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 GLASGOW MEiiBOUf^NE S(, DUNI-TjIN 
 ^!CGREADY. THOMSON. f^ND NIYEN 
 
 157s
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA 
 
 FROM THE FIRST DAWN OF DISCOVERY IN THE SOUTHERN 
 
 OCEAN TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 
 
 IN THE VARIOUS COLONIES 
 
 COMPRISING THE 
 
 SETTLEMENT AND HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, VICTORIA, 
 
 SOUTH AUSTRALIA, QUEENSLAND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 
 
 TASMANIA, AND NEW ZEALAND 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF FIJI AND NEW GUINEA 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID BLAIR 
 
 MiunoM^ ilhi^ix'dioM nub gn^s 
 
 GLASGOW, MELBOURNE, AND DUNEDIN 
 M^GREADY, THOMSON, & NIVEN 
 
 1878
 
 ECINBUKGH : 
 
 PRINTED BY m'FAULANE AXD EBSKINB, 
 
 ST JAMES SQTJARE.
 
 ^DU 
 
 1 I o 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 T^HE present volume is the first complete history of Australasia that has ever 
 been given to the world. In a work intended for popular circulation, and 
 of such extent, there must of necessity be much more of compilation than of 
 original composition. The Compiler has therefore to acknowledge that he has 
 made free use of all the works hitherto published relating to the Southern 
 Colonies, either collectively or separately. In particular he would specify the 
 works of Flinders, the Rev. Julian Woods, Westgarth, M'Combie, the Rev. 
 Dr Lang, Wentworth, the Rev. John West, Bennett, Sidney, Bouwick, Harcus, 
 Dr Thomson, Colonel Mundy, the journals of the several explorers, the official 
 handbooks of the various colonies, and a large mass of voyages, travels, 
 descriptive sketches, and articles in the English reviews and magazines. As, 
 in most cases, the portions extracted from printed works have been carefully 
 condensed, verified, and sometimes almost re-written, it was not deemed neces- 
 sary to give specific acknowledgment, or to cumber the j^ages with footnotes. 
 The work, as it stands, may fairly be accepted as a foithful epitome of all that 
 has ever yet been published respecting the British dominions in the South. To 
 original research, learned disquisition, or brilliancy of narrative, it makes no 
 pretensions whatsoever. But for strict adherence to truth, accuracy as to all 
 historical facts, and painstaking collation of conflicting accounts, it may claim 
 to be considered a standard authority. The work, in short, is a complete 
 Australian library within the covers of a single volume. For obvious reasons, 
 the history has not been extended beyond the introduction of self-government 
 into the various colonies. To narrate the political history of each ct)lony 
 separately would require a series of volumes almost as numerous as those upon 
 which the present work is founded ; whilst an attempt to epitomise that history 
 
 789901
 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 would merely be to give a dry catalogue of the legislative measures passed, 
 and lists of the names of successive ministries. Besides, the political history of 
 any one colony has really little or no interest for readers outside that particular 
 colony. The people of New South Wales, for example, are not deeply inter- 
 ested in the poHtics of South Australia. The colonists of Victoria hardly feel 
 any way concerned in the politics of Queensland. This volume, in fine, is what 
 its title announces — "A History of Australasia." The time has not yet come 
 when the special political history of any one of the Southern Colonies may be 
 so written as to form an instructive and valuable addition to the world's 
 literatui'e.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 EARLY NAVIGATORS AXD DISCOVERERS IX THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 
 
 PAOR 
 
 INTRODUCTION, . 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 EARLIEST DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 
 
 IGNORANCE OF THE ANCIENTS RESPECTING A SOUTHERN OCEAN — FIRST GLEAM OF LIGHT FROM 
 
 ARABIA — " THE SEA OF PITCHY DARKNESS " MARCO POLO's DISCOVERIES BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ 
 
 AND VASCO DI GAMA — VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA — HIS ADVENTURES AND DISCOVERY OF THE 
 
 PACIFIC — HE TAKES POSSESSION OF IT FOR SPAIN NAMES IT THE SOUTH SEA — HIS FATE — 
 
 MAGALHAENS' ADVENTURES, DISCOVERIES, AND FATE, ...... 
 
 CHAPTEK IT. 
 DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT SOUTH LAND. 
 
 DIM NOTIONS OF THE ANCIENTS OP A GREAT SOUTH LAND — SENECA, THEOPOMPUS, AND MANILIUS 
 
 THE CHINESE CLAIM TO THE DISCOVERY DE GONNEVILLE'S CLAIM MAGALHAENS' CLAIM — MR 
 
 major's RESEARCHES HAVE ESTABLISHED THE PORTUGUESE CLAIM, .... 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 VOYAGE OF DE QUIROS. 
 
 PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS — PILOT IN THE SPANISH EXPEDITION OF L594 HIS PREVIOUS ADVEN- 
 TURES — SUPERSTITION RESPECTING THE SOUTH SEA — FATE OP THE EARLIEST NAVIGATORS — 
 
 QUIROS AT PERU ASSERTS THE EXISTENCE OF A GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT — SENT TO SPAIN 
 
 OBTAINS ORDERS FOR AN EXPEDITION SAILS FROM CALLAO LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES EXPEDI- 
 TION — LANDS AT AN ISLAND — TAUMACO — MANICOLO — AUSTRALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO HOS- 
 TILITY OF THE NATIVES — QUIROS SAILS FOR MEXICO — HIS APPEALS TO PHILIP THE SECOND — 
 
 ANOTHER EXPEDITION DE QUIROS SETS OUT, BUT DIES AT PANAMA ADVENTURES OF TORRES 
 
 NEW HEBRIDES NEW GUINEA SIGHTS THE NORTHERN COAST OF THE SOUTHERN CONTINENT 
 
 HAD PASSED UNWITTING THROUGH TORRES STRAITS RETURNS TO MANILLA HIS ACCOI'NT OF 
 
 HIS VOYAGE- SPANISH CARELESSNESS TORRES STRAIT NAMED. ....
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 EARLY DUTCH NAVIGATORS. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC — ITS MARITIME ENTERPRISE — VOYAGE OF THE " DUYFHEN " — 
 
 CAUSES OF ITS FAILURE — FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT SOUTHERN LAND YACHT VOYAGE IN 
 
 1617 DIRK HATICHS' VOYAGE EENDRACHT'S LAND RELICS OF HATICHs' VOYAGE ZEACHEN 
 
 NAMES ARNHEIM LAND VAN EDELS NAMES VAN EDELS' LAND AND CAPE LEEUWIN VAN NUYTS 
 
 NAMES VAN NUYTs' LAND — DE WITT's LAND NAMED — CAPTAIN PETER CAEl'RNTER CARSTEN's 
 
 EXPEDITION pool's EXPEDITION, ......•• 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 PELSART'S VOYAGE AND RHIP\VRECK. 
 
 DUTCH EXPEDITION OP 1628 FRANCIS PELSART COMMANDER OF THE " BATAVIA " SEPARATED FROM 
 
 THE FLEET IN A STORM REACHES THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND THE SHIP STRIKES ON HOUT- 
 
 MAN'S ABROLHOS PASSENGERS AND CREW LAND ON THE ROCKS— SUFFERINGS OF THE SHIP- 
 WRECKED PEOPLE PELSART RETURNS TO BATAVIA FOR AID AND SUPPLIES — MUTINY AMONGST 
 
 THE SAILORS AND MURDEROUS DESIGN — PELSART RETURNS EXECUTES THE MUTINEERS EXCEPT- 
 ING TWO, WHO ARE MAROONED PELSART RETURNS WITH THE SHIPWRECKED PEOPLE TO BATAVIA 
 
 SEARCH FOR WATER DISCOVERS NATIVES — END OF THE VOYAGE THE TWO MAROONED 
 
 SEAMEN, ........... 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 TASMAN'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 
 
 ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY — DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY — GOVERNOR VAN DIEMEN AND ABEL 
 
 JANSZ TASMAN — TASMAN's JOURNAL OF HIS FIRST VOYAGE EXPEDITION OF 1642 DISCOVERY OF 
 
 VAN DIEMEn's LAND ADVENTURES THERE — TAKES POSSESSION — ESTIMATE OF TASMAN's DIS- 
 COVERIES NEW ZEALAND DISCOVERED — FATAL AFFRAY AT MURDERERS' BAY — TASMAN LEAVES 
 
 NEW ZEALAND TASMAN's SECOND VOYAGE IN 1644 HIS INSTRUCTIONS — MAPS AND SKETCHES 
 
 OF HIS DISCOVERIES — ADMIRAL BURNEy'S ESTIMATE OF TASMAN, . . . .19 
 
 CHAPTER Vll. 
 
 DAMPIER'S FIRST VOYAGE. 
 
 THE BUCCANEERS — DAMPIRR'S BIRTH AND EDUCATION — JOINS THE BUCCANEERS — GAINS COMMAND OF 
 
 THE "cygnet" — MAKES A CRUISE TO NEW HOLLAND^ — HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTINENT 
 
 ITS INHABITANTS THEIR HABITS THEIR BABBARIS.M OF MANNERS THEIR LANGUAGE INTER- 
 COURSE WITH THEM —DAWl'lEK QUITS NEW HOLLAND AND SAILS FOR EUROPE, . . .24 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DAMPIER'S SECOND VOYAGE. 
 
 EXPEDITION OP 1699 — DAMPIER COMMANDS THE "ROEBUCK" — STRIKES ON THE ABROLHOS SHOAL — 
 
 shark's BAY NAMED DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY — THE KANGAROO FIRST SEEN DAMPIER 
 
 LEAVES THE BAY ANCHORS AT UOSICMARV ISLAND- SAILS, AND AGAIN .SIGHTS LAND SEES SOME
 
 CONTENTS. Tii 
 
 29 
 
 NATIVES ENCOUNTER WITH TUEM THE CHIEF OF THE TRIBE THE GIANT ANT-HILLS NATIVE PAGE 
 
 DOGS — DA.MPIER LEAVES THE COAST OP NEW HOLLAND — HIS SUBSEQUENT SHIPWRECK — ARRIVES 
 
 IN ENGLAND IS PILOT IN WOODES ROGERS'S EXPEDITION IN 1708 ALEXANDER SELKIRK 
 
 DAMPIER AGAIN RETURNS TO ENGLAND — HIS ABILITIES AS A NAVIGATOR AND DISCOVERER — TESTI- 
 MONIES OF EMINENT SEAMEN OUSCURE CONCLUSION OP DAMPIEIl's LIFE, . 
 
 CnATTEE IX. 
 NAVIGATORS FROM DAMPIER TO COOK. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION OF VLAMING ITS BLANK RESULTS RETURNS TO BATAVIA THE THREE DUTCH- 
 VESSELS OP 1705 THE "ZEEWYK" SUMMARY OP DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTH SEA BEFORE 
 
 cook's time MAINLY DUE TO THE DUTCH MERCENARY MOTIVES OF THE NAVIGATORS TASMAN'S 
 
 VOYAGES THE GREAT EXCEPTION THE GREAT SOUTH LAND TILL THEN PRACTICALLY UNDIS- 
 COVERED — MISTAKEN IDEAS CONCERNING ITS EXTENT AND CAPABILITIES ROMANTIC NOTION OP 
 
 ITS VAST WEALTH AND SPLENDOUR, . . . , ... 
 
 35 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 COOK'S DISCOVERIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 COOK'S EAELY LIFE. 
 
 LINE OP ILLUSTRIOUS ENGLISH NAVIGATORS — COOK THE COLUMBUS OP THE ^.OUTIIEIiN OCEAN — UK 
 
 BIRTH AND EDUCATION SELF-EDUCATION THE COOK FAMILY IS APPRENTICED TO A DRAPER 
 
 HIS PASSION FOR THE SEA TAKES SERVICE WITH A SHIPPING FIRM THE ENGLISH COAL TRADE — • 
 
 COOK ENTERS THE BRITISH NAVY SIR HUGH PALLISER — COOK PROMOTED EMPLOYED IN THE 
 
 WAR IN CANADA HIS ACHIEVEMENT THERE APPOINTED A MASTER IN THE NAVY — MARINE 
 
 SURVEYOR OP NEWFOUNDLAND — RETURNS TO ENGLAND MAERIES^RESUMES HIS LABOURS IN 
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND RETURNS AGAIN TO ENGLAND, . . 38 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 COOK'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC APPOINTMENT. 
 
 TRANSIT OF VENUS IN 1769 — EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTHERN OCEAN TO OBSERVE IT — COOK APPOINTED 
 
 TO THE COMMAND HIS PRUDENT SELECTION OF VESSELS FOR THE EXPEDITION THE " ENDEA- 
 
 YOUK " ITS STAFF OF OFFICERS — COOK's INSTRUCTIONS, ..... 43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 COOK'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION SAILS — CROSSES THE LINE — REACHES OTAHEITE — OBSERVATION OP THE TRANSIT OF 
 
 VENUS — COOK LEAVES OTAHEITE — REACHES NEW ZEALAND APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — 
 
 ENCOUNTERS WITH THE NATIVES COOK TAKES SOME PRISONERS — HIS APOLOGY FOR USING
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 FORCE — RELEASES THE PRISONERS — LEAVES POVERTY BAY — EXCOUNTERS WITH NATIVES AT CAPE PAOE 
 KIDNAPPERS — EXPLORES THE COAST NORTHWARD — DISCOVERS COOK'S STRAITS — TAKES POSSES- 
 SION OP NEW ZEALAND — COMPLETES CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF NORTHERN ISLAND — ALSO OF 
 SOUTHERN ISLAND — NATIVE ACCOUNT OF THEIR IMPRESSIONS OF THE VOYAGERS, . . 46 
 
 CHATTEE IV. 
 COOK'S DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA- 
 
 COOK THE FIRST TO PROVE NEW ZEALAND INSULAR SEARCH FOR A GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT 
 
 COOK LEAVES NEW ZEALAND — SIGHTS THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT — POINT HICKS — NATIVES 
 
 SEEN BOTANY BAY — APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY PORT JACKSON — VOYAGE ALONG THE 
 
 COAST NORTHWARD PERILOUS POSITION AND PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE — CAPE TRIBULATION — 
 
 KANGAROOS FIRST SEEN CAPE FLATTERY — MORE PERILS AND PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE — COOK 
 
 NAMES AND TAKES POSSESSION OF NEW SOUTH WALES, ...... 54 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 COOK'S RETURN VOYAGE. 
 
 COOK LEAVES AUSTRALIA — DISASTROUS VOY'AGE EXPEDITION ARRIVES IN ENGLAND RESULTS OF 
 
 cook's ACHIEVEMENTS INTEREST FELT IN ENGLAND LINN^US COOK RECEIVED VilTll HONOUR 
 
 AND PROMOTED — ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE PUBLISHED REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW DISCOVERIES 
 
 — cook's LETTER TO THE LORDS OF THE ADMIRALTY, ...... 61 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 COOK'S SECOND EXPEDITION. 
 
 SEARCH FOR A GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT COOK's SECOND EXPEDITION HIS INSTRUCTIONS — THE 
 
 EXPEDITION SAILS REACHES THE SOUTHERN ICE-FIELDS ABANDONS FURTHER RESEARCH — THE 
 
 SOUTH POLAR BARRIER THE TWO VESSELS SEPARATED — COOK SAILS FOR NEW ZEALAND — 
 
 REACHES DUSKY BAY — PICKERSGILL HARBOUR — A LANDING MADE TO TAKE OBSERVATIONS — A 
 DELIGHTFUL COUNTRY — WATER-SPOUTS — COOK REACHES QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND — MEETS 
 FURNEAUX THERE — FURNEAUX's ADVENTURES, ...... 64 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 COOK'S EXPLORATION OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 COOK SAILS AGAIN TO EXAMINE THE SOUTHERN OCEAN — REACHES OTAHEITE — THE SOCIETY ISLANDS 
 THE SHIPS PART COMPANY — COOK AGAIN ANCHORS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND — CANNI- 
 BALISM OF THE NATIVES — COOK LEAVES NEW ZEALAND — ANTIPODES OF LONDON — ICEBERGS— 
 
 THE ICE REGION — THE CRUISE IN THE PACIFIC — NEW HEBRIDES DISCOVERED AND NAMED NEW 
 
 CALEDONIA DISCOVERED AND NAMED — BOTANY ISLAND — NORFOLK ISLAND DISCOVERED AND 
 NAMED — THE SURVIVORS OF THE " BOUNTY " — RETURN TO QUEEN CHARLOTTES SOUND — 
 FURNEAUx's ADVENTURES AMONGST THE NEW ZEALAND NATIVES — COOK LEAVES NEW ZEALAND — 
 CROSSES THE PACIFIC — REACHES ENGLAND COOK's CONCLUDING REMARKS ON IIIS EXPEDITION, . 67
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 COOK'S SECOND RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN NAVIGATORS FROM COOK TO FLINDERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DE SURVILLE'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 COOK AT DOUBTLESS BAY A STRANGER VESSEL DE SURVILLe'S EXPEDITION^THE NEW EL DORADO 
 
 HIGH EXPECTATIONS DE SURVILLE ARRIVES AT NEW ZEALAND FRIENDLINESS OF THE 
 
 NATIVES — DE SURVILLE's TREACHERY HIS DISAPPOINTED HOPES HE SAILS FOR SOUTH 
 
 AMERICA — UIS MELANCHOLY FATE, ........ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 MARION'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 FIRST VISITOR TO VAN DIEMEN's LAND AFTER TASMAN FRENCH EXPEDITION UNDER MARION — ARRIVES 
 
 IN VAN DIEMEN's land — FIRST MEETING WITH NATIVES — THEIR APPEARANCE — THE FIRE STICK 
 ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES — MARION LEAVES THE ISLAND AND SAILS FOR NEW ZEALAND 
 
 b 
 
 PAQE 
 
 VASTNESS AND GRANDEUR OF COOK S DISCOVERIES — HIS RECEPTION IN ENGLAND HONOURS PAID IIIM 
 
 SIR JOHN PRINGLE's EULOGIUM — cook's ACCOUNT OF UIS VOYAGE PUBLISHED HIS MODEST 
 
 ESTIMATE OF HIS OWN ACHIEVEMENTS — TRUE GREATNESS, ..... 72 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 COOK'S THIRD EXPEDITION. 
 
 A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS — A THIRD EXPEDITION 
 
 PLANNED — COOK ACCEPTS THE COMMAND — SAILS IN THE " RESOLUTION " HIS INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 ISLAND OF DESOLATION — DREARY VOYAGE — BEACHES VAN DIEMEN's LAND THE NATIVES — SAILS 
 
 FOR NEW ZEALAND STORY OF THE MURDER OF FURNEAUX's BOAt's CREW NATIVE RECOLLEC- 
 TIONS — COOK LEAVES NEW ZEALAND — TWO NATIVE YOUTHS COOK REACHES THE SANDWICH 
 
 ISLANDS — ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES — HIS DEATH — REFLECTIONS ON COOK's CAREER AND 
 ACHIEVEMENTS, .......... 74 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 COOK'S CHARACTER. 
 
 EFFECT OF THE NEWS OF HIS FATE IN ENGLAND — A MEDAL STRUCK IN HIS HONOUR — PENSION TO HIS 
 WIDOW — MONUMENTS TO HIS MEMORY — COOK's FAMILY — FATE OF HIS SONS — SIRS COOK SUR- 
 VIVES HER HUSBAND AND CHILDREN — HER BENEVOLENT DISPOSITION — COOK's FATHER — COOK's 
 PERSONAL APPEARANCE — HIS HABITS AND CHARACTER TESTIMONIES TO HIS GREATNESS- 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE FAMILY MONUMENT INSCRIPTION AT OWHYHEE, . . . .79 
 
 84
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ANCHORS IN BAY OF ISLANDS — FRIENDLY INTERCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES — SYMPTOMS OF PAGE 
 
 HOSTILITY MASSACRE OF MARION AND HIS CREW CANNIBALISM — CROZET'S ENCOUNTER WITH 
 
 THE NATIVES — CROZET's REVENGE — A NATIVE VERSION OF THE STORY THE UNKNOWN FRENCH 
 
 VESSEL, .......<••' 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIP AND THE FIRST FLEET. 
 
 SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT — THE FLEET AT PORTSMOUTH IN 1787 — CAPTAIN 
 
 ARTHUR PHILLIP APPOINTED GOVERNOR ACCOUNT OF HIS EARLY LIFE — SAILS FOR AUSTRALIA 
 
 ARRIVAL AT BOTANY BAY FOUND UNSATISFACTORY FOR SETTLEMENT — PORT JACKSON DIS- 
 COVERED SYDNEY COVE THE STRANGER FLEET IN BOTANY BAY LA PEROUSE'S EXPEDITION 
 
 FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES — FIRST ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT — BROKEN 
 BAY — PITTWATER BAY — THE NATIVES, ....... 
 
 86 
 
 91 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STORY OF LA PEROUSE. 
 
 THE STRANGER FLEET IN BOTANY BAY — EARLY LIFE OF LA PEROUSE — EXPEDITION OF 1785 
 
 REACHES AUSTRALIA AND ANCHORS IN BOTANY BAY LA PEROUSE's PREVIOUS ADVENTURES 
 
 DEATH OF M. LE RECEVEUR SAILS FROM AUSTRALIA — BLANK IN THE STORY d'eNTRECAS- 
 
 TEAUX'S SEARCH EXPEDITION CAPTAIN DILLON AT THE NEW HEBRIDES DISCOVERY OP FRAG- 
 MENTS OF LA PEROUSE's FLEET — MONUMENT AT BOTANY BAY — CAMPBELL'S LINES, . . 95 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 D'ENTRECASTEAUX'S VOYAGE. 
 
 SEARCH FOR LA PEROUSE d'eNTRECASTEAUX's EXPEDITION — ARRIVE AT VAN DIEMEN's LAND — FISH- 
 ING — THE LANDSCAPE — EXPLORATIONS — d'eNTRECASTEAUX'S CHANNEL — THE HUON RIVER 
 
 ESPERANCE BAY — RECHERCHE ISLAND LEAVE VAN DIEMEn's LAND — SOUTH-WEST OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 — LE GRAND BAY— RECHERCHE ARCHIPELAGO — RETURN TO VAN DIEMEN's LAND — ROCKY BAY 
 
 VIEW FROM MOUNT WELLINGTON LA RIVIERE DU NORD — TASMAn's PENINSULA — LEAVE VAN 
 
 DIEMEn's land FINALLY — CAPTAIN JOHN HAYES — NAMES THE DERWENT RIVER — BRUNY ISLANDS 
 
 AND CAPE BRUNY, .......... 98 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 ADVENTURES OF BASS AND FLINDERS. 
 
 FLINDERS IN THE FIRST FLEET — HIS EARLY LIFE — BASS, SURGEON IN FIRST FLEET— ARRIVE AT 
 SYDNEY — PLAN AN EXPEDITION — THE "TOM THUMB " — THEIR EXPLORATION OF THE COAST 
 BETWEEN PORT JACKSON AND BOTANY BAY — SECOND VOYAGE IN THE "TOM THUMB" — MISHAPS 
 AT SEA — THE NATIVES FRIENDLY — CPURAQE AND ADDRESS OF THE VOYAGERS — PERILOUS NIGHT 
 PASSAGE — KEACH SYDNEY IN SAFETY, ........ 101
 
 CONTENTS. , xi 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 BASS DISCOVERS THE STRAITS. 
 
 PAGE 
 FLINDERS GOES TO FTJRNEAUX ISLANDS — BASS GOES ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 
 
 PETITIONS FOR THE OUTFIT OF ANOTHER EXPLORING VOYAGE STARTS FROM SYDNEY IN A 
 
 WHALEBOAT — -POINT BASS — DISCOVERY OF SHOAL HAVEN AND OF THE STRAITS — FURNEAUX'S 
 
 LAND THE RUNAWAYS — WILSON'S PROMONTORY WESTERN PORT DISCOVERED— rBASS RETURNS 
 
 TO SYDNEY, ........... 105 
 
 C H A P T E E V 1 1 1. 
 BASS AND FLINDERS SAIL ROUND TASMANIA. 
 
 bass's REPORT THE "NORFOLK" FITTED OUT BASS AND FLINDERS SAIL TO THE SOUTH COAST 
 
 SIGHT TASMANIA SHIP' IN PERIL PORT DALRYMPLE THE TAMAR ITS CHARACTER AS A RIVER 
 
 APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY SITE OF LAUNCESTON CIRCULAR HEAD — CAPE GRIM 
 
 BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY THE PROBLEM OF THE STRAITS SOLVED RETURN TO SYDNEY — BASS SAILS 
 
 FOR ENGLAND — HIS SAD HISTORY — HIS EARLY LIFE HIS HEROIC ACHIEVEMENTS, . . 107 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 FLINDERS DISCOVERS MORETON BAY. 
 
 A FRESH EXPEDITION — THE SLOOP "NORFOLK" — FLINDERS STARTS FROM SYDNEY — DISCOVERS 
 MORETON BAY — ENCOUNTER WITH NATIVES GLASSHOUSE BAY — HERVEY BAY — A BARREN EX- 
 PEDITION THE CLARENCE RIVER — FLINDERS RETURNS TO SYDNEY AND RESUMES DUTY, . Ill 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 FLINDERS'S VOYAGE IN THE " INVESTIGATOR." 
 
 FLINDERS RETURNS TO ENGLAND — PLANS ANOTHER EXPEDITION — RECEIVES COMMAND OF THE " IN- 
 VESTIGATOR" ARRIVES AT AUSTRALIA BEGINS SURVEY OF THE SOUTH COAST LOSS OF A 
 
 boat's CREW PORT LINCOLN DISCOVERED SPENCER'S GULF KANGAROO HUNTING MEETS 
 
 FRENCH EXPEDITION UNDER BAUDIN — REACHES PORT PHILLIP LIEUTENANT JAMES GRANT's 
 
 PREVIOUS DISCOVERY LIEUTENANT MURRAY PREVIOUSLY AT PORT PHILLIP — CORIO BAY — SOUTH 
 
 COAST UNVEILED — FLINDERS PROCEEDS TO PORT JACKSON, . . . . .113 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 FLINDERS'S LAST EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 SECOND EXPEDITION OF THE " INVESTIGATOR " — FLINDERS SAILS NORTHWARD — PORT CURTIS 
 
 BARTER WITH SAVAGES SURVEY OF THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA NATIVES OF THE GULF 
 
 MALAY FISHERMEN — RETURN TO SYDNEY FLINDERS SAILS FOR ENGLAND IN THE " PORPOISE " 
 
 WRECK OF THE THREE VESSELS — COWARDLY CONDUCT OF CAPTAIN PALMER FLINDERS CON- 
 DUCTS THE SHIPWRECKED CREWS SAFELY TO SYDNEY SAILS AGAIN FOR ENGLAND PUTS IN AT 
 
 MAURITIUS INFAMOUS CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH GOVERNOR FLINDERS DETAINED A PRISONER 
 
 ROBBERY OF HIS SHIPS AND PAPERS — FRENCH DISHONESTY FLINDERS RELEASED RETURNS 
 
 TO ENGLAND PUBLISHES HIS GREAT WORK DIES — HIS CHARACTER, . . . ,117
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 ENGLISH NAVIGATORS AFTER COOK. 
 
 PAOB 
 CAPTAIN BLIGh's ADVENTURES ON THE NORTH COAST — AT ADVENTURE BAY OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
 
 NATIVES — HIS SECOND VISIT TO ADVENTURE BAY LIEUTENANT JOHN M'CLUER AT ARNHEBl'S 
 
 LAND CAPTAIN EDWARDS WRECKED IN TORRES STRAITS HIS ADVENTURES WITH THE NATIVES 
 
 AT CAPE YORK SANDWICH SOUND AND WOLf's BAY CAPTAIN COX AT VAN DIEMEn's LAND 
 
 CAPTAIN DE ST ALOUARN VANCOUVER ON THE SOUTH COAST DISCOVERS KING GEORGe's SOUND 
 
 POINT POSSESSION HIS OBSERVATIONS THERE HIS DEPARTURE FROM THE COAST — LIEU- 
 TENANT JAMES grant's DISCOVERIES — SURVEY OF WESTERN PORT BAY, . . .121 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN EXPLORERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FIRST EXPLORATIONS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE NEW SETTLEMENT ASPECT OF SYDNEY MYSTERY OP THE BLUE 
 
 MOUNTAINS SUPERSTITIOUS FEARS GOVERNOR PHILLIP'S FIRST INSPECTIONS OF THE COUNTRY 
 
 GEORGE BASS IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS LIEUTENANT BARREILLER AND MK CALEY LAWSON, 
 
 BLAXLAND, AND WENTWORTH's EXPEDITION — -MR EVANs's EXPEDITION — -WANT OF WATER BY THE 
 SETTLERS — ROAD TO BATHURST FORMED — GOVERNOR MACQUARIE's JOURNEY ACROSS THE BLUE 
 MOUNTAINS — EVANS DISCOVERS THE LACHLAN, ..,.,, 125 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 OXLEY'S TWO EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 \ 
 
 LIEUTENANT OXLEY, SURVEYOR GENERAL — HIS EXPEDITION IN 1817 — TRACE THE LACHLAN — THE 
 
 NATIVES — A VAST MARSH — MALLEE SCRUB A FRESH START— BIRDS AND FISH — A TERRIBLB 
 
 COUNTRY TURNING BACK RETURN TO BATHURST SECOND EXPEDITION DOWN THE MACQUARIE 
 
 A FERTILE COUNTRY SUPPOSED INLAND SEA— THE CASTLEREAGH THE PEEL THE SEA 
 
 REACHED — A LUCKY DISCOVERY — RETURN TO NEWCASTLE — THE BROTHERS HUME's FIRST 
 EXPLORATIONS, . . . . . , , , . .129 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 JOHNSTON'S EXPEDITION. 
 
 PROGRESS OF PASTORAL SETTLEMENT — LIEUTENANT JOIIXSTON's EXPEDITION — SUPPOSED PASSAGE 
 FROM LAKE BATHURST TO THE SEA — DISCOVERY OF THE CLYDE— rFATE OF CAPTAIN STEWART AND 
 HIS PARTY — FATE OF BRIGOS AND HIS COMPANIONS, ...... 136
 
 CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 KING'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EXPEDITION OF 1817 — CAPTAIN KING COMMANDER — SAILS FROM SYDNEY — EXPLORES NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 COAST — RETURNS TO SYDNEY SECOND VOYAGE— EXPLORATION CONTINUED — THIRD VOYAGE — 
 
 FOURTH VOYAGE — SINGULAR SPECIMENS OF ABORIGINAL ART — GENERAL RESULTS OF FOUR 
 EXPEDITIONS CHARACTER OF CAPTAIN KING, ....... 137 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 OXLEY AT MORETON BAY. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF 1823 — OXLEY AT MORETON BAY — STRANGE ADVENTURE — ROMANTIC STORY OP 
 
 PAMPHLET — HIS FORTUNATE RESCUE DISCOVERY OF THE BRISBANE AND FIRST BEGINNINGS OF 
 
 QUEENSLAND, .......... 140 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 HUME AND HOVELL'S OVERLAND EXPEDITION TO PORT PHILLIP. 
 
 HAMILTON HUME CAPTAIN HOVELL — OVERLAND EXPEDITION OF 1824 REACH THE MURRUMBIDGEE 
 
 — DANGEROUS CROSSING BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY — MOUNTAIN BARRIER — A MOUNTAIN PASS — ■ 
 
 AUSTRALIAN ALPS THE HUME RIVER DISCOVERED — THE OVENS RIVER DISCOVERED THE GOUL- 
 
 BURN RIVER DISCOVERED — HARDSHIPS MOUNT DISAPPOINTMENT REACH PORT PHILLIP^ 
 
 RETURN JOURNEY— THE NATIVES — REACH HOME — RESULTS OF EXPEDITION, . . , 143 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 STURT'S TWO EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 Cunningham's journeys — sturt's expedition in 1828 —discovers the darling — the bogan — 
 
 A desolate country AN UNSOLVED PROBLEM — THE INLAND SEA — STURT's SECOND EXPEDI- 
 TION DOWN THE MURHUMBIDQEE — DISCOVERY OF THE MURRAY DOWN THE MURRAY TO THE 
 
 DARLING DISCOVERY OF LAKE ALEXANDRINA — THE TERRIBLE RETURN JOURNEY — SUFFERINGS 
 
 OF THE EXPLORERS — FORTUNATE RESCUE — RETURN TO SYDNEY, . . . .149 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 MITCHELL'S EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 SAMENESS OF EXPLORATION RECORDS— FATE OF CAPTAIN BARKER — MITCHELL'S EXPEDITION IN 1831 
 
 BLANK RESULTS SECOND EXPEDITION — FATE OF CUNNINGHAM — ENCOUNTER WITH THE 
 
 NATIVES — RETURN TO SYDNEY — MITCHELL'S THIRD EXPEDITION — ENCOUNTER WITH NATIVES 
 
 THE LODDON DISCOVERED— THE GRAMPIANS SEEN AND NAMED — MOUNT WILLIAM — HENTY's 
 
 WHALING SETTLEMENT — A WELCOME REST THE RETURN JOURNEY — THE PYRENEES — MOUNT 
 
 MACEDON AUSTRALIA FELIX — MOVEMENT TOWARDS PORT PHILLIP — MITCHELl's EXPEDITION IN 
 
 1845 — THE DARLING AN EARTHLY PARADISE — THE BARCOO KENNEDY'S EXPLORATION OP IT 
 
 RETURN TO SYDNEY, ......... 156
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 GEEY'S EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 PAOB 
 GREY AND LITsniNGTON — EXPEDITION OF 1837 — THE " LYNHER " SAILS FROM THE CAPE OP GOOD 
 
 HOPE — GREY LANDS AT PORT GEORGE IV. FIRST EXPLORATIONS FIRST MISFORTUNES A 
 
 NARROW ESCAPE GREy's GALLANTRY HANOVER BAY THE TIMOR PONIES FRESH TROUBLES 
 
 A FINE COUNTRY RETURN TO HANOVER — SECOND EXPEDITION IN 1839 — DREADFUL DISASTERS 
 
 ARRIVAL AT PERTH — RETURN TO ADELAIDE, . . . , . .160 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 STRZELECKI IN GIPPSLAND. 
 
 GIPPSLAND IN VICTORIA — -STRZELECKI — A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY^A TERRIBLE JOURNEY — REACHES 
 
 MELBOURNE — FIRST DISCOVERY OP GOLD, ....... 163 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 EYRE'S EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 EDWARD JOHN EYRE^EXPEDITION TO LAKE TORRENS — FLINDERS's RANGE A HOPELESS PROSPECT 
 
 THE AUSTRALIAN BIGHT A DESOLATE REGION A TERRIBLE JOURNEY — FEARFUL ADVENTURES 
 
 APPALLING TREACHERY IN THE VAST SOLITUDE — A DREADFUL NIGHT SIGHT OF THE SEA 
 
 A WELCOME RESCUE, . . . . . . . . .165 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 STURT'S THIRD EXPEDITION. 
 
 THE NORTHERN REGION — STURT STARTS AGAIN ROCKY GLEN — DROUGHT AND HEAT — THE GREAT 
 
 CENTRAL STONY DESERT — AN OCEAN OF SAND EYRe'S CREEK A RETREAT — COOPEr's CREEK 
 
 THE GREAT DESERT AGAIN — THE HOT WIND OF THE DESERT TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS A THRILL- 
 ING ADVENTURE — SAFE RETURN TO ADELAIDE, ...... 171 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE FATE OF LEICHHARDT. 
 
 an overland route to carpentaria — mitchell invites leichhardt to explore the route 
 
 expedition starts a long journey fate of gilbert privations reach port essing- 
 
 ton — return to sydney second expedition — the lost explorers — fruitless search 
 
 Gregory's discoveries of relics, . . . , . . . .176 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE FATE OF KENNEDY. 
 
 THE northern overland ROUTE — KENNEDY'S EXPEDITION IN 1848 — JACKY JACKY — THE PARTY 
 
 LANDED — AN ANXIOUS LOOK-OUT — THE SOLITARY NATIVE A TERRIBLE STORY HOSTILE 
 
 NATIVES — KENNEDY WOUNDED— JACKY JACKY's PATHETIC NARRATIVE — DEATH OP THE EX- 
 PLORER^A PERILOUS ESCAPE — TIMELY RESCUE — THE FRUITLESS SEARCH — THE LOST EXPLORERS 
 
 — Kennedy's CHARACTER, . . . . . . . . .179
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 THE FATE OF BURKE AND WILLS. 
 
 PAOF. 
 
 MR AMBROSE KYTE's CONTRIBUTION EXPEDITION OF 1860 — BURKE AND WILLS— START FROM 
 
 MELBOURNE — REACH OOOPER's CREEK — START FOR GULP OF CARPENTARIA — BRAHE LEFT AT 
 
 DEPOT — Wright's camp on the darling — his fatal negligence — he starts for cooper's 
 
 CREEK — too late — BURKE AND WILLS RETURNING — GRAY'S FATE BBAHE FORSAKES THE CAMP 
 
 — DESPAIR OF THE EXPLORERS — BRAVE EXERTIONS — FAILURES — SAD DEATH OF BURKE AND 
 WILLS— king's ADVENTUKES— NEWS REACHES MELBOURNE — HOWITT's SEARCH — THE FUNERAL, . 182 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 JOHN MACDOUALL STUART'S EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN EXPLORERS — STUART's FIRST EXPLORATION IN 1858 — PENETRATES TO THE 
 
 CENTRE OF THE CONTINENT — SPLENDID COUNTRY EXPEDITION OF 1861 — STUAKT CROSSES THE 
 
 CONTINENT— SIX EXPEDITIONS — REWARDS, . . . . . • . 185 
 
 CHAPTEi; XVII. 
 FORREST'S EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 JOHN FORREST — STARTS FROM PERTH — FRUITLESS SEAKCK, FOR LEICHHARDT SECOND EXPEDITION 
 
 BOUND THE BIGHT REACH ADELAIDE THIRD EXPEDITION POOR COUNTRY AN OASIS 
 
 PKIVATIONS REACH ADELAIDE CHARACTER OF THE NEW COUNTRY GOVERNOR WELD's 
 
 DESPATCH, ........... 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIIL 
 LATER EXPLORERS. 
 
 THE BROTHERS GREGORY THEIR EXPLORATIONS — ERNEST GILES — COLONEL WARBURTON A TERRIBLE 
 
 JOURNEY — Giles's second expedition — explores westward — success — reaches pertu — 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY EXPLORED SPARE DIET — OTHER EXPLORERS THE BROTHERS 
 
 JARDINE THE AUSTRALIAN ROLLS OF HEROES AND MARTYROLOGY, , . . ■ 
 
 187 
 
 189 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 VARIOUS NAMES OP THE CONTINENT — ITS GEOGRAPHICAI, POSITION— RELATIVE SIZE — ITS EXTENT — 
 TORRES STRAIT — GREAT BARRIER REEF AREA OF THE CONTINENT— GENERAL SHAPE — BAYS— 
 
 A Voyage round Australia — mountain ranges — magnificent scenery — no volcanoes — 
 
 THE plains THE RIVERS RIVER SCENERY THE MIRAGE, . . . . .192
 
 xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF QUEENSLAND. 
 
 ALLAN Cunningham's explorations — leichhardt and Mitchell — moreton ray — peculiarities 
 
 OF QUEENSLAND NATURAL FEATURES — SEABOARD — TROPICAL SCENERY BAYS — THE BRISBANE 
 
 RIVER — GREAT COAST RANGE — GREAT TABLE-LAND — VICTORIA RIVER BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY 
 
 LATEST EXPLORATIONS STURt's DESERT A FINE COLONY, . . . . • 
 
 PAGE 
 
 200 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF TASMANIA. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND — d'ENTRECASTEAUX's CHANNEL MAGNIFICENT COAST SCENERY HOBART TOWN 
 
 MOUNT WELLINGTON THE CAPUA OF THE AUSTRALIAS PHYSICAL CONFORMATION MOUN- 
 TAINS — FORESTS — LAKES RIVERS — SINGULAR CAVES SCENERY AT PORT SORELL, . . 205 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 THE THREE ISLANDS — EXTENT AND AREA NAMES — DESCRIPTION OF SOUTHERN NEW ZEALAND — 
 
 OTAGO AND CANTERBURY NELSON AND MARLBOROUGH — CANTERBURY PLAINS THE NORTHERN 
 
 ISLAND MOUNTAINS — LAKES VOLCANIC CRATERS — RIVERS — STEWART's ISLAND — THE SEA- 
 COAST EARTHQUAKES — GEYSERS OR BOILING SPRINGS — MUD VOLCANOES-^VEGETATION — THE 
 
 FORESTS — FERNS AND FLAX, ......... 210 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 CLIMATE OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 VARIETY OF CLIMATES — THE TORRID ZONE — WARM, BUT EXHILIRATING — SUDDEN CHANGES— EASTERN 
 
 COAST CLIMATE — HOT WINDS — " BRICKFI ELDERS " TEMPERATURE AT MELBOURNE, ADELAIDE, 
 
 AND PERTH — SEA BREEZES — RAINS SNOW — DROUGHTS — THUNDERSTORMS HURRICANES — THE 
 
 SEASONS IN AUSTRALIA — CHRISTMAS AT THE ANTIPODES A HEALTHFUL CLIMATE — CLIMATE OF 
 
 NEW ZEALAND — SNOW AND RAIN — FERTILISING INFLUENCES — A HEALTHFUL CLIMATE, . . 216 
 
 CHAPTEE VL 
 NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 THE LAND OF ANOMALIES — SYDNEY SMITH'S JOKES — A RECENT CONTINENT — NATIVE PRODUCTIONS — 
 TREES AND FORESTS — NATIVE GRASSES — NATIVE FRUITS AND FLOWERS — ACCLIMATISED PRO- 
 DUCTS ZOOLOGY OP AUSTRALIA — BIRDS WATERFOWL — REPTILES SNAKES — INSECTS — FISHES 
 
 — WHITE ANTS — ZOOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND BIRDS — FISHES-^THE MOA, . . . 223
 
 CONTENTS. xvii 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 PAGE 
 THE ETnlOPIC RACE — PAPUANS — PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL UTTER BAR- 
 
 UARISM HABITS — SAVAGE NATURE — SOME HUMAN ELEMENTS — SUPERSTITIONS " COROBBORY " 
 
 STRANGE BELIEFS NATIVE ART GRADES IN SOCIETY — INTELLIGENCE — NATIVE RACE DYING 
 
 OUT NEW ZEALANDERS THEIR ORIGIN CHARACTERISTICS — TRIBAL WARS — INTELLECTUAL 
 
 STANDARD — HABITS AND MANNERS — NATIVE DRESS AGRICULTURE — NATIVE PROVERBS — THEIR 
 
 TREATMENT BY THE WHITE SETTLERS, ........ 236 
 
 BOOK VL 
 
 HISTORY OF ^^EW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIP'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 FOUNDING OF NEW SOUTH WALES — THE FIRST FLEET — GOVERNOR PHILLIP — LANDING AT BOTANY BAY 
 
 REMOVAL TO PORT JACKSON — THE ABORIGINES APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — THE FRENCH 
 
 SHIPS — TAKING POSSESSION OF THE TERRITORY' DARWIN'S LINES ON SYDNEY COVE, . . 218 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIP'S ADMINISTRATION— Conimwed 
 
 REGULAR GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS PARAMATTA MEANS OF LIVING THE 
 
 NATIVES — CAPTAIN HUNTER'S ACCOUNT FATAL ENCOUNTERS NORFOLK ISLAND FIRST DIS- 
 COVERY OP GOLD — DARK TIMES —SHORT RATIONS — PHILLIp'S NOBLE CONDUCT — RETURN OF THE 
 
 " SIRIUS "• — HIS majesty's BIRTHDAY — DISCOVERY OF THE HAWKESBURY STATE OF THE 
 
 COLONY IN 1790 TIMELY ARRIVALS THE GOVERNOR'S NARROW ESCAPE — FIRST FRUITS 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE — GRANTS OF LAND GOOD MORALS PHILLIP'S DEPARTURE HIS CHAR- 
 ACTER — FIRST FOREIGN VESSEL — GEORGE HARRINGTON, . . . . .254 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 THE MILITARY DESPOTISM. 
 
 MAJOR GROSE, ACTING-GOVERNOR — THE MILITARY AND OFFICIAL CLIQUE — JOHN MACARTHUR — 
 
 ESCAPED PRISONERS FIRST IMMIGRANTS HARD TIMES THE SCOTCH MARTYRS — WILD CATTLE 
 
 RUNAWAYS FOUND — PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE EVIL RESULTS OF MILITARY DESPOTISM, . 2G7 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 GOVERNOR HUNTER'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE NEW GOVERNOR ENDS MILITARY DESPOTISM — FTSHE PALMER's CASE — ROMANTIC 
 
 ADVENTURES OF MR MUIR — REV. MR JOHNSON FIRST PRINTING PRESS FIRST PLAYHOUSE 
 
 G
 
 xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 CUWOUS PROLOGUE INCREASE OF CRIME DISCOVERY OP COAL TROUBLESOME NATIVES PAGE 
 
 HUNTER RIVER DISCOVERED ABUNDANT HARVEST HUNTING WILD CATTLE DISTRESSED 
 
 SETTLERS WRECK OP THE " SYDNEY COVE " ESCAPING TO CHINA — MISSIONARIES FROM TAHITI 
 
 THE FIRST CHURCH — FIRST PUBLIC MEETING GOVERNOR HUNTEr's DEPARTURE HIS CHAR- 
 ACTER PROGRESS OF THE COLONY HUNTER's HUMANITY, ..... 272 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 GOVERNOR KING'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 GOVERNOR king's EARLY CAREER — A SELF-MADE MAN POOR OPINION OP THE COLONY A TOO EASY 
 
 IIULE — BAD EFFECTS MATERIAL PROGRESS MACARTHUR's MERINOS — EXTRAVAGANT PRICES 
 
 MONOPOLIES THE IRISH REBELS REV. HENRY FULTON GENERAL HOLT MILITARY TYRANNY 
 
 THE governor's weakness FRENCH EXPEDITION A FRENCH VIEW OF THE COLONY 
 
 MATERIAL PROGRESS HIGH PRICES FLINDERS AND BAUDIN SIR HENRY HAYES REVOLT OP 
 
 THE PRISONERS CRUEL REPRISALS NORFOLK ISLAND ABANDONED — FLOODS IN THE HAWKES- 
 
 BURY king's DEPARTURE — HIS CHARACTER — PROGRESS DURING HIS RULE, . . . 287 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 GOVERNOR BLIGH'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 BLIGh's REMARKABLE CAREER — HIS FIRST ACTS OF ADMINISTRATION — QUARREL BETWEEN BLIGH AND 
 
 M.^CARTHUR — SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY — MACAKTHUK'S VESSEL HIS ARREST — MAJOR 
 
 JOHNSTON — MACARTUUr's RELEASE — THE WHISKY REBELLION BLIGH ARRESTED — JOHNSTON's 
 
 ACCOUNT — BLIGH'S COWARDICE HIS DEFENCE — MACARTHUR APPOINTS HIMSELF GOVERNOR 
 
 ABSURD PROCLAMATION — MAJOR JOHNSTON GOVERNOR BLIGH IN CUSTODY LIEUTENANT- 
 GOVERNOR FOVEAUX ARRIVES — JOHNSTON AND MACARTHUR RETURN TO ENGLAND BLIGH IN 
 
 COMMAND OF THE " PORPOISE " — GOVERNOR MACQUARIe's ARRIVAL BLIGH's DEPARTURE, . 299 
 
 CHAPTEE YII. 
 GOVERNOR MACQUARIE'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 MACQI'ARIE's PHILANTHROPIC CHARACTER — SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES OP THE COLONY ANNULS ACTS 
 
 OF USURPATION FLOOD AND FAMINE — CARELESS HABITS OF THE PEOPLE PUBLIC IMPROVE- 
 MENTS INCREASE OF LIVE STOCK FREE IMMIGRATION DISCOURAGED- — EMANCIPISTS EN- 
 COURAGED — Thompson's case — judge bent's appointment — conflict between the judge 
 
 AND THE governor THE JUDGE RECALLED — JUDGE FIELD APPOINTED SOCIAL AMELIORATION 
 
 WAR WITH THE BLACKS MACQUARIE'S EXPLORATIONS— COLLINS IN VAN DIEMEN's LAND 
 
 RELIGIOUS PROGRESS REV. SAMUEL MARSDEN — SQUATTING — SOCIAL PROGRESS — MACQUARIE's 
 
 RECALL — HIS CHARACTER, ......... 312 
 
 CHAPTEE VIIL 
 SIR THOMAS BRISBANE'S ADMINISTRATION". 
 
 IUMSBANe's CHARACTER — TOO QUIET A GOVERNOR LAND MANIA— BRISBANE AT PARAMATTA —BE- 
 COMES UNPOPULAR POLITICAL I'ROCRESS FREE IMMIGRATION ENCOURAGED SIR FRANCIS 
 
 FORBES, CHIEF-JUSTICE — FIRST CIVIL JURY — FIRST LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL— LIBERTY OF THE
 
 CONTENTS. xix 
 
 PRESS AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL COMPANY W. C. WENTWORTH — SCIENCE IN NEW SOUTH PACK 
 
 WALES SOLDIER SETTLERS — STATE OF MORALS BUSHRANGINQ THREATENED FAMINE — 
 
 GOVERNOR UNPOPULAR — HIS RECALL — PROGRESS DURING THE PERIOD, . , , 3l!l 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 SIR RALPH DARLING'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 DARLING A MILITARY MARTINET — HIS ARRIVAL AND COOL RECEPTION DEPARTMENTAL CONFUSION — 
 
 A SHARP ADMINISTRATOR — JARRING FACTIONS NEW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — SQUATTING MANIA 
 
 FINANCIAL CRASH CASE OF SUDDS AND THOMPSON — PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY — ATTEMPTS TO 
 
 GAG THE PRESS TRIAL BY JURY — AN ELECTIVE LEGISLATURE — A MILITARY SCANDAL PUBLIC 
 
 MEETING FOR REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS DEATHS OF OLD COLONISTS — KING BONGAREE 
 
 MATERIAL PROGRESS — LIEUTENANT LOWE's CASE PIRACY AND PENAL INSURRECTION BUSH- 
 RANGING FURTHER MATERIAL PROGRESS — FIRST LAND SALES DARLING RECALLED DISGRACE 
 
 FUL PROCEEDING — DARLING's CHARACTER — PROGRESS DURING THE PERIOD, . . . 333 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 GOVERNOR BOURKE'S ADMINISTRATION. — 
 
 STATE OF THE COLONY BOURKE's FIRST DIFFICULTIES — HIS WISE MEASURES — HIS EXCELLENT 
 
 ADMINISTRATION — PERSONAL TOUR MEASURES FRAMED DURING HIS RULE — THE LEGISLATIVE 
 
 COUNCIL CHARACTER OF BOURKE, ,....,.. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 GOVERNOR GIPPS'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 EARLY CAREER OF SIR GEORGE GIPPS HIS CHARACTER STATE OF THE COLONY A BAD GOVERNOR 
 
 QUARRELS WITH THE LEGISLATURE AND THE COLONISTS DISPUTED QUESTIONS — HARD TIMES 
 
 BENJAMIN BOYD MRS CHISHOLm's PHILANTHROPIC LABOURS — CLOSE OF SIR GEORGE GIPPS'S 
 
 RULE, ........... 
 
 CHAPTEE XIL 
 GOVERNOR FITZROY'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 SIR CHARLES FITZROY HIS CHARACTER A DANDY GOVERNOR CONCILIATORY LANGUAGE — PUBLIC 
 
 QUESTIONS — WENTWORTH'S RESOLUTION EARL GREY's BAD POLICY PUBLIC EXCITEMENT THE 
 
 TRANSPORTATION QUESTION THE " HASIIEMY " — TRIUMPH OF THE PEOPLE — THE GOLD DIS- 
 COVERIES, . . . . . . . . • 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY — MR E. H. HARGREAVES — PREDICTIONS OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA — THE FIRST 
 DESPATCH — MACGREGOR THE SHEPHERD — THE FIRST RUSH — A HUNDREDWEIGHT OF GOLD— THE 
 
 348 
 
 351 
 
 361
 
 XX CONTENTS. 
 
 FIRST ESCORT THE FIRST SHIPMENT — THE FIRST GOLD COMMISSIONER — TROUBLES WITH THE page 
 
 MINERS LIFE AT THE SUMMERHILL DIGGINGS — LIFE AT THE TURON — EFFECTS OF THE GOLD 
 
 CRISIS — SIR CHARLES FITZROY SEPARATION OF VICTORIA AND OF MORETON BAY SIR WILLIAM 
 
 DENNISON — SIR JOHN YOUNG ^EARL BELMORE AND SIR HERCULES ROBINSON, . . 3G4r 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 niSTOIlY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 CIIAPTEE I. 
 THE FIRST EXPEDTTION. 
 
 A NEW COLONY PORT PHILLIP — DESCRIPTION FIRST DISCOVERY — MURRAY, BAUDIN, FLINDERS — 
 
 COLLINS — MICA OR GOLD ^ GRIMES THE SURVEYOR — BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN JOHN 
 
 BATMAN — JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER, . . . . . . . .374 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE NEW COLONY. 
 
 HUME AND HOVELL — A SELF-SUPPORTING COLONY MESSRS HENTY BATMAN AND FAWKNER — ^BAT- 
 
 MAN's account — FAWKNEr's arrival — THE FIRST FOUNDERS— GELLIBR.\ND AND HESSE — SITE 
 
 OF MELBOURNE FIXED — -THE " ENTERPRISE " PROCLAMATION OP THE TERRITORY HUMBLE 
 
 BEGINNINGS, ........... 383 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 AUSTRALIA FELIX. 
 SIR THOMAS Mitchell's exploration — Australia the happy — first live stock — first over- 
 
 LANUER — FIRST SUPERINTENDENT — LIEUTENANT HOBSON — FIRST SALE OF MELBOURNE ALLOT- 
 MENTS — FIRST AGRICULTURE — FAWKNER's ENTERPRISE FIRST NEWSPAPER SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 LA TROBE HIS UNPOPULARITY CAUSES OF IT — JEALOUSY OP NEW SOUTH WALES — REVENUES ' 
 
 IN 1837 FIRST MEETING FOR SEPARATION MOVEMENT CARRIED ON — JUDGE WILLIS, . .391 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 STILL A DEPENDENCY. 
 
 SIR GEORGE CIPPS'S VISIT — GIPPSLAND — .VCT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT — FIRST GENERAL ELECTION — 
 JUDGE WILLIS SUSPENDED — FIRST IMMIGRATION — A SEVERE CRISIS — FIRST BOILING-DOWN — 
 
 INCREASING REVENUE — MOVEMENT FOR SEPARATION MR ROBERT LOWE — EARL GREY MEMBER 
 
 FOR PORT PHILLIP — GREAT FLOODS — TRANSPORTATION SCHEME BAFFLED — LOSS OF AN IMMI- 
 GRANT SHIP — prince's BRIDGE COMMENCED, AND MELBOURNE HOSPITAL FOUNDED— CENSUS OP 
 1846— THE NAME OF THE QUEEN PERMITTED TO BE GIVEN — BISHOP's PERRY's ARRIVAI. — THE 
 
 '■ RANDOLPH " CONVICT SHIP — MEETING AGAINST TRANSPORTATION — THE AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE 
 
 SIR CHARLES FITZROY's VISIT — ACT FOR SEPARATION NEWS OF ITS PASSING — PRINCE's BRIDGE 
 
 OPENED — THE BOUNDARY QUESTION — NEW ELECTORAL ACT — SWEARING IN THE NEW GOVERNOR, 309
 
 CONTENTS. xxi 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 A PROSPEROUS COLONY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PROGRESS IN TEN YEAUS — THE LAND QUESTION — THE SQUATTING QUESTION — BLACK THURSDAY — 
 
 FIRST MEETING OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL LARGE REVENUES THREE ERAS IN VICTORIAN 
 
 HISTORY, ........... 407 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY THE MYSTERIOUS SHEPHERD PUBLIC MEETING TO PROMOTE GOLD-FINDING 
 
 MR WILLIAM CAMPBELL FIRST PROSPECTING PARTY FIRST DESPATCH ANNOUNCING DIS- 
 COVERY governor's PROCLAMATION WONDERFUL " FINDS " BALLARAT A DESERTED CITY 
 
 A SECOND DESPATCH FOREST CREEK — GOVERNOR'S PERPLEXITY — NEW ARRIVALS — GOLD MANIA 
 
 — THE LICENSE FEE WONDERFUL RESULTS — FIRST GOLD SHIPS — TROUBLES THREATENING THE 
 
 gold-digger's life — A TANDEM DRIVE FROM MELBOURNE TO BALLARAT, . . .411 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHINESE INVASION— A STRANGE SOCIETY — TRANSPORTATION QUESTION — SQUATTING QUESTION — CAN- 
 VASTOWN CROWN RIGHTS LEGISLATIVE SQUABBLES IMMENSE FORTUNES ANTI-TRANSPORTA- 
 TION MEETING — THE " NELSON " ROBBERY — DALTON THE BUSHRANGER ROBBERY OF THE 
 
 M'IVOR escort o'cONNOR AND BRADLEY THE BUSHRANGERS — LAND SPECULATION — SQUATTERS 
 
 IN LUCK UNSUCCESSFUL GOLD-SEEKERS DIGGERS AGITATE AGAINST THE LICENSE FEE — FIRST 
 
 DISTURBANCES FOUEST CREEK DEMONSTRATION BENDIGO DIGGERS PROTEST — LICENSE FEE 
 
 REDUCED — CAPTAIN BROWN GOVERNMENT PROCLAMATION BAD GOVERNMENT — DIGGERS IN 
 
 REVOLT — SECOND LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — MR J. L. FOSTER MR LA TROBe's DEPARTURE — A SAD 
 
 ACCIDENT, ........... 423 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 SIR CHARLES HOTHAM. 
 
 ARRIVAL OP SIR CHARLES HOTHAM — lUS EARLY CAREER POPULARITY PROPERTY TAKES ALARM — A 
 
 DISORGANISED CIVIL SERVICE — BAD GOVERNMENT — A REFORMING GOVERNOR — CONVICTS' PRE- 
 VENTION ACT POPULAR DEMONSTRATIONS TRIUMPH OP THE COLONISTS, . . 436 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 THE BALLARAT REBELLION. 
 
 THE BALLARAT RIOTS — THEIR CAUSES AND ORIGIN — BENTLEY THE PUBLICAN — A FATAL ENCOUNTER 
 
 PUBLIC INDIGNATION — A POPULAR VERDICT — POPULAR FURY ATTACK ON BENTLEY's HOTEL 
 
 DEPUTATION TO THE GOVERNOR ASSAULT ON THE MILITARY GREAT MEETING OF BALLARAT 
 
 DIGGERS — THF. CAMP BARRICADED BURNING THE LICENSES — SYMPTOMS OF REBELLION — THE
 
 xxii CONTENTS. 
 
 EUREKA STOCKADE — ATTACK OF TUE MILITARY — THE FIGHT KILLED AND WOUNDED PETER PAGE 
 
 LALOR GENERAL VERN — INSURGENTS AT CRESWICK — THE GOVERXOR CONCILIATORY PUBLIC 
 
 MEETING OPEN-AIR MEETING — SIR ROBERT NICKLE's PEUDENCE — JIR FOSTER RESIGNS — A COM- 
 MISSION APPOINTED — TRIAL OF THE RIOTERS ACQUITTALS POPULAR REJOICING — BAD GOVERN- 
 MENT, ........... 442 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MISGOVERN M EN T. 
 
 governor's MESSAGE — THE GOVERNOR "WAVERING — A NEW CHIEF-SECRETARY REFORMS PROMISED 
 
 VOTE OF CENSURE — DEATH OP GENERAL NICKLE THE GOVERNOR UNPOPULAR THE SECRET 
 
 COMMISSION — BUNGLING FINANCE — NEW CONSTITUTION PROCLAIMED TUE OLD MINISTRY AND 
 
 THE NEW PENSIONS — THE BALLOT — DEATH OF SIR CHARLES HOTHAM HIS CHARACTER, . 451 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ERA 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM STARTED — CHANGES IN THE GOVERNORSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION 
 
 CHURCH AND STATE — THE LAND LAWS — THE COMMERCIAL TARIFF — PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY 
 
 ■ — FUTURE PROSPECTS, ........ 456 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 HISTORY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 
 
 STURT IN THE SOUTH — PROJECTED SETTLEMENT FATHERS AND FOUNDERS FIRST COMMISSIONERS 
 
 GOVERNOR HINDMARSH — GOVERNOR GAWLER — RAPID PROGRESS — A REACTION — SPECULATION 
 
 MANIA STRANGE STATE OF SOCIETY EYRE's FIRST EXPEDITION — GENTLEMEN OVERLANDERS 
 
 A COLONY OF SPECULATORS — DISHONOURED DILLS — THE BUBBLE BURSTS — A TERRIBLE CRISIS — 
 GOVERNOR GREY^A SINKING COLONY, ....... 46 1 
 
 CHAPTER 1 1. 
 THE MINING ERA. 
 
 RESULTS OF SPECULATION — DISCOVERY OF LEAD — DISCOVERY OF KAPUNDA MINE — THE BURRA BURRA 
 MINKS — NOBS AND SNOBS —VAST MINERAL TREASURES — THE COLONY SAVED — THE WALLAROO 
 MINES — EXTENSIVE MINERAL DISTRICT — GOLD DISCOVERY — MINERAL RESOURCES, . . 478 
 
 C II A P T E P. III. 
 
 A PROGRESSIVE COLONY. 
 
 ClOVERNOR CREV'S ADMINISTRATION — GOVERNOR ROBE — GOVERNOR YOUNG — A REVERSE— GOVERNOR 
 
 MACDONNELL— GOVERNOR DALY — GOVERNOR FERGUSSON, ..... 488
 
 CONTENTS. xxiii 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. 
 
 BOOK X. 
 
 HISTORY OF QUEENSLAND. 
 
 PAOR 
 
 POSITION OP NORTHERN TERRITORY— A NEW SETTLEMENT — MR FINNISS GOVERNMENT RESIDENT — 
 MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND QUARRELS — A DECIDED FAILURE — A FORLORN HOPE — MR FINNISS 
 RECALLED — MR MANTON APPOINTED WASTED YEARS THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH CAPABILI- 
 TIES OF NORTHERN TERRITORY — A SHIPWRECK — SOIL, CLIMATE, AND NATURAL PRODUCTS, . 491 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 niSTORY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 THE SWAN RIVER SETTLEMENT — A FAILURE IN COLONISATION — GOVERNMENTAL IGNORANCE — CAPTAIN 
 
 STIRLING THE FIRST SETTLERS TERRIBLE DISASTERS A PENAL SETTLEMENT CAUSES OF THE 
 
 FAILURE DESCRIPTION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA PERTH FREMANTLE WHALING REMARK- 
 ABLE CAVES GUILDFORD STRANGE BIRDS NATURAL PRODUCTIONS — CLIMATE — NATURAL CAPA- 
 BILITIES — KING George's sound — abandoned settlements — melville island — fort Wel- 
 lington — port ESSINGTON, north AUSTRALIA, ...... 498 
 
 QUEENSLAND: ITS EXTENT AND GENERAL CHARACTER THE MORETON BAY TERRITORY DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF MORETON BAY FRAZEr's ISLAND WIDE BAY' CORAL REEFS — BRISBANE THE CLIMATE — 
 
 CAPABILITIES COTTON GROWING THE TWELVE DISTRICTS THE GOLDFIELDS — THE GYMPIE DIG- 
 GINGS THE PALMER RIVER DIGGINGS — THE CHINESE — THE DARLING DOWNS FIRST SETTLERS 
 
 THE PORT CURTIS RUSH ROCKHAMPTON SIR GEORGE BOWEN FIRST GOVERNOR FIRST 
 
 PARLIAMENT — ABOLITION OF STATE AID TO RELIGION — POPULAR EDUCATION — THE POLYNESIAN 
 LABOUR QUESTION A PROSPEROUS COUNTRY, ....... 507 
 
 BOOK XL 
 
 HISTORY OF TASMANIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GOVERNOR COLLINS. 
 
 riRST DISCOVERY — BASS AND FLINDERS — COLONEL COLLINS — SETTLEMENT AT DERWENT — GOVERNOR 
 COLLINS — THE NORFOLK ISLANDERS — COLLINs's EARLY CAREER — HIS CHARACTER — FIRST 
 OFFICERS — FIRST STRUGGLES — COLLINS's DEATH, . . . . . .516
 
 XXIV CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 GOVERNOR DAVEY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LIKUTEKAXT LORD — GOVERNOR MACQUARIe's VISIT — COLONEL GEILS — CONDITION OP THE COLONY IN 
 
 1812 — GOVERNOR DAVEY ARRIVES HIS CHARACTER — FIRST NEWSPAPERS — SOCIAL AND MORAL 
 
 CONDITION — PROGRESS DURING GOVERNOR DAVEY's RULE, ..... 523 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 GOVERNOR SORELL. 
 
 BUSHRANGING MICHAEL HOWE — IMMIGRATION AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS^MACQUARIe's SECOND 
 
 VISIT PROGRESS — NO CIVIL LAW COURT — A BRITISH COLONIAL COMPANY — GOVERNOR SORELL's 
 
 ADMINISTRATION HIS CHARACTER HIS RETIREMENT PENSION STATE OP THE COLONY 
 
 CHIEF-JUSTICE FIELD— PRIMITIVE MANNERS A POETICAL PROPHECY, .... 527 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 GOVERNOR ARTHUR. 
 
 Arthur's early career — first impressions — his unpopularity — chief-justice pedder^ 
 separation from new south wales first executive council arthur's dealings with 
 
 THE NATIVES — A BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM — THE VAN DIEMEn's LAND COMPANY JORGEN JORGEN- 
 
 SON ARTHUR'S RECALL ARTHUR'S ADMINISTRATION PROGRESS OP THE COLONY A SEVERE 
 
 CRISIS — Arthur's character, ........ 532 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 GOVERNOR FRANKLIN. 
 
 :OLONEL SNODGRASS — franklin's appointment FIRST IMPRESSIONS — ^A HEARTY RECEPTION— A 
 
 FIRST DESPATCH — RIVAL PARTIES — MESSRS MONTAGU AND FORSTER — PRIVATE INFLUENCE — 
 
 franklin's IMPARTIALITY THE " COAT-TAILS " CONCILIATORY POLICY JUDGE MONTAGU MR 
 
 ALFRED STEPHEN PUBLIC ADMISSION TO LEGISLATURE — CHURCH SQUABBLES SUPERIOR IMMI- 
 GRATION LAND AND LABOUR — HELP FOR ADELAIDE SUBSIDY TO I.MMIGRATION — BAD POLICY — 
 
 GENERAL DISTRESS GOVERNMENT BLUNDERS A SEVERE REACTION — AN EMPTY TREASURY 
 
 BOILING-DOWN FRANKLIN's LAST THREE YEARS HIS ADMINISTRATION HIS GENEROSITY, 
 
 JUSTICE, PIETY, AND GENTLENESS — FRANKLIN's GREAT SERVICES TO THE WORLD — .iN IMMORTAL 
 MEMOEY, ........••■ 538 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 GOVERNOR WILMOT. 
 
 SIR EARDLEY WILMOT — A SHORT AND TROUBLED RULE — A HEAVY TASK — HIS PREVIOUS CAREER- 
 FIRST IMPRESSIONS — COLLISION BETWEEN E.XECUTIVE AND THE JUDGES KAVANAGII THE BUSH- 
 
 RANCER — AGRICULTURE ENCOURAGED — BUSHRANGING AGAIN — A YEOMANRY CORPS — LEGISLA- 
 TIVE COUNCIL — INCREASED SALARY MAJOR COTTON'S PLANS FOR IRRIO.VTION — DEFICIENT WAYS 
 
 AND MEANS— NEW LICENSE FEES — POPULAR DISCONTENT — WILMOT RECALLED HIS UNHArPY 
 
 ADMINISTRATION — HIS DKATH — CLERICAL SQUABBLES — WILMOT's FAMILY — MR LA TROBE, . 540
 
 CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 GOVERNOR DENISON. 
 
 SIR W DENISON PREVIOUS SERVICES — A COOL RECEPTION — AN ELECTIVE LEGISLATURE AGAINST 
 
 DEMOCRACY POLITICAL FREEDOM — POPULAR REJOICINGS — GOVERNOR SUPPORTS TRANSPORTA- 
 TION POPULAR OPPOSITION TO HIS VIEWS ARGUMENTS ON BOTH SIDES — RESOLVES FOR FREE- 
 DOM A SERVILE DESPOT, ......... 
 
 BOOK XII. 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 EARLY DAYS. 
 
 FIRST DISCOVERIES FIRST PROPOSALS OF SETTLEMENT— WHALERS — GEORGE BRUCE — THE NATIVE 
 
 RUATAEA ADVANCING CIVILISATION MASSACRE OF THE CREW OF THE " BOYD " A SIGNAL 
 
 REVENGE TE PAHl's FATE OUTRAGES ON THE NATIVES HONGI HIKA's STORY — DEMAND FOR 
 
 FIRE-ARMS — PIONEERS OF CIVILISATION BAY OF ISLANDS — NATIVE WARS — GOOD FROM EVIL — 
 
 PRESERVED HEADS, .......... 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 PERIOD OF CIVILISATION. 
 
 FIRST ROOTS OF CIVILISATION WHALERS AND SEALERS THE PAKEHA MAORIS THE MISSIONARIES 
 
 AND THE SHIP " DUFF " REV. SAMUEL MARSDEN CHRISTIANISING THE NATIVES — MISSIONARIES 
 
 BIBLE TRANSLATED — MISSIONARIES LAND-JOBBING, ...... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 551 
 
 553 
 
 559 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 COLONISATION. 
 
 THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY — MR BUSBY GOVERNMENT RESIDENT WRECK OF THE "HARRIET" 
 
 guard's STORY BARON DE THIERRY's STORY FIRST GROG-SHOP COLONIAL PROGRESS VIGI- 
 LANCE ASSOCIATION WAKEFIELD'S EXPEDITION FAILURE OF THE COMPANY A CROWN COLONY 
 
 MODERN IMPROVEMENTS — THE EIGHT PROVINCES, . . .... 504 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 
 
 WELLINGTON AUCKLAND — WESTLAND NELSON OTACO CANTERBURY MARLBOROUGH — TARANAKI, 571 
 
 d
 
 xxvi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE MAORI WARS. 
 
 FAQE 
 EARLY CAREER OF IIEKI — BRITISH FLAGSTAFF CUT DOWN — CONFERENCE WITH THE NATIVES FLAG- 
 STAFF AGAIN CUT DOWN DESCRIPTION OF KOROBAREKA ATTACK ON THE TOWN EXPEDITION 
 
 DESPATCHED AGAINST HEKI UNSUCCESSFUL ASSAULT ON OKAEHAU SECOND EXPEDITION 
 
 ATTACK ON OHAIOWAI FALL OF RUA-PEKA-PEKA — SURRENDER OP KAWITI AND DEATH OP HEKI 
 
 THE WAIEAU MASSACRE ATTACK ON BOULCOTT's FARM — CAPTURE OP TE RAUPARAHA MAS- 
 SACRE OF THE GILFILLANS, ......... 587 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN FACTS AND ANECDOTES, ETC. 
 
 I 
 
 PORT JACKSON — NATIVE NAMES — " COO-EY ! " LEICHHAEDT's GRAVE — COOK'S MONUMENTS STORY OF 
 
 JAMES DAVIES PARAPHRASE AND TRANSLATION OF A SONG OF THE ABORIGINES THE COROB- 
 
 BORY THE MAUNGATAPU MURDERS LAMENT FOR A NEW ZEALAND CHIEF NEW ZEALAND 
 
 CUSTOMS — STORY OF WAIHUKA AND TUTEAJIOAMO — LEGEND OF THE KILLING OP THE MONSTER 
 
 HOTUPUKU— THE EEL AND THE CODFISH THE GUANA AND THE ROCK COD THE RAT AND THE 
 
 GREEN PARROT THE KAURI-TREE AND THE WHALE THE RAT AND THE LIZARD " CURRENCY' " 
 
 AND " CORN-STALKS " THE SHIPWRECKED MISSIONARY" AUSTRALIAN SCENERY, BY A NATIVE- 
 BORN POET THE RUM HOSPITAL SORROWS OP THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN PRINTER A PROPHECY 
 
 FULFILLED AN ABORIGINAL MURDER^THE DISCOVERY OF GIPPSLAND MELBOURNE IN 1837 
 
 AN ABORIGINAL DEED OP GIFT THE WRECK OF THE " FALMOUTH " MAN-OF-WAR THE SATIN 
 
 BOWER BIRD AUSTRALIA AND AMERICA CONTRASTED NATIVE NAMES A SYDNEY " BRICK- 
 FIELDER " AUSTRALIAN FLOWERS ANIGHT IN THE BUSH BUSHRANGING IN QUEENSLAND 
 
 AUSTRALIAN AND ENGLISH SEASONS CONTRASTED RESULTS OP RECENT AUSTRALIAN EXPLOR.\- 
 
 TION king's island YOUNG AUSTRALIA THE POLYNESIANS — PITCAIRN ISLAND NEW ZEA- 
 LAND SCENERY THE TWO PLIES CONTRAST BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA EDUCA- 
 TION IN AUSTRALIA DEMOCRACY IN AUSTRALIA CONFEDERATION A MAORI " RUNANGA "^ 
 
 THE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIA — THE FUTURE OP THE ENGLISH RACE MARRIAGE AMONGST THE 
 
 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES ABORIGINAL TRADITIONS — THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SERVICE IN AUS- 
 TRALIA THE WESLEYAN PIONEER OP NEW SOUTH WALES THE FIRST INDEPENDENT MINISTER 
 
 OF IIOBART TOWN — THE LUTHERANS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA NO CHURCH ST.\TE AID IN SOUTH 
 
 AUSTRALIA — PORT PHILLIP IN 18.')0, ........ 619 
 
 THE FI.JI ISLANDS, .......... 700 
 
 NEW GUINEA, OR PAPUA, ........ 706
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. Frontispiece. 
 
 2. General Map, 
 
 3. Portrait of William Dampier, 
 
 4. Portrait of Captain Cook, 
 
 5. Australian Explorers — Portraits of Burke ano Wills, Sir 
 
 Stuart, Forrest, Dr Leichhardt, Sturt 
 
 6. Aborigines of Australia, . 
 
 7. Map of New South Wales, 
 
 8. South Head, Port Jackson, 
 
 9. Bushrangers, 
 
 10. Map of Victoria, . 
 
 11. Quartz Crushing Mill, 
 
 12. Digger on the Tramp, 
 
 13. Map of South Australia, . 
 
 14. Sheep-Shearing, 
 
 15. Free Selector's Hut, • 
 
 16. Map of Western Australia, 
 
 17. Map of Queensland, 
 
 18. Brisbane, 
 
 19. Map of Tasmania, . 
 
 20. Tasmanian Forest Scene, . 
 
 21. Map of New Zealand, 
 
 22. Aborigines and Carpet Snakf., 
 
 23. The Maori War — Taking a Maori PiEDOuet, 
 
 24. Australian Scexeuv. 
 
 George Grev. 
 
 Giles, 
 
 1 
 
 29 
 72 
 
 182 
 
 236 
 
 248 
 
 261 
 
 329 
 
 374 
 
 412 
 
 435 
 
 453 
 
 473 
 
 493 
 
 498 
 
 507 
 
 509 
 
 516 
 
 531 
 
 553 
 
 571 
 
 594 
 
 636
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA, 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 EABLY NAYIGATOES AND DISCOVEEEES IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rpHE History of Australasia is the history of the discovery of a new Avorld 
 ■*- and the rise of a new empire. But it is a history marked by none of those 
 stirring and romantic incidents which signalised the establislnnent of European 
 power in America. It is a chronicle of peaceful maritime enterprise and tranquil 
 settlement merely. The founders of this new empire were not ambitious warriors 
 or mighty conquerors, but only hardy sailors and adventurous colonists. It is an 
 empire, therefore, not founded in bloodshed. In the case of New Zealand only 
 have there been wars with the native races for the possession of the soil. On 
 the great continent itself, the early records show nothing more than progressive 
 and prosperous sheep-farming, never armed conflict with the aboriginal inhabi- 
 tants. In this regard Australasia presents a striking and happy contrast to both 
 British and Spanish America, to India, to the Cape Colony, to the West India 
 colonies, and even to Canada. " Peace hath her victories no less renowned than 
 War." And no gi^ander victory of Peace has this world ever witnessed than the 
 acquisition of Australasia by the British nation. 
 
 Yet it must be granted that a dark shadow rests upon the beginnings of history 
 in these regions. At this distance of time it really seems incredible, in the 
 retrospect, that British statesmen could have been guilty of such acts of infomous 
 impolicy, of such shameful political Avickedness, or could have shown such dull 
 insensibility to the interests of the nation and the welfare of the human race, such 
 culpable negligence, such blank short-sightedness, as marked for more than half-a- 
 
 A
 
 2 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 century tlie dealings of the Imperial Government with the new territory placed in 
 its possession. It was a magnificent opportunity lost for England and for the 
 world. Had plain common sense, simple prudence, and humane feelings directed 
 the counsels of the British Cabinet, when first the extent and value of Cook's 
 discoveries in the Southern Ocean were fully realised and verified, the story of 
 British settlement in Australasia Avould have been advanced full fifty years. 
 What the new world in the South has become in 1877, it would have been in 
 1827 ; and to-day its development and prosperity would have been threefold what 
 they now are. The early history of Australasia is an indelible stain ui^on British 
 statesmanship. 
 
 Nevertheless the history is not destitute of interest, nor of a moral. The rise 
 and progress of a new British dominion already numbering two millions of loyal 
 subjects of the Crown, and rich almost beyond precedent in natural possessions, 
 cannot but be interesting to the nation and to the world. And the moral it 
 conveys is, that the bounty of Divine Providence is inexhaustible, ' that the 
 British people are the best colonisers the world ever had, and that good states- 
 manship is of inestimable value to any nation. So far as the Australasian 
 colonies are concerned, it must be gratefully acknowledged that the imperial rule 
 is now maintained on principles of such perfect equity, of such generous freeness, 
 that there remains not even the shadow of a substantial grievance to be redressed. 
 All is peace, harmony, and mutual affection between the mother country and her 
 children in the South. Whatever the future fortunes of these communities may 
 be, at the present time the sentiment of fervent loyalty to the British Crown is 
 universal amongst the peoi^le ; the golden link that binds them to the Throne may 
 be slight in texture, but it is of adamantine strength ; and the sincere wish of 
 every Australian's heart is that it may last unbroken for long ages to come.
 
 EARLIEST DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLIEST DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 
 
 IGNORANCE OF THE ANCIENTS RESPECTING A SOUTHERN OCEAN — FIRST GLEAM OF 
 
 LIGHT FROM ARABIA — "THE SEA OF PITCHY DARKNESS" MARCO POLO'S 
 
 DISCOVERIES — BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ AND VASCO DI GAMA — VASCO NUNEZ DE 
 BALBOA — HIS ADVENTURES AND DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC — HE TAKES 
 POSSESSION OF IT FOR SPAIN — NAMES IT THE SOUTH SEA — HIS FATE — 
 MAGALHAENS' ADVENTURES, DISCOVERIES, AND FATE. 
 
 The Great Southern Ocean is comparatively a modern discovery. Its existence 
 seems never to have been imagined by the ancients of the times before Christianity. 
 Nor do they appear to have had any idea that the Asiatic continent was bounded 
 on the east by the sea. Homer figured the world as a circle begirt by the " great 
 strength of ocean;" and this belief formed the basis of the old world's geogra- 
 phical knowledge for a long time afterwards. Even after the earth was discovered 
 to be a globe, the existence of a girdling ocean was fully believed. The progress 
 of discovery at length brought to light the existence of lands in those portions of 
 the globe supposed to be covered by the ocean ; but, proceeding with undue 
 haste, it was next imagined that Asia extended eastward in an indefinite expanse. 
 Such was the state of geographical knowledge, even amongst the most learned 
 men of Europe, when the fall of the Roman Empire brought on the Dark Ages ; 
 and for centuries not one solitary gleam of light broke in upon the general 
 darkness of mankind touching the world in the South. 
 
 The first gleam of light came from the East, where the Arabs pursued the 
 study of geography with the utmost ardour. Their systems again revived the 
 belief in a circumamliient ocean, which bound the earth like a zone, and in which 
 the world floated like an egg in a basin. That portion of this belt of Avaters 
 which was imagined to flow round the north-eastern shores of Asia they called 
 by the name of " The Sea of Pitchy Darkness." The Atlantic had by the Greeks 
 been regarded as a fairy scene, where the Islands of the Blest were placed, in 
 which, under calm skies, surrounded by unruffled seas, and amid groves of the 
 sweetest odour, the favoured of the gods enjoyed everlasting peace and happi- 
 ness. This fable found no place among the Arabs, who bestowed on that ocean 
 the name of " The Sea of Darkness," and filled their imaginations with appalling 
 pictures of its storms and dangers. Xcrif al Edrisi, one of the most eminent of 
 their geographers, Avho Avrote about the middle of the twelfth century, observes : 
 " No one has been able to verify anything concerning it, on account of its
 
 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 difficult and perilous navigation, its great obscuritj', its profound depth, and 
 fi-equcnt tempests ; through fear of its mighty fishes and its haughty winds ; yet 
 there are many islands in it, some peopled, others uninhabited. There is no 
 mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters ; or, if any have done so, they 
 have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from them. The waves of 
 this ocean, although they roll as high as mountains, yet maintain themselves 
 ■n-ithout lireaking ; for if they broke, it would be impossible for a ship to plough 
 them." 
 
 ■ But the mystery of the " Sea of Pitchy Darkness " was at length removed. 
 Towards the end of the thirteenth century the celebrated Venetian traveller, 
 Makco Polo, succeeded in penetrating across the Asiatic continent, and reached 
 the farthest shores of China. He brought back to Europe the most wonderful 
 tales of Oriental pomp and magnificence, rivalling those of the " Arabian Nights' 
 Entertainments." He spoke, in particular, of a vast sea which bounded China on 
 the east. He drew a pictui^e of it differing widely from the gloom and tempests 
 with which the Arabian geographers had invested it. Experienced pilots and 
 mariners had told him that "it contained no fewer than seven thousand four hun- 
 dred and forty islands, mostly uninhabited." Of these islands Zipangu, or Japan, 
 was the largest and richest. But he was careful to add that the sea containing 
 these islands was no mere gulf, like the Egean or Adriatic, but a boundless extent 
 of waters. 
 
 Thus early was the Asiatic margin of the Southern Ocean made kno-wn. 
 More than two centuries elapsed before its opposite boundary was reached, or a 
 European ship launched on its waves. 
 
 In 1486 liAitTiiOLOMEW Diaz reached the Cape of Good Hope ; and eleven 
 years afterwards Vasco di Gama doubled the Cape, and conducted a fleet to 
 the rich shores of India. 
 
 In the year 1513 the Spaniards at length reached that ocean of which they 
 had heard many vague rumours from the natives of Ticrra Firma. The honour 
 of this discovery is due to Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a man sprung from a 
 decayed family, and who, first appearing in the New World as a mere soldier of 
 fortune, of dissolute habits, and of desperate hopes, had by courage and intrigue 
 raised himself to the government of a small colony established at Santa INIaria in 
 Darien. In one of his forays against the native inhabitants when in this 
 command, he procured a large quantity of gold. While he was dividing the 
 treasure among his followers, much disputing took place in the presence of a 
 young cacique (or chief), who, disdaining loawls for what seemed to him so 
 mean an object, struck the scales with his hand and scattered the gold on the 
 ground, exclaiming : " Why should you (piarrel for such a trifle ? If this gold is 
 indeed so precious in your eyes, that for it you for.sake your homes, invade the 
 peaceful lands of .strangers, and expose yourselves to such sufferings and ])erils, I 
 will t(;Il you f)f a jM-ovince where you may gratify your wishes to the utmost. 
 Jiehold th(jse lofty mountain.s," he said, pointing to the south, " beyond these hes 
 a mighty .sea wliich may be discerned from their summit. It is navigated by 
 people who ha^■e vessels not much less than yoiirs, and furnished like tluMn with
 
 EARLIEST DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 5 
 
 sails and oars. All the streams which flow down the southern side of those 
 mountains into that sea abound in gold, and the kings avIio reign upon its 
 borders eat and drink out of golden vessels. Gold is as plentiful and common 
 among these people of the south as iron is among you Spaniards." From 
 the moment he heard this intelligence, the mind of Vasco Nunez became 
 occupied with this one object, and he steadfastly devoted all his thoughts 
 and actions to the discovery of the southern sea indicated by this chief. ISIany 
 dililculties, however, retarded the undertaking, and it was not till the 1st of 
 September 1513 that he set forth, accompanied by no more than a hundred and 
 ninety soldiers. After incredible toil in marching through hostile tribes, he at 
 length approached the base of the last ridge he had to climb, and rested there for 
 the night. On the 26th of September, with the first glimmering of light, he 
 commenced the ascent, and by ten o'clock had reached the brow of the mountain 
 from the summit of which he was assured he would see the promised ocean. 
 Here Vasco Xuuez made his followers halt, and mounted alone to the bare hill- 
 top. What must have been his emotions Avlien he reached the summit ! Below 
 him extended forests, gi-een fields, and winding rivers ; and beyond he beheld 
 the South Sea illuminated by the morning sun. At this glorious sight he fell on 
 his knees, and extending his arms towards the ocean, and weeping for joy, 
 returned thanks to Heaven for being the fir.st Em^opean who had been permitted 
 to behold these long-sought waters. He then made signs to his companions to 
 ascend, and when they obtained a view of the magnificent scene, a priest who 
 was amongst them began to chant the anthem " Te Deum laudamus" all the 
 rest kneeling and joining in the solemn strain. This burst of pious enthusiasm 
 is strangely contrasted with the feelings of avarice to which, even in the moment 
 of exultation, their leader surrendered his mind, when he congratulated them on 
 the prospect of becoming, " by the favour of Christ, the richest Spaniards that 
 ever came to the Indies ! " After this he caused a tall tree to be felled and 
 formed into a cross, which was erected on the spot whence he first beheld the 
 western deep. He then began to descend from the mountains to the shores of 
 the new-found ocean, and on the 29th of September reached a vast bay named 
 by him San ISIigaiel, from the festival on which it was discovered. Unfm-ling a 
 banner whereon was painted a figure of the Virgin, with the arms of Castile at 
 her feet, he marched with his drawn sword in his hand and his buckler on his 
 shoulder knee-deep into the rushing tide, and, in a loud voice, took i:)Ossession of 
 the sea and of all the shores it washed. ITe concluded the ceremony by cutting 
 with his dagger a cross on a tree that grew in the water, and his followers, dis- 
 persing themselves in the forest, expi'essed their devotion by carving similar 
 marks with their weapons. Vasco Nunez then betook himself to pillage : he 
 exacted from the natives contributions in gold and provisions ; and being told of 
 a country to the south where the people possessed abundance of gold and used 
 beasts of burden, the rude figure of a lama traced on the beach suggested to him 
 the camel, and confirmed him in the opinion that he had reached " the gates of 
 the East Indies." From the circumstance of the ocean having been first 
 descried from the Isthmus of Darien, which runs nearly east and west, it
 
 6 THE HIS TOE Y OF A USTRALASIA . 
 
 received the name of the South Sea, — a title Avhich, however accurately applied 
 to the part first seen, is employed with little propriety to designate the whole 
 vast expanse of the Pacific. Tidings of this great discovery were immediately 
 transmitted to Spain, and received with delight and triumph. But instead of 
 rewarding so important a service, the Court despatched a governor to supersede 
 Balboa, wlio by the perfidy of his successor was publicly executed in 1517 ! So 
 does the world sometimes reward its greatest lienefactors ! 
 
 The glory of discovering a path to the South Sea, and of overcoming the 
 difficulties which had hitherto imjieded the navigation of its waters, is due to 
 Fernando de Magalhaens, the great Portuguese navigator. The life of this dis- 
 tinguished mariner was a succession of the wildest and most romantic adventures. 
 An English and incorrect version of his name lives in the well-kno^^ai Straits of 
 Magellan, which he was the first to explore. It was he who gave the name of 
 the Pacific to the Southern Ocean, from the delightful weather he first experi- 
 enced in its waters. He it was also that discovered the Philippine Islands, 
 which have ever since remained a possession of Spain. He perished in a petty 
 quarrel between two hostile tribes in the islands. His imperishable bequests to 
 the world are the discovery of the communication between the Atlantic and 
 Pacific Oceans, the opening up of the Southern Ocean to European enterprise, 
 and the demonstration as a certain fact of the spherical form of the earth.
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT SOUTH LAND. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT SOUTH LAND. 
 
 DIM NOTIONS OF THE ANCIENTS OF A GREAT SOUTH LAND — SENECA, THEOPOMPUS, 
 AND MANILIUS — THE CHINESE CLAIM TO THE DISCOVERY — DE GONNEVILLE'S 
 CLAIM — MAGALHAENS' CLAIM — MR MAJOR'S RESEARCHES HAVE ESTABLISHED THE 
 PORTUGUESE CLAIM. 
 
 There are indications that the ancients had some dim notions of a Great 
 Southern Land. Passages in the -writings of Roman authors of about the date 
 of the Christian era seem to indicate as much. Thus, Seneca speaks of the 
 latter days when Oceanus shall relax the bonds of the universe, and a new earth 
 and new orbs shall be discovered. A ^^Titer named Theopompus relates a con- 
 versation between a demigod and a mortal, the former of whom speaks of lands 
 existing outside the ocean which circumscribes Eurojie, Asia, and Libj^a, where 
 men are twice oui- stature, and where are big animals and mighty beasts. 
 Another writer named Manilius distinctly speaks of a habitable jiart of the 
 southern hemisphere, which part, he says, lies under our feet. And it is notable 
 that this statement is made in a treatise put forth to prove the spherical form of 
 the earth. 
 
 A claim is made on behalf of the Chinese for the discovery of the Australian 
 continent at a very remote period. Marco Polo gives a description of some 
 large island lying to the south-east of Java, the particulars of which, it is pre- 
 sumed, he learned in the Celestial Empire. Mr Marsden, the translator of 
 Marco Polo's "Travels," and after him Mr Major, have shown that the countries 
 referred to were islands in the Indian Archipelago. 
 
 The next claim is as easily disposed of. It is made on behalf of Binot 
 Paulmier de Gonneville, who sailed from Honfleur in 1503, on a voyage to the 
 South Seas. It appears he rounded the Cape of Good Hope in safety, and was 
 then overtaken by a storm, which caused him to lose all knowledge of where he 
 was. When a calm returned he steered southward. This course brought him to a 
 land where he remained six months, and then returned to France, bringing with 
 him one of the inhabitants. The ship was plundered by an English corsair on 
 its return, so that the journals were lost ; but a declaration was made by De 
 Gonneville and his officers as to the facts of their voyage, and sent to the Admir- 
 alty of France. Many years after, the great-grandson of the native brought to 
 Europe on this voyage petitioned the Pope to be allowed to form an expedition 
 for the conversion of the natives of the country of his ancestors.
 
 8 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The account of the voyage, printed with the petition, is the only narrative on 
 the subject now extant. Many have supposed that the country thus visited was 
 AustraHa ; but this view is quite untenable, for a simple reason : De Gonneville 
 describes the inhabitants of his new country as being already far advanced in 
 civilisation ; and this could in no degree apply to any portion of Australia. 
 
 There is one more claim to be disposed of, before coming to the real dis- 
 coveries of the continent. It is made in behalf of Magalhaens, as one of the 
 results of his celebrated voyage round the world, made in 1520, in the ship 
 " Vittoria." The assertion was made in 1855 by Aldama Ayula, of Madi'id, and 
 he pointed for a confirmation of his views to a magnificently illuminated map, 
 made in 1570 by Vaz Domado, and formerly i^reserved in the Carthusian 
 monastery of Evora. Dr John ISIartin has recently examined that map. He 
 states that it contains no land laid down to the south of New Guinea ; but that, 
 separated from the rest of the chart by the bordering scale of parallels of latitude, 
 there is a line of coast running from west to east, with a little southing. Sup- 
 posing that the whole sheet were meant to constitute one map, this could not be 
 Australia, for it lies north-east of New Guinea ; neither is there any land known 
 which would at all correspond to it in that position, especially with such large 
 rivers as the chart represents it to have. It is supposed, therefore, to be a marginal 
 map of the coast of the Magellan Straits, and some of the names correspond with 
 that locality. Subsequent chartographers mistook it for a chart of the north 
 coast of New Guinea, and hence, in all subsequent maps, the latter island has 
 upon its north side all the names of ]\Iagalhaens' chart. 
 
 The researches of Mr INIajor, of the British Museum, have brought to light 
 some proofs that the Portuguese had discovered the Great Southern Continent 
 prior to 1540. A book pubhshed in 1598 states that " the Australis Terra is the 
 most southern of all lands, and is sejiarated from New Guinea by a naiTOW 
 strait. Its shores are hitherto but little known, since after one voyage and 
 another that route has been deserted, and seldom is the country visited, unless 
 when sailors are driven there by storms. The Australis Terra begins at two or 
 three degrees from the equator, and is ascertained by some to be of so great an 
 extent, that were it thoroughly explored, it would be regarded as a fifth part of 
 the Avorld."
 
 VOYAGE OF BE QUIROS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 VOYAGE OF DE QUIROS. 
 
 PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS — PILOT IN THE SPANISH EXPEDITION OF 1594 HIS 
 
 PREVIOUS ADVENTURES — SUPERSTITION RESPECTING THE SOUTH SEA — FATE OF 
 THE EARLIEST NAVIGATORS — QUIROS AT PERU — ASSERTS THE EXISTENCE OF A 
 GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT — SENT TO SPAIN — OBTAINS ORDERS FOR AN EXPE- 
 DITION — SAILS FROM CALLAO — LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES — EXPEDITION — LANDS AT AN 
 
 ISLAND — TAUMACO MANICOLO — AUSTRALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO — HOSTILITY OF 
 
 THE NATIVES — QUIROS SAILS FOR MEXICO — HIS APPEALS TO PHILIP THE SECOND 
 ANOTHER EXPEDITION — DE QUIROS SETS OUT, BUT DIES AT PANAMA — ADVEN- 
 TURES OF TORRES — NEW HEBRIDES — NEW GUINEA — SIGHTS THE NORTHERN COAST 
 OF THE SOUTHERN CONTINENT — HAD PASSED UNWITTING THROUGH TORRES 
 STRAITS — RETURNS TO MANILLA — HIS ACCOUNT OF HIS VOYAGE — SPANISH CARE- 
 LESSNESS — TORRES STRAIT NAMED. 
 
 Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Spaniard by birth, was chief pilot to an expedi- 
 tion fitted out in 1594 by the Viceroy of Peru, at the command of Phihp the 
 Second of Spain, to estabhsh a colony in one of the islands of the Solomon 
 Archipelago. He had ah-eady given proofs of his abilities as a navigator ; for he 
 had taken the vessels of Mendana back to the Philippine Islands after the death 
 of the commander, and on the voyage thither had discovered an island, one of 
 the Caroline group, to which the name of Quirosa, in honour of the discoverer, 
 was given by his shipmates. He had also wi'itten an account of Mendana's 
 expedition in a letter to a friend, Don Antonio Merga, who published it in a 
 " History of the Philippines." After the failure of that ill-starred expedition, there 
 was an abatement in that passion for adventure Avhich formerly inflamed the 
 hearts of the Spanish nation, afforded to her chivalrous youth so many harvests 
 of gain, and extended her sceptre over regions of great extent, wealth, and 
 beauty. There had even arisen a superstitious feeling against the discovery of 
 the South Sea, as if it had been an impious intrusion into the secrets of Nature. 
 The imtimely fate of all who had been principally concerned in this great event 
 was now recollected. It was told that Vasco Nunez had been beheaded ; that 
 Magellan had fallen by the hands of the infidels ; that his companion, the 
 astrologer Ruy Falero, had died raving mad ; and that the seaman De Lepe, 
 who had first descried the strait from the topmast, had abandoned Christ to 
 follow Mohammed. But the spirit which had glowed so long was not wholly 
 
 B
 
 10 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 dead, and we have yet to record tlie actions of one of the most distinguished 
 navigators whom Spain has produced. 
 
 Undaunted by the hardshijjs and failures of Mendana's expedition, the 
 gallant Quiros retm-ned to Peru, eager to engage in fresh adventures, and, as one 
 of his memorials expresses it, "to plough up the waters of the vmknowai sea, and 
 to seek out the undiscovered lands ai'ound the Antarctic Pole — the centre of 
 that horizon." Arguing upon grounds which were received by many learned 
 men as conclusive and unanswerable, he asserted the existence of a vast Southern 
 Continent, or at least of a mass of islands, the antipodes of the greater part of 
 Europe, Africa, and Asia. The viceroy, to whom he detailed his views, heartily 
 approved of the project; but as the limits of his authority prevented him from 
 furnishing means for its execution, he sent Quiros to Spain Avitli letters of 
 recommendation to the king and his ministers. These were successful. Quiros 
 left the court with " the most honom*able schedules that had ever passed the 
 Council of State." He forthwith proceeded to Lima ; and, throwing into oblivion 
 all that he had endured for eleven years in the pm^suit of his grand object, he 
 began his preparations for the search for the Southern Continent. 
 
 Having built two vessels and a zahra (a species of launch), the strongest and 
 the best armed that had yet been seen on either sea, Quiros set sail from the port 
 of Callao on the 21st of December 1605. His second in command was Luis Vaez 
 DE Torres. Six grey (or Franciscan) friars accompanied the expedition. On 
 reaching the latitude of 26° S., Quiros deemed it proper to pursue a more 
 northerly track, in opposition to the advice of Torres, who thought that by 
 advancing to 30° S. there was a greater probability of finding the desired con- 
 tinent. The fii'st land was sighted on the 26th of January 1606. It was merely 
 a flat sandy island, apparently without inhabitants. Several islands, and groups 
 of islands, were subsequently discovered. But on the 10th of February the sailor 
 on the topmast gave the joj^ul intelligence that land was ahead. Torres de- 
 scribes it as "a low island, with a point to the south-east which was covered with 
 palm-trees." A body of about a hundred natives were seen upon the beach, 
 making signs of joy. Upon landing, the voyagers were welcomed with much 
 apparent affection, the natives kissing them upon the forehead. Quiros named 
 the island La Sagitaria : the most eminent geographers now identify it with Ota- 
 heite. This opinion is not, however, fvdly verified. 
 
 Setting sail again on the 12th of February, Quiros continued his westward 
 course, discovering many other islands, at some of which he landed. A mutiny 
 broke out in his ship, which the gallant navigator quelled without Ijloodshed. 
 At length, on the afternoon of the 7tli of April, the cry of "Land ahead !" Avas 
 given forth by the man at the masthead. It was a high black coast, standing 
 boldly out into the sea. IVo days were spent in efforts to obtain a safe landing- 
 place. On the 0th the voyagers set their feet on the new territory. It was found 
 to be inhabited, and the natives gave their country the name of Taumaco. They 
 told Quiros that to the southward there lay many islands, and a large country 
 named Manicolo. »Struck with the idea that this might be the Great Southern 
 Continent of which he was in search, the Spanish voyager set sail again, and
 
 VO YA GE OF DE Q UIROS. 1 1 
 
 steering southward he discovered, on the 20th April ICOG, a vast territory which 
 "seemed to have no end, and was full of great mountains." Quiros, convinced 
 that this must be the long-sought-for Land of Promise, cast anchor in a largo bay 
 on the 2d of May, and solemnly named the new region Australia del Espikitu 
 Santo. He took formal possession of the country in the name of King Philip 
 the Second of Spain, and founded a city which he named La Nueva Jerusalem. 
 
 But a formidable obstacle to the acquirement of this delightful land arose 
 before the adventurers. The natives were adverse. They were, moreover, armed 
 with bows and arrows, and of warlike character. A collision took place, in which 
 a chief and several other natives were slain. This unhappy event put an end to 
 all prospects of conciliation. In the meantime the stock of provisions was foiling. 
 In less than a month Quiros was obliged to take his departure fi-om Australia 
 del Espiritu Santo ; and, complying with the suggestions of his officers, he steered 
 for Mexico, where he arrived in the middle of October. 
 
 The subsequent career of this gallant Spanish adventurer was not happy. 
 Still thirsting after discovery and the romance of sea life, he Avent back to Spain, 
 and for several years was compelled to learn the bitter lesson of dependence on 
 kingly favour, in vainly suing from the implacable Philip the means for prosecut- 
 ing his researches in new regions. He presented no fewer than fifty memorials. 
 In one of these, after dwelling in glowing language on the beauty and fertility of 
 the Australian territory he had discovered, he concluded thus : " Acquire, sire, 
 since you can, acquire heaven, eternal fame, and that new world with all its 
 promises. And since there is none who solicits of your majesty the rewards for 
 the glad tidings of so great and signal a blessing of God, reserved for your happy 
 time, I, sire, supplicate them, and as such my despatch ; for the galleons are 
 ready, and I have many places to go to, and much to provide and to do. If 
 Christoval Colon's (Columbus) conjectures did make him pertinacious, what I 
 have seen, and what I offer, must make me so importunate." These powerful 
 pleadings moved even Philip's heart at last. He gave orders for the fitting out 
 of another expedition under the command of Quiros. But the concession came 
 too late. The dauntless navigator had wasted his forces in suing long at Philip's 
 court. He set out for Lima for the purpose of arranging the expedition, but he 
 died on the journey at Panama. So perished one of the world's greatest men, 
 and one of Spain's most illustrious sons. 
 
 The history now returns to the adventures of Luis Vaez de Torres. 
 When Quiros was leaving the Bay of Saints Philip and James in his Australian 
 land, the ship commanded by Torres, by some unexplained mischance, parted 
 company with its consort. Torres remained at anchor in the bay for a fortnight 
 afterwards. He then set sail and steered along the west side of the territory, 
 which he found to be well watered and possessed of many ports. He foimd it to 
 be an island, not a continent. It is now generally believed to have been one of 
 the islands belonging to the archipelago of the New Hebrides, and geographers 
 give the name Espiritu Santo to the largest island in that group. For two 
 months Torres threaded his coui-se through the intricate navigation of the region 
 lying to the north-east of the true Australian continent. While sailing west-
 
 12 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 wards, and in 11^° south latitude, he descried land which he rightly believed to 
 be the eastern extremity of New Guinea. Still continuing his course, he at 
 length sighted land to the south. The daring navigator, without knowing it, 
 had in reality sailed through the famous strait which now bears his name. He 
 had, therefore, perceived the north-eastern corner of the continent, now called 
 Cape York. Pursuing his devious course, Torres arrived at Manilla in the 
 Philippines in May 1607. 
 
 The enterprising voyager had seen the Promised Land from afar off; but he 
 does not seem to have been aware that it was really the Great Southei-n 
 Continent. His discoveries were not counted of very great interest or import- 
 ance by the world. Perhaps his stories of his adventures were scouted as 
 fictions. However that may be, it is certain that the Spaniards were in 
 possession of the Philippines for more than a century without making any 
 attempts, from that position of advantage, to discover the vast territory lying to 
 the southward. The record of Torres' voyages was drawn up by his own hand, 
 under the title of " Eelation of Luis Vaez de Torres concerning the discoveries of 
 Quiros as his Admiral. Dated, Manilla, 12th of July 1607." This precious 
 document was allowed to lie unnoted amongst the archives at Manilla until the 
 captui-e of that city by the English in 1762. The papers then fell into the hands 
 of a shrewd Scotchman named Dalrymple, who kept possession of them, trans- 
 lated them, and gave them to the world in an historical work he subsequently 
 pubhshed. Dalrymple, zealous for the fame of the great Spanish navigator, 
 gave the name of Torres to the Straits which he was the first European to 
 penetrate.
 
 EARLY D UTCH NA VIGA TORS. 1 '■'> 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EAKLY DUTCH NAVIGATORS. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC — ITS MARITIME ENTERPRISE — -VOYAGE OF THE 
 "DUYFHEN" — CAUSES OF ITS FAILURE — FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT SOUTHERN 
 LAND — YACHT VOYAGE IN 1617 — DIRK HATICHS' VOYAGE — EENDRACHT'S LAND 
 
 RELICS OF HATICHS' VOYAGE — ZEACHEN NAMES ARNHEIM LAND — VAN EDELS 
 
 NAMES VAN EDELS' LAND AND CAPE LEEUWIN — VAN NUYTS NAMES VAN NUYTS' 
 LAND — DE WITt's LAND NAMED — CAPTAIN PETER CARPENTER — CARSTEN's 
 EXPEDITION — pool's EXPEDITION. 
 
 The story of the glorious struggle for their national freedom, which the founders 
 of the Dutch Republic so long maintained against their Spanish tyrants, has 
 been made famihar to English readers by the brilliant pen of Motley. Before 
 the close of that struggle the Dutch had Avrested the supremacy of the seas from 
 the Spaniards. Following the example set them by the English, they had at an 
 early date sent two fleets into the Southern Ocean ; but at the beginning of the 
 seventeenth centmy they rose to the first place amongst the Em'opean nations in 
 the domain of navigation and discovery. Their enterprises were fitted out on a 
 large and liberal scale ; their commanders were men of unbounded energy and 
 perseverance ; and the spirit of the nation was high and imdaunted. To the 
 Dutch we are undoubtedly indebted for the first authentic acquaintance with the 
 coast of Australia. Torres, as we have seen, had just sighted, but without 
 recognising, the northern border of the continent. But on the 11th of 
 November 1605 — the same year that Quiros and Torres sailed from Peru — a 
 Dutch yacht, named the " Duyfhen," was despatched from Bantam in Java, to 
 explore the coast of New Guinea. It is certain that this vessel, in retiu-ning 
 from the expedition, sailed along what was thought to be the west side of that 
 island, but was in reality the great promontory of the Australian continent lying 
 to the eastward of the Gulf of Carpentaria. At the points on which the 
 voyagers touched they found the land for the most part desert, but occupied in 
 some places by a race of "wild, cruel, black savages, who murdered some of 
 their crew." Want of provisions compelled the " Duyfhen" to return to Bantam 
 in June 1606. The name of Cape Keer-Weer (or Turn-again), given by the 
 voyagers to the headland in the gulf which marks the farthest limit of their 
 adventure, still commemorates the imdertaking. But the voyage of the 
 " Duyfhen," like the enterprise of Torres, was prosecuted in ignorance of its real 
 nature, so that the discovery was for the time robbed of its greatest interest.
 
 14 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 To these early navigators all seemed desolate and barren ; for, since the 
 discovery of America, the voyage of Vasco di Gama, and the exploration of the 
 Indian Archipelago, the adventurer continually thirsted for some new El Dorado, 
 "where gold was to be found in every stream, where amber was washed up on the 
 beach, where spices perfumed the forests, and pearls were plentiful in the 
 shallow waters near the shore. The wild aspect of the Australian coast con- 
 sequently offered little temptation to them. 
 
 The course of the " Duyfhen " from New Guinea was southward, along the 
 islands on the west side of Torres Strait, to that part of the continent a little to 
 the west and south of Cape York ; but all these lands were thought to be con- 
 nected, and to form the west coast of New Guinea. Thus, without being 
 conscious of it, the commander of the " Duyfhen " made the first authenticated 
 discovery of any part of the Great South Land, about March 1606 ; its arrival at 
 Bantam dating three months later. 
 
 Another expedition was undertaken in a yacht in the year 1617, with little 
 success, and the jomnials and remarks of the voyage were lost. 
 
 In the instructions given to Tasman for his subsequent voyage in 1644 it is 
 stated that, "in the years 1616, 1618, 1619, and 1622, the west coast of this 
 Great UnknoAvn South Land, fi"om 85° to 22° south latitude, was discovered by 
 outward-bound ships ; and among them by the ship ' Eendracht.' " The recital 
 gives no further particulars ; but from thence, and from a manuscript chart by 
 Essel Gerrits, dated 1627, there seems to be sufficient authority for attributing 
 the first authenticated discovery of any part of the western coasts to Dirk 
 Hatichs (commonly, but incorrectly, named Dirk Hartog), Avho commanded the 
 " Eendracht." He sailed from Holland for the East Indies early in 1616. In 
 latitude 25' S. he fell in with the western coast of the continent, which he 
 named Eexdracht's Land. A small island and adjacent roadstead, lying on the 
 western side of the bay afterwards named Shark's Bay by Dampier, still bears the 
 familiar name of Dirk Hartog's Island. In 1697, and again in 1801, there was 
 found on this island a plate of tin, "s^ath an inscription, of which the following is 
 a translation : " Anno 1616, the 25th of October, arrived here the ship 
 * Eendracht' of Amsterdam ; the first merchant, Gillis Miebais of Luik ; Dirk 
 Hartog, of Amsterdam, captain. They sailed from hence for Bantam, the 27th 
 of the same month." On the lower part was cut out with a knife, but hardly 
 distinguishable : " The under merchant, Jan Stins ; chief mate, Pieter Dookus 
 of Bill." 
 
 Two years afterwards, the land extending from the North-West Cape to the 
 fifteenth parallel of south latitude was discovered by another Dutch captain of 
 the name of Zeaciien, avIio also appears to have discovered and surveyed a con- 
 siderable portion of the northern coast, which he named the Land of Arnheim. 
 In the year following (1619) Captain John Van Edels visited the western coast 
 to the southward of Ecndracht's Land, and gave his name to a part of it about 
 the twenty-iiiiith paiallcl of latitude. In the year 1622 the South-West Cape was 
 discovered, with the laud extending to the northward as far as Van Edels' 
 Land, and was named, probably fi'om the vessel in which the discovery was
 
 EA EL Y D UTCH NA VIGA TORS. 15 
 
 effected, Landt Van de Leeuwin, or the Land of Lions. Five years afterwards 
 a consideral)lc part of the southern coast was discovered by Captain Peter Van 
 NuYTS, who bequeathed to it his own mclHfluous name; and in 1628, the Hne 
 of coast, intervening between Eendracht's Land and the discoveries of Zeachen, 
 was discovered and surveyed by a vessel belonging to the Dutch East India 
 Company, and named De Witt's Land, in honour of the commodore who then 
 commanded the Dutch East Indian squadron. During the same year, Captain 
 Peter Carpenter, a naval commander in the service of the same Honourable 
 Company, to Avhose enlightened intelligence and persevering enterjorise geo- 
 graphical science was thus early and deeply indebted, entered and explored the 
 Gulf of Carpentaria on the northern coast of the continent. 
 
 In January 1623 the yachts "Pera" and " Arnheim," under the command of 
 Jan Carstens, were despatched from AmbojTia. The commander, with eight of 
 his crew, was treacherously mui'dered by the natives of New Guinea ; but the 
 vessels prosecuted the voyage, and discovered " the great island Arnheim and the 
 Speult." They were then untimely separated; and the " Arnheim " returned to 
 Amboyna. But the " Pera " persisted, and sailed along the south coast of New 
 Guinea to a flat cove situate in 10° south latitude, and ran along the west 
 coast of this land to Cape Keer-Weer ; from thence discovered the coast farther 
 southward, as far as 17°, to Staten Eiver. From this place, what more of the land 
 could be discovered seemed to stretch westward. The " Pera " then returned to 
 Ambo}Tia. " In this discovery were found everywhere shallow water and barren 
 coasts ; islands altogether thinly peopled by divers cruel, poor, and brutal 
 nations ; and of very little use to the Company " — that is, the Dutch East India 
 Company. 
 
 In 1636 Gerrit Tomaz Pool was sent from Bantam on a fresh expedition 
 to the south. He unhappily met the same fate as Carstens at New Guinea. But 
 the expedition was neveilheless continued by Pieter Pietersen, the supercargo, 
 and sailed along " the coast of Ai-nheim or Van Diemen's Land " — by which 
 names the northern part of the continent was then called by the Dutch — for a 
 distance of 120 miles, without seeing any people, but many signs of smoke."
 
 16 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PELSART'S VOYAGE AND SHIPWRECK. 
 
 DUTCH EXPEDITION OF 1628 — FRANCIS PELSART COMMANDER OF THE " BATAVIA " 
 
 SEPARATED FROM THE FLEET IN A STORM — REACHES THE COAST OF NEW 
 HOLLAND — THE SHIP STRIKES ON HOUTMAN's ABROLHOS — PASSENGERS AND 
 
 CREW LAND ON THE ROCKS — SUFFERINGS OF THE SHIPWRECKED PEOPLE 
 
 PELSART RETURNS TO BATAVIA FOR AID AND SUPPLIES — MUTINY AMONGST 
 THE SAILORS AND MURDEROUS DESIGN — PELSART RETURNS — EXECUTES THE 
 MUTINEERS EXCEPTING TWO, WHO ARE MAROONED — PELSART RETURNS WITH 
 THE SHIPWRECKED PEOPLE TO BATAVIA — SEARCH FOR WATER — DISCOVERS 
 NATIVES — END OF THE VOYAGE — THE TWO MAROONED SEAMEN. 
 
 In 1628 eleven vessels were equipped for another expedition by the Dutch East 
 India Company, and sailed from Texel on the 28th of October. After they had 
 passed the Cape of Good Hope, one of them, the " Batavia," commanded by 
 Francis Pelsart, became separated from the others in a storm. While beating 
 about for some time, the crew discovered Australia, but in a most dismal manner. 
 The vessel, like all the Dutch East Indiamen, carried an enormous crew besides 
 passengers, making a living freight of human beings utterly unprovided for in 
 case of accident. The "Batavia" drifted about for many days, the pilots fondly 
 fancying that they were steeling for Bantam, but without the shghtest idea 
 where they were. One bright moonlight night — the 4th of June 1629 — fair 
 and calm, while the ship was going easily along, the master of the vessel called 
 attention to the white appearance of the water beyond them. The steersman 
 merely said it was the moonlight reflection from the waters. But he was wrong. 
 It was foam from breakers, and when the ship got fairly into it she struck 
 heavily. The spot was the Abrolhos, or Rocks, of Houtman, lying off the Avest 
 coast of the continent. Pelsart, who was ill in bed, immediately ran on deck and 
 upbraided the master, asking where they were. He replied, simply enough, that 
 God only knew that. Meanwhile, they tried the lead, and found forty-eight feet of 
 water ahead and less astern. An old tub of the old school, she must certainly 
 have been, if she could not float in that. However, float she would not ; so they 
 commenced throwing the cannon overboard to lighten her. This might have 
 succeeded, but a storm of wind and rain arose (says Pelsart in his quaint journal), 
 and the vessel began to bump most ominously upon the rocks around them. 
 Then they cut away the mainmast, but this only increased their danger, because 
 it became entangled in the rigging, and lay alongside. The journal is worth
 
 PELS ARTS VOYAGE AXD SHIPWRECK. 17 
 
 quoting at tliis stage of the proceedings : " They coukl see no land, except an 
 island which "was about the distance of three leagues, and two small islands, or 
 rather rocks, which lay nearer. They immediately sent the master to examine 
 them, who returned about nine in the morning, and reported that the sea at high 
 water did not cover them, but that the coast was so rocky and full of shoals that 
 it AA-ould be very difficult to land upon them. They resolved, however, to run 
 the risk, and to send most of their company on shore to pacify the women, 
 children, sick people, and several as were out of their wits with fear." This last 
 statement, though not very clear, shows that the good ship " Batavia " had a very 
 miscellaneous collection of people on board, and gives us a glimpse of what an 
 unpleasant thing a passage in such vessels was, even where one was not ship- 
 ■WTCcked. The jom-nalist goes on to say : " About ten o'clock they embarked 
 these (women, chikh'en, and sick) in their shallop and skiff; and perceiving that 
 the vessel began to break up, they redoubled their diligence. They likewise 
 endeavoured to get their bread up, but did not take the same care of the water, 
 not reflecting in their fright that they might be much distressed on shore for 
 want of it. But what hindered them most of all was the brutal behaviom' of 
 some of the crew, who made themselves drunk with the mne, of which no care 
 was taken. In short, such was the confu.sion, that they made but three trips 
 that day, carrnng over to the island 180 persons, twenty barrels of bread, and 
 some small casks of water. The master retm-ned ou board towards evening, and 
 told the captain that it was to no pm-pose to send more provisions on shore, since 
 the people only wasted those they had already. Upon this the captain went in 
 the shallop to put things in order, and Avas there informed that there was no 
 water to be foimd upon the island." 
 
 The rest of the story must be stated briefly. Water was found at last on 
 one of the islands, but it was a long time before it was discovered, because the 
 holes in which it was used to fill and empty themselves at the rise and fall of the 
 tide, and were natm-ally concluded to be salt water. When things were a little 
 in order, Pelsart put a deck to one of the ship's boats, and coasted along towards 
 Batavia. This he reached in safety. Those who were left behind had a sad 
 time of it. Half of them mutinied, and tried to murder the other half, for the 
 sake of getting control of the cargo. They nearly succeeded, but the few sur- 
 vivors, fighting resolutely for their lives, succeeded in escaping to a neighbouring 
 island. Here they were exposed to daily attacks from the mutineers, until 
 Pelsart retm-ned. The narrative tells us, with admnable brevity, that the 
 majority voted for the immetliate execution of the mutineers, which was then and 
 there carried into eflect. But two of them were spared, and were set ashore or 
 marooned on the mainland. 
 
 In proceeding to Batavia, Pelsart was enabled to see a good deal of the 
 western coast. The mainland was about sixteen miles N. by W. from the place 
 where they suffered shipwi-eck. He reported the shore as low, naked, and exceed- 
 ingly rocky, being nearly the same height as that near Dover on the English 
 coast. Farther on it presented one continuous rock of red colom-, and of an 
 equal height, Pelsart landed aboA^e Shark's Bay on the 14th of Jmic, and found 
 
 c
 
 18 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 that there was in fi-ont of the coast a table of sand one mile in breadth, and none 
 but brackish water to be found on it. Beyond this the coxmtry was flat, A\'ithout 
 vegetation or trees, with nothing in \aew but ant-hills, and these so large that 
 from a distance they were taken to be the habitations of the natives. Some of 
 the savages were seen carrpng clubs, and apparently anxious to siu'prise and 
 massacre the boat's crew, as they crept towards the seamen, who were seeking 
 for water, on their hands and feet. One of the seamen stood up on an eminence, 
 and the savages perceiving him took to flight. They are described as wild, 
 black, and altogether naked; not covering even those parts which almost all 
 savages conceal. On the 16th savages were again seen in another part of the 
 coast, but they took to flight upon the Dutch sailors approaching them. The 
 voj^igers reached Batavia in safety. 
 
 When Tasman was sent out in 1642, it was part of his instructions to inquire 
 after the two Dutchmen whom Pelsart had marooned. But no account of them 
 was ever obtained.
 
 TASMAX'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 19 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TASMAN'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 
 
 ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY — DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANT.^ — GOVERNOR VAN 
 DIEilEN AND ABEL JANSZ TASMAN — -TASMAN's JOURNAL OF HIS FIKST VOYAGE — 
 EXPEDITION OF 1642 — DISCOVERY OF VAN DIEMEN's LAND — ADVENTURES THERE 
 
 TAKES POSSESSION ESTIMATE OF TASMAN's DISCOVERIES — NEW ZEALAND 
 
 DISCOVERED — FATAL AFFRAY AT MURDERERS' BAY — TASMAN LEAVES NEW 
 ZEALAND — TASMAN's SECOND VOYAGE IN 1644 — HIS INSTRUCTIONS — MAPS AND 
 SKETCHES OF HIS DISCOVERIES — ADMIRAL BURNEY's ESTIMATE OF TASMAN. 
 
 In the opening year of the seventeenth century Queen Elizabeth gi'anted to 
 certain merchants of the city of London a charter to trade to the East Indies, 
 reserving to them all rights and privileges, and constituting them a body 
 corporate. This was the foundation of the long-famous, lint now extinct, East 
 India Company. A similar charter Avas granted by the Dutch Government to 
 certain merchants of Amsterdam in 1602, and thus the great East India 
 Company of the Netherlands was founded. This Company effected various 
 settlements in the Indian ^Vi-chipelago, the headquarters being at Batavia. The 
 governor-general was instructed from Holland to carry on exploration in the 
 adjoining seas; and from the fii'st discovei'ies of Dirk Hatichs there were always 
 some Dutch vessels cruising about the unknoMTi waters lying to the southward 
 and eastward of the settlements. But it was not till the year 1642 that any 
 material results Avere secured by the adventurers. 
 
 At that date General Antony Van Diemen was Governor-General of the 
 Netherlands' India ; and one of his most trusted captains was a Hollander of 
 obscure birth named Abel Jansz Tasman. An expedition was fitted out by the 
 governor-general for the pm-pose of exploring the coast of the Australian con- 
 tinent which had been sighted by pre^aous adventm-ers, and the command of it 
 was given to Tasman. It is a remarkable fact that the only accoimt of this 
 memorable voyage — in the course of which the gi-eat i-slands of Ta.smania and 
 New Zealand were discovered — that the Avorld possessed for more than a century 
 after its termination was a curtailed abridgment published at Amsterdam in 
 1674, and an abstract of a more extended kind included in Valentyn's great 
 Dutch work on the East Indian possessions of the Company at Amsterdam. 
 About 1771, however, a manuscript journal of Tasman's, wi'ittcn by his o\n\ 
 hand, Avas brought to England liy an unknoAAni hand, and offered for sale to Sir 
 Joseph Banks. Perceiving the value of this precious document, Sir Joseph
 
 20 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 pui'cliased it, and deposited it amougst the treasures of his magnificent librar}-. 
 He also caused an English translation of it to be made by the Eev. Charles 
 Godfrej' Woide, chaplain to the Dutch chapel at St James's Palace. At Sir 
 Joseph Banks's death, his library was bequeathed to the British INIuseimi in 
 London, where, no doubt, Tasman's jounial is still to be found. The original 
 document and the translation were lent by Sir Joseph to Flinders, and also 
 to Captain (afterwards Admiral) Burney, who was engaged in compiling a 
 chronological history of the discoveries in the South Sea. The Avork Avas pub- 
 lished in five volumes quarto in London, between the years 1803 and 1817, and 
 copies of it are to be fomid in both the Public and Parliamentary Libraries at 
 London. It contains the entire text of Tasman's manuscript, with the exception 
 of some purely nautical details, of no permanent importance. As the Dutch 
 Government was always very jealous of the possession of the records drawn up 
 by its vojagers and discoverers, lest other nations should obtain the benefit of 
 them, it is not easy to account for the means by which this invaluable document 
 found its way from Bata^ia to England. Doubts have been, therefore, cast upon 
 its genuineness ; but in a carefully-written introduction Captain Burney discusses 
 at some length the question of the authenticity of the joiu-nal, and proves the 
 point conclusively. In fact, it possesses every mark of originality. In particular, 
 the minutest incidents of the navigation, from lea^ang Batavia to the arrival at 
 the scene of new discovery, are noted do^mi ; details which have absolutely 
 nothing in them to attract cm-iosity, or to repay the trouble of copying at length. 
 No forger would think of inventing them. Comparing the journal with 
 Valentpi's account, it is found that the latter copies from it almost verbally, but 
 condenses a good deal, and alters the narrative to the third person. The loss to 
 the reader from this alteration may be mentally measured by comparing De Foe's 
 account of Eobinson Crusoe's advcntm'es with a dry abstract of them made by a 
 very commonplace hand. The joui'nal commences in the fine old fashion of three 
 centmnes ago : " Journal or description by- me, Abel Jansz Tasman, of a voyage 
 from Batavia, for making discoveries of the imknown South Land, in the year 
 1642. May God Almighty be pleased to give His blessing to this voyage! Amen." 
 The voyagers weighed anchor from Batavia on the 14th of August 1642, and 
 stood out south-eastward to sea ; " for which the Lord be praised ! " adds the 
 pious commander. On the 27th a council Avas held, Avhen it was resolved to 
 keep a man constantly at the topmast -head to look out, and that whosoever first 
 discovered land, sands, or banks under water, should receive a reward of three 
 reals and a pot of arrack. On the 24th of November, at four o'clock in the after- 
 noon, land was sighted, bearing E. by N., distant, as conjectm-ed, about ten miles. 
 The land was very high, and towards evening high mountains were seen to the 
 E.S.E., and to the N.E. tAvo smaller mountains. On the morning of the 25th the 
 ships stood in for shore. -"As this land," continues the journal, "has not before 
 been knoAvn to any European we called it Antony Van Diemen's Land, in 
 honour of our high magistrate the governor-general, Avho sent us out to make 
 discoveries. The islands near us Ave named in honour of the Council of India, 
 as you may see by the little map Ave made.'- The voyagers did not land, but
 
 TASiMAN'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 21 
 
 continued cruising along the sliore. On the evening of the 28th they came near 
 tlu-ee small islands, one of which "has the shape of a lion's head and is about 
 three miles from the mainland." The next day at five in the afternoon they came 
 near to a bay which seemed to be a good roadstead, and resolved to make for 
 it ; but a storm arose, which obliged them to take in sail and stand out to sea 
 again. To this bay Tasman gave the name of Storm Bay. The anchorage he 
 aimed at is the same as that where Captain Fui-neaux stopped at in 1773, and 
 which he named Adventure Bay. 
 
 On the 2d December, early in the morning, two boats, well armed and under 
 the charge of the first steersman, were sent to a bay a mile to the north-west of 
 the ships to look for fresh water, refreshments, or any other things. Three hom-s 
 before nightfall the boats retm^ned, bringing greens of a kind that grow at the 
 Cape of Good Hope, and another kind, long and saltish, like sea parsley. 
 These plants were found in great abundance. The seamen had heard voices, and 
 a sound like that of a trumpet or little gong not far off, but saw nobodj^ Two 
 remarkable tall trees with steps cut in the trunks to allow of climbing up to get 
 birds' nests were remarked. The traces of animals " with claws resembling those 
 of tigers " were seen, and pieces of gum were brought by the men. In coming 
 off again they had seen people at the east corner of the bay, and also some wild 
 ducks. No fish were taken except mussels. " The country was all over furnished 
 Avith trees, which stood so thin that one might pass through everywhere and 
 distinguish objects at a distance, without bushes or underwood." Many of the 
 trees were marked by fire, and smoke was observed rising in several places. On 
 the following day the ceremony of planting a standard, and taking possession of 
 the new territory in the prince's name, was performed by the carpenter, Francis 
 Jacobsz, who swam through the sm'f to reach the shore. 
 
 To this bay Tasman gave the name, in his chart, of Frederik Hendrik's Bay. 
 He also marks the South Cape of Storm Bay, with Ta.sman's Island lying just 
 south of it ; and the larger island near it he named jNIaria's Island, " in honour 
 of the excellent lady of the honourable the governor-general." 
 
 On the 5th the voyagers quitted Van Diemen's Land, the point last seen 
 being the round mountain, " like a huge, misshapen tower," then about six miles 
 to the westward. 
 
 Calculating his latitude and longitude liy the new notation (cast and west 
 fi'om the meridian of Greenwich), it would appear that the land first seen Avas 
 Point Hibbs, and that had Tasman run up Storm Bay, he would have reached 
 the present site of Hobart Town. In any case, if instead of sailing out eastward 
 he had continued his course northerly' about fom- degrees, he wotikl have struck 
 the continent some three degrees east of the present site of Melboairne, midwaj' 
 between Wilson's Promontory and Cape Howe, while less than a single dcgi'ee 
 north from his point of divergence would haA'e brought him into the straits 
 Avhich divide Van Diemen's Land from Terra Austrahs, and anticipated the dis- 
 covery of Bass. It is probable, however, that his instructions were so framed as 
 to induce him to sail rather for the south, where it was believed existed islands 
 as rich in spices as those of the Javan Archipelago.
 
 22 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 On the 13tli of December, in latitude 42° 10' S., and longitude 178° 28' E., 
 he discovered a mountainous country which he named Staaten Land, in honour 
 of the States-General of Holland. He anchored in " a fine bay," which Avas really 
 the strait between the Northern and Middle Island of New Zealand. While thus 
 at anchor, a disturbance took place with the natives, who, approaching in their 
 canoes, siu-rounded the two vessels. Seven canoes full of Maories, in war cos- 
 tume, lay off the "Zeehaan," and five canoes, each containing seventeen men, put off 
 to the " Heemskirk." Tasman describes the natives as of a colour between brown 
 and yellow, their hair twisted on their heads after the f;\shion of the Japanese, 
 and their bodies covered round the loins with a sort of mat. An affray took 
 place in which the islanders upset the boat of the " Zeehaan," killing three men, 
 and forcing others to swim for their hves. The weather being rough, Tasman 
 thought it prudent to depart without risking further combat; so naming the 
 ill-omened spot Murderers' BaV, he sailed to the eastward. 
 
 Here, again, the Dutch navigator was on the point of anticipating the 
 discovery of Cook's Straits. He sailed to the north to Three Kings' Island, 
 naming a cape to the eastward — on the north-west coast of the present Auck- 
 land— Cape Maria Van Diemen, in honour of the wife of the governor-general. 
 Being in want of provisions he sailed northwards for the islands of Cocos and 
 Hoorn, discovered by Schouten in 1616, to lay in supplies. On the 19th January 
 1643 he passed a high island, two or three miles in circumference, to which the 
 name of Pylstaart or Tropic Bird Island was given, from the number of those 
 birds which frequented it. After meeting with many other interesting adven- 
 tures and discoveries, the expedition arrived at Batavia on the 16th June, after 
 an absence of ten months and one clay. 
 
 In 1644 a second expedition was fitted out under the command of Tasman. 
 The three vessels composing it were named the "Liinmen," the "Zeemeuw," and 
 the " Brak." The instructions given to the commander are still preserved, and are 
 quoted by Flinders in the introduction to his " Voj^ages." They are of the most 
 business-like and matter-of-fact character imaginable. No ardour for knowledge, 
 no love of discovery for discovery's sake, stirred the mercantile soul of the Com- 
 pany. Tasman was to put up signs of possession on such countries as he might 
 discover, by planting European trees, and carving the arms of the Netherlands 
 and the Company upon posts, stones, and rocks. He was to institute trade with 
 the natives, l:)ut to keep them ignorant of the value of the precious metals, show- 
 ing samples of tin, lead, or pewter, as of more value than gold. He was to bring 
 home specimens of everything likely to be of mercantile value, and to make 
 treaties with the natives which should exclude in trading transactions all other 
 nations but the Dutch. He was to make drawings and descriptions of the bays, 
 rivers, and capes, for which pm-pose a draughtsman accompanied him, and he 
 was desired to note most carefully the latitude, longitude, and prevailing currents 
 of wind. His sailing directions were as follow : He was to proceed to Am- 
 l)oyna and Banda, thence to Point Ture, on the south coast of New Guinea. 
 From that place he was to continue eastward to 9° south latitude, and endeavour 
 to ascertain if within the great inlet of Speult's Kivcr there is not an entrance
 
 TASMAN'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 23 
 
 into the South Sea. Thence he was to coast along New Guinea to the farthest 
 kno^vn spots in 17° south latitude, and follow the coast despite all opposing 
 Avinds, in order that he might be assured " if this land be divided from the Great 
 South Continent or not." If he found that the Great South Continent was so 
 divided, his instructions were to circumnavigate the island ; but if, as the council 
 believed, no opening existed between New Guinea and New Holland, Tasman 
 was to run down to the north coast to south latitude 22°, proceed to Houtman's 
 Abrolhos, fish up a chest of dollars lost in Pelsart's -wi^eck, and pick up the two 
 sailors who had been marooned there for participation in the mutiny which 
 followed upon that occurrence. If the weather did not permit him to go to 
 Houtman's Abrolhos, he was to complete the coast exploration of Arnheim and 
 Van Diemen's Lands, and retm-n by Java and the Straits of Sunda. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the cool-headed navigator fulfilled his mission 
 with honour and credit, and brought back numerous drawings and plants. These, 
 together with his charts and plans, were carefully concealed, perhaps eventually 
 destroyed, by the Company. The only fragment of anything which looks hke an 
 authentic record is some four paragraphs of a journal published in 1705 by 
 Witsen, and purporting to have been written by Tasman. Better evidence of 
 Tasman's fortune are the maps of 1648-60. In the same year (1648) in which 
 the map of AustraHa was inscribed on the floor of the Stadthouse in Amsterdam, 
 Turquet published at Paris a mappemonde, which is evidently based upon 
 observations similar to those which Tasman was directed to make. So in the 
 edition of Jansen's atlas in 1650, in the atlas of Klencke, of Amsterdam, and in 
 the sixteenth chart of Thevenot's "Relation de Divers Voyages Curieux" (1663), 
 distinct reference is made to discoveries which it is most reasonable to suppose 
 Avere made by Tasman. In one of the early maps of Van Keulen a portion of 
 Tasman's track, with soundings, is given, and in the British INIuseum is a chart 
 which is regarded as an absolute copy of Tasman's own. If this be so, it is 
 tolerably clear that Tasman missed the discovery that New Guinea and New 
 Holland were separated by sea, and that taking the alternative his instructions 
 afforded him, he sounded down the Gulf of Carpentaria, gave the names to Van 
 Diemen's Gulf and Cape Van Diemen, and continued sounding all the way to 
 De Witt's Land, and then retm-ned in a direct line north-west for Java. 
 
 Admiral Burney's summing-up of Tasman's character and ability as a naviga- 
 tor deserves quotation. He says : " It must be allowed that Abel Jansz Tas- 
 man was both a great and a fortunate discoverer, and that his success is in part 
 only to be attributed to fortune. The track in which he sailed and the careful 
 reckoning kept by him, Avhich so nearly assign the true situation to each of his 
 discoveries, show him to have been an enterprising and an able navigator. And 
 it is to be esteemed no small addition to his important discoveries, and indeed 
 no slight evidence of his merit, that he explored a large portion of unknown sea 
 in a high latitude, and thereby restricted the limits of a supposed Southern Con- 
 tinent, more than any other navigator between the time of Magalhaens and the time 
 of Captain Cook." It may be added that the small degi'ee of celebrity enjoyed 
 by Tasman in his own country is a standing reproach to the Dutch nation.
 
 24 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DAMPIEE'S FIRST VOYAGE. 
 
 THE BUCCANEERS — DAMPIER's BIRTH AND EDUCATION — JOINS THE BUCCANEERS — 
 GAINS COMMAND OF THE " CYGNET " — MAKES A CRUISE TO NEW HOLLAND — HIS 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTINENT — ITS INHABITANTS — THEIR HABITS — THEIR 
 BARBARISM OF MANNERS — THEIR LANGUAGE — INTERCOURSE WITH THEM — 
 DAMPIER QUITS NEW HOLLAND AND SAILS FOR EUROPE. 
 
 The discoveries of Columbus aud the conquests of Cortez and Pizarro gave a 
 new world to Spain. But the haughty and jealous Spaniards would not be 
 satisfied with anything less than absolute and exclusive possession of their 
 splendid prize. Their claim to it as their own private property was founded, 
 they said, on di\ine right, and ratified by a bull of Christ's vicar on earth. 
 Naturally, this arrogant assumption Avas disputed by other nations, and a host 
 of enterprising adventurers started up to test its validity by process of Avar at 
 sea. The Spaniards dealt Avith such adventurers, Avhenever they could lay 
 hands on them, as interlopers and pirates ; and the most shocking cruelties were 
 inflicted, Avithout mercy and without discrimination, on all the prisoners they 
 captured. " No peace beyond the Line " became the motto of all sea-rovers. 
 War to the death Avitli Spain Avas the motive that stirred thousands of gallant 
 hearts. A league of mutual defence and fierce aggression sprung up amongst the 
 adventurers. This was the origin of that terrible confraternity Avhich, under 
 the various names of freebooters and buccaneers, performed such heroic deeds 
 of daring, and perpetrated such enormous crimes, in the Spanish Main, during the 
 course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centimes. Their history forms one of 
 the most thrilling episodes in the Avorld's naval annals. 
 
 It was from this brotherhood that William Dampier sprung — the "Prince 
 of Voyagers " as he has been not unjustly styled. Born some time about the year 
 1652, at East Coker, near Yeovil — a market-tOAvn in Somersetshire in England 
 — of English yeomen stock, he received a fair education ; but, his parents dying, 
 he Avas taken from school and bound ai:>prentice to a shipmaster of Weymouth. 
 A voyage to France and one to NcAvfoundland, made before he Avas twenty years 
 of age, excited in his Ijrcast the ambition and the ardour of a great adventurer. 
 He possessed every element of character fitting him for such a vocation : firm 
 self-reliance, dauntless courage, restless activity, eager curiosity, the love of 
 change, and of peril. After many strange experiences of sea life, William
 
 DAMPIERS FIRST VOYAGE. 25 
 
 Dampier, at the age of twenty-seven, joined the buccaneers of America, and 
 from that time forward his hfe was one wild romance. 
 
 In 1G83, Dampier with some bold confederates seized a Danish vessel, which 
 they re-named " The Bachelors' Delight," and set off to circumnavigate the globe. 
 After meeting with many wild adventures, their leader gained the command of a 
 vessel named the " Cygnet," in which he sailed for the Philiiipines, and when 
 there resolved on making a cruise to New Holland. The incidents of this cruise 
 must be given in the lively and spirited narrative of the navigator himself : 
 
 " The 4th of January 1688, we fell in with the land of New Holland in latitude 
 16° 50', having made our course due south from the shoal that we passed by the 
 31st of December. We ran in close by it, and finding no convenient anchoring, 
 because it lies open to the north-west, we ran along shore to the eastward, steering 
 N.E. by E., for so the land lies. We steered thus about twelve leagues, and 
 then came to a point of land, whence the land trends east and southerly for 
 ten or twelve leagues, but how afterwards I know not. About three leagues to 
 the eastward of this point, there is a pretty deep bay, with abundance of islands 
 in it, and a very good place to anchor in, or to haul ashore. About a league to 
 the eastward of that point we anchored, January the 5th, 1688, two miles from 
 the shore, in twenty-nine fathoms, good hard sand, and clean ground. 
 
 " New Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined 
 whether it is an island or a main continent ; but I am certain that it joins neither 
 to Asia, Africa, nor America. This part of it that we saw is all low even land, 
 with sandy banks against the sea ; only the points are rocky, and so are some of 
 the islands in this bay. The land is of a dry sandy soil, destitute of water, except 
 you make wells ; yet producing divers sorts of trees ; but the woods are not thick, 
 nor the trees very big. Most of the trees that we saw are dragon-trees, as we 
 supposed ; and these too are the largest trees of any there. They are about the 
 bigness of our large apple-trees, and about the same height, and the rind is 
 blackish, and somewhat rough. The leaves are of a dark colour ; the gum distils 
 out of the knots or cracks that are in the bodies of the trees. We compared it 
 with some gum-dragon, or dragon's blood, that was aboard, and it was of the 
 same colour and taste. The other sorts of trees were not known by any of us. 
 There was pretty long grass growing under the trees ; but it was very thin. We 
 saw no trees that bore fruit or berries. We saw no sort of animal, nor any track 
 of beast, but once, and that seemed to be the tread of a beast as big as a great 
 mastiff dog. Here are a few small land birds, but none bigger than a blackbird, 
 and but few sea-fowls. Neither is the sea very plentifully stored Avith fish, unless 
 you reckon the manatee [or sea-cow] and turtle as such. Of these creatures there 
 is plenty ; but they are extraordinary shy, though the inhabitants cannot trouble 
 them much, having neither boats nor arrows. 
 
 " The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world. 
 The Hodmadods of Monomatapa [Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope], though 
 a nasty people, yet for wealth are gentlemen to these, who have no houses and 
 skin garments, sheep, poultry, and fruits of the earth, ostrich eggs, etc., as the 
 Hodmadods have ; and setting aside their himian shape, they diflFer but little 
 
 D
 
 26 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 from brutes. They are tall, straight-bodiecl, and tliin, with small long limbs. 
 They have great heads, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eyelids are 
 always half-closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes, they being so troublesome 
 here, that no fanning will keep them from coming to one's face ; and without 
 the assistance of both hands to keep them off, they will creep into one's nostrils, 
 and mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close. So that from their infancy, 
 being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as other 
 people, and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their heads, as if 
 they were looking at somewhat over them. They have great bottle noses, pretty 
 full lips, and wide mouths. The fore teeth of their upper jaw are wanting 
 in all of them, men and women, old and young ; whether they draw them out, I 
 know not ; neither have they any beards. They are long-visaged, and of a very 
 unpleasing aspect, having no one graceful feature in their foces. Their hair is black, 
 short and curled, like that of the negroes, and not long and lank like the common 
 Indians. The colour of their skins, both of their faces and the rest of their 
 body, is coal black, like that of the negroes of Guinea. They have no sort of 
 clothes, but the piece of the rind of a tree, tied like a girdle about their waists, 
 and a handful of long grass, or three or four green boughs, full of leaves, thrust 
 under their girdle to cover their nakedness. 
 
 " They have no houses, but lie in the open air, without any covering, the 
 earth being their bed, and the heaven their canopy. Whether they cohabit one 
 man to one woman, or jiromiscuously, I know not ; but they do live in comi^anies, 
 twenty or thirty men, women, and children together. Their only food is a small 
 sort of fish, which they get by making wears [weirs] of stone across little coves, 
 or branches of the sea ; every tide bringing in the small fish, and there leaving 
 them for a prey to these people, who constantly attend there, to search for them 
 at low water. This small fry I t<ake to be the top of their fishery : they have no 
 instrument to catch great fish, should they come ; and such seldom stay to be 
 left behind at low water ; nor could we catch any fish with our hook and lines 
 all the while we lay there. In other places at low water they seek for cockles, 
 mussels, iDcriwinkles. Of these shell-fish there are fewer still ; so that their chief 
 dependence is upon what the sea leaves in their wears, which, be it much or little, 
 they gather up, and march to the places of their abode. There the old people, 
 that are not able to stir abroad by reason of their age, and the tender infimts, 
 wait their return ; and what Providence has bestowed on them they presently 
 broil on the coals, and eat it in common. Sometimes they get as many fish as 
 make them a plentiful banquet ; and at other times they scarce get every one 
 a taste : but be it little or much that they get, every one has his part, as well the 
 young and tender as the old and feeble, avIio are not able to go abroad, and the 
 strong and lusty. When they have eaten, they lie down till the next low water, 
 and then all that are able march out, be it night or day, rain or shine, it is all 
 one : they must attend the wears, or else they must fast. For the earth affiords 
 them no food at all. There is neither herb, root, pulse, nor any sort of grain, 
 for them to eat, that we saw ; nor any sort of bird or beast that they can catch, 
 having no instruments wherewithal to do so.
 
 DAMPIER'S FIRST VOYAGE. 27 
 
 " I did not perceive that they did worship anything. These poor creatures 
 have a sort of weapon to defend their wears, or fight with their enemies if they 
 have any that will interfere with their poor fishery. They did at first endeavour 
 with their weapons to frighten us, who lying ashore deterred them from one of 
 their fishing-places. Some of them had wooden swords, others had a sort of 
 lances. The sword is a piece of wood, shaped somewhat like a cutlass. The 
 lance is a long straight pole, sharp at one end, and hardened afterwards by heat. 
 I saw no iron, nor any other sort of metal : therefore it is pro) jable they use 
 stone hatchets, as some Indians in America do. How they get their fire I know 
 not; but pi-obably, as Indians do, out of wood. I have seen the Indians of 
 Buenos Ayres do it, and have myself tried the experiment. They take a flat 
 piece of wood, that is pretty soft, and make a small dent in one side of it : then 
 they take another hard round stick, about the bigness of one's little finger, and 
 sharping it at one end like a pencil, they put that sharp end in the hole or 
 dent of the flat soft piece ; then rubljing or twirling the hard piece between 
 the palms of their hands, they drill the soft piece till it smokes and at last 
 takes fire. 
 
 "These people speak somewhat through their throat; but we could not 
 understand one word that they said. We anchored, as I said before, January 
 the 5th, and seeing men walking on the shore, we presently sent a canoe to get 
 some acquaintance with them ; for we were in hopes to get some provisions from, 
 them. But the inhabitants, seeing our boat coming, ran away and hid them- 
 selves. We searched afterwards three days, in hopes to find their houses, but 
 found none ; yet we saw many places where they had made fires. At last, being 
 out of hopes to find their habitations, we searched no further ; but left a great 
 many toys ashore, in such places where we thought that they would come. In 
 all our search we found no water, but old wells on the sandy bays. At last we 
 went over to the islands, and there we found a great many of the natives ; I do 
 believe there were forty on one island, men, women, and children. The men, at 
 our first coming ashore, threatened us with their lances and swords ; but they 
 were frighted by firing one gun, which we fired purposely to scare them. The 
 island was so small, that they could not hide theniselves ; but they were much 
 disordered at om- landing, especially the women and children ; for we went 
 directly to their camp. The lustiest of the women, snatching up their infants, 
 ran away howling, and the little children ran after squeaking and bawling ; but 
 the men stood still. Some of the women, and such people as could not go from 
 us, lay still by a fire, making a doleful noise, as if we had been coming to devour 
 them. But when they saw we did not intend to harm them, they were pretty 
 quiet ; and the rest, that fled from us at our first coming, retui^ned again. This 
 their place of dwelling was only a fire, with a few boughs before it, set up on 
 the side the wind was oflP. After we had been here a little while, the men began 
 to be familiar, and we clothed some of them, designing to have had some service 
 of them for it ; for we found some wells of water here, and intended to carry two 
 or three barrels of it aboard. But it being somewhat troublesome to carry to 
 the canoes, we thought to have made these men to have carried it for us, and
 
 28 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 therefore we gave them some clothes ; to one an old pair of breeches, to another 
 a ragged shirt, to a third a jacket that was scaixe worth owning ; which yet 
 would have been very accej)table at some places where we had been, and so we 
 thought they might have been with these people. We put them on them, 
 thinking that this finery would have brought them to work heartily for us ; and 
 our water being filled in long small barrels, about six gallons in each, which were 
 made purposely to carry water in, we brought these our new servants to the 
 wells, and put a barrel on each of their shoulders for them to carry to the canoe. 
 But all the signs we could make were to no purpose, for they stood like statues, 
 without motion, but grinned like so many monkeys, staring one upon another ; 
 for these poor creatures seem not accustomed to carry burthens ; and I believe 
 that one of our ship-boys of ten years old would carry as much as one of them. 
 So we were forced to carry our water ourselves ; and they very fairly put the 
 clothes off" again, and laid them down, as if clothes were only to work in. I did 
 not perceive that they had any great liking to them at first ; neither did they 
 seem to admire [wonder at] anything that we had. 
 
 " At another time, our canoe being among these islands seeking for game, 
 esj)ied a drove of these men swimming from one island to another ; for they have 
 no boats, canoes, or bark-logs. They took up four of them, and brought them 
 aboard ; two of them were middle-aged, the other two were young men about 
 eighteen or twenty years old. To these we gave boiled rice, and with it tui'tle 
 and manatee boiled. They did greedily devour what we gave them, but took no 
 notice of the ship, or anything in it ; and when they were set on land again, they 
 ran away as fast as they could. At om' first coming, before we were acquainted 
 with them, or they with us, a comjjany of them who lived on the main came just 
 against our ship, and, standing on a pretty high bank, threatened us with their 
 swords and lances, by shaking them at us : at last the captain ordered the drum 
 to be beaten, which was done of a sudden with much vigour, purposely to scare 
 the poor creatures. They hearing the noise, ran away as fast as they could drive, 
 and when they ran away in haste, they would cry, " Gurry, Gurry," speaking 
 deep in the throat. Those inhabitants also that live on the main would always 
 i-un away from us ; yet we took several of them : for, as I have already observed, 
 they had such bad eyes that they could not see us till we came close to them. 
 We did always give them victuals, and let them go again ; but the islanders, 
 after our first time of being among them, did not stir for us." 
 
 Dampier quitted the coast of New Holland on the 12th of March 1688, and 
 directing his course northward passed Simiatra, and reached the Nicobar Islands 
 in May. Here he quitted the expedition ; and subsequently sailed for England, 
 where he arrived, after passing through many perils and adventures, on the 16th 
 of September 1691.
 
 
 \ 
 
 v-^ 
 
 
 U* &r«i,dj-. Tfaotnion 4Nlvea 
 
 Copyright 
 
 U'F*rUii«i:BMlaiie LiTlko^Edlii'barjh. 
 
 WIT.T.TAM nAM-pTTrT?
 
 DAM PIERS SECOND VOYAGE. - 29 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DAMPIER'S SECOND VOYAGE. 
 
 EXPEDITIOX OF 1699 — DAMPIER COMMANDS THE " ROEBUCK " — STRIKES ON THE 
 ABROLHOS SHOAL — SHARK's BAY NAMED — DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY — THE 
 KANGAROO FIRST SEEN — DAMPIER LEAVES THE BAY — ANCHORS AT ROSEMARY 
 ISLAND — SAILS, AND AGAIN SIGHTS LAND — SEES SOME NATIVES — ENCOUNTER 
 WITH THEM — THE CHIEF OF THE TRIBE — THE GIANT ANT-HILLS — NATIVE DOGS — 
 
 DAMPIER LEAVES THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND — HIS SUBSEQUENT SHIPWRECK 
 
 ARRIVES IN ENGLAND — IS PILOT IN WOODES ROGERS'S EXPEDITION IN 1708 — 
 ALEXANDER SELKIRK — DAMPIER AGAIN RETURNS TO ENGLAND — HIS ABILITIES 
 AS A NAVIGATOR AND DISCOVERER — TESTIMONIES OF EMINENT SEAMEN — OBSCURE 
 CONCLUSION OF DAMPIER's LIFE. 
 
 In the year 1699 an English expedition for the discovery of unkno^^ai lands was 
 projected by King William III. The command of it was entrusted by the Earl 
 of Pembroke, then at the head of the Admiralty, to Dampier, whose great 
 qualifications as a navigator were now fully recognised. The countries which 
 he was more particularly to examine were New Holland and New Guinea. 
 
 The vessel in which he sailed was named the " Roebuck," old and crazy 
 before she left the port. She carried twelve guns and a crew of fifty men and 
 boys, with provisions for twenty months, besides the equipments necessary to 
 the accomplishment of a voyage undertaken for the future promotion of traffic, 
 though the immediate object was discovery. He left the Downs on the 14th of 
 January 1699, and made a favourable voyage until, on the 4th of July, the coast 
 of New Holland was ueared. On the night of the 1st of August the ship struck 
 bottom oil the northern part of the AbroUios shoal, in latitude about 27° 40' S. 
 Next morning the voyagers descried the mainland at the distance of six leagues, 
 but were unable to find a safe harbour, and owing to foul weather were compelled 
 to stand off till the 5th, when they again approached. Next morning they ran into 
 an opening, keeping a boat sounding before the ship, and moored two miles 
 from the shore in the harbom* named Dirk Hatichs' Reede — so denominated 
 from the first discoverer, who in 1616 had cast anchor there. To this place the 
 navigator gave the name of Shark's Bay, and he lays down the mouth of the 
 inlet in latitude 25° S. 
 
 "The land here is of moderate height," ^ATites Dampier, "and from the sea 
 appears level, though it is found to be gently midulating. On the open coast the
 
 30 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 shore is bluff; but in the bay the country is low, and the soil sandy, producing a 
 species of samphire. Farther in the mould is reddish, a sort of sand, producing 
 some grass, plants, and shrubs. Of trees or shrubs here are divers sorts, but 
 none above ten feet high. Some of the trees were sweet-scented, and reddish 
 within the bark like sassafras, but redder. The blossoms of the different sorts of 
 trees were of several colours, but mostly blue, and smelt very sweet and fragrant. 
 There Avere also beautiful and fragrant flowers growing on the ground, unlike any 
 I had ever seen elsewhere." There were eagles, but no other large birds ; though 
 of the small winged songsters there was great variety. Besides the ordinary sea- 
 fowl there were many strange kinds, quite new to the voyager. Among the 
 animals which he observed was " a sort of racoon, different from that of the West 
 Indies, chiefly as to the legs, for these have very short fore-legs ; but go jumping 
 upon them [the hind legs ?] as the others do, and like them are very good meat." 
 This (it is remarked by Flinders) "appears to be a description of the small 
 kangaroo, since found upon the islands which form the road ; and if so, this 
 account is probably the first ever made of that singular animal." Of the iguanas 
 of this country Dampier gives a striking description. They were inferior as 
 food to those with Avhich he had been familiar in the Atlantic and South Sea, 
 and when opened their smell was very offensive. Nothing can be more loath- 
 some and disgusting than the picture he gives of this large species of lizard, 
 which is the Scincus trojncurus of naturalists. In this bay, besides abundance 
 of sharks, large green turtle were found, which furnished welcome refreshments 
 to the seamen. The fish were skate, rays, and other flat kinds, with mussels, 
 oysters, and smaller varieties. The shore was lined with strange and beautiful 
 shells. 
 
 They had anchored at three different places to search for water ; and on the 
 11th, to accomplish this purpose as well as to prosecute discovery, they stood 
 farther into the bay, but, after several abortive attempts, again bore out to sea, 
 having previously scrubbed the ship. Sea-snakes were seen of different kinds — 
 one sort yellow with l)rown spots, about four feet in length and of the thickness 
 of a man's wrist, with a flat tail; another kind smaller, shorter, and round, 
 spotted black and yellow. 
 
 On the 14th of AugTist they sailed out of this bay or bight, and plied off and 
 on towards the north, keeping about six or seven leagues from the shore, and 
 frequently sounding. On the 15th they were in latitude 24° 41' S.; on the 16th 
 in 23'' 22', "jogging on northward," seeing in their progress many small dolphins 
 and whales, with abundance of scuttle-fish, shells, and water-serpents. On the 
 afternoon of the 18th, off a shoal in 22° 22', of which they kept clear, numerous 
 whales were seen on all sides of the ship. " The noise which they made by 
 blowing and dashing of the sea with their tails, making it all of a breach 
 and foam, was very dreadful to us, like the breach of the waves in very shoal 
 water." 
 
 On the 18th they were carried out of sight of land, which was recovered 
 on the 21st, visiljle only from the mast-head, bearing S.E. by E. and appear- 
 ing at the distance of nine leagues like a blutt' promontory. Ai-ound this
 
 DAMPIEKS SECOND VOYAGE. 31 
 
 place was an archiiielago of islands, of considerable height, which Dampier 
 believed to be a range stretching from E.N.E. to W.S.W. for about twenty 
 leagiies, or probably as far as Shark's Bay. Xcxt day he ran in among them, 
 having a boat sounding ahead. The water was of very unequal depth, and the 
 arid appearance of the shores and rusty colour of the rocks made him despair of 
 finding water, though still hoping that he might either discover a new channel 
 leading through to the mainland of New Holland or find some sort of rich 
 mineral or ambergris, for which this was a favourable latitude, he was unwilling 
 to turn back. The island near which he anchored he named Eosemary, as a 
 plant similar to it, though destitute of smell, grew here in abundance. Two 
 kinds of beans M-ere found ; the one growing on bushes, the other on a .shrub 
 that ran along the ground. Cormorants and gulls were also seen, and a kind of 
 white parrot, which flew in large flocks. 
 
 They left this place on the 23d, and for some time coasted along with the 
 land breeze, having had, since leaving Shark's Bay, fine weather, which still 
 continued. Water-.snakes, whales, noddies, and boobies were seen. On the 
 27th they lo.st sight of land, which was recovered on the 30th in latitude 18' 21' S., 
 smoke being observed at several places on the shore. At night there was a 
 well-marked eclipse of the moon. 
 
 Early next day an armed party landed in search of water, carrying with them 
 pickaxes and shovels. Three tall natives were seen on the beach, but they 
 speedily retreated. The boat lying at anchor a little way from the .shore was, 
 in order to prevent seizure, left in care of two sailors, while the rest followed 
 the savages, who were soon joined by eight or ten more. They stood on 
 an eminence, from which, however, they again fled on the approach of the 
 Engli,sh. 
 
 From this height the party descried a savannah studded with what they at 
 first thought were huts, but discovered to be only rocks scattered up and down. 
 They retm-ned to the place at which they had landed and began to dig, but were 
 menaced by another body of the inhabitants, who vociferated with angry gestures, 
 as if ordering the strangers to be gone. One of them at length venturing to 
 approach, the re.st followed at a cautious distance ; and Dampier went forward 
 to meet them, making signs of peace and friendship. The leader, however, fled, 
 while the others kept aloof ; but as want of water made it absolutely necessary 
 to establish a communication with these people, an attempt was made to catch 
 some of them, and a nimble young man who was with the commander tried to 
 run them down. As soon as he overtook them they faced about and attacked 
 him ; and Dampier, who was himself assailed, was compelled to fire his musket 
 in defence of the seaman, who, though armed with a cutlass, was imable to beat 
 back so many lances. The first shot, intended only to scare them, was, after a 
 momentary alarm, treated with indifi"erence or contempt. They tossed up their 
 arms, exclaiming Pooh, pooh, i^oohl and, pressing closer upon the sailor, the 
 captain could no longer withhold fire. One native fell— his friends paused in 
 alarm — and the Englishman escaped. "I returned back," says the voyager, 
 " with my men, designing to attempt the natives no further, being very sorry for
 
 32 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Avhat had liappened." The seaman was Avonnded in the cheek by a lance. 
 Among the savages there was one who, from his appearance and dignity of 
 demeanoiu-, Avas imagined to be a chief — an impression produced by something 
 distinct from either height of stature or personal beauty ; for, it is remarked, he 
 was neither so tall nor well-made as some of the others, but " a brisk young 
 man," active and courageous. He was the only one of the group that Avas 
 painted. A circle draAvn Avith some sort of A\diite pigment surrounded each of 
 his eyes, and a Avhite streak reached from the forehead to the tip of the nose. 
 His breast and part of his arms were also stained, " not for beauty or ornament, 
 but that he seemed thereby to design the looking more terrible, this his painting 
 adding very much to his natural deformity." Dampier imagined this party to 
 belong to the same nation Avith those he had seen when the "Cygnet" touched on 
 this coast. " They Avere the same blinking creatures, Avith the most unpleasant 
 looks and worst features of any people I had ever seen." He did not get near 
 enough to discover if this tribe, like the former, also Avanted the two fore-teeth. 
 Near the fireplaces quantities of shells were found of the kinds on Avhich the 
 other island tribe lived, and their lances were similar in shai:)e. The general 
 featm'es of the country Avere the same as those already described — Ioav, Avith 
 chains of sand-hills, the land round the shore extremely dry, though bearing many 
 shrubs Avith beautiful blossoms of A'^arious colours and of delicate fi-agrauce. 
 Farther on, there AA'as mixed Avoodland and savannah. The plains are described 
 as studded Avith " detached rocks resembling hay-cocks, some red and others 
 Avhite, and appearing at a distance like the hovels of the Hottentots near the 
 Cape of Good Hope." These Avere, no doubt, the giant ant-hills seen by Pelsart. 
 Some animals resembling avoIa'CS, and lean as skeletons, Avere also observed. 
 These Avere jirobably native dogs, or dingoes. 
 
 Water having been at last obtained, Dampier left these sterile coasts on the 
 5th September, and shaped his course for New Guinea. After j^assing through 
 many adventures and making several important discoveries, he went to Timor, from 
 Avhence he intended to run doAAm once more to the coast of Ncav Holland. But 
 although he obtained soundings at forty ftithoms, he did not sight the land. 
 Unhappily he fell sick, and as his officers Avere indifferent or incompetent, the 
 voyage Avas not prosecuted. The crew, moreover, were suff'cring from scurvy, 
 and the ship Avas greatly in Avant of repairs. Under these circumstances 
 Dampier ordered the officers to sail for JaA'a. Subsequently the old craft Avas 
 Avi-ecked on Ascension Island, and the navigator lost his collection of ciu'ious 
 shells gathered on the coast of Now Holland, together Avith many A'aluable 
 l)ooks and papers. The shipAvreckcd crcAV lived for five weeks on the island, 
 and Avcrc at length rescued by some English vessels that had observed their 
 signals. 
 
 When lie anivod in England, Dampier published an account of his voyage to 
 New Holland, Avhich he dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke, his patron. But his 
 signal services to England and to the Avorld Avere allowed to go entirely 
 uni-cAvarded. The rest of his life, hoAvcvcr, Avas by no means passed in idk'ness. 
 He passed througli a variety of Avild and romantic adventures. He Avas pilot in
 
 DAMPIERS SECOND VOYAGE. 33 
 
 Woodes Rogers's expedition in 1708, when Alexander Selkirk, the prototype of 
 De Foe's immortal Robinson Crusoe, was rescued from the island of Juan 
 Fernandez, after a solitary exile of four years. The expedition returned to 
 England in October 1711, bringing Avith it a treasure of booty in money and 
 merchandise valued at £150,000. But at this point Dampier's name disappears 
 from history, 
 
 Dampier was not only a navigator of distinguished eminence, but a man of 
 strong natural genius ; and it implies something of a reproach upon England, 
 that talents that have gained their possessor a European reputation, should have 
 been less appreciated in his own country than by foreign nations. By French 
 and Dutch discoverers, as well as learned men, he has been uniformly regarded 
 with the warmest admiration. They delight to style him the " eminent," the 
 "exact," the " skilful," the "incomparable." Humboldt has borne testimony to 
 his merits, placing this buccaneer seaman above those men of science who after- 
 wards went over the same ground; Malte-Brun terms him "the learned Dampier;" 
 and the author of the "Voyages to Australia" inquires, "Mais oa troure-i-on des 
 navigateurs coiiiparahles d Dampier?" ("Where shall we find navigators com- 
 parable to Dampier?") The acuteness, accuracy, and clearness of his nautical 
 delineations, as well as his descriptions and general remarks, have made his 
 voyages be followed by foreign navigators as the safest guides ; and his rapidity 
 and power of oliservation are fully as remarkable as his accuracy. For example, 
 his hasty glance at the places where he touched in New Holland has left to 
 subsequent voyagers little else but the labour of verifying his descriptions. In no 
 instance has his veracity been questioned, even by those the most disposed to 
 cavil at facts which, being remote from their own limited experience, ajjpear 
 extraordinary or impossible. Other writers, combining into one the relation of 
 many differ ent travellers, have no doubt added to his descriptions ; but there 
 is no detached account of the countries he visited more full of interest and exact 
 information than the volumes of this experienced seaman. 
 
 The succession of brilliant discoveries which illustrated the early part of the 
 reign of George III. cast, for a time, the adventures of Dampier, and of every 
 previous navigator, into the shade ; but they are again rising into popularity. 
 Compared with the more systematic voyages of our own days, his long solitary 
 rambles are like the enterprises of the single knightly combatant, which, though 
 they bear no proportion to the magnitude and splendour of a regular engage- 
 ment, yet from their individuality often command a more intense and powerful 
 interest. 
 
 By Pinkerton he is styled " the Cook of a former age." Admiral Burney 
 says of him, that " it is not easy to name another voyager or traveller who has 
 given more useful information to the world, or to whom the merchant and 
 mariner are so much indebted." In fine, his early life amongst the buccaneers left 
 out of view, Dampier takes high rank amongst the world's greatest benefactors 
 in the line of maritime discovery. He was a man of great natural genius, of a 
 brilliant imagination in the projection of grand enterprises, and of undaunted 
 daring in their execution. He was, moreover, disinterested ; his sole ambition 
 
 E 
 
 o
 
 34 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 was the acquisition of knowledge, and his strongest passion was the love of 
 adventure. Yet his latter days were passed in obscurity so deep, that no one is 
 now able to tell how the evening of his days was spent, or when he died, or 
 where he was buried. Had he expired on some small island of the Pacific, or 
 perished in the element on which so great a portion of his life was passed, some 
 imjjerfect record might have remained to satisfy our natural desire to know the 
 incidents which marked the last hours" of the veteran navigator. But it was his 
 fate to sink unheeded amidst the conflicting waves and tides of society ; and no 
 memorial or tradition remains of his death, in whose remarkable life the adven- 
 tures of Alexander Selkirk, and of the buccaneer commanders of the Southern 
 Ocean, appear but as episodes. The shame is his country's ; but Australians 
 will always continue to cherish proud and grateful memories of William 
 Dampier.
 
 NAVIGATORS FROM DAM PIER TO COOK. 35 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 NAVIGATORS FEOM DAMPIER TO COOK. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION OF VLAMIXG — ITS BLANK RESULTS — RETURNS TO BATAVIA — THE 
 THREE DUTCH VESSELS OF 1705 — THE "ZEEWYK" — SUMMARY OF DISCOVERIES IN 
 THE SOUTH SEA BEFORE COOK's TIME MAINLY DUE TO THE DUTCH — MERCEN- 
 ARY MOTIVES OF THE NAVIGATORS — TASMAN's VOYAGES THE GREAT EXCEPTION 
 
 THE GREAT SOUTH LAND TILL THEN PRACTICALLY UNDISCOVERED — MISTAKEN 
 
 IDEAS CONCERNING ITS EXTENT AND CAPABILITIES — ROMANTIC NOTION OF ITS 
 VAST WEALTH AND SPLENDOUR. 
 
 From the time of Dampier to that of Cook but little was effected in the way of 
 exploring the coasts of New Holland, and that little was due to the Dutch. A 
 ship called the " Ridderschap," outward bound from Holland, had left the Cape 
 of Good Hope in 1684 or 1685, and had never been heard of aftei-wards. It Avas 
 supposed that she might have been wrecked on the Great South Land ; and in 
 1696 an expedition destined for India, and commanded by Willem de Vlaming, 
 was ordered to make a search for any remains of the ship or crew that might 
 stiU exist. 
 
