, much of the +chance of the servant's improvement must depend, humanly speaking, upon +the sort of master into whose hands he is thrown, and Mr. Macqueen would +appear to have behaved kindly and judiciously to those entrusted to his +care. Occasionally a severe example of punishment was made, and extra +labour or stoppage of indulgences, as milk, tea, sugar, or tobacco, were +found effectual correction for most faults, whilst additional industry +was rewarded by fresh indulgences. Of some deserving men Mr. Macqueen +had even brought over the wives and families at his own expense. And +what, in this world, could be a greater instance of the luxury of doing +good than to behold the family and partner of one who has, though a +convict, conducted himself well, restored once more to their long-lost +parent and husband, and settled in his new country as pledges of his +future continuance in well-doing? Marriage, altogether, was encouraged +on the estate of the gentleman already mentioned, as a means of +recalling the convicts from bad habits, and urging them to industry and +good behaviour; and this wise course has been generally rewarded by +witnessing their happiness, and receiving their gratitude. During +five years of residence in Australia about two hundred convicts and +ticket-of-leave men passed through Mr. Macqueen's establishment, and +the following account is interesting, since it serves to show what _may +be done_, even with a convict population:-- + + Free, or enjoying their ticket, married and thoroughly + reclaimed 14 + Ditto, ditto, single men 49 + Free from expiration of sentence, but worthless 7 + Returned home to England after becoming free 1 + Well-conducted men, as yet under sentence 62 + Indifferent, not trustworthy 29 + Depraved characters, irreclaimable 7 + Sent to iron gangs and penal settlements 11 + Escaped 1 + Died 3 + Given up at request of Government 2 + Returned to Government hospital from ill health 4 + ____ + 190 + ____ + +To encourage reformation, and check that spirit of idleness which is the +mother of mischief, alike in convicts and free people, it is strongly +recommended to allow the well-disposed men to profit by their own +industry. It is forbidden to pay money to prisoners, at least before +they obtain their ticket, but they may be rewarded by tea, sugar, +tobacco, Cape wine, extra clothing, &c. Mr. Macqueen had one Scotchman, +who, under this system, actually sheared 101 sheep in the day, being +allowed at the rate of 2_s._ 6_d._ per score upon all above 25, which is +the quantity fixed by the government rule for a man to do in a single +day. And in the same establishment, acting upon like inducements, might +be seen sawyers and fencers working by moonlight; and others making tin +vessels for utensils, bows for bullocks, &c., in their huts at night. +From this method of management a very great degree of comfort arises, of +which Mr. Macqueen gives the following instance in a convict's feast, +which he once witnessed. At Christmas, 1837, one of his assigned +servants, (who had a narrow escape from capital conviction at home,) +requested leave to draw the amount of some extra labour from the +stores, since he wished to give an entertainment to a few of his +colleagues, all of whom were named and were well conducted men. The +party making this application had been industrious and well-behaved, +being besides very cleanly in his hut, and attentive to his garden and +poultry, so the request was granted, and his master had the curiosity to +observe the style of the festival. The supper consisted of good soup, +a dish of fine mullet out of the adjoining river, two large fowls, a +piece of bacon, roast beef, a couple of wild ducks and a plum-pudding, +accompanied by cauliflower, French beans, and various productions of his +garden, together with the delicious water-melon of the country; they had +a reasonable quantity of Cape wine with their meal, and closed their +evening with punch and smoking.[192] + + [192] See a pamphlet entitled "Australia as she is and as she may be," + by T. Potter Macqueen, Esq., published by Cross, Holborn, pp. 12-14. + +But the picture of the peculiar class by which a penal colony is +distinguished from all others will not be complete without a darker +shade of colouring than those upon which we have been gazing. It is a +painful feeling to contemplate the past condition of one portion of the +convict population, but it is a wholesome exercise of the mind, and has +already produced an improvement in that wretched state. Besides, it +surely is only fitting that a great, a free, and enlightened nation +should know what is the ultimate fate of a part of its outcast +population; nor need Englishmen shrink from hearing the _history_, +whilst England herself shrinks not from inflicting the _reality_ of +those horrors which have defiled the beautiful shores of Norfolk +Island.[193] In 1834 Judge Burton visited this spot, the penal +settlement of a penal settlement, for the purpose of trying 130 +prisoners, who had very nearly succeeded in overpowering and murdering +the military, after which they intended to make their escape. Eight +years before this time, Norfolk Island had been first made a penal +settlement; and never during all that period had its wretched +inhabitants received any such reproof, consolation, or instruction as +the Church gives to its members. The picture presented before the mind +of the judge was an appalling one, and he can speak of Norfolk Island +only in general terms, as being "a cage full of unclean birds, full +of crimes against God and man, murders and blasphemies, and all +uncleanness." We know well what bad men are in England. Take some of the +worst of these, let them be sent to New South Wales, and then let some +of the very worst of these worst men be again removed to another spot, +where they may herd together, and where there are no pains taken about +their moral or religious improvement, where, literally speaking, no man +careth for their souls:--such was Norfolk Island. And what right had +England to cast these souls, as it were, beyond the reach of salvation? +Where was the vaunted christian feeling of our proud nation when she +delivered these poor creatures over to the hands of Satan, in the hope +that her worldly peace, and comfort, and property might be no longer +disturbed by their crimes? Had she ordered her fleet to put these men +ashore on some desolate island to starve and to die, the whole world +would have rung with her cruelty. But now, when it is merely their souls +that are left to starve, when it is only the means of eternal life that +they are defrauded of, how few notice it, nay, how few have ever heard +of the sin in which the whole nation is thus involved! + + [193] It is right to state here that the cause of a supply of religious + instruction having been so long delayed in Norfolk Island is said, by + a Roman Catholic writer, to have been the impossibility of finding a + clergyman to undertake the charge. See Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, + pp. 39, 40. Supposing this account to be correct then, undoubtedly, the + English Church must share the blame of neglecting Norfolk Island along + with the government, and it is not the wish of the writer of these pages + to deny the applicability of the prophet's confession to ourselves: + "O God, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, + and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee." (Dan. ix. 8.) + Still, even according to Dr. Ullathorne, the penal settlement was + established six years before its religious instruction was thought of + by the government. + +One of the prisoners tried in 1834 was a man of singular ability and +great presence of mind, and by him Norfolk Island was represented to be +a "hell upon earth;" and so it was as far as the company of evil spirits +glorying in evil deeds could make it. "Let a man's heart," he added, "be +what it will, when he comes here, his man's heart is taken from him, and +there is given to him the heart of a beast." Another said, "It was no +mercy to send us to this place; I do not ask life, I do not want to be +spared, on condition of remaining here; life is not worth having on +such terms." Another unhappy being was sentenced to die, and began +passionately to exclaim and entreat that he might not die without +confession. "Oh, your honour," he said, "as you hope to be saved +yourself, do not let me die without seeing my priest. I have been a very +wicked man indeed, I have committed many other crimes for which I ought +to die, but do not send me out of the world without seeing my priest!" +This poor man was a Roman Catholic; he seems not to have known that he +might go at once to his Heavenly Father with a heartfelt acknowledgment +of his faults, and so he obtained a rude figure of the cross, and +in miserable agony pronounced before that, as he embraced it, his +brief exclamations for mercy. Others mentioned in moving terms the +hopelessness of their lot, and another of them spoke also of what +rendered the state they were in one of utter despair; and the statement +which he made was perfectly true: he said, addressing the judge, "What +is done, your honour, to make us better? once a week we are drawn up in +the square opposite the military barrack, and the military are drawn up +in front of us with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, and a young +officer then comes to the fence, and reads part of the prayers, and that +takes, may be, about a quarter of an hour, and _that is all the religion +that we see_."[194] + + [194] Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 260. + +Urged by appeals like these, which no heart could well resist, Judge +Burton reprieved the convicted prisoners, until the whole case should +be laid before the government, and at least religious consolation and +assistance might be obtained for those who were to suffer capital +punishment. Eleven of the prisoners were afterwards executed, but not +without having been visited by ministers of religion, who were sent for +that express purpose from Sydney. The kind and christian judge exerted +himself in behalf of the outcast population of Norfolk Island, "that +modern Gomorrah," as it has been called; and, as usual, improvement in +bodily comforts or morals was much more willingly undertaken by those +in authority than spiritual reformation. His advice respecting the +propriety of diminishing the number of prisoners confined together +was speedily attended to. His efforts to procure religious reproof, +instruction, and consolation were not so soon successful; they were, +however, nobly continued, and at length both Protestant and Roman +Catholic chaplains were appointed to the island. But this great object +was not gained without _giving offence_. Strange that any party could +take offence at efforts of this description, and stranger still that +men professing a general regard for religion, and avowedly possessed +of consciences exquisitely tender, and of charity unbounded, should, +notwithstanding, object to the conscientious and charitable efforts in +the cause of religion of which we have just been speaking! However, +these impotent struggles have signally failed, and now there are clergy +both of the English and Roman Church in Norfolk Island, while the moral +condition of the prisoners there is stated to have improved greatly. In +1837 the Rev. Mr. Sharpe was removed thither, at his own request, from +Pitt Town in New South Wales, and his labours and ministrations are said +to have been useful and effectual. But even here, in this effort to save +some of Christ's lost sheep, the unhappy circumstances of our penal +colonies were manifested. When Mr. Sharpe was removed to Norfolk Island, +a larger and more important sphere of usefulness, his little parish +on the Hawkesbury, was for a time left without a pastor. And this +distressing trial is frequently occurring; when illness, or death, or +removal, deprives a parish of its spiritual shepherd, for a time at +least his place is liable to be left vacant, and his people likely +to become as sheep going astray. It appears likewise, from the Report +of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, that an +assistant-chaplain for Norfolk Island was appointed in 1841. There have +been two clergymen of the Church of Rome in the island ever since 1838, +an arrangement which was alleged to be necessary, in order that the +chaplain himself might not be deprived of private confession and +absolution.[195] There was no church in the island a few years ago, but +a room in one settlement and a barn in the other were the places where +divine service was regularly attended. Besides the Morning and Evening +Prayers on Sunday, divine service takes place five times during the +week, twice in the gaol, twice in the hospital, and once a week for +those men who are exempt from work, their sentences having expired. +There may, as has been stated, be much hypocrisy in Norfolk +Island,[196] but surely the spirit which was offended at efforts that +have wrought even these changes in a spot of extreme moral and religious +desolation, may, without breach of charity, be pronounced to have been +an unclean and evil spirit. Can this language be justly deemed too +strong, when the facts already stated are borne in mind; when, (to sum +up the whole case in a single example,) it is remembered that in one +year, 1838, the colonial government of New South Wales paid 57,740_l._ +11_s._ 3_d._ for its police establishment and gaols, while the very +utmost that was spent in providing religious instruction for _all the +prisoners_ within the limits of the colony amounted, during the same +period, to less than 1000_l._?[197] + + [195] The reason given by the Roman Catholic, Dr. Ullathorne, is that + the two priests divide the salary, and receive together no more than the + one chaplain.--ULLATHORNE'S _Reply to Burton_, p. 76. The reader must + bear in mind the different scale of expenses required by a person who + _must_ be single, and that of a person who may be, and generally is, + a married man. + + [196] See Committee on Transportation, 1838, pp. 137, 138. + + [197] See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, + pp. 287-289. The actual sum there stated is either 725_l._ or 855_l._, + according as certain expenses connected with the establishment are + included or not. + +It is stated on good authority,--that of Sir George Arthur, who was +formerly governor of Van Diemen's Land,--that not more than _two_ +convicts in every _hundred_ quit the colony and return to England.[198] +The expense and difficulty of procuring a passage home operates as a +sufficient check to prevent this being frequently obtained; nor, +supposing that the English people would act in a kind and christian +spirit towards the most deserving men of this class, would either +they or the nation be losers. If the wives and families of the most +meritorious men could be brought out to them at the public cost, what +reasonable cause of regret would an emancipated convict feel for his +home,--the scene of his crimes and of his disgrace,--in the mother +country? And with respect to the great objection,--the _cost_ of such a +system,--what would that be compared with the advantage which the rapid +increase of an English population in Australia is sure to bring, by +creating fresh demands for our goods and manufactures? If ours were a +wise and understanding nation, if we would spend a portion of our riches +in promoting the morals, the comfort, and the religious instruction of +our outcast population, we might, in numberless instances, turn the very +dregs of our people into means of increasing our prosperity; we might +frequently render those that are now the mere refuse of the earth, +happy, contented, loyal subjects; and the blessings of them that were +ready to perish spiritually would be continually resounding from the far +distant shores of Australia upon that Divine Mercy which would have all +men to be saved, and upon that nation which would thus have offered +itself to be a willing agent and instrument for the furtherance of this +gracious design. + + [198] "I think the longer the sentence, the better will be the conduct + of the individual," because his only chance of obtaining any degree of + liberty is from good conduct. See Evidence of J. MacArthur, Esq., + before the Committee on Transportation in 1837. No. 3350-3, p. 218. + Dr. Ullathorne expresses a contrary opinion. + +In the present condition of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, with +so large a proportion of their population in bondage, and such slender +means of moral improvement and religious instruction provided for them +by the mother country, it would be unreasonable to hope that the convict +population can be otherwise than very bad. There may be many exceptions; +and at the end of all things here below, it may be found that some of +those poor outcasts, and some of the men who have cast them forth to +perish, and now despise them, may fill, respectively, the places of the +Publican and Pharisee in our Lord's parable; the convict may leave the +throne of judgment justified rather than his master; the poor repentant +criminal may be pardoned, while the proud one,--the self-sufficiency +of the nation, by which he was transported, and left without further +care,--may be condemned. Still, however, the general character of +the convicts is undoubtedly bad; and the various modes of deceit and +dishonesty practised upon their masters, the love of gambling, of strong +liquors, and of every kind of licentiousness prevailing in the penal +colonies, would fill a volume of equal size and interest with that +which is said to be a favourite book in New South Wales,--the Newgate +Calendar. Those that are curious upon these subjects may be referred to +the thick volume in blue cover, which contains an account of the labours +of the Committee upon Transportation, 1837; but when the evidence +therein contained is read, it must be with some grains of allowance; +the avowed object of Sir W. Molesworth's motion for the committee, was +enmity against the whole system of transportation; and a large majority +of those that sat in the committee were, it is believed, of his opinion; +at all events, they belonged to his party in politics. So that, before +justice can be done to the real state of the convicts, we want to have +evidence of an opposite tendency, like that of Mr. Potter Macqueen, +already quoted; and before the question, whether transportation is a +desirable mode of punishing, or a likely means of reforming criminals, +can be fairly decided, inquiry must be made, not respecting what _has +been done_, but respecting what _might have been done_, or _may even yet +be done_, in our penal colonies. + +Before the subject of the convict population is dismissed, it may be +well to notice those called _specials_; that is, men of education, and +of a somewhat higher rank in life than the generality of exiles in New +South Wales. These were formerly treated with great consideration; for, +after having passed a short period of probation, they were employed as +clerks to auctioneers or attornies; nay, the instruction of youth was +too often, in default of better teachers, committed into their hands. +Nor was this all. In former times, persons of this description have +been very much connected with the public press; and the enlightened +people of New South Wales have sometimes, it may be feared, been blindly +led by an unprincipled convict, when they imagined that they were wisely +judging for themselves. The reformation of these _specials_ is said to +be more hopeless than that of other prisoners; and very commonly they +are confirmed drunkards. Strange materials these from which to form +instructors for youth, trustworthy agents of private property, or +leaders of public opinion! However, by the progress of emigration, the +influence of these men is now superseded; besides which, they have been +gradually removed from the government offices, and those that now arrive +are employed in hard labour. + + + + +[Illustration: CONVEYING CATTLE OVER THE MURRAY, NEAR LAKE ALEXANDRIA.] + +CHAPTER XIII. + +EMANCIPISTS AND FREE POPULATION. + + +Respecting the next class of which the population consists in our +penal colonies,--that of emancipists, or persons formerly in bondage as +convicts, they appear to be pretty nearly what might be expected of a +body of men under such circumstances. Although there are many honourable +exceptions to the general rule, yet it would seem to be a general rule +that roguery and industry are usually connected among them; and that +where an emancipist is less inclined to be dishonest, he is more +inclined to be idle and improvident; while it often occurs that both +faults are found together in one person. Of course, it would be vain to +hope that _all_ convicts, or even the majority, perhaps, should become +completely reformed; but it is sickening to the heart that has any +christian feeling, to find descriptions like the following, given by one +amply qualified to judge, of the deplorable moral and social state of +many of those unhappy men after their time of service has expired. "The +newly-arrived convict" (Mr. MacArthur states) "sees examples immediately +before him of men, formerly in the same condition with himself, +wallowing in licentiousness, and possessed of wealth, amassed generally +by dishonest means, which they continue, in many instances, still to +augment, by keeping grog-shops and gambling-houses, by receiving stolen +goods, and by other nefarious practices. This is the general conduct of +the class of emancipated convicts who acquire property, as well as of +some unprincipled adventurers in the class of free emigrants. There are, +however, among the emancipated convicts of property exceptions from this +prevalent depravity; rare, indeed, and on that account the more +honourable."[199] And numberless, in the earlier history of New South +Wales, are the evil consequences which are recorded to have arisen from +the necessity which then existed of employing either convicts, or else +men recently emancipated, in places of the highest trust and importance. +One striking example may suffice; and it is believed that no injustice +is done to the class of men now alluded to, when it is stated that the +guilty parties were persons belonging to that body. Soon after the +departure of Governor Hunter, in 1800, it was discovered that the clerks +who were admitted to the registers of the terms of the transportation of +the convicts, had altered the sentences of nearly 200 prisoners, on +receiving from each a sum equal in value to ten or twelve pounds.[200] +Of these examples the early history of the colony is full; but, in later +years, it may be hoped, that time, and public opinion, and the tide of +emigration, have combined to render the conduct of persons belonging +to this class less generally objectionable than it formerly was. The +greater portion of the shop-keepers, and what may be called the middling +classes in Sydney, were emancipists; and their wealth and influence were +so great, that, during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, one-fourth of the +jurors who served in the civil and criminal courts belonged to that +body. These persons are often very little educated; and young men +possessed of from 1000_l._ to 2000_l._ a-year in stock, can sometimes +neither read nor write. Cock-fighting, driving, and badger-baiting, are +pursuits that occupy youths of this class very frequently; and a showy, +tawdry style of dress, engages the attention of the young women. +Certainly, it is not of materials of this kind, that the English +constitution would have juries composed; and it is not surprising that +so large a proportion of jurors, who have themselves once stood at the +bar of justice, should be the means of carrying undue partiality for the +guilty into the jurors' box, and also of keeping out of that responsible +station all those who can in any way escape its duties.[201] Respectable +men will not, if they can avoid it, sit in the same box with men who go +in with their minds entirely made up to acquit the guilty, whatever may +be the tenor of the evidence to which they have just been listening, +whatever the sacredness of the oath they have recently taken. If +practical experience is of any real value, then it may safely be +pronounced that men, who are scarcely fit to enjoy the privilege of +sitting upon juries, are certainly at present unprepared for the +introduction of a representative form of legislation and government. +The civil juries of New South Wales have held the scales of justice +uncommonly even, for they have managed to acquit about 50 per cent. of +the persons tried; whereas in Great Britain, and even in Ireland, the +acquittals are 19 per cent., and the convictions 81 per cent. A strange, +but not unaccountable difference, which, so long as it may continue, +will furnish a strong argument of the unfitness of the colony for a +representative assembly. Men that have not the principle to put good +laws into execution, are very ill qualified to make good laws, or to +elect good legislators. And when, to suit party purposes, a clamour is +raised about the injustice of denying fresh "constitutional rights" +to our fellow-subjects in Australia, we may quietly dispose of this +(hitherto absurd and mischievous) claim by referring the very parties +raising it to the accounts published, under the sanction chiefly of men +of their own opinions, respecting the use made of those rights with +which the inhabitants of the penal colonies are already invested. When +the evils of the system of transportation are to be exposed, the truth +may be told respecting the state of the Australian juries;[202] but +why should it not be still declared,--why should not truth _always_ be +told,--even at the hazard of checking "liberal principles," and delaying +representative houses of assembly for the Australian colonies, until the +time when they may know how to use them, so that these may prove a +benefit instead of an evil to them? + + [199] Evidence of J. MacArthur, Esq., before the Committee on + Transportation, in 1837, No. 3371-2, p. 220. The richest man in the + colony, an emancipist, was said, in 1837, to be worth 40,000_l._ or + 45,000_l._ a year. For an account of the shameless roguery, and drunken + folly, by means of which so vast an income was amassed, see Report of + Transp. Com. 1837, p. 14 and 104. + + [200] Barrington's History of New South Wales, p. 421. + + [201] For the mode in which the law admitting emancipists into the + jurors' box was passed, see Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. p. 317-320. + "Two absent members of the Legislative Council were known to be opposed + to it. Of those present, the governor (Bourke) and five others were in + favour of it, while six were against it. The governor gave a second and + casting vote." + + [202] See Report of Transportation Committee, 1838, p. 31. "A large + proportion of the persons who have appeared and served," as jurors, + "are publicans," to whose houses prosecutors, parties on bail, or + witnesses, resort, for the purpose of drinking, while in attendance + upon the court. Once, when a jury was locked up all night, much foul + and disgusting language was used; and to gain a release from this + association, the disputed point was yielded; "no greater punishment can + be inflicted upon a respectable person than to be shut up with such + people for a few hours, or for the night." + + See Burton's Letter, Appendix to Transportation Committee's Report, + 1837, p. 301-2. Dr. Lang's book on New South Wales abounds in wretched + puns, but one rather favourable specimen may be given, when, in + allusion to the Englishman's right of being tried by his peers, the + Doctor styles the jurors above described "_the Colonial Peerage!_" + +Respecting the last and highest class of society in our penal colonies, +the _free population_, no great deal need be said in particular, since, +except from peculiar circumstances, they are pretty much the same in +character with the bulk of the population in any other country. But +their peculiar circumstances must, in fairness to the class last +mentioned, be briefly noticed. Undoubtedly, without any disrespect to +emigrants, it may be laid down as an acknowledged fact, that hitherto +this class, though it has comprised many excellent, clever, and good +men, has not usually been composed of the flower of the English nation. +Supposing that things are now altered for the better, time was--and that +not many years ago--when "every one that was in distress, and every one +that was in debt, and every one that was discontented," was apt to swell +the tide of emigration to our British colonies in Australia. Upon +arriving there they found a regular system of _caste_ established; and +since as members of the _free_ population they were at once exalted to +the highest places, this was a system which in most cases flattered the +pride of the settlers. Possibly many of the faults of the emancipist +class might be traced to the treatment they have received at the hands +of the free, and these faults react again as causes and excuses for +keeping them at still greater distance than ever. And however natural, +however necessary, a distinction of ranks is and must be in every +society of men, yet nothing can be more unnatural or mischievous than a +system of dividing men into _castes_. Unhappily, this division, the +fruitful source of all kinds of evil feeling, has to a great extent +prevailed in our penal colonies; and nothing, it may be boldly asserted, +except religion will ever root it out. Attempt to continue the exclusive +privilege of _caste_ to the free population, and you sow the seeds of a +servile rebellion. Open your hands to give concessions and privileges to +the emancipists, and you scatter good seed upon the stony rock, you +vainly endeavour to satisfy the daughters of the horse-leech. But infuse +a christian feeling into all classes, get them to meet in the same +church, to kneel at the same table, to partake in the same spiritual +blessings, and then you may hope that all, whether free or emancipists, +will feel themselves to be members of one another, portions of the same +body, held in union of heart and soul by means of the same head; "for by +One Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or +Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink +into One Spirit."[203] + + [203] 1 Cor. xii. 13. + +After all that has been stated respecting the three great classes into +which society in Australia is divided, it need scarcely be added that +the taste displayed by many of the inhabitants of the metropolis of +New South Wales is none of the purest or best. Gay equipages, dashing +horses, tandems, and racers, are among the favourite exhibitions of +the wealth of the emancipist. For music or paintings but little taste +prevails in Sydney, and for books, except those of a very low and +worthless character, there is no great demand. A fine house, a fine +carriage, fine horses, plenty of spirits to drink, appear to be thought +the chief goods of human life; and among persons in every class, the +acquisition of money is the one great object. Indeed this last passion, +the love of gain, can scarcely be mentioned among the perverted habits +by which the Australian colonies are infested, since it seems scarcely +possible that the worship of Mammon can be practised more openly or +carried much further than it is in the mother country. Yet the +temptations to prefer gain to every thing else are unusually strong +in these settlements. Professions have been abandoned because they +are laborious and unprofitable, while clergymen, medical gentlemen, +soldiers, government officers, in short, all classes of men, have made +haste to get rich by holding land and stock. An estate, which originally +cost little or nothing, grows yearly in value, without a penny being +spent upon it; stock speedily increases at very small cost, for there is +abundance of pasture for it; and when the settler finds these means of +gaining wealth opened to him, he is too apt to devote all his thoughts +and energies to this one object. "I have known," says Captain Grey, "an +honourable member of council, and leading magistrate in a colony, take +out a retail licence, and add to his already vast wealth from the +profits of a gin-shop."[204] + + [204] Grey's Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. pp. 192-3. + +The evil spirit of covetousness assumes to itself various shapes and +appearances according to varying circumstances; and among the characters +which it calls into life in Australia, that of a _land shark_ is one of +the most remarkable and hateful. When an emigrant arrives at Sydney, he +is able, perhaps after considerable delay, to give notice to Government +of his wish to purchase some desirable spot of land, which is then +selected to be put up to auction; and when it has been duly surveyed, +the sale at last takes place. But to the poor emigrant's astonishment +and disappointment the land, which he has chosen so as not to interfere +with other property, which is unoccupied, and entirely useless both in +a public and private sense,--is bid for, and finally knocked down +to another at an unreasonable price.[205] This other person is a +"land shark," who has gained, perchance, a fortune by regularly attending +sales and buying up land that is known to be desired by another. The +"shark," true to his name, wishes either to get his opposition bought +off by a bribe, or else hopes to sell his bargain at a profit from the +unwillingness of his victim to lose any more time or money in gaining +a settlement, with the risk of meeting, after all, with a second +disappointment. In case of the "shark's" scheme proving unsuccessful, +there is only the small trifle required as earnest of the purchase to be +paid; of course he never completes the engagement, and in due time, in a +year possibly, the land is declared forfeited to the crown again. Such +is the occupation of a "land shark," and it would be well if these and +similar pests of society were confined, like their namesakes of the +ocean, to the more sultry latitudes, but unfortunately they are not +altogether without their antitypes and imitators in Great Britain. + + [205] The system of starting from a certain fixed sum per acre, named + "the upset price," and selling land at whatever it will fetch beyond + this, is established in most of the Australian colonies. The fund thus + produced is spent in encouraging emigration and providing labourers. + +There is another character, which, if not peculiar to Australia, is +called into being only in those colonies where a large extent of land +in its natural state remains unappropriated to any individuals. The +_squatters_, as they are called, are men who occupy with their cattle, +or their habitations, those spots on the confines of a colony or estate, +which have not as yet become any person's private property. By the +natural increase of their flocks and herds, many of these squatters have +enriched themselves; and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages of +as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without paying any rent +for it to the government, they have removed elsewhere when the spot was +sold, and have not unfrequently gained enough to purchase that or some +other property. Thus the loneliness, the privations, and the perils of a +pastoral life in the bush, have often gained at length their recompense, +and the squatter has been converted into a respectable settler. But this +is too bright a picture to form an average specimen of the class which +we are describing. Unfortunately, many of these squatters have been +persons originally of depraved and lawless habits, and they have made +their residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means of +carrying on all manner of mischief. Or sometimes they choose spots of +waste land near a high road, where the drays halt to get water for the +night, and there the squatters knock up what is called "a hut." In such +places stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and tobacco are +procured in return for these at "the sly grog shops," as they are +called; and in short they combine the evils of a gypsy encampment and a +lonely beer-shop in England, only from the scattered population, the +absence of influential inhabitants, and the deplorably bad characters of +the men keeping them, these spirit shops are worse places than would be +tolerated in this country. It is stated that almost all the men by whom +these resorts of iniquity are kept, are either ticket-of-leave men or +emancipists. It is no easy thing to suppress these people, for the +squatters, like the black natives, can find a home wherever they betake +themselves. And it must be owned, that considerable good has resulted in +many instances from these forerunners of civilization having penetrated +into a district, and learned some of its peculiarities and capabilities +before a settlement in it has been regularly formed. Indeed, it would +have been unjust to have been severe with the poor squatter, and his two +or three sheep and cattle, when it had long been the practice of the +most wealthy landowners in the colony, to send their stock-man with +their hundreds of heads of cattle into the bush, to find support exactly +in the same way, and without paying anything to government. The rich +proprietors have a great aversion to the class of squatters, and not +unreasonably, yet they are thus, many of them, squatters themselves, +only on a much larger scale; nor are they more inclined, in many +instances, to pay rent for their privileges than their more humble +brethren. It would appear to be the fairest and best way of dealing with +these various descriptions of squatters, to endeavour to cut up, root +and branch, the "sly grog shops," and road-side gentry, while the owner +of one sheep, or he that possesses 10,000, should be equally compelled +to pay a trifle to government, in proportion to the number of his stock +grazing in the bush, and should likewise have his location registered. +Some regulations of this kind are, it is believed, proposed, if they +have not by this time been brought into operation; and thus we may hope, +that whatever benefits the system of _squatting_ may have produced, +either as an outlet for restless spirits, or as a means of extending +colonization, may still be retained, while the numerous evils that have +sprung up along with it may be checked or got rid of. Respecting one +thing connected with this subject,--the religious knowledge and +spiritual condition of these inhabitants of the wilderness and their +children, the christian inquirer cannot but feel anxious. The result of +christian anxiety upon this matter cannot be better stated than in the +words of one deeply interested about it, and well qualified to weigh the +subject with all its bearings. After expressing his thanks to that +Divine Providence, which had enabled him, quite alone, to travel through +many miles of country almost without cultivation or visible dwellings, +the Bishop of Australia finishes his account of his visitation westward, +in the year 1841, with the following reflections:--"It would be +impossible for any one, without personal observation, to comprehend from +mere description what a field for future labour is now opening in these +as yet uncultivated, unpeopled tracts which I am continually traversing. +But the time is not far distant when many portions of them will be +thronged with multitudes; and in what manner those multitudes are to +be provided with means of instruction sufficient to retain them in the +christian faith, I am not able to foresee; as yet, no such provision is +made or promised. But when, in passing through these scenes, reflections +such as these have crowded upon me, and I am unable to return a +satisfactory answer to the question, 'How shall this be accomplished?' +I can find no better resource than to silence myself with '_Deus +providebit_;'[206] my trust shall be in the tender mercy of God for ever +and ever." + + [206] Jehovah Jireh, that is, "the Lord will see or provide." See + translation in margin of Gen. xxii. 14. + +Among the beings which, although not natives of the bush, appear to be +peculiar to the wilds of Australia, the class of men called Overlanders +must not be omitted. Their occupation is to convey stock from market to +market, and from one colony to another. They require, of course, a +certain capital to commence business with, and the courage and skill +that are needful in these enterprises must be very great, so that many +of the overlanders are said to be really men of a superior class. The +love of a roving life, the excitement of overcoming dangers both from +natural causes and from the fierce attacks of the natives, and the +romantic and novel situations in which they are frequently placed, +all combine to render some men exceedingly fond of this occupation, +which has also another strong recommendation, that it is often very +profitable. The magnitude of the adventures thus undertaken would +scarcely be credited, and often a whole fortune is risked in the shape +of cattle driven across the wilderness. One very important route pursued +by the overlanders recently has been in the same direction with Captain +Sturt's daring voyage, namely, from New South Wales to South Australia +by the course of the Murray. An instance is mentioned by Captain Grey of +an overlander who arrived at Adelaide in March 1840 from Illawarra, and +his stock at the end of his journey is reckoned up, and found at a +moderate computation to be worth no less than 13,845_l._[207] And during +fifteen months, including the whole of 1839 and part of 1840, there were +brought by the overlanders from New South Wales into South Australia +11,200 head of horned cattle, 230 horses, and 60,000 sheep, the value of +the whole of which amounted to about 230,800_l._ Importations of stock +immediately add a value to land, for what is the use of pasture without +animals to feed upon it? And indeed so large an introduction of those +primitive riches, flocks and herds, is almost sure to give a spur to +industry, and to assist the increasing prosperity of a rising colony. +Under the influence of this cause it is related that land in Western +Australia, which was bought for 23_l._ an acre in December, 1839, was +sold for 60_l._ an acre in February, 1840. And in other colonies where +overland communication takes place, instead of the cattle being brought +by sea, as in Western Australia, the effect is yet more astonishing. +There is much that is noble to admire in the character of the +overlanders, and their efforts have been productive of great advantage +to our recent colonies; indeed, it is perhaps in a great measure to +their exertions that the very rapid progress of Port Phillip and South +Australia may be ascribed. But there appears to be a certain wildness +about their character, which, while it fits them admirably for the +pursuit which they have chosen, renders them restless and uneasy in more +quiet and domestic spheres. The love of gain, too, is rather more of a +ruling passion with them than it ought to be, but that is a fault by no +means peculiar to the overlanders. Yet it affords a curious comparison +and a fresh proof of our nature being a fallen one, when we come +quietly to contrast the pains taken, the toils endured, and the risks +encountered, in order to supply a colony with "the meat that perisheth," +against the indifference, feebleness, and apathy, which are exhibited +about the spiritual necessities of its inhabitants. Erect the standard +of worldly profit, and thousands will flock to it, unscared by danger, +unwearied by labour. But, meanwhile, how slow is the banner of the +Church in being unfurled, how few rally around it, when it is displayed; +in short, how much wiser in their generation are the children of this +world than the children of light! + + [207] See Grey's Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. p. 188. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +STATE OF RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA. + + +The religious state of the inhabitants of the Australian colonies, +especially of the two oldest and most populous settlements, has been so +frequently the subject of allusion in this work, that the reader must +already have become acquainted with its general aspect. Nevertheless, +there are many interesting particulars which have not yet been detailed; +and no subject, surely, can concern more nearly the _mother country_ +than the religious condition of her children and offspring. Upon the +mere surface of things, judging from appearances only, the religious +habits of England would seem perhaps to be transferred to the Australian +colonies no less perfectly than its social customs; but, although the +resemblance to our spiritual pride and spiritual ignorance, our needless +divisions and contempt of lawful authority, is perfect enough, except +when it occasionally degenerates into caricature, yet, in points more +deserving of imitation, the likeness between the mother country and her +daughters is not always so striking. Probably it would be difficult to +sum up the matter better than in the words of Bishop Broughton, who +says, "My own opportunities of observation have been very numerous, +and I do not hesitate to say, that, in either colony, surrounded, it +cannot be dissembled, by much that is base and disgusting, there is, +nevertheless, an extensive, and in point of actual influence, a +preponderating proportion of integrity and worth, which, if suitably +encouraged and supported now, there may hereafter spring up a wise and +understanding people to occupy this land."[208] + + [208] Letter of the Bishop of Australia to the Society for the + Propagation of the Gospel, dated May 22, 1838. + +The way in which the Lord's Day is observed in New South Wales, or Van +Diemen's Land, may serve for an index of the general amount of religious +feeling among many of its inhabitants. Sunday desecration,--despising +the day of rest which the Lord has appointed, is notoriously one of the +first steps which a man is tempted to take in that downward course of +sin which leads him to the penal colonies; and accordingly, it must be +expected that a large quantity of the old leaven should remain working +in the convict population. And especially was this to be anticipated, +when so little pains were taken to teach them better things, for the +absence of religious instruction immediately furnishes an excuse for +disregard of the day of rest, and renders that neglect which was before +inexcusable, in some measure unavoidable. According to Dr. Lang, +religion is but seldom taken into account by the majority of the +colonists in their dealings with their convict-servants. In at least as +many as four cases out of five, he says, that no attention to the day +is paid, but frequently it is spent in weighing out rations, settling +accounts, or paying and receiving visits; while the men, whom it is +contrary to law to set to work on a Sunday, are often allowed to +cultivate ground for themselves, upon the plea that, if they were not so +occupied, they would be doing worse. In the opinion of Judge Burton, the +want of occupation on the Sunday was a cause of many robberies being +committed, and some of the worst crimes that had been brought under his +notice had taken place upon that day. Mr. Barnes says, speaking of the +men at the penal settlement of Macquarie Harbour, "I believe more crime +or wickedness was committed on Sunday, when they were ringing the bell +for church-service, than on any other day of the week." These opinions +are confirmed and strengthened by men of various parties, and different +plans have been proposed. That of increasing the number of churches and +of the clergy is obviously one of the most likely to succeed, but its +success must, in the nature of things, not be very speedy. It was stated +by one witness before the Committee upon Transportation, that, when the +means of public worship have been provided, the convicts should be +regularly mustered and taken to church, which, he thinks, would have a +good effect; but what is really wanted is that they should _come_ to +church, and not merely be _taken_ thither. One member of the Committee +inquired whether all the present churches were filled, and the witness +replied that they were not; but this is rather a proof of the need of +additional religious instruction than an argument against furnishing it. +If among so many souls the few existing places of divine worship are not +all fully occupied, is not this a proof of the desolate state of the +Lord's vineyard in that country? Is not this a sufficient reason for +earnestly endeavouring to increase the number of the labourers in the +vineyard? The heathenism of a considerable portion of a population +nominally christian, manifestly tends to thin the congregations even of +existing churches. But the want of church extension, and the dearth of +ministers, tends to produce and increase this heathenism, and therefore +it indirectly tends to diminish the numbers of the present attendants +upon divine service. And what a mockery, in some instances, has the +so-called divine service hitherto been! The director-general of roads in +Van Diemen's Land, some years ago, chose to place catechists and clergy +under a ban, though there was no great risk of his gangs being much +troubled by them, when they had so many other duties to fulfil. And what +was the system which this wise manager of roads chose to substitute for +the teaching of Christ's ministers? At every road-station, daily, +morning and evening, readings of the sacred Scriptures were established, +and "devotional exercises" were added on the sabbath. Well, but who +officiated? Let Archdeacon Hutchins reply in the very words used by him, +when the matter was brought before the notice of the government in 1837. +"These readings of the Scriptures were performed generally, if not +always, by _some of the very worst of the convicts themselves_, +selected, no doubt, for the purpose, not on account of their wickedness, +but of their abilities. They are the best readers, or the cleverest +fellows; and therefore, amongst rogues, generally the greatest. These +are men by whom, as far as the director is concerned, the seed of +religious knowledge is scattered among the road parties. How far +there may be a rational hope of the Divine blessing accompanying such +endeavours, I leave to be declared by any one possessed of common sense +and some little acquaintance with Scripture."[209] Even Jeroboam, the +son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, only "made priests of the _lowest_ +of the people;" he did not, that we read of, appoint the _vilest_ +characters he could find to that office. + + [209] See Speech of the Bishop of Tasmania at Leeds, Nov. 28, + 1842, p. 16. + +The greater part of the settlers in New South Wales and Tasmania have +been derived from those classes, who, in England, except in the rural +districts, have, until recently, been well nigh shut out from their +parish churches; and, in many instances, their mode of life here was +little likely to lead them to a regular attendance upon the public +worship of God, even where there was room for them. But nothing more +surely produces distaste and carelessness in this matter than the total +absence of all regularity respecting it. The truly religious soul, +indeed, when banished by circumstances from the temple of the Lord, is +always inquiring with the royal Psalmist, "When shall I come to appear +before the presence of God?" But the careless man, the worldly-minded +man, indeed the greater part of mankind, it is to be feared, feel no +longing desires of this kind. The further they are removed from the +courts of the Lord's house, the less they think about its blessings, the +less concern they take about religion; so that when an opportunity is +offered them of joining in public worship, it actually is viewed as a +trouble instead of a privilege, and no small pains are taken to escape +from it. For example, it is stated by Mr. Mudie, that when a clergyman +had been able to attend, and divine service was about to commence, upon +his estate, he noticed but few of the convicts there, the rest declining +to come, upon the plea of their being Roman Catholics. But this trick +was of no avail, for their master, being satisfied that they merely +wanted to escape attendance, and to employ the opportunity thus afforded +them of prowling about and thieving, insisted upon all these Romanists +coming up and sitting outside the building in which the others were +assembled. The next time the clergyman came, they were all Protestants. +But in what a wretched state of depravity must men be who can thus +deliberately tell a lie, in order to avoid joining in the worship of +the Lord their Maker! + +To provide for the spiritual wants of our penal colonies would be, under +the most favourable circumstances, no easy matter; and in the actual +condition of affairs, it is a most difficult and discouraging task. For +not only are the ordinary obstacles arising from man's fallen nature to +be surmounted, but the effect of unusually evil influence and bad +example is to be counteracted in a convict population. And far from +opposing this mischievous spirit by "endeavouring to keep the unity of +the spirit in the bond of peace," professing believers are nowhere more +at variance than in Australia; so that the work of turning the hearts of +the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just is perpetually being disturbed +by strife and jealousies among those who ought to be one, even as Christ +and the Father are One. There, as it has been well observed, "the Church +stands upon her own merits, her own divine right; there all the attested +grievances of the Dissenters, secular and political, are removed; no +tithes, no church-rates, no exclusive state support." And yet there, it +may be added, the fierce contentious spirit which rages in England is +unchanged in character, and the way of the Church is just as evil spoken +of in New South Wales as in the mother country. The only grievance the +dissenters can complain of now in Australia is that assistance is +afforded to the Church to a larger amount than they would like. But +this is grievance enough for them to raise an outcry about. And hence +arise fresh hindrances to the progress of true religion in these +settlements. There are other spirits besides the unclean spirits of +infidelity and iniquity which the Church has here to contend against. + +The language of a very zealous and active clergyman of Australia is +this:--"Give us clergy and churches, and I will ensure congregations and +a vast spread of the gospel in the Church of Christ by means of the +Church of England."[210] But, so pitiable is the effect of religious +strife, that rather than allow the necessary means to be given for +this purpose, many would be content to leave things in their present +miserable state; and although, as in the mother country, the majority of +the population belong to the Church of England, yet the minority, in all +its little sections, unite in grudging every effort that is permitted, +every single pound that is spent, by the government in aid of the +Church. There is no communion that can pretend to lay claim to the +religious instruction of the people; it would be too absurd to propose +that the English nation should entrust the religious training of a +colony, like that of New South Wales,[211] containing upwards of 70,000 +persons belonging to the national Church, into the hands of the +Presbyterians, with their 13,153 souls, or into those of the Methodists +and other dissenters, with their 5,093 souls, or even to the Romanists, +with their 35,690 souls! And accordingly, since it was hopeless to get +this important and responsible office exclusively for themselves, all +parties really would seem to have conspired together to keep it, at all +events, from falling into the possession of that body to which it of +right belongs,--the national Church of England and Ireland,--a Church +which the Presbyterians do not generally deny to be scriptural, and +which the Romanists, by their peculiar hostility, proclaim to be, in +the best and oldest meaning of the word, essentially Protestant. Under +feelings of this description, the Roman Catholics, and their +"Presbyterian brethren," (as they can condescend to call them when it +answers their purpose,)[212] have been acting in Australia for some +years past; and, aided by the potent force of agitation upon a +government which "cared for none of these things," except how it might +"please the people," they have been successful. Spurning the very name +of toleration, and despairing of exclusive establishments for their +own communion, they have succeeded in giving birth to a system of +joint-establishment for three communions of Christians, and +encouragement and assistance for as many more as the government may see +fit to patronise. In 1836, the system which now continues in operation +was commenced by Sir R. Bourke, then Governor of New South Wales, who, +in proposing this plan, expressed a confident hope, (which has never yet +been fulfilled,) that thus people of different persuasions "would be +united together in one _bond of peace_." It is pitiable to see a +fellow-creature, and him, too, a man in authority, borrowing an +expression from a passage of Holy Scripture, (Eph. iv. 3,) while he is +at the very time forgetting the duty there enforced. The eye that +glances upon the words "bond of peace," must be very careless or very +wilful, if those other words, "unity of Spirit," or the words below, in +the following verses of the same chapter, altogether escape its notice. +The principal features of the new system are these. It affords +assistance in money towards building a church or chapel, and a +dwelling-house for the minister, in all cases where not less than +300_l._ have been raised by private subscriptions. It provides a stipend +for the support of _ministers of religion_, upon certain conditions, at +the rate of 100_l._ per annum, where there is a population, of 100 adult +persons, (including convicts,) who shall subscribe a declaration stating +their desire to attend his place of worship, and shall be living +within a reasonable distance of the same. If 200 adults in similar +circumstances sign the declaration, a stipend of 150_l._ is granted; and +if 500 persons sign it, the stipend is 200_l._--the highest amount ever +granted towards the support of any one officiating teacher of religion. +In places where there are less than 100 adults ready to subscribe, or +where there is no church or chapel yet erected, the governor may +contribute a stipend not exceeding 100_l._ per annum, but in the latter +case 50_l._ must be promised also from private sources. A certain +proportion of free sittings, (one-fourth, according to Lang, at least +one-sixth part, according to Burton,) is to be reserved in each +building. Such are the principal points of the system, and, according +to the governor's regulations, the assistance thus offered is limited +chiefly to the Church of England, the Church of Rome, and the Scottish +Kirk, which "three grand divisions of Christians"[213] are thus made, in +fact, the three established communions of New South Wales. + + [210] Letter of Rev. W. H. Walsh to S. P. G., dated October 6th, 1840. + + [211] In Van Diemen's Land, in 1838, it was stated that sixteen out of + every twenty-three persons, nearly two-thirds, belonged to the Church + of England. Bishop of Australia's Letter to S. P. G., dated August 18, + 1838. + + [212] See the Memorial of the (Roman) Catholic Inhabitants of New + South Wales to Lord Normanby. Burton on Education and Religion. + Appendix, p. 117. + + [213] Sir Richard Bourke's Letter to the Right Hon. E. G. Stanley, + September 30th, 1833. Sir Richard, in his haste or his ignorance, has + overlooked the Greek Church. + +Undoubtedly good has resulted from the enactment of this law in 1836, +for before that there were scarcely any means open of obtaining help +towards religious instruction, whereas certain means are open now, and +have been very much used. Yet because some good has resulted in this +way, the evil spirit and wretched tendency of the measure must not be +overlooked. All the good that has resulted might have been obtained +without any of its accompanying evil, if a perfect toleration had been +established, the National Church properly endowed, and a sufficient +supply of Roman Catholic priests or Presbyterian teachers for the +convict population of those persuasions liberally supported by +government, as in the gaols in Ireland. In this case, the poor convict, +who is not permitted to possess money, would have had the consolations +of religion, however imperfect, offered to him in his own way, while the +free settler would have had the doors of the national Church opened to +him, or the liberty, in case of his dissenting from that, of providing +for himself a separate conventicle. Where would have been the hardship +of this arrangement? Or why should the _voluntary system_, which is, in +the northern hemisphere, so highly extolled by many Irish Romanists and +not a few Presbyterians, in the southern, be thought a punishment and +degradation? Thus, "not only has equal protection,--for God forbid that +we should ever repine at equal protection,--but equal encouragement been +given by government to every description of religious faith, and every +denomination of professing Christians, in some of the most important +dependencies of the British crown."[214] Is not this, it may be asked, +the very course which a mild and tolerant _heathen_ government would +pursue? And is the same policy, which would probably be followed by +heathen rulers, either right or expedient in rulers professing +themselves to be Christians? + + [214] Bishop of Exeter's Charge in 1837. + +Certainly, whatever other arrangements might have been adopted, those +that have been made are faulty in principle; and this is true, although +it be confessed that some good has arisen from them, since through them +an increased supply of religious teaching has been afforded to the +colonists, however reluctantly wrung from the government in behalf of +the Church of England. The faultiness of principle in these arrangements +is thus stated by the present Bishop of Australia, a man well fitted to +the responsible station which he fills in Christ's Church. "By the +government plan of aid," he observes, "encouragement is given to the +lax and dangerous opinion, that there is in religion nothing that is +either certain or true. The government virtually admits that there is no +divinely-instituted form of church-membership, or of doctrine, otherwise +that one would in preference receive its support. The consequence is +that the most awful truths of Christianity, which have been acknowledged +and preserved in the Church from the beginning, are now frequently +spoken of as merely sectarian opinions, to which no peculiar respect is +due."[215] The Roman Catholics hailed this measure with delight, for +what to them can be a greater triumph or a more gratifying spectacle +than to behold a great Protestant nation, inquiring, as Pilate did, +"What is truth?" The Presbyterians, likewise, and Protestant Dissenters, +were not behind their brethren of Rome (though there were fewer voices +to join the shout) in greeting so exquisitely liberal a measure, which +is actually founded upon some of their favourite notions respecting the +harmlessness of divisions, the total invisibility of the Church, and the +hatefulness of "a dominant episcopacy." The rejoicings which were to be +heard in quarters apparently so opposite boded no good from the measure +to the Church of England; and, certainly, from the strange way in which +this law has been carried into operation, so far as that communion is +concerned, the Government are not to be thanked for any favourable +results that have followed. Through the activity of the members of our +Church, both at home and in Australia, an increased supply of churches +and of clergy has indeed been obtained; but this has, in most instances, +literally been wrung from the ruling powers; while the only boon +that was freely given,--a most valuable boon, it is willingly +acknowledged,--was the appointment of a bishop instead of an archdeacon. +However, the value of the boon thus obtained was lessened by the +disregard shown by Government to the wants of the Church in Australia. +The Bishop returned from England, after his consecration in 1836, +_alone, without being accompanied by a single clergyman_, because, while +Roman Catholic priests and Presbyterian teachers were still eligible to +receive, and did receive, the aid of government, the Church of England +was to remain as it was, notwithstanding its pressing wants and +increasing numbers. All allowances towards the expense of the passage, +or residence, or means of support for any additional clergymen, were +refused. During five years, from 1832 to 1836, the number of chaplains +continued to be the same, except in 1833, when there were only fifteen +instead of sixteen in the estimates; and this was not because no +increase was needful,--for when an outfit of 150_l._, and a yearly +salary of 50_l._ were generously furnished to twenty clergymen by the +Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in consequence of the extreme +necessity of the case, every one of these were instantly employed. A +subscription, amounting to 3,000_l._ was at this time raised in England +in behalf of the Church in Australia, and when the Government perceived +that public opinion was awakened in its favour, and that they had +succeeded in giving their friends and supporters a tolerably good start, +they at length agreed, with the tact peculiar to them, to place the +Church of England (at least nominally) upon the same footing with the +two other "grand divisions of Christians." + + [215] Bishop of Australia's Letter to the Society for the Propagation + of the Gospel, August 18, 1838. + +Now, therefore, the same assistance in outfit, and the same amount of +salary proportioned to the numbers of the congregation, are awarded, +according to the Act, to the teachers of each of these three divisions. +And thus, as Sir R. Bourke informs Lord Glenelg, in 1837, ministers +of the Church of England have been forthcoming to "answer (in many +instances) the calls of congregations of their communion;" while, as a +matter of course, where no call is heard, no answer is attempted to be +given. How very opposite is this modern idea of _the sheep calling the +shepherd to them_, from that pattern set before us by the good Shepherd, +who "came to seek and to save that which was lost!" But still, though +nominally upon an equality with the others, it is distressing to find +how hard a measure has been dealt to the Church in New South Wales; how +studiously every petty advantage that could be taken has been taken of +it by a Government calling itself liberal and impartial. A few instances +of this shall be given, which may serve to show how our brethren in the +colonies have been treated, and how we should ourselves be treated, if +dissent and Romanism could get the upper-hand in our native country; for +then, at the very best, the clergy would be placed, as they now are in +Australia, "in a state of dependence upon two unstable supports;--the +will of Government, and the disposition of the people."[216] At present, +the latter is favourable enough in Australia; but the good-will of the +Government towards the Church has been indeed strangely shown within the +last few years. When the other communions and persuasions in the colony +had nearly, if not altogether, provided themselves with the number of +ministers that the law would allow them, while the wants of the Church +remained, to a great extent, unsupplied, advantage was taken of an +expression in a letter of the governor, Sir George Gipps,[217] and a +limitation was imposed upon the government assistance by Lord Normanby, +which operated exclusively to the hurt of the Church of England. In a +like spirit it was that the governor of New South Wales refused to +consider as private contributions for schools either sums granted by the +societies in England, or by their diocesan committee in New South Wales; +although, in both instances, the money was raised entirely by private +subscription. The inconvenience, delay, and disappointment which this +one arbitrary rule occasioned were astonishing; and to those who took +delight in balking the efforts and thwarting the good works of our +Church, it must have been very gratifying. So, too, must the refusal, in +1841, of a piece of land for a site of a church and parsonage in the +wild district on the banks of the Morrumbidgee, containing 1,200 souls, +dispersed about over a very extensive range of country. + + [216] See Bishop of Australia's Charge in 1841, p. 10. + + [217] On November 9th, 1838, Sir G. Gipps wrote to Lord Glenelg, stating + that "he was happy to say there was no want in the colony of clergy of + _any denomination_!" It was only in December 1837 that the Bishop of + Australia had requested eighteen or nineteen _presbyters of the Church + of England_ for as many places as had actually complied with the + government rules, and not more than half the number had, in the interim, + been supplied. + +Another example of similar conduct has occurred since the change of +ministry at home, which would, it might have been hoped, have infused a +better feeling into the colonial authorities. At the end of 1841, the +Bishop proposed to erect, in certain spots, small wooden churches, as +the only means of obtaining churches at all; trusting, that after these +had stood forty or fifty years, they might be replaced by buildings of +a higher and more lasting character. The average cost of these humble +little buildings was to be from 100_l._ to 120_l._; and they were +intended for very poor districts; but since the outlay did not amount +to 300_l._, the Government would give nothing, and no effort was made +to introduce a modification of the law (supposing that to have been +needful) in order to meet such cases. Instances to the same effect might +easily be multiplied. In New South Wales land is comparatively cheap, +and a horse is an indispensable necessary for a clergyman; but no part +of the government grant is allowed to be spent in purchasing more than +an acre for the site of a church, and half an acre for a house and +garden. "To extend the latter allowance to any quantity of land from +which an income might be derived, would increase the emoluments of the +minister, at the public expense, beyond what the Act contemplates;" so +the Bishop of Australia was assured by official authority in 1836. But +enough of these miserable instances of state-peddling in ecclesiastical +establishments. "There is no semblance," to use Mr. Gladstone's words, +"in any part of these arrangements, of a true and sound conception of +the conscientious functions of government in matters of religion."[218] +May we venture to hope that the present ministry, of which the writer of +the above is a distinguished member, may exhibit in their conduct and +arrangements, both in the colonies and at home, a more sound and true +conception of their duty than was ever shown by their predecessors? Such +hopes, undoubtedly, are entertained by a portion of the British public, +not unimportant either in numbers or in moral and political influence. +Nevertheless, the zealously attached members of the Church of England +need not to be reminded of a truth which is frequently brought before +them in the circle of its daily service. They know that "it is better to +trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in princes." They are sure +that, if theirs is a living branch of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, +many a weapon will be formed against it, but yet "no weapon that is +formed against it shall prosper." + + [218] Gladstone's State in its Relations with the Church, chap. + vii. p. 272. + +It would be wearying to the reader to attempt to enter into the same +details respecting schools as have been stated with regard to churches. +The fate of the Church and School Corporation has elsewhere been +related.[219] Suffice it to say, then, that the same spirit of hostility +or indifference has been equally exhibited in both cases; indeed, it +would be strange if the bitter enemies, and feeble or false friends of +that system of religious instruction which is carried on among the adult +population by our national Church, were not alike vigorous in their +opposition, or impotent in their friendship, to the system of religious +training among the infant population which is wrought out by our +national schools. However, in mentioning the subject of schools, the +unsuccessful attempt of the Government, in 1836, to saddle the colony of +New South Wales with schools conducted upon the modern Irish system, +must not be left unnoticed. On this occasion, it may be observed, the +Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist, and Wesleyan "denominations of +Christians," were actually forced to leave, for a while, their liberal +friends and allies of the Church of Rome, and to seek the assistance, +and rejoice in the strength of the "exclusive" and "dominant" Church of +England. It is really curious to observe these various sects seeking out +the Bishop of Australia, and requesting him to preside at their meeting +in opposition to the proposed measure; and since, although he disagreed +with them in a matter not then at issue, namely, the need of creeds and +catechisms in imparting religious instruction, nevertheless, as he +agreed entirely with them in the matter which was at issue,--the +propriety and necessity of using the Holy Scriptures in religious +teaching,--he complied with their request, presided at their meeting, +and signed their petition. He also presented a petition from himself on +the same subject; for the Government had so contrived to shuffle between +the Archdeacon and the Bishop, that Dr. Broughton, who had very recently +been consecrated, could, just at the time when the education scheme +was to have passed, claim a seat in the legislative council in neither +capacity. It so happened, that by an official neglect at the +Colonial-office in London, no patent, including the Bishop as a member, +had been forwarded to New South Wales; so when he reached Sydney, he +found himself excluded from his seat in the council during the whole +time in which this matter was under discussion there. The plan appeared +to be successful; 3,000_l._ was devoted towards establishing the new +scheme, and an honoured name, that of "National Schools," was pilfered, +and bestowed upon those that were projected in Sydney. But, in this +instance, high principle and popular feeling were united against the +Irish scheme; and as it began with a blunder at the Colonial-office, so +it proved to be little better than a blunder throughout. The schools +proposed were never established; and since that time the Roman Catholics +have made a different sort of attempt to gain educational power, by +obtaining separate sums for their own schools, and swamping the members +of the Church of England, under the honourable but much abused +appellation of Protestants, in the general quagmire of heresy and +schism. However, this second effort, which was made with the sanction +of the Government, was defeated chiefly (under Providence) by the zeal +and ability of the Bishop; and whoever is desirous of seeing a noble +specimen of clear reasoning and manly eloquence, will be gratified and +improved by reading the Bishop of Australia's speech upon the occasion +of this scheme having been proposed by Sir George Gipps in the +legislative council. Certainly, when we consider how admirably +Bishop Broughton demolished Sir George Gipps's scheme, we must own +that the tact was very acute,--or at least the _mistake_ rather +_suspicious_,--which shut him out of the legislative council when +Governor Bourke's plan was in agitation. + + [219] See the latter part of Chapter XI. + +Besides the schools assisted by Government for the education of the +lower orders, there are, of course, many private schools in the +Australian colonies; and it is believed that these important +establishments are no longer so commonly under the direction of men +that have been convicts as they formerly were. Undoubtedly, one who +has been transported _may_, perchance, turn out afterwards to be a good +instructor of youth, but what christian parent would willingly risk his +child's religious and moral progress upon a chance, a possibility, of +this kind? The King's School at Paramatta is an excellent establishment, +founded and conducted upon the principles of the Church of England. +Sydney College is another well-conducted school, but its principles are +more open to objection. "It is to be believed," as has been remarked, +"that a desire to gain the support of men of all religious principles, +led to the Sydney College being founded on none;" and it was scarcely +possible to fall into a greater error than that of passing almost +unnoticed the one thing needful. It is true, that prayers are used daily +in this school, and there seems, from Judge Burton's account of it, to +be much that is good and praiseworthy in its management and details. But +a school where the children of Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews, +meet together, must be, at best, an odd jumble; and the religious +tendency of such an education must be very questionable. + +The Australian College is said by Dr. Lang, its founder, to be the +most promising establishment in New South Wales, being more likely to +resemble in course of time a small university or college in Europe than +the others are. It is chiefly in the hands of the Presbyterians, and +appears to be a thriving and well-conducted school of general learning. +Religious instruction is not neglected, but all this department of +education is arranged in a vague and general way, so as to avoid as much +as possible disputed points; and if parents or guardians object to +children receiving this kind of instruction at all, these pupils are +allowed to withdraw at the times when it is given. If no essential +points of Christianity had ever been brought into dispute, it might +have been wise to avoid those unessential points that had been; or if +religion were a matter of indifference or secondary consequence, then it +might be well to provide for pupils withdrawing beyond the reach of its +voice. But since neither of these suppositions are true, the system of +the Australian College cannot be recommended. It may be very _liberal_. +It is not very _wise_. But it is hard to say when we have reached the +extremity of any opinions. The plan of the Australian College is far too +narrow and confined for some choice spirits of New South Wales; and +accordingly the Normal Institution, as it is pompously designated, has +been formed by a seceder from the first-named establishment. It is said +to be tolerably flourishing, and no wonder, for it offers a very fair +_secular_ education, and this is sufficient for the children of this +world,--unhappily, no insignificant or small class either in New South +Wales or elsewhere. But the christian reader will be satisfied of the +sandy foundation on which the Normal Institution is raised, when he +glances over the following extracts from its original prospectus. The +pupils are to be afforded "every facility and abundant materials for +forming opinions of their own,"--young children, instead of being +brought to Christ, are to be allowed (if they can) to find their way to +Him. The prospectus says, "Till the mind has formed religious opinions +of its own, grounded on a wide range of religious knowledge, the +profession of religion is meaningless, if not incalculably pernicious." +Our Lord's words are, "Except ye be converted and become as little +children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." But it is vain to +quote the words of Scripture to men who will make professions like this: +"To inculcate any given set of religious tenets, or to teach any given +set of religious text-books, would be to lend my labours to a party +whilst I profess to labour for mankind." As though, forsooth, we could +ever labour more advantageously for mankind than when we try to persuade +them, from their very tenderest years, to believe in the Bible and to +belong to the church of God! + +It is the expressed opinion of the highest authority in the church of +Australia, that New South Wales, which is certainly the farthest +advanced of all our colonies there, is not yet ripe for the +establishment of a regular college, resembling our ancient and venerated +English universities. But this most important object has not been lost +sight of; and while a grammar-school has recently been opened in St. +James's parish in Sydney, and another is projected at Newcastle, both of +which are intended to form a nursery for the future college, the means +of providing this last are beginning to accumulate. Mr. Thomas Moore, of +Liverpool, in New South Wales, who died in 1840, has left the site of +his house in Liverpool, with ground adjoining, together with 700 acres +of land, in trust towards the establishment of a college in immediate +and exclusive connexion with the Church of England and Ireland. This +bequest, in itself insufficient for the proposed purpose, will yet serve +for a foundation to begin upon; 3,000_l._ were voted in January, 1840, +by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge to advance the same +good object, and it is expected that the fund will increase and gather +strength before the time shall have arrived when it will be thought +advisable to commence the college. A new school, attached to the Church +of England, is also about to be begun in Van Diemen's Land. It is to be +called Archdeacon Hutchins's school, being intended by its promoters for +a lasting and useful memorial of their respect for the late lamented +Archdeacon of Van Diemen's Land. In the last published account of this +undertaking, it is stated that about 850_l._ was subscribed for this +purpose, but at least 2,000_l._ will be wanted. Our noble Society for +Promoting Christian Knowledge, ever active in advancing the glorious +purpose for which it was formed, has contributed 100_l._ towards this +school, which is to be built at Hobart Town. And it may be observed, +that henceforth Van Diemen's Land will demand even more spiritual care +and assistance than the elder colony; for by recent arrangements, the +transportation of criminals to New South Wales has altogether ceased, +and Van Diemen's Land is now the only colony to which convicts are +conveyed.[220] + + [220] For the particulars here stated, see the Report of the Society + for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for 1842, pp. 56-64. + +A census of the population of New South Wales was taken on the 2d of +March, in the year 1841, and the general result of this is here added +for the satisfaction of the reader. In the whole colony, including its +various dependencies, but exclusive of Van Diemen's Land,[221] the +total of inhabitants was 130,856, of which number 43,558 were females, +and 87,298 males, being as nearly as possible two to one in favour of +the latter. The number of houses, mostly built of wood, was 16,776, +nearly in the proportion of eight inhabitants to each house. The return +of the various religious persuasions was as follows:--Church of England, +73,727, forming a clear majority upon the whole population. Scotch Kirk, +13,153, forming about a tenth of the whole amount of the inhabitants of +New South Wales. Members of the Church of Rome, 35,690, being rather +more than one-fourth of the population. Protestant Dissenters, including +Wesleyans, 5,093, making about one-twenty-sixth of the whole. Jews, 856, +Mahometans and Pagans, 207. Of the inhabitants of New South Wales in +1841, 101,749 were returned as free, while 26,977 were in bondage.[222] +In 1836, there was about one and three-quarters free to one bond, while +in 1841, there were four free to one bond, the proportion of free to the +whole population having gained sixteen per cent. in the five years. +Henceforth, from the natural increase by births, from the influx of +emigrants, and the stoppage of transportation, the advance will be much +more rapid. The population of Sydney was, in 1841, no less than 29,973 +souls; of these, 16,505 were returned as members of the Church of +England; 8,126 belonged to the Romish Church; 3,111 were members of the +Scotch Kirk; 1,707 were Protestant Dissenters; 462 were Jews; and 62 +Mahometans and Pagans. It will be seen, that in the population of the +metropolis of the colony, the proportions of the various religious +opinions are not very materially different from those in the whole +of New South Wales, except that the number of Roman Catholics and +Dissenters are greater, as they usually are in large towns, and that in +Sydney the Romanists have increased, whilst in the colony generally they +have diminished since the last census. + + [221] "It has been found impossible to state accurately the present + population of Tasmania. No information could be obtained at the + well-known colonial publisher's (Cross's) in Holborn." + + [222] These numbers are copied from a Sydney newspaper, but from some + difference in the elements of calculation, possibly from not including + the population of Norfolk Island, they do not quite tally with those + given above. + +A few words may not be out of place, in a work descriptive of the +Australian colonies, upon the subject of emigration, but so much has +been written upon this matter, that a very few words may suffice to give +the opinions of those who are practically acquainted with the subject. +Undoubtedly, active, industrious, and prudent persons, are likely to +prosper in Australia to a degree which is impossible, and scarcely +credible, in Great Britain. No doubt, Providence has in these, and in +our other colonies, given England a means of letting its surplus +population escape in a way that shall not be merely safe, but even +profitable, to the mother country, as well as to the emigrants +themselves. The average consumption of English manufactures by the +Australian colonists, has recently been stated to amount to ten guineas +a-head, while that of the inhabitants of the European countries is only +two shillings.[223] And what true-born Englishman would refuse to +rejoice in the increased demand thus likely to be opened for our +manufactures, and in the increased prosperity of our fellow-subjects on +the other side of the globe, who are thus enabled to supply their own +wants, by purchasing English goods? The objections which we hear +occasionally urged against emigration amount, with one important +exception, to little or nothing. The distance and long voyage, the risk +of not succeeding, the impossibility now of pig-drivers and convicts +becoming masters of many thousands a-year,[224] the paramount necessity +of patient industry and prudent forecast in Australia, no less than in +the rest of the world,--all these circumstances offer no reasonable +hindrance to the emigrant's attempt, either to better his condition, or +else to get that daily bread which in England he finds difficult to be +obtained. And, whatever obstacles of this kind may at first deter him, +the careful settler will soon find himself victorious over these, and +more comfortably situated, in a worldly sense, than he ever before was. + + [223] See the speech of Mr. C. Buller in the House of Commons, on + Thursday, April 6th, 1843, upon the subject of colonization. + + [224] See Evidence before Committee on Transportation in 1837, p. 41. + +_In a worldly sense_, it is said, because, unhappily, there is one great +objection to all emigration, belonging to it of necessity, which, in the +English colonies, and not least so in Australia, has been fearfully +increased and needlessly aggravated. The want of religious instruction +in newly-peopled countries, and among a widely-scattered and pastoral +population, must needs be grievous, even under the most favourable +circumstances. And if these countries are used as penal settlements, the +want is likely to be still more deplorable. But the evil is inflamed to +the utmost degree, when, as in Australia during the earlier years of its +colonial history, little provision of any kind is made for the spiritual +need of the people, or when, as in the same country in later years, "a +system is pursued which would seem to indicate an utter indifference on +the part of those who dispense the national treasure, whether truth +or falsehood shall characterise the religious creeds of any of the +colonists."[225] And thus, while the sum total of religious provision +is very insufficient, that little is divided in a kind of scramble among +various parties, so that Irish Roman Catholics, who cry up the voluntary +system at home, are tempted to glory in being one of "the three +established communions" in New South Wales; and Scotch Presbyterians, +who profess extreme ardour for the American system of "leaving every +religious denomination to support its own ministers," find in Australia +assistance from Government (or even from a clergyman of the Church of +England)[226] very convenient, and "a' vera weel," as the cannie Scots +say. With so much irreligion, so small and so miserably divided a power +to oppose it, as we behold in Australia, the great question with every +one proposing to emigrate is, whether he can take that step without +probable spiritual loss; and at this price he would find all worldly +gain too dearly bought. There are many places in our colonies, it is +true, where a person may use (or, if he pleases, neglect) the means of +grace, exactly as at home; and against these spots the objection now +urged would not at all weigh. But before any one removes himself into +the wilderness, or far away from any place of worship, except the chapel +of the Roman Catholic or the meeting of the separatist, he should be +well rooted and grounded in the faith of his fathers. And supposing him +to be so, what real patriot could wish a man of this kind to emigrate! +How ill can England spare out of any rank of life such persons as these! +Before emigration can become as general and respectable as it ought +to be, _religion_ must be made its groundwork; and religion, to be +successful in doing the work of Christ in the hearts of men, must not +consist in that modern jumble of denominations, which pretends to the +name, but must teach its doctrines by means of the ministrations of the +"Church of the Living God," which is the pillar and ground of the truth. +When this foundation has been laid, then can the conscientious churchman +zealously promote emigration, and not before. And if it should never be +laid, still, whatever may be his fears for weak brethren, or his value +for more steadfast fellow-members of Christ, influencing him to avoid +the responsibility of advising them to quit the home of their fathers, +the faithful churchman will be under no alarm whatever, respecting the +stability of the branch planted by his mother-church in Australia. Nor +yet will he grudge all other denominations (unless they be blasphemous +or immoral,) the most complete toleration. Nay, were it not for the +mischief that would arise to Christianity and to the souls of men, they +might be welcome to all the support and patronage of the State; and if +they obtain it all, even then we fear them not; indeed it is our duty +to pity them, to love them, to pray for them as brethren. Whatever +may be the fate either of Australia or England, the lot of Christ's +Church--that visible Church of His which was founded upon the first +preaching of Peter both to the Jews and to the Gentiles--is fixed and +determined:--it is firmly built upon a rock, and "the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it." + + [225] See the Bishop of Exeter's Charge in 1837. + + [226] Compare Dr. Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. pp. 375, 288; + and Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 13. + + +R. 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W. Pridden, M.A. + </title> + + <style type="text/css"> + +/*<![CDATA[*/ + + .notes {background-color: #dfdbdb; color: #000; padding: .5em; + margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%; text-align: left;} + + p.tbhigh {margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center; vertical-align: 0.5em;} + .tblow {vertical-align: -0.5em;} + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + .tdp {padding: 10px;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .box { width: 600px; + margin: 0 auto; + text-align: center; + padding: 1em; + border-style: double; } + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + a { text-decoration: none; } + + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + /*]]>*/ + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Australia, its history and present condition, by +William Pridden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Australia, its history and present condition + containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies, + with their respective inhabitants + +Author: William Pridden + +Release Date: December 5, 2009 [EBook #30607] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALIA--HISTORY, CONDITION *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Wall, Anne Storer, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p class="notes"> +Transcriber’s Notes:<br /> +1) Morrumbidgee/Murrumbidgee each used on several occasions +and left as in the original. ‘Morrumbidgee’ is the aboriginal +name for the Murrumbidgee.<br /> +2) Used on numerous occasions, civilisation/civilization; +civilised/civilized; civilising/civilizing; uncivilised/uncivilized—left +as in the original.<br /> +3) Same with variations of colonisation/colonization, and a few other +“z” words that should be “s” words in their English form.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<h3>The</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 244px;"> +<img src="images/englishmans.jpg" width="244" height="26" alt="Englishmans Library" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3>XXVI.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>AUSTRALIA,</h1> + +<h2>ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION;</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<p style="font-size: smaller;" class="center">CONTAINING</p> + +<p style="font-size: larger; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;" class="center"><strong>AN ACCOUNT BOTH OF THE BUSH AND OF THE COLONIES, +WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE INHABITANTS.</strong></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p style="font-size: smaller;" class="center">BY THE</p> + +<h2>REV. W. PRIDDEN, M.A.</h2> + +<p style="font-size: smaller;" class="center">VICAR OF BROXTED, ESSEX.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p style="margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;">“<em>Truth</em>, in +her native calmness and becoming moderation, shall be the +object of our homage and pursuit; and we will aim at the attainment +of knowledge for the improvement of our reason, and not for the +gratification of a passion for disputing.”—<em>Address of +the Bp of Australia in 1841 to the Church of England Book Society.</em></p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><span style="font-size: larger;"><strong>LONDON:</strong></span><br /> +JAMES BURNS, 17, PORTMAN STREET,<br /> +<span style="font-size: smaller;">PORTMAN SQUARE.</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: smaller;">1843.</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p style="font-size: smaller;" class="center">LONDON:<br /> +PRINTED BY R. CLAY, BREAD STREET HILL.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p> +<p class="center">[missing illustration: Map of Australia]</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>A few words by way of Preface are requisite, in +order that the objects of the present Work may be +stated to the reader, and that he may also be made +acquainted with the sources whence the information +here communicated is derived, and from consulting +which he may still further inform himself concerning +Australia. The aim of the writer of the following +pages has been,—while furnishing a description of +some of the most flourishing and interesting settlements +belonging to the British Crown, which, at +the same time, exhibit in contrast to each other the +two extremes of savage and civilised life;—to +call the attention of his countrymen, both at home +and in the colonies, to the evils which have arisen +from the absence of moral restraint and religious +instruction in colonies of civilised and (nominally) +christian men. And although it must in many ways +be a disadvantage that the person professing to describe +a particular country should have gained all his +knowledge of it from the report of others, without +ever having himself set foot upon its shores; yet, in +one respect at least, this may operate advantageously. +He is less likely to have party prejudices or private +interests to serve in his account of the land to which +he is a total stranger. In consequence, probably, of +his being an indifferent and impartial observer, not +one of our Australian colonies wears in his eye the +appearance of a perfect paradise; but then, on the +other hand, there is not one of those fine settlements +which prejudice urges him to condemn, as though +it were barren and dreary as the Great Sahara itself. +And the same circumstance—his never having +breathed the close unwholesome air of colonial +party-politics—will render it less likely that his +judgment respecting persons and disputed opinions +should be unduly biassed. There will be more probability +of his judging upon right <em>principles</em>, and +although his facts may (in some instances, unavoidably) +be less minutely accurate than an inhabitant +of the country would have given, yet they may be +less coloured and less partially stated. Instead of +giving his own observations as an eye-witness, +fraught with his own particular views, he can calmly +weigh the opposite statements of men of different +opinions, and between the two he is more likely to +arrive at the truth. With regard to the present +Work, however impartial the author has endeavoured +to be, however free he may be from colonial passions +and interests, he does not wish to deceive the reader +by professing a total freedom from all prejudice. +If this were desirable, it is impossible; it is a qualification +which no writer, or reader either, possesses. +But thus much may be stated, that all his prejudices +are in favour of those institutions with which it has +pleased God to bless his native land. In a volume +that is intended to form part of a series called “The +Englishman’s Library,” it may be permitted, surely, +to acknowledge a strong and influencing attachment +to the Sovereign, the Church, and the Constitution +of England.</p> + +<p>The object and principles of the present volume +being thus plainly set forth, it remains only to +mention some of the sources whence the information +contained in it is derived. To the Travels of Captain +Grey on the western coast of New Holland, +and to those of Major Mitchell in the interior, the +first portion of this Work is deeply indebted, and +every person interested in the state of the natives, +or fond of perusing travels in a wild and unknown +region, may be referred to these four volumes,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +where they will find that the extracts here given +are but a specimen of the stores of amusement +and information which they contain. Captain +Sturt’s “Expeditions” and Mr. Oxley’s “Journal” +are both interesting works, but they point rather +to the progress of discovery in New Holland than to +the actual state of our local knowledge of it. Dr. +Lang’s two volumes upon New South Wales are full +of information from one who has lived there many +years, and his faults are sufficiently obvious for any +intelligent reader to guard against. Mr. Montgomery +Martin’s little book is a very useful compendium, +and those that desire to know more +particulars concerning the origin of the first English +colony in New Holland may be referred to Collins’s +account of it. Various interesting particulars respecting +the religious state of the colonies in Australia +have been derived from the correspondence in +the possession of the Society for the Propagation of +the Gospel in Foreign Parts, free access to which +was allowed through the kind introduction of the +Rev. C. B. Dalton. Many other sources of information +have been consulted, among which the Reports of +the Parliamentary Committee upon Transportation, +in 1837 and 1838; and that of the Committee upon +South Australia, in 1841, must not be left unnoticed. +Neither may the work of Judge Burton +upon Religion and Education in New South Wales +be passed over in silence; for, whatever imperfections +may be found in his book,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> the facts there set forth +are valuable, and, for the most part, incontrovertible, +and the principles it exhibits are excellent. From +the works just mentioned the reader may, should he +feel inclined, verify for himself the facts stated in +the ensuing pages, or pursue his inquiries further. +In the meantime, he cannot do better than join the +author of the little book which he holds in his hand, +in an humble and earnest prayer to Almighty God, +that, in this and in every other instance, whatever +may be the feebleness and imperfection of human +efforts, all things may be made to work together for +good towards promoting the glory of God, the +extension of Christ’s kingdom, and the salvation of +mankind.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 102px;"> +<img src="images/contents.jpg" width="102" height="22" alt="contents" title="" /> +</div><p> </p> + + +<p class="center"><strong>INTRODUCTION.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_1">Page 1.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Subject of the Work—Discovery and Situation of New Holland—Its +Interior little known—Blue Mountains—Conjectures respecting the +Interior—Van Diemen’s Land, or Tasmania.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER I.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_8">Page 8.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">The Bush described—Remains of it near Sydney—North-western Coast +of New Holland—Sandy Columns and Fragments—Recollections of +Home—Gouty Stem Tree—Green Ants—Fine Volcanic District—Cure +for Cold—Travelling in the Rainy Season—Rich sequestered Valleys—Plains +near the Lachlan—Falls of the Apsley—Beauties of Nature +enjoyed by Explorers—Aid afforded by Religion—Trials of Travellers in +the Bush—Thirst—A Christian’s Consolations—Plains of Kolaina, or +Deceit—Bernier Island—Frederic Smith—A Commander’s Cares—Dried +Streams—Return from a Journey in the Bush—Outsettlers—Islands on +the Australian Coast—Kangaroo Island—Coral Reefs and Islets.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER II.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_42">Page 42.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Forbidding aspect of coast no argument against inland beauty and +fertility—River Darling—The Murray—Other Rivers of New Holland—Contrasts +in Australia—The Lachlan, Regent’s Lake, &c.—Sturt’s Descent +down the Murray—His Return—Woods—Difficulties and Dangers +of Bush travelling—Wellington Valley—Australia Felix—Conclusion.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER III.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_72">Page 72.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Comparative advantages of Europeans over Savages—Degraded condition +of Natives of New Holland—Total absence of Clothing—Love of +Ornaments—Peculiar Rites—Ceremony of knocking out a Tooth—Hardships +of Savage Life—Revengeful Spirit—Effect of Native Songs in exciting +Anger—Cruelty—Courage—Indifference to accounts of Civilized Life—Contempt +of its ways—Treatment of Women—Family Names, and +Crests—Language—Music.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER IV.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_97">Page 97.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Means of Subsistence—A Whale Feast—Hunting the Kangaroo—Australian +Cookery—Fish—Seal Catching—Turtles—Finding Opossums—Birds—Pursuit +of the Emu or Cassowary—Disgusting Food of the Natives—Vegetables—<em>By-yu</em> +Nuts—Evils of European Settlements in cutting +off the native supply of Food—Native Property in Land—Inhabitants +of Van Diemen’s Land—A word of Advice to Christian Colonists.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER V.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_120">Page 120.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">First Shyness of Natives natural—Their perplexity between European +Customs and their own—Health and Longevity—Old Age—Funereal +Rites—Belief in Sorcery—The <em>Boyl-yas</em>—Various modes of +Interment—Tombs—Riches of a Native—Bodily Excellences—Secrecy—Quickness +of Sight, &c.—Kaiber and the Watch—The <em>Warran</em> Ground—Various +Superstitions—Mischief of bad Example, for which the British nation is +responsible—The Church, the right Instrument, and the only one that +will be found successful, for civilising the Australian Tribes, if they are +ever to be civilised.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER VI.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_149">Page 149.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Bennillong—Barangaroo’s Funeral—The Spitting Tribe—Mulligo’s Death—The +Corrobory—Peerat and his Wives—Woga’s Captivity—Ballooderry +and the Convicts—Native Hospitality and Philosophy—The Widow and +her Child—Miago.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER VII.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_186">Page 186.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Infancy of New South Wales an interesting subject to Englishmen—Arrival, +in 1788, of the Sirius, and the Supply at Botany Bay—Settlement +commenced in the Harbour of Port Jackson—Character of the +Convicts—Influence of Religion—Particulars respecting the Chaplain—His +peculiar situation and efforts—A Gold Mine pretended to be found—Supply +of Food precarious—Farming—Failure of Provisions—Erection +of a Flag-staff at the entrance of Port Jackson—Activity of +Governor Phillip—Emigration to Norfolk Island—Loss of the Sirius—Departure +of the Supply for Batavia—Arrivals from England—Cruel +treatment of Convicts on board—Paramatta founded—Arrival of the +Second Fleet—State of Agriculture—The Chaplain’s bounty abused—Attendance +at Divine Service—A Church built—Its subsequent fate—Scarcity +of Provisions, and great Mortality—Profligacy of Convicts—Harvest +of 1792—Departure of Governor Phillip—Major Grose’s government—Captain +Paterson’s—Various occurrences—Drunkenness—Love +of Money—Spirit of Gambling.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER VIII.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_216">Page 216.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Arrival of Governor Hunter—His efforts for reformation—Advancement +of the Colony towards supplying its own wants—Wild Cattle found—Coal +discovered—Governor’s regulations—Incendiarism—Natives +troublesome—Difficulties in governing New South Wales—Crimes +common—Laxity of public opinion—The gaols at Sydney and Paramatta +purposely set on fire—Departure of Governor Hunter—Captain +King succeeds him—Norfolk Island abandoned—Sketch of Norfolk +Island—Settlement of Van Diemen’s Land—Free Settlers—Philip +Schoeffer—The Presbyterian Settlers at Portland Head—Resignation +of Governor King—Captain Bligh his successor—Great Flood of the +Hawkesbury—Unpopularity of the Governor—Seizure of his +person—Rebellion—Usurpation—Arrival of a new Governor, Colonel +Macquarie—Improvements in his time—Road-making—Passage across the Blue +Mountains—Public Buildings—Patronage of Emancipists—Discoveries +in the Interior, and Extension of the Colony—Continued neglect of the +spiritual need of the Colonists—Governor Macquarie’s Departure—His +own statement of the progress of the Settlement under his administration.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER IX.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_243">Page 243.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Subject stated—Day-dreams of Colonization—Local divisions of New +South Wales—Its Counties—Cumberland—Camden—Illawarra and the +Cow Pastures—Argyle—Bathurst—Northumberland—Coal Pits—Hunter’s +River—Remaining Counties—Sydney—Port Jackson—Buildings, +&c. of Sydney—Commerce—Public Press—Paramatta—Windsor—Liverpool—Conclusion.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER X.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_266">Page 266.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Description of Van Diemen’s Land—Its local Divisions—Its general +Character and Aspect—Hobart Town—Launceston—Other Australian +Colonies—Port Phillip—South Australia—Adelaide—Western Australia—Its +Towns—North Australia.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER XI.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_286">Page 286.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Climate of Australia—Drought—Agriculture—Flocks and Herds—Government +of the Colonies—Discontent—Means of National Improvement—Bishopric +of Australia—Tribute of Thanks justly due to the Whig +Government—Effects of a Bishop being resident in New South Wales—Educational +provision made by George the Fourth—Dr. Lang’s Account +of it—Judge Burton’s—Church and School Corporation, established in +1826; suspended in 1829; dissolved in 1833—Causes of this change of +Policy—Conclusion.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER XII.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_307">Page 307.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Inhabitants of Australian Colonies—What seed has been there sown—Elements +of Society in the Penal Colonies—Convicts—System of Assignment—Public +Gangs—Mr. Potter Macqueen’s Establishment—Norfolk +Island and its horrors—These have been mitigated of late years—Means +of reforming Convicts—Prevalence of Vice among them—The +class of Convicts called <em>specials</em> described.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER XIII.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_325">Page 325.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Emancipists—Their general Character—Their conduct in the Jurors’ Box +no argument in favour of bestowing upon them a Representative +Government—Free Population—Ancient Nobility of Botany Bay—Prevailing +taste in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land—Love of +Gain—Land Sharks—Squatters—Overlanders.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHAPTER XIV.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">[<a href="#Page_338">Page 338.</a>]</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;">Importance of Religion—The Lord’s Day—Habits of duly observing it +nearly lost among many of the inhabitants of our Australian +Colonies—Opposition to Improvement—Religious strife prevails where religious +union is needed—Sir R. Bourke’s novel system of religious Establishments—Its +practical working—Efforts of the Church coldly seconded +or else opposed, by Government—Petty Persecutions—Similar opposition +to National Religious Education as to National Church—Blunders +respecting the Irish System of Education in 1836—Attempt in 1840 to +banish the Creed and Catechism from Protestant Schools having +Government support—Schools of a higher rank in New South Wales—King’s +School, Paramatta—Sydney College—The Australian College—The +Normal Institution—Proposed College at Liverpool—Other Schools—Population +of New South Wales in 1841—Emigration—Conclusion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 148px;"> +<img src="images/illustrations.jpg" width="148" height="22" alt="Illustrations" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary=""> + +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Map of Australia</td> <td align='right'><a href="#frontis"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Reduced Map of Van Diemen’s Land</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Travellers in the Bush</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Explorers finding the Bed of a dried-up River</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Opossum Hunting</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Natives of the Murray Islands in Boats</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Sydney in its Infancy—View from the South</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>North View of Sydney</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Hobart Town</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_266">266</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Cape Pillar, near the Entrance of the Derwent, Van Diemen’s Land</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Conveying Cattle over the Murray, near Lake Alexandria</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td> </tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 444px;"> +<img src="images/img1.jpg" width="444" height="500" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">van diemen’s land.</span> +</div> + + +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<p>The vast tract of country which it is the object of the +present volume to describe in its leading features, both +moral and natural, may be said to consist of two islands, +besides many small islets and coral reefs, which lie +scattered around the coasts of these principal divisions. +The larger island of the two, which from its size may +well deserve the appellation of a continent, is called +New Holland, or Australia; and is supposed to be not +less than three-fourths of the extent of the whole of +Europe. The smaller island, so well known by the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +names of Van Diemen’s Land, or Tasmania, (from those +of the discoverer, Tasman, and the Dutch governor of +Batavia, Van Diemen) is not to be compared in size to +the other, being about equal in magnitude to Ireland, +and, like that island, abounding in fine and excellent +harbours. Although, strictly speaking, the name of +Australia is confined to the former of these two islands, +yet it may be understood to include the smaller island +also; and under this name it is proposed to make the +reader familiar with the chief objects of curiosity in the +natural world, and likewise with the state of human +society, whether savage or civilised, in the two islands +of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land, so far as both +of these have been hitherto known and explored.</p> + +<p>It is by no means certain what nation may justly lay +claim to the honour of the discovery of New Holland, +the coasts of which were probably seen by the Spaniards, +Quiros or Torres, in 1606, and are by some supposed to +have been known to the Spanish and Portuguese yet +earlier than this date, but were not regularly discovered +until the Dutch, between the years 1616 and 1627, explored +a considerable portion of the northern and +western shores of that vast island, to which they gave +the name of their own country, Holland. To the +Spaniards this land was known by the names of Terra +Australis Incognita, (The Unknown Southern Land,) or +Australia del Espiritu Santo, (The Southern Land of the +Holy Spirit,) the meaning of which last name does not +exactly appear, unless it arose from the discovery of +Quiros having been made a little before Whitsuntide. +Since that time the coasts of this immense island, extending, +it is said, to no less than 8000 miles, have been +gradually explored, although they still remain in some +parts very imperfectly known. Indeed, it was only in +the year 1798 that Van Diemen’s Land was discovered +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +to be an island separated from New Holland, of which +before that time it had been thought to form a large +projection or promontory.</p> + +<p>New Holland is situated in the vast ocean extending +to the south and east of the Spice Islands, and it lies +about even with the lower part of the continent of +Africa, only at an immense distance due east of it. Its +extreme points of latitude are 39 degrees and 10½ degrees +S., and of longitude 112 degrees and 153 degrees 40 +minutes E. from Greenwich, so that it includes in its +huge extent climates both tropical and temperate, but +none that are decidedly cold. It must be remembered, +indeed, that the countries south of the equator become +colder at the same latitude than those that extend towards +the north; but, nevertheless, the nearest point +towards the South Pole, 39 degrees, nearly answering +to the situation of Naples in the northern hemisphere, +cannot be otherwise than a mild and warm climate. The +shape of New Holland is very irregular, its coast being +much broken and indented by various great bays and +smaller inlets; but it has been estimated to have a <em>width</em> +from E. to W. of 3000 miles, and a breadth from N. to S. +of 2000, containing altogether not less than three millions +of square miles. Of course, it is impossible, in so +large an extent of country, that the interior parts of it +should have been explored during the few years in which +any portion of it has been occupied by Europeans. Accordingly, +almost all the inland tracts are still a vast +blank, respecting which very little is known, and that +little is far from inviting. Indeed many hindrances +oppose themselves to the perfect discovery of these +inland regions, besides those common obstacles, to encounter +and overcome which every traveller who desires +to explore new, wild, and savage countries, must have +fully made up his mind.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +First among the peculiar difficulties which have opposed +the Australian explorer is the height and ruggedness of +that chain of mountains, called, in the colony of New +South Wales, the Blue Mountains, which form a mighty +barrier of more or less elevation along most parts of the +eastern coast of New Holland, sometimes approaching as +nearly as 30 miles to the sea, and at other places falling +back to a distance of 60 or nearly 100 miles. These +mountains are not so very high, the loftiest points appearing +to exceed but little the height of Snowdon in +Wales, or Ben Nevis in Scotland; but their rugged and +barren nature, and the great width to which they frequently +extend, render it no very easy matter to cross them +at all. Indeed, although the settlement of New South +Wales was founded in 1788, it was not before 1813 that +a route was discovered across those vast ranges which +shut in the colony to the west. Frequently had the +passage over the Blue Mountains been attempted before, +but never with any success; and the farthest point which +had been reached, called Caley’s Repulse, was a spot +that almost seemed to forbid man’s footsteps to advance +beyond it. Nothing was to be seen there in every direction +but immense masses of weather-beaten sandstone-rock, +towering over each other in all the sublimity of +desolation; while a deep chasm, intersecting a lofty +ridge covered with blasted trees, seemed to cut off every +hope of farther progress. But all these difficulties have +now long since been got over, and stage-coaches are able +to run across what were a few years ago deemed impassable +hills. Yet, when this dreary barrier of barren +mountains has been crossed, another peculiar hindrance +presents itself to the exploring traveller. In many parts +of the interior of New Holland, which have been visited, +the scarcity of water is such that the most distressing +privations have been endured, and the most disagreeable +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +substitutes employed. And yet, strange to say, the very +same country, which sometimes affords so few springs, +and of which the streams become dried up into chains +of dirty pools, and at last into dry ravines and valleys, is, +occasionally, subject to extreme floods from the overflowing +of its rivers, and then offers a new obstacle to +the traveller’s progress in the shape of extensive and +impassable marshes! To these difficulties must be +added the usual trials of adventurous explorers, the +dangers and perplexities of a journey through pathless +forests, the want of game of any kind in the barren +sandstone districts, the perils sometimes threatened by +a visit from the native inhabitants, and, altogether, we +shall have reason rather to feel surprise at what has +been done in the way of inland discovery in New Holland, +than to wonder that so much remains yet undone.</p> + +<p>In consequence of the interior portions of the country +remaining still unknown, fancy has been busy in forming +notions respecting them, and one favourite supposition +has been that there exists somewhere in the +central part of New Holland an immense lake or inland +sea; but of this no proof whatever can be produced, so +that it can only be said that <em>it may be so</em>. Certainly, +unless some such means of communication by water, or +some very large navigable river, should exist, it is hardly +possible to imagine how the extensive tracts of inland +country can ever become civilized or inhabited by +Europeans. And of that portion which has been visited +a considerable extent of country appears to be shut out +by the natural barrenness of its soil and sandstone-rocks +from any prospect of ever supplying food to the colonies +of civilized man. So that, while the whole of New +Holland is an interesting country from its natural peculiarities, +and even the desolate portion of it adds, by its +very desolation, a deep interest to the adventures of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +those persons who have had the courage to attempt to +explore it; yet the chief prospects of Australia’s future +importance seem to be confined to its line of coast,—no +narrow limits in an island so extensive. Hence the +colonies now flourishing on the eastern, southern, and +western shores of New Holland, especially on the first, +will form a chief object of attention in the present work; +although, as will be seen by its contents, the “bush,” or +wild country, and its savage inhabitants, will be by no +means overlooked.</p> + +<p>Respecting Van Diemen’s Land much need not be +here said, although, however small in comparative extent, +its population was in 1836 above half of that of +the whole colony of New South Wales. It is, therefore, +and always will be, an important island, though, from its +mountainous character and confined limits, it cannot, of +course, be expected to keep pace with the increasing +population of the sister colony. Van Diemen’s Land +was discovered in 1642, by the Dutchman, Tasman, who +first sailed round its southern point, and ascertained +that the great Southern Land, or Australia, did not +extend, as it had been supposed, to the South Pole. The +island was apparently overlooked, until, in 1804, a colony +was founded there by the English, and it was taken possession +of in the name of his Britannic majesty. Since +that time, with the exception of those early hardships to +which all colonies seem liable, it has been flourishing and +increasing. To many Englishmen its colder climate, +(which is yet sufficiently mild,) and its supposed resemblance +in appearance and productions to their native +land, have appeared preferable to all the advantages +which the larger island possesses. Van Diemen’s Land +is divided from New Holland on the north by Bass’s +Straits, its extreme points of latitude are 41° 20', and +43° 40' S., and of longitude 144° 40', and 148° 20' E. Its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +shape is irregular, being much broken by various inlets, +but its greatest extent from N. to S. is reckoned to be +about 210 miles, and from E. to W. 150 miles, containing +a surface of about 24,000 square miles. The native +inhabitants of this smaller island have entirely disappeared +before the superior weapons and powers of +<em>civilised</em> man.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img8.jpg" width="500" height="345" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">travellers in the bush.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>THE BUSH, ON OR NEAR THE COAST.</strong></p> + + +<p>All that country, which remains in a state of nature +uncultivated and uninclosed, is known among the inhabitants +of the Australian colonies by the expressive +name of <em>the Bush</em>.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> It includes land and scenery of +every description, and, likewise, no small variety of +climate, as may be supposed from the great extent of +the island of New Holland. Accordingly, without indulging +in surmises concerning the yet unknown parts, +it may be safely said, respecting those which have been +more or less frequently visited and accurately explored, +that the extremes of rural beauty and savage wildness +of scenery,—smiling plains and barren deserts, snowy +mountains and marshy fens, crowded forests and bare +rocks, green pastures and sandy flats,—every possible +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +variety, in short, of country and of aspect may be found +in that boundless region which is all included under the +general appellation of <em>the Bush</em>. To enter into a particular +or regular description of this is clearly no less impossible +than it would be tedious and unprofitable. And +yet there are many descriptions of different portions of +it given by eye-witnesses, many circumstances and +natural curiosities belonging to it, and related to us +upon the best authority, which are likely to please and +interest the reader, who can see and adore God everywhere, +and is capable of taking delight in tracing out +and following the footsteps of Almighty Wisdom and +Power, even in the wilderness and among the mountain-tops. +It is proposed, therefore, to select a few of the +pictures which have been drawn by the bold explorers +of the Bush, so as to give a general idea of the character, +the scenery, the dangers, and the privations of that +portion of the Australian islands. And, having first +become familiar and acquainted with these, we shall be +better able to set a just value, when we turn to the state +of the colonies and their inhabitants, upon that moral +courage, that British perseverance and daring, which +have, within the memory of man, changed so many +square miles of bush into fertile and enclosed farms; +which have raised a regular supply of food for many +thousands of human beings out of what, sixty years ago, +was, comparatively speaking, a silent and uninhabited +waste. When the troops and convicts, who formed the +first colony in New South Wales, landed at Port Jackson, +the inlet on which the town of Sydney is now situated, +“Every man stepped from the boat literally into a wood. +Parties of people were everywhere heard and seen +variously employed; some in clearing ground for the +different encampments; others in pitching tents, or +bringing up such stores as were more immediately +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +wanted; and the spot, which had so lately been the abode +of silence and tranquillity, was now changed to that of +noise, clamour, and confusion.”<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>And still, even near to the capital town of the colony, +there are portions of wild country left pretty much in +their natural and original state. Of one of these spots, in +the direction of Petersham, the following lively description +from the pen of a gentleman only recently arrived +in the colony, may be acceptable. “To the right lies +a large and open glen, covered with cattle and enclosed +with <em>bush</em>, (so we call the forest,) consisting of brushwood +and gigantic trees; and, above the trees, the broad +sea of Botany Bay, and the two headlands, Solander and +Banks, with a white stone church and steeple, St. Peter’s +New Town, conveying an assurance that there are Englishmen +of the right sort not far from us. And now we +plunge into the thicket, with scarcely a track to guide +our steps. I have by this time made acquaintance with +the principal giants of the grove. Some are standing, +some are felled; the unmolested monarchs stand full +200 feet high, and heave their white and spectral limbs +in all directions; the fallen monsters, crushed with their +overthrow, startle you with their strange appearances; +whilst underfoot a wild variety of new plants arrest your +attention. The bush-shrubs are exquisitely beautiful. +Anon a charred and blackened trunk stops your path: +if you are in spirits, you jump over all; if you are +coming home serious, weary, and warm, you plod your +way round. Well,—in twenty minutes’ time you reach +a solitary hut,—the first stage of the walk: you pass the +fence, the path becomes narrow,—the bush thickens +round you,—it winds, it rises, it descends: all on a +sudden it opens with a bit of cleared ground full twenty +yards in extent, and a felled tree in the midst. Here let +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +us pause, and, kneeling on the turf, uncovered, pour +forth the voice of health, of cheerfulness, and gratitude +to Him who guides and guards us on our way. And +now, onward again. The land falls suddenly, and we +cross a brook, which a child may stride, but whose +waters are a blessing both to man and beast. And now +we rise again; the country is cleared; there is a flock of +sheep, and a man looking after them; to the left, a farmhouse, +offices, &c.; before us the spire of St. James’s, +Sydney, perhaps three miles distant, the metropolitan +church of the new empire, and, a little to the right, the +rival building of the Roman church. Beneath us lies +Sydney, the base-born mother of this New World, +covering a large extent of ground, and, at the extreme +point of land, the signal station, with the flags displayed, +betokening the arrival of a ship from England. +Till now we have met with no living creature, but here, +perhaps, the chaise with Sydney tradesman and his wife, +the single horseman, and a straggler or two on foot, +begin to appear.”</p> + +<p>The general appearance of the coast of New Holland +is said to be very barren and forbidding, much more so +than the shores of Van Diemen’s Land are; and it thus +often happens that strangers are agreeably disappointed +by finding extreme richness and fertility in many parts +of a country, which at their first landing afforded no +such promises of excellence. One of the most dreary +and most curious descriptions of country is to be met +with on the north-western shores of New Holland, +quite on the opposite coast to that where the principal +English colony is situated. The daring explorer of this +north-western coast, Captain Grey, has given a fearful +account of his dangers and adventures among the barren +sandstone hills of this district. Its appearance, upon his +landing at Hanover Bay, was that of a line of lofty cliffs, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +occasionally broken by sandy beaches; on the summits +of these cliffs, and behind the beaches, rose rocky sandstone +hills, very thinly wooded. Upon landing, the +shore was found to be exceedingly steep and broken; +indeed the hills are stated to have looked like the <em>ruins +of hills</em>, being composed of huge blocks of red sandstone, +confusedly piled together in loose disorder, and so overgrown +with various creeping plants, that the holes +between them were completely hidden, and into these +one or other of the party was continually slipping and +falling. The trees were so small and so scantily covered +with leaves that they gave no shelter from the heat of +the sun, which was reflected by the soil with intense +force, so that it was really painful to touch, or even to +stand upon, the bare sandstone. Excessive thirst soon +began to be felt, and the party, unprepared for this, had +only two pints of water with them, a portion of which +they were forced to give to their dogs; all three of these, +however, died of exhaustion. After a vain search of +some hours, at length the welcome cry of “Water!” was +heard from one of the party; but, alas! upon scrambling +down the deep and difficult ravine where the water +ran, it was found to be quite salty, and they were compelled +to get up again as well as they could, unrefreshed +and disheartened. After following the course of the +deep valley upwards about half a mile, they looked +down and saw some birds ascending from the thick +woods growing below, and, knowing these white cockatoos +to be a sure sign of water very near, the weary +party again descended, and found a pool of brackish +water, which, in their situation, appeared to afford the +most delicious draughts, although they shortly afterwards +paid the penalty of yet more intolerable thirst, +arising from making too free with a beverage of such +quality.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +The nature of the country near Hanover Bay, where +the party belonging to Captain Grey was exploring, is +most remarkable. The summits of the ranges of sandstone +hills were generally a level sort of table-land, but +this level was frequently broken and sometimes nearly +covered with lofty detached pillars of rock, forming the +most curious shapes in their various grouping. In one +place they looked like the aisle of a church unroofed, in +another there stood, upon a huge base, what appeared +to be the legs of an ancient statue, from which the body +had been knocked away; and fancy might make out +many more such resemblances. Some of these time-worn +sandy columns were covered with sweet-smelling +creepers, and their bases were hidden by various plants +growing thickly around them. The tops of all were +nearly on a level, and the height of those that were measured +was upwards of forty feet. The cause of this +singular appearance of the country was at length discovered +by the noise of water running under the present +surface, in the hollows of the sandstone, and gradually +carrying away the soil upon which the top surface rests. +Formerly, no doubt, the level of the whole country was +even with the tops of the broken pillars, and much higher; +and hereafter what is now at the surface will give way +beneath the wasting of the streams that flow below, and +no traces of its present height will be left, except in +those places where the power of the water is less felt, +which will rear up their lofty heads, and bear witness by +their presence of the ruin that will have taken place.</p> + +<p>In wandering through a country of this description, +how natural does the following little remark of Captain +Grey appear! A plant was observed here, which, in +appearance and smell, exactly resembled the jasmine of +England; and it would be difficult to give an idea of the +feeling of pleasure derived from the sight of this simple +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +emblem of home. But, while the least plant or tree +that could remind them of home was gladly welcomed, +there were many new and remarkable objects to engage +the attention of the travellers. Among these the large +green ants, and the gouty stem tree may be particularly +noticed. The ants are, it would seem, confined to the +sandstone country, and are very troublesome. The gouty +stem tree is so named from the resemblance borne by its +immense trunk to the limb of a gouty person. It is an +unsightly but very useful tree, producing an agreeable +and nourishing fruit, as well as a gum and bark that may +be prepared for food. Upon some of these trees were +found the first rude efforts of savages to gain the art of +writing, being a number of marks, supposed to denote the +quantity of fruit gathered from the tree each year, all but +the last row being constantly scratched out, thus:</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/imgtally.png" width="300" height="75" alt="tally markings" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>But, miserable as the general appearance of that part +of the north-western coast of New Holland undoubtedly +is, yet are there many rich and lovely spots to +be found in its neighbourhood; and, further inland, +vast tracts of fertile country appear to want only civilised +and Christian men for their inhabitants. What is +wanting in the ensuing picture but civilisation and religion, +in order to make it as perfect as any earthly +abode can be? “From the summit of the hills on which +we stood,” (says Captain Grey) “an almost precipitous +descent led into a fertile plain below; and, from this +part, away to the southward, for thirty to forty miles, +stretched a low, luxuriant country, broken by conical +peaks and rounded hills, which were richly clothed +with grass to their very summits. The plains and hills +were both thinly wooded, and curving lines of shady +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +trees marked out the courses of numerous streams.” +This beautiful prospect was over a volcanic district, +and with the sandstone which they were just leaving, +they were bidding farewell to barrenness and desolation. +It was near this beautiful spot, and in a country +no less rich and delightful, that the party of adventurers +was overtaken by the violent rains, which occur in +those hot climates, and which struck the men with so +great chill, that they were driven to make trial of an +odd way of getting warm. Some of them got into a +stream, the waters of which were comparatively warm, +and thus saved themselves from the painful feeling +arising from the very cold rain falling on the pores of +the skin, which had previously been opened by continued +perspiration.</p> + +<p>The rains appear during the wet season to fall very +heavily and constantly in North-Western Australia, and +though a good supply of these is an advantage to an +occupied country, well provided with roads, it is a great +cause of trouble to first explorers who have to find a ford +over every stream, and a passage across every swamp, +and who often run the risk of getting into a perfectly +impassable region. Of this sort, alike differing from the +barren sandstone and the volcanic fertile country, was +a third track through which Captain Grey endeavoured +to pass. A vast extent of land lying low and level near +the banks of the river Glenelg,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and well fitted, if +properly drained, for the abundant growth of useful +and valuable produce, was found, during the rainy +season, to be in the state of a foul marsh, overgrown +with vegetation, choking up the fresh water so as to +cause a flood ankle-deep; and this marshy ground, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +being divided by deep muddy ditches, and occasionally +overflown by the river, offered, as may be supposed, no +small hindrances to the progress of the travellers. In +some places it was quite impossible, from the thickly-timbered +character of its banks, to approach the main +stream; in others they appeared to be almost entirely +surrounded by sluggish waters, of which they knew +neither the depth nor the nature of their banks. Elsewhere, +unable to cross some deep stream, the explorers +were driven miles out of their way, and sometimes even +in their tents, the water stood to the depth of two or +three inches. On one occasion, when the party was +almost surrounded by swamps, their loaded ponies sank +nearly up to the shoulders in a bog, whichever way +they attempted to move, and from this spot they had +two miles to travel before they could reach the nearest +rising ground. The river Glenelg was at this time +overflowing its banks, and, to the natural alarm of men +wandering in its rich valley, drift-wood, reeds, grass, +&c. were seen lodged in the trees above their heads, +fifteen feet beyond the present level of the water, +affording a proof of what floods in that country <em>had +been</em>, and, of course, <em>might be</em> again. However, this very +soil in so warm a climate, only about sixteen degrees +south of the equator, would be admirably fitted for the +cultivation of rice, which needs abundance of moisture. +But little do the peaceful inhabitants of a cultivated +country, well drained, and provided with bridges and +good roads, think of the risk and hardships undergone +by the first explorers of a new land, however great +its capabilities, and whatever may be its natural advantages.</p> + +<p>But it was not in the plain country alone, that Captain +Grey found spots of great richness and fertility, +as the following description of the happy vallies frequently +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +found among the mountain-ranges may testify: +One may be chosen as a specimen of many. At its +northern end it was about four miles wide, being +bounded on all sides by rocky, wooded ranges, with dark +gullies from which numerous petty streams run down +into the main one in the centre. The valley gradually +grows narrow towards the south, and is bounded by +steep cliffs betwixt which the waters find an outlet. +Sometimes a valley of this kind, most beautiful, most +productive, will contain from four to five thousand +acres of nearly level land, shut out from the rest of the +world by the boundary of hills that enclose it. How +great a contrast to these lovely vallies does the description, +given by another traveller in a different district, +present! Nothing, according to Mr. Oxley’s account, +can be more monotonous and wearying, than the dull, +unvarying aspect of the level and desolate region +through which the Lachlan winds its sluggish course. +One tree, one soil, one water, and one description of +bird, fish, or animal, prevails alike for ten miles, and +for a hundred. And, if we turn from this to a third +picture of desolation mingled with sublimity, the contrast +appears yet more heightened. Among the hills +behind Port Macquarrie on the eastern coast, Mr. +Oxley came suddenly upon the spot where a river, (the +Apsley,) leaves the gently-rising and fine country +through which it had been passing, and falls into a +deep glen. At this spot the country seems cleft in +twain, and divided to its very foundation, a ledge of +rocks separates the waters, which, falling over a perpendicular +rock, 235 feet in height, form a grand cascade. +At a distance of 300 yards, and an elevation of as many +feet, the travellers were wetted with the spray. After +winding through the cleft rocks about 400 yards, the +river again falls, in one single sheet, upwards of 100 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +feet, and continues, in a succession of smaller falls, about +a quarter of a mile lower, where the cliffs are of a +perpendicular height, on each side exceeding 1,200 feet; +the width of the edges being about 200 yards. From +thence it descends, as before described, until all sight of +it is lost from the vast elevation of the rocky hills, which +it divides and runs through. The different points of +this deep glen, seem as if they would fit into the +opposite openings forming the smaller glens on either +side.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>Amid scenery like that which has now been described, +varying from grandeur to tameness, from fertility to +barrenness, from extreme beauty to extreme ugliness, +but always possessing, at least, the recommendation of +being <em>new</em>, the wanderers in the Bush are delighted to +range. There is a charm to enterprising spirits in the +freedom, the stillness, and even in the dangers and +privations, of these vast wilds, which, to such spirits, +scenes of a more civilised character can never possess. +If it be true,—and who has never felt it to be so?—that</p> + +<p class="center"> +“God made the country and man made the town,”</p> + +<p>much more distinctly is God’s power visible in the +lonely wastes of Australia, much more deeply do men +feel, while passing through those regions, that it is His +hand that has planted the wilderness with trees, and +peopled the desert with living things. Under these +impressions men learn to delight in exploring the bush, +and when they meet, as they often do, with sweet spots, +on which Nature has secretly lavished her choicest +gifts, most thoroughly do they enjoy, most devotedly do +they admire, their beauty. In travelling some miles to +the northward of Perth, a town on the Swan River, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +Captain Grey fell in with a charming scene, which he +thus describes: “Our” station, “this night, had a +beauty about it, which would have made any one, possessed +with the least enthusiasm, fall in love with a +bush life. We were sitting on a gently-rising ground, +which sloped away gradually to a picturesque lake, +surrounded by wooded hills,—while the moon shone so +brightly on the lake, that the distance was perfectly +clear, and we could distinctly see the large flocks of +wild fowl, as they passed over our heads, and then +splashed into the water, darkening and agitating its +silvery surface; in front of us blazed a cheerful fire, +round which were the dark forms of the natives, busily +engaged in roasting ducks for us; the foreground was +covered with graceful grass-trees, and, at the moment +we commenced supper, I made the natives set fire to +the dried tops of two of these, and by the light of +these splendid chandeliers, which threw a red glare +over the whole forest in our vicinity, we ate our evening +meal; then, closing round the fire, rolled ourselves +up in our blankets, and laid down to sleep.”</p> + +<p>The very same feeling of religion, which heightens +the pleasures and gives a keener relish to the enjoyments +of life in these lonely places, can also afford +comfort, and hope, and encouragement under those +perils and privations which first explorers must undergo. +Religion is the sun that brightens our summer hours, +and gives us, even through the darkest and most stormy +day, light, and confidence, and certainty. And when a +small body of men are left alone, as it were, in the +wilderness with their God, whatever occurs to them, +whether of a pleasing or of a trying character, is likely +to lift up their souls to their Maker, in whom “they +live and move, and have their being.” When the +patient traveller, of whose adventures in Western +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +Australia so much mention has been made, had waited +weather-bound on a lonely coast, never before trodden +by the foot of civilised man, until eight days had been +consumed in watching to no purpose the winds and the +waves,—when, at a distance of thousands of miles from +their native country, and many hundreds of miles from +the nearest English colony, he and his little party were +wasting strength and provisions in a desert spot; from +which their only means of escaping was in one frail +boat, which the fury of the sea forbade them to think of +launching upon the deep,—when the men, under these +circumstances, were becoming more and more gloomy +and petulant, where was it that the commander sought +and found consolation? It was in religion. And the +witness of one who has successfully gone through trials +of this kind, is well deserving of the utmost attention. +“I feel assured,” says Captain Grey, in his account of +this trial of patience, “that, but for the support I +derived from prayer, and frequent perusal and meditation +of the Scriptures, I should never have been able to +have borne myself in such a manner as to have maintained +discipline and confidence amongst the rest of the +party; nor in all my sufferings did I ever lose the +consolation derived from a firm reliance upon the goodness +of Providence. It is only those who go forth into +perils and dangers, amidst which human foresight and +strength can but little avail, and who find themselves, +day after day, protected by an unseen influence, and +ever and again snatched from the very jaws of destruction, +by a power which is not of this world, who can at +all estimate the knowledge of one’s own weakness and +littleness, and the firm reliance and trust upon the +goodness of the Creator, which the human breast is +capable of feeling. Like all other lessons which are of +great and lasting benefit to man, this one must be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +learned amid much sorrowing and woe; but, having +learned it, it is but the sweeter from the pain and toil +which are undergone in the acquisition.”</p> + +<p>The mention of these trials to which travellers in the +bush are peculiarly liable, brings naturally to mind that +worst of all privations, a want of water, to which they +are so frequently exposed. The effects of extreme thirst +are stated to have been shown, not merely in weakness +and want, in a parched and burning mouth, but likewise +in a partial loss of the senses of seeing and hearing. +Indeed, the powers of the whole frame are affected, and, +upon moving, after a short interval of rest, the blood +rushes up into the head with a fearful and painful violence. +A party of men reduced to this condition have +very little strength, either of mind or body, left them, +and it is stated, that, in cases of extreme privation, the +worst characters have always least control over their +appetites.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Imagine men marching through a barren +and sandy country, a thirsty land where no water is, at +the rate of about two miles in an hour and a quarter, +when, suddenly, they come upon the edge of a dried-up +swamp, and behold the footmark of a native, imprinted +on the sand,—the first beginning of hope, a sign of +animal life, which of course implies the means of supporting +it. Many more footsteps are soon seen, and +some wells of the natives are next discovered, but alas! +all appear dry. Kaiber, a native companion of the +party, suddenly starts up from a bed of reeds, where he +has been burying his head in a hole of <em>soft mud</em>, with +which he had completely swelled himself out, and of +which he had helped himself to pretty well half the +supply. It is so thick that it needs straining through a +handkerchief, yet so welcome, after three days and two +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +nights of burning thirst, under a fierce sun, that each +man throws himself down beside the hole, exclaiming +“Thank God!” and then greedily swallows a few mouthfulls +of the liquid mud, declaring it to be the most delicious +water, with a peculiar flavour, better than any that +had ever before been tasted by him. Upon scraping the +mud quite out of the hole, water begins slowly to trickle +in again.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> As might be expected, game abounds here, +driven by the general dryness of the country to these +springs. But the trembling hand of a man worn down +by fatigue and thirst is not equal to wield a gun, or +direct its fire to any purpose; so it seems as if thirst +were escaped for a time, in order that hunger might +occupy its place. At length, however, the native kills a +cockatoo, which had been wounded by a shot; and this +bird, with a spoonful of flour to each man, and a tolerable +abundance of liquid mud, becomes the means of saving +the lives of the party.</p> + +<p>Such is the picture, taken from life, of some of the +privations undergone, during dry seasons, in certain +portions of the bush, and we must, at the risk of being +tedious, repeat again the witness of a military man, of +one who has seen much of the world, respecting the +best source of comfort and support under these distressing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +trials. At such times, upon halting, when the others +of the party would lie wearily down, and brood over +their melancholy state, Captain Grey would keep his +journal, (a most useful repository of facts,) and this duty +being done, he would open a small New Testament, his +companion through all his wanderings, from which book +he drank in such deep draughts of comfort, that his +spirits were always good. And on another occasion, he +shared the last remaining portion of provision with his +native servant; after which he actually felt glad that it +was gone, and that he no longer had to struggle with +the pangs of hunger, and put off eating it to a future +hour. Having completed this last morsel, he occupied +himself a little with his journal, then read a few chapters +in the New Testament, and, after fulfilling these +duties, he felt himself as contented and cheerful as ever +he had been in the most fortunate moments of his life.</p> + +<p>As in life, those objects which we have not, but of +which we think we stand in need, are ever present to +our fancy, so in these thirsty soils the mere appearance +of that water, of which the reality would be so grateful, +is frequently known to mock the sight of man. A remarkable +specimen of this was seen at the plains of +Kolaina (Deceit), in North-Western Australia. From a +sand hill, not very far from the coast, was seen a splendid +view of a noble lake, dotted about with many beautiful +islands. The water had a glassy and fairy-like +appearance, and it was an imposing feeling to sit down +alone on the lofty eminence, and survey the great lake +on which no European eye had ever before rested, and +which was cut off from the sea by a narrow and lofty +ridge of sandy hills. It was proposed at once to launch +the boats upon this water, but a little closer survey was +thought prudent, and then it proved that the lake was +not so near as it had seemed to be, and that there were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +extensive plains of mud and sand lying between it and +the rising ground. It appeared to be about a mile distant, +and all were still certain that it was water they +saw, for the shadows of the low hills near it, as well as +those of the trees upon them, could be distinctly traced +on the unruffled surface.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> As they advanced, the water +retreated, and at last surrounded them. The party now +saw that they were deceived by <em>mirage</em>,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> or vapour, +which changed the sandy mud of the plains they were +crossing into the resemblance, at a distance, of a noble +piece of water. In reading the history of mankind, how +often may we apply this disappointment to moral objects! +how very frequently do the mistaken eyes of mortals +eagerly gaze upon the <em>mirage</em> raised by falsehood, as +though they were beholding the living waters of truth +itself! What appearance, indeed, does the whole world +present to one who rests upon the everlasting hill of +the gospel,—the rock upon which Christ’s church has +been built,—except it be that of one vast plain of Kolaina, +or deceit? It was no long time after the explorers of the +north-western coast of New Holland had been mocked +by the <em>mirage</em> or vapour which has just been spoken of, +that they had a fearful lesson of the vain and shadowy +nature of human hopes and expectations. When they +had first arrived off the coast, on that expedition, they +had chosen an island, named Bernier Island, upon which +to bury, for the sake of safety, their stores and provisions, +so that they might return to them whenever it +should be necessary. Bernier Island is a barren spot, +formed of limestone, shells, and sand, and without a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +single tree or blade of grass upon it, but only wretched, +scrubby bushes, amidst which the light sand and shells +are drifted by the winds. Such was the remote spot, +surrounded by the ocean’s waves, yet not very far from +the main shore, upon which it was resolved to conceal +their store of necessaries, secure, as it was supposed, +from every enemy. In little more than three weeks, +during which the adventurers had gone through many +perils, and much stormy weather, they returned again, +not without some difficulty, to their stores. But on +approaching Bernier Island with their boat they scarcely +knew it again, so vast a difference had the recent storms +made in its outward appearance, so fearful were the +pranks which the hurricane had played upon a land +which was, in fact, nothing but loose sand, heaped upon +a bed of limestone. The place where their stores had +been securely left was gone, the remains of the flour-casks, +salt provisions, &c. were scattered about in various +directions; and the whole spot so entirely altered that it +could hardly be ascertained, except by the fragments +that were seen near it. How to get back again to Swan +River, the nearest British settlement, without provisions, +without water, without strength, was indeed a +perplexing inquiry, and to answer this the leader of +the party, having left his companions for a while, set +himself seriously to work. Sitting down upon a +rock on the shore, he felt the gale blowing fiercely in his +face, and the spray of the breakers dashing over him; +nothing could be more gloomy and dreary. Inland, no +objects were to be seen but a mere bed of rock covered +with drifting sand, on which were growing stunted, +scrubby bushes; and former experience taught him, +that no fresh water was to be found in the island. +Several plans of escape, all apparently alike hopeless, +offered themselves to his mind, and, more fully to compose +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +himself, he took forth his constant companion in +the wilderness, and read a few chapters of Holy Writ. +Contentment and resignation were thus in some degree +gained, and he soon joined the rest of the party, having +resolved upon that plan, which God’s providence and +mercy finally enabled him to carry out, without losing, +from a party of twelve, constantly exposed during a very +long journey to most dreadful toils, hunger, and thirst, +more than one man only, who died at no great distance +from the English colony. That one person was a youth +of eighteen years of age, who had come out from +England, led solely by an enterprising spirit, and not +with any view of settling. On the return of the party +under Captain Grey towards Swan River, they were so +sadly pinched by want of provisions, and by thirst, that +five of them were obliged to start with their leader, in +order to reach the British colony by forced marches, and +Frederick Smith, the youthful adventurer, was one of +those that remained behind. After undergoing extreme +trials, which from his age he was less able to bear than +the others, he, at last, became quite worn out, and +sat down, one evening, on a bank, declaring that he could +go no further. He was behind the rest of the party, and +the man who was with him went and told his companions +that he thought Smith was dying. The next +morning that man went back for him; but, being +himself very weak, he did not go far enough, at all +events he did not find him. Probably, the poor sufferer +had crawled a little out of the track, for, afterwards, +when a party was sent from Swan River in search of +him, they traced, with the help of a native, his footsteps +up a bare sand hill to the height of twelve or fourteen +feet, and there, turning about to the left, they found the +object of their search stretched lifeless upon his back, in +the midst of a thick bush, where he seemed to have +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +laid down to sleep, being half wrapped up in his blanket.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +All his little articles of baggage were very near him, and, +from the posture in which he was found, it appeared +that the immediate cause of his death was a rush of +blood to the head, which would occasion no great +suffering in his last moments. A grave was scraped in +the sand by the searching party, and Frederic Smith was +buried in the wilderness wherein he had died, and which +he had been among the first to explore, about seventy-six +miles northward of the Swan River. The grave was +made smooth, and a piece of wood found upon the +neighbouring beach was placed at its head, and then the +solitary spot was forsaken for ever by the mourning +companions of the departed youth, who left</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Heaven’s fresh gales, and the ocean’s wave,</span><br /> + Alternate to sigh o’er the wanderer’s grave.”<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>It was only six weeks before this untimely end of the +young explorer, that he had set out, full of hope, on the +long journey by the coast, which the party made on +their return, and had been a leading character in such +beautiful pictures of life in the Australian wilderness as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +this which is given by his friend Captain Grey. “We +soon found ourselves at the foot of a lofty cascade, down +which a little water was slowly dropping; and, on +climbing to its summit, it appeared to be so well fitted +for a halting-place for the night, that I determined to +remain there. The men made themselves comfortable +near the water-holes, and Mr. Smith and myself crept +into a little cave, which occasionally served as a resting-place +for the natives, the remains of whose fires were +scattered about. A wild woodland and rocky scenery +was around us; and when the moon rose and shed her +pale light over all, I sat with Mr. Smith on the edge of the +waterfall, gazing by turns into the dim woody abyss +below, and at the red fires and picturesque groups of +the men, than which fancy could scarcely imagine a +wilder scene.”</p> + +<p>It is no uncommon mistake, with persons who ought +to know better, to magnify the toils and hardships +endured by the body, while those labours and anxieties +that the mind undergoes are disregarded and forgotten. +Every man engaged in an exploring party in the bush, +for instance, has his severe trials to go through, but +their trials are not to be compared to those of the commander +of the party. How often when the rest are +sleeping must he be watchful? How frequently, while +others are gay, must he feel thoughtful! These remarks +may easily be applied to the following description of +the coast near Shark’s Bay, in the N. W. of the island +of New Holland. There was great beauty in the scenery, +both the sky and the water had that peculiar brilliancy +about them to be seen only in fine weather, and in a very +warm climate. To the west lay a boundless extent of +sea, to the eastward was a low shore fringed with trees, +not only down to the water’s edge, but forming little +green knots of foliage in the ocean itself; behind these +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +trees were low wooded hills, and in front of them were +numbers of pelicans and water-fowl. There was only +about three feet depth of clear transparent water, +through which were seen many beautiful and large shells, +and various strange-looking fish, at some of which last +one or other of Captain Grey’s men would sometimes +make an attack, while loud peals of laughter would rise +from the rest, when the pursuer, too anxious to gain his +object, would miss his stroke at the fish, or, stumbling, +roll headlong in the water. The fineness of the day, +the novelty of the scenery, and the rapid way they +were making, made the poor fellows forget past dangers, +as well as those they had yet to undergo. But this was +more than their commander was able to do. “My own +meditations,” adds Captain Grey, “were of a more +melancholy character, for I feared that the days of some +of the light-hearted group were already numbered, and +would soon be brought to a close. Amid such scenes +and thoughts we were swept along, while this unknown +coast, which so many had anxiously yet vainly wished +to see, passed before our eyes like a dream, and ere +many more years have hurried by, it is possible that the +recollection of this day may be as such to me.”</p> + +<p>Among the wonders of Nature to be met with in the +Australian bush, the large rivers occasionally dried up +to their very lowest depth by the extreme drought, are +very remarkable. Few natural objects can equal in +beauty and utility a river in its proper state,—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;</span><br /> + Strong without rage, without o’erflowing full;”</p> + +<p>but few can exceed in terror and destruction a large +river in time of flood; while nothing, surely, can surpass +in horror and desolation the same object when its +stream is wasted, its waters disappeared, its usefulness +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +and beauty alike gone. This spectacle is, fortunately, +but rarely seen, except in Australia, and even there only +after very dry seasons. One river seen in this state +consisted of several channels or beds, divided from each +other by long strips of land, which in times of flood +become islands; the main channel was about 270 yards +in breadth, and the height of its bank was about fifteen +feet. After the exploring party had passed the highest +point in the channel to which the tide flowed from +the sea, this huge river bed was perfectly dry, and +looked the most mournful, deserted spot imaginable. +Occasionally water-holes were found eighteen or twenty +feet in depth, and it is from these alone that travellers +have been enabled to satisfy their thirst in crossing +over the unexplored parts of the bush, where no water +could elsewhere be obtained. Still, notwithstanding the +extreme drought by which they were surrounded, the +strangers could see by the remaining drift wood, which +had been washed high up into the neighbouring trees, +what rapid and overpowering currents sometimes swept +along the now dry channel.</p> + +<p>On another occasion the same singular object is +powerfully described, and the feelings of men, who had +long been in need of water, at beholding a sight like this +can scarcely be imagined. Beneath them lay the dry +bed of a large river, its depth at this point being between +forty and fifty feet, and its breadth upwards of 300 yards; +it was at times subject to terrible floods, for along its +banks lay the trunks of immense trees, giants of the +forest, which had been formerly washed down from the +interior of the country; yet nothing now met their +craving eyes but a vast sandy channel, which scorched +their eyeballs, as the rays of the sun were reflected back +from its white, glistening bed. Above and below this +spot, however, large pools of water were found, and even +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +here, when a hole of a few inches depth was scraped in +the dry channel, it soon became filled with water which +oozed into it from the sand. At another stream, which +the same exploring party afterwards fell in with, they +were less successful, and found all the pools entirely dry. +The sun was intensely hot, and the poor men grew faint +for want of water, while it heightened their sufferings, +that they stood upon the brink of a river, or wandered +along its banks with eager, piercing eyes, and an air of +watchfulness peculiar to those who seek for that on +which their lives depend. One while they explored a +shallow, stony part of the bed, which was parched up +and blackened by the fiery sun: their steps were slow +and listless, and it was plainly to be seen how faint, +weak, and weary they were; the next minute another +pool would be seen ahead, the depth of which the eye +could not at a distance reach; now they hurried on +towards it with a dreadful look of eager anxiety—the +pool was reached—the bottom seen; but, alas! no water: +then they paused, and looked one at the other with an +air of utter despair. The order to march from this +distressing spot was unwillingly and slowly obeyed. So +fondly does the human soul cling to the very faintest +semblance of hope, that the adventurers would rather +have wandered up and down these barren and arid banks, +in vain search after water, than tear themselves away by +one bold effort from the deceitful expectations held out +to them by the empty channel.</p> + +<p>It was on his return from a journey attended by perils +and privations like these, that Captain Grey relates the +following simple occurrence, which may help to make +men value more highly, or rather prize more justly, the +many little comforts they may possess: The Captain +had left some of his men behind, and was hastening with +all speed to the settlement of Perth, in Western Australia, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +in order to get assistance and necessaries for +them. Starting an hour and a half before daylight, he +reached the hut of Williams, the farthest settler, north +of Perth, in time to find the wife and another woman at +breakfast. He had known Mrs. Williams, and, forgetting +how strangely want and suffering had changed his +appearance for the worse, he expected her to remember +him again. But he was mistaken for a crazy Malay, +nicknamed Magic, who used to visit the houses of the +out-settlers. Hurt at his reception, “I am not Magic,” +exclaimed he. “Well then, my good man, who are +you?” inquired they, laughing. “One who is almost +starved,” was his solemn reply. “Will you take this, +then?” said the hostess, handing him a cup of tea she +was raising to her lips. “With all my heart and soul, +and God reward you for it,” was the answer; and he +swallowed the delicious draught. Who can fail of +being reminded, upon reading this anecdote, of those +gracious and beautiful words of his Redeemer—“Whosoever +shall give you a cup of water to drink in my +name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto +you, he shall not lose his reward”? (Mark ix. 41.)</p> + +<p>The mention of the out-settler’s hut, in which Captain +Grey met with this small, but most acceptable, kindness, +may serve to remind us of an object, which, although +not, strictly speaking, belonging to the bush, is, nevertheless, +very frequently seen in that part of the wild +country which is most visited,—the portions of it which +are adjoining to the British settlements. In these parts +of the bush the small hut of the humble out-settler may +often be espied; and, while we speak of the toils and +privations frequently undergone by this class of people +at first, we must not forget that they are thus opening +to themselves a way to future wealth and comfort. +Nor, be it recollected, is the condition of an out-settler +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +in the Australian bush any more a fair average specimen +of that of the inhabitants of the colonies than the +owner of a mud-hovel raised on some English heath +would be of the inhabitants of the parish in which he +happens to dwell. One strong difference may be seen +in the two cases. In England the cottager must, in all +likelihood, live and die a cottager, as his fathers have +done before him, and his children will after him; +whereas, in the Australian colonies, with prudence and +the Divine blessing, (without which a man can do well +nowhere) the humble out-settler may gradually, yet +rapidly, grow up into the wealthy and substantial farmer +and landowner. Bearing in mind these facts, the following +sketch of the premises of an out-settler on the +river Williams, at the back of the Swan River settlement, +in Western Australia, may be at once instructive, +and not unsuitable to the subject of this chapter. The +house was made of a few upright poles, to which, at the +top, cross poles were fastened, and a covering of rude +thatch tied upon the whole. It was open at both ends, +and exposed to the wind, which, as the situation was +high, was very unpleasant. Here, however, were the +elements of future riches, a very large flock of sheep, +in fair condition, also a well-supplied stock-yard, and +cattle in beautiful order; while upwards of twenty dogs, +for hunting the kangaroo, completed the establishment. +The settlers were four in number, and, except four soldiers +quartered about sixteen miles from them, there +were no other Europeans within fifty miles of the spot. +All stores and necessaries were sent from a distance +of 120 miles, through a country without roads, and +exposed to the power of the native inhabitants. In +this but might be seen a lively picture of the trials +occasionally endured by <em>first settlers</em>; they had no flour, +tea, sugar, meat, or any provision whatever, except +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +their live stock and the milk of their cattle, their sole +dependence for any other article of food being the +kangaroo dogs, and the only thing their visitors were +able to do to better their situation was to leave them +some shot. All other circumstances were on the same +scale with them, and one, supposing them to have been +faithful members of the Church of their native land, +must have been the most grievous privation of all:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“The sound of the church-going bell</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those valleys and rocks never heard;</span><br /> + Never sighed at the sound of a knell,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor smiled when a sabbath appear’d.”</span></p> + +<p>They had but one old clasp knife; there was but one +small bed, for one person, the others sleeping on the +ground every night, with little or no covering; they had +no soap to wash themselves or their clothes, yet they +submitted cheerfully to all these privations, considering +them to be necessary consequences of their situation. +Two of these out-settlers were gentlemen, not only by +birth, but also in thought and manner; nor can it be +doubted that they were really happier than many an +idle young man to be seen lounging about in England, +a burden to himself and to his friends. Idleness and +vice have often in England been the means of levelling +with the dust the lordly mansion, whilst industry, in the +wilds of Australia, can rear a comfortable dwelling +on the very spot where once stood the hut of the out-settler.</p> + +<p>Scattered round the shores of New Holland at various +distances are many small islands and rocks, the prevailing +appearance of which is that of extreme barrenness. +On many of these it would seem that no human beings +had ever set their feet before the Europeans, and especially +the English, explored those coasts. In several +parts the natives were without any means of conveyance +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +across even a narrow arm of the sea, and thus the brute +creation were left in a long and undisturbed possession +of many of the isles which lie near the main land. In +the more barren and miserable of these the bird called +the <em>sooty petrel</em>, and the seal, are the principal animals +to be found, whilst in those that are somewhat more +fruitful, kangaroos, also, and emus are to be found; the +smaller breed of kangaroos being usually met with in +the smaller islands, and the larger species on the main +land or in islands of a greater extent. The following +short account, by Captain Flinders, may serve as a specimen +of the lesser isles: Great flocks of petrels had +been noticed coming in from the sea to the island, and +early next morning, a boat was sent from the ship to +collect a quantity of them for food, and to kill seals, but +the birds were already moving off, and no more than +four seals, of the hair kind, were procured. Upon the +men going on shore, the island was found to be a rock +of granite, but this was covered with a crust of limestone +or chalk, in some places fifty feet thick. The soil +at the top was little better than sand, but was overspread +with shrubs, mostly of one kind, a whitish velvet-like +plant, amongst which the petrels, who make their +nests underground, had burrowed everywhere, and, from +the extreme heat of the sun, the reflection of it from the +sand, and frequently being sunk half way up the leg in +these holes, the sailors, little used to difficulties in +land-travelling, were scarcely able to reach the highest hill +near the middle of the island. It was in the neighbourhood +of scattered sandy spots of this description that +the sailors of Captain Flinders would often endeavour +successfully to improve their ordinary fare by catching a few +fish. On one occasion they were very much hindered by +three monstrous sharks, in whose presence no other fish +dared to appear. After some attempts, and with much difficulty, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +they took one of these creatures, and got it on +board the ship. In length it was no more than twelve +feet three inches, but the body measured eight feet round. +Among the vast quantity of things contained in the +stomach was a tolerably large seal, bitten in two, and swallowed +with half of the spear sticking in it, with which it +had probably been killed by the natives. The stench of +this ravenous monster was great, even before it was dead; +and, when the stomach was opened, it became intolerable.</p> + +<p>Quite contrary, in many respects, to these sandy +islands, and yet but little superior to them in fruitfulness, +are some of those which were visited by the same enterprising +voyager on the eastern coast of Australia. +Their shores were very low, so much so, that frequently +a landing is impossible, and generally very difficult, on +account of the mud; and often a vast quantity of mangrove +trees are found growing in the swamps that +surround the shores, and choking the soil with a rank +vegetation. On one of these islands when a landing had +been effected without a very great deal of trouble, and a +rising ground was reached, the sides of this little eminence +were found to be so steep, and were so thickly +covered with trees and shrubs, bound together and +interlaced with strong plants, resembling vines in their +growth, that all attempts to reach the top of the hill +were without success. It appeared to be almost easier +to have climbed up the trees, and have scrambled from +one to another upon the vines, than to have threaded a +way through the perplexing net-work formed by these +plants, beneath which all was darkness and uncertainty.</p> + +<p>There are, however, some few islands, which promise +to become, at a future time, inhabited and cultivated +spots, being neither so entirely naked, nor yet so choked +up by a poor and hungry vegetation concealing a thin +soil, as those already described. Of these more smiling +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +spots the large island, off the western coast, called +Kangaroo Island, may serve for a specimen. A thick +wood covered almost all that part of the island which +was seen from the ship by Captain Flinders, but the +trees that were alive were not so large as those lying on +the ground, nor as the dead trees still standing upright. +Those upon the ground were so abundant, that, in +ascending the higher land, a considerable part of the +walk was upon them. No inhabitants were seen in the +island, but yet it seemed, from the appearance of the +trees, as though, at the distance of some years, the +woods had been destroyed by fire. The soil, so far as +it was seen, was thought very good, and the trees +bore witness of this by their size and growth; yet +so frequently do travellers, like doctors, disagree, that +another explorer, Captain Sturt, pronounces this spot +to be not by any means fertile. The quantity of kangaroos +found here was remarkable enough to give a +name to the island; and so entirely were these harmless +animals strangers to the power of man, that they suffered +themselves to be approached and killed without +any efforts to escape. Captain Flinders, on the first day +of landing, killed ten, and the rest of his party made up +the number to thirty-one taken on board in the course +of the day, the least weighing 69 and the largest 125 lbs. +The whole ship’s company were employed that afternoon +in skinning and cleaning the kangaroos, and a +delightful feast they afforded to men who for four +months had scarcely tasted any fresh provisions. Never, +perhaps, had the dominion held here by these creatures +been before disturbed; the seals, indeed, shared it with +the kangaroos on the shores, but they seemed to dwell +peacefully together, each animal occasionally wandering +into the haunts of the other, so that a gun fired at a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +kangaroo upon the beach would sometimes bring forth +two or three bellowing seals from underneath bushes a +good deal further from the water-side. The seal, indeed, +was the most knowing creature of the two, for its actions +bespoke that it distinguished the sailors from kangaroos, +whereas the latter not uncommonly appeared to mistake +them for seals. Indeed it is curious to trace the total +absence of all knowledge of man in these distant isles of +Australia. In another island a white eagle was seen +making a motion to pounce down upon the British +sailors, whom it evidently took for kangaroos, never, +probably, having seen an upright animal, (except that, +when moving upon its hind legs,) and naturally, therefore, +mistaking the men for its usual prey.</p> + +<p>In another part of Kangaroo Island, which was afterwards +visited, a large piece of water was discovered at +the head of a bay, and in this water an immense number +of pelicans were seen; upon some small islets were +found many young birds yet unable to fly, and upon the +surrounding beach a great number of old ones were seen, +while the bones and skeletons of many lay scattered +about. So that it appeared to be at once the breeding-place +and death-bed of these birds, who, in the hidden +bosom of a quiet lake, in an uninhabited island, had long +continued to extend their race, generation after generation +retiring to the same spot where they were first +brought to light, and there ending their days in tranquillity. +In this part of the island kangaroos were less +plentiful than in the other, but the soil appeared equally +promising, and in all likelihood, before many years have +flown by, trees, seals, kangaroos, and pelicans will all +be forced to give up their old domains, and be destroyed +before the pressing wants and daring spirit of the British +emigrant. One important hindrance is noticed by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +Flinders,—the scarcity of water,—but the presence of so +many animals shows that there is an abundance somewhere, +though he could find but a scanty supply in one +single spot. In Kangaroo Island only one accident +occurred which showed any disposition or power on the +part of its old inhabitants to wage war with the intruders. +One of the sailors having attacked a large seal +without proper caution, was so severely bitten in the +leg, that he was not merely laid up in consequence of +this hurt, but was obliged to be discharged, three months +afterwards, when the ship was refitted at Sydney.</p> + +<p>In addition to the numerous barren rocks and the few +tolerably large wooded islands, which encircle the shores +of Australia, there is a third description of isles or rocks, +which must not be passed over altogether without notice. +The substance called <em>coral</em> is well known in Europe, but +with us the name connects itself with very different +objects from those to which it is related in Australia. +<em>Here</em> female ornaments and toys for infants are almost +the only objects to be seen that are formed of coral; +<em>there</em> it forms the most stupendous rocks or reefs, which +serve frequently for a foundation to islands of no mean +size; indeed, in one part of the north-eastern coast of +Australia, the coral reefs are known to extend not less +than 350 miles in a straight line, without a single +opening of any magnitude occurring in them.</p> + +<p>Among these, surrounded by dangers, did Captain +Flinders sail, during fourteen days, for more than 500 +miles before he could escape into less perilous seas. +Upon landing on one of these reefs, when the water was +clear, the view underneath, from the edge of the rocks, +was extremely beautiful. Quite a new creation, but +still not unlike the old, was offered to the view. There +appeared wheat-sheaves, mushrooms, stags’ horns, cabbage-leaves, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +and a variety of other forms, glowing under +water with brilliant tints, of every shade betwixt green, +purple, brown, and white; equalling in beauty and surpassing +in grandeur the most favourite flower-bed of the +curious florist. These appearances were, in fact, different +sorts of <em>coral</em>, and fungus, growing, as it were, out +of the solid rock, and each had its own peculiar form +and shade of colouring, but yet the spectators, who knew +their ship to be hemmed in by rocks of this material, +while considering the richness of the scene, could not +long forget with what power of destruction it was gifted.</p> + +<p>The cause of these coral rocks and islands, which are +slowly, but certainly, increasing, is a very small marine +insect, by which the substance called coral is formed. +These work under water, generation after generation +contributing its share in the construction of what, in the +course of ages, becomes a solid rock, exalting its head +above the face of the surrounding waters, and rising +sometimes from the depth of 200 fathoms, and perhaps +even more. To be constantly covered with water seems +necessary to these minute animals, for they do not work, +except in holes upon the reef, beyond low-water-mark; +but the coral and other broken remains thrown up by +the sea lodge upon the rock and form a solid mass with +it, as high as the common tides reach. The new bank +is not long left unvisited by sea-birds; salt-plants take +root upon it, and a kind of soil begins to be formed; a +cocoa-nut,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> or the seed of some other tree, is thrown on +shore; land-birds visit it, and deposit the seeds of fresh +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +shrubs or trees; every high tide, and still more every +gale, adds something to the bank; the form of an island +is by degrees assumed; and, last of all, comes man to +take possession.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img42.jpg" width="500" height="389" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">explorers finding the bed of a dried up river.</span> +</div><p> </p> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>THE BUSH IN THE INTERIOR.</strong></p> + + +<p>It needs only a single glance at the map of New Holland +to see that, like most other countries, and even +more than most others, the coasts are well known, while +the interior parts are comparatively undiscovered, and, +to a great extent, totally so. And, although a much more +minute description of the shores of this immense island +might easily be given, although we might accompany +Flinders or King in their navigation of its intricate seas, +and survey of its long line of coast, yet this part of the +subject must necessarily be passed over without detaining +us any further. A very considerable portion of the +sea-coast of New Holland is not much unlike that in the +Gulph of Carpentaria, in the north part of the island, +where, when Captain Flinders had reached the highest +spot he could find in 175 leagues of coast,—this loftiest +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +hill did not much exceed the height of the ship’s masthead! +And where the shores are not of this exceedingly +level character, they are usually sterile, sandy, and broken, +so as to offer rather an uninviting aspect to the stranger. +It is obvious that, in either case, whether the coast be +flat or barren, there may be many beautiful and lovely +districts within a day’s journey inland; and nothing is +more absurd than to take exception against the whole +of a country merely because its borders and boundaries +are forbidding. In the case of New Holland, it is true, +the same sort of barrenness extends itself very much +into the interior of the land; but, if we pursue the +patient footsteps and daring discoveries of those few +Europeans who have penetrated far into its inland +parts, we shall find many interesting scenes described, +and much both of the sublime and beautiful in nature +brought before us.</p> + +<p>One of the principal scenes on which have been displayed +the perseverance and courage of the explorers of +the interior is the banks of the river Darling. This +stream, which has its source on the western side of the +long range of mountains running parallel with the coast, +and called in the colony the Blue Mountains, carries off +the drainage of an immense extent of country, to the +westward and north-westward of New South Wales. +In fact, except in the southern parts of that colony, +where the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee carry off the +waters which do not fall eastwards to the coast, all the +streams that rise upon or beyond the Blue Mountains, +and take a westerly direction, finally meet together in +the basin of the Darling.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> It might be imagined that a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +river into which is carried the drainage of so extensive a +district would be always well supplied with water, and +so it would be in other countries, but the streams of +New Holland are altogether different from those in +other parts of the world. Comparatively, indeed, the +Darling does assert its superiority over most of the other +water-courses of that country; for, at a season when +their channels were, in general, absolutely without +water, or dwindled down into mere chains of muddy +ponds, the Darling still continued to wind its slow current, +carrying a supply of excellent water through the +heart of a desert district. Along the weary plains by +which its course is bounded, it proceeds for not less than +660 miles,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> without receiving, so far as is known, a single +tributary stream; and, from its waters being occasionally +salt, it is supposed to owe its support, in its reduced +state during very dry seasons, chiefly to natural springs. +Its bed is, on an average, about sixty feet below the +common surface of the country. There are no traces of +water-courses on the level plains, and it would appear +that, whatever moisture descends from the higher +grounds, which (where there are any at all,) are seldom +less than twelve miles from the Darling, must be taken +up by the clayey soil, so as scarcely to find its way +down to the river, except it be by springs. The average +breadth of the stream at the surface, when low, is about +fifty yards, but oftener less than this, and seldom more. +The fall of the country through which it passes, in that +part of its course through the interior, which was first +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +explored by Major Mitchell, is very trifling; and it is +the opinion of that officer, that the swiftness of its +course never exceeds one mile per hour, but that it is in +general much less. At the time of the Major’s expedition, +the water actually flowing, as seen at one or two +shallow places, did not exceed in quantity that which +would be necessary to turn a mill. But, with all this scantiness +of supply during the dry season then prevailing,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +the marks of tremendous inundations were plain +upon the surface of the country, frequently extending +two miles back from the ordinary channel of the waters. +And everywhere the banks of the river displayed the +effect of floods in parallel lines, marking on the smooth +sloping earth the various heights to which the waters +had at different periods arisen. The surface of the +plains nearest the river is unlike any part of the earth’s +face that the travellers had elsewhere seen. It was +clear of vegetation, like a fallow-field, but less level, and +quite full of holes, big enough to receive the whole leg, +and sometimes the body, of the unfortunate persons +who might slip into them. Galloping or trotting in such +a country was out of the question, and as the surface of +this dry and cracked soil was soft and loose, it was very +fatiguing for draught. Six of the bullocks accompanying +the expedition never returned from the Darling. +Yet, how much preferable was the country, even in this +state, to that in which a flood would have placed it; for, +had rainy weather, or any overflowing of the river, happened, +travelling upon the banks of the Darling would +have become absolutely impossible.</p> + +<p>But the river Darling itself, though it appears as a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +principal and independent stream during so long a +course, is, we have little reason to doubt, no more than +an important tributary to the chief of Australian rivers, +the Murray. This last channel collects eventually all +the waters flowing in a westward direction upon the +eastern side of New Holland, between the latitudes of +28° S. and 36° S. The Darling, the Lachlan, and the +Murrumbidgee, without mentioning streams of minor +importance, all find their way southwards into the basin +of the Murray, which is really a noble river, and does +not seem subject to the same deplorable impoverishment, +which most of the others suffer in very dry seasons. +It was very earnestly anticipated that the mouth +of a stream like this would probably form a good harbour, +and thus afford a reasonable prospect of its hereafter +becoming a busy navigable river, the means of +furnishing inland communication to a considerable distance. +This is, of all things, what New Holland appears +most to want, but the want is not (as we shall shortly +find) adequately supplied by the entrance to the Murray. +A like failure occurs at the entrance of other Australian +rivers, as in the instance of a much smaller but very +beautiful stream, the Glenelg, which falls into a shallow +basin within the sandy hills of the southern coast, the +outlet being between two rocky heads, but choked up +with the sands of the beach. We cannot, while we +read of the scanty means of inland navigation, with +which it has pleased Divine Providence to favour an +island so enormous as New Holland, but feel thankful +for the abundant advantages of this kind which our +own native islands possess; but at the same time +there is no reason to despair, even yet, of a navigable +river being discovered in New Holland;<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> or, at +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +the worst, the modern invention of rail-roads may supersede, +in a great measure, the need of other communication.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to compress into a moderate +compass the various interesting particulars, which have +been related of the rivers of New Holland and their neighbouring +districts; but for this and much other pleasing +information the reader may be referred, once for all, to +the works of those travellers, whose names have been +already so frequently mentioned. It is a curious fact +that almost every stream of the least consequence in +New Holland, appears to have its peculiar features, and +a character and scenery of its own, which continue +throughout its course, so that it could often be recognised +by travellers coming upon it a second time, and +at a different part of its career towards the sea. The +beautifully-timbered plains, or the limestone cliffs of +the noble Murray—the naked plains that bound on +either side the strip of forest-trees of huge dimensions, +by which the Lachlan is bordered,—the constantly full +stream, the water-worn and lightly-timbered banks, the +clear open space between the river and its distant +margin of reeds, which mark the character of the +Murrumbidgee,—the low grassy banks or limestone +rocks, the cascades and caverns, the beautiful festoons +of creeping plants, the curious form of the duck-billed +platypus,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> which are to be found on the Glenelg; the +sandstone wastes of the Wollondilly, the grassy surface +of the pretty Yarrayne,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> with its trees on its brink +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +instead of on its bank; the peculiar grandeur of the +tremendous ravine, 1,500 feet in depth, down which the +Shoalhaven flows; these and many more remarkable +features of scenery in the Australian rivers, would +afford abundance of materials for description either in +poetry or prose. But we can now notice only one more +peculiarity which most of these streams exhibit; they +have, at a greater or less distance from their proper +channels, secondary banks, beyond which floods rarely +or never are known to extend. In no part of the +habitable world is the force of contrast more to be +observed than in Australia. A very able scientific +writer<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> has ingeniously represented three persons +travelling in certain directions across Great Britain, +and finishing their journeys with three totally different +impressions of the soil, country, and inhabitants; one +having passed through a rocky and mining district, the +second through a coal country peopled by manufacturers, +and a third having crossed a chalky region devoted +entirely to agriculture. An observation of this +kind is even still more true of New Holland. And, consequently, +when, instead of <em>pursuing</em> the course of +certain similar lines of country, the traveller <em>crosses</em> +these, the changes that take place in the appearance +and productions of the various districts are exceedingly +striking and follow sometimes in very rapid succession. +A few examples of these contrasts, which arise in +Australia from the nature of the seasons, as well as +from that of the soil or climate, may here be noticed. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +How great a change did the exploring party under +Major Mitchell experience, when, after tracing for forty-nine +days the dry bed of the Lachlan, they suddenly +saw a magnificent stream of clear and running water +before them, and came upon the Murrumbidgee. Its +banks, unlike those of the former channel, were clothed +with excellent grass; a pleasing sight for the cattle—and +it was no slight satisfaction to their possessors to +see the jaded animals, after thirsting so long among the +muddy holes of the Lachlan, drinking at this full and +flowing stream. And yet, so different are the series of +seasons, at intervals, that, down the very river of which +Mitchell speaks in 1836 as a deep, dry ravine, containing +only a scanty chain of small ponds, the boats of +its first explorer, Mr. Oxley, had, in 1817, floated +during a space of fifteen days, until they had reached +a country almost entirely flooded, and the river seemed +completely to lose itself among the shallow waters! +During the winter of 1835, the whale-boats were drawn +by the exploring party 1,600 miles over land,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> without +finding a river, where they could be used; whereas, in +1817 and 1818, Mr. Oxley had twice retired by nearly +the same routes, and in the same season of the year, +from supposed inland seas!<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> So that, in fact, we rise +from the perusal of two accounts of travellers of credit, +both exploring the very same country, with the impression, +from one statement, that there exists an +endless succession of swamps, or an immense shallow, +inland lake; where, from the other, we are taught to +believe, there is nothing but a sandy desert to be found, +or dry and cracked plains of clay, baked hard by the +heat of the sun.</p> + +<p>Changes of this sort in the seasons, affecting so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +powerfully the appearance of whole districts, cannot +but have a proportionable effect on particular spots. +Regent’s Lake, the “noble lake,” as its first discoverer, +Oxley, called it, was, when Mitchell visited it, for the +most part, a plain covered with luxuriant grass;<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> some +good water, it is true, lodged on the most eastern extremity, +but nowhere to a greater depth than a foot. +There ducks and swans, in vast numbers, had taken +refuge, and pelicans stood high upon their legs above +the remains of Regent’s Lake. On its northern margin, +and within the former boundary of the lake, stood dead +trees of a full-grown size, which had been apparently +killed by too much water, plainly showing to what long +periods the extremes of drought and moisture have +extended, and may again extend, in this singular +country. And some of the changes in scenery, within +a short distance, and frequently arising from the same +causes, the presence or absence of water, are very +remarkable. In Major Mitchell’s journal, at the date +of April 10th, may be found the following observations: +“We had passed through valleys, on first descending +from the mountains, where the yellow oat-grass resembled +a ripe crop of grain. But this resemblance to +the emblem of plenty, made the desolation of these +hopeless solitudes only the more apparent, abandoned, +as they then were, alike by man, beast, and bird. No +living thing remained in these valleys, for water, that +element so essential to life, was a want too obvious in +the dismal silence, (for not an insect hummed,) and the +yellow hues of withering vegetation.” On the next +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +page of the journal, under the events of the following +day, what a contrast appears:—“The evening was +beautiful; the new grass springing in places where it +had been burnt, presented a shining verdure in the +rays of the descending sun; the songs of the birds accorded +here with other joyous sounds, the very air +seemed alive with the music of animated nature, so +different was the scene in this well-watered valley, from +that of the parched and silent region from which we +had just descended. The natives, whom we met here, +were fine-looking men, enjoying contentment and happiness, +within the precincts of their native woods.” They +were very civil, and presented a burning stick to the +strangers, at the moment when they saw that they +wanted fire, in a manner expressive of welcome and of +a wish to assist them. At a distance were the native +fires, and the squalling of children might be heard, until +at night the beautiful moon came forth, and the soft +notes of a flute belonging to one of the Englishmen fell +agreeably on the ear, while the eye was gratified by +the moonbeams, as they gleamed from the trees, amid +the curling smoke of the temporary encampment. The +cattle were refreshing themselves in green pastures. +It was Saturday night, and next day the party was to +rest. How sweet a spot to repose from their toils and +sufferings, and to lift up their hearts towards the mercy-seat +of Him,—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Who, in the busy crowded town,</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Regards each suppliant’s cry;—</span><br /> + Who, whether Nature smile or frown,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Man’s wants can still supply.”</span></p> + +<p>One of the greatest victories over natural difficulties +that was ever gained by British courage and perseverance, +was the exploring of the course of the Morrumbidgee +and Murray rivers by Captain Sturt and his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +party, in the year 1830; and since their route was +through a new country, and their descent from the +high lands south-westward of Sydney, to the southern +coast of New Holland was an amazing enterprise to project, +much more to accomplish, an abridged account of +it may not be unacceptable to the reader. And when it +is remembered that the sight of the gallant officer commanding +this expedition, was sacrificed almost entirely +to “the effect of exposure and anxiety of mind in the +prosecution of geographical researches,”<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> this fact may +add to the interest which we feel in his adventures. +The Murrumbidgee is a river which runs westerly from +the district called Yass Plains, situated very nearly at +the south-western extremity of New South Wales. It +was for the purpose of exploring the course of this fine +stream, that Captain Sturt was sent out at the latter +end of 1829, and he had reached by land-conveyance a +swampy region exactly resembling those marshes in +which the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers had been supposed +by Mr. Oxley to lose themselves. To proceed +further by land was impossible, and, since they had +brought with them a whale-boat, which had been drawn +by oxen for many a weary mile, it was resolved to +launch this on the river, a smaller boat was built in +seven days only, and both boats being laden with necessaries, +and manned with six hands, arrangements were +made for forming a depôt, and the rest of the party +were sent back; and when the explorers thus parted +company in the marshy plains of the Morrumbidgee, it +appeared doubtful even to themselves whether they +were ever likely to meet again in this world. Of the +country, whither the stream would carry the little crew +of adventurers, literally nothing was known. There +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +might be a vast inland sea,—and then how could they +hope with their frail barks to navigate it in safety for the +very first time? Or, even if they did so, how were they +to force their way back again to the remote dwelling-places +of civilised man? The river might gradually +waste itself among the morasses; and then, with their +boats become useless for want of depth of water, how +were they to walk across those endless levels of soft +mud? or, supposing that to be practicable, how were +their provisions to be conveyed, or whence, then, except +from their boats, could they hope for a supply? Questions +of this nature must have offered themselves to +the minds of the daring spirits, who accompanied Captain +Sturt; nor can due justice be rendered to their courage +without a careful consideration of the dangers which +they deliberately braved.</p> + +<p>Two oars only were used in the whale-boat, to the +stern of which the skiff was fastened by a rope; but the +progress of the party down the river was rapid. Having +passed, in the midst of the marshes, the mouth of a +considerable stream (supposed to be the Lachlan, here +emptying its waters out from the midst of those swamps +wherein it appeared to Mr. Oxley to be lost,) on the +second day of their journey the voyagers met with +an accident that had nearly compelled them to return. +The skiff struck upon a sunken log, and, immediately +filling, went down in about twelve feet of water. Damage +was done to some of the provisions, and many tools +were thrown overboard, though these were afterwards +regained by means of diving and great labour, and the +skiff was got up again. In the very same night a robbery +was committed by the natives; and a frying-pan, +three cutlasses, and five tomahawks, with the pea of the +steelyards—altogether no small loss in the Australian +desert—were carried off. The country in this part is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +“a waving expanse of reeds, and as flat as possible,” +and the river, instead of increasing in its downward +course, seemed rather to be diminishing. After some +days, however, the party had passed through this flooded +region, and reached a boundless flat, with no object for +the eye to rest upon, beyond the dark and gloomy woods +by which it was occupied. Several rapids occurred in +the river; and, during great part of two days the channel +was so narrow and so much blocked up with huge trees, +that, in spite of every effort, the adventurers were expecting +their boat every moment to strike. For two +hours in the afternoon of the second of these days of +anxiety, the little vessels were hurried rapidly along the +winding reaches of the Morrumbidgee, until suddenly they +found themselves borne upon the bosom of a broad and +noble river, in comparison with which that which they +had just quitted bore the appearance of an insignificant +opening! The width of the large stream thus discovered +was about 350 feet, and its depth from 12 to 20 feet, +whilst its banks, although averaging 18 feet in height, +were evidently subject to floods. The breadth of rich +soil between its outer and inner banks was very inconsiderable, +and the upper levels were poor and sandy. +As the party descended, the adjoining country became +somewhat higher and a little undulating, and natives +were seen, while the Murray (for such was the name +given to their new discovery) improved upon them +every mile they proceeded. Four natives of a tribe with +which they had met followed them, as guides, for some +distance, and, after having nearly lost their largest boat +upon a rock in the midst of a rapid, the British travellers +continued their onward course, and a sail was hoisted +for the first time, in order to save, as much as was possible, +the strength of the men.</p> + +<p>The country in this part of their voyage was again +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +very low, and they fell in with a large body of savages, +with whom they were on the point of being forced, in +self-defence, to have a deadly encounter, when suddenly +the four natives who had accompanied them appeared +running at full speed, and, through their assistance, +though not without some difficulty, bloodshed was prevented. +Very shortly after this adventure, when the +men had just pushed their boat off from a shoal, upon +which it had struck, they noticed a new and considerable +stream coming from the north, and uniting its +waters with those of the Murray. Upon landing on +the right bank of the newly-discovered stream, the +natives came swimming over from motives of curiosity; +and there were not less than 600 of these, belonging to +some of the most ferocious tribes in Australia, surrounding +eight Englishmen—Captain Sturt, his friend MʻLeay, +and the crew—which last had been preserved by an +almost miraculous intervention of Providence in their +favour. The boat was afterwards pulled a few miles +up the recently-discovered river, which is reasonably +supposed to have been the Darling, from whose +banks, some hundreds of miles higher up, Captain Sturt +had twice been forced to retire in a former expedition. +Its sides were sloping and grassy, and overhung by magnificent +trees; in breadth it was about 100 yards, and in +depth rather more than twelve feet, and the men pleased +themselves by exclaiming, upon entering it, that they +had got into an English river. A net extending right +across the stream at length checked their progress; for +they were unwilling to disappoint the numbers who +were expecting their food that day from this source. +So the men rested on their oars in the midst of the +smooth current of the Darling, the Union-Jack was +hoisted, and, giving way to their feelings, all stood up +in the boat, and gave three distinct cheers. “The eye +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +of every native along the banks had been fixed upon +that noble flag, at all times a beautiful object,” says +Captain Sturt, “and to them a novel one, as it waved +over us in the heart of a desert. They had, until that +moment, been particularly loquacious, but the sight +of that flag and the sound of our voices hushed the +tumult; and while they were still lost in astonishment, +the boat’s head was speedily turned, the sail was +sheeted home, both wind and current were in our +favour, and we vanished from them with a rapidity +that surprised even ourselves, and which precluded every +hope of the most adventurous among them to keep up +with us.”<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>Cheered with the gratification of national feeling thus +powerfully described, the patient crew returned to their +toils in descending the Murray, whose banks continued +unchanged for some distance; but its channel was much +encumbered with timber, some very large sand-banks +were seen, and several rapids were passed. The skiff +being found more troublesome than useful, was broken +up and burned. On one occasion, during a friendly +interview with some of the savages, some clay was piled +up, as a means of inquiring whether there were any hills +near; and two or three of the blacks, catching the meaning, +pointed to the N. W., in which direction two lofty +ranges were seen from the top of a tree, and were supposed +to be not less than 40 miles distant, but the +country through which the Murray passed still continued +low.</p> + +<p>The heat was excessive and the weather very dry, +while the banks of the river appeared to be thickly +peopled for Australia, and the British strangers contrived +to keep upon good terms with the natives. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +After having passed one solitary cliff of some height, +they met with stormy weather for a few days, and several +tributary streams of some size were perceived mingling +their waters with those of the Murray, the left bank +of which became extremely lofty, and, though formed +almost wholly of clay and sand, it bore the appearance +of columns or battlements, the sand having been washed +away in many places, while the clay was left hollowed +out more like the work of art than of nature. After a +continued descent of 22 days, the party, who were +pleased with the noble character of the river upon which +they were, though disappointed at the poverty of the +country through which it passed, began to grow somewhat +weary; but upon inquiries being made of the natives +no tidings could be gained respecting their approach +towards the sea. The navigation of every +natural stream is rendered tedious, though beautiful, by +its devious course, but, “what with its regular turns, +and its extensive sweeps, the Murray covers treble the +ground, at a moderate computation, that it would occupy +in a direct course.” The current became weaker, and +the channel deeper, as they proceeded down the stream, +and the cliffs of clay and sand were succeeded by others +of a very curious formation, being composed of shells +closely compacted together, but having the softer parts +so worn away, that the whole cliff bore in many places +the appearance of human skulls piled one upon the +other. At first, this remarkable formation did not rise +more than a foot above the water, but within ten miles +from this spot it exceeded 150 feet in height, the country +in the vicinity became undulating, and the river itself +was confined in a glen whose extreme breadth did not +exceed half a mile. An old man, a native, was met with +hereabouts, who appeared by his signs to indicate that +the explorers were at no great distance from some +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +remarkable change. The old man pointed to the N. W., +and then placed his hand on the side of his head, in +token, it was supposed, of their sleeping to the N. W. +of the spot where they were. He then pointed due south, +describing by his action, the roaring of the sea, and the +height of the waves. A line of cliffs, from two to three +hundred feet in height, flanked the river upon alternate +sides, but the rest of the country was level, and the soil +upon the table-land at the top of the cliffs very poor and +sterile. The next change of scenery brought them to +cliffs of a higher description, which continued on both +sides of the river, though not always close to it. The +stream lost its sandy bed and its current together, and +became deep, still, and turbid, with a muddy bottom; +and the appearance of the water lashing against the +base of the cliffs reminded the anxious voyagers of the +sea. The scenery became in many places beautiful, and +the river was never less than 400 yards in breadth. +Some sea-gulls were seen flying over the boat, and being +hailed as the messengers of good tidings, they were +not permitted to be shot. The adverse wind and the +short, heavy waves rendered the labour at the oar very +laborious, but the hope of speedily gaining some noble +inlet—a harbour worthy to form the mouth of a stream +like the Murray—encouraged the crew to pull on manfully, +and to disregard fatigue. The salt meat was all +spoiled, and had been given to the dogs; fish no one +would eat, and of wild fowl there was none to be seen; +so that the provisions of the party consisted of little +else but flour. And already, though hitherto they had +been performing the easiest part of their task, having +had the stream in their favour, it was evident that the +men were much reduced, besides which they were complaining +of sore eyes.</p> + +<p>These circumstances all combined to increase the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +natural anxiety felt by the little band of adventurers to +reach the termination of the Murray; and as its valley +opened to two, three, and four miles of breadth, while +the width of the river increased to the third of a mile, the +expectations of the men toiling at the oar became proportionably +excited. The cliffs ceased, and gave place +to undulating hills; no pleasure-ground could have been +more tastefully laid out than the country to the right, +and the various groups of trees, disposed upon the sides +of the elevations that bounded the western side of the +valley, were most ornamental. On the opposite side, +the country was less inviting, and the hills were bleak +and bare. At length a clear horizon appeared to the +south, the direction in which the river was flowing; +Captain Sturt landed to survey the country, and +beneath him was the great object of his search, the +termination of one of Australia’s longest and largest +streams. Immediately below him was a beautiful lake, +of very large extent, and greatly agitated by the wind. +Ranges of hills were observed to the westward, stretching +from north to south, and distant forty miles. Between +these hills and the place where the traveller stood, +the western bank of the Murray was continued in the +form of a beautiful promontory projecting into the lake, +and between this point and the base of the ranges the +vast sheet of water before him extended in the shape of +a bay. The scene was altogether a very fine one; but +disappointment was a prevailing feeling in the mind of +the explorer, for it was most likely that there would be +no practicable communication for large ships between +the lake and the ocean, and thus a check was put +upon the hopes that had been entertained of having +at length discovered a large and navigable river leading +into the interior of New Holland. The lake, called +Lake Alexandrina, which was fifty miles long and forty +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +broad,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> was crossed with the assistance of a favourable +wind; its waters were found to be generally very shallow, +and the long, narrow, and winding channel by which it +communicates with the ocean was found, as it had been +feared, almost impracticable even for the smallest vessels. +This channel unites itself with the sea on the +south-western coast of New Holland, at the bottom of a +bay named Encounter Bay, one boundary of which is +Cape Jervis, by which it is separated from St. Vincent’s +Gulph,—the very part of the coast where a ship was to +be despatched by the Governor of New South Wales to +afford the party assistance, in case of their being successful +in penetrating to the sea-shore. Flour and tea +were the only articles remaining of their store of provisions, +and neither of these were in sufficient quantities +to last them to the place where they expected to find +fresh supplies inland. But the first view of Encounter +Bay convinced them that no vessel could ever venture +into it at a season when the S. W. winds prevailed, and +to the deep bight which it formed upon the coast (at the +bottom of which they then were), it was hopeless to +expect any vessel to approach so nearly as to be seen by +them. To remain there was out of the question; to cross +the ranges towards the Gulph of St. Vincent, when the +men had no strength to walk, and the natives were numerous +and not peaceably disposed, was equally impossible. +The passage from the lake to the ocean was not without +interruption, from the shallowness of the sandy channel, +otherwise Captain Sturt, in his little boat, would have +coasted round to Port Jackson, or steered for Launceston, +in Van Dieman’s Land; and this he declares he would +rather have done, could he have foreseen future difficulties, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +than follow the course which he did. Having +walked across to the entrance of the channel, and found +it quite impracticable and useless, he resolved to return +along the same route by which he had come, only with +these important additional difficulties to encounter,—diminished +strength, exhausted stores, and an adverse +current. The provisions were found sufficient only for +the same number of days upon their return as they had +occupied in descending the river, and speed was no less +desirable in order to avoid encounters with the natives +than for the purpose of escaping the miseries of want; +into which, however, it was felt, a single untoward accident +might in an instant plunge them. With feelings +of this description the party left Lake Alexandrina and +re-entered the channel of the Murray.</p> + +<p>It will be needless to follow the explorers through all +the particulars of their journey upwards to the depôt +on the Morrumbidgee. The boat struck, the natives +were troublesome, the rapids difficult to get over; but +the worst of all their toils and trials were their daily +labours and unsatisfied wants. One circumstance ought, +in justice to the character of the men, to be noticed. +They positively refused to touch six pounds of sugar +that were still remaining in the cask, declaring that, if +divided, it would benefit nobody, whereas it would last +during some time for the use of Captain Sturt and Mr. +MʻLeay, who were less able to submit to privations than +they were. After having continued for no less than +fifty-five days upon the waters of the Murray, it was +with great joy that they quitted this stream, and turned +their boat into the gloomy and narrow channel of the +Morrumbidgee. Having suffered much privation, anxiety, +and labour, and not without one or two unpleasant +encounters with the natives, at length the party reached +their depôt, but they found it deserted! During seventy-seven +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +days they could not have pulled, according to +Captain Sturt’s calculation, less than 2000 miles; and +now, worn out by fatigue and want, they were compelled +to proceed yet further, and to endure, for some +time longer, the most severe privations to which man +can be exposed. But, under the guidance of Divine +Providence, the lives of all were preserved, and now +the reward of their deeds of heroism is willingly bestowed +upon them. Among the boldest exploits ever performed +by man, the descent of Captain Sturt and his companions +down the Murray, and their return to the same spot +again, may deserve to be justly ranked.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Nor, however +disappointing the result of their examination of the +mouth of the Murray may have been, was their daring +adventure without its useful consequences. The lake +Alexandrina is said to be navigable across for vessels +drawing six feet of water, and the entrance to the sea, +though rather difficult in heavy weather, is safe in moderate +weather for vessels of the same size. The Murray +itself is navigable for steam-vessels for many hundred +miles, and probably it will not be very long before +these modern inventions are introduced upon its +waters.</p> + +<p>Whoever has seen any recent map of New Holland +must have been struck with the curious appearance of +a vast semicircle of water, called Lake Torrens, near +the southern coast, and extending many miles inland +from the head of Spencer’s Gulph. A range of hills, +named Flinders’ Range, runs to a considerable distance +inland, taking its rise near the head of the gulph just +mentioned, and Lake Torrens nearly surrounds the +whole of the low country extending from this mountainous +ridge. This immense lake is supposed to resemble +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +in shape a horse-shoe, and to extend for full +400 miles, whilst its apparent breadth is from 20 to 30. +The greater part of the vast area contained in its bed is +certainly dry on the surface, and consists of a mixture of +sand and mud, of so soft and yielding a character as to +render perfectly unavailing all attempts either to cross +it, or to reach the edge of the water, which appears to +exist at a distance of some miles from the outer margin. +Once only was Mr. Eyre, the enterprising discoverer of +this singular lake, able to taste of its waters, and then +he found them as salt as the sea. The low, miserable, +desert country in the neighbourhood, and Lake Torrens +itself, act as a kind of barrier against the progress of +inland discovery at the back of the colony of South +Australia, since it is impossible to penetrate very far +into the interior, without making a great circle either +to the east or to the west. The portion of the bed of +the lake which is exposed is thickly coated with particles +of salt; there are few trees or shrubs of any kind to be +found near, nor are grass and fresh water by any means +abundant. Altogether, the neighbourhood of Lake +Torrens would seem a very miserable region, and forms +a strong contrast to the smiling and cultivated district +of which it forms the back country.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>Although Australia, in its natural and uncultivated +state, abounds in trees, like most other wild countries, +nevertheless, there are vast and extensive tracts where +the plains are entirely bare, or covered only with a low, +thick, and often prickly, bush, or else are what is termed +“open forest,” that is, are dotted about with fine trees, +dispersed in various groups, and resembling the scenery +of an English park. The greatest peculiarity of the +native forests appears to be, that the whole of their +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +trees and shrubs are evergreen,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> although European +trees will flourish in the land of the south without acquiring +this peculiarity, or losing their deciduous character. +But it is rather a subject of complaint against +the woods of New Holland, that they have very little +picturesque effect in them, which may be partly owing +to the poverty of the foliage of the prevailing tree, the +<em>eucalyptus</em>, (commonly called the <em>iron-bark</em>, or <em>blue gum</em>, +according to its species,) which seldom has anything +ornamental to landscape, either in the trunk or branches. +These sombre trees are, however, very useful for timber, +and they grow to an astonishing height, often rearing +up their lofty heads to 150 feet or upwards. The woods, +in general, are very brittle, partly, it may be, owing to +the number of acacias which are to be found among +them; and no experienced bushman likes to sleep under +trees, especially during high winds. We must by no +means form our ideas of the appearance of an Australian +forest from that of the neat and trim woods of +our own country, where every single branch or bough, +and much more every tree, bears a certain value. Except +that portion which is required for fuel or materials +by an extremely scattered population in a very mild +climate, there is nothing carried off from the forests, and, +were it not for the frequent and destructive fires which +the natives kindle in many parts, no check worth mentioning +would be placed upon the natural increase and +decay of the woods of New Holland. The consequence +of this is, that trees are to be seen there in every stage +of growth or ruin; and, occasionally, in very thickly-planted +spots, the surface of the ground is not a little +encumbered by the fallen branches and trunks of the +ancient ornaments of the forest. Nor is it by the hand +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +of Time alone that these marks of destruction are scattered +about in the vast woodlands; the breath of a +tremendous storm will occasionally accomplish, perhaps, +as much in a few hours as natural decay would in many +years.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Altogether, the forests of Australia may be +said to be in a purely natural state, and thus do they +offer to the eye of the inquiring traveller many objects +less pleasing, it may be, but nevertheless more sublime +and solemn, than those with which the woods of more +cultivated countries commonly abound.</p> + +<p>To travel without any beaten track through a country +clothed, in many parts, very thickly, by forests like those +just described, is in itself no easy undertaking, and the +operation of hewing a way for a mile or two through +the surrounding woods, during the very heat of the day, +and sometimes after a long march, is very trying. But +when the exposure to burning thirst, and to the uncertain +disposition of the native inhabitants is added, the +patient endurance of successful explorers is still more +strongly displayed. Nor, although it be only a minor +annoyance, must the pain and inconvenience felt by +wanderers in the bush from the prickly grass, which +is found abundantly in the sandy districts, be forgotten. +In those barren sands, where no grass grows, there are +frequently tufts of a prickly bush, which tortures the +horses, and tears to pieces the clothes of the men about +their ankles, if they are walking. This bush, called the +prickly grass, and a dwarf tree, the <em>Eucalyptus dumosa</em>, +grows only where the soil appears too barren and loose +for anything else; indeed, were it not for these, the +sand would probably drift away, and cover the vegetation +of neighbouring spots less barren and miserable. +Against this evil, nature seems to have provided by the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +presence of two plants so singularly fitted for a soil of +this description. The root of the <em>Eucalyptus dumosa</em> +resembles that of a large tree; but it has no trunk, and +only a few branches rise above the ground, forming an +open kind of bush, often so low that a man on horseback +may look over it for miles. This dwarf tree, and the +prickly grass together, occupy the ground, and seem +intended to bind down the sands of Australia. The size +of the roots prevents the bush from growing very close +together, and the stems being without leaves, except at +the top, this kind of <em>Eucalyptus</em> is almost proof against +the running fires of the bush. The prickly grass +resembles, at a distance, in colour and form, an overgrown +lavender plant, but the blades of it, consisting of +sharp spikes, occasion most cruel annoyance both to +men and horses. Another inconvenience and danger +to which exploring parties are liable, are those fires in +the bush already alluded to; which, whether caused by +accident, or designedly by the natives, are not uncommon +events.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> “The country seemed all on fire around us.”—“All +the country beyond the river was in flames; one +spark might have set the whole country on our side in a +blaze, and then no food would remain for the cattle, +not to mention the danger to our stores and ammunition.” +“Fires prevailed extensively at great distances in the +interior, and the sultry air seemed heated by the general +conflagration;” these expressions convey rather alarming +ideas of the dangers to which travellers are exposed +in the bush, and from which it is not always easy to +make good an escape.</p> + +<p>It may have been observed, possibly, in what has +been related of the country and scenery of New Holland +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +in its natural state, that the descriptions of very beautiful +or fertile spots have been comparatively few. Now, +although it is true that a very large portion of the +known surface of that island is occupied by the sandstone +rock, which is in its very nature utterly barren, +nevertheless, it is by no means to be supposed that +there is any scarcity of most rich and beautiful land—some +of it fit for immediate occupation—to be found in +most parts of Australia. In attempting to draw a +picture of a distant and remarkable region, we are almost +sure to mark and bring distinctly out its most peculiar +and striking features; the scenes resembling those of +our own quiet and happy land are passed over as tame +and familiar, while the dreariness of the desert, the +horrors of a “barren and dry land where no water is,”—the +boundless plains, or the bare mountain-tops, the +lonely shore or the rocky isle—scenes like these, are +commonly dwelt upon and described. In short, the +very spots which are least enticing, <em>in reality</em>, for the +colonist to settle in, are often most agreeable, <em>in description</em>, +for the stranger to read of.</p> + +<p>But, since the reader must not be left with the erroneous +and unpleasant impression that the country of +which we have been treating is, for the most part, a mere +wilderness, if not a desert, we may select two recently-discovered +districts of it to serve for a favourable +specimen of the beauty and fertility of many others, +which cannot now be noticed.</p> + +<p>The following description of Wellington Valley (now +recently included in the limits of the colony,) is from +the pen of its first discoverer, Mr. Oxley, and other +travellers bear witness that it is not overcharged: “A +mile and a half brought us into the valley which we had +seen on our first descending into the glen: imagination +cannot fancy anything more beautifully picturesque than +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +the scene which burst upon us. The breadth of the +valley, to the base of the opposite gently-rising hills, was +between three and four miles, studded with fine trees, +upon a soil which for richness can nowhere be exceeded; +its extent, north and south, we could not see: to the +west, it was bounded by the lofty rocky ranges by which +we had entered it; these were covered to the summit +with cypresses and acacias in full bloom, and a few trees +in bright green foliage gave additional beauty to the scene. +In the centre of this charming valley ran a strong and +beautiful stream, its bright, transparent waters dashing +over a gravelly bottom, intermingled with large stones, +forming at short intervals considerable pools, in which +the rays of the sun were reflected with a brilliancy equal +to that of the most polished mirror. The banks were +low and grassy, with a margin of gravel and pebble-stones; +there were marks of flood to the height of about +twelve feet, when the river would still be confined within +its secondary banks, and not overflow the rich lands that +bordered it. Its usual width is 200 feet; in times of +flood it would be from 600 to 800 feet.”<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>In Australia Felix, as it has been called by its discoverer, +Major Mitchell, which is a much larger district +than that just described, almost every earthly delight +and advantage would likewise seem to have combined to +make it a perfect dwelling-place for man. The temperate +and mild climate; the neighbourhood of the sea; the +variety and fertility of its surface; the ranges of lofty and +picturesque mountains by which it is backed; the number +of rivers, small and large, by which it is watered; the +comparatively open nature of the country, yet not without +an ample supply of timber close at hand; all these +and other advantages unite in rendering Australia Felix +one of the most desirable spots upon the face of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +globe. And the beauties and blessings of a spot like +this, must have stood forth in bold contrast with the +dreary, lifeless plains of the Darling, or Lachlan, which +the discoverers of Australia Felix had so long been +engaged in exploring. One of the first harbingers of +the better country, to which the travellers were drawing +near, was a very curious height, called Pyramid Hill, +which is formed of granite, and, being a triangular +pyramid, standing quite alone, closely resembles the +monuments of ancient Egypt. It rises 300 feet above +the surrounding plain; its point consists of a single +block of granite, and the view over the neighbouring +country was exceedingly beautiful. The scene was +different from anything the travellers had elsewhere +witnessed. “A land so inviting, and still without +inhabitants!<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> +As I stood,” continues the explorer, +warming with the thoughts of his discovery, “the first +European intruder on the sublime solitude of these +verdant plains, as yet untouched by flocks or herds, +I felt conscious of being the harbinger of mighty changes; +and that our steps would soon be followed by the men +and animals for which it seemed to have been prepared.” +Twelve days afterwards, the whole of which had been +spent in traversing a district rich and lovely in the +extreme, the first view of a noble range of mountains +(the Grampians) was obtained; they rose in the south +to a stupendous height, and presented as bold and +picturesque an outline as ever painter imagined.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> And, +during a journey of many days, the same rich and +sublime scenery still appeared, mingled together in +beautiful and endless variety. Every day the party of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +travellers passed over land which, for natural fertility +and beauty, could scarcely be surpassed; over streams +of unfailing abundance, and plains covered with the +richest pasturage. Stately trees and majestic mountains +adorned the ever-varying landscape, the most southern +region of all Australia, and the best. On the river +Glenelg, which was discovered about a month after they +had left Pyramid Hill, the land appeared everywhere +alike good, alike beautiful; whether on the finely-varied +hills, or in the equally romantic vales, which opened in +endless succession on both banks of the river. Further +on in this lovely district, the British explorers came +upon fresh scenes of surpassing sweetness. A small +party of them were out upon an excursion, when they +perceived before them a ridge in the blue distance—rather +an unusual object in that close country. They soon +after quitted the wood through which they had been +passing, and found that they were on a kind of table-land, +approaching a deep ravine coming from their right, +which terminated on a very fine-looking open country +below, watered by a winding river. They descended by +a bold projection to the bottom of the ravine, and found +there a foaming little river, hurrying downwards over +rocks. After fording this stream, they ascended a very +steep but grassy mountain-side, and, on reaching a brow +of high land, a noble prospect appeared; a river winding +among meadows that were fully a mile broad, and green +as an emerald. Above them rose swelling hills of +fantastic shapes, but all smooth and thickly covered +with rich verdure. Behind these were higher hills, all +having grass on their sides, and trees on their summits, +and extending east and west throughout the landscaper +as far as could be seen. After riding about two miles +along an entirely open, grassy ridge, the party again +found the Glenelg, flowing eastward towards an apparently +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +much lower country. The river was making for +the coast, (turning southward some miles below the hill +on which they stood,) through a country far surpassing +in beauty and richness any part hitherto discovered.</p> + +<p>What, in fact, is there wanting to the charming and +extensive region just described, or what to hundreds of +other fruitful and lovely districts under the power of +the British crown, except <em>civilised inhabitants</em>, and the +establishment of <em>a branch of Christ’s “one Catholic and +Apostolic Church</em>?” The population is ready, nay, even +redundant, in England; nor are the means deficient in a +land abounding beyond all others in wealthy capitalists. +But the will, the wisdom, the understanding heart, the +united counsels, are, it is to be feared, and are likely +still to be, wanting with us. May that God who maketh +men to be of one mind in a house or nation, so +dispose events, that in due time the valleys and hills of +Australia Felix may be dotted with churches, and filled +with faithful members of Christ! Then will it become a +<em>happy</em> land indeed. Then may its inhabitants feel a +lively interest, both in the <em>social</em> and <em>religious</em> welfare of +their country; and each one may join, from the distant +shores of the once unknown Southern Land, in the holy +aspirations of the Royal Prophet: “For my brethren +and companions’ sakes I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, +because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek +to do thee good.”<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>NATIVES OF THE BUSH.</strong></p> + + +<p>In most instances in which a country is taken possession +of, and its original inhabitants are removed, +enslaved, or exterminated, the party thus violently +seizing upon the rights of others is considered the +superior and more civilized nation of the two. The +very means by which this advantage is gained are, +usually, boldness, and worldly talent, without which +a conquest or successful invasion is impossible; and +these, when prosperous, are qualities which awaken very +powerfully the admiration and attention of men. So +that, while earthly prosperity and excellence are combining +to cast a splendour around the actions of the +successful nation, adversity and inferiority do usually join +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +in blackening the cloud which hangs over the character of +that which is unfortunate. It is not for us to defend these +judgments of the world, as though they were, in any case, +altogether righteous judgments, but this we may safely +affirm, in the particular instance of Australia, that, upon +the whole, it is a gain to the cause of truth and virtue +for Christian England to possess those wilds, which +lately were occupied by miserable natives; and, while we +own that it is wrong to do evil that good may come, yet +may we, likewise, confess with thankfulness the Divine +mercy and wisdom which have so often brought good +out of the evil committed by our countrymen in these +distant lands. It must be confessed, too, that, whatever +may be the amount of iniquity wantonly committed +among the natives of the other portions of +the globe, for which Europe is responsible, still, the +Europeans, upon the whole, stand higher than the +inhabitants of the remaining portions, and, of course, in +proportion, very much higher than the most degraded +and least-improved race of savages, the Australian natives. +True, indeed, these despised Australians may, +hereafter, rise up in judgment against Europeans to +condemn them; and when that which has been given to +each race of men shall be again required of them, those +that have received the most may frequently be found to +have profited the least by the gifts of Divine Providence. +Still, without pretending to pass judgment upon any, +whether nations or individual persons,—without affecting, +either, to close our eyes against the miserable vices +by which the Christian name has been disgraced, and +our country’s glory sullied, among distant and barbarous +nations, we may with safety speak of the inhabitants of +those heathen lands in terms that are suitable to their +degraded state. In describing their darkened and almost +brutal condition, we are but describing things as they +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +really exist;<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> it changes not the actual fact to prove that, +in many more respects than would at first sight appear, +the behaviour of men of our own <em>enlightened</em> nation is +scarcely less darkened or less brutal than theirs. Nay, +the Australian savage, in his natural state, may be a far +higher and nobler character than the British convict +sometimes is in his degraded state; and, nevertheless, it +may be correct to class the nation of the former among +barbarians, and that of the latter among civilized people. +But in forming our judgment respecting the real character +of the natives of the Bush we must beware lest we +try them by our own standard,—a standard by which it +is unjust to measure them, since they have never known +it, nor ever had the means of reaching it.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> Every wise +man will make all possible allowance for the effect of +many generations of ignorance and degradation upon +the human soul, and when this has been fairly done, the +truly wise man, the humble Christian, whilst he reads of +the deplorable condition to which the human soul may +be reduced, (as it is shown in the instance before us,) +will feel disposed to ask himself, “Who made thee to +differ from others? And what hast thou that thou didst +not receive?”</p> + +<p>The native population of Australia is very peculiar in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +many respects, not exactly resembling any other known +race of human beings in the world. They are more +nearly akin to the Africans than to any others, and they +have, accordingly, been sometimes called <em>the Eastern +Negroes</em>, having the same thick lips, high cheek-bones, +sunken eyes, and legs without calves, which distinguish +the native of Africa; but, with the exception of Van +Diemen’s Land, and the adjoining coasts, the woolly hair +of the negro is not to be found among them, nor is the +nose usually so flat, or the forehead so low. They are +seldom very tall, but generally well made; and their +bodily activity is most surprising; nor is their courage +at all to be despised. The Australian native has always +been pointed out as being the lowest specimen of human +nature, and, since, in every scale of degrees, one must be +lowest, this is probably correct enough; yet we are by +no means to give too hasty credit to the accounts of +their condition, which have been given by those whose +interest it may have been to represent them in as +unfavourable a light as possible, or whose opportunities +of judging have been few and scanty, compared with +their hasty willingness to pass judgment upon them. +Men, more or less busily engaged in killing and taking +possession, are not likely to make a very favourable +report of those poor creatures into whose inheritance +they have come; mere self-defence would tempt them to +try to lessen the greatness of their crimes, by asserting +the victims of these to be scarcely deserving of a better +fate, and, in the present instance, the actual condition of +the native population would be very favourable to excuses +of this kind. Or, even without this evil intention +of excusing wrong by slandering those that suffer it, +many men, with but few means of understanding their +character, may have spoken decidedly respecting the +Australian natives, and that, too, in language even +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +harsher than their degraded state would justify. Disgusting +and horrid many of their habits and customs +undoubtedly are, yet they appear even more so at first +sight, and to one only imperfectly acquainted with them; +especially when (which often happens) not the slightest +allowance is made for the peculiar situation of the +savage, but he is taken at once from the midst of his naked +barbarity, and tried by the rules of refinement and civilization. +Recently, indeed, public attention and pity +have been more turned towards the unhappy race of +natives, and many traits have been discovered in their +character which would not dishonour more enlightened +nations. The degraded position of those who are in the +midst of the white population affords no just criterion +of their merits. Their quickness of apprehension is +often surprising, and nothing, however new and strange, +seems to puzzle or astonish them; so that they follow +closely the advice of the ancient poet:</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Wonder at nought:—the only rule I know</span><br /> + To make man happy, and to keep him so.”</p> + +<p>“They are never awkward,” says Major Mitchell, who +was well qualified to speak from experience; “on the +contrary, in manners, and general intelligence, they +appear superior to any class of white rustics that I have +seen. Their powers of mimicry seem extraordinary, +and their shrewdness shines even through the medium +of imperfect language, and renders them, in general, +very agreeable companions.” We may, therefore, if our +inquiry be accompanied by humility and justice, be able to +form a fair and impartial opinion respecting these people; +and the result of an inquiry of this sort must be, in every +well-regulated soul, not merely a feeling of thankfulness +(still less of self-sufficiency,) that we are far removed from +the savage state, but, likewise, a sense of shame, that, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +with many of our fellow-countrymen, their superior advantages +have been productive of little or no fruit.</p> + +<p>One very remarkable distinction of the natives of the +Bush is, the entire absence of clothing, unless the cloak, +made of opossum-skin, worn by some tribes, can deserve +to be thought an exception. Their climate being, generally +speaking, a dry one, and exposure to the air, even +at night, being much less hurtful than in most other +countries, this habit of going without clothing, after the +fashion of a brute beast, is by no means so dangerous +in Australia as it would be elsewhere. But, while they +can dispense with <em>clothes</em>, like most other savages, they +are extremely fond of <em>ornaments</em>,—at least, of what they +esteem to be such: these are teeth of kangaroos, or men, +jaw-bones of a fish, feathers, tails of dogs, pieces of +wood, &c., fastened on different parts of the head, by a +sort of gum; while scars, and marks of various kinds, +are made upon the breast, arms, and back; or, upon +certain occasions, as going to war, or mourning for a +friend, the body is streaked over with white and yellow +paint, according to the taste of the party concerned. In +two very distant parts of Australia, namely, the gulf of +Carpentaria, and the eastern coast of St. Vincent’s Gulf, +the natives practise the rite of circumcision—a remarkable +agreement, when we consider that they are about +1200 miles apart, and have no means of communication +with each other. It is no uncommon custom, either, for +the natives to pierce their noses, and to place a bone or +reed through the opening, which is reckoned a great +ornament. But there is another custom, almost peculiar +to Australia, which, from its singularity, may deserve +to be noticed at some length. Among many of +the native tribes,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> it is usual for the males to have a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +front tooth, or sometimes <em>two</em>, struck out at the time of +their arriving at manhood, and this ceremony is performed +in a most solemn and impressive manner. The +following account of it, from the pen of an eye-witness, +may be not unacceptable to the reader: Lieutenant +Collins, the historian of the infant colony of New South +Wales, was present during the whole of this curious +operation, and thus describes the accompanying ceremonies +practised by the natives of that part of Australia:—For +seven days previous to the commencement of the +solemnity, the people continued to assemble, and the +evenings were spent in dancing, for which they adorned +themselves in their best manner, namely, by painting +themselves white, and especially by drawing white circles +round their eyes. When the field was prepared, +and the youths who were to be enrolled among men +were all placed together upon one side of it, the business +began with a loud shout, and a clattering of shields and +spears, from the armed party, whose office it was to +seize the patients about to undergo the extraordinary +operation. This was done one by one, until the whole +number, fifteen, were brought forward, and placed in +the midst of the armed body of men; then each youth +was made to sit down, holding his head downwards, +with his hands clasped, and his legs crossed under him, +in which painful posture it was said they were to remain +all night, without looking up or taking any refreshment +whatever.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> The Carrahdis, or persons who were to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +perform the operation, now began some of their strange +mummeries. Each one of these, in his turn, appeared +to suffer most extreme agony, and put himself into +every posture that pain could occasion, until, at length, +a bone was brought forward, which was intended to be +used in the ensuing ceremony; and the poor youths +were led to believe that the more pain these Carrahdis +suffered in obtaining the bone, the less would be theirs +in losing a tooth. The following day began with the +ceremony of the fifteen operators running round upon +their hands and feet, in imitation of the dogs of that +country, and throwing upon the boys, as they passed, +sand and dirt with their hands and feet. The youths +were perfectly still and silent, and it was understood +that this ceremony gave them power over the dog, and +endowed them with whatever good qualities that animal +might possess.</p> + +<p>The next part that was performed, was the offering +of a sham kangaroo, made of grass, to the fifteen lads, +who were still seated as before. One man brought the +kangaroo, and a second carried some brushwood, besides +having one or two flowering shrubs stuck through +his nose, and both seemed to stagger under the weight +of their burdens. Stalking and limping, they at last +reached the feet of the youthful hunters, and placed before +them the prize of the chase, after which they went +away, as though entirely wearied out. By this rite was +given the power of killing the kangaroo, and the brushwood, +most likely, was meant to represent its common +haunt. In about an hour’s space, the chief actors returned +from a valley to which they had retired, bringing +with them long tails of grass, which were fitted to the +girdle. By the help of this addition, they imitated a +herd of kangaroos, one man beating time to them with +a club on a shield, and two others, armed, followed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +them and affected to steal unnoticed upon them to spear +them. As soon as these pretended kangaroos had +passed the objects of their visit, they instantly got rid +of their artificial tails, each man caught up a lad, and, +placing him upon his shoulders, carried him off in +triumph to the last scene of this strange exhibition.</p> + +<p>After walking a short distance, the men put down +their burdens, placing them in a cluster, each boy with +his head upon his breast, and his hands clasped together. +In a few minutes, after a greater degree of mystery and +preparation than had been before observed, the youthful +band was brought forward to a place where a number +of human beings were seen lying with their faces to +the ground, as if they were dead, and in front of these +was a man seated on a stump of a tree, bearing another +man upon his shoulders, both having their arms extended, +while two men, in a like attitude, were seen +also behind the group of prostrate figures. These first +two men made most hideous faces for a few minutes, +and then the lads were led over the bodies lying on the +ground, which moved and writhed, as though in great +agony; after which the same strange grimaces were +repeated by the two men who were placed on the +further side of the apparently dead bodies. All the +information that could be gained of the meaning of this, +was, that it would make them brave men; that they +would see well and fight well. Then followed a sort of +martial exercise with spear and shield, in the presence +of the future warriors, to signify to them what was to +be one great business of their lives—the use of the spear; +and, when this was finished, the preparations for striking +out the tooth commenced. The first subject of this +barbarous operation was chosen, and seated upon the +shoulders of a native, who himself sat down upon the +grass; and then the bone was produced, which had +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +cost so much apparent pain to procure the evening before, +and which was made very sharp and fine at one +end, for the purpose of lancing the gum. But for some +such precaution, it would have been impossible to have +knocked out the tooth, without breaking the jaw-bone. +A stick was then cut with much ceremony out of some +hard wood, and when the gum of the patient was properly +prepared, the smallest end of the stick was applied +to the top of the tooth, while the operator stood ready +with a large stone, as though about to drive the tooth +down the throat of the youth. Here a certain attention +to the number three, which had been before shown, was +again noticed, for no stroke was actually made, until +three attempts to hit the stick had taken place; and, +notwithstanding repeated blows, so firmly was the +tooth of the first boy fixed in his gum, that it was full +ten minutes before it was forced out. The sufferer +was then removed, his gum was closed, and he was +dressed out in a new style, with a girdle, in which was +stuck a wooden sword, and with a bandage round his +head, while his left hand was placed over his mouth, +and he was not allowed to speak, nor, during that day, +to eat. In this manner were all the others treated, +except one only, who could not endure the pain of +more than one blow with the stone, and, breaking away +from his tormentors, he managed to make his escape. +During the whole operation a hideous noise was kept +up around the patients, with whom, generally, it seemed +to be a point of honour to endure this pain without a +single murmur. Having once gone through this strange +ceremony, they were henceforth admitted into the +company and privileges of the class of men.</p> + +<p>And as the commencement of manhood in this way, +requires no small exercise of courage and endurance of +pain, so the remainder of the life of an Australian +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +savage is usually abundant in trials calling for the like +qualities, and demanding both bravery and patience. +Whatever may be the particular evils of civilized society, +and however some wild imaginations may be tempted +by these to regard with regret or envy the enjoyments +of savage life, after all it must be confessed, +these enjoyments are, at best, very scanty and very +uncertain, whilst the miseries attendant upon such a +state are of a nature continually to try the patience +and weary the spirit of him who has to endure them. +Without dwelling just at present upon the natural wants +and sufferings to which savage men are perpetually exposed +in the wilderness of Australia, it is deplorable to +think of how many evils these thinly-scattered tribes +are the cause to each other; enormous and sad is the +amount of suffering, which, even in those lonely and +unfrequented regions, human beings are constantly +bringing upon their brethren or neighbours. War, +which seems almost a necessary evil, an unavoidable +scourge to man’s fallen race, in all ages and in every +country, wears its most deadly aspect, and shows its +fiercest spirit among the petty tribes, and in the personal +encounters of savages like those of whom we are treating. +Various causes of misunderstanding will, of course, +arise among them from time to time, and every trifling +quarrel is continued and inflamed by their amazing and +persevering efforts to revenge themselves, which appears +to be with them considered a matter of duty. +The shedding of blood is always followed by punishment, +and only those who are <em>jee-dyte</em>, or unconnected +with the family of the guilty person, can consider themselves +in safety from this evil spirit of revenge. Little +children of seven or eight years old, if, while playing, +they hear that some murder has taken place, can in a +moment tell whether or not they are <em>jee-dyte</em>, and even +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +at this tender age, take their measures accordingly. +An example of this unsparing visitation of offences +occurred not long after the settlement of New South +Wales had commenced. A native had been murdered, +and his widow, being obliged to revenge his death, +chanced to meet with a little girl distantly related to +the murderer, upon whom she instantly poured forth +her fury, beating her cruelly about the head with a club +and pointed stone, until at length she caused the child’s +death. When this was mentioned before the other +natives, they appeared to look upon it as a right and +necessary act, nor was the woman punished by the +child’s relatives, possibly because it was looked upon +as a just requital.</p> + +<p>When a native has received any injury, whether real +or fancied, he is very apt to work himself up into a +tremendous passion, and for this purpose certain war-songs, +especially if they are chanted by women, seem +amazingly powerful. Indeed, it is stated, on good +authority, that four or five mischievously-inclined old +women can soon stir up forty or fifty men to any deed of +blood, by means of their chants, which are accompanied +by tears and groans, until the men are excited into a +perfect state of frenzy. The men also have their war-songs, +which they sing as they walk rapidly backwards +and forwards, quivering their spears, in order to work +themselves up into a passion. The following very common +one may serve for a specimen, both of the manner +and matter of this rude, yet, to them, soul-stirring +poetry:—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Yu-do dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his forehead,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Nan-do dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his breast,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Myeree dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his liver,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Goor-doo dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his heart,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Boon-gal-la dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his loins,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gonog-o dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his shoulder,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dow-al dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his thigh,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Nar-ra dauna,</td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>Spear his ribs,</td> </tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">&c. &c. &c.</span></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">&c. &c. &c.</span></td> </tr> + +</table></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +And thus it is that a native, when he feels afraid, +sings himself into courage, or, if he is already in a bold +mood, he heaps fuel upon the flame of his anger, and +adds strength to his fury. The deadly feeling of hatred +and revenge extends itself to their public, as well as to +their private, quarrels, and sometimes shows itself in a +very fierce and unexpected manner. In the valley of the +Wollombi, between Sydney and Hunter’s River, some +years ago, three boys of a certain tribe had been persuaded +to reside in the families of three of the British +settlers there. These were marked out for vengeance +by the natives belonging to a tribe in a state of warfare +with them, about 100 of whom travelled between 20 and +30 miles during one night—a thing almost unheard of +among the natives—and reached the neighbourhood of +the settlers on the Wollombi very early on the ensuing +morning. Two or three of them were sent to each of +the houses to entice the boys out, but these, it appeared, +somewhat suspected the intentions of their enemies. +However, they were at length persuaded to join the +native dance, when suddenly a circle was formed round +them, and they were speedily beaten to death with +<em>waddies</em> or clubs. Immediately after which deed, the +troop of natives returned back again to their own +neighbourhood. A European happened to pass by, just as +the boys were dying, but being alone and unarmed, his +interference might have been dangerous to himself, +without proving of any the slightest advantage to the +unfortunate sufferers.</p> + +<p>Another instance of that cowardly cruelty, which will +take every possible advantage of a helpless age and sex +occurred many years before this, when the colony of +New South Wales was quite in its infancy. The father +and mother of a little native girl, aged about seven years, +had belonged to a party by whom many robberies had +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +been committed on the banks of the river Hawkesbury, +but an armed troop of Europeans was sent in pursuit of +these robbers, and when a meeting took place, the +child’s parents were among those that fell, while she +accompanied the victorious party to the British settlement. +Here she behaved herself with propriety, +being a well-disposed child, she was a favourite at +Government-house, where she resided under the protection +of the governor. This circumstance, and the fact +of her belonging to a different tribe from their own, +awakened the jealousy of some of the natives, who +belonged to the neighbourhood of Sydney, and she was +consequently put to death in the most cruel manner. +Her body was found in the woods, speared in several +places, and with both the arms cut off. The murderers +of the poor child escaped.</p> + +<p>But, while we justly condemn and pity the cruel and +cowardly acts of this description, which, unhappily, too +often figure among the deeds of the natives of the +Australian Bush, we are by no means to suppose them +wanting in all feeling of kindness and humanity, still +less would it be correct to consider them deficient in true +courage. Every allowance ought to be made for the +disadvantages of savage life, for the complete ignorance +of these people, for the difficulty which they frequently +have in procuring necessary food, and for the consequent +cheapness in which life is held among them; and when +these and other like arguments are duly weighed, we +may learn not to abominate less the crimes of savages, +but to pity more the unhappy beings who commit them. +Indeed, if we go somewhat further, we may take shame +to ourselves and to all civilized nations, in many of +whose practices a counterpart may be found for the +worst sins of the uncultivated, uncivilized heathens.</p> + +<p>Within the last few years many crimes have been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +recorded in our newspapers, which, though committed +in those large English towns, by some conceived to be +centres of civilization, refinement, and enlightenment, +might rival in horror and atrocity the very darkest deeds +of savages.</p> + +<p>Many proofs that the disposition of the native Australians +is naturally brave and courageous (however +cowardly some of their barbarities may appear,) could +easily be brought forward; but none can be a stronger +proof of this than the coolness and self-possession +which they have so frequently exhibited upon meeting +with Europeans, and encountering their fire-arms for +the first time. An example of this occurred in Western +Australia, when Captain Grey’s party were on their +return home towards the British settlement of Perth. +They were winding their way along on the summit of a +limestone hill not very far from the coast, which formed +a terrace about half a mile in width, with rich grass and +beautiful clumps of trees to adorn it; and while, on the +side towards the land, another terrace arose exactly like +it, on the opposite side they overlooked a bay surrounded +by verdant and extensive flats. Their enjoyment +of the lovely scenery of this spot was soon +disturbed by the appearance of a large body of the +natives on the high ground to the east of them; and, +although these strangers boldly advanced to within 200 +yards of them, all endeavours to bring about an amicable +meeting proved in vain, for the savages shouted +to their companions, and these again to others yet more +remote, until the calls were lost in the distance, while +fresh parties of natives came trooping in from all directions. +The question was, how to get rid of these people +without bloodshed; and when an attempt to move quietly +forward had been disappointed, by the Australians +hastening on to occupy a thick piece of bush, through +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +which the English party must pass, at last, Captain +Grey, advancing towards them with his gun cocked and +pointed, drove them a little before him, after which, to +complete their dispersion, he intended to fire over their +heads. But, to his mortification and their delight, the +gun missed fire, upon which the natives, taking fresh +courage, turned round to make faces at him and to +imitate the snapping of the gun. The second barrel was +then fired over their heads, at which they were alarmed, +and made a rapid retreat, halting, however, upon a +rising ground about 300 yards off, and preparing in +earnest for action, when they perceived that they had +suffered no loss. But since they had thus learned to +despise the weapons of European warfare, prompt action +was needful to prevent fatal consequences on both sides. +The captain, accordingly, took his rifle from the man +who was carrying it, and directing it at a heap of +closely-matted dead bushes, about two or three yards +from the main body of the enemy, he drove the ball +right through it; the dry rotten boughs crackled and +flew in all directions, and the poor savages, confounded +at this new and unfair mode of fighting, hastily dispersed, +without any loss of life having been sustained +by either party.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>On another occasion, not long after this encounter, +and in the same neighbourhood, the party of English +explorers fell in with a native carrying his spear and a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +handful of fish; he was lost in thought, and they were +close to him before he saw them, but, when he did so, +he took no notice of them. Without even quickening +his pace, he continued in his own course, which crossed +their path, and, as he evidently wished to avoid all +communication, the men were ordered to take no notice of +him, and so they passed one another. He must have +been a very brave fellow, observes the captain, to act +thus coolly, when an array so strange to him met his +eye. In like manner, when Major Mitchell was riding +upon the banks of the Gwydir, he fell in with a tall +native, covered with pipe-clay, who, although he could +never have seen a horse before, nevertheless, put himself +in a posture of defiance, and did not retreat, until +the traveller galloped at him to prevent his attack.</p> + +<p>In a different part of New Holland, on the eastern +coast, when Flinders was exploring Pumice-stone River, +near Moreton Bay, he was by no means successful in +striking the natives with awe and astonishment. A +hawk having presented itself to view, he thought this +afforded a good opportunity of showing his new friends, +the inhabitants of the Bush, a specimen of the effect and +certainty of his fire-arms. He made them understand +what he intended, and they were so far alarmed as to +seem to be on the point of running into the woods, but +a plan of detaining them was discovered, for the seamen +placed themselves in front of the savages, forming a +kind of defence; in which situation they anxiously +watched the British officer, while he fired at the bird. +What must have been his feelings at the moment!—the +hawk, uninjured, flew away!<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +It is, certainly, no easy task to awaken in the soul of +the completely savage man any great interest or concern +in the ways and habits of civilized life. The fallen +nature, of which all mankind are common partakers, +renders it, unfortunately, easy to copy what is evil; +and, accordingly, the drunkenness, the deceitfulness, +and general licentiousness of depraved Europeans find +many admirers and imitators among the simple children +of the Australian wilderness; but when anything good, +or decent, or even merely useful, is to be taught them, +then do they appear dull and inapt scholars indeed. +Living, as they do, in a peculiar world, as it were, of +their own, they feel little or no pleasure at hearing of +what is going on elsewhere, and it has been observed by +one who had mixed very much with their various tribes, +and had gained considerable knowledge of their language, +that, while they cared not for stories respecting man in +his civilized state, anything at all bearing upon savage +life was eagerly listened to and well received. Once, +having described to them some circumstances respecting +England and its inhabitants, the traveller took occasion, +from the mention of the length of days there in summer, +to speak of those lands near the North Pole, where, in +summer, the sun never sets, while it never rises for +some weeks during the winter. The natives agreed that +this must be another sun, and not the one seen by them; +but, when the conversation turned upon the people of +those northern regions, and the small Laplander, clothed +in skins of the seal, instead of the kangaroo, was described +to them, they were exceedingly delighted; and +this picture of half-savage life, so different from their +own, threw quite into the shade all the other stories +they had heard. It is, indeed, really laughable to find +with what cool contempt some of these natives, who +have never had any intercourse with Europeans, treat +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +our comforts, our tastes, and pursuits. We may contemn +and pity them, but they seem to have very much +the same feelings for us. We are horrified at the greediness +with which they devour grubs, and many of them +are shocked at our oyster-eating propensities! A remarkable +instance of this occurred to Captain Flinders +in 1798, when he was exploring the eastern coast of +New Holland, and surveying Two-fold Bay. While +measuring a base line upon the beach, the English +sailors heard the screams of three native women, who +took up their children and ran off in great alarm. Soon +after this a man made his appearance, armed only with +a <em>waddie</em>, or wooden scimetar, but approaching them +apparently with careless confidence. The explorers +made much of him, and gave him some biscuit; in return +for which he presented them with a piece of gristly fat, +probably of whale. This was tasted by Captain Flinders, +but he was forced to watch for an opportunity of getting +rid of it while the eyes of the donor were not upon him. +But the savage himself was, curiously enough, doing +precisely the same thing with the biscuit, the taste of +which was, perhaps, no more agreeable to him than that +of the whale to the Englishman. The commencement +of the trigonometrical operations necessary for surveying +the bay was beheld by the Australian with indifference, +if not with contempt; and he quitted the strangers, +apparently satisfied that from people who could thus +seriously occupy themselves there was no great danger +to be feared.</p> + +<p>But, whatever may be urged respecting the variety of +tastes and the want of a settled and uniform standard of +appeal respecting them; however it may be argued the +rich and luscious fat of a noble whale may intrinsically +surpass the lean and mouldy flavour of dry sea-biscuit; +nevertheless, in many other matters of greater importance, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +it must be confessed that the manners and habits +of the natives of the Bush are extremely wretched and +evil. And the Christian European, while he dares not +<em>despise</em> them, cannot do otherwise than <em>pity</em> them. The +fact has been already noticed, that these miserable +children of nature scarcely ever wear anything deserving +of the name of clothing; and, in many parts of New +Holland, their huts, usually constructed by the women, +and composed of little better materials than bark, or +wood, and boughs,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> reeds, or clay, scarcely merit the +title of human habitations. But it is not so much in +their outward state, as in their moral and social habits, +that this race of men are most pitiable and degraded. +One subject which has been frequently observed to mark +the difference not so much between civilized and uncivilized +men, as that between Christians and heathens, +must especially be noticed. Cruel as is <em>the treatment of +women</em> in many other parts of the globe, the inhabitants +of Australia seem to go beyond all other barbarians in +this respect. From the best and wisest people of +christian Europe down to the vilest and most degraded +tribes of heathen Australia, a regular scale might be +formed of the general mode of behaviour to the weaker +sex among these various nations; and, mostly, it would +be found that the general superiority or inferiority of +each nation is not untruly indicated by the kindness or +cruelty with which their females are usually treated.</p> + +<p>From their earliest infancy the female children are +engaged or betrothed to a future husband, and in case +of his death, they belong to his heir. But this arrangement +is frequently prevented by the horrid practice, +common among these barbarians, of stealing their wives, +and taking them away by main force. Indeed, it seems +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +a rule for the women to follow the conquering party, as +a matter of course; so that on the return of an expedition +into the interior of New Holland, the friendly and neighbouring +natives, being informed that some of the distant +and hostile people had been shot, only observed, “Stupid +white fellows! why did you not bring away the gins?”</p> + +<p>Polygamy is not uncommonly practised; and an old +man, especially, among other privileges, may have as +many <em>gins</em>, or wives, as he can keep, or maintain. Indeed, +the maintenance of a wife is not expensive, since +they are expected to work; and all the most laborious +tasks, including that of supplying a great part of the +necessary food for the family, are performed by them.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> +Hence, they are watched with very jealous care, being +valuable possessions; but, in spite of all precautions, +they are frequently carried off, and that in the most +inhuman manner. The <em>lover</em> steals upon the encampment +by night, and, discovering where the object of his +affection is, he frequently beats her on the head till she +becomes senseless, and then drags her off through the +bushes, as a tiger would its prey!<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> This, of course, is +an undertaking attended with considerable danger; for +if the intruder is caught, he will be speared through the +leg, or even killed, by the angry husband or relatives. +Thus many quarrels arise, in which brothers or friends +are generally ready enough to bear a part. But—unlike +the courteous and christian customs of our own +country—the poor female, whether innocent or guilty, +it matters not, has no one to take her part; the established +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +rule with regard to women among these brutal +creatures being, “If I beat your mother, then you beat +mine; if I beat your wife, then you beat mine,” &c. &c. +The consequence of these ferocious habits is evident +enough in the appearance of most of the young women, +who have any good looks or personal comeliness to +boast of. The number of violent blows upon the head, +or of rude wounds inflicted by the spear, form so many +miserable trophies of victories dearly won by these +Australian beauties, and the early life of one of these +unhappy beings is generally a continued series of captivities +to different masters, of wanderings in strange +families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other +females, amongst whom she is brought a stranger by +her captor; and rarely is a form of unusual grace and +elegance seen, but it is marked and scarred by the furrows +of old wounds; while many females thus wander +several hundreds of miles from the home of their infancy, +without any corresponding ties of affection being formed +to recompense them for those so rudely torn asunder. +As may be well imagined, a marriage thus roughly commenced +is not very smooth in its continuance; and the +most cruel punishments—violent beating, throwing +spears or burning brands, &c.—are frequently inflicted +upon the weaker party, without any sufficient provocation +having been given. It is evident, that treatment of +this kind, together with the immensely long journeys +which they are compelled to take, always accompanying +their husbands on every excursion, must be very injurious +to the constitution and healthiness of the weaker +sex. And to these trials must be added the constant +carrying of those children that are yet unable to travel, +the perpetual search for food, and preparation of it when +it is obtained, besides many other laborious offices performed +by the women, all which being reckoned up +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +together, will form a life of toil and misery, which we +may hope is endured by no other human beings beside +the females of Australia. Nor is such treatment without +its ill effect upon the tempers and dispositions of the +female sex. The ferocity of the women, when it is +excited, exceeds that of the men; they deal dreadful +blows at one another with their long sticks, and, if ever +the husband is about to spear in the leg, or beat, one of +his wives, the others are certain to set on her, and treat +her with great inhumanity.</p> + +<p>One custom, which to Europeans seems extremely +remarkable, is that of the family name of the <em>mother</em>, +and not of the <em>father</em>, becoming the surname of the +children of either sex. And another, connected with +this, forbids a man from marrying with a woman of his +own family name. Each family has for its crest or sign, +or <em>kobong</em>, as they call it, some animal or vegetable; and +a certain mysterious connexion is supposed to exist +between a family and its <em>kobong</em>; so that a member of +the family will never kill an animal of the same species +with his <em>kobong</em>, should he find it asleep; indeed, he always +kills it reluctantly, and never without affording it +a chance of escape.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> This arises from the family belief +that some one individual of the species is their nearest +friend, to kill whom would be a great crime, and is to +be carefully avoided. And, in like manner, a native having +a vegetable for a <em>kobong</em> may not gather it under certain +circumstances, and at a particular period of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +year. It is said that they occasionally exchange surnames +with their friends, a custom which is supposed to +have prevailed among the Jews; and they have another +practice resembling the same people, which is, that when +a husband dies, his brother takes the wife.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Among +beings who hold life so cheaply, it cannot be a matter of +surprise that the destruction of infants should be occasionally +practised, more especially in cases where the +child is born with any natural deformity: nor is it an +excuse for these barbarians that the polished nations of +ancient Greece and Italy habitually committed the like +atrocities, or even greater,—considering it in their own +choice to rear up their offspring or not, exactly as it +suited their convenience. In fact, we may learn from +this and many other instances, that it is not <em>civilisation</em> +alone, but yet more than that, <em>Christianity</em>, by which the +difference between the European and the Australian is +produced:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“In vain are arts pursued, or taste refin’d,</span><br /> + Unless Religion purifies the mind.”</p> + +<p>Respecting the languages spoken in different parts +of New Holland, it is doubtful whether they have all a +common root or not, but the opinion of Captain Grey, +who was not unqualified to judge, is in favour of their +kindred origin. In so vast an extent of country, among +wandering tribes, that hold little or no communication +with each other, great differences in language were to +be expected, and are found to exist. If three men from +the east, the west, and the north of England meet +together, they occasionally puzzle one another by their +various dialects; what, then, must be expected by way of +variety in a country between two and three thousand +miles across, without much communication, and totally +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +differing, at its extreme points, in climate and in animal +and vegetable productions? For new objects new names +were, of necessity, invented; but the resemblance between +words signifying objects common everywhere, as, +for instance, the parts of the human body, is said to be +remarkable. The Australian languages are stated to be +soft and melodious in their sound, and their songs, +though rude and wild, have amazing power over the +feelings of the soul. <em>Noise</em> would appear to have great +charms in savage ears, and, sometimes, from the high +key in which our English songs are occasionally pitched, +it would seem to have charms also for “ears polite.” +But an elegant and refined European song would only +be laughed at and mimicked by the musical blacks, some +few of whom are not, however, quite insensible to the +sweets of civilised melody. Warrup, a native servant, +was once present when “God save the Queen” was +sung in chorus, and it so affected him, that he burst +into tears. He certainly could not have understood the +words, much less could he have entered into the noble +and loyal spirit, of our National Anthem: it must, therefore, +have been the music, and, perhaps, the excitement +prevailing around him, which affected him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img97.jpg" width="500" height="383" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">opossum hunting.</span> +</div><p> </p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE IN THE BUSH.</strong></p> + + +<p>One of the most important occupations of every man +in this present state of things, is the pursuit of food and +necessary sustenance for himself and those belonging to +him. But this occupation, being in some respects more +difficult, or at least, more uncertain and engrossing, +stands more forward in savage life, and appears more +important than ever; while, at the same time, the +contrast upon this subject between the rude child of +nature and the civilized inhabitants of the earth, becomes +even stronger than usual. In glancing over the +condition of the native of the Bush in Australia, with +respect to his supply of needful support, and his means +of obtaining it, several truths are to be borne in remembrance, +obvious indeed when pointed out, and yet not +unlikely to escape a casual observer. First, the vast +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +extent of country, compared with the thin and scattered +population it maintains; next, the very different sort of +food required by a savage and a European; and lastly, +the various kinds of food which are used by the inhabitants +of the wilderness—are all matters which must be +recollected, if we would form a fair judgment upon the +subject, and do justice to the humble, and apparently +scanty, bill of fare which Nature has provided for those +that dwell among her wildest scenes and in her most +secret, recesses. In these spots it is but rarely, of +course, from the mere absence of sufficient provisions, +that any large body of natives can assemble together; +but, occasionally, a feast is prepared for a considerable +number, either when some particular article of food +abounds at a certain place and is in full season, or, +especially, when a whale (a fish very common on the +coasts of New Holland) is thrown ashore. In the +latter case, it is impossible for us entirely to enter into +the feelings of the savage, for we have never, unexpectedly, +had so large a quantity of what is considered +the greatest delicacy placed at once before us. Hence, +when the Australian finds a whale thrown ashore in his +own district, his heart warms and opens with kind +feelings of hospitality; he longs to see all his friends +about him, and large fires are immediately kindled to +announce the fortunate and joyful event. Notice of the +feast having been thus given, and a due invitation forwarded, +he rubs himself all over with the blubber, and +his favourite wives are served in the same manner, after +which, he begins to cut his way into the flesh of the +whale, the grain of which is about the firmness of a +goose-quill; of this he chooses the nicest morsels, and +either broils them on the fire, or cooks them by cutting +them into small pieces, and spitting them on a pointed +stick.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +Other natives, attracted by the flaming signal of +revelry, soon assemble in gay companies from all +quarters: by night they dance and sing, and by day +they eat and sleep, and the feast continues unchecked +until they at last fairly eat their way into the whale, +and may be seen climbing in and about the carcase +choosing their favourite pieces. The fish, in a few days, +becomes more disagreeable than ever, but still they will +not leave it, until they have been completely gorged +with it,—out of temper from indigestion, and therefore +engaged in frequent quarrels. And, even when they are, +at length, obliged to quit the feast, they carry off with +them as much as they can stagger under, to eat upon +the way, and to take as a rarity to their distant friends. +Such is a true picture of a native Australian feast, and +the polished sons and daughters of Europe will turn away +from it with feelings of unmingled disgust. But, with +how many of these is life itself a perpetual series of +feasting, less gross and disgusting indeed, but not less +really sensual than this! How many inhabitants of +civilised countries live continually as though the saying, +“Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die” were +the whole sum and substance of practical wisdom! Yet +if it were so, who would be more happy, who more +blessed in his situation, than the savage devouring, day +after day, the food his heart delights in?</p> + +<p>But a whale-feast is an event of no ordinary kind in +the life of an inhabitant of the Bush, and, if we would +know how the common sustenance of life is procured +by him, we must follow him through a variety of scenes +and pursuits, of which, by no means the least important +or interesting, is the chase of the kangaroo.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +This singular and harmless creature is now so well +known to Europeans, from specimens that have been +brought over and placed in our public collections of +animals, and also from numberless pictures, that it +would be waste of time to stop to describe it. In truth, +being one of the productions peculiar to Australia, it +may be said, from the figures of it to be seen upon the +back of every book relating to that country, to have become +almost the <em>kobong</em> or crest of that southern region. +In many portions of New Holland, particularly where +the country is wooded and the soil tolerably fertile, +kangaroos are very abundant; but so great havoc is +made among these defenceless creatures by their various +enemies, especially by man, that their numbers appear +to be upon the decrease.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>A day’s hunting is often the cause of no small excitement, +even in England, among men who care nothing +for the object of their chase, and are certain of a good +dinner at the end of their day’s sport; but we may suppose +this to be a matter of more serious interest to the +Australian, who depends upon his skill and patience in +hunting for his daily food. His whole manner and +appearance, accordingly, are changed on these occasions; +his eyes brighten up, his motion becomes quick though +silent, and every token of his eagerness and anxiety is +discoverable in his behaviour. Earth, water, trees, sky, +are all in turn the subjects of his keenest search, and +his whole soul appears to be engaged in his two senses +of sight and hearing. His wives, and even his children, +become perfectly silent, until, perhaps, a suppressed +whistle is given by one of the women, denoting that she +sees a kangaroo near her husband, after which all is +again quiet, and an unpractised stranger might ride +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +within a few yards of the group, and not perceive a +living thing. The devoted animal, meanwhile, after +listening two or three times without being able to perceive +any further cause of alarm, returns to its food or +other occupation in complete security, while the watchful +savage poises his spear, and lifts up his arm ready +for throwing it, and then advances slowly and with +stealth towards his prey, no part moving but his legs. +Whenever the kangaroo looks round, its enemy stands +still in the same position he is in when it first raises its +head, until the animal, again assured of safety, gives a +skip or two, and goes on feeding: again the native +advances, and the same scene occurs, until the whizzing +spear penetrates the unfortunate creature, upon which +the whole wood rings with sudden shouts; women and +children all join in the chase, and, at last, the kangaroo, +weakened from loss of blood and encumbered by the +spear, places its back against a tree, and appears to +attack its pursuer with the fury of despair. Though +naturally a timid animal, it will, when it is hard pressed +for life, make a bold stand; and, if hunted by Europeans, +will sometimes wait for the dogs and tear them with its +hind claws, or squeeze them with its fore arms, until the +blood gushes out of the hound’s nostrils; and sometimes +the poor creature will take to the water, and drown +every dog that comes near it.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> But by the natives the +poor beast is generally soon dispatched with spears +thrown from a distance, and its body is carried off by its +conqueror and his wives to some convenient resting-place +where they may enjoy their meal.</p> + +<p>There is likewise another mode of hunting the same +animal, in which many persons join together, and which, +though more lively and noisy, is not so characteristical +as the first. A herd of kangaroos are surprised either +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +in a thick bushy place, to which they have retired during +the heat of the day, or else in an open plain. In the +first case, they are encircled by a party, each native +giving a low whistle, as he takes up his place, and when +the blockade is finished, the bushes are set on fire, and +the frightened animals fly from the flames towards the +open plains; but no sooner do they approach the outskirts +of the wood, than the bushes are fired in the +direction in which they are running, while they are +driven back by loud calls and tremendous cries, which +increase their terror, and they run wildly about, until, +at length, maddened by fear, they make a rush through +their enemies, who allow but few of them to escape. +When the kangaroos are surrounded upon a plain, the +point generally chosen is an open bottom encircled by +wood; each native has his place given him by some of +the elder ones, and all possible means that art, or experience, +or the nature of the ground, can furnish, are +employed to ensure success in approaching as nearly as +may be towards the animals without disturbing them. +Thus the circle narrows round the unwary herd, till at +last one of them becomes alarmed, and bounds away; +but its flight is speedily stopped by a savage with fearful +yells; and before the first moments of terror and +surprise have passed by, the armed natives come running +upon them from every side, brandishing their spears, +and raising loud cries; nor does the slaughter, thus +commenced, commonly finish before the greater number +of them have fallen. These public hunts are conducted +under certain rules; for example, the supposed owner of +the land must be present, and must have invited the party, +or a deadly fight between human beings is pretty sure +to take place. The first spear that strikes a kangaroo +settles whose property the dead animal is to be; however +slight the wound, and even though inflicted by a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +boy only, this rule holds good; and if the creature killed +is one which the boy may not yet lawfully eat,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> then his +right passes on to his father, or nearest male relative. +The cries of the hunters are said to be very beautiful +and expressive, and they vary at different periods of the +chase, being readily understood and answered by all, so +that they can thus explain their meaning to one another +at a very great distance.</p> + +<p>But, since the kangaroo is one of the principal articles +of food in the wilds of New Holland, there are yet other +modes of taking it, which are commonly practised.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they use the ordinary methods of catching +it in nets or pitfalls. Occasionally, also, in a dry district, +where many animals assemble together from a great +distance to drink at some solitary piece of water, the +huntsman builds for himself a rude place of shelter, in +which for hours he remains concealed and motionless, +until the thirsty animals approach in sufficient numbers. +Then kangaroos, cockatoos, pigeons, &c. are attacked +and destroyed without mercy, and the patience of the +hunter is commonly richly rewarded by the booty he +obtains.</p> + +<p>But the mode of tracking a kangaroo until it is wearied +out, is the one which, beyond all others, commands the +admiration of the Australians, for it calls forth the exercise +of every quality most highly prized among savages, +skill in following traces, endurance of hunger and thirst, +unwearied bodily exertion, and lasting perseverance. +To perform this task the hunter starts upon the track +of the kangaroo, which he follows until he catches sight +of the animal, as it flies timidly before him; again he +pursues the track, and again the object of his pursuit +bounds away from him; and this is repeated until nightfall, +when the pursuer lights his fire and sleeps upon +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +the track. With the first light of day the hunt is renewed, +and, towards the close of the second day, or in +the course of the third, the kangaroo, wearied and exhausted +by the chase, will allow the hunter to approach +near enough to spear it. None but a skilful hunter, in +the pride of youth and strength can perform this feat, +and one who has frequently practised it always enjoys +great fame amongst his companions.</p> + +<p>When the kangaroo has been obtained in some one +or other of these various methods, the first operation is +to take off the skin of the tail, the sinews of which are +carefully preserved to sew cloaks or bags, or to make +spears. The next thing to be thought of is the cooking +of the flesh; and two modes of doing this are common. +One of these is to make an oven by digging a hole in the +sand, and lighting a fire in it; when the sand is well +heated, and a large heap of ashes is collected, the hole +is scraped out, and the kangaroo is placed in it, skin and +all; it is then covered over with ashes, and a slow fire +is kept up above it; when baked enough, it is taken +out and laid upon its back, the intestines are then +removed, and the whole of the gravy is left in the body +of the animal, which is carefully taken out of the skin, +and then cut up and eaten. Travellers in the Bush +speak very highly of the delicious flavour of the meat +thus curiously cooked. The other mode of dressing is +merely to broil different portions of the kangaroo upon +the fire, and it may be noticed that certain parts, as the +blood, the entrails, and the marrow, are reckoned great +dainties. Of these the young men are forbidden to +partake. Of the blood a sort of long sausage is made, +and this is afterwards eaten by the person of most consequence +in the company.</p> + +<p>Another abundant source of food is supplied to the +native population of New Holland at certain seasons, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +in particular situations, by the various sorts of fish +which abound on its coasts, and in its bays and inlets. +From this, most probably, arises the fact observed by +Captain Flinders, that the borders of bays, and entrances +of rivers, are in New Holland always most thickly +peopled. And Collins mentions a sort of fancied superiority, +which these people pretend to, above those that +dwell in the more inland parts. “The natives of the +coast,” he says, “when speaking of those in the interior, +constantly expressed themselves with contempt and +marks of disapprobation.” So very similar are the airs +and vanity of a savage, to those in which civilised man +indulges. The three most common modes of catching +fish are, by spearing them, taking them by means of a +weir constructed across places which are left nearly dry +at low water, or after a flood, and enclosing them in a +net, prepared by the women out of grassy fibres, and +one of their greatest efforts of ingenuity.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> Nothing +very remarkable is to be noticed in these modes of +fishing, except it be the speed with which they run +along the shore, and the certainty with which they +aim their spears at the inhabitants of the shallow bays +and open lakes. As surely as the natives disappear under +the surface of the water, so surely will they reappear with +a fish writhing upon the point of their short spears; and +even under water their aim is always correct. One +traveller, Sturt, is of opinion that they seldom eat the +finny tribes when they can get anything else, but this +idea seems scarcely to agree with the report of others. +At all events, whether from choice or not, a large proportion +of their subsistence is derived from the waters. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +With regard to the cookery of their fish, the Australian +barbarians are said to have a most admirable method of +dressing them, not unworthy of being copied by other +nations. If the fish are not simply broiled upon the +fire, they are laid in a piece of paper bark, which is wrapt +round them, as paper is folded round a cutlet; strings +of grass are then wound tightly about the bark and fish, +which is slowly baked in heated sand, covered with hot +ashes; when it is sufficiently cooked, the bark is opened, +and answers the purpose of a dish; it is, of course, full of +juice and gravy, not a drop of which has escaped. The +flavour of many sorts of fish thus dressed is said to be +delicious, and sometimes pieces of kangaroo and other +meats are cooked in the same manner.</p> + +<p>The seal is exceedingly abundant on many parts of +the Australian coast, and is also useful to the natives +for purposes of food, while the pursuit of this creature is +an exciting sport for the inhabitants of the southern and +western shores of New Holland. The animal must be +surprised upon the beach, or in the surf, or among the +rocks that lie at no great distance from the shore; and the +natives delight in the pursuit, clambering about the wild +crags that encircle their own land; sometimes leaping +from one rock to another, spearing the fish that lie in +the quiet pools between, in the next moment dashing +into the surf to fight with a seal or turn a turtle; +these are to them agreeable and joyous occupations. +And when we remember that their steps are followed by +a wife and children, as dear to them, probably, as ours +are to us, who are witnesses of their skill and activity; +and who, when the game is killed, will help to light the +fire with which it is to be cooked, and to drag it to the +resting-place, where the father romps with his little ones +until the meal is made ready; when we recollect, likewise, +that all this takes place in a climate so mild and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +genial, that a house is not necessary, we shall feel less +surprise at the difficulty of persuading an inhabitant of +the Bush to fall into European customs, and submit to +the trammels of civilised life.</p> + +<p>The turtle, must by no means be forgotten, in an account +of the different articles of provision upon which an +Australian has to depend for his supply. These useful +creatures are to be found chiefly on the coast in the +warmer portions of New Holland, and are in high +season about December and January, the height of summer +in Australia. The green turtles are surprised upon +the beach when they come to lay their eggs; but the +fresh-water turtle is found (as its name implies,) in fresh +lakes and ponds, at the season when these are most +dried up, and their margin is overgrown with reeds and +rushes. Among these the natives wade with stealthy +pace, so quietly indeed, that they even creep upon wild +fowl and spear them. The turtles swim lazily along the +surface of the water, biting and smelling the various +aquatic plants they meet with, but as soon as they are +alarmed, they sink to the bottom instantly. The pursuer +puts out his foot, (the toes of which he uses to +seize anything, almost as we use our fingers,) and gropes +about with it among the weeds at the bottom of the water +until he feels the turtle; and then, holding it to the +ground, he plunges his hands and arms in and seizes his +prey. In this manner two or three men have been +known to take fourteen turtles in a very short time; +but these are small, weighing from one to two or three +pounds each. The fresh-water turtle is cooked, after +the Australian fashion, by being baked, shell and all, in +hot ashes; and when it is sufficiently dressed, the bottom +shell is removed with ease, and the whole animal remains +in the upper shell, which serves for a dish. They are +generally very fat and delicious, so that the New Hollanders +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +are extremely fond of them, and the turtle +season, being an important part of the year, is looked +forward to with pleasure. The green turtles, which are +a much larger animal, found only by the sea-side, are +taken when crawling on the beach. If they by accident +get upon their backs, they are unable to right themselves, +and perish miserably, so that nothing more is necessary +to secure them, than to place them in that posture, and +they may be taken away and devoured at leisure. +Among Wellesley Islands, at the bottom of the Gulph of +Carpentaria, in the north of New Holland, Captain +Flinders obtained in one day, in this manner, no less +than forty-six turtles, the least of them weighing 250lbs, +and the average being about 300lbs; besides which, +many that were not wanted, because there was no room +to stow them away, were turned again, and suffered to +make their escape.</p> + +<p>Opossum hunting offers another means of supplying +food to the Australians, and as these quadrupeds usually +dwell in the hollows of decayed trees, and ascend the +trees when they are at all alarmed, the mode of pursuing +them is of a new and different character. The first +thing to be done is to ascertain that the opossum has +really concealed itself somewhere in the tree. To discover +this the holes made by the nails of the animal in +the bark as it climbed up, are sufficient; only, one of these +footmarks having a little sand in it is anxiously sought +for, and if this sand sticks together, when the hunter +blows gently upon it, it is a proof, since it is not dry +enough yet to blow away, that the opossum has gone up +into the tree that very morning. The dextrous savage +then pulls out his hatchet,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> a rude <em>stone hatchet</em>—unless +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +he has been fortunate enough to get a better one from +some European, and cuts a notch in the bark of the +tree sufficiently large and deep to receive the ball of his +great toe. The first notch being thus made, about four feet +from the ground, he places the toe of his right foot in it, +throws his right arm round the tree, and with his left +hand sticks the point of the handle of his hatchet into the +bark, as high up as he can reach, and thus forms a stay +to drag himself up with. This first step being made good, +he cuts another for his left foot, and so on, always +clinging with the left hand and cutting with the right, +resting the whole weight of the body upon the toe of +either foot, until the hole is reached where the opossum +lies hidden, which is then compelled by smoke, or by +being poked out, to quit its hiding place; when the +conqueror, catching hold of his victim’s tail, dashes it +down on the ground, and quietly descends after it. As +the bite of the opossum is very painful and severe, due +care is taken, in laying hold of it, to keep clear of all +danger from its teeth. Occasionally trees of 130 feet +in height have been observed, which had been <em>notched</em> +by the natives up to at least eighty feet! and the old +notches are never again used, but new ones are cut +every time. Strange to tell, this very difficult operation +of following the opossum is not uncommonly performed +by moonlight, some persons moving onwards to detect +the animal feeding, while others follow, creeping after +them with fire-sticks; and it is curious to watch the +dark body of the savage, climbing the tree, contrasted +with the pale moonlight. The Australians are fond of +these expeditions, the end of which is the same as of the +others conducted in broad daylight—the poor opossum +is reached, and knocked down with a stick, or shaken +off the branch to which he had fled as a last retreat.</p> + +<p>Birds form a considerable article of food in the wilds +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +of New Holland, and there are many various sorts of +them, as well as many different modes of killing and +ensnaring them, which it would be tedious to dwell +upon; but the emu, or cassowary, is too important and +remarkable to be passed over. This bird is very large, +and its covering resembles hair more than feathers; it +is not able to fly, but it can run more swiftly than the +fleetest dogs, and its kick is violent enough to break a +man’s leg: it is however easily tamed. The instinctive +dread which these animals in their wild state have of +man is very remarkable. It was observed by Major +Mitchell, on various occasions during his journeys, that +the first appearance of large quadrupeds—bullocks and +horses, did not scare the emu or kangaroo; but that, on +the contrary, when they would have fled from the first +approach of their enemy man, advancing singly, they +would allow him to draw near when mounted, and even +to dismount, fire from behind a horse, and load again, +without attempting to run off. In hunting the emu, it +matters not how much noise is made, for the natives +say that bird is quite deaf, although its sight is keen in +proportion. The kangaroo must be pursued as silently +as possible.</p> + +<p>Emus are killed in the same manner as kangaroos, +but they are more prized by the natives, and the death +of one of these birds awakens a greater excitement in +the spectators; shout succeeds shout, and the distant +sojourners take up the cry, until it is sometimes +reechoed for miles; yet the feast which follows is very +exclusive, the flesh of the emu, which, except in one +part which tastes like beef, is very oily, being thought +by far too delicious to be made a common article of +food. Young men and unprivileged persons are forbidden +to touch it, on pain of severe penalties, which are +strictly enforced. The emus are generally found, like +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +the kangaroos, in tolerably fertile spots, and like them, +also, are fast disappearing from the neighbourhood of +the haunts of Europeans. The destruction of cockatoos +with the weapon, or throwing stick, called a <em>kiley</em>,<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> the +hunting and snaring of different sorts of wild fowl, afford +ample room for a display of that cunning, skill, and +amazing patience, which distinguish the character of +uncivilized man. One curious way of catching birds in +Australia is certainly original, if it be but correctly reported. +It is said that a native will, in the heat of the +sun, lay down as if asleep, holding a bit of fish in his +hand; the bird seeing the bait, seizes on the fish, and +the native then catches it! But enough has now been +stated respecting the various ways in which game is taken +in the bush. And although, perhaps, enough has been +said concerning Australian cookery, yet the mode in +which they cook the birds in that country, similar indeed +to the methods already mentioned, may briefly be noted. +When the natives wish to dress a bird very nicely, the +entrails are taken out and cooked separately, (being considered +a great delicacy,) after the example of the +admirers of woodcocks in England. A triangle is then +formed round the bird by three red hot pieces of stick, +against which ashes are placed, hot coals are also +stuffed into the inside of the bird, and it is thus quickly +cooked, and kept full of gravy. In the opinion of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +Captain Grey, wild fowl dressed in this manner, on a +clean piece of bark, was as good a dish as he had ever +eaten.</p> + +<p>But there are many other kinds of food which custom, +and perhaps necessity, have rendered palatable to the +people of New Holland, but which we can regard only +with disgust and aversion. Among these it may be +scarcely just to reckon <em>frogs</em>, since they are an article of +food in one of the most polished nations of Europe, and +those who have tasted them properly dressed have +usually no fault to find with their flavour. The season +in Australia for catching frogs and fresh-water shell-fish, +is when the swamps are nearly dried up by the heat; +these animals then bury themselves in holes in the +mud, and the native women, with their long sticks, and +taper arms, which they plunge up to the shoulder in the +slime, manage to drag them out. In summer a whole +troop of females may be seen paddling about in a swamp, +slapping themselves to kill the mosquitoes and sandflies, +and every now and then plunging their arms down +into the mud, and dragging forth their prey. Sometimes +one of these women may be seen with ten or twelve +pounds’ weight of frogs in her bag. Frogs are cooked +on a slow fire of wood-ashes, and being held in one hand +by the hind legs, a dexterous pinch with the finger and +thumb of the other at once removes the lower portion of +the intestines, and the remainder of the little animal is +then taken at a mouthful. Muscles are also abundant +in the rivers, and in the north-western parts of New +Holland they form a principal article of food; but in the +south-western districts the inhabitants will not touch +them, for there is a tradition that some persons long ago +ate them and died by means of sorcerers, who considered +that fish to be their peculiar property. Grubs are a +favourite food with some of the Australian natives, and, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +in order to procure them, they are at the pains of breaking +off the top of the trees frequented by these grubs, +since, until its top is dead, the trees do not afford a +proper abode for them. Grubs are eaten either raw, or +else roasted in much the same manner as the fish are. +But taste is proverbially a subject concerning which +there is no accounting by reason, as we must confess +when we find <em>snakes</em>, <em>lizards</em>, <em>rats</em>, <em>mice</em>, +and <em>weasels</em> among +Australian dainties. The smaller quadrupeds are not +skinned before they are cooked, but are dressed with the +skin, the fur being only singed off; and hunger renders +these not only palatable but digestible. Salt is rarely +or never used by the natives, until they have been +taught its use by Europeans; and even then they do not +relish it at first, any more than other sauces or condiments; +indeed, it is quite laughable to see their grimaces +the first time that they taste <em>mustard</em> upon a piece of +meat.</p> + +<p>Among vegetable productions there are many roots, +which are eaten by the natives. It is commonly the office +of the women to dig for roots, for which purpose they +carry a long pointed stick to loosen the earth, and that is +afterwards scooped up by the fingers of the left hand. +Their withered arms and hands, covered with earth by +digging and scraping after food, resemble, as they advance +in years, the limbs and claws of a quadruped more than +those of a human being. In stiff soils, this operation +of digging can only be performed when the earth is moist, +but in loose sandy soils it may be always done, and, on +this account, the visits of the natives to different spots +are regulated by the season of the year; as, for example, +the roots that grow in the clay are not in season, +because not to be got at, in the parching and dry months +of summer. No plant bearing seeds is allowed to be dug +up after it has flowered, and the natives are very careful +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +in observing this rule. A considerable portion of the time +of the women and children is occupied in getting up the +various eatable roots, which are either roasted, or else devoured +in a raw state; some resembling onions and others +potatoes in their flavour. One root, called the <em>mene</em>, has +rather an acid taste, and when eaten alone, it is said to +disorder the bowels; but the natives in the southern +parts pound it between two stones, and sprinkle over it +a few pinches of a kind of <em>earth</em>, which forms, together +with the bruised root, a sort of paste, that is thought +exceedingly good, and quite free from all injurious properties. +A kind of paste, which is sometimes baked into +a cake, is also formed of many other roots. All these +grow wild, and are used exactly in their natural state, +unless burning the leaves of one plant in dry seasons to +improve the root, or similar trifling pains respecting +their growth, can deserve the name of cultivation. The +fungus is also greedily devoured by the unfastidious +natives of Australia, and a kind of gum, resembling what +is in England called <em>gum-tragacanth</em>, is very abundant and +popular among them. One traveller, Captain Sturt, +who was among the first to notice the use of this peculiar +food, imagined that it was eaten only from dire necessity. +Indeed, it is an amusing proof of the occasional errors +into which hasty impressions will lead intelligent men, +that he pities as “unfortunate creatures reduced to the +last extremity” those who were, in reality, regaling +themselves upon a favourite luxury. During summer +the acacias, growing in swampy plains, are positively +loaded with this gum, and the natives assemble in great +numbers to feast upon it. On such occasions a sort of +fair is held among those that frequent these yearly +meetings, and fun, frolic, and quarrelling of every description +prevail, as in similar meetings of our own countrymen.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +The pulp of the nut of a species of palm is called +<em>by-yu</em>, and it is a curious fact, that, although in its +natural state this is a rank poison, the natives have, +nevertheless, a method of depriving it of its mischievous +qualities, and it becomes an agreeable and nourishing +article of food. Europeans, ignorant of the mode of +preparing this nut, are sure to pay for their rashness, +if they venture to eat it in its unprepared state. The +women collect these nuts from the palms in the month +of March, (the beginning of autumn,) and leave them +to soak for several days in some shallow pool; after +the <em>by-yu</em> has been sufficiently soaked, they dig, in a +dry sandy place, holes about one foot across and nearly +two feet in depth: these holes are lined with rushes, +and filled with nuts, over which last a little sand is +sprinkled, and then all is covered nicely up with the +tops of the grass-tree. And thus, in about a fortnight, +the pulp which encloses the nut becomes quite dry, and +it is then fit for use: but if eaten before, it produces +the bad effects already mentioned. The pulp is eaten +both raw and roasted; in the latter state, the taste is +said to be equal to that of a chestnut; but this process +has no effect whatever upon the kernels, which act +still as a strong emetic and purgative. This subject +of the sources whence the Australians derive their daily +food from God, who, whether in the north or the south, +in the east or the west, is still found “opening his +hand,” and “filling all things living with plenteousness,” +might easily be extended even yet more; for in +so vast a tract of country as New Holland, the varieties +of animal and vegetable food, and the different modes +of obtaining it, must evidently be very numerous. +Enough, however, has been stated to enable the reader +to judge respecting the means of subsistence possessed +by the inhabitants of the Bush; and it will be easily +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +seen that this mode of living appears, at the first view, +more precarious and less laborious than it really is. +It is not so precarious a life as it seems to be, because +the articles needful for support, of one kind or +another, are perpetually at hand to those who can find +them and use them, whilst Europeans, or even natives +from a distant part, are often, for want of this power, +in danger of starving in the midst of plenty.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> At the +same time, the savage, free from servile toil and daily +labour though he may appear to be, does in truth earn +his living quite as laboriously as others do; nor is he, +of all men, the most exempt from the general curse +which sin has brought down upon us: “In the sweat of +thy face shalt thou eat bread.” Enough, likewise, has +been stated respecting the supplies provided in the wilderness +for its inhabitants to qualify us to perceive how +very serious an injury is inflicted upon the original people +of a district in Australia, when Europeans <em>sit down</em>, as +they term it, (i.e. <em>settle</em>,) upon their lands. We might +imagine (however Utopian may be the fancy) a body +of able agriculturists settling in a country but poorly +cultivated, and while they occupied a portion of the +land belonging to the first inhabitants, rendering what +remained to these more valuable by proper cultivation, +than the whole had originally been. But nothing of the +kind is possible with people accustomed from their +infancy to habits of life and means of subsistence like +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +those of the Australians. Occupy their land, and the +wild animals must be destroyed or driven away; the +wild plants and roots ploughed up or burnt; or, at all +events, the wild owners of that land must (however +rightful, however ancient, their claim of possession) be +warned off from their own soil, and, as trespassers, +made liable to punishment according to law,—to European +law.</p> + +<p>We are not to suppose from the wandering character +of the life usually led by them, that these human beings +have no notion of property in land. On the contrary, +it is an opinion held by men best able to judge, and +supported by sufficient proof, that, not only have the +various tribes their fixed boundaries of hunting-ground, +which they cannot cross without the risk of a quarrel +with their neighbours, but that even individual persons +possess property of this nature, which is handed down, +according to certain laws, from father to son. A curious +example of this strictness about property, exceeding +even the ideas of Europeans upon the subject, was found +upon the banks of the river Darling, where different +tribes occupy different portions of the stream whence all +equally derive the chief part of their subsistence. One +of these tribes desired Major Mitchell’s men to pour +out the water which they had taken, as if it had belonged +to them, and at the same time they dug a hole in +the ground to receive it, when poured out. Nay, so +strongly are the river chiefs possessed with a notion of +the water being their own, that they have been seen, on +receiving a tomahawk, to point to the stream, signifying +that the strangers were at liberty to take water from it. +Indeed, the main difference between the property of the +native and that of the colonist, consists in the very dissimilar +uses to which the parties apply their possessions. +The one holds his lands for a cattle-run or a farm, the +other employs his in feeding kangaroos or in growing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +wild roots. But both agree in punishing intruders, both +profess alike to esteem the rights of property to be +sacred; and yet how questionable, how opposite to +these professions must the conduct of Europeans seem, +when they fix themselves upon certain spots, without +taking any notice of the vested rights of the former +inhabitants, and then threaten, or even shoot them, if +they are found lingering among their old haunts, upon +their own estates! Or, if no open violence is offered, +“the sheep and cattle,” to borrow the words of a kind-hearted +traveller, “fill the green pastures, where the +kangaroo was accustomed to range until the stranger +came from distant lands, and claimed the soil.” The +first inhabitants, unless they remove beyond the limits +of the colony, are hemmed in by the power of the white +population, and deprived of the liberty of wandering at +will through their native wilds, and compelled to seek +shelter in close thickets and rocky fastnesses; where, +however, if they can find a home, they have great difficulty +in finding a subsistence, for their chief support, +the kangaroo, is either destroyed or banished. In 1772, +when the French discoverer, Monsieur Marion, was exploring +Van Dieman’s Land, he found the coast well +inhabited, as the fires by day and night bore witness, +and on anchoring in Frederic Hendrick’s Bay, about +thirty men assembled upon the shore. And now, only +seventy years later, what has become of the grandchildren +and descendants of those unfortunate natives? +Let the reply to this inquiry be made in the very words +given in evidence before a Committee of the House of +Commons, in 1838.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a>—“<em>There is not a native in Van Dieman’s +Land.</em> The last portion that was secured was +sent to a small island called Gun Carriage Island, where +they are maintained at the expense of government, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +I believe some attempts at civilisation have been made.—There +has been a lingering desire to come back +again; but they have no means of getting back; the +island is some distance from Van Dieman’s Land; they +are pining away and dying very fast.—I believe more +than one half of them have died, not from any positive +disease, but from a disease which we know in medicine +under the name of <em>home-sickness</em>, a disease which is very +common to some Europeans, particularly the Swiss soldiers +and the Swiss peasantry: they are known to die +from a disease of the stomach, which comes on entirely +from a desire to return to their country.”</p> + +<p>It may be difficult for the christian moralist to condemn +altogether the system of colonisation which has +been practised; it cannot be denied that the occupation +of these vast and favoured regions by civilised and +christian nations is, in itself, a highly desirable object; +yet the man of right principles will surely hesitate +before he approves, for the sake of the good that is to +follow, of the evil which has been done. In this instance, +as in many other evils to be seen under the sun, +it is more easy to perceive the mischief, than to point +out the means of avoiding or of remedying it. But, at +least, it may be said, let those who now hold the beautiful +and frequently fertile lands, which once belonged +to the poor and helpless native, beware of having their +hearts lifted up with pride,—of forgetting themselves or +their God. Past evils are not to be prevented, but +future events are still in their power. The warning and +reasoning of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, (Rom. +xi. 17-24,) although upon quite another subject, are +still not without application here. Nor should the British +colonist ever forget, while he surveys the fruitful +fields which he may now call his own, the emphatic +words of St. Paul: “If God spared not the natural +branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.”</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img120.jpg" width="500" height="339" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">natives of the murray islands in boats.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>MANNERS AND HABITS OF THE NATIVES.</strong></p> + + +<p>The shyness which the savages of Australia frequently +exhibit in their first intercourse with Europeans is not +at all surprising; indeed, it is rather remarkable how +soon they get over this feeling, if they are not interfered +with, and no unpleasant occurrences take place. As +Captain Flinders has very justly observed, “were we +living in a state of nature, frequently at war with our +neighbours, and ignorant of the existence of any other +nation, on the first arrival of strangers, so different in +complexion and appearance to ourselves, having power +to transport themselves over, and even living upon an +element which to us was impassable,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> the first sensation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +would probably be terror, and the first movement +flight.” We should watch these extraordinary people +from our retreats, and if we found ourselves sought out +or pursued by them, their designs would be suspected; +otherwise, upon seeing them quietly engaged in their +own occupations, curiosity would get the better of fear, +and, after observing them more closely, we should ourselves +seek to open a communication. This is precisely +what takes place with the native tribes in New Holland, +when the discoverers conduct themselves prudently, and +no particular cause of offence or dislike occurs. But +where all appears equally strange and suspicious to +them, it cannot be wondered if they often mistake the +meaning of European customs and actions. For example, +when Major Mitchell was desirous of taking the +portrait of a native in Eastern Australia, the terror and +suspicion of the poor creature, at being required to +stand steadily before the artist were such, that, notwithstanding +the power of disguising fear, so remarkable in +the savage race, the stout heart of Cambo was overcome, +and beat visibly; the perspiration streamed from his +breast, and he was about to sink to the ground, when he +at length suddenly darted away; but he speedily returned, +bearing in one hand his club, and in the other +his <em>boomerang</em> or <em>kiley</em>, with which he seemed to gain +just fortitude enough to be able to stand on his legs +until the sketch was finished.</p> + +<p>To the observer of human nature it is, indeed, a +curious spectacle to watch the several contrary feelings +and impulses by which the Australian savage is actuated +in his intercourse with the more civilised portions of our +race. Attachment, very strong attachment to his own +customs, and wild roving mode of life,—admiration of the +evident superiority, the luxury, abundance and comfort, +enjoyed by Europeans,—doubt and alarm respecting the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +final issue of the changes which he sees taking place +before his eyes,—an increasing taste for many of the +useful or agreeable articles which are to be procured only +from the hands of the strangers,—these and other similar +feelings alternately sway the mind, and prompt the +actions, of the native of the bush in Australia, so as to +give an appearance of inconsistency, not merely to the +varying conduct of different persons, but frequently to +the behaviour of the very same person at different times. +Sometimes the perplexed savage decidedly prefers his +piece of whale to all the luxuries of English fare;<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> at +another time he despises the common food of the bush—kangaroo +flesh, or fish,—and presuming upon his usefulness +as a guide, nothing but <em>wheaten flour</em>, at the rate +of two pounds and a half a day, will satisfy his desires.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> +One day, fired with a wish to emulate his betters, the +black man assumes the costume of an European, likes +to be close-shaved, wears a white neck-cloth, and means +to become entirely “a white fellow.” Another day, +wearied with the heat and thraldom of dress, and +tempted by the cool appearance, or stung by the severe +taunts of his brethren in the bush, off he flings his +encumbrances and civilisation, and gladly returns to a +state of nature again.</p> + +<p>The barber’s art appears, in several cases, to have +caught the attention of these savages. The following +ridiculous account of an operation of this kind, performed +upon some natives of the country a little southward +of Port Jackson, is given by Flinders. “A new +employment arose up on our hands. We had clipped +the hair and beards of the two Botany Bay natives, at +Red Point; and they were showing themselves to the +others, and persuading them to follow their example. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +While, therefore, the powder was drying, I began with +a large pair of scissors to execute my new office upon +the eldest of four or five chins presented to me; and as +great nicety was not required, the shearing of a dozen +of them did not occupy me long. Some of the more +timid were alarmed at a formidable instrument coming +so near to their noses, and would scarcely be persuaded +by their shaven friends to allow the operation to be +finished. But when their chins were held up a second +time, their fear of the instrument, the wild stare of their +eyes, and the smile which they <em>forced</em>, formed a compound +upon the rough savage countenance, not unworthy +the pencil of a Hogarth. I was almost tempted to try +what effect a little snip would produce, but our situation +was too critical to admit of such experiments.”<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p>It has been repeatedly stated, upon good authority, +that the health of the natives of the bush has suffered +greatly, and that their lives have been frequently shortened, +by the habits and indulgences which they have +learned from their more civilized neighbours. In their +original state, although beyond question the average +duration of life was considerably below that of European +nations, yet an advanced age was not uncommonly +attained among them. Numbers die during the period +of infancy, for none except very strong children can +possibly undergo the hardships, the privations, and the +perpetual travelling, which most of the infants born in +the bush must brave and endure. Besides which, there +is the chance of a violent death in some of the frequent +quarrels which arise and include in their consequences +all the relatives of the contending parties. But, due +allowance having been made for these causes by which +the average duration of life in those wild regions is +shortened, it does not appear that their inhabitants are +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +a particularly short-lived race, although by some persons +this has been thought to be the case. It is impossible +exactly to ascertain the age of the Australian savages, who +have no mode of keeping account of this themselves; but +from instances of youths, their father, grandfather, and +great uncle being alive, and in the enjoyment of tolerably +good health, or from similar cases, it may be safely concluded +that they frequently reach, or even pass beyond, +the boundary term of life, three score years and ten. To +one horrible mode of departing from life, which is +strangely common in more polished nations, these barbarians +are, happily, strangers. Captain Grey says, +“I believe they have no idea that such a thing as +a man’s putting an end to his own life could ever +occur; whenever I have questioned them on this point, +they have invariably laughed at me, and treated my +question as a joke.” The period of old age must be as +happy as any other time in the life of a savage, if not +more so, since aged men are always treated with much +respect, and rarely take an active part in any fray. They +are allowed to marry young wives, and to watch them +as jealously, and treat them as cruelly, as they please; +and they appear to suffer less from weakness and +disease than the aged amongst us usually endure. The +old, too, are privileged to eat certain kinds of meat forbidden +to the young. Thus Piper, a native, who accompanied +Major Mitchell, would not eat the flesh of emu, +even when food was scarce; but when he had undergone +the ceremony of being rubbed over with the fat of that +bird by an old man, he had thenceforth no objection to +it. The threatened penalty was, that young men, after +eating it, would be afflicted with sores all over the body; +but the fact is, that it is too rich and oily for the old men +to allow any but themselves to partake of it. So that, +upon the whole, in New Holland, as in most other uncivilised +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +countries, old age is a period of much dignity, +and of considerable enjoyment of life.</p> + +<p>But, whatever may be the troubles, or whatever the +enjoyments, of old age, they are, in their very nature, +even above our other troubles or enjoyments, brief and +transitory. The aged warrior of Australia can plead no +exemption from the common lot of mortality, and death +draws a veil over the chequered existence,—the faults +and follies, the talents and virtues, of every child of +Adam. The various customs and superstitions, connected +with the death and burial of their friends, are +very numerous among the tribes of Australia, and some +of them are curious and peculiar. It would be impossible +to give a full account of them, but a few of the most +remarkable may be selected. Throughout all the funeral +solemnities of savage and heathen nations the same +distinguishing mark is to be observed,—they are the +vain devices, the miserable inventions of men who sorrow +for their departed friends as those that have no hope. +Nothing, it is asserted, can awake in the breast more +melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of the Australians. +They are sung by a whole chorus of females of +all ages, and the effect produced upon the bystanders by +this wild music surpasses belief. The following is a chant, +which has been heard upon several such occasions, and +which, simple though it be, fully expresses the feelings of +a benighted heathen mourning over the grave of a friend +whom he has lost (as he thinks) for ever:—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> <td align='left'><em>The young women sing</em></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">My young brother,</span></td> <td align='left'>}</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'><em>The old women</em></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">My young son,</span></td> <td align='left'>} again,</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>In future shall I</td> <td align='left'></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">never see.</span></td> <td align='left'></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'> </td> <td align='left'></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">My young brother,</span></td> <td align='left'>}</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">My young son,</span></td> <td align='left'>} again,</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'>In future shall I</td> <td align='left'></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">never see.</span></td> <td align='left'></td> </tr> +</table></div> + +<p>But previously to our entering upon the subject of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +the funeral rites practised in New Holland, it will be +necessary to notice the superstitions respecting sorcerers, +which in that country are so intimately connected with +the very idea of death. When an individual life is taken +away by open violence, then, as we have seen, it is +avenged upon the supposed murderer, or his relatives. +But when death occurs from accidental or natural +causes, it is usually attributed to the influence of sorcery, +and not unfrequently is it revenged upon some connexion +of the parties believed to have practised that art. +So that, generally speaking, the death of one human +being involves that of another, which is no small check +to population. In truth, it would almost seem that the +natives have no idea of death occurring, except by +violence or sorcery;<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> and these strange notions must +not be dealt with too severely, in a country like England, +where (within the last 200 years, and in no +uncivilised state of society) persons have been burnt +for witchcraft; and in which, even in the present day, +every vile imposture and godless pretence of supernatural +power is sure of finding eager listeners and +astonished admirers. The <em>Boyl-yas</em>, or native sorcerers, +are objects of mysterious dread, and are thought to have +the power of becoming invisible to all eyes but those of +their brethren in the same evil craft. As our northern +witches were supposed to have the power of riding upon +a broom-stick, so these southern sorcerers are said to be +able to transport themselves at pleasure through the +air. If they have a dislike to any one they can kill +him, it is said, by stealing on him at night and consuming +his flesh, into which they enter like pieces of +quartz-stone, and the pain they occasion is always felt. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +Another sorcerer, however, can draw them out, and +the pieces of stone pretended to be thus obtained are +kept as great curiosities. Perhaps the clearest ideas +of the imaginary powers of these sorcerers, and of +the dread in which they are held, will be found from +the following account, obtained from a native with the +utmost difficulty, (for the subject is never willingly +mentioned,) and reported <em>verbatim</em> by Captain Grey.</p> + +<p>“‘The <em>Boyl-yas</em>,’ said the trembling Kaiber, ‘are natives +who have the power of <em>boyl-ya</em>; they sit down to +the northward, the eastward, and southward; the <em>Boyl-yas</em> +are very bad, they walk away there’ (pointing to +the east). ‘I shall be very ill presently. The <em>Boyl-yas</em> +eat up a great many natives,—they eat them up as fire +would; you and I will be very ill directly. The <em>Boyl-yas</em> +have ears: by and by they will be greatly enraged. I’ll +tell you no more.’</p> + +<p>“‘The <em>Boyl-yas</em> move stealthily,—you sleep and they +steal on you,—very stealthily the <em>Boyl-yas</em> move. These +<em>Boyl-yas</em> are dreadfully revengeful; by and by we shall +be very ill. I’ll not talk about them. They come moving +along in the sky,—cannot you let them alone? I’ve +already a terrible headache; by and by you and I will +be two dead men.’</p> + +<p>“‘The natives cannot see them. The <em>Boyl-yas</em> do not +bite, they feed stealthily; they do not eat the bones, but +consume the flesh. Just give me what you intend to +give, and I’ll walk off.’</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +What secrets can the human breast contain,<br /> +When tempted by thy charms, curst love of gain!</p> + +<p>“‘The <em>Boyl-yas</em> sit at the graves of natives in great +numbers. If natives are ill, the <em>Boyl-yas</em> charm, charm, +charm, charm, and charm, and, by and by, the natives +recover.’”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +Nothing further could be learned from this terrified +and unwilling witness. The custom spoken of in the +last part of his evidence, that of sitting at the graves of +the dead, is found in nearly all the known portions of +Australia, and the object of this practice is to discover +by what person the death of the deceased individual has +been caused, which is supposed to be declared by dreams +or visions. A similar custom among the Jews is reproved +by the prophet Isaiah, chap. lxv. 4, 5.</p> + +<p>Once, when Major Mitchell had been harassed, and +two of his party killed by the hostile natives, he reached +a spot of security, where, while admiring the calm repose +of the wild landscape, and the beauteous beams of the +setting sun, he was anticipating a night free from disturbance. +He was alone, waiting the arrival of his +party, but his reveries were dissipated in the most +soothing manner, by the soft sounds of a female voice, +singing in a very different tone from that generally prevailing +among the Australians. It sounded like the song +of despair, and, indeed, it was the strain of a female +mourning over some deceased relative; nor could the +loud “hurra” of the men, when they came up, angry at +the recent pillage and murder of some of the party, put +to flight the melancholy songstress of the woods. On +these occasions it is usual for the relatives of the deceased +to continue their lamentations, appearing insensible +of what people may be doing around them.</p> + +<p>The rude verses, given below, and forming the substance +of a chant, sung by an old woman to incite the +men to avenge the death of a young person, may serve +at once for a specimen of the poetry and superstition of +the Australian wilderness:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“The blear-eyed sorcerers of the north</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their vile enchantments sung and wove,</span><br /> + And in the night they sallied forth,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">A fearful, man-devouring drove.</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> + “Feasting on our own lov’d one<br /> + With sanguinary jaws and tongue,<br /> + The wretches sat, and gnaw’d, and kept<br /> + Devouring, while their victim slept.<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yho, yang, yho yang, yang yho.</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Yes, unconsciously he rested</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">In a slumber too profound;</span><br /> + While vile Boyl-yas sat and feasted<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the victim they had bound</span><br /> + In sleep:—Mooligo, dear young brother,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where shall we find the like of thee?</span><br /> + Favourite of thy tender mother,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">We again shall never see</span><br /> + Mooligo, our dear young brother.<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yho, yang yho, ho, ho.</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Men, who ever bold have been,</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are your long spears sharpened well?</span><br /> + Fix anew the quartz-stone keen,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let each shaft upon them tell.</span><br /> + Poise your <em>meer-ros</em>, long and sure,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let the <em>kileys</em> whiz and whirl</span><br /> + Strangely through the air so pure;<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heavy <em>dow-uks</em> at them hurl;</span><br /> + Shout the yell they dread to hear.<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let the young men leap on high,</span><br /> + To avoid the quivering spear;<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Light of limb and quick of eye,</span><br /> + Who sees well has nought to fear.<br /> + Let them shift, and let them leap,<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">While the quick spear whistling flies,</span><br /> + Woe to him who cannot leap!<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Woe to him who has bad eyes!”</span></p> + +<p>When an old woman has commenced a chant of this +kind, she will continue it until she becomes positively +exhausted; and upon her ceasing, another takes up the +song. The effect some of them have upon the assembled +men is very great; indeed, it is said that these addresses +of the old women are the cause of most of the disturbances +which take place. Thus, even amid the forests of +New Holland, the <em>influence of woman</em> will, in one way or +another, make itself felt.</p> + +<p>The ceremonies observed at the funeral of a native +vary, as might be expected, in so great a space, but they +are wild and impressive in every part of New Holland. +According to Collins, the natives of the colony called New +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +South Wales were in the habit of burning the bodies of +those who had passed the middle age of life, but burial +seems the more universal method of disposing of their +dead among the Australians. Some very curious drawings +and figures cut in the rock were discovered by +Captain Grey, in North-Western Australia, but whether +these were burying-places does not appear. For the +account of these works of rude art, which is extremely +interesting, but too long to transcribe, the reader is +referred to the delightful work of the traveller just +mentioned.</p> + +<p>The shrieks and piercing cries uttered by the women +over their dead relatives, are said to be truly fearful, and +agreeably to the ancient custom of idolatrous eastern +nations mentioned in 1 Kings xviii. 28, and in Jer. xlviii. +37,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> they tear and lacerate themselves most frightfully, +occasionally cutting off portions of their beards, and, +having singed them, throwing them upon the dead body. +With respect to their tombs, these are of various sorts +in different districts. In the gulph of Carpentaria, on +the Northern coast, Flinders found several skeletons of +natives, standing upright in the hollow trunks of trees; +the skulls and bones, being smeared or painted partly +red and partly white, made a very strange appearance. +On the banks of the river Darling, in the interior of +Eastern Australia, Major Mitchell fell in with a tribe, +which had evidently suffered greatly from small-pox,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +some similar disease, and in the same neighbourhood he +met with some remarkable mounds or tombs, supposed +to cover the remains of that portion of the tribe which +had been swept off by the same disease that had left its +marks upon the survivors. On a small hill, overlooking +the river, were three large tombs, of an oval shape, and +about twelve feet across in the longest diameter. Each +stood in the centre of an artificial hollow, the mound in +the middle being about five feet high; and on each of +them were piled numerous withered branches and limbs +of trees, forming no unsuitable emblems of mortality. +There were no trees on this hill, save one quite dead, +which seemed to point with its hoary arms, like a spectre, +to the tombs. A melancholy waste, where a level +country and boundless woods extended beyond the +reach of vision, was in perfect harmony with the dreary +foreground of the scene.</p> + +<p>Indeed, to those who have been from infancy accustomed +to the quiet consecrated burying places of our +own land,—spots which, in rural districts, are usually +retired, yet not quite removed from the reach of “the +busy hum of men;” to those who have always looked +upon a Christian temple,</p> + +<p class="center"> +“Whose taper spire points, finger-like, to heaven,”</p> + +<p>as the almost necessary accompaniment of a burial-place, +the appearance of the native tombs in the desolate wilds +of a savage and uncultivated country, must be dreary in +the extreme. Scenes of this character must appear to +the eye of a Christian almost emblematical of the +spiritual blank—the absence of any sure and certain +hope—in the midst of which the natives, whose remains +are there reposing, must have lived and died. How +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +striking is Captain Grey’s description of another tomb, +which was found in a totally different part of New +Holland, near the western coast, and at no great distance +from the Swan River settlement! The scenery, not, +indeed, in the immediate vicinity, but very near to the +newly-made grave, is thus described. Even at mid-day, +the forest wore a sombre aspect, and a stillness and +solitude reigned throughout it that were very striking. +Occasionally, a timid kangaroo might be seen stealing +off in the distance, or a kangaroo-rat might dart out +from a tuft beneath your feet, but these were rare +circumstances. The most usual disturbers of these wooded +solitudes were the black cockatoos; “but I have never, +in any part of the world,” adds the enterprising traveller, +“seen so great a want of animal life as in these +mountains.” It was not far from this lonely district, in +a country nearly resembling it, only less wooded and +more broken into deep valleys, that a recent grave was +found, carefully constructed, with a hut built over it, to +protect the now senseless slumberer beneath from the +rains of winter. All that friendship could do to render +his future state happy had been done. His throwing-stick +was stuck in the ground at his head; his broken +spears rested against the entrance of the hut; the grave +was thickly strewed with <em>wilgey</em>, or red earth; and +three trees in front of the hut, chopped with a variety +of notches and uncouth figures, bore testimony that his +death had been bloodily avenged. The native Kaiber, +who acted as guide to the travellers, gazed upon this +scene with concern and uneasiness. Being asked why +the spears were broken, the trees notched, and the red +earth strewed upon the grave, his reply was, “Neither +you nor I know: our people have always done so, and +we do so now,”—quite as good a reason as many who +think themselves far more enlightened are able to give +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +for their actions. When a proposal was made to stop +for the night at this solitary spot, poor Kaiber resisted +it; “I cannot rest here,” said he, “for there are many +spirits in this place.”<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>When Mr. Montgomery Martin was in Australia, he +obtained with some difficulty the dead body of an old +woman, who had long been known about Sydney. Hearing +of her death and burial in the forest, about twenty-five +miles from his residence, he went thither, and aided +by some stock-keepers, found the grave,—a slightly elevated +and nearly circular mound. The body was buried +six feet deep, wrapped in several sheets of bark, the +inner one being of a fine silvery texture. Several things +which the deceased possessed in life, together with her +favourite dog, were buried with her,—all apparently for +use in another world. The skull of this poor creature +was full of indentations, as if a tin vessel had been struck +by a hammer; light might be seen through these hollows, +which had been caused by blows of <em>whaddies</em> (hard +sticks) when she was young, and some bold youths +among the natives courted her after this strange fashion. +It seemed scarcely possible that marks so extraordinary +could have been made in the human skull without fracturing +it.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + +<p>In a society of men so simple and so little advanced +in refinement or civilisation as the inhabitants of New +Holland, it is evident that their wants must be few and +easily satisfied, their stock of earthly riches very small +and humble. Indeed, these people nearly always carry +the whole of their worldly property about with them, +and the Australian hunter is thus equipped: round his +middle is wound a belt spun from the fur of the opossum, +in which are stuck his hatchet, his <em>kiley</em> or <em>boomerang</em>, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +and a short heavy stick to throw at the smaller animals. +In his hand he carries his throwing-stick, and several +spears, headed in two or three different manners, so that +they are equally suitable to war or the chase. In the +southern parts, a warm kangaroo-skin cloak, thrown +over his shoulders, completes the hunter’s outfit; but +this is seldom or never seen northwards of 29° south latitude. +These, however, are not quite all the riches of +the barbarian, a portion of which is carried by his wife, +or wives, as the case may be; and each of these has a +long thick stick, with its point hardened in the fire, a +child or two fixed upon their shoulders, and in their +bags, in which also they keep sundry other articles, +reckoned valuable and important for the comfort of +savage life. For example; a flat stone to pound roots +with, and earth to mix with the pounded roots;<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> quartz, +for making spears and knives; stones, for hatchets; +gum, for making and mending weapons and tools; kangaroo +sinews for thread, and the shin-bones of the same +animal for needles;—these and many similar articles, +together with whatever roots, &c. they may have collected +during the day, form the total of the burden of a +female Australian; and this, together with the husband’s +goods, forms the sum and substance of the wealth of an +inhabitant of the southern land. In Wellesley’s Islands, +on the north coast of New Holland, the catalogue of +a native’s riches appears somewhat different, from his +maritime position.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> A raft, made of several straight +branches of mangrove lashed together, broader at one +end than at the other;—a bunch of grass at the broad +end where the man sits to paddle,—a short net to catch +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +turtle, or probably a young shark,—and their spears and +paddles seem to form the whole earthly riches of these +rude fishermen.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> But one essential thing must not be +overlooked in the enumeration of a native’s possessions. +Fire, of procuring which they have not very easy means, +is usually carried about with them; and the women +commonly have the charge of the lighted stick, in addition +to their other cares.</p> + +<p>It is no very easy matter for civilized man to realise +the perfectly free and unencumbered way in which these +natives roam from place to place, accordingly as seasons +or provisions may serve, constantly carrying with them +a home wherever they go; and (what is far more difficult +in civilised society) leaving no cares of home behind +them in the spot from which they may have recently +removed. Certainly there must be something very delightful +in this wild sort of life to every one, who has +from his early infancy been accustomed to its pleasure +and inured to its hardships, neither of which are by any +means to be measured by the standard of the cold and +changeable climate of England. The grand objects of +the savage, in almost every part of the globe, are to +baffle his human enemies, and to assert his dominion +over the lower races of animals. For these purposes, +the activity, secrecy, acuteness, and sagacity of man in an +uncivilised state are almost incredible; nor could we +have supposed, were not the truth shown in numberless +instances, that the senses of human beings were capable +of so great perfection, their bodies and limbs of such +exertion and agility, as they gain by continual practice +and early training in the forests of America or Australia. +In these bodily excellencies, the inhabitants of the last-named +continent might safely challenge the whole world +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +to surpass them. The natives once approached Major +Mitchell’s camp by night; and though nine fire-sticks +were seen in motion, no noise was heard. At length +when the lights had approached within 150 yards, every +one suddenly disappeared; the bearers preserving, all +the while, the most perfect silence. It was then thought +advisable to scare these noiseless visitors away, and a +rocket was sent up, at which signal the English party +rushed forward with a shout; and this had the desired +effect. It is said that the natives regard, as an important +matter, the falling of a star, which would account +for their alarm at the rocket. On another occasion, when +an English exploring party had discovered a few traces of +natives near their place of encampment, an active search +after them immediately took place; and it appeared that +they had crept up within about one hundred yards +of the camp, after which they had been disturbed, and +had made off. Their mode of approach was by a stream +of water, so as to conceal their trail; after which they +had turned out of the stream up its right bank, and had +carefully trod in one another’s footmarks, so as to conceal +their number, although traces of six or seven different +men could be perceived as far as the spot where +they had been disturbed. From this point these children +of the Bush had disappeared, as it were, by magic: +not a twig was broken, not a stone was turned, nor +could it be observed that the heavy drops of rain had +been shaken from a single blade of grass. All efforts to +hit upon the direction in which they had fled were to +no purpose, except to put the explorers more constantly +on the watch against beings who were often near them +when they least dreamed of their presence. Human +wisdom would enforce this lesson from such circumstances; +but how often does heavenly wisdom lift up +its voice to us in vain, teaching us by what is passing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +around us to be upon our watch constantly over our +own conduct, since we are never very far from the Almighty +presence of God himself!</p> + +<p>To the quick-sighted natives, the surface of the earth +is, in fact, as legible as a newspaper, so accustomed are +they to read in any traces left upon it the events of the +day.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> For once, Major Mitchell informs us, he was able +to hide so that these people could not find; but then his +buried treasure was only a collection of specimens of +stones and minerals, of the use of which they could +know nothing, and concerning which they were little +likely to have any suspicions. The notes written by +the traveller, and concealed in trees, seldom escaped +notice;<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> nor did provisions, nor, in short, any article +which they could either use or suspect pass unobserved.</p> + +<p>In Western Australia, Captain Grey, having galloped +after some wild cattle which he had met in his journey, +found, upon wishing to ascertain the hour, that his watch +had fallen from his pocket during the chase. He waited +until the rest of his party came up, and then requested +Kaiber, their native guide, to walk back and find the +watch. This, Kaiber assured the traveller, was utterly +impossible, nor could his assertion be gainsaid; nevertheless, +the watch was too valuable to be given up without +an effort for its recovery. “Well, Kaiber,” said the +captain, “your people had told me you could see tracks +well, but I find they are mistaken; you have but one +eye,—something is the matter with the other,” (this was +really the case)—“no young woman will have you, for if +you cannot follow my tracks, and find a watch, how can +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +you kill game for her?” This speech had the desired +effect, and the promise of a shilling heightened his diligence, +so they went back together in search of the lost +article. The ground that had been passed over was +badly suited for the purpose of tracking, and the scrub +was thick; nevertheless, to his delight and surprise, the +captain had his watch restored to his pocket in less than +half an hour.</p> + +<p>Even in the simple arts and rude habits of the people +of New Holland there are different degrees of advancement +and progress to be observed. On the west coast, +a few degrees to the north of the British settlement at +Swan River, a great difference was noticed by Captain +Grey in the arrangements of the native population. +The country near the Hutt River is exceedingly beautiful +and fertile, and it supports a very numerous population, +comparatively with other districts. The exploring +party found a native path or road, wider, more used, and +altogether better than any before seen in that region. +Along the side of this path were seen frequent wells, +some of them ten or twelve feet in depth, which were +made in a superior manner. Across the dry bed of a +stream they then came upon a light fruitful soil, which +served the inhabitants as a <em>warran</em> ground. <em>Warran</em> is a +sort of <em>yam</em> like the sweet potato, and its root is a +favourite article of food with some of the native tribes. +For three miles and a half the travellers passed over a +fertile tract of land full of the holes made by the natives +in digging this root; indeed, so thick were they, that it +was not easy to walk, and this tract extended east and +west, as far as they could see. The district must have +been inhabited a great many years, for more had been +done in it to secure a provision from the ground by hard +manual labour than it would have appeared to be in the +power of uncivilised man to accomplish.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +It can be no subject of surprise that the various tribes +of Australia, living in a wild country, and blessed with +no clear nor adequate ideas of their Maker, should be +exceedingly superstitious, as well as ignorant and simple. +The strange aversion felt by some of them to a sort of +muscle or oyster, found in fresh water, has already been +mentioned; and the horror of the native population at +the supposed effects of sorcery has also been detailed. +Kaiber, Captain Grey’s guide, was bidden to gather +a few of these muscles to make a meal for the party of +hungry travellers in the Bush, but at first he would not +move, declaring that if he touched these shell-fish, the +<em>Boyl-yas</em> would be the death of him. Unable to bring +any instance of mischief arising from them, he shrewdly +answered, that this was because nobody had been +“wooden-headed” enough to meddle with them, and +that he intended to have nothing whatever to do with +them. At last, with much difficulty he was prevailed to +go, but whilst occupied in his task, he was heard most +bitterly deploring his fate. It was his courage and +strong sinews, he said, that had hitherto kept him from +dying either of hunger or thirst, but what would these +avail him against the power of sorcery? However, the +muscles were brought, and Kaiber’s master made his +meal upon them, but no persuasions could prevail upon +him to partake of them. The same evening, the half-starved, +half-clothed party of travellers were overtaken +by a tremendous storm, which put out their fires, and +they continued during the night in a most pitiable state +from exposure to the cold and weather. All these misfortunes +were set down by the sagacious native to the +account of the muscles, nor was it till his master +threatened him with a good beating, that Kaiber left off +chattering to himself, while his mouth moved with the +effect of the extreme cold:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Oh, wherefore did he eat the muscles?</span><br /> + Now the <em>Boyl-yas</em> storms and thunder make;<br /> + Oh, wherefore would he eat the muscles?”</p> + +<p>Among the superstitions of Australia, that feeling of +awe which revolts from mentioning even the name of a +deceased person is very remarkable; and the custom of +silence upon this subject is so strictly enforced, that it +renders inquiry respecting the family or ancestors of a +native extremely difficult.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> The only circumstance +enabling the inquirer to overcome this hindrance is the +fact, that, the longer a person has been dead, the less +unwilling do they appear to name him. Thus did +Captain Grey obtain some curious information respecting +their pedigrees and family customs; for he began +with endeavouring to discover only the oldest names on +record, and then, as opportunity served, he would contrive +to fill up the blanks, sometimes, when they were +assembled round their fires at night, encouraging little +disputes among them concerning their forefathers, by +means of which he was able to gain much of the information +he wanted.</p> + +<p>One very singular notion prevailing among the native +population of Australia, and proving that the belief in a +spiritual world and in a future state, is not quite extinct +even among them, is the idea which they entertain of +white people being the souls of departed blacks. This +supposition may serve to explain the reason of the disagreeable +process complained of by Sturt, who says, +that every new tribe examined them, pulling them +about, measuring the hands and feet of the strangers +with their own, counting their fingers, feeling their faces, +and besmearing them all over with dirt and grease. A +more powerful feeling than curiosity even may have +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +prompted this conduct, and they may have sought, impelled +by superstition, to recognise in the foreigners +their own kindred. But however that may have been, +most travellers in Australia mention the peculiar idea +alluded to. Captain Grey was once vehemently attacked +by the caresses of an old, ugly, and dirty black woman, +who recognised him as her son’s ghost, and was obliged +to endure them. His real mother, the captain says, +could scarcely have expressed more delight at his return, +while his sable-coloured brothers and sister paid their +respects to him, when the vehemence of a mother’s +affection had somewhat subsided. He was convinced +that the old woman really believed him to be her son, +whose first thought, upon his return to earth, had been +to revisit his old mother, and bring her a present!</p> + +<p>The natives believe that the <em>night-mare</em>—a subject +likely enough to give birth to superstition—is caused +by some evil spirit, in order to get rid of which they +jump up, seize a lighted brand from the fire, and, after +whirling it round the head with a variety of imprecations, +they throw the stick away in the direction where +they suppose the evil spirit to be. They say the demon +wants a light, and that when he gets it, he will go away. +However, besides supplying this his need, they likewise +take the precautions of changing their position, and of +getting as near as they can into the middle of the group +of their companions who are sleeping round the fire. If +obliged to move away from the fire after dark, either to +get water or for any other purpose, they carry a light +with them, and set fire to dry bushes as they go along.</p> + +<p>A profound respect, almost amounting to veneration, is +paid in many districts of Australia to shining stones or +pieces of crystal, which they call “<em>Teyl</em>.” These are +carried in the girdles of men, especially of the sorcerers +or <em>corad-jes</em>, and no woman is allowed to see the contents +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +of the round balls made of woollen cord from the fur +of the opossum in which these crystals are enclosed. +They are employed as charms in sickness, and are sometimes +sent from tribe to tribe for hundreds of miles on +the sea-coast or in the interior. One of these stones, +which was examined by an Englishman, to whom it was +shown privately by a black, was of a substance like +quartz, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, and transparent, +like white sugar-candy. The small particles of crystal +which crumble off are swallowed in order to prevent +illness. Many other instances of the like superstitious +folly might very easily be gathered from the writings of +those who have had the best opportunities of becoming +acquainted with the manners of the Australian tribes.</p> + +<p>The following is from the pen of the Rev. G. King, a +missionary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, +who speaks thus of the natives near Fremantle, in +Western Australia: “The native children are intelligent +and apt to learn, but the advanced men are so far removed +from civilisation, and so thoroughly confirmed in +roving habits, that all the exertions made in their behalf +have found them totally inaccessible; but we have no +reason to conclude that they have not a vague idea of a +future state. They are exceedingly superstitious; they +never venture out of their huts from sunset till sunrise, +for fear of encountering goblins and evil spirits. When +any of their tribe dies they say, ‘He’ll soon jump up, +white man, and come back again in big ship;’ and when +a stranger arrives, they examine his countenance minutely, +to trace the lineaments of some deceased friend; +and when they think they have discovered him they +sometimes request him to expose his breast, that they +may see where the spear entered which caused the life to +fly away so long.”<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> Altogether, experience bears witness, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +in their case, of the same fact which is to be perceived +in other parts of the globe, namely, that where +there is little religion, there is often a great deal of +superstition, and that those who do not “believe the +truth,” almost always fall into the snares of falsehood, +so as to “believe a lie.”</p> + +<p>With all the disadvantages of having two races of +men (one of which is thought inferior to the other) occupying +the same territory; with the evils, likewise, +unavoidably arising from the ease with which what is +<em>bad</em> in Europeans may be learned and copied, and the +difficulty of understanding or imitating what is <em>good</em> in +us, the natives are placed in a very peculiar and unhappy +situation. Their intercourse with the white men +has hitherto, certainly, been productive of more injury, +both moral and temporal, than benefit to them. Into +the sad and disgusting details, affording a proof of this +truth, which may be found in the evidence before the +committees of the House of Commons upon the subject +of transportation it will neither be suitable nor possible +to enter. The fact is, indeed, acknowledged by +men of all parties and opinions, while, by all right-minded +men, it is deeply deplored.</p> + +<p>Drunkenness and its attendant vices prevail to a +fearful extent among the Europeans in New Holland, +the lower orders especially; and what sins are more +enticing than these to the ignorant, sensual savage? +Tobacco and spirits, which the poor natives call “<em>tumbledown</em>,” +are articles in constant request; and to purchase +these of Europeans, the blacks will give almost anything +they possess, even their wives.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> Thus, a regular +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +traffic in what is evil is carried on, and almost all that +the heathen people of Australia learn from the so-called +Christians with whom they associate, is to practise, with +tenfold aggravation, sins which God abhors, and will +not allow to go unpunished. Like children that have +been always brought up in a family of foul-tongued +transgressors, the very first words of English which the +natives learn are words of wickedness and blasphemy; +the only introduction to the name of their God and +Saviour is in order that they may insult that holy Name, +and blaspheme the Divine Majesty. And these lessons +are taught them, let us remember, by men calling themselves, +and perhaps even thinking themselves, civilised, +enlightened, and Christian persons;—by men, certainly, +belonging to a nation, which justly lays claim to these +honourable epithets! But enough has been stated on +this painful subject to fill every thoughtful mind with +humiliation and fear, when it contemplates the “much” +that “has been given” to civilised nations, and recalls +the fixed rule of truth and justice, that so much the +“more” will be required of them. Nor is this a matter +concerning the British inhabitants of the colonies alone, +and with which the nation at large has little or no concern. +For if we inquire, who corrupt the natives? the +answer is, our vile and worthless population, the very +scum of mankind, whom we have cast out as evil from +the bosom of their native land. But a further question +naturally offers itself. Who were, in many instances, +the passive, if not the active, corrupters of these very +corrupters themselves? Who have neglected to provide +means for their christian instruction, and so let them +grow up to be worse than heathens, until they could be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +endured no longer in the land? What nation had within +a single century more than doubled its population without +having built or endowed a score of new churches? +To whose neglect is it, partly, though not entirely, owing, +that when heathens meet, in far distant countries, with +our lower classes, or when their homes are visited in our +great towns and cities, the very heathens are sometimes +forced to yield the palm to them in wickedness and in +sin? Such questions very nearly concern every Englishman, +and they are, even now, only beginning to command +the attention they deserve. High and low, rich +and poor, clergy and laity, we are all alike implicated in +those evils, which have arisen from national neglect and +forgetfulness of God, and which are not unlikely to lead +to national confusion and ruin. But we are still, thank +God, blessed with a pure and apostolical Church in our +native country, and this is a mighty instrument for good, +if we will but support it, and render it as efficient as it +ought to be. The children of our little sea-girt isle may +almost be called the salt of the earth, so extensively is +our naval and our moral power spread. If we can bring +those children up in the right way, as dutiful children +of God and faithful members of the Church of England, +then, indeed, the blessings resulting from our efforts +may make themselves felt in the very ends of the earth—in +the solitary wilds of New Holland. But otherwise, +if we continue to neglect our own people, and disgrace +our profession of Christianity by encouraging tacitly the +growth of heathenism around us, then we may judge +by the moral and social evils which have already resulted +from this course what the final consequences +are likely to be. “If the salt have lost its savour +wherewith shall it be salted: it is therefore good for +nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of +men.” (Matt. v. 13.)</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +With savages resembling those that dwell in the +Australian forests, having no means of religious instruction +among themselves, the only hope of producing +an improvement in their moral and social character, +must arise from their intercourse with christian people. +But it must be repeated, unhappily, the great majority +of <em>christian</em> people (especially in that country and +among those classes where the native is most likely +to have intercourse) are by no means adorning by their +lives the faith and doctrine of that Master whose +name they bear. Hence arises the deplorable condition +of the natives, who are brought into contact chiefly with +the lowest and worst of the Europeans, and who, beside +many other hindrances, have the great stumbling-block +of bad examples, and evil lives, constantly before them +in their intercourse with the Christians. And, as though +that were not enough, as though fresh obstacles to the +conversion of these nations to God’s truth were needed +and required, our holy religion is presented to them, not +as it came from the hands of its Founder and his Apostles, +inculcating “one Lord, one faith, and one baptism,” +but such as man’s weakness and wickedness delight in +representing it,—a strange jumble of various “denominations.” +And this unworthy course has been followed +by government itself. Without any pleas arising from +<em>conscience</em>, or the principle of <em>toleration</em> to excuse this, +the British government, in what little they have done +for converting to Christianity some of the natives, have +afforded their help to bodies of Christians bearing +different names. Nor can it be said that the Church of +England and Ireland was without any zealous ministers +ready to undertake this most difficult task, trusting in +God’s strength for help to accomplish it, at least in some +degree. It is the confession of Dr. Lang himself, who +is no friend to the Church of England, that the only +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +two missions<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> to the natives existing in 1837 were, as all +ought to be, episcopalian; but one of these was stated, +on the best authority, in 1841 to be “not in an encouraging +state,”<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> although a third mission, to belong +to the Presbyterians, was about to be commenced <em>under +the auspices of Government</em>, among the natives in another +station. It is fearlessly asserted that <em>all</em> missions to +the heathen supported by Government ought to be +subject to episcopal control; and the reasons for this +may be briefly added. First, there is no tenderness of +conscience, nor claim to toleration, which can stand in +the way of an English government spreading among its +native subjects the doctrine and discipline of the +English Church; supposing these willing to become +Christians at all, they cannot have a prior claim upon us +to be brought up as <em>dissenters</em> from the Church. Secondly, +since the Scotch discipline, though it prevails over a +very small part of our population, is yet established by +law in one portion of the island, it may put in (as it +has done) its claim for help from Government; but, +without entering into argument respecting this, might +we not safely put it to every wise and rightly judging +Presbyterian, whether it is not better to waive this +claim of theirs, than to perplex the progress of Christianity, +by offering to the heathen Australians, at the +same time, and by the same temporal authority, the +Bible, which speaks of <em>one</em> Church, and the choice +between <em>two</em> churches? And lastly, whatever unhappy +scruples and divisions among Christians have arisen +respecting episcopacy, surely, if men had a truly +christian spirit within them, they would quietly consent +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +to the instruction of the natives being placed in the +hands of a Church which they cannot deny to be +scriptural, and of a ministry, which for 1500 years from +Christ’s birth no sect of men ever thought of denying +to be the only apostolical ministry. It is indeed a +strange spectacle which our Christianity must offer to +the eyes of those that are really desirous of becoming +converts. Either we “bite and devour one another,” +or else we quietly set aside our Lord’s commands and +prayers for our union, and contentedly agree to divide +ourselves into as many parties, sects, or denominations, +as we please; and having done so, we go and inoculate +our heathen converts with our own love of separation. +St. Paul was shocked at hearing of divisions in the +Church of Corinth, but enlightened statesmen of the +nineteenth century appear to be shocked at the idea of +allowing Christianity to be offered to the heathens without +its unhappy divisions! What, it may be asked with +all reverence, would have been the success of the +Apostles in evangelizing the Gentile world, if the gospel +of Christ had been offered to the heathens of that age, +under the same disadvantages with which men of the +present age prefer to clog and impede their missionary +efforts? Can we wonder, under these circumstances, at +the slow progress of the gospel? Is it not rather +wonderful that it should make any progress at all? If +the world is reluctant to believe in Christ’s mission, +would not His own words, (John xvii. 21,) suggest to +us our miserable divisions as a chief cause of this?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>SKETCHES OF NATIVE CHARACTER.</strong></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Bennillong.</span>—The +first native who could be persuaded +to live upon friendly terms of confidence with the British +settlers in New South Wales was called Bennillong, and +it was after no very long period, (within two years +after the commencement of the colony,) that this intercourse +with them began in the following manner:—In +the spring of the second year the bodies of many of the +natives were found in a lifeless or dying state upon +different parts of the coast near Sydney, in consequence +of the small-pox, which had been raging among them; and +some of these having been brought up to the settlement, +from motives of pity, the disease was taken by a native +who had been captured shortly before, in hopes of +opening through him a means of communication with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +the others. The intended interpreter died, but the +governor, Captain Philip, still retained in his care two +native children, whose lives had been saved from the +small-pox, and succeeded, within a few months, in +securing two other natives, both of them well known to +the children, through whom they were assured of perfect +safety. However, instead of remaining until they +could become familiar with the English manners and +language, so as to carry on an intercourse between the +colonists and their own countrymen, these natives both +made their escape, one of them very soon after he had +been taken; the other, Bennillong, in about six months +afterwards, when he had been treated with every kindness +and indulgence, and had grown somewhat accustomed +to the society of the English settlers. Bennillong +made his escape in May 1790, and in the September +following he saw some of the colonists, by whom he +sent a present to the governor, namely, a piece of the +whale which was then lying on the beach, and around +which the natives were assembled at a feast. Wishing +to see him again, the governor went immediately to the +spot, where he found a number of natives, and both +Bennillong, and the other one, Cole-be, who had first +escaped. All went on amicably at first, and some +wearing apparel, belonging to the men in the boat, was +given to the savages, while Bennillong obtained a promise +from his excellency that more should be brought in +two days, and likewise some hatchets. The governor +and his friends were retiring by degrees to their boat, +having imprudently allowed the natives very nearly to +surround them, when Bennillong, after presenting several +of his friends by name, pointed out one, whom Captain +Philip stepped forward to meet, holding out both his +hands to him. The savage, not understanding this +civility, and possibly thinking that he was going to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +seize him, threw his spear, and wounded the governor +rather badly, but not mortally. Several other spears were +thrown, and one musket fired, but no injury was done +on either side. A few days after the accident Bennillong +came with his wife and some companions very near +to the settlement, and an interview between these and +the British officers took place, in which it was agreed +that the governor, as soon as he was able, should visit +the same spot; Bennillong, meanwhile, assuring them +that the man who had inflicted the wound had been +severely beaten. On the tenth day his Excellency was +so far recovered as to go to the place of the whale +feast, together with several officers, all armed. Bennillong +here repeated his assurances to the governor in +person, that the offending party had been well beaten +by him and Cole-be, and added that his throwing the +spear was entirely the effect of his fears, and arose from +an impulse of self-preservation. The day before this +visit nearly 4000 fish had been taken by the colonists, +and between 30 and 40 of these, weighing on an average +about 5 lbs. each, were sent to Bennillong and his party +on the north shore of Port Jackson. After this, tolerably +friendly feelings continued, with some few interruptions, +between the two nations, and Bennillong himself +became very much attached to the governor, insomuch +that he and another native resolved to accompany Captain +Philip to England, when, towards the close of 1792, +that excellent officer resigned his appointment, and +embarked on board of the Atlantic transport-ship. The +two Australians, fully bent upon the voyage, which they +knew would be a very distant one, withstood resolutely, +at the moment of their departure, the united distress of +their wives and the dismal lamentations of their friends. +No more was heard respecting these absentees until +March 1794, when a message was brought from them in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +England, requesting that their wives might be told to +expect them in the course of that year, since, though +well, they had not so completely lost their love of liberty +and of their native country, to prefer London, with its +pleasures and abundance, to the woods of New South +Wales. It was not, however, until August, 1795, that +Bennillong reached his native shores, having become +accustomed to the manners of civilized life, by his long +sojourn among the English people. He declared to his +old acquaintance, with an air and tone that seemed to +expect compliance, that he should no longer suffer them +to fight and cut each other’s throats, but should introduce +peace among them, and make them love one another. +When they visited him at Government House, he wished +they would contrive to be somewhat more cleanly in +their persons and less coarse in their manners; and he +was quite offended at his sister, who came in such haste +to see him, that she positively forgot to bring anything +else upon her back, except a little nephew! Bennillong +had been an attentive observer of manners, which he was +not unsuccessful in copying; his dress was an object of +no small concern to him, and every one was of opinion +that he had cast off all love for savage life.</p> + +<p>Upon his arrival, Bennillong made inquiries after his +wife,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> but having heard no very good account of her +conduct, he at length tempted her by some rose-coloured +clothes and a gipsy bonnet to leave her new lover and +return to her former husband. Bennillong’s presents, +however pretty, were of very little practical use, and he +was soon afterwards missing, having gone into the Bush +to give his rival a good beating with <em>fists</em> after the English +method. However, all his valour was lost upon his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +wife, who deserted him,—an event which did not appear +to give him great uneasiness, nor was it much to be +wondered at, since she had been stolen by him. His +absence from the governor’s house became now frequent, +and when he went out, his clothes were usually left +behind him, although he carefully resumed them on his +return before he made his visit to the governor.