 On the 28th of December the three ships of the exj^edition, the " Geeliruk," 
 " Nyptang," and " Wezel," reached the Avestern coasts of New Holland, and next 
 day anchored under the island of Rottenest, lying in latitude 31° 50'. A fragment 
 of tbiftwood from a Avreck was picked up next day. On the 5th of January 1697, 
 Vlaming Avent on shore on the mainland, accompanied by eighty-eight armed 
 men, and proceeded inland. Nothing was at first seen but gum-trees and 
 cockatoos, but after a three homes' march a small lake was reached, upon the 
 beach of which footprints were observed. The smoke of a native encampment 
 was also seen in the distance, and three deserted mia-mias were found, l^ut no 
 natives. Another exploration on this 6th was equally unsuccessful, but some 
 black swans were taken, two of which were carried alive to Batavia. The ships 
 left Rottenest Island on the loth, and sailed aAvay northward. On the 16th a 
 landing was again effected, but nothing was found. On the 23d, when near 
 Houtman's Abrolhos, some natives Avere descried walking on the shore. On the 
 3d February a boat landed on these rocks, and found Dirk Hartog's tin-plate, 
 Avith the inscription commemorating his arrival and departure. Cruising about 
 for a time, the ships discovered the North-West Cape, and an opening Avhich 
 the commander called the Wilhem's River. On the 21st February Vlaming,
 
 86 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 considering that he had made all proper search for the relics of the " Eidderschap," 
 sailed for Batavia. 
 
 The next expedition of which we have any particulars is that of three Dutch 
 vessels which sailed from Batavia in 1705, to examine the shores of New Holland. 
 In April of that year they explored the north-west coast, which at that time was 
 called Van Diemen's Land. They were occupied until the 12th of July exploring 
 and naming the various points on the coast. They found two deep indentations 
 in the land which they considered straits, and then came to the remarkable 
 conclusion that the Great South Land was only a chain of islands. They had 
 several communications with the natives. With the exception of a vessel named 
 the " Zeewyk," which was wi-ecked upon the Houtman's Abrolhos, in June 1727, 
 no other shij) visited this coast, or rather no record of any such visit exists, until 
 we come to the time of Captain Cook. The " Zeewyk " was wrecked on an 
 island named Gun Island by Captain Stokes, in latitude 28" 58' 10". The crew 
 were enabled to build a sloop from the fragments of the wreck, and thus reached 
 Batavia in safety. Captain Stokes, in 1839, found a gun upon this island, besides 
 many relics dated about the period of the ship's loss. At the same time a 
 part of Captain Pelsart's vessel, the " Batavia," was found, with a coin dated 
 1620, and several fragments of iron so corroded as to be quite unrecognisable. 
 
 Thus far we have traced the course of Australasian navigation and discovery, 
 up till the time of Captain Cook. It is not to be denied that to the Dutch, more 
 than to "any other nation, are we indebted for the first knowledge of this region. 
 
 The other navigators, more intent on the acquisition of Spanish gold than on 
 the search for unknown regions, almost invariably pursued one common and 
 well-frequented path. On entering the Pacific, they stood for Juan Fernandez, 
 in order to recover their health or replace their stores ; they then coasted the 
 American continent to California ; after which they either retraced their way to 
 the Atlantic by Cape Horn or the Straits, or more usually crossed the South 
 Sea in the track of the Manilla galleon. Such was the route of "Drake, Caven- 
 dish, Van Noort, Spilbergen, the Nassau fleet, the English buccaneers, Dampier, 
 Rogers, Clipperton, Shelvocke, and Anson. 
 
 The only adventurer into a high southern latitude was Tasman. Entering 
 the Pacific from the Indian Ocean, he, as we have seen, advanced to about 44°, 
 and discovered Van Diemen's Land. Thence pursuing nearly the same parallel, 
 he stood eastward, till he encountered New Zealand, and sailing along its 
 western shores bore northward till he got into the track of Schouten, having 
 discovered in his passage the Tonga Islands on the confines of the tropic. 
 
 From this recapitulation it will be seen that, of the Southern Pacific, there 
 still remained altogether unknown the great space bounded on the north by the 
 twenty-fifth parallel of latitude, and by the meridians of longitude 85° W. and 
 170° E. No vessel had yet attempted to traverse this wide extent, and con- 
 sequently Avith respect to it there prevailed the utmost uncertainty and ignor- 
 ance. A learned geographer Avrites in 1771 : " So far as to absolute experience, 
 we continue ignorant whether the southern hemisphere be an immense mass of 
 water, or whether it contains another continent and countries worthy of our search."
 
 NAVIGATORS FROM DAMPIER TO COOK. 37 
 
 The portion of the Northern Pacific which remained unexplored was perhaps 
 still more extensive. 
 
 Such were the mighty tracts concerning which nothing had been ascertained. 
 There were, besides, several spacious regions, of which certain navigators had 
 indeed announced the existence, but who stopped short before the extent was 
 brought to light. Of New Hollaiid only the western side was known ; the 
 northern limit (the strait discovered by Torres in 1606) had passed into oblivion, 
 and this gi'sat country was generally represented as joining New Guinea ; on the 
 south there was no certainty whether it extended to Van Diemen's Land, or 
 where its termination should be fixed ; to the east it was involved in utter dark- 
 ness ; one point only was clear, that it did not stretch beyond longitude 170", 
 being nearly the meridian of Tasman's track. The limits of New Zealand were 
 still more indefinite. Only its western shores had been visited, and for all that 
 was tlien known it might have extended eastward to within 15° of Chili. IVIr 
 DalrjTiiple remarks in 1771 that it is " still a question if Staat's Land (or New 
 Zealand) be part of a continent or only islands, though it is most probably the 
 former, as Tasman supposes it to be." In short, the great problem of geography, 
 the existence of a vast Southern Continent, was still unsolved. The discoveries 
 of succeeding years had no doubt much circumscribed the bounds assigned to it 
 in the sixteenth century. Yet, within the unvisited bosom of the Pacific Ocean 
 there still remained ample space for a country exceeding Eiu'ope in dimensions, 
 and surpassing the widest empire ever seen in either hemisphere, even when at 
 its highest elevation. Nor \di\i the believers in this land was its extent its only 
 merit. Its fancied splendour and fertility were to cast into the shade all that 
 had been told of Mexico and Peru ; for here was to be found the original 
 fountain of their ci\'ilisation, the parent country of the first Incas ! And to the 
 nation that should discover it there was promised an accession of wealth and 
 power gi'eater than had flowed to Spain from the conquests of Cortes and 
 Pizarro. In fine, Australasia was awaiting its Columbus until the appearance of 
 Cook!
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 COOK'S DISCOVEPtlES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 COOK'S EAELY LIFE. 
 
 LINE OF ILLUSTRIOUS ENGLISH NAVIGATORS — COOK THE COLUMBUS OF THE SOUTHERN 
 
 OCEAN — HIS BIRTH AND EDUCATION — SELF-EDUCATION — THE COOK FAMILY 
 
 IS APPRENTICED TO A DRAPER — HIS PASSION FOR THE SEA — TAKES SERVICE 
 WITH A SHIPPING FIRM — THE ENGLISH COAL TRADE — COOK ENTERS THE 
 BRITISH NAVY — SIR HUGH PALLISER — COOK PROMOTED — EMPLOYED IN THE 
 AVAR IN CANADA — HIS ACHIEVEMENT THERE — APPOINTED A MASTER IN THE 
 NAVY— MARINE SURVEYOR OF NEWFOUNDLAND — RETURNS TO ENGLAND-=r- 
 MARRIES — RESUMES HIS LABOURS IN NEWFOUNDLAND — RETURNS AGAIN TO 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 The illustrious line of famous Euglish navigators was continued down from the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries into the eighteenth century by men of the 
 stamp of Anson, Byron, and Cook, true successors of the Drakes, Ealcighs, 
 Cavendishes, and Dampiers of an earlier age. Adventurers in the highest and 
 noblest sense of that Avord, these distinguished men, by their achievements in 
 maritime discoA'ery, have added new territories to the AA^orld's possessions, and 
 throAvai an unfading lustre around the English name. But none of them takes 
 precedence of Cook. On the splendid roll of modern discoverers his name 
 stands first. He was one of the world's greatest men. His genius in his 
 special department Avas of the highest order. A born leader of men, he possessed 
 every requisite for connnand. A fitting title for him Avould be that given by 
 CroniAvell to Robert Blake, "Admiral and General at Sea;" although, unhke 
 the great admiral of tlie Commonwealth, his victories were all " victories of 
 peace, not less renoAvned than Avar." A still truer designation, however, would 
 be, the Colunjbus of the Southern Ocean. What the immortal Genoese naA'igator 
 accomplished in the northern hemisphere for Spain and Europe, Cook accom- 
 plished in the southern hemisphere for England and mankind. 
 
 James Cook was born at the little agricultural village of Marton-in-Cleveland, 
 situated betAveen Gisborough and Stockton-on-Tccs, in the North Riding of 
 Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. The date of his birth is variously 
 given by his biographers, but the correct date appears to be the 27th of October 
 1728. It was not an event that made a great stir in the Avorld ; for the parents
 
 COOK'S EARLY LIFE. 39 
 
 of James Cook were not wealthy, and they had nine chihh-cn ; in fact, they were 
 what Englisli writers, witJi a toncli of traditionary servility, term " humble " 
 persons. The New Testament principle holds, diiferently, that the blessing goes 
 with the poor and humble, rather than with the wealthy and the proud. The 
 elder Cook, also named James, first held the position of day-labourer, and 
 afterwards that of bailiff, or under-steward, on the farm of Airy Holme, near 
 Great Ayton, the property of Thomas Scottowe, Esq., situated at the foot of 
 a fomous hill named Roseberry Topping. Both parents were noted in the 
 neighbourhood for the homely virtues of steady industry, integrity, and temper- 
 ance. The short and simple annals of the Cook household are soon told. James 
 and a sister, alone of all the children, survived into mature life. The daughter 
 married a fisherman at Redcar, a seaside village not far from Marton, and her 
 home became the abode of the old man in the latter part of his life, which was 
 extended to the long term of nearly eighty-five years. He thus outlived his 
 illustrious son, and had the satisfaction of hearing in his old days of the wonder- 
 ful discoveries made by him, and of the high honours paid him by the learned 
 and the noble in rank. At the dame school of the village, kept by an ancient 
 lady named Wallver, James Cook learned his letters. As he grew up in years, 
 his services were required to assist in earning bread for the household ; and he 
 was obliged to work with his father on his employer's farm, so that it was only 
 at leisure times he could snatch an hour to learn the elementary branches of 
 reading, -wTiting, and arithmetic. His father's employer was generous enough to 
 pay a neighbouring schoohnaster the fees for this slender tuition, and it was all 
 that yotmg Cook ever received in the way of what is called education. But, in 
 truth, the real education any man receives is that which he gives himself After- 
 wards, when the youth became a seaman, he taught himself drawing, practical 
 na\agation, and marine survejing. During the long nights of a Canadian 
 winter, when he was more than thirty years of age, he mastered, by silent study, 
 Euclid and as much of mathematics and astronomy as was needful in his pro- 
 fession, without any other assistance than what a few books and his own industry 
 afibrded him. To " scorn deUghts and live laborious days ; " to make large and 
 frequent inroads on the boundless domain of knowledge ; and to keep the fire of 
 the mind aglow -\\\i\\ the eager desire to learn still more : these are the pre- 
 rogatives of genius, the invariable marks of greatness of character, and they were 
 all possessed by James Cook. He had from the first natui-e's patent of nobihty. 
 The great change in Cook's life took place when he was thirteen years old. 
 His father bound him apprentice to a draper (whose name has not been preserved), 
 in the fishing to^^Ti of Staiths, about ten miles north of Whitby. But standing 
 behind a counter, selling tapes and pins and needles, did not suit the boy's dis- 
 position. The constant sight of the blue ocean, the sharp odour of its brine, its 
 magnificent monotony, fascinated his spirit, as they have fascinated the spirit of 
 many a brave lad before and since. The very soul of Robinson Crusoe was in 
 the boy. He became restless and discontented. His inner ear heard in the roll 
 of the dashing waves a summons, as clearly conveyed as that chimed from the 
 London bells to Dick Whittington, to go forth to seek adventures on the bound-
 
 40 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 less deep. Then came disagreements with his master. Young Cook would not 
 run away to sea, but he avowed his overmastering passion for a sailor's life, and 
 his utter dislike for the drapery business. His master, noting the resolute bent 
 of the apijrentice's mind, and discovering in him marks of decision of character 
 and steadiness of application singular in a lad of his years, agreed to give him up 
 his indentures. Young Cook was set free to follow his own high impulses, and 
 to carve out a career for himself. There was then in Whitby a firm of Quaker 
 brothers, John and Henry Walker, who o^\aaed two vessels in the coal trade. To 
 them Cook offered his services, and he was bound apprentice for seven years. 
 His first vessel was the " Freelove," a small coaster. At this point the training 
 of the great seaman commenced. He was in all respects a good and faithful 
 servant, diligent, punctual, and self-governing. His employers noted the good 
 conduct of the lad, his genius for the sailor life, and his eager anxiety to acquire 
 skill in his new j^rofession. He never lost an opportunity of mastering the 
 practical part of navigation, and the service in which he was engaged offered him 
 an excellent school for learning it. The coal trade of England is carried on, for 
 most part, along an extremely irregular and dangerous coast, where unceasing 
 diligence is demanded on the part of the seaman. Cook had found at length the 
 vocation that suited his disposition. In storm and calm, by night and day, 
 through the sliarj) blasts of winter and the balmy breezes of summer, he was 
 always found at his post. Thus were developed in the youthful sailor those 
 grand qualities of steady attention, cool resolution, undaunted firmness, and 
 unwearied perseverance, which distinguished the great navigator of after-times. 
 The worthy Quakers perceived that they had a treasure in their apprentice. 
 When his term upon the " Freelove " was completed, they transferred him to the 
 " Three Brothers," with the rank of mate. To give him enlarged ojiportunities 
 of extending his knowledge of seamanship, they employed him in rigging and 
 fitting out the vessel, in which he made two coal voyages, and afterwards, Avhen 
 she Avas taken into the service of the English Government as a transport, he 
 voyaged in her to Middleburgh, Dublin, Liverpool, and Deptford, where she was 
 paid off. Cook remained in the service of the Messrs Walker till he was twenty- 
 five years old. He then told his employers that he had a mind to try his for- 
 tunes in the British Navy. The good Quakers, knowing what a skilful and 
 trustworthy seaman he had now become, ti'ied hard to persuade him to stay with 
 them. They even offered him the command of one of their vessels. Cook, how- 
 ever, respectfully declined the offer. " I had remarked," said j\Ir John Walker 
 afterwards, "that he had always an ambition to go into the navy." With much 
 good feeling, and great reluctance, on both sides. Cook parted from his kind 
 friends; and it is pleasant to add that he kept up a friendly correspondence with 
 the good Quaker brothers to the last year of his life. Up till this time, he had 
 borne the character of a steady, hard-working, faithfid sailor, much bent on self-im- 
 provement, l)ut not remarkable in any way for brilliant abilities. But, all the same, 
 his active mind Avas ])u.sily engaged in storing up that knowledge of practical 
 navigation, and in carefully cultivating in himself those admirable qualities, which 
 subsequently raised him to the highest rank amongst the world's navigators.
 
 COOK'S EARLY LIFE. 41 
 
 Some short time seems to have elapsed before Cook carried out his intention 
 of enlisting in the navy. Early in 1755 a naval Avar broke out between England 
 and France, and as seamen were very much wanted for the king's service, the 
 press-gangs were set to work to obtain them. Cook happened to be in a vessel 
 on the Thames when a press-gang came on board ; and at first he felt unwiJling 
 to act upon compulsion, even in a case where he had made up his mind to 
 volunteer. But on second thoughts he announced his intention of joining the 
 navy. He Avas sent to Wapj)iug, Avhere the " Eagle " man-of-Avar, carrying sixty 
 guns, AA'as then lying, and in that vessel he took serAdce as an able seaman. It 
 Avas commanded by Captain Hamer, who, however, was very soon replaced by Sir 
 Hugh Palliser, an experienced officer aiid brave sailor, afterAvards an admiral. 
 The contention A\"hich arose betAveen Sir Hugh and his superior officer, Admiral 
 Keppel, tAventy-three years later, forms one of the striking incidents of the naval 
 history of those times. The gromids of the quarrel were some alleged disobedi- 
 ence of orders on the jjart of Sir Hugh in the great battle between the English 
 and French fleets, off Ushant, in 1778. But a comt-martial acquitted him of any 
 neglect of duty or other offence. 
 
 Possessed of the good quality in a commander of a quick perception of merit 
 in a subordinate. Sir Hugh Palliser speedily singled out Cook as a seaman of 
 superior qualifications, worthy of promotion. Letters of recommendation also 
 came to him on Cook's behalf from friends in Yorkshire ; amongst them one 
 from ]\Ir Osbaldestone, then INIember of Parliament for Scarborough, and one 
 from his 0I4 friends, the Messrs Walker. These letters were of considerable 
 service to Cook, and he always spoke of them with gratitude. In a few months 
 he Avas rated quartermaster by his captain, who also obtained for him a Avarrant 
 as master of the "Mercury" frigate. This warrant bears date the 15th of May 
 1759. Tavo other commissions, for the ships " Grampus " and " Garland," had 
 been prcA'iously obtained in a similar way, but unforeseen circumstances prevented 
 their taking effect. Still, as one of Cook's biographers observes, " these quick 
 and successive appointments shoAv that his interest Avas strong, and that the 
 intention to serve him was real and eflTectual." 
 
 The opportunity for showing the fine genius that lay hidden under the plain 
 exterior of the still youthful sailor had come at length. The " Merciuy " A\'as 
 ordered to Quebec, in North America, Avhere a British fleet, commanded by Sir 
 Charles Saunders, was co-operating A\ath the famous General Wolfe in besieging 
 the place. A combined attack on the fortified position at Montmorency and 
 Beauport had been concerted ; but it AA'as necessary, in the fii^st place, that 
 accurate soundings should be taken of the river St LaAA^ence betAveen the Isle 
 of Orleans and the north shore, Avhere the French army laj. This difficult and 
 dangerous service could only be performed at night. At the recommendation of 
 Sir Hugh Palliser, Cook was selected to undertake it. Great courage, coolness, 
 and unusual skill Avere required for the task. For several nights Cook carried 
 on his operations unperceived ; but one night the French sentinels caught sight 
 of him. The alarm Avas given. A large number of canoes filled Avith Indians 
 were despatched to suiTound and cut him oS". He instantly made for the British
 
 42 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASTA. 
 
 encampments ; but was so closely pursued that the savages entered the stern of 
 his liarge as he leaped from the bows, just Avithin the protection of the British 
 sentinels. The Indians carried off the barge in triumph. But the Avork was done. 
 Cook, AA'ho up till that time had hardly ever handled a pencil, Avas able to furnish 
 the admiral Avith as correct a draught of the channel and soundings as could 
 have been made after the English had taken possession of Quebec. Not long- 
 afterwards he AA^as employed to make a survey of the Avhole riA^er beloAv Quebec ; 
 and his chart was executed with such skill and exactness, that it was immediately 
 published by order of the Admiralty. He was also entrusted during the siege 
 Avith other serA^ces of the highest imjDortance in the naA^al department. He 
 l^ilotcd the boats to the attack on Montmorency, conducted the embarkation to 
 the heights of Abi'aham, examined the passage, and laid buoys for the security 
 of the large ships in proceeding up the river. These proofs of large capacity and 
 iuAincible perseverance attracted the special attention of Cook's commander. 
 Lord Colville, admiral of the fleet, AAdio, on the 22d of September 1759, appointed 
 him master of his own ship, the " Northumberland." In that vessel he remained 
 on the Halifax station during the whole of the long Canadian winter. There it 
 Avas that he turned his enforced leisure to account, by mastering the elements of 
 geometry, mathematics, and astronomy. In September 17G0 he accompanied 
 Lord Colville to NeA\^oundland, AA'hich colony ho aided in recapturing from the 
 French. He Avas appointed to survey the harbour and heights of Placentia, and 
 by his skill and diligence in the performance of the work won high praise from the 
 governor. Captain Graves. 
 
 At the close of 17G0 he returned to England. During his stay there he made 
 the acquaintance of the lady Avho became his wife. On the 21st of December 
 
 1762, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Batts, at Barking, in Essex. This lady 
 was a woman of an amiable disj^osition and a generous heart. She made an 
 excellent Avife to Cook. She bore him five sons and one daughter ; and although 
 the heart of the tender mother was rent by many a sore bereavement, she sui-- 
 vived her illustrious husliand for the long period of fifty-six years. Early in 
 
 1763, Avlicn Ijut a fcAv months married, Cook Avas again ajipointed marine sur- 
 veyor of NeA\^oundland, which post he held for upAvards of four years, returning 
 to England sometimes to spend the Avinter there. The manner in AAdiich he 
 fulliUed his commission avoi\ him the highest api^'obation of the governor, his 
 old friend Sir Hugh Palliser, AA^ho had succeeded Captain Graves. Cook 
 explored tlie interior of the country more fully than had hitherto been done, 
 making many valuable additions to geography, and comitiliug charts of rare 
 A'aluc for their accuracy. He observed an eclipse of the sun on the 5th of 
 August 1766, and from the obserA'ations taken computed the longitude of the 
 i.sland of NcAvfoundland. Notes of the obserA'ations were published in the 
 TramarAions of the Koyal Society of Great Britain. At the close of 1767 he 
 returned to England, and did not again resume his duties as marine surveyor of 
 the North American colony. At this point closes the first great period iu the 
 career of the navigator.
 
 COOK'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC APPOINTMENT. 43 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 COOK'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC APPOINTMENT. 
 
 TKANSIT OF VENUS IN 1769 — EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTHERN OCEAN TO OBSEKVE 
 IT — COOK APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND — HIS PRUDENT SELECTION OF VESSELS 
 FOR THE EXPEDITION — THE " ENDEAVOUR "—ITS STAFF OF OFFICERS — COOK's 
 INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 An event now occurred Avhich gave a new direction and a higher object to the 
 genius of Cook. 
 
 The famous astronomer Kepler had foretold, in a Avork published at Leipsic, 
 in Germany, in 1629, that the planet Venus would cross the sun's disc in the 
 year 1769 ; and the astronomers of Europe were extremely desirous of verifying 
 this prediction. These transits, although now familiar facts in astronomical 
 science, were then looked upon as very rare and remarkable phenomena. The 
 pi"actical value to science of observing them carefully whenever they occur may 
 here be briefly explained : The sun's 'parallax is the angle which the earth's 
 semi-diameter subtends at the sun. By taking observations of the passage of a 
 planet across the sun's disc simultaneously at the ojiposite sides of, the globe, 
 this angle can be measured, and thus the distance of the earth from the sun may 
 be calculated. Now, the parallax of Venus being four times as great as that of 
 the sun, occasions very sensible differences between the times in which she seems 
 to be passing over the sun's disc at different parts of the earth. It is, therefore, 
 of the utmost importance, and quite practicable, to determine it with extreme 
 accuracy, and thence the sun's parallax and distance from the earth. By apply- 
 ing Kepler's third law — namely, that the squares of the periodical times of the 
 planets are proportional to the cubes of their mean distances — the distances of 
 all the other planets from the sun may be determined. So that from the ob- 
 servation of a single transit of Venus can be calculated the diameter of the 
 planetary orbs, and the extent of the entire solar system. 
 
 The scientific world of Europe was roused to enthusiasm upon the approach 
 of Kepler's long-predicted phenomenon, "by far the noblest spectacle in the 
 whole range of astronomy," as it was designated. Preparations were made for 
 observing it in all quarters of the globe. Persons of the highest rank in society 
 interested themselves in the impending triumph of science. The Eoj'al Society 
 of England addressed a memorial to the king on the subject, praying for the aid 
 of the Government in ships and money, to send out observers. The petition was 
 granted. The Secretary to the Admiralty, Sir Philip Stephens, informed the
 
 44 THE HI ST OR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 society that a barque would be lorovided to sail to the South Seas. A fitting 
 commander for the expedition was required. Sir Philip Stephens at once named 
 James Cook as the best man within the whole range of his acquaintance for that 
 responsible office. With a discrimination that does him the highest honour, he 
 had early apjireciated the talents of the great sailor. He appealed to Cook's 
 old commander, Sir Hugh Palliser, for a confirmation of his high estimate, and 
 the confirmation was readily given, and warmly urged. Fortunately for science, 
 and for humanity, the recommendation proved successful. Cook was appointed 
 to command the expedition, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the 
 Royal 'SaYj by a commission dated the 25th of May 1768. 
 
 It is to the immortal honour of Great Britain that she can boast of being the 
 first country in the world that has undertaken voyages of discovery with the sole 
 object of enlarging the boundaries of human knowledge. The voyages of the 
 Spaniards and Portuguese in the fifteenth century were undertaken mainly, if not 
 exclusively, for the sake of anticipated advantages to commerce and the acquire- 
 ment of wealth. The motives of the great discoverers themselves took, doubtless, 
 a far larger and nobler range ; but the national motive in the expeditions was, 
 undenialjly, material gain. The spirit of trade overshadowed the spirit of dis- 
 covery. But a glorious revival of the spirit of discovery had taken place in 
 Great Britain about the date of Cook's first expedition. A new and loftier 
 ambition than any which trade can know was stirring the rich soul of the nation. 
 That grand and mighty motive has borne harvests of blessings for mankind in 
 the intervening hundred years. To extend the limits of science ; " to follow 
 knowledge like a sinking star beyond the utmost bounds of human thought ; " to 
 spread civilisation; to shed the glorious light of Christianity over the dark 
 places of the earth, " the habitations of horrid cruelty ; " to raise the downfallen, 
 to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke ; " to proclaim deliverance 
 to the captives, the opening of the prison-house to those that are liound, and to 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord " — such is the high and holy mission to 
 the fulfilment of which England has bent her energies. And of that mission 
 James Cook was one of" the earliest and most zealous apostles. 
 
 The choice of a vessel for the expedition was left to Sir Hugh Palliser, and 
 he at once took Cook into council. A great number of ships were examined and 
 rejected. Many volunteer recommendations were off"ered as to the size and 
 sailing qualities of the vessel that ought to be chosen. Some persons were for 
 having a huge East-Indiaman, or a heavy barque of forty guns ; others suggested a 
 frigate, or a large three-decked ship, capable of carrying several hundreds of a 
 crew. But the practised eye and clear judgment of Cook set all such recom- 
 mendations aside, as David did the suggestion to wear Saul's armour in his fight 
 with the giant. He saw that a vessel, to be at all suitable for purposes of dis- 
 covery, must be of moderate size, strong build, light draught of water, large 
 interior capacity, of a construction that would bear to take the ground, and of 
 .such a size that .she might, if necessary, be laid on shore for repair with safety 
 and convenience. In fact, the very ship for his purpose would be one of the old 
 stout-timbered colliers with which he was so well acquainted. He accordingly
 
 COOK'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC APPOINTMENT. 4tb 
 
 chose a barque built for the coal trade, of 370 tons burthen. In this wise decision 
 Cook was following the great example of Columbus. Of the three ships with 
 which the heroic Genoese sailor first crossed the Atlantic, only one was full- 
 decked, the other two being only caravels or light barques, not a whit superior to 
 the coasting vessels of the pi-esent day. " It was not," says Washington Irving, 
 his biograf)her, " for want of large vessels in the Spanish ports, that those of 
 Columbus were of so small a size. He considered them best adapted to voyages 
 of discovery, as they required but little depth of w\ater, and therefore could more 
 easily and safely coast unkno'wn shores, and explore bays and rivers. He had 
 some piu'posely constructed of a very small size for the ser\'ice." 
 
 The name of Cook's vessel was the " Endeavour." She was victualled for an 
 eighteen months' voyage ; she had on board ten carriage and twelve swivel guns ; 
 with abundance of ammunition, and all manner of stores. No reasonable expense 
 or trouble was spared in making ample provision for the voyagers. Her comple- 
 ment consisted of forty-one able seamen, twelve marines, and nine servants, 
 making in all, with the commander and officers, eighty-five persons, and includ- 
 ing the following officers : Zachary Hicks, lieutenant ; John Gore ; Robert 
 Molineaux, master ; Charles Gierke, mate ; John Gathray, boatswain ; Stephen 
 Foi'ward, gunner ; John Satterley, carpenter ; William B. jMunkhouse, surgeon ; 
 Richard Orton, clerk. The scientific staff consisted of Mr Charles Green, assist- 
 ant to the Astronomer-Royal at Greenwich ; Dr Solander, a learned Swede, well 
 skilled in botany, and one of the librarians of the British Museum ; with two 
 draughtsmen for the departments of natural history and landscape. Sir Joseph 
 Banks was at that time president of the Royal Society of London, and being a 
 man of wealth and leisure, he resolved upon joining the expedition. He made 
 arrangements on a most extensive scale, procuring large supplies of such articles 
 as were likely to be useful or acceptable in the countries he was to visit. He 
 engaged a secretary and four servants, two of whom were negroes. The place 
 fixed upon as the best for taking the observations was the island of Otaheite, now 
 called Tahiti. Cook's instructions were to the eff'ect that, after completing his 
 astronomical observations at that island, he was to prosecute a voyage of dis- 
 covery in the Pacific Ocean, to sail as far south as 40° of latitude ; and if no land 
 was foimd, he was then to steer to the westwai'd, between the fortieth and thirty- 
 fifth parallels of latitude, until he encountered New Zealand ; and having explored 
 that country, he was to retmii to England by such route as he might think 
 proper.
 
 46 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COOK'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION SAILS — CROSSES THE LINE — KEACHES OTAHEITE — OBSERVATION OF 
 THE TRANSIT OF VENUS — COOK LEAVES OTAHEITE — REACHES NEW ZEALAND — 
 APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — ENCOUNTERS WITH THE NATIVES — COOK TAKES 
 SOME PRISONERS — HIS APOLOGY FOR USING FORCE — RELEASES THE PRISONERS — 
 LEAVES POVERTY BAY — ENCOUNTERS WITH NATIVES AT CAPE KIDNAPPERS — 
 EXPLORES THE COAST NORTHWARD — DISCOVERS COOK's STRAITS — TAKES POS- 
 SESSION OF NEW ZEALAND — COMPLETES CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF NORTHERN ISLAND 
 — ^ALSO OF SOUTHERN ISLAND — NATIVE ACCOUNT OF THEIR IMPRESSIONS OF THE 
 VOYAGERS. 
 
 As the adventures and discoveries of Cook, during his first and subsequent 
 voyages, excepting in so far as they are directly connected with Austrah^sia, do 
 not come within the scope of the present history, the reader must be referred 
 for a full account of them to the Avell-known volumes containing the complete 
 narrative. 
 
 The expedition sailed from Plymouth Sound, on the south-west coast of Eng- 
 land, on the 26th of August 1768. The voyagers crossed the Line on the 25th 
 October, and three months later they doubled Cape Horn and were in the 
 Pacific Ocean. Sailing westward with a fair wind and pleasant weather, they 
 reached the island of Otaheite (now called Tahiti) on the 10th of April 1769. 
 Having set up their observatory and made all needful preparations, the celestial 
 phenomenon of the transit of Venus over the sun's disc — the great object of the 
 expedition — was observed under the most favourable circumstances. From the 
 observations taken, the latitude and longitude of the observing station were 
 calculated, and found to lie as follows : latitude — 17° 29' 15" S. ; longitude— 
 149° 32' 20" W. of Greenwich. Cook's notes of the observations, written by his 
 OAvn hand, are still preserved in the archives of the Eoyal Society of London. 
 Numerous similar observations of the phenomenon were taken in other parts 
 of the world, and from a comparison of the whole number the sun's parallax was 
 calculated to be 8-575", which gives the mean distance of the sun from the earth 
 at 95,li38,440 English miles. But in 'the year 1n76 the transit of Venus was 
 once more cai-efully observed by astronomers in all parts of the world ; and the 
 calculations founded on the observations gave the parallax at a little less, and 
 the mean distance of the sun about 91,500,000 miles. 
 
 The voyagers left Otaheite on the 13th of July 1769, taking Avith them Tupia,
 
 COOK'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 47 
 
 a native, who had been first minister to the queen and also high priest of the 
 island. They next visited and named the Society Islands. On the 5th of October, 
 a change in the colour of the sea, the weeds floating on its sm-face, and the birds 
 which flew around the ship, gave signs of approaching land. Cook's memorable 
 account of his first catching sight of Xew Zealand, now one of the noblest of 
 Great Britain's colonial possessions, must be given in his OA^^l words : 
 
 " On the 7th it fell cahn, we therefore approached the land slowly, and in the 
 afternoon, when a breeze sprung up, we were still distant seven or eight leagues. 
 It appeared still larger as it was more distinctly seen, with four or five ranges 
 of hills, rising one over the other, and a chain of mountains above all 
 which appeared to be an enormous height. This land became the subject 
 of much eager conversation ; but the general opinion seemed to be that we 
 had found the Terra Australis Incognita.'" About five o'clock, we saw the 
 opening of a bay, which seemed to run pretty far inland, upon which we hauled 
 om- wind and stood in for it : we also saw smoke ascending from dilferent places 
 on shore. When night came on, however, we kept plying off and on till day- 
 hght, when we found ourselves to the leeward of the bay, the -ndnd being at 
 north : we could now perceive that the hills were clothed with wood, and that 
 some of the trees in the valleys were very large. By noon we fetched in ^ith 
 the south-west point ; but not being able to Aveather it, tacked and stood oS" : at 
 this time we saw several canoes standing across the bay, which, in a Uttle time, 
 made to shore, ■«-ithout seeming to take the least notice of the ship ; we also saw 
 some houses, which appeared to be small, but neat ; and near one of them a 
 '.onsiderable number of the people collected together, who were sitting upon the 
 beach, and who, we thought, were the same that we had seen in the canoes. 
 Upon a small peninsula, at the north-east head, we could j^lainly perceive a 
 pretty high and regnolar paling, which enclosed the Avhole top of a hill ; this was 
 also the subject of much speculation, some supposing it to be a park of deer, 
 others an enclosm-e for oxen and sheep. About four o'clock in the afternoon, we 
 anchored on the north-west side of the bay, before the entrance of a small river, 
 in ten fathom water, with a fine sandy bottom, and at about half-a-league from 
 the shore. The sides of the bay are white cliffs of a great height ; the middle is 
 low land, with hills gradually rising behind, one towering above another, and 
 terminating in the chain of mountains which appeared to be far inland. 
 
 " In the evening I went on shore, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr 
 Solander, with the pinnace and yawl, and a party of men. "We landed abreast of 
 the ship, on the east side of the river, which was here about forty yards broad ; 
 but seeing some natives on the west side whom I ■nished to speak "nith, and 
 finding the river not fordable, I ordered the yawl in to carry us over, and left the 
 pinnace at the entrance. "\Mien we came near the place where the people were 
 assembled, they all ran away ; however, we landed, and leading four boys to take 
 care of the yawl, we walked up to some huts which were about two or thi-ee 
 hundred yards fi'om the water-side. "WTien we had got some distance from the 
 boat, four men, armed with long lances, rushed out of the woods, and i-unning up 
 
 * Or, " Great Southern Unknown Land."
 
 48 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 to attack the boat, would certainly have cut her off, if the people in the pinnace 
 had not discovered them, and called the boys to drop down the stream : the boys 
 instantly obeyed, but being closely pursued by the Indians, the cockswain of the 
 pinnace, who had the charge of the boats, fired a musket over their heads ; at 
 this they stoj^ped and looked round them, but in a few minutes renewed the 
 pm'suit, brandishing their lances in a threatening manner : the cockswain then 
 fired a second musket over their heads, but of this they took no notice ; and one 
 of them lifting up his spear to dart it at the boat, another piece was fired, which 
 shot him dead. When he fell, the other three stood motionless for some minutes, 
 as if petrified with astonishment ; as soon as they recovered, they went back, 
 dragging after them the dead body, which, however, they soon left, that it might 
 not encmnber their flight. At the report of the first musket, we drew together, 
 having straggled to a little distance from each other, and made the best of our 
 way back to the boat ; and crossing the river, we soon saw the Indian lying dead 
 upon the ground. Upon examining the body, we found that he had been shot 
 through the heart : he was a man of the middle size and stature ; his complexion 
 was brown, but not very dark, and one side of his face was tattooed in spiral 
 lines of a very regular figure : he was covered with a fine cloth, of a manufacture 
 altogether ncAv to us, and it was tied on exactly according to the representation 
 in Valcntyn's 'Account of Abel Tasman's Voyage' (vol. iii., part 2, p. 50) : his 
 hair also was tied in a knot on the toj) of his head, but had no feather in it. We 
 returned immediately to the ship, where we could hear the people on shore talk- 
 ing "vvith great earnestness, and in a very loud tone, probably about Avhat had 
 hai:)pened, and what should be done." 
 
 On the morning of the next day (the 9th), Cook again rowed to the beach, 
 and found about fifty of the natives waiting his landing. They started from the 
 ground, and brandished long pikes and short stone weapons ; nor did they desist 
 from defiance, although addressed by Tupia in the Otaheitan tongue, until they 
 saw the effect of a musket in striking the water at a distance. As soon as the 
 marines were brought up, the English approached the savages, when their inter- 
 preter again spoke to them, " and it was with great pleasure," says Cook, " that 
 Ave perceived he was perfectly understood." They exjDressed their willingness to 
 trade for provisions and Avater, and desired the strangers to cross the river Avhich 
 flowed betAvecn ; but they Avould not lay doAvn their arms, and Tupia saAV good 
 reason for advising his friends to be prepared for hostility. The islanders being 
 in turn invited over, first one, then tAvo, and soon after, twenty or thirty, almost 
 all armed, SAvam across. They attempted to seize the Aveapons of the dis- 
 "covercrs, and thougli assured of death if they persisted, one of them snatched a 
 ■ hanger, Avith which he ran oft", AvaAang it round his head in exultation. The rest 
 now grew more insolent, and others Avere observed coming from the opposite 
 bank to their assistance. It Avas judged necessary to take some measures to 
 repress them, and Mr Banks accordingly fired at the thief, Avho Avas Avounded, 
 but still retreated, though more slowly, flourishing the cutlass as before. ]\Ir 
 Munkhouse took a more fatal aim, and the savage dropped ; upon which the main 
 body, Avho had previously retired a little, began to advance ; three pieces, loaded
 
 COOK'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 49 
 
 only with small sliot, were therefore discharged, Avhen they again fell back and 
 went slowly up the country, some of them evidently wounded. 
 
 Cook, intent on establishing an amicable intercourse with these intractable 
 barbarians, determined to make some of them prisoners, and to treat them with 
 kindness, in the hope of inspiring general confidence. Two canoes were soon after 
 observed coming in from sea, and boats were despatched to intercept them ; but 
 they endeavoured to escape, regardless of the fair promises shouted after them 
 by Tupia. A musket was then fired over their heads, in the hope that it would 
 either make them surrender or leap into the water ; but they stripped for the 
 combat, and assailed their pursuers so vigorously with stones and other missiles, 
 that the English were obliged to fire. Their discharge killed fom- men, while 
 the rest of the crew, consisting of three boys, one of whom off"ered a stout resist- 
 ance, were made captives. 
 
 It is but justice to the memory of a great and good man to give Cook's own 
 defence of these apparently harsh proceedings : " I am conscious that the feeling 
 of every reader of humanity will censure me for having fired upon these unhappy 
 people, and it is impossible that, upon a calm review, I should approve it myself. 
 They certainly did not deserve death for not choosing to confide in my promises ; 
 or not consenting to come on board my boat, even if they had apprehended no 
 danger; but the nature of my service required me to obtain a knowledge of 
 their country, which I could not otherwise efiect than by forcing my way into it 
 in a hostile manner, or gaining admission through the confidence and goodwill 
 of the people. I had already tried the power of presents without effect ; and I 
 was now prompted, by my desire to avoid further hostilities, to get some of them 
 on board, as the only method left of convincing them that we intended them no 
 harm, and had it in oiu- power to contribute to their gratification and conveni- 
 ence. Thus far my intentions certainly were not criminal ; and though in the 
 contest, which I had not the least reason to expect, ovu- victory might have been 
 complete without so great an expense of life ; yet in such situations, when the 
 command to fire has been given, no man can restrain its excess, or prescribe its 
 effect." 
 
 On being brought into the boat, the prisoners, who had squatted down in ex- 
 pectation of death, were clothed and amply fed. They soon became quite cheer- 
 ful, and asked questions with every appearance of pleasure and cmiosity ; but 
 when night came on, their spirits failed them, and they sighed often and loudly. 
 When pacified in some measure by Tupia, they began to sing a slow mournful 
 song to an air much resembling a psalm tune. Daylight, however, and another 
 copious meal roused them to cheerfulness ; they were dressed and decorated, 
 and fell into transports of joy, when assured that they would be restored to their 
 friends. Being at first unwillingly put on shore on a point of coast which they 
 said belonged to their enemies, who would certainly kill and eat them, they had 
 soon after to seek protection in the boat. When landed a second time, they 
 waded into the water, and earnestly requested to be again taken on board ; but 
 the sailors had positive orders to leave them, and they were in a short time seen 
 to join some of their associates. " After it was dark," adds Cook, " loud voices 
 
 u
 
 50 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 were heard on shore in the bottom of the bay as usual, of which we could never 
 learn the meaning." 
 
 The next morning the voyagers weighed anchor and left this " unfortunate 
 and inhospitable place," to which Cook gave the name of Poverty Bay, because 
 nothing but wood could be obtained there. It is a small bay on the eastern 
 coast of the North Island, in latitude 38° 42' S. 
 
 At the time they sailed they were abreast of a point from which the land 
 trends S.S.W., and this point, on account of its figure, Cook named Cape Table. 
 A small island in sight to the southward was named the Island of Poetland, 
 from its very great resemblance to Portland in the English Channel. Having a 
 desire to explore the bay stretching southwards from this point. Cook steered 
 for the land. Several fishing-boats came off to the ship, offering fish for sale ; 
 and all would have gone well, but that a large canoe with two-and-twenty armed 
 men on board, came boldly up alongside. Offers were made by the voyagers to 
 barter Avith the natives in the canoe some English cloth and baize for skins ; but 
 the natives were carrjdng off both articles, and had actually seized Tayeto, the 
 little son of Tupia, and were rowing fast away, when Cook ordered the marines 
 to fire over their heads, in order to frighten them. One man, however, was 
 struck, and fell ; and little Tayeto leaped from the canoe into the water, and 
 swam to the ship. He was picked up greatly terrified. " To the cape off which 
 this unhappy transaction happened," writes Cook, " I gave the name of Cape 
 Kidnappers. It lies in latitude 39° 41' S., and is rendered remarkable by two 
 white rocks like haystacks, and the high white cliffs on each side. It lies S.W. 
 by W., distant thirteen leagues from the Isle of Portland, and lietween them is 
 the bay of which it is the south point, and which, in honour of Sir Edward 
 Hawke, the first Lord of the Admiralty, I called Hawke's Bay." 
 
 Sailing southward along the shore, a high bluff head with cliffs of a yellow 
 tint Avas reached, to which was given the name of Cape Turnagain. Finding- 
 no suitable harbour, and perceiving that the country manifestly altered for the 
 worse. Cook changed his course to the northward, and in two days passed the 
 spot where he first made the coast. He gave the name of Gable-end Foreland 
 to a remarkable headland, from its likeness to the gable-end of a house : it is also 
 rcmarkaljle for a rock which rises at a little distance. He next landed at a bay 
 called by the natives Tolago Bay, where he was well received. On the 3Uth of 
 October he hauled round a small island lying eastward one mile from the N.E. 
 point of the land ; from this place he found the land trend away N.W. by W. 
 and W.N.W. as far as he could see. This point, being the easternmost land on 
 the whole coast, he named East Cape, and the island East Island. In the even- 
 ing of the same day he passed a bay Avhich, as it was first discovered by Lieuten- 
 ant Hicks, he called Hicks' Bay. As he sailed along the land, he observed 
 increasing signs of cultivation and fei'tility. The next day a number of skiff's 
 came off crowded with warriors, Avho fiourishcd th(>i)' arms and uttered loud 
 shouts of defiance, frctpiently repeating, "Ildromai, haronud, liarre uUi a patuo- 
 patoo (xje ! " or, " Come to us, come on shore, we will kill you all with our stone 
 hatchets ! " In the flotilla was a canoe, by far the largest which had yet been seen,
 
 COOK'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 51 
 
 having no fewer than sixteen paddles on each side, and containing in all about 
 sixty men. It was making directly for the ship, when a gun, loaded with grape, 
 was fired ahead of it ; this caused the rowers to stop, and a round shot, which 
 was fired over them, falling into the water, filled them with such terror that they 
 seized their j^addles and made towards the shore so precii^itately that they 
 seemed scarcely to allow themselves time to breathe. From this occurrence the 
 place Avas named Cape Runaway. 
 
 On the 1st of November Cook landed in a large opening or inlet with the 
 object of observing the transit of the planet Mercury over the sun's disc. The 
 observation was taken on the 9th successfully, and the latitude was calculated to 
 be 36° 48' S. The appropriate name given to the place was Mercury Bay. On 
 the 26th a remarkable point Avas passed, to which the name Cape Brett was 
 given; and three days afterwards Cook anchored in a large creek which he 
 named the Bay of Islands " fii-om the great number of islands which line its 
 shores, and from several harbours, equally safe and commodious, where there is 
 room and depth for any number of shipping." Here he remained till the 6tli of 
 December ; and passing, on the third day, a harbour on which he bestowed the 
 appellation of Doubtless Bay, he was informed by the natives that at the distance 
 of three days' rowing in their canoes, the land would take a short turn to the 
 southward, and from thence extend no more to the west. On the 17th Cook, 
 after encountering much adverse weather, made the northern extremity of the 
 island, which he named North Cape. At this very time the French voyager 
 Surville was on the eastern coast, not far from where Cook was beating about ; 
 but the two voyagers did not meet. On the 24th the Three Kings Islands of 
 Tasman were sighted ; and on the 30th Cape Maiia Van Diemen, the north- 
 western point of the country. Tavo remarkable circumstances are recorded by 
 Cook as occurring Avhilst he sailed round this extremity of Ncav Zealand : the 
 first was that, in latitude 35° S., in the midst of summer, he encountered a gale of 
 Avind such as, for strength and continuance, he had scarcely ever experienced 
 before. The second Avas, that five Aveeks Avere spent in getting fifty leagues to 
 the westward, and in three Aveeks only ten leagues Avere made. Happily, during 
 the storm his ship was far from land : otherwise it is highly probable that the 
 great navigator Avould never have returned to England to relate his adventures. 
 
 From Cape Maria the coast Avas found to stretch nearly S.E. by S., and 
 to present everyAvhere a barren shore consisting of banks of Avhite sand. In 
 proceeding along it. Cook sailed in the track of Tasman, though in an opposite 
 direction. On the 10th January 1770, he came in sight of a lofty mountain in 
 latitude 39° 16' S. which, in honom- of the earl of that name, he designated 
 JNIouNT Egmont. In appearance it resembled the Peak of Tenerifle ; and its 
 summit, Avhen occasionally seen tOAvering above the clouds Avhicli almost con- 
 stantly enveloped it, was observed to be covered Avith snow. The country at its 
 base was level, of a pleasant appearance, and thickly clothed Avith Avood and 
 verdure. On doubling a cape Avhich received the same title, he found himself in 
 a large bay or opening, the southern end of Avhich he could not distinguish. He 
 sailed into it as far as latitude 40° 27' S. In this position, besides the continu-
 
 62 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ance of the same coast, there appeared an island towards the sonth with several 
 inlets, in one of which he resolved to careen the ship and take in a stock of wood 
 and water. On the 15th, accordingly, he anchored in a convenient harbour, 
 about four cannon-shot from a fortified village, the inhabitants of Avhich came ofi" 
 in canoes, and, after surveying the ship, made signs of defiance and began the 
 assault by a shower of stones. Tupia having expostulated with them, an old 
 man came on board in spite of his countrymen's remonstrances. He was kindly 
 received, and dismissed with presents ; and on rejoining his companions, they 
 immediately commenced dancing in token of peace. The Otaheitan was suflB.- 
 ciently understood by them, and it was learned that they had never before seen or 
 heard of such a vessel as the " Endeavour," from which it was concluded that no 
 recollection was preserved of the visit of Tasman in 1642, though this must have 
 been near the place which he termed Murderer's Bay. 
 
 During his stay here. Cook, having ascended one of the neighbouring hills, 
 beheld to his surprise the sea on each side of the island communicating by a 
 passage or strait, on the south side of which his ship now lay. He soon after 
 learned, what he had never before suspected, that the country was divided into 
 two islands, the southern of which was called by the natives Tavai Poenammoo, 
 and the northern Eaheinomauwe. 
 
 It was here that Cook resolved upon performing the ceremony of formally 
 taking possession of New Zealand. 
 
 " The carpenter having prepared two posts to be left as memorials of our 
 having visited this place, I ordered them to be inscribed with the ship's name, 
 and the year and month : one of them I set up at the watering-place, hoisting 
 the union flag upon the top of it ; and the other I carried over to the island that 
 lies nearest to the sea, called by the natives Motuara. I went first to the village 
 (or liippaJi) accompanied by Mr Munkhouse and Tupia, Avhere I met with om- 
 old man, and told him and several others, by means of Tupia, that Ave Avere come 
 to set up a mark upon the island, in order to show to any other ship which 
 should happen to come thither, that Ave had been there before. To this they 
 readily consented, and promised that they never would pull it doAvn : I then 
 gave something to every one present ; and to the old man I gave a silver three- 
 pence, dated 1736, and some spike-nails, with the king's broad-arrow cut" deep 
 upon them — things Avhich I thought most likely to remain long among them : I 
 then took the post to the highest part of the island, and after fixing it firmly in 
 the ground, I hoisted upon it the imion flag, and honoured this inlet Avith the 
 name of Queen Charlotte's Sound ; at the same time taking formal possession 
 of this and the adjacent country in the name and for the use of his Majesty King 
 George III. We then drank a bottle of Avine to her Majesty's health, and 
 gave the bottle to the old man who attended us up the hill, and who was mightily 
 delighted Avith his present." 
 
 Whilst staying in the sound the voyagers Avere much delighted Avith the wild 
 melody of the forest birds : " The ship lay at the distance of someAvhat less than 
 a quarter of a mile from the shore, and in the morning we were awakened by the 
 singing of the birds : the number was incredible, and they seemed to strain their
 
 COOK'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 53 
 
 throats in emulation of each other. This wikl melody was infinitely superior to 
 any that we had ever heard of the same kind ; it seemed to he like small bells, 
 most exquisitely tuned, and perhaps the distance, and the water between, might 
 be no small advantage to the sound. Upon inquiry, we were informed that the 
 birds here always began to sing about two houi's after midnight, and continuing 
 their music till sunrise, were, like our nightingales, silent the rest of the day." 
 
 He left the sound on the 6th February, and soon found himself rapidly borne 
 through the channel to Avhich, in honour of its discoverer, geographers have un- 
 animously given the name of Cook's Straits. 
 
 To the two capes which mark its eastern outlet Cook gave the names of 
 Palliser and Campbell, in honour of his old commander and a brother officer in 
 the navy. Then, as there were still some doubts as to whether Eaheinomauwe 
 was really an island, he doubled Cape Palliser and stood to the northward. On 
 the 9th he came in sight of Cape Turnagain (to which the natives gave the name 
 of Tapolo-polo), and thus completed the circumnavigation of the Northern Island. 
 
 The Southern Island. — Resuming his course to the south-east, Cook ran 
 quickly along the shore of Tavai Poenammoo, and on the 9th INIarch reached its 
 farthest extremity, which he named Cape South. But the subsequent discovery 
 of Stewart proved that Cook had mistaken the island now called Stewart's 
 Island for a part of the mainland, which is divided from it by Foveaux Strait. 
 A sail of three days brought him to Cape West, from which, along a coast trend- 
 ing towards the north-east, he proceeded so rapidly that on the 26th he reached 
 a small island at the entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound. The circumnavigation 
 of New Zealand was thus completed. 
 
 The account which the natives themselves gave of their impressions on Cook's 
 arrival is recorded by INIr Polack, who had it from the mouths of their children 
 in 1836 : " They took the ship at first for a gigantic bird, and were struck with 
 the beauty and size of its wings, as they supposed the sails to be. But on seeing 
 a smaller bird, unfledged, descending into the water, and a number of parti- 
 coloured beings, apparently in human shape, the bird was regarded as a house- 
 hold of divinities. Nothing could exceed their astonishment. The sudden death 
 of their chief (it proved to be their great fighting general) was regarded as a 
 thunderbolt of these new gods, and the noise made by the muskets was repre- 
 sented as thunder. To revenge themselves was the dearest wish of the tribe, but 
 how to accomplish it with divinities who could kill them at a distance was difli- 
 cult to determine. Many of them observed that they felt themselves ill by being 
 only looked upon by these autuas (gods), and it was therefore agreed that, as 
 the new-comers could bewitch -with a look, the sooner their society was dismissed 
 the better for the general welfare."
 
 54 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 COOK'S DISCOVERY OF EASTEEN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 COOK THE FIRST TO PROVE NEW ZEALAND INSULAR — SEARCH FOR A GREAT SOUTHERN 
 CONTINENT — COOK LEAVES NEW ZEALAND — SIGHTS THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT — 
 I'OINT HICKS — NATIVES SEEN — BOTANY BAY — APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — 
 PORT JACKSON — VOYAGE ALONG THE COAST NORTHWARD — PERILOUS POSITION 
 AND PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE — CAPE TRIBULATION — KANGAROOS FIRST SEEN — CAPE 
 FLATTERY — MORE PERILS AND PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE — COOK NAMES AND TAKES 
 POSSESSION OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 The circumnavigation of New Zealand was the first grand achievement of the 
 expedition. When Tasman discovered the countrj', he supposed it to be a part of 
 a great continent extending all the way to the South Pole, and the same opinion 
 was held by Juan F.ernandez, by Hermite, the commander of a Dutch squadron, 
 and by other navigators. Cook's discoveries had completely disproved the sup- 
 position ; but the question whether such a continent did not actually exist was still 
 undetermined. To solve the problem. Cook was desirous of returning to Europe 
 by way of Cape Horn ; but to effect this, it would have been necessary to keep 
 in a high southern latitude in the very depth of winter, an undertaking for which 
 the vessel was insufficient. The same objection Avas urged against proceeding 
 directly to the Cape of Good Hope, " and it was therefore resolved," says the 
 navigator, " that Ave should return by the East Indies ; and that, Avith this View, 
 we should, upon leaving the coast, steer westward till we should fall in Avith the 
 east coast of Ncav Holland, and then folloAV the direction of that coast to the 
 noilhAvard, till Ave should arrive at its northern extremity ; but if that should be 
 impracticable, it Avas further resolved that Ave should endeavour to fall in Avith 
 the land or islands said to have been discovered by Quiros." 
 
 With this vicAV, at daAvn on the 31st of March, Cook put to sea with a fresh 
 gale, and took his departure from a point Avhich he named Cape Fareavell. 
 His course, Avliich lay almost due Avest betAveen the latitudes of 38° and 40°, Avas 
 nearly coincident Avith that of Tasman from Van Diemen's Land to Ncav Zea- 
 land. At six o'clock in the morning of the 18th of Ajoril land was sighted, 
 extending from N.E. to W., at the distance of five or six leagues. IMaking all 
 the sail they could, the voyagers bore aAvay along the shore N.E. for the eastern- 
 most land in sight. To the southernmost point in vicAv the name of Point Hicks 
 was given, in honour of Lieutenant Hicks, Avho Avas the first to discover it. 
 Cape George, Long Nose, and Red Point were successively passed and named.
 
 COOK'S DISCO VER Y OF EASTERN A USTRALIA. 55 
 
 A little after passing the latter spot, natives were perceived for the fii^st time. 
 They Avero armed Avitli spears, waddies, and boomerangs, Avhich Cook describes 
 as " long pikes, and Avooden Aveapons shaped somcAvhat like a scimitar, about 
 tAvo feet and a half long." Some opposition having been shoAvn by some of the 
 natives to the landing of a party from the ship, a musket Avas fired, Avhich had 
 the effect of completely scaring them aAvay. 
 
 The next day a landing Avas effected, and Avhilst Banks Av^as gathering plants 
 near the Avatering-place, Cook, Avitli Solander and Munkhouse, Avent to the head 
 of the bay, in order to examine the country and to attempt to make friendly 
 communications Avitli the natives. They met eleven or a dozen small canoes Avith 
 each a man in it, avIio all made into the shoal Avater at their approach. " We 
 Avent up the country for some distance," continues Cook ; " and found the face 
 of it nearly the same Avitli that Avhich has been described already, but the soil 
 Avas much richer ; for, instead of sand, I found a deep black mould, AAdiich I 
 thought very fit for the production of grain of any kind. In the Avoods Ave found 
 a tree Avliich bore fruit that in colour and shape resembled a cherry : the juice 
 had an agreeable tartness, though but little flavour. We found also interspersed 
 some of the finest meadoAvs in the Avorld : some places, hoAvever, Avere rocky, but 
 these Avere comparatively fcAv; the stone is sandy, and might be used Avith 
 adA-antage for building. 
 
 " The great quantity of plants Avhich Mr Banks and Dr Solander collected in 
 this place, induced me to giA'e it the name of Botany Bay. 
 
 " All the inhabitants that Ave saAV Avere stark naked : they did not appear to 
 be numerous, nor to live in societies, but, like other animals, Avere scattered 
 about along the coast, and in the Avoods. Of their manner of life, hoAvever, Ave 
 could knoAv but little, as Ave Avere never able to form the least connection AAdth 
 them. After the first contest at our landing, they Avould never come near 
 enough to parley ; nor did they touch a single article of all that Ave had left at 
 their huts and the places they frequented, on purpose for them to take aA\^ay. 
 
 " During my stay in this harbour I caused the English colours to be displayed 
 on shore every day, and the ship's name and the date of the year to be inscribed 
 upon one of the trees near the watering-place." 
 
 The voyagers found the country stocked Avith wood, of which only two kinds 
 were thought worthy the appellation of timber. Shrubs, palms, mangroves, and 
 a variety of plants — jnost of them Avholly unknoAA^i to the naturalists — were in 
 great abundance. Birds of splendid plumage flitted through the forest in flocks. 
 Marks of some strange unknoAvn quadrujieds Avere also noted ; these Avere, of 
 course, the kangaroos. It was a ncAv world they had lit upon, and to all appear- 
 ance an earthly paradise. At daybreak, on Sunday the (3th of May 1770, they 
 set sail from Botany Bay, and steered along the shore N.N.E., until they came 
 abreast of a bay or harbour, in Avhich there appeared to be good anchorage, and 
 to Avhich the name of Port Jackson Avas given. But the voyagers did not 
 attempt an entrance to the magnificent panorama of landscape and sea scenery 
 on Avhich noAV stands the populous and Avealthy capital of Ncav South Wales. 
 
 Continuing their northAvard route, they passed a cape Avhicli Cook named
 
 56 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Smoky Cape, now kno^mi as Poet Macquarrie. They next passed and 
 named in succession, Point Look-out, Moeeton's Bay, Double Island Point, 
 Indian Head, Sandy Cape, Hervey's Bay — so named in honour of Caj^tain 
 Hervey — Bustard Bay, Cape Capricorn, Cape Manifold, Keppel Bay, Cape 
 To'UTvSHEND, Thirsty Sound (because it afforded no fresh water), Cape Palmer- 
 STON, Cape Conway, Eepulse Bay, Whitsunday's Passage, Cape Gloucester, 
 Cape Grafton, and Trinity Bay (discovered on Trinity Sunday). 
 
 They had now navigated the very difficult and dangerous eastern coast of 
 Australia for a distance of 1300 miles, without any serious accident, when they 
 encountered one of the most alarming perils of the sea. They had a fine breeze 
 and a clear moonlight night, and the gentlemen had left the deck and gone tran- 
 quilly to bed, when suddenly the water shoaled, and before precautions could be 
 taken, the shijD struck on some coral rocks and remained immovable, except by 
 the heaving of the surge that beat her against the crags of the rocks upon which 
 she lay. " In a few moments," -RTites Cook, " everybody was upon deck, with 
 countenances which suflftciently expressed the horrors of our situation." His 
 narrative of what followed is given in an extremely graphic style, but its length 
 precludes it from being quoted fully. 
 
 Boats were immediately hoisted out, when it was found that the vessel had 
 been lifted over the ledge of a rock, and lay in a kind of basin within it. The 
 crew attempted to get her off, but in vain, and she beat so violently against the 
 rock, that the men could hardly keep their footing. The moon now shone 
 brightlj', and they could see that the planks which formed the sheathing of the 
 ship were floating off, and the false keel following. The water then rushed in 
 with such force, that though all the pumps were manned, the leak could scarcely 
 be kept under ; the guns on deck, ballast, casks, and other articles, were thrown 
 overboard, and the crew were thus emi^loyed in lightening the ship till daybreak ; 
 while, so impressed were the men with their danger, that not an oath was uttered, 
 the wicked habit of swearing being subdued by the dread of incurring guilt when 
 death seemed to be so near. As the day broke, land was discovered about eight 
 leagues distant, without an island between to which the crew might be conveyed 
 in the boat in case of the ship's foimdering. Happily she still held together, the 
 wind fell to a dead calm, and jireparation was made for heaving her off the rock, 
 but the tide falling short, she did not float, though lightened of nearly fifty tons. 
 The crew then threw overboard everything else that could be spared, when the 
 water poured in so rapidly that she could scarcely be kept afloat by the constant 
 Avorking of two jiumps. They could now only hope to get the ship off by the 
 midnight tide, which began to rise at five o'clock. She righted at nine, but so 
 much water had been admitted by the leak, notwithstanding a third pump had 
 been added, that she was expected to sink as soon as the water bore her off the 
 rock. Soon after ten o'clock she was heaved into deep Avater, when to the 
 surprise of all, the leakage did not increase, and though at this time there were 
 3 ft. 9 in. of water in the hold,, the men at the pumps gained so considerably 
 upon the leak, that by eight o'clock in the morning the ship was out of danger, 
 and ill the evening anchored at about seven leagues from the shore. It was not
 
 COOK'S DISCO VER Y OF EASTERN A USTRALIA. 57 
 
 till five days after, on the iTth of June, that a safe harbom- was found upon the 
 coast. The " Endeavour " was then hauled ashore for repairs, when it was 
 ascertained that, but for a jirovidential circumstance, the ship must have sunk the 
 moment she was got ofi" the reef. " One of the holes," writes Cook, " which was 
 big enough to have sunk us if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and had 
 been able to keep them incessantly going, Avas in a great measure jDlugged up by 
 the fragment of the rock which, after having made the wound, was left sticking 
 in it ; so that the water, which at first gained upon our pumps, was what came 
 in at the interstices between the stone and the edges of the hole that received 
 it." To the place where the disaster occurred Cook gave the name of Cape 
 Tribulation. The cove in which the vessel was refitted is situated at the mouth 
 of a small stream, which Cook named I^ndeavour River. Banks and Solander 
 found here abundant employment, almost every plant and animal being new to 
 them. On the 22d a shooting party first saw the kangaroo, hitherto unknown to 
 Em'opean naturalists. Cook described it as resembling a greyhound of a light 
 mouse-colom", with a long tail, and which he should have mistaken for a wild dog 
 had not its extraordinary manner of leaping instead of running convinced him of 
 the contrary : it bounded like a deer, and the print of its foot resembled that of 
 a goat. Banks chased four kangaroos with a greyhound, which they soon out- 
 stripped ; and a young kangaroo was shot, and being cooked was found excellent 
 eating. Banks likewise caught a female opossum with two young ones. Among 
 the other animals seen here were goats, wolves, pole-cats, a spotted civet, and 
 several serpents ; the only tame animals being native dogs. A sailor also saw a 
 large black bat, which he said was " like the devil, for it was as large as a one- 
 gallon keg, and very like it : for it had horns and Avings ; yet crept so sloAvly 
 through the grass that, if he had not been af eared, he might have touched it." 
 The supply of turtle and fish taken in the harbour was excellent. Among the 
 vegetables were wild beans, the tops of cocoas and cabbage palms. The ship 
 being repaired, the navigators sailed from this harbour on the 5th of August, 
 with the intention of pui'suing a north-east course ; but for nearly a week they 
 struggled amidst shoals and breakers to reach the open sea through the dangers 
 of coral rocks. On the 10th, between a headland and three small islands, they 
 thought they had discovered a clear opening ; but this not being the case, the 
 headland was named Cape Flattery. In a few days, however, they gained the 
 deep sea, having been nearly three months entangled within the reefs. They 
 next steered northward, flattering themselves that the danger was over, when at 
 daybreak of the 16th the wind abated, and the depth of the sea was so great that 
 they could not reach the ground with an anchor; while the ship drifted fast 
 towards the reefs which nearly lined the coast, and on Avhich the angry waves ot 
 the Southern Ocean broke with a tremendous surf. The " Endeavour" " was now 
 driven towards the breakers, and her destruction seemed inevitable, when a 
 narrow opening was descried at no great distance, through which the ship was 
 steered so rapidly as to avoid striking either side of the channel. To this pass- 
 age was given the name of Providential Channel. To two islands in the 
 vicinity the names of Lizard and Eagle Islands were given. 
 
 H
 
 58 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 On the 21st August Cook made Cape York, the most northerly point of the 
 land ; and here he resolved to follow the coast in order to determine whether New 
 Holland and New Gviinea were separate islands. This he found to be the case, 
 and having given to the channel which divides them the name of Endeavour 
 Straits (known more commonly as Torres Straits, from its first explorer), he 
 resolved upon performing the ceremony of taking possession of New South 
 Wales. 
 
 " As I was now about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I had 
 coasted from latitude 38° to this place, and which I am confident no European 
 had ever seen before , I once more hoisted English colours, and though I had 
 already taken possession of several particular parts, I now took possession of the 
 whole eastern coast, from latitude 38° to this place, latitude 10^° S., in right of 
 his Majesty King George III., by the name of New South Wales, Avith all the 
 bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it. We then fired three volleys 
 of small arms, which were answered by the same number from the ship. Having 
 performed this ceremony upon the island, Ave called it Possession Island."
 
 
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 COOICS RETURN VOYAGE. 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COOK'S EETURN VOYAGE. 
 
 COOK LEAVES AUSTRALIA — DISASTROUS VOYAGE — EXPEDITION ARRIVES IN ENGLAND — 
 RESULTS OF COOK'S ACHIEVEMENTS — INTEREST FELT IN ENGLAND— LINN^US — 
 COOK RECEIVED AVITH HONOUR AND PROMOTED — ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE 
 PUBLISHED — REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW DISCOVERIES — COOK's LETTER TO THE 
 LORDS OF THE ADMIRALTY. 
 
 The "Endeavour" left the coast of Australia on the 23cl of August 1770, and 
 after a narrow escape from striking on some shoals, reached New Guinea on the 
 3d September. The homeward voyage by the Cape of Good Hope was very 
 disastrous, no less than thirty-one of the ship's company having died in the 
 course of a few weeks, including Tupia the Otaheitau and his son Tayeto. On 
 the 14th of April Cook left the Cape, and on the 12th June 1771, the good ship 
 " Endeavour " came to an anchor in the Downs, and the voyagers landed at Deal 
 on the coast of Kent in England. 
 
 Thus was completed this long and glorious voyage of nearly three years, so 
 memorable in the annals of maritime adventure. In the course of it the globe 
 was circumnavigated, many new lands were explored, immense additions were 
 made to geographical and general science, and two magnificent countries — one of 
 them a continent nearly as large as Europe — were added to the British Empire. 
 
 The return of the great navigator and his brave fellow-explorers excited 
 the most intense interest amongst all classes of persons in England, and indeed 
 in most countries of Europe. The great botanist Linnrcus wrote from Uj)sala 
 in Sweden his congratulations. " If I Avere not bound fast here by sixty-four 
 years of age and a worn-out body," he said, "I would this very day set out for 
 London to see my dear Solander, that great hero of botany. Moses was not per- 
 mitted to enter Palestine, but only to view it from a distance ; so I conceive an 
 idea in my mind of the acquisitions and treasures of those who have visited every 
 part of the globe." The stories which the voyagers had to tell of their 
 adventures, their perilous escapes, their strange experiences amongst the wild 
 inhabitants — or, as they were called, the Indians — of the vast Southern Ocean, 
 Avere listened to with eager ears. Cook was the hero of the hour. All ranks 
 and conditions of men vied with each other in doing him honour. He was pre- 
 sented to the king at St James's Palace, when he presented a journal of his 
 voyage, with illustrative maps and charts. He was raised, by royal commission
 
 62 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 dated the 29th of August 1771, to the rank of Commander in the Royal Navy. 
 Banks and his scientific companions were objects of general curiosity to all 
 classes. Their conversation was eagerly sought by the learned and the noble. 
 The young king himself took much delight in listening to the adventures of the 
 discoverers, and examining the specimens of arts and manufactures which they 
 had gathered in the strange new lands they had explored. The account of the 
 voyage, drawn up from the journals and papers of Cook and his companions, was 
 prepared for publication by Dr John Hawkesworth, a learned author of the day. 
 Most of the curiosities and specimens brought home were deposited in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 With the exception of Columbus, no navigator had ever made more impor- 
 tant original discoveries than Cook. It is impossible, while reading the narrative 
 of this first voyage, to fail being struck with the evidences of a Divine providential 
 guidance throughout it. The wonderful protection of the ship in circumstances 
 of the extremest peril on several occasions ; the preservation of the life of the 
 great navigator from the hostility of savage tribes, and from the ravages of the 
 pestilence that carried off so many of his companions ; the astonishing inter- 
 positions occm-ring just at the critical moment of imminent danger ; the amazing- 
 energy and firmness displayed by Cook under the most trying circumstances ; 
 and the safe accomplishment of the prupose of founding a new empire in the 
 far south, whence civiUsation, enlightenment, and Christianity should radiate 
 outwards on the savage races inhabiting the numberless surrounding ocean- 
 islands : all bespeak the working of that Omnipotent Divine Power, Avhose 
 bright designs and sovereign will ever make for the best and highest interests 
 of mankind. 
 
 The letter in which Cook announced to the Lords of the Admiralty the 
 completion of his commission is a model of simple and manly modesty of style. 
 The original is preserved in the records of the Admiralty at Whitehall, and runs 
 as follows : 
 
 " • Endeavoitr ' Bakque, Downs, llth July 1771. 
 
 " Sir, — It is with pleasure I have to request that you will be pleased to acquaint my Lords Com- 
 missioners of the Admii-alty with the arrival of H.M. barque under my command at this place, where 
 I shall leave her to wait until fui-ther orders, and in obedience to their Lordships' orders immediately, 
 and with this letter, repair to their office in order to lay before them a full account of the proceedings of 
 the whole voyage. 
 
 " I make no doubt but that you have received my letters and journal forwarded from Batavia hi Dutch 
 ships in October last, and likewise my letter of the 10th of May, together with some of the officers' 
 journals, which I put on board his Majesty's ship ' Portland,' since which time nothing material hath 
 happened, excepting the death of Lieut. Hicks. The vacancy made on this occasion I filled up by 
 appoLnting Mr Charles Clerke, a young man well worthy of it, and as such, must beg li'avc to recommend 
 him to theii- Lordships. This, as well as all other appointments made in the barque vacant by 
 the death of former officers, agreeable to the enclosed list, will, I hope, meet their Lordshijjs' ajipro- 
 bation. 
 
 " You will herewith receive my journals containing an account of the proceedings of the whole 
 voyage, together with all the charts, plans, and drawings I have made of the respective i)laces we touched 
 at, which you will l)e pleased to lay before their Lordships. I flatter myself that the latter will be
 
 COOK'S RETURN VOYAGE. 63 
 
 found sufficient to convey a tolerable knowledge of the places they are intended to illustrate, and that 
 the discoveries we have made, though not great, will apologise for the length of the voyage. 
 
 " I have the honour to be. Sir, your most obedient humble servant, James Cook. 
 
 " PhUip Stephens, Esq." 
 
 (Captain's letters, C. vol. 22. Records of the Admiralty, Whitehall.) 
 
 LIST of OFFICERS appointed to his Majesty's barque the "Endeavour," by Lieutenant James Cook, 
 
 Commander, in the room of others, deceased. 
 
 1770, Nov. 6, William Perry, surgeon, in the room of Wm. B. Munkhouse, dd. 5th Nov. 1770, at 
 
 Batavia. 
 
 1771, Feb. 5, Samuel Evans, boatswain, in the room of John Gathi-ey, dd. 4th Feb. 1771. 
 
 „ Feb. 13, George No well, carpenter, in the room of John Satterley, dd. 12th Feb. ^ 
 
 „ April 16, Richard PickersgUl, master, in the room of Robt. MolLneux, dd. 15th April, f 
 „ May 26th, John Gore, 2d lieut., in the room of Zachariah Hicks, dd. 25th May. C 
 
 „ „ Charles Gierke, 3d lieut., in the room of John Gore, appointed 2d lieut. / 
 
 James Cook.
 
 64 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 COOK'S SECOND EXPEDITION. 
 
 SEARCH FOR A GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT — COOK'S SECOND EXPEDITION — HIS 
 INSTRUCTIONS — THE EXPEDITION SAILS — REACHES THE SOUTHERN ICE-FIELDS — 
 
 ABANDONS FURTHER RESEARCH THE SOUTH POLAR BARRIER — THE TWO VESSELS 
 
 SEPARATED — COOK SAILS FOR NEW ZEALAND — REACHES DUSKY BAY — PICKERS- 
 GILL HARBOUR — A LANDING MADE TO TAKE OBSERVATIONS — A DELIGHTFUL 
 COUNTRY — WATER-SPOUTS — COOK REACHES QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND — MEETS 
 FURNEAUX THERE — FURNEAUX'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 Although Cook, in his fii'st voyage, by sailing round New Zealand and exploring 
 part of New Holland, had proved that these countries were distinct islands, and 
 did not form a portion of the great Terra Australis Incognita, as had been sup- 
 posed, yet many well-informed persons still believed in the existence of a vast 
 southern continent. To set this question completely at rest, it was resolved to 
 despatch another expedition from England. The king Avas favourable to the 
 design, as was also the Earl of Sandwich, then at the head of the Admiralty; and 
 Cook was at once named as the fittest person to be entrusted with the expedition. 
 Two vessels which, like the " Endeavom-," had been built at Whitby for coal- 
 trade, were accordingly fitted out for the voyage — the " Resolution," 462 tons 
 burthen, of which Cook had the command, and the "Adventure," 836 tons, under 
 Captain Fm-neaux, who had sailed as second lieutenant under Wallis. The 
 "Resolution" had 112, and the "Adventui'e" 81 officers and men. The ships 
 were amply stored and provided for a long and difficult voyage, particularly Avith 
 articles to jDrevent the scm'vy and to preserve the health of the crews. Among 
 the stores were clothing adapted for a cold climate, implements for fishing, articles 
 to serve as presents, and money. The advancement of science was equally 
 provided for : Messrs Wales and Bayley undertook the astronomical observa- 
 tions ; and Banks and Solander having declined accompanying the expedition, 
 John Reinhold Forster and his son were engaged as naturalists, with a competent 
 artist, Mr Hodges, as draughtsman. The expenses of the exjiedition were to be 
 defrayed by a grant from Parliament of .£4000, as " an encouragement for the 
 more effectually prosecuting the discoveries towards the South Pole." Cook's 
 instructions were to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope, then to set sail south- 
 ward in quest of Cape de la Circoncision, reported to have been visited by a French 
 officer named Bouvet in 1738, in latitude 54° 20' S., and between 9° and 11° of 
 east longitude. Cook was to ascertain whether this point belonged to an island,
 
 COOK'S SECOND EXPEDITION. 65 
 
 or formed part of the long-sought-for Southern Continent. But should he not 
 find the cape, he was to sail southward in search of the supposed continent, and 
 thence eastward with the same object. He was likewise to \\%\t the unexplored 
 portion of the southern hemisphere, keeping in high latitudes, and proceeding 
 as near as possible to the pole, initil he had circumnavigated the globe. 
 
 The ships sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of Jul}^ 1772, and made the 
 Cape of Good Hope on the 29tli of October, where they remained till the 22d of 
 November. Previously to sailing. Cook was induced by jNIr Forster to receive 
 on board an assistant-naturalist, Dr Sparmann, a native of Sweden, and a dis- 
 ciple of the celebrated Linnseus. 
 
 The navigators left the Cape on the 22d, and directed their course to the 
 south. They met with several ice-islands, some of which were two miles in 
 circuit and upwards of fifty feet in height, over which the sea broke with terrific 
 fmy. Their course was stopped at length by an endless field of ice. Cook hoped 
 by steering, first east and then southward, to get behind this field, but in doing 
 so he observetl no sign of land. On the 17th of December he crossed the ant- 
 arctic circle in the longitude of 39° 35'; but he found it was hopeless to persist 
 any longer in that com-se, as the ice extended from east to west, without any 
 appearance of an opening. He then sailed to the north-east in search of the 
 lands said to have been discovered in that dii'ection by Bouvet ; but though the 
 ships kept some miles apart, in order to extend the search, neither gained sight 
 of land. 
 
 The design of seeking further for the doubtful Southern Continent Avas there- 
 fore abandoned. But to Cook must be given the credit of having penetrated 
 fm'ther to the South Pole than any previous navigator. Since his time, however, 
 fm'ther explorations have been prosecuted in that direction. Weddell, in 1823, 
 sailed 214 geogTaphical miles beyond Cook's highest point; and the memorable 
 expedition of Su' James Clark Eoss, in 1841, led to the discovery, in latitude 
 78° 4', of the great South Polar Barrier, extending 450 miles in length with a 
 perpendicular face of ice 180 feet above the sea-level. On the 8th of February 
 1773, in thick and hazy weather, the two vessels unintentionally separated; the 
 rendezvous appointed in case of this accident was Queen Charlotte's Soimd in 
 New Zealand, and thither Cook directed his com-se. In the course of the 
 voyage thither, the splendid phenomenon of the Am-ora Australis, or Southern 
 Lights, was several times seen. At length, after having been 117 days at sea, 
 dm-ing which time the " Eesolution " had sailed 3()60 leagues, without having 
 once come within sight of land. Cook saw again the shores of New Zealand on 
 the 25th of March, and on the following day came to anchor in Dusky Bay. 
 Here the voj-agers were strangers; Cook having in his first voyage only dis- 
 covered and named the bay. 
 
 Notwithstanding the length and hardships of his voyage, there was no sick- 
 ness in the ship ; for great attention had been paid to the health of the men by 
 enforcing cleanliness, by keeping the ship dry and Avell-ventilated, and by the 
 judicious use of diet to keep off scurvy. On the 28th, a more convenient harbom- 
 was found, to wliicli the name of Pickeesgill HaRbouk was given, from its 
 
 I
 
 66 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 having been discovered by Lieutenant Pickersgill. Thither the ship was removed, 
 and as iish, fowl, and fresh water Avere abundant in the bay, the voyagers hoped 
 to enjoy what, after their numerous perils and privations, might be called the 
 luxuries of life. They first cleared a place in the Avoods ; then set up the observa- 
 tory, the forge to repair their iron-Avork, and tents for the sail-maker and 
 cooper to Avork in. They landed the casks to fill Avith Avater, and began to brew 
 beer from the branches or leaves of the spruce fir. The change from their late 
 Avearisome life on the icy seas was delightful. As they explored the country in 
 search of provisions, and to collect plants, they found the climate mild and the 
 soil fertile, Avhilst the woods, noAv just assuming their autumnal tints, re-echoed 
 the songs of numerous birds. The stay of the A^oyagers at Dusky Bay exceeded 
 six Aveeks ; during Avliich time they had several intervicAvs Avith parties of natives, 
 and a chief and his daughter ventured on board the ship, AAdicre they made pre- 
 sents to Cook, the astronomer, and the draughtsmen. This custom of making 
 presents first had not been hitherto observed in New Zealand. Of the articles 
 given by the A'oyagers in return, the chief most prized hatchets and spike-nails. 
 
 Having surveyed Duskj^ Bay, on the 11th of INIay, the navigators sailed along 
 the shore toAvards Queen Charlotte's Sound, AA^here they expected to join the 
 " AdA^enture." Nothing remarkable occurred till the afternoon of the 17th, 
 when the sky became suddenly darkened Avith clouds, and several water-spouts 
 were seen, one of AA'hich passed within fifty yards of the ship. Their first appear- 
 ance AA'as indicated b}' the violent agitation and rising up of the water, Avhich was 
 joined by a column or tube from the clouds above ; this increased considerably 
 in size, and then decreased, soon after AA'hich the sea calmed, the tube was 
 draAAna up gradually to the clouds and disappeared. 
 
 On the 18th, at daybreak. Cook reached Queen Charlotte's Sound, and 
 found the " Adventure " in the harbour. It appeared that Captain Furneaux, 
 having lost sight of the " Resolution " in a thick fog, fired half-hour signal guns 
 without .success, aiid cruised near the spot for three days, according to agreement, 
 Avhen he followed a more northerly course along the southern and eastern shores 
 of Van Diemen's Land ; and from examination of them, he reported that there 
 Avas no strait between this land and NeAV Holland, but a very deejD bay. On 
 the 19th of ]\Iarch he stood aAvay for New Zealand, Avhich he reached on April 
 7th, since Avhich date, till Cook's arrival, the voyagers of the "Adventure" had 
 held friendly intercourse Avith the natives. In this they were joined by Cook, 
 Avho, before the tAvo vessels left the sound, put on shore a CAve and ram and tAvo 
 goats. A garden Avas also dug, and several seeds and vegetables adapted to 
 the climate Avere soAvn in it. Cook next intended to visit Van Diemen's Land, 
 to ascertain Avhether or not it made a part of Ncav Holland, as Captain Furneaux 
 had reported, but at length he considered the point settled by the judgment of 
 his colleague. The report of Captain Furneaux proved to have been over- 
 estimated for its accuracy by Cook, for, twenty-five years after, in 1798, Flinders 
 and Ijass discovered the channel named Bass's Straits Avhich separates Van 
 Diemen's Land from ^Vustralia.
 
 COOK'S EXPLORATION OF THE PACIFIC. 67 
 
 CHAPTER YIL 
 
 COOK'S EXPLORATION OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 COOK SAILS AGAIN TO EXAMINE THE SOUTHERN OCEAN — REACHES OTAHEITE — THE 
 SOCIETY ISLANDS — THE SHIPS PART COMPANY — COOK AGAIN ANCHORS IN QUEEN 
 
 charlotte's SOUND CANNIBALISM OF THE NATIVES — COOK LEAVES NEW 
 
 ZEALAND — ANTIPODES OF LONDON — ICEBERGS — THE ICE llEGION — THE CRUISE 
 IN THE PACIFIC — NEW HEBRIDES DISCOVERED AND NAMED — NEW CALEDONIA 
 DISCOVERED AND NAMED — BOTANY ISLAND — NORFOLK ISLAND DISCOVERED AND 
 NAMED — THE SURVIVORS OF THE " BOUNTY " — RETURN TO QUEEN CIIARLOTTe's 
 SOUND — FURNEAUX'S ADVENTURES AMONGST THE NEW ZEALAND NATIVES^ 
 COOK LEAVES NEW ZEALAND — CROSSES THE PACIFIC — REACHES ENGLAND — 
 cook's CONCLUDING REMARKS ON HIS EXPEDITION. 
 
 Although the winter had now set in, Cook determined not to \o%o his time in 
 utter inactivity. His ships being sound, and their crews healthy, on June 7th he 
 proceeded Avith the intention of examining the Southern Ocean within tlie 
 latitude of 46', then refreshing at some of the islands between the tropics, and 
 returning in the sunmier to his researches in a higher latitude. He sailed 
 eastward till July 17th, when seeing no land, he steered north-eastward and 
 was then convinced by the great sea which rolled from the south that no land of 
 any extent could lie near him in that direction, which circiunstance, with the 
 sickly state of the " Adventm'e's " crew, induced him to direct his course to 
 Otaheite. 
 
 After a short stay there, and a cruise amongst the Society Islands, as the 
 period of the year for prosecuting his researches in the high southern latitudes 
 had come round again. Cook directed his course to New Zealand, which he 
 descried on the 21st of October. The ships encountered a succession of severe 
 gales and bad weather, during Avhich the " Adventure " was again lost siglit of 
 and not rejoined during the voyage. At length, on the 3d of November, the 
 " Resolution " again anchored in Queen Charlotte's Sound. While here, in- 
 dulntable proofs presented themselves that cannibalism was common among the 
 natives. They seemed as much addicted to theft as formerly. On one occasion 
 a chief undertook to protect Cook from the thieving natives, but was himself 
 detected in stealing the navigator's pocket handkerchief, at which he laughed with 
 such address that it was scarcely possible to be angry with him. 
 
 After waiting in the sound for three weeks in hopes of the " Adventm'e " 
 rejoining him. Cook left New Zealaml on the 26th of November. The ship's
 
 G8 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 company was in good health and high spirits. On the 6th of December they 
 crossed the antipodes of London, and were thus at that point of the globe which 
 was most distant from their home. On the 12th the first ice-island was seen, 
 from which time till the 20th the dangers of icebergs and loose ice continued to 
 increase. Fortunately the voyagers had continual daylight and clear Aveather : 
 had it been foggy, nothing less than a miracle could have saved them from being 
 dashed to pieces. On the 26th they crossed the antarctic circle for the third 
 time, and on the 30th reached 71° 19' of southern latitude. 
 
 Here the ice extended east and west far out of sight, and from the mast-head 
 ninety-seven ice-hills were distinctly seen within the field, besides those on the 
 outside, many of them very large and looking like a ridge of mountains, rising 
 one above another till they were lost in the clouds. The outer or northern edge 
 of this immense field Avas composed of loose or broken ice closely packed 
 together, so that it was not possible for anything to enter it. This was about 
 a mile broad, within which Avas solid ice in one continued compact body. Cook 
 therefore considered it would be a dangerous enterprise to attempt to proceed 
 any farther south, adding, " it was indeed my opinion, as Avell as the opinion of 
 most on board, that this ice extended quite to the pole, or perhaps joined some 
 land to which it had been fixed from the earliest time, and that it is here (that 
 is, to the south of this parallel) where all the ice we find scattered up and down 
 to the north is first formed, and afterwards broken off^ by gales of Avind or other 
 causes, and brought to the north by currents Avhich Ave always found to set in 
 that direction in the high latitudes. As we drew near this ice, some penguins 
 were heard but not seen, and but fcAV other birds or any other thing that could 
 induce us to think that any land was near." Yet Cook thought there must be 
 some land to the south behind this point, though, if such Avere the case, it must 
 be inaccessible from the ice. Therefore, as he could not proceed one inch farther 
 to the south, he tacked and stood back to the north. 
 
 The cruise in the Pacific occupied several months, and in the course of it 
 many romantic incidents occurred and many important discoveries Avere made. 
 Amongst other islands visited and named Avore the New Hebrides group. 
 Cook sailed from thence south-westward on the 1st of September 1774, and three 
 days after sighted an extensive coast beset Avith reefs, on Avhich the sea broke 
 Avith great A'iolence. A passage through this dangerous barrier having been 
 discovered, the " liesolution " came to anchor on the 5th, and iuunediately after- 
 wards the ship was surrounded by a great number of natives in sixteen or 
 eighteen canoes. They Avere of a peaceable and friendly disposition, and ottered 
 no opposition to the landing of a boat's crcAV. The country seemed to ■ Cook 
 generally to resemble Ncav Holland, being mostly rocky and barren on the high 
 ground, but having fertile spots on the plains and slopes. The inhabitants Avere 
 a strong, active, and handsome race, excelling the people of Tanna : their lan- 
 guage Avas of the same mixed character ; they had not before seen Europeans ; 
 and they Avere strictly honest. To this island Cook gave the name of New 
 Caledonia. Though he could not fully exjilore it, he ascertained it to be from 
 noi'tli to soutli about tAvo hundred miles, and from east to Avest thirty miles.
 
 COOK'S EXPLORATION OF THE PACIFIC. 69 
 
 This is the largest island in the South Pacific Ocean, except New Zealand. In 
 sailing round it, some small islands were discovered, one of which was named 
 the Isle of Pines, from there being found on it a great abundance of spruce 
 pines, fit for spai'S — a discovery of great importance, as, excepting New Zealand, 
 there was not an island in this sea where a mast or yard could be found. To 
 a smaller island, on which a party landed, and found many new trees, shrubs, 
 and plants, was given the name of Botany Island. 
 
 It is a fact much to be regretted that the British Government never took 
 possession of New Caledonia ; its vicinity to the continent rendering it of very 
 gi-eat value for colonising purposes. In 1853 tlie Fi-encb seized upon it, and at 
 once converted it into a penal settlement, which character it still retains (1878). 
 There can be no question that the existence of a large foreign criminal establish- 
 ment within three or four days' sail of the Australian colonies is a serious evil 
 for the latter ; and already some of the bad effects inevitably resulting from 
 its proximity have been experienced, in the escape to these colonies of French 
 prisoners from New Caledonia. 
 
 On the 1st of October the voyagers again lost sight of land and steered south- 
 ward for nine days, when they discovered an island to which Cook gave the name 
 of Norfolk Island, in honom* of the noble family of Howard, Duke of Norfolk. 
 It was somewhat lofty, and about five leagues in circuit. In fertility it much 
 resembled New Zealand, the flax-plant of that country being here very luxuriant; 
 but the chief produce were noble pines, the trunks of which, breast-high, two men 
 could scarcely clasp. The island was uninhabited, and the navigators were pro- 
 bably the first persons that ever set foot on its shores. Some years later a 
 party of British settlers fixed here, but they abandoned it, on account of its 
 dangerous coast. In 1825 the British Government fixed upon this island as the 
 place for a penal settlement, to which the worst class of offenders might be sent 
 from New South Wales. The experiment proved a failure, as it was bound to 
 do, and thirty years afterwards, in 1855, the penal establishment on the island 
 was broken up. It may safely be affirmed that the records of Norfolk Island 
 during that period of thirty years exceed in horror any chronicle of crime and 
 suffering ever WTitten in this world. Humanity shudders at the recollection, and 
 hastily drops all mention of the subject. In 1856 the descendants of the 
 mutineers of the " Bounty," who had become too numerous for the small island 
 (Pitcairn's) they inhabited, petitioned the British Government to grant them the 
 much more productive Norfolk Island, then deserted. The petition was granted, 
 and this interesting little community was accordingly transferred thither. Four 
 years after two families, numbering in all seventeen persons, returned to Pitcairn's 
 Island, leaving 202 souls as the total population. The new Norfolk Islanders 
 are an exceedingly cheerful and Airtuous race of people. They retain all their 
 primitive simplicity of disposition, are very hosi:)itable, and passionately fond of 
 music and dancing. The men are engaged in whaling and herding cattle, or in 
 cultivating their gardens and plantations. The women attend to the children, 
 manage the dairies, and take part occasionally in the labours of the field. At 
 present (1878) the total population of the island is about 500 souls.
 
 70 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Sailing away from Norfolk Island, the voyagers, on the 17th of October, de- 
 scried the •' e\'erlasting snows " of Mount Egmont, in Ncav Zealand, and next day 
 anchored in Queen Charlotte's Sound, for the third time during this voyage. 
 From not finding the bottle with a memorandum, which Cook, on his last visit, 
 had left for Captain Fnrneaux, and from other circumstances, especially from 
 timber having been cut there with axes and saws, it was plain that the "xVdven- 
 ture " had been there. The natives, of whom only a few appeared, and those in a 
 state of great fear, gave information from which it was inferred that some calam- 
 ity had befallen the crew. The mystery was subsequently cleared up by a letter 
 from Furncaux, which Cook found awaiting him at the Cape of Good Hope on 
 his homeward voyage. 
 
 It Avill be remembered that Cook, on his approaching New Zealand for the 
 second time in the course of this voyage, in October 1773, lost sight of the 
 "Adventure," and did not again join company with that ship. From the letter 
 it appeared that Furneaux, being blown ofiT the coast, was beaten about by violent 
 storms till the Gtli of November, Avhen he put into Tologa Bay, for water and 
 wood ; and sailed from thence for Queen Charlotte's Sound, the appointed ren- 
 dezvous for the ships in case of separation, which he reached on the 30th. The 
 " Eesolution " not being there, Furneaux and his companions began to doubt her 
 safety; but on landing, they observed cut on an old stump of a tree these words: 
 "Look underneath." They dug accordingly, and found a bottle, corked and 
 sealed, containing a letter from Cook, stating his arrival there on the 3d of 
 November, and his departure on the 26th, and that he intended passing a few 
 days in the entrance to the straits to look out for the "Adventure." 
 
 The "Adventm-e" was now got ready for sea with all speed, and on the 17tli 
 December, Furneaux sent a midshipman, with nine men, in a large cutter, to 
 gather wild greens for the ship's comi^anj^, with orders to return that evening. 
 As they did not return by the next morning, and the ship was now ready for sea, 
 the second lieutenant, Mr Burney, set out in search of the cutter, in the launch, 
 manned with the boat's crew and ten marines. They proceeded, firing guns into 
 all the coves by way of signals, and landed at a settlement to search the houses, 
 but could not find any trace of the missing voyagers. Persevering in the search, 
 they saw on the beach adjoining Grass Cove, a large double canoe, just hauled up, 
 with two men and a dog. On seeing the launch the men ran ofi:' into the woods, 
 when Burney and his companions landed, and on searching the canoe, found in 
 it the shoes of a midshipman ; and subsequently was picked up a hand, tattooed 
 "T. II.," which was innnediately known to have belonged to Thomas Hill, one of 
 the forecastle men of the "Adventure." Around Grass Cove, the natives had 
 collected in great numbers, shouting and inviting the English to land. From the 
 number of the savages, and the suspicion excited by finding the shoes and hand, 
 the lieutenant would not trust himself ashore, but fired among the people until 
 they retired. lie then landed with the marines, and soon ascertained the 
 melancholy fate of the missing boat's crew. " On the beach," he says, "were two 
 bundles of celery, which had been gathered for loading the cutter; a broken 
 oar was .stuck ui)i-ight in the ground, to which the natives had tied their canoes,
 
 COOK'S EXPLORATION OF THE PACIFIC. 71 
 
 a proof that the attack had Ix'ou made here. I then searched all along at the 
 l)ack of tlie beach, to see if the cutter was thei'e. We found no boat, but instead 
 of her, such a shocking scene of carnage and barl)arity as can never be mentioned 
 nor thought of but witli horror." 'J'hc savages had not only butchered the whole 
 crew, ten in number, but feasted on the remains of the victims of their ferocity, 
 and left parts of them strewn along the beach. 
 
 After this lamentable occnrrence, the "Adventure " was detained in the sound 
 ten days ; but no more natives were seen. At length Captain Furncaux, 
 despairing of meeting with Cook, got to sea on the 23d of December, and being 
 favoured with a strong easterly current and westerly winds, in about a month 
 doubled Cajie Horn, and arrived at Spithcad on the 14th of July 1774. 
 
 To return to Cook. He took his departure from New Zealand on the 
 10th of November 1774, and steering S. by E., ran directly aci'oss the Pacific. 
 " I have now done with the Southern Pacific Ocean," he wi'ites, " and flatter 
 myself that none will think that I have left it unexplored, or that more could 
 have been done in one voyage, towards obtaining that end, than has been done 
 in this." He reached the Cape of Good Hope on 19th March 1775, where he got 
 Furneaux's letter. On the 30th of July the " Kesolution " anchored at Spithead, 
 after an absence from England of three years and eighteen days. Cook landed 
 at Portsmouth next day, and set out for London, to report his arrival to the 
 Admiralty. Through all the hardships and privations of the voyage, and all the 
 severe changes of climate, only four men had been lost of the ship's company, and 
 only one of these died from sickness. 
 
 Cook's concluding remarks on this famous voyage are well deserving of 
 quotation : 
 
 " It does not become me to say how far the principal objects of our voyage 
 have been attained. Though it has not abounded with remarkable events, nor 
 been diversified by sudden transitions of fortune ; though my relation of it has 
 been more employed in tracing our course by sea, than in recording our operations 
 on shore ; this perhaps is a circumstance from which the curious reader may 
 infer, that the purposes for which we Avere sent into the southern hemisphere were 
 diligently and effectually pursued. Had we found out a continent there, Ave 
 might have been better enabled to gratify curiosity ; but we hope our not having 
 found it, after all our persevering searches, Avill leave less room for future specu- 
 lation about unknown worlds remaining to be explored. But whatever may be 
 the public judgment about other matters, it is with real satisfaction, and without 
 claiming any merit but that of attention to my duty, that I can conclude this 
 account with an observation Avhich facts enable me to make, that om* having 
 discovered the possibility of preserving health amongst a numerous ship's com- 
 pany, for such a length of time, in such varieties of climate and amidst such 
 continued hardships and fatigues, Avill make this voyage remarkable in the opinion 
 of every benevolent person, when the disputes about a southern continent shall 
 have ceased to engage the attention and to divide the judgment of philosophers. *
 
 72 THE HISTORY OF A USTRALASTA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COOK'S SECOND RETUEN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 VASTNESS AND GRANDEUR OF COOK's DISCOVERIES — HIS RECEPTION IN ENGLAND^ 
 HONOURS PAID HIM — SIR JOHN PRINGLe's EULOGIUM — COOIv's ACCOUNT OF HIS 
 VOYAGE PUBLISHED — HIS MODEST ESTIMATE OF HIS OWN ACHIEVEMENTS — TRUE 
 GREATNESS. 
 
 The design of the voj^age now completed was in vastness and grandeur without 
 a parallel in the history of maritime enterprise ; and never, perhaps, had any 
 expedition been conducted with greater skill, perseverance, or success. Cook 
 was received Avith every mark of approbation and honour. He Avas raised to 
 the rank of post-captain, by a commission dated the 9th of August ; and three 
 days thereafter he was named Captain in Greenwich Hospital, an appointment 
 which afforded him the means of spending the rest of his days in honourable and 
 easy retirement. In February 1776 he was unanimously elected a Fellow of the 
 Royal Society, and on the 7th of March, the evening of his admission, a com- 
 munication was read in which he detailed the means he had employed to pre- 
 serve the health of his crew in their long and perilous navigation. For this most 
 valuable and important essay, the council awarded to him the CoiDley medal ; 
 and on the occasion of its delivery the president, Sir John Pringle, delivered a 
 discourse highly encomiastic of the great discoverer. He observed : 
 
 " What inquiries can be so useful as that which has for its object the saving 
 of the lives of men 1 and where shall we find one more successful than that 
 before us 1 Here are no vain boastings of the empiric, nor ingenious and 
 delusive theories of the dogmatist ; but a concise, and artless, and an unconceited* 
 relation of the means by which, under Divine fjxvour. Captain Cook, Avith a com- 
 pany of 118 men, performed a voyage of three years and eighteen days, through- 
 out all the climates from 52° N. to 71° S. latitude, with the loss of only one man 
 by sickness. I would now inquire of the most convei-sant with the bills of 
 mortality Avhethcr in tlie most healthy climate and the best conditions of life, they 
 have ever foiuid so small a number of deaths within that space of time ? IIow 
 great and liow agrceal)le, tlicn, nuist our surprise be, after perusing the histories 
 of long navigations in fonner days, Avhen so many perished by marine diseases, 
 to find the air acquitted of all malignity, and, in fine, that a voyage round the 
 world may be undertaken with less danger, pei'haps, to health than a conmion 
 tour in Eurcipe ? If Rome decreed the civic crown to him who saved the life of 
 a single citizen, what wreaths arc due to that man who having himself saved
 
 COOK'S SECOND RETURN TO ENGLAND. 73 
 
 many, perpetuates in yoiir Transactions the means by which Britain may now, 
 on the most distant voyages, save numbers of her intrepid mariners, who, braving 
 every danger, have so hberally contributed to the fame, to the opulence, and to 
 the maritime empire of their comitry ! " 
 
 The accoimt of his first voyage, along with the narrative of the expeditions of 
 Byron, AVallis, and Carteret, had been prepared for publication by Dr Hawkes- 
 wortli. The manner in which that gentleman executed the charge entrusted to 
 him gave little satisfaction, and on this occasion it Avas deemed more advisable 
 that the history of the enterprise should be wi'itten by him who had so ably con- 
 ducted it. In submitting his work to the public, Cook considered it necessary to 
 plead, in excuse for any inaccuracies of comjjosition or deficiencies in the elegance 
 of style which might be observed in his narrative, " that it was the production 
 of a man who had not had the advantage of much school education, but who had 
 been constantly at sea since his youth ; and though, with the assistance of a 
 few good friends, he had passed through all the stations belonging to a seaman 
 from an ajoprentice boy in the coal trade to a post-captain in the Eoyal Navy, he 
 had had no opportunity of cultivating letters." But, in truth, the "Voyage 
 towards the South Pole " stands in no need of such an apology. The sentiments 
 and reflections are in every instance just, manly, and sagacious ; the descriptions 
 are clear and graphic ; and the style is free from aff"ectation, plain, flowing, and 
 expressive. Cook was great in everything he undertook.
 
 74 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 OHAPTEE IX. 
 
 COOK'S THIED EXPEDITION. 
 
 A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS — A THIRD 
 EXPEDITION PLANNED — COOK ACCEPTS THE COMMAND — SAILS IN THE " RESOLU- 
 TION" — HIS INSTRUCTIONS — ISLAND OF DESOLATION — DREARY VOYAGE — REACHES 
 VAN DIEMEN's LAND — THE NATIVES — SAILS FOR NEW ZEALAND — STORY OF THE 
 MURDER OF FURNEAUX'S BOAT's CREW — NATIVE RECOLLECTIONS^COOK LEAVES 
 NEW ZEALAND — TWO NATIVE YOUTHS — COOK REACHES THE SANDWICH ISLANDS — 
 ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES — HIS DEATH — REFLECTIONS ON COOK'S CAREER 
 AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 
 
 Cook's second expedition had completely set at rest the question as to the 
 existence of a Great Southern Continent. But one important problem in nautical 
 geography still remained to be solved : it was the existence of a pi'acticable 
 communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or M'hat is more 
 generally known as the North- West Passage. If such a communication could 
 be discovered, it would very much shorten the passage between the continents 
 of Asia and America. Many eminent geographers were led to believe in its 
 existence by the appearance of the coast on the east side of North America, the 
 deep and extensive bays there seeming to promise a communication with the 
 Pacific. An expedition had actually been sent from England to explore, with 
 this view, the region around the North Pole, whilst Cook's second expedition 
 was in progress ; but it was not successful. Hopes were still cherished, how- 
 ever, that a channel might be discovered on the northern verge of the American 
 continent ; and another expedition was planned, the command of Avhich was 
 offered to Cook. He was invited to a consultation with the First Lord of the 
 Admiralty, Sir Hugh Palliser, and other experienced officers. In the course of 
 the discussion, the importance of the design, the advantages which it would 
 confer on science and navigation, and the fair field which it opened for honour 
 and distinction, were so strongly represented, that the great discoverer, becoming 
 exceedingly animated, started to his feet, and declared that he himself would 
 take the command of the expedition. His active and enterprising spirit scorned 
 the inglorious ease of " the fine retreat " in Greenwich Hospital. The linn'ts of 
 the old world were too narrow for his active mind. He longed, like Columbus, 
 to give new worlds to the human race. His offer was joyfully accepted by the 
 Lords of the Admiralty, and he was accordingly reappointed to the " Resolution "
 
 COOK'S THIRD EXPEDITION. 75 
 
 on the 9th of February 1776. The " Discovery," a vessel of 300 tons burthen, 
 fitted out exactly as the "Adventure" had been m the previous voyage, and 
 commanded by Captain Clarke, was placed under Cook's orders as a companion 
 and aid in the voyage. 
 
 The instructions for conducting this expedition were dated on the 6th of 
 July 177G. The equipment of the expedition was similar to that of the second 
 voyage, except that INIr Anderson, who had been the surgeon of the " liesolu- 
 tion," was now appointed naturalist. Cook's main instructions were to proceed 
 into the Pacific Ocean, and to commence his researches on the north-west coast of 
 America, in the latitude of 65° ; " very carefully to search for, and to explore, 
 such rivers or inlets as may appear to be of considerable extent, and pointing 
 towards Hudson's or Baffin's Bays ; and if there should appear to be a certainty, 
 or even a probability, of a water-passage into the afore-mentioned bays, to use 
 his utmost endeavours to pass through." Should he fail in this, he was to winter 
 in Kamtschatka, and in the spring to renew the search for a north-east passage 
 into the Atlantic Ocean. By an Act of Parliament, for these services Cook 
 would be entitled to a premium of £20,000. 
 
 On the 12th of July 1776, the "Eesolution" sailed from Plymouth. The 
 " Discovery," not being ready, was delayed for a few days ; but the two ships 
 joined at the Cape of Good Hope, on the 10th of November. 
 
 They put to sea on the 3d of December, and proceeded south-east, according 
 to their instructions, in search of the alleged discoveries of Kerguelen, the French 
 navigator, in 1772. Ten days later they reached Kerguelen's Land, which they 
 found to be a small and sterile island, and not, as represented by the discoverer, 
 a large and fertile continent. Since Cook's visit it is set doTvoi in English maps 
 as the Island of Desolation. 
 
 On the 30th of December the voyagers quitted this dreary coast, and fell in 
 with winds from the north, and so heavy a fog that the ships ran above three 
 hundred leagues in the dark, and it was requisite to fire guns continually to pre- 
 vent the separation of the vessels. At length, on the 24th of January 1777, they 
 descried the coast of Van Diemen's Land, and on the 26th they anchored in 
 Adventure Bay, named by Captain Furneaux on his \asit here. Fodder was 
 first cut for the cattle by the crew, wood and water were obtained by some, while 
 a party caught fish, and others sm^veyed the bay. The natives approached with- 
 out fear, though none of them had any weapons except one, who carried a 
 pointed stick about two feet long, which he used as a lance. They wore neither 
 clothes nor ornaments, but there were seen punctm-es or ridges raised on their 
 bodies in straight lines and curves. They were of the common stature, but 
 rather slender; their skin was black, as was their hair, which was woolly; they 
 had not, however, the thick lips or flat noses of the negro race, for their features 
 were tolerably even. On a musket being fired they ran instantly into the woods. 
 Next day, however, were seen more natives, who wore round their necks folds of 
 fur-cord, and had slips of kangaroo skin tied round their ankles. The women 
 carried their children on their backs in kangaroo skins. Cook gave to each of 
 the natives a string of beads and a medal, with which they were pleased ; but
 
 76 THE HIS TOR Y OF A USTRA LASTA. 
 
 they did not value iron nor iron tools, or know the use of fish-hooks. 
 Neither canoe nor other vessel was seen. The dwellings were little sheds or 
 hovels, built of sticks, or covered Avith bark, and the trunks of large trees 
 burned hollow. 
 
 On the 80th of Januarj^ the ships left Van Diemen's Laud, and steered east- 
 ward till the 10th of February, when they descried New Zealand ; and on the 
 12th anchored once more in Queen Charlotte's Sound. Several canoes filled with 
 natives soon came alongside the ships ; but they would not venture aboard, 
 although they recognised Cook, and the cause of their timidity was soon 
 explained. Judging Cook to be acquainted with the horrible affair of the 
 murder of the ten men of Furneaux's crews, they feared he had come to punish 
 them. The captain, however, assured them he had no intention of revenge, 
 and at length succeeded in convincing them of his friendly disposition; 
 when they answered Cook's inquiries respecting the sad fate of their former 
 companions. 
 
 It appeared that the voyagers, having landed, left their boat in charge of 
 Captain Furneaux's black servant, Avhile the party sat down to dinner at about 
 tAvo hundred yards' distance, sm-rounded by the natives ; during the meal, some 
 of the savages snatched up a portion of the bread and fish, for which the 
 voyagers beat them ; and nearly at the same moment a native attempted to steal 
 some articles from the boat, for which the black servant struck him severely with 
 a .stick. His cries being heard by his countrymen, they imagined him to be 
 mortally wounded ; and, exasperated by some of their own party having been 
 beaten, they immediately began the attack upon the voyagers. Two of the 
 savages were shot dead by the only two muskets that were fired ; for, before the 
 Enghsh could re-load, the natives, armed Avith their stone weapons, rushed upon 
 them, and, overpoAvering them by numbers, slew every one of them. A chief 
 named Kahoora confessed that he had killed the commander of the party, as he 
 said, because one of the tAvo muskets fired was levelled at him, from which he 
 escaped behind the boat. Kahoora was more feared than beloved by his 
 covmtrymen, who, not satisfied by telling Cook he was a bad man, importuned 
 the captain to kill him, and were much svu'prised at not being listened to ; for, 
 according to their notions of justice, this ought to have been done. " But," 
 observes Cook, "if I had foUoAvcd the advice of all our pretended friends, I 
 might have extirpated the Avhole race ; for the people of each hamlet, by turns, 
 applied to me to destroy the other." 
 
 The natives who related these particulars to Cook, showed him the very spot 
 where the slaughter took place ; and by pointing to the place of the sun, signified 
 that it happened late in the afternoon. They also marked the place of landing, 
 but Cook could not ascertain Avhat became of the boat. Some said she Avas 
 broken to pieces and burned ; others stated that she was carried, they knew not 
 Avhither, by a party of strangers. More than fifty years afterwards, Mr Augustus 
 Earle, a resident in Ncav Zealand, mot Avith an old native Avho told him that he 
 did not remember Cook, but avoH recollected Fuinieaux, and AA'as one of the 
 party that cut off and massacred his boat's crew. ]\Ir Earle had reason,
 
 COOK'S THIRD EXPEDITION. 77 
 
 from some other information he received, to credit this story of the New 
 Zeahmder. 
 
 Before leaving the sound, Cook gave to one chief two goats, and to another 
 two pigs. He learned that the poultry which he had formerly left here had 
 increased ; that the garden vegetables, though neglected, had flourished ; and 
 that some of them, as the potato, Avere greatly improved by the richness of the 
 soil. 
 
 On the 25th of February the ships left Queen Charlotte's Sound and stood for 
 the Society Islands. Cook took with him two young Xew Zealanders, who at first 
 were delighted with the change ; but no sooner had they lost sight of land than 
 they wept loudly in a song of praise to their native country. They were over- 
 whelmed with grief for many days, but at length forgot their sorrows and their 
 absent friends in the novelty of their new situation, and became very much attached 
 to the voyagers. They were subsequently left at the island of Huahaine, Avhere 
 a grant of land was obtained for them, and a house built for them, by Cook. A 
 well-stocked garden and some English fire-arms were also bestowed on them. 
 The after-historj' of these transplanted youths was not a happy one. They 
 either did not take kindly to the new soil, or they led a careless and dissipated 
 hfe. Both died in a few years. 
 
 The fui'ther discoveries and adventures of Cook in the Pacific Ocean, up tiU 
 the date of his lamented death, do not comprise any part of the historj- of 
 Australasia. The exploring voyage lasted two years. On the 17th of January 
 1779, the expedition came to anchor in the Bay of Karakakooa in Owhj-hee, or 
 Hawaii, one of the Sandwich Islands. Here Cook was at first hailed and wor- 
 shipped as a god, a very singular legend of the natiA'es pointing to liini as one 
 of their early heroes returned to them. The " Eesolution " left the bay on the 
 8th of February, but the breaking of the fore-mast in a gale obhged Cook to 
 return, as no other convenient harbour could be found. A A'ery marked change 
 in the bearing of the natives was at once noticed. It was CAident that mischief 
 was brewing. The situation of the voyagers was fast becoming one of great peril. 
 Cook to the last behaved with his wonted corn-age and humanity ; but an un- 
 happy accident provoked the fury of the savages, and Cook fell a -victim. The 
 date of his murder was the 14th of February 1779. Of the ship's crew there fell 
 with their commander, Corporal Thomas of the marines, Theophilus Hinks, 
 John Allan, and Thomas Flabchett. A lieutenant, a sergeant, and two other 
 seamen, were wounded. 
 
 The remains of the great navigator were recovered by Captain King, and 
 having been enclosed in a coffin, were reverentially committed to the deep. 
 " After he was dead we all wailed ! " was the expression used by the natives 
 respecting the savage deed to ^Ir Ellis, the missionary; and there is ample 
 testimony to the fact that for forty years after, down to the date of the abolition 
 of idolatry in Owhyhee, some relics of Cook were worshipped with divine 
 honours. 
 
 Thus perished, in the very noon of Hfe and of his services to the world, the 
 illustrious James Cook. The command of the expedition after his death
 
 78 THE HIS TOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 devolved on Captain Gierke, Avho sailed northward to Kamtscliatka, where he 
 died. A monument was erected to his memory over the spot where his remains 
 were buried, Avhicli still exists. The command of the expedition then fell to 
 Captain Gore, on board the " Eesolution," while Captain King took command 
 of the "Discovery." On the 4th of October 1780, the two ships arrived safely 
 at the Nore, at the mouth of the Thames, in England, after an absence of four 
 years, two months, and twenty-one days. Thus ended an expedition which, 
 although it had proved fatal to its principal conductors, Captains Cook and 
 Gierke, was distinguished above many expeditions by the extent and importance 
 of its discoveries. Besides other inferior islands, it added the fine group named 
 by Cook the Sandwich Islands, in honour of Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the 
 Admiralty, to the former known limits of the terraqueous globe, and ascertained 
 the proximity of the two great continents of America and Asia.
 
 COOK'S CHARACTER. 
 
 79 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 COOK'S CHARACTER. 
 
 EFFECT OF THE NEWS OF HIS FATE IN ENGLAND — A MEDAL STRUCK IN HIS HONOUE — 
 PENSION TO HIS WIDOW — MONUMENTS TO HIS MEMORY — COOK's FAMILY — FATE 
 OF HIS SONS — MRS COOK SURVIVES HER HUSBAND AND CHILDREN — HER BENEVO- 
 LENT DISPOSITION — cook's FATHER COOK'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE — HIS 
 
 HABITS AND CHARACTER — TESTIMONIES TO HIS GREATNESS — INSCRIPTION ON THE 
 FAMILY MONUMENT — INSCRIPTION AT OWHYHEE. 
 
 The sad intelligence of Cook's melancholy fate excited deep and general sorrow 
 throughout Europe. Distinguished honours were rendered to his name, alike by 
 foreigners and by his own countrymen. The Royal Society of London ordered a 
 medal to be struck in commemoration of him, bearing on one side the head of 
 the illustrious navigator, with the insci-iption, " Jac. Cook, Oceani Investigator 
 AcERRiMUS : " immediately under the head, in smaller characters, " Reg. Soc. 
 Lond. Socio. Suo ; " on the reverse, the figure of Britannia holding a globe, with 
 the words, " Nil Intentatum Nostri Liquere ; " and under the figure of Bri- 
 tannia, "Auspiciis Georgii III." A few impressions of this medal were struck 
 in gold, which were distributed as follows : one to the sovereign under whose 
 auspices Captain Cook proceeded on his discoveries ; one to the King of France, 
 
 for his courtesy in holding Cook's ships neutral in the time of war ; one to the 
 Empress of Russia, for the hospitality shown towards the voyagers when at 
 Kamtschatka ; one to Mrs Cook ; one to be deposited in the British ]Museum, 
 and another in the College of the Royal Society. Silver impressions were dis- 
 tributed among the Lords of the Admiralty and other distinguished persons. 
 The king settled on his widow a pension of £200 a year, and on each of his 
 sons an annual sum of £25. Upon them also Avas bestowed one-half of the 
 profits of the account of the voyage, the charts and plates for which were 
 executed at the expense of the British Government. Armorial bearings, emble- 
 matic of the great discoverer's important services, were assigned to his family.
 
 80 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 His earliest patron, Sir Hugh Palliser, erected a monument to his memory. In 
 1812 the people of his native village, Marton in Yorkshire, England, proud of 
 his being born amongst them, placed in their ancient parish church (wherein he 
 was baptized) a marble table setting forth his exemplary worth. In 1843, an 
 obelisk, fifty-one feet in height, Avas erected for the same good purpose, in the 
 neighbouring township of Eastby. 
 
 When he set out on his last voyage, Cook's family consisted of his wife and 
 three sons. The after-story of these three brave lads offers a striking instance 
 of the vicissitudes of fortune, and the mysterious dealings of Divine Providence 
 with mankind. The second son, Nathaniel, was lost in the " Thunderer " man- 
 of-war, about six months after his father's death. The eldest son, James, was 
 appointed master and commander of the " Spitfire " sloop-of-war. The vessel 
 was lying off Poole in Dorsetshire waiting for hands, and young Cook was 
 driven out to sea one night in a heavy gale of wind, whilst attempting to get on 
 board. Himself and every soul in the boat perished. The misfortune was 
 aggravated by a circumstance disclosed afterwards by a sailor on board the 
 vessel. Cook's boat was met, when in distress, by a revenue cutter, the hands 
 of which threw them a rope, and lay to till they could bale their boat, or the 
 fury of the wind should cease. But the master of the cutter, who was then in 
 bed, was no sooner made acquainted with these circumstances, and that it was a 
 king's boat, than, with an oath, he ordered his men immediately to set them 
 adrift, and in that situation they were left to be overwhelmed by a tempestuous 
 sea. 
 
 James Cook's body was afterwards found, and conveyed to Spithead on 
 board his ow:i vessel, whence it was conveyed to Cambridge, and buried by the 
 side of the youngest brother, who had suddenly died of a fever, and whose 
 funeral he had attended only about six weeks before. 
 
 Thus Avas the tender mother prematurely deprived of her husband and 
 children, and left to mourn their untimely fates, which had so powerful an effect 
 on her mind as to reduce Mrs Cook to a mere shadow of what she was formerly. 
 
 Mrs Cook had resided at Clapham, near London, for several years, where 
 she was universally respected for her many offices of charity to the poor. To 
 them she left £750, and to the Schools for the Indigent Blind, and the Eoyal 
 Maternity Charity, about £1000. To the parish in which she was buried, at 
 Cambridge, she bequeathed £1000, upon condition that, from the interest of 
 that sum, the family monument should be kept in repair ; that the clergyman 
 should be annually remunerated for attending to the discharge of the trust ; and 
 that the remainder should be divided annually among five poor and aged women, 
 parishioners. She bequeathed to the British Museum the Copley medal, 
 awarded to her husband for his second voyage, and one of the gold medals 
 described above. Slie had survived her illustrious husband for the long period 
 of fifty-six years, and died at the age of ninety-four. 
 
 The father of Cook outlived his son only a few weeks, and never heard of 
 liis untimely end. He is stated to have been born at Ednam, on the Tweed. 
 About the time that young Cook entered the navy, the father became a mason.
 
 COOICS CHARACTER. 81 
 
 and built for himself at Ayton a house, which is still in existence. Here ho 
 was visited by the great navigator, in the brief interval between the second and 
 third voyages. 
 
 From the nature of his profession Cook did not enjoy much of tho quiet 
 scenes of domestic life. But he was a most amiable husband and a tender 
 father. Ilis hours at homo were devoted to the instruction or amusement of his 
 children, A'aricd at times by the study of his own fovourite sciences. He was 
 fond of drawing, but not vciy much inclined to music or to the pursuits of rural 
 life. His widow cherished his memory to the last with the most devoted 
 affection, and never, even in extreme old age, could speak of his fate without 
 emotion. 
 
 Cook was, in person, of a strong-built frame, about six feet high, and though 
 a well-looking man, he was plain both in address and appearance. His head 
 was small ; his hair, which was of a dark-browii colour, he wore tied behind. His 
 features were very expressive ; his nose exceedingly well shaped ; his eyes, 
 which were small and of a brown cast, were quick and piercing, and his eyebrows 
 prominent, which gave his countenance altogether an air of austerity. His 
 conversation was modest and agreeable, but thoughtful at times. 
 
 Captain King, who knew him intimately, leaves this testimony to his many 
 fine qualifications : " He appears to have been most eminently and peculiarly 
 qualified for the enterprise he was engaged in. The earliest habits of his life, 
 the course of his services, and the constant api^lication of his mind, all conspired 
 to fit him for it, and gave him a degree of professional knowledge which can fall 
 to the lot of very few. The constitution of his body was robust, inured to 
 labour, and capable of undergoing the severest hardships. His stomach bore, 
 without difficulty, the coarsest and most ungrateful food. Indeed, temperance 
 in him was scarcely a virtue ; so great was the indifference with which he sub- 
 mitted to every kind of self-denial. The qualities of his mind were of the same 
 hardy, vigorous kind with those of his body. His understanding was strong and 
 perspicacious ; his judgment, in whatever related to the services he was engaged 
 in, quick and sure. His designs were bold and manly ; and both in the concep- 
 tion, and in the mode of execution, bore evident marks of a great original genius. 
 His courage was cool and determined, and accompanied with an admirable pre- 
 sence of mind in the moment of danger. His manners were plain and unaffbcted. 
 His temper might perhaps have been justly blamed as subject to hastiness and 
 passion, had not these been disarmed by a disposition the most benevolent and 
 humane. Such were the outlines of Captain Cook's character ; but its most 
 distinguishing feature was that unremitting perseverance in the pursuit of his 
 ol)ject, which Avas not only superior to the opposition of dangers and the pressure 
 of hardships, but even exempt from the want of ordinary relaxation. During 
 the long and tedious voyages in which he was engaged, his eagerness and 
 activity were never in the least abated. No incidental temptation could detain 
 him for a moment ; even those intervals of recreation, Avhich sometimes unavoid- 
 ably occurred, and were looked for by us with a longing, that persons who have 
 experienced the fatigues of service will readily excuse, were submitted to by him 
 
 L
 
 82 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ■with a certain impatience, ■whenever they conld not be employed in making 
 further provision for the more effectual prosecution of his designs." 
 
 "He ■was beloved by his people," says Mr Sam^well, surgeon to the "Dis- 
 covery," " who looked up to him as a father, and obeyed his commands "with 
 alacrity ; the confidence "we placed in him -was um-emitting ; our admiration of 
 his great talents unbounded ; our esteem for his good qualities aflfectionate and 
 sincere. England has been unanimous in her tribute of applause to his virtues, 
 and all. Europe has borne testimony to his merit. There is hardly a corner of 
 the earth, however remote and savage, that will not long remember his bene- 
 volence and humanity." JNIr Forster, the naturalist to Cook's last expedition, 
 thus records the commander's worth : " If we consider his extreme abilities, both 
 natural and acquired, the firmness and constancy of his mind, his truly paternal 
 care for the crew entrusted to him, the amiable manner with which he knew how 
 to gain the friendship of all the savage and uncultivated nations, and even his 
 conduct towards his friends and acquaintances, we must acknowledge him to 
 have been one of the greatest men of his age, and that reason justifies the tear 
 which friendship pays to his memory." 
 
 In the Church of St Andrews the Great, Cambridge, in England, there is a 
 tablet near the communion table, bearing the following inscription : 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, of the Royal Navy, 
 
 Ono of the most cclebriited Navigators that this or former ages can boast, 
 
 Wlio was killed by the natives of Owyhee, 
 
 In the Pacljic Ocean, on the 14th clay of Fel)ruary 1779, 
 
 In the 51st year of his ago. 
 
 Of Mr Nathaniel Cook, who was lost with the Thunderer man-of-war, Captain Boi/le Wahiwjham, 
 in a most dreadful hurricane in October 1780, aged IG j'ears. 
 
 Of Mr Hugh Cook, of Christ's College, Camhridye, who died on the 21st December 1793; aged 
 17 years. • 
 
 Of James Cook, Esq., Commander in the Royal Navy, who lost his life on the 25tli January 1791, 
 in going from Poole to the Sjntfire sloop-of-war ; which he commanded; in the 31st year of his age. 
 
 Of Elizabeth Cook, who died April 9th, 1771 ; aged 1 years. 
 
 Joseph Cook, wlio died September 13th, 17G8; aged 1 month. 
 
 George Cook, who died October 1st, 1772; aged 4 months. 
 
 All children of the first-mentioned Captain James Cook, by Elizabeth Cook, who survived her husband 
 50 year.s, and departed this life 13th May 1835, at her residence, Clapliain, Surrey, in the 9 Itli year 
 of licr age. Ilcr remains arc d(!posited with those of her sons, James and Hugh, in the middle aisle of 
 this church.
 
 COOK'S CHARACTER. 83 
 
 Inscription on the slab in tlic Hoor of the middle aisle of the same chiu'ch : 
 
 Mr llrcH Cook, 
 
 Died 21st December 1793; 
 
 Aged 17 years. 
 
 James Cook, Esq., 
 
 Died 2.5tli Jamuuy 179'1; 
 
 Aged 31 years. 
 
 Also, 
 
 Elizabeth Cook, their Jlotlior, 
 
 Obit. 13th May 183.5; 
 
 ^TAT, 93. 
 
 On the spot in Owhyhee where Cook's savage murderers bnrned part of his 
 body, the officers of the British ship-of-Avar " Blonde," erected in 1825 a cross 
 of oak, ten feet in height, with this inscription : 
 
 Sacred 
 
 To the memory of 
 
 Capt. James Cook, E.N., 
 
 Who discovered these islaud.s. 
 
 In the year of our Lord 1778 : 
 
 This humble monument is erected 
 
 By his countrymen 
 
 In the year of our Lord 1825. 
 
 Few visitors to the Sandwich Islands leave Owhyhee without making a 
 pilgTimage to the spot where the discoverer met his untimely end ; and many 
 carry away pieces of the dark lava-rock on which he stood when he received his 
 death-wound.
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 4USTliALIAN NAVIGATOES FROM COOK TO FLINDERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DE SUEVILLE'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 COOK AT DOUBTLESS BAY — A STRANGER VESSEL — DE SURVILLE's EXPEDITION — THE 
 NEW EL DORADO — HIGH EXPECTATIONS — DE SURVILLE ARRIVES AT NEW ZEALAND 
 — FRIENDLINESS OF THE NATIVES — DE SURVILLe's TltEACHERY — HIS DISAP- 
 POINTED HOPES — HE SAILS FOR SOUTH AMERICA — HIS MELANCHOLY FATE. 
 
 When Cook's ship the " Endeavour," on his first voyage, was working out of 
 DoulDtless Bay in the North Island of New Zealand, another vessel was sailing 
 in, and neither navigator was aware of the other's vicinity. The new visitor was 
 the " St Jean Baptiste," a French vessel, commanded by Captain De Surville. 
 He had been desi^atched from France on a secret expedition, fitted out at a 
 great expense, and from Avhich extraordinary results were anticipated. A 
 rumour had gained currency in that country that the English had discovered a 
 new El Dorado in the Great Southern Ocean — a marvellous island, abounding in 
 gold and riches, and fine cloths, and inhabited by Jews, said to be situated about 
 seven hundred leagues west from the coast of Peru. Flushed with high expecta- 
 tions, De Surville set sail from Pondicherry, a French settlement in India, on 
 the 2d of June 1709. His vessel was of several huntlred tons burthen, and it 
 carried twenty-six twelve-pounders and six smaller guns. After many adventures 
 and making some important discoveries, he arrived at New Zealand and cast 
 anchor in Doubtless Bay on the 10th of December 1769, and immediately landed 
 at iSIangonui, where he was received by crowds of natives, who were delighted and 
 surprised at the confidence reposed in them, and in return they supplied the 
 strangers with food and water. One day a storm arose as a party of invalids 
 were endeavouring to reach the ship from the shore. Being driven back, the 
 sick were detained by the inclemency of the weather for two days in the house 
 of a chief named Naginoui, and by his people they were fed and carefully 
 attended without remuneration. AVhen the storm subsided, one of the shiji's 
 boats was missing, and De Surville, without any evidence for so doing, believed
 
 DE suit VI LIE'S A D VENTURES. 8 5 
 
 that the New Zealamlers liad stolen it. Under the gnisc of friendship, he invited 
 Naginoui on board, accused him of the theft, and i)ut him in irons. Not satisfied 
 with this treacherous revenge, he burned the village Avhere his sick had found an 
 asylum in the hour of need, and carried the chief away a prisoner from his native 
 land. Naginoui did not survive his capture long ; he pined for fern root, wept 
 that he would never again behold his children, and died of a broken heart eighty 
 days after his seizure. 
 
 All hopes of finding the new El Dorado having now been dispelled, De 
 Surville left New Zealand on the 1st January 1770. Death and disease made sad 
 havoc of his crew. The remainder were hardly able, even Avith the assistance of 
 the officers, to handle the sails. Their only hope now was to reach some 
 European settlement to save the survivors. In April, De Surville and his feeble 
 followers reached Callao in Peru. Anxious for an interview with the Spanish 
 governor, to solicit the assistance he so much needed, De Surville put off in a 
 small boat, and was drowned in the surf, exactly eleven days after the death of 
 Naginoui.
 
 86 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MARION'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 FIRST VISITOR TO VAN DIEMEN's LAND AFTER TASMAN — FRENCH EXPEDITION UNDER 
 MARION — ARRIVES IN VAN DIEMEN's LAND — FIRST MEETING WITH NATIVES — 
 THEIR APPEARANCE — THE FIRE STICK — ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES — MARION 
 LEAVES THE ISLAND AND SAILS FOR NEW ZEALAND — ANCHORS IN BAY OF ISLANDS 
 ■ — FRIENDLY INTERCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES — SYMPTOMS OF HOSTILITY — - 
 MASSACRE OF MARION AND HIS CREW — CANNIBALISM — CROZET's ENCOUNTER 
 WITH THE NATIVES — CROZET's REVENGE — A NATIVE VERSION OF THE STORY — 
 THE UNKNOWN FRENCH VESSEL. 
 
 The first visitor to Van Diemen's Land after Tasman, its discoverer, was 
 Marion du Fresne, a French navigator. Excited to emulation by the accounts 
 of Cook's great achievements in discovery, the French Government fitted out an 
 expedition in 1771 with the object of exploring the Southern Ocean. It con- 
 sisted of two vessels, the " Mascarin " and the " ISIarquis de Castries," and the 
 command was given to Marion. His instructions were to search for new lands 
 in the Pacific, and to examine more closely the lately-discovered islands of New 
 Zealand. 
 
 On the 8d of March 1772, Marion first sighted the west coast of Van 
 Diemen's Land. Next day he anchored in Frederik Hendrik's Bay. The fires 
 and smokes, seen by day and night, bespoke the country to be well inhabited ; 
 and, on anchoring, there were about thirty men assembled upon the shore. 
 On the boats being sent next morning, the natives went to them Avithuut dis- 
 trust ; and, having piled together some pieces of wood, presented a lighted stick 
 to the new-comers, and seemed to ask them to set fire to the pile. Not know- 
 ing what this ceremony meant, they complied ; and the act seemed neither to 
 excite surprise, nor to cause any alteration in the conduct of the natives : they 
 continued to I'cmain about the French party, with their wives and children, as 
 before. 
 
 Those people wore of the common stature, of a black colour, and were all 
 naked, both men and Avomcn ; and some of the latter had children fastened to 
 their backs, with ropes made of rushes. All the men were well armed with 
 pointed sticks (spears), and with stones which appeared to have been sharpened 
 in the manner of axe-heads. They had, in general, small eyes, and the white 
 duller than in Fiu'opcans ; the mouth very wide, the teeth white, and fiat noses
 
 MA RION'S A D VENTURES. 87 
 
 Their hair, which resembled the wool of the C'affres, was separated into shreds, 
 and powdered with red ochre. They were generally slender, tolerably well made, 
 kept their shoulders back, and upon their prominent chests several had marks 
 raised in the skin. Their language appeared harsh, the words seeming to be 
 drawn from the bottom of the throat. 
 
 The French tried to win them by little presents, but they rejected with 
 disdain everything that -was offered ; even iron, looking-glasses, handkerchiefs, 
 and cloth. They were shown ducks and fowls, which had been carried from the 
 ships ; and it was endeavoured to make them understand that such would be 
 gladly purchased of them ; but they took these animals, with which they seemed 
 to be unacquainted, and threw them away in anger. 
 
 The party had been about an hour with the savages when Captain ^Marion 
 went on shore. One of the natives stepped forward, and off'ered him a fire-brand 
 to be applied to a small heap of wood ; and the captain supposing it was a cere- 
 mony necessary to prove that he came with friendly intentions, set fire to the 
 heap -n-ithout hesitation. This was no sooner done, than they retired precipi- 
 tately to a small hill, and threw a shower of stones, by which Captain Marion 
 and the commander of the " Castries " were both wounded. Some shots were 
 then fired ; and the French, returning to their boats, coasted along the beach 
 to an open place in the middle of the bay, where there was no hill or eminence 
 from whence they could be annoyed. The savages sent their women and chil- 
 dren into the woods, and followed the boats along shore, and on their putting 
 into land, one of the natives set up a hideous cry, and immediately a shower 
 of spears was discharged. A black servant was hurt in the leg ; and firing 
 then commenced, by which several of the natives were wounded, and one was 
 killed. They fled to the woods, making a frightful howling, but carried off" such 
 of the wounded as were unable to follow. Fifteen men armed with mu.skets 
 pursued them ; and on entering amongst the trees, they found a dying savage. 
 This man was a little more than five feet seven inches high ; his breast was 
 marked like those of the ]\Iozambique Caffi'es, and his skin appeared as 
 black ; but on washing off" the soot and dirt, his natural colour appeared to 
 be reddish. The spears, which it was feared might have been poisoned, were 
 proved not to be so by the facility with Mhich the wound of the black servant 
 was healed. 
 
 After the flight of the savages. Captain ]\Iarion sent two officers with detach- 
 ments to search for water, and for trees proper to make a foremast and bowsprit 
 for the " Castries ; " but after traversing two leagues of country -n-ithout meeting 
 a single inhabitant, they returned unsuccessful in both pursuits ; nor could any 
 fresh water be found during the six days which the ships remained in Frederik 
 Hendrik's Bay. 
 
 Finding he was only lo.sing time in searching for water in this wild country, 
 Marion determined to make sail for New Zealand, where he hoped to succeed 
 better. He accordingly left Van Diemen's Land on the 10th of ]\Iarch, and 
 steered eastward. It was on the 11th of ^lay 1772 that Marion anchored his 
 two ships between Te Wai-iti Whais Island and the JNIotu Ai'ohia (the ]\Iotuaro
 
 88 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 of navigators), in the Bay of Islands. The former island is small, and Taranni 
 was the chief of the village which stood upon it ; the latter island had then a 
 considerable pojmlation, but is now uninluiljited. Next day the sick were landed 
 on Te Wai-iti. The New Zealanders brought the ships' crews abundance offish, 
 and the French in return loaded them with presents. Intimacy, friendship, 
 and confidence rapidly sprung u]) ; the French often slept on shore and the 
 natives on shipboard. Marion, whose authority over all was soon perceived, 
 was the object of universal attention, and he placed in the aborigines such 
 unbounded confidence, that on several occasions Crozet, the second in com- 
 mand of the expedition, took the liberty of j^ointing out to him the imprudence 
 of his conduct. 
 
 In this happy state, Marion and his crew passed away their lives at the Bay 
 of Islands, until the 8th of June. On that day INIarion landed, and after the 
 natives had decorated his head with four long white feathers, he returned to the 
 ship, more delighted than ever with his new friends. But it was then remarked 
 that the natives had ceased to visit the ships, and one girl on leaving gave signs 
 of sorrow which none could explain. 
 
 On the 12tli of June, Marion went on shore at the request of a friendly 
 chief, with sixteen officers and men, to enjoy a day's fishing in INIanawaoroa 
 Bay, a place still celebrated among the British soldiers stationed at the Bay of 
 Islands as caiiital fishing ground. When evening came, it caused some sur- 
 prise on board the ships that Marion did not return, although no evil Avas 
 suspected. Early next morning the boat of the ship " JNIarquis de Castries," 
 with twelve men, was sent for food and water to Orokawa. Four hours after its 
 departure, one of the sailors from this boat swam off to the vessel almost dead 
 with terror, and related that the boat's crew on landing were received by the 
 natives in the usual friendly manner, but while dispersed collecting firewood, 
 each man was suddenly attacked by six New Zealanders, and all were killed 
 .save himself From a concealed thicket he beheld his conn-ades' bodies cut 
 into pieces, and divided among their murderers, who immediately left the spot 
 with the flesh. 
 
 Great anxiety was now felt for INIarion and all on shore, and the "INIascarin's" 
 long-boat was immediately launched with a strongly-armed crew. As it ap- 
 proached the land, Marion's boat was seen surrounded by natives, near the 
 bottom of Manawaoroa Bay. It was not thought advisable to inquire for 
 Marion, but to go and warn Crozet, who with sixty men were felling a kauri- 
 tree two miles inland. Crozet, on hearing what had haiipencd, ordered the men 
 to collect their tools, and march to the beach. Part of the cut-down tree and 
 the road made to drag it along still remain, and arc still pointed out as 
 the " road of Marion." Crozet did not communicate to his party the bloody 
 transactions which had occurred, lest they might endanger their safety by an 
 unseasonable revenge. 
 
 During the progress of Crozct's party to the beach, they were met and 
 followed by croAvds of natives, who shouted tliat Tacouri had killed and eaten 
 Marion. On reaching the .strand, Crozet seized a musket, drew a line on the
 
 MARION'S ADVENTURES. 89 
 
 sand, and cried that he would shoot the first native who crossed it. This bold 
 bearing enabled his party to embark safely in the boats, and then came the hour 
 for vengeance. Volley after volley of musketry was fired among the solid body 
 of New Zealanders on the beach, who, stupefied by terror, stood like sheep to be 
 slaughtered. That night the sick were embarked on board the ships, and next 
 day a party, sent for wood and water, destroyed the village on Motu Arohia, 
 and killed many of the inhabitants. Some days afterwards several natives were 
 seen dressed in the mui'dered sailors' clothes, and were shot. A party sent to 
 ascertain ^Marion's fate, found Tacouri's village deserted, and saw that chief 
 decamp covered with Marion's mantle. In one house several pieces of human 
 flesh were seen in baskets ; after setting this and another village on fire, the 
 ships weighed anchor, and stood out of the Bay of Islands, which they named 
 the Bay of Treachery. 
 
 Crozet in his narrative repeatedly states that the French gave no cause of 
 offence, that up to the fatal day nothing could exceed the apparent harmony in 
 which both races lived ; " they treated us," says Crozet, " with every show of 
 friendship for thirty-three days, with the intention of eating us on the thu'ty- 
 foui-th." 
 
 Such is the French account of ^Marion's massacre ; the native version of the 
 affair Dr Thomson accidentally heard on a singular occasion. He states : 
 "Diu-ing the winter quarter of 1851, the French coi'vette ' L'Alcmene,' thirty-two 
 guns, Commander Count D'Harcourt, was totally wrecked, and ten hves lost, on 
 the west coast of New Zealand, the opposite side of the island, but only fifty 
 miles distant from the place of jNIarion's massacre. As several men were severely 
 wounded when the ship foundered, the governor requested me to go and assist 
 their transit across the country to Auckland. When so employed, I awoke one 
 night, and saw a crowd of New Zealanders talking earnestly round a fire. There 
 were then upwards of a hundred French sailors, and nearly two hundred natives, 
 plunged in sleep in the open air all about. Hearing the name of Marion 
 mentioned, I pretended sleep, and listened to the conversation. From many 
 words, I gathered that long ago two vessels commanded by Marion, belong- 
 ing to the same nation as the shipwi-ecked sailors, visited the Bay of Islands, 
 and that a strong friendship spi'ang up between both races ; and that they 
 planted the garlic which flavom-s the milk, butter, and flesh of cows fed in 
 that district. Before the Wewis, as the French are now called, departed, 
 they violated sacred places, cooked food with tapued wood, and put two 
 chiefs in irons ; that, in revenge, their ancestors killed ^Marion and several of 
 his crew, and in the same spirit the French bm-ned villages and shot many 
 New Zealanders. 
 
 "From inquiries made on the spot in 1853, the above narrative and the 
 reason assigned for JNIarion's murder are, I believe, correct. No man was then 
 alive at the Bay of Islands who had witnessed the affair, and only two old men 
 were acquainted with the particulars of it, although his name was familiar to 
 all. According to the native story, the French, not they, were the aggressors. 
 * We treated Marion's party,' the New Zealanders may say, ' with every kindness 
 
 M
 
 90 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 for thirty days ; and on the thirty-first they put two of our chiefs in irons, and 
 bui'ned our sacred j^laces.' " 
 
 About the same period another French vessel visited New Zealand. No 
 record of this visit can be found in the histories of navigation in the Southern 
 Ocean, but the natives retain a tradition of it. They state that shortly after 
 Cook's departure from the Houraki Gulf, a vessel entered the river Thames, and 
 shipped a number of wooden spars. When sailing away, she fell in with a 
 fishing-canoe which had been driven out to sea, took the two young natives in 
 it on board, and conveyed them to France. They were brought back in two 
 years ; and the commander of the vessel gave the natives pigs and potatoes, with 
 instructions how to preserve the former and cultivate the latter. While the 
 names of these good men are forgotten by the New Zealanders, those of Cook, 
 De Sui'ville, and Marion live in their traditions.
 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIP AND THE FIRST FLEET. 91 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GOVERNOE PHILLIP AND THE FIRST FLEET. 
 
 SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT — THE FLEET AT PORTSMOUTH IN 
 
 1787 CAPTAIN ARTHUR PHILLIP APPOINTED GOVERNOR — ACCOUNT OF HIS 
 
 EARLY LIFE — SAILS FOR AUSTRALIA — ARRIVAL AT BOTANY BAY — FOUND 
 UNSATISFACTORY FOR SETTLEMENT — PORT JACKSON DISCOVERED — SYDNEY COVE 
 
 — THE STRANGER FLEET IN BOTANY BAY — LA PEROUSE'S EXPEDITION 
 
 FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES — FIRST ATTEMPTS AT 
 SETTLEMENT — BROKEN BAY — PITTAVATER BAY — THE NATIVES. 
 
 It is impossible to think or write without indignation of the short-sightedness of 
 the British Government, when planning a settlement in the new world which the 
 genius and enterprise of Cook had opened up to the British people. Instead of 
 embracing the oiiportunitj' to found " a new Britannia in another world," their 
 sole idea appears to have been that ProA^dence had shown them a favom-able 
 opening for getting rid of their surplus criminal population. This fatal purpose 
 throws a dark shadow across the pages that record the earlier history of more 
 than one of the Australasian colonies. But as the repetition of the story here 
 would tend to no good pui'iDose, it vriM be passed over as lightly as the exigencies 
 of true narration will permit. Better, a thousand times, would it be for the 
 world, if the entire record were buried in eternal forgetfulness ! 
 
 A fleet of eleven sail was assembled at Portsmouth in England, in the month 
 of March 1787, for the formation of the proposed settlement on the coast of 
 New Holland. It consisted of his Majesty's frigate " Sirius," Captain John 
 Hunter, and the armed tender " Supply," Lieutenant Ball ; three store-ships — 
 the "Golden Grove," the " Fishbourne," and the " Borrowdale ; " and six trans- 
 ports — the " Scarliorough," the " Lady Penrhjn," the " Friendship," the " Char- 
 lotte," the " Prince of Wales," and the " Alexander." On board of these vessels 
 there were embarked 600 male and 250 female prisoners ; the guard consisting 
 of one major-commandant and thi'ee captains of marines, twelve subalterns, 
 twenty-foiu" non-commissioned officers, and 168 privates. Foi'ty women, aWvcs of 
 the marines, were also permitted to accompany the detachment, together with 
 their children. 
 
 Captain Arthur Phillip, of the Royal Navy, was appointed governor of the 
 proposed colony. Captain Phillip was born in London, in the year 1738. His 
 father, ]\Ir Jacob Phillip, was a native of Frankfort in Germany, who, having 
 settled in England, maintained his family and educated his son by teaching the
 
 92 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 languages. Mr Phillip entered the navy at the age of sixteen, and was present 
 at the taking of Havannah, in the year 1761, when he gained some prize-money, 
 and Avas made lieutenant on board the " Stirling Castle," by Admiral Sir George 
 Pococke. At the close of the Seven Years' War, in 1763, Lieutenant Phillip 
 returned to England, and, having married, settled at Lyndhurst, in the New 
 Forest. A rupture, however, having taken place shortly after between Portugal 
 and Spain, he offered his services to the couit of Lisbon, and Avas employed in 
 the service of Portugal till the year 1778, when Great Britain being again 
 embroiled with France, he returned to England. In the year 1779, he was made 
 master and commander, and appointed to the " Basilisk " fireshiiD. Two years 
 after he was promoted to the rank of post-captain, and appointed, first to the 
 " Aj'iadne " frigate, and subsequently to the " Em-ope " sixty-four. In January 
 1783, he sailed Avith a reinforcement to the East Indies ; but retm-ning to 
 England very shortly afterwards, he was not again in active service till he 
 obtained his appointment as Governor of New South Wales in the year 1787. 
 
 The little fleet Avhich was thus placed under the command of Captain 
 Phillii^, and Avhich has ever since been designated by the colonists of New 
 South Wales The First Fleet, set sail from Portsmouth on the 13th of May, 
 1787 ; and, having touched for supjjlies and stock for the settlement at 
 Teneriffe, Kio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope, arrived at Botany Bay 
 on the 20th of January 1788, after a long but comjparatively prosperous voyage 
 of eight months and upAvards. 
 
 The first examination of Botany Bay elicited very unsatisfactory results. It 
 Avas recommended by Cook and others, but they had not looked upon it Avith the 
 eyes of men choosing a home. It was extensive enough as a bay — too extensive, 
 in fact, for it did not afford a shelter from easterly winds, and what made this 
 worse was, that ships would always be obliged to anchor a long way out, because 
 the water was so shalloAv. Fresh water was abundant, for in the northern part 
 of the opening there was a small stream, George's EiA'er. But they Avould never 
 think of building a toA\Ti upon it. It was so narroAV that it Avould scarcely allow 
 a small boat to pass, and the banks upon either side were a perfect morass. The 
 Avestern side of the bay Avas better, but there was no fresh water at all in that 
 direction. 
 
 It Avas evident, then, that they dare not disembark in Botany Bay. Governor 
 Phillip was an energetic man, one Avell fitted for the task he had to perform. He 
 Avas not, therefore, at a loss. He ordered the ships to remain as they Avere, while 
 he went round the coast in an open boat to see if a better port could not be 
 found. The coast, as he drew near Port Jackson, Avore a most unpromising 
 appearance : the natives stood upon the tops of the cliffs, and Avarned the boats 
 off with shouts of defiance; but the governor kept on. Soon he saw the opening, 
 and passed under a stratified cliff' of sandstone, some 300 feet high, descending 
 into deep Avater. There was another head to match it on the other side, and 
 when he had passed between these, and left the noise of the booming breakers 
 far behind, a beautiful and tranquil scene broke upon his delighted gaze. It 
 seemed like a gigantic lake, but so run in Avith estuaries and little islets as to
 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIP AND THE FIRST FLEET. 93 
 
 appear great only from the countless variations of scenery. This was Port 
 Jackson, one of the finest and loveliest harbours in the world. Still, it was a 
 question where he should land his crew among the many little bays about. The 
 place was soon decided upon, and it received the name of Sydney Cove, after 
 Thomas Townshend, Viscount Sydney, one of the members of the younger Pitt's 
 administration. 
 
 It took three days for the governor to complete all his explorations, and then 
 he returned to the shijDS. Directions were at once given for an immediate 
 removal to Sydney Cove. This removal would have taken place the day follow- 
 ing, but for a singular circumstance. About daylight, just as they were prepar- 
 ing for a start, there were cries that two strange sail were in the offing. The 
 sight of the phantom ship could not have created greater astonishment than these 
 ships bearing into the bay. There they were, sure enough, and what was still 
 more singular, they showed French colours. While conjecture was busy among 
 the colonists, it was busy enough on board the French ships too. Travelling 
 alone through the Avide extent of these pathless seas, where every week showed 
 them new variations of vast unreclaimed solitude, it was certainly a matter of 
 astonishment to find many ships at anchor in the midst of the loneliness. 
 Scarcely were the anchors down, when boats put off, and mutual explanations 
 followed on both sides. Governor Phillip learned with surprise that the vessels 
 before him were the French exploring vessels, " Boussole " and " Astrolabe," 
 then upon a voyage of discovery, under the command of the unfortunate La 
 Perouse. 
 
 After a mutual exchange of civilities the two commanders proceeded to the 
 work each had in hand ; the Frenchman to provide his fleet with wood and 
 water, the Englishman to establish the settlement of the new colony. 
 
 On the 26th January the fleet, having been brought round, anchored in deep 
 water close along the shore of Sydney Cove. A formal disembarkation then took 
 place. A detachment of marines and blue-jackets leaped from their boats into 
 the primeval forest. After hoisting the British colours at a spot near where the 
 colonnade in Bridge Street, Sydney, now stands, the royal proclamation and 
 commission constituting The Colony of New South Wales were read, a salute 
 of small arms was fired, and the career of the British dominion in Australia com- 
 menced. The whole party landed amounted to 1030 souls, who encamped under 
 tents, and under and Avithin hollow trees, in a country which they described as 
 resembling the more woody parts of a deer-park in England. Such were the cir- 
 cumstances of the foundation, and such were the founders, of the magnificent 
 colonial empire in the Southern Ocean ! 
 
 By the beginning of March the governor had got things a little settled. The 
 ground had been cleared, and the work of erecting storehouses and other 
 buildings begun. All this Avas not easy. The work of felling gigantic gTim- 
 trees Avas in itself a fearful task, and to remove them afterwards and grub the 
 stumps required the labour of all their men for weeks together. When things 
 began to look a little orderly, and the sickness Avhich raged among them had 
 begun to abate, the governor went with the long-boat and cutter on an excursion
 
 94 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 to Broken Bay. This was found to be very extensive. After rowing about it 
 until evening, the party landed upon a rocky point on the north-west side, and 
 there passed the night. This point was chosen as a place of security ; for the 
 natives, though friendly, were rather too numerous to be trusted. On the day 
 following the boat continued her course. The water got very shallow until they 
 jDassed a bar which their small boats could scarcely float over. They then 
 entered a very extensive branch with deep water, out of which the tide came so 
 strongly, that the boats could scarcely make headway against it. This opening 
 appeared to end in several deep inlets, which there was not sufficient time to 
 examine, as the boats had much difficulty in finding a channel amid the banks 
 of sand and mud. Leaving this north-west branch, they went across the bay 
 into another which ran south-west. This was also found to be very extensive, 
 and from it ran a second opening to the westward, affording good and extensive 
 shelter. Continued rains prevented the party from making a survey of their 
 discoveries upon this expedition ; more especially as the land was much higher 
 here than at Port Jackson, was more rocky, and equally covered with timber. 
 Above them soared the Blue Mountains in huge, precipitous walls of red sand- 
 stone, crowned on the summit with trees, and apparently quite inaccessible. 
 Upon the south side of the bay there was a headland, which seemed to obstruct 
 the view, but on rounding it, the finest harbour of all was discovered, and 
 it received the name of Pittwater. But all these harbours were rendered 
 comparatively useless by the bar which stretched across the entrance. The 
 land was pretty good all round, and well watered; one spring forming a beautiful 
 cascade over the rocks into the sea. In this excursion a good many interviews 
 with the natives took place, and it was for the first time observed that some of 
 the women had lost the first two joints of the little finger of the left hand. 
 
 At this point the history of the new settlement at Port Jackson properly 
 begins. Governor Phillij) was an expert and indefatigable explorer, but he did 
 not midertake any further navigation along the shores of the settlement.
 
 STORY OF LA PEROUSE. 95 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 / 
 
 STOKY OF LA PEROUSE. 
 
 THE STRANGER FLEET IN BOTANY BAY — EARLY LIFE OF LA PEROUSE — EXPEDITION 
 OF 1785 — REACHES AUSTRALIA AND ANCHORS IN BOTANY BAY — LA PEROUSE's 
 PREVIOUS ADVENTURES — DEATH OF M. LE RECEVEUR — SAILS FROM AUSTRALIA 
 — BLANK IN THE STORY — d'ENTRECASTEAUX'S SEARCH EXPEDITION — CAPTAIN 
 DILLON AT THE NEW HEBRIDES — DISCOVERY OF FRAGMENTS OF LA PEROUSE's 
 FLEET — MONUMENT AT BOTANY BAY — CAMPBELL's LINES. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the stranger fleet which Governor PhiUip 
 found in Botany Bay, upon his retm-n from discovering Port Jackson, was a 
 French expedition commanded by Admiral La Pdrouse. The story of this navi- 
 gator forms one of the most pathetic episodes in the annals of Australian dis- 
 covery. 
 
 Jean Francois Galaup, Comte de La Perouse, was born at Albi in France 
 in 1741, and entered the French Navy in 1756. He took part in the great 
 naval battle otf Belle Isle, between the French squadron of the Marshal 
 de Conflans and the fleet commanded by the English admiral Hawke. 
 La Perouse was grievously wounded and made prisoner in the engagement, 
 but was subsequently released. Rising by force of long service and merit, 
 he had become admiral by 1782, and had command of two ships of the 
 line, his reputation as a seaman standing very high. He was, besides, a 
 man of most amiable manners, kind and generous in his deahngs with the 
 men under his command, and, in a word, the model of a true gentleman. 
 At that time French society Avas in a state of violent commotion ; in fact, 
 the great Revolution of 1789 was rapidly drawing near. The king and his 
 corn-tiers, in their wisdom, bethought them that it might serve to turn ofi" 
 the minds of the people from political objects if a grand expedition to dis- 
 cover new coimtries and open up fresh avenues to national enterprise were 
 set on foot. Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, and put under 
 the direction of La Pdrouse. It consisted of two frigates, the " Boussole " 
 and the "Astrolabe," with full complements of men. In August 1785 the
 
 9G THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ships sailed from the harbour of Brest in France, with instructions to explore 
 the Northern and Southern Pacific Oceans, the Chinese and Indian Seas, 
 and the waters around the great Terra Australis. After passing through 
 many adventm-es and making some valuable discoveries, La Perouse and 
 his fleet reached New South Wales, and cast anchor in Botany Bay. The 
 astonishment of Governor Phillip upon finding the ships there was very great, 
 and the kindliest interchanges of friendship passed between the two com- 
 manders. At length, on the 10th March 1788, La Pdrouse, having supplied 
 his ships with wood and water, sailed away from the shores of Australia. He 
 had sho■\;v^l the greatest courtesy to the settlers, though in the latter part of his 
 stay he was much troubled by the visits of runaway prisoners, who entreated 
 him to take them on board his ship. Just before the ships set sail, a Koman 
 Catholic priest, named M. Le Eecevem-, who was attached to the fleet as natur- 
 alist, died and was bm-ied in Botany Bay. A monument with a Latin inscription 
 to the memory of the deceased was erected on the spot. It bears date 17th 
 February 1788. La Pdrouse had previously lost several ofiicers and seamen in an 
 encounter with the savages at Navigator's Islands, and it was for the jDm-pose of 
 refitting that he put into Botany Bay. 
 
 At this point occurs a sad blank in the story of the brave and gallant, but 
 unfortunate La Perouse. No tidings of the expedition arrived in France for 
 three years. No European eye had ever seen any of the voyagers in the 
 "Boussole" and "Astrolabe" after their departm-e from the shores of Australia. 
 The king and people of France began to grow uneasy ; and at length another 
 expedition was fitted out in 1792, under the command of Admiral D'Entre- 
 casteaux, to go in search of the lost navigators. It was misuccessful, as will be 
 subsequently narrated. For five-and-thirty years no traces of La P^rouse's fleet 
 were discovered in any quarter. At last Captain Dillon, an English seaman in 
 the service of the East India Company, accidentally found the key of the dread 
 secret which the ocean had held in its keeping for forty years. He was cruising 
 about the New Hebrides in 1827, when he came upon traces of the wrecks of 
 two large French ships, strewed about the great reef that smTounds the island 
 of Manicolo. These were fragments of La Pdrouse's frigates. By converse with 
 the natives, Captain Dillon gi-adually got the main incidents of the melancholy 
 story. One stormy night the ships struck upon the treacherous reef, and went 
 to pieces. Some of the crew managed to escape from the billows and reached 
 the shore. One or two of them had chosen to remain amongst the savages ; 
 but the others had perished in an unsuccessful attempt to reach some civilised 
 country. Captain Dillon brought back to Europe, in his ship the " Research," 
 the fragments of the ship^vi-ecked vessels ; and the sad story of La Pdrouse and 
 his lost expedition became classic in the history of voyages and adventures 
 at sea. 
 
 A monument to the memory of La P6'0use and his crew, with an inscription 
 in French, stands on the shores of Botany Bay. It was erected by the French 
 Government in 1825.
 
 STORY OF LA FEROUSE. 97 
 
 Campbell the poet has some beautiful lines, " Written on a blank leaf of 
 ' La P^rouse's Voyages : ' " 
 
 *' Loved voyager ! his pages had a zest 
 More sweet than fiction to my wondering breast, 
 When, rapt in fancy, many a boyish day 
 I tracked his wanderings o'er the watery way. . . . 
 Humanly glorious ! Men will weep for him 
 When many a guilty martial fame ii> dim. 
 He ploughed the deep to bind no captive's chain — 
 Pursued no rapine — strewed no wreck with slain ; 
 And, save that in the deep themselves Ue low, 
 His heroes plucked no wreath from human woe. 
 'Twas his the eai-th's remotest bounds to scan, 
 Conciliating with gifts barbaric man, 
 Em-ich the world's contemporaneous mind, 
 And ampUfy the picture of mankind. 
 Fair Science on that Ocean's azure robe 
 Still writes his name in picturing the glolie, 
 And paints — what faii-er wreath coidd glory twine J — 
 His watery course — a world-encircling line ! " 
 
 N
 
 98 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 D'ENTEECASTEAUX'S VOYAGE. 
 
 SEARCH FOR LA PEROUSE — d'eNTRECASTEAUX's EXPEDITION — ARRIVE AT VAN DIE- 
 
 MEN's land — FISHING THE LANDSCAPE — EXPLORATIONS — d'eNTRECASTEAUX's 
 
 CHANNEL — THE HUON RIVER — ESPERANCE BAY — RECHERCHE ISLAND — LEAVE 
 VAN DIEMEN's land — SOUTH-WEST OF AUSTRALIA — LE GRAND BAY — RECHERCHE 
 ARCHIPELAGO — RETURN TO VAN DIEMEN'S LAND — ROCKY BAY — VIEW FROM 
 MOUNT WELLINGTON — LA RIVIERE DU NORD^TASMAN's PENINSULA — LEAVE 
 VAN DIEMEN's land FINALLY — CAPTAIN JOHN HAYES — NAMES THE DERWENT 
 RIVER — BRUNY ISLANDS AND CAPE BRUNY. 
 
 In the meantime the French Government had become very anxious about La 
 Pdrouse's expedition. Nothing had been heard of him since his visit to Botany 
 Bay in 1788, and then he had been thi^ee years away from home. Seven years 
 had now elapsed, and still there were no tidings. The melancholy conclusion 
 that he had been lost was pretty evident to the mind of every one ; but in answer 
 to the general wish to have the matter cleared up, an expedition was fitted out, 
 under the command of Admiral Bruny D'Entrecasteaux. There were two 
 ships, the "Kecherche" and "E.sperance;" the former commanded by the admiral, 
 and the latter by Captains Huon and Kermadec. The two vessels arrived off 
 the coast of Van Diemen's Land in 1792, and on the 21st of April anchored 
 off Storm Bay. 
 
 M. Labillardiere, the celebrated botanist, was the naturalist to the expedi- 
 tion ; and he has left us an account of the voyage. He tells us that the admiral 
 was afraid to anchor in Storm Bay at first, as he considered the place too 
 exposed ; but the vessels having found a little cove higher up, he took the ships 
 into it. Their first care Avas to go fishing, and the immense quantity caught 
 surprised as well as delighted them. In this respect, as tastes differ, the quahty 
 must not be too closely scrutinised, for amongst the spoils were long blue sharks, 
 Avhich are, to say the least, someAvhat coarse eating. Round about the inlet 
 huge mountains rose to an immense hoiglit, or stretched their vast, gloomy, 
 thickly-timbered g-ullies down into the sea beyond them. It was a lonely spot, 
 broken by no sounds except those of the ships; for even the winds were enclosed 
 so as not to blow with violence upon that sheltered basin. When they landed 
 they were, like all explorers in the same place, .surprised and delighted with the 
 immense size of the trees around them. The French botanist went into raptures 
 of dcliglit ; he .says that " the eye was astonished with the prodigious height of
 
 UENTRECASTEAUX'S VOYAGE. 09 
 
 the trees, some being upwards of 150 feet high ; their summits crowned with 
 perpetual verdure ; several of them, falling from age, found a support upon 
 their neighbours, and fell to the ground only in proportion as they rotted. Most 
 of the vegetation formed an admirable contrast with the state of decay." Above 
 was life and vigour, strength and light ; below was gloom and damp, death and 
 decay; but it was Phoenix rising from the ashes— the decaying vegetation form- 
 ing a vegetable mould of immense richness, which supported a thick undergrowth 
 of young and healthy saplings. 
 
 This forest was not, however, so thick as to prevent them entering it. At 
 first, the soil was marshy, but it became drier as they reached the som^ces of the 
 waters which flowed down in rivulets from the mountain sides. Sometimes, 
 however, the ground was found to be undermined with sunken ponds, and these 
 were so completely covered over with moss, and overhung with long grass, that 
 frequently the explorers only knew of their existence by actual immersion in 
 them. These things, combined ^vith the dense nature of the scrub and under- 
 growth of shrubs, rather confined the wanderings of the visitors, but they made 
 several excursions into the interior while they remained. 
 
 On one occasion they passed through the forest until they arrived at a large 
 plain which extended to the sea-shore. Here they spent the night, filling up the 
 records of their adventures, not with descriptions of scenery, but with their 
 fears of the natives. But they saw only one native during the time of their 
 absence ; and after two days' hard walking, they returned to their ships in 
 safety. In the meanwhile an examination had been made of the inlet where 
 the vessels were lying. A very little on the east side of them there was a 
 portion where the land did not close entirely round the watei*. An attempt to 
 reach the bottom of this showed them that they were in a strait instead of a 
 bay, and that while Adventure Bay was on an island, the bay in which they 
 anchored ran between that island and the sea. It is one of the loveliest and 
 wildest spots in the Southern Ocean. 
 
 After many explorations and surveys in boats, the ships commenced to work 
 down the strait, which was named D'Entrecasteaux's Channel. As they 
 passed along, the crew saw two islands, one of which lay at the mouth of a fine 
 broad river, as useful, apparently, for the purposes of navigation as it was 
 beautiful. The river was named the Huon, and has since become celebrated 
 for the production of a tree which yields the pretty cabinet wood known as 
 Huon pine. To the southward of the river was a deep and gloomy bay, named, 
 after one of the ships, Esperance Bay. A deep and long lagoon extends a long 
 way beyond this island, and beside it another anchorage, which was called after 
 the Eecherche. 
 
 Leaving the shores of Van Diemen's Land, the vessels sailed for the south- 
 west coast of Australia, and cruised along the south part of it in December 1792. 
 At length a storm drove them to anchor in Le Grand Bay, so called after the 
 seaman who discovered it. There the seamen landed in hopes of discovering 
 water, but none was to be found on that sandy and desolate shore. Whichever 
 way they tiu'ned, nothing but glaring yellow hills of sand met them ; and if there
 
 100 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 was any A'ariation upon tliis, it was only because salt lakes occupied their place, 
 or the sand was covered with a dark and dry kind of coarse shrub. The surf, 
 moreover, was prodigious, so that it was only with the greatest difficulty a landing 
 could be effected at all. The admiral found that the Dutch navigator Nuyts had 
 laid down the latitudes of the prominent points on the coast with surprising exact- 
 ness. To the group of islands lying off Nuyt's Land he gave the name of the 
 Recherche Akchipelago. The admiral adds : " It is not surprising that Nuyts 
 has given no details of this barren coast ; for its aspect is so uniform that the 
 most fruitful imagination could find nothing to say of it." 
 
 Again steering for Van Dicmen's Land, the admiral, on the 21st of January 
 1793, sighted a bay which he named Rocky Bay. The ships remained a month 
 here, and made many observations on the country. At this time Mount Wel- 
 lington (as it was afterwards called) was covered with snow, and altogether the 
 appearance of the country was much finer than when they had visited it before. 
 From a hill which they ascended, the explorers had an extensive view of the 
 country around, on which many open plains and large lakes were to be seen. 
 They had several interviews with the natives. One excursion was made to the 
 summit of (the present) Mount Wellington. The journey was long and toilsome, 
 but the magnificent view from the top amply repaid the voyagers for all their 
 labours. It is now too familiar to travellers from all parts of the world to need 
 description. Further explorations along the shore discovered a fine river, to 
 which the name of La Riviere du Nord (River of the North) was given. The 
 name of Tasman's Peninsula was also given to the south-eastern promontory of 
 the island. A small vein of coal was discovered near the South Cape. On the 
 28th February the French fleet left the coasts of Van Diemen's Land in further 
 search for tidings of La Perouse. 
 
 In 1794 Captain John Hayes, of the Bombay Marine, visited the south coast 
 of the island with the ships " Duke " and " Duchess." He went much farther up 
 the River of the North than the French voyagers had gone, and named it the 
 Derwent, a much more appropriate appellation than the other, which is now 
 quite forgotten. He was probably unaware of the visits of the French, and 
 deemed himself the first discoverer. The name of the French navigator still 
 survives in the channel called after him, as well as in the two islands named 
 Bruny (which, after all, are but one island), and in Cape Bkuny.
 
 ADVENTURES OF BASS AND FLINDERS. 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ADVENTURES OF BASS AND FLINDERS. 
 
 FLINDERS IN THE FIRST FLEET — HIS EARLY LIFE — BASS, SURGEON IN FIRST FLEET — 
 ARRIVE AT SYDNEY — PLAN AN EXPEDITION — THE " TOM THUMB " — THEIR EX- 
 PLORATION OF THE COAST BETWEEN PORT JACKSON AND BOTANY BAY— SECOND 
 .VOYAGE IN THE " TOM THUMB " — MISHAPS AT SEA — THE NATIVES FRIENDLY — 
 COURAGE AND ADDRESS OF THE VOYAGERS — PERILOUS NIGHT PASSAGE — REACH 
 SYDNEY IN SAFETY. 
 
 In 1795 Captain Hunter, who had commanded the " First Fleet," was sent out 
 again to supersede Governor Phillip. Among the gentlemen under his command 
 were Matthew Flinders, midshipman, and George Bass, surgeon. Flinders 
 was born at Donington in Lincolnshire, England. He was a descendant of the 
 Flemish colonists introduced by Henry VII., who first taught the English how 
 to turn desolate heron-haunted swamps into rich pastures. From his earliest 
 years he displayed an adventurous and investigating spirit. It is among the 
 traditions of his family that, on the day he was promoted from petticoats to 
 " buttoned clothes," after being lost for hours, he was found in the middle of 
 one of the sea-marshes, his pockets stuffed with pebbles, tracing the runlets of 
 water, " wanting to know where they came from." Being desirous of entering 
 the navy, he taught himself navigation fi-om Euclid's and Robertson's Elements, 
 without the aid of a master. In 1793, at the age of sixteen, he presented himself 
 as a volunteer on board the " Scipio," Captain (afterwards Admiral) Pasley, by 
 whom he was placed on the quarter-deck; and at the instance of that com- 
 mander, he joined the " Providence," Captain Bligh, engaged to carry bread-fruit 
 trees to the West Indies. In this voyage he was entrusted with the cliaige of 
 the chronometer, and took his first lesson in the construction of charts. On his 
 return in the latter part of 1793, he joined the " Bellerophon," seventy-four, 
 bearing the broad pendant of Sir Thomas Pasley, to whom he acted as aide-de- 
 camp in Lord Howe's memorable victory of the 1st of June 1794. An account 
 of this action, with diagrams of the position of the two fleets at three several 
 periods of the day, drawn up by Flinders with the neatness, clearness, and 
 minuteness for which all his MSS. are remarkable, are still in the possession of 
 his family. From the " Bellerophon " he followed one of his officers, who took 
 the command of the " Reliance," ordered to convey Governor Hunter to New 
 South Wales, and here met, in George Bass, the surgeon, with a kindred spirit. 
 When they arrived in the colony, seven years after the axes of the " First Fleet "
 
 102 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 rang in the forests of Sydney Cove, little had been done to work out in detail 
 the investigations made previous to the landing in Botany Bay. Jervis Bay, 
 indicated but not named by him, had been entered by Lieutenant Bowen, and 
 Port Stephan had been examined ; but the intermediate portions of the coast, both 
 north and south, were little further known than from Captain Cook's general 
 chart ; and none of the more distant openings marked, but not explored, by that 
 celebrated navigator had been seen. The navigation was dangerous ; for, as 
 Collins says in his " History of New South Wales," the bare idea of being lost 
 in one of the arms of Port Jackson struck him with horror, as, from the great 
 similarity of one cove to another, the recollection would be bewildered in 
 attempting to determine any relative situation. " Insanity," he adds, " would 
 accelerate the miserable end that must ensue." 
 
 Whilst on the voyage Flinders and Bass planned an expedition, and a month 
 after the arrival of the " Reliance " in Sydney Harboui' preparations were made 
 for carrying it out. They bought a small boat, eight feet long, named it the 
 " Tom Thumb," and embarked in it Avith a crew consisting of one small boy, to 
 make marine discoveries on the Australian coast. A small sail was hoisted, 
 which Flinders managed, while Bass steered, and the boy was kept to bale. They 
 tacked to and fro about the harbour to test their sailing capabilities, and then 
 stood boldly out of the heads into the huge rolling swell of the ocean. The little 
 "Tom Thumb" danced about like a feather on the ripple, and seemed no more 
 than a mere bit of sea-weed upon the loud rollers. Her sails hung idly flapping 
 in the valleys between the swell, and when descending the crest of the wave the 
 wind was enough to take her mast out ; but she kept her way boldly, and in 
 due course reached Botany Bay. Their first exploration was in ascending the 
 George River, which falls into that bay. They went up this, about twenty 
 miles beyond a point which Captain Hunter had named in his survey. They 
 explored its windings, and found several patches of really good land among 
 them ; and having ascertained many particulars about the country around, they 
 returned again to the sea, and got back safe and sound to Sydney. 
 
 In the meantime the little vessel was laid up in ordinary for a short period. 
 The " Reliance " was ordered on a voyage to Norfolk Island, and, as the surgeon 
 and midshipman could not be spared from the ship, exploring had to be given 
 over ; but not for long. In March 1796 the " Reliance " returned, and the 
 " Tom Thumb " was again launched. The rumour about the large river to the 
 south of the bay was still in their minds, and they thought it might yet be fomid 
 to be true. Early in the morning of the 25th of March they sailed from Port 
 Jackson, standing out to sea to wait for the sea-breeze. This took them far out, 
 and when they tacked towai'ds shore in the evening, instead of being off Cape 
 Solander, as they expected, they found that a southerly current had drifted them 
 farther down, to a place where it was impossible for them to land ; so they had 
 to remain all night at sea. There were some islands below them, which they 
 tried to reach ; but in doing so they saw a place where they could obtain water 
 by swimming ashore with the cask. This was not a good place to land upon, so 
 they preferred swimming in and out to their boat. Mr Bass went on shore, and
 
 ADVENTURES OF BASS AXD FLINDERS. 103 
 
 filled the cask. "NMiile getting it off, a surf arose farther out than usual. This 
 carried the boat before it on to the beach, so that they were left high but not 
 dry, for their arms, ammunition, and clothes Avere thoroughly drenched and partly 
 spoiled. It would not do to stay to dry them, because the natives might come, 
 and they would be defenceless ; so they emptied and launched the boat as 
 quickly as possible, and then slowly rafted the things on board. It was late in 
 the afternoon before everything was got off, and they then tried to reach the 
 islands. It was not possible to land on either of them ; but there were two 
 larger ones lying near, and they went to them. These were also inaccessible, 
 and, being now dark, the wet and hungry crew had to pass another cold night in 
 the boat, with their stone anchor dropped under the lee of Red Point. 
 
 They would have retm-ned on the 27th, but the sea-breeze was too strong for 
 them to beat against. Two natives were seen on shore, who were hailed, and, 
 to the gratification of the explorers, they replied in English. They told them 
 that there was no water to be found on Eed Point, but that there was a river a 
 few miles farther southward, where not only fresh water was abundant, but there 
 were plenty of fish and wild ducks. They were natives of Botany Bay, and con- 
 sequentlj", having been long in contact with the whites, they could be trusted 
 with safety. The river, however, turned out to be a miserable affair. It was 
 nothing more than a small stream, which descended from a lagoon under Hat 
 Hill. It was so narrow and tortuous that even the "Tom Thumb" had very 
 great difficutly in getting any distance up it. Their native guides, who had free 
 passages given them in the boat, now left them, and walked alongside in com- 
 pany with eight or ten strangers who had joined them. After rowing up the 
 stream for about a mile, the adventurers began to be uneasy about the narrow- 
 ness of the stream. The natives here had the reputation of being ferocious and 
 cruel, and if they chose to be hostile now, it was quite evident they could easily 
 destroy the boat's crew with their spears. But fresh water was wanted badly 
 before they could think of retui'ning. Besides this, their muskets and powder 
 were wet, and it was better to make both ser^dceable before they provoked any 
 hostihty by trpng to go back. After consulting together, they, with very gi-eat 
 presence of mind, agreed not to show the slightest fear, but land amongst the 
 savages, and whilst one engaged their attention, the other should dry the 
 powder, and clean the muskets. 
 
 Bass accordingly landed, and went among the savages, and endeavoured to 
 occupy them by getting their assistance in mending a broken oar, while Flinders 
 spread out the wet powder in the sim. This met with no opposition, for the 
 natives scarcely knew what powder was ; but when they proceeded to clean the 
 muskets, they became so alarmed that the explorei's were compelled to desist. 
 On inquiring for water, they were told that there was none nearer than the 
 lagoon ; but as this was too far to go, after many evasions, they were shown a 
 native well not very far from where they stood. Here the cask was filled, and 
 the " Tom Thumb " turned again towards the sea without any opposition from 
 its savage friends. By rowing hard they got a good many miles nearer home 
 that night, and they drojDped their stone hedge under a range of cliffs more
 
 104 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 regular, but less high, than those near Hat Hill. At ten o'clock, the wind, 
 which had been unsettled and driving electric clouds in all directions, burst out 
 in a gale from the south. The intrepid navigators got up their anchor, and ran 
 before it. In a very short time the waves began to break. The little bark was 
 now in extreme danger. The night was dark, and the shade was increased by 
 the cliffs which overhung their boat. Their com-se was taking them, perhaps, 
 to new dangers, and the heavy, roaring surf which beat against the cliffs told 
 them of their terrible fate if they attempted to look for shelter on shore. Bass 
 kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawing in a few inches occasionally when 
 he saw a particularly heavy sea following. Flinders was steering with an oar ; 
 and we can well believe what he tells us, that it required the utmost exertion and 
 care to prevent the boat broaching to. This, he adds, would have sent them to 
 the bottom in an instant. The task of the boy in baling was no easy one now, 
 for every wave sent a fine portion of its foam over their gunwale. It was in the 
 midst of such dangers as these that the " Tom Thumb " reached Sydney in safety. 
 It had not done much on this expedition, except to teach the colonists what a 
 treasure they possessed in the indefatigable courage and zeal for exploration of 
 George Bass and Matthew Flinders.
 
 BASS DISCOVERS THE STRAITS. 105 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 BASS DISCOVERS THE STRAITS. 
 
 FLINDERS GOES TO FUENEAUX ISLANDS — CASS GOES ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE 
 BLUE MOUNTAINS — PETITIONS FOR THE OUTFIT OF ANOTHER EXPLORING VOYAGE 
 
 STARTS FROM SYDNEY IN A AVHALEBOAT — POINT BASS — DISCOVERY OF SHOAL 
 
 HAVEN — AND OF THE STRAITS — FURNEAUX'S LAND — THE RUNAWAYS — WILSON's 
 PROMONTORY — WESTERN PORT DISCOVERED — BASS RETURNS TO SYDNEY. 
 
 After the return of the voj'agers iu the " Tom Thumb," Flhiders was much 
 engaged iu his official duties, and had to go on a surveying voyage to Furneaux's 
 Islands. Bass was thus left to plan new schemes of exploration. As he was of 
 too energetic a temperament ever to continue idle, he started oflF with two 
 companions to explore the Blue Mountains. His adventures on this expedition 
 will be referred to afterwards. When he came back to Sydney he drew up a 
 memorial to the governor, asking for means for another exploring voyage along 
 the coast. His request was readily granted, the more so as he only required 
 a whaleboat, a crew of eight men, and provisions for six weeks. With this 
 slender equipment he started from Sydney on the 3d of December 1797. Clear- 
 ing the heads of Port Jackson, the whaleboat's crew found themselves in the' 
 broad Pacific. But Bass was their leader, and that circumstance was of itself 
 sufficient to dissipate all fears for their safety. He had in a high degree that 
 greatness of spirit which inspires men with confidence. He was, in fact, a born 
 leader of men. As he sailed to the southward he clearly perceived that there 
 was no chance of finding a large river until the line of the Blue Mountains had 
 terminated. There seemed, too, a considerable probability that they Avould end 
 before the coast trended to the south-west, because the more they ran to the 
 southward the nearer they approached the coast-line. At a point named after- 
 wards Point Bass, they seemed to terminate the base of the southern extremity 
 of the chain he saw extended in a south-westerly direction, and afterwards 
 appeared to turn north-westward again. Close under Point Bass there was a 
 beautiful and spacious baj% surrounded by picturesque hills, and supplied by a 
 fine river which ran into it. This bay was unfortunately found too shallow to be 
 of much value, and was called in consequence Shoal Haven. After passing this 
 bay, and giving it such examination as his means afforded, he discovered in 
 succession three others : Barmouth, Jervis, and Twofold Bays. The latter he 
 did not examine, for the coast now seemed to trend to the south-west, and he was 
 
 o
 
 106 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 burning to decide the great question whether or not Tasmania was united to 
 Australia. 
 
 The coast trended to the south-west, as just observed, and it no longer bore 
 the high and lofty character of the eastern side. When Cook had passed along 
 the same part, his distance from the land and the height of his vessel above the 
 water, enabled him to discern something beyond the arid line of sandhills which 
 backed the beach. But to the crew of the whaleboat nothing was on view but 
 the sand, and the heavy surf which beat upon it. Still they kept on. The 
 weather was extremely rough, and there was not a chance of shelter upon that 
 shore, but there was an open sea before them, and every heavy roller which 
 came from the west sent a thrill of pleasure through Bass, for he knew that the 
 straits which now bear his name were discovered. At last higher land became 
 visible ; there Avas a fine promontory jutting from the coast, which received the 
 name of Furneaux's Land. A search was immediately made for a convenient 
 place to land, and while they beat backwards and forwards, scrutinising each 
 inlet, they observed men hailing them from the shore. They were not natives, 
 for they were clothed ; and as the boat neared them they were seen to be in the 
 most emaciated condition. These were some prisoners who had escaped with a 
 boat from Port Jackson ; they had intended to proceed to a wi'eck upon Fur- 
 neaux's Islands, where they hoped to find sufficient plunder to support them for 
 a while, and enable them to decide upon their further course. But they were 
 unsuccessful in finding the wreck, and while they searched, their provisions 
 failed. A few of them had some excuse to land, and while the majority of their 
 companions were ashore, made ofi" with the boat and provisions. Ever since that 
 time the men Bass fovmd had eked out their miserable existence upon shell-fish 
 and sea-weeds, and some of their number had died, or were on the point of 
 death. Bass, unfortunately, could do nothing to relieve them ; he had overstayed 
 his own time already, and there was little enough left of his provisions to 
 carry the crew back to Sydney. He, however, took tAvo sick ones into his boat, 
 gave the others what he could, and told them to folloAV the coast-line until he 
 could send them assistance. It has not been learnt whether they Avere ever 
 heard of subsequently, and as no further mention is made of them in any history 
 of NcAV South Wales, it is presumed that they all perished. 
 
 Bass did not give a favourable account of the country he had seen to the 
 southAvard from Furneaux's Land, or, as it has since been named, Wilson's Pko- 
 MONTORY ; he proceeded a little farther westward, and discovered the fine 
 harbour of Western Port ; but the time and provisions at his disposal did not 
 enable him to examine it closely. He then returned to Sydney, without, it is 
 true, finally settling the question whether or not Tasmania Avas separated from 
 Australia, but making sufiicient observations to render it nearly certain that it 
 was a distinct island. The subsequent voyage of Bass and Flinders round the 
 island settled the question for ever.
 
 BASS AND FLINDERS SAIL ROUND TASMANIA. 107 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BASS AND FLINDERS SAIL EOUND TASMANIA. 
 
 bass's EEPOKT — THE "NORFOLK" FITTED OUT — BASS AND FLINDERS SAIL TO THE 
 SOUTH COAST — SIGHT TASMANIA — SHIP IN PERIL — PORT DALRYMPLE — THE 
 TAMAR — ITS CHARACTER AS A RIVER — APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — SITE 
 
 OF LAUNCESTON CIRCULAR HEAD — CAPE GRIM — BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY — THE 
 
 PROBLEM OF THE STRAITS SOLVED — RETURN TO SYDNEY — BASS SAILS FOR 
 ENGLAND — HIS SAD HISTORY — HIS EARLY LIFE — HIS HEROIC ACHIEVEMENTS. 
 
 When Bass brought back to Sydney his reijort of a strait existing between the 
 continent and Van Diemen's Land (now called Tasmania), a small decked vessel 
 of twenty-five tons, named the " Norfolk," Avas put under the command of 
 Flinders and himself, and they were instructed to complete the exploration of 
 the south coast. 
 
 The "Norfolk" sailed on the 7th of October 1798, and on the 11th anchored 
 in Twofold Bay, where they made a survey of the shores. On the 17th they 
 reached a group of islands now known as Kent's Islands, which are merely 
 granite rocks covered with brushwood. Standing to the southward, they next 
 morning sighted Furneaux's Islands, and rested for the day at one of them called 
 Preservation Island. The next landing made was at the southern end of Cape 
 Barren Island — most appropriately so called ; but it was singular that in a place 
 Avhere food seemed to be scarce, the island should be thickly inhabited by a 
 small brush kangaroo, and a new quadruped, the wombat, both of which are 
 grass-eaters. On the 4th of November Tasmania was sighted — the north side, 
 it .should be remembered, which had never been seen before. It was a cape 
 which was before them, the last and lowest part of a range which ran up from 
 the coast to join a lofty chain of high mountains and seemed to extend far 
 inland. The scenery was bold and pictru-esque, and had the usual characteristics 
 of fine gloomy forests, spread out like a sable garment on the slopes of the hills. 
 It Avas not until the afternoon that anything like an opening could be seen ; they 
 moved forward to examine it. It penetrated deeply into the shore, so they 
 sailed on. Hills soon enclosed them on every side, and brought them into close 
 contact with slopes of those that were green and fertile. Soon the sloop was 
 luuTied on by the influence of a rising tide, and just as she was advancing into 
 the harbour which lay before her, the water shoaled suddenly, and she struck. 
 Fortunately, the flood-tide soon dragged her across the bar, and she floated over 
 into a splendid harbour; it was almost a complete basin. The shores were
 
 108 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 broken into points and projections, that looked like sub-divisions of the main 
 stream, and all were clothed with a beautiful and fresh verdure. The sun was 
 down Avhen thej'^ entered the bay, but the dusky twilight enabled them to anchor 
 in perfect safety, and enjoy the beauty of the scene. 
 
 The fine harbour, and the river in which it was found to bend, were named 
 Port Dalrymple, and the river Tamar. When the morning broke, the ex- 
 plorers were able to form a good idea how the basin was situated. It was the 
 lowest part of a valley, lying between two chains of hills, which descended to 
 the coast from piles of mountains lying farther inland, whose irregular outline 
 could only be dimly discerned. The valley varied very much in width ; at times 
 it joined a spacious and broad amphitheatre ; or again, the mountains threw out 
 promontories from their sides which diminished the width to a mere gorge ; thus 
 the Tamar was found to be more like a chain of lakes than a river, but all the 
 more j^icturesque and placid in its long reaches in consequence. Of the two 
 chains of hills, verdant and Avell wooded as they were, one terminated in a point 
 in the bay, the other came down to the sea five or six miles behind it on the 
 west side. Thus the ends of the chains would be seen from the entrance, rising 
 like swelling buttresses against the distant blue heads of the back mountains 
 which rose over them in clusters. Twelve miles to the west of the port, the 
 back land was high and jagged, showing spaces amid its forests here and there, 
 and disj)laying hard, barren surfaces of granite rock. The country around was 
 good, especially in the valley at the head of the stream ; but at some distance 
 farther it became stony, aiid somewhat thickly wooded. 
 
 The aspect of the same locality is now somewhat different, as the site of the 
 town of Launceston. The Tamar divides into two branches — the north and 
 south-east. The city stands at the confluence of the two, at the side of a rough 
 bold outline of rock, along which there is a gorge for the river to flow down. 
 From this height one of the brancli streamlets of the river appears like a lake, 
 and the rock, dense forest, and foaming waters around make a scene unequalled 
 in all Australia. 
 
 On the 20th of November the " Norfolk " left Port Dalrymple and proceeded 
 to the westward ; but the wind changing they were driven back to Furneaux's 
 Islands until the 3d of December. 
 
 The important question of the straits was not quite decided as long as land 
 was still to be found to the westward, and therefore appearances were now 
 watched with no ordinary degree of interest. At noon on the 4tli the farthest 
 land to be seen to the west Avas a small flat-topped island, which was found to 
 to be connected with the mainland, and called Circular Head, and a near pro- 
 jection of jagged appearance, Rocky Cape. Beyond this point there was 
 nothing like mainland to be seen ; but a long heavy swell came from the south- 
 west such as they had not been accustomed to before. It broke heavily upon a 
 small reef lying off the point, and although it was likely to prove troublesome 
 and dangerous it was hailed with joy and congratulations. There could be no 
 doubt about the truth now ; they had discovered a passage to the Southern 
 Ocean between Austi-alia and Tasmania. A cluster of islands at this point was
 
 BASS AND FLINDERS SAIL ROUND TASMANIA. 109 
 
 named Hunter's Isles. Bass had landed on them and returned with a boat- 
 load of seals and all)atrosses. 
 
 The extreme north-west cape of Tasmania was found to be a steep head, and 
 from its bold and forbidding character, the huge surfs which broke upon it, and 
 the mists by which it was always surrounded, it was called Cape Grim. The 
 principal mountain visible in the interior behind the cape was called after the 
 vessel, as a memorial of the part she had taken in discovering this extreme 
 region of Tasmania. The shore from Cape Grim to the southward consisted of 
 black cliff's, at first high and unapproachable, but they gradually became lower 
 and lower until they ended in a sandy beach which fronted the wooded inland 
 like a rampart. This low descri^ition of land continued as the " Norfolk " sailed 
 along, showing no break or inlet in the coast-line, nor any prominent object 
 inshore. Two mountains only were seen on the 11th of December, and as these 
 were the first signs of land seen by Tasman, they were named Mounts Zeehaan 
 and Heemskirk, after his two ships. The crew of the " Norfolk " had no object 
 now but to get round to the other side of the island, to make further obser- 
 vations. There Avas no inlet of any kind upon the west side, and even if there 
 had been it had been many times visited before, so that mere curiosity was not 
 thought a sufficient cause to keep the small sloop close upon a lee-shore. On 
 the morning of the 12th they saw the tops of the mountains which Tasman had 
 erroneously named De Witt's Isles, as he was too far off" to distinguish the con- 
 necting land. Flinders named the highest of them Mount De Witt. After 
 passing several places of smaller note, the " Norfolk " entered Headsman's Cove, 
 a little inlet at the mouth of the Derwent. Beyond this the crew proceeded in 
 the boat, imagining that one tide would enable them to reach its source. Scenes 
 of surpassing beauty struck their gaze at every fresh bend of the river. On 
 either side were gentle grassy slopes, slightly timbered with graceful acacias, and 
 occasionally emliellished with splendid flowery shrubs. Behind these park-like 
 lawns rose gloomy forests, swelling into mountains here and there, and sending 
 up a grey peak of craggy stone into the clear blue air. The river Avas fresh and 
 placid, containing abundance of fish, and, what surprised the explorers most was, 
 that amid all this abundance and charming beauty combined with utility, they 
 saw no signs that it was made use of. It was, in fact, a paradise in solitude. 
 On the 3d of January the " Norfolk " left the Derwent, and, after sailing along a 
 coast already described, they reached Sydney on the 12th of the same month. 
 
 Thus was solved one of the great problems of Australia. When it was known 
 that Van Diemen's Land was an island, the voyage from England to Sydney was 
 very much shortened. The merit of this discovery belongs entirely to Bass and 
 Flinders, who had put to proof what Cook and D'Entrecasteaux had only 
 guessed. ' 
 
 At this point the honoured name of Bass drops out of the history of 
 Australia. He returned to England as the mate of a trading vessel, and then 
 disappeared for ever. The story of the life of Flinders 's noble fellow-labourer, 
 like that of too many other heroic explorers and discoverers, is very sad and 
 painful. The only account of his early days that we possess is given in a letter 
 
 &
 
 110 THE IIISTOR Y OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 written by a relative of Bass's in 1852, and given in a work on the colonies by 
 Mr Samuel Sydney. It is as follows : " The mother of Bass lived Avitli the 
 Calder family fourteen years, and died with them. Her son and only child, 
 George Bass, was born at Asworthy, near Sleaford (in England), where his father 
 had a farm, and died when he was a boy. The widow and son afterwards went 
 to reside at Boston. From his boyhood he showed a strong inclination for a sea- 
 faring life, to which his widowed mother Avas much opposed. He was appren- 
 ticed to Mr Francis, a surgeon, at Boston, and at the end of his apprenticeship 
 walked the hospitals, and took his diploma with honour. But his inclination for 
 the sea being unsubdued, according to a promise she made, she yielded to his 
 wish and sunk a considerable sum in fitting him out and buying a share in a 
 ship, which was totally lost. She was a fine noble-minded woman, of no 
 ordinary intellect. Her son wrote her long letters, containing full accounts of 
 his discoveries. These came into the possession of Miss Calder on the death of 
 Mrs Bass. A short time ago she thought to take a peep at the letters, and 
 went to the old box, but they were gone. The last time his mother heard of 
 Bass he was in the Straits of China. She expected him many years, thinking 
 that he might be taken prisoner ; but at last gave up all hopes, concluding that 
 he had been wrecked and drowned. He had only been married three months 
 when he sailed away, never to return. His widow is dead." 
 
 Such is the sole record remaining of one of the bravest and noblest men 
 whose names illuminate the history of discovery. To Flinders and Bass both 
 England and Australia owe a debt of incalculable gratitude. When the senti- 
 ment of national pride shall sj^ring up in the breasts of young Australians, there 
 will be enduring monuments erected to the memory of these true heroes in every 
 capital city in the Southern Ocean.
 
 FLINDERS DISCO VERS MORETON BA Y. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FLINDEES DISCOVERS MOEETON BAY. 
 
 A FRESH EXPEDITIOX — THE SLOOP "NORFOLK" — FLINDERS STARTS FROM SYDNEY — 
 DISCOVERS MORETON BAY — ENCOUNTER WITH NATIVES — GLASSHOUSE BAY — 
 HERVEY BAY — A BARREN EXPEDITION — THE CLARENCE RIVER — FLINDERS 
 RETURNS TO SYDNEY AND RESUMES DUTY. 
 
 When Bass and Flinders returned from Tasmania, tliey appear to have parted 
 company. Still eager for adventure, Flinders memorialised the governor for 
 permission to go exploring northwards. The request was complied with ; for 
 there Avas no man in the settlement, save George Bass, who had jDroved himself 
 better fitted for the labours of a discoverer, or in whom the governor had more 
 confidence. The sloop " Norfolk " was again put into requisition, with the same 
 crew, and a nephew of Flinders in addition. 
 
 He started from Sydney on the 8th of July 1799, and sailed northward. On 
 the morning of the 10th, the vessel sprung a leak, and it was necessary to keep 
 one pump continually at work. But Flindei's refused to tm^n back. He was 
 too hardy a seaman not to risk a little danger in any enterprise on which he 
 was bent. By the 15th, the explorei-s were off" Cape BjTon, with Mount Warning 
 just appearing over it. When they had cleared the reef at Point Danger, they 
 steered west for a large open space where no land was visible. This was 
 MoRETON Bay. Passing between these breakers and Point Lookout, they got 
 ground in twenty fathoms water. As they drew nearer there seemed to be a 
 very large extent of water within the opening, Ijut the country towards the sea 
 was as sterile, "wretched, and sandy, as could well be imagined. At dusk Cape 
 Moreton was rounded, and they got into Glasshouse Bay. There they anchored, 
 intending, if possible, to repair the leak. Next morning they landed. They had 
 brought with them a native from Sydney, who commenced at once to parley with 
 some savage.s who were on the beach fishing with nets. At first they seemed 
 peaceable, and accepted some presents, but they soon became troublesome. The 
 party, to avoid a conflict, shoved off" in their boat from shore. A savage then 
 ran into the sea after them and flung a spear, which happily missed the boat. 
 Flinders and one of the seamen at once discharged their muskets, and wounded 
 two of the savages. The plea on which the great explorer defends this act is 
 that, as he wanted to repair his ship there, he could not afford to leave his crew 
 at the mercy of the savages, and he felt therefore bound to strike a wholesome
 
 ] 12 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTItALASIA. 
 
 terror into them. The spot where this incident occurred Avas named Point 
 Skirmish. 
 
 Tlie explorers then proceeded up the river, which ran up towards Glasshouse 
 Peaks. Nothing of importance was seen besides five or six native huts. 
 Advancing still farther, Flinders named the river Pumice Stone River, and cast 
 anchor. Landing at a particular spot, he walked towards a round mount, which 
 he ascended. Here he had a fine and extensive view of the bay and the sur- 
 rounding country. After a stay of fifteen days in Glasshouse Bay, he went on 
 to Hervey Bay ; but finding no practicable river after sailing all round it, and 
 noting that the coast was low and shallow, and the country unpromising, he 
 returned to Sydney. 
 
 Not much of any consequence resulted from this voyage, although it was 
 afterwards found that a narrow sandy inlet which Flinders discovered and named 
 Shoal Bay was the mouth of the Clarence Eiver, a very important stream on the 
 east coast. Nothing more was done at that time with the " Norfollc " sloop or 
 its discoveries, and Flinders returned to his duties as midshipman on board the 
 " Reliance."
 
 FLINDERS'S VOYAGE IN THE "INVESTIGATOR:' 113 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 FLINDEES'S VOYAGE IN THE "INVESTIGATOR" 
 
 FLINDERS RETURNS TO ENGLAND — PLANS ANOTHER EXPEDITION — RECEIVES COMMAND 
 OF THE "investigator" — ARRIVES AT AUSTRALIA — BEGINS SURVEY OF THE 
 
 SOUTH COAST — LOSS OF A BOAT'S CREW — PORT LINCOLN DISCOVERED SPENCER's 
 
 GULF— kangaroo HUNTING MEETS FRENCH EXPEDITION UNDER BAUDIN 
 
 REACHES PORT PHILLIP — LIEUTENANT JAMES GRANT's PREVIOUS DISCOVERY — 
 LIEUTENANT MURRAY PREVIOUSLY AT PORT PHILLIP — CORIO BAY — SOUTH COAST 
 UNVEILED — FLINDERS PROCEEDS TO PORT JACKSON. 
 
 Flinders had only attained to the rank of midshipman in the Royal Navy at the 
 time he returned from jNIoreton Bay. At the latter end of the year 180U the 
 " Reliance " retm-ned to England, and Fhnders lost no time upon his arrival in 
 making known what he had accomplished in the exploration of the new Avorld in 
 the south. His charts of the discoveries in Tasmania were speedily pul)lishecf. 
 This brought him at once into notice, and paved the Avay for pushing his plans 
 further. An ardent tempei-ament such as his could not think of resting ; he 
 had tasted the delights of exploration, and he longed with feverish anxiety to 
 betake himself to his favom'ite pursuit once more. Fortunately, there was at 
 that time in England a man who could appreciate all this, and had sufficient 
 interest with the Admiralty to cause them to do all that Flinders desired. This 
 was Sir Joseph Banks, the companion of Cook in his first voyage. Upon hear- 
 ing the bold plans of the brave young midshipman, and seeing how much he had 
 done on very small resources, and how little he required for what he wanted 
 to do then, Sir Joseph willingly laid his plan before Earl Spencer, then First 
 Lord of the Admiralty. The plan was approved of, and laid before the king, 
 George III. Although his Majesty knew but little about Australia — which 
 had sprung into existence at a period of heavy affliction for him — he gave 
 his assent willingly to the plan proposed by Flinders. Orders were given for 
 the purchase of a vessel, the command of which was given to the gallant youth- 
 ful explorer. She was an old sloop of only 340 tons burthen, but, it was thought, 
 well fitted for the pmposes of the expedition. 
 
 In February 1801 Flinders was promoted to the rank of commander, and was 
 appointed to the " Investigator " sloop. A proof of the popularity of his char- 
 acter, and of the adventurous spirit of the British sailor, was given when eleven 
 men being required to complete his crew, out of 300 seamen on board the vice- 
 admiral's ship, the " Zealand," 2.50 volunteered. 
 
 p
 
 114 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 On the IStli of July lie sailed from Spithead, furnished with a passport from 
 the French Government, -which was granted after precedents of similar protec- 
 tion afforded to Admiral La Pdrouse and to Captain Cook by the respective 
 authorities in England and France. In consequence of this passport, Flinders 
 received directions from the Admiralty " to act in all respects towards French 
 vessels as if the two countries were not at war." So miserably slow was the 
 progress of the first Australian colony, that at this period, thirteen years after 
 its foundation, it was found necessary to take a supply of salt meat for eighteen 
 months, and to have a general supply of provisions for twelve months more to 
 be sent, after the departure of the " Investigator," and lodged in storehouse at 
 Port Jackson for the sole use of the " Investigator." 
 
 Among the gentlemen who accompanied the expedition was William 
 Westall, the famous landscape-painter, and Kobert Brown, the great naturaUst. 
 
 It was November before Flinders sighted the coast of Australia, and pro- 
 ceeded to examine the coast-line hitherto unexplored. In the course of his 
 investigations he surveyed King George's Sound, which had previously been dis- 
 covered by Vancouver and on which the settlement of Swan Eiver or Western 
 Australia was planted in 1829. He found no traces of Vancouver, but there 
 was a neglected garden, and close to it a sheet of copper bearing the inscription : 
 "August 27th, 1800: Chr. Dixson, ship 'Ellegood.'" This was probably the 
 memento of some whaling ship which had visited the sound. 
 
 Flinders next put into an inlet, to which he gave the name of Princess 
 Royal Harbour, Avhere he made some necessary repairs, and took some astro- 
 nomical observations. He also, with a party, made an inspection of the coast 
 inland, but found the aspect of the country very bleak and cheerless. He then 
 proceeded to coast along the Australian Bight, first discovered by Van Nuyts in 
 1627, and was struck with the fearful desolation of that terrible shore. He 
 passed and named in succession Fowler's Bay, Smoky Bay, Streaky Bay, 
 Anxious Bay, and Coffin's Bay — the latter called after Admiral Coffin, the 
 commissioner who had fitted out the " Investigator." A conspicuous mountain, 
 visible inland, was named Mount Greenby. Several other points along the coast 
 were likewise named ; but no incident of any consequence marked the voyage. 
 Thistle Island was so called after the mate of the vessel. Near this place the 
 cutter with a crew under the charge of Mr Thistle and a midshipman named 
 Taylor were sent in search of water, and all perished at sea. How they were 
 wrecked remained a mystery until the next day, when the broken boat, bottom 
 upwards, was found drifting near some rocks, against which it had been evidently 
 dashed to pieces. The spot was called Cape Catastrophe, and an island close by 
 was named Taylor's Island. The cove in which the cutter was wrecked was 
 called Memory Cove, and a copper plate, Avith an inscription commemorating 
 the disaster, was left at the place. 
 
 A beautiful bay, sheltered by an island four miles long was next discovered, 
 and named I'okt Lincoln, and the island Boston Island, after Flinders's native 
 place. A fine hill surrounded by rich and beautiful land was named Stamford 
 Hill, and a lake adjacent Sleaford Mere. The "Investigator" remained until the
 
 FLLVDERS'S VOYAGE LY THE "INVESTIGATOR." 115 
 
 8th of March surveying the islands in Sir Joseph Banks's group. Then he dis- 
 covered and explored Spencer's Gulf — so called after Earl Spencer — but 
 found it a place totally unavailalile for settlement. A mountain, sixteen miles 
 inland, three thousand feet, and standing amid a scene of sublime solitude and 
 desolation, Avas ascended by some of the party. But the flowers and birds even 
 of that desolate region are of rare beauty. Hardwicke Bay was discovered, and 
 named after the Earl of Hardwicke. Point Marsden and Nepean Bay were 
 similarly passed and named after officers connected with the English Admiralty. 
 Here the party landed and found abundance of kangaroos ; no less than thirty- 
 one being shot during the first day's hunting ; and the seamen, who had been 
 living on salt meat for many months, revelled in the unaccustomed luxuries of 
 kangaroo soup and steaks. 
 
 The exploration of the south coast was pursued with the utmost perseverance. 
 The Gulf of St Vincent, Yorke's Peninsula, Cape Willoughby, Mount Lofty, 
 Kangaroo Island, and other now well-known places, Avere severally noted and 
 named. Near Backstairs Passage Flinders fell in with the French expedition 
 under Captain Baudin, who commanded the ship the "GeogTaphe." The French- 
 man had beeij exploring Van Diemen's Land, and also the east part of the south 
 coast of the continent, as Flinders the west part. A second vessel, the "Natur- 
 aliste " was engaged in the expedition, but had parted company with the 
 "G^ographe." Mutual civilities and an exchange of information passed between 
 the two commanders ; but Flinders subsequently found that the French, by the 
 orders of the Emperor Napoleon, claimed all the south coast as their discovery, 
 and had named the various points along it by the names of the emperor and his 
 courtiers. They even gave the whole territoi'y the name of the Napoleon Land. 
 The ofticers of the " Gdographe " knew well that all this was done without 
 warrant, for one of them — M. Freyeinet, first lieutenant to Ca^jtain Baudin — said 
 afterwards to Flinders at Sydney Government House : " Captain, if we had not 
 been kept so long picking up .shells and catching butterflies in Van Diemen's 
 Land, you would not have discovered the south coast before us." It is but 
 justice to the French people to say that all idea of appropriating Flinders's dis- 
 coveries has long since been abandoned by them. 
 
 At the place where the A^essels met. Cape Jervis had disajipeared, and the 
 coast had become low and sandy, curving round so as to form a large but open 
 bay. As the head of this bay was seen by both ships at the same time, it 
 received the name of Encounter Bay. The succeeding part of the coast having 
 been discovered by the French, Flinders adopted the names they had given to 
 the various points. 
 
 When Flinders reached Cape Otway, he had come upon the tracks of a 
 previous discoverer. Lieutenant James Grant, who, in the " Lady Nelson " 
 surveying ship, had sailed along the southern coast only a few months previously. 
 But Grant did not see the coast between Cape Otway and Cape Schanck. He 
 spoke of a great opening there, which he called King George's Sound. "Within 
 this lay Port Phillip. It had been discovered by Lieutenant Murray on the 
 15th of February 1802, and it was on the 26th of April that the " Investigator "
 
 1 ] 6 THE HIS TOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 arrived off Cape Schanck. Thence Flinders bore aAvay westward, in order to 
 trace the land ronnd the head of the deep bight. On the west side of the point 
 a small opening was seen, with water breaking across it. At first it seemed 
 scarcely worth notice, but in advancing it appeared more interesting ; and Flinders 
 sailed in to obtain a nearer view. A large extent of water presently became 
 visible within ; and although the entrance seemed very narrow, and there were 
 strong ripplings, like breakers, he was determined to steer on. Every man was 
 at his post as they approached the broken water. The lead was kept going, but 
 the soundings were quite regular, between forty and seventy feet. They steered 
 through ; the water became smootli and shallow, and they found themselves in 
 an extensive harbour. While they gazed around in wonder at the inlet thus 
 ojDened to them, their vessel stuck fast upon a mud-bank, reminding them that 
 first appearances are not always the best criteria of the safety of a port. But 
 the shijD was easily got off again, and brought to an anchor in smooth, deep water. 
 
 Flinders at first supposed the fine harbour he had discovered to be Western 
 Port ; but this mistake was easily corrected the next morning, when a further 
 examination of the harbour was made. Of course he knew nothing of Lieutenant 
 ]\Iurray's previous discovery until he subsequently reached Sydney ; but Murray's 
 names were preserved. It was he who named Poet Phillip, the rocky point on 
 the eastern side. Point Nepean, and a hill far inland on the same side, Arthur's 
 Seat. A wide inlet, which Flinders thought (but erroneously, as it proved) must 
 communicate with the sea, was seen. This was Corio Bay, afterwards seen by 
 Hume and Hovell in their celebrated overland journey from Sydney in 1824. 
 
 Having passed Indented Head (so named by him), he sent three men to the 
 highest part of the back hills, now called Station Peak, to ascertain if there was 
 any arm of the sea visible from its top. None was seen, and the seamen, after 
 building a cairn and leaving a written memorial of their visit, returned to the ship. 
 
 For thirty years afterwards Port Phillip Avas still a solitude ; but in less than 
 thirty years after that again it was the seat of the populous, wealthy, and enter- 
 IM'ising city of Melbourne, whose marvellous growth has become a world's 
 wonder ! 
 
 After leaving Port Phillip, the " Investigator's " explorations on the south 
 coast were ended. Flinders was on his old ground. The man who had begun 
 his discoveries by sailing out from Port Jackson in a boat eight feet long, now 
 sailed in with a large ship, equipped for exjoloration, and with the first fruits of 
 his labours upon his charts. The southern coast of Australia was now fully 
 unveiled. 
 
 On his return to Sydney, on the 9th of May 1802, Flinders found in Port 
 Jackson the second French ship of Baudin's expedition, the " Naturaliste." He 
 communicated Avith the commander, Captain Hamelin, and showed him his 
 charts ; so that there was no doubt then that Flinders had been the first to 
 explore the coast between Cape Nuyts and Encounter Bay. Why his charts 
 were not published first will be seen when his cruel imprisonment and detention 
 by the French at the Mauritius comes to be related.
 
 FLINDERS' S LAST EXPLORATIONS. 117 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 FLINDERS'S LAST EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 SECOND EXPEDITION OF THE " INVESTIGATOR " — FLINDERS SAILS NORTHWARD — PORT 
 CURTIS— BARTER WITH SAVAGES — SURVEY OF THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA — 
 NATIVES OF THE GULF — MALAY FISHERMEN— RETURN TO SYDNEY — FLINDERS 
 SAILS FOR ENGLAND IN THE " PORPOISE " — WRECK OF THE THREE VESSELS — 
 COWARDLY CONDUCT OF CAPTAIN PALMER — FLINDERS CONDUCTS THE SHIP- 
 WRECKED CREWS SAFELY TO SYDNEY — SAILS AGAIN FOR ENGLAND — PUTS IN AT 
 MAURITIUS — INFAMOUS CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH GOVERNOR — FLINDERS DETAINED 
 A PRISONER — ROBBERY OF HIS SHIPS AND PAPERS — FRENCH DISHONESTY — 
 FLINDERS RELEASED — RETURNS TO ENGLAND — PUBLISHES HIS GREAT WORK — 
 DIES — HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 Nothing daunted by the mishaps and disasters of his last expedition, Flinders 
 resolved on continuing his exploring voyage. His ship, the " Investigator," was, 
 moreover, almost Avorn out with age and " service ; but he was not the man to be 
 deterred from high exploits by the mere circumstance of possessing inadequate 
 means and instruments. 
 
 He sailed from Sydney on the 22d of July 1802, taking with him as a tender 
 the "Lady Nelson" surveying ship. The object of this expedition was to 
 examine Hervey, Keppel, and Shoalwater Bays, which had been only imperfectly 
 seen both by Cook and himself. He was then to proceed through Torres Straits, 
 and to examine the Gulf of Carpentaria. The first part of the voyage was 
 uneventful. Flinders first surveyed and named Port Curtis. At Keppel Bay 
 better land was found, but the country near the coast is not inviting. A party 
 of savages threw stones at a boat's crew of the voyagers, but a volley of small 
 shot fired over their heads speedily dispersed them. No harm was done on either 
 side. On the 18th of August FHnders left Keppel Bay, and proceeded to Port 
 Bowen (which he named), and thence to Broad Sound, where the " Lady Nelson" 
 lost her keel by an accident. Passing into Torres Straits, after a terrible struggle 
 in getting through the Barrier Reef, and being obliged to send the " Lady Nelson" 
 back, he sighted the Mim-ay Islands, where he anchored. Scarcely had he done 
 so, when forty or fifty savages came off' in canoes. They would not come along- 
 side of the ship, but lay off" at a Httle distance, holding up cocoa-nuts, joints of 
 bamboo filled with water, plantains, and bows and arrows. A barter was soon 
 commenced, which was carried on in a curious manner. A hatchet or piece of 
 iron being held up, the savages offered an armful of cocoa-nuts, a bunch of green
 
 118 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRA LASIA . 
 
 plantains, or a bow and quiver full of arrows, or the like, in exchange. A savage 
 then leaped overboard, swam to the ship, and made the barter. They did not 
 show the shghtest fear. At one of the Prince of Wales Islands, they landed and 
 found some of those large nests of the white ants, sometimes eight feet or more 
 in height, which Pelsart and Dampier had previously described. At length a 
 large opening presented itself to view, but the water was too shallow to allow of 
 their entering it. This was the Gulf of Carpentaria. On the 6th of September 
 a breeze sprang up and carried the " Investigator" along the low coast of the gulf. 
 Here Flinders was in the track of the early Dutch naf igators. The voyage, as 
 respects fresh adventures, Avas a perfect blank ; but the old " Investigator" was 
 beginning to give out symptoms of breaking up. An examination of her condition 
 showed that there was scarcely a sound timber remaining in her hull. The seamen 
 were really alarmed; for how were they ever to get back again in such a rotten 
 vessel ? Still, Flinders never flinched from his mission. He resolved upon 
 making Port Jackson, if possible, and if not successful, he would try and reach 
 India. On some of the islands in the gulf they saw many natives, who were in 
 the habit of escaping from view in a very remarkable manner. Upon examination 
 it was found that they hid themselves in caves dug in the ground, sometimes 
 containing two compartments, each large enough for a man to lie down in. 
 Many of them were found also to have lost their front teeth, Avhich a black fellow 
 at Mount Gambler once told Mr Julian Wood meant that they had each killed 
 his enemy and eaten him. At the Wellesley Island immense numbers of tui'tles 
 and turtles' eggs were procured. The old vessel grew more shaky daily, and once 
 it bumped upon a rock, and all but went to pieces. Luckily, an opportune wave 
 floated it ofl' again before much harm had been done. On the last day of 1802 the 
 voyagers sighted Cape Maria Van Diemen, and found it to be an island. At 
 North- West Bay the natives were troublesome. They gave chase to Mr Westall 
 the artist, and struck four spears into the body of Mr Whitelock, a petty officer. 
 For this aggression two of them were shot dead in a volley from the ship. A 
 man named Morgan died from sunstroke, and his name was given to a small 
 island, upon which his body was buried. The sm-vey of the Gulf of Carpentaria 
 had occupied 105 days. 
 
 When leaving the gulf the " Investigator" fell in with six Malay prahus and 
 crews, engaged in fishing for trepang, or heclie-de-mer. The place where they 
 were met with was called ]\Ialay Road, not far from Arnheim's Bay. 
 
 On the 5th of INIarch Flinders left the barren and inhospitable shores of the 
 gidf. The south-east monsoons had set in ; his ship was leaky and rotten ; 
 and the crew were suffering so severely from scurvy, that a return to Sydney 
 Avithout fresh provisions Avas impossible. Reaching Timor, proAasions in abun- 
 dance were procured, but unhappily dysentery began to scourge the creAv. All 
 haste Avas made to reach Port Jackson, but many of the crcAV Avere stricken down 
 before, on the 0th of Juno 1803, the " Investigator" reached its desired haven. 
 
 Not much Avas accomplished in the survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria. But 
 the spirit of the heroic Flinders never flagged. He made application for another 
 vessel to complete his explorations in the north, but the governor had no vessel
 
 FLINDERS'S LAST EXPLORATIONS. 119 
 
 to give him, and the old " Investigator" was quite worn out. There was nothing 
 for it but to return to England, and ask for another vessel from the Admiralty. 
 Accordingly, on the 12th of July, Flinders embarked in the "Porpoise," and 
 sailed from Sydney. 
 
 The " Porpoise " was accompanied by two trading vessels, the " Cato " and 
 the " Bridgewater." In passing through Torres Straits on the niglit of the 17th 
 of August, the " Porpoise " struck on a coral reef and " took a fearful heel over 
 on her larboard beam-ends. The ' Bridgewater ' was on the point of following, 
 but the ' Cato ' giving wfty, the former grazing, escaped, while the latter struck 
 and went over two cables' length from the ' Porpoise.' " The coward captain of 
 the "Bridgewater," one Palmer, having escaped, sailed away in spite of the 
 remonstrances of his mate, without making an effort to aid his companions. 
 Mr Williams, the third mate of the " Bridgewater," kept a journal, from which 
 the following particulars of this unparalleled piece of cowardice on the part of 
 Captain Palmer are taken. After describing the situation of the " Porpoise," he 
 says : " Though the noise of the surf was tremendous, the voice of the unfor- 
 tunate Captain Flinders was heard by the fifth officer to say, ' For God's sake, 
 Captain Palmer, assist me ! ' I now volunteered my services to proceed in the 
 cutter if Captain Palmer Avould consent to the aid of the ' Porpoise ; ' he did 
 consent, but Avhile getting ready he changed his mind. The boat was promised 
 in the morning, for which I had every refreshment that could be jjrocured for 
 the relief of my unfortunate companions. We again stood off at seven a.m. : from 
 the mast-head we saw the reef off the two ships, and to leeward of them a sand- 
 bank. . . . We all rejoiced in the prospect of affording assistance to our 
 companions, but the captain ordered the ship to be put on the other tack, and 
 sailing away, left them to their fate. I was sent on shore at Tellicherry with 
 the account of the loss of the ' Cato ' and ' Porpoise.' In giving this account, 
 I did for the first time disobey orders, and gave a contrary account, for I was 
 convinced that the crews of those ships were on the reef, and that the account of 
 their loss was given by Captain Palmer to excuse his conduct. I wrote out the 
 account and left it behind, after having related it as differently as possible. 
 This caused many words, and ended in my leaving the ship, forfeiting my wages 
 and part of my clothes." So far yomig Williams; Palmer and his ship were 
 afterwards lost at sea ; in fact, they were never afterwards heard of ; Williams, 
 by his honoui'able quarrel with his captain, escaped this singularly retributive 
 fate. 
 
 Flinders took the command, safely landed the crews of the two vessels on a 
 sandbank, of which a naiTow space was clear at high water, collected stores, 
 erected tents, formed an encampment, and established a disciplined order of 
 proceedings. The reef was a mere patch of sand, about three hundred yards 
 long and one hundred broad, on which not a blade of vegetation was gro'wang. 
 
 It was determined that two decked boats, capable of conveying all but one 
 boat's crew, should be built from the materials of the Avreck, and that the largest 
 cutter should be repaired and despatched, under the command of Flinders, to 
 Port Jackson, a voyage of 750 miles. On the 26th of August the cutter was
 
 120 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 launched and named the " Hope ; " and on the 6th of September Flinders safely 
 reached Sydney. It was a daring voyage, and bravely conducted. 
 
 The only vessel that Flinders could procure in place of the wrecked " Por- 
 poise " was a small leaky schooner of only twenty-nine tons burthen, named the 
 " Cumberland." He set sail, accompanied by two trading vessels, and reached 
 the shipwrecked crew in safety, by whom he was received with frantic cheei's of 
 joy. Then he set out, with all his old companions, to make the voyage of 16,000 
 miles to England in that miserable craft. Bvit when he had got the length of 
 Mauritius the leaky state of the vessel compelled him to put in there for repairs. 
 Eelying on his passport from the English Admiralty as an explorer, he landed on 
 the island ; and, eternal shame to the French nation and to humanity ! he was 
 apprehended as an impostor by the French governor — a low, malignant, envious, 
 insolent wretch, named De Caen — and detained as a prisoner. He was lyingly 
 accused of being a spy. The thievish Frenchman also seized upon the " Cumbei'- 
 land " and robbed it of all Flinders's log-books, charts, and papers ! For six long 
 years the heroic explorer was detained as a prisoner. He was treated with every 
 indignity and cruelty. The miscreant De Caen perpetrated such outrages on an 
 unoffending and peaceable British subject as ought to have been punished with 
 disgTace and banishment. But his object was to curry favour with the Emperor 
 Napoleon, by approjoriating all the credit of Flinders's discoveries for the French 
 nation. Whilst our gallant explorer was lying in prison, his stolen charts and 
 journals were published in Paris as the records of Admiral Baudin's discoveries ! 
 Of all his acts of high-handed wickedness, none is moi'e discreditable to the 
 memory of Napoleon than his complicity in the imprisonment and robbery of 
 Matthew Flinders. But the French nation are now heartily ashamed of the 
 whole infamous transaction. 
 
 Flinders was released in 1810, and returned to England. He set about the 
 preparation of his great work describing his voyages and discoveries. But, 
 broken down in health and spirits by his long exile and sufferings, he died the 
 very day it was published, the 14th of July 1814. There is a monument to his 
 memory at Port Lincoln. 
 
 Next to Cook's, the name of Flinders stands highest on the illustrious roll of 
 Australian navigators. He was a truly great man, and he possessed every 
 quality of an explorer in the highest degree — undaunted boldness, untiring 
 energy, infinite skill, and boundlessness of resources. As yet Australians have 
 not learned to honour his name as it deserves to be honoured. But the day will 
 come when the halo of the discoverer and martp" Avill shine around the memory 
 of the most generous, most learned, and most modest of all the Australian 
 explorers !
 
 ENGLISH NA VIGATORS AFTER COOK. 121 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ENGLISH NAVIGATOES AFTER COOK. 
 
 CAPTAIN BLIGH's ADVENTURES ON THE NORTH COAST — AT ADVENTURE BAY — OBSERVA- 
 TIONS ON THE NATIVES — HIS SECOND VISIT TO ADVENTURE BAY — LIEUTENANT 
 JOHN M'CLUER AT ARNHEIM's LAND — CAPTAIN EDWARDS WRECKED IN TORRES 
 STRAITS — HIS ADVENTURES WITH THE NATIVES AT CAPE YORK — SANDWICH SOUND 
 AND wolf's bay — CAPTAIN COX AT VAN DIEMEN's LAND — CAPTAIN DE ST ALOUARN 
 — VANCOUVER ON THE SOUTH COAST^DISCOVERS KING GEORGE'S SOUND — POINT 
 POSSESSION — HIS OBSERVATIONS THERE — HIS DEPARTURE FROM THE COAST — 
 LIEUTENANT JAMES GRANT's DISCOVERIES — SURVEY OF WESTERN PORT BAY. 
 
 The romantic story of Captain William Bligh and the mutineers of the 
 " Bounty" will always form a striking episode in the story of English enterprise 
 in the Southern Ocean. But it lies outside the history of Australian navigation 
 and discovery, excepting in so far as it adds the name of Bligh to the list of 
 discoverers. After the mutineers had turned their captain and eighteen of their 
 comrades adrift in the midst of the Pacific Ocean, on the 28th of April 1788, the 
 hapless castaways steered for Coepang, a Dutch settlement, at the south-west 
 end of the island of Timor, which they reached on the 14th of June, having 
 drifted the incredible distance of 3600 miles in an open boat. On the way they 
 made the east coast of New South Wales in about 12^° of south latitude, and 
 sailing northward, passed roimd Cape York and the Prince of Wales Islands. 
 
 It was not to be supposed that Bligh, under the circumstances of extreme 
 distress, of fatigue, and difficulty of every kind, could do much for navigation 
 and geography ; yet he took views and made such observations and notes as 
 enabled him to construct a chart of his track, and of the lands and reefs seen 
 from the launch. And as he passed to the north of the Prince of Wales Islands, 
 whereas Cook had passed to the south, he added a good deal to what little was 
 yet known of Torres Straits. 
 
 Bligh, before the mutiny broke out, had touched at Adventure Bay in Van 
 Diemen's Land for the purpose of obtaining wood and water. These he found 
 in abundance, as also plenty of fish, and he planted many useful seeds and trees 
 on the island. He notes a i^emarkable circumstance in connection with the 
 aborigines at that place : when presents were made them wrapped up in paper, 
 they took the articles out and placed them on their heads. The Dutch navigators 
 had formerly noted the same curious circumstance as being practised by the 
 natives on the east side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Bligh again visited Ad-
 
 122 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 venture Bay with the ships "Providence" and "Assistant " in 1792; but these 
 visits added nothing to the catalogue of discoveries in that quarter. We shall 
 meet with this remarkable man further on, when we come to narrate the early- 
 history of New South Wales. 
 
 At the end of the year 1791, Lieutenant John M'Cluer, of the Bombay 
 Marine, whilst engaged in making a survey of the west coast of New Guinea, 
 touched on the coast of Arnheim's Land, sailing along it westward from longitude 
 135° 15' to 129° 55', when the coast was found to turn southward. This was the 
 Cape Van Diemen of the old Dutch navigators. 
 
 In the same year Captain Edwards, in the frigate " Pandora," was wrecked 
 on a reef in Torres Straits, when thirty-nine lives were lost. Not being able to 
 save anything fi'om the wreck. Captain Edwards, almost destitute of provisions 
 and water, set sail with the remainder of his crew, in four open boats, for the 
 north coast of Australia. From one part of the coast two canoes, with three 
 natives in each, paddled hard after the shipwrecked mariners ; but though they 
 Avaved and made many signs, it was not thought prudent to wait for them. At 
 one of the York Isles the natives, for some trifling presents, filled a keg of water 
 for Captain Edwards, but refused to bring down any more. Soon afterward 
 they let fly a shower of arrows amongst the unfortunate sufferers. Happily no 
 person was wounded, and the natives were put to flight by a volley of musketry. 
 
 At the Prince of Wales Islands good water was found, and the sufferings of 
 the party were much alleviated. To a large soimd there they gave the name of 
 Sandwich Sound, and to a commodious bay in it the name of Wolf's Bay. On 
 the 2d of September Captain Edwards, with his little squadron, passed out to 
 the northward, and the same evening, by steering westward, cleared all the 
 islands and reefs of Torres Straits. On the 14th he reached Timor. 
 
 The brig " Mercury," commanded by Captain John Henry Cox, anchored at 
 the entrance of a deep bay on the south side of Van Diemen's Land, on the 3d 
 of July 1789. This bay was then first discovered, and on the maps (although 
 Cox does not appear to have named it) the name of Cox Bight is given to it. 
 The country was found to be agreeably interspersed with hills and valleys, and 
 some of the hills were luxuriantly clothed with trees to their very summits. 
 About four miles from the vessel there was a stream of fresh water, and close to 
 it stood a hut, or rather hovel, neatly constructed of branches of trees and dried 
 leaves. Around it were scattered a great quantity of pearl, scallop, oyster, and 
 other shells, which had been recently roasted. The droppings of some large 
 animal, proljably kangaroos, Avere met with in every direction ; but neither the 
 animal itself nor any of the natives were seen. 
 
 A heavy swell from the southward obliged Cox to get under way, and he 
 Avorked along the shore to the eastward. His intention Avas to put into Adven- 
 ture Bay ; but being set to the nortliAvard of his reckoning, on the 8th July he 
 discovered, and came to an anchor in, Oyster Bay, on the inner side of Maria's 
 Island, Avhere Avood and Avater Avere plentiful. Here some communication Avas 
 held with the natives, but nothing new respecting the country or its inhabitants 
 Avas added to the observations of Marion and Cook.
 
 ENGLISH NA VIG ATOMS AFTER COOK. 123 
 
 With the exception of a Frcncli vessel, commanded by Captain De St 
 Alouarn, which is said to have ancliored near Cape Leeuwin in 1772, the sonth 
 coast of the continent was apparently unvisited by any European navigator fi'om 
 1627 to 1791. In the latter year Captain George Vancouver, an officer in the 
 British Navy, and who had sailed with Cook, made the south coast at Cape 
 Chatham (which he named) on the 26th of September. vSailing eastward, he 
 came to a sound in which he cast anchor on the 28th, and to which he gave the 
 name of King George III.'s Sound. The first land he saw was a high moun- 
 tain, which he named Mount Gardiner, and some islands off the mainland were 
 called Eclipse Isles. The appearance of the country was not very tempting, the 
 soil being generally sandy, although well Avooded. Fresh water was abundant, 
 and the climate Avas healthy and agreeable. Kangaroos and birds were in large 
 numbers, and so likewise were sea and shell fish. No natives were found, but 
 their deserted huts (or mia-mias) were seen all about. Vancouver having cast 
 anchor in a well-sheltered position, landed his crew. Tracing the shores of the 
 sound inland, he reached a high rocky point, which he named Point Possession, 
 and on reaching its summit he found that the surrounding country presented a 
 far more fertile and pleasing aspect than had been before observed. Nearly in 
 the centre of the sound was an island, covered with a good deal of green herb- 
 age, differing in that respect from the islands around, which were mere barren 
 rocks. There was an approach to the picturesque in the way the sandhills 
 seemed heaving and rippling in the distance ; there was even something wild 
 and sombre in the thin wiry grass, or dense thicket of rushes with which they were 
 covered ; but it was a landscape that owed much of its charm to the air of savage 
 desolation which it wore. Vancouver quitted the sound on the 11th of October, 
 and proceeded eastward in the examination of the coast ; but, baffled by un- 
 favourable winds, he abandoned his design. He then sailed away on his main 
 expedition to the north-west coast of America. The last land seen was named 
 by him Termination Island, the northei-n coast of which appeared much 
 broken. In sailing out of King George's Sound, Vancouver's vessel had struck 
 on a bank covered with oysters, to which the name Oyster Harbour was given. 
 This completed the navigator's discoveries in Southern Australia. 
 
 Lieutenant James Grant, on his voyage to Port Jackson in command of 
 his Majesty's surveying brig "Lady Nelson," in 1800 discovered and traced a 
 considerable part of the south coast. The fii'st land seen was Cape Northumber- 
 land (so named by Grant), which has since gained an evil reputation amongst 
 mariners as a very dangerous locality. Its lonely beach is strewn for miles with 
 the fragments of -wrecked vessels ; but a lighthouse now stands upon it. Within 
 the cape stands also the little seaport of Port MacDonnell, so called after 
 Governor MacDonnell of South Australia. Two high mountains seen far 
 inland by Grant were named, the one INIount Schanck, after Admiral Schanck, 
 and the other Mount Gambier, after Admiral Lord Gambler. Sailing along 
 the coast, another cape was met with, and was named Cape Bridgewater. 
 A third cape the explorer named Cape Sir William Grant, and some 
 adjacent rocks were named the Lawrence Rocks. The sight of smoke upon
 
 1 24 THE HIS TOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 the hills on shore showed that the land was inhabited. A large bay was next 
 discovered and named Portland Bay. To the right as Grant advanced lay a 
 high and rocky island about a mile long, which he named Lady Julia Percy 
 Island, in compliment to the Northumberland family. To the east of Portland 
 Bay he found a high and bold headland, the shores of which appeared inacces- 
 sible, but the land was pictm'esque and beautiful, abounding in wood, thick 
 groves, and large trees. This was named Cape Otway. Bounding this head- 
 land another high cape was seen, the scenery of which was very beautiful, con- 
 sisting of valleys and downs with streams of water meandering through them. 
 From its fancied resemblance to the Isle of Wight in England it was named 
 Point Wight. It so happened that Wight was also the name of a son-in-law of 
 Admiral Schanck. Wilson's Promontory was next passed and named. Grant 
 had just missed the chance of discovering Port Phillip, by sailing straight 
 across the bay 120 miles wide, instead of carefully exploring it. At Cape 
 LiPTRAP an unsuccessful attempt was made to land. The " Lady Nelson," 
 having accomplished the achievement of sailing through Bass Straits from the 
 westward, at length arrived at Sydney, where the tidings of what had been 
 achieved by so small a vessel in such dangerous seas gave great satisfaction. 
 The gallant little ship was immediately put in commission by the Government, 
 and her first duty was to go back and make a survey of Western Port Bay. 
 
 She entered Western Port on the 21st of March 1801, and discovered two 
 islands within the entrance. To one of these was given the name of Schnapper 
 Island, from its fancied resemblance to a schnapi^er's head. A very pleasant 
 island, with an extremely rich soil and delightful scenery, was named Churchill 
 Island. Many seeds were planted here. After making a complete survey of 
 the port, the "Lady Nelson" surveyed the three bays round Wilson's Promontory, 
 and then returned to Sydney.
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN EXPLORERS. 
 
 GHAPTEE I. 
 
 FIRST EXPLOEATIONS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE NEW SETTLEMENT — ASPECT OF SYDNEY — MYSTERY 
 OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS — SUPERSTITIOUS FEARS — GOVERNOR -PHILLIP's FIRST 
 INSPECTIONS OF THE COUNTRY — GEORGE BASS IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS — LIEU- 
 TENANT BARREILLER AND MR CALEY — LAAVSON, BLAXLAND, AND WENTWORTH's 
 EXPEDITION — MR EVANS'S EXPEDITION — WANT OF WATER BY THE SETTLERS — 
 ROAD TO BATHURST FORMED — GOVERNOR MACQUARIE's JOURNEY ACROSS THE 
 BLUE MOUNTAINS — EVANS DISCOVERS THE LACHLAN. 
 
 From the date of the first settlement on the shores of Port Jackson, a period of 
 twenty-five years elapsed before any successful attempt was made to extend the 
 domain of the young colony by exploring the interior. By that time Sydney had 
 become a thriving town. The governor's house was of stone. The judge and a 
 few Government officers had houses of brick, but the main portion of the in- 
 habitants were content Avith plastered logs and shingled roofs. Yet the people 
 of Sydney felt no small pride in their town. They would have liked a little more 
 land for their few sheep and cows. But the flocks on which they relied roamed 
 through far different pastures. When the season came round they sailed away 
 down the Great Southern Ocean, and came back laden with black oil and sperm. 
 Their harbour was the finest in the world, sending its arms in among their 
 cottages and town gardens, and capable of containing the whole British Navy ; 
 their log-huts were bathed in everlasting sunshine ; and business was good. 
 From the sparkling waters of the bay to the Blue Mountains behind, all was 
 bustle and activity : whalers from Europe and America refitting, immigrants 
 landing, new houses building, and vineyards and orange-groves creeping round 
 the bay. Such as it was it comprehended all the English in Australia. Through 
 those Blue Mountains no man could find a way to the boundless regions which 
 lay beyond. Rewards were offered for the discovery of a mere sheep-track. 
 The more adventurous citizens risked life and limb — not always without fatal
 
 126 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 results — in clambering up and down their craggy sides, and peeping into their 
 black fissures. But to pass these rugged heights upon the west had hitherto 
 been a fruitless eflFort. They had even become in some measure associated with 
 mysterious thoughts, and linked in imagination with spiritual and dreaded in- 
 fluences. They were as impassable, and the regions beyond were as unknown, to 
 the natives of the coimtry as to the colonists ; and the former appeared to regard 
 them as the abode of malignant spirits, who were possessed of unearthly and 
 awful powers over the natural world. So readily does man, whether civilised or 
 savage, link the marvellous with the unknown, and fancy conjm-e up the super- 
 natural in connection with the invisible. 
 
 But — evil spirits notwithstanding — many bold efforts had, in the interim, been 
 made by the colonists for the passage of these Blue Mountains. And not with- 
 out good reason, for the narrow strip of territory between the mountains and the 
 sea (at best of only moderate fertility) was fast becoming overstocked, and the 
 settlers were in want of fresh pastures for their increasing flocks and herds. But 
 the eastern face of the range presented everywhere a steep and precipitous 
 escarpment, in the effort to scale which the boldest endeavours were vain. 
 
 Governor Phillip, in 1788, had made several excursions round the head of 
 Sydney Harbour, during which he discovered and named Carmarthen, Lansdowne, 
 and Eichmond Hills, and — more important than all — the Hawkesbury River. 
 In August of the same year Lieutenant Dowes and a small party set off* from 
 Sydney with a determination to reach the mountains. They got as far as a 
 branch of the Hawkesbury, which had been formerly discovered by Captain 
 Tench, but could not reach the vast range lying right before them. In 1790 
 some officers made an excursion in a direction south-west from Paramatta. They 
 were absent six days, and reported that they had passed through a very bad 
 country, intersected everywhere with deep ravines. Nothing further in the way 
 of exploration was attempted for some years. 
 
 In 1796 George Bass, with two companions, started to explore the mysterious 
 highland region. As we have already seen, he was a man of the most daring 
 spirit ; nothing daunted him. His hardihood and skill in exploration were 
 astonishing. He climbed frowning precipices by the aid of iron hooks fastened 
 to his arms, and descended by means of ropes to the bottoms of frightful caverns. 
 How far he penetrated into the mountains is not known with certainty ; but he 
 said he had ascended a very high hill, and from its summit had seen another 
 range about forty miles distant, which appeared to extend north and south. This 
 seemed quite impassable, and he therefore returned. In doing so, he discovered 
 the Grose River. About this time also Governor Hunter made an expedition 
 along the course of the Nepean River, and discovered Mount Hunter and the 
 country immediately adjoining. In 1802 Lieutenant Barreiller, and a year 
 after, Mr Caley, tried to force the terrible passes, but both were compelled to 
 return baffled. 
 
 At length, in the year 1813, when a severe drought had burnt up the herbage 
 in the coast districts, and occasioned a serious mortality amongst the cattle, three 
 gentlemen. Lieutenant Lawson of the 104th Regiment, with Messrs Blaxland
 
 FIRST EXPLORATIONS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 127 
 
 and Wentworth, led an expedition into the mountains, which was very successful, 
 for at length the long-sought pass was discovered. 
 
 Crossing the Nepean l\iver at Emu Plains, they ascended the first range of 
 mountains, and speedily got entangled in its deep ravines. But continuing their 
 search, they at length found a spur trending westward, which they climbed, and 
 from the summit of it looked down upon a valley of beautiful richness, Avell 
 grassed and well watered. Descending into the valley down the slopes of Mount 
 York, they found the country improving as they went on, and after a toilsome 
 march of eight or ten miles, they found that the worst difficulties had all been 
 surmounted. But, as their provisions were expended, they were obliged to return 
 to Sydney, after an absence of little more than a month. 
 
 In the same year ]\Ir Evans, a Government surveyor, was despatched from 
 Sydney with an exploring party to follow up the discoveries made by Lawson, 
 Blaxlaud, and Wentworth. He reported that on the fifth day after crossing the 
 Xepean, he and his party having effected their passage over the Blue ISIountains, 
 arrived at the commencement of a valley on the western side of them. This 
 valley Mr Evans describes as beautiful and fertile, with a rapid stream running 
 through it. It was the termination of the tour lately made by Messrs Blaxland, 
 Wentworth, and Lawson. Continuing in a v/esterly direction, for twenty-one 
 days from this station, Mr Evans at length found it necessary to return ; and on 
 the 8th of January he arrived back at Emu Island, after an absence of seven 
 weeks. During the course of this tour, he passed over several plains of great 
 extent, interspersed with hills and valleys, abounding in the richest soil, and 
 with various streams of water and chains of ponds. The country he traversed 
 was ninety-eight miles beyond the termination of Messrs Blaxland, Wentworth, 
 and Lawson's torn-, and 150 miles from the Nepean. The greater part of these 
 plains are described as being nearly free of timber and brushwood, and in 
 capacity equal (in Mr Evans's opinion) to every demand Avhich the colony might 
 have for an extension of tillage and pastiu-e lands for a century to come. The 
 stream alreadj' mentioned continued its course in a Avesterly direction ; and for 
 several miles passed through valleys, wdth many and great accessions of other 
 streams, and at length became a capacious and beautiful river, abounding in fish 
 of very large size and fine flavour, many of which weighed not less than fifteen 
 pounds. From the summits of some very high hills, Mr Evans saw a vast extent 
 of flat country, lying in a westerly direction, which appeared to be bounded at a 
 distance of about forty miles by other hills. The general description of these 
 heretofore unexplored regions given by Mr Evans was, that they very far sur- 
 })assed in beauty and fertility of soil any he had seen in New South Wales or 
 Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 One of the extensive tracts which Mr Evans discovered was named Bathurst 
 Plains, and the streams he traced for some distance, the Macquarie and Lachlan 
 Rivers. One of them, as had been described many years before by Wilson and 
 his party, ran to the north-west and the other to the south-west into the great 
 unknown interior. This discovery of extensive tracts of fine gz'azing country 
 gave great encouragement to the settlers, and an impetus to the progress of the
 
 128 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 colony which sent it rapidly forward in the road to prosperity. Immediately the 
 pent-up flocks and herds of the colonists poured themselves out over Bathurst 
 Plains and the western districts of New South Wales ; and the people of Sydney 
 began to desert their town gardens for sheep-feeding and wool-growing. 
 
 But a new impediment arose. Land was to be had for the taking, but there 
 was scarcely any water. Ruin hung over the head of the flockowner who was not 
 within reach of a permanent stream. An unusually dry summer left him a 
 beggar. In vain he hurried his flocks to the nearest watering-place. They 
 strewed the way with their carcases. All the permanent streams were quickly 
 occupied. New South Wales was not to be a great wool-growing country after 
 all, unless more rivers could be discovered. To little purpose they had searched 
 Euroj^e for the sheep most famous for their wools, if these priceless animals were 
 now to die of thirst. The Government surveyors were instructed to be always on 
 the look-out for rivers. Rivers promised to be the death of the Government sur- 
 veyors. Such rivers no man ever heard of before. They aU ran inland. They 
 stopped Avhen least expected, leaving no visible channel or water-course. Some- 
 times they were as salt as the waters of the ocean ; at another period of the year 
 they contained excellent drinking water. At one time they formed merely a chain 
 of ponds ; and at another, in a perfectly dry season, they boiled over their banks, 
 filling whole valleys with crashing timber, and sweeping away the apparently 
 secure homesteads which had sprung up on their shores. 
 
 In January 1815 a road made along the ridge of the Blue Mountains was 
 finished as far as what is now the town of Bathurst, and in Ajiril of the same 
 year Governor Macquarie went to inspect the places discovered along the line. 
 He passed in succession through, and named, King's Table Land, Prince Regent's 
 Glen, the Vale of Clwyd, and other places, now well-known spots past which the 
 iron horse rushes daily, carrying its freight of human beings and luggage. It 
 was the 4th May when the governor reached Bathurst Plains. From this point 
 Mr Evans and a small party were despatched, with one month's iJi'ovisions, to 
 explore the country to the south-west. They passed along a valley down which 
 a stream poured into the Macquarie, and named it Queen Charlotte's Valley. 
 After passing through some rough and scrubby country, they reached the 
 Lachlan (so called from the governor's Christian name), which they followed up 
 for some distance, but without being able to find out where it ran to. There 
 was the same perplexity about the Macquarie. There were thus two rivers 
 flowing into the interior, within a short distance of each other, and diverging 
 from each other farther and farther at every mile ; but whither did they flow 1 
 This problem was a puzzling one, which it took a long period of exploration to 
 answer.
 
 ox LEY'S TWO EXPEDITIONS. 129 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OXLEY'S TWO EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 LIEUTENANT OXLEY, SURVEYOR-GENERAL — HIS EXPEDITION IN 1817 — TRACE THE 
 LACHLAN — THE NATIVES — A VAST MARSH — MALLEE SCRUB — A FRESH START — 
 BIRDS AND FISH — A TERRIBLE COUNTRY — TURNING BACK — RETURN TO BATHURST 
 — SECOND EXPEDITION — DOAVN THE MACQUARIE — A FERTILE COUNTRY — SUPPOSED 
 INLAND SEA — THE CASTLEREAGH — THE PEEL — THE SEA REACHED — A LUCKY 
 DISCOVERY — RETURN TO NEWCASTLE — THE BROTHERS HUME's FIRST EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 To solve the problem of the two I'ivers was now the ardent desire of the 
 colonists ; so that, when ]\Ir Evans returned, it needed no persuasion to induce 
 the governor to send out a second expedition. A leader for it was found in the 
 surveyor-general of the colony, Lieutenant Oxley, E.N., a young officer of great 
 spirit and enterprise. He had with him ISIr Allan Cunningham, a botanist and 
 explorer, to whose memory a monument is erected in the Botanical Gai-dens at 
 Sydney ; Mr Evans, the deputy surveyor-general ; INIr Frazer, a botanist ; and 
 Mr Parr, a mineralogist. The expedition started eai'ly in April 1817, and on 
 the 14th arrived at Bathurst Plains, where they found the young settlement 
 formed by Governor Macquarie already in a flourishing condition. 
 
 Oxley 's first resolve was to explore the first and largest of the rivers seen by 
 Mr Evans in his previous journey; and on the 20th the party started from 
 Bathurst towards the Lachlan, through a country which, although at first very 
 picturesque in appearance, soon became flat and uninviting. They reached the 
 river on the 26th, at a place where it was about a hundred feet wide, with deep 
 banks, and its course marked by large trees, many of which, having fallen into 
 the stream, obstructed the current, and rendered progress difficult. Here a 
 depot was established, and two boats constructed to assist their pi'ogress down 
 the river. Finding by their instruments that they Avere not more than six 
 hundred feet above the level of the sea, they inferred from this and from flood 
 marks which were everywhere visible — some of them thirty-six feet above the 
 stream — that the ocean could not be nearly so distant as had before been sup- 
 posed. It was believed that the Lachlan united somewhere with the Macquarie, 
 and probably with other rivers, and fell into the Pacific on the southern coast, 
 at a distance of not more than five or six hundred miles. 
 
 Considerable numbers of natives were found encamped on the banks of the 
 river, and the lagoons and pools were full of fish and covered Avith wild fowl. 
 The natives behaved throughout in a very jieaceable and friendly manner, and 
 
 R
 
 130 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the travellers proceeded througli apparently endless plains and swamps, Avith no 
 other obstructions than those offered by the nature of the country. On the 12th 
 May the stream appeared to terminate in a vast marsh, and they resolved to 
 attempt to go no farther in that direction ; but as another branch had been seen 
 to the south-west they proceeded towards it. They reached an elevated range 
 on the 4th June, after passing through a monotonous and desolate region, desti- 
 tute of Avater, and exceedingly difficult for travelling. Their horses were almost 
 worn out wdth fatigue and want of food, most of the country crossed being of 
 the kind knoAvn as mallee scrub ; and the prospects on all sides, from the hills 
 on which they now encamped, were of the most dreary and disheartening kind, 
 with recent flood marks in all directions. 
 
 After stopping to rest and recruit for a few days, they resolved to turn back 
 towards the north, in hopes of regaining the river, and on the 23d June again 
 reached the Lachlan, at a spot where it had emerged from the great swamps 
 which had before caused them to abandon it. It was now enclosed between 
 deep banks, running to the westward, and so hidden by trees that it was not 
 perceptible until close at hand. Fish were abundant, consisting mostly of a 
 species of perch of two or three pounds' weight, and the fine large fish afterwards 
 known as the Murray cod, weighing from fifty to seventy pounds each. Birds 
 were also plentiful, and easily procured ; and with all these advantages in their 
 favoiu' it was resolved to make another attempt to follow the course of the river 
 towards its mouth. These encouraging prospects were, however, but of very 
 short continuance, for the disappointed explorers again came to almost inter- 
 minable swamps and bogs, in which the strength of both men and horses quickly 
 became exhausted. The stream, too, was again obstructed with fallen timber to 
 such an extent that the boats were useless. From every elevation they ascended 
 the prospect presented was of the same monotonous and sterile description — 
 enormous flats and almost impervious scrubs stretching in every direction, and 
 dotted with shallow lagoons, from Avhich a sickly and decaying vegetation sent 
 up an offensive odour, and jjoisoned the atmosphere with miasm.s. 
 
 After pushing through this difficult and disheartening country for a consider- 
 able distance, they were again brought to a stand by an impassable and appar- 
 ently endless swamp. They had now reached a point which they reckoned at 
 about five hundred miles in a direct line from their place of departure, and more 
 than double that distance by the devious route they had been compelled to 
 follow. The river, which they had traced so great a distance, had not, so far as 
 they had been able to discover, received a single tributary in all that vast extent 
 of country. Being unable to proceed farther, they buried a bottle containing the 
 names of the party, the course they then proposed to pursue, and the date at 
 which they had reached the spot. The place where they turned back, after 
 following the course of the river for so many hundreds of miles, was, singu- 
 larly enough, within a short distance of the junction of the Lachlan with 
 the Murrumbidgee ; and they missed the discovery of that fine river only by 
 a day or two's journey. Their farthest camp was about latitude 34° and longi- 
 tude 145°.
 
 ox LETS TWO EXPEDITIONS. 131 
 
 They retraced their steps on the banks of the Lachlan until the l.st of August, 
 and then struck across the country in a north-east direction, in order, if possible, 
 to reach the Macquarie. The country over which they now travelled consisted 
 princijially of a red sandy loam, with patches of cypress, box, and acacia trees, 
 and tracts of malice scrub. On the 14tli August, having- travelled about a hun- 
 dred miles, and suliered from want of water, without having seen any signs of 
 the Macquarie, they changed their course to the eastward. Their provisions were 
 now beginning to fail, and they feared that if they proceeded farther from the 
 settled districts they would be unable to return. After facing to the eastward, 
 they crossed many fine streams, and at length reached the Macquarie about fifty 
 miles beyond the place to which Mr Evans had traced it upon his first journey. 
 They followed down the course of the river for some distance, but the state of 
 their provisions and other circumstances compelled them to return without 
 having obtained any definite information as to its further course. The country 
 on its banks, so far as they went, was of the most promising description ; and 
 their return journey towards Bathurst was through a district of beautiful hills 
 and fertile valleys, in which the streams abounded with fish and the plains Avith 
 game. They reached the settlement on the 29th of August, after an absence of 
 about four months and a half, having added greatly to what was previously 
 known of the interior if they failed to achieve all at which they had aimed. 
 
 The result of this expedition was to awaken a strong desire in the colonists 
 to ascertain more about the character of the great unknown interior on whose 
 fringe they had so long Avaited and Avondered. Accordingly, in May 1818, Mr 
 Oxley again set out, with a well- equipped party, consisting of Dr Harris, a 
 surgeon of the old New South Wales Corps ; Mr Evans, the deputy-surveyor ; 
 Mr C. Fi'aser, botanist ; and twelve men, with nineteen horses, and six months' 
 provisions. Previous to the departure of this party, preparations had been made 
 for facilitating their proceedings by building two boats at the point on the 
 Macquarie which they had first struck on their former journey in returning from 
 the Lachlan. In these boats they embarked the heaviest portions of their pro- 
 visions and equipments, Avliile the horses thus relieved proceeded along the 
 banks. They found as they proceeded that the river received the waters of 
 various tributaries, and in its increased volume was frequently as much as three 
 hundred feet wide, proportionately deep, and varied with magnificent reaches, 
 with extensive flats of the richest land on either side, on which no traces of 
 floods could be discovered. The natives were numerous and not unfriendly, and 
 Avild fowl and kangaroos abundant. On the hills which formed the backgi'ounds 
 of the picturesque scenes through which they passed, were discovered mineral 
 indications of a most pi"omising character ; and altogether the splendid prospects 
 Avhicli seemed to lie before the party raised their most enthusiastic expectations. 
 Here at length the Australia of the old navigators — the bright vision Avhich had 
 lured the world for centuries — was about to meet the gaze of civilised men. 
 Here, in the innermost recesses to which the coy genius of Australia could 
 retreat, she Avas at last about to reveal her choicest treasures. Never Avas 
 enthusiasm doomed to cpiicker disappointment. As they advanced the scene
 
 132 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 gradually clianged. At every mile the country became flatter and more uninter- 
 esting, until, having reached the 148th degi-ee of longitude and the 31st of latitude, 
 the river lost itself in apparently interminable marshes and swamps, amid which 
 further progress appeared impossible. Mr Oxley thought he had now reached 
 the margin of an inland sea. His account says : " To assert positively that we 
 were on the margin of the lake or sea into which this great body of water is 
 discharged, might reasonably be deemed a conclusion that has nothing but 
 conjecture for its basis ; but, if an opinion may be hazarded from actual appear- 
 ances, which our subsequent route tended more strongly to confirm, I feel con- 
 fident we are in the immediate vicinity of an inland sea." Mr Oxley's specula- 
 tions, however, on this as on other important points in Australian geography, 
 although by no means improbable when made, turned out to be erroneous. 
 Defeated but not dismayed by the obstacles before them, and hoping to achieve 
 in another direction something more worthy of note than seemed possible in the 
 great marshes of the Macquarie, the faces of the party were now turned towards 
 the east. A lofty range of hills, which in their outAvard journey they had seen 
 in that direction, was the object to which they now directed their course. These 
 hills Avere bare and dark in appearance, and had been named Arbuthnot's Range, 
 but were afterwards known as the Warrambungle Mountains. Their course 
 towards them lay over a difiicult country of alternate swamp and scrub. INIuch 
 of the ground, even Avhere dry on the surface, was rotten and treacherous, and 
 the horses sank almost knee-deep at every step ; the consequence was, that in a 
 short time they lost several of their best animals and almost exhausted the 
 remainder. 
 
 On the 27th July, when they had been out about two months, they reached 
 the banks of a considerable stream — more than five hundred feet wide, and 
 apparently in flood by the heavy rains which were now falling. This river Avas 
 named the Castlereagh, and after Avaiting on its banks for a fcAV days it fell so 
 much that they Avere able to cross it. The heavy rains, hoAvever, had rendered 
 the country almost impassable : but they struggled on, and at length reached a 
 hill Avliich they named Kangaroo Hill from the numbers of those animals found 
 there, but Avhich A\'as afterAvards called Loadstone Hill from the remarkable 
 eff'ect it produced on the compass, Avhich Avas suddenly reversed, so that the 
 needle pointed to the south. On ascending Ai'buthnot's Range they ascer- 
 tained that its loftiest point (Mount Exmouth) Avas about three thousand 
 feet high. From this elevation Mr Oxley described the surrounding country as 
 folloAvs : 
 
 "To the north-east, commencing at N. 33° E., and extending to N. 51° E., a 
 lofty and magnificent range of hills Avas seen lifting their blue heads above the 
 horizon. This range was honoured AAath the name of the Earl of HardAvicke, and 
 Avas distant on a medium from 100 to 120 miles; its highest elevations Avere 
 named jNIount Apsley and Mount Shirley. The country betAveen Mount 
 Exmouth and this bounding range AA^as broken into rugged hills, and apparently 
 deep valleys, and several minor ranges of hills also appeared. The high lands 
 fiom the east and south-east gradually lessened to the north-Avest, when they
 
 ox LEY'S TWO EXPEDITIONS. 133 
 
 were lost in tlie immcnso levels -which bounded the interior abyss of this sini^nlar 
 country, the gulf in Avhich both water and mountain seem to be as nothing. 
 Mount Exmouth seems principally composed of iron-stone ; and some of the 
 richest ore I had yet seen was found upon it." 
 
 Leaving the Warrambungle Ivange, they continued their journey towards the 
 coast, jiassing through a broken country with much good land, for about a 
 hundred miles. Keeping still towards the eastern coast, they crossed Liverpool 
 Plains, containing many tracts of splendid openly-wooded country, consisting of 
 alternate hills and valleys, and abounding with game and with a numerous 
 population of aborigines. From an elevation called Whitwell Hill they had a 
 view of a magnificent country, with mountains stretching to the eastward. On 
 the 2d September they reached a deep and I'apid stream, Avhich they named 
 the Peel ; and after crossing it passed over some lofty elevations, and through 
 fine valleys, with numerous streams running westward. 
 
 Beyond this they found the streams running to the eastward, and it was 
 evident they had passed the dividing range, separating the watei's of the great 
 interior from those which fell into the Pacific, which washed the shores of the 
 eastern coast. The rest of their journey was through an extremely broken and 
 picturesque country, of a different geological character from that which had been 
 the scene of their wanderings to the westward of the dividing range. Pocks and 
 glens, lofty precipices and shaggy woods, alternated with rich open forest lands. 
 They were at an elevation of several thousand feet, and their descent to the 
 lower coast district was extremely difficult. They at length reached a fine 
 stream, which they named the Hastings, and which brought them to the coast, 
 after having traversed, from their farthest western point in the great marshes of 
 the Macquarie, an extent ol country measuring nearly four hundred miles in a 
 straight line, and on which the foot of civilised man had never before been set. 
 The spot where they reached the sea was Port iSIacquarie : and as this was 
 before any settlement had been formed there, they still had a difficult journey 
 before them in order to reach the settled districts. The coast, between the place 
 where they struck the Pacific and Newcastle, the nearest spot where civilised 
 men were to be found, was interrupted and broken by numerous indentations 
 and salt-water lakes, difficult to cross and impossible to avoid. In these circum- 
 stances the travellers were fortunate enough to find a boat, half buried in the 
 sand, the remains probably of a wreck. This boat the men carried on their 
 shoulders for about ninety miles from one inlet to another. 
 
 With the natives, throughout their long jom'ney in the interior, they had no 
 conflict, and had experienced no difficulty up to this time in maintaining friendly 
 relations. They found the coast natives, however, extremely treacherous ; for 
 although the savages professed to be most friendlj^, they attacked the party on 
 more than one occasion, and dangerously wounded some of the men. They at 
 length reached Port Stephens, and from thence were conveyed to Newcastle, 
 where they arrived on 5th November, after an absence from the settled districts 
 of more than five months, during Avhich period they had accomplished by far the 
 longest journey which up to that period had been undertaken into the interior of
 
 134 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the Great South Land, and had added a vast extent of magnificent country to 
 the previously known territory. 
 
 Other routes through the coast range than that discovered by Wentworth 
 and his companions were soon sought for and found. So early as 1814 Mr 
 Hamilton Hume and his brother, two youths, the sons of a Presbyterian minister, 
 and natives of the colony, had penetrated through the mountains at a point sixty 
 or seventy miles to the south-west of the previously opened route to the western 
 interior, and had discovered the country around Bong-bong and Berrima. Two 
 or three years subsequently, Mr Hume, accompanied by Mr INIeehan, Government 
 surveyor, made further successful exploring journeys in the same direction ; in 
 these journeys Goulburn Plains, and a great part of the county of Argyle, as far 
 as Lake Bathurst, Avere discovered.
 
 JOHNSTON'S EXPEDITION. 135 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 JOHNSTON'S EXPEDITION. 
 
 PROGRESS OF PASTORAL SETTLEMENT — LIEUTENANT JOHNSTON'S EXPEDITION — SUPPOSED 
 PASSAGE FROM LAKE BATHURST TO THE SEA — DISCOVERY OF THE CLYDE — FATE 
 OF CAPTAIN STEWART AND HIS PARTY — FATE OF BRIGGS AND HIS COMPANIONS. 
 
 The return of Oxley from his second expedition seems to have satisfied the 
 Sydney people that not much Avas hkely to be accompHshed in the way of 
 exploration ; but many private colonists roamed abroad in search of good graz- 
 ing ground. For several years this was the only enterprise in the way of explor- 
 ing that was carried on, and within a short time after the discovery of the 
 brothers Hume, the Goulburn Plains and the Argyle district were occupied by 
 pastoral settlement. In 1820 Governor IMacquarie made a tour through the 
 newly-settled districts, the party camping out as they Avent from station to 
 station. After a seven days' inarch they arrived at Lake Bathm'st, then a 
 magnificent sheet of water, twenty miles in circumference, and covered with 
 flocks of wild fowls. The conviction was then held that Lake Bathurst and 
 Lake George were the sources of some considerable river which entered the sea 
 on the southern coast ; and it was thought, if the mouth of this stream could bo 
 discovered, that it would, in all probability, afford an easy means of access by 
 water to the rich and extensive districts opened up by the southern track across 
 the mountains. In pursuance of this idea. Lieutenant E. Johnston, R.N., was 
 shortly afterwards despatched, in the cutter " Snapper," to explore that portion 
 of the coast where it was thought the mouth of this imaginary river was likely 
 to be found. He was also instructed to make inquiries during the course of his 
 voyage respecting the fate of Captain Stewart, and a party under his command, 
 who had been sent by the Government in a small vessel a few months before to 
 make an examination of the coast in the neighbourhood of Twofold Bay. 
 Captain Stewart's party had never been heard of after leaving Sydney, and were 
 generally believed to have perished at sea. As the idea that the waters of the 
 southern lakes flowed into the sea on the southern coast was a mistaken one. 
 Lieutenant Johnston was, of course, not successful in the main object of his 
 voyage, but was fortunate enough to discover a considerable river, called by the 
 natives the Bundoo, but Avhich he named the Clyde, and up Avhich he sailed for 
 nearly thirty miles, and learned from the aborigines on its banks some par- 
 ticulars as to the fate of the missing party under Captain Stewart which had 
 been despatched on an errand somewhat similar to his own. From the Clyde
 
 136 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 natives he also obtained intelligence respecting a man named Bi-iggs and his 
 companions, rnnaAvays from Sydney, who were supposed to have left Port Jack- 
 son in a whaleboat, and had never afterwards been heard of. Lieutenant John- 
 ston's account of what he ascertained from the natives was as follows : " On my 
 way up I saw several native fires near the banks. At one place I landed, taking 
 with me two natives who had accompanied me from Sydney ; upon which we 
 were met by a tribe, who showed no symptoms of hostility towards us, but 
 entered freely into conversation ; and through my interpreters I learned the par- 
 ticulars of the melancholy loss of Mr Stewart and his boat's crew ; as also of a 
 man of the name of Briggs and his companions, who some time since made their 
 escape from Port Jackson in a whaleboat. Stewart, they said, having lost his 
 boat near Twofold Bay, was endeavouring to make his way back by land to 
 Sydney, when he and his crew were cut off by the natives of Twofold Bay. 
 Briggs and his companions were upset in Bateman's Bay, and being at a con- 
 siderable distance from the land were not able to reach the shore. Such was 
 the account Avhich the natives of this tribe gave of these catastrophes ; but, as I 
 saw knives, tomahawks, and part of the boat's gear in their huts, I am of oi^inion 
 that these runaways suffered the same fate as the unfortunate Stewart, and that 
 this very tribe were probably their murderers."
 
 KING'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 137 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 KING'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF 1817 — CAPTAIN KING COMMANDER — SAILS FROM SYDNEY — EXPLORES 
 NORTH-WESTERN COAST — RETURNS TO SYDNEY — SECOND VOYAGE — EXPLORATION 
 CONTINUED — THIRD VOYAGE — FOURTH VOYAGE — SINGULAR SPECIMENS OF ABORI- 
 GINAL ART — GENERAL RESULTS OF FOUR EXPEDITIONS — CHARACTER OF CAPTAIN 
 KING. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1817 the whole of the northern and north-western 
 shores of Australia yet remained to be explored. The vessels of the Royal Navy 
 were not occupied in warfare, and a good deal might be effected by sending some 
 of them on surveying expeditions. The Imperial Government, taking this into 
 account, ordered the fitting out of an expedition for surveying the northern parts 
 of the Austi'alian continent, and gave the command of it to Captain Philip 
 Parker King. After some difficulty in obtaining a suitable vessel. Captain King 
 purchased a small teak-built cutter, named the " Mermaid," of only eighty-four 
 tons burthen. The crew consisted of twelve men and two boys, with Messrs 
 Bedwell and Roe as assistants. On the 17th of September 1817, Captain King 
 reached Sydney, and there took on board INIr Allan Cunningham as botanist. 
 On the 22d the expedition set sail from Port Jackson, taking the route by Bass 
 Straits and Cape Leeuwin. It Avas the end of INIarch before Dampier's Archi- 
 pelago Avas reached. The weather was very hot, and the waters swai-med with 
 turtles, snakes, sharks, and dolphins, whilst the scorching air was choked with 
 flies and dragon-flies. Here King suffered many disasters, such as the breaking 
 of his best anchors, becalming, and the prostration of his crew from the excessive 
 heat. The mainland was a dreary desert, and the only feature of interest it 
 presented was the enormous ant-hills, one of which was measured, and found to 
 be eight feet high and about twenty-six feet in circumference. No events of 
 any unusual interest occurred, and no discoveries of importance were made, 
 in this quarter. The tedious Avork of mapping the islands and laying doAvn the 
 shoals and reefs on the charts formed the daily business of the party. Near 
 Cape Arnheim they fell in Avith a fleet of Malay fishing-boats, but no hostile 
 intentions Avere exhibited by their crews. At Knocker's Bay they had an 
 encounter with savages, but, fortunately, without any loss of life on either side. 
 Having made some minor discoveries in Rowley's Shoals, King continued his 
 course round Cape Van Diemcn to the Goulburn Islands, Avhich Avere discovered 
 and named. On the north-AA'estcrn coasts, Avherever they landed, ]Mr Cunning- 
 
 s
 
 138 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ham, as was liis constant practice, planted the seeds of such fruits, plants, and 
 herbs as he thought suitable to the soil and climate or likely to be serviceable to 
 man. Proceeding westward, Port Essington was discovered and surveyed. Van 
 Diemen's Gulf explored, and the Alligator River entered and ascended for 
 thirty-six miles. This river, as its name implies, aboinided in alligators. It 
 was at first a very Avide and deep stream, but its rapid decrease in volume 
 damped any hopes that might have been entertained as to its affording an 
 opening into the unknown interior. From Van Diemen's Gulf they proceeded 
 to the island of Timor to refit, and returned to Sydney on the 29th of July 
 1818. 
 
 In July of the following year (1819) Captain King again proceeded to the 
 north-west coast. He went on this occasion by Torres Straits and the Gulf of 
 Carpentaria. He now examined the north-western coast from Clarence Straits to 
 Cambridge Gulf, and from thence to Cajje Londonderry and Cassini Island, from 
 which point he again proceeded to Coepang, in Timor, and from thence to Sydney. 
 In this voyage the most remarkable object seen was a singular natural formation 
 at Cambridge Gulf, which so much resembled a military fortification, with towers 
 and ramparts, that it was difficult at first view to believe that it was not the work 
 of human hands. The hill which was the site of this remarkable formation was 
 named Mount Cockburn. The extent of coast explored during these two voyages 
 was about 1040 miles. 
 
 A third expedition was undertaken the following year. The " JNIermaid," 
 better fitted out than on either of the two previous occasions, and with a surgeon 
 on board, sailed from Sydney on the 14th of July 1820. Allan Cunningham, the 
 botanist, was still with King, who resumed the survey of the north-Avest coast, 
 from where he had left it on his second visit. The most southerly point reached 
 on the third voyage was Prince Regent's River, in Brunswick Bay, a little to the 
 north of the site of the unfortunate Camden Harbour settlement afterwards 
 formed by Victorian colonists. 
 
 In 1821 Captain King undertook his last voj'age of exploring and surveying on 
 the north-western coasts, in the " Bathurst," a vessel of 170 tons burthen. Cun- 
 ningham again went with him. A singularly interesting discovery, in connection 
 with the aboriginal natives, was made in the course of this voyage. In passing 
 Princess Charlotte's Bay, on the east coast of Australia, about two hundred miles 
 to the south of Cape York, Cunningham discovered in some caverns in the cliffs a 
 variety of native paintings, representing animals, weapons, utensils, and other 
 objects. They were executed upon a ground of red ochre, rul)bed on the dark 
 schistous rock; the figures were outlined by dots, and the objects further delineated 
 by transverse lines or belts of white argillaceous earth, which had been worked up 
 into a paste; they represented with tolerable accuracy figures of sharks,-porpoises, 
 turtles, lizards, trepang, star-fish, clubs, canoes, water-gourds, kangaroos, and 
 dogs. The total number of figures depicted was upwards of a hundred and fifty, 
 and the work, whatever its object, must have occupied much time and called for 
 the exercise of considerable patience and no little skill. This was the first time 
 that anything of the kind had been noticed in connection with aboriginal customs,
 
 KING'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 139 
 
 but since then many native rock paintings have been discovered in various parts 
 of Australia. 
 
 On reaching the north-west coast, the scene of tlieir labours, they sailed up 
 Prince Eegcnt's liiver for about fifty miles, and found that it Avas also infested 
 with alligators, some of them twenty feet long ; and also by a curious creature, 
 which, although in the shape of a fish, had two legs, and appeared to be amphi- 
 bious, running about on the mud-banks with great speed, l)ut instantly burying 
 itself in the mud when alarmed. Captain King, after quitting this river, pro- 
 ceeded south as far as Cape Latouche Treville, in latitude about 18^°, and from 
 thence sailed to the Mauritius. He then returned to King George's Sound, and 
 from thence going northward commenced the survey of Swan Kivcr, and after 
 proceeding as far as the Buccaneer Archipelago returned to Sydney, where he 
 arrived on the iSth of March 1822. 
 
 Captain King's voyages occupied a period of about four years, and although 
 they were not remarkable for striking discoveries or exciting adventures, they 
 contributed very materially to enlarge the before scanty knowledge of the north- 
 west coast, and added many facts to the natural history of the country. lie was 
 a courageous and enterprising explorer, and did more to advance the knowledge 
 of Australian geography than any who preceded him, except Flinders. He was 
 the son of Captain King, who came out with Governor Phillip's fleet in 1788, and 
 was born in Norfolk Island in 1791. He was subsequently a member of the New 
 South Wales Legislative Council, and attained the rank of rear-admiral. His 
 memory is cherished with veneration by the people of New South Wales, of which 
 colony he might fairly claim to be a native.
 
 140 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OXLEY AT MOKETON BAY. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF 1823 — OXLEY AT MORETON BAY — STRANGE ADVENTURE — ROMANTIC 
 STORY OF PAMPHLET — HIS FORTUNATE RESCUE — DISCOVERY OF THE BRISBANE 
 AND FIRST BEGINNINGS OF QUEENSLAND. 
 
 Whilst King was pursuing his marine surveys and explorations, the process of 
 opening up the country ah^eady discovered went on but slowly. Port Macquarie 
 was made an out-settlement of the penal establishment at Sydney. Lieutenant 
 Oxley was sent in 1823 to examine Port Curtis, Moreton Bay, and other 
 harbours to the north. In the course of this voyage, Oxley's vessel (the 
 " Mermaid ") reached Moreton Bay on the 29th of November, where a remark- 
 able incident occurred. The surveyor-general was accompained by Lieutenant 
 Stirling and Mr John Uniacke. Their vessel anchored at the mouth of 
 Pumice Stone Eiver, the very place where Flinders had anchored twenty-two 
 years before ; and which, as they believed, no European had visited in the 
 interval. Scarcely had they landed when a nuimber of men, supposed to be 
 natives, were- seen approaching the vessel. When they got near, however, the 
 man who was foremost was perceived to be of a much lighter colour than the 
 others, and so soon as he was within speaking distance he hailed them in English. 
 He was perfectly naked, although painted in the native fashion, and seemed wild 
 with delight at having discovered his countrymen. " He was so bewildered with 
 joy," says Mr Uniacke, in his account of the circumstance, " that we could make 
 very little out of his story that night ; so having distributed a few knives, hand- 
 kerchiefs, etc., among the friendly blacks, we returned on board, taking him 
 with us." 
 
 This man and his sllip^\Teckcd companions had some months j)i'eviously made 
 the discovery of the Brisbane River, one of the finest streams on the eastern 
 coast of Australia, and the story of their adventures is a very remarkable one. 
 
 He said his name was Thomas Pamphlet, and that with three other men he 
 had left Sydney in a small coasting craft on the 21st March — more than eight 
 months previous — to procure a cargo of cedar at Illawarra. They exjjerienced 
 a very heavy gale shortly after leaving port, and were driven out to sea with very 
 little water on board. They had no knowledge of their position, as they were 
 almost ignorant of navigation, but believed that during the storm they had been 
 driven far to the southward, and that when it abated they were off Van Diemen's 
 Land. They accordingly steered north, as well as they could guess by the sun.
 
 OXLE Y AT MORETON DA Y. 1 1 1 
 
 with the hope of being able to reach Port Jackson. Their water, however, Avas 
 soon exhausted, and on the thirteenth (hiy, one of their number, an ohl man-of- 
 war 's-man named Thompson, became raving mad and died a few days afterwards. 
 A shower of rain at length partially supplied their wants ; and still steering 
 north, on the loth April — the twenty-fourth day of their sufferings — they made 
 the land ; and in their eagerness to reach a small stream of water which they 
 perceived on approaching a sandy cove, they ran their boat on shore at a place 
 where in a few minutes it was dashed to pieces. " No sooner did my foot touch 
 the ground," said Pamphlet, " than I ran to the fresh water, and lying down by 
 it, I drank like a horse. The eagerness of my companions for fresh water even 
 exceeded mine. I had brought on shore a tin pint pot, and Parsons emptied 
 this thirteen times in succession, while Finnegan lay down in the water, and 
 drank to such excess that his stomach could not retain it, but threw it all up 
 again. This he repeated four several times." They had stripped off their clothes 
 for the pui'pose of swimming ashore, and were all perfectly naked. On the 
 breaking up of the boat some bags of flour were Avashed on shore, and they 
 secured from twenty to thirty pounds each, being as much as in their exhausted 
 state they were able to carry. Being still under the impression that they were 
 far to the south of Sydney, they set out along the shore in a northerly direction, 
 and after travelling for a considerable distance fell in with a tribe of natives, l>y 
 whom they were kindly treated. They continued their journey towards the north 
 for several days, and at length found they Avere on an island. This must have 
 been Stradbroke Island, Avhose western shore forms the south-eastern boundary 
 of Moreton Bay. With the assistance of the natives, they were at length enabled 
 to cross to the mainland, where they again commenced their journey towards 
 the north, but the impediments Avere so many, and their progress so sIoav along 
 the shore, that they at last determined to make a canoe by cutting doAvn a large 
 tree and holloAving it out Avith a small hatchet, Avliich they had fortunately saved 
 from the AATCck. They Avorked at the canoe from daylight till dark for nearly 
 three months, being supplied Avith food, consisting of fish and fern-root, by the 
 natives during the Avhole time. The canoe when completed, notAvithstanding 
 the great labour bestowed upon it, appears to have been a very poor one, for, 
 soon after they had started in it, on meeting Avith a Avide opening, which appeared 
 to be the entrance to a large river, they Avere afraid to venture across, but 
 abandoned their craft and again took to the shore, intending to follow up the 
 river until they found a place Avhere they could cross in safety. In proceeding 
 up this river, Avhich proved to be the stream afterAvards named the Brisbane, 
 they were impeded by numbers of salt-Avater creeks, Avhich they Avere obliged to 
 head, being too weak, from living entirely on fern-root, to SAvim them. They 
 Avere about a month before they arrived at a place Avhere they succeeded in 
 crossing, and where they discovered two canoes, Avliich they took, and by this 
 means came down the stream in a few days. On arriving at its mouth, they 
 again struck oft' nortliAvard, but meeting Avith large parties of natives, Avho 
 behaved in a very friendly manner, and desired them to remain, they made A'ery 
 little progress. While amongst these friendly saA^ages, the three white men Avere
 
 142 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 frequently separated from each other, and were taken by their black friends to 
 ensaae in hostile encounters with other tribes. It Avas on one of these occasions, 
 when Pamphlet was left on the shore with but a few of his aboriginal friends, 
 that the " Mermaid " entered the bay. What followed is related in his own 
 words : 
 
 "At last, one evening, as I was sitting by the fire and the blacks were 
 roasting fish for me, I heard some natives shouting on the beach and calling me ; 
 upon which I rose and walked slowly towards them ; but what was my astonish- 
 ment and delight, when I saw a cutter under full sail standing up the bay, 
 about three miles from where we stood ! I instantly made towards her with all 
 the speed I could, followed by a number of the natives ; but before I had run 
 half the distance, she came to an anchor Avithin half a quarter of a mile of the 
 shore. On coming abreast the vessel I hailed her, and Avas immediately answered ; 
 and shortly afterwards a boat pushed off from her, from which landed ]Mr Oxley, 
 the surveyor-general. Lieutenant Stirling of the Buffs, and Mr Uniacke. I now 
 learned, to my great sui'prise, that I Avas at least five hundred miles to the 
 northAvard of Port Jackson, instead of being, as Ave ahvays imagined, to the 
 southAvard of Jervis's Bay. I Avas taken on board the vessel that evening, 
 Avhere, after I was cleaned, I Avas decently clothed and humanely treated ; but 
 my head and heart were so much affected by this unexi^ected turn of fortune, 
 that I Avas unable to ansAver any questions that Avere put to me that night. 
 The next morning, hoAvever, I became more collected ; and in the course of the 
 day my satisfaction Avas greatly increased by the return of Finnegan, Avho 
 experienced the same kind treatment that I had previously done. I noAV found 
 that uj^AA'ards of eight months had elapsed since I left Sydney ; consequently, I 
 had spent nearly five of them Avith these hospitable natives of Moreton Bay. 
 Their behaviour to me and my companions had been so invariably kind and 
 generous, that, notAvithstanding the delight I felt at the idea of once more 
 returning to my home, I did not leave them Avithout sincere regret." 
 
 Mr Oxley and Lieutenant Stirling, on learning from Pamphlet that he and his 
 companions had discovered a large river, set out to explore it, taking Finnegan, 
 one of the shipAvrecked men, with him as a guide. This Avas on the 1st Decem- 
 ber 1823. On the folloAving morning they reached the mouth of the stream. 
 
 The river Avas named the Brisbane in honour of the governor. On examina- 
 tion, the surrounding country fully bore out the expectations Avhich its first 
 appearance had raised, and Mr Oxley returned to Sydney elated at having dis- 
 covered so fine a river and so suitable a site for a new settlement. It is a 
 curious fact, hoAvever, that in the oflicial account Avhich he prepared on his 
 return, he makes no reference Avhatever to having rescued the shipAvrecked men, 
 nor does he allude in the most distant manner to having received any informa- 
 tion from any one respecting the existence of the river prior to entering it 
 himself It Avas only on the publication of the narrative by Mr Uniacke that 
 the pubUc became aAvare of the real facts relative to the discovery of the Bris- 
 bane and the splendid country on its banks, Avhich is noAV the capital of the 
 flourishing colony of (Queensland, one of the finest countries in the southern Avorld.
 
 HUME AND IIOVELUS OVERLAND EXPEDITION. 143 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HUME AND IIOVELL'S OVEKLAND EXrEDITION TO 
 
 POKT PHILLIP. 
 
 HAMILTON HUME — CAPTAIN HOVELL — OVERLAND EXPEDITION OF 1824 REACH THE 
 
 MURRUMBIDGEE — DANGEROUS CROSSING — BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY — MOUNTAIN 
 BARRIER — A MOUNTAIN PASS — AUSTRALIAN ALPS — THE HUME KIVER DISCOVERED 
 — THE OVENS RIVER DISCOVERED— THE GOULBURN RIVER DISCOVERED — HARD- 
 SHIPS — MOUNT DISAPPOINTMENT — REACH PORT PHILLIP^EETURN JOURNEY — 
 THE NATIVES — REACH HOME — RESULTS OF EXPEDITION. 
 
 Amongst the great explorers of the continent deserve to be ranji;ed the name of 
 Mr Hamilton Hume, a native of the colony, born in 1797 at Parramatta. He 
 was a young man of great daring and energy, and an excellent bushman. In 
 1817, when only twenty years of age, as already stated, he discovered Lake 
 Bathurst. Seven years later, in conjunction with Captain Hovell, a man of 
 great intelligence and enterprise, he planned an expedition to the south, for the 
 purpose of discovering if any large rivers fell into the sea in that direction. 
 
 The outfit of the explorers was of a very cheap and unpretending description. 
 The Government supplied six pack-saddles, some slops and blankets, six muskets, 
 a tent and a tarpaulin, to be returned at the termination of the joui'ne}^ The pro- 
 visions and all other appliances were provided by the leaders and their friends. 
 The party, inclusive of Hovell and Hume, consisted of but eight persons. They 
 set out from Hume's farm near Appin, on the 2d October 1824, and reached the 
 then most distant out-station towards the south-west, about 165 miles from 
 Sydney, on the 13th of the same month. On the 19th, having jiassed Yarrh — 
 or, as they are now called, Yass — Plains, they reached the banks of the Murrum- 
 bidgee Eiver, and encountered their first difficulty in attempting to cross it. The 
 timber growing on its banks, like that of many Australian trees, was too heavy 
 to float, and they were thus prevented from using it for making a raft. Its bark 
 was likewise unsuitable for this purpose. They therefore determined to attempt 
 to make a boat of the body of one of their carts, which they stripped of its axle, 
 wheels, and shafts, and securely covered with a tarpaulin ; it was thus readily 
 converted into a tolerably good boat, and was found both sufficiently buoyant 
 and not too crank. Mr Hume, with one of the men, undertook the dangerous 
 enterprise of swimming across the river, taking with them a small line Avhich 
 they carried between their teeth, and to the middle of which was attached a 
 line of sufficient length to reach across the stream. This was not done without
 
 144 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 great difficulty and some danger. One of the ends of the tow-rope was con- 
 veyed across the river by means of the Hne, and everything being in readiness, 
 the boat, carrying not less than six or seven hundredweight, made its first trip. 
 The bullocks and horses were then conducted across separately. The roughness 
 of the weather, and the unusual coldness of the water, contributed to render this 
 undertaking, to the swimmers at least, not less unpleasant than it was evidently 
 hazardous. 
 
 Leaving the banks of this fine river, they crossed high limestone ranges, from 
 the summits of which extensive views were obtained over meadow-like tracts of 
 country, covered with the richest herbage, and superior to anything they had 
 ever before seen. "Each of these beautiful meadows," says their narrative, 
 " was skirted by forest, and this again walled in by steep mountains or hills. 
 The general sward of these meadows consisted not only of a fine grass like English 
 rye-grass, but also of other grasses, similar to clover, lucerne, and burnet." On 
 the 24th, their course was obstructed by what seemed an impenetrable mountain 
 barrier. The two leaders of the party here separated, in order the better to 
 discover a pass through which they might advance. Hume, with two of the 
 men, took a direction south-Avest ; and after proceeding about two miles, met with 
 a chain of ponds, extending in the direction of his route, and terminating in a 
 stream. This they succeeded in tracing, until bending about due Avest, and 
 descending rapidly through a narrow chasm, it poured its waters into another 
 stream, Avhich it met at right angles on the western aspect of the range before 
 mentioned. This latter stream was about twenty yards wide, flowing rapidly 
 over pebbles and loose fragments of rock. On its opposite bank was a beautiful 
 valley, bounded on the west by an almost perpendicular range, extending parallel 
 with the one through which they had just passed. Hume being satisfied of the 
 practicability of the pass which he had discovered, the whole party the next day 
 descended with safety through it ; and on the following morning the supplies, as 
 well as the carts, were got across the stream. Here they were obliged to leave 
 their carts, as from the mountainous character of the country it had become 
 impracticable to take them farther. They loaded each of their bullocks with a 
 Ijurtlien of three hundredweight. This proved to be one of the most diflicult 
 portions of their journey, and for some days they were involved in a labyrinth 
 of gullies and precipices, but with admirable perseverance they continued their 
 cfibrts, and on the 29tli October reached, unexpectedly, a l)road flat table-land, 
 but so thickly wooded that their forward view was utterly intercepted, and their 
 course rendeied almost impracticable by immense quantities of dead timber. 
 They had frequently to unload their cattle to cross streams and swamps, and 
 even then the beasts were unable to eff'ect a passage Avithout considerable diffi- 
 cidty. Thoy reached the Avestcrn edge of this table-land on the 31st, and, con- 
 tinues this narrative, " if the sight of the descent Avas terrific, the idea of passing 
 doAvn it was yet more so." After some deliberation they determined on making 
 the attempt, although not able to discover any place very favourable for their 
 purpose. They commenced operations by first sending doAvn the bullocks, and 
 in an hour and a half the Avholc party arrived safe at the foot of the upper
 
 HUME AND IIOVELVS OVERLAND EXPEDITION. 145 
 
 division of the descent, when after some minutes' rest upon a rocky shelf pro- 
 jecting a few yards from the sides of the mountain, they recommenced their 
 passage down the second stage of the descent, which is considerably less steep 
 than the former. At the foot of tliis range they descried a small river, with fine 
 pasturage, at which they arrived about sundown. 
 
 The natives of this part appeared to be numerous, fi'om their fires and camps 
 being seen all around ; but although they were often hailed, they could not be 
 induced to approach the exploring jjarty. 
 
 On the 6th November they came in sight of the mountains afterwards desig- 
 nated the Australian Alps. Hume and Hovell, having ascended the side of a 
 range, " were suddenly surprised by a sight in the utmost degree magnificent. 
 Mountains, of a conoidal form, and of an immense height, and some of them 
 covered about one-fourth of their height with snow, were seen extending semi- 
 circularly from the S.E. to S.S.W. at the supposed distance of about twenty 
 miles. The sun was bright (it was about ten or eleven in the forenoon), and 
 gave them a most brilliant appearance. The mountains which they had hitherto 
 seen, compared with these stupendous elevations, were no more than hillocks ; 
 their form, as well as their general character, were also dissimilar. The men 
 had no sooner heard of this unexpected and interesting scene than, catching the 
 enthusiasm, they ran to the spot where their leaders were standing, and were no 
 less surprised than delighted at the pre-eminently grand and beautiful spectacle." 
 
 They perceived from the character of both the mountain range on which they 
 were standing, and of the country immediately beyond them, that their progress 
 in the direction of these Aljis would be either impracticable, or attended with 
 considerable danger, as well to themselves as to the cattle, and they at once, 
 instead of making the attempt, decided upon proceeding fifty or sixty miles west ; 
 the object being to avoid, if possible, a repetition of those almost insiu-mount- 
 able difficulties by which they had hitherto been perpetually suiTOunded. 
 
 Continuing their journey through a difficult but richly grassed country, on 
 the 16th November, soon after sunrise, they arrived suddenly on the banks of a 
 beautiful river, 240 feet in breadth, with a current of about three miles an hour, 
 and the water clear. They named it the Hume. 
 
 Although this magnificent river is now generally called the IMurray through- 
 out its Avhole course, the proper name of the portion above the junction of the 
 ISIurrumbidgee is the Hume. Near the spot where the explorers first struck th<3 
 stream Mr Hovell carved his name in the solid wood of a large tree ; " Hovell, 
 Novr. 17, 1824." Eleven years afterwards this tree was found by the first party 
 taking cattle overland to Port Phillip ; and the tree still stands (1877) in a 
 sound condition. It is situated near the crossing-place at Albmy. It has been 
 fenced round, in order to preserve it as an historical landmark ; and a monument . 
 to Hume, with a suitable inscription, is placed near it. 
 
 Being unable to pass so formidable an impediment as the Hume River pre- 
 sented at the spot Avhere they first struck it, the explorers turned to the west, 
 down the course of the stream, in search of a ford or crossing-place. As they 
 advanced the river became wider, and the country on its banks still more beauti- 
 
 T
 
 146 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ful. On the 18th, seeing no prospect of being able to cross, they retraced their 
 steps to the place where they had first discovered it, and on the following day 
 continued their course up the river to the eastward. On the 20th, having found 
 a suitable spot, they constructed a wicker boat, covered it with tarpaulin, and 
 succeeded in taking their cattle and stores across the river in safety. 
 
 On the 21st they arrived on the banks of another river, probably a branch of 
 the Hume, 110 feet wide. Here they had to construct another boat; and, 
 after crossing, resumed their journey through a fine tract of pleasant level 
 country. On the 24th they reached the banks of another river, the eighth which 
 they had discovered and crossed. This river was named the Ovens, in compli- 
 ment to the governor's private secretary, Major Ovens. The country on the 
 borders of this stream is described as extremely beautiful, with the finest possible 
 soil, and thinly timbered with magnificent trees of a very valuable description. 
 
 The explorers continued their journey after passing the Ovens through a fine 
 level country, in which the natives were numerous but shy. After crossing many 
 small streams they arrived on December the 3d at another fine stream. " The 
 country on its banks," says the narrator of their expedition, " is extremely beau- 
 tiful, clothed with luxuriant herbage, and both hill and lowland thinly wooded. 
 A finer country for sheep cannot exist." This river was named the Goulburn, 
 after the then Colonial Secretary. 
 
 The party were now beginning to suffer from want of food. Animal food 
 they had not tasted for some time, for although they saw many kangaroos, they 
 were unable to capture any in consequence of the death of some of their dogs, 
 and the wretched condition of those which remained alive. The cattle were in 
 even a worse plight than the men. The hoofs of the horses were almost de- 
 stroyed by long journeys over rocky and stony country, and the feet of the 
 bullocks were so swollen that they were unfit for travelling. In this condition 
 the direction in which they were attempting to proceed was obstructed by almost 
 impenetrable scrubs and mountains difficult to traverse and almost impossible to 
 avoid. " Uncertain," says the narrative, " of their route, fatigued, lacerated, 
 their clothes torn at every step, it at length became literally impossible to pro- 
 ceed, after having penetrated four miles into a dreadful scrub." They named 
 the place from which they were driven back Mount Disappointment. Retreat- 
 ing for a time, they followed the course of a creek which they named the King- 
 parrot Creek, through a scantily wooded country, until they were compelled 
 again to tui'n by the country before them being on fire and the wind blowing the 
 flames and smoke full in their faces. They then crossed a range, and on the 
 other side came to a better country, but also on fire in every direction. 
 
 On the 14th December, from the summit of a remarkable high insulated hill, 
 which they named Mount Bland, they obtained a view of extensive plains, 
 stretching from west to south-cast, and interspersed with patches of forest and 
 detached conical hills. The .soil was excellent, and these plains, as well as the 
 hill, were named after their friend, Dr Bland of Sydney. They had now passed 
 the high lands separating the waters, for the streams were found flowing to the 
 southward, and abounding in eels, a fish they had never found in western waters.
 
 HUME AND HOVELLS OVERLAND EXPEDITION. 147 
 
 On December 16th, proceeding south-west by south, they were struck with the 
 singular appearance of the view before tlicni at a great distance to the soutli- 
 ward. Some of the party thought the effect was caused by smoke from the 
 country being on fire ; others thought what they saw Avas water. They altered 
 their course toward it, and were soon gratified with the sight of the sea — " the 
 so long and ardently-desired bourn of their labours." They travelled six miles 
 along the shore over excellent land, clear of timber. There is some uncertainty 
 •as to the precise spot where they reached the ocean. Mr Hovell thought they 
 were on the shores of Western Port ; but it is now tolerably certain that they 
 struck the coast near a spot in Port Phillip, afterwards called the Bird Rock, 
 about seven or eight miles from what is now the site of the town of Geelong. 
 They found the natives numerous, but managed, with some difficulty, to maintain 
 friendly relations with them. On the 18th December, having previously killed 
 a bullock and dried the meat, and also cut their initials in a tree, they com- 
 menced their return journey. On Christmas Day they recrossed the Goulburn 
 River, and continued their journey without serious delay or interruption until 
 the 6th January, when they fell in with a very interesting tribe of natives. Their 
 narrative gives the following account of an interview with them. It took place 
 near the Hume River : 
 
 " In the course of the day, we came by surprise \\\)o\\ a body of natives, con- 
 sisting of eight men. They appeared much alarmed, and, on perceiving the 
 bullocks, fled through a small creek, and concealed themselves among the reeds 
 on its banks. In the evening, about a mile from the spot where they had been 
 first seen, the natives again made their appearance, and approached them with 
 marks of friendship. One of these men, dressed in an old yellow jacket, spoke a 
 few words of English, and had been at Lake George. They had among them an 
 iron axe and four tomahawks. The number afterwards received a considerable 
 augmentation, amounting altogether to not less than forty able-bodied men, all 
 armed. The horses having strayed, they assisted in bringing them in. When we 
 were just going to start, they begged we would accompany them to their camp 
 about a mile farther up the creek, so that the women and children might have an 
 opportunity of seeing us. Mr Hume, taking three of the men with him, complied 
 with their request, when he met with a party of about thirty women, as many 
 children, and some fine young men. They were extremely pressing that he 
 should stay, as they were going, they said, to have a ' corrobera ; ' and two of 
 them promised, in the event of his compliance, to accompany him the following 
 day as far as the Murrumbidgee. The men were the finest natives he had ever 
 seen ; one of them was about six feet high, and another five feet nine inches and a 
 half. They were all robust and well-proportioned, and possessed what is unusual 
 among the native tribes, well-formed legs. Some of them had higher foreheads 
 than are generally observed among these people. Their weapons were like those 
 of the natives of the colony, except the spears, which were made of strong knotty 
 reeds, about six feet long, to which was affixed a piece of hard wood about two 
 feet in length, with a rounded point, barbed in some instances with numerous 
 small pieces of flint or agate. Each of these people was fm-nished with a good
 
 148 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ample cloak of opossum skin, many of tliem had necklaces made of small pieces 
 of a yellow reed, stnmg with the fibre of the currajong, the flax-plant, or the hair 
 of the opossum. They appeared to be a kind and inoffensive people." 
 
 The remainder of the homeward progress of the party was rather slow, in 
 consequence of the exhausted condition of both men and beasts. Some of the 
 party and the cattle had to be left behind before they reached the ]\Iurrumbidgee, 
 but all the men so left ultimately reached home in safety, leaving the cattle, 
 which had become completely unable to travel, and the remaining supplies 
 where the party had separated. 
 
 The result of this unpretending and by no means costly undertaking Avas most 
 important. It disclosed the existence of a vast extent of country, suitable for 
 every j^urpose of grazing and agriculture, where it had been strongly contended 
 that all was a desert so barren that it was doubtful if it could possibly be crossed ; 
 but at all events uninhabitable and utterly useless for the purposes of man. 
 
 The explorers were rewarded by grants of land of twelve hundred acres each. 
 Subsequently ]\Ir Hovell effected a settlement at Western Port, and made a 
 minute examination of the country. He was the first surveyor-general of 
 Victoria. Both Hume and himself survived into a green old age. The colony 
 of Victoria owes them both a monument as being its first real founders.
 
 STURTS TWO EXPEDTTIONS. 149 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 STUET'S TWO EXrEDITIONS. 
 
 Cunningham's journeys — sturt's expedition in 1828 — discovers the darling — 
 the bogan — a desolate country — an unsolved problem — the inland 
 
 sea — sturt's SECOND EXPEDITION — DOWN THE MURRUMBIDGEE — DISCOVERY 
 
 OF THE MURRAY — DO^VN THE AIURRAY TO THE DARLINC DISCOVERY OF 
 
 LAKE ALEXANDRINA — THE TERRIBLE RETURN JOURNEY — SUFFERINGS OF THE 
 EXPLORERS — FORTUNATE RESCUE — RETURN TO SYDNEY. 
 
 Mr Allan Cunningham, the botanist who accompanied Oxley's expeditions, 
 made two exploratory jom-neys in 1823 and 1827, in the com-se of which he dis- 
 covered the Liverpool Plains and Darling Downs. In a third journey, made in 
 1829, he explored the Brisbane River to its sources. All these discoveries aided 
 materially the progress of settlement. Many minor explorations were made 
 between the years 1823-28, and wherever new grazing country was found thither 
 streamed the tide of enterprise. But one terrible enemy of the settlers still 
 remained to be subdued. This was drought. In 1812 the infant colony of New 
 South Wales would have been literally dried up altogether, if a practicable road 
 across the Blue IMountains had not been discovered. A yet more severe drought 
 which commenced in 1826 compelled the o^aiers of the rapidly increasing herds 
 to look for better watered country towards the great interior, from which Oxley 
 had been driven back by apparently interminable swamps. There had been 
 heavy rains a short time before Oxley's journey was undertaken ; and it was 
 thought that the drought afforded an ojDportunity, which might not again soon 
 occur, for crossing the great marshy regions which formed the knowTi limits of 
 the colony towards the north-west and south-west, and that thus some knowledge 
 might be gained respecting the mysterious country beyond. With the doiible 
 purpose, therefore, of finding better-watered pastures, and of elucidating an 
 interesting geographical problem, it was resolved in 1828 to send an expedition 
 to take up the task of exploration on the swamps of the Macquarie, from 
 whence Oxley had been compelled to retreat ten years before. 
 
 The leader chosen by Governor Darling for this expedition was Captain 
 Charles Sturt, an officer of the 39th Regiment, then stationed in Sydney. This 
 gentleman was eminently qualified for the task to which he was appointed. His 
 enthusiasm in the cause of discovery was imbounded, and his imagination had 
 been excited to the highest pitch by what he had seen of the country in the 
 voluntary and often solitary journeys he had made into various parts of the
 
 150 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 known interior. Hamilton Hnme, whose singnlarly daring and successful 
 journey to Port riiillip, in conjunction with Hovell, has already been narrated, 
 was selected to accompany Captain Stmt on this expedition. The other 
 members of the party were Mr M'Leod, an army surgeon, two soldiers of the 
 39th Ecgiment, and eight prisoners of the Crown. The animals were thirteen 
 horses, and two draught and eight pack bullocks. 
 
 The expedition left Sydney on the 10th Sej^tember 1828, when the face of the 
 earth had become so parched by drought that all minor vegetation had ceased, 
 and the settlers had begun to drive their flocks and herds to distant tracts for 
 pasture and water, because they were not to be obtained in the settled districts. 
 In this condition of things the progress of the party Avas necessarily slow, and it 
 was not until the 26th December that they reached the locality of the great 
 marshes from which Oxley had been compelled to retreat. Here the scene was 
 of the most gloomy description — dreary exjDanses of reeds or interminable poly- 
 gonum scrubs met the gaze in every direction. A boat had been constructed 
 and brought from the settled districts, and was now launched in the small and 
 sluggish stream, which took the place of the watery expanse seen by previous 
 explorers. Sturt attempted to navigate the river, or rather ditch, in this boat, 
 while Hume made a journey on horseback towards the north. The channel of 
 what seemed the main stream was soon lost in innumerable smaller channels, 
 which at length disappeared amongst the reeds, and no signs of a lake or of any 
 considerable body of water could be discovered. 
 
 The captain and his party soon returned to the camp, where they found 
 Hume, who had been prevented by the marshy nature of the country from 
 exploring it to any considerable distance. After proceeding with difficulty 
 for some time in a northerly direction, the party again divided, and Sturt at 
 length emerged upon scrubby and sandy plains, over which he rode for two 
 hundred miles. Hume, after crossing various creeks and a fine chain of ponds, 
 again joined the main party; and they proceeded north over great plains covered 
 with shells and claws of crawfish — evidences that the country had been recently 
 under water. The explorers, who were much persecuted by mosquitoes and a 
 terribly irritating fly called the kangaroo fly, were frequently in great want of 
 water, and altogether the position of the party was exceedingly depressing. 
 Their spirits were, however, cheered on the 4th February 1829, by the discovery 
 of a fine river, about 240 feet wide, deep, and covered with wild fowl. Much to 
 their astonishment, however, its water was found to be salt. This naturally led 
 them to believe they were approaching an inland sea. They named this singular 
 river the Darling. In tracing its course downwards they came upon camps of 
 the natives, who set fire to the reeds and bush to drive the intruders back. 
 Lower down they found that the Darling received a considerable tributary from 
 the eastward. This they took for a continuation of the Macquarie after its 
 escape from the marshes, and named it New Year's Creek. Their supposition 
 that it was the Macquarie was, however, a mistake. It proved to be the stream 
 afterwards called the Bogan — the name by which it was known to the natives. 
 They traced it up for fifty or sixty miles ; and then proceeded to the north-east
 
 STURTS TWO EXPEDITIONS. 151 
 
 towards the Castleretagh. That which ten years before had been a fine river was 
 now found to be merely a dry channel, overgrown in many places with i*eeds 
 and brambles. They followed this channel for about a hundred miles, Avhen, on 
 the 29th March, they again struck the Darling, which was just as salt as 
 where they had previously discovered it lower down. This was the extent of 
 their journey ; and the expedition started on its return to the settled districts 
 early in April. 
 
 Sturt gives a vivid picture of the desolation caused by the drought, and the 
 state of starvation in which he found the unfortunate aborigines. He says : " So 
 long had the drought continued, that the vegetable kingdom was almost anni- 
 hilated, and minor vegetation had disappeared. In the creeks, weeds had grown 
 and withered, and grown again ; and young saplings were now rising in their 
 beds, nourished by the moisture that still remained ; but the largest forest trees 
 were drooping, and many were dead. The emus, with outstretched necks, gasp- 
 ing for breath, searched the channels of the rivers for water in vain ; and the 
 native dog, so thin that it could hardly walk, seemed to implore some merciful 
 hand to despatch it. How the natives subsisted it was difficult to say, but there 
 was no doubt of the scarcity of food amongst them." 
 
 Stm't's discovery of the Darling conclusively proved the mistaken nature of 
 the opinions that the Castlereagh, the Macquarie, and other north-western rivers, 
 were tributaries of the Brisbane, and found their outlet in Moreton Bay. But, 
 although this theory was found to be untenable, the question of the Darling's 
 actual course and outlet still remained unsolved. Whether it fed an interior 
 sea, whether it crossed the continent to the north-western coast, or whether, 
 after forming a junction with the streams discovered by Hume and Hovell, it 
 reached the ocean in Spencer's Gulf or elsewhere on the southern coast, remained 
 almost as uncertain as ever. Hovell, in the prosecution of his maritime pursuits, 
 had many yeai's before visited Kangaroo Island, on the coast of South Australia. 
 While there he learned from some men, who had been engaged in seiil catching 
 on the islands and the main, that inside Encounter Bay there existed an ex- 
 tensive lake into which flowed a gi'eat river. In his overland journey to Port 
 Phillip, Hovell came to the conclusion, from the direction of the rivers and the 
 character of the country, that in all probability the united streams fell into the 
 lake whose existence he learned from the sealers, and ultimately joined the 
 ocean in Encounter Bay. This theory attracted little or no attention at first, 
 but it was subsequently found to be correct. 
 
 It was not quite so certain, however, that there was an inland sea. ]\Iany 
 abandoned the theory altogether. Yet how was a district, larger than Spain 
 and Portugal put together, drained? Every settler could tell of the mighty 
 floods which had swei)t away his sheep, his cattle, his farmyards, and not seldom 
 his farm servants and shepherds. Where did these mighty floods go to, or how 
 were they carried off"? The fresh-water streams had been found to disappear 
 altogether, after a short course inland. The Darling, which was quite large 
 enough for a main drain, was salt. Yet whole seas went somewhere, for Oxley's 
 sea had disappeared before Sturt could overtake it. Nothing was to be dis-
 
 152 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 covered by following the course of the ordinary sluggish fresh-water streams. 
 Creeping through a vast extent of level country, more like canals than rivers, they 
 were stojjped by the first impediment that came in their way. Sturt could trace 
 their cessation to nothing stronger than a bank of more than ordinary stiff soil. 
 To solve the mystery, it was necessary to follow the course of some more im- 
 petuous stream. The Australian Alps, lying to the south of the settlement, 
 .supplied such a stream. A thousand rills fed by its snows joined themselves into 
 one impetuous torrent and dashed down a steep and rocky channel. Xo ordinary 
 impediment Avas likely to stop the INIurrumbidgee, and Stm-t determined to trace 
 its stream whither it might lead. The settlers Avho had already secured its 
 green banks reported that it made directly for the interior, and showed no signs 
 of abated strength. They would have followed its course themselves, but that it 
 exhibited immistakable symptoms of leaving behind it the rich fertility which 
 marked its early progress. 
 
 In 1829 Sturt started on a second journey, with which may be said to com- 
 mence the history of the Australian Colonies. He was accompanied by INIi- George 
 Macleay and a party of men. Striking the Murrumbidgee at Yass Plains, about 
 two hundred miles from Sydney, the party proceeded along its banks delighted 
 with the abundance of fish that it contained and the beautiful scenery on its banks. 
 The stream continued to gain in breadth and body of water, but all appearance of 
 fertility was fast disappearing from its course. In little more than a week after 
 their departure from Yass Plains, the party found themselves in the centre of an 
 absolute desert. They had brought a whaleboat and a smaller boat in frame 
 from Sydney, and it was now determined to put them together and launch them. 
 When this was done, Sturt, with Mr Macleay and six men, embarked. The rest 
 of the party were ordered back with the drays and cattle to Goulburn Plains, 
 there to await their return. They proceeded down the river in the whaleboat, 
 to-nang the skiff, and about fifteen miles from the place where they had embarked 
 came upon the junction of the Lachlan. On the following day their skifi' was 
 sunk by striking a snag. It contained, in addition to a large portion of the 
 provisions, an apparatus for distilhng fresh water from salt. The still and part 
 of the provisions were recovered by diving, with much difficulty, but most of the 
 provisions were damaged and much of them spoilt. In addition to this disaster 
 they were robbed by natives of many useful articles of equipment, while engaged 
 in recovering the boat and stores. Soon after proceeding on the voyage they 
 found the stream decrease in width, while it increased in depth and velocity, and 
 became so thickly overshadowed by trees, and so much impeded by fallen timber, 
 that they were in momentary apprehension of danger. At the period, however, 
 when their gloomy forebodings had reached the greatest height, they were suddenly 
 surprised and delighted by their boat shooting out into a deep, broad, noble river, 
 3iiO feet in width. They had discovered the Mississippi of Austraha — the great 
 river which, having its sources among the snow-clad sunnnits of the Australian 
 Alps, can-ies its waters in a steady and constant volume to the far-off Pacific. 
 They named it the Mukkay, after Sir George Murray, the then minister for the 
 Colonics. It is singular that the native name of this river was afterwards found
 
 STURTS TWO EXPEDITIONS. 153 
 
 to be very similar to that given to it by Sturt. It was called by the aborigines 
 the Murrowa, or the INIillowa — the sonnds of r and / being interchangeable, and 
 used almost inditTerently by many of the aboriginal tribes. The voyagers at once 
 comprehended that the several rivers discovered by Hume and Hovell had united 
 to form this magnificent stream. It was a river not unworthy to be classed with 
 the great water-courses of Europe. Wherever the Murray might lead them, at 
 least it solved a very important portion of their inquiry. It was certainly the main 
 artery of New South Wales. " I directed," says Captain Sturt, " the union-jack 
 to be hoisted, and giving way to our satisfaction, we all stood up in the boat, and 
 gave three distinct cheers." 
 
 The discovery of the Murray raised the spirits and the hopes of the little 
 party to the highest pitch. As they proceeded they found that the united 
 streams ranged from 450 to 600 feet in Avidth, with few impediments to obstruct 
 the course of the current. The country on its banks was splendidly grassed, 
 and shaded in many places by gum-trees of a large size. The natives were 
 numerous, and if not altogether hostile, were exceedingly troublesome. They 
 were bold and expert thieves, often swimming off in shoals to the boat and 
 impeding the action of the oars. Stmt's accounts of narrow escapes from a 
 deadly conflict with these people are some of the most exciting parts of his 
 narrative. At length the explorers found themselves at the mouth of a new 
 river coming from the north. It was three hundred feet wide, and upwards of 
 twelve feet deep. They had calculated that if the Darling continued its course 
 it Avould join the Murray somewhere hereabouts, and their expectations Avere 
 not disappointed. Its banks were sloping and grassy, overhung by magnificent 
 trees; and the appearance of the river and the country was such that the men 
 exclaimed that they had got into an English river. Its waters Avere sAveet but 
 turbid, and of a greenish tinge. The discovery of the junction of the Murray 
 and the Darling — the finest rivers of Australia — Avas marked by the hoisting of 
 the union-jack, accompanied by three British cheers. They attempted to sail 
 up the Darling, but did not proceed far on account of the strength of the current 
 and the croAvds of natives by Avliich their boats Avere surrounded, and from Avhom 
 they Avere in constant danger. Having put about, and both Avind and current 
 being in their favour, they shot doAvn the stream at such a rate as left the Avon- 
 dering aborigines far behind. They noAV destroyed their skiff, as it tended only 
 to impede their course, and left the junction of the rivers on the 24th January, 
 passing thi'ough a Ioav country of marshes and lagoons, but thickly inhabited by 
 troublesome and inquisitive people suffering from a loathsome disease. They 
 passed a stream falling into the Murray from the north, Avhich they named the 
 Rufus, from Mr Macleay's red hair. 
 
 As they proceeded doAvn the river, its course became rapid, and the banks in 
 places very high ; farther on the country assumed a barren and inhospitable 
 character, and the stream became extremely tortuous. On the thirty-third day 
 of the voyage on its stream, the banks retired on each side, and then Avere lost in 
 the distance. The explorers found themselves floating on the bosom of an 
 extensive lake, becoming slightly brackish as they advanced, Avhile over its 
 
 u
 
 154 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 waters was borne the distant thunder of the great Southern Ocean. To this was 
 given the name of Lake Alexandriua, and Stmt's observations showed him that 
 lie had cut off the south-eastern corner of the continent. Indeed, Lake Alexan- 
 driua is separated from the Southern Ocean merely by a narrow bar of shifting 
 sand. The shores of the lake were clothed with green pastures, and the whole 
 surrounding country seemed excellently adapted for agriculture — a want begin- 
 ning to be severely felt by the colonists of New South Wales, who were already 
 getting their Avheat and potatoes from Van Diemen's Land, and even from New 
 Zealand. 
 
 But in this exciting moment of triumphant success, the question of how they 
 Avere to return forced itself upon their minds with painful distinctness. Before 
 they left Sydney arrangements had been made for sending a small vessel to the 
 Gulf of St Vincent, as that place was looked upon as the most likely termination 
 of their voyage if they were successful in reaching the ocean. But now there 
 appeared no means of getting their boat to the open sea, for even if they suc- 
 ceeded in finding a channel through the endless shoals by Avhich they Avere 
 surrounded, the tremendous line of breakers Avliich presented itself outside 
 warned them that any attempt to cross would be fatal. They were far too much 
 exhausted to think of reaching by land the succour waiting for them in St 
 Vincent's Gulf; and after fully considering the matter, it Avas determined that 
 then- only chance of return lay by the Avay in Avhich they had come. Their 
 provisions Avere almost spent, and the prospect of half-a-dozen Avorn-out and 
 almost starving men having to pull a heavy boat nearly a thousand miles, against 
 a strong current, and surrounded by dangers of a most formidable character, was 
 a most disheartening one. But, having determined to make the attempt, no 
 time Avas lost in putting it into execution. The leaders resolved to take their 
 turn at the oars Avitli the men, and to share all their labours and hardships. 
 
 It Avas at noon on the 14th Jaiuiary 1830, that they commenced a task Avhich 
 proved to be one of the most desperate ever undertaken. Never in the annals of 
 discovery and exploration Avere dogged resolution and endm'ance put to a severer 
 test. In coming down the stream the current had often assisted them in getting 
 clear from their aboriginal enemies ; but in ascending it their coui'se Avas so sloAV 
 that they could not free themselves from their sable tormentors, but by the most 
 desperate exertions. They had to pull sometimes for ten or eleven hours Avithout 
 a moment's rest, until in fact exhausted nature gave Avay, and the men fainted, 
 became delirious, or fell asleep at their oars. There Avere fortunately many 
 exceptions to the hostility of the blacks. They met Avith some Avho assisted 
 them Avhere the current Avas most rapid, by pulling the boat Avith a rope. They 
 Avere, hoAvevcr, compelled to fire on the blacks on moi"e than one occasion, but 
 Sturt's humanity was such that this com'sc Avas only resorted to under the most 
 extreme circumstances. 
 
 When they reached the Murrumbidgee they Avere almost starving, yet their 
 priA'ations and labours Avere not nearly at an end. "For seventeen days," says 
 Cai)tain Sturt, " a\ e pulled against the stream Avith determined perseverance, 
 but human ellbrts under privations such as ours, tended to weaken themselves.
 
 SrURTS TWO EXPEDITIONS. 155 
 
 Our journeys were short, and the head Ave made a.i^ainst the stream but triflint^. 
 Tlie men had lost tlie proper and nuiscular jerk with wliich they once made the 
 waters foam and the oars bend. Their whole bodies swung with an awkward 
 and laboured motion. Their arms appeared to l)e nerveless and their faces 
 became haggard, their persons emaciated, their spirits wholly sunk ; nature was 
 so completely overcome that, from mere exhaustion, they frequently fell asleep 
 during their painful and almost ceaseless exertions. I became captious, and 
 found fault where there was no occasion, and lost the erpiilibrium of my tem- 
 per, in contemplating the condition of my companions. No murmur, however, 
 escaped them, nor did any complaint reach me that was intended to indicate that 
 they had done all they could do. I frequently heard them in their tent, when 
 they thought I had dropped asleep, complaining of severe pains, and of great 
 exhaustion. ' I must tell the captain to-morrow,' some of them Avould say, ' that 
 I can pull no more.' To-morrow came, and they pulled on, as if reluctant to 
 yield to circumstances. Macnamee at length lost his senses. We first observed 
 this from his incoherent conversation, but eventually from his manner. He 
 related the most extraordinary tales, and fidgeted about eternally while in the 
 boat." 
 
 When they could pull no more, two of the men, after a little rest, set forward 
 by land to endeavour to reach the depot where the provisions had been stored in 
 the outward journey. " It Avas nearly ninety miles direct by land ; but the men 
 joyfully undertook the journey. Oxir last modicimi of food was divided with 
 them, and away t;hey Avent." A week passed at the camp : they at length 
 divided amongst them their last ounce of flour, and Avere about to set forward in 
 the last desperation of despair, when a loud shout announced the return of the 
 tA\"o faithful men, Mulholland and Hopkinson. They had come back AA'itli 
 Robert Harris and a supply of provisions. All danger and anxiety were at an 
 end ; but the tAvo men Avere in a terrible condition after their heroic exertions. 
 Their knees and ankles Avere dreadfully swollen, and their limbs so painful, that 
 as soon as they arrived in the camp, they sank under their efforts, but they met 
 their companions Avith smiling countenances, and expressed their satisfaction at 
 having arrived so seasonably for their relief 
 
 The rest of the journey Avas performed by easy stages, the party arriving in 
 Sydney on the 25th May, after an absence of nearly seven months. ISIost of the 
 men quickly rallied from their exhausted condition, but Captain Sturt suffered 
 for a long period, and at last became quite blind ; and although his sight Avas 
 at length restored, his health had received a shock, the effects of which Avere 
 perceptible as long as he lived.
 
 nCi THE TITSTORY OF AUSTJiALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MITCHELL'S EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 SAMENESS OF EXPLORATION RECORDS — FATE OF CAPTAIN BARKER — MITCHELL's EXPE- 
 DITION IN 1881 — BLANK RESULTS — SECOND EXPEDITION — FATE OF CUNNINGHAM 
 — ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES — RETURN TO SYDNEY — MITCHELL's THIRD 
 EXPEDITION — ENCOUNTER WITH NATIVES — THE LODDON DISCOVERED — THE 
 GRAMPIANS SEEN AND NAMED — MOUNT WILLIAM — HENTY's WHALING SETTLE- 
 MENT — A AVELCOME REST — THE RETURN JOURNEY — THE PYRENEES — MOUNT 
 MACEDON — AUSTRALIA FELIX — MOVEMENT TOWARDS PORT PHILLIP — MITCHELL's 
 
 expedition in 1845— the darling — an earthly paradise — the barcoo — 
 Kennedy's exploration of it — return to sydney. 
 
 The details of exploration, however interesting in themselves, are apt to 
 become monotonous from frequent repetition. If, therefore, the exploits of 
 several of the more noted Australian explorers are passed over briefly in this 
 history, it is only because the journals of their adventures necessarily present a 
 sameness Avhich speedily becomes irksome to the reader. Only the more strik- 
 ing incidents, and adventures with some touch of romance in them, can be given 
 here. 
 
 Captain Collet Barker, a fellow-officer of Start's in the 39th Eegiment, was 
 murdered by the blacks in 1831 Avlien exploring the country around Lake 
 Alcxandrina. ]\Ir Kent then took charge of the expedition, but failed in the 
 main object of it, namely, finding a sea-mouth for the Murray. 
 
 JNIeantime, the rich country traversed by Hume and Hovcll in their overland 
 journey had been left practically imoccupied. Or, if explorations in that direc- 
 tion were undertaken by private settlers, they were kept as secret as possible. 
 In general the discoverer waited until he could get a sufficient flock to take 
 possession of them himself. But it was whispered that a rich territory would 
 yet be found to the south of the Murrumbidgee. Still the opinion of the 
 surveyor-general was entitled to weight, and INIr Oxley had assured his fellow- 
 colonists that no rich territory could possible exist to the south of the Murrum- 
 bidgee. It was reserved for another surveyor-general to lead the way to a 
 colony, now for its size and population certainly one of the richest and most 
 flourishing under the Bi'itish Crown. This was Major INIitchell, who, in Novem- 
 ber 1831, started with a strong party to find a passage to the interior of the con- 
 tinent. He reached the Nammoy, Avhich he traced for some distance, came upon 
 the Gwydir (named l)y Cunninghani), and at length I'cached the Darling. Here he
 
 MITCHELLS EXPEDITIONS. 157 
 
 waited for supplies from a permanent depot ■which he had established on the 
 Nammoy. ])Ut when his assistant, ]\Ir Finch, arrived, he had no provisions with 
 him, bnt only a sad talc to tell of how the camp had been surprised by the 
 blacks, the two men in charge murdered, and the cattle and most of the stores 
 carried off. This put an end to the expedition. INIitchell returned to the depot, 
 where he buried the bodies of the two murdered assistants, and then retraced 
 his steps to Sydney. 
 
 Again, in March 1835, Mitchell started with a strong party, amongst whom 
 was Allan Cunningham, the botanist. When they reached the Bogan, Cunning- 
 ham was missed. A search Avas at once instituted, but the botanist was never 
 found. His tracks Avere followed for seventy miles, and his horse was found 
 dead, as Avere also his Avhip and gloves. Afterwards the melancholy facts Avere 
 revealed. Cnnningham had lost his way, and wandered about for five days, 
 Avlien he fell in Avith some natives. At first they treated him kindly, but the 
 horrible nature of his position overpoAvered his strength, and he became delirious. 
 This sealed the poor fellow's fate. The saA'ages became terrified at their strange 
 guest, and murdered him. Such Avas the sad end of a brave exi^lorer, a good 
 man, and an eminent botanist. 
 
 After this INIitchell continued his exploration of the Bogan for some time, 
 but an unfortunate encounter A\'ith the natives, in Avhich three of them Avere 
 killed, induced the speedy return of the expedition to Sydney. 
 
 His next expedition Avas of more importance, and placed him in the first 
 rank of explorers. It was undertaken in 1836, just a foAV months after Batman 
 and FaAvkner had gone over to Port Phillip from Tasmania. IMitchell's party 
 started from Sydney on the 17th March, and soon reached the Lachlan, Avhich 
 they explored for a considerable distance. On the Murray an encoimter with 
 natives took place, in Avhich seven of them Avere killed. Tracing the river along 
 its left bank, the party came to a fine country Avith a beautiful climate. On the 
 20th of June they reached the Loddon. junction. On the third day they lost the 
 Loddon ; and then they Avent forward through a beautiful pastoral countiy, 
 passed the Avon and Avoca rivers, obtained a fine view of the Grampians 
 (named by INIitchell), fell in with a deep creek which was named the Richardson 
 from one of the party Avho fell into it, and at length came to the Wimmera. 
 Mitchell with some companions climbed to the summit of Mount William, 
 whence they obtained a magnificent vieAV of the country around. A few days 
 afterAvards they came upon, and named, the Glenelg, whose sjilendid scenery 
 charmed the hearts of the explorers. Striking soutliAvard they descried the sea, 
 and at length came upon the settlement of the Messrs Henty, formed three years 
 before as a whaling station. Here they were hospitably received. But Mitchell 
 tells that he Avas obliged to approach the station cautiously, as his armed party 
 might easily be mistaken at a distance for bushrangers, and fired upon as they 
 approached. 
 
 After some days of rest and recruiting at the Hcntys' station, Mitchell set 
 out on his way home. The journey Avas, on the Avhole, a pleasant one. The 
 Australian PjTcnees Avere crossed and named. From the summit of Mount
 
 158 THE IIISTOR Y OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 Macedon, IMitclicU cauglit sight of Port Phillip. When the party had reached 
 Sjalnoy, they had traversed 2400 miles of the finest country that ever it was the 
 lot of explorers to discover. INIitchell gave it the name of Australia Felix, or 
 the Happy. On his return to Sydney, the Colonial Government immediately 
 made known the capabilities of their new province ; and settlers from New 
 South Wales, and from the neighbouring island of Van Diemen's Land, poured 
 in a continued stream into Port Phillip Bay, and spread their sheep over its 
 broad plains. The Government auctioneer went down from Sydney, and knocked 
 down town building allotments at unheard-of prices — such was the great promise 
 of the new territory — and within twelve months after the discovery of Sir Thomas 
 INIitchell (Avho had received the honour of knighthood on receipt of the news in 
 England), its new colonists were building the present city of Melbourne. 
 
 Sir Thomas IMitchcll undertook another expedition in 1845, to explore the 
 Darling. At the time of his starting — 17th of November^Sturt Avas making 
 his escape from the Central Desert (as will be subsequently narrated), and 
 Leichhardt was returning from his toilsome expedition to Port Elsington. The 
 party included Mr E. B. Kennedy, a young surveyor in the Government service, 
 Dr Stevenson, and twenty-six men. They had abundant supplies and provisions 
 for a year. The start was made from Parramatta. They reached the INIacquarie, 
 and from thence crossed the country to the Upper Darling. Here IMitchcll 
 received tidings of the safe return of Leichhardt's expedition. This intelligence 
 at once altered his plans. Leichhardt had proceeded along the eastern slope of 
 the Great Dividing Eange, and Mitchell now decided on examining its summit 
 and western slope, expecting- to pick up some stream at its source, and which 
 would lead him to the shores of the gulf. No such passage was found ; but the 
 discoverer of Australia Felix was, in a great measure, compensated by the 
 magnificent country which now disclosed itself within tropical Australia ; in 
 many spots, indeed, exceeding in luxuriance and beauty of scenery the Australia 
 Felix of 1835. Advancing beyond the Darling, and making direct for the tropic, 
 Mitchell found himself within a network of streams, taking their rise in the 
 Dividing Eange, and flowing through the broad rich table-lands which Avere now 
 found to form its highest elevation. Here, at the very time Captain Sturt and 
 his men, in the same latitude, and at the foot of the very same Dividing Range, 
 Avcre buflbting the red sand billows, and inhaling the scorching blast of the 
 desert, the expedition under Sir Thomas INIitchell was wandering through the 
 most lovely Claude-like scenery, and folloAving the course of such streams as 
 prompted their discoverer to name them the Claude, the Lorraine, the Salvator, 
 etc. There was abundance of Avatcr, and the young grass Avas daily growing 
 higher. 
 
 But jNIitchcU's chief discovery in this district was the river Barcoo, Avhieh he 
 named the Victoria, of course Avholly unconnected Avith Captain Stokes's Victoria 
 on the north-Avcst coast, at the opposite extremity of the continent. Here at 
 length appeared to be the long-sought stream opening a passage to the Gulf of 
 Carpentaria ; and anxiously the expedition foUoAved it doAvn the Avestern slopes 
 and table-lands of the Great Dividing Eange, along banks waving with perfumed
 
 MITCIIELUS EXPEDITIONS. 159 
 
 lilies, through rich deep meadows, with splendid reaches of water, capable of 
 lluating steamers of the largest tonnage. The Barcoo was followed for about 
 two hundred miles, when the provisions of the expedition totally failed them, 
 and the pursuit was abandoned. Strangely enough, Sturt and Mitchell were 
 then on the banks of the same stream ; for the Victoria and Cooper's Creek 
 have been since ascertained to be the same river ; and could they then have 
 compared notes, it would have been known that the hopes of a passage to the 
 north by the Barcoo were altogether delusive. That stream, shortly after Sir 
 Thomas JMitchcll's farthest point on it, takes a turn towards the sovitli, and 
 thenceforward maintains an entirely southern course. Mr Gregory, Avho at a 
 subsequent period followed the course of the Victoria through most inhospitable 
 wastes, found it, at length, to form the western arm of Lake Torrens, which is 
 separated from the head of Spencer's Gulf, near Adelaide, by a narrow isthmus, 
 flooded only during the rainy season. 
 
 Of the Barcoo, however, nothing was then known in Sydney, save what 
 Mitchell had just seen. A noble stream through a garden of lilies, and making 
 for the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, seemed well worth following, and 
 Kennedy, the second in command of Mitchell's expedition, was instructed to 
 trace its fm-ther course. Taking it up where the late expedition had been forced 
 to retreat on Sydney, this young officer proceeded along its banks. But even 
 in the comparatively short distance between Mitchell's farthest and the rich 
 Cooper's Creek district, the Victoria traverses an absolute desert. Scarcely any 
 water, and no food for the horses, could be found, the river bed had taken a per- 
 manently southern direction, and, as a road to the north, was valueless. Having 
 satisfied himself, therefore, that the Victoria was the Cooper's Creek of which 
 Captain Sturt had just brought intelligence to Adelaide, Mr Kennedy returned 
 to Sydney.
 
 160 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GREY'S EXPLOEATIONS. 
 
 GREY AND LUSHINGTON — EXPEDITION OF 1S37 — THE " LYNIIER " SAILS FROM THE 
 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE — GREY LANDS AT PORT GEORGE IV. — FIRST EXPLORATIONS 
 — FIRST MISFORTUNES — A NARROW ESCAPE — GREy's GALLANTRY — HANOVER BAY 
 — THE TIMOR PONIES — FRESH TROUBLES — A FINE COUNTRY — RETURN TO HANOVER 
 — SECOND EXPEDITION IN 1839 — DREADFUL DISASTERS — ARRIVAL AT PERTH — 
 RETURN TO ADELAIDE. 
 
 The next of the great Australian explorers was Captain Grey, who, in company 
 with Lieutenant Lushington, undertook an expedition to explore the country lying 
 between the Swan liiver and the Gulf of Carpentaria, a line of coast of three 
 thousand miles in length as a ship sails. The successes of Sturt and Mitchell in 
 opening new lands to British settlement had attracted the attention of England 
 towards Australia. The importance of connecting the north-west coast of 
 Australia by means of a settlement, nearer than the Swan River settlement, 
 was urged upon the Home Government. It was replied that no settlers would 
 go to a coast of which nothing whatever, save the misfortunes of the Swan River 
 settlers, was known. Grey, then a captain of the 83d Regiment in London, 
 seized with a spirit of adventure, proposed to the Government to go and explore 
 the north-west coast. H.M.S. " Beagle " was then lying at Plymouth, jjrepar- 
 ing for a marine survey of the Australasian seas and gulfs, which was to extend 
 over some years. Grey's proposal Avas accepted, and a passage was offered for 
 himself and his exploring party in the " Beagle." At the Cape of Good Hope he 
 hired the " Lynher " schooner, and started with a party consisting of twelve men, 
 thirty-one sheep, nineteen goats, and six dogs. On the 2d of December 1837, 
 they reached the coast of Australia, and anchored in Port George IV. Here 
 Grey landed and proposed to examine the shore for some distance. He took 
 with him a few men and some dogs. The vessel was to meet them at the 
 bottom of the bay. The weather Avas burning hot, and the rocks and sands were 
 literally scoi'ching. There was not a breath of air, nor a single tree to shelter 
 the explorers. Their stock of water soon began to fail. First the dogs gave in, 
 and began to drop down dead. Then the men began to drop behind. The 
 position was becoming critical. The party was unable to go forward at all. In 
 vain the men plunged into the sea in the hope of refreshing their exhausted 
 frames. At length Grey started in advance with one companion, in hopes of 
 reaching the schooner. But a new and terrible^ dilliculty arose. At the distance
 
 GRETS EXPLORATIONS. 161 
 
 of a mile and a half the two travellcivs met an arm of the sea five hundred yards 
 wide, out of which the tide was sweeping like a torrent. What to do now 1 Grey's 
 companion could not SAvim. Grey saw that the lives of his companions depended 
 on himself alone. He stripped to his shirt, and with a pistol in his hand and his 
 military cap on his head plunged into the water. Soon the current swept away 
 the pistol ; then the caji had to be abandoned lest the chin strap should choke the 
 hardy swimmer. After a fearful struggle, the waves dashed Grey on the opposite 
 shore. He clambered up the rocks with difficulty, naked and wounded. A 
 savage had perceived him, and the war-Avhoop was raised. But Grey contrived 
 to hide in a crevice in the rock, Avhere overpowered nature at once found 
 relief in sleep. From this pei'ilous position he Avas rescued, and subsequently 
 the party on shore, by the timely arrival of the schooner. This Avas Grey's first 
 adventure in Australian exploration. 
 
 After undergoing considerable difficulty in finding a suitable place for land- 
 ing. Grey discovered a sheltered cove Avhich he named Hanover Bay. On the 
 16th of December all the stores Avere landed, and the schooner started to 
 Timor for the ponies. Grey spent the interval in taking a vieAV of the country 
 around. The schooner returned on the 17th of January 1838. Then Grey's 
 explorations and difficulties commenced. The ponies Avere found unmanageal)le 
 and not suited to the climate. The sheep died. A large part of the stores had 
 to be left ^behind. Worst of all, the natives came down in force and an 
 encounter took place with them, in which Grey was Avounded, no less than three 
 spears having entered his body. All hope of carrying out his original design of 
 exploring the country all the Avay to SA\^an Eiver Avas abandoned. But proceed- 
 ing a little inland, the party Avere rejoiced to find themselves in a most delightful 
 tropical country. Everywhere — by the sjjarkling cascade of the Prince Regent's 
 River, along the picturesque banks of the Glenelg, through deep alluA'ial meadows 
 watered by countless rivulets — Grey paused to admire the beauty of the scenery. 
 " Those of the party," he writes, " Avho were not very tall, travelled, as they 
 themselves expressed it, between two high green walls, over which they could not 
 see ; and those green Avails were composed of rich green grass Avhich the ponies 
 ate Avith avidity. On a subsequent occasion, AAdien Ave revisited this valley, we 
 had to call to one another in order to ascertain our relative positions, Avhen only 
 a few yards apart. And yet the vegetation was neither rank nor coarse, but as 
 fine grass as I have ever seen." 
 
 From Hanover Bay the expedition proceeded for seventy miles inland along 
 the banks of the Genelg, a river discovered in the vicinity, the country still 
 preserving the same appearance. On the 16th of April the party returned to 
 Hanover Bay, where, fortunately, he found Captain Wickham Avith the " Beagle." 
 A month later the " Ljuher " returned, and all further attempts at exploration 
 in that quarter Avere abandoned. Grey sailed thence to the INIauritius to recruit 
 his shattered health. 
 
 But he was of too active a temperament to remain idle. In the following 
 year he again started with an exploring party consisting of thirteen men. By 
 the adAdce of the settlers at SAvan Eiver, Avhere he put in before proceeding to 
 
 X
 
 162 THE HIS TOE Y OF A US TEA LA SIA . 
 
 the north of the coast, he departed from his original intention of exploring 
 down^yards from Hanover Bay to Swan Eiver, and determined to land at Shark's 
 Bay, about six hundred miles to the north of Swan River, and to explore the coast 
 district thence upwards to Hanover Bay. At Shark's Bay, however, a violent 
 tempest put an end to fui'ther exploration at its very starting-point. The sea 
 rose and washed away the whole depot of stores. Two leaky whaleboats, and 
 a little flom- and salt provisions, were alone left, and with these Grey and his 
 men made a hasty retreat for Perth. About half-way from Perth, the two boats 
 were so shattered by the surf as to be found useless, and the retreating party 
 took to the land. Hei*e they would have all miserably perished, but for the 
 superior strength and endurance of the commander. They lay down, and 
 declared themselves unable to proceed any farther. Leaving them on the sea- 
 shore at a native well, Grey pushed on for Perth, and reached the out-settlements. 
 Horsemen were immediately despatched with food, and arrived in time for the 
 relief of all the party, save one, a lad named Smyth, who had perished. The 
 sufferings of the party had been dreadful in the extreme. For days together 
 they had gone Avithout either food or water. When the remnant reached Perth, 
 on the 21st of April 1839, they were so reduced as to be hardly recognisable. 
 From King George's Sound Grey returned to Adelaide.
 
 STRZELECKI IN GIPPSLAND. 163 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 STRZELECKI IN GIPPSLAND. 
 
 GIPPSLAND IN VICTORIA — STRZELECKI — A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY — A TERRIBLE 
 JOURNEY — REACHES MELBOURNE — FIRST DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 Between Wilson's Promontory and Cape Howe there lies a beautiful territory, 
 in shape like a crescent, hemmed in between the sea and the Australian Alps. 
 It is one of the most fertile and extensive districts in all Australia, containing 
 about ten millions of acres. This is Gippsland, so called after Governor Gipps, 
 and the discovery of which is mainly due to Count Strzelecki (pronounced 
 StreUcki), Avho, after the explorations of Sir Thomas Mitchell, undertook to 
 explore the Great Dividing Range, which separates the eastern seaboard from 
 the interior. Strzelecki was a Polish count, a man of vast and varied knowledge, 
 and an ardent explorer. For years he wandered in the Great Dividing Range, 
 incurring immense labour and hardship, making geological and botanical observa- 
 tions, measuring the heights of mountains, tracing the course of streams and 
 rivers, and investigating the flora and fauna, and also the physical, moral, and 
 social condition of the aborigines. The whole of this vast district Avas brought 
 within a geological map of great scientific value. 
 
 We have now to follow him into what we have not unfairly called the garden 
 of Austraha Felix. We have already seen that the Great Dividing Range runs 
 from north to south of the east coast, and buries itself in the Southern Ocean at 
 Wilson's Promontory. Before, however, reaching Wilson's Promontory it throws 
 off a spur which traverses the whole of Victoria from east to west, and on these 
 slopes the rich goldfields of Sandhurst, Ballarat, Mount Alexander, the Ovens, 
 Omeo, M'lvor, and several others, now cluster. Coming down this spur, and on 
 the slope of it, opposite to that traversed by Sir Thomas Mitchell, Strzelecki 
 found himself within a beautiful district, whose existence had not been even 
 suspected. Enclosed between the sea and the snow-clad summits of this Alpine 
 barrier, sheltered by it from the hot blasts of the interior, and watered by 
 numerous unfailing streams, fed from its snows, a large district not many degrees 
 from the tropics, possesses an almost English climate. Tourists from ]\Ielbourne 
 and Sydney are loud in their praises of the Arcadian beauty of Gippsland. Its 
 lowlands are interspersed with some splendid lakes ; while its rivers, navigable 
 for sixty and eighty miles from their junction with the lakes, are the finest and 
 most valuable within the Australian colonies. Flowers in endless variety, and 
 of great beauty, form a wide-spread carpet. The tall fern-trees, with their
 
 164 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 gigantic leaves, droop into natural bell-shape tents. A liundred deep pellucid 
 streams display the crystal quartz, and sharp clean sand and graA'el, which com- 
 pose their beds. Everywhere the traveller comes upon opening glades leading 
 up to the ranges, and clothed with many varieties of flowering heaths and acacias. 
 Nor is the soil less profitable than gay. All the productions of a temperate 
 chmate attain to absolute luxuriance there. Gippsland, under a proper system 
 of cultivation, might in a few years become the granary of Australia. 
 