</p> + +<p>Within a year of his arrival from England this poor +creature had a quarrel with his bosom-friend Cole-be, +whose wife he had coveted, and from whom he received +some severe wounds, together with the cutting inquiry, +“Whether he meant that kind of conduct to be a specimen +of English manners?” Thus Bennillong by degrees +returned again to all the habits of savage life,—habits +rendered rather worse than better by the experience he +had gained respecting those of civilized men. He could +not, however, keep on terms with his countrymen, and in +1796 he was obliged to call in the help of the governor’s +soldiers to protect him from his own people. In the +following year he was accused of having been the +cause of a woman’s death, who had dreamed, when +dying, that he had killed her; and by some it was said, +that he actually had wounded her, so that it was demanded +of him that he should undergo the ordeal of +having some spears thrown at him. Although he denied +the charge, yet it was not thought unlikely to be true, +for he was now become so fond of drinking that he lost +no opportunity of being intoxicated, and in that state +was savage and violent enough to be capable of any +mischief. On these occasions he amused himself with +annoying and insulting all his acquaintance, who were +afraid to punish him lest they should offend his white +friends. But, however, his interest with the latter was +fast declining, for in an affray between the natives, +Bennillong chose to throw a spear among the soldiers, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +interfered to prevent further mischief; and one of these +was dreadfully wounded by him. He was, notwithstanding, +set at liberty, but being offended at the blame +his behaviour had brought down upon him he would +sometimes walk about armed, and declare that he did +so for the purpose of spearing the governor whenever he +might see him! After repeated affrays and quarrels +with his wife’s lover and other natives, Bennillong, who +had almost entirely quitted the comforts and quiet of +civilized life, was dangerously wounded twice within two +or three months. And although no more is related concerning +him, and it is true that he had recently recovered +of several very severe wounds, yet the probability is, +that this weak and violent savage was not long afterwards +cut off in the midst of life by an untimely and +cruel death.</p> + +<p><em>Barangaroo’s Funeral.</em>—When Barangaroo Daringha, +Bennillong’s elder wife, who was above fifty at the time +of her death, was to have the funeral rites performed over +her body, it was resolved by her husband that she should +be burned, and the governor, the judge-advocate, and +the surgeon of the colony were invited to the ceremony, +besides whom there were present Bennillong’s relatives +and a few others, mostly females. The spot for the pile +was prepared by digging out the ground with a stick, to +the depth of a few inches, and in this a heap of wood +was raised to the height of about three feet, the ends +and sides being formed of dry pieces, and the middle of +it consisting of small twigs and branches, broken off for +the purpose, and thrown together. Some grass was then +spread over the pile, and the corpse covered with an old +blanket was placed upon it, with the head towards the +north. A basket with sundry articles belonging to the +deceased was placed by her side, and some large logs +being laid over the body by Bennillong, the pile was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +lighted by one of the party, and was quickly all in a +flame. Bennillong himself pointed out to his friends +that the fire had reached the corpse, and the spot was +left long before the pile was consumed, while the husband +seemed more cheerful than had been expected, and +spoke about finding a nurse among the white women +for his infant and motherless child, Dil-boong.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> The +next day he invited the same party of Europeans to see +him rake the ashes together, and none of his own people +were present at this ceremony. He went before his +companions in a sort of solemn silence, speaking to no +one until he had paid the last duties to Barangaroo. In +his hand was the spear, with which he meant to punish +the <em>car-rah-dy</em>, or conjurer, for whom he had sent to +attend her in her illness, but who either could not or +would not obey the summons; and with the end of this +spear he collected the funereal ashes into a heap. Over +these he made, with a piece of bark, which served for a +spade, a small mound of earth, on each side of which +was placed a log of wood, and on the top the bark with +which he had constructed it. All was done with the +utmost care and neatness, and he seemed pleased, when, +in reply to his inquiries, he was told by his friends that +it was “good.” His behaviour throughout was solemn +and manly, and he was perfectly silent during the whole +of the ceremony, from which nothing was suffered to +withdraw his attention. Nor did he seem desirous to +get quickly through it, but paid these last rites of affection +with a care that did honour to his feelings towards +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +one, for whom, notwithstanding his barbarism, he +appeared to feel a sincere and strong attachment. +When his melancholy task was ended, he stood for a +few moments, with his hands folded over his bosom, and +his eye fixed upon his labours, in the attitude of a man +in profound thought. What were his thoughts then it is +impossible certainly to declare, but they may have been +more nearly akin to those of the mere civilized worldling +than we might at first imagine. Death brings all +men to an equality, and throws down every distinction +but one. That distinction, indeed, so far from +overthrowing, death renders more marked and conspicuous +than before, clearly making manifest the difference +between the believer and the unbeliever, “between him +that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.”</p> + +<p><em>The Spitting Tribe.</em>—This was the name given by +Major Mitchell to one of the most troublesome and +ferocious of the native tribes, the place of whose +habitation is on the lonely banks of the Darling, in the +interior of Eastern Australia. When these disagreeable +people were first met with, the man who was taking +care of the sheep belonging to the exploring party held +out a green bough; but the savage, who had before +pointed a spear at the Englishman, replied to his emblem +of peace by taking a bough, spitting upon it, and +then thrusting it into the fire. Upon Major Mitchell +hastening to the spot, similar expressions of ill will were +manifested, evidently with the purpose of telling the +strangers that they must go back. The native and a +boy who was with him then threw up dust at their +enemies, in a clever way, <em>with their toes</em>. Their feelings +of hostility and defiance were too plainly expressed to +be mistaken. Every effort at conciliation was useless, +until, at length, the enraged native of the Bush retired +slowly along the river bank, singing a war-song as he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +went, and showing by his actions that he was going +for his tribe. This happened in the morning; and during +the afternoon of the same day, a party of the tribe made +their appearance, holding out boughs indeed, but with a +very different ceremonial from what had hitherto been +observed.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> Their violent and expressive gestures evidently +were intended to drive back the intruders; and +as these last could not but feel that they were not upon +their own ground, they used every endeavour to conciliate +the opposing party. The blacksmith belonging +to the expedition was at work with his bellows and +anvil near the river bank, and his labours seemed to +awaken very much the curiosity of the natives, who, +however, still refused to sit down, and continued to +wave their branches in the faces of the white people, +and to spit at them repeatedly, all which conduct was +patiently endured in the hope of establishing afterwards +a more agreeable and friendly intercourse. As +a peace-offering, a tomahawk was presented to the +leader, who, guessing immediately its use, turned round +to a log, and chopped it. Two other stout fellows then +rudely demanded the British officer’s pistols from his +belt, whereupon he drew one, and, curious to see the +effect, fired it at a tree. Immediately, as though they had +previously suspected the intruders to be evil demons, +and had at length a clear proof of it, they repeated their +actions of defiance with tenfold fury, accompanying these +with demoniac looks, hideous shouts, and a war-song,—crouching, +jumping, spitting, springing with the spear, +and throwing dust at them, as they slowly retired. In +short, their hideous crouching postures, measured gestures, +and low jumps, to the tune of a wild song, with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +the fiendish glare of their countenances, at times all +black, but now all eyes and teeth, seemed a fitter spectacle +for Pandemonium than for the light of the bounteous +sun. Thus they retired, dancing in a circle, and +leaving the strangers in expectation of their return, and +perhaps an attack in the morning. Whatever was the +cause of their hostility, any further attempt to quiet +them appeared out of the question, and it was too likely +that ere long the English party would be forced to prove +their superiority by arms.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>These troublesome visitors did not, however, make +their appearance again before the following afternoon, +when their curiosity and desire to get more presents +brought them forth from their hiding-places in the woods. +By degrees, they seemed to gain a little more confidence; +but signs of defiance were still made; and as their fears +diminished, their love of pilfering appeared to increase. +The blacksmith was at work this day also; and they +moved towards him, commencing at the same time a kind +of chant, and slowly waving their green boughs. There +was evidently some superstition in the ceremony, and +one of the parties concerned in it was a <em>coradje</em>, or priest, +who occasionally turned his back upon the Europeans, +and touched his eye-brows, nose, and breast; then pointing +his arm to the sky, and with his hand afterwards +laid upon his breast, pouring forth a most solemn chant. +The blacksmith, with whose honest occupation all this +formed a strange contrast, had been ordered not to laugh +nor stop working, which orders he obeyed as long as it was +practicable. But, gradually, the black visitors gathered +round the forge, and began to pilfer whatever they could +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +lay hand or foot upon, until the persecuted smith could +no longer proceed with his work. The best part of this +scene was, that they did not mind being observed by any +one, except the blacksmith, supposing that they were +robbing him only. His patience, however, being severely +tried, he was at last tempted to give one of them a push, +when a scene of chanting, spitting, and throwing dust +commenced on the part of the thief, who was a stout +fellow and carried a spear, which he seemed inclined to +use. One or two articles were lost in spite of all efforts, +but the explorers were glad to feel at peace with these +people upon any terms, and both parties separated that +night in a tolerably civil way.</p> + +<p>On the following day, the travellers began to move +onwards, but they did not leave behind (as they had +hoped) their troublesome neighbours. The natives +rushed forth from the woods in greater numbers than +ever, <em>being painted white</em>, and many of them carrying +spears, and shouting. A horse belonging to one of the +party was so startled at this, that he galloped away, and +was with some little difficulty recovered. The threats +and defiance of the savages were again repeated; and +when the party of explorers began to proceed onwards, +the whole of the woods appeared to be in flames. Various +annoyances and hindrances were experienced from these +disagreeable inhabitants of the Bush, during the next +ten or twelve days; after which an event happened, +which, though sad and unfortunate in itself, was yet +calculated to fill the minds of these impudent savages +with some respect and awe for the power of the Europeans. +Joseph Jones,—the man who attended the flock +of sheep, which accompanied Major Mitchell’s party in +their wanderings in the interior of New Holland,—had +been sent for some water; and the tea-kettle he carried +with him was the sole cause of the quarrel that ensued. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +As he was getting up the river bank with the water, +another man being stationed (as usual) at the top to +protect him with his pistol, one of the natives, with +others in his company, met him half way up, and with +a smile took hold of the pot which he was carrying, +together with the kettle. This was done under pretence +of helping Jones, but, on reaching the top of the bank, +the savage, in the same jocose way, held it fast, until a +woman said something to him; and then, letting the +pot go, he seized the kettle with his left hand, and at +the same time struck Jones senseless to the ground by +a violent blow on the forehead, inflicted with a club +which he held in his right. On seeing this the other +man, who was stationed by way of protection, fired, +and wounded the savage, who swam across the river, +and made off as well as he could; but the rest of the +tribe were now advancing. The Englishman fired twice +at them, and the second time, unfortunately, he shot +the woman already mentioned, who, with her child +fastened to her back, slid down the bank, and lay, +apparently dying, in the water. At this moment three +other Englishmen arrived, who had been sent off from +the camp when the noise of fire-arms was heard, and +one man among the natives was shot in the breast, but +little more mischief was done, for the tribe speedily +dispersed, having dragged away the dead body of the +woman; while Joseph Jones returned, wounded and +bleeding, to the camp of the explorers. When night +arrived, “a death-like silence,” says Major Mitchell, +“prevailed along the banks of the river; no far-heard +voices of natives at their fires broke, as before, the +stillness of the night, while a painful sympathy for +the child bereft of its parent, and anticipations of the +probable consequences to us, cast a melancholy gloom +over the scene. The waning moon at length arose, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +I was anxiously occupied with the observations, which +were most important at this point of my journey, when +a mournful song, strongly expressive of the wailing of +women, came from beyond the Darling, on the fitful +breeze which still blew from the north-west.” The feelings +of a brave but humane British officer, surrounded by +difficulties, with very few except convicts under his command, +annoyed by natives, yet anxious not to injure them, +and just about to turn back from the journey of discovery +which he had hitherto successfully pursued; the +feelings of Major Mitchell under the circumstances so +touchingly described by him can scarcely be imagined. +The thoughts of a veteran who had served his country +during many long years of war and strife, must have +wandered back to past scenes and by-gone days, while +he stood in that solitary wilderness; and when the wild +shrill cry of savage grief came floating upon his ears, +he must have felt most deeply those strange sensations +which we experience</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> + <span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“When, musing o’er companions gone,</span><br /> + We doubly feel ourselves alone.”</p> + +<p>These savages of the Darling have the power of doing +with their toes many things most surprising to men +who wear shoes, and have never been accustomed from +infancy to climb trees after the Australian fashion. +With their toes they gather the fresh-water muscles from +the muddy bottoms of rivers or lakes, and these are one +of their principal articles of food in the neighbourhood +of the Darling. In the attempts of the Spitting Tribe to +steal from the English party, their feet were much +employed, and they would tread softly on any article, +seize it with the toes, pass it up the back, or between +the arm and side, and so conceal it in the arm-pit, or +between the beard and throat. The hoary old priest +of the Spitting Tribe, while intent upon tricks of this +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +kind, chanted an extraordinary hymn to some deity or +devil; the act was evidently superstitious and connected +with no good principle. Arrangements were probably +being made, and some of these strange ceremonies +observed by them, for the purpose of destroying the +strangers, <em>intruders</em> they might be called. “And no +man,” observes Major Mitchell, “can witness the +quickness and intelligence of the aborigines, as displayed +in their instant comprehension of our numerous appliances, +without feelings of sympathy. They cannot be +so obtuse, as not to anticipate in the advance of such a +powerful race as ours, the extirpation of their own, in +a country which barely affords to them the means of +subsistence.” Yet, melancholy though the reflection +may appear, it is but too true, that scarcely any hope +of improving and civilizing these barbarous people can +be at present reasonably indulged. What a picture does +the same humane traveller already quoted draw of the +tribes about the lower part of the Darling, of whose +character the Spitting Tribe may serve for a specimen. +“It seldom happened,” he says, “that I was particularly +engaged with a map, a drawing, or a calculation, but +I was interrupted by them or respecting them. Our +gifts seemed only to awaken on their part a desire to +destroy us, and to take all we had. While sitting in the +dust with them, according to their custom, often have +they examined my cap, evidently with no other view +than to ascertain whether it would resist the blow of a +<em>waddy</em>, or short stick. Then they would feel the +thickness of my dress, and whisper together, their eyes +occasionally glancing at their spears and clubs. The +expression of their countenances was sometimes so +hideous, that, after such interviews, I have found +comfort in contemplating the honest faces of the horses +and sheep; and even in the scowl of ‘the patient ox,’ +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +I have imagined an expression of dignity, when he may +have pricked up his ears, and turned his horns towards +these wild specimens of the ‘lords of the creation.’ +Travellers in Australian deserts will find that such +savages cannot remain at rest when near, but are ever +anxious to strip them by all means in their power +of every thing. It was not until we proceeded as +conquerors, that we knew any thing like tranquillity on +the Darling; and I am now of opinion, that to discourage +at once the approach of such natives, would +tend more to the safety of an exploring party than +presenting them with gifts.”</p> + +<p><em>Mulligo’s Death.</em>—The following curious account of +the death of a certain native of Western Australia is +given by Captain Grey. Mulligo, for such was the +name of the unfortunate man, had severely hurt his +spine by a fall from a tree, and having lost the use of +his lower limbs, he gradually wasted away, until, in +about two months’ time, he became a perfect skeleton, +and was evidently dying. Soon after day-break, Captain +Grey came to the hut of Mulligo, and found him alive +indeed, but breathing so slightly that it was scarcely to +be perceived. His head rested on his aged mother’s +knees, who leaned over him in tears, while other women +were seated around, their heads all verging to a common +centre, over the wasted frame of the dying man; they +were crying bitterly, and scratching their cheeks, +foreheads, and noses, with their nails, until the blood +trickled slowly from the wounds. The men, meanwhile, +were preparing their spears for the fight, which was +expected to take place respecting the two wives of +Mulligo, the title of his heir being disputed. Other +native females soon began to arrive in small parties, +each one carrying her long stick in her hand, and each +party marching slowly after the eldest woman belonging +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +to it. When they came within about thirty or forty +yards of the hut of the dying man, they raised the most +piteous cries, and hurrying their pace, moved rapidly to +the place where the other women were seated, recalling +to the mind of one acquainted with the Bible, that +custom alluded to by Jeremiah (chap. ix. 17, 18). As +they came up to the bark hut, many of them struck it +violently with their sticks, producing by the blow a dull +hollow sound, and then, after joining the assembled +circle, chanting mournfully the usual songs on these +occasions. Then, suddenly, one of the women in a +frenzy would start up, and standing in front of the hut, +while she waved her stick violently in the air, would +chant forth curses against the sorcerers, who, as she +believed, had been the cause of Mulligo’s sufferings. +It was strange to watch the effect of these wild chants +upon the savage countenances of the men; one while they +sat in mournful silence; again they grasped firmly and +quivered their spears; and by and by a general “Ee-Ee,” +pronounced in their throat, with the lips closed, burst +forth in token of approbation at some affecting part of +the speech.</p> + +<p>Time wore on; each withered beldame by turns +addressed the party, while the poor creature, whose +dying moments were thus disturbed, was gradually +sinking. At last he ceased to live, and at that moment +an old woman started up, and with grief and rage, +poured forth her curses upon the <em>Boyl-yas</em>, and tore +the hut in which Mulligo had been lying to pieces, +saying, “This is now no good.” Her proceedings +excited the feelings of the men, and at last Moon-dee, +the most violent of them, was on the point of spearing +one of the wives of the deceased, but he was withheld by +some of the women. The cause of Moon-dee’s anger +was afterwards thus explained. About two or three +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +months before this time, a cloak belonging to Mulligo’s +brother had been stolen, and, it was supposed, given to +one of the sorcerers, who gained thereby some mysterious +power over either of the two brothers, which he +had exercised on Mulligo, when he caused him to fall +and injure his back. Another sorcerer was called in, +who applied fire to the injured part, but without any +success; and since the poor fellow was daily wasting +away, it was imagined that the unfriendly sorcerers +came every night to feast upon the invalid during his +hours of sleep. But Moon-dee chose to fancy that if +his wife had been more watchful, the <em>Boyl-yas</em> might +have been detected, and therefore he intended to spear +her in the leg, in order to punish her supposed neglect. +This outrage was, however, prevented; and the two +trembling partners of the deceased, neither of whom was +above fifteen years old, fled into Perth, to find among +Europeans a refuge from the violence of their own +countrymen. After vowing vengeance against a great +many of the sorcerers, though they had no proof whatever +against any of these in particular, the men followed +the widows to Perth, to see that no one stole them away; +and a few only were left with the women to superintend +the funeral.</p> + +<p>In about an hour’s time, the body was removed to a +distance of nearly half a mile from the spot where the +death had taken place, and the women were still leaning +over it, uttering the words, <em>yang, yang, yang</em>, and +occasionally chanting a few sentences. The grave was +then dug, as usual, due east and west, with no better +instruments than sticks and hands; but afterwards, +when many Europeans had assembled at the spot, to the +great annoyance of the natives, these last occasionally +employed a spade, although, from the extreme narrowness +of the grave, it was no easy matter to make use of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +this implement. During the digging an insect had been +thrown up, whose motions were watched with the +deepest interest, and since the animal crawled off in the +direction of Guildford, this was thought an additional +proof of the guilt of the sorcerers of that place, who had +before been suspected, because the cloak had been +stolen by a man living near this settlement.</p> + +<p>When the grave was completed, they set fire to some +dried leaves and twigs which they threw in, and old +Weeban, the friendly sorcerer, knelt at the foot of the +grave, with his back to the east, and his head bowed +down to the earth in a posture of the deepest attention; +his office being a very important one, namely, to discover +in what direction the hostile <em>Boyl-yas</em> would take their +flight, when drawn out of the earth by the heat. The +fire roared for some time in the grave; and the hollow +sound of the flames arising from the narrow opening +evidently aroused the superstitious fears of the bystanders, +until the old conjuror signified by his actions +that the authors of the mischief were gone off in the +direction of Guildford. The relatives of the deceased +appeared satisfied at knowing upon whom to avenge +the foul witchcraft, and at being assured of the cause of +their friend’s death. The body of Mulligo was then +taken from the females, his mother having, for the last +time, fervently kissed its cold lips; and the corpse was +lowered into the grave, and placed upon a bed of leaves, +which had been laid there directly the fire was +extinguished; the face being, according to custom, turned +towards the east. The women continued their mournful +songs, and the grave was filled up with small green +boughs and earth, until the tomb was completed, +presenting the appearance, owing to the heaps placed at +the head and foot, of three graves nearly alike in size +and form, lying in a due east and west direction. On +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +the same evening, the old mother was found sitting at +the place where her son’s remains were interred, and +crying bitterly. She had caught the <em>Boyl-yas</em>, she said, +in the very act of sitting round Mulligo’s grave, for the +purpose of preying upon his miserable body, and she +pointed out their tracks at the spot from which they +sprung into the air, in the direction of Guildford, but +European eyes were not keen enough to detect these +mysterious traces of mischief.</p> + +<p><em>The Corrobory.</em>—The natives have a dance, called +corrobory, of a very original character, and almost +universally prevalent on the shores of Australia. The +dance always takes place at night; and not only in this +respect, but likewise in the preparation and excitement +occasioned by it, a resemblance may be traced between +the <em>corrobory</em> and the dances of more civilized nations. +The curious evolutions and figures performed in these +assemblies of savages, are regulated by time beaten upon +stretched skins or drums,—the only musical instrument +that is commonly seen among them; and while the light +of blazing boughs is thrown upon the scene of festivity, +the rude music is accompanied by a song. Darkness +seems essential to the effect of the whole; and the +painted figures coming forward from the obscurity of +the background, while the singers and beaters of time +are invisible, have a highly theatrical effect. Each dance +appears most tastefully progressive; the movement being +first slow, and introduced by two persons, displaying +graceful motions, both of arms and legs; others, one by +one, join in, each gradually warming into the truly +savage attitude of the “<em>corrobory</em>” jump; the legs then +stride to the utmost, the head is turned over one +shoulder, the eyes glare, and are fixed with savage +energy all in one direction; the arms also are raised, +and inclined towards the head, the hands usually grasping +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +some warlike weapons. The jump now keeps time +with each beat; the dancers at every movement taking +six inches to one side, all being in a connected line, led +by the first, which line, however, is sometimes <em>doubled</em> +or <em>tripled</em>, according to numbers; and thus great effect +is added; for when the front line jumps to the left, the +second jumps to the right; the third to the left again, +and so on, until the action gains due intensity, when all +suddenly stop at the same moment. The excitement +which this dance produces in the savage is very +remarkable. However listless the individual may be, lying +perhaps, as usual, half asleep, set him to this, and he +is fired with sudden energy, every nerve is strung to +such a degree, that he is hardly to be known as the +same person, while the <em>corrobory</em> continues.</p> + +<p><em>Peerat and his Wives.</em>—A garden belonging to a soldier +at King George’s Sound had been robbed by the natives +of nearly a hundred weight of potatoes. This was the +first act of theft that had been committed during the +five months of Governor Grey’s residence there, although +there had often been as many as two hundred +natives in the settlement, who had no means of subsistence +beyond the natural productions of the country, and +what little they derived from being occasionally employed +by the colonists. And even in this theft of the +potatoes, they had purposely left the large roots, and +had taken away only the smaller ones, in the hope that +by so doing they would lessen the crime. However, the +governor resolved to act promptly and vigorously upon +this first offence, and to avoid the common fault of +Europeans, in confounding the guilty and the innocent +together. By the help of an intelligent native, the tracks +of three persons were found in the garden that had been +robbed, and the footsteps were pronounced to be those +of Peerat’s two wives, and his son Dal-bean. These had +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +all walked off into the Bush, meaning, probably, to avoid +suspicion, and to wait till the affair had passed quietly +over. The governor determined to pursue them, but +this required great secrecy, for Australians are no easy +creatures to catch hold of; and it was not meant to +adopt the popular system of shooting them when they +ran away. Accompanied by four natives only, the governor +pressed forward, following Peerat’s tracks for +about nine miles in a direction where the Bush had +been set on fire by the natives, until he met with some +of these, who were solemnly informed of the theft and +of the names of the criminals, whom he had come to +take prisoners; if these were given up, it was promised +that they should undergo only the regular punishment +for petty robbery; otherwise, the usual allowance of +flour, which was issued to all the natives every two +months, was to be stopped; and it was threatened that +a party of soldiers should be brought out to fire upon +Peerat and his party wherever they might be found. +These threats, uttered in a very decided tone, gave occasion +to a consultation among the natives, by whom it +was unanimously agreed:—</p> + +<p>Imprimis. That stealing potatoes was a very heinous +offence, more particularly in women.</p> + +<p>Secondly. That women were notorious thieves, and +altogether worse characters than men.</p> + +<p>Thirdly. That beating women was an every day occurrence.</p> + +<p>Fourthly. That losing flour was a great bore; and,</p> + +<p>Fifthly. Upon these considerations, Peerat, his wives, +and son, were to be given up.</p> + +<p>These resolutions having been passed, the whole +assembly came to the governor to inquire whether he +told the truth, when he said that he was not personally +angry with Peerat’s family, and that they should not be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +killed; and being satisfied upon this point, they all proceeded +together in search of the offending parties.</p> + +<p>Peerat waited quietly to receive them, indeed, he was +not aware of the cause of his being honoured by a visit +from the governor; when, however, he heard of this, he +abused his wives, and promised to thrash them soundly, +but absolutely refused to give either them or his son up +as prisoners. The first man who might lay a finger upon +him was threatened with a spear through the heart, and +the governor was obliged to proclaim the sacredness of +his own person, and to cock both barrels of his gun, +with an assurance that he would shoot poor Peerat in +case of resistance. All savage strife is noisy in the extreme; +even the strife of <em>civilized</em> men in their <em>public +meetings</em> and <em>vestries</em> is often tolerably boisterous,—and a +great deal of running and leaping about, and quivering +of spears accompanies the former kind of altercation. +While things were in this confusion the governor went +alone to Peerat’s fire, and seized his little boy, Dal-bean, +but could see nothing of the wives, who were, most +likely, busy digging roots for the family. The boy was +told that if he moved he would be shot, a threat which +kept him very quiet; but Peerat soon found out what +had happened, and came running after them. These +natives are always greatly attached to their children, and +strong proofs of this were now given by the father, who +first declared that the boy had been with him, and that +it was the mother only that had stolen, producing about +a dozen witnesses to prove this to be the truth. However, +the reply to this was by asking the question, How +came the child’s footmarks in the garden? It was answered +that Peerat’s second wife had, indeed, been there, +and that she was just the size of the boy; but that plea +would not hold good, since her footsteps had been observed +likewise.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +The father now urged the tender years of the lad, and +that he was under the influence of his mother; and then +fairly wept upon his child’s neck, who was calling upon +his parent and the other natives by name to save him. +The governor’s own feelings and those of his followers +urged him to let the little fellow go, but he wisely resolved +to act with determination, and held fast by the +prisoner. Spears were now given to Peerat—a sign of +his quarrel being espoused by those who gave them, and +that he was expected to use them; and, matters having +taken a serious turn, the governor hastened away with +his prisoner and two of his native companions, but not +before he had explained to the others the advantage of +an impartial inquiry and proper punishment of offenders, +in preference to their being exposed to the indiscriminating +fire of Europeans. Peerat was then threatened +with a shot if he did not take himself off, and bring his +wives into the settlement to be punished; and the +matter ended, for the present, in the lodgment of the +youthful Dal-bean safe in the British gaol. In a day or +two afterwards, during which no tidings had been heard +of Peerat and his wives, the little Dal-bean made an +attempt to break out of his place of confinement, by +taking up a loose stone from the floor, with which he +had battered a hole in the door. This, however, he +stoutly denied, asserting that, whilst he was asleep, +sorcerers from the north, having a spite against him, had +entered through some air-holes in the wall and done +this; and, on his persisting in the story, he was told that, +in future, he would be well whipped for neglect, if he did +not give the alarm when these strange visitors came. +Meanwhile, the governor was half inclined to whip him +for telling a story, but he satisfied himself with giving +him a lecture upon the crime of lying, to which the +cunning little rogue replied, by arguing upon the general +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +usefulness and prevalence of that vice in the world, +entirely setting aside its evil nature and sinfulness.</p> + +<p>The very same day Peerat made his appearance with +a very pitiful tale. He had two wives, and to govern +them both was no easy task, but, although they had been +soundly beaten, they could not be induced to come into +the settlement, until he had threatened to spear them. +This threat had, at last, succeeded, and in recompense for +his sufferings from the loss of his son, and from the +obstinacy and bad temper of his wives, he begged to +be allowed to beat the latter himself. They were ordered +to the spot where the robbery was committed, and there +the native women soon appeared, dreadfully cut and +mangled from the beating they had already received. +One was a nice looking girl, about fourteen, but an incorrigible +thief. Peerat was going to hit her a tremendous +blow upon the head, which must have laid it open. +She stood with her back to her husband, trembling and +crying bitterly. The governor caught Peerat’s arm, +picked up a little switch from the ground, and told him +to beat her on the shoulders with that, instead of with +his <em>meero</em>. Two slight blows, or rather taps, were given +her, in order to know where it was that the governor +meant her to be struck, but the poor girl cried so bitterly +from fear, that she was pardoned, and so likewise was +the other woman, who had already been severely beaten, +and had at that moment a little child sitting upon her +shoulder, and crying piteously at the sight of its mother’s +tears. Before the crowd dispersed a lecture was given +them, and they were warned not to presume upon the +governor’s clemency in the present instance.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon, the governor, attended by Peerat, his +wives, and a crowd of natives, walked up to the gaol to +release little Dal-bean. The father and the governor +alone entered the prison, and when the gaoler was told +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +to hand Peerat the whip, the latter took it, and said, +“Yes, yes, I will strike him; let not another beat him.” +The door of the cell was then opened, and the little boy +was led out: his father ran up to him, caught him in his +arms, and began kissing him; having done this, he told +him he was going to beat him. The little fellow did +not answer a word, but standing as firm and erect as +possible, presented his back to him. The father gave him +one blow, and it was ended—justice was satisfied. The +criminals had surrendered to salutary laws, of which +they had but a vague and undefined knowledge; it was +their first offence; the nature of the laws they had broken +was explained to them; they were warned to be careful +in their future conduct, and they were set free. Little +Dal-bean, directly they got outside the gaol, walked up +to the governor, took his hand, and squeezed it; then +turning to his mother, he just looked at her; she cried, +but did not dare to kiss him, or to show any other +mark of emotion. The whole party then moved off, +after showering many thanks upon the governor, and +saying, “What a good fellow, what a good fellow,” or, to +give a literal translation, “one good man, one good man!”</p> + +<p><em>Woga’s Captivity.</em>—In Caledon Bay, upon the northern +coast of New Holland, the natives had behaved very +well to the party under Captain Flinders, which had +landed on their shores, until one of those who had been +most kindly treated ran away with an axe, and from the +thickness of the forest could not be overtaken. It was +indeed here, as in other parts of Australia, no easy +matter to hinder the people from stealing whatever came +within their reach; and in order to check this, two men +were seized by command of Captain Flinders, and after +a little time one of these was set free, upon his +promising by signs to restore the axe, and being made +to understand that the other would be kept as a pledge +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +of this engagement being fulfilled. Much confusion +was noticed among the natives, and preparations were +made for firing upon them in case of necessity, but after +one of the prisoners had been released, they appeared to +have less anxiety, and still no axe was forthcoming. +The prisoner, a youth of about fourteen, whose name +was Woga, was taken in a boat to a place much +frequented by the savages, many of whom were seen +behind the bushes, endeavouring to entice a native +who accompanied the expedition on shore, no doubt +intending to seize him by way of retaliation. The +restoration of the axe was demanded, and the prisoner +seemed to use all his powers to enforce it, but the +constant answer was that the thief, Ye-han-ge-ree, +had been beaten and was gone away; and since +no axe was likely to be brought, Woga was carried on +board the ship, after a great deal of crying, entreating, +threatening, and struggling on his part. He there ate +heartily, laughed, sometimes cried, and noticed every +thing; frequently expressing admiration at what he +saw, and especially at the sheep, hogs, and cats. The +next morning he was taken ashore, and attempted to +make a spring out of the boat, so that it was needful to +bind him, notwithstanding his struggles; but after a +while he became quiet, and enjoyed his meal of rice and +fish, although he was made fast to a tree. A sort of +attack was then made by the other natives upon a party +of gentlemen who had landed to botanize, and who had +been almost surrounded by the savages; but, however, +a couple of shots dispersed their enemies, and two of +the Australians were supposed to have been wounded. +Since the prisoner was thus a cause of mischief to his +fellow-countrymen, and his being carried off would be +an act of injustice, as well as injurious to future visitors +of that coast, at length Captain Flinders, who would +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +otherwise willingly have taken Woga with him, resolved +to release him. On that day, the third of his captivity, +Woga appeared to be a little melancholy in his bondage, +but upon the whole had not fared amiss, having been +eating the greater part of the morning and afternoon. +He begged hard to be released; promising, with tears in +his eyes, to bring back the axe; and after having received +some clothing and presents he was suffered to depart. As +far as two hundred yards he walked away leisurely; but +then, looking first behind him, took to his heels with +all his might, leaving his British friends very reasonably +doubtful of the fulfilment of his pathetic promises!</p> + +<p><em>Bal-loo-der-ry and the Convicts.</em>—In 1791, when the +town of Paramatta, about fifteen miles from Sydney, was +first settled, the natives soon began to bring in their fish +and barter it for bread or salted meat; and this proving +a great convenience to the settlers, the traffic was very +much encouraged by them. There were, however, some +among the convicts so unthinking or so depraved, as +wantonly to destroy a canoe belonging to a fine young +man, a native, who had left it at a little distance from +the settlement, as he thought, out of the way of observation, +while he went with some fish he had to sell. His +rage at finding his canoe destroyed was very great: he +threatened to take his revenge, and in his own way, +upon all white people. Three of the offenders, however, +having been seen and described, were taken and +punished, and so were the remainder of them not very +long afterwards. The instant effect of this outrage was, +that the natives discontinued the bringing up of fish; +and Bal-loo-der-ry, whose canoe had been destroyed, +although he had been taught to believe<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> that one of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +six convicts had been hanged for the offence, meeting a +few days afterwards with an European who had strayed +to some distance from Paramatta, he wounded him in two +places with a spear. This act of Bal-loo-der-ry was followed +by the governor’s strictly forbidding him to appear +again in any of the settlements; and the other natives, +his friends, being alarmed, Paramatta was seldom visited +by any of them, and all commerce with them was (for the +time) at an end. However, in about two months afterwards, +before the person wounded by him had recovered, +Bal-loo-der-ry ventured into the town with some of his +friends, and one or two armed parties were sent to seize +him. A spear having been thrown, it was said, by him, +two muskets were fired, by which one of his companions +was wounded in the leg, but Bal-loo-der-ry was not +taken. On the following day it was ordered that he was +to be seized whenever an opportunity should offer, and +that any native attempting to throw a spear in his defence, +(since they well knew why he was denounced,) +was, if possible, to be prevented from escaping. Those +who knew this savage regretted that it had been necessary +to treat him thus harshly, for among his countrymen +they had never seen a finer young man. We cannot +finish this melancholy history with a more true reflection +than that of Lieutenant Collins: "How much greater +claim to the appellation of <em>savages</em> had the wretches +(the convicts) who were the cause of this, than the +natives who were termed so!"</p> + +<p><em>Native Hospitality and Philosophy.</em>—After a most +distressing journey in Western Australia, Captain Grey and +his party fell in with a number of natives, at no great +distance from the settlement of Perth. So great had +been the trials of the explorers that a disinclination to +move pervaded the whole party, and their courageous +leader had felt much the same desire to sink into the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +sleep of death, that one feels to take a second slumber +in the morning after great fatigue. However they had +aroused themselves, and had managed to walk about +eight miles at the slow rate of a mile and a quarter an +hour, when they came suddenly upon the tracks of the +natives. Kaiber, their guide, announced that they were +wild natives; and, after a second survey, he declared that +they had “great bush fury” on them, <em>i.e.</em> were subject +to wild untutored rage. It was proposed, however, to +fire a gun as a signal, for since the distance from Perth +was thought to be very trifling, it was hoped that +these natives would understand its meaning. Kaiber +threatened to run away, but the coward was, in fact, +afraid to move five yards from the party, so, sitting down +on his haunches under cover, he kept muttering to himself +various terms of Australian scorn,—“The swan—the +big-head—the stone forehead!”—while the Captain advanced +towards the strangers, who no sooner heard the +gun, and saw him approaching, than they came running +to him. Presently, Kaiber accosted one of them by +name, and at the sound of this name, Imbat, the strongest +feeling was awakened; it was well known to the travellers, +and they knew that their lives were safe, and the +end of their journey at hand. Captain Grey was in good +favour with most of the natives of those parts, to whom +he had frequently made presents of <em>flour</em>, and hence +his common appellation among them was “Wokeley +brudder,” or Oakley’s brother, that being the name of a +<em>baker</em> residing in Perth.</p> + +<p>The women were soon called up, bark-baskets of frogs +opened for the exhausted travellers, <em>by-yu</em> nuts roasted, +and, for a special delicacy, the Captain obtained a small +fresh-water tortoise. He was bidden to sleep while +Imbat cooked, and though the delay which the willing +native’s skill in cookery occasioned was a little trying +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +to the patience of hungry men, yet it was not very long +before they were all regaling on the welcome feast. In +reply to the questions of the Englishmen, the natives all +told them that they would see Perth the next morning, +“while the sun was still small;” and upon finding that +there was a kangaroo hunter with a hut, and a supply of +provisions only seven miles off, Imbat and the Captain +went thither together, to prepare for the comfortable +reception of the rest of the party. However, they found +the hut deserted, its owner having returned to Perth. A +fire was lighted, notwithstanding, and the Englishman +laid down to rest his weary limbs, while the Australian +again began to cook, and in his chattering mood to +philosophize also. “What for do you, who have plenty +to eat, and much money, walk so far away in the Bush?” +was his first inquiry. The Captain, fatigued and rather +out of humour, made no reply. “You are thin,” continued +the philosopher, “your shanks are long, your +belly is small,—you had plenty to eat at home, why did +you not stop there?” “Imbat, you comprehend nothing,—you +know nothing,” was the traveller’s brief +reply. “I know nothing!” answered the wise man of +the woods, “I know how to keep myself fat; the young +women look at me and say, Imbat is very handsome, he +is fat;—they will look at you and say, He not good,—long +legs;—what do you know? where is your fat? what +for do you know so much, if you can’t keep fat? I know +how to stay at home, and not walk too far in the Bush: +where is your fat?” “You know how to talk, long +tongue,” answered the Captain;—“And I know how +to make you fat!” rejoined Imbat, forgetting his anger, +and bursting into a roar of laughter, as he began stuffing +his guest with frogs, <em>by-yu</em> nuts, &c. The rest of the +party arrived just before nightfall, and, searching the hut, +they found a paper of tea, and an old tin pot, in which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +they prepared the welcome beverage, after which, having +had a good supper, they all laid down to sleep; and +in the silence of the night, fervent thanks went up from +that lonely hut in the wilderness to the Maker of all +things, whose merciful guidance had again brought them +so near “the haven where they would be.”</p> + +<p><em>The Widow and her Child.</em>—During the journey of +Major Mitchell’s party, exploring the course of the river +Lachlan down to its junction with the Murray, they had +to cross several branches of the former stream, which +gave them some trouble from the steepness of their +banks, until they at length reached the main channel of +the Lachlan, which stream, together with all its tributaries, +was at that time perfectly dry. The welcome +news was then heard that some ponds of water were +near, but at the same time it was reported that natives +were there; so the party approached cautiously, and +having found two pools encamped beside them. The +black people had all fled, except one child, about seven +or eight years old, quite blind, who sat near a fire, and +a poor little girl still younger, who, notwithstanding the +strange appearance of the new visitors, and the terror +exhibited in the flight of her own people, still lingered +about the bushes, and at length took her seat beside +the blind boy. A large supply of the <em>balyan</em> root lay +near them, and a dog so lean that he was scarcely able to +stand, drew his feeble body close up beside the two +children, as though desirous of defending them. Afterwards +an old man came up to the fire, and he directed +the travellers to some of the water-holes in their proposed +route, but could not be prevailed upon to become +their guide. However, he persuaded a widow, +with the little girl just mentioned, who might be about +four years old, to accompany the party and act as guide.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +The strangers soon began to learn the value of their +new guide, Turàndurey; for within a fortnight they met +with a number of the natives, approaching in a silent +and submissive manner, each having a green bough +twined round his waist or in his hand; and a parley +was opened with them by means of the widow, as she +was sitting on the opposite bank of a river to that on +which they made their appearance. Some form or ceremony, +it seems, always prevents the male natives, when +strangers to each other, from speaking at first sight; no +such restraint, however, is placed upon their wives or +<em>gins</em>, as they are called. These, with the privilege of +their sex, are ever ready to speak; and the strangers as +readily replied to Turàndurey; so conversation was thus +held across the river. This female guide, who had +before scarcely ventured to look up, now stood boldly +forward to address the strange tribe; and when her +countenance was lighted up, displaying fine teeth, and +great earnestness of manner, it was gratifying to the +travellers to see what spirit their guide possessed. +Being invited to swim over the stream, the children of +the woods complied but on condition that the wild animals +(the sheep and horses) should be driven away,—a +stipulation at which the widow and other natives in +the British party laughed heartily; nor was their +laughter stopped when they watched the awkward +attempts of these heroes to show off before the females, +while they were unable entirely to conceal their fears +of the silly sheep!</p> + +<p>It was no very long time afterwards that an unfortunate +accident happened to the little native child, Ballandella, +who fell from a cart, and one of the wheels passing +over, broke her thigh. On riding up to the spot, Major +Mitchell found the widow, her mother, in great distress, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +lying in the dust, with her head under the limb of her +unfortunate child. The doctor was ordered to set it +immediately; but, from its being broken very near the +socket, it was found difficult to bandage the limb so as +to keep the bone in its place. Every possible care was +taken of the child, and she bore the pain with admirable +patience, though only four years old; while she gave a +curious proof of her good sense at so early an age, by +calling for “Majy” (the Major), as soon as she had met +with the accident. Little Ballandella did very well, and +was, after about two months’ time, fast recovering from +her misfortune, when the widow, having been travelling +all that time, and being now far distant from her own +country, felt inclined to return; and was prepared to +make nothing of swimming the broad waters of the +Murray, the largest known river in New Holland, pushing +the child before her floating upon a piece of bark, +nor of any other difficulties which might oppose her in +her journey homewards. No objections were offered to +the woman’s departure, who appeared extremely attached +to her daughter, and half afraid of being deprived of +her. Indeed, it was a tempting opportunity of trying an +experiment of the effect of education upon one of that +race; for the little savage, who at first would prefer a +snake or lizard to a piece of bread, had become so far +civilised at length, as to prefer bread; and it began to +cry bitterly on leaving its European friends. However, +its absence from them was not to be a long one; for, on +the third day, the widow returned again, carrying her +child on her back, after the Australian fashion. She had +seen, she stated, another tribe on the opposite side of +the river, and they had inquired very angrily, who made +the fires upon her side; after which, receiving no reply, +(for she was afraid and had hid herself,) they danced a +<em>corrobory</em> in a furious style, during which she and the +child crept away, and had passed two nights without +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +fire and in the rain.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> The mother and her daughter +received a kindly welcome, and were as well treated as +before, notwithstanding the petty jealousy of some other +natives, who, it was thought, had persuaded Turàndurey +to go, hoping thus to get a greater share of food for +themselves. After this, the widow and Ballandella +continued with the exploring party during almost the whole +of the remainder of their expedition, making themselves +serviceable in various ways. Sometimes they would +give notice of the approach of the Major, upon his +return from an excursion, long before he had reached +the camp; their quick ears seemed sensible of the sound +of horses’ feet at an astonishing distance, for so only +could it be accounted for that the widow and her infant +daughter, seated at the fire, were always the first +to give notice of the Major’s approach. Sometimes +Turàndurey would employ herself in a less serious, +though not less useful manner; for on such exploring +expeditions the amusement of the men is a matter of +the first importance. She would exercise her skill in +mimicry or imitation, powers which the natives of New +Holland possess to an amazing degree; and she thus +occasionally amused the men by acting the part of their +leader, taking angles, drawing from nature, and copying +other occupations in which Major Mitchell was frequently +engaged.</p> + +<p>On the return of the expedition, it was found needful, +from a scarcity of provisions, to divide into two parties, +one of which was to proceed, under the leader, by forced +marches home to Sydney, while the other was to remain +behind until necessary supplies should be forwarded. +The widow was among the party to be left; but on the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +morning of separation she was marked with white round +the eyes,—the Australian token of mourning,—and the +face of Ballandella was whitened also. This poor +woman, who had cheerfully carried the child upon her +back, when it was offered that both might be carried in +the carts, and was as careful and affectionate as any +mother could be, had at length determined to entrust to +the Major the care of her daughter. He was pleased +with this proof of confidence, and less unwilling to take +the charge from the knowledge of the wretched state of +slavery to which the native females are doomed. Besides, +the poor child had suffered considerably by the +accident that befel her while with the party of Englishmen, +and she seemed to prefer their mode of living so +much, that her mother at length despaired of being +ever able to instruct her thoroughly in the mysteries of +killing and eating snakes, lizards, rats, and similar +food. The widow had been long enough with Europeans to +learn how much more her sex was respected by civilised +men than by savages; and it was with feelings of this +nature, probably, that she entrusted her child to them, +under the immediate care, however, of a native woman, +the wife of Piper, the guide who had accompanied them +through all the journey. A match was subsequently +made between Turàndurey and king Joey, one of the +native chiefs, by which the good woman gained a handsome +and comfortable settlement for an Australian. The +child Ballandella was a welcome stranger to the Major’s +own children, among whom she remained, conforming +most willingly to the habits of domestic life, and showing +a very promising aptness of understanding, until she was +transferred, at the removal of the family to England, to +the care of a friend; and the last mention made of Ballandella +is, that she was able to read as well as any white +child of the same age.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +<em>Miago.</em>—This last sketch of native character may +serve to place in a striking, yet fair light, the perplexing +situation of the half-civilised blacks, the strong +inducements for them to relapse into barbarism again, and, +consequently, the difficulty that stands in the way of +their being thoroughly reclaimed. It is impossible to +do this better than in the very words of Captain Grey.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> +“The officers of the <em>Beagle</em> took away with them a +native of the name of Miago, who remained absent with +them for several months. I saw him on the north-west +coast, on board the <em>Beagle</em>, apparently perfectly +civilised; he waited at the gun-room mess, was temperate, +(never tasting spirits,) attentive, cheerful, and remarkably +clean in his person. The next time I saw him was at Swan +River, where he had been left on the return of the +<em>Beagle</em>. He was then again a savage, almost naked, +painted all over, and had been concerned in several +murders. Several persons here told me,—‘You see the +taste for a savage life was strong in him, and he took to +the bush again directly.’ Let us pause for a moment +and consider.</p> + +<p>“Miago, when he was landed, had amongst the white +people none who would be truly friends of his;—they +would give him scraps from their table, but the very +outcasts of the whites would not have treated him as an +equal,—they had no sympathy with him,—he could not +have married a white woman,—he had no certain means +of subsistence open to him,—he never could have been +either a husband or a father, if he had lived apart from +his own people;—where, amongst the whites, was he to +find one who would have filled for him the place of his +black mother, whom he is much attached to? What +white man would have been his brother? What white +woman his sister? He had two courses left open to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +him,—he could either have renounced all natural ties, +and have led a hopeless, joyless life among the whites, +ever a servant, ever an inferior being; or he could +renounce civilisation, and return to the friends of his +childhood, and to the habits of his youth. He chose +the latter course, and I think that I should have done +the same.”</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img186.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">sydney in its infancy—view from the south.</span> +</div> + + +<p> </p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>FIRST YEARS OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.</strong></p> + + +<p>One of the greatest efforts to which the industry and +powers of man can be directed is to change a lonely +uncultivated wilderness into an enclosed and fruitful +country,—to occupy with civilised human beings and +comfortable dwellings those wilds which have hitherto +been nearly deserted, or at best but scantily and occasionally +inhabited by savage barbarians. The colonisation +of New South Wales by the English has been one +of the most successful of these efforts; and certainly +never before did the change effected by industry so +rapidly make itself visible in the face of the new country. +But, although the settlement of this colony may now be +most certainly pronounced to have been a very successful +experiment, it was by no means without hazard, and +disappointment, and suffering, to those who were first +engaged in it. Indeed it would appear to be the lot of +infant colonies to cope with difficulties known only to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +first settlers in uncultivated lands; and while the enterprising +colonist has to endure and struggle against these +early trials, his children or grandchildren, or often the +stranger who has made a favourable bargain of his +property, are the persons who reap the reward of his +toils. It must assuredly be a subject of interest to +every inquiring mind to trace the feeble beginnings of an +infant colony, accompanying it through all its variations +of hope and despondency, of good or ill success, until it +is at length conducted to a state of greatness and +prosperity quite unexampled, when the shortness of its +duration is considered. And since that colony is our +own, since Britain is, for several reasons, unusually concerned, +both morally and politically, in the welfare of +New South Wales, it cannot but be useful as well as +interesting to inquire somewhat concerning the past +history, previously to our entering upon the present +state, of that settlement.</p> + +<p>In the year 1770, Captain Cooke, in his first voyage, +had touched upon the eastern coast of New Holland, at +a bay which, from the number of curious flowers that +were there found growing wild, received the name of +Botany Bay. About sixteen years afterwards, when +the American war had closed up the great outlet by +which the mother country had been accustomed to get +rid of the worst of its population, it was resolved to form +a colony for this purpose elsewhere. The coast of +Africa was thought of, but wisely abandoned; and at +length Botany Bay was the spot selected by the English +government, which despatched, in 1787, the <em>Sirius</em> and +the <em>Supply</em>, with six transports and three store-ships, +having on board 565 men and 192 women, convicts, +besides 160 marines, with their officers, some of their +wives, and the necessary crews for working the ships. +Provisions for two years were taken out, tools, agricultural +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +implements, and other articles deemed necessary +were also furnished, and the little fleet was placed under +the command of Captain Phillip, the future governor of +the intended colony. Some live stock was obtained at +the Cape of Good Hope, and plants and seeds likely to +be useful were procured likewise at that place, (then +under the Dutch government,) and at Rio Janeiro. In +eight months and a week the voyage was, with the +Divine blessing, completed; and after having sailed 5021 +leagues, and touched at both the American and African +continents, they came to an anchor on January 20th, +1788, within a few days’ sail of the antipodes of their +native country, having had, upon the whole, a very +healthy and prosperous voyage. Botany Bay did not +offer much that was promising for a settlement, since it +was mostly surrounded by very poor land, and water +was scarce.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> The governor, accordingly, went in person +to examine the two neighbouring harbours of Port +Jackson and Broken Bay, and upon drawing near to the +entrance of the former the coast looked as unpromising +as elsewhere, and the natives on shore continued +shouting, “Warra, warra,”—Go away, go away. Captain +Cooke, passing by the heads of Port Jackson, +thought there might be found shelter within for a boat +but Captain Phillip was agreeably surprised at finding +there one of the finest harbours in the world; and since +the goodness of the soil and the supply of water appeared +to be sufficient, it was resolved to fix the new +settlement in one of the coves of this large and beautiful +inlet. The spot chosen was near a run of fresh water, +which stole silently through a very thick wood, the +stillness of which was then for the first time interrupted +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +by the rude sound of the labourer’s axe; and fifty years +afterwards so great a change had taken place here, that +the lowest price of crown land was then 1,000<em>l.</em> an acre, +and in eligible situations sometimes a great deal more.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + +<p>The royal commission appointing the governor was +read, together with the letters patent establishing courts +of justice; and the behaviour of the convicts soon rendered +it needful to act upon these, for, within a month +of their landing, three of them were tried, found guilty, +and severely punished. The ground was begun to be +gradually cleared, a sort of farm was prepared to receive +the live stock, and a garden for the plants and seeds; +and, in obedience to the orders of the government at +home, the <em>Supply</em>, commanded by Lieutenant King, was +sent to Norfolk Island, some few days’ sail to the northeast +of Port Jackson, for the purpose of forming a colony +there in which the flax of New Zealand might be cultivated. +With respect to the first progress of the colony +at Sydney, it was very slow, in consequence both of the +idleness and ignorance of the great majority of the +colonists, to say nothing of their wickedness. In spite +of all the efforts of the governor to prevent it, +misunderstanding soon began to arise between the convicts +and the natives, and it seemed impossible in an infant +colony to put a sufficient check upon some of the unruly +spirits belonging to the former class, while, at the +same time, the thievish temper of the natives began very +early to show itself, and to provoke injuries from men +possessed of fire-arms. It must be owned, however, +that proper regard was not always paid to the rights of +the poor savages; and even so late as in the year 1810, +a person charged with shooting at a native and wounding +him, was tried simply for an assault; whilst another, +who had committed a similar offence against a European +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +was tried on the same day for his life!<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> In the beginning +of May, not four months after the arrival of the +British ships at Port Jackson, and at a time when death +and disease were making sad havoc among the settlers, +it was found needful to cut short the life of one very +juvenile offender by the hand of justice. James Bennett, +a youth of only seventeen years of age, was executed +for burglary, and died confessing that the love of idleness +and bad connexions had been his ruin. Soon after +this, three convicts were killed, and a fourth dangerously +wounded, by the natives; and upon inquiry it was found +that two of them had robbed these people of a canoe, an +act of injustice which was, no doubt, the cause of their +death. The celebration of King George III.’s birthday, +on June the 4th, gave an opportunity to the +evil-disposed to commit several robberies, and two of +these afterwards suffered death for their offences, while +another, who had gone into the woods, was proclaimed +an outlaw. For want of any overseers or police, except +those taken from their own class, the convicts were +getting beyond all discipline; and so utterly reckless +and improvident were some of them, that they would +consume their weekly allowance of provisions by the +end of the third or fourth day, and trust for their supply +during the rest of the week to the chance of being able +to steal from others that were more provident.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> One of +these degraded creatures is stated to have made up his +week’s allowance of flour (eight pounds) into cakes, +which having devoured at one meal, he was soon after +taken up, speechless and senseless, and died the following +day. Among a population like that of which we are +treating, while crimes were lamentably common, conviction +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +was comparatively rare. There was so much +tenderness to each other’s guilt, such an acquaintance +with vice and the different degrees of it, that, unless +detected in the fact, it was next to impossible to bring +an offence home to the transgressors. And with respect +to their intercourse with the natives, though the convicts +who suffered from them generally contrived to make out +themselves to be in the right; yet, even upon their own +showing, every accident that happened was occasioned +by a breach of positive orders repeatedly given. In New +South Wales, no less than in every other country, +obedience to lawful authority was proved to be the +safest and best way, after all; nor could that way be +forsaken with impunity.</p> + +<p>Amid the mass of moral corruption, which the British +ships had thus imported into the coasts of New Holland, +the only hope of infusing health and purity was from +religion. But, unhappily, the age in which that expedition +left the English shores, was certainly not a +religious age; if there was less <em>hypocrisy</em> then than +there now is, certainly there was less <em>real piety</em>. In +the great towns of the mother country, population and +wealth were allowed to make rapid strides, without a +single thought being entertained of applying a portion of +the increasing wealth of the nation to the spiritual instruction +of its increasing population. If there was no +room for the poorer classes of society at the parish church, +it was thought they might go to the meeting-house; and +if there was no room for them there, they might stay at +home on the Lord’s day and be idle; it was doing no +worse than many of their betters, in a worldly sense, +were constantly in the habit of doing.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> While notions +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +and practices of this nature prevailed at home, it was +not to be expected that any very extraordinary attention +would be paid to the religious instruction of the convicts +and other settlers in New South Wales. Yet since, +even then, it would have been thought shocking to have +left a large gaol, with 757 prisoners in it, altogether +destitute of the offices of religion, so it could not have +been expected that the same number of convicts would +ever have been cast forth as evil from their native +land, and their souls left to perish on the other side of +the globe, without a single chance, humanly speaking, +of receiving those blessings of forgiveness and grace, +which Christ died to procure for all men. But, whatever +might have been thought before hand, or whatever +may have been the immediate cause of such neglect, it +positively appears, that, “when the fleet was on the +point of sailing, in the year 1787, no clergyman had +been thought of,” nor was it without a strong appeal to +those in authority from one whose conduct in this +instance is worthy of all praise, <span class="smcap">Wilberforce</span>, aided by +the interest of Bishop Porteus with Sir Joseph Banks, +that the Rev. William Johnson was appointed chaplain.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> +From whatever cause this oversight may have arisen, +whether it was intentional, or (what is more likely) +merely the consequence of forgetfulness and carelessness, +it speaks pretty plainly for the religious indifference +of the government. However, the colony was, +happily, not permitted to be founded without any one +present to administer the sacraments and ordinances, +and enforce the duties of our holy religion among the +first settlers and convicts.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> By Divine Providence, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +acting through the instrumentality of man, the British +nation was spared the sin and shame, which it had well +nigh incurred, of casting forth from its own shores a +vile mass of uncleanness and corruption, and forgetting +at the same time to place amongst it the smallest +portion of that good leaven by which alone its evil +might be corrected. Accordingly, one chaplain<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> was +sent out to officiate among about 1000 souls, who were +at first dispersed in eleven ships, and more than two-thirds +of them were in a state of extreme spiritual need, +inasmuch as they had been guilty of gross and flagrant +offences. And thus, thanks to the zeal and good feeling +which had gained a victory over the supineness of government, +the discharge of religious duties on the Sunday was +never omitted at Sydney, Divine service being performed +in the open air whenever the state of the weather would +permit. All seems to have been done by the chaplain +which could be effected under circumstances of great +discouragement.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> When our blessed Redeemer sent forth +his disciples, he sent them by two and two, and how encouraging, +in the midst of an evil world, is the conversation +or counsel of a christian friend that is dearer +than a brother! But the chaplain of New South Wales +had no such assistance to fall back upon; he was left +alone and single-handed—yet not alone, for Christ is ever +with his authorised ministers, to fight against the +mighty power of evils by which he was surrounded. +He visited the sick and the convicts, going from settlement +to settlement, and from hut to hut; travelling to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +the more distant stations, that were afterwards formed, +as far as he could reach, and assembling as many as he +could for divine service. With what success these +efforts were attended we shall be better able to judge +hereafter; but one truth must be borne in mind, which +is, that, in the very nature of things, evil will make +itself more prominent and noticed in the world than +good; so that, whilst it may almost appear from the +history of the colony, as though there was not one godly +man left in it, we shall do well to remember that there +may have been, nevertheless, many a one who was profited +by the ministry of Christ’s Church among them, many +a Naaman who had been taught to forsake the evil +thing which he once delighted in worshipping, many a +knee which had not bowed to Baal, and many a mouth +which had not kissed his image.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p> + +<p>However, it cannot be denied that the greater number +of the settlers of every description were but little disposed +to listen to the words of eternal truth, although they were +ready enough to listen to any falsehood which promised +well for their worldly interests. Thus, before the first +year of the colony had expired, it was pretended and +believed that a <em>gold mine</em> had been discovered. The +specimens of this which the impostor produced, were +manufactured out of a guinea and a brass buckle; and +his object in deceiving was, that he might get clothes +and other articles in exchange for his promised gold +dust, from the people belonging to the store ships. But +his cheat was soon discovered, and all that his gold dust +finally procured him, was a severe flogging, and before +the end of the year he was executed for another offence. +Yet it would not be far from the truth to state, that the +British had indeed discovered a gold mine in Sydney, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +by working which with industry, ability, and perseverance, +enormous riches have been obtained. When the +story of the mine was invented, the land around Port +Jackson was unproductive, and the hills wild or barren, +but in little more than fifty years from that time the +imports into the Port of Sydney amounted in 1840 to +£2,462,858, while the amount of goods exported from the +same place during that year was valued at £1,951,544.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> +Where was there ever a gold mine that was known to +make a return so profitable as this to those that +worked it?</p> + +<p>The great object, and generally the most difficult to +be obtained, in forming altogether a new colony, is to +make it begin to produce a sufficiency to supply its own +necessary wants. But, although this object was kept +steadily in view from the very first in New South Wales, +yet were there many hindrances to be overcome, and +much suffering to be endured, before it was finally +gained. The land near the new settlement is none of +the best for farming operations, and persons at all +acquainted with agriculture appear to have been very +scarce among the settlers and convicts; besides which, +the prevailing idleness was so great, that it seemed +almost impossible to make the men exert themselves; +and, perhaps, nothing less than the want and privations, +which they subsequently endured, could have had this +effect. A regular supply of provisions had constantly +been issued from the government stores, and the convicts, +with that short-sighted imprudence by which the vicious +are generally distinguished, had never given themselves +the trouble of looking forwards to the necessity of raising +a supply of food for themselves. Meanwhile, although +farming operations were going on but slowly, and not +very successfully, the stores were being lessened at a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +rapid rate, not only by the ordinary issue of provisions, +but likewise by rats and pilferers. Six soldiers, and an +accomplice who turned king’s evidence, were discovered, +after eight months of impunity, by means of a key which +was left by one of them in the lock, upon his being disturbed +by the patrol; and these men, having betrayed +their trust as sentinels, and carried on a regular system +of plunder for the purpose of indulging themselves in +vice and drunkenness, were all executed. In April 1789 +the <em>Sirius</em> returned, bringing the first cargo of provisions +received by the colony, which was, however, only +equal to four months’ supply at full rations. But full +rations were not to continue much longer in the infant +settlement. In November, 1789, very nearly two years +after the arrival of the colonists, it was found needful to +reduce the allowance to two-thirds of every sort of +provisions, spirits alone excepted. No alteration was +made in the allowance of the women, who were already +upon two-thirds of the full ratio of a man; and it was +eagerly and confidently expected that, after having +waited so long, it would be but a short period more +before an ample supply of all that was necessary would +be received from the mother country.</p> + +<p>In November, which is one of the summer months of +the Australian calendar, the little harvest of the colony +was got in. At Rose Hill, (or Paramatta, as it is now +called,) where the best land had been found, upwards of +two hundred bushels of wheat, about thirty-five bushels +of barley, besides a small quantity of oats and Indian +corn, were harvested; and the whole of this produce was +intended to be kept for seed. At Sydney, the spot of +cleared ground called the Governor’s Farm had produced +about twenty-five bushels of barley. But the evil spirit +of thieving was still as rife as ever among the convicts, +and the young crops of wheat were the objects of plunder +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +(especially after the reduction of the allowance,) +notwithstanding the immense importance of preserving +seed sufficient to crop a larger breadth of land for the +following year. In the very beginning of 1790 the provisions +brought from England wholly failed, having just +about lasted during the two years for which they had +been calculated; and the colonists then became totally +dependent upon the slender stock brought for them by +the <em>Sirius</em> from the Cape of Good Hope. Great anxiety +began to be felt for an arrival from England, and a flagstaff<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> +was erected on the south head of the entrance to +the harbour of Port Jackson, so that a signal might be +there made upon the first appearance of the expected +vessel. In hope of this welcome event the eyes of the +colonists were often directed thither, and often must +their hearts have grown sick from the tedious delay of +the hope in which they indulged. Certainly, it is a +remarkable instance of the hard-heartedness and corruption +of man’s nature, that, even under these circumstances, +with the horrors of famine daily in view, left +alone on a remote and desolate coast, and, as it appeared, +forsaken by the rest of the world, they did not profit +by the lessons thus forcibly brought before them, nor +listen with any good effect to the warnings taught them +by sorrow and trouble, those great and awakening +preachers of righteousness.</p> + +<p>During the anxious interval that succeeded, everything +that was possible to be done for the public advantage +was done by the governor. Occasionally, a fair +supply of fish had been brought in, and accordingly a +boat was employed to fish three times in the week, and +the whole quantity that was taken was issued out in +addition to the rations, which were equally distributed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +to every person, no distinction being made in favour of +the governor himself, who, when he had a party at +Government House, always requested his guests to bring +their bread with them, for there was none to spare;—in +February, 1790, there were not four months’ provisions +in the colony, even at half allowance. These circumstances +required thoughtful and vigorous measures to +be promptly taken, and since Norfolk Island was a more +fertile spot, and much better supplied with provisions at +that time, it was resolved to send some of the convicts +thither, unless the expected supplies from England +should arrive before March 3d, the day fixed for their +departure. 116 male and 68 female convicts, with 27 +children, were thus sent away, and the colony wore quite +a deserted appearance. Every effort was made to +prevent the destruction of live stock, which was very +rapidly taking place, and towards the end of March a +yet further reduction was necessary in the allowances, +which were then to be given out daily; an alteration at +the same time was made in the hours of public labour, +and the afternoons of each day were given up to the +people to work for themselves in their own gardens. +The fish that was caught was also issued out as part of +the allowance, but at a more liberal rate,—ten pounds of +fish being deemed equal to two and a half pounds of pork. +In the midst of this necessity it is gratifying to find that +the witness of the Church, though, as usual, too little +heeded, was yet not silent; “attention to religious +duties,” <em>i.e.</em> to Divine worship on Sundays, “was never +omitted, and service was performed on Good Friday.”<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +But the early settlers of New South Wales were taught +by sad experience the truth of that common saying that +bids us to “welcome the sorrow that comes alone.” It +had been arranged that the <em>Sirius</em> should return +immediately from Norfolk Island, and then should sail direct +for China to procure a supply of provisions immediately. +But Providence never permitted the <em>Sirius</em> again to float +upon the quiet waters of Sydney Cove. The vessel was +lost upon a reef at Norfolk Island, after having landed +most of those on board, and the others escaped with +their lives, but the ship was totally destroyed. Disgraceful +to relate, it was set on fire by two convicts who +had been allowed to go on board on the second day after +the wreck, in the hope of saving the live hogs, but these +men got drunk with the liquor they found, and set the +ship on fire in two places, nor was it without great +difficulty that they were themselves rescued. This sorrowful +intelligence was brought by the <em>Supply</em>,—the only +remaining hope of procuring relief for the wants of the +colony. After various precautionary measures had been +taken, the <em>Supply</em> was despatched to Batavia, under orders +to procure, not only a quantity of provisions, but also to +hire a vessel, which should accompany the English ship +on its return, and should bring to New South Wales a +second cargo of necessaries. Meanwhile, the allowances +were yet further reduced, and the governor, having +reserved 300 bushels of wheat for seed, gave up 300 lbs. +weight of flour, which was his own private property, for +the public use; besides which, the expedients of fishing +and shooting wild animals were tried, but with no great +success. Crime appeared rather to increase than to +diminish with the increase of temptation and opportunities; +and at this awful period of trial for the whole +population, it was judged necessary to execute one +criminal. A female convict was at this time robbed of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +her week’s provisions, and she was left to subsist upon +the bounty of others, since it was impossible to replace +them from the public store; and if it was a cruel offence +of <em>one</em> to rob the poor woman, it reflected credit upon +<em>many</em>, that, under such circumstances, she was preserved +from starvation.</p> + +<p>At length, after six months of indescribable anxiety and +privation, the expected signal was made, and a boat was +sent off (in very rough weather) to direct the ship how to +get safely into the harbour. It was the transport-ship, +the <em>Lady Juliana</em>, which had been no less than ten +months upon the voyage, and which brought news +of the almost total destruction of another ship, the +<em>Guardian</em>, which had been sent out previously, and well +supplied with every thing necessary for a rising colony. +<em>The Lady Juliana</em> brought very little addition to the +supplies, compared with the additional number of consumers, +above 200 female convicts, which she had with +her; these had been sent upon the reckoning of the +<em>Guardian’s</em> stores arriving beforehand; and if this had +been permitted, probably the colony would never more +have experienced want. It was unfortunate, at a +time when a cargo of any thing but of convicts would +have been serviceable, that scarcely any thing else +should arrive. Before the end of June, however, another +ship laden with provisions arrived, after having very +narrowly escaped a wreck off the heads at the entrance +of Port Jackson; and upon the welcome arrival of this +supply the immediate scarcity ceased. Three other +vessels shortly followed, and things were thus for a time +restored to their former course; but repeated trials, +arising from want of provisions, were afterwards, at +intervals, the lot of the colony. In 1794, on the very +day when the doors of the provision-store were closed, +and the convicts had received their last allowance which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +remained, the signal for a sail was made; and it was the +third day before the two vessels then in sight could be +got into the harbour, but their arrival brought comparative +abundance to the starving population of 3,000 +people, who were beginning seriously to reckon up how +far their live stock would go towards the supply of their +necessities. Several other similar seasons of famine +have been recorded, and it is curious and instructive to +look back upon the day of small things in a country +abundant as New South Wales at present is in the necessaries, +comforts, and even luxuries, of life.</p> + +<p>The state of health in which many of the convicts +reached their place of exile, and the numbers of them +which never reached it at all, were deplorable facts, +proving too truly that men may be found capable of +doing any thing for the hope of profit. A certain sum +per head was paid by the government for each convict, +and thus the dead became more profitable to the contractors +than the living were; for the expenses of the +former were less, while the stipulated payments were +the same in both cases. Out of three ships 274 convicts +died on the voyage,<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> and when they had landed, there +were no less than 488 persons in the hospital. Neglect +like this of the miserable creatures who had broken their +country’s laws, most justly awakens our feelings of +indignation; and these are righteous feelings, but let +them not be confined to the <em>bodily</em> neglect to which, +in a comparatively few instances at first, the convicts +were exposed. Let us recollect, with sorrow rather than +indignation, how many thousands of these unhappy creatures +have, down to the present time, been left to perish, in a +spiritual sense, and that, likewise, from motives of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +profit, for fear of the outcry of want of economy being +excited in a wealthy nation, if sufficient means of spiritual +instruction were provided for our banished fellow-countrymen!</p> + +<p>Soon after the arrival of the three transports, those of +the convicts that were in tolerable health were settled at +Rose Hill, and the town now called Paramatta was laid +out; and the commencement of a system of free settlers +was provided for, although the retired soldiers, those +parties for whom it was originally intended, were not +usually very persevering or successful in their attempts +at farming. In September, 1790, Governor Phillip received +that wound of which mention has been made +elsewhere;<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> and this season the dry weather was so +excessive, that the gardens and fields of corn were parched +up for want of moisture. Five convicts left Paramatta +in a boat, and got out of the harbour without being +discovered, having provisions for a week with them, and +purposing to steer for Otaheite!<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> A search was made +for them, but in vain, and beyond doubt they must have +perished miserably. At various times, the convicts, +especially some of the Irish, set off to the northwards, +meaning to travel by the interior of New Holland +<em>overland to China</em>; and many were either starved to +death or else killed by the natives, while pursuing this +vain hope of escape from thraldom.</p> + +<p>The next event of importance to the infant colony was +the arrival, towards the close of 1791, of what is called +the <em>second</em> fleet, consisting of no less than ten ships, and +having on board upwards of 2,000 convicts, with provisions +and other necessaries. These ships came dropping +into the harbour at short intervals after each other, +and their arrival, together with the needful preparations +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +for the additional numbers brought by them, gave an +air of bustle and life to the little town of Sydney. Various +public works and buildings had been carried on, especially +some tanks were cut in the rocks to serve as +reservoirs in dry seasons, and at Paramatta between +forty and fifty fresh acres were expected to be got ready +for Indian corn this year. By his Majesty’s ship +<em>Gorgon</em>, certain needful instruments and powers for +carrying on the government of the colony were sent, and +amongst others the public seal of New South Wales. +Two or three of the vessels which had arrived from +England, were employed, after discharging their cargoes, +in the whale-fishery, and not altogether without success; +so early did British enterprise turn itself to that +occupation, which has latterly become most profitable in +those regions. During this year, the governor for the +first time exercised a power which had only recently +been given him, and several convicts were, on account +of their good behaviour, released from their state of +bondage, on condition of their not returning to England +before the term of their sentences had expired. Various +allotments of land were also given to those whose terms +had already expired, and who signified their willingness +to become settlers in this new country. At the close of +the year 1791, nearly four years from the first landing of +the British in Port Jackson, the public live stock consisted +of one aged stallion, one mare, two young stallions, +two colts, sixteen cows, two calves, one ram, fifty ewes, +six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows, and twenty-two +pigs. The cultivated ground at Paramatta amounted to +three hundred acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in +barley, one in oats, four in vines, eighty-six in garden-ground, +and seventeen in cultivation by the soldiers of +the New South Wales Corps. Thus humble were the +beginnings, even after some time, of that wealth in flocks +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +and herds for which our Australian colonies are now so +justly celebrated.</p> + +<p>Very little, meanwhile, is recorded of the chaplain, +Mr. Johnson, or his doings, but that little is to his credit. +He was, it appears, in the habit of relieving from his +own private bounty the convicts who were most in need; +and some of them spread abroad a report that this was +done from funds raised by subscription in the mother country; +and upon the strength of this notion, in the +spirit which the poorer classes in England too often +exhibit, they chose to claim relief as though it were their +<em>just right</em>. This false notion was publicly contradicted, +and Mr. Johnson thought it necessary that the convicts +should know that it was to his bounty alone that they +were indebted for these gifts, and that, consequently, +the partakers of them were to be of his own selection. +Another instance of the kindness of Mr. Johnson, and +of the evil return it met with, has also been recorded, +and though it occurred some years afterwards, in 1797, +it may be noticed here. It happened that among the +convicts there was found one who had been this gentleman’s +schoolfellow, and the chaplain, feeling compassion +for his fallen condition, had taken him into his service, +and treated him with the utmost confidence and indulgence. +Soon afterwards, it was rumoured that this man +had taken an impression of the key of the store-room +in clay, from which he had procured another key to fit +the lock. Mr. Johnson scarcely credited the story, but +at length he consented that a constable should be concealed +in the house on a Sunday, when all the family, +except this person, would be engaged in Divine service. +The plan succeeded too well. Supposing that all was +secure, the ungrateful wretch applied his key to the +door of the store-room, and began to plunder it of all +the articles he chose to take, until the constable, leaving +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +his hiding-place, put an end to the robbery by making +the thief his prisoner.</p> + +<p>The attention of Mr. Johnson to his ministerial and +public duties appears to have continued in a quiet and +regular way, but its fruits were by no means so manifest +as could have been wished. In 1790 he complained to +the authorities of the want of attendance at divine +service, which, it must be observed, was generally +performed in the open air, exposed alike to the wind +and rain, or burning sun; and then it was ordered that +a certain portion of provisions should be taken off from +the allowance of each person who might absent himself +from prayers without giving a reasonable excuse. And +thus, we may suppose, a better congregation was +secured; but, alas! from what a motive were they +induced to draw near their God. And how many are +there, it is to be feared, in our country parishes in +England, whose great inducement to attend their church +is the fact that the clergyman generally has certain gifts +to distribute: how common a fault, in short, has it been +in all ages and in all countries for men to seek Christ +from no higher motive than that they may “eat of the +loaves and be filled!”<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> In proof of the single voice +that was raised in the wilderness of New South Wales +being not altogether an empty and ineffectual sound, we +are told that in 1790, when the female convicts who +arrived by the <em>Lady Juliana</em> attended divine service for +the first time, Mr. Johnson, with much propriety, in his +discourse, touched upon their situation so forcibly as to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +draw tears from many of them, who were not yet +hardened enough to be altogether insensible to truth. +Another instance of very praiseworthy zeal was afforded +by the voluntary visit of the chaplain of New South +Wales in 1791 to Norfolk Island, which small colony +had never yet been favoured even with the temporary +presence of a minister of the Church of Christ.</p> + +<p>But a yet better proof of the chaplain’s earnestness +was given, after the colony had been settled for six +years, in his building a church,—the first that was raised +in New Holland for the purposes of christian worship. +Even now, we often may hear and lament the ignorance +which chooses to reckon the <em>clergy</em> as the <em>Church</em>, and +which looks upon the efforts recently made in favour of +church extension, as lying quite beyond the province +of the laity; and this deplorable ignorance was much +more common in Mr. Johnson’s days.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> Accordingly, +to the disgrace of the colony and of the government at +home, no church was raised during six years, and when +at last that object was accomplished, it was by the +private purse and the single efforts of an individual,—the +chaplain of the colony. The building was in a very +humble style, made of wood and thatched, and it is said +to have cost Mr. Johnson only 40<em>l.</em>; but all this merely +serves to show how easily the good work might have +been before done, how inexcusable it was to leave its +accomplishment to one individual. A few months before +this necessary work was undertaken the colony had been +visited by two Spanish ships, and it is possible that an +observation made by the Romish priest belonging to one +of these ships may have had some effect towards raising +the first church built at Sydney. At the time when the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +Spanish ships were in the harbour, the English chaplain +performed divine service wherever he could find a shady +spot; and the Spanish priest observing that, during so +many years no church had been built, lifted up his eyes +with astonishment, declaring (truly), that, had the place +been settled by his nation, a house of God would have +been erected before any house for man. How disgraceful +to the English nation, how injurious to our +Reformed Church, that an observation like this, coming +from the lips of one who belonged to a corrupt and +idolatrous church, should be so true, so incapable of +contradiction! However, if the remark had any effect +in exciting the efforts of the Protestant chaplain, and in +thus supplying at length a want so palpable as that +of a house of God in the colony, it was by no means +uttered in vain; and supposing it to be so, this is not a +solitary instance of our Church and her members having +been aroused into activity by the taunts and attacks of +those that are opposed to her.</p> + +<p>Upon the opening of the humble building, which had +thus tardily been raised for the purposes of divine +worship, and to consecrate which according to the +beautiful forms of our English church there was no +bishop in the colony, the chaplain preached a suitable +sermon, we are informed; but, if it may be judged from +the scanty record that is preserved of it, this discourse +partook of the cold and worldly spirit of the age in +which it was delivered. Mr. Johnson began well with +impressing upon his hearers the necessity of holiness in +every place, and then lamented the urgency of public +works having prevented the erection of a church sooner. +As though a building for the public worship of Almighty +God were not the most urgent of all public works in +every christian community! He next went on to +declare, that his <em>only</em> motive in coming forward in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +business was that of establishing a place sheltered from +bad weather, and from the summer-heats, where public +worship might be performed. The uncertainty of a +place where they might attend had prevented many from +coming, but he hoped that now the attendance would be +regular.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> Surely, the worthy chaplain might have had +and avowed a higher motive for building a house of +God, than that of keeping men from the wind, and the +rain, and the sun; and, undoubtedly, as the inconvenience +of the former system was no good excuse for +absence from divine service, so neither could the comparative +convenience of the new arrangement be at all +a proper motive for attendance upon it.</p> + +<p>However, many allowances are to be made for Mr. +Johnson, and it becomes us, while we condemn the +faults, to spare the persons, of the men of that and of +other past generations; especially when we look at our +own age, and see, notwithstanding the improvement +that has unquestionably taken place, how many conspicuous +faults there are prevailing among us, which +those of future generations will justly pity and condemn. +It may be well, before the subject of the church raised +by Mr. Johnson is finally quitted, to acquaint the reader +with its fate. In 1798, after having stood only five +years, it was discovered one evening to be on fire, and, +all efforts to save it proving useless, from the combustible +nature of the materials, it was consumed in an +hour. “This was a great loss,” observes the historian +of the colony, “for during the working days of the +week the building was used as a school, in which from +150 to 200 children were educated, under the immediate +inspection of Mr. Johnson. As this building stood +alone, and no person was suffered to remain in it after +the school hours, there was not a doubt but the atrocious +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +act was the effect of design, and in consequence of +an order enforcing attendance on divine service.” The +governor, however, with praiseworthy zeal, would not +suffer a single Sunday to be lost, but ordered a new +store-house, which was just finished, to be fitted up for +a church. One brief observation may here be added. +How powerful a witness do the enemies of Christ’s +Church, and of our English branch of it, bear to the +usefulness and effect of its doctrine, even in its most +helpless and lowest condition, by the ceaseless and +unscrupulous pains which they take in trying to silence +its testimony!</p> + +<p>No apology is necessary for detaining the reader so +long upon these little details, since if the religious state +and progress of an infant colony be not an interesting +feature in its history, what can we hope to find in it that +is deserving of the attention of a thoughtful and well-regulated +mind? But we return now to the temporal +affairs of New South Wales. The year 1792, which +began with reduced rations of provisions, was a time of +great suffering and scarcity in the colony, nor was it +until the latter part of the year that any relief for the +wants of the settlers arrived. Meanwhile the mortality +that took place was very alarming, and notwithstanding +the sickness that prevailed, there was no abatement in +wickedness and crime. At one time during this year +no less than fifty-three persons were missing, many of +whom never returned, having perished, no doubt, miserably +in the woods, while seeking for a new settlement, +or endeavouring to find their way to China! An execution +for theft took place in January, and the unhappy +man declared that hunger had tempted him to commit +the crime for which he suffered. Many instances of +profligacy among the convicts occurred, but one stands +forth distinguished by especial wickedness. A woman +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +had been trusted to carry to the bakehouse the allowance +of flour belonging to two others; and after having +run in debt for flour taken up on their account, she +mixed a quantity of pounded stone, in the proportion of +two-thirds of grit to one of flour, with the meal belonging +to the other women.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> Fortunately, the deceit was found +out before the flour was mixed with other meal at the +bakehouse, and the culprit was sentenced to wear an +iron collar for six months. In April, a convict was +killed by a blow from the limb of a tree, which fell on +his head as he passed under it, and fractured his skull. +He died on the spot, having earned from those who knew +him the character of being so great a reprobate, that he +was scarcely ever known to speak without an oath, or +without calling on his Maker to witness the truth of the +lie he was about to utter. Are these poor creatures, if +may be again asked, to be cast out from their own +country, and left (as they too often have been,) to their +own evil devices and to Satan’s temptations, without +involving the nation that has thus treated them in a +load of guilt too fearful to contemplate?</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the year 1792 the harvest was +gathered in from the 1540 acres of cleared ground, +which were sown in the preceding seed-time. The produce +was tolerably good, and since no less than 3470 +acres of land had already been granted to settlers, it was +hoped that before very long the colony might cease to +be almost entirely dependent for its support upon the +precarious supply which it received from ships. The +colonists then learned by sad experience what many +Englishmen in the present day seem unwilling to believe, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +that <em>it is one of the worst evils to be dependent upon other +countries for daily bread</em>. In December, the governor, +Captain Phillip, left the colony from ill health, having +acted with much prudence and vigour during his +administration, and leaving behind him a respectable +character; he returned to England, where his services +were rewarded by a pension of 400<em>l.</em> a-year, and he +retired to Bath, at which city he died. His activity in +exploring the neighbouring country and discovering its +capabilities, his courage and firmness on many very +trying occasions, his steady opposition to every proposal +of abandoning the settlement, together with his +general character, sufficiently entitle his memory to +regard and respect from those who are now living in +New South Wales, and reaping in comparative ease the +fruit of that harvest which it cost him and others great +pains and many trials to sow.</p> + +<p>Before the first Governor of New South Wales left +that country, he had the satisfaction of seeing its +prospects of a future sufficiency of provisions very +greatly improved; and a work of charity, the hospital at +Paramatta, was completed in the month before that in +which he sailed. With the year 1793 began a new +government, for as no successor had been appointed at +home to Captain Phillip, the chief power now came, +according to what had been previously provided, into +the hands of Major Grose, of the New South Wales +Corps, who assumed the style of Lieutenant-Governor. +During nearly three years things continued in this state; +only Major Grose left the settlement, and was succeeded +by Captain Paterson; nor was it until 1795 that a +regular successor to the first governor arrived in the +colony. In this period many things occurred which +were, no doubt, of the highest interest to the settlers at +the time, but few events which deserve our particular +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +notice now. A fire, which destroyed a house worth +15<em>l.</em>, and thirty bushels of new wheat;—the alternate +scarcity and comparative abundance of provisions;—the +arrival or departure of ships from the harbour;—the +commission of the first murder in the colony, and +other sad accounts of human depravity and its punishment;—the +gradual improvement and extension of the +colony;—the first sale by auction of a farm of twenty-five +acres for the sum of 13<em>l.</em>:—these and similar subjects +occupy the history of New South Wales, not merely +during the three years that elapsed between Governor +Phillip’s departure and the arrival of his successor, but +also during the long period of gradual but increasing +improvement which followed the last event.</p> + +<p>Yet, while the improvement of the little colony was +evidently steady and increasing, when its affairs are +regarded in a temporal point of view, in morals its +progress appeared to be directly contrary; and, painful +though it be to dwell upon the sins and follies of men, +whose bodies have long since passed away to their +parent dust, and their souls returned to God who gave +them, nevertheless, there are many wholesome lessons +of instruction and humiliation to be gathered from the +history of human depravity in New South Wales. One +of the crying sins of the mother country,—a sin now +very much confined to the lower classes of society, but +fifty years ago equally common among all classes,—is +that of <em>drunkenness</em>; and it could scarcely be expected +that the outcast daughter in Australia would be less +blamable in this respect than the mother from which +she sprang.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> Accordingly, we find that as soon as it +was possible to procure spirits, at however great a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +sacrifice, they were obtained, and intoxication was +indulged in,—if such brutality deserves the name of +indulgence,—to an awful extent. Whether all that a +writer very intimately acquainted with New South +Wales urges against the officers of the New South Wales +Corps be true or not, so far as their dealings in spirituous +liquors are concerned, there can be no question that +these mischievous articles became almost entirely the +current coin of the settlement, and were the source of +worldly gain to a few, while they proved the moral ruin +of almost all, in the colony. But, without giving entire +credit to all the assertions of Dr. Lang, who deals very +much in hasty notions and exaggerated opinions,<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> we +may sorrowfully acknowledge that, if the convicts in +New South Wales gave way in a horrible manner to +drunkenness and its attendant sins, the upper classes, +in general, either set them a bad example, or made a +plunder of them by pandering to their favourite vice. +The passion for liquor, it is stated by Collins,<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> operated +like a mania, there being nothing which the people +would not risk to obtain it: and while spirits were to +be had, those who did any extra labour refused to be +paid in money, or in any other article than spirits, +which were then so scarce as to be sold at six shillings a +bottle. So eagerly were fermented liquors sought after, +and so little was the value of money in a place where +neither the comforts nor luxuries of life could be +bought, that the purchaser has been often known, in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +early days of the colony, to name himself a price for the +article he wanted, fixing it as high again as would otherwise +have been required of him. When the few boat-builders +and shipwrights in the colony had leisure, they +employed themselves in building boats for those that +would pay them their price, namely, five or six gallons of +spirits. It could be no matter of surprise that boats +made by workmen so paid should be badly put together, +and scarcely seaworthy.</p> + +<p>But, however commonly the standard of value might +be measured by spirituous liquors, yet it is evident that +these, being themselves procurable for money, could not +altogether supersede the desire of money itself. Hence +arose those numerous acts of theft and depredation, +that improvident thirst after present gain, that total +disregard of future consequences by which many of the +first inhabitants of the colony were disgraced and +ruined. The contagion of evil example forced its way +into Government House, and the steward of Governor +Hunter became an awful instance of the mischief of bad +society. Against this he had been often cautioned by +his master, but to no purpose, until at length he was +discovered abusing the unlimited confidence which had +been placed in him, and making use of the governor’s +name in a most iniquitous manner. At this discovery +the wretched victim of evil communication retired to a +shrubbery in his master’s garden, and shot himself +through the head.</p> + +<p>From the love of money, which no mean authority +has pronounced to be “the root of all evil,”<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> arose +likewise that spirit of gambling, which ended in murder +on one occasion before the settlement had existed more +than six years; and which on many occasions was the +manifest cause of misery and ruin to those in whom this +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +evil spirit had taken up its abode. To such excess was +the pursuit of gambling carried among the convicts, that +some had been known, after losing provisions, money, +and all their spare clothing, to have staked and lost the +very clothes on their wretched backs, standing in the +midst of their associates as degraded, and as careless of +their degradation, as the natives of the country which +these gamblers disgraced. Money was their principal +object, for with money they could purchase spirits, or +whatever else their passions made them covet, or the +colony could furnish. These unhappy men have been +seen to play at their favourite games for six, eight, and +ten dollars each game; and those who were not expert +at these, instead of pence, tossed up for dollars!<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE COLONY TO 1821.</strong></p> + + +<p>The month of August, 1795, was marked in the annals +of New South Wales by the arrival of the second governor +of the colony, Captain Hunter, who continued +five years in power, and returned to England in the +year 1800, after having seen the colony over which he +was placed prospering and thriving enough in worldly +matters, though in other more important points it +continued poor and naked indeed. It was a great object +with the new governor to check and restrain that love of +liquor, which he saw working so much mischief among +his people; and several private stills were found and +destroyed, to the great regret of their owners, who made +twice as large a profit from the spirit distilled by them +out of wheat, as they would have been able to have +gained, had they sold their grain for the purpose of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +making bread. So common was the abuse of paying +wages in liquor,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> that it was pretended that the produce +of these stills was only to be paid away in labour, whereas +it was sold for a means of intoxication to any person who +would bring ready money for it. At the commencement +of harvest, in the November immediately following the +arrival of Governor Hunter, a regulation was made by +that gentleman, which showed that the infant colony +was now making rapid strides towards that point of +advancement and independence, from which ignorant +and designing men are at present labouring to thrust +down the mother country. New South Wales was, in +1795, just beginning to supply its inhabitants with corn, +and Governor Hunter wisely thought that the increasing +abundance of the produce would now bear some little +decrease in the high prices hitherto paid for new grain +at the public store. England, in 1843, is able to supply +its inhabitants with food, (except in scarce years, when +corn is let in at prices varying with the degree of scarcity,) +and many Englishmen unwisely think that this advantage +and independence may be safely bartered away—for +what?—for <em>very low prices</em>, and, their constant companions, +<em>very low wages</em>, and <em>very great and universal +distress</em>!<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +Another addition to the means, which the country was +beginning to possess of maintaining its inhabitants, was +made by the regular, though far from rapid, increase of +live stock, which, in spite of all obstacles, and notwithstanding +great carelessness and ignorance on the part of +many of those that kept it, continued to thrive and +multiply.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> But, besides the cattle to be seen upon +the various farms and allotments in the settlement, a +considerable herd of wild cattle were found, soon after +Governor Hunter’s arrival, on the banks of the Nepean +River, about thirty miles from Sydney, in a district still +bearing the name of the Cow Pastures. These animals +were clearly ascertained to have sprung from a few tame +cattle which had strayed away from the colony at its +first foundation; and the governor, pleased at this discovery, +himself paid a visit to the Cow Pastures, where +he found a very fine herd, upwards of forty in number, +grazing in a pleasant and rich pasturage. The whole +number of them was upwards of sixty, but the governor’s +party were attacked by a furious bull, which, in self-defence, +they were obliged to kill. The country where +these animals were seen was remarkably pleasant to the +eye; every where was thick and luxuriant grass growing; +the trees were thinly scattered, and free from underwood, +except in particular spots; in several beautiful flats large +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +ponds were found, covered with ducks and black swans, +the margins of which were fringed with beautiful shrubs, +and the ground rose from these levels into hills of easy +ascent. The advantages of having an increasing number +of wild cattle within so short a distance of the settlement +were obvious enough, and the government resolved to +protect them to the utmost of its power. Accordingly, +it was ordered that no part of the fertile tract of which +these animals were in possession should be granted out +to settlers; and at length the herds became too numerous +even for the 60,000 acres, which the district was supposed +to contain. But, in 1813 and the two following years, +so severe a drought prevailed, that vast numbers of +them died; and afterwards the government consented to +grant away the land, and the remainder of the herds +betook themselves to the mountainous ranges beyond.</p> + +<p>Captain Hunter was rather fond of exploring the unknown +country which extended behind, or to the northward +or southward of, the narrow limits of the British +colony: and during his administration its boundaries +were considerably enlarged, and some valuable +discoveries were made. One of the most important of +these was a discovery which served to prove the claim +of the colony to be called New South Wales, from its +resemblance to the country whence its name was taken, +in one production at least. In 1796, some persons +returned from fishing in a bay considerably to the northward +of Port Jackson, and brought with them several +large pieces of <em>coal</em>, which they said that they had found +at some little distance from the beach, lying in quantities +on the surface of the ground. This was the first knowledge +obtained by the settlers of the value of the productions +of the coast at the mouth of the river Hunter, +and at the place where coals were found so abundantly +there now exists a township, furnishing the whole colony +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +with a supply of that useful article, besides having a large +trade in lime, which is made from the oyster-shells that +are found there in immense quantities. The appropriate +name of this township is Newcastle.</p> + +<p>Many needful and praiseworthy regulations were made +by Captain Hunter, who endeavoured to enforce attendance +on Divine service, and the proper observance of +the Sunday; and who took great pains also to discover +and punish those encroachments upon the public stores +which had been continually made. The convicts whose +time of punishment had expired, but who were unable +to get a passage to England, were frequently more +troublesome and ill-disposed, being less under authority +than the others were. These emancipists, as they were +called, would occasionally indeed withdraw from receiving +the ration allowed by Government; but then it was only +in the hope of avoiding labour, and living by pillage. +Or else these men, together with others not less +ill-disposed than themselves, would play every possible +trick to obtain their allowance from the public stores, +when they were not entitled, or to get more than their +allowances, when they had a certain claim. To put a +check upon such practices, the governor, in 1796, had a +general muster of all descriptions of people in every +part of the colony at the same hour, so that it would be +no longer possible, as on former occasions, for one +person to manage to answer to his name in two different +places, and to draw provisions from both stores. Very +shortly after this general muster, the governor made a +journey to the banks of the River Hawkesbury, where +there is some of the richest land in the colony, but on +his return, he had the mortification of seeing a stack +of wheat belonging to Government burnt, containing +800 bushels, and it was not certain whether this fire +was accidental, since the destruction thus caused made +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +room for as many bushels as were destroyed, which must +be purchased from the settlers who had wheat to sell. +In reading of these atrocious acts—for if <em>this</em> fire was not +intentional, <em>others</em> undoubtedly were—the inhabitants of +England must not plume themselves upon their superiority +to the outcasts of their country in New South +Wales. Unhappily, the word <em>incendiarism</em> has become +familiar to English ears, and, ever since the evil spirits +of agitation and rebellion have been dallied with, they +have made their deeds of darkness visible, from time to +time, by the awful midnight fires which they have kindled +in the land.</p> + +<p>But it was not only in checking the outrages of the +British inhabitants of New South Wales, that the +governor was actively employed; the natives were also +exceedingly troublesome, especially at the valuable farms +on the Hawkesbury. Vigorous efforts were made to +prevent that disorder, and disregard of private property, +which seemed so prevailing; and certainly Governor +Hunter appears to have been an active and energetic, +but, as might be expected in a colony like that over +which he was placed, not altogether a <em>popular</em> ruler. +The vices of the lower classes were, in too many instances, +found profitable, more or less directly, to those +who are termed the upper classes in the settlement; +and since both classes became to a fearful degree sensual +and covetous, the evil was doubly aggravated by example +and contagion. And when we consider, that, at +that time, the population of the colony might almost +have been divided into those who <em>drank</em> rum, and those +who <em>sold</em> it;<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> when we recollect the covetousness of all +classes, the hardened wickedness of many of the convicts, +the idleness of the settlers or soldiers, the peculiar +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +character of the natives, and the infant state of the +British colony, it must be confessed, that the requisites +of every good governor,—a wise head, a stout heart, +and a steady hand,—were preeminently needful in the +governor of New South Wales.</p> + +<p>The list of crimes, which were continually occurring +during the five years of Captain Hunter’s being governor, +was a fearful and appalling one; nor can we wonder at +the wish expressed by the historian of the early days of +the colony, that future annalists may find a pleasanter +field to travel in, without having their steps beset every +moment with murderers, robbers, and incendiaries. +Twice during Governor Hunter’s administration was a +public gaol purposely destroyed by fire; once the gaol +at Sydney suffered, although there were twenty prisoners +confined there, who being mostly in irons were with +difficulty saved; and the second time, the Paramatta +gaol was destroyed, and one of the prisoners was +scorched to death. Several of the settlers declined to +pay anything towards the building of a new gaol, and it +was not long a matter of doubt which article would be +most likely to bear a productive tax; so a duty of one +shilling per gallon was imposed upon spirits, sixpence +on wine, and threepence upon porter or strong beer, to +be applied to the above purpose. Building gaols is, +beyond question, a necessary thing, especially in a +colony chiefly formed of convicts: and perhaps a tax +upon intoxicating liquors is no bad mode of procuring +the means of erecting them, for thus the sober and industrious +are not heavily taxed to provide for the support +and punishment of the profligate and wicked. Nevertheless, +if Christ’s religion be true, there is a surer and +better way of checking crime, than by trusting to gaols +and police alone; but, unhappily, this more excellent +way of reforming the morals of mankind, has, in modern +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +times, found little favour with the great ones of the +world.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> Certainly the power of the Gospel and Church of +Christ had no scope allowed it for its blessed effects, +when to a population, consisting in 1803 of 7097 souls, +and constantly on the increase, besides being scattered +over an immense tract of country, <em>one clergyman only</em> was +allowed during seven years to wage, single-handed and +alone, the war against evil. There were, indeed, many Irish +Roman Catholics among the convicts, and one of these, +named Harrold, was a Romish priest, but his character +was too little to be trusted for him to be of any great +spiritual advantage even to those of his own communion.</p> + +<p>In the year 1800, Governor Hunter left the settlement +for England, and was succeeded in his office by Captain +King, who had been Lieutenant-governor of Norfolk +Island, and had conducted with great care and success +the establishment of that smaller colony. However, +Norfolk Island was abandoned altogether during the +government of Captain King and his successor; and it +is said this step was taken in compliance with the advice +of the former gentleman. It was a saying attributed to +him, that “he could not make farmers of pickpockets;”<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> +and whatever truth there might be in this maxim, certainly +it appears that the progress of agriculture was +unfavourable, and that the colony continued still subject +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +to seasons of scarcity, approaching to famine, and obliged +to put up with coarse loaves, which were feelingly called +<em>scrubbing brushes</em>;<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> and was always in a state of +dependence upon foreign supplies for daily bread. But if +there were no <em>corn laws</em>, there was abundance of +discontent and misery in the colony of New South Wales; +and during the time of Captain King’s government, a +rebellion broke out among the convicts, who had been +induced by some of their number, rebels from Ireland, +to <em>strike for their liberty</em>. The revolt was soon crushed +by the military, but not without the loss of life to some +of the unhappy men who had been partakers in it.</p> + +<p>The six years during which Captain King held the +office of governor of New South Wales, under the crown +of Great Britain and Ireland, were rendered remarkable, +as has been already stated, by the partial abandonment +of the colony of Norfolk Island; and, it may be added, +yet more remarkable by the commencement of another +settlement, the first ever attempted in Van Diemen’s +Land.</p> + +<p>Norfolk Island, which is situated about 1000 miles from +the eastern shore of New Holland, was settled almost +immediately after the first foundations of Sydney had +been laid; and although but a speck in the ocean, and +without any safe or convenient landing-place, the first-named +colony was altogether more flourishing in its +early days than the other. The natural fertility of the +land, the abundance of food supplied by the birds of +providence,<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> the number of free settlers, and the wise +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +arrangements of Lieutenant-governor King, may all be +recollected among the reasons of the superior prosperity +of Norfolk Island. However, its career of prosperity +was doomed to be but a very short one. Partly upon +the plea of its having no convenient harbour, and partly +because of its very limited extent, it was decided by the +home government that it should be abandoned, and this +decision was acted upon in 1805 and 1807, when the +free settlers were compelled to leave the island, which +remained unoccupied for about twenty years, and at the +end of this time it was made a penal settlement for the +punishment of refractory convicts, which it still +continues to be,—one of the finest spots upon earth +degraded into the abode of the vilest of human beings,—the +scum of the outcast population of a great and +civilized nation. And, to heighten the horror of the +contrast between things natural and things spiritual in +Norfolk Island, there was not, until recently, a single +minister of Christ’s Church resident within its bounds; so +that where Nature’s sun was shining most beauteously, +and Nature’s sights and sounds were most lovely and +enchanting, there the outcast souls<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> of a rich and +<em>christian</em> population were left to perish, without being +able to catch a ray of the Sun of Righteousness, without a +chance (so to speak) of hearing the sound of the gospel +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +of Christ: they might there listen in their lonely wretchedness +to the rise and fall of the tide of that ocean by which +their little island is surrounded, but they were shut out +for ever, it would seem, from the voice of the great +multitude of the faithful, “as the voice of many waters, +and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, +for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!”</p> + +<p>The relinquishment of the settlement at Norfolk +Island, under Governor King’s administration, after the +money that had been spent upon it, and the success +which was attending that expenditure, might well appear +to be a hasty and imprudent act; but, undoubtedly, in its +consequences it turned out beneficial to Great Britain. +Instead of Norfolk Island, another much larger, and far +more important spot, which might otherwise have been +occupied by foreigners, was colonized by British subjects; +and Van Diemen’s Land, from the extent of its present +wealth and population, besides its nearer resemblance +than other Australian colonies to the climate of the +mother country, may justly be esteemed one of the +most valuable possessions of the British crown. The +history of the foundation of this new colony may here +be shortly detailed. It was resolved that a fresh settlement, +which might be free from the objections brought +against Norfolk Island, should be formed; and, in 1804, +Port Phillip, an extensive harbour on the southern coast +of New Holland, was the spot chosen for this purpose. +But Colonel Collins, who had the command of the +party of colonists, found the eastern side of Port Phillip +very little suited to his object; and without examining +its western side, which has been lately very rapidly and +successfully settled, the colonel sailed at once along the +western coast of Van Diemen’s Land, took possession of +that extensive island in the name of his Britannic +Majesty, and, after various surveys, decided upon the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +spot where Hobart Town now stands, for his headquarters. +The little settlement then consisted only of a +few gentlemen holding official situations, fifty marines, +and four hundred prisoners. The place selected for +headquarters was well chosen, being upon the Derwent, a +beautiful and navigable river, and having a good supply +of water. In the same year, 1804, another settlement +was formed on the opposite, or northern, side of Van +Diemen’s Land; it was situated at the mouth of the +River Tamar, near George Town, and was called York +Town, but it was afterwards abandoned. The usual +trials to which newly-planted colonies are exposed, fell +also to the lot of that settled by Colonel Collins in Van +Diemen’s Land; but its struggles into life were by no +means so intense, or so prolonged, as those of its sister +colony. At one time when a disappointment occurred in +the usual supplies, the hind-quarters of kangaroos were +received into His Majesty’s store, at sixpence per pound, +and it is said that in six months no less than 15,000lbs. +of this meat were there tendered. After some years of +occasional scarcity, during which, once, even kangaroo +flesh was sold at one shilling and sixpence the pound, and +sea-weed, or any other eatable vegetable, was equally +dear, the colony began to take root and to increase, still +continuing, however, its original character of a penal +settlement—a place of punishment for the convicted felons +of New South Wales. Cattle and live stock rapidly increased, +land became more and more cultivated, houses +were built, farms enclosed, free emigrants began to arrive, +Hobart Town became a place of some trade and importance, +and at last, in 1821, or thereabouts, <em>only seventeen +years</em> after the first establishment of the colony, +St. David’s Church, at Hobart Town, was, we read, “completed +and opened.”<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> What attention was paid to the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +spiritual welfare of the poor creatures in this new penal +colony during the long interval that elapsed before the +occurrence of that great event, it seems hard to say; +but, judging from what we have already seen, we may +be quite certain of this, that <em>no less care</em> was taken of +them, than had formerly been bestowed upon those of a +similar character in Norfolk Island.</p> + +<p>While Captain King held the government of New +South Wales, a subject began to attract the notice of the +colonial authorities, which afterwards proved to be one +of the highest importance, both to the settlement and +likewise to the mother country, namely, the introduction +and increase of free settlers. According to Dr. Lang, the +first free settlers who emigrated to New South Wales +arrived there during Governor Hunter’s administration, +which began in August, 1795; but by other writers it +is stated that five settlers and their families arrived by +the <em>Bellona</em>, in January 1798, so that these may justly +be considered the first free emigrants that removed from +Europe to Australia.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> The conditions under which +they engaged to settle were, that their passage out +should be provided by government, that an assortment +of tools and implements should be furnished them, that +they should be supplied for two years with provisions, +that their lands should be granted free of expense, and +that convicts should be assigned for their service, and +provided with provisions for two years, and clothing for +one. Besides these few emigrants, many of the soldiers +and officers, and some of the released convicts, had grants +of land given to them; but, generally speaking, their +agricultural efforts were not very successful, and <em>military +men</em> seemed as little capable of becoming good farmers +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +as <em>pickpockets</em> were. Yet, as if to show what <em>might</em> have +been done by prudence and thrift, in many cases, a few +instances of proper carefulness and attendant success +are recorded; and one man, to whom, in common with +many others, Governor Phillip had given an ewe for +breeding, in 1792, having withstood all temptations to +part with this treasure, found himself, in 1799, possessed +of a flock of 116 sheep, and in a fair way of becoming +a man of property.</p> + +<p>But there was an individual, whose name and history +are upon record, to whom the claim of a yet earlier +settlement, as a free person, must be assigned. His +history is instructive, and may be worth repeating, since +it is, probably, a specimen of what afterwards occurred +in a vast number of instances. Philip Schoeffer was +a German, who had been sent out with the first fleet +that ever sailed to New South Wales, in the capacity of +an agriculturist, and chiefly with a view to the cultivation +of tobacco (to supersede that of Virginia,) in the +proposed settlement. His first grant of land was one +hundred and forty acres; but, unhappily, he fell into +habits of intemperance, and got rid of it all. Afterwards, +he obtained another grant of fifty acres, in what now +forms a very valuable situation in the town of Sydney; +but this he was induced to give up to the Colonial +Government for public purposes, about the year 1807, +receiving in return twenty gallons of rum, which were +then worth 60<em>l.</em> and a grant of the same extent with his +former one, but situated at Pitt Water, one of the inlets +of Broken Bay—a large harbour to the northward of +Port Jackson. Schoeffer then married a wife, a Scotch +woman and a convict, and settled on his farm at Pitt +Water, where he lived many years; but old age, poverty, +and intemperance induced him to sell it by piecemeal, +and he died at last in the benevolent asylum or colonial +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +poor-house. This short history may serve to show +upon what mere accidents the foundation of wealth +frequently depends, and especially in a new country; +for, if the German could only have kept his farm of fifty +acres in Sydney for about thirty years longer, he or his +successors might actually have sold it for 100,000<em>l.</em>!</p> + +<p>After the landing of the few free settlers already +mentioned, which took place while Captain Hunter was +governor, the next arrival deserving of notice appears +to have been about a dozen families of Scotch Presbyterians, +who established themselves under similar conditions +with the first emigrants, and whose place of abode +was near Portland Head, on the banks of the Hawkesbury. +These men seem to have been a quiet and orderly, +as well as a prudent, set of people; and their industry +was rewarded by success. The zeal and devotion which +were exhibited by them in religious matters were also +very praiseworthy, and not less so because, according +to Captain Bligh, it was the only case of the kind he had +ever heard of, during his government of the colony. +A building for public worship was erected by them,<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> at +a cost of upwards of 400<em>l.</em>, and altogether the conduct +of these Scotch emigrants reflected credit upon the +country and religious body to which they belonged. +But, while we award to these persons the praise which +is their due, we are by no means entitled to place to the +account of their being Presbyterians the good order and +right feeling which they exhibited. Scotchmen are +proverbially more fond of colonization than Englishmen, +and hence it naturally occurred that almost the first +respectable settlers were Scotch farmers; but there is +no reason to question,—nay, experience has since +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +proved,—that Englishmen of similar character, and +placed in the like circumstances, can conduct themselves +not less piously and properly, and will not yield to the +disciples of John Calvin or John Knox in their reverence +and devotion for a more apostolical Church than that +of Scotland. However, it must be owned with sorrow +that these instances of religious feeling and zeal were by +no means common among the first settlers; nor is this +a subject of surprise, when we recollect that, even now, +Australia is frequently looked upon as a last refuge for +those who can do well nowhere else; and if it be thought +so now, much more must this impression have prevailed +in the days of its earlier settlers. But, from whatever +class, or with whatever failings, they might come, a few +fresh settlers continued from year to year to find their +way to the shores of New Holland; and, in due time, +the tide of emigration was destined to set full into that +quarter, carrying with it a portion of the population and +wealth of the mother country, together with all its +luxuries, its arts, its vices, and its virtues.</p> + +<p>In August, 1806, Captain King resigned his office, and +was succeeded in the government of New South Wales +by Captain Bligh, also of the royal navy. His name is +well known from the history of the mutiny of the crew +in the ship <em>Bounty</em>, which he had formerly commanded; +and he was not less unfortunate on shore, in the art of +governing his fellow-creatures. With many good qualities +and excellent intentions, his manner of ruling men +was not either happy or successful. But before we +proceed to the great event in colonial history, which +brought to a sudden termination the reign of Governor +Bligh, it will be well to notice a remarkable occurrence +which happened soon after he came into power. The +banks of the river Hawkesbury have already been stated +to be distinguished for their fertility; and at this time +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +they formed the chief source from which the supply of +wheat for the colony was drawn. Many acres of land +had been cleared there, and the whole district, with +smiling farms scattered about upon the rising banks of +the beautiful stream, offered one of the most pleasing +scenes in the whole settlement. But, within the first +year of the government of Captain Bligh, the farmers on +the Hawkesbury, and indeed the whole colony, were +doomed to undergo a severe trial.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> In March 1799, the +river had been known to rise suddenly to the enormous +height of fifty feet, and the destruction of property which +had been then occasioned was very great.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> But now, +without any considerable rains having fallen upon the +eastern side of the Blue Mountains, between that range +and the sea, the river rose, in one place at least, to the +enormous height of ninety-three feet, so that buildings, +stock, or corn, which were not secured upon rising +ground equal in height to that of an ordinary church-tower, +must have been overwhelmed and borne away +by the flood. It is said that a settler, whose house stood +on an eminence at a beautiful bend of the Hawkesbury, +saw no less than thirty stacks of wheat at one time +floating down the stream during a flood, some of them +being covered with pigs and poultry, who had thus vainly +sought safety from the rising of the waters. The consequences +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +of this unexpected disaster were very calamitous, +and before the ensuing harvest could be begun, wheat +and Indian corn attained an equal value, and were sold +at 1<em>l.</em> 8<em>s.</em> or 1<em>l.</em> 10<em>s.</em> per bushel. Even +eleven years afterwards, +when a similar overflow, though not equal to +“<em>the great flood</em>,” occurred, prices were raised enormously, +and but for an importation of wheat from Van +Diemen’s Land, they would have been very little short +of those in the year 1806. Governor Bligh appears to +have done all that a governor could do to lessen the +distress that prevailed, by ordering a number of the +cattle belonging to government to be slaughtered and +divided among the sufferers, and by encouraging, to the +utmost extent of his power, the cultivation of a large +breadth of land in wheat for the ensuing season. By +these means, under Divine Providence, the colony again +became able to supply itself with daily bread; a capability +of which, like many other blessings, nations scarcely +know the value and importance, until they are deprived, +or deprive themselves of it.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a></p> + +<p>From whatever cause it might arise,—whether from +his opposition to the practice of all the chief persons in +the colony making a profit by the sale of spirits,<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a>—or +from his dislike of the New South Wales Corps,—or from +his own harsh and tyrannical conduct,—whether, in +short, we listen to Governor Bligh’s admirers or enemies, +thus much is certain: he was excessively unpopular +with a large and powerful party of men in the settlement. +Without entering into the particulars of the extraordinary +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +treatment to which his Majesty’s representative in that +distant colony was subjected, it may be sufficient to +state that, in consequence of the imprisonment of Mr. +Macarthur, an old officer, and a rich and influential +settler, great disturbance was excited, which ended in +the seizure of the governor’s person, and in the occupation +of his office and authority by Major Johnston, the +commanding officer of the New South Wales Corps, +who assumed the authority of lieutenant-governor in +January, 1808, and issued some proclamations ordering +various changes among those in authority. In one of +these proclamations a day of thanksgiving is appointed +to be kept for the recent transactions; and in the same +precious document the Rev. Henry Fulton is suspended +from discharging his duty as chaplain to the colony,<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> +because, whatever may have been the faults of his former +life,<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> like most other clergymen of the Church of England, +on most other occasions, he had at this time stood +fast to his loyalty.</p> + +<p>The confusion resulting from the seizure of the +governor was lamentable indeed in a colony at the best +of times so difficult to be managed. All public meetings +were forbidden by the party in power, and our old +friends, the Presbyterians at Portland Head, whose +loyalty to the governor on this occasion was very +creditable, had well nigh got into trouble from their +meeting together on “the Sabbath” for public worship. +The object of the intruders was to get rid of Captain +Bligh as well as they could, and accordingly he was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +sent off to England in command of the <em>Porpoise</em>, but he +remained from March to December, 1809, off the coast +of Van Diemen’s Land, daily expecting despatches from +the home government, until at last, on December 28th, +his intended successor, Colonel Macquarie, arrived at +Sydney. This last gentleman was ordered to reinstate +Captain Bligh in the government of the colony for the +period of twenty-four hours after his own arrival; but in +consequence of Bligh’s absence from Sydney, this was +not done. However, Major Johnston was sent home +under strict arrest, and, after various delays, he was +tried for mutiny, by a court-martial, in May 1811, and +found guilty, but was only sentenced to be cashiered, +the court considering the peculiar circumstances of the +case sufficient to excuse him from a more severe +punishment. Captain Bligh was, upon his return to England, +immediately promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and +employed in active service; while the New South Wales +Corps, which had certainly been long enough in the +colony from which it drew its name, was ordered home, +and the 73d regiment sent out to supply its place.</p> + +<p>The first acts of the new governor, Colonel Macquarie, +were to declare the king’s displeasure at the late +mutinous proceedings, and to render null and void all the +acts of the usurping party, most of whose measures were, +however, ratified, their bills upon the Treasury honoured, +and their grants of land confirmed. The continuance of +Governor Macquarie in power for no less than twelve +years, during which peace and tranquillity, undisturbed +by any very severe trials, prevailed throughout the settlement, +offers but very few of those events which make a +figure in the history of the past:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Famine and plague, the earthquake and the storm,</span><br /> + Man’s angry passions, war’s terrific form,<br /> + The tyrant’s threatenings, and the people’s rage,<br /> + These are the crowded woes of History’s page.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +During the period of which we are now treating, vast +improvements and extensive discoveries were made in +New South Wales; and in all these, or similar, arts of +peace the governor delighted to bear an active and +leading part. Availing himself of the means at his disposal, +and of the abundance of convict-labour, he made, +it is said, no less than 276 miles of good roads during +his administration; and, when the nature of the country +along which many of these were carried is taken into +account, this exploit alone reflects no small credit upon +Governor Macquarie. In the year 1813 the colony was +enabled, by the courage and perseverance of three gentlemen, +to burst those bonds by which it had hitherto +been hemmed in within the limits of a narrow strip of +land running along the sea-coast. In that year a passage +across the Blue Mountains, hitherto thought insuperable, +was at length made good; and the hungry sheep and +cattle which had been suffering from the prevailing +drought in the settlement, were speedily driven over the +hills to enjoy the less withered pastures and green plains +of the western country. No sooner was this district thus +opened than the governor commenced making a road +over the mountains, and in this he succeeded after no +very long delay, so that a good communication was +formed between Sydney and Bathurst Plains, a distance +of more than 100 miles, about 50 of which cross an +extent of country the most rugged, mountainous, and +barren, that can be imagined.</p> + +<p>In public buildings Governor Macquarie showed +no less activity than in road-making, although his +efforts in the former line have not met with unmingled +and universal approbation. Certainly, the means +by which, what was then called, “the Rum Hospital” +was built were, if they are correctly reported by Dr. +Lang, disgraceful and mischievous in the highest +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +degree.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> However, the improvements that were made +in the rising towns, especially in the capital, of the colony, +may well demand our admiration, even though, as usual +in estimating the deeds of fallen man, we must allow +that much evil might have been avoided, and that a +large proportion of moral mischief was mingled with +the improvements.</p> + +<p>The great and distinguishing feature, after all, of +Colonel Macquarie’s government appears to have been +the studious, and not always judicious, patronage +extended by him to the emancipated convicts, whom he +generally considered in preference to the free settlers. +In consequence of this, the last-named class were thrown +into the background, a kind of check was given to +emigration, and, what was worst of all, two parties were +set on foot within the settlement, altogether opposed to +each other;—the <em>exclusionists</em>, who were free settlers, +refused to associate at all with those that had ever been +convicts; and the <em>emancipists</em> considered that a convict, +after his time of punishment had expired, was just as +good as any other man. It was absurd, indeed, although +no more than usually happens, to see men of the <em>humblest</em>, +if not of the <em>lowest</em>, classes in the mother country, +suddenly aspiring to become <em>exclusive</em> and <em>grand</em> in the +colony. And, on the other hand, it was a pretty sure +sign that the convicts, though emancipated from their +shackles, were not well rid of their vice or impudence, +when they laid claim, even with the aid of a governor’s +encouragement, and often of great wealth not very +scrupulously acquired, to the highest society and most +important offices in the settlement. Undoubtedly, one +great object in a penal colony should be that of gradually +purifying the population from all disgraceful or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +vicious associations; but the hasty attempts of a +governor to elevate a class like that of the emancipated +convicts were sure to end rather in their depression. +Time, and a succeeding generation, would have done +quietly what Colonel Macquarie, with all his power, was +unable to accomplish. If a governor cannot make pickpockets +become good <em>farmers</em>, still less likely is he to +succeed in endeavouring to make good <em>magistrates</em> of +them; but a few years, under judicious management, +might easily produce from among their children admirable +specimens of both. And nothing can be a greater +hindrance to this desirable result than hasty and ill-timed, +though well-intended, attempts to force out of +their proper sphere those persons, who, if they are +really possessed of any sense, would, of all men, desire +to keep within it.</p> + +<p>In reckoning up the principal occurrences during the +twelve years in which Colonel Macquarie ruled the +colony, the vast additions which were made to our +knowledge of the country are by no means to be +overlooked. Bathurst Plains and the pass to them through +the Blue Mountains were, as we have already seen, +discovered; the district of Argyle to the south-westward +was also made known. Two rivers, named after the +governor, who was (it is reported) fond of such +compliments, the Lachlan and the Macquarie, were traced +westward of the Blue Mountains, until they were supposed +to lose themselves in endless and impassable +swamps. Northwards, the River Hastings, and a large +extent of country suitable for flocks and herds, called +Liverpool Plains, were discovered. Besides which, +three penal settlements for the punishment of unruly +convicts were formed, one at Emu Plains, another at +Newcastle, near the mouth of the River Hunter, and a +third at Port Macquarie, at the mouth of the Hastings.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +But the mention of new penal settlements, in which +the punishment and removal of gross offenders were the +only objects, while the reformation and salvation of +those poor men were never thought of, forcibly recalls us +to a subject of which we have for some time lost sight, +and which must be once more noticed before the history +of the rise and early progress of the colony of New +South Wales is completed. Where was the Church all +this time? What was the Church of England doing in +the now flourishing settlement of Australia? How far +did the state follow at once both its duty and its interest, +and employ in the work of reformation in this +land of criminals those heavenly instruments, the Bible +and the Church? The reply to all these inquiries is +briefly made, but the national sin and shame involved in +that short reply it might need volumes to unfold.</p> + +<p>In 1821, at the end of Macquarie’s government, there +was scattered about in the colony a population of +29,783, of whom 13,814 were convicts, and among these +were found ministering <em>seven</em> clergymen of the +Church of England, with no bishop of that Church to +“set things in order”<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> nearer than the Antipodes,—the +very opposite side of the habitable globe! Nor, if we look +(as unhappily now in every English colony we must +look,) beyond the pale of the English Church, shall we +find either Romish superstition or Dissenting zeal working +any of their usual wonders. Though the number of +Romanists from Ireland was very great in the colony, +yet they had, in 1821, only <em>one</em> priest residing among +them; the Presbyterians at Portland Head had a catechist +only, and with respect to the other “denominations” +little or nothing is recorded:—the <em>establishment</em> +had taken as yet so poor a hold of the soil of New South +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +Wales, that the <em>voluntary system</em>, which seems often to +need its support, as ivy needs the support of a tree, had +scarcely been transplanted thither. One observation, +before we quit for the present this painful subject, +forces itself upon the mind. How utterly unlike are the +ways of an All-Perfect God from the ways of imperfect +fallen men! The King of kings desireth not the death +of any sinner, and has wrought miracles upon miracles +of mercy to provide for his salvation; whereas man regardeth +not the spiritual life of his brethren, earthly +monarchs and nations care chiefly about the removal of +the offenders out of their sight, and, so long as this is +effected, they trouble not themselves about the future +lot of those outcasts; money is more willingly parted +with for “penal settlements” than for religious instruction, +and, although the earthly wants of the criminals are +attended to, here humanity stops short;—if their <em>bodies</em> +are not cast out to starve and to perish <em>their souls are</em>. +And who cannot read in holy Scripture the just doom of +those that have acted, or are acting, thus? “The +wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will +I require at thine hand.”<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p> + +<p>Having now brought down the history of the colony +of New South Wales to a period when it might be said +to be firmly established and flourishing, both party +feeling and needless details may best be avoided by +stopping here, yet it will not form an unsuitable conclusion +to this chapter to borrow General Macquarie’s +account of his own doings, although this may be somewhat +tinctured with that vanity, which is said to have +been his greatest weakness:—“I found the colony,” he +states, in a Report to Earl Bathurst, “barely emerging +from infantile imbecility, and suffering from various privations +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +and disabilities; the country impenetrable beyond +40 miles from Sydney; agriculture in a yet languishing +state; commerce in its early dawn; revenue unknown; +threatened with famine; distracted by faction; the public +buildings in a state of dilapidation, and mouldering +to decay; the few roads and bridges formerly constructed +rendered almost impassable; the population in +general depressed by poverty; no public credit nor +private confidence; the morals of the great mass of the +population in the lowest state of debasement, and religious +worship almost totally neglected.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> Such was the +state of New South Wales when I took charge of its +administration on the 1st of January, 1810. I left it in +February last, reaping incalculable advantages from my +extensive and important discoveries in all directions, +including the supposed insurmountable barrier called +the Blue Mountains, to the westward of which are situated +the fertile plains of Bathurst; and <em>in all respects</em> [?] +enjoying a state of private comfort and public prosperity, +which I trust will at least equal the expectations +of His Majesty’s Government. On my taking the command +of the colony in the year 1810, the amount of +port duties collected did not exceed 8000<em>l.</em> per annum, +and there were only 50<em>l.</em> or 60<em>l.</em> of a balance in the +Treasurer’s hands; but now (in 1822,) duties are collected +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +at Port Jackson to the amount of from 28,000<em>l.</em> to +30,000<em>l.</em> per annum. In addition to this annual colonial +revenue, there are port duties, collected at Hobart +Town and George Town in Van Diemen’s Land, to the +amount of between 8000<em>l.</em> and 10,000<em>l.</em> per annum.”<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img243.jpg" width="500" height="308" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">north view of sydney.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.</strong></p> + + +<p>The next objects that demand our notice in Australia +are the British colonies, and their present inhabitants. +We have already given our attention to the Bush and its +wild inhabitants, and the lengthened yet rapid process +by which a lonely bay was converted, within the space +of little more than forty years, into the flourishing capital +of a rising country, has been fully traced. It now +remains for the reader to be made acquainted with the +natural features, civil divisions, and present state of the +British Australian colonies,—especially of the oldest +and most important of them, called New South Wales. +Were we not already informed of the sad reality of +things, we might be tempted to indulge in the daydreams +of an explorer, and to join in the bright and +hopeful visions of a most pleasing writer, respecting the +blessings to arise out of a change of any district from +wild bush to civilized colony. But dreams of this +nature are little better than vanity, and so our explorer +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +himself tells us at the end of his narrative:—“Whilst I +stretched my weary length,” says Captain Grey, “along, +under the pleasant shade, I saw in fancy busy crowds +throng the scenes I was then amongst. I pictured to +myself the bleating sheep and lowing herds wandering +over these fertile hills; and I chose the very spot on +which my house should stand, surrounded with as fine +an amphitheatre of verdant land as the eye of man had +ever gazed on. The view was backed by the Victoria +Range, whilst seaward you looked out through a romantic +glen upon the great Indian ocean. I knew that within +four or five years civilization would have followed my +tracks, and that rude nature and the savage would no +longer reign supreme over so fine a territory. Mr. +Smith entered eagerly into my thoughts and views; +together we built these castles in the air, trusting we +should see happy results spring from our present sufferings +and labours,—but within a few weeks from this +day he died in the wilds he was exploring.”<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> So little +are the brilliant hopes inspired by discovery to be +depended upon, nor less uncertain are the expectations +which the colonization of a district awakens in our +hearts. We cannot but look for good results, yet frequently +are we doomed to disappointment.</p> + +<p>However, the assurance of the superintendence of +Divine Providence may check all misgivings; and under +this wholesome persuasion we may proceed to consider +the present condition of that country, which has been +recently settled and civilized on the eastern coast of +New Holland, and which is known by the name of New +South Wales. It is manifestly impossible, in describing +a territory like this, continually increasing and enlarging +itself, whilst at the same time much of the country +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +already within its bounds is barren and almost unknown, +to maintain that accuracy which we are accustomed to +find in descriptions of the counties or districts of our +own well-defined and cultivated island. Yet, in New +South Wales, as in Great Britain, the territory is divided +into counties, and occasionally into parishes; and it +may serve to give the reader a general idea of the +whole country, if each of these former divisions is briefly +noticed.</p> + +<p>The county called Cumberland is the most populous +and important, although by no means the most fertile, +in the whole province. It contains the capital, Sydney, +and the thriving towns of Paramatta, Liverpool, Windsor, +Richmond, &c.; so that in population it far exceeds all +the others. It is described as an undulating plain, +extending from north to south about fifty-three miles, +and in breadth from the sea to the base of the Blue +Mountains, upwards of forty miles. The coast is generally +bold and rocky, and to the distance of a few miles +inland the soil is a poor sandstone, and the country +looks bleak and barren; further from the sea its +appearance improves, an undulating country extends +itself to the width of about ten miles, and this district, +where it has been left in its natural state, has the +appearance of a noble forest, but, although partially cultivated, +the soil still continues poor, for it rests upon a +foundation of sandstone. Beyond this, the soil becomes +better, the trees are less numerous, the herbage more +luxuriant, the scenery beautifully varied, the hills are +generally more fertile than the valleys, and the farms +and cultivated spots are very numerous. In the valleys +of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, the richness of +the soil is very great, and the plains are extensive. One +great evil, the scarcity of good water, has been very +much felt in this country, but it is expected that by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +boring, the deficiency may be supplied. The coast of +Cumberland is broken and indented by many creeks or +inlets, the most remarkable of which is the noble harbour +of Port Jackson. The county of Cumberland is said to +contain about 900,000 acres, of which not more than +one-third is fit for cultivation, and all the good land in it +has been long since granted away. Unfortunately, that +part of the country which is most fertile and preferable, +is the very part where scarcely any natural springs are +to be found, for, although these are abundant on the +coast, and in the sandstone country, beyond that line +they are rarely met with; and, since the tides flow to a +considerable distance up all the rivers, the water of +these is in many parts of the district brackish and unfit +for use; besides which, in the summer-time, the smaller +streams become dry, or dwindle down into mere chains +of ponds, barely sufficient to supply the wants of the +cattle.</p> + +<p>The next county to the southward of Cumberland is +named Camden, which continues the line of coast, extending +itself about sixty-six miles in length, and being +in breadth, towards the interior, about fifty-five miles. +This is a more mountainous district than Cumberland, +and abounds in lofty timber, but, nevertheless, there are +several large tracts of great fertility contained within its +limits. The district called Illawarra, or the Five Islands, +and that of the Cow Pastures, are the most remarkable; +and being both of them rural districts, they may be briefly +described here. Illawarra is a very peculiar spot: it is +situated immediately between the sea and a range of high +hills, so steep that they are almost impassable, while on +the remaining side, upon which neither of these two +boundaries enclose it, Illawarra is bounded by the Shoal +Haven River. The district thus separated by nature +from the adjoining country, extends about eighteen miles +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +along the coast, and is said to comprise 150,000 acres of +most beautiful scenery and very fertile soil. The greater +part of Illawarra is heavily timbered, and it is said to +be not well fitted for the rearing of sheep; but for the +plough its deep vegetable soil is admirably suited, and +whenever the land begins to feel the effect of repeated +cropping, there are means of enriching it at hand in the +large heaps of decayed shells to be found upon the sea-shore, +which would furnish an excellent manure. The +communication between this fertile spot, and the nearest +market of any consequence, Sydney, is carried on almost +entirely by water; and the Shoal Haven River being navigable +for vessels of eighty or ninety tons to the distance +of twenty miles up the country, affords the ready means +of conveying produce to the capital from many parts of +Illawarra. Besides this navigable river, the southern +boundary of the district, there are many smaller streams +which issue from the mountains to the north and west, +so that the country is well watered, besides which +advantage it is said to have a larger share of rain than +many other parts of the colony, and to be sheltered from +the blighting winds which occasionally have proved +destructive to the crops elsewhere. The mountain range by +which Illawarra is shut in, partakes of the general fertility +of the neighbourhood below, and it is supposed, from its +eastern aspect, and mild climate, to offer spots favourable +for the cultivation of the vine. The timber of the +district is very profitable, when felled, and highly +ornamental where it is left standing. Indeed, the immense +fern-trees, shooting up their rough stems, like large oars, +to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and then suddenly +putting forth leaves in every direction, four or five feet +in length, and exactly like the leaf of the common fern,—the +different kinds of palms rising to the height of +seventy or one hundred feet, and then forming large +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +canopies of leaves; the cedars, the undergrowth of wild +vines, creeping plants and shrubs, in rich abundance; +all combine to remind the visitor of a tropical climate, +of a more <em>northern</em>, or as Englishmen would naturally +say, more <em>southern</em>, climate than that of Illawarra.</p> + +<p>Respecting the Cow Pastures, the rural district, which, +next to Illawarra, is most deserving of notice in the +county of Camden, little further need be added to what +has been already stated in another place. Instead of +<em>cow pastures</em>, however, nearly the whole of the 60,000 +acres of good land, which form this district, have now +become <em>sheep farms</em>; and the soil appears to be very +suitable to the growth and perfection of the last-named +animal. Towards the southern and eastern parts of the +cow pastures are numerous streams, which retain water +even in dry weather, and which communicate with the +Nepean River. There do not appear to be any towns +deserving of mention in the county of Camden, and its +population is small and rural: it is crossed in every +direction by steep ridges of hills, which almost always +tower upwards like the roof of a house, and where the +country is mountainous, meet so close as to leave only +a narrow ravine betwixt them.</p> + +<p>The adjoining county, which may be next noticed, is +that of Argyle, an inland district, not having any front +whatever towards the ocean, and lying to the south-westward +of the county last described. Argyle is about +sixty miles in length, with an average breadth of thirty +miles; it is a lofty and broken region, and abounds in +small rivulets and ponds, containing water during the +whole of the year. It is also well furnished with timber, +although there are places where the trees are scattered +sparingly, and likewise plains of considerable extent, +entirely bare of trees. Of this description are Goulburn’s +Plains, which consist of open downs, affording +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +good pasturage for sheep, and extending twenty miles +southward from the township to which they owe their +name, their breadth being about ten. There are some +remarkable lakes in this county, or near its borders, the +two largest of which are called Lake George and Lake +Bathurst. Some of the old natives say that they can +remember when these lakes did not exist; and dead +trees are found in the bed of Lake George, the whole of +which was, in October 1836, dried up, and like a grassy +meadow.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> + +<p>Bathurst is another inland county, lying nearly due +west of Cumberland, but not adjoining it, which may +deserve to be briefly described. In looking over a map +of the colony of New South Wales, it appears strange +that counties, like this, comparatively remote both from +the capital and from the sea, should be more known and +flourishing than others lying betwixt them and these +important objects. But when we reflect upon the nature +of the country, and remember that the intervening +counties are in a great measure occupied by the Blue +Mountains, with their tremendous ravines and dreary +sandstone wastes, all wonder will cease at finding the +green pastures and smiling country beyond the mountains +occupied, while the rugged tract is suffered to +remain for the most part in its natural state, and instead +of becoming populous itself, is employed only as a +channel of communication between the consuming population +on the coast and the producing population of the +more fertile interior. Bathurst is in length seventy-two +miles, and in breadth sixty-eight, in shape somewhat +approaching to an irregular square. No part of this +district was explored before 1813. It is, in general, a +kind of broken table-land, in some places forming extensive +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +and bare downs, as, for instance, Bathurst Plains, +containing 50,000 acres. Occasional open downs of this +kind, and not unlike the South Downs in England, +extend along the banks of the Macquarie for upwards of +one hundred miles. Bathurst is reckoned one of the +most flourishing and desirable situations in the whole +colony, and the view of these plains from the high land +to the eastward upon the road from Sydney is very +interesting. The prospect of an extensive district naturally +destitute of timber is rare in Australia, and therefore +it surprises and pleases the eye of the traveller. +Bathurst Plains form, however, by no means a dead +level, but consist rather of a series of gentle elevations, +with intervening flats of moderate extent; the surrounding +forest is rather thin, and patches of it extend irregularly +to some distance in the plains, like points of land +projecting into a lake.</p> + +<p>The green pastures and naturally clear state of this +district, formed the first inducements to settlers to +occupy a spot, which is now distant from Sydney by +the road 121 miles, about fifty of which cross the +wildest and most barren mountains imaginable, and +which then had no road at all leading to it, except a +difficult mountain-pass only recently discovered; consequently, +the district was portioned out chiefly in large +grants to persons whose means enabled them to cope +with the difficulties of approaching the new settlement; +and the society at Bathurst Plains is esteemed very +good; possibly it may be all the better for its distance +from the capital. But the best proof of the goodness +of the society in this neighbourhood is the attention +which the inhabitants are stated to pay to their religious +duties, and the harmony in which they live with one +another.<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> The situation of Bathurst Plains is an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +exceedingly high one, being more than 2000 feet above +the level of the sea; and this elevation, rendering the +climate much cooler,<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> produces the same vegetable productions +in the parallel latitude of Sydney with those +that are to be found in Van Diemen’s Land, ten degrees +farther to the south. Bathurst is said to be a very +healthy climate; wonders are told of the climate of +New South Wales generally, and yet we are informed +that “the cheeks of the children beyond the mountains +have a rosy tint, which is seldom observable in the +lowlands of the colony.” However, notwithstanding +all that may be said, disease and death can find out +their victims even in Bathurst Plains.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Guilt’s fatal doom in vain would mortals fly,</span><br /> + And they that breathe the purest air must die.”</p> + +<p>The county of Northumberland is one of the most +important and valuable in the colony; it is upon the +sea-coast, and adjoins Cumberland, being bounded on +the south by the river Hawkesbury, and on the north +by the Hunter. Its length is about 60 miles, and its +breadth about 50: whilst its general appearance is +undulating, with high table lands dispersed among the +hills, and it is well watered by many streams and rivulets. +Within this county are two great sources of +worldly wealth,—the coal-mines near one of its principal +towns, Newcastle, and the rich productive farms in the +valley of the Hunter. The last-named river is navigable +for small craft for fifty miles above Newcastle, which is +a thriving little port, and boats may ascend two of its +three principal branches for about 120 and 200 miles, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +but the navigation is liable to be interrupted by sudden +and tremendous floods.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + +<p>Coal is to be found in several parts of New South +Wales, but it is most abundant in the country to the south +of Hunter’s River, which forms part of the county of +Northumberland. Even at some distance from the shore, +the black lines of coal may be seen in the cliffs upon the +coast, and the coal-pits in this neighbourhood are worked +with comparatively little trouble. The Australian +Agricultural Company have obtained a grant of these from +government: and, as a specimen of the demand for coals +some years ago, it may be stated, that, in 1836, there +were sold at the pit’s mouth 12,646 tons for 5,747<em>l.</em>, being +at about the rate of nine shillings per ton. Since that +time the consumption has been very rapidly increasing, +and steam navigation has now become common in the +colony;<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> so that, besides the manufactories of Sydney, +and the supply of private families, there is an additional +demand for fuel created by the steam-boats plying constantly +along that remote coast, which only a century +ago no European had yet beheld. It is also reported +that iron is to be found in New South Wales, at no great +distance from the coal which is so necessary to smelt it; +and, if this be true, with these two principal causes of +the wealth of the mother country concealed within its +bosom, it is quite possible that, in the course of time, the +colony may rival, or outstrip, England itself in worldly +prosperity.</p> + +<p>But, however valuable these elements may be, the +riches of a country are based upon more important +pursuits than mining or manufactures, and in those +fundamental sources of wealth,—in agriculture and its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +kindred occupations,—the county of Northumberland +stands foremost in New South Wales. Not even the +rich valleys of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers can +excel in fruitfulness or in cultivation that of Hunter’s +River. Wheat and maize are among the chief productions +of this fine agricultural district, of which Maitland +is the principal town. Potatoes, tobacco, cheese, and +butter are also forwarded to Sydney for sale from this +highly favoured spot. Were it not for the fearful floods +to which, in common with many other rivers in the +colony, Hunter’s River is liable, altogether this valley, +and the <em>arms</em>, or branch valleys, which lead into it, +might well be esteemed among the finest situations in the +world; and now that this liability is well known, and +may be provided against, the objections arising on this +score are greatly diminished. Still, a flood rising +suddenly forty or sixty feet, and pouring with headlong +fury down the peaceful cultivated valleys, is a just object +of dread, and a tremendous visitation.</p> + +<p>We cannot leave the subject of this rich and beautiful +district, abounding in inhabitants and rural wealth, +without borrowing the words of the Bishop of Australia +in describing its recent increase in those means of grace +and hopes of glory, which are, after all, the only true +riches. In 1833, when this neighbourhood was visited, +“there was but one clergyman in the entire tract of +country, extending from the mouth of the Hunter to its +source, and the great and growing population on its +banks would have appeared, (if we could have forgotten +the ability of God to raise up children to himself, and to +provide them with spiritual food even from the stones of +the desert,) to be abandoned to inevitable destitution, +both they and their children. But it has pleased the +Almighty to cause the prospect to brighten, and now +(in 1839) there will be seven clergymen dispensing the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +pure ordinances and inculcating the salutary principles +of the Church.”<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a></p> + +<p>It would be at once wasting time and presuming upon +the reader’s patience to attempt to describe particularly +the remaining counties of New South Wales, which are +yet but imperfectly known and partially colonized. It +will be sufficient to notice the names of the others, which, +together with those described above, amount to nineteen +in number. Besides Cumberland, Camden, Argyle, +Bathurst, and Northumberland, the counties of Cook, +Westmoreland, Roxburgh, Wellington, Phillip, Bligh, +Brisbane, Hunter, Gloucester, Georgiana, King’s County, +Murray, Durham, and St. Vincent’s, may deserve to be +mentioned by name, but nothing especially worthy of +notice suggests itself respecting them. We may turn, +therefore, from the rural districts, and take a rapid view +of the principal towns of New South Wales. Among +these the capital, Sydney, claims the first place, not less +as a matter of right than of courtesy. By a happy concurrence +of events, the very first settlement made upon +the eastern coast of New Holland was formed upon one +of its most eligible spots; and accordingly that town, +which ranks first in point of time, is likely always to +rank first in population, in size, in commerce, and in +wealth. The harbour alone would offer advantages +enough to secure considerable importance to a town +erected upon its shores, and before Sydney itself is more +minutely described, we may borrow the account of Port +Jackson, which has been given by one well acquainted +with its scenery, and himself by birth an Australian.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> +It is navigable for fifteen miles from its entrance, that is, +seven miles beyond Sydney; and in every part there is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +good anchorage and complete shelter from all winds. +Its entrance is three quarters of a mile in width, and +afterwards expands into a spacious basin, fifteen miles +long, and in some places three broad, with depth of +water sufficient for vessels of the largest size. The +harbour is said to have 100 coves, and there is room +within it for all the shipping in the world. The views +from its shores are varied and beautiful. Looking +towards the sea, the eye catches at a single glance the +numerous bays and islets between the town and the +headlands at the entrance of the harbour, while the bold +hills by which it is bounded end abruptly on the coast. +To the north a long chain of lofty rugged cliffs mark the +bearing of the shore in that direction, and turning southwards, +the spectator beholds, seven or eight miles +distant, the spacious harbour of Botany Bay, beyond +which a high bluff range of hills extends along to the +south in the direction towards Illawarra. Westward one +vast forest is to be seen, varied only by occasional +openings which cultivation and the axe have made on +the tops of some of the highest hills. Beyond the +numberless undulations of this wooded country the Blue +Mountains are espied, towering behind the whole background +of the scene, and forming a stately boundary to +the prospect. This description of the scenery of Port +Jackson applies to a particular spot very near to Sydney, +but the views are similar in general character, though +infinitely varied in detail, at other places in the +neighbourhood; and nearer to the entrance of the harbour a +new and still grander object breaks upon the sight:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Where the mighty Pacific with soft-swelling waves</span><br /> + A thousand bright regions eternally laves.”</p> + +<p>Upon this beautiful and convenient piece of water, +which has been just described, is the capital of the principal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +British colony in Australia situated. It is chiefly +built upon two hilly necks of land, enclosing between +them a small inlet, named Sydney Cove. The western +of these two projections divides Sydney Cove from +another called Cockle Bay, in both of which the water is +deep enough to allow the approach of the largest ships +to the very sides of the rocks. On this western neck, +(which is occupied with houses down to the water’s edge, +besides many others which extend into the country +behind,) the town forms a little peninsula, being surrounded +with water everywhere, except where it adjoins +the mainland. On the eastern neck of land the increase +of the town has been stopped by the government-house, +and its adjoining domains, which occupy the whole of +what is called Bennillong’s Point. With the exception +of the portion of the shore thus enclosed, the water-side +is occupied by wharfs, warehouses, ship-yards, mills, and +all the other buildings which mark a naval and commercial +town. Behind these marts of industry and wealth, +the houses rise one above the other, and, by their situation +on the slope of the hill, force themselves conspicuously +into notice. Indeed, the town covers a considerable +extent of ground, although land for building is so +valuable, that the intervening spaces, formerly used as +gardens and pleasure-grounds, will soon disappear and +be covered with houses. The public buildings of Sydney +are said to be neither numerous nor elegant, and certainly +no great beauty of architecture can be reasonably +expected in a town so recently built, and under such +circumstances, as Sydney. Nevertheless many of the +buildings are very large; and Mr. Wentworth says something +(though not much) in their favour, when he states +that they would not disgrace the great metropolis of +England itself. In one melancholy feature, Sydney too +nearly resembles London, namely, in the immense +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +number of its public houses, of which, according to +Mr. Montgomery Martin, there were about two hundred +in the whole town. The population in 1841 was 29,973 +souls. Of these, 16,505 were returned as belonging to +the Church of England; 8,126 to the Romish Church, +while the rest were returned as Presbyterians, Dissenters, +Jews, Mahometans, and Pagans. Sydney is divided into +four parishes: St. Philip, St. James, St. Andrew, and +St. Lawrence; in the two first of which churches have +long existed, and in St. James’s church the cathedral +service is daily used, with weekly communion; and there +is a choir, organ, &c.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> In the two last named parishes +no churches have existed until very recently, but through +the indefatigable exertions of Bishop Broughton, which +have been not unworthily seconded by the Rev. W. +Horatio Walsh, and the Rev. W. West Simpson, congregations +have been assembled together, which will, it may +be hoped, continue to attend the divine service of the +Church of England, long after more suitable buildings +than those originally used,—<em>a brewhouse and a +threshing-floor</em>,—shall have been provided for their +accommodation. In St. Lawrence’s parish a regular church was +begun in 1840, and is probably completed before this time; and, +to the credit of Sydney, it may be stated, that no less +than 571<em>l.</em> were collected from those present at the meeting +in which the erection of the church was resolved upon. +In St. Andrew’s it is proposed to raise the cathedral +church of the diocese of Australia; and, therefore, it +must necessarily be longer before the building can be +completed; but the importance of this undertaking cannot +be more clearly shown than by the recent statement +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +of Bishop Broughton, whence it would appear that of +7000 inhabitants in St. Andrew’s parish, 3500 belong +to the Church of their fathers or of their native home—the +scriptural and apostolical Church of England. But +more of these, and similar matters elsewhere. It was +a wise and useful arrangement of our forefathers, by +which our parishes were made at once ecclesiastical and +civil divisions; and since this practice has in some measure +been followed out in our colonies, the reader will +excuse the brief observations thus suggested by the +mention of the civil division of Sydney into four parishes. +One more remark, and that a painful one, may be added. +The expenses of the police establishment, <em>in the town of +Sydney alone</em>, cost the government, in the year 1838, the +sum of 12,350<em>l.</em>, whereas the cost of the ecclesiastical +establishment of the Church of England, in the same +town, (including the stipend of the bishop,) amounted +only to 3,025<em>l.</em> during that year.<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> Supposing (what is +most likely) that the former sum is by no means <em>too +much</em>, how far <em>too little</em> must the latter be!</p> + +<p>Sydney has a very good market, which is tolerably +well supplied with the necessaries of life; but many of +these, as for example, eggs, butter, apples, &c., are very +dear at present, compared with the prices usual in the +mother country; while tea, coffee, sugar, &c. are cheap +in proportion. The most expensive article of living in +Sydney is house-rent, which appears to be enormously +high, so that 100<em>l.</em> a year is considered only a moderate +charge for an unfurnished house, with ordinary conveniences; +and out of the salary allowed by government to +the Bishop of Australia, upwards of one-seventh part is +expended in rent alone. The shops in the capital of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +New South Wales are said to be very good, and the +articles well and tastefully arranged; but the social +condition of the colony naturally tends to make the +persons who keep them very different, and a much less +respectable class, speaking generally, than the +tradespeople of the mother country. The noble harbour of +Port Jackson, and the position of the capital of the +colony, unite in affording every possible encouragement +to trade; and the following account given by the Sydney +Herald, last year (1842) is about the most recent statement +that has been received of the present condition +of that commerce, which is altering and increasing every +year. The shipping of Sydney now amounts to 224 +vessels of the aggregate burden of 25,000 tons, of which +15 are steamers, of an aggregate burden of 1635 tons. +This statement may give some idea of the rapidity with +which the ports of the Southern world are rising into an +almost European importance.<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> Since the year 1817 +several large banks have been established, and, from +the high rate of interest which money has always borne +in the colony, it is not surprising that some of these +concerns have been very profitable. It is only to be +hoped that the spirit of speculation may not be carried +out, till it ends, as it too frequently does in the mother +country, in fraud and dishonesty.</p> + +<p>There is a well-managed post-office in Sydney, and +a twopenny post, with delivery twice a day, in the town +itself. There is, likewise, a Savings’ Bank,<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> a Mechanics’ +Institute, several large schools or colleges; and, in short, +so far as is possible, the usages and institutions of +England, whether good or bad, are, in most instances, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +transferred and copied with amazing accuracy by the +inhabitants of New South Wales. “Nothing surprises +a stranger in an English colony more than the pertinacity +with which our ways, manners, and dress are spread in +these outlandish spots. All smells of home.”<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> Accordingly, +in complete agreement with the manners of the +mother country, though not in harmony with that Word +of Truth which commands Christians “with one mind +and one mouth to glorify God,” (Rom. xv. 6,) the capital +of New South Wales is adorned with several buildings +for various parties in the <em>Christian world</em>, as it is called, +to meet in public worship. There is a large and handsome +Roman Catholic chapel, “a Scotch church, built +after the <em>neat and pleasing style</em> (?) adopted by the +disciples of John Knox; and the Methodist chapel, an humble +and lowly structure;” and, therefore, according to Mr. +Montgomery Martin’s opinion, from whom this account +is borrowed, all the better fitted to lead men to admire, +love, and worship their Creator. How different are +these modern notions from those of King David, who, +although he was blessed with quite as exalted ideas of +God’s omnipresence as most men have, nevertheless +deemed it wrong for himself to “dwell in a house of +cedar,” while “the ark of God dwelt within curtains,” +even the costly and beautifully-wrought curtains of the +tabernacle. And among the imitations of the customs +and habits of home, the love of newspapers, and the +number of these published, deserve a passing notice. +The state of the public press in England, especially with +regard to its Sunday publications, is grievous and +lamentable enough to justify the assertion, that printing +is a bane as well as a blessing to our native country. +And as for those persons who are weak enough to talk +as though newspapers were the great or sole means of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +diffusing <em>truth</em> and <em>knowledge</em> among the people, they +are not less mistaken than others would be, who might +affirm that newspapers were the chief or only means of +spreading <em>lies</em> and <em>ignorance</em> among them. But if so +much evil is mingled with the good produced by the +public press in Great Britain, how must the case stand +with the same mighty agent of benefit or mischief in +a colony like that of New South Wales? To this question +let Dr. Lang,—himself a newspaper editor in Sydney +for many years, a man of what are called “Liberal principles,” +and a Presbyterian teacher,—furnish a reply. +His words are stronger than another person, a stranger +to the colony, would like to use, or could be justified in +using; and if exceptions against his authority be made +in certain quarters, care must be taken by them not to +quote that same authority too implicitly on other subjects. +Dr. Lang, in the following passage, speaks disparagingly +of one of the great idols of his party; their favourite toast +has always been, “The Liberty of the Press; it is like the +air we breathe, if we have it not, we die,”—although it +is true they have occasionally forgotten that other +parties want “air to breathe,” as much as themselves. +Bearing these things in mind, we may listen with a +smile to the character which Dr. Lang gives of the +colonial press in New South Wales:—“It has, with only +few exceptions, been an instrument of evil instead of +good; while, in many instances, it has been a mere +receptacle and propagator of downright blackguardism.” +Accordingly, it is reckoned, (too justly, we may fear,) +among the <em>sources of colonial demoralization</em> in the very +paragraph from which the above statement is borrowed.