 From this garden, however, Strzelecki was obliged to make a hasty retreat, 
 and found himself almost hopelessly entangled in the dense hedge which forms 
 its north-west boundary. With provisions running short, and suffering from the 
 fotigues of their previous labours, the count and his men attempted to reach 
 Melboiu'ue by a short cut across the ranges. The skirts of these ranges are 
 closed with a dense and almost impenetrable scrub. They had to abandon their 
 packhorses, and all the botanical and geological specimens collected on the way. 
 For twenty-two days they literally cut their way through the scrub, seldom 
 advancing more than two miles a day, and being in a state of complete starvation. 
 Their clothes were torn piecemeal away, and their flesh, lacerated by the sharp, 
 lancet-like brambles of the scrub, was exposed to the keen air of these snow- 
 crowned ranges. With difficulty Strzelecki and his men reached ISIelbourne, but 
 the horses, with all his valuable collections, were never recovered. 
 
 In his report of this expedition to Sir George Gipps, then Governor of New 
 South Wales, we have the first official notice of the discovery of gold. It stands 
 thus among an enumeration of the mineralogical specimens collected -in the 
 district, in the report dated 1839, the despatch of Sir George Gipps to the 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies, with which it was forwarded, bearing date 
 1840 : " Gold. — An auriferous sulphuret of iron, partly decomposed, yielding a 
 very small quantity or proportion of gold, sufficient to attest its presence." Thus 
 was lying, for twelve years, entombed among the parliamentai-y papers, that 
 important discovery which was to effect such changes in the Australian colonies, 
 until at length, in 1851, another Governor of New South Wales, taught by the 
 prosperity of California, consented to make more publicly known Hargreaves' 
 fresh discoveries of gold. But to Strzelecki the first discovery on the spot was 
 unquestionably due in 1839 ; which was corroborated by Sir Roderick Murchi- 
 son's scientific precognitions in 1846 and 1848.
 
 EYRE'S EXPLORATIONS. ^Oo 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EYEE'S EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 EDWARD JOHN EYRE — EXPEDITION TO LAKE TORRENS — FLINDERS's RANGE — A HOPELESS 
 PROSPECT — THE AUSTRALIAN BIGHT — A DESOLATE REGION — A TERRIBLE JOURNEY 
 — FEARFUL ADVENTURES — APPALLING TREACHERY — IN THE VAST SOLITUDE — A 
 DREADFUL NIGHT — SIGHT OF THE SEA — A WELCOME RESCUE. 
 
 The splendid discovery of Australia Felix by Mitchell might be supposed to 
 have satisfied the craving of the colonists for land. But within three or four 
 years after it had grown as strong as ever. The squatters — or "Crown tenants" 
 as they chose to call themselves — were permitted to take up " runs " as large as 
 English counties. In a wonderfully short time Australia Felix was occupied 
 from the Murray to the sea. The land in the neighbourhood of Adelaide was 
 such as Captain Sturt had described it, rich in pastures, and needing but the care 
 of the husbandman to give forth its corn and wine ; but the traveller to the 
 north of Adelaide soon found himself in a wilderness. The early settlers on 
 Port Jackson never sought more eagerly to escape beyond the Blue Mountains, 
 than did the inhabitants of the Adelaide district now seek to know what lay 
 beyond the desert which encompassed them. Within a few short years the city 
 of Adelaide had grown with amazing rapidity ; the whole of the surrounding 
 district was already overflowing with flocks and herds ; but the settler who 
 endeavoured to push to the north or west could nowhere discover either water or 
 grass. The efforts of its new Government were unremitting ; settlers Avere most 
 ready to contribute to the expenses of exploring expeditions ; and various were 
 the plans discussed. 
 
 In 1840 these discussions were brought to a practical issue. After much 
 debate the attempt to form a junction with the western settlement was aban- 
 doned ; and an expedition, called the Northern Exploring Expedition, was 
 formed by the united assistance of the Government and the colonists. Edward 
 John Eyre, afterwards Governor of St Vincent, was then a settler in the colony 
 of South Australia. He had already gained considerable experience as an 
 explorer, both in New South Wales and in its new dependency, the Port Phillip 
 district, as Sir Thomas Mitchell's Australia Felix soon came to be called. More 
 recently he had made some incursions into the country to the north of Adelaide, 
 and, on the opposite shore of Spencer's Gulf, in the Port Lincoln district ; and 
 to him was entrusted the command of the expedition. He Avas to ascertain the
 
 166 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 extent and nature of Lake Torrens. And, if possible, he was to penetrate to 
 the centre of the continent. 
 
 The southern shores of Lake Torrens were found desolate and dreary in the 
 extreme. The lake was about twenty miles broad, covered with a thick coating 
 of salt, which had the appearance of freshly-fallen snow. Under this salt was 
 found a bed of soft mud, becoming so deep towards mid-channel as to frustrate 
 all their efforts to cross the lake. More recently it has been ascertained that 
 what was then known as Lake Torrens is, in fact, a semicircular chain of lakes 
 or mud ponds ; and that a portion of its western arm is the terminus of a river 
 which takes its rise on the east coast of the continent, som.e fifteen hundred miles 
 distant. 
 
 Abandoning Lake Torrens, Eyre threw himself entirely upon Flinders's 
 Range, hoping that the slopes of its hills would fiu-nish sufficient water to his 
 party in their progress northward. But hill after hill grew smaller and less 
 frequent, and gradually the country settled down into a desolate level. One 
 peak still rose from the plain, and from this, named by him Mount Hopeless, he 
 determined to take a last observation. Without water or food for the horses, 
 and through a low sandy country, his party bore down on Mount LEopeless, and 
 ascended to its summit. " And cheerless and hopeless, indeed," he -writes, " was 
 the prospect before us." As he had feared, all trace of Flinders's Range now 
 ceased, and before him lay a wide desolate level, interrupted only by the ridge 
 forming the shore of the still more gloomy lake. This ridge of the lake, which 
 at each point of previous observation had been bending round from west to east, 
 now appeared on his right hand. Supposing, therefore, that his only means of 
 escape from this apparently vminterrupted semicircular basin was by descending 
 to either of its southern extremities, he returned to the head of Spencer's Gulf, 
 where a narrow isthmus separates the waters of the gulf from Lake Torrens, 
 and crossed into the Port Lincoln district, intending to resume his northern 
 course when sufficiently clear of the lake. Repeated attempts, however, proved 
 the impracticability of forcing a passage northward from this portion of the 
 coast. At every point when advancing a fcAV miles inland, impenetrable scrub, 
 and a total absence of water and food for the cattle, drove the expedition back. 
 Nor did it appear an easier task to advance along the coast itself. Leaving 
 the main portion of his men at Fowler's Bay, Eyre made three several attempts 
 to reach the Great Bight, hoping that, after passing that portion of the coast, 
 the country would be found to open up moi^e favourably inland. But after 
 encountering great hardships and the loss of several of his horses, he rounded 
 the Great Bight only to behold the same impenetrable country. The objects 
 proposed for the Northern Exploring Expedition seemed, therefore, impossible 
 of attainment ; and Eyre, on his return to Fowler's Bay, sent the men composing 
 it back to Adelaide. We have now to follow him through a feat the most 
 wonderful in the annals of exploration. 
 
 The south coast, from Fowler's Bay to King George's Sound, lay as Flinders 
 had sketched it from his ship. Indeed, down to that time no white man had 
 trod its desolate wilds. From the summit of the cliffs which had frowned down
 
 EYRE'S EXPLORATIONS. 167 
 
 on the topmasts of H.ISI.S. " Investigator," stretched inland a table-land without 
 rise or lall, until a dense and impenetrable skirting of serulj \\n\ it from sight. 
 This table-land Eyre had now ascertained to be an unbroken sheet of limestone. 
 At the bottom of the clift's the action of the current had hollowed out immense 
 caverns ; and occasionally huge portions of the rock became detached and 
 tumbled into the ocean, showing by the rapidity with which they Avere engulfed 
 the hopelessness of finding any path by the margin of the sea. Inland the 
 country seemed equally uni^romising, and the only portion capable of sustaining- 
 animal existence was a narrow strip extending along the edge of the table-land 
 overlooking the sea. Here the action of the wind had collected some scattered 
 heaps of sand, on which grew a few tufts of sour grass and salsolaceous herbs. 
 But from Fowler's Bay to the head of the Great Bight, neither lake, pond, nor 
 stream had been discovered ; and from Fowler's Bay to King George's Sound, a 
 distance of upM'ards of fifteen hundred miles, no vestige of a water-course nor any 
 surface lake or pond was subsequently met. During the day a strong wind blows 
 from the interior, sometimes scorching in its heat, and loaded with fine sand. 
 Towards evening this is met by a chilling breeze coming up from the great 
 Southern Ocean ; and doubtless to the action of those two winds is to be attri- 
 buted the deposition of sand on the limestone surface along the edge of this 
 exposed table-land. Occasionally, at intervals of 150 and 200 miles, the sand 
 had been formed into a cluster of hills, and on digging down to the limestone at 
 these places a little brackish water was found to ooze out between the sand and 
 the rock. Strange as it may seem, this was the only water at all approaching 
 fresh, which could be discovered along the whole course of this terrible 
 journey. 
 
 In undertaking this most forbidding task, Eyre had determined to risk the 
 life of no European save himself. The men composing the North Exploring 
 Expedition had, therefore, been sent back to Adelaide. But the overseer of the 
 party, a man of gi'eat energy and courage, refused to leave his leader. In 
 addition he retained three aboriginal young men, one of them named Wylie, a 
 native of King George's Sound. The ofiicers and men of the disbanded expedi- 
 tion had made known, on their return to Adelaide, the great difficulties Eyre 
 had experienced in his efforts to round the Great Bight, and the unpromising- 
 nature of the coimtry beyond its head. From these it appeared that Eyre was 
 advancing on certain destruction ; and a Government sloop was immediately des- 
 patched to Fowler's Bay, with a strong recommendation from the governor to 
 retui'n. But Eyre's resolution Avas not to be changed, and the sloop returned to 
 Adelaide without him. " We were now alone," he writes, " myself, my overseer, 
 and the three native boys, with a fearful task before us. The bridge was broken 
 down behind us, and we must succeed in reaching King George's Sound, or 
 perish. No middle course remained." Having constructed bags to hold Avater, 
 and having given the cattle sufficient rest, Eyre commenced his jom-ney. His 
 stock of proAisions then consisted of some sheep, remaining over from the dis- 
 banded expedition, and a few bags of flom*. The head of the Great Bight Avas 
 again rounded, and the same forbidding natm-e of country was found to extend
 
 1 68 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 along its western arm, the only vegetation being a few scattered tufts of grass, 
 and the only water being procm-ed from beneath the sandhills, occurring at 
 intervals of one and two hundred miles. 
 
 That man or beast should travel through a succession of such intervals, extend- 
 ing over upwards of fifteen hundred miles, is indeed wonderful. Sometimes a group 
 of sandhills occurred at the end of one or two days' march ; more frequently, 
 scarcely a blade of grass, and not a drop of water, was met for a whole week, 
 and human endurance, taxed beyond what it might be believed possible for it 
 to sustain, was no longer supported by the hope that another group was yet in 
 advance, or that retreat was possible. Eyre's progress, dm-ing one of those long 
 intervals between water and water, may be thus sketched : After a halt of 
 three or four days at one of these groups of sandhills to recruit, the horses were 
 again loaded for a fresh start, the bags were filled with water, and the sheep 
 were led out of their pen. For two or three days the horses were able to carry 
 the few bags of flom*, water, and other necessary baggage. On the fourth day 
 their strength began to fail, and it became necessary to lighten their loads, the 
 rejected articles being left on the wayside. On the fifth and sixth days the 
 horses became totally exhausted, and no exertions could force them to proceed 
 farther. Leaving them also stretched on the wayside, Eyre and his men, Avith 
 the empty water-bags, hurried forward until the next group of sandhills appeared 
 above the horizon. Arriving at these, they immediately proceeded to scoop out 
 a well, considerable labour and delay being occasioned by the repeated falling-in 
 of the sand. Eeaching the surface of the limestone, they quenched their thirst 
 and took a few hours' rest while the watei'-bags were filling. The whole party 
 then shouldered their bags, and proceeded back to the horses ; and these they 
 generally succeeded in bi'inging on by easy stages to the sandhills ; though 
 occasionally they found one of the wretched and worn-out animals in its last 
 struggles. Having brought everything living to the water, the most laborious 
 task yet remained. Their provisions and a few indispensable articles were still 
 strewed along their track ; and it' was necessary to go back and collect them. 
 Eyre and his men carrying them on their backs a distance of sometimes forty or 
 fifty miles. In addition to these immense labours, a further task devolved on Eyre 
 and the overseer. The horses, though found unable to endure the same privation 
 as the men, were nevertheless essential to the preservation of the party. Notwith- 
 standing their fatigue, the want of water made them restless during the night, 
 and, when not closely watched, they seized every ojiportunity to return to the 
 last watering-jjlace — the scattered position of the few tufts of herbage rendering 
 it impossible to tether them. Nor could so important a task be safely entrusted 
 to the three aborigines. Eyre and the overseer, therefore, agreed to divide each 
 night between them, so as by strict watch to ensure the possession of the horses 
 in the morning. 
 
 In this manner Eyre and his small party had toiled on for a couple of months, 
 and liad now acconqilished more than half their journey, when an apijalling act 
 of treachery plunged him in fresh dillieulties, and seemed to render his ulti- 
 mate escape hopeless. In the midst of one of these long stages between water
 
 EYRE'S EXPLORATIONS. 109 
 
 and water, they had encamped for the night, and Eyre had taken the first watch 
 over the horses. It was approaching towards midnight, when his watch would 
 expire and he would be relieved by the overseer. The horses in their restless- 
 ness had led him some distance from the camp, when the report of a gun inter- 
 rupted the sighing of the breeze over these desolate Avilds. Startled by so 
 miusual an occurrence, Ejtc immediately hastened back to the camp. lie ■writes : 
 " I met the King George's Sound native, Wylie, running toAvards me, and in 
 great alarm, crying, ' O massa, O massa ! come here ; ' but could gain no in- 
 formation from him, as to what had occurred. Upon reaching the encampment, 
 which I did in about five minutes after the shot was fired, I was horror-strnclc 
 to find my poor overseer weltering in his blood, and in the last agonies of deatli. 
 Glancing hastily around the camp, I found it deserted by the two younger native 
 boys ; whilst the scattered fragments of oru" baggage, which I left carefully piled 
 up under the oilskin, lay thrown about in wild disorder, and at once revealeil 
 the cause of the harrowing scene before me. Upon raising the body of my faith- 
 ful, but ill-fated follower, I found that he was beyond all human aid. He had 
 been shot through the left breast with a ball. The last convulsions of death 
 were upon him, and he expired almost immediately after our arrival. 
 
 " The frightful, the appalling truth now burst upon me, that I was alone in 
 the desert. He who had faithfully served me for many years, Avho had followed 
 my fortunes in adversity and prosperity, who had accompanied me in all my 
 wanderings, and whose attachment to me had been his sole inducement to 
 remain with me in this last, and to him, alas ! fatal journey, was now no more. 
 For an instant I was almost tempted to wish that it had been my ovn\ fate, 
 instead of his. The horrors of my situation glared upon me with such startling- 
 reality as, for an instant, almost to paralyse the mind. At the dead hour of 
 night, in the wildest and most inhospitable wastes of Australia, with a fierce 
 wind raging in unison with the scene of violence before me, I was left with a 
 single native, whose fidelity I could not rely upon, and who, for aught I knew, 
 might be in league with the other two, who perhaps were even now lurking 
 about, with a view of taking away my own life, as they had done that of the 
 overseer. Three days had passed away since we left the last water, and it was 
 very doubtful when we might find any more. Six hundred miles of country had 
 to be traversed before I could hope to obtain the slightest aid or assistance of 
 any kind, whilst I knew not that a single drop of water or an ounce of flour had 
 been left by these murderers from a stock that had previously been so small." 
 
 Their small store of flour had, indeed, been the incentive to this horrible 
 deed. The two natives had taken with them all the flour and water they could 
 carry, and the double-barrelled guns of Eyi'e and the overseer, leaving behind 
 them only a brace of pistols and a rifle which had a ball fast in the breech, and 
 was useless for the time. The encampment showed that they had laid their plan 
 for murdering the overseer that night ; but, as the country around was entirelj' 
 destitute of food, it is most probable that they perished as soon as their stock of 
 flour was exhausted. 
 
 "After obtaining possession," continues Eyre, "of all the remaining arms, 
 
 Y
 
 170 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 useless as they were at tlie moment, with some ammimition, I made no examina- 
 tion then, but hurried away from the frightful scene, accompanied by the King- 
 George's Sound native, to search for the horses, knowing that, if they got away 
 now, no chance whatever would remain of saving our lives. Already the wretched 
 animals had wandered to a considerable distance ; and although the night Avas 
 moonlight, yet the belts of scrub, intersecting the plains, were so numerous and 
 dense that, for a long time, we could not find them. Having succeeded in doing 
 so at last, Wjdie and I remained with them, watching them during the remainder 
 of the night ; but they were very restless and gave us a deal of trouble. With 
 an aching heart, and in most painful reflection, I passed this dreadful night, every 
 moment appearing to be protracted to an hour, and it seemed as if the daylight 
 would never appear. About midnight the wind ceased and it became bitterly 
 cold and frosty. I had nothing on but a shirt and a pair of trousers, and suffered 
 most acutely from the cold. To mental anguish was now added intense bodily 
 pain. Sufi'ering and distress had well-nigh overwhelmed me, and life seemed 
 hardly Avorth the eflTort necessary to prolong it. Ages can never efface the 
 horrors of this single night, nor would the wealth of the world tempt me to go 
 through similar ones again." 
 
 With daylight Eyre and Wylie prepared to hasten from this dreadful scene. 
 There was not sufficient sand on the surface of the limestone to bury the body of 
 the overseer, and nothing remained but to wrap his blanket around it. The 
 sheep had all been consumed, or perished on the journey. Forty pounds of 
 flour was now their only stock of provision ; and, abandoning everything else 
 save his charts and papers, Ejtc hurried from the spot Avith his solitary attend- 
 ant, Wylie. The two natives again appeared before starting, and made eflbrts to 
 gain over Wylie, but they could not be induced to speak to Eyre, and after a 
 short time, they disappeared in the desert. 
 
 The two travellers were now obliged to live chiefly on their horses, curing the 
 flesh in the sun and carrying on a sufficient quantity for some days' consumption. 
 The singular Avail of cliffs retired inland, and they Avere enabled to gain access to 
 the sea-shore, where they occasionally caught a stinging ray-fish. At length, 
 when human nature threatened to sink under such long-continued exposure, and 
 to reach the settlement at King George's Sound, noAv close at hand, appeared 
 beyond their strength, a whaling barque was sighted off" the coast. On perceiA^- 
 ing their signals, the commander — Captain Rossiter, of the French whaling-ship 
 " Mississippi " — sent a boat for them, and they were received on board with 
 much hospitality. After recruiting themselves here for some weeks, they were 
 again landed, Avithin easy reach of the settlement, where they arrived in July 
 1841, after an absence of over tAvelve months from Adelaide.
 
 STURTS THIRD EXPEDITION. ]71 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 STURT'S THIRD EXPEDITION. 
 
 THE NORTHERN REGION — STURT STARTS AGAIN — ROCKY GLEN — DROUGHT AND HEAT 
 — THE GREAT CENTRAL STONY DESERT — AN OCEAN OF SAND — EYRE'S CREEK — 
 A RETREAT — COOPER's CREEK — THE GREAT DESERT AGAIN — THE HOT WIND OF 
 THE DESERT — TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS — A THRILLING ADVENTURE — SAFE RETURN 
 TO ADELAIDE. 
 
 The terrible story of his adventures which Eyre had to tell, completely satisfied 
 the minds of the South Australian people that the south coast Avas an utterly 
 impracticable country. But there still remained a possibility of finding good 
 grazing land in the great interior Avhich lay to the north of them. A fresh 
 expedition was therefore planned in 1844, and the command of it was given to 
 Captain Sturt, whose previous achievements as an explorer had raised his 
 reputation to a very high pitch. He started from the Darling on the 24th of 
 September 1844, with a party of fifteen men, including Mr Poole, assistant sur- 
 veyor ; Mr J. H. Browne, surgeon ; and Mr John Macdouall Stuart as draughts- 
 man. The provisions Avere calculated to last eighteen months. 
 
 Desirous to escape from the meshes of Lake Torrens, he left that district on 
 his left hand, and passed up the ]\Iurray and the Darling, merely making a 
 descent, at intervals, on the Torrens basin, to ascertain the existence of an 
 eastern arm. 
 
 Leaving the Darling, which was taking him too much out of his northern 
 course, at its junction with a small tributary, called by the natives the Williorara 
 (the Menindie of the expedition under Burke and Wills), he endeavoured to 
 pass up the Williorara. But its waters quickly failed him, and pasture was 
 becoming daily more scarce. The expedition had started in winter, so as by 
 help of the spring showers to push to the north. The sun was beginning to dry 
 up the pools, and no time was to be lost. By means of forced marches, Captain 
 Sturt and his men passed over a vei'y inhospitable tract of country and reached 
 as high as latitude 29:|°, when they unexpectedly came upon a pictui'esque spot, 
 Avell watered and supplied Avitli food for the cattle. To this Avas given the name 
 of Eocky Glen Depot ; and here Captain Sturt determined to allow both men 
 and horses to recruit for some time, while he explored the country beyond, for 
 the purpose of selecting the most safe northern route. With dismay he gradu- 
 ally ascertained that no northern route was to be found. The Ilocky Glen 
 ceased as suddenly towards the north as it had opened, nnd the country beyond
 
 172 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 became an absolute desert. In vain Cajitain Sturt and the officers under his 
 command followed the course of every creek, and made long and harassing 
 excursions into the district around. Neither water nor pasture was to be found 
 beyond the Eocky Glen. Retreat, too, was cut off. The summer's sun had 
 dried ujd every gond and creek which had supplied them on their line of march, 
 and six months' imprisonment in the Eocky Glen Depot became certain. 
 
 For six months no rain fell. The violence of the sun became insupportable. 
 To escape from its rays a large underground chamber was excavated, to which 
 the men retired during the heat of the day. Gradually the surrounding desert 
 closed in on them. The whole vegetation of the Eocky Glen became mere snufi, 
 and was carried away by the hot blast. Nothing was left but the naked rocks 
 and the pool of water on which their lives depended. Day by day it, too, 
 yielded to the fury of the sun. " Under its effects," -wi'ote Captain Sturt, " every 
 screw in our boxes had been drawn, and the horn handles of our instruments, as 
 well as of our combs, were split in fiiue lamina3. The lead dropped out of our 
 pencils ; our signal rockets were entirely spoiled ; our hair, as well as the wool 
 on the sheep, ceased to groAV ; and our nails had become as brittle as glass." 
 Scurvy now attacked the whole party. Some of the men would be unable to 
 proceed with the expedition, and Mr Poole was dying. In this condition, the 
 winter months came slowly round, and the first refreshing shower fell. The way 
 was again open, and it might be possible to save Mr Poole. A litter of boughs 
 and dried leaves was already prepared, and with Mr Poole six of the men 
 endeavoured to make a retreat on Adelaide. But the winter had been too long 
 in coming. Mr Poole died a few hours after his attendants had quitted the 
 camp, and his body was brought back just as Captain Sturt and the remainder 
 of the expedition were about to start on their northern course. His companions 
 raised a rude pyramid of stones on a neighbouring hill to mark the place of his 
 interment ; and Mount Poole is all that is left to tell of the weary days spent in 
 the Eocky Glen Depot. " That rude structure," writes Captain Sturt, " looks 
 over his lonely grave, and will stand for ages, as a record of all we suffered in 
 the di'eary regions to which we were so long confined." 
 
 About fifty miles farther on, a fresh halting-place was discovered, and called 
 Park Depot. Accompanied by INIr Browne and three men, Cajitain Sturt started 
 from Park Depot, bearing right down on the centre of the continent. In a 
 short time the country assumed all the appearance of a desert. Neither grass 
 nor water was any longer visible, and the eye rested on nothing, to the brink of 
 the horizon, but reddish-brown sand. Gradually as they advanced, this sand 
 swelled into long parallel ridges, running from east to west and rising higher and 
 higher, until at length the explorers found themselves toiling over a very ocean 
 of solid billows, some fifty or sixty feet high, and succeeding each other in end- 
 less uniformity. At the distance of about two hundred miles from Park Depot, 
 this singular country came to an abrupt termination, and the explorers stood 
 before what is ntjw known as Sturt's Stony Desert. The parallel sand ridges, 
 running from east to west, were suddenly chopped off at right angles, and in 
 their stead stretched an immense level plain, uninterrupted all round the
 
 STURTS THIRD EXPEDITION. 173 
 
 horizon from south to north, and thickly strewn with small fraj^mcnts of quartz, 
 firmly packed together, and rounded as if watcrworn. Neither herl) nor shrub 
 protruded through the firmly-wedged quartz fragments. No sound or move- 
 ment could be heard or seen all round them, and the dray wheels and hoofs of 
 the horses left not the least impression on the surface of the plain. All that 
 could attract or sustain animal and vegctal>lc life, nature seemed to have rigidly 
 excluded from this scene of desolation. Thus the sun went down, and Captain 
 Sturt and his men encamped for the night in the Stony Desert. 
 
 With the morning the party was again under way ; and at the distance of 
 about thirty miles from its commencement, the Stony Desert was found to come 
 to an equally abrupt termination. An immense plain of clay, or dried mud, lay 
 before them, entirely destitute of vegetation. No water could be found, and the 
 earth, cracked by the heat of the sun, abounded in immense fissures, which were 
 avoided only by extreme watchfulness and care. Still maintaining their original 
 coui'se, the party arrived at the termination of this plain also, and found the tall 
 sand ridges re-appear, precisely as they had left them on the eastern shore of the 
 Stony Desert. Again the explorers toiled over this solid ocean of red billows — • 
 an ocean seen, as it were, under the glare of some great conflagration, lashed 
 into waves running mountains high, and then suddenly frozen all round from 
 centre to horizon. 
 
 At length a small creek appeared ahead, and revived the hopes of the party. 
 It received the name of Eyre's Creek. It contained some good water, and com- 
 municated sufliicient fertility to its neighbourhood to furnish a meal for the 
 horses. On following it down, however, it soon died out on the desert, leaving 
 merely a few incrustations of salt, and leading to a country as destitute of vege- 
 tation as that they had already traversed. They were now more than four 
 hundred miles from Park Depot ; and with the exception of Eyre's Creek, some 
 fifty miles behind, had nothing in the intermediate region to fall back upon. 
 They had advanced two hundred miles beyond the Stony Desert, without meet- 
 ing any indication of a permanent change in the nature of the country. Both 
 men and horses were so weak that any further advance would greatly endanger 
 their retreat. Under these circumstances. Captain Sturt decided to fall back 
 on Eyre's Creek, and, by its assistance, to regain the depot. The party 
 regained the main expedition with considerable difficulty, and in a most exhausted 
 condition. 
 
 Having taken some short rest at Park Depot, Captain Sturt again started 
 with Mr Stuart and two men. After some days' travelling, the explorers were 
 agreeably surprised by increasing signs of fertility, and they came upon the 
 banks of a fine creek flowing through an extensive and picturesque tract of pas- 
 toral country. This is Cooper's Creek, so sadly associated with the melancholy 
 fate of Burke and Wills. Returning to their original course, after some ex- 
 amination of the district, they were soon again toiling over a sea of red sand 
 ridges, exactly similar to those met with in the first excursion. At the end of 
 another week's travelling, the Stony Desert again appeared in all its awful still- 
 ness. For half an hour Ca])tain Sturt sat on the summit of one of those quartz-
 
 174 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 clad hills, sweeping the horizon with his telescope, hoping to find some encour- 
 agement to advance. But no change in the nature of the country could be 
 detected. Eeluctantly the horses' heads Avere turned, and the most protracted 
 effort yet witnessed to reach the centre of the continent Avas finally abandoned. 
 The party hastened to throw themselves back on Cooper's Creek, some two 
 hundred miles distant, and the nearest halting- place. It was a journey for life 
 or death. The horses that refused to proceed Avei-e abandoned on the way. 
 When a horse fell, his hght baggage Avas hastily distributed among the rest, and 
 the retreat continued. Uninterruptedly, night and day, they retreated. At 
 night one of the men Aveut before them Avith a lantern ; and thus assisted in 
 their course OA'er the vast sand ridges and through the unbroken solitude of the 
 Stony Desert, the explorers safely reached Cooper's Creek. Over these regions 
 the hot Avinds blew with unusual violence. On the morning of their arrival a 
 hot wind began to bloAv, and tOAvards mid-day raged Avith gi-eat fury. The leaves 
 of the trees along the creek became crisp in a few moments, and fell like a snoAV 
 shower around them. The Avastes of sand ridges, from Avliich they had just 
 escaped, seemed a very ocean. The crests of the sand billoAvs were cut off' and 
 Avhirled on high in thick spray. Blinding torrents of fine sand, driven before the 
 Avind, Avere poured over the Cooper's Creek district, smarting and blistering the 
 feverish skin. ToAA^ards the horizon, sea and sky Avere mingled in one red mass. 
 Every living thing turned from the gloAV. An all-i)ervading relaxation seized 
 man and beast. The horses Avere unable to bear the weight of their oavu heads. 
 Propped against trees, and turned from the hot Avinds, they let their heads fall 
 to the ground, as if the muscles of the neck had been severed. A thermometer, 
 graduated to 127°, burst from the excessive heat, though placed in the fork of a 
 large tree. In all probability, had this tempest overtaken the party in the 
 desert, they would have all jDerished. Passing through Cooper's Creek district, 
 Captain Sturt Avith his men again joined the main exjDcdition at Park Dejjot, 
 greatly Aveakened by sickness, and scarcely capable of any further exertion. On 
 the foUoAving day he found himself unable to Avalk. In a day or tAvo more his 
 muscles became rigid and his limbs contracted. Gradually also his skin black- 
 ened. The least movement put him to torture, and he Avas reduced to a state of 
 perfect prostration. 
 
 But Park Depot Avas many hundreds of miles from Adelaide, and an imme- 
 diate retreat was now necessary. Already another summer had come round, 
 and the sun Avas drying \\\) all the pools and Avater-courses on the way. It was 
 doubtful, indeed, Avhcther the Avay Avas still open. Mr Brown proposed to 
 go and ascertain, lest the expedition should be again caught in the desert. 
 Unless Flood's Creek, about 150 miles nearer Adelaide, contained suffi- 
 cient Avater, it Avould be dangerous to move the expedition ; and ISIr BroAvn 
 determined to learn the condition of Flood's Creek. The hide of a bullock Avas 
 seAvn together, so as to form a Avater-tight bag. This, filled Avith Avater, Avas 
 jtlaced on the Avay some seventy miles in advance, and on the foUoAving morning INIr 
 BroAvn started Avith ft light spring-cart, containing about thirty gallons of Avater. 
 By this contrivance he was enabled to su})ply himself and his horse Avitli Avaler
 
 STURTS THIRD EXPEDITION. 175 
 
 half way on his journey, without encroaching on the store which he carried with 
 him. Anxiously the men watched for his return. On his report depended 
 another six months' imprisonment in Kocky Glen Depot, and both oflBcers and 
 men recalled Rocky Glen Depot with horror. On the eighth day they came to 
 Sturt's tent to tell him that INIr Brown had ajipeared in sight, and in a few 
 minutes he stood before him. " Well, Bro^vn," said he, " what news 1 Is it to 
 be good or bad ? " " There is still Avater in the creek," he answered, " but that 
 is all I can say. What there is, is as black as ink ; and wc must make haste, 
 for in a week it will be all gone." A bed of leaves was placed in one of tlio 
 carts, into which Captain Sturt was lifted, and the whole expedition commenced 
 its retreat from Central Australia. Flood's Creek was safely reached, and it 
 enabled them to push on to the Murray. The news was carried down the 
 Murray that Sturt, now nineteen months absent, and supposed dead, was 
 returning. The settlers along its banks hastened to place their carriages at 
 the service of himself and his exhausted men. Under the light of an Australian 
 moon they again passed the clustering vines and golden wheatfields which 
 surround Adelaide.
 
 176 THE HISTOR Y OF A US Til A LA SI A . 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE FATE OF LEICHHAEDT. 
 
 AN OVERLAND ROUTE TO CARPENTARIA — MITCHELL INVITES LEICHHARDT TO EXPLORE 
 THE ROUTE — EXPEDITION STARTS — A LONG JOURNEY — FATE OF GILBERT — 
 PRIVATIONS — REACH PORT ESSINGTON — RETURN TO SYDNEY — SECOND EXPEDITION 
 — THE LOST EXPLORERS — FRUITLESS SEARCH — GREGORY'S DISCOVERIES OF 
 RELICS. 
 
 While tlie people of Adelaide were seeking an extension of settlement towards 
 the north, the people of Sydney were also occupied by a project of their own. 
 Between Sydney and India, China, and the rich islands of the Dutch in the 
 Indian Archipelago, lay the whole continent of Australia. If their ships went 
 to the south-west, there was more than half the continent to sail round. If they 
 went to the north-east, there were the Great Barrier Keef, twelve hundred miles 
 long, and the dangerous Torres Strait — where the timbers of many a stout 
 Sydney bark lay mouldering on the small islands which choke the passage. 
 An overland route to the Gulf of Carpentaria would bring the Indian ArchiiDolago 
 almost to their door. With a practical route to the Gulf of Caipentaria, the 
 whole commerce of Southern and Western Asia and its islands would be thrown 
 open to the Australian colonics. What then appeared a golden dream is now 
 accomplished. Bui'ke and Wills have laid a way to the shores of the gulf; and 
 but for the terrible mishap of a few hours, might have lived to see it occupied 
 by the iron road and the electric wire. 
 
 Sir Thomas Mitchell, who was then Surveyor-General of the Colony of New 
 South Wales, warmly advocated this project. He invited Leichhardt, who was 
 already known by some explorations he had conducted in the neighbourhood of 
 Moreton Bay, to the north of Sydney, and which eventually laid the foundations 
 of the colony of Queensland, to accompany him on an expedition to the shores 
 of the gulf As there was no probability that Sir Thomas Mitchell could leave 
 Sydney during that year, Leichhardt accepted the command of the expedition, 
 and started on his way in August 1844, the same year in which Captain Sturt 
 had already started from Adelaide. Leichhardt's journey was entirely a coast 
 route, and though of enormous length — extending from Sydney to Port Essington, 
 a distance along the coast of not less than three thousand miles — and leading 
 the way to much excellent land, afterwards occupied by the colonists of New 
 South Wales, it would possess little interest for us now, but for the impenetrable
 
 THE FATE OF LEICHHARDT. 177 
 
 mystery which enshi-ouds the fate of a succeeding expedition commanded by 
 the same leader. 
 
 The eastern slope of the coast range, overlooking the Pacific, is well watered 
 by numerous coast streams, and jiossesses extensive terraces of fine pastoral land, 
 though every now and again interrupted by broken and almost impassable districts. 
 Along these slopes Leichhardt led his party, with abundance of water and pasture 
 for the cattle ; but its position and the nature of the country render it, for a com- 
 mercial high road, of little use. In the course of this toilsome expedition, the 
 party suffered much from the natives ; and on one occasion the naturalist, Mr 
 Gilbert, was killed, and two others were dangerously wounded. In these sad 
 circumstances Leichhardt exhibited great energy and presence of mind. The 
 suff"erings of the party also, from want of provisions and water, were very great. 
 At length, after a journey of fifteen months, the expedition reached Port Essing- 
 ton on the 17th of December 1845, nearly famished and naked, their last bullock 
 being nearly eaten, and with no stores left, nor any animals, except the horses 
 upon which they rode. 
 
 After a month's stay at the settlement, the party returned by sea to Port 
 Jackson. The people of Sydney were overjoyed to see them again, as it was 
 begun to be looked upon as certain that they had all perished in the wilderness. 
 Rewards were voted to the explorers by the legislative council, to which Avas 
 added a sum of £1400, subscribed by the general public. It may here be added 
 that the settlement at Port Essington was abandoned altogether in 1850, the 
 place being found totally unfitted for the residence of Europeans. 
 
 Meantime the Barcoo was being discovered by Mitchell, and Leichhardt had 
 been for some time making preparations for an expedition, even more important 
 than his great overland expedition to Port Essington. He proposed to bisect the 
 whole continent by taking the greatest diameter possible at a base route. INIore- 
 ton Bay and Perth are the two extremities of such a diameter ; and Leichhardt 
 was preparing to cross from the Moreton Bay district to the capital of Western 
 Austi'alia, by a line passing through the centre of the continent. Kennedy had 
 just brought the news from Sydney that the Barcoo had abandoned its northern 
 course, and was coming round to the west. It seemed, therefore, to offer a 
 passage into Central Australia ; and Leichhardt determined to avail himself of 
 it. Early in 1848, a month or so before Kennedy started for York Peninsula, he 
 left Sydney with a large and well-equipped party under his command. Of the 
 fate of himself and his whole party no certain traces have ever been discovered. 
 The little that we know of the proceedings of the lost expedition may be told in 
 very few words. It will be recollected that nothing was then knoAVTi of the 
 Barcoo beyond Cooper's Creek district, nor that the Barcoo Avas the Cooper's 
 Creek of Sturt, except from Kennedy's conjectures. No one then imagined that 
 the Barcoo, after its wanderings in Central Australia, would bring the traveller 
 back again to settled districts. It is, at least, certain that Leichhardt made 
 direct for the banks of the Barcoo. It is also certain that he abandoned the 
 river when he found it leading him too much to the south. Kennedy, in his ex- 
 cursion down the Barcoo, had discovered a large and imposing tributary joining 
 
 z
 
 178 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 it on the right-band bank. This he called the Thomson. It then possessed a 
 considerable body of water — indeed, was as large as the Barcoo itself. Leich- 
 hardt left Sydney in April, and would arrive at this portion of the river about the 
 beginning of the spring. Gregory, some ten years afterwards, in 1857, shortly 
 after his return from his explorations on the north-west coast, started from 
 Sydney to discover, if possible, some traces of the lost expedition. Their marks 
 were not yet obliterated on the banks of the Barcoo. So far into the interior as 
 the 146th meridian, Gregory found a tree marked " L ; " after which no further 
 trace could be discovered on the Barcoo. The 146th meridian is, however, 
 higher up the stream than the junction of the Thomson. Gregory accordingly 
 arrived at the conclusion that the expedition had at this point abandoned the 
 Barcoo and passed uj) the Thomson. Under this conjecture, he passed up the 
 Thomson almost at the tropic. It was then summer, and the river at that point 
 presented merely a dry and baked channel, without water or grass. It was evi- 
 dently leading out into Sturt's great desert, but offered no inducement to proceed. 
 There can scarcely be a doubt that Leichhardt, passing up the Thomson at a 
 more promising season of the year, launched out on that terrible country which 
 had so nearly entombed Sturt and his men. Whether the impending summer 
 cut off retreat, or a hostile tribe attacked them on the western borders, is left to 
 conjecture. Long and anxiously did the Sydney people look out for the return 
 of Leichhardt and his party, but their expectations were doomed to be sadly 
 defeated.
 
 rilE FATE OF KENNEDY. 179 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FATE OF KENNEDY. 
 
 THE NORTHERN OVERLAND ROUTE — KENNEDY'S EXPEDITION IN 1848 — JACKY JACKY — 
 THE PARTY LANDED — AN ANXIOUS LOOK-OUT— THE SOLITARY NATIVE — A TERRIBLE 
 
 STORY HOSTILE NATIVES — KENNEDY WOUNDED JACKY JACKY'S PATHKTIC 
 
 NARRATIVE — DEATH OF THE EXPLORER — A PERILOUS ESCAPE — TIMELY RESCUE — 
 THE FRUITLESS SEARCH — THE LOST EXPLORERS — KENNEDY'S CHARACTER. 
 
 Though unable to discover a practical overland route to the head of the Gulf of 
 Carpentaria, the people of Sydney vs^ere not inclined to abandon all hope of com- 
 munication with its shores. York Peninsula is that enormous isosceles triangle 
 which forms the eastern arm of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The base of this 
 triangle is an imaginary line from Eockingham Bay to the head of the gulf A 
 land communication along this line would save a considerable distance of sea 
 voyage, and would Avholly escape Torres Strait. The Indian and Chinese 
 traders, and the Dutch islanders, might then land their Avares at the head of the 
 gulf. A few coasters from Rockingham Bay to the colonies would complete the 
 rest of the journey. But York Peninsula was a terra incognita; and Kennedy, 
 some months after his return from the Barcoo River, was sent to explore it. 
 He was to examine the peninsula on its Pacific side, from Rockingham Bay to 
 Cape York. A colonial sloop was to lie off Cape York, to supply stores to the 
 exploring party on its arrival there, where the exploring party Avas to turn, and 
 examine the gulf side, down to its head. 
 
 In 1848 Keimedy and his party of twelve men including a native black, 
 named Jacky Jacky, were landed at Rockingham Bay, and the colonial sloop 
 " Albion " took up its post off Cape York. Month after month, the " Albion " 
 lay off Cape York, but the man on the look-out reported no signal from the 
 shore. At length, at the end of six months, the signalman called the officers to 
 witness a strange appearance on the sea-beach. A native, naked, emaciated, 
 and apparently dying, Avas seen to craAvl from the dense Avoods Avhich overhang 
 Cape York. He held a bough in his hand. Gaining the beach, he waved the 
 bough in the direction of the "Albion." A boat was immediately lowered, and 
 the native brought on board. He proved to be Jacky Jacky, at death's door, from 
 wounds and hunger. For fourteen days, he said, he had tasted nothing but 
 water. His clothes, Avhich he had received from the Government store at 
 Sydney, he had used to bury Kennedy. While he greedily devoured the food 
 placed before him, the officers and men of the " Albion " listened to his tale.
 
 180 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 When the party landed at Eockingham Bay, they found the country covered with 
 a dense and tall scrub. For four months they literally cut their way towards 
 Cape York, through this scrub, with saws and hatchets, seldom making more than 
 a mile or two a day. Their provisions became exhausted, and they ate their horses. 
 When they had eaten their horses, they were still two hundred miles from Cape 
 York. The soil, excluded from sun and air by the dense scrub, was found 
 most unhealthy. Most of the men, from sickness and insufficiency of food, were 
 too weak to proceed any farther. In this strait Kennedy placed eight of the men 
 in camp, near the sea-shore at Weymouth Bay, and taking Jacliy Jacky and three 
 of the strongest men with him, set forward to procure assistance from the 
 "Albion." A savage tribe appeared on their track. After some days' travelling 
 a dangerous accident happened to one of the men from the explosion of a gun, 
 and he could not be moved. Leaving the other two men to protect him, 
 Kennedy again hurried on -with Jacky Jacky. The blacks got ahead of them. 
 At Escape River they showered their spears on them. Jacky was wounded in the 
 face. Kennedy received several spears in the back, leg, and sides. He fell, but 
 immediately stood up again, fired his gun, and then fell again. Jacky stood 
 over him, with his gun cocked. It missed fire, but he still covered the savages. 
 Kennedy's aim had been true — one savage was writhing in the agonies of death. 
 The rest drew back, and peered from behind the trees. Jacky seized his master, 
 and carried him down to the stream through a belt of the scrub. 
 
 "He said," continued the faithful fellow, "'Don't carry me far.' Then Mr 
 Kennedy looked this way [imitating him], very bad. I said to him, ' Don't look 
 far away,' as I thought he would be frightened. I asked him often, 'Are you 
 well now ? ' and he said, ' I don't care for the spear wound in my leg, but for the 
 other two spear wounds in my side and back,' and he said, ' I am bad inside, 
 Jacky.' I told him, ' Black fellow always die, when he gets spear in there ! ' He 
 said, ' I am out of wind, Jacky ! ' I asked him, ' Mr Kennedy, are you going to 
 leave me % ' and he said, ' Yes, my boy, I am going to leave you ! ' He said, ' I 
 am very bad, Jacky; you take the books to the captain of the "Albion;" but 
 not the big ones. The Governor of New South Wales will give anything for 
 them.' I then tied up the papers. He then said, ' Jacky, give me paper, and I 
 will Avrite.' I gave him paper and pencil, and he tried to \vrite ; and he then 
 fell back and died. And I caught as he fell, and held him ; and I then turned 
 round myself and cried. I Avas crjdng a good while until I got well. That was 
 about an hour, and then I buried him. I digged up the ground with a toma- 
 hawk, and covered him over with logs, then grass, and my shirt and trousers." 
 
 Jacky kept watch until dark. Then he slipped silently into the stream, and 
 waded up its channel, keeping his head only above water, until he was sufficiently 
 far to escape detection. From Escape Eiver he crept on through the silent 
 woods, exhausted by wounds and hunger, and falling asleep, as he said, for whole 
 day.s beside ponds and water-holes, until at length he reached Cape York. 
 
 On hearing his story, the "Alljion " was immediately got under way, and all 
 haste made to relieve the remainder of the party. Jacky pointed out where the 
 wounded man and his two companions had been left along the coast. Captain
 
 THE FATE OF KENNEDY. 181 
 
 Dobson landed, but could find none of them. Nor has their fate been yet dis- 
 covered ; though portions of European clothing were found among the savages in 
 the neighbourhood, vi^hich left little doubt but they had been murdered. From 
 this the "Albion" crowded all sail to Weymouth Bay, where the remainder of 
 the men had been left in camp. On landing, the ship's officers discovered a 
 European at a well side, sitting on his pitcher. They hastened to him, but he 
 was quite dead. They pi'oceeded to the camp. Five bodies were lying in their 
 beds, and had lain for some weeks. Two beds showed signs of having been 
 occupied within some hours. Their owners were looking for shell-fish on the 
 beach. They had seen the " Albion," and now staggered back to camp — mere 
 skin and bone, and so Aveak that they had been unable to drag their dead com- 
 panions out of their beds to bury them. Search was next made for the body of 
 Mr Kennedy, but his grave had been opened and the body removed. No trace 
 of it, or of his papers, has ever been discovered. Jacky said he hid the papers 
 in the hollow of a tree, but they could not be found. 
 
 Thus ended the disastrous expedition. Kennedy was an able and courage- 
 ous explorer ; but probably he was not strict enough as a disciplinarian. Yet, 
 even if this were so, it is a consolation to think that Kennedy's sole fault pro- 
 ceeded from his generosity and kindness of heart. All his men loved him, and 
 he earned their affection by his disinterestedness. They, one and all, fully be- 
 lieved that he would have freely given his life to save theirs ; and this is the con- 
 viction that is impressed on the mind by a perusal of the melancholy narrative 
 of the expedition.
 
 182 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FATE OF BURKE AND WILLS. 
 
 MR AMBROSE KYTE's CONTRIBUTION — EXPEDITION OF 1860 — BURKE AND WILLS — 
 START FROM MELBOURNE — REACH COOPER's CREEK — START FOR GULF OF CAR- 
 PENTARIA — BRAKE LEFT AT DEPOT — WRIGHT'S CAMP ON THE DARLING — HIS 
 FATAL NEGLIGENCE — HE STARTS FOR COOPER'S CREEK — TOO LATE — BURKE AND 
 WILLS RETURNING — GRAY'S FATE — BRAHE FORSAKES THE CAMP — DESPAIR OF 
 THE EXPLORERS — BRAVE EXERTIONS — FAILURES — SAD DEATH OF BURKE AND 
 WILLS — king's adventures — NEWS REACHES MELBOURNE — HOWITT's SEARCH— 
 THE FUNERAL. 
 
 In the year 1859, Mr Ambrose Kyte, a citizen of Melbourne, offered to con- 
 tribute a sum of £1000 towards the equipment of a party to explore Central 
 Australia. This generous offer Avas at once taken up by the colonists of Victoria, 
 and a large amount was subscribed, the Government adding a donation of £3000 
 for the purchase of camels in India. The command of the exj^edition was en- 
 trusted to Robert O'Hara Burke, with William John Wills as survey er and 
 astronomical observer. Twenty-seven camels and a few horses accompanied the 
 party, and several waggons. The expedition started from Melbourne on 20th 
 August 1860, and by the end of the month the Darling was reached. Burke 
 established his first depot at Menindie, on that river. The spring season was 
 very far advanced, and the summer sun would soon wither the green grasses and 
 dry up the surface water on the plains. Under these circumstances he resolved 
 to divide his party ; and having secured the services of Mr Wright as guide, he 
 pushed on with seven companions to Cooper's Creek. The feed and water on 
 the road were found to be good ; and when half the distance had been traversed, 
 Burke sent Wright back to Menindie to bring forward the rear party by easy 
 stages to Cooper's Creek, Burke himself proceeding to that water with his seven 
 associates. 
 
 On arrival at Cooper's Creek, where it was intended to establish the main 
 depot, Burke wrote despatches announcing that all had hitherto gone well, and 
 then subdividing his party, he himself started straight off for the Gulf of Car- 
 pentaria, accompanied by Wills and two men. Gray and King, taking with them 
 six camels, one horse, and as much provisions as they could cany. The four men 
 left on Cooper's Creek, under the charge of Brahe, were amj^ly provisioned. 
 About the time that Burke reached Cooper's Creek, a mounted man arrived at 
 the TTiain camp on the Darling, with the news that Macdouall Stuart had nearly
 
 THE FATE OF BURKE AND WILLS. 188 
 
 crossed the continent. It was of moment that Burke should know this ; for if 
 every other route failed he could turn to the westward, strike; Stuart's track, and 
 continue his exploration northward. Two men Avere immediately despatched in 
 the vain hope of overtaking him, and in place of proceeding towards Cooper's 
 Creek with the remainder of the party and the great bulk of the provisions, 
 Wright remained encamped on the Darling, awaiting the return of the two 
 messengers. Weeks — precious weeks — passed away, during which the mid- 
 summer and nearly vertical January sun poured down upon the parched ground, 
 and scorched up the herbage on the plains, as though a fire had swept over them ; 
 yet still Wright sat idle, looking for the two men he had despatched in quest 
 of the leader. Great anxiety was created by their non-ai:)pearance, and in eveiy 
 direction men rode forth searching for the missing ones. With knocked-up 
 horses, and weakened by privation, they returned at last, only to rejjort that 
 their mission was unaccomplished, that they had lost their way and wandered 
 about, and had never seen the least sign of their leadei*. 
 
 Wright broke up the camp and tried to fulfil his instructions by making 
 Cooper's Creek, but he was too late. The fervid Australian summer had cut 
 him off" from his destination, in the same way that it had, years before, pent up 
 Sturt at his memorable Depot Camp. Men fell sick, horses broke down, camels 
 wasted away, and advance was impossible. 
 
 Meanwhile Burke and his companions had pushed resolutely forward, had 
 nobly fulfilled their mission by reaching the sea, and were now returning, foot- 
 sore, weary, starving, to the spot where they hoped to find provisions in abun- 
 dance, and recruit themselves after their desperate exertions. Onward they 
 struggle, through shrub, swamp, and broken ridges ; and now they are reduced 
 to three emaciated beings, for Gray has succumbed to exposure and dysentery, 
 and sleeps in the wild bush. Still, the thoughts of the plenty awaiting them at 
 Cooper's Creek cheer the sui'vivors, and mutually encouraging and sustaining 
 each othei', they stagger feebly onward. They had left the sea on February the 
 10th ; and on April the 21st they reached their haven of rest. Cooper's Creek. 
 Now all troubles and fatigue are forgotten, and they press forward to the encamp- 
 ment. How is this ? Are their eyes deceiving them, or is their bush lore at 
 fault, and have they missed the camp ? There stands the stockade erected by 
 Brake and his companions, but where are the white tents that should have stood 
 erect, gleaming in the evening sun ? The worn-out men look each other despair- 
 ingly in the face, and hastening onward find a tree marked " DIG." On removing 
 the earth, a bottle is found, and within it a paper notifying that Brahe and his 
 three companions had quitted the camp that very morning ! 
 
 The brave explorers, with one camel, made several attempts to reach the 
 settled districts to the south, subsisting on the stores left by the party at Cooper's 
 Creek ; and when these were exhausted, on a species of bread made from the 
 nardoo, a native plant which answers the same purpose as flour amongst the 
 natives. They were all in so enfeebled a state, through their long journeying 
 and protracted privation, that they could only make a very little way. King 
 remained faithful in his attendance on them to the last. At length Wills became
 
 184 FHE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 so weak that he could not any longer engage in the daily collection of the nardoo 
 for food. After a consultation, it was agreed that Burke and King should go in 
 search of some friendly natives who were near, leaving Wills in a rude native 
 hut (or gunyali), with a supply of provisions, water, and firewood sufficient for 
 eight days. On the third morning after starting, Burke died. King then re- 
 turned to the hut where Wills had been left, and found him also dead. For 
 about a month King lived with the natives, who treated him very kindly. 
 
 Wills kept his journal up to the last, and every line in the sad record indi- 
 cates the courage, patience, endurance, and unabated cheerfulness of the devoted 
 young man. He was only twenty-seven years of age at the time of his melan- 
 choly yet glorious death. 
 
 When the news arrived in Melbourne that Burke and his three companions 
 were wandering about in the interior, the utmost anxiety prevailed, not only in 
 Victoria, but in all the Australian colonies ; and the noblest exertions were made 
 to afford relief to the missing explorers. A party, headed by Howitt, rescued 
 King, and buried the remains of poor Burke and Wills ; but before it was known 
 that their search had been successful, no less than four other expeditions were 
 equipped with praiseworthy alacrity, and sallied forth from east, south, and north 
 to the assistance of the lost explorers. Through their instrumentality the eastern 
 portion of the continent was pierced in every direction, and our geogTaphical 
 knowledge of the country was proportionately extended. Those relief expedi- 
 tions were commanded respectively by M'Kinlay, Norman, Landsborougii, and 
 Walker. The first-named traversed the entire continent, and reached the sea, 
 whilst all did their work nobly and well. 
 
 Thus perished, after they had fully and faithfully accomplished the enterprise 
 Avhich they had volunteered to carry out, the brave explorers Burke and Wills. 
 Their solution of the last problem of Australian exploration was perfect. From 
 the shores of Port Phillip Bay to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, they laid 
 down a direct and practicable route, and returned to their depot at Cooper's 
 Creek — to find it abandoned and to die ! In his despatch to the British 
 Government, announcing the results of the expedition, Sir Henry Barkly, then 
 Governor of Victoria, wrote of their fate in these terms : " So fell two as gallant 
 spirits as ever sacrificed life for the extension of science, or the cause of man- 
 kind. Both were in their prime ; both resigned comfort and competency to 
 embark in an enterprise by which they hoped to render their names glorious ; 
 both died without a murmur, evincing their loyalty and devotion to their country 
 to the last." When the remains of the brave explorers were subsequently 
 brought back to Melbourne, to be buried in the cemetery there, the citizens 
 gave them a grand funeral, and a monument, erected to their memory, stands in 
 the centre of the chief street of the city.
 
 JDIIX MACDUUALL STUARTS JLWLOJIATJUNS. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 JOHN MACDOUALL STUART'S EXPLOEATIONS. 
 
 SOUTH AUSTHALIAN EXPLORERS — STUART's FIRST EXPLORATION IN 1858 — PENETRATES 
 TO THE CENTRE OF THE CONTINENT — SPLENDID COUNTRY — EXPEDITION OF 1801 
 — STUART CROSSES THE CONTINENT — SIX EXPEDITIONS — REWARDS. 
 
 Since the return of Captain Sturt from Central Australia, the people of Adelaide 
 had sought in vain for an extension of territory. They always kept explorers in 
 the field, and Messrs Flack, Swindon, Freeling, Warburton, and Babbage, had 
 cleared up a good deal that was vague and uncertain in and around the Torrens 
 basin. The large floekowners, too, were not idle, and many of them had eaten 
 their way into the surrounding country as far as safety allowed. Yet the colony 
 of South Australia was still little more than the Adelaide district in an immense 
 and unknown wilderness. At length, in 1858, John Macdouall Stuart made 
 some discoveries of great importance to the colonists. Penetrating to the west 
 of Lake Torrens, with one white man and a native^who treacherously deserted 
 them — he came upon an extensive district of country abounding in natural 
 springs, and clothed with the kangaroo gi-ass so highly prized by the Australian 
 floekowners. For this discovery the Colonial Government px'esented him with a 
 large tract of land within the district. 
 
 Towards the close of 1800, news arrived in Adelaide that Stuart and two 
 men had reached the centre, and crossed over to the north coast ; and in a few 
 days Stuart himself arrived and lodged his maps and papers in the hands of the 
 Government. The party had commenced their exploration on the 1st of ISIarch, 
 from Chambers' Creek, and journeyed in the direction of the centre of the con- 
 tinent. On the 22d of April Stuart found, from his observations of the sun, 
 that he was encamped in the very centre of Australia. On a high mount, about 
 two miles to the northward, he planted the British flag, naming the spot Central 
 INIount Stuart. 
 
 The country around the central station was found to lie of a very different 
 character from what had been supposed. Instead of a great desert, the land 
 Avas well grassed, rich, and fertile, with an abundance of water — " as fine a 
 pastoral country," wrote Stuart, " as a man would wish to possess." Beyond the 
 centre, however, the dilliculties of the party commenced. Stuart made three 
 efforts to reach the coast by a north-west com'se, and each time was driven back 
 on the centre by dense belts of scrub and scarcity of water ; both men and horses 
 suffering severely from illness and fatigue. A north-west passage to the sea was 
 
 2 A
 
 186 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 at length abandoned, and the party attempted to reach the coast by a north-east 
 course from the centre. On this course they were attacked by savages and 
 obhged to retire. Stuart had arrived within a district already marked by the 
 routes of Gregory, Captain Stokes, and Leichhardt. The attack by the natives 
 occurred in June 1860, when the exploring expedition under Burke and Wills 
 was still in INIelbourne. With the first day of the year 18G1, Stuart again started 
 from Adelaide, with a party of twelve men under his command, for the purpose 
 of actually reaching the sea-coast. And now the two expeditions were in the 
 field. Burke's expedition had left Melbourne in August 1860 ; but Burke and 
 Wills did not start from Cooper's Creek on their journey to the Gulf of Carpen- 
 taria until 14th December, just a fortnight before Stuait left Chambers' Creek. 
 The two routes through Central Australia are pretty parallel — the distance of 
 Cooper's Creek from Chambei^s' Creek, about three hundred miles, being mainly 
 adliered to. On this occasion Stuart found no difficulty in making good his 
 former route, and was able to advance nearly two degrees beyond its extremity. 
 The continuation of his former route, also, opened up some fine country — wide 
 gi'as.sy plains, " consisting of black alluvial soil from sixteen to twenty feet deep, 
 and covered with luxuriant grasses four feet and five feet six inches high ; " 
 chains of lakes, some of them ten and twelve miles long, abounding with fish, 
 and lined along the banks with troops of pelicans, white cranes, ibises, and native 
 companions, and accessible to cattle from Adelaide at all seasons of the year. 
 This fine country, however, towards the north was backed by belts of dense 
 scrub, and from it attempts were made, in no less than fourteen diff'erent direc- 
 tions, to force a passage to the coast. In June 1861 the task was abandoned ; 
 while, in February, Burke and Wills had actually visited the shores of the Gulf 
 of Carpentaria by a more easterly and entirely independent route. But on the 
 25th July in the following year, Stuart was successful in reaching the shores of 
 Van Diemen's Gulf, to the west of the larger gulf, and gazed on the waters of the 
 Indian Ocean. This was his sixth journey. The return journey was very severe, 
 owing to many of the waterholes having dried up, and on several occasions they 
 suffered much from thirst. The leader himself was attacked by scurvy, Avhich 
 induced almost total blindness. On the 18th December Stuart arrived at 
 Adelaide, and received a reward of £2000 from the Government ; and shortly 
 afterwards the Royal Geographical Society awarded him their gold medal and a 
 watch. 
 
 Stuart's discoveries have been of inestimable benefit to South Australia. 
 Owing to his favourable report of the northern territory, it was annexed to that 
 colony ; and along the route so laboriously traversed by him now stretches the 
 magic telegraph-wire — the precursor of settlement and civilisation — by which 
 lier most distant colonies are brought into daily and hourly communication with 
 the mother country. The vast utility of such a connecting link needs no demon- 
 stration ; and of all the gallant men South Australia has sent forth, there is none 
 of whom she has more reason to bo proud than of John Macdouall Stuart.
 
 FOR RESTS EXPLORATIONS. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 FORREST'S EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 JOHN FORREST — STARTS FROM PERTH — FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR LEICHHARDT — SECOND 
 EXPEDITION — ROUND THE BIGHT — REACH ADELAIDE — THIRD EXPEDITION — POOR 
 COUNTRY — AN OASIS — PRIVATIONS — REACH ADELAIDE — CHARACTER OF THE NEW 
 COUNTRY — GOVERNOR WELD's DESPATCH. 
 
 Another famous name in the annals of Australian exjiloration is that of John 
 Forrest, Avho, by three several expeditions, has added much to our knowledge of 
 the physical character of the interior. Prompted by an ardent desire to discover 
 the fate of Lcichhardt and his party, Forrest, then an oflicer in the survey depart- 
 ment of Western Australia, accepted the leadership of an expedition sent out 
 early in 1869 by the Government of that colony, to search for traces of the lost 
 explorers. A report had reached Perth that some of the natives in the eastern 
 district had repeatedly stated that, about twenty years before, a party of white 
 men had been murdered by the blacks at a place they could point out. The 
 party under Forrest's charge consisted of six men, of whom two were natives, and 
 sixteen horses. They started from Perth on the 16th April 1869, and travelled 
 in a north-easterly du'cction through about seven degrees of east longitude. No 
 traces of Leichhardt's party Avere found, nor did the country traversed appear to 
 possess any value for pastoral or agricultural purposes. Retracing their stejis, 
 the explorers reached Perth on the 4th of August, after an absence of 113 days. 
 
 A second expedition, designed to exj^lore the coast of the Great Australian 
 Bight — the country traversed by Eyre in his memorable journey, thirty years 
 previously — was sent out by the Government of Western Australia in 1870. 
 The leadership was given to John Forrest, with his brother Alexander as second 
 in command, and four men, two of whom were natives'. They started on the 
 oOth of INIarch, and keeping to the south-east, reached Esperance Bay on the 29111 
 of April, where a small vessel, with provisions and stores, was awaiting them. 
 Continuing their route along the coast, the party found some tracks of Eyre's 
 encampments, and reached Port Eucla on the 2d of July, where they again found 
 the vessel waiting for them. Adelaide was successfully reached on the 27th of 
 August, although the line of country traversed was the same barren and water- 
 less desert that Eyre had first penetrated. 
 
 A third exjiedition, headed by Forrest, started in INIaroh 1874, to explore the 
 country lying between the western coast and the settled districts of South 
 Australia. Taking a course almost due east, the explorers proceeded ovei" a
 
 188 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 country for the most i^firt barren, but Avith occasional patches of good grassy- 
 soil. They met with few adventures, excepting a smart encounter with some 
 natives in the vicinity of the Weld Springs, a most agreeable oasis in the desert, 
 with a beautiful spring of pure water, fertilising a grassy tract, in which kanga- 
 roos, emus, and birds of various species were found to be numerous. On the 
 27th of September the party came in sight of the electric telegraph line from 
 Adelaide to Port Darwin, and camped. Long and continued cheers were given 
 by the little band, as they beheld at last the goal to which they had been 
 travelling for so many Aveary months. All their provisions, excepting flom% had 
 been exhausted some weeks before, so that they had been compelled to live 
 entirely on " damper " and water. Three days later they reached one of the 
 outlying stations in the settled districts of South Australia, where they were 
 most hospitably entertained. All their hardships and privations were now at 
 an end. 
 
 The account given by Forrest of the character of the country traversed in this 
 last expedition states that, from the western coast, near Champion Bay, to the 
 head of the IMm'chison Eiver, there extends a tract well suited for pastoral 
 purposes, but from thence to the boundary of Western Australia the country is 
 a mere desert, wholly unfit for occupation. The only animals that tenant 
 this desolate region are the kangaroo and emu ; and wherever permanent water 
 exists, myriads of bronze-winged pigeons, slate-coloured parrots, and scai-let- 
 crested cockatoos are seen. At the few small sheets of water found in the 
 desert, there are also vast numbers of black swans and wild ducks. 
 
 In a despatch to the Imperial Government, describing the condition of the 
 colony of Western Australia in 1874, Governor Weld wrote: "Mr Forrest's 
 expedition has bridged the gap that separated West Australia from the other 
 colonies, has led to settlement on the shores of the Great Bight, and to the 
 connection of this colony with the rest of the world by electric telegrajih." 
 These benefits, resulting from his arduous labours and explorations, conducted 
 with remarkable courage and perseverance, place Forrest's name high on the roll 
 of Australian explorers, and they were gratefully acknowledged by his fellow- 
 coloniats.
 
 LATER EXPLORERS. 180 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 LATER EXPLORERS. 
 
 THE BROTHERS GREGORY — THEIR EXPLORATIONS — ERNEST GILES — COLONEL WARBUR- 
 TON — A TERRIBLE JOURNEY — GILES's SECOND EXPEDITION — EXPLORES WESTWARD 
 
 SUCCESS — REACHES PERTH — CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY EXPLORED — SPARE 
 
 DIET — OTHER EXPLORERS — THE BROTHERS JARDINE — THE AUSTRALIAN ROLLS 
 OF HEROES AND MARTYROLOGY, 
 
 In 1S61 Frank Gregory tried to penetrate the interior from the north-west 
 coast, but was baffled by the arid red sand ridges, amidst which he and some of 
 his party nearly lost their lives. He, however, discovered some extensive rivers, 
 amongst which were the Fortescue, Ashburton, De Grey, and Oakover, and also 
 a lai'ge extent of promising pastoral country, a portion of which is now settled. 
 
 The known state of the continent was now briefly this : Sturt had been 
 stopped 1:»y sand ridges, numberless as the waves of the sea ; Augustus Gregory, 
 starting from the north, had encountered the same obstacle ; and his brother, 
 Frank Gregory, setting out from the north-west, had been foiled by precisely 
 similar country. Yet between the farthest points attained by Sturt and 
 A. Gregory, when the similarity of the barrier met by both appeared to indicate, 
 beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the intervening space was composed of arid 
 desert, Stuart had discovered a well-grassed and watered route, that led from 
 sea to sea through the very centre of the continent. The interior had been 
 wrongly branded as an impenetrable wilderness, but Stuart had broken the 
 charm, and it now naturally occurred to everybody that a similar belt of 
 vegetation and water might extend from the centre to the westAvard. Both 
 South and Western Australia were anxious to discover new pastoral territory, 
 and the latter sent forth many minor expeditions, without any great return for 
 her expense and trouble. At last the energetic South Australians engaged in 
 the construction of the Trans-Continental Telegraph line (along Stuart's route), 
 and this offered a ncAV base for exploration. Taking a spot on the line as his 
 point of departure, Ernest Giles struck westward, and discovered that the 
 country was far from the desert it had been represented. All this stimulated 
 the colonists to further exertion ; and Avlien ]\Ir Elder, the owner of a largo 
 flock of camels, placed them at the disposal of the Government for exploring 
 jiurposes, the offer was readily accepted, and preparations were immediately 
 commenced. 
 
 The connnaud of tlio new expedition was given to Colonel Peter Egcrton
 
 1 90 THE HIS TOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 Warbiu'ton. He started on the IStli of April 1873, with seventeen camels (no 
 horses), three Europeans, and two Afghans, beside himself His route lay right 
 across the fearful sandhills that had baffled the brothers Gregory ; but, thanks 
 to the camels, and his own indomitable energy, he arrived at last, more dead than 
 aUve, on the De Grey Eiver, where stood a station belonging to some Western 
 Australian squatters, from whom the travellers received every kindness and con- 
 sideration. Kine mouths and a half had been occupied in making the terrible 
 journey, of nine hundx'ed miles as the crow flies, during the latter portion of 
 which they subsisted on worn-out earners flesh, and on rare occasions on a few 
 Avallaby that they got from the natives. Their vexatious hindrances, the tortures 
 they suftered from thirst, and the hard battle they fought against starvation, arc 
 all set forth in the leader's journal. 
 
 In the year 1875 Ernest Giles again attempted to penetrate from South 
 Australia to the western shores of the continent, and this time he was completely 
 successful. The expedition, consisting of eight men, including an Afghan in 
 charge of eighteen camels, and two intelligent native youths, started from South 
 Australia early in May. They reached Perth, the capital of Western Australia, 
 on the 10th November, having travelled a distance of 2575 miles in about five 
 months. 
 
 Giles gives the following information regarding his joui'ney : " The expedition 
 has been successful, yet the country traversed for more than a thousand miles in 
 a straight line was simply an undulating bed of dense scrub, except between the 
 125th and 127th meridians, the latitude being nearly the 30th parallel. Here an 
 arm of the Great Southern Plain ran up and crossed our track, which, though 
 grassy, was quite waterless. The waters were indeed few and far between 
 throughout. On one occasion a stretch of desei't was encountered, in Avhich no 
 water was obtainable for 325 miles, which only the marvellous sustaining poAvers 
 of Mr Elder's all-enduring beasts enabled us to cross. The next desert was only 
 180 miles to a mass of granite, where I saw natives for the first time on the 
 expedition. They attacked us there, but we managed to drive them off". Mount 
 Churchman was now only IGO miles distant, and we found water again before 
 reaching it. We struck in at Toora, an out-station, Avhere the shepherd was very 
 hospitable. At other homesteads we were most kindly welcomed." At Perth 
 the party had a grand reception, and INIr Elder, at whose expense the expedition 
 was undertaken, was greatly eulogised. 
 
 For the last month of their journey the party had mainly lived upon the eggs 
 of the Malice hen, a bird not unlike an English pheasant. Of these eggs from 
 thirty to forty were sometimes found in a day. The general character of the 
 gi'ound traversed was sandy, and dry salt lagoons appeared frequently. The 
 Avestern part of the continent, which until recent years had been a mystery, has 
 now been thoroughly explored, and its barrenness is established beyond a doubt. 
 
 Amongst Australian explorers the names of Landsborough, INl'Kinlay, Howitt, 
 and Walker deserve high and honourable mention. The records of these and 
 other explorers, however, do not contain many striking elements of personal 
 adventure, but arc filled rather with descriptions of the country passed through.
 
 LATER EXr LURE Its. 191 
 
 Such descriptions become, of course, monotonous in the repetition, however 
 interesting ami valuable they may be from a practical point of view ; and it is not 
 the less to the credit of the adventurers that they were more fortunate than some 
 of their predecessors in escaping the perils of the wilderness and the desert. The 
 list of gallant and devoted pioneers may fitly be closed with the names of the 
 brothers Jardine, two young bushmcn, who, in the year 1804, traversed the 
 country from Ivockhampton to Cape York, in Northern Queensland, nearly in 
 the track of the ill-fated Kennedy; and who proved themselves, by their daunt- 
 less bravery, worthy associates of those great men whose achievements have hero 
 been briefly sketched. Honour to their memories ! When the future genera- 
 tion of Australians shall set about making up its roll of illustrious heroes, foun- 
 ders, and martyrs, there will be inscribed on it the immortal names of all the 
 
 (tKEAT ExPLOItEItS.
 
 BOOK V. . 
 
 PEYSICAL DESCEIPTION OF AUSTEALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHYSICAL DESCKIPTION OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 VARIOUS NAMES OF THE CONTINENT — ITS GEOCJHAPHICAL POSITION — RELATIVE SIZE — 
 ITS EXTENT — TORRES STRAIT — GREAT CARRIER REEF — AREA OF THE CONTINENT 
 —GENERAL SHAPE — BAYS — A VOYAGE ROUND AUSTRALIA — MOUNTAIN ItANGES — 
 MAGNIFICENT SCENERY — NO VOLCANOES — THE PLAINS — THE RIVERS — RIVER 
 SCENERY — THE MIRAGE. 
 
 The vast territory which two centuries of discovery and a subsequent half cen- 
 tury of internal exploration have thrown open to settlement throughout its Avhole 
 extent is now designated Australasia, and comprises the great continent of 
 Australia with the adjacent islands of Tasmania and New Zealand. Before 
 it became familiarly known to European navigators, it Avas vaguely designated 
 the Great Unknown Southern Land. The Spanish navigators, avIio had mis- 
 takenly supposed they had discovered the continent, gave to their new-found 
 region the name of the Land of the Holy Spirit. The Dutch navigators named 
 Ihe continent New Holland. European geographers subsequently noted it in 
 their charts as Terra Australis, or the Southern Land. Flinders it was who 
 first suggested the name Australia — a designation now universally and finally 
 adopted. The extended name Australasia, or Southern Asia, is a purely geo- 
 grajjliical designation, fi'amed to include Tasmania and New Zealand; but it 
 miglit with propriety be taken to include the entire region lying between the 
 soutliern shores of Asia and the South Pole. 
 
 The continent of Australia, witli the adjacent islands, lies wholly within tlie 
 southern liemisphere. It is situated to the south-eastward of the Asiatic con- 
 tinent, between Avliich and its shores there intervene tlic countless islands of the 
 East Indian Airliipelago. It is a peculiar portion of the earth's surface, inas- 
 nuich as it lias the essential characteristic of an island in l)eing surrounded l)y 
 tlic ocean, and thereby divided from tlie other portions of the globe — while its
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIA. 103 
 
 vast maj^'nitiido equally entitles it to rank as a continent, and take its place as 
 such amoni;' the greater divisions of the land. 
 
 Regarded as insular, Australia is by far the largest island on the globe : as 
 continental, it is the smallest of the continents, being nearly one-fifth less than 
 Europe in superficial extent. But although of somewhat smaller dimensions 
 than Europe, yet the unbroken form and compact shajDC of Australia, with the 
 vast extent of solid land which stretches between its opposite seas, impart to its 
 climate and productions a much more truly continental character than belongs 
 to the greater portion of the European mainland. 
 
 The most northern point of the continent is Cape York, which lies 10' 42' to 
 the south of the equator : its most southern extremity is Wilson's Promontory, 
 in 39° 9' south latitude. It stretches, therefore, in the direction of north and 
 south through nearly 28^° of latitude — equiA'alent to a length of two thousand 
 miles in a direct line, and involving, of course, a wide range of difference in 
 climate, soil, and productions of the natural kingdom. But the dimensions of 
 Australia from north to south are not uniformly so considerable — to the west of 
 Cape Yoi'k the northern shores are indented by the broad Gulf of Carpentaria, 
 which advances a long way inland. The average breadth of the continent, how- 
 ever, is not less than twelve hundred miles, measured betAveen its northern and 
 its southern shores. 
 
 In the opposite direction — or from east to west — its dimensions are still 
 more considerable, amounting to not less than 2400 miles in a direct line — a 
 distance equal to that between London and the chain of the Ural Mountains, on 
 the eastern limits of Europe, and nearly as great as that which intervenes be- 
 tween London and the banks of the river St LawTence, upon the opposite 
 side of the Atlantic. The Pacific Ocean washes the eastern shores of Australia, 
 the Indian Ocean its western or north-western coasts ; the sea w^hich bounds 
 it to the southward is generally kno^m as the Southern Ocean. 
 
 The channel of Torres Strait, which is situated to the northward of Australia, 
 off Cape York, connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and intervenes between 
 the Australian mainland and the large island of New Guinea. Torres Strait is 
 ninety miles wide in its narrowest part ; it forms the most direct, though not the 
 most frequented, route for the homeward voj^age from the coasts of New South 
 Wales to Britain, and is directly in the track of vessels sailing between India 
 and Port Jackson. But the navigation of this channel, and also of the sea which 
 adjoins it to the eastward, is rendered exceedingly dangerous by the numerous 
 coral islets and reefs Avith which it is everywhere studded. 
 
 From the neighbourhood of Cape York a chain of coi'al reefs, known collec- 
 tively as the " Great Barrier Reef," extends along the eastern coasts of Australia 
 as far southward as the jjarallel of 24° 30', and at an average distance of about 
 thirty miles from the land, though in some places it approaches much nearer to 
 the shore. Numerous vessels have been lost upon various parts of this reef, 
 which has only within a late period been accurately surveyed ; and the naviga- 
 tion of the adjacent seas requires the most extreme care. The narrow channel 
 intervening between the reef and the shore affords a good and safe passage for 
 
 2 D
 
 194 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 vessels, with anchorage in about twelve fathoms of water, and there are a few 
 openings by which ships can pass through the reef, between its outer and its inner 
 sides. Upon its outward or eastern side the reef rises perpendicularly from the 
 waters of a deep sea. 
 
 The area of the Australian continent is calculated at about 3,000,000 square 
 miles— or more accurately 2,983,263 square miles. The coast-line extends for 
 7750 miles. Its area is about one-half that of South America, as the next larger 
 continent, and ten times that of Borneo, as the next smaller island. The whole 
 of this immense mass of land is solid and compact, broken by few indentations 
 of the ocean. The Gulf of Carpentaria on the north, and Spencer's Gulf on the 
 south, are the most extensive sheets, but Shark's Bay and Hcrvey's Bay are also 
 considerable. Numerous inlets, however — too small to be named as breaking 
 the eoast-line, but of noble dimensions nevertheless — afford easy approach to 
 this otherwise iron-bound coast. 
 
 A mariner for the first time approaching Australia on its western coast finds 
 little to allure the eye. A monotonous i^lain, bounded in the distance by a chain 
 of bleak hills, stretches from the sea, and over the surface of this vast level are 
 scattered sweeps of ground blackened by the passage of flames. The few wander- 
 ing tribas ieadmg a nomad life frequently, by accident or intentionally, kindle 
 the tall diy grasses, or the low bush. The fire, seizing greedily on the parched 
 vegetation, travels with great rapidity, and driven by the wind, spreads to the 
 base of the hills, where the conflagration spends its fury. Generally, in one direc- 
 tion or another, the navigator may perceive the smoke or flame of one of these 
 prairie fires. As we proceed farther northward the shores become strewai with 
 enormous masses of rock, extending to some distance from the beach. It is sup- 
 posed that formerly the land here was considerably more elevated than at pre- 
 sent, and that the action of water has levelled it, leaving the more durable 
 masses unremoved. Some eminences, covered with a vegetation richer than that 
 of Brazil or Borneo, Avith occasional fertile plains, present themselves in marked 
 contrast with the general aridity of this coast. 
 
 On the northern shores the same level prevails. Flinders sailed 175 leagues 
 without seeing any hill higher than the mast of a sloop. Ii'regular cliff's rise from 
 the sea, broken by the embouchures of several rivers, some of which— the 
 Adelaide, the Victoria, and the Albert — Avere discovered during the surveying- 
 expedition of Captain Stokes. Along the Gulf of Carpentaria few elevations 
 occur; but, reaching the eastern coast, the view is no longer monotonous or 
 dreary. New scenes continually unfold themselves : forests, and open plains, 
 and valleys, running up between the hills, and a more numerous population 
 enlivening the country. Passing between the shore and that Great Barrier Reef 
 which outlies the eastern coast of the continent for more than six hundred miles, 
 we enter the principal field of British enterprise, where the coast is marked by a 
 thousand fantastic irregularities. A line of precipitous cliffs extends far towards 
 the south ; a huge breach in this natural wall becomes aj^parent ; and while the 
 eye is resting on the grim magnificence of these granite barriers, the vessel glides 
 between the rocks, and reposes in the superb harbour of Port Jackson. Tlu;
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIA. 105 
 
 shore, sweeping in gentle slopes towards the hills, is covererl with a natural growth 
 of verdure. The sea, blue and brilliant, flows into beautiful bays, where vessels 
 lie safe after their long voyage from Europe. White stone-built villas, with 
 graceful gardens and groves, lend artificial charms to a landscape naturally 
 jjicturesque ; and Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, with its forts and 
 lighthouses, its churches, hospitals, and custom-houses, full of traffic, and smoking 
 in the heat of industry, appears like the creation of enchantment. The industry 
 of Europe, planted in Australia, now ploughs the sea between Port Jackson and 
 Moreton Bay with steamers, which prepare the mind for the scene presented 
 within ; but with this exception, the change from the outer view to the panorama 
 of Sydney is as that from a lifeless desert to an English seaport. 
 
 Still proceeding southward towards Cape Howe, the coast wears a similar 
 aspect, until, rounding the huge peak of Wilson's Promontory, with its inaccessible 
 islets lying around, we enter Bass's Straits. Sailing along the fertile shores of 
 Australia Felix, the eye of the mariner rests with delight on the scenery for many 
 hundred miles. Towards the west the surface again becomes level ; irregularities 
 are few ; tall sloping cliffs commence ; and the country sinks into a plain covered 
 with scrub, and extending as far as the south-western point of the island. There 
 rises a range of low hills, continuing as far as Gantheaume Bay, where we reach 
 again the desolate level from whence om* circuit commenced. 
 
 The mountains of Australia are for the most part confined to the neighbour- 
 hood of the coasts. They appear to form a belt — not, however, continuous in 
 every part — round nearly the entire continent. Between the hills and the sea 
 there is in general an undulating and watered region, penetrated in many places 
 by advanced spurs from the mountain-chain, and possessing a moderate degree of 
 fertility. On their inland side the country forms a succession of upland downs, or 
 table-lands, which gradually sink, towards the more distant interior, into wide- 
 spread flat and level plains, with a slope so gradual as in many places scarcely to 
 afford an outfall to the running waters. But there are exceptions to the generally 
 hilly character of the coast districts ; that portion of the southern coast which 
 stretches westward from Spencer's Gulf to the neighbourhood of King George's 
 Sound (or between the meridians of 118° and 134°) is almost uniformly flat, sandy, 
 and barren, and the adjoining land is only elevated to a trifling height above the 
 level of the sea. 
 
 The highest mountains in Australia are the Australian Alps, towards the 
 south-east corner of the continent, and principally within the limits of the colony 
 of Victoria. The boundary line between this province and the adjoining colony 
 of New South Wales crosses the chain. They lie at a distance of between sixty 
 and seventy miles from the coast ; their most elevated summit (to which the 
 heroic name of " Kosciusko " has been given) rises to 6500 feet above the sea- 
 level, and is capped with perpetual snow. On all the higher portions of the 
 chain, indeed, the snow lies during the gi-eater portion of the year, and some- 
 times endures through the entire summer. 
 
 The Blue Mountains stretch to the northward of the Warragong range, 
 parallel to the eastern coast, and in the same general direction ; as also do the
 
 1 96 THE IIISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 lieiglits still farther to the northward, and ujDon a portion of which the name of 
 the Liverpool Eange has been bestowed. Indeed, the whole of these ranges are 
 obviously but portions of a great cordillera, or chain of heights, along which the 
 same characteristics of mineral formation prevail. It is in the valleys on the 
 western face of this cordillera, and amongst its detached and outlying summits, 
 that gold has been found in such extraordinary abundance. 
 
 The elevation of the Blue Mountains is not considerable — their highest 
 simimit, Mount York, being less than four thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea — but they are everywhere steep and rugged, intersected by deep and precipi- 
 tous ravines, Avhieh exhibit in many places stupendous chasms enclosed between 
 Avails of rock on either side. Indeed, there is much in the scenery of New South 
 Wjtfles that rivals in grandeur the finest landscapes to be found in the mountain 
 scenery of Europe. 
 
 Mr Charles Darwin, the celebrated naturalist, gives the following description 
 of a scene in the Blue Mountains : "In the middle of the day we baited our 
 horses at a little inn called the 'Weatherboard.' The country here is elevated 
 2800 feet above the sea. About a mile and a half from this place there is a 
 view exceedingly well worth visiting. By following down a little valley and its 
 tiny rill of water, an immense gulf is unexpectedly seen through the trees which 
 border the pathway, at the depth of perhaps 1500 feet. Walking on a few 
 yards, one stands on the brink of a vast precipice, and below is the grand bay or 
 gulf (for I know not Avhat other name to give it) thickly covered with forest. 
 The point of view is situated as if at the head of a bay, the line of cliff diverging 
 on each side, and showing headland liehind headland, as on a bold sea-coast. 
 These clifis are composed of horizontal strata of whitish sandstone, and so 
 absolutely vertical are they, that in many places a person standing on the edge, 
 and throwing down a stone, can see it strike the trees in the abyss below ; so 
 unbroken is the line, that it is said, in order to reach the foot of the waterfall, 
 formed by this little stream, it is necessary to go a distance of sixteen miles 
 round. About five miles distant in front, another line of cliff extends, which 
 thus appears completely to encircle the valley, and hence the name of bay is 
 justified as applied to this grand amphithcatrical depression. If we imagine a 
 winding harbour, with its deep water, surrounded by bold, cliff-like shores, laid 
 dry, and a forest sprung up on its sandy bottom, we should then have the 
 appearance and structure here exhibited. This kind of view was to me quite 
 novel, and extremely magnificent." 
 
 No active volcanoes have been discovered in Australia, nor have any serious 
 shocks of earthquakes been experienced in the settled districts. Some extinct 
 volcanoes, with distinctly-marked craters, occur in the neighbourhood of the 
 south coast, near the river Glenelg (141° east longitude), and traces of volcanic 
 action have been noticed in other parts. To the southward of the Liverpool 
 Range, in the iqiper part of the district of Ilunter's Iviver, there is a bituminous 
 hill, named Mount Wingen, which exhibits an intense degree of heat, and con- 
 tinually emits sulphureous vapours. These vapours arise ft*om innumerable 
 fissures on the surface of the mountain, and are accompanied by a brilliant flame,
 
 niYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIA. Ui7 
 
 visible from a considerable distancu at night-time, though scarce!}' perceptible 
 during the day. The margins of the different fissures are encrusted with 
 beautiful crystals of sulphur, and there is a black, tarry, and bituminous 
 substance on the edges of some of the chasms. But there is no appearance 
 of any crater, no subterranean explosion or noise of any kind, and no trace of 
 lava. 
 
 The region of the plains is of very varying character. On the western or 
 landward side of the great eastern coast chain, are vast upland plains of undula- 
 ting aspect, gradually declining into perfect levels towards the interior. Many 
 of these tracts assume the form of downs ; they present a series of detached, 
 gentle, and round-topped protuberances, devoid of timber, but broken at 
 intervals by woody ranges. In the flats between the more elevated grounds are 
 deep i^onds, filled by streams from the highlands, ordinarily supporting an 
 almost inexhaustible range of cattle pasture at all seasons of the year. The 
 grasses and herbage exhibit an extraordinary luxuriance of growth ; the higher 
 lands also are grassy, and being convenient to water, they form valuable and safe 
 pastures for sheep, perfectly beyond the reach of those floods which take place 
 on the flats in the rainy season. Such are the Bathurst Plains and Darling- 
 Downs, the Liverpool, Canning, and Peel Plains, great grazing grounds of New 
 South Wales. Such also are the rich pasture lands of Victoria, and the entire 
 region now called Riverina, lying between the Murray and the Murrumbidgee. 
 Queensland and South Australia also possess vast tracts of grazing land ; and 
 the recent explorations of Burke and Wills, Macdouall Stuart, Landsborough, 
 and others, have been the means of extending pastoral settlement up to the 
 Gulf of Carpentaria. In fact, it can now be said that scarcely any available 
 portion of the continent remains unoccupied by the adventurous squatter. 
 
 In other districts the pastures are thinly timbered, with three or four trees 
 to the acre, and the country has the aspect of an English park, groves alternating 
 with open lawns. By the margin of rivevs, and on the alluvial soil visited by 
 their inundations, the surface is clothed with dense forests of gigantic gum-trees, 
 intermingled with cedar, rosewood, wild vines, and various parasitical plants, 
 forming the " thick brush," or jungle, of colonial speech. In dry and sterile 
 situations, as on rocky or sandy plains, there is often still a forest, but of stunted 
 miserable-looking trees, to which the colonial term of "scrub" is applied, 
 inhabited by the black snake and the lizard. The ceuti'al region consists of vast 
 levels, as truly desert as any on the face of the globe, but with here and there 
 an oasis of great fertility and beauty. 
 
 It is in regard to rivers that the prime defect of Australian geography occurs. 
 Not that they are by any means absent, or even otherwise than numerous, but 
 the rivers of this southern continent are in general of trifling proportions and 
 slender volume of water compared with those of most other parts of the globe. All 
 the rivers of Australia, like those of the warmer latitudes in general, vary greatly 
 in depth and body of water with the season of the year, even its larger streams 
 being shrunk into greatly diminished proportions during the long and frequently 
 intense heats of summer. The smaller streams become at this time whollv dried
 
 198 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 up, or else converted into a chain of ponds, which occupy at intervals the 
 deserted bed of the water-course. 
 
 The most extensive system of rivers on the continent belongs to the basin of 
 the INIurray. The river Muri-ay rises upon the western slope of the Australian 
 Alps, and flows for the greater portion of its course in a westerly direction. 
 Nearly under the meridian of 140° it makes a great bend (or " elbow," as it is 
 locally termed) to the southward, and finally enters the sea at Encounter Bay, 
 passing immediately above its mouth through the extensive and shallow morass 
 of Lake Alexandrina. In the upper and middle portions of its course the 
 INIurray forms the boundary between the colonies of New South Wales and 
 Victoria ; its lower course is within the province of South Australia. On its 
 way to the sea, and in the westerly portion of its channel, it is joined from the 
 northward by the rivers Murrumbidgee and Darling, the latter of which collects 
 the waters of numerous tributary streams in its upper course. The Murrum- 
 bidgee, before joining the Murray, receives the waters of the Lachlan, a stream 
 of considerable length. 
 
 This tributary, the " beautiful river," according to the meaning of the native 
 name, which has been properly retained, descends from the mountains about 250 
 miles south-west of Sydney, and eighty miles from the coast of the Pacific. It 
 follows a westerly direction at an average distance of a hundred miles or more 
 from the Murray, till near the junction. The country between the two rivers 
 includes some of the finest squatting-grounds of New South Wales. In the early 
 part of its course, the INIurrumbidgee ansAvers to its name, flowing between 
 steepl3^-sloj)ing hills of sandstone, covered with herbage, vines, and creeping 
 plants. "As I sat in the boat," says a tourist, "I could see above me small, 
 very small, cattle, in single file, now lost in the foliage, now reappearing, as, by 
 zigzag well-worn paths, they descended to the water to drink. So lofty and steep 
 were the cliffs that I fancied they would fall down upon me ; at length they 
 made their appearance at the edge of the stream, drinking beneath bowers of 
 overhanging creepers — a huge bull, and a mob of portly cows." The banks are 
 fringed Avith the beautiful SAvamp-oak, a tree intermediate in its apjiearance 
 betAvcen the spruce and Scotch fir, Avliich has here its southern limit in the colony. 
 Small alluvial flats are occasionally left on either hand, devoid of timber. Before 
 quitting the hilly region, the river receives several affluents ; it afterAvards flows 
 for upwards of three hundred miles without the slightest accession, passing by a 
 tortuous channel through a Ioav, flat, uninteresting country, exhibiting in many 
 parts the aspect of absolute sterility and hopeless desolation. After losing some 
 of its waters in marshes, the diminished current, about fifty feet Avide, joins the 
 Murray. 
 
 All the above-named rivers floAv from the western side of the Blue Mountains 
 or other ranges of the eastern coast, and have their upper courses directed 
 towards the interior. The Avliole area of the country Avatcred by the Murray is 
 probably upAvards of 200,000 square miles, and the length of the main channel 
 exceeds 1200 miles. 
 
 Some of the rivers Avhich floAV from the highlands of the east coast towards
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIA. l'J9 
 
 the intci'ior arc lost in the iinmensc flats of the hitter region, and terminate with- 
 out reaching the sea — at h^ast, by any direct channel. This is the case with the 
 river Macquarie, which is formed l)y the union of several small streams rising on 
 the western slope of the Blue Mountains, and, after flowing for three hundred 
 miles in a north-westerly direction, is lost amidst a tract which consists alter- 
 nately of extensive marshes or of an arid plain, according as the dry or the rainy 
 season prevails. The superfluous water of the INIaccpiaric marshes, however, 
 eventually finds its way to the channel of the river Darling. 
 
 A colonial poet thus alludes to the changed aspect of the Hunter, one of the 
 coast rivers, under its native name of the Coquun, at different seasons of the 
 year : 
 
 " Exhausted by the summei- suu, 
 The schoolboy fords the broad Coquun ; 
 For then the slow meandering stream 
 Shrmks from the hot sun's fiery beam, 
 And, like a wounded serpent, crawls 
 From Cumberoy to Maitland Falls ; 
 But when the autumnal deluge swells 
 Each little brook in yonder dells, 
 And twice ten thousand torrents pour 
 From cliff and rock with deafening roar, 
 Oh ! then he rolls with manly pride. 
 Nor stream nor storm can stem his tide ! " 
 
 In the vast plains of the interior — as in the African and Arabian deserts — ■ 
 the phenomenon of the viirage is often witnessed, imaginary pools of water in 
 the distance raising the expectations and exciting the hopes of the traveller, only 
 to vanish from sight as he approaches them. The features of the landscape 
 sometimes become inverted in an extraordinary manner, the distant trees appear- 
 ing with their heads suspended in the air, and seemingly separated from their 
 trunks by a watery medium. Occasionally, in the early morning, the apparent 
 outline of a range of hills becomes distinctly visible on the verge of the horizon, 
 their forms varying as the day advances, and the entire ridge at length gradually 
 melting "into thin air "^the whole vision being, in fact, no more than "such 
 stuff" as dreams are made off"." 
 
 Similar phenomena are, indeed, not unfrequently witnessed in all parts of the 
 Australian continent, the result of the varying densities in the strata of the air, 
 produced by the powerful action of the solar rays rcffected from its jifii'ched and 
 heated soil. The mirage is frequently observed within the Port Phillip district, 
 as well as in the neighbouring province of South .Australia, both in the interior 
 and near the coast.
 
 200 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 PHYSICAL DESCEIPTION OF QUEENSLAND. 
 
 ALLAN Cunningham's explorations — leichhardt and mitchell — moreton bay — 
 
 PECULIARITIES OF QUEENSLAND — NATURAL FEATURES — SEABOARD — TROPICAL 
 SCENERY — BAYS — THE BRISBANE RIVER — GREAT COAST RANGE — GREAT TABLE- 
 LAND — VICTORIA RIVER — BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY — LATEST EXPLORATIONS — STURT's 
 DESERT — A FINE COLONY. 
 
 The botanists of England arc largely indebted for their knowledge of the 
 Australian flora to the researches of Mr Allan Cunningham, who was sent out 
 to New South Wales by the British Government in 1827, for the purpose of 
 l^rocuring specimens of the various productions of this continent. ]\Ir Cunningham 
 so endeared himself to the colonists by his amiable qualities and his indefatigable 
 zeal in the cause of geographical discovery, then of vital importance to its 
 mountain-locked j^opulation, that his virtues and early death are commemorated 
 by a public statue adorning the beautiful botanical gardens of Sydney. In 1828 
 he returned to that city from a botanical exploration conducted in the previous 
 year, and brought to its inhabitants the very welcome intelligence that upon an 
 immense plateau, situated almost within the tropics, he had found the boundless 
 Avaving pastures, the perennial streams, and the cool breezes so long sighed for 
 by the flockowners of New South Wales. He proposed to call this region the 
 Darling Downs, in honour of General Darling, then governor of the vast and as 
 yet undivided British territories of the Western Pacific. Dr Leichhardt, whose 
 fate is still involved in inscrutaljle mystery, pushed discovery, Avith equally happy 
 results, still farther to the north, only a few months previous to that expedition 
 of which all trace has been so strangely obliterated. Subsequently, Sir Thomas 
 Mitchell, then Surveyor-General of New South Wales, reached the Fitzroy 
 Downs, the I'eak Downs, the Mantuan Downs, and various other portions of 
 this vast taljle-land ; advancing everywhere through a network of cool streams, 
 and finding delicious breezes welcoming him to the torrid zone. The scene of 
 those discoveries, passing for several years under the name of the Moreton Bay 
 District, is now known as the Colony of Queensland. 
 
 That colony, the hfth of the offshoots from New South Wales, differs 
 materially in soil, climate, and capabilities from all the other Australian colonies. 
 It might, indeed, at first sight appear that the vast slopes and table-lands which 
 constitute Queensland would most closely resemble those districts of New South
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF QUEENSLAND. 201 
 
 Wales and Victoria, throuyli wliicli the Great Coast Range of Eastern Australia 
 continues its course. In reality, however, they have scarcely a natural feature 
 in connnon. The hilly districts of Victoria, almost without soil or stream, as 
 well as the contorted, broken, and impassable ranges of New South Wales, offer, 
 each in its way, a strange contrast to the more tropical extension of the 
 Australian Cordillera, as it expands in richly-clothed and well-watered table- 
 lands, plains, and downs. 
 
 The natural features of this tract of Australian soil are strongly marked. 
 They consist: (1.) of a seaboard of from fifty to a hundred miles broad; (2.) an 
 elevated table-land, or, more strictly speaking, a succession of undulating downs 
 or plains, situated some two thousand feet above the sea-level, and stretching 
 back to the west for four or five hundred miles, without continuous rise or fall ; 
 and (3.) a succession of terraces descending, generally with rapidity, but in some 
 places less perceptibly, until the more extended level of the interior of the 
 continent is reached. There are thus three portions of territory, Avidcly differing 
 in their peculiar capabilities, which it may be of interest to examine a little 
 more closely. 
 
 This seaboard owes its origin to the action of a network of streams, issuing 
 from the more elevated table-land, and bringing down with them the disintegrated 
 particles from the flanks of the great range. Indeed, the process may still be 
 seen going on in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea-shore, and on a series 
 of muddy and sandy islands lying off" the coast, which are thus yearly growing 
 in size. The more upland portions, however, nearer to the Great Range, have 
 long ceased to derive any addition from this source, and now form most excellent 
 districts for the growth of wheat, maize, and other cereals, which they produce 
 in great luxuriance, yielding generally two crops in the year. Indeed, the deep 
 alluvial character of the soil, and the plentiful supply of warm showers, caused 
 by the influence of the Great Range, combine to produce a very remarkable 
 degree of fertility, while the well-sustained slope of the whole seaboard prevents 
 that accumulation of stagnant waters which communicates so unhealthy a feature 
 to many similarly luxuriant regions within the tropics. The scenery throughout 
 this whole tract, and more especially along the course of its numerous streams, 
 is of the most delightful character. Dr Lang describes it in these words : " Close 
 to the water's edge rises a complete wall of luxu.riant fohage. Fig-trees, bean- 
 trees, pines, and a variety of other trees, stand thickly set and overhung Avith 
 a rich drapery of creepers, presenting the forms of turrets, buttresses, festoons, 
 and stalactites, in endless variety, and bespangled with flowers and fruit. There 
 is a purple convolvulus, wild roses, tulips, and other flowers, scattered high and 
 low; and, close to the water's edge, a pure white hly. Cherries, figs, and 
 mulberries overhang the water." More often, however, the course of these 
 streams lies through a succession of thinly-treed plains. 
 
 As -sve descend this slope to the immediate borders of the sea-coast, much of 
 the land assumes a more dreary asjDect, consisting chiefly of mangrove swamps, 
 sandbanks, and " drowned land " in actual process of formation. But, though 
 less refreshing to the eye, there is reason to suppose that these tracts will prove 
 
 2c
 
 202 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 highly valuable for the cultivation of those varieties of the cotton plant Avhich 
 love "salt swamp." 
 
 The shore is well supplied with bays, some of considerable extent, as ISIore- 
 ton Bay, Wide Bay, Port Curtis, and numerous others. These bays, however, 
 are not so much indentations of the coast-line as enclosures formed by the 
 islands we have already mentioned. Moreton Bay itself is some sixty miles long 
 and twenty Avide ; and they are all supplied with rivers navigable for fifty, sixty, 
 and a hundred miles inland. INIoreton Bay possesses no less than five such 
 valuable rivers, besides some smaller ones. One of these, the Brisbane, gives its 
 name to the capital city of the colony, situated twenty-two miles from its mouth. 
 At this distance, however, the mangrove sAvamps are entirely passed, and the 
 city stands upon a scene of surprising beauty. The noble river, which winds 
 almost under foot, and appears, and disappears, and appears again, as it pursues 
 its tortuous course through the dark forest to the bay, or is traced upwards to 
 its sources, presents, ever and anon, points of view surpassingly beautiful ; the 
 thick brushes on its banks, with the majestic Moreton Bay pine overtopping all 
 the other giants of the forest, merely indicating the sj^ots of extraordinary fer- 
 tility where the hand of man is perhaps erecting his future dwelling, and trans- 
 forming the Avilderness into smiling farms and fruitful fields. 
 
 The river here is a quarter of a mile wide, a width which it preserves for 
 several miles upwards ; indeed the Brisbane is navigable for 150 miles inland, and 
 steamers now daily ply up its course. The poimlation of the city is very large, 
 and numerous handsome villas stand on a succession of teri'aces overlooking the 
 town and commanding splendid views of the surrounding country. The city 
 itself stands considerably above sea-level, and is distinguished for its very healthy 
 climate, both in summer and winter. Indeed, excepting the neighbourhood of 
 Sydney, which is perhaps the most beautiful city-site in the world, it would be 
 difficult to select a more charming scene than that which has been chosen as the 
 shipping port of a vast and wonderfully productive region, destined doubtless to 
 supply the Old World with most of its wool, if not also of its cotton and other 
 commodities. As these bays, too, abound with fish, turtle (of an excellence long 
 known throughout the neighbouring colonies), and crabs of three and four 
 pounds' weight, and very superior quality ; and as the deep fisheries off the coast 
 teem with several varieties of large fish of peculiar and most delicate flavour; 
 it is dilHcidt to assign bounds to the great natural resoui'ces of this whole line 
 of seaboard. 
 
 From the seaboard Ave shall noAv proceed to the great table-land constituting 
 the flat back of the Great Coast Eange. 
 
 This range attains to its mean elevation at a distance of from fifty to a hun- 
 dred miles from the sea-shore. Nor does it begin to descend into the interior 
 with any marked or continuous depression until the sources of Mitchell's Victoria 
 River, about tlie 147th meridian, arc passed. We have thus, connnencing from 
 the southern bounds of the colony, an elevated region some 400 or 500 miles 
 broad, stretching away thence to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria — a 
 distance of over 1000 miles, giving an area of more than 400,000 square miles.
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF QUEENSLAND. 203 
 
 The whole of this area, Avith the exception of two partial intcrrnptions, may he 
 described as a succession of wild open downs, enclosed each witliin smaller sub- 
 sidiary basaltic ranges traversing the great plateau. These downs are each oi 
 immense extent, and contain deep and most excellent agricultural soil, clothed 
 with the richest grasses, growing in wonderful luxuriance. They arc in a great 
 measure destitute of trees, but the bases of their enclosing ranges are furnished 
 with a very handsome and stately description of pine, behind which, and retiring 
 into their recesses, are found some veiy valuable cedar-trees. These recesses 
 are jilentifully supiilied with numerous rills and springs, which, trickling (\.v>\\n 
 the slopes of the ranges, and traversing the enclosed plains, unite and form the 
 abundant network of rivers by which this immense plateau is Avatcred. Some of 
 these rivers — as the Clarence, the Brisbane, the Richmond, the Fitzroy, the 
 Burdckin, the Maranoa, the Balonne, the Warrego, the Victoria — are of con- 
 siderable extent, and traverse in their Avindings, peculiar to all Australian Avater- 
 courses, immense tracts of country. Indeed, the Victoria, Avithout taking into 
 consideration its Avindings at all, possesses a curiously protracted length of some 
 fifteen hundred miles. These streams, according as their main course tends to 
 the east or the Avest, discharge themselves into the Pacific or the interior of the 
 continent ; and hence the term of " Great Dividing Eange," which has been 
 applied to this vast table-land, as parting the eastern and Avestern Avaters of the 
 continent ; though, as the range is entirely confined to the eastern seaboard, the 
 term itself is someAvhat misleading. Of course we may look in vain throughout 
 Australia for anything approaching to the stupendous Avater system of America 
 but it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of these streams to settlers dAvell- 
 ing on, and even Avithin, the tropic. 
 
 Travellers throughout these vast plains all concur in their admiration of the 
 luxuriance of the soil, the coolness and salubrity of the climate, and the loveli- 
 ness of the entire landscai^e. We could fill pages Avith descriptions of countless 
 rills issuing, cool and limpid, from their vine-clad slopes — of deejD rivers stealing 
 through waving meadows— of the golden sunlight, the rosy atmosphere, and the 
 songs of innumerable birds, Avhich give an additional charm to each scene. Sir 
 George BoAven, the first Governor of Queensland, Avho had travelled much in 
 Greece, stated that the district vividly reminded him of the classic plains of 
 Thessaly. 
 
 The Avhole of this l)Oundless plateau — extending Avithin the tropics, but 
 elevated two thousand feet above the sea-level — is particularly fitted for a wide 
 range of crops. Indeed, as vegetation is continued during the Avhole year, the 
 farmer has only to choose his various seasons for bringing most of the produc- 
 tions of the temperate and tropical zones to maturity. Thus Avheat, oats, barley, 
 maize, potatoes (and more especially the SAveet potato, which here grows to the 
 Aveight of tAventy, and even thirty pounds), arroAvroot, indigo, and more generally, 
 all the productions of the kitchen garden, have already been cultivated Avith 
 great success. At present, however, Avith the exception of some toAAuships and 
 their surrounding farms, these table-lands are clothed throughoiit their vast 
 extent Avitli the rich and luxuriant natural grasses of the country, and are
 
 204 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 roamed over by the flocks and herds of some widely-scattered sheep aud cattle 
 owners. 
 
 Descending from the vast table-lands, Ave shall briefly trace the results of 
 later explorations within the tract lying between the western slope of this 
 elevated plateau and the 138th meridian (the western boundary of the colony), 
 forming the third and last portion of Queensland territory. Immediately after 
 the return of INIr Stuart, the explorer, the three colonies of South xVustralia, 
 Victoria, and Queensland, alarmed for the safety of Messrs Burke and Wills, 
 despatched three independent expeditions in search of them. Mr Walker's 
 party started from Port Cm-tis, and crossing over the Great Coast Range, 
 entered the tract we are now examining, and successfully crossed through to the 
 shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. JNIr Landsborough, about the same time, left 
 the shores of the gulf, and descending through the whole of the tract, reached 
 its southern boundary in June 1862. Mr M'Kinlay, starting from the north of 
 the Torrens basin, entered it from the south-west, and was equally successful in 
 eflfecting a northern passage, retm-ning in the following August. Thus, strangely 
 enough, a region which for years had defied the attacks of such persistent and 
 daring explorers as Sturt, Mitchell, and Leichhardt, was crossed, almost simul- 
 taneously, by no less than five seiDarate and wholly independent routes. More 
 strangely, and more lamentably, ere any of the searching parties had left their 
 starting-points, Messrs Burke and Wills had already solved the great question of 
 crossing the continent, and had returned to their depot to find it abandoned by 
 those they had left in charge of it. 
 
 It is now knovra to be cci'tain that Sturt's desert does not extend much 
 farther than his extreme point in 1845 (latitude 26°), and that in its innnediate 
 vicinity there are numerous and apparently permanent fresh-water lakes. And 
 though worthless tracts of country occasionally recur — in far smaller, however, 
 and less rude patches — yet the whole territory is a valuable addition to the 
 pastoral regions of the continent, intersi^ersed even Avith excellent agricultural 
 districts. None of it attains to the elevation of the table-lands on the smnmit of 
 the Coast Eange, though the mean depression of the interior is by no means so 
 low as had been previously supposed, and is considerably relieved by the occur- 
 rence of short and apparently unconnected ranges of hills. 
 
 On every account, from its vast extent, its fertile soil, its extensive seaboard, 
 and abundant water-courses, Queensland deserves to be regarded as one of the 
 most interesting and promising of those youthful states with which the mari- 
 time and colonial genius of England has studded the globe.
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF TASMANIA. 205 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF TASMANIA. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND — D'eNTRECASTEAUX's CHANNEL — MAGNIFICENT COAST SCENERY 
 — HOBART TOWN — MOUNT WELLINGTON — THE CAPUA OF THE AUSTRALIAS — 
 PHYSICAL CONFORMATION — MOUNTAINS — FORESTS — LAKES — RIVERS — SINGULAR 
 CAVES — SCENERY AT PORT SORELL. 
 
 To the voyager approaching Tasmania from any quarter, the island appears one 
 of the loveliest in the world. If his destination be Hobart Town, after rounding 
 the South Cape he comes upon the very magnificent estuary of D'Entrecasteaux's 
 Channel, and scenery unequalled in the world is spread before his gaze : for, 
 extending far away, this arm of the sea runs into the defiles ; a beautifully 
 undulating land stretches far away to the Avestward ; and, in the backgi'ound. 
 Mount Wellington rises majestic over all, with its snow-capped peak. Again, to 
 the eastward, is the thickly covered, beautifully green island of Bruni, and the 
 entrance round its point to Storm Bay, which his bark is hastening to with a 
 fi'esh and favourable breeze ; for during nine months out of the twelve, fair 
 bi'eezes blow for the stranger coming to these shores. 
 
 Mrs Meredith, a lady long resident in Tasmania, thus descril^cs the scenery 
 of the south coast : " The coast rises considerably towards the south, where the 
 mountain range terminates abruptly in the Cape Pillar, a grand basaltic preci- 
 pice, or rather assemblage of precipices, which, seen from the sea, every moment 
 assume a new and more i^icturesque aspect. Separated from the mainland by a 
 strait of only half a mile in width is Tasman's Island, a scarcely less striking- 
 feature in this most grand scenery than Cape Pillar. Like it, the island is com- 
 posed of basaltic columns, though on a less stupendous scale, but exceedingly 
 fantastic in form, particularly on the southern side, where the slender spires and 
 pinnacles seem a part of the ancient Gothic edifice, some Lindisfarne or Tintern 
 of by -gone glory ; whilst, as we gained a broader view of the cape, it assumed 
 the appearance of a fortification, a wall and seaward tower at the north-east end 
 being singularly well defined. When parallel with the strait, we gained through 
 it a fine view of another high basaltic promontory, Cape Kaoul, the entrance to 
 Port Arthur being between the two ; but this was soon lost, and the island 
 seemed to fold in, as it were, with the westerly cliffs of the cajje, until in a south 
 view they formed one towering stupendous mass of dark rocks, most richly 
 tinged with the changeful rose colom- and purple and gold of the sunset's glorious 
 hues, Avhich shone forth in still greater lustre from contrast with the deep chasms
 
 206 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 and ravines, wliicli were in almost black shadow, and with the white-crested 
 billows of the blue sea, that dashed their glittering spray high over the broken 
 crags. It was a scene never to be forgotten ! I have heard much of the gran- 
 deui- of the North Cape at midnight , but I would not lose my memory of Cape 
 Pillar at sunset for all the icy glitter of the more renowned scene." 
 
 Hobart Town, the capital of the colony, is situated on the shores of a beauti- 
 ful inlet called Sullivan's Cove, and very close to what may be properly styled 
 the mouth of the Derwent Eiver. The fine and perfectly land-locked harbour 
 on which the city stands is everywhere deep, even close inshore, where there are 
 four or five fathoms of water, and which, according to the Admiralty chart, 
 deepens to ten or twelve in the stream. The harbour and also the great inlet by 
 which it is approached, namely. Storm Bay, is Avithout rock, shoal, or impediment 
 of any kind whatever to navigation, unless, indeed, the Iron Pot rock be taken 
 as an exception to this statement ; but as this rock lies very close inshore, and 
 is moreover guarded by its o\a\ lighthouse, it is rather an advantage to the 
 mariner than otherwise. But ]\Iount Wellington (or Table INIountain) forms the 
 crowTiing glory of the landscape. Rising immediately behind the town to the 
 heiaht of 4200 feet, with its summit of basaltic columns covered with snow 
 more than half the year, its aspect is one of ever-varying, but never decreasing 
 grandeur. Whether it is wreathed in fleecy vapours, dark with rolling clouds, 
 or standing out clear and sunlit against the blue morning sky, the visitor is never 
 weary of gazing on this magnificent object. 
 
 This quiet city, like Tasmania generally, has to visitors a very English air and 
 character. Probably its temperate climate greatly contributes to this impression, 
 exempt as it happily is from all extremes of heat or cold ; whilst the fall of rain 
 being usually more equable than in the northern colonies, vegetation preserves its 
 freshness and verdure to a degree more analogous to the old country. An 
 English traveller writes thus of the island : 
 
 "It is the Capua of the Australias. Snow scarcely falls except to ornament 
 the summits of Mount Wellington and of the distant ranges of the uninhabited 
 and almost unexplored west coast. The frosts are seldom fatal even to the 
 tenderest plant. The stifling hot Avinds of the continent are cooled by a hun- 
 dred miles of sea before they reach the island. Nor is the air stagnant or sultry. 
 Hot as the sun is by day, the summer nights are cooler than in England. Eng- 
 lish trees, flowers, and fruits flourish Avith a rare luxuriance side by side Avith 
 pines from Norfolk Island and Nbav Zealand. Geraniums blaze out in huge 
 pink and scarlet masses, growing in almost Avild profusion. The English sAvcet- 
 brier has been introduced, and has spread of itself till in its luxuriance it has 
 become a noxious Aveed to the farmers. Fruit follows fruit so fast under the 
 early sunnner sun that apples ripen almost before straAvberrics are over. It is 
 in .such profusion that it lies rotting on the ground for Avant of moutlis to eat it. 
 Can any country be more perfectly delightful ? Oucc mounted (and, rich or poor, 
 there arc fcAv Avho cannot possess or borrow a horse of some sort in Tasmania), 
 one is free with a freedom knoAvn only in dreams to dAvellers in the old country 
 of Hedges and Enclosure Acts, where to quit the dreary flint roads is to trespass
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF TASMANIA. 207 
 
 and break the law. One's first reflection is on tlie astonishini;- folly of hnniaiiity 
 in neglecting to inhabit it. Surely there must be many wearied with the crowd 
 and strife and ugliness of English cities, who, brought to a virgin forest such as 
 this, would be I'oady to sing their Nunc dimittis in thankfulness that it liad been 
 permitted them to exist in such beauty, to have their drenms helped to the 
 imagination of the glory of the new heavens and the new earth." 
 
 In respect to its physical conformation, there is a considerable portion of the 
 surface of the island mountainous. The loftiest eminences, however, do not 
 reach six thousand feet elevation ; and those portions of the territory that are 
 not occupied by primary ranges are generally, though not uniformly, very hilly. 
 the surface swelling into long and lofty ridges, called by the colonists " tiers," 
 which, if viewed from any commanding ground, give to the landscape a very 
 unequal and undulatory aspect. The great range that traverses nearly the whole 
 of Central Tasmania, from Hobart Town to the extreme western bluff, in a noi'th 
 and south direction (and which might be appropriately called the Wellington 
 range), is of greenstone formation, and in its upheaval has burst through those 
 more recent I'ocks of sandstone, clay slate, and limestone that once overlaid it, 
 and which are now found around its bases and in its depressions in quantities so 
 vast as to spread over a very considerable extent of country. " The great north 
 and south range," says an eloquent writer, " which bounds the principal vale of 
 settlement on the west terminates abruptly when within forty miles of Bass's 
 Strait, and, wheeling to the west, at a right angle with its former course, extends 
 as far as the Mersey in that direction, presenting to the north a wall of pre- 
 cipitous faces, and thus limiting the enterprise of farmers to the country extend- 
 ing from its bases to the sea." 
 
 The forests, notwithstanding the awe-inspiring magnitude of their trees, and 
 the nearly impenetrable closeness of their underwood, often present the traveller 
 with scenes which it is impossible to contemplate without satisfaction. The foliage 
 of many of the lesser trees and flowering shrubs, unlike that of the larger kinds, 
 is exquisitely brilliant and beautiful ; and the depressing influence so often felt 
 when pushing through them is frequently I'elieved by the agreeable but circum- 
 scribed scenery of the forest. The musk-tree, sassafras, silver wattle, the laurel, 
 the fern-tree, and the palm flourish in these situations in the closest association, 
 and are as superbly grouped as their combinations are pleasing and agreeable. 
 
 There are numerous lakes in Tasmania, lying principally, indeed almost 
 wholly, on the high central table-lands of the island, which are part of the great 
 chain before spoken of under the name of the Wellington range. Each lake may 
 be considered as a large natural reservoir, in which the waters of many small 
 streams are collected, and their overflowings ioxra. some of the principal rivers. 
 The united area of those lakes that lie on the plateau just referred to is about 
 75,000 acres. The Great Lake, which is about thirteen miles long with a 
 maximum width of eight miles and an average of three or four, covers about 
 28,000 acres. The Queen's description of the scenery of Loch Inch seems to 
 suit that of this beautiful sheet of water very nicely : " It is not a wild lake, 
 quite the contrary, no high rocks, but woods and blue hills as a background."
 
 208 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Lake St Clair excepted, these expansive sheets of water are mostly encompassed 
 b)^ beautiful grass lands, which in summer support many thousands of sheep. 
 The height of the Great Lake above the level of the sea exceeds 3S00 feet, while 
 the many small lakes that lie on the great plain of the Nineteen Lagoons, about 
 seven miles off, in the west, are still higher. 
 
 Tasmania, from its many mountains, is better supplied with rivers than any 
 of the continental colonies. Her first and second class streams are very nume- 
 rous, and the lesser water-courses are wholly beyond numbering. These rivers, 
 with the exception of about three of rather inferior magnitude, are ever-flowing 
 ones. Those that discharge into Bass's Strait are the INIontagu, Leven, Gawler, 
 Forth, ISIersey, Tamar, and many inferior streams. Of these, the Tamar, on 
 which Launceston is built, is the largest and on all accounts the most impox'tant, 
 and though not so large a river as the Derwent, in the south, its tributaries 
 drain a much greater extent of territory. Its earliest waters almost touch the 
 east coast at one point, and in a westerly direction they reach much more than 
 half-way across the island, while its southernmost supplies are even met with 
 at less than thirty-five miles from Hobart Town. It is formed of two large 
 rivers called the North Esk and the South Esk, each having very numerous and 
 considerable tributaries. By the west coast are discharged the Davey, Gordon, 
 King, Arthur, and some others. The principal of the south coast rivers are 
 the D'Entrecasteaux, Southport, Huon, Derwent, and Coal rivers. The largest 
 and most important of these is the Derwent, on which Hobart Town stands. 
 The surface Avhose rainfall is carried off by the Derwent and its tributaries is 
 about 2,300,000 acres. Almost all this area is hilly or mountainous in a high 
 degree, and as it receives fully six-sevenths of the waters that are collected in 
 the lakes of the great table-lands of Central Tasmania, its volume of water is 
 greater than that of any other river, not excepting the Tamar, which, generally 
 speaking, flows through a flatter country. Its affluents, which mostly rise in the 
 mountains of Central Tasmania or else in the principal lakes, are the Nive, Dee, 
 Shannon, and several others. The Huon Eiver flows through a region that is 
 almost uninhabited until its tidal waters are reached, or nearly so, a region 
 which is made up of mountains, heavily-wooded tiers, and very extensive open 
 levels, the drainage of which is very considerable, and where rivers are very 
 readily formed. 
 
 There are some very singular caves at the village of Chudleigh, forty miles 
 from Launceston. They are thus described by the Kev. John West in his 
 " History of Tasmania : " " The entrance of the principal cave, which is consider- 
 ably more than two miles in length, is in the limestone rock, at the u{)2)er 
 extremity of a narrow ravine, down which flows the stream which issues from 
 the mouth of the cave, and extends throughout its whole length. The opening 
 is thirty feet high, and fifty or sixty in width. At a considerable distance from 
 the entrance light is admitted by two openings in the roof, the only ones 
 throughout the whole extent of the cave, and when they are passed, the full 
 beauty of the scene breaks upon the view of the visitor. Stalactites of every 
 form hang like icicles from the roof, some presenting the appearance of inverted
 
 • PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF TASMANIA. 209 
 
 cones, others that of glistening somi-transparent tubes, about tlie thickness of a 
 pipe stem, and several yards in length. In some parts the stalactites, meeting 
 with their opposite stalagmites, form pillars, in appearance supporting a roof of 
 immense height. In other places they assume the form of elegant and flowing 
 drapery thrown over the huge rocks that project from the sides of the cavern: 
 The fringes of this drapery, when struck by any hard substance, give forth a 
 ringing sound, and every variety of note, high or low, according to their respec- 
 tive length. The floor is covered with stalagmites of every form, and it sparkles 
 as if paved with diamonds. If the visitor extinguish his torch, myriads of 
 glow-worms are seen to cover the roof and walls, emitting a faint blue light, and 
 making the stalactites appear like spectres in the gloom. As the spectator pro- 
 ceeds, new objects of Avonder appear. In some places the stalactites, shooting 
 out in all directions, into innumerable small fibres, appear like fur- work along 
 the roof; in others, like masses of elegant drapery, extending fold above fold, to 
 the height of thirty or forty feet, from the floor to the roof. Near the entrance 
 of the cave they are of a grey or brownish colour, but in the interior they are of 
 a pure white. There are several chambers, some of great beauty, which branch 
 off" from the main passage, and have been formed by the rivulet which passes 
 through the cave." 
 
 This account of a very beautiful island may be fitly concluded with a poetical 
 extract from Mrs Meredith's work entitled " Some of my Bush Friends in 
 Tasmania," descriptive of the scenery around Port Sorell : 
 
 " Flowers in legions bloomed around in forest, scrub, and marsh, 
 Dropping soft petals o'er the brook, or on rocky ridges harsh, 
 Nestling in crevices and chinks, like jewels in the mine. 
 Or peeling out with merry eyes into the noonday shine. 
 There grew the ' helmets ' gi-een, like elfin knights together ; 
 Some wore their armour plain, some with a flaunting feather. 
 And caladenias quaint, with hoods and fringes rare, 
 Couched by old mossy trees 'midst delicate maiden-hair. 
 Acres of peaty swamps glowed purple with the shimmer 
 Of gay rush-lOies ; and in dells where the forest shades fell dimmer — 
 In deep, green, silent glens — silent, except the fall 
 Of tinkling streams that made a monotone most musical — 
 The feathery fern-trees dwelt, with palmy crests outspread. 
 Close interweaved and overlapped in canopies o'erhead ; 
 Upborne on massy columns whence taper ribs upspring. 
 And leafy traceries flow from their mazy clustering, 
 WhUe round each pOlar, wreaths of polished verdure cling 
 With long and shining fronds, in graceful garlands droojiing 
 Adown, and down, till into the spray of the tiny cascade they're stooping. 
 But the rill goes wimpling on, round island-rocks all mossy. 
 By groves of fragi-ant sassafras, and myrtles, dark and glossy, 
 'Neath bi-idges of gi-eat fallen trunks, under whose dark shadow slipping. 
 It whirls to the deep and silent pool where the miner-birds are dipping j 
 And parrots, skimming to and fro, through a sunny gleam together, 
 Are bright, as though the sun had set a rainbow in each feather ! " 
 
 2d
 
 210 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PHYSICAL DESCEIPTION OF NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 THE THREE ISLANDS — EXTENT AND AREA — NAMES — DESCRIPTION OF SOUTHERN NEW 
 ZEALAND — OTAGO AND CANTERBURY — NELSON AND MARLBOROUGH — CANTER- 
 BURY PLAINS — THE NORTHERN ISLAND — MOUNTAINS— LAKES — VOLCANIC CRATERS 
 
 — RIVERS — Stewart's island — the sea-coast — earthquakes — geysers or 
 
 BOILING SPRINGS — MUD VOLCANOES — VEGETATION — THE FORESTS — FERNS AND 
 FL^VX. 
 
 New Zealand comprises two large islands, named the North and South Islands, 
 with one of smaller size called Stewart's Island. It lies in the Southern Ocean, 
 nearly at the antipodes to Great Britain, between 34° 15' and 47° 30' of south 
 latitude, and at about twelve hundred miles' distance south-east from the contin- 
 ent of Australia. The islands form one extended line of about twelve hundred 
 miles' length, and are of very irregular width, varying from five to three hundred 
 miles. Their aggregate area is about 100,000 square miles, or 65,000,000 of 
 acres. This is nearly the same area as Great Britain. In shape New Zealand 
 somewhat resembles the peninsula or " boot " of Italy. The coast-line extends 
 over a length of 3120 miles. Around the coasts are many islands, some of con- 
 siderable extent ; and among them Durville's, the Kauau, and the Great Barrier 
 are celebrated for containing copper ore. 
 
 Of the three islands forming the groujD, Rakiura, or the small South Island, 
 is the only one which possesses a native name. Since the days of Cook, the 
 North Island has been named on old maps Eaheinomawe, and the Middle Island 
 Tavai-poenammo. These names originated thus : When the great navigator 
 asked the natives the name of the North Island, he was told that it was "a thing 
 fished from the sea by Maui " — He mea hi no Maui ; and that the Middle Island 
 was Te ivahi pounamu, or " the place of the greenstone." 
 
 When New Zealand became a British colony, the first governor, who was an 
 Irishman, proclaimed that the North, ]\Iiddle, and South Islands were thence- 
 forth to be denominated respectively New Ulster, New Munster, and New Lein- 
 ster ; and these names he selected for the colony because New Zealand, like 
 Ireland, had no toads. The Constitution Act of- 1852 discarded this unsuitable 
 nomenclature. Stewart's Island is named in honour of the scaler who, in 1808, 
 discovered its insularity. 
 
 Scientific men have often remarked the contrasted physical features of the 
 two large islands of New Zealand. Passing through Cook's Strait, to the south
 
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF NEW ZEALAND. '211 
 
 is a country of low swelling hill-rani,'cs or taWe-lands, broken by isolated volcanic 
 peaks. This land is covered with luxuriant forests, except in a central region of 
 lakes and hot springs, or geysers, depositing silica and sulphur beds, lilce that of 
 the Yellowstone region in North America. The climate, at its north end, has a 
 languid semi-tropical warmth. To the south is a very different country. From 
 end to end along its western side this island presents a continuous backl)one of 
 massive Alpine mountains, ranging from 11,000 feet to 13,200 feet in height, 
 with a dense forest hanging in gloom upon their seaward slopes, beneath the 
 eternal snows. But on the other side, facing eastward, this range displays vast 
 snow-fields and glaciers, and immense beds of loose shattered rock, with clefts 
 and gorges of terrible depth, whence the icy rivers are poui-ed out into the lakes 
 of an upland plain. The lofty plateau which occupies the middle breadth of the 
 South Island is buttressed on its eastern side by a lower i^arallel range of moun- 
 tains, through frequent breaks in which its rivers descend, and cross many suc- 
 cessive terraces or steps to the eastern sea-coast. The nether terraces, from an 
 elevation of fifteen hundred feet downwards, and the strip of low-lying shore 
 intersected by those variable rivers, compose what are called the Canterbury 
 Plains. That province is divided from Otago, its southern neighbour, l:)y the 
 larger Waitaki River, flowing out of three lakes at the feet of the central moun- 
 tains. In the contour of its shores this island is also very remarkable. Its 
 south-western extremity is, by glacier action no doubt, indented with deep fjords, 
 like those of Norway. The north-eastern shore, in Cook's Strait, is wonderfully 
 pierced and contorted, forming a maze of inlets ; but the east coast is an un- 
 broken low beach of shingle, saving two exceptional instances. These are the 
 two harbours of Port Lyttleton and Port Chalmers, the sea-doors respectively 
 of Christchurch and Dunedin. They owe their existence to peninsular blocks of 
 volcanic formation enclosing small pieces of water. 
 
 Such is the natm^al structure of Southern New Zealand. It is evidently so 
 laid out that the Canterbury and Otago territories share between them most of 
 the agricultural and pastoral opportunities, with their habitable and fertile east- 
 ward plains open to the two convenient seaports. The two northern provinces, 
 indeed, Nelson and Marlborough, possess their own advantages. The former 
 has thick beds of good coal, as well as some gold, copper, and iron ; the latter, 
 in its Wairau district, has the richest soil. But for the growth of wheat, meat, 
 and wool, upon which, in the first instance, the wealth of a new country mainly 
 depends, the middle and southern parts of this island combine all favouring con- 
 ditions. Their chmate, less mild and tranquil than that of sheltered Nelson, is 
 better suited than any other in the world both to the cattle and the cultivated 
 plants of Britain, as well as to the health of English people and their children. 
 It is like the best English climate, kept dry and ever clear of fog, with much less 
 frost in winter. Seasonable airs of wholesome cold are inhaled from the inland 
 snowy heights, or wafted from the antarctic icebergs. Only an incessant windi- 
 ness is complained of, but that serves to purify the air, and to brace the nerves. 
 Every vegetable product or domestic animal of English rearing there grows 
 and multiplies with amazing quickness and equal vigour. The soil is good,
 
 212 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 though somewhat light, and responds to manm^e, it is said, in a manner that 
 seems miraculous. There are no swamps and no forests in these broad plains 
 east of the Alpine range. 
 
 Three million of acres in the Canterbury Plains are fit for the agriculturist, 
 the sheep-breeder, or the stock-owner, besides the extensive highlands and 
 mountain runs. Otago, including Southland, can show nearly as much open 
 land, with a soil even better for wheat. From thirty-five to fifty-five bushels an 
 acre is obtained in the most southern district. The merino sheep, imported from 
 Australia, grows much bigger ; his fleece here weighs, instead of two pounds and 
 a half, three and a half ; the wool, though not so fine, is softer, with longer staple. 
 New Zealand sheep-feeding obtains a greater advantage, as the coarse native 
 grass, and the rude squatting management of vast open runs, are superseded by 
 laying down succulent English grasses in the fenced meadows of purchased 
 estates. The yearly produce of the colony exceeds three million bushels of wheat 
 and forty million pounds of wool, chiefly from the tw^o great southern provinces. 
 The mineral riches, too, of this Southern Island are great, though surpassed by 
 Auckland in the north. Manufactures have also been commenced in the towns. 
 In short, there is none of the colonies which has a finer future opened to it than 
 New Zealand. 
 
 The centre of the Northern Island is occupied by broad and lofty mountains, 
 which send off" spurs in various directions to the sea-coast ; the valleys formed 
 by these diverging mountain ranges are at first gullies which open out as they 
 approach the coast into fertile districts, through the centres of which flow the 
 rivers Waikato, Thames, Waipa, Mokau, Wanganui, Eangitikei, Tara Wera, and 
 other streams. It is the abrupt configuration of these mountain chains which 
 renders the land communication between Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, and 
 Hawke's Bay so difficult. Ruapahu, the highest mountain in this central range, 
 has an elevation of about nine thousand feet, and its summit is covered with per- 
 petual snow. Tongariro, one of Ruapahu's jjeaks, rising upwards of six thousand 
 feet above the sea, is an active volcano, and discharges from its crater smoke and 
 cinders. Primeval forests cover nearly the whole of these mountain ranges from 
 their bases to their summit.s. 
 
 In the interior of the North Island are numerous frcsh-Avater lakes, which 
 beautify the districts, and furnish easy means of communication and abundance 
 of small delicate fish. One of these lakes, the largest, called Lake Taupo, is 
 thirty miles long and twenty broad ; another, named Eotomahana, is in parts 
 boiling hot. Several of these lakes are of great depth, and the natives, seeing no 
 outlet for the water, and ignorant of the powerful influence of evaporation, 
 suppose it to be carried off by subterranean passages. 
 
 Three lines of volcanic craters, with high cones, stretch across the North 
 Lsland ; one occurs at the Bay of Islands, another at Auckland, and the third 
 extends from ]\Iount Egmont near Taranaki to White Island, an active volcano 
 in the centre of the Bay of Plenty. Between these two last igneous points, the 
 district abounds in lakes, boiling springs, and other volcanic products. 
 
 Rivers and tidal creeks are the distinguishing features of the North Island,
 
 PHYSICAL DKSCIUPTION OF NEW ZEALAND. 213 
 
 and with their aid the innermost districts are of easy access. The largest river, 
 the Waikato, rises in tht; Tanpo I.alvc, runs a tortuous course of two hundred 
 miles, and pours into the sea on the west coast a hirgc quantity of water with 
 much pumice-stone. Sudden rises of all the rivers of New Zealand occasionally 
 occur, causing much damage to property, with sometimes loss of life. 
 
 Stewart's Island, like most of the other parts of New Zealand, is of a moun- 
 tainous character ; the highest mountain attaining an elevation of three thousand 
 feet. The whole island is well Avooded and watered. Cook considered it a por- 
 tion of the ]\Iiddle Island, and this erroneous opinion continued among Europeans 
 until the year 1808, when the sealer Stewart discovered its insularity. The coast 
 line of the North Island measures nearly fifteen hundred miles ; its harbours are 
 not numerous, the best and greatest number lying between the North Cape and 
 Cape Colville. In this district are found the magnificent harbours of Mongonui, 
 the Bay of Islands, Wangarei, and Auckland. Within two hundred miles south 
 from Cape Colville there are only two safe anchorages ; one of these is at Mercury 
 Bay and the other at Tauranga, both difficult of access, and the former unfit for 
 large vessels. From the East Cape to the excellent Wellington Harbour, a dis- 
 tance of 350 miles, except Port Najoier in Hawke's Bay, which is safe with off- 
 shore winds, there is no secure harbour. On the west coast of the North Island 
 they have all sandbars at their entrances. The sea-worn features of the coasts in 
 the northern and the extreme southern portions of the islands surprise all navi- 
 gators ; and settlers sailing round Cape Horn have remarked some resemblance 
 between the features of this solitary promontory and parts of New Zealand. 
 
 Eight feet is the average rise of the tide around the eastern coasts ; on the 
 western coasts it rises higher than this, and at some other places the average rise 
 is upwards of ten feet. So great is the inse at Nelson, that vessels of 500 tons 
 burthen have been beached and repaired. Extraordinary tides occur once in 
 two or three years all round the coasts, covering lands which for years have been 
 far above high water. 
 
 Ever since the arrival of the aborigines slight earthquakes have been 
 occurring in the country between White Island and Banks's Peninsula ; in other 
 words, between latitude 37° and 43°. European evidence of the occm-rence of 
 these phenomena is abundant. In 1769 Captain Cook felt an earthquake in 
 Queen Charlotte's Sound. In 1843 an earthquake was felt at Wanganui, but 
 the Wairau massacre then engrossed all men's minds and no notice was taken of 
 it. In 1848 and 1855 the city of Wellington was shaken to its very foundation 
 by an earthquake shock, and since then these phenomena have been of frequent 
 occurrence. 
 
 New Zealand is an admirable geological school : there travellers may see the 
 form of Vesuvius, the dome-shaped summits of Auvergne, the elevated craters 
 of the Caraccas, and the geysers of Iceland. Above the entombed village of 
 Te Rapa, on the border of the Taupo Lake, basaltic rocks may be seen in the 
 process of conversion into soft clay by heat and chemical action ; where the 
 Tongariro river falls into the lake, travellers may observe how rapidly pumice- 
 stone and other deposits are lessening the size of this inland sea. Grand and
 
 214 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 beautiful gej'sers, ejecting water two degrees above the boiling-point of pure 
 water, and holding various silicates in solution, are found around the lakes of 
 Eotomahana and Eotorua. This water on cooling incrusts every substance it 
 comes in contact with, and birds thro-svn into it are brought out like pieces of 
 flint. On looking do^^^l through the clear smooth water of the Te Tarata geyser 
 on Lake Eotomahana, the siliceous matter is observed deposited at the bottom 
 like the hills on the eastern side of Lake Taupo, a formation which, when seen 
 from a canoe on the lake, suggests to the eye waves of lava suddenly cooled. 
 Near the geysers at Eotomahana, a noise is heard similar to the sound in a large 
 steam-engine room. Adventurous travellers may sail on the lake on hot water, 
 and luxurious ones swim in baths of various temperatures, the sides of which 
 are lined -with flint, white as snow and smooth as glass. 
 
 Between two smouldering hills at Eotomahana there is a quantity of mud 
 having a temperatm-e far above the boiling-point of water. In certain places 
 this clay is cool on the surface and of a firm consistence, and here a number of 
 Liliputian mud-volcanoes, several in a state of great activitj^, may be seen. Some 
 of these mud-cones are half-a-foot high, others six feet, and the bubbling 
 spluttering hot mud is to be observed on looking down their craters. All these 
 miniature volcanoes, like the giant Tongariro, have the lips of their craters lower 
 on one side than the other. On this mud-flat, fissures may be seen in the 
 surface, and dome-shaped cones caused by pressure from below. While contem- 
 plating this strange scene, an impression steals over the mind that it is all 
 artificial, and the apparent ebullition the result of successful imitation ; but the 
 delusion is removed by the sad story of an infant's creeping into a circular hole 
 pointed out by the natives, into which its sister also fell in endeavouring to 
 extricate it ; the poor children were both stewed alive in the molten clay. 
 
 At the village of Ohinemotu, on the Eotorua Lake, the natives may be seen 
 cooking their food at the hot springs, sleeping in huts placed for Avarmth over 
 the hot soil, and smoking and gambling for hours in the hot baths. 
 
 New Zealand is luxuriantly clothed -svith vegetation, and the flora of the 
 country is characterised by the comparatively large number of trees and ferns, 
 the paucity of herbaceous plants, and the almost total want of annuals. In 
 England there are forty indigenous trees, in New Zealand 120. Two thousand 
 species of plants have already been collected, and Dr Hooker anticipates that 
 two thousand more will yet be discovered. Thus, it will be seen that European 
 travellers find themselves surrounded in New Zealand with a new vegetation ; 
 the landscape is not soft or gay, but grand and sombre. It presents to the eye 
 a dark green colour, and, except in the tree-ferns, little that is striking. Un- 
 fortunately for the beauty of the floral scenery, the tree-fern shuns observation, 
 avoids the sun, lives in solitary places, and flourishes best in stagnant air. 
 Almost all the New Zealand trees are evergreens ; forests are consequently 
 never leafless, and the change of seasons makes little diftcrcnce in their appear- 
 ance ; in winter they are greener than in the summer, and the luxuriance of the 
 vegetation, the palm-like tree-fern, the nikau, the cabbage-tree, and the obscure 
 green flowers of the ferns, give to them a somewhat tropical appearance.
 
 rilYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF NEW ZEALAND. 215 
 
 Inrlescribalile is the charm of New Zcahuul forests for the lovers of nature. 
 There generations of noble trees are seen decajing, and fresh generations rising 
 up around the moss-covered trunks of fallen patriarchs. The i)rofound silence 
 which reigns in these regions produces a pleasing gloom on the mind, and the 
 scene displays better than the most classic architecture the grandeur of repose. 
 No sound is heard save the falling of trees, or the parrot's shrill screech, as birds 
 which enliven the outskirts of forests arc mute in their interior. Around the 
 gi'aves of past generations of trees the air is hushed into stillness, while the tops 
 of the living generation are agitated with gales and breezes. At Christmas the 
 pohutukaua is covered with scarlet flowers, and is then the most gaudy of forest 
 trees ; and the rimu possesses a melancholy beauty and an indescribable 
 grandeur. Few of the pines recall to the settler's eyes the same trees in 
 England, and singular to relate, unlike their congeners, the majority of them 
 grow intermixed with other trees. The celebrated and beautiful kauri is the only 
 pine bearing a cone, and the male and female cones are found on the same tree. 
 
 Travellers talk of the solitude of the forests, but there is society in trees 
 which men miss on immense plains ; it is on the prairie alone that the solitary 
 traveller has a sensation of loneliness, feels that he is in the world and does not 
 belong to it, that he is a solitary wanderer on a vast oceanless desert without 
 landmarks. 
 
 On the coast plains in the North Island ferns and flax plants supply the 
 place of grasses. The sight of an immense district covered with short fern fills 
 the mind with an idea of sterility, while the long grass covering the JNIiddle 
 Island plains, and parts of the interior of the Noith Island, looks like hay.
 
 216 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CLIMATE OF AUSTEALASIA. 
 
 VARIETY OF CLIMATES — THE TOEEID ZONE — WARM, BUT EXHILIRATING — SUDDEN 
 CHANGES — EASTERN COAST CLIMATE — HOT WINDS — BRICKFIELDERS — TEMPERA- 
 TURE AT MELBOURNE, ADELAIDE, AND PERTH — SEA BREEZES — RAINS — SNOW — 
 DROUGHTS — THUNDERSTORMS — HURRICANES — THE SEASONS IN AUSTRALIA — 
 CHRISTMAS AT THE ANTIPODES — A HEALTHFUL CLIMATE — CLIMATE OF NEW 
 ZEALAND — SNOW AND RAIN — FERTILISING INFLUENCES — A HEALTHFUL CLIMATE. 
 
 The climate of Australasia is of the most varied kind, the variations being due 
 to difference of latitude, as well as to the different circumstances of inland or 
 maritime position, with many other considerations. All the northern portion of 
 the Australian continent — embracing not much less than the half of its entire 
 extent — falls within the limits of the torrid zone. We find here an intensely- 
 heated atmosphere, and a climate which is strictly tropical. But in the southern 
 and south-eastern portions of the continent the average temperature, in the coast 
 districts, is not higher than that experienced in the south of Europe, though in 
 some portions of the distant interior a greater degree of heat is not unfrequently 
 felt. 
 
 Measured by an English standard, however, the climate of every part of 
 Australia is hot — though it is a kind of heat to which the settler soon becomes 
 accustomed, and learns to bear, not only without inconvenience, but even with a 
 large amount of positive gratification. It is not a heat productive of lassitude — 
 like that of India or of trojiical America : instead of deadening the active 
 faculties, it rather raises them (except under the influence of particular and 
 temporary circumstances) to the highest amount of vigorous enjoyment. Out- 
 door occupations which, under a similar temperature, it would in most parts of 
 the globe be found nearly impracticable to pursue, are there carried on Avithout 
 the smallest injury to the constitutions of those engaged in them. This results, 
 in a great degree, from the extreme dryness of the atmosphere — a quality Avhich 
 is one of its most essential characteristics. Hence the general healthiness of an 
 Australian climate, and the almost uniform freedom from pulmonary and other 
 complaints which a humid atmosphere is so liable to engender. 
 
 Another circumstance which contributes to the healthiness of this portion of 
 the globe is the general uniformity of temperature enjoyed during the greater 
 part of the year, although this is less conspicuous at the maritime localities, 
 where changes from extreme heat to comparative cold are by no means unfrc-
 
 CLIMATE OF AUSTRALASIA. 217 
 
 quent. But even there the range of the thermometer is much less than that 
 experienced in most countries on the northern side of the equator, especially 
 within the temperate latitudes. With the exception, indeed, of the intense and 
 almost overpowering heat of the summer season, an Australian climate is for the 
 most part remarkably equable in its degree of warmth. 
 
 In so far as tenq)crature is concerned, the coast regions of New South Wales 
 present no material difference from Lisbf)n, Gibraltar, or other places in the 
 south of Europe. Lisbon has a mean annual temperature of 61°, Gibraltar of 
 67°; and in both jjlaces the amount of difference between the mean heat experi- 
 enced at the opposite seasons of the year exactly coincides with that of Sydney. 
 The summer heat of Sydney is as high as that of Naples, Constantinople, and 
 Algiers, on the Mediterranean coasts, and higher than that of Philadelphia or 
 Baltimore, on the opposite side of the Atlantic ; while its winter coincides with 
 that of Sicily, or with the correspondent season at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 During nine months of the year, indeed, the climate of the southern colonies 
 is in the highest degree healthful, agreeable, and even invigorating ; the perfect 
 clearness and dryness of the atmosphere being productive of an elasticity of 
 frame which influences pleasurably both mind and body. It is only during the 
 summer that the heat is felt to be oppressive, and then it is only intense during 
 the prevalence of the hot winds. These winds generally occur about four times 
 in each succeeding summer, and blow for a period of from twenty- four to thirty -six 
 hours each time. In their origin and character they are probably analogous to 
 similar winds experienced in other parts of the globe (as in Egypt, Syria, Ai-abia, 
 and elsewhere), and are, perhaps, connected with a great and widely-extended 
 system of atmospheric currents moving in rotary courses, and the laws regulatiug 
 which are as yet only imperfectly traced. 
 
 The hot wind of Australia and Van Diemen's Land (for a similar pheno- 
 menon is of occasional occurrence in that island) exerts an extremely injurious 
 influence upon vegetation, both indigenous and exotic, during its brief pre- 
 valence. All the grasses and leguminous plants are parched by it, and the 
 fruit of the fig, as well as that of the vine, is destroyed. The red and blue 
 grapes commonly lose their colour and their watery elements ; the green leaves 
 turn yellow and wither ; the quality of the crops is generally deteriorated ; and 
 whole fields of promising wheat and potatoes are often laid waste. Its effects 
 on the human frame partake somewhat of the character of those produced by 
 the sirocco or simoom of Egypt and the INIediterranean coasts — a feverish heat 
 and determination of blood to the head, with a difficulty of breathing. These 
 hot winds are popularly known as "brickfielders," and the Sydney people call 
 them "southerly busters." Similarly heated blasts from the interior are of 
 occasional occurrence in the other continental colonies — their direction varying 
 in some degree Avith the respective situation of particular places. At Adelaide, 
 and also at ISIelbom-ne, the hot winds blow from the northward, and raise the 
 temperature of the air like the blast of a furnace. Victoria, which lies in a more 
 southern latitude than cither New South Wales or South Australia, enjoys in 
 general a milder temperature ; but even here the settler occasionally exiicrieuccs 
 
 2 E
 
 218 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 a day of ti'emendous heat — the hot wmd blowing in a continuous and steady 
 breeze, dm-ing the whole day and night, and keeping up the thermometer at 110° 
 in the shade. 
 
 The mean annual temperature of Melbourne is 57°, the mean of summer 65°, 
 and that of winter 48°. Adelaide has a mean yearly temperature of 65°, with a 
 mean summer of 82°, and a winter of 56°. Western Australia — or that portion of 
 it which includes the Swan Kiver settlement — resembles the other parts of the 
 Australian continent in the general purity and dryness of the atmosphere, and is 
 unusually exempt from the hot winds which are found to occur elsewhere. 
 AVesterly winds prevail on this portion of the coast, and are cooled by their 
 passage over the waters of the Indian Ocean. In a similar manner, on the coast 
 of New South Wales and Victoria, winds which blow from the eastern and 
 southern quarters of the heavens, charged with the cooling vapours derived from 
 the immense exjDanse of the Pacific, are the most refreshing and invigorating in 
 their influence. 
 
 On all parts of the Australian coast — especially those which are situated 
 near, or within, the tropic — alternate land and sea breezes prevail during the 
 warm portion of the year. The cooling sea-breeze, which generally sets in 
 during the earlier portion of the day, and becomes more steady and powerful 
 towards the afternoon, serves to temper the otherwise intense heat of an 
 Australian summer. In the mornings and evenings, too, the air is nearly always 
 calm and pleasant, and the nights almost uniformly cool and refreshing. Owing 
 to the perfect drjoiess of the air, a person may sleep beneath the open sky almost 
 throughout the year, without experiencing any injurious consequences. 
 
 In respect of its rains the Australian climate exhibits one of its most strongly 
 marked features. The rainy season coincides generally with the winter months ; 
 that is, from May to September. In fact an Australian winter bears consider- 
 able resemblance to a wet English summer, and is distinguished much more by 
 the circumstance of its heavy rains, than by any very striking diflerence of 
 temperature from the months by which it is preceded and followed. During this 
 brief portion of the year, the rain comes down in torrents — forming sheets, rather 
 than showers, of rain — filling all the water-courses with inconceivable rapidity — 
 swelling insignificant (and almost dried-up) brooks into deep and powerful rivers, 
 and frequently rendering extensive tracts of country altogether impassable, until 
 the waters have subsided. In the towns, every highway becomes, for the 
 time, a river — every by-way is converted into a torrent, and every bank into a 
 cataract. 
 
 Snow is, as a rule, never seen in the lower country neighbouring the ocean, 
 although it is frequent enough in the Alpine region, where some of the moun- 
 tains arc snow-capped the year round. 
 
 Distressing droughts sometimes occur in all parts of the continent, but less 
 frequently in Victoria than elsewhere. Not a drop of rain falls Ibr months and 
 months in succession, and the face of the country becomes completely parched. 
 At such times the cattle perish by hundreds, from inability either to find water 
 or to extract any nutriment from the surface of the dried and burnt-up soil.
 
 CLIMATE OF AUSTRALASIA. 219 
 
 Instances have even occurred in this province of no rain (or scarcely any) falhng 
 within periods of two or three years' duration. 
 
 Terrihc thunderstorms sometimes occur in the height of summer, especially 
 in the highlands, where they far exceed in violence the electrical explosions 
 known in the interior of the United States of America. A traveller in the 
 mountain region of New South Wales gives the following vivid description of a 
 storm he encountered there : " I once passed a night far away from any house, 
 among the mountains beyond Liverpool Plains, during one of the most awful 
 thunderstorms ever experienced in this colony. The repeated flashes of light- 
 ning rendered darkness visible. The coruscations and lurid glare made it appear 
 as if the atmosphere was on fire. The air was tainted with a sulphuric smell ; 
 the loud and rapid peals of thunder, reverberated from mountain to mountain, 
 seemed Kke the artillery of heaven let loose to accomplish nature's dissolution. 
 I was surrounded by a range of lofty mountains, every one of which seemed to 
 'have got a tongue.' This war among the elements was succeeded by torrents 
 of rain, to which I was completely exposed ; for soon after the thunderstorm had 
 begun, I took the precaution of removing my bed from under the trees, for fear 
 of their attracting the lightning. Many a tree was that night struck, and 
 instantly shivered to atoms. I slept none ; my horses, which stood near me, 
 refused to feed. When daylight appeared, extensive and fearful was the havoc 
 effected by the combined power of the lightning and whirlwind. Trees which 
 happened to attract the electric fluid were completely stripped of their bark, and 
 split down the centre from top to bottom ; while their branches, some of them a 
 ton weight, were rent from the main trunk, and scattered in all directions, often 
 to the distance of one hundred yards." These storms are frequently accompanied 
 with hailstones of extraordinary dimensions. Hui-ricanes, ending in whirlwinds, 
 followed by torrents of rain, sometimes dis^ilay tremendous power in certain 
 localities, utterly devastating the tracts they visit. A traveller joimieying from 
 Bathurst Plains to the Murrumbidgee, encountered one of these fearful blasts 
 in a wild region covered almost entirely with forests of lofty gum-trees. Happily 
 for himself, he was not in its path, though close to the very edge. The morning 
 had been gusty and threatening. As the day advanced the air became warm, 
 and a few flashes of lightning, accompanied by loud thunder, betokened the 
 approach of a storm. In a short time a strange, loud, rushing noise was heard ; 
 the atmosphere rapidly grew thick and dark, and the horse of the traveller 
 trembled violently under the influence of intense fear. He had scarcely time to 
 leap ofi" his back, and involuntarily exclaim, " This is a hurricane," before it swept 
 by in front. The roaring, crashing sound was deafening. Everything was in 
 total darkness. But the furious tempest was almost instantly over ; the atmo- 
 sphere rapidly cleared, and in what a few seconds before had been a high and 
 dense forest, the track of the storm Avas indicated by every exposed tree being 
 prostrate, either broken or uprooted. These hurricanes appear to follow a direct 
 route, have a very narrow sweep in proportion to the length of their course, 
 and are remarkably well defined. Trees on the boundary have been entirely 
 stripped of their branches on one side, while the trunks have remained standing
 
 220 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Avith the branches on the other side uninjured, being just without the Hmit of 
 the bhist. On following the path of a hurricane, the evidence of its having 
 tcrniinated in a whirlwind has been observed, the fallen timber forming a circle, 
 with the trunks directed to different points of the compass. 
 
 The seasons in Australia occur at precisely the opposite periods of the year 
 to the English. It is summer in Australia when it is winter in England, and vice 
 versd. The hottest months in the year are December, January, and February, 
 and the coldest June, July, and August. The English spring corresponds to the 
 Australian autumn. Again, the intense heat of the mid-day sun comes from the 
 northern, instead of the southern, point of the sky ; the south wind is cooling in 
 its influences, and the northerly gales, instead of being associated with influences 
 proper to " rude Boreas," are almost sufibcatingly hot. These peculiarities of 
 climate, of course, powerfully attract the notice of one who visits the southern 
 hemisphere for the first time, and interfere strangely with the accustomed and 
 cherished associations of an English mind. The festivities of Christmas take 
 place during the intensest heat of the Australian summer ; and the ball-room, 
 filled with a company assembled in honour of the commencing year, is decorated 
 with the gayest and brightest of flowers, freshly-plucked, in their fullest bloom. 
 The antipodal Christmas is, indeed, completely im-English. " Sitting in a thorough 
 draught, clad in a holland blouse, you may see men and boys dragging from the 
 neighbouring bush piles of green stuff (oak branches in full leaf and acorn, 
 and a handsome shrub with a pink flower and pale green leaf — the Christmas 
 of Australia) for the decoration of churches and dwellings, and stopping every 
 fifty yards to wipe their perspiring brows." 
 
 But the colonist soon grows accustomed to these and similar anomalies, 
 and gladly reconciles himself to even the admitted drawbacks to the chai'ms of 
 an Australian climate (in the shape of excessive heat, dust, drought, and, worse 
 than all, countless swarms of flies, mosquitoes, and other insect plagues), in con- 
 sideration of its many advantages, and, foremost among them, its almost uni- 
 formly bright and glowing sky, its pure and transparent atmo.sphere. For at 
 least three hundred days of the year fair weather may, with almost perfect cer- 
 tainty, be reckoned on, and whatever of out-door work or pastime may have 
 been planned for the morrow is pretty certain of meeting with no " skiey " 
 impediments to its performance. Sunshine is the rule, clouds the rare exception, 
 and the clause of " weather permitting " never forms part of any treaty in which 
 out-of-door arrangements are included. It is, in fine, as Campbell beautifully 
 expresses it, "A delightful land, in wiklness even benign." 
 
 New Zealand has been rendered famous by its climate, but, like other things 
 in this world, the climate has been injured by injudicious praise. It has been 
 styled delightful and pleasant, terms which convey the idea of an atmosphere 
 rarely disturbed by wind or rain, whereas there are few countries on the globe 
 where wind and rain arc so frequent and so uncertain ; they are, indeed, for 
 pleasure-seekers, the two gi-eat faults of the climate. 
 
 No single locality in Europe has a temperature during the whole year hko 
 that experienced in New Zealand. The North Island possesses the summer heat,
 
 CLIMA TE OF A USTIiALASIA. 221 
 
 tompered with a sca-l)roozc, of Paris, Bnissols, and Amstordani, with the winter 
 ct)ld of liome ; while the JNIiddle Island has a Jersey snninicr, and a winter in 
 mildness resembling that at Montpellier. New Zealand is said to possess an 
 Italian climate. But there are marked points of difference between the seasons 
 and those of Italy. Thus, in Italy there is a sort of summer-winter when cattle 
 must be provided for indoors as in winter, and during which for several hours 
 of the day all out-door work is interrupted by heat. There is no similar summer- 
 winter in New Zealand, and it is the opinion of persons who have sojourned in 
 ditierent parts of the world, that the Anglo-Saxon race can work and expose 
 themselves to the climate without injury, during more days in the year, and for 
 more horn's in the day, than in any other country. 
 
 Snow seldom lies on the ground at the level of the sea in the North Island, 
 and not very often in the Middle Island. But aU round the year the summit of 
 the highest mountain in the North Island, Ruapahu, nine thousand feet above 
 the level of the sea, and the great mountain chains in the JNIiddle Island, are 
 covered with snow. Ice is occasionally seen in winter from one extremity of the 
 islands to the other, but frosts are comparatively slight to the north of Auck- 
 land, although the North Cape is occasionally covered with hoar-frost. More 
 rain foils in New Zealand than at London, but less than that which falls on the 
 west coast of England. There is more moisture in the atmosphere surrounding 
 the islands than in that surrounding England. Proofs of its presence are given 
 in the luxm'iance of the vegetation, the heavy night-dews, and the mould which 
 collects on unused shoes and wearing apparel. But it must not be confounded 
 with raw dampness, for it produces an exquisite softness of the skin, and settlers 
 rarely have that unpleasant glazed feeling of the skin so often experienced in 
 dry climates. 
 
 These are the elements of the climate of New Zealand, and under its fertilis- 
 ing influence every European plant gTOws in the colony, while the geranium, 
 arum, fuschia, balsam, myrtle, heliotrope, and Cape bulbs live in the open air. 
 Flowers blow quickly, but the fragrance of the lily and the rose are not equal to 
 that exhaled from lilies and roses in England. Figs, peaches, grapes, nectarines, 
 plums, and melons ripen in the open air side by side with apples and pears ; but 
 the temperature in summer is not sufficiently warm in the southern parts of the 
 colony to bring these delicate fruits to high perfection. At Nelson, melons, 
 grapes, and nectarines ripen better than in any other part of New Zealand. 
 
 An idea of the seasons may be drawn from English strawberries being ripe 
 in November, December, and January ; cherries and gooseberries in January ; 
 apples, pears, plums, and peaches in February ; and melons, figs, and grapes in 
 March and April. The summer mornings, even in the warmest parts of the 
 colony, are sufficiently fresh to exhilarate without chilling, and the seasons glide 
 imperceptibly into each other. The days are an hour shorter at each end of the 
 day in summer, and an hour longer in winter, than in England. The beauty of 
 the day is in the early morning, and at this hour, away from the settlements of 
 men, a solemn stillness pervades the air, which is only broken by the shrill and 
 tinkling voices of birds. Summer nights are often singularly beautiful and mild.
 
 222 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 and on such occasions the settlers are frequently enticed from their houses to 
 wander about in the open air. 
 
 Happily the climate is as favourable to the health of the settlers as it is to 
 vegetation and beauty. Captain Cook remarked the healthy state of his ship's 
 creAv while beating about the coasts of the colony, and subsequent experience 
 has furnished convincing proofs that Anglo-Saxon settlers live longer here than 
 in any other part of the world. This remarkable salubrity of the climate to 
 Anglo-Saxons probably arises from the evenness of the temperature at all seasons, 
 the constant agitation the wind produces in the atmosphere, and the circumstance 
 that, from whatever quarter the wind blows, it passes over a wide expanse of 
 ocean ; in addition to which, the country contains few physical sources of 
 disease.
 
 NA TURA L PRODUC TIONS OF A US TEA LI A . 223 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 THE LAND OF ANOMALIES — SYDNEY SMITH'S JOKES — A RECENT CONTINENT — NATIVE 
 PRODUCTIONS — TREES AND FORESTS — NATIVE GRASSES — NATIVE FRUITS AND 
 FLOWERS — ACCLIMATISED PRODUCTS — ZOOLOGY OF AUSTRALIA— BIRDS — WATER- 
 FOWL — REPTILES — SNAKES — INSECTS — FISHES — WHITE ANTS — ZOOLOGY OF NEW 
 ZEALAND — BIRDS — FISHES — THE MOA. 
 
 Australia has been called the Land of Anomalies. Within its limits are com- 
 prehended regions of the most diverse features, both in respect of natural 
 characteristics and of climate. It is, indeed, a land of contrasts and novelties, 
 and, if measured by the personal experiences which are acquired on the northern 
 side of our planet, of contradictions manifold and extraordinary. " It is New 
 Holland (says an accurate and acute English observer), where it is summer with 
 us when it is winter in Europe, and vice mrsd; where the barometer rises before 
 bad weather, and falls before good ; where the north is the hot wind, and the 
 south the cold ; where the humblest house is fitted up with cedar ; where the 
 fields are fenced with mahogany, and myrtle-trees are burned for fuel ; where the 
 swans are black, and the eagles are white ; where the kangaroo, an animal 
 between the squirrel and the deer, has five claws on its fore-paws, and three 
 talons on its hind legs, like a bird, and yet hops on its tail ; where the mole lays 
 eggs, and has a duck's bill ; where there is a bird with a broom in its mouth 
 instead of a tongue ; where the pears are made of wood, with the stalk at the 
 broader end ; and the cherry grows with the stone on the outside. Truly a 
 strange land, where pigs are fattened on peaches, and hundreds of thousands of 
 fat sheep and oxen are annually boiled down for the sake of their tallow — to the 
 waste of untold quantities of excellent mutton and beef ! " 
 
 These striking contrasts between the region which English people still call 
 the Antipodes and their own northern country, was long a theme of jocular 
 remark for writers in the periodical literature of London and Edinburgh. 
 Sydney Smith, for example, was never more entirely at his best as a brilliantly 
 witty essayist than when he was dealing with a book of Australian travels in 
 the Edinburgh Review. Thus, he writes on one occasion : " Such is the climate 
 of Australia, and in this remote part of the earth Nature (having made horses, 
 oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions for the 
 ''est of the world) seems determined to have a bit of play and to amuse herself 
 as she pleases. x\ccordingly, she makes cherries with the stone on the outside, and
 
 224 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 a monstrous auimal, as tall as a grenadier, Avith the head of a rabbit, and a tail 
 as big as a bed-post, hopping along at the rate of five hops to a mile, with thi'ee 
 or four young kangaroos looking out of its false uterus to see what is passing. 
 Then comes a quadi'uped as big as a large cat, with the eyes, colour, and skin of 
 a mole, and the bill and web-feet of a duck — puzzling Dr Shaw, and rendering 
 the latter half of his life miserable from his utter inability to determine whether 
 it was a bird or a beast. Add to this a parrot with the legs of a sea-gull ; a 
 skate with the head of a shark ; and a bird of such monstrous dimensions that a 
 side bone of it will dine three real carnivorous Englishmen ; together with many 
 other productions that agitate Sir Joseph Banks and fill him with mingled 
 emotions of distress and delight." 
 
 But if we accept the theory of the recent formation of the continent, all these 
 jjhenomena become intelligible. All its features indicate an origin dating not 
 far back in the history of creation. Its physical structure, as we have shown, 
 is incomplete and peculiar ; its indigenous vegetation is of the scantiest descrip- 
 tion ; in many parts its soil is raw and unproductive ; while its fauna ^elongs to 
 the lowest orders in the animal kingdom. All is rough and crude — a mass of 
 disordered elements unmoulded into the beauty of perfect nature. In the river 
 system the same irregularity prevails. Violent inundations, however, certainly 
 do occur, when the springs in the mountains discharge volumes of water, con- 
 verting small streams into torrents, and spreading the Avaters over whole tracts 
 of country. Deceived by these ephemeral floods, travellers have brought home 
 accounts of immense lakes extending beyond the reach of sight, in places where 
 the next explorer has found a grassy plain, covered with the traces of a dried-up 
 deluge. In South Australia are several sheets of Avater, but fcAV of them large 
 or permanent. The salt Lake Torrens, discovered by Eyre, lies at a distance of 
 four hundred miles from the sea, almost enclosing a circular tract of land nearly 
 tAvo hundred miles across ; Lake Alexandrina, Avhicli receives the Avaters of the 
 INIurray Kiver, is the most extensive of the fresh-Avater basins ; Avhile scattered 
 along the banks of several streams in South Australia, and Australia the Happy, 
 are considerable expanses of water, which do not in all cases bestow on the land 
 that fertility to be expected from such an abundance of irrigation. In other coun- 
 tries rivers are the great fertilisers, and throughout their course clothe their 
 l)orders Avith verdure. In Australia only the higher lands thus Avatered are 
 verdant, and the sh'eams spread themselves over a barren sandy waste, Avhich 
 they are poAvcrless to reclaim. 
 
 Nor do tlie phenomena of social life Avhich Australia exhibits diff'er less 
 Avidely from those of other lands, than its external features or its natural \)vo- 
 ductions. Civilised and savage life there stand side by side ; amidst the highest 
 evidences of social refinement and luxury, even amidst the croAvdcd streets of the 
 populous and busy city, is seen the scarcely half-clothed form of the native 
 Australian — the " black felloAV," Avho Avas at no distant period the sole inhabitant 
 of the Great Southern Land, and avIio (like the Indian of the Ncav World) is 
 gradually passing aAvay before the adA'ancing footsteps of his Avhite brethren. 
 
 The native productions of Australia, vegetable and animal alike, are almost
 
 NATURAL rilODUCTlONS OF AUSTRALIA. 225 
 
 all strikingly dissimilar from those of any other part of the globe. The forcst- 
 trocs are all cvcrgrcons, and consist chiefly of the genus Eueali/j^fus, embracing a 
 vast variety of gum-trees, many of them of gigantic growth. Acacias are also 
 numerous, together with tree-ferns and nettles of enormous magnitude, besides 
 many similar plants Avhich in Europe only attain the size of ordinary weeds. 
 The trees of an Australian forest have in general fewer branches, and spread out 
 laterally in a less degree, than those of Euroj^e, shooting upwards more directly 
 into the air, and possessing comparatively a smaller number of leaves. Both the 
 eucalyptus and the acacia likewise present their leaves in a vertical instead of a 
 horizontal direction, affording hence a less density of shade than is given by the 
 forest trees of other parts of the globe. 
 
 The woods have, therefore, no sombre shadows — no glades of profound gloom 
 — but are comparatively light and airy scenes. If this is a disadvantage to the 
 traveller needing a " shadow in the day-time from the heat," it is a gain to the 
 farmer, as it allows the grass to grow Avhere it otherwise would not. In common 
 with the i:>revailing character of vegetation in the southern hemisphere. South 
 America and South Africa, the trees are not of the deciduous class, or those 
 Avhich cast their leaves periodically. Thus one of the most glorious spectacles of 
 nature is entirely wanting in the landscape, the gradual and general change of 
 the forest from leaflessness to foliage in the vernal season. But though techni- 
 cally " evergreens," the term is a misnomer with reference to the colour. 
 "Never-green," or "ever-brown," is far more true to the reality; dull reddish, 
 Ijrownish, and leaden hues prevailing, corresponding to those of an English 
 autumn. Owing to these tints, and the leaves being without gloss, the woods 
 have not that bright, reviving external aspect, so characteristic of their appear- 
 ance in the spring and summer of a northern climate. They have also a deso- 
 late, untidy, and ragged air, arising from the bark of several species falling 
 annually, or hanging down in long shreds waving to the breeze. 
 
 The only portions of Australia in which the native vegetation resembles that 
 of other countries are its northern and north-eastern coasts, where the numerous 
 palms and other tropical plants remind the observer of the botanical productions 
 of the adjacent Indian Archipelago. Palms occur in gi'eater or less abundance 
 along nearly the entire eastern coast of the Australian continent, as far south as 
 the district of Illawara, to the southward of Sydney. But they are found ftirther 
 either to the south or the westward. 
 
 Several of the gum-trees aflFord valuable timber, and are extensively used for 
 luxilding purposes. That called the stringy bark — from the old bark peeling off 
 annually, and hanging in loose flakes and stripes about the tree — is one of the 
 most generally useful, on account of its easy splitting. The red and white gums 
 are also used for building and for making furniture, and, though rather heavy, 
 they are well adapted for shipbuilding. The acacia, or wattle, is, however, most 
 generally used in the construction of the dwellings of the settlers in the interior, 
 as well as for a variety of domestic purposes. Early in. the morning, Avhcn the 
 dew is yet on the leaf, a peculiar (and not unpleasing) odour, which bears some 
 faint resemblance to that of camphor, arises from the gum-forest. From one 
 
 2f
 
 226 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 species of the tribe a sweet-tasting substance like manna (and so called by the 
 colonists) is i^roduced : it is found lying on the ground in the early morning, as 
 well as adhering to the leaves and branches of the trees, presenting an appear- 
 ance not unlike that of hoar-frost ; but the heat of the sun soon causes it to dis- 
 solve. Intermixed with the immense gum-trees are the tall and cypress-like casu- 
 arinas, with numerous cedars, and a vast number of plants of a smaller groAvth 
 which fill up the interstices of the forest, or attach themselves as parasites to the 
 larger trees. Of the casuarina thirteen difFei-ent species are known ; and there 
 are numerous other plants which form some of the rarer ornaments of English 
 gi'een-houses. 
 
 The cedar affords a valuable and highly ornamental wood, beautiful in colour 
 as Siianish mahogany, though inferior in solidity and closeness of grain. It 
 grows abundantly on alluvial lands by the borders of rivers, yields a soft, light 
 wood of beautiful texture, which takes a fine polish, and in colour resembles 
 Honduras mahogany. Churches, chapels, and other places of public resort, are 
 generally fitted up with this wood, and have a very elegant ai")pearance. 
 
 The Norfolk Island pine, the most noble and stately member of its family, 
 occurs in various parts, and has been seen 270 feet high, by twelve feet in 
 diameter. Another species, the Moreton Bay pine, abundant on alluvial lands, 
 and the sides of hills in that district, is remarkable for the slenderness of the 
 stem in joroportion to its height. Individuals have been measured 170 feet 
 along the trunk, with only a diameter of two feet. A third species, the bunya- 
 bunya, is distinguished by its great peculiarity of outline, limited range, and 
 utility to the native tribes. The outline of the tree is like that of a large 
 umbrella, upon an exceedingly long stick. It rises often to the height of 150 
 feet, with a diameter of five or six feet, Avhicli is maintained to a considerable 
 altitude, the trunk not tapering in a perceptible manner for sixty or seventy 
 feet from the ground. 
 
 The native grasses are abundant, and are .spread over boundless tracts of the 
 interior. The principal ones are the oat grass and kangaroo grass, with two 
 species of rye grass, and other varieties. Of these, the oat grass is the most 
 generally diffused It affords excellent pasturage, is eaten by all kinds of stock, 
 but does not stand the winter. The seeds, bruised between stones and baked 
 Avith cakes, form an article of diet to the natives. The kangaroo grass abounds 
 in low warm places, and is remarkable for its succulent projierties. But the 
 grasses do not uniformly clothe the surface, as in the instance of English pastures. 
 They grow in tufts, with spaces of bare ground between them, and hence a very 
 considerable area of country is required to sustain a flock of sheep or drove of 
 cattle. 
 
 There are few edible fiuits or plants, indigenous to the soil, of any great 
 importance. The native cherry is famed for having the stone outside, an 
 instance commonly quoted to illustrate the contrarieties of the country. The 
 fruit resembles the yew berry, but is less pleasant to the taste, with a hard seed 
 growing from the end, fancifully styled the stone. The wooden-pear tree is 
 apparently clothed with enticing produce, about the size of a jargonelle pear;
 
 NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 227 
 
 but it is really a hard structure encasing the seed vessels. In barren scrubs and 
 brushes, the dwarf honcysnckle is abundant, yicldincj at certain seasons an 
 immense quantity of beautiful transparent honey, which stands in large dro[)s 
 among the filaments of the flower cone. Small shrulxs, with yellow and golden 
 blossoms, abound ; climbers, with rich crimson and other colours, are numerous 
 in the woods ; and humble plants make the earth gay with blue and golden dyes. 
 But nearly all the native flowers are Avithout odour. One of the most magni- 
 ficent of the floral tribe is the waratah or native tulii^, a tall, stately, regal plant, 
 straight as an arrow, with a woody stem from three to six feet in height, growing 
 on the slopes of the hills. It bears leaves of the richest green all the way up, 
 in shape resembling those of the oak, but considerably larger. The flower at the 
 top of the stem is entirely of the most vivid ci'imson, and looks like a flambeau 
 lighted in the forest. The gigantic lily, or spear-flower, is another splendid 
 indigenous production of vegetable nature. From the centre of an immense 
 gi'oup of long, broad, curving leaves, the stalk rises to the height of fifteen or 
 twenty feet, and of proportionate thickness, crowned with a huge cluster of 
 gorgeous crimson lilies. 
 
 But if Australian botany be distinguished rather by the novelty — and, in many 
 cases, the beauty — of its forms than by their utility to man, it is owing to no 
 deficiency in the soil or climate of the southern continent. All the food-plants 
 of Europe, as well as many of those native to other regions, are cultivated with 
 the greatest success : and the fruits of Southern Europe, with those proper to the 
 warmer latitudes in general, are found to flourish wherever they have hitherto 
 been tried. There seems, indeed, to be scarcely any limit to the adaptability of 
 the Australian soil to the growth of nearly all the more valuable productions of 
 foreign lands. The cotton-plant succeeds on parts of the eastern coast, tobacco 
 is cultivated successfully in all the Australian colonies, and indigo is found to 
 grow in particular localities. The tea-plant has been tried, with every promise of 
 success, in parts of New South Wales. The vine flourishes in the greatest 
 luxiu-iance, together with numerous other fruits, including the fig, orange, mul- 
 berry, peach, et hoc onine ganus. Corn-crops and orchards abound in all the 
 colonised districts. Every species of grain, including maize, is cultivated with 
 success ; oranges, lemons, citrons, nectarines, apricots, peaches, plums, cherries, 
 figs, mulberries, quinces, bananas, guavas, pine-apples, grapes, and many others, 
 the produce of Australian soil, are sold cheaply in the markets ; and doubtless 
 the luscious fruits of India will all follow. The sugar-cane is now one of the 
 staple products of Queensland. 
 
 It is justly remarked by Strzelecki, that the climatic condition of Southern 
 Australia and Van Diemen's Land is represented in the most favourable light by 
 its rich and vigorous flora, and by the healthy condition of its aborigines and 
 indigenous animals. " Looking, indeed, at the singular and distinctive features 
 by which its organic life is characterised, making this continent, as it were, a 
 world apart, we cannot but wonder that the same climate under which that life 
 appears should be likewise so well adapted to the maintenance of the vegetation 
 and the animals of other hemispheres. The effect produced by the appearance
 
 228 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 of the plantain growing in company with the vine, apple, peach, and the English 
 oak, which is the case at Talilee, the head station of the Anstralian Agricnltnral 
 Comi^any, and these again flourishing in the close vicinity of the eucahqytw and 
 mimosce, is indeed surpinsing ; nor is it less surprising to behold the kangaroo, 
 sheep, emu, and the horned cattle roaming together in the same forest, and seek- 
 ing sustenance from the same herbage." 
 
 The zoology of Australia, like every other department of its natural history, 
 also presents extraordinary features. The number of known species of mammalia 
 is about one thousand. Fifty-eight are found in Australia, of which forty-six are 
 peculiar to it, leaving twelve only which it contains in common with other 
 regions. Even of these five are whales and four seals ; another is the strong 
 winged bat of INIadagascar ; another like the jerboa of America ; and the last the 
 dog — an animal found always where man exists, and rarely, if ever, where he 
 does not. Three of the great orders of mammiferous animals are altogether 
 unrepresented in the zoology ; namely, the quadrumana, the pachydermata, and 
 the ruminating quadrupeds. That is to say, this continent has none of the 
 monkey tribe native to it (unless, indeed, they be of the biped variety); nor any 
 of the thick-skinned animals, as the elephant, rhinoceros, horse, etc.; nor any 
 oxen, deer, sheep, or similar animals. 
 
 Among the marsupials, the kangaroo takes the first rank. The kangaroos 
 are a numerous family, containing many species. They are vegetable-feeding 
 animals, browsing upon herbage, and in some cases chewing the cud like the 
 rmninants. They move by a succession of springs, compassing twenty feet or 
 more at a single bound ; they clear broad gullies and the lower brushwood with 
 surprising agility, and proceed by this singular mode of locomotion at a rate 
 which outstrips for a time the fleetest horse. Some are of great size, being 
 nearly as tall as a man when in their common erect position ; others are as small 
 as the common hare, and strongly resemble it in their general appearance. The 
 kangaroo is timid and inoffensive, but will defend itself with great vigour Avhen 
 closely pursued in the chase, having a formidable weapon in its claws. The 
 natives hunt it for food, and the colonists for sport. But this is only at the very 
 outskirts of the settled districts, and even there the animal has become strange. 
 Two or three, or even six, large strong greyhounds are put upon its track, and a 
 smart chase is the result. If water is near at hand, the kangaroos make for it, 
 and take possession of the deepest part in order to keep their pursuers at bay. 
 In some cases they drown the dogs, seizing them with their fore arms and keep- 
 ing them under the water. Frequently they take up a position Avith their back 
 against a tree, and shoAv fight for a considerable time, occasionally with success, 
 by ripping up or wounding the dogs in a severe manner with their hind claws. 
 Reptiles and rapacious birds are other enemies. A traveller relates having had 
 his attention drawn to a curious misshapen mass, which came advancing from 
 some Inishes with a novel and uncouth motion. He fired, and it fell. On going 
 up to the object, he found it to be a small kangaroo, enveloped in the folds of a 
 large snake. The kangaroo was quite dead, and flattened by the close embrace 
 of the reptile.
 
 NA rURA L PROD UCTIONS OF A USTRA L I A . 229 
 
 Tlierc aro ninuornus//////// synirn'h, of a beautiful slate colour, with delicate 
 fur ; opossums of niauy varieties ; bandicoots and tvunibals, Ijurrowiuj^' animals, 
 feeding on grass and roots. The opossums live in hollow trees, usually at a 
 considerable height from the ground, and are rarely visible by day. At night 
 they descend to make their meal on the herl)age or on the corn of the settler, 
 and may be seen gambolling among the branches around their habitations. A 
 full-grown individual is larger than the common cat, with an innoccntdooking 
 face, dark briUiant eyes, monkey-like feet, and a long tapering tail about tho 
 thickness of a sable boa at the base. The tail is strongly prehensile, and holds 
 so tightly, that they often swing their whole weight upon it ; and when shot 
 dead, sometimes hang for a minute by it before falling. On fine moonlight 
 nights they are killed by scores, either for the sake of their warm skins for rugs, 
 or to check their ravages among the rising grain. 
 
 There is a native hear, or sloth, about the size of a poodle dog, with shaggy, 
 dirty-looking fur. It climbs trees with facility, and feeds on their leaves, getting 
 very fat and unwieldy ; the flesh is esteemed by the natives. The porcupine, or 
 Australian hedgehog, of which there are two varieties, serves for another native 
 dish, as does also the womhat. 
 
 The incident has already been mentioned of one of Cook's sailors, who had 
 gone a short distance into the forests of the eastern coast, coming back to his 
 companions in great terror, telling them that he had certainly seen the devil, 
 though his alarm had prevented him from making any further observations on 
 " the prince of darkness " than that he had horns, and was about as big as a 
 one-gallon keg ! The creature which had — and not unnaturally — occasioned so 
 much aff"right to the honest tar was doubtless a huge bat, of horribly ugly 
 appearance, and commonly distinguished by the colonists of New South Wales 
 as "the flying fox." 
 
 Among smaller animals of this continent are the native cat, besides several 
 rats and mice, jerboas, ant-eaters, and a few others. But the most remarkable 
 production of Australian zoology is the ornithorhynchus, or platypus, a curious 
 semi-aquatic creature, which has the body of an otter, with a bill like that of a 
 duck, and lays eggs. So perfectly anomalous in appearance is this animal that 
 its existence was long doubted, and when a stuff"ed specimen was first brought 
 to England, it was at first regarded by a learned zoologist to whom it was shown 
 as an attempt to impose on his credulity. The platypus frequents the margins 
 of creeks and rivers, rising above the surface of the water for the purpose of 
 breathing, but it is only seen with difficulty, from the extreme shyness of it.s 
 habits. The natives spear and trap them, and they may be easily shot when 
 they rise bubbling to the surface of the stream. The fur of the platypus is soft, 
 and prettily shaded from black to silver-grey. This singular ci'eature, which is 
 equally fitted by its organisation for living in the elements proper to two distinct 
 classes of animals, approximates in some respects to the reptile genus, and has 
 been found by naturahsts to have something in common with the extinct races 
 of ichthyosauri, or fish-lizard species. 
 
 There are no beasts of prey of importance except the dingo, or wild dog, the
 
 230 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 " wai-ragal " of the natives. It is about the size of a small fox-hound, partaking- 
 in form of many of the characteristics of both dog and wolf, and not unlike the 
 cross produced by the intermixture of those two races. Its body is covered 
 with shaggy hair, it has a long and bushy tail, prick ears, large head, and 
 slightly tapering nose — in look and size not unlike a Scotch collie. Two or 
 more of them frequently pursue their prey in company. On breaking in 
 amongst a flock of sheep the dingo occasions fearful havoc, biting a piece out of 
 every one that he can seize, until sometimes as many as twenty or thirty have 
 fallen victims to his ferocity. The colonists hunt the dingo, besides adopting 
 other means for the destruction of so formidable a foe, and he has been alto- 
 gether extirpated from the island of Van Diemen's Land. The dingo is easily 
 rendered tolerably tame, but is never to be trusted ; for the lessons of years will 
 be forgotten in a moment on escaping from confinement, and ferocious habits be 
 immediately resumed. The dingo never, or very rarely, barks, but howls or 
 yells at night with a most dismal, unearthly kind of tone. This animal is 
 remarkably tenacious of life, an obstinate fighter, contends in silence, utters no 
 cry of pain, and, like the grim wolf, dies as hardly as he has lived. Eemarkable 
 instances are related of this power of endurance. Mr George Bennett mentions 
 the case of one, which had been beaten so severely that it was supposed all 
 its bones were broken, and it was left for dead; but after the person had 
 walked away some distance, upon accidentally looking back, he was astonished 
 to see the dingo rise, shake himself, and march into the bush, evading all 
 pursuit. 
 
 Among the native birds of Australia, the most numerous are those of the 
 parrot tribe, comprising paroquets, cockatoos, lories, and many others, most of 
 them distinguished by the most beautiful plumage. There are both black and 
 white cockatoos — two species of the former. The yellow-crested white cockatoo 
 is very numerous, and is a great pest to the farmer, ripping up the ripe cobs of 
 maize with his strong hooked beak, and destroying much more than he eats. 
 Sitting perched upon the tops of the highest gum-trees, so as to be almost out of 
 reach of gunshot, these birds keep up a succession of screams, intended to warn 
 one another of the approach of danger. The lories are the most brilliant of the 
 parrot tribe. The back and upper portion of the body are a bright gleaming 
 blue, while the breast and under parts are the most intense rose colour. Seen 
 for the first time, it is scarcely possible to believe them real, as they rise in a 
 flock from the ground, brightening the sunshine with their glorious hues. The 
 Australian rohin is another exquisitely lovely member of the feathered tribe, 
 having some correspondence to his English namesake, the same brisk air and 
 quick manner. The breast is the most vivid geranium colour, softening to a 
 paler .shade toward the wings, which are glossy black, with clear white markings 
 across them. The back is also black, with a white spot on the crown of the 
 head, and the tail-feathers are also barred with white. These colours are so 
 distinct and .sharply defined, as to convey the idea of different garments, arranged 
 with extreme care, and fitting with the utmost precision. A small bird, the blue 
 wren, is remarkable for the change Avhich its api)earance undergoes. In the
 
 NA TURA L PROD UCTIONS OF A USTRA LI A. 231 
 
 winter niontlis, the garb worn is plain and unassuming, and the sexes correspond 
 in costume ; but as spring advances, the male exhibits a complete transformation 
 not only in the hue, but in the texture of the plumage. It is hardly surpassed 
 for resplciidont beauty by any of the feathered race, except perhajis the humming- 
 birds of America. 
 
 The lyre-bird, so called from the graceful form of the tail in the male, which 
 resembles that of a lyre, is peculiar to the south-eastern coast. But little is known 
 of its habits, as it very rarely approaches the abode of civilised man, and is so 
 excessively shy, that even a sight of it can with difficulty be obtained. " While 
 among the bushes," says ]\Ir Gould, " I have been surrounded by these birds 
 pouring forth their loud and liquid calls for days together, without being able to 
 get a sight of them ; and it was only by the most determined perseverance and 
 extreme caution that I was enabled to effect this desirable object, which was 
 rendered the more difficult by their often frequenting the most inaccessible and 
 precipitous sides of gullies and ravines, covered with tangled masses of creepers 
 and umbrageous trees. The cracking of a stick, the rolling do^ra of a small 
 .'^tone, or any other noise, however slight, is sufficient to alarm them ; and none 
 but those Avho have traversed these rugged, hot, and suffocating brushes, can 
 fullj^ understand the excessive labour attendant on the pursuit. Independently 
 of climbing over rocks and fallen trunks of trees, the sportsman has to creep and 
 crawl beneath and among the branches with the utmost caution, taking care only 
 to advance when the bird's attention is occupied in singing, or scratching up the 
 leaves in search of food. To Avatch its actions, it is necessary to remain perfectly 
 motionless, not venturing to move even in the slightest degi'ee, or it vanishes 
 from sight as if by magic. The lyre-bird is capable of performing extraordinary 
 leaps, and will spring ten feet perpendicularly from the ground. 
 
 Of rapacious birds, there are eagles, falcons, and hawks, besides several owls. 
 But the most extraordinary of all is a large species of Avoodpecker, to which the 
 name of the laughing jackass is given. But in this case, the name "jackass" 
 comes from the French word jacasser, to chatter. This bird is of black and grey 
 colour, with little or no tail, and a head and beak enormously disproportioned to 
 the size of the body, altogether a curiously ugly and strange-looking fellow. But 
 his chant is the most laughter-provoking of sounds. It is, indeed, imjjossible 
 to hear with a grave face the jocularities of this feathered jester. He commences by 
 a low cackling sound, gradually growing louder, like that of a hen in a fuss. Then 
 suddenly changing his note, he so closely imitates Punch's penny trumpet that you 
 would almost affirm it was indeed the " roo-too-too " of that public ftivourite 
 you heard. Next comes the prolonged bray of an ass, done to the life, followed 
 by an articulate exclamation, apparently addressed to the listener, sounding very 
 like " Oh, what a Guy ! " and the whole winds up with a suppressed chuckle, 
 ending in an uproarious burst of laughter. Where many of these merry birds 
 congregate together, the effect is droll in the extreme, provoking the most gloomy- 
 minded listener to laugh in concert. First one begins alone, and laughs lustily 
 at the top of his voice; a second, third, and fourth then take up the strain like 
 glee-singers, till the whole party are fairly off, and the veiy trees seem to peal out
 
 232 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 along with them. The bird is one of the parrot tribe, useful as an adroit 
 destroyer of snakes, guanos, and other reptiles. 
 
 The family of honey-suckers, which here takes the place of the humming-birds 
 of America, is also numerous ; all of these have the tongue terminating in a brush- 
 like bundle of very slender filaments, Avith which they suck the nectar of flowers. 
 Upon the northern coasts are found the beautiful birds of paradise, of similar 
 species to those of the neighbouring East Indian Archipelago. 
 
 The largest among the feathered tribes of Australia is the emu, or cassowary 
 — a bird of the ostrich kind, though of somewhat inferior size to the African 
 ostrich. The emu is found chiefly in the southern part of the continent, but is 
 yearly becoming scarcer, and will doubtless be in course of time altogether 
 extirpated by the advance of the settlers. This bird often stands nearly as high 
 as a man, varying from five to seven feet, and is of a dark grey colom- ; it has no 
 wings (or only miniature resemblances of them), and is covered with a substance 
 which is neither hair nor feathers, but something between both. It runs with 
 great fleetness, easily outstripping a swift horse ; and is hunted with dogs by the 
 settlers, in the same Avay as the kangaroo. The hind quarters of the emu some- 
 what resemble beef, both in appearance and taste ; but the flesh is rarely eaten 
 by the whites, though the natives are very fond of it. The eggs, which are of 
 large size, thirteen inches round, are good and nutritious. When several of 
 these majestic birds are seen from a distance, striding across the plain, they look 
 at first view like a party of the natives. 
 
 Another fine specimen of Australian ornithology is the native bustard, a bird 
 of large size — sometimes weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds. Like the 
 emu, this bird lives chiefly in the open plains bordering on the forests, and is very 
 shy of approach. The bustard forms a tempting object to the colonial sports- 
 man, and — though a powerful bird, and swift of flight — is occasionally brought 
 down by his gun. The bustard and the brush-turkey are the only gallinaceous 
 birds native to the continent. The latter is a large bird, about the size of a 
 domestic tui'key, with blackish-brown plumage. It is easy game to the sports- 
 man, and its flesh is excellent eating. But the most remarkable point in the 
 habits of the brush-turkey is the manner in which it constructs its nest. Mr 
 Gould tells us that it " collects together an immense heap of decaying vegetable 
 matter as a depository for the eggs, and trusts to the heat engendered by the 
 jjrocess of decomposition for the development of the young. The heap emjiloyed 
 for this purpose is collected by the birds during several weeks previous to the 
 period of laying ; it varies in size from two to four cart-loads, and is of a perfectly 
 pyramidal form. The construction of the mound is not the work of one pair of 
 birds, but is effected by the united labours of several ; the same site appears to 
 me from the great size and entire decomposition of the lower part, to be resorted 
 to for several years in succession, the birds adding a fresh supi:)ly of materials 
 on each occasion previous to laying. The mode in which the materials compris- 
 ing these mounds are accumulated is equally singular, the bird never using its 
 bill, but always grasping a quantity in its foot, throwing it backwards to one 
 common centre, and thus clearing the surface of the ground for a considerable
 
 NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 233 
 
 distance so completely, that scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass is left. The heap 
 being accumulated, and time allowed for a sufficient heat to be engendered, the 
 eggs are deposited, not side by side, as is ordinarily the case, but planted at the 
 distance of nine or twelve inches from each other, and buried at nearly an arm's 
 depth, perfectly upright, with the large end upwards ; they are covered up as they 
 are laid, and allowed to remain until hatched. I have been credibly informed, 
 both by natives and settlers living near their haunts, that it is not an unusual 
 event to obtain nearly a bushel of eggs at one time from a single heap ; and as 
 they are delicious eating, they are eagerly sought after." 
 
 Water-fowl are abundant on the tranquil creeks and silent lagoons along the 
 coast, consisting of wild ducks, wild geese, and the majestic black swan with 
 glossy and exquisite plumage. The frequency of the latter in certain districts 
 disproves the well-known title of "vara avis" applied to it. Its occurrence 
 originated the name of the Swan Eiver, called so by the Dutch and by the 
 French. Vast flocks of sea-birds visit the adjacent islands of Australia, among 
 which the soott/ petrel, better known by the name of " sheerwater," and " mutton- 
 bird," is conspicuous in Bass's Strait for its astonishing numbers. Flinders com- 
 puted a flock which he observed at sea to be forty miles long, and to contain as 
 many birds as would require an area of sixteen square miles for tlieu" nests, at a 
 yard asunder. 
 
 The various kinds of domestic poultry which belong to other regions have all 
 been introduced, and are numerously reared. 
 
 The reptile tribe is represented by harmless lizards, hideous-looking guanas, 
 larger members of the same family, scorpions, centipedes, and snakes. The latter 
 are numerous, and of many species, as well as very varying size. A large kind, 
 called the diamond snake, exquisitely adorned with different colours like mosaic 
 work, has been met with nearly twenty feet long, and is commonly eaten by the 
 natives. Some are so highly venomous, that a bite produces speedy death, unless 
 suction, cauterisation, or other remedies are promj^tly applied. But fatal occur- 
 rences of the kind are rare, as all the formidable reptiles are as glad to retire from 
 the approach of man as he can be to avoid them. The great danger arises from 
 some of the smaller snakes being so exactly similar in colour to the dead sticks 
 and leaves on the ground, that they may be accidently trodden on while indolently 
 reposing, and inflict a wound before the passenger is aware of their presence. 
 Cimningham mentions the case of a man well known in New South Wales, at the 
 time of his residence there, by the appellation of the " snake man," who had 
 become so familar with these reptiles as to have acquired an absolute fondness 
 for them, seldom travelling without some of them (and those of the venomous 
 kind) coiled in his bare bosom, or stuffed into the crown of his hat ! While in 
 the service of a clergyman resident at Paramatta, this serpent-lover came home 
 one day with the tail of a good-sized snake hanging out from under his hat, 
 curling over his brow like a love-lock ; and, when told of it by the lady of the 
 house, he very coolly gave the tail a sharp pinch between his finger and thimib 
 to make the snake draw its stray member in ! 
 
 Insect life is intensely prolific, and abundantly annoying in various districts. 
 
 2g
 
 234 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 In the summer mosquitoes swarm iu low situations near water, and in the neigh- 
 bourhood of thick woods — new-comers being specially exposed to their attacks. 
 Flies are also everywhere a perfect pest, and fleas are often a special torment. 
 There are stingless bees, living in hollow trees, yielding a fine honey ; giant ants, 
 called " colonial bulldogs," from their ferocity, which inflict a sting as sharp as 
 that of a wasp ; and marsh-leeches, insatiably drawing blood as opportunity 
 ofiiers. To guard against these annoyances, strong leathern leggings are com- 
 monly worn in travelling on foot through unfrequented parts of the country. 
 
 The coasts abound with fish, denominated by English names, as cod, bream, 
 mullet, whiting, and mackerel, though of different species. Rock and bed 
 oysters, lobsters, crayfish, and prawns, are also found in various places. The 
 rivers and lagoons have plenty of perch and eels, with fresh-water shrimps in 
 abundance. The " Murray cod," a beautiful and well-flavoured fish of large size, 
 is caught in considerable quantities at certain seasons in that river. The English 
 salmon has been acclimatised, and is now frequent in some of the southern 
 rivers. 
 
 On the northern coasts, in the neighbourhood of Cape York, there are ant- 
 hills of enormous size — sometimes twelve feet in height. The ants which inhabit 
 them are of a joale brown colour, and a quarter of an inch in length. Mention 
 has already been made of these strange insect habitations, in the narratives of 
 the early navigators. 
 
 New Zealand is a country singularly deficient in indigenous animal life. 
 There are only two specimens of land mammals found in the islands, and these 
 are two small bats. Neither serpents nor snakes inhabit New Zealand. There 
 are six kinds of small harmless lizai'ds, which are held in terror by the natives, 
 from a superstition that within their bodies the spirits of their deified ancestors 
 revisit the earth. Green and yellow are the prevalent colours of these lizards ; 
 but their colours change according to the colour of the locality they live in. 
 One guana (the tiuitara of the natives) is now only found on rocky islands, 
 although it was formerly numerous on the mainland, until pigs, dogs, and cats 
 almost extirpated it. In such terror do the New Zealanders hold all the above 
 reptiles, that the very pronunciation of the w^ord ngarara, a general term for the 
 whole race, makes the bravest warrior tremble. 
 
 England has 273 species of birds. New Zealand possesses only eighty-three. 
 This scarcity of the feathered race is rendered very obvious, as with two or three 
 exceptions the individuals of no species are numerous, a result partly produced 
 by the activity of owls and folcons. Land-birds are more numerous in species 
 than sea-birds, but the individuals of each species of sea-birds are more numerous 
 than land-bii'ds. There is a great deficiency of active insectivorous birds, a 
 peculiarity which has led farmers to propose the introduction of hedge-sparrows 
 and crows. With a few exceptions, the plumage of the birds, like their country's 
 foliage, is dull. The vocal powers of some of them have, however, obtained high 
 praise ; and at a quarter of a mile from the shore Captain Cook relates he was 
 awoke by the singing of birds, which he compared to the sound of exquisitely 
 bung bells. Town settlers have often doubted the accuracy of this remark, as
 
 NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 235 
 
 the feathered songsters are only heard at dawn and at sunset, in the neigh])our- 
 hood of chimps of trees or the outskirts of forests. 
 
 In the hikes of New Zeahmd arc a largo nunil)er of delicate fish, not nnlike 
 white-bait, called iiianga ; and in the rivers and lakes there are numerous eels, 
 occasionally weighing fifty pounds. These are the only two kinds of fresh-water 
 fish which can properly be said to form a part of the food of the natives. The 
 lamprey {pipihantn) is, properly speaking, a salt-water fish which enters the river 
 to spawn. The fresh-water mussel and the crayfish are plentiful in some places. 
 
 The absence of indigenous quadrupeds from New Zealand is the most 
 remarkable feature in its fauna, and a feeling allied to wonder steals over the 
 mind when it is found that their places were supplied by a gigantic race of birds 
 destitute of wings. The manner in Avhich the former existence of these birds 
 became known is a gi'eat triumph of mental reasoning, and exhibits in a very 
 remarkable manner the value of scientific inquiry. To Professor Owen the 
 world is indebted for the first hint that such birds ever existed. The discovery 
 was made in this manner. In 1839 JNIr Kule brought to England a portion of a 
 thigh bone of a moa, from which specimen Mr Owen drew up a wondei'fuUy 
 correct notice of the bird. The conclusions arrived at were so improbable that 
 Mr Owen's friends tried to suppress the publication of the paper, from an impres- 
 sion that it would shipwreck his scientific reputation. Since then Professor 
 Owen has established, on the evidence of fossil remains sent to England by 
 various settlers, the former existence of fourteen species of wingless birds in New 
 Zealand ; and not the least curious objects to be seen in London are the skeletons 
 in the Royal College of Surgeons and the British Museum of two of New Zealand's 
 feathered giants. The British Museum skeleton was built vq) by Professor Owen 
 from bones sent from the Middle Island ; it belongs to a species distinguished 
 from all its gigantic kindred by having a foot resembling that of the elephant. 
 
 One living specimen of the last species of moa was caught alive by sealers in 
 the year 1850 ; and several others have been seen since then in unfrequented 
 parts of the Middle Island near Dusky Bay. Thirteen feet was the average 
 height of the largest moas ; none of them were able to fly, and, unlike all other 
 birds, their leg bones were filled with marrow in place of air. According to 
 native tradition, moas were decked out in a gaudj^ plumage ; and the present 
 New Zealanders describe a cochin-china fowl as what they conceive to have 
 been the shape and the appearance of moas. One rather perfect egg of this 
 gigantic bird was found with a human skeleton. It was nine inches in diameter, 
 twenty-seven in circumference, and twelve long ; and numerous other portions 
 of eggs have been discovered, sufficient to show that a man's hat would not have 
 been a large enough cup for a moa's egg. It is whispered in the colony that 
 gigantic moas still live in the solitudes of the ISIiddle Island, an idle story, as 
 no large moas have been seen alive since 1650. From all accounts, the moas wei'e 
 extirpated by natural causes, and the arrival of the aliorigines in the country, 
 who slaughtered them for their flesh, bones, and feathers ; the flesh and eggs were 
 eaten, the bones were converted into fish-hooks, the skulls were used for holding 
 tattooing-powder, and the feathers were celebrated as ornaments for the hair.
 
 236 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 THE ETHIOPIC RACE — PAPUANS — PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL 
 — UTTER BARBARISM — HABITS^SAVAGE NATURE — SOME HUMAN ELEMENTS — 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS — " COROBBORY " — STRANGE BELIEFS NATIVE ART — GRADES IN 
 
 SOCIETY — INTELLIGENCE — NATIVE RACE DYING OUT — NEW ZEALANDERS — THEIR 
 ORIGIN — CHARACTERISTICS — TRIBAL WARS — INTELLECTUAL STANDARD — HABITS 
 AND MANNERS — NATIVE DRESS — -AGRICULTURE — NATIVE PROVERBS — THEIR 
 TREATMENT BY THE WHITE SETTLERS. 
 
 The aboriginal inhabitants of Australia belong to the Ethiopic, which is the 
 lowest family of the human race. They are ranked by ethnologists in the 
 Papuan or Austral-negro scale, but as being decidedly inferior to the African 
 negro in both physical and mental attributes. 
 
 Many writers, with great ingenuity, have attempted to trace the original 
 colonisation of Australia to a horde of ]\Ialays passing over in canoes from the 
 Indian Archipelago, across Torres Straits, to the unknown Southern Land. The 
 colour of the skin, however, the formation of the skull and the limbs, with the 
 genius, the habits, and the general character of the Australians, identify them 
 with the negro race of New Guinea. The weapons they employ are similar, and 
 their progress in the industrial arts, as well as their mental qualities and con- 
 ditions of existence, being infinitely lower than those of the Malay, and closely 
 similar to those of the Papuan, destroy the theory of their Malayan origin. 
 Traditions they have few, and those but faint and incoherent. It is probable, 
 however, that the wild savages of the Indian Archipelago, driven from their 
 original homes by the superior civilisation of the Malays, put to sea in rude 
 canoes, and reaching the mysterious Southern Land, debarked, and gradually 
 peopled the wilderness. They left their own rich islands to the conquering 
 ISIalays, deserting a contested heritage for one where security and peace made 
 up for the loss of a soil spontaneously productive. Liberty, even to the wild 
 savage, is sweet, and life more cherished still, so that doubtless, if Australia was 
 unpeopled at so late a period, the growth of the Malay emjiire in the East 
 scattered the swarms of Papua along its desert coast. 
 
 The native man of Australia is of a dark, sooty-brown complexion, the colour 
 of the skin varying in particular localities from a colour like that of chocolate to 
 a deep earthy-black ; with long black hair, and a stature rather below that of the 
 European. The height of the males generally ranges between four and a half
 
 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 237 
 
 and five and a half feet ; the head is small, the trunk slender, the breast commonly 
 arched and well-developed, the arms and leg's of a rounded and muscular form, 
 the foot Hat, and the heel soniewliat protruding. The hair is generally black, 
 rough, lank, and course ; though with some tribes it is soft and curling, and with 
 others approaches to a woolly texture, like that of the negro. The facial angle 
 is ordinarily between 75° and 8")° ; the forehead low ; the eyes large, far apart, 
 and half covered by the upjier lid, the iris being invariably of a deep brown, the 
 pupil large and of a jet black ; the nose broad and flat, with wide-spread nostrils; 
 the cheeks hollow ; the mouth wide, with thick lips and large white teeth, the 
 lower jaw being unusually short and widely expanded anteriorly. 
 
 INIeasured by a European standard of taste, the aborigines of Australia 
 constitute, on the whole, a very ugly race — perhaps more unprepossessing in 
 appearance than almost any other branch of the human family. Yet there are 
 not a few exceptions to be taken to this judgment, in so far as some of the tribes 
 are concerned, and especially in relation to those who have remained most free 
 from the deteriorative influence of intercourse with the whites. The limbs of 
 a well-formed Australian exhibit considerable symmetry, and a well-defined 
 muscular development ; his agility and flexibility of body, when running or other- 
 wise actively engaged, are advantageously displayed; and when beheld in the 
 posture of striking, or throwing his spear, his attitude leaves nothing to be desired 
 in j^oint of manly grace. 
 
 The native people of this continent are, however, almost universally sunk in 
 the lowest and most degraded condition of barbarism, and — though by no means 
 devoid of intelligence — they have never made any effort to raise themselves above 
 the rudest condition of natural life. 
 
 In a few cases the natives are found clothed with opossum skins, or w'ith 
 coarse matting, and construct temporary huts of the branches and leaves of trees; 
 but in general they are entirely destitute of clothing. Those in the neighbour- 
 hood of the white settlements are now, how^ever, compelled to wear a blanket, 
 these articles being distributed amongst them at certain seasons by an agent of 
 the Colonial Government. They have nowhere any fixed habitations, but wander 
 along the coasts — or, in the interior, along the creeks and rivers — in search of 
 food ; each tribe, however, confining its range within certain limits, and never 
 transgressing — unless compelled by unusual circumstances — the bounds between 
 itself and the neighbouring tribes. 
 
 As a race the aborigine is a savage in the strongest sense of that term. Alike 
 cruel and treacherous, he loses no occasion of wreaking his vengeance on an 
 enemy, and indulges in the most bloodthirsty propensities. The practice of 
 cannibalism is general among the natives : for a long time this was doubted, but 
 it has been proved, beyond the reach of question, and the practice often found 
 accompanied by the most revolting ferocity — as the sacrifice of an infant by its 
 own mother for the mere pleasure of eating its flesh ! The different tribes are 
 always on hostile terms with one another, and any wanderer from his fellows is 
 sure of meeting with death if he falls in with any party of natives. Their super- 
 stitions aid in the maintenance of this condition of hostility, since they believe
 
 238 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 that death never proceeds from natural causes, but always has its origin in some 
 practice of witchcraft or sorcery on the part of an enemy, whose discovery they 
 eagerly seek for the purpose of revenge. In some cases, the direction which the 
 worms that first issue from the corrupting and putrefying corpse are observed to 
 take is held to be that in which the guilty person will be found, and the first 
 native who is met with in the search has his life sacrificed by the relatives of the 
 deceased. This again engenders a desire for retaliation, and thus a perpetual 
 condition of warfare is maintained between the individuals of different tribes, the 
 tendency of which is of course to keep down the numbers of each. The cruel 
 treatment to which the women are subjected — they being regarded merely as the 
 slaves of the stronger sex, to be used for the purpose of carrying burdens and 
 performing all recpisite labours of whatever kind, and to be rewarded only 
 with blows, often consummated by having their brains beaten out with the native 
 clubs, or tvaddies — together with the not uncommon practice of infanticide, also 
 assist in preventing the increase of the native population. 
 
 With some tribes, however, different ideas prevail, and shipwrecked men, 
 hungry and naked, have in the worst hour of their need learned to bless the rude 
 but honest hospitality of an Australian savage. Among themselves a crude 
 social system exists. Ideas of property are very distinct, and one man respects 
 the roasted fish and fried frogs of another with scrupulous integrity. Murders 
 are rare, and when they occur, are punished. It is the opinion of certain philo- 
 sophers that these wild men will never be reclaimed, but will be driven deeper 
 into the wilderness as colonisation proceeds, until ultimately all will perish under 
 the breath of English civilisation. It is hard to accei:)t this theory, though there 
 is unfortunately much in the history of modern times to lead to its adoption. 
 We would rather cling to the philosophy of the poet T. K. Hervey, who writes 
 in the spirit of humanity, in language of the loftiest eloquence, for the wild man 
 of the Australian desert : 
 
 " Yet on his forehead sits the seal sublime 
 That marks him monarch of his lovely clime, 
 And in hLs torpid spirit hirk the seeds 
 Of manly vdrtues and of lofty deeds. 
 Within that breast where savage shadows roll, 
 Philosophy discerns a noble soul, 
 That, like the lamp within an Eastern tomb. 
 But looks more sickly 'mid surrounding gloom. 
 Full many a feeling trembles thi-ough his fi-ame. 
 For which he never knew or sought a name ; 
 And many a holy thought but half supprest 
 Still lurks 'mid all the tempest of his breast. 
 Pants not his heart wdth human hopes and feai-s. 
 And is he not the child of smiles and tears ? 
 'Tis love that links him to his native woods, 
 And pride that fires him while he breasts the floods. 
 And glory gtiides him, felt but undefined, 
 To battle with the breakers and the wind,
 
 THE ABORIGINES OF A USTRALASIA. 239 
 
 To tempt the torrent, or in arms to claim 
 
 The savage splendours of a wan-ior's name. 
 
 True, through their souls all fiercer passions run — 
 
 These fiery ones, these children of the sun. 
 
 But gentler thoughts redeem the frenzied mood ; 
 
 Keprest, but quencliless, hid, but unsubdued. 
 
 Theirs is the spell of home, where'er they rove ; 
 
 The maiden loves with all a maiden's love ; 
 
 And the dark mother, as she rocks her boy. 
 
 Feels in her bosom all a mother's joy ! " 
 
 Where the human heart is warm with these feelings, it is surely susceptible of 
 some refinement. An anecdote will show that the mind of the Australian savage 
 is not blunt to all the better passions of humanity. A native named Tonquin, 
 dwelling on the banks of the Swan Eiver, stabbed one of his comrades. The 
 murderer fled into the desert, remaining there for fifteen days alone with the 
 memory of his crime. When he reappeared among the people of his tribe he 
 Avas a maniac — heartbroken by remorse. 
 
 The Australians recognise a benignant god and a variety of evil spirits, 
 especially one in the form of a gigantic serpent. When the winds groan over 
 the hills and woods, they imagine it to be the voice of this monster, and illumin- 
 ate the plain with fires, repeating magic spells to scare the evil one away. Not- 
 withstanding this timidity, they are brave in battle, though trembling in the 
 presence of death. A grave placed before the door of a house is a perpetual 
 safeguard against thieves. The dwelling of a lonely settler was once attacked 
 by the natives, of whom two were slain. Their bodies were buried in front of 
 the house, and the two low mounds, haunted with the idea of death, were more 
 formidable than the loftiest walls. Some of the tribes enclose their dead in 
 wrappings of leaves and bark, placing them among the branches of solitary trees, 
 near which the vulture sits immovable, Avith drooping wings, waiting for the last 
 covering to drop from the corpse. Captain Stokes saw one woman who con- 
 tinually bore, hanging from her neck, a net containing the bones of a little child 
 whom, during its short term, she had loved, and over Avhose dear remains she 
 lingered with tearful eyes, imagining, in the warmth of her maternal fondness, 
 that they rose before her clothed again with the lineaments of life. The 
 Australians regard the white men as their former brethren, whose spirits, 
 purified after death, have passed into superior forms. At Perth, one of the 
 colonists was twice visited by a strange native, who had heard that there had 
 come to his land a lost brother. The savage travelled through a long extent of 
 hostile country to behold again a cherished friend blessed with the glory of a 
 second life, who had left his paradise beyond the sea to revisit the scene of his 
 earthly career. 
 
 The natives have a strange custom of occasionally celebrating a war-dance, or 
 corohhorif, as they term it. The celebration invariably takes place at night-time, 
 and by the light of huge blazing fires, kindled in some open space in the forest. 
 The following amusing description of the corobbory is given by a traveller : " In 
 the dusky distance sat a crowd of indistinct figures, while on one side of the fire
 
 240 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 squatted a party of ginus (that is, native women), who, after some preparations, 
 commenced drumming upon a skin tightly stretched over their knees, assisting 
 the dull cadence with a monotonous song, or rather scream. This had continued 
 a few minutes, gradually increasing in loudness and energy, when the men, utter- 
 ing a wild howl, sprang upon their feet and began the dance. They were all 
 naked, or nearly so, and painted from toj) to toe in fantastic fashion — the pattern 
 most in vogue being an imitation of a skeleton, contrived by chalking out the 
 position of the spine and ribs with a white pigment. Their legs Avere uniformly 
 striped downwards with broad white lines. The first performance was a war- 
 dance, Avherein a variety of complicated evolutions and savage antics were gone 
 through, accompanied by a brandishing of clubs, spears, boomerangs, and shields. 
 Suddenly the crowd divided into two parties, and after a chorus of deafening- 
 yells and fierce exhortations, as if for the jjurpose of adding to their own and 
 each other's excitement, they rushed together in close fight. One division, 
 shortly giving way, was driven from the field, and pursued into the dark wood, 
 where roars and groans, and the sound of blows left but little to be imagined on 
 the score of a bloody massacre. Presently the whole corps re-appeared close to 
 the fire, and having deployed into lines and ' proved distance ' (as it is called in 
 sword exercise), the time of the music was changed, and a slow measure was 
 commenced by the dancers, every step being enforced by a heavj' stamp, and a 
 noise like a paviour's grunt. As the drum waxed faster, so did the dance, until, 
 at length, the movements were as rapid as the human frame could possibly 
 endure. At some passages they all sprang into the air a wonderful height, and 
 as their feet again touched the ground, Avith their legs wide astride, the muscles 
 of the thighs were set a-quivering in a singular manner, and the straight white 
 lines on the limbs being thus put in oscillation, each stripe for the moment 
 became a writhing serpent, while the air was filled with loud hissings. This 
 particular tour de force, which had a singular effect in the fire-light, requires 
 great practice. I remarked that the front-rank men only were adepts at it, and 
 I Avas told that some could never accjuire it — as sundry of my countrymen can 
 never unravel Avith their feet the mysteries of the Avaltz and polka. The most 
 amusing part of the ceremony was the imitation of the dingo, kangaroo, and 
 emu. When all Avere si^ringing together in emulation of a scared troop of their 
 own marsupial brutes, nothing could be more laughable, nor a more ingenious 
 piece of mimicry. As usual in savage dances, the time was kept with an 
 accuracy never at fault." 
 
 Circumcision is a general practice among the natives, and is regarded as a 
 religious rite. Among many strange customs, one of the most extraordinary is 
 that of knocking out either one or two of the front teeth of all the males, on their 
 arrival at the age of puberty ; until this ceremony has been performed, they are 
 not admitted among the Avarriors of the tribe. Girls are usually deprived of the 
 first joint of the little finger. Several of the native superstitions are in the high- 
 est degree curious ; a A^ague and mystic adoration of the serpent, that universal 
 .symbol of spiritual power, plays an imjjortant part in their rude mythology. 
 They believe in the existence of an immense serpent, invisible to mortal eyes,
 
 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 241 
 
 but resident in hii>li ;ind rocky mountains, and with the worship of which 
 mysterious rites are connected. 
 
 During the surveying voyage of the " Beagle," Captain Stokes discovered on 
 Depuch Island, on the north-west coast, numerous drawings on the rock, the 
 work of native artists. They were executed by removing, according to the figure 
 desired, the hard outer coating of red colour, and baring to view the bright 
 greenstone beneath. In many of these representations much al)ility was dis- 
 played, and enormous numliers of them Avere observed, some fresh, others 
 weather-worn, representing human figures, animals, birds, weapons, domestic 
 implements, and scenes of savage life. This lonely picture-gallery was imin- 
 habited, but the natives frequent it at a certain season of the year, to admire 
 their forefathers' skill, and leave monuments of their own. Doubtless the 
 Australian chiselling the stone expended on his work as much labour and 
 patience, and felt in it as much pride, as the famed artists of Italy decorating 
 the walls of St Peter's or the Vatican. Doubtless, also, there are critics among 
 them, whose verdict is eagerly looked for ; and the savage probably delights as 
 deeply in the admiration of his rude countrymen as man in civilised regions 
 enjoys the approbation of his. " Wherever we discern," says Captain Stokes, 
 " the faintest indication that such a principle is at work, there we may hope that 
 development will ultimately take place. Until Ave find a nation Avhich has never 
 attempted to emei'ge from the circle of its mere animal wants — Avhich has never 
 exhibited the least inclination to develop the most ordinary arts — Avhich not 
 only rejects clothing, but is absolutely indifferent to ornament — Avhich leaves its 
 Aveapons unadorned, its skin unpainted, free from tattoo — Ave must not despair 
 of the general efficacy of civilisation. These savages of Australia, as we call 
 them, Avho have adorned the rocks of Depuch Island Avith their drawings, have 
 in one thing proved themselves superior to the Egyptian and the Etruscan, 
 Avhose Avorks have elicited so much admiration, and aff"orded food to so many 
 speculations — namely, there is not in them to be observed the slightest trace of 
 indecency." 
 
 Three ranks of society prevail among the aborigines : the young men, the 
 Avarriors, and the aged — the hierarchy of the Australian commouAvealth. Sim- 
 plicity degenerate is their characteristic. Four slender poles jilanted in the 
 ground, and roofed Avith Avattled boughs, form a palace for one of these lords 
 of the creation ; and at night, Avhen cold winds blow, the savage, burying him- 
 self neck deep in the sand, warms himself literally in the bosom of mother earth. 
 
 Yet the aborigines are far from devoid of intelligence ; they readily acquire 
 the arts of reading and Avriting, and adopt, for a time, the usages of civilised life. 
 Efforts have been made to induce them to adopt settled habits, and permanent 
 stations have been erected for their use ; but after a Avhile they have alAA-ays 
 deserted these, seemingly without any immediate cause, and have returned to 
 their native forests and their Avandering life. The experiment Avhich has met 
 Avith most success — doubtless because most in accordance Avith their previous 
 habits of activity and change — has been that of enrolling a native mounted 
 police, under English officers, to act as a border force against bushrangers and 
 
 2n
 
 242 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 other depredators. Many of the natives are employed in. the service of the 
 settlers, particularly in the squatting districts of the interior, where they act as 
 shepherds and farm labourers; and, where treated u'ith kindness and forbearance, 
 they invariably prove faithful, and even valuable servants. But the " black 
 fellow " of Australia has little for which to thank his white brethren. He has 
 been di'iven from his native grounds — prevented from following the chase of the 
 kangaroo, and other animals on which he was accustomed to depend for food — 
 and afterwards, when impelled by hunger to make inroads on the iiocks of the 
 settler, hunted down and shot, as though he were a beast of prey. 
 
 The aboriginal race is rapidly dying out on the continent, and in Tasmania it 
 has already quite disappeared. The number still existent in Victoria and South 
 Australia may be counted by hundreds. The tribes comprise in general but few 
 individuals — often not more than forty or fifty, and rarely exceeding a hundred 
 in number ; and they are scattered widely over large tracts of country. There 
 are probably nowhere more than a few thousands within the neighboui'hood of 
 either one of the white settlements, and these are fast diminishing in number. 
 The Australian — like the Indian, and the islander of the South Seas, and at 
 even a more rapid rate than either of those races — is fast passing away from the 
 face of the land. Unlike the native inhabitant of the New World, he will leave 
 no memorial behind to tell of his existence to future generations. No temples, 
 tombs, palaces, sculptured shrines, or colossal images ! Nothing but the native 
 names (pity that so few of them have been retained in the nomenclatm'e of 
 colonial geography) to tell that such a race of beings ever inhabited the " Great 
 Southern Land ! " No records of native wai'riors and conquerors — no memorials 
 of the past ! The future history of Australia v/ill date its commencement from 
 the time Avlien Britain's exiles first landed upon its shores. 
 
 The New Zealanders are supposed to have emigrated originally from the 
 Navigator's Islands, or Hawaiki, as they name the latter. No light is thrown on 
 their origin from the name Maori which they call themselves. This word, 
 rendered by linguists " native," is used in contradistinction to 'pakeha, or stranger. 
 The motives which caused the New Zealanders to migrate are not forgotten. 
 There is a tradition that a civil war in Hawaiki caused a chief named Ngahue to 
 flee from the country, who after a long voyage reached New Zealand, and 
 returned to Hawaiki with pieces of greenstone, and the bones of a gigantic moa 
 slain near Tauranga. Received by his kindred as one risen from the dead, Ngahue 
 was held in high estimation, and like other travellers he spread abroad glowing 
 accounts of the fertility of the soil in New Zealand, the excellence of the fish in 
 the sea, the immense size of the eels in the rivers, and the number of birds and 
 plants suitable for food in the woods. Strife had not ceased when Ngahue 
 returned to Hawaiki, and the weaker party, in order to save their lives, deter- 
 mined to migrate to this newly-discovered land. Other traditions make Kupe 
 the Columljus of the country. 
 
 The Hawaiki fleet reached New Zealand when the pohutukaua and rata 
 trees were covered with blossoms. It was consequently summer, and the emi- 
 grants, like the survivors of a wreck, scattered themselves over the country. To
 
 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 243 
 
 appease the spirit of the land for tlicir intrusion, humiliating praj^ers were said ; 
 one uttered by a chief on this celebrated occasion is still preserved as a modern 
 charm : 
 
 " I arrive where an unknown earth is under my feet, 
 I arrive where a new sky is above me, 
 I arrive at this land 
 
 A resting-place for me. 
 spirit of the earth ! the stranger humbly offers his heart as food for thee." 
 
 The natives are represented as by nature brave and warlike, quick to avenge 
 fancied or real insults, and capable of adapting themselves to the new ways 
 introduced by Europeans. From the time of the earliest traditions the 
 Maori has been a cultivator of the soil. He was well versed in the nature of 
 the lands best fitted for the esculent roots he planted — the sweet potato and 
 yam. Their original condition was one of incessant wars of tribe against tribo, 
 and their numbers have greatly diminished in consequence. When Cook visited 
 the islands a century ago, their numbers certainly did not exceed 150,000. The 
 same self-inflicted evils operating on them for the period of seventy years which 
 elapsed between Cook's time and the commencement of our colonisation of the 
 country in 1840, further reduced their numbers to 80,000 ; and though, after this 
 date, tribal wars virtually ceased in New Zealand, yet such have been the con- 
 tinued depopulating eflfects of the natives' piggish mode of life, of the semi-pro- 
 miscuous intercourse of the sexes before marriage, and of other barbarous 
 customs to which they cling, that they have now reduced themselves to a mere 
 handful of people, numbering only about 40,000 — divided, though, into no fewer 
 than eighteen tribes, and all, save a few hundreds, located in the North Island. 
 They are still decreasing, and there is reason to think that in another decade or 
 two the Maori race will not be more an element of pojjulation in New Zealand, 
 not more a " power " in the state, than the gijDsy race is found to be in our 
 own isles; and that half a century hence, the Maori, like the moa, may be 
 extinct. 
 
 The New Zealanders of the present generation have two characters ; one 
 towards Europeans, which varies as Europeans are missionaries or traders, and 
 another towards their own race. The former character is acquired, the latter is 
 natural, and both characters are difficult to describe without referring to the 
 higher faculties of the human mind. 
 
 It was ascertained, by weighing the quantity of millet seed skulls contained, 
 and by measurements with tapes and compasses, that New Zealanders' heads are 
 smaller than the heads of Englishmen, consequently they are inferior to the 
 English in mental capacity. This comparative smalhiess of the brain is produced 
 by neglecting to exercise the higher faculties of the mind, for as muscles shrink 
 from want of use, it is only natural that generations of mental indolence should 
 lessen the size of brains. In support of this inference, intelligent travellers have 
 already detected that the heads of the negro race in the United States are 
 becoming more developed from the intellectual career they are now pursuing. 
 
 The New Zealanders hold the head extremely sacred, but they do not suppose
 
 244 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SIA . 
 
 it contains the sole intellectual organ; as joy, fear, and sorrow, spring, accord- 
 ing to their notions, from the stomach and bowels. 
 
 Dr Thomson, who studied the character of these people thoroughly, gives the 
 following account of them : 
 
 "The New Zealanders have the minds of children and the passions of men. 
 They respect ancient laws and customs, but are ready to embrace new opinions 
 given out by men in authority. So constituted are their minds that it is impos- 
 sible to decide how certain circumstances will affect them. Futurity is seldom 
 looked into, although, like all mankind, they long for what is unknown, and re- 
 member with regret what is lost. Without genius for discovery, and incapable 
 of generalising, they are nevertheless apt at acquiring the rudiments of learning. 
 They are confident in accomplishing whatever they undertake. Fondness for 
 novelty is a passion, but it is almost inij)ossible to excite wonder. In imitation 
 they are strong, and from mimicry derive pleasiire. Vanity, arrogance, and 
 independence are universal, but they are more vain than proud. In all their 
 actions they are alive to their own interest, and in seeking this are not over- 
 bm-dened with conscientiousness. Solomon said, ' It is the glory of a man to 
 pass by an ofi"ence,' but the New Zealanders could not brook in word or deed an 
 insult when witnessed by others. Wounded vanity caused much strife, and 
 cruelty and cannibalism were occasionally produced by a love of notoriety. 
 They are deficient in that sort of moral courage which causes men to execute 
 the commands of reason and conscience. They value life, but die with indiffer- 
 ence when death is inevitable. They have little benevolence towards others : 
 long-absent friends are greeted with a profusion of tears ; but, as with children, 
 this grief is destitute of impression. 
 
 "Gratitude is unhwtvn, and no wm^d expressive of this feeling isfotind in their 
 language. Theft is rare among them. Eevenge is their strongest passion, and 
 this feeling is kept alive for generations. They are jealous of each other, and 
 love to excite terror. When excited, they derive pleasure from cruelty and 
 bloodshed. Tried by the Euroj^ean standard, their conversations are sensual 
 and their ideas unclean. Secrets are kept Avith difficulty. Of their deeds they 
 are boastful. They accost their equals without levity, and their superiors with- 
 out awe, and it is reckoned disgraceful to give way to anger. Cheerfulness, 
 more than laughter, predominates. They are liberal in giAing presents, but 
 presents are merely modes of trade, as returns are always expected. They 
 possess a great flow of words, and are fond of eloquence and oratory. They 
 are dirty and indolent. Thet/ are strong against the weak, but weak against the 
 strong. When mastered, either physically or mentally, they become as manage- 
 able as children ; but this power must be exerted in the right way, for, like 
 their own supple-jack, they are more easily overcome by gentle and skilful 
 management, than by ill-directed force. This character of the New Zealanders 
 is less favoural)le than that usually given. It is, however, drawn up from the 
 history of the people, and from personal observation among them in their days 
 of happiness and sorrow, and in their hours of sickness and death." 
 
 The New Zealanders worshipped no Supreme Being. According to them
 
 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 245 
 
 heaven and earth liave individual existences, and their tradition about the 
 creation of the world shows a degree of thought far al)ove tlie present iileas of 
 the people. They believed that several high chiefs after death became deified, 
 and that from them all punishments in this world for evil doings were sent. 
 Each nation possessed its own deified men, and to them offerings were made 
 and prayers addressed. These deified men were supposed to be intimately 
 acquainted with every event passing among the people on the earth. But the 
 deified ancestors of one nation never interfered in the affairs of other nations. 
 
 Whether or not cannibalism commenced immediately after the advent of the 
 New Zealanders from Ilawaiki, it is nevertheless certain that one of Tasman's 
 sailors was eaten in 1642; that Captain Cook had a boat's crew eaten in 1774 ; 
 that ]\Iarion du Fresne, and many other navigators, met this horrible end ; and 
 that the pioneers of civilisation, and successive missionaries, have all borne 
 testimony to the universal prevalence of cannil)alism in New Zealand up to the 
 year 1840. It is impossible to state how many were annually devoured ; that 
 the number was not small may be inferred from two facts authenticated by 
 European witnesses. In 1822 Hongi's army ate three hundred persons after the 
 capture of Totara, on the river Thames ; and in 1836, during the Rotorua war, 
 sixty human beings were cooked and eaten in two days. The persons eaten 
 were enemies slain in battle, and men, women, and children taken prisoners. 
 The bodies of the last two were seldom eaten, and cannibalism was rarely 
 practised during peace. When slaves were eaten in peaceful times by chiefs, 
 political motives were the secret causes of this unusual occurrence. There are 
 few New Zealanders above forty years of age who have not partaken of human 
 flesh, a sure proof of the former prevalence of cannibalism in the country. 
 
 Tattooing is now no longer the fashion, and the fairest and best looking of 
 the young people are not much unlike English gipsies — often, though, presenting 
 a little of the Tartar, and, here and there, a little of the Jewish type. The old 
 and middle-aged women, bent and broken by toil, are terribly weird and witch- 
 like in appearance ; but some of the girls are beautiful brunettes, and the 
 alliances formerly contracted between these and the early settlers have produced 
 Anglo-Maories, who, in regard to physical gifts, are among the handsomest 
 races in the Southern Ocean. The English blanket, often of fine quality, and 
 gracefully worn in the old Roman toga fashion, is still their favourite apparel ; 
 but despite the sufferings of smartness, the Maori will occasionally array himself 
 in fine coat, stiff" collar, and tight boots, and stand forth — the "swell." The chief 
 ckess of the women is the coloured cotton " roundabout," a short bedgowai sort 
 of garment ; but on high days and holidays, the Maori belle may sometimes be 
 seen glistening in silk and satin, with crinoline and parasol. 
 
 They still, for the most part, dwell in wi'etched Httle rush-hut, pig-sty 
 villages, dotted over the country, perched, for the most part, on hill-tops, 
 " odorifei'ous in the gale," and often fortified by earth-works, rifle-pits, and 
 double lines of fence and ditch ; and the difficulty of getting them to live in any 
 more sanatory, model-village fashion is one of the chief obstacles the colonists 
 have to encounter in their efforts to preserve the race.
 
 246 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The New Zealanders are not a hunting people, and that for the very sufficient 
 reason that there is nothing in the islands to hunt. Three-fourths of their food 
 is derived from potatoes, maize, wheat, kumeras, taro, melons and fruit, raised 
 by rude cultivation in patches of garden-ground, and from pigs, cows, and 
 poultry, feeding in and around their villages. The remaining portion of their 
 larder is supplied mainly by fish, many of their largest villages being on the 
 coast, and their inland settlements generally within easy access of some creek, 
 lake, or teeming eel weir. To their plenteous garden produce, their pigs, fowls, 
 and fish, they now and then add, by way of dessert, a bit of stranded whale, 
 a pigeon or wild duck, a luscious grub or two, a truffle, or a handful of hinau 
 berries — picked up, for the most part, within gunshot of their dwelling-places. 
 
 They are not destitute of a certain rude poetry, and they are fond of narrat- 
 ing fables, singing love-songs, and telling wild stories around the evening fire. 
 They are also very apt at proverbs, of which the following are specimens : 
 
 " The man who gets up to work will be satisfied, but he who sits idle will 
 want food." 
 
 " He who is valiant in fight is apt to stumble, but he who is valiant in 
 cultivating food will die of old age." 
 
 " Food given tickles the throat, but food gained by one's labour is the food 
 which satisfies." 
 
 "He works little, but his throat is deep." 
 
 " You are forward to eat, but not to work." 
 
 " You keep away at planting time, but stick close in harvest." 
 
 " Potaka was a lazy fellow, who commenced working when others were 
 leaving ofi"." 
 
 " Industry," says the proverb, " should be rewarded, lest idleness get the 
 advantage." 
 
 " This tribe will become extinct like the moa," is a proverb used to announce 
 the extinction of a race. 
 
 " The spider is not seen when hid in his web, so men's real intentions are 
 concealed in their hearts." 
 
 " The slightest movement of the reed is seen, but not that of the heart." 
 
 " We can search every corner of a house, but the corner of the heart we 
 cannot." 
 
 " Passing clouds can be seen, but passing thoughts cannot." 
 
 The feeling of the English colonists towards the Maori has long been this — 
 that though his nature be well portrayed in the sketch given of it by Dr 
 Thomson, yet that he is, nevertheless, entitled to be held a " splendid savage " 
 — that his military merits are great, and that he would make a noble addition to 
 that self-reliant " defensive force " which all British colonies should keep up — 
 that his presence in the country imparts a warmth, a variety, a piquancy, a 
 " picturesqueness " to its fields and forests far superior to that shed by red deer 
 or any noble game — that there is land enough in New Zealand to sustain millions 
 of either race in easy plenty — and that the most practically humane and curative 
 school for him is that which he would find in his own fields and gardens, in his
 
 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 247 
 
 model cottage, in his carpenter's shop. That these views of the Maori, these wishes 
 for his good, are not so strong as they once were is undoubtedly true. The 
 " Hau Ilau " superstition to which some of the tribes have abandoned themselves 
 has led many a colonist to entertain a profound contempt for the inlellect of a 
 people Avho could so brutalisc tliemsolves, and in a moment renounce the mis- 
 sionary teachings of fifty years. Nevertheless, even now, the great bulk of the 
 colonists would gladly let bygones be bygones, would rejoice to save and civilise 
 the remnant of the Maori race, and to continue to merit the following eulogium 
 passed on them by Bishop Selwyn, now of Lichfield : " In defence of the colonists 
 of New Zealand, of whom I am one, I say most distinctly and solemnly, that I 
 have never known, since the colony began, a single act of wilful injustice or oppres- 
 sion committed by any one in authority against a New Zealander."
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GOVEENOE PHILLIP'S ADMINISTEATION. 
 
 founding of new south wales — the first fleet — governor phillip — landing 
 at botany bay — removal to port jackson — the aborigines — appearance 
 of the country — the french ships — taking possession of the territory 
 — Darwin's lines on Sydney cove. 
 
 The order to establish a British settlement in the new territory in the far-oflf 
 Southern Ocean which Cook had discovered and named, was issued by the Privy 
 Council on the 6th of December 1786. The selection of settlers made by the 
 British Government was a great mistake, bespeaking in those who suggested it 
 very small talents for statesmanship and extreme blindness to the grandeur of 
 the opportunity which Di\ane Providence had opened up to the nation. Politi- 
 cally considered, it was no less than a crime, and du'e were the evils which it 
 inflicted on humanity. But it may as well be stated at the outset of the history 
 of New South Wales that those earlier and darker chapters in her annals Avill be 
 only very lightly touched on here. The past is past. Common prudence dic- 
 tates that the memory of hateful and disgraceful deeds should not be preserved. 
 It is the righteous amongst men, and they alone, who deserve to be held in 
 everlasting remembrance. The Government of New South Wales has wisely 
 destroyed all the records of the old penal days, and it is fitting that all recollec- 
 tion of the events of those times should perish for ever. 
 
 Early in the year 1787 the vessels selected for the first fleet bound for New 
 Holland assembled at the Isle of Wight, in the south of England. There were 
 eleven ships, named as follows : the " Sirius," frigate ; the " Supply," armed 
 tender ; the " Golden Grove," " Fishburn," and " Barrowdale," storeships ; and 
 the "Scarborough," "Lady Penrhyn," "Friendship," "Charlotte," "Prince of 
 Wales," and " Alexander," transports. The officers of the new colony were 
 Captain Arthur Phillip, Avho was styled Governor and Commander-in-Chief of 
 New South Wales ; Major Eobert Eoss, lieutenant-governor ; Eichard Johnson,
 
 GOVERNOR rillLLlP'S ADMINISTRATION. 249 
 
 chaplain ; Andrew Miller, commissary ; David Collins, Judge- Advocate ; John 
 Long, ailjntant ; James Furzcr, quartermaster ; John White, surgeon ; Thomas 
 Arndell and William Ijahnaiu, assistant-surgeons ; John Hunter, captain of the 
 " Sirius ; " Lieutenant H. L. Ball, in command of the " Supply ; " Lieutenant 
 John Shortland, agent for transports. The garrison consisted of two hundred 
 marines, with the following ofTicers : Captains Campbell, Shea, Meredith, and 
 Tench ; Lieutenants Johnston, Collins, Kellow, j\Iorrison, Clarke, Faddy, Cress- 
 well, Poulden, Sharp, Davey, and Tinnnins. The persons under their charge, Avho 
 were to remain in the settlement, were, besides the two hundred soldiers, forty 
 of whom were allowed to take their wives and families, eighty-one free persons, 
 and GOG prisoners. The founders of the colony therefore consisted of one free 
 person to every two prisoners. The precise niamber of people embarked was 1044, 
 viz. : Civil officers, 10 ; military, including officers, 212 ; wives and families of 
 military (28 women and 17 children), 45; other free persons, 81; total free 
 persons, 348 ; prisoners, 096. Of this number 1030 were safely landed in the 
 colony. What proportion of the whole were women has not been ascertained. 
 
 Of Governor Arthur Phillip some account has already been given. He was 
 in his fiftieth year when he was chosen by the British Government to preside 
 over the founding of the young colony, and his previous services in the navy had 
 proved him to be a man possessed of many great qualities. Brave, active, and 
 persevering, he had won his way in the service from the first grade to the rank 
 of post-captain. He was in all respects fitted for the post conferred upon him. 
 
 The fleet sailed on the 13th May 1787, and having touched at TenerifFe, 
 Rio Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope, for water and provisions, the first 
 ship, the " Supply," with Governor Phillip on board, sighted the coast of New 
 South Wales on the 3d January 1788. She anchored in Botany Bay on the 
 18th, and was followed on the 19th and 20th by the other ships. On landing 
 the strangers were met in a most peaceable and friendly manner by the abori- 
 gines, who, on seeing Captain Phillip approach unarmed, immediately threw 
 down their spears and other weapons and readily accepted some trifling presents 
 which he off"ered them,- 
 
 The following account of Governor Phillip's landing at Botany Bay is from 
 the history of his voyage published in 1789: "At the very first landing of 
 Governor Phillip on the shore of Botany Bay, 18th January 1788, an interview 
 with the natives took place. They were all armed, but on seeing the governor 
 approach with signs of friendship, alone and unarmed, they readily returned his 
 confidence by laying down their weapons. They were perfectly devoid of 
 clothing, yet seemed fond of ornaments, putting the beads and red baize that 
 were given them on their heads or necks, and appearing pleased to wear them. 
 The presents ofiered by their new visitors were all readily accepted, nor did any 
 kind of disagreement arise while the ships remained in Botany Bay. This very 
 pleasing effect was produced in no small degree by the personal address, as well 
 as by the great care and attention of the governor. Nor were the orders which 
 enforced a conduct so humane, more honourable to the persons from whom they 
 originated than the punctual execution of them was to the officers sent oiit ; it 
 
 2t
 
 250 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 was evident their wishes coincided with their duty; and that a sanguinary 
 temper was no longer to disgrace the European settlers in countries newly 
 discovered. 
 
 " The next care after landing was the examination of the bay itself, from 
 which it appeared that, though extensive, it did not afford a shelter from the 
 easterly winds ; and that, in consequence of its shallowness, ships even of a 
 moderate draught would always be obliged to anchor with the entrance of the 
 bay open, where they must be exposed to a heavy sea, that rolls in whenever it 
 blows hard from the eastward. 
 
 " Several runs of fresh water were found in different parts of the bay, but 
 there did not appear to be any situation to which tliere was not some very strong 
 objection. In the northern part of it is a small creek, which runs a considerable 
 way into the country, but it has water only for a boat, the sides of it are fre- 
 quently overflowed, and the lowlands near it are a perfect swamp. The western 
 branch of the bay is continued to a great extent, but the officers sent to examine 
 it could not find there any supply of fresh water, except in very small drains. 
 
 " Point Sutherland offered the most eligible situation, having a run of good 
 water, though not in very great abundance. But to this part of the harbour the 
 ships could not approach, and the ground near it, even in the higher parts, was in 
 general damp and spongy. Smaller numbers might indeed in several spots have 
 found a comfortable residence, but no place was discovered in the whole circuit 
 of Botany Bay which seemed at all calculated for the reception of so large a 
 settlement. While this examination was carried on, the whole fleet had arrived. 
 The ' Supply ' had not so much outsailed the other ships as to give Governor 
 Phillip the advantage he had expected in point of time. On the 19th of January 
 1788, the 'Alexander,' 'Scarborough,' and 'Friendship,' cast anchor in Botany 
 Bay ; and on the 20th, the ' Sirius,' with the remainder of the convoy. These 
 ships had all continued vei-y healthy ; they had not, however, yet arrived at their 
 final station." 
 
 Proceedings were immediately commenced for landing the people and stores ; 
 and men were set to work to clear a piece of land on the south side of the bay 
 about a mile from the entrance, and near the spot where Cook had first stepped 
 on .shore eighteen years before. 
 
 The place, however, did not at all answer the expectations which the governor 
 and his officers had been led to form from the description given by Cook ; and no 
 time was lost in making an examination of the surrounding country in search 
 of a more favouraljle site. The first place to which attention was directed was 
 the harbour which Cook had described as existing a few miles north of Botany 
 Bay, and which he had called Port Jackson, after the seaman who had descried 
 it from the mast-head of the " Endeavour." The governor proceeded to examine 
 this harbour on the 23d ; and was as much gratified with its magnificent appear- 
 ance, its sheltered position, deep Avatcr, and almost innumerable bays and bold 
 headlands, as he had Ijccu disappointed witli the place where he had at first 
 landed. He thereupon decided on removing the settlement to Port Jackson, and 
 fixed on a posiliuu about six miles inside the entrance, where he discovered "a
 
 GOVERNOR nilLLlFS ADM IS liST RATION. 251 
 
 fine run of fresh water stealing silently through a thick wood " and falling into a 
 little bay, Avhieh he named Sydney Cove, in honour of Viscount Sydney, who 
 was at that time at the head of the Colonial Ullice, and who had taken great 
 interest in the welfare of the expedition. 
 
 The aborigines at Sydney Cove at first showed signs of opposition towards 
 the new-comers ; but they Avere quickly pacified by the tact and conciliatory 
 conduct of the governor. The leading men of the tribe, after their first surprise 
 was over, behaved with a manly frankness, and evinced such an intelligent yet 
 unobtrusive curiosity, as greatly raised them in the estimation of the intending 
 colonists. 
 
 Captain Collins, in his account, says : " The coast, as we drew near Port 
 Jackson, wore a most unpromising appearance, and the natives everywhere 
 greeted the little fleet with shouts of defiance and prohibition, the words Wavra, 
 xoarra ('Go away, go away '), resounding Avherever they appeared. The governor's 
 utmost expectation as he drew near the harbour being to find what Captain 
 Cook, as he passed by, thought might be found shelter for a boat ; he was most 
 agreeably surprised at discovering on his entrance, a harbour cajjable of aftbrding 
 security for a much larger fleet, than would pi'obably ever seek shelter within its 
 limits." 
 
 The historical account of the voyage continues : " On the arrival of the boats 
 at Port Jackson, a second j^arty of the natives made its appearance near the 
 place of landing. These also were armed with lances, and at first were very 
 vociferous ; but the same gentle means used towards the others easily persuaded 
 them to discard their suspicions, and to accept whatsoever was offered. One 
 man in particular, who appeared to be the chief of this tribe, showed very 
 singular marks both of confidence in his new friends, and of determined 
 resolution. Under the guidance of Governor Phillip, to whom he voluntarily 
 entrusted himself, he went to a part of the beach where the men belonging to 
 the boats were then boiling their meat ; when he approached the marines, who 
 were drawn up near that place, and saw that by proceeding he should be sei:)arated 
 from his companions, who remained with several of the officers at some distance, 
 he stopped, and with great firmness, seemed by words and gestures to threaten 
 revenge if any advantage should be taken of his situation. 
 
 " In passing near a point of land in this harbour, the boats were perceived 
 by a number of the natives, twenty of whom waded into the water unarmed, 
 received what was offered them, and examined the boat with a curiosity -which 
 impressed a higher idea of them than any former account of their manners had 
 suggested. This confidence and manly behaviour induced Governor Phillip, 
 who was highly pleased with it, to give the j^hvce the name of ISIanly Cove. 
 The same people afterwards joined the party at the place where they had landed 
 to dine. They were then armed, two of them with shields and swords, the rest 
 with lances only. The swords [boomerangs] were made of wood, small in the 
 gripe, and apparently less formidable than a good stick. One of these men had 
 a kind of Avhite clay rubbed upon the upper part of his face, so as to have the 
 appearance of a mask. This ornament, if it can be called such, is not common
 
 252 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 among them, and is probably assumed only on particular occasions, or as a dis- 
 tinction to a few individuals. One woman had been seen on the rocks as the boats 
 passed with her face, neck, and breasts thus painted, and to our people appeared 
 the most disgusting figure imaginable ; her own countrymen were perhaps 
 delighted by the beauty of the effect. 
 
 " During the preparation for dinner, the curiosity of these visitors rendered 
 them very troublesome, but an innocent contrivance altogether removed the 
 inconvenience. Governor Phillip drew a circle round the place Avhere the 
 English were, and without much difficulty made the natives understand that 
 they were not to pass that line ; after which they sat down in perfect quietness. 
 Another proof how tractable these people are, Avhen no insult or injury is 
 offered, and when proper means are employed to influence the simplicity of their 
 minds. 
 
 " On the 24th of January 1788, Governor Phillip, having sufficiently explored 
 Port Jackson, and found it in all respects highly calculated to receive such a 
 settlement as he was appointed to establish, retmnied to Botany Bay. On his 
 arrival there, the reports made to him, both of the ground which the people were 
 clearing, and of the upper parts of the bay, which in this interval had been more 
 particularly examined, were in the greatest degree unfavourable. It was impos- 
 sible after this to hesitate concerning the choice of a situation ; and orders were 
 accordingly issued for the removal of the Avhole fleet to Port Jackson." 
 
 On the two following days the ships and all the people, Avith the exception of 
 a few left in charge of the stores which had been landed at Botany, were brought 
 round to Sydney Cove. The day before this transfer took place, considerable 
 alarm was created by the sudden appearance, off" Botany Heads, of the two large 
 shij^s under the command of La P^rouse, who, with his officers and men, at once 
 entered into the most friendly relations with Captain Phillip and the people whom 
 they had so unexpectedly found in occupation of the place. 
 
 On the evening of the 26th, all the ships having come round to Port Jackson, 
 and being safely anchored at Sydney Cove, the governor took formal possession 
 of the country by hoisting British colours on a flagstaff erected on the site now 
 occupied by Dawes' Battery. The king's health was then drmik by the governor 
 and officials around the flagstaff, and this proceeding Avas followed by enthusiastic 
 cheering and much excitement on the part of the people. 
 
 On the following day the Avork of clearing a spot on Avhich tents might be 
 fixed and stores landed was commenced. The place Avas so heavily timbered 
 that many trees had to be cut doAvn before room could be obtained for the 
 accommodation of so large a number of persons ; and Avhile the English Avere thus 
 busily engaged at Sydney Cove in making preparations for their accommodation 
 on shore, the French mariners were similarly employed at Botany Bay. The 
 pathetic story of La Pdrouse has already been narrated in a previous part of this 
 volume. 
 
 The following almost prophetic lines, by DarAvin, author of the "Botanic 
 Garden," Avere prefixed to the earlier editions of the history of Governor Phillip's 
 voyage to Ncav Soutli Wales :
 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIFS ADMINISTRATION. 253 
 
 "SYDNEY COVE. 
 
 "Where Sydney Cove her lucid bosom swells, 
 Courts her young na\'ios, and the storm repels j 
 High on a rock amid the troubled air 
 Hope stood sublime, and waved her golden hair ; 
 Calmed with her rosy suillo the tossing deep. 
 And with sweet accents charmed the winds to sleep j 
 To each wild plain she stretched her snowy hand. 
 High-waving wood, and sea-encircled strand. 
 ' Hear me,' she cried, 'ye rising realms ! record 
 Time's opening scenes, and Truth's unerring word — 
 There shall broad streets their stately walls extend, 
 The circus widen, and the crescent bend ; 
 There, rayed from cities o'er the cultured land, 
 Shall bright canals, and solid roads expand. 
 There the proud arch, Colossus-like, bestride 
 You glittering streams, and bound the chasing tide ; 
 Embellished villas cro^v^l the landscape-scene, 
 Farms wave with gold, and orchards blush between. 
 There shall till spires, and dome-capped towers ascend, 
 And piers and quays their massy structures blend ; 
 While with each breeze approaching vessels glide, 
 And northern treasui-es dance on every tide ! ' 
 Then ceased the nymph — tumultuous echoes roar. 
 And Joy's loud voice was heard from shore to shore — 
 Her graceful steps descending pressed the plain. 
 And Peace, and Ait, and Labour, joined her train."
 
 254 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIP'S ADMINISTRATION— CoH^mwed 
 
 KEGULAR GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED — PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS — PARAMATTA — MEANS 
 OF LIVING — THE NATIVES — CAPTAIN HUNTER's ACCOUNT — FATAL ENCOUNTERS — 
 NORFOLK ISLAND — FIRST DISCOVERY OF GOLD — DARK TIMES — SHORT RATIONS — 
 PHILLIP'S NOBLE CONDUCT — RETURN OF THE "SIRIUS" — HIS MAJESTY'S BIRTHDAY 
 — DISCOVERY OF THE HAWKESBURY — STATE OF THE COLONY IN 1790 — TIMELY 
 ARRIVALS — THE GOVERNOR'S NARROW ESCAPE — FIRST FRUITS — ATTEMPTS TO 
 ESCAPE — GRANTS OF LAND — GOOD MORALS — PHILLIP's DEPARTURE — HIS CHAR- 
 ACTER^FIRST FOREIGN VESSEL — GEORGE BARRINGTON. 
 
 The solemn ceremony of establishing a regular government in the newly-founded 
 colony was performed on the 7th of February 1788. On that day, a sufficient 
 space having been cleared for the tents and stores, the people Avere all landed on 
 the shores of Sydney Cove, and assembled on the western side of the cove, 
 then named Point Maskelyne, but afterwards known as Dawes' Battery; the 
 military were drawn up under arms ; the prisoners stationed apart ; and, near 
 the person of the governor, the gentlemen who were to fill the principal offices. 
 The royal commission was then read by the Judge- Advocate ; afterwards the 
 Act of Parliament authorising the establishment of the courts of judicature; 
 and lastly the patents under the Great Seal empowering the projier officers to 
 convene and hold those com-ts. Three rounds of musketry concluded this part 
 of the ceremony. Governor Phillijj then advanced and addressed the soldiers, 
 thanking them for their steady good conduct. Turning to the prisoners, he 
 explained to them the nature of their position. He reminded them that they 
 Avere now so placed that by industry and good behaviour they might soon regain 
 the advantages which for a time they had forfeited, and promised that every 
 encouragement should be held out to induce them to make the efibrt to regain 
 that place in the estimation of society of which they had deprived themselves by 
 their offences. To all offijnders against the law he promised no mercy ; and in 
 order to promote as much as possible the cause of morality, he recommended 
 marriage to as many as were in a position to enter into the state of matrimony, 
 promising every kind of countenance and assistance to those who took a course 
 so likely to promote the cause of good order and the well-being of the com- 
 munity. He concluded by declaring his earnest desire to promote the welfare 
 and liappiness of all who were placed under his control ; and his determination.
 
 GOVERNOR PIIILLIFS ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 'Z'.y.i 
 
 with the help of the Ahiiighty, to render the colonisation of New South Wales 
 advantageous and honourable to the country. 
 
 The government having been thus formally established, energetic means were 
 at once adopted for erecting storehouses, and such other buildings as Avere most 
 urgently re(iuire(l for the health of the people and the safety and preservation of 
 the large amount of provisions, seed, animals, and implements, Avhich had been 
 sent out for their use. The live stock landed consisted of one bull, five cows, 
 a bull calf, an entire horse, three mares, three colts, twenty-nine sheep, nineteen 
 goats, seventy-four pigs, and about three hundred turkeys, geese, and fowls. 
 The cattle and horses were the projierty of the Government, the smaller animals 
 and poultry- belonged to private persons. 
 
 The work of constructing the necessary buildings was much impeded by 
 various causes. There were very few skilled mechanics amongst the people ; the 
 materials for building were not abundant ; nor were there any suitable ajjpliances 
 in the way of machinery and implements for turning those that were available 
 to profitable use. Temporary huts were patched together with branches and 
 twigs plastered wnth clay. A small house was built for the governor, with 
 materials brought out from England, on the spot which now forms the intersection 
 of Pitt and Hunter Streets. A site for a large town was laid out, with streets 
 two hundred feet in width, and spacious reserves for air and exercise ; but the 
 plan was not followed in the subsequent erection of buildings. An attempt was 
 made to cultivate a small farm by sowing wheat and maize. The governor, 
 however, was not satisfied with the situation, and after a short time it was 
 determined to remove most of the men employed in clearing land for cultivation 
 to a spot about fifteen miles distant, at the head of the navigation of the harbour. 
 The new farm was named at first the Crescent, and afterwards Eose Hill, by the 
 governor, but the native name of Paramatta, signifying a place abounding in 
 eels (literally " eels sit down "), was retained by the people, and Avas at last 
 oflicially adopted. 
 
 A large number of fruit and ornamental trees had been procured at Rio 
 Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope by Governor Phillip, and these were care- 
 fully 25lanted in and about the Camp, as the settlement at Sydney Cove was for 
 a long time called. They were all found to succeed well, but especially the 
 vines, oranges, and peaches. The soil was very suitable for vegetables, of which 
 such a supply was furnished to the people, after a few months, that the scurvy 
 and other diseases, Avhicli (as they were obliged to live on salt provisions) con- 
 tinued to afflict them even after their landing, at length disappeared. This 
 desirable result was facilitated by the quantities of game and fish which, after 
 places for shelter had been erected, were procru-ed by men who were specially 
 employed in shooting and fishing. 
 
 The natives, Avho, at first, had been exceedingly peaceful and confiding, after a 
 short time completely altered in their conduct. The knowledge that their white 
 friends intended to remain and to keep possession of their country rendered them 
 at once so suspicious and so shy, that after the first few days the utmost diffi- 
 culty was experienced by the governor in procuring an interview with them.
 
 256 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 One circumstance, which rendered them extremely averse to the presence of the 
 whites, was the rapid disappearance of the kangaroos and other animals on 
 which they had depended for food, and also to a great extent of the fish from 
 the waters of the harbour. Of their numbers, no very reliable calculation could 
 be made. Governor Phillip, who always took great interest in their welfare, 
 and who made many attempts to secure their confidence, at first thought that 
 the district around Port Jackson, including a coast-line of about twenty-five 
 miles, did not contain more than about fifteen hundred people. This estimate, 
 however, he afterwards considered to be much too low, for going one day to 
 procure an intei'view with some of them, he was able to approach a camp on the 
 coast unobserved, and he counted 212 men, besides women and children. At 
 the next bay he counted forty men, and at other j)laces saw so many that he 
 was convinced he had at first much under-estimated their numbers. On the 
 same day, at another place in Botany Bay, he found upwards of a hundred 
 canoes on the beach, although not a single native was to be seen ; the whole 
 tribe having taken alarm, and fled at his approach. In Port Jackson as many 
 as sixty-seven canoes were counted at one time. 
 
 Cai:)tain Hunter, who commanded the " Sirius " frigate in the first fleet, and 
 succeeded Captain Phillip in the government of the colony, published in Loudon 
 in 1793, in a large quarto volume, "An Historical Account of Transactions at 
 Port Jackson," etc. Like his friend. Governor Phillip, he felt a warm interest in 
 the welfare of the unfortunate aborigines, and zealously seconded all endeavours 
 to bring about a good understanding between them and the colonists. Captain 
 Hunter, in his work, gives many interesting details as to their character and 
 habits, and his estimate of their intellectual and physical abilities is fiir more 
 favourable than the one generally prevalent in the present day. He was 
 employed soon after the formation of the settlement in making a survey of the 
 harbour, and while employed in this manner was often brought in contact with 
 these unfortunate people. He says : 
 
 " During the time we were employed on the survey of Port Jackson, we had 
 frequent meetings with different parties of the natives, whom we found at this 
 time very numerous ; a circumstance which I confess I was a little surprised to 
 find, after what had been said of them in the voyage of the ' Endeavour ; ' for I 
 think it is observed, in the account of that voyage, that at Botany Bay they had 
 seen very few of the natives, and that they appeared a very stupid race of people, 
 who were void of curiosity. We saw them in considerable numbers, and they 
 appeared to us to be a very lively and inquisitive race ; they are a straight, thin, 
 but well-made people, rather small in their limbs, but very active ; they examined 
 with the greatest attention, and expressed the utmost astonishment at tlie 
 different coverings Ave had on ; for they certainly considered our clothes as £0 
 many different skins, and the hat as a part of the head ; they were pleased with 
 such trifles as we had to give them, and always appeared cheerful and in good 
 humour ; tliey danced and sang with us, and imitated our words and motions as 
 Ave did theirs. They generally appeared armed with a lance, and a short stick 
 which assists in throwing it ; this stick is about three feet long, is flattened on
 
 GOVERNOR PIIILLIFS ADMINISTRATION. 257 
 
 one side, has a hook of -wood at one end, and a flat shell let mto a split in the 
 stick at tlie other end and lastened with gum ; upon the flat side of tliis stick 
 the lance is laid, in the upper end of which is a small hole, into which the point 
 of the hook of the throwing-stick is fixed ; this retains the lance on the flat side 
 of the stick ; then poising the lance, tlius fixed, in one hand, witli the forefinger 
 and thumb over it, to jirevcnt its falling off' sideways, at the same time hohling 
 fast the throwing-stick, they discharge it with considerable force, and in a very 
 good direction, to the distance of about sixty or seventy yards. I have since 
 seen a strong young man throw the lance full ninety yards ; which, till then, I 
 did not believe possible. I measured the distance. Their lances are in general 
 about ten feet long ; the shell at one end of the throwing-stick is intended for 
 sharpening the point of the lance, and for vai'ious other uses. I have seen these 
 Aveapons frequently thrown, and think that a man upon his guard may with 
 much ease either parry or avoid them, although it must be owned they fly with 
 astonishing velocity. 
 
 " The men in general are from five feet six inches to five feet nine inches 
 liigh ; are thin, but very straight and clean made ; walk very erect, and are 
 active. The women are not so tall or so thin, but are generally well made ; their 
 colour is a rusty kind of black, something like that of soot, but I have seen 
 many of the women almost as light as a mulatto. Most of those we saw at this 
 time were young women, who I judged were from eighteen to twenty-five years 
 of age ; they were all perfectly naked as when first born." 
 
 The beginning of the month of May 1788 was marked by increasing distrust 
 between the white intruders and the aboriginal occupants of the soil. The latter 
 appear for some time to have avoided as much as possible any quarrel with the 
 whites. But the calls of hunger were impei'ative, and on several occasions, when 
 the men sent to fish had obtained, by means of the large seine nets which had 
 been brought out from England, a more than usually successful haul, the natives 
 boldly claimed a portion for themselves. The governor, with that consideration 
 and humanity which always marked his conduct towards them, gave orders that 
 their demands should be complied Avith. During the first three months after 
 the formation of the settlement, although no lives were taken on either side, 
 blood was shed on several occasions ; and early in May the first fatal residt of 
 these quarrels took place. Two prisonei's who had gone into the bush were 
 speared — one of them succeeded in reaching the camp alive, but the other was 
 never again heard of ; and two other men employed cutting rushes were a few 
 days afterwards found dead from spear Avounds. The natives subsequently 
 stated that the murdered men had in both cases attacked and killed some of 
 their number. 
 
 A week after the formal establishment of the government. Lieutenant Philip 
 Gidley King Avas despatched Avith a small i^arty to colonise Noi'foUc Island. 
 King Avas a personal friend of Governor Phillip, and had come out as second 
 lieutenant of the " Sirius " frigate. Captain Cook had strongly recommended 
 that a settlement should be foi'med on Norfolk Island, and it was in obedience 
 to instructions received before leaving England that the earliest opportunity Avas 
 
 2k
 
 258 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 taken of sending a small party there. The expedition consisted of a surgeon, a 
 subaltern officer, and six marines, two free men who understood the cultivation 
 of flax, with which the island abounded, and nine men and six women prisoners. 
 The party sailed on the 14th of February. On the 19th of March the vessel 
 returned to Port Jackson, having landed the people and their tools and pro- 
 visions in safety. Lieutenant Ball, who went in command of the " Suj^ply," gave 
 such a glowing account of the place and of the prospects it held out for settle- 
 ment, that a short time afterwards a much larger party was despatched to 
 expedite the clearing and cultivation of land. 
 
 On the 6th of May three of the ships which had brought out the expedition 
 sailed for England, and on the 14th of July four others, leaving the " Sirius " 
 and her tender, the " Supply," and two store-ships, the " Fishburn " and " Golden 
 Grove," for the use of the colony until substantial stores could be built. 
 
 In the early part of August a circmnstance occurred which created gi-eat ex- 
 citement. A prisoner named James Daley declared that he had found gold. He 
 produced a piece of stone impregnated with gold to prove his statements ; but 
 when interrogated as to the place where he had found it, he refused to give any 
 information unless the governor would guarantee to him a certain sum of money, 
 and give him, and a woman to whom he was attached, their freedom. The 
 governor was then absent on an excursion into the interior, and Major Ross, the 
 lieutenant-governor, not only refused to comply with Daley's demand, but ordered 
 him to show in what part of the country he had found it, on pain of severe 
 punishment. He at length consented, but instead of showing the officer who 
 was sent with him where the alleged gold mine was, he artfully gave him and his 
 men the slip after leading them some distance into the bush. He then returned 
 to the camp, stated that he had left the officer in full possession of the gold 
 mine, and again disappeared. He was captured soon afterwards, and still per- 
 sisting in his story, was severely flogged. When the governor returned, another 
 officer was sent with him to the place where he alleged he had found the gold. 
 This gentleman, determined not to be fooled and laughed at, made Daley walk 
 before him, and threatened him with instant death if he attempted to run away or 
 to deceive him. Under these circumstances, he confessed that he had filed down 
 part of a yellow metal buckle, had mixed with it some particles of gold filed ofi" 
 a guinea, and had blended the whole with clay, which he managed to render 
 very hard. Upon this he was again flogged with greater severity than before. 
 But not^vithstanding this confession of Daley, and his failure to point out the 
 spot where he had at first asserted that gold existed, it was generally believed 
 then, and many believe still, that he actually did find the precious metal. 
 
 In truth there seems to have existed from very remote times an almost 
 universal opinion that Australia was rich in gold. Marco Polo, and other early 
 travellers, had recorded what they had heard in confirmation of this belief from 
 the natives of the Indian Archipelago. Columbus himself was probably actuated 
 in undertaking his first voyage as much by a belief in the golden treasures of 
 the Great South Land, as by the hope of opening up a route for reaching the 
 spices of the Moluccas and the silks of China. ^lendana and Quiros were firm
 
 GOVERNOR PHILLIFS ADMINISTRATION. 25S 
 
 believers in the golden prize Avhich awaited them if they could once set foot on 
 the shores of that mysterious country which they spent their lives in endcavoui'- 
 ing to discover. The old Dutch navigators also were so strongly impressed with 
 the same belief, that the return of General Carpenter to Amsterdam, with 
 enormous riches, shortly after his celebrated voyage from Batavia to the northern 
 coast of New Holland, in 1628, caused intense excitement, and led to the fitting 
 out of the great fleet of eleven ships, under the command of Pelsart, of which an 
 account has before been given. It was probably this belief in the auriferous 
 riches of the country which had obtained for what was formerly believed to be 
 the northern extremity of the Great South Land the name of New Guinea. 
 Whatever its origin, this fact is certain, that a belief in the golden riches of the 
 Great South Land was almost universal for ages before it was colonised by Eng- 
 land. Well aware of this opinion, many of the convicts, soon after their arrival, 
 devoted much of their time in endeavomnng to discover the precious metal so 
 abundantly found in after-times. 
 
 At this time it began to be evident that a strict husbanding of provisions 
 would be necessary to make them last until fresh sujiplies could be procured. 
 The ration was at once shortened to a small extent, and the governor determined 
 to send the " Sirius " to the Cape of Good Hope for supplies. She sailed on the 
 30th September, imder the command of Captain LIunter, reached Table Bay on 
 the 1st of January 1789, and returned to Port Jackson on the 9th of May 
 following, with a full cargo of provisions, including sufficient flour to last the 
 whole settlement for several months. When at the Cape of Good Hope, the 
 " Alexander " transport arrived there. She was one of the fleet which had left 
 Port Jackson to return to England about six months before the " Sirius " sailed 
 for the Cape. It appeared that all the vessels of that fleet had been most 
 unfortunate in their return voyage, having met with a succession of storms and 
 contrary winds. Some of them reached Eio Janeiro, and others the Cape of 
 Good Hope, with their provisions exhausted and their crews dying from scurvy. 
 The return of the " Sirius " was hailed vfiih. the utmost joy by all the settlement. 
 
 In December 1788 the keel of the first vessel built in the colony was laid ; 
 she was designed for conveying provisions to Paramatta. She was launched in 
 September of the following year and was named the " Eosehill Packet," but from 
 the clumsiness of her build and the quantity of timber used in her construction 
 she was afterwards usually known as the "Lump." A wharf or landing-place 
 was also constructed in Sydney Cove towards the end of the year. At this time 
 there were 250 persons employed in clearing and cultivating the soil, mostly at 
 Paramatta ; the others were engaged in procuring building materials, in erecting 
 stores and houses, or in building boats and wharves. 
 
 The latter part of 1788 and the first four months of the folloA^^ng year was 
 one of the darkest periods ever experienced in the history of the settlement. 
 The gloomy prospect before the people, the decrease in their rations, the severity 
 and frequency of punishments, and the strictness with which the governor found 
 it necessary to husband every resource, bred in the minds of the thoughtless and 
 improvident feelings of recklessness and despair. The stock of provision.'-
 
 260 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 brought out from England was well-uigh exhausted ; the few head of cattle also 
 brought out had disappeared no one knew where ; and nothing eatable had yet 
 been produced in the colony with the exception of a few vegetables. Many of 
 the prisoners, straying into the bush to search for edible roots or herbs, were 
 killed by the natives. Seven soldiers detected in the act of plundering the pro- 
 vision store were hanged without mercy. The care of the young settlement was 
 daily becoming desperate. 
 
 Governor Phillip, at this time of depression and anxiety, set a noble example 
 of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice. He lived on the same ration as was 
 allowed from the public store to the meanest person in the settlement. The 
 weekly quantity, issued to every person indiscriminately at this time, was but 
 two and a half pounds of flour, two pounds of rice, and two pounds of pork. 
 The latter, says Collins, when boiled, from the length of time it had been in 
 store, shrunk almost to nothing, and when divided barely afforded three or four 
 morsels. " The governor," continues the same authority, " from a motive that 
 did him immortal honour, in this season of general distress, gave up three 
 hundredweight of flour which was his Excellency's private property ; declaring 
 that he wished not to see any more at his table than the ration which was 
 received in common from the public store, without any distinction of persons; 
 and to this resolution he rigidly adhered, -nashing that, if a comact comi^lained, he 
 might see that want was not unfelt even at Government House." 
 
 The return of the " Sirius " from the Cape of Good Hope had so raised the 
 spirits of the people that the prisoners petitioned the governor to be allowed to 
 commemorate his Majesty's birthday, then near at hand, with such demonstra- 
 tions of joy as they had it in their power to show. The officers and the free 
 settlers also embraced with alacrity the opportunity of testifying their loyalty. 
 The 4th of June 1789 is remarkable as the date of the first performance of a play 
 in Australia. Collins, in his account of the rejoieing-s on this occasion, says : 
 "The 4th of June was the second anniversary of his JSIajesty's birthday com- 
 memorated in this country, and was observed with every distinction in the power 
 of the loyal inhabitants of Port Jackson. The governor received the compliments 
 due to the day in his new house, of which he had lately taken possession as the 
 government house of the colony, where his Excellency afterwards entertained the 
 officers at dinner, and in the evening some of the convicts were permitted to 
 perform Farquhar's comedy of the ' Eecruiting Officer,' in a hut fitted up for the 
 occasion. They professed no higher aim than ' humbly to excite a smile,' and 
 their efforts to jilease were not imattended with applause." 
 
 From this period it is easy to trace, in the different nari'atives and records 
 which have Ijcen preserved, a more hopeful feeling. The governor, during the 
 darkest hour, had never allowed a shadow of doubt to cross his mind as to the 
 ultimate success of the settlement and the eventual greatness of the colony. 
 From the first he devoted most of his spare time to making excursions in search 
 of Ijcttcr land for cultivation than was to be found on the shores of Port Jackson. 
 On the 6th of Juh 1789, he discovered a large liver which he named the 
 Hawkesbury, in honour of Lord Hawkesbury. He sailed up this fine stream for
 
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 GOVERNOR PIIILLTFS ADMINISTRATION. 261 
 
 more tlian a Inindi-ed miles, until he came to the shallows near a hill, Avhich ho 
 named Itichmond Hill. 
 
 There proved to be a large quantity of magnificent land on the banks of the 
 Hawkesbury, and portions were shortly afterwards allotted to settlers. In 
 addition to the encouraging prospects held out by the discovery of this fine 
 district, it was found that the farming operations at Paramatta were in such a 
 pi'omising condition that the erection of a large barn and granary was determined 
 upon. Yet as the growing crops would all be required for seed for the following- 
 year, it was deemed, early in November, absolutely necessary to place the people 
 again on short allowance. This was rendered the more imperative in consequence 
 of the destruction occasioned by the numbers of rats with which the public store 
 was overrun. The quantity of wheat produced at the Paramatta farm at the 
 first crop was upwards of two hundred bushels ; besides small portions of maize, 
 barley, and oats. 
 
 Colonel Collins, speaking of the strictness of the regulations, and the conse- 
 quent good order and regularity which prevailed in Sydney at the end of 1789 — 
 that is, someAvhat less than two years from the formation of the settlement, says : 
 " It might possibly have been asserted with truth, that many streets in London 
 were not so well guarded and watched as the small but rising town of Sydney, in 
 New South Wales." 
 
 The early part of 1790 was a period of considerable anxiety, as the stock of 
 provisions was again running low, and the rations were obliged to be shortened. 
 To make matters worse, the " Sirius " had been wrecked at Norfolk Island ; 
 and although the settlement was now two years old, no intelligence had been 
 received from England. On the 17th of April, the tender "Supply" was 
 despatched to Batavia for provisions, Lieutenant King going with it, bearing 
 desi3atches for the Home Government. The "Supply" was commanded by 
 Lieutenant Ball. 
 
 On the 8d of June a sail was descried from the South Head. It was the first 
 strange vessel which had been seen to approach Port Jackson since the foundation 
 of the settlement ; and when it was certain that the ship was making for the har- 
 bour, the joy of the people was almost unbounded. She proved to be the " Lady 
 Juliana," from London. She had sailed in July of the preceding year, and had 
 consequently been eleven months on her passage. The ship " Guardian " had been 
 despatched about the same time, with a large quantity of live stock and other 
 supplies, but had struck on a iceberg, and after having had most of her cargo 
 thrown overboard, succeeded in reaching the Cape of Good Hope, although in a 
 sinking state. The " Lady Juliana," a much smaller ship than the " Guardian," 
 had brought on part of the cargo and passengers of the latter vessel. The scale 
 of rations was now slightly increased, as it was thought that the stock on hand 
 would last until the return of the " Supply " from Batavia. 
 
 On the 20th of the same month an unexpected event occurred in the arrival 
 from England of the store-ship "Justinian," after a passage of only five months. 
 The shortness of the voyage renewed the hopes of those who longed to revisit 
 their native land, and held out a jDrospect that the attainment of their wishes
 
 262 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 was not altogether impossible. A quantity of private property had come out in 
 this ship, and as soon as her cargo was landed, the first shop ever opened in 
 Sydney disj^laycd its treasures before the admiring eyes of the people. The site 
 selected for this forerunner of commercial enterprise was a place near the cove 
 which had been used by the crew of the tender " Supply " as a cook-house. The 
 venture was that of the captain of the " Justinian." The stock was miscellaneous, 
 and formed perhaps one of the most absurd investments ever made. It mainly 
 consisted of millinery, perfumery, and glassware. The prices at first asked were 
 exorbitant, but as nobody bought anything, the importer was soon obliged to 
 submit to what would now be called "an alarming sacrifice." 
 
 The excitement occasioned by the arrival of the "Justinian" had scarcely 
 subsided Avhen three other ships, the " Surprise," the " Neptune," and the 
 "Scarborough," transports, very unexpectedly made their appearance. They 
 brought out, in addition to a large number of prisoners, detachments of some 
 companies which had been raised in England for the service of the colony, and 
 called the New South Wales Corps. They were afterwards embodied as the 
 102d Regiment. Several of the officers of this corps afterwards became very 
 prominent and wealthy colonists, the most remarkable case being that of Mr 
 John Macarthur, a man destined by his enterprise and foresight to exercise a 
 most important influence on the progress and welfare of the colony. A very 
 large number of the jirisoners had died on the voyage, in consec^uence of the 
 close and improper way in which they had been confined. 
 
 About this time Governor Phillip had a very narrow escape from being 
 murdered by the natives. He had taken two native youths to Government 
 House, for the purpose of educating them, and had treated them in the very 
 kindest manner ; but in spite of all they escaped to their old companions. 
 Hearing that these youths were amongst a tribe of natives encamped at Manl}^ 
 Beach, the governor, with a large number of friendly natives, proceeded there 
 in hopes of inducing those he had treated so kindly to return with him. Several 
 hundreds were congregated, and his Excellency went among them unarmed in 
 order to gain their confidence. One of the youths, named Bennilong, promised 
 to return in two days, and expressed a desire to introduce the governor to his 
 friends. His Excellency was surrounded by twenty or thirty natives, and on 
 Bennilong pointing out a man standing near, the governor stepped towards him. 
 The savage not comprehending what was meant, and alarmed for his own safety, 
 lifted a spear with his toes, and fixing his throwing-stick, instantly darted it at 
 the governor, whom it struck with such force that the barbed j^oint came through 
 on the other side. Captain Hunter gives the following account of the affair : 
 "The spear entered the governor's right shoulder, just above the collar bone, 
 and came out about three inches lower doAvn, behind the shoulder blade. Mr 
 Waterhouse, who was close by the governor at the time, supposed that it must 
 be mortal, for the .spear appeared to him to be much lower do^vn than it really 
 was, and supposed from the number of ainned men that it would be impossible 
 for any of the party to escape to the boat. He turned round immediately to 
 return to the boat, as he perceived Captain Collins to go that way, calling to the
 
 GOVERNOR PIULLJFS ADMINISTRATION. 263 
 
 boat's crew to brinp- up the muskets ; the f^ovcrnor also attempted to run towards 
 the boat, hokliug up the spear with both hands to keep it off the ground • but 
 owing to its great length, the end frequently touched the ground and stopped 
 him (it was about twelve feet long). Governor Phillip, in this situation, desired 
 INlr Waterhousc to endeavour if possible to take the spear out, which he 
 inuncdiatcly attempted, but observing it to be barbed, and the barb quite 
 through, he saw it would be impossible to draw it out ; he therefore endeavoured 
 to break it, but could not ; while he was making this attempt, another spear was 
 thrown out of the wood, and took off the skin between Mr Waterhouse's fore- 
 Ihiger and thumb, which alarmed him a good deal. By this time the spears 
 flew pretty thick, and while he was calling to the boat's crew, the governor 
 attempted to pull a pistol out of his pocket, but the spears flew so thick that it 
 was unsafe to stop ; however, he got it out, and fired it upon a supposition that 
 their knowing he had some fire-arms would put an end to further hostilities." 
 The whole body of natives then made good their retreat, and the governor went 
 back to Government House, where surgical assistance being at hand, the spear 
 was carefully extracted and the wound dressed. In six weeks the governor was 
 entirely recovered. 
 
 In March 1791, James lluse, the first man to whom land had been granted 
 by the Government, made the gratifying intimation to the governor that he 
 would in future be able to live upon the produce of his land, without further 
 assistance from the public stores. 
 
 In August of the same year a body of released prisoners, twelve in numljer, 
 settled down as farmers on land allotted to them at a spot called ProsjDcct Hill, 
 four miles from Paramatta. In November a most foolish attempt was made by 
 a party of prisoners to escape, and, as they imagined, to reach China, which they 
 supposed was joined on to the continent. They took with them nothing but the 
 small stock of provisions which had been served out for their usual weekly supply. 
 Of twenty Avho made the first attempt seven perished miserably, and the re- 
 mainder were brought back by persons who had been sent in pursuit. When dis- 
 covered they were almost naked and dying of hunger. The fate of these people, 
 however, did not deter others, for many similar attempts were made at various 
 times, and of course with similar results. In January 1792, it was found that, 
 of the numbers who had left the settlement Avith the hope of being able to reach 
 China, forty-four men and nine women were unaccounted for, and were believed 
 to have perished, or to be still wandering in the woods subsisting on roots and 
 berries. 
 
 The idea of the contiguity of China to Australia was possibly derived from 
 an indistinct notion possessed by some of these ignorant people of the theory 
 entertained by the old geographers that the Great South Land was connected 
 with Asia. This notion was, like the belief in the existence of the Great South 
 Land and its golden treasures, an instance of traditionary knowledge transmitted 
 from times of very great antiquity, and was a part of that folk-lore of which it is 
 now, in most cases, difficult if not impossible to trace the origin. The Chinese, 
 it should be remembered, had been accustomed to visit the northern coasts of
 
 264 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Australia for ages, and they had numerous settlements in the Indian Archipelago 
 in very remote times. 
 
 At the end of this year (1791), the land wholly or partially cleared and in 
 cultivation at Sydney and Paramatta amounted to nearly a thousand acres. 
 The live stock consisted of six horses, sixteen cows, fifty-seven sheep, and 
 twenty-five pigs. 
 
 Instructions had been sent out from England with respect to the land to be 
 granted to non-commissioned oflflcers and soldiers on the expiry of their terms of 
 service. These instructions did not embrace the cases of commissioned oflflcers 
 and free settlers, with whom special arrangements were made varying according 
 to circumstances. The regulations for non-commissioned officers and privates 
 were as follows : "To every non-commissioned officer, an allotment of 130 acres 
 of land, if single; and 150, if married. To every private man, eighty acres of 
 land, if single, one hundred, if married ; and ten acres of land for each child at 
 the time of granting the allotment; free of all taxes, quit-rents, and other 
 acknowledgments, for the term of five years ; at the expiration of which term to 
 be liable to an annual quit-rent of one shilling for every fifty acres. As a 
 further acknowledgment, a bounty was offered of three pounds per man to every 
 non-commissioned officer and private man who would enlist j^^e new corps (to 
 form a company to be officered from the marines) ; and an allotment of double 
 the above proportion of land, if they behaved well for five years, to be granted 
 them at the expiration of that time ; the said allotments not to be subject to any 
 tax for ten years. And at their discharge, at either of the above periods, they 
 were to be supplied with clothing and one year's provisions, with seed-grain, 
 tools, and imjilements of agriculture." 
 
 It is a very notable fact that, not^nathstanding the class of people who formed 
 so large a portion of the population of the settlement, up to this time hardly any 
 serious crimes had been committed. It is true that several persons had been 
 hanged for stealing food ; but their offences were for the most part such as 
 would be considered under other circumstances of a very venial character, and 
 when it is recollected that the whole settlement was frequently reduced to a 
 state bordering on starvation, it is not surprising that joei'sous accustomed to act 
 from impulse, and without a consideration of consequences either to themselves 
 or others, should have given way to temptation under such circumstances. 
 During these periods of privation the number of deaths in proportion to the 
 population was frightful. 
 
 It was now apparent that the most of the difficulties which met the settlers 
 at first were in a fair way of being overcome ; and with the prospect of leaving 
 the colony under these favom-able circumstances, Governor Phillip, whose health 
 had suffered from privation, exposure, and anxiety, announced his intention of 
 proceeding to England. He sailed on the 11th December 1792, six years having 
 elapsed since the date of his commission, and nearly five since his landing in the 
 colony. 
 
 Arthur Phillip was undoubtedly one of the most remarkalile men of his day, 
 and was admirably adapted, both by nature and education, for the imiiortant
 
 GOVERNOR PIIILLIFS ADMINISTRATION. 2G5 
 
 duties with which he was entrusted. Kind and confidinc;, under ordinaiy circum- 
 stances, almost to a fault, A\here lirmness and decision were required, where a 
 warning was needed, where duty had been neglected, deceit joractised, or the 
 public interest jeopardised, he regarded leniency as a most culpable weakness. 
 His punishments were not frequent, but prompt and terrible. With a man of 
 less self-reliance, less decision of character, or less humanity, the shores of 
 Sydney Cove would pi'obably have witnessed, in the first year of the existence of 
 the colony, more terrible scenes of vice and crime than any which history has 
 recorded. Under his rule public order was never for a moment endangered ; 
 and, considering all the circumstances by which the people under his charge 
 were smTounded, the offences committed were few and insignificant. He left the 
 colony loaded with the blessings of those over whom he had ruled, and followed 
 by earnest wishes for his safe retm^n to England and speedy restoration to health. 
 The first Australian governor in point of time, he must also be regarded as the 
 first in point of character and ability. The limited and remote sphere in which 
 he exercised his talents, his death in a short time after his return to England, 
 and the absorbing interest which attached at that period to the great events 
 transpiring on the European Continent, prevented that recognition of his ser\ices 
 and that appreciatiuj^ his character which he certainly merited from the British 
 Government and people, and which in more peaceable times, and under other 
 circumstances, he most assuredly would have received. 
 
 Governor Phillip, who had never relaxed in his efforts to benefit the 
 aborigines, took with him to England two promising young men of that 
 imfortunate race ; one of them was Bennilong, who had become much attached 
 to him; the other was his companion, Yemmerawannie. They had acquired, 
 from residing with the governor, a knowledge of the usages of civilised life, 
 and both were persons of more than ordinary sharpness and address. 
 The latter died in England, but the former returned to the colony. He 
 was, while in England, presented to George III., and introduced to most of 
 the leading men of that day. He adopted the observances of society with 
 remarkable readiness, and behaved on all occasions, while among strangers, with 
 propriety and ease ; yet soon after his return he threw off his fine clothes, 
 and the restraints of civilised life, as alike inconvenient and distasteful, and in 
 spite of all persuasions to the contrary, reverted to his old habits and his old 
 haunts. 
 
 The 1st of November 1792, was remarkable as the date of the arrival of the 
 first foreign trading vessel Avhich ever entered Port Jackson. She was the 
 " Philadelphia" bx^igautine, from the United States. The Americans were then 
 just beginning that career of enterprise which has since placed them in the 
 position of one of the leading nations of the world. A Captain Patrickson 
 happened to be at the Cape of Good Hoi^e when a ship bound for the new settle- 
 ment of Sydney Cove touched there. The American skipper, thinking the new 
 colony a likely place to afford a chance for doing a good stroke of trade, at once 
 hastened home to Philadelphia, took on board a cargo which he thought suited 
 to the market, and sailed for Sydney. When he arrived, the goods which 
 
 '1 L
 
 26G THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 formed his cargo were in great demand, and he soon disposed of the whole of 
 them at a high profit. 
 
 One of the first warrants of emancipation ever issued in the colony was made 
 out in this month (November 1792), in favour of George Barriugton, a person 
 who had acquired great notoriety at home as a pick-pocket. He had gained 
 admission, it is said, to the viceregal circle in Dublin, and had mixed amongst 
 wealthy people in London. At his trial he made a defence which rendered him 
 famous. He was a man of fashionable exterior and most insinuating address, 
 but not of much education. He has been made hero of more than one work of 
 fiction, and figures as a principal character in Lever's "O'Donohue." Few men 
 convicted of crime have ever succeeded in regaining the confidence of the world 
 and the respect of society to such an extent as Barriugton. His conduct, after 
 he arrived in the colony, was most exemplary ; and he endeavoured to atone, by 
 his good example and the influence which his manners and attainments gave 
 him with his own class, for the errors of his past life. He lived for many years 
 at Paramatta, where he was long remembered as a very gentlemanly old man, 
 scrupulously neat in dress, and courteous in deportment. Barriugton was the 
 author, or the reputed author, of the narrative of a voyage to New South Wales, 
 and a history of the colony ; but they are both very poor performances. As the 
 supposed writer of an address delivered on the occasion of one of the first 
 dramatic representations ever attempted in Sydney, he is generally thought to 
 have been possessed of some literary ability. But no person who has read Bar- 
 rington's history of the colony, and noticed its grammatical blunders, its absurd 
 mistakes, and its slipshod English, could for a moment believe its author capable 
 of writing the celebrated prologue referred to. It is due, however, to Barriugton 
 to say that he disclaimed the authorship of the histoiy published in his name.
 
 THE MILITARY DESPOTISM. 207 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MILITARY DESPOTISM. 
 
 MAJOR GROSE, ACTING-GOVERNOR — THE MILITARY ANB OFFICIAL CLIQUE — JOHN 
 MACARTHUR — ESCAPED PRISONERS — FIRST IMMIGRANTS — HARD TIMES — THE 
 SCOTCH MARTYRS — WILD CATTLE — RUNAWAYS FOUND — PROGRESS IN AGRICUL- 
 TURE — EVIL RESULTS OF MILITARY DESPOTISM. 
 
 When Governor Phillip took his departure, the government devolved on ]\Iajor 
 Francis Grose, the senior officer of the 102d Eegiment, who was subsequently 
 succeeded by Captain Paterson. The military rule continued for nearly three 
 years, and during that time the settlement Avas practically a military despotism. 
 Governor Phillip had been very chary in alienating lands to private individuals ; 
 and the total quantity granted by him did not much exceed 3000 acres ; but, on 
 his departure, those who possessed the power at once commenced to divide the 
 spoil, and in a short period had secured more than 15,000 acres for themselves 
 and their immediate friends. This appropriation of the public lands, by a small 
 but powerful class, went on for many years with a constantly increasing rapidity, 
 and enabled those who took advantage of their position to become the founders 
 of wealthy families ; and — strange as it appears — to assume, even in the infancy 
 of this then remote and insignificant dependency, the powers, privileges, and 
 social and civil status of a landed ai-istocracy ; an aristocracy — it seems absurd to 
 say it of such a people at such a time — impatient of the viceregal power, and 
 disdainful towards their less privileged fellow-colonists. It will be seen that this 
 impatience of the governor's power ultimately led them to open rebellion, and 
 their contemptuous treatment of their fellow-colonists created a feeling of 
 antagonism between classes which is hardly yet extinct. The leader of the class 
 which assumed such privileges, and enjoyed such opportunities for aggrandise- 
 ment, was John Macarthur. He arrived in the colony in 1789, as captain and 
 paymaster of the New South Wales Corps, but quitted the service in'a few years, 
 and became an extensive proprietor of land and stock, besides engaging largely 
 in commercial pursuits. The military rule which prevailed must be kept in view 
 in reading the history of the colony for the next twenty years. 
 
 In January 1793 the fate of a party of prisoners who had escaped about 
 twelve months before Avas ascertained. The leader of the party Avas a man 
 named Bryant, who, taking his Avife and child, and a number of men Avhom he 
 induced to join in the scheme, ran off with a fishing boat at night. It Avas sup- 
 posed for a considerable time that the whole party had perished, but it appears
 
 268 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 that after almost incredible sufferings some of them had managed to reach 
 Batavia, where Bryant and two of his companions died from the effects of the 
 hardships they had undergone. His wife and child and four of the convicts 
 were then taken on board an English ship, and the latter delivered up to the 
 projDer authorities. On their arrival in England, the story of their sufferings 
 excited so much compassion, that on being brought up at the bar of the Old 
 Bailey, they were merely ordered by the Court to remain in Newgate until the 
 period of their original sentences of transportation had expired. 
 
 On the 16th January 1793, the ship "Bellona" arrived from England with a 
 number of emigrant settlers. The conditions under which they came out were 
 that they should be provided with a free passage, be fui'nished with agricultural 
 tools and implements by the Government, have two years' provisions, and grants 
 of land free of expense. The situation of the land assigned to them was eight 
 or ten miles to the westward of Sydney, at a place known as the Kangaroo 
 Ground, but which the new settlers called Liberty Plains. Several of the 
 military officers, and the clergyman, also selected grants of land there. They 
 began their settlements in high spirits. From their exertions the lieutenant- 
 governor was sanguine in being enabled to increase considerably the cultivation 
 of the country. Tliey got a great deal of work done by hiring gangs on those 
 days when the prisoners on the public works did not work for the Government, 
 the gTcat labour of burning the timber after it had been cut down requiring some 
 such extra aid. But notwithstanding these great advantages, and this very pro- 
 mising beginning, the Liberty Plains settlement did not prosper, owing princi- 
 pally to the inferior quality of the soil. 
 
 The latter part of 1793 Avas another period of great privation. Some 
 accounts say it was the worst time which the colonists ever endured ; for 
 although the crops of wheat and maize were tolerably good, there was not a 
 pound of imported flour in the settlement, and the facilities for grinding Avere 
 quite inadequate to supply the wants of the people. The weekly ration now 
 consisted of nothing but the following cereals — three jjounds of wheat, five 
 pounds of maize, two pints of peas, and two of gram. At this date the first 
 tame animal killed for food in the colony — a sheep — was slaughtered by a settler, 
 and the carcase realised £6 sterling when retailed. A cow was sold for £80 
 sterling, and a calf for £15. The harvest of 1794 was fortunately a good one, 
 and the privations of the settlers were greatly relieved. 
 
 At the end of June 1794, about six years and a half after the foundation of 
 the colony, the horned cattle numbered only forty head ; and the sheep but 516. 
 From that period, however, greater success api:)ears to have attended the intro- 
 duction of stock, and the numbers rapidly increased. 
 
 In September 1794, four gentlemen, generally known as the Scotch Martyrs, 
 Messrs Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot, arrived in the colony as prisoners ; 
 and a few months afterwards another, a Mr Gerald, was sent to bear them com- 
 pany. The British Government had just before taken the alarm at the progress 
 of what were thought revolutionary doctrines, and had put into operation laws 
 which were a disgrace to any country. The gentlemen above named, persons of
 
 THE MILITARY DESPOTISM. 269 
 
 poacoaljlo lives and most estimable characters, were among the earliest victims 
 of the terror into which the English governing classes were thrown by the French 
 Revolution. The crime of which these prisoners had been convicted was sedition ; 
 and th(»ir so-called sedition was of such a character that it is difficult if not 
 impossible in this day, and with the liberty which we now enjoy, to understand 
 how it could be regarded as a crime calling for so licaA^ a punishment, or indeed 
 for any punishment at all. The fate of four out of five of these Scotch Martyrs 
 was very melancholy. Mr Gerald, who Avas a man of refined manners and deli- 
 cate susceptibility, died within about a year of his landing in the colony, having 
 never recovered from the shock which his constitution had suffered when his 
 sentence was pronounced. Three days after him Mr Skirving also died, of a 
 broken heart. Mr Palmer, who had been a clergyman, lingered until the expira- 
 tion of his sentence, but died on the homeward voyage. Mr INIuir, who had 
 been an advocate at the Scotch bar, made his escape from the colony in an 
 American vessel, called the " Otter," which had been hired by some friends and 
 admirers of his character for the express purpose of carrying him off. The 
 " Otter " was wrecked on the west coast of America, and Mr Muir suffered great 
 hardships and privations in endeavoui'ing to reach Mexico, from which country 
 he obtained a passage to Europe in a Spanish frigate. The frigate was, after a 
 sharp conflict, captured by a British man-of-war. In the action Mr jSIuir was 
 desperately wounded in the head, and was lying apparently dead on deck when 
 the frigate was boarded by the crew of the British vessel ; he revived, however, 
 after a short time, so far as to bear to be landed on the Spanish coast. After a 
 time he partially recovered and succeeded in making his way to Paris, but 
 gradually sank from the effects of his sufferings and his wounds, and died shortly 
 afterwards. Mr Margarot was the only one of the five who lived to return to 
 his native country, which he did in 1818, after the expiration of his sentence. 
 These gentlemen left behind them in the colony a most favourable impression of 
 their characters and conduct, and were regarded by many of the colonists with 
 the deepest sympathy. 
 
 In March 1795 it was ascertained from the natives that large animals with 
 horns existed in the interior. It was suspected, and with truth, that they were 
 the offspring of the cattle which had disappeared so strangely soon after the 
 settlement was formed. Efibrts were made to discover their whereabouts, but 
 for some time without success. About eight mouths afterwards, however, they 
 were found at a place about fifty miles from Sydney, beyond the Nepean Eiver ; 
 the number of the herd had increased to upwards of sixty. The place where 
 they were discovered was named the Cowpastures, and was the best grassed 
 district which at that time had been discovered in the country. They were not 
 interfered with, and consequently increased very rapidly, and formed the stock 
 from which most of the wild cattle of the colony — now a nuisance — have sprung. 
 
 In August 1795 a vessel driven by contrary winds to take shelter at Port 
 Stephens found there four white men who Avere at first supposed to be ship- 
 wrecked seamen, but who turned out to be runaway prisoners who had been 
 missing for nearly five years, and were supposed to have perished. They were
 
 270 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 brought to Sydney, and gave a most favourable account of the treatment they 
 had met with from the natives of that part of the coast. 
 
 The permission given to officers to hokl lands had operated powerfully in 
 favour of the colony, which was, in the opinion of most people, making rapid 
 strides towards that independence so long, and hitherto so vainly, Avished for. 
 These gentlemen were liberal in their employment of people ; and such had been 
 their exertions, that it appeared by a survey taken in the last month, that 982 acres 
 had been cleared by them since that permission had been received ; and it further 
 ai>peared, that there had been cleared since Governor Phillii^'s departure in 
 December 1792, 2962 acres. It must be remembered, that the colony had been 
 su2Jplied with no other gi-ain than that raised within itself from the 16th day of 
 December 1793. Some officers who had made an excursion to the Hawkesbury 
 with a view of selecting eligible spots for farms, on their return spoke highly of the 
 corn which they saw growing there, and of the picturesque appearance of many 
 of the settlers' farms. Those people told them, that in general their grounds 
 Avhich had been in wheat had produced from thirty to thirty-six bushels an acre ; 
 that they found one bushel (or on some spots five pecks) of seed sufficient to sow 
 an acre ; and that, if sown as early as the month of April or IMay, they imagined 
 the ground would produce a second crop, and the season be not too far advanced 
 to rii^en it. Their kitchen gardens were plentifully stocked with vegetables. At 
 the end of 1795 there were upwards of five thousand acres in cultivation. But 
 the privations suff'ered by the settlers in Governor Phillip's time were unparal- 
 leled in the history of British colonisation. A wealthy free settler of Sydney, 
 years after, told Dr Lang that his sole ration for a long period was a single corn 
 cob per day. For three years he lived in constant fear of death by starvation. 
 
 The condition of the settlement when the officers of the New South Wales 
 Corps first found themselves in control of its affiiirs, although there existed no 
 immediate prospect of absolute Avant, was deplorable enough. Nearly every man, 
 woman, and child was victualled from the public stores ; and although almost all 
 the prisoners, Avho then formed probably three-fourths of the population, Avere 
 ostensibly engaged on public Avorks or in clearing or cultivating the laud, the 
 daily labour expected from each individual Avas absurdly small and insignificant ; 
 and paltry as it was in amount, it AA-as seldom fully performed, or, if performed 
 nominally, Avas executed in such a careless and improper Avay as to be almost 
 useless. The labour Avas present, and the land on Avhich to employ it profitably 
 Avas not Avanting, but there Avas no machinery to control and enforce the one, 
 and in its absence no suflicient motive on the part of the convicts to take advan- 
 tage of the fertility of the other. The abundance of land at the disposal of the 
 soldier settlers AA'as accompanied by an equally ready command of labour. 
 Before they seized the opportmiity of turning both to profit, the laud Avas useless 
 and the labour idle. Suddenly finding themselves in command of both, they 
 promptly took adA'antage of the circumstance to benefit themselves ; and as in 
 benefiting themselves they advanced the interests of the whole community, few 
 Avill in the present day be inclined to look very closely into their motives. But 
 if tlie officers and their friends had confined themselves to grasping at as umch
 
 777 A' MILITARY DESPOT fSM. 271 
 
 land as tliey could possibly cultivate, and compelling their convict servants to 
 cultivate all they could procure, they woulil not deserve half the hard things 
 which have been said and written of them. But, unfortunately, human cupidity 
 is almost insatiable, and the conduct of the gentlemen in question did not prove 
 an exception to the general rule. In addition to monopolising most of the 
 available land and labour, they took advantage of their position to control for 
 their own benefit the rising commerce of the settlement ; they became dealers 
 and hucksters — it would be absurd to call them merchants under such a state of 
 things as then existed. They monopolised almost every species of traflic. The 
 non-commissioned officers of the corps were licensed to retail the .spirits which 
 their superiors purchased or distilled, and every petty dealer was obliged to buy 
 his goods of them or through them at their own prices. This state of things 
 commenced in the period now referred to — 1792-95 — but it did not end then. 
 On the contrary, it endured for nearly twenty years, and its effects were vi.sible 
 for a much longer period.
 
 272 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA ST A . 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 GOVERNOR HUNTER'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 ARRIVAL OP THE NEW GOVERNOR — ENDS MILITARY DESPOTISM — FYSHE PALMER'S 
 CASE — ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF MR MUIR — REV. MR JOHNSON — FIRST 
 PRINTING PRESS — FIRST PLAYHOUSE — CURIOUS PROLOGUE — INCREASE OF CRIME 
 — DISCOVERY OF COAL — TROUBLESOME NATIVES — HUNTER RIVER DISCOVERED — 
 ABUNDANT HARVEST — HUNTING WILD CATTLE — DISTRESSED SETTLERS — WRECK 
 
 OF THE "SYDNEY COVE "■ — ESCAPING TO CHINA MISSIONARIES FROM TAHITI — 
 
 THE FIRST CHURCH — FIRST PUBLIC MEETING— GOVERNOR HUNTER's DEPARTURE 
 — HIS CHARACTER — PROGRESS OF THE COLONY — HUNTER'S HUMANITY. 
 
 The new governor, Captain John Hunter, arrived in the colony on the 7th of 
 September 1795. He had originally come out with Governor Phillip, as captain 
 of the " Sirius " frigate, and had gone to England, in 1791, with despatches to the 
 Home Government. On Governor Phillip's relinquishing the charge of the 
 settlement. Captain Hunter had been chosen to succeed him, and jirobably no 
 better choice could have been made than that of a man who had taken a promi- 
 nent part in founding the colony, and who felt a personal interest in its success. 
 On his retui'n to Sydney he found that although considerable progress in material 
 advancement had been made during his absence, and that many of the difficulties 
 Avhieli at first beset the infant settlement had disappeared, others of almost as 
 formidable a character had arisen in their place. The military and their imme- 
 diate friends and connections had become a dominant class ; they had been 
 entrusted with the control of the government for tlu'ee years, and during that 
 period they had usurped not only the functions properly belonging to civil authority 
 but had secured for themselves a monoijoly of land, labour, and traffic. Their 
 moral conduct, too, was of a very bad kind, and set an evil example even to the 
 prisoners whom they had under their control. 
 
 The arrival of Governor Hunter was hailed with joy by all the inhabitants 
 of the settlement, except the military officers and their friends, whose iron rule 
 and crushing monopoly had made them exceedingly unpopular with the rest of 
 the community. In a letter dated Sydney, September 15, 1795, Avritten by the 
 Rev. Thomas Fyshe Palmer, one of the Scotch MartjTs whose severe sentence 
 and melancholy fate are recorded in the previous chajiter, the conduct of the 
 men who had ruled the colony for nearly three years is spoken of as grasping 
 and tyrannical in the extreme. Mr Palmer's letter was addressed to the Rev. 
 Thcophilus Lindsey, M.A., of Essex Street Chapel, London, and refers to the 
 faithful conduct of the Rev. Mr Johnson, the colonial chaplain, in reproving in 
 the most fearless manner the tyranny of the military and the gross immorality of
 
 GOVERNOR HUNTER'S ADMINISTRATION. 273 
 
 which they had been guilty. " On the first Sunday after Governor Hunter's 
 arrival," says INIr Palmer, "the Ivev. ]\Ir Johnson, in his sermon, exposed the 
 last Government, their extortion, their despotism, their debauchery, and ruin of 
 the colony, driving it almost to famine by the sale of goods at 1200 per cent, 
 profit. He congratulated the colony at the abolition of the military govern- 
 ment and the restoration of a civil one, and of the laws ; and orders are this 
 day given out that no oflicer shall sell any more liquor." ]\Ir Palmer had been 
 accomiianied in his banishment by two devoted friends, named Ellis and Boston, 
 who, out of affection and sympathy, resolved to follow him, and to take up their 
 abode in the colony as free settlers. Their connection, however, with a man 
 transported for the crime of sedition, brought the displeasure of the little military 
 despots upon their heads, and when they landed in Sydney they were interdicted 
 from following any calling by which they could support themselves. In this 
 position, being without means, they were reduced to great straits. "After such 
 kindness as theirs," said Mr Palmer in the letter before quoted, " it followed of 
 course that we lived together, and that they shared what I had. It was fortunate 
 for them that I had something left from the plunder of C. and his crew. The 
 destructive and oppressive monopoly of the military officers forbade every one to 
 purchase of the ships that came to this harbour. The military officers alone 
 bought and resold to all the colony at 1000 per cent, profit, and often more." 
 Messrs Ellis and Boston claimed the right, as British subjects, to carry on 
 trade. They were arbitrarily refused permission, denied grants of land, and 
 never employed, although by making salt and curing fish they could have saved 
 the colony from a famine. The conduct of these two young men towards ]\Ir 
 Palmer exhibits a most remarkable instance of affectionate devotion and self- 
 sacrificing sympathy. The captain of the vessel, the "Surprise," an infamous 
 character, did all he could to induce them to abandon Mr Palmer. When the 
 ship touched at Rio de Janeiro he introduced them to the viceroy as persons of 
 great mechanical .skill, who would be of great utility in instructing others. " The 
 viceroy," says Mr Palmer, in the letter to the Eev. T. Lindsey, before referred to, 
 "paid them every attention, kept a splendid table for them, had men of rank to 
 attend them, set them to work, and when convinced of their ability, offered them 
 any sum to set up in business and £300 per annum to settle in Rio. They here gave 
 another proof of their friendship for me. Though both were without a shilling, 
 they firmly rejected the offer, and every solicitation made use of for their com- 
 pliance, as it was their firm belief that C. would have murdered me in their absence." 
 After the arrival of Governor Hunter, Messrs Ellis and Boston established 
 themselves in business in Sydney as brewers and manufacturers of vinegar, salt, 
 soap, etc. When the term of Mr Palmer's sentence had expired, Mr Ellis, still 
 as devoted as ever, fitted out a small vessel to convey himself and his beloved 
 friend and pastor to England. Their little craft was neither large enough nor 
 strong enough to attempt the passage round Cape Horn, and the funds at their 
 disposal were scarcely equal to providing for the long voyage by the route of the 
 Indian Archipelago. In carrying out their plans, they touched at some of the 
 islands of the South Seas, and their little craft, after some narrow escapes, was 
 
 2 M
 
 274 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 AATecked on one of the Ladrone Islands, where they were taken prisoners by the 
 Spaniards, and JNIr Palmer, debilitated by hardship and suffering, caught a fever 
 and died. This unfoi'tunate victim to advanced political opinions, although one 
 of the so-called " Scotch Martyrs," from having been tried and convicted in 
 Scotland, was not a Scotchman by birth. He was a native of Bedfordshire, and 
 descended from an opulent family long settled in that county. He was 
 educated at the University of Cambridge, and was a fellow of Queen's College, 
 but had embraced Unitarian opinions, and in 1792 became the minister of a 
 church of that denomination at Dundee. He was a man of excellent under- 
 standing, unimpeachable morals, and great simplicity of character; and being 
 an ardent friend to liberty, he, perhaps somewhat incautiously considering the 
 circumstances of the times, took part in republishing an old "Address to the 
 People of Scotland concerning the Eeform of Parliament." For his connection 
 with this matter he w^as tried by the Circuit Court of Justiciary ; and, being con- 
 victed, a sentence was passed upon him of seven years' "banishment." 
 
 He was treated with great barbarity until the arrival of Governor Hunter, 
 who, being a humane man, gave Mr Palmer as much liberty as the circumstances 
 of the case permitted. In this present period of the history of Australasia it 
 seems incredible that men could be imprisoned and banished for holding principles 
 which are identical with those that now govern the conduct of all English states- 
 men, and even less liberal than those upon which the constitutions of these free 
 colonies are based. 
 
 The story of the escape and subsequent adventures of INIr Muir, another of 
 the Scotch MartjTS, is one of the most romantic narratives that ever was penned. 
 He was a gentleman of education and refinement, and a thoroughly Christian 
 man. A great effort was made in the House of Commons, by Charles James Fox 
 and others of the Whig leaders, to obtain his pardon, but it was unsuccessful. 
 The fame of his eloquence and constancy reached America, and George 
 Washington set on foot a project to rescue him from captivity. A vessel 
 named the " Otter " was despatched from New York, under the command of 
 Captain Dawes, and proceeded to Sydney under pretext of trading. She 
 anchored in Port Jackson in January 1796. Mr Muir was secretly communi- 
 cated with, and he succeeded in getting on board unobserved, with nothing in his 
 possession but the clothes he wore and a pocket Bible. He had not even the 
 opportunity of making his friends aware of the unexpected means provided for 
 his escape. He left a letter for the governor, expressing his grateful thanks for 
 the kindness with which his Excellency had treated him, and intimated that he 
 was on his way to America. Now commences a series of, perhaps, the most 
 remarkable circumstances on record After a voyage of about four months, the 
 " Otter " made the west coast of North America, near Nootka Sound ; she there 
 struck on a sunken rock, and quickly Avent to pieces. Every soul on board, 
 except Mr Muir and two sailors, perished ; they reached the shore more dead 
 than alive, and after wandering about for some days in a starving condition, were 
 captured by a tribe of Indians. Mr Muir, who was soon separated from his 
 companions, endeavoured to please his captors by painting and decorating his body
 
 GOVERNOR HUNTERS ADMINISTRATION. 275 
 
 and following their customs. The savages were delighted, and contrary to his 
 expectations, he was treated by them with the greatest kindness. In three 
 weeks he managed to escape. He had nothing in his possession but a few dollars 
 and his pocket Bible, and no means of directing his course. lie travelled, how- 
 ever, down the western coast of North America, a distance of nearly four 
 thousand miles, enduring the most frightful sufferings from hunger, thii\st, and 
 nakedness, but without much interruption, and at last reached the city of Panama 
 in the most abject and forlorn condition. He made his way to the presence of 
 the govornor, with scarcely a stitch of clothes on his body, and his feet bleeding 
 from the effects of his long journey ; being able to speak a little of the Spanish 
 language, he related his melancholy story, and was at once offered clothes and 
 nourishment. After a short stay, having recruited his strength, he again started 
 on foot, across the Isthmus of Panama to the city of Vei'a Cruz, a distance of 
 a thousand miles. The governor of that city, after hearing his singular story, 
 offered to send him to the Havannah. Mr Muir accepted the offer, but 
 before the vessel was ready to sail, he was attacked by the yellow fever and laid 
 on a bed of sickness, a stranger and penniless. The Spaniards, although their 
 country was at war with England at the time, acted with humanity and kindness, 
 but the governor Avith some degree of treachery, for on jNIr JNIuir's recovery, 
 although he fulfilled his promise of sending him to the Havannah, he sent him 
 as a prisoner, with a recommendation to the authorities there to send him to 
 Simin, in order that the Government might decide as to what should be done 
 with him. On reaching Cuba, he was placed in a loathsome prison, called La 
 Principe, and was again attacked by severe illness. His wish was, of course, to 
 reach the United States, but that country had no consul or agent at Havannah 
 to whom he could apply for relief After a delay of several weeks he was placed 
 on board a Spanish frigate, called the " Nymph," which, with another frigate, 
 was about to return to Europe with treasure. On board this ship he was 
 obliged to work as a common sailor. The " Nymph " and her consort made the 
 land near the harbour of Cadiz, on the morning of the 26th April 1797. Two 
 English frigates, the " Emerald " and " Irresistible," part of Sir John Jervis's 
 squadron, were on the look-out for the Spanish treasure ships, and when they 
 sighted them at once gave chase. The Spaniards came to an anchor in Canille 
 Bay, the English frigates anchored abreast of them, a mile from the shore, and a 
 desperate conflict ensued, Avhich lasted for two hours. The Spanish ships were 
 vanquished, and, by the last shot fired from the " Irresistible," Mr ]\Iuir was 
 desperately wounded in the head. As soon as the Spaniards struck, the 
 " Nymph " was boarded by the officers and crew of the " Irresistible," when, on 
 looking at the dead and dying, they were struck by the singular position in 
 which one of the bodies lay. It was lying in a pool of blood ; the face presented 
 a horrid spectacle, one of the eyes having bceu knocked out and carried away, 
 with the bone and part of the cheek ; but the hands were clasped as if in prayer, 
 and a small book (a pocket Bible) was between them. The Spanish sailors, 
 believing the man dead, were about to throw him overboard, but in the act of 
 lifting him up he uttered a deep sigh, and the book fell from his hands. One of
 
 276 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the English officei-s snatched it up, and on glancing at the first page found there 
 ■vratten the name of Thomas Muir, a man who had been his early schoolfellow 
 and companion, and with whose severe sentence, and subsequent escape from 
 Port Jackson, he was well acquainted. Taking out his handkerchief, he wiped 
 the blood from the apparently dying man's face, and although so much disfigured, 
 at once recognised the well-known features. He did not breathe a word of the 
 discovery he had made, but assisted to convey his old friend on shore to the 
 hospital at Cadiz, where the British commander had given permission that the 
 wounded Spaniards should be sent. ]Mr INIuir lay there, apparently at the point 
 of death, for two months, but at the end of that time, although suff'ering extreme 
 agony, was able to sjieak so as to make himself understood. By some means 
 his situation was made known to some friends in Paris, by whom the story of 
 his wrongs and sufferings was communicated to the French Directory, who, 
 regarding him as an opj^ressed and persecuted man, driven from his oavu country 
 for his fearless advocacy of the cause of truth and liberty, immediately oflFered 
 him an asylum in Paris. He accepted the oifer, and the French Government at 
 once made a demand on the Government of Spain that Mr ISIuir should be given 
 up. This request was readily comj)lied with, and having partially recovered, he 
 proceeded to Paris by slow and easy stages. On his entrance into France, such 
 was the sensation and the sympathy excited by the extraordinary circumstances 
 of his case, that on reaching Bordeaux, the first considerable town after crossing 
 the Spanish frontier, he was invited to a banquet by upwards of five hundred 
 gentlemen. The mayor of the city presided, and the most unbounded enthu- 
 siasm was disjilayed. But the fatigue he had undergone, and the excitement, 
 in his then enfeebled state, were too much for his strength, and when he 
 attempted to rise to return thanks, he fainted in the arms of the American 
 consul, who sat at his side. He reached Paris on the 4th February 1798. His 
 company was courted by the most eminent men in France, and everything that 
 the most devoted kindness and medical aid could suggest was done to relieve his 
 sufferings ; but all was useless. His wounds were incurable, and, after lingering 
 for a few months, he exjiired at Chantilly, near Paris, on the 27th September 
 179S, and was interred there, at the expense of the French nation, ^Y\i\\ every 
 mark of resjDect. Before his death he sealed up the Bible which had been his 
 constant solace and companion in all his dangers and trials, requesting that it 
 might be forwarded to his aged parents in Scotland. They lived to receive their 
 beloved son's bequest, but the shock of his death completed what his wrongs 
 had left unfinished, and they both died shortly afterwards. 
 
 Of the melancholy fate of Mr Muir's fellow-exiles mention has already been 
 made. Mr Gerald, a man of great ability and of the most amiable and refined 
 manners, soon succumbed to the hardships of his lot. But before his death he 
 purchased a small ])icce of ground at Farm Cove (now part of the Sydney 
 Botanic Gardens), one of the most beautiful spots in Australia. He cultivated 
 this little plot of gi'ound as a garden, and when he died was, in accordance with 
 his often expressed wish, l)uricd there. Mr Skirviiig only survived INIr Gerald 
 three days. A contemporary account says : "A dysentery was the apparent cause
 
 GOVERNOR IIUNTEKS ADMIN JHTRATION. 277 
 
 of his death, but his heart was broken. Among us he was a pious, honest, 
 worthy character. In this settlement his political ])rinci[)les never manifested 
 themselves; but all his solicitude seemed to be to evince himself llic friend of 
 Jiunian nature. liequiescat in imcer Mr JMarj^arot, as before remarked, Avas 
 made of sterner stuff, and a man of a verj' dilferent stamp. lie survived his 
 period of exile, Avent home in 1810, and gave important evidence before a select 
 committee of the House of Commons, in 1812, on the state of the colony, which 
 exercised an important influence in reforming the glaring abuses which had 
 grown up in connection with the monopolising and trafficking proceedings of the 
 military officers and their friends. 
 
 The Rev. Mr Johnson, the first colonial clergyman, and at this time the only 
 one, to whose faithful discharge of his duty and fearless denunciation of the vices 
 of the military riders of the colony, ISIr Palmer bears testimony in the letter 
 before quoted, although a minister of the Church of England, had embraced the 
 peculiar views of the Moravian Methodists. He was a Cambridge man, of 
 Magdalen- College, and was an excellent and zealous pastor, but of too retiring, 
 quiet, and meek a character to exercise much personal influence on the men who 
 had the control of affairs at the period in question. In addition to the discharge 
 of his duties as chaplain to the settlement, he devoted considerable attention to 
 horticulture, and was the first to introduce the culture of the orange into the 
 colony. His orchard was at Kissing Point, and his trees were grown from seeds 
 which he had jirocured at Eio Janeiro. He subsequently returned to England 
 with a considerable fortune, the results of his own industry and enterprise. The 
 fact of his having erected a church by voluntary effort, at such a period, and 
 under very difficult and discouraging circumstances, goes far to prove his piety 
 and zeal ; and the testimony borne by Mr Palmer as to the way in which, on the 
 arrival of Governor Hunter, he reproved the debauchery and tyrannical conduct 
 of those who for a period of three years had administered the government of the 
 colony, and who Avere yet in a position to injure him, if so minded, affords a 
 guarantee for his faithfulness and courage. 
 
 One of the first acts of Captain Hunter, after assuming the government, was 
 establishing a small pi'inting-office. The press and tyj^es had been brought out 
 originally by Governor Phillip, but had never been used for want of some one 
 who understood the art of printing. A printer was at last found in a young 
 man named Howe, a Creole of St Christojjher's, in the West Indies, who had 
 lately arrived in the colony. The press was at the first employed in printing 
 official notices only, but in the course of time the office was extended, and about 
 eight years afterwards a small newspaper, the Sydney Gazette, was established, 
 which continued, inider Mr Howe's control, to be the official organ of the 
 Government for upwards of thirty years. 
 
 A playhouse Avas erected by some of the prisoners in 1796, and opened on 
 the 16tli of January. The opening performances Avere " The Revenge " and 
 " The Hotel." The manager's name Avas SparroAV, and the actors were IVIessrs 
 Green, FoAvkes, Hughes, Chapman, and ISIrs DaA'is. George Barrington appears 
 to have taken an active share in the business, and is credited Avith having Avritten
 
 278 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the prologue spoken on the occasion. This, however, has been denied, on the 
 ground that Barrington's Hterary abihty was not equal to the task of composing 
 so very clever a piece. As this prologue has become very famous in colonial 
 history, we give it in full : 
 
 " Fi'om distant climes, o'er ■wiclespread seas we come, 
 Tlioiigli not with much eclat, or beat of drum ; 
 True patriots all, for, be it understood. 
 We left our country for our country's good : 
 No piivate views disgi-aced our generous zeal, 
 What lu-ged our travels, was our country's weal j 
 And none will doubt, but that our emigration 
 Has proved most useful to the British nation. 
 
 But, you inquii-e, what could our breasts inflame, 
 With this new passion for theatric fame ; 
 What, in the practice of onr former days, 
 Could shape our talents to exhibit plays ? 
 Your patience, sii's, some observations made. 
 You'll gi'ant us equal to the scenic trade. 
 
 He, who to midnight ladders is no stranger, 
 You'U own wDl make an admirable Eanger. 
 To seek Macheath we have not far to roam. 
 And sure in FUch I shall be quite at home. 
 Unrivalled there, none will dispute my claim 
 To high pre-eminence and exalted f;ime. 
 
 As oft on Gadshill we have ta'en our stand, 
 When 'twas so dark you could not see your hand, 
 Some true-bred Falstaff we may hope to stai't, 
 Who, when well bolstered, well will play his part. 
 The scene to vary, we shall try in time 
 To treat you with a little pantomime. 
 Here light and easy columbines are found. 
 And well-tried harlequins with us abound ; 
 From durance vile oui- precious selves to keep. 
 We often had recoui'se to th' flying leap ; 
 To a black face have sometimes owed escape. 
 And Hounslow Heath has proved the worth of crape. 
 
 But how, you ask, can we e'er hope to soar 
 Above these scenes, and rise to tragic lore ? 
 Too oft, alas ! we've forced th' unwilling tear, 
 And petrified the heart with real fear. 
 Macbeth a harvest of applause will reap, 
 For some of us, I fear, have murdered sleep ; 
 His lady too with gi'ace will sleep and talk, 
 Our females have been used at night to walk. 
 
 Sometimes, indeed, so various is our art. 
 An actor may improve and mend his part ; 
 ' Give me a horse,' bawls Richard, like a ch'one, 
 We'll find a man would help himself to one. 
 Grant us j'our favour, put us to the test. 
 To gain your smiles we'll do our very best ; 
 And, without dread of future Turnkey Lockits, 
 Thus, iu an honest way, still pick your pockets."
 
 GOVERNOR HUNTERS ADMINTSTRATTON. 279 
 
 It must be added that the increase of crime was so great and so marked 
 after the opening of the theatre, that the governor was soon obliged to issue 
 orders for levclUng tlie place with the ground ; and that high-handed course met 
 with the general ai)proval of the more respectable people of all classes of the 
 commuuity. 
 
 In June 1796, the first coal discovered in the colony was brought to Sydney 
 by some men a\1io had been employed in fishing, and had taken shelter in what 
 they described as "a bay near Port Stephens," evidently meaning the cnti'aiicc 
 to river Hunter, afterwards called Port Hunter or Newcastle Harbour. AlDOut 
 the same time coal was also found at the Coal Clifi" at Bulli by part of a ship- 
 wrecked crew, and the seams there traced for several miles by an officer and 
 some men who had been sent in search of them. The first natural produce of 
 the country ever turned to profit, as an export, was a quantity of coals con- 
 sisting of forty-four tons, dug from the cliff" at Newcastle, which was exchanged 
 for some nails and old iron with the master of an American ship. The first 
 regular export of coal was in the year 1801, when a small brig called the "Anna 
 Josepha," which had been built in the colony, was freighted with colonial timl)ei; 
 and coals, and desj^atched to the Cape of Good Hope. Both the coals and the 
 timber met with a ready market there. The coals were sold at £6 a ton. 
 
 The accounts of the years 1796 and 1797 are full of stories of conflicts between 
 the settlers and the natives, in which very little mercy appears to have been 
 shown on either side. The frequent cause of quarrel between them was the 
 plundering of the growing maize crops by the blacks ; and to such an extent was 
 this carried on some of the more outlying farms that some of the settlers on 
 the Hawkesbury had to abandon their lands in 1797, after they had devoted 
 several years to the labour of clearing and cultivation. The truth is, that the 
 fire-arms of the whites had so thinned and frightened the game on which the 
 unfortunate natives had been accustomed to rely for food, that they were driven 
 by starvation to prey upon the crops of the settlers ; while the scarcity of animal 
 food among the latter compelled them to adopt every means in their power to 
 eke out their scanty rations with game and fish. 
 
 About the middle of September 1797, the Hunter Eiver was discovered by 
 Lieutenant Shorthand. He had been sent in pursuit of a party of convicts who 
 had run off with the best boat in the colony while on her passage to the Hawkes- 
 bury. He was lansuccessful in his pursuit of the pirates, but more than compen- 
 sated for that misfortune by the discovery of one of the finest rivers of eastern 
 Australia, which he named the Hunter in honour of the governor. 
 
 The harvest of 1797 was a very abundant one ; and as the live stock had 
 lately done well, and Avas fast increasing, particularly the sheep and pigs, the 
 prospects of the settlement, which had now been founded nearly ten years, were 
 considered to be rapidly improving. In January 1798, the land under cultivation 
 with wheat and maize amounted to nearly 5000 acres ; the sheep numbered 
 about 2500, the pigs upwards of 4000, and the horned cattle 327. 
 
 A rejiort having reached Sydney that a herd of wild cattle was roaming about 
 at a place some forty miles beyond Paramatta, the governor, with a party, went
 
 280 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 in search of them, and found a large number of really fine cows, with calves at 
 their feet. The country where they were found grazing was remarkably pleasant 
 to the eye ; everywhere the foot trod on thick and luxm-iant grass ; the trees 
 were thinly scattered, and free from underwood, except in particular spots ; 
 several beautiful flats presented large ponds, covered with ducks and the black 
 swan, the margins of which were fringed with shrubs of the most delightful tints, 
 and the ground rose from these levels into hills of easy ascent. The question 
 how these cattle came hither appeared easy of solution. The few that were 
 lost in 1788, two bulls and five cows, travelled without interruption in a western 
 direction until they came to the banks of the Nepean. Arrived there, and finding 
 the crossing as easy as when the governor had forded it, they came at once into 
 a well-watered country, and amply stored with grass. From this place they had 
 no inducement to move. They were in possession of a country equal to their 
 support, and in which they remained undisturbed. The settlers had not till then 
 travelled quite so far westward ; and but few natives were to be found there- 
 abouts ; they were likely, therefore, to remain for years unmolested, and securely 
 to propagate their species. It was a pleasant circumstance, to have in the woods 
 of New Holland a thriving herd of wild cattle. Many proposals were made to 
 bi'ing them into the settlement ; but in the day of want, if these should be 
 sacrificed, in what better condition Avould the colony be for having possessed a 
 herd of cattle in the woods 1 — a herd which, if suffered to remain undisturbed for 
 some years, would, like the cattle of South America, always prove a market 
 sufficient for the inhabitants of that country ; and, perhaps, not only for their own 
 consumption, but for exportation. The governor saw it in this light, and deter- 
 mined to guard against any attempts to destroy them. 
 
 The history of these times published under the name of George Barrington 
 gives the following account of the position of the small settlers early in 1797 : 
 "A petition Avas presented from them in April, expressive of the distress they 
 were under, both from the high wages they gave for working their ground, 
 and the immense price paid for all articles requisite to carry on business. 
 Another evil oppressed them, which was an unbounded rage for traffic. Even 
 the delivery of grain into the public storehouses was completely monopolised, 
 and settlers had few opportunities of getting anything near the value of their 
 crops, being obliged to dispose of it to those whose greater influence could get it 
 received into the public store. Orders had been often issued on this subject, 
 directing the storekeejiers to give the preference to those whose grain was the 
 produce of their own labour, and to let favour be shown to the poor settler. 
 These directions had been often frustrated, from the knowledge of which the 
 governor was completely kept. On the 5th of March, a court was held at 
 Paramatta. The business consisted chiefly respecting debts contracted between 
 the dealers and the settlers ; and as a proof to what height this business had 
 arrived, it is only necessary to state that an appeal was made to the governor in one 
 cause for a debt of the very serious sum of £8G8, 16s. lOd., which was withdrawn 
 on the defendant consenting to pay it. The governor having received from the 
 settlers, by means of two gentlemen he sent to them (the Kev. Mr Marsden and
 
 GOVERNOR HUNTERS ADMINISTRATION 281 
 
 Mr Arndcll), a statement of their grievances and distresses, informed them that 
 he Avas sorry to see the etfects of them at each civil comt hehl. The debts with 
 which they were so frequently burdened, throu<,di imposition and extortion, 
 committed by dealers who infested the colony, added to the diiliculties under 
 which an industrious man laboured, showed there wanted some mode of providinj^ 
 the necessaries required ; these were grievances of which he determined to get 
 the better, and he resolved to adopt every means in his power to give them 
 relief." 
 
 This sad condition of things appears to have acquired its greatest intensity 
 under Governor Hunter, who, although a man of the greatest kindness of heart, 
 and of the highest honour and integrity, seems to have been thwarted or very 
 easily hoodwinked by the adroit schemers by whom he was suri'ounded. His 
 unsuspicious nature and easiness of disposition were almost proverbial, and were 
 frequently taken advantage of by designing persons. He issued repeated orders 
 and used all his influence to supj^ress the gross impositions practised on the 
 mass of the community by the privileged few, but his efforts were generally 
 fruitless, and things went on from bad to worse, until they became almost 
 intolerable. 
 
 About the middle of February 1797, a ship called the " Sydney Cove," 
 belonging to Messrs Campbell & Co., while on a voyage from India to New 
 South Wales, was wrecked at Furneaux's Islands, near Bass's Straits. Mr 
 C A. Hamilton, the master, and part of the crew, remained at the place where 
 the wreck occurred for a period of about ten months. Mr Clarke, the super- 
 cargo, with the chief officer and fifteen men, endeavoured to reach Sydney in the 
 long-boat, but were driven on shore somewhere to the south of Caj^e Howe, 
 from whence they attempted to travel northward, and so reach the settlement 
 by land. The distance was very great — nearly four hundred miles, and the 
 difficulties they had to encounter of the most formidable character. They 
 persevered manfully for a time, but at length began to drop one by one, and 
 lost each other daily. Their number, on reaching the lUawarra district, was 
 reduced to five. Most of the tribes of natives they had met with before they 
 ai'rived tliei*e had been friendly, but now they had the misfortune to fall in with 
 two half-civilised blackfellows from Botany Bay — the men who had endeavourLMl 
 to entrap INlr Bass and Lieutenant Flinders a short time before, when on their 
 first voyage of discovery in a little boat called the "Tom Thumb." These 
 scoundrels killed the chief mate and carpenter, leaving only ]\Ir Clarke, one 
 English sailor, and a Lascar. They succeeded at last, after undergoing the most 
 frightful suff'erings, in reaching Watta-mowlee, a little inlet on the coast about 
 midway between Botany Bay and WoUongong, and the place where Messrs 
 Flinders and Bass had found shelter some time before from the storm which 
 threatened to destroy their tiny craft. At Watta-mowlee JNIr Clarke and his 
 companions were discovered by some fishermen, who gave them a passage to 
 Sydney, where they arrived on the 17th April, having been two months on their 
 perilous journey. The governor, on learning the situation of Captain Hamilton 
 and the remainder of the crew, despatched, in the following month, a schooner 
 
 2 N
 
 282 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 called the " Francis " to tlieii' assistance. They were all at length rescued, and 
 a considerable part of the cargo of the " Sydney Cove " recovered, about ten 
 months after her wreck. The extraordinary journey of Mr Clarke and his 
 companions is the more noteworthy from the fact, that they were the first to 
 discover and to give information respecting the existence of coal in the cliff at 
 Bulli. Captain Hamilton, the unfortunate commander of the " Sydney Cove," 
 sur\'ived his arrival in Sydney but a short time. He never got the better of the 
 distress he suffered from the loss of his ship and the hardships he encountered 
 during the long period of his enforced residence on the island where she was 
 wrecked. 
 
 The absurd attempts to reach China overland, which were referred to in a 
 previous chapter as having taken place shortly after the foundation of the settle- 
 ment, continued to be repeated for many years. In 1798, when the colony had 
 been in existence more than ten years, these misdirected efforts were as nume- 
 rous as ever. Barrington's " History," under date May 2d, 1798, says : " Some 
 of the Irishmen who had for some time been searching for a road to China, were 
 brought in by the settlers near George's River. They had wandered through 
 the Avoods till nearly perished for want of food, when they were discovered in an 
 unexpected way. Some people going from Botany Bay up George's Eiver, had 
 lost themselves by following an arm of that river never before looked into. 
 During this mistake, they met these people, whose want of knowledge of the 
 country led them down on a point of land placed between two watei's, where 
 they remained nine days, unable to return, and must have perished had not an 
 accidental mistake led the people in the boat to them. The narrative given of 
 their travels and sufferings was the same as of other similar adventures, and 
 added one more to the many already recounted to prove that daring folly and 
 extreme ignorance must be acting in strong conjunction over the minds of those 
 who made such attempts." 
 
 Collins, writing in January 1798, respecting these singularly absurd attempts 
 to reach China, says : " Occasional desertions of one or two people at a time had 
 occurred from the first establishment of the colony ; but the first Irish convicts 
 that ai-rived from Ireland in the year 1791 went off in numerous bodies, few of 
 whom ever returned. They too were prepossessed with a notion of the possi- 
 bility of penetrating through the woods to China, and imparted the same idea to 
 all their countrymen who came after them, engaging them in the same act of 
 folly and madness. It was not then to be wondered at, that Wilson, who had 
 returned from living in the woods, should, among other articles of information, 
 mention his finding more than fifty skeletons, which the natives assured him had 
 been white men, who had lost their way and perished. This account was cor- 
 roborated by difterent European articles which were found, such as knives, old 
 shoes, and other things which were known not to belong to the natives." 
 
 On the 14th April 1798, the settlement received a small but very valuable 
 addition to its population by the arrival from Tahiti of a number of missionaries, 
 who had been driven by the violence of the natives to seek refuge in the nearest 
 British settlement. The vessel in which they reached Sydney was a small brig
 
 GOVERNOR HUNTERS ADMINISTRATION. 283 
 
 called the " Nautilus," a wretched worn-out craft, incapable of accommodating the 
 whole of the party, so that six or seven had to be left boliind. These gentlemen 
 had been sent out by the London Missionary Society to evangelise the natives of 
 the Society Islands, and great expectations were formed of their success. The 
 ship "Duft'" sailed from Tower Wharf, London, amidst the cheers of thousands 
 of spectators, with flags Hying and banners streaming, as if going forth conquer- 
 ing and to conquer. But the enterprise, although the ship arrived safely at her 
 destination, proved one of the most unsuccessful ever attempted by enthusiasts. 
 In their missionary efforts they met with nothing Init disappointments and 
 disasters. They found themselves, after the ship had left Tahiti, cooped up 
 together in a small space, and in danger of their lives if they weakened their 
 numbers by separating. They hailed with joy the appearance at Tahiti of the 
 " Nautilus," small, half-rotten, and ill-found as she was, and all who could pos- 
 sibly be accommodated bargained with her master to be taken to Sydney. They 
 were received by the governor and principal colonists with kindness, and gi'ants 
 of land and other inducements to remain were offered them. A few months 
 after their arrival, however, one of their number, a INIr Clode, met with a fate 
 quite as dreadful as that which he had fled from Tahiti to avoid. He was 
 murdered in July 1799, by a soldier named Thomas Jones. While leaning over 
 a table writing a receipt for some money, which he had just received, he was 
 felled by the blow of an axe ; his throat was then cut, and his body buried in a 
 saw-pit, by his assassin, with the assistance of two accomplices, a man and a 
 woman, both belonging to the free part of the population. The culprits, having 
 been discovered and convicted, were all executed two days afterwards, on the 
 very spot where the crime had been committed. The two men were hung in 
 chains, the body of the woman given to the surgeons for dissection, and the 
 house in which the murder was perpetrated burned to the ground. 
 
 Some of these gentlemen lived to a very great age, and one of their number, 
 Mr Henry (who went again to the Islands as a missionary, and remained there 
 for many years, but eventually returned to the colony), even survived the first 
 half of the present century. This venerable colonist died at Kissing Point, 
 Paramatta River, some twenty years since, having attained the age of nearly 
 ninety years. 
 
 On the evening of the 1st October 1798, the little church, of the erection of 
 which by voluntary effort, and chiefly by the exertions of the Kev. Mr Johnson, 
 previous mention has been made, was discovered to be on fire. Barrington's 
 account says : " In the evening, the church on the east side of the cove was dis- 
 covered to be on fire. Every assistance Avas given, but ineffectually ; for as the 
 building was covered with thatch, which was exceedingly dry, it was completely 
 consumed in an hour. This was a great loss, and calculated to impede the pi'o- 
 gress of morality, as during the week it was used as a school, for two hundred 
 children to be educated, under the Rev. ]\Ir Johnson. As the church stood 
 alone, and no person was suffered to remain in it after school hours, there was 
 no doubt that it was the efiect of design, in consequence of the late order to 
 enforce attendance on divine service which had been rigidlv executed ; with a
 
 284 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 view of rendering, by the destruction of the building, the Sabbath a day of as 
 little decency and sobriety as any other. The perpetrators were, however, dis- 
 ajijiointed ; for the governor, justly deeming this to have been the motive, and 
 highly irritated at such a shameful act, resolved, if no convenient place could be 
 found for the performance of public Avorship, that Sunday, instead of being- 
 employed as each thought proper, the labouring gangs should be employed that 
 day in erecting another church. However, as a large store-house was just 
 finished, it was fitted up as a church ; and thus not one Sunday did this wicked 
 design aff"ect the regular performance of divine service. A reward of £30 was 
 off"cred for the discovery of the offender, with emancipation to the informer and 
 a recommendation to the master of a ship to take him or her from the settlement. 
 But rewards and i^unishment alike failed to effect any good among the prisoners." 
 
 One of the first attempts made in the colony to produce a textile fabric is 
 thus noticed in Barrington's "History:" "The want of clothing, during April 1799, 
 stimulated several experiments to be made, to remedy what indeed there seemed 
 no other way of getting the better of. An end of a linen Aveb pi^oduced from 
 flax of the country, was crossed with thread made of the bark of a tree, and a 
 web from the bai'k was crossed by a thread of avooI. Specimens of these were 
 sent to England, and at least served to show, that Avith proper tools, and proper 
 hands, much might be done ; nor must be forgot, the discovery of a strata of 
 coal, or the iron ore, which on being smelted has been found at least equal to the 
 Swedish iron." 
 