</p> + +<p>The next town to be noticed is Paramatta, which is +situated in the same county with Sydney, and, indeed, is +only eighteen miles by water, and fifteen by land, from +the capital; a circumstance that will, most likely, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +prevent it from ever reaching that size and consequence +to which at a greater distance it might have attained. +Paramatta is built along a small fresh-water stream, +which falls into the harbour of Port Jackson, at the very +head of which the town is seated. For the last few miles +the harbour is navigable only for boats of twelve or +fifteen tons burthen. The town consists chiefly of one +long street, and being backed by a ridge of hills, it has +a pleasing appearance, especially from the Sydney road, +where it breaks suddenly upon the view. The population +of Paramatta is 10,052 souls, and the neighbouring +country is tolerably well cleared and inhabited. In this +place is the country residence of the governor, and here +also is the station of one of the three regiments upon +duty in the colony. Besides these distinctions, Paramatta +has been chosen to be the site of several establishments +of no small utility and interest in New South Wales. +On the banks of the river is the Female Orphan School, +where the little friendless daughters of the colony are +trained up to be members of Christ’s holy Catholic +Church, and servants of Him who is “the Father of the +fatherless, and the God of the widow, even God in his +holy habitation.” Here, likewise, is another establishment +of a very different character, but if less successful +in its results, not less beneficial in its intentions. The +Paramatta factory, or rather penitentiary, is known +throughout the settlement, and has been the object of +much abuse from portions of the colonial press. Its +objects are, first, to afford a home and place of refuge to +those female convicts that are not yet assigned to +masters, or are out of service; and, secondly, to provide +an asylum for those who have misconducted themselves, +and to give them leisure for reflection and repentance. +At Paramatta, likewise, is the noble institution called +the King’s School, which may, with judicious care, prove +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +an invaluable blessing to the rising generation of the +colony. There are also in this town barracks, and a +hospital; an old gaol, and a new one lately erected, and +intended to serve for the whole county of Cumberland, +with the exception of the town of Sydney. Besides +these public buildings, there is a Roman Catholic chapel +and a Wesleyan meeting-house; and two Presbyterian +congregations assemble themselves in Paramatta; nor in +this enumeration must the convent lately commenced by +a few “Sisters of Charity” be forgotten. The Romanists +are rather numerous in this town, and very active. In a +private letter received from the neighbourhood of Paramatta, +after stating the hold possessed by the English +Church upon the affections of the people, the writer observes, +“from the pretensions of the dissenters I cannot +affect any the slightest uneasiness. Our danger is from +Rome. I know not what to anticipate in that quarter. +Their exertions here are gigantic, and really do them +credit.” Why should not the efforts of our purer and more +Scriptural Church be equally strenuous? On the south +side of the river is St. John’s Church, which is quite +removed from the principal increase of the population, +that having taken place chiefly on the opposite bank. +The Rev. Samuel Marsden, who was chaplain in New +South Wales for more than forty years, bequeathed 200<em>l.</em> +and gave a piece of land to promote the erection of a +second church here; but for one reason or another, no +progress had been made towards this desirable end, and +in a letter dated January 1842, Bishop Broughton stated +his resolution to commence the good work, even with +the scanty resources at his disposal, hoping that the +sight of a building in progress would awaken the +liberality, and stir up the hearts of those that were able +to contribute.</p> + +<p>Windsor is the next town in the colony of New South +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +Wales, which appears to be deserving of a particular +notice. It is in the county of Cumberland, and stands +upon a hill rising about 100 feet above the level of the +Hawkesbury, upon the banks of which river it is built, +and is thus placed beyond the reach of its occasional +destructive floods. The town is situated on a point of +land lying between the Hawkesbury and a stream +called South Creek, running on the other side; and so +numerous are the windings of the former river, that +although not more than thirty-five miles in a straight +line from the sea, the distance by the Hawkesbury is +140 miles. The destructive propensity of the colonists +to root up and destroy all trees, whether in the way of +agriculture or not, would appear to have worked wonders +in this neighbourhood, for among other advantages +detailed in an advertisement of property to be sold +there, it is stated that fire-wood is so scarce, as to ensure +considerable profit from the sale of the wood on the +estate. Windsor is twenty miles from Paramatta, and +thirty-six from Sydney, and the country around it is +very rich and beautiful. In some places the cliffs that +overhang the Hawkesbury are not less than 600 feet +in height; and the picturesque scenery, the numerous +vessels and boats upon the stream, which is here navigable +for ships of more than 100 tons, the views of the +fertile country in the neighbourhood, with its abundant +crops of wheat and Indian corn, the boundary of +the western horizon, formed by the Blue Mountains, the +base of which is about twenty miles distant: all these +natural beauties combine to render Windsor a very +agreeable spot. Its population is about 2000, and it +has the usual public buildings, a gaol, barracks, hospital, +&c.; there is also a church dedicated to St. Matthew, +which until lately was served together with the chapel +at Richmond, a little town about five miles distant, by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +the same clergyman. There are also Roman Catholic, +Presbyterian, and Wesleyan places of worship.</p> + +<p>The town of Liverpool, situated, like those already +mentioned, in the county of Cumberland, still remains to +be noticed. It is about twenty miles from Sydney, and +is built upon the banks of George’s River, a small +navigable stream which empties itself into Botany Bay, +the bleak and unsheltered inlet upon which the proposed +colony under Captain Phillip was to have been settled. +Liverpool is centrally situated, but the soil around it is +poor, and the population not very large; but since it is +the intended seat of the proposed college, founded by +Mr. Moore, it will probably hereafter become a place of +some consequence. There is nothing particularly to be +remarked respecting the buildings of Liverpool at present, +with the exception of the Male Orphan Asylum, which +is a very good institution, the boys being not only +educated there, but likewise brought up to different +trades, and general habits of industry. The number of +the orphan children in this school in 1839, was 153.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a></p> + +<p>Beyond the limits of the county of Cumberland there +are very few towns which are large enough to merit +particular attention, and of these the situations of the +two most important and conspicuous, namely Bathurst +and Newcastle, have already been mentioned. Instead, +therefore, of wearying the reader with an attempt +minutely to describe the small towns of New South +Wales, it will be better to proceed without delay to a +description of the other British colonies in Australia.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img265.jpg" width="500" height="391" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">hobart town.</span> +</div> + + +<p> </p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>TASMANIA, AND THE OTHER AUSTRALIAN SETTLEMENTS.</strong></p> + + +<p>Van Diemen’s Land, or Tasmania, the next important +colony, is, as we have before stated, a separate island of +considerable size, nearly all the eastern side of which is +now inhabited by the English. It was divided into two +counties only, which are called Cornwall and Buckinghamshire, +but these being inconveniently large, a fresh +division into eleven counties, all of them borrowing the +names of some in England or Wales, has since taken +place.<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> But without concerning ourselves about these +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +smaller divisions, which it would be impossible to +describe exactly and distinctly, it may suffice to state, +that the two chief towns in the island are at its opposite +extremities, Hobart Town being at the south, and Launceston +at the north, and both of these are sea-ports; so +that the colony seems naturally to divide itself into two +provinces, each of which has one of these towns for its +capital, but which are both, nevertheless, similar in +their appearance, character, and productions.</p> + +<p>Van Diemen’s Land is a more mountainous, and yet, +it would seem, a more fruitful country than New South +Wales. It is, according to the testimony of all who have +visited it, a most beautiful and pleasing land; the +mountains are tolerably high, but do not run much in +ranges, and the views among them are continually broken +and cheered by delightful valleys and fertile plains. +Among these hills, limestone is very commonly discovered, +and is now in considerable use; it is supposed, +likewise, that coals, and iron ore, will be found abundantly +in Van Diemen’s Land, but these resources of +the colony have not yet been much explored. In the +cultivated parts of the country the soil varies greatly; +in some places it is a rich black mould, in others, sand +or flint is mingled; but its general fertility is proved by +the excellent crops which, year after year, it produces. +The coast of Van Diemen’s Land abounds in bays and +fine harbours; nor is this island at all deficient in +rivers and streams, imparting life to the landscape, and +fruitfulness to the soil. The Derwent, upon the banks +of which stands Hobart Town, is a very fine river, +without rocks or sand banks, and always safely navigable +for ships of considerable size. Both sides of +this river abound in beautiful and romantic scenery, +and although the soil is less productive than in some +other parts of the colony, yet the neighbourhood of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +the capital, and the advantage of water-carriage, combine +to make amends for this inferiority. The Tamar +falls into the sea in Bass’s Strait, quite on the opposite +side of the island to the mouth of the Derwent; +and as Hobart Town adorns the latter river, so +the Tamar is enlivened by the trade and commerce of +the port of Launceston. The navigation of this river +for large vessels is not easy, in consequence of a bar +and other hindrances. The Tamar is formed by the +union of two smaller streams, named the North Esk, and +South Esk, and at Launceston, the distance from the +sea is about forty miles. Towards its mouth, the land +adjoining this stream is barren and sandy, but within a +few miles this kind of soil is succeeded by rich level +marshes, and beautiful slopes of moderately wooded and +rich pasture country rising up behind these. The other +rivers of Van Diemen’s Land are either, like the Huon, +situated in the uncolonized parts, or, like the Shannon, +the Jordan, and the Clyde, inconsiderable streams, so as +not to merit a more particular description. Many of +the Tasmanian rivers take their rise in lakes, which +are usually found in high situations in the central +parts of the island, and abound with water-fowl.</p> + +<p>Hobart Town, the capital of a very beautiful and +lovely island, may boast of a situation of suitable loveliness +and beauty. Behind it, on the west, stand some +gently rising hills, well wooded, beyond which towers +Mount Wellington, 4000 feet in height, and having its +summit, during more than half the year, covered with +snow, but yet seldom obscured with clouds, because of +the pureness and clearness of the air. On the other side +of the town, to the eastward, is to be seen the noble +Derwent, which here better deserves to be called an arm +of the sea than a river, extending with its winding banks, +forming beautiful bays and lakes, or projecting into +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +picturesque points, whilst its waters are enlivened by +the boats and shipping of the adjacent port. The water +here is salt, and the bay on which Hobart Town stands +affords one of the best anchorages in the world for +vessels, in whatever number or of whatever burden +they may be. Indeed it is said that the Derwent surpasses +even Port Jackson, or at least it is doubtful +which of the two deserves a preference.<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> The capital of +Tasmania is built upon gently rising ground, and though +within the present century its site was mere bush-land, +it has now some good streets, with large and handsome +shops and houses. According to Mr. Montgomery Martin, +the average rental of these was 50<em>l.</em> each, but then +we must not lose sight of the high value which houses +bear in Australia. However, at that calculation, the +annual value of rent in Hobart Town in the year 1835, +when there were 1281 houses, would be 72,000<em>l.</em><a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> The +public buildings are said to be, some of them, handsome +and commodious. Court-house, barracks, hospital, +orphan-schools, jails, and government house, rank among +the principal buildings of Hobart Town; and in many +respects it appears to resemble a provincial sea-port in +the mother country. It has some excellent inns, good +wharfs and warehouses, and public banks, besides a few +considerable manufacturing establishments. A small +stream runs nearly through the centre of the town, +which, besides turning some mills, affords at certain +seasons a good supply of water. But the town is chiefly +supplied by means of pipes, which convey water to +private houses and likewise to the public pumps, and +occasionally, it would appear, some scarcity of this +needful article prevails.<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> The church of St. David’s, in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +the capital of Van Diemen’s Land, is a large building, +and so it ought to be, since it was until lately the only +church for a population (including the suburbs) of +13,000 souls.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> Besides the church, sundry other buildings +rear up their heads, here as elsewhere; and if any +thing could justify separation and divisions among those +for whom their Divine Master prayed “that they might +be one,” if in any case it were “lawful to do evil that +good may come,” then dissent of every kind might find +its excuse in a place like Hobart Town, where so +many thousand souls, the majority of them in a very +unhealthy state, have been formerly left in the charge +of one pastor. But instead of praying the Lord of the +vineyard for more labourers, and endeavouring themselves +to furnish the means of supplying these, men have +rushed, self-sent, or sent only by others having no more +authority than themselves, into the field of pastoral +labour. And while we lament the confusion that has +ensued, while we rejoice in whatever good may have +resulted from unauthorized preachers, we members of +the Church of England are compelled by truth to acknowledge, +that, if other men have been led astray by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +their eagerness and ignorance, we have been not less +culpably misled by our slothfulness and apathy. Accordingly +the marks of our needless divisions are every +where manifest; and like the noxious weeds which sometimes +hang about the roots of a noble tree, so are these +transplanted together with our best institutions into our +colonies. In the chief town of Tasmania are to be +found separate places of worship for Roman Catholics, +Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Independents.</p> + +<p>With respect to Launceston, which continues still to +be the principal town on the northern side of Van Diemen’s +Land, there is not much to be related. It stands +at the junction of the North and South Esk, and consequently +at the head of the navigation of the Tamar, +which is formed by these two streams. The town is +pleasantly situated at the foot of a hill upon a small +plain of about 200 acres of land. There are a few good +houses in Launceston, but its improvement has not kept +pace with that of Hobart Town; nor is it ever likely to +increase very greatly, since a government establishment +has been formed at George Town, a place about +thirty miles lower down, and consequently much nearer +to Port Dalrymple at the entrance of the Tamar, and +more convenient in its access for large ships. George +Town is well situated for every purpose of trade, but for +agriculture it offers no advantages, the soil in the +neighbourhood being very poor, and accordingly most of the +settlers prefer remaining at Launceston. The population +of the latter place may be nearly 1000, but no return +of this has been met with apart from the population of +the district to which the town gives its name. Launceston +has a chaplain and a church, of which no particular +account is given. There is also a Presbyterian +teacher resident in the town. At Longford, near Launceston, +may be found an example of “patient continuance +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +in well-doing,” which deserves to be recorded for the +encouragement of others. About the year 1830 the +first clergyman stationed there, the Rev. R. P. Davis, +began with a congregation of five, which appeared for +some time stationary. A church had been built which +it was thought would never be filled; but in eight years +afterwards, the walls could not contain those who were +anxious to hear the word of God in them. The grain of +mustard-seed had literally grown into a spreading tree; +the congregation had multiplied a hundredfold, and a +large church was about to be built, to which the inhabitants +had contributed 1500<em>l.</em><a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> Other small places might +be mentioned, as Elizabeth Town, Perth, Brighton, &c., +which are very pleasant and thriving little settlements; +and the penal settlements of Port Macquarie and on +Tasman’s Peninsula might be described. Port Arthur, +one of these, is on the last-named Peninsula, a sterile +spot of about 100,000 acres, surrounded by sea, except +where a narrow neck of land connects it with the main +island; and this isthmus is guarded, night and day, by +soldiers, and by a line of fierce dogs. Nothing particularly +deserving of further notice presents itself, and +therefore we may conclude our brief sketch of Van +Diemen’s Land, wishing it and all the other British +colonies in Australia a progress no less rapid in religion +and morals, than their recent progress in commerce, +agriculture, riches, and luxuries has been. What condition +of a country can be more truly deplorable than that +which in holy Scripture is so powerfully set forth, when +the boast, “I am rich and increased with goods, and +have need of nothing,” is heard proceeding from a land +which in the sight of God is “wretched, and miserable, +and poor, and blind, and naked?”<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +The Australian colonies may be said to form a family +group of British origin; and although the two elder +sisters are undoubtedly the most advanced and interesting, +yet some of the younger branches of the same +family may justly deserve to be noticed. We may begin +with the very recent colony called Port Phillip, which +lies between New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, +and which, as we have already seen, had well nigh taken +the place of the latter country in the honours of early +colonization. The country in the neighbourhood of the +inlet named Port Phillip is in many parts exceedingly +rich and fine; the scenery is varied by hills, woods, and +water; and besides much excellent pasture and sheep +walks, there are thousands of acres ready for the plough, +and capable of growing any European grain. The situation +of the principal town here, called Melbourne, is on +the Yarra Yarra river, just where its stream flows over +a fall and mingles with the salt water from Port Phillip, +from the head of which bay Melbourne is distant about +six miles by the course of the river, but across the land +not more than one and a half. The vessels generally +lie at Hobson’s Bay, distant by land four or five miles, +by water ten or twelve. There is a bar at the entrance +of the river which prevents large ships from coming up +close to Melbourne. The town appears to be rapidly +increasing; the commerce of Port Phillip is yearly extending; +its central position, the goodness of much of +the surrounding soil, and the fact of its being less +encumbered than is usually the case with wood, all +these circumstances unite in rendering this outpost, as +we may term it, of New South Wales, an important and +interesting spot. Respecting its prospects of religious +improvement and pastoral care, it is gratifying to be able +to quote the following statement from a letter of the +Bishop of Australia, of whose unwieldy diocese Port +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +Phillip forms a part. “At Melbourne the zeal of the +inhabitants has led them to undertake the erection of a +church, the estimated cost of which is nearly 7000<em>l.</em> +Although the certain and rapid increase of the town be +such as will, at no distant period, call for a church of +that importance, I greatly fear that resources may be +wanting for its immediate erection.” Meanwhile the +Bishop expresses his anxiety that temporary accommodation, +at the least, should be provided for the great +numbers collected at Melbourne, who are desirous of +attending the church. “It is evident,” continues he, +“that within a short interval there will be in the colony +few stations, with the exception, perhaps, of Sydney +itself, which will demand more assiduous care and +attention on behalf of its spiritual interests, than the +town whose streets extend over a spot where, not more +than three years ago, the Yarra Yarra flowed through +an almost uninterrupted solitude.”<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> The population of +Melbourne is stated in a recent periodical to be 4479, +while that of the whole settlement of Port Phillip is +11,758. By the same authority the numbers of the +members of the Church of England in this English +colony are said to be 6194; that of the Presbyterians, +2045; of the Wesleyan Methodists, 651; of other dissenters, +1353; of Roman Catholics, 1441; of Jews, 59; +Mahommedans and Pagans, 10. The mention of Jews, +who are to be met with in almost all these remote +colonies of the southern ocean, can scarcely fail to recall +to mind God’s threatenings to his chosen people (see +Deut. xxviii. 64). We shall conclude this notice of Port +Phillip with mentioning two important items in the estimates +of its expenditure for 1842:—Police and jails, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +17,526<em>l.</em> 8<em>s.</em>; clergy and schools, 5350<em>l.</em>;<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> and, +as a commentary upon these disproportionate estimates, which +are by no means peculiar to Port Phillip, the words of +Sir George Arthur may be added:—“Penitentiaries, +treadwheels, flogging, chain-gangs, and penal settlements,” +says the late governor of Tasmania, “will all +prove ineffectual either to prevent or to punish crime, +<em>without religious and moral instruction</em>.”</p> + +<p>The next of the infant colonies of Great Britain in +New Holland, which offers itself to our attention, as the +eye ranges over the map of that huge island, is the very +recently formed settlement of Southern Australia. This +is situated upon the southern coast likewise, and consists +of a large block of country, the inland parts of +which have not yet been explored, forming three sides +of a square, with the fourth side broken and jagged by +the inclination and indentations of the coast, which are +here very considerable. The area of South Australia +thus marked out is supposed to be about 310,000 square +miles, containing upwards of 98,000,000 of acres; that is +to say, it is double the size of the three British kingdoms, +and not much less than that of France.<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> The mode of +colonizing this extensive tract of country is proposed to +be upon different principles from those elsewhere followed +in Australia. No transported convicts are ever to +be sent there. No free grants of land are to be made, +but land can become private property by purchase alone, +and the whole of the purchase-money is proposed to be +spent in the encouragement of emigration. The emigrants +to be conveyed by means of this fund, without +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +expense to the colony, were to be of both sexes in equal +numbers, and the preference is to be given to young +married persons not having children. The prospect of +having a representative assembly was held out to the +colony, but the population was to exceed 50,000 before +it could be lawful for the Crown to grant this.</p> + +<p>To attempt to state accurately what the soil and +capabilities of so vast an extent of country may be, +would evidently be to attempt an impossibility. Of that +small part of it which is already occupied, much is barren, +hilly land, especially upon the coast. Nevertheless, it +would appear that South Australia has, so far as we can +at present judge, its full proportion of good and available +soil, both for the purposes of farming and for +pasture.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> The situation of that part of the colony, +where the principal settlements have been commenced, +is very well chosen, for it lies upon the Gulf of St. +Vincent, a very deep inlet of the sea, and is well backed +with a range of hills to the eastward, beyond which the +country yet unexplored extends to the banks of the +river Murray; so that, in fact, the Murray and the Gulf +of St. Vincent, form natural boundaries to those settlements +which are already begun, and within these limits +it is said that there are the means of supporting comfortably +from one hundred to two hundred thousand +inhabitants. This statement agrees with Captain Sturt’s +report of the existence of several millions of acres of +very beautiful and fertile land in the same district. The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +climate of South Australia is healthy, though very +warm;<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> and the usual disorders of Australia, complaints +of the eye and relaxation of the bowels, were the ailments +least uncommon among the new settlers. In March +1841, the population of the colony was estimated at +about 14,000, and the amount of land under tillage about +2000 acres. But since that time there has been a considerable +increase in both items. The quantity of provisions +in proportion to the inhabitants was considerably +greater than in England. A small commerce is springing +up, and slate, which abounds in South Australia, and +oil, the produce of the adjacent seas, together with wool +from the flocks fed upon the neighbouring hills, begin to +form materials of traffic.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p> + +<p>The capital of the province of South Australia bears +the honoured name of Adelaide, and is placed upon the +eastern side of the Gulf of St. Vincent. The country +around it is hilly and well timbered, but not too thickly +encumbered with wood, and the soil is generally good, +with abundance of water. The British settlers removed +to this spot from Kangaroo Island, which is at the +entrance of Gulf St. Vincent, but which they found less +desirable for a colony from the difficulty and expense of +clearing away the timber there. Adelaide is supposed +to be well and centrally placed for the capital of a +province, and it now has a good port,<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> to which vessels +of four or five hundred tons may come and discharge +their cargoes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +The town stands on gently rising banks, between +which flows a pretty stream, named the Torrens, and +commands a view of an extensive plain, reaching down +to the sea, over which the fresh breezes generally blow +from the south-west. Behind Adelaide is a fine wooded +country, and six miles distant is a range of hills, with +the wooded summit of Mount Lofty forming their highest +point. The population of the capital of South Australia +and its immediate neighbourhood, is supposed to be +about eight thousand. The town has not yet many +buildings or establishments of any importance, but there +is a hospital, and also a savings’ bank, in which last, +during six months of 1841, the deposits had increased from +130<em>l.</em> 0<em>s.</em> 2<em>d.</em> to 520<em>l.</em> 2<em>s.</em> 10<em>d.</em> +It had <em>four</em> newspapers and <em>one</em> colonial chaplain in 1842, +and the estimates for that year contained the following items:—Police, +9112<em>l.</em> 19<em>s.</em> 4<em>d.</em>; jail, 1034<em>l.</em> 8<em>s.</em>; +colonial chaplain, 370<em>l.</em> But we must do the colony of South +Australia the justice to state that this is not the whole sum which is +there spent on religious instruction. The voluntary system, +as it is called, has been brought into action there, and +hitherto, it would appear, successfully enough, so far as +pounds, shillings, and pence are concerned, if it be true +that in four years,—the four first years of the colony,—upwards +of 11,500<em>l.</em> had been voluntarily contributed for +religious and educational purposes, and “the clergy,” +(as all teachers are now denominated,) supported at an +annual charge of 1200<em>l.</em> But, of course, the voluntary +principle, as its name implies, is a little apt to be <em>wilful</em>; +and, accordingly, in Adelaide alone, with a population +of eight thousand souls, it is stated that there are ten +or twelve public “places of worship,” and a corresponding +number of “zealous, highly-educated, and efficient clergymen.” +Every settler apportions his mite +to Paul, to Apollos or to Cephas, according as it seems +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +right in his own eyes; and occasionally it may happen, +when any little offence is taken, that the popular saying +is actually realized, and Peter is robbed that Paul may +be paid. And to some persons, who cannot, one would +think, have read their Bible with much attention, this +system appears actually to be the very height of perfection. +The following brief quotation from a letter of the +Congregational teacher at Adelaide is said to be “most satisfactory:”—</p> + +<p>“<em>Religion.</em>—The whole circle of denominations is filled +up with their appropriate pastors, churches, and places +of worship. Adelaide is well supplied. The country is +not altogether neglected; but, as it fills up, will be better +attended to. I do not think the religious prospects bad. +Truth and piety, I expect, will flourish in South Australia. +The clergy of the Churches of England and Scotland +are evangelical; the Wesleyans have been very active +and useful. Of us, you read in the Report of the Colonial +Missionary Society. The other bodies are also making +their way.”<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> Would this report of religion in South +Australia be “most satisfactory” to that apostle, who +teaches that “there is <em>one</em> body, and <em>one</em> Spirit, even as +ye are called in one hope of your calling?”</p> + +<p>Still let us not judge harshly of the infant colony, nor +reproach it for a leprosy, with which it has been inoculated +by the mother country. While we hail with gladness +the good spirit which has been shown in raising so +much money for religious objects in the very infancy of +the settlement, let us hope, that the “places of worship” +may diminish in number, while the churches increase, +and that the country districts may have a larger share +of assistance than they can now receive out of what +remains of 1200<em>l.</em> a year, after Adelaide and its <em>ten</em> or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +<em>twelve clergymen</em> have been supplied.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> Undoubtedly, in +this province of Australia there is much zeal and good +feeling awakened, and the efforts of the South Australian +Church Building Society are deserving of every success. +To the members of this Society it must be indeed a +cause of thankfulness and joy, that they can call to mind +during the lapse of only four years, the quick succession +of an open spot, a tent, a reed hut, a wooden shed, and +lastly, a church capable of holding six hundred persons, +being respectively used for places of divine worship. +And now, not only do they see one church finished, but +two others are, ere this time, no doubt completed.<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p> + +<p>The British colony in the great southern land to which +the attention of the reader may next be directed, is that +of Western Australia; or, as it was called in its earlier +days, during its first struggles into existence, the Swan +River Settlement. This is situated upon the coast of +New Holland, opposite to the colony of New South +Wales, lying in nearly the same latitude, but thirty-four +or thirty-six degrees of longitude to the west of it. The +first discovery of this spot was made by a Dutchman, +Vlaming, in 1697, who named the stream Black Swan +River, from the black swans, which were then seen for +the first time by Europeans, and two of which were +taken alive to Batavia.<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> The banks of the Swan River +were first colonized in 1830, and the mode in which this +was effected is peculiar and different from the usual +course. A few gentlemen of large property undertook +to found the colony, at little or no expense to the mother +country, receiving immense grants of land in return for +the expenses incurred by them in this attempt; which +grants, however, were to revert to government, unless +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +they were cultivated and improved under certain conditions +and in a given time. Great difficulties and many +privations were endured by the first settlers, but these +appear to have been overcome, and so soon as the stream +of emigration shall have set steadily into Western Australia, +(which is, perhaps, all things considered, the most +desirable of our Australasian colonies for a respectable +Englishman to fix himself in,) there can be little doubt +that its progress will be not less rapid than that of the +sister settlements. Along the sea coast, the country is +hilly and barren; nor is it much better in the immediate +neighbourhood of the principal settlements, Perth and +Fremantle; but beyond these there is plenty of good +grass country, and near the inland town of Guildford, +the arable land in the valley of the Swan River is surpassingly +rich and productive, so that it has been known +to bear eleven successive crops of wheat in as many +years, without any manure, and the last year’s crop +averaging twenty-five bushels to the acre. In some +parts this good land approaches more nearly to the +coast; but still a large proportion of the soil is poor +and sandy, although even of this a great deal is capable +of cultivation, and is thought to be especially fitted for +the growth of the vine.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> The climate is exceedingly +healthy and delightful; indeed, it is even superior to +other parts of Australia, and rain is more abundant here +than elsewhere. Plenty of fish is likewise to be found +in the neighbouring bays and inlets, which are very +numerous; and the whales are so plentiful, only a few +hours’ sail from the shore, that oil is a principal article +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +of export, but the Americans are allowed to occupy this +fishery almost entirely, and it is stated that from two to +three hundred of their ships have been engaged in the +whale fishery off this coast during a single year. The +population of Western Australia is small, not being +computed at more than 2700 souls in the beginning of +the year 1842. The number of acres cultivated in 1840 +were, according to the returns of the local Agricultural +Society, 1650 in wheat, and 3296 in every kind of +culture. This settlement is, more than others, in want +of that article of which England especially needs to be +relieved—population; and if a man is frugal, sober, and +industrious, if he will bear in mind that “on no part of the +face of the globe will the earth yield her increase, but as +it is moistened by sweat from man’s brow,”<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> Western +Australia is, possibly, the best and most agreeable +country where he can find a happy home. Although +this large district is yet so thinly peopled, it is, +nevertheless, in a state of colonization and civilization +surpassing what might have been fairly expected. And the +absence of convicts, though it renders labour scarce and +expensive, brings with it counterbalancing advantages, +and prevents the double danger of immediate taint to +society from the unhappy criminals, and of future schism +arising between the emancipated convicts, or their children, +and the free settlers.</p> + +<p>Fremantle is at the mouth of the Swan River, and +contains some tolerable houses, with a jetty and various +other conveniences for trade, especially for the whale +fishery; from the ships engaged in which pursuit, (chiefly +American vessels,) a great portion of its commerce is +derived. One cause of its trade and population not +having increased more rapidly may be the bar across the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +mouth of the Swan River, having only a depth of six +feet at low water, and preventing the approach of ships +of large burden. The soil around is sandy, and produces +little or no grass; but when well cultivated, it yields +excellent vegetables. Two miles from Fremantle, up +the river, there is a ferry across to Perth, the seat of +government and capital of the colony, which is well +situated, the river extending into a broad sheet, named +Melville Waters, in front of the town. Here is good +brick-earth and garden-ground, and near the town there +are some tolerable farms. But at Guildford, seven +miles further up the river, commences the rich corn-land +of the colony, and the town itself contains six or +seven hundred inhabitants. York is forty-eight miles +eastward of Guildford; and King George’s Sound, on +the coast, where there is another settlement, is about +one hundred and fifty miles from York.</p> + +<p>There are several other little stations scattered about +in various directions, especially upon the coast. In +1840 there were five clergymen in Western Australia, +and on the 1st of January, 1841, the foundation stone of +a church at Perth to contain 600 persons was laid by +the governor; its estimated cost was 4000<em>l.</em> There are +churches also at Guildford, at the Middle Swan, the +Upper Swan, and at York, and a new church erecting at +Albany, near King George’s Sound. Some humble little +churches have also been built of mud, and thatched with +rushes, in this colony. And although, where it can be +done, we think that noble churches are most becoming +to the service of the King of kings, yet we doubt not, +in the cases where these lowly buildings are unavoidable, +that since “the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even +thousands of angels,” so these ministering spirits are +sent forth into the wilderness to minister unto them that +are heirs of salvation: we confidently trust that “the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +Lord is among them,” even “as in the holy place of +Sinai.” Wesleyan meeting-houses are to be found at +Perth and Fremantle. The governor and executive +council were authorized to “grant aid towards ministers’ +stipends, and towards buildings, <em>without any distinction of +sect</em>.”<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> This precious system, which would make no +“distinction of sect,” between the doctrine of the +beloved apostle St. John, and that of the Nicolaitans, +“which God hates,”<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> is almost a dead letter in Western +Australia, owing to the scattered state of the population, +and the great majority of them being members of the +Church of England. The duty of government to <em>tolerate</em> +separatists, (while they continue obedient to the laws of +the country,) is now denied by no one; and toleration, +one might have supposed, would have been all that +those who dislike a state church would have accepted; +but the duty of government to <em>encourage</em> and <em>foster</em> +separation in places where it does not at present exist, +is inculcated neither by reason, policy, nor Scripture; +neither can dissenters consistently accept of aid from the +state in Australia, and exclaim against it in England.</p> + +<p>One more commencement of colonization in the +island of New Holland must be mentioned in order to +complete the circle. An attempt to form a settlement +on the northern coast was made as early as 1824, at +Melville Island, rather more than five degrees to the +west of the Gulph of Carpentaria; but this establishment +was moved in 1827 to Raffles Bay, an adjacent +inlet of the main land. The new station was in its turn +abandoned in the year 1829, and a fresh settlement, at +the distance of a few miles, was planted at Port Essington, +by Sir Gordon Bremer, who sailed thither with His +Majesty’s ships <em>Alligator</em> and <em>Britomarte</em>, in 1838. The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +colony is still quite in an infant state. No clergyman +accompanied the expedition, although the commander +was desirous of securing the blessings of Church communion +for his little settlement.<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> In the immediate +neighbourhood some native Christians (Australians) +were found, who had many years ago been converted by +the Dutch; they had churches, and appeared to behave +well. Upon application to the Bishop of Australia, 300<em>l.</em> +was obtained towards a church at Port Essington, and +his endeavours to get a chaplain appointed there were +promised. It may be observed that Port Essington is +situated 2000 miles, in a direct line, from Hobart Town, +and both places were until very recently within the +same diocese, that of Australia! In like manner, when +the five clergymen stationed in Western Australia +had memorialized the Bishop to visit them, that he +might consecrate their churches, confirm their children, +and “set in order things that were wanting,” one great +obstacle to his compliance was the necessity of having +his life insured in the interim, for Western Australia, +though within his diocese, was not within the limits of +his policy of life assurance!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img286.jpg" width="500" height="394" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">cape pillar near the entrance of river derwent, van dieman’s land.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.</strong></p> + + +<p>Having now rapidly surveyed the various British +settlements in Australia, taking them separately, a few +observations may be added respecting their general condition. +And, first, of the <em>climate</em> of these countries, it +must have evidently appeared from what has been already +stated that this is extremely healthy and beautiful. +Every one who has been in Australia appears to be +surprised at the spring and elasticity which the climate +imparts to the human frame; and although it does +not seem that the average of life is at all more prolonged +there than in England, still it would really seem, +that the enjoyment of life was greater. Such declarations +as these.—“To say we are all well is really nothing;” +“the full enjoyment of health is quite a marvel;” +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +occur in the letters of those who are settled in +the great Southern Land; and the descriptions with +which we meet in books of its exhilarating climate, +completely justify and bear out the pleasing accounts of it +given us by its inhabitants. In so vast a territory, and in +so many different situations as the British colonies now +occupy, there must needs be great variety of climate; +and the warmth of Sydney and its neighbourhood forms +a strong contrast to the cool bracing air of Bathurst, +which is only 121 miles distant; the heat of the new +settlements at Moreton Bay, which is nearly tropical, is +strongly opposed to the English climate, beautifully +softened and free from damp, which is enjoyed in Van +Diemen’s Land. In Australia, it has been remarked, +every thing regarding climate is the opposite of England; +for example, the north is the hot wind, and the south +the cool; the westerly the most unhealthy, and the +east the most salubrious; it is summer with the colonists +when it is winter at home, and their midnight +coincides with our noonday. Near the coast, the sea +breezes, which set in daily from the great expanse of +waters, are very refreshing; whilst in the interior, +except in Van Diemen’s Land, or in very high situations, +the hot winds are extremely disagreeable. Especially +in the colony of New South Wales, during the summer +season, the westerly wind, which blows probably over +immense deserts of sandstone, or over miles of country +set on fire by the natives, is scarcely endurable at +certain times, but feels like the heated air at the mouth +of a furnace, and is then far from wholesome or pleasant. +However, this blast of hot wind is said never to +endure very long, and it is less oppressive than the +same heat would be elsewhere, because in New Holland +the air is dry, and in other countries, India for instance, +when the heat is exactly the same, it is felt much more +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +intensely from the quantity of moisture with which the +burning atmosphere is surcharged. Still we may form +an idea of the occasional violence of the heat in the interior +of New Holland, from Captain Sturt’s account of +his expedition across the parched-up marshes of the +Macquarie River, where the sugar which his men carried +in their canisters was melted, and all their dogs destroyed.</p> + +<p>The scourge of Australia is <em>drought</em>; and when a native +of the British Islands has lived a few years in that part +of the world, he begins to understand and feel better +than he ever before did, the frequent allusions in the +holy Scriptures to water as an emblem and sign of the +greatest blessings. The Englishman in Australia soon +learns what is meant by the blessings of Christ’s kingdom +being compared to “rivers of water in a dry place,” +or to “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,”<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> +when that rock promises a spring of living water, a +comfort which in New Holland is occasionally found upon +the bare top of a mountain, where no other supply is to +be had within thirty miles round.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> And the thankfulness +of the inhabitants of our own green islands may be +awakened, the undue expectations of the English emigrant +may be checked, by reading complaints like the +following, which are, at intervals, only too well founded +in many parts of the Australian colonies. “We have +now for upwards of four months been watching with +anxious interest the progress of every cloudy sky; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +but, overcast as the heavens most usually are towards +evening, the clouds have appeared to consist more of +smoky exhalations than moist vapours; and even when +at times they have seemed to break darkly over us, +their liquid contents have apparently evaporated in the +middle air. The various arrivals in our port (Port +Macquarie) have brought us accounts of genial showers +and refreshing dews, which have visited the neighbouring +districts; and even the silence of our own parched +coast has been broken by the sound of distant thunderstorms, +exhausting themselves on the eastern waves +while the sun has been setting in scorching splendour +upon the horizon of our western hills. Since the 30th +of June last to the present date, October 28th, there +have been but thirteen days with rain, and then the +showers were but trifling. In consequence, the surface +of the ground, in large tracts of the district, is so +parched and withered, that all minor vegetation has +nearly ceased, and the wheat-crops that were sown in +June, are, we fear, doomed to perish.”<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a></p> + +<p>How expressive, after reading descriptions like this, do +those complaints of one of the inspired writers appear: +“The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are +laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn +is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of +cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, +the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee +will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of +the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees +of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee, +for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire +hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.” (Joel +i. 17-20.)</p> + +<p>Most of the productions of the soil which are to be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +found in the mother country are raised likewise in the +Australian settlements. The wheat-harvest commences +in New South Wales in the middle of November, and is +generally over by Christmas, so that to this festive +season a fresh cause of rejoicing is added, and men are +called upon to be thankful at once for the greatest temporal +and spiritual blessings; the same time of year +supplies them with the meat that perisheth, and reminds +them of the coming down from heaven of Him who is the +bread of life. But, besides the ordinary produce of our +English fields, many productions of the soil are raised +in Australia which will not grow in the northern climate +of Britain. The fruits of Italy and Spain, the tobacco +of Virginia, and the Indian corn of the southern states +of America, are all produced in the Australian colonies. +And one fruit may be particularly noticed, which is in +England justly reckoned a delicacy, but which in New +South Wales is so abundant, that the very swine are +feasted upon it: <em>peaches</em> are to be had in full perfection +for full four months in the year, the later varieties +regularly succeeding to those that are earlier. This +fruit grows everywhere, it matters not whether the soil +be rich or poor; and if a peach-stone is planted it will +in three years afterwards bear an abundant crop of +fruit. So plentifully do they grow, that they are commonly +used to fatten hogs, for which purpose they +answer very well, after having been laid in heaps, and +allowed to ferment a little; cider also of a pleasant and +wholesome quality is made from the same fruit.</p> + +<p>The chief wealth of Australia consists in its flocks +and herds, and nothing in the progress of our settlements +there is more astonishing than the rapidity with which +these primitive riches have increased. Sixty years ago +there was not a single sheep in the vast island of New +Holland; and now, from a few narrow strips of land upon +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> +some of its coasts, millions of pounds of wool are +annually exported to England. The fine climate of +Australia is especially suited for sheep, and it would +appear to have an improving effect upon the quality of +that animal’s fleece, which nowhere reaches greater perfection +than in New South Wales. Cattle also thrive +and increase very much in the Australian settlements, +and animals of all kinds in New South Wales are exceedingly +dainty: if shut up in a field of good grass +they will starve themselves with fretting rather than eat +it, they are so anxious to get out upon the sweet natural +pastures. Although it is to be hoped and expected that, +under judicious management, these colonies will always +be able to supply their inhabitants with bread, still it is +confessed on all sides that pastoral riches form their +natural source of wealth, and that it is to these chiefly, +together with their mineral productions and commerce, +that they must look for a foundation of permanent and +continued worldly prosperity.</p> + +<p>The form of government is the same in all the British +Australasian colonies, and while the governor’s authority +is supreme, by virtue of his being the representative +of the British crown, his power is restrained by an executive +council and by a legislative council. The former +body, whose office is to assist the governor in carrying +the laws into execution, is composed of the colonial +secretary and treasurer, the bishop and lieutenant-governor, +(if the last-named office is not abolished,) +under the presidency of the governor himself. The +legislative council consists of the same persons, with the +addition of the chief justice, the attorney-general, the +chief officer of the customs, the auditor-general, and +seven private gentlemen of the colony, who are appointed +by the crown for life, and for whom, in case of death or +removal, the governor may choose a substitute, until +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +the Queen’s pleasure be known. The office of this legislative +council is, as its name implies, that of making +laws, in which, however, at least two-thirds of the +members must agree, and which must not be contrary +to the charter, or letters patent, or orders in council, or +laws of England. The proposal of new laws always +belongs to the governor, who must, however, give +eight clear days’ notice in the public papers, stating the +general objects of the intended enactments; nor can +this rule be dispensed with, except in cases of very great +emergency. Such is briefly the outline of the constitution +at present established in the Australian settlements, +and under this form of government they have, most of +them, already run a race of prosperity, which, allowing +for the recent dates of their foundation, can scarcely be +matched in the annals of any nation. Nevertheless, the +present form of government is a very great subject of +discontent among many of the colonists, and the <em>want</em> +of a representative house of assembly in New South +Wales and Van Diemen’s Land appears to give as little +satisfaction to many persons <em>there</em>, as the <em>presence</em> of +such an assembly does <em>here</em> in England.<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> It may easily +be imagined what a fine subject for oratory is thus furnished +among a mass of people, who, whatever elements +of good may exist among them, may, generally speaking, +be too truly said to have derived their birth and education +from criminals and outcasts. In the midst of a +people thus constituted, a press “unshackled by stamps, +paper-excise, advertisement duty, or censorship,” is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +doing its daily or weekly work of <em>enlightening</em> the minds +of the people respecting their <em>grievances</em>; and where, as +in Van Diemen’s Land, there is said to be a newspaper +for every 1666 free persons,<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> the people must indeed +bask in the sunshine of political illumination. “The +press,” it is asserted on good authority respecting Van +Diemen’s Land, and it is not less true of New South +Wales, “The press, with few exceptions, finds ample +support in holding up to derision the authorities of the +land, and even in the invasion of the sanctity of domestic +privacy.”<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> The result, however, of this state of things +is that, actually, in the colonies of Australia the grievances +appear worse, the “wrongs” more galling, and +the “rights” less regarded, than even in England itself; +and judging from the crabbed tone of discontent prevailing +in most of the colonial newspapers, the people who +live in a land almost free from taxes, and quite exempt +from tithes and poor-rates, can without much difficulty +conjure up complaints of taxation and oppression not less +piercing than those which are to be heard in a kingdom +where taxgatherers, tithe-proctors, and aristocrats, still +exist. Perhaps, there is nothing more calculated to +make an Englishman tolerably satisfied with the state +of things in his own country than the occasional perusal +of the newspapers of lands so “highly favoured” in the +way of “taxation” or “liberal institutions,” as the +Australian colonies and the United States of America. +The christian patriot looks down with pity upon the +strife of tongues and the turmoil of party-spirit which +Satan contrives to raise in almost every country under +the sun; and while the believer can always bless God’s +providence for many good things, he expects not perfection +in the institutions of mortal men; it is true that</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: -.3em;">“Worldly reformers, while they chafe and curse,</span><br /> + Themselves and others change from bad to worse;<br /> + While christian souls for blessings past can praise,<br /> + And mend their own and others’ future ways.”</p> + +<p>The great instruments by which the christian statesman +will aim at reforming mankind, and making them +happy, while at the same time he will be gaining the +highest of all glory to himself, both in time and +eternity, are christian instruction and religious education. +A corrupted press and incessant agitation are +instruments suitable enough to accomplish the works of +darkness for which they are usually employed; nor are +churches and schools less fit means of success in the +better and more honourable task of bringing a nation to +righteousness, respectability, and contentment. A short +account of the establishment of the Bishopric of Australia, +and a statement of the means of religious and +sound education in that part of the world, will not be +out of place here; and if, as before, we are driven to +speak of the neglect of “the powers that be” upon these +essential points, it is hoped that, since this is done +unwillingly,—more in shame and sorrow than in anger +and party-spirit,—it will not be done with a feeling at +all contrary to the Divine precept: “Thou shalt not +speak evil of the ruler of thy people.”<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a></p> + +<p>“It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy +Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles’ +time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ’s +Church,—Bishops, Priests, and Deacons;”<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> and the +Church of England has never yet made bold to dispense +with what the Church of Christ did for 1500 years, +without a single exception, deem it necessary everywhere +to retain. Never <em>in theory</em>, indeed, has our Church made +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> +bold to work without the three orders of an apostolical +ministry, but, alas! frequently has she done this in +practice, and in no instance more openly or less successfully +than in Australia. For upwards of thirty years, +no superintendent at all was placed over the clergy and +laity of our communion in New South Wales, and when +a step was taken, it was not made in the right direction; +an archdeacon was appointed, who, whatever might be +his civil authority, was, respecting spiritual authority, +exactly upon a level with his other brethren in the +ministry; nor could he assume more than this without +assuming to himself that to which he was not entitled,—the +office of a bishop in the Church. Under these +strange and irregular circumstances was the infant +Church, brought from the British isles and planted in +the wilderness of Australia, allowed to continue for about +twelve years. The witness of a layman concerning this +state of things may be here repeated: “I myself then +saw a church without a bishop, and I trust in God I may +never see it again.”<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> In 1824, the Rev. T. H. Scott was +appointed Archdeacon of New South Wales, and there +were then eight chaplains in the colony, which covered +a vast expanse of country, and contained, in 1821, (three +years earlier,) 29,783 souls, of whom 13,814 were +convicts. Thus was New South Wales provided with +“a very liberal ecclesiastical establishment,” according +to the liberal views of one of its leading historians;<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> +and as its population increased, so, in some degree, if +not in an equal proportion, did the number of its clergy, +so that, in September, 1833, the number of souls in the +colony was 60,794,<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> (of whom 16,151 were convicts, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +and 17,238 Roman Catholics,) and the number of clergymen +was fifteen, besides the archdeacon and four +catechists. Archdeacon Scott was succeeded, in 1829, +by the Rev. W. G. Broughton, whose zeal and activity +reflect honour alike upon himself and upon the discernment +of the noble patron, the Duke of Wellington, who, +it is believed, first recommended him to that office. +After enduring labour, and toil, and anxiety, such as +those only know who have to bear the heat and burden +of the day in the Lord’s vineyard, at length the +archdeacon was made, by permission of the English +government under Lord Melbourne, in 1836, Bishop of +Australia; and the foundation of an Apostolical and +Scriptural Church in the Great Southern Land was at +length duly laid, by the consecration of that prelate, at +Lambeth, on February 14th, 1836. The old stipend +assigned to the archdeacon was to be continued without +any increase to the Bishop of Australia; and since 2000<em>l.</em> +a-year was undoubtedly a very ample provision for the +former, it was thought that it might be found sufficient +for the latter; and so it would be, if the British government +were willing to provide properly for the spiritual +wants of the new diocese, and thus preserve the provision +made for the bishop from being almost entirely +swallowed up in endeavouring to satisfy the spiritual +need of his people. This observation, however, justice +compels us to make before we quit the present subject, +namely, that, whatever opinion may be entertained of +the dispositions of the British government, during +the ten years following the passing of the Reform +Bill, towards the English Church, for one fact every +member of that church must feel deeply indebted +to them. During the time of Lord Grey’s and Lord +Melbourne’s holding office, no less than <em>six</em> new bishoprics +were erected in the British colonies, and the first +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +impulse was encouraged of that good spirit which has +since sent forth into foreign parts five bishops in one +day to “preach the word, to be instant in season, out of +season, to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering +and doctrine.”<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> + +<p>Among the five new sees thus recently established, +the pressing necessities of Australia have not been overlooked; +and Tasmania, or Van Diemen’s Land, an island +equal in size to Ireland, has been thought to claim justly +a separate bishop for itself. The capital of this island +is not less than 600 miles distant from Sydney, the seat +of the bishopric of Australia; and with a population of +50,000, rapidly increasing, a large majority of whom are +churchmen, its claims to have a bishop of its own are +undeniable. And to these just claims the British government +have listened so far as to devote the 800<em>l.</em> per +annum formerly assigned to an archdeacon of Van +Diemen’s Land towards the endowment of a bishop +there, in addition to which sum 5000<em>l.</em> have been set apart +from the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, and the remainder +of what is necessary to provide the occupant of the new +see with a decent maintenance is now being raised among +those that feel interested in that particular colony, or in +the general good work whereof this endowment forms +only a part. Nor is it the intention of the promoters of +this noble design of founding in our Australian and other +colonies the complete framework of a Christian Church +to stop short here. South Australia, a province even +more thoroughly separated from Sydney than Tasmania +is, has appeared well deserving of the attention of those +that have the direction of this important work; and the +zeal of some of the landed proprietors of the colony has +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +already prepared the way for the establishment of a +bishopric in South Australia. The following extract is +from the letter of a layman residing in the last-mentioned +colony:—“At present, we are pronounced to be +in a diocese, whilst the head of that diocese is living +nearly 1200 miles away, and has never been here, and, +in all probability never will be.” One person has offered +to build, at his own cost, with the tenth part of his +property in Australia, a church at Adelaide, to endow +the see with land to the amount of 270<em>l.</em> per annum, +and to furnish plans, &c. for a bishop’s residence; other +gifts of land have likewise been contributed to the +amount of 100<em>l.</em> per annum more. A grant of 5000<em>l.</em> +has been obtained from the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, +and it is hoped that, by the efforts of the friends of +sound religion, an endowment of 1000<em>l.</em> per annum +may speedily be completed for the intended bishopric.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> +And since the experience of the past forms a stable +foundation of hope for the future, we may form a judgment +of what <em>will be done</em>, under the Divine blessing, in +Tasmania and South Australia, by what <em>has been done</em> in +the diocese of Australia. In the charge of the bishop of +the last-named see, delivered by him to his clergy in +1841, it is stated, that, before 1836, the date of his +consecration, there were in the colony of New South Wales +nine churches, eight chapels, or school-houses used as +such, and five parsonage-houses; whereas, in 1841, +<em>nine</em> new churches had been completed, <em>four</em> had been +opened by licence, <em>fifteen</em> more were in course of erection; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> +and twelve new parsonages had been completed, +while eight others were also in progress!<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> So great a +stimulus, during only five years, had the presence of the +full and effective staff of an apostolical ministry added +to the growth and increase of the Church in one single +colony!</p> + +<p>The history of education in the colony of New South +Wales is an important and deeply interesting subject;—indeed, +in what country is it not so?—but the struggles +and disappointments of the friends of sound religious +education,—of that education which an Englishman may +be thankful to be permitted to call National,—have been +very severe and trying. To borrow the language of an +able statesman and eloquent writer, “not contented with +excluding religion from the province of government, the +spirit of the age struggles with not less zeal to introduce, +as its substitute, education; that is to say, the cultivation +of the intellect of the natural man instead of the +heart and affections of the spiritual man—the abiding in +the life of Adam, instead of passing into the life of +Christ.”<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> This is precisely what has taken place in +Australia. Only two years after the foundations of the +colony had been laid, George III. was pleased to provide +for the Church and for schools, by ordering the governor +to allot in every township 400 acres of land for the +maintenance of a minister, and 200 acres for the support +of a schoolmaster. This provision continued to be +assigned, and in many cases the portion of allotted glebe +became of considerable value; but, in 1826, a yet more +extensive and promising support was afforded by the +British government to the cause of religious instruction +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +in New South Wales. The nature of this assistance may +be detailed first in the words of a violent and not very +sensible or consistent enemy of the Church of England, +and then the reader may turn to the account given by +one of its ablest and best friends. “I was utterly +astounded,” says Dr. Lang, “in common with most of +the colonists, at the promulgation of a royal charter +appointing a Church and School Corporation for the +religious instruction, and for the general education of +the youth of the colony, <em>on the principles of the Church of +England, exclusively</em>, and allotting a seventh of the whole +territory, for that purpose, to the Episcopalian clergy, +with free access, in the meantime, to the colonial +treasury-chest. It will scarcely be believed that so +wanton an insult as this precious document implied, +could have been offered to the common sense of a whole +community, even by the late tory administration; or +that men could have been found in the nineteenth +century to perpetrate so gross an outrage on the best +feelings of a numerous body of reputable men.” During +the ensuing four or five years, we are told by the same +authority that it was completely in the power of the +archdeacon and clergy “to have formed a noble institution +for the general education of the youth of +Australia with the very crumbs that fell from their +corporation-table.”<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> They might, “if they had only +been possessed of the smallest modicum of common +sense, have secured the exclusive predominance of episcopacy +in the management of the education of the whole +colony, <em>for all time coming</em>.” And yet, adds the sagacious +Scotchman, in the very next paragraph, “the yoke must +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +have proved intolerable in the end, and would sooner or +later have been violently broken asunder during some +general burst of public indignation.” After a grievous +misrepresentation of the expenses incurred by the Church +and School Corporation,<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> and a sneer at the want of +education which is said to prevail among its members,<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> +Dr. Lang contrives at last to land himself, if +not his readers, at the desired conclusion, namely, that +“ignorance is the mother of devotion” to colonial episcopacy!</p> + +<p>But it is time to turn away from the pitiable spectacle +of a man calling himself a minister of God’s word, +but far better qualified for his other occupation, that of +editing a party newspaper in a penal colony, and taking +our leave of Dr. Lang with feelings of regret that he has +not made a better use of those talents which have been +given him: let us turn to the statement given by Judge +Burton, of the Church and School Corporation in New +South Wales. It is correct that one-seventh part in +extent and value of the land in New South Wales, was +intended to be set apart for the supply of religious +instruction and education to the whole colony. It is +true, likewise, that the English government, in 1826, +entrusted this endowment for these good purposes +entirely to the Church of England; and to what other +body could a thoroughly English government have +entrusted it? What course could be more suitable to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> +the principles of the English constitution? Or who in +those days suspected the very dissenters, who in England +regard the help of the state as an abomination, of being +anxious themselves to partake freely of that help in +Australia? However, the arrangements were completed, +and the charter of the Church and School Corporation +was signed in 1826; and at the same time the burden +of defraying the regular expenses of the existing clergy +and schools, was immediately transferred from the parliamentary +grants and the colonial revenue to the newly +formed corporation. But, whatever might have been +the future value of the endowment thus bestowed upon +the Australian Church, its immediate produce was little +or nothing; the reserves are stated to have not been +fairly portioned out, many of them were allotted in +inconvenient or distant situations and unprofitable +soils; private interest was allowed to take the first +place in the division of land, and persons who would +have scorned to defraud men, were happy to be allowed +to rob God of his rights and the poor of the means of +having the gospel preached to them. Nor, even although +these hindrances had not arisen, would there have +been any sufficient income arising during the first years +from the property of the corporation, unless they had +sold this with utter recklessness of the means of securing +a future permanent endowment. That portion of their +lands which was most improved, was either judiciously +sold, or else let; and other parts of it were gradually +being brought under cultivation, and improved in value; +but meanwhile the increasing yearly expenses of the +ecclesiastical establishment were to be met. For this +purpose, some money was borrowed on debentures, and +an advance was made to the corporation from the +colonial treasury; and thus, during three years, were +the exertions of the corporation crippled and restrained. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> +When they were beginning to get somewhat clear of +these first difficulties, when their estates were becoming +profitable, and their flocks and herds increasing, they +were directed to suspend any further proceedings, no +more lands were granted them, and they were informed +that their charter was to be revoked. This notification +was made in 1829, though the revocation did not actually +take place till 1833.</p> + +<p>In reply to the inquiry, why the Church and School +Corporation in New South Wales should have been thus +suddenly dissolved, and that, too, at the very time when +its means were beginning to be available for the fulfilment +of the intentions of its foundation, no other answer +can be found besides that suggested by Judge Burton. +It was done, no doubt, by way of yielding to the +clamour of the secret and open enemies of the Church of +England; and the very opposition of Infidels, Romanists, +and Dissenters, combined, in jarring harmony, +together, bears a strong witness of the value of the +object of attack. The sop that was thus thrown to the +greedy demon of religious strife, was by no means successful +in satisfying or appeasing him; like most other +similar concessions, it served only to whet the appetite +for more; and it is to God’s undeserved mercies, not to +her own efforts, or to the wisdom of her rulers, that +England herself owes the preservation at that time of +her national Church. And now that the Church and +School Corporation in Australia has been abolished +these ten years, what are the results; who is the better +for its destruction? If this establishment had been permitted +to remain, “certainly, at this day its funds would +have been sufficient to relieve the government altogether +of the charge of maintaining the clergy and schools of the +colony.”<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> The estimated expenses of “Church establishments,” +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +and “school establishments,” for New South +Wales in 1842, were respectively, 35,981<em>l.</em> 10<em>s.</em>, and +16,322<em>l.</em> 10<em>s.</em>,<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> so that by this time the saving to government, +arising from the continuance of the corporation, +would have amounted to no trifling annual sum. But, +what is of far more importance, and what was foreseen +by the enemies of the Church of England when they +compassed the ruin of the corporation, the means of +“lengthening its cords and strengthening its stakes,” +would have been placed within the power of the Australian +Church. And since, under every disadvantage, +during the short time in which the charter continued to +be in force, “the churches were increased in number and +better provided, the schools were considerably more +than doubled in number, and their effectiveness increased, +while their expenses were lessened,”<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> what +might have been expected from the same instrument in +a longer period of time, and after the first difficulties +had been overcome? However, for wise and good +purposes, no doubt, it was not permitted that the experiment +should be tried; and while we regret that the +Church in Australia is not more efficient and better +supported than it is, we may yet feel thankful that, by +the grace of God, it is as it is.</p> + +<p>It affords a sad proof of the continued enmity of the +world against Christ, to turn from the noisy outcries of +the children of Mammon about economy and ecclesiastical +expenses, and to fix our eyes upon the plain matter +of fact. When it was confidently asserted, by the +highest colonial authority, that the wants of the Australian +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +Church were fairly supplied, the Bishop, in 1837, +mentioned by name no less than fifteen places where +clergymen were immediately needed. And it is no uncommon +occurrence, as in the church at Mudgee, (quite +in the wilderness,) for a consecration to take place, the +church to be filled, the inhabitants around delighted, +their children baptized, and then the building is closed +for an indefinite period, until some clergyman be found +to officiate! Some persons may hold that to <em>save money</em> +is better than to <em>save souls</em>, but let not these men aspire +to the name of Christians.</p> + +<p>But, in spite of such enemies, whether endowed or not, +whether supported or spurned by the state authorities, +the Church is likely to prove a blessing and a safeguard +to our Australian colonies. The absence of endowment, +the want of worldly means of extension, these are losses +not to the Church, but to the state. And while each +individual member is bound to spare of his abundance, +or even of his poverty, for a work so good and holy as +that of propagating the gospel in foreign parts, especially +in our colonies;<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> while every lawful effort is to be +made to do what we can to resist the progress of evil, +we may be satisfied to wait quietly the result. Nor, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +among other acts of christian charity, will a faithful +member of Christ’s visible Church ever forget to pray +for those unhappy men whose extraordinary professions +of religion are too often found to end in fruits like +these,—in opposing all extension of what they deny not +to be, in the main, a scriptural Church, in straining at +the smallest particle of endowment, or public assistance +for religious objects at home, whilst abroad they +can swallow a whole camel’s load of public money +or church plunder, when it serves their occasion! May +God, in his wisdom, overrule the mischief, and in his +mercy forgive the evils of which men of this description +have recently been the occasion, both in England and +in its colonies!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>CONVICT POPULATION.</strong></p> + + +<p>Whatever may be the natural charms or advantages +of any region, these are nothing without inhabitants; +and however abundantly the means of riches, the comforts, +luxuries, or necessaries of life may be scattered +around, these are comparatively lost without man to +enjoy and to use them. The garden of Eden itself was +not perfected until beings were placed in it capable of +admiring its beauties and rejoicing in its blessings. And +in every country, especially in a civilised country, when we +have gone through the length and breadth of the land, +examining its natural features and speculating upon its +capabilities and future destiny, there is still left a most +interesting and important subject of consideration, nor +can our knowledge of any region be reckoned complete, +until we are acquainted with the present condition of its +inhabitants. In the preceding pages it has been found +impossible, indeed, to avoid frequently touching upon +a topic, which is so closely interwoven with the whole +subject; but there still remains abundance of miscellaneous +information concerning the present state of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +inhabitants of the Australian colonies to be detailed, +without which, indeed, the task we have undertaken +would be left altogether incomplete.</p> + +<p>Though intellectual man is the principal object in +God’s creation upon earth, yet it is not the mere +“march of intellect,” but it is the advancement of truth +and righteousness,—the gradual outpouring of that +knowledge of God which shall cover the earth as the +waters cover the seas,—that can cause “the desert to +rejoice and blossom as the rose.” The recollection, +therefore, of the sort of men with whom Great Britain +has partly peopled the lonely shores of Australia,—the +remembrance that these men, too morally diseased to +be allowed to remain among ourselves, have been cast +forth to die, with little or no thought about bringing +them to the Great Physician of souls to be made whole,—these +reflections have before been offered, and must here +be repeated again. We read with pleasure and interest +of benevolent travellers, anxious to benefit the countries +which they are exploring, scattering around them in +favourable spots the seeds of useful plants and noble +trees, in the hope that these may hereafter prove beneficial +to generations yet unborn. And in like manner +may the mother country be said to scatter abroad in her +colonies the seeds not only of good, but of evil also. +Many admirable institutions, not a few excellent individuals +and christian families, have been planted in +Australian lands; a branch of Christ’s Church has been +placed there, and has taken firm hold of the soil, and +numberless other promises of future excellence may be +traced by the thankful and inquiring mind. But then, +on the contrary, we must not lose sight of the tares +that are so abundantly springing up together with the +wheat; it is impossible to deny that rank and poisonous +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +weeds have there been scattered along with the good +seed, nay, instead of it. What might have been the +present state of Australia, if all, or almost all, its free +inhabitants had been faithful Christians, steadfast “in +the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking +of bread and in prayers?” How great an effect might +the “salt,” thus placed in those remote parts of the +earth, have had in rescuing from corruption that mass +of uncleanness, which has been removed thither from +our own shores! Now, alas! nowhere more than in +some of the Australian settlements “are the works of +the flesh manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, +uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, +variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, +envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such +like.”<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></p> + +<p>One cause, unquestionably, of the peculiar prevalence +of many of these evil works is the strange elements of +which society in Australia is composed. In its lowest +rank is found the unhappy criminal, whose liberty has +been forfeited, and who is, for a time at least, reduced +to a state of servitude in punishment of his offences. +Next to this last-named class come the <em>emancipists</em>, as +they are called, who have once been in bondage, but by +working out their time, or by good conduct, have +become free; these and their descendants constitute a +distinct and very wealthy class in New South Wales and +Van Diemen’s Land. The third and highest class is +formed of men who have settled as free persons in the +colonies, and of their descendants; and between this last +class and the two first a considerable distinction is kept +up, from which, (it has already been noticed,) miserable +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +dissensions, jealousies, and heartburnings, have frequently +arisen. To an impartial person, beholding these +petty discords from the contrary side of the globe, it is +pretty plain that both classes are in fault.</p> + +<p>It is well known that the system of assigning convicts +to various masters has been practised ever since the +colony at Port Jackson was first established, and thus +the expense of maintaining so many thousands of people +has been thrown upon the settlers, who were amply +repaid by the value of their labour; by means of which, +likewise, the land was brought into cultivation, and the +produce of the soil increased. One great argument +against the system of transportation, as a punishment, +is drawn from this practice of assignment, which, it is +asserted, makes the penalty “as uncertain as the diversity +of temper, character, and occupation amongst human +beings can render it.” Certain rules and conditions +were laid down for the treatment of convict servants, +and if these behave themselves well, they are allowed +“a ticket of leave,” extending over a certain district, +within which the holder of the ticket becomes, in fact, +a free person; subject, however, to the loss of this +privilege in case of his committing any offence. After +a certain number of years, the holder of the ticket of +leave is allowed to receive a “conditional pardon,” which +extends only to the limits of the colony, but is no longer +liable to be withdrawn at the will of government. The +“absolute pardon,” of course, extends everywhere, and +restores the party receiving it to all the rights and +privileges of a British subject.<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> The custom of assigning +male convicts has, however, been discontinued lately in +the elder colony, although women are still assigned to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +the settlers by government, or at least were so until +very recently. But besides the employment of the convicts +by private persons, a vast number of these are constantly +engaged in public works, and to the facility of obtaining +labour thus afforded does New South Wales owe some of +its greatest improvements, especially in roads, bridges, +public buildings, and the like undertakings. It is +scarcely to be supposed that employment of this kind, +when the men must necessarily work in gangs, is so +favourable for their moral improvement and reformation +as residence in a private family and occupation in rural +pursuits is generally likely to prove; though the contrary +notion is supported in the recent Report of the +Transportation Committee, since, in the former case, they +are under stricter discipline. However, it has always +been customary to make the public works a sort of +punishment, and private service a reward for convicts; +and those that have been returned from the latter with +complaints, are usually put upon the roads for at least +six months; so that, if this system really stands in the +way of the improvement of offenders, it keeps those that +conduct themselves well from the beginning quite clear +of the bad example of less hopeful characters. It is +a sad truth, however, in Australia, as it often is found +to be in England, that “the most skilful mechanics are +generally the worst behaved and most drunken,” and, +consequently, most liable to punishment in the public +gangs.</p> + +<p>By way of introducing the reader to the kind of life +led by those unhappy beings who labour in Australia +at the public roads, and to give him also some idea of +the spiritual work which the ministers of Christ’s Church +in a penal colony may be called upon to perform, the +following sketch from a private letter will be not unacceptable:—“In +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +a few minutes I am at the stockade +where more than 60 men are immediately mustered; the +[Roman] ‘Catholics’<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> are sent back to their boxes, the +‘Protestants’ assemble under a shed, open on two sides, +and filled with a few coarse boards for tables and forms, +where the men get their meals. Their boxes are wooden +buildings of uniform structure, in which the prisoners +are locked up from <em>sundown</em> to sunrise. The roof is +shingled, the sides are weather-board, the door in the +middle is secured by a padlock, and above the door is a +grating to admit the light and air, a similar grating being +placed exactly opposite to it. The internal arrangements +are simple in the extreme, where you see a gangway in +the middle, and two tiers of hard planks or dressers for +the men to lie upon; their bedding being, I believe, only +a blanket. As there is no division to form separate +bed-places, the four-and-twenty or thirty men who share +these boxes lie like the pigs, and make the best of it +they can. When a prisoner has served his time in +irons, he is removed to a probationary gang; that which +I am describing is an ironed gang. These men are +dressed in a motley suit of grey and yellow alternately, +each seam being of a different colour; and the irons +being secured to each ancle, and, for the relief of the +wearer, made fast from the legs to the waist. The whole +stockade is sometimes enclosed with high palings, and +sometimes open. The service of the Church is performed +under the shed where the men assemble for meals. The +men behave well or ill as the sergeant in charge takes an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> +interest in it or not. Here the sergeant and a dozen +young soldiers are constant at prayers. The responses +are given by all that can read, our blessed societies +having furnished Bibles and Prayer-books for all. +Every change of position is attended with the clank of +chains, which at first harrows your soul: but time does +wonders, you know; you forget the irons after a while. +A full service and a sermon. You hear an application +or two from prisoners about their worldly matters,—chiefly +from the craftiest, oldest hands; wish them good +morning, and away.</p> + +<p>“It is now half-past ten: there lies the hot and dusty +road before you, without shelter of any kind, and the +sun pours down his fiery beams; no cloud, no intermission. +If a breeze blows, it may be hotter than from +the mouth of a furnace. Well, courage; step out, it is +five miles to the other stockade. A flock of sheep,—the +dog baying, the driver blaspheming; a dray or two of +hay; a few carts loaded with oranges. Up the hill, down +the hill, and so on, till, a little after twelve, you arrive at +the other stockade. This is a probationary gang, that +is to say, it is composed of those against whom complaints +have been made by their respective masters, +and who are not assignable to other individuals for +six months. In this gang are six-and-twenty persons, of +whom two are [Roman] ‘Catholics.’ No motley dress, +but all in dark grey; no irons. A corporal and one +private for a guard, and both of them exemplary at +prayers. Here I have the afternoon service. Generally +about this time the wind is up; and here, in a +state of perspiration, the breeze gives me a thorough +chilling under the open shed; and often clouds of dust +come rushing through upon us, as bad as the worst +days in March along one of the great roads in England. +But the service is attended in a gratifying manner, insomuch +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +that it would shame many home congregations. +The corporal here teaches the poor fellows who require +it to <em>read and write</em>, so that even here we find instances +of christian charity, without sinister or vain motives, +which may well stimulate us and provoke our exertions.”</p> + +<p>From this picture of the condition of some of those +convicts that are undergoing punishment, we may turn +to the more pleasing view, which a gentleman of large +property in Australia, Mr. Potter Macqueen, has drawn +of the condition of his own assigned servants. Of course, +much of the chance of the servant’s improvement must +depend, humanly speaking, upon the sort of master into +whose hands he is thrown, and Mr. Macqueen would +appear to have behaved kindly and judiciously to those +entrusted to his care. Occasionally a severe example +of punishment was made, and extra labour or stoppage +of indulgences, as milk, tea, sugar, or tobacco, were +found effectual correction for most faults, whilst additional +industry was rewarded by fresh indulgences. Of +some deserving men Mr. Macqueen had even brought +over the wives and families at his own expense. And +what, in this world, could be a greater instance of the +luxury of doing good than to behold the family and +partner of one who has, though a convict, conducted +himself well, restored once more to their long-lost parent +and husband, and settled in his new country as pledges +of his future continuance in well-doing? Marriage, altogether, +was encouraged on the estate of the gentleman +already mentioned, as a means of recalling the convicts +from bad habits, and urging them to industry and good +behaviour; and this wise course has been generally +rewarded by witnessing their happiness, and receiving +their gratitude. During five years of residence in +Australia about two hundred convicts and ticket-of-leave +men passed through Mr. Macqueen’s establishment, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +and the following account is interesting, since it serves +to show what <em>may be done</em>, even with a convict population:—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> <td align='left'>Free, or enjoying their ticket, married and thoroughly reclaimed</td> <td align='right'>14</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Ditto, ditto, single men</td> <td align='right'>49</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Free from expiration of sentence, but worthless</td> <td align='right'>7</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Returned home to England after becoming free</td> <td align='right'>1</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Well-conducted men, as yet under sentence</td> <td align='right'>62</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Indifferent, not trustworthy</td> <td align='right'>29</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Depraved characters, irreclaimable</td> <td align='right'>7</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Sent to iron gangs and penal settlements</td> <td align='right'>11</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Escaped</td> <td align='right'>1</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Died</td> <td align='right'>3</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Given up at request of Government</td> <td align='right'>2</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Returned to Government hospital from ill health</td> <td align='right'>4</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td align='right'>——</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td align='right'>190</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td align='right'>——</td> </tr> +</table></div> + +<p>To encourage reformation, and check that spirit of +idleness which is the mother of mischief, alike in convicts +and free people, it is strongly recommended to +allow the well-disposed men to profit by their own +industry. It is forbidden to pay money to prisoners, at +least before they obtain their ticket, but they may be +rewarded by tea, sugar, tobacco, Cape wine, extra +clothing, &c. Mr. Macqueen had one Scotchman, who, +under this system, actually sheared 101 sheep in the +day, being allowed at the rate of 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> per score upon +all above 25, which is the quantity fixed by the government +rule for a man to do in a single day. And in the +same establishment, acting upon like inducements, might +be seen sawyers and fencers working by moonlight; and +others making tin vessels for utensils, bows for bullocks, +&c., in their huts at night. From this method of management +a very great degree of comfort arises, of which +Mr. Macqueen gives the following instance in a convict’s +feast, which he once witnessed. At Christmas, 1837, +one of his assigned servants, (who had a narrow escape +from capital conviction at home,) requested leave to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +draw the amount of some extra labour from the stores, +since he wished to give an entertainment to a few of his +colleagues, all of whom were named and were well +conducted men. The party making this application had +been industrious and well-behaved, being besides very +cleanly in his hut, and attentive to his garden and +poultry, so the request was granted, and his master had +the curiosity to observe the style of the festival. The +supper consisted of good soup, a dish of fine mullet out +of the adjoining river, two large fowls, a piece of bacon, +roast beef, a couple of wild ducks and a plum-pudding, +accompanied by cauliflower, French beans, and various +productions of his garden, together with the delicious +water-melon of the country; they had a reasonable +quantity of Cape wine with their meal, and closed their +evening with punch and smoking.<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a></p> + +<p>But the picture of the peculiar class by which a penal +colony is distinguished from all others will not be complete +without a darker shade of colouring than those +upon which we have been gazing. It is a painful feeling +to contemplate the past condition of one portion of the +convict population, but it is a wholesome exercise of the +mind, and has already produced an improvement in that +wretched state. Besides, it surely is only fitting that a +great, a free, and enlightened nation should know what is +the ultimate fate of a part of its outcast population; nor +need Englishmen shrink from hearing the <em>history</em>, whilst +England herself shrinks not from inflicting the <em>reality</em> of +those horrors which have defiled the beautiful shores of +Norfolk Island.<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> In 1834 Judge Burton visited this +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> +spot, the penal settlement of a penal settlement, for the +purpose of trying 130 prisoners, who had very nearly +succeeded in overpowering and murdering the military, +after which they intended to make their escape. Eight +years before this time, Norfolk Island had been first +made a penal settlement; and never during all that +period had its wretched inhabitants received any such +reproof, consolation, or instruction as the Church gives +to its members. The picture presented before the mind +of the judge was an appalling one, and he can speak of +Norfolk Island only in general terms, as being “a cage +full of unclean birds, full of crimes against God and man, +murders and blasphemies, and all uncleanness.” We +know well what bad men are in England. Take some +of the worst of these, let them be sent to New South +Wales, and then let some of the very worst of these +worst men be again removed to another spot, where +they may herd together, and where there are no pains +taken about their moral or religious improvement, +where, literally speaking, no man careth for their +souls:—such was Norfolk Island. And what right had England +to cast these souls, as it were, beyond the reach of +salvation? Where was the vaunted christian feeling of +our proud nation when she delivered these poor creatures +over to the hands of Satan, in the hope that her +worldly peace, and comfort, and property might be no +longer disturbed by their crimes? Had she ordered her +fleet to put these men ashore on some desolate island to +starve and to die, the whole world would have rung with +her cruelty. But now, when it is merely their souls that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +are left to starve, when it is only the means of eternal +life that they are defrauded of, how few notice it, nay, +how few have ever heard of the sin in which the whole +nation is thus involved!</p> + +<p>One of the prisoners tried in 1834 was a man of singular +ability and great presence of mind, and by him Norfolk +Island was represented to be a “hell upon earth;” +and so it was as far as the company of evil spirits glorying +in evil deeds could make it. “Let a man’s heart,” +he added, “be what it will, when he comes here, his +man’s heart is taken from him, and there is given to him +the heart of a beast.” Another said, “It was no mercy +to send us to this place; I do not ask life, I do not want +to be spared, on condition of remaining here; life is not +worth having on such terms.” Another unhappy being +was sentenced to die, and began passionately to exclaim +and entreat that he might not die without confession. +“Oh, your honour,” he said, “as you hope to be saved +yourself, do not let me die without seeing my priest. I have +been a very wicked man indeed, I have committed many +other crimes for which I ought to die, but do not send +me out of the world without seeing my priest!” This +poor man was a Roman Catholic; he seems not to have +known that he might go at once to his Heavenly Father +with a heartfelt acknowledgment of his faults, and so he +obtained a rude figure of the cross, and in miserable agony +pronounced before that, as he embraced it, his brief +exclamations for mercy. Others mentioned in moving +terms the hopelessness of their lot, and another of them +spoke also of what rendered the state they were in one +of utter despair; and the statement which he made was +perfectly true: he said, addressing the judge, “What is +done, your honour, to make us better? once a week we +are drawn up in the square opposite the military barrack, +and the military are drawn up in front of us with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> +loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, and a young officer +then comes to the fence, and reads part of the prayers, +and that takes, may be, about a quarter of an hour, and +<em>that is all the religion that we see</em>.”<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a></p> + +<p>Urged by appeals like these, which no heart could well +resist, Judge Burton reprieved the convicted prisoners, +until the whole case should be laid before the government, +and at least religious consolation and assistance +might be obtained for those who were to suffer capital +punishment. Eleven of the prisoners were afterwards +executed, but not without having been visited by ministers +of religion, who were sent for that express purpose +from Sydney. The kind and christian judge exerted +himself in behalf of the outcast population of Norfolk +Island, “that modern Gomorrah,” as it has been called; +and, as usual, improvement in bodily comforts or morals +was much more willingly undertaken by those in authority +than spiritual reformation. His advice respecting +the propriety of diminishing the number of prisoners +confined together was speedily attended to. His efforts +to procure religious reproof, instruction, and consolation +were not so soon successful; they were, however, nobly +continued, and at length both Protestant and Roman +Catholic chaplains were appointed to the island. But +this great object was not gained without <em>giving offence</em>. +Strange that any party could take offence at efforts of +this description, and stranger still that men professing +a general regard for religion, and avowedly possessed of +consciences exquisitely tender, and of charity unbounded, +should, notwithstanding, object to the conscientious and +charitable efforts in the cause of religion of which we +have just been speaking! However, these impotent +struggles have signally failed, and now there are clergy +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> +both of the English and Roman Church in Norfolk +Island, while the moral condition of the prisoners there +is stated to have improved greatly. In 1837 the Rev. +Mr. Sharpe was removed thither, at his own request, +from Pitt Town in New South Wales, and his labours +and ministrations are said to have been useful and +effectual. But even here, in this effort to save some of +Christ’s lost sheep, the unhappy circumstances of our +penal colonies were manifested. When Mr. Sharpe was +removed to Norfolk Island, a larger and more important +sphere of usefulness, his little parish on the Hawkesbury, +was for a time left without a pastor. And this distressing +trial is frequently occurring; when illness, or death, +or removal, deprives a parish of its spiritual shepherd, +for a time at least his place is liable to be left vacant, +and his people likely to become as sheep going astray. +It appears likewise, from the Report of the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel, that an assistant-chaplain for +Norfolk Island was appointed in 1841. There have been +two clergymen of the Church of Rome in the island +ever since 1838, an arrangement which was alleged to be +necessary, in order that the chaplain himself might not +be deprived of private confession and absolution.<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> There +was no church in the island a few years ago, but a room +in one settlement and a barn in the other were the places +where divine service was regularly attended. Besides +the Morning and Evening Prayers on Sunday, divine +service takes place five times during the week, twice in +the gaol, twice in the hospital, and once a week for +those men who are exempt from work, their sentences +having expired. There may, as has been stated, be much +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> +hypocrisy in Norfolk Island,<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> but surely the spirit +which was offended at efforts that have wrought even +these changes in a spot of extreme moral and religious +desolation, may, without breach of charity, be pronounced +to have been an unclean and evil spirit. Can +this language be justly deemed too strong, when the +facts already stated are borne in mind; when, (to sum +up the whole case in a single example,) it is remembered +that in one year, 1838, the colonial government of New +South Wales paid 57,740<em>l.</em> 11<em>s.</em> 3<em>d.</em> for its +police establishment and gaols, while the very utmost that was +spent in providing religious instruction for <em>all the prisoners</em> +within the limits of the colony amounted, during +the same period, to less than 1000<em>l.</em>?<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a></p> + +<p>It is stated on good authority,—that of Sir George +Arthur, who was formerly governor of Van Diemen’s +Land,—that not more than <em>two</em> convicts in every <em>hundred</em> +quit the colony and return to England.<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> The expense and +difficulty of procuring a passage home operates as a sufficient +check to prevent this being frequently obtained; +nor, supposing that the English people would act in a +kind and christian spirit towards the most deserving men +of this class, would either they or the nation be losers. +If the wives and families of the most meritorious men +could be brought out to them at the public cost, what +reasonable cause of regret would an emancipated convict +feel for his home,—the scene of his crimes and of +his disgrace,—in the mother country? And with +respect to the great objection,—the <em>cost</em> of such a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +system,—what would that be compared with the advantage +which the rapid increase of an English population +in Australia is sure to bring, by creating fresh +demands for our goods and manufactures? If ours were +a wise and understanding nation, if we would spend a +portion of our riches in promoting the morals, the comfort, +and the religious instruction of our outcast population, +we might, in numberless instances, turn the very +dregs of our people into means of increasing our prosperity; +we might frequently render those that are now +the mere refuse of the earth, happy, contented, loyal +subjects; and the blessings of them that were ready to +perish spiritually would be continually resounding from +the far distant shores of Australia upon that Divine +Mercy which would have all men to be saved, and upon +that nation which would thus have offered itself to be a +willing agent and instrument for the furtherance of this +gracious design.</p> + +<p>In the present condition of New South Wales and +Van Diemen’s Land, with so large a proportion of their +population in bondage, and such slender means of moral +improvement and religious instruction provided for them +by the mother country, it would be unreasonable to hope +that the convict population can be otherwise than very +bad. There may be many exceptions; and at the end +of all things here below, it may be found that some of +those poor outcasts, and some of the men who have cast +them forth to perish, and now despise them, may fill, +respectively, the places of the Publican and Pharisee in +our Lord’s parable; the convict may leave the throne of +judgment justified rather than his master; the poor repentant +criminal may be pardoned, while the proud one,—the +self-sufficiency of the nation, by which he was +transported, and left without further care,—may be +condemned. Still, however, the general character of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +the convicts is undoubtedly bad; and the various modes +of deceit and dishonesty practised upon their masters, +the love of gambling, of strong liquors, and of every +kind of licentiousness prevailing in the penal colonies, +would fill a volume of equal size and interest with that +which is said to be a favourite book in New South +Wales,—the Newgate Calendar. Those that are curious +upon these subjects may be referred to the thick volume +in blue cover, which contains an account of the labours +of the Committee upon Transportation, 1837; but when +the evidence therein contained is read, it must be with +some grains of allowance; the avowed object of Sir W. +Molesworth’s motion for the committee, was enmity +against the whole system of transportation; and a large +majority of those that sat in the committee were, it is +believed, of his opinion; at all events, they belonged to +his party in politics. So that, before justice can be +done to the real state of the convicts, we want to have +evidence of an opposite tendency, like that of Mr. Potter +Macqueen, already quoted; and before the question, +whether transportation is a desirable mode of punishing, +or a likely means of reforming criminals, can be +fairly decided, inquiry must be made, not respecting what +<em>has been done</em>, but respecting what <em>might have been done</em>, +or <em>may even yet be done</em>, in our penal colonies.</p> + +<p>Before the subject of the convict population is dismissed, +it may be well to notice those called <em>specials</em>; +that is, men of education, and of a somewhat higher +rank in life than the generality of exiles in New South +Wales. These were formerly treated with great consideration; +for, after having passed a short period of +probation, they were employed as clerks to auctioneers +or attornies; nay, the instruction of youth was too +often, in default of better teachers, committed into their +hands. Nor was this all. In former times, persons of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +this description have been very much connected with +the public press; and the enlightened people of New +South Wales have sometimes, it may be feared, been +blindly led by an unprincipled convict, when they +imagined that they were wisely judging for themselves. +The reformation of these <em>specials</em> is said to be more +hopeless than that of other prisoners; and very commonly +they are confirmed drunkards. Strange materials +these from which to form instructors for youth, trustworthy +agents of private property, or leaders of public +opinion! However, by the progress of emigration, the +influence of these men is now superseded; besides which, +they have been gradually removed from the government +offices, and those that now arrive are employed in hard +labour.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img325.jpg" width="500" height="384" alt="image" title="" /> +<span class="caption">conveying cattle over the murray, near lake alexandria.</span> +</div> + + +<p> </p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>EMANCIPISTS AND FREE POPULATION.</strong></p> + + +<p>Respecting the next class of which the population +consists in our penal colonies,—that of emancipists, or +persons formerly in bondage as convicts, they appear to +be pretty nearly what might be expected of a body of +men under such circumstances. Although there are many +honourable exceptions to the general rule, yet it would +seem to be a general rule that roguery and industry are +usually connected among them; and that where an +emancipist is less inclined to be dishonest, he is more +inclined to be idle and improvident; while it often +occurs that both faults are found together in one +person. Of course, it would be vain to hope that <em>all</em> +convicts, or even the majority, perhaps, should become +completely reformed; but it is sickening to the heart +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +that has any christian feeling, to find descriptions like +the following, given by one amply qualified to judge, of +the deplorable moral and social state of many of those +unhappy men after their time of service has expired. +“The newly-arrived convict” (Mr. MacArthur states) “sees +examples immediately before him of men, formerly in +the same condition with himself, wallowing in licentiousness, +and possessed of wealth, amassed generally by +dishonest means, which they continue, in many instances, +still to augment, by keeping grog-shops and +gambling-houses, by receiving stolen goods, and by +other nefarious practices. This is the general conduct +of the class of emancipated convicts who acquire property, +as well as of some unprincipled adventurers in +the class of free emigrants. There are, however, among +the emancipated convicts of property exceptions from +this prevalent depravity; rare, indeed, and on that +account the more honourable.”<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> And numberless, in +the earlier history of New South Wales, are the evil +consequences which are recorded to have arisen from +the necessity which then existed of employing either +convicts, or else men recently emancipated, in places of +the highest trust and importance. One striking example +may suffice; and it is believed that no injustice is done +to the class of men now alluded to, when it is stated +that the guilty parties were persons belonging to that +body. Soon after the departure of Governor Hunter, +in 1800, it was discovered that the clerks who were +admitted to the registers of the terms of the transportation +of the convicts, had altered the sentences of nearly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +200 prisoners, on receiving from each a sum equal in +value to ten or twelve pounds.<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> Of these examples the +early history of the colony is full; but, in later years, +it may be hoped, that time, and public opinion, and the +tide of emigration, have combined to render the conduct +of persons belonging to this class less generally +objectionable than it formerly was. The greater portion +of the shop-keepers, and what may be called the middling +classes in Sydney, were emancipists; and their wealth +and influence were so great, that, during the years 1834, +1835, and 1836, one-fourth of the jurors who served in +the civil and criminal courts belonged to that body. +These persons are often very little educated; and young +men possessed of from 1000<em>l.</em> to 2000<em>l.</em> a-year in stock, +can sometimes neither read nor write. Cock-fighting, +driving, and badger-baiting, are pursuits that occupy +youths of this class very frequently; and a showy, +tawdry style of dress, engages the attention of the +young women. Certainly, it is not of materials of this +kind, that the English constitution would have juries +composed; and it is not surprising that so large a proportion +of jurors, who have themselves once stood at +the bar of justice, should be the means of carrying +undue partiality for the guilty into the jurors’ box, and +also of keeping out of that responsible station all those +who can in any way escape its duties.<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> Respectable +men will not, if they can avoid it, sit in the same box +with men who go in with their minds entirely made up +to acquit the guilty, whatever may be the tenor of the +evidence to which they have just been listening, whatever +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +the sacredness of the oath they have recently +taken. If practical experience is of any real value, +then it may safely be pronounced that men, who are +scarcely fit to enjoy the privilege of sitting upon juries, +are certainly at present unprepared for the introduction +of a representative form of legislation and government. +The civil juries of New South Wales have held the +scales of justice uncommonly even, for they have +managed to acquit about 50 per cent. of the persons +tried; whereas in Great Britain, and even in Ireland, +the acquittals are 19 per cent., and the convictions +81 per cent. A strange, but not unaccountable difference, +which, so long as it may continue, will furnish a +strong argument of the unfitness of the colony for a +representative assembly. Men that have not the principle +to put good laws into execution, are very ill qualified +to make good laws, or to elect good legislators. And +when, to suit party purposes, a clamour is raised about +the injustice of denying fresh “constitutional rights” +to our fellow-subjects in Australia, we may quietly dispose +of this (hitherto absurd and mischievous) claim by +referring the very parties raising it to the accounts published, +under the sanction chiefly of men of their own +opinions, respecting the use made of those rights with +which the inhabitants of the penal colonies are already +invested. When the evils of the system of transportation +are to be exposed, the truth may be told respecting the +state of the Australian juries;<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> but why should it not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +be still declared,—why should not truth <em>always</em> be told,—even +at the hazard of checking “liberal principles,” +and delaying representative houses of assembly for the +Australian colonies, until the time when they may know +how to use them, so that these may prove a benefit +instead of an evil to them?</p> + + +<p>Respecting the last and highest class of society in our +penal colonies, the <em>free population</em>, no great deal need be +said in particular, since, except from peculiar circumstances, +they are pretty much the same in character +with the bulk of the population in any other country. +But their peculiar circumstances must, in fairness to the +class last mentioned, be briefly noticed. Undoubtedly, +without any disrespect to emigrants, it may be laid down +as an acknowledged fact, that hitherto this class, though +it has comprised many excellent, clever, and good men, +has not usually been composed of the flower of the +English nation. Supposing that things are now altered +for the better, time was—and that not many years ago—when +“every one that was in distress, and every one +that was in debt, and every one that was discontented,” +was apt to swell the tide of emigration to our British +colonies in Australia. Upon arriving there they found +a regular system of <em>caste</em> established; and since as members +of the <em>free</em> population they were at once exalted to +the highest places, this was a system which in most +cases flattered the pride of the settlers. Possibly many +of the faults of the emancipist class might be traced to +the treatment they have received at the hands of the +free, and these faults react again as causes and excuses +for keeping them at still greater distance than ever. +And however natural, however necessary, a distinction +of ranks is and must be in every society of men, yet +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> +nothing can be more unnatural or mischievous than a +system of dividing men into <em>castes</em>. Unhappily, this +division, the fruitful source of all kinds of evil feeling, +has to a great extent prevailed in our penal colonies; +and nothing, it may be boldly asserted, except religion +will ever root it out. Attempt to continue the exclusive +privilege of <em>caste</em> to the free population, and you sow the +seeds of a servile rebellion. Open your hands to give +concessions and privileges to the emancipists, and you +scatter good seed upon the stony rock, you vainly endeavour +to satisfy the daughters of the horse-leech. But +infuse a christian feeling into all classes, get them to +meet in the same church, to kneel at the same table, to +partake in the same spiritual blessings, and then you +may hope that all, whether free or emancipists, will feel +themselves to be members of one another, portions of +the same body, held in union of heart and soul by +means of the same head; “for by One Spirit are we all +baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, +whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to +drink into One Spirit.”<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a></p> + +<p>After all that has been stated respecting the three +great classes into which society in Australia is divided, +it need scarcely be added that the taste displayed by +many of the inhabitants of the metropolis of New South +Wales is none of the purest or best. Gay equipages, +dashing horses, tandems, and racers, are among the +favourite exhibitions of the wealth of the emancipist. +For music or paintings but little taste prevails in Sydney, +and for books, except those of a very low and +worthless character, there is no great demand. A fine +house, a fine carriage, fine horses, plenty of spirits to +drink, appear to be thought the chief goods of human +life; and among persons in every class, the acquisition +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> +of money is the one great object. Indeed this last passion, +the love of gain, can scarcely be mentioned among +the perverted habits by which the Australian colonies +are infested, since it seems scarcely possible that the +worship of Mammon can be practised more openly or +carried much further than it is in the mother country. +Yet the temptations to prefer gain to every thing else +are unusually strong in these settlements. Professions +have been abandoned because they are laborious and +unprofitable, while clergymen, medical gentlemen, soldiers, +government officers, in short, all classes of men, +have made haste to get rich by holding land and stock. +An estate, which originally cost little or nothing, grows +yearly in value, without a penny being spent upon it; +stock speedily increases at very small cost, for there is +abundance of pasture for it; and when the settler finds +these means of gaining wealth opened to him, he is too +apt to devote all his thoughts and energies to this one +object. “I have known,” says Captain Grey, “an +honourable member of council, and leading magistrate +in a colony, take out a retail licence, and add to his +already vast wealth from the profits of a gin-shop.”<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a></p> + +<p>The evil spirit of covetousness assumes to itself various +shapes and appearances according to varying circumstances; +and among the characters which it calls into +life in Australia, that of a <em>landshark</em> is one of the +most remarkable and hateful. When an emigrant arrives at +Sydney, he is able, perhaps after considerable delay, to +give notice to Government of his wish to purchase some +desirable spot of land, which is then selected to be put +up to auction; and when it has been duly surveyed, the +sale at last takes place. But to the poor emigrant’s +astonishment and disappointment the land, which he +has chosen so as not to interfere with other property, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> +which is unoccupied, and entirely useless both in a public +and private sense,—is bid for, and finally knocked +down to another at an unreasonable price.<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> This other +person is a “landshark,” who has gained, perchance, a +fortune by regularly attending sales and buying up land +that is known to be desired by another. The “shark,” +true to his name, wishes either to get his opposition +bought off by a bribe, or else hopes to sell his bargain +at a profit from the unwillingness of his victim to lose +any more time or money in gaining a settlement, with +the risk of meeting, after all, with a second disappointment. +In case of the “shark’s” scheme proving unsuccessful, +there is only the small trifle required as earnest +of the purchase to be paid; of course he never completes +the engagement, and in due time, in a year +possibly, the land is declared forfeited to the crown +again. Such is the occupation of a “landshark,” and it +would be well if these and similar pests of society were +confined, like their namesakes of the ocean, to the more +sultry latitudes, but unfortunately they are not altogether +without their antitypes and imitators in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>There is another character, which, if not peculiar +to Australia, is called into being only in those colonies +where a large extent of land in its natural state remains +unappropriated to any individuals. The <em>squatters</em>, as +they are called, are men who occupy with their cattle, +or their habitations, those spots on the confines of a colony +or estate, which have not as yet become any person’s +private property. By the natural increase of their flocks +and herds, many of these squatters have enriched themselves; +and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> +of as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without +paying any rent for it to the government, they have +removed elsewhere when the spot was sold, and have +not unfrequently gained enough to purchase that or +some other property. Thus the loneliness, the privations, +and the perils of a pastoral life in the bush, have +often gained at length their recompense, and the squatter +has been converted into a respectable settler. But this +is too bright a picture to form an average specimen +of the class which we are describing. Unfortunately, +many of these squatters have been persons originally of +depraved and lawless habits, and they have made their +residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means of +carrying on all manner of mischief. Or sometimes they +choose spots of waste land near a high road, where the +drays halt to get water for the night, and there the +squatters knock up what is called “a hut.” In such +places stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and +tobacco are procured in return for these at “the sly +grog shops,” as they are called; and in short they combine +the evils of a gypsy encampment and a lonely +beer-shop in England, only from the scattered population, +the absence of influential inhabitants, and the +deplorably bad characters of the men keeping them, +these spirit shops are worse places than would be +tolerated in this country. It is stated that almost all +the men by whom these resorts of iniquity are kept, are +either ticket-of-leave men or emancipists. It is no easy +thing to suppress these people, for the squatters, like +the black natives, can find a home wherever they betake +themselves. And it must be owned, that considerable +good has resulted in many instances from these forerunners +of civilization having penetrated into a district, +and learned some of its peculiarities and capabilities +before a settlement in it has been regularly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> +formed. Indeed, it would have been unjust to have +been severe with the poor squatter, and his two or +three sheep and cattle, when it had long been the +practice of the most wealthy landowners in the colony, +to send their stock-man with their hundreds of heads of +cattle into the bush, to find support exactly in the same +way, and without paying anything to government. +The rich proprietors have a great aversion to the class +of squatters, and not unreasonably, yet they are thus, +many of them, squatters themselves, only on a much +larger scale; nor are they more inclined, in many instances, +to pay rent for their privileges than their more +humble brethren. It would appear to be the fairest and +best way of dealing with these various descriptions of +squatters, to endeavour to cut up, root and branch, the +“sly grog shops,” and road-side gentry, while the owner +of one sheep, or he that possesses 10,000, should be +equally compelled to pay a trifle to government, in proportion +to the number of his stock grazing in the bush, +and should likewise have his location registered. Some +regulations of this kind are, it is believed, proposed, if +they have not by this time been brought into operation; +and thus we may hope, that whatever benefits the system +of <em>squatting</em> may have produced, either as an outlet for +restless spirits, or as a means of extending colonization, +may still be retained, while the numerous evils that +have sprung up along with it may be checked or got rid +of. Respecting one thing connected with this subject,—the +religious knowledge and spiritual condition of +these inhabitants of the wilderness and their children, +the christian inquirer cannot but feel anxious. The +result of christian anxiety upon this matter cannot be +better stated than in the words of one deeply interested +about it, and well qualified to weigh the subject with all +its bearings. After expressing his thanks to that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +Divine Providence, which had enabled him, quite alone, +to travel through many miles of country almost without +cultivation or visible dwellings, the Bishop of Australia +finishes his account of his visitation westward, in the +year 1841, with the following reflections:—“It would be +impossible for any one, without personal observation, +to comprehend from mere description what a field for +future labour is now opening in these as yet uncultivated, +unpeopled tracts which I am continually traversing. +But the time is not far distant when many portions of +them will be thronged with multitudes; and in what +manner those multitudes are to be provided with means +of instruction sufficient to retain them in the christian +faith, I am not able to foresee; as yet, no such provision +is made or promised. But when, in passing through +these scenes, reflections such as these have crowded +upon me, and I am unable to return a satisfactory +answer to the question, ‘How shall this be accomplished?’ +I can find no better resource than to silence +myself with ‘<em>Deus providebit</em>;’<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> my trust shall be in the +tender mercy of God for ever and ever.”</p> + +<p>Among the beings which, although not natives of +the bush, appear to be peculiar to the wilds of Australia, +the class of men called Overlanders must not be +omitted. Their occupation is to convey stock from +market to market, and from one colony to another. +They require, of course, a certain capital to commence +business with, and the courage and skill that are needful +in these enterprises must be very great, so that many +of the overlanders are said to be really men of a superior +class. The love of a roving life, the excitement of +overcoming dangers both from natural causes and from +the fierce attacks of the natives, and the romantic and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> +novel situations in which they are frequently placed, +all combine to render some men exceedingly fond of +this occupation, which has also another strong recommendation, +that it is often very profitable. The magnitude +of the adventures thus undertaken would scarcely +be credited, and often a whole fortune is risked in the +shape of cattle driven across the wilderness. One very +important route pursued by the overlanders recently has +been in the same direction with Captain Sturt’s daring +voyage, namely, from New South Wales to South Australia +by the course of the Murray. An instance is +mentioned by Captain Grey of an overlander who arrived +at Adelaide in March 1840 from Illawarra, and his +stock at the end of his journey is reckoned up, and +found at a moderate computation to be worth no less +than 13,845<em>l.</em><a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> And during fifteen months, including +the whole of 1839 and part of 1840, there were brought +by the overlanders from New South Wales into South +Australia 11,200 head of horned cattle, 230 horses, and +60,000 sheep, the value of the whole of which amounted +to about 230,800<em>l.</em> Importations of stock immediately +add a value to land, for what is the use of pasture without +animals to feed upon it? And indeed so large an +introduction of those primitive riches, flocks and herds, +is almost sure to give a spur to industry, and to assist +the increasing prosperity of a rising colony. Under the +influence of this cause it is related that land in Western +Australia, which was bought for 23<em>l.</em> an acre in December, +1839, was sold for 60<em>l.</em> an acre in February, 1840. +And in other colonies where overland communication +takes place, instead of the cattle being brought by sea, +as in Western Australia, the effect is yet more astonishing. +There is much that is noble to admire in the character +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> +of the overlanders, and their efforts have been +productive of great advantage to our recent colonies; +indeed, it is perhaps in a great measure to their exertions +that the very rapid progress of Port Phillip and +South Australia may be ascribed. But there appears to +be a certain wildness about their character, which, while +it fits them admirably for the pursuit which they have +chosen, renders them restless and uneasy in more quiet +and domestic spheres. The love of gain, too, is rather +more of a ruling passion with them than it ought to be, +but that is a fault by no means peculiar to the overlanders. +Yet it affords a curious comparison and a fresh +proof of our nature being a fallen one, when we come +quietly to contrast the pains taken, the toils endured, +and the risks encountered, in order to supply a colony +with “the meat that perisheth,” against the indifference, +feebleness, and apathy, which are exhibited about the +spiritual necessities of its inhabitants. Erect the standard +of worldly profit, and thousands will flock to it, +unscared by danger, unwearied by labour. But, meanwhile, +how slow is the banner of the Church in being +unfurled, how few rally around it, when it is displayed; +in short, how much wiser in their generation are the +children of this world than the children of light!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class="center"><strong>STATE OF RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA.</strong></p> + + +<p>The religious state of the inhabitants of the Australian +colonies, especially of the two oldest and most populous +settlements, has been so frequently the subject of allusion +in this work, that the reader must already have +become acquainted with its general aspect. Nevertheless, +there are many interesting particulars which have +not yet been detailed; and no subject, surely, can concern +more nearly the <em>mother country</em> than the religious +condition of her children and offspring. Upon the mere +surface of things, judging from appearances only, the +religious habits of England would seem perhaps to be +transferred to the Australian colonies no less perfectly +than its social customs; but, although the resemblance +to our spiritual pride and spiritual ignorance, our needless +divisions and contempt of lawful authority, is perfect +enough, except when it occasionally degenerates +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> +into caricature, yet, in points more deserving of imitation, +the likeness between the mother country and her daughters +is not always so striking. Probably it would be +difficult to sum up the matter better than in the words +of Bishop Broughton, who says, “My own opportunities +of observation have been very numerous, and I do +not hesitate to say, that, in either colony, surrounded, +it cannot be dissembled, by much that is base and +disgusting, there is, nevertheless, an extensive, and in +point of actual influence, a preponderating proportion +of integrity and worth, which, if suitably encouraged +and supported now, there may hereafter spring up a +wise and understanding people to occupy this land.”<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a></p> + +<p>The way in which the Lord’s Day is observed in New +South Wales, or Van Diemen’s Land, may serve for an +index of the general amount of religious feeling among +many of its inhabitants. Sunday desecration,—despising +the day of rest which the Lord has appointed, is notoriously +one of the first steps which a man is tempted to +take in that downward course of sin which leads him to +the penal colonies; and accordingly, it must be expected +that a large quantity of the old leaven should remain +working in the convict population. And especially was +this to be anticipated, when so little pains were taken to +teach them better things, for the absence of religious +instruction immediately furnishes an excuse for disregard +of the day of rest, and renders that neglect which +was before inexcusable, in some measure unavoidable. +According to Dr. Lang, religion is but seldom taken +into account by the majority of the colonists in their +dealings with their convict-servants. In at least as +many as four cases out of five, he says, that no attention +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +to the day is paid, but frequently it is spent in weighing +out rations, settling accounts, or paying and receiving +visits; while the men, whom it is contrary to law to set +to work on a Sunday, are often allowed to cultivate +ground for themselves, upon the plea that, if they were +not so occupied, they would be doing worse. In the +opinion of Judge Burton, the want of occupation on +the Sunday was a cause of many robberies being +committed, and some of the worst crimes that had +been brought under his notice had taken place upon +that day. Mr. Barnes says, speaking of the men at +the penal settlement of Macquarie Harbour, “I believe +more crime or wickedness was committed on Sunday, +when they were ringing the bell for church-service, +than on any other day of the week.” These opinions +are confirmed and strengthened by men of various +parties, and different plans have been proposed. That +of increasing the number of churches and of the clergy +is obviously one of the most likely to succeed, but +its success must, in the nature of things, not be very +speedy. It was stated by one witness before the Committee +upon Transportation, that, when the means of +public worship have been provided, the convicts should +be regularly mustered and taken to church, which, he +thinks, would have a good effect; but what is really +wanted is that they should <em>come</em> to church, and not +merely be <em>taken</em> thither. One member of the Committee +inquired whether all the present churches were filled, +and the witness replied that they were not; but this is +rather a proof of the need of additional religious instruction +than an argument against furnishing it. If among +so many souls the few existing places of divine worship +are not all fully occupied, is not this a proof of the +desolate state of the Lord’s vineyard in that country? +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> +Is not this a sufficient reason for earnestly endeavouring +to increase the number of the labourers in the vineyard? +The heathenism of a considerable portion of a population +nominally christian, manifestly tends to thin the +congregations even of existing churches. But the want +of church extension, and the dearth of ministers, tends +to produce and increase this heathenism, and therefore +it indirectly tends to diminish the numbers of the present +attendants upon divine service. And what a mockery, +in some instances, has the so-called divine service +hitherto been! The director-general of roads in Van +Diemen’s Land, some years ago, chose to place catechists +and clergy under a ban, though there was no great +risk of his gangs being much troubled by them, when +they had so many other duties to fulfil. And what was +the system which this wise manager of roads chose to +substitute for the teaching of Christ’s ministers? At +every road-station, daily, morning and evening, readings +of the sacred Scriptures were established, and “devotional +exercises” were added on the sabbath. Well, +but who officiated? Let Archdeacon Hutchins reply in +the very words used by him, when the matter was +brought before the notice of the government in 1837. +“These readings of the Scriptures were performed generally, +if not always, by <em>some of the very worst of the convicts +themselves</em>, selected, no doubt, for the purpose, not on +account of their wickedness, but of their abilities. They +are the best readers, or the cleverest fellows; and therefore, +amongst rogues, generally the greatest. These +are men by whom, as far as the director is concerned, the +seed of religious knowledge is scattered among the road +parties. How far there may be a rational hope of the +Divine blessing accompanying such endeavours, I leave +to be declared by any one possessed of common sense +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> +and some little acquaintance with Scripture.”<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> Even +Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, only +“made priests of the <em>lowest</em> of the people;” he did not, +that we read of, appoint the <em>vilest</em> characters he could +find to that office.</p> + +<p>The greater part of the settlers in New South Wales +and Tasmania have been derived from those classes, who, +in England, except in the rural districts, have, until +recently, been well nigh shut out from their parish +churches; and, in many instances, their mode of life here +was little likely to lead them to a regular attendance +upon the public worship of God, even where there was +room for them. But nothing more surely produces +distaste and carelessness in this matter than the total +absence of all regularity respecting it. The truly religious +soul, indeed, when banished by circumstances +from the temple of the Lord, is always inquiring with the +royal Psalmist, “When shall I come to appear before +the presence of God?” But the careless man, the +worldly-minded man, indeed the greater part of mankind, +it is to be feared, feel no longing desires of this kind. +The further they are removed from the courts of the +Lord’s house, the less they think about its blessings, +the less concern they take about religion; so that when +an opportunity is offered them of joining in public +worship, it actually is viewed as a trouble instead of a +privilege, and no small pains are taken to escape from +it. For example, it is stated by Mr. Mudie, that when +a clergyman had been able to attend, and divine service +was about to commence, upon his estate, he noticed but +few of the convicts there, the rest declining to come, +upon the plea of their being Roman Catholics. But this +trick was of no avail, for their master, being satisfied +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +that they merely wanted to escape attendance, and to +employ the opportunity thus afforded them of prowling +about and thieving, insisted upon all these Romanists +coming up and sitting outside the building in which the +others were assembled. The next time the clergyman +came, they were all Protestants. But in what a wretched +state of depravity must men be who can thus deliberately +tell a lie, in order to avoid joining in the +worship of the Lord their Maker!</p> + +<p>To provide for the spiritual wants of our penal +colonies would be, under the most favourable circumstances, +no easy matter; and in the actual condition of +affairs, it is a most difficult and discouraging task. For +not only are the ordinary obstacles arising from man’s +fallen nature to be surmounted, but the effect of +unusually evil influence and bad example is to be counteracted +in a convict population. And far from opposing +this mischievous spirit by “endeavouring to keep the +unity of the spirit in the bond of peace,” professing +believers are nowhere more at variance than in Australia; +so that the work of turning the hearts of the +disobedient to the wisdom of the Just is perpetually +being disturbed by strife and jealousies among those +who ought to be one, even as Christ and the Father +are One. There, as it has been well observed, “the +Church stands upon her own merits, her own divine +right; there all the attested grievances of the Dissenters, +secular and political, are removed; no tithes, no church-rates, +no exclusive state support.” And yet there, it +may be added, the fierce contentious spirit which rages +in England is unchanged in character, and the way of +the Church is just as evil spoken of in New South +Wales as in the mother country. The only grievance +the dissenters can complain of now in Australia is that +assistance is afforded to the Church to a larger amount +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> +than they would like. But this is grievance enough for +them to raise an outcry about. And hence arise fresh +hindrances to the progress of true religion in these +settlements. There are other spirits besides the unclean +spirits of infidelity and iniquity which the Church has +here to contend against.</p> + +<p>The language of a very zealous and active clergyman +of Australia is this:—“Give us clergy and churches, +and I will ensure congregations and a vast spread of the +gospel in the Church of Christ by means of the Church +of England.”<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> But, so pitiable is the effect of religious +strife, that rather than allow the necessary means to be +given for this purpose, many would be content to leave +things in their present miserable state; and although, +as in the mother country, the majority of the population +belong to the Church of England, yet the minority, in +all its little sections, unite in grudging every effort +that is permitted, every single pound that is spent, by +the government in aid of the Church. There is no +communion that can pretend to lay claim to the religious +instruction of the people; it would be too absurd +to propose that the English nation should entrust the +religious training of a colony, like that of New South +Wales,<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> containing upwards of 70,000 persons belonging +to the national Church, into the hands of the Presbyterians, +with their 13,153 souls, or into those of the +Methodists and other dissenters, with their 5,093 souls, +or even to the Romanists, with their 35,690 souls! And +accordingly, since it was hopeless to get this important +and responsible office exclusively for themselves, all +parties really would seem to have conspired together to +keep it, at all events, from falling into the possession of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> +that body to which it of right belongs,—the national +Church of England and Ireland,—a Church which the +Presbyterians do not generally deny to be scriptural, +and which the Romanists, by their peculiar hostility, +proclaim to be, in the best and oldest meaning of the +word, essentially Protestant. Under feelings of this +description, the Roman Catholics, and their +“Presbyterian brethren,” (as they can condescend to call +them when it answers their purpose,)<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> have been acting in +Australia for some years past; and, aided by the potent +force of agitation upon a government which “cared for +none of these things,” except how it might “please the +people,” they have been successful. Spurning the very +name of toleration, and despairing of exclusive establishments +for their own communion, they have succeeded in +giving birth to a system of joint-establishment for +three communions of Christians, and encouragement and +assistance for as many more as the government may see +fit to patronise. In 1836, the system which now continues +in operation was commenced by Sir R. Bourke, +then Governor of New South Wales, who, in proposing +this plan, expressed a confident hope, (which has never +yet been fulfilled,) that thus people of different persuasions +“would be united together in one <em>bond of peace</em>.” +It is pitiable to see a fellow-creature, and him, too, a +man in authority, borrowing an expression from a +passage of Holy Scripture, (Eph. iv. 3,) while he is at +the very time forgetting the duty there enforced. The +eye that glances upon the words “bond of peace,” must +be very careless or very wilful, if those other words, +“unity of Spirit,” or the words below, in the following +verses of the same chapter, altogether escape its notice. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +The principal features of the new system are these. It +affords assistance in money towards building a church +or chapel, and a dwelling-house for the minister, in all +cases where not less than 300<em>l.</em> have been raised by +private subscriptions. It provides a stipend for the +support of <em>ministers of religion</em>, upon certain conditions, +at the rate of 100<em>l.</em> per annum, where there is a population, +of 100 adult persons, (including convicts,) who +shall subscribe a declaration stating their desire to +attend his place of worship, and shall be living within a +reasonable distance of the same. If 200 adults in similar +circumstances sign the declaration, a stipend of 150<em>l.</em> is +granted; and if 500 persons sign it, the stipend is 200<em>l.</em>—the +highest amount ever granted towards the support +of any one officiating teacher of religion. In places +where there are less than 100 adults ready to subscribe, +or where there is no church or chapel yet erected, the +governor may contribute a stipend not exceeding 100<em>l.</em> +per annum, but in the latter case 50<em>l.</em> must be promised +also from private sources. A certain proportion of free +sittings, (one-fourth, according to Lang, at least one-sixth +part, according to Burton,) is to be reserved in +each building. Such are the principal points of the +system, and, according to the governor’s regulations, the +assistance thus offered is limited chiefly to the Church of +England, the Church of Rome, and the Scottish Kirk, +which “three grand divisions of Christians”<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a> are thus +made, in fact, the three established communions of New +South Wales.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly good has resulted from the enactment +of this law in 1836, for before that there were scarcely +any means open of obtaining help towards religious +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> +instruction, whereas certain means are open now, and +have been very much used. Yet because some good +has resulted in this way, the evil spirit and wretched +tendency of the measure must not be overlooked. All +the good that has resulted might have been obtained +without any of its accompanying evil, if a perfect toleration +had been established, the National Church properly +endowed, and a sufficient supply of Roman Catholic +priests or Presbyterian teachers for the convict population +of those persuasions liberally supported by government, +as in the gaols in Ireland. In this case, the poor +convict, who is not permitted to possess money, would +have had the consolations of religion, however imperfect, +offered to him in his own way, while the free settler +would have had the doors of the national Church opened +to him, or the liberty, in case of his dissenting from that, +of providing for himself a separate conventicle. Where +would have been the hardship of this arrangement? +Or why should the <em>voluntary system</em>, which is, in the +northern hemisphere, so highly extolled by many Irish +Romanists and not a few Presbyterians, in the southern, +be thought a punishment and degradation? Thus, “not +only has equal protection,—for God forbid that we +should ever repine at equal protection,—but equal +encouragement been given by government to every +description of religious faith, and every denomination +of professing Christians, in some of the most important +dependencies of the British crown.”<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> Is not this, it +may be asked, the very course which a mild and tolerant +<em>heathen</em> government would pursue? And is the same +policy, which would probably be followed by heathen +rulers, either right or expedient in rulers professing +themselves to be Christians?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> +Certainly, whatever other arrangements might have +been adopted, those that have been made are faulty in +principle; and this is true, although it be confessed that +some good has arisen from them, since through them an +increased supply of religious teaching has been afforded +to the colonists, however reluctantly wrung from the +government in behalf of the Church of England. The +faultiness of principle in these arrangements is thus +stated by the present Bishop of Australia, a man well +fitted to the responsible station which he fills in Christ’s +Church. “By the government plan of aid,” he observes, +“encouragement is given to the lax and dangerous +opinion, that there is in religion nothing that is either +certain or true. The government virtually admits that +there is no divinely-instituted form of church-membership, +or of doctrine, otherwise that one would in preference +receive its support. The consequence is that the +most awful truths of Christianity, which have been +acknowledged and preserved in the Church from the +beginning, are now frequently spoken of as merely +sectarian opinions, to which no peculiar respect is due.”<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> +The Roman Catholics hailed this measure with delight, +for what to them can be a greater triumph or a more +gratifying spectacle than to behold a great Protestant +nation, inquiring, as Pilate did, “What is truth?” The +Presbyterians, likewise, and Protestant Dissenters, were +not behind their brethren of Rome (though there were +fewer voices to join the shout) in greeting so exquisitely +liberal a measure, which is actually founded upon some +of their favourite notions respecting the harmlessness +of divisions, the total invisibility of the Church, and the +hatefulness of “a dominant episcopacy.” The rejoicings +which were to be heard in quarters apparently so opposite +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> +boded no good from the measure to the Church of +England; and, certainly, from the strange way in which +this law has been carried into operation, so far as that +communion is concerned, the Government are not to be +thanked for any favourable results that have followed. +Through the activity of the members of our Church, +both at home and in Australia, an increased supply of +churches and of clergy has indeed been obtained; but +this has, in most instances, literally been wrung from +the ruling powers; while the only boon that was freely +given,—a most valuable boon, it is willingly acknowledged,—was +the appointment of a bishop instead of an +archdeacon. However, the value of the boon thus +obtained was lessened by the disregard shown by +Government to the wants of the Church in Australia. +The Bishop returned from England, after his consecration +in 1836, <em>alone, without being accompanied by a single +clergyman</em>, because, while Roman Catholic priests and +Presbyterian teachers were still eligible to receive, and +did receive, the aid of government, the Church of England +was to remain as it was, notwithstanding its pressing +wants and increasing numbers. All allowances towards +the expense of the passage, or residence, or means of +support for any additional clergymen, were refused. +During five years, from 1832 to 1836, the number of +chaplains continued to be the same, except in 1833, +when there were only fifteen instead of sixteen in the +estimates; and this was not because no increase was +needful,—for when an outfit of 150<em>l.</em>, and a yearly salary +of 50<em>l.</em> were generously furnished to twenty clergymen +by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in +consequence of the extreme necessity of the case, every +one of these were instantly employed. A subscription, +amounting to 3,000<em>l.</em> was at this time raised in England +in behalf of the Church in Australia, and when the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> +Government perceived that public opinion was awakened +in its favour, and that they had succeeded in giving their +friends and supporters a tolerably good start, they at +length agreed, with the tact peculiar to them, to place +the Church of England (at least nominally) upon the +same footing with the two other “grand divisions of Christians.”</p> + +<p>Now, therefore, the same assistance in outfit, and the +same amount of salary proportioned to the numbers of +the congregation, are awarded, according to the Act, to +the teachers of each of these three divisions. And +thus, as Sir R. Bourke informs Lord Glenelg, in 1837, +ministers of the Church of England have been forthcoming +to “answer (in many instances) the calls of congregations +of their communion;” while, as a matter of +course, where no call is heard, no answer is attempted +to be given. How very opposite is this modern idea of +<em>the sheep calling the shepherd to them</em>, from that pattern +set before us by the good Shepherd, who “came to seek +and to save that which was lost!” But still, though +nominally upon an equality with the others, it is distressing +to find how hard a measure has been dealt to +the Church in New South Wales; how studiously every +petty advantage that could be taken has been taken of +it by a Government calling itself liberal and impartial. +A few instances of this shall be given, which may serve +to show how our brethren in the colonies have been +treated, and how we should ourselves be treated, if dissent +and Romanism could get the upper-hand in our +native country; for then, at the very best, the clergy +would be placed, as they now are in Australia, “in a state +of dependence upon two unstable supports;—the will +of Government, and the disposition of the people.”<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> At +present, the latter is favourable enough in Australia; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> +but the good-will of the Government towards the Church +has been indeed strangely shown within the last few +years. When the other communions and persuasions +in the colony had nearly, if not altogether, provided +themselves with the number of ministers that the law +would allow them, while the wants of the Church +remained, to a great extent, unsupplied, advantage was +taken of an expression in a letter of the governor, Sir +George Gipps,<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> and a limitation was imposed upon the +government assistance by Lord Normanby, which operated +exclusively to the hurt of the Church of England. +In a like spirit it was that the governor of New South +Wales refused to consider as private contributions for +schools either sums granted by the societies in England, +or by their diocesan committee in New South Wales; +although, in both instances, the money was raised entirely +by private subscription. The inconvenience, delay, and +disappointment which this one arbitrary rule occasioned +were astonishing; and to those who took delight in +balking the efforts and thwarting the good works of our +Church, it must have been very gratifying. So, too, +must the refusal, in 1841, of a piece of land for a site of +a church and parsonage in the wild district on the banks +of the Morrumbidgee, containing 1,200 souls, dispersed +about over a very extensive range of country.</p> + +<p>Another example of similar conduct has occurred since +the change of ministry at home, which would, it might +have been hoped, have infused a better feeling into the +colonial authorities. At the end of 1841, the Bishop +proposed to erect, in certain spots, small wooden +churches, as the only means of obtaining churches at +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +all; trusting, that after these had stood forty or fifty +years, they might be replaced by buildings of a higher +and more lasting character. The average cost of these +humble little buildings was to be from 100<em>l.</em> to 120<em>l.</em>; +and they were intended for very poor districts; but since +the outlay did not amount to 300<em>l.</em>, the Government would +give nothing, and no effort was made to introduce a +modification of the law (supposing that to have been +needful) in order to meet such cases. Instances to the +same effect might easily be multiplied. In New South +Wales land is comparatively cheap, and a horse is an +indispensable necessary for a clergyman; but no part of +the government grant is allowed to be spent in purchasing +more than an acre for the site of a church, and half +an acre for a house and garden. “To extend the latter +allowance to any quantity of land from which an income +might be derived, would increase the emoluments of the +minister, at the public expense, beyond what the Act +contemplates;” so the Bishop of Australia was assured +by official authority in 1836. But enough of these +miserable instances of state-peddling in ecclesiastical +establishments. “There is no semblance,” to use Mr. +Gladstone’s words, “in any part of these arrangements, +of a true and sound conception of the conscientious +functions of government in matters of religion.”<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> May +we venture to hope that the present ministry, of which +the writer of the above is a distinguished member, may +exhibit in their conduct and arrangements, both in the +colonies and at home, a more sound and true conception +of their duty than was ever shown by their predecessors? +Such hopes, undoubtedly, are entertained by a portion +of the British public, not unimportant either in numbers +or in moral and political influence. Nevertheless, the +zealously attached members of the Church of England +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> +need not to be reminded of a truth which is frequently +brought before them in the circle of its daily service. +They know that “it is better to trust in the Lord than +to put any confidence in princes.” They are sure that, +if theirs is a living branch of Christ’s Holy Catholic +Church, many a weapon will be formed against it, but +yet “no weapon that is formed against it shall prosper.”</p> + +<p>It would be wearying to the reader to attempt to enter +into the same details respecting schools as have been +stated with regard to churches. The fate of the Church +and School Corporation has elsewhere been related.<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> +Suffice it to say, then, that the same spirit of hostility +or indifference has been equally exhibited in both cases; +indeed, it would be strange if the bitter enemies, and +feeble or false friends of that system of religious instruction +which is carried on among the adult population by +our national Church, were not alike vigorous in their +opposition, or impotent in their friendship, to the +system of religious training among the infant population +which is wrought out by our national schools. However, +in mentioning the subject of schools, the unsuccessful +attempt of the Government, in 1836, to saddle +the colony of New South Wales with schools conducted +upon the modern Irish system, must not be left +unnoticed. On this occasion, it may be observed, the +Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist, and Wesleyan +“denominations of Christians,” were actually forced +to leave, for a while, their liberal friends and allies of the +Church of Rome, and to seek the assistance, and rejoice +in the strength of the “exclusive” and “dominant” +Church of England. It is really curious to observe +these various sects seeking out the Bishop of Australia, +and requesting him to preside at their meeting in opposition +to the proposed measure; and since, although he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> +disagreed with them in a matter not then at issue, +namely, the need of creeds and catechisms in imparting +religious instruction, nevertheless, as he agreed entirely +with them in the matter which was at issue,—the propriety +and necessity of using the Holy Scriptures in +religious teaching,—he complied with their request, +presided at their meeting, and signed their petition. +He also presented a petition from himself on the same +subject; for the Government had so contrived to shuffle +between the Archdeacon and the Bishop, that Dr. +Broughton, who had very recently been consecrated, +could, just at the time when the education scheme was +to have passed, claim a seat in the legislative council in +neither capacity. It so happened, that by an official +neglect at the Colonial-office in London, no patent, including +the Bishop as a member, had been forwarded to +New South Wales; so when he reached Sydney, he +found himself excluded from his seat in the council +during the whole time in which this matter was under +discussion there. The plan appeared to be successful; +3,000<em>l.</em> was devoted towards establishing the new scheme, +and an honoured name, that of “National Schools,” was +pilfered, and bestowed upon those that were projected in +Sydney. But, in this instance, high principle and popular +feeling were united against the Irish scheme; and as it +began with a blunder at the Colonial-office, so it proved +to be little better than a blunder throughout. The +schools proposed were never established; and since +that time the Roman Catholics have made a different +sort of attempt to gain educational power, by obtaining +separate sums for their own schools, and swamping the +members of the Church of England, under the honourable +but much abused appellation of Protestants, in the +general quagmire of heresy and schism. However, this +second effort, which was made with the sanction of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> +Government, was defeated chiefly (under Providence) +by the zeal and ability of the Bishop; and whoever is +desirous of seeing a noble specimen of clear reasoning +and manly eloquence, will be gratified and improved by +reading the Bishop of Australia’s speech upon the occasion +of this scheme having been proposed by Sir George +Gipps in the legislative council. Certainly, when we +consider how admirably Bishop Broughton demolished +Sir George Gipps’s scheme, we must own that the tact +was very acute,—or at least the <em>mistake</em> rather +<em>suspicious</em>,—which shut him out of the legislative +council when Governor Bourke’s plan was in agitation.</p> + +<p>Besides the schools assisted by Government for the +education of the lower orders, there are, of course, many +private schools in the Australian colonies; and it is believed +that these important establishments are no longer +so commonly under the direction of men that have been +convicts as they formerly were. Undoubtedly, one who +has been transported <em>may</em>, perchance, turn out afterwards +to be a good instructor of youth, but what christian +parent would willingly risk his child’s religious and +moral progress upon a chance, a possibility, of this +kind? The King’s School at Paramatta is an excellent +establishment, founded and conducted upon the principles +of the Church of England. Sydney College is another +well-conducted school, but its principles are more +open to objection. “It is to be believed,” as has been +remarked, “that a desire to gain the support of men of +all religious principles, led to the Sydney College being +founded on none;” and it was scarcely possible to fall +into a greater error than that of passing almost unnoticed +the one thing needful. It is true, that prayers are +used daily in this school, and there seems, from Judge +Burton’s account of it, to be much that is good and +praiseworthy in its management and details. But a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +school where the children of Protestants, Roman Catholics, +and Jews, meet together, must be, at best, an odd +jumble; and the religious tendency of such an education +must be very questionable.</p> + +<p>The Australian College is said by Dr. Lang, its +founder, to be the most promising establishment in New +South Wales, being more likely to resemble in course of +time a small university or college in Europe than the +others are. It is chiefly in the hands of the Presbyterians, +and appears to be a thriving and well-conducted school of +general learning. Religious instruction is not neglected, +but all this department of education is arranged in a +vague and general way, so as to avoid as much as possible +disputed points; and if parents or guardians object +to children receiving this kind of instruction at all, these +pupils are allowed to withdraw at the times when it is +given. If no essential points of Christianity had ever +been brought into dispute, it might have been wise to +avoid those unessential points that had been; or if religion +were a matter of indifference or secondary consequence, +then it might be well to provide for pupils +withdrawing beyond the reach of its voice. But since +neither of these suppositions are true, the system of the +Australian College cannot be recommended. It may be +very <em>liberal</em>. It is not very <em>wise</em>. But it is hard +to say when we have reached the extremity of any opinions. +The plan of the Australian College is far too narrow and +confined for some choice spirits of New South Wales; +and accordingly the Normal Institution, as it is pompously +designated, has been formed by a seceder from +the first-named establishment. It is said to be tolerably +flourishing, and no wonder, for it offers a very fair <em>secular</em> +education, and this is sufficient for the children of this +world,—unhappily, no insignificant or small class either +in New South Wales or elsewhere. But the christian +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +reader will be satisfied of the sandy foundation on which +the Normal Institution is raised, when he glances over +the following extracts from its original prospectus. The +pupils are to be afforded “every facility and abundant +materials for forming opinions of their own,”—young +children, instead of being brought to Christ, are to be +allowed (if they can) to find their way to Him. The +prospectus says, “Till the mind has formed religious +opinions of its own, grounded on a wide range of religious +knowledge, the profession of religion is meaningless, +if not incalculably pernicious.” Our Lord’s words +are, “Except ye be converted and become as little children, +ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” +But it is vain to quote the words of Scripture to men +who will make professions like this: “To inculcate any +given set of religious tenets, or to teach any given set +of religious text-books, would be to lend my labours to +a party whilst I profess to labour for mankind.” As +though, forsooth, we could ever labour more advantageously +for mankind than when we try to persuade +them, from their very tenderest years, to believe in the +Bible and to belong to the church of God!</p> + +<p>It is the expressed opinion of the highest authority +in the church of Australia, that New South Wales, which +is certainly the farthest advanced of all our colonies +there, is not yet ripe for the establishment of a regular +college, resembling our ancient and venerated English +universities. But this most important object has not +been lost sight of; and while a grammar-school has +recently been opened in St. James’s parish in Sydney, +and another is projected at Newcastle, both of which +are intended to form a nursery for the future college, +the means of providing this last are beginning to +accumulate. Mr. Thomas Moore, of Liverpool, in New South +Wales, who died in 1840, has left the site of his house +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> +in Liverpool, with ground adjoining, together with 700 +acres of land, in trust towards the establishment of a +college in immediate and exclusive connexion with the +Church of England and Ireland. This bequest, in itself +insufficient for the proposed purpose, will yet serve for +a foundation to begin upon; 3,000<em>l.</em> were voted in January, +1840, by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge +to advance the same good object, and it is expected +that the fund will increase and gather strength +before the time shall have arrived when it will be thought +advisable to commence the college. A new school, attached +to the Church of England, is also about to be +begun in Van Diemen’s Land. It is to be called Archdeacon +Hutchins’s school, being intended by its promoters +for a lasting and useful memorial of their respect +for the late lamented Archdeacon of Van Diemen’s Land. +In the last published account of this undertaking, it is +stated that about 850<em>l.</em> was subscribed for this purpose, +but at least 2,000<em>l.</em> will be wanted. Our noble Society +for Promoting Christian Knowledge, ever active in +advancing the glorious purpose for which it was formed, +has contributed 100<em>l.</em> towards this school, which is to +be built at Hobart Town. And it may be observed, that +henceforth Van Diemen’s Land will demand even more +spiritual care and assistance than the elder colony; for +by recent arrangements, the transportation of criminals +to New South Wales has altogether ceased, and Van +Diemen’s Land is now the only colony to which convicts +are conveyed.<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p> + +<p>A census of the population of New South Wales was +taken on the 2d of March, in the year 1841, and the +general result of this is here added for the satisfaction +of the reader. In the whole colony, including its various +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +dependencies, but exclusive of Van Diemen’s Land,<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a> +the total of inhabitants was 130,856, of which number +43,558 were females, and 87,298 males, being as nearly +as possible two to one in favour of the latter. The +number of houses, mostly built of wood, was 16,776, +nearly in the proportion of eight inhabitants to each +house. The return of the various religious persuasions +was as follows:—Church of England, 73,727, forming a +clear majority upon the whole population. Scotch Kirk, +13,153, forming about a tenth of the whole amount of +the inhabitants of New South Wales. Members of the +Church of Rome, 35,690, being rather more than one-fourth +of the population. Protestant Dissenters, including +Wesleyans, 5,093, making about one-twenty-sixth +of the whole. Jews, 856, Mahometans and Pagans, 207. +Of the inhabitants of New South Wales in 1841, 101,749 +were returned as free, while 26,977 were in bondage.<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a> +In 1836, there was about one and three-quarters free to +one bond, while in 1841, there were four free to one +bond, the proportion of free to the whole population +having gained sixteen per cent. in the five years. +Henceforth, from the natural increase by births, from +the influx of emigrants, and the stoppage of transportation, +the advance will be much more rapid. The +population of Sydney was, in 1841, no less than 29,973 +souls; of these, 16,505 were returned as members of the +Church of England; 8,126 belonged to the Romish +Church; 3,111 were members of the Scotch Kirk; +1,707 were Protestant Dissenters; 462 were Jews; and +62 Mahometans and Pagans. It will be seen, that in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> +population of the metropolis of the colony, the proportions +of the various religious opinions are not very +materially different from those in the whole of New +South Wales, except that the number of Roman Catholics +and Dissenters are greater, as they usually are in large +towns, and that in Sydney the Romanists have increased, +whilst in the colony generally they have diminished since +the last census.</p> + +<p>A few words may not be out of place, in a work +descriptive of the Australian colonies, upon the subject +of emigration, but so much has been written upon this +matter, that a very few words may suffice to give the +opinions of those who are practically acquainted with +the subject. Undoubtedly, active, industrious, and +prudent persons, are likely to prosper in Australia to a +degree which is impossible, and scarcely credible, in +Great Britain. No doubt, Providence has in these, and +in our other colonies, given England a means of letting +its surplus population escape in a way that shall not be +merely safe, but even profitable, to the mother country, +as well as to the emigrants themselves. The average +consumption of English manufactures by the Australian +colonists, has recently been stated to amount to ten +guineas a-head, while that of the inhabitants of the +European countries is only two shillings.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> And what +true-born Englishman would refuse to rejoice in the +increased demand thus likely to be opened for our +manufactures, and in the increased prosperity of our +fellow-subjects on the other side of the globe, who +are thus enabled to supply their own wants, by purchasing +English goods? The objections which we hear +occasionally urged against emigration amount, with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +one important exception, to little or nothing. The +distance and long voyage, the risk of not succeeding, +the impossibility now of pig-drivers and convicts +becoming masters of many thousands a-year,<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> the +paramount necessity of patient industry and prudent +forecast in Australia, no less than in the rest of the +world,—all these circumstances offer no reasonable +hindrance to the emigrant’s attempt, either to better his +condition, or else to get that daily bread which in +England he finds difficult to be obtained. And, whatever +obstacles of this kind may at first deter him, the careful +settler will soon find himself victorious over these, and +more comfortably situated, in a worldly sense, than he +ever before was.</p> + +<p><em>In a worldly sense</em>, it is said, because, unhappily, there +is one great objection to all emigration, belonging to it +of necessity, which, in the English colonies, and not least +so in Australia, has been fearfully increased and needlessly +aggravated. The want of religious instruction in newly-peopled +countries, and among a widely-scattered and pastoral population, +must needs be grievous, even under the most favourable +circumstances. And if these countries are used as penal +settlements, the want is likely to be still more deplorable. +But the evil is inflamed to the utmost degree, +when, as in Australia during the earlier years of its +colonial history, little provision of any kind is made for +the spiritual need of the people, or when, as in the +same country in later years, “a system is pursued +which would seem to indicate an utter indifference on +the part of those who dispense the national treasure, +whether truth or falsehood shall characterise the religious +creeds of any of the colonists.”<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> And thus, while +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> +the sum total of religious provision is very insufficient, +that little is divided in a kind of scramble among various +parties, so that Irish Roman Catholics, who cry up the +voluntary system at home, are tempted to glory in +being one of “the three established communions” in +New South Wales; and Scotch Presbyterians, who profess +extreme ardour for the American system of “leaving +every religious denomination to support its own +ministers,” find in Australia assistance from Government +(or even from a clergyman of the Church of England)<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> +very convenient, and “a’ vera weel,” as the +cannie Scots say. With so much irreligion, so small +and so miserably divided a power to oppose it, as we +behold in Australia, the great question with every one +proposing to emigrate is, whether he can take that step +without probable spiritual loss; and at this price he +would find all worldly gain too dearly bought. There +are many places in our colonies, it is true, where a person +may use (or, if he pleases, neglect) the means of +grace, exactly as at home; and against these spots the +objection now urged would not at all weigh. But +before any one removes himself into the wilderness, or +far away from any place of worship, except the chapel +of the Roman Catholic or the meeting of the separatist, +he should be well rooted and grounded in the faith of +his fathers. And supposing him to be so, what real +patriot could wish a man of this kind to emigrate! How +ill can England spare out of any rank of life such persons +as these! Before emigration can become as general +and respectable as it ought to be, <em>religion</em> must be +made its groundwork; and religion, to be successful in +doing the work of Christ in the hearts of men, must not +consist in that modern jumble of denominations, which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +pretends to the name, but must teach its doctrines by +means of the ministrations of the “Church of the Living +God,” which is the pillar and ground of the truth. +When this foundation has been laid, then can the +conscientious churchman zealously promote emigration, and +not before. And if it should never be laid, still, whatever +may be his fears for weak brethren, or his value for +more steadfast fellow-members of Christ, influencing him +to avoid the responsibility of advising them to quit the +home of their fathers, the faithful churchman will be +under no alarm whatever, respecting the stability of the +branch planted by his mother-church in Australia. Nor +yet will he grudge all other denominations (unless they +be blasphemous or immoral,) the most complete toleration. +Nay, were it not for the mischief that would arise +to Christianity and to the souls of men, they might be +welcome to all the support and patronage of the State; +and if they obtain it all, even then we fear them not; +indeed it is our duty to pity them, to love them, to pray +for them as brethren. Whatever may be the fate either +of Australia or England, the lot of Christ’s Church—that +visible Church of His which was founded upon the +first preaching of Peter both to the Jews and to the +Gentiles—is fixed and determined:—it is firmly built +upon a rock, and “the gates of hell shall not prevail +against it.”</p> + +<p> </p> +<hr style="width: 14em; margin-bottom: .5em;" /> +<p style="margin-top: -.5em; font-size: smaller;" class="center">R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 295px;"> +<img src="images/englishmans2.jpg" width="295" height="26" alt="The Englishmans Library" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center">A SERIES OF</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>CHEAP PUBLICATIONS, ADAPTED FOR POPULAR READING;</strong></p> + +<p class="center"><em>Suited for Presents, Class-Books, Lending Libraries, &c. &c.</em></p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> +<p class="center">The First Series of this Work is now complete, in 26 vols., and may +be had as a set, at the subjoined prices:—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> <td align='left'>Bound in cloth, lettered</td> <td align='right'> £4</td> <td align='right'> 7</td> <td align='right'> 0</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Half-bound morocco, gilt edges </td> <td align='right'> 5</td> <td align='right'> 13</td> <td align='right'> 0</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Full-bound calf, neat</td> <td align='right'> 7</td> <td align='right'> 12</td> <td align='right'> 0</td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'>Full-bound morocco, neat</td> <td align='right'> 8</td> <td align='right'> 18</td> <td align='right'> 0</td> </tr> +</table></div> + + +<p class="center">The Volumes may also be had separately, in the three bindings: +hf.-bd. mor. 1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> per vol.; calf, 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em>; +full mor. 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> above the price in cloth.</p> + +<p class="center">(<span class="smcap">a variety of bindings may be seen at the publisher’s.</span>)</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p class="center"><em>The following are the Subjects and Authors:</em>—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;"> + 1. 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Pridden, + M.A.) 5<em>s.</em></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p style="font-size: smaller;" class="center">N.B.—Booksellers will +be supplied on application with copies of this List.</p> + +<div class="box"> +<p>October.] <span style="margin-left: 30em;">[1843.</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 195px;"> +<img src="images/bookstracts.jpg" width="195" height="25" alt="Books and Tracts" title="" /> +</div> + +<p style="font-size: smaller;" class="center">IN THE PRESS, OR</p> + +<h2>RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY JAMES BURNS,</h2> + +<p style="font-size: smaller;" class="center">17, PORTMAN STREET, LONDON.</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p class="center">In small 4to.</p> + +<p class="center"><em>Dedicated by permission to Edward Lord Bishop of Salisbury.</em></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 551px;"> +<img src="images/theorder.jpg" width="551" height="65" alt="the order of daily service" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p class="center">Edited by <span class="smcap">Wm. Dyce</span>, Esq. M.A., F.R.S.E.</p> + +<p class="center">Price two guineas, extra boards. [A few copies are printed on large +paper at four guineas.]</p> + +<p>This Volume contains the Ancient Music, as adapted to the First Prayer +Book of Edward VI., by <span class="smcap">John Marbecke</span>, together with the +Litany Chant, and other portions of Gregorian Music not included in +his work; thus forming a complete Choral Book for the Service of the +English Church. An explanatory Introduction by the Editor is prefixed.</p> + +<p><span class="tbhigh">* </span><span class="tblow">*</span><span class="tbhigh"> *</span> +This Psalter, which completes this unique work, is now nearly ready. +Along with this will be given the Burial Service as noted by Marbecke, +together with an APPENDIX, containing the Benedictus, Post Communion +Sentences, and other portions of ancient music, as contained in his +book. The work will thus comprise all the music of Marbecke’s publication, +(which was adapted to the first Prayer-Book of Edward VI.) and will +likewise be a complete edition of the present Anglican Service. +Independently of the interest attached to the musical part of the work, +it will be found an elegant service book, adapted either for private +use, or for the Church desk or altar.</p> + +<p>“Whether we regard the importance of the subjects upon which it bears, +or the intrinsic beauty of the volume itself, we do not know whether we +have been ever more pleased with a modern publication. It is most +sumptuously printed in black letter, and rubricated, not only with those +portions which are usually understood by that name, but with titles, +initials, ornaments, and the Gregorian staff of four lines: every page +is surrounded with arabesques, executed from blocks, which, by an +ingenious combination, are much diversified; and in the large paper +copies, we would willingly borrow some of Dr. Dibdin’s hyperbole to +express our admiration. But the view under which we hail the present +publication, is the impetus which we trust that it will give to the +study of the true ecclesiastical <em>plain chant.</em>”—<em>English +Churchman.</em></p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<h2>THE HISTORY OF OUR BLESSED LORD,</h2> + +<p class="center">In a Series of simple Poems; with 13 coloured Pictures from the Old +Masters; in very large type.<br /> +Small 4to. 4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>“A great experiment, and to the best of our judgment a successful one. +The verses are easy, and, though rather in the ballad style, are free +from any palpable irreverence. The plates are after the works of masters, +and in the style, both of drawing and colouring, remind one of the +severe and simple effect of old painted windows.”—<em>British Critic.</em></p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<h2>ROMANTIC FICTION:</h2> + +<p class="center">Select Tales from the German of Fouqué, &c.<br /> +With Vignettes. Fcp 8vo. <em>In the Press.</em></p> + +<p class="center">Also, lately published, (by De la Motte Fouqué,)</p> + +<h2>SINTRAM AND HIS COMPANIONS.</h2> + +<p class="center">Foolscap, cloth, (with a Copy of the Engraving by Albert Durer, which +suggested the Tale). Price 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="center"><span style="font-size: 1.5em;"><strong>HIEROLOGUS;</strong></span> or, <span class="smcap">the Church Tourists</span>.</p> + +<p class="center">By the Rev. <span class="smcap">J. Mason Neale</span>, M.A. Author of “Herbert Tresham,” +“Ayton Priory,” &c. &c.<br /> +With Thirteen Vignettes. Fcp. cloth. 6<em>s.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>HOLY BAPTISM.</h2> + +<p style="margin-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">The Offices of Baptism, according to the Use of the English Church; with +Select Passages, Meditations, and Prayers, from the Fathers and Old +Divines. Royal 32mo. with border ornaments, &c. Suited as a present to +baptized children, catechumens, and parents and sponsors. (Nearly ready.)</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>JUSTORUM SEMITA;</h2> + +<p class="center">A HISTORY OF THE SAINTS’ AND HOLY DAYS OF THE PRESENT +ENGLISH KALENDAR.</p> + +<p class="center">With an Introduction. Foolscap 8vo. 4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> cloth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>A COMPANION TO THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,</h2> + +<p class="center">For every Sunday in the Year. Suited to all Capacities. 2 vols. +18mo. 5<em>s.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="center">In square demy, with 25 woodcuts,</p> + +<h2>POPULAR TALES AND LEGENDS.</h2> + +<p class="center">A Book of Amusement for Young and Old. Price 4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> cloth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>LEGENDS AND TRADITIONARY STORIES,</h2> + +<p class="center">With Woodcuts; uniform with the above, 4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>SELECT PIECES</h2> + +<p class="center">FROM THE POEMS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.</p> + +<p class="center">With Ornamental Borders, &c. <em>In the Press.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>EASTERN ROMANCE;</h2> + +<p class="center">SELECT TALES FROM THE ARABIAN, PERSIAN, &c.</p> + +<p class="center">Revised and adapted to popular reading. With Thirty-eight Wood +Engravings.<br /> +Fcp. 8vo. 7<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;"> +The far-famed “Arabian Tales” are here presented for the first time +(with the exception of some which have appeared occasionally as +children’s books) in a cheap form, and rendered fit for the perusal +of all classes; thus supplying an acknowledged desideratum.</p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<p class="center"><strong>BOOKS FOR THE SICK AND AFFLICTED.</strong></p> + +<p>1. COMPANION TO THE SICK-ROOM, +in Extracts for Reading and +Meditation. 12mo. large type, cl. 3<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>2. DEVOTIONS FOR THE SICK-ROOM. +Uniform with the above. 4<em>s.</em> +The two may be had done up together, +price 7<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>3. A MANUAL FOR THE SICK, +containing the Offices for the Visitation +and Communion of the Sick, with +Notes from <span class="smcap">Bp. Sparrow</span>; Prayers +for the Sick from <span class="smcap">Bp. Cosin</span> and +others; and Select Psalms and Hymns. +1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> cloth, in a pocket size. (May +be had bound in leather, with blank +leaves.)</p> + +<p>4. A COMPANION FOR THE +PENITENT AND FOR THOSE +TROUBLED IN MIND. By the +Rev. <span class="smcap">John Kettlewell</span>, some time +Vicar of Coleshill. New Edition, with +Memoir. 1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> cloth.</p> + +<p>5. THE DOCTRINE OF THE +CROSS EXHIBITED IN A MEMORIAL +OF A HUMBLE FOLLOWER +OF CHRIST. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> [The +profits given to the New Zealand +Bishopric.]</p> + +<p>6. THOUGHTS ON THE DEPARTED. +(From Archdeacon Manning’s +Sermons.) 2<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>7. THE PRIEST’S COMPANION +IN THE VISITATION OF THE +SICK. By the Rev. W. <span class="smcap">Dodsworth</span>. +Fcp. cloth. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + + +<h2>THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION;</h2> + +<p class="center">A POPULAR COMMENTARY ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW +OF ENGLAND.</p> + +<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">George Bowyer</span>, M.A. Barrister-at-Law.</p> + +<p class="center">In Post 8vo, 15<em>s.</em> cloth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>THE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN’S DAILY WALK.</h2> + +<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Sir Archibald Edmonstone</span>, Bart.