 In March 1799 the HaAvkesbury district Avas visited Avith severe floods, in 
 which a very great destruction of property took place and some lives Avere lost. 
 This flood of 1799 Avas AvhoUy unexpected. No rain having fallen in the district 
 for a considerable time, and no calamity of the kind having been previously 
 experienced, the inundation appeared to the settlers perfectly inexjjlicable. The 
 river rose suddenly to the height of fifty feet, and swept aAvay the GoA^ernment 
 House, as the residence of the agricultural superintendent Avas called. Large 
 quantities of live stock, grain, and imjilements Avere also destroyed. The rain 
 which caused the disaster must have fallen far in the interior, no indications of 
 the approach of Avet weather having been observed by the settlers, although it 
 A\\as said that some of them had been Avarned by the aborigines of Avhat was 
 coming. 
 
 In June 1 799 the first juiblic meeting ever held in the colony took place. 
 The object in A'icAv Avas to raise funds, by voluntary assessment of the inhabi- 
 tants, for building a more secure and substantial gaol. The meeting was 
 convened by the governor, and Avas attended by most of the civil and military 
 officers, and the principal inhabitants and landholders. A good deal of public 
 spirit appears to have been manifested on the occasion. The proposal for raising 
 the fluids required for erecting the Imilding by assessment Avas readily agreed to 
 by the meeting, many of those Avho Avcre in a position to do so promising to give 
 labour and materials as Avell as their proportion of the expense in money. The 
 gaol was accordingly built by the inhabitants, at their OAvn cost, the ironwork 
 only having been supplied from the king's stores.
 
 GOVERNOR IJUNTEKS ADMINISTRATION. 285 
 
 Governor Hunter embarked for Eni^land on September 28, 1800. " His 
 departure," says Barrington's "History," " was attended with every mark of respect 
 and regret. The road to the wharf was lined with troops, and he was accom- 
 panied by tlic ofTicers of the civil and military departments, with a concourse of 
 inhabitants, who showed by their deportment the high sense they entertained 
 of the regard he had ever paid to their interests, and the justice and humanity 
 of his government." 
 
 The Rev. Dr Lang, in his "Historical and Statistical Account of New South 
 Wales," speaking of Governor Hunter's conduct as a ruler, and his character as 
 a man, says : "The second governor of New South Wales was John Hunter, Esq., 
 post-captain in the Royal Navy. Captain Hunter was a native of Scotland, and 
 had been appointed, in virtue of a special Order in Council, second captain of 
 the ' Sirius ' frigate, in the year 1787 ; Captain Phillip having the temporary 
 command of that vessel during the voyage to New South Wales, as well as the 
 general command of the expedition for the establishment of the colony. In this 
 capacitj^ Captain Hunter had made great exertions and undergone great priva- 
 tions ; and the experience he had thus acquired was well calculated to qualify 
 him for the more important charge with which he was afterwards entrusted. 
 During his government, the first free settlers, who emigrated to New South 
 Wales in pursuance of Governor Phillip's recommendations, arrived in the 
 territory ; and one of their number — a Scotchman from the neighbourhood of 
 Edinburgh, whose sons are now substantial landholders in different parts of the 
 territory — has told me that the governor went with him in person to superintend 
 the measurement of his land, and to ascertain in what way he could promote his 
 settlement, and render it as comfortable as possible. Indeed, Governor Hunter 
 appears to have been a man of sound judgment, of strictly virtuous principles, 
 and of warm benevolence ; and had he not been counteracted by the influence 
 and the practices I have already described, the colony would have prospered 
 greatly under his administration, and profligacy would have hidden her head and 
 been ashamed." 
 
 The material progress which the colony had made under Captain Hunter's 
 rule may be judged of to some extent from the increase in live stock and land in 
 cultivation. When he left there were 203 horses, 1044 head of horned cattle, and 
 6124 sheep. The land under crop was 7677 acres in wheat, maize, and barley alone, 
 exclusive of what was applied to the growth of potatoes and other produce. The 
 population, including 961 at Norfolk Island, numbered 6508. In the means of 
 moral advancement some progress had also been made. Several schools had been 
 established, and on breaking up for the holidays at the last Christmas which his 
 Excellency spent in the colony, upwards of a hundred well-dressed boys and 
 girls came with their teachers to Government House to pay their resjDccts. The 
 governor was highly gratified at such a proof of social and moral progress, and 
 examined the young colonists as to their proficiency in various branches of study. 
 Some of the settlers had at this time very large quantities of land under cultivation. 
 Mr Palmer, the head of the Commissariat Deiiartmcnt, had between two and 
 three hundred acres in wheat alone. One of the Hawkesbury settlers, originally
 
 286 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 a prisoner, had nearly as much, and several other farmers upwards of a hundred 
 acres each. 
 
 Shortly after Captain Hunter's arrival in England he Avas a])pointed to the 
 command of the " Venerable," 74. While in that jjositiou circumstances occurred 
 which brought out his simple, generous, humane, and self-sacrificing character in 
 the sti'ongest light. While cruising in the channel a seaman fell overboard, and 
 Captain Hunter, although his ship was in a dangerous position, ordered her to 
 be put about to pick him up. It attempting to accomplish this, she unfortunately 
 missed stays, ran ashore, and was wrecked. Captain Hunter was thereupon 
 tried by court-martial ; and on being asked what had induced him to order the 
 ship to be put about under such dangerous circumstances, replied that "he con- 
 sidered the life of a British seaman of more value than any ship in his JNIajesty's 
 Navy."
 
 GOVERNOR KING'S ADMINISTRATION. 287 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GOVERNOR KING'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 GOVERN0R king's EARLY CAREER — A SELF-MADE MAN — POOR OPINION OF THE COLONY 
 
 — A TOO EASY RULE — BAD EFFECTS MATERIAL PROGRESS — MACARTHUR's 
 
 MERINOS— EXTRAVAGANT PRICES — MONOPOLIES — THE IRISH REBELS — REV. HENRY 
 FULTON — GENERAL HOLT — MILITARY TYRANNY — THE GOVERNOR'S WEAKNESS — 
 FRENCH EXPEDITION — A FRENCH VIEW OF THE COLONY — MATERIAL PROGRESS — 
 
 HIGH PRICES — FLINDERS AND BAUDIN SIR HENRY HAYES — -REVOLT OF THE 
 
 PRISONERS — CRUEL REPRISALS — NORFOLK ISLAND ABANDONED — FLOODS IN THE 
 HAWKESBURY — KINg's DEPARTURE — HIS CHARACTER — PROGRESS DURING HIS 
 RULE. 
 
 The new century began for the colonists with the rule of a new governor. This 
 was Captain Philip Gidley King, the officer who had been the founder and 
 lieutenant-governor of the settlement at Norfolk Island. Captain King was the 
 son of a draper at Launceston, in Cornwall, and having passed nearly all his life 
 at sea, was said to be somewhat impetuous in manner and exceedingly out- 
 spoken in language. He was an intimate friend of Captain Phillip, the first 
 governor, and they had served together with distinction in various parts of the 
 world. They were both self-made men, and this circumstance probably cemented 
 the lasting friendship which existed between them. Unlike his more able and 
 far-seeing friend. Captain King had a very poor opinion of the resources of the 
 colony, and a much worse one of many of the people who had been sent out to 
 develop them. It is creditable to his judgment and character, however, that he 
 quickly perceived and deeply regretted the consequences of the odious monopoly 
 then exercised by the military and civil officers, and determined, so far as he 
 was able, to destroy it. For this purpose he encouraged and brought into notice 
 the most deserving of the emancipated prisoners. Previous to this time no 
 license to dispose of wines or spirits, either by wholesale or retail, had been 
 granted to any but commissioned or non-commissioned officers. The latter were 
 of course under the control of their military superiors, many of whom had 
 amassed very large sums by the spirit monopoly. The governor's object was a 
 very praiseworthy one, but unfortunately he attempted to carry it out in an 
 injudicious and inqjroper manner. One of his most serious errors Avas the 
 granting of the privilege to sell spirits far too lavishly and indiscriminately. He 
 allowed the gaoler to sell rum at a place opposite the gaol door. A like privi- 
 lege was accorded to the chief constable and other persons whose duties were
 
 288 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 utterly incompatible Avith tlie practice of the publican's calling. The couse- 
 quenca was that drunkenness and crime rapidly increased ; and it became plain 
 that in attempting to cure one evil Governor King had created others and much 
 greater ones. That the morals of the community were at this time at a very 
 low ebb there can lie no doubt ; but, in spite of all drawbacks on this score, the 
 colony increased rapidly in wealth. This progress was in a great degree owing 
 to the foresight and enterprise of one man. Captain John Macarthur, who had 
 arrived in the colony in 1791, as an officer of the New South Wales Corps. He 
 appeal's to have been struck with the great pastoral capabilities of the country, 
 almost on his landing, and forthwith determined to become a settler. He soon 
 commenced to improve the breed of sheej), with the intention of introducing the 
 growing of fine wool for exportation to England. The first attempts made by 
 Mr Macarthui", and others who Avere induced to follow his example, consisted in 
 crossing the small Bengal sheep with the larger Cape breed. The success which 
 attended this experiment was so encouraging that specimens of AvooUen cloth, 
 manufactured from the improved staple, were sent to England so early as 1798. 
 Mr ISlacarthur's far-seeing intelligence and enlightened ambition were, however, 
 by no means satisfied with the result. He endeavoured, shortly afterwards, to 
 procure from England sheep of the best Spanish merino breed, and ultimately 
 succeeded in obtaining from the king's farm, at Kew, some very choice animals 
 of that description. The immediate success of his experiment exceeded all 
 reasonable expectations, but the full extent and ultimate consequences were 
 neither seen nor suspected until many years afterwards. Property of all kinds 
 went on increasing in nominal value until every article in daily use had risen to 
 most extravagant prices. This was mainly the consequence of the monopoly of 
 trading established by the civil and military officers, who speedily took posses- 
 sion of all imported articles, and particularly of such stores as Avere sent out by the 
 Home Government for disposal to the settlers. This fraternity of official traders 
 Avas the better able to carry out its designs from the fact that almost the only 
 warehouses in Avhich goods could be safely placed on being landed belonged to 
 the Government, and were consequently completely under their control. The 
 moment a cargo of goods Avas stored, these gentlemen assembled and divided the 
 various consignments betAveen them ; they then placed their marks, and the 
 prices at Avhich alone the jDublic were to be alloAved to purchase, on each pack- 
 age or article as the case might be. By this plan, although no money was 
 actually paid, they reaped enormous profits, because all above the prices fixed 
 by the Government (or the importers, if the articles Avere priA'ate property) Avent 
 into their pockets. In addition to this, there AA^as a fixed scale at Avhich the 
 Government purchased the grain and other produce of the settlers. Their posi- 
 tion enabled the official hucksters to compel the settlers to sell to them at their 
 oAvn prices — they reselling to the Government at the high rates Avhich had been 
 fixed by them. If a settler attempted to resist this gross imi)osition there Avas 
 always a good reason forthcoming Avhy his produce could not be received into 
 the public store. This execrable state of things reached such a pitch at last that 
 in some years it is said not a single bushel of grain or a pound of pork found its
 
 GOVERNOR KING'S ADMINISTRATION. 289 
 
 way into the Government stores except through their liands. Spcalving of the 
 consequences of this official monopoly, and the consequent poverty of the small 
 settlers and cultivators of the soil, Colonel Collins says: "The poverty of the 
 settlers, and the high price of labour, occasioned much land to have been unem- 
 ployed this year. I^Iany of the inferior farmers were nearly ruined by the high 
 price that they were obliged to give for such necessaries as they I'cquired from 
 those who had been long in the habit of monopolising every article brought to 
 the settlement for sale ; a habit of which it Avas found impossililc to get the 
 better, without the positive and immediate interference of the Government at 
 home. Many representations had been made on this distressing sul)jcct, and 
 they seemed in some degree to have been attended to, as in several of the last 
 arrivals from England, certain articles, consisting of implements of husbandry, 
 clothing, and stores, had been consigned to the governor himself, to be retailed 
 for the use of the colonists." 
 
 This praiseworthy effort on the part of the Home Government was, however, 
 completely defeated, for, instead of being retailed for the use of the colonists, 
 the articles were as greedily monopolised, although not in precisely the same 
 way, as private consignments had been before. The system adopted was this : 
 no private person was allowed to enter the public stores unless he was able to 
 produce a written order from a Government officer. These orders had to be 
 purchased at a very high rate, and consequently no articles in the store could be 
 procured by those who wanted them except by paying a heavy premium to those 
 who had the privilege of giving passes or orders of admission. The colony 
 groaned under this nefarious system for years. The influence of the official class 
 was so strong, and that of the handful of respectable settlers so small, that it 
 was long before anything like justice could be obtained. At last, however, it 
 became so notorious as to atti-act the attention of the British Parliament ; and 
 in 1812 a committee of the House of Commons sat to investigate the matter. 
 
 In the latter part of 1799 and the commencement of the following year, a 
 large number of persons who had been convicted of having taken part in the 
 Irish rebelHon of '98 arrived in the colony. It was a subject of complaint by the 
 settlers and officers who wanted hard-working, robust men, for clearing then- 
 farms, that many of these persons, having been bred up to professions, or in the 
 habits of genteel life, were incapable of labour, and therefore useless to the 
 colony. From the money-making point of view these complaints were probably 
 well founded ; but considering the moral and intellectual condition of the com- 
 munity at that period, the accession of a number of persons of the class alluded 
 to must, notwithstanding their political offences, have been a gxeat gain. 
 Amongst the most remarkable of these exiled rebels were the Rev. Henry 
 Fulton, a clergyman of the Church of England ; the Eev. Father Harold, who 
 had been parish priest of Reculla, in the county of Dublin ; William Henry 
 Alcock, who had been a captain in a regiment of the line ; his brother-in-law, 
 Dr O'Connor ; and Joseph Holt, better kno^ni as General Holt, the principal 
 leader of the Irish rebel army. Holt was a very extraordinary man, and 
 although he cannot be said to have exercised any very remarkable influence on the 
 
 2 o
 
 290 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 community iuto which he was thro-\vn, he left at his death — which took place near 
 Dublin, in 1826 — a singularly interesting autobiography, which shows clearly what 
 that condition was, and gives much insight into the everyday life of the colonists. 
 He was an Irish Protestant of English extraction, a native of Ballydaniel, in the 
 county of Wicklow. His father was a small farmer, and Holt himself was brought 
 up to the same occupation. He afterwards, in addition to his agricultural pur- 
 suits, became road contractor and overseer of public works for the barony of 
 Ballynecore. At the time of the breaking out of the rebellion in 1798, he was a 
 thriving yeoman, upwards of forty years of age, a loyal subject, and a stanch 
 Protestant. He knew Kttle or nothing of politics, and looked upon the rebels as 
 people deserving the most severe punishment that could possibly be inflicted for 
 daring to raise their hands against the Government. It is an extraordinary fact 
 that, notwithstanding the position of rebel general in which circumstances after- 
 wards placed him, he continued to hold the most loyal opinions as long as he 
 lived. Probably few instances can be found in which a man was carried by the 
 stream of events in a course so directly opposite to that in which his habits, 
 religion, character, and convictions would have led him. For some years previous 
 to 1798 he had made himself many enemies by his energetic and courageous conduct 
 in the capture of many desperate offenders against the laws ; and in addition to 
 this he had incurred, on account of some pecuniary quarrel, in which he says he 
 Avas greatly wronged, the rancorous enmity of a wealthy and powerful but 
 unprincipled neighbour. This man, who afterwards occupied a very conspicuous 
 place in Irish society, was, or professed to be, a rabid royalist, and lost no oppor- 
 tunity of ingratiating himself with the Government by denouncing and persecuting 
 obnoxious neighbours. When martial law was proclaimed, this man's position 
 as a magistrate enabled him to ravage the district in which Holt lived with fire 
 and sword. He burned to the ground the houses and homesteads of many Catholic 
 families, driving the men to join the rebels in the Wicklow mountains, while the 
 women and children were reduced to a state of starvation. These atrocities 
 roused the spirit of Holt, who denounced the perpetrator. But he was himself 
 denounced in turn as a conspirator, and was obliged to fly. He joined the 
 revolted peasants in the Wicklow mountains, and his accession was hailed with 
 the greatest joy. They knew he was a man of honesty of purpose, and of 
 undoubted com'age and capacity, and they insisted on his becoming their leader. 
 He had no choice. He accepted the position, and endeavoured to gather round 
 him as a body-guard men who like himself had private Avrongs to redress, or 
 who were sincere in their desire for the political regeneration of their country ; 
 but during the many months that he acted as rebel leader he was never free from 
 the fear of being assassinated or betrayed by his folloAvers for the sake of the 
 reward offered by the Government. Having led his men through many successful 
 conflicts, he at length ventui'ed to exert his authority, although often in vain, to 
 prevent outrage and plunder. At one period his army — if an almost undisciplined 
 mob could propci-ly be called an army — numbered about thirteen thousand men. 
 He says they were for the most part the most despicable set of cowards, fools, 
 and knaves that ever disgraced humanity. His reliable men, those who actually
 
 GOVERNOR KING'S ADMINISTRATION. 291 
 
 fong-lit for aright but plunder, do not seem to have numbered more than a few 
 luuuh'ods at any time, and as there never was the sHghtest political sympathy 
 between him and even his best followers, it is no wonder that they soon dwindled 
 to a few scores. He got rid of the thousands of plunderers who followed his 
 effective force as best he could, and at one time was so disgusted with their 
 atrocities that he sent information of their whereabouts to a party of the royal 
 troops, with the hope that they would attack and disperse or cut them to pieces. 
 He saw the utter hopelessness and absurdity of the rebellion from the first, and 
 resolved to make terms for himself, if he could possibly do so without betraying 
 his companions. He was at last enabled to effect this object by giving himself 
 up to Lord Powerscourt, with the implied condition that his Hfe should be spared. 
 He was never brought to trial, but banished for life, and by the kindness and 
 munificence of a lady who felt a deep interest in the welfare of his wife and 
 family, Mrs Holt and his son Joshua were provided with passages on board the 
 ship despatched by the Government to convey him and other rebels to New 
 South Wales. Joshua Holt, although a boy of but twelve or fourteen years of 
 age at the time of the rebellion, went through some very remarkable scenes in 
 that memorable outbreak. When his father, about fourteen years afterwards, 
 obtained a full pardon and returned to Ireland, Joshua remained in the colony, 
 Avhere he married, brought up a large family, and lived, much respected, to the 
 age of almost fourscore years. He died some time since, in Elizabeth Street, 
 Sydney. He was fond of recalling the recollections of his boyish life, and 
 recounting the strange scenes he had witnessed in his early youth. 
 
 The military oflflcers appear to have been particularly obnoxious to Mr Holt, 
 and he illustrates their selfish and unprincipled conduct towards the soldiers and 
 settlers by the folio-wing example : " The practice was to draw from the stores 
 all the goods in large quantities, and to pay the soldiers only in goods ; for every 
 ten shillings' worth of which, according to the value they were delivered at out 
 of the store, the soldiers paid twenty, and if they objected to this mode of 
 payment, they were most j^robably sent to the guard-house, tried by a court- 
 martial for mutiny, and sentenced to imprisonment." There were, however, 
 many honourable exceptions to the conduct pursued bj^ some of the officers of 
 the 102d Regiment. Mr Holt says : " But notwithstanding what I have said of 
 the officers of the New South Wales Corps, which was made his Majesty's 102d 
 llegiment, there were belonging to it two gentlemen, who never dishonoured 
 themselves, or his Majesty's cloth. They were Cai^tain John Piper and CajDtain 
 Edward Abbott. They were both men of honour and resolution. They con- 
 ducted themselves, in all respects, as officers and gentlemen. They served the 
 poor, and they upheld the oppressed, by which they kept themselves poor ; but 
 they would have been rich indeed, if prayers and good wishes could have made 
 them wealthy, and they retained their own self-respect. They were too noble- 
 minded to desire to make a fortune from the labour of the settler, the plunder 
 of the soldier, or from the sweat of the prisoner's brow." 
 
 Governor King was not strong enough to cope with the unscrupulous and 
 clever men by whom he was surrounded. His first impulse to destroy their
 
 292 THE HIS TOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 monopoly was right ; but seeing the hornets' nest this course brought about his 
 ears, he at length vacillated, then gave way, and then, to use an expressive 
 colloquialism, let things go by the run. He was apprehensive on more than one 
 occasion of being placed under arrest, and the probability is that this step would 
 have been resorted to if he had persisted in carrying out his first intentions. 
 
 In 1800 the French Government despatched two ships, the " Geographe " and 
 the " Naturaliste," on a voyage of discovery to the South Seas. These vessels 
 reached Sydney on the 20th June 1802, and ]\I. Peron, one of the naturalists of 
 the expedition, in his "Historical Relation of a Voyage undertaken for the 
 Discovery of Southern Lands," gives a most flattering account of Port Jackson 
 and what he saw there during the five months over which his visit extended. 
 The picture he gives of the well-managed institutions, the busy traffic, and 
 thriving appearance of Sydney in 1802, is exceedingly flattering; and after 
 making every allowance for over-colouring, proves that even at that early period 
 great progress had been made in laying the foundation of that commercial 
 prosperity and social advancement of which Australian colonisation has since 
 afforded such remarkable examples. Referring to the commerce of Port Jackson, 
 M. Peron says : " In the port we saw several vessels recently arrived from 
 different quarters of the world, the majority of them destined for new and 
 hazardous voyages. Here, from the banks of the Thames or the Shannon were 
 some about to proceed to the foggy shores of New Zealand, and others, after 
 landing the freight consigned by the Government of England for the colony, 
 about to sail for the Yellow River of China ; some laden with coal, intended for 
 the Cape of Good Hope and India ; many of smaller build ready to depart to 
 Bass's Strait, to collect furs and skins obtained there by men left on the different 
 islands to take the amphibii who make them their resort. Other vessels again, 
 of a gi'eater burthen and strength, and well armed, were intended for the 
 western shores of America, deeply laden with merchandise for a contraband 
 trade with the inhabitants of Peru. Here again, one was equipping for the 
 rich traffic in furs on the north-west coast of America ; there all was bustle to 
 fit out store-ships for the Na\'igators, Friendly, and Society Islands, to bring 
 back to the colony the exquisite salt pork of those islands. Already the road 
 to Port Jackson had become familiar to the Americans; their flag was incessantly 
 flying in this port throughout the whole course of our stay. This assemblage of 
 grand operations, this constant movement of the shipping, impressed on these 
 shores a character of importance and acti\'ity which we were far from expecting 
 in a country so lately known to Europe, and the interest it excited increased 
 our admiration." 
 
 ]\I. Peron's description of the moral and social condition of the pcojile 
 generally, and the conduct of the prison class in particular, is almost equally 
 flattering, and presents a striking conti-ast to the statements of an opposite 
 character given by other writers ; but this intelligent foreigner saw only the 
 bright side of things in his short visit. Amongst other colonists whom the 
 French voyager visited was M. de la Clampe, a royalist refugee who had been a 
 colonel in the army, and had obtained in 1799 a grant of land for the purpose of
 
 GOVERNOR KING'S ADMINISTRATION. 293 
 
 introducing the cultivation of cotton and cocoa. M. Peron's account of his visit 
 to M. de hx Clanipc's plantation at Castle Hill, near Paramatta, is both instruc- 
 tive and interesting : " Having walked through a tufted wood, the modest abode 
 and fields of the poor French colonel opened on our view. In the three years 
 he has resided at Castle Hill he has only been once to Sydney Town ; he avoids 
 society, and excuses himself from complying with repeated invitations of his 
 friends, in order that he may dedicate his whole time to the pursuits of 
 agriculture. We found him at the head of his labourers — six convicts furnished 
 by the Government. He was himself setting them an example of labour, and 
 like them was nearly stripped to the skin. The unexpected arrival of so nume- 
 rous a party at first disconcerted M. de la Clampe, and he hastily ran to the house 
 in order to dress himself On hearing I was a Frenchman he embraced me with 
 transport, exclaming, ' How is it with our dear France ? ' The interior of the 
 rural manor-house combined with the greatest simplicity a species of elegance 
 which clearly evinced the genius and taste of the owner. But of all we saw 
 nothing so much excited my attention as a beautiful plantation of cotton plants 
 yielding cotton of various shades, and especially that peculiar to the fine nankeens 
 of China, a fast colour, hitherto not obtained whether by dint of culture or by 
 dyeing. 'In a short time,' said the colonel, 'I shall have created two branches of 
 commerce and exportation for this colony of the greatest value ; I have but this 
 means left of acquitting the sacred debt I owe to a nation which gave me shelter 
 in the hour of misfortune.'" Colonel de la Clampe, however, like many other 
 enthusiastic men, formed expectations which were never realised, for he died 
 shortly afterwards. 
 
 It is somewhat surprising to find from M. Peron's narrative that so early as 
 1802 many of the colonists were surrounded by marks of elegance and refine- 
 ment, and Avere able to keep up establishments not always excelled in the oldest 
 European communities. In their residences, their equipages, and general style 
 of living, the principal families of the wealthier portion of the community appear 
 to have been quite on a footing with the wealthy classes in England. In a note 
 to the English edition of M. Peron's work, it is stated that in Sydney alone 
 many carriages of great elegance were at this time kept, while gigs and similar 
 vehicles were in general use throughout the colony. The roads at that pei'iod 
 are described as excellent, six hundred men being constantly employed on them. 
 Many very praiseworthy attempts at the introduction of mechanical pursuits and 
 manufactures of the more simple description had also been made. The principal 
 were potteries, breweries, and saltworks. M. Peron visited the former " at the 
 village of Brickfield" (Brickfield Hill). The articles he saw he described as 
 remarkable for their whiteness and the fineness of the clay of which they were 
 made. 
 
 Sheep-farming had also made great strides, and the increase in the quantity of 
 the fleece was as remarkable as the improvement in its quality. "As a proof," 
 says Mr Macarthur, " of the extraordinary and rapid improvement in my flocks, 
 I have exhibited the fleece of a coarse-wooUed ewe that has been valued at nine- 
 pence a pound, and the fleece of her lamb, begotten by a Spanish ram, which is
 
 294 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 allowed to be worth three shillings a pound. When I left Port Jackson, the heaviest 
 fleece that had then been shorn weighed only three pounds and a half; but I have 
 received reports of 1802, from which I learn that the fleece of my sheep had in- 
 creased to five pounds each, and was softer than the wool of the preceding year. 
 The beauty of it indeed is such as to cause it to be estimated at six shillings the 
 pound." The number of sheep in INIr Macarthur's flocks amounted at this time 
 (1802) to upwards of four thousand. The Eev. Mr Marsden had about half that 
 number, INIr Commissary Palmer about one-fourth, and several colonists flocks of 
 from three to eight hundred. Agriculture was by no means lost sight of in the 
 desire for extending pastoral pursuits. Mr Palmer had 320 acres in wheat ; IVIr 
 Macarthur, the Eev. Mr Marsden, and others, had also considerable quantities 
 of land under tillage. 
 
 If, in the case of Holt and others, allowance has to be made for the dark 
 shades of the picture which they drew, in M. Peron's narrative the opposite 
 course must be taken. The high-flo'OTi language and eulogistic tone adopted by 
 an enthusiastic Frenchman, who had for nearly two years previously seen little 
 else than naked savages and witnessed only their barbarous customs, must be 
 received with considerable qualification. M. Peron's estimate of the state and 
 prospects of New South Wales is as bright as the accounts previously alluded to 
 are dark and repulsive. 
 
 The following extract from Flinders's jom^nal shows the paucity and the high 
 price of provisions in Sydney at that period : " The price of fresh meat at Port 
 Jackson was so exorbitant that it was impossible to think of purchasing it on 
 the public account. I obtained one quarter of beef for the ship's company, in 
 exchange for salt meat, and the governor furnished us with some baskets of 
 vegetables from his garden. In purchasing a sea stock for the cabin, I paid 
 £3 a head for sheep, weighing from thirty to forty pounds Avhen dressed. Pigs 
 were bought at 9d. j^er pound, weighed alive, geese at 10s. each, and fowls at 
 3s.; and Indian corn for the stock cost 5s. a bushel." 
 
 Flinders, as previously stated, met at Sydney the French Admiral Baudin 
 and M. Peron, and dined with them at Government House. He says : " His 
 Excellency Governor King had done me the honour to visit the ' Investigator,' 
 and to accept of a dinner on board ; on which occasion he had been received 
 with the marks of respect due to his rank of captain-general, and shortly after- 
 Avards, the Captains Baudin and Hamelin, with Monsieur Peron and some other 
 French officers, as also Colonel Paterson, the lieutenant-governor, did me the 
 same favour ; when they were received under a salute of eleven guns. The 
 intelligence of peace, which had just been received, contributed to enliven the 
 party, and rendered our meeting more particularly agreeable." 
 
 Another remarkable Irishman in exile was Sir Henry Hayes. He resided 
 while in the colony at Vaucluse, a beautiful spot near the entrance of Sydney 
 Ilarljour, for many years afterwards the property of ]\Ir W. C. Wentworth. 
 This Sir Henry Hayes, who had served the oflice of sheriff" of the city of Cork, 
 was tried in 1801 for the abduction of Miss Pike, a wealthy Quaker lady, and 
 was sentenced to suffer death ; this sentence was, however, commuted to trans-
 
 GOVERNOR KING'S ADMINISTRATION. 295 
 
 portation f(ir life. His case made a great noise at the time, in consequence of 
 the position in life of the parties implicated. Some time elapsed after the com- 
 mission of the offence before Sir Henry was captured and brought to justice. A 
 large reward having been at length offered for his a})prehcnsion, he walked into 
 the shop of a hairdresser at Cork, named Coghlan, and after some conversation 
 said that as it was his intention to surrender himself, Coghlan might as well 
 reap the benefit of the reward by giving him up. He received a pardon and left 
 the colony for Ireland in 1812. There is a singular story current respecting 
 him, which is implicitly believed by the more ignorant part of the old colonists, 
 to the eftect that finding his place at Vaucluse much infested with snakes, and 
 firmly believing that these reptiles could not exist on Irish soil, he sent home for 
 several casks of that article, which he scattered over the place. His faith in his 
 native land and its patron saint was amply rewarded, for, says the story, a snake 
 has never been seen at Vaucluse from that time to this. 
 
 In March 1804 a spirit of insubordination among the prisoners, which had 
 been gaining ground for months, broke out in open revolt ; and it became 
 evident that the Government had acted with foresight and prudence in sending 
 to form new settlements at Van Diemen's Land some of those whom they had 
 suspected of being the cause of the rebellious sentiments so generally prevalent 
 amongst the prisoners. About midnight on Sunday, 4th March, a message was 
 received in Sydney from Paramatta, by Governor King, stating that the men 
 belonging to the gangs employed on the roads and buildings at Toongabbce and 
 Castle Hill had been joined by the prisoners employed on the surrounding farms, 
 and having plundered the neighbouring settlers of their arms and annnunition, 
 were then marching upon Paramatta, committing very serious depredations and 
 outrages. The governor left for the scene of the disturbance at once, and was in 
 Paramatta by four o'clock in the morning, where he was soon after joined by 
 Major Johnston with fifty men of the New South Wales Corps. This small force 
 was then divided into two parties, one of which proceeded towards Castle Hill, 
 in hopes of falling in with the insurgents. After marching some distance, how- 
 ever, it was ascertained that they had changed their original plan, and that, 
 instead of coming towards Paramatta, the main body was proceeding towards 
 Windsor and the Hawkesbury district. On leaving Paramatta in pursuit, the 
 military had been joined by a few of the settlers and other respectable colonists, 
 armed in the best manner that the haste and urgency of the occasion would per- 
 mit. The insurgents Avere overtaken about noon, at a place called the Ponds, 
 midway between Paramatta and Windsor, by the party under JNIajor Johnston, 
 consisting of twenty-five soldiers, and the few settlers who had joined as volun- 
 teers. The prisoners were found to be well armed, and to be between two and 
 three hundred in number. They halted and took up a position on the slope of a 
 hill when they perceived the insignificant force by Avhich they were followed. 
 The ringleaders, two men named Cunningham and Johnstone, thinking they had 
 the handful of military completely in their power, or at least that they had 
 nothing to fear from so small a force, at once advanced toward Major Johnston, 
 Avho was marching at the head of his men, and attempted to parley or to dictate
 
 296 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 terms. As soon as they were sufficiently near, however, the major, with cool 
 audacity, and admirable presence of mind, seized one of them and placed a pistol 
 at his head, while Laycock, a quarter-master in his corps, a man of gigantic 
 strength and stature, ran ujj and with one blow killed the other on the spot. 
 Their followers immediately commenced firing at random, but, on the soldiers 
 and settlers pouring in a volley, many of their number fell and the others broke 
 and fled. The pursuit continued for three or fom* hours. Several prisoners were 
 captui'ed, and the body of Cunningham, the leader, killed by Laycock, was taken 
 to Windsor the same evening, and there hung up in front of the public store as 
 an example to others. Many of the misguided insurgents gave themselves up 
 AWthin the next few days, and eight of those captured with arms in their hands were 
 brought to trial, found guilty, and executed. Others received various minor 
 punishments, but the main body returned quietly to their work, and most of them, 
 professing penitence for their conduct, escaped with a reprimand. The total 
 number killed in the aftray or afterwards hanged is said to have been about 
 sixty ; but this was probably an exaggeration. The arms taken from them were 
 136 muskets, besides a number of pistols, swords, and other weapons. About 
 one-half the insurgents were persons who had been transported for the share 
 they had taken in the Irish rebellion of 1798. Most of the others had been 
 induced to join them either by threats or hopes of plunder. 
 
 The overthrow of the insurgents was followed, as might have been expected, 
 by acts of great cruelty on the part of the military and settlers towards the 
 deluded men. Holt states that many of the unfortunate wa-etches who attempted 
 to escape by flight, after the engagement at the Ponds, as above related, Avere 
 arrested by the soldiers, constables, and settlers, and being brought before an 
 impromptu court-martial it was arranged that lots should be drawn from a hat, 
 and that every third man whose name was drawn should be hanged. Many 
 fine young men, he says, were strung up like dogs, and more would have been 
 had not the arrival of the governor put a stop to the extraordinary proceedings. 
 It does not appear, moreover, that the outbreak was entirely confined to convicts 
 or persons of the lowest class, for among those hanged by the self-constituted 
 court-martial Avas a young man of good family, the nephew of a high Govern- 
 ment officer ; " but this," says Holt, " was kept, so far as it could be, a profound 
 secret." 
 
 In 1805 the settlement at Norfolk Island was abandoned, and the settlers, 
 about a thousand in number, were transferred to Van Diemen's Land, where 
 liberal grants of land were given them. The place at which the principal 
 portion of them settled was named by them New Norfolk. 
 
 In ]\Iarch 1806 much damage was done to property by heavy floods in the 
 Hawkesbury. The total loss was estimated at £35,000. 
 
 In August of the same year. Governor King's rule came to an end. His 
 administration was not a fortunate one, cither for himself or the colonists. He 
 was a well-meaning man, but an indifferent ruler for a young comnuinity jilaced 
 in very peculiar circumstances. His temper was violent, and this often 
 caused the betrayal of innocent persons into most unpleasant circumstances.
 
 GOVERNOR KIXG'S ADMLYISTRATIOM. 297 
 
 Ill-disposed persons, knowinu; liis failings, often went to liini with artfully con- 
 cocted stories, to which he too readily gave credit, and actetl acccn'dingly. The 
 first impression, right or wrong, was frequently acted upon, and the unfortunate 
 persons accused, at once subjected to the effects of his i)recipitately formed 
 determination. But after he had taken time for consideration, and alloAved liis 
 temper to cool and his sober juilgment to assert its sway, no man was more 
 ready to acknowledge his errors, to express regret for hasty conduct, or to repair 
 the mischief done. The defects of his character were those of the head rather 
 than of the heart ; and it may be truly said that, although he had many faults as 
 a governor, he had very few as a man ; in fact, in his case, the expression tliat 
 " e'en his failings leant to virtue's side " received a remarkable illustration. He 
 embarked for England in the ship " BufRilo," on the 13th August 1806, having 
 on the same day resigned his office into the hands of his successor, Captain 
 William Bligh. Previous to embarking he reviewed the military, and the little 
 corps of volunteers known as the Loyal Association, who lined the way from 
 Government House to the wharf, and paid him the usual honours. 
 
 The six years of Governor King's rule, notwithstanding the occuiTcnce of 
 serious civil disturbances and the prevalence of drinking habits to a degree 
 probably never before witnessed in any community, were marked by a steady 
 advancement in the development of the material resources of the colonj^ The 
 sealing trade and whale fishery were carried on with energy and profit, the 
 foundation of what proved a lucrative intercourse with New Zealand and the 
 South Sea Islands was opened up, new settlements were formed, a large quantity 
 of land was brought under cultivation, and pastoral enterprise received an 
 impetus which, a few years after, placed the growing of fine wool amongst the 
 most extensive and lucrative of colonial pursuits. The jirogeny of the choice 
 merino rams imported some years before by John Macarthur had gradually but 
 steadily continued to improve, and at length to supersede the worthless breed of 
 sheep which had been introduced, chiefly at the public expense, from India and 
 the Cape of Good Hope. Cedar, a most valuable wood for both useful and orna- 
 mental purposes, had been brought largely into consumption ; and the bark of 
 the wattle-tree had been discovered to possess tanning properties equal or superior 
 to those of the English oak. Various industrial pursuits also date from about this 
 period, such as brewing, salt-making, and boat, ship, and carriage building. 
 
 Another feature which distinguished Governor King's rule was the arrival of 
 a number of free emigrant families, mostly of Scotch origin. Several of them 
 settled in the neighbourhood of Portland Head, on the Hawkesbury Piver, and 
 some at the Nepean, where they were allotted small farms on the rich alluvial 
 lands, and allowed rations for a certain period from the public stores. These 
 free settlers prospered so much — those on the banks of the Hawkesbury in par- 
 ticular — that they Avere soon in possession of comfortable homesteads, and were 
 even able to erect a church by voluntary contributions, at an expense of about 
 £400 ; and many of their number rapidly acquired wealth. The children and 
 grandchildren of some of these settlers are now among the wealthiest families 
 in the colony. 
 
 2p
 
 298 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The population of the colony and its dependencies at the period of Governor 
 King's departure was about 9000, of which 7:2(tO were in New South Wales ; 
 528 at Hobart Town ; and 1084 at Norfolk Island. The quantity of land located 
 was 48,855 acres, of which 12,860 acres were under crop. The live stock con- 
 sisted of 488 horses, 3264 head of horned cattle, 16,501 sheep, 14,300 pigs, and 
 2900 goats. Wool to some extent, but of a coarse description, was sent to 
 England prior to this, but the export of the fine merino fleece, for Avhich the 
 colony afterwards became so famous, had hardly assumed sufficient importance 
 to attract attention. Four years afterwards— in 1810 — the produce of Mr John 
 IVIacarthur's fine Avoolled flock was only 167 lbs. The best of the other flocks 
 were largely mixed with the progeny of the Irish, the Southdowns, and the 
 Teicesters, which had been brought in the early ships, while many were princi- 
 pally derived from the yet coarser animals imported from the Cape and India.
 
 GO VERNOR BLiail 'S A DMINISTRA TION. 299 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GOVEENOE BLIGH'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 BLIGH's remarkable career — HIS FIRST ACTS OF ADMINISTRATION — QUARREL 
 
 BETWEEN BLIGH AND MACARTHUR SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY — 
 
 MACARTHUR's VESSEL — HIS ARREST — MAJOR JOHNSTON — MACARTHUR's RELEASE 
 — THE WHISKY REBELLION — BLIGH ARRESTED — JOHNSTON'S ACCOUNT — BLIGH's 
 COWARDICE — HIS DEFENCE — MACARTHUR APPOINTS HIMSELF GOVERNOR — ABSURD 
 PROCLAMATION — MAJOR JOHNSTON GOVERNOR — BLIGH IN CUSTODY — LIEUTENANT- 
 GOVERNOR FOVEAUX ARRIVES — JOHNSTON AND MACARTHUR RETURN TO ENGLAND 
 — BLIGH IN COMMAND OF THE " PORPOISE " — GOVERNOR MACQUARIE's ARRIVAL — 
 BLIGH's DEPARTURE. 
 
 Captain William Bligh was, as already stated, the successor of Governor 
 King. Of this very remarkable man some account has already been given in 
 the history of navigation and discoveiy. The familiar story of the mutiny of 
 the " Bounty " and its sequel needs not to be repeated here. Bligh arrived in 
 Sydney a few days previous to the departure of his predecessor, and on assuming 
 office was waited upon by a deputation with a congratulatory address from the 
 military and civil officers and the free inhabitants. He in many respects 
 resembled Captain King, but his good and bad qualities were in greater 
 extremes. Captain King had made several attemiJts to destroy or to counteract 
 the profitable monopoly of the military and civil officers, but shrank from 
 carrying out his intentions when he was made aware of the serious consequences 
 Avhich were likely to follow. Captain Bligh was more thorough — he had less 
 tact and more daring. Although undoubtedly a man of integrity, and of far 
 more than average ability, perhaps there were few officers in the British Navy so 
 unqualified in many respects to fill the office of Governor of New South Wales 
 at that particular period as Captain Bligh. The community was at that time, 
 and had been for many years previously, under the domination of a clique of 
 clever, not very scrupulous, and wealthy men, of whom Captain John Macarthur 
 was undoubtedly the cleverest and the most wealthy. The two previous 
 governors, although legally possessing nearly unbounded powers, were practically 
 almost helpless, because they had no class on whose support they could rely. 
 There was no public opinion to back them up, because there was no public in 
 the proper sense of the Avord in existence. The real power rested with the 
 military officers, and they were almost to a man sharers in the lucrative monopoly 
 which Captain King had endeavoured in vain to crush. To break down tlii.'^
 
 JiOO THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 monopoly, to free the rising commerce of Port Jackson from the grasp of 
 selfishness, and to protect the smaller settlers from the unwarrantable inter- 
 ference of their official tyrants, required a man of more tact, firmness, and 
 self-reliance than King ; and of greater discretion and sagacity, and of far less 
 obstinacy, than Bligh. 
 
 Although the foundations of great fortunes were being laid by the favoured 
 few at this period, it is difficult to resist the conviction that the condition of 
 most of the people was a most unsatisfactory one. And the answer to the ques- 
 tion, as to wdiether the colony could be considered really prosperous or not under 
 such circumstances, would very much depend upon the stand-point from which it 
 Avas viewed. Governor Bligh himself, shortly after his arrival, painted the con- 
 dition of the settlers in the darkest colours. He said : " To ascertain the state 
 of the colony, I visited many of the inhabitants individually, and witnessed many 
 melancholy proofs of their wretched condition. A want even of the common 
 necessaries of life was too prevalent, particularly at the extensive settlement at 
 the Hawkesbury ; and although Sydney, the headquarters, formed some excep- 
 tion to the general aspect, yet even there the habitations and public store-houses 
 were falling into decay ; industry was declining ; while pernicious fondness for 
 spirituous liquors was gaining ground, to the destruction of public morals and 
 private happiness. Knowing the sentiments of the British Government on the 
 subject of the existing abuses, and the solicitude entertained for their correction, 
 I used every exertion to accomplish this, and particularly in regard to the barter 
 of spii^its." 
 
 Governor Bligh appears to have been a blunt and zealous but narrow-minded 
 public servant, actuated certainly by honest intentions, but liable to the most 
 violent outbursts of passion ; and, if his enemies are to be believed, in the habit 
 of using, in his ordinary conversation, language of an exceedingly coarse descrip- 
 tion. Almost from the first day of his landing in the colony, he is said to have 
 manifested a violent dislike to Captain John Macarthur, who was probably 
 regarded by him as the moving spirit of the official incubus by which the settlers 
 complained of being over-ridden. Captain Macarthur, Avhen sworn as a witness 
 on Colonel Johnston's trial by coui-t-martial, at Chelsea Hospital in 1811, gave 
 the following account of Bligh 's extraordinary conduct towards him on his first 
 arrival in the colony : 
 
 " I went to the Government House ; this was about a month after he had 
 taken the command. I found him walking in the garden perfectly disengaged, 
 and alone; and thinking it a proper opportunity to speak to him on the subject 
 of my affixirs, I inquired if he had been informed of the wishes of Government 
 respecting them : I particularly alluded to the sheep, and the probable advan- 
 tages that might result to the colony and the mother country from the production 
 of fine wool. The j^rosecutor burst out instantly into a most violent passion, 
 exclaiming, 'What have I to do with your sheep, sir ? what have I to do Avith your 
 cattle ? Are you to have such flocks of sheep and such herds of cattle as no 
 man ever heard of before ? No, sir ! ' I endeavoured to appease him, by stating 
 that T had understood the Government at home had particularly recommended
 
 GO VERNOR BLIGfrS A DM IN I SIR A TIOiV. 30 1 
 
 me to his notice. He replied, ' I have heard of your concerns, sir ; you have got 
 five thousand acres of hmd in the finest situation in the country; but, by God, 
 you shan't keep it ! ' I told liini that as I had received this hind at th(! 
 recommendation of the Privy Council and by the order of the Secretary of State, 
 I presumed that my right to it was indisputable. He cursed the Privy Council, 
 and cursed the Secretary of State, too, and said, ' What have they to do with 
 me ? You have made a number of false representations respecting your wool, 
 by which you have obtained this land.' I told him I had made no false 
 representations ; and that luckily, as he was on the spot, he could, by examining 
 the flocks, ascertain the facts himself; and there Avas a flock of seven or eight 
 hundred then at my house, within a mile of him ; if he pleased he could examine 
 them that morning. We immediately after entered the Government House, 
 wdiere we found Governor and Mrs King, and sat down to breakfast. The 
 prosecutor then renewed the conversation about my sheep, addressing himself to 
 Governor King ; when he used such violent and insulting language to him, that 
 Governor King burst into tears. About two hours after, the prosecutor, 
 Governor King, and Major Abbott of the New South Wales Corps, came to my 
 house, and a flock of sheep were produced for the prosecutor to examine. Their 
 improvements Avere so apparent, and corresponded so exactly with my representa- 
 tions, that the prosecutor had nothing further to say in respect to the truth of 
 what I had advanced. After a little general conversation respecting their pro- 
 bable increase in numbers and the value of the wool, he burst out into a second 
 passion, and asked me what this examination was for, as nobody ever doubted 
 the possibility of raising fine avooI in New South Wales ; — ' But what have I to 
 do with it 1 ' I told him, in the most respectful manner I could assume, that I 
 certainly had understood him that morning as doubting the truth of my 
 representations. ' No such thing ! ' he replied ; ' and I desire, sir, you will never 
 attempt to attach any such meaning to my words.' To draw ofi^ his attention 
 from this subject, which seemed to give him great offence, I again mentioned 
 that I was extremely desirous to ascertain how far his opinions corresponded 
 ■with those of the Secretary of State. He again cursed the Secretary of State, 
 and exclaimed, with the utmost violence, 'He commands at home; I command 
 here.' Finding no chance of obtaining favourable attention, I endeavoured to 
 shift the conversation, and very shortly afterwards retired to my house, accom- 
 panied by him, Governor King, and Major Abbott. He stayed a minute or two 
 to pay his compliments to Mrs Macarthur, and left Governor King and Major 
 Abbott with me, who both expressed the greatest surprise and astonishment at 
 the violence they had witnessed." 
 
 There was, of covu-se, war between Bligh and Macarthur almost from the 
 moment the former landed in the colony. The official class, whose representa- 
 tions it Avas suspected had produced the recall of King, found that they had 
 gained nothing by the change, for they had now to deal with a man far more 
 adverse to their interests, and resolutely determined to be master at all hazards. 
 Under the governor's orders very high-handed and decidedly illegal steps 
 were taken to break down the spirit monopoly, and to prevent distillation by
 
 302 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 wealthy settlers and military and other officers. Most of the principal colonists 
 were gentlemen who, although they had left the army to enter into grazing, 
 agricultural, or mercantile pursuits, were still so intimately connected with the 
 military that they dined almost daily at the mess table of the New South Wales 
 Corps. There was in fact no other society for them. This close social connec- 
 tion, and the promptings of self-interest, naturally induced almost the Avhole of 
 the military and official class to take part against the governor, and to make 
 common cause with Mr Macarthur. The smaller class of settlers, on the con- 
 trary, saw in Captain Bligh not only an honest ruler, but a zealous friend, deter- 
 mined to rescue them from the thraldom in which they were held by the domina- 
 tion of the official clique. He seems to have been driven by necessity to seek 
 advice and assistance from emancipists, as those persons were called who had 
 either served out the full term for which they Avere transported or had their 
 sentences remitted through favour or for good conduct. Many of these had at 
 this period accumulated wealth, and some of them, being persons of education 
 and considerable natural capacity, Avere beginning to acquire influence in the 
 community. They naturally alUed themselves with the smaller settlers, both 
 having causes of quarrel with the dominant class. 
 
 One of the circumstances which brought the disagreement to a crisis, was a 
 dispute about an allotment of land on Church Hill, Sydney. INIacarthur and 
 other officers had obtained from Captain King grants or leases of portions of 
 land within limits which had been reserved by previous governors for public use. 
 These leases Bligh determined to cancel ; offering the holders land in other parts 
 of the town in lieu of that which he wished them to give up. ]\Iost of the lease- 
 holders fell in with this arrangement, either through fear of Bligh's displeasure, 
 or because it suited their interest to do so. Macarthur, however, offered some 
 opposition, and Bligh ordered Nicholas Devine, the superintendent of convicts, 
 to pull down the fence enclosing the land in dispute, but offered JNIacarthur in 
 lieu of it an allotment which the latter described as " at the end of Pitt's Row, a 
 place Avhere the common gallows stood, and which was surrounded by all the 
 vile and infamous characters of the town of Sydney." 
 
 A short time afterwards other circumstances took place which rendered the 
 relations of the governor and Macarthur still more complicated. The latter had 
 a vessel called the " Paramatta," in which some prisoners were employed. One 
 of them escaped. The Government always demanded a bond when prisoners 
 were employed on board such ships. In the case of the " Paramatta," a bond 
 for £900 had been given. This security, on the escape of the prisoner in ques- 
 tion becoming known, Bligh declared forfeited ; and, in consequence of proceed- 
 ings arising out of the alleged forfeiture, Macarthur was arrested. Nearly the 
 whole of the civil and military officers of the colony appear to have sided against 
 the governor in this matter, and Macarthur was liberated fi'om gaol in spite of 
 all that Bligh could do to keep him there. 
 
 Major Johnston, then commandii g the New South Wales Corps, does not 
 appear, up to this time, to have had any quarrel with Bligh, or to have been mixed 
 \\\) in any way with the sjiirit monopoly or any other of the questionable prac-
 
 GOVERNOR liLIGirS ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 tiers relative to trade in which most of the others were engaged. On the 20th 
 January 1808, the twentiotli anniversary of the fonn(hiti()n of tlie colony, the 
 quarrel between Bligli and Macarthur and his friends was brought to a crisis. 
 What then took place, Governor Bligh, in his evidence on Major Johnston's trial, 
 stated as follows : "About sunset, soon after the magistrates had dined with me, 
 information was brought that Macarthur had been liberated frt)ni gaol ; and 
 almost immediately the provost-marshal confirmed the account, delivering to me 
 at the same time an order from INIajor Johnston, as lieutenant-governor ami 
 major commanding the troops, to the keeper of the gaol, requiring him to give 
 up the body of John Macarthur. 
 
 " Immediately after the order for the release of Macarthur, there followed an 
 operation of the main guard close to the gate of the Government House, and the 
 regiment marched down from the barracks, led on by Major Johnston and the 
 other officers, with colours flying and music playing as they advanced to the 
 house. Within a few minutes after, the house Avas surrounded ; the soldiers 
 quickly broke into all parts of it, and arrested all the magistrates, Mr Gore, the 
 provost-marshal ; Mr Griffin, my secretary ; and ]\Ir Fulton, the chaplain. I had 
 just time to call to my orderly sergeant to have my horses ready while I went 
 upstairs to put on my uniform (the family being then in deep mourning), when on 
 my return, as I was standing on the staircase waiting for my servant with my 
 sword, I saw a number of soldiers rushing upstairs with their muskets and fixed 
 bayonets, as I conceived, to seize my person. I retired instantly into a back 
 room, to defeat their object, and to deliberate on the means to be adopted for 
 the restoration of my authority, which in such a critical situation could only be 
 accomplished by my getting into the interior of the country adjacent to the 
 Ilawkesbury, where I knew the whole body of the people would flock to my 
 standard. To this situation I was pursued by the soldiers, and after experien- 
 cing much insult was conducted below by Lieutenant ISIinchin, who told me that 
 Major Johnston was waiting for me. We passed together into the drawing-room, 
 every part being crowded with soldiers under arms, many of whom appeared to 
 be intoxicated. 
 
 " I then received a letter brought by Lieutenant IMoore, and signed by INIajor 
 Johnston (calling himself lieutenant-governor), requiring me to resign my author- 
 ity, and to submit to the arrest under which he placed me, Avhich I had scarcely 
 perused, when a message was delivered to me that Major Johnston wished to 
 speak to me in the adjoining room, at the door of which he soon after appeared, 
 surrounded by his officers and soldiers ; and in terms much to the same effect as 
 his letter, he there verbally confirmed my arrest. Martial law Avas proclaimed, 
 my secretary and my friends were prevented from seeing me, and I was left only 
 Avith my daughter and another lady. 
 
 "By Major Johnston's order seA-eral persons seized my cabinet and papers, 
 Avith my conuuission, instructions, and the great seal of the colony. These Avere 
 locked up in a room guarded by tAvo sentinels, and several others Avere placed 
 around the house to prevent my escape. 
 
 " The same evening committees Avere formed Avith a pretended vicAv of ex-
 
 304 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 amining into my government, but in reality to discover all such persons as were 
 attached to me. In this INIacarthur took an active part. On the following day 
 Lieutenant jNIoore came with Major Johnston's orders, and carried away my 
 swords and what fire-arms he fomid in the house ; at noon three volleys were fired 
 hj the soldiers and twenty-one guns from the battery, while the royal standard 
 Avas displayed; his JMajesty"s commissary, the provost-marshal, the Judge- 
 Advocate, and the chaplain were suspended from their offices ; all the magis- 
 trates were dismissed, and others appointed in their room ; the most extra- 
 ordinary and mutinous proclamations were issued, and even my broad pendant 
 as commodore on the station was ordered by j\Iajor Johnston to be struck. Thus 
 was the mutiny complete ; those who were concerned in it had got possession of 
 the government, had turned out all the civil officers and substituted others in 
 their room, and imposed on me an arrest which continued from the time of the 
 mutiny till the 20th of February 1809." 
 
 The foregoing statement relative to Governor Bligh's arrest, as given by him- 
 self, is contradicted in many particulars by other witnesses. Major Johnston in 
 his defence related it as follows : 
 
 " On the 26th I received a letter from the governor, announcing his resolu- 
 tion to arrest six officers of the 102cl, for treasonable i3ractices, and requiring me, 
 as I was unable to attend myself, to ajDpoint ]\Iajor Abbott to the command of 
 the regiment. Had these measures been adopted, there would have been but 
 two officers to do the duty of the regiment, and the highest and most important 
 duties must have been left to the sergeants. I was ill ; Major Abbott was at 
 Paramatta, sixteen miles off; and it could not be expected, but that the arrest 
 of six officers, and the dread of what measures might ensue, would occasion con- 
 siderable uneasiness. 
 
 " My medical friend had directed me on no account to leave my room ; but 
 sensible of the danger of this crisis, and anxious to avert impending evil, I 
 neglected that advice, got myself dressed, and was driven to town by the aid 
 of my family. On my arrival, as I passed through the streets, everything denoted 
 terror and consternation ; I saw in every direction groups of people with soldiers 
 amongst them, apparently in deep and earnest conversation. I repaired immedi- 
 ately to the barrack ; and, in order to separate the military from the people, 
 made the drum beat to orders. The soldiers immediately repaii'ed to the barrack 
 yard, where they were drawn up, and where they remained. 
 
 " In the meantime an immense number of the people, comprising all the 
 respectable inhabitants, except those who were immediately connected with 
 Captain Bligh, rushed into the barrack and surrounded me, repeating with 
 importunate clamour a solicitation that I would immediately place the governor 
 under arrest. They solemnly assured me, if I did not, an insurrection and 
 massacre would certainly take place ; and added, that the blood of the colonists 
 would be upon my head. 
 
 " I could not instantly resolve to adopt this measure, which, however, the 
 parties present continued to press ; and it was urged, among other things, that 
 the arrest of the governor would be the preservation of his life, as the popular
 
 GOVERNOR DLIGirS ADMINISTRATION. 305 
 
 fury Avould first burst upon him and his agents. Wliilc I revolved these matters 
 in my mind, it was mentioned that Mr Macarthur liad been taken from the 
 custody of his bail, lodj^ed in the common prison, and that there was much 
 reason to fear he would be privately made away with. This intimation also 
 produced a great sensation, and I was prevailed on by the importunity of the 
 people present to sign and transmit an order for his discharge. While he was 
 sent for, the solicitations to arrest the governor were clamorously renewed ; and 
 when Mr Macarthur arrived, he observed to me, that if I resolved to adopt such 
 a measure, I should not do it without a requisition in writing. He drew up a 
 paper to that effect, which as soon as laid on the table was filled with as many 
 signatures as it could contain. The address was in these terms : 
 
 " ' The present alarming state of this colony, in which every man's property, 
 liberty, and life are endangered, induces us most earnestly to implore you 
 instantly to place Governor Bligh under an arrest, and to assume the command 
 of the colony. We pledge ourselves, at a moment of less agitation, to come 
 forward to support the measure with our fortunes and our lives.' 
 
 " This strong requisition, and the evident state of the public mind, determined 
 my proceeding. I desi^atched four officers to Government House, to announce 
 to Governor Bligh the necessity under which I found myself, and to assure him 
 of every jDrotection to his person, Avhich I Avas convinced could only be rescued 
 from the most imminent danger by the means I was pursuing ; and I proposed 
 immediately to follow the officers at the head of the regiment. 
 
 " We marched to the Government House, attended by a vast concourse of 
 people, who were all inflamed with indignation against the governor. On aur 
 arrival I learned that the officers I had sent had not been able to obtain an 
 interview, but that the governor had concealed himself. This intelhgence Avas 
 truly alarming, for I had everything to fear from the agitation it was likely to 
 produce. I immediately drew up the soldiers in a line before the Government 
 House, and between it and the people, who were thus made to keep a respectful 
 distance : the ti'oops Avere halted, and made to stand at ease. I then directed a 
 small number to proceed in search of the governer, while I Avaited beloAV to 
 protect the family from injury or insult. The search occupied, according to 
 Governor Bligh's account, two hours. At length he was found, and brought to 
 the room Avhere I Avas. When he Avas introduced, I gently informed him of the 
 step Avhich, by the requisition of the people, I had been obliged to take. He 
 ansAvered, he was very sorry he had incurred public displeasure ; had he been 
 aware that such would be the effect of his conduct, he would have acted other- 
 Avise ; and he resigned all authority into my hands, publicly thanking me for the 
 handsome manner in Avhich I had carried the Avishes of the people into execution. 
 I then gave the orders I deemed necessary for the security and the protection of 
 his person and the safety and ease of his family, and Avithdrew. During all this 
 time the troops, far from being infuriate or uncontrollable, maintained the most 
 steady order and the most perfect silence ; not a man stirred from his rank, 
 except those Avho Avere ordered, nor Avas a Avord spoken along the Avhole line." 
 
 Lieutenant INIinchin and the soldiers Avho arrested Governor Bligh stated 
 
 2q
 
 306 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 that they found him hidden under a bed in a servant's room ; that he was in a 
 state of great fright ; and that when pulled from his hiding-place, his clothes 
 were covered with dust, cobwebs, and feathers. Lieutenant INIinchin said : " The 
 fore part of his coat, the lappels, were full of dust, and the back part full of 
 feathers ; he appeared to be very much agitated ; indeed I never saw a man so 
 much frightened in my life, in appearance. When I went into the room he 
 " reached his hand to me and asked me if I would protect his life." In reply to 
 this statement of Lieutenant Minchin, and to other evidence given on Major 
 Johnston's trial, which in reality amounted to charges of cowardice against Bligh 
 in his conduct on that occasion, he defended himself as follows : 
 
 " Just before I was arrested, on learning the approach of the regiment, I 
 called for my uniform (which is not a dress adapted to concealment) ; and going 
 into the room where the papers were kept I selected a few which I thought 
 most important either to retain for the protection of my character, or to prevent 
 from falling into the hands of the insurgents. Among the latter were copies of 
 my private and confidential communications to the Secretary of State on the 
 conduct of several persons then in the colony. With these I retired upstairs, 
 and having concealed some about my person, I proceeded to tear the remainder. 
 In the attitude of stooi)ing for this purpose, with my papers about on the floor, 
 I was discovered by the soldiers on the other side of the bed. As to the situa- 
 tion in which it is said I was found, I can prove by two witnesses that it was 
 utterly impossible ; and I should have done so in the first instance had I not 
 thought that Colonel Johnston was incapable of degrading his defence by the 
 admission of a slander, which, if true, aff'ords him no excuse, and if false, is 
 highly disgraceful. I know that Mr Macarthur wrote the despatch in which this 
 circumstance is mentioned with vulgar triumph ; but I could not anticipate that 
 Colonel Johnston's address to the Court would be written in the same spirit ; 
 and that after being the victim of Mr Macarthur's intrigues he Avould allow him- 
 self to be made the tool of his revenge. It has been said that this circumstance 
 would make the heroes of the British Navy blush with shame and biu'u with 
 indignation. I certainly at such a suggestion burn with indignation, but who 
 ought to blush with shame I leave others to determine. The Court will forgive 
 me if I intrude a moment on their time, to mention the services in which I have 
 been employed. For twenty-one years I have been a post-captain, and have 
 been engaged in services of danger not falling Avithin the ordinary duties of ray 
 profession. For four years with Captain Cook in the ' Resolution,' and four 
 years more as a commander myself, I traversed unknown seas, braving difficulties 
 more terrible because less frequently encountered. In subordinate situations I 
 fought under Admiral Parker at the Dogger Bank, and Lord Howe at Gibraltar. 
 In the battle of Camperdown, the ' Director,' under my command, first silenced 
 and then boarded the ship of Admiral De Winter ; and after the battle of Copen- 
 hagen, where I commanded the ' Glutton,' I was sent for by Lord Nelson, to 
 receive his thanks publicly on the quarter-deck. Was it for me, then, to sully 
 my reputation and to disgrace the medal I wear by shrinking from death, which 
 I had braved in every shape ? An honourable mind will look for some other
 
 GOVERNOR JiLiairS ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 motive for my retirement, and will find it in my anxiety for those papers, which 
 during this inquiry have been occasionally produced to the confusion of those 
 witnesses who thought they no longer existed." 
 
 The conduct of those who assumed the reins of government after Bligh's 
 arrest was not such as to command the respect of the colonists. I\Ir ]\Licarthur, 
 the man who had undoubtedly been cliietly instrumental in bringing about 
 Bligh's deposition, was appointed, or, perhaps it wovdd be more correct to say, 
 appointed himself, colonial secretary, and under that name exercised in fact the 
 functions of governor. Mr Robert Campl)cll, the treasurer, a man of unblem- 
 ished character, was dismissed from his office, as was every officer and magistrate 
 who was believed to be inimical to the chief actors in these rebellious proceed- 
 ings, or thought to regard with dislike the little revolution which they had 
 effected. Even a clergyman, the Rev. Henry Fulton, was susjiended by a 
 general order from discharging the duties of his office. The fate of this gentle- 
 man was singular. He had been exiled from Ireland for some participation in 
 the rebellion of 1798. Here, on the contrary, he was punished for his loyalty. 
 
 On the day after Bligh's arrest the following absurd proclamation was 
 addressed to the military : " Soldiers ! your conduct has endeared you to every 
 well-disposed inhabitant of this settlement ! Persevere in the same honourable 
 path, and you will establish the credit of the New South Wales Corps on a basis 
 not to be shaken. God save the King." A few days afterwards another general 
 order was issued, commanding the inhabitants to attend divine worshiji, " to join 
 in thanks to Almighty God for His merciful interposition in their favour by 
 relieving them without bloodshed from the awful situation in which they stood 
 before the memorable 26th instant." In addition to these artful proceedings on 
 the part of ]\Ir Macarthur and his party, an attempt was made to get up some 
 sort of public rejoicing, by means of bonfires and other demonstrations, but it 
 proved a failure. 
 
 Major Johnston had no sooner assumed his new duties as governor than he 
 found himself thwarted by the very men who had been most urgent in inducing 
 him to take the responsibilities he had reluctantly assumed. In writing to the 
 Secretary of State, on the 11th April 1808, only a few weeks after Bligh's arrest, 
 he complained as follows : " It is with deep concern I find myself obliged to 
 report to your lordship that the opposition of those persons from whom I had most 
 reason to expect support has been one of the princij^al obstacles I have had to 
 encounter. But every obstacle that knavery and cunning could desire has been 
 interposed to distract my attention, and to retard the accomplishment of neces- 
 sary objects. So widely extended is the influence of some of the persons who have 
 been engaged in illicit or dishonest practices, that they have contrived to form a 
 condjination with several of the better class, who ought to have held themselves 
 superior to such connections." It is evident that INIajor Johnston regretted when 
 too late the steps he had been induced to take by the representations of others, 
 rather than from his own inclination or the force of the circumstances by which 
 he was surrounded. 
 
 Major Johnston kept Governor Bligh in custody until his superior officer,
 
 308 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SIA. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, then in Van Diemen's Land, could be communi- 
 cated with. While in confinement the deposed governor was allowed the society 
 of his daughter, ]\Irs Putland, widow of Lieutenant Putland, commander of the 
 " Porpoise," who died only a few days before the arrest. 
 
 Towards the end of July Lieutenant-Colonel Foveaux returned from England 
 Avith the appointment of lieutenant-governor, and at once superseded Major 
 Johnston. He did not, however, identify himself with either party, or make any 
 changes, but administered the government as he found it, pending the action 
 which the imperial authorities might think proper to take when made aware of 
 the circumstances. Colonel Foveaux administered the government for about 
 five months, until, at. the commencement of 1809, Colonel Paterson arrived from 
 Van Diemen's Land and superseded him. Paterson also kept aloof from both 
 factions, deeming the matter one for the Home Government alone to decide. 
 Governor Bligh still remained imder arrest, but was allowed to occupy apart- 
 ments at Government House. He was at last oSered the command of the 
 " Porpoise " to proceed to England if he was Avilling to do so ; but if he insisted 
 in remaining in the colony he was still to be considered a prisoner. 
 
 ]\Iajor Johnston, understanding that Bligh had an intention of bringing him 
 before a court-martial, went to England in 1808, accompanied by Mr INIacarthur. 
 Bligh himself refused to leave the colony, or to enter into any terms with Colonel 
 Paterson, whom he designated as a rebel. At last an agreement was come to 
 between them, and Bligh reluctantly embarked Avith his family. He had an 
 expectation that the settlers would rise, overthrow the existing Government, and 
 replace him in the position from Avhich he had been removed. It does not 
 appear that there was any reasonable ground for this expectation on his part, 
 for his adherents were not sufficiently influential, whatever their wishes might 
 have been, to make the attempt with the smallest chance of success. 
 
 Bligh, as soon as he found himself in command of the " Porpoise," deter- 
 mined, notwithstanding his written agreement to the contrary, to make use of 
 the opportunity thus afforded him for humbling his enemies, and regaining his 
 position as governor. Colonel Paterson, however, took such steps as to deter 
 others from joining in the attempt ; and Bligh seeing that there was no chance 
 of succeeding, after waiting about a month, left Port Jackson for Van Diemen's 
 Land. There he was at first treated by Colonel Collins with respect, but on 
 divulging his intentions, and endeavouring to enlist the sympathy of the people 
 in his cause, some steps were taken for his seizure. His suspicions, however, 
 were aroused before the intention of the authorities could be carried into effect, 
 and being in command of a ship of war their orders could not be executed, and 
 he continued to hover on the coast until the month of December 1809. At that 
 period Colonel Lachlan ]\Iacquarie arrived at Sydney with instructions, if Bligh 
 was still in the colony, to reinstate him in his position as governor for twenty- 
 four hours, upon Avhich he was to resign and return to England, leaving the 
 government to Macquarie himself 
 
 Colonel jNIacquarie finding on his arrival that Bligh had left Port Jackson 
 sevei'al months previously, assumed the government, and issued a proclamation
 
 GOVERNOR BLIGirS ADMTX/STRATION. 
 
 (tlated 1st January 1810), setting forth the instructions he had received as to the 
 wishes of his Majesty George III. with respect to liligli's temiDorary reinstate- 
 ment, and the king's strong disai)|)roval of the " mutinous and outrageous 
 conduct disphxycd in the forcible and unwarranta])lc removal of his late repre- 
 sentative." Three days afterAvards he issued a further proclamation, declaring 
 all appointments made by Major Johnston, and Colonels Foveaux and Paterson, 
 null and void, and all trials, grants, and investigations had or made under their 
 autlun-ity invalid. 
 
 JNIacquarie arrived in the " Ilindostan," a fifty -gun fiigate, which was accom- 
 panied by another ship, the "Dromedary," having on board a large detachment 
 of the 73d Regiment, of which he was lieutenant-colonel ; so that the new 
 governor, on assuming his duties, found himself in so strong a position us to be 
 able to set all oppo.sition at defiance if any had been attempted. 
 
 All the officers who had been removed when Bligli was arrested, were now 
 reinstated, and the officers and men of the New South Wales Corps were ordered 
 to hold themselves in readiness to proceed to England. Despatches were sent 
 to Bligli at Van Diemen's Land, and in a few weeks he arrived in Sydney, Avhcre 
 he was received as a commodore, the naval rank Avhich he noAV held. He finally 
 left the colony on the 12th May, and arrived in England on the 25th October 
 1810. Macquarie had brought out orders to send Major Johnston home under 
 arrest, to undergo his trial ; but, as before mentioned, he had long before left of 
 his own accord to court that investigation Avhich he rightly anticij^ated would be 
 made as soon as Bligh reached England. Bligli took home several persons 
 whose evidence he considered necessary to sujiport his case. Before leaving 
 Sydney, his daughter, IVIrs Putland, was married to Lieutenant O'Connell, of the 
 73d Regiment, and during the festivities Avhich folloAved the nuptials, much of 
 the ill-feeling which had prevailed among the principal colonists was allayed, the 
 occasion being taken advantage of to bring about a reconciliation between those 
 who had taken opposite sides. Upon his departure Bligh was presented with 
 an address signed by 4(50 colonists, congratulating him on the termination of the 
 persecutions to which he had been subjected, and expressing in the strongest 
 terms the veneration and esteem with which they had always regarded him. 
 
 Colonel Johnston's trial by court-martial commenced at Chelsea Hospital on 
 the 7th May 1811, and tei'minated on 5th June following. A great many 
 witnesses were examined on both sides, and the addresses of both })rosecutor 
 and defendant displayed considerable ability. The sentence of the Court was 
 delivered on 2d July as follows : " The Court having duly and maturely weighed 
 and considered the whole of the evidence adduced on the prosecution, as Avell as 
 that Avliich has been offered in defence, are of opinion that Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Johnston is guilty of the act of mutiny as described in the charge, and do 
 therefore sentence him to be cashiered." ]\Ir JNIacarthur, having left the army 
 long before, could not of course be brought to trial before a court-martial for 
 his share in the aflf;^ir. The Home Government, however, to mark their sense of 
 his conduct, interdicted his return to the colony for a period of eight years. 
 Colonel Johnston's sentence must be regarded as a virtual acquittal in so far as
 
 310 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 any moral oftence was imputed. It was an acknowledgment that the noA-el and 
 extraordinary circumstances in which he Avas placed aiforded some excuse, if not 
 a full extenuation, for his conduct. His manifest breach of discipline, however, 
 could not be overlooked ; and the necessity of maintaining strict subordination 
 under all circumstances, and more especially in such a peculiar and remote 
 dependency as New South Wales, compelled the Court to sentence him to be 
 cashiered. He returned to the colony shortly afterwards, and died during the 
 rule of Governor ]\Iacquarie. He was a man universally respected, and there 
 cannot be a doubt that he acted from first to last in the unfortunate affair which 
 bronght him for a time so prominently before the world, from the highest sense 
 of duty and with the most scrupulous regard to honour. He had entered the 
 army at the early age of twelve years, and had served with distinction in every 
 quarter of the globe. 
 
 Bligh's character seems to have been a most contradictory one — a compound 
 of good and bad qualities — in which egotism and humility, daring and timidity, 
 truth and falsehood, candour and evasiveness, were displayed by turns. He 
 certainly, under many of the circumstances of his chequered career, displayed 
 self-reliance, courage, and endurance of the highest character. He had been 
 publicly thanked by Lord Nelson on the quarter-deck of his ship after the battle 
 of Copenhagen ; and at the battle of Camperdown, where he commanded the 
 " Director," he captured, by boarding the ship of Admiral De Winter, a vessel 
 vastly suj^erior to his own. The courage and energy he displayed, after the 
 mutiny of his officers and crew in the " Bounty," have seldom been exceeded and 
 never surpassed. But it is impossible to regard with respect, or indeed with any 
 other feeling than pain, his conduct at and after his arrest in Sydney. His 
 behaviour on that occasion was undignified and unmanly in the extreme, and the 
 deception and falsehood he practised to get possession of the " Por^Doise " 
 altogether unjustifiable. It is said that at the mutiny of the Nore the feeling 
 of the rebellious sailors against him was very strong, and that he was the first 
 cajDtain deprived of his ship. Yet, in justice it must be confessed, that no 
 instance of inhumanity, personal cruelty, or even of undue severity, has ever 
 been substantiated against him ; and by the country settlers and the poorer 
 classes of the colonists no governor was more beloved or regretted. 
 
 At that time the colony was extremely destitute of all moral and religious 
 agencies. Holt, in his " Memoirs," speaking of the want of clergymen at tliis 
 period, says : " The Rev. Mr Fulton was made prisoner, leaving us Avithout 
 minister or priest of any kind. There Avas no clergyman to visit the sick, baptize 
 the infants, or church the Avomen, so Ave were reduced to the same state as the 
 heathen natives. My son wished to be married, and I approved the match, but 
 there Avas no one to marry them. I remembered, hoAvever, to have heard that 
 in such cases a magistrate might perform the marriage ceremony ; so I Avent to 
 Colonel Paterson, to procure a license from him for them to be married, and Ave 
 all then proceeded to Major Abbott, who preformed the ceremony in tliu pre- 
 sence of ]\Ir Finucanc, the secretary." 
 
 The liev. S. Marsden visited England at this time Avith a double object in
 
 GOVERNOR BLKJirs ADMINISTRATION. 311 
 
 view — in tlic first plneo to secure for the colony additional clergymen and 
 schoolmasters ; and in the second to ohtain some fine-woolled merino sheep for 
 the improvement of his flocks, Avhich, next to those of Mr Macarthur, were the 
 best and most numerous in the colony. He was successful iu securing both the 
 objects of his voyage. The Venerable Archdeacon Cowper and the Rev. liobert 
 C-artwright wore both brought to the colony through his instrumentality, as were 
 also two or three schoolmaster!?, who were almost as much needed at this period 
 as clergymen. Mr Marsden found suitable ministers and schoolmasters, at that 
 period very difficult to procure, but the merino sheep more difficult than either. 
 lie was, however, a man not easily daunted. He took samples of his colonial- 
 grown wool to Leeds, had some of it manufactured, and by this means secured 
 the co-operation of influential persons, and obtained an introduction to King- 
 George III. His Majesty, who had always taken a lively interest in the progress 
 of the colony, when informed of Mr Marsden's wish, consented to grant his prayer 
 for a couple of fine-woolled Spanish merinos. lie indeed exceeded the request, 
 and made the petitioner a present of five very fine animals, which arrived safely 
 in the colony, and probably became the progenitors of millions. Mr Marsden 
 was absent on his visit to England more than two years, and in addition to the 
 clerical and scholastic assistance which he brought back Avith him, returned 
 loaded Avith donations of books and other articles calculated to be of great 
 benefit in the then state of the colony.
 
 312 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GOVERNOR MACQUARIE'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 MACQUARIE's philanthropic character — SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE COLONY — 
 ANNULS ACTS OF USURPATION — FLOOD AND FAMINE — CARELESS HABITS OP THE 
 PEOPLE — PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS — INCREASE OF LIVE STOCK — FREE IMMIGRATION 
 DISCOURAGED — EMANCIPISTS ENCOURAGED — THOMPSON'S CASE — JUDGE BENT'S 
 APPOINTMENT — CONFLICT BETWEEN THE JUDGE AND THE GOVERNOR— THE JUDGE 
 
 RECALLED — JUDGE FIELD APPOINTED SOCIAL AMELIORATION — -WAR WITH THE 
 
 BLACKS — ^MACQUARIE's EXPLORATIONS — COLLINS IN VAN DIEMEN's LAND — 
 
 RELIGIOUS PROGRESS — REV. SAMUEL MARSDEN — SQUATTING SOCIAL PROGRESS 
 
 — MACQUARIE's RECALL — HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 The successor of Bligh in the government of the new colony was Colonel Lachlan 
 Macquarie, a man whose name is classed with that of John Howard as a philan- 
 throj^ist and prison reformer. He was a very different man from his predecessor. 
 Macquarie was courteous, politic, and wary in his dealings with men : Bligh was 
 rash, impulsive, and violent. Macquarie, at the time of his appointment, was 
 lieutenant-colonel of the 73d Regiment. He entered on his duties as governor 
 under most favourable circumstances. The small settlers and emancijiists upon 
 whom Governors King and Bligh had depended for support when placing them- 
 selves in antagonism to the official monopolists, were neither numerous nor wealthy 
 enough to back them up effectually while the power of the little oligarchy re- 
 mained unbroken. The former had, however, been gradually acquiring wealth 
 and influence, and now that most of the New South Wales Corps were removed, 
 and the governoi", as colonel of the regiment of the line which formed the garri- 
 son, was ruler in fact as well as in name, Mr John Macarthur prohibited from 
 setting foot in the colony, and many of the other members of the once dominant 
 clique were under a cloud in consequence of the steps they had taken in connec- 
 tion Avith Bligh's arrest, the small settlers and emancipists were able to assert 
 their claims to consideration, and in return for the viceregal patronage extended 
 to them, were willing to give effectual sujiport to a governor who showed himself 
 disposed to recognise their rights and to free himself from the shackles which 
 had proved too strong for his predecessors. 
 
 Macquarie was, however, far too just, politic, and far-seeing a man to thwart 
 intentionally the designs of those who were endeavouring to enrich themselves 
 by developing, in a legitimate manner, the natural resources of the country. 
 ■Whilst protecting the industrious, and rewarding the thrifty, he desired to en-
 
 GOVERNOR MACQUARIE'S ADMINISTRATION. 313 
 
 courage capitalists and men of energy in tlie prosecution of their enterprises. 
 The countenance ho extended towards the emancipists took the form of social as 
 well as civil and political recognition. As colonel of the 73d Regiment he was 
 in a position to introduce to the mess table such persons as he thought entitled 
 — from the way in which they had conducted themselves during their colonial 
 career, and the consideration in Avhich they were held by most of their fellow- 
 colonists — to be restored to that station in society from which they had for a 
 time fallen. From the mess table their introduction to the houses and families 
 of the exclusive class was, he thought, comparatively easy ; and when this was to 
 a small extent accomplished he did not hesitate to elevate some of them to the 
 magisterial bench. One of his first official acts, moreover, was the issuing of 
 proclamations annulling all the proceedings of the usui'ping government, but still 
 ratifying such of its acts as involved the rights of individuals. 
 
 In August 1809 occurred the highest flood in the Hawkesbury that had ever 
 been known since the settlement of the colony. Great destruction of life and 
 property, and much distress, were the consequences. Up till the middle of 1810 
 bread was at fiimine jDrice. The condition of the settlers generally was certainly 
 wi'etched enough, as the following general order issued by the new governor 
 abundantly proves : 
 
 " His Excellency cannot forbear expressing his regret that the settlers in 
 general have not paid that attention to domestic comfort which they ought to 
 do, by erecting commodious residences for themselves, and suitable housing for 
 the reception of their grain and cattle ; nor can he refrain from observing the 
 miserable clothing of many of the people, whose means of providing decent 
 apparel, at least, are sufficiently obvious to leave them Avithout any excuse for 
 that neglect. His Excellency, therefore, earnestly recommends and trusts that 
 they will pay more attention to those very important objects; and, by a strict 
 regard to economy and temperance, that they will, on his next annual tour, 
 enable him to give a more unqualified approbation to their exertions." 
 
 In order to raise the condition of the settlers, to bring them within reach of 
 a market, and under the protection of the laws, Macquarie set about improving 
 the roads and other means of communication, which had been allowed to fall 
 into a state of dilapidation. To encourage a better class of buildings, he set the 
 example by erecting in Sydney and other places many substantial and convenient 
 public structures : barracks, stores, hospitals, public offices, churches, school- 
 houses, watch-houses, gaols, bridges, wharves, and other buildings. The number 
 of these places built during his administration, a period of about twelve years, 
 was upwards of two hundred in New South Wales, and fifty in Van Diemen's 
 Land. Many of them were substantial structures, but several which still remain 
 afford much stronger evidence of the energy than of the taste of their fomider. 
 One of the earliest and most useful works was the construction of greatly im- 
 proved roads to Windsor and Livei-pool, the main thoroughfares to the principal 
 agricultural districts. He afterwards extended these roads beyond the Blue 
 Mountains. Soon after his arrival, seeing the narrow space to which the 
 colonists were confined, he held out every encouragement to those who were 
 
 2 K
 
 314 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 desirous of exploring the interior. In 1799 a convict named Wilson, with five 
 comijanions, succeeded in crossing these formidable obstacles to the extension 
 of colonisation. Their statements on their return were, however, so generally 
 discredited that no result followed, and the circumstance had apparently been 
 long foi'gotten, when, in 1812 and 1813, the prevalence of a drought compelled 
 the settlers to seek new pastures for their flocks and herds. The live stock in 
 the colony at this period amounted to 65,121 sheep, 21,543 horned cattle, and 
 1891 horses, a wonderful increase considering the obstacles at first encountered 
 to their introduction and breeding. It was in May 1813 that Messrs Went- 
 worth, Blaxland, and Lawson made their successful attempt to penetrate the 
 mountain chain which had so long confined the eS'orts and energies of the 
 colonists to a narrow space. 
 
 Almost from the first, Macquarie seems to have discouraged, as much as 
 possible, the influx of free settlers. He was fond of power, and fearful of 
 strengthening by numbers the influence of a class that could not be ruled 
 by general orders and prison regulations. Previous to his time there had 
 been a small but steady influx of free persons — small capitalists for the most 
 part — attracted by the grants of laud and cheap labour which the Home 
 Government very liberally offered to those who were Avilling to brave the dis- 
 comforts and dangers of a five or six months' voyage, and who could reconcile 
 themselves to pass a considerable part of their lives in a penal colony at the 
 antipodes. To encourage the emancipist class to persevere in good conduct, the 
 governor raised one of them named Thompson to the magisterial bench. It was 
 said that the influence and advice of Colonel Foveaux caused Macquarie to select 
 Thompson for this special mark of favour and distinction. The story is, that 
 Foveaux, disgusted with Macquarie's strong leaning towards the class to which 
 Thompson belonged, thought to make the governor suffer for his error by recom- 
 mending the man most likely to get himself and his patron into a scrape ; and 
 that, upon learning that Thompson had actually been gazetted as a justice of the 
 peace, he exclaimed, " I have placed a blister upon Governor Macquarie, which 
 he will never be able to remove." Macquarie, who was by no means deficient in 
 cutting sarcasm, said, in reference to the opposition raised in consequence of this 
 appointment, that " he had but two classes to choose from, those who had been 
 transported and those — ^who ought to have been." 
 
 The circumstances connected with Bligh's deposition, and the complaints 
 Avhich had reached the British Government relative to the monopolising spirit of 
 the officers and their friends, led at length to a parliamentary inquiry into the 
 state of the colony. This took place in 1812, and many witnesses — returned 
 prisoners as well as colonists and officers — were examined. The principal result 
 which followed was an alteration of the mode in which the law was administered. 
 In July 1814, the first Judge of the Supreme Court, Jeffrey Hart Bent, Esq., 
 arrived in the colony. But hardly had he taken his seat on the bench than a 
 serious disagreement broke out between himself and the governor. The new 
 judge refused to allow attorneys of the emancipist class to practise in his court. 
 An altercation Ijctwccn the judge and the assessors followed, and the Court was
 
 GOVERNOR MACQUARIE'S ADMINISTRATION. 315 
 
 adjournod sine die, witliotit any business liaving been transacted. Macquai-ie, as 
 might have been cxj^ectcd, espoused very warndy the cause of tlie emancii)ist 
 attorneys, and forwarded strong representations of Judge Bent's conduct to Earl 
 Bathurst, then the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He contended tliat it 
 was an unjustifiable interference with the policy which guided his administra- 
 tion, and with the salutary measui'es he had initiated lor the reformation of the 
 prisoner population. Earl Bathurst saw at once that it was necessary to uphold 
 the authority of the governor, in order to prevent a repetition of the course pur- 
 sued towards Captain Bligh. The result was that Judge Bent was at once recalled 
 by a despatch, in which Earl Bathurst, on behalf of the Government, used the 
 following words : " Considering the removal of the said Jeffrey Hart Bent, Esq., 
 from the colony as necessary to mark the sense and disapprobation which they 
 entertain of the measure which, so indiscreetly for the colony and himself, the 
 said Jeffrey Hart Bent, Esq., thought it necessary to adopt, and which for so 
 long a period has occasioned all the serious evils of a total suspension of justice, 
 to the manifest injury of the best interests and public credit of the colony." Earl 
 Bathurst, in addressing Mr Bent at the same time, expressed " the high displea- 
 sure of his Royal Highness, and his positive recall by his Majesty's Government, 
 on account of conduct which, in their opinion, could admit of no justification." 
 
 The delays and complications arising out of the establishment of the Supreme 
 Court, and the claims of the emancipists for full admission to all the privileges 
 of citizenship, lasted for several years. The gentleman sent out to supersede 
 Judge Bent was Mr Barron Field, who, like his predecessor, was an English 
 barrister, and a man of some literary ability. He was the friend of Charles Lamb, 
 Hazlitt, Coleridge, and their circle, and one of Lamb's most charming letters 
 Avas addressed to his friend Barron Field in New South Wales. A journal of 
 his outward voyage, vn-itten by Field, was published in the old London Magazine. 
 He was sent to heal the wounds in the body politic, biit got himself into disputes 
 with the emancipists almost as quickly as Judge Bent himself. One of his first 
 acts after entering upon his duties was the giving of a decision which allowed a 
 defendant to plead a plaintiff's conviction for felony many years previously in 
 England as a bar to civil action. The class of emancipists at this time formed a 
 large majority of the trading and mechanical, as well as the agricultural and 
 grazing, sections of the community ; and it is not surprising that they showed a 
 well-grounded alarm at the helpless position in which Judge Field's decision 
 placed them. They at length initiated a movement for redi-ess by signing a 
 requisition to the provost-marshal asking him to call a pulilic meeting in order 
 to decide on what steps should be taken to enable them to obtain relief from 
 their legal disabilities. The meeting, which was numerously attended, was con- 
 ducted in a very loyal and orderly manner. The result of the movement was a 
 resolution affirming the civil equality of the emancipist class, and praying for 
 redress from the Throne. By the influence of the governor the prayer was 
 granted. Macquarie succeeded at length in breaking down all legal barriers 
 between the two classes ; but the social barriers wei'e too strong for him ; and 
 the more he endeavoured to destroy them the more jealously were they guarded
 
 316 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 by the wealthy free settlers, officers, and civil servants wlio formed the exclusive 
 class. The pretensions of some of these gentlemen may be estimated by what 
 fell from one of them on a certain occasion. He said he considered the class to 
 which he belonged to be the representatives of the highest aristocracy in the 
 ^yorld — because it was an aristocracy founded on virtue. Although there was 
 sufficient gi'ound for his boast to give it an air of truth in the eyes of his own 
 class, there was not enough to save its author from the ridicule of the rest of the 
 community. 
 
 The rapidly increasing flocks and herds of the colonists necessitated a con- 
 stant advance towards the interior, and caused a steady invasion of the hunting- 
 CTOunds of the aboriuines. The farther the settlers advanced from the coast the 
 wider became the debatable land, and the more frequent their conflicts with the 
 natives. One which took place in 1816 will serve as a sample of the whole. 
 On the banks of the Nepean Eiver a band of about thirty savages plundered the 
 homestead of a settler. On the following day seven well-armed white men went 
 in pnrsuit of the robbers, in the hope of recovering some of the property. The 
 blacks had placed themselves in ambush on the other side of the river, and as 
 soon as the settlers had crossed, rushed from their lurking-place, surprised, and 
 disarmed them almost before they were aware of their presence. Having their 
 enemies at their mercy, they deliberately commenced the work of murder. Four 
 were killed instantly, one was desperately wounded, but the other two managed 
 in the confusion to escape by flight. Emboldened by their victory, the blacks 
 next day assembled in increased numbers, attacked and plundered several farms, 
 and destroyed a large amount of property. Most of the frightened inhabitants 
 fled for their lives. At one house the mistress and a servant man remained, 
 because the suddenness of the attack left them no time for flight. They took 
 shelter in a barn, into which the savages tried in vain to force an entrance. 
 They then tried to unroof the building, when the man attempted to parley with 
 the ringleader, whom he had known years before. The savage, recognising his 
 former friend, magnanimously prevailed on his companions to leave the place 
 without committing the slightest depredation. 
 
 In his administration of affairs Macquarie displayed great personal activity 
 and energy. His excursions and journeys were frequent and sometimes long and 
 fatiguing. In the second year of his rule he made a voyage to Van Diemen's 
 Land. Colonel Collins, the founder of the Hobart Town settlement, and the 
 first lieutenant-governor of the colony, had died suddenly in March 1810, about 
 three months after Macquarie's arrival in New South Wales, and the latter took 
 the earliest opportunity, after he had surmounted the first difficulties of his posi- 
 tion, to visit the Derwent, and personally inspect the progress and resources of 
 the country. Collins had administered the government at Hobart ToA\aa for 
 upwards of six years. His rule was perhaps the most absoUite despotism at that 
 time in existence, and under a man deficient in benevolence and tact the condi- 
 tion of the settlers would have been intoleralc. But, with all its drawbacks, the 
 rule of a benevolent despot was, perhaps, more suitable for the state of society 
 whicli prevailed there than a more complicated system of government.
 
 GO VERNOR MA CQ VARIES ADMIN ISTRA TION. 317 
 
 Tliis state of things lasted for ten j'cars, until, in 1814, jNIajor Abhott, one of 
 the officers of the old New South Wales Cori)s, was sent down from Sydney as 
 Judge-Advocate, under the new charter of justice a short time before conferred 
 by the Crown upon the Australian Colonies. His administration of the law, 
 although an improvement on the system before pursued, Avas not remarkable for 
 adherence to form or precedent. In fact he was forced by surrounding circum- 
 stances to accommodate the law to the condition of the peojile. When he thouglit 
 the offence merited severity, he sometimes was not to be deterred from imposing 
 illegal sentences even in the case of free people. 
 
 Colonel Collins's literary habits led him to desire the establishment of a news- 
 paper, and in February 1810 appeared the first number of a small journal under 
 his auspices. Its name was the Derwent Star. It was but a quarto leaf, of the 
 humljlest pretensions, and lived for a few weeks only. It might have had a more 
 enduring existence, but in less than a month after its advent Collins himself was 
 overtaken by death. Several years elapsed before another and more successful 
 attempt was made to establish a newspaper in Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 On the death of Colonel CoUins the charge of the settlement devolved for a 
 short period on Lieutenant Lord, until the arrival of Captain Murray, of the 73d 
 Regiment, who then assumed the office as senior military officer in the island. 
 It was during the administration of the latter gentleman, which lasted less than 
 two years, that Governor Macquarie visited the colony. He arrived, accom- 
 panied by Mrs Macquarie, in the schooner "Nelson," in November 1811. The 
 visit of the governor-in-chief was regarded as a great event by the colonists. He 
 was received with strong demonstrations of loyalty and many marks of respect. 
 
 In 1817 the Rev. W. O'Flynn, a clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church, 
 arrived in New South Wales. Although not the first Catholic priest that had 
 visited the colony, he was the first deputed expressly to minister to the spiritual 
 wants of the members of his communion, of whom there were probably at that 
 time ten thousand in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 The Presbyterians had not uj) to this period any regularly ordained ministers 
 of their own Church, although a number of respectable free persons of that 
 communion had long before settled in the colony; and at Portland Head, on the 
 Hawkesbury River, some of them had, so early as 1809, erected a church and 
 regularly assembled for public worship. It is stated in Dr Lang's " History " 
 that this church was the first place of worship erected in the colony by voluntary 
 efibrt, but this appears to have been a mistake, since the. first building used as a 
 place of worship by the members of the Church of England owed its existence to 
 private zeal. The church erected by the Presbyterians cost upwards of £400, a 
 large sum to raise among the members of a small religious community in those 
 days. Divine worship was conducted in it for many years by one of the settlers, 
 ]\Ir James INIein, a venerable old man. 
 
 The Church of England establishment, before the termination of JSIacquarie's 
 rule, consisted of nine ministers. Some of them.were eminently qualified for 
 their position, and laboured zealously in the cause of religion ; while others were 
 engrossed in worldly pursuits, and their sacred duties occupied very little of their
 
 318 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 time 01' attention. New South Wales was, at that period, nominally part of the 
 Indian diocese, of which the celebrated Heber was then bishop ; but, practically, 
 the Kev. Samuel Marsden Avas the head of the Church in the colony, and was 
 usually called Bishop Marsden. This gentleman occupied a very conspicuous 
 place for many years as a magistrate, a settler, and a trader, as well as a minister 
 of religion, and probably the character of few men, in any age of the world, has 
 been porti'ayed in such various and contradictory colours as his. He arrived 
 in New South Wales in 1794. He was a man of most active and energetic 
 character, but unpopular in the highest degree with the emancipists and those 
 who espoused their cause. He died in 1838. He was the founder of the New 
 Zealand missions, and it is in this character he is best remembered. 
 
 In the promotion of benevolent objects, and in supplying means for assuaging 
 the sufferings of the unfortunate victims of poverty, accident, or sickness, Mac- 
 quarie and his wife seem to have been ever ready to set a good example. The 
 Sydney Benevolent Asylum and other institutions of a similar character, still in 
 existence, which date from this period, were greatly indebted to their efforts and 
 liberal patronage. Mrs Macquarie Avas generally called Lady Macquarie by the 
 colonists, although she had no claim to that title except such as arose from 
 popular gratitude, and a warm appreciation of her character. She took great 
 delight in beautifying and improving the town and neighbourhood of Sydney, 
 and her name will long be remembered in connection with the delightful public 
 walk, constructed under her orders and from her plans, around the Domain, near 
 the water's edge. 
 
 The rajiid expansion of the commerce of the colony led during Macquarie's 
 rule to the introduction of what was afterwards known as the order system. 
 The governor gave his sanction to the issue by private individuals of five-shilling 
 promissory notes, payable on demand in copper. This opened the door to great 
 abuse, and led to the practice — which after a time became an almost universal 
 and intolerable nuisance — of settlers and others in the country paying their sei'- 
 vants in orders on their agents in towns. Sterling money, under such a system, 
 gi'ew scarcer and dearer every day, and the " currency " became so depreciated 
 that a note or order for a pound i-epresented but fifteen shillings in silver. An- 
 other expedient to increase the amount of the circulating medium Avas then 
 adopted. The Spanish dollar, the coin in general circulation, had its centre struck 
 out, and was still circulated for a dollar of full value, while the piece punched 
 out, called a dump, was made legal tender for fifteen pence. These "holey 
 dollars," as they Avere called, and dumps, remained in circulation for many years. 
 
 The distinguishing feature of the latter part of Macquarie's period of rule Avas 
 the great advancement made in the joroduction and export of fine wool for the 
 supply of the English market. Squatting, or the occupation on a large scale of 
 lands of Avhich the stockholders had received no grant or lease from the Govern- 
 ment, commenced soon after the discovery of the routes across the mountains 
 into the great plains of the interior. Before that time agriculture — by Avhich 
 must be understood merely the groAvth of wheat and maize — was almost the sole 
 rural pursuit. For a period of nearly thirty years, the labour, skill, and capital
 
 GOVERNOR MACQUARIE'S ADMINISTRATION. 319 
 
 of the colonists had been devoted ahnost exchisivcly to tillage. But soon after 
 the lilue ]\Iountains were crossed, pastoral enterprise began to usurp that place 
 which had for so long a period been fdled by agriculture. A more complete 
 revt)lutiou has seldom been witnessed than gradually took place not only in tlie 
 industrial pursuits, but in the habits and prospects of the settlers. In account- 
 ing for this change it should be remembered that there were various causes 
 Avhich cramped the energies of the cultivator besides the narrow extent of terri- 
 tory to which the colony was for a long time confined, and which caused liim to 
 hail with pleasure the new prospects and pursuits which at length opened before 
 him beyond the momitains. One circumstance which threw impediments in the 
 way of the agriculturist was the almost total want of skilled mechanical labour. 
 With pastoral pm-suits little or no skilled labour was necessary. A bark hut, 
 which could be erected in a few hours, a rough stockyard, or a few hurdles, 
 were almost all that was needed, so far as mechanical labour was concerned, to 
 enable a commencement to be made in grazing, even on an extensive scale; 
 while to carry on tillage successfully, the handicraftsman and mechanist were in 
 constant recpisition. 
 
 The material progress of New South Wales under Macquarie, especially 
 during the latter part of his administration, was very great. The roads and 
 bridges, the construction of which he had pushed forward with vigour, almost 
 immediately after his arrival, had been productive of the greatest benefit to the 
 settlers ; and on all the principal lines toll-bars were established for the i^urpose 
 of providing funds for their maintenance and repair. Sydney, which had not 
 long before emerged from the condition of a mere collection of huts, now began 
 to assume the appearance of a bustling although rather straggling town ; the 
 inhabitants numbered upwards of seven thousand in 1820 — about a third of the 
 entire population of the colony — and there were several thriving manufactures 
 cai-ried on, such as woollen cloths, earthenware, salt, candles, soap, hats, etc. In 
 1816 a bank — that of New South Wales, which still exists as one of the principal 
 monetary institutions of Australia — was established. In the same year the 
 foundation of the lighthouse at the South Head of Port Jackson was laid. In 
 1819 the Sydney Savings Bank was established, and it, also, as well as the 
 Bank of New South Wales, has continued to flourish to the present day, and 
 has been exceedingly useful in promoting habits of thrift and self-reliance 
 among the people. Public schools Avere instituted in all the populated districts. 
 A Bible society, Sunday-schools, and other benevolent institutions were also 
 founded. The wife of the governor was foremost in all good works, and her 
 reputation for benevolence and piety stood high amongst the colonists. 
 
 The expenditure on the penal establishments was, during ISIacquarie's time, 
 about £200,000 a year. The average cost from its foundation in 1788 to 1815 
 was about £125,000 a year. In 1813 the expenditure amounted to £235,000, 
 and in 1814 to £231,362. The following year was one of retrenchment, and the 
 amount was reduced to £150,000. These enormous sums, draA\m in hard cash 
 from the commissariat chest, and expended amongst a small ijopulation, were 
 productive of a certain amount of prosperity, which was not, however, of a very
 
 320 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 sound or healthy character. The colonists were in fact, to some extent, in the 
 position of jjeople having the command of large sums of money which they had 
 never properly earned ; and therefore were in greater danger of falling into 
 habits of luxury and extravagance than if they had no other external source of 
 wealth than was derived from exports raised by their oAvn industry and sent 
 into the markets of the world. 
 
 The intelligence of ISIacquarie's intended recall reached the colony in the 
 latter part of 1821. Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, his successor, arrived 
 shortly afterwards, and on the 1st December his commission as captain-general 
 and governor-in-chief of the colony was read, with the most impressive 
 formalities, in Hyde Park, Sydney, where the military were drawn up under 
 arms, and fired a salute in honour of the occasion. Most of the inhabitants, 
 including the leading colonists of all parties, were present, and Macquarie took 
 advantage of the opportunity thus afi'orded to address them at considerable 
 length in vindication of his character and the policy of his administration. He 
 said that Avhen he took charge of the government in 1810, he found the colony 
 in a state of rapid deterioration, a famine impending, discord and party spirit 
 prevailing to a great degree, and the public buildings in a state of dilapidation 
 and decay ; very few roads and bridges in existence, and those few in a very 
 bad condition. Now, he continued, we see the face of the country generally, 
 and agriculture in particular, greatly improved ; stock of all kinds had much 
 increased ; useful manufactures had been established ; commerce was revived, 
 and public credit restored. A great number of substantial and useful public 
 edifices had been erected, good roads and bridges had been constructed, and the 
 inhabitants were comparatively opulent and happy. 
 
 Macquarie did not quit the colony until nearly three months after the arrival 
 of his successor. He had come to look upon the evidences of w^ealtk and advance- 
 ment which he saw around him as if they were the work of his o\a\ hands, and 
 he I'egardcd the improved condition of the colony with feelings of honest pride. 
 Under such circumstances it is not to be wondei*ed at that he was loath to leave 
 the scene where for nearly twelve years he had exercised more than regal power. 
 There is no doubt that he felt a deep attachment to the country, and that, 
 whatever his mistakes, he acted throughout his administration with perfect 
 singleness of purpose, and under the firm belief that the measures which he 
 adopted were conducive not only to the welfare of those over whom he ruled, 
 but to the honour and dignity of the gi'eat country w^hose servant he was. A 
 man of unblemished morals himself, he appears to have been ignorant that there 
 Avas such a thing as innate vice in others, and he looked upon all who had fallen 
 into crime as the imfortunate Adctims of circumstances.
 
 S/Ji THOMAS JililSJJANE'S ADMINISTRATION. 321 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SIR THOMAS BRISBANE'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 1!1;iSI!ANE's character — TOO QUIET A GOVERNOR — LAND MANIA — BRISBANE AT 
 PARAMATTA — BECOMES UNPOPULAR — POLITICAL PROGRESS — FREE IMMIGRATION 
 ENCOURAGED — SIR FRANCIS FORBES, CHIEF-JUSTICE — FIRST CIVIL JURY — FIRST 
 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — LIBERTY OF THE PRESS — AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL 
 COMPANTT — W. C. WENTWORTH — SCIENCE IN NEW SOUTH AVALES — SOLDIER 
 
 SETTLERS — STATE OF MORALS — BUSHRANGING THREATENED FAMINE — GOVERNOR 
 
 UNPOPULAR — HIS RECALL — PROGRESS DURING THE PERIOD. 
 
 The successor of Governor Macquarie, Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, 
 K.C.B., the sixth Governor of New South Wales, entered upon his duties on 
 the 1st December 1821, under most favourable auspices. His character as a 
 soldier and a man of science had preceded him, and his advent was hailed by the 
 colonists of all classes with the greatest satisfaction. Like his immediate pre- 
 decessor, he was a Scotchman. He was of a good family, of excellent personal 
 character, and had the reputation of being a kind-hearted, generous, and refined 
 man. He found the colony in a flourishing condition, its productions rapidly 
 increasing, and its poi)ulation receiving accessions of men of capital and enter- 
 prise almost daily. To a man of talent and energy, with a desire to serve his 
 country, few positions could have been more acceptable than the one in Avhich 
 Sir Thomas Brisbane now found himself. At the head of a community of push- 
 ing, enterprising people, who were in the possession of more than an average 
 amount of material wealth, provided with an abundant supply of labour, and 
 with an unlimited extent of fertile and unoccupied land waiting to be devoted to 
 their purposes ; with most of the dangers, privations, and drudgery incident 
 to the earlier days of colonisation overcome ; with the British Government and 
 people eager for the development of that great country at the antipodes which 
 they fondly believed was one day to become " a new Britannia in another world," 
 — with such prospects and opportunities as these, it wanted only a governor 
 possessed of moderate ability and energy to send the colony forward in a far 
 more rapid career of advancement than had hitherto been thought possible. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, than Sir Thomas Brisbane, notwithstanding his 
 many high qualities, a man more unfitted for the jiosition he was sent to fill 
 could hardly have been selected. Unlike his predecessor, INIacquarie, whose 
 ])ersonal activity, business habits, and untiring interference Avith all kinds of 
 matters were remarkable, Brisbane seems to have had an aversion not merely to 
 
 2s
 
 322 THE HIS TOR Y OF A US TRA LA SI A . 
 
 meddlinr^ with what did not immediately concern him, but even to the trans- 
 action of the ordinary official business which his position rendered absolutely 
 necessary. He was too ready to evade the performance of the duties of his 
 office, and even to trust to others in matters of much importance. The kindness 
 and gentleness of his disposition was, under such circumstances, liable to 
 degenerate into almost culpable weakness, and his reluctance to be placed in 
 antagonism to those about him was insurmountable. 
 
 The rage for possessing land had become intensely strong amongst the 
 colonists, and so numerous were these grants of Governor Macquarie, and so 
 entirely was their profitable occupation beyond the means or incompatible with 
 the inclination of the grantees, that their disposable value was reduced to almost 
 nothing ; and lands were sold for a few gallons of rum which not many years 
 afterwards would have realised hundreds, or, in some cases, even thousands of 
 pounds. The acquisition of these improvidently conferred grants from their 
 improvident owners became a sort of trade — a pursuit followed with almost the 
 devotion of a passion by some of the wealthy emancipists — especially such as 
 were engaged in store-keeping and si^irit-selling. Scarcely in any instance were 
 the farms thus acquired cultivated by those into whose possession they fell. 
 They saw that by the ordinary increase of population the lands Avould soon 
 become exceedingly valuable ; and in addition to this they, like their betters, 
 were prompted by a strong desire for territorial aggrandisement, a motive almost 
 as potent as the love of money itself. The extent of land acquired by some 
 of these emancipist grog-sellers was enormous. One of their number, a well- 
 known Sydney publican, was, at the time he relinquished business, in 1820, the 
 owner of nearly 20,000 acres of freehold land, of which only 140 acres were 
 in cultivation. Several other persons, not however all of the emancipist class, 
 who made it their business to buy up large numbers of these little grants, had 
 acquired even then still greater quantities, and had thereby laid the foundations 
 of the fortunes which their descendants now enjoy. 
 
 Sir Thomas Brisbane, to escape the social annoyances suffered by his prede- 
 cessors, generally resided in great privacy at Paramatta, where he took measures 
 for establishing an observatory ; and where he Avas able to follow the bent of his 
 mind for scientific studies Avithout that frequent interruption to which he would 
 have been subject in Sydney. His Excellency was generally regarded at first as 
 hostile to the emancipists, but this view was hardly borne out by circumstances 
 which afterwards ti-anspired. He was no doubt desirous of avoiding anything 
 like the partisanshiji displayed by Governor INIacquarie, and it is probable that 
 his sympathies were with the official class and their friends, but a slight insight 
 into the everyday life of the colonists must have convinced him that right was not 
 cxclu.sively on their side; and he probably came to the conclusion that justice as 
 well as policy required him to avoid identifying himself with either. The con- 
 sequence was that he became unpojiular with both, and was spoken and written 
 against accordingly. His administration, however, although short and unpopular, 
 was marked by events of the deepest interest to the colonists and their descend- 
 ants — events the effects of which are still felt and will continue to be felt for
 
 SIR THOMAS BRISBANE S ADMINISTRATION. 323 
 
 ages. Those were : (1.) The concession of the first instahncnt of self-government 
 by the institution of a legislative council ; (2.) The formal acknowledgment 
 of the liberty of the pi'ess ; (3.) The establishment of trial by jury; (4.) The 
 discovery of an overland route to Port riiillip, and the formation of settlements 
 at Moreton Bay and other places; (5.) The commencement of a steady flow of 
 immigration from the mother country. 
 
 Large inducements in the way of free grants of land and prison labour were 
 held out to free immigrants to come out and settle in the colony ; and it will be 
 readily understood that under such circumstances as these, notwithstanding that 
 Sir Thomas Brisbane was by no means a very able administrator, great progress 
 was made in colonisation. Pastoral pursuits, in particular, exjiorienced a very 
 rapid advancement, and the export of wool, which in 1820 amounted to less than 
 a hundred thousand pounds' weight, rose in the short space of two years to nearly 
 half a million of pounds. Agriculture, too, experienced a considerable revival 
 from the influx of free settlers, as many of them were persons of small capital 
 with families, who chose rather to follow that pursuit on their granted lands in 
 the settled districts than to isolate themselves by squatting on Crown lands in 
 the far interior in wool growing or cattle breeding. Pastoral pui'suits even at 
 that time required the investment of considerable capital on the part of those 
 who embarked in them, for the demand for fine-woolled sheep and well-bred 
 cattle was so brisk that very high prices ruled. A pair of pure Spanish merino 
 rams were sold in 1822 for £500 ; and first-class breeding stock of other descrip- 
 tions fetched similar extravagant prices. 
 
 ]\Iost of the free settlers of early times were officers of the army or navy, or 
 soldiers, sailors, or ofticials of some sort who originally came to the colony in 
 connection with or in the discharge of their duties ; but there were others who 
 were not in Government employ in any capacity — needy but ambitious and 
 pushing men for the most part — who emigrated in consequence of promises held 
 out, or opportunities which offered for bettering their condition. This class of 
 settlers, in addition to rations for their families and servants for a certain period, 
 and grants of land in proportion to the capital they brought with them, had the 
 cost of their passage defrayed at the public expense. This system of granting 
 free passages Avas, however, discontinued during Macquarie's administration, 
 although the other inducements to settlers mentioned above continued in opera- 
 tion long after. 
 
 In June 1823, Sir Francis Forbes was appointed first Chief-Justice of New 
 South Wales, with a salary of £2000 a year. He arrived in Sydney in INIarch 
 1824, bringing with him a charter for the establishment of courts of justice in 
 the colony. 
 
 The new charter of justice was formally promulgated in Sydney on May 17, 
 1824, at Government House, the Court House, and in the INIarket-place. On 
 the same day. Judge Forbes took his seat on the bench as Chief-Justice of the 
 Supreme Court, having previously received the oath of office from his Excellency 
 the governor. The Court, in its criminal jurisdiction, sat for the first time on 
 the 10th June following, and as the Act was distinct and positive regarding the
 
 324 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 composition of the jury — that is, that it shonUl be composed of seven military or 
 naval otHcers — the Chief-Justice had no alternative but to let the law take its 
 course, although the experience he had gained by several months' residence in 
 the colony only served to confirm the opinion he had previously held, that there 
 Avas no sufficient ground for withholding from the community the right of 
 Englishmen to be tried by a jury of their equals. The 19th section of the Act, 
 however, which authorised the holding of courts of general or quarter sessions, 
 at such times and places as the governor should appoint, containing, as before 
 stated, no provision as to a jury of any kind. Sir Francis Forbes decided that, in 
 the spirit of the common law in England, a ci^val jury ought to be impanelled. 
 The magistrates in quarter sessions, however, strongly objected to this course, 
 and addressed several letters to the governor on the subject ; a long corre- 
 spondence then took place, but the magistrates were obstinate, and the result 
 was that they were required to show cause why a precept to the sheriff to 
 summon a common ji;ry should not issue. The matter came on for argument in 
 the Supreme Court before the Chief-Justice, Avho, as might have been anticipated, 
 decided against the magistrates. The principal ground of his decision was based 
 upon the circumstance that although magistrates derived their commission from 
 the king, and not from the British Parliament, their functions and obligations 
 Avere settled by the common law, and that as the Act under which courts of 
 quarter sessions were constituted Avas silent on the subject of juries, the common 
 law procedure must be followed. After this decision, juries of civilians were 
 summoned, and sat in courts of quarter sessions simultaneously with military 
 juries in the Supreme Court. The date of the impanelling of the first civil jury 
 was November 1, 1824. 
 
 That the small instalment of trial by jury thus obtained worked exceedingly 
 well during the time it was in operation was generally admitted. INIr W. C. 
 Wentworth, in a speech which he made at a pubHc meeting held in Sydney, in 
 January 1827, said : " The first topic contained in the petition is a request for 
 trial by jury. We have already had in the court of quarter sessions a two 
 years' experience of that mode of trial, and notAvithstanding a great proportion of 
 the population is held not eligible to sit as jurors, it has gone on avcU and suc- 
 cessfully; therefore Ave lu'go that if it Avere more extended in the colony its 
 beneficial effects Avould be more generally knoAvn." The petition alluded to by 
 Mr Wentworth Avas one from the colonists to the British Parliament, and AA'as 
 then before the meeting for adoption. It Avas presented to the House of 
 Commons by Sir James ^lacintosh. In the meantime the antagonistic feeling 
 bctAvecn the different sections of the community grcAV more and more bitter 
 every day in consequence of the exclusion of the emancipists from the jury box. 
 Those who opposed their claims were, in reality, few in number, although influ- 
 ential in position. ]\fany of the humbler class of free settlers Avere in fiivour of 
 their admission, and joined in urging their rights. The contest Avent on for 
 years, the claimants and their friends daily becoming more numerous and 
 inlluential. 
 
 The 11th August 1824 is remarkable as the day on wliicli ;ii)praro(l, in the
 
 SIR THOMAS BRISBANE'S ADMINISTRATION. 325 
 
 Sydncii Gazette, a proclaination announcinjr that his Majesty had been [)]easo(1 to 
 institute a Legishitivc Council ior New South Wales. The first mcnibeis 
 appointed consisted exclusively of Government officers. They were only six in 
 number, viz. : William Stewart, Lieutenant-Governor ; Francis Forbes, Chief- 
 Justice ; Frederick Goull)urn, Colonial Secretary; James Bowman, Principal 
 Colonial Sm-gcon ; and John Oxlcy, Surveyor-General. In a short time after- 
 wards Mr John Macarthur, of Camden, was added to the number. This, tlio 
 first step to that large share of self-government which was afterwards, at various 
 times and by degi-ees, conferred upon the colony, may bo regarded as a grand 
 turning point in its history ; and from this period the laws under which the 
 colonists lived and the taxes they paid were to a considerable extent within their 
 own control. The first session of the newly erected legislature was a very short 
 one, and only one Act of a single clause was passed. It was an Act to legalise 
 promissory notes and bills of exchange made payable in Spanish dollars, which 
 were then the ordinary currency of the colony. It received the governor's assent 
 on the -iSth of September 1824. 
 
 Another exceedingly important event took place in this year ; namely, the 
 formal concession of the liberty of the press. On the 15th of October, Mr 
 Howe, the proprietor of the Siidiiei/ Gazette, was apprised by a letter from ISIr 
 Secretary Goulburn, that a memorial presented by him having been duly con- 
 sidered by the governor, instructions had been issued that the censureship there- 
 tofore exercised over the press should no longer exist. This recognition of the 
 liberty of the press was followed within a year or two by the establishment of 
 two new journals in Sydney — the A a. •<tra/ian, under the editorial control of Dr 
 Warden and INIr W. C. Wentworth ; and the Monitor, of which Mr E. S. Hall 
 was the editor and proprietor. Both these newspapers were conducted with 
 far more than average ability, and their editorial columns presented a marked 
 contrast to the fulsome flattery of Government officials, and the inane twaddle on 
 other matters, which characterised their older rival, the Sydney Gazette. 
 
 The knowledge which had been spread in England respecting the progress of 
 the colony and the rapid accumulation of wealth by individual settlers, was at 
 this period producing important results. Accounts of the flattering prospects of 
 the immigrants who, a year or two before, had begun to pour into New South 
 Wales in considerable numbers, were widely circulated, and capitalists began to 
 look towards the Great South Land as an eligible field for investment. A com- 
 pany, called the Australian Agricidtural Company, with a capital of a million 
 sterling, in shares of ten pounds each, was formed in London, for the pui'pose of 
 developing the agricultural, pastoral, and mineral wealth in which Australia was 
 believed to abound. Its promoters were men of the highest standing and influ- 
 ence in England, and they secured for their speculation very extensive privileges 
 in grants of land and mining rights, although mining was not a prominent feature 
 among their original designs. The idea first entertained was emliodied in the 
 name of the company ; and the intention to engage extensively in agriculture 
 was for a long time adhered to. W'^ith this view the choicest animals and plants 
 and the most improved machinery and appliances were sent out, under charge of
 
 326 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 persons skilled in farming operations and mechanical pursuits. Lord Brougham, 
 Mr Joseph Hume, the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General of England, 
 many members of Parliament, and other public men— among them the governor 
 and eight directors of the Bank of England, and the chairman, deputy-chairman, 
 and several of the directors of the East India Company — took shares, and exerted 
 all their influence in favour of the undertaking. In consideration of the benefits 
 which such a wealthy and powerful association was likely to confer upon the 
 colony, and in compliance with the usual custom of giving land in proportion to 
 capital introduced, the Home Government conferred a grant of a million acres 
 upon the company. Operations on a large scale were commenced in 1825, and 
 as the local Government was willing to transfer to the company, on very easy 
 terms, the coal mines at Newcastle, advantage was taken of the opportunity, and 
 the land and all the machinery and appliances soon passed into their hands. 
 The land thus transferred consisted of about two thousand acres, and contained 
 abundance of excellent coal, easily wrought, and close to water carriage. The 
 active working of the mine was at once proceeded with as a step which promised 
 almost immediate returns ; and finding their mining operations likely to prove 
 more remunerative than agi'iculture, the directors successfully exerted their great 
 influence in procuring from Earl Bathurst, then Secretary for the Colonies, the 
 exclusive right of raising and dealing in coal, with the further guarantee that no 
 land for working coal should be granted to any other company or person during 
 the existence of their lease, which was for thirty-one years. The result, how- 
 ever, of the great privileges conferred, has not been of so lucrative a character 
 as was anticipated. The company, after exercising its rights for a long time, 
 was at length, in obedience to public opinion, induced to give up the monopoly 
 which had been so improvidently granted ; and although this remarkable associa- 
 tion is still in active operation, no very marked success and no very serious 
 disasters have ever characterised its proceedings. Some idea of the character 
 and magnitude of its operations in early days may be gained from an enumera- 
 tion of the titles or designations of the officers. In addition to a chief commis- 
 sioner, there were in the colony an assistant commissioner, a secretary, and a 
 chief clerk ; a superintendent and an assistant superintendent of flocks ; a super- 
 intendent of agriculture, a superintendent of works, a superintendent of collieries, 
 a chaplain, and a surgeon ; Avhile the board of management in London consisted 
 of a governor, a deputy-governor, twelve directors, four auditors, and a secretary. 
 The company's monopoly of coal mining must have produced very great profits, 
 although the riches thus acquired were to a considerable extent dissipated in 
 less profitable undertakings, and very little went into the pockets of the share- 
 holders. That the monojioly was injurious to the colony there can be no doubt, 
 I'or while the quantity of coal raised by the company during its continuation was 
 less than iifty thousand tons annually, the amount produced a few years after- 
 wards, when the trade was thrown open to competition, reached ten times that 
 quantity. This monopoly was perhaps one of the most improvident and short- 
 sighted things of which the British Government was ever guilty in connection 
 with Australian colonisation. It is due to the company, however, to say that
 
 STR THOMAS BRISBANKS ADMINISTRATION. ^27 
 
 while it existed it Avas exercised with moderation, and was rehnquished before 
 the full term expired, because public opinion demanded its abolition as an 
 iniquity and an injustice which ought no longer to be tolerated. 
 
 The feature for which the period of Governor Brisbane's rule was most 
 remarkable was the great influx of immigrants. This influx, there can be no 
 doubt, was in a great degree owing to the steps taken by a native of the colony 
 — INIr William Charles Wentworth — to disseminate in England information 
 relative to the condition and prospects of Australia, and to point out to the 
 crowded millions of Great Britain the great advantages it offered as a place for 
 settlement. He was born at Norfolk Island in 1791, during the existence of 
 the first settlement formed there, and was the son of Mr Darcy Wentworth, a 
 surgeon, who had medical charge of the prisoners on the island, and after the 
 breaking up of the establishment there, filled the oflSce of police magistrate in 
 Sydney for many years. The first evidence of more than ordinary ability given 
 by young Wentworth arose out of the disputes Avhich during INIacquarie's time 
 raged between the governor and the officers of the 73d and 46th Regiments relative 
 to the admission of emancipists to civil rights and social recognition. His Excel- 
 lency's endeavours to force the officers to receive emancipists at their mess-table, 
 and to meet them in private life, were to some extent thwarted, and the feelings 
 engendered much embittered and prolonged, by the appearance of an anonymous 
 poem, alleged to have been picked up in the street, which caused much sensation. 
 It was a clever and severe lampoon upon Colonel INIolle and other officers who 
 had rendered themselves obnoxious to a large part of the population by their 
 opposition to the claims of the emancipists. The colonel was placed for some 
 time in a very disagreeable position, from the fact that the authorship of the 
 lampoon was confidently ascribed to one of his own officers. Young Wentworth, 
 however, having soon afterwards left the colony to pursue his studies in 
 England, his father, Mr Darcy Wentworth, took an early opportunity of 
 relieving the reputed author from his unpleasant position, by disclosing the 
 circumstance that the verses which had caused so much scandal were ^vTitten by 
 his son. 
 
 IVIr W^. C. W^entworth, on his arrival in England, became a student at Cam- 
 bridge, and Avhile an undergraduate there, "wi'ote and published a " Statistical 
 Account of the British Settlement in Australasia." The work was published in 
 two octavo volumes, and attracted so much attention that it ran through several 
 editions in a few years. It had the great defect of being written in a partisan 
 spirit, and was filled with abuse of the author's personal enemies. 
 
 During INIr Wentworth's stay at the university, he competed with twenty-five 
 others in the composition of a prize poem on the suliject of Australia. His 
 production, although awarded only the second place by the judges, is now 
 universally regarded as first in point of merit, although his successful rival was 
 the celebrated W. INIackworth Praed, then considered one of the most rising and 
 talented young men in England. The foUoAving passage, referring to the penal 
 origin of the- colony, is strongly expressive of his ardent desire for the introduc- 
 tion of a free peasantry and free institutions :
 
 328 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 " Land of my Lope ! soon may tliis early blot 
 Amid thy growing honours be foi-got ; 
 Soon may a freeman's hope, a freeman's blade 
 Nerve every arm, and gleam through every glade." 
 
 The conclusion of the poem, although so frequently quoted as to have become 
 almost hackneyed, is one of its finest passages. The last four lines — in allusion 
 to Australia being the latest born of Britannia's offspring — are as follows : 
 
 " May this thy last-born infant then arise 
 To glad thy heart and greet thy parent eyes, 
 And Australasia rise, ^vith flag unfurled, 
 A new Britannia in another world !" 
 
 It is painful to think that in old age Mr Wentwoith deserted the land Avhieh 
 he so loved and honoured in his youth, because, as it is said, he could not brook 
 those democratic institutions or endure that full measure of popular liberty which 
 he at one time so ardently advocated. 
 
 Governor Brisbane's devotion to the cause of science was as strong as his inclina- 
 tion for the performance of his official duties was weak. One of his first acts was the 
 establishment of an association which assumed the title of the Philosophical Society 
 of Australasia. It consisted of about a dozen members, most of them civil or military 
 officers. There Avere, during its short existence, several p.i^^iers of interest read at 
 its meetings ; but the remoteness of the colony from the great centres of science 
 and literature, and the paucity of gentlemen possessed of the necessary attain- 
 ments and leisure to contribute to its proceedings, could hardly have permitted 
 even its parent to expect for his bantling a very brilliant or very lengthy career. 
 
 The Royal Veteran Company — the name under which were embodied as a 
 local corps those officers and soldiers of the old 102d Eegiment, or New South 
 Wales Corps, who chose to remain in the colony when that regiment was recalled 
 for the part it had taken in the arrest of Governor Bligh — Avas, in October 1823, 
 disbanded ; and about the same time its former commander. Colonel Johnston, 
 died at Annandale, near Sydney. This Avas the last of that remarkable regiment 
 which, having been called into existence in England, in 1790, for the especial 
 purposes of the colony — then only known as Botany Bay — Avas popularly termed 
 "the condemned regiment;" but into Avhose i\anks — foreseeing probably the 
 opportunities Avhich the settlement of a new country was likely to present — 
 entered many young men of more than ordinary ability and energy of character. 
 Their expectations were more than realised, for to many of these soldiers of 
 fortune — rank and file as Avell as officers — the opportunity proved to be that tide 
 in their affairs Avhich taken at the flood led on to fortune. Almost all the 
 veterans — although they Avere offered free passages to England Avhen the com- 
 pany Avere disbanded — preferred to remain in the land Avhich they had long 
 regarded as their home, and in Avhich many of them had not only mariied and 
 brought up families, but had acquired possessions of no inconsiderable extent 
 and value. 
 
 Some improvement in the morals of the population seems to have taken place
 
 SIR THOMAS BRISBANE'S ADMINISTRATION. 329 
 
 during Governor Brisbane's period of ndo. It can hardly be (bniljted that the 
 favour shown by his predecessor to the prisoner chxss, although dictated probaljly 
 by motives of humanity, and prompted by a sincere desire for the elevation of 
 fallen fellow-men, had produced, in many of the convicts, an effect the reverse of 
 beneficial. The number of minor otfcnces against the law^s, and breaches of 
 public orders and regulations, had greatly increased during his time. Under 
 iJrisbane's government, altliough the laws were more strictly administered, the 
 number of persons convicted annually was much smaller. In one respect, however, 
 there was a remarkable exception to the comparative decreasein crime. Bushrang- 
 ing became for the first time a prominent offence. This particular phase of convict 
 life had existed for years in Van Dicmen's Land, but in New South Wales it had 
 not hitherto been rife. The new country to the westward, now being rapidly 
 taken up by stockholders, offered great temptations to the more daring and reck- 
 less of the convicts to attempt to exist by a life of plunder. Captain Fennell, the 
 commandant of the district, had his headquarters at Bathurst ; and a horse 
 patrol had been established chiefly for the protection of the outlying settlers against 
 the depredations of the blacks ; but, almost before the blacks had been quieted, 
 a more formidable evil in the shape of bands of bushrangers sprang up and 
 demanded energetic efforts for its suppression. The most numerous and daring 
 of these gangs, and one which for a short period kept the district in a state of 
 great alarm, originated Avitli six or eight convicts employed on two farms near 
 Bathurst. These men, abandoning their employment, armed themselves with 
 muskets and such other weapons as they could most readily procure, and com- 
 pelled many of the other prisoners to join them in an insurrection which appears 
 to have had no other object than an escape from restraint, and the enjoyment of 
 such indulgences as they could obtain by plunder. On one station they shot the 
 overseer because he refused to join them, and this produced such an effect on 
 others that their numbers soon increased to eighty or a hundred men, who 
 ravaged the settlers' farms for miles in all directions. They treated their victims 
 in accordance with what they considered their deserts. Those who were regarded 
 as good masters escaped very hghtly, Avhile those who had a character of harsh- 
 ness and severity towards their dependants suffered accordingly. They soon had 
 possession of large quantities of arms, ammunition, food, and clothing ; and, if 
 they could have placed confidence in each other, might have set the efforts of 
 the authorities at defiance, perhaps for years. Dissensions among themselves 
 soon led to the desertion of many of the band, and the ringleaders sent all the 
 others whose fidelity they suspected about their business. When this step had 
 been taken only thirteen remained, and these, free from the check of their more 
 timid or less desperate companions, gave themselves up to unrestrained plunder 
 and violence. The military and police, with two parties of volunteer settlers, 
 were despatched in pursuit of the robbers. One of the parties of civilians first 
 fell in with them, but were met with so much boldness that they had to retreat, 
 and gave such exaggerated accounts of the numbers and daring of the bush- 
 rangers that a request was sent to Sydney for more soldiers. Nothing was done 
 before the expected reinforcement arrived ; and Avhcn this took i)lace it was
 
 330 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 found that the alleged formidable organisation had dwindled to such small pro- 
 portions that the ordinary police force was quite sufficient to deal with the 
 difficulty. 
 
 Sir Thomas Brisbane, notwithstanding the excellence of his character as a 
 man, was, until near the close of his career, an unpopular governor. The people 
 could not sympathise Avith his philosophical pursuits ; but they could understand 
 that a governor who allowed himself to be dictated to, or managed, by his own 
 officers and the class to which they belonged, could not be a good ruler. A 
 circumstance which raised very strong feelings against him, was his putting a 
 stop, in 1823, in a most injudicious and sudden manner, to the practice of 
 receiving into the public stores the wheat and maize of the settlers at a fixed 
 price, vaiying for the former from 7s. 6d. to 10s. a bushel. Instead of taking 
 the whole year's supply, just after the harvest, at a fixed price, as Avas before 
 customary, only the quantity absolutely required for consumption during the 
 ensuing cpiarter was called for by tender. This alteration in a long estab- 
 lished but vicious system, which had given rise to great jobbery and injustice for 
 years, was productive of some loss and inconvenience to the storekeepers and 
 dealers, who had been accustomed to receive from the settlers, almost as cash, 
 their grain and produce, knowing that it would be taken into the public stores at 
 the usual price ; but to the settlers themselves it was absolute ruin. There was no 
 market for the large quantities of wheat and maize suddenly and unexpectedly left 
 upon the hands of the growers or their creditors. The Government had been so 
 long accustomed to take it all, that no private traders in such commodities were 
 prepared to purchase what the settlers had to dispose of; and the consequence 
 was that grain suddenly fell to so low a price as scarcely to pay the expenses of 
 cari'iage to market. The Government purchased the first quarter's supply for 
 about a third of the price paid in previous years, and the lowness of price very 
 naturally begot an opinion that there was a great superabundance of bread stufts 
 in the colony. Then, as there was no export trade nor any other outlet for such a 
 surplus, those who held it thought it was almost worthless, and under this impres- 
 sion gave it to their pigs or wasted it in the most careless and reckless manner. It 
 was not generally perceived that the suddenly altered system had produced a 
 temporary glut, and that the price would soon rally again. The result was, as 
 the season advanced, but when it was too late — when a great part of the produce 
 of the harvest had been consumed by animals or destroyed by carelessness — it 
 was perceived that instead of a superabundance there would be a scarcity. 
 Under the alarm created by this discovery the rise in price was quite as sudden 
 and far greater than the fall had been a short time before. From an almost 
 nominal price of 3s. 9d. a bushel, wheat, in a short time, rose to £1, 4s. There 
 was a reluctance to sell to the Government even at this price, and, at the recom- 
 mendation of the ofiicers in charge of the commissariat, a vessel was chartered to 
 proceed to India for wheat and rice. On her return to Sydney some of the 
 mercantile class, wishing to inconvenience and annoy the Govenmient as much as 
 possiljle, and hoping, no doubt, to reap a large profit by private cntei'prise, gave 
 iufoniKition to the captiiin of a ship of war then in the harliour, who seized vessel
 
 SIR THOMAS BRISBANE'S ADMINISTRATION. 331 
 
 and cargo, and carried off his jirize to India, for liavint; infringed the charter of 
 the East India Company in carrying tea— of which she had a small quantity on 
 board — without a license. 
 
 The suflerings to which numbers of the colonists were exposed in consequence 
 of the high price of bread, Avere, of course, laid to the governor's account, and 
 served to increase the unpopularity with which he was before regarded. His 
 position was anything but an agreeable one; checked, controlled, and thwaited 
 by the pow^erful influence of the oflicial class and their friends on one side, and 
 regarded with suspicion, if not absolute dislike, by the emancipists and the 
 lower class of settlers on the other, his recall hy orders from home in the latter 
 part of 1825 must have given rise in his mind to feelings of relief rather thou 
 regret. His early endeavours to defeat the selfish designs of those by whom he 
 was surrounded had not been sufficiently thorough to command the respect of 
 the mass of the colonists ; while his Avell-meant but sudden and ill-advised 
 change of a long-established system had produced so much loss and suffering 
 as to make them dread his interference and suspect the soundness of his 
 judgment. A step which he took before leaving the colony — quite inconsistent 
 with his previous conduct — betrayed great anxiety to stand well in the opinion 
 of those to whose interest and claims he was generally thought to be inimical, 
 and pi'oved the strength -of the class prejudices Avhich then divided the 
 community. He was, when on the eve of returning to England, invited to 
 a public dinner by that section of the colonists generally known as the 
 exclusionists. But, having heard that only a select class were to be permitted 
 to be present, he refused to accept the invitation if all w ho wished were not 
 allowed to join in the demonstration, provided they were willing to bear their 
 share of the expense. The gentlemen who gave the invitation thereupon 
 replied that they respectfully declined the honour of his Excellency's company 
 on such conditions. The other party then set about making their arrangements 
 in earnest, and the banquet, a very sum2:)tuous one, and very numerously 
 attended, took place at Nash's Hotel, Paramatta, a few days afterwards. The 
 governor, by his conduct in this matter, acquired so much popularity with the 
 common people, that, in addition to the dinner, public meetings were held, and 
 very flattering addresses presented to him before his departure. 
 
 Sir Thomas Brisbane's administration lasted somewhat less than four years. 
 It was towards the latter part of 1825 that he received intimation that his 
 successor had been appointed, and early in December he sailed for England, 
 having on the 1st of that month formally ti'ansferred the reins of government to 
 the hands of Colonel Stewart, of the oil llegiment or Buffs. In .spite of some 
 drawbacks to progress, the population, trade, productions, and substantial 
 prosperity of the colony rapidly increased during his administration. The 
 revenue raised in the country, which was but £36,231 in 1821, reached £7l,GS2 
 in 1825. The expenditure, however, more than kept pace with the increase, 
 and in the latter year reached £82,000. This was derived from imjiort duties 
 on spirits, wines, and tobacco, a small ad valorem duty on merchandise not of 
 British manufacture, excise duties on colonial distilled spirits, a heavy impost
 
 332 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 on coal and timber, whether for home consumption or for exportation ; also on 
 oils, skins, and several other articles, and licenses to publicans, hawkers, and 
 others. As there was no custom house, the duties being collected by a 
 functionary called the naval officer, it is impossible to ascertain the value of 
 the exports. Some idea of the importance of the rising trade of the colony may, 
 however, be gained from the fact that in the year ending January 1824, sixteen 
 ships, of a total burthen of 5500 tons, cleared out from Sydney and Hobart 
 TowTi for Great Britain, with cargoes of produce valued at £100,000. What the 
 total value of the imports of the year was is not recorded, but in the following 
 year (1825) they reached £300,000. The population in 1825 was 33,675 ; the 
 number of sheep, 237,622, and the horned cattle, 134,519 ; the land in cultivation, 
 45,514 acres, and the wool exported, 411,600 lbs. — the quantity having been 
 nearly trebled in three years. The most lucrative and flourishing branches of 
 commerce were, however, at this period, what were called the island trade and 
 the whale and seal fisherj-. In whaling alone the merchants of Sydney had, in 
 1825, nearly thuty ships engaged, while many others were employed in collecting 
 sandal-wood, pearl-shells, hcche-de-mer, and other island produce.
 
 STR RALPH DyiRLIXaS ADMINISTRATION. 3:53 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SIR RALPH DARLING'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 DARLING A MILITARY MARTINET — HIS ARRIVAL AND COOL RECEPTION — DEPARTMENTAL 
 CONFUSION^A SHARP ADMINISTRATOR — JARRING FACTIONS — NEW LEGISLATIVE 
 COUNCIL — SQUATTING MANIA — FINANCIAL CRASH — CASE OF SUDDS AND THOMP- 
 SON — PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY — ATTEMPTS TO GAG THE PRESS — TRIAL BY JURY 
 
 — AN ELECTIVE LEGISLATURE — A MILITARY SCANDAL PUBLIC MEETING FOR 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONfi — DEATHS OF OLD COLONISTS — KING BONGAREE — 
 MATERIAL PROGRESS — LIEUTENANT LOWE's CASE — PIRACY AND PENAL INSURREC- 
 TION — BUSHRANGING FURTHER MATERIAL PROGRESS — FIRST LAND SALES — 
 
 DARLING RECALLED — DISGRACEFUL PROCEEDING — DARLING's CHARACTER — PRO- 
 GRESS DURING THE PERIOD. 
 
 The next Governor of New South Wales was Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, 
 a clever but narrow-minded officer who had been long employed at the Horso 
 Guards, and who was so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of military routine 
 that he was a most unsuitable person to preside over a civil administration. He 
 arrived in Sydney on the 18th December 1825, and reheved Colonel Stewart 
 from his temporary duties on the following day. Colonel Stewart had adminis- 
 tered the government for about three weeks only. Sir Thomas Brisbane's 
 latest acts had made him so popular with the lower classes, and they regretted his 
 departure so much, that they were not inclined to receive his successor very 
 heartily, and consequently he was allowed to land without a single cheer or any 
 other manifestation of popular welcome. There were other causes, however, for 
 the coolness with which General Darling was receiA^ed. His character had 
 preceded him. It had become known in the colony that he was a mere official 
 formalist, a man of system and routine, a strict and severe discij^linarian, Avho 
 had obtained his rank in the army, and his post as governor, solely from his skill 
 in military aifairs. The popular party, however, with Mr Wentworth at their 
 head, anxious not to drive him into the ranks of their opponents, determined 
 soon after his arrival to offer a complimentary address. A public meeting was 
 called, at which ]\Ir Wentworth, in moving the proposed address, made a long 
 and effective speech. General Darling, upon assuming office, found the various 
 departments of the Government in great confusion. Sir Thomas Brisbane's 
 want of business habits was notorious, and this was no doubt the principal 
 reason for his early recall. He had fur some time before his departure been at 
 variance with Mr Goulburn, the late Colonial Secretary, and under these circum-
 
 334 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 stances afflxirs had drifted into a condition of extreme disorder. Mr Goullmrn's 
 place, upon Lis retirement from office, bad been filled by INIr Alexander Maeleay, 
 a gentleman of some ability, of great experience in official business, and of con- 
 siderable celebrity as a naturalist and a man of science. It was resolved by the 
 new governor and the new secretary to re-organise all the departments of the 
 public service, and to purge them of the emancipist element which had been 
 introduced by Governor Macquarie, and continued under Sir Thomas Brisbane's 
 administration. The carrying out of this measure was regarded by the eman- 
 cipist party as a conclusive proof that Governor Darling was their enemy, that 
 he had leagued himself Avith the exclusives, and that they had no favours to 
 expect at his hands. 
 
 Governor Darling was one of those men who never do things by halves, and 
 the system he introduced went to the opposite extreme. Under its operation 
 order and regidarity were introduced, but the complicated system of checks and 
 counterchecks, and the multiplication of requisitions and forms, was carried to 
 such an excess as to become a nuisance, and to cause the remedy to be almost 
 as bad as the disease. The result was that the governor grew more unpopular 
 every day with one party, while by the other he was looked ui:)on as the kindest 
 of patrons and the most generous of men. His antagonistic position in reference 
 to a large class of the population, and the dislike in Avhich he was generally held 
 by the great majority of the colonists, drove him to regard those who composed 
 the narrow circle of the exclusives with peculiar favour. It is not to be won- 
 dered at that under such a condition of things a social war more bitter than had 
 prevailed at any previous time should have ensued. The governor and his policy 
 were assailed in very strong terms by Mr Wentworth and Dr "NVardell in the 
 columns of the Australian newspaper, while, in the Siidney Gazette, the official 
 journal, they were praised and defended in a way which was as nauseating and 
 fulsome as it was feeble and impotent. 
 
 One of the first official acts of Governor Darling was the appointment of a 
 new Legislative Council The governor himself was, of course, the president. 
 The official members were Colonel Stewart (lieutenant-governor), Chief-Justice 
 Forbes, Archdeacon Scott, and ]Mr Secretary IMacleay ; non-official — ]Messrs 
 John ^Macarthur, Eobert Campbell, sen., and Charles Throsby. The Executive 
 Council were Colonel Stewart, Chief-Justice Forbes, Archdeacon Scott, and the 
 Colonial Secretary. 
 
 The fineness of the seasons and the extraordinary success which had attended 
 pastoral pursuits for a few preceding years, the consequent influx of numbers of 
 persons of capital who desired to embark in grazing, and the brilliant expecta- 
 tions excited by the extensive operations of the Australian Agricultural Com- 
 pany, occasioned at this period so remarkable a rise in the price of live stock 
 that many of the old settlers, who possessed large flocks and herds, suddenly 
 fovmd themselves very wealthy men. The example of the fortunes they had so 
 easily accumulated, or rather which had been thrust upon them, served to stimu- 
 late other colonists, as well as new arrivals, and the consequence was that a 
 perfect mania for the possession of sheep and cattle was the result. Dr Lang,
 
 SIR RALPH DARLING'S ADMIXISTRATION. 335 
 
 an cje-witness of the excitement -which followed, says : " Those only who wit- 
 nessed the infatuation of multitudes in England on the formation of joint-stock 
 companies in lS'2o, or the railway companies of a later period, will be able to 
 form any idea of the state of things that immediately ensued in New South 
 AVales; for no sooner had the Australian Agricultural Company been duly 
 announced and its operations commenced in right earnest, than the sheep and 
 cattle mania instantly seized all ranks and classes of its inhabitants. This mania 
 evinced itself in impelling whomsoever it seized to the cattle market ; and as my 
 own residence in Sydney at that period was in the innnediate vicinity of that 
 busy scene, I had frequent opportunities of observing the congi-egated patients, 
 and abundant reason to wonder how the matter would end : for barristers and 
 attorneys ; military officers of every rank, and civilians of every department ; 
 clergymen and medical men ; merchants, settlers, and dealers in general, were 
 there seen promiscuously mingled together, outbidding each other in the most 
 determined manner, either in their own persons or by proxy, for the purchase of 
 every scabbed sheep, or scarecrow horse, or buffalo cow, that was offered for 
 sale." 
 
 Following the extravagant spirit of speculation in sheep and cattle came 
 extravagance in other ways. Large quantities of goods, far beyond the legiti- 
 mate requirements of the colonists, and including an undue proportion of articles 
 of luxury and extravagance, were imported. Houses, furniture, equipages, dress, 
 all increased in cost and in display. The profits of stock-keeping were to pay for 
 all. The bucolic spirit of the antipodes was not one of rough simplicity and rural 
 economy, but of costly ostentation and gaudy show. A crash of course followed. 
 The season 182G proved to be the last of a favourable series. A drought of 
 three years' duration ensued, and the eyes of those who had suffered from the 
 sheep and cattle mania were opened. Almost all the owners of live stock were 
 under heavy liabilities. Bills had to be met and engagements redeemed in the face 
 of rapidly-f\illing markets. The folly of the extravagant prices, and the profuse 
 rate of expenditure which had been indulged in was seen, yet few had the moral 
 courage to retrace their steps until it was too late. To cut down expenses, to 
 dismiss servants, and to do away with horses and carriages, was to confess the 
 near approach of pecuniary embarrassment, and thus to precipitate the dreaded 
 crisis. 
 
 The financial crash which followed was of the most disastrous character. 
 As everybody had bought at high prices almost at the same time, and a largo 
 majority of the purchasers had given long-dated bills in payment, when these bills 
 began to fall due everybody wanted to sell almost simultaneously in order to meet 
 their engagements. "Week after week and month after month, as cattle were 
 forced upon the market, prices continued to fall, until the value of a beast was 
 measured by shilUngs instead of pounds. Distress and ruin fell upon scores of re- 
 spectable persons who had been accounted wealthy but a few months before. In 
 face of the prevailing drought, and the sudden and startling fall in value, nobody 
 would buy except at prices which would hardly cover the cost of sending to 
 market. The financial difficulty thus arising was aggravated by large sums of
 
 336 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 money having to be sent out of the country for bread stuffs, for those who 
 expected to make their fortunes by sheep and cattle thought agriculture almost 
 beneath their notice, so that in the exciting chase of pastoral riches very little 
 wheat or maize had been planted, and much of what was planted had been 
 destroyed by the drought. In order to lessen their expenses, strong pressure 
 was brought to bear upon the governor by the official and exclusive class to induce 
 him to relax the regulations fixing the rations which they were compelled to pro- 
 vide for their assigned servants. Darling at last gi-anted the request, the scale was 
 reduced, and this circumstance was eagerly taken hold of by his opponents to 
 bring him into still greater odium with the pojiulace. The op^iosition press was 
 loud in its denunciations of the governor and his advisers, while the official 
 journal, the Sydney Gazette, by its indiscreet advocacy helped to render them 
 ridiculous. 
 
 Previous to the period of the financial crash above spoken of, a case had 
 occurred — known as that of Sudds and Thomjisou — which, although exceedingly 
 grave in some of its aspects, was made to assume, under the influence of party 
 prejudice and personal rancour, so much of a political character that the real 
 simificance of the facts themselves was overlooked or absorbed in other con- 
 siderations. Sudds and Thompson were soldiers of the 57th Eegiment, who, 
 thinking the lot of prisoners preferable to their own, committed a felony, by 
 stealing a jDiece of cloth from a shop in George Street, for the purpose of getting 
 themselves convicted, hoping thus to escape the irksomeness of military service. 
 The motive which led to the commission of the crime was disclosed on their 
 trial, and it was asserted that other soldiers had committed offences for the same 
 piu'poses, and that there was Avide-spread discontent among the military. The 
 men were convicted and sentenced to seven years' transportation to one of the 
 northern settlements. This of course was just Avhat they wanted and expected. 
 But Governor Darling, fearing the consequences of such an example, detei-mined 
 to take the men out of the custody of the civil power and punish them in a 
 manner calculated to deter others from committing off"ences of a similar kind. 
 In pursuance of a general order which he issued, the two men Avere taken from 
 the custody of the gaoler, brought to the Barrack Square in Sydney, and in the 
 presence of the assembled military it Avas announced that their sentence had 
 been changed to seven years' hard labour in irons on the roads, and that at the 
 expiration of that period of punishment they were to be returned to their regi- 
 ment ; they were then stripped of their uniform, and having been dressed in 
 prison clothes, iron collars with long projecting spikes were riveted round their 
 necks, and fetters and chains on their legs. They were then marched off" to gaol, 
 Avith the band playing the Rogue's INIarch. The tragical results Avhich folloAvcd 
 Avill best be told iu the Avords of the sm-vivor of these misguided and unfortunate 
 men, as given at his examination, on the 23d April 1827, on board the " Phoenix" 
 hulk. Sudds is stated to have been previously a remarkably Avell-conducted 
 man, but Thompson's character was not so good, and it is believed that it Avas 
 owing to his evil advice that Sudds engaged in the scheme : 
 
 " We Averc taken to the parade ground, and the regimentals taken off us, and
 
 SIR RALPH DARLING'S ADMINISTRATION. 337 
 
 a suit of yellow cloth put on each of us, and a general order read to us by 
 Brigade-IMajor Gillman, by the order of his Excellency, General Darling. After 
 the order was read to us, a set of irons was put on each of us. The irons con- 
 sisted of a collar, which went round each of our necks, and chains were fastened 
 to the collar on each side of the shoulder, and reached from thence to the basil, 
 which was placed about three inches from each ankle. There was a piece of 
 iron which projected from the collar before and behind, about eight inches at 
 each i^lace. The projecting irons would not allow me to stretch myself at full 
 length on my back. I could sleep on my back by contracting my legs. I could 
 not lie at full length on either side without contracting my legs. I could not 
 stand upright with the irons on. The basil of the irons would not slip up my 
 legs, and the chains were too short to allow me to stand upright. I was never 
 measured for the irons ; and Sudds' collar was too small for his neck, and the 
 basils for his legs, which were swollen. I never heard him say he had the dropsy 
 in the West Indies. Sudds was turned out of the hospital the morning of the 
 punishment, and taken to the barracks about an hour afterwards. Sudds was 
 taken from the hospital to the sessions on the 6th November ; he appeared to be 
 very ill, insomuch that the man who was handcuffed with him was obliged to sit 
 down on the grass in the court-yard in order to enable him to lie do^vn. He 
 continued in that way till after his trial. After the yellow clothes and the irons 
 were put on us in manner before mentioned, we were drummed out of the 
 regiment, the Rogue's March being played after us by two or three drummers 
 and fifers. We were not drummed out in the usual way, which is, to put a rope 
 about the neck, cut off the facings, and place a piece of paper on the back, with 
 a description of the offence which the party may have committed. Instead of 
 this, we had the inshacon and the yellow clothing. On our return to the same 
 ward in the gaol, Sudds sat down with his back to the wall, saying that he was 
 very ill, and wished to go to the hospital again, but he did not go to the hospital 
 till next morning. The basils of his irons cut his legs during the time we were 
 coming from the barracks to the gaol ; it was owing to the sharpness of the basil 
 and the weight of it that Ave were cut. The night of the day of punishment, 
 Sudds was so ill that we were obliged to get a candle about eight o'clock from 
 Wilson the under-gaoler, in order to keep up a light during the night. I gave him 
 some tea which I had purchased. About ten o'clock he was very ill ; I requested 
 a fellow-prisoner to get up and look at him, thinking he was dying. The fellow- 
 prisoner, whose name I do not know, did look at him, and said he was not dying, 
 but he did not think he would live long. I then asked Sudds if he had any 
 friends to whom he Avould wish to write. He said he had a wife and child in 
 Gloucestershire, and begged that if he did not get better by the next night, I 
 would read some pious book to him, adding, ' that they had put him in them 
 irons until they had killed him.'" 
 
 The report of the medical officer of the gaol upon the case of Sudds, was as 
 follows : " On the 24th November he was admitted into the gaol hospital ; on 
 admission, the irons in which he was confined were removed (immediately), and 
 medicines administered. He refused sustenance of every kind, except a little 
 
 2 c
 
 338 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 tea ; and in talking to him of his disgrace, he declared he never would work in 
 irons, and wished himself out of the world. Finding him in a state of delirium 
 on the 26th instant, he was removed to the general hospital, where he gradually 
 became worse, and expired the following morning. After a minute dissection of 
 the body, no apparent disease was found to exist to account for his immediate 
 death." 
 
 The governor and his friends endeavoured to account for the death of Sudds 
 by stating that he had previously suffered from dropsy, and that he had been 
 neglected by the medical officer ; but they were able to produce no evidence in 
 support of their allegations. 
 
 The bitterness of feeling engendered against Governor Darling in consequence 
 of the tyrannical proceedings which resulted in the death of Sudds, was never 
 allayed during the remainder of his administration. Mr Wentworth, " the chief 
 leader of the colonial liberals," drew up a formal impeachment against his Excel- 
 lency, which he caused to be delivered by an attorney at Government House, 
 and threatened never to lose sight of so great a criminal until he had brought 
 him to justice. In pursuance of this object, repeated attempts were made to 
 bring the matter before the House of Commons ; and shortly after General 
 Darling's return to England in 1832, Mr Maurice O'Connell made efforts to 
 procure the appointment of a Parliamentary committee to inquire into the circum- 
 stances. These efforts were unsuccessful for a long time, but at length, in 1835, 
 the committee was granted. When the investigation commenced, however, 
 it was found that Mr O'Connell was not prepared with sufficient evidence to 
 support his charges, and Darling was consequently declared to be honourably 
 acquitted. He was almost immediately afterwards knighted, and was looked 
 upon in England, where the real facts of the case were almost unknown, as the 
 victim of spiteful accusations and grossly exaggerated, if not wholly unfounded, 
 charges. 
 
 Smarting under the attacks of the opposition newspaper. Governor Darling's 
 next step was an attempt to extinguish the freedom of the press. This design 
 could not, of course, be achieved without the concuri'ence of the Legislative 
 Council. But he anticipated no difficulty in that direction, for all the members 
 of the Council who were not officials were his own nominees — and nominated 
 legislators have generally been the willing tools of power. Governor Darling's 
 plan was to pass two Acts — one of them rendering the publication of newspapers 
 illegal without a license, which license should in no case continue in force for 
 more than a year, and might bo withdrawn at any time at the pleasure of the 
 Government ; by the second Act it was intended to impose a heavy stamp duty 
 on each copy of a newspaper published. It was fortunate at this time that the 
 colony possessed a man whose position, talents, and courage enabled him to 
 prevent the acco)iq)lishment of Darling's tyrannical designs. This Avas Mr 
 Forbes, the Chief-Justice, without whose signature, certifying that its provisions 
 were in accordance with the law of England, no act of the colonial legislature 
 could be valid ; and, to his immortal credit, the Chief-Justice refused his 
 signature to the repressive Acts. The governor was therefore completely baffled.
 
 SIR RALPH DARLING'S ADMINISTRATION. 339 
 
 He had no alternative left, therefore, but either to retire from the contest he had 
 so unwisely provoked, or to direct the existing law to be put in force. He chose 
 the latter, and prosecution soon waxed fast and furious. The publishers of both 
 the offending papers were prosecuted both civilly and criminally. Mr Hall, the 
 editor of the Monitor, was, within a short time, convicted of no less than seven 
 offences against the libel law, was fined many hundreds of pounds, and received 
 an aggregate sentence of upwards of three years' imprisonment. The publisher 
 of the Australian, Mr Hayes, was convicted of libel upon the governor in 
 accusing him of having substituted his OAvni will for the law in the case of Sudds, 
 and sentenced to a line of £100 and six months' imprisonment ; and others 
 were dealt with in a similar manner. These cases were tried by military juries 
 nominated by the governor. To escape the stamp duty, during the short period 
 that it was illegally levied, Mr Hall was driven to publish his paper in the shape 
 of a weekly magazine. But these vindictive prosecutions, although they resulted 
 in the imjirisonment of both, did not stop the publication of their papers or 
 greatly subdue their tone towards the Government. They were certainly 
 rendered more cautious in the use of expressions which the law could take 
 hold of, but their attacks, if less violent, were not less stinging or effective. INIr 
 Hall remained in gaol for many months, but was liberated upon the accession 
 of King WiUiam IV., an occasion which Governor Darling — departing from his 
 usual course of conduct — gracefully took advantage of to show a degree of 
 magnanimity for the possession of which few had given him credit. 
 
 The contest between Governor Darling and the colonists about restricting 
 the liberty of the press had not terminated when there arose a source of social 
 and political agitation of a still more wide-spread character, although the contest, 
 being of a less personal nature, did not perhaps involve quite so much bitterness 
 of tone and temper. This new political movement was commenced for the 
 double purpose of obtaining trial by jury and an elective legislature. The 
 injustice of the largely increased taxation imposed by General Darling, by 
 which the colonists contended that they were made to pay heavily towards the 
 coercion and management of the British criminal class landed upon their shores, 
 was the principal ground upon which those who headed the agitation urged their 
 claims for an elective legislature. The issue of it was the passing of an Act in 
 1829, conferring a discretionary power upon the judges of the Supreme Court, 
 enabling them to order a trial by a jury of twelve civilians in any civil case in Avhich 
 either of the parties to the suit should claim to have it so tried. This, although 
 at first sight it might seem but a small concession, was in reality a very 
 important one ; and the mode in which it could be successfully wielded against 
 the previously almost irresponsible power of the Government and the over- 
 whelming influence possessed by Government officials, under the magisterial 
 assessors and military jury system, was soon tested. It Avas the case of the 
 prosecution of Archdeacon Scott by Mr Hall, the editor of the Monitor 
 newspaper, for excluding him from his pew in St James's Church. From two 
 magisterial assessors, any more than from a military jury chosen by the 
 governor, Mr Hall well knew that he could not hope for a verdict ; but as soon
 
 340 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 as the new Juiy Act was passed, he commenced an action for damages against 
 his clerical oppressor. It was the first civil action ever tried in Australia 
 before a jury of twelve citizens, and the result, as might have been antici- 
 pated from the facts previously stated, was a verdict for the plaintiff Avith 
 damages. 
 
 A scandalous proceeding on the part of some military jurors, which took place 
 in April 1830, assisted very materially in putting an end to the old military jury 
 system. A jury of officers had been sitting for the trial of criminal cases in the 
 Supreme Court, and when the business was concluded, the Court proceeded to 
 try ci\il causes. A special jury having been called, the jurymen found, on 
 entering the box, that the desks before them were covered with inscriptions of 
 a character most offensive to the judge and to civil juries. The writers of these 
 scandalous scrawls expressed their detestation at having to sit in a place which 
 had been " polluted by the canaille of Botany Bay," and at having to listen to 
 "the blunders of a superannuated old Whig." The last expression had reference 
 to the well-known political leanings of the Chief-Justice, whose efforts to introduce 
 trial by jury in its most extended form, and whose sympathy with those who 
 advocated a more liberal form of government for the colony, were well known. 
 In the local politics of the time, and more especially in the phraseology of the 
 persons who used it, the term Whig implied the lowest radical leveller. The 
 matter was brought under the notice of the judge then on the bench, Mr Dowhng. 
 His honour censured the conduct of the writers of the scandalous inscriptions in 
 very strong terms, and intimated that, in his opinion, the Attorney-General ought 
 to institute proceedings against them for a misdemeanour. Baxter, the Attorney- 
 General, a man intemperate in habits and weak in mind, took no other step in the 
 matter than to suggest that a complaint should be addressed to the governor as 
 commander of the forces. It does not appear that anything was done, but the 
 circumstance created so great a ferment in a community perhaps too easily 
 excited on such a subject, that it aroused a feeling which never afterwards 
 slumbered until military juries were altogether abolished. 
 
 The first public meeting called expressly to petition for trial by jury and 
 representative institutions took place on the thirty-ninth anniversary of the 
 foundation of the colony — January 26, 1827. The meeting, which was convened 
 and presided over by Mackaness, the sheriff", was held m the court-house, and 
 was very numerously attended by all classes. The petition was drawn up and 
 its adoption moved by Wcntworth in a violent sjDeech. Sir John Jamison was 
 the seconder ; and to jNIr Blaxlaud, then about to visit England, was entrusted 
 the duty of conveying it to Sir James Macintosh for presentation to the House 
 of Commons, and to the late governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, with a request that 
 he would procure its presentation through some noble friend to the House of 
 Lords. The meeting was followed by a banquet, at which a large number of 
 influential colonists sat down. The exclusives contented themselves with a 
 passive resistance to this movement, evidently regarding it as one having little 
 or no chance of success, and therefore as not requiring any demonstrative 
 opposition. The principal result which followed was the suspension of Mackaness
 
 sill RALPTT DA RUNG'S A DMINTSTRA TTON. 341 
 
 from his office as sheriff. His case was referred home, and the sheriff was 
 dismissed. 
 
 The hist two or three years of Darling's administration were remarkable as 
 well ibr the number of old and prominent colonists that disa])poar('d from tlio 
 scene as tlie arrival of ncAV ones. Amongst the former was Captain I'iper, who, 
 under the name of the port officer, filled for many years the position of collector 
 of customs. He was dismissed from office in consequence of having been fi)und 
 to be a defaulter to a large amomit. His successor was Mr J. F. Cam]ibell, the 
 first who Avas designated collector of customs. Mr Darcy Wentworth died about 
 the same time, after a colonial career of more than thirty years, during which he 
 filled several important appointments. Mr Oxley, who had filled the office of 
 surveyor-general for many years, died in May 1S2.S ; and towards the close of the 
 following year his successor, Major T. L. Mitchell, arrived. Mr C Throsby, a 
 member of the Legislative Assembly, and an old and enterprising settler, connnitted 
 suicide, shortly after Mr Oxley's death, in consequence of having become security 
 to a large amount for another old and prominent colonist, Mr Garnham Blaxcell, 
 who had absconded. The circumstances that involved these gentlemen had 
 their origin in excessive pastoral speculations. Mr J. T. Campbell, for many 
 years secretary to the governor, and a member of the Legislative Council, died in 
 January 1830. In November of the same year, Captain Logan, commandant at 
 Moreton Bay, was murdered there by the blacks. His remains were brought 
 to Sydney and buried at Garden Island, in the same tomb with Judge Bent, a 
 friend of his early youth. Another colonial notability, generally known as King 
 Bongaree, died, and was buried at Garden Island about the same time. He was a 
 most intelligent aboriginal native, and had rendered great assistance to Flinders 
 and other navigators in their intercourse with his people. Flinders .speaks of 
 Bongaree's services in the highest terms, and calls him " a worthy and brave 
 fellow." Many years after his voyages with Flinders, Bongaree, who belonged 
 to the Kamilroy tribe, Avas placed by the Sydney Government in charge of a little 
 settlement of his people which was formed on the north shore of Port Jackson, 
 near George's Head, where a tract of land was set apart for their use, and 
 attempts were made to induce them to accustom themselves to fixed abodes, and 
 to learn to till the ground. The result, of course, was a failure. The soil of the 
 locality allotted to them was so barren that if they had been ever so well disj^osed 
 to settled habits and agricultural industry they could have produced nothing ; but 
 had the soil been ever so fertile it is hardly probable that the result would have 
 been different. Settled habits and steady industry are things too foreign to the 
 nature of wandering savages to be acquired at once or even in a single generation. 
 The estimation in which Bongaree Avas held not only by his oA\ni tribe but by the 
 aborigines generally, and the position in which he had been placed by the 
 Government, raised his self-importance to such a degree that he at last assumed 
 the airs of aboriginal royalty, and for several years made it a practice to board 
 vessels entering the harbour and to demand contributions in acknoAAdedgment of 
 his rights. Dressed in an old cocked hat and a dilapidated military coat, his 
 majesty generally managed to extort a shilling and a glass or tAvo of rum from
 
 342 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ^ood-naturecl skij^pers. His wife, Queen Gooseberry, was a well-known character 
 in Sydney streets twenty years after lier husband's death. She was one of the 
 last, if not the very last, of the Port Jackson aborigines. 
 
 Fortunately, class animosity and political differences— although they excite 
 a great degree of public attention — do not very seriously interfere with the 
 practical affairs of life ; and during the time that they rage most violently things 
 generally progress much the same as usual. It was during Darling's stormy 
 administration that a very important undertaking — that of bringing to Sydney a 
 supply of water from the Botany swamps — was commenced. Up to this jjeriod 
 the inhabitants of Sydney were entirely dependent upon the small water-course, 
 now entirely obliterated by the i^rogress of buildings, but then known as the 
 Tanks Stream, which ran about midway between George and Pitt Streets. To 
 Mr James Busby, mineral survej'or, was entrusted, in 1827, the task of ascertain- 
 ing the best means of procuring a supply of water for the rapidly increasing 
 town. He recommended, as the cheapest and most available plan, that the 
 swamps between Sydney and Botany should be tapped by a tunnel ; and his 
 proposal having been assented to, he was commissioned to carry out the under- 
 taking. The work was completed in a reasonably short time. The supply of 
 water proved to be of the best quality and sufficient in quantity for the require- 
 ments of the city for many years. About the same period the first regular 
 system of contracts for conveying the mails throughout the interior was brought 
 into operation ; and thenceforward mails were regularly despatched twice a week 
 to the principal towns of the interior. A census taken in 1828 gave the popula- 
 tion of the colony as 36,598 ; horned cattle, 262,868 ; sheep, 536,391 ; land in 
 cultivation, 71,523 acres ; value of avooI exported, £40,851 ; whale oil ditto, 
 £26,431. The local revenue the same year was £96,713, and the expenditure 
 £97,952. In 1829 the first step towards carrying the administration of the 
 criminal law into the interior of the country was made by holding a circuit court 
 at Campbelltown. The discovery, not long after the first settlement of the 
 colony, of the rich lands of the Co^^1^astures, Camden, the valleys of Bunbury 
 Curran, ISIulgoa, and other tracts of fertile soil, made that district a favourite 
 one with the more influential colonists, and it was there that many of them, 
 having secured extensive gi'ants of laud, had settled with their families and 
 formed their homesteads. Their residences were in many instances places of far 
 more than ordinary pretensions ; some of them indeed were mansions almost 
 rivalling " the stately homes of England " in cost, extent, and appearance. Many 
 non-resident colonists also possessed estates there on which they had numerous 
 tenants and labourers. Some few of these estates still remain the proj^erty of 
 the families or descendants of the original grantees, but most of them, in the 
 sharp reverses of colonial life, have long since passed into the hands of 
 strangers, and having been cut up and subdivided into lots, have been sold 
 and resold under the hammer of the auctioneer, until their identity is almost 
 lost. 
 
 A case which excited much interest in the colony, and which was in some 
 respects a very exceptional one, inasmuch as no party or political feelings or
 
 am RALPH DARLING'S ADMINISTRATION . 343 
 
 prejudices were enlisted in it, occurred in 1827. An aborigiiuil native, who, it is 
 said, had murdered the servant of a settler, was apprehended and brought before 
 Lieutenant Lowe of the 40th Regiment, who was in commaiul of a small detach- 
 ment of soldiers stationed at Wallis's Plains — the name then given to the Hats 
 on which West Maitland now stands. It does not appear that any form of trial 
 of the blackfellow was gone through, or that any steps were taken by Lieutenant 
 Lowe to ascertain the truth of the charge against him. It was proved, however, 
 that the officer ordered four of the soldiers under his command to .shoot the 
 prisoner there and then. The men promptly did as they were told. The matter 
 came to the knowledge of the authorities, and criminal proceedings Avere instituted 
 against Lieutenant Lowe, who was soon afterwards placed upon his trial for 
 murder. This was during the era of military juries, and at a time when, in the 
 outlying settlements, fatal conflicts between the aborigines and the settlers were 
 frequent. Under such circumstances it would have been exceedingly remarkable 
 if a jury of officers had returned a verdict of guilty of murder against a brother 
 officer for shooting a blackfellow. The result was, of course, an acquittal. A 
 charge of a somewhat similar kind against a settler, tried at the same sittings of 
 the Court, resulted in a verdict of justifiable homicide. In the case of an 
 aboriginal native known as Black Tommy, who was tried at the following sittings 
 of the Court for killing a white man, the Crown prosecutor had no difficulty in 
 secui'ing a verdict of guilty, and the man was hanged a day or two afterwards. 
 It was clear that in the state of society and the administration of justice then 
 prevailing, the law afibrded little or no protection to the aborigines ; while, on 
 the other hand, it exacted from these unfortunate people the extreme penalty 
 whenever they were found guilty of capital offences. 
 