</p> + +<p class="center">A New Edition, revised and enlarged. 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> cloth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>HYMNS ON THE CATECHISM OF THE<br /> +CHURCH OF ENGLAND.</h2> + +<p class="center">2<em>s.</em> bound, or 1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> stiff cloth, for Schools.</p> + +<p class="center"><em>By the same Author</em>,</p> + +<h2>ANCIENT HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.</h2> + +<p class="center">By the Author of “The Cathedral.” Cloth 1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>TALES OF THE TOWN.</h2> + +<p class="center">By the Rev. <span class="smcap">H. W. Bellairs</span>, M.A., Perpetual Curate of +St. Thomas, Stockport.</p> + +<p class="center">I. Henry Howard. II. Ambrose Elton.</p> + +<p class="center">Foolscap 8vo. With Wood Engravings. 5<em>s.</em> cloth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>SERMONS.</h2> + +<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Henry Edward Manning</span>, M.A. Archdeacon of Chichester.</p> + +<p class="center">Second Edition. 8vo. 10<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<p class="center">In a pocket size, price 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<h2>THE PRIEST’S COMPANION</h2> + +<p class="center">IN THE VISITATION OF THE SICK.</p> + +<p class="center">Compiled by the Rev. <span class="smcap">W. Dodsworth</span>, M.A., Perpetual Curate of +Christ Church, St. Pancras.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">This volume contains the Offices for the Visitation and Communion of +the Sick, and the Office of Private Baptism, (in large type,) with +Prayers, Helps to Examination, Psalms, Portions of Scripture, &c., +selected chiefly from Bishops Andrewes, Taylor, and Wilson.</p> + +<p class="center">By the same Author,</p> + +<p>1. DISCOURSES ON THE LORD’S SUPPER. Second Edition, enlarged. +Cloth, 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> (An allowance made in quantities.)—2. +THE CHURCH, THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH. 6<em>d.</em>; or +5<em>s.</em> per doz. 3. ON BAPTISM: a Tract for Parochial Distribution. +2<em>d.</em>; or 12<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="center"><strong>SQUARE SERIES OF JUVENILE BOOKS, WITH +MANY ENGRAVINGS.</strong></p> + +<p>1. THE WINTER’S TALE. To +which is added, LITTLE BERTRAM’S +DREAM. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>2. THE LITTLE COUSINS. 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>3. SPRING-TIDE. By the Author +of “Winter’s Tale.” 3<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>4. LUCY AND ARTHUR. 3<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>5. HOLYDAY TALES. 2<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>6. THE WREN; or, THE FAIRY +OF THE GREEN HOUSE. 1<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>7. A PRESENT FOR YOUNG +CHURCHMEN. 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>8. POPULAR TALES AND LEGENDS. +4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>9. THE ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. +(For Children.) 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>10. THE CASTLE OF FALKENBOURG +and other STORIES from +the German. 3<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>11. SCRIPTURE HISTORY FOR +CHILDREN. Old Testament. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>12. LEGENDS and TRADITIONARY +STORIES. With Woodcuts. +4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>13. THE RED & WHITE ROSES, +and other Tales for the Young. (From +the German.) 3<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>14. THE LIFE of OUR BLESSED +SAVIOUR, in simple Verse; with +Pictures from Old Masters. Very large +type. 4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>15. LITTLE ALICE AND HER +SISTER. By the Author of “Cousin +Rachel.” 3<em>s.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + + +<h2>BURNS’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS.</h2> + +<p class="center">Neatly printed in 32mo, with coloured Wrappers, and Woodcuts.<br /> +Sold also in packets, price 1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em>; or bound in cloth, 2<em>s.</em></p> + +<p class="center">FIRST SERIES.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;">1. Good and Bad Temper. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +2. Prayers at Church and Prayers at Home. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +3. An Offering of Affection to a Young Child. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +4. Margaret Fletcher, 2<em>d.</em><br /> +5. The Pink Bonnet, 2<em>d.</em><br /> +6. Jenny Crowe, the Orphan Girl. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +7. The Bunch of Violets, 1<em>d.</em><br /> +8. The Apple-Tree. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +9. Lessons upon the Apostles’ Creed. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +10. Amy’s Earnings. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +11. Lessons upon the Calendar. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +12. Lesson on Attention. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +13. The Prayer-Book. 1<em>d.</em></p> + +<p class="center">SECOND SERIES.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;">1. The Red Shawls. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +2. First Lesson on the Commandments. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +3. Second Lesson on ditto. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +4. Out in the Dark. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +5. The White Kitten. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +6. Obstinacy and Passion. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +7. Prayers for Children. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +8. Fretful Fanny. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +9. The Burial of the Dead. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +10. The New Church. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +11. The Two Sacraments. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +12. Playing with Fire. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p class="center">THIRD SERIES.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em;">1. A Summer’s Dream. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +2. Ruth at Service. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +3. The Two Orphans. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +4. Margery Meanwell. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +5. The Donkey Boy. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +6. Short Stories. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +7. Ambrose Herne. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +8. Lucy and Arthur. 1<em>d.</em><br /> +9. The Three School Girls. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +10. Story of Annette. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +11. Old Ambrose. 2<em>d.</em><br /> +12. Jane Hopkins, 1<em>d.</em></p> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<p class="center"><strong>TALES AND CONVERSATIONS FOR THE YOUNG.</strong></p> + +<p class="center">With numerous Vignettes. 6<em>d.</em> each.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 13em;"> +1. THE TWO DOGS.<br /> +2. ASK MAMA.<br /> +3. GEORGE HENGROVE.<br /> +4. FAITH, HOPE, & CHARITY.</p> + +<p class="center">The above are elegantly printed and done up, and are intended for the +use<br /> of the higher and more educated classes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>PENNY BOOKS.</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">First Series.</span> Price 1<em>s.</em> in a packet; or bound in +cloth, 1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p class="center">The Packet contains the Thirteen following Books:—</p> + +<p>1. The Two Sisters.—2. A Story of the Plague.—3. The Three Wishes.—4. +The Lord’s Prayer.—5. Life of Bishop Wilson.—6. The Magpie’s Nest.—7. +The Two Epitaphs.—8. The Little Wanderers.—9. A Short Sermon.—10. +The Good Daughter.—11. Hymns on Scripture History.—12. Anecdotes.—13. +Babylon.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>HALFPENNY BOOKS.</h2> + +<p class="center">Price 1<em>s.</em> in a packet, or in cloth 1<em>s.</em> 4<em>d.</em></p> + +<p class="center">The Packet contains Twenty-four Books, as follows:—</p> + +<p>1. Hear and Heed.—2. Vision of Mirza.—3. Dreamland.—4. The Moss +Rose.—5. Story of Obidah.—6. Christian Courtesy.—7. Fables.—8. +Bp. Ken’s Hymns.—9. Pyramids of Egypt.—10. The Bird’s Nest.—11. +Temptations.—12. The Flying Philosopher.—13. Little Dora.—14. +Nineveh.—15. A Talk in the Garden.—16. A Short Sermon.—17. +Earthquake at Lisbon.—18. What is a Gentleman?—19. Hollyheath +Gate.—20. The Boy that would not Suit.—21. The Banian Tree.—22. +A Sad Story.—23. Dashing Dick.—24. Volcanoes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>FOURPENNY BOOKS.</h2> + +<p class="center"><em>With numerous Engravings, suited for Presents, School-Rewards, &c.</em></p> + +<p class="center">In packets, price 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p class="center">FIRST SERIES.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 13em;"> +1. The Life of Izaak Walton.<br /> +2. Hymns for Children.<br /> +3. Dialogues with a Godmother.<br /> +4. Lives of Ancient Bishops.<br /> +5. Christian Courtesy.<br /> +6. Jenny Knight and Mary Taylor.<br /> +7. The Life of George Herbert.<br /> +8. Sketches of Christian Character;<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">selected from different stations</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">of life.</span></p> + +<p class="center">SECOND SERIES.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 13em;"> +1. Stories from Bede.<br /> +2. The Life of Bishop Ridley.<br /> +3. Christian Lyrics.<br /> +4. A Gift for Servants.<br /> +5. The Life of Sir T.S. Raffles.<br /> +6. The Life of Lord Exmouth.<br /> +7. Conversations on the Church.<br /> +8. The English Citizen.</p> + +<p class="center">THIRD SERIES.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 13em;"> +1. The Life of St. Polycarp.<br /> +2. The Life of Bishop Sanderson.<br /> +3. The Life of St. Ignatius.<br /> +4. The Life of Dr. John Donne.<br /> +5. Counsels for Young Men.<br /> +6. Stories and Fables.<br /> +7. Parish Stories.<br /> +8. The Legend of Sir Fiducio.</p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<h2>BOOKS AT THREEPENCE EACH.</h2> + +<p style="margin-left: 13em;"> +Little Mary’s Trouble.<br /> +Children of Hazlewood School.<br /> +Life of Sir Rich. & Lady Fanshawe.<br /> +Life of Sir H. Wotton.<br /> +The Four Seasons.<br /> +Hymns for Children. (Rev. J. M. Neale.)<br /> +Hymns for the Young. By ditto.<br /> +Gresley on the Young, Confirmation, &c.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<h2>SIXPENNY BOOKS.</h2> + +<p class="center">Thirteen for 6<em>s.</em> in a packet.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 13em;"> +1. Prasca Loupouloff.<br /> +2. Dialogues on the Te Deum.<br /> +3. Select Allegories.<br /> +4. Esther Simmons.<br /> +5. Richard Morton.<br /> +6. Select Fables.<br /> +7. Plain Lectures on Doctrine and Duty.<br /> +8. The Bird’s Nest, and other Tales.<br /> +9. Counsels for Young Females.<br /> +10. Fabulous Stories.<br /> +11. Stories illustrative of the Lord’s Prayer.<br /> +12. The Story of St. Christopher.<br /> +13. The Redbreast, and other Tales.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>CHRISTMAS EVE; or, the History +of Poor Anthony. From the +German of Schmid. 1<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>STORIES OF COTTAGERS. By +the Rev. E. <span class="smcap">Monro</span>. M.A., Perpetual +Curate of Harrow-Weald. 4<em>d.</em> each. +With Engravings. 1. Mary Cooper. +2. The Cottage in the Lane. 3. The +Drunkard’s Boy. 4. Annie’s Grave. +5. Robert Lee. 6. The Railroad Boy. +Or in a Vol. cloth, 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>STORIES ON THE FIRST FOUR +COMMANDMENTS. 8<em>d.</em> with Cuts.</p> + +<p>SUSAN HARVEY: Confirmation. +6<em>d.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 317px;"> +<img src="images/magazine.jpg" width="317" height="26" alt="The Englishmans Magazine" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p class="center">A POPULAR PERIODICAL FOR GENERAL READING.</p> + +<p>The Volume for 1842 is just published, containing the Twelve Numbers for +the year, neatly done up in cloth lettered, price 5<em>s.</em> The Volume +for 1841 may also be had, price 5<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> The Magazine in +this form is well suited for Lending libraries, or Family reading; and +will be found to contain a large mass of interesting and useful matter +on every variety of subject. It is continued Monthly, price 4<em>d.</em>, +and is now printed in a neat octavo size, with a Wrapper. A specimen +can be sent by post, price 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p class="center">THE USUAL CONTENTS ARE—</p> + +<p> +Essays on various subjects.—Narratives and Dialogues.—Biography.— +Poetry.—Reviews and Notices of New Books, with Extracts.—Miscellaneous +Extracts.—Also a copious Account of Proceedings in the Church; +Societies, New Churches, &c. &c.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;"> +<img src="images/burns.jpg" width="353" height="26" alt="Burns Magazine for the Young" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center">TO BE CONTINUED MONTHLY, PRICE 2<em>d.</em>, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS;<br /> +AND IN VOLUMES, PRICE 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em>, CLOTH.</p> + +<p class="center"><em>The Volume for 1842 is now ready.</em></p> + +<p>The contents are varied so as to suit Children of all ages, embracing +Biography, Natural History, Dialogues, Tales, &c.; and it is intended +that the whole should be simple enough to make it suitable for the poor. +It is hoped the Work may be found useful for Monthly Distribution among +School-Children; for which purpose it will be sold at 14<em>s.</em> per +hundred. A specimen copy can be sent by post, price 3<em>d.</em></p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<h2>SACRED MUSIC;</h2> + +<p>Selected from the Compositions of <span class="smcap">Tye, Tallis, Gibbons, Ravenscroft</span>, +&c., and adapted to portions of the different +Versions of the Book of Psalms; with a Preface on the Music of the +English Church. This volume contains several short but excellent +compositions by old Masters, hitherto little known, suited for Schools +and Churches, many of which may be used as <span class="smcap">Anthems</span>. +4to. cloth. 12<em>s.</em></p> + +<p><em>N.B. The above is the only work in which the old tunes are +reprinted with the harmonies as originally composed.</em></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="center"><strong>GREGORIAN & OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL CHANTS,</strong></p> + +<p class="center">Adapted to the Psalter and Canticles, as pointed to be Sung +in Churches. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>This Work contains—1. The Eight Gregorian Tones, with their several +endings; 2. A variety of the same Tones harmonised for four voices, but +so as to preserve unaltered the original melodies; 3. Miscellaneous +Chants; 4. The Versicles and Responses from Tallis’ Cathedral Service. +An allowance made to Clergymen purchasing quantities.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="center"><strong>THE PSALTER AND CANTICLES POINTED FOR CHANTING,</strong></p> + +<p class="center">A new pocket edition, to which are now prefixed the “<span class="smcap">Gregorian Chants</span>,” +with suggestions as to the proper Chants to be sung to +the various Psalms.</p> + +<p class="center">Price 2<em>s.</em> cloth. 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TEXTS for MEDITATION, +before or during Divine Service. 1<em>d.</em>, +or 7<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<p>4. The AUTHORITY OF THE +BIBLE and the CHURCH. 1<em>d.</em>, or +7<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<p>5. WHO SHALL DECIDE? 1<em>d.</em>, +or 7<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<h2>TRACTS ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE.</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="tbhigh">* </span><span class="tblow">*</span><span class="tbhigh"> *</span> + <em>The prices of many of these have been reduced in late editions 20 per Cent.</em></p> + +<p>1. The Church of Christ. 1<em>d.</em>, or +7<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<p>2. On Fasting. 1<em>d.</em>, or 7<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<p>3. A Word to Parents. 2<em>d.</em>, or 14<em>s.</em> +per 100.</p> + +<p>4. The Church Visible and Invisible. +3<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>5. My Parishioner Cautioned. 2<em>d.</em>, +or 14<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<p>6. 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On Absolution. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>43. Church Matters. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>44. A Word in Season (on the Sin +of Intemperance). 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>45. The Gospel Invitation. (For +the Additional Curates’ Fund.) 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>46. An Address to the Parents of +the Children at a Parish School. 1<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>47. Obedience to Spiritual Governors. +2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>48. The House of God. 1<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>49. The Danger of Dissent. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>50. Infant Baptism, or John Jackson’s +Christening. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>51. The History of St. Peter. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>52. Confirmation; its Authority and +Benefits plainly stated. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>53. The Daily Service. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>54. The Country Pastor; or, the +Life of the Rev. John Bold. 2<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>55. On frequent Communion. 2<em>d.</em> +or 14<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<p>56. 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The Order of Confirmation explained. 8<em>d.</em></p> + +<p class="center"><em>Vols. I. II. III. and IV. are now published, price 3s. 6d. each, +in cloth.</em></p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<p>HORÆ SACRÆ: a Manual of +Private Meditations and Prayers, from +the older Divines. With an Introduction. +By the Rev. <span class="smcap">J. Chandler</span>, +M.A. 3d Edit. Cloth, 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em>; mor. 5<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>This Work contains Prayers for +various occasions in greater variety +than is to be found elsewhere in the +same compass.</p> + +<p>PRAYERS for UNITY and +GUIDANCE into the TRUTH. 2<em>d.</em> +each, or 14<em>s.</em> per 100.</p> + +<p>HOURS of PRAYER. Printed +in black and red, with parchment +wrapper, 1<em>s.</em>, or 10<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> per dozen.</p> + +<p>THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW, +with Reflections upon every +Verse. A new Edition, revised and +corrected from the French of <span class="smcap">Pasquier Quesnel</span>. 6<em>s.</em> cloth.</p> + +<p>A HOROLOGY, or DIAL OF +PRAYER. Price 1<em>s.</em> in parchment +wrapper; with illuminated Title, +1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>A FRIENDLY ADDRESS on +BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. +By Bishop <span class="smcap">Jolly</span>. With Memoir by +<span class="smcap">Cheyne</span>. Fcp. cloth, 1<em>s.</em></p> + +<p>The ORDER of CONFIRMATION; +explained and illustrated. +By the Rev. <span class="smcap">H. Hopwood</span>, B.A. +Printed in black and red. Price 8<em>d.</em>, or +1<em>s.</em> cloth.</p> + +<p>CONFIRMATION and COMMUNION, +addressed especially to young +Members of the Church. 4<em>d.</em> or 28<em>s.</em> +per 100.</p> + +<p>The BAPTISMAL OFFICES of +the UNITED CHURCH of ENGLAND +and IRELAND illustrated +from “the Use of Salisbury”—the +Liturgy of Herman, Archbishop of +Cologne—and the sentiments of the +Compilers and Revisers of the Book +of Common Prayer. By the Rev. <span class="smcap">T. M. Fallow</span>. M.A., +Curate of All +Souls. 12mo. 7<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> + +<p>The LIFE of the REV. ISAAC +MILLES. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> With Cuts.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Toogood’s</span> Sketches of CHURCH +HISTORY, for Schools, &c. 3<em>s.</em> cl.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + + +<p class="center">12mo, 3<em>s.</em> in antique cloth binding,</p> + +<h2>COMMUNION IN PRAYER;</h2> + +<p class="center">OR, THE DUTY OF THE CONGREGATION IN PUBLIC WORSHIP.</p> + +<p class="center">Three Sermons, by the Rev. <span class="smcap">Charles Wordsworth</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="center">Of Winchester College. (With copious Notes.)</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + + +<p class="center"><strong>WORKS BY THE AUTHOR OF THE “FAIRY BOWER.”</strong></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 12em;"> +1. The Fairy Bower. 2d Edit. 6<em>s.</em><br /> +2. The Lost Brooch. 2 vols. 10<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em><br /> +3. Bessie Gray. 1<em>s.</em><br /> +4. Louisa, or the Bride. 6<em>s.</em><br /> +5. Robert Marshall. 4<em>d.</em> <span style="margin-left: .8em;">} or bound</span><br /> +6. The Stanley Ghost. 4<em>d.</em> } together,<br /> +7. The Old Bridge. 4<em>d.</em> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">} 1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></span><br /> +8. Family Adventures. In the press.</p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="box"> + +<h2>COMPANIONS TO THE COMMUNION.</h2> + + +<p class="center"><strong>I. EUCHARISTICA;</strong></p> + +<p class="center">A COMPANION TO THE COMMUNION:</p> + +<p>Containing Meditations, Prayers, and Select Passages from Old English +Divines; with an Introduction by <span class="smcap">Archdeacon Wilberforce</span>. A New +Edition, with illuminated title, red border lines, and other ornaments. +The prices remain the same as before—cloth, 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em>; +roan, 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em>; morocco, 5<em>s.</em> It will be found useful +as a present at Confirmation, &c.</p> + +<p class="center"><em>This Volume is also kept in Extra Morocco, with or without Clasps,<br /> +in Antique Vellum Binding, &c. &c. 6s. up to 3 guineas.</em></p> + + +<p class="center"><strong>II. NELSON ON THE COMMUNION;</strong></p> + +<p>Containing Devotions for the Altar, Meditations, Prayers, &c. A New +Edition, with Memoir by <span class="smcap">Hawkins</span>, and a Portrait of the Author. +18mo. This Volume is printed in a similar style to the foregoing, and +is intended for those who require a larger type. 5<em>s.</em> cloth; and +in various handsome bindings, like the foregoing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="center">In 2 vols, imp. 8vo, closely printed, price 20<em>s.</em></p> + +<h2>THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH.</h2> + +<p>This Work contains a large and varied collection of Treatises, Tracts, +Sermons, &c. by the older Divines; translations from the Fathers; +Biography of Church History; interspersed with Poetry, Anecdotes, and +short Theological extracts. The whole is illustrated by original Notes, +Prefaces, and Biographical Notices, and forms a comprehensive Library +of doctrinal and practical Theology, suited for the perusal of the +Layman or the Divine. It contains—</p> + +<p>Lord Bacon’s Confession of Faith.—Leslie +on Episcopacy.—Bishop Sanderson’s +Answer to Puritan Objections.—Life +of Bp. 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CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.</p> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +Published, all of them, by T. and W. Boone, London, to +whom it is only just to acknowledge their kindness in permitting +the use that has been made of these two publications +in the first portion of the present Work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +See Dr. Ullathorne’s Reply to Burton, especially at p. 5, +where it appears that the judge was not quite impartial in one +of his statements. Dr. Ullathorne himself has, in his 98 +pages, contrived to crowd in at least twice as many misrepresentations +as Burton’s 321 pages contain. But that is no +excuse. The Romish Church may need, or seem to need, +such support. The cause defended by Judge Burton needs +it not.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +It is supposed that the word “Sin,” applied to the wilderness mentioned +in Exodus xvi. 1, and also to the mountain of “Sinai,” has the same +meaning, so that the appellation of “Bush” is no new term.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Collins’ “Account of the Colony of New South Wales,” p. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> +This river must not be confounded with another of +the same name in South Australia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> +See Oxley’s Journal, p. 299.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> +See Mitchell’s Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. p. 38.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> +An expedient used by the natives in Torres Strait, on the +northern coast of Australia, for getting water, may here be noticed, +both for its simplicity and cleverness. “Long slips of bark are tied +round the smooth stems of a tree called the <em>pandanus</em>, and the +loose ends are led into the shells of a huge sort of cockle, which +are placed beneath. By these slips the rain which runs down the +branches and stem of the tree is conducted into the shells, each of +which will contain two or three pints; thus, forty or fifty placed +under different trees will supply a good number of men.”—<span class="smcap">Flinders’</span> +<em>Voyage to Terra Australis</em>, vol. ii. p. 114.</p> + +<p>A different plan for improving the water that is hot and muddy, is +thus detailed by Major Mitchell. To obtain a cool and clean draught +the blacks scratched a hole in the soft sand beside the pool, thus +making a filter, in which the water rose cooled, but muddy. Some +tufts of long grass were then thrown in, through which they sucked +the cooler water, purified from the sand or gravel. I was glad to +follow their example, and found the sweet fragrance of the grass +an agreeable addition to the luxury of drinking.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> +“The most singular quality of this vapour or <em>mirage</em>, +as it is termed, is its power of reflection; objects are seen as +from the surface of a lake, and their figure is sometimes changed into +the most fantastic shapes.”—<span class="smcap">Crichton’s</span> <em>Arabia</em>, vol. i. p. 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> +See two other curious accounts of the effects of +<em>mirage</em> and refraction in Sturt’s Expeditions in Australia, +vol. ii. pp. 56 and 171.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> +The artless description of this sad discovery, given by +one of the natives who accompanied the party, may be not unworthy of +the reader’s notice. “Away we go, away, away, along the shore away, +away, away, a long distance we go. I see Mr. Smith’s footsteps +ascending a sand-hill, onwards I go regarding his footsteps. I see +Mr. Smith dead. We commence digging the earth. Two <em>sleeps</em> had +he been dead; greatly did I weep, and much I grieved. In his blanket +folding him, we scraped away the earth. We scrape earth into the grave, +we scrape the earth into the grave, a little wood we place in it. Much +earth we heap upon it—much earth we throw up. No dogs can dig there, +so much earth we throw up. The sun had just inclined to the westward +as we laid him in the ground.“—<span class="smcap">Grey’s</span> <em>Travels in Western +Australia</em>, vol. ii. p. 350.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> +See a like melancholy history of the death of +Mr. Cunningham, in Mitchell’s Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 180, +<em>et seq.</em> How thrilling must have been the recollections of his +fellow-travellers in the wilderness at the simple incident thus +related: “In the bed of the river, where I went this evening to enjoy +the sight of the famished cattle drinking, I came accidentally on an +old footstep of Mr. Cunningham in the clay, now baked hard by the sun. +Four months had elapsed, and up to this time the clay bore the last +records of our late fellow-traveller.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> +“A cluster of these trees would be an excellent +beacon to warn mariners of their danger when near a coral reef, and +at all events their fruit would afford some wholesome nourishment to +the ship-wrecked seamen. The navigator who should distribute 10,000 +cocoa-nuts amongst the numerous sand banks of the great ocean and +Indian Sea, would be entitled to the gratitude of all maritime nations, +and of every friend of humanity.”—<span class="smcap">Flinders’</span> <em>Voyage to +Terra Australis</em>, vol. ii. p. 332.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> +Although the basin of this river extends so far towards +the east, on its westerly bank, that is, <em>towards the interior</em>, +a desert country stretches itself to an unknown distance, from which +it does not appear to receive any increase of its waters at all +deserving of notice. From two hills, seventy miles apart, extensive +views were gained of this western desert, in which no smoke was seen, +indicating the presence of natives, nor even any appearance of trees; +the whole country being covered with a thick bush or scrub. For the +four winter months spent by Mitchell near the Darling, neither +rain nor yet dew fell, and the winds from the west and north-west, +hot and parching, seemed to blow over a region in which no humidity +remained.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> +So in Major Mitchell’s work, vol. i. p. 298; but the same +author is quoted (more correctly it would seem from the map), by +Montgomery Martin, as stating that “The Darling does not, in a course +of <em>three</em> hundred miles, receive a single river.”—See +<span class="smcap">Martin’s</span> <em>New South Wales</em>, p. 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> +By <em>dry season</em>, or <em>wet season</em>, in Australia, +we are not to understand, as in England, a <em>dry</em> or +<em>wet summer</em>, but a series of <em>dry</em> or <em>wet years</em>. At +the very bottom of some of the dried-up lakes were found sapling trees +of ten years’ growth, which had evidently been killed by the return +of the waters to their long-forsaken bed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> +“I have myself no doubt that a large navigable river will +yet be discovered, communicating with the interior of +Australia.”—<span class="smcap">M. Martin’s</span> +<em>New South Wales</em>, p. 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> +This remarkable animal, called also the Ornithorynchus, +is peculiar to Australia, it has the body of a beast combined with +the mouth and feet of a duck, is to be seen frequently on the banks +of the Glenelg, and that unusually near the coast.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> +Water is proverbially “unstable,” but what occurred to +Major Mitchell’s party on the Yarrayne, may serve for a specimen of the +peculiar uncertainty of the waters of Australia. In the evening a bridge +across that stream had been completed, and everything was prepared for +crossing it, but in the morning of the following day no bridge was to be +seen, the river having risen so much during the night, although no rain +had fallen, that the bridge was four feet under water, and at noon the +water had risen fourteen feet,—a change that could only be accounted for +by the supposed melting of the snow near the sources of the stream.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> +See Professor Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. +Introduction, pp. 1, 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> +See Mitchell’s Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. p. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> +See Oxley’s Journal, pp. 103, 244.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> +Another lake, called Walljeers, at no very great distance +from this, was found, with its whole expanse of about four miles in +circumference, entirely covered with a sweet and fragrant plant, +somewhat like clover, and eaten by the natives. Exactly resembling +new-made hay in the perfume which it gives out even when in the +freshest state of verdure, it was indeed “sweet to sense and lovely +to the eye” in the heart of a desert country.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> +See Sturt’s Expeditions in Australia, +vol. i. Dedication, p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> +Sturt’s Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> +The dimensions given in Captain Sturt’s map. The +South-Australian Almanac states it to be sixty miles long, and +varying in width from ten to forty miles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> +For the account of this voyage, see Sturt’s +Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. 72-221.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> +These particulars are taken from the South-Australian +Almanac for 1841, pp. 68-73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> +See Wentworth’s Australasia, vol. i. p. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> +See Account of the Effects of a Storm at Mount Macedon, +(Mitchell’s “Three Expeditions,” vol. ii. p. 283.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> +On one occasion the progress of the fire was +<em>against the wind</em>. See this stated and explained by Major +Mitchell, “Three Expeditions,” vol. i. p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> +See Oxley’s Journals, pp. 184-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> +Not quite so; they soon fell in with a few of the +scattered wanderers of the bush.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> +See the interesting account of Major Mitchell’s ascent +to Mount William, the highest point of these +hills.—<span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> +<em>Three Expeditions</em>, vol. ii. pp. 171-181.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> +Psalm cxxii. 8,9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> +One crime, in which the inhabitants of the neighbouring +islands of New Zealand notoriously indulge, has been charged also upon +the people of New Holland; but, since no mention of their +<em>cannibalism</em> is made by those British travellers who have seen +most of the habits of the natives, it is hoped that the charge is an +unfounded one. See, however, M. Martin’s New South Wales, pp. 151-2, +and the instance of <em>Gome Boak</em>, in Collins’ History of New South +Wales, p. 285; and Sturt’s Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. p. 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> +Nay, our fellow-countrymen in the Australian colonies, +can, by no means, endure a strict trial, even by their own rule of +right. Take, for instance, the following very common case:—The kangaroo +disappears from cattle-runs, and is also killed by stockmen, merely for +the sake of the skin; but no mercy is shown to the natives who may help +themselves to a bullock or a sheep. They do not, it is true, breed and +feed the kangaroos as our people rear and fatten cattle, but, at least, +the wild animals are bred and fed upon their land, and consequently +belong to them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> +Speaking of a tribe which he found upon the banks of the +Darling, Mitchell says, “The men retained all their front teeth, and +had no scarifications on their bodies, two most unfashionable +peculiarities among the aborigines.” (<span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> <em>Three +Expeditions</em>, vol. i. p. 261.) The same intelligent traveller +accounts for the custom of knocking out the teeth, by supposing it a +typical sacrifice, probably derived from early sacrificial rites. The +cutting off the last joint of the little finger of females, (he adds,) +seems a custom of the same kind. It is a curious observation, that the +more ferocious among the natives on the Darling were those tribes that +had <em>not</em> lost their front teeth.—Vol. ii. p. 345, and +vol. i. p. 304.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> +This was not the fact, however, for Lieut. Collins found +them in a different place, when he went to the spot early in the next +morning.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> +A less serious but even more effectual method of dispersing +the natives, when they became troublesome, and would not quit the +settlers’ camp at night, is mentioned by Mitchell. At a given signal, +one of the Englishmen suddenly sallied forth wearing a gilt mask, and +holding in his hand a blue light with which he fired a rocket. Two men +concealed bellowed hideously through speaking-trumpets, while all the +others shouted and discharged their fire-arms into the air. The man in +the mask marched solemnly towards the astonished natives, who were seen +through the gloom but for an instant, as they made their escape and +disappeared for ever.—<span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> +<em>Expeditions</em>, vol. ii. p. 290.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> +On a similar occasion, near the Darling, where the +inhabitants are remarkable for their thievish habits, when a crow was +shot, in order to scare them by its sudden death, the only result was, +that, before the bird had reached the ground, one of them rushed forward +at the top of his speed to seize it!—See <span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> +<em>Expeditions</em>, vol. i. p. 265.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> +See Nehemiah viii. 14, 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> The men frequently indulge a great degree of indolence +at the expense of the women, who are compelled to sit in their canoe, +exposed to the fervour of a mid-day sun, hour after hour, chanting +their little song, and inviting the fish beneath them to take their +bait; for without a sufficient quantity to make a meal for their tyrants, +who are lying asleep at their ease, they would meet but a rude reception +on their landing.—<span class="smcap">Collins’</span> <em>Account of Colony of New South +Wales</em>, p. 387.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> +Playing at “stealing a wife” is a common game with the +Australian children.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> +These facts may account for the statement mentioned by +Collins, of a native throwing himself in the way of a man who was about +to shoot a crow, whence it was supposed that the bird was an object of +worship, which notion is, however, contradicted by the common practice +of eating crows, of which birds the natives are very fond.—See +<span class="smcap">Collins’</span> <em>Account of the Colony of +New South Wales</em>, p. 355.</p> + +<p>Two young natives, to whom Mr. Oxley had given a tomahawk, discovered +the <em>broad arrow</em>, with which it was marked on both sides, and +which exactly resembles the print made by the foot of an emu. Probably +the youths thought it a <em>kobong</em>, for they frequently pointed to +it and to the emu skins which the party had with them.—See +<span class="smcap">Oxley’s</span> <em>Journal</em>, p. 172.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> +The command in Deut. xxv. only extended to the +case of eldest sons dying without children.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> +The wild dog is also an object of chase, and its +puppies are considered great dainties; but they are sometimes saved, +in order to bring them up in a tame state, in which case they are +taken by one of the elder females of the family, and actually reared +up by her in all respects like one of her own children!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> +It is a saying among the natives, “Where white man sit +down, kangaroo go away.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> +Martin’s New South Wales, p. 131.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> +See <a href="#Page_79">page 79</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> +“Among the few specimens of art manufactured by the primitive +inhabitants of these wilds, none come so near our own as the net, which, +even in its quality, as well as in the mode of knotting, can scarcely be +distinguished from those made in Europe.”—<span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> +<em>Three Expeditions</em>, vol. ii. p. 153.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> +“Their only cutting implements are made of stone, sometimes +of jasper, fastened between a cleft stick with a hard gum.”—<span class="smcap">Martin’s</span> +<em>New South Wales</em>, p. 147. “The use of the ‘mogo,’ or stone-hatchet, +distinguishes the barbarous from the ‘civil’ black fellows, who all use +iron tomahawks.”—<span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> <em>Three Expeditions in Eastern +Australia</em>, vol. i. p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> +The kiley, or boomerang, is a thin curved missile, which +can be thrown by a skilful hand so as to rise upon the air, and its +crooked course may be, nevertheless, under control. It is about two feet +four inches in length, and nine and a half ounces in weight. One side, +the uppermost in throwing, is slightly convex, the lower side is flat. It +is amazing to witness the feats a native will perform with this weapon, +sometimes hurling it to astonishing heights and distances, from which, +however, it returns to fall beside him; and sometimes allowing it to fall +upon the earth, but so as to rebound, and leap, perhaps, over a tree, or +strike some object behind.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> +For instance, the natives on the river Bogan used the new +tomahawks, given them by Major Mitchell, in getting wild honey—a food +very commonly eaten in Australia—from the hollow branches of the trees. +It seemed as though, in the proper season, they could find it almost +everywhere. “To such inexpert clowns as they probably thought us,” +continues the Major, “the honey and the bees were inaccessible, and +indeed, invisible, save only when the natives cut the former out, and +brought it to us in little sheets of bark; thus displaying a degree of +ingenuity and skill in supplying wants, which we, with all our science, +could not hope to attain.” They caught a bee, and stuck to it, with gum +or resin, some light down of a swan or owl: thus laden, the bee would make +for its nest in some lofty tree, and betray its store of sweets.—<span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> +<em>Three Expeditions</em>, vol. i. p. 173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> +See Evidence of J. Barnes, Esq., in minutes of evidence +taken before the Select Committee on Transportation, Quest. 417-422, +pp. 48, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> +This remark, which is here applied to the people on the +south coast of New Holland, does not hold good of all the natives of +that vast island. On the authority of the same able navigator, Flinders, +we learn that, in the northern part of the country, about Torres Strait, +some of the tribes are very skilful in managing their long canoes. See +an interesting account of the natives of the Murray Islands, in Flinders’ +Voyage, vol. ii. pp. 108-110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> +See p. 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> +See Mitchell’s Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> +Flinders’ Voyage, vol. i. Introd. pp. 99, 100.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> +“The natives do not allow that there is such a +thing as a death from natural causes; they believe that were it +not for murderers, or the malignity of sorcerers, they might live +for ever.”—<span class="smcap">Grey’s</span> +<em>Travels in Western Australia</em>, vol. ii. p. 238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> +See Deut. xiv. 1, where the very spot is +mentioned,—“between the eyes,”—which is always torn and +scratched by the Australian female mourners.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> +This disease made dreadful ravages among the natives +about the same time as the colony in New South Wales was settled. +“The recollection of this scourge will long survive in the +traditionary songs of these simple people. The consternation which +it excited is yet as fresh in their minds, as if it had been an +occurrence of but yesterday, although the generation that witnessed +its horrors has almost passed away. The moment one of them was +seized with it, was the signal for abandoning him to his fate. +Brothers deserted their brothers, husbands their wives, wives their +husbands, children their parents, and parents their children; and +in some of the caves of the coast, heaps of decayed bones still +indicate the spots where these ignorant and helpless children of +nature were left to expire, not so much, probably, from the +virulence of the disease itself, as from the want of +sustenance.”—<span class="smcap">Wentworth’s</span> +<em>Australia</em>, vol. i. p. 311. Third edition. See also +<span class="smcap">Collins’</span> <em>New South Wales</em>, p. 383.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> +See, however, a more pleasing picture of a native +burying-place, in Mitchell’s Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 321.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> +Martin’s New South Wales, p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> +See p. 114.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> +“In many places a log of wood, or a wide slip of bark, +tied at either end, and stuffed with clay, is the only mode invented +for crossing a river or arm of the sea, while in other parts a +large tree, roughly hollowed by fire, forms the +canoe.”—<span class="smcap">M. Martin’s</span> +<em>New South Wales</em>, p. 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> +Flinders’ Voyage, vol. ii. p. 138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> +See a most remarkable instance of this in +M. Martin’s New South Wales, pp. 156-158.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> +Latterly, however, experience suggested to him what +seems to have been a successful mode of concealment. See Mitchell’s +Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 271.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> +It is even said, that persons bearing the same name +with the deceased take other names, in order to avoid the necessity +of pronouncing it at all. <em>See</em> <span class="smcap">Collins’</span> +<em>Acc. of Col. of N. S. Wales</em>, p. 392.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> +S. P. G. Report, 1842, p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> +The half-caste children are generally put to death by the +black husband, under the idea, it is said, that if permitted to grow up, +they would be wiser than the people among whom they would live. These +helpless innocents are destroyed, as though they were no better than a +cat or dog: one farm servant of Mr. Mudie was in a great rage at the +birth of a small infant of this description, and without any ceremony, +only exclaiming, “Narang fellow,” which means, “Small fellow,” he took +it up at once, and dashed it against the wall, as you would any animal. +See Evidence before Transport. Com. 1837, p. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> +Against one of these missions Dr. Lang gives a sneer, and +it may be a deserved one, though certainly expressed in unbecoming +language; but the attentive reader of Dr. Lang’s amusing work on New +South Wales will soon learn not to place too much stress upon <em>all</em> +he says. See Lang’s New South Wales, vol. ii. chap. 7, p. 313.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> +See Bishop of Australia’s Letter in S. P. G. Report for +1842, p. 53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> +Like most of his countrymen, Bennillong had two wives, +but one of them, Barangaroo, had died, as it appears, before his +departure for England. See <a href="#Page_154">page 154</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> +On a similar occasion, Cole-be placed the living child +in the grave with its mother, and having laid the child down, he threw +upon it a large stone, after which the grave was instantly filled up +by the other natives. Upon remonstrating with Cole-be, he, so far from +thinking it inhuman, justified this extraordinary act by saying, that, +as no woman could be found to nurse the child, it must have died a worse +death than that to which he put it.—<span class="smcap">Collins’</span> +<em>Account of the Colony of New South Wales</em>, p. 393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> +The custom of holding out green boughs, which is usually +a sign of friendship among the Australians and other savage tribes, +formed part of the ceremony of suppliants among the ancient Greeks. +See Potter’s Antiquities of Greece, b. ii. c. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> +The difference in disposition between tribes not very +remote from each other was often striking. Only three days’ journey +behind, the travellers had left natives as kind and civil as any whom +they had seen, and hitherto all the people on the Darling had met them +with the branch of peace.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> +Such are the words of Lieutenant Collins, from whose +account of New South Wales the narrative is taken. When will Christians +learn, in their intercourse with heathens and savages, to abstain from +such falsehood and deceitful dealing?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> +This generally appears to be rather a suspicious act;—to +dance a <em>corrobory</em> is “a proposal these savage tribes often make, +and which the traveller who knows them well will think it better to +discourage.”—<span class="smcap">Mitchell’s</span> <em>Three Expeditions</em>, vol. ii. p. 269.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> +Grey’s Western Australia, vol. ii. p. 370.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> +It happened that the two French ships of discovery under +the unfortunate La Perouse came into the harbour of Botany Bay just as +the English were finally quitting it. The French stayed there nearly +two months, and after they left that harbour they were never again seen +by any Europeans, both vessels having been lost.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> +See Lang’s New South Wales, vol. i. p. 23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> +See Barrington’s History of New South Wales, p. 171. +See, too, another instance at p. 385.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> +This conduct was so common, that, when provisions became +scarce, the supply was issued <em>twice</em> in the week, on Wednesdays +and Saturdays.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> +The blame of these lax and unworthy notions must not fall +on the laity alone; many of the clergy in those days deserve to have a +full share of it; but while we see and lament the faults of that +generation, we must not forget to look after those of our own, and to +correct them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> +See Judge Burton on Religion and Education in New South +Wales, p. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> +Certainly some of the means employed for the moral +improvement of the convicts were very strange ones. For example, we are +told, on one occasion, that some of them were “ordered to <em>work every +Sunday</em> on the highway as a punishment!” See Barrington’s History of +New South Wales, p. 184. See likewise, p. 246.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> +In 1792, a chaplain came out with the New South Wales Corps; and +in 1794, Mr. Marsden, a second chaplain, arrived in the colony. If any +person is desirous of seeing how easily the faults and failings of individuals +may be turned into arguments against a church, he has only to refer to +Ullathorne’s Reply to Burton, chap i. “The Dark Age.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> +See the authorities quoted by Burton on Religion and Education in +New South Wales, p. 6. According to this author, the chaplain’s name +was <em>Johnston</em>, not <em>Johnson</em>, as Collins spells it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> +See 2 Kings v. and 1 Kings xix. 18. See likewise, in proof +of the good conduct of some convicts, Collins’ Account of New South +Wales, p. 42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> +See the Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> +The signal-colours were stolen within a year afterwards +by some of the natives, who divided them among the canoes, and used +them as coverings.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> +According to Captain Tench, who is quoted by the Roman +Catholic, Dr. Ullathorne, “Divine service was performed at Sydney only +one Sunday in the month,” and “the Rev. Mr. Johnson was the best farmer +in the country.” What truth there may be in these insinuations, or in the +charge against Judge Burton of enlarging upon a Romish priest’s being a +convict, while he disguises the same truth when it applied to an English +clergyman, must be left to others better acquainted with the facts to +determine. See Ullathorne’s Reply to Burton, p. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> +Things are now, happily, better ordered. “There are +frequent instances of vessels arriving from England without having +had a single death during the voyage” to Sydney.—<span class="smcap">Lang’s</span> +<em>New South Wales</em>, vol. i. p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> +See <a href="#Page_151">“Bennillong,”</a> in chap. vi. p. 151.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> +Another instance of like folly is mentioned in Collins’ Account +of New South Wales, p. 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> +Religion, of course, concerns all equally, only the +guilty and the wretched seem to be the last persons who can afford +to reject its consolations, even in this world. However, the conduct +of those in authority was pretty much on a par with that of the +convicts, and it was only when one of the earlier governors was +told of but five or six persons attending divine service, that +“he determined to go to church himself, and stated that he expected +his example would be followed by the people.” See Burton on Education +and Religion in New South Wales, p. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> +It would appear almost as though some men <em>will</em> +not see that churches are not built for clergymen to preach in, and +live (or starve) upon the pew-rents, but for laymen to hear God’s +word and join in His solemn worship.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> +See Collins’ Account of New South Wales, pp. 223-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> +A similar scheme was to have been practised by some +Irish convict women, who were to have taken their part in a proposed +mutiny on board the <em>Marquis Cornwallis</em> during the passage out, +by mixing pulverized glass with the flour of which the seamen made +their puddings! See Collins, p. 324.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> +Whatever may be the improvement of the middling and upper +classes, <em>nationally speaking</em> the passion for strong liquor +continues to bear sway in the British islands to a deplorable extent. +Lord Ashley has stated in the House of Commons during the present +session, 1843, that there is good authority for estimating our annual +consumption of spirituous liquors at twenty-five millions sterling! +Compare the <em>gross</em> amount of the revenues of the English Church, +about four millions, and those of the <em>poor</em> Kirk of Scotland, the +<em>plundered</em> Church of Ireland, and the “voluntary” efforts of +the hundred and one sects of Dissenters, together with those of the +Romish Church:—and what is the result? Probably, nearly three times as +much is spent in these islands upon spirituous liquors as the whole cost +of religious instruction of every kind amounts to!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> +Dr. Lang’s opinion here is, however, confirmed by Judge +Burton; see p. 7 of his work on Education and Religion in New South Wales.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> +Account of Colony of New South Wales, p. 235.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> +1 Tim. vi. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> +Collins’ Account of New South Wales, pp. 243, 244.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> +The crops of the first settlers were paid for by the +Government in spirits, but Captain Hunter endeavoured to put an end to +this practice, for it was not possible that a farmer who should be idle +enough to throw away the labour of twelve months, for the purchase of a +few gallons of injurious liquors, could expect to thrive, or enjoy those +comforts which sobriety and industry can alone procure.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> +It may not be out of place to quote in support of this +opinion the sensible words of an Australian writer. “I confess I like to +hear of high wages, and of good prices of provisions—of the productions +of the country,—for where they prevail for any length of time, the +country must be prosperous. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is no less +true, that the poorest country is always that where provisions are sold +at the cheapest rate. To the same purpose is the testimony of Sir G. Gipps, +the present Governor of New South Wales, appointed by Lord Melbourne in +1837, who says:—‘The total amount of the grain’ (imported) ‘even at these +prices, amounted to the fearful sum of 246,000<em>l.</em>; but that, it must +be remembered, was only the prime cost in the countries where the wheat +was grown, and to that must be added the charges for freight, insurance, +and commission, probably as much more, so that in two years the colony +would expend upwards of half a million of money for foreign bread. +<em>The distress of the colony was owing to these immense +importations.</em>”—See Speech of Governor Gipps in Council. Australian +and New Zealand Magazine, No. iii. p. 163. See also <span class="smcap">Ross’s</span> +<em>Van Diemen’s Land Almanac and Annual</em>, 1836, p. 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> +About the time of Captain Hunter’s taking the reins of +government a cow was sold for 80<em>l.</em>, a horse cost 90<em>l.</em>, and +a Cape sheep 7<em>l.</em> 10<em>s.</em> Other prices were in proportion; +fresh meat was very scarce, and the various attempts to import live stock +had been far from successful. Still a <em>beginning</em> had been made, +and it is astonishing how rapidly rural wealth began to multiply in +New South Wales, after the difficulties of the first eight or ten years +had been overcome.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> +Promissory notes were given, payable in rum instead of +money.—<span class="smcap">Judge Burton</span> <em>on Education and Religion in New +South Wales</em>, p. 7, note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> +Thus writes the Bishop of Australia in 1840.—“Neither +can I comprehend or approve the policy which thus leaves multitudes +without moral or religious guidance, under every inducement to commit +acts of violence and rapine, which are not only the sources of infinite +misery to the unhappy perpetrators, and to their wretched victims, but +<em>actually bring</em> upon the government itself ten times the pecuniary +charge which would be incurred by the erection of as many churches, and +providing for the support of as many clergymen, as the necessities of +every such district require.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> +“More labour would have been performed by one hundred free +people from any part of England or Scotland, than had at any time been +derived from three hundred of these (convicts), with all the attention +that could be paid to them.”—<span class="smcap">Collins’</span> <em>Account of the +Colony of New South Wales</em>, p. 415.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> +<span class="smcap">Barrington’s</span> <em>History of New South +Wales</em>, p. 376.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> +At a time of great distress, when 270 additional inhabitants +had just made good their landing at Norfolk Island, whilst the ships and +provisions sent with them from Port Jackson were almost entirely lost, +these birds of providence, as they were justly called, furnished a supply +for the necessities of the people. Mount Pitt, the highest ground in the +island, was observed to be crowded with these birds during the night, for +in the day-time they go out to sea in search of food. They burrow in the +ground, and the hill was as full of holes as a rabbit-warren; in size +they were not bigger than pigeons, but they looked much larger in their +feathers. Their eggs were well tasted enough, and though the birds +themselves had a fishy flavour, hunger made them acceptable. They were +easily taken, for when small fires were kindled to attract their notice, +they would drop down faster than the people could seize them. For two +months together, it is said, that not less than from two to three thousand +of these birds were taken every night, so that it was with reason that +the starving population of Norfolk Island called them birds of providence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> +A peculiar language prevailed in this horrid place. It is said that +a bad man was called a good man, and that one who was ready to perform +his duty was generally called a bad man; and so, in other respects, language +was adapted to the complete subversion of the human heart there +existing. See <span class="smcap">Ullathorne’s</span> <em>Evidence before +the Committee on Transportation</em>, 1838, No. 271, p. 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> +See Montgomery Martin’s New South Wales and Van Diemen’s +Land, p. 257.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> +Compare Lang’s History of New South Wales, vol. i. p. 71, +and Collins’ Account of New South Wales, p. 197 and 201. See also +Barrington’s History of New South Wales, p. 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> +“The first religious edifice that was ever reared in the +great Terra Australis, by <em>voluntary</em> and <em>private</em> exertion.” +See Lang’s Narrative of the Settlement of the Scots’ Church in New South +Wales, p. 8. The Doctor, in his Presbyterian zeal, had forgotten +Mr. Johnson’s church.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> +One of the vain attempts of the present age is that of +entirely preventing the various fluctuations to which, from accidents, +bad seasons, &c., the price of bread is subject. It did appear as though +a certain average of moderate prices was established in England; but, +recently, the system has been again altered, and time must show how it +works. Certainly the changes in the value of corn in New South Wales +have formerly been violent enough, supposing the following statement to +be correct: “I have nine years been a landholder in this colony, and +seven years have cultivated my own farm. In this time I have twice given +wheat to my pigs, because I did not know what else to do with it; twice +I have known wheat selling at fifteen shillings per bushel, and once at +twenty shillings!”—<span class="smcap">Atkinson</span> <em>on the Encouragement of +Distilling and Brewing in New South Wales</em>, p. 3, ed. 1829.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> +It is said that the natives foresaw the approach of this +calamity, and advised the colonists of it, but their warning was not +regarded.—<em>See Barrington’s History of New South Wales</em>, p. 310.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> +For the particulars here related of the floods of the river +Hawkesbury, see Lang’s New South Wales, vol. i. pp. 98-101; and also +Wentworth’s Australasia, vol. i. p. 67 and 448-9. The latter writer speaks +of wheat and maize being sold at 5<em>l.</em> or 6<em>l.</em> per bushel, +but that seems to be a mistake.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> +Still later the following evidence was given upon a trial: +“The governor, <em>clergy</em>, officers, civil and military, all ranks and +descriptions of people bartered spirits when I left Sydney,—in May, 1810.” +What a handle do such practices give to those that love to +“despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.”—<em>Jude</em> 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> +Here is an example of the need of a bishop in every colony +of any size or importance. What right or power had a usurping military +officer to suspend from clerical duties <em>one</em> of the <em>two</em> or +<em>three</em> clergymen who were then in the settlement, and that without +any crime alleged, any trial, or proof of his misdemeanour? Would not +a bishop, to stand between the mighty major and the poor chaplain on +this occasion, have been a guardian of “civil and religious liberty?”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> +Respecting these, see the assertions in Ullathorne’s Reply +to Burton, page 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> +See Lang’s New South Wales, vol. i. pp. 168, 169.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> +See Titus i. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> +Ezekiel iii. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> +How could public religious worship be attended to, when, in +the year after Governor Macquarie’s arrival, 1810, a widely-scattered +population of 10,452 souls, mostly convicts, were left in the charge of +<em>four</em> clergymen? And in what respect were things improved at the +time of that Governor’s departure in 1821, when, to a similarly situated +population of 29,783 souls there were <em>seven</em> clergymen assigned: +and the Romish church had <em>one</em> priest for New South Wales and Van +Diemen’s Land, while the Presbyterians at Portland Head had their +lay-catechist?—See <span class="smcap">Burton</span> <em>on Education and Religion in +New South Wales</em>, pp. 8, 9, 12, 16.</p> + +<p>We may add, by way of illustrating the regard paid to religious worship, +even in Governor Macquarie’s time, that Oxley’s first expedition +into the interior was permitted to set out from Bathurst on a Sunday! See +his <em>Journal</em>, p. 3. Sunday, indeed, seems to have been a favourite +starting-day with Mr. Oxley. See p. 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> +See Governor Macquarie’s Report to Earl Bathurst, in Lang’s +New South Wales, vol. i. <em>Appendix</em>, No. 8, p. 447.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> +See Grey’s Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. +pp. 29, 30. For the particulars of Mr. Smith’s death, see <a href="#Page_27">page 27</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> +See Major Mitchell’s Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 317.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> +See Lang’s New South Wales, vol. ii. p. 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> +The difference of temperature in twelve hours’ journey is +stated to be upwards of twenty degrees.—<span class="smcap">Oxley</span>’s <em>Journal of +his First Expedition</em>, p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> +This account of the navigation of Hunter’s River is taken +from Martin’s New South Wales, p. 75. Dr. Lang, vol. ii. p. 64, gives +a somewhat different account of it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> +It was introduced in 1831.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> +Bishop of Australia’s Letter to the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel, dated September 12th, 1839.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> +See Wentworth’s Australasia, vol. i. pp. 52-55.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> +There are several other parishes in the <em>suburbs</em> of +Sydney. A third new church is likewise mentioned, among those in progress +at Sydney, in the Bishop of Australia’s Charge, delivered in 1841. See +Appendix A, p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> +Compare p. 115 of Judge Burton’s work on Education and +Religion in New South Wales, with Appendix No. 12 of the same work. It +may be noticed, that the sum mentioned applies only to stipends and +allowances of the Clergy, and does not include sums voted for building +purposes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> +See the Morning Herald, July 5, 1842.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> +This is flourishing, for the deposits are stated in recent +accounts from Sydney to have increased, between June 30, 1840, and the +same date in 1842, from 143,000<em>l.</em> to 178,000<em>l.</em>, and the +number of accounts opened was much greater than in former years.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> +Extract from a private letter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> +See Burton on Education and Religion in New South +Wales, p. 174.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> +According to Mr. Montgomery Martin, (Van Diemen’s Land, p. 266,) +Cornwall and Buckinghamshire continue to be its only counties, and it is +subdivided into nine police districts; but Dr. Ross’s Almanac for 1836 +contains, at p. 238, the governor’s proclamation for the division mentioned +above; whilst a third division of the island into the counties of Argyle and +Launceston is followed in the Report of the Society for the Propagation of +the Gospel, for 1842. The above may serve for a specimen of the obscurity +and confusion upon these trifling matters, respecting which accuracy +seems almost unattainable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> +See Wentworth’s Australasia, vol. i. p. 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> +See Mr. M. Martin’s Van Diemen’s Land, p. 274.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> +The following specimen of the evil art of stirring up +the discontent of those that are suffering under the dispensations of +Providence, is taken from an old newspaper, published in Hobart Town +in 1835. It may be stated, that in the very same paper we are informed +that the drought had recently been so great that scarcely a cabbage, +or any other vegetable but potato, was to be obtained in the town. Of +course water was scarce, and precautions had been taken by the Governor +to preserve some at a place whence the shipping were supplied; but this +careful conduct of their ruler is thus held up to the abhorrence of the +people. “Why,” it is asked, “do not the people drink the ditchwater and +be poisoned quietly; it is quite enough that their betters should enjoy +such a luxury as pure water.” And how often in England do we see this +sort of trash printed by those <em>dealers in knowledge</em>, the +newspaper-writers, who sometimes argue as though all the credit of +prosperous occurrences belonged to the <em>people</em> of a country, and +all the disgrace and responsibility of misfortunes and trials were to be +put off upon its <em>rulers</em>! How often are we reminded of the Israelites +murmuring against Moses on account of the miseries of that +wilderness in which their own sins condemned them to wander!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> +From a letter dated March 4, 1841, and written by the late +lamented Archdeacon Hutchins, it would appear that two new churches, +St. Giles’s and Trinity, are likely to be erected in Hobart Town. See +Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, for 1841, p. 61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> +Bishop of Australia’s letter to the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel, dated May 22, 1838.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> +See Rev. iii. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> +See Bishop of Australia’s Letter, dated June 1840, in +the Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign +Parts, for 1841, pp. 148-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> +For the particulars here stated see the Australian and +New Zealand Magazine, No. 1, p. 51, and No. 2, pp. 111, 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> +See Report of Committee on South Australia, p. 78. Evidence +of T. F. Elliot, Esq. Answer 733. From the same source, the report of this +Parliamentary Committee in 1841, much of the information respecting +Southern Australia is derived.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> +In these matters it is impossible to get at truth. Each man +judges upon certain data, but though the conclusion of each may be correct, +yet because the data were partial and imperfect, so likewise will the +conclusions be. Mr. Mann, who was examined by the Committee upon South +Australia, gives it as his opinion that about four-fifths of the land in +that colony were bad. However, he had never been more than three weeks in +it nor above fourteen miles from its chief town, so his judgment was +formed principally upon hearsay. Others, probably, have gone into the +contrary extreme of praising the soil too highly, and truth may, as usual, +lie between the two extremes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> +It is noticed as a matter of surprise, that on August +6th, 1841, Mount Lofty, a hill 2400 feet in height, was covered with +snow, and that the small river, called the Torrens, had been partly frozen.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> +During the first six months of 1841, seventy vessels, +comprising a burden of 11,139 tons, arrived at Port Adelaide. See +Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 114.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> +Here again reports differ. See Mr. T. Driver’s Evidence before +the Committee on South Australia, p. 221, Answer, 2498, and <em>following +ones</em>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> +See “South Australia in 1842,” p. 19, published by +Hailes, London.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> +For the facts here noticed, see the Australian and New +Zealand Magazine, No. 1. p. 53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> +See Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel +for 1842, p. 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> +See Flinders’ Voyage, Introduction, vol. i. p. 60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> +There is a vine in the government garden (at Perth) which, +planted as a cutting, sent out shoots 16½ feet long in the second year, +and yielded more than 4 cwt. of grapes. Another, belonging to Mr. C. Brown +of the same place, had a stem, which, in only five years’ growth, was +14½ feet in circumference. See “A Short Account of the Settlement in +Swan River,” p. 15, published by Cross, Holborn, 1842.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> +See “A Short Account of the Settlement of Swan River,” p. 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> +See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 1, p. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> +See Rev. ii. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> +Thus, as recently as the year 1838, two ships were sent +from <em>Christian</em> England to found a colony; having on board upwards +of 500 souls, but unprovided with any minister of religion! How strange +a method, <em>if we really believe God’s word</em>, of gaining a blessing +from Heaven, either for ourselves or our colonies!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> +See Isaiah xxxii. 2. The following proverbial saying in +India may serve to show how natural such comparisons are in the mouths +of the inhabitants of hot climates: “Ah, that benevolent man, he has +long been my shelter from the wind; he is a river to the dry country.“ +See Roberts’ Oriental Illustrations of Scripture, <em>ad. loc.</em> p. 429. +How different an idea do the words “shelter from the <em>wind</em>” convey +to the inhabitant of England’s bleak shores, and Asia’s parching deserts!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> +See an interesting passage in Major Mitchell’s Three +Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 28. See likewise Oxley’s First Journal, p. 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> +See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. iv. p. 234.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> +A glance over the two ponderous volumes of the evidence +before the Transportation Committee in 1837 and 1838 will satisfy every +unprejudiced person that our penal colonies are not yet ripe for a +representative government. It is curious enough to compare the fearful +picture of these settlements drawn by one section of the so-called Liberal +party, which wages war against transportation, with the more pleasing and +flattering description of their social condition which is given by that +other section of the same party which claims for the colonists +“constitutional rights.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> +See Mr. Montgomery Martin“s New South Wales, p. 353.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> +See Report of Transportation Committee in 1838, p. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> +Acts xxiii. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> +See the Preface to the Form of Ordaining and Consecrating +Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in the Book of Common Prayer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> +The subjection of New South Wales to the Bishopric of +Calcutta was a mere absurdity; it might just as well have been under +Canterbury at once.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> +See Wentworth’s Australasia, vol. i. p. 366.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> +Elsewhere stated to be 60,861. Perfect accuracy in these +matters appears almost unattainable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> +See St. Paul’s charge to Timothy, the first Bishop of +Ephesus, 2 Tim. iv. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> +See the Report of the Fund for providing Additional Colonial +Bishoprics, dated June 25th, 1842. Should the particulars stated above +induce any person to desire to lend a helping hand to so good, so glorious +a work, any donations for that purpose, small or large, will be thankfully +received at the office of the Committee, 79, Pall Mall, London; and a +post-office order supplies a sure and easy means of conveyance for sums +not exceeding five pounds.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> +See Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel +in Foreign Parts, for 1842.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> +Gladstone’s “The State in its Relations with the Church,” +chap. viii. p. 315.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> +Lang’s New South Wales, vol. ii. p. 317, &c. See also, +at 265-6, a series of similar statements. A good specimen of Dr. Lang’s +veracity occurs at p. 267, where the Church and School Corporation is +said to have consisted chiefly of <em>clergymen</em>, whereas the majority +were <em>laymen</em>. See Burton on Religion and Education in New South +Wales, p. 21, and Appendix, No. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> +They are accused of spending 20,000<em>l.</em> a-year of public +money, under pretence of providing for religious instruction and education, +while nothing was really done; whereas, out of this sum, nearly +17,000<em>l.</em> were already appropriated for the existing ecclesiastical +establishment; and, during the continuance of the Corporation, the schools +increased from 16 to 40, and the number of children educated in them from +1,037 to 2,426. See Burton on Religion and Education in New South +Wales, pp. 24 and 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> +See the book just quoted for a list of the members of the +Church and School Corporation, p. 21. Whatever might be the education of +these gentlemen, it is evident that better educated men were not very +likely to be found in the colony than the great law officers of the crown, +the members of the legislative council, and the nine senior chaplains.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> +See Burton on Religion and Education in New South +Wales, p. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> +See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. i. p. 45. The +sums mentioned above include all the expense of grants to other bodies of +Christians besides churchmen, but the greater portion of the money is +expended upon the great majority of the population who are members of +the Church of England.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> +See Burton, p. 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> +The following striking testimony in favour of the +<em>system</em> of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in +Foreign Parts comes from a quarter by no means unduly biassed in its +favour. “How have thousands and tens of thousands been raised in +Scotland, for the last forty years, to fit out and to maintain beyond +seas whomsoever the dissenting ministers of London chose to ordain as +missionaries to the heathen? God forbid, that I should ever whisper a +syllable against missions to the heathen! But I have seen too many +missionaries, not to have seen more than I choose to mention, whom men +possessed of the least discernment would never have presumed to send +forth on such an errand! <em>The colonies, however, were the first field +to be occupied; and if that field had been properly occupied, it would +have afforded much assistance to missions to the +heathen.</em>“—<span class="smcap">Lang’s</span> +<em>New South Wales</em>, vol. ii. p. 260.</p> + +<p>If any reader of this passage should feel disposed in his heart to help +in a good work, which greatly needs his assistance, let him take at +once his humble mite, or his large offering, as the case may be, to the +clergyman of his parish, or to the office, 79, Pall Mall, London, for +the use of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> +Gal. v. 19-21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> +See Mr. Montgomery Martin’s New South Wales for further +particulars on this subject, pp. 168-177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> +“Catholic,” a most honoured term in ancient times, has in +modern days been very unfortunate. Even now the Romanists misuse it for +“Papistical,” the Dissenters occasionally use it to signify +“Latitudinarian,” and the members of the Church of England are either +afraid to use it at all, or else are perpetually harping upon it, as +though it were a mere party-word.</p></div> + + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> +See a pamphlet entitled “Australia as she is and as she +may be,” by T. Potter Macqueen, Esq., published by Cross, +Holborn, pp. 12-14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> +It is right to state here that the cause of a supply of +religious instruction having been so long delayed in Norfolk Island +is said, by a Roman Catholic writer, to have been the impossibility of +finding a clergyman to undertake the charge. See Ullathorne’s Reply to +Burton, pp. 39, 40. Supposing this account to be correct then, +undoubtedly, the English Church must share the blame of neglecting +Norfolk Island along with the government, and it is not the wish of the +writer of these pages to deny the applicability of the prophet’s +confession to ourselves: “O God, to us belongeth confusion of face, +to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have +sinned against Thee.” (Dan. ix. 8.) Still, even according to +Dr. Ullathorne, the penal settlement was established six years before +its religious instruction was thought of by the government.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> +Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> +The reason given by the Roman Catholic, Dr. Ullathorne, +is that the two priests divide the salary, and receive together no more +than the one chaplain.—<span class="smcap">Ullathorne’s</span> <em>Reply to Burton</em>, +p. 76. The reader must bear in mind the different scale of expenses +required by a person who <em>must</em> be single, and that of a person +who may be, and generally is, a married man.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> +See Committee on Transportation, 1838, pp. 137, 138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> +See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, +pp. 287-289. The actual sum there stated is either 725<em>l.</em> or +855<em>l.</em>, according as certain expenses connected with the +establishment are included or not.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> +“I think the longer the sentence, the better will be the +conduct of the individual,” because his only chance of obtaining any +degree of liberty is from good conduct. See Evidence of J. MacArthur, +Esq., before the Committee on Transportation in 1837. No. 3350-3, +p. 218. Dr. Ullathorne expresses a contrary opinion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> +Evidence of J. MacArthur, Esq., before the Committee on +Transportation, in 1837, No. 3371-2, p. 220. The richest man in the +colony, an emancipist, was said, in 1837, to be worth 40,000<em>l.</em> or +45,000<em>l.</em> a year. For an account of the shameless roguery, and +drunken folly, by means of which so vast an income was amassed, see +Report of Transp. Com. 1837, p. 14 and 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> +Barrington’s History of New South Wales, p. 421.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> +For the mode in which the law admitting emancipists into +the jurors’ box was passed, see Lang’s New South Wales, vol. i. +p. 317-320. “Two absent members of the Legislative Council were known +to be opposed to it. Of those present, the governor (Bourke) and five +others were in favour of it, while six were against it. The governor +gave a second and casting vote.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> +See Report of Transportation Committee, 1838, p. 31. +“A large proportion of the persons who have appeared and served,” as +jurors, “are publicans,” to whose houses prosecutors, parties on bail, +or witnesses, resort, for the purpose of drinking, while in attendance +upon the court. Once, when a jury was locked up all night, much foul +and disgusting language was used; and to gain a release from this +association, the disputed point was yielded; “no greater punishment can +be inflicted upon a respectable person than to be shut up with such +people for a few hours, or for the night.”</p> + +<p>See Burton’s Letter, Appendix to Transportation Committee’s Report, +1837, p. 301-2. Dr. Lang’s book on New South Wales abounds in wretched +puns, but one rather favourable specimen may be given, +when, in allusion to the Englishman’s right of being tried by his +peers, the Doctor styles the jurors above described +“<em>the Colonial Peerage!</em>”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> +1 Cor. xii. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> +Grey’s Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. pp. 192-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> +The system of starting from a certain fixed sum per acre, +named “the upset price,” and selling land at whatever it will fetch +beyond this, is established in most of the Australian colonies. The +fund thus produced is spent in encouraging emigration and providing +labourers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> +Jehovah Jireh, that is, “the Lord will see or provide.” +See translation in margin of Gen. xxii. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> +See Grey’s Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. p. 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> +Letter of the Bishop of Australia to the Society for +the Propagation of the Gospel, dated May 22, 1838.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> +See Speech of the Bishop of Tasmania at Leeds, +Nov. 28, 1842, p. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> +Letter of Rev. W. H. Walsh to S. P. G., dated October +6th, 1840.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> +In Van Diemen’s Land, in 1838, it was stated that sixteen +out of every twenty-three persons, nearly two-thirds, belonged to the +Church of England. Bishop of Australia’s Letter to S. P. G., dated +August 18, 1838.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> +See the Memorial of the (Roman) Catholic Inhabitants of +New South Wales to Lord Normanby. Burton on Education and Religion. +Appendix, p. 117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> +Sir Richard Bourke’s Letter to the Right Hon. E. G. Stanley, +September 30th, 1833. Sir Richard, in his haste or his ignorance, has +overlooked the Greek Church.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> +Bishop of Exeter’s Charge in 1837.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> +Bishop of Australia’s Letter to the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel, August 18, 1838.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> +See Bishop of Australia’s Charge in 1841, p. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> +On November 9th, 1838, Sir G. Gipps wrote to Lord Glenelg, +stating that “he was happy to say there was no want in the colony of +clergy of <em>any denomination</em>!” It was only in December 1837 that +the Bishop of Australia had requested eighteen or nineteen <em>presbyters +of the Church of England</em> for as many places as had actually complied +with the government rules, and not more than half the number had, in +the interim, been supplied.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> +Gladstone’s State in its Relations with the Church, +chap. vii. p. 272.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> +See the latter part of <a href="#Page_286">Chapter XI</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> +For the particulars here stated, see the Report of the +Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for 1842, pp. 56-64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> +“It has been found impossible to state accurately the +present population of Tasmania. No information could be obtained at +the well-known colonial publisher’s (Cross’s) in Holborn.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> +These numbers are copied from a Sydney newspaper, but +from some difference in the elements of calculation, possibly from +not including the population of Norfolk Island, they do not quite +tally with those given above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> +See the speech of Mr. C. Buller in the House of Commons, +on Thursday, April 6th, 1843, upon the subject of colonization.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> +See Evidence before Committee on Transportation in +1837, p. 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> +See the Bishop of Exeter’s Charge in 1837.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> +Compare Dr. Lang’s New South Wales, vol. ii. pp. 375, 288; +and Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 13.</p></div> + + + + + +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Australia, its history and present +condition, by William Pridden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALIA--HISTORY, CONDITION *** + +***** This file should be named 30607-h.htm or 30607-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/6/0/30607/ + +Produced by Nick Wall, Anne Storer, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Australia, its history and present condition + containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies, + with their respective inhabitants + +Author: William Pridden + +Release Date: December 5, 2009 [EBook #30607] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALIA--HISTORY, CONDITION *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Wall, Anne Storer, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: +1) Morrumbidgee/Murrumbidgee each used on several occasions + and left as in the original. 'Morrumbidgee' is the aboriginal + name for the Murrumbidgee. +2) Used on numerous occasions, civilisation/civilization; + civilised/civilized; civilising/civilizing; uncivilised/uncivilized: + left as in the original. +3) Same with variations of colonisation/colonization, and a few other + "z" words that should be "s" words in their English form. + + + * * * * * + + + + + The + Englishman's Library. + XXVI. + + + + + AUSTRALIA, + + ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION; + + CONTAINING + AN ACCOUNT BOTH OF THE BUSH AND OF THE COLONIES, + WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE INHABITANTS. + + BY THE + REV. W. PRIDDEN, M.A. + VICAR OF BROXTED, ESSEX. + + + "_Truth_, in her native calmness and becoming moderation, shall + be the object of our homage and pursuit; and we will aim at the + attainment of knowledge for the improvement of our reason, and not + for the gratification of a passion for disputing."--_Address of + the Bp of Australia in 1841 to the Church of England Book Society._ + + + LONDON: + JAMES BURNS, 17, PORTMAN STREET, + PORTMAN SQUARE. + 1843. + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY R. CLAY, BREAD STREET HILL. + + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: Map of Australia] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +A few words by way of Preface are requisite, in order that the objects +of the present Work may be stated to the reader, and that he may also +be made acquainted with the sources whence the information here +communicated is derived, and from consulting which he may still +further inform himself concerning Australia. The aim of the writer of +the following pages has been,--while furnishing a description of some +of the most flourishing and interesting settlements belonging to the +British Crown, which, at the same time, exhibit in contrast to each +other the two extremes of savage and civilised life;--to call the +attention of his countrymen, both at home and in the colonies, to +the evils which have arisen from the absence of moral restraint and +religious instruction in colonies of civilised and (nominally) +christian men. And although it must in many ways be a disadvantage +that the person professing to describe a particular country should +have gained all his knowledge of it from the report of others, without +ever having himself set foot upon its shores; yet, in one respect at +least, this may operate advantageously. He is less likely to have +party prejudices or private interests to serve in his account of the +land to which he is a total stranger. In consequence, probably, of his +being an indifferent and impartial observer, not one of our Australian +colonies wears in his eye the appearance of a perfect paradise; but +then, on the other hand, there is not one of those fine settlements +which prejudice urges him to condemn, as though it were barren and +dreary as the Great Sahara itself. And the same circumstance--his +never having breathed the close unwholesome air of colonial +party-politics--will render it less likely that his judgment +respecting persons and disputed opinions should be unduly biassed. +There will be more probability of his judging upon right _principles_, +and although his facts may (in some instances, unavoidably) be less +minutely accurate than an inhabitant of the country would have given, +yet they may be less coloured and less partially stated. Instead of +giving his own observations as an eye-witness, fraught with his own +particular views, he can calmly weigh the opposite statements of men +of different opinions, and between the two he is more likely to arrive +at the truth. With regard to the present Work, however impartial the +author has endeavoured to be, however free he may be from colonial +passions and interests, he does not wish to deceive the reader by +professing a total freedom from all prejudice. If this were desirable, +it is impossible; it is a qualification which no writer, or reader +either, possesses. But thus much may be stated, that all his +prejudices are in favour of those institutions with which it has +pleased God to bless his native land. In a volume that is intended to +form part of a series called "The Englishman's Library," it may be +permitted, surely, to acknowledge a strong and influencing attachment +to the Sovereign, the Church, and the Constitution of England. + +The object and principles of the present volume being thus plainly +set forth, it remains only to mention some of the sources whence the +information contained in it is derived. To the Travels of Captain Grey +on the western coast of New Holland, and to those of Major Mitchell in +the interior, the first portion of this Work is deeply indebted, and +every person interested in the state of the natives, or fond of +perusing travels in a wild and unknown region, may be referred to +these four volumes,[1] where they will find that the extracts here +given are but a specimen of the stores of amusement and information +which they contain. Captain Sturt's "Expeditions" and Mr. Oxley's +"Journal" are both interesting works, but they point rather to the +progress of discovery in New Holland than to the actual state of our +local knowledge of it. Dr. Lang's two volumes upon New South Wales are +full of information from one who has lived there many years, and his +faults are sufficiently obvious for any intelligent reader to guard +against. Mr. Montgomery Martin's little book is a very useful +compendium, and those that desire to know more particulars concerning +the origin of the first English colony in New Holland may be referred +to Collins's account of it. Various interesting particulars respecting +the religious state of the colonies in Australia have been derived +from the correspondence in the possession of the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, free access to which was +allowed through the kind introduction of the Rev. C. B. Dalton. Many +other sources of information have been consulted, among which the +Reports of the Parliamentary Committee upon Transportation, in 1837 +and 1838; and that of the Committee upon South Australia, in 1841, +must not be left unnoticed. Neither may the work of Judge Burton upon +Religion and Education in New South Wales be passed over in silence; +for, whatever imperfections may be found in his book,[2] the +facts there set forth are valuable, and, for the most part, +incontrovertible, and the principles it exhibits are excellent. From +the works just mentioned the reader may, should he feel inclined, +verify for himself the facts stated in the ensuing pages, or pursue +his inquiries further. In the meantime, he cannot do better than join +the author of the little book which he holds in his hand, in an humble +and earnest prayer to Almighty God, that, in this and in every other +instance, whatever may be the feebleness and imperfection of human +efforts, all things may be made to work together for good towards +promoting the glory of God, the extension of Christ's kingdom, and the +salvation of mankind. + + [1] Published, all of them, by T. and W. Boone, London, to whom it is + only just to acknowledge their kindness in permitting the use that has + been made of these two publications in the first portion of the present + Work. + + [2] See Dr. Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, especially at p. 5, where it + appears that the judge was not quite impartial in one of his statements. + Dr. Ullathorne himself has, in his 98 pages, contrived to crowd in at + least twice as many misrepresentations as Burton's 321 pages contain. + But that is no excuse. The Romish Church may need, or seem to need, + such support. The cause defended by Judge Burton needs it not. + + + + +#Contents.# + + +INTRODUCTION. + +[Page 1.] + + Subject of the Work--Discovery and Situation of New Holland--Its + Interior little known--Blue Mountains--Conjectures respecting the + Interior--Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania. + + +CHAPTER I. + +[Page 8.] + + The Bush described--Remains of it near Sydney--North-western Coast + of New Holland--Sandy Columns and Fragments--Recollections of + Home--Gouty Stem Tree--Green Ants--Fine Volcanic District--Cure + for Cold--Travelling in the Rainy Season--Rich sequestered Valleys-- + Plains near the Lachlan--Falls of the Apsley--Beauties of Nature + enjoyed by Explorers--Aid afforded by Religion--Trials of Travellers + in the Bush--Thirst--A Christian's Consolations--Plains of Kolaina, + or Deceit--Bernier Island--Frederic Smith--A Commander's Cares--Dried + Streams--Return from a Journey in the Bush--Outsettlers--Islands on + the Australian Coast--Kangaroo Island--Coral Reefs and Islets. + + +CHAPTER II. + +[Page 42.] + + Forbidding aspect of coast no argument against inland beauty and + fertility--River Darling--The Murray--Other Rivers of New Holland-- + Contrasts in Australia--The Lachlan, Regent's Lake, &c.--Sturt's + Descent down the Murray--His Return--Woods--Difficulties and Dangers + of Bush travelling--Wellington Valley--Australia Felix--Conclusion. + + +CHAPTER III. + +[Page 72.] + + Comparative advantages of Europeans over Savages--Degraded condition + of Natives of New Holland--Total absence of Clothing--Love of + Ornaments--Peculiar Rites--Ceremony of knocking out a Tooth--Hardships + of Savage Life--Revengeful Spirit--Effect of Native Songs in exciting + Anger--Cruelty--Courage--Indifference to accounts of Civilized Life-- + Contempt of its ways--Treatment of Women--Family Names, and Crests-- + Language--Music. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +[Page 97.] + + Means of Subsistence--A Whale Feast--Hunting the Kangaroo--Australian + Cookery--Fish--Seal Catching--Turtles--Finding Opossums--Birds-- + Pursuit of the Emu or Cassowary--Disgusting Food of the Natives-- + Vegetables--_By-yu_ Nuts--Evils of European Settlements in cutting + off the native supply of Food--Native Property in Land--Inhabitants + of Van Diemen's Land--A word of Advice to Christian Colonists. + + +CHAPTER V. + +[Page 120.] + + First Shyness of Natives natural--Their perplexity between European + Customs and their own--Health and Longevity--Old Age--Funereal + Rites--Belief in Sorcery--The _Boyl-yas_--Various modes of + Interment--Tombs--Riches of a Native--Bodily Excellences--Secrecy-- + Quickness of Sight, &c.--Kaiber and the Watch--The _Warran_ Ground-- + Various Superstitions--Mischief of bad Example, for which the British + nation is responsible--The Church, the right Instrument, and the only + one that will be found successful, for civilising the Australian + Tribes, if they are ever to be civilised. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +[Page 149.] + + Bennillong--Barangaroo's Funeral--The Spitting Tribe--Mulligo's Death-- + The Corrobory--Peerat and his Wives--Woga's Captivity--Ballooderry + and the Convicts--Native Hospitality and Philosophy--The Widow and + her Child--Miago. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +[Page 186.] + + Infancy of New South Wales an interesting subject to Englishmen--Arrival, + in 1788, of the Sirius, and the Supply at Botany Bay--Settlement + commenced in the Harbour of Port Jackson--Character of the + Convicts--Influence of Religion--Particulars respecting the Chaplain-- + His peculiar situation and efforts--A Gold Mine pretended to be found-- + Supply of Food precarious--Farming--Failure of Provisions--Erection + of a Flag-staff at the entrance of Port Jackson--Activity of + Governor Phillip--Emigration to Norfolk Island--Loss of the Sirius-- + Departure of the Supply for Batavia--Arrivals from England--Cruel + treatment of Convicts on board--Paramatta founded--Arrival of the + Second Fleet--State of Agriculture--The Chaplain's bounty abused-- + Attendance at Divine Service--A Church built--Its subsequent fate-- + Scarcity of Provisions, and great Mortality--Profligacy of Convicts-- + Harvest of 1792--Departure of Governor Phillip--Major Grose's + government--Captain Paterson's--Various occurrences--Drunkenness--Love + of Money--Spirit of Gambling. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +[Page 216.] + + Arrival of Governor Hunter--His efforts for reformation--Advancement + of the Colony towards supplying its own wants--Wild Cattle found--Coal + discovered--Governor's regulations--Incendiarism--Natives + troublesome--Difficulties in governing New South Wales--Crimes + common--Laxity of public opinion--The gaols at Sydney and Paramatta + purposely set on fire--Departure of Governor Hunter--Captain + King succeeds him--Norfolk Island abandoned--Sketch of Norfolk + Island--Settlement of Van Diemen's Land--Free Settlers--Philip + Schoeffer--The Presbyterian Settlers at Portland Head--Resignation + of Governor King--Captain Bligh his successor--Great Flood of + the Hawkesbury--Unpopularity of the Governor--Seizure of his + person--Rebellion--Usurpation--Arrival of a new Governor, Colonel + Macquarie--Improvements in his time--Road-making--Passage across the + Blue Mountains--Public Buildings--Patronage of Emancipists--Discoveries + in the Interior, and Extension of the Colony--Continued neglect of the + spiritual need of the Colonists--Governor Macquarie's Departure--His + own statement of the progress of the Settlement under his + administration. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +[Page 243.] + + Subject stated--Day-dreams of Colonization--Local divisions of New + South Wales--Its Counties--Cumberland--Camden--Illawarra and the + Cow Pastures--Argyle--Bathurst--Northumberland--Coal Pits--Hunter's + River--Remaining Counties--Sydney--Port Jackson--Buildings, + &c. of Sydney--Commerce--Public Press--Paramatta--Windsor--Liverpool-- + Conclusion. + + +CHAPTER X. + +[Page 266.] + + Description of Van Diemen's Land--Its local Divisions--Its general + Character and Aspect--Hobart Town--Launceston--Other Australian + Colonies--Port Phillip--South Australia--Adelaide--Western Australia-- + Its Towns--North Australia. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +[Page 286.] + + Climate of Australia--Drought--Agriculture--Flocks and Herds--Government + of the Colonies--Discontent--Means of National Improvement--Bishopric + of Australia--Tribute of Thanks justly due to the Whig Government-- + Effects of a Bishop being resident in New South Wales--Educational + provision made by George the Fourth--Dr. Lang's Account of it--Judge + Burton's--Church and School Corporation, established in 1826; suspended + in 1829; dissolved in 1833--Causes of this change of Policy-- + Conclusion. + + +CHAPTER XII. + +[Page 307.] + + Inhabitants of Australian Colonies--What seed has been there sown-- + Elements of Society in the Penal Colonies--Convicts--System of + Assignment--Public Gangs--Mr. Potter Macqueen's Establishment--Norfolk + Island and its horrors--These have been mitigated of late years--Means + of reforming Convicts--Prevalence of Vice among them--The class of + Convicts called _specials_ described. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +[Page 325.] + + Emancipists--Their general Character--Their conduct in the Jurors' Box + no argument in favour of bestowing upon them a Representative + Government--Free Population--Ancient Nobility of Botany Bay--Prevailing + taste in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land--Love of Gain--Land + Sharks--Squatters--Overlanders. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +[Page 338.] + + Importance of Religion--The Lord's Day--Habits of duly observing it + nearly lost among many of the inhabitants of our Australian + Colonies--Opposition to Improvement--Religious strife prevails where + religious union is needed--Sir R. Bourke's novel system of religious + Establishments--Its practical working--Efforts of the Church coldly + seconded or else opposed, by Government--Petty Persecutions--Similar + opposition to National Religious Education as to National Church-- + Blunders respecting the Irish System of Education in 1836--Attempt + in 1840 to banish the Creed and Catechism from Protestant Schools + having Government support--Schools of a higher rank in New South + Wales--King's School, Paramatta--Sydney College--The Australian + College--The Normal Institution--Proposed College at Liverpool--Other + Schools--Population of New South Wales in 1841--Emigration--Conclusion. + + + + +#Illustrations.# + + + PAGE + Map of Australia _Frontispiece_ + Reduced Map of Van Diemen's Land 1 + Travellers in the Bush 8 + Explorers finding the Bed of a dried-up River 42 + Opossum Hunting 97 + Natives of the Murray Islands in Boats 120 + Sydney in its Infancy--View from the South 186 + North View of Sydney 243 + Hobart Town 266 + Cape Pillar, near the Entrance of the Derwent, Van Diemen's Land 286 + Conveying Cattle over the Murray, near Lake Alexandria 325 + + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.] + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The vast tract of country which it is the object of the present volume +to describe in its leading features, both moral and natural, may be said +to consist of two islands, besides many small islets and coral reefs, +which lie scattered around the coasts of these principal divisions. The +larger island of the two, which from its size may well deserve the +appellation of a continent, is called New Holland, or Australia; and is +supposed to be not less than three-fourths of the extent of the whole of +Europe. The smaller island, so well known by the names of Van Diemen's +Land, or Tasmania, (from those of the discoverer, Tasman, and the Dutch +governor of Batavia, Van Diemen) is not to be compared in size to the +other, being about equal in magnitude to Ireland, and, like that island, +abounding in fine and excellent harbours. Although, strictly speaking, +the name of Australia is confined to the former of these two islands, +yet it may be understood to include the smaller island also; and under +this name it is proposed to make the reader familiar with the chief +objects of curiosity in the natural world, and likewise with the state +of human society, whether savage or civilised, in the two islands of New +Holland and Van Diemen's Land, so far as both of these have been +hitherto known and explored. + +It is by no means certain what nation may justly lay claim to the honour +of the discovery of New Holland, the coasts of which were probably seen +by the Spaniards, Quiros or Torres, in 1606, and are by some supposed to +have been known to the Spanish and Portuguese yet earlier than this +date, but were not regularly discovered until the Dutch, between the +years 1616 and 1627, explored a considerable portion of the northern and +western shores of that vast island, to which they gave the name of their +own country, Holland. To the Spaniards this land was known by the names +of Terra Australis Incognita, (The Unknown Southern Land,) or Australia +del Espiritu Santo, (The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit,) the meaning +of which last name does not exactly appear, unless it arose from the +discovery of Quiros having been made a little before Whitsuntide. Since +that time the coasts of this immense island, extending, it is said, to +no less than 8000 miles, have been gradually explored, although they +still remain in some parts very imperfectly known. Indeed, it was only +in the year 1798 that Van Diemen's Land was discovered to be an island +separated from New Holland, of which before that time it had been +thought to form a large projection or promontory. + +New Holland is situated in the vast ocean extending to the south and +east of the Spice Islands, and it lies about even with the lower part of +the continent of Africa, only at an immense distance due east of it. Its +extreme points of latitude are 39 degrees and 10 1/2 degrees S., and of +longitude 112 degrees and 153 degrees 40 minutes E. from Greenwich, +so that it includes in its huge extent climates both tropical and +temperate, but none that are decidedly cold. It must be remembered, +indeed, that the countries south of the equator become colder at +the same latitude than those that extend towards the north; but, +nevertheless, the nearest point towards the South Pole, 39 degrees, +nearly answering to the situation of Naples in the northern hemisphere, +cannot be otherwise than a mild and warm climate. The shape of New +Holland is very irregular, its coast being much broken and indented by +various great bays and smaller inlets; but it has been estimated to have +a _width_ from E. to W. of 3000 miles, and a breadth from N. to S. of +2000, containing altogether not less than three millions of square +miles. Of course, it is impossible, in so large an extent of country, +that the interior parts of it should have been explored during the few +years in which any portion of it has been occupied by Europeans. +Accordingly, almost all the inland tracts are still a vast blank, +respecting which very little is known, and that little is far from +inviting. Indeed many hindrances oppose themselves to the perfect +discovery of these inland regions, besides those common obstacles, to +encounter and overcome which every traveller who desires to explore +new, wild, and savage countries, must have fully made up his mind. + +First among the peculiar difficulties which have opposed the Australian +explorer is the height and ruggedness of that chain of mountains, +called, in the colony of New South Wales, the Blue Mountains, which form +a mighty barrier of more or less elevation along most parts of the +eastern coast of New Holland, sometimes approaching as nearly as 30 +miles to the sea, and at other places falling back to a distance of 60 +or nearly 100 miles. These mountains are not so very high, the loftiest +points appearing to exceed but little the height of Snowdon in Wales, or +Ben Nevis in Scotland; but their rugged and barren nature, and the great +width to which they frequently extend, render it no very easy matter to +cross them at all. Indeed, although the settlement of New South Wales +was founded in 1788, it was not before 1813 that a route was discovered +across those vast ranges which shut in the colony to the west. +Frequently had the passage over the Blue Mountains been attempted +before, but never with any success; and the farthest point which had +been reached, called Caley's Repulse, was a spot that almost seemed +to forbid man's footsteps to advance beyond it. Nothing was to be +seen there in every direction but immense masses of weather-beaten +sandstone-rock, towering over each other in all the sublimity of +desolation; while a deep chasm, intersecting a lofty ridge covered with +blasted trees, seemed to cut off every hope of farther progress. But all +these difficulties have now long since been got over, and stage-coaches +are able to run across what were a few years ago deemed impassable +hills. Yet, when this dreary barrier of barren mountains has been +crossed, another peculiar hindrance presents itself to the exploring +traveller. In many parts of the interior of New Holland, which have +been visited, the scarcity of water is such that the most distressing +privations have been endured, and the most disagreeable substitutes +employed. And yet, strange to say, the very same country, which +sometimes affords so few springs, and of which the streams become dried +up into chains of dirty pools, and at last into dry ravines and valleys, +is, occasionally, subject to extreme floods from the overflowing of its +rivers, and then offers a new obstacle to the traveller's progress in +the shape of extensive and impassable marshes! To these difficulties +must be added the usual trials of adventurous explorers, the dangers and +perplexities of a journey through pathless forests, the want of game +of any kind in the barren sandstone districts, the perils sometimes +threatened by a visit from the native inhabitants, and, altogether, we +shall have reason rather to feel surprise at what has been done in the +way of inland discovery in New Holland, than to wonder that so much +remains yet undone. + +In consequence of the interior portions of the country remaining still +unknown, fancy has been busy in forming notions respecting them, and +one favourite supposition has been that there exists somewhere in the +central part of New Holland an immense lake or inland sea; but of this +no proof whatever can be produced, so that it can only be said that _it +may be so_. Certainly, unless some such means of communication by water, +or some very large navigable river, should exist, it is hardly possible +to imagine how the extensive tracts of inland country can ever become +civilized or inhabited by Europeans. And of that portion which has been +visited a considerable extent of country appears to be shut out by the +natural barrenness of its soil and sandstone-rocks from any prospect of +ever supplying food to the colonies of civilized man. So that, while +the whole of New Holland is an interesting country from its natural +peculiarities, and even the desolate portion of it adds, by its very +desolation, a deep interest to the adventures of those persons who have +had the courage to attempt to explore it; yet the chief prospects of +Australia's future importance seem to be confined to its line of +coast,--no narrow limits in an island so extensive. Hence the colonies +now flourishing on the eastern, southern, and western shores of New +Holland, especially on the first, will form a chief object of attention +in the present work; although, as will be seen by its contents, the +"bush," or wild country, and its savage inhabitants, will be by no +means overlooked. + +Respecting Van Diemen's Land much need not be here said, although, +however small in comparative extent, its population was in 1836 above +half of that of the whole colony of New South Wales. It is, therefore, +and always will be, an important island, though, from its mountainous +character and confined limits, it cannot, of course, be expected to keep +pace with the increasing population of the sister colony. Van Diemen's +Land was discovered in 1642, by the Dutchman, Tasman, who first sailed +round its southern point, and ascertained that the great Southern Land, +or Australia, did not extend, as it had been supposed, to the South +Pole. The island was apparently overlooked, until, in 1804, a colony +was founded there by the English, and it was taken possession of in the +name of his Britannic majesty. Since that time, with the exception of +those early hardships to which all colonies seem liable, it has been +flourishing and increasing. To many Englishmen its colder climate, +(which is yet sufficiently mild,) and its supposed resemblance in +appearance and productions to their native land, have appeared +preferable to all the advantages which the larger island possesses. +Van Diemen's Land is divided from New Holland on the north by Bass's +Straits, its extreme points of latitude are 41 deg. 20', and 43 deg. +40' S., and of longitude 144 deg. 40', and 148 deg. 20' E. Its shape is +irregular, being much broken by various inlets, but its greatest extent +from N. to S. is reckoned to be about 210 miles, and from E. to W. 150 +miles, containing a surface of about 24,000 square miles. The native +inhabitants of this smaller island have entirely disappeared before the +superior weapons and powers of _civilised_ man. + + + + +[Illustration: TRAVELLERS IN THE BUSH.] + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BUSH, ON OR NEAR THE COAST. + + +All that country, which remains in a state of nature uncultivated and +uninclosed, is known among the inhabitants of the Australian colonies +by the expressive name of _the Bush_.[3] It includes land and scenery +of every description, and, likewise, no small variety of climate, as +may be supposed from the great extent of the island of New Holland. +Accordingly, without indulging in surmises concerning the yet unknown +parts, it may be safely said, respecting those which have been more or +less frequently visited and accurately explored, that the extremes of +rural beauty and savage wildness of scenery,--smiling plains and barren +deserts, snowy mountains and marshy fens, crowded forests and bare +rocks, green pastures and sandy flats,--every possible variety, in +short, of country and of aspect may be found in that boundless region +which is all included under the general appellation of _the Bush_. To +enter into a particular or regular description of this is clearly no +less impossible than it would be tedious and unprofitable. And yet +there are many descriptions of different portions of it given by +eye-witnesses, many circumstances and natural curiosities belonging to +it, and related to us upon the best authority, which are likely to +please and interest the reader, who can see and adore God everywhere, +and is capable of taking delight in tracing out and following the +footsteps of Almighty Wisdom and Power, even in the wilderness and among +the mountain-tops. It is proposed, therefore, to select a few of the +pictures which have been drawn by the bold explorers of the Bush, so as +to give a general idea of the character, the scenery, the dangers, and +the privations of that portion of the Australian islands. And, having +first become familiar and acquainted with these, we shall be better able +to set a just value, when we turn to the state of the colonies and their +inhabitants, upon that moral courage, that British perseverance and +daring, which have, within the memory of man, changed so many square +miles of bush into fertile and enclosed farms; which have raised a +regular supply of food for many thousands of human beings out of what, +sixty years ago, was, comparatively speaking, a silent and uninhabited +waste. When the troops and convicts, who formed the first colony in New +South Wales, landed at Port Jackson, the inlet on which the town of +Sydney is now situated, "Every man stepped from the boat literally into +a wood. Parties of people were everywhere heard and seen variously +employed; some in clearing ground for the different encampments; others +in pitching tents, or bringing up such stores as were more immediately +wanted; and the spot, which had so lately been the abode of silence and +tranquillity, was now changed to that of noise, clamour, and +confusion."[4] + + [3] It is supposed that the word "Sin," applied to the wilderness + mentioned in Exodus xvi. 1, and also to the mountain of "Sinai," has + the same meaning, so that the appellation of "Bush" is no new term. + + [4] Collins' "Account of the Colony of New South Wales," p. 11. + +And still, even near to the capital town of the colony, there are +portions of wild country left pretty much in their natural and original +state. Of one of these spots, in the direction of Petersham, the +following lively description from the pen of a gentleman only recently +arrived in the colony, may be acceptable. "To the right lies a large and +open glen, covered with cattle and enclosed with _bush_, (so we call the +forest,) consisting of brushwood and gigantic trees; and, above the +trees, the broad sea of Botany Bay, and the two headlands, Solander and +Banks, with a white stone church and steeple, St. Peter's New Town, +conveying an assurance that there are Englishmen of the right sort not +far from us. And now we plunge into the thicket, with scarcely a track +to guide our steps. I have by this time made acquaintance with the +principal giants of the grove. Some are standing, some are felled; the +unmolested monarchs stand full 200 feet high, and heave their white and +spectral limbs in all directions; the fallen monsters, crushed with +their overthrow, startle you with their strange appearances; whilst +underfoot a wild variety of new plants arrest your attention. The +bush-shrubs are exquisitely beautiful. Anon a charred and blackened +trunk stops your path: if you are in spirits, you jump over all; if you +are coming home serious, weary, and warm, you plod your way round. +Well,--in twenty minutes' time you reach a solitary hut,--the first +stage of the walk: you pass the fence, the path becomes narrow,--the +bush thickens round you,--it winds, it rises, it descends: all on a +sudden it opens with a bit of cleared ground full twenty yards in +extent, and a felled tree in the midst. Here let us pause, and, +kneeling on the turf, uncovered, pour forth the voice of health, of +cheerfulness, and gratitude to Him who guides and guards us on our way. +And now, onward again. The land falls suddenly, and we cross a brook, +which a child may stride, but whose waters are a blessing both to man +and beast. And now we rise again; the country is cleared; there is a +flock of sheep, and a man looking after them; to the left, a farmhouse, +offices, &c.; before us the spire of St. James's, Sydney, perhaps three +miles distant, the metropolitan church of the new empire, and, a little +to the right, the rival building of the Roman church. Beneath us lies +Sydney, the base-born mother of this New World, covering a large extent +of ground, and, at the extreme point of land, the signal station, with +the flags displayed, betokening the arrival of a ship from England. Till +now we have met with no living creature, but here, perhaps, the chaise +with Sydney tradesman and his wife, the single horseman, and a straggler +or two on foot, begin to appear." + +The general appearance of the coast of New Holland is said to be very +barren and forbidding, much more so than the shores of Van Diemen's Land +are; and it thus often happens that strangers are agreeably disappointed +by finding extreme richness and fertility in many parts of a country, +which at their first landing afforded no such promises of excellence. +One of the most dreary and most curious descriptions of country is to +be met with on the north-western shores of New Holland, quite on the +opposite coast to that where the principal English colony is situated. +The daring explorer of this north-western coast, Captain Grey, has +given a fearful account of his dangers and adventures among the barren +sandstone hills of this district. Its appearance, upon his landing at +Hanover Bay, was that of a line of lofty cliffs, occasionally broken by +sandy beaches; on the summits of these cliffs, and behind the beaches, +rose rocky sandstone hills, very thinly wooded. Upon landing, the shore +was found to be exceedingly steep and broken; indeed the hills are +stated to have looked like the _ruins of hills_, being composed of huge +blocks of red sandstone, confusedly piled together in loose disorder, +and so overgrown with various creeping plants, that the holes between +them were completely hidden, and into these one or other of the party +was continually slipping and falling. The trees were so small and so +scantily covered with leaves that they gave no shelter from the heat of +the sun, which was reflected by the soil with intense force, so that it +was really painful to touch, or even to stand upon, the bare sandstone. +Excessive thirst soon began to be felt, and the party, unprepared for +this, had only two pints of water with them, a portion of which they +were forced to give to their dogs; all three of these, however, died of +exhaustion. After a vain search of some hours, at length the welcome cry +of "Water!" was heard from one of the party; but, alas! upon scrambling +down the deep and difficult ravine where the water ran, it was found to +be quite salty, and they were compelled to get up again as well as they +could, unrefreshed and disheartened. After following the course of the +deep valley upwards about half a mile, they looked down and saw some +birds ascending from the thick woods growing below, and, knowing these +white cockatoos to be a sure sign of water very near, the weary party +again descended, and found a pool of brackish water, which, in their +situation, appeared to afford the most delicious draughts, although they +shortly afterwards paid the penalty of yet more intolerable thirst, +arising from making too free with a beverage of such quality. + +The nature of the country near Hanover Bay, where the party belonging +to Captain Grey was exploring, is most remarkable. The summits of the +ranges of sandstone hills were generally a level sort of table-land, but +this level was frequently broken and sometimes nearly covered with lofty +detached pillars of rock, forming the most curious shapes in their +various grouping. In one place they looked like the aisle of a church +unroofed, in another there stood, upon a huge base, what appeared to be +the legs of an ancient statue, from which the body had been knocked +away; and fancy might make out many more such resemblances. Some of +these time-worn sandy columns were covered with sweet-smelling creepers, +and their bases were hidden by various plants growing thickly around +them. The tops of all were nearly on a level, and the height of those +that were measured was upwards of forty feet. The cause of this singular +appearance of the country was at length discovered by the noise of water +running under the present surface, in the hollows of the sandstone, and +gradually carrying away the soil upon which the top surface rests. +Formerly, no doubt, the level of the whole country was even with the +tops of the broken pillars, and much higher; and hereafter what is now +at the surface will give way beneath the wasting of the streams that +flow below, and no traces of its present height will be left, except in +those places where the power of the water is less felt, which will rear +up their lofty heads, and bear witness by their presence of the ruin +that will have taken place. + +In wandering through a country of this description, how natural does the +following little remark of Captain Grey appear! A plant was observed +here, which, in appearance and smell, exactly resembled the jasmine of +England; and it would be difficult to give an idea of the feeling of +pleasure derived from the sight of this simple emblem of home. But, +while the least plant or tree that could remind them of home was gladly +welcomed, there were many new and remarkable objects to engage the +attention of the travellers. Among these the large green ants, and the +gouty stem tree may be particularly noticed. The ants are, it would +seem, confined to the sandstone country, and are very troublesome. The +gouty stem tree is so named from the resemblance borne by its immense +trunk to the limb of a gouty person. It is an unsightly but very useful +tree, producing an agreeable and nourishing fruit, as well as a gum and +bark that may be prepared for food. Upon some of these trees were found +the first rude efforts of savages to gain the art of writing, being a +number of marks, supposed to denote the quantity of fruit gathered from +the tree each year, all but the last row being constantly scratched out, +thus: + +[Illustration] + +But, miserable as the general appearance of that part of the +north-western coast of New Holland undoubtedly is, yet are there many +rich and lovely spots to be found in its neighbourhood; and, further +inland, vast tracts of fertile country appear to want only civilised and +Christian men for their inhabitants. What is wanting in the ensuing +picture but civilisation and religion, in order to make it as perfect as +any earthly abode can be? "From the summit of the hills on which we +stood," (says Captain Grey) "an almost precipitous descent led into a +fertile plain below; and, from this part, away to the southward, for +thirty to forty miles, stretched a low, luxuriant country, broken by +conical peaks and rounded hills, which were richly clothed with grass +to their very summits. The plains and hills were both thinly wooded, +and curving lines of shady trees marked out the courses of numerous +streams." This beautiful prospect was over a volcanic district, and with +the sandstone which they were just leaving, they were bidding farewell +to barrenness and desolation. It was near this beautiful spot, and in a +country no less rich and delightful, that the party of adventurers was +overtaken by the violent rains, which occur in those hot climates, and +which struck the men with so great chill, that they were driven to make +trial of an odd way of getting warm. Some of them got into a stream, the +waters of which were comparatively warm, and thus saved themselves from +the painful feeling arising from the very cold rain falling on the pores +of the skin, which had previously been opened by continued perspiration. + +The rains appear during the wet season to fall very heavily and +constantly in North-Western Australia, and though a good supply of these +is an advantage to an occupied country, well provided with roads, it is +a great cause of trouble to first explorers who have to find a ford over +every stream, and a passage across every swamp, and who often run the +risk of getting into a perfectly impassable region. Of this sort, alike +differing from the barren sandstone and the volcanic fertile country, +was a third track through which Captain Grey endeavoured to pass. A +vast extent of land lying low and level near the banks of the river +Glenelg,[5] and well fitted, if properly drained, for the abundant +growth of useful and valuable produce, was found, during the rainy +season, to be in the state of a foul marsh, overgrown with vegetation, +choking up the fresh water so as to cause a flood ankle-deep; and this +marshy ground, being divided by deep muddy ditches, and occasionally +overflown by the river, offered, as may be supposed, no small hindrances +to the progress of the travellers. In some places it was quite +impossible, from the thickly-timbered character of its banks, to +approach the main stream; in others they appeared to be almost entirely +surrounded by sluggish waters, of which they knew neither the depth nor +the nature of their banks. Elsewhere, unable to cross some deep stream, +the explorers were driven miles out of their way, and sometimes even in +their tents, the water stood to the depth of two or three inches. On one +occasion, when the party was almost surrounded by swamps, their loaded +ponies sank nearly up to the shoulders in a bog, whichever way they +attempted to move, and from this spot they had two miles to travel +before they could reach the nearest rising ground. The river Glenelg was +at this time overflowing its banks, and, to the natural alarm of men +wandering in its rich valley, drift-wood, reeds, grass, &c. were seen +lodged in the trees above their heads, fifteen feet beyond the present +level of the water, affording a proof of what floods in that country +_had been_, and, of course, _might be_ again. However, this very soil in +so warm a climate, only about sixteen degrees south of the equator, +would be admirably fitted for the cultivation of rice, which needs +abundance of moisture. But little do the peaceful inhabitants of a +cultivated country, well drained, and provided with bridges and good +roads, think of the risk and hardships undergone by the first explorers +of a new land, however great its capabilities, and whatever may be its +natural advantages. + + [5] This river must not be confounded with another of the same name in + South Australia. + +But it was not in the plain country alone, that Captain Grey found spots +of great richness and fertility, as the following description of the +happy vallies frequently found among the mountain-ranges may testify: +One may be chosen as a specimen of many. At its northern end it was +about four miles wide, being bounded on all sides by rocky, wooded +ranges, with dark gullies from which numerous petty streams run down +into the main one in the centre. The valley gradually grows narrow +towards the south, and is bounded by steep cliffs betwixt which the +waters find an outlet. Sometimes a valley of this kind, most beautiful, +most productive, will contain from four to five thousand acres of nearly +level land, shut out from the rest of the world by the boundary of hills +that enclose it. How great a contrast to these lovely vallies does the +description, given by another traveller in a different district, +present! Nothing, according to Mr. Oxley's account, can be more +monotonous and wearying, than the dull, unvarying aspect of the level +and desolate region through which the Lachlan winds its sluggish course. +One tree, one soil, one water, and one description of bird, fish, or +animal, prevails alike for ten miles, and for a hundred. And, if we turn +from this to a third picture of desolation mingled with sublimity, the +contrast appears yet more heightened. Among the hills behind Port +Macquarrie on the eastern coast, Mr. Oxley came suddenly upon the spot +where a river, (the Apsley,) leaves the gently-rising and fine country +through which it had been passing, and falls into a deep glen. At this +spot the country seems cleft in twain, and divided to its very +foundation, a ledge of rocks separates the waters, which, falling over +a perpendicular rock, 235 feet in height, form a grand cascade. At a +distance of 300 yards, and an elevation of as many feet, the travellers +were wetted with the spray. After winding through the cleft rocks about +400 yards, the river again falls, in one single sheet, upwards of 100 +feet, and continues, in a succession of smaller falls, about a quarter +of a mile lower, where the cliffs are of a perpendicular height, on each +side exceeding 1,200 feet; the width of the edges being about 200 yards. +From thence it descends, as before described, until all sight of it is +lost from the vast elevation of the rocky hills, which it divides and +runs through. The different points of this deep glen, seem as if they +would fit into the opposite openings forming the smaller glens on either +side.[6] + + [6] See Oxley's Journal, p. 299. + +Amid scenery like that which has now been described, varying from +grandeur to tameness, from fertility to barrenness, from extreme beauty +to extreme ugliness, but always possessing, at least, the recommendation +of being _new_, the wanderers in the Bush are delighted to range. There +is a charm to enterprising spirits in the freedom, the stillness, and +even in the dangers and privations, of these vast wilds, which, to such +spirits, scenes of a more civilised character can never possess. If it +be true,--and who has never felt it to be so?--that + + "God made the country and man made the town," + +much more distinctly is God's power visible in the lonely wastes of +Australia, much more deeply do men feel, while passing through those +regions, that it is His hand that has planted the wilderness with trees, +and peopled the desert with living things. Under these impressions men +learn to delight in exploring the bush, and when they meet, as they +often do, with sweet spots, on which Nature has secretly lavished her +choicest gifts, most thoroughly do they enjoy, most devotedly do they +admire, their beauty. In travelling some miles to the northward of +Perth, a town on the Swan River, Captain Grey fell in with a charming +scene, which he thus describes: "Our" station, "this night, had a beauty +about it, which would have made any one, possessed with the least +enthusiasm, fall in love with a bush life. We were sitting on a +gently-rising ground, which sloped away gradually to a picturesque lake, +surrounded by wooded hills,--while the moon shone so brightly on the +lake, that the distance was perfectly clear, and we could distinctly see +the large flocks of wild fowl, as they passed over our heads, and then +splashed into the water, darkening and agitating its silvery surface; in +front of us blazed a cheerful fire, round which were the dark forms of +the natives, busily engaged in roasting ducks for us; the foreground was +covered with graceful grass-trees, and, at the moment we commenced +supper, I made the natives set fire to the dried tops of two of these, +and by the light of these splendid chandeliers, which threw a red glare +over the whole forest in our vicinity, we ate our evening meal; then, +closing round the fire, rolled ourselves up in our blankets, and laid +down to sleep." + +The very same feeling of religion, which heightens the pleasures and +gives a keener relish to the enjoyments of life in these lonely places, +can also afford comfort, and hope, and encouragement under those perils +and privations which first explorers must undergo. Religion is the sun +that brightens our summer hours, and gives us, even through the darkest +and most stormy day, light, and confidence, and certainty. And when a +small body of men are left alone, as it were, in the wilderness with +their God, whatever occurs to them, whether of a pleasing or of a trying +character, is likely to lift up their souls to their Maker, in whom +"they live and move, and have their being." When the patient traveller, +of whose adventures in Western Australia so much mention has been made, +had waited weather-bound on a lonely coast, never before trodden by the +foot of civilised man, until eight days had been consumed in watching to +no purpose the winds and the waves,--when, at a distance of thousands of +miles from their native country, and many hundreds of miles from the +nearest English colony, he and his little party were wasting strength +and provisions in a desert spot; from which their only means of escaping +was in one frail boat, which the fury of the sea forbade them to think +of launching upon the deep,--when the men, under these circumstances, +were becoming more and more gloomy and petulant, where was it that the +commander sought and found consolation? It was in religion. And the +witness of one who has successfully gone through trials of this kind, is +well deserving of the utmost attention. "I feel assured," says Captain +Grey, in his account of this trial of patience, "that, but for the +support I derived from prayer, and frequent perusal and meditation of +the Scriptures, I should never have been able to have borne myself in +such a manner as to have maintained discipline and confidence amongst +the rest of the party; nor in all my sufferings did I ever lose the +consolation derived from a firm reliance upon the goodness of +Providence. It is only those who go forth into perils and dangers, +amidst which human foresight and strength can but little avail, and who +find themselves, day after day, protected by an unseen influence, and +ever and again snatched from the very jaws of destruction, by a power +which is not of this world, who can at all estimate the knowledge of +one's own weakness and littleness, and the firm reliance and trust upon +the goodness of the Creator, which the human breast is capable of +feeling. Like all other lessons which are of great and lasting benefit +to man, this one must be learned amid much sorrowing and woe; but, +having learned it, it is but the sweeter from the pain and toil which +are undergone in the acquisition." + +The mention of these trials to which travellers in the bush are +peculiarly liable, brings naturally to mind that worst of all +privations, a want of water, to which they are so frequently exposed. +The effects of extreme thirst are stated to have been shown, not merely +in weakness and want, in a parched and burning mouth, but likewise in a +partial loss of the senses of seeing and hearing. Indeed, the powers of +the whole frame are affected, and, upon moving, after a short interval +of rest, the blood rushes up into the head with a fearful and painful +violence. A party of men reduced to this condition have very little +strength, either of mind or body, left them, and it is stated, that, in +cases of extreme privation, the worst characters have always least +control over their appetites.[7] Imagine men marching through a barren +and sandy country, a thirsty land where no water is, at the rate of +about two miles in an hour and a quarter, when, suddenly, they come upon +the edge of a dried-up swamp, and behold the footmark of a native, +imprinted on the sand,--the first beginning of hope, a sign of animal +life, which of course implies the means of supporting it. Many more +footsteps are soon seen, and some wells of the natives are next +discovered, but alas! all appear dry. Kaiber, a native companion of the +party, suddenly starts up from a bed of reeds, where he has been burying +his head in a hole of _soft mud_, with which he had completely swelled +himself out, and of which he had helped himself to pretty well half the +supply. It is so thick that it needs straining through a handkerchief, +yet so welcome, after three days and two nights of burning thirst, +under a fierce sun, that each man throws himself down beside the hole, +exclaiming "Thank God!" and then greedily swallows a few mouthfulls of +the liquid mud, declaring it to be the most delicious water, with a +peculiar flavour, better than any that had ever before been tasted by +him. Upon scraping the mud quite out of the hole, water begins slowly to +trickle in again.[8] As might be expected, game abounds here, driven by +the general dryness of the country to these springs. But the trembling +hand of a man worn down by fatigue and thirst is not equal to wield a +gun, or direct its fire to any purpose; so it seems as if thirst were +escaped for a time, in order that hunger might occupy its place. At +length, however, the native kills a cockatoo, which had been wounded +by a shot; and this bird, with a spoonful of flour to each man, and a +tolerable abundance of liquid mud, becomes the means of saving the lives +of the party. + + [7] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. p. 38. + + [8] An expedient used by the natives in Torres Strait, on the + northern coast of Australia, for getting water, may here be noticed, + both for its simplicity and cleverness. "Long slips of bark are tied + round the smooth stems of a tree called the _pandanus_, and the loose + ends are led into the shells of a huge sort of cockle, which are placed + beneath. By these slips the rain which runs down the branches and stem + of the tree is conducted into the shells, each of which will contain + two or three pints; thus, forty or fifty placed under different trees + will supply a good number of men."--FLINDERS' _Voyage to Terra + Australis_, vol. ii. p. 114. + + A different plan for improving the water that is hot and muddy, is thus + detailed by Major Mitchell. To obtain a cool and clean draught the + blacks scratched a hole in the soft sand beside the pool, thus making a + filter, in which the water rose cooled, but muddy. Some tufts of long + grass were then thrown in, through which they sucked the cooler water, + purified from the sand or gravel. I was glad to follow their example, + and found the sweet fragrance of the grass an agreeable addition to the + luxury of drinking. + +Such is the picture, taken from life, of some of the privations +undergone, during dry seasons, in certain portions of the bush, and we +must, at the risk of being tedious, repeat again the witness of a +military man, of one who has seen much of the world, respecting the best +source of comfort and support under these distressing trials. At such +times, upon halting, when the others of the party would lie wearily +down, and brood over their melancholy state, Captain Grey would keep his +journal, (a most useful repository of facts,) and this duty being done, +he would open a small New Testament, his companion through all his +wanderings, from which book he drank in such deep draughts of comfort, +that his spirits were always good. And on another occasion, he shared +the last remaining portion of provision with his native servant; after +which he actually felt glad that it was gone, and that he no longer had +to struggle with the pangs of hunger, and put off eating it to a future +hour. Having completed this last morsel, he occupied himself a little +with his journal, then read a few chapters in the New Testament, and, +after fulfilling these duties, he felt himself as contented and cheerful +as ever he had been in the most fortunate moments of his life. + +As in life, those objects which we have not, but of which we think we +stand in need, are ever present to our fancy, so in these thirsty soils +the mere appearance of that water, of which the reality would be so +grateful, is frequently known to mock the sight of man. A remarkable +specimen of this was seen at the plains of Kolaina (Deceit), in +North-Western Australia. From a sand hill, not very far from the +coast, was seen a splendid view of a noble lake, dotted about with many +beautiful islands. The water had a glassy and fairy-like appearance, and +it was an imposing feeling to sit down alone on the lofty eminence, and +survey the great lake on which no European eye had ever before rested, +and which was cut off from the sea by a narrow and lofty ridge of sandy +hills. It was proposed at once to launch the boats upon this water, but +a little closer survey was thought prudent, and then it proved that the +lake was not so near as it had seemed to be, and that there were +extensive plains of mud and sand lying between it and the rising ground. +It appeared to be about a mile distant, and all were still certain that +it was water they saw, for the shadows of the low hills near it, as well +as those of the trees upon them, could be distinctly traced on the +unruffled surface.[9] As they advanced, the water retreated, and at +last surrounded them. The party now saw that they were deceived by +_mirage_,[10] or vapour, which changed the sandy mud of the plains they +were crossing into the resemblance, at a distance, of a noble piece of +water. In reading the history of mankind, how often may we apply this +disappointment to moral objects! how very frequently do the mistaken +eyes of mortals eagerly gaze upon the _mirage_ raised by falsehood, as +though they were beholding the living waters of truth itself! What +appearance, indeed, does the whole world present to one who rests upon +the everlasting hill of the gospel,--the rock upon which Christ's church +has been built,--except it be that of one vast plain of Kolaina, or +deceit? It was no long time after the explorers of the north-western +coast of New Holland had been mocked by the _mirage_ or vapour which has +just been spoken of, that they had a fearful lesson of the vain and +shadowy nature of human hopes and expectations. When they had first +arrived off the coast, on that expedition, they had chosen an island, +named Bernier Island, upon which to bury, for the sake of safety, their +stores and provisions, so that they might return to them whenever it +should be necessary. Bernier Island is a barren spot, formed of +limestone, shells, and sand, and without a single tree or blade of +grass upon it, but only wretched, scrubby bushes, amidst which the light +sand and shells are drifted by the winds. Such was the remote spot, +surrounded by the ocean's waves, yet not very far from the main shore, +upon which it was resolved to conceal their store of necessaries, +secure, as it was supposed, from every enemy. In little more than three +weeks, during which the adventurers had gone through many perils, and +much stormy weather, they returned again, not without some difficulty, +to their stores. But on approaching Bernier Island with their boat they +scarcely knew it again, so vast a difference had the recent storms made +in its outward appearance, so fearful were the pranks which the +hurricane had played upon a land which was, in fact, nothing but loose +sand, heaped upon a bed of limestone. The place where their stores had +been securely left was gone, the remains of the flour-casks, salt +provisions, &c. were scattered about in various directions; and the +whole spot so entirely altered that it could hardly be ascertained, +except by the fragments that were seen near it. How to get back again to +Swan River, the nearest British settlement, without provisions, without +water, without strength, was indeed a perplexing inquiry, and to answer +this the leader of the party, having left his companions for a while, +set himself seriously to work. Sitting down upon a rock on the shore, +he felt the gale blowing fiercely in his face, and the spray of the +breakers dashing over him; nothing could be more gloomy and dreary. +Inland, no objects were to be seen but a mere bed of rock covered with +drifting sand, on which were growing stunted, scrubby bushes; and former +experience taught him, that no fresh water was to be found in the +island. Several plans of escape, all apparently alike hopeless, offered +themselves to his mind, and, more fully to compose himself, he took +forth his constant companion in the wilderness, and read a few chapters +of Holy Writ. Contentment and resignation were thus in some degree +gained, and he soon joined the rest of the party, having resolved upon +that plan, which God's providence and mercy finally enabled him to carry +out, without losing, from a party of twelve, constantly exposed during a +very long journey to most dreadful toils, hunger, and thirst, more than +one man only, who died at no great distance from the English colony. +That one person was a youth of eighteen years of age, who had come out +from England, led solely by an enterprising spirit, and not with any +view of settling. On the return of the party under Captain Grey towards +Swan River, they were so sadly pinched by want of provisions, and by +thirst, that five of them were obliged to start with their leader, in +order to reach the British colony by forced marches, and Frederick +Smith, the youthful adventurer, was one of those that remained behind. +After undergoing extreme trials, which from his age he was less able to +bear than the others, he, at last, became quite worn out, and sat down, +one evening, on a bank, declaring that he could go no further. He was +behind the rest of the party, and the man who was with him went and told +his companions that he thought Smith was dying. The next morning that +man went back for him; but, being himself very weak, he did not go far +enough, at all events he did not find him. Probably, the poor sufferer +had crawled a little out of the track, for, afterwards, when a party was +sent from Swan River in search of him, they traced, with the help of a +native, his footsteps up a bare sand hill to the height of twelve or +fourteen feet, and there, turning about to the left, they found the +object of their search stretched lifeless upon his back, in the midst of +a thick bush, where he seemed to have laid down to sleep, being half +wrapped up in his blanket.[11] All his little articles of baggage were +very near him, and, from the posture in which he was found, it appeared +that the immediate cause of his death was a rush of blood to the head, +which would occasion no great suffering in his last moments. A grave was +scraped in the sand by the searching party, and Frederic Smith was +buried in the wilderness wherein he had died, and which he had been +among the first to explore, about seventy-six miles northward of the +Swan River. The grave was made smooth, and a piece of wood found upon +the neighbouring beach was placed at its head, and then the solitary +spot was forsaken for ever by the mourning companions of the departed +youth, who left + + "Heaven's fresh gales, and the ocean's wave, + Alternate to sigh o'er the wanderer's grave."[12] + + [9] "The most singular quality of this vapour or _mirage_, as it is + termed, is its power of reflection; objects are seen as from the + surface of a lake, and their figure is sometimes changed into the + most fantastic shapes."--CRICHTON'S _Arabia_, vol. i. p. 41. + + [10] See two other curious accounts of the effects of _mirage_ + and refraction in Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. + 56 and 171. + + [11] The artless description of this sad discovery, given by one of + the natives who accompanied the party, may be not unworthy of the + reader's notice. "Away we go, away, away, along the shore away, away, + away, a long distance we go. I see Mr. Smith's footsteps ascending a + sand-hill, onwards I go regarding his footsteps. I see Mr. Smith dead. + We commence digging the earth. Two _sleeps_ had he been dead; greatly + did I weep, and much I grieved. In his blanket folding him, we scraped + away the earth. We scrape earth into the grave, we scrape the earth + into the grave, a little wood we place in it. Much earth we heap upon + it--much earth we throw up. No dogs can dig there, so much earth we + throw up. The sun had just inclined to the westward as we laid him in + the ground."--GREY'S _Travels in Western Australia_, vol. ii. p. 350. + + [12] See a like melancholy history of the death of Mr. Cunningham, in + Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 180, _et seq._ How thrilling + must have been the recollections of his fellow-travellers in the + wilderness at the simple incident thus related: "In the bed of the + river, where I went this evening to enjoy the sight of the famished + cattle drinking, I came accidentally on an old footstep of Mr. + Cunningham in the clay, now baked hard by the sun. Four months had + elapsed, and up to this time the clay bore the last records of our + late fellow-traveller." + +It was only six weeks before this untimely end of the young explorer, +that he had set out, full of hope, on the long journey by the coast, +which the party made on their return, and had been a leading character +in such beautiful pictures of life in the Australian wilderness as this +which is given by his friend Captain Grey. "We soon found ourselves at +the foot of a lofty cascade, down which a little water was slowly +dropping; and, on climbing to its summit, it appeared to be so well +fitted for a halting-place for the night, that I determined to remain +there. The men made themselves comfortable near the water-holes, and +Mr. Smith and myself crept into a little cave, which occasionally served +as a resting-place for the natives, the remains of whose fires were +scattered about. A wild woodland and rocky scenery was around us; and +when the moon rose and shed her pale light over all, I sat with Mr. +Smith on the edge of the waterfall, gazing by turns into the dim woody +abyss below, and at the red fires and picturesque groups of the men, +than which fancy could scarcely imagine a wilder scene." + +It is no uncommon mistake, with persons who ought to know better, to +magnify the toils and hardships endured by the body, while those labours +and anxieties that the mind undergoes are disregarded and forgotten. +Every man engaged in an exploring party in the bush, for instance, has +his severe trials to go through, but their trials are not to be compared +to those of the commander of the party. How often when the rest are +sleeping must he be watchful? How frequently, while others are gay, must +he feel thoughtful! These remarks may easily be applied to the following +description of the coast near Shark's Bay, in the N. W. of the island of +New Holland. There was great beauty in the scenery, both the sky and the +water had that peculiar brilliancy about them to be seen only in fine +weather, and in a very warm climate. To the west lay a boundless extent +of sea, to the eastward was a low shore fringed with trees, not only +down to the water's edge, but forming little green knots of foliage in +the ocean itself; behind these trees were low wooded hills, and in +front of them were numbers of pelicans and water-fowl. There was only +about three feet depth of clear transparent water, through which were +seen many beautiful and large shells, and various strange-looking fish, +at some of which last one or other of Captain Grey's men would sometimes +make an attack, while loud peals of laughter would rise from the rest, +when the pursuer, too anxious to gain his object, would miss his stroke +at the fish, or, stumbling, roll headlong in the water. The fineness of +the day, the novelty of the scenery, and the rapid way they were making, +made the poor fellows forget past dangers, as well as those they had yet +to undergo. But this was more than their commander was able to do. +"My own meditations," adds Captain Grey, "were of a more melancholy +character, for I feared that the days of some of the light-hearted group +were already numbered, and would soon be brought to a close. Amid such +scenes and thoughts we were swept along, while this unknown coast, which +so many had anxiously yet vainly wished to see, passed before our eyes +like a dream, and ere many more years have hurried by, it is possible +that the recollection of this day may be as such to me." + +Among the wonders of Nature to be met with in the Australian bush, the +large rivers occasionally dried up to their very lowest depth by the +extreme drought, are very remarkable. Few natural objects can equal in +beauty and utility a river in its proper state,-- + + "Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; + Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full;" + +but few can exceed in terror and destruction a large river in time of +flood; while nothing, surely, can surpass in horror and desolation the +same object when its stream is wasted, its waters disappeared, its +usefulness and beauty alike gone. This spectacle is, fortunately, but +rarely seen, except in Australia, and even there only after very dry +seasons. One river seen in this state consisted of several channels or +beds, divided from each other by long strips of land, which in times of +flood become islands; the main channel was about 270 yards in breadth, +and the height of its bank was about fifteen feet. After the exploring +party had passed the highest point in the channel to which the tide +flowed from the sea, this huge river bed was perfectly dry, and looked +the most mournful, deserted spot imaginable. Occasionally water-holes +were found eighteen or twenty feet in depth, and it is from these alone +that travellers have been enabled to satisfy their thirst in crossing +over the unexplored parts of the bush, where no water could elsewhere be +obtained. Still, notwithstanding the extreme drought by which they were +surrounded, the strangers could see by the remaining drift wood, which +had been washed high up into the neighbouring trees, what rapid and +overpowering currents sometimes swept along the now dry channel. + +On another occasion the same singular object is powerfully described, +and the feelings of men, who had long been in need of water, at +beholding a sight like this can scarcely be imagined. Beneath them lay +the dry bed of a large river, its depth at this point being between +forty and fifty feet, and its breadth upwards of 300 yards; it was at +times subject to terrible floods, for along its banks lay the trunks of +immense trees, giants of the forest, which had been formerly washed down +from the interior of the country; yet nothing now met their craving eyes +but a vast sandy channel, which scorched their eyeballs, as the rays of +the sun were reflected back from its white, glistening bed. Above and +below this spot, however, large pools of water were found, and even +here, when a hole of a few inches depth was scraped in the dry channel, +it soon became filled with water which oozed into it from the sand. At +another stream, which the same exploring party afterwards fell in with, +they were less successful, and found all the pools entirely dry. The sun +was intensely hot, and the poor men grew faint for want of water, while +it heightened their sufferings, that they stood upon the brink of a +river, or wandered along its banks with eager, piercing eyes, and an air +of watchfulness peculiar to those who seek for that on which their lives +depend. One while they explored a shallow, stony part of the bed, which +was parched up and blackened by the fiery sun: their steps were slow and +listless, and it was plainly to be seen how faint, weak, and weary they +were; the next minute another pool would be seen ahead, the depth of +which the eye could not at a distance reach; now they hurried on towards +it with a dreadful look of eager anxiety--the pool was reached--the +bottom seen; but, alas! no water: then they paused, and looked one at +the other with an air of utter despair. The order to march from this +distressing spot was unwillingly and slowly obeyed. So fondly does the +human soul cling to the very faintest semblance of hope, that the +adventurers would rather have wandered up and down these barren and arid +banks, in vain search after water, than tear themselves away by one bold +effort from the deceitful expectations held out to them by the empty +channel. + +It was on his return from a journey attended by perils and privations +like these, that Captain Grey relates the following simple occurrence, +which may help to make men value more highly, or rather prize more +justly, the many little comforts they may possess: The Captain had +left some of his men behind, and was hastening with all speed to the +settlement of Perth, in Western Australia, in order to get assistance +and necessaries for them. Starting an hour and a half before daylight, +he reached the hut of Williams, the farthest settler, north of Perth, in +time to find the wife and another woman at breakfast. He had known Mrs. +Williams, and, forgetting how strangely want and suffering had changed +his appearance for the worse, he expected her to remember him again. But +he was mistaken for a crazy Malay, nicknamed Magic, who used to visit +the houses of the out-settlers. Hurt at his reception, "I am not Magic," +exclaimed he. "Well then, my good man, who are you?" inquired they, +laughing. "One who is almost starved," was his solemn reply. "Will you +take this, then?" said the hostess, handing him a cup of tea she was +raising to her lips. "With all my heart and soul, and God reward you for +it," was the answer; and he swallowed the delicious draught. Who can +fail of being reminded, upon reading this anecdote, of those gracious +and beautiful words of his Redeemer--"Whosoever shall give you a cup of +water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say +unto you, he shall not lose his reward"? (Mark ix. 41.) + +The mention of the out-settler's hut, in which Captain Grey met with +this small, but most acceptable, kindness, may serve to remind us of an +object, which, although not, strictly speaking, belonging to the bush, +is, nevertheless, very frequently seen in that part of the wild country +which is most visited,--the portions of it which are adjoining to the +British settlements. In these parts of the bush the small hut of the +humble out-settler may often be espied; and, while we speak of the toils +and privations frequently undergone by this class of people at first, we +must not forget that they are thus opening to themselves a way to future +wealth and comfort. Nor, be it recollected, is the condition of an +out-settler in the Australian bush any more a fair average specimen of +that of the inhabitants of the colonies than the owner of a mud-hovel +raised on some English heath would be of the inhabitants of the parish +in which he happens to dwell. One strong difference may be seen in the +two cases. In England the cottager must, in all likelihood, live and die +a cottager, as his fathers have done before him, and his children will +after him; whereas, in the Australian colonies, with prudence and the +Divine blessing, (without which a man can do well nowhere) the humble +out-settler may gradually, yet rapidly, grow up into the wealthy and +substantial farmer and landowner. Bearing in mind these facts, the +following sketch of the premises of an out-settler on the river +Williams, at the back of the Swan River settlement, in Western +Australia, may be at once instructive, and not unsuitable to the subject +of this chapter. The house was made of a few upright poles, to which, at +the top, cross poles were fastened, and a covering of rude thatch tied +upon the whole. It was open at both ends, and exposed to the wind, +which, as the situation was high, was very unpleasant. Here, however, +were the elements of future riches, a very large flock of sheep, in fair +condition, also a well-supplied stock-yard, and cattle in beautiful +order; while upwards of twenty dogs, for hunting the kangaroo, completed +the establishment. The settlers were four in number, and, except four +soldiers quartered about sixteen miles from them, there were no other +Europeans within fifty miles of the spot. All stores and necessaries +were sent from a distance of 120 miles, through a country without roads, +and exposed to the power of the native inhabitants. In this but might +be seen a lively picture of the trials occasionally endured by _first +settlers_; they had no flour, tea, sugar, meat, or any provision +whatever, except their live stock and the milk of their cattle, their +sole dependence for any other article of food being the kangaroo dogs, +and the only thing their visitors were able to do to better their +situation was to leave them some shot. All other circumstances were on +the same scale with them, and one, supposing them to have been faithful +members of the Church of their native land, must have been the most +grievous privation of all:-- + + "The sound of the church-going bell + Those valleys and rocks never heard; + Never sighed at the sound of a knell, + Nor smiled when a sabbath appear'd." + +They had but one old clasp knife; there was but one small bed, for one +person, the others sleeping on the ground every night, with little or no +covering; they had no soap to wash themselves or their clothes, yet they +submitted cheerfully to all these privations, considering them to be +necessary consequences of their situation. Two of these out-settlers +were gentlemen, not only by birth, but also in thought and manner; nor +can it be doubted that they were really happier than many an idle young +man to be seen lounging about in England, a burden to himself and to his +friends. Idleness and vice have often in England been the means of +levelling with the dust the lordly mansion, whilst industry, in the +wilds of Australia, can rear a comfortable dwelling on the very spot +where once stood the hut of the out-settler. + +Scattered round the shores of New Holland at various distances are many +small islands and rocks, the prevailing appearance of which is that of +extreme barrenness. On many of these it would seem that no human beings +had ever set their feet before the Europeans, and especially the +English, explored those coasts. In several parts the natives were +without any means of conveyance across even a narrow arm of the sea, +and thus the brute creation were left in a long and undisturbed +possession of many of the isles which lie near the main land. In the +more barren and miserable of these the bird called the _sooty petrel_, +and the seal, are the principal animals to be found, whilst in those +that are somewhat more fruitful, kangaroos, also, and emus are to be +found; the smaller breed of kangaroos being usually met with in the +smaller islands, and the larger species on the main land or in islands +of a greater extent. The following short account, by Captain Flinders, +may serve as a specimen of the lesser isles: Great flocks of petrels +had been noticed coming in from the sea to the island, and early next +morning, a boat was sent from the ship to collect a quantity of them for +food, and to kill seals, but the birds were already moving off, and no +more than four seals, of the hair kind, were procured. Upon the men +going on shore, the island was found to be a rock of granite, but this +was covered with a crust of limestone or chalk, in some places fifty +feet thick. The soil at the top was little better than sand, but was +overspread with shrubs, mostly of one kind, a whitish velvet-like +plant, amongst which the petrels, who make their nests underground, +had burrowed everywhere, and, from the extreme heat of the sun, the +reflection of it from the sand, and frequently being sunk half way up +the leg in these holes, the sailors, little used to difficulties in +land-travelling, were scarcely able to reach the highest hill near the +middle of the island. It was in the neighbourhood of scattered sandy +spots of this description that the sailors of Captain Flinders would +often endeavour successfully to improve their ordinary fare by catching +a few fish. On one occasion they were very much hindered by three +monstrous sharks, in whose presence no other fish dared to appear. +After some attempts, and with much difficulty, they took one of these +creatures, and got it on board the ship. In length it was no more than +twelve feet three inches, but the body measured eight feet round. Among +the vast quantity of things contained in the stomach was a tolerably +large seal, bitten in two, and swallowed with half of the spear sticking +in it, with which it had probably been killed by the natives. The stench +of this ravenous monster was great, even before it was dead; and, when +the stomach was opened, it became intolerable. + +Quite contrary, in many respects, to these sandy islands, and yet but +little superior to them in fruitfulness, are some of those which were +visited by the same enterprising voyager on the eastern coast of +Australia. Their shores were very low, so much so, that frequently a +landing is impossible, and generally very difficult, on account of the +mud; and often a vast quantity of mangrove trees are found growing in +the swamps that surround the shores, and choking the soil with a rank +vegetation. On one of these islands when a landing had been effected +without a very great deal of trouble, and a rising ground was reached, +the sides of this little eminence were found to be so steep, and were so +thickly covered with trees and shrubs, bound together and interlaced +with strong plants, resembling vines in their growth, that all attempts +to reach the top of the hill were without success. It appeared to be +almost easier to have climbed up the trees, and have scrambled from one +to another upon the vines, than to have threaded a way through the +perplexing net-work formed by these plants, beneath which all was +darkness and uncertainty. + +There are, however, some few islands, which promise to become, at a +future time, inhabited and cultivated spots, being neither so entirely +naked, nor yet so choked up by a poor and hungry vegetation concealing a +thin soil, as those already described. Of these more smiling spots the +large island, off the western coast, called Kangaroo Island, may serve +for a specimen. A thick wood covered almost all that part of the island +which was seen from the ship by Captain Flinders, but the trees that +were alive were not so large as those lying on the ground, nor as the +dead trees still standing upright. Those upon the ground were so +abundant, that, in ascending the higher land, a considerable part of the +walk was upon them. No inhabitants were seen in the island, but yet it +seemed, from the appearance of the trees, as though, at the distance of +some years, the woods had been destroyed by fire. The soil, so far as it +was seen, was thought very good, and the trees bore witness of this by +their size and growth; yet so frequently do travellers, like doctors, +disagree, that another explorer, Captain Sturt, pronounces this spot to +be not by any means fertile. The quantity of kangaroos found here was +remarkable enough to give a name to the island; and so entirely were +these harmless animals strangers to the power of man, that they suffered +themselves to be approached and killed without any efforts to escape. +Captain Flinders, on the first day of landing, killed ten, and the rest +of his party made up the number to thirty-one taken on board in the +course of the day, the least weighing 69 and the largest 125 lbs. The +whole ship's company were employed that afternoon in skinning and +cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful feast they afforded to men +who for four months had scarcely tasted any fresh provisions. Never, +perhaps, had the dominion held here by these creatures been before +disturbed; the seals, indeed, shared it with the kangaroos on the +shores, but they seemed to dwell peacefully together, each animal +occasionally wandering into the haunts of the other, so that a gun fired +at a kangaroo upon the beach would sometimes bring forth two or three +bellowing seals from underneath bushes a good deal further from the +water-side. The seal, indeed, was the most knowing creature of the +two, for its actions bespoke that it distinguished the sailors from +kangaroos, whereas the latter not uncommonly appeared to mistake them +for seals. Indeed it is curious to trace the total absence of all +knowledge of man in these distant isles of Australia. In another island +a white eagle was seen making a motion to pounce down upon the British +sailors, whom it evidently took for kangaroos, never, probably, having +seen an upright animal, (except that, when moving upon its hind legs,) +and naturally, therefore, mistaking the men for its usual prey. + +In another part of Kangaroo Island, which was afterwards visited, a +large piece of water was discovered at the head of a bay, and in this +water an immense number of pelicans were seen; upon some small islets +were found many young birds yet unable to fly, and upon the surrounding +beach a great number of old ones were seen, while the bones and +skeletons of many lay scattered about. So that it appeared to be at once +the breeding-place and death-bed of these birds, who, in the hidden +bosom of a quiet lake, in an uninhabited island, had long continued to +extend their race, generation after generation retiring to the same spot +where they were first brought to light, and there ending their days in +tranquillity. In this part of the island kangaroos were less plentiful +than in the other, but the soil appeared equally promising, and in all +likelihood, before many years have flown by, trees, seals, kangaroos, +and pelicans will all be forced to give up their old domains, and be +destroyed before the pressing wants and daring spirit of the British +emigrant. One important hindrance is noticed by Flinders,--the scarcity +of water,--but the presence of so many animals shows that there is an +abundance somewhere, though he could find but a scanty supply in one +single spot. In Kangaroo Island only one accident occurred which showed +any disposition or power on the part of its old inhabitants to wage war +with the intruders. One of the sailors having attacked a large seal +without proper caution, was so severely bitten in the leg, that he was +not merely laid up in consequence of this hurt, but was obliged to be +discharged, three months afterwards, when the ship was refitted at +Sydney. + +In addition to the numerous barren rocks and the few tolerably large +wooded islands, which encircle the shores of Australia, there is a third +description of isles or rocks, which must not be passed over altogether +without notice. The substance called _coral_ is well known in Europe, +but with us the name connects itself with very different objects from +those to which it is related in Australia. _Here_ female ornaments and +toys for infants are almost the only objects to be seen that are formed +of coral; _there_ it forms the most stupendous rocks or reefs, which +serve frequently for a foundation to islands of no mean size; indeed, in +one part of the north-eastern coast of Australia, the coral reefs are +known to extend not less than 350 miles in a straight line, without a +single opening of any magnitude occurring in them. + +Among these, surrounded by dangers, did Captain Flinders sail, during +fourteen days, for more than 500 miles before he could escape into less +perilous seas. Upon landing on one of these reefs, when the water was +clear, the view underneath, from the edge of the rocks, was extremely +beautiful. Quite a new creation, but still not unlike the old, was +offered to the view. There appeared wheat-sheaves, mushrooms, stags' +horns, cabbage-leaves, and a variety of other forms, glowing under +water with brilliant tints, of every shade betwixt green, purple, brown, +and white; equalling in beauty and surpassing in grandeur the most +favourite flower-bed of the curious florist. These appearances were, in +fact, different sorts of _coral_, and fungus, growing, as it were, out +of the solid rock, and each had its own peculiar form and shade of +colouring, but yet the spectators, who knew their ship to be hemmed in +by rocks of this material, while considering the richness of the scene, +could not long forget with what power of destruction it was gifted. + +The cause of these coral rocks and islands, which are slowly, but +certainly, increasing, is a very small marine insect, by which the +substance called coral is formed. These work under water, generation +after generation contributing its share in the construction of what, in +the course of ages, becomes a solid rock, exalting its head above the +face of the surrounding waters, and rising sometimes from the depth of +200 fathoms, and perhaps even more. To be constantly covered with water +seems necessary to these minute animals, for they do not work, except +in holes upon the reef, beyond low-water-mark; but the coral and other +broken remains thrown up by the sea lodge upon the rock and form a solid +mass with it, as high as the common tides reach. The new bank is not +long left unvisited by sea-birds; salt-plants take root upon it, and a +kind of soil begins to be formed; a cocoa-nut,[13] or the seed of some +other tree, is thrown on shore; land-birds visit it, and deposit the +seeds of fresh shrubs or trees; every high tide, and still more every +gale, adds something to the bank; the form of an island is by degrees +assumed; and, last of all, comes man to take possession. + + [13] "A cluster of these trees would be an excellent beacon to warn + mariners of their danger when near a coral reef, and at all events + their fruit would afford some wholesome nourishment to the ship-wrecked + seamen. The navigator who should distribute 10,000 cocoa-nuts amongst + the numerous sand banks of the great ocean and Indian Sea, would be + entitled to the gratitude of all maritime nations, and of every friend + of humanity."--FLINDERS' _Voyage to Terra Australis_, vol. ii. p. 332. + + + + +[Illustration: EXPLORERS FINDING THE BED OF A DRIED UP RIVER.] + +CHAPTER II. + +THE BUSH IN THE INTERIOR. + + +It needs only a single glance at the map of New Holland to see that, +like most other countries, and even more than most others, the coasts +are well known, while the interior parts are comparatively undiscovered, +and, to a great extent, totally so. And, although a much more minute +description of the shores of this immense island might easily be given, +although we might accompany Flinders or King in their navigation of its +intricate seas, and survey of its long line of coast, yet this part of +the subject must necessarily be passed over without detaining us any +further. A very considerable portion of the sea-coast of New Holland is +not much unlike that in the Gulph of Carpentaria, in the north part of +the island, where, when Captain Flinders had reached the highest spot he +could find in 175 leagues of coast,--this loftiest hill did not much +exceed the height of the ship's masthead! And where the shores are not +of this exceedingly level character, they are usually sterile, sandy, +and broken, so as to offer rather an uninviting aspect to the stranger. +It is obvious that, in either case, whether the coast be flat or barren, +there may be many beautiful and lovely districts within a day's journey +inland; and nothing is more absurd than to take exception against the +whole of a country merely because its borders and boundaries are +forbidding. In the case of New Holland, it is true, the same sort of +barrenness extends itself very much into the interior of the land; but, +if we pursue the patient footsteps and daring discoveries of those few +Europeans who have penetrated far into its inland parts, we shall find +many interesting scenes described, and much both of the sublime and +beautiful in nature brought before us. + +One of the principal scenes on which have been displayed the +perseverance and courage of the explorers of the interior is the banks +of the river Darling. This stream, which has its source on the western +side of the long range of mountains running parallel with the coast, and +called in the colony the Blue Mountains, carries off the drainage of an +immense extent of country, to the westward and north-westward of New +South Wales. In fact, except in the southern parts of that colony, where +the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee carry off the waters which do not fall +eastwards to the coast, all the streams that rise upon or beyond the +Blue Mountains, and take a westerly direction, finally meet together in +the basin of the Darling.[14] It might be imagined that a river into +which is carried the drainage of so extensive a district would be always +well supplied with water, and so it would be in other countries, but the +streams of New Holland are altogether different from those in other +parts of the world. Comparatively, indeed, the Darling does assert its +superiority over most of the other water-courses of that country; for, +at a season when their channels were, in general, absolutely without +water, or dwindled down into mere chains of muddy ponds, the Darling +still continued to wind its slow current, carrying a supply of excellent +water through the heart of a desert district. Along the weary plains +by which its course is bounded, it proceeds for not less than 660 +miles,[15] without receiving, so far as is known, a single tributary +stream; and, from its waters being occasionally salt, it is supposed to +owe its support, in its reduced state during very dry seasons, chiefly +to natural springs. Its bed is, on an average, about sixty feet below +the common surface of the country. There are no traces of water-courses +on the level plains, and it would appear that, whatever moisture +descends from the higher grounds, which (where there are any at all,) +are seldom less than twelve miles from the Darling, must be taken up by +the clayey soil, so as scarcely to find its way down to the river, +except it be by springs. The average breadth of the stream at the +surface, when low, is about fifty yards, but oftener less than this, and +seldom more. The fall of the country through which it passes, in that +part of its course through the interior, which was first explored by +Major Mitchell, is very trifling; and it is the opinion of that officer, +that the swiftness of its course never exceeds one mile per hour, but +that it is in general much less. At the time of the Major's expedition, +the water actually flowing, as seen at one or two shallow places, did +not exceed in quantity that which would be necessary to turn a mill. +But, with all this scantiness of supply during the dry season then +prevailing,[16] the marks of tremendous inundations were plain upon the +surface of the country, frequently extending two miles back from the +ordinary channel of the waters. And everywhere the banks of the river +displayed the effect of floods in parallel lines, marking on the smooth +sloping earth the various heights to which the waters had at different +periods arisen. The surface of the plains nearest the river is unlike +any part of the earth's face that the travellers had elsewhere seen. It +was clear of vegetation, like a fallow-field, but less level, and quite +full of holes, big enough to receive the whole leg, and sometimes the +body, of the unfortunate persons who might slip into them. Galloping or +trotting in such a country was out of the question, and as the surface +of this dry and cracked soil was soft and loose, it was very fatiguing +for draught. Six of the bullocks accompanying the expedition never +returned from the Darling. Yet, how much preferable was the country, +even in this state, to that in which a flood would have placed it; for, +had rainy weather, or any overflowing of the river, happened, travelling +upon the banks of the Darling would have become absolutely impossible. + + [14] Although the basin of this river extends so far towards the east, + on its westerly bank, that is, _towards the interior_, a desert country + stretches itself to an unknown distance, from which it does not appear + to receive any increase of its waters at all deserving of notice. From + two hills, seventy miles apart, extensive views were gained of this + western desert, in which no smoke was seen, indicating the presence of + natives, nor even any appearance of trees; the whole country being + covered with a thick bush or scrub. For the four winter months spent + by Mitchell near the Darling, neither rain nor yet dew fell, and the + winds from the west and north-west, hot and parching, seemed to blow + over a region in which no humidity remained. + + [15] So in Major Mitchell's work, vol. i. p. 298; but the same author + is quoted (more correctly it would seem from the map), by Montgomery + Martin, as stating that "The Darling does not, in a course of _three_ + hundred miles, receive a single river."--See MARTIN'S _New South + Wales_, p. 82. + + [16] By _dry season_, or _wet season_, in Australia, we are not to + understand, as in England, a _dry_ or _wet summer_, but a series of + _dry_ or _wet years_. At the very bottom of some of the dried-up lakes + were found sapling trees of ten years' growth, which had evidently been + killed by the return of the waters to their long-forsaken bed. + +But the river Darling itself, though it appears as a principal and +independent stream during so long a course, is, we have little reason to +doubt, no more than an important tributary to the chief of Australian +rivers, the Murray. This last channel collects eventually all the waters +flowing in a westward direction upon the eastern side of New Holland, +between the latitudes of 28 deg. S. and 36 deg. S. The Darling, the +Lachlan, and the Murrumbidgee, without mentioning streams of minor +importance, all find their way southwards into the basin of the Murray, +which is really a noble river, and does not seem subject to the same +deplorable impoverishment, which most of the others suffer in very dry +seasons. It was very earnestly anticipated that the mouth of a stream +like this would probably form a good harbour, and thus afford a reasonable +prospect of its hereafter becoming a busy navigable river, the means of +furnishing inland communication to a considerable distance. This is, of +all things, what New Holland appears most to want, but the want is not +(as we shall shortly find) adequately supplied by the entrance to the +Murray. A like failure occurs at the entrance of other Australian +rivers, as in the instance of a much smaller but very beautiful stream, +the Glenelg, which falls into a shallow basin within the sandy hills of +the southern coast, the outlet being between two rocky heads, but choked +up with the sands of the beach. We cannot, while we read of the scanty +means of inland navigation, with which it has pleased Divine Providence +to favour an island so enormous as New Holland, but feel thankful for +the abundant advantages of this kind which our own native islands +possess; but at the same time there is no reason to despair, even yet, +of a navigable river being discovered in New Holland;[17] or, at the +worst, the modern invention of rail-roads may supersede, in a great +measure, the need of other communication. + + [17] "I have myself no doubt that a large navigable river will yet be + discovered, communicating with the interior of Australia."--M. MARTIN'S + _New South Wales_, p. 99. + +It would be impossible to compress into a moderate compass the various +interesting particulars, which have been related of the rivers of New +Holland and their neighbouring districts; but for this and much other +pleasing information the reader may be referred, once for all, to the +works of those travellers, whose names have been already so frequently +mentioned. It is a curious fact that almost every stream of the least +consequence in New Holland, appears to have its peculiar features, and a +character and scenery of its own, which continue throughout its course, +so that it could often be recognised by travellers coming upon it a +second time, and at a different part of its career towards the sea. +The beautifully-timbered plains, or the limestone cliffs of the noble +Murray--the naked plains that bound on either side the strip of +forest-trees of huge dimensions, by which the Lachlan is bordered,--the +constantly full stream, the water-worn and lightly-timbered banks, the +clear open space between the river and its distant margin of reeds, +which mark the character of the Murrumbidgee,--the low grassy banks or +limestone rocks, the cascades and caverns, the beautiful festoons of +creeping plants, the curious form of the duck-billed platypus,[18] which +are to be found on the Glenelg; the sandstone wastes of the Wollondilly, +the grassy surface of the pretty Yarrayne,[19] with its trees on its +brink instead of on its bank; the peculiar grandeur of the tremendous +ravine, 1,500 feet in depth, down which the Shoalhaven flows; these and +many more remarkable features of scenery in the Australian rivers, would +afford abundance of materials for description either in poetry or prose. +But we can now notice only one more peculiarity which most of these +streams exhibit; they have, at a greater or less distance from their +proper channels, secondary banks, beyond which floods rarely or never +are known to extend. In no part of the habitable world is the force of +contrast more to be observed than in Australia. A very able scientific +writer[20] has ingeniously represented three persons travelling in +certain directions across Great Britain, and finishing their journeys +with three totally different impressions of the soil, country, and +inhabitants; one having passed through a rocky and mining district, the +second through a coal country peopled by manufacturers, and a third +having crossed a chalky region devoted entirely to agriculture. An +observation of this kind is even still more true of New Holland. And, +consequently, when, instead of _pursuing_ the course of certain similar +lines of country, the traveller _crosses_ these, the changes that take +place in the appearance and productions of the various districts are +exceedingly striking and follow sometimes in very rapid succession. A +few examples of these contrasts, which arise in Australia from the +nature of the seasons, as well as from that of the soil or climate, may +here be noticed. How great a change did the exploring party under Major +Mitchell experience, when, after tracing for forty-nine days the dry bed +of the Lachlan, they suddenly saw a magnificent stream of clear and +running water before them, and came upon the Murrumbidgee. Its banks, +unlike those of the former channel, were clothed with excellent grass; +a pleasing sight for the cattle--and it was no slight satisfaction to +their possessors to see the jaded animals, after thirsting so long among +the muddy holes of the Lachlan, drinking at this full and flowing +stream. And yet, so different are the series of seasons, at intervals, +that, down the very river of which Mitchell speaks in 1836 as a deep, +dry ravine, containing only a scanty chain of small ponds, the boats of +its first explorer, Mr. Oxley, had, in 1817, floated during a space of +fifteen days, until they had reached a country almost entirely flooded, +and the river seemed completely to lose itself among the shallow waters! +During the winter of 1835, the whale-boats were drawn by the exploring +party 1,600 miles over land,[21] without finding a river, where they +could be used; whereas, in 1817 and 1818, Mr. Oxley had twice retired +by nearly the same routes, and in the same season of the year, from +supposed inland seas![22] So that, in fact, we rise from the perusal +of two accounts of travellers of credit, both exploring the very same +country, with the impression, from one statement, that there exists an +endless succession of swamps, or an immense shallow, inland lake; where, +from the other, we are taught to believe, there is nothing but a sandy +desert to be found, or dry and cracked plains of clay, baked hard by the +heat of the sun. + + [18] This remarkable animal, called also the Ornithorynchus, is + peculiar to Australia, it has the body of a beast combined with the + mouth and feet of a duck, is to be seen frequently on the banks of the + Glenelg, and that unusually near the coast. + + [19] Water is proverbially "unstable," but what occurred to Major + Mitchell's party on the Yarrayne, may serve for a specimen of the + peculiar uncertainty of the waters of Australia. In the evening a bridge + across that stream had been completed, and everything was prepared for + crossing it, but in the morning of the following day no bridge was to be + seen, the river having risen so much during the night, although no rain + had fallen, that the bridge was four feet under water, and at noon the + water had risen fourteen feet,--a change that could only be accounted + for by the supposed melting of the snow near the sources of the stream. + + [20] See Professor Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. + Introduction, pp. 1, 2. + + [21] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. p. 13. + + [22] See Oxley's Journal, pp. 103, 244. + +Changes of this sort in the seasons, affecting so powerfully the +appearance of whole districts, cannot but have a proportionable effect +on particular spots. Regent's Lake, the "noble lake," as its first +discoverer, Oxley, called it, was, when Mitchell visited it, for the +most part, a plain covered with luxuriant grass;[23] some good water, it +is true, lodged on the most eastern extremity, but nowhere to a greater +depth than a foot. There ducks and swans, in vast numbers, had taken +refuge, and pelicans stood high upon their legs above the remains of +Regent's Lake. On its northern margin, and within the former boundary +of the lake, stood dead trees of a full-grown size, which had been +apparently killed by too much water, plainly showing to what long +periods the extremes of drought and moisture have extended, and may +again extend, in this singular country. And some of the changes in +scenery, within a short distance, and frequently arising from the same +causes, the presence or absence of water, are very remarkable. In Major +Mitchell's journal, at the date of April 10th, may be found the +following observations: "We had passed through valleys, on first +descending from the mountains, where the yellow oat-grass resembled a +ripe crop of grain. But this resemblance to the emblem of plenty, made +the desolation of these hopeless solitudes only the more apparent, +abandoned, as they then were, alike by man, beast, and bird. No living +thing remained in these valleys, for water, that element so essential to +life, was a want too obvious in the dismal silence, (for not an insect +hummed,) and the yellow hues of withering vegetation." On the next page +of the journal, under the events of the following day, what a contrast +appears:--"The evening was beautiful; the new grass springing in places +where it had been burnt, presented a shining verdure in the rays of the +descending sun; the songs of the birds accorded here with other joyous +sounds, the very air seemed alive with the music of animated nature, so +different was the scene in this well-watered valley, from that of the +parched and silent region from which we had just descended. The natives, +whom we met here, were fine-looking men, enjoying contentment and +happiness, within the precincts of their native woods." They were very +civil, and presented a burning stick to the strangers, at the moment +when they saw that they wanted fire, in a manner expressive of welcome +and of a wish to assist them. At a distance were the native fires, and +the squalling of children might be heard, until at night the beautiful +moon came forth, and the soft notes of a flute belonging to one of the +Englishmen fell agreeably on the ear, while the eye was gratified by the +moonbeams, as they gleamed from the trees, amid the curling smoke of the +temporary encampment. The cattle were refreshing themselves in green +pastures. It was Saturday night, and next day the party was to rest. How +sweet a spot to repose from their toils and sufferings, and to lift up +their hearts towards the mercy-seat of Him,-- + + "Who, in the busy crowded town, + Regards each suppliant's cry;-- + Who, whether Nature smile or frown, + Man's wants can still supply." + + [23] Another lake, called Walljeers, at no very great distance + from this, was found, with its whole expanse of about four miles in + circumference, entirely covered with a sweet and fragrant plant, + somewhat like clover, and eaten by the natives. Exactly resembling + new-made hay in the perfume which it gives out even when in the freshest + state of verdure, it was indeed "sweet to sense and lovely to the eye" + in the heart of a desert country. + +One of the greatest victories over natural difficulties that was ever +gained by British courage and perseverance, was the exploring of the +course of the Morrumbidgee and Murray rivers by Captain Sturt and his +party, in the year 1830; and since their route was through a new +country, and their descent from the high lands south-westward of Sydney, +to the southern coast of New Holland was an amazing enterprise to +project, much more to accomplish, an abridged account of it may not be +unacceptable to the reader. And when it is remembered that the sight of +the gallant officer commanding this expedition, was sacrificed almost +entirely to "the effect of exposure and anxiety of mind in the +prosecution of geographical researches,"[24] this fact may add to the +interest which we feel in his adventures. The Murrumbidgee is a river +which runs westerly from the district called Yass Plains, situated very +nearly at the south-western extremity of New South Wales. It was for +the purpose of exploring the course of this fine stream, that Captain +Sturt was sent out at the latter end of 1829, and he had reached by +land-conveyance a swampy region exactly resembling those marshes in +which the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers had been supposed by Mr. Oxley to +lose themselves. To proceed further by land was impossible, and, since +they had brought with them a whale-boat, which had been drawn by oxen +for many a weary mile, it was resolved to launch this on the river, a +smaller boat was built in seven days only, and both boats being laden +with necessaries, and manned with six hands, arrangements were made for +forming a depot, and the rest of the party were sent back; and when the +explorers thus parted company in the marshy plains of the Morrumbidgee, +it appeared doubtful even to themselves whether they were ever likely to +meet again in this world. Of the country, whither the stream would carry +the little crew of adventurers, literally nothing was known. There +might be a vast inland sea,--and then how could they hope with their +frail barks to navigate it in safety for the very first time? Or, even +if they did so, how were they to force their way back again to the +remote dwelling-places of civilised man? The river might gradually waste +itself among the morasses; and then, with their boats become useless for +want of depth of water, how were they to walk across those endless +levels of soft mud? or, supposing that to be practicable, how were their +provisions to be conveyed, or whence, then, except from their boats, +could they hope for a supply? Questions of this nature must have offered +themselves to the minds of the daring spirits, who accompanied Captain +Sturt; nor can due justice be rendered to their courage without a +careful consideration of the dangers which they deliberately braved. + + [24] See Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. Dedication, p. 4. + +Two oars only were used in the whale-boat, to the stern of which the +skiff was fastened by a rope; but the progress of the party down the +river was rapid. Having passed, in the midst of the marshes, the mouth +of a considerable stream (supposed to be the Lachlan, here emptying its +waters out from the midst of those swamps wherein it appeared to Mr. +Oxley to be lost,) on the second day of their journey the voyagers met +with an accident that had nearly compelled them to return. The skiff +struck upon a sunken log, and, immediately filling, went down in about +twelve feet of water. Damage was done to some of the provisions, and +many tools were thrown overboard, though these were afterwards regained +by means of diving and great labour, and the skiff was got up again. In +the very same night a robbery was committed by the natives; and a +frying-pan, three cutlasses, and five tomahawks, with the pea of the +steelyards--altogether no small loss in the Australian desert--were +carried off. The country in this part is "a waving expanse of reeds, +and as flat as possible," and the river, instead of increasing in its +downward course, seemed rather to be diminishing. After some days, +however, the party had passed through this flooded region, and reached a +boundless flat, with no object for the eye to rest upon, beyond the dark +and gloomy woods by which it was occupied. Several rapids occurred in +the river; and, during great part of two days the channel was so narrow +and so much blocked up with huge trees, that, in spite of every effort, +the adventurers were expecting their boat every moment to strike. For +two hours in the afternoon of the second of these days of anxiety, the +little vessels were hurried rapidly along the winding reaches of the +Morrumbidgee, until suddenly they found themselves borne upon the bosom +of a broad and noble river, in comparison with which that which they had +just quitted bore the appearance of an insignificant opening! The width +of the large stream thus discovered was about 350 feet, and its depth +from 12 to 20 feet, whilst its banks, although averaging 18 feet in +height, were evidently subject to floods. The breadth of rich soil +between its outer and inner banks was very inconsiderable, and the upper +levels were poor and sandy. As the party descended, the adjoining +country became somewhat higher and a little undulating, and natives +were seen, while the Murray (for such was the name given to their new +discovery) improved upon them every mile they proceeded. Four natives +of a tribe with which they had met followed them, as guides, for some +distance, and, after having nearly lost their largest boat upon a rock +in the midst of a rapid, the British travellers continued their onward +course, and a sail was hoisted for the first time, in order to save, as +much as was possible, the strength of the men. + +The country in this part of their voyage was again very low, and they +fell in with a large body of savages, with whom they were on the point +of being forced, in self-defence, to have a deadly encounter, when +suddenly the four natives who had accompanied them appeared running at +full speed, and, through their assistance, though not without some +difficulty, bloodshed was prevented. Very shortly after this adventure, +when the men had just pushed their boat off from a shoal, upon which it +had struck, they noticed a new and considerable stream coming from the +north, and uniting its waters with those of the Murray. Upon landing on +the right bank of the newly-discovered stream, the natives came swimming +over from motives of curiosity; and there were not less than 600 of +these, belonging to some of the most ferocious tribes in Australia, +surrounding eight Englishmen--Captain Sturt, his friend M'Leay, and the +crew--which last had been preserved by an almost miraculous intervention +of Providence in their favour. The boat was afterwards pulled a few +miles up the recently-discovered river, which is reasonably supposed to +have been the Darling, from whose banks, some hundreds of miles higher +up, Captain Sturt had twice been forced to retire in a former +expedition. Its sides were sloping and grassy, and overhung by +magnificent trees; in breadth it was about 100 yards, and in depth +rather more than twelve feet, and the men pleased themselves by +exclaiming, upon entering it, that they had got into an English river. A +net extending right across the stream at length checked their progress; +for they were unwilling to disappoint the numbers who were expecting +their food that day from this source. So the men rested on their oars in +the midst of the smooth current of the Darling, the Union-Jack was +hoisted, and, giving way to their feelings, all stood up in the boat, +and gave three distinct cheers. "The eye of every native along the +banks had been fixed upon that noble flag, at all times a beautiful +object," says Captain Sturt, "and to them a novel one, as it waved +over us in the heart of a desert. They had, until that moment, been +particularly loquacious, but the sight of that flag and the sound +of our voices hushed the tumult; and while they were still lost in +astonishment, the boat's head was speedily turned, the sail was sheeted +home, both wind and current were in our favour, and we vanished from +them with a rapidity that surprised even ourselves, and which precluded +every hope of the most adventurous among them to keep up with us."[25] + + [25] Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110. + +Cheered with the gratification of national feeling thus powerfully +described, the patient crew returned to their toils in descending the +Murray, whose banks continued unchanged for some distance; but its +channel was much encumbered with timber, some very large sand-banks +were seen, and several rapids were passed. The skiff being found more +troublesome than useful, was broken up and burned. On one occasion, +during a friendly interview with some of the savages, some clay was +piled up, as a means of inquiring whether there were any hills near; and +two or three of the blacks, catching the meaning, pointed to the N. W., +in which direction two lofty ranges were seen from the top of a tree, +and were supposed to be not less than 40 miles distant, but the country +through which the Murray passed still continued low. + +The heat was excessive and the weather very dry, while the banks of the +river appeared to be thickly peopled for Australia, and the British +strangers contrived to keep upon good terms with the natives. After +having passed one solitary cliff of some height, they met with stormy +weather for a few days, and several tributary streams of some size were +perceived mingling their waters with those of the Murray, the left bank +of which became extremely lofty, and, though formed almost wholly of +clay and sand, it bore the appearance of columns or battlements, the +sand having been washed away in many places, while the clay was left +hollowed out more like the work of art than of nature. After a continued +descent of 22 days, the party, who were pleased with the noble character +of the river upon which they were, though disappointed at the poverty of +the country through which it passed, began to grow somewhat weary; but +upon inquiries being made of the natives no tidings could be gained +respecting their approach towards the sea. The navigation of every +natural stream is rendered tedious, though beautiful, by its devious +course, but, "what with its regular turns, and its extensive sweeps, the +Murray covers treble the ground, at a moderate computation, that it +would occupy in a direct course." The current became weaker, and the +channel deeper, as they proceeded down the stream, and the cliffs of +clay and sand were succeeded by others of a very curious formation, +being composed of shells closely compacted together, but having the +softer parts so worn away, that the whole cliff bore in many places the +appearance of human skulls piled one upon the other. At first, this +remarkable formation did not rise more than a foot above the water, but +within ten miles from this spot it exceeded 150 feet in height, the +country in the vicinity became undulating, and the river itself was +confined in a glen whose extreme breadth did not exceed half a mile. An +old man, a native, was met with hereabouts, who appeared by his signs +to indicate that the explorers were at no great distance from some +remarkable change. The old man pointed to the N. W., and then placed +his hand on the side of his head, in token, it was supposed, of their +sleeping to the N. W. of the spot where they were. He then pointed due +south, describing by his action, the roaring of the sea, and the height +of the waves. A line of cliffs, from two to three hundred feet in +height, flanked the river upon alternate sides, but the rest of the +country was level, and the soil upon the table-land at the top of the +cliffs very poor and sterile. The next change of scenery brought them to +cliffs of a higher description, which continued on both sides of the +river, though not always close to it. The stream lost its sandy bed and +its current together, and became deep, still, and turbid, with a muddy +bottom; and the appearance of the water lashing against the base of the +cliffs reminded the anxious voyagers of the sea. The scenery became in +many places beautiful, and the river was never less than 400 yards in +breadth. Some sea-gulls were seen flying over the boat, and being hailed +as the messengers of good tidings, they were not permitted to be shot. +The adverse wind and the short, heavy waves rendered the labour at the +oar very laborious, but the hope of speedily gaining some noble inlet--a +harbour worthy to form the mouth of a stream like the Murray--encouraged +the crew to pull on manfully, and to disregard fatigue. The salt meat +was all spoiled, and had been given to the dogs; fish no one would eat, +and of wild fowl there was none to be seen; so that the provisions of +the party consisted of little else but flour. And already, though +hitherto they had been performing the easiest part of their task, having +had the stream in their favour, it was evident that the men were much +reduced, besides which they were complaining of sore eyes. + +These circumstances all combined to increase the natural anxiety felt +by the little band of adventurers to reach the termination of the +Murray; and as its valley opened to two, three, and four miles of +breadth, while the width of the river increased to the third of a mile, +the expectations of the men toiling at the oar became proportionably +excited. The cliffs ceased, and gave place to undulating hills; no +pleasure-ground could have been more tastefully laid out than the +country to the right, and the various groups of trees, disposed upon the +sides of the elevations that bounded the western side of the valley, +were most ornamental. On the opposite side, the country was less +inviting, and the hills were bleak and bare. At length a clear horizon +appeared to the south, the direction in which the river was flowing; +Captain Sturt landed to survey the country, and beneath him was the +great object of his search, the termination of one of Australia's +longest and largest streams. Immediately below him was a beautiful lake, +of very large extent, and greatly agitated by the wind. Ranges of hills +were observed to the westward, stretching from north to south, and +distant forty miles. Between these hills and the place where the +traveller stood, the western bank of the Murray was continued in the +form of a beautiful promontory projecting into the lake, and between +this point and the base of the ranges the vast sheet of water before him +extended in the shape of a bay. The scene was altogether a very fine +one; but disappointment was a prevailing feeling in the mind of the +explorer, for it was most likely that there would be no practicable +communication for large ships between the lake and the ocean, and thus a +check was put upon the hopes that had been entertained of having at +length discovered a large and navigable river leading into the interior +of New Holland. The lake, called Lake Alexandrina, which was fifty +miles long and forty broad,[26] was crossed with the assistance of a +favourable wind; its waters were found to be generally very shallow, and +the long, narrow, and winding channel by which it communicates with the +ocean was found, as it had been feared, almost impracticable even for +the smallest vessels. This channel unites itself with the sea on the +south-western coast of New Holland, at the bottom of a bay named +Encounter Bay, one boundary of which is Cape Jervis, by which it is +separated from St. Vincent's Gulph,--the very part of the coast where a +ship was to be despatched by the Governor of New South Wales to afford +the party assistance, in case of their being successful in penetrating +to the sea-shore. Flour and tea were the only articles remaining of +their store of provisions, and neither of these were in sufficient +quantities to last them to the place where they expected to find fresh +supplies inland. But the first view of Encounter Bay convinced them that +no vessel could ever venture into it at a season when the S. W. winds +prevailed, and to the deep bight which it formed upon the coast (at the +bottom of which they then were), it was hopeless to expect any vessel to +approach so nearly as to be seen by them. To remain there was out of the +question; to cross the ranges towards the Gulph of St. Vincent, when the +men had no strength to walk, and the natives were numerous and not +peaceably disposed, was equally impossible. The passage from the lake +to the ocean was not without interruption, from the shallowness of the +sandy channel, otherwise Captain Sturt, in his little boat, would have +coasted round to Port Jackson, or steered for Launceston, in Van +Dieman's Land; and this he declares he would rather have done, could he +have foreseen future difficulties, than follow the course which he did. +Having walked across to the entrance of the channel, and found it quite +impracticable and useless, he resolved to return along the same route by +which he had come, only with these important additional difficulties to +encounter,--diminished strength, exhausted stores, and an adverse +current. The provisions were found sufficient only for the same number +of days upon their return as they had occupied in descending the river, +and speed was no less desirable in order to avoid encounters with the +natives than for the purpose of escaping the miseries of want; into +which, however, it was felt, a single untoward accident might in an +instant plunge them. With feelings of this description the party left +Lake Alexandrina and re-entered the channel of the Murray. + + [26] The dimensions given in Captain Sturt's map. The South-Australian + Almanac states it to be sixty miles long, and varying in width from ten + to forty miles. + +It will be needless to follow the explorers through all the particulars +of their journey upwards to the depot on the Morrumbidgee. The boat +struck, the natives were troublesome, the rapids difficult to get over; +but the worst of all their toils and trials were their daily labours and +unsatisfied wants. One circumstance ought, in justice to the character +of the men, to be noticed. They positively refused to touch six pounds +of sugar that were still remaining in the cask, declaring that, if +divided, it would benefit nobody, whereas it would last during some time +for the use of Captain Sturt and Mr. M'Leay, who were less able to +submit to privations than they were. After having continued for no less +than fifty-five days upon the waters of the Murray, it was with great +joy that they quitted this stream, and turned their boat into the gloomy +and narrow channel of the Morrumbidgee. Having suffered much privation, +anxiety, and labour, and not without one or two unpleasant encounters +with the natives, at length the party reached their depot, but they +found it deserted! During seventy-seven days they could not have +pulled, according to Captain Sturt's calculation, less than 2000 miles; +and now, worn out by fatigue and want, they were compelled to proceed +yet further, and to endure, for some time longer, the most severe +privations to which man can be exposed. But, under the guidance of +Divine Providence, the lives of all were preserved, and now the reward +of their deeds of heroism is willingly bestowed upon them. Among the +boldest exploits ever performed by man, the descent of Captain Sturt and +his companions down the Murray, and their return to the same spot again, +may deserve to be justly ranked.[27] Nor, however disappointing the +result of their examination of the mouth of the Murray may have been, +was their daring adventure without its useful consequences. The lake +Alexandrina is said to be navigable across for vessels drawing six feet +of water, and the entrance to the sea, though rather difficult in heavy +weather, is safe in moderate weather for vessels of the same size. The +Murray itself is navigable for steam-vessels for many hundred miles, and +probably it will not be very long before these modern inventions are +introduced upon its waters. + + [27] For the account of this voyage, see Sturt's Expeditions in + Australia, vol. ii. pp. 72-221. + +Whoever has seen any recent map of New Holland must have been struck +with the curious appearance of a vast semicircle of water, called Lake +Torrens, near the southern coast, and extending many miles inland from +the head of Spencer's Gulph. A range of hills, named Flinders' Range, +runs to a considerable distance inland, taking its rise near the head of +the gulph just mentioned, and Lake Torrens nearly surrounds the whole of +the low country extending from this mountainous ridge. This immense lake +is supposed to resemble in shape a horse-shoe, and to extend for full +400 miles, whilst its apparent breadth is from 20 to 30. The greater +part of the vast area contained in its bed is certainly dry on the +surface, and consists of a mixture of sand and mud, of so soft and +yielding a character as to render perfectly unavailing all attempts +either to cross it, or to reach the edge of the water, which appears to +exist at a distance of some miles from the outer margin. Once only was +Mr. Eyre, the enterprising discoverer of this singular lake, able to +taste of its waters, and then he found them as salt as the sea. The low, +miserable, desert country in the neighbourhood, and Lake Torrens itself, +act as a kind of barrier against the progress of inland discovery at +the back of the colony of South Australia, since it is impossible to +penetrate very far into the interior, without making a great circle +either to the east or to the west. The portion of the bed of the lake +which is exposed is thickly coated with particles of salt; there are few +trees or shrubs of any kind to be found near, nor are grass and fresh +water by any means abundant. Altogether, the neighbourhood of Lake +Torrens would seem a very miserable region, and forms a strong contrast +to the smiling and cultivated district of which it forms the back +country.[28] + + [28] These particulars are taken from the South-Australian Almanac + for 1841, pp. 68-73. + +Although Australia, in its natural and uncultivated state, abounds in +trees, like most other wild countries, nevertheless, there are vast and +extensive tracts where the plains are entirely bare, or covered only +with a low, thick, and often prickly, bush, or else are what is termed +"open forest," that is, are dotted about with fine trees, dispersed in +various groups, and resembling the scenery of an English park. The +greatest peculiarity of the native forests appears to be, that the +whole of their trees and shrubs are evergreen,[29] although European +trees will flourish in the land of the south without acquiring this +peculiarity, or losing their deciduous character. But it is rather a +subject of complaint against the woods of New Holland, that they have +very little picturesque effect in them, which may be partly owing to +the poverty of the foliage of the prevailing tree, the _eucalyptus_, +(commonly called the _iron-bark_, or _blue gum_, according to its +species,) which seldom has anything ornamental to landscape, either in +the trunk or branches. These sombre trees are, however, very useful for +timber, and they grow to an astonishing height, often rearing up their +lofty heads to 150 feet or upwards. The woods, in general, are very +brittle, partly, it may be, owing to the number of acacias which are to +be found among them; and no experienced bushman likes to sleep under +trees, especially during high winds. We must by no means form our ideas +of the appearance of an Australian forest from that of the neat and trim +woods of our own country, where every single branch or bough, and much +more every tree, bears a certain value. Except that portion which is +required for fuel or materials by an extremely scattered population in a +very mild climate, there is nothing carried off from the forests, and, +were it not for the frequent and destructive fires which the natives +kindle in many parts, no check worth mentioning would be placed upon the +natural increase and decay of the woods of New Holland. The consequence +of this is, that trees are to be seen there in every stage of growth or +ruin; and, occasionally, in very thickly-planted spots, the surface of +the ground is not a little encumbered by the fallen branches and trunks +of the ancient ornaments of the forest. Nor is it by the hand of Time +alone that these marks of destruction are scattered about in the vast +woodlands; the breath of a tremendous storm will occasionally +accomplish, perhaps, as much in a few hours as natural decay would in +many years.[30] Altogether, the forests of Australia may be said to be +in a purely natural state, and thus do they offer to the eye of the +inquiring traveller many objects less pleasing, it may be, but +nevertheless more sublime and solemn, than those with which the woods +of more cultivated countries commonly abound. + + [29] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 3. + + [30] See Account of the Effects of a Storm at Mount Macedon, + (Mitchell's "Three Expeditions," vol. ii. p. 283.) + +To travel without any beaten track through a country clothed, in many +parts, very thickly, by forests like those just described, is in itself +no easy undertaking, and the operation of hewing a way for a mile or two +through the surrounding woods, during the very heat of the day, and +sometimes after a long march, is very trying. But when the exposure +to burning thirst, and to the uncertain disposition of the native +inhabitants is added, the patient endurance of successful explorers +is still more strongly displayed. Nor, although it be only a minor +annoyance, must the pain and inconvenience felt by wanderers in the +bush from the prickly grass, which is found abundantly in the sandy +districts, be forgotten. In those barren sands, where no grass grows, +there are frequently tufts of a prickly bush, which tortures the horses, +and tears to pieces the clothes of the men about their ankles, if they +are walking. This bush, called the prickly grass, and a dwarf tree, the +_Eucalyptus dumosa_, grows only where the soil appears too barren and +loose for anything else; indeed, were it not for these, the sand would +probably drift away, and cover the vegetation of neighbouring spots less +barren and miserable. Against this evil, nature seems to have provided +by the presence of two plants so singularly fitted for a soil of this +description. The root of the _Eucalyptus dumosa_ resembles that of a +large tree; but it has no trunk, and only a few branches rise above +the ground, forming an open kind of bush, often so low that a man on +horseback may look over it for miles. This dwarf tree, and the prickly +grass together, occupy the ground, and seem intended to bind down the +sands of Australia. The size of the roots prevents the bush from growing +very close together, and the stems being without leaves, except at the +top, this kind of _Eucalyptus_ is almost proof against the running fires +of the bush. The prickly grass resembles, at a distance, in colour and +form, an overgrown lavender plant, but the blades of it, consisting of +sharp spikes, occasion most cruel annoyance both to men and horses. +Another inconvenience and danger to which exploring parties are liable, +are those fires in the bush already alluded to; which, whether caused by +accident, or designedly by the natives, are not uncommon events.[31] +"The country seemed all on fire around us."--"All the country beyond the +river was in flames; one spark might have set the whole country on our +side in a blaze, and then no food would remain for the cattle, not to +mention the danger to our stores and ammunition." "Fires prevailed +extensively at great distances in the interior, and the sultry air +seemed heated by the general conflagration;" these expressions convey +rather alarming ideas of the dangers to which travellers are exposed in +the bush, and from which it is not always easy to make good an escape. + + [31] On one occasion the progress of the fire was _against the wind_. + See this stated and explained by Major Mitchell, "Three Expeditions," + vol. i. p. 19. + +It may have been observed, possibly, in what has been related of the +country and scenery of New Holland in its natural state, that the +descriptions of very beautiful or fertile spots have been comparatively +few. Now, although it is true that a very large portion of the known +surface of that island is occupied by the sandstone rock, which is in +its very nature utterly barren, nevertheless, it is by no means to +be supposed that there is any scarcity of most rich and beautiful +land--some of it fit for immediate occupation--to be found in most +parts of Australia. In attempting to draw a picture of a distant and +remarkable region, we are almost sure to mark and bring distinctly out +its most peculiar and striking features; the scenes resembling those of +our own quiet and happy land are passed over as tame and familiar, while +the dreariness of the desert, the horrors of a "barren and dry land +where no water is,"--the boundless plains, or the bare mountain-tops, +the lonely shore or the rocky isle--scenes like these, are commonly +dwelt upon and described. In short, the very spots which are least +enticing, _in reality_, for the colonist to settle in, are often most +agreeable, _in description_, for the stranger to read of. + +But, since the reader must not be left with the erroneous and unpleasant +impression that the country of which we have been treating is, for the +most part, a mere wilderness, if not a desert, we may select two +recently-discovered districts of it to serve for a favourable specimen +of the beauty and fertility of many others, which cannot now be noticed. + +The following description of Wellington Valley (now recently included in +the limits of the colony,) is from the pen of its first discoverer, Mr. +Oxley, and other travellers bear witness that it is not overcharged: "A +mile and a half brought us into the valley which we had seen on our +first descending into the glen: imagination cannot fancy anything more +beautifully picturesque than the scene which burst upon us. The breadth +of the valley, to the base of the opposite gently-rising hills, was +between three and four miles, studded with fine trees, upon a soil which +for richness can nowhere be exceeded; its extent, north and south, we +could not see: to the west, it was bounded by the lofty rocky ranges by +which we had entered it; these were covered to the summit with cypresses +and acacias in full bloom, and a few trees in bright green foliage gave +additional beauty to the scene. In the centre of this charming valley +ran a strong and beautiful stream, its bright, transparent waters +dashing over a gravelly bottom, intermingled with large stones, forming +at short intervals considerable pools, in which the rays of the sun +were reflected with a brilliancy equal to that of the most polished +mirror. The banks were low and grassy, with a margin of gravel and +pebble-stones; there were marks of flood to the height of about twelve +feet, when the river would still be confined within its secondary banks, +and not overflow the rich lands that bordered it. Its usual width is 200 +feet; in times of flood it would be from 600 to 800 feet."[32] + + [32] See Oxley's Journals, pp. 184-7. + +In Australia Felix, as it has been called by its discoverer, Major +Mitchell, which is a much larger district than that just described, +almost every earthly delight and advantage would likewise seem to have +combined to make it a perfect dwelling-place for man. The temperate and +mild climate; the neighbourhood of the sea; the variety and fertility of +its surface; the ranges of lofty and picturesque mountains by which it +is backed; the number of rivers, small and large, by which it is +watered; the comparatively open nature of the country, yet not without +an ample supply of timber close at hand; all these and other advantages +unite in rendering Australia Felix one of the most desirable spots upon +the face of the globe. And the beauties and blessings of a spot like +this, must have stood forth in bold contrast with the dreary, lifeless +plains of the Darling, or Lachlan, which the discoverers of Australia +Felix had so long been engaged in exploring. One of the first harbingers +of the better country, to which the travellers were drawing near, was a +very curious height, called Pyramid Hill, which is formed of granite, +and, being a triangular pyramid, standing quite alone, closely resembles +the monuments of ancient Egypt. It rises 300 feet above the surrounding +plain; its point consists of a single block of granite, and the view +over the neighbouring country was exceedingly beautiful. The scene was +different from anything the travellers had elsewhere witnessed. "A land +so inviting, and still without inhabitants![33] As I stood," continues +the explorer, warming with the thoughts of his discovery, "the first +European intruder on the sublime solitude of these verdant plains, as +yet untouched by flocks or herds, I felt conscious of being the +harbinger of mighty changes; and that our steps would soon be followed +by the men and animals for which it seemed to have been prepared." +Twelve days afterwards, the whole of which had been spent in traversing +a district rich and lovely in the extreme, the first view of a noble +range of mountains (the Grampians) was obtained; they rose in the south +to a stupendous height, and presented as bold and picturesque an outline +as ever painter imagined.[34] And, during a journey of many days, the +same rich and sublime scenery still appeared, mingled together in +beautiful and endless variety. Every day the party of travellers passed +over land which, for natural fertility and beauty, could scarcely be +surpassed; over streams of unfailing abundance, and plains covered with +the richest pasturage. Stately trees and majestic mountains adorned the +ever-varying landscape, the most southern region of all Australia, and +the best. On the river Glenelg, which was discovered about a month after +they had left Pyramid Hill, the land appeared everywhere alike good, +alike beautiful; whether on the finely-varied hills, or in the equally +romantic vales, which opened in endless succession on both banks of the +river. Further on in this lovely district, the British explorers came +upon fresh scenes of surpassing sweetness. A small party of them were +out upon an excursion, when they perceived before them a ridge in the +blue distance--rather an unusual object in that close country. They soon +after quitted the wood through which they had been passing, and found +that they were on a kind of table-land, approaching a deep ravine coming +from their right, which terminated on a very fine-looking open country +below, watered by a winding river. They descended by a bold projection +to the bottom of the ravine, and found there a foaming little river, +hurrying downwards over rocks. After fording this stream, they ascended +a very steep but grassy mountain-side, and, on reaching a brow of high +land, a noble prospect appeared; a river winding among meadows that were +fully a mile broad, and green as an emerald. Above them rose swelling +hills of fantastic shapes, but all smooth and thickly covered with rich +verdure. Behind these were higher hills, all having grass on their +sides, and trees on their summits, and extending east and west +throughout the landscaper as far as could be seen. After riding about +two miles along an entirely open, grassy ridge, the party again found +the Glenelg, flowing eastward towards an apparently much lower country. +The river was making for the coast, (turning southward some miles below +the hill on which they stood,) through a country far surpassing in +beauty and richness any part hitherto discovered. + + [33] Not quite so; they soon fell in with a few of the scattered + wanderers of the bush. + + [34] See the interesting account of Major Mitchell's ascent to Mount + William, the highest point of these hills.--MITCHELL'S _Three + Expeditions_, vol. ii. pp. 171-181. + +What, in fact, is there wanting to the charming and extensive region +just described, or what to hundreds of other fruitful and lovely +districts under the power of the British crown, except _civilised +inhabitants_, and the establishment of _a branch of Christ's "one +Catholic and Apostolic Church_?" The population is ready, nay, even +redundant, in England; nor are the means deficient in a land abounding +beyond all others in wealthy capitalists. But the will, the wisdom, the +understanding heart, the united counsels, are, it is to be feared, and +are likely still to be, wanting with us. May that God who maketh men to +be of one mind in a house or nation, so dispose events, that in due time +the valleys and hills of Australia Felix may be dotted with churches, +and filled with faithful members of Christ! Then will it become a +_happy_ land indeed. Then may its inhabitants feel a lively interest, +both in the _social_ and _religious_ welfare of their country; and each +one may join, from the distant shores of the once unknown Southern Land, +in the holy aspirations of the Royal Prophet: "For my brethren and +companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house +of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good."[35] + + [35] Psalm cxxii. 8,9. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +NATIVES OF THE BUSH. + + +In most instances in which a country is taken possession of, and its +original inhabitants are removed, enslaved, or exterminated, the party +thus violently seizing upon the rights of others is considered the +superior and more civilized nation of the two. The very means by which +this advantage is gained are, usually, boldness, and worldly talent, +without which a conquest or successful invasion is impossible; and +these, when prosperous, are qualities which awaken very powerfully the +admiration and attention of men. So that, while earthly prosperity and +excellence are combining to cast a splendour around the actions of the +successful nation, adversity and inferiority do usually join in +blackening the cloud which hangs over the character of that which is +unfortunate. It is not for us to defend these judgments of the world, as +though they were, in any case, altogether righteous judgments, but this +we may safely affirm, in the particular instance of Australia, that, +upon the whole, it is a gain to the cause of truth and virtue for +Christian England to possess those wilds, which lately were occupied by +miserable natives; and, while we own that it is wrong to do evil that +good may come, yet may we, likewise, confess with thankfulness the +Divine mercy and wisdom which have so often brought good out of the +evil committed by our countrymen in these distant lands. It must be +confessed, too, that, whatever may be the amount of iniquity wantonly +committed among the natives of the other portions of the globe, for +which Europe is responsible, still, the Europeans, upon the whole, +stand higher than the inhabitants of the remaining portions, and, of +course, in proportion, very much higher than the most degraded and +least-improved race of savages, the Australian natives. True, indeed, +these despised Australians may, hereafter, rise up in judgment against +Europeans to condemn them; and when that which has been given to each +race of men shall be again required of them, those that have received +the most may frequently be found to have profited the least by the gifts +of Divine Providence. Still, without pretending to pass judgment upon +any, whether nations or individual persons,--without affecting, either, +to close our eyes against the miserable vices by which the Christian +name has been disgraced, and our country's glory sullied, among distant +and barbarous nations, we may with safety speak of the inhabitants of +those heathen lands in terms that are suitable to their degraded state. +In describing their darkened and almost brutal condition, we are but +describing things as they really exist;[36] it changes not the actual +fact to prove that, in many more respects than would at first sight +appear, the behaviour of men of our own _enlightened_ nation is scarcely +less darkened or less brutal than theirs. Nay, the Australian savage, in +his natural state, may be a far higher and nobler character than the +British convict sometimes is in his degraded state; and, nevertheless, +it may be correct to class the nation of the former among barbarians, +and that of the latter among civilized people. But in forming our +judgment respecting the real character of the natives of the Bush we +must beware lest we try them by our own standard,--a standard by which +it is unjust to measure them, since they have never known it, nor ever +had the means of reaching it.[37] Every wise man will make all possible +allowance for the effect of many generations of ignorance and +degradation upon the human soul, and when this has been fairly done, the +truly wise man, the humble Christian, whilst he reads of the deplorable +condition to which the human soul may be reduced, (as it is shown in the +instance before us,) will feel disposed to ask himself, "Who made thee +to differ from others? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" + + [36] One crime, in which the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands of + New Zealand notoriously indulge, has been charged also upon the people + of New Holland; but, since no mention of their _cannibalism_ is made by + those British travellers who have seen most of the habits of the + natives, it is hoped that the charge is an unfounded one. See, however, + M. Martin's New South Wales, pp. 151-2, and the instance of _Gome Boak_, + in Collins' History of New South Wales, p. 285; and Sturt's Expeditions + in Australia, vol. ii. p. 222. + + [37] Nay, our fellow-countrymen in the Australian colonies, can, by no + means, endure a strict trial, even by their own rule of right. Take, + for instance, the following very common case:--The kangaroo disappears + from cattle-runs, and is also killed by stockmen, merely for the sake of + the skin; but no mercy is shown to the natives who may help themselves + to a bullock or a sheep. They do not, it is true, breed and feed the + kangaroos as our people rear and fatten cattle, but, at least, the wild + animals are bred and fed upon their land, and consequently belong to + them. + +The native population of Australia is very peculiar in many respects, +not exactly resembling any other known race of human beings in the +world. They are more nearly akin to the Africans than to any others, and +they have, accordingly, been sometimes called _the Eastern Negroes_, +having the same thick lips, high cheek-bones, sunken eyes, and legs +without calves, which distinguish the native of Africa; but, with the +exception of Van Diemen's Land, and the adjoining coasts, the woolly +hair of the negro is not to be found among them, nor is the nose usually +so flat, or the forehead so low. They are seldom very tall, but +generally well made; and their bodily activity is most surprising; nor +is their courage at all to be despised. The Australian native has always +been pointed out as being the lowest specimen of human nature, and, +since, in every scale of degrees, one must be lowest, this is probably +correct enough; yet we are by no means to give too hasty credit to the +accounts of their condition, which have been given by those whose +interest it may have been to represent them in as unfavourable a light +as possible, or whose opportunities of judging have been few and scanty, +compared with their hasty willingness to pass judgment upon them. Men, +more or less busily engaged in killing and taking possession, are not +likely to make a very favourable report of those poor creatures into +whose inheritance they have come; mere self-defence would tempt them to +try to lessen the greatness of their crimes, by asserting the victims of +these to be scarcely deserving of a better fate, and, in the present +instance, the actual condition of the native population would be very +favourable to excuses of this kind. Or, even without this evil intention +of excusing wrong by slandering those that suffer it, many men, with but +few means of understanding their character, may have spoken decidedly +respecting the Australian natives, and that, too, in language even +harsher than their degraded state would justify. Disgusting and horrid +many of their habits and customs undoubtedly are, yet they appear even +more so at first sight, and to one only imperfectly acquainted with +them; especially when (which often happens) not the slightest allowance +is made for the peculiar situation of the savage, but he is taken at +once from the midst of his naked barbarity, and tried by the rules of +refinement and civilization. Recently, indeed, public attention and pity +have been more turned towards the unhappy race of natives, and many +traits have been discovered in their character which would not dishonour +more enlightened nations. The degraded position of those who are in the +midst of the white population affords no just criterion of their merits. +Their quickness of apprehension is often surprising, and nothing, +however new and strange, seems to puzzle or astonish them; so that they +follow closely the advice of the ancient poet: + + "Wonder at nought:--the only rule I know + To make man happy, and to keep him so." + +"They are never awkward," says Major Mitchell, who was well qualified +to speak from experience; "on the contrary, in manners, and general +intelligence, they appear superior to any class of white rustics that +I have seen. Their powers of mimicry seem extraordinary, and their +shrewdness shines even through the medium of imperfect language, and +renders them, in general, very agreeable companions." We may, therefore, +if our inquiry be accompanied by humility and justice, be able to form a +fair and impartial opinion respecting these people; and the result of an +inquiry of this sort must be, in every well-regulated soul, not merely a +feeling of thankfulness (still less of self-sufficiency,) that we are +far removed from the savage state, but, likewise, a sense of shame, +that, with many of our fellow-countrymen, their superior advantages +have been productive of little or no fruit. + +One very remarkable distinction of the natives of the Bush is, the +entire absence of clothing, unless the cloak, made of opossum-skin, worn +by some tribes, can deserve to be thought an exception. Their climate +being, generally speaking, a dry one, and exposure to the air, even at +night, being much less hurtful than in most other countries, this habit +of going without clothing, after the fashion of a brute beast, is by no +means so dangerous in Australia as it would be elsewhere. But, while +they can dispense with _clothes_, like most other savages, they are +extremely fond of _ornaments_,--at least, of what they esteem to be +such: these are teeth of kangaroos, or men, jaw-bones of a fish, +feathers, tails of dogs, pieces of wood, &c., fastened on different +parts of the head, by a sort of gum; while scars, and marks of various +kinds, are made upon the breast, arms, and back; or, upon certain +occasions, as going to war, or mourning for a friend, the body is +streaked over with white and yellow paint, according to the taste of the +party concerned. In two very distant parts of Australia, namely, the +gulf of Carpentaria, and the eastern coast of St. Vincent's Gulf, the +natives practise the rite of circumcision--a remarkable agreement, when +we consider that they are about 1200 miles apart, and have no means of +communication with each other. It is no uncommon custom, either, for the +natives to pierce their noses, and to place a bone or reed through the +opening, which is reckoned a great ornament. But there is another +custom, almost peculiar to Australia, which, from its singularity, +may deserve to be noticed at some length. Among many of the native +tribes,[38] it is usual for the males to have a front tooth, or +sometimes _two_, struck out at the time of their arriving at manhood, +and this ceremony is performed in a most solemn and impressive manner. +The following account of it, from the pen of an eye-witness, may be not +unacceptable to the reader: Lieutenant Collins, the historian of the +infant colony of New South Wales, was present during the whole of this +curious operation, and thus describes the accompanying ceremonies +practised by the natives of that part of Australia:--For seven days +previous to the commencement of the solemnity, the people continued to +assemble, and the evenings were spent in dancing, for which they adorned +themselves in their best manner, namely, by painting themselves white, +and especially by drawing white circles round their eyes. When the field +was prepared, and the youths who were to be enrolled among men were all +placed together upon one side of it, the business began with a loud +shout, and a clattering of shields and spears, from the armed party, +whose office it was to seize the patients about to undergo the +extraordinary operation. This was done one by one, until the whole +number, fifteen, were brought forward, and placed in the midst of the +armed body of men; then each youth was made to sit down, holding his +head downwards, with his hands clasped, and his legs crossed under him, +in which painful posture it was said they were to remain all night, +without looking up or taking any refreshment whatever.[39] The +Carrahdis, or persons who were to perform the operation, now began some +of their strange mummeries. Each one of these, in his turn, appeared to +suffer most extreme agony, and put himself into every posture that pain +could occasion, until, at length, a bone was brought forward, which was +intended to be used in the ensuing ceremony; and the poor youths were +led to believe that the more pain these Carrahdis suffered in obtaining +the bone, the less would be theirs in losing a tooth. The following day +began with the ceremony of the fifteen operators running round upon +their hands and feet, in imitation of the dogs of that country, and +throwing upon the boys, as they passed, sand and dirt with their hands +and feet. The youths were perfectly still and silent, and it was +understood that this ceremony gave them power over the dog, and endowed +them with whatever good qualities that animal might possess. + + [38] Speaking of a tribe which he found upon the banks of the Darling, + Mitchell says, "The men retained all their front teeth, and had no + scarifications on their bodies, two most unfashionable peculiarities + among the aborigines." (MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 261.) + The same intelligent traveller accounts for the custom of knocking out + the teeth, by supposing it a typical sacrifice, probably derived from + early sacrificial rites. The cutting off the last joint of the little + finger of females, (he adds,) seems a custom of the same kind. It is a + curious observation, that the more ferocious among the natives on the + Darling were those tribes that had _not_ lost their front teeth.--Vol. + ii. p. 345, and vol. i. p. 304. + + [39] This was not the fact, however, for Lieut. Collins found them in + a different place, when he went to the spot early in the next morning. + +The next part that was performed, was the offering of a sham kangaroo, +made of grass, to the fifteen lads, who were still seated as before. One +man brought the kangaroo, and a second carried some brushwood, besides +having one or two flowering shrubs stuck through his nose, and both +seemed to stagger under the weight of their burdens. Stalking and +limping, they at last reached the feet of the youthful hunters, and +placed before them the prize of the chase, after which they went away, +as though entirely wearied out. By this rite was given the power of +killing the kangaroo, and the brushwood, most likely, was meant to +represent its common haunt. In about an hour's space, the chief actors +returned from a valley to which they had retired, bringing with them +long tails of grass, which were fitted to the girdle. By the help of +this addition, they imitated a herd of kangaroos, one man beating time +to them with a club on a shield, and two others, armed, followed them +and affected to steal unnoticed upon them to spear them. As soon as +these pretended kangaroos had passed the objects of their visit, they +instantly got rid of their artificial tails, each man caught up a lad, +and, placing him upon his shoulders, carried him off in triumph to the +last scene of this strange exhibition. + +After walking a short distance, the men put down their burdens, placing +them in a cluster, each boy with his head upon his breast, and his hands +clasped together. In a few minutes, after a greater degree of mystery +and preparation than had been before observed, the youthful band was +brought forward to a place where a number of human beings were seen +lying with their faces to the ground, as if they were dead, and in front +of these was a man seated on a stump of a tree, bearing another man upon +his shoulders, both having their arms extended, while two men, in a like +attitude, were seen also behind the group of prostrate figures. These +first two men made most hideous faces for a few minutes, and then the +lads were led over the bodies lying on the ground, which moved and +writhed, as though in great agony; after which the same strange grimaces +were repeated by the two men who were placed on the further side of the +apparently dead bodies. All the information that could be gained of the +meaning of this, was, that it would make them brave men; that they would +see well and fight well. Then followed a sort of martial exercise with +spear and shield, in the presence of the future warriors, to signify to +them what was to be one great business of their lives--the use of the +spear; and, when this was finished, the preparations for striking out +the tooth commenced. The first subject of this barbarous operation was +chosen, and seated upon the shoulders of a native, who himself sat down +upon the grass; and then the bone was produced, which had cost so much +apparent pain to procure the evening before, and which was made very +sharp and fine at one end, for the purpose of lancing the gum. But for +some such precaution, it would have been impossible to have knocked out +the tooth, without breaking the jaw-bone. A stick was then cut with much +ceremony out of some hard wood, and when the gum of the patient was +properly prepared, the smallest end of the stick was applied to the top +of the tooth, while the operator stood ready with a large stone, as +though about to drive the tooth down the throat of the youth. Here a +certain attention to the number three, which had been before shown, was +again noticed, for no stroke was actually made, until three attempts to +hit the stick had taken place; and, notwithstanding repeated blows, so +firmly was the tooth of the first boy fixed in his gum, that it was full +ten minutes before it was forced out. The sufferer was then removed, his +gum was closed, and he was dressed out in a new style, with a girdle, in +which was stuck a wooden sword, and with a bandage round his head, while +his left hand was placed over his mouth, and he was not allowed to +speak, nor, during that day, to eat. In this manner were all the others +treated, except one only, who could not endure the pain of more than one +blow with the stone, and, breaking away from his tormentors, he managed +to make his escape. During the whole operation a hideous noise was kept +up around the patients, with whom, generally, it seemed to be a point of +honour to endure this pain without a single murmur. Having once gone +through this strange ceremony, they were henceforth admitted into the +company and privileges of the class of men. + +And as the commencement of manhood in this way, requires no small +exercise of courage and endurance of pain, so the remainder of the life +of an Australian savage is usually abundant in trials calling for the +like qualities, and demanding both bravery and patience. Whatever may +be the particular evils of civilized society, and however some wild +imaginations may be tempted by these to regard with regret or envy the +enjoyments of savage life, after all it must be confessed, these +enjoyments are, at best, very scanty and very uncertain, whilst the +miseries attendant upon such a state are of a nature continually to try +the patience and weary the spirit of him who has to endure them. Without +dwelling just at present upon the natural wants and sufferings to which +savage men are perpetually exposed in the wilderness of Australia, it is +deplorable to think of how many evils these thinly-scattered tribes are +the cause to each other; enormous and sad is the amount of suffering, +which, even in those lonely and unfrequented regions, human beings are +constantly bringing upon their brethren or neighbours. War, which seems +almost a necessary evil, an unavoidable scourge to man's fallen race, in +all ages and in every country, wears its most deadly aspect, and shows +its fiercest spirit among the petty tribes, and in the personal +encounters of savages like those of whom we are treating. Various causes +of misunderstanding will, of course, arise among them from time to time, +and every trifling quarrel is continued and inflamed by their amazing +and persevering efforts to revenge themselves, which appears to be with +them considered a matter of duty. The shedding of blood is always +followed by punishment, and only those who are _jee-dyte_, or +unconnected with the family of the guilty person, can consider +themselves in safety from this evil spirit of revenge. Little children +of seven or eight years old, if, while playing, they hear that some +murder has taken place, can in a moment tell whether or not they +are _jee-dyte_, and even at this tender age, take their measures +accordingly. An example of this unsparing visitation of offences +occurred not long after the settlement of New South Wales had commenced. +A native had been murdered, and his widow, being obliged to revenge his +death, chanced to meet with a little girl distantly related to the +murderer, upon whom she instantly poured forth her fury, beating her +cruelly about the head with a club and pointed stone, until at length +she caused the child's death. When this was mentioned before the other +natives, they appeared to look upon it as a right and necessary act, nor +was the woman punished by the child's relatives, possibly because it was +looked upon as a just requital. + +When a native has received any injury, whether real or fancied, he is +very apt to work himself up into a tremendous passion, and for this +purpose certain war-songs, especially if they are chanted by women, seem +amazingly powerful. Indeed, it is stated, on good authority, that four +or five mischievously-inclined old women can soon stir up forty or +fifty men to any deed of blood, by means of their chants, which are +accompanied by tears and groans, until the men are excited into a +perfect state of frenzy. The men also have their war-songs, which they +sing as they walk rapidly backwards and forwards, quivering their +spears, in order to work themselves up into a passion. The following +very common one may serve for a specimen, both of the manner and matter +of this rude, yet, to them, soul-stirring poetry:-- + + Yu-do dauna, Spear his forehead, + Nan-do dauna, Spear his breast, + Myeree dauna, Spear his liver, + Goor-doo dauna, Spear his heart, + Boon-gal-la dauna, Spear his loins, + Gonog-o dauna, Spear his shoulder, + Dow-al dauna, Spear his thigh, + Nar-ra dauna, Spear his ribs, + &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. + +And thus it is that a native, when he feels afraid, sings himself into +courage, or, if he is already in a bold mood, he heaps fuel upon the +flame of his anger, and adds strength to his fury. The deadly feeling of +hatred and revenge extends itself to their public, as well as to their +private, quarrels, and sometimes shows itself in a very fierce and +unexpected manner. In the valley of the Wollombi, between Sydney and +Hunter's River, some years ago, three boys of a certain tribe had been +persuaded to reside in the families of three of the British settlers +there. These were marked out for vengeance by the natives belonging to +a tribe in a state of warfare with them, about 100 of whom travelled +between 20 and 30 miles during one night--a thing almost unheard of +among the natives--and reached the neighbourhood of the settlers on the +Wollombi very early on the ensuing morning. Two or three of them were +sent to each of the houses to entice the boys out, but these, it +appeared, somewhat suspected the intentions of their enemies. However, +they were at length persuaded to join the native dance, when suddenly a +circle was formed round them, and they were speedily beaten to death +with _waddies_ or clubs. Immediately after which deed, the troop of +natives returned back again to their own neighbourhood. A European +happened to pass by, just as the boys were dying, but being alone and +unarmed, his interference might have been dangerous to himself, without +proving of any the slightest advantage to the unfortunate sufferers. + +Another instance of that cowardly cruelty, which will take every +possible advantage of a helpless age and sex occurred many years before +this, when the colony of New South Wales was quite in its infancy. The +father and mother of a little native girl, aged about seven years, had +belonged to a party by whom many robberies had been committed on the +banks of the river Hawkesbury, but an armed troop of Europeans was sent +in pursuit of these robbers, and when a meeting took place, the child's +parents were among those that fell, while she accompanied the victorious +party to the British settlement. Here she behaved herself with +propriety, being a well-disposed child, she was a favourite at +Government-house, where she resided under the protection of the +governor. This circumstance, and the fact of her belonging to a +different tribe from their own, awakened the jealousy of some of the +natives, who belonged to the neighbourhood of Sydney, and she was +consequently put to death in the most cruel manner. Her body was found +in the woods, speared in several places, and with both the arms cut off. +The murderers of the poor child escaped. + +But, while we justly condemn and pity the cruel and cowardly acts of +this description, which, unhappily, too often figure among the deeds of +the natives of the Australian Bush, we are by no means to suppose them +wanting in all feeling of kindness and humanity, still less would it be +correct to consider them deficient in true courage. Every allowance +ought to be made for the disadvantages of savage life, for the complete +ignorance of these people, for the difficulty which they frequently have +in procuring necessary food, and for the consequent cheapness in which +life is held among them; and when these and other like arguments are +duly weighed, we may learn not to abominate less the crimes of savages, +but to pity more the unhappy beings who commit them. Indeed, if we go +somewhat further, we may take shame to ourselves and to all civilized +nations, in many of whose practices a counterpart may be found for the +worst sins of the uncultivated, uncivilized heathens. + +Within the last few years many crimes have been recorded in our +newspapers, which, though committed in those large English towns, +by some conceived to be centres of civilization, refinement, and +enlightenment, might rival in horror and atrocity the very darkest +deeds of savages. + +Many proofs that the disposition of the native Australians is naturally +brave and courageous (however cowardly some of their barbarities may +appear,) could easily be brought forward; but none can be a stronger +proof of this than the coolness and self-possession which they have so +frequently exhibited upon meeting with Europeans, and encountering their +fire-arms for the first time. An example of this occurred in Western +Australia, when Captain Grey's party were on their return home towards +the British settlement of Perth. They were winding their way along on +the summit of a limestone hill not very far from the coast, which formed +a terrace about half a mile in width, with rich grass and beautiful +clumps of trees to adorn it; and while, on the side towards the land, +another terrace arose exactly like it, on the opposite side they +overlooked a bay surrounded by verdant and extensive flats. Their +enjoyment of the lovely scenery of this spot was soon disturbed by the +appearance of a large body of the natives on the high ground to the east +of them; and, although these strangers boldly advanced to within 200 +yards of them, all endeavours to bring about an amicable meeting proved +in vain, for the savages shouted to their companions, and these again to +others yet more remote, until the calls were lost in the distance, while +fresh parties of natives came trooping in from all directions. The +question was, how to get rid of these people without bloodshed; and +when an attempt to move quietly forward had been disappointed, by the +Australians hastening on to occupy a thick piece of bush, through which +the English party must pass, at last, Captain Grey, advancing towards +them with his gun cocked and pointed, drove them a little before him, +after which, to complete their dispersion, he intended to fire over +their heads. But, to his mortification and their delight, the gun missed +fire, upon which the natives, taking fresh courage, turned round to make +faces at him and to imitate the snapping of the gun. The second barrel +was then fired over their heads, at which they were alarmed, and made a +rapid retreat, halting, however, upon a rising ground about 300 yards +off, and preparing in earnest for action, when they perceived that they +had suffered no loss. But since they had thus learned to despise the +weapons of European warfare, prompt action was needful to prevent fatal +consequences on both sides. The captain, accordingly, took his rifle +from the man who was carrying it, and directing it at a heap of +closely-matted dead bushes, about two or three yards from the main body +of the enemy, he drove the ball right through it; the dry rotten boughs +crackled and flew in all directions, and the poor savages, confounded at +this new and unfair mode of fighting, hastily dispersed, without any +loss of life having been sustained by either party.[40] + + [40] A less serious but even more effectual method of dispersing the + natives, when they became troublesome, and would not quit the settlers' + camp at night, is mentioned by Mitchell. At a given signal, one of the + Englishmen suddenly sallied forth wearing a gilt mask, and holding in + his hand a blue light with which he fired a rocket. Two men concealed + bellowed hideously through speaking-trumpets, while all the others + shouted and discharged their fire-arms into the air. The man in the + mask marched solemnly towards the astonished natives, who were seen + through the gloom but for an instant, as they made their escape and + disappeared for ever.--MITCHELL'S _Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 290. + +On another occasion, not long after this encounter, and in the same +neighbourhood, the party of English explorers fell in with a native +carrying his spear and a handful of fish; he was lost in thought, and +they were close to him before he saw them, but, when he did so, he took +no notice of them. Without even quickening his pace, he continued in his +own course, which crossed their path, and, as he evidently wished to +avoid all communication, the men were ordered to take no notice of him, +and so they passed one another. He must have been a very brave fellow, +observes the captain, to act thus coolly, when an array so strange to +him met his eye. In like manner, when Major Mitchell was riding upon the +banks of the Gwydir, he fell in with a tall native, covered with +pipe-clay, who, although he could never have seen a horse before, +nevertheless, put himself in a posture of defiance, and did not retreat, +until the traveller galloped at him to prevent his attack. + +In a different part of New Holland, on the eastern coast, when Flinders +was exploring Pumice-stone River, near Moreton Bay, he was by no means +successful in striking the natives with awe and astonishment. A hawk +having presented itself to view, he thought this afforded a good +opportunity of showing his new friends, the inhabitants of the Bush, a +specimen of the effect and certainty of his fire-arms. He made them +understand what he intended, and they were so far alarmed as to seem to +be on the point of running into the woods, but a plan of detaining them +was discovered, for the seamen placed themselves in front of the +savages, forming a kind of defence; in which situation they anxiously +watched the British officer, while he fired at the bird. What must have +been his feelings at the moment!--the hawk, uninjured, flew away![41] + + [41] On a similar occasion, near the Darling, where the inhabitants are + remarkable for their thievish habits, when a crow was shot, in order to + scare them by its sudden death, the only result was, that, before the + bird had reached the ground, one of them rushed forward at the top of + his speed to seize it!--See MITCHELL'S _Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 265. + +It is, certainly, no easy task to awaken in the soul of the completely +savage man any great interest or concern in the ways and habits of +civilized life. The fallen nature, of which all mankind are common +partakers, renders it, unfortunately, easy to copy what is evil; +and, accordingly, the drunkenness, the deceitfulness, and general +licentiousness of depraved Europeans find many admirers and imitators +among the simple children of the Australian wilderness; but when +anything good, or decent, or even merely useful, is to be taught them, +then do they appear dull and inapt scholars indeed. Living, as they do, +in a peculiar world, as it were, of their own, they feel little or no +pleasure at hearing of what is going on elsewhere, and it has been +observed by one who had mixed very much with their various tribes, and +had gained considerable knowledge of their language, that, while they +cared not for stories respecting man in his civilized state, anything at +all bearing upon savage life was eagerly listened to and well received. +Once, having described to them some circumstances respecting England and +its inhabitants, the traveller took occasion, from the mention of the +length of days there in summer, to speak of those lands near the North +Pole, where, in summer, the sun never sets, while it never rises for +some weeks during the winter. The natives agreed that this must be +another sun, and not the one seen by them; but, when the conversation +turned upon the people of those northern regions, and the small +Laplander, clothed in skins of the seal, instead of the kangaroo, was +described to them, they were exceedingly delighted; and this picture of +half-savage life, so different from their own, threw quite into the +shade all the other stories they had heard. It is, indeed, really +laughable to find with what cool contempt some of these natives, who +have never had any intercourse with Europeans, treat our comforts, our +tastes, and pursuits. We may contemn and pity them, but they seem to +have very much the same feelings for us. We are horrified at the +greediness with which they devour grubs, and many of them are shocked at +our oyster-eating propensities! A remarkable instance of this occurred +to Captain Flinders in 1798, when he was exploring the eastern coast of +New Holland, and surveying Two-fold Bay. While measuring a base line +upon the beach, the English sailors heard the screams of three native +women, who took up their children and ran off in great alarm. Soon after +this a man made his appearance, armed only with a _waddie_, or wooden +scimetar, but approaching them apparently with careless confidence. The +explorers made much of him, and gave him some biscuit; in return for +which he presented them with a piece of gristly fat, probably of whale. +This was tasted by Captain Flinders, but he was forced to watch for an +opportunity of getting rid of it while the eyes of the donor were not +upon him. But the savage himself was, curiously enough, doing precisely +the same thing with the biscuit, the taste of which was, perhaps, no +more agreeable to him than that of the whale to the Englishman. The +commencement of the trigonometrical operations necessary for surveying +the bay was beheld by the Australian with indifference, if not with +contempt; and he quitted the strangers, apparently satisfied that from +people who could thus seriously occupy themselves there was no great +danger to be feared. + +But, whatever may be urged respecting the variety of tastes and the +want of a settled and uniform standard of appeal respecting them; +however it may be argued the rich and luscious fat of a noble whale may +intrinsically surpass the lean and mouldy flavour of dry sea-biscuit; +nevertheless, in many other matters of greater importance, it must be +confessed that the manners and habits of the natives of the Bush are +extremely wretched and evil. And the Christian European, while he dares +not _despise_ them, cannot do otherwise than _pity_ them. The fact has +been already noticed, that these miserable children of nature scarcely +ever wear anything deserving of the name of clothing; and, in many parts +of New Holland, their huts, usually constructed by the women, and +composed of little better materials than bark, or wood, and boughs,[42] +reeds, or clay, scarcely merit the title of human habitations. But it is +not so much in their outward state, as in their moral and social habits, +that this race of men are most pitiable and degraded. One subject which +has been frequently observed to mark the difference not so much between +civilized and uncivilized men, as that between Christians and heathens, +must especially be noticed. Cruel as is _the treatment of women_ in many +other parts of the globe, the inhabitants of Australia seem to go beyond +all other barbarians in this respect. From the best and wisest people of +christian Europe down to the vilest and most degraded tribes of heathen +Australia, a regular scale might be formed of the general mode of +behaviour to the weaker sex among these various nations; and, mostly, it +would be found that the general superiority or inferiority of each +nation is not untruly indicated by the kindness or cruelty with which +their females are usually treated. + + [42] See Nehemiah viii. 14, 15. + +From their earliest infancy the female children are engaged or betrothed +to a future husband, and in case of his death, they belong to his heir. +But this arrangement is frequently prevented by the horrid practice, +common among these barbarians, of stealing their wives, and taking them +away by main force. Indeed, it seems a rule for the women to follow the +conquering party, as a matter of course; so that on the return of an +expedition into the interior of New Holland, the friendly and +neighbouring natives, being informed that some of the distant and +hostile people had been shot, only observed, "Stupid white fellows! why +did you not bring away the gins?" + +Polygamy is not uncommonly practised; and an old man, especially, among +other privileges, may have as many _gins_, or wives, as he can keep, or +maintain. Indeed, the maintenance of a wife is not expensive, since they +are expected to work; and all the most laborious tasks, including that +of supplying a great part of the necessary food for the family, are +performed by them.[43] Hence, they are watched with very jealous care, +being valuable possessions; but, in spite of all precautions, they are +frequently carried off, and that in the most inhuman manner. The _lover_ +steals upon the encampment by night, and, discovering where the object +of his affection is, he frequently beats her on the head till she +becomes senseless, and then drags her off through the bushes, as a tiger +would its prey![44] This, of course, is an undertaking attended with +considerable danger; for if the intruder is caught, he will be speared +through the leg, or even killed, by the angry husband or relatives. Thus +many quarrels arise, in which brothers or friends are generally ready +enough to bear a part. But--unlike the courteous and christian customs +of our own country--the poor female, whether innocent or guilty, it +matters not, has no one to take her part; the established rule with +regard to women among these brutal creatures being, "If I beat your +mother, then you beat mine; if I beat your wife, then you beat mine," +&c. &c. The consequence of these ferocious habits is evident enough in +the appearance of most of the young women, who have any good looks or +personal comeliness to boast of. The number of violent blows upon the +head, or of rude wounds inflicted by the spear, form so many miserable +trophies of victories dearly won by these Australian beauties, and the +early life of one of these unhappy beings is generally a continued +series of captivities to different masters, of wanderings in strange +families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other females, amongst +whom she is brought a stranger by her captor; and rarely is a form of +unusual grace and elegance seen, but it is marked and scarred by the +furrows of old wounds; while many females thus wander several hundreds +of miles from the home of their infancy, without any corresponding ties +of affection being formed to recompense them for those so rudely torn +asunder. As may be well imagined, a marriage thus roughly commenced +is not very smooth in its continuance; and the most cruel +punishments--violent beating, throwing spears or burning brands, +&c.--are frequently inflicted upon the weaker party, without any +sufficient provocation having been given. It is evident, that treatment +of this kind, together with the immensely long journeys which they are +compelled to take, always accompanying their husbands on every +excursion, must be very injurious to the constitution and healthiness of +the weaker sex. And to these trials must be added the constant carrying +of those children that are yet unable to travel, the perpetual search +for food, and preparation of it when it is obtained, besides many other +laborious offices performed by the women, all which being reckoned up +together, will form a life of toil and misery, which we may hope is +endured by no other human beings beside the females of Australia. Nor is +such treatment without its ill effect upon the tempers and dispositions +of the female sex. The ferocity of the women, when it is excited, +exceeds that of the men; they deal dreadful blows at one another with +their long sticks, and, if ever the husband is about to spear in the +leg, or beat, one of his wives, the others are certain to set on her, +and treat her with great inhumanity. + + [43] The men frequently indulge a great degree of indolence at the + expense of the women, who are compelled to sit in their canoe, exposed + to the fervour of a mid-day sun, hour after hour, chanting their little + song, and inviting the fish beneath them to take their bait; for without + a sufficient quantity to make a meal for their tyrants, who are lying + asleep at their ease, they would meet but a rude reception on their + landing.--COLLINS' _Account of Colony of New South Wales_, p. 387. + + [44] Playing at "stealing a wife" is a common game with the Australian + children. + +One custom, which to Europeans seems extremely remarkable, is that of +the family name of the _mother_, and not of the _father_, becoming the +surname of the children of either sex. And another, connected with this, +forbids a man from marrying with a woman of his own family name. Each +family has for its crest or sign, or _kobong_, as they call it, some +animal or vegetable; and a certain mysterious connexion is supposed to +exist between a family and its _kobong_; so that a member of the family +will never kill an animal of the same species with his _kobong_, should +he find it asleep; indeed, he always kills it reluctantly, and never +without affording it a chance of escape.[45] This arises from the family +belief that some one individual of the species is their nearest friend, +to kill whom would be a great crime, and is to be carefully avoided. +And, in like manner, a native having a vegetable for a _kobong_ may not +gather it under certain circumstances, and at a particular period of +the year. It is said that they occasionally exchange surnames with +their friends, a custom which is supposed to have prevailed among the +Jews; and they have another practice resembling the same people, which +is, that when a husband dies, his brother takes the wife.[46] Among +beings who hold life so cheaply, it cannot be a matter of surprise that +the destruction of infants should be occasionally practised, more +especially in cases where the child is born with any natural deformity: +nor is it an excuse for these barbarians that the polished nations of +ancient Greece and Italy habitually committed the like atrocities, or +even greater,--considering it in their own choice to rear up their +offspring or not, exactly as it suited their convenience. In fact, +we may learn from this and many other instances, that it is not +_civilisation_ alone, but yet more than that, _Christianity_, by which +the difference between the European and the Australian is produced:-- + + "In vain are arts pursued, or taste refin'd, + Unless Religion purifies the mind." + + [45] These facts may account for the statement mentioned by Collins, of + a native throwing himself in the way of a man who was about to shoot a + crow, whence it was supposed that the bird was an object of worship, + which notion is, however, contradicted by the common practice of eating + crows, of which birds the natives are very fond.--See COLLINS' _Account + of the Colony of New South Wales_, p. 355. + + Two young natives, to whom Mr. Oxley had given a tomahawk, discovered + the _broad arrow_, with which it was marked on both sides, and + which exactly resembles the print made by the foot of an emu. Probably + the youths thought it a _kobong_, for they frequently pointed to + it and to the emu skins which the party had with them.--See OXLEY'S + _Journal_, p. 172. + + [46] The command in Deut. xxv. only extended to the case of eldest sons + dying without children. + +Respecting the languages spoken in different parts of New Holland, it is +doubtful whether they have all a common root or not, but the opinion of +Captain Grey, who was not unqualified to judge, is in favour of their +kindred origin. In so vast an extent of country, among wandering tribes, +that hold little or no communication with each other, great differences +in language were to be expected, and are found to exist. If three men +from the east, the west, and the north of England meet together, they +occasionally puzzle one another by their various dialects; what, then, +must be expected by way of variety in a country between two and three +thousand miles across, without much communication, and totally +differing, at its extreme points, in climate and in animal and vegetable +productions? For new objects new names were, of necessity, invented; but +the resemblance between words signifying objects common everywhere, as, +for instance, the parts of the human body, is said to be remarkable. The +Australian languages are stated to be soft and melodious in their sound, +and their songs, though rude and wild, have amazing power over the +feelings of the soul. _Noise_ would appear to have great charms in +savage ears, and, sometimes, from the high key in which our English +songs are occasionally pitched, it would seem to have charms also for +"ears polite." But an elegant and refined European song would only be +laughed at and mimicked by the musical blacks, some few of whom are not, +however, quite insensible to the sweets of civilised melody. Warrup, a +native servant, was once present when "God save the Queen" was sung in +chorus, and it so affected him, that he burst into tears. He certainly +could not have understood the words, much less could he have entered +into the noble and loyal spirit, of our National Anthem: it must, +therefore, have been the music, and, perhaps, the excitement prevailing +around him, which affected him. + + + + +[Illustration: OPOSSUM HUNTING.] + +CHAPTER IV. + +MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE IN THE BUSH. + + +One of the most important occupations of every man in this present state +of things, is the pursuit of food and necessary sustenance for himself +and those belonging to him. But this occupation, being in some respects +more difficult, or at least, more uncertain and engrossing, stands more +forward in savage life, and appears more important than ever; while, at +the same time, the contrast upon this subject between the rude child of +nature and the civilized inhabitants of the earth, becomes even stronger +than usual. In glancing over the condition of the native of the Bush in +Australia, with respect to his supply of needful support, and his means +of obtaining it, several truths are to be borne in remembrance, obvious +indeed when pointed out, and yet not unlikely to escape a casual +observer. First, the vast extent of country, compared with the thin and +scattered population it maintains; next, the very different sort of food +required by a savage and a European; and lastly, the various kinds of +food which are used by the inhabitants of the wilderness--are all +matters which must be recollected, if we would form a fair judgment upon +the subject, and do justice to the humble, and apparently scanty, bill +of fare which Nature has provided for those that dwell among her wildest +scenes and in her most secret, recesses. In these spots it is but +rarely, of course, from the mere absence of sufficient provisions, that +any large body of natives can assemble together; but, occasionally, a +feast is prepared for a considerable number, either when some particular +article of food abounds at a certain place and is in full season, or, +especially, when a whale (a fish very common on the coasts of New +Holland) is thrown ashore. In the latter case, it is impossible for us +entirely to enter into the feelings of the savage, for we have never, +unexpectedly, had so large a quantity of what is considered the greatest +delicacy placed at once before us. Hence, when the Australian finds a +whale thrown ashore in his own district, his heart warms and opens with +kind feelings of hospitality; he longs to see all his friends about him, +and large fires are immediately kindled to announce the fortunate and +joyful event. Notice of the feast having been thus given, and a due +invitation forwarded, he rubs himself all over with the blubber, and his +favourite wives are served in the same manner, after which, he begins to +cut his way into the flesh of the whale, the grain of which is about the +firmness of a goose-quill; of this he chooses the nicest morsels, and +either broils them on the fire, or cooks them by cutting them into small +pieces, and spitting them on a pointed stick. + +Other natives, attracted by the flaming signal of revelry, soon assemble +in gay companies from all quarters: by night they dance and sing, and by +day they eat and sleep, and the feast continues unchecked until they at +last fairly eat their way into the whale, and may be seen climbing in +and about the carcase choosing their favourite pieces. The fish, in a +few days, becomes more disagreeable than ever, but still they will not +leave it, until they have been completely gorged with it,--out of temper +from indigestion, and therefore engaged in frequent quarrels. And, even +when they are, at length, obliged to quit the feast, they carry off with +them as much as they can stagger under, to eat upon the way, and to take +as a rarity to their distant friends. Such is a true picture of a native +Australian feast, and the polished sons and daughters of Europe will +turn away from it with feelings of unmingled disgust. But, with how many +of these is life itself a perpetual series of feasting, less gross and +disgusting indeed, but not less really sensual than this! How many +inhabitants of civilised countries live continually as though the +saying, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die" were the whole sum +and substance of practical wisdom! Yet if it were so, who would be more +happy, who more blessed in his situation, than the savage devouring, day +after day, the food his heart delights in? + +But a whale-feast is an event of no ordinary kind in the life of an +inhabitant of the Bush, and, if we would know how the common sustenance +of life is procured by him, we must follow him through a variety of +scenes and pursuits, of which, by no means the least important or +interesting, is the chase of the kangaroo.[47] This singular and +harmless creature is now so well known to Europeans, from specimens that +have been brought over and placed in our public collections of animals, +and also from numberless pictures, that it would be waste of time to +stop to describe it. In truth, being one of the productions peculiar to +Australia, it may be said, from the figures of it to be seen upon the +back of every book relating to that country, to have become almost the +_kobong_ or crest of that southern region. In many portions of New +Holland, particularly where the country is wooded and the soil tolerably +fertile, kangaroos are very abundant; but so great havoc is made among +these defenceless creatures by their various enemies, especially by man, +that their numbers appear to be upon the decrease.[48] + + [47] The wild dog is also an object of chase, and its puppies are + considered great dainties; but they are sometimes saved, in order to + bring them up in a tame state, in which case they are taken by one of + the elder females of the family, and actually reared up by her in all + respects like one of her own children! + + [48] It is a saying among the natives, "Where white man sit down, + kangaroo go away." + +A day's hunting is often the cause of no small excitement, even in +England, among men who care nothing for the object of their chase, and +are certain of a good dinner at the end of their day's sport; but we may +suppose this to be a matter of more serious interest to the Australian, +who depends upon his skill and patience in hunting for his daily food. +His whole manner and appearance, accordingly, are changed on these +occasions; his eyes brighten up, his motion becomes quick though silent, +and every token of his eagerness and anxiety is discoverable in his +behaviour. Earth, water, trees, sky, are all in turn the subjects of his +keenest search, and his whole soul appears to be engaged in his two +senses of sight and hearing. His wives, and even his children, become +perfectly silent, until, perhaps, a suppressed whistle is given by one +of the women, denoting that she sees a kangaroo near her husband, after +which all is again quiet, and an unpractised stranger might ride within +a few yards of the group, and not perceive a living thing. The devoted +animal, meanwhile, after listening two or three times without being able +to perceive any further cause of alarm, returns to its food or other +occupation in complete security, while the watchful savage poises his +spear, and lifts up his arm ready for throwing it, and then advances +slowly and with stealth towards his prey, no part moving but his legs. +Whenever the kangaroo looks round, its enemy stands still in the same +position he is in when it first raises its head, until the animal, again +assured of safety, gives a skip or two, and goes on feeding: again the +native advances, and the same scene occurs, until the whizzing spear +penetrates the unfortunate creature, upon which the whole wood rings +with sudden shouts; women and children all join in the chase, and, at +last, the kangaroo, weakened from loss of blood and encumbered by the +spear, places its back against a tree, and appears to attack its pursuer +with the fury of despair. Though naturally a timid animal, it will, +when it is hard pressed for life, make a bold stand; and, if hunted by +Europeans, will sometimes wait for the dogs and tear them with its hind +claws, or squeeze them with its fore arms, until the blood gushes out of +the hound's nostrils; and sometimes the poor creature will take to the +water, and drown every dog that comes near it.[49] But by the natives +the poor beast is generally soon dispatched with spears thrown from a +distance, and its body is carried off by its conqueror and his wives to +some convenient resting-place where they may enjoy their meal. + + [49] Martin's New South Wales, p. 131. + +There is likewise another mode of hunting the same animal, in which many +persons join together, and which, though more lively and noisy, is not +so characteristical as the first. A herd of kangaroos are surprised +either in a thick bushy place, to which they have retired during the +heat of the day, or else in an open plain. In the first case, they are +encircled by a party, each native giving a low whistle, as he takes up +his place, and when the blockade is finished, the bushes are set on +fire, and the frightened animals fly from the flames towards the open +plains; but no sooner do they approach the outskirts of the wood, than +the bushes are fired in the direction in which they are running, while +they are driven back by loud calls and tremendous cries, which increase +their terror, and they run wildly about, until, at length, maddened by +fear, they make a rush through their enemies, who allow but few of them +to escape. When the kangaroos are surrounded upon a plain, the point +generally chosen is an open bottom encircled by wood; each native has +his place given him by some of the elder ones, and all possible means +that art, or experience, or the nature of the ground, can furnish, are +employed to ensure success in approaching as nearly as may be towards +the animals without disturbing them. Thus the circle narrows round the +unwary herd, till at last one of them becomes alarmed, and bounds away; +but its flight is speedily stopped by a savage with fearful yells; and +before the first moments of terror and surprise have passed by, the +armed natives come running upon them from every side, brandishing their +spears, and raising loud cries; nor does the slaughter, thus commenced, +commonly finish before the greater number of them have fallen. These +public hunts are conducted under certain rules; for example, the +supposed owner of the land must be present, and must have invited the +party, or a deadly fight between human beings is pretty sure to take +place. The first spear that strikes a kangaroo settles whose property +the dead animal is to be; however slight the wound, and even though +inflicted by a boy only, this rule holds good; and if the creature +killed is one which the boy may not yet lawfully eat,[50] then his right +passes on to his father, or nearest male relative. The cries of the +hunters are said to be very beautiful and expressive, and they vary at +different periods of the chase, being readily understood and answered by +all, so that they can thus explain their meaning to one another at a +very great distance. + + [50] See page 79. + +But, since the kangaroo is one of the principal articles of food in the +wilds of New Holland, there are yet other modes of taking it, which are +commonly practised. + +Sometimes they use the ordinary methods of catching it in nets or +pitfalls. Occasionally, also, in a dry district, where many animals +assemble together from a great distance to drink at some solitary piece +of water, the huntsman builds for himself a rude place of shelter, in +which for hours he remains concealed and motionless, until the thirsty +animals approach in sufficient numbers. Then kangaroos, cockatoos, +pigeons, &c. are attacked and destroyed without mercy, and the patience +of the hunter is commonly richly rewarded by the booty he obtains. + +But the mode of tracking a kangaroo until it is wearied out, is the one +which, beyond all others, commands the admiration of the Australians, +for it calls forth the exercise of every quality most highly prized +among savages, skill in following traces, endurance of hunger and +thirst, unwearied bodily exertion, and lasting perseverance. To perform +this task the hunter starts upon the track of the kangaroo, which he +follows until he catches sight of the animal, as it flies timidly before +him; again he pursues the track, and again the object of his pursuit +bounds away from him; and this is repeated until nightfall, when the +pursuer lights his fire and sleeps upon the track. With the first light +of day the hunt is renewed, and, towards the close of the second day, or +in the course of the third, the kangaroo, wearied and exhausted by the +chase, will allow the hunter to approach near enough to spear it. None +but a skilful hunter, in the pride of youth and strength can perform +this feat, and one who has frequently practised it always enjoys great +fame amongst his companions. + +When the kangaroo has been obtained in some one or other of these +various methods, the first operation is to take off the skin of the +tail, the sinews of which are carefully preserved to sew cloaks or bags, +or to make spears. The next thing to be thought of is the cooking of the +flesh; and two modes of doing this are common. One of these is to make +an oven by digging a hole in the sand, and lighting a fire in it; when +the sand is well heated, and a large heap of ashes is collected, the +hole is scraped out, and the kangaroo is placed in it, skin and all; +it is then covered over with ashes, and a slow fire is kept up above +it; when baked enough, it is taken out and laid upon its back, the +intestines are then removed, and the whole of the gravy is left in the +body of the animal, which is carefully taken out of the skin, and then +cut up and eaten. Travellers in the Bush speak very highly of the +delicious flavour of the meat thus curiously cooked. The other mode of +dressing is merely to broil different portions of the kangaroo upon the +fire, and it may be noticed that certain parts, as the blood, the +entrails, and the marrow, are reckoned great dainties. Of these the +young men are forbidden to partake. Of the blood a sort of long sausage +is made, and this is afterwards eaten by the person of most consequence +in the company. + +Another abundant source of food is supplied to the native population +of New Holland at certain seasons, in particular situations, by the +various sorts of fish which abound on its coasts, and in its bays and +inlets. From this, most probably, arises the fact observed by Captain +Flinders, that the borders of bays, and entrances of rivers, are in New +Holland always most thickly peopled. And Collins mentions a sort of +fancied superiority, which these people pretend to, above those that +dwell in the more inland parts. "The natives of the coast," he says, +"when speaking of those in the interior, constantly expressed themselves +with contempt and marks of disapprobation." So very similar are the airs +and vanity of a savage, to those in which civilised man indulges. The +three most common modes of catching fish are, by spearing them, taking +them by means of a weir constructed across places which are left nearly +dry at low water, or after a flood, and enclosing them in a net, +prepared by the women out of grassy fibres, and one of their greatest +efforts of ingenuity.[51] Nothing very remarkable is to be noticed in +these modes of fishing, except it be the speed with which they run along +the shore, and the certainty with which they aim their spears at the +inhabitants of the shallow bays and open lakes. As surely as the natives +disappear under the surface of the water, so surely will they reappear +with a fish writhing upon the point of their short spears; and even +under water their aim is always correct. One traveller, Sturt, is of +opinion that they seldom eat the finny tribes when they can get anything +else, but this idea seems scarcely to agree with the report of others. +At all events, whether from choice or not, a large proportion of their +subsistence is derived from the waters. With regard to the cookery of +their fish, the Australian barbarians are said to have a most admirable +method of dressing them, not unworthy of being copied by other nations. +If the fish are not simply broiled upon the fire, they are laid in a +piece of paper bark, which is wrapt round them, as paper is folded round +a cutlet; strings of grass are then wound tightly about the bark and +fish, which is slowly baked in heated sand, covered with hot ashes; when +it is sufficiently cooked, the bark is opened, and answers the purpose +of a dish; it is, of course, full of juice and gravy, not a drop of +which has escaped. The flavour of many sorts of fish thus dressed is +said to be delicious, and sometimes pieces of kangaroo and other meats +are cooked in the same manner. + + [51] "Among the few specimens of art manufactured by the primitive + inhabitants of these wilds, none come so near our own as the net, which, + even in its quality, as well as in the mode of knotting, can scarcely + be distinguished from those made in Europe."--MITCHELL'S _Three + Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 153. + +The seal is exceedingly abundant on many parts of the Australian coast, +and is also useful to the natives for purposes of food, while the +pursuit of this creature is an exciting sport for the inhabitants of the +southern and western shores of New Holland. The animal must be surprised +upon the beach, or in the surf, or among the rocks that lie at no great +distance from the shore; and the natives delight in the pursuit, +clambering about the wild crags that encircle their own land; sometimes +leaping from one rock to another, spearing the fish that lie in the +quiet pools between, in the next moment dashing into the surf to fight +with a seal or turn a turtle; these are to them agreeable and joyous +occupations. And when we remember that their steps are followed by a +wife and children, as dear to them, probably, as ours are to us, who are +witnesses of their skill and activity; and who, when the game is killed, +will help to light the fire with which it is to be cooked, and to drag +it to the resting-place, where the father romps with his little ones +until the meal is made ready; when we recollect, likewise, that all +this takes place in a climate so mild and genial, that a house is not +necessary, we shall feel less surprise at the difficulty of persuading +an inhabitant of the Bush to fall into European customs, and submit to +the trammels of civilised life. + +The turtle, must by no means be forgotten, in an account of the +different articles of provision upon which an Australian has to depend +for his supply. These useful creatures are to be found chiefly on the +coast in the warmer portions of New Holland, and are in high season +about December and January, the height of summer in Australia. The green +turtles are surprised upon the beach when they come to lay their eggs; +but the fresh-water turtle is found (as its name implies,) in fresh +lakes and ponds, at the season when these are most dried up, and their +margin is overgrown with reeds and rushes. Among these the natives wade +with stealthy pace, so quietly indeed, that they even creep upon wild +fowl and spear them. The turtles swim lazily along the surface of the +water, biting and smelling the various aquatic plants they meet with, +but as soon as they are alarmed, they sink to the bottom instantly. The +pursuer puts out his foot, (the toes of which he uses to seize anything, +almost as we use our fingers,) and gropes about with it among the weeds +at the bottom of the water until he feels the turtle; and then, holding +it to the ground, he plunges his hands and arms in and seizes his prey. +In this manner two or three men have been known to take fourteen turtles +in a very short time; but these are small, weighing from one to two +or three pounds each. The fresh-water turtle is cooked, after the +Australian fashion, by being baked, shell and all, in hot ashes; and +when it is sufficiently dressed, the bottom shell is removed with ease, +and the whole animal remains in the upper shell, which serves for a +dish. They are generally very fat and delicious, so that the New +Hollanders are extremely fond of them, and the turtle season, being an +important part of the year, is looked forward to with pleasure. The +green turtles, which are a much larger animal, found only by the +sea-side, are taken when crawling on the beach. If they by accident +get upon their backs, they are unable to right themselves, and perish +miserably, so that nothing more is necessary to secure them, than to +place them in that posture, and they may be taken away and devoured +at leisure. Among Wellesley Islands, at the bottom of the Gulph of +Carpentaria, in the north of New Holland, Captain Flinders obtained in +one day, in this manner, no less than forty-six turtles, the least of +them weighing 250lbs, and the average being about 300lbs; besides which, +many that were not wanted, because there was no room to stow them away, +were turned again, and suffered to make their escape. + +Opossum hunting offers another means of supplying food to the +Australians, and as these quadrupeds usually dwell in the hollows of +decayed trees, and ascend the trees when they are at all alarmed, the +mode of pursuing them is of a new and different character. The first +thing to be done is to ascertain that the opossum has really concealed +itself somewhere in the tree. To discover this the holes made by the +nails of the animal in the bark as it climbed up, are sufficient; only, +one of these footmarks having a little sand in it is anxiously sought +for, and if this sand sticks together, when the hunter blows gently upon +it, it is a proof, since it is not dry enough yet to blow away, that the +opossum has gone up into the tree that very morning. The dextrous savage +then pulls out his hatchet,[52] a rude _stone hatchet_--unless he has +been fortunate enough to get a better one from some European, and cuts a +notch in the bark of the tree sufficiently large and deep to receive the +ball of his great toe. The first notch being thus made, about four feet +from the ground, he places the toe of his right foot in it, throws his +right arm round the tree, and with his left hand sticks the point of the +handle of his hatchet into the bark, as high up as he can reach, and +thus forms a stay to drag himself up with. This first step being made +good, he cuts another for his left foot, and so on, always clinging with +the left hand and cutting with the right, resting the whole weight of +the body upon the toe of either foot, until the hole is reached where +the opossum lies hidden, which is then compelled by smoke, or by being +poked out, to quit its hiding place; when the conqueror, catching hold +of his victim's tail, dashes it down on the ground, and quietly descends +after it. As the bite of the opossum is very painful and severe, due +care is taken, in laying hold of it, to keep clear of all danger from +its teeth. Occasionally trees of 130 feet in height have been observed, +which had been _notched_ by the natives up to at least eighty feet! and +the old notches are never again used, but new ones are cut every time. +Strange to tell, this very difficult operation of following the opossum +is not uncommonly performed by moonlight, some persons moving onwards to +detect the animal feeding, while others follow, creeping after them with +fire-sticks; and it is curious to watch the dark body of the savage, +climbing the tree, contrasted with the pale moonlight. The Australians +are fond of these expeditions, the end of which is the same as of the +others conducted in broad daylight--the poor opossum is reached, and +knocked down with a stick, or shaken off the branch to which he had fled +as a last retreat. + + [52] "Their only cutting implements are made of stone, sometimes of + jasper, fastened between a cleft stick with a hard gum."--MARTIN'S + _New South Wales_, p. 147. "The use of the 'mogo,' or stone-hatchet, + distinguishes the barbarous from the 'civil' black fellows, who all + use iron tomahawks."--MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions in Eastern + Australia_, vol. i. p. 4. + +Birds form a considerable article of food in the wilds of New Holland, +and there are many various sorts of them, as well as many different +modes of killing and ensnaring them, which it would be tedious to dwell +upon; but the emu, or cassowary, is too important and remarkable to be +passed over. This bird is very large, and its covering resembles hair +more than feathers; it is not able to fly, but it can run more swiftly +than the fleetest dogs, and its kick is violent enough to break a man's +leg: it is however easily tamed. The instinctive dread which these +animals in their wild state have of man is very remarkable. It was +observed by Major Mitchell, on various occasions during his journeys, +that the first appearance of large quadrupeds--bullocks and horses, did +not scare the emu or kangaroo; but that, on the contrary, when they +would have fled from the first approach of their enemy man, advancing +singly, they would allow him to draw near when mounted, and even to +dismount, fire from behind a horse, and load again, without attempting +to run off. In hunting the emu, it matters not how much noise is made, +for the natives say that bird is quite deaf, although its sight is keen +in proportion. The kangaroo must be pursued as silently as possible. + +Emus are killed in the same manner as kangaroos, but they are more +prized by the natives, and the death of one of these birds awakens a +greater excitement in the spectators; shout succeeds shout, and the +distant sojourners take up the cry, until it is sometimes reechoed for +miles; yet the feast which follows is very exclusive, the flesh of the +emu, which, except in one part which tastes like beef, is very oily, +being thought by far too delicious to be made a common article of food. +Young men and unprivileged persons are forbidden to touch it, on pain of +severe penalties, which are strictly enforced. The emus are generally +found, like the kangaroos, in tolerably fertile spots, and like them, +also, are fast disappearing from the neighbourhood of the haunts of +Europeans. The destruction of cockatoos with the weapon, or throwing +stick, called a _kiley_,[53] the hunting and snaring of different sorts +of wild fowl, afford ample room for a display of that cunning, skill, +and amazing patience, which distinguish the character of uncivilized +man. One curious way of catching birds in Australia is certainly +original, if it be but correctly reported. It is said that a native +will, in the heat of the sun, lay down as if asleep, holding a bit of +fish in his hand; the bird seeing the bait, seizes on the fish, and the +native then catches it! But enough has now been stated respecting the +various ways in which game is taken in the bush. And although, perhaps, +enough has been said concerning Australian cookery, yet the mode in +which they cook the birds in that country, similar indeed to the methods +already mentioned, may briefly be noted. When the natives wish to dress +a bird very nicely, the entrails are taken out and cooked separately, +(being considered a great delicacy,) after the example of the admirers +of woodcocks in England. A triangle is then formed round the bird by +three red hot pieces of stick, against which ashes are placed, hot coals +are also stuffed into the inside of the bird, and it is thus quickly +cooked, and kept full of gravy. In the opinion of Captain Grey, wild +fowl dressed in this manner, on a clean piece of bark, was as good a +dish as he had ever eaten. + + [53] The kiley, or boomerang, is a thin curved missile, which can be + thrown by a skilful hand so as to rise upon the air, and its crooked + course may be, nevertheless, under control. It is about two feet four + inches in length, and nine and a half ounces in weight. One side, the + uppermost in throwing, is slightly convex, the lower side is flat. It + is amazing to witness the feats a native will perform with this weapon, + sometimes hurling it to astonishing heights and distances, from which, + however, it returns to fall beside him; and sometimes allowing it to + fall upon the earth, but so as to rebound, and leap, perhaps, over a + tree, or strike some object behind. + +But there are many other kinds of food which custom, and perhaps +necessity, have rendered palatable to the people of New Holland, but +which we can regard only with disgust and aversion. Among these it may +be scarcely just to reckon _frogs_, since they are an article of food in +one of the most polished nations of Europe, and those who have tasted +them properly dressed have usually no fault to find with their flavour. +The season in Australia for catching frogs and fresh-water shell-fish, +is when the swamps are nearly dried up by the heat; these animals then +bury themselves in holes in the mud, and the native women, with their +long sticks, and taper arms, which they plunge up to the shoulder in the +slime, manage to drag them out. In summer a whole troop of females may +be seen paddling about in a swamp, slapping themselves to kill the +mosquitoes and sandflies, and every now and then plunging their arms +down into the mud, and dragging forth their prey. Sometimes one of these +women may be seen with ten or twelve pounds' weight of frogs in her bag. +Frogs are cooked on a slow fire of wood-ashes, and being held in one +hand by the hind legs, a dexterous pinch with the finger and thumb of +the other at once removes the lower portion of the intestines, and the +remainder of the little animal is then taken at a mouthful. Muscles are +also abundant in the rivers, and in the north-western parts of New +Holland they form a principal article of food; but in the south-western +districts the inhabitants will not touch them, for there is a tradition +that some persons long ago ate them and died by means of sorcerers, +who considered that fish to be their peculiar property. Grubs are a +favourite food with some of the Australian natives, and, in order to +procure them, they are at the pains of breaking off the top of the trees +frequented by these grubs, since, until its top is dead, the trees do +not afford a proper abode for them. Grubs are eaten either raw, or +else roasted in much the same manner as the fish are. But taste is +proverbially a subject concerning which there is no accounting by +reason, as we must confess when we find _snakes_, _lizards_, _rats_, +_mice_, and _weasels_ among Australian dainties. The smaller quadrupeds +are not skinned before they are cooked, but are dressed with the skin, +the fur being only singed off; and hunger renders these not only +palatable but digestible. Salt is rarely or never used by the natives, +until they have been taught its use by Europeans; and even then they do +not relish it at first, any more than other sauces or condiments; +indeed, it is quite laughable to see their grimaces the first time that +they taste _mustard_ upon a piece of meat. + +Among vegetable productions there are many roots, which are eaten by the +natives. It is commonly the office of the women to dig for roots, for +which purpose they carry a long pointed stick to loosen the earth, and +that is afterwards scooped up by the fingers of the left hand. Their +withered arms and hands, covered with earth by digging and scraping +after food, resemble, as they advance in years, the limbs and claws of +a quadruped more than those of a human being. In stiff soils, this +operation of digging can only be performed when the earth is moist, but +in loose sandy soils it may be always done, and, on this account, the +visits of the natives to different spots are regulated by the season of +the year; as, for example, the roots that grow in the clay are not in +season, because not to be got at, in the parching and dry months of +summer. No plant bearing seeds is allowed to be dug up after it has +flowered, and the natives are very careful in observing this rule. A +considerable portion of the time of the women and children is occupied +in getting up the various eatable roots, which are either roasted, or +else devoured in a raw state; some resembling onions and others potatoes +in their flavour. One root, called the _mene_, has rather an acid taste, +and when eaten alone, it is said to disorder the bowels; but the natives +in the southern parts pound it between two stones, and sprinkle over it +a few pinches of a kind of _earth_, which forms, together with the +bruised root, a sort of paste, that is thought exceedingly good, and +quite free from all injurious properties. A kind of paste, which is +sometimes baked into a cake, is also formed of many other roots. All +these grow wild, and are used exactly in their natural state, unless +burning the leaves of one plant in dry seasons to improve the root, or +similar trifling pains respecting their growth, can deserve the name of +cultivation. The fungus is also greedily devoured by the unfastidious +natives of Australia, and a kind of gum, resembling what is in England +called _gum-tragacanth_, is very abundant and popular among them. One +traveller, Captain Sturt, who was among the first to notice the use of +this peculiar food, imagined that it was eaten only from dire necessity. +Indeed, it is an amusing proof of the occasional errors into which hasty +impressions will lead intelligent men, that he pities as "unfortunate +creatures reduced to the last extremity" those who were, in reality, +regaling themselves upon a favourite luxury. During summer the acacias, +growing in swampy plains, are positively loaded with this gum, and the +natives assemble in great numbers to feast upon it. On such occasions a +sort of fair is held among those that frequent these yearly meetings, +and fun, frolic, and quarrelling of every description prevail, as in +similar meetings of our own countrymen. + +The pulp of the nut of a species of palm is called _by-yu_, and it is a +curious fact, that, although in its natural state this is a rank poison, +the natives have, nevertheless, a method of depriving it of its +mischievous qualities, and it becomes an agreeable and nourishing +article of food. Europeans, ignorant of the mode of preparing this nut, +are sure to pay for their rashness, if they venture to eat it in its +unprepared state. The women collect these nuts from the palms in the +month of March, (the beginning of autumn,) and leave them to soak for +several days in some shallow pool; after the _by-yu_ has been +sufficiently soaked, they dig, in a dry sandy place, holes about one +foot across and nearly two feet in depth: these holes are lined with +rushes, and filled with nuts, over which last a little sand is +sprinkled, and then all is covered nicely up with the tops of the +grass-tree. And thus, in about a fortnight, the pulp which encloses the +nut becomes quite dry, and it is then fit for use: but if eaten before, +it produces the bad effects already mentioned. The pulp is eaten both +raw and roasted; in the latter state, the taste is said to be equal to +that of a chestnut; but this process has no effect whatever upon the +kernels, which act still as a strong emetic and purgative. This subject +of the sources whence the Australians derive their daily food from God, +who, whether in the north or the south, in the east or the west, is +still found "opening his hand," and "filling all things living with +plenteousness," might easily be extended even yet more; for in so vast a +tract of country as New Holland, the varieties of animal and vegetable +food, and the different modes of obtaining it, must evidently be very +numerous. Enough, however, has been stated to enable the reader to judge +respecting the means of subsistence possessed by the inhabitants of the +Bush; and it will be easily seen that this mode of living appears, at +the first view, more precarious and less laborious than it really is. It +is not so precarious a life as it seems to be, because the articles +needful for support, of one kind or another, are perpetually at hand to +those who can find them and use them, whilst Europeans, or even natives +from a distant part, are often, for want of this power, in danger of +starving in the midst of plenty.[54] At the same time, the savage, free +from servile toil and daily labour though he may appear to be, does in +truth earn his living quite as laboriously as others do; nor is he, of +all men, the most exempt from the general curse which sin has brought +down upon us: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Enough, +likewise, has been stated respecting the supplies provided in the +wilderness for its inhabitants to qualify us to perceive how very +serious an injury is inflicted upon the original people of a district in +Australia, when Europeans _sit down_, as they term it, (i.e. _settle_,) +upon their lands. We might imagine (however Utopian may be the fancy) a +body of able agriculturists settling in a country but poorly cultivated, +and while they occupied a portion of the land belonging to the first +inhabitants, rendering what remained to these more valuable by proper +cultivation, than the whole had originally been. But nothing of the kind +is possible with people accustomed from their infancy to habits of life +and means of subsistence like those of the Australians. Occupy their +land, and the wild animals must be destroyed or driven away; the wild +plants and roots ploughed up or burnt; or, at all events, the wild +owners of that land must (however rightful, however ancient, their claim +of possession) be warned off from their own soil, and, as trespassers, +made liable to punishment according to law,--to European law. + + [54] For instance, the natives on the river Bogan used the new + tomahawks, given them by Major Mitchell, in getting wild honey--a food + very commonly eaten in Australia--from the hollow branches of the trees. + It seemed as though, in the proper season, they could find it almost + everywhere. "To such inexpert clowns as they probably thought us," + continues the Major, "the honey and the bees were inaccessible, and + indeed, invisible, save only when the natives cut the former out, and + brought it to us in little sheets of bark; thus displaying a degree of + ingenuity and skill in supplying wants, which we, with all our science, + could not hope to attain." They caught a bee, and stuck to it, with gum + or resin, some light down of a swan or owl: thus laden, the bee would + make for its nest in some lofty tree, and betray its store of + sweets.--MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 173. + +We are not to suppose from the wandering character of the life usually +led by them, that these human beings have no notion of property in land. +On the contrary, it is an opinion held by men best able to judge, and +supported by sufficient proof, that, not only have the various tribes +their fixed boundaries of hunting-ground, which they cannot cross +without the risk of a quarrel with their neighbours, but that even +individual persons possess property of this nature, which is handed +down, according to certain laws, from father to son. A curious example +of this strictness about property, exceeding even the ideas of Europeans +upon the subject, was found upon the banks of the river Darling, where +different tribes occupy different portions of the stream whence all +equally derive the chief part of their subsistence. One of these tribes +desired Major Mitchell's men to pour out the water which they had taken, +as if it had belonged to them, and at the same time they dug a hole in +the ground to receive it, when poured out. Nay, so strongly are the +river chiefs possessed with a notion of the water being their own, that +they have been seen, on receiving a tomahawk, to point to the stream, +signifying that the strangers were at liberty to take water from it. +Indeed, the main difference between the property of the native and +that of the colonist, consists in the very dissimilar uses to which +the parties apply their possessions. The one holds his lands for a +cattle-run or a farm, the other employs his in feeding kangaroos or in +growing wild roots. But both agree in punishing intruders, both profess +alike to esteem the rights of property to be sacred; and yet how +questionable, how opposite to these professions must the conduct of +Europeans seem, when they fix themselves upon certain spots, without +taking any notice of the vested rights of the former inhabitants, and +then threaten, or even shoot them, if they are found lingering among +their old haunts, upon their own estates! Or, if no open violence is +offered, "the sheep and cattle," to borrow the words of a kind-hearted +traveller, "fill the green pastures, where the kangaroo was accustomed +to range until the stranger came from distant lands, and claimed the +soil." The first inhabitants, unless they remove beyond the limits of +the colony, are hemmed in by the power of the white population, and +deprived of the liberty of wandering at will through their native wilds, +and compelled to seek shelter in close thickets and rocky fastnesses; +where, however, if they can find a home, they have great difficulty in +finding a subsistence, for their chief support, the kangaroo, is either +destroyed or banished. In 1772, when the French discoverer, Monsieur +Marion, was exploring Van Dieman's Land, he found the coast well +inhabited, as the fires by day and night bore witness, and on anchoring +in Frederic Hendrick's Bay, about thirty men assembled upon the shore. +And now, only seventy years later, what has become of the grandchildren +and descendants of those unfortunate natives? Let the reply to this +inquiry be made in the very words given in evidence before a Committee +of the House of Commons, in 1838.[55]--"_There is not a native in Van +Dieman's Land._ The last portion that was secured was sent to a small +island called Gun Carriage Island, where they are maintained at the +expense of government, and I believe some attempts at civilisation have +been made.--There has been a lingering desire to come back again; but +they have no means of getting back; the island is some distance from Van +Dieman's Land; they are pining away and dying very fast.--I believe more +than one half of them have died, not from any positive disease, but from +a disease which we know in medicine under the name of _home-sickness_, a +disease which is very common to some Europeans, particularly the Swiss +soldiers and the Swiss peasantry: they are known to die from a disease +of the stomach, which comes on entirely from a desire to return to their +country." + + [55] See Evidence of J. Barnes, Esq., in minutes of evidence taken before + the Select Committee on Transportation, Quest. 417-422, pp. 48, 49. + +It may be difficult for the christian moralist to condemn altogether the +system of colonisation which has been practised; it cannot be denied +that the occupation of these vast and favoured regions by civilised and +christian nations is, in itself, a highly desirable object; yet the man +of right principles will surely hesitate before he approves, for the +sake of the good that is to follow, of the evil which has been done. In +this instance, as in many other evils to be seen under the sun, it is +more easy to perceive the mischief, than to point out the means of +avoiding or of remedying it. But, at least, it may be said, let those +who now hold the beautiful and frequently fertile lands, which once +belonged to the poor and helpless native, beware of having their hearts +lifted up with pride,--of forgetting themselves or their God. Past evils +are not to be prevented, but future events are still in their power. The +warning and reasoning of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, (Rom. xi. +17-24,) although upon quite another subject, are still not without +application here. Nor should the British colonist ever forget, while he +surveys the fruitful fields which he may now call his own, the emphatic +words of St. Paul: "If God spared not the natural branches, take heed +lest He also spare not thee." + + + + +[Illustration: NATIVES OF THE MURRAY ISLANDS IN BOATS.] + +CHAPTER V. + +MANNERS AND HABITS OF THE NATIVES. + + +The shyness which the savages of Australia frequently exhibit in their +first intercourse with Europeans is not at all surprising; indeed, it is +rather remarkable how soon they get over this feeling, if they are not +interfered with, and no unpleasant occurrences take place. As Captain +Flinders has very justly observed, "were we living in a state of nature, +frequently at war with our neighbours, and ignorant of the existence of +any other nation, on the first arrival of strangers, so different in +complexion and appearance to ourselves, having power to transport +themselves over, and even living upon an element which to us was +impassable,[56] the first sensation would probably be terror, and the +first movement flight." We should watch these extraordinary people from +our retreats, and if we found ourselves sought out or pursued by them, +their designs would be suspected; otherwise, upon seeing them quietly +engaged in their own occupations, curiosity would get the better of +fear, and, after observing them more closely, we should ourselves seek +to open a communication. This is precisely what takes place with the +native tribes in New Holland, when the discoverers conduct themselves +prudently, and no particular cause of offence or dislike occurs. But +where all appears equally strange and suspicious to them, it cannot be +wondered if they often mistake the meaning of European customs and +actions. For example, when Major Mitchell was desirous of taking the +portrait of a native in Eastern Australia, the terror and suspicion of +the poor creature, at being required to stand steadily before the artist +were such, that, notwithstanding the power of disguising fear, so +remarkable in the savage race, the stout heart of Cambo was overcome, +and beat visibly; the perspiration streamed from his breast, and he was +about to sink to the ground, when he at length suddenly darted away; but +he speedily returned, bearing in one hand his club, and in the other his +_boomerang_ or _kiley_, with which he seemed to gain just fortitude +enough to be able to stand on his legs until the sketch was finished. + + [56] This remark, which is here applied to the people on the south + coast of New Holland, does not hold good of all the natives of that + vast island. On the authority of the same able navigator, Flinders, + we learn that, in the northern part of the country, about Torres Strait, + some of the tribes are very skilful in managing their long canoes. See + an interesting account of the natives of the Murray Islands, in + Flinders' Voyage, vol. ii. pp. 108-110. + +To the observer of human nature it is, indeed, a curious spectacle to +watch the several contrary feelings and impulses by which the Australian +savage is actuated in his intercourse with the more civilised portions +of our race. Attachment, very strong attachment to his own customs, and +wild roving mode of life,--admiration of the evident superiority, the +luxury, abundance and comfort, enjoyed by Europeans,--doubt and alarm +respecting the final issue of the changes which he sees taking place +before his eyes,--an increasing taste for many of the useful or +agreeable articles which are to be procured only from the hands of the +strangers,--these and other similar feelings alternately sway the mind, +and prompt the actions, of the native of the bush in Australia, so as to +give an appearance of inconsistency, not merely to the varying conduct +of different persons, but frequently to the behaviour of the very same +person at different times. Sometimes the perplexed savage decidedly +prefers his piece of whale to all the luxuries of English fare;[57] at +another time he despises the common food of the bush--kangaroo flesh, +or fish,--and presuming upon his usefulness as a guide, nothing but +_wheaten flour_, at the rate of two pounds and a half a day, will +satisfy his desires.[58] One day, fired with a wish to emulate his +betters, the black man assumes the costume of an European, likes to be +close-shaved, wears a white neck-cloth, and means to become entirely "a +white fellow." Another day, wearied with the heat and thraldom of dress, +and tempted by the cool appearance, or stung by the severe taunts of his +brethren in the bush, off he flings his encumbrances and civilisation, +and gladly returns to a state of nature again. + + [57] See p. 99. + + [58] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 39. + +The barber's art appears, in several cases, to have caught the attention +of these savages. The following ridiculous account of an operation of +this kind, performed upon some natives of the country a little southward +of Port Jackson, is given by Flinders. "A new employment arose up on our +hands. We had clipped the hair and beards of the two Botany Bay natives, +at Red Point; and they were showing themselves to the others, and +persuading them to follow their example. While, therefore, the powder +was drying, I began with a large pair of scissors to execute my new +office upon the eldest of four or five chins presented to me; and as +great nicety was not required, the shearing of a dozen of them did not +occupy me long. Some of the more timid were alarmed at a formidable +instrument coming so near to their noses, and would scarcely be +persuaded by their shaven friends to allow the operation to be finished. +But when their chins were held up a second time, their fear of the +instrument, the wild stare of their eyes, and the smile which they +_forced_, formed a compound upon the rough savage countenance, not +unworthy the pencil of a Hogarth. I was almost tempted to try what +effect a little snip would produce, but our situation was too critical +to admit of such experiments."[59] + + [59] Flinders' Voyage, vol. i. Introd. pp. 99, 100. + +It has been repeatedly stated, upon good authority, that the health of +the natives of the bush has suffered greatly, and that their lives have +been frequently shortened, by the habits and indulgences which they have +learned from their more civilized neighbours. In their original state, +although beyond question the average duration of life was considerably +below that of European nations, yet an advanced age was not uncommonly +attained among them. Numbers die during the period of infancy, for none +except very strong children can possibly undergo the hardships, the +privations, and the perpetual travelling, which most of the infants born +in the bush must brave and endure. Besides which, there is the chance of +a violent death in some of the frequent quarrels which arise and include +in their consequences all the relatives of the contending parties. But, +due allowance having been made for these causes by which the average +duration of life in those wild regions is shortened, it does not appear +that their inhabitants are a particularly short-lived race, although by +some persons this has been thought to be the case. It is impossible +exactly to ascertain the age of the Australian savages, who have no mode +of keeping account of this themselves; but from instances of youths, +their father, grandfather, and great uncle being alive, and in the +enjoyment of tolerably good health, or from similar cases, it may be +safely concluded that they frequently reach, or even pass beyond, the +boundary term of life, three score years and ten. To one horrible mode +of departing from life, which is strangely common in more polished +nations, these barbarians are, happily, strangers. Captain Grey says, "I +believe they have no idea that such a thing as a man's putting an end to +his own life could ever occur; whenever I have questioned them on this +point, they have invariably laughed at me, and treated my question as a +joke." The period of old age must be as happy as any other time in the +life of a savage, if not more so, since aged men are always treated with +much respect, and rarely take an active part in any fray. They are +allowed to marry young wives, and to watch them as jealously, and treat +them as cruelly, as they please; and they appear to suffer less from +weakness and disease than the aged amongst us usually endure. The old, +too, are privileged to eat certain kinds of meat forbidden to the young. +Thus Piper, a native, who accompanied Major Mitchell, would not eat the +flesh of emu, even when food was scarce; but when he had undergone the +ceremony of being rubbed over with the fat of that bird by an old man, +he had thenceforth no objection to it. The threatened penalty was, that +young men, after eating it, would be afflicted with sores all over the +body; but the fact is, that it is too rich and oily for the old men to +allow any but themselves to partake of it. So that, upon the whole, in +New Holland, as in most other uncivilised countries, old age is a +period of much dignity, and of considerable enjoyment of life. + +But, whatever may be the troubles, or whatever the enjoyments, of old +age, they are, in their very nature, even above our other troubles or +enjoyments, brief and transitory. The aged warrior of Australia can +plead no exemption from the common lot of mortality, and death draws +a veil over the chequered existence,--the faults and follies, the +talents and virtues, of every child of Adam. The various customs and +superstitions, connected with the death and burial of their friends, +are very numerous among the tribes of Australia, and some of them are +curious and peculiar. It would be impossible to give a full account of +them, but a few of the most remarkable may be selected. Throughout +all the funeral solemnities of savage and heathen nations the same +distinguishing mark is to be observed,--they are the vain devices, the +miserable inventions of men who sorrow for their departed friends as +those that have no hope. Nothing, it is asserted, can awake in the +breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of the +Australians. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and +the effect produced upon the bystanders by this wild music surpasses +belief. The following is a chant, which has been heard upon several such +occasions, and which, simple though it be, fully expresses the feelings +of a benighted heathen mourning over the grave of a friend whom he has +lost (as he thinks) for ever:-- + + _The young women sing_ My young brother, } + _The old women_ My young son, } again, + In future shall I + never see. + + My young brother, } + My young son, } again, + In future shall I + never see. + +But previously to our entering upon the subject of the funeral +rites practised in New Holland, it will be necessary to notice the +superstitions respecting sorcerers, which in that country are so +intimately connected with the very idea of death. When an individual +life is taken away by open violence, then, as we have seen, it is +avenged upon the supposed murderer, or his relatives. But when death +occurs from accidental or natural causes, it is usually attributed to +the influence of sorcery, and not unfrequently is it revenged upon some +connexion of the parties believed to have practised that art. So that, +generally speaking, the death of one human being involves that of +another, which is no small check to population. In truth, it would +almost seem that the natives have no idea of death occurring, except by +violence or sorcery;[60] and these strange notions must not be dealt +with too severely, in a country like England, where (within the last 200 +years, and in no uncivilised state of society) persons have been burnt +for witchcraft; and in which, even in the present day, every vile +imposture and godless pretence of supernatural power is sure of finding +eager listeners and astonished admirers. The _Boyl-yas_, or native +sorcerers, are objects of mysterious dread, and are thought to have the +power of becoming invisible to all eyes but those of their brethren in +the same evil craft. As our northern witches were supposed to have the +power of riding upon a broom-stick, so these southern sorcerers are said +to be able to transport themselves at pleasure through the air. If they +have a dislike to any one they can kill him, it is said, by stealing on +him at night and consuming his flesh, into which they enter like pieces +of quartz-stone, and the pain they occasion is always felt. Another +sorcerer, however, can draw them out, and the pieces of stone pretended +to be thus obtained are kept as great curiosities. Perhaps the clearest +ideas of the imaginary powers of these sorcerers, and of the dread in +which they are held, will be found from the following account, obtained +from a native with the utmost difficulty, (for the subject is never +willingly mentioned,) and reported _verbatim_ by Captain Grey. + + [60] "The natives do not allow that there is such a thing as a death + from natural causes; they believe that were it not for murderers, or the + malignity of sorcerers, they might live for ever."--GREY'S _Travels in + Western Australia_, vol. ii. p. 238. + +"'The _Boyl-yas_,' said the trembling Kaiber, 'are natives who have the +power of _boyl-ya_; they sit down to the northward, the eastward, and +southward; the _Boyl-yas_ are very bad, they walk away there' (pointing +to the east). 'I shall be very ill presently. The _Boyl-yas_ eat up a +great many natives,--they eat them up as fire would; you and I will be +very ill directly. The _Boyl-yas_ have ears: by and by they will be +greatly enraged. I'll tell you no more.' + +"'The _Boyl-yas_ move stealthily,--you sleep and they steal on +you,--very stealthily the _Boyl-yas_ move. These _Boyl-yas_ are +dreadfully revengeful; by and by we shall be very ill. I'll not talk +about them. They come moving along in the sky,--cannot you let them +alone? I've already a terrible headache; by and by you and I will be two +dead men.' + +"'The natives cannot see them. The _Boyl-yas_ do not bite, they feed +stealthily; they do not eat the bones, but consume the flesh. Just give +me what you intend to give, and I'll walk off.' + + What secrets can the human breast contain, + When tempted by thy charms, curst love of gain! + +"'The _Boyl-yas_ sit at the graves of natives in great numbers. If +natives are ill, the _Boyl-yas_ charm, charm, charm, charm, and charm, +and, by and by, the natives recover.'" + +Nothing further could be learned from this terrified and unwilling +witness. The custom spoken of in the last part of his evidence, that of +sitting at the graves of the dead, is found in nearly all the known +portions of Australia, and the object of this practice is to discover by +what person the death of the deceased individual has been caused, which +is supposed to be declared by dreams or visions. A similar custom among +the Jews is reproved by the prophet Isaiah, chap. lxv. 4, 5. + +Once, when Major Mitchell had been harassed, and two of his party killed +by the hostile natives, he reached a spot of security, where, while +admiring the calm repose of the wild landscape, and the beauteous beams +of the setting sun, he was anticipating a night free from disturbance. +He was alone, waiting the arrival of his party, but his reveries were +dissipated in the most soothing manner, by the soft sounds of a female +voice, singing in a very different tone from that generally prevailing +among the Australians. It sounded like the song of despair, and, indeed, +it was the strain of a female mourning over some deceased relative; nor +could the loud "hurra" of the men, when they came up, angry at the +recent pillage and murder of some of the party, put to flight the +melancholy songstress of the woods. On these occasions it is usual for +the relatives of the deceased to continue their lamentations, appearing +insensible of what people may be doing around them. + +The rude verses, given below, and forming the substance of a chant, sung +by an old woman to incite the men to avenge the death of a young person, +may serve at once for a specimen of the poetry and superstition of the +Australian wilderness:-- + + "The blear-eyed sorcerers of the north + Their vile enchantments sung and wove, + And in the night they sallied forth, + A fearful, man-devouring drove. + + "Feasting on our own lov'd one + With sanguinary jaws and tongue, + The wretches sat, and gnaw'd, and kept + Devouring, while their victim slept. + Yho, yang, yho yang, yang yho. + + "Yes, unconsciously he rested + In a slumber too profound; + While vile Boyl-yas sat and feasted + On the victim they had bound + In sleep:--Mooligo, dear young brother, + Where shall we find the like of thee? + Favourite of thy tender mother, + We again shall never see + Mooligo, our dear young brother. + Yho, yang yho, ho, ho. + + "Men, who ever bold have been, + Are your long spears sharpened well? + Fix anew the quartz-stone keen, + Let each shaft upon them tell. + Poise your _meer-ros_, long and sure, + Let the _kileys_ whiz and whirl + Strangely through the air so pure; + Heavy _dow-uks_ at them hurl; + Shout the yell they dread to hear. + Let the young men leap on high, + To avoid the quivering spear; + Light of limb and quick of eye, + Who sees well has nought to fear. + Let them shift, and let them leap, + While the quick spear whistling flies, + Woe to him who cannot leap! + Woe to him who has bad eyes!" + +When an old woman has commenced a chant of this kind, she will continue +it until she becomes positively exhausted; and upon her ceasing, another +takes up the song. The effect some of them have upon the assembled men +is very great; indeed, it is said that these addresses of the old women +are the cause of most of the disturbances which take place. Thus, even +amid the forests of New Holland, the _influence of woman_ will, in one +way or another, make itself felt. + +The ceremonies observed at the funeral of a native vary, as might be +expected, in so great a space, but they are wild and impressive in every +part of New Holland. According to Collins, the natives of the colony +called New South Wales were in the habit of burning the bodies of those +who had passed the middle age of life, but burial seems the more +universal method of disposing of their dead among the Australians. Some +very curious drawings and figures cut in the rock were discovered by +Captain Grey, in North-Western Australia, but whether these were +burying-places does not appear. For the account of these works of rude +art, which is extremely interesting, but too long to transcribe, the +reader is referred to the delightful work of the traveller just +mentioned. + +The shrieks and piercing cries uttered by the women over their dead +relatives, are said to be truly fearful, and agreeably to the ancient +custom of idolatrous eastern nations mentioned in 1 Kings xviii. 28, +and in Jer. xlviii. 37,[61] they tear and lacerate themselves most +frightfully, occasionally cutting off portions of their beards, and, +having singed them, throwing them upon the dead body. With respect to +their tombs, these are of various sorts in different districts. In the +gulph of Carpentaria, on the Northern coast, Flinders found several +skeletons of natives, standing upright in the hollow trunks of trees; +the skulls and bones, being smeared or painted partly red and partly +white, made a very strange appearance. On the banks of the river +Darling, in the interior of Eastern Australia, Major Mitchell fell in +with a tribe, which had evidently suffered greatly from small-pox,[62] +or some similar disease, and in the same neighbourhood he met with some +remarkable mounds or tombs, supposed to cover the remains of that +portion of the tribe which had been swept off by the same disease that +had left its marks upon the survivors. On a small hill, overlooking +the river, were three large tombs, of an oval shape, and about twelve +feet across in the longest diameter. Each stood in the centre of an +artificial hollow, the mound in the middle being about five feet high; +and on each of them were piled numerous withered branches and limbs of +trees, forming no unsuitable emblems of mortality. There were no trees +on this hill, save one quite dead, which seemed to point with its hoary +arms, like a spectre, to the tombs. A melancholy waste, where a level +country and boundless woods extended beyond the reach of vision, was in +perfect harmony with the dreary foreground of the scene. + + [61] See Deut. xiv. 1, where the very spot is mentioned,--"between + the eyes,"--which is always torn and scratched by the Australian female + mourners. + + [62] This disease made dreadful ravages among the natives about the same + time as the colony in New South Wales was settled. "The recollection of + this scourge will long survive in the traditionary songs of these simple + people. The consternation which it excited is yet as fresh in their + minds, as if it had been an occurrence of but yesterday, although the + generation that witnessed its horrors has almost passed away. The moment + one of them was seized with it, was the signal for abandoning him to his + fate. Brothers deserted their brothers, husbands their wives, wives + their husbands, children their parents, and parents their children; and + in some of the caves of the coast, heaps of decayed bones still indicate + the spots where these ignorant and helpless children of nature were left + to expire, not so much, probably, from the virulence of the disease + itself, as from the want of sustenance."--WENTWORTH'S _Australia_, + vol. i. p. 311. Third edition. See also COLLINS' _New South Wales_, + p. 383. + +Indeed, to those who have been from infancy accustomed to the quiet +consecrated burying places of our own land,--spots which, in rural +districts, are usually retired, yet not quite removed from the reach of +"the busy hum of men;" to those who have always looked upon a Christian +temple, + + "Whose taper spire points, finger-like, to heaven," + +as the almost necessary accompaniment of a burial-place, the appearance +of the native tombs in the desolate wilds of a savage and uncultivated +country, must be dreary in the extreme. Scenes of this character must +appear to the eye of a Christian almost emblematical of the spiritual +blank--the absence of any sure and certain hope--in the midst of which +the natives, whose remains are there reposing, must have lived and died. +How striking is Captain Grey's description of another tomb, which was +found in a totally different part of New Holland, near the western +coast, and at no great distance from the Swan River settlement! The +scenery, not, indeed, in the immediate vicinity, but very near to the +newly-made grave, is thus described. Even at mid-day, the forest wore a +sombre aspect, and a stillness and solitude reigned throughout it that +were very striking. Occasionally, a timid kangaroo might be seen +stealing off in the distance, or a kangaroo-rat might dart out from a +tuft beneath your feet, but these were rare circumstances. The most +usual disturbers of these wooded solitudes were the black cockatoos; +"but I have never, in any part of the world," adds the enterprising +traveller, "seen so great a want of animal life as in these mountains." +It was not far from this lonely district, in a country nearly resembling +it, only less wooded and more broken into deep valleys, that a recent +grave was found, carefully constructed, with a hut built over it, to +protect the now senseless slumberer beneath from the rains of winter. +All that friendship could do to render his future state happy had been +done. His throwing-stick was stuck in the ground at his head; his broken +spears rested against the entrance of the hut; the grave was thickly +strewed with _wilgey_, or red earth; and three trees in front of the +hut, chopped with a variety of notches and uncouth figures, bore +testimony that his death had been bloodily avenged. The native Kaiber, +who acted as guide to the travellers, gazed upon this scene with concern +and uneasiness. Being asked why the spears were broken, the trees +notched, and the red earth strewed upon the grave, his reply was, +"Neither you nor I know: our people have always done so, and we do so +now,"--quite as good a reason as many who think themselves far more +enlightened are able to give for their actions. When a proposal was +made to stop for the night at this solitary spot, poor Kaiber resisted +it; "I cannot rest here," said he, "for there are many spirits in this +place."[63] + + [63] See, however, a more pleasing picture of a native burying-place, + in Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 321. + +When Mr. Montgomery Martin was in Australia, he obtained with some +difficulty the dead body of an old woman, who had long been known +about Sydney. Hearing of her death and burial in the forest, about +twenty-five miles from his residence, he went thither, and aided by some +stock-keepers, found the grave,--a slightly elevated and nearly circular +mound. The body was buried six feet deep, wrapped in several sheets of +bark, the inner one being of a fine silvery texture. Several things +which the deceased possessed in life, together with her favourite dog, +were buried with her,--all apparently for use in another world. The +skull of this poor creature was full of indentations, as if a tin vessel +had been struck by a hammer; light might be seen through these hollows, +which had been caused by blows of _whaddies_ (hard sticks) when she was +young, and some bold youths among the natives courted her after this +strange fashion. It seemed scarcely possible that marks so extraordinary +could have been made in the human skull without fracturing it.[64] + + [64] Martin's New South Wales, p. 143. + +In a society of men so simple and so little advanced in refinement or +civilisation as the inhabitants of New Holland, it is evident that their +wants must be few and easily satisfied, their stock of earthly riches +very small and humble. Indeed, these people nearly always carry the +whole of their worldly property about with them, and the Australian +hunter is thus equipped: round his middle is wound a belt spun from the +fur of the opossum, in which are stuck his hatchet, his _kiley_ or +_boomerang_, and a short heavy stick to throw at the smaller animals. +In his hand he carries his throwing-stick, and several spears, headed in +two or three different manners, so that they are equally suitable to war +or the chase. In the southern parts, a warm kangaroo-skin cloak, thrown +over his shoulders, completes the hunter's outfit; but this is seldom or +never seen northwards of 29 deg. south latitude. These, however, are not +quite all the riches of the barbarian, a portion of which is carried by +his wife, or wives, as the case may be; and each of these has a long +thick stick, with its point hardened in the fire, a child or two fixed +upon their shoulders, and in their bags, in which also they keep sundry +other articles, reckoned valuable and important for the comfort of +savage life. For example; a flat stone to pound roots with, and earth to +mix with the pounded roots;[65] quartz, for making spears and knives; +stones, for hatchets; gum, for making and mending weapons and tools; +kangaroo sinews for thread, and the shin-bones of the same animal for +needles;--these and many similar articles, together with whatever roots, +&c. they may have collected during the day, form the total of the burden +of a female Australian; and this, together with the husband's goods, +forms the sum and substance of the wealth of an inhabitant of the +southern land. In Wellesley's Islands, on the north coast of New +Holland, the catalogue of a native's riches appears somewhat different, +from his maritime position.[66] A raft, made of several straight +branches of mangrove lashed together, broader at one end than at the +other;--a bunch of grass at the broad end where the man sits to +paddle,--a short net to catch turtle, or probably a young shark,--and +their spears and paddles seem to form the whole earthly riches of these +rude fishermen.[67] But one essential thing must not be overlooked in +the enumeration of a native's possessions. Fire, of procuring which they +have not very easy means, is usually carried about with them; and the +women commonly have the charge of the lighted stick, in addition to +their other cares. + + [65] See p. 114. + + [66] "In many places a log of wood, or a wide slip of bark, tied at + either end, and stuffed with clay, is the only mode invented for + crossing a river or arm of the sea, while in other parts a large tree, + roughly hollowed by fire, forms the canoe."--M. MARTIN'S _New South + Wales_, p. 147. + + [67] Flinders' Voyage, vol. ii. p. 138. + +It is no very easy matter for civilized man to realise the perfectly +free and unencumbered way in which these natives roam from place to +place, accordingly as seasons or provisions may serve, constantly +carrying with them a home wherever they go; and (what is far more +difficult in civilised society) leaving no cares of home behind them in +the spot from which they may have recently removed. Certainly there must +be something very delightful in this wild sort of life to every one, who +has from his early infancy been accustomed to its pleasure and inured to +its hardships, neither of which are by any means to be measured by the +standard of the cold and changeable climate of England. The grand +objects of the savage, in almost every part of the globe, are to baffle +his human enemies, and to assert his dominion over the lower races of +animals. For these purposes, the activity, secrecy, acuteness, and +sagacity of man in an uncivilised state are almost incredible; nor could +we have supposed, were not the truth shown in numberless instances, that +the senses of human beings were capable of so great perfection, their +bodies and limbs of such exertion and agility, as they gain by continual +practice and early training in the forests of America or Australia. In +these bodily excellencies, the inhabitants of the last-named continent +might safely challenge the whole world to surpass them. The natives +once approached Major Mitchell's camp by night; and though nine +fire-sticks were seen in motion, no noise was heard. At length when the +lights had approached within 150 yards, every one suddenly disappeared; +the bearers preserving, all the while, the most perfect silence. It was +then thought advisable to scare these noiseless visitors away, and a +rocket was sent up, at which signal the English party rushed forward +with a shout; and this had the desired effect. It is said that the +natives regard, as an important matter, the falling of a star, which +would account for their alarm at the rocket. On another occasion, when +an English exploring party had discovered a few traces of natives near +their place of encampment, an active search after them immediately took +place; and it appeared that they had crept up within about one hundred +yards of the camp, after which they had been disturbed, and had made +off. Their mode of approach was by a stream of water, so as to conceal +their trail; after which they had turned out of the stream up its right +bank, and had carefully trod in one another's footmarks, so as to +conceal their number, although traces of six or seven different men +could be perceived as far as the spot where they had been disturbed. +From this point these children of the Bush had disappeared, as it were, +by magic: not a twig was broken, not a stone was turned, nor could it be +observed that the heavy drops of rain had been shaken from a single +blade of grass. All efforts to hit upon the direction in which they had +fled were to no purpose, except to put the explorers more constantly on +the watch against beings who were often near them when they least +dreamed of their presence. Human wisdom would enforce this lesson from +such circumstances; but how often does heavenly wisdom lift up its voice +to us in vain, teaching us by what is passing around us to be upon our +watch constantly over our own conduct, since we are never very far from +the Almighty presence of God himself! + +To the quick-sighted natives, the surface of the earth is, in fact, as +legible as a newspaper, so accustomed are they to read in any traces +left upon it the events of the day.[68] For once, Major Mitchell informs +us, he was able to hide so that these people could not find; but then +his buried treasure was only a collection of specimens of stones and +minerals, of the use of which they could know nothing, and concerning +which they were little likely to have any suspicions. The notes written +by the traveller, and concealed in trees, seldom escaped notice;[69] nor +did provisions, nor, in short, any article which they could either use +or suspect pass unobserved. + + [68] See a most remarkable instance of this in M. Martin's New South + Wales, pp. 156-158. + + [69] Latterly, however, experience suggested to him what seems + to have been a successful mode of concealment. See Mitchell's Three + Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 271. + +In Western Australia, Captain Grey, having galloped after some wild +cattle which he had met in his journey, found, upon wishing to ascertain +the hour, that his watch had fallen from his pocket during the chase. He +waited until the rest of his party came up, and then requested Kaiber, +their native guide, to walk back and find the watch. This, Kaiber +assured the traveller, was utterly impossible, nor could his assertion +be gainsaid; nevertheless, the watch was too valuable to be given up +without an effort for its recovery. "Well, Kaiber," said the captain, +"your people had told me you could see tracks well, but I find they +are mistaken; you have but one eye,--something is the matter with the +other," (this was really the case)--"no young woman will have you, for +if you cannot follow my tracks, and find a watch, how can you kill game +for her?" This speech had the desired effect, and the promise of a +shilling heightened his diligence, so they went back together in +search of the lost article. The ground that had been passed over was +badly suited for the purpose of tracking, and the scrub was thick; +nevertheless, to his delight and surprise, the captain had his watch +restored to his pocket in less than half an hour. + +Even in the simple arts and rude habits of the people of New Holland +there are different degrees of advancement and progress to be observed. +On the west coast, a few degrees to the north of the British settlement +at Swan River, a great difference was noticed by Captain Grey in the +arrangements of the native population. The country near the Hutt River +is exceedingly beautiful and fertile, and it supports a very numerous +population, comparatively with other districts. The exploring party +found a native path or road, wider, more used, and altogether better +than any before seen in that region. Along the side of this path were +seen frequent wells, some of them ten or twelve feet in depth, which +were made in a superior manner. Across the dry bed of a stream they then +came upon a light fruitful soil, which served the inhabitants as a +_warran_ ground. _Warran_ is a sort of _yam_ like the sweet potato, and +its root is a favourite article of food with some of the native tribes. +For three miles and a half the travellers passed over a fertile tract of +land full of the holes made by the natives in digging this root; indeed, +so thick were they, that it was not easy to walk, and this tract +extended east and west, as far as they could see. The district must have +been inhabited a great many years, for more had been done in it to +secure a provision from the ground by hard manual labour than it would +have appeared to be in the power of uncivilised man to accomplish. + +It can be no subject of surprise that the various tribes of Australia, +living in a wild country, and blessed with no clear nor adequate ideas +of their Maker, should be exceedingly superstitious, as well as ignorant +and simple. The strange aversion felt by some of them to a sort of +muscle or oyster, found in fresh water, has already been mentioned; and +the horror of the native population at the supposed effects of sorcery +has also been detailed. Kaiber, Captain Grey's guide, was bidden to +gather a few of these muscles to make a meal for the party of hungry +travellers in the Bush, but at first he would not move, declaring that +if he touched these shell-fish, the _Boyl-yas_ would be the death of +him. Unable to bring any instance of mischief arising from them, he +shrewdly answered, that this was because nobody had been "wooden-headed" +enough to meddle with them, and that he intended to have nothing +whatever to do with them. At last, with much difficulty he was prevailed +to go, but whilst occupied in his task, he was heard most bitterly +deploring his fate. It was his courage and strong sinews, he said, that +had hitherto kept him from dying either of hunger or thirst, but what +would these avail him against the power of sorcery? However, the muscles +were brought, and Kaiber's master made his meal upon them, but no +persuasions could prevail upon him to partake of them. The same evening, +the half-starved, half-clothed party of travellers were overtaken by a +tremendous storm, which put out their fires, and they continued during +the night in a most pitiable state from exposure to the cold and +weather. All these misfortunes were set down by the sagacious native to +the account of the muscles, nor was it till his master threatened him +with a good beating, that Kaiber left off chattering to himself, while +his mouth moved with the effect of the extreme cold:-- + + "Oh, wherefore did he eat the muscles? + Now the _Boyl-yas_ storms and thunder make; + Oh, wherefore would he eat the muscles?" + +Among the superstitions of Australia, that feeling of awe which revolts +from mentioning even the name of a deceased person is very remarkable; +and the custom of silence upon this subject is so strictly enforced, +that it renders inquiry respecting the family or ancestors of a native +extremely difficult.[70] The only circumstance enabling the inquirer to +overcome this hindrance is the fact, that, the longer a person has been +dead, the less unwilling do they appear to name him. Thus did Captain +Grey obtain some curious information respecting their pedigrees and +family customs; for he began with endeavouring to discover only the +oldest names on record, and then, as opportunity served, he would +contrive to fill up the blanks, sometimes, when they were assembled +round their fires at night, encouraging little disputes among them +concerning their forefathers, by means of which he was able to gain +much of the information he wanted. + + [70] It is even said, that persons bearing the same name with + the deceased take other names, in order to avoid the necessity of + pronouncing it at all. _See_ COLLINS' _Acc. of Col. of N. S. Wales_, + p. 392. + +One very singular notion prevailing among the native population of +Australia, and proving that the belief in a spiritual world and in a +future state, is not quite extinct even among them, is the idea which +they entertain of white people being the souls of departed blacks. This +supposition may serve to explain the reason of the disagreeable process +complained of by Sturt, who says, that every new tribe examined them, +pulling them about, measuring the hands and feet of the strangers with +their own, counting their fingers, feeling their faces, and besmearing +them all over with dirt and grease. A more powerful feeling than +curiosity even may have prompted this conduct, and they may have +sought, impelled by superstition, to recognise in the foreigners +their own kindred. But however that may have been, most travellers in +Australia mention the peculiar idea alluded to. Captain Grey was once +vehemently attacked by the caresses of an old, ugly, and dirty black +woman, who recognised him as her son's ghost, and was obliged to endure +them. His real mother, the captain says, could scarcely have expressed +more delight at his return, while his sable-coloured brothers and sister +paid their respects to him, when the vehemence of a mother's affection +had somewhat subsided. He was convinced that the old woman really +believed him to be her son, whose first thought, upon his return to +earth, had been to revisit his old mother, and bring her a present! + +The natives believe that the _night-mare_--a subject likely enough to +give birth to superstition--is caused by some evil spirit, in order to +get rid of which they jump up, seize a lighted brand from the fire, and, +after whirling it round the head with a variety of imprecations, they +throw the stick away in the direction where they suppose the evil spirit +to be. They say the demon wants a light, and that when he gets it, he +will go away. However, besides supplying this his need, they likewise +take the precautions of changing their position, and of getting as near +as they can into the middle of the group of their companions who are +sleeping round the fire. If obliged to move away from the fire after +dark, either to get water or for any other purpose, they carry a light +with them, and set fire to dry bushes as they go along. + +A profound respect, almost amounting to veneration, is paid in many +districts of Australia to shining stones or pieces of crystal, which +they call "_Teyl_." These are carried in the girdles of men, especially +of the sorcerers or _corad-jes_, and no woman is allowed to see the +contents of the round balls made of woollen cord from the fur of the +opossum in which these crystals are enclosed. They are employed as +charms in sickness, and are sometimes sent from tribe to tribe for +hundreds of miles on the sea-coast or in the interior. One of these +stones, which was examined by an Englishman, to whom it was shown +privately by a black, was of a substance like quartz, about the size +of a pigeon's egg, and transparent, like white sugar-candy. The small +particles of crystal which crumble off are swallowed in order to prevent +illness. Many other instances of the like superstitious folly might very +easily be gathered from the writings of those who have had the best +opportunities of becoming acquainted with the manners of the Australian +tribes. + +The following is from the pen of the Rev. G. King, a missionary of the +Society for Propagating the Gospel, who speaks thus of the natives near +Fremantle, in Western Australia: "The native children are intelligent +and apt to learn, but the advanced men are so far removed from +civilisation, and so thoroughly confirmed in roving habits, that all the +exertions made in their behalf have found them totally inaccessible; but +we have no reason to conclude that they have not a vague idea of a +future state. They are exceedingly superstitious; they never venture out +of their huts from sunset till sunrise, for fear of encountering goblins +and evil spirits. When any of their tribe dies they say, 'He'll soon +jump up, white man, and come back again in big ship;' and when a +stranger arrives, they examine his countenance minutely, to trace the +lineaments of some deceased friend; and when they think they have +discovered him they sometimes request him to expose his breast, that +they may see where the spear entered which caused the life to fly away +so long."[71] Altogether, experience bears witness, in their case, of +the same fact which is to be perceived in other parts of the globe, +namely, that where there is little religion, there is often a great deal +of superstition, and that those who do not "believe the truth," almost +always fall into the snares of falsehood, so as to "believe a lie." + + [71] S. P. G. Report, 1842, p. 59. + +With all the disadvantages of having two races of men (one of which is +thought inferior to the other) occupying the same territory; with the +evils, likewise, unavoidably arising from the ease with which what is +_bad_ in Europeans may be learned and copied, and the difficulty of +understanding or imitating what is _good_ in us, the natives are placed +in a very peculiar and unhappy situation. Their intercourse with the +white men has hitherto, certainly, been productive of more injury, both +moral and temporal, than benefit to them. Into the sad and disgusting +details, affording a proof of this truth, which may be found in the +evidence before the committees of the House of Commons upon the subject +of transportation it will neither be suitable nor possible to enter. The +fact is, indeed, acknowledged by men of all parties and opinions, while, +by all right-minded men, it is deeply deplored. + +Drunkenness and its attendant vices prevail to a fearful extent among +the Europeans in New Holland, the lower orders especially; and what sins +are more enticing than these to the ignorant, sensual savage? Tobacco +and spirits, which the poor natives call "_tumbledown_," are articles in +constant request; and to purchase these of Europeans, the blacks will +give almost anything they possess, even their wives.[72] Thus, a +regular traffic in what is evil is carried on, and almost all that +the heathen people of Australia learn from the so-called Christians +with whom they associate, is to practise, with tenfold aggravation, +sins which God abhors, and will not allow to go unpunished. Like +children that have been always brought up in a family of foul-tongued +transgressors, the very first words of English which the natives learn +are words of wickedness and blasphemy; the only introduction to the name +of their God and Saviour is in order that they may insult that holy +Name, and blaspheme the Divine Majesty. And these lessons are taught +them, let us remember, by men calling themselves, and perhaps even +thinking themselves, civilised, enlightened, and Christian persons;--by +men, certainly, belonging to a nation, which justly lays claim to these +honourable epithets! But enough has been stated on this painful subject +to fill every thoughtful mind with humiliation and fear, when it +contemplates the "much" that "has been given" to civilised nations, and +recalls the fixed rule of truth and justice, that so much the "more" +will be required of them. Nor is this a matter concerning the British +inhabitants of the colonies alone, and with which the nation at large +has little or no concern. For if we inquire, who corrupt the natives? +the answer is, our vile and worthless population, the very scum of +mankind, whom we have cast out as evil from the bosom of their native +land. But a further question naturally offers itself. Who were, in many +instances, the passive, if not the active, corrupters of these very +corrupters themselves? Who have neglected to provide means for their +christian instruction, and so let them grow up to be worse than +heathens, until they could be endured no longer in the land? What +nation had within a single century more than doubled its population +without having built or endowed a score of new churches? To whose +neglect is it, partly, though not entirely, owing, that when heathens +meet, in far distant countries, with our lower classes, or when their +homes are visited in our great towns and cities, the very heathens are +sometimes forced to yield the palm to them in wickedness and in sin? +Such questions very nearly concern every Englishman, and they are, even +now, only beginning to command the attention they deserve. High and low, +rich and poor, clergy and laity, we are all alike implicated in those +evils, which have arisen from national neglect and forgetfulness of God, +and which are not unlikely to lead to national confusion and ruin. But +we are still, thank God, blessed with a pure and apostolical Church in +our native country, and this is a mighty instrument for good, if we will +but support it, and render it as efficient as it ought to be. The +children of our little sea-girt isle may almost be called the salt of +the earth, so extensively is our naval and our moral power spread. If +we can bring those children up in the right way, as dutiful children of +God and faithful members of the Church of England, then, indeed, the +blessings resulting from our efforts may make themselves felt in the +very ends of the earth--in the solitary wilds of New Holland. But +otherwise, if we continue to neglect our own people, and disgrace our +profession of Christianity by encouraging tacitly the growth of +heathenism around us, then we may judge by the moral and social evils +which have already resulted from this course what the final consequences +are likely to be. "If the salt have lost its savour wherewith shall it +be salted: it is therefore good for nothing, but to be cast out and +trodden under foot of men." (Matt. v. 13.) + + [72] The half-caste children are generally put to death by the black + husband, under the idea, it is said, that if permitted to grow up, + they would be wiser than the people among whom they would live. These + helpless innocents are destroyed, as though they were no better than a + cat or dog: one farm servant of Mr. Mudie was in a great rage at the + birth of a small infant of this description, and without any ceremony, + only exclaiming, "Narang fellow," which means, "Small fellow," he took + it up at once, and dashed it against the wall, as you would any animal. + See Evidence before Transport. Com. 1837, p. 43. + +With savages resembling those that dwell in the Australian forests, +having no means of religious instruction among themselves, the only +hope of producing an improvement in their moral and social character, +must arise from their intercourse with christian people. But it must +be repeated, unhappily, the great majority of _christian_ people +(especially in that country and among those classes where the native is +most likely to have intercourse) are by no means adorning by their lives +the faith and doctrine of that Master whose name they bear. Hence arises +the deplorable condition of the natives, who are brought into contact +chiefly with the lowest and worst of the Europeans, and who, beside many +other hindrances, have the great stumbling-block of bad examples, and +evil lives, constantly before them in their intercourse with the +Christians. And, as though that were not enough, as though fresh +obstacles to the conversion of these nations to God's truth were needed +and required, our holy religion is presented to them, not as it came +from the hands of its Founder and his Apostles, inculcating "one +Lord, one faith, and one baptism," but such as man's weakness and +wickedness delight in representing it,--a strange jumble of various +"denominations." And this unworthy course has been followed by +government itself. Without any pleas arising from _conscience_, or the +principle of _toleration_ to excuse this, the British government, in +what little they have done for converting to Christianity some of the +natives, have afforded their help to bodies of Christians bearing +different names. Nor can it be said that the Church of England and +Ireland was without any zealous ministers ready to undertake this most +difficult task, trusting in God's strength for help to accomplish it, at +least in some degree. It is the confession of Dr. Lang himself, who is +no friend to the Church of England, that the only two missions[73] to +the natives existing in 1837 were, as all ought to be, episcopalian; but +one of these was stated, on the best authority, in 1841 to be "not in an +encouraging state,"[74] although a third mission, to belong to the +Presbyterians, was about to be commenced _under the auspices of +Government_, among the natives in another station. It is fearlessly +asserted that _all_ missions to the heathen supported by Government +ought to be subject to episcopal control; and the reasons for this may +be briefly added. First, there is no tenderness of conscience, nor claim +to toleration, which can stand in the way of an English government +spreading among its native subjects the doctrine and discipline of the +English Church; supposing these willing to become Christians at all, +they cannot have a prior claim upon us to be brought up as _dissenters_ +from the Church. Secondly, since the Scotch discipline, though it +prevails over a very small part of our population, is yet established by +law in one portion of the island, it may put in (as it has done) its +claim for help from Government; but, without entering into argument +respecting this, might we not safely put it to every wise and rightly +judging Presbyterian, whether it is not better to waive this claim of +theirs, than to perplex the progress of Christianity, by offering to +the heathen Australians, at the same time, and by the same temporal +authority, the Bible, which speaks of _one_ Church, and the choice +between _two_ churches? And lastly, whatever unhappy scruples and +divisions among Christians have arisen respecting episcopacy, surely, +if men had a truly christian spirit within them, they would quietly +consent to the instruction of the natives being placed in the hands of +a Church which they cannot deny to be scriptural, and of a ministry, +which for 1500 years from Christ's birth no sect of men ever thought of +denying to be the only apostolical ministry. It is indeed a strange +spectacle which our Christianity must offer to the eyes of those that +are really desirous of becoming converts. Either we "bite and devour one +another," or else we quietly set aside our Lord's commands and prayers +for our union, and contentedly agree to divide ourselves into as many +parties, sects, or denominations, as we please; and having done so, we +go and inoculate our heathen converts with our own love of separation. +St. Paul was shocked at hearing of divisions in the Church of Corinth, +but enlightened statesmen of the nineteenth century appear to be shocked +at the idea of allowing Christianity to be offered to the heathens +without its unhappy divisions! What, it may be asked with all reverence, +would have been the success of the Apostles in evangelizing the Gentile +world, if the gospel of Christ had been offered to the heathens of that +age, under the same disadvantages with which men of the present age +prefer to clog and impede their missionary efforts? Can we wonder, under +these circumstances, at the slow progress of the gospel? Is it not +rather wonderful that it should make any progress at all? If the world +is reluctant to believe in Christ's mission, would not His own words, +(John xvii. 21,) suggest to us our miserable divisions as a chief cause +of this? + + [73] Against one of these missions Dr. Lang gives a sneer, and + it may be a deserved one, though certainly expressed in unbecoming + language; but the attentive reader of Dr. Lang's amusing work on New + South Wales will soon learn not to place too much stress upon _all_ he + says. See Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. chap. 7, p. 313. + + [74] See Bishop of Australia's Letter in S. P. G. Report for 1842, + p. 53. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +SKETCHES OF NATIVE CHARACTER. + + +BENNILLONG.--The first native who could be persuaded to live upon +friendly terms of confidence with the British settlers in New South +Wales was called Bennillong, and it was after no very long period, +(within two years after the commencement of the colony,) that this +intercourse with them began in the following manner:--In the spring of +the second year the bodies of many of the natives were found in a +lifeless or dying state upon different parts of the coast near Sydney, +in consequence of the small-pox, which had been raging among them; and +some of these having been brought up to the settlement, from motives of +pity, the disease was taken by a native who had been captured shortly +before, in hopes of opening through him a means of communication with +the others. The intended interpreter died, but the governor, Captain +Philip, still retained in his care two native children, whose lives had +been saved from the small-pox, and succeeded, within a few months, in +securing two other natives, both of them well known to the children, +through whom they were assured of perfect safety. However, instead of +remaining until they could become familiar with the English manners and +language, so as to carry on an intercourse between the colonists and +their own countrymen, these natives both made their escape, one of them +very soon after he had been taken; the other, Bennillong, in about six +months afterwards, when he had been treated with every kindness and +indulgence, and had grown somewhat accustomed to the society of the +English settlers. Bennillong made his escape in May 1790, and in the +September following he saw some of the colonists, by whom he sent a +present to the governor, namely, a piece of the whale which was then +lying on the beach, and around which the natives were assembled at a +feast. Wishing to see him again, the governor went immediately to the +spot, where he found a number of natives, and both Bennillong, and the +other one, Cole-be, who had first escaped. All went on amicably at +first, and some wearing apparel, belonging to the men in the boat, was +given to the savages, while Bennillong obtained a promise from his +excellency that more should be brought in two days, and likewise some +hatchets. The governor and his friends were retiring by degrees to their +boat, having imprudently allowed the natives very nearly to surround +them, when Bennillong, after presenting several of his friends by name, +pointed out one, whom Captain Philip stepped forward to meet, holding +out both his hands to him. The savage, not understanding this civility, +and possibly thinking that he was going to seize him, threw his spear, +and wounded the governor rather badly, but not mortally. Several other +spears were thrown, and one musket fired, but no injury was done on +either side. A few days after the accident Bennillong came with his wife +and some companions very near to the settlement, and an interview +between these and the British officers took place, in which it was +agreed that the governor, as soon as he was able, should visit the +same spot; Bennillong, meanwhile, assuring them that the man who had +inflicted the wound had been severely beaten. On the tenth day his +Excellency was so far recovered as to go to the place of the whale +feast, together with several officers, all armed. Bennillong here +repeated his assurances to the governor in person, that the offending +party had been well beaten by him and Cole-be, and added that his +throwing the spear was entirely the effect of his fears, and arose from +an impulse of self-preservation. The day before this visit nearly 4000 +fish had been taken by the colonists, and between 30 and 40 of these, +weighing on an average about 5 lbs. each, were sent to Bennillong and +his party on the north shore of Port Jackson. After this, tolerably +friendly feelings continued, with some few interruptions, between the +two nations, and Bennillong himself became very much attached to the +governor, insomuch that he and another native resolved to accompany +Captain Philip to England, when, towards the close of 1792, that +excellent officer resigned his appointment, and embarked on board of +the Atlantic transport-ship. The two Australians, fully bent upon +the voyage, which they knew would be a very distant one, withstood +resolutely, at the moment of their departure, the united distress of +their wives and the dismal lamentations of their friends. No more was +heard respecting these absentees until March 1794, when a message was +brought from them in England, requesting that their wives might be told +to expect them in the course of that year, since, though well, they had +not so completely lost their love of liberty and of their native +country, to prefer London, with its pleasures and abundance, to the +woods of New South Wales. It was not, however, until August, 1795, that +Bennillong reached his native shores, having become accustomed to the +manners of civilized life, by his long sojourn among the English people. +He declared to his old acquaintance, with an air and tone that seemed to +expect compliance, that he should no longer suffer them to fight and cut +each other's throats, but should introduce peace among them, and make +them love one another. When they visited him at Government House, he +wished they would contrive to be somewhat more cleanly in their persons +and less coarse in their manners; and he was quite offended at his +sister, who came in such haste to see him, that she positively forgot to +bring anything else upon her back, except a little nephew! Bennillong +had been an attentive observer of manners, which he was not unsuccessful +in copying; his dress was an object of no small concern to him, and +every one was of opinion that he had cast off all love for savage life. + +Upon his arrival, Bennillong made inquiries after his wife,[75] but +having heard no very good account of her conduct, he at length tempted +her by some rose-coloured clothes and a gipsy bonnet to leave her new +lover and return to her former husband. Bennillong's presents, however +pretty, were of very little practical use, and he was soon afterwards +missing, having gone into the Bush to give his rival a good beating with +_fists_ after the English method. However, all his valour was lost upon +his wife, who deserted him,--an event which did not appear to give him +great uneasiness, nor was it much to be wondered at, since she had been +stolen by him. His absence from the governor's house became now +frequent, and when he went out, his clothes were usually left behind +him, although he carefully resumed them on his return before he made his +visit to the governor. + + [75] Like most of his countrymen, Bennillong had two wives, but one of + them, Barangaroo, had died, as it appears, before his departure for + England. See page 154. + +Within a year of his arrival from England this poor creature had a +quarrel with his bosom-friend Cole-be, whose wife he had coveted, and +from whom he received some severe wounds, together with the cutting +inquiry, "Whether he meant that kind of conduct to be a specimen of +English manners?" Thus Bennillong by degrees returned again to all the +habits of savage life,--habits rendered rather worse than better by the +experience he had gained respecting those of civilized men. He could +not, however, keep on terms with his countrymen, and in 1796 he was +obliged to call in the help of the governor's soldiers to protect him +from his own people. In the following year he was accused of having been +the cause of a woman's death, who had dreamed, when dying, that he had +killed her; and by some it was said, that he actually had wounded her, +so that it was demanded of him that he should undergo the ordeal of +having some spears thrown at him. Although he denied the charge, yet it +was not thought unlikely to be true, for he was now become so fond of +drinking that he lost no opportunity of being intoxicated, and in that +state was savage and violent enough to be capable of any mischief. On +these occasions he amused himself with annoying and insulting all his +acquaintance, who were afraid to punish him lest they should offend his +white friends. But, however, his interest with the latter was fast +declining, for in an affray between the natives, Bennillong chose to +throw a spear among the soldiers, who interfered to prevent further +mischief; and one of these was dreadfully wounded by him. He was, +notwithstanding, set at liberty, but being offended at the blame his +behaviour had brought down upon him he would sometimes walk about armed, +and declare that he did so for the purpose of spearing the governor +whenever he might see him! After repeated affrays and quarrels with his +wife's lover and other natives, Bennillong, who had almost entirely +quitted the comforts and quiet of civilized life, was dangerously +wounded twice within two or three months. And although no more is +related concerning him, and it is true that he had recently recovered of +several very severe wounds, yet the probability is, that this weak and +violent savage was not long afterwards cut off in the midst of life by +an untimely and cruel death. + +_Barangaroo's Funeral._--When Barangaroo Daringha, Bennillong's elder +wife, who was above fifty at the time of her death, was to have the +funeral rites performed over her body, it was resolved by her husband +that she should be burned, and the governor, the judge-advocate, and the +surgeon of the colony were invited to the ceremony, besides whom there +were present Bennillong's relatives and a few others, mostly females. +The spot for the pile was prepared by digging out the ground with a +stick, to the depth of a few inches, and in this a heap of wood was +raised to the height of about three feet, the ends and sides being +formed of dry pieces, and the middle of it consisting of small twigs and +branches, broken off for the purpose, and thrown together. Some grass +was then spread over the pile, and the corpse covered with an old +blanket was placed upon it, with the head towards the north. A basket +with sundry articles belonging to the deceased was placed by her side, +and some large logs being laid over the body by Bennillong, the pile +was lighted by one of the party, and was quickly all in a flame. +Bennillong himself pointed out to his friends that the fire had reached +the corpse, and the spot was left long before the pile was consumed, +while the husband seemed more cheerful than had been expected, and +spoke about finding a nurse among the white women for his infant and +motherless child, Dil-boong.