 A very daring act of piracy was perpetrated in 1827 by some prisoners, under 
 the leadership of a man named Walton, a convict of notoriously bad character. 
 These men were being conveyed to Norfolk Island, and the vessel had nearly 
 arrived at her destination, when the prisoners, by an artful scheme, managed to 
 overpower the crew, and getting possession of the arms compelled the captain 
 to steer for New Zealand, where they hoped to be able to procure sufficient 
 supplies to enable them to reach South America. For this purpose they put 
 into the Bay of Islands, where it fortunately happened that two Sydney Avhalers 
 were lying. The masters of these vessels, although the pirates told a plausible 
 story, quickly discovered the true state of affairs, and having enlisted the assist- 
 ance of the natives, a combined attack of sailors and Maories was soon made 
 upon them. The pirates quickly surrendered, and were taken to Sydney, and 
 the ringleaders hanged. At Norfolk Island, about the same time, a somewhat 
 serious insurrection of the prisoners took place. It began by upwards of fifty 
 men, at a preconcerted signal, suddenly rushing on their guards and disarming 
 them. Two or three soldiers were killed in the affray, but the desperadoes 
 managed to obtain their object in procuring arms. They then took possession 
 of three boats, loaded them with provisions and ammunition, and made for 
 Phillip Island, about seven or eight miles distant. They could not be pursued 
 for some time, because they had partially destroyed the only boat left behind.
 
 344 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The disabled boat was, however, on the following day patched up with some 
 difficulty, so as to carry a few soldiers, who, under Captain Donaldson and 
 Lieutenant Donnellan, pi-oceeded in pursuit. On attempting to land at Phillip 
 Island, a smart encounter took place, in Avliich three of the insurgents were 
 killed, several wounded, and eleven taken prisoners, and their boats and pi'o- 
 visions captured. The little force not being sufficiently numerous to guard the 
 prisoners and to follow up the insm-gents at the time, returned to Norfolk 
 Island with their captured men, boats, and provisions ; and a day or two after- 
 wards returned and captured ten others. The remainder of the desperadoes, 
 now reduced to about twenty-five in number, held out for some time longer, but 
 at length, on the capture of their ringleader, and being pressed by hunger, gave 
 themselves up. The only lives lost on the part of the military were the soldiers 
 killed in the first rush. These occurrences afford a sample of the history of 
 Koifolk Island during the many years that it remained a receptacle for the 
 offscourings of England's criminals. 
 
 Serious outbreaks among the prison population were not, however, confined 
 to Norfolk Island. In 1830 daring gangs of bushrangers infested the Bathurst 
 district, and several desperate contests between them and the police and 
 volunteer armed settlers took place, generally without much loss on either side, 
 although the latter, notwithstanding they displayed great courage, rather got the 
 worst of it. In one skirmish, two or three of the police and several horses were 
 killed, and the victory was decidedly on the side of the bushrangers. In another 
 fight a fcAV days afterwards, near the Lachlan Eiver, with a party of troopers, 
 Lieutenant Macalister, the commander, and several of his men, were wounded ; 
 but the arrival on the scene of conflict on the following morning of a party of men 
 of the 39th Regiment, under Captain Walj^ole, so much intimidated the bush- 
 rangers that they agreed to surrender. They were taken to Bathurst, tried, and 
 ten of their number executed. 
 
 While these and similar occurrences were transpiring in the western district, 
 another notorious gang was committing depredations nearer Sydney, under the 
 leadership of a youth named Donohue, who had arrived in the colony but a short 
 time before, and who had commenced his colonial career of crime almost 
 immediately after his landing. He had been captured, tried, and condemned to 
 death, a short time after he first took to the bush, but effected his escape in a 
 very daring manner, when being taken from the dock after receiving sentence. 
 This circumstance, added to his youthful appearance and his desperate courage, 
 made him quite a hero in the eyes of the prison population. The robberies and 
 depredations of his gang were carried on within a few miles of Sydney, and 
 almost every day brought some fresh account of his exploits. His comjianions 
 were about a dozen in number, most of them as daring as himself, and many of 
 them much more bloodthirsty and reckless. After several encounters with the 
 police, in which lives were lost on both sides, Donohue, in August 1830, was 
 shot through the head by a trooper, at Raby, a few miles from Liverpool. 
 Macnainaia, another of the ringleaders of the gang, had previously met his 
 death in a similar manner, while others had been cautured and hanged. The
 
 SIR RA LP 11 DA RL ING'S A DM1 N IS TRA TION. 345 
 
 last of the party, two men named Walmsly and Webber, were captured in 
 January 1831, and the latter executed soon afterwards. 
 
 Two educational institutions of a superior character were founded in Sydney 
 near the close of Darling's administration, viz., the Sydney College in 1830, 
 and the Australian College in 1831. Dr Lang was the founder of the latter 
 institution. 
 
 Dr Lang having been refused assistance by Governor Darling in establishing 
 the Australian College, paid a visit to Great Britain in order to solicit the support 
 of the home authorities. His mission was successful, and he returned in October 
 1831, in the ship " Stirling Castle," with a staft' including five Presbyterian clergy- 
 men. Dr Lang also brought out with him about sixty Scotch mechanics, mostly 
 connected with the building trades, and many of them accompanied by their 
 wives and families. This was a most valuable addition to the population — the 
 men being persons of good character and many of them of more than average 
 ability. 
 
 Two or three months before the arrival of the " Stirling Castle " with the 
 Scotch mechanics, a vessel arrived from Ireland, bringing fifty young women, 
 who had been trained in an orphan school in the city of Cork. They were well 
 conducted girls, and proved, first as domestic servants, and afterwards as wives 
 and mothers, a most valuable addition to the lower class of the population, 
 whose numbers had before been too largely recruited from undesiralile sources. 
 
 The introduction of steam navigation into Australia took place in 1831. 
 The first vessel built for a steamer in the colony was a little craft called the 
 " Surprise," which was launched on 31st March. Before she was ready for use 
 another vessel, called the " Sophia Jane," of 154 tons register, was brought out 
 from England by Lieutenant Biddulph, R.N., by whom she was at first com- 
 manded. She arrived in the colony on the 16th ISIay 1831. In the month of 
 October following, another colonial-built steamer, named the "William the Fourth," 
 59 tons register, was launched at the William Eiver. Her builders were Messrs 
 Marshall & Lowe. From this time new vessels were added to the colonial 
 steam marine in quick succession ; and soon afterwards the first colonial steam 
 company was formed under the name of the Australian Steam Conveyance 
 Company. 
 
 A complete change in the mode of disposing of the public lands took place 
 in 1831, under authority of orders from the Colonial Office dated 20th January of 
 that year. From the time of the foundation of the colony in 1788, to the year 
 1810, lands had been granted without payment on conditions of residence, culti- 
 vation, and improvement, subject to a quit-rent of sixpence for every thirty acres 
 in the case of emancipists, and of two shillings for every one hundred acres in the 
 case of free settlers after the first ten years. In 1810 Governor Macquaric some- 
 what modified the original regulations. The new system of selling land by 
 auction was established twentj'-one years afterwards. 
 
 Towards the latter part of 1831, General Darling, having completed the term 
 of six years usually allotted to colonial governors, received notice of his recall. 
 The event was hailed in the colony with feelings of the most opposite kind. 
 
 •2x
 
 346 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The wealthy exdusives, regarding him as their patron and champion, looked 
 upon his departm-e as a public calamity ; while the general population, and more 
 particularly the emancipists, hated him as their most bitter enemy. His friends 
 exerted themselves to the utmost to get up addresses expressive of the warmest 
 sentiments of regard and esteem, while many of his opponents seemed to gTow 
 more bitter and violent as the day of his departure approached. There were, 
 however, honom-able exceptions to this rule. The Legislative Council voted a 
 flattering address to his Excellency, and at the head of the list of names, forgetting 
 former animosities, appeared that of the Chief-Justice. The Executive Council 
 and the civil officers also voted complimentary addresses, but these were almost 
 matters of course, and signified very little. Au address of the " clergy, magis- 
 trates, landholders, and merchants," bore about seventy signatures, and contained 
 a well-merited eulogium on the character and conduct of Mrs Darling, a most 
 estimable lady, and one who had taken an active part in the promotion of every 
 good and charitable work, and more particularly in connection with institutions 
 which she was mainly instrumental in establishing for the instruction and care of 
 female children. 
 
 Mr Wentworth, Darling's most bitter opponent, was guilty of conduct on 
 this occasion which proved that he possessed one of the worst features in the 
 character of the retiring governor — want of magnanimity. On the day named 
 for Darling's departure, INIr AVentworth gave his friends and admirers an 
 entertainment at his seat at Vaucluse. The affair assumed the aspect of a 
 revel ; for although the number of those who were specially invited to the house 
 was not large, it was generally known that by roasting a bullock and an ample 
 supply of drink, provision would be made in the grounds for all who wished to 
 join in rejoicing at Darling's recall. The attendance, of course, under such 
 circumstances, was far more numerous than select, and the proceedings which 
 followed the feasting were anything but creditable. It is probal>le, however, 
 that party and personal animosity has exaggerated what really took place, and 
 that too much significance has been attached to the actions and expressions of a 
 few excitable people, who had shared rather too freely in the hospitality of the 
 OAvner of Vaucluse. 
 
 It was announced by the governor's opponents that Sydney was to be 
 illuminated on the following night, but this was the empty boasting of partisans, 
 as, with one or two trifling exceptions, nothing of the kind was attempted. 
 Darling embarked quietly on the morning of the 22d October, escorted by a 
 considerable number of his friends, but there was no display of any kind 
 whatever, either of a friendly or an unfriendly character. It was evident, either 
 that the general public took little interest in the quarrels between him and his 
 opponents, or that there was sufficient good feeling in the community to prevent 
 any offensive display towards a departing representative of the CroAm, Avho, 
 whatever his faults as a ruler, possessed many estimable qualities as a man. 
 Darling did not proceed direct to England, but, desiring to visit the East, 
 embarked in the ship " Hooghly " for Canton. It is gratifying to know that in 
 after-years, even his most bitter opponent, Mr Wentworth, not only regietted
 
 ^/7.' RALPU DA RUNG'S ADMTNTSTRATTON. 347 
 
 the length to which in the excitement of party struggles he had carried his 
 animosity, but cherished feelings of respect for the personal character of the 
 old general, and declared his wish when in England to be reconciled to him. 
 
 Darling, altliough exceedingly narrow-minded, was und()nl)tedly ji con- 
 scientious and lioiiourablo num. His military training, close adherence to 
 routine, and strict attention to the details of business, had served to contract 
 rather than to ex^jand a mind acute without being large, and rigid without beinf 
 strong. The close of his period of rule may be regarded as the close of an era 
 in the history of Australian colonisation. The social and political contest 
 between the exclusives and the emancipists, which had commenced nearly thirty 
 years before, and of which the deposition of Governor Bligh in 1808 was the 
 first and most striking incident, had, during Darling's time, reached its greatest 
 intensity. From that period it rapidly waned. The arrival of large numl)crs of 
 innnigrants, the presence of a considerable native-born iiopulation, and inter- 
 marriages among families of different origin, had all contributed to produce 
 a large neutral party, which gradually overshadowed and absorbed the less 
 numerous partisans of the contending factions. Instead of being mere exclusives 
 or emancipists, the people became first colonists and then Australians. 
 
 The population of the colony at the close of Darling's administration (1831) 
 was 51,155; the export of wool, 1,401,284 lbs.; of oil, £95,969 in value; the 
 total exports were £324,168 ; and the imports, £490,152. The ordinary revenue 
 of the year was £103,228. Of the expenditure there are no reliable records.
 
 348 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GOVERNOE BOUEKE'S ADMINISTEATION. 
 
 STATE OF THE COLONY — BOUKKE's FIRST DIFFICULTIES — HIS WISE MEASURES — HIS 
 EXCELLENT ADMINISTRATION — PERSONAL TOUR — MEASURES FRAMED DURING HIS 
 RULE — THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL CHARACTER OF BOURKE. 
 
 The successor to Governor Darling was Major-General Sir Eicbard Bourke, Avho 
 arrived in the colony on the 2d of December 1831. An interregnum of six 
 weeks had elapsed since the departure of bis jiredecessor, during which brief 
 period the duties of acting-governor were discharged by Lieutenant-Governor 
 Colonel Lindsay of H.M. 39th Eegiment. The colon}^ at the time of General 
 Darling's resignation, was, and for some time past had been, in a state of excite- 
 ment which affected both its political and commercial welfare. The causes of 
 this excitement have already been briefly mentioned ; they are reducible to two, 
 namelj", the undue interference of his Excellency with the public press ; and his 
 undue encouragement of one particular class of colonists, to the entire exclusion 
 and positive hindrance of the other. The arrival of a new governor was con- 
 sequently hailed by the colonists with the liveliest demonstrations of satisfaction; 
 and seldom has any colonial governor arrived at the seat of his government with 
 such favourable prospects of enduring popularity and usefulness, as those which 
 opened on ISIajor-General Bourke. The greatest results were augured from his 
 administration, and it is gratifying to state that the colonists were not dis- 
 appointed. His Excellency was found to possess, in an eminent degree, all the 
 decision of character which distinguished his predecessor, combined with the 
 public spirit and energy which had characterised the government of Macquarie ; 
 while his accessibihty, and his unaffected desire to advance every beneficial 
 undertaking, tended to confirm the prepossessions which the public had enter- 
 tained in his favour. 
 
 During the year 1832, Governor Bourke made a series of tours to the most 
 important settlements in the colony, with a view of personally ascertaining their 
 actual condition and capabilities for future improvements. This judicious step 
 tended greatly to strengthen his popularity, and the enthusiastic reception which 
 he uniformly met must have been highly gratifying to his feelings. Sir Eichard 
 Bourke's memory still is deservedly popular among the humble, or the wealthy 
 sons of the once humble settlers — a rare merit, and not a qualification for fixvour 
 at the Colonial Office. The six years of his reign were crowded with measures 
 and events of the utmost importaucc in the history of New South Wales :
 
 GO VERNOR BO URKE'S A DMINISTRA TION. 349 
 
 1. The discussions of the Legislative Council became public, and the financial 
 estimates wei'O regularly submitted and discussed. 
 
 2. The Church and School Corporation (which had become a gross job) was 
 abolished, and religious equality established by an Act of the Legislative Council. 
 
 3. An attempt was made to introduce the Irish national school system 
 (which the bigots defeated). 
 
 4. Free grants of land were abolished, and sale by auction at a minimum price 
 of five shillings substituted. 
 
 5. The despatch was received from Lord (jlenclg, and steps were adopted 
 which, in 1840, finally abolished transportation to New South Wales. 
 
 6. The squatting system was legalised and systematised on a plan which 
 has since produced nearly £60,000 per annum. 
 
 7. Kules for regulating the number of convict servants to which each settlor 
 should be entitled (without favour), and the number of lashes which should be 
 inflicted on a convict servant by a single magistrate, were framed and promul- 
 gated. 
 
 8. Port Phillip was peopled by settlers from Van Diemen's Land, and South 
 Australia by colonists from England. 
 
 The powers of the Executive Council imposed on the Governor of New South 
 Wales in the last year of Sir Thomas Brisbane's administration were, under Sir 
 Ralph Darling, almost nominal. Not only were its deliberations secret and its 
 dissent powerless, but Governor Darling illegally and systematically exercised 
 authority in the only matter entrusted to the Council — the distribution of the 
 revenues. Towards the close of his administration he introduced a bill indem- 
 nifying himself, and legalising his illegal assumptions. Sir Richard Boui-ke, on 
 the contrary, earnestly co-operated in raising the character of the Council, treated 
 the non-official members with the utmost respect, and endeavoured to give the 
 Council, as far as possible, the tone and functions of a representative assembly — 
 a course directly the reverse of his successor. Sir George Gipps. Both were 
 able, but the one was a frank and generous, the other an astute and jealous man. 
 
 In his attempt to introduce an improved system of education, Sir Richard 
 Bourke was defeated by religious jealousies, but his despatches and Act remain 
 monuments of his patriotism and statesmanship. 
 
 In December 1837, Sir Richard Bourke retired — deeply regretted by all the 
 colony, except a small section of magistrates and officials of the true colonial 
 school. New South Wales had attained the highest state of prosperity ; Port 
 Jackson was crowded with shipping bringing free labourers and capitalists, the 
 banks overflowing with money, and the whole population full of the happiest 
 excitement. 
 
 The discussions of the Council, although still secret and irresponsible, had 
 assumed a real character, and prepared the way for representative institutions. 
 Restrictions placed upon the summary conviction of prisoners by magistrates, 
 and preparations for the abolition of the assignment system, concurrently with 
 the introduction of free emigrants by funds derived from the sale of lands, had 
 laid the foundation of a free colony. The colonisation of Port PhiUip and South
 
 350 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Australia by emigi-ants of a superior class liad done mucli towards directing 
 attention to an island which had previously been only considered a receptacle 
 for criminals, while the discovery of vast tracts of fine land in the interior, with 
 an overland communication between the three districts, and the establishment of 
 the squatting system on a legal basis, greatly stimulated the increase of live 
 stock, the growth of wool, and the general value of colonial exports. The 
 Australians began to think they could walk alone Avithout the aid of prisoner 
 labour, and the money of the commissariat. 
 
 Boiu-ke, in fine, was a statesman and a man of the most liberal principles. 
 On the list of Australian governors no name stands higher than his. He framed 
 wise and good laws ; governed through an elective legislature ; improved the 
 condition of the prisoner population ; established a universal system of educa- 
 tion ; abolished all civil inequalities founded on religion ; and devoted the pro- 
 ceeds of the land sales for the encouragement of free immigration. He visited 
 Port Phillip in 1837, and was Avarmly welcomed by the settlers there. His kind- 
 ness and consideration for the prisoner population, however, gained him the 
 enmity of some of the exclusive class, and this induced him at length to resign 
 his post, after having ruled the colony wisely and well for six years. His 
 departure was deeply regretted by all the worthier section of the community. 
 His name is still held in affectionate remembrance ; and a fine statue to his 
 memory stands on a commanding site in the city of Sydney.
 
 GOVERNOR GIPPS'S ADMINISTRATION. 351 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 GOVEENOll GIPPS'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 KAKI.Y CAREER OF SIR GEORGE GIPPS — HIS CHARACTER — STATE OK THE COLONY — 
 A BAD GOVERNOR — QUARRELS WITH THE LEGISLATURE AND THE COLONISTS — 
 DISPUTED QUESTIONS— HARD TIMES — BENJAMIN BOYD — MRS CHISHOLM's PHILAN- 
 THROPIC LABOURS — CLOSE OF SIR GEORGE GIPPS's RULE. 
 
 The successor of Sir Richard Bourke was Sir George Gipps. During an interval 
 of ten weeks, from the departure of the first and the arrival of the new governor, 
 the administration was conducted by Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass. 
 
 Sir George Gipps, who was a captain in the Royal Engineer Corps, owed his 
 appointment entirely to the talent he had displayed while acting as secretary to 
 the commission issued for inquiring into the grievances of rebellious Canada. 
 During his residence in that colony, he had devised and published a plan for 
 educating colonists to the use of representative institutions by "district councils" 
 for the administration of local affairs. It was an ingenious theory, but no more 
 suited for the state of society in pastoi'al Australia than an American river steam- 
 boat is for crossing the Atlantic. Nevertheless, the forcing this district council 
 scheme on the unwilling colonists was the one great idea of Sir George Gipps's 
 colonial career, to which he sacrificed them and himself. 
 
 He was a man of abilities far above the average ; an eloquent speaker, a 
 nervous writer ; with industry, energy, and a special aptitude for the details of 
 administrative business ; but haughty and narrow-minded ; imijcnetrable to 
 reasoning which did not square with his preconceived views ; filled with inor- 
 dinate ideas of his own importance as "the representative of majesty;" with a 
 violent temper, which in dealing with the colonists he took little pains to control, 
 although his communications with the Colonial Office displayed a i)lia])ility almost 
 amounting to subservience. He claimed to receive the deference due to a 
 viceroy, and at the same time to exercise the duties of an English prime minister. 
 With sharp and ready tongue he introduced and pressed legLslative measures for 
 carrying into effect theories most distasteful and unsuitable to his colonial " sub- 
 jects;" but opposition, or even that ftiir criticism and discussion which a British 
 premier would expect and even invite, he treated as personal insult to his 
 authority, almost as high treason. 
 
 The period of his accession to power was in every respect most inopportune. 
 Backed by a Secretary of State as obstinate as himself, with the sanction of a 
 House of Commons utterly ignorant of the condition of Austi-alia, Sir George
 
 352 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Gipps came dcteniiinod to govern on high prerogative principles, at a time when 
 the colony had advanced from the Algerine rule of Darling, to enjoy the externals 
 of a free state. A Legislative Council no longer secret, although not elective, had 
 superseded the irresjDonsible decrees of the governor. Courts regularly constituted, 
 with juries in political cases, had taken the place of courts-martial. The press 
 was free ; the liberty of assembling to discuss political questions had been sanc- 
 tioned and exercised. A rapid, enormous immigration from the mother country 
 swelled the ranks of the thousands who, however descended, were born free ; and, 
 under the guidance of the burning elocpience of a native-born Australian, claimed 
 to exercise those rights of representation and self-taxation which they had 
 forfeited by becoming colonists. 
 
 Sir George Gipps was not without noble as well as brilliant qualities. He 
 took no share in the jobs of the servile crew whom he used and despised. But 
 he was intoxicated by the greatness thrust upon him. At one stride he passed 
 from a subordinate military rank to the government of a great province of 
 wealthy and discontented men ; having in his hand authority which could make 
 or mar a whole class or a whole district. In a different sphere, and subdued by 
 the even competition of English parliamentary life, he might have done himself 
 honour and the State service. 
 
 In the temper of the governor and the governed, questions of difference 
 were not long in arising. Under Sir Eichard Bourke the Legislative Council, 
 although comjiosed of salaried officials and an equal number of the colonists 
 nominated by the governor, had nurtured enough of the si^irit of independence 
 to occasionally dissent from the views of the Home Government or its represen- 
 tative. But Governor Bourke took a colonial view of colonial subjects; he did 
 not hesitate to dissent from the views of a Secretary of State ; he treated the 
 ojiinions of his Council with deliberate consideration and respect, even where he 
 came to a contrary conclusion. Sir George Gipps adopted an opposite course. 
 Nothing could equal the contempt with which he treated colonial opinions, except 
 the zeal with which he echoed and carried out the instructions issued by the 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 The following wore among the more prominent political questions which 
 formed the subject of contention and agitation on the part of the colonists 
 against the governor : 
 
 1. The appropriation of the revenue of the colony. 
 
 2. The extent to which the colonists were taxed for gaols, police, etc., rendered 
 necessary by the transportation system. 
 
 3. The manner in which the Home Government exercised the patronage of 
 the Crown, passing over colonial claims, and appointing unfit persons, at high 
 salaries paid l^y the colonists. 
 
 4. The price of land, and the arbitrary manner in which it was raised, lowered, 
 and raised again, at the will of the governor. 
 
 These four grievances were discussed in one or more distinct cases. On each 
 the governor took up the position of " high prerogative " in the most offensive 
 manner, and found his policy approved by the Home Government. No .sooner
 
 GOVERNOR GIPPS'S ADMINISTRATION. 353 
 
 had Sir George Gipps commenced his government than he became involved in 
 discussions involving very important principles, which Avere carried on with such 
 feeble means of attack as the colonists possessed, until, in 1842, an Act of the 
 Imperial Parliament bestowed upon New South Wales a Legislative Council, 
 which consisted of twenty-four elective members and twelve nominees. The 
 opening of the new Parliament took place on the 3d of August 1843. It was 
 with the representative members of the Legislative Council, while the colony was 
 in a state of insolvency, that Governor Gipps's battles commenced, and were 
 carried on with an acerbity on both sides which did not breed a rebellion, because 
 the materials in the shape of coercive powers had not been conceded to the 
 governor. The new Council lost no time in investigating the grievances of the 
 colony, and soon collected a most formidable list, although the most oppressed 
 class of all, the small settlers, were entirely unrepresented. The revenues, the 
 price of Crown lands, the assessments on the pastoral proprietors, the abuses in 
 the exercise of Cro-svu patronage, successively atti\acted the attention of the 
 opposition, vigorously led by WiUiam Wentworth, a man of brilliant talents and 
 great oratorical powers, whose influence was to a certain extent unfortunately 
 impaired by a violent temper and want of tact, the I'esult of a provincial educa- 
 tion among men vastly his inferiors in intellect, and long exclusion from a 
 legitimate exercise of his powers. 
 
 In 1843, when the elective Legislative Council commenced its laboui'S, the 
 dissatisfaction of the colonists with the fixed minimum price of £1 an acre had 
 become universal. The wealthy parties who had expected their free grants, and 
 their pm-chases at five shillings an acre, to be augmented in value by the increased 
 price, were disappointed — the speculators who, following the example of the 
 South Australians, had purchased large estates in the hope of realising large 
 profits, by laying out paper towns and villages, were either insolvent or encum- 
 bei'ed with tracts of useless waste land, unsaleable and unprofitable — the small 
 settlers were deeply discontented with the impediments thrown in the way of 
 purchasing small farms in good agricultural districts — while the great pastoral 
 proprietors, or squatters, who were many of them also landoAATiers in the settled 
 districts, were worried — no other word will express the policy of Sir George 
 Gipps — by taxes, regulations, and restrictions imposed, repealed, and re-imposed 
 in a most arbitrary manner, with a view of compelling the purchase of their 
 occupations at the ruinous price of £1 an acre. Live stock became absolutely 
 valueless ; cattle were allowed to rove wild, unbranded, on the hills ; and sheep 
 which had cost 30s. a piece were unsaleable at Is. 6d., until it occurred to an 
 ingenious gentleman to boil them down for tallow, by which the minimum price 
 was raised to 3s. Land sales had ceased ; the fund, which had previously 
 imported labouring emigrants to take the place of convicts, was exhausted. The. 
 pastoral interest, whose fortunes had akeady been seriously injured by the depre- 
 ciation of their stock, determined to resist the governor in his attempt to regulate 
 their taxation, and to virtually confiscate their property on the fiat of himself and 
 his irresponsible representatives, the Crown Commissioners. 
 
 To resist the aggressions of Sir George Gipps on the pastoral interest, the 
 
 2 Y
 
 354 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 squatters had formed themseh^es into a protective association, and by an easy 
 process the association, founded to resist unjust confiscation and taxation, 
 branched off into a combination for permanently lowering the wages of the 
 colony. At the head of this association was Benjamin Boyd. Mr Boyd arrived 
 with the express purpose of making investments at the time (1841) that the 
 colony Avas in a general state of insolvency, or, as he expressed it, "in a jam." 
 A yacht of the Roj'al Squadron, an apparently unlimited capital, an imposing 
 personal apjiearance, fluent oratory, aristocratic connections, and a fair share of 
 commercial acuteness, acquired on the Stock Exchange, at once and deservedly 
 placed him at the head of the squatocracy. His aim was the possession of a 
 million sheep. He was the chief of the hundred thousand sheepmen, with 
 whom he combined to obtain fixity of tenure for their sheep pastures, to put 
 down small settlers, and to reduce wages. 
 
 At the period we are describing, from 1841 to 1844, the colonial labour 
 market presented the most curious contradictions. The bounty agents were 
 pouring in a crowd of most unsuitable persons, who, once landed, were soon left 
 to shift for themselves. Among the merchants of the town of Sydney distress 
 prevailed in consequence of the cessation of building and other works, the wages 
 of mechanics Avere depressed to a rate before unknown, and newly -arrived 
 immigrants were astonished at the low rate of pay for town labour, so diff"erent 
 from the representations of the agents by whom they had been collected. But 
 in the country districts, and especially in the bush, where sheep and cattle were 
 breeding, while their proprietors were going through the insolvent process, 
 Avages were maintained ; and the anomaly was presented of large bodies of men 
 being employed at the expense of Government, at high wages, at public Avorks, 
 on a sham labour test, while flocks were wanting shepherds in the interior. 
 Several causes supported this anomaly : 1st, There Avas no Government machinery 
 for distributing ncAvly-arrived emigrants ; 2dly, The preference of the squatters 
 for single men left families on the hands of the Government ; odly. The Squatters' 
 Club were not sorry to see the Government embarrassed by the presence of a 
 large body of unemployed labourers in Sydney ; 4thly, The dishonest conduct of 
 certain masters in Avithholding or unfairly deducting AA^ages promised had giA^en 
 the bush a bad name ; 5thly, Many of the emigrants Avere of a class Avho, 
 having left parish aid behind, liked to keep close to Government rations and 
 Avages. All were engaged, as far as their short-sighted vieAvs would permit, in 
 killing the golden goose of colonisation. 
 
 Mr Boyd's evidence before the immigration committee of 1843 affords, when 
 read with the notes we can supply, a fair specimen of the haughty, gentlemanly, 
 selfish class he represented. He had then been eighteen months in the colony, 
 and Avas employing two hundred shepherds and stockmen, besides artificers. 
 He Avas building a town and jiort at TAvofold Bay ; had tAVO steamboats, and a 
 schooner yacht, the " Wanderer." He had devised a scheme of saving labour, by 
 putting three thousand sheep, instead of eight hundred, under the charge of one 
 shepherd on horseback. He said that he despaired of the prosperity of the 
 colony "unless the wages of a she2)]ierd could be brought to £10 a year, or
 
 GOVERNOR GIPPS'S ADMINISTRATION. 355 
 
 about 3s. lOd. a week, with meat aiul flour, without tea and sugar." The two last 
 had been previously universally allowed ; but he expressed his intention of doing 
 away with them, " being of very questionable utility and necessity, although 
 such is the waste and extravagance here that 8 lbs. of tea and 90 lbs. of sugar 
 are consumed per head." He stated further, that he " had no ditliculty in 
 engaging shej^herds at £10 with these rations, but much difficulty in getting 
 men engaged at these low wages forwarded to stations, as they were generally 
 picked uji on the road." "Any money advanced towards travelling expenses 
 was usually spent in public-houses;" and it is his decided opinion that "more 
 than ,£10 a year only does harm to shepherds, by sending them to public-houses." 
 
 But Boyd and his schemes both came to a sudden ending. He was murdered 
 by the savages of some island unknown while engaged in making a cruise in the 
 South Pacific. And the revolution produced by the gold discoveries completely 
 swept away the selfish schemes of those who were bent on keeping Australia for 
 themselves and their descendants in perpetuity as a vast sheep-walk. 
 
 It was at this period that Mrs Chisholm began her benevolent labours. She 
 arrived in Sydney in 1839, with her children and husband. Captain Archibald 
 Chisholm, of the Madras Army, who had been making a tour of the Australian 
 colonies during a limited sick leave. On returning to India ho decided to leave 
 his family in New South Wales. Soon after their arrival, during the first crash 
 of insolvency of 1839, some Highland emigrants, who spoke no English and had 
 large families, found difficulty in obtaining employment; a little money lent 
 them by Captain Chisholm to purchase tools, and a Httle useful advice, set them 
 up as wood-cutters, and they prospered. While assisting his countrymen, having 
 seen the neglected state of the bounty emigrants, he pointed them out to his 
 wife as fit objects for her charitable zeal and energy. There is a wonderful 
 freemasonry among the poor — by degrees j\Irs Chisholm's rooms were crowded 
 by emigrants seeking advice. But it was the unprotected position of female 
 and often friendless emigrants that awakened her w^armest sympathies. She 
 commenced her tvork, in the literal sense of the term, by at the same time 
 gathering information and acquiring the confidence of the working-classes. She 
 found young women who had emigrated nominally under the care of friends, but 
 really under that of strangers, at the instigation of the bounty agent, without 
 home ; some lodged in tents with companions of indiff"erent character, others 
 wandering friendless through the streets of Sydney. Many of them having been 
 collected in rm\al districts, knew more of cows and pigs than housework, and if 
 engaged in to\\m, soon lost their situations, and were superseded by more 
 accomplished servants from ships which arrived daily. Some of these poor 
 creatures slept in retired nooks out in the public gardens and in the rocks, 
 rather than face the contamination of the streets. The total number of 
 respectable females unemployed in Sydney at one time in 1840-41 amounted to 
 six hundred. There were other and more serious evils attendant on emigration, 
 as then conducted, than the condition of the emigrants on landing. A con- 
 siderable number of females of notoriously bad character were sent out in the 
 bomity ships for whom bounty was never claimed. The immorality carried on
 
 356 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 in many of the emigrant vessels was dreadful, causing the ruin of many hundreds 
 of innocent gii-ls. 
 
 Mrs Chisholm had courage and foresight. She began by appealing to the 
 press and to private individuals on behalf of the poor destitute girl inunigrants. 
 At first she met with much discouragement, a few civil speeches — no assistance. 
 The most imperious section of the employer class saw no advantage from the 
 protection of the employed. The ofiicials foresaAv more work, some supervision, 
 and no increase of pay. But she pressed on her plan of a " Home," and when 
 almost defeated was nerved to determination by the sight of a Highland 
 beauty, " poor Flora " — whom she had last known a happy, hojieful girl — 
 drunken, despairing, contemplating, and hastening to commit, suicide. Mrs 
 Chisholm offered to devote her time gratuitously to a " Home of Protection," 
 and to endeavour to procure situations for the emigrant girls, unengaged and out 
 of place, in the country — an offer which was eventually accepted, after " she 
 had given an undertaking not to j3ut the Government to any expense." The 
 Government building appropriated to the " Home " consisted of a low wooden 
 barrack fourteen feet square. Mrs Chisholm found it needful, for the protection 
 of the characters of the girls, to sleep on the premises. A store-room seven feet 
 square, without a fireplace, and infested with rats, was cleared out for her 
 accommodation. There she dwelt, eating, drinking, and sleeping, dependent on 
 the kindness of a prisoner employed in the adjoining Government printing-office 
 for a kettle of hot water for tea, her only luxury ; and there she laid the 
 foundation of a system to which thousands owe their happiness in this world 
 and the world to come — saved from temptation to vice, and put on the road to 
 industrious independence. But there Avas no machinery extant for distributing 
 them, so Mrs Chisholm determined to send them into the country. The first 
 dray that came to the door was sent away empty : frightened with foolish 
 'board-ship stories of blacks and bushrangers, not one girl Avould go. A second 
 attempt, the first failm-e having been kept a secret, was successful. Mrs 
 Chisholm, at her own risk and expense, took a party up the Hunter Eiver 
 district by steamboat. The enterprise was considered so Quixotish by her 
 friends that, as she sat on deck in the centre of her troop of girls, no one of her 
 acquaintance dared to expose himself to the ridicule of owning acquaintance by 
 off'ering any refreshment. The plan succeeded ; the girls were well placed in 
 the families of resjDectable married people, and committees were induced to 
 undertake the charge of " Branch Homes " in the interior. The bush journeys 
 Avere repeated with parties of young women, varying from sixteen to thirty, who 
 were conveyed to various localities, where she went from farm to farm, 
 scrutinising the characters of the residents before she trusted them with " her 
 children." The settlers came forward nobly, and sui)plied provisions, horses, 
 and drays; the inns universally refused payment for ]\Irs Chisholm's personal 
 accommodation ; and the coaches, a most costly conveyance in Australia, 
 carried hor sick women and children free. ]\Ir William Bradley, a gentleman 
 born in the colony, a member of the Legislative Council, gave an unlimited 
 credit to draw for anything for the use of the emigrants — of which she was not
 
 GO VERNOR GIPPS\S A DMTNTSTRA TION. 35: 
 
 obliged to avail herself, so liberally did the colonists of the interior come 
 forward. Very soon the fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands claimed the same 
 care, and asked to be permitted to form part of her parties. Iler journeys 
 became lono-er and her armies larger; 147 souls left Sydney, which incrcasc^il 
 on the road to 240, in one party, in drays and on foot, ]Mrs Chi.sholm 
 leading the way on horseback. She established a registry-office for servants, 
 where names could be inscribed and agreements effected on fair terms 
 gratuitously : she drew up and printed a fab' agreement, of which the master 
 took one, the servant one, and one was filed. The result of this registration was 
 to extinguish litigation as far as regards servants engaged at the " Home." Out 
 of many thousands only two were litigated. Yet in the course of her experience, 
 before she stirred in the matter, and for want of agreemenls and speedy justice, 
 fifty-one cases occurred up to 1843 of Avages unjustly detained or taxed. For the 
 first time the emigrant found a "friend." 
 
 The abuse of power by captains, and the immorality of the inferior sort of 
 surgeons, at that time engaged in the Australian trade, were checked by a 
 prosecution which she compelled the governor to institute against jiarties who 
 had driven a girl mad by their violence. When Sir George Gipps, hesitating, 
 said, as officials will say, "A Government prosecution is a very serious matter," 
 she answered, " I am ready to prosecute : / have the necessary evidence ; and if 
 it be a risk whether / or these men shall go to prison, I am ready to stand the 
 risk." That trial established a precedent and checked the abuse. 
 
 By the end of 1842 Mrs Chisholm had succeeded in placing comfortably two 
 thousand emigrants of both sexes, and then, when slowly recovering from the 
 effects of a serious illness brought on by her exertions, she published a remark- 
 able report. It is a collection of notes and memoranda, interspersed with pithy 
 remarks and pathetic and comic sketches from real life — a valuable contribution 
 to the art of colonisation, and a literary curiosity. It was an outspoken book ; it 
 did not mince matters — as, for instance, in the following passage, which went far 
 to kill the bounty system, and so, although people were shocked, the evil was 
 abated : " One girl, long known at Liverpool as the Countess, arrived per ship ; 
 the last time I saw her was on a Sunday ; she had evidently started in the 
 morning, with an intention to look interesting at either St James's or St Mary's, 
 for her book was in her hand ; but she had taken a glass by the way, and was so 
 far aware of her state that she retired to the Domain. I saw her fall twice. 
 Now people express their astonishment that English girls are not sent out. We 
 will suppose that some Liverpool families are meditating this step, and, in their 
 anxiety to obtain all information, they learn that the Countess is missing — has left 
 for Australia (by a bounty ship). They condemn all for one — they shrink with 
 horror from sending their daughters where the Countess is received — they are 
 strangers to all on board, therefore all suffer for one. I wish particularly to call 
 attention to the injustice done to girls of good character" by a case of association, 
 and not a solitary one like the one I have stated. Again, in Sydney, the char- 
 acter of the Countess is known in less than two hours, and the girls of good 
 character in the same ship suffer." In this "Countess" story was the germ of
 
 358 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 one great feature of Mrs Chisliolm's Family Colonisation Society, protection for 
 siuule females. 
 
 This plain speaking and unusual style of colonial publication — hard truths 
 without acidity — did its work. A considerable reform was introduced. Govern- 
 ment protection was granted to friendless young women ; an agent appointed to 
 superintend and witness the agreements with men on board ship ; and the 
 colonial press, Avhen furnished with the materials, did good service to emigration 
 reform. The whole cost to Government of the guarding and distribution of the 
 emigrants was little more than £100. The other expenses were borne by Mrs 
 Chisholm and the friends whom her honest, clear-sighted policy had made among 
 persons of all politics and various religious views. 
 
 In 1843, before a committee of the Legislative Council, which was appointed 
 to consider the condition of the " distressed labourers," and especially of three 
 hundred parties with large families whom, in the depressed condition of the 
 colony, the settlers coi;ld not afford to engage, Mrs Chisholm took another step 
 forward. She proposed, and entered into, the details of a plan which, at a very 
 trifling expense, would have placed these three hundred families in a self-sup- 
 porting position on land, instead of continuing to receive three shillings a day for 
 nominal labour on Government works. Sir George Gipps's instructions pre- 
 cluded him from granting or leasing of Crown land for this valuable, or any other 
 purpose, except feeding sheep. Nevertheless, on private property, on clearing 
 leases, ]\Irs Chisholm succeeded in placing some families of mechanics. By her 
 exertions, applied to the elastic resources of Australia, before 1845 the distress 
 of two thousand souls was so far removed that some parties were ready in a few 
 years to assert, forgetting that a detailed list was on record, that it had never 
 existed ; and in 1845, as Mrs Chisholm, in her evidence before the committee of 
 1844, prophesied, the demand for labour was more vigorous than ever. It was 
 while making forced marches at the head of armies of emigrants, as far as 
 three hundred miles into the far interior, sometimes sleeping at the stations of 
 wealthy settlers, sometimes in the huts of poor emigrants or prisoners ; some- 
 times camping out in the bush, teaching the timid, awkward peasantry of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland how to " bush it ; " comforting the women, nursing the 
 children, putting down any discontented or forward spirits among the men ; now 
 taking a few weary children into her covered tandem-cart ; now mounting on 
 horseback and galloping over a short cut through the hills to meet her weary 
 caravan, with supper foraged from the hospitable settlers — it was in the midst of 
 marches in Avhicli she managed the discipline, the route, the commissariat, the 
 hospital, and the billeting, all herself, with such aides-de-camp as each army 
 happened to furnish, that she commenced another great work subsidiary to 
 colimisation, the "Voluntary Statements of the People of New South Wales," 
 for the use of the home country. These were statements in answer to the series 
 of printed questions, taken down in the words of the informant, of which we shall 
 give some examples at the end of this chapter. They were written down in all 
 manner of dwellings, but chiefly among the humbler ; in cottages and bark huts ; 
 on the roadside, on the top of a hat ; in the held, on a plough ; in the forest, on
 
 GO VERNOR G/PPS'S A DMINTSTRA TION. 359 
 
 the first log of a frugal bush servant's first freehold. There were nearly eight 
 hundred of these statements from natives of almost every county of the United 
 Kingdom, from emigrants, from "old hands," and from ticket-of-lcave men. 
 These records proved incontestably tliat Australia was a country in which any 
 industrious man could thrive ; that there was ample verge and room enough for 
 millions; that land which squatters asserted to be only fit for sheep pasture 
 would support yeomanry in comfort and independence. They laid bare much 
 injustice, exhibited in a striking manner the demand and necessity for an 
 increased female population, and presented a more perfect, truthful, and vakial^le 
 picture of bush life, painted by servants and settlers, than had ever been drawn 
 in travellers' tales or Parliamentary blue books. 
 
 In 1846 Mrs Chisholm sailed for England, and before her departure a com- 
 mittee, which consisted of some of the foremost men of Sydney, in-csented her 
 with an address and testimonial raised bj^ public subscription. 
 
 During the time she spent in Australia, Mrs Chisholm, without wealth or 
 rank, or any support except what her earnest philanthropy gradually acquired, 
 provided for eleven thousand souls. During her sojourn in England she did 
 much more. With less than two thousand pounds, between 1850 and 1852, she 
 personally sent out more than one thousand emigrants of the best class, and 
 advised, corresponded with, or otherwise assisted tens of thousands. Her bene- 
 volent labours were continued up till the very day of her death. 
 
 " The guardian angel of her helpless sex, 
 Whom no fatigue could daunt, no crosses vex \ 
 With manly reason and wdth spirit pure, 
 Crowned with the blessings of the grateful poor, 
 For them with unrepining love she bore 
 The boarded cottage and the earthen floor, 
 The sultry day in tedious labour spent, 
 The endless tale of whining discontent : 
 Bore noonday's burning sun and midnight's chUl, 
 The scanty meal, the journey lengthening still ; , 
 
 Lavished her scanty store on their distress. 
 And sought no other guerdon than success. " 
 
 Throughout the whole course of Sir George Gipps's rule the quarrel between 
 the Executive and the Legislative never ceased for a moment. 
 
 The ability and integrity of the Colonial Secretaries of State during the 
 administration of Sir George Gipps, and of Sir George himself, are indisputable ; 
 but they obstinately insisted on knowing whether shoes fitted or not better than 
 the people who wore them, and insisted too that they should wear them, wdiether 
 they pinched or not. Fortunately the prosperity of the colony did not entirely 
 depend on the crotchets of a colonial minister, or of a governor, although both 
 could, and did, seriously retard its progress. But while the Legislative Council 
 were contesting, inch by inch, the " elementary rights of Englishmen," the grass 
 was growing, the sheep were breeding, the stockmen were exploring new 
 pastures, and the frugal industry of the settlers was replacing and increasijig
 
 3G0 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the capital lost by wild speculations. And in 1845-46, Sir George Gipps Avas 
 able to announce that the revenue exceeded the expenditure, and the exports 
 the imports, while the glut of labour which followed his arrival had been 
 succeeded by a demand which the squatters termed a dearth. 
 
 In July 1846, Sir George Gipps retired from the government of New South 
 Wales, and embarked for England, worn out in body and mind by the excite- 
 ment of perpetual contests with colonists as unscrupulous in their attacks as he 
 was obstinate and haughty in maintaining his opinions and position. It was a 
 war to the knife on both sides. The last measure he presented to the Legislative 
 Council (a bill to renew the border police) was rejected, and an address voted, 
 by a large majority, after two nights' debate, which was virtually a vote of 
 censure on his government, after which the Council adjourned itself for a month. 
 
 During an administration of eight years, distinguished by imusual official and 
 literary aptitude. Sir George Gipps succeeded in earning the warm approbation 
 of the DowTiing Street chiefs, and the detestation of the members of every 
 colonial class and interest, except his immediate dependants. The squatocracy, 
 the mercantile, and the settler class were equally opposed to him. Yet even 
 with the same political and economical views, erroneous and baneful as many ot 
 them were, with much less talent, but with a more conciliatory temper, he might 
 have been a happy, a popular, and a really useful governor. The value, as well 
 as the popularity, of a colonial governor depends more on the manner in Avhich 
 he conciliates and advises the people under his charge, than on the manner in 
 which he pens a despatch or delivers a speech from the vice-throne.
 
 GO VERNOn FITZRO F W A DMINISTRA TION. 30 1 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GOVERNOR FITZROY'S ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 SIR CHARLES FITZROY — HIS CHARACTER — A DANDY GOVERNOR — CONCILIATORY 
 
 LANGUAGE — PUBLIC QUESTIONS WENTWORTH's RESOLUTION — EARL GREY'S 
 
 BAD POLICY — PUBLIC EXCITEMENT — THE TRANSPORTATION QUESTION — THE 
 "HASHEMY" — TRIUiMPH OF THE PEOPLE — THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 
 
 Sir Charles Fitzroy, a younger son of the Grafton family, and a brothcr-in-law 
 of the Duke of Richmond, who had previously been lieutenant-governor of 
 Prince Edward's Island, and governor of Antigua, in the West Indies, succeeded 
 Sir George Gipps in August 1846 ; Sir Charles ISI. O'Connell, Commander of the 
 Forces in New South Wales, having administered the colony during the inter- 
 mediate space of a month. 
 
 Sir Charles Fitzroy was in every respect the reverse of Sir George Gipps. 
 His talents were not above mediocrity, but his manners were conciliatory. On 
 colonial politics he had no opinions and no prejudices ; apparently his chief object 
 was to lead an easy life. It is said that on landing he exclaimed : "I cannot 
 conceive how Sir George Gipps could permit himself to be bored by anything in 
 this delicious climate." Sir Charles Avas in fact an eminent example of how far 
 good temper and the impartiality of indifference, in the absence of higher quali- 
 ties, may make a very respectable colonial governor. By placing himself unre- 
 servedly in the hands of men of colonial experience — by yielding every point left 
 to his own discretion by the Home Government to the wishes of the majority of 
 the Legislative Council — and in fiict by never taking the trouble to have any 
 opinion on any colonial subject, he glided over difficulties on which men of more 
 intellect and obstinacy would have made shipwreck. And perhaps, after all, the 
 sporting, four-in-hand driving, ball-giving governor, 
 
 "A dandy of sixty, who bows with a grace," 
 
 and leaves the political part of his work to his secretaries and law advisers, was 
 then the best governor for Australia — until some nobleman or great commoner 
 could be found of common sense and conciliatory manners, not only able to initiate 
 the business of colonial government with advantage to the dependency and 
 the parent state, but to teach the rising generation of Australia by example, that 
 without a taste for art, science, and refined intellectual amusements, the nu)st 
 fashionable tailor, the most correct equipage, the most beautiful horses, the most 
 
 2z
 
 362 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 stately mansion, and tlie most varied wine-cellar, will not make a gentleman, as 
 colonial plutocrats often fancy. 
 
 Sir Charles Fitzroy, warned by the error of Governor Gipps, in his first 
 addi-ess to the Legislative Council, assured them that he should defer any legisla- 
 tive action on his own part until he made such a stay and such investigations as 
 were " necessary to acquire personal experience upon several momentous ques- 
 tions upon which it would be presumptuous to offer any opinion at so early a 
 period of our intercourse ; " and he added : " I take this opportunity of publicly 
 declaring, in perfect sincerity, that I have assumed the responsible trust with 
 which our Sovereign has honoured me, unfettered by any preconceived opinions 
 on every subject aftecting the interests of any class of her Majesty's subjects in 
 this territory." 
 
 Among the important subjects affected by this timely and sagacious declara- 
 tion stood foremost the renewal of transportation ; the upset price of Crown 
 lands ; the terms on which those lands were to be temporarily occupied by 
 pastoral proprietors; the control and appropriation of the colonial revenues; 
 and the estabhshmeut of steam communication. 
 
 In 1848 the Legislative Council received some accession of strength from the 
 squatter party; the colony was in straits from the cessation of immigration, 
 which had fallen from some GOOO in 1842 to barely 3200 during the whole five 
 years of 1848-47, and it ventured to pass a resolution assenting to a proposition 
 made by Earl Grey, by Avhich he ixndertook to forward a certain number of 
 criminals who had j^assed through a course of discipline in British penitentiaries, 
 to be landed with tickets-of-leave ; and further, to accompany their immigration 
 with that of an equal number of free emigrants to be sent, not at the cost of the 
 Colonial Land Fund, but of the British Exchequer. The passing of this resolu- 
 tion was the signal for the organisation of a fierce agitation against the renewal 
 of transportation, which was kept alive by the arrival from time to time of small 
 bands of prisoners under the new name of exiles. 
 
 Sir Charles Fitzroy's despatch, enclosing Mr Wentworth's resolution in favour 
 of the renewal of transportation, reached England in August 1848. The financial 
 state of the country deterred the English Government from proposing the vote 
 needful for defraying the expenses of the free emigrants promised to the colony, 
 in consideration of their receiving prisoners. But Earl Grey, in a defiance of 
 public opinion in the colonies, as exhibited in a crowd of petitions, resolutions, 
 and reports of public meetings forwarded to him, as well as in the iniiversal tone 
 of the colonial newspapers, adopted that part of the bargain which suited the 
 mother country, and neglected to fulfil the colonial conditions on which the con- 
 cession was made. He decided to send out prisoners but no free emigrants — 
 revoked the order in Council of 1840, by which New South Wales had ceased to 
 be a place for the reception of convicts — and commenced to send out the pets of 
 Pentouville and Parkhurst. The publication of this despatch in the colony was 
 received with one universal outburst of indignation. From that time compro- 
 mise was impossible ; the breach of faith became a potent rhetorical weapon in 
 the hands of political agitators. The excitement and fury of all parties was
 
 GO VERNO R FITZRO TS A DM IN 1ST R A TION. 3G3 
 
 such, that it only needed the presence of an obstinate and haughty governor to 
 provoke a rebellious outburst. Fortunately Governor Fitzroy preferred a 
 pleasant day on the race-course to any assertion of vice-royal attributes. 
 
 In 1849 the " IlashcMuy " conviet-ship arrived in Sydney harl)0ur. At one 
 of the largest public meetings ever held in that city, speeches of the most violent 
 character were delivered, and resolutions passed, calling upon the governor to 
 send back the cargo of England's crime to England. At the same time certain 
 of the great flockowners eagerly engaged the ticket-of-leave men, tamed some- 
 Avhat by penitentiary discipline, and all unencumbered by wives and families, at 
 lower wages, in preference to a thousand free emigrants, consisting of men, 
 women, and children, who arrived at the same time. 
 
 In the latter end of 1848 the results of distress in England and famine in 
 Ireland were felt in Australia in the shape of an inflowing of free emigrants moi-e 
 numerous than had been received since the frantic mania of 1841 ; and this was 
 increased to such an extent in 1849, that little short of thirteen thousand 
 labouring people were landed in Sydney, and an equal number at Port Phillip. 
 An addition of many thousand free emigrants to the population could not fail 
 to produce an effect on the anti-transportation feelings of the colony. The 
 Legislative Council voted an address to the Queen in which they protested 
 against the adoption of any measure by which the colony Avould be degraded 
 into a penal settlement, " and entreated her Majesty to revoke the order in 
 Council by which New South Wales had been again made a place to which 
 British offenders may be transported." That in this address they only echoed 
 the feelings of the great majority of the colonists was proved in the next elec- 
 tion, when gentlemen with the highest claims to the honours of legislation were 
 rejected on the one ground of having suj-ported the transportation compromise. 
 The obnoxious order in Council making New South Wales a penal colony was, 
 after a brief contest, withdrawn, but the seed of agitation had been soAvn, the 
 anti-transportation league, embracing all the Australian colonies and Van Die- 
 men's Land, had been organised. The gold discoveries proved to every one, 
 except to the son and heir of the great man who carried the Eefoi'm Bill, that 
 transportation was not only odious to the colonists but absurd as a punishment. 
 Within a few years afterwards it was finally abolished by the Duke of Newcastle. 
 
 In the midst of the first session of the new Colonial Parliament, all political 
 contests, internal and external, were cast into the shade by the gold discoveries : 
 land question, transportation question, taxation question, all were absorbed by 
 the digging up of gold, over which flocks and herds had long been carelessly 
 driven. The year 1850 found New South Wales Avith 200,000 free people, an 
 export of £2,899,600, an import of £2,078,300, and 7,000,000 sheep— a surplus 
 revenue and an annual demand for labom- — nominal freedom of self-government, 
 actual restriction from legislation on every vital interest. Who could say in 
 what condition, social and political, 1860 would find the feeble colony of 1788 1
 
 364 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY — MK E. H. HARGREAVES — PREDICTIONS OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA 
 — THE FIRST DESPATCH — MACGREGOR THE SHEPHERD — THE FIRST RUSH — a 
 HUNDREDWEIGHT OF GOLD — THE FIRST ESCORT — THE FIRST SHIPMENT — THE 
 FIRST GOLD COMMISSIONER — TROUBLES WITH THE MINERS — LIFE AT THE SUMMER- 
 HILL DIGGINGS — LIFE AT THE TURON — EFFECTS OF THE GOLD CRISIS — SIR 
 CHARLES FITZROY — SEPARATION OF VICTORIA — AND OF MORETON BAY — SIR 
 WILLIAM DENNISON — SIR JOHN YOUNG — EARL BELMORE AND SIR HERCULES 
 ROBINSON. 
 
 It was in May 1851 that the citizens of Sydney were startled with the announce- 
 ment, in the columns of the Morning Herald, that gold had been discovered in 
 the native state Avithin the territory. " It is no longer any secret (ran the 
 paragraph) that gold has been found in the earth in several places in the western 
 country. The fact was first estabhshed on the 12th of February 1851, by Mr 
 E. H. Hargreaves, a resident of Brisbane Water, who returned from California 
 a few months since. While in California, Mr Hargreaves felt persuaded that, 
 from the similarity of the geological formation, there must be gold in several 
 districts of this colony, and when he returned here his expectations were realised. 
 What the value of the discovery may be it is impossible to say. Three men, who 
 worked with very imperfect machinery, realised £2, 4s. 8d. each per diem; 
 whether they will continue to do so remains to be seen. The subject Avas 
 brought under the consideration of the Government, Avho admitted Mr Har- 
 greaves's claim to some consideration for the discovery, but of course could make 
 no definite promise until the value of the goldfield Avas ascertained. Mr Stutch- 
 bury, the Government surveyor, is noAV in the district, and Mr Hargreaves has 
 proceeded thence to communicate Avith him, and in a fcAV Aveeks Ave may expect 
 definite information. At present all that is knoAvn is that there is gold over a 
 considerable district ; Avhether it is in sufficient quantities to pay for the trouble 
 of obtaining it remains to be ascertained. Should it be found in large quantities, 
 a strict system of licensing diggers Avill be immediately necessary." Such Avere 
 the terms in Avhich — Avith commendable editorial caution — the "small begin- 
 nings " of am-iferous discovery in Australia were chronicled by the journalist. 
 
 Tlie discovery of gold amongst the mountain ranges of Eastern Australia Avas 
 not altogether accidental. As early as 1844, attention had been draAvn by that 
 eminent geologist. Sir Roderick Murchison, to the remarkable coincidence
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 365 
 
 between the structure of the great mountain chain of New South Wales (as 
 developed for the first time by the scientific researches of Count Strzelecki), and 
 that of the auriferous system of the Ural Mountains, from the examination of 
 which he had recently returned. And upon subsequent occasions Sir lioderick 
 urged upon the notice of the practical geologists of Cornwall, as well as upon 
 that of the colonial minister, the strong probability Avhich (arguing by inductive 
 reasoning, founded upon a comparison of the rocks of two widely-distant 
 countries) he inferred to exist, of the search for gold amongst the Australian 
 Cordillera being found productive of successful results. Nor is this the only 
 instance in which the gi'eat auriferous discovery may be said to have been 
 anticipated by speculative reasoning, long previous to the practical confirmation 
 of the theory which such considerations involved. Mr G. W. Earle, in a paper 
 which appears in the fifteenth volimie of the Koyal Geogi-aphical Society's 
 Journal (published in 1845), referred to the uniformity of direction maintained 
 between the mountain chains of South-Eastern Asia and those of the Australian 
 continent, and drew the inference that great mineral wealth would probably bo 
 found in the latter. 
 
 Sir Charles Fitzroy wrote a despatch to Earl Grey, then colonial minister, 
 announcing Hargreaves's discovery, dated the 22d of May 1851. He stated that 
 a goldfield had been discovered near the town of Bathurst, at a distance of 
 about 150 miles from Sydney ; at the same time adding his suspicions that the 
 nature and value of the discovery had been exaggerated, and that the gold sent 
 for inspection was Californian gold; notwithstanding this, he deemed the 
 accounts sufficiently important to require an efficient police to be placed on the 
 Bathurst road. A communication from Mr Stutchbmy undeceived his Excellency. 
 On the 19th of INIay that gentleman wrote from Summerhill Creek, that gold had 
 been obtained in considerable quantities with no better washing instrument than 
 a tin dish, Avhich sufficed to procure one and two ounces per day. At the same 
 date he rejjorted that four hundred persons were hard at work, and that the gold 
 existed not only in the creek, but far above its flood-line, thus affording evidence 
 of its general existence. The camp of the gold-finders was called the city of 
 Ophir, and the first public record it had was the following postscript added by 
 Mr Stutchbury, " Excuse this being written in pencil, as there is no ink in this 
 city of Ophir." 
 
 Earl Grey, to whom Sir Roderick had expressed his views on the subject in 
 1848, refrained from taking any steps in the matter, from a fear that the 
 discovery of gold would prove a som-ce of embarrassment to a wool-producmg 
 country, such as New South Wales ! 
 
 But evidence of a more practical character had existed in the colony itself 
 long previously to the period of the actual discovery of Australia's golden 
 ti'easm-es — or, rather, long previously to the general and confirmed belief in the 
 reality of that discovery. Small quantities of native gold had, dm-ing many years 
 past, been known to be in the occasional possession of the shepherds or other 
 residents in " the bush," and they had even found their way to Sydney upon 
 various occasions — though no one ai)pcars to have taken any particular trouble
 
 366 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 to ascertain whence they had been derived. One old man, named Macgregor, 
 was even in the habit of coming once a year to Sydney with small pieces of gold, 
 which he always disposed of to a jeweller ; but he never divulged the secret place 
 of his treasure, nor does it seem that any particular curiosity was entertained on 
 the subject. About two years before Hargreaves's discovery, a Mr Smith, Avho 
 was engaged in some ironworks in the vicinity of Berrima, showed the Colonial 
 Secretary a lump of gold embedded in quartz, and asked a large sum for naming 
 the locality; but the offer was refused. 
 
 But notwithstanding all this evidence, and much more of a similar kind, the 
 colonists at large apjiear to have pertinaciously closed their eyes to the riches 
 spread so abundantly over the very surface of their soil, and the discoveries of 
 ]\Ir Hargreaves in the Bathurst district burst upon their astonished senses like a 
 thunder-clap. At first its reality was doubted — the tale appeared too enticing 
 for belief — or, in the words of an old Scotch proverb, " ower good to be true." 
 And when every day's experience proved its correctness, and showed, too, that 
 the real extent of the treasure far exceeded even the most sanguine anticipations 
 that had been originally formed regarding it, the fact that Australia was a gold- 
 producing region came upon its inhabitants, as upon the world at large, invested 
 with all the brilliancy of a great discovery. During the two preceding years, 
 thousands had left the colony of New South Wales for California, in the hope of 
 em-iching themselves by a share in its lately-discovered treasures ; the tide had 
 now turned, and, instead of crossing the Pacific in search of gold, all classes 
 amongst the population of Sydney directed an anxious and longing eye towards 
 their Avestern chain of mountains, and the auriferous regions which were 
 ascertained to lie beyond. 
 
 In the meantime, the excitement rose to a high pitch throughout all classes 
 of the community; thousands wending their way to the goldfields, and mechanics 
 and tradesmen deserting certain and lucrative employment for the prospect of 
 sudden Avealth. The governor was willing to have prevented this for the sake of 
 peace and order. He issued a proclamation, claiming the goldfields as the 
 prerogative of the Crown, threatening with prosecution those who should dig 
 gold. People only laughed good-humouredly at the i^roclamation, and hundreds 
 flocked out of Sydney for the hard labour and exposure to the winter season in 
 an elevated region like the Bathurst Mountains. Finding it impossible to check 
 the search for gold, the Government prepared to turn it to account, by adopting 
 a system of licensing to dig for gold. An amount of thirtj^ shillings per month 
 Avas demanded for the purpose, and cheerfully given, from the large quantities of 
 the precious metal extracted. 
 
 The locality in which the first discovery of gold was made by Mr Hargreaves 
 was the neighbourhood of Summci^iill Creek — a small feeder of Lewis River, one 
 of the tributaries of the Ujipcr Macquaric, on its left or western bank, situated in 
 the direction of north-west from Bathurst, from which place it is about thirty 
 miles distant (or about 140 from Sydney). A spot on the banks of Summerhill 
 Creek soon acquired, and has retained, the attractive name of Ophir. But the 
 Oi)liir diggings were shortly surpassed in amount of produce by those of the
 
 77/ a; gold discovery. 307 
 
 Turon, a river -which flows into the i-iglit l)aiik of tlie Macfiuaric some distaiico 
 above the junction of Lewis liiver. jNIeroo Creelc, farther to the northward, 
 another of the sites of auriferous wealth, also belongs to the basin of the same 
 river, the whole valley of which, from the neighbourhood of Bathurst downwards, 
 appears to possess the glittering treasure. 
 
 It was at Meroo Creek that the largest quantity of gold hitherto discovered 
 in a single mass was found by a black shepherd, in the employ of ])r Kerr. It 
 contained nearly a hundredweight of gold, and realised upwards of £4000. It 
 was found amongst a number of quartz blocks, forming an isolated heap, which 
 was lying about a hundred yards distant from a vein of quartz stretching h\m\ the 
 creek up the ridge. This splendid specimen of the Australian "El Dorado" was 
 unfortunately broken into pieces by its lucky possessor, for the sake of greater 
 convenience in its removal : in its complete state, it would have been the largest 
 known mass of native gold in the woi'ld. The Imperial INIuseum at St Peters- 
 burg contains a pcpite (or, in Australian phraseology, a nugget), brought from the 
 Sibexian mines, which weighs eighty-seven pounds, and lumps of considerable 
 magnitude have been discovered in California and elsewhere ; but a hundred- 
 weight of gold, in one mass, was a thing hitherto unheard of. The discovery of 
 this " monster " lump of the glittering treasure was altogether accidental ; it was 
 made by a " blackfellow " while engaged in tending a flock of sheep, and in a 
 spot where the surrounding herbage had grown for centuries, undisturbed by the 
 hand of man, and unheeded. Gold being at the time the universal theme of 
 conversation, the sable tender of flocks had provided himself with a tomahawk, 
 and — sharing in the general excitement — had amused himself with exploring the 
 country adjacent to his master's land. His attention Avas called to the spot in 
 question by observing a glittering substance upon the surface of a huge fragment 
 of quartz rock, a portion of Avhich was soon broken of by a blow of his tomahawk. 
 He at once started home and disclosed the discovery to his master, and shortly 
 afterwards the blocks of quartz, with their embedded hundredweight of gold, 
 were released from the soil in which they had rested for ages. The adjoining- 
 country was, of course, diligently explored, but, with the exception of dust, 
 nothing of any consequence has ever been found in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood of the spot that had been occupied by the golden mass. 
 
 In return for his very valuable services, Dr Kerr presented the blackfellow 
 and his brother with tAvo flocks of sheep, two saddle horses, and a quantity of 
 rations, and supplied them with a team of bullocks to plough some land in which 
 to sow a crop of maize and potatoes. One of the brothers, mounted on a 
 serviceable roadster, accompanied the party into town, and appeared not a little 
 proud of his share in the transaction. 
 
 On the 15th of August, 5800 oz. of gold had passed through the customs for 
 shipment. Much, however, was exported without having passed through the 
 customs ; merchants' accounts estimated the (quantity at 8329 oz., value .£-28,000. 
 A regular escort was now established ; the gold was conveyed to the capital under 
 charge of the Government, the charge being 1 per cent, on the value. On the 
 8th of July, the number of licenses on the Turon was six hundred.
 
 368 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 In the meantime, Mr Stutchbury had been engaged on an extensive geologi- 
 cal and mineralogical survey, the result of which was that he found gold almost 
 wherever he tried for it. He traversed the Macquarie, from Walgumballa to the 
 Turon, and found gold at every place he tried. Leaving the Turon, he crossed 
 the mountain range, and came upon the Macquarie at Nelly's Corner. Here he 
 found scale gold, which ceased higher up the river. At Stony Creek gold was 
 also found. In the course of his survey he made the remark : " In no instance 
 have I found gold in what I should consider as its natural matrix. The bars and 
 detritus of the rivers and creeks are the spots in which it is usually found, and in 
 every case it presents the appearance of being waterworn. When the matrix 
 from which all these particles were washed is discovered, gold in our day, as in 
 the days of Solomon, will be nothing thought of." Mr Stutchbury found also 
 platinum ; and quicksilver has, in more than one place, been reported to exist. 
 
 On the 19th of August, the exports had reached £70,000 in value, and 
 H.M.S. " Havannah " brought as a present to the Queen a number of speci- 
 mens of the gold in its various forms, enclosed in two elegant gold boxes, 
 the manufacture of Mr Andrew Lenehan, of Sydney, from colonial woods. 
 By the 6th of September, the shipments had increased to £150,000. On the 
 8th of November they had reached £219,000. A remarkable discovery oi 
 a mine on ]\Ir Wentworth's estate now took place. In one day, a single 
 miner raised £500 worth of gold, the earth averaging 25 per cent, of pure 
 gold. The " golden lode," as it was termed, was closed up immediately after the 
 discovery, and a company was formed in Sydney for effectually working the 
 mine. 
 
 The mines now began to be more productive, from the greater number of 
 persons who resorted to them ; and in the first week of December, 12,036 oz. 
 were brought to Sydney, valued at £40,000. A single nugget was amongst 
 these, which sold by auction for £1155, and the "Alert" was despatched with 
 £130,000 worth on board. Nuggets of gold were now common; three were 
 found at Louisa Creek, of the respective weights of twenty-seven, twenty-six, 
 and twenty pounds. Ophir and Little Oakey Creek also yielded a large number. 
 All this success had occm-red in unfavourable weather, the dry season having set 
 in. The large lump just spoken of was found not very far from the same spot in 
 which Dr Kerr's famous hundredweight had turned up. It was nine inches in 
 diameter, twenty-one in circumference, and weighed 336 oz. There had now 
 reached England by various ships upwards of a million of Australian gold, the 
 produce of New South Wales and Victoria. By the middle of January, both 
 colonies had shipped eight tons of gold to the mother country, the value of the 
 Port Phillip portion being about three-quarters of a million, ^in estimate was 
 now made that the annual yield would be from Port Phillip about five millions, 
 and from New South Wales three millions, making eight millions annually to be 
 added to the surplus wealth of the vaults of the Bank of England. 
 
 John Richard Hardy, Esq., chief-magistrate of Paramatta, was appointed the 
 first gold commissioner, with instructions to organise a mounted police of ten 
 men ; to issue licenses to gold-diggers, at the rate of 30s. a month ; to receive in
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 369 
 
 payment gold obtained by amalgamation at £2, 8s. per ounce, and at £3, 4s. per 
 ounce for gold obtained by Avasliiiig. And, to preserve the peace and put down 
 outrage and violence, he was further instructed to co-operate with the local police, 
 and to swear in special constables from the licensed diggers. 
 
 When the existence of gold was first ascertained, there were flockowners 
 who disapjiroved of the course pursued by the governor in raising gold-digging 
 to the condition of a regular industrial pursuit, and recommended " that martial 
 law should be proclaimed, and all gold-digging peremjjtorily prohibited, in order 
 that the ordinary industrial pursuits of the country should not be interfered with ; " 
 that is to say, some of the same order who patronised bachelor shepherds, and 
 opposed the establishment of wives, families, and small farms in the interior, 
 Avere ready to risk a civil war rather than endanger their wool crops. But, 
 fortunately, the governor had no taste for spilling the blood of his countrymen 
 in a "futile attempt to stop the influx of the tide." 
 
 Provincial Inspector Scott, of the police, reported from Bathurst that the 
 distance thence to Summerhill Creek is forty miles, over a clear and defined but 
 moiuitainous road, fit for the passage of drays. He " thought that the deposits of 
 the creek would be exhausted soon — that any mechanics in full work would 
 commit an act of insanity to resign their situations in search of gold ; that on 
 Sabbath all parties left off" work, and the Rev. INIr Chapman, a Wesleyan 
 minister, preached to a large congregation. Further, Mr Scott anticipated 
 difficulty in preserving the peace, unless prompt and energetic measures were 
 adopted, viz., to swear in all res]Dectable persons as special constables, and 
 permit them to be armed ; to grant licenses to other classes (not resjiectable), 
 and take their arms away to be locked up in Bathurst Courthouse." From the 
 letters of the provincial inspector of the same date, reporting the preparations 
 he had made to assist the gold commissioner, in case of the anticijDated 
 resistance, it is evident that no ordinary degree of alarm was generally 
 experienced. But, fortunately, the miners proved themselves more orderly 
 and sensible than the police and other timid individuals had imagined ; and in 
 Mr Hardy, the first gold commissioner, the governor had selected a man ot 
 judgment, temper, and cool courage, who was determined to let the industrious 
 miners have fair play, and equally determined to enforce his lawful authority. 
 His despatches were models of sound common sense. 
 
 The journey to Bathurst was easily performed by mail-coach or on horseback. 
 Arrived at Bathurst, the explorer found himself in the midst of a rich pastoral 
 and agricultural district, in which every fertile valley had a small colony of 
 settlers, ready to supply flour, meat, milk, and butter, at reasonable chai-ges. The 
 Sinnmerhill diggings and the style of life which prevailed throughout the interior 
 of Australia were well depicted in the following sketch by a correspondent of the 
 Sydney Morning Herald: "Monday, June 2. — In the morning the ice was thick 
 upon the water in the dishes outside, and the ground covered with hoar frost, as 
 it always is here in fine w^eather at this season ; hot days and frosty nights. To 
 an unscientific eye the gold country (Bathurst district) consists of a mass, not of 
 ranges, but apparently of points of ranges, thrown together without any regular 
 
 3 a
 
 370 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ai'rangement, but dovetailing into one another like the teeth of two saws placed 
 close together, face to face ; these teeth again being cut into smaller pieces by- 
 narrow precipitous gullies, many of them nearly as deep as the main creek itself. 
 Small creeks twist and twine down these narrow gullies, which have a sudden 
 bend every half-dozen yards, into the Summerhill or main creek, which twists and 
 twines like the others, but on a larger scale. The banks of t'aj gullies are 
 precipitous on both sides, but in the main creek there are alternate Wiiffs and 
 low points, the teeth of the saw sloping gently down, diminishing- in height as 
 they do in width, till they come to a point overhung on the oppos.'ce side by a 
 high bluff or precipice, which forms the inside of the nick of the opposite ;-iw; 
 and, as we stood upon the edge of the cliff, we looked down nearly two hundred 
 feet over and along each side of the opposite i:)oint, dotted with tents and gunyas 
 of bark or branches, each with its fire in front, sending the blue smoke up into 
 the clear frosty morning air ; some under the noble swamp oaks at the water's 
 edge, others behind and under the box and gum trees which towered one above 
 another till the rising branch was merged in the main ridge behind. The point 
 was occupied by about fifteen parties cutting straight into the hill ; and, as we 
 looked down upon their busy movements, digging, carrying earth, and working 
 the cradles at the edge of the water, with the noise of the pick, the sound of 
 voices, and the washing of the shingle in the iron boxes of the cradles, I could 
 scarcely believe that two months ago this was a quiet secluded gully in a far-out 
 cattle run, where a solitary stockkeeper or blackfellow on the hunt were all that 
 ever broke the solitude of nature. On saying so to Scotch Hany, he said that he 
 had stock kept there for nearly twenty years, and when he came there were 
 flocks of kangaroos ; these were driven off by the cattle, and now they were as 
 completely driven off by the gold-diggers. ' Little enough the first occupiers 
 thought of gold,' I remarked. ' Yes,' answei'ed Scotch Harry, ' and it would be 
 well for some of these fellows if they thought as little ; ' and he told us of two 
 who had gone mad already — one, a shepherd in the neighbourhood, found a piece 
 while poking about his run, and came to him making a great mystery about the 
 place, till he could find no more, when he took him to it, but it was a chance 
 piece, and not accomj^anied by five or six more, as is usually the case ; the fellow, 
 however, was not satisfied, and continued searching about, till, from excitement 
 and anxiety, he went mad ; the other was a man Avho, after starving for two 
 days, found 5 lbs. weight, fainted rejjeatedty, and is now in confinement. Ken- 
 said that two months ago hardly a traveller pas.sed his house in a week, now they 
 were in crowds every hour ; his children never thought there were so many peojile 
 in the world before, and wondered what it all meant ; he could hardly believe it 
 himself. AVe did not find our dray, but heard of it close at hand, and sat down 
 to look about us. Drays and parties of men were arriving every few minutes, 
 many of whom gave a cheer as if they saw fortune in their hand when they looked 
 down upon the workers in the bed of the creek below; some were putting up 
 tents and gunyas, and some working, but all busy and all in good humour, barring 
 the men Avho were constantly leaving, and looked sufficiently disgusted. We 
 were a good deal j)uzzled how to get our baggage carried to Messrs Koach and
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 371 
 
 Barrington's, as it would take us at least two days to carry seven hundredweight 
 over two miles of such ridges, or down the bed of the creek, cut up as it is in 
 every direction; but, just as the last rays of the sun were leaving the top of the 
 ridge, a party of nine native warriors, in their new Government blankets, painted 
 and armed with spears and boomerangs, came winding down the bank. As they 
 passed through our camp, I asked the foremost if they would carry our baggage, 
 to which they at once agreed, and camped Avith us. We were all astir at daylight, 
 and found the water frozen in the bucket, and the top of our blankets quite Avet 
 within the tent. The loads were adjusted, and the blacks, with the two men, 
 started under the guidance of the company, and returned about noon by a short 
 cut, we remaining to erect the tent. On loading them again, one fellow 
 complained that a pot of beef hurt his head, so I gave him a roll of brown jjaper, 
 but soon found my mistake, as not a man would move without the same, so that 
 when ^ came to the last there was not a scrap left ; he had only bedding to carry, 
 and .. err.plained to him that no pad was necessary, but he drew himself up and 
 asked i^ I t5.:'nght him a fool; 'Another one blackfellow hab it.' He was 
 evidently in earnest, and Avould have left his load there and then, had I not 
 clapped a calui^g-card on his shaggy bullet head, and he went off quite proud ; 
 we gave them one shilling each and their rations, which is high pay for a black. 
 Many return at once, without giving it one minute's trial. I saw one party arrive, 
 six respectable-looking, hard-working men, all well provided with tools, clothes, 
 and provisions. As I stood conversing with one of them, who Avas putting his 
 things together to move to their tent, a parcel um-olled, and a Bible and Prayer- 
 book fell out. He looked up, and said they should not forget these even for 
 gold, to Avhich I assented, with the remark that men Avould get none the less gold 
 for minding them." 
 
 Another correspondent Avrites from the Turon at the same date : " These 
 wilds, a few months since only known to the stockman and the shepherd, noAV 
 contain one of the most singularly constituted assemblages Avhich the Avorld can 
 present. It would be scarcely correct to call it a society, for the social element 
 is absolutely Avanting, more so even than in the much-abused California, Avhere 
 selfishness and a disregard of everything but indiA'idual interests scarcely pre- 
 vailed so much as in the Ncav South Wales gold-diggings. The scene has been 
 so often described as scarcely to bear repetition, but it is not easy to convey the 
 conception of it by any description on paper. Gunyas and tents of every con- 
 ceivable shape and construction, from the lined and comfortable marquee doAvn 
 to a few boughs or a calico sheet, stand in certain spots, as thick almost as 
 houses in a street, tenanted by as many as can find room to lie down in them, 
 busy at daybreak Avith cooking preparations, but deserted as soon as the meal is 
 hastily prepared and swallowed, then closed and left to take care of themselves 
 till the return of the miners for an equally hasty mid-day meal, and again till 
 supper time. At night the fires are made up, and the appearance of long lines 
 of blazing logs with a feAV dark figures hovering round, is striking and picturesque 
 in the extreme. But the labour of the day soon produces its efi'ect, and the 
 majority soon drop ofi" to repose, leaving the bush as silent as if untenanted.
 
 372 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 except when broken by the barking of some restless dog. ]\Iorning brings back 
 the same scene. Work, worlc, unceasing work, only varied by the most neces- 
 sary occupations for the actual preservation of life, or by prospecting or migrating 
 when the hole is exhausted or threatens to become so. All occupations, other 
 than digging and cradling, are with few exceptions, reserved for Sunday, which 
 is especially the favourite day for removing." 
 
 The crisis of the gold discovery having mingled among the records of the 
 past, the colony of New South Wales was fairly started, in 1852, on the third 
 era of her eventful history, Avhich may be literally termed the golden era. 
 Fresh discoveries of deposits of the precious metal occurred, but they all proved 
 inferior in richness and quality to the goldfields of Victoria. At the same time, 
 the avei-age yield per digger equalled that of the younger colony, where the 
 population on the goldfields was five times greater. 
 
 The progress of the colony during 1853, compared with its previous advance- 
 ment, was in every way encouraging, both as regards its political condition and 
 material prospei-ity. In common with the neighbouring colonies, New South 
 Wales benefited by the establishment of steam communication with the mother 
 coimtry. A line of steamers Avas laid on between Australia and Singapore by 
 the Peninsular and Oriental Company, conveying a mail every alternate month 
 to join the overland mail from India to Europe, which carried news from the 
 colonies to England in sixty-five days. This was afterwards made a monthly 
 communication tid Galle, and the mails are delivered in London within fifty days. 
 
 The government of Sir Charles Fitzroy was more popular than that of his 
 predecessor. Two significant facts occurred, which tended to show the amicable 
 relations between the Government and the elected representatives of the Council. 
 One was the Council's voting a considerable increase to the Colonial Secretary's 
 salary, and handing him over back pay, with the full concurrence of all the 
 elected members. The other was his Excellency recommending to her Majesty 
 that their Speaker should receive the honour of knighthood in virtue of his office. 
 This title was conferred upon Sir Charles Nicholson, not, however, to be con- 
 sidered as the precedent for a rule. Sir Charles was some years afterwards 
 made a baronet. 
 
 The growing wealth and prosperity of Port Phillip — which until 1851 was a 
 dependency of New South Wales — likewise induced the Queen's Government, in 
 1850, to grant the petition of the colonists in that section of Australia to be 
 separated from the parent colony, and declare it to be a distinct j^rovince of the 
 British Crown under the title and name of her Majesty, Victoria; at the same 
 time granting to the new colony a representative legislature, besides extending 
 the constitution of New South Wales. The Port Phillip district became the 
 separate colony of Victoria on 1st July 1851. On 1st December 1859 the 
 Northern, or INIoreton Bay district, became similarly the colony of Queensland. 
 
 Sir William Denison succeeded Sir Charles Fitzroy. Sir William, who had 
 been Governor of Tasmania, where he had acquired some public odium in con- 
 nection with the convict system, which he supported against the views of the 
 colonists, proved a j^opular as well as an able man when in his new sphere at
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 373 
 
 Sydney. As a military engineer he took groat interest, and an efFectivc part 
 also, in the railways and other public works which, at the time of his arrival, and 
 in the near prospect of colonial self-government, were being projected in the 
 colony. The new Constitution Act arrived on 16th October 1855, was pro- 
 claimed on 23d November, and came into operation the next year. The governor 
 took the initiative in the new legislature by himself naming the first premier of 
 the new system. Mr Donaldson, the premier so named, resigned after a short 
 tenure, and the transition from the old to the new system continued to be 
 marked by such short-lived administrations. After two years of contention in 
 the Assembly, or lower house, the ministry, under Mr Cowper, passed a reform 
 measm-e conferring a greater electoral equality, universal suffrage, and the ballot. 
 The legislature under that measure assembled in 1 859. 
 
 Governor Denison, who was transferred to the JNIadras Presidency, was suc- 
 ceeded b}' Sir John Young, formerly of the Ionian Islands. Sir John's title was 
 that of Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales, instead of Governor-General, as 
 with previous governors. This change was no doubt made in deference to the 
 importance of Victoria. The next two governors in succession were the Earl of 
 Belmore, and Sir Hercules Robinson, the present governor (1878).
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 HISTORY OF VICTOEIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FIRST EXPEDITION. 
 
 A NEW COLONY — PORT PHILLIP — DESCRIPTION — FIRST DISCOVERY — MURRAY, BAUDIN, 
 FLINDERS — COLLINS — MICA OR GOLD ? — GRIMES THE SURVEYOR — BUCKLEY, THE 
 WILD WHITE MAN — JOHN BATMAN — JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER 
 
 The colony of Victoria came into national existence on the 1st of July 1851, on 
 which day the district of Port Phillip was formally separated from New South 
 Wales by royal proclamation, and declared an independent colony under the 
 name of Victoria after her Majesty. 
 
 The history of Port Phillip is singularly barren of incident, and may be com- 
 prised in a very few pages, while volumes might be filled with the moving 
 accidents which have chequered the career of colonies which have not attained, 
 and are not likely to attain, one-tenth of its wealth and importance as a field for 
 British labour and capital. 
 
 Lying between the o4th and 39th parallels of south latitude, and the 141st 
 and 150th meridians of east longitude, with a coast-line of nearly 600 miles, an 
 extreme length from east to west of 420 miles, and a breadth at the widest point 
 of 260, Victoria embraces an area of 86,831 square miles, or 55,571,840 acres, 
 being about one thirty-fourth part of the entire continent of Australia. The 
 size of this colony, therefore, is slightly in excess of that of the two Carolinas ; 
 while its population, amounting (in 1878) in round numbers to 870,000, closely 
 approximates to that of the State of Mississippi, as shown by the census of 1870. 
 In point of climate the country lies between the same isothermal lines as New 
 INIcxico and Arizona, but the range of the thermometer is much less, as the 
 temperature of the coast-line, more especially of this island-continent, is materi- 
 ally modified by the great preponderance of sea over land in the southern hemi- 
 sphere. The coldest month in the year is July, and the hottest January. All 
 the cereals of Europe flourish here, as Avell as the fruits of France, Spain, Italy,
 
 THE FIRSl EXPEDITION. 375 
 
 and Greece. Flax, hemp, hops, tobacco, and the sugar-beet are also cultivated; 
 and the vineyards of Victoria are already becoming celebrated for their choice 
 and varied products in the best markets of the old world — for the soil and 
 climate of the southern and eastern portions of this continent appear to be 
 peculiarly favourable to the industry of the vigneron. Sericulture promises also 
 to become an important source of wealth ; and the mulberry-tree is being 
 extensively j^lanted with a view to future operations. 
 
 Such is the territory which, in the year 18;j4 — less than half a century ago — - 
 was a desert, barely known to Europeans except by the rejiorts of wandering 
 shore-parties of whalers and sealers. The date of the earliest discovery of any 
 part of Victoria has not yet acquired the modern antiquity of a century. On 
 the 19th of April 1770, Captain Cook came upon the coast at a little westward 
 of Ram Head, close to Cape Howe, at the extreme eastern boundary ; but no 
 further exploration of its outline took yAsiCQ at that time. The great navigator 
 had turned his ship to the northward, where he named and visited many places 
 that have since become busy and familiar scenes of other settlements, including 
 Port Jackson, as well as Botany Bay. Excepting this eastern extremity made 
 known by Cook, the coasts of Victoria continued a blank in the geography for 
 some time longer. Indeed, extraordinary as it now seems, Ave enter the 
 nineteenth century ere this reproach to modern science is entirely removed. In 
 the year 1797, Bass, in his adventurous voyage of discovery from Sydney in a 
 whaleboat, passed into the strait that has since borne his name, and proved for the 
 first time that Van Diemen's Land was separated from Australia. He was able 
 to proceed, however, only as far as Western Port ; and it was not until the year 
 1802 that the rest of the Victorian coast was made known. Amongst the latest 
 of the discoveries of Australia was that of Port Phillip, the noble harbour of 
 the commerce of Victoria, which, so soon after its introduction to the world's 
 acquaintance, was to become one of the great centres of the world's traffic. 
 Port Phillip was discovered on the 15th February 1802, by Lieutenant Murray, 
 in the "Lady Nelson." He, in the first instance, named the inlet Port King, in 
 honour of the Governor of New South Wales ; but this name was afterwards, at 
 Governor King's request, changed to Port Phillip, in compliment to his pre- 
 decessor, the first governor of the colony. INIurray entered the harbour and 
 gave to several prominent objects the names they still retain, including Arthur's 
 Seat, a hill at the south-east bend of the harbour, so called from some fancied 
 resemblance to the classic hill at Edinburgh. Six weeks after Murray's visit, 
 Port Phillip was entered by Baudin, the French explorer, and four weeks after 
 him by our own distinguished Flinders. He, too, bestowed several local names, 
 particularly Indented Head and Station Peak, the latter so called from observa- 
 tions that were made from its summit. Australia has remembered the latest 
 even more than the earliest discoverer of the coast of her great colonies, and 
 thus his name is more plentifully distinguished than that of Cook over her maps. 
 Flinders' Street is the great mart and thoroughfare of the wholesale and import 
 business of Melbourne ; while the Flinders' lliver, familiar to us by the journey 
 of Burke and Wills, is probably the largest of the streams of her northern area.
 
 376 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Entering Port Phillip on the 27tli Ajiril, Flinders landed on the northern shore 
 of Geelong harbour, from whence he walked across the grassy plains to Station 
 Peak, noticing and commenting on the pastoral adaptation of the country, which 
 must have appeared to advantage during the pleasant temj)erature of the later 
 autumnal season of his visit. The Geelong and Melbourne Eailway now wakes 
 up the solitudes thus traversed by Flinders ; while from the summit of the Peak 
 we can detect, in the steam of the passing trains, another railway, a part of the 
 great system that entirely crosses the colony betAveen JMelbourne and the river 
 ]\Iurray. 
 
 Flinders having been captured by the French, and detained for six years at 
 JMauritius, the results of his successful explorations remained long unknown. 
 But Murray's account of Port Phillip had attracted sufficient notice to induce 
 the Home Government to project the formation at that place of a settlement 
 supplementary to that already established at Port Jackson. Accordingly in 
 1803, a year after Murray's discoveries, Lieutenant-Governor Collins — who held 
 the office of Judge- Advocate under Governor Phillip in the first colony, and on 
 his return to England in 1796 had published an " Account of New South Wales " 
 — was sent out with H.M. ships " Calcutta " and " Ocean," Avith detachments of 
 royal marines, a number of free settlers, and several hundred prisoners, to found 
 a settlement at Port Phillip, Avhere, having sailed on 27th April, he arrived 3d 
 October. The expedition disembarked on the southern shore of the bay, where 
 the beach was unfavourable for landing, and there was no fresh water. It is 
 evident, from a nari'ative published by one of the party, Lieutenant Tuckey, that 
 from the first Colonel Collins had no earnest desii'e to form a settlement at Port 
 Phillip : he had heard glowing accounts of the beauty and fertility of the opposite 
 .shores of Van Diemen's Land, and, after a very cursory survey, he decided on 
 removing thither. In the course of a walk round the bay, undertaken by the 
 officers of the ship, they found " on the eastern shore, twenty-eight miles from 
 the entrance, a stream of water emptying itself into the port." "The bed of the 
 stream is covered with folicacious mica, which our people first conceived to be 
 gold-dust." At the present day we cannot be so sure that it was mica. Accord- 
 ing to an account given in a Tasmanian almanac, which does not agree with that 
 of Lieutenant Tuckey, the expedition remained at Port Phillip from the 3d of 
 October to 30th of January. If that were so, it is difficult to understand how 
 the great natural advantages of Port Phillip could have escaped the obsei'vation 
 of two ships' crews. 
 
 Previous to the arrival of Collins, Mr Charles Grimes, the surveyor-general 
 of the colony, had completed the marine survey of Flinders by making an outline 
 of the harbour, Avliere be reported the existence of the river now known as the 
 Yarra Yarra, or " ever-flowing water." It has always been a puzzle to the local 
 historians to discover why Collins abandoned the settlement at Port Phillip. 
 But recent researches, made by Mr J. J. Shillinglaw into the archives of New 
 South Wales, have brought to light the curious and valuable manuscript journal 
 of Grimes's explorations, accompanied with a chart of Port Philli]), showing the 
 soundings of Hobson's and Corio Bay, and the course of the Saltwater and Yarra
 
 THE FIRST EXPEDITION. 377 
 
 Yarra river.s. I'lio discovery and ascent of tlio latter river -was made on Sunday, 
 the oOtli of January 1S03. From the documents just mentioned it appears that 
 the "Calcutta" came up from the Port Phillip Heads, and relilled her water-casks 
 at the mouth of the Yarra. So that it was not from w'ant of fresh water the 
 place was abandoned. The truth seems to be that Collins was influenced by the 
 report of the surveyor-general — which was not favourable — and that, he found 
 the sand-hills on the coast where he landed too drj^ and barren a spot for a 
 settlement. 
 
 During CoUins's encampment on the shores of Port Phillip three of t«e 
 convicts escaped into the interior : one of them was Williani Buckley, a native 
 of Macclesfield, who had been a grenadier, served under the Duke of York in 
 Flanders, and had been transported for striking his superior officer. His life, 
 edited by ]\Ir INIoi'gan, was published at Hobart Town in 1852. He tells us that 
 the two vessels " Calcutta" and " Ocean" entered Port Phillip, the " Ocean " on 
 the 7th, and the " Calcutta " on the 9th of October. The ships turned eastAvards 
 after entering the harbour, in the direction of Arthur's Seat, near which they 
 came to anchor, the whole party landing and forming a settlement. Buckley's 
 unsettled disposition gave him a longing for liberty. With three other prisoners 
 he jirojected a plan of escape. As the fugitives passed out from the camp 
 bounds, one of them was shot by the sentry on duty ; the others, including 
 Buckley, disappeared into the unknown wilderness. Amongst the three who 
 were now at large, they mustered some rations, a gun, several tin pots, and a 
 kettle. The last commodity was found rather heavy, and was, therefore, thrown 
 away at the end of the first day's journey — a circumstance not without interest, 
 as the kettle was again found many years after by a party of colonists W'hile 
 clearing ground for agricultural purposes. The party directed their course along 
 the east coast of Port Philip. The day of their flight was the 27th of December, 
 the middle of the southern summer. Toiling over a dreary solitude, they seem 
 to have crossed the river Yarra, rounded the head of the harbour, and traversed 
 the plains westward to the Yowang Hills, or Station Peak range of Flinders. 
 From thence, impelled by hunger, they descended to the sea-coast of Geelong 
 harbour, in the hope of procuring at least a supply of shell-fish. With precari- 
 ous su2:)plies of this kind they passed round to Indented Head, and from Swan 
 Island took a view of the ship " Calcutta," as she lay at anchor on the opposite 
 side of the harbour. Worn out with fatigue and starvation, all the party wouM 
 fain at that time have returned to their bondage, and accordingly they made 
 repeated but vain attempts to attract the notice of those on board the ship. 
 Once, indeed, it seemed as though they had been seen, and their signals 
 responded to, for a boat had started from the " Calcutta " in their direction ; 
 but after it had accomplished half the distance across the bay, it turned back. 
 Buckley's two companions now decided to attempt a return by the way they 
 had come. Buckley himself, however, Avas not to be persuaded to this course. 
 At once cherishing liberty, and dreading punishment, he preferred remaining 
 where he was, not, however, without a pang of grief as he reflected on his soli- 
 tary position. His companions left him, but were never again seen, and must have 
 
 3 B
 
 378 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 either perished from hunger, or been killed by the natives. Buckley, thus left 
 alone, continued to follow the sea-coast, which took him in a southerly direction. 
 His subsistence was almost solely on shell-fish, and as he was not always able 
 to strike a light and enjoy a fire, he was often compelled to eat his food raw. 
 He also suffered severely from the want of fresh water to drink. His wander- 
 ings at length brought him to a part of the coast where a stream of fresh water 
 entered the sea. Here, jierched upon a rock, he erected a hut, and having 
 tolerable supplies of fish and shell-fish, he seems to have felt himself, compara- 
 tively speaking, well off. This stream, as he afterwards learned, was called by 
 the natives the Karaaf. The place is still pointed out about three miles to the 
 westward of the present delightful Avatering-place of Queenscliffe, the Brighton of 
 Victoria. Thus passed Buckley's first summer, shortly after which he was seen 
 and taken possession of by a tribe of the natives. In his new position he appears 
 to have been treated with some consideration. These, as well as other Australian 
 natives, had a superstitious belief that white people are persons of their own race 
 who have come to life again after death. If such resuscitated persons are deemed 
 to be their own friends, the tribe will treat them well. Buckley came upon the 
 scene opportunely in this respect. A chief of the tribe with which he afterwards 
 lived had died about the time Buckley was spending his first summer of wild 
 independence near the Port Phillip Heads, and had been buried near Buckley's 
 rude domicile. A piece of a native spear had been left to mark the grave. 
 Buckley had seen and appropriated this fragment, and as he carried it in his 
 hand when first seen by the tribe, they joyfully hailed him as no other than 
 their deceased chief himself come again to life. In accordance with this happy 
 prepossession, Buckley found he was always Avell cared for. He often saw him- 
 self indeed to be the subject of very ardent and earnest discussion ; and on the 
 occasion of the frequent tribal battles he was carefully secluded among the 
 females, so as to be out of harm's way. Buckley describes the frequency of these 
 battles, which were generally of a very ferocious chai'acter, the women often join- 
 ing in the strife with the men, and often too getting most of the blows that were 
 freely dealt about. On the other hand, he tells us, these darkey " fair ones " were 
 usually the cause of the contentions. For instance, some ardent wife-hunting 
 youth of one tribe would succeed in carrying off a female, perhaps the Avife of 
 some member of another tribe. Sometimes the object of attraction was a frail 
 consenting party ; sometimes, as we may hope, she was not. But this alternative 
 seems to have made Init little difference in regard to the laws of native warfare. 
 There must be a fight, and, on Sir Lucius O'Trigger's principle, one course of 
 facts is just as good for the purpose as another. Bucklej', as he adhered to one 
 tribe, gradually acquired their language, a circumstance that greatly pleased his 
 native associates. Next he ventures to take a native wife, who, however, leaves 
 him again after a season. At length, growing weary and disgusted, as he states, 
 with the constant spectacle of strife and bloodshed, he retires for a time to his 
 former solitude on the coast at the mouth of the Karaaf. While here in tolerable 
 comfort, a young native female of the tribe he had left walks into his quarters, 
 and, after the aboriginal fashion, sits down as his wife. Ho is too loyal an
 
 THE FIRST EXPEDITION. 379 
 
 Australian to forbid tlio short and summary banns, and I\Irs Buckley and he 
 seem to get on very amicably in the world for another interval of time, when she 
 too leaves him like the previous partner. Subsequently he himself is induced to 
 rejoin the tribe. They had come down to see him at his place of abode, and he 
 delighted them all Ijy a method ho had contrived of catching great numljcrs of 
 fish. Thus days, and months, and years rolled over. Luckley had lo.st all 
 accurate note of time, but he saw that those whom ho remembered as young 
 native children had grown up to manhood, and he could thus infer that a long 
 interval must have passed away. It is rather remarkable that more than once 
 in this interval vessels with white people on board had appeared within the l*ort 
 Phillip waters. Buckley says he longed to rejoin his people and the civilised 
 world, and would fain have communicated with these casual and unknown 
 visitors, but on each occasion he was disappointed. One of these vessels, while 
 anchored off Indented Head, sent a party ashore, who, as the natives reported, 
 buried something in the ground and then re-embarked. Buckley, hearing of this 
 incident, and supposing that possibly something of a useful character might have 
 been left concealed, repaired to the spot ; but, on removing the earth, he ascer- 
 tained that the object was the dead body of a Avliite man. We may suppose 
 these visitors to have been whaling parties either from Sydney or Van Diemen's 
 Land. These colonies, which, at the time of our wanderer's escape from the 
 " Calcutta," had enjoyed but a brief existence, were now, after the many years of 
 Buckley's seclusion, advancing to a very noticeable importance. Van Diemen's 
 Land indeed had been founded only in the year of Buckley's absconding. During 
 this interval of Buckley's adventures, the island had been traversed and settled 
 from south to north ; and now at length the colonists sought to recross the 
 straits, and appropriate for the use of their increasing flocks those gi-assy plains 
 and open forest lands that Buckley, hitherto their solitary white occupant, had 
 so often traversed. The turning point in this long career at last arrives. One 
 day two young natives are seen by Buckley and the tribe running up from the 
 marshes near the coast, each of them waving a coloured handkerchief from the 
 end of his spear. White men are once more at hand. The lads report that 
 they have seen three white peoj^le and sis blacks, Avho had all landed from a 
 koorong, or ship, off the coast of Indented Head, but that the ship had after- 
 wards left them and sailed again out of the bay. Buckley, enjoying the hope of 
 soon seeing his countrymen, prepares to set out the following day. Meanwhile, 
 however, he is alarmed to hear of a plan among the natives to murder all these 
 new-comers, that they may get possession of all the good things they have 
 brought with them. For this purpose they were to invite a neighbouring tribe 
 to give them assistance ; while as to Buckley, seeing he had long been regarded 
 as one of themselves, he too is expected, as matter of course, to aid the common 
 cause. He, however, resolves to counteract these nefarious schemes, and setting 
 off in the direction indicated by the youths, he arrives at the white people's 
 encampment on the following day. This was the 12th of July 1835. 
 
 But now, as he approaches the spot, as he hears the noise of the white man's 
 industry, and soon alter can distinguish the featm'es of his countrymen, and
 
 380 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 when on the eve of realising an event so long wished for, new and strong 
 emotions seize him. What is he to say or do, for he cannot recall a word of his 
 native speech ? And again the recollection comes back upon him, after more 
 than a generation of years, that he is still a prisoner. With his restless turn of 
 mind, and his long wandering habits, he dreads above all things restraints on his 
 personal freedom, and in the simplicity of his mind he imagines that he would 
 still be seized by the Government, and shut up as a runaway convict. Uncertain 
 how to act, he sits down on a spot near to where the white people are at work, 
 and with his bundle of native implements collected between his knees, gazes at 
 what is going on, with the look of one who seems to be either half stupid or half 
 indifierent. Some natives who had gathered together near the colonists, first 
 perceived Buckley, and pointed him out to his countrymen. The latter, on 
 seeing him, were nearly as perplexed, although in a difierent way, as Buckley 
 himself. They beheld a figure of extraordinary size, for he was six feet five 
 inches high, while his light brown hue, as he appeared naked before them, 
 showed plainly that he was no native Australian. Strangely fell the long- 
 forgotten words of his native tongue upon his ear. At first he seemed to have 
 no apprcliension of what was said to him, and could only attempt, slowly and 
 Avith difficulty, to repeat each word. One of the party, in pronouncing the word 
 " bread," and accompanying the sound with a present of a substantial slice, 
 seems to have produced somewhat of a talismanic efiect in the vivid recall of old 
 times and associations. He was not long in understanding other things said to 
 him, or in making himself in turn understood. Having lost all note of time, he 
 had a vague idea that twenty years must have elapsed since he left his convict 
 party in 1803. He Avas, therefore, much surprised to learn that many more 
 seasons had gone over his head, and that it was noAv already the year 1835. His 
 new friends were busy pitching their camp upon the elevated part of the pro- 
 jecting land of Indented Head. Batman, their leader, after selecting the spot, 
 and making his grand purchase of teri-itory, had left them in charge, with 
 instructions to prepare a homestead against his return with his family. It was 
 in the month of July, the winter of Australia, and it Avas in cold and tempestuous 
 AAxathcr, as Buckley tells us, that he made his journey to the place. It Avas 
 altogether a memorable occasion — a settlement so small in its beginning, so 
 rapid in its course, and so great in its future. Buckley's efforts Avere now for a 
 time directed to the means of keeping the peace betAveen his old and his ncAV 
 associates. At first he persuades the natives to defer their intended attack upon 
 the intruders, suggesting that if they Avaited until the ship returned, there Avould 
 1)0 a vast addition to the expected plunder. AfterAvards, by the promise of 
 considerable presents, and by an occasional gift of biscuit, blankets, and other 
 necessaries, he succeeds in changing their purpose. No doubt he has somewhat 
 magnified the importance of the Avhole afiair, and perhaps, too, the accounts of 
 the strifes and turbulence of the natives generally. Buckley, hoAvever, made 
 himself useful as an interpreter and peacemaker betAveen the colonists and the 
 aborigines. In this capacity he entered Batman's service upon the return of the 
 latter from Launceston Avith his fiimily to settle at Indented Head; and he
 
 THE FIRST EXPEDITION. 381 
 
 subsequently followed his master to the banks of the Yarra, where the party 
 settled upon the slope of the little green hill at the western extremity of Mel- 
 bourne. Here poor Buckley seems to have got gradually into such a hot-bed 
 of anuo)-ances — the cares and troubles, the envyings and jealousies ineradicable 
 from civilised life — that we may believe he almost longed to be back again to his 
 undisturbed wigwam at the Karaaf, or to his native tiibe, where he was tended 
 well nigh Avith the honours of a queen bee. He joyfully, however, records one 
 l)leasant fact of these days, which is that he received a free pardon, and was no 
 longer in danger as a runaway. INIr Wedge, one of Batman's party, brought 
 him the document elevating him to the position of a free man, given under the 
 hand of the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir George Arthur, and 
 dated the 25th of August 1835, almost thirtj'-two years after he had left the 
 convict settlement. 
 
 Batman had not encountered Buckley, nor apparently any of his tribe, at his 
 first visit towards the end of jNIay, when he took his excursion into the interior, 
 and made his treaty for the Port Phillip lands. Each tribe claims an area that 
 is peculiarly its own, within which it usually resides, or rather wanders about ; 
 but there may be tribes adjacent Avith whom there is more or less of a friendly 
 disposition, so as to enable one to visit another with proper notice and cere- 
 monial. Buckley's tribe seems to have ranged to the south and west of the 
 Port Phillip entrance and Lake ISIodewarri, but they " visited " as far as In- 
 dented Head, a distance of probably twenty miles from the usual whereabouts. 
 He had, therefore, been a little to one side of the scene of these transactions, 
 and had no hand in the land conveyancing arrangements. Lideed, he pro- 
 nounces them to have been a mere hoax, as among these natives, he says, there 
 are " no chiefs claiming or possessing any superior right over the soil," their 
 rights consisting only in their being heads of families. Conspicuous among the 
 Australian " chiefs " who transferred their lordly domains were the two brothers 
 Jagga Jagga, whom Batman met at the ]\Ierri Creek. From Batman's service 
 our hero was promoted to be a constable, and he had the additional satisfaction 
 to hail, in his new master, an old fellow-soldier, an officer of Buckley's own regi- 
 meut. This officer was Captain Lonsdale, who arrived in the year 1836, 
 accredited from the authorities at Sydney to take charge of the young settlement. 
 But Buckley seems to have soon become restive in this position, and this, too, 
 notwithstanding, as he mentions with some triumph, that he succeeded in 
 establishing a rise of pay from £50 a year, with rations, to £60. He found 
 rebuffs and disagreeables at every turn. Not the least among these were caused 
 by the troubles and misundei'standings with the natives. Buckley no doubt 
 aimed to be of consequence in this direction, by way of revenging his dignity in 
 finding himself behind the age in other respects. As he would appropriate all 
 guidance in native matters, so Avhcn harmony did not always or immediately 
 result, poor Buckley came in for all the blame, and was plentifully accused of 
 indifference or double-dealing. Batman took his part in these disputes ; but as 
 the two chiefs of the settlement were at incurable feud, and now more especially, 
 since they had settled close to one another, whenever Batman befriended, Pawk-
 
 382 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ner was sure to opiDOse ; so that Buckley, completely womed out of his peace 
 and comfort between the two hostile parties, bethought himself of making off for 
 a quieter home. One great cause of his distress, and it was a most legitimate 
 and creditable cause, was the mutual ill will and misunderstanding that were 
 daily extending between the colonists and the natives. The former, pouring in 
 one after another Avith their flocks, rushed away with hot haste into the interior, 
 anxious to secure a share of the fine pastures lying still unoccupied, and ready 
 at nature's hand for immediate use. It was Buckley's earnest wish that the poor 
 natives, whose territories were thus summarily disposed of over their heads, 
 should be approached with consideration on the subject, and with a patient effort 
 to gain their consent and goodwill ; and he thought that he might himself have 
 been successful in dealing with them. But as all such preliminaries seemed 
 mere waste of time to our eager and competing colonists, there was a lamentable 
 result between them and the natives in constant mutual distrust, frequent 
 hostilities, and repeated atrocities on either side. Nor were the natives in their 
 turn unconcerned with the lawless category. They stole sheep and murdered 
 shepherds as often as their fewer means and opportunities gave them the power ; 
 and Messrs Gellibrand and Hesse, who were most probably among their victims, 
 may be considered to have paid the penalty of their disorderly countrymen. At 
 length Buckley made up his mind to leave Port Phillip, for he was thoroughly 
 wearied of the life he had latterly been leading. He had seen the little colony, 
 however, fairly started on the road to gi'eatness. Sir Richard Bourke, the 
 Governor of New South Wales, had visited it in the year 1837, and had given 
 his sanction to the selection and naming of Melbourne and Geelong. As to 
 those spacious solitudes that had so long been familiar to him, their day was 
 rapidly passing away, and now he bade final adieu to the changed and busy 
 scenes Avhich they presented. He directed his steps to Hobart Town, where he 
 received employment for a time from the Van Diemen's Land Government, and 
 where too he married a wife — not this time, however, a native one. When the 
 infirmities of age came upon him that Government allowed him a pension, a sadly 
 poor one, Avhen we regard his interesting antecedents, of £12 a year, to which, 
 however, £-10 was afterwards added by the Government at JNIelbourne, when the 
 Port Phillip district was separated from New South Wales, and became the 
 colony of Victoria. Mr Westgarth met Buckley in the streets of Hobart Town 
 in the year 1852, seventeen years after he had emerged from his barbarous soli- 
 tude. He was then seventy-two years of age, and looking marvellously Avell, 
 particularly for one of his rough experiences. He was a man of few words and 
 apparently still fewer ideas, but of remarkable appearance from his great stature, 
 a quality that had given him consideration with the natives, and was thus pro- 
 bably the cause of preserving his life amongst them. He died at Hobart Town, 
 on the 2d of February 1856. He had lived to see the greatness of the land of 
 his many wanderings, as he survived for several years the event of the gold dis- 
 covery ; and we can hardly be satisfied that he should have received so little of 
 tlie fruits of this greatness.
 
 THE NEW COLONY. 383 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 THE NEW COLONY, 
 
 HUxME AND HOVELL — A SELF-SUPPORTING COLONY — MESSRS HENTY — BATMAN AND 
 
 FAWKNER — batman's ACCOUNT — FAWKNER'S ARRIVAL THE FIRST FOUNDERS — 
 
 GELLIBRAND AND HESSE — SITE OF MELBOURNE FIXED — THE "ENTERPRISE" 
 
 PROCLAMATION OF THE TERRITORY — HUMBLE BEGINNINGS. 
 
 For twenty years after the departure of Collins from its shores, Port Phillip 
 remained an unknown and unexplored country. But, in 1824 (as has been 
 already narrated), INIessrs Hume and Hovell, two stockowners of New South 
 Wales, made an expedition to explore new pastures, and travelling from near 
 Lake George four hundred miles, in the course of Avhich they traversed the 
 flanks of the Australian Alps, and crossed three rivers, which they named the 
 Hume, the Ovens, and the Goulburn, emerged on shores which they imagined to 
 be those of Western Port ; but there is now little doubt that they had really 
 reached the western arm of Port Phillip Bay, near the site of the port of 
 Geelong. In looking at a map of the Melbourne district, a spot will be found 
 marked Mount Disappointment, about thirty miles from INIclbourne. It was this 
 hill that the weary travellers climbed, calculating that from its summit they 
 would behold the sea. They were right in the direction, and a long line of 
 coast and a stretch of the finest sheep plains lay in a line before them ; but, 
 unfortunately, lofty broad-boled trees hid everything from their longing eyes, 
 and they descended sad and disheartened. It would seem as if there had been 
 a spell over this fortunate land which guarded its wealth from the discovery of a 
 series of explorers, fi-om Cook to Hovell and Hume. ]\Ir Hovell was aftei'wards 
 employed by the Government to form a settlement at Western Port, which, how- 
 ever, was soon abandoned ; and the fine pastoral country traversed in the course 
 of his journey with Mr Hume excited little attention, in consequence of the dis- 
 covery, about the same time, of Brisbane Do%\ais, better known as Maneroo, 
 which were more accessible from the previously-occupied districts. 
 
 The origin of Port Phillip is curious and instructive ; it constitutes an 
 honourable tribute to the energy and perseverance of our countrymen, and shows 
 strikingly of how sterling a material the Anglo-Saxon race is composed, and how 
 strong is the power of adaption to circumstances which its members every«'here 
 manifest. It is a fact much to the credit of its first settlers that this colony 
 attained all its solid prosperity without the aid of colonising companies or Acts 
 of Parliament, or govcruurs or regiments, or any of the complicated machinery
 
 S84 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 with which sham colonies are bolstered up, and real colonies are so often encum- 
 bered. A small band of experienced colonists, a succession of flocks and herds 
 from the opjiosite coast, a magistrate, a few policemen and customs officers, then 
 a sort of deputy-governor under the modest name of superintendent — these were 
 found sufficient for building up the most flourishing dependency of the British 
 Crown, without calling on the home country for a single shilling. 
 
 In 1833 Messrs Henty, engaged in the whaling trade at Launceston in 
 Van Diemen's Land, formed a branch establishment at Portland Bay, and soon 
 afterwards imported a few sheep and cattle to feed on the splendid pastures 
 which there, unlike the other districts of Australia, carpeted the shores almost 
 to the water's edge. Mr Thomas Henty of Launceston is the man who rightly 
 deserves to be called the Father of Victoria. Mr Henty had despatched several 
 flocks of sheep, together with implements of agriculture, under the care of a 
 detachment of his large family ; for he had no less than seven sons, who have 
 all since attained to prominent social or political position in the one or the other 
 colony. The country around Portland was well adapted for both pasture and 
 agricultiu-e, and a scene that so lately presented but an empty solitude had thus 
 been soon transformed into a lively spectacle of industry and progress. Hentj', 
 like Batman and his company, claimed a grant of the country he had thus 
 settled, and with all the better argument from his having thus turned the land 
 to such good account. But so fair a claim (and regretfully one must state the 
 fact) was refused by Lord Aberdeen, then Secretary for the Colonies. His 
 lordship, however, gave a very distinct hint that such lands as were actually in 
 cultivation, and properly fenced in, might form a case for special and favourable 
 consideration. But this hint, even to the limited extent to which it applied, was 
 not regarded by the Colonial Government when the lands in this locality were 
 afterwards disposed of; and it is almost painful to have to record, in connection 
 with such courageous and useful enterprise, that JNIr Henty and his family 
 acquired no advantage beyond others upon the scene of their successful 
 pioneering. It has already been mentioned how Sir Thomas IMitchell and his 
 party, at the close of their exploring journey into Australia Felix, in 183G, 
 enjoyed a pleasurable surprise upon discovering the hospitable homestead of the 
 Messrs Henty at Portland Bay. 
 
 Two persons are conspicuous in the early colonisation of Port Phillip. These 
 are Mr John Batman and IMr John Pascoe Fawkner. They each proceeded 
 from Van Diemen's Land, and from Launceston, the northern seaport of that 
 colony. This was in the year 1835 ; and although both movements were not 
 quite simultaneous, the latter was not far behind in the traces of the other. 
 Batman was the first to enter Port Phillip, where he preceded Fawkner by about 
 two months. But to Fawkner, or rather to the party that went forward under 
 his instructions — for he himself was compelled by illness to turn back from his 
 first expedition — is due the distinction of having selected for settlement the site 
 of the future capital, a distinction which gained for him the title of the Father 
 of jSIelboin-ne. Here were debatable grounds indeed for a rivalry of merits 
 between the two founders of a great future. The mutual contention, nourished
 
 THE NEW COLONY. 385 
 
 by some other antagonistic incidents, waxed warmer with each step of the early- 
 progress. It was a new liome, where IJomulus and liemus were this time not 
 brothers. Batman, however, died at INIelbourne, after but four years of his new 
 prosperity. Fawkner was more fortunate, and lived to a good old age, dying 
 full of years and much honoured. A bust to his memory stands in the 
 ]Melbourne Public Lil)rary. 
 
 Batman, in a letter to Governor Arthur of Van Diemen's Land, dated the 
 25th of June 1835, describes himself as a native of New South Wales, resident 
 for some years in the first-named colony, engaged in civilising the natives. He 
 had long been impressed with a high ojiinion of the character of the country 
 across Bass's Strait, and so far back as 1827 he had asked permission of the 
 Government of New South Wales to occupy land there. The request, however, 
 was refused. He proceeds to state that he left Launceston on the 12th May in 
 a small vessel, which, as his diary further tells us, Avas the " Eebccca," of only 
 thirty tons, and which, delayed by storms and Avinds, did not enter Port Phillip 
 till the 29th. Batman is careful to inform the Van Diemen's Land governor that 
 Port Phillip, the all but unknown place to which he steered, is " on the south- 
 eastern extremity of New Holland." With characteristic ardour he landed on 
 Indented Head on the day of his arrival, and Avaded with delight through the 
 long grass. Observing the fires of the aborigines, and being desirous of com- 
 municating with them, he journeyed into the interior, accompanied by seven of 
 his New South Wales aborigines. After some search, they met with one of the 
 native tribes ; and it appeared that the language of this tribe so closely resembled 
 that of two of Batman's natives, that the respective parties could readily 
 understand one another. Having jDersuaded the people of this tribe to accompany 
 him back to the place Avhere he had landed. Batman delighted the simple 
 creatures with a variety of presents. Having, by similar means, gathered 
 together and favourably impressed still larger bodies of the natives, he proceeded 
 to unfold to them his plans for the future, stating that ho meant to take up his 
 residence amongst them, and to bring across the seas his Avife and his family of 
 eight children, including no less than seven daughters ; and also proposing to 
 buy from them a tract of their country. 
 
 Batman established his position upon the rising ground of Indented Head, as 
 a sort of ]\Iount Lookout for the guardianship of his rights from all intruders. 
 From this commanding point the little vessel, the " Enterprise," sent forth by 
 FaAvkner, Avas promptly descried, as she passed Avithin the Port Phillip Heads 
 on the IGth August. Fawkner has sarcastically related hoAV his party Avere met 
 by a message despatched by a boat from Batman's camp to the enemy beloAv, 
 warning away these and all other trespassers, in the name of John Batman, King 
 of Port Phillip ! But even Fawkner's dogged party was a small difficulty in 
 Batman's way compared Avith the authorities, both colonial and imperial, avIio, as 
 he doubtless feared from the first, Avould be apt to criticise somcAvhat narroAvly 
 the whole case of his land bargaining. Like a good tactician, therefore, he put 
 himself in the best legal position the case would admit of. He describes very 
 graA'clv, in his letter to Governor Arthur, hoAv the "chiefs" entered into the 
 
 c
 
 386 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 matter v;\i\\ thorough cognisance and goodwill, and on the 6th of June 1835, 
 conveyed to him, with all legal ceremonial, two tracts of territory around the 
 western coasts of Port Phillip. The consideration given was a present supply of 
 flour, blankets, and tomahawks, those most attractive objects to aboriginal 
 wants, besides an annual tribute of the same for the future. The territory 
 disposed of comprised the Geelong country (or Jeelong, as it should have been 
 spelt), of about 100,000 acres, and the adjacent Douti Galla country to the 
 north-east, having about 500,000 acres more. Batman's colossal bargain was 
 not confirmed at headquarters. Had the case been otherwise, there would have 
 been a bargain on record that most likely the world never W'itnessed before. 
 Prosperity rolled over the settlement at a rapid rate, even from the first, and a 
 climax still surpassing all before came with the discovery of the goldfields. 
 Within twenty years this vacant territory, ujion which the cities of Melbourne 
 and Geelong have since sprung up, carrying on a large commerce with most of 
 the countries of the world, and for which the aboriginal occupants Avere willing 
 to accept about £200 worth of merchandise, might have been estimated to have 
 attained, during the height of speculative excitement, a value of more than 
 £40,000,000 ! 
 
 Some time before Batman's expedition, Governor Arthur had suggested to 
 him to carry out his longings for a colonising adventure to Port Phillip by means 
 of a company, and by making, as he had done, a bargain with the natives for a 
 tract of their country. Batman therefore formed his company, and a nephew of 
 the governor's was one of its members, as well as Mr J. Hilder Wedge, an early 
 and ardent abettor of the Port Phillip enterprise. It also included Mr J. T. 
 Gellibrand, wdio was more enthusiastic if possible than even Batman himself, and 
 to whom perhaps is due more than to any other individual the colonising 
 enterprise that had by this time set in towards Port Phillip, and that was now 
 described as the Port Phillip fever. The names of the members of this company, 
 the fathers of Port Phillip colonisation, justly deserve record. They are 
 fourteen in number, namely : Charles Swanston, Thomas Bannister, James 
 Simpson, J. T. Gellibrand, J. and W. Eobertson, Henry Arthur, J. H. Wedge, 
 John Sinclair, J. T. Collicott, A. Cotterell, W. G. Sams, M. Connolly, and 
 George Mercer. 
 
 Governor Arthur, however, when he came to the answer to Batman's 
 communication, either thought it necessary to be somewhat guarded in his 
 expressions, or had learned from some late experiences that the prospects of the 
 enterprise in regard to the land question were not by any means encouraging. 
 In his reply, dated the 3d of July, Batman is warmly commended for his 
 enterprise, but he is informed that the Port Phillip territory is not within 
 the Van Diemen's Land jurisdiction. It is further intimated that Batman's 
 bargaining with the natives would appear to stand in opposition to the principle 
 assumed by the Imperial Government in establishing, very recently before, the 
 colony of South Australia, which principle was that the title to Australian 
 territory was parliamentary, and was not derivable from the aborigines. As a 
 further discouragement, it was added that the application of Mr Henty the
 
 THE NEW COLONY. 387 
 
 year before for a grant of land at Portland Bay, had been refused by the Homo 
 Government. The reference of the claims of the colonising association to the 
 Home Government brought a very inadequate result to the persons who had 
 commenced so important a movement as the colonisation of Port Phillip. They 
 had founded a settlement which even from the first gave promise of high 
 importance, and they had expended several thousand pounds in the cause, 
 besides a much greater value in time and personal exertion ; while all the 
 liberality extended to them was a compensation in the form of a remission of 
 purchase money for land to the extent of £7000. At a land sale held in 
 Geelong, in February 1838, the Association bought in 941G acres of land at the 
 price of £7919, 7s., from which sum the compensation money was deducted. 
 
 Fawkner was somewhat behind Batman in his arrangements, but was busy 
 projecting a colonising expedition at the time of Batman's departure from 
 Launceston on his first visit to Port Phillip. He had offered to accompany 
 Batman, but the latter would not allow him, and he therefore proceeded to 
 organise his own independent expedition. Disappointed of a vessel he had 
 endeavoured to secure for the conveyance of his party across Bass's Strait, it 
 was not until the middle of July that another, the " Enterprise," w^as got ready 
 for this purpose. ISIeanwhile Batman had been over to the El Dorado, and back 
 again to Launceston, where he made quite a commotion in the quiet little 
 seaport by the account which he gave of the great domain he had purchased 
 from the Port Phillip aborigines. This account quickened Fawkner's move 
 ments. He and George Evans definitely arranged their party, and sailing down 
 the beautiful river Tamar, had reached the sea at Georgetown, when they Avere 
 driven back by a storm, and were unable to resume the voyage till the 4th of 
 August. In the interval, however, Fawkner had become so unwell that he was 
 compelled to return to Launceston, leaving his party to go under his instructions 
 left with Mr Lancey, who had now the charge of the expedition, and of the 
 varied outfit that Fawkner's practical mind had led him to embark for the 
 advantage of the young colony. The names of Fawkner's party are entitled to 
 historical record equally with those of Batman's, when Ave consider that they all 
 actually settled, at this early stage, at Port Phillip, a circumstance Avhich, Avith 
 a fcAV exceptions, was not the case Avith the others. The party consisted of 
 Captain Lancey, George Evans, Evan Evans, Robert Hay Marr, W. Jackson, a 
 blacksmith named James, and a ploughman named Wyse. 
 
 Port Phillip colonisation was no ncAv idea at this time in Van Diemen's Land. 
 We have seen that Batman contemplated the subject eight years previously, 
 with the prospect of assistance in his j^lans from Mr Gellibrand. The latter Avas 
 a legal gentleman in good position at Hobart ToAvn, and seems to have been 
 both the most zealous and the most influential of all his fellow-colonists in 
 promoting emigration to Port Phillip. To this zeal and enthusiasm for the ncAV 
 country, indeed, he afterAvards forfeited his life ; for proceeding into the Avestern 
 interior in the year 1836, accompanied by his friend Mr Hesse, and tempted 
 to go farther and farther by the spectacle of boundless pastures, the two 
 p,dventurous travellers either perished from hunger, or more probably, and
 
 G8S THE HIS TOR Y OF A US TEA LA SIA . 
 
 in accordance with subsequent report, they were killed by the aborigines. 
 Gellibrand's Point still marks the entrance to Hobson's Bay, while JNIounts 
 Gellibrand and Hesse, two adjacent hills near the Colac district, to the westward 
 of Geelong, commemorate still the unfortunate journey of the two friends. 
 
 The " Enterprise " was again upon her course on the 4th of August, accom- 
 panied by a small schooner named the "Endeavour," which had been equipped by 
 Mr John Aitkin, who subsequently became a wealthy squatter in the new settle- 
 ment. The " Enterprise " stood, in the first instance, for Western Port, Phillip 
 Island being reached on the 7th August. The Western Port entrance was ex- 
 amined with a view to settlement in this quainter ; but as it was not of inviting 
 appearance, Western Port was abandoned on the 15th, and Port Phillip entered 
 the next day. Sailing along the eastern shore, the bar at the mouth of the Yarra 
 was reached on the 20th, and the party were engaged until the 29th in sounding 
 and beaconing the river. They then ascended the Yarra, taking at first its minor 
 branch, the Saltwater Eiver, as it seemed to be the largest and straitest tribu- 
 tary ; but returning, they ascended the main stream for about eight miles in all, 
 and arrived at a part of the river where it expanded naturally into a small basin. 
 The basin was immediately below a slight fiill in the river, caused by a ledge of 
 rocks that ran a short way from the north side into the stream, and that, by the 
 direction it gave to the force of the water, appeared to have been the cause of 
 the excavation of the basin. Charmed by this scenery, whose beauties were 
 enhanced by the undulating character of the grassy and open forest country of 
 the northern bank, the party came to an anchor under some trees just below the 
 falls. 
 
 This action fixed the position of INIelbourne. Fawkner, although absent, was 
 a chief party to the business, as his instructions were that a settlement should 
 be formed only where there was fresh water. Batman, in the course of his pre- 
 vious tour, in the month of June, from Geelong to the Merri Creek, had evidently 
 noticed this spot, for in his journal he records, speaking of the Yarra : " I am 
 glad to state that about six miles up found the river all fresh water, and very 
 deep. This will be the place for a Aallage." But he went back to Indented 
 Head, and only reaf)peared at the future capital to share the good things with 
 Fawkner's peojile, and to keep them in check upon Avhat he still claimed as the 
 Association's territory. 
 
 The " Enterprise " cast forth upon nature's wharf the first of many cargoes 
 that have since been landed at and around the same busy spot. Fawkner had 
 sent much household goods, two horses, several ploughs, a great variety of seeds, 
 and 2i)0{) fruit-trees. The spring season was already coming upon the party, 
 and they were forthwith at work, building, ploughing, and planting. Fawkner 
 himself arrived on the 10th October, and infused fresh stimulus into the work. 
 A month previously his people had planted with wheat five acres of land that 
 form now the south-western extremity of INIelljourne. Afterwards, when 
 Batman's party obliged him to transfer his labours from this spot, he crossed 
 with his implements to the south side of the river, where the low flat ground 
 Avas ploughed up. His party first settled themselves upon a pretty knoll, green
 
 THE NEW COLONY. 389 
 
 with its fresh grass, and covered with a Httlc forest of shea-oak trees. There 
 they marked out the ground eastwards and northwards into ten-acre sections for 
 distribution amongst the party. After a while there was a remove a httlc 
 ftirthcr up the river to the bank just behind the present custom-house of the 
 city, where Fuwkncr opened a public-house and hotel. ]\Ir Jackson, and others 
 of the party, moved inwards, where they selected tracts of pasturage, and after- 
 wards transported their flocks from Van Diemen's Land. Those who settled 
 there Avere, however, not so well off as those who Avent farther on, and Avere 
 subsequently less disturbed. 
 
 The " Enterprise," although turning to the eastern coast of the bay, which 
 was the opposite side from Indented Head, had been seen by Batman's party, as 
 already related, and some of the Sydney blacks Avere set to Avatch the doings of 
 the intruders. FaAvkner's account is that these blacks having brought Avord to 
 Indented Head as to the spot Avhere the " Enterprise's " party had settled them- 
 selves, INIr Wedge, one of Batman's Association, proceeded to the place, and 
 ordered the intruders ofi" the ground, as the place they had occupied A\'as within 
 the limits of the Association's land, purchased from the aborigines. INIr Wedge, 
 on the other hand, states that being over on a Port Phillip visit about this time, 
 and roaming over territories in Avhich he hoped he had more than an ordinary 
 interest, he came unexpectedly upon the little " Enterprise," lying at anchor in 
 the Yarra basin, and conveying a charming effect, as if he had come all at once 
 upon an unknoAAii settlement. But, doubtless, the romance of the case Avas one 
 thing, and the assertion of the Association's supposed rights another. The 
 intruders, however, were deaf as before ; nor were they any further convinced 
 Avhen Henry, the brother of John Batman, arrived also, accompanied by several 
 men and a variety of stores, for the purpose of effecting a settlement nearer " the 
 enemy." Finallj^ in the month of November, Batman himself arrived Avith the 
 remainder of his party and their effects, settling himself permanently on the 
 slope of the green hill that subsequently bore his name, the place that Fawkner's 
 people had occupied shortly before. Here Batman opened that great colonial 
 requisite, " a general store," Avhile Fawkner, a little farther eastward, adminis- 
 tered his public-house. The times grcAV stirring and prosjierous, and there Avas 
 projDortionately an ambitious rivalry between the two patriarchs regarding their 
 respectiA'e merits as the conjoint founders of so promising a settlement. In other 
 respects, both the parties were placed much upon a level as to rights and 
 privileges by the effect of a proclamation issued by the Sydney Government, 
 dated the 26th August 1835, claiming all the territory in dispute, and declaring 
 all bargaining with the natives for land to be illegal. The mutual bickerings 
 gradually lost their soreness of edge in the busy realities of profitable industry. 
 
 Such Avere the humble beginnings of the great city of Melbourne, the capital 
 of the magnificent colony of Victoria. " We Avent doAATi," says a lady, Avho was 
 then a little child in Launceston, " to see the six adventurers embark for Port 
 Phillip, Avith the same feeling as if it had been Cortez or Pizarro ; but very soon 
 there Avas the same universal rush for Port Phillip that there is noAV for the 
 gold-diggings." The adventurers took Avith them two horses, the same number of
 
 390 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 pigs, three kangaroo clogs, and a "harmless necessary cat." The new-comers found, 
 when they reached Port Phillip, that they had set foot in. the midst of as beautiful 
 a sylvan scene as the eye of an artist could desire to rest upon. The ground 
 heaved into softly-rounded hills, and sank into curved depressions, in the hollows 
 of which the winter rains had worn some winding water-courses, which emptied 
 themselves into the river. Rich pasturages looked their greenest at that season 
 of the year ; and the timber, dispersed in clumps and exhibiting every variety of 
 fantastic form and gnarled grotesqueness, lent a perpetually varying charm to the 
 lovely landscape. Here was an open glade, upon which you might have almost 
 expected to see a herd of dappled deer grazing Avith the confidence inspired by 
 perfect solitude ; and there, crossing a gentle eminence, stood a cluster of giant 
 eucalyi^ti, some of the columnar trunks of which looked like pillars of white 
 marble in the sunlight. In the far distance ranges of purple mountains, thickly 
 wooded to their very crests, defined their outlines sharply against the pale blue 
 sky; and, look in what direction they would, the members of the expedition 
 found something to delight the eye, and to convince them that their lines had 
 fallen in pleasant places. So they pitched their tents, landed their stores, 
 ploughed five acres of open land, and sowed it with wheat ; and sent the schooner 
 back to Launceston with tidings of their settlement, and with orders for a flock 
 of sheep to be sent as early as practicable, so as to utiUse the natural grasses of 
 this pastoral Arcadia. This was the site of INIelbourne two-and-forty years ago ; 
 and these were the virtual founders of the colony. Five hundred sheep and fifty 
 Hereford cows arrived in the following November, and before the end of the year 
 the name of Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, had been 
 bestowed upon the infant settlement.
 
 AUSTRALIA FELIX. 391 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AUSTRALIA FELIX. 
 
 SIR THOMAS Mitchell's exploration — Australia the happy — first live stock — 
 
 FIRST OVERLANDER — FIRST SUPERINTENDENT — LIEUTENANT HOBSON — FIRST SALE 
 OF MELBOURNE ALLOTMENTS — FIRST AGRICULTURE — FAWKNER's ENTERPRISE — 
 FIRST NEWSPAPER — SUPERINTENDENT LA TROBE — HIS UNPOPULARITY — CAUSES 
 
 OF IT — JEALOUSY OF NEW SOUTH WALES — REVENUES IN 1837 FIRST MEETING 
 
 FOR SEPARATION — MOVEMENT CARRIED ON — JUDGE WILLIS. 
 
 The expedition of Sir Thomas INIitchell into the Port Phillip district in 1836 has 
 already been recounted. Charmed with the mild climate and beautiful scenery 
 of the country he passed through, Sir Thomas named it Australia Felix, or, 
 the Happy. He was a soldier, and to many of the more noticeable features in 
 the landscape he gave names associated with military history. The new settle- 
 ment, however, did not constitute a colony, but only a district of New South 
 Wales. But its first settlers came fi'om Van Diemen's Land ; and on the 25th 
 of May 1836 the population amounted to only 177 persons, comprising 142 males 
 and 35 females. This census was taken by Mr Stewart, a Sydney magistrate sent 
 over by Sir Richard Bourke to assert the rights of the Crown, and to announce 
 the invahdity of all purchases from the aborigines. He found that the settlers 
 l^ossessed 35,000 sheep, with a number of horned cattle and horses ; the stock 
 being spread over a large extent of country in the direction of the present 
 Ballarat. Ah-eady the principle of squatterism — each man trying to grasp as 
 extensive a run as he could obtain — had fixed its roots firmly in the young settle- 
 ment. The first importation of live stock was from Van Diemen's Land, and it 
 took place within less than six months of Batman's fii'st visit. On the 10th of 
 November 1835, the " Nerval " landed the first of the flocks and herds, consisting 
 of fifty pure Hereford cows and five hundred sheep. Many more importations 
 quickly succeeded, and in the following year the inpouring tide was largely 
 augmented as to both population and live stock by the " overlanders " from the 
 Sydney disti'ict, where every one seemed now thoroughly alive to the merits of 
 the long-neglected Port Phillip. The first overlander Avas ]SIr John Gardiner. 
 Setting off from the river IMurrumbidgee towards the end of 1835, accompanied 
 by Messrs Hovell and Hepburn, he conducted a herd of cattle to the Yarra in 
 the short space of three weeks. Messrs Ryrie, Ebden, and other early and well- 
 known colonists, followed soon after, and the journey that immortalised Hume 
 and Hovell soon became an everyday occurrence.
 
 392 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Captain Lonsdale had arrived at Port Phillip, charged by the authorities at 
 Sydney with the care of the young community, on the 29th of September 1836. 
 Prior to that time the colonists had recourse to certain law and order arranfje- 
 ments among themselves. Their first magistrate was Mr James Simpson, a highly- 
 respected colonist, long afterwards familiar in magisterial office, and deservedly 
 conspicuous amongst the " conscript fathers " of the young republic. In the 
 same year the harbour was surveyed by Lieutenant Hobson, RN., in H.M.S. 
 " Pattlesnake," the vessel that had brought Captain Lonsdale to the seat of his 
 authority. The Avell-kno^vn Hobson's Baj% at the northern extremity of Port 
 Philhp, is named from this officer. In the following year, Governor Bourke 
 visited the district in March 1837. Meanwhile, the Sydney authorities were not 
 indifferent to the fortunes of their southern settlement, and the Sydney merchants 
 and speculators took up an interest of a different kind. While the former were 
 considering as to the people, the latter pondered over the land allotments, that 
 w^ere presently "in the market" after the governor's visit. The first sale of 
 Melbourne allotments took place on the 1st of June 1837. The prices were 
 decidedly low, considering the rising repute of the settlement. One of the regula- 
 tions of the occasion, that all purchases must be paid for in gold, is said to have 
 gi-eatly damped speculative ardour, and to have operated greatly in favour of the 
 Sydney pm-chasers. The prices of the first sale averaged about £35 per half-acre 
 lot ; those of the second sale, which took place in November, about £42 ; but 
 within two years some of these lots were resold at several thousand pounds each. 
 Stories are told of cautious hesitation even at these moderate first prices. One 
 purchaser of a lot in a central part of Collins Street, afterwards a principal 
 thoroughfare of the town, conceiving the £80 he had bid to be too much for 
 a half acre of grass sward, was content to extricate himself by forfeiting his 
 £8 of dej)Osit. The lot was consequently resold to some bolder spirit for the 
 balance of £72; within two years it was valued at £5000. After the gold 
 discovery the same half acre was re-disposed of for £40,000. The names of 
 Sydney purchasers ajipear largely on the original maps and Crown conveyances 
 of these early days ; and a good many fortunes, or substantial accessions to 
 fortunes, both at Sydney and Port Phillip, date from this opening of the Port 
 Phillip land-market. 
 
 The governor, Avho found already the rudiments of a to-svn at Melbourne, 
 confirmed the selection of that site for the capital, and named it in honour of the 
 British Premier of the day. His surveyors had already laid out Melbourne, as 
 well as two other towns, Geelong and Portland, together with three counties 
 which were defined respectively around these towns, namely, Boiu-ke, Grant, and 
 Normanby. 
 
 Although in this successful launch of the Port Phillip settlement. Batman 
 stands before Fawkner in point of time, and no douljt also in respect to the 
 origination of the enterprise, yet the practical mind of the latter soon placed 
 him in the front as the most efficient pioneer of the young settlement. He had 
 provided for the ploughing, sowing, and planting of the new soil. The early 
 colonists were dealing with Fawkner for his Port Phillip wheat ere the first
 
 AUSTRALIA FELIX. 393 
 
 summer had passed over. ITc did not, however, confine liis energies to this 
 vocation. With a disposition lor more yeneral enterprise, he took a conspicuous 
 part in most colonial affairs. Owing nothing to social position and its amenities, 
 he marked out with ready originality a course of his own, which, while often 
 rough handed, was generally useful and not seldom creditaljly disinterested. In 
 these early days, while yet busy with his hotel, he undertook a newsjiaper. 
 Shortly afterwards he laid out a large garden ujion his property a few miles to 
 the north of Melbourne, called Pascovale, where are still to be seen some of the 
 oldest vines of the colony. Fawkner's newspaper was a curiosity of its kind, 
 besides being the first that was published in the place. The Melbourne Advertiser, 
 as this originating member of the colony's fourth estate was called, commenced with 
 the New Year's Day of 1838, and as a weekly publication. The earlier numbers 
 were necessarily in manuscript, for such articles as a press and types seemed not 
 yet to have been thought of by the outer Avorld as likely to be amongst the wants 
 of the young settlement. After an issue of nine of these Avcekly documents, 
 a few types and an old press were procured, and the Advertiser appeared 
 with some approach to more usual newspaper aspects. Fawkner, however, had 
 been transgressing the press laws, and very stringent they were in those days. 
 He was therefore ordered to suspend his publication until he had entered into 
 the requisite suretyship. As this could at that time be done only at Sydney, 
 Fawkner had to wait until, by a change of the colonial law, the arrangements 
 could be made at IVIelbourne. Meanwhile a literary rival, the Port Phillip 
 Gazette, entered the field, the proprietors, Messrs Arden and Strode, having 
 supplied the requisite securities at Sydney. This new broadsheet ajipeared on 
 the 27th October 1838. Fawkner was unable to show himself again until the 
 IGth February of the foUoAving year, when his paper came forth under the new 
 and auspicious title of the Port Plullip Patriot. Still we may hold him father of 
 the colony's press, as well as of its capital city. 
 
 The Port Philliji settlement was now at full speed in colonial life, and the 
 great distance of so important a place from its seat of government gave weight to 
 the constant demand for a local administration. Captain Lonsdale had been 
 entrusted Avith but little of authority, having acted during three years, besides 
 doing duty as a police magistrate, rather as a resident representative secretary of 
 the Government at Sydney than an independent functionary. He was sujierseded, 
 as local head of the community, by Mr Charles Joseph La Trobe, who, under the 
 new title of superintendent, arrived at Melbourne on the 1st October 1839. 
 Mr La Trobe, who belonged to a family, and an active Christian body, well known 
 in religious circles, was a gentleman of taste and information in the artistic and 
 literary world. As a public man he did not achieve decided popularity amongst 
 the great proportion of his busy practical subjects. As regarded public policy, 
 they held him to be rather too quiet in disposition and hesitating in purpose ; 
 while either from constitutional character or his view of his official duty, he 
 placed himself in the Avay of the people's yearnings for increasing political 
 privileges and self-government — an unpardonable oflence to colonists. His 
 appointment was not tantamount to an independent administration to Port 
 
 3 D
 
 394 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Phillip, which still remained as a district of New South Wales ; nevertheless, a 
 joyous welcome saluted the new ruler ; and he, in his turn, improved the occasion 
 by some kindly hints to a numerous auditory, Avho Avere mostly absorbed in the 
 reigning land speculation, that there were still higher interests to be aimed at in 
 their new home. Captain Lonsdale became the secretary of the new local 
 government, and, like his chief, held office dui-ing all the colony's transactions 
 from its small to its great developments. This period, however, was but the day 
 of very small things, the superintendent having only £800 a year of salary, but it 
 was afterwards increased to £1500. 
 
 The great cause of Mr La Trobc's unpopularity was the line of conduct ho 
 followed during the period he held office as superintendent. In the first phase 
 of its political existence, Port Phillip was a dependency of a dependency, the form 
 of government being an irresponsible despotism. Whatever Avas done amiss was 
 unwillingly borne by the colonists, because the blame could not be placed at the 
 door of any officer of the Government. Mr La Trobc disavoAved all responsibility, 
 declaring that he was only the nominee of the Governor and Executive Council of 
 NeAv South Wales. There is little doubt, hoAvever, that he Avas allowed to govern 
 Port Phillip according to the dictates of his OAvn judgment; for, Avhatevcr faults 
 may have been attributed to Sir George Gipps, he has never been accused of 
 duplicity, and he used the following remarkable language : " He had great 
 experience of the difficulty of governing Port Phillip, at a distance of six hundred 
 miles, and it Avould be a subject of congratulation to him to get rid of it. He 
 AA'as glad Avhcn Mr La Trobe arrived, and since then the administration of the 
 ailairs of Port Phillip might be truly said to be the administration of Mr La 
 Trobe ; he (the governor) had acceded to all his wishes as far as he could, and 
 on no occasion had he found it necessary to interfere Avith or censure any of his 
 proceedings." This assurance AA-as given by the governor, in the Legislative 
 Council, in the most solemn manner, and is Avell deserving of credit. The line 
 of policy Avhich Mr La Trobe thought proper to pursue was calculated to stop 
 the progress and injure the prosperity of the district. During the extended 
 period that he administered the government as superintendent he never assisted 
 the struggling colonists to obtain that justice to Avhich they Avere entitled, and 
 for Avhich they Avere earnestly fighting. While public meetings and agitations of 
 momentous importance to the district were being held in INIelbourne, the super- 
 intendent cither kejit aloof, or assumed an attitude of direct hostility. The 
 public documents connected Avith Port Phillip, which, by the oversight or rash- 
 ness of the Impei'ial Government, Avere permitted to see the light, exhibited to 
 the colonists the spectacle of the head of the local government arrayed against 
 them, in three instances he Avas thus found using his position to misrepresent 
 the feelings and Avishes of the colonists. He never, during his extended term of 
 goA'crnment, except in one instance, the landing of the convicts by the "llan- 
 dolph," incurred any responsibility, or did one solitary act deserving of com- 
 mendation : even after his elevation to the rank of Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Victoria, at the era of separation, he displayed few qualities likely to inspire 
 confidence. His administration Avas notoriously vacillating and pusilanimous.
 
 AUSTRALIA FELLY. 395 
 
 His proclamations were treated with derision by the people; rash and bold up to 
 the very point where resistance seemed probable, he succumbed to the dictation 
 of the diggers when they assumed an attitude of hostility or defiance towards 
 his government. Overbearing towards the people when he ought to have been 
 conciliating, no sooner did symptoms of insurrection appear, anil it was neces- 
 sary for him to exhibit firmness, than he sank into a state half-way between 
 timidity and imbecility. To his conduct in weakening the authority of the 
 Government may be attributed the outrages which burst forth during the 
 administration of his successor, and which helped to hurry that gentleman to an 
 untimely grave. To his maladministration of the public lands may, in a great 
 measure, be traced the terrible financial crisis of 1853 and 1854, in which many 
 persons had their hopes blasted and their fortunes ruined. He shut up the 
 whole of the lands during the first years of the gold-diggings, not alone in the 
 country, but also in the suburbs of INIelbourne, and the inevitable consequence 
 was that, there being no legitimate outlet for surplus capital in Crown lands, it 
 Avent into other investments, such as lands already alienated — which were thus 
 raised to an exorbitant price — and merchandise and other property. Private 
 landowners occupied themselves in subdividing their suburban lots. into very 
 small pieces, and enormous speculation went on in them. In the very midst of 
 this the Government threw great quantities of suburban land into the market, 
 thus reducing it again to its legitimate price. But those who had been specu- 
 lating at the fictitious rates Avcre ruined, and they involved many others ; then 
 came the scarcity of money, which was increased by the drain from the enormous 
 Government land sales. Many, nearly all, the old colonists of standing had, at 
 one period, a portion of their capital embarked in squatting pursuits, and his 
 Excellency Avent as far as he possibly could in favour of this powerful body, who 
 uniformly adhered to him. He supported all religious and charitable institu- 
 tions, not only from the public funds, but also, as his friends asserted, from his 
 private purse. There was, moreover, a particular clique who had received many 
 favours from him, and who Avere constantly sounding his praise : but however 
 INIr La Trobe Avas lauded or tolerated by many in the colony, there were fcAV 
 reflecting minds Avho had not long earnestly desired his recall. This Avas so 
 long deferred, upon one fi-ivolous pretence after another, that the public mind 
 became quiescent ; and the people began to consider him as a fixture. "When 
 his departure Avas at length announced, he Avas deeply sympathised Avith in con- 
 sequence of a severe family bereavement, Avhich he had just experienced. Those 
 who condemned the governor could not help feeling for the man who had 
 groAvn grey amongst them, and who was now quitting their shores in trouble 
 and distress. There can be no doubt that, Avith his fair abilities and unimpeach- 
 able private character, he might have acquired very great popularity had he been 
 unequivocally honest and straightforAvard in his public capacity, and, even if he 
 had not joined the people in obtaining justice, had only acted an impartial part 
 in the struggle. He AA^as not, perhaps, Avorse than the majority of otlicials avIio, 
 in former days, previously to the era of responsible government, held an almost 
 iiTesponsible poAA'cr from Downing Street; indeed, he Avas not so haughty and
 
 896 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 overbearing as many of the order who were to be met with in the colonies. He 
 was accessible and generally courteous. That he sacrificed the interests of 
 Victoria to please his superiors in Sydney can be too easily demonstrated. It is 
 probable that, had those interests and the interests of the authorities in New 
 South Wales been identical, he Avould have been pleased; but the contrary being 
 the case, he devoted himself, heart and mind, to gratify the hostile view of the 
 latter without any compunction of conscience. The Governor of New South 
 Wales at an early period in his career was not so inimical to the interests of 
 Port Phillip as the other members of the Executive Council, who wished to 
 appropriate its revenues in order that they might use them in imjiroving the 
 middle district, and they found Mr La Trobe willing to aid them in this system 
 of spoliation. It will thus be evident that any impartial historian must condemn 
 Governor La Trobe and his system of government. He displayed an almost 
 undisgTiised antagonism to free institutions and social progi'ess — he retarded the 
 separation of the southern district from New South Wales as long as possible — 
 he prevented money voted by the legislature of New South Wales for public 
 works urgently required from being expended ; and this, moreover, at a period 
 of great distress, when many families were out of employment, and had to seek 
 for it in other countries. His friends have asserted that he opposed the efforts 
 of the squatters to confiscate the lands and to shut up the country, against 
 legitimate occupation by bondjide purchasers; but it will be found, on bestowing 
 some attention to the subject, that, while he did oppose some most unreasonable 
 requests which were from time to time preferred by private parties, and did 
 allow a few comparatively poor squatters within the settled districts to be driven 
 away from the Government land, he was, upon the whole, favourable to squatting 
 domination. 
 
 As may naturally be supjDosed, the aristocracy of New South Wales vieweJ 
 the fine lands of Port Phillip as lawful spoil ; and the governor was, to some 
 extent, influenced by those views, and could not act altogether according to his 
 own judgment. When the new settlement was rising into notice, an order was 
 issued, bearing the royal signet and sign-manual, dividing the colony of New 
 South Wales for all purposes connected with the sale of land. At this time Sir 
 George Gipps, who had succeeded Sir Richard Bourke, was anxious to become 
 popular with the Council of Sydney, and, at their desire, made every effort to 
 retard or overturn the movement. The whole influence of the wealthy colony of 
 New South Wales was brought into oijeratiou, and every eftbrt was made by the 
 legislature (composed, at the time, of nominees of the Crown) to prevent even the 
 territorial dismemberment of the colony. The Bishop of Australia (Dr Broughton) 
 was particularly energetic, and his arguments evinced too clearly that the 
 colonists of the Sydney district looked upon the revenues of Port Phillip as fair 
 spoil. His lordship said : " The revenue arising from the district of the colony, 
 it must be remembered, would go into other treasuries, and the emigrants would be 
 landed at other ports; and where the emigrants arrived there would be the greater 
 demand for produce of all descriptions; there stores Avould be built and merchants 
 congregate ; where ships arrived there would the wool be carried for shipment.
 
 AUSTIiALTA FELIX. 807 
 
 and there would the supplies be purchased for the stations, and there would the 
 money circulate." The right reverend father had as great a fear of Port Phillii) 
 receiving the benefit of her revenue, and, in consequence, becoming prosperous, 
 and the rival of Sydney, as the temporal potentates — such as Sir John Jameson, 
 Messrs JMacarthur, Jones, ]>crry, and Blaxland. ]\Ir Hannil)al INIacarthnr, the 
 ablest man, perhaps, next to the governor, in the Legislative Council at this 
 time, said the change had come upon them like a thunderbolt, but they 
 resembled more the earthquake threatening to involve the colonists of New 
 South Wales "in universal ruin." The governor was not only backed up by 
 the Legislative Council, but by a public meeting of the colonists, and, nothing 
 loath, considered himself justified "in not obeying his instructions in reference 
 to Port Phillip." 
 
 Li 1837 the revenue of Port Phillip was £2358, 15s. lOd.; in 1842 it had 
 risen to £84,500, 9s. 3d. In those six years the land sales had brought into the 
 Sydney treasury nearly half a million sterling. The 177 persons of 183G had 
 increased to 11,728 by 1841. 
 
 A public meeting of colonists, on the exciting subject of separation, took 
 place in Melbourne on the 30th of December 1840. The chair was occupied l)y 
 William Verner, Esq., the first Commissioner of Insolvent Estates. The leading 
 merchants of Melbourne, as well as the lawyers, physicians, stock and land 
 owners of the district, were present, and it was demonstrated, in a gratifying 
 degree, that there existed a strong political cohesion amongst the colonists, and 
 that public opinion was aroused on the all-important topic — the independence of 
 Port Phillip. A petition to her Majesty, to allow a separate Government for 
 Port Phillip, and to preserve intact the boundaries as appointed by an order in 
 Council of 23d May, was adopted, and numerously signed. A great deal of 
 public spirit was displayed by the colonists of Port Phillip at this period, and 
 a strong effort was made to counteract the influence of the aristocracy of 
 Sydney, which had been brought to bear on the Colonial Office, in order 
 to prevent the dismemberment of the colony. On the 1st of March 1841, 
 another meeting was held, and a memorandum was unanimously adopted 
 for distribution among Members of Parliament. The cause of the new settle- 
 ment was warmly espoused by John Eichardson, Esq., M.P., to whom the 
 petition for separation had been entrusted. Lord John Russell, however, and 
 other persons of rank and influence, received the advances of the Port Phillip 
 advocates rather coldy, and it was too evident that Sydney influence had been 
 at work, and that it would be a hard struggle to obtain the boon so much 
 longed for by the colonists of Port PhiUip. 
 
 In the early part of 1841 it was found necessary to appoint a resident judge 
 to the Port Phillip district. The choice fell on Mr John Walpole Willis, one 
 of the puisne judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, a very 
 accomplished gentleman and an unusually able lawyer. His father was the 
 well-known Dr Willis, rector of Wapping, Avho attended George III. in his 
 illness, and was celebrated for his skill in treating the insane. He was a man 
 of eccentric character. When he opened the Supreme Court he intimated that
 
 898 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 lie would insist upon the attendance of justices of the peace at all future sittings 
 of the Supreme Court in its criminal jurisdiction. He did this that they might 
 learn something of their duties. The magistrates not attending as suggested, 
 the judge again stated that he had power to inflict a fine for non-attendance. 
 He declared he would enforce this clause, and also have their names struck off 
 the commission of the peace, and others appointed in their stead, if they did not 
 obey him. In this manner did the judge proceed, until he aroused a strong 
 feeling of indignation against him amongst the gentry of the district, and which, 
 eventually, led to his removal from the bench.
 
 STILL A DEPENDENCY. 399 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STILL A DEPENDENCY. 
 
 SIR GEORGE GIPPS's VISIT GIPPSLAND — ACT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT — FIRST GENERAL 
 
 ELECTION — JUDGE WILLIS SUSPENDED — FIRST IMMIGRATION — A SEVERE CRISIS — 
 FIRST BOILING-DOWN — INCREASING REVENUE — MOVEMENT FOR SEPARATION — 
 MR ROBERT LOWE — EARL GREY MEMBER FOR PORT PHILLIP — GREAT FLOODS — 
 TRANSPORTATION SCHEME BAFFLED — LOSS OF AN IMMIGRANT SHIP — PRINCE's 
 BRIDGE COMMENCED, AND MELBOURNE HOSPITAL FOUNDED — CENSUS OF 1846 — 
 THE NAME OF THE QUEEN PERMITTED TO BE GIVEN — BISHOP PERRV's ARRIVAL — 
 THE "RANDOLPH" CONVICT SHIP — MEETING AGAINST TRANSPORTATION — THE 
 AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE — SIR CHARLES FITZROY'S VISIT — ACT FOR SEPARATION — 
 NEWS OF ITS PASSING- — PRINCE's BRIDGE OPENED — THE BOUNDARY QUESTION — 
 NEW ELECTORAL ACT — SWEARING IN THE NEW GOVERNOR. 
 
 In 1841 Sir George Gipps visited Port Phillip, and made an inspection of 
 Melbourne and Geelong, Avith the country surrounding both. In the month of 
 January 1841, an accident occurred to a steamer named the " Clonmcl," in her 
 voyage from Sydney to Melbourne, which had no little influence upon the 
 fortunes of now a very important out-district of the colony. This ship left Sydney 
 on the 30th of December 1840, and on the 2d of January following struck on the 
 beach near Corner Inlet. She went ashore during a spring tide, and became 
 embedded in the sand, at some distance from the outer edge of the sandspit. 
 Several small vessels were despatched to Corner Inlet, and a regular communication 
 by water was, by this means, established with that fertile district of Victoria. 
 An association to settle this district was formed, consisting of several influential 
 stock-owners, and a vessel named the " Singapore " was chartered to convey the 
 pioneers to the new country. The passage to Corner Inlet proved very tedious, 
 and it was not until the 13th February that the vessel arrived. The passengers 
 attempted to effect a landing on the north-west side of Corner Inlet, but were 
 unable to accomplish this ; and, after undergoing much fatigue, were under the 
 necessity of abandoning the attempt. They effected a lauding in another quarter, 
 and travelled along the shore in quest of a desirable spot to form a settlement, 
 until they came to the Avreck of the " Clonmel." They traced the channel in 
 boats, and explored the country, which was discovered to be very favourable for 
 settlement. This was the beginning of the fine district of Gippsland, now so well 
 known for its wealth and fertility. 
 
 The imperial Act for the Australian Colonies, passed in the year 1842,
 
 400 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 contained important provisions for the Port Phillij) settlement, which thenceforth 
 became, until 1851, officially the southern district of New South Wales. By this 
 Act, representative institutions, legislative and municipal, were conferred upon 
 the colony. Instead of the council of Crown nominees that had existed at 
 Sydney previously, there was now to be a Legislative Assembly, consisting of 
 elective members to the extent of two-thirds of its number, the remaining one- 
 third being still a nominee element. The franchise, legislative and municipal, was 
 to be a £20 rental. In a total of thirty-six elective members to be assembled at 
 Sydney, the Port Phillip district was to be represented by six. The Act was 
 brought into operation in the colony in the following year. Port Phillii) was 
 stirred for the first time with the noise of political elections ; but it was a feeble 
 stir, for the province was bent on withdrawing entirely from the New South 
 Wales connection, and obtaining a separate government of its own. It was 
 already in full career with an agitation for " Separation." Far different, however, 
 was the rece^^tion given by the colonists to the municipal institutions, for in 
 them they had really local government of its o^\^l kind. Melbourne and Geelong 
 had been incorporated, and their respective citizens braced themselves up for the 
 activities of the future. The general election for the Legislative Council, upon 
 the popular basis, took place in June 1843. The Mayor of ISIelbourne, Henry 
 Condell, Esq., was returned for the town ; and Messrs Ebden, Walker, Nicholson, 
 Thompson, and Lang, for the district. There was no excitement in reference to 
 the district election, but party feeling ran to a considerable height in Melbourne, 
 where the contest became one of a religious rather than a political character. 
 ]\Ir Condell was oj^posed by Mr Edward Cuit, a Roman Catholic, of very 
 considerable experience, and who had held a respectable position in the adjoining- 
 colony of Van Diemen's Land, and after a strong contest, carried on Avith some 
 violence on both sides, Mr Curr was defeated by a small minority. lie was one 
 of the foremost in fighting the battle for separation, and died almost at the same 
 time that the announcement was made of Victoria's independent existence. 
 
 On the 24th of June an event occun-ed which tended still further to increase the 
 excitement of party feeling. On that day Judge Willis took his seat on the bench, 
 as usual, but had hardly commenced the business of the Supreme Court when a 
 letter was placed in his hands, from his Excellency the governor, containing his 
 .suspension from the office of Resident Judge of Port Phillip. The people 
 generally Avcre in favour of the judge, but the majority of the magistrates and 
 gentlemen were opposed to him, and the most ill-natured rejjorts Avere sjjread in 
 reference to his character and former career. The people appeared to think that in 
 Mr Willis they had a sincere friend, and when the intelligence spread that he had 
 been dismissed ujion a " hole-and-corner " petition, and that no opportunity had 
 been aftbi-dcd him of defending his conduct, pul)lic 02:)inion turned in his favour, 
 and against the governor. Previous to his departure, addresses, very numerously 
 signed, wore presented to him from nearly every part of the district ; and the 
 majority of the people saw him quit their shores with the utmost regret. On his 
 arrival in England he brought his case before the Privy Council, and received a 
 considerable sum as compensation, it having been at once decided that the
 
 STILL A DEPENDENCY. 401 
 
 governor had acted illegally in suspending him without giving him an opportunity 
 of ansAvering the charges which had been made against him. He was succeeded l)y 
 Mr William Jcffcott, of the Dublin bar, who, if he had not the shining qualities 
 of INIr Willis, had more prudence than that learned judge, and avoided making 
 any enemies. Mr JefFcott did not retain the situation more than two years ; ho 
 resigned, and was afterwards appointed Recorder of Singapore, which office he 
 held till his death, Avhich occurred a few years afterwards. 
 
 The district of Port Phillip received a large accession of population direct 
 from Great Britain in 1841 and 1842; and many, Avho have been most successful 
 settlers, landed at this time with little or no capital, except stout hearts and 
 strong arms. The progress from this period up to the reflux consequent upon 
 the cessation of immigration, was almost magical. The grazing lands were gradu- 
 ally taken up for stock ; the cultivation of the soil occupied a considerable share 
 of the attention of the colonists ; and the commercial interests of the district 
 began to expand into considerable importance. But in 1842 and 1843 the colony 
 of New South Wales, including Port Phillip, had to struggle Avith a severe 
 monetary crisis. In Melbourne the distress was very great, as trade was bad, 
 and most of the merchants, and many of the stock-owners, were passing through 
 the Insolvent Court. The depression was occasioned by the cessation of immi- 
 gration, over-speculation, and extravagance. Heal property became so reduced 
 in value that only about one-tenth of its former price could be realised for it, 
 even in Melbourne. Sheep, which at this period formed the main source of pro- 
 duction, had depreciated so much that flocks, worth from £1, 10s. to £2 in the 
 first phase of Port Phillip settlement, had been sold at from Is. 2d. to 4s. a head. 
 Wool was very Ioav ; few settlers at this period were able to meet the expenses 
 of their stations, and it began seriously to be feared that a great many sheep- 
 owners would have to abandon their flocks to the tender mercies of Avild dogs 
 and aborigines. The gloom Avhicli overspread all classes of colonists at this 
 period was so great, that it seemed far from improbable that the industrial pur- 
 suits in Avhich the i:)eople were embarked would be abandoned. Many settlers 
 had purchased stock on credit, and as the bills they had given in payment fell due, 
 it Avas found that their cattle and sheep Avould not sell at any price ; and the 
 Avhole of the flocks and herds of many unfortunate colonists had to be sold to pay 
 insignificant balances for Avliich they Avere pressed. At this time Mr O'Brien, of 
 Yass, came forward and showed his felloAV-colonists hoAV a standard A^alue of 
 about nine shillings a head could be given to sheep by boiling them down into 
 talloAV. Hope again visited the breasts of many Avho had abandoned themselves 
 to despair. There Avere from a million and a half to tAvo millions of sheep in Port 
 Phillip alone, at this time, Avhich, even for talloAV, Avere Avorth three-quarters of a 
 million of money. The settlers once more began Avith spirit ; largo boiling-doAvn 
 establishments AY ere set on foot; and hundreds cleared ott' their encumbrances by 
 turning their old CAves into talloAV. In a year or two the stock-OAvners had matei'i- 
 ally improved in circumstances, and the balance of trade had turned in faA-our of 
 the district. The imports of 1842 Avere £288,000; the exports only £222,000 ; 
 leaving a balance against Port Phillip of £06,000. The imports of 1843 Avcre 
 
 3e
 
 402 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 only £188,000, and the exports £254,000; leaving a balance in favour of the 
 district of £66,000. The great majority of the colonists had received a severe 
 lesson, which taught them the necessity of a strict economy, in order to succeed 
 in their new mode of living. 
 
 The first popular legislature for New South Wales met at Sydney in August 
 1843, and elected Mr ]MacLeay speaker. There was no business of much 
 importance to Port Phillip brought before the Council during 1843 ; but early in 
 the session of the following year Dr Lang moved — " That an humble address be 
 presented to her Majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to direct 
 that the requisite steps may be taken for the speedy and entire separation of the 
 district of Port Phillip from the territory of New South Wales, and its erection 
 into a separate and independent colony." This motion was seconded by Joseph 
 Phelps Iiobertson — who had, on the resignation of Mr Condell, been elected 
 member for INIelbourne — and supported by all the Port Phillip members. On 
 the vote being taken it was lost by nineteen to six ; all the members, with one 
 exception, voting against the motion, except those who represented Port Phillip. 
 The exception was rather a marked one ; the member Avho recorded his vote 
 in favour of Port Phillip, with the representatives of the southern district, was 
 Eobert Lowe, Esq., then a Government nominee, and very little known, but who 
 was afterwards returned by the constituencies of Cook, St Vincent, and Sydney, 
 as their representative, and distinguished himself in the Legislative Council of 
 New South Wales as the opponent of the squatting system. He subsequently 
 returned to England, where he attained the high distinction of being appointed 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, and achieved fame as a parliamentary orator. The 
 Port Phillip colonists now began to ask themselves what was the use of elections 
 for the Sydney legislature 1 As they produced no result in the right direction, 
 the Melbourne electors laid their heads together for a more efficient process. 
 Resolved on producing an effect, they proposed, on the first opportunity, no less 
 a personage than Earl Grey, her Majesty's Secretary for the Colonies. His 
 lordship was duly elected ; and when the return was so made to Sydney ; when 
 some inconveniences and difficulties were apprehended in consequence ; and 
 Avhen, upon the news of this political stroke reaching home, his lordship was 
 jocularly questioned upon it in the House of Lords, and rei^lied in the same good 
 temiDer — the success of the affair was complete ; and it probably expedited the 
 cause it was intended to serve more than all the other previous doings put 
 together. 
 
 In October 1844 the Yarra River Avas flooded to a greater height than had 
 ever been seen, even by the aborigines. On the first of that month the waters 
 were observed to rise very suddenly, and in the course of the following night 
 they swept over the flats around the city. The utmost consternation prevailed 
 amongst those who resided in the swamps on both sides of the river, on finding 
 their abodes insulated from the city and surrounding country. The residences 
 of the settlers were swept away by the rush of water along the banks of the 
 river ; and the lower portions of Melbourne, adjoining the Yarra, were sub- 
 merged, and all communication had to be carried on by boats. The stores and
 
 STILL A DEPIiNDENCY. 403 
 
 foundries were flooded, and much damage was done to property. A boat, 
 starting from about Flinders Lane, in the city, could be steered across the flats 
 straight to Liardet's Beach, near where the llailway Jetty now stands, at Sand- 
 ridge. Several persons Avcre missing, who, it was supposed, were lost in this 
 great inundation. The Ovens, and most of the other rivers, overflowed their 
 banks, and many lives were lost. 
 
 At this time the Imperial Government attempted to send shiploads of 
 prisoners to Port Phillip, and the attempt was backed up by some of the 
 squatters ; but the colonists generally were so strongly averse to receiving these 
 visitors, that the home authorities abandoned their design, and ordered the 
 vessels to be sent to Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 A very sad catastrophe occurred in August 1845 in Bass's Straits. The only 
 emigrant ship that had been despatched from Britain that season was wrecked, 
 and the whole of the emigrants, amounting to 423, Avere lost, v/ith the exception 
 of nine. So disastrous a shipwreck has seldom occurred, and, as the emigrants 
 were urgently required in the district, the loss was incalculable, and the colonists 
 were overpowered with regret at the event, which was instantly recognised as a 
 great national misfortune. 
 
 The 20th of March 1846 was a day worthy of commemoration, as the bridge 
 across the Yarra and the Hospital — two great public works — were commenced 
 upon it. The foundation-stone of Prince's Bridge was laid by Mr La Trobe, 
 superintendent of the district, mider the direction of the Freemasons, an oration 
 having been delivered by Brother E. J. Brewster, M.C., on behalf of that ancient 
 fi'aternity. Immediately afterwards the foundation-stone of the Hospital was 
 laid by the mayor, Dr Palmer, A census taken the same month showed the 
 population to be 32,875 souls. 
 
 In anticipation of separation, it was announced in the beginning of 1848 that 
 her Majesty had been graciously pleased to allow Port Phillip, when erected into 
 an independent colony, to be named after herself, and that, instead of continuing 
 to be called Port Phillip, the southern district should have the popular and 
 world-wide name of Victoria — a name endeared to every subject in her dominions. 
 Victoria will be associated with the proudest period in the history of Britain. 
 