[76] The next day he invited the same party +of Europeans to see him rake the ashes together, and none of his own +people were present at this ceremony. He went before his companions in a +sort of solemn silence, speaking to no one until he had paid the last +duties to Barangaroo. In his hand was the spear, with which he meant to +punish the _car-rah-dy_, or conjurer, for whom he had sent to attend her +in her illness, but who either could not or would not obey the summons; +and with the end of this spear he collected the funereal ashes into a +heap. Over these he made, with a piece of bark, which served for a +spade, a small mound of earth, on each side of which was placed a log of +wood, and on the top the bark with which he had constructed it. All was +done with the utmost care and neatness, and he seemed pleased, when, in +reply to his inquiries, he was told by his friends that it was "good." +His behaviour throughout was solemn and manly, and he was perfectly +silent during the whole of the ceremony, from which nothing was suffered +to withdraw his attention. Nor did he seem desirous to get quickly +through it, but paid these last rites of affection with a care that +did honour to his feelings towards one, for whom, notwithstanding his +barbarism, he appeared to feel a sincere and strong attachment. When his +melancholy task was ended, he stood for a few moments, with his hands +folded over his bosom, and his eye fixed upon his labours, in the +attitude of a man in profound thought. What were his thoughts then it is +impossible certainly to declare, but they may have been more nearly akin +to those of the mere civilized worldling than we might at first imagine. +Death brings all men to an equality, and throws down every distinction +but one. That distinction, indeed, so far from overthrowing, death +renders more marked and conspicuous than before, clearly making manifest +the difference between the believer and the unbeliever, "between him +that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." + + [76] On a similar occasion, Cole-be placed the living child in the grave + with its mother, and having laid the child down, he threw upon it a + large stone, after which the grave was instantly filled up by the other + natives. Upon remonstrating with Cole-be, he, so far from thinking it + inhuman, justified this extraordinary act by saying, that, as no woman + could be found to nurse the child, it must have died a worse death than + that to which he put it.--COLLINS' _Account of the Colony of New South + Wales_, p. 393. + +_The Spitting Tribe._--This was the name given by Major Mitchell to one +of the most troublesome and ferocious of the native tribes, the place of +whose habitation is on the lonely banks of the Darling, in the interior +of Eastern Australia. When these disagreeable people were first met +with, the man who was taking care of the sheep belonging to the +exploring party held out a green bough; but the savage, who had before +pointed a spear at the Englishman, replied to his emblem of peace by +taking a bough, spitting upon it, and then thrusting it into the fire. +Upon Major Mitchell hastening to the spot, similar expressions of ill +will were manifested, evidently with the purpose of telling the +strangers that they must go back. The native and a boy who was with him +then threw up dust at their enemies, in a clever way, _with their toes_. +Their feelings of hostility and defiance were too plainly expressed to +be mistaken. Every effort at conciliation was useless, until, at length, +the enraged native of the Bush retired slowly along the river bank, +singing a war-song as he went, and showing by his actions that he was +going for his tribe. This happened in the morning; and during the +afternoon of the same day, a party of the tribe made their appearance, +holding out boughs indeed, but with a very different ceremonial from +what had hitherto been observed.[77] Their violent and expressive +gestures evidently were intended to drive back the intruders; and +as these last could not but feel that they were not upon their own +ground, they used every endeavour to conciliate the opposing party. The +blacksmith belonging to the expedition was at work with his bellows and +anvil near the river bank, and his labours seemed to awaken very much +the curiosity of the natives, who, however, still refused to sit down, +and continued to wave their branches in the faces of the white people, +and to spit at them repeatedly, all which conduct was patiently endured +in the hope of establishing afterwards a more agreeable and friendly +intercourse. As a peace-offering, a tomahawk was presented to the +leader, who, guessing immediately its use, turned round to a log, and +chopped it. Two other stout fellows then rudely demanded the British +officer's pistols from his belt, whereupon he drew one, and, curious to +see the effect, fired it at a tree. Immediately, as though they had +previously suspected the intruders to be evil demons, and had at length +a clear proof of it, they repeated their actions of defiance with +tenfold fury, accompanying these with demoniac looks, hideous shouts, +and a war-song,--crouching, jumping, spitting, springing with the spear, +and throwing dust at them, as they slowly retired. In short, their +hideous crouching postures, measured gestures, and low jumps, to the +tune of a wild song, with the fiendish glare of their countenances, at +times all black, but now all eyes and teeth, seemed a fitter spectacle +for Pandemonium than for the light of the bounteous sun. Thus they +retired, dancing in a circle, and leaving the strangers in expectation +of their return, and perhaps an attack in the morning. Whatever was the +cause of their hostility, any further attempt to quiet them appeared out +of the question, and it was too likely that ere long the English party +would be forced to prove their superiority by arms.[78] + + [77] The custom of holding out green boughs, which is usually a sign of + friendship among the Australians and other savage tribes, formed part of + the ceremony of suppliants among the ancient Greeks. See Potter's + Antiquities of Greece, b. ii. c. 5. + + [78] The difference in disposition between tribes not very remote from + each other was often striking. Only three days' journey behind, the + travellers had left natives as kind and civil as any whom they had seen, + and hitherto all the people on the Darling had met them with the branch + of peace. + +These troublesome visitors did not, however, make their appearance again +before the following afternoon, when their curiosity and desire to get +more presents brought them forth from their hiding-places in the woods. +By degrees, they seemed to gain a little more confidence; but signs of +defiance were still made; and as their fears diminished, their love of +pilfering appeared to increase. The blacksmith was at work this day +also; and they moved towards him, commencing at the same time a kind of +chant, and slowly waving their green boughs. There was evidently some +superstition in the ceremony, and one of the parties concerned in it +was a _coradje_, or priest, who occasionally turned his back upon the +Europeans, and touched his eye-brows, nose, and breast; then pointing +his arm to the sky, and with his hand afterwards laid upon his breast, +pouring forth a most solemn chant. The blacksmith, with whose honest +occupation all this formed a strange contrast, had been ordered not +to laugh nor stop working, which orders he obeyed as long as it was +practicable. But, gradually, the black visitors gathered round the +forge, and began to pilfer whatever they could lay hand or foot upon, +until the persecuted smith could no longer proceed with his work. The +best part of this scene was, that they did not mind being observed by +any one, except the blacksmith, supposing that they were robbing him +only. His patience, however, being severely tried, he was at last +tempted to give one of them a push, when a scene of chanting, spitting, +and throwing dust commenced on the part of the thief, who was a stout +fellow and carried a spear, which he seemed inclined to use. One or two +articles were lost in spite of all efforts, but the explorers were glad +to feel at peace with these people upon any terms, and both parties +separated that night in a tolerably civil way. + +On the following day, the travellers began to move onwards, but they did +not leave behind (as they had hoped) their troublesome neighbours. The +natives rushed forth from the woods in greater numbers than ever, _being +painted white_, and many of them carrying spears, and shouting. A horse +belonging to one of the party was so startled at this, that he galloped +away, and was with some little difficulty recovered. The threats and +defiance of the savages were again repeated; and when the party of +explorers began to proceed onwards, the whole of the woods appeared to +be in flames. Various annoyances and hindrances were experienced from +these disagreeable inhabitants of the Bush, during the next ten or +twelve days; after which an event happened, which, though sad and +unfortunate in itself, was yet calculated to fill the minds of these +impudent savages with some respect and awe for the power of the +Europeans. Joseph Jones,--the man who attended the flock of sheep, which +accompanied Major Mitchell's party in their wanderings in the interior +of New Holland,--had been sent for some water; and the tea-kettle he +carried with him was the sole cause of the quarrel that ensued. As he +was getting up the river bank with the water, another man being +stationed (as usual) at the top to protect him with his pistol, one of +the natives, with others in his company, met him half way up, and with +a smile took hold of the pot which he was carrying, together with the +kettle. This was done under pretence of helping Jones, but, on reaching +the top of the bank, the savage, in the same jocose way, held it fast, +until a woman said something to him; and then, letting the pot go, he +seized the kettle with his left hand, and at the same time struck Jones +senseless to the ground by a violent blow on the forehead, inflicted +with a club which he held in his right. On seeing this the other man, +who was stationed by way of protection, fired, and wounded the savage, +who swam across the river, and made off as well as he could; but the +rest of the tribe were now advancing. The Englishman fired twice at +them, and the second time, unfortunately, he shot the woman already +mentioned, who, with her child fastened to her back, slid down the bank, +and lay, apparently dying, in the water. At this moment three other +Englishmen arrived, who had been sent off from the camp when the noise +of fire-arms was heard, and one man among the natives was shot in the +breast, but little more mischief was done, for the tribe speedily +dispersed, having dragged away the dead body of the woman; while Joseph +Jones returned, wounded and bleeding, to the camp of the explorers. When +night arrived, "a death-like silence," says Major Mitchell, "prevailed +along the banks of the river; no far-heard voices of natives at their +fires broke, as before, the stillness of the night, while a painful +sympathy for the child bereft of its parent, and anticipations of the +probable consequences to us, cast a melancholy gloom over the scene. The +waning moon at length arose, and I was anxiously occupied with the +observations, which were most important at this point of my journey, +when a mournful song, strongly expressive of the wailing of women, came +from beyond the Darling, on the fitful breeze which still blew from the +north-west." The feelings of a brave but humane British officer, +surrounded by difficulties, with very few except convicts under his +command, annoyed by natives, yet anxious not to injure them, and just +about to turn back from the journey of discovery which he had hitherto +successfully pursued; the feelings of Major Mitchell under the +circumstances so touchingly described by him can scarcely be imagined. +The thoughts of a veteran who had served his country during many long +years of war and strife, must have wandered back to past scenes and +by-gone days, while he stood in that solitary wilderness; and when the +wild shrill cry of savage grief came floating upon his ears, he must +have felt most deeply those strange sensations which we experience + + "When, musing o'er companions gone, + We doubly feel ourselves alone." + +These savages of the Darling have the power of doing with their toes +many things most surprising to men who wear shoes, and have never been +accustomed from infancy to climb trees after the Australian fashion. +With their toes they gather the fresh-water muscles from the muddy +bottoms of rivers or lakes, and these are one of their principal +articles of food in the neighbourhood of the Darling. In the attempts of +the Spitting Tribe to steal from the English party, their feet were much +employed, and they would tread softly on any article, seize it with the +toes, pass it up the back, or between the arm and side, and so conceal +it in the arm-pit, or between the beard and throat. The hoary old priest +of the Spitting Tribe, while intent upon tricks of this kind, chanted +an extraordinary hymn to some deity or devil; the act was evidently +superstitious and connected with no good principle. Arrangements were +probably being made, and some of these strange ceremonies observed by +them, for the purpose of destroying the strangers, _intruders_ they +might be called. "And no man," observes Major Mitchell, "can witness the +quickness and intelligence of the aborigines, as displayed in their +instant comprehension of our numerous appliances, without feelings of +sympathy. They cannot be so obtuse, as not to anticipate in the advance +of such a powerful race as ours, the extirpation of their own, in a +country which barely affords to them the means of subsistence." Yet, +melancholy though the reflection may appear, it is but too true, that +scarcely any hope of improving and civilizing these barbarous people can +be at present reasonably indulged. What a picture does the same humane +traveller already quoted draw of the tribes about the lower part of the +Darling, of whose character the Spitting Tribe may serve for a specimen. +"It seldom happened," he says, "that I was particularly engaged with a +map, a drawing, or a calculation, but I was interrupted by them or +respecting them. Our gifts seemed only to awaken on their part a desire +to destroy us, and to take all we had. While sitting in the dust with +them, according to their custom, often have they examined my cap, +evidently with no other view than to ascertain whether it would +resist the blow of a _waddy_, or short stick. Then they would feel the +thickness of my dress, and whisper together, their eyes occasionally +glancing at their spears and clubs. The expression of their countenances +was sometimes so hideous, that, after such interviews, I have found +comfort in contemplating the honest faces of the horses and sheep; and +even in the scowl of 'the patient ox,' I have imagined an expression of +dignity, when he may have pricked up his ears, and turned his horns +towards these wild specimens of the 'lords of the creation.' Travellers +in Australian deserts will find that such savages cannot remain at rest +when near, but are ever anxious to strip them by all means in their +power of every thing. It was not until we proceeded as conquerors, that +we knew any thing like tranquillity on the Darling; and I am now of +opinion, that to discourage at once the approach of such natives, would +tend more to the safety of an exploring party than presenting them with +gifts." + +_Mulligo's Death._--The following curious account of the death of a +certain native of Western Australia is given by Captain Grey. Mulligo, +for such was the name of the unfortunate man, had severely hurt his +spine by a fall from a tree, and having lost the use of his lower limbs, +he gradually wasted away, until, in about two months' time, he became a +perfect skeleton, and was evidently dying. Soon after day-break, Captain +Grey came to the hut of Mulligo, and found him alive indeed, but +breathing so slightly that it was scarcely to be perceived. His head +rested on his aged mother's knees, who leaned over him in tears, while +other women were seated around, their heads all verging to a common +centre, over the wasted frame of the dying man; they were crying +bitterly, and scratching their cheeks, foreheads, and noses, with +their nails, until the blood trickled slowly from the wounds. The men, +meanwhile, were preparing their spears for the fight, which was expected +to take place respecting the two wives of Mulligo, the title of his heir +being disputed. Other native females soon began to arrive in small +parties, each one carrying her long stick in her hand, and each party +marching slowly after the eldest woman belonging to it. When they came +within about thirty or forty yards of the hut of the dying man, they +raised the most piteous cries, and hurrying their pace, moved rapidly to +the place where the other women were seated, recalling to the mind of +one acquainted with the Bible, that custom alluded to by Jeremiah (chap. +ix. 17, 18). As they came up to the bark hut, many of them struck it +violently with their sticks, producing by the blow a dull hollow sound, +and then, after joining the assembled circle, chanting mournfully the +usual songs on these occasions. Then, suddenly, one of the women in a +frenzy would start up, and standing in front of the hut, while she waved +her stick violently in the air, would chant forth curses against the +sorcerers, who, as she believed, had been the cause of Mulligo's +sufferings. It was strange to watch the effect of these wild chants upon +the savage countenances of the men; one while they sat in mournful +silence; again they grasped firmly and quivered their spears; and by and +by a general "Ee-Ee," pronounced in their throat, with the lips closed, +burst forth in token of approbation at some affecting part of the +speech. + +Time wore on; each withered beldame by turns addressed the party, +while the poor creature, whose dying moments were thus disturbed, was +gradually sinking. At last he ceased to live, and at that moment an old +woman started up, and with grief and rage, poured forth her curses upon +the _Boyl-yas_, and tore the hut in which Mulligo had been lying to +pieces, saying, "This is now no good." Her proceedings excited the +feelings of the men, and at last Moon-dee, the most violent of them, was +on the point of spearing one of the wives of the deceased, but he was +withheld by some of the women. The cause of Moon-dee's anger was +afterwards thus explained. About two or three months before this time, +a cloak belonging to Mulligo's brother had been stolen, and, it was +supposed, given to one of the sorcerers, who gained thereby some +mysterious power over either of the two brothers, which he had exercised +on Mulligo, when he caused him to fall and injure his back. Another +sorcerer was called in, who applied fire to the injured part, but +without any success; and since the poor fellow was daily wasting away, +it was imagined that the unfriendly sorcerers came every night to feast +upon the invalid during his hours of sleep. But Moon-dee chose to fancy +that if his wife had been more watchful, the _Boyl-yas_ might have been +detected, and therefore he intended to spear her in the leg, in order to +punish her supposed neglect. This outrage was, however, prevented; and +the two trembling partners of the deceased, neither of whom was above +fifteen years old, fled into Perth, to find among Europeans a refuge +from the violence of their own countrymen. After vowing vengeance +against a great many of the sorcerers, though they had no proof whatever +against any of these in particular, the men followed the widows to +Perth, to see that no one stole them away; and a few only were left with +the women to superintend the funeral. + +In about an hour's time, the body was removed to a distance of nearly +half a mile from the spot where the death had taken place, and the women +were still leaning over it, uttering the words, _yang, yang, yang_, and +occasionally chanting a few sentences. The grave was then dug, as usual, +due east and west, with no better instruments than sticks and hands; but +afterwards, when many Europeans had assembled at the spot, to the great +annoyance of the natives, these last occasionally employed a spade, +although, from the extreme narrowness of the grave, it was no easy +matter to make use of this implement. During the digging an insect had +been thrown up, whose motions were watched with the deepest interest, +and since the animal crawled off in the direction of Guildford, this was +thought an additional proof of the guilt of the sorcerers of that place, +who had before been suspected, because the cloak had been stolen by a +man living near this settlement. + +When the grave was completed, they set fire to some dried leaves and +twigs which they threw in, and old Weeban, the friendly sorcerer, knelt +at the foot of the grave, with his back to the east, and his head bowed +down to the earth in a posture of the deepest attention; his office +being a very important one, namely, to discover in what direction the +hostile _Boyl-yas_ would take their flight, when drawn out of the earth +by the heat. The fire roared for some time in the grave; and the hollow +sound of the flames arising from the narrow opening evidently aroused +the superstitious fears of the bystanders, until the old conjuror +signified by his actions that the authors of the mischief were gone off +in the direction of Guildford. The relatives of the deceased appeared +satisfied at knowing upon whom to avenge the foul witchcraft, and at +being assured of the cause of their friend's death. The body of Mulligo +was then taken from the females, his mother having, for the last time, +fervently kissed its cold lips; and the corpse was lowered into the +grave, and placed upon a bed of leaves, which had been laid there +directly the fire was extinguished; the face being, according to custom, +turned towards the east. The women continued their mournful songs, and +the grave was filled up with small green boughs and earth, until the +tomb was completed, presenting the appearance, owing to the heaps placed +at the head and foot, of three graves nearly alike in size and form, +lying in a due east and west direction. On the same evening, the old +mother was found sitting at the place where her son's remains were +interred, and crying bitterly. She had caught the _Boyl-yas_, she said, +in the very act of sitting round Mulligo's grave, for the purpose of +preying upon his miserable body, and she pointed out their tracks at the +spot from which they sprung into the air, in the direction of Guildford, +but European eyes were not keen enough to detect these mysterious traces +of mischief. + +_The Corrobory._--The natives have a dance, called corrobory, of a very +original character, and almost universally prevalent on the shores of +Australia. The dance always takes place at night; and not only in this +respect, but likewise in the preparation and excitement occasioned by +it, a resemblance may be traced between the _corrobory_ and the dances +of more civilized nations. The curious evolutions and figures performed +in these assemblies of savages, are regulated by time beaten upon +stretched skins or drums,--the only musical instrument that is commonly +seen among them; and while the light of blazing boughs is thrown upon +the scene of festivity, the rude music is accompanied by a song. +Darkness seems essential to the effect of the whole; and the painted +figures coming forward from the obscurity of the background, while the +singers and beaters of time are invisible, have a highly theatrical +effect. Each dance appears most tastefully progressive; the movement +being first slow, and introduced by two persons, displaying graceful +motions, both of arms and legs; others, one by one, join in, each +gradually warming into the truly savage attitude of the "_corrobory_" +jump; the legs then stride to the utmost, the head is turned over one +shoulder, the eyes glare, and are fixed with savage energy all in one +direction; the arms also are raised, and inclined towards the head, the +hands usually grasping some warlike weapons. The jump now keeps time +with each beat; the dancers at every movement taking six inches to one +side, all being in a connected line, led by the first, which line, +however, is sometimes _doubled_ or _tripled_, according to numbers; and +thus great effect is added; for when the front line jumps to the left, +the second jumps to the right; the third to the left again, and so on, +until the action gains due intensity, when all suddenly stop at the same +moment. The excitement which this dance produces in the savage is very +remarkable. However listless the individual may be, lying perhaps, as +usual, half asleep, set him to this, and he is fired with sudden energy, +every nerve is strung to such a degree, that he is hardly to be known as +the same person, while the _corrobory_ continues. + +_Peerat and his Wives._--A garden belonging to a soldier at King +George's Sound had been robbed by the natives of nearly a hundred weight +of potatoes. This was the first act of theft that had been committed +during the five months of Governor Grey's residence there, although +there had often been as many as two hundred natives in the settlement, +who had no means of subsistence beyond the natural productions of the +country, and what little they derived from being occasionally employed +by the colonists. And even in this theft of the potatoes, they had +purposely left the large roots, and had taken away only the smaller +ones, in the hope that by so doing they would lessen the crime. However, +the governor resolved to act promptly and vigorously upon this first +offence, and to avoid the common fault of Europeans, in confounding the +guilty and the innocent together. By the help of an intelligent native, +the tracks of three persons were found in the garden that had been +robbed, and the footsteps were pronounced to be those of Peerat's two +wives, and his son Dal-bean. These had all walked off into the Bush, +meaning, probably, to avoid suspicion, and to wait till the affair had +passed quietly over. The governor determined to pursue them, but this +required great secrecy, for Australians are no easy creatures to catch +hold of; and it was not meant to adopt the popular system of shooting +them when they ran away. Accompanied by four natives only, the governor +pressed forward, following Peerat's tracks for about nine miles in a +direction where the Bush had been set on fire by the natives, until he +met with some of these, who were solemnly informed of the theft and of +the names of the criminals, whom he had come to take prisoners; if these +were given up, it was promised that they should undergo only the regular +punishment for petty robbery; otherwise, the usual allowance of flour, +which was issued to all the natives every two months, was to be stopped; +and it was threatened that a party of soldiers should be brought out to +fire upon Peerat and his party wherever they might be found. These +threats, uttered in a very decided tone, gave occasion to a consultation +among the natives, by whom it was unanimously agreed:-- + +Imprimis. That stealing potatoes was a very heinous offence, more +particularly in women. + +Secondly. That women were notorious thieves, and altogether worse +characters than men. + +Thirdly. That beating women was an every day occurrence. + +Fourthly. That losing flour was a great bore; and, + +Fifthly. Upon these considerations, Peerat, his wives, and son, were to +be given up. + +These resolutions having been passed, the whole assembly came to the +governor to inquire whether he told the truth, when he said that he was +not personally angry with Peerat's family, and that they should not be +killed; and being satisfied upon this point, they all proceeded together +in search of the offending parties. + +Peerat waited quietly to receive them, indeed, he was not aware of the +cause of his being honoured by a visit from the governor; when, however, +he heard of this, he abused his wives, and promised to thrash them +soundly, but absolutely refused to give either them or his son up as +prisoners. The first man who might lay a finger upon him was threatened +with a spear through the heart, and the governor was obliged to proclaim +the sacredness of his own person, and to cock both barrels of his gun, +with an assurance that he would shoot poor Peerat in case of resistance. +All savage strife is noisy in the extreme; even the strife of +_civilized_ men in their _public meetings_ and _vestries_ is often +tolerably boisterous,--and a great deal of running and leaping about, +and quivering of spears accompanies the former kind of altercation. +While things were in this confusion the governor went alone to Peerat's +fire, and seized his little boy, Dal-bean, but could see nothing of the +wives, who were, most likely, busy digging roots for the family. The boy +was told that if he moved he would be shot, a threat which kept him very +quiet; but Peerat soon found out what had happened, and came running +after them. These natives are always greatly attached to their children, +and strong proofs of this were now given by the father, who first +declared that the boy had been with him, and that it was the mother only +that had stolen, producing about a dozen witnesses to prove this to be +the truth. However, the reply to this was by asking the question, How +came the child's footmarks in the garden? It was answered that Peerat's +second wife had, indeed, been there, and that she was just the size of +the boy; but that plea would not hold good, since her footsteps had been +observed likewise. + +The father now urged the tender years of the lad, and that he was under +the influence of his mother; and then fairly wept upon his child's neck, +who was calling upon his parent and the other natives by name to save +him. The governor's own feelings and those of his followers urged him +to let the little fellow go, but he wisely resolved to act with +determination, and held fast by the prisoner. Spears were now given to +Peerat--a sign of his quarrel being espoused by those who gave them, and +that he was expected to use them; and, matters having taken a serious +turn, the governor hastened away with his prisoner and two of his native +companions, but not before he had explained to the others the advantage +of an impartial inquiry and proper punishment of offenders, in +preference to their being exposed to the indiscriminating fire of +Europeans. Peerat was then threatened with a shot if he did not take +himself off, and bring his wives into the settlement to be punished; and +the matter ended, for the present, in the lodgment of the youthful +Dal-bean safe in the British gaol. In a day or two afterwards, during +which no tidings had been heard of Peerat and his wives, the little +Dal-bean made an attempt to break out of his place of confinement, by +taking up a loose stone from the floor, with which he had battered a +hole in the door. This, however, he stoutly denied, asserting that, +whilst he was asleep, sorcerers from the north, having a spite against +him, had entered through some air-holes in the wall and done this; and, +on his persisting in the story, he was told that, in future, he would +be well whipped for neglect, if he did not give the alarm when these +strange visitors came. Meanwhile, the governor was half inclined to whip +him for telling a story, but he satisfied himself with giving him a +lecture upon the crime of lying, to which the cunning little rogue +replied, by arguing upon the general usefulness and prevalence of that +vice in the world, entirely setting aside its evil nature and +sinfulness. + +The very same day Peerat made his appearance with a very pitiful +tale. He had two wives, and to govern them both was no easy task, but, +although they had been soundly beaten, they could not be induced to come +into the settlement, until he had threatened to spear them. This threat +had, at last, succeeded, and in recompense for his sufferings from the +loss of his son, and from the obstinacy and bad temper of his wives, he +begged to be allowed to beat the latter himself. They were ordered to +the spot where the robbery was committed, and there the native women +soon appeared, dreadfully cut and mangled from the beating they had +already received. One was a nice looking girl, about fourteen, but an +incorrigible thief. Peerat was going to hit her a tremendous blow upon +the head, which must have laid it open. She stood with her back to her +husband, trembling and crying bitterly. The governor caught Peerat's +arm, picked up a little switch from the ground, and told him to beat her +on the shoulders with that, instead of with his _meero_. Two slight +blows, or rather taps, were given her, in order to know where it was +that the governor meant her to be struck, but the poor girl cried so +bitterly from fear, that she was pardoned, and so likewise was the other +woman, who had already been severely beaten, and had at that moment a +little child sitting upon her shoulder, and crying piteously at the +sight of its mother's tears. Before the crowd dispersed a lecture was +given them, and they were warned not to presume upon the governor's +clemency in the present instance. + +In the afternoon, the governor, attended by Peerat, his wives, and a +crowd of natives, walked up to the gaol to release little Dal-bean. The +father and the governor alone entered the prison, and when the gaoler +was told to hand Peerat the whip, the latter took it, and said, "Yes, +yes, I will strike him; let not another beat him." The door of the cell +was then opened, and the little boy was led out: his father ran up to +him, caught him in his arms, and began kissing him; having done this, he +told him he was going to beat him. The little fellow did not answer a +word, but standing as firm and erect as possible, presented his back +to him. The father gave him one blow, and it was ended--justice was +satisfied. The criminals had surrendered to salutary laws, of which they +had but a vague and undefined knowledge; it was their first offence; the +nature of the laws they had broken was explained to them; they were +warned to be careful in their future conduct, and they were set free. +Little Dal-bean, directly they got outside the gaol, walked up to the +governor, took his hand, and squeezed it; then turning to his mother, +he just looked at her; she cried, but did not dare to kiss him, or to +show any other mark of emotion. The whole party then moved off, after +showering many thanks upon the governor, and saying, "What a good +fellow, what a good fellow," or, to give a literal translation, "one +good man, one good man!" + +_Woga's Captivity._--In Caledon Bay, upon the northern coast of New +Holland, the natives had behaved very well to the party under Captain +Flinders, which had landed on their shores, until one of those who had +been most kindly treated ran away with an axe, and from the thickness of +the forest could not be overtaken. It was indeed here, as in other parts +of Australia, no easy matter to hinder the people from stealing whatever +came within their reach; and in order to check this, two men were seized +by command of Captain Flinders, and after a little time one of these was +set free, upon his promising by signs to restore the axe, and being +made to understand that the other would be kept as a pledge of this +engagement being fulfilled. Much confusion was noticed among the +natives, and preparations were made for firing upon them in case of +necessity, but after one of the prisoners had been released, they +appeared to have less anxiety, and still no axe was forthcoming. The +prisoner, a youth of about fourteen, whose name was Woga, was taken in a +boat to a place much frequented by the savages, many of whom were seen +behind the bushes, endeavouring to entice a native who accompanied +the expedition on shore, no doubt intending to seize him by way of +retaliation. The restoration of the axe was demanded, and the prisoner +seemed to use all his powers to enforce it, but the constant answer was +that the thief, Ye-han-ge-ree, had been beaten and was gone away; and +since no axe was likely to be brought, Woga was carried on board the +ship, after a great deal of crying, entreating, threatening, and +struggling on his part. He there ate heartily, laughed, sometimes cried, +and noticed every thing; frequently expressing admiration at what he +saw, and especially at the sheep, hogs, and cats. The next morning he +was taken ashore, and attempted to make a spring out of the boat, so +that it was needful to bind him, notwithstanding his struggles; but +after a while he became quiet, and enjoyed his meal of rice and fish, +although he was made fast to a tree. A sort of attack was then made by +the other natives upon a party of gentlemen who had landed to botanize, +and who had been almost surrounded by the savages; but, however, a +couple of shots dispersed their enemies, and two of the Australians were +supposed to have been wounded. Since the prisoner was thus a cause of +mischief to his fellow-countrymen, and his being carried off would be an +act of injustice, as well as injurious to future visitors of that coast, +at length Captain Flinders, who would otherwise willingly have taken +Woga with him, resolved to release him. On that day, the third of his +captivity, Woga appeared to be a little melancholy in his bondage, but +upon the whole had not fared amiss, having been eating the greater part +of the morning and afternoon. He begged hard to be released; promising, +with tears in his eyes, to bring back the axe; and after having received +some clothing and presents he was suffered to depart. As far as two +hundred yards he walked away leisurely; but then, looking first behind +him, took to his heels with all his might, leaving his British friends +very reasonably doubtful of the fulfilment of his pathetic promises! + +_Bal-loo-der-ry and the Convicts._--In 1791, when the town of Paramatta, +about fifteen miles from Sydney, was first settled, the natives soon +began to bring in their fish and barter it for bread or salted meat; and +this proving a great convenience to the settlers, the traffic was very +much encouraged by them. There were, however, some among the convicts so +unthinking or so depraved, as wantonly to destroy a canoe belonging to a +fine young man, a native, who had left it at a little distance from the +settlement, as he thought, out of the way of observation, while he went +with some fish he had to sell. His rage at finding his canoe destroyed +was very great: he threatened to take his revenge, and in his own way, +upon all white people. Three of the offenders, however, having been seen +and described, were taken and punished, and so were the remainder of +them not very long afterwards. The instant effect of this outrage +was, that the natives discontinued the bringing up of fish; and +Bal-loo-der-ry, whose canoe had been destroyed, although he had been +taught to believe[79] that one of the six convicts had been hanged for +the offence, meeting a few days afterwards with an European who had +strayed to some distance from Paramatta, he wounded him in two places +with a spear. This act of Bal-loo-der-ry was followed by the governor's +strictly forbidding him to appear again in any of the settlements; and +the other natives, his friends, being alarmed, Paramatta was seldom +visited by any of them, and all commerce with them was (for the time) +at an end. However, in about two months afterwards, before the person +wounded by him had recovered, Bal-loo-der-ry ventured into the town with +some of his friends, and one or two armed parties were sent to seize +him. A spear having been thrown, it was said, by him, two muskets were +fired, by which one of his companions was wounded in the leg, but +Bal-loo-der-ry was not taken. On the following day it was ordered that +he was to be seized whenever an opportunity should offer, and that any +native attempting to throw a spear in his defence, (since they well knew +why he was denounced,) was, if possible, to be prevented from escaping. +Those who knew this savage regretted that it had been necessary to treat +him thus harshly, for among his countrymen they had never seen a finer +young man. We cannot finish this melancholy history with a more true +reflection than that of Lieutenant Collins: "How much greater claim to +the appellation of _savages_ had the wretches (the convicts) who were +the cause of this, than the natives who were termed so!" + + [79] Such are the words of Lieutenant Collins, from whose account of New + South Wales the narrative is taken. When will Christians learn, in their + intercourse with heathens and savages, to abstain from such falsehood + and deceitful dealing? + +_Native Hospitality and Philosophy._--After a most distressing journey +in Western Australia, Captain Grey and his party fell in with a number +of natives, at no great distance from the settlement of Perth. So great +had been the trials of the explorers that a disinclination to move +pervaded the whole party, and their courageous leader had felt much the +same desire to sink into the sleep of death, that one feels to take a +second slumber in the morning after great fatigue. However they had +aroused themselves, and had managed to walk about eight miles at the +slow rate of a mile and a quarter an hour, when they came suddenly upon +the tracks of the natives. Kaiber, their guide, announced that they were +wild natives; and, after a second survey, he declared that they had +"great bush fury" on them, _i.e._ were subject to wild untutored rage. +It was proposed, however, to fire a gun as a signal, for since the +distance from Perth was thought to be very trifling, it was hoped that +these natives would understand its meaning. Kaiber threatened to run +away, but the coward was, in fact, afraid to move five yards from the +party, so, sitting down on his haunches under cover, he kept muttering +to himself various terms of Australian scorn,--"The swan--the +big-head--the stone forehead!"--while the Captain advanced towards the +strangers, who no sooner heard the gun, and saw him approaching, than +they came running to him. Presently, Kaiber accosted one of them by +name, and at the sound of this name, Imbat, the strongest feeling was +awakened; it was well known to the travellers, and they knew that their +lives were safe, and the end of their journey at hand. Captain Grey was +in good favour with most of the natives of those parts, to whom he had +frequently made presents of _flour_, and hence his common appellation +among them was "Wokeley brudder," or Oakley's brother, that being the +name of a _baker_ residing in Perth. + +The women were soon called up, bark-baskets of frogs opened for the +exhausted travellers, _by-yu_ nuts roasted, and, for a special delicacy, +the Captain obtained a small fresh-water tortoise. He was bidden to +sleep while Imbat cooked, and though the delay which the willing +native's skill in cookery occasioned was a little trying to the +patience of hungry men, yet it was not very long before they were +all regaling on the welcome feast. In reply to the questions of the +Englishmen, the natives all told them that they would see Perth the next +morning, "while the sun was still small;" and upon finding that there +was a kangaroo hunter with a hut, and a supply of provisions only seven +miles off, Imbat and the Captain went thither together, to prepare for +the comfortable reception of the rest of the party. However, they found +the hut deserted, its owner having returned to Perth. A fire was +lighted, notwithstanding, and the Englishman laid down to rest his weary +limbs, while the Australian again began to cook, and in his chattering +mood to philosophize also. "What for do you, who have plenty to eat, and +much money, walk so far away in the Bush?" was his first inquiry. The +Captain, fatigued and rather out of humour, made no reply. "You are +thin," continued the philosopher, "your shanks are long, your belly is +small,--you had plenty to eat at home, why did you not stop there?" +"Imbat, you comprehend nothing,--you know nothing," was the traveller's +brief reply. "I know nothing!" answered the wise man of the woods, "I +know how to keep myself fat; the young women look at me and say, Imbat +is very handsome, he is fat;--they will look at you and say, He not +good,--long legs;--what do you know? where is your fat? what for do you +know so much, if you can't keep fat? I know how to stay at home, and not +walk too far in the Bush: where is your fat?" "You know how to talk, +long tongue," answered the Captain;--"And I know how to make you fat!" +rejoined Imbat, forgetting his anger, and bursting into a roar of +laughter, as he began stuffing his guest with frogs, _by-yu_ nuts, &c. +The rest of the party arrived just before nightfall, and, searching the +hut, they found a paper of tea, and an old tin pot, in which they +prepared the welcome beverage, after which, having had a good supper, +they all laid down to sleep; and in the silence of the night, fervent +thanks went up from that lonely hut in the wilderness to the Maker of +all things, whose merciful guidance had again brought them so near "the +haven where they would be." + +_The Widow and her Child._--During the journey of Major Mitchell's +party, exploring the course of the river Lachlan down to its junction +with the Murray, they had to cross several branches of the former +stream, which gave them some trouble from the steepness of their banks, +until they at length reached the main channel of the Lachlan, which +stream, together with all its tributaries, was at that time perfectly +dry. The welcome news was then heard that some ponds of water were near, +but at the same time it was reported that natives were there; so the +party approached cautiously, and having found two pools encamped beside +them. The black people had all fled, except one child, about seven or +eight years old, quite blind, who sat near a fire, and a poor little +girl still younger, who, notwithstanding the strange appearance of the +new visitors, and the terror exhibited in the flight of her own people, +still lingered about the bushes, and at length took her seat beside the +blind boy. A large supply of the _balyan_ root lay near them, and a dog +so lean that he was scarcely able to stand, drew his feeble body close +up beside the two children, as though desirous of defending them. +Afterwards an old man came up to the fire, and he directed the +travellers to some of the water-holes in their proposed route, but could +not be prevailed upon to become their guide. However, he persuaded a +widow, with the little girl just mentioned, who might be about four +years old, to accompany the party and act as guide. + +The strangers soon began to learn the value of their new guide, +Turandurey; for within a fortnight they met with a number of the +natives, approaching in a silent and submissive manner, each having a +green bough twined round his waist or in his hand; and a parley was +opened with them by means of the widow, as she was sitting on the +opposite bank of a river to that on which they made their appearance. +Some form or ceremony, it seems, always prevents the male natives, +when strangers to each other, from speaking at first sight; no such +restraint, however, is placed upon their wives or _gins_, as they are +called. These, with the privilege of their sex, are ever ready to speak; +and the strangers as readily replied to Turandurey; so conversation was +thus held across the river. This female guide, who had before scarcely +ventured to look up, now stood boldly forward to address the strange +tribe; and when her countenance was lighted up, displaying fine teeth, +and great earnestness of manner, it was gratifying to the travellers +to see what spirit their guide possessed. Being invited to swim over +the stream, the children of the woods complied but on condition that +the wild animals (the sheep and horses) should be driven away,--a +stipulation at which the widow and other natives in the British party +laughed heartily; nor was their laughter stopped when they watched the +awkward attempts of these heroes to show off before the females, while +they were unable entirely to conceal their fears of the silly sheep! + +It was no very long time afterwards that an unfortunate accident +happened to the little native child, Ballandella, who fell from a cart, +and one of the wheels passing over, broke her thigh. On riding up to the +spot, Major Mitchell found the widow, her mother, in great distress, +lying in the dust, with her head under the limb of her unfortunate +child. The doctor was ordered to set it immediately; but, from its being +broken very near the socket, it was found difficult to bandage the limb +so as to keep the bone in its place. Every possible care was taken of +the child, and she bore the pain with admirable patience, though only +four years old; while she gave a curious proof of her good sense at so +early an age, by calling for "Majy" (the Major), as soon as she had met +with the accident. Little Ballandella did very well, and was, after +about two months' time, fast recovering from her misfortune, when the +widow, having been travelling all that time, and being now far distant +from her own country, felt inclined to return; and was prepared to make +nothing of swimming the broad waters of the Murray, the largest known +river in New Holland, pushing the child before her floating upon a piece +of bark, nor of any other difficulties which might oppose her in her +journey homewards. No objections were offered to the woman's departure, +who appeared extremely attached to her daughter, and half afraid of +being deprived of her. Indeed, it was a tempting opportunity of trying +an experiment of the effect of education upon one of that race; for the +little savage, who at first would prefer a snake or lizard to a piece of +bread, had become so far civilised at length, as to prefer bread; and it +began to cry bitterly on leaving its European friends. However, its +absence from them was not to be a long one; for, on the third day, +the widow returned again, carrying her child on her back, after the +Australian fashion. She had seen, she stated, another tribe on the +opposite side of the river, and they had inquired very angrily, who made +the fires upon her side; after which, receiving no reply, (for she was +afraid and had hid herself,) they danced a _corrobory_ in a furious +style, during which she and the child crept away, and had passed two +nights without fire and in the rain.[80] The mother and her daughter +received a kindly welcome, and were as well treated as before, +notwithstanding the petty jealousy of some other natives, who, it was +thought, had persuaded Turandurey to go, hoping thus to get a greater +share of food for themselves. After this, the widow and Ballandella +continued with the exploring party during almost the whole of the +remainder of their expedition, making themselves serviceable in various +ways. Sometimes they would give notice of the approach of the Major, +upon his return from an excursion, long before he had reached the camp; +their quick ears seemed sensible of the sound of horses' feet at an +astonishing distance, for so only could it be accounted for that the +widow and her infant daughter, seated at the fire, were always the first +to give notice of the Major's approach. Sometimes Turandurey would +employ herself in a less serious, though not less useful manner; for on +such exploring expeditions the amusement of the men is a matter of the +first importance. She would exercise her skill in mimicry or imitation, +powers which the natives of New Holland possess to an amazing degree; +and she thus occasionally amused the men by acting the part of their +leader, taking angles, drawing from nature, and copying other +occupations in which Major Mitchell was frequently engaged. + + [80] This generally appears to be rather a suspicious act;--to dance + a _corrobory_ is "a proposal these savage tribes often make, and + which the traveller who knows them well will think it better to + discourage."--MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 269. + +On the return of the expedition, it was found needful, from a scarcity +of provisions, to divide into two parties, one of which was to proceed, +under the leader, by forced marches home to Sydney, while the other was +to remain behind until necessary supplies should be forwarded. The +widow was among the party to be left; but on the morning of separation +she was marked with white round the eyes,--the Australian token of +mourning,--and the face of Ballandella was whitened also. This poor +woman, who had cheerfully carried the child upon her back, when it was +offered that both might be carried in the carts, and was as careful and +affectionate as any mother could be, had at length determined to entrust +to the Major the care of her daughter. He was pleased with this proof of +confidence, and less unwilling to take the charge from the knowledge of +the wretched state of slavery to which the native females are doomed. +Besides, the poor child had suffered considerably by the accident that +befel her while with the party of Englishmen, and she seemed to prefer +their mode of living so much, that her mother at length despaired of +being ever able to instruct her thoroughly in the mysteries of killing +and eating snakes, lizards, rats, and similar food. The widow had been +long enough with Europeans to learn how much more her sex was respected +by civilised men than by savages; and it was with feelings of this +nature, probably, that she entrusted her child to them, under the +immediate care, however, of a native woman, the wife of Piper, the +guide who had accompanied them through all the journey. A match was +subsequently made between Turandurey and king Joey, one of the native +chiefs, by which the good woman gained a handsome and comfortable +settlement for an Australian. The child Ballandella was a welcome +stranger to the Major's own children, among whom she remained, +conforming most willingly to the habits of domestic life, and showing a +very promising aptness of understanding, until she was transferred, at +the removal of the family to England, to the care of a friend; and the +last mention made of Ballandella is, that she was able to read as well +as any white child of the same age. + +_Miago._--This last sketch of native character may serve to place in a +striking, yet fair light, the perplexing situation of the half-civilised +blacks, the strong inducements for them to relapse into barbarism again, +and, consequently, the difficulty that stands in the way of their being +thoroughly reclaimed. It is impossible to do this better than in the +very words of Captain Grey.[81] "The officers of the _Beagle_ took away +with them a native of the name of Miago, who remained absent with them +for several months. I saw him on the north-west coast, on board the +_Beagle_, apparently perfectly civilised; he waited at the gun-room +mess, was temperate, (never tasting spirits,) attentive, cheerful, and +remarkably clean in his person. The next time I saw him was at Swan +River, where he had been left on the return of the _Beagle_. He was then +again a savage, almost naked, painted all over, and had been concerned +in several murders. Several persons here told me,--'You see the taste +for a savage life was strong in him, and he took to the bush again +directly.' Let us pause for a moment and consider. + + [81] Grey's Western Australia, vol. ii. p. 370. + +"Miago, when he was landed, had amongst the white people none who would +be truly friends of his;--they would give him scraps from their table, +but the very outcasts of the whites would not have treated him as an +equal,--they had no sympathy with him,--he could not have married a +white woman,--he had no certain means of subsistence open to him,--he +never could have been either a husband or a father, if he had lived +apart from his own people;--where, amongst the whites, was he to find +one who would have filled for him the place of his black mother, whom he +is much attached to? What white man would have been his brother? What +white woman his sister? He had two courses left open to him,--he could +either have renounced all natural ties, and have led a hopeless, joyless +life among the whites, ever a servant, ever an inferior being; or he +could renounce civilisation, and return to the friends of his childhood, +and to the habits of his youth. He chose the latter course, and I think +that I should have done the same." + + + + +[Illustration: SYDNEY IN ITS INFANCY--VIEW FROM THE SOUTH.] + +CHAPTER VII. + +FIRST YEARS OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. + + +One of the greatest efforts to which the industry and powers of man +can be directed is to change a lonely uncultivated wilderness into an +enclosed and fruitful country,--to occupy with civilised human beings +and comfortable dwellings those wilds which have hitherto been nearly +deserted, or at best but scantily and occasionally inhabited by savage +barbarians. The colonisation of New South Wales by the English has been +one of the most successful of these efforts; and certainly never before +did the change effected by industry so rapidly make itself visible in +the face of the new country. But, although the settlement of this colony +may now be most certainly pronounced to have been a very successful +experiment, it was by no means without hazard, and disappointment, and +suffering, to those who were first engaged in it. Indeed it would appear +to be the lot of infant colonies to cope with difficulties known only +to first settlers in uncultivated lands; and while the enterprising +colonist has to endure and struggle against these early trials, his +children or grandchildren, or often the stranger who has made a +favourable bargain of his property, are the persons who reap the reward +of his toils. It must assuredly be a subject of interest to every +inquiring mind to trace the feeble beginnings of an infant colony, +accompanying it through all its variations of hope and despondency, of +good or ill success, until it is at length conducted to a state of +greatness and prosperity quite unexampled, when the shortness of its +duration is considered. And since that colony is our own, since Britain +is, for several reasons, unusually concerned, both morally and +politically, in the welfare of New South Wales, it cannot but be useful +as well as interesting to inquire somewhat concerning the past history, +previously to our entering upon the present state, of that settlement. + +In the year 1770, Captain Cooke, in his first voyage, had touched upon +the eastern coast of New Holland, at a bay which, from the number of +curious flowers that were there found growing wild, received the name +of Botany Bay. About sixteen years afterwards, when the American war +had closed up the great outlet by which the mother country had been +accustomed to get rid of the worst of its population, it was resolved +to form a colony for this purpose elsewhere. The coast of Africa was +thought of, but wisely abandoned; and at length Botany Bay was the spot +selected by the English government, which despatched, in 1787, the +_Sirius_ and the _Supply_, with six transports and three store-ships, +having on board 565 men and 192 women, convicts, besides 160 marines, +with their officers, some of their wives, and the necessary crews for +working the ships. Provisions for two years were taken out, tools, +agricultural implements, and other articles deemed necessary were also +furnished, and the little fleet was placed under the command of Captain +Phillip, the future governor of the intended colony. Some live stock was +obtained at the Cape of Good Hope, and plants and seeds likely to be +useful were procured likewise at that place, (then under the Dutch +government,) and at Rio Janeiro. In eight months and a week the voyage +was, with the Divine blessing, completed; and after having sailed 5021 +leagues, and touched at both the American and African continents, they +came to an anchor on January 20th, 1788, within a few days' sail of the +antipodes of their native country, having had, upon the whole, a very +healthy and prosperous voyage. Botany Bay did not offer much that was +promising for a settlement, since it was mostly surrounded by very poor +land, and water was scarce.[82] The governor, accordingly, went in +person to examine the two neighbouring harbours of Port Jackson and +Broken Bay, and upon drawing near to the entrance of the former the +coast looked as unpromising as elsewhere, and the natives on shore +continued shouting, "Warra, warra,"--Go away, go away. Captain Cooke, +passing by the heads of Port Jackson, thought there might be found +shelter within for a boat but Captain Phillip was agreeably surprised at +finding there one of the finest harbours in the world; and since the +goodness of the soil and the supply of water appeared to be sufficient, +it was resolved to fix the new settlement in one of the coves of this +large and beautiful inlet. The spot chosen was near a run of fresh +water, which stole silently through a very thick wood, the stillness of +which was then for the first time interrupted by the rude sound of the +labourer's axe; and fifty years afterwards so great a change had taken +place here, that the lowest price of crown land was then 1,000_l._ an +acre, and in eligible situations sometimes a great deal more.[83] + + [82] It happened that the two French ships of discovery under the + unfortunate La Perouse came into the harbour of Botany Bay just as + the English were finally quitting it. The French stayed there nearly + two months, and after they left that harbour they were never again seen + by any Europeans, both vessels having been lost. + + [83] See Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. p. 23. + +The royal commission appointing the governor was read, together with the +letters patent establishing courts of justice; and the behaviour of the +convicts soon rendered it needful to act upon these, for, within a month +of their landing, three of them were tried, found guilty, and severely +punished. The ground was begun to be gradually cleared, a sort of farm +was prepared to receive the live stock, and a garden for the plants and +seeds; and, in obedience to the orders of the government at home, the +_Supply_, commanded by Lieutenant King, was sent to Norfolk Island, some +few days' sail to the northeast of Port Jackson, for the purpose of +forming a colony there in which the flax of New Zealand might be +cultivated. With respect to the first progress of the colony at Sydney, +it was very slow, in consequence both of the idleness and ignorance +of the great majority of the colonists, to say nothing of their +wickedness. In spite of all the efforts of the governor to prevent it, +misunderstanding soon began to arise between the convicts and the +natives, and it seemed impossible in an infant colony to put a +sufficient check upon some of the unruly spirits belonging to the former +class, while, at the same time, the thievish temper of the natives began +very early to show itself, and to provoke injuries from men possessed of +fire-arms. It must be owned, however, that proper regard was not always +paid to the rights of the poor savages; and even so late as in the year +1810, a person charged with shooting at a native and wounding him, was +tried simply for an assault; whilst another, who had committed a similar +offence against a European was tried on the same day for his life![84] +In the beginning of May, not four months after the arrival of the +British ships at Port Jackson, and at a time when death and disease were +making sad havoc among the settlers, it was found needful to cut short +the life of one very juvenile offender by the hand of justice. James +Bennett, a youth of only seventeen years of age, was executed for +burglary, and died confessing that the love of idleness and bad +connexions had been his ruin. Soon after this, three convicts were +killed, and a fourth dangerously wounded, by the natives; and upon +inquiry it was found that two of them had robbed these people of a +canoe, an act of injustice which was, no doubt, the cause of their +death. The celebration of King George III.'s birthday, on June the 4th, +gave an opportunity to the evil-disposed to commit several robberies, +and two of these afterwards suffered death for their offences, while +another, who had gone into the woods, was proclaimed an outlaw. For want +of any overseers or police, except those taken from their own class, the +convicts were getting beyond all discipline; and so utterly reckless and +improvident were some of them, that they would consume their weekly +allowance of provisions by the end of the third or fourth day, and trust +for their supply during the rest of the week to the chance of being able +to steal from others that were more provident.[85] One of these degraded +creatures is stated to have made up his week's allowance of flour (eight +pounds) into cakes, which having devoured at one meal, he was soon after +taken up, speechless and senseless, and died the following day. Among +a population like that of which we are treating, while crimes were +lamentably common, conviction was comparatively rare. There was so much +tenderness to each other's guilt, such an acquaintance with vice and the +different degrees of it, that, unless detected in the fact, it was next +to impossible to bring an offence home to the transgressors. And with +respect to their intercourse with the natives, though the convicts who +suffered from them generally contrived to make out themselves to be +in the right; yet, even upon their own showing, every accident that +happened was occasioned by a breach of positive orders repeatedly given. +In New South Wales, no less than in every other country, obedience to +lawful authority was proved to be the safest and best way, after all; +nor could that way be forsaken with impunity. + + [84] See Barrington's History of New South Wales, p. 171. See, too, + another instance at p. 385. + + [85] This conduct was so common, that, when provisions became scarce, + the supply was issued _twice_ in the week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. + +Amid the mass of moral corruption, which the British ships had thus +imported into the coasts of New Holland, the only hope of infusing +health and purity was from religion. But, unhappily, the age in which +that expedition left the English shores, was certainly not a religious +age; if there was less _hypocrisy_ then than there now is, certainly +there was less _real piety_. In the great towns of the mother country, +population and wealth were allowed to make rapid strides, without a +single thought being entertained of applying a portion of the increasing +wealth of the nation to the spiritual instruction of its increasing +population. If there was no room for the poorer classes of society at +the parish church, it was thought they might go to the meeting-house; +and if there was no room for them there, they might stay at home on +the Lord's day and be idle; it was doing no worse than many of their +betters, in a worldly sense, were constantly in the habit of doing.[86] +While notions and practices of this nature prevailed at home, it was +not to be expected that any very extraordinary attention would be paid +to the religious instruction of the convicts and other settlers in New +South Wales. Yet since, even then, it would have been thought shocking +to have left a large gaol, with 757 prisoners in it, altogether +destitute of the offices of religion, so it could not have been expected +that the same number of convicts would ever have been cast forth as evil +from their native land, and their souls left to perish on the other side +of the globe, without a single chance, humanly speaking, of receiving +those blessings of forgiveness and grace, which Christ died to procure +for all men. But, whatever might have been thought before hand, or +whatever may have been the immediate cause of such neglect, it +positively appears, that, "when the fleet was on the point of sailing, +in the year 1787, no clergyman had been thought of," nor was it without +a strong appeal to those in authority from one whose conduct in this +instance is worthy of all praise, WILBERFORCE, aided by the interest of +Bishop Porteus with Sir Joseph Banks, that the Rev. William Johnson was +appointed chaplain.[87] From whatever cause this oversight may have +arisen, whether it was intentional, or (what is more likely) merely the +consequence of forgetfulness and carelessness, it speaks pretty plainly +for the religious indifference of the government. However, the colony +was, happily, not permitted to be founded without any one present to +administer the sacraments and ordinances, and enforce the duties of our +holy religion among the first settlers and convicts.[88] By Divine +Providence, acting through the instrumentality of man, the British +nation was spared the sin and shame, which it had well nigh incurred, +of casting forth from its own shores a vile mass of uncleanness and +corruption, and forgetting at the same time to place amongst it the +smallest portion of that good leaven by which alone its evil might be +corrected. Accordingly, one chaplain[89] was sent out to officiate among +about 1000 souls, who were at first dispersed in eleven ships, and more +than two-thirds of them were in a state of extreme spiritual need, +inasmuch as they had been guilty of gross and flagrant offences. And +thus, thanks to the zeal and good feeling which had gained a victory +over the supineness of government, the discharge of religious duties on +the Sunday was never omitted at Sydney, Divine service being performed +in the open air whenever the state of the weather would permit. All +seems to have been done by the chaplain which could be effected under +circumstances of great discouragement.[90] When our blessed Redeemer +sent forth his disciples, he sent them by two and two, and how +encouraging, in the midst of an evil world, is the conversation or +counsel of a christian friend that is dearer than a brother! But the +chaplain of New South Wales had no such assistance to fall back upon; he +was left alone and single-handed--yet not alone, for Christ is ever with +his authorised ministers, to fight against the mighty power of evils by +which he was surrounded. He visited the sick and the convicts, going +from settlement to settlement, and from hut to hut; travelling to the +more distant stations, that were afterwards formed, as far as he could +reach, and assembling as many as he could for divine service. With what +success these efforts were attended we shall be better able to judge +hereafter; but one truth must be borne in mind, which is, that, in the +very nature of things, evil will make itself more prominent and noticed +in the world than good; so that, whilst it may almost appear from the +history of the colony, as though there was not one godly man left in it, +we shall do well to remember that there may have been, nevertheless, +many a one who was profited by the ministry of Christ's Church among +them, many a Naaman who had been taught to forsake the evil thing which +he once delighted in worshipping, many a knee which had not bowed to +Baal, and many a mouth which had not kissed his image.[91] + + [86] The blame of these lax and unworthy notions must not fall on the + laity alone; many of the clergy in those days deserve to have a full + share of it; but while we see and lament the faults of that generation, + we must not forget to look after those of our own, and to correct them. + + [87] See Judge Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, + p. 1. + + [88] Certainly some of the means employed for the moral improvement of + the convicts were very strange ones. For example, we are told, on one + occasion, that some of them were "ordered to _work every Sunday_ on the + highway as a punishment!" See Barrington's History of New South Wales, + p. 184. See likewise, p. 246. + + [89] In 1792, a chaplain came out with the New South Wales Corps; and + in 1794, Mr. Marsden, a second chaplain, arrived in the colony. If any + person is desirous of seeing how easily the faults and failings of + individuals may be turned into arguments against a church, he has only + to refer to Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, chap i. "The Dark Age." + + [90] See the authorities quoted by Burton on Religion and Education in + New South Wales, p. 6. According to this author, the chaplain's name was + _Johnston_, not _Johnson_, as Collins spells it. + + [91] See 2 Kings v. and 1 Kings xix. 18. See likewise, in proof of the + good conduct of some convicts, Collins' Account of New South Wales, + p. 42. + +However, it cannot be denied that the greater number of the settlers +of every description were but little disposed to listen to the words +of eternal truth, although they were ready enough to listen to any +falsehood which promised well for their worldly interests. Thus, before +the first year of the colony had expired, it was pretended and believed +that a _gold mine_ had been discovered. The specimens of this which the +impostor produced, were manufactured out of a guinea and a brass buckle; +and his object in deceiving was, that he might get clothes and other +articles in exchange for his promised gold dust, from the people +belonging to the store ships. But his cheat was soon discovered, and all +that his gold dust finally procured him, was a severe flogging, and +before the end of the year he was executed for another offence. Yet it +would not be far from the truth to state, that the British had indeed +discovered a gold mine in Sydney, by working which with industry, +ability, and perseverance, enormous riches have been obtained. When +the story of the mine was invented, the land around Port Jackson was +unproductive, and the hills wild or barren, but in little more than +fifty years from that time the imports into the Port of Sydney amounted +in 1840 to L2,462,858, while the amount of goods exported from the same +place during that year was valued at L1,951,544.[92] Where was there +ever a gold mine that was known to make a return so profitable as this +to those that worked it? + + [92] See the Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 107. + +The great object, and generally the most difficult to be obtained, +in forming altogether a new colony, is to make it begin to produce a +sufficiency to supply its own necessary wants. But, although this object +was kept steadily in view from the very first in New South Wales, yet +were there many hindrances to be overcome, and much suffering to be +endured, before it was finally gained. The land near the new settlement +is none of the best for farming operations, and persons at all +acquainted with agriculture appear to have been very scarce among +the settlers and convicts; besides which, the prevailing idleness was +so great, that it seemed almost impossible to make the men exert +themselves; and, perhaps, nothing less than the want and privations, +which they subsequently endured, could have had this effect. A regular +supply of provisions had constantly been issued from the government +stores, and the convicts, with that short-sighted imprudence by which +the vicious are generally distinguished, had never given themselves the +trouble of looking forwards to the necessity of raising a supply of food +for themselves. Meanwhile, although farming operations were going on but +slowly, and not very successfully, the stores were being lessened at a +rapid rate, not only by the ordinary issue of provisions, but likewise +by rats and pilferers. Six soldiers, and an accomplice who turned king's +evidence, were discovered, after eight months of impunity, by means of a +key which was left by one of them in the lock, upon his being disturbed +by the patrol; and these men, having betrayed their trust as sentinels, +and carried on a regular system of plunder for the purpose of indulging +themselves in vice and drunkenness, were all executed. In April 1789 the +_Sirius_ returned, bringing the first cargo of provisions received by +the colony, which was, however, only equal to four months' supply at +full rations. But full rations were not to continue much longer in the +infant settlement. In November, 1789, very nearly two years after the +arrival of the colonists, it was found needful to reduce the allowance +to two-thirds of every sort of provisions, spirits alone excepted. No +alteration was made in the allowance of the women, who were already +upon two-thirds of the full ratio of a man; and it was eagerly and +confidently expected that, after having waited so long, it would be but +a short period more before an ample supply of all that was necessary +would be received from the mother country. + +In November, which is one of the summer months of the Australian +calendar, the little harvest of the colony was got in. At Rose Hill, +(or Paramatta, as it is now called,) where the best land had been found, +upwards of two hundred bushels of wheat, about thirty-five bushels of +barley, besides a small quantity of oats and Indian corn, were +harvested; and the whole of this produce was intended to be kept for +seed. At Sydney, the spot of cleared ground called the Governor's Farm +had produced about twenty-five bushels of barley. But the evil spirit of +thieving was still as rife as ever among the convicts, and the young +crops of wheat were the objects of plunder (especially after the +reduction of the allowance,) notwithstanding the immense importance of +preserving seed sufficient to crop a larger breadth of land for the +following year. In the very beginning of 1790 the provisions brought +from England wholly failed, having just about lasted during the two +years for which they had been calculated; and the colonists then became +totally dependent upon the slender stock brought for them by the +_Sirius_ from the Cape of Good Hope. Great anxiety began to be felt for +an arrival from England, and a flagstaff[93] was erected on the south +head of the entrance to the harbour of Port Jackson, so that a signal +might be there made upon the first appearance of the expected vessel. In +hope of this welcome event the eyes of the colonists were often directed +thither, and often must their hearts have grown sick from the tedious +delay of the hope in which they indulged. Certainly, it is a remarkable +instance of the hard-heartedness and corruption of man's nature, that, +even under these circumstances, with the horrors of famine daily in +view, left alone on a remote and desolate coast, and, as it appeared, +forsaken by the rest of the world, they did not profit by the lessons +thus forcibly brought before them, nor listen with any good effect to +the warnings taught them by sorrow and trouble, those great and +awakening preachers of righteousness. + + [93] The signal-colours were stolen within a year afterwards by some + of the natives, who divided them among the canoes, and used them as + coverings. + +During the anxious interval that succeeded, everything that was +possible to be done for the public advantage was done by the governor. +Occasionally, a fair supply of fish had been brought in, and accordingly +a boat was employed to fish three times in the week, and the whole +quantity that was taken was issued out in addition to the rations, which +were equally distributed to every person, no distinction being made in +favour of the governor himself, who, when he had a party at Government +House, always requested his guests to bring their bread with them, for +there was none to spare;--in February, 1790, there were not four months' +provisions in the colony, even at half allowance. These circumstances +required thoughtful and vigorous measures to be promptly taken, and +since Norfolk Island was a more fertile spot, and much better supplied +with provisions at that time, it was resolved to send some of the +convicts thither, unless the expected supplies from England should +arrive before March 3d, the day fixed for their departure. 116 male and +68 female convicts, with 27 children, were thus sent away, and the +colony wore quite a deserted appearance. Every effort was made to +prevent the destruction of live stock, which was very rapidly taking +place, and towards the end of March a yet further reduction was +necessary in the allowances, which were then to be given out daily; an +alteration at the same time was made in the hours of public labour, and +the afternoons of each day were given up to the people to work for +themselves in their own gardens. The fish that was caught was also +issued out as part of the allowance, but at a more liberal rate,--ten +pounds of fish being deemed equal to two and a half pounds of pork. In +the midst of this necessity it is gratifying to find that the witness of +the Church, though, as usual, too little heeded, was yet not silent; +"attention to religious duties," _i.e._ to Divine worship on Sundays, +"was never omitted, and service was performed on Good Friday."[94] + + [94] According to Captain Tench, who is quoted by the Roman Catholic, + Dr. Ullathorne, "Divine service was performed at Sydney only one Sunday + in the month," and "the Rev. Mr. Johnson was the best farmer in the + country." What truth there may be in these insinuations, or in the + charge against Judge Burton of enlarging upon a Romish priest's being + a convict, while he disguises the same truth when it applied to an + English clergyman, must be left to others better acquainted with the + facts to determine. See Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, p. 5. + +But the early settlers of New South Wales were taught by sad experience +the truth of that common saying that bids us to "welcome the sorrow that +comes alone." It had been arranged that the _Sirius_ should return +immediately from Norfolk Island, and then should sail direct for China +to procure a supply of provisions immediately. But Providence never +permitted the _Sirius_ again to float upon the quiet waters of Sydney +Cove. The vessel was lost upon a reef at Norfolk Island, after having +landed most of those on board, and the others escaped with their lives, +but the ship was totally destroyed. Disgraceful to relate, it was set on +fire by two convicts who had been allowed to go on board on the second +day after the wreck, in the hope of saving the live hogs, but these men +got drunk with the liquor they found, and set the ship on fire in two +places, nor was it without great difficulty that they were themselves +rescued. This sorrowful intelligence was brought by the _Supply_,--the +only remaining hope of procuring relief for the wants of the colony. +After various precautionary measures had been taken, the _Supply_ was +despatched to Batavia, under orders to procure, not only a quantity of +provisions, but also to hire a vessel, which should accompany the +English ship on its return, and should bring to New South Wales a second +cargo of necessaries. Meanwhile, the allowances were yet further +reduced, and the governor, having reserved 300 bushels of wheat for +seed, gave up 300 lbs. weight of flour, which was his own private +property, for the public use; besides which, the expedients of fishing +and shooting wild animals were tried, but with no great success. Crime +appeared rather to increase than to diminish with the increase of +temptation and opportunities; and at this awful period of trial for the +whole population, it was judged necessary to execute one criminal. A +female convict was at this time robbed of her week's provisions, and +she was left to subsist upon the bounty of others, since it was +impossible to replace them from the public store; and if it was a cruel +offence of _one_ to rob the poor woman, it reflected credit upon _many_, +that, under such circumstances, she was preserved from starvation. + +At length, after six months of indescribable anxiety and privation, +the expected signal was made, and a boat was sent off (in very rough +weather) to direct the ship how to get safely into the harbour. It was +the transport-ship, the _Lady Juliana_, which had been no less than ten +months upon the voyage, and which brought news of the almost total +destruction of another ship, the _Guardian_, which had been sent out +previously, and well supplied with every thing necessary for a rising +colony. _The Lady Juliana_ brought very little addition to the supplies, +compared with the additional number of consumers, above 200 female +convicts, which she had with her; these had been sent upon the reckoning +of the _Guardian's_ stores arriving beforehand; and if this had been +permitted, probably the colony would never more have experienced want. +It was unfortunate, at a time when a cargo of any thing but of convicts +would have been serviceable, that scarcely any thing else should arrive. +Before the end of June, however, another ship laden with provisions +arrived, after having very narrowly escaped a wreck off the heads at the +entrance of Port Jackson; and upon the welcome arrival of this supply +the immediate scarcity ceased. Three other vessels shortly followed, +and things were thus for a time restored to their former course; but +repeated trials, arising from want of provisions, were afterwards, at +intervals, the lot of the colony. In 1794, on the very day when the +doors of the provision-store were closed, and the convicts had received +their last allowance which remained, the signal for a sail was made; +and it was the third day before the two vessels then in sight could be +got into the harbour, but their arrival brought comparative abundance to +the starving population of 3,000 people, who were beginning seriously to +reckon up how far their live stock would go towards the supply of their +necessities. Several other similar seasons of famine have been recorded, +and it is curious and instructive to look back upon the day of small +things in a country abundant as New South Wales at present is in the +necessaries, comforts, and even luxuries, of life. + +The state of health in which many of the convicts reached their place +of exile, and the numbers of them which never reached it at all, were +deplorable facts, proving too truly that men may be found capable of +doing any thing for the hope of profit. A certain sum per head was paid +by the government for each convict, and thus the dead became more +profitable to the contractors than the living were; for the expenses of +the former were less, while the stipulated payments were the same in +both cases. Out of three ships 274 convicts died on the voyage,[95] +and when they had landed, there were no less than 488 persons in the +hospital. Neglect like this of the miserable creatures who had broken +their country's laws, most justly awakens our feelings of indignation; +and these are righteous feelings, but let them not be confined to the +_bodily_ neglect to which, in a comparatively few instances at first, +the convicts were exposed. Let us recollect, with sorrow rather than +indignation, how many thousands of these unhappy creatures have, down to +the present time, been left to perish, in a spiritual sense, and that, +likewise, from motives of profit, for fear of the outcry of want of +economy being excited in a wealthy nation, if sufficient means of +spiritual instruction were provided for our banished fellow-countrymen! + + [95] Things are now, happily, better ordered. "There are frequent + instances of vessels arriving from England without having had a + single death during the voyage" to Sydney.--LANG'S _New South Wales_, + vol. i. p. 58. + +Soon after the arrival of the three transports, those of the convicts +that were in tolerable health were settled at Rose Hill, and the town +now called Paramatta was laid out; and the commencement of a system of +free settlers was provided for, although the retired soldiers, those +parties for whom it was originally intended, were not usually very +persevering or successful in their attempts at farming. In September, +1790, Governor Phillip received that wound of which mention has been +made elsewhere;[96] and this season the dry weather was so excessive, +that the gardens and fields of corn were parched up for want of +moisture. Five convicts left Paramatta in a boat, and got out of the +harbour without being discovered, having provisions for a week with +them, and purposing to steer for Otaheite![97] A search was made for +them, but in vain, and beyond doubt they must have perished miserably. +At various times, the convicts, especially some of the Irish, set off +to the northwards, meaning to travel by the interior of New Holland +_overland to China_; and many were either starved to death or else +killed by the natives, while pursuing this vain hope of escape from +thraldom. + + [96] See "Bennillong," in chap. vi. p. 151. + + [97] Another instance of like folly is mentioned by Collins, Account + of New South Wales, p. 129. + +The next event of importance to the infant colony was the arrival, +towards the close of 1791, of what is called the _second_ fleet, +consisting of no less than ten ships, and having on board upwards of +2,000 convicts, with provisions and other necessaries. These ships came +dropping into the harbour at short intervals after each other, and their +arrival, together with the needful preparations for the additional +numbers brought by them, gave an air of bustle and life to the little +town of Sydney. Various public works and buildings had been carried on, +especially some tanks were cut in the rocks to serve as reservoirs in +dry seasons, and at Paramatta between forty and fifty fresh acres were +expected to be got ready for Indian corn this year. By his Majesty's +ship _Gorgon_, certain needful instruments and powers for carrying on +the government of the colony were sent, and amongst others the public +seal of New South Wales. Two or three of the vessels which had arrived +from England, were employed, after discharging their cargoes, in the +whale-fishery, and not altogether without success; so early did British +enterprise turn itself to that occupation, which has latterly become +most profitable in those regions. During this year, the governor for the +first time exercised a power which had only recently been given him, and +several convicts were, on account of their good behaviour, released from +their state of bondage, on condition of their not returning to England +before the term of their sentences had expired. Various allotments of +land were also given to those whose terms had already expired, and who +signified their willingness to become settlers in this new country. At +the close of the year 1791, nearly four years from the first landing of +the British in Port Jackson, the public live stock consisted of one aged +stallion, one mare, two young stallions, two colts, sixteen cows, two +calves, one ram, fifty ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows, and +twenty-two pigs. The cultivated ground at Paramatta amounted to three +hundred acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in barley, one in oats, +four in vines, eighty-six in garden-ground, and seventeen in cultivation +by the soldiers of the New South Wales Corps. Thus humble were the +beginnings, even after some time, of that wealth in flocks and herds +for which our Australian colonies are now so justly celebrated. + +Very little, meanwhile, is recorded of the chaplain, Mr. Johnson, or his +doings, but that little is to his credit. He was, it appears, in the +habit of relieving from his own private bounty the convicts who were +most in need; and some of them spread abroad a report that this was done +from funds raised by subscription in the mother country; and upon the +strength of this notion, in the spirit which the poorer classes in +England too often exhibit, they chose to claim relief as though it were +their _just right_. This false notion was publicly contradicted, and Mr. +Johnson thought it necessary that the convicts should know that it was +to his bounty alone that they were indebted for these gifts, and that, +consequently, the partakers of them were to be of his own selection. +Another instance of the kindness of Mr. Johnson, and of the evil return +it met with, has also been recorded, and though it occurred some years +afterwards, in 1797, it may be noticed here. It happened that among the +convicts there was found one who had been this gentleman's schoolfellow, +and the chaplain, feeling compassion for his fallen condition, had taken +him into his service, and treated him with the utmost confidence and +indulgence. Soon afterwards, it was rumoured that this man had taken +an impression of the key of the store-room in clay, from which he had +procured another key to fit the lock. Mr. Johnson scarcely credited the +story, but at length he consented that a constable should be concealed +in the house on a Sunday, when all the family, except this person, would +be engaged in Divine service. The plan succeeded too well. Supposing +that all was secure, the ungrateful wretch applied his key to the door +of the store-room, and began to plunder it of all the articles he chose +to take, until the constable, leaving his hiding-place, put an end to +the robbery by making the thief his prisoner. + +The attention of Mr. Johnson to his ministerial and public duties +appears to have continued in a quiet and regular way, but its fruits +were by no means so manifest as could have been wished. In 1790 he +complained to the authorities of the want of attendance at divine +service, which, it must be observed, was generally performed in the open +air, exposed alike to the wind and rain, or burning sun; and then it was +ordered that a certain portion of provisions should be taken off from +the allowance of each person who might absent himself from prayers +without giving a reasonable excuse. And thus, we may suppose, a better +congregation was secured; but, alas! from what a motive were they +induced to draw near their God. And how many are there, it is to be +feared, in our country parishes in England, whose great inducement to +attend their church is the fact that the clergyman generally has certain +gifts to distribute: how common a fault, in short, has it been in all +ages and in all countries for men to seek Christ from no higher motive +than that they may "eat of the loaves and be filled!"[98] In proof of +the single voice that was raised in the wilderness of New South Wales +being not altogether an empty and ineffectual sound, we are told that +in 1790, when the female convicts who arrived by the _Lady Juliana_ +attended divine service for the first time, Mr. Johnson, with much +propriety, in his discourse, touched upon their situation so forcibly as +to draw tears from many of them, who were not yet hardened enough to be +altogether insensible to truth. Another instance of very praiseworthy +zeal was afforded by the voluntary visit of the chaplain of New South +Wales in 1791 to Norfolk Island, which small colony had never yet been +favoured even with the temporary presence of a minister of the Church of +Christ. + + [98] Religion, of course, concerns all equally, only the guilty and the + wretched seem to be the last persons who can afford to reject its + consolations, even in this world. However, the conduct of those in + authority was pretty much on a par with that of the convicts, and it + was only when one of the earlier governors was told of but five or six + persons attending divine service, that "he determined to go to church + himself, and stated that he expected his example would be followed by + the people." See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, + p. 7. + +But a yet better proof of the chaplain's earnestness was given, +after the colony had been settled for six years, in his building a +church,--the first that was raised in New Holland for the purposes of +christian worship. Even now, we often may hear and lament the ignorance +which chooses to reckon the _clergy_ as the _Church_, and which looks +upon the efforts recently made in favour of church extension, as lying +quite beyond the province of the laity; and this deplorable ignorance +was much more common in Mr. Johnson's days.[99] Accordingly, to the +disgrace of the colony and of the government at home, no church +was raised during six years, and when at last that object was +accomplished, it was by the private purse and the single efforts of +an individual,--the chaplain of the colony. The building was in a very +humble style, made of wood and thatched, and it is said to have cost Mr. +Johnson only 40_l._; but all this merely serves to show how easily the +good work might have been before done, how inexcusable it was to leave +its accomplishment to one individual. A few months before this necessary +work was undertaken the colony had been visited by two Spanish ships, +and it is possible that an observation made by the Romish priest +belonging to one of these ships may have had some effect towards raising +the first church built at Sydney. At the time when the Spanish ships +were in the harbour, the English chaplain performed divine service +wherever he could find a shady spot; and the Spanish priest observing +that, during so many years no church had been built, lifted up his eyes +with astonishment, declaring (truly), that, had the place been settled +by his nation, a house of God would have been erected before any house +for man. How disgraceful to the English nation, how injurious to our +Reformed Church, that an observation like this, coming from the lips of +one who belonged to a corrupt and idolatrous church, should be so true, +so incapable of contradiction! However, if the remark had any effect in +exciting the efforts of the Protestant chaplain, and in thus supplying +at length a want so palpable as that of a house of God in the colony, it +was by no means uttered in vain; and supposing it to be so, this is not +a solitary instance of our Church and her members having been aroused +into activity by the taunts and attacks of those that are opposed to +her. + + [99] It would appear almost as though some men _will_ not see that + churches are not built for clergymen to preach in, and live (or starve) + upon the pew-rents, but for laymen to hear God's word and join in His + solemn worship. + +Upon the opening of the humble building, which had thus tardily been +raised for the purposes of divine worship, and to consecrate which +according to the beautiful forms of our English church there was no +bishop in the colony, the chaplain preached a suitable sermon, we are +informed; but, if it may be judged from the scanty record that is +preserved of it, this discourse partook of the cold and worldly spirit +of the age in which it was delivered. Mr. Johnson began well with +impressing upon his hearers the necessity of holiness in every place, +and then lamented the urgency of public works having prevented the +erection of a church sooner. As though a building for the public worship +of Almighty God were not the most urgent of all public works in every +christian community! He next went on to declare, that his _only_ motive +in coming forward in the business was that of establishing a place +sheltered from bad weather, and from the summer-heats, where public +worship might be performed. The uncertainty of a place where they might +attend had prevented many from coming, but he hoped that now the +attendance would be regular.[100] Surely, the worthy chaplain might have +had and avowed a higher motive for building a house of God, than that of +keeping men from the wind, and the rain, and the sun; and, undoubtedly, +as the inconvenience of the former system was no good excuse for absence +from divine service, so neither could the comparative convenience of the +new arrangement be at all a proper motive for attendance upon it. + + [100] See Collins' Account of New South Wales, pp. 223-4. + +However, many allowances are to be made for Mr. Johnson, and it becomes +us, while we condemn the faults, to spare the persons, of the men of +that and of other past generations; especially when we look at our own +age, and see, notwithstanding the improvement that has unquestionably +taken place, how many conspicuous faults there are prevailing among us, +which those of future generations will justly pity and condemn. It may +be well, before the subject of the church raised by Mr. Johnson is +finally quitted, to acquaint the reader with its fate. In 1798, after +having stood only five years, it was discovered one evening to be on +fire, and, all efforts to save it proving useless, from the combustible +nature of the materials, it was consumed in an hour. "This was a great +loss," observes the historian of the colony, "for during the working +days of the week the building was used as a school, in which from 150 +to 200 children were educated, under the immediate inspection of Mr. +Johnson. As this building stood alone, and no person was suffered to +remain in it after the school hours, there was not a doubt but the +atrocious act was the effect of design, and in consequence of an order +enforcing attendance on divine service." The governor, however, with +praiseworthy zeal, would not suffer a single Sunday to be lost, but +ordered a new store-house, which was just finished, to be fitted up +for a church. One brief observation may here be added. How powerful a +witness do the enemies of Christ's Church, and of our English branch of +it, bear to the usefulness and effect of its doctrine, even in its most +helpless and lowest condition, by the ceaseless and unscrupulous pains +which they take in trying to silence its testimony! + +No apology is necessary for detaining the reader so long upon these +little details, since if the religious state and progress of an infant +colony be not an interesting feature in its history, what can we hope +to find in it that is deserving of the attention of a thoughtful and +well-regulated mind? But we return now to the temporal affairs of New +South Wales. The year 1792, which began with reduced rations of +provisions, was a time of great suffering and scarcity in the colony, +nor was it until the latter part of the year that any relief for the +wants of the settlers arrived. Meanwhile the mortality that took place +was very alarming, and notwithstanding the sickness that prevailed, +there was no abatement in wickedness and crime. At one time during this +year no less than fifty-three persons were missing, many of whom never +returned, having perished, no doubt, miserably in the woods, while +seeking for a new settlement, or endeavouring to find their way to +China! An execution for theft took place in January, and the unhappy man +declared that hunger had tempted him to commit the crime for which he +suffered. Many instances of profligacy among the convicts occurred, but +one stands forth distinguished by especial wickedness. A woman had been +trusted to carry to the bakehouse the allowance of flour belonging to +two others; and after having run in debt for flour taken up on their +account, she mixed a quantity of pounded stone, in the proportion of +two-thirds of grit to one of flour, with the meal belonging to the other +women.[101] Fortunately, the deceit was found out before the flour was +mixed with other meal at the bakehouse, and the culprit was sentenced to +wear an iron collar for six months. In April, a convict was killed by a +blow from the limb of a tree, which fell on his head as he passed under +it, and fractured his skull. He died on the spot, having earned from +those who knew him the character of being so great a reprobate, that he +was scarcely ever known to speak without an oath, or without calling on +his Maker to witness the truth of the lie he was about to utter. Are +these poor creatures, if may be again asked, to be cast out from their +own country, and left (as they too often have been,) to their own evil +devices and to Satan's temptations, without involving the nation that +has thus treated them in a load of guilt too fearful to contemplate? + + [101] A similar scheme was to have been practised by some Irish + convict women, who were to have taken their part in a proposed mutiny + on board the _Marquis Cornwallis_ during the passage out, by mixing + pulverized glass with the flour of which the seamen made their puddings! + See Collins, p. 324. + +Towards the end of the year 1792 the harvest was gathered in from +the 1540 acres of cleared ground, which were sown in the preceding +seed-time. The produce was tolerably good, and since no less than 3470 +acres of land had already been granted to settlers, it was hoped that +before very long the colony might cease to be almost entirely dependent +for its support upon the precarious supply which it received from ships. +The colonists then learned by sad experience what many Englishmen in the +present day seem unwilling to believe, that _it is one of the worst +evils to be dependent upon other countries for daily bread_. In +December, the governor, Captain Phillip, left the colony from ill +health, having acted with much prudence and vigour during his +administration, and leaving behind him a respectable character; he +returned to England, where his services were rewarded by a pension of +400_l._ a-year, and he retired to Bath, at which city he died. His +activity in exploring the neighbouring country and discovering its +capabilities, his courage and firmness on many very trying occasions, +his steady opposition to every proposal of abandoning the settlement, +together with his general character, sufficiently entitle his memory to +regard and respect from those who are now living in New South Wales, and +reaping in comparative ease the fruit of that harvest which it cost him +and others great pains and many trials to sow. + +Before the first Governor of New South Wales left that country, he had +the satisfaction of seeing its prospects of a future sufficiency of +provisions very greatly improved; and a work of charity, the hospital at +Paramatta, was completed in the month before that in which he sailed. +With the year 1793 began a new government, for as no successor had been +appointed at home to Captain Phillip, the chief power now came, +according to what had been previously provided, into the hands of +Major Grose, of the New South Wales Corps, who assumed the style of +Lieutenant-Governor. During nearly three years things continued in +this state; only Major Grose left the settlement, and was succeeded by +Captain Paterson; nor was it until 1795 that a regular successor to +the first governor arrived in the colony. In this period many things +occurred which were, no doubt, of the highest interest to the settlers +at the time, but few events which deserve our particular notice now. +A fire, which destroyed a house worth 15_l._, and thirty bushels of +new wheat;--the alternate scarcity and comparative abundance of +provisions;--the arrival or departure of ships from the harbour;--the +commission of the first murder in the colony, and other sad accounts +of human depravity and its punishment;--the gradual improvement and +extension of the colony;--the first sale by auction of a farm of +twenty-five acres for the sum of 13_l._:--these and similar subjects +occupy the history of New South Wales, not merely during the three years +that elapsed between Governor Phillip's departure and the arrival of his +successor, but also during the long period of gradual but increasing +improvement which followed the last event. + +Yet, while the improvement of the little colony was evidently steady and +increasing, when its affairs are regarded in a temporal point of view, +in morals its progress appeared to be directly contrary; and, painful +though it be to dwell upon the sins and follies of men, whose bodies +have long since passed away to their parent dust, and their souls +returned to God who gave them, nevertheless, there are many wholesome +lessons of instruction and humiliation to be gathered from the history +of human depravity in New South Wales. One of the crying sins of the +mother country,--a sin now very much confined to the lower classes of +society, but fifty years ago equally common among all classes,--is that +of _drunkenness_; and it could scarcely be expected that the outcast +daughter in Australia would be less blamable in this respect than the +mother from which she sprang.[102] Accordingly, we find that as soon as +it was possible to procure spirits, at however great a sacrifice, they +were obtained, and intoxication was indulged in,--if such brutality +deserves the name of indulgence,--to an awful extent. Whether all that a +writer very intimately acquainted with New South Wales urges against the +officers of the New South Wales Corps be true or not, so far as their +dealings in spirituous liquors are concerned, there can be no question +that these mischievous articles became almost entirely the current coin +of the settlement, and were the source of worldly gain to a few, while +they proved the moral ruin of almost all, in the colony. But, without +giving entire credit to all the assertions of Dr. Lang, who deals very +much in hasty notions and exaggerated opinions,[103] we may sorrowfully +acknowledge that, if the convicts in New South Wales gave way in a +horrible manner to drunkenness and its attendant sins, the upper +classes, in general, either set them a bad example, or made a plunder of +them by pandering to their favourite vice. The passion for liquor, it is +stated by Collins,[104] operated like a mania, there being nothing which +the people would not risk to obtain it: and while spirits were to be +had, those who did any extra labour refused to be paid in money, or in +any other article than spirits, which were then so scarce as to be sold +at six shillings a bottle. So eagerly were fermented liquors sought +after, and so little was the value of money in a place where neither the +comforts nor luxuries of life could be bought, that the purchaser has +been often known, in the early days of the colony, to name himself a +price for the article he wanted, fixing it as high again as would +otherwise have been required of him. When the few boat-builders and +shipwrights in the colony had leisure, they employed themselves in +building boats for those that would pay them their price, namely, five +or six gallons of spirits. It could be no matter of surprise that boats +made by workmen so paid should be badly put together, and scarcely +seaworthy. + + [102] Whatever may be the improvement of the middling and upper classes, + _nationally speaking_ the passion for strong liquor continues to bear + sway in the British islands to a deplorable extent. Lord Ashley has + stated in the House of Commons during the present session, 1843, that + there is good authority for estimating our annual consumption of + spirituous liquors at twenty-five millions sterling! Compare the _gross_ + amount of the revenues of the English Church, about four millions, and + those of the _poor_ Kirk of Scotland, the _plundered_ Church of Ireland, + and the "voluntary" efforts of the hundred and one sects of Dissenters, + together with those of the Romish Church:--and what is the result? + Probably, nearly three times as much is spent in these islands upon + spirituous liquors as the whole cost of religious instruction of every + kind amounts to! + + [103] Dr. Lang's opinion here is, however, confirmed by Judge Burton; + see p. 7 of his work on Education and Religion in New South Wales. + + [104] Account of Colony of New South Wales, p. 235. + +But, however commonly the standard of value might be measured by +spirituous liquors, yet it is evident that these, being themselves +procurable for money, could not altogether supersede the desire of money +itself. Hence arose those numerous acts of theft and depredation, that +improvident thirst after present gain, that total disregard of future +consequences by which many of the first inhabitants of the colony were +disgraced and ruined. The contagion of evil example forced its way into +Government House, and the steward of Governor Hunter became an awful +instance of the mischief of bad society. Against this he had been often +cautioned by his master, but to no purpose, until at length he was +discovered abusing the unlimited confidence which had been placed in +him, and making use of the governor's name in a most iniquitous manner. +At this discovery the wretched victim of evil communication retired to a +shrubbery in his master's garden, and shot himself through the head. + +From the love of money, which no mean authority has pronounced to be +"the root of all evil,"[105] arose likewise that spirit of gambling, +which ended in murder on one occasion before the settlement had existed +more than six years; and which on many occasions was the manifest cause +of misery and ruin to those in whom this evil spirit had taken up its +abode. To such excess was the pursuit of gambling carried among the +convicts, that some had been known, after losing provisions, money, and +all their spare clothing, to have staked and lost the very clothes on +their wretched backs, standing in the midst of their associates as +degraded, and as careless of their degradation, as the natives of the +country which these gamblers disgraced. Money was their principal +object, for with money they could purchase spirits, or whatever else +their passions made them covet, or the colony could furnish. These +unhappy men have been seen to play at their favourite games for six, +eight, and ten dollars each game; and those who were not expert at +these, instead of pence, tossed up for dollars![106] + + [105] 1 Tim. vi. 10. + + [106] Collins' Account of New South Wales, pp. 243, 244. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE COLONY TO 1821. + + +The month of August, 1795, was marked in the annals of New South Wales +by the arrival of the second governor of the colony, Captain Hunter, who +continued five years in power, and returned to England in the year 1800, +after having seen the colony over which he was placed prospering and +thriving enough in worldly matters, though in other more important +points it continued poor and naked indeed. It was a great object with +the new governor to check and restrain that love of liquor, which he saw +working so much mischief among his people; and several private stills +were found and destroyed, to the great regret of their owners, who made +twice as large a profit from the spirit distilled by them out of wheat, +as they would have been able to have gained, had they sold their grain +for the purpose of making bread. So common was the abuse of paying +wages in liquor,[107] that it was pretended that the produce of these +stills was only to be paid away in labour, whereas it was sold for a +means of intoxication to any person who would bring ready money for it. +At the commencement of harvest, in the November immediately following +the arrival of Governor Hunter, a regulation was made by that gentleman, +which showed that the infant colony was now making rapid strides +towards that point of advancement and independence, from which +ignorant and designing men are at present labouring to thrust down the +mother country. New South Wales was, in 1795, just beginning to supply +its inhabitants with corn, and Governor Hunter wisely thought that the +increasing abundance of the produce would now bear some little decrease +in the high prices hitherto paid for new grain at the public store. +England, in 1843, is able to supply its inhabitants with food, (except +in scarce years, when corn is let in at prices varying with the degree +of scarcity,) and many Englishmen unwisely think that this advantage and +independence may be safely bartered away--for what?--for _very low +prices_, and, their constant companions, _very low wages_, and _very +great and universal distress_![108] + + [107] The crops of the first settlers were paid for by the Government + in spirits, but Captain Hunter endeavoured to put an end to this + practice, for it was not possible that a farmer who should be idle + enough to throw away the labour of twelve months, for the purchase of a + few gallons of injurious liquors, could expect to thrive, or enjoy those + comforts which sobriety and industry can alone procure. + + [108] It may not be out of place to quote in support of this opinion the + sensible words of an Australian writer. "I confess I like to hear of + high wages, and of good prices of provisions--of the productions of the + country,--for where they prevail for any length of time, the country + must be prosperous. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is no less true, that + the poorest country is always that where provisions are sold at the + cheapest rate. To the same purpose is the testimony of Sir G. Gipps, the + present Governor of New South Wales, appointed by Lord Melbourne in 1837, + who says:--'The total amount of the grain' (imported) 'even at these + prices, amounted to the fearful sum of 246,000_l._; but that, it must be + remembered, was only the prime cost in the countries where the wheat was + grown, and to that must be added the charges for freight, insurance, and + commission, probably as much more, so that in two years the colony would + expend upwards of half a million of money for foreign bread. _The + distress of the colony was owing to these immense importations._"--See + Speech of Governor Gipps in Council. Australian and New Zealand Magazine, + No. iii. p. 163. See also ROSS'S _Van Diemen's Land Almanac and Annual_, + 1836, p. 177. + +Another addition to the means, which the country was beginning to +possess of maintaining its inhabitants, was made by the regular, +though far from rapid, increase of live stock, which, in spite of all +obstacles, and notwithstanding great carelessness and ignorance on +the part of many of those that kept it, continued to thrive and +multiply.[109] But, besides the cattle to be seen upon the various farms +and allotments in the settlement, a considerable herd of wild cattle +were found, soon after Governor Hunter's arrival, on the banks of the +Nepean River, about thirty miles from Sydney, in a district still +bearing the name of the Cow Pastures. These animals were clearly +ascertained to have sprung from a few tame cattle which had strayed away +from the colony at its first foundation; and the governor, pleased at +this discovery, himself paid a visit to the Cow Pastures, where he found +a very fine herd, upwards of forty in number, grazing in a pleasant +and rich pasturage. The whole number of them was upwards of sixty, +but the governor's party were attacked by a furious bull, which, in +self-defence, they were obliged to kill. The country where these animals +were seen was remarkably pleasant to the eye; every where was thick and +luxuriant grass growing; the trees were thinly scattered, and free from +underwood, except in particular spots; in several beautiful flats large +ponds were found, covered with ducks and black swans, the margins of +which were fringed with beautiful shrubs, and the ground rose from these +levels into hills of easy ascent. The advantages of having an increasing +number of wild cattle within so short a distance of the settlement were +obvious enough, and the government resolved to protect them to the +utmost of its power. Accordingly, it was ordered that no part of the +fertile tract of which these animals were in possession should be +granted out to settlers; and at length the herds became too numerous +even for the 60,000 acres, which the district was supposed to contain. +But, in 1813 and the two following years, so severe a drought prevailed, +that vast numbers of them died; and afterwards the government consented +to grant away the land, and the remainder of the herds betook themselves +to the mountainous ranges beyond. + + [109] About the time of Captain Hunter's taking the reins of government + a cow was sold for 80_l._, a horse cost 90_l._, and a Cape sheep 7_l._ + 10_s._ Other prices were in proportion; fresh meat was very scarce, and + the various attempts to import live stock had been far from successful. + Still a _beginning_ had been made, and it is astonishing how rapidly + rural wealth began to multiply in New South Wales, after the difficulties + of the first eight or ten years had been overcome. + +Captain Hunter was rather fond of exploring the unknown country which +extended behind, or to the northward or southward of, the narrow limits +of the British colony: and during his administration its boundaries were +considerably enlarged, and some valuable discoveries were made. One of +the most important of these was a discovery which served to prove the +claim of the colony to be called New South Wales, from its resemblance +to the country whence its name was taken, in one production at least. In +1796, some persons returned from fishing in a bay considerably to the +northward of Port Jackson, and brought with them several large pieces of +_coal_, which they said that they had found at some little distance from +the beach, lying in quantities on the surface of the ground. This was +the first knowledge obtained by the settlers of the value of the +productions of the coast at the mouth of the river Hunter, and at the +place where coals were found so abundantly there now exists a township, +furnishing the whole colony with a supply of that useful article, +besides having a large trade in lime, which is made from the +oyster-shells that are found there in immense quantities. The +appropriate name of this township is Newcastle. + +Many needful and praiseworthy regulations were made by Captain Hunter, +who endeavoured to enforce attendance on Divine service, and the proper +observance of the Sunday; and who took great pains also to discover and +punish those encroachments upon the public stores which had been +continually made. The convicts whose time of punishment had expired, +but who were unable to get a passage to England, were frequently more +troublesome and ill-disposed, being less under authority than the others +were. These emancipists, as they were called, would occasionally indeed +withdraw from receiving the ration allowed by Government; but then it +was only in the hope of avoiding labour, and living by pillage. Or else +these men, together with others not less ill-disposed than themselves, +would play every possible trick to obtain their allowance from the +public stores, when they were not entitled, or to get more than their +allowances, when they had a certain claim. To put a check upon such +practices, the governor, in 1796, had a general muster of all +descriptions of people in every part of the colony at the same hour, +so that it would be no longer possible, as on former occasions, for +one person to manage to answer to his name in two different places, +and to draw provisions from both stores. Very shortly after this +general muster, the governor made a journey to the banks of the River +Hawkesbury, where there is some of the richest land in the colony, but +on his return, he had the mortification of seeing a stack of wheat +belonging to Government burnt, containing 800 bushels, and it was not +certain whether this fire was accidental, since the destruction thus +caused made room for as many bushels as were destroyed, which must be +purchased from the settlers who had wheat to sell. In reading of these +atrocious acts--for if _this_ fire was not intentional, _others_ +undoubtedly were--the inhabitants of England must not plume themselves +upon their superiority to the outcasts of their country in New South +Wales. Unhappily, the word _incendiarism_ has become familiar to English +ears, and, ever since the evil spirits of agitation and rebellion have +been dallied with, they have made their deeds of darkness visible, from +time to time, by the awful midnight fires which they have kindled in the +land. + +But it was not only in checking the outrages of the British inhabitants +of New South Wales, that the governor was actively employed; the natives +were also exceedingly troublesome, especially at the valuable farms on +the Hawkesbury. Vigorous efforts were made to prevent that disorder, and +disregard of private property, which seemed so prevailing; and certainly +Governor Hunter appears to have been an active and energetic, but, as +might be expected in a colony like that over which he was placed, not +altogether a _popular_ ruler. The vices of the lower classes were, in +too many instances, found profitable, more or less directly, to those +who are termed the upper classes in the settlement; and since both +classes became to a fearful degree sensual and covetous, the evil was +doubly aggravated by example and contagion. And when we consider, that, +at that time, the population of the colony might almost have been +divided into those who _drank_ rum, and those who _sold_ it;[110] when +we recollect the covetousness of all classes, the hardened wickedness of +many of the convicts, the idleness of the settlers or soldiers, the +peculiar character of the natives, and the infant state of the British +colony, it must be confessed, that the requisites of every good +governor,--a wise head, a stout heart, and a steady hand,--were +preeminently needful in the governor of New South Wales. + + [110] Promissory notes were given, payable in rum instead of + money.--JUDGE BURTON _on Education and Religion in New South Wales_, + p. 7, note. + +The list of crimes, which were continually occurring during the five +years of Captain Hunter's being governor, was a fearful and appalling +one; nor can we wonder at the wish expressed by the historian of the +early days of the colony, that future annalists may find a pleasanter +field to travel in, without having their steps beset every moment with +murderers, robbers, and incendiaries. Twice during Governor Hunter's +administration was a public gaol purposely destroyed by fire; once the +gaol at Sydney suffered, although there were twenty prisoners confined +there, who being mostly in irons were with difficulty saved; and the +second time, the Paramatta gaol was destroyed, and one of the prisoners +was scorched to death. Several of the settlers declined to pay anything +towards the building of a new gaol, and it was not long a matter of +doubt which article would be most likely to bear a productive tax; so a +duty of one shilling per gallon was imposed upon spirits, sixpence on +wine, and threepence upon porter or strong beer, to be applied to the +above purpose. Building gaols is, beyond question, a necessary thing, +especially in a colony chiefly formed of convicts: and perhaps a tax +upon intoxicating liquors is no bad mode of procuring the means of +erecting them, for thus the sober and industrious are not heavily taxed +to provide for the support and punishment of the profligate and wicked. +Nevertheless, if Christ's religion be true, there is a surer and better +way of checking crime, than by trusting to gaols and police alone; but, +unhappily, this more excellent way of reforming the morals of mankind, +has, in modern times, found little favour with the great ones of the +world.[111] Certainly the power of the Gospel and Church of Christ had +no scope allowed it for its blessed effects, when to a population, +consisting in 1803 of 7097 souls, and constantly on the increase, +besides being scattered over an immense tract of country, _one clergyman +only_ was allowed during seven years to wage, single-handed and alone, +the war against evil. There were, indeed, many Irish Roman Catholics +among the convicts, and one of these, named Harrold, was a Romish +priest, but his character was too little to be trusted for him to be +of any great spiritual advantage even to those of his own communion. + + [111] Thus writes the Bishop of Australia in 1840.--"Neither can I + comprehend or approve the policy which thus leaves multitudes without + moral or religious guidance, under every inducement to commit acts of + violence and rapine, which are not only the sources of infinite misery + to the unhappy perpetrators, and to their wretched victims, but + _actually bring_ upon the government itself ten times the pecuniary + charge which would be incurred by the erection of as many churches, and + providing for the support of as many clergymen, as the necessities of + every such district require." + +In the year 1800, Governor Hunter left the settlement for England, +and was succeeded in his office by Captain King, who had been +Lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, and had conducted with great care +and success the establishment of that smaller colony. However, Norfolk +Island was abandoned altogether during the government of Captain King +and his successor; and it is said this step was taken in compliance with +the advice of the former gentleman. It was a saying attributed to him, +that "he could not make farmers of pickpockets;"[112] and whatever truth +there might be in this maxim, certainly it appears that the progress of +agriculture was unfavourable, and that the colony continued still +subject to seasons of scarcity, approaching to famine, and obliged to +put up with coarse loaves, which were feelingly called _scrubbing +brushes_;[113] and was always in a state of dependence upon foreign +supplies for daily bread. But if there were no _corn laws_, there was +abundance of discontent and misery in the colony of New South Wales; and +during the time of Captain King's government, a rebellion broke out +among the convicts, who had been induced by some of their number, rebels +from Ireland, to _strike for their liberty_. The revolt was soon crushed +by the military, but not without the loss of life to some of the unhappy +men who had been partakers in it. + + [112] "More labour would have been performed by one hundred free people + from any part of England or Scotland, than had at any time been derived + from three hundred of these (convicts), with all the attention that + could be paid to them."--COLLINS' _Account of the Colony of New South + Wales_, p. 415. + + [113] BARRINGTON'S _History of New South Wales_, p. 376. + +The six years during which Captain King held the office of governor +of New South Wales, under the crown of Great Britain and Ireland, +were rendered remarkable, as has been already stated, by the partial +abandonment of the colony of Norfolk Island; and, it may be added, yet +more remarkable by the commencement of another settlement, the first +ever attempted in Van Diemen's Land. + +Norfolk Island, which is situated about 1000 miles from the eastern +shore of New Holland, was settled almost immediately after the first +foundations of Sydney had been laid; and although but a speck in the +ocean, and without any safe or convenient landing-place, the first-named +colony was altogether more flourishing in its early days than the other. +The natural fertility of the land, the abundance of food supplied by the +birds of providence,[114] the number of free settlers, and the wise +arrangements of Lieutenant-governor King, may all be recollected among +the reasons of the superior prosperity of Norfolk Island. However, its +career of prosperity was doomed to be but a very short one. Partly upon +the plea of its having no convenient harbour, and partly because of its +very limited extent, it was decided by the home government that it +should be abandoned, and this decision was acted upon in 1805 and 1807, +when the free settlers were compelled to leave the island, which +remained unoccupied for about twenty years, and at the end of this +time it was made a penal settlement for the punishment of refractory +convicts, which it still continues to be,--one of the finest spots upon +earth degraded into the abode of the vilest of human beings,--the scum +of the outcast population of a great and civilized nation. And, to +heighten the horror of the contrast between things natural and things +spiritual in Norfolk Island, there was not, until recently, a single +minister of Christ's Church resident within its bounds; so that where +Nature's sun was shining most beauteously, and Nature's sights and +sounds were most lovely and enchanting, there the outcast souls[115] of +a rich and _christian_ population were left to perish, without being +able to catch a ray of the Sun of Righteousness, without a chance (so to +speak) of hearing the sound of the gospel of Christ: they might there +listen in their lonely wretchedness to the rise and fall of the tide of +that ocean by which their little island is surrounded, but they were +shut out for ever, it would seem, from the voice of the great multitude +of the faithful, "as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of +mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent +reigneth!" + + [114] At a time of great distress, when 270 additional inhabitants had + just made good their landing at Norfolk Island, whilst the ships and + provisions sent with them from Port Jackson were almost entirely lost, + these birds of providence, as they were justly called, furnished a + supply for the necessities of the people. Mount Pitt, the highest ground + in the island, was observed to be crowded with these birds during the + night, for in the day-time they go out to sea in search of food. They + burrow in the ground, and the hill was as full of holes as a + rabbit-warren; in size they were not bigger than pigeons, but they + looked much larger in their feathers. Their eggs were well tasted + enough, and though the birds themselves had a fishy flavour, hunger + made them acceptable. They were easily taken, for when small fires were + kindled to attract their notice, they would drop down faster than the + people could seize them. For two months together, it is said, that not + less than from two to three thousand of these birds were taken every + night, so that it was with reason that the starving population of + Norfolk Island called them birds of providence. + + [115] A peculiar language prevailed in this horrid place. It is said + that a bad man was called a good man, and that one who was ready to + perform his duty was generally called a bad man; and so, in other + respects, language was adapted to the complete subversion of the human + heart there existing. See ULLATHORNE'S _Evidence before the Committee on + Transportation_, 1838, No. 271, p. 27. + +The relinquishment of the settlement at Norfolk Island, under Governor +King's administration, after the money that had been spent upon it, and +the success which was attending that expenditure, might well appear to +be a hasty and imprudent act; but, undoubtedly, in its consequences it +turned out beneficial to Great Britain. Instead of Norfolk Island, +another much larger, and far more important spot, which might otherwise +have been occupied by foreigners, was colonized by British subjects; and +Van Diemen's Land, from the extent of its present wealth and population, +besides its nearer resemblance than other Australian colonies to the +climate of the mother country, may justly be esteemed one of the most +valuable possessions of the British crown. The history of the foundation +of this new colony may here be shortly detailed. It was resolved that +a fresh settlement, which might be free from the objections brought +against Norfolk Island, should be formed; and, in 1804, Port Phillip, an +extensive harbour on the southern coast of New Holland, was the spot +chosen for this purpose. But Colonel Collins, who had the command of the +party of colonists, found the eastern side of Port Phillip very little +suited to his object; and without examining its western side, which has +been lately very rapidly and successfully settled, the colonel sailed at +once along the western coast of Van Diemen's Land, took possession of +that extensive island in the name of his Britannic Majesty, and, after +various surveys, decided upon the spot where Hobart Town now stands, +for his headquarters. The little settlement then consisted only of a few +gentlemen holding official situations, fifty marines, and four hundred +prisoners. The place selected for headquarters was well chosen, being +upon the Derwent, a beautiful and navigable river, and having a good +supply of water. In the same year, 1804, another settlement was formed +on the opposite, or northern, side of Van Diemen's Land; it was situated +at the mouth of the River Tamar, near George Town, and was called York +Town, but it was afterwards abandoned. The usual trials to which +newly-planted colonies are exposed, fell also to the lot of that settled +by Colonel Collins in Van Diemen's Land; but its struggles into life +were by no means so intense, or so prolonged, as those of its sister +colony. At one time when a disappointment occurred in the usual +supplies, the hind-quarters of kangaroos were received into His +Majesty's store, at sixpence per pound, and it is said that in six +months no less than 15,000lbs. of this meat were there tendered. After +some years of occasional scarcity, during which, once, even kangaroo +flesh was sold at one shilling and sixpence the pound, and sea-weed, or +any other eatable vegetable, was equally dear, the colony began to take +root and to increase, still continuing, however, its original character +of a penal settlement--a place of punishment for the convicted felons of +New South Wales. Cattle and live stock rapidly increased, land became +more and more cultivated, houses were built, farms enclosed, free +emigrants began to arrive, Hobart Town became a place of some trade and +importance, and at last, in 1821, or thereabouts, _only seventeen years_ +after the first establishment of the colony, St. David's Church, at +Hobart Town, was, we read, "completed and opened."[116] What attention +was paid to the spiritual welfare of the poor creatures in this new +penal colony during the long interval that elapsed before the occurrence +of that great event, it seems hard to say; but, judging from what we +have already seen, we may be quite certain of this, that _no less care_ +was taken of them, than had formerly been bestowed upon those of a +similar character in Norfolk Island. + + [116] See Montgomery Martin's New South Wales and Van Diemen's + Land, p. 257. + +While Captain King held the government of New South Wales, a subject +began to attract the notice of the colonial authorities, which +afterwards proved to be one of the highest importance, both to the +settlement and likewise to the mother country, namely, the introduction +and increase of free settlers. According to Dr. Lang, the first free +settlers who emigrated to New South Wales arrived there during Governor +Hunter's administration, which began in August, 1795; but by other +writers it is stated that five settlers and their families arrived by +the _Bellona_, in January 1798, so that these may justly be considered +the first free emigrants that removed from Europe to Australia.[117] The +conditions under which they engaged to settle were, that their passage +out should be provided by government, that an assortment of tools and +implements should be furnished them, that they should be supplied for +two years with provisions, that their lands should be granted free of +expense, and that convicts should be assigned for their service, and +provided with provisions for two years, and clothing for one. Besides +these few emigrants, many of the soldiers and officers, and some of the +released convicts, had grants of land given to them; but, generally +speaking, their agricultural efforts were not very successful, and +_military men_ seemed as little capable of becoming good farmers as +_pickpockets_ were. Yet, as if to show what _might_ have been done +by prudence and thrift, in many cases, a few instances of proper +carefulness and attendant success are recorded; and one man, to whom, in +common with many others, Governor Phillip had given an ewe for breeding, +in 1792, having withstood all temptations to part with this treasure, +found himself, in 1799, possessed of a flock of 116 sheep, and in a fair +way of becoming a man of property. + + [117] Compare Lang's History of New South Wales, vol. i. p. 71, + and Collins' Account of New South Wales, p. 197 and 201. See also + Barrington's History of New South Wales, p. 115. + +But there was an individual, whose name and history are upon record, to +whom the claim of a yet earlier settlement, as a free person, must be +assigned. His history is instructive, and may be worth repeating, since +it is, probably, a specimen of what afterwards occurred in a vast number +of instances. Philip Schoeffer was a German, who had been sent out with +the first fleet that ever sailed to New South Wales, in the capacity of +an agriculturist, and chiefly with a view to the cultivation of tobacco +(to supersede that of Virginia,) in the proposed settlement. His first +grant of land was one hundred and forty acres; but, unhappily, he fell +into habits of intemperance, and got rid of it all. Afterwards, he +obtained another grant of fifty acres, in what now forms a very valuable +situation in the town of Sydney; but this he was induced to give up to +the Colonial Government for public purposes, about the year 1807, +receiving in return twenty gallons of rum, which were then worth 60_l._ +and a grant of the same extent with his former one, but situated at Pitt +Water, one of the inlets of Broken Bay--a large harbour to the northward +of Port Jackson. Schoeffer then married a wife, a Scotch woman and a +convict, and settled on his farm at Pitt Water, where he lived many +years; but old age, poverty, and intemperance induced him to sell it by +piecemeal, and he died at last in the benevolent asylum or colonial +poor-house. This short history may serve to show upon what mere +accidents the foundation of wealth frequently depends, and especially in +a new country; for, if the German could only have kept his farm of fifty +acres in Sydney for about thirty years longer, he or his successors +might actually have sold it for 100,000_l._! + +After the landing of the few free settlers already mentioned, which took +place while Captain Hunter was governor, the next arrival deserving +of notice appears to have been about a dozen families of Scotch +Presbyterians, who established themselves under similar conditions with +the first emigrants, and whose place of abode was near Portland Head, on +the banks of the Hawkesbury. These men seem to have been a quiet and +orderly, as well as a prudent, set of people; and their industry was +rewarded by success. The zeal and devotion which were exhibited by +them in religious matters were also very praiseworthy, and not less so +because, according to Captain Bligh, it was the only case of the kind +he had ever heard of, during his government of the colony. A building +for public worship was erected by them,[118] at a cost of upwards of +400_l._, and altogether the conduct of these Scotch emigrants reflected +credit upon the country and religious body to which they belonged. But, +while we award to these persons the praise which is their due, we are by +no means entitled to place to the account of their being Presbyterians +the good order and right feeling which they exhibited. Scotchmen are +proverbially more fond of colonization than Englishmen, and hence it +naturally occurred that almost the first respectable settlers were +Scotch farmers; but there is no reason to question,--nay, experience +has since proved,--that Englishmen of similar character, and placed +in the like circumstances, can conduct themselves not less piously and +properly, and will not yield to the disciples of John Calvin or John +Knox in their reverence and devotion for a more apostolical Church than +that of Scotland. However, it must be owned with sorrow that these +instances of religious feeling and zeal were by no means common among +the first settlers; nor is this a subject of surprise, when we recollect +that, even now, Australia is frequently looked upon as a last refuge for +those who can do well nowhere else; and if it be thought so now, much +more must this impression have prevailed in the days of its earlier +settlers. But, from whatever class, or with whatever failings, they +might come, a few fresh settlers continued from year to year to find +their way to the shores of New Holland; and, in due time, the tide of +emigration was destined to set full into that quarter, carrying with it +a portion of the population and wealth of the mother country, together +with all its luxuries, its arts, its vices, and its virtues. + + [118] "The first religious edifice that was ever reared in the + great Terra Australis, by _voluntary_ and _private_ exertion." See + Lang's Narrative of the Settlement of the Scots' Church in New South + Wales, p. 8. The Doctor, in his Presbyterian zeal, had forgotten Mr. + Johnson's church. + +In August, 1806, Captain King resigned his office, and was succeeded in +the government of New South Wales by Captain Bligh, also of the royal +navy. His name is well known from the history of the mutiny of the crew +in the ship _Bounty_, which he had formerly commanded; and he was not +less unfortunate on shore, in the art of governing his fellow-creatures. +With many good qualities and excellent intentions, his manner of ruling +men was not either happy or successful. But before we proceed to the +great event in colonial history, which brought to a sudden termination +the reign of Governor Bligh, it will be well to notice a remarkable +occurrence which happened soon after he came into power. The banks of +the river Hawkesbury have already been stated to be distinguished for +their fertility; and at this time they formed the chief source from +which the supply of wheat for the colony was drawn. Many acres of land +had been cleared there, and the whole district, with smiling farms +scattered about upon the rising banks of the beautiful stream, offered +one of the most pleasing scenes in the whole settlement. But, within +the first year of the government of Captain Bligh, the farmers on the +Hawkesbury, and indeed the whole colony, were doomed to undergo a severe +trial.[119] In March 1799, the river had been known to rise suddenly to +the enormous height of fifty feet, and the destruction of property which +had been then occasioned was very great.[120] But now, without any +considerable rains having fallen upon the eastern side of the Blue +Mountains, between that range and the sea, the river rose, in one +place at least, to the enormous height of ninety-three feet, so that +buildings, stock, or corn, which were not secured upon rising ground +equal in height to that of an ordinary church-tower, must have been +overwhelmed and borne away by the flood. It is said that a settler, +whose house stood on an eminence at a beautiful bend of the Hawkesbury, +saw no less than thirty stacks of wheat at one time floating down the +stream during a flood, some of them being covered with pigs and poultry, +who had thus vainly sought safety from the rising of the waters. The +consequences of this unexpected disaster were very calamitous, and +before the ensuing harvest could be begun, wheat and Indian corn +attained an equal value, and were sold at 1_l._ 8_s._ or 1_l._ 10_s._ +per bushel. Even eleven years afterwards, when a similar overflow, +though not equal to "_the great flood_," occurred, prices were raised +enormously, and but for an importation of wheat from Van Diemen's Land, +they would have been very little short of those in the year 1806. +Governor Bligh appears to have done all that a governor could do to +lessen the distress that prevailed, by ordering a number of the cattle +belonging to government to be slaughtered and divided among the +sufferers, and by encouraging, to the utmost extent of his power, the +cultivation of a large breadth of land in wheat for the ensuing season. +By these means, under Divine Providence, the colony again became able to +supply itself with daily bread; a capability of which, like many other +blessings, nations scarcely know the value and importance, until they +are deprived, or deprive themselves of it.[121] + + [119] One of the vain attempts of the present age is that of + entirely preventing the various fluctuations to which, from accidents, + bad seasons, &c., the price of bread is subject. It did appear as though + a certain average of moderate prices was established in England; but, + recently, the system has been again altered, and time must show how it + works. Certainly the changes in the value of corn in New South Wales + have formerly been violent enough, supposing the following statement to + be correct: "I have nine years been a landholder in this colony, and + seven years have cultivated my own farm. In this time I have twice given + wheat to my pigs, because I did not know what else to do with it; twice + I have known wheat selling at fifteen shillings per bushel, and once at + twenty shillings!"--ATKINSON _on the Encouragement of Distilling and + Brewing in New South Wales_, p. 3, ed. 1829. + + [120] It is said that the natives foresaw the approach of this + calamity, and advised the colonists of it, but their warning was not + regarded.--_See Barrington's History of New South Wales_, p. 310. + + [121] For the particulars here related of the floods of the river + Hawkesbury, see Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. pp. 98-101; and also + Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 67 and 448-9. The latter writer + speaks of wheat and maize being sold at 5_l._ or 6_l._ per bushel, but + that seems to be a mistake. + +From whatever cause it might arise,--whether from his opposition to the +practice of all the chief persons in the colony making a profit by the +sale of spirits,[122]--or from his dislike of the New South Wales +Corps,--or from his own harsh and tyrannical conduct,--whether, in +short, we listen to Governor Bligh's admirers or enemies, thus much is +certain: he was excessively unpopular with a large and powerful party +of men in the settlement. Without entering into the particulars of the +extraordinary treatment to which his Majesty's representative in that +distant colony was subjected, it may be sufficient to state that, in +consequence of the imprisonment of Mr. Macarthur, an old officer, and a +rich and influential settler, great disturbance was excited, which ended +in the seizure of the governor's person, and in the occupation of his +office and authority by Major Johnston, the commanding officer of the +New South Wales Corps, who assumed the authority of lieutenant-governor +in January, 1808, and issued some proclamations ordering various changes +among those in authority. In one of these proclamations a day of +thanksgiving is appointed to be kept for the recent transactions; and in +the same precious document the Rev. Henry Fulton is suspended from +discharging his duty as chaplain to the colony,[123] because, whatever +may have been the faults of his former life,[124] like most other +clergymen of the Church of England, on most other occasions, he had at +this time stood fast to his loyalty. + + [122] Still later the following evidence was given upon a trial: "The + governor, _clergy_, officers, civil and military, all ranks and + descriptions of people bartered spirits when I left Sydney,--in May, + 1810." What a handle do such practices give to those that love to + "despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities."--_Jude_ 8. + + [123] Here is an example of the need of a bishop in every colony of any + size or importance. What right or power had a usurping military officer + to suspend from clerical duties _one_ of the _two_ or _three_ clergymen + who were then in the settlement, and that without any crime alleged, any + trial, or proof of his misdemeanour? Would not a bishop, to stand + between the mighty major and the poor chaplain on this occasion, have + been a guardian of "civil and religious liberty?" + + [124] Respecting these, see the assertions in Ullathorne's Reply to + Burton, page 6. + +The confusion resulting from the seizure of the governor was lamentable +indeed in a colony at the best of times so difficult to be managed. All +public meetings were forbidden by the party in power, and our old +friends, the Presbyterians at Portland Head, whose loyalty to the +governor on this occasion was very creditable, had well nigh got into +trouble from their meeting together on "the Sabbath" for public worship. +The object of the intruders was to get rid of Captain Bligh as well as +they could, and accordingly he was sent off to England in command of +the _Porpoise_, but he remained from March to December, 1809, off the +coast of Van Diemen's Land, daily expecting despatches from the home +government, until at last, on December 28th, his intended successor, +Colonel Macquarie, arrived at Sydney. This last gentleman was ordered to +reinstate Captain Bligh in the government of the colony for the period +of twenty-four hours after his own arrival; but in consequence of +Bligh's absence from Sydney, this was not done. However, Major Johnston +was sent home under strict arrest, and, after various delays, he was +tried for mutiny, by a court-martial, in May 1811, and found guilty, but +was only sentenced to be cashiered, the court considering the peculiar +circumstances of the case sufficient to excuse him from a more severe +punishment. Captain Bligh was, upon his return to England, immediately +promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and employed in active service; +while the New South Wales Corps, which had certainly been long enough in +the colony from which it drew its name, was ordered home, and the 73d +regiment sent out to supply its place. + +The first acts of the new governor, Colonel Macquarie, were to declare +the king's displeasure at the late mutinous proceedings, and to render +null and void all the acts of the usurping party, most of whose measures +were, however, ratified, their bills upon the Treasury honoured, and +their grants of land confirmed. The continuance of Governor Macquarie +in power for no less than twelve years, during which peace and +tranquillity, undisturbed by any very severe trials, prevailed +throughout the settlement, offers but very few of those events which +make a figure in the history of the past:-- + + "Famine and plague, the earthquake and the storm, + Man's angry passions, war's terrific form, + The tyrant's threatenings, and the people's rage, + These are the crowded woes of History's page." + +During the period of which we are now treating, vast improvements and +extensive discoveries were made in New South Wales; and in all these, +or similar, arts of peace the governor delighted to bear an active and +leading part. Availing himself of the means at his disposal, and of the +abundance of convict-labour, he made, it is said, no less than 276 miles +of good roads during his administration; and, when the nature of the +country along which many of these were carried is taken into account, +this exploit alone reflects no small credit upon Governor Macquarie. In +the year 1813 the colony was enabled, by the courage and perseverance +of three gentlemen, to burst those bonds by which it had hitherto been +hemmed in within the limits of a narrow strip of land running along the +sea-coast. In that year a passage across the Blue Mountains, hitherto +thought insuperable, was at length made good; and the hungry sheep and +cattle which had been suffering from the prevailing drought in the +settlement, were speedily driven over the hills to enjoy the less +withered pastures and green plains of the western country. No sooner was +this district thus opened than the governor commenced making a road over +the mountains, and in this he succeeded after no very long delay, so +that a good communication was formed between Sydney and Bathurst Plains, +a distance of more than 100 miles, about 50 of which cross an extent of +country the most rugged, mountainous, and barren, that can be imagined. + +In public buildings Governor Macquarie showed no less activity than in +road-making, although his efforts in the former line have not met with +unmingled and universal approbation. Certainly, the means by which, +what was then called, "the Rum Hospital" was built were, if they are +correctly reported by Dr. Lang, disgraceful and mischievous in the +highest degree.[125] However, the improvements that were made in the +rising towns, especially in the capital, of the colony, may well demand +our admiration, even though, as usual in estimating the deeds of fallen +man, we must allow that much evil might have been avoided, and that a +large proportion of moral mischief was mingled with the improvements. + + [125] See Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. pp. 168, 169. + +The great and distinguishing feature, after all, of Colonel Macquarie's +government appears to have been the studious, and not always judicious, +patronage extended by him to the emancipated convicts, whom he generally +considered in preference to the free settlers. In consequence of this, +the last-named class were thrown into the background, a kind of check +was given to emigration, and, what was worst of all, two parties were +set on foot within the settlement, altogether opposed to each +other;--the _exclusionists_, who were free settlers, refused to +associate at all with those that had ever been convicts; and the +_emancipists_ considered that a convict, after his time of punishment +had expired, was just as good as any other man. It was absurd, indeed, +although no more than usually happens, to see men of the _humblest_, if +not of the _lowest_, classes in the mother country, suddenly aspiring to +become _exclusive_ and _grand_ in the colony. And, on the other hand, it +was a pretty sure sign that the convicts, though emancipated from their +shackles, were not well rid of their vice or impudence, when they laid +claim, even with the aid of a governor's encouragement, and often of +great wealth not very scrupulously acquired, to the highest society and +most important offices in the settlement. Undoubtedly, one great object +in a penal colony should be that of gradually purifying the population +from all disgraceful or vicious associations; but the hasty attempts of +a governor to elevate a class like that of the emancipated convicts +were sure to end rather in their depression. Time, and a succeeding +generation, would have done quietly what Colonel Macquarie, with +all his power, was unable to accomplish. If a governor cannot make +pickpockets become good _farmers_, still less likely is he to succeed in +endeavouring to make good _magistrates_ of them; but a few years, under +judicious management, might easily produce from among their children +admirable specimens of both. And nothing can be a greater hindrance to +this desirable result than hasty and ill-timed, though well-intended, +attempts to force out of their proper sphere those persons, who, if they +are really possessed of any sense, would, of all men, desire to keep +within it. + +In reckoning up the principal occurrences during the twelve years in +which Colonel Macquarie ruled the colony, the vast additions which were +made to our knowledge of the country are by no means to be overlooked. +Bathurst Plains and the pass to them through the Blue Mountains were, +as we have already seen, discovered; the district of Argyle to the +south-westward was also made known. Two rivers, named after the +governor, who was (it is reported) fond of such compliments, the Lachlan +and the Macquarie, were traced westward of the Blue Mountains, until +they were supposed to lose themselves in endless and impassable swamps. +Northwards, the River Hastings, and a large extent of country suitable +for flocks and herds, called Liverpool Plains, were discovered. Besides +which, three penal settlements for the punishment of unruly convicts +were formed, one at Emu Plains, another at Newcastle, near the mouth of +the River Hunter, and a third at Port Macquarie, at the mouth of the +Hastings. + +But the mention of new penal settlements, in which the punishment and +removal of gross offenders were the only objects, while the reformation +and salvation of those poor men were never thought of, forcibly recalls +us to a subject of which we have for some time lost sight, and which +must be once more noticed before the history of the rise and early +progress of the colony of New South Wales is completed. Where was the +Church all this time? What was the Church of England doing in the now +flourishing settlement of Australia? How far did the state follow at +once both its duty and its interest, and employ in the work of +reformation in this land of criminals those heavenly instruments, the +Bible and the Church? The reply to all these inquiries is briefly made, +but the national sin and shame involved in that short reply it might +need volumes to unfold. + +In 1821, at the end of Macquarie's government, there was scattered about +in the colony a population of 29,783, of whom 13,814 were convicts, and +among these were found ministering _seven_ clergymen of the Church of +England, with no bishop of that Church to "set things in order"[126] +nearer than the Antipodes,--the very opposite side of the habitable +globe! Nor, if we look (as unhappily now in every English colony we must +look,) beyond the pale of the English Church, shall we find either +Romish superstition or Dissenting zeal working any of their usual +wonders. Though the number of Romanists from Ireland was very great in +the colony, yet they had, in 1821, only _one_ priest residing among +them; the Presbyterians at Portland Head had a catechist only, and with +respect to the other "denominations" little or nothing is recorded:--the +_establishment_ had taken as yet so poor a hold of the soil of New +South Wales, that the _voluntary system_, which seems often to need +its support, as ivy needs the support of a tree, had scarcely been +transplanted thither. One observation, before we quit for the present +this painful subject, forces itself upon the mind. How utterly unlike +are the ways of an All-Perfect God from the ways of imperfect fallen +men! The King of kings desireth not the death of any sinner, and has +wrought miracles upon miracles of mercy to provide for his salvation; +whereas man regardeth not the spiritual life of his brethren, earthly +monarchs and nations care chiefly about the removal of the offenders out +of their sight, and, so long as this is effected, they trouble not +themselves about the future lot of those outcasts; money is more +willingly parted with for "penal settlements" than for religious +instruction, and, although the earthly wants of the criminals are +attended to, here humanity stops short;--if their _bodies_ are not cast +out to starve and to perish _their souls are_. And who cannot read in +holy Scripture the just doom of those that have acted, or are acting, +thus? "The wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I +require at thine hand."[127] + + [126] See Titus i. 3. + + [127] Ezekiel iii. 18. + +Having now brought down the history of the colony of New South Wales to +a period when it might be said to be firmly established and flourishing, +both party feeling and needless details may best be avoided by stopping +here, yet it will not form an unsuitable conclusion to this chapter to +borrow General Macquarie's account of his own doings, although this may +be somewhat tinctured with that vanity, which is said to have been his +greatest weakness:--"I found the colony," he states, in a Report to Earl +Bathurst, "barely emerging from infantile imbecility, and suffering from +various privations and disabilities; the country impenetrable beyond 40 +miles from Sydney; agriculture in a yet languishing state; commerce in +its early dawn; revenue unknown; threatened with famine; distracted by +faction; the public buildings in a state of dilapidation, and mouldering +to decay; the few roads and bridges formerly constructed rendered almost +impassable; the population in general depressed by poverty; no public +credit nor private confidence; the morals of the great mass of the +population in the lowest state of debasement, and religious worship +almost totally neglected.[128] Such was the state of New South Wales +when I took charge of its administration on the 1st of January, 1810. +I left it in February last, reaping incalculable advantages from my +extensive and important discoveries in all directions, including the +supposed insurmountable barrier called the Blue Mountains, to the +westward of which are situated the fertile plains of Bathurst; and +_in all respects_ [?] enjoying a state of private comfort and public +prosperity, which I trust will at least equal the expectations of His +Majesty's Government. On my taking the command of the colony in the year +1810, the amount of port duties collected did not exceed 8000_l._ per +annum, and there were only 50_l._ or 60_l._ of a balance in the +Treasurer's hands; but now (in 1822,) duties are collected at Port +Jackson to the amount of from 28,000_l._ to 30,000_l._ per annum. In +addition to this annual colonial revenue, there are port duties, +collected at Hobart Town and George Town in Van Diemen's Land, to +the amount of between 8000_l._ and 10,000_l._ per annum."[129] + + [128] How could public religious worship be attended to, when, in the + year after Governor Macquarie's arrival, 1810, a widely-scattered + population of 10,452 souls, mostly convicts, were left in the charge + of _four_ clergymen? And in what respect were things improved at the + time of that Governor's departure in 1821, when, to a similarly situated + population of 29,783 souls there were _seven_ clergymen assigned: + and the Romish church had _one_ priest for New South Wales and Van + Diemen's Land, while the Presbyterians at Portland Head had their + lay-catechist?--See BURTON _on Education and Religion in New South + Wales_, pp. 8, 9, 12, 16. + + We may add, by way of illustrating the regard paid to religious worship, + even in Governor Macquarie's time, that Oxley's first expedition + into the interior was permitted to set out from Bathurst on a Sunday! + See his _Journal_, p. 3. Sunday, indeed, seems to have been a favourite + starting-day with Mr. Oxley. See p. 37. + + [129] See Governor Macquarie's Report to Earl Bathurst, in Lang's New + South Wales, vol. i. _Appendix_, No. 8, p. 447. + + + + +[Illustration: NORTH VIEW OF SYDNEY.] + +CHAPTER IX. + +DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. + + +The next objects that demand our notice in Australia are the British +colonies, and their present inhabitants. We have already given our +attention to the Bush and its wild inhabitants, and the lengthened yet +rapid process by which a lonely bay was converted, within the space of +little more than forty years, into the flourishing capital of a rising +country, has been fully traced. It now remains for the reader to be made +acquainted with the natural features, civil divisions, and present state +of the British Australian colonies,--especially of the oldest and most +important of them, called New South Wales. Were we not already informed +of the sad reality of things, we might be tempted to indulge in the +daydreams of an explorer, and to join in the bright and hopeful visions +of a most pleasing writer, respecting the blessings to arise out of a +change of any district from wild bush to civilized colony. But dreams of +this nature are little better than vanity, and so our explorer himself +tells us at the end of his narrative:--"Whilst I stretched my weary +length," says Captain Grey, "along, under the pleasant shade, I saw in +fancy busy crowds throng the scenes I was then amongst. I pictured to +myself the bleating sheep and lowing herds wandering over these fertile +hills; and I chose the very spot on which my house should stand, +surrounded with as fine an amphitheatre of verdant land as the eye of +man had ever gazed on. The view was backed by the Victoria Range, whilst +seaward you looked out through a romantic glen upon the great Indian +ocean. I knew that within four or five years civilization would have +followed my tracks, and that rude nature and the savage would no longer +reign supreme over so fine a territory. Mr. Smith entered eagerly into +my thoughts and views; together we built these castles in the air, +trusting we should see happy results spring from our present sufferings +and labours,--but within a few weeks from this day he died in the wilds +he was exploring."[130] So little are the brilliant hopes inspired by +discovery to be depended upon, nor less uncertain are the expectations +which the colonization of a district awakens in our hearts. We cannot +but look for good results, yet frequently are we doomed to +disappointment. + + [130] See Grey's Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. pp. 29, 30. + For the particulars of Mr. Smith's death, see page 27. + +However, the assurance of the superintendence of Divine Providence may +check all misgivings; and under this wholesome persuasion we may proceed +to consider the present condition of that country, which has been +recently settled and civilized on the eastern coast of New Holland, +and which is known by the name of New South Wales. It is manifestly +impossible, in describing a territory like this, continually increasing +and enlarging itself, whilst at the same time much of the country +already within its bounds is barren and almost unknown, to maintain that +accuracy which we are accustomed to find in descriptions of the counties +or districts of our own well-defined and cultivated island. Yet, in +New South Wales, as in Great Britain, the territory is divided into +counties, and occasionally into parishes; and it may serve to give the +reader a general idea of the whole country, if each of these former +divisions is briefly noticed. + +The county called Cumberland is the most populous and important, +although by no means the most fertile, in the whole province. It +contains the capital, Sydney, and the thriving towns of Paramatta, +Liverpool, Windsor, Richmond, &c.; so that in population it far exceeds +all the others. It is described as an undulating plain, extending from +north to south about fifty-three miles, and in breadth from the sea to +the base of the Blue Mountains, upwards of forty miles. The coast is +generally bold and rocky, and to the distance of a few miles inland the +soil is a poor sandstone, and the country looks bleak and barren; +further from the sea its appearance improves, an undulating country +extends itself to the width of about ten miles, and this district, where +it has been left in its natural state, has the appearance of a noble +forest, but, although partially cultivated, the soil still continues +poor, for it rests upon a foundation of sandstone. Beyond this, the soil +becomes better, the trees are less numerous, the herbage more luxuriant, +the scenery beautifully varied, the hills are generally more fertile +than the valleys, and the farms and cultivated spots are very numerous. +In the valleys of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, the richness of the +soil is very great, and the plains are extensive. One great evil, the +scarcity of good water, has been very much felt in this country, but it +is expected that by boring, the deficiency may be supplied. The coast +of Cumberland is broken and indented by many creeks or inlets, the most +remarkable of which is the noble harbour of Port Jackson. The county of +Cumberland is said to contain about 900,000 acres, of which not more +than one-third is fit for cultivation, and all the good land in it has +been long since granted away. Unfortunately, that part of the country +which is most fertile and preferable, is the very part where scarcely +any natural springs are to be found, for, although these are abundant +on the coast, and in the sandstone country, beyond that line they are +rarely met with; and, since the tides flow to a considerable distance +up all the rivers, the water of these is in many parts of the district +brackish and unfit for use; besides which, in the summer-time, the +smaller streams become dry, or dwindle down into mere chains of ponds, +barely sufficient to supply the wants of the cattle. + +The next county to the southward of Cumberland is named Camden, which +continues the line of coast, extending itself about sixty-six miles in +length, and being in breadth, towards the interior, about fifty-five +miles. This is a more mountainous district than Cumberland, and abounds +in lofty timber, but, nevertheless, there are several large tracts of +great fertility contained within its limits. The district called +Illawarra, or the Five Islands, and that of the Cow Pastures, are the +most remarkable; and being both of them rural districts, they may be +briefly described here. Illawarra is a very peculiar spot: it is +situated immediately between the sea and a range of high hills, so steep +that they are almost impassable, while on the remaining side, upon which +neither of these two boundaries enclose it, Illawarra is bounded by the +Shoal Haven River. The district thus separated by nature from the +adjoining country, extends about eighteen miles along the coast, and +is said to comprise 150,000 acres of most beautiful scenery and very +fertile soil. The greater part of Illawarra is heavily timbered, and it +is said to be not well fitted for the rearing of sheep; but for the +plough its deep vegetable soil is admirably suited, and whenever the +land begins to feel the effect of repeated cropping, there are means of +enriching it at hand in the large heaps of decayed shells to be found +upon the sea-shore, which would furnish an excellent manure. The +communication between this fertile spot, and the nearest market of any +consequence, Sydney, is carried on almost entirely by water; and the +Shoal Haven River being navigable for vessels of eighty or ninety tons +to the distance of twenty miles up the country, affords the ready means +of conveying produce to the capital from many parts of Illawarra. +Besides this navigable river, the southern boundary of the district, +there are many smaller streams which issue from the mountains to the +north and west, so that the country is well watered, besides which +advantage it is said to have a larger share of rain than many other +parts of the colony, and to be sheltered from the blighting winds which +occasionally have proved destructive to the crops elsewhere. The +mountain range by which Illawarra is shut in, partakes of the general +fertility of the neighbourhood below, and it is supposed, from its +eastern aspect, and mild climate, to offer spots favourable for the +cultivation of the vine. The timber of the district is very profitable, +when felled, and highly ornamental where it is left standing. Indeed, +the immense fern-trees, shooting up their rough stems, like large oars, +to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and then suddenly putting forth +leaves in every direction, four or five feet in length, and exactly like +the leaf of the common fern,--the different kinds of palms rising to the +height of seventy or one hundred feet, and then forming large canopies +of leaves; the cedars, the undergrowth of wild vines, creeping plants +and shrubs, in rich abundance; all combine to remind the visitor of a +tropical climate, of a more _northern_, or as Englishmen would naturally +say, more _southern_, climate than that of Illawarra. + +Respecting the Cow Pastures, the rural district, which, next to +Illawarra, is most deserving of notice in the county of Camden, little +further need be added to what has been already stated in another place. +Instead of _cow pastures_, however, nearly the whole of the 60,000 acres +of good land, which form this district, have now become _sheep farms_; +and the soil appears to be very suitable to the growth and perfection of +the last-named animal. Towards the southern and eastern parts of the cow +pastures are numerous streams, which retain water even in dry weather, +and which communicate with the Nepean River. There do not appear to +be any towns deserving of mention in the county of Camden, and its +population is small and rural: it is crossed in every direction by steep +ridges of hills, which almost always tower upwards like the roof of a +house, and where the country is mountainous, meet so close as to leave +only a narrow ravine betwixt them. + +The adjoining county, which may be next noticed, is that of Argyle, an +inland district, not having any front whatever towards the ocean, and +lying to the south-westward of the county last described. Argyle is +about sixty miles in length, with an average breadth of thirty miles; it +is a lofty and broken region, and abounds in small rivulets and ponds, +containing water during the whole of the year. It is also well furnished +with timber, although there are places where the trees are scattered +sparingly, and likewise plains of considerable extent, entirely bare of +trees. Of this description are Goulburn's Plains, which consist of open +downs, affording good pasturage for sheep, and extending twenty miles +southward from the township to which they owe their name, their breadth +being about ten. There are some remarkable lakes in this county, or near +its borders, the two largest of which are called Lake George and Lake +Bathurst. Some of the old natives say that they can remember when these +lakes did not exist; and dead trees are found in the bed of Lake George, +the whole of which was, in October 1836, dried up, and like a grassy +meadow.[131] + + [131] See Major Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 317. + +Bathurst is another inland county, lying nearly due west of Cumberland, +but not adjoining it, which may deserve to be briefly described. In +looking over a map of the colony of New South Wales, it appears strange +that counties, like this, comparatively remote both from the capital and +from the sea, should be more known and flourishing than others lying +betwixt them and these important objects. But when we reflect upon the +nature of the country, and remember that the intervening counties are in +a great measure occupied by the Blue Mountains, with their tremendous +ravines and dreary sandstone wastes, all wonder will cease at finding +the green pastures and smiling country beyond the mountains occupied, +while the rugged tract is suffered to remain for the most part in its +natural state, and instead of becoming populous itself, is employed only +as a channel of communication between the consuming population on the +coast and the producing population of the more fertile interior. +Bathurst is in length seventy-two miles, and in breadth sixty-eight, +in shape somewhat approaching to an irregular square. No part of this +district was explored before 1813. It is, in general, a kind of broken +table-land, in some places forming extensive and bare downs, as, for +instance, Bathurst Plains, containing 50,000 acres. Occasional open +downs of this kind, and not unlike the South Downs in England, extend +along the banks of the Macquarie for upwards of one hundred miles. +Bathurst is reckoned one of the most flourishing and desirable +situations in the whole colony, and the view of these plains from the +high land to the eastward upon the road from Sydney is very interesting. +The prospect of an extensive district naturally destitute of timber is +rare in Australia, and therefore it surprises and pleases the eye of the +traveller. Bathurst Plains form, however, by no means a dead level, but +consist rather of a series of gentle elevations, with intervening flats +of moderate extent; the surrounding forest is rather thin, and patches +of it extend irregularly to some distance in the plains, like points of +land projecting into a lake. + +The green pastures and naturally clear state of this district, formed +the first inducements to settlers to occupy a spot, which is now distant +from Sydney by the road 121 miles, about fifty of which cross the +wildest and most barren mountains imaginable, and which then had no road +at all leading to it, except a difficult mountain-pass only recently +discovered; consequently, the district was portioned out chiefly in +large grants to persons whose means enabled them to cope with the +difficulties of approaching the new settlement; and the society at +Bathurst Plains is esteemed very good; possibly it may be all the better +for its distance from the capital. But the best proof of the goodness of +the society in this neighbourhood is the attention which the inhabitants +are stated to pay to their religious duties, and the harmony in which +they live with one another.[132] The situation of Bathurst Plains is an +exceedingly high one, being more than 2000 feet above the level of the +sea; and this elevation, rendering the climate much cooler,[133] +produces the same vegetable productions in the parallel latitude of +Sydney with those that are to be found in Van Diemen's Land, ten degrees +farther to the south. Bathurst is said to be a very healthy climate; +wonders are told of the climate of New South Wales generally, and yet we +are informed that "the cheeks of the children beyond the mountains have +a rosy tint, which is seldom observable in the lowlands of the colony." +However, notwithstanding all that may be said, disease and death can +find out their victims even in Bathurst Plains. + + "Guilt's fatal doom in vain would mortals fly, + And they that breathe the purest air must die." + + [132] See Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. p. 119. + + [133] The difference of temperature in twelve hours' journey is + stated to be upwards of twenty degrees.--OXLEY's _Journal of his First + Expedition_, p. 4. + +The county of Northumberland is one of the most important and valuable +in the colony; it is upon the sea-coast, and adjoins Cumberland, being +bounded on the south by the river Hawkesbury, and on the north by the +Hunter. Its length is about 60 miles, and its breadth about 50: whilst +its general appearance is undulating, with high table lands dispersed +among the hills, and it is well watered by many streams and rivulets. +Within this county are two great sources of worldly wealth,--the +coal-mines near one of its principal towns, Newcastle, and the rich +productive farms in the valley of the Hunter. The last-named river is +navigable for small craft for fifty miles above Newcastle, which is a +thriving little port, and boats may ascend two of its three principal +branches for about 120 and 200 miles, but the navigation is liable to +be interrupted by sudden and tremendous floods.[134] + + [134] This account of the navigation of Hunter's River is taken from + Martin's New South Wales, p. 75. Dr. Lang, vol. ii. p. 64, gives a + somewhat different account of it. + +Coal is to be found in several parts of New South Wales, but it is most +abundant in the country to the south of Hunter's River, which forms part +of the county of Northumberland. Even at some distance from the shore, +the black lines of coal may be seen in the cliffs upon the coast, and +the coal-pits in this neighbourhood are worked with comparatively little +trouble. The Australian Agricultural Company have obtained a grant of +these from government: and, as a specimen of the demand for coals some +years ago, it may be stated, that, in 1836, there were sold at the +pit's mouth 12,646 tons for 5,747_l._, being at about the rate of nine +shillings per ton. Since that time the consumption has been very +rapidly increasing, and steam navigation has now become common in the +colony;[135] so that, besides the manufactories of Sydney, and the +supply of private families, there is an additional demand for fuel +created by the steam-boats plying constantly along that remote coast, +which only a century ago no European had yet beheld. It is also reported +that iron is to be found in New South Wales, at no great distance from +the coal which is so necessary to smelt it; and, if this be true, with +these two principal causes of the wealth of the mother country concealed +within its bosom, it is quite possible that, in the course of time, the +colony may rival, or outstrip, England itself in worldly prosperity. + + [135] It was introduced in 1831. + +But, however valuable these elements may be, the riches of a country are +based upon more important pursuits than mining or manufactures, and in +those fundamental sources of wealth,--in agriculture and its kindred +occupations,--the county of Northumberland stands foremost in New South +Wales. Not even the rich valleys of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers can +excel in fruitfulness or in cultivation that of Hunter's River. Wheat +and maize are among the chief productions of this fine agricultural +district, of which Maitland is the principal town. Potatoes, tobacco, +cheese, and butter are also forwarded to Sydney for sale from this +highly favoured spot. Were it not for the fearful floods to which, in +common with many other rivers in the colony, Hunter's River is liable, +altogether this valley, and the _arms_, or branch valleys, which lead +into it, might well be esteemed among the finest situations in the +world; and now that this liability is well known, and may be provided +against, the objections arising on this score are greatly diminished. +Still, a flood rising suddenly forty or sixty feet, and pouring with +headlong fury down the peaceful cultivated valleys, is a just object of +dread, and a tremendous visitation. + +We cannot leave the subject of this rich and beautiful district, +abounding in inhabitants and rural wealth, without borrowing the words +of the Bishop of Australia in describing its recent increase in those +means of grace and hopes of glory, which are, after all, the only true +riches. In 1833, when this neighbourhood was visited, "there was but one +clergyman in the entire tract of country, extending from the mouth of +the Hunter to its source, and the great and growing population on its +banks would have appeared, (if we could have forgotten the ability of +God to raise up children to himself, and to provide them with spiritual +food even from the stones of the desert,) to be abandoned to inevitable +destitution, both they and their children. But it has pleased the +Almighty to cause the prospect to brighten, and now (in 1839) there will +be seven clergymen dispensing the pure ordinances and inculcating the +salutary principles of the Church."[136] + + [136] Bishop of Australia's Letter to the Society for the Propagation + of the Gospel, dated September 12th, 1839. + +It would be at once wasting time and presuming upon the reader's +patience to attempt to describe particularly the remaining counties +of New South Wales, which are yet but imperfectly known and partially +colonized. It will be sufficient to notice the names of the others, +which, together with those described above, amount to nineteen +in number. Besides Cumberland, Camden, Argyle, Bathurst, and +Northumberland, the counties of Cook, Westmoreland, Roxburgh, +Wellington, Phillip, Bligh, Brisbane, Hunter, Gloucester, Georgiana, +King's County, Murray, Durham, and St. Vincent's, may deserve to be +mentioned by name, but nothing especially worthy of notice suggests +itself respecting them. We may turn, therefore, from the rural +districts, and take a rapid view of the principal towns of New South +Wales. Among these the capital, Sydney, claims the first place, not less +as a matter of right than of courtesy. By a happy concurrence of events, +the very first settlement made upon the eastern coast of New Holland was +formed upon one of its most eligible spots; and accordingly that town, +which ranks first in point of time, is likely always to rank first in +population, in size, in commerce, and in wealth. The harbour alone would +offer advantages enough to secure considerable importance to a town +erected upon its shores, and before Sydney itself is more minutely +described, we may borrow the account of Port Jackson, which has been +given by one well acquainted with its scenery, and himself by birth an +Australian.[137] It is navigable for fifteen miles from its entrance, +that is, seven miles beyond Sydney; and in every part there is good +anchorage and complete shelter from all winds. Its entrance is three +quarters of a mile in width, and afterwards expands into a spacious +basin, fifteen miles long, and in some places three broad, with depth of +water sufficient for vessels of the largest size. The harbour is said to +have 100 coves, and there is room within it for all the shipping in the +world. The views from its shores are varied and beautiful. Looking +towards the sea, the eye catches at a single glance the numerous bays +and islets between the town and the headlands at the entrance of the +harbour, while the bold hills by which it is bounded end abruptly on the +coast. To the north a long chain of lofty rugged cliffs mark the bearing +of the shore in that direction, and turning southwards, the spectator +beholds, seven or eight miles distant, the spacious harbour of Botany +Bay, beyond which a high bluff range of hills extends along to the south +in the direction towards Illawarra. Westward one vast forest is to be +seen, varied only by occasional openings which cultivation and the +axe have made on the tops of some of the highest hills. Beyond the +numberless undulations of this wooded country the Blue Mountains are +espied, towering behind the whole background of the scene, and forming a +stately boundary to the prospect. This description of the scenery of +Port Jackson applies to a particular spot very near to Sydney, but the +views are similar in general character, though infinitely varied in +detail, at other places in the neighbourhood; and nearer to the entrance +of the harbour a new and still grander object breaks upon the sight:-- + + "Where the mighty Pacific with soft-swelling waves + A thousand bright regions eternally laves." + + [137] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. pp. 52-55. + +Upon this beautiful and convenient piece of water, which has been just +described, is the capital of the principal British colony in Australia +situated. It is chiefly built upon two hilly necks of land, enclosing +between them a small inlet, named Sydney Cove. The western of these two +projections divides Sydney Cove from another called Cockle Bay, in both +of which the water is deep enough to allow the approach of the largest +ships to the very sides of the rocks. On this western neck, (which is +occupied with houses down to the water's edge, besides many others which +extend into the country behind,) the town forms a little peninsula, +being surrounded with water everywhere, except where it adjoins the +mainland. On the eastern neck of land the increase of the town has been +stopped by the government-house, and its adjoining domains, which occupy +the whole of what is called Bennillong's Point. With the exception of +the portion of the shore thus enclosed, the water-side is occupied by +wharfs, warehouses, ship-yards, mills, and all the other buildings which +mark a naval and commercial town. Behind these marts of industry and +wealth, the houses rise one above the other, and, by their situation +on the slope of the hill, force themselves conspicuously into notice. +Indeed, the town covers a considerable extent of ground, although land +for building is so valuable, that the intervening spaces, formerly used +as gardens and pleasure-grounds, will soon disappear and be covered with +houses. The public buildings of Sydney are said to be neither numerous +nor elegant, and certainly no great beauty of architecture can be +reasonably expected in a town so recently built, and under such +circumstances, as Sydney. Nevertheless many of the buildings are very +large; and Mr. Wentworth says something (though not much) in their +favour, when he states that they would not disgrace the great metropolis +of England itself. In one melancholy feature, Sydney too nearly +resembles London, namely, in the immense number of its public houses, +of which, according to Mr. Montgomery Martin, there were about two +hundred in the whole town. The population in 1841 was 29,973 souls. Of +these, 16,505 were returned as belonging to the Church of England; 8,126 +to the Romish Church, while the rest were returned as Presbyterians, +Dissenters, Jews, Mahometans, and Pagans. Sydney is divided into four +parishes: St. Philip, St. James, St. Andrew, and St. Lawrence; in the +two first of which churches have long existed, and in St. James's church +the cathedral service is daily used, with weekly communion; and there is +a choir, organ, &c.[138] In the two last named parishes no churches have +existed until very recently, but through the indefatigable exertions of +Bishop Broughton, which have been not unworthily seconded by the Rev. +W. Horatio Walsh, and the Rev. W. West Simpson, congregations have +been assembled together, which will, it may be hoped, continue to +attend the divine service of the Church of England, long after more +suitable buildings than those originally used,--_a brewhouse and a +threshing-floor_,--shall have been provided for their accommodation. +In St. Lawrence's parish a regular church was begun in 1840, and is +probably completed before this time; and, to the credit of Sydney, it +may be stated, that no less than 571_l._ were collected from those +present at the meeting in which the erection of the church was resolved +upon. In St. Andrew's it is proposed to raise the cathedral church of +the diocese of Australia; and, therefore, it must necessarily be longer +before the building can be completed; but the importance of this +undertaking cannot be more clearly shown than by the recent statement +of Bishop Broughton, whence it would appear that of 7000 inhabitants in +St. Andrew's parish, 3500 belong to the Church of their fathers or of +their native home--the scriptural and apostolical Church of England. But +more of these, and similar matters elsewhere. It was a wise and useful +arrangement of our forefathers, by which our parishes were made at once +ecclesiastical and civil divisions; and since this practice has in some +measure been followed out in our colonies, the reader will excuse the +brief observations thus suggested by the mention of the civil division +of Sydney into four parishes. One more remark, and that a painful one, +may be added. The expenses of the police establishment, _in the town +of Sydney alone_, cost the government, in the year 1838, the sum of +12,350_l._, whereas the cost of the ecclesiastical establishment of the +Church of England, in the same town, (including the stipend of the +bishop,) amounted only to 3,025_l._ during that year.[139] Supposing +(what is most likely) that the former sum is by no means _too much_, +how far _too little_ must the latter be! + + [138] There are several other parishes in the _suburbs_ of Sydney. A + third new church is likewise mentioned, among those in progress at + Sydney, in the Bishop of Australia's Charge, delivered in 1841. See + Appendix A, p. 36. + + [139] Compare p. 115 of Judge Burton's work on Education and Religion + in New South Wales, with Appendix No. 12 of the same work. It may be + noticed, that the sum mentioned applies only to stipends and allowances + of the Clergy, and does not include sums voted for building purposes. + +Sydney has a very good market, which is tolerably well supplied with the +necessaries of life; but many of these, as for example, eggs, butter, +apples, &c., are very dear at present, compared with the prices usual +in the mother country; while tea, coffee, sugar, &c. are cheap in +proportion. The most expensive article of living in Sydney is +house-rent, which appears to be enormously high, so that 100_l._ a year +is considered only a moderate charge for an unfurnished house, with +ordinary conveniences; and out of the salary allowed by government to +the Bishop of Australia, upwards of one-seventh part is expended in rent +alone. The shops in the capital of New South Wales are said to be very +good, and the articles well and tastefully arranged; but the social +condition of the colony naturally tends to make the persons who keep +them very different, and a much less respectable class, speaking +generally, than the tradespeople of the mother country. The noble +harbour of Port Jackson, and the position of the capital of the colony, +unite in affording every possible encouragement to trade; and the +following account given by the Sydney Herald, last year (1842) is +about the most recent statement that has been received of the present +condition of that commerce, which is altering and increasing every year. +The shipping of Sydney now amounts to 224 vessels of the aggregate +burden of 25,000 tons, of which 15 are steamers, of an aggregate burden +of 1635 tons. This statement may give some idea of the rapidity with +which the ports of the Southern world are rising into an almost European +importance.[140] Since the year 1817 several large banks have been +established, and, from the high rate of interest which money has always +borne in the colony, it is not surprising that some of these concerns +have been very profitable. It is only to be hoped that the spirit of +speculation may not be carried out, till it ends, as it too frequently +does in the mother country, in fraud and dishonesty. + + [140] See the Morning Herald, July 5, 1842. + +There is a well-managed post-office in Sydney, and a twopenny post, with +delivery twice a day, in the town itself. There is, likewise, a Savings' +Bank,[141] a Mechanics' Institute, several large schools or colleges; +and, in short, so far as is possible, the usages and institutions of +England, whether good or bad, are, in most instances, transferred and +copied with amazing accuracy by the inhabitants of New South Wales. +"Nothing surprises a stranger in an English colony more than the +pertinacity with which our ways, manners, and dress are spread in these +outlandish spots. All smells of home."[142] Accordingly, in complete +agreement with the manners of the mother country, though not in harmony +with that Word of Truth which commands Christians "with one mind and one +mouth to glorify God," (Rom. xv. 6,) the capital of New South Wales is +adorned with several buildings for various parties in the _Christian +world_, as it is called, to meet in public worship. There is a large and +handsome Roman Catholic chapel, "a Scotch church, built after the _neat +and pleasing style_ (?) adopted by the disciples of John Knox; and the +Methodist chapel, an humble and lowly structure;" and, therefore, +according to Mr. Montgomery Martin's opinion, from whom this account is +borrowed, all the better fitted to lead men to admire, love, and worship +their Creator. How different are these modern notions from those of King +David, who, although he was blessed with quite as exalted ideas of God's +omnipresence as most men have, nevertheless deemed it wrong for himself +to "dwell in a house of cedar," while "the ark of God dwelt within +curtains," even the costly and beautifully-wrought curtains of the +tabernacle. And among the imitations of the customs and habits of home, +the love of newspapers, and the number of these published, deserve a +passing notice. The state of the public press in England, especially +with regard to its Sunday publications, is grievous and lamentable +enough to justify the assertion, that printing is a bane as well as a +blessing to our native country. And as for those persons who are weak +enough to talk as though newspapers were the great or sole means of +diffusing _truth_ and _knowledge_ among the people, they are not less +mistaken than others would be, who might affirm that newspapers were the +chief or only means of spreading _lies_ and _ignorance_ among them. But +if so much evil is mingled with the good produced by the public press in +Great Britain, how must the case stand with the same mighty agent of +benefit or mischief in a colony like that of New South Wales? To this +question let Dr. Lang,--himself a newspaper editor in Sydney for many +years, a man of what are called "Liberal principles," and a Presbyterian +teacher,--furnish a reply. His words are stronger than another person, a +stranger to the colony, would like to use, or could be justified in +using; and if exceptions against his authority be made in certain +quarters, care must be taken by them not to quote that same authority +too implicitly on other subjects. Dr. Lang, in the following passage, +speaks disparagingly of one of the great idols of his party; their +favourite toast has always been, "The Liberty of the Press; it is like +the air we breathe, if we have it not, we die,"--although it is true +they have occasionally forgotten that other parties want "air to +breathe," as much as themselves. Bearing these things in mind, we may +listen with a smile to the character which Dr. Lang gives of the +colonial press in New South Wales:--"It has, with only few exceptions, +been an instrument of evil instead of good; while, in many instances, it +has been a mere receptacle and propagator of downright blackguardism." +Accordingly, it is reckoned, (too justly, we may fear,) among the +_sources of colonial demoralization_ in the very paragraph from which +the above statement is borrowed. + + [141] This is flourishing, for the deposits are stated in recent + accounts from Sydney to have increased, between June 30, 1840, and the + same date in 1842, from 143,000_l._ to 178,000_l._, and the number of + accounts opened was much greater than in former years. + + [142] Extract from a private letter. + +The next town to be noticed is Paramatta, which is situated in the same +county with Sydney, and, indeed, is only eighteen miles by water, and +fifteen by land, from the capital; a circumstance that will, most +likely, prevent it from ever reaching that size and consequence to +which at a greater distance it might have attained. Paramatta is built +along a small fresh-water stream, which falls into the harbour of Port +Jackson, at the very head of which the town is seated. For the last few +miles the harbour is navigable only for boats of twelve or fifteen tons +burthen. The town consists chiefly of one long street, and being backed +by a ridge of hills, it has a pleasing appearance, especially from the +Sydney road, where it breaks suddenly upon the view. The population of +Paramatta is 10,052 souls, and the neighbouring country is tolerably +well cleared and inhabited. In this place is the country residence of +the governor, and here also is the station of one of the three regiments +upon duty in the colony. Besides these distinctions, Paramatta has been +chosen to be the site of several establishments of no small utility and +interest in New South Wales. On the banks of the river is the Female +Orphan School, where the little friendless daughters of the colony +are trained up to be members of Christ's holy Catholic Church, and +servants of Him who is "the Father of the fatherless, and the God of +the widow, even God in his holy habitation." Here, likewise, is another +establishment of a very different character, but if less successful in +its results, not less beneficial in its intentions. The Paramatta +factory, or rather penitentiary, is known throughout the settlement, and +has been the object of much abuse from portions of the colonial press. +Its objects are, first, to afford a home and place of refuge to those +female convicts that are not yet assigned to masters, or are out of +service; and, secondly, to provide an asylum for those who have +misconducted themselves, and to give them leisure for reflection and +repentance. At Paramatta, likewise, is the noble institution called the +King's School, which may, with judicious care, prove an invaluable +blessing to the rising generation of the colony. There are also in +this town barracks, and a hospital; an old gaol, and a new one lately +erected, and intended to serve for the whole county of Cumberland, with +the exception of the town of Sydney. Besides these public buildings, +there is a Roman Catholic chapel and a Wesleyan meeting-house; and two +Presbyterian congregations assemble themselves in Paramatta; nor in this +enumeration must the convent lately commenced by a few "Sisters of +Charity" be forgotten. The Romanists are rather numerous in this town, +and very active. In a private letter received from the neighbourhood of +Paramatta, after stating the hold possessed by the English Church upon +the affections of the people, the writer observes, "from the pretensions +of the dissenters I cannot affect any the slightest uneasiness. Our +danger is from Rome. I know not what to anticipate in that quarter. +Their exertions here are gigantic, and really do them credit." Why +should not the efforts of our purer and more Scriptural Church be +equally strenuous? On the south side of the river is St. John's Church, +which is quite removed from the principal increase of the population, +that having taken place chiefly on the opposite bank. The Rev. Samuel +Marsden, who was chaplain in New South Wales for more than forty years, +bequeathed 200_l._ and gave a piece of land to promote the erection of a +second church here; but for one reason or another, no progress had been +made towards this desirable end, and in a letter dated January 1842, +Bishop Broughton stated his resolution to commence the good work, even +with the scanty resources at his disposal, hoping that the sight of a +building in progress would awaken the liberality, and stir up the hearts +of those that were able to contribute. + +Windsor is the next town in the colony of New South Wales, which +appears to be deserving of a particular notice. It is in the county of +Cumberland, and stands upon a hill rising about 100 feet above the level +of the Hawkesbury, upon the banks of which river it is built, and is +thus placed beyond the reach of its occasional destructive floods. The +town is situated on a point of land lying between the Hawkesbury and a +stream called South Creek, running on the other side; and so numerous +are the windings of the former river, that although not more than +thirty-five miles in a straight line from the sea, the distance by the +Hawkesbury is 140 miles. The destructive propensity of the colonists to +root up and destroy all trees, whether in the way of agriculture or not, +would appear to have worked wonders in this neighbourhood, for among +other advantages detailed in an advertisement of property to be sold +there, it is stated that fire-wood is so scarce, as to ensure +considerable profit from the sale of the wood on the estate. Windsor is +twenty miles from Paramatta, and thirty-six from Sydney, and the country +around it is very rich and beautiful. In some places the cliffs that +overhang the Hawkesbury are not less than 600 feet in height; and the +picturesque scenery, the numerous vessels and boats upon the stream, +which is here navigable for ships of more than 100 tons, the views of +the fertile country in the neighbourhood, with its abundant crops of +wheat and Indian corn, the boundary of the western horizon, formed by +the Blue Mountains, the base of which is about twenty miles distant: all +these natural beauties combine to render Windsor a very agreeable spot. +Its population is about 2000, and it has the usual public buildings, a +gaol, barracks, hospital, &c.; there is also a church dedicated to St. +Matthew, which until lately was served together with the chapel at +Richmond, a little town about five miles distant, by the same +clergyman. There are also Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan +places of worship. + +The town of Liverpool, situated, like those already mentioned, in the +county of Cumberland, still remains to be noticed. It is about twenty +miles from Sydney, and is built upon the banks of George's River, a +small navigable stream which empties itself into Botany Bay, the bleak +and unsheltered inlet upon which the proposed colony under Captain +Phillip was to have been settled. Liverpool is centrally situated, but +the soil around it is poor, and the population not very large; but since +it is the intended seat of the proposed college, founded by Mr. Moore, +it will probably hereafter become a place of some consequence. There +is nothing particularly to be remarked respecting the buildings of +Liverpool at present, with the exception of the Male Orphan Asylum, +which is a very good institution, the boys being not only educated +there, but likewise brought up to different trades, and general habits +of industry. The number of the orphan children in this school in 1839, +was 153.[143] + + [143] See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 174. + +Beyond the limits of the county of Cumberland there are very few towns +which are large enough to merit particular attention, and of these the +situations of the two most important and conspicuous, namely Bathurst +and Newcastle, have already been mentioned. Instead, therefore, of +wearying the reader with an attempt minutely to describe the small towns +of New South Wales, it will be better to proceed without delay to a +description of the other British colonies in Australia. + + + + +[Illustration: HOBART TOWN.] + +CHAPTER X. + +TASMANIA, AND THE OTHER AUSTRALIAN SETTLEMENTS. + + +Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, the next important colony, is, as we +have before stated, a separate island of considerable size, nearly +all the eastern side of which is now inhabited by the English. It +was divided into two counties only, which are called Cornwall and +Buckinghamshire, but these being inconveniently large, a fresh division +into eleven counties, all of them borrowing the names of some in England +or Wales, has since taken place.[144] But without concerning ourselves +about these smaller divisions, which it would be impossible to describe +exactly and distinctly, it may suffice to state, that the two chief +towns in the island are at its opposite extremities, Hobart Town being +at the south, and Launceston at the north, and both of these are +sea-ports; so that the colony seems naturally to divide itself into two +provinces, each of which has one of these towns for its capital, but +which are both, nevertheless, similar in their appearance, character, +and productions. + + [144] According to Mr. Montgomery Martin, (Van Diemen's Land, p. 266,) + Cornwall and Buckinghamshire continue to be its only counties, and it is + subdivided into nine police districts; but Dr. Ross's Almanac for 1836 + contains, at p. 238, the governor's proclamation for the division + mentioned above; whilst a third division of the island into the counties + of Argyle and Launceston is followed in the Report of the Society for the + Propagation of the Gospel, for 1842. The above may serve for a specimen + of the obscurity and confusion upon these trifling matters, respecting + which accuracy seems almost unattainable. + +Van Diemen's Land is a more mountainous, and yet, it would seem, a more +fruitful country than New South Wales. It is, according to the testimony +of all who have visited it, a most beautiful and pleasing land; the +mountains are tolerably high, but do not run much in ranges, and the +views among them are continually broken and cheered by delightful +valleys and fertile plains. Among these hills, limestone is very +commonly discovered, and is now in considerable use; it is supposed, +likewise, that coals, and iron ore, will be found abundantly in Van +Diemen's Land, but these resources of the colony have not yet been much +explored. In the cultivated parts of the country the soil varies +greatly; in some places it is a rich black mould, in others, sand or +flint is mingled; but its general fertility is proved by the excellent +crops which, year after year, it produces. The coast of Van Diemen's +Land abounds in bays and fine harbours; nor is this island at all +deficient in rivers and streams, imparting life to the landscape, and +fruitfulness to the soil. The Derwent, upon the banks of which stands +Hobart Town, is a very fine river, without rocks or sand banks, and +always safely navigable for ships of considerable size. Both sides of +this river abound in beautiful and romantic scenery, and although the +soil is less productive than in some other parts of the colony, yet the +neighbourhood of the capital, and the advantage of water-carriage, +combine to make amends for this inferiority. The Tamar falls into the +sea in Bass's Strait, quite on the opposite side of the island to the +mouth of the Derwent; and as Hobart Town adorns the latter river, so the +Tamar is enlivened by the trade and commerce of the port of Launceston. +The navigation of this river for large vessels is not easy, in +consequence of a bar and other hindrances. The Tamar is formed by the +union of two smaller streams, named the North Esk, and South Esk, and at +Launceston, the distance from the sea is about forty miles. Towards its +mouth, the land adjoining this stream is barren and sandy, but within a +few miles this kind of soil is succeeded by rich level marshes, and +beautiful slopes of moderately wooded and rich pasture country rising up +behind these. The other rivers of Van Diemen's Land are either, like the +Huon, situated in the uncolonized parts, or, like the Shannon, the +Jordan, and the Clyde, inconsiderable streams, so as not to merit a more +particular description. Many of the Tasmanian rivers take their rise in +lakes, which are usually found in high situations in the central parts +of the island, and abound with water-fowl. + +Hobart Town, the capital of a very beautiful and lovely island, may +boast of a situation of suitable loveliness and beauty. Behind it, on +the west, stand some gently rising hills, well wooded, beyond which +towers Mount Wellington, 4000 feet in height, and having its summit, +during more than half the year, covered with snow, but yet seldom +obscured with clouds, because of the pureness and clearness of the air. +On the other side of the town, to the eastward, is to be seen the noble +Derwent, which here better deserves to be called an arm of the sea than +a river, extending with its winding banks, forming beautiful bays and +lakes, or projecting into picturesque points, whilst its waters are +enlivened by the boats and shipping of the adjacent port. The water here +is salt, and the bay on which Hobart Town stands affords one of the best +anchorages in the world for vessels, in whatever number or of whatever +burden they may be. Indeed it is said that the Derwent surpasses even +Port Jackson, or at least it is doubtful which of the two deserves a +preference.[145] The capital of Tasmania is built upon gently rising +ground, and though within the present century its site was mere +bush-land, it has now some good streets, with large and handsome shops +and houses. According to Mr. Montgomery Martin, the average rental of +these was 50_l._ each, but then we must not lose sight of the high value +which houses bear in Australia. However, at that calculation, the annual +value of rent in Hobart Town in the year 1835, when there were 1281 +houses, would be 72,000_l._[146] The public buildings are said to be, +some of them, handsome and commodious. Court-house, barracks, hospital, +orphan-schools, jails, and government house, rank among the principal +buildings of Hobart Town; and in many respects it appears to resemble a +provincial sea-port in the mother country. It has some excellent inns, +good wharfs and warehouses, and public banks, besides a few considerable +manufacturing establishments. A small stream runs nearly through the +centre of the town, which, besides turning some mills, affords at +certain seasons a good supply of water. But the town is chiefly supplied +by means of pipes, which convey water to private houses and likewise to +the public pumps, and occasionally, it would appear, some scarcity of +this needful article prevails.[147] The church of St. David's, in the +capital of Van Diemen's Land, is a large building, and so it ought to +be, since it was until lately the only church for a population +(including the suburbs) of 13,000 souls.[148] Besides the church, sundry +other buildings rear up their heads, here as elsewhere; and if any thing +could justify separation and divisions among those for whom their Divine +Master prayed "that they might be one," if in any case it were "lawful +to do evil that good may come," then dissent of every kind might find +its excuse in a place like Hobart Town, where so many thousand souls, +the majority of them in a very unhealthy state, have been formerly left +in the charge of one pastor. But instead of praying the Lord of the +vineyard for more labourers, and endeavouring themselves to furnish the +means of supplying these, men have rushed, self-sent, or sent only by +others having no more authority than themselves, into the field of +pastoral labour. And while we lament the confusion that has ensued, +while we rejoice in whatever good may have resulted from unauthorized +preachers, we members of the Church of England are compelled by truth to +acknowledge, that, if other men have been led astray by their eagerness +and ignorance, we have been not less culpably misled by our slothfulness +and apathy. Accordingly the marks of our needless divisions are every +where manifest; and like the noxious weeds which sometimes hang about +the roots of a noble tree, so are these transplanted together with our +best institutions into our colonies. In the chief town of Tasmania are +to be found separate places of worship for Roman Catholics, +Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Independents. + + [145] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 51. + + [146] See Mr. M. Martin's Van Diemen's Land, p. 274. + + [147] The following specimen of the evil art of stirring up the + discontent of those that are suffering under the dispensations of + Providence, is taken from an old newspaper, published in Hobart Town in + 1835. It may be stated, that in the very same paper we are informed that + the drought had recently been so great that scarcely a cabbage, or any + other vegetable but potato, was to be obtained in the town. Of course + water was scarce, and precautions had been taken by the Governor to + preserve some at a place whence the shipping were supplied; but this + careful conduct of their ruler is thus held up to the abhorrence of + the people. "Why," it is asked, "do not the people drink the ditchwater + and be poisoned quietly; it is quite enough that their betters should + enjoy such a luxury as pure water." And how often in England do we see + this sort of trash printed by those _dealers in knowledge_, the + newspaper-writers, who sometimes argue as though all the credit of + prosperous occurrences belonged to the _people_ of a country, and all + the disgrace and responsibility of misfortunes and trials were to be put + off upon its _rulers_! How often are we reminded of the Israelites + murmuring against Moses on account of the miseries of that wilderness + in which their own sins condemned them to wander! + + [148] From a letter dated March 4, 1841, and written by the late + lamented Archdeacon Hutchins, it would appear that two new churches, + St. Giles's and Trinity, are likely to be erected in Hobart Town. See + Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, for 1841, + p. 61. + +With respect to Launceston, which continues still to be the principal +town on the northern side of Van Diemen's Land, there is not much to be +related. It stands at the junction of the North and South Esk, and +consequently at the head of the navigation of the Tamar, which is formed +by these two streams. The town is pleasantly situated at the foot of a +hill upon a small plain of about 200 acres of land. There are a few good +houses in Launceston, but its improvement has not kept pace with that of +Hobart Town; nor is it ever likely to increase very greatly, since a +government establishment has been formed at George Town, a place about +thirty miles lower down, and consequently much nearer to Port Dalrymple +at the entrance of the Tamar, and more convenient in its access for +large ships. George Town is well situated for every purpose of +trade, but for agriculture it offers no advantages, the soil in the +neighbourhood being very poor, and accordingly most of the settlers +prefer remaining at Launceston. The population of the latter place may +be nearly 1000, but no return of this has been met with apart from the +population of the district to which the town gives its name. Launceston +has a chaplain and a church, of which no particular account is given. +There is also a Presbyterian teacher resident in the town. At Longford, +near Launceston, may be found an example of "patient continuance in +well-doing," which deserves to be recorded for the encouragement of +others. About the year 1830 the first clergyman stationed there, the +Rev. R. P. Davis, began with a congregation of five, which appeared for +some time stationary. A church had been built which it was thought would +never be filled; but in eight years afterwards, the walls could not +contain those who were anxious to hear the word of God in them. The +grain of mustard-seed had literally grown into a spreading tree; the +congregation had multiplied a hundredfold, and a large church was about +to be built, to which the inhabitants had contributed 1500_l._[149] +Other small places might be mentioned, as Elizabeth Town, Perth, +Brighton, &c., which are very pleasant and thriving little settlements; +and the penal settlements of Port Macquarie and on Tasman's Peninsula +might be described. Port Arthur, one of these, is on the last-named +Peninsula, a sterile spot of about 100,000 acres, surrounded by sea, +except where a narrow neck of land connects it with the main island; and +this isthmus is guarded, night and day, by soldiers, and by a line of +fierce dogs. Nothing particularly deserving of further notice presents +itself, and therefore we may conclude our brief sketch of Van Diemen's +Land, wishing it and all the other British colonies in Australia a +progress no less rapid in religion and morals, than their recent +progress in commerce, agriculture, riches, and luxuries has been. What +condition of a country can be more truly deplorable than that which in +holy Scripture is so powerfully set forth, when the boast, "I am rich +and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," is heard proceeding +from a land which in the sight of God is "wretched, and miserable, and +poor, and blind, and naked?"[150] + + [149] Bishop of Australia's letter to the Society for the Propagation + of the Gospel, dated May 22, 1838. + + [150] See Rev. iii. 17. + +The Australian colonies may be said to form a family group of British +origin; and although the two elder sisters are undoubtedly the most +advanced and interesting, yet some of the younger branches of the same +family may justly deserve to be noticed. We may begin with the very +recent colony called Port Phillip, which lies between New South Wales +and Van Diemen's Land, and which, as we have already seen, had well +nigh taken the place of the latter country in the honours of early +colonization. The country in the neighbourhood of the inlet named Port +Phillip is in many parts exceedingly rich and fine; the scenery is +varied by hills, woods, and water; and besides much excellent pasture +and sheep walks, there are thousands of acres ready for the plough, and +capable of growing any European grain. The situation of the principal +town here, called Melbourne, is on the Yarra Yarra river, just where its +stream flows over a fall and mingles with the salt water from Port +Phillip, from the head of which bay Melbourne is distant about six miles +by the course of the river, but across the land not more than one and a +half. The vessels generally lie at Hobson's Bay, distant by land four or +five miles, by water ten or twelve. There is a bar at the entrance of +the river which prevents large ships from coming up close to Melbourne. +The town appears to be rapidly increasing; the commerce of Port Phillip +is yearly extending; its central position, the goodness of much of the +surrounding soil, and the fact of its being less encumbered than is +usually the case with wood, all these circumstances unite in rendering +this outpost, as we may term it, of New South Wales, an important and +interesting spot. Respecting its prospects of religious improvement +and pastoral care, it is gratifying to be able to quote the following +statement from a letter of the Bishop of Australia, of whose unwieldy +diocese Port Phillip forms a part. "At Melbourne the zeal of the +inhabitants has led them to undertake the erection of a church, the +estimated cost of which is nearly 7000_l._ Although the certain and +rapid increase of the town be such as will, at no distant period, call +for a church of that importance, I greatly fear that resources may be +wanting for its immediate erection." Meanwhile the Bishop expresses his +anxiety that temporary accommodation, at the least, should be provided +for the great numbers collected at Melbourne, who are desirous of +attending the church. "It is evident," continues he, "that within a +short interval there will be in the colony few stations, with the +exception, perhaps, of Sydney itself, which will demand more assiduous +care and attention on behalf of its spiritual interests, than the town +whose streets extend over a spot where, not more than three years ago, +the Yarra Yarra flowed through an almost uninterrupted solitude."[151] +The population of Melbourne is stated in a recent periodical to be 4479, +while that of the whole settlement of Port Phillip is 11,758. By the +same authority the numbers of the members of the Church of England in +this English colony are said to be 6194; that of the Presbyterians, +2045; of the Wesleyan Methodists, 651; of other dissenters, 1353; of +Roman Catholics, 1441; of Jews, 59; Mahommedans and Pagans, 10. The +mention of Jews, who are to be met with in almost all these remote +colonies of the southern ocean, can scarcely fail to recall to mind +God's threatenings to his chosen people (see Deut. xxviii. 64). We +shall conclude this notice of Port Phillip with mentioning two +important items in the estimates of its expenditure for 1842:--Police +and jails, 17,526_l._ 8_s._; clergy and schools, 5350_l._;[152] and, +as a commentary upon these disproportionate estimates, which are by +no means peculiar to Port Phillip, the words of Sir George Arthur may be +added:--"Penitentiaries, treadwheels, flogging, chain-gangs, and penal +settlements," says the late governor of Tasmania, "will all prove +ineffectual either to prevent or to punish crime, _without religious +and moral instruction_." + + [151] See Bishop of Australia's Letter, dated June 1840, in the Report + of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for + 1841, pp. 148-9. + + [152] For the particulars here stated see the Australian and New Zealand + Magazine, No. 1, p. 51, and No. 2, pp. 111, 112. + +The next of the infant colonies of Great Britain in New Holland, which +offers itself to our attention, as the eye ranges over the map of that +huge island, is the very recently formed settlement of Southern +Australia. This is situated upon the southern coast likewise, and +consists of a large block of country, the inland parts of which have not +yet been explored, forming three sides of a square, with the fourth side +broken and jagged by the inclination and indentations of the coast, +which are here very considerable. The area of South Australia thus +marked out is supposed to be about 310,000 square miles, containing +upwards of 98,000,000 of acres; that is to say, it is double the size of +the three British kingdoms, and not much less than that of France.[153] +The mode of colonizing this extensive tract of country is proposed to be +upon different principles from those elsewhere followed in Australia. No +transported convicts are ever to be sent there. No free grants of land +are to be made, but land can become private property by purchase alone, +and the whole of the purchase-money is proposed to be spent in the +encouragement of emigration. The emigrants to be conveyed by means of +this fund, without expense to the colony, were to be of both sexes in +equal numbers, and the preference is to be given to young married +persons not having children. The prospect of having a representative +assembly was held out to the colony, but the population was to exceed +50,000 before it could be lawful for the Crown to grant this. + + [153] See Report of Committee on South Australia, p. 78. Evidence of + T. F. Elliot, Esq. Answer 733. From the same source, the report of this + Parliamentary Committee in 1841, much of the information respecting + Southern Australia is derived. + +To attempt to state accurately what the soil and capabilities of so +vast an extent of country may be, would evidently be to attempt an +impossibility. Of that small part of it which is already occupied, much +is barren, hilly land, especially upon the coast. Nevertheless, it would +appear that South Australia has, so far as we can at present judge, its +full proportion of good and available soil, both for the purposes of +farming and for pasture.[154] The situation of that part of the colony, +where the principal settlements have been commenced, is very well +chosen, for it lies upon the Gulf of St. Vincent, a very deep inlet of +the sea, and is well backed with a range of hills to the eastward, +beyond which the country yet unexplored extends to the banks of the +river Murray; so that, in fact, the Murray and the Gulf of St. Vincent, +form natural boundaries to those settlements which are already begun, +and within these limits it is said that there are the means of +supporting comfortably from one hundred to two hundred thousand +inhabitants. This statement agrees with Captain Sturt's report of the +existence of several millions of acres of very beautiful and fertile +land in the same district. The climate of South Australia is healthy, +though very warm;[155] and the usual disorders of Australia, complaints +of the eye and relaxation of the bowels, were the ailments least +uncommon among the new settlers. In March 1841, the population of the +colony was estimated at about 14,000, and the amount of land under +tillage about 2000 acres. But since that time there has been a +considerable increase in both items. The quantity of provisions in +proportion to the inhabitants was considerably greater than in England. +A small commerce is springing up, and slate, which abounds in South +Australia, and oil, the produce of the adjacent seas, together with wool +from the flocks fed upon the neighbouring hills, begin to form materials +of traffic.[156] + + [154] In these matters it is impossible to get at truth. Each man judges + upon certain data, but though the conclusion of each may be correct, yet + because the data were partial and imperfect, so likewise will the + conclusions be. Mr. Mann, who was examined by the Committee upon South + Australia, gives it as his opinion that about four-fifths of the land in + that colony were bad. However, he had never been more than three weeks + in it nor above fourteen miles from its chief town, so his judgment was + formed principally upon hearsay. Others, probably, have gone into the + contrary extreme of praising the soil too highly, and truth may, as + usual, lie between the two extremes. + + [155] It is noticed as a matter of surprise, that on August 6th, 1841, + Mount Lofty, a hill 2400 feet in height, was covered with snow, and that + the small river, called the Torrens, had been partly frozen. + + [156] During the first six months of 1841, seventy vessels, comprising + a burden of 11,139 tons, arrived at Port Adelaide. See Australian and + New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 114. + +The capital of the province of South Australia bears the honoured name +of Adelaide, and is placed upon the eastern side of the Gulf of St. +Vincent. The country around it is hilly and well timbered, but not too +thickly encumbered with wood, and the soil is generally good, with +abundance of water. The British settlers removed to this spot from +Kangaroo Island, which is at the entrance of Gulf St. Vincent, but which +they found less desirable for a colony from the difficulty and expense +of clearing away the timber there. Adelaide is supposed to be well and +centrally placed for the capital of a province, and it now has a good +port,[157] to which vessels of four or five hundred tons may come and +discharge their cargoes. + + [157] Here again reports differ. See Mr. T. Driver's Evidence before the + Committee on South Australia, p. 221, Answer, 2498, and _following ones_. + +The town stands on gently rising banks, between which flows a pretty +stream, named the Torrens, and commands a view of an extensive plain, +reaching down to the sea, over which the fresh breezes generally blow +from the south-west. Behind Adelaide is a fine wooded country, and six +miles distant is a range of hills, with the wooded summit of Mount Lofty +forming their highest point. The population of the capital of South +Australia and its immediate neighbourhood, is supposed to be about eight +thousand. The town has not yet many buildings or establishments of any +importance, but there is a hospital, and also a savings' bank, in which +last, during six months of 1841, the deposits had increased from 130_l._ +0_s._ 2_d._ to 520_l._ 2_s._ 10_d._ It had _four_ newspapers and _one_ +colonial chaplain in 1842, and the estimates for that year contained the +following items:--Police, 9112_l._ 19_s._ 4_d._; jail, 1034_l._ 8_s._; +colonial chaplain, 370_l._ But we must do the colony of South Australia +the justice to state that this is not the whole sum which is there spent +on religious instruction. The voluntary system, as it is called, has +been brought into action there, and hitherto, it would appear, +successfully enough, so far as pounds, shillings, and pence are +concerned, if it be true that in four years,--the four first years of +the colony,--upwards of 11,500_l._ had been voluntarily contributed for +religious and educational purposes, and "the clergy," (as all teachers +are now denominated,) supported at an annual charge of 1200_l._ But, of +course, the voluntary principle, as its name implies, is a little apt +to be _wilful_; and, accordingly, in Adelaide alone, with a population +of eight thousand souls, it is stated that there are ten or twelve +public "places of worship," and a corresponding number of "zealous, +highly-educated, and efficient clergymen." Every settler apportions his +mite to Paul, to Apollos or to Cephas, according as it seems right in +his own eyes; and occasionally it may happen, when any little offence is +taken, that the popular saying is actually realized, and Peter is robbed +that Paul may be paid. And to some persons, who cannot, one would think, +have read their Bible with much attention, this system appears actually +to be the very height of perfection. The following brief quotation from +a letter of the Congregational teacher at Adelaide is said to be "most +satisfactory:"-- + +"_Religion._--The whole circle of denominations is filled up with their +appropriate pastors, churches, and places of worship. Adelaide is well +supplied. The country is not altogether neglected; but, as it fills up, +will be better attended to. I do not think the religious prospects bad. +Truth and piety, I expect, will flourish in South Australia. The clergy +of the Churches of England and Scotland are evangelical; the Wesleyans +have been very active and useful. Of us, you read in the Report of the +Colonial Missionary Society. The other bodies are also making their +way."[158] Would this report of religion in South Australia be "most +satisfactory" to that apostle, who teaches that "there is _one_ body, +and _one_ Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling?" + + [158] See "South Australia in 1842," p. 19, published by Hailes, London. + +Still let us not judge harshly of the infant colony, nor reproach it for +a leprosy, with which it has been inoculated by the mother country. +While we hail with gladness the good spirit which has been shown in +raising so much money for religious objects in the very infancy of the +settlement, let us hope, that the "places of worship" may diminish in +number, while the churches increase, and that the country districts may +have a larger share of assistance than they can now receive out of what +remains of 1200_l._ a year, after Adelaide and its _ten_ or _twelve +clergymen_ have been supplied.[159] Undoubtedly, in this province of +Australia there is much zeal and good feeling awakened, and the efforts +of the South Australian Church Building Society are deserving of every +success. To the members of this Society it must be indeed a cause of +thankfulness and joy, that they can call to mind during the lapse of +only four years, the quick succession of an open spot, a tent, a reed +hut, a wooden shed, and lastly, a church capable of holding six hundred +persons, being respectively used for places of divine worship. And now, +not only do they see one church finished, but two others are, ere this +time, no doubt completed.[160] + + [159] For the facts here noticed, see the Australian and New Zealand + Magazine, No. 1. p. 53. + + [160] See Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for + 1842, p. 57. + +The British colony in the great southern land to which the attention of +the reader may next be directed, is that of Western Australia; or, +as it was called in its earlier days, during its first struggles into +existence, the Swan River Settlement. This is situated upon the coast of +New Holland, opposite to the colony of New South Wales, lying in nearly +the same latitude, but thirty-four or thirty-six degrees of longitude to +the west of it. The first discovery of this spot was made by a Dutchman, +Vlaming, in 1697, who named the stream Black Swan River, from the black +swans, which were then seen for the first time by Europeans, and two of +which were taken alive to Batavia.[161] The banks of the Swan River were +first colonized in 1830, and the mode in which this was effected is +peculiar and different from the usual course. A few gentlemen of large +property undertook to found the colony, at little or no expense to the +mother country, receiving immense grants of land in return for the +expenses incurred by them in this attempt; which grants, however, were +to revert to government, unless they were cultivated and improved under +certain conditions and in a given time. Great difficulties and many +privations were endured by the first settlers, but these appear to have +been overcome, and so soon as the stream of emigration shall have set +steadily into Western Australia, (which is, perhaps, all things +considered, the most desirable of our Australasian colonies for a +respectable Englishman to fix himself in,) there can be little doubt +that its progress will be not less rapid than that of the sister +settlements. Along the sea coast, the country is hilly and barren; nor +is it much better in the immediate neighbourhood of the principal +settlements, Perth and Fremantle; but beyond these there is plenty of +good grass country, and near the inland town of Guildford, the arable +land in the valley of the Swan River is surpassingly rich and +productive, so that it has been known to bear eleven successive crops of +wheat in as many years, without any manure, and the last year's crop +averaging twenty-five bushels to the acre. In some parts this good land +approaches more nearly to the coast; but still a large proportion of the +soil is poor and sandy, although even of this a great deal is capable of +cultivation, and is thought to be especially fitted for the growth of +the vine.[162] The climate is exceedingly healthy and delightful; +indeed, it is even superior to other parts of Australia, and rain is +more abundant here than elsewhere. Plenty of fish is likewise to be +found in the neighbouring bays and inlets, which are very numerous; and +the whales are so plentiful, only a few hours' sail from the shore, that +oil is a principal article of export, but the Americans are allowed to +occupy this fishery almost entirely, and it is stated that from two to +three hundred of their ships have been engaged in the whale fishery off +this coast during a single year. The population of Western Australia is +small, not being computed at more than 2700 souls in the beginning of +the year 1842. The number of acres cultivated in 1840 were, according +to the returns of the local Agricultural Society, 1650 in wheat, and +3296 in every kind of culture. This settlement is, more than others, +in want of that article of which England especially needs to be +relieved--population; and if a man is frugal, sober, and industrious, if +he will bear in mind that "on no part of the face of the globe will the +earth yield her increase, but as it is moistened by sweat from man's +brow,"[163] Western Australia is, possibly, the best and most agreeable +country where he can find a happy home. Although this large district is +yet so thinly peopled, it is, nevertheless, in a state of colonization +and civilization surpassing what might have been fairly expected. And +the absence of convicts, though it renders labour scarce and expensive, +brings with it counterbalancing advantages, and prevents the double +danger of immediate taint to society from the unhappy criminals, and of +future schism arising between the emancipated convicts, or their +children, and the free settlers. + + [161] See Flinders' Voyage, Introduction, vol. i. p. 60. + + [162] There is a vine in the government garden (at Perth) which, planted + as a cutting, sent out shoots 16 1/2 feet long in the second year, and + yielded more than 4 cwt. of grapes. Another, belonging to Mr. C. Brown + of the same place, had a stem, which, in only five years' growth, was + 14 1/2 feet in circumference. See "A Short Account of the Settlement in + Swan River," p. 15, published by Cross, Holborn, 1842. + + [163] See "A Short Account of the Settlement of Swan River," p. 33. + +Fremantle is at the mouth of the Swan River, and contains some +tolerable houses, with a jetty and various other conveniences for +trade, especially for the whale fishery; from the ships engaged in which +pursuit, (chiefly American vessels,) a great portion of its commerce is +derived. One cause of its trade and population not having increased more +rapidly may be the bar across the mouth of the Swan River, having only +a depth of six feet at low water, and preventing the approach of ships +of large burden. The soil around is sandy, and produces little or no +grass; but when well cultivated, it yields excellent vegetables. Two +miles from Fremantle, up the river, there is a ferry across to Perth, +the seat of government and capital of the colony, which is well +situated, the river extending into a broad sheet, named Melville Waters, +in front of the town. Here is good brick-earth and garden-ground, and +near the town there are some tolerable farms. But at Guildford, seven +miles further up the river, commences the rich corn-land of the colony, +and the town itself contains six or seven hundred inhabitants. York is +forty-eight miles eastward of Guildford; and King George's Sound, on the +coast, where there is another settlement, is about one hundred and fifty +miles from York. + +There are several other little stations scattered about in various +directions, especially upon the coast. In 1840 there were five clergymen +in Western Australia, and on the 1st of January, 1841, the foundation +stone of a church at Perth to contain 600 persons was laid by the +governor; its estimated cost was 4000_l._ There are churches also at +Guildford, at the Middle Swan, the Upper Swan, and at York, and a new +church erecting at Albany, near King George's Sound. Some humble little +churches have also been built of mud, and thatched with rushes, in this +colony. And although, where it can be done, we think that noble churches +are most becoming to the service of the King of kings, yet we doubt not, +in the cases where these lowly buildings are unavoidable, that since +"the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels," so +these ministering spirits are sent forth into the wilderness to minister +unto them that are heirs of salvation: we confidently trust that "the +Lord is among them," even "as in the holy place of Sinai." Wesleyan +meeting-houses are to be found at Perth and Fremantle. The governor +and executive council were authorized to "grant aid towards ministers' +stipends, and towards buildings, _without any distinction of +sect_."[164] This precious system, which would make no "distinction of +sect," between the doctrine of the beloved apostle St. John, and that of +the Nicolaitans, "which God hates,"[165] is almost a dead letter in +Western Australia, owing to the scattered state of the population, and +the great majority of them being members of the Church of England. The +duty of government to _tolerate_ separatists, (while they continue +obedient to the laws of the country,) is now denied by no one; and +toleration, one might have supposed, would have been all that those who +dislike a state church would have accepted; but the duty of government +to _encourage_ and _foster_ separation in places where it does not at +present exist, is inculcated neither by reason, policy, nor Scripture; +neither can dissenters consistently accept of aid from the state in +Australia, and exclaim against it in England. + + [164] See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 1, p. 28. + + [165] See Rev. ii. 15. + +One more commencement of colonization in the island of New Holland must +be mentioned in order to complete the circle. An attempt to form a +settlement on the northern coast was made as early as 1824, at Melville +Island, rather more than five degrees to the west of the Gulph of +Carpentaria; but this establishment was moved in 1827 to Raffles Bay, +an adjacent inlet of the main land. The new station was in its turn +abandoned in the year 1829, and a fresh settlement, at the distance of +a few miles, was planted at Port Essington, by Sir Gordon Bremer, who +sailed thither with His Majesty's ships _Alligator_ and _Britomarte_, +in 1838. The colony is still quite in an infant state. No clergyman +accompanied the expedition, although the commander was desirous +of securing the blessings of Church communion for his little +settlement.[166] In the immediate neighbourhood some native Christians +(Australians) were found, who had many years ago been converted by the +Dutch; they had churches, and appeared to behave well. Upon application +to the Bishop of Australia, 300_l._ was obtained towards a church at +Port Essington, and his endeavours to get a chaplain appointed there +were promised. It may be observed that Port Essington is situated 2000 +miles, in a direct line, from Hobart Town, and both places were until +very recently within the same diocese, that of Australia! In like +manner, when the five clergymen stationed in Western Australia had +memorialized the Bishop to visit them, that he might consecrate their +churches, confirm their children, and "set in order things that were +wanting," one great obstacle to his compliance was the necessity of +having his life insured in the interim, for Western Australia, though +within his diocese, was not within the limits of his policy of life +assurance! + + [166] Thus, as recently as the year 1838, two ships were sent from + _Christian_ England to found a colony; having on board upwards of + 500 souls, but unprovided with any minister of religion! How strange a + method, _if we really believe God's word_, of gaining a blessing from + Heaven, either for ourselves or our colonies! + + + + +[Illustration: CAPE PILLAR NEAR THE ENTRANCE OF RIVER DERWENT, VAN +DIEMAN'S LAND.] + +CHAPTER XI. + +GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. + + +Having now rapidly surveyed the various British settlements in +Australia, taking them separately, a few observations may be added +respecting their general condition. And, first, of the _climate_ of +these countries, it must have evidently appeared from what has been +already stated that this is extremely healthy and beautiful. Every one +who has been in Australia appears to be surprised at the spring and +elasticity which the climate imparts to the human frame; and although it +does not seem that the average of life is at all more prolonged there +than in England, still it would really seem, that the enjoyment of life +was greater. Such declarations as these.--"To say we are all well is +really nothing;" "the full enjoyment of health is quite a marvel;" +occur in the letters of those who are settled in the great Southern +Land; and the descriptions with which we meet in books of its +exhilarating climate, completely justify and bear out the pleasing +accounts of it given us by its inhabitants. In so vast a territory, and +in so many different situations as the British colonies now occupy, +there must needs be great variety of climate; and the warmth of Sydney +and its neighbourhood forms a strong contrast to the cool bracing air +of Bathurst, which is only 121 miles distant; the heat of the new +settlements at Moreton Bay, which is nearly tropical, is strongly +opposed to the English climate, beautifully softened and free from +damp, which is enjoyed in Van Diemen's Land. In Australia, it has been +remarked, every thing regarding climate is the opposite of England; for +example, the north is the hot wind, and the south the cool; the westerly +the most unhealthy, and the east the most salubrious; it is summer with +the colonists when it is winter at home, and their midnight coincides +with our noonday. Near the coast, the sea breezes, which set in daily +from the great expanse of waters, are very refreshing; whilst in the +interior, except in Van Diemen's Land, or in very high situations, the +hot winds are extremely disagreeable. Especially in the colony of New +South Wales, during the summer season, the westerly wind, which blows +probably over immense deserts of sandstone, or over miles of country set +on fire by the natives, is scarcely endurable at certain times, but +feels like the heated air at the mouth of a furnace, and is then far +from wholesome or pleasant. However, this blast of hot wind is said +never to endure very long, and it is less oppressive than the same heat +would be elsewhere, because in New Holland the air is dry, and in other +countries, India for instance, when the heat is exactly the same, it is +felt much more intensely from the quantity of moisture with which the +burning atmosphere is surcharged. Still we may form an idea of the +occasional violence of the heat in the interior of New Holland, from +Captain Sturt's account of his expedition across the parched-up marshes +of the Macquarie River, where the sugar which his men carried in their +canisters was melted, and all their dogs destroyed. + +The scourge of Australia is _drought_; and when a native of the British +Islands has lived a few years in that part of the world, he begins +to understand and feel better than he ever before did, the frequent +allusions in the holy Scriptures to water as an emblem and sign of the +greatest blessings. The Englishman in Australia soon learns what is +meant by the blessings of Christ's kingdom being compared to "rivers of +water in a dry place," or to "the shadow of a great rock in a weary +land,"[167] when that rock promises a spring of living water, a comfort +which in New Holland is occasionally found upon the bare top of a +mountain, where no other supply is to be had within thirty miles +round.[168] And the thankfulness of the inhabitants of our own green +islands may be awakened, the undue expectations of the English emigrant +may be checked, by reading complaints like the following, which are, at +intervals, only too well founded in many parts of the Australian +colonies. "We have now for upwards of four months been watching with +anxious interest the progress of every cloudy sky; but, overcast as the +heavens most usually are towards evening, the clouds have appeared to +consist more of smoky exhalations than moist vapours; and even when at +times they have seemed to break darkly over us, their liquid contents +have apparently evaporated in the middle air. The various arrivals in +our port (Port Macquarie) have brought us accounts of genial showers and +refreshing dews, which have visited the neighbouring districts; and even +the silence of our own parched coast has been broken by the sound of +distant thunderstorms, exhausting themselves on the eastern waves while +the sun has been setting in scorching splendour upon the horizon of our +western hills. Since the 30th of June last to the present date, October +28th, there have been but thirteen days with rain, and then the showers +were but trifling. In consequence, the surface of the ground, in large +tracts of the district, is so parched and withered, that all minor +vegetation has nearly ceased, and the wheat-crops that were sown in +June, are, we fear, doomed to perish."[169] + + [167] See Isaiah xxxii. 2. The following proverbial saying in India may + serve to show how natural such comparisons are in the mouths of the + inhabitants of hot climates: "Ah, that benevolent man, he has long been + my shelter from the wind; he is a river to the dry country." See Roberts' + Oriental Illustrations of Scripture, _ad. loc._ p. 429. How different an + idea do the words "shelter from the _wind_" convey to the inhabitant of + England's bleak shores, and Asia's parching deserts! + + [168] See an interesting passage in Major Mitchell's Three Expeditions, + vol. ii. p. 28. See likewise Oxley's First Journal, p. 75. + + [169] See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. iv. p. 234. + +How expressive, after reading descriptions like this, do those +complaints of one of the inspired writers appear: "The seed is rotten +under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken +down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of +cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of +sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath +devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all +the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee, for +the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the +pastures of the wilderness." (Joel i. 17-20.) + +Most of the productions of the soil which are to be found in the +mother country are raised likewise in the Australian settlements. The +wheat-harvest commences in New South Wales in the middle of November, +and is generally over by Christmas, so that to this festive season a +fresh cause of rejoicing is added, and men are called upon to be +thankful at once for the greatest temporal and spiritual blessings; +the same time of year supplies them with the meat that perisheth, and +reminds them of the coming down from heaven of Him who is the bread of +life. But, besides the ordinary produce of our English fields, many +productions of the soil are raised in Australia which will not grow in +the northern climate of Britain. The fruits of Italy and Spain, the +tobacco of Virginia, and the Indian corn of the southern states of +America, are all produced in the Australian colonies. And one fruit may +be particularly noticed, which is in England justly reckoned a delicacy, +but which in New South Wales is so abundant, that the very swine are +feasted upon it: _peaches_ are to be had in full perfection for full +four months in the year, the later varieties regularly succeeding to +those that are earlier. This fruit grows everywhere, it matters not +whether the soil be rich or poor; and if a peach-stone is planted it +will in three years afterwards bear an abundant crop of fruit. So +plentifully do they grow, that they are commonly used to fatten hogs, +for which purpose they answer very well, after having been laid in +heaps, and allowed to ferment a little; cider also of a pleasant and +wholesome quality is made from the same fruit. + +The chief wealth of Australia consists in its flocks and herds, and +nothing in the progress of our settlements there is more astonishing +than the rapidity with which these primitive riches have increased. +Sixty years ago there was not a single sheep in the vast island of New +Holland; and now, from a few narrow strips of land upon some of its +coasts, millions of pounds of wool are annually exported to England. The +fine climate of Australia is especially suited for sheep, and it would +appear to have an improving effect upon the quality of that animal's +fleece, which nowhere reaches greater perfection than in New South +Wales. Cattle also thrive and increase very much in the Australian +settlements, and animals of all kinds in New South Wales are exceedingly +dainty: if shut up in a field of good grass they will starve themselves +with fretting rather than eat it, they are so anxious to get out upon +the sweet natural pastures. Although it is to be hoped and expected +that, under judicious management, these colonies will always be able to +supply their inhabitants with bread, still it is confessed on all sides +that pastoral riches form their natural source of wealth, and that it is +to these chiefly, together with their mineral productions and commerce, +that they must look for a foundation of permanent and continued worldly +prosperity. + +The form of government is the same in all the British Australasian +colonies, and while the governor's authority is supreme, by virtue +of his being the representative of the British crown, his power is +restrained by an executive council and by a legislative council. The +former body, whose office is to assist the governor in carrying the laws +into execution, is composed of the colonial secretary and treasurer, +the bishop and lieutenant-governor, (if the last-named office is not +abolished,) under the presidency of the governor himself. The +legislative council consists of the same persons, with the addition +of the chief justice, the attorney-general, the chief officer of the +customs, the auditor-general, and seven private gentlemen of the colony, +who are appointed by the crown for life, and for whom, in case of death +or removal, the governor may choose a substitute, until the Queen's +pleasure be known. The office of this legislative council is, as its +name implies, that of making laws, in which, however, at least +two-thirds of the members must agree, and which must not be contrary +to the charter, or letters patent, or orders in council, or laws of +England. The proposal of new laws always belongs to the governor, who +must, however, give eight clear days' notice in the public papers, +stating the general objects of the intended enactments; nor can this +rule be dispensed with, except in cases of very great emergency. Such is +briefly the outline of the constitution at present established in the +Australian settlements, and under this form of government they have, +most of them, already run a race of prosperity, which, allowing for the +recent dates of their foundation, can scarcely be matched in the annals +of any nation. Nevertheless, the present form of government is a very +great subject of discontent among many of the colonists, and the _want_ +of a representative house of assembly in New South Wales and Van +Diemen's Land appears to give as little satisfaction to many persons +_there_, as the _presence_ of such an assembly does _here_ in +England.[170] It may easily be imagined what a fine subject for oratory +is thus furnished among a mass of people, who, whatever elements of good +may exist among them, may, generally speaking, be too truly said to have +derived their birth and education from criminals and outcasts. In the +midst of a people thus constituted, a press "unshackled by stamps, +paper-excise, advertisement duty, or censorship," is doing its daily or +weekly work of _enlightening_ the minds of the people respecting their +_grievances_; and where, as in Van Diemen's Land, there is said to be a +newspaper for every 1666 free persons,[171] the people must indeed bask +in the sunshine of political illumination. "The press," it is asserted +on good authority respecting Van Diemen's Land, and it is not less true +of New South Wales, "The press, with few exceptions, finds ample support +in holding up to derision the authorities of the land, and even in the +invasion of the sanctity of domestic privacy."[172] The result, however, +of this state of things is that, actually, in the colonies of Australia +the grievances appear worse, the "wrongs" more galling, and the "rights" +less regarded, than even in England itself; and judging from the crabbed +tone of discontent prevailing in most of the colonial newspapers, the +people who live in a land almost free from taxes, and quite exempt from +tithes and poor-rates, can without much difficulty conjure up complaints +of taxation and oppression not less piercing than those which are to be +heard in a kingdom where taxgatherers, tithe-proctors, and aristocrats, +still exist. Perhaps, there is nothing more calculated to make an +Englishman tolerably satisfied with the state of things in his own +country than the occasional perusal of the newspapers of lands so +"highly favoured" in the way of "taxation" or "liberal institutions," as +the Australian colonies and the United States of America. The christian +patriot looks down with pity upon the strife of tongues and the turmoil +of party-spirit which Satan contrives to raise in almost every country +under the sun; and while the believer can always bless God's providence +for many good things, he expects not perfection in the institutions of +mortal men; it is true that + + "Worldly reformers, while they chafe and curse, + Themselves and others change from bad to worse; + While christian souls for blessings past can praise, + And mend their own and others' future ways." + + [170] A glance over the two ponderous volumes of the evidence before the + Transportation Committee in 1837 and 1838 will satisfy every unprejudiced + person that our penal colonies are not yet ripe for a representative + government. It is curious enough to compare the fearful picture of these + settlements drawn by one section of the so-called Liberal party, which + wages war against transportation, with the more pleasing and flattering + description of their social condition which is given by that other + section of the same party which claims for the colonists "constitutional + rights." + + [171] See Mr. Montgomery Martin's New South Wales, p. 353. + + [172] See Report of Transportation Committee in 1838, p. 32. + +The great instruments by which the christian statesman will aim at +reforming mankind, and making them happy, while at the same time he +will be gaining the highest of all glory to himself, both in time and +eternity, are christian instruction and religious education. A corrupted +press and incessant agitation are instruments suitable enough to +accomplish the works of darkness for which they are usually employed; +nor are churches and schools less fit means of success in the better +and more honourable task of bringing a nation to righteousness, +respectability, and contentment. A short account of the establishment of +the Bishopric of Australia, and a statement of the means of religious +and sound education in that part of the world, will not be out of place +here; and if, as before, we are driven to speak of the neglect of "the +powers that be" upon these essential points, it is hoped that, since +this is done unwillingly,--more in shame and sorrow than in anger and +party-spirit,--it will not be done with a feeling at all contrary to the +Divine precept: "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy +people."[173] + + [173] Acts xxiii. 5. + +"It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and +ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these +orders of ministers in Christ's Church,--Bishops, Priests, and +Deacons;"[174] and the Church of England has never yet made bold to +dispense with what the Church of Christ did for 1500 years, without a +single exception, deem it necessary everywhere to retain. Never _in +theory_, indeed, has our Church made bold to work without the three +orders of an apostolical ministry, but, alas! frequently has she done +this in practice, and in no instance more openly or less successfully +than in Australia. For upwards of thirty years, no superintendent +at all was placed over the clergy and laity of our communion in New +South Wales, and when a step was taken, it was not made in the right +direction; an archdeacon was appointed, who, whatever might be his civil +authority, was, respecting spiritual authority, exactly upon a level +with his other brethren in the ministry; nor could he assume more than +this without assuming to himself that to which he was not entitled,--the +office of a bishop in the Church. Under these strange and irregular +circumstances was the infant Church, brought from the British isles and +planted in the wilderness of Australia, allowed to continue for about +twelve years. The witness of a layman concerning this state of things +may be here repeated: "I myself then saw a church without a bishop, and +I trust in God I may never see it again."[175] In 1824, the Rev. T. H. +Scott was appointed Archdeacon of New South Wales, and there were then +eight chaplains in the colony, which covered a vast expanse of country, +and contained, in 1821, (three years earlier,) 29,783 souls, of whom +13,814 were convicts. Thus was New South Wales provided with "a very +liberal ecclesiastical establishment," according to the liberal views of +one of its leading historians;[176] and as its population increased, so, +in some degree, if not in an equal proportion, did the number of its +clergy, so that, in September, 1833, the number of souls in the colony +was 60,794,[177] (of whom 16,151 were convicts, and 17,238 Roman +Catholics,) and the number of clergymen was fifteen, besides the +archdeacon and four catechists. Archdeacon Scott was succeeded, in 1829, +by the Rev. W. G. Broughton, whose zeal and activity reflect honour +alike upon himself and upon the discernment of the noble patron, the +Duke of Wellington, who, it is believed, first recommended him to that +office. After enduring labour, and toil, and anxiety, such as those only +know who have to bear the heat and burden of the day in the Lord's +vineyard, at length the archdeacon was made, by permission of the +English government under Lord Melbourne, in 1836, Bishop of Australia; +and the foundation of an Apostolical and Scriptural Church in the Great +Southern Land was at length duly laid, by the consecration of that +prelate, at Lambeth, on February 14th, 1836. The old stipend assigned to +the archdeacon was to be continued without any increase to the Bishop +of Australia; and since 2000_l._ a-year was undoubtedly a very ample +provision for the former, it was thought that it might be found +sufficient for the latter; and so it would be, if the British government +were willing to provide properly for the spiritual wants of the new +diocese, and thus preserve the provision made for the bishop from being +almost entirely swallowed up in endeavouring to satisfy the spiritual +need of his people. This observation, however, justice compels us to +make before we quit the present subject, namely, that, whatever opinion +may be entertained of the dispositions of the British government, during +the ten years following the passing of the Reform Bill, towards the +English Church, for one fact every member of that church must feel +deeply indebted to them. During the time of Lord Grey's and Lord +Melbourne's holding office, no less than _six_ new bishoprics were +erected in the British colonies, and the first impulse was encouraged +of that good spirit which has since sent forth into foreign parts five +bishops in one day to "preach the word, to be instant in season, out of +season, to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and +doctrine."[178] + + [174] See the Preface to the Form of Ordaining and Consecrating + Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in the Book of Common Prayer. + + [175] The subjection of New South Wales to the Bishopric of Calcutta + was a mere absurdity; it might just as well have been under Canterbury + at once. + + [176] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 366. + + [177] Elsewhere stated to be 60,861. Perfect accuracy in these matters + appears almost unattainable. + + [178] See St. Paul's charge to Timothy, the first Bishop of Ephesus, + 2 Tim. iv. 2. + +Among the five new sees thus recently established, the pressing +necessities of Australia have not been overlooked; and Tasmania, or Van +Diemen's Land, an island equal in size to Ireland, has been thought to +claim justly a separate bishop for itself. The capital of this island is +not less than 600 miles distant from Sydney, the seat of the bishopric +of Australia; and with a population of 50,000, rapidly increasing, a +large majority of whom are churchmen, its claims to have a bishop of its +own are undeniable. And to these just claims the British government have +listened so far as to devote the 800_l._ per annum formerly assigned to +an archdeacon of Van Diemen's Land towards the endowment of a bishop +there, in addition to which sum 5000_l._ have been set apart from the +Colonial Bishoprics Fund, and the remainder of what is necessary to +provide the occupant of the new see with a decent maintenance is now +being raised among those that feel interested in that particular colony, +or in the general good work whereof this endowment forms only a part. +Nor is it the intention of the promoters of this noble design of +founding in our Australian and other colonies the complete framework of +a Christian Church to stop short here. South Australia, a province even +more thoroughly separated from Sydney than Tasmania is, has appeared +well deserving of the attention of those that have the direction of +this important work; and the zeal of some of the landed proprietors +of the colony has already prepared the way for the establishment of a +bishopric in South Australia. The following extract is from the letter +of a layman residing in the last-mentioned colony:--"At present, we are +pronounced to be in a diocese, whilst the head of that diocese is living +nearly 1200 miles away, and has never been here, and, in all probability +never will be." One person has offered to build, at his own cost, with +the tenth part of his property in Australia, a church at Adelaide, to +endow the see with land to the amount of 270_l._ per annum, and to +furnish plans, &c. for a bishop's residence; other gifts of land have +likewise been contributed to the amount of 100_l._ per annum more. A +grant of 5000_l._ has been obtained from the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, +and it is hoped that, by the efforts of the friends of sound religion, +an endowment of 1000_l._ per annum may speedily be completed for the +intended bishopric.[179] And since the experience of the past forms a +stable foundation of hope for the future, we may form a judgment of +what _will be done_, under the Divine blessing, in Tasmania and South +Australia, by what _has been done_ in the diocese of Australia. In the +charge of the bishop of the last-named see, delivered by him to his +clergy in 1841, it is stated, that, before 1836, the date of his +consecration, there were in the colony of New South Wales nine churches, +eight chapels, or school-houses used as such, and five parsonage-houses; +whereas, in 1841, _nine_ new churches had been completed, _four_ had +been opened by licence, _fifteen_ more were in course of erection; and +twelve new parsonages had been completed, while eight others were also +in progress![180] So great a stimulus, during only five years, had the +presence of the full and effective staff of an apostolical ministry +added to the growth and increase of the Church in one single colony! + + [179] See the Report of the Fund for providing Additional Colonial + Bishoprics, dated June 25th, 1842. Should the particulars stated above + induce any person to desire to lend a helping hand to so good, so + glorious a work, any donations for that purpose, small or large, will be + thankfully received at the office of the Committee, 79, Pall Mall, + London; and a post-office order supplies a sure and easy means of + conveyance for sums not exceeding five pounds. + + [180] See Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in + Foreign Parts, for 1842. + +The history of education in the colony of New South Wales is an +important and deeply interesting subject;--indeed, in what country is it +not so?--but the struggles and disappointments of the friends of sound +religious education,--of that education which an Englishman may be +thankful to be permitted to call National,--have been very severe and +trying. To borrow the language of an able statesman and eloquent writer, +"not contented with excluding religion from the province of government, +the spirit of the age struggles with not less zeal to introduce, as its +substitute, education; that is to say, the cultivation of the intellect +of the natural man instead of the heart and affections of the spiritual +man--the abiding in the life of Adam, instead of passing into the life +of Christ."[181] This is precisely what has taken place in Australia. +Only two years after the foundations of the colony had been laid, +George III. was pleased to provide for the Church and for schools, by +ordering the governor to allot in every township 400 acres of land for +the maintenance of a minister, and 200 acres for the support of a +schoolmaster. This provision continued to be assigned, and in many cases +the portion of allotted glebe became of considerable value; but, in +1826, a yet more extensive and promising support was afforded by the +British government to the cause of religious instruction in New South +Wales. The nature of this assistance may be detailed first in the words +of a violent and not very sensible or consistent enemy of the Church of +England, and then the reader may turn to the account given by one of its +ablest and best friends. "I was utterly astounded," says Dr. Lang, "in +common with most of the colonists, at the promulgation of a royal +charter appointing a Church and School Corporation for the religious +instruction, and for the general education of the youth of the colony, +_on the principles of the Church of England, exclusively_, and allotting +a seventh of the whole territory, for that purpose, to the Episcopalian +clergy, with free access, in the meantime, to the colonial +treasury-chest. It will scarcely be believed that so wanton an insult as +this precious document implied, could have been offered to the common +sense of a whole community, even by the late tory administration; or +that men could have been found in the nineteenth century to perpetrate +so gross an outrage on the best feelings of a numerous body of reputable +men." During the ensuing four or five years, we are told by the same +authority that it was completely in the power of the archdeacon and +clergy "to have formed a noble institution for the general education +of the youth of Australia with the very crumbs that fell from their +corporation-table."[182] They might, "if they had only been possessed +of the smallest modicum of common sense, have secured the exclusive +predominance of episcopacy in the management of the education of the +whole colony, _for all time coming_." And yet, adds the sagacious +Scotchman, in the very next paragraph, "the yoke must have proved +intolerable in the end, and would sooner or later have been violently +broken asunder during some general burst of public indignation." After a +grievous misrepresentation of the expenses incurred by the Church and +School Corporation,[183] and a sneer at the want of education which is +said to prevail among its members,[184] Dr. Lang contrives at last to +land himself, if not his readers, at the desired conclusion, namely, +that "ignorance is the mother of devotion" to colonial episcopacy! + + [181] Gladstone's "The State in its Relations with the Church," + chap. viii. p. 315. + + [182] Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. p. 317, &c. See also, at 265-6, + a series of similar statements. A good specimen of Dr. Lang's veracity + occurs at p. 267, where the Church and School Corporation is said to + have consisted chiefly of _clergymen_, whereas the majority were + _laymen_. See Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, + p. 21, and Appendix, No. 1. + + [183] They are accused of spending 20,000_l._ a-year of public money, + under pretence of providing for religious instruction and education, + while nothing was really done; whereas, out of this sum, nearly + 17,000_l._ were already appropriated for the existing ecclesiastical + establishment; and, during the continuance of the Corporation, the + schools increased from 16 to 40, and the number of children educated + in them from 1,037 to 2,426. See Burton on Religion and Education in + New South Wales, pp. 24 and 32. + + [184] See the book just quoted for a list of the members of the Church + and School Corporation, p. 21. Whatever might be the education of these + gentlemen, it is evident that better educated men were not very likely + to be found in the colony than the great law officers of the crown, the + members of the legislative council, and the nine senior chaplains. + +But it is time to turn away from the pitiable spectacle of a man calling +himself a minister of God's word, but far better qualified for his other +occupation, that of editing a party newspaper in a penal colony, and +taking our leave of Dr. Lang with feelings of regret that he has not +made a better use of those talents which have been given him: let us +turn to the statement given by Judge Burton, of the Church and School +Corporation in New South Wales. It is correct that one-seventh part in +extent and value of the land in New South Wales, was intended to be set +apart for the supply of religious instruction and education to the whole +colony. It is true, likewise, that the English government, in 1826, +entrusted this endowment for these good purposes entirely to the Church +of England; and to what other body could a thoroughly English government +have entrusted it? What course could be more suitable to the principles +of the English constitution? Or who in those days suspected the very +dissenters, who in England regard the help of the state as an +abomination, of being anxious themselves to partake freely of that help +in Australia? However, the arrangements were completed, and the charter +of the Church and School Corporation was signed in 1826; and at the same +time the burden of defraying the regular expenses of the existing clergy +and schools, was immediately transferred from the parliamentary grants +and the colonial revenue to the newly formed corporation. But, whatever +might have been the future value of the endowment thus bestowed upon the +Australian Church, its immediate produce was little or nothing; the +reserves are stated to have not been fairly portioned out, many of them +were allotted in inconvenient or distant situations and unprofitable +soils; private interest was allowed to take the first place in the +division of land, and persons who would have scorned to defraud men, +were happy to be allowed to rob God of his rights and the poor of the +means of having the gospel preached to them. Nor, even although these +hindrances had not arisen, would there have been any sufficient income +arising during the first years from the property of the corporation, +unless they had sold this with utter recklessness of the means of +securing a future permanent endowment. That portion of their lands +which was most improved, was either judiciously sold, or else let; and +other parts of it were gradually being brought under cultivation, and +improved in value; but meanwhile the increasing yearly expenses of the +ecclesiastical establishment were to be met. For this purpose, some +money was borrowed on debentures, and an advance was made to the +corporation from the colonial treasury; and thus, during three years, +were the exertions of the corporation crippled and restrained. When +they were beginning to get somewhat clear of these first difficulties, +when their estates were becoming profitable, and their flocks and herds +increasing, they were directed to suspend any further proceedings, no +more lands were granted them, and they were informed that their charter +was to be revoked. This notification was made in 1829, though the +revocation did not actually take place till 1833. + +In reply to the inquiry, why the Church and School Corporation in New +South Wales should have been thus suddenly dissolved, and that, too, at +the very time when its means were beginning to be available for the +fulfilment of the intentions of its foundation, no other answer can be +found besides that suggested by Judge Burton. It was done, no doubt, by +way of yielding to the clamour of the secret and open enemies of the +Church of England; and the very opposition of Infidels, Romanists, and +Dissenters, combined, in jarring harmony, together, bears a strong +witness of the value of the object of attack. The sop that was thus +thrown to the greedy demon of religious strife, was by no means +successful in satisfying or appeasing him; like most other similar +concessions, it served only to whet the appetite for more; and it is to +God's undeserved mercies, not to her own efforts, or to the wisdom of +her rulers, that England herself owes the preservation at that time of +her national Church. And now that the Church and School Corporation in +Australia has been abolished these ten years, what are the results; who +is the better for its destruction? If this establishment had been +permitted to remain, "certainly, at this day its funds would have been +sufficient to relieve the government altogether of the charge of +maintaining the clergy and schools of the colony."[185] The estimated +expenses of "Church establishments," and "school establishments," for +New South Wales in 1842, were respectively, 35,981_l._ 10_s._, and +16,322_l._ 10_s._,[186] so that by this time the saving to government, +arising from the continuance of the corporation, would have amounted to +no trifling annual sum. But, what is of far more importance, and what +was foreseen by the enemies of the Church of England when they compassed +the ruin of the corporation, the means of "lengthening its cords and +strengthening its stakes," would have been placed within the power of +the Australian Church. And since, under every disadvantage, during the +short time in which the charter continued to be in force, "the churches +were increased in number and better provided, the schools were +considerably more than doubled in number, and their effectiveness +increased, while their expenses were lessened,"[187] what might have +been expected from the same instrument in a longer period of time, and +after the first difficulties had been overcome? However, for wise and +good purposes, no doubt, it was not permitted that the experiment should +be tried; and while we regret that the Church in Australia is not more +efficient and better supported than it is, we may yet feel thankful +that, by the grace of God, it is as it is. + + [185] See Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, p. 31. + + [186] See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. i. p. 45. The sums + mentioned above include all the expense of grants to other bodies of + Christians besides churchmen, but the greater portion of the money is + expended upon the great majority of the population who are members of + the Church of England. + + [187] See Burton, p. 37. + +It affords a sad proof of the continued enmity of the world against +Christ, to turn from the noisy outcries of the children of Mammon about +economy and ecclesiastical expenses, and to fix our eyes upon the plain +matter of fact. When it was confidently asserted, by the highest +colonial authority, that the wants of the Australian Church were fairly +supplied, the Bishop, in 1837, mentioned by name no less than fifteen +places where clergymen were immediately needed. And it is no uncommon +occurrence, as in the church at Mudgee, (quite in the wilderness,) for +a consecration to take place, the church to be filled, the inhabitants +around delighted, their children baptized, and then the building is +closed for an indefinite period, until some clergyman be found to +officiate! Some persons may hold that to _save money_ is better than to +_save souls_, but let not these men aspire to the name of Christians. + +But, in spite of such enemies, whether endowed or not, whether supported +or spurned by the state authorities, the Church is likely to prove a +blessing and a safeguard to our Australian colonies. The absence of +endowment, the want of worldly means of extension, these are losses not +to the Church, but to the state. And while each individual member is +bound to spare of his abundance, or even of his poverty, for a work +so good and holy as that of propagating the gospel in foreign parts, +especially in our colonies;[188] while every lawful effort is to be made +to do what we can to resist the progress of evil, we may be satisfied to +wait quietly the result. Nor, among other acts of christian charity, +will a faithful member of Christ's visible Church ever forget to pray +for those unhappy men whose extraordinary professions of religion are +too often found to end in fruits like these,--in opposing all extension +of what they deny not to be, in the main, a scriptural Church, in +straining at the smallest particle of endowment, or public assistance +for religious objects at home, whilst abroad they can swallow a whole +camel's load of public money or church plunder, when it serves their +occasion! May God, in his wisdom, overrule the mischief, and in his +mercy forgive the evils of which men of this description have recently +been the occasion, both in England and in its colonies! + + [188] The following striking testimony in favour of the _system_ of the + Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts comes from a + quarter by no means unduly biassed in its favour. "How have thousands + and tens of thousands been raised in Scotland, for the last forty years, + to fit out and to maintain beyond seas whomsoever the dissenting + ministers of London chose to ordain as missionaries to the heathen? God + forbid, that I should ever whisper a syllable against missions to the + heathen! But I have seen too many missionaries, not to have seen more + than I choose to mention, whom men possessed of the least discernment + would never have presumed to send forth on such an errand! _The colonies, + however, were the first field to be occupied; and if that field had been + properly occupied, it would have afforded much assistance to missions + to the heathen._"--LANG'S _New South Wales_, vol. ii. p. 260. + + If any reader of this passage should feel disposed in his heart to help + in a good work, which greatly needs his assistance, let him take at + once his humble mite, or his large offering, as the case may be, to the + clergyman of his parish, or to the office, 79, Pall Mall, London, for + the use of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +CONVICT POPULATION. + + +Whatever may be the natural charms or advantages of any region, these +are nothing without inhabitants; and however abundantly the means of +riches, the comforts, luxuries, or necessaries of life may be scattered +around, these are comparatively lost without man to enjoy and to use +them. The garden of Eden itself was not perfected until beings were +placed in it capable of admiring its beauties and rejoicing in its +blessings. And in every country, especially in a civilised country, when +we have gone through the length and breadth of the land, examining its +natural features and speculating upon its capabilities and future +destiny, there is still left a most interesting and important subject of +consideration, nor can our knowledge of any region be reckoned complete, +until we are acquainted with the present condition of its inhabitants. +In the preceding pages it has been found impossible, indeed, to avoid +frequently touching upon a topic, which is so closely interwoven with +the whole subject; but there still remains abundance of miscellaneous +information concerning the present state of the inhabitants of the +Australian colonies to be detailed, without which, indeed, the task we +have undertaken would be left altogether incomplete. + +Though intellectual man is the principal object in God's creation upon +earth, yet it is not the mere "march of intellect," but it is the +advancement of truth and righteousness,--the gradual outpouring of that +knowledge of God which shall cover the earth as the waters cover the +seas,--that can cause "the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose." +The recollection, therefore, of the sort of men with whom Great Britain +has partly peopled the lonely shores of Australia,--the remembrance that +these men, too morally diseased to be allowed to remain among ourselves, +have been cast forth to die, with little or no thought about bringing +them to the Great Physician of souls to be made whole,--these +reflections have before been offered, and must here be repeated again. +We read with pleasure and interest of benevolent travellers, anxious to +benefit the countries which they are exploring, scattering around them +in favourable spots the seeds of useful plants and noble trees, in the +hope that these may hereafter prove beneficial to generations yet +unborn. And in like manner may the mother country be said to scatter +abroad in her colonies the seeds not only of good, but of evil also. +Many admirable institutions, not a few excellent individuals and +christian families, have been planted in Australian lands; a branch of +Christ's Church has been placed there, and has taken firm hold of the +soil, and numberless other promises of future excellence may be traced +by the thankful and inquiring mind. But then, on the contrary, we must +not lose sight of the tares that are so abundantly springing up together +with the wheat; it is impossible to deny that rank and poisonous weeds +have there been scattered along with the good seed, nay, instead of it. +What might have been the present state of Australia, if all, or almost +all, its free inhabitants had been faithful Christians, steadfast "in +the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in +prayers?" How great an effect might the "salt," thus placed in those +remote parts of the earth, have had in rescuing from corruption that +mass of uncleanness, which has been removed thither from our own shores! +Now, alas! nowhere more than in some of the Australian settlements "are +the works of the flesh manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, +uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, +emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, +drunkenness, revellings, and such like."[189] + + [189] Gal. v. 19-21. + +One cause, unquestionably, of the peculiar prevalence of many of these +evil works is the strange elements of which society in Australia is +composed. In its lowest rank is found the unhappy criminal, whose +liberty has been forfeited, and who is, for a time at least, reduced +to a state of servitude in punishment of his offences. Next to this +last-named class come the _emancipists_, as they are called, who have +once been in bondage, but by working out their time, or by good conduct, +have become free; these and their descendants constitute a distinct and +very wealthy class in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. The third +and highest class is formed of men who have settled as free persons in +the colonies, and of their descendants; and between this last class and +the two first a considerable distinction is kept up, from which, (it +has already been noticed,) miserable dissensions, jealousies, and +heartburnings, have frequently arisen. To an impartial person, beholding +these petty discords from the contrary side of the globe, it is pretty +plain that both classes are in fault. + +It is well known that the system of assigning convicts to various +masters has been practised ever since the colony at Port Jackson was +first established, and thus the expense of maintaining so many thousands +of people has been thrown upon the settlers, who were amply repaid by +the value of their labour; by means of which, likewise, the land was +brought into cultivation, and the produce of the soil increased. One +great argument against the system of transportation, as a punishment, +is drawn from this practice of assignment, which, it is asserted, makes +the penalty "as uncertain as the diversity of temper, character, and +occupation amongst human beings can render it." Certain rules and +conditions were laid down for the treatment of convict servants, and if +these behave themselves well, they are allowed "a ticket of leave," +extending over a certain district, within which the holder of the ticket +becomes, in fact, a free person; subject, however, to the loss of this +privilege in case of his committing any offence. After a certain number +of years, the holder of the ticket of leave is allowed to receive a +"conditional pardon," which extends only to the limits of the colony, +but is no longer liable to be withdrawn at the will of government. The +"absolute pardon," of course, extends everywhere, and restores the party +receiving it to all the rights and privileges of a British subject.[190] +The custom of assigning male convicts has, however, been discontinued +lately in the elder colony, although women are still assigned to the +settlers by government, or at least were so until very recently. But +besides the employment of the convicts by private persons, a vast number +of these are constantly engaged in public works, and to the facility of +obtaining labour thus afforded does New South Wales owe some of its +greatest improvements, especially in roads, bridges, public buildings, +and the like undertakings. It is scarcely to be supposed that employment +of this kind, when the men must necessarily work in gangs, is so +favourable for their moral improvement and reformation as residence in a +private family and occupation in rural pursuits is generally likely to +prove; though the contrary notion is supported in the recent Report of +the Transportation Committee, since, in the former case, they are under +stricter discipline. However, it has always been customary to make the +public works a sort of punishment, and private service a reward for +convicts; and those that have been returned from the latter with +complaints, are usually put upon the roads for at least six months; +so that, if this system really stands in the way of the improvement +of offenders, it keeps those that conduct themselves well from the +beginning quite clear of the bad example of less hopeful characters. It +is a sad truth, however, in Australia, as it often is found to be in +England, that "the most skilful mechanics are generally the worst +behaved and most drunken," and, consequently, most liable to punishment +in the public gangs. + + [190] See Mr. Montgomery Martin's New South Wales for further + particulars on this subject, pp. 168-177. + +By way of introducing the reader to the kind of life led by those +unhappy beings who labour in Australia at the public roads, and to give +him also some idea of the spiritual work which the ministers of Christ's +Church in a penal colony may be called upon to perform, the following +sketch from a private letter will be not unacceptable:--"In a few +minutes I am at the stockade where more than 60 men are immediately +mustered; the [Roman] 'Catholics'[191] are sent back to their boxes, the +'Protestants' assemble under a shed, open on two sides, and filled with +a few coarse boards for tables and forms, where the men get their meals. +Their boxes are wooden buildings of uniform structure, in which the +prisoners are locked up from _sundown_ to sunrise. The roof is shingled, +the sides are weather-board, the door in the middle is secured by a +padlock, and above the door is a grating to admit the light and air, +a similar grating being placed exactly opposite to it. The internal +arrangements are simple in the extreme, where you see a gangway in the +middle, and two tiers of hard planks or dressers for the men to lie +upon; their bedding being, I believe, only a blanket. As there is no +division to form separate bed-places, the four-and-twenty or thirty men +who share these boxes lie like the pigs, and make the best of it they +can. When a prisoner has served his time in irons, he is removed to a +probationary gang; that which I am describing is an ironed gang. These +men are dressed in a motley suit of grey and yellow alternately, each +seam being of a different colour; and the irons being secured to each +ancle, and, for the relief of the wearer, made fast from the legs to the +waist. The whole stockade is sometimes enclosed with high palings, and +sometimes open. The service of the Church is performed under the shed +where the men assemble for meals. The men behave well or ill as the +sergeant in charge takes an interest in it or not. Here the sergeant +and a dozen young soldiers are constant at prayers. The responses are +given by all that can read, our blessed societies having furnished +Bibles and Prayer-books for all. Every change of position is attended +with the clank of chains, which at first harrows your soul: but time +does wonders, you know; you forget the irons after a while. A full +service and a sermon. You hear an application or two from prisoners +about their worldly matters,--chiefly from the craftiest, oldest hands; +wish them good morning, and away. + + [191] "Catholic," a most honoured term in ancient times, has in + modern days been very unfortunate. Even now the Romanists misuse it + for "Papistical," the Dissenters occasionally use it to signify + "Latitudinarian," and the members of the Church of England are either + afraid to use it at all, or else are perpetually harping upon it, as + though it were a mere party-word. + +"It is now half-past ten: there lies the hot and dusty road before you, +without shelter of any kind, and the sun pours down his fiery beams; no +cloud, no intermission. If a breeze blows, it may be hotter than from +the mouth of a furnace. Well, courage; step out, it is five miles to +the other stockade. A flock of sheep,--the dog baying, the driver +blaspheming; a dray or two of hay; a few carts loaded with oranges. Up +the hill, down the hill, and so on, till, a little after twelve, you +arrive at the other stockade. This is a probationary gang, that is to +say, it is composed of those against whom complaints have been made +by their respective masters, and who are not assignable to other +individuals for six months. In this gang are six-and-twenty persons, of +whom two are [Roman] 'Catholics.' No motley dress, but all in dark grey; +no irons. A corporal and one private for a guard, and both of them +exemplary at prayers. Here I have the afternoon service. Generally about +this time the wind is up; and here, in a state of perspiration, the +breeze gives me a thorough chilling under the open shed; and often +clouds of dust come rushing through upon us, as bad as the worst days +in March along one of the great roads in England. But the service is +attended in a gratifying manner, insomuch that it would shame many home +congregations. The corporal here teaches the poor fellows who require it +to _read and write_, so that even here we find instances of christian +charity, without sinister or vain motives, which may well stimulate us +and provoke our exertions." + +From this picture of the condition of some of those convicts that are +undergoing punishment, we may turn to the more pleasing view, which a +gentleman of large property in Australia, Mr. Potter Macqueen, has drawn +of the condition of his own assigned servants. Of course, much of the +chance of the servant's improvement must depend, humanly speaking, upon +the sort of master into whose hands he is thrown, and Mr. Macqueen would +appear to have behaved kindly and judiciously to those entrusted to his +care. Occasionally a severe example of punishment was made, and extra +labour or stoppage of indulgences, as milk, tea, sugar, or tobacco, were +found effectual correction for most faults, whilst additional industry +was rewarded by fresh indulgences. Of some deserving men Mr. Macqueen +had even brought over the wives and families at his own expense. And +what, in this world, could be a greater instance of the luxury of doing +good than to behold the family and partner of one who has, though a +convict, conducted himself well, restored once more to their long-lost +parent and husband, and settled in his new country as pledges of his +future continuance in well-doing? Marriage, altogether, was encouraged +on the estate of the gentleman already mentioned, as a means of +recalling the convicts from bad habits, and urging them to industry and +good behaviour; and this wise course has been generally rewarded by +witnessing their happiness, and receiving their gratitude. During +five years of residence in Australia about two hundred convicts and +ticket-of-leave men passed through Mr. Macqueen's establishment, and +the following account is interesting, since it serves to show what _may +be done_, even with a convict population:-- + + Free, or enjoying their ticket, married and thoroughly + reclaimed 14 + Ditto, ditto, single men 49 + Free from expiration of sentence, but worthless 7 + Returned home to England after becoming free 1 + Well-conducted men, as yet under sentence 62 + Indifferent, not trustworthy 29 + Depraved characters, irreclaimable 7 + Sent to iron gangs and penal settlements 11 + Escaped 1 + Died 3 + Given up at request of Government 2 + Returned to Government hospital from ill health 4 + ____ + 190 + ____ + +To encourage reformation, and check that spirit of idleness which is the +mother of mischief, alike in convicts and free people, it is strongly +recommended to allow the well-disposed men to profit by their own +industry. It is forbidden to pay money to prisoners, at least before +they obtain their ticket, but they may be rewarded by tea, sugar, +tobacco, Cape wine, extra clothing, &c. Mr. Macqueen had one Scotchman, +who, under this system, actually sheared 101 sheep in the day, being +allowed at the rate of 2_s._ 6_d._ per score upon all above 25, which is +the quantity fixed by the government rule for a man to do in a single +day. And in the same establishment, acting upon like inducements, might +be seen sawyers and fencers working by moonlight; and others making tin +vessels for utensils, bows for bullocks, &c., in their huts at night. +From this method of management a very great degree of comfort arises, of +which Mr. Macqueen gives the following instance in a convict's feast, +which he once witnessed. At Christmas, 1837, one of his assigned +servants, (who had a narrow escape from capital conviction at home,) +requested leave to draw the amount of some extra labour from the +stores, since he wished to give an entertainment to a few of his +colleagues, all of whom were named and were well conducted men. The +party making this application had been industrious and well-behaved, +being besides very cleanly in his hut, and attentive to his garden and +poultry, so the request was granted, and his master had the curiosity to +observe the style of the festival. The supper consisted of good soup, +a dish of fine mullet out of the adjoining river, two large fowls, a +piece of bacon, roast beef, a couple of wild ducks and a plum-pudding, +accompanied by cauliflower, French beans, and various productions of his +garden, together with the delicious water-melon of the country; they had +a reasonable quantity of Cape wine with their meal, and closed their +evening with punch and smoking.[192] + + [192] See a pamphlet entitled "Australia as she is and as she may be," + by T. Potter Macqueen, Esq., published by Cross, Holborn, pp. 12-14. + +But the picture of the peculiar class by which a penal colony is +distinguished from all others will not be complete without a darker +shade of colouring than those upon which we have been gazing. It is a +painful feeling to contemplate the past condition of one portion of the +convict population, but it is a wholesome exercise of the mind, and has +already produced an improvement in that wretched state. Besides, it +surely is only fitting that a great, a free, and enlightened nation +should know what is the ultimate fate of a part of its outcast +population; nor need Englishmen shrink from hearing the _history_, +whilst England herself shrinks not from inflicting the _reality_ of +those horrors which have defiled the beautiful shores of Norfolk +Island.[193] In 1834 Judge Burton visited this spot, the penal +settlement of a penal settlement, for the purpose of trying 130 +prisoners, who had very nearly succeeded in overpowering and murdering +the military, after which they intended to make their escape. Eight +years before this time, Norfolk Island had been first made a penal +settlement; and never during all that period had its wretched +inhabitants received any such reproof, consolation, or instruction as +the Church gives to its members. The picture presented before the mind +of the judge was an appalling one, and he can speak of Norfolk Island +only in general terms, as being "a cage full of unclean birds, full +of crimes against God and man, murders and blasphemies, and all +uncleanness." We know well what bad men are in England. Take some of the +worst of these, let them be sent to New South Wales, and then let some +of the very worst of these worst men be again removed to another spot, +where they may herd together, and where there are no pains taken about +their moral or religious improvement, where, literally speaking, no man +careth for their souls:--such was Norfolk Island. And what right had +England to cast these souls, as it were, beyond the reach of salvation? +Where was the vaunted christian feeling of our proud nation when she +delivered these poor creatures over to the hands of Satan, in the hope +that her worldly peace, and comfort, and property might be no longer +disturbed by their crimes? Had she ordered her fleet to put these men +ashore on some desolate island to starve and to die, the whole world +would have rung with her cruelty. But now, when it is merely their souls +that are left to starve, when it is only the means of eternal life that +they are defrauded of, how few notice it, nay, how few have ever heard +of the sin in which the whole nation is thus involved! + + [193] It is right to state here that the cause of a supply of religious + instruction having been so long delayed in Norfolk Island is said, by + a Roman Catholic writer, to have been the impossibility of finding a + clergyman to undertake the charge. See Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, + pp. 39, 40. Supposing this account to be correct then, undoubtedly, the + English Church must share the blame of neglecting Norfolk Island along + with the government, and it is not the wish of the writer of these pages + to deny the applicability of the prophet's confession to ourselves: + "O God, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, + and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee." (Dan. ix. 8.) + Still, even according to Dr. Ullathorne, the penal settlement was + established six years before its religious instruction was thought of + by the government. + +One of the prisoners tried in 1834 was a man of singular ability and +great presence of mind, and by him Norfolk Island was represented to be +a "hell upon earth;" and so it was as far as the company of evil spirits +glorying in evil deeds could make it. "Let a man's heart," he added, "be +what it will, when he comes here, his man's heart is taken from him, and +there is given to him the heart of a beast." Another said, "It was no +mercy to send us to this place; I do not ask life, I do not want to be +spared, on condition of remaining here; life is not worth having on +such terms." Another unhappy being was sentenced to die, and began +passionately to exclaim and entreat that he might not die without +confession. "Oh, your honour," he said, "as you hope to be saved +yourself, do not let me die without seeing my priest. I have been a very +wicked man indeed, I have committed many other crimes for which I ought +to die, but do not send me out of the world without seeing my priest!" +This poor man was a Roman Catholic; he seems not to have known that he +might go at once to his Heavenly Father with a heartfelt acknowledgment +of his faults, and so he obtained a rude figure of the cross, and +in miserable agony pronounced before that, as he embraced it, his +brief exclamations for mercy. Others mentioned in moving terms the +hopelessness of their lot, and another of them spoke also of what +rendered the state they were in one of utter despair; and the statement +which he made was perfectly true: he said, addressing the judge, "What +is done, your honour, to make us better? once a week we are drawn up in +the square opposite the military barrack, and the military are drawn up +in front of us with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, and a young +officer then comes to the fence, and reads part of the prayers, and that +takes, may be, about a quarter of an hour, and _that is all the religion +that we see_."[194] + + [194] Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 260. + +Urged by appeals like these, which no heart could well resist, Judge +Burton reprieved the convicted prisoners, until the whole case should +be laid before the government, and at least religious consolation and +assistance might be obtained for those who were to suffer capital +punishment. Eleven of the prisoners were afterwards executed, but not +without having been visited by ministers of religion, who were sent for +that express purpose from Sydney. The kind and christian judge exerted +himself in behalf of the outcast population of Norfolk Island, "that +modern Gomorrah," as it has been called; and, as usual, improvement in +bodily comforts or morals was much more willingly undertaken by those +in authority than spiritual reformation. His advice respecting the +propriety of diminishing the number of prisoners confined together +was speedily attended to. His efforts to procure religious reproof, +instruction, and consolation were not so soon successful; they were, +however, nobly continued, and at length both Protestant and Roman +Catholic chaplains were appointed to the island. But this great object +was not gained without _giving offence_. Strange that any party could +take offence at efforts of this description, and stranger still that +men professing a general regard for religion, and avowedly possessed +of consciences exquisitely tender, and of charity unbounded, should, +notwithstanding, object to the conscientious and charitable efforts in +the cause of religion of which we have just been speaking! However, +these impotent struggles have signally failed, and now there are clergy +both of the English and Roman Church in Norfolk Island, while the moral +condition of the prisoners there is stated to have improved greatly. In +1837 the Rev. Mr. Sharpe was removed thither, at his own request, from +Pitt Town in New South Wales, and his labours and ministrations are said +to have been useful and effectual. But even here, in this effort to save +some of Christ's lost sheep, the unhappy circumstances of our penal +colonies were manifested. When Mr. Sharpe was removed to Norfolk Island, +a larger and more important sphere of usefulness, his little parish +on the Hawkesbury, was for a time left without a pastor. And this +distressing trial is frequently occurring; when illness, or death, or +removal, deprives a parish of its spiritual shepherd, for a time at +least his place is liable to be left vacant, and his people likely +to become as sheep going astray. It appears likewise, from the Report +of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, that an +assistant-chaplain for Norfolk Island was appointed in 1841. There have +been two clergymen of the Church of Rome in the island ever since 1838, +an arrangement which was alleged to be necessary, in order that the +chaplain himself might not be deprived of private confession and +absolution.[195] There was no church in the island a few years ago, but +a room in one settlement and a barn in the other were the places where +divine service was regularly attended. Besides the Morning and Evening +Prayers on Sunday, divine service takes place five times during the +week, twice in the gaol, twice in the hospital, and once a week for +those men who are exempt from work, their sentences having expired. +There may, as has been stated, be much hypocrisy in Norfolk +Island,[196] but surely the spirit which was offended at efforts that +have wrought even these changes in a spot of extreme moral and religious +desolation, may, without breach of charity, be pronounced to have been +an unclean and evil spirit. Can this language be justly deemed too +strong, when the facts already stated are borne in mind; when, (to sum +up the whole case in a single example,) it is remembered that in one +year, 1838, the colonial government of New South Wales paid 57,740_l._ +11_s._ 3_d._ for its police establishment and gaols, while the very +utmost that was spent in providing religious instruction for _all the +prisoners_ within the limits of the colony amounted, during the same +period, to less than 1000_l._?[197] + + [195] The reason given by the Roman Catholic, Dr. Ullathorne, is that + the two priests divide the salary, and receive together no more than the + one chaplain.--ULLATHORNE'S _Reply to Burton_, p. 76. The reader must + bear in mind the different scale of expenses required by a person who + _must_ be single, and that of a person who may be, and generally is, + a married man. + + [196] See Committee on Transportation, 1838, pp. 137, 138. + + [197] See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, + pp. 287-289. The actual sum there stated is either 725_l._ or 855_l._, + according as certain expenses connected with the establishment are + included or not. + +It is stated on good authority,--that of Sir George Arthur, who was +formerly governor of Van Diemen's Land,--that not more than _two_ +convicts in every _hundred_ quit the colony and return to England.[198] +The expense and difficulty of procuring a passage home operates as a +sufficient check to prevent this being frequently obtained; nor, +supposing that the English people would act in a kind and christian +spirit towards the most deserving men of this class, would either +they or the nation be losers. If the wives and families of the most +meritorious men could be brought out to them at the public cost, what +reasonable cause of regret would an emancipated convict feel for his +home,--the scene of his crimes and of his disgrace,--in the mother +country? And with respect to the great objection,--the _cost_ of such a +system,--what would that be compared with the advantage which the rapid +increase of an English population in Australia is sure to bring, by +creating fresh demands for our goods and manufactures? If ours were a +wise and understanding nation, if we would spend a portion of our riches +in promoting the morals, the comfort, and the religious instruction of +our outcast population, we might, in numberless instances, turn the very +dregs of our people into means of increasing our prosperity; we might +frequently render those that are now the mere refuse of the earth, +happy, contented, loyal subjects; and the blessings of them that were +ready to perish spiritually would be continually resounding from the far +distant shores of Australia upon that Divine Mercy which would have all +men to be saved, and upon that nation which would thus have offered +itself to be a willing agent and instrument for the furtherance of this +gracious design. + + [198] "I think the longer the sentence, the better will be the conduct + of the individual," because his only chance of obtaining any degree of + liberty is from good conduct. See Evidence of J. MacArthur, Esq., + before the Committee on Transportation in 1837. No. 3350-3, p. 218. + Dr. Ullathorne expresses a contrary opinion. + +In the present condition of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, with +so large a proportion of their population in bondage, and such slender +means of moral improvement and religious instruction provided for them +by the mother country, it would be unreasonable to hope that the convict +population can be otherwise than very bad. There may be many exceptions; +and at the end of all things here below, it may be found that some of +those poor outcasts, and some of the men who have cast them forth to +perish, and now despise them, may fill, respectively, the places of the +Publican and Pharisee in our Lord's parable; the convict may leave the +throne of judgment justified rather than his master; the poor repentant +criminal may be pardoned, while the proud one,--the self-sufficiency +of the nation, by which he was transported, and left without further +care,--may be condemned. Still, however, the general character of +the convicts is undoubtedly bad; and the various modes of deceit and +dishonesty practised upon their masters, the love of gambling, of strong +liquors, and of every kind of licentiousness prevailing in the penal +colonies, would fill a volume of equal size and interest with that +which is said to be a favourite book in New South Wales,--the Newgate +Calendar. Those that are curious upon these subjects may be referred to +the thick volume in blue cover, which contains an account of the labours +of the Committee upon Transportation, 1837; but when the evidence +therein contained is read, it must be with some grains of allowance; +the avowed object of Sir W. Molesworth's motion for the committee, was +enmity against the whole system of transportation; and a large majority +of those that sat in the committee were, it is believed, of his opinion; +at all events, they belonged to his party in politics. So that, before +justice can be done to the real state of the convicts, we want to have +evidence of an opposite tendency, like that of Mr. Potter Macqueen, +already quoted; and before the question, whether transportation is a +desirable mode of punishing, or a likely means of reforming criminals, +can be fairly decided, inquiry must be made, not respecting what _has +been done_, but respecting what _might have been done_, or _may even yet +be done_, in our penal colonies. + +Before the subject of the convict population is dismissed, it may be +well to notice those called _specials_; that is, men of education, and +of a somewhat higher rank in life than the generality of exiles in New +South Wales. These were formerly treated with great consideration; for, +after having passed a short period of probation, they were employed as +clerks to auctioneers or attornies; nay, the instruction of youth was +too often, in default of better teachers, committed into their hands. +Nor was this all. In former times, persons of this description have +been very much connected with the public press; and the enlightened +people of New South Wales have sometimes, it may be feared, been blindly +led by an unprincipled convict, when they imagined that they were wisely +judging for themselves. The reformation of these _specials_ is said to +be more hopeless than that of other prisoners; and very commonly they +are confirmed drunkards. Strange materials these from which to form +instructors for youth, trustworthy agents of private property, or +leaders of public opinion! However, by the progress of emigration, the +influence of these men is now superseded; besides which, they have been +gradually removed from the government offices, and those that now arrive +are employed in hard labour. + + + + +[Illustration: CONVEYING CATTLE OVER THE MURRAY, NEAR LAKE ALEXANDRIA.] + +CHAPTER XIII. + +EMANCIPISTS AND FREE POPULATION. + + +Respecting the next class of which the population consists in our +penal colonies,--that of emancipists, or persons formerly in bondage as +convicts, they appear to be pretty nearly what might be expected of a +body of men under such circumstances. Although there are many honourable +exceptions to the general rule, yet it would seem to be a general rule +that roguery and industry are usually connected among them; and that +where an emancipist is less inclined to be dishonest, he is more +inclined to be idle and improvident; while it often occurs that both +faults are found together in one person. Of course, it would be vain to +hope that _all_ convicts, or even the majority, perhaps, should become +completely reformed; but it is sickening to the heart that has any +christian feeling, to find descriptions like the following, given by one +amply qualified to judge, of the deplorable moral and social state of +many of those unhappy men after their time of service has expired. "The +newly-arrived convict" (Mr. MacArthur states) "sees examples immediately +before him of men, formerly in the same condition with himself, +wallowing in licentiousness, and possessed of wealth, amassed generally +by dishonest means, which they continue, in many instances, still to +augment, by keeping grog-shops and gambling-houses, by receiving stolen +goods, and by other nefarious practices. This is the general conduct of +the class of emancipated convicts who acquire property, as well as of +some unprincipled adventurers in the class of free emigrants. There are, +however, among the emancipated convicts of property exceptions from this +prevalent depravity; rare, indeed, and on that account the more +honourable."[199] And numberless, in the earlier history of New South +Wales, are the evil consequences which are recorded to have arisen from +the necessity which then existed of employing either convicts, or else +men recently emancipated, in places of the highest trust and importance. +One striking example may suffice; and it is believed that no injustice +is done to the class of men now alluded to, when it is stated that the +guilty parties were persons belonging to that body. Soon after the +departure of Governor Hunter, in 1800, it was discovered that the clerks +who were admitted to the registers of the terms of the transportation of +the convicts, had altered the sentences of nearly 200 prisoners, on +receiving from each a sum equal in value to ten or twelve pounds.[200] +Of these examples the early history of the colony is full; but, in later +years, it may be hoped, that time, and public opinion, and the tide of +emigration, have combined to render the conduct of persons belonging +to this class less generally objectionable than it formerly was. The +greater portion of the shop-keepers, and what may be called the middling +classes in Sydney, were emancipists; and their wealth and influence were +so great, that, during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, one-fourth of the +jurors who served in the civil and criminal courts belonged to that +body. These persons are often very little educated; and young men +possessed of from 1000_l._ to 2000_l._ a-year in stock, can sometimes +neither read nor write. Cock-fighting, driving, and badger-baiting, are +pursuits that occupy youths of this class very frequently; and a showy, +tawdry style of dress, engages the attention of the young women. +Certainly, it is not of materials of this kind, that the English +constitution would have juries composed; and it is not surprising that +so large a proportion of jurors, who have themselves once stood at the +bar of justice, should be the means of carrying undue partiality for the +guilty into the jurors' box, and also of keeping out of that responsible +station all those who can in any way escape its duties.[201] Respectable +men will not, if they can avoid it, sit in the same box with men who go +in with their minds entirely made up to acquit the guilty, whatever may +be the tenor of the evidence to which they have just been listening, +whatever the sacredness of the oath they have recently taken. If +practical experience is of any real value, then it may safely be +pronounced that men, who are scarcely fit to enjoy the privilege of +sitting upon juries, are certainly at present unprepared for the +introduction of a representative form of legislation and government. +The civil juries of New South Wales have held the scales of justice +uncommonly even, for they have managed to acquit about 50 per cent. of +the persons tried; whereas in Great Britain, and even in Ireland, the +acquittals are 19 per cent., and the convictions 81 per cent. A strange, +but not unaccountable difference, which, so long as it may continue, +will furnish a strong argument of the unfitness of the colony for a +representative assembly. Men that have not the principle to put good +laws into execution, are very ill qualified to make good laws, or to +elect good legislators. And when, to suit party purposes, a clamour is +raised about the injustice of denying fresh "constitutional rights" +to our fellow-subjects in Australia, we may quietly dispose of this +(hitherto absurd and mischievous) claim by referring the very parties +raising it to the accounts published, under the sanction chiefly of men +of their own opinions, respecting the use made of those rights with +which the inhabitants of the penal colonies are already invested. When +the evils of the system of transportation are to be exposed, the truth +may be told respecting the state of the Australian juries;[202] but +why should it not be still declared,--why should not truth _always_ be +told,--even at the hazard of checking "liberal principles," and delaying +representative houses of assembly for the Australian colonies, until the +time when they may know how to use them, so that these may prove a +benefit instead of an evil to them? + + [199] Evidence of J. MacArthur, Esq., before the Committee on + Transportation, in 1837, No. 3371-2, p. 220. The richest man in the + colony, an emancipist, was said, in 1837, to be worth 40,000_l._ or + 45,000_l._ a year. For an account of the shameless roguery, and drunken + folly, by means of which so vast an income was amassed, see Report of + Transp. Com. 1837, p. 14 and 104. + + [200] Barrington's History of New South Wales, p. 421. + + [201] For the mode in which the law admitting emancipists into the + jurors' box was passed, see Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. p. 317-320. + "Two absent members of the Legislative Council were known to be opposed + to it. Of those present, the governor (Bourke) and five others were in + favour of it, while six were against it. The governor gave a second and + casting vote." + + [202] See Report of Transportation Committee, 1838, p. 31. "A large + proportion of the persons who have appeared and served," as jurors, + "are publicans," to whose houses prosecutors, parties on bail, or + witnesses, resort, for the purpose of drinking, while in attendance + upon the court. Once, when a jury was locked up all night, much foul + and disgusting language was used; and to gain a release from this + association, the disputed point was yielded; "no greater punishment can + be inflicted upon a respectable person than to be shut up with such + people for a few hours, or for the night." + + See Burton's Letter, Appendix to Transportation Committee's Report, + 1837, p. 301-2. Dr. Lang's book on New South Wales abounds in wretched + puns, but one rather favourable specimen may be given, when, in + allusion to the Englishman's right of being tried by his peers, the + Doctor styles the jurors above described "_the Colonial Peerage!_" + +Respecting the last and highest class of society in our penal colonies, +the _free population_, no great deal need be said in particular, since, +except from peculiar circumstances, they are pretty much the same in +character with the bulk of the population in any other country. But +their peculiar circumstances must, in fairness to the class last +mentioned, be briefly noticed. Undoubtedly, without any disrespect to +emigrants, it may be laid down as an acknowledged fact, that hitherto +this class, though it has comprised many excellent, clever, and good +men, has not usually been composed of the flower of the English nation. +Supposing that things are now altered for the better, time was--and that +not many years ago--when "every one that was in distress, and every one +that was in debt, and every one that was discontented," was apt to swell +the tide of emigration to our British colonies in Australia. Upon +arriving there they found a regular system of _caste_ established; and +since as members of the _free_ population they were at once exalted to +the highest places, this was a system which in most cases flattered the +pride of the settlers. Possibly many of the faults of the emancipist +class might be traced to the treatment they have received at the hands +of the free, and these faults react again as causes and excuses for +keeping them at still greater distance than ever. And however natural, +however necessary, a distinction of ranks is and must be in every +society of men, yet nothing can be more unnatural or mischievous than a +system of dividing men into _castes_. Unhappily, this division, the +fruitful source of all kinds of evil feeling, has to a great extent +prevailed in our penal colonies; and nothing, it may be boldly asserted, +except religion will ever root it out. Attempt to continue the exclusive +privilege of _caste_ to the free population, and you sow the seeds of a +servile rebellion. Open your hands to give concessions and privileges to +the emancipists, and you scatter good seed upon the stony rock, you +vainly endeavour to satisfy the daughters of the horse-leech. But infuse +a christian feeling into all classes, get them to meet in the same +church, to kneel at the same table, to partake in the same spiritual +blessings, and then you may hope that all, whether free or emancipists, +will feel themselves to be members of one another, portions of the same +body, held in union of heart and soul by means of the same head; "for by +One Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or +Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink +into One Spirit."[203] + + [203] 1 Cor. xii. 13. + +After all that has been stated respecting the three great classes into +which society in Australia is divided, it need scarcely be added that +the taste displayed by many of the inhabitants of the metropolis of +New South Wales is none of the purest or best. Gay equipages, dashing +horses, tandems, and racers, are among the favourite exhibitions of +the wealth of the emancipist. For music or paintings but little taste +prevails in Sydney, and for books, except those of a very low and +worthless character, there is no great demand. A fine house, a fine +carriage, fine horses, plenty of spirits to drink, appear to be thought +the chief goods of human life; and among persons in every class, the +acquisition of money is the one great object. Indeed this last passion, +the love of gain, can scarcely be mentioned among the perverted habits +by which the Australian colonies are infested, since it seems scarcely +possible that the worship of Mammon can be practised more openly or +carried much further than it is in the mother country. Yet the +temptations to prefer gain to every thing else are unusually strong +in these settlements. Professions have been abandoned because they +are laborious and unprofitable, while clergymen, medical gentlemen, +soldiers, government officers, in short, all classes of men, have made +haste to get rich by holding land and stock. An estate, which originally +cost little or nothing, grows yearly in value, without a penny being +spent upon it; stock speedily increases at very small cost, for there is +abundance of pasture for it; and when the settler finds these means of +gaining wealth opened to him, he is too apt to devote all his thoughts +and energies to this one object. "I have known," says Captain Grey, "an +honourable member of council, and leading magistrate in a colony, take +out a retail licence, and add to his already vast wealth from the +profits of a gin-shop."[204] + + [204] Grey's Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. pp. 192-3. + +The evil spirit of covetousness assumes to itself various shapes and +appearances according to varying circumstances; and among the characters +which it calls into life in Australia, that of a _land shark_ is one of +the most remarkable and hateful. When an emigrant arrives at Sydney, he +is able, perhaps after considerable delay, to give notice to Government +of his wish to purchase some desirable spot of land, which is then +selected to be put up to auction; and when it has been duly surveyed, +the sale at last takes place. But to the poor emigrant's astonishment +and disappointment the land, which he has chosen so as not to interfere +with other property, which is unoccupied, and entirely useless both in +a public and private sense,--is bid for, and finally knocked down +to another at an unreasonable price.[205] This other person is a +"land shark," who has gained, perchance, a fortune by regularly attending +sales and buying up land that is known to be desired by another. The +"shark," true to his name, wishes either to get his opposition bought +off by a bribe, or else hopes to sell his bargain at a profit from the +unwillingness of his victim to lose any more time or money in gaining +a settlement, with the risk of meeting, after all, with a second +disappointment. In case of the "shark's" scheme proving unsuccessful, +there is only the small trifle required as earnest of the purchase to be +paid; of course he never completes the engagement, and in due time, in a +year possibly, the land is declared forfeited to the crown again. Such +is the occupation of a "land shark," and it would be well if these and +similar pests of society were confined, like their namesakes of the +ocean, to the more sultry latitudes, but unfortunately they are not +altogether without their antitypes and imitators in Great Britain. + + [205] The system of starting from a certain fixed sum per acre, named + "the upset price," and selling land at whatever it will fetch beyond + this, is established in most of the Australian colonies. The fund thus + produced is spent in encouraging emigration and providing labourers. + +There is another character, which, if not peculiar to Australia, is +called into being only in those colonies where a large extent of land +in its natural state remains unappropriated to any individuals. The +_squatters_, as they are called, are men who occupy with their cattle, +or their habitations, those spots on the confines of a colony or estate, +which have not as yet become any person's private property. By the +natural increase of their flocks and herds, many of these squatters have +enriched themselves; and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages of +as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without paying any rent +for it to the government, they have removed elsewhere when the spot was +sold, and have not unfrequently gained enough to purchase that or some +other property. Thus the loneliness, the privations, and the perils of a +pastoral life in the bush, have often gained at length their recompense, +and the squatter has been converted into a respectable settler. But this +is too bright a picture to form an average specimen of the class which +we are describing. Unfortunately, many of these squatters have been +persons originally of depraved and lawless habits, and they have made +their residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means of +carrying on all manner of mischief. Or sometimes they choose spots of +waste land near a high road, where the drays halt to get water for the +night, and there the squatters knock up what is called "a hut." In such +places stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and tobacco are +procured in return for these at "the sly grog shops," as they are +called; and in short they combine the evils of a gypsy encampment and a +lonely beer-shop in England, only from the scattered population, the +absence of influential inhabitants, and the deplorably bad characters of +the men keeping them, these spirit shops are worse places than would be +tolerated in this country. It is stated that almost all the men by whom +these resorts of iniquity are kept, are either ticket-of-leave men or +emancipists. It is no easy thing to suppress these people, for the +squatters, like the black natives, can find a home wherever they betake +themselves. And it must be owned, that considerable good has resulted in +many instances from these forerunners of civilization having penetrated +into a district, and learned some of its peculiarities and capabilities +before a settlement in it has been regularly formed. Indeed, it would +have been unjust to have been severe with the poor squatter, and his two +or three sheep and cattle, when it had long been the practice of the +most wealthy landowners in the colony, to send their stock-man with +their hundreds of heads of cattle into the bush, to find support exactly +in the same way, and without paying anything to government. The rich +proprietors have a great aversion to the class of squatters, and not +unreasonably, yet they are thus, many of them, squatters themselves, +only on a much larger scale; nor are they more inclined, in many +instances, to pay rent for their privileges than their more humble +brethren. It would appear to be the fairest and best way of dealing with +these various descriptions of squatters, to endeavour to cut up, root +and branch, the "sly grog shops," and road-side gentry, while the owner +of one sheep, or he that possesses 10,000, should be equally compelled +to pay a trifle to government, in proportion to the number of his stock +grazing in the bush, and should likewise have his location registered. +Some regulations of this kind are, it is believed, proposed, if they +have not by this time been brought into operation; and thus we may hope, +that whatever benefits the system of _squatting_ may have produced, +either as an outlet for restless spirits, or as a means of extending +colonization, may still be retained, while the numerous evils that have +sprung up along with it may be checked or got rid of. Respecting one +thing connected with this subject,--the religious knowledge and +spiritual condition of these inhabitants of the wilderness and their +children, the christian inquirer cannot but feel anxious. The result of +christian anxiety upon this matter cannot be better stated than in the +words of one deeply interested about it, and well qualified to weigh the +subject with all its bearings. After expressing his thanks to that +Divine Providence, which had enabled him, quite alone, to travel through +many miles of country almost without cultivation or visible dwellings, +the Bishop of Australia finishes his account of his visitation westward, +in the year 1841, with the following reflections:--"It would be +impossible for any one, without personal observation, to comprehend from +mere description what a field for future labour is now opening in these +as yet uncultivated, unpeopled tracts which I am continually traversing. +But the time is not far distant when many portions of them will be +thronged with multitudes; and in what manner those multitudes are to +be provided with means of instruction sufficient to retain them in the +christian faith, I am not able to foresee; as yet, no such provision is +made or promised. But when, in passing through these scenes, reflections +such as these have crowded upon me, and I am unable to return a +satisfactory answer to the question, 'How shall this be accomplished?' +I can find no better resource than to silence myself with '_Deus +providebit_;'[206] my trust shall be in the tender mercy of God for ever +and ever." + + [206] Jehovah Jireh, that is, "the Lord will see or provide." See + translation in margin of Gen. xxii. 14. + +Among the beings which, although not natives of the bush, appear to be +peculiar to the wilds of Australia, the class of men called Overlanders +must not be omitted. Their occupation is to convey stock from market to +market, and from one colony to another. They require, of course, a +certain capital to commence business with, and the courage and skill +that are needful in these enterprises must be very great, so that many +of the overlanders are said to be really men of a superior class. The +love of a roving life, the excitement of overcoming dangers both from +natural causes and from the fierce attacks of the natives, and the +romantic and novel situations in which they are frequently placed, +all combine to render some men exceedingly fond of this occupation, +which has also another strong recommendation, that it is often very +profitable. The magnitude of the adventures thus undertaken would +scarcely be credited, and often a whole fortune is risked in the shape +of cattle driven across the wilderness. One very important route pursued +by the overlanders recently has been in the same direction with Captain +Sturt's daring voyage, namely, from New South Wales to South Australia +by the course of the Murray. An instance is mentioned by Captain Grey of +an overlander who arrived at Adelaide in March 1840 from Illawarra, and +his stock at the end of his journey is reckoned up, and found at a +moderate computation to be worth no less than 13,845_l._[207] And during +fifteen months, including the whole of 1839 and part of 1840, there were +brought by the overlanders from New South Wales into South Australia +11,200 head of horned cattle, 230 horses, and 60,000 sheep, the value of +the whole of which amounted to about 230,800_l._ Importations of stock +immediately add a value to land, for what is the use of pasture without +animals to feed upon it? And indeed so large an introduction of those +primitive riches, flocks and herds, is almost sure to give a spur to +industry, and to assist the increasing prosperity of a rising colony. +Under the influence of this cause it is related that land in Western +Australia, which was bought for 23_l._ an acre in December, 1839, was +sold for 60_l._ an acre in February, 1840. And in other colonies where +overland communication takes place, instead of the cattle being brought +by sea, as in Western Australia, the effect is yet more astonishing. +There is much that is noble to admire in the character of the +overlanders, and their efforts have been productive of great advantage +to our recent colonies; indeed, it is perhaps in a great measure to +their exertions that the very rapid progress of Port Phillip and South +Australia may be ascribed. But there appears to be a certain wildness +about their character, which, while it fits them admirably for the +pursuit which they have chosen, renders them restless and uneasy in more +quiet and domestic spheres. The love of gain, too, is rather more of a +ruling passion with them than it ought to be, but that is a fault by no +means peculiar to the overlanders. Yet it affords a curious comparison +and a fresh proof of our nature being a fallen one, when we come +quietly to contrast the pains taken, the toils endured, and the risks +encountered, in order to supply a colony with "the meat that perisheth," +against the indifference, feebleness, and apathy, which are exhibited +about the spiritual necessities of its inhabitants. Erect the standard +of worldly profit, and thousands will flock to it, unscared by danger, +unwearied by labour. But, meanwhile, how slow is the banner of the +Church in being unfurled, how few rally around it, when it is displayed; +in short, how much wiser in their generation are the children of this +world than the children of light! + + [207] See Grey's Travels in Western Australia, vol. ii. p. 188. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +STATE OF RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA. + + +The religious state of the inhabitants of the Australian colonies, +especially of the two oldest and most populous settlements, has been so +frequently the subject of allusion in this work, that the reader must +already have become acquainted with its general aspect. Nevertheless, +there are many interesting particulars which have not yet been detailed; +and no subject, surely, can concern more nearly the _mother country_ +than the religious condition of her children and offspring. Upon the +mere surface of things, judging from appearances only, the religious +habits of England would seem perhaps to be transferred to the Australian +colonies no less perfectly than its social customs; but, although the +resemblance to our spiritual pride and spiritual ignorance, our needless +divisions and contempt of lawful authority, is perfect enough, except +when it occasionally degenerates into caricature, yet, in points more +deserving of imitation, the likeness between the mother country and her +daughters is not always so striking. Probably it would be difficult to +sum up the matter better than in the words of Bishop Broughton, who +says, "My own opportunities of observation have been very numerous, +and I do not hesitate to say, that, in either colony, surrounded, it +cannot be dissembled, by much that is base and disgusting, there is, +nevertheless, an extensive, and in point of actual influence, a +preponderating proportion of integrity and worth, which, if suitably +encouraged and supported now, there may hereafter spring up a wise and +understanding people to occupy this land."[208] + + [208] Letter of the Bishop of Australia to the Society for the + Propagation of the Gospel, dated May 22, 1838. + +The way in which the Lord's Day is observed in New South Wales, or Van +Diemen's Land, may serve for an index of the general amount of religious +feeling among many of its inhabitants. Sunday desecration,--despising +the day of rest which the Lord has appointed, is notoriously one of the +first steps which a man is tempted to take in that downward course of +sin which leads him to the penal colonies; and accordingly, it must be +expected that a large quantity of the old leaven should remain working +in the convict population. And especially was this to be anticipated, +when so little pains were taken to teach them better things, for the +absence of religious instruction immediately furnishes an excuse for +disregard of the day of rest, and renders that neglect which was before +inexcusable, in some measure unavoidable. According to Dr. Lang, +religion is but seldom taken into account by the majority of the +colonists in their dealings with their convict-servants. In at least as +many as four cases out of five, he says, that no attention to the day +is paid, but frequently it is spent in weighing out rations, settling +accounts, or paying and receiving visits; while the men, whom it is +contrary to law to set to work on a Sunday, are often allowed to +cultivate ground for themselves, upon the plea that, if they were not so +occupied, they would be doing worse. In the opinion of Judge Burton, the +want of occupation on the Sunday was a cause of many robberies being +committed, and some of the worst crimes that had been brought under his +notice had taken place upon that day. Mr. Barnes says, speaking of the +men at the penal settlement of Macquarie Harbour, "I believe more crime +or wickedness was committed on Sunday, when they were ringing the bell +for church-service, than on any other day of the week." These opinions +are confirmed and strengthened by men of various parties, and different +plans have been proposed. That of increasing the number of churches and +of the clergy is obviously one of the most likely to succeed, but its +success must, in the nature of things, not be very speedy. It was stated +by one witness before the Committee upon Transportation, that, when the +means of public worship have been provided, the convicts should be +regularly mustered and taken to church, which, he thinks, would have a +good effect; but what is really wanted is that they should _come_ to +church, and not merely be _taken_ thither. One member of the Committee +inquired whether all the present churches were filled, and the witness +replied that they were not; but this is rather a proof of the need of +additional religious instruction than an argument against furnishing it. +If among so many souls the few existing places of divine worship are not +all fully occupied, is not this a proof of the desolate state of the +Lord's vineyard in that country? Is not this a sufficient reason for +earnestly endeavouring to increase the number of the labourers in the +vineyard? The heathenism of a considerable portion of a population +nominally christian, manifestly tends to thin the congregations even of +existing churches. But the want of church extension, and the dearth of +ministers, tends to produce and increase this heathenism, and therefore +it indirectly tends to diminish the numbers of the present attendants +upon divine service. And what a mockery, in some instances, has the +so-called divine service hitherto been! The director-general of roads in +Van Diemen's Land, some years ago, chose to place catechists and clergy +under a ban, though there was no great risk of his gangs being much +troubled by them, when they had so many other duties to fulfil. And what +was the system which this wise manager of roads chose to substitute for +the teaching of Christ's ministers? At every road-station, daily, +morning and evening, readings of the sacred Scriptures were established, +and "devotional exercises" were added on the sabbath. Well, but who +officiated? Let Archdeacon Hutchins reply in the very words used by him, +when the matter was brought before the notice of the government in 1837. +"These readings of the Scriptures were performed generally, if not +always, by _some of the very worst of the convicts themselves_, +selected, no doubt, for the purpose, not on account of their wickedness, +but of their abilities. They are the best readers, or the cleverest +fellows; and therefore, amongst rogues, generally the greatest. These +are men by whom, as far as the director is concerned, the seed of +religious knowledge is scattered among the road parties. How far +there may be a rational hope of the Divine blessing accompanying such +endeavours, I leave to be declared by any one possessed of common sense +and some little acquaintance with Scripture."[209] Even Jeroboam, the +son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, only "made priests of the _lowest_ +of the people;" he did not, that we read of, appoint the _vilest_ +characters he could find to that office. + + [209] See Speech of the Bishop of Tasmania at Leeds, Nov. 28, + 1842, p. 16. + +The greater part of the settlers in New South Wales and Tasmania have +been derived from those classes, who, in England, except in the rural +districts, have, until recently, been well nigh shut out from their +parish churches; and, in many instances, their mode of life here was +little likely to lead them to a regular attendance upon the public +worship of God, even where there was room for them. But nothing more +surely produces distaste and carelessness in this matter than the total +absence of all regularity respecting it. The truly religious soul, +indeed, when banished by circumstances from the temple of the Lord, is +always inquiring with the royal Psalmist, "When shall I come to appear +before the presence of God?" But the careless man, the worldly-minded +man, indeed the greater part of mankind, it is to be feared, feel no +longing desires of this kind. The further they are removed from the +courts of the Lord's house, the less they think about its blessings, the +less concern they take about religion; so that when an opportunity is +offered them of joining in public worship, it actually is viewed as a +trouble instead of a privilege, and no small pains are taken to escape +from it. For example, it is stated by Mr. Mudie, that when a clergyman +had been able to attend, and divine service was about to commence, upon +his estate, he noticed but few of the convicts there, the rest declining +to come, upon the plea of their being Roman Catholics. But this trick +was of no avail, for their master, being satisfied that they merely +wanted to escape attendance, and to employ the opportunity thus afforded +them of prowling about and thieving, insisted upon all these Romanists +coming up and sitting outside the building in which the others were +assembled. The next time the clergyman came, they were all Protestants. +But in what a wretched state of depravity must men be who can thus +deliberately tell a lie, in order to avoid joining in the worship of +the Lord their Maker! + +To provide for the spiritual wants of our penal colonies would be, under +the most favourable circumstances, no easy matter; and in the actual +condition of affairs, it is a most difficult and discouraging task. For +not only are the ordinary obstacles arising from man's fallen nature to +be surmounted, but the effect of unusually evil influence and bad +example is to be counteracted in a convict population. And far from +opposing this mischievous spirit by "endeavouring to keep the unity of +the spirit in the bond of peace," professing believers are nowhere more +at variance than in Australia; so that the work of turning the hearts of +the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just is perpetually being disturbed +by strife and jealousies among those who ought to be one, even as Christ +and the Father are One. There, as it has been well observed, "the Church +stands upon her own merits, her own divine right; there all the attested +grievances of the Dissenters, secular and political, are removed; no +tithes, no church-rates, no exclusive state support." And yet there, it +may be added, the fierce contentious spirit which rages in England is +unchanged in character, and the way of the Church is just as evil spoken +of in New South Wales as in the mother country. The only grievance the +dissenters can complain of now in Australia is that assistance is +afforded to the Church to a larger amount than they would like. But +this is grievance enough for them to raise an outcry about. And hence +arise fresh hindrances to the progress of true religion in these +settlements. There are other spirits besides the unclean spirits of +infidelity and iniquity which the Church has here to contend against. + +The language of a very zealous and active clergyman of Australia is +this:--"Give us clergy and churches, and I will ensure congregations and +a vast spread of the gospel in the Church of Christ by means of the +Church of England."[210] But, so pitiable is the effect of religious +strife, that rather than allow the necessary means to be given for +this purpose, many would be content to leave things in their present +miserable state; and although, as in the mother country, the majority of +the population belong to the Church of England, yet the minority, in all +its little sections, unite in grudging every effort that is permitted, +every single pound that is spent, by the government in aid of the +Church. There is no communion that can pretend to lay claim to the +religious instruction of the people; it would be too absurd to propose +that the English nation should entrust the religious training of a +colony, like that of New South Wales,[211] containing upwards of 70,000 +persons belonging to the national Church, into the hands of the +Presbyterians, with their 13,153 souls, or into those of the Methodists +and other dissenters, with their 5,093 souls, or even to the Romanists, +with their 35,690 souls! And accordingly, since it was hopeless to get +this important and responsible office exclusively for themselves, all +parties really would seem to have conspired together to keep it, at all +events, from falling into the possession of that body to which it of +right belongs,--the national Church of England and Ireland,--a Church +which the Presbyterians do not generally deny to be scriptural, and +which the Romanists, by their peculiar hostility, proclaim to be, in +the best and oldest meaning of the word, essentially Protestant. Under +feelings of this description, the Roman Catholics, and their +"Presbyterian brethren," (as they can condescend to call them when it +answers their purpose,)[212] have been acting in Australia for some +years past; and, aided by the potent force of agitation upon a +government which "cared for none of these things," except how it might +"please the people," they have been successful. Spurning the very name +of toleration, and despairing of exclusive establishments for their +own communion, they have succeeded in giving birth to a system of +joint-establishment for three communions of Christians, and +encouragement and assistance for as many more as the government may see +fit to patronise. In 1836, the system which now continues in operation +was commenced by Sir R. Bourke, then Governor of New South Wales, who, +in proposing this plan, expressed a confident hope, (which has never yet +been fulfilled,) that thus people of different persuasions "would be +united together in one _bond of peace_." It is pitiable to see a +fellow-creature, and him, too, a man in authority, borrowing an +expression from a passage of Holy Scripture, (Eph. iv. 3,) while he is +at the very time forgetting the duty there enforced. The eye that +glances upon the words "bond of peace," must be very careless or very +wilful, if those other words, "unity of Spirit," or the words below, in +the following verses of the same chapter, altogether escape its notice. +The principal features of the new system are these. It affords +assistance in money towards building a church or chapel, and a +dwelling-house for the minister, in all cases where not less than +300_l._ have been raised by private subscriptions. It provides a stipend +for the support of _ministers of religion_, upon certain conditions, at +the rate of 100_l._ per annum, where there is a population, of 100 adult +persons, (including convicts,) who shall subscribe a declaration stating +their desire to attend his place of worship, and shall be living +within a reasonable distance of the same. If 200 adults in similar +circumstances sign the declaration, a stipend of 150_l._ is granted; and +if 500 persons sign it, the stipend is 200_l._--the highest amount ever +granted towards the support of any one officiating teacher of religion. +In places where there are less than 100 adults ready to subscribe, or +where there is no church or chapel yet erected, the governor may +contribute a stipend not exceeding 100_l._ per annum, but in the latter +case 50_l._ must be promised also from private sources. A certain +proportion of free sittings, (one-fourth, according to Lang, at least +one-sixth part, according to Burton,) is to be reserved in each +building. Such are the principal points of the system, and, according +to the governor's regulations, the assistance thus offered is limited +chiefly to the Church of England, the Church of Rome, and the Scottish +Kirk, which "three grand divisions of Christians"[213] are thus made, in +fact, the three established communions of New South Wales. + + [210] Letter of Rev. W. H. Walsh to S. P. G., dated October 6th, 1840. + + [211] In Van Diemen's Land, in 1838, it was stated that sixteen out of + every twenty-three persons, nearly two-thirds, belonged to the Church + of England. Bishop of Australia's Letter to S. P. G., dated August 18, + 1838. + + [212] See the Memorial of the (Roman) Catholic Inhabitants of New + South Wales to Lord Normanby. Burton on Education and Religion. + Appendix, p. 117. + + [213] Sir Richard Bourke's Letter to the Right Hon. E. G. Stanley, + September 30th, 1833. Sir Richard, in his haste or his ignorance, has + overlooked the Greek Church. + +Undoubtedly good has resulted from the enactment of this law in 1836, +for before that there were scarcely any means open of obtaining help +towards religious instruction, whereas certain means are open now, and +have been very much used. Yet because some good has resulted in this +way, the evil spirit and wretched tendency of the measure must not be +overlooked. All the good that has resulted might have been obtained +without any of its accompanying evil, if a perfect toleration had been +established, the National Church properly endowed, and a sufficient +supply of Roman Catholic priests or Presbyterian teachers for the +convict population of those persuasions liberally supported by +government, as in the gaols in Ireland. In this case, the poor convict, +who is not permitted to possess money, would have had the consolations +of religion, however imperfect, offered to him in his own way, while the +free settler would have had the doors of the national Church opened to +him, or the liberty, in case of his dissenting from that, of providing +for himself a separate conventicle. Where would have been the hardship +of this arrangement? Or why should the _voluntary system_, which is, in +the northern hemisphere, so highly extolled by many Irish Romanists and +not a few Presbyterians, in the southern, be thought a punishment and +degradation? Thus, "not only has equal protection,--for God forbid that +we should ever repine at equal protection,--but equal encouragement been +given by government to every description of religious faith, and every +denomination of professing Christians, in some of the most important +dependencies of the British crown."[214] Is not this, it may be asked, +the very course which a mild and tolerant _heathen_ government would +pursue? And is the same policy, which would probably be followed by +heathen rulers, either right or expedient in rulers professing +themselves to be Christians? + + [214] Bishop of Exeter's Charge in 1837. + +Certainly, whatever other arrangements might have been adopted, those +that have been made are faulty in principle; and this is true, although +it be confessed that some good has arisen from them, since through them +an increased supply of religious teaching has been afforded to the +colonists, however reluctantly wrung from the government in behalf of +the Church of England. The faultiness of principle in these arrangements +is thus stated by the present Bishop of Australia, a man well fitted to +the responsible station which he fills in Christ's Church. "By the +government plan of aid," he observes, "encouragement is given to the +lax and dangerous opinion, that there is in religion nothing that is +either certain or true. The government virtually admits that there is no +divinely-instituted form of church-membership, or of doctrine, otherwise +that one would in preference receive its support. The consequence is +that the most awful truths of Christianity, which have been acknowledged +and preserved in the Church from the beginning, are now frequently +spoken of as merely sectarian opinions, to which no peculiar respect is +due."[215] The Roman Catholics hailed this measure with delight, for +what to them can be a greater triumph or a more gratifying spectacle +than to behold a great Protestant nation, inquiring, as Pilate did, +"What is truth?" The Presbyterians, likewise, and Protestant Dissenters, +were not behind their brethren of Rome (though there were fewer voices +to join the shout) in greeting so exquisitely liberal a measure, which +is actually founded upon some of their favourite notions respecting the +harmlessness of divisions, the total invisibility of the Church, and the +hatefulness of "a dominant episcopacy." The rejoicings which were to be +heard in quarters apparently so opposite boded no good from the measure +to the Church of England; and, certainly, from the strange way in which +this law has been carried into operation, so far as that communion is +concerned, the Government are not to be thanked for any favourable +results that have followed. Through the activity of the members of our +Church, both at home and in Australia, an increased supply of churches +and of clergy has indeed been obtained; but this has, in most instances, +literally been wrung from the ruling powers; while the only boon +that was freely given,--a most valuable boon, it is willingly +acknowledged,--was the appointment of a bishop instead of an archdeacon. +However, the value of the boon thus obtained was lessened by the +disregard shown by Government to the wants of the Church in Australia. +The Bishop returned from England, after his consecration in 1836, +_alone, without being accompanied by a single clergyman_, because, while +Roman Catholic priests and Presbyterian teachers were still eligible to +receive, and did receive, the aid of government, the Church of England +was to remain as it was, notwithstanding its pressing wants and +increasing numbers. All allowances towards the expense of the passage, +or residence, or means of support for any additional clergymen, were +refused. During five years, from 1832 to 1836, the number of chaplains +continued to be the same, except in 1833, when there were only fifteen +instead of sixteen in the estimates; and this was not because no +increase was needful,--for when an outfit of 150_l._, and a yearly +salary of 50_l._ were generously furnished to twenty clergymen by the +Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in consequence of the extreme +necessity of the case, every one of these were instantly employed. A +subscription, amounting to 3,000_l._ was at this time raised in England +in behalf of the Church in Australia, and when the Government perceived +that public opinion was awakened in its favour, and that they had +succeeded in giving their friends and supporters a tolerably good start, +they at length agreed, with the tact peculiar to them, to place the +Church of England (at least nominally) upon the same footing with the +two other "grand divisions of Christians." + + [215] Bishop of Australia's Letter to the Society for the Propagation + of the Gospel, August 18, 1838. + +Now, therefore, the same assistance in outfit, and the same amount of +salary proportioned to the numbers of the congregation, are awarded, +according to the Act, to the teachers of each of these three divisions. +And thus, as Sir R. Bourke informs Lord Glenelg, in 1837, ministers +of the Church of England have been forthcoming to "answer (in many +instances) the calls of congregations of their communion;" while, as a +matter of course, where no call is heard, no answer is attempted to be +given. How very opposite is this modern idea of _the sheep calling the +shepherd to them_, from that pattern set before us by the good Shepherd, +who "came to seek and to save that which was lost!" But still, though +nominally upon an equality with the others, it is distressing to find +how hard a measure has been dealt to the Church in New South Wales; how +studiously every petty advantage that could be taken has been taken of +it by a Government calling itself liberal and impartial. A few instances +of this shall be given, which may serve to show how our brethren in the +colonies have been treated, and how we should ourselves be treated, if +dissent and Romanism could get the upper-hand in our native country; for +then, at the very best, the clergy would be placed, as they now are in +Australia, "in a state of dependence upon two unstable supports;--the +will of Government, and the disposition of the people."[216] At present, +the latter is favourable enough in Australia; but the good-will of the +Government towards the Church has been indeed strangely shown within the +last few years. When the other communions and persuasions in the colony +had nearly, if not altogether, provided themselves with the number of +ministers that the law would allow them, while the wants of the Church +remained, to a great extent, unsupplied, advantage was taken of an +expression in a letter of the governor, Sir George Gipps,[217] and a +limitation was imposed upon the government assistance by Lord Normanby, +which operated exclusively to the hurt of the Church of England. In a +like spirit it was that the governor of New South Wales refused to +consider as private contributions for schools either sums granted by the +societies in England, or by their diocesan committee in New South Wales; +although, in both instances, the money was raised entirely by private +subscription. The inconvenience, delay, and disappointment which this +one arbitrary rule occasioned were astonishing; and to those who took +delight in balking the efforts and thwarting the good works of our +Church, it must have been very gratifying. So, too, must the refusal, in +1841, of a piece of land for a site of a church and parsonage in the +wild district on the banks of the Morrumbidgee, containing 1,200 souls, +dispersed about over a very extensive range of country. + + [216] See Bishop of Australia's Charge in 1841, p. 10. + + [217] On November 9th, 1838, Sir G. Gipps wrote to Lord Glenelg, stating + that "he was happy to say there was no want in the colony of clergy of + _any denomination_!" It was only in December 1837 that the Bishop of + Australia had requested eighteen or nineteen _presbyters of the Church + of England_ for as many places as had actually complied with the + government rules, and not more than half the number had, in the interim, + been supplied. + +Another example of similar conduct has occurred since the change of +ministry at home, which would, it might have been hoped, have infused a +better feeling into the colonial authorities. At the end of 1841, the +Bishop proposed to erect, in certain spots, small wooden churches, as +the only means of obtaining churches at all; trusting, that after these +had stood forty or fifty years, they might be replaced by buildings of +a higher and more lasting character. The average cost of these humble +little buildings was to be from 100_l._ to 120_l._; and they were +intended for very poor districts; but since the outlay did not amount +to 300_l._, the Government would give nothing, and no effort was made +to introduce a modification of the law (supposing that to have been +needful) in order to meet such cases. Instances to the same effect might +easily be multiplied. In New South Wales land is comparatively cheap, +and a horse is an indispensable necessary for a clergyman; but no part +of the government grant is allowed to be spent in purchasing more than +an acre for the site of a church, and half an acre for a house and +garden. "To extend the latter allowance to any quantity of land from +which an income might be derived, would increase the emoluments of the +minister, at the public expense, beyond what the Act contemplates;" so +the Bishop of Australia was assured by official authority in 1836. But +enough of these miserable instances of state-peddling in ecclesiastical +establishments. "There is no semblance," to use Mr. Gladstone's words, +"in any part of these arrangements, of a true and sound conception of +the conscientious functions of government in matters of religion."[218] +May we venture to hope that the present ministry, of which the writer of +the above is a distinguished member, may exhibit in their conduct and +arrangements, both in the colonies and at home, a more sound and true +conception of their duty than was ever shown by their predecessors? Such +hopes, undoubtedly, are entertained by a portion of the British public, +not unimportant either in numbers or in moral and political influence. +Nevertheless, the zealously attached members of the Church of England +need not to be reminded of a truth which is frequently brought before +them in the circle of its daily service. They know that "it is better to +trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in princes." They are sure +that, if theirs is a living branch of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, +many a weapon will be formed against it, but yet "no weapon that is +formed against it shall prosper." + + [218] Gladstone's State in its Relations with the Church, chap. + vii. p. 272. + +It would be wearying to the reader to attempt to enter into the same +details respecting schools as have been stated with regard to churches. +The fate of the Church and School Corporation has elsewhere been +related.[219] Suffice it to say, then, that the same spirit of hostility +or indifference has been equally exhibited in both cases; indeed, it +would be strange if the bitter enemies, and feeble or false friends of +that system of religious instruction which is carried on among the adult +population by our national Church, were not alike vigorous in their +opposition, or impotent in their friendship, to the system of religious +training among the infant population which is wrought out by our +national schools. However, in mentioning the subject of schools, the +unsuccessful attempt of the Government, in 1836, to saddle the colony of +New South Wales with schools conducted upon the modern Irish system, +must not be left unnoticed. On this occasion, it may be observed, the +Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist, and Wesleyan "denominations of +Christians," were actually forced to leave, for a while, their liberal +friends and allies of the Church of Rome, and to seek the assistance, +and rejoice in the strength of the "exclusive" and "dominant" Church of +England. It is really curious to observe these various sects seeking out +the Bishop of Australia, and requesting him to preside at their meeting +in opposition to the proposed measure; and since, although he disagreed +with them in a matter not then at issue, namely, the need of creeds and +catechisms in imparting religious instruction, nevertheless, as he +agreed entirely with them in the matter which was at issue,--the +propriety and necessity of using the Holy Scriptures in religious +teaching,--he complied with their request, presided at their meeting, +and signed their petition. He also presented a petition from himself on +the same subject; for the Government had so contrived to shuffle between +the Archdeacon and the Bishop, that Dr. Broughton, who had very recently +been consecrated, could, just at the time when the education scheme +was to have passed, claim a seat in the legislative council in neither +capacity. It so happened, that by an official neglect at the +Colonial-office in London, no patent, including the Bishop as a member, +had been forwarded to New South Wales; so when he reached Sydney, he +found himself excluded from his seat in the council during the whole +time in which this matter was under discussion there. The plan appeared +to be successful; 3,000_l._ was devoted towards establishing the new +scheme, and an honoured name, that of "National Schools," was pilfered, +and bestowed upon those that were projected in Sydney. But, in this +instance, high principle and popular feeling were united against the +Irish scheme; and as it began with a blunder at the Colonial-office, so +it proved to be little better than a blunder throughout. The schools +proposed were never established; and since that time the Roman Catholics +have made a different sort of attempt to gain educational power, by +obtaining separate sums for their own schools, and swamping the members +of the Church of England, under the honourable but much abused +appellation of Protestants, in the general quagmire of heresy and +schism. However, this second effort, which was made with the sanction +of the Government, was defeated chiefly (under Providence) by the zeal +and ability of the Bishop; and whoever is desirous of seeing a noble +specimen of clear reasoning and manly eloquence, will be gratified and +improved by reading the Bishop of Australia's speech upon the occasion +of this scheme having been proposed by Sir George Gipps in the +legislative council. Certainly, when we consider how admirably +Bishop Broughton demolished Sir George Gipps's scheme, we must own +that the tact was very acute,--or at least the _mistake_ rather +_suspicious_,--which shut him out of the legislative council when +Governor Bourke's plan was in agitation. + + [219] See the latter part of Chapter XI. + +Besides the schools assisted by Government for the education of the +lower orders, there are, of course, many private schools in the +Australian colonies; and it is believed that these important +establishments are no longer so commonly under the direction of men +that have been convicts as they formerly were. Undoubtedly, one who +has been transported _may_, perchance, turn out afterwards to be a good +instructor of youth, but what christian parent would willingly risk his +child's religious and moral progress upon a chance, a possibility, of +this kind? The King's School at Paramatta is an excellent establishment, +founded and conducted upon the principles of the Church of England. +Sydney College is another well-conducted school, but its principles are +more open to objection. "It is to be believed," as has been remarked, +"that a desire to gain the support of men of all religious principles, +led to the Sydney College being founded on none;" and it was scarcely +possible to fall into a greater error than that of passing almost +unnoticed the one thing needful. It is true, that prayers are used daily +in this school, and there seems, from Judge Burton's account of it, to +be much that is good and praiseworthy in its management and details. But +a school where the children of Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews, +meet together, must be, at best, an odd jumble; and the religious +tendency of such an education must be very questionable. + +The Australian College is said by Dr. Lang, its founder, to be the +most promising establishment in New South Wales, being more likely to +resemble in course of time a small university or college in Europe than +the others are. It is chiefly in the hands of the Presbyterians, and +appears to be a thriving and well-conducted school of general learning. +Religious instruction is not neglected, but all this department of +education is arranged in a vague and general way, so as to avoid as much +as possible disputed points; and if parents or guardians object to +children receiving this kind of instruction at all, these pupils are +allowed to withdraw at the times when it is given. If no essential +points of Christianity had ever been brought into dispute, it might +have been wise to avoid those unessential points that had been; or if +religion were a matter of indifference or secondary consequence, then it +might be well to provide for pupils withdrawing beyond the reach of its +voice. But since neither of these suppositions are true, the system of +the Australian College cannot be recommended. It may be very _liberal_. +It is not very _wise_. But it is hard to say when we have reached the +extremity of any opinions. The plan of the Australian College is far too +narrow and confined for some choice spirits of New South Wales; and +accordingly the Normal Institution, as it is pompously designated, has +been formed by a seceder from the first-named establishment. It is said +to be tolerably flourishing, and no wonder, for it offers a very fair +_secular_ education, and this is sufficient for the children of this +world,--unhappily, no insignificant or small class either in New South +Wales or elsewhere. But the christian reader will be satisfied of the +sandy foundation on which the Normal Institution is raised, when he +glances over the following extracts from its original prospectus. The +pupils are to be afforded "every facility and abundant materials for +forming opinions of their own,"--young children, instead of being +brought to Christ, are to be allowed (if they can) to find their way to +Him. The prospectus says, "Till the mind has formed religious opinions +of its own, grounded on a wide range of religious knowledge, the +profession of religion is meaningless, if not incalculably pernicious." +Our Lord's words are, "Except ye be converted and become as little +children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." But it is vain to +quote the words of Scripture to men who will make professions like this: +"To inculcate any given set of religious tenets, or to teach any given +set of religious text-books, would be to lend my labours to a party +whilst I profess to labour for mankind." As though, forsooth, we could +ever labour more advantageously for mankind than when we try to persuade +them, from their very tenderest years, to believe in the Bible and to +belong to the church of God! + +It is the expressed opinion of the highest authority in the church of +Australia, that New South Wales, which is certainly the farthest +advanced of all our colonies there, is not yet ripe for the +establishment of a regular college, resembling our ancient and venerated +English universities. But this most important object has not been lost +sight of; and while a grammar-school has recently been opened in St. +James's parish in Sydney, and another is projected at Newcastle, both of +which are intended to form a nursery for the future college, the means +of providing this last are beginning to accumulate. Mr. Thomas Moore, of +Liverpool, in New South Wales, who died in 1840, has left the site of +his house in Liverpool, with ground adjoining, together with 700 acres +of land, in trust towards the establishment of a college in immediate +and exclusive connexion with the Church of England and Ireland. This +bequest, in itself insufficient for the proposed purpose, will yet serve +for a foundation to begin upon; 3,000_l._ were voted in January, 1840, +by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge to advance the same +good object, and it is expected that the fund will increase and gather +strength before the time shall have arrived when it will be thought +advisable to commence the college. A new school, attached to the Church +of England, is also about to be begun in Van Diemen's Land. It is to be +called Archdeacon Hutchins's school, being intended by its promoters for +a lasting and useful memorial of their respect for the late lamented +Archdeacon of Van Diemen's Land. In the last published account of this +undertaking, it is stated that about 850_l._ was subscribed for this +purpose, but at least 2,000_l._ will be wanted. Our noble Society for +Promoting Christian Knowledge, ever active in advancing the glorious +purpose for which it was formed, has contributed 100_l._ towards this +school, which is to be built at Hobart Town. And it may be observed, +that henceforth Van Diemen's Land will demand even more spiritual care +and assistance than the elder colony; for by recent arrangements, the +transportation of criminals to New South Wales has altogether ceased, +and Van Diemen's Land is now the only colony to which convicts are +conveyed.[220] + + [220] For the particulars here stated, see the Report of the Society + for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for 1842, pp. 56-64. + +A census of the population of New South Wales was taken on the 2d of +March, in the year 1841, and the general result of this is here added +for the satisfaction of the reader. In the whole colony, including its +various dependencies, but exclusive of Van Diemen's Land,[221] the +total of inhabitants was 130,856, of which number 43,558 were females, +and 87,298 males, being as nearly as possible two to one in favour of +the latter. The number of houses, mostly built of wood, was 16,776, +nearly in the proportion of eight inhabitants to each house. The return +of the various religious persuasions was as follows:--Church of England, +73,727, forming a clear majority upon the whole population. Scotch Kirk, +13,153, forming about a tenth of the whole amount of the inhabitants of +New South Wales. Members of the Church of Rome, 35,690, being rather +more than one-fourth of the population. Protestant Dissenters, including +Wesleyans, 5,093, making about one-twenty-sixth of the whole. Jews, 856, +Mahometans and Pagans, 207. Of the inhabitants of New South Wales in +1841, 101,749 were returned as free, while 26,977 were in bondage.[222] +In 1836, there was about one and three-quarters free to one bond, while +in 1841, there were four free to one bond, the proportion of free to the +whole population having gained sixteen per cent. in the five years. +Henceforth, from the natural increase by births, from the influx of +emigrants, and the stoppage of transportation, the advance will be much +more rapid. The population of Sydney was, in 1841, no less than 29,973 +souls; of these, 16,505 were returned as members of the Church of +England; 8,126 belonged to the Romish Church; 3,111 were members of the +Scotch Kirk; 1,707 were Protestant Dissenters; 462 were Jews; and 62 +Mahometans and Pagans. It will be seen, that in the population of the +metropolis of the colony, the proportions of the various religious +opinions are not very materially different from those in the whole +of New South Wales, except that the number of Roman Catholics and +Dissenters are greater, as they usually are in large towns, and that in +Sydney the Romanists have increased, whilst in the colony generally they +have diminished since the last census. + + [221] "It has been found impossible to state accurately the present + population of Tasmania. No information could be obtained at the + well-known colonial publisher's (Cross's) in Holborn." + + [222] These numbers are copied from a Sydney newspaper, but from some + difference in the elements of calculation, possibly from not including + the population of Norfolk Island, they do not quite tally with those + given above. + +A few words may not be out of place, in a work descriptive of the +Australian colonies, upon the subject of emigration, but so much has +been written upon this matter, that a very few words may suffice to give +the opinions of those who are practically acquainted with the subject. +Undoubtedly, active, industrious, and prudent persons, are likely to +prosper in Australia to a degree which is impossible, and scarcely +credible, in Great Britain. No doubt, Providence has in these, and in +our other colonies, given England a means of letting its surplus +population escape in a way that shall not be merely safe, but even +profitable, to the mother country, as well as to the emigrants +themselves. The average consumption of English manufactures by the +Australian colonists, has recently been stated to amount to ten guineas +a-head, while that of the inhabitants of the European countries is only +two shillings.[223] And what true-born Englishman would refuse to +rejoice in the increased demand thus likely to be opened for our +manufactures, and in the increased prosperity of our fellow-subjects on +the other side of the globe, who are thus enabled to supply their own +wants, by purchasing English goods? The objections which we hear +occasionally urged against emigration amount, with one important +exception, to little or nothing. The distance and long voyage, the risk +of not succeeding, the impossibility now of pig-drivers and convicts +becoming masters of many thousands a-year,[224] the paramount necessity +of patient industry and prudent forecast in Australia, no less than in +the rest of the world,--all these circumstances offer no reasonable +hindrance to the emigrant's attempt, either to better his condition, or +else to get that daily bread which in England he finds difficult to be +obtained. And, whatever obstacles of this kind may at first deter him, +the careful settler will soon find himself victorious over these, and +more comfortably situated, in a worldly sense, than he ever before was. + + [223] See the speech of Mr. C. Buller in the House of Commons, on + Thursday, April 6th, 1843, upon the subject of colonization. + + [224] See Evidence before Committee on Transportation in 1837, p. 41. + +_In a worldly sense_, it is said, because, unhappily, there is one great +objection to all emigration, belonging to it of necessity, which, in the +English colonies, and not least so in Australia, has been fearfully +increased and needlessly aggravated. The want of religious instruction +in newly-peopled countries, and among a widely-scattered and pastoral +population, must needs be grievous, even under the most favourable +circumstances. And if these countries are used as penal settlements, the +want is likely to be still more deplorable. But the evil is inflamed to +the utmost degree, when, as in Australia during the earlier years of its +colonial history, little provision of any kind is made for the spiritual +need of the people, or when, as in the same country in later years, "a +system is pursued which would seem to indicate an utter indifference on +the part of those who dispense the national treasure, whether truth +or falsehood shall characterise the religious creeds of any of the +colonists."[225] And thus, while the sum total of religious provision +is very insufficient, that little is divided in a kind of scramble among +various parties, so that Irish Roman Catholics, who cry up the voluntary +system at home, are tempted to glory in being one of "the three +established communions" in New South Wales; and Scotch Presbyterians, +who profess extreme ardour for the American system of "leaving every +religious denomination to support its own ministers," find in Australia +assistance from Government (or even from a clergyman of the Church of +England)[226] very convenient, and "a' vera weel," as the cannie Scots +say. With so much irreligion, so small and so miserably divided a power +to oppose it, as we behold in Australia, the great question with every +one proposing to emigrate is, whether he can take that step without +probable spiritual loss; and at this price he would find all worldly +gain too dearly bought. There are many places in our colonies, it is +true, where a person may use (or, if he pleases, neglect) the means of +grace, exactly as at home; and against these spots the objection now +urged would not at all weigh. But before any one removes himself into +the wilderness, or far away from any place of worship, except the chapel +of the Roman Catholic or the meeting of the separatist, he should be +well rooted and grounded in the faith of his fathers. And supposing him +to be so, what real patriot could wish a man of this kind to emigrate! +How ill can England spare out of any rank of life such persons as these! +Before emigration can become as general and respectable as it ought +to be, _religion_ must be made its groundwork; and religion, to be +successful in doing the work of Christ in the hearts of men, must not +consist in that modern jumble of denominations, which pretends to the +name, but must teach its doctrines by means of the ministrations of the +"Church of the Living God," which is the pillar and ground of the truth. +When this foundation has been laid, then can the conscientious churchman +zealously promote emigration, and not before. And if it should never be +laid, still, whatever may be his fears for weak brethren, or his value +for more steadfast fellow-members of Christ, influencing him to avoid +the responsibility of advising them to quit the home of their fathers, +the faithful churchman will be under no alarm whatever, respecting the +stability of the branch planted by his mother-church in Australia. Nor +yet will he grudge all other denominations (unless they be blasphemous +or immoral,) the most complete toleration. Nay, were it not for the +mischief that would arise to Christianity and to the souls of men, they +might be welcome to all the support and patronage of the State; and if +they obtain it all, even then we fear them not; indeed it is our duty +to pity them, to love them, to pray for them as brethren. Whatever +may be the fate either of Australia or England, the lot of Christ's +Church--that visible Church of His which was founded upon the first +preaching of Peter both to the Jews and to the Gentiles--is fixed and +determined:--it is firmly built upon a rock, and "the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it." + + [225] See the Bishop of Exeter's Charge in 1837. + + [226] Compare Dr. Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. pp. 375, 288; + and Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 13. + + +R. 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