 In the year 1847 the Rev. Charles Perry, D.D., was appointed Bishop of 
 Melbourne; he arrived in the "Stag" on the 23d of January 1848, and was 
 installed on the 28th of the same month, in the cathedral clim'ch, St James's, 
 Melbourne. 
 
 On the 8th of August 1849, the "Randolph," a convict ship, apiw-oachcd the 
 Port Phillip Heads, where instructions had been left by the authorities that the 
 captain should not allow her to enter, but at once proceed to Sydney. He 
 thought fit to disobey this order, alleging that he was chartered for Hobson's 
 Bay, to that port only was he insured, and there he Avas determined to go. The 
 excitement was considerable, and the people resolved that if any attempt should 
 be made to violate the promise given, by landing the convicts on the shores of 
 Port Phillip, they would oppose it by physical force. The superintendent wisely 
 averted bloodshed, and, in accordance with the arrangement which had been
 
 404 THE II IS TOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 ontored into between the people and the governor, directed the " Randolph " to 
 proceed to Sydney. PubUc meetings were then held, at which resolutions were 
 passed strongly protesting against the designs to make Port Phillip a penal 
 colony. In August 1850 the question of transportation was once more brought 
 before the Legislative Coimcil of New South Wales by Mr Lamb, Avho moved a 
 series of resolutions to the effect that no more convicts ought, under any circum- 
 stances, to be sent to the colony. An amendment having been moved, that the 
 debate be adjourned for a month, the votes were equal, and the Speaker gave his 
 casting vote in favour of the amendment. A pubhc meeting was held in front 
 of the Police Office, Melbourne, on the 19th September, and resolutions were 
 passed in fixvour of ]\Ir Lamb's motion. A similar meeting was held at Sydney, 
 and very strong resolutions carried against transportation in any shape. The 
 result of the debate on Mr Lamb's motion surprised nearly every person, for, 
 with the exception of Messrs Wentworth and Martin, none of the members 
 appeared in favour of the resumption of transportation, and the motion was 
 carried without a division. The last resource of the imperial authorities was 
 Van Diemen's Land, and here the battle continued to rage as fiercely as ever. 
 The neighbouring colonies sympathised Avarmly with the Tasmanians, and in the 
 beginning of 1851 it was resolved that all the Australian colonies should make 
 common cause, and enter into a league for obtaining the abolition of transporta- 
 tion to any portion of Australasia. In Melbourne the cause was warmly taken 
 uj), and thirty-five of the leading colonists put down their names for subscriptions 
 of one hundred guineas each to the funds. The Victorian branch of the League 
 selected INIr J. C. King, the town-clerk of Melbourne, to proceed to England 
 as delegate of the League. On the 7th of April a great public meeting was held 
 in Sydney, at which the people resolved to dissolve the New South Wales Anti- 
 Transportation Association and join the Australian League ; and the delegates 
 from Victoria and Van Diemen's Land were received in that city with the 
 greatest enthusiasm. The unanimous feeling of the colonies against transporta- 
 tion, thus so plainly demonstrated in the League, and the great discovery of gold, 
 which immediately afterwards succeeded, fortunately prevented any further 
 attempts to thrust convicts upon the three colonies. 
 
 In the month of ]\Iarch 1849, the district Avas honoured with a visit from Sir 
 Charles Fitzroy, the Governor of New South Wales, who arrived in H.M.S. 
 "Havannah." He met Avith an enthusiastic welcome; the citizens turned out 
 to meet him on his landing at Sandridge. Sir Charles remained ten days in the 
 district ; he received deputations from all the public bodies of Port Phillip, and 
 held levees in INIelbourne and Geelong. His Excellency well deserved the good 
 opinion of the future inhabitants of Victoria for the concession he made to the 
 colonists — that no convicts should be allowed to land contrary to their wishes. 
 On his return to Sydney he was severely censured fin* having made this promise ; 
 but Sir Charles Fitzroy probably saw that the people of Port I'hillip would resist 
 the landing of prisoners, and that they would repel any such attempt by force 
 of arms. 
 
 Meanwhile, the trade of Port Phillip had been steadily increasing ; the
 
 STILL A DEPENDENCY. 40: 
 
 exports for 1848 amounted to £737,067, and the imports to £479,831. The 
 slii[)s inwards for 184'J were 484 ; and pastoral pursuits had expanded with 
 great rapidity. 
 
 The bill for conferring representative government on the Australian colonics, 
 and separating Port l*hillip from New South Wales, Avas passed by the Imperial 
 I'arliament in August 1850. Her jNIajesty, as a matter of course, gave the royal 
 assent, and Port Phillip at length Avas free. The joyful intelligence reached the 
 colony by the " Lysander," from Adelaide, Avhich entered Hobson's Bay on the 
 11th of November. That epoch, which had been so long anxiously looked for- 
 ward to with an inexpressible longing by the old colonists, had now, at length, 
 arrived ; and the district which had been made the adopted home of many bravo 
 hearts had been, at last, formed into an independent colonj^, under the name of 
 the most illustrious sovereign of the age. The public had been on the tip-toe of 
 expectation watching for the intelligence of the passing of the bill. The people 
 cared but little that it had been materially altered by the Lords, that the clauses 
 Avhieh had reference to the Federal Assembly had been expunged, that the 
 powers of the colonial legislatures had been abridged ; — they were so happy at 
 the prospect of emancipation from the thi'aldom of Sydney, that they w^ould 
 have welcomed almost any separation bill, however objectionable some of its 
 details might have been in principle. The city of ISIelbourne was illuminated on 
 the evening after the intelligence arrived, and in no part of the Avorld, at any 
 period, has any community been more gratified. It appeared as if each individual 
 had received some inestimable present, and was unable to conceal his gratifica- 
 tion. The decorations in the windows expressed the triumph which had been 
 gained over Sydney, and the gratitude that the colonists felt to the Queen and 
 the Home Government for affording them even a tardy release from political 
 oppression. The separation rejoicings were extended over four days, during 
 Avhich period no work was done ; all classes, even the printers, keeping the 
 jubilee. 
 
 On the loth of November, Prince's Bridge in Melbourne was opened. The 
 day was beautiful, and the Avhole of the inhabitants turned out to behold the 
 ceremony, which Avas one of the most imposing hitherto Avitnessed in the colony. 
 
 The last act of tyranny perpetrated by NeAV South Wales towards Victoria 
 has now to be considered. By the division betAveen the middle and southern 
 districts, as settled by the Imperial Government, in 1840, and announced to the 
 colonists in a despatch from Lord John Russell, dated 1st of ]\Iay of that year, 
 the large country knoAvn as the Tumut and Murrumbidgee district formed a 
 portion of Port Phillip, and the Billibong Creek was supposed to be the proper 
 diA'iding line. The Bishop of Australia had moved an address to the CroAvn 
 against this boundary, and the imperial authorities Avere induced, in the ncAV 
 Act, to adopt his vicAV. An attempt Avas noAv made by the Port Phillip members, 
 assisted by Dr Lang, to have the matter adjusted in an equitable manner, 
 but this Mr WentAvorth opposed, and the boundary for the time Avas left as 
 settled by the Act ; and Victoria Avas unjustly deprived of one of her most 
 flourishing provinces, noAv generally designated llivcrina.
 
 406 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The electoral Acts and other necessary arrangements having been duly passed, 
 the old Council of the united colony was dissolved, and with its dissolution ceased 
 the connection of the southern district. The Port Phillip members returned 
 home to find they belonged henceforth to an independent colony. The super- 
 intendent, who had also been in Sydney during these important proceedings, 
 returned at the same time, to find himself the lieutenant-governor of the new 
 territory. The diguiities and congratulations of the occasion were completed in 
 the acceptable intimation that the colonj^, by express wish of the Queen, had been 
 honoured by her own name of Victoria. 
 
 No inconsiderable amount of ceremonial — the swearing in of the governor, 
 and various other duties that completed the inauguration of the new colony — ■ 
 took place on the 1st July 1851. There was a general procession in honour of 
 the day, and after almost every colonist within reach had been pressed into the 
 line by virtue of some rank, personal or official, or associated membership in 
 something or other, there was still a world of outside spectators in addition. 
 The anniversary of this 1st of July is still a general holiday for Victoria, and 
 many yet remember the agreeable excitement of the time. To the colonists the 
 prospect at last of a Government of their own, and above all, of a local represen- 
 tative legislature, the most coveted of all the objects of the past struggles, was 
 especially inspiring. And in regard to material welfare, there was cause for 
 general satisfaction. EverjTvhere the envied condition of " comfortable circum- 
 stances " seemed applicable alike to the individual and the community. The 
 colony was rolling along upon a steady and pleasantly progressive Avave of 
 prosperity. It had already made a very fair position amongst its sister colonies 
 of the empire. The census of the 2d March preceding showed that it contained 
 at that time above 77,000 colonists, of whom Melbourne possessed 23,000 ; while 
 the import and export commerce, collectively, for the preceding year, 1850, had 
 amounted to nearly two millions sterling.
 
 A PROSPEROUS COLONY. 407 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A PROSPEROUS COLONY. 
 
 PROGRESS IN TEN YEARS — THE LAND QUESTION — THE SQUATTING QUESTION — BLACK 
 THURSDAY — FIRST MEETING OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — LARGE REVENUES — THREE 
 ERAS IN VICTORIAN HISTORY. 
 
 During the ten years the province had been settled it had been daily progressing 
 in population and wealth. Vast interests had been silently growing up, and new 
 classes were beginning to emerge into importance. All depended upon the land. 
 The first wealth of Port Phillip was acquired from pastoral pursuits, and nearly 
 every person was either directly or indirectly engaged in squatting. The tenants 
 of the Crown had been informed that they only held the land until required for 
 a denser population, and that, so soon as sheep and cattle could be replaced by 
 people, it must be relinquished by the squatter in favour of the bond fide 
 cultivators ; but the evil day appeared distant, and those in actual possession 
 laid the flattering unction to their souls that a very considerable jDeriod would, 
 in all probability, elapse before their right would be questioned. The first 
 victims to progress were the squatters within the settled districts, who had 
 remained quietly in possession without observing the course which events were 
 taking ; indeed, they appeared not to have reflected on their danger until 
 threatened with instant and utter annihilation. ]Many of the class were amongst 
 the first who had arrived ■with stock, who had settled in close proximity to the 
 coast, and had not been so enterprising as some of their neighbours. Being in 
 comfortable circumstances, they had not desired to change their position, and 
 hoped that they might not be disturbed in their lifetime. They were, however, 
 nearest to the advancing tide of civilisation, and had first to be swept away by 
 it. The proclamation of the 29th jNIarch, cancelling the regulations of the 21st 
 Aug-ust 1841, for settlement within the bounds of location, and in pursuance of 
 her Majesty's order in Council of 9th ]\Iarch 1847, establishing new regulations 
 for occupying lands within the settled districts, fell like a thunderbolt upon the 
 unsuspecting occupiers of squatting runs. By the new system the owners of 
 land in fee were to be permitted to use the vacant Crown lands immediately 
 contiguous to their properties free of charge ; but this permission was not 
 supposed to give any other than a right of commonage. Those persons, how- 
 ever, who o^\^led a square mile of pm'chased land could demand a lease of three 
 adjoining sections of a similar size, at the nominal rent of ten shillings a section; 
 but no smaller quantity was, under any circumstances, to be let; and the land
 
 408 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 held under squatting license was to be immediately withdrawn on being either 
 required for sale or apjilied for under the right of pre-emption. 
 
 This may be regarded as the commencement of the great conflict between 
 squatting and civilisation, Avhich has ever since been going forward, and Avhich 
 divided colonial society for years into two contending factions — those who had 
 got a share of the public domain, and those who had not been so fortunate. The 
 Government found it necessary to introduce a change of system, and the squatters 
 within the settled districts being, for the most part, a weak and friendless class, 
 their ruin created no great sensation. The rich and influential squatters in the 
 intermediate and unsettled districts viewed the immolation of their poorer 
 brethren without joining in any effort to avert it, deeming themselves quite 
 secure from molestation. The Government allowed those about to be deprived 
 of their runs a period sufficient to enter into such arrangements for their future 
 sujiport as they could, and most of them were Avise enough not to neglect the 
 opportunity. Finding that the new system must ultimately be brought into 
 operation, most of them managed to purchase sections which entitled the holders 
 to large pre-emptive rights. In the course of a few years, when, by the discovery 
 of gold, real property advanced, these purchases placed the whole of these quasi- 
 sc^uatters in a most independent position, 
 
 Victoria is blessed with as salubrious and agreeable a climate as any country 
 in the world. There is one material drawback, however, in the north winds 
 which occasionally blow during the summer months, and which are often 
 very oiijiressive. The thermometer frequently i^anges as high as 100°, and, 
 occasionally, 105° in the shade ; but those who can seclude themselves within 
 doors, and carefully exclude the warm air, seldom suffer much annoyance from 
 them. But there are sudden changes of temperature which are pecidiarly trying 
 to the physical frame. The colony is exjoosed both to the desiccating winds 
 from the desert and the cold sea-breezes, so that the thermometer sometimes 
 falls twenty-five to thirty degrees within a very short space of time. In the j^ear 
 1851 the colonists had to contend with a severe season, not dissimilar to the 
 droughts which have been so prevalent in New South "Wales, The heat 
 continued until JNlay and June, and no rain fell until about July and August. 
 Food and water became scarce in every district, and the stock perished in great 
 numbers. The swamps and plains were strewed in every quarter -with the 
 carcases of the cattle and sheep which had died, and a general gloom ovcrsjiread 
 the country districts. The 6th of February has obtained a place in history as 
 Black Thursday, For two months preceding, the country had been under the 
 desiccating winds, which appeared to be highly charged with electricity. The 
 herbage was parched up, and everything that the eye could rest upon was dry, 
 dusty, and disagreeable. The Gth of Fcbi'uary dawned much as vei-y hot days 
 generally do : the roseate tints of the horizon were rather brighter and more 
 lurid than usual — the glare over the sky more vividly perceptible. The north 
 wind set strongly in early in the morning, and by eleven o'clock in the forenoon 
 it had increased to almost a hurricane. In the streets of ISIelbourne the heat 
 was intense, and the atmosphere densely opi)ressive. Clouds of smoke and
 
 A PROSPEROUS COLONY. Am 
 
 dust hung over the city. The fires which blazed in the surrounding country 
 increased the suffocating sensation generally experienced. It was hardly 
 possible to go abroad ; the streets were nearly deserted ; and the few persons 
 who were compelled to make the effort to traverse them stalked along with their 
 faces closely enveloped in cloth ; no man, however bold, appeared able to face 
 the furiously-suffocating blast, which seemed to wither up their physical energies. 
 By noon the inhabitants generally had shut themselves up in tlirir vari(jus 
 dwellings, too happy to have got out of the reach of the overpowei-ing blast. 
 They continued to sit until night listening in terror to the howl of tliis real 
 sirocco. Had any portion of INIelbourne ignited, the whole of the city must have 
 been reduced to ashes, as no effort of the inhabitants could have prevented 
 the conflagration from extending and becoming general. The citizens were 
 providentially preserved from so terrible a disaster. In the country the scene 
 could hardly be portrayed. Early in the morning the wind increased to a 
 hurricane, and bush fires swept across whole districts with the speed of 
 lightning ; crossing roads and wide streams ; destroying men, women, and 
 children, cattle and sheep, crops, fences, houses, and, in fact, everything that 
 stood in its way. The devouring flames spread everywhere, careering along the 
 dried herbage on the surface, dancing up the large forest trees, and wantoning 
 in the excess of devastation. When the flames first appeared, many brave men 
 attempted to impede their progress, and avert the ruin of their hopes. They 
 endeavoured to meet the devouring element, and beat it back with gTecn boughs. 
 But these attempts were useless ; for the fire swept over them with a giant's 
 strength, as if in mockery of such puny efforts, leaving them charred and lifeless 
 lumps on the ground where they had stood. The herds and flocks, the wild 
 beasts and birds of prey, the reptiles, and other animals, endeavoured to flee, 
 but were speedily overtaken, and fell a prey to the crackling and roaring flames. 
 The Black Forest was, on the morning, healthy and verdant (as the leaves of the 
 trees, even in the summer heats, seldom change their dusky green colour) ; in 
 the evening nothing could be seen for fifteen miles, from Gisborne to Carlsruhe, 
 but charred and blackened trunlcs. In the majority of cases it was impossible to 
 know how these fires occurred. The whole country, far and wide, Avas filled 
 with dense clouds of smoke; the thermometer ranged from 118° to 119° in the 
 shade, throughout the day. The settlers generally were not aware of their 
 danger until the furious roar of the bush fires broke upon their ears, when they 
 had to fly, and abandon the whole of their property. Not a few escaped death 
 by taking shelter in creeks and water-holes until the violence of the fire had 
 abated, and the atmosphere had become bearable. Some individuals were 
 eighteen hours in the Avatcr, and, in one or two instances, died in consequence 
 of this exposure, notwithstanding the intense heat. There were many persons 
 travelling in the bush who had narrow escapes, as they became suddenly 
 enveloped in the flames, and almost suffocated in the sweltering fumes of the 
 surging blast. Could a more aAvful situation be pictured 1 The traveller started 
 on his journey Avithout anticipating danger; the Avind from the north gradually 
 rose in violence ; the hot, fiery, blazing blast at last appeared charged Avith an 
 
 3 F
 
 410 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 unusual element ; then the smell of smoke was perceived, and, in an incredibly 
 brief space, the whole bush was in one universal conflagration. Amazed and 
 terrified, the solitary bushman found himself face to face with destruction, and 
 that, too, in the most awful form that death could come. Those who Avere caught 
 in the jaws of this flaming tempest were withered up like a scroll. The only 
 escape was to gallop, if possible, out of the line of the fire, or take shelter in water. 
 Many that day had a hard race for their lives, and the intense heat acted upon 
 their frames so severely that they were parched up to a degree which they had 
 before deemed impossible. The craving for liquid in such circumstances was 
 intense, and the thirst almost intolerable. The wind suddenly changed towards 
 nightfall, and, at ten o'clock, the thermometer had gone as low as 80°. What a 
 scene did the morning of the 7th present ! The most fertile districts were 
 utterly wasted ; the flocks and herds had, in many cases, been abandoned by 
 their keepers, who fled for their lives ; the inhabitants of the country who had 
 escaped were utterly destitute, and the greatest amount of suff"ering had to be 
 endured by the ruined colonists. 
 
 The people made very great exertions to alleviate the sufferings of these 
 unfortunate colonists ; a public meeting was held in INIelbourne, and attended by 
 all the leading men in the metropolitan district, and a large sum of money sub- 
 scribed, which, under the direction of a committee, was distributed amongst the 
 unfortunate individuals who had been left in a state of destitution. 
 
 The first Legislative Council of Victoria, consisting of ten nominee and twenty 
 elected members, met for business in November 1851. Dr Palmer (afterwards 
 Sir James) was elected Speaker, and Mr Murphy (afterwards Sir Francis) chair- 
 man of committees. Sir James Palmer was subsequently president of the Council, 
 and Sir Francis Murphy Speaker of the Assembly, under self-government. The 
 estimates for the year 1852 were based upon the ascertained results of 1850. 
 The total income of that year had been £261,000, to which amount there had 
 been added for 1852 a moderate allowance by way of increase, as sanctioned by 
 the experience of past progress. But when the eventful year 1852 had rolled 
 away, it was found to have yielded, in place of something short of £400,000 as 
 originally looked for, no less than £1,577,000. 
 
 Those who are addicted to era-making in history, will readily find three great 
 periods in AustraUa's progress. The first is the age of convictism, the second 
 that of pastoral pursuits, the third that of the goldfields. The last is undoubtedly 
 the most important, if we are to measure the importance of events to mankind 
 according as they are powerful in agitating society, and bringing together the 
 largest proportions of its masses. And the colony of Victoria had now arrived at 
 its third era.
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 411 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY — THE MYSTERIOUS SHEPHERD — PUBLIC MEETING TO PROMOTE 
 
 GOLD-FINDING MR WILLIAM CAMPBELL — FIRST PROSPECTING PARTY — FIRST 
 
 DESPATCH ANNOUNCING DISCOVERY — GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION — WONDERFUL 
 " FINDS " — BALLARAT — A DESERTED CITY — A SECOND DESPATCH — FOREST CREEK 
 — governor's PERPLEXITY — NEW ARRIVALS — GOLD MANIA — THE LICENSE FEE — 
 WONDERFUL RESULTS — FIRST GOLD SHIPS — TROUBLES THREATENING — THE GOLD- 
 DIGGER's LIFE — A TANDEM DRIVE FROM MELBOURNE TO BALLARAT. 
 
 In the month of January 1849, a person dressed in the humble garb of a shepherd 
 entered the shop of Mr Brentani, who followed the business of a watchmaker and 
 jeweller, in Collins Street, Melbourne, and offered to sell a piece of quartz, richly- 
 interspersed with gold. A great many questions were naturally asked, and, in 
 reply, he described himself as a shepherd on a station in the Pyrenees, in which 
 locality he picked up the gold ; he added that he knew where there was plenty more 
 to be procured. Mr Brentani obtained the assistance of two working jewellers, 
 Duchene and Forester, and had a proper assay made. The mass was found to 
 be pure gold, and the shephei'd, who gave his name as Chapman, was sent for 
 and fed and clothed by Mr Brentani, who listened in amazement to the descrip- 
 tion which was given by his lodger of the auriferous regions on the Pyrenees. 
 Excited by dreams of treasure, he planned an expedition that, in company with 
 the lucky shepherd, should proceed to the spot. The party left Melbourne with 
 the utmost secrecy, taking with them a dray which they proposed to fill with 
 gold. Mr Duchene returned to Melbourne some time after ; it appeared that his 
 more knowing companions had, according to his statement, given him the slip, 
 not desiring that he should share in their good fortune ; but this account did not 
 appear satisfactory to Mrs Brentani, who seemed to have a pretty good guess of 
 the errand her husband had gone out upon, and, in her alarm for his safety, she 
 charged Duchene with having taken away his life ; and, to save himself, he made 
 a full disclosilre of all the particulars. So far from allaying the terror of Mrs 
 Brentani, these facts only increased it, and Duchene, who was a Frenchman, 
 would, most likely, have been incarcerated upon the charge of murder had not 
 Brentani and the party opportunely returned. The public curiosity was naturally 
 excited by the strange disclosures which had been made, but all inquiries were 
 for a while avoided. The party, however, had picked up two large nuggets 
 weighing upwards of twenty ounces each. But the most extraordinary part'of the
 
 412 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 affair was, that Chapman had disappeared. How, or under what circumstances, 
 it is impossible to say, as the whole story is involved in mystery. That the gold 
 Avas found in the place indicated by him appears certain ; and it is to this strange 
 individual, therefore, that we are indebted for it ; but he never again re-appeared 
 on the public stage to satisfy public curiosity, or receive the credit which was 
 his due for the discovery which was to have so much influence on the Avhole 
 civilised world. 
 
 The gold discovery in New South Wales greatly depressed the Victorian 
 colonists, as they feared that the pojiulation would be drawn off to the ueighbouiuug 
 colony, and the value of property be thus very much reduced. They therefore 
 resolved upon making an eftbrt to counteract the powerful attraction. Accordingly 
 a public meeting was held on the 9th of June 1851, and it was determined to 
 offer a reward to any person who should disclose to the committee appointed a 
 gold-mine capable of being profitably worked, within two hundred miles of the 
 city of Melbourne. A few days afterwards Mr Henry Frencham, reporter to the 
 Port PInUlp Gazette; Mr Walsh, jeweller, of Swanston Street, with one or two 
 other gentlemen, proceeded to the Plenty Eanges, amongst which gold was said 
 to exist, and where, at the time, two hundred persons were scattered about 
 searching for the precious metal. This locality had been selected in consequence 
 of two persons, named Sharp and Armstrong, having (as reported) discovered a 
 small quantity of the precious dust there, about ten years before. They had 
 sent it, Avhen discovered, to Van Diemen's Land, but, receiving no return, had 
 abandoned the pursuit, after enduring the greatest hardships and privations. In 
 the Port PhUlip Gazette of the 14th June, the editor announced that his reporter, 
 "who had been scouring the Plenty Ranges with the twofold purpose of 
 suj^plying the public with the latest intelligence, and of enabling them to decide 
 if gold did really exist," had actually come on that which he was in search of. A 
 letter then followed from the gentleman, stating that he had discovered gold on 
 a foundation of sandstone and slate, Avith perpendicular veins of quartz ; the 
 specimens were subjected to the usual tests, but the results were not so satisfactory 
 as could be desired ; the first gentleman Avho tested it discovered gold, which he 
 exhiljited to the committee ; on the other hand, a portion of the same specimen 
 had Ijecn handed to Mr Hood, a practical chemist, who was unable to find any 
 gold in it. The committee therefore declined to pay Mr Frencham the reward, 
 but on proceeding again to the locality he actually discovered gold. By this time 
 other gentlemen had published to the world that they had found auriferous 
 de^iosits in various localities ; Mr Frencham had, however, the credit of haAang 
 found out a' rich digging; he named it, because the first diggers were Scotchmen, 
 the " Caledonian." 
 
 But there appears no' doubt that the next individual, after the mysterious 
 Chapman, avIio found the auriferous metal Avas William Campbell, Esq. of Strath 
 Loddon, a member of the first Legislative Council of Victoria. In the month of 
 Marcli lie observed minute pieces of gold, in quartz, on the station of Mr Donald 
 Cameron at Clunes, and also near to Burnbank, upon another station. The fact 
 Avas, hoAvever, concealed, from an apprehension that the stations would be ruined
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 413 
 
 if it should be made public ; but on the 10th of June INIr Campbell communicated 
 the discovery to the public. Messrs ]\Iichell, Habberlin, Greeuin,^-, llaton, 
 Melville, and Furnival, discovered gold on Major Newman's station, Ander.s(jn's 
 Creek, on the Yarra, in the month of June. On the 5th of July the fact was 
 made public, and on the 16th they brought a considerable sample of the dust to 
 Melbourne, which they exhibited to the Gold Discovery Committee. A party, 
 consisting of jNIcssrs Edmonds, Kelly, Burns, and Pugh, discovered gold in the 
 quartz reefs of the Pyrenees, near Donald Cameron's station, about the middle of 
 June, and they made public the fact in Geelong on the 5th July. The next in 
 order of time who announced that he had been successful was Dr George H. 
 Bruhn, who found gold near the Jim Crow Ranges ; and on the oOth June he 
 forwarded specimens to the Melbourne committee. The most important discovery 
 was, however, made by Mr Thomas Hiscock on the 8th of August, and made 
 public through the columns of the Geelong Advertise)'. He came upon a dejiosit 
 of auriferous soil in a gully near Buninyong. The whole of this district was 
 soon swarming with parties searching for gold ; and, as Ballarat is on the same 
 range, in a short time two parties, almost simultaneously, came on the adjoining 
 range to Golden Point. This rich spot was worked for some time without any 
 very marked success, but a family named Cavenagh, having entered a half-worked 
 claim, and carried it below a layer of blue greasy pipeclay, amidst decayed slate, 
 struck the rich pockets which were almost universally found there. The gold 
 actually discovered, with the exceiDtiou of Chapman's nugget, was trifling in 
 amount previous to the important facts disclosed by the Messrs Cavenagh, Avhich 
 placed Victoria at once at the very head of the gold-producing countries of the 
 world. Not only Ballarat, but Forest Creek, where inexhaustible mines had 
 almost simultaneously been discovered by some shepherds in the employment of 
 Dr Barker, began to produce many thousands of ounces weekly, and before the 
 close of the year the colony had uudei'gone a complete revolution in all its 
 relations. 
 
 On the 25th of August 1851, Lieut.-Governor La Trobe wrote from Melbourne 
 to Earl Grey that large deposits of gold had been found in the colony, thus 
 proving the extension of the New South Wales goldfield throughout the Great 
 Dividing Range, Victoria forming its southern extremity. Three localities were 
 fii'st discovered — Clunes diggings, where gold was found in an alluvium of 
 decomposed quartz rock ; Buninyong and Ballarat, where gold was embedded in 
 compact quartz ; and at Deep Ci-eek, sixteen miles from Melbourne, where the 
 precious metal was found in contact Avith slate rock. 
 
 Governor La Trobe having issued a proclamation, and made arrangements for 
 granting licenses similar to those of New South Wales, the population poured 
 forth from the city and surrounding country to the goldfields, which were speedily 
 found to be productive even beyond those of the adjoining colony. Previous to 
 this discovery, the Melbourne labourers had been emigrating in shoals to the 
 Bathurst diggings. This was soon checked, and not only so, but the tide turned 
 — the Port Phillip emigrants found their way back again, and with them a 
 considerable portion of the population of New South Wales, allured by the
 
 414 THE HISTORY OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 superior richness of the Victoria mines, and the ease with which they were 
 reached, from tlieir vicinity to the city. 
 
 In addition to the above localities, gold was found a mile from Geelong — at 
 Mount Disappointment — at the Pyrenees — a copper-mine Avas found at Deep 
 Creek, whilst exploring for gold — and finally the people of JNIelbourne began to 
 break up the streets, which were macadamised with quartz pebbles brought from 
 the gold localities. Gold in small quantities was found, so that Melbourne may 
 fiiirly lay claim to the honour of having had its streets jiaved with gold. In August, 
 after a reward had been offered for the discovery of gold in the Port Phillip district, 
 the diggings were opened at the Clunes, whence a piece of two pounds of fine 
 grain gold was sold. Afterwards they Avere successfully opened at Buninyong, a 
 deep gorge formed by the bed of Anderson's Creek, in the heart of Stringy Bark 
 Ranges. The weather was unfavourable, and the first attempt to levy license 
 fees at the Clunes created discontent. A different spirit from that at the Turon 
 was displayed ; the people struck their tents and retreated farther into the 
 ranges ; this led to the discovery of Ballarat. But the commissioner having 
 acted with great discretion, taken pains to conciliate, and applied his mechanical 
 skill to constructing a better cradle, an improved feeling was created. 
 
 In September the returns were better — more nuggets — one man getting eight 
 ounces in a week. Success soon brought two hundred up ; and, the weather 
 clearing, gold-gathering became one of the trades of Victoria, and license fees 
 being found a protection, were paid willingly. Diggers combined to preserve 
 order, held meetings, and settled all disputed points. At Clunes the rock Avas 
 ruined — at Ballarat the soil only was washed. In October the Government 
 escort was established, and large returns were raised daily. By the middle of 
 the month, ten thousand men Avere at Avork, Avith tAvelve or thirteen hundred 
 cradles at Ballarat. The estimated daily earnings were £10,000, very unequally 
 distributed. In the same month the miners held a public meeting to adopt 
 measures for securing a supply of Avater during the coming dry season, and a 
 subscription of one shilling a head was commenced for the purpose of damming 
 up the waters of the creek ; the commissioner of CroAvn lands was elected 
 treasurer, and any surplus was to go toAvards an hospital for the sick diggers. 
 
 On the lOtli of October (1851) Lieut. -Governor La Trobe again AATote to 
 the Secretary of State for the Colonies : " Within the last three weeks the 
 towns of INIelbourne and Geelong, and their large suburbs, have been in appear- 
 ance almost emptied of their male inhabitants ; the streets, Avhich for a week or 
 ten days Avere croAvded by drays loading A\'ith the outfit for the Avorkings, are 
 now seemingly deserted. Not only have the idlers to be found in every commun- 
 ity, and day-labourers in towns and the adjacent country, shopmen, artisans, and 
 mechanics of every description, throAvn up their employments, and in most cases 
 leaving their employers and their Avives and families to take care of themselves, 
 run off" to the Avorkings ; but responsible tradesmen, farmers, clerks of every 
 grade, and not a fcAV of the superior classes, have followed ; some unable to 
 Avitlistand the mania, and force of the stream, or because they Avere really dis- 
 posed to venture time and money on the chance, but others, because they Avere, as
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 415 
 
 employers of labour, left in the lurch, and had no other alternative. Cottages 
 are deserted, houses to let, business is at a stand-still, and even schools are 
 closed. In some of the suburbs not a man is left, and the women are known for 
 self-protection to forget neighbours' jars " (his Excellency, we observe, bears 
 indirect testimony to the accorded habits and privileges of the gentler sex), " and 
 to group together to keep house. The ships in the harbour are in a great 
 measure deserted." 
 
 Even the rich results of the Ballarat diggings were, hoAvever, insignificant 
 compared to those realised in the workings at Forest Creek, in the neighlxnu'hood 
 of Mount Alexander, and within the circuit watered by the upper course of the 
 river Loddon and its tributary streams. The first gold in this quarter was 
 discovered in a seam of compact quartz of about a foot in thickness, lying 
 between the strata of clay-slate and mica-slate. The search for it in this locality 
 originated in the fact of a small piece of gold combined with quartz having been 
 picked up* by a shepherd on his folding-ground. The report soon spread, and 
 numbers shortly rushed to the spot. By the 3d of December thex-e were upwards 
 of 12,000 people collected within an area of fifteen square miles around the base 
 of ISIount Alexander, many of the former diggers at Ballarat being included 
 amongst the number. "Within the lapse of another fortnight they had increased 
 to 20,000, and the aggregate of gold raised within this glittering locality was 
 already beginning to be calculated by hundredweights, and even tons. A large 
 proportion of the miners actually at work Avere making large profits. A pound- 
 weight of gold a day was accounted a small remuneration for a party of diggers 
 — many secured five or six pounds — while there were instances of as much as 
 fifty pounds' weight being the result of but a few hours' labour. Large quantities 
 were collected without difiiculty almost from the very surface, and even where 
 the ore lay below the alluvium, either immediately above or in fissures of the 
 slate rock, the labour of reaching it was foiuid much less than that experienced 
 by the Ballarat workers. All around Mount Alexander, within the creeks 
 belonging to the Loddon valley — right and left, through a region of many miles 
 in continuous extent — the gold was found to exist, and in conditions of um-ivalled 
 abundance. 
 
 Poor Mr La Trobe ! never was governor of a colony in so unfortunate a 
 predicament ! In the midst of golden wealth he apjDeared (Kke ISIidas of old) to 
 run some risk of perishing from actual want — political as Avell as physical. His 
 servants left him, and his officials on all sides deserted him. He doubled their 
 salaries, but to no purpose — to bid against the allurements of the golden harvest 
 was a vain and fruitless attempt. No rate of pay would induce men, under 
 existing circumstances, either to enter or remain in the public service when the 
 whole community had, collectively and individually, made up their mind to try 
 their fortunes in the goldfields, and when " nuggets " of the precious metal 
 were freely passing from hand to hand within the sight of all. Policemen and 
 constables walked off from their duties, and when the perplexed delegate of 
 majesty appealed to the "respectable inhabitants of the city to come forward" 
 at such an imexnmpled crisis, and assist by their service as special constables
 
 416 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 in the preservation of public order, the aforesaid respectabilities of Melboiirne 
 metaphorically (and almost literally) told his Excellency that " they wished he 
 might get it." In other words, they declined the honour proposed to be thrust 
 upon them, significantly accompanying the refusal by the recommendation that 
 a sufficiently increased remuneration to meet the exigencies of the case should 
 be oflFered to those whose services Government was desirous of securing. But 
 what amount of remuneration could suffice, when, within a few miles' distance, 
 fortunes were being almost picked up from the surface of the ground, and a 
 chance stroke of the foot against a piece of rock might bring to light a golden 
 " nugget " such as jirinces might almost have contended for the honour of 
 possessing ? 
 
 Meanwhile, the throng of gold-seekers was daily increased by arrivals from the 
 neighbouring colonies — Adelaide was almost deserted, the works of Burra-Burra 
 for a time nearly suspended, and Van Diemeu's Land daily contributed its 
 hundreds to swell the torrent of immigration into the golden regions \i Victoria. 
 Even the workers at the Turon, and other goldfields of the Bathurs't district, 
 deserted their diggings for the richer harvests of the precious metal that were to 
 be so abundantly gathered in the sister province. Between the 1st of July 1851 
 and the 31st December of the same year, there had arrived in the colony of 
 Victoria, by sea alone, no fewer than 10,900 persons — more than seven thousand 
 of the number being immigrants from the neighbouring colonies, chiefly from 
 Van Diemen's Land and South Australia ; and between the 1st and 17th of 
 January immediately following, these were increased by further arrivals to the 
 nimiber of 2781, mostly from the same quartei-s. This was independent of the 
 many thousands who had reached the province overland, from New South 
 "Wales and South Australia, and whose exact numbers there were no means of 
 ascertaining. 
 
 At one time, it had been determined by the Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria 
 to double the amount of the license fee — an intention which, on the energetic 
 remonstrances of the gold-digging throng, was wisely abandoned. Indeed, the 
 amount realised by the present rate was already on a scale such as might well be 
 supposed to content even the tax-loving ideas of official authority, and to form 
 no inconsiderable addition to the ordinary Crown revenue of the colony. The 
 amount paid for license fees during the last three months of 1851 amounted 
 to £25,480 — nearly £18,000 of the amount being contributed by the INIount 
 Alexander diggers alone ; and the escort fees paid by individuals for the safe 
 transmission of their gold from the diggings to Melbourne amounted, during the 
 same period, to £3634. Up to the close of Februaiy 1852, the total sum paid for 
 license fees had increased to upwards of £62,000. The proceeds of the gold 
 licenses issued during the first quarter of the year amounted to £48,597, and the 
 escort fees to £4489. The sale of Crown lands, within the same period, realised 
 £94,273, being an increase of 9700 per cent, upon the corresponding quarter of 
 1851. 
 
 By November 1851, the goldfields of Victoria had yielded gold to the value 
 of £220,000 ; the weekly escort brought down from five to six thousand ounces.
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 417 
 
 of ■vvliich tlic Ballavat mines yielded two thousand ounces weekly. Tlic number 
 of persons at the mines was about 15,000 — a small numlier for so lar,L;e a pr(jduct. 
 The largeness of the product is not, however, to be wondered at Avlien we take 
 the instances of individual success recorded. Seven men obtained nine pounds 
 of gold in one day ; four got four pounds ; another party of four, three and three- 
 quarter pounds, etc., every stream turning out a Pactolus. Labour was at a 
 stand-still, shops Avere being closed, and the toAvns were deserted by persons 
 of all classes and occupations, for the purpose of joining in the general scramble 
 after gold. Printers absconded from the newspaper-offices, no wages sufficing to 
 tempt their stay, and the papers had to be abandoned, or brought out in a dimin- 
 ished size. Victoria was fast outstripping New South Wales in the value of its 
 gold produce. In the first week of December, twelve thousand ounces came to 
 Sydnej', valued at £39,000. In the last week of November, thirteen thousand 
 ounces, value £42,000, were sent to Melbourne and Geelong, and more would 
 have been sent but that means of conveyance wei-e wanting. A separate escort 
 Avas now put on for Mount Alexander, Avhich w^as beginning to yield large 
 quantities ; the first escort brought doA\ai one thousand ounces. The INIount 
 Alexander diggings became so famous and productive, that the Ballarat miners 
 began to leave their locality ; not that their own mines Avere exhausted, but that 
 the other yielded the precious metal more easilj^, and in greater abundance. 
 
 By the 10th of December the yield had become astonishing, considering the 
 small number of hands. The Avhole dividing range between New South Wales 
 and Victoria, knoAvn as the SnoAvy Mountains, was one vast goldfield. Neither 
 labour nor carts could be readily got for the escort service. The Melbourne 
 Herald of the 10th of December stated that a ton and a half of gold Avas 
 Avaiting in Commissioner Powlett's tent for the escort. At INIount Alexander, a 
 man obtained eighty pounds' weight of gold in a single hour ! and on the 20th 
 of December there had been 'collected, in Victoria alone, ten tons tivo hundred- 
 weig/its eight ii-two 2^oujids ten ounces of gold! The produce of one Aveek w\as, 
 from Mount Alexander, 23,750 oz., from Ballarat, 2224 oz. only, as the miners 
 Avere rapidly leaving for Mount Alexander, and from Geelong, 682 oz., making a 
 total for the week's product of 26,656 oz., or 1 ton 221 lbs. 4 oz. 
 
 On the 20th of December an official account stated that the aggregate quantity 
 of gold taken out of the soil uj) till that date Avas estimated at 243,414 oz., or 
 10 tons 2 cwt. 82 lbs. 10 oz. This estimate Avas given when the mines had 
 scarcely been knoAvn for more than three months. 
 
 In April and May 1852, the arrival of six ships in London, Avith more than 
 eight tons of gold on board them, gave proof decisive to the English peojDle of the 
 A^alue of their new El Dorado in the South. 
 
 As might reasonably be supposed, the disorganisation of society was very 
 great. There was no aA^ailable labour to be had for ordinary w'ork at all. Added 
 to this, the number of reckless spirits Avho had been drawai together from all 
 parts of Australia Avas very considerable, and they soon began to shoAV symptoms 
 of resisting the laAv, Avhich, from the absence of an adequate military force, the 
 authorities had no j^oAver of enforcing had it been resisted, whilst the poller 
 
 3g
 
 418 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 force, following the example of those whose lives and property they had been 
 ajipointed to guard, had gone off bodily to the diggings. Happily the good sense 
 of the majority prevailed, and order was preserved, though not without manifes- 
 tations of disorder. 
 
 A circumstance now occurred in the colony which presents a caricature of 
 our monetary system. One escort took back from JNIelbomnie to INIount 
 Alexander £50,000 in bank-notes, not worth 50,000 farthings intrinsically, for 
 the pm-chase of that amount of solid gold. Note engravers and printers in the 
 colony were not able to make bank-notes fast enough for the demand, and one 
 bank had actually to borrow notes from a neighbouring colony. 
 
 A gold-digger's life at this early period was by no means an easy one, as may 
 be readily believed. It implied a total abnegation of everything in the shape of 
 comfort — a disregard of all the ordinary forms and usages of civilised life — the 
 possession of a constitution which could withstand all vicissitudes of weather, of 
 a temperament which could submit Avith patience to the alternate torments of 
 heat, insects, dust, rain, cold, and out-door exposure (adojiting, like Mr ]\Iark 
 Tapley, the philosophy of being "jolly" under all such untoward circumstances), 
 and of a capacity for the endurance of no small amount of bodily fatigue and 
 muscular exertion. In short, the gold-digger had to be prej^ared to suffer every 
 conceivable hardship short of actual starvation. " None are fit for the diggings," 
 "WTOte a practitioner in the art of gold-finding, " who cannot sleep under a tree 
 in the open air, drink water of all colours, go for a week unwashed and un- 
 shaved, and submit to be overrun with vermin." But there are two sides to 
 every picture, and the above is the darker one. Neither the prospect of hard 
 work, nor of any other evils — moral or physical — deterred men from the pursuit 
 of gold-seeking, while there remained a chance of adding to their store of 
 worldly Avealth by means so rapid as those that have been described. Nor — in 
 so far as mere physical labour is concerned — was the work of the gold-digger 
 harder than most other kinds of out-door manual occupation. To the bushman, 
 trained in habits of simjDlicity and self-denial, and accustomed to the burning- 
 heat of an Australian summer sun, it was of trifling consequence. To those who 
 had hitherto knoA\Ti no harder bodily life than that of the counting-house and 
 the oflice desk, it was doubtless a life of unwonted toil — a much harder kind of 
 work than they had ever tried before, and a much more serious affair than they 
 had perhaps anticipated. 
 
 A publication of that period gives a lively sketch of a tandem drive from 
 Melbourne to Ballarat, from which we shall make a few extracts : 
 
 " Having cleared the city, we overtook the golden army of bullock-drays 
 moving northwai'd, surrounded by comjianies of men and lads ; occasionally a 
 female is seen. Four bulldogs pull one carriage, a great dog in the shafts of 
 another, and a man pushing behind at a load of near five hundredweight. 
 Presently the splendid jianorama opened to view an extensive sw'ceii of plains, 
 encircled by mountain ranges in the remote distance. Far as the eye can reach, 
 the pilgrimage, its line moving along the undulations, now hid, now rising into view 
 — English and Germans, Irish and Scotch, Tasmanians. Sixteen drays at Yuille's
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 419 
 
 Ford, and nearly two hundred people. It is nearly impassable, from the fresh 
 current of yesterday's rain. liut the men, tailing on to the ropes by dozens, pull 
 both the horses and carts through. Some there are pulling, some cooking their 
 mid-day meals, some unloading the drays, some Inoving oft' the ground. Over the 
 ford the road is delightful, the scenery charming, the land more broken, and 
 timbered like a park. Ladidak comes in view, a beautiful ravine formed by the 
 convergence of several hills, at the base of which the river so winds that it must 
 be crossed thrice. Where formerly was silence, only broken by the voice of the 
 bell-bird, now bullock-drays, bullocks, and bullock-drivers, are shouting, roaring, 
 and swearing up the hill, or descending splashing through the once clear stream. 
 On, on, until the expanse of Bacchus Marsh opens, until lately a favourite meet 
 of our hounds. A camp of tents has been formed by those who think it discreet 
 to put off the crossing struggle until their beasts have had the benefit of a night's 
 rest ; loud is the ringing of bullock-bclls ; meanwhile an impromptu bridge of a 
 tree has been throA^Ti across the river, and men are crossing and recrossing like 
 a stream of ants. A dray deep in the stream makes a complete capsize before 
 it can be hauled through. Our tandem dog-cart dashes through gallantly ; we 
 reach the Pentland Hills, where another encampment has been formed in the 
 long ravine ; we trot on slowly, the moon bright, the sky cloudless, a sharp frost 
 nips the uplands, the campers eating, di-inking, and smoking ; architects, 
 jewellers, chemists, booksellers, tinker, tailor, and sailor, all cold but cheerful. 
 At the next station we halt and enjoy oui" friend's fire and supper. The next 
 morning broke bright and fresh ; the ground was white with frost ; at daylight 
 the train of pilgrims Avere crossing the plain — the Germans with wheelbarrows 
 led the way. At Ballan we find the inn eaten out. A horse passes at speed 
 bearing on his back two horsemen. We meet sulky parties of the unsuccessful 
 returning, and see signs in small excavations of prospecting parties. The forest 
 gi-ows denser ; towards evening Ave reach the hospital roof-tree of Lai Lai, where 
 at daybreak all the laughing jackasses of the country seemed to have established 
 a representative assembly. Ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho! ho! Hu! hu! hu! ring 
 forth in every variety of key innumerous. 
 
 " The cavalcade in motion splashes through the broad river, where one driver, 
 in his shirt, without breeches, Avalks beside and urges on his horses, fearful of his 
 dray sticking on the way. Our next point is Warrenheep, where we refresh with 
 a draught from the dehcious mineral spring. Two miles from Warrenheep the 
 hills begin gradually to slope toAvard Ballarat. The forest trees are loftier and 
 denser, but the surface soil is not so richly grassed. The road emerges on to a 
 rich bottom of considerable extent, and the hill to the left extends upAvards in 
 such a gentle slope as to diminish the appearance of its height. Within a mile 
 and a half of Golden Point the tents begin to peer through the trees. The Black 
 Hill rises precipitously on the right from a creek that AA^ashes its base, and 
 through its thick forest covering the road is visible down which the carriers are 
 conveying their earth. The bank of the creek is lined with cradles, and the 
 washers are in full operation. Bound the base of the mountain, on the fiirther 
 side, at right angles Avith this creek, the river Lee floAVS ; and for half-a-mile
 
 420 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 along its bank the cradles are at work. We descend, leave the road, cross the 
 bottom, spring over a dam, and are among the -workmen. Rock, rock, rock ! 
 swish, swash, swish ! — such the universal soimd. The cradle is placed lengthwise 
 with the water. The ' cradleman,' holding the handle with his left hand, with a 
 stick or scraper to break the lumps of earth or stir up the contents, keeps the 
 cradle constantly going. The ' waterman,' standing at the head of the cradle M-ith 
 a ladle of any kind, keeps baling water continuously into it. A third man washes 
 carefully into a large tin dish the deposit that has fallen through the sieves of the 
 cradle on to the boards beneath, carries it into the stream, where he stands knee- 
 deep, and, tilting the dish up under the water, and shaking its contents, the 
 precious metal falls to the bottom, while the earth and sand are washed out by 
 the water. After long washing the glittering dust is seen along the bottom edges 
 of the dish. The residuum is carefully washed into a pannikin, dried over the 
 fire, and bottled or packed for exportation. Meanwhile the ' cradleman ' and 
 ' waterman ' examine the quartz stones in the upper sieve for quartz gold. 
 Occasionally some are found with pieces of quartz adhering, the rest are thrown 
 aside. The cradle filled, the men are at work again, and the rocking recommences. 
 On the top of the hill the diggers are hard at work ; the carriers descend the 
 steep side, dragging a loaded sled filled with the gold-imi^regnated earth, some 
 with tin vessels on their heads, others with bags on their backs. The earth 
 thrown down, they re-ascend the toilsome way ; and this is the process ' from 
 morn till dewy eve.' 
 
 " Returning to the road, the outer encampment this side of Golden Point 
 became visible. A sound is heard like the continuous beat of a thousand muffled 
 drums, or the rushing of a mighty waterfall. As we issue from the trees the 
 cause is beheld. From the margin of the forest a broad swamp spreads, thi'ough 
 which the Lee runs. Over against you the broad shoulder of a bold hill is 
 pushed out to meet its attacking waters, and round its base run the swamp 
 waters, uniting with the river. Along this the cradles are ranged for about 
 half-a-mile, on both sides of the creek and down the river, forming the letter 
 T with the ends upturned. They are crowded so closely together as barely 
 to permit being worked, in some places in triple file. At this distance you see 
 some of the excavations, and the carriers swarming up and down hill with all 
 sorts of vessels, from the bag to the wheelbarrow. The enormous ant-hive 
 swanns like a railway cutting, where the crown of a hill is carried down to fill a 
 valley. Higher up the hill's crest, along its sides, and stretching down to the 
 swamp far away to the right and left, are the tents, thickly clustered and pitched, 
 and, far beyond, the lofty white-barked trees form a background. This is 
 Ballarat ! 
 
 " Crossing the swamp, we reach the commissioner's tent, where he is trying a 
 depredator, who, for want of a lock-up, has been tied to a tree all through the 
 hard night's frost. Troops of horses, drays, carts, and gigs, with their owners, 
 are all around. Squatter, merchant, farmer, shopkeeper, labourer, shepherd, 
 artisan, law, physic, and divinity, all are here. You meet men you have not seen 
 for years, but they recognise you first, for even your most intimate friends are
 
 THE GOLD DISCO VERIES. 421 
 
 scarcely to be known in the disguise of costume, beard, and dirt. ' Welcome to 
 Golden Point ! ' 'Ah, old friend ! hardly knew you. How are you getting on 1 ' 
 ' Did nothing for a week ; tried six holes and found no gold. IVIy party, 
 disheartened, left me. I formed another party ; sank eighteen feet until we 
 came to the quartz, and dug through it, and now I have reached the blue clay. 
 It is a capital hole — come and see it.' Imagine a gigantic honeycomb, in which 
 the cells are eight feet Avide and from six to twenty-five feet deep, with the 
 partitions proportionately thin, and to follow a friend to find a hole in the very 
 midst is dangerous work — 
 
 ' Lightly tread, 'tis bollowed ground.' 
 
 " The miners move nimbly about, with barrow, pick, and bag, swarming along 
 the narrow ledges, while below others are picking, shovelling, and heating the 
 stove. * No danger, sir ; our bank is supported by quartz. We've got to the 
 gold at last. Made an ounce yesterday. There was a man killed yesterday 
 three holes off; the bank fell down on him as he was squatting down this way, 
 picking under the bank, and squeezed him together. His mate had his head cut, 
 and was covered up to the throat.' Down the shaky excuse for a ladder, half the 
 way, then a jump, and the bottom of the capital hole is gained. Nearly four feet 
 of red sand formed the upper layer, next a strata of pipeclay, below which lie 
 the quartz boulders ; then a formation of quartz pebbles, with sand impregnated 
 with iron ; this penetrated, the bluish marl is reached in which the vein of gold 
 is found. Down among the men washing there is nothing to be observed. The 
 work is earnest — no time for talk. The commissioner has a busy time issuing 
 licenses. His tent has the mounted police on one side, and the native police on 
 the other. The blackfellows are busy tailoring ; one on the broad of his back, 
 in the sun, Avith his eyes shut, chanting a monotonous aboriginal ditty. Three 
 men are waiting their turn with the commissioner. 
 
 " ' I say, Bill, this here's rayther respectable okipashun — that cove with the 
 specs is a first-class swell in Melbourne, and there's a lot in the same party with 
 him. The greatest nobs are all the same as uz snobs ! I saw Mr — — from 
 the Barwon here this morning : he found his shepherd in a hole getting gold, 
 an' no mistake ! He comes with his brother to have a turn Avith the rest ; but 
 when he saAV him he looked nonplushed, and said to himself, ' Well, I can't go 
 doAvn to this,' — and I believe the fool started back ; but come, it's our turn now.' 
 
 " The evening shadoAvs fall, the gun from the commissioner's tent is fired — 
 the signal for digging to cease ; the fires blaze up, the men gather round them 
 for their evening meal, their smoke floats over the trees as OA'er a city, the 
 sounds of labour are hushed, but are succeeded by loud voices and ringing 
 laughter, mingled Avith the bells of the browsing oxen, and the dogs baying 
 more loudly as the darkness gxoAvs more dark. A party of gamblers are staking 
 each a pinch of gold-dust on the turn of a copper. The native police, lithe and 
 graceful as kangaroo-dogs, are enjoying a round of sham combat ; one black- 
 felloAv attacks Avith a frying-pan ; the other pretends to shoot him Avith his 
 knife : a painter might study their attitudes. Hark to the sax-horns from the
 
 422 THE IIISTOR Y OF A USTRA LASIA . 
 
 Black Hill floating to us across the valley; close at liantl the sweet melody 
 of the German hymn in chorus I'ises ; and then down from toAvard the river 
 comes the roaring chorus of a sailor's song. The space and distance mellow 
 in one harmonious whole all the sounds ; and as we retreat they fall upon 
 one wearied with hard labour like the rich hum of an English meadow in 
 harvest-time. A flash! a bang! another! now platoon-firing : become infectious, 
 the sounds of war mingle with and overpower the music. The warm day 
 terminated in a bitter cold night, and a storm of snow and hail ushered in 
 Sunday — for we are 1200 feet above the sea. On the Sabbath digging and 
 washing gold cease ; but the axe and the hammer ring continually, and the crash 
 of falling timber booms over the hills. The miners, with what few wives are 
 there, are building huts, mending tents, gathering firewood, and washing out 
 their mud-stained garments. The men soon assume a clean and more civilised 
 costume, form groups, compare notes, make calls. The unsuccessful wander ofi" 
 into remote spots, prospecting. Some start for the post-office. The tide of 
 emisrants flow in, and men who never before dwelt out of reach of an inn and a 
 waiter have to learn now to camp under a tree and cook a chop without a 
 frying-pan."
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 423 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHINESE INVASION — A STRANGE SOCIETY — TRANSPORTATION QUESTION — SQUATTING 
 QUESTION — CANVASTOWN — CROWN RIGHTS — LEGISLATIVE SQUABBLES — IMMENSE 
 
 FORTUNES — ANTI-TRANSPORTATION MEETING THE " NELSON " ROBBERY — D ALTON 
 
 THE BUSHRANGER — ROBBERY OF THE M'IVOR ESCORT — o'cONNOR AND BRADLEY 
 THE BUSHRANGERS— LAND SPECULATION — SQUATTERS IN LUCK — UNSUCCESSFUL 
 GOLD-SEEKERS — DIGGERS AGITATE AGAINST THE LICENSE FEE — FIRST DIS- 
 TURBANCES — FOREST CREEK DEMONSTRATION — BENDIGO DIGGERS PROTEST- 
 LICENSE FEE REDUCED — CAPTAIN BROWN — GOVERNMENT PROCLAMATION — BAD 
 GOVERNMENT^DIGGERS IN REVOLT — SECOND LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — MR J. L. 
 FOSTER — MR LA TROBE's DEPARTURE — A SAD ACCIDENT. 
 
 Amongst the motley population attracted to the colony by the gold discovery 
 were the Chinese, Avho, about two years after Ballarat and the sister goldfields 
 were published to the world, began to arrive by thousands, and swarmed Uke 
 locusts at the chief mines. They have called up already a social and political 
 problem in Australia. The proportions of the Chinese immigration threatened 
 far to exceed all the usual experiences of international intercourse. Twenty-five 
 thousand Chinamen were now busy amongst the thickest of the colonial 
 population, and they reported that many more were expected to follow them. 
 Victoria had somewhat of the disconcerted feeling that the mother country might 
 experience on learning that a couple of millions or so of the dusky sons of 
 Confucius had determinedly seated themselves among the industrial hives of York 
 and Lancashire. The legislature thereupon passed some stringently restrictive 
 enactments, which had the effect of at least preventing the overwhelming tide 
 that was at first anticipated ; and as the public alarm in great measure ceased, 
 the restrictions were partially removed, and eventually entii*ely done away with. 
 Even Chinamen have discovered that gold-mining has its dark as well as its 
 bright side, and that there are no gi-eat profits, and assuredly but few other 
 attractions for them in Victoria. 
 
 But there was a visitation of a much more serious character, and from a 
 quarter much nearer home. The convict population of Tasmania flowed across 
 Bass's Strait as from an open gaol. Many of this class were " free by servitude," 
 and not much the better for that; others preferred the quicker process of 
 making themselves free, and they succeeded in getting off with the crowd ; while 
 a third section consisted of " conditional pardon " men, the condition being that
 
 424 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 they had the liberty of the world, provided they did not return to Britain, and 
 the practical result being that they all went straight to Victoria. The Tasmanian 
 Government, hampered by altogether too large a flock of these goats, had gladly 
 helped them off to the rich and diversified pastures of Victoria, Avith some 
 feeling of assurance that, while they must not think of returning to England, 
 the}' never would dream of re-ajJiDearing in Tasmania. 
 
 Meanwhile how fared society in Victoria, and those quiet but prosperous 
 pursuits that had kept their steady course jorior to all this uproar of gold-digging? 
 In truth, society fared but indifferently, for discomfort and inconvenience reigned 
 paramount throughout the scene of domestic and trading life. Various kinds of 
 business must for a time be either curtailed or given up, or the colonists must 
 divert their attention entirely to new pursuits. Every necessary of life, from 
 food and clothing to servants and house-room, had gone up to twice and four 
 times, nay, with rents it was even ten times, the old rates ; so that the ordinary 
 incomes of previous days were now wholly insufficient. But withal, there was 
 one solid consolation, and it was participated in by so many that it occasioned 
 a general joyousness over the social surface. No one that had a house or a j^lot 
 of ground but found himself almost at once transferred to a jDOsition of inde- 
 pendence or wealth. The amount that formerly represented the total value had 
 now become the mere yearly rental, and in many instances of suburban property 
 the value was increased by more than even one hundredfold. 
 
 One of the most prominent public questions of the time was that of trans- 
 portation. The system had now culminated in evils of the most intolerable kind 
 to the colonists, who could not perambulate their goldfields, travel on their high- 
 Avays, or even venture beyond the bounds of their capital, without the constant 
 fear of bushrangers, and of the experience of crimes the most odious and atrocious 
 that human dej^ravity could commit. The colonists were additionally aroused 
 by the aspect of quiet unconcern on the part of the Home Government and 
 public as to any interests but their own in this important question. Australia, 
 these latter said, must now, with her absorbing goldfields, need the labour of the 
 convicts more than ever ; but at any rate Britain cannot keep these bad people 
 within her own bosom, and where can they be sent if not to Australia 1 But the 
 anti-transi)ortation movement had anticipated the gold discovery. An Australian 
 League had been already formed in the previous year. It had emanated from 
 Tasmania, and it embraced in particular that colony, Victoria, and New South 
 Wales. The ol)ject of the association was to use every influence and means 
 permissible by the laws for putting an end to the system of sending British 
 criminals to Australia; and large sums of money Avere subscribed by the various 
 colonists towards carrying out this purpose. In the opinion of the colonists, the 
 gold discoveries had brought a crisis that must at once terminate this protracted 
 question in the colonists' favour ; for while, on the one hand, Victoria was overrun 
 by atrocious criminals, the fruit, not of her own society, but of that of the mother 
 country, on the other, that mother country, it Avas not to be supposed, could 
 ever dream of continuing to hold out golden Australia and its vicinities as places 
 of criminal tran.sportation. The evil to Victoria was of such alarming magni-
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 425 
 
 tude that it must be checked by no delicate hand. As to further petitions and 
 remonstrances to the Home authorities, there was no longer time for such 
 circuitous procedure. Something, therefore, must be done forthwith in order to 
 arrest further convict influx from Tasmania, and to cut off from the authorities 
 there the mischievous resource of the conditional pardon system. From all these 
 considerations the legislature framed and passed the " Convicts' Prevention Act" 
 of the year 1852, a measure that attracted some attention, both from the liberty 
 it takes with principles of ordinary British law, and from the abnormal incidents 
 of the day to which it owed its existence. This Act ordained, in effect, that no 
 holder of a pardon of any kind, other than a perfectly free pardon, could be 
 admitted to Victoria any more than to England; and also that all persons 
 arriving from Tasmania must prove themselves to be free, otherwise they would 
 be assumed to be convict, and be treated accordingly ; that is, they would either 
 be punished on the spot, or returned to the colony Avhencc they came. The 
 penalties for infringement Avere most severe. The Act, after some sparring 
 between the members and the Crown officers in the legislature (the latter, how- 
 ever, agreeing to all the main provisions), was sanctioned by the governor, Mr La 
 Ti'obe, Avhose views and feelings seem to have been quite those of the colonists, 
 and came at once into operation. The subsequent history of this Act exemplifies 
 other cases where the imperial and the colonial mind have not held the same 
 views. The measure was disapproved of at home, on the ground of its iut^-- 
 ference with the royal prerogative of pardon — in allusion to the summary pro- 
 cedure with the conditional pardons ; and it was refused the royal sanction until 
 certain alterations had been effected. The next year the Colonial Government, 
 loyal to imperial -wishes, introduced a superseding measure with the objectionable 
 parts left out ; but the legislature, not less loyal to the social interests under its 
 care, restored the omissions, and so maintained the Act. The governor, Avho 
 held rather a difficult position, reserved the royal assent. The colony was not 
 to be defeated. The new law went on for the two years' term provided in such 
 cases, and it has gone on ever since. Indeed, its scope has latterly been extended, 
 so as to exclude all who had been convicts, until an interval of three years after 
 receiving their pardons. South Australia, some years afterwards, adopted this 
 Act, and still later it was enacted at the Cape of Good Hope. The measure, 
 although ostensibly so hostile to Tasmania, was regarded by her people generally 
 as a matter of necessity, and as it served to sujDply a striking illustration of the 
 evils caused by the convict system, it also served Tasmania, as well as the other 
 colonies, in the general Avar that Avas being Avaged on the question Avith the Home 
 Government. 
 
 The squatting question was another that early broke forth in the Asseml^ly, 
 and Avith all the more asperity of party feeling from the circumstance that the 
 unequal electoral arrangements, in conjunction Avith the nominee element in the 
 House, took aAvay all the reasonable political predominance that ought to reside 
 in the main body of the public under representative institutions. A few years 
 later, Avhen the tables Avere entirely turned in this respect, the squatting interests 
 Avere far less considerately dealt AAuth, than Avould have been the case on the 
 
 ^ TT
 
 426 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 occasion of tliis earlier opposition. The cjrcat point with the non-squatting 
 puljlic was that the colonial lands should be sold in such greatly-increased 
 quantities as might be adequate to the new circumstances, and such as to meet 
 the wants of the arriving multitudes from outside, and of the fortunate miners 
 and traders within. The squatting body Avere in possession, and although in 
 possession for pastoral purposes only, and in such a slight way as still left the 
 country all but empty and unused, yet some difficulty was experienced in dealing 
 with the squatting privileges, conceded as they were at a time when such 
 emergencies as the present had never Ijeen antici[)ated. INfeanwhilc, the super- 
 fluous funds of the colonists, Avhich might have Ijeen largely directed to the pur- 
 chase of the waste lands, and so might have led to an extensive and permanent 
 settlement of the interior country, were either diverted into a course of riotous 
 speculation over such comparatively small supplies of land as did come into the 
 market ; or, as in too many instances, they were squandered in the numerous 
 public-houses. If some of the people Avere more than usually prudent, they 
 re-emigrated from the unsatisfactory scene to find elsewhere a pleasanter home, 
 or a place Avhere their jiresence Avas more valued, and their Avants Avere more 
 attended to. Victoria thus lost many chances Avhich might have given her after- 
 Avards a gi'cater social breadth and steadiness. 
 
 "While the discussion Avent on in the Council, thousands in suspense Avaited 
 and hoped. The inpouring crowd, unable to find shelter within Melbourne, over- 
 flowed into " CanvastOAvn," an impromptu creation outside, where from six to 
 eight thousand persons, the daily balance, as it Avere, of an incessant ebb and 
 flow, strove to exist amidst vexatious expense and discomfort. Everything they 
 liad need of Avas scarce and dear, but scarcest and dearest were those vegetablp 
 products, necessities of the climate, Avhich the virgin soil of the unused and 
 unoccupied Avaste of the colony around them Avould have promptly throAvn up in 
 resi^onse to the slightest eflbrts. But it Avas all speculation and not cultivation 
 Avith the fortunate fcAV who jiossessed land. The price of a cabbage at last 
 culminated at 2s. Gd. in CauA'astoAvn, and 5s. at the goldfields. A bold and 
 decided Government might have secured immortality of fame in such an 
 emergency ; and in taking a step of obvious necessity and advantage, might have 
 safely left consequences and common sense to argue at Avill. A million or tAvo 
 of extra acres promptly sold at this crisis Avould have had almost incalculable 
 results to the colony ; and if the money derived from this land had been held 
 " ]>nid(;)it(; lite" iov ii(\\\Pi\.i\\\Q compensation, or ca^cu l)een throAvn into the sea, 
 tlie loss could have been as nothing compared to the ad\'antago of so Avholesale 
 a settlement of the territory. Neither this course, hoAvever, nor any other of an 
 adequate character was taken. The squattei-s Avould not yield, the popular party 
 ill tlu! Assemljly Avere ahvays out\'oted, the governor hesitated to act; and so> 
 between all three, the colony's oiiportunities fell to the ground. 
 
 A third great question of the time, and one that ramified into several bear- 
 ings, Avas the alleged right of the Crown to the gold, and to all its belongings in 
 the Avay of digging licenses and regulations. In other Avords, the irresp()iisil)le 
 Colonial Govermneut, and not the Colonial Legislature, held an almost unlimited
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 427 
 
 control over all the civil interests and the daily vocation of one-half of the 
 population. Gold was of old a royal metal, and even upon the sold land it was 
 all claimaljle by the Crown, much more on the Crown's own unalienated territory. 
 The Government and the nominee part of the legislature generally took this 
 view, while the rest of the House argued for the opposite side on behalf of the 
 colonial public, but less from any difference about fact and old black letter as to 
 "the I'oyal metal," than from general constitutional analogies. Again, when a 
 code of criminal legislation for the goldfields became necessary, and was duly 
 presented for the Assembly's sanction, that body, again seizing upon incidental 
 opportunities, refused to discuss the proposed enactments, unless the civil legis- 
 lation of the goldfields — the mining licenses, and other regulations, held by the 
 Government to be exclusively their own affairs — were also submitted and 
 approved of. So went the fight. All parties were new at legislation and 
 political warfare, a consideration which perhaps helped the good temper and 
 goodwill that were on the whole conspicuous throughout. Mr La Trobe 
 enhanced this good feeling by agreeing to pay the extra and supplementary 
 amounts out of the Crown's goldfields' revenue. The legislatm-e's appeal on 
 the gold question went to the imperial authorities, and it was backed, or rather 
 preceded, by a like missive from New South Wales. The reply received from 
 Sir John Pakington, who then administered the Colonial Office, was of the most 
 cordial description, and his frank surrender to the legislature of the whole 
 administration and revenues of the goldfields was especially appreciated and 
 welcomed after the incessant preceding warfare. 
 
 While the legislatm-e was thus active over an interval comprising the first 
 two years of gold-mining, the colony was assuming an extraordinary aspect, 
 socially and commercially. Immense fortunes were being made all over the 
 visible surface of society. Absentee colonists, who came rushing back from 
 England in anxious response to the earliest news about the effects of the gold- 
 fields, expecting to find their properties tenantless and themselves destitute, 
 ascertained on the contrary that they were all of a sudden richer than " all the 
 dreams of avarice " had ever led them to anticiiDate. Everjrwhere large sums fell 
 into unwonted hands, and chafed in unaccustomed pockets. 
 
 On the 3d of April 1852, a great public meeting was held in the INIechanics' 
 Institute, to protest against the inundation of the Australian colonies with 
 British felonry, through the medium of Van Diemen's Land. The resolutions 
 carried emphatically expressed the determination of the colonists to resist, by 
 every means in their power, the importation of British criminals into the colony 
 in any form, or from any quarter. 
 
 On the previous day the ship " Nelson " was boarded by a daring gang of 
 robbers, and plundered of gold dust to the value of £24,000. The vessel had 
 just arrived in Ilobson's Bay, from Geelong, with the treasure on board, and was 
 lying nearly unprotected, there being only three sailors and three passengers on 
 board. No resistance was attempted ; and the boxes Avith the gold were handed 
 over the side of the shij) into the boat, the villains remarking that " it was the 
 best diggings they had met with." The perpetrators of this daring act very
 
 428 THE HIS TOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 nearly eluded the vigilance of the police ; they had landed the booty on the beach, 
 and a trader in Melbourne went out with money, in his gig, and bought the gold 
 at thirty shillings an ounce, and had it secured early on the morning of the 
 occurrence. He went to Britain soon after this, the prisoners confessing to the 
 attorney who defended them the manner in Avhich they got rid of the spoil ; no 
 criminal prosecution was ever instituted, as the secret was divulged in confidence, 
 on the principle of " telling the la"s\^^er the Avhole truth, letting him tell the lies 
 afterwards." Four men, named John Jones, James JNIorgan, James Duncan, and 
 John Roberts, were indicted for the offence, and found guilty, after a lengthened 
 trial. There was reason to believe that one of the convicted persons was not 
 guilty of the crime for which he was sentenced ; there can be no doubt, however, 
 that the other three were really guilty. The person wrongfully convicted very 
 much resembled the guilty party for which ho had been mistaken ; and if the two 
 were together, it would be next to impossible to distinguish them. After a full 
 inquiry into the circumstances, the innocent prisoner was released. 
 
 The Act to apprehend offenders illegally at large had a most important and 
 beneficial effect. Its provisions applied to escaped convicts, and even to those 
 who had obtained conditional pardons, not available in England ; and numbers 
 of felons found at large were apprehended and punished. Amongst the number 
 was the notorious bushranger, Dalton, who was, fortunately, arrested by the 
 Melbourne detective police in so extraordinary a manner that the facts appear 
 stranger than fiction. Dalton, Avith his associate, Kelly, had crossed Bass's 
 Straits in an open boat, and succeeded in entering Melbourne unperceived. He 
 went into a restaurant in Bourke Street, at midnight, in company with a boat- 
 man, and, in a most unostentatious manner, intimated to the shopman that he 
 intended leaving for England on the following morning, by the " Northumber- 
 land," and would be obliged if he would change some Van Diemen's Land bank- 
 notes. The shopman declined, and the two men turned to leave the place, but 
 were accosted by a gentleman present, who said he thought he could accom- 
 modate them ; and, taking some notes from his pocket, and looking at them, 
 remarked that he had not enough of money, but he had a friend near who would 
 lend him what he wanted. The men accompanied their new acquaintance, who 
 was Mr Bryce, who had formerly belonged to the police ; he led them up 
 Swanston Street, and right into the station-house, where the boatman dis- 
 a[)pcarcd. The other man also showed symptoms of wishing to retreat ; but 
 two smart detectives — Murray and Williams — happening to come up at this 
 critical moment, were informed by Mr Bryce of the suspicions which he enter- 
 tained, that the fellow had come by the money which ho wished to change in a 
 dishonest manner; there being no specific charge, however, he was just on the 
 eve of being allowed to depart, when Murray recognised in the man before him 
 the description of Dalton, and rushed upon him. Dalton resisted, and strove 
 hard to free his pistols. The whole of the three closed Avith him and secured 
 him. lie swore and stamped in the most frantic manner at having been so 
 easily entrapped ; ho regi-etted that he had not known IMurray's intentions a few 
 seconds before, that he might have cleared the station-house — a threat he 
 
 o
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 429 
 
 would, most probal)Iy, liavc carried into effect, as he had three loaded pistols, 
 ready cocked, about his person. He shot a constable, named 13uckmaster, in 
 Van Diemen's Land, in a similar attempt to arrest him, and was reckless of human 
 life. The boatman was, no doubt, his confederate, Andrew Kelly; but he 
 eluded the vigilance of the police. In addition to the edat of this capture, the 
 officers became entitled to £100, which the Governor of Van Diemen's Land had 
 offered for the apprehension of Dalton ; he was brought before the police bench 
 of Melbourne, and forwarded to that colony to receive his deserts at the hands 
 of the authorities there. 
 
 On the 20th of July of this eventful year (1853) the private escort from the 
 M'lvor diggings to Melbourne was attacked by a gang, who were planted in an 
 ambuscade near the road, and who shot down the troopers before they were 
 even aware of the danger. Notwithstanding very large rewards offered, both by 
 the Government and the company, the ruffians for a long time eluded the vigilance 
 of the police. They were discovered at length, in consequence of one of the 
 gang having been arrested on board the " Madagascar," in the bay, on the eve of 
 her departure ; but, had he gone in her, he would not have escaped the due 
 I'etribution he merited, as the vessel never reached home, and was supposed to 
 have perished, either in the ice or from fire. The charge against him was of a 
 trivial character ; but he turned Queen's evidence in the escort robbery case. 
 He then committed suicide ; but his brother, who belonged to the same gang, 
 had also been apprehended, and following his example, divulged the whole parti- 
 culars of the plot, and upon his evidence, three of the ruffians — George Melville, 
 George Wilson, and William Atkins — were convicted and executed.. 
 
 Almost about the same period, two felons, named Patrick O'Connor and 
 Henry Bradley, escaped in a whaleboat from Van Diemen's Land, and, crossing- 
 Bass's Straits, landed in Western Port. The first act of bushranging these 
 villains perpetrated in Victoria Avas to walk up to a ploughman of Mr King, near 
 Brighton, and order him to deliver uj) his team. The poor fellow declined, ujion 
 which, without another word, one of them shot him dead on the spot, and they 
 rode off" . with the horses. They committed many robberies in Victoria, and 
 excited the utmost terror amongst the settlers. They were at last discovered by 
 the police at the fai'm of a person named Cain, near Kilmore, and a smart 
 skirmish took place between them and three mounted troopers, in which one of 
 the latter was dangerously and mortally wounded. They were overpowered, and 
 brought to Melbourne, where they were tried before Mr Justice Williams, and, of 
 course, convicted, and sentenced to death. They behaved throughout the solemn 
 scene with the utmost levity ; Bi-adley remarked to the judge, at the conclusion 
 of his admonitory remarks, in passing sentence of death : " Thank you, my lord ; 
 I'm very glad for your sentence— very glad indeed." 
 
 Land had begun to increase considerably in value about the end of 1852 ; but 
 it advanced at railroad sjjeed, and actually reached fabulous prices in the begin- 
 ning of 1853. Never before, in the periods of the most feverish speculation, did 
 sections of building land in the neighboui'hood of Melbourne bring such enor- 
 mous sums. Land in parts of the city which could hardly ever become good
 
 430 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 business stands, but must always remain mere suburban propertj^, sold at from 
 two to three tliousand pounds an acre. It was actually higher than sections in 
 the neighbourhood of the first-class cities of Europe, where every element of 
 stability existed, and all the appliances of civilisation were to be found. Land 
 manias have been always hazardous ; they are generally succeeded by a crisis ; 
 in this instance the Government was the occasion of the fictitious rise ; it 
 positively refused to bring land into the market to meet the great demand con- 
 sequent upon the influx of people, and the vast accumulation of money. Private 
 owners cut up their land, and sold it to speculators at extravagant profits ; it 
 passed from hand to hand at enormous rates ; all who heard of the fortunes 
 made rushed to buy it at any price. The Government, then, at the eleventh 
 hour, brought unlimited quantities into the market, and the prices immediately 
 fell. The reaction was severe ; and the mercantile community have good cause 
 to recollect the panic of 1854, which utterly ruined many families, and paralysed 
 the commercial interests so severely that they did not rally for several years. 
 
 The squatters did not at first feel any of the good effects of the change, for 
 they had very great difficulty in procuring servants, and they Avere unable to 
 forward the wool, on which they depended, to market. After the first year, 
 however, the demand for meat became so great that cattle and sheep began to 
 advance Avith astonishing rapidity ; and meat that had brought no more than 
 lid. now advanced to 7d. and 8d. per lb. The sheep and cattle farmers were 
 inclined, in the first instance, to believe that they would be ruined by the gold ; 
 but perhaps no class of the community ultimately reaped so great benefit from 
 that event. Indeed, from 1852 to 1857, stations and stock were the most 
 lucrative investments in the colony. The agi-iculturists, on the contrary, were 
 far from being equally benefited ; the produce of their farms could easily be 
 imported from other countries, and the difficulty of procuring a regular supply of 
 labour compelled the owners of many hundreds of acres to allow them to lie 
 untilled. It is true that, in the first year or two after the discovery of gold, the 
 supply of flour and other articles was far beneath the demand, and such as raised 
 grain made small fortunes ; but, for two or three years afterwards, the colony 
 was litei'ally inundated with provisions from every quarter of the globe, and the 
 prices of produce fell to a ruinously low rate : many farmers were unable to live, 
 and were under the necessity of abandoning the land which it had taken them 
 nmch capital to reclaim. The case was very different with the Australian 
 squatters ; the market for fresh meat was secure from foreign competition, and 
 they were thus in a position to exact such rates as they thought fit to impose. 
 
 A marked alteration Avas visible about the end of 1852 in the social organisa- 
 tion of the great mass of the diggers. The colonists had rushed to the goldficlds 
 expecting to ■ pick up treasure in masses, and return at once Avith sufficient 
 fortunes. Many set forth barely supi")lied Avith the necessaries of life, intending 
 merely to be out campaigning for a fcAV Avccks. They seemed to think that it 
 would be a hard case if the old colonists should not obtain a share of the treasure, 
 and Avith that vioAv they started. But Avhcn it became apparent that digging 
 was a pursuit Avhich would only remunerate those avIio folloAved it Avith steady
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 431 
 
 energy, tliej^ at once abandoned it and returned. The majority of the original 
 cohjnists had some other mode t)f living, or were enriched by the rise of property, 
 and thei-efore independent of so very laborious a pursuit. The goldfields were 
 abandoned to those Avho had no other occupation, and who followed mining or 
 gold-hunting as a means of earning a livelihood. The diggers formed a society 
 independent of the other classes, and in 1853 they commenced agitating for the 
 repeal of the license fee, and, the Executive declining to accede to their prayer 
 at the time, the foundation of that unfortunate spirit of discontent was laid, the 
 results of which were so much to be deplored in the succeeding year. The 
 system of management adopted by the La Trobe Government was to delegate 
 arbitrary power into the hands of the gold commissioners, who Avere selected 
 merely Ijecause they yfQve proteges of the Government, destitute, in the majority 
 of cases, of ability, and, what was worse, ignorant of the country and of the class 
 over whom they were placed. The arbitrary and illegal acts of those petty 
 officials aroused hostile feelings in the breasts of the diggers, who generally were 
 quiet and well-affected to the authorities. It was no uncommon thing for men 
 to be seized upon at the mere direction of some boy-commissioners, and chained 
 to trees during the intense mid-day heats, the offence charged against them being 
 simply that of digging for gold Avithout a license. The respectable men who 
 paid the fee did not desire to see the law, however unconstitutional and ai'bitrary, 
 evaded; nor did they desire that humanity should be outraged in a British 
 colony, and those personal privileges which are considered sacred throughout the 
 British dominions infringed upon. The Ovens was the scene of the first out- 
 break, Avhich occurred in January 1853, and an assistant-commissioner, named 
 Myers, was rather roughly handled by the diggers, to whom he had become 
 particularly obnoxious by his general mode of administering the law. A more 
 serious disturbance took place in the month of May, on Forest Creek. So 
 correctly had the police copied the manners of their superiors that the entire 
 corps had, at this period, a most unenviable notoriety. There were many sly- 
 grog tents on the Forest Creek diggings, and the police had a very summary 
 method of dealing with such cases, by attacking and burning the tents, with all 
 that they contained. This was right enough. The only objection that could 
 have been brought against it was, that there was no form of trial deemed 
 necessary. But it was alleged that the police gave the really respectable store- 
 keepers the benefit of their attention, and regarded less the guilty parties who 
 should have been under their surveillance. The case of a trader, named Mahon, 
 was much before the public. The house which he kept for boarders was attacked 
 and demolished, and every kind of insult offered to his family and lodgers. The 
 'public, moreover, believed him to be guiltless of the charge alleged against him. 
 The informers were one Mangan and a trooper named Christian, Avho Avere con- 
 sidered as little better than perjurers ; and, as it Avas made apparent that any 
 respectable person might be deprived of his hberty and have his property 
 destroyed under the pretext that he sold grog, the public indignation was aroused 
 to such a pitch that the military and police Avere called out, ready to act. The 
 foUoAving notice Avas posted about Forest Creek :
 
 432 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 " MEN OF CASTLEMAINE ! 
 
 " Meet on the lull beliind the Baptist Chapel to discuss relative to the proceedings of the Government 
 on Saturday night. Chair to be taken at four o'clock this day. 
 " N.B. — The sheriff has been invited to attend. 
 " You are requested to attend the Police Court, on Monday next, at half -past nine o'clock, and watch 
 
 the proceedings. 
 
 " Police V. Mahon. 
 " Police V. Adams." 
 
 The magistrates acquitted INIahon, and gave tlie accusor.s into custody, to 
 answer the charge of perjury ; but no efibrt Avas made to re-imburse the injured 
 individual for the heavy losses he had sustained. 
 
 The next morning the folloAving was posted about the diggings : 
 
 " Down with ±he trooper Christian, and shoot him. 
 
 " Down with oppression and the tyrant Berkeley. 
 
 " Diggers, avenge your wrongs and demand your rights, or otherwise you will live and die all slaves. 
 
 " Down viiih the camp ; up with Christian. Cry no quarter, and show no mercy." 
 
 The meeting convened in this rude style was numerously attended, and, 
 although the public indignation had partiall}^ .subsided, the proceedings demon- 
 strated but too clearly that the atlectious of the people had been alienated from 
 the Government. 
 
 About the same time a feeling of indignation, at the general mismanagement 
 of the authorities, exhibited itself on Bendigo, which had a very large population, 
 composed mostly of young and active men. Several public meetings were held, 
 at which sentiments of a revolutionary character were enunciated openly, not 
 only without censure but with strong expressions of approval. In the beginning 
 these proceedings were viewed by the Executive with the most perfect iudifterence, 
 for it appeared to have been the policy of Mr La Trobe's Government to treat 
 the opinions of the people, up to this time, with supreme contempt. It made 
 no effort either to conciliate the well-disposed portions of the digging population, 
 or to coerce those Avhose conduct might be deemed dangerous to the peace of 
 society. The great cause of complaint was the license fee of thirty shilling's per 
 month, -which the majority found to be a most severe tax, and they strongly 
 urged upon his Excellency the futility of any longer expecting them to jiay it ; 
 but he turned a deaf ear to a deputation w-hich waited ujion him to urge the 
 propriety of concession. He could have receded at this point Avithout bringing 
 liis administration into contem})t, as he might have acted graciously and justly, 
 and reduced the fee, which was unquestionably an unfair tax, pressing most 
 unecfually upon an imi)(jrtant class on the goldlields. Wlicn informed that the 
 diggers, would resist, he .said, in a vaunting tone, that "if they did, he was 
 determined to do his duty " — that was, to compel them to pay the fee ; and in a 
 despatch, which he wrote at the same time to the governor-general at Sydney, 
 he urged, as strongly as_ possible, the absolute necessity of maintaining the 
 license fee of thirty shillings per montli. Had Mr La Trobe been a wise 
 governor he would have granted the petit icni of the Bendigo diggers; had he 
 been a firm man he would have adhered to his resolution to maintain the license
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 433 
 
 fee ; but the sequel showed that he was neither the one nor the other. When 
 the agitation had increased, and there seemed every prospect of an outbreak, the 
 officer who had boastfully said he Avould be prepared to do his duty, pusilanimously 
 struck to the revolting diggers, without delivering one blow on behalf of laAv and 
 order. In a few daj's after he had made the vainglorious boast, and almost 
 before the ink was dry on the paper on which the despatch to the governor- 
 general had been written, he consented to abolish the tax, and sent a proposal 
 to the Legislative Council to that ett'ect. 
 
 A bill was introduced to substitute for the license of thirty shillings a month 
 a fee of forty shillings for the remaining four months of 1853; it almost 
 immediately passed into law. This conciliatory measure appeared to have the 
 desired effect, and the serious disturbances which had been taking place 
 gradually subsided. The last monster meeting on Bendigo occurred on the 
 30th of August. The diggers had contented themselves with resolving that 
 they M'ould not pay the license fee, and that, if it were demanded of any of 
 their body, the whole would go en masse and surrender themselves to the 
 commissioners. A remarkable circumstance took place about the time, which 
 showed that the Bendigo diggers were not disposed to perpetrate any act of 
 violence other than such as was necessary to obtain what they deemed their 
 just rights. One of the most forward in these movements was a gentleman 
 named Captain Brown, and about this time he was charged by a respectable 
 storekeeper on Bendigo with having threatened to burn down his premises 
 because he would not subscribe funds to carry on the agitation. He was 
 committed for trial, and forwarded to the gaol in Melbourne, without any 
 expressions of sympathy from the diggers, who seemed to detest such dastardly 
 conduct, and willingly to abandon their leader to his fate. Any pei^son would 
 naturally suppose that the Government would have been careful not again to 
 tamper with the excitable diggers of Bendigo. The country had been in the 
 greatest danger, but had fortunately escaped ; and it Avould now have been wise 
 to act with more caution in the administration of the public business on the 
 goldfields. At the very moment, however, that order had been re-established, 
 and when the diggers were grateful for the concession which the Government 
 had made, and Avell disposed to become good and peaceable citizens, the 
 Executive managed again to set the smouldering embers in a blaze. The 
 intention of the Government not to enforce the license fee had been announced 
 to the diggers by the following notification, signed by the chief commissioner of 
 the goldfields : 
 
 "GOVEENMENT NOTICE. 
 
 " His Excellency the lieutenant-governor has been pleased to notify that it having been decided to 
 propose, without delay, another mode of raising a revenue in lieu of that now derived from the goldfields, 
 this measui-e will at once be presented to the Legislative Council ; hut, in the meantime, no comjmlswy 
 meam shall be adopted for tlie enfmxement of the license for the month of Septemher. 
 
 "Several persons having applied for protection against violence, which has been threatened to them, 
 all orderly persons are assiu-ed that ample means are at the ilisposal of the authorities for that purpose, 
 and that prompt aid may be relied on whenever necessary. (Signed) W. E. Wright. 
 
 " Commissioner's Camp, Sandhurst." 
 
 3 I
 
 434 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 But scarcely had the agitation subsided when the following notice, of an exactly 
 contradictory nature, was issued : 
 
 "PUBLIC NOTICE. 
 
 "Colonial Secretary's Office, Melbourne, \st September 1853. 
 " His ExceUency the lieutenant-governor directs it to be notified that the proposed abolition of the 
 license fee to gold-diggers in no way affects the obligation of any one to pay the current license fee until 
 a new Act may be passed by the legislature. In the meantime the law must be observed. His Excel- 
 lency relies on the good sense and loyalty of the commimity, and the influence of their example, in 
 supporting order and maintaining the law. 
 
 "By his Excellency's command, 
 
 " (Signed) John Foster." 
 
 This was at once deemed a revival of the contest, and all classes beheld it with 
 alarm and consternation. The agitation was renewed with greater violence than 
 ever. The bill to alter the gold license had to be hurried through the House, 
 and at once assented to by his Excellency, before the troubled political waters once 
 more subsided. The executive and legislature were severely blamed for making 
 so great a concession to the diggers, particularly when the demand was urged by 
 threats of resistance by physical force. 
 
 The conduct of Mr La Trobe cannot be too severely censured, in the first 
 instance ; but, when the crisis had actually arrived, and there appeared no other 
 possible chance of escape, both branches of the Government followed, most 
 probably, the only course that could have saved a considerable amount of hfe 
 and property from destruction. At this period, notwithstanding the high tone 
 adopted by the governor, the colony was nearly unpi'otected. Considering the 
 inflammable ingredients of the population, and the manner in which the single 
 men were congregated in gregarious masses, this was a sad oversight. Mr La 
 Trobe despatched expresses to all the neighbouring colonies for troops. The 
 09th Regiment, stationed in Van Diemen's Land, was unemployed, and was at 
 once sent off for Victoria ; when it reached the colony there was hardly a soldier 
 in Melbourne. The historian can hardly condemn the diggers for resisting the 
 exorbitant license fee. The men of Bcndigo viewed it as an unfair tax upon their 
 labour, imposed by a legislature in which they had no representatives, enforced 
 by ignorant oflicials, who rudely deprived them of their personal liberty ; and we 
 dare not go so far as to say that they did wrong to resist. Fortunately for the 
 country, the dispute was settled without an appeal to that teri'ible arbiter, the 
 sword. The people of Bendigo accepted the new measure as an instalment of 
 their rights ; and the reduced fee Avas not considered too high, and was cheerfully 
 paid ; the Anti-Gold-License Association was dissolved, but a new institution — 
 the Gold-diggers' Union — was inaugurated in its place, Avith the avowed object 
 of protecting the social and political rights of the diggers. 
 
 The Legislative Council, Avhich had now been increased in accordance with 
 the expansion of the wealth and poi^ulation of the colony, Avas opened in its third 
 session by his Excellency. St Patrick's Hall, Avhere the members assembled, 
 presented a more than usually animated sight upon this occasion. Th(? iicav
 
 SOCIAL REVOLUTION. 435 
 
 Colonial Secretary, J. F. L. Foster, Esq., made his appearance as the leader of the 
 Government or official division of the House. He was one of the early colonists 
 of Port Phillip, and had been returned as one of the members to represent the 
 colonists in the old New South Wales legislature. He had after this returned 
 to Britain, and, by dint of perseverance and exertion of such interest as he 
 possessed, had succeeded in obtaining the Colonial Secretaryship of Victoria. 
 His Excellency, having congratulated the members of the legislature upon the 
 general prosperity of the colony and the augmentation in their number under the 
 Act passed in the former session, announced the intention of the Imperial 
 Government to grant enlarged constitutional privileges to the Australian colonies ; 
 and, on proper safeguards being adopted, to make over to them the power 
 hitherto reserved for fixing a civil list, controlling the Crown revenues, and 
 managing the waste lands of the Crown. 
 
 The session extended over seven months, Mr La Trobe still continuing at his 
 post. In his speech at the prorogation of the Council, on the 12th of April, he 
 announced that his successor, Sir Charles Hotham, had been appointed. Mr La 
 Trobe took his departure on the 5th of May, in the "Golden Age." His departure 
 occasioned no regret amongst the colonists. An unfortunate accident occurred 
 at the moment, by the upsetting of a boat, and Mr Samuel Barrow, chief 
 immigration agent, was drowned.
 
 436 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER YIIL 
 
 SIE CHARLES HOT HAM. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF SIR CHARLES HOTHAM — HIS EARLY CAREER — POPULARITY — PROPERTY 
 TAKES ALARM — A DISORGANISED CIVIL SERVICE — BAD GOVERNMENT — A REFORMING 
 GOVERNOR — CONVICTS' PREVENTION ACT — POPULAR DEMONSTRATIONS — TRIUMPH 
 OF THE COLONISTS. 
 
 The Home Government had intended to despatch a ship of war with the new 
 governor, but the Russian dispute interfered with this arrangement, and he was 
 under the necessity of taking his passage in the " Queen of the South." This 
 vessel, with Sir Charles and Lady Hotham on board, entered Hobson's Bay on 
 the 21st of June 1854; they were accompanied by Captain Kaye as private 
 secretary. The moment the vessel was signalised, the Mayor of INIelbourne 
 proceeded on board and informed his Excellency of the preparations which had 
 been made to receive him. On the following morning Sir Charles and Lady 
 Hotham landed on the Sandridge pier, where they Avere received by the principal 
 officials and welcomed by the whole of the public bodies of the colony that had 
 turned out for the occasion. The procession extended from Sandridge nearly to 
 Prince's Bridge ; the road was lined with spectators, who cheered the newly- 
 arrived governor and his lady most heartily. A triumphal arch had been erected 
 on the bridge, through which the procession passed, and the words, " Victoria 
 welcomes Victoria's choice," were worked in blue letters on a Avhite ground 
 overhead. On reaching the Govei'ument offices Sir Charles was officially installed ; 
 the proclamation and the letters-patent of her Majesty, signed by the Duke of 
 Newcastle, were read, and his Excellency made the official jiroclamation of 
 having assumed the government of the colony. On this occasion his Excellency, 
 acting apparently upon the impulse of the moment, addressed a few words to the 
 people, stating " that, in his administration of the government of Victoria, he 
 would look neither to the right hand or to the left." From the Government offices 
 Sir Charles and Lady Hotham proceeded to the new viceregal residence at 
 Toorak, a beautiful villa on the south bank of the Yarra, which had belonged to 
 Mr James Jackson, a deceased merchant, but had been rented by the Executive, 
 and carefully fitted up for his Excellency's reception at a most extravagant cost. 
 On the following day he visited some of the public olfices, and finding some of 
 the officials idle about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, he exjircsscd his 
 dissatisfaction. The people began to regard their new governor as a rigid 
 disciplinarian, while the public officials were rather uneasy and discontented.
 
 SIR CHARLES IIOTIIAM. 437 
 
 yir Charles llothani, K.C.B., was descended from an ancient English femily, 
 many members of which arrived at considerable distinction. He was the son of 
 the Rev. Frederick Hotham, prebendary of Rochester, and late rector of Benning- 
 ton, Suffolk. He was grandson of the second Lord Hotham, one of the barons 
 of the Court of Exchequer ; his mother was Anne Elizabeth, eldest daughter of 
 Thomas Hallett Hodges, Esq., of Hemsted Place, Kent. Sir Charles entered 
 the navy on the 6th of November 1818, and was present in a. gallant engagement 
 between the boats of the " Naiad " and a brig-of-war, alongside the walls of the 
 fortress of Bona, in which was a garrison of four hundred soldiers, who kept up 
 a most tremendous fire almost perpendicularly on the deck. In September 1825, 
 he was made lieutenant in the " Revenge " seventy-six, flag-ship of Sir Harry 
 Burrard Neale, of the Mediterranean station. He was next appointed, 15th 
 May 1826, to the " Medina," twenty guns, Captains Timothy Curtis and W. B. 
 Greene ; and on the 8th December 1827, he was api^ointed first lieutenant of the 
 " Terror " and " Meteor " bombs, Captains David Hope and William Fletcher. 
 He distinguished himself on the occasion of the wreck of the " Terror," and in 
 consequence he was promoted to the rank of commander on the 13th August 
 1828. After an interval on half-pay he w\as appointed to the " Cordelia," ten 
 guns, and returned to the Mediterranean : he came home on the 2d October 1833, 
 having been raised to the rank of post-captain, in compliment to the memory of 
 his uncle, Vice-Admiral Hon. Sir Henry Hotham, K.C.B. He was appointed to 
 the " Gorgon " steam sloop, stationed on the coast of South America, on the 25th 
 November 1842. In November 1845, in conjunction with several British ships, 
 and a small French force, under Captain Trchouart, Captain Hotham ascended 
 the Parana, and, on the 20th, engaged with four heavy batteries belonging to 
 General Rosas, at Punta Obligado, which he succeeded in demolishing ; he also 
 destroyed a schooner of war and twenty-four vessels chained across the river. 
 He landed towards the close of the action Avith 180 seamen and 150 marines, 
 and attacked and defeated the forces of General Rosas, Avhich Avere said to have 
 amounted to nearly three thousand men. In acknowledgment of the zeal and ability 
 of Captain Hotham, he was, in March 1846, nominated a K.C.B. Mackinnon, in 
 his work, " Steam Warfare in the Parana," published in 1848, says, in reference 
 to the brilliant aftair on the Parana : " The great secret of the success which 
 crowned almost every effort, with one miserable exception, Avas due, firstly, to the 
 excellent arrangements which, by the powers of steam, Avere so perfectly and 
 expeditiously carried out ; and secondly, to the admirable nature of the ordnance 
 and the skilful application of its various branches. Where the leader is of great 
 ability, and possesses the confidence of those under his command, coupled Avith 
 such materiel and personnel as Sir Charles Hotham had under his control, it is 
 not surprising that everything succeeded admirably." Sir William Gore Ousley, 
 at the period her Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary to the States of La Plata, 
 in his account of the action, says : " It Avas not believed that any serious objection 
 Avould be made to the advance of the blockading flotilla. HoAvever, Avhen the 
 fire had been opened by the Buenos Ayreans at Obligado, it became, of course, 
 necessary to return it, and the result was the general engagement that ensued.
 
 438 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 When it is recollected that the scale on which the defences had been prepared was 
 quite unexpected, and that the Buenos Ayrean force employed was much greater 
 than was anticipated (amounting to about four thousand men), while the nature 
 of the other obstacles to be encountered was previously unknown, it will be 
 evident that the skill and experience of the able officer who commanded the 
 squadron were put to a severe test, and that it required his well-concerted 
 arrangements in the plans of attack, and the gallantry displayed in carrying them 
 into effect, to obtain the successful result that added to the high professional 
 reputation of Sir Charles Hotham, already too well known to require any tribute 
 here." Sir Charles was afterwards, in 1845-46, sent, in conjunction with Baron 
 Defandis, on a mission to Paraguay, and the manner in which he discharged that 
 important trust recommended him to her Majesty's Government. In April 1852, 
 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary, and directed by the Earl of Malms- 
 bury, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to proceed, in company with 
 M. L. De St George, on a joint special mission to Brazil and the republics of the 
 river Plata, for the purpose of promoting peace between them, and, more 
 especially, for the opening up of the trade and navigation of the noble arteries 
 of that river. He succeeded in negotiating the treaty, and the ability and perse- 
 verance he displayed on this occasion induced her Majesty to appoint him to tho 
 governorship of Victoria. Sir Charles Hotham married, 10th of December 1853, 
 Hon. Jane Sarah Hood, daughter of Lord Bridport, and relict of Hugh Holbech, 
 Esq., of Farnborough, Warwick. 
 
 The new ruler of Victoria was welcomed with the greatest enthusiasm by all 
 classes. His arrival amongst them marked, as they hoped, a new and brighter 
 era in the history of the colony. Mr La Trobe had belonged to the " olden 
 times," and had never occupied the jjosition, nor acquired that weight, in the 
 eyes of the people which the representative of the Crown ought to possess. He 
 had risen from a humble position, and had merely by accident been placed in 
 the important position which he occupied. Sir Charles Hotham had distinguished 
 himself, and was connected with the best families in the parent state ; he was 
 thus enabled to comm.ence his career under very favourable circumstances, and 
 the good feeling towards him was unbounded, and was exhibited by every class 
 of the people. He visited the diggings and the more important townships 
 throughout the colony, and everywhere his progress partook of the character of 
 an ovation. The old and respectable colonists were under the impression that 
 Sir Charles Hotham was an experienced and cautious man, who would exhibit 
 profound sagacity in administering the business of the colony. They were 
 much surprised when he commenced his career in Victoria by a public profession 
 of the most ultra-democratical principles ; indeed, so extravagant were his declara- 
 tions of tho sovereignty of tho people and other radical doctrines, that the ultra- 
 liberal press could scarcely keep pace with him. They generally professed to be 
 gi-atified ; yet, they were rather at a loss to fathom the aim and object of these 
 popular expositions. It perhaps scarcely agreed with their ideas that the head 
 of the Government should go beyond them in the profession of principles of 
 extreme liberalism. The diggers and people received those words Avith the
 
 Sm CHARLES HO Til AM. 489 
 
 utmost avidity. The new governor was set down as a heaven-born ruler, scut 
 to do them justice and redress their grievances, of which they had not a few 
 pressing heavily enough upon them. The men of more matured experience, 
 Aviser than either the people or their ruler, looked on with considerable alarm. 
 They admitted that Sir Charles was honest and well-intentioned, but they were 
 surprised at his want Of prudence. He certainly lost his prestige with the intel- 
 ligent people as his real character began to exhibit itself. A governor who had 
 acquired considerable experience in ruling colonies, where his advisers were 
 responsible to the popular representatives, would have had a task of no ordinary 
 difficulty to encounter on assuming the reins of power at this time ; and it is not 
 to be wondered at that Governor Hotham, who was utterly inexperienced in 
 conducting such an administration, should have failed. His want of experience 
 might have been supplied by his Executive Council, but they were not his cordial 
 supporters, and rendered him but little assistance. He found the whole of the 
 afi'airs of the Government in a state of the most fearful disorder. He endea- 
 voured to introduce some necessary reforms, and the officials were all afraid of his 
 stumbling upon abuses which might get them into trouble. In this juncture he 
 had visited the coimtry districts, where he most unfortunately replied to the 
 popular sympathy, Avhich was so generally expressed, by warm and generous 
 responses, not anticipating that they would be reported and read in their literal 
 sense. At a public dinner, held on the 16th of August 1854, at Geelong, his 
 Excellency, in the course of a speech, said : " The people of this colony have 
 adopted one of the most liberal constitutions, compatible with monarchy, that the 
 people could have ; it is a constitution of your own choosing, formed by your 
 own representatives, lauded by the press, and admired by many enlightened 
 statesmen. When you adopted that constitution you adopted with it the iirincijile 
 from which it springs, that all power proceeds from the people. It is on that 
 principle that I intend to conduct my administration. In the present day a 
 Government cannot be conducted with satisfaction to the people without the 
 fullest and freest communication with the people." The governor could scarcely 
 have anticipated that the advanced intelligence and the owners of property 
 would take alarm at such expressions. Such, however, was the fact ; for Sir 
 Charles was not in the same position as when sent on diplomatic missions to 
 foreign states, where what he said was deemed mere compliments ; all his words 
 were now deeply weighed and regarded by the colonists as an enunciation of his 
 intended policy. 
 
 The Government departments were at this period in a state of bewildering 
 disorganisation. We do not mean to insinuate that the high Govei'nment officials 
 had actually pocketed any of the public money, but they had been guilty of 
 conduct which an officer like Sir Charles Hotham, who had said he would 
 regard no man in his administration of public affairs, would have visited with 
 the severest censure. The noble revenues of the colony had been squandered 
 under the imprest system, no proper accounts had been kept of the manner in 
 which they had been swallowed up. Enormous amounts had thus disappeared ; 
 in one department — that of the Civil Commissariat — a sum amounting to several
 
 440 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 hundred thousand pounds Avas unaccounted for. The consequence of all this 
 extraA'agance and irregularity was that the governor, on his first look into the 
 state of the treasury, found a deficiency in the revenue amounting to more than 
 a niilhon sterling. The utmost dissatisfaction existed with Mr Foster and the 
 other members of the Executive Council. They had abused the patronage of 
 the Government ; they had multiplied public offices and filled them with 
 incompetent men. It Avas openly asserted that the officers of the Government 
 jobbed in land, merchandise, and public-houses; that the fountain of justice was 
 impure ; that collusive contracts Avere common. A deputation had waited on 
 Mr Foster, Avhen administering the government, to remonstrate Avith him for the 
 non-expenditure of £80,000, voted for the Avharves of Melbourne ; in accordance 
 with this vote, a Goveniment officer had bought £100,000 Avorth of timber, and 
 the Government had no money to lay out on Avharves. The deputation sug- 
 gested that the error might be at least partially remedied, and the timber resold ; 
 this Avas not, howcA'er, in accordance Avith the red-tape notions of the acting- 
 governor, and the result Avas, that the wharves continued some time longer a dis- 
 grace to the city, and the timber lay rotting on the ground until it should be 
 required. In several of the departments there was downright dishonesty, and 
 in all of them there was the utmost inefficiency. Such Avas the legacy Mr La 
 Trobe left Victoria. Those in office at this period Avere his friends and sup- 
 porters, with the exception, perhaps, of Mr Secretary Foster, who probably 
 obtained his office by personal solicitation. Sir Charles Hotham set to Avork 
 like a man Avho feared neither risk nor toil ; he discovered that he had been 
 called to a sphere Avhere much difficulty and trouble Avas inevitable if he did his 
 duty, and Ave firmly believe that he resolved upon doing Avhat was right, both to 
 the people of the colony and to his sovereign, and that he attempted to reform 
 existing abiises, regardless of his ease and comfort. 
 
 At this time a despatch arrived from the Colonial Office disalloAving the 
 Convicts' Prevention Act, and ordering the release of the criminals imprisoned 
 under it. This despatch roused the spirit of the people to the very highest point. 
 There were but few colonists who understood this subject but Avould haA'e spent 
 the last drop of Ijlood in their veins rather than admit the right of the British 
 CroAvn to let their felons loose amongst the virtuous free population, Avhich Avas 
 already cursed by too many of the refuse of society from the adjoining penal 
 settlements. The comparatively small community of 1849 had solemnly declared 
 that they Avould resist the landing of convicts even by an appeal to arms ; and 
 noAV tliat the population Avas quadrupled, and the people felt their strength, it 
 was not very likely they Avould alloAv the sanctity of their family hearths to be 
 violated. The almost simultaneous expiration of the Convicts' Prevention Act 
 by the effluxion of time Avith the arriA^al of this ukase from the colonial minister 
 excited the pul)lic mind. The crisis had come, and no compromise could bo 
 alloAved ; indeed, if so odious an exercise of the prerogative had been insisted 
 upon, and the doors of the gaols had been opened for those confined under the 
 Convicts' Prevention Act, Victoria Avould have resisted, and the connection 
 between the colony and Britain would perhaps have been severed. A great
 
 SIR CHARLES Horn AM. 441 
 
 public meeting was held in front of the Court House, at which resolutions were 
 carried strongly condcnuiing the measure, and protesting in the most solemn 
 manner against it. The meeting adojDted a petition to the legislature, praying, 
 " That, in order to the protection of the colonists from further inundation with 
 foreign crime, and in vindication of their own right of freedom of legislation, 
 their honourable House would re-enact the Convicts' Prevention Act, with such 
 additional clauses as would prevent the introduction to Victoria of the convicted 
 criminals of other countries or colonies under any pretext whatsoever." The 
 popular indignation was increased by the great favour shown to Sir William 
 Denison, the adviser of this unconstitutional eftbrt to set the felons of the mother 
 country loose upon Victoria, through the convenient convict colony of Van 
 Diemen's Land ; he had been raised to the rank of Governor-General of New 
 South Wales, although notoriously unpopular in all the Australian colonies, 
 having almost excited the free people in Van Diemen's Land to revolt. The 
 resolute language held at the public meeting in Melbourne was re-echoed at 
 another meeting held in Geelong ; the people even pledged themselves, at the 
 latter, to " go the length of extreme means in order to avert the threatened 
 plague." The legislature of Victoria scarcely kept pace with jiublic expectation, 
 for the Convicts' Pi-evention Act had expired in the month of October, and a 
 measure of a more lenient character, introduced by the Attorney-General, had 
 been referred to a select committee, which did not report upon it until the 
 beginning of November. The committee then simply stated that there were so 
 great difficulties in carrying out the Government measure, and which was 
 entitled "A Bill to Prevent the Influx of Unreformed Criminals," that it could 
 not be adopted. The great demonstration of the 23d of October, and the unani- 
 mously expressed resolve of the people to resist at all hazards — to throw the 
 consideration of all that was usually held sacred aside — the honour of the Crown 
 — the respect for the Government — the desire for ease and social tranquillity — 
 the aversion to violent measures — and, in short, to sacrifice all other considera- 
 tions, that they might maintain their character as a free people, so that the 
 stigma might never be cast upon their offspring that their fathers had suff"ered 
 such an outrage without displaying the indomitable spirit of the race from which 
 they were descended, encouraged the Legislative Council to adopt decisive 
 measures. The petition from the colonists was presented to the Legislative 
 Council on the 24th October, and on the 3d November Mr Nicholson obtained 
 leave to bring in a bill to prevent the influx of criminals. This measure was 
 even more stringent in its provisions than the Act of the former year, and it 
 included the class of persons objected to arriving from Britain, as well as from 
 the neighbouring colonies. This important enactment, which may be deemed 
 the fixed and inexorable resolve of the people of Victoria on the question at 
 issue, passed into law on the 16th November, and the Government, wisely 
 perceiving the unalterable determination of the colonists, did not attempt to 
 interfere with the course of legislation on this subject. 
 
 3 k
 
 442 THE HIS TOR Y OF A USTRA LA SIA . 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BALLAEAT REBELLION. 
 
 THE EALLARAT RIOTS — THEIR CAUSES AND ORIGIN — BENTLEY THE PUELICAN — A 
 FATAL ENCOUNTER — PUBLIC INDIGNATION — A POPULAR VERDICT — POPULAR FURY 
 — ATTACK ON BENTLEY'S HOTEL — DEPUTATION TO THE GOVERNOR — ASSAULT ON 
 THE MILITARY — GREAT MEETING OF BALLARAT DIGGERS — THE CAMP BARRICADED 
 — BURNING THE LICENSES — SYMPTOMS OF REBELLION — THE EUREKA STOCKADE — 
 ATTACK OF THE MILITARY — THE FIGHT — KILLED AND WOUNDED — PETER LALOR 
 — GENERAL VERN — INSURGENTS AT CRESWICK — THE GOVERNOR CONCILIATORY — 
 PUBLIC MEETING — OPEN-AIR MEETING — SIR ROBERT NICKLE's PRUDENCE — MR 
 FOSTER RESIGNS — A COMMISSION APPOINTED — TRIAL OF THE RIOTERS — ACQUIT- 
 TALS — POPULAR REJOICING — BAD GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Towards the end of 1854 matters began to look threatening at the Ballarat 
 diggings. Tlie insolence and tyranny of the camp officials exasperated the 
 miners greatly. If these men had been discreet, the arbitrary and irresponsible 
 character of the functions they exercised would not have been paraded with so 
 much ostentation. Unfortunately, they were blind to the public feeling, and too 
 confident in their own omnipotence. They proceeded unchecked. The diggers 
 M-ere degraded in their own estimation at the tyranny exercised upon them by 
 the camp officials and the police. The authorities were surrounded by materials 
 of the most inflammable character, which a solitary spark might at any moment 
 light into a general conflagration. But they were blind to the real state of 
 affairs. Ballarat was at this period crowded with diggers, and the authorities 
 Avere even more than ordinarily unpopular there. The first outburst' of popular 
 indignation occurred in consequence of the exposure of one of those cases of 
 undue partiality in Avhich the Government officials occasionally indulged. A 
 man named Bentlcy, who, so for as the public were aware, had wp to this period 
 maintained a'foir character, had opened an hotel on the Ballarat diggings, and it 
 was rumoured that one of the magistrates had an interest either in the house or 
 tlie business. Two men knocked, late in the evening, at this establishment, and 
 solicited the proprietor to supply them Avith drink. This he refused to do, the 
 door having been closed for the night. The men became excited, and opened a 
 volley of abuse against the landlord and his wife. Bentley sallied forth, in com- 
 pany with his assistants, to bestow a severe chastisement upon the two noisy 
 diggers. A scuflle ensued, in the course of which a blow levelled with a spade, 
 or some other deadly Aveapoi, at one of tliem named Scobie, proved fotal. The
 
 THE BALL A RAT REBELLION. 443 
 
 unfortunate man >vas found lying on the ground in front of Bentlcy's hotel early 
 on the following morning, and public oi)inion compelled the officials at the camp 
 to investigate the circumstances. Bentley was apprehended and brought before 
 the police magistrate, but, much to the astonishment of every person in the 
 court, he was discharged. The case being clear as day, the report which had 
 been current, of this official being a partner in the hotel, was generally believed. 
 It is next to impossible to state if any connection in the business of the hotel 
 did exist between the landlord and the police magistrate. That this was the 
 case was openly stated, both before and after the unfortunate occurrences we are 
 describing, and the Government did not call their officer at the trials which 
 afterwards took place to contradict such statements on oath. Either the 
 Executive was culpably negligent of public opinion, or the charge could not be 
 denied. It is not very surprising that the digging population were exasperated 
 at the result, and, on the 20th November, a meeting of diggers was held upon 
 the spot where the tragic event had taken place. Crowds attended this demon- 
 stration, and several enei'getic speeches Avere made, and a petition was read and 
 adopted. It was a most unfortunate circumstance that the meeting was held in 
 the immediate vicinity of Bentley's house. The large concourse of persons 
 became excited as the speakers pointed out that on the very spot where they 
 stood, the blood of one of their "mates" had been shed, and that the fountains 
 of justice were tainted, while there was none to avenge the poor solitary gold- 
 digger. The cry then arose, " Secure Bentley, and deliver him over again to 
 justice!" His house Avas instantly surrounded, but Bentley, who had been 
 warned of the storm, mounted on a fleet horse and escaped from the rear. Had 
 he not got off, his life might have been in danger, from the increasing fury of the 
 excited people. The house was burned to the ground before the multitude could 
 be dispersed. For this outrage three men, Fletcher, M'Intyre, and Weatherly, 
 Avere apprehended, and tried at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, before Mr 
 Justice Barry. A verdict of guilty was most reluctantly brought in by the jury 
 against Fletcher and Weatherly, but Avith a strong recommendation to mercy. 
 The jury added the following rider to the verdict: "The jury feel that they 
 Avould never have had their painful duty to perform if those entrusted Avith the 
 government of Ballarat had done their duty properly." This Avas received by 
 the people, in an unusually full court, Avith long and vociferous cheering. So 
 general was this excitement that the officials of the court, with every exertion, 
 could not for some minutes enforce silence. 
 
 Bentley had again been taken into custody, to protect him from the popular 
 fury ; perhaps it Avould be more correct to say that he had sought refuge in the 
 Government camp. Having been brought to trial, he was found guilty of man- 
 slaughter by a jury of his countrymen. This fact demonstrates that the diggers 
 had room for complaint. The tAvo trials Avere held in Melbourne, where the 
 people at this time Avere by no means inclined to sympathise Avith the diggers. 
 Indeed, it can hardly be doubted that, had the magistrates of Ballarat been true 
 to their public trust, and discharged their duty fearlessly and honourably, no riot 
 Avould have occurred at Bentley's hotel, and the general outbreak Avhicli folloAved
 
 444 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 AvoiiUl, probabl}^ never have occurred. The Executive Government had been 
 vainly admonished of the elements of danger which existed on the diggings. It 
 had been told that the people detested the officials, whose mal-administration 
 was notorious. To prostitute power to Avealth, to pervert justice from motives 
 of interest, are crimes against society, and well calculated to arouse the indigna- 
 tion of British subjects, however jilaced ; indeed, all true lovers of liberty must 
 sympathise Avith the just resentment of the Ballarat diggers. 
 
 The attack upon Bentley's hotel was only the muttering of the gale ; it was 
 
 but the prelude to the fearful drama that was to be enacted. Irritated by the 
 
 tyrannical conduct of the officials, who would not take Avarning, the Avhole 
 
 of the diggers were inclined to resist. They had sufficient power to have 
 
 successfully opposed any force Avhich could be brought against them, and there 
 
 is no doubt the Government Avas in considerable peril. The strong sentiment 
 
 of loyalty, the overbearing conduct of the popular leaders, coupled Avith the 
 
 decision of the military in the first instance, and the mild character of Sir 
 
 Eobert Nickle, the commanding officer, Avho afterAvards used every exertion to 
 
 tranquilise the excited diggers, prevented a general outbreak on all the goldfields, 
 
 and, it may be, the complete subversion of the Queen's power in Victoria, if not 
 
 throughout the Austi'alasian colonies. A deputation Avaited upon his Excellency 
 
 to " demand " the release of the men Avho had been imprisoned for the burning 
 
 of Bentley's hotel. It was composed of Messrs Humffi-ay, Black, and Kennedy 
 
 — all representatives of the diggers. His Excellency objected to the Avord 
 
 "demand." He said, being the "representative of her Majesty," he could not 
 
 alloAv the use of the term. The deputation were strictly prohibited from using 
 
 any other ; and, therefore, of course, no official reply was given. The members 
 
 Avere, however, informed that a proper memorial on behalf of the prisoners 
 
 Avould receive every consideration. They were, therefore, under the necessity 
 
 of resting contented with this answer. At the conclusion of the intervicAv, 
 
 Kennedy entreated his Excellency to allow the men to return Avith them, in 
 
 order to prevent a riot ; but he was informed that the course suggested Avould 
 
 be destructive of the • authority of the Government ; and that it Avould be 
 
 impossible to set aside the most important principle in the British constitution 
 
 — the verdict of a jury. In order to be prepared for any disturbance, the 
 
 Executive began to concentrate all the forces, both military and police, at its 
 
 disposal upon Ballarat. Sir Charles Hotham Avas too old a campaigner not to 
 
 be uneasy at the aspect of affairs, and Avas anxious to stem the insurrectionary 
 
 movement, and restore the fallen influence of the Government. He kncAv that 
 
 the vehement burst of passion Avould most probably be succeeded by the languor 
 
 of depression, and that it ought to be met Avith spirit and decision. The 
 
 ill-feeling of the people Avas too apparent from the A'arious collisions Avhich 
 
 occurred between them and the several detachments of the troops in passing 
 
 along the diggings thoroughfares to their quarters in the camp. On the 29th 
 
 November a party of soldiers belonging to the 40th, who were marching along 
 
 the Geelong road to Ballarat, were assaulted by the people. They turned and 
 
 chai'god tlicir assailants, l)ut soon, however, got the worst of the fray, and had
 
 THE DA LLA RA T REBELLION. 445 
 
 to seek shelter in the camp. The very day this occurred witnessed a very 
 similar scene near the Eureka. Another detachment of military was there 
 attacked, and several of the men severely injured. On the 80th of November a 
 great meeting took place on Ballarat. It was attended by crowds of armed 
 diggers. Eesolutions Avere passed denouncing the license fee, and declaring that 
 the people would pay so obnoxious a tax no longer, but take immediate steps 
 to abolish it by burning all their licenses; and that they would forthwith adjust 
 any disputes about their claims by arbitrators, to be mutually chosen ; that a 
 Reform League be established, and that all members of it should be protected. 
 The meeting strongly protested against the bodies of armed men marching about 
 the diggings, and firing upon the people under any circumstances, without the 
 previous reading of the Eiot Act; and declared, if such an unconstitutional 
 practice were continued, the League now formed would not be responsible for 
 the consequences. The Government officials, so far from being intimidated by 
 this meeting, had detachments marching about the diggings at the time, and 
 several skirmishes occurred ; the camp was barricaded and guarded by breast- 
 works of sand-bags, and the whole military and police were kept under arms ; 
 the roads were covered with bodies of military and police hastening to strengthen 
 the position of the Government at the camp of Ballarat. The diggers must indeed 
 have anticipated, after throwing down the gauntlet and burning their licenses, that 
 the Executive would adopt coercive measures. Sir Charles Ilotham considered 
 that it was his duty to quell the insurrection, in order to prevent those whom he 
 regarded as a set of incendiaries from setting the colony in a confiagTation. When 
 violent counsels guided the movements of the disaffected diggers a number of 
 the more moderate left them, and the legitimate objects of the agitation appeared 
 to have been completely lost sight of. Nothing short of a total overthrow of the 
 existing Government was, after this, aimed at. The Australian flag, of blue, 
 with a Avhite cross, was hoisted ; a provisional government was formed and 
 supplies levied in its name. An express arrived at Melbourne on the 4th 
 announcing that a party of diggers were on the road to the metropolis, in order to 
 get up an agitation on their oaaii behalf. The Government issued circulars to the 
 largest employers of labour, and, having communicated this startling information, 
 requested them to communicate with their workmen in order to discover how 
 far they sympathised with the diggers, and to ascertain, if possible, what 
 concessions it was deemed advisable for the Government to make. On the same 
 day a proclamation appeared, declaring the whole district around Ballarat 
 under martial law. That day, also, the intelligence of the engagement between 
 the military and the diggers arrived, and all classes were alike overpowered 
 with sorrow that the line of demarcation between constitutional agitation and 
 illegal resistance by physical force had been passed. But while most people 
 condemned the leaders in this movement for precipitating a crisis, they Avere 
 very averse to the comiilete overthrow of their party, and to witness the sad 
 spectacle of a military despotism crushing their fellow-colonists. A strong 
 reactionary movement in favour of a compromise between the Government and 
 the insurgents set in ; and it was this sympathy on their behalf, which the
 
 446 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Executive was at a loss to understand, that prevented the authorities from 
 treating them with the greatest severity after they had managed to suppress the 
 revolt. 
 
 On the night of the 1st December lights were observed in the tents of the 
 diggers ; and signals were repeatedly exchanged, and shots fired at the sentries, 
 who were driven in. The officer in command found a large number of insurgents 
 organising, drilling, and equipping themselves. The spies had seen their leaders 
 telling them off in companies, and heard one of the commanders say to the people 
 that those who had no other arms should get an iron spike placed on a pole, as 
 "that would find the tyrants' hearts." The officer in charge issued a public 
 notice that no light would be allowed after eight o'clock ; that no discharge of 
 fire-arms would be tolerated upon any pretence ; and that persons disobeying 
 these orders Avould be fired at. On the same day Mr Commissioner Amos arrived 
 at the camp at Ballarat, with information that the diggers were occupying an 
 entrenched camp at the Eureka, in considerable force, Avith the avowed intention 
 of intercepting the troops under the major-general, then hourly expected to 
 arrive from INIelbourne. During the Avhole of that day the insurgents had posses- 
 sion of the diggings, and were busy levying contributions on all classes, giving 
 the orders of their "minister of war" in payment. The officer in command 
 prudently refrained from molesting any of their detached parties. He was 
 unable to attack the insurgents during the day, as he could not leave a force 
 behind to protect the camp, and resolved upon a night surprise. Circumstances 
 favoured this bold attempt. The insurgents had not contemplated any active 
 measures on the side of the authorities until the main body of troops and the 
 commanding officer had arrived. It was Sunday morning, and a very great 
 portion of them were away, and those who remained had dined late, and some, 
 no doubt, had drunk deep. They were surprised by the commander of the 
 Queen's troops. Captain Thomas, who resolved to seize the opportunity of deliver- 
 ing an effective blow against them. The insurgents were posted in a very 
 advantageous position, in a fortified camp, or rather stockade, at tlie Eureka. 
 It rested on a gentle eminence, and was of considerable strength. The leaders 
 were, however, not very deeply skilled in military engineering, for it was much 
 too large, and was not protected by proper bastions or outworks to aid the 
 defenders in a general assault. Under all disadvantages, the diggers would have 
 repulsed the military had the attack not been made at a time when it was totally 
 unexpected, and when the great body were absent. The officer upon whom the 
 responsiliility of this enterprise rested was Captain Thomas, and he planned and 
 carried out the whole attair with aljility and vigour. lie was assisted by Captain 
 Paslcy, ]t.E., who advanced with the skirmishers and directed the assault. Tlie 
 military had Mr Commissioner Amos to act as their guide ; being well acquainted 
 with the locality, he led the troops to the exact spot where the operations were 
 to commence. The force under Captain Thomas reached the ground just as the 
 morning Ijcgan to dawn. There were present thirty men of her Majesty's force, 
 under Lieutenants Hall and Gardyne ; seventy mounted police, under Sub- 
 Inspectors Furnell, Langley, Chomley, and Lieutenant Cossack ; sixty-five men
 
 THE BALLARAT REBELLION. 447 
 
 of the 12th Regiment, under Captain Quendo and Lieutenant Paul ; eighty-seven 
 men of the 40th Regiment, under Captain Wise and Lieutenants Bowder and 
 Richards ; twenty-four foot pohcc, under Sub-Inspector Carter ; making a total 
 of 100 mounted and 17G foot. 
 
 When the body arrived at about throe hundred yards from the entrenchments, 
 the detachments of the 12th and 40th liogimcnts extended in skirmishing order ; 
 the mounted force moved to the left of the position and threatened the flank 
 and rear of the insurgents. The main body now advanced boldly to the 
 attack. We have no means of ascertaining the exact number of men in the 
 stockade, but they could not have outnumbered the Queen's force. They stood 
 to their arms manfully as soon as the alarm was sounded, and when the military 
 were at a distance of 150 yards they poured in a tolerably effective fire upon 
 them. The commanding officer now directed the order to fire to be sounded, and 
 throwing in a steady fire on the camp in front, the military advanced in unbroken 
 order, undaunted by the continuous discharge with which the insurgents received 
 them. As the- troops were likely to be severely handled, the reserves and foot 
 police were now brought up for the struggle ; a sharp fight was kept up for some 
 time, but, in consequence of the ammunition becoming scarce amongst the insur- 
 gents, their fire slackened, and in a few minutes the military carried the entrench- 
 ment at the point of the bayonet. The engagement lasted about twenty-five 
 minutes ; the rebel leaders fought well, Mr Peter Lalor having been wounded 
 in the breach, and left for dead in the stockade, and several others cut down at 
 their posts. The loss to the Queen's force was considerable, including Captain 
 Wise, who, in leading his men to the attack, was severely Avounded, and died in 
 a few days afterwards ; Lieutenant Paul was also severely wounded. The loss 
 amongst the insurgents was variously estimated, but there could not have been 
 fewer than thirty killed on the spot, and a great many wounded. There were 
 125 prisoners taken in the stockade. The commander-in-chief of the " forces of 
 the Republic of Victoria," as they were styled, named Vern, a Hanoverian by 
 birth, escaped, and a reward of £500 was offered for his apprehension. Mr 
 Lalor, the other leader, who fell within the stockade, lost his right arm in the 
 engagement. On the Tuesday the troops under the command of the major- 
 general arrived on Ballarat ; and they were not there a minute too soon, for a 
 large body of insm'gents Avere in arms at Creswick. There can be no doubt, 
 however, that the victory at the Eureka had very much raised the spirits of those 
 who supported the Government, and in a corresponding degree dispirited all con- 
 nected with the insurgents ; and the officer in command unquestionably deserved 
 credit. He exercised a wise discretion in attacking them, instead of waiting 
 until they became the aggressors. Indeed, most of the colonists who were 
 unfavourable to the authorities and their system of administering the law on the 
 diggings, were compelled to condemn this open attempt to overthrow the Govern- 
 ment. The Legislative Council, then in session, presented an address of sympathy 
 to his Excellency, which was of the following tenor : that, having been placed in 
 a painfully embarrassing position since his arrival in the colony, he was entitled 
 to the sympathy and support of the legislature. Sir Charles Ilotham was very
 
 448 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 far from inexijerienced in affairs of State importance. lie was particularly happy 
 in his reply. The firm resolve to suppress the incipient revolution was softened 
 by the readiness M'ith which he offered to redress those grievances which the 
 diggers had complained of He said it Avould be his constant endeavour to 
 conduct the government with the utmost possible temper ; he said the time for 
 military rule had passed ; but when there was an outbreak, and that caused by 
 foreigners — men Avho had not been suffered to remain in their own country in 
 consequence of the violence of their character — then Englishmen must sink all 
 minor differences, and unite to support the authorities. The Government, how- 
 ever, fared rather differently Avhen a direct appeal was made to the people. A 
 public meeting had been called by requisition, to consider the best means for 
 protecting the city during the crisis at the diggings. The principal agitators in 
 this matter seemed to be the members of the legislature, who took a large share 
 in the proceedings of this public meeting. The resolutions proposed Avere 
 received with such ill-concealed dissatisfaction, that, after the mayor had 
 declared two of them to be carried, the opponents of the Government interfered, 
 and such confusion prevailed that the gentleman avIio presided vacated the chair, 
 which was occupied by Dr Embling, and a series of resolutions diametrically 
 opposed to the proceedings of the Executive, and demanding an immediate settle- 
 ment of the differences between the Government and the diggers, Avere carried 
 with the utmost enthusiasm. Mr Frencham, who has been already alluded to as 
 one of the discoverers of gold in Victoria, spoke on behalf of the diggers, and told 
 the people they " must go forth Avith their brother diggers to conquer or die." 
 The Government demonstration having terminated in so very unsatisfactory a 
 manner, another meeting Avas convened on the following day " for the assertion 
 of order and the protection of constitutional liberty." It took place on a large 
 open space of ground near St Paul's Church, at the corner of Flinders' Lane. 
 From four thousand to seven thousand people were present, the chair being filled 
 by Henry Langlands, Esq., one of the largest employers of labour in IMelbourne. 
 The speakers were Messrs Blair, Owens, FaAvkner, Fulton, Frencham, Gi'ant, 
 Cathie, and Embling. The resolutions condemned the Avhole policy of the Govern- 
 ment, and declared that, Avliile disapproving of the i:)hysical resistance offered by 
 the diggers, the meeting could not, Avithout betraying the interests of liberty, lend 
 its aid to the Executive until the coercive measures they Avere attempting to 
 introduce should be abandoned. The result of this meeting had very consider- 
 able Aveight Avith the Executive, and the same afternoon a Government Gazette 
 extraordinary appeared, in Avhich Avas a proclamation revoking martial laAv on 
 Ballarat. 
 
 The repulse at the stockade did not depress the diggers, and a body of about 
 one thousand armed men was, at this time, collected together on the CresAvick 
 road. It Avas very fortunate that Sir Robert Nickle, Avho had noAv assumed the 
 command, Avas an old and experienced officer. He immediately restrained the 
 violence of the police and military, and held several parleys Avith the disaffected 
 diggers, in which he strongly urged them to return to their duty. This exhibition 
 of good feeling, in conjunction Avitb the resignation of the chief-secretary, Mr
 
 THE BALLAEAT REBKLLION. 449 
 
 Foster, and the appointment of a commission, calmed the excitement. The 
 magistrates were very leiuent with tlie prisoners by order of the Executive, and 
 only convicted in very glaring cases, and expressing no ill-feeling towards those 
 who were in custody of the police. Meetings were held in Geelong, Bendigo, 
 and other places, and resolutions strongly condemning the policy of the (lovern- 
 ment towards the diggers were carried. A meeting was also held on liallarat, and 
 resolutions were passed, praying the military officials to enforce the martial law 
 with as much forbearance and humanity as the circumstances of the case would 
 admit of Mr Ilumffi'ay, who was the bearer of the resolutions, was arrested 
 upon presenting himself at the camp, but liberated after it had been discovered 
 that he was a moral and not a physical force opponent of their measures. 
 
 On the 8th of December Mr Foster officially announced that he had resigned 
 the office of Colonial Secretary, and declared that the charge made against him, 
 of abusing the patronage of the Government, was quite unfounded. That day a 
 proclamation appeared nominating William Clarke Haines (the new Colonial 
 Secretary), William Westgarth, John Pascoe Fawkner, John O'Shanassy, William 
 Henry Wright, and James Ford Strachan, Esqs., to be commissioners for inquir- 
 ing into the state of the goldfields and the grounds of the complaints, with a view 
 to ascertain how far they were well-founded ; and to devise and carry out a 
 system which, making due provision for an adequate revenue, with the least 
 possible expenditure of public funds, should afford every facility for the develop- 
 ment of the minei'al wealth of the colony, and prove the least harassing and 
 vexatious to the miners ; and to inquire into the manner in which the law had 
 been administered in order to ascertain if unnecessary harshness or undue 
 partiality had been shown ; and, further, to inquire into all complaints relating 
 either to the privileges or pecuniary interests of the mining population. 
 
 The commissioners reached Ballarat on the 17th December, and proceeded to 
 collect evidence upon the multifarious subjects with which they had to deal. The 
 terrible concomitants connected with the insurrection were now ajDparently con- 
 cluded ; it was not the commission, nor the legislature, that the colony was, 
 however, indebted to at the time for exemption from the horrors of revolution, 
 so much as the respectable mercantile and middle classes. 
 
 When Sir Charles Hotham engaged in the affair at Ballarat ho could not 
 foresee the consequences of it, because he misunderstood the temper of the 
 people of the colony. Perhaps it was fortunate for his Government that the 
 insurgents were not more moderate in their views and more considerate in their 
 measures. He had been led to believe that the spirit raised by the arbitrary 
 conduct of his officials on the diggings reached no farther than the tents of 
 Ballarat and Bendigo. Those with whom he came into coiitact had studiously 
 impressed upon his mind that no sympathy existed in the two principal cities 
 with the agitation ; but he was grievously disapjiointed. Instead of a cordial 
 and pleasing harmony of opinion, favourable to the Government, there was a 
 jarring dissonance ; instead of pleasure at the discomfiture of the diggers, a 
 melancholy regret and a general fear for the ultimate result pervaded all classes, 
 except, perhaps, the adherents of the Executive Council. The reins of govern- 
 
 '6 h
 
 450 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ment, which had been loose, were now in clanger of being tightened, and clear- 
 minded men feared that the bubble of revolutionary government would do 
 injury. If it succeeded, anarchy must ensue ; if it failed, then a horrible despotism 
 Avould be inevitable, and, under martial law, free men would be kept down by a 
 relentless soldiery. The legislature was, at this time, slavishly attached to the 
 chariot-wheels of the Government ; it was the mercantile, agricultural, and 
 working classes that saw the crisis in its proper light, and would not be misled 
 by either Government or legislatm'e. There was only one way of settling the 
 affair — by a reconciliation. Well Avas it for the diggers and the colony that the 
 people of Melbourne and Geelong made common cause Avith them, Avhile dis- 
 approving of the false step they had been induced to take. 
 
 Sir Charles Hotham having mixed but little with general society, and finding 
 the Legislative Council submissive, formed too low an estimate of the character, 
 attainments, and respectability of those who formed the community. His position 
 prevented him from appreciating the feelings of the great body of the colonists ; 
 for, notwithstanding his popular professions, he Avas distant in his manners, and 
 inaccessible to the public. 
 
 If anything had been wanting to convince the Government of the real state of 
 public feeling, the result of the State trials must have sufficed for the purpose. 
 The law officers indicted those Avho Avere taken prisoners in the stockade, and 
 against Avhom they possessed sufficient evidence to ensure convictions for high 
 treason. The juiy Avere citizens of Melljourne and small farmers in the adjoining- 
 country, and had no particular sympathy with the diggers. So thoroughly were 
 they convinced of the misgovernment and misconduct Avhich had been apparent 
 in the management of the goldfields, that, notAvithstanding very great exertions 
 made by the CroA\Ti laAvyers, the prisoners Avere found not guilty. So excited 
 were the spectators, avIio thronged the Court, that cheers rang through the 
 building when the verdict was returned in the case of a poor negro who was the 
 first of those Avho Avere brought to trial, and these shouts were taken uji outside 
 and re-echoed Avith great earnestness. The officers of the Com't attempted to 
 suppress these demonstrations, and two unfortunate fellows were seized and 
 punished by the Chief-Justice Avith seven days' imprisonment for so flagrant a 
 contempt of Court, his honour remarking that the demonstration Avas an insult to 
 the jiu'y, because, if it Avas a conscientious verdict, they had done no more than 
 their duty, and if it Avere not so, no popular applause Avould recompense them. 
 
 Responsible government commenced in reality Avith the resignation of Mr 
 Foster. The political influence of the people Avas brought directly to bear on that 
 minister, and he had to boAV to this omnipotent poAver and retire from office. 
 The great demonstrations in Melbom'ue, Geelong, and elsewhere, had opened the 
 eyes of the goA^ernor to the Avidespread disaffection Avhich everywhere prevailed.
 
 MISGO VEJINMENT. 451 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MISGOVEENMENT. 
 
 governor's message — THE GOVERNOR WAVERING — A NEW CHIEF-SECRETARY — 
 REFORMS PROMISED — VOTE OF CENSURE — DEATH OF GENERAL NICKLE — THE 
 GOVERNOR UNPOPULAR — THE SECRET COMMISSION — BUNGLING FINANCE — NEW 
 CONSTITUTION PROCLAIMED — THE OLD MINISTRY AND THE NEW — PENSIONS — THE 
 BALLOT — DEATH OF SIR CHARLES HOTHAM — HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 Sir Charles Hotham sent down a message to the Legislative Council, recom- 
 mending that a sum equivalent to two years' salary be placed on the estimates to 
 compensate Mr Foster for the loss of his office. The members had no documents 
 before them to guide their judgment, and declined to entertain the request. His 
 Excellency was now experiencing some of the consequences of his own impolitic 
 conduct. He had commenced by enunciating liberal opinions ; he had ended by 
 carrying out some very arbitrary measures, and giving the imperial authorities 
 some unwise and illiberal advice. The crisis was not brought about solely by the 
 indignation of the betrayed diggers ; it had its source as well from the genei'al 
 dissatisfaction at the incompetency and faithlessness of the public officials. On 
 the diggings this was most fatally exhibited, and nothing less than a total 
 disorganisation of society was threatened. The distemper which had been 
 lurking and latent in the social system now became malignant. Sir Charles had 
 excited the hopes of the digging population by his expressions of liberalism, and 
 had afterwards handed them over to the tender mercies of a despotic jiolice. In 
 any crisis such as this the property and intelligence of the colony should rally 
 round the Executive authority ; but the conservative element at this time, 
 however indisposed to countenance rebellion, was bewildered at the unintelligible 
 policy of a governor who talked of liberty and exercised tyrannical power. The 
 more experienced began to doubt his judgment and aptitude for administering 
 the government ; and, totally luiacquainted with the difficulties which he had 
 then to contend with, held aloof He required advice, for he had no cordial 
 sympathy or assistance from his constitutional advisers, and he had too little 
 knowledge of the state of affairs to govern without such aid. His Excellency, 
 however, displayed considerable discrimination in selecting a successor to 
 Mr Foster. Mr Haines had been returned by the popular voice to the Legislative 
 Council, and was an Englishman and a member of the Church of England, and, 
 therefore, likely to be acceptable to a large portion of the comnumity. INIr Haines 
 may be regarded as a minister called to power by the fiivour of the governor and
 
 452 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the good opinion of the people. The events which had passed had taught 
 Sir Charles Hotham a useful lesson ; and, from this time to his death, he evinced 
 a greater desire to govern the colony in a constitutional manner ; and the conse- 
 quence Avas that it continued prosperous and tranquil. Sir Charles Hotham had 
 learned from practical experience — what he might have learned equally well from 
 history, if he had bestowed any share of attention on that most useful study — 
 that to administer the government of any country in accordance with the 
 interests and Avishes of the community, is comparatively easy and simple ; but no 
 authority can long exist without the confidence of the people. 
 
 On the 13th December 1854, the new secretary was introduced to the Legis- 
 lative Council l)y the Attorney-General and the collector of customs ; in his first 
 address he said that the Government contemplated great changes in the 
 administration of the goldfields, by conceding a proper representation in the 
 legislature, and introducing amongst the jjeojile institutions for local self- 
 government. Like the people of Canada the colonists on the Victorian goldfields 
 only obtained justice after attempting to levy war on her Majesty, and set her 
 authority at defiance. But the diggers, in this case, were saved from severe 
 coercion by the sympathy of the people, who thereby convinced the Executive 
 of the erroneous system upon which the government had been cai'ried out. 
 The true method of tranquillising the diggers was at last adojited, by granting 
 them political privileges co-ec[ual with the other classes of the community. The 
 insurrection on Ballarat had a beneficial effect upon the colony; it promoted 
 social and political progress, and helped materially to place the relations of the 
 Government and the people upon a proper and defined basis. The two bills for 
 carrying into eftect these necessary and conciliatory measures passed the Legis- 
 lative Council in May. The Council Increase Bill gave Sandhurst, Castlemaine, 
 and Ballarat two, and the Avoca and Ovens one representative, being eight 
 members, which gave his Excellency the privilege of nominating four. The 
 Goldfields Law Amendment Act provided for the issue of a miner's right, which 
 should give the holder power to work upon the Crown lands for one year. A 
 local court was also called into existence, before which the miners were enabled 
 to bring their differences for adjustment. The miners could sit as members of 
 the local courts, and vote at their election. The Government was empowered 
 to issue leases for aui'iferous land, subject to certain conditions to be framed by 
 local boards. These important measures for extending the franchise to the 
 diggers, and introducing self-govei'nment amongst them, had the desired effect. 
 Tranquillity has ever since reigned over the gold-digging regions. 
 
 The close of the session was marked by a partial vote of censure u})on the 
 Government. Mr Strachan moved, " That this House deems it inexpedient and 
 impolitic in the Government introducing any new mode of taxation during the 
 present session." A long debate occurred on the question, and it was only 
 afiirmed by a majority of one. In closing the session Sir Charles Hotham spoke 
 very brielly, and merely alluded to the ordinary topics ; in reference to the vote 
 we have just noticed he said, " I am compelled to stop such of the public works 
 as are not under contract, and to make further reductions in those establish-
 
 MISGOVERNMENT. 453 
 
 ments which the Council have resolved to be necessary for the performance of 
 the public service." 
 
 The colonists were deeply grieved at the death of Major-General Sir Robert 
 Nickle, on the 29tli jNIay 1855. This distinguished oflTiccr had entered the army 
 in 1798, and served throughout the Peninsular War, with great distinction. He 
 had aftci'wards been in the States of America and Canada, and in the East and 
 West Indies, and was at this time Commander-in-Chief in the Australian 
 Colonies. He acquired some share of ijopularity in Victoria, from the great 
 temper and forbearance he had exhibited towards the digging population after 
 the insurrection at Ballarat. 
 
 Sir Charles Hotham had become so unpopular that it was seriously in con- 
 temjjlation to forward a requisition to the governor-general, in Sydney, to come 
 and investigate the position of the Government of Victoria. The movement 
 was not untimely acted on ; but it occasioned some sensation. 
 
 Sir Charles Hotham, who appeared to have deemed commissions the only 
 method of attaining correct information on questions of public interest, api^ointed 
 a committee of three to inquire into the financial condition of the colony. The 
 instructions of his Excellency referred to the large sums under the head of 
 imprests remaining unbalanced, the necessity of a searching inquiry into the 
 finances of the colony, and also for devising a financial scheme suitable for the 
 future. The gentlemen who formed this " secret commission " were the auditor- 
 general, William Hamilton Hart, and David Charters ]\IacArthur, Esqs., and 
 they reported on the 11th September 1854. The committee exposed some of 
 the frightful eftects of the imj)rest system ; by retm-ns they furnished it ajjpearcd 
 that, on the 28th August, the sum of £1,682,328 had been imprested, and no 
 adjustment of it eflected ; and, deducting £372,089, the accounts not due, there 
 was the balance of £1,310,238 unaccounted for; of this balance accounts for 
 £8093 had been received and passed for warrant ; accounts for £157,835 were 
 in course of examination ; accounts for £182,599 had been received in the Audit 
 Ofiice ; accounts for £677,964 had been received, but the authority for the 
 expenditure was insufficient, leaving the sum of £283,745 wholly unaccounted 
 for. Of the large sum of £1,310,238, which remains unadjusted, the Civil Com- 
 missariat, Police, and Public Works Departments represent £883,250. The 
 committee recommended that the imprest system should be abolished, and 
 accounts discharged after final audit only at the Treasury. 
 
 The new constitutions, as framed by the legislatures of the different colonies, 
 were brought before Parliament by Lord John Russell, and passed with scarcely 
 any remark. Mr Lowe opposed the nominated Upper House for New South 
 Wales, but his opposition was ineffectual. When we reflect that all the other 
 colonies in the southern hemisphere, as well as the Cape, selected elective 
 Upper Chambers, and that the Imperial Parliament passed a measure enabling 
 Canada to alter the constitution of its Upper House from nomination by the 
 Crown to popular election, Ave cannot but agree with the views of ISIr Lowe, and 
 regret that his suggestion was not adopted. The New Constitution Act for 
 Victoria was received by the " Shalimar," which anchored in Hobson's Bay on
 
 454 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the 16th October 1855. It was officially proclaimed on the 23d of November, 
 and the day was kept as a public holiday, and the anniversary is still observed. 
 
 A wide difference of opinion existed as to the exact period when the various 
 heads of departments should cease to be responsible to the Crown and become 
 responsible to the popular legislature. The officials felt themselves in a difficult 
 position in framing the estimates ; the doubtful point was this : should they 
 regard the estimates as framed by his Excellency, and the ministry as being 
 responsible to him for the manner in which they carried them out, as had hitherto 
 been the case, or should they look upon the estimates of revenue and expenditure 
 as their own, and introduce them in the approved budget fashion ? The Colonial 
 Secretary asked the governor in what position, as to responsibility, he considered 
 the officials to stand; and, after the subject had been duly considered, the high 
 officials received a circular releasing them from office on "political grounds." 
 Mr Haines, the ex-chief secretary, was then sent for in the most approved form, 
 and, having been requested by his Excellency to form a ministry, immediately 
 appeared with the members of the Executive who had just resigned. The 
 Council and the people concurred in thinking the members of the ministry were 
 actuated by a desire to secure their pensions. Under the 50th clause of the 
 New Constitution Act, i^ersous released from office on political grounds are 
 entitled to pensions, but this clause, however, is qualified by the next clause, 
 which provides that pensions shall be granted subject to the regulations in force 
 in Britain, which shut out all who may not have been two years in office. The 
 new ministers only escaped a severe vote of censure for thus prematurely 
 assuming " responsibility " by one vote. They had, moreover, anything but an 
 agreeable task before them, with the great bulk of the popular members 
 decidedly hostile to their policy, and the governor inclined to exact compliances 
 hardly in accordance with their vaunted responsibility. 
 
 The question of vote by ballot was introduced into the legislature by Mr 
 Nicholson on the 18th December 1855. The motion which he submitted was to 
 the effect " that, in the opinion of the House, any new electoral Act should 
 provide for electors recording their votes by secret ballot." This resolution was 
 not only opposed by the newly-appointed responsible Government, Avho, contrary 
 to ]\Ir Nicholson's express desire, made it a ministerial question, but by several 
 members who were opposed to the ministry. It was, notwithstanding, affirmed 
 by thirty-three votes to twenty-five, and the cabinet had, of course, no alternative 
 but to resign. They had made an error in consequence of their having over- 
 rated the influence of those popular members who were antagonistic to the 
 measure. The advocates of the ballot had not anticipated this, and were scarcely 
 prepared for assuming the responsil)ility of forming an administration. Sir 
 Charles Ilotham adojited the constitutional course of sending for Mr Nicholson, 
 who, rather unwillingly, accepted the task of forming a ministry. 
 
 During the pending negotiations between Mr Nicholson and the other sup- 
 porters of the ballot in the House, Sir Charles Hotham's death occurred ; and 
 Major-General Macarthur, the officer who assumed the administration of the 
 government, in accordance with the letters-patent appointing the former to bo
 
 MISGOVERNMENT. 455 
 
 governor-in-chicf of the colony, recalled Mr Haines and the other members of 
 his ministry to power. 
 
 The death of the governor was quite unexpected. On the morning of the 
 22d December 1855, he was seized witli diarrluea ; the colonial surgeon, IJr 
 M'Crae, was in attendance, and the coniphunt yielded to medical treatment. 
 His Excellency was very anxious about public affairs at this time, as ]\Ir Nichol- 
 son was attempting to form a ministry, and on the message from that gentleman 
 having been delivered to him, announcing that he had abandoned the attempt, a 
 material change for the worse was observed to take place. His Excellency 
 gradually became weaker until the 3Uth day of December (Sunday), when he was 
 attacked by a shock of epilepsy, which was succeeded by other fits at intervals of 
 about half an hour. About eleven o'clock on the forenoon of the last day of 
 1855, he became comatose, and expired at a quarter to one o'clock on that day. 
 
 His Excellency's demise was sudden ; indeed, the people had not heard of 
 illness before his death was announced. Mental anxiety and disappointment 
 accelerated his death. He was a high-spirited officer, who had been accustomed to 
 success, and who, had he been sent to the Crimea, as had been intended, would, 
 most probably, have nobly distinguished himself ; but who, unfortunately, mis- 
 understood his position as Governor of Victoria. He desired to follow the 
 example of Lord Metcalf, but he had neither his long experience nor his great 
 abilities ; like him, he treated his ministers with spirit, and determined to stand 
 out for prerogative, but he had not his steady temper and unflinching self- 
 reliance. His manner also was, unfortunately, stiff, formal, and distant with 
 such public men as came into contact w^th him ; unlike Lord Metcalf, who was 
 gifted with so sweet a temper that he was beloved by his greatest political 
 opponents. As he had neither sufficient experience nor ability to govern the 
 colony, and would not submit to the misgovernment which he found in operation, 
 so he Avasted his health and spirits in vain attempts to grapple with what was 
 beyond his reach ; yet, had he lived to see constitutional government fairly intro- 
 duced, and been practically convinced of the Avorthlessness of some of his oj^inions, 
 he would have made a very good governor. No one can deny to him the credit 
 of having been thoroughly honest, and anxious to discharge all his duties Avith 
 activity and zeal. There was no intentional error which could be laid to his 
 charge. He went down to the grave with his fame unsullied ; the mistake was 
 clearly to be laid at the door of the imperial authorities, who sent a first-rate 
 naval officer, not to Sebastopol, where he was required, but to Victoria, where 
 he was not wanted, and where a thoroughly-trained and experienced statesman 
 was really urgently needed to bring into operation responsible government, and to 
 nip incipient rebellion in the bud. The Legislative Council voted £1500 towards 
 defi-aying the expense of his burial and erecting a monument to his memory. The 
 funeral was attended by all the officials and public bodies belonging to the colony 
 who were able to attend ; indeed, nothing was wanting on the part of the colonists 
 in performing the last sad rites to their deceased governor, who was regarded by 
 not a few as a mai'tyr in the cause of the colony. A fine monument, Avith an inscriji- 
 tioU; in the ]\Ielbourne cemetery, hands down his i\anie to future generations.
 
 456 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ERA. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM STARTED— CHANGES IN THE GOVERNORSHIP AND ADMINIS- 
 TRATION—CHURCH AND STATE— THE LAND LAWS— THE COMMERCIAL TARIFF- 
 PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY — FUTURE PROSPECTS. 
 
 Major-General Macarthur, the commander of the forces, held the post of 
 interim governor for a period of exactly twelve months. He discharged its 
 duties Avith great credit to himself, and much advantage to the colony, during 
 Avhat was, in many respects, a troubled and critical time. The new system of 
 representative institutions was then put upon its trial ; and a pretty rough trial 
 it proved to be. First came an agitation in favour of having the popular pre- 
 rogative so extended as to oust altogether the influence of the Crown and of 
 the Home Government. Within a month of Sir Charles Hotham's death an 
 immense meeting was held to petition that the choice of his successor should be 
 entrusted to the colony itself. Over three thousand persons assembled in 
 Astley's Amphitheatre at Melbourne to consider this proposal. The recognised 
 leaders of the Liberal party held aloof from the gathering, at which two amend- 
 ments were proposed, both directed— the one in very strong language, the other 
 in much milder terms— to a repudiation of the scheme as being unwise and im- 
 practicable ; but the original motion was carried. Of course nothing came of it. 
 Yet the excitement it caused was very considerable ; and save for the calm, firm, 
 and sensible behaviour of the governor, things might have become serious. 
 
 Soon after, there came a general. election. As being the first under the 
 new constitution this was necessarily a matter of much importance. Each of 
 the six provinces had to return five members to the Upper House, and ten to 
 the Lower. For a while the business was gone about in a very apathetic 
 manner ; but ere all was done an extraordinary degree of keenness was evinced, 
 and great expense was incurred. It was said that some of the defeated candi- 
 dates for ]\Ielbourne spent £4000 or £5000 each in the contest. On all hands 
 there was discontent with the high property qualification imposed on candidates, 
 with the restrictions placed on the exercise of the franchise, and with the length' 
 of time for which the Assembly was elected. A Keform Bill of some sort wlvs, 
 indeed, an imperative demand. Two other questions also came to the front— 
 the abolition of " State Aid to Religion," and the granting of " Compensation to 
 Squatters." A large number of Liberal politicians were in favour of letting these 
 remain open questions ; but others, more ardent, insisted that they should be voted 
 upon. The result scarcely justified their earnestness. The Lower House which
 
 i>^(,.tryWI>'AR:Jc'-jut».i:dia><it^
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ERA. 457 
 
 was elected — consisting of four native Australians, twenty-seven Englishmen, six- 
 teen Irishmen, and a dozen Scots — Avas divided upon the religious question, with 
 thirty-three for State aid, twenty-two against it, and four doubtful. Mr David 
 ISIoore, one of the " native-born," headed the Melbourne poll, while the Irish 
 leader, Mr O'Shanassy, was last on the list. Mr Gavan Duffy, who had been 
 rather more than six months a resident, had also a place upon it, although 
 some feeling had been roused against him by a refusal to coalesce with Mr John 
 P. Faukner, the practical founder of the colony. 
 
 The new Parliament was opened on the 25th of November. The governor 
 addressed the members in a statesman-like speech, pointing out that the work- 
 ing of the new constitution Avould require to be watched with an incessant vigil- 
 ance ; but recommending that though many changes might be desired, it would 
 be well to await the teachings of experience in regard to aU save those the pro- 
 priety and necessity of which Avere very evident. At the same time, he sub- 
 mitted, on the part of the ministry, a long list of measures for Avhich approval 
 was to be asked. They comprised the introduction of the competitive system 
 into the jjublic service ; the promotion of public works, especially in the formation 
 of roads, railways, and telegraphs ; an entire change in the laws as to the sale of 
 fermented liquors and distillation, the prohibition of which last, he said, had 
 been productive of much public immorality ; a bill to further public education ; a 
 biU to admit all religious bodies, whose tenets were not subversive of morality and 
 good government, to a share in the grant for maintaining religious ordinances ; 
 and a bill to regulate the sale and occupation of Crown lands, proceeding upon 
 the principles of keeping up the sale by auction at a stated price, of so revising the 
 plan of gold licenses as to save the interests of the freeholder, and of granting an 
 interest to occupiers, not freeholders, subject to an acreable rent to be periodi- 
 cally determined by an independent tribunal. The ministry which started with 
 this extensive and ambitious programme very soon came to grief over its last 
 item ; but before then the new governor. Sir Henry Barkly, had arrived. 
 
 Sir Henry was the son of a Eoss-shire gentleman who had become an 
 eminent West India merchant. He was born in London in 1815 ; and on leav- 
 ing school, entered his fathex-'s counting-house. He soon displayed much 
 business ability; and in 1845, the year before the corn laws were repealed, 
 he entered Parliament as the member for Leominster, and a " firm supporter of 
 Sir Robert Peel's commercial policy." In 1849 the Whigs sent him out as 
 Governor of Guiana, Avhere he had estates. So successful w^as his administra- 
 tion, that he was speedily transferred to Jamaica. From thence he Avas now 
 shifted to Victoria — the rising importance of Avhich Avas more evident to Sir 
 William MolesAvorth, then the Colonial Secretary, than to most contemporary 
 statesmen. He arrived on the 23d of December, Avas installed on the 2Cth, and 
 held his first levee on Ncav Year's Day— the attendance being very large, and 
 his reception exceedingly cordial. He created a very favourable impression; 
 and his popularity remained unabated during the half-dozen years of his 
 governorship. Perhaps an unhappy event Avhich took place a few months after 
 his arrival did something to fix it. His Avife was even a greater favourite than 
 
 3 M
 
 458 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 himself. She was very fond of driving a pony phaeton, and often Avent ont 
 unattended. One day she was thus proceeding up the slope of the Princes 
 Bridge as a St Kilda omnibus was coming in the other direction. The harness 
 of the omnibus team was rotten ; some part of it snapped ; the horses broke away; 
 and the big lumbering vehicle came swinging down upon her. She had drawn as 
 close as she could to her own side of the road, but was struck, overturned, and 
 taken up fainting. In a few days after she was prematurel}^ delivered of a son. 
 In another few days her corpse and that of her child were laid in a grave of her 
 own selection. The driver of the omnibus was arrested ; but she would not hear 
 of any one appearing against him, insisting that it was a pure accident. So the 
 man Avas discharged ; the affair was hushed up ; and at her own request, made 
 in order to preserve the secrecy tliat had been maintained, she was buried 
 quietly at an early hour in the morning. The thing, however, could not be hid ; 
 and as the facts oozed out, admiration for the nobility of the woman and 
 sympathy with the sorrow of her husband had full sway. 
 
 This great blow struck Sir Henry when engaged with the entanglements of a 
 ministerial crisis. His first ministry, it has been stated, was defeated over its 
 Land Bill. The defeat took place upon an amendment moved by Mr O'Shanassy, 
 who was in due coui"se " sent for," and who formed a ministry comprising Chap- 
 man, Foster, Duffy, and others, which did not last two months. It was defeated 
 upon a motion of "no confidence," which was carried by thirty-four to nineteen. 
 Mr Haines again became Chief Secretary, with a slight change of coadjutors. 
 Since then, up till 1878, there have been eighteen successive ministries and 
 eight Pai^liamcnts. The longest lived was the first M'Culloch administration, 
 Avhich lasted for five years. 
 
 Shortly after the installation of that ministry, Sir H. Barkly was shifted to 
 the Mauritius. He Avas succeeded by Sir Charles Darling, a man of much 
 experience, whose reign, however, Avas rendered unfortunately remarkable by 
 a contest betAveen the tAvo Houses of the legislature, Avhich Avas Avaged for 
 a long Avhile Avith great obstinacy. The conduct of Sir Charles in relation 
 to it Avas visited Avith the disapproval of the Home Government, who con- 
 demned him for having acted unconstitutionally, and ordered his recall in 
 April 18(36. The difficulty arose in this manner. The Ujiper House vetoed 
 a tarifi' bill Avhich Avas sent up to them. It came back " tacked " on to the 
 Appropriation Bill. This Avas enough to ensure its renewed rejection, in 
 accordance Avith the rule Avhich Sir Erskine ]\Iay in his book upon par- 
 liamentary practice says has long been folloAved by the British House of 
 Lords. The Appropriation Bill being rejected, there Avas no money to pay any 
 one. In these circumstances the governor hit upon Avhat Avas deemed a v(;ry 
 ingenious expedient. An Act was fished up Avhich authorised him to pay any 
 sum for the public service which the Supreme Court might decree to be owing. 
 So Sir Charles confessed at once the adverse judgments given against him in 
 great numbers, borroAved the money, and then paid it back, vastly to the delight 
 of the Assembly. Thus the struggle ended for a Avhile in the triumph of the 
 Council. After his recall, hoAvevei", they were fain to dissever the tAVO bills. Sir
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ERA. 4:)9 
 
 Charles died very soon after coming home. He had been singularly unfortunate. 
 The Assembly had voted him a handsome sum as compensation for his loss of 
 office. Demur was raised to his acceptance of it, and after a good deal of 
 negotiation he had agreed to its surrender, provided ho was again placed upon 
 the Colonial Office list. It is to the credit of the colony that his widow was 
 not allowed to suffer on this account. Her pension was paid from its funds. 
 
 Pending the arrival of Sir John Henry Thomas Manners Sutton, after- 
 wards Viscount Canterbury, the duties of governor were dischaiged for three 
 months by General Carey. The new governor had entered public life at 
 an early age, had served as Under-Secretary for Home Affairs in Sir Robert 
 Peel's administration, 1841-46, and had subsequently acted as Governor of New 
 Brunswick and of Trinidad. A man of mild and equable temper, though of great 
 firmness, his reign was peaceable and prosperous. He was succeeded in 1873 
 by Sir George Ferguson Bowen, the son of a North of Ireland clergyman. In his 
 early days Sir George was president of the University of Corfu. He afterwards 
 became secretary to the Government of the Ionian Islands, Avhere he married a 
 princess of Greek birth, and was then in 1859 made Governor of Queensland, 
 whence, in 1868, he was transferred to New Zealand. He spent the year 1875 at 
 home, on leave of absence, during which time his deputy was Sir W. F. Stawell. 
 He came back to encounter soon afterwards a very formidable difficulty, such as 
 threatened for a time to surpass that which arose under Sir Charles Darling. 
 The Legislative Assembly had resolved upon paying its members. They 
 included in the estimates of the year a vote for a sum large enough to meet the 
 expenditure upon the scale it was proposed to apply. At the same time, in order 
 to legalise the provision, they passed a separate measure enacting that it was 
 expedient to take such a step. The Council, aware of what had been done other- 
 wise, refused even to consider the proposal, insisting that they ought to have 
 been consulted beforehand, and that it was insulting to present to them for sanction 
 a measure of such importance with all the arrangements for carrying it out cut 
 and dry. So sharp was the contention between the two that very serious con- 
 sequences ensued, and the most alarming fears were entertained. There was 
 again, as in Sir Charles Darling's time, no money to pay anybody. Sir George 
 Bowen, however, did not act as Sir Charles acted. Convinced that ministers were 
 sustained by the opinion of the people, he refused to dissolve Parliament, put 
 himself into the hands of the cabinet, and did whatever they bade him— after 
 having ascertained from his law officers that it was legal Things went so far 
 that county-court judges, police magistrates, coroners, and other public officials 
 were publicly announced for dismissal. Eeturning sanity, however, prevented 
 the explosion this would have caused. The cooler heads upon both sides 
 became desirous of an amicable arrangement. The Hon. Caleb Jenner, a member 
 of the Council, with Messrs Lyell and Munro from opposite benches in the 
 Assembly, devised a method of extrication. The principle of it was that the 
 payment of members should be continued throughout the existing Parliament, 
 but that neither House should seem to yield to the other. To manage this it 
 was agreed that the ministry should introduce to the Lower House a new
 
 1(30 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Appropriation Bill, divested of the clauses to which objection had been taken, 
 and that thereupon the Upper House, without Avaiting for the amended bill 
 being sent on, should, as if spontaneously, consider the Separate Payment of 
 Members Bill. This programme was faithfully and happily carried out ; and so 
 ended a crisis in which at one time it appeared more than probable that the con- 
 stitution would be broken down, and the colony be thrown into anarchy. It did 
 not end, however, without a good deal of bitter controversy and recrimination. 
 The Coxincil, in an address to the governor, animadverted very strongly upon his 
 conduct, drawing from him a pungent reply. The Assembly, in a like address, 
 highly lauded what he had done, and got from him a cordially sympathetic 
 response. The Home Government joined with the popular body, for one of the 
 first acts of Sir Michael Hicks Beach on assuming the seals of the Colonial Office 
 early in 1878, was to express his thorough approbation of Sir George Bow en's 
 action and attitude all through this trying time. 
 
 During this period various important changes were made, alike as regards 
 the constitution of the colonial legislature, the qualifications of those who 
 might sit in it, and the qualifications of those in whom were vested the right of 
 election. All the changes, made under the pressure of divers influences, at divers 
 times, and in very divers manners, have been steadily directed towards two 
 objects — the widening of the representative basis, and the reduction of the pro- 
 perty qualification which confers a right to vote. The Act 'of 1876 (40 Vict., No. 
 458), read along with the primary Acts, and those Avhich have followed as amend- 
 ments, puts the matter in this position. The number of members in the Upper 
 House, or Legislative Council, remains as at first — viz., thirty — five from each of 
 the Central, North- West, North-East, South-East, and West Provinces. But 
 the qualification of a member was reduced in 1869 to this level, that he should 
 be thirty years of age, a natural born subject, and the possessor of freehold 
 property valued at £2500, or £250 annual value, without charge or encum- 
 brance — judges, clergymen, and criminals being excluded. The qualification 
 of an elector now is, that he be of age, a natural born subject or naturalised, 
 and the possessor of property rated at £50 a year — an exception being made, 
 as regards this last, in respect of all graduates of a British University, matri- 
 culated students of JNIelbourne, members of the learned professions, and military 
 or naval officers. The number of members in the Assembly has been repeatedly 
 increased — notably in 1857 and 1876. The Act of 1876 raised them to 
 eighty-six, the electoral districts being fifty-five — five of which are represented 
 by three meml)ers, twenty-one by two, and twenty-nine by one each. For 
 membership the sole qualifications now are these — full age, being a natural born 
 subject, or an alien legally naturalised for five years, who has lived in Victoria 
 for two. As regards the electors, universal manhood suffi-age is now the rule. 
 
 The activities of the colonial legislature since its formation have clustered 
 maiidy around three principal questions — the public payment of religious 
 teachers, the disposal of public lands, and the regulation of a commercial tariff'. 
 Upon each of them very important decisions have been axTivcd at, and a strong 
 attitude has been assumed.
 
 THE CONSriTUTfONAL EllA. 101 
 
 It was provided by the Constitution Act, that, for the advancement of the Chris- 
 tian religion in Victoria, £;")(),()()() should be sot apart each year from the general 
 revenue, to provide buildings for public worship, and the maintenance of the clergy 
 who served in them — the sum being distributed among all denominations, accord- 
 ing to their numerical strength at the preceding census. The arrangement was 
 challenged in the first meeting of the Assembly, and led to a great deal of cross 
 voting. Year by year it occasioned a large amount of controversy, till at length a 
 bill for its repeal was carried (Act 34 Vict., No. 391), which was reserved for the 
 royal assent on the 15th July 1870, and was assented to 16th January 1871 — the 
 I'epeal to take effect from and after the 31st December 1875. From the begin- 
 ning of 1876, therefore, no State money has been given for the support of religion. 
 
 The land laws have undergone many alterations. At first all land was 
 offered for sale at a minimum price of 12s. per acre. In 1840 this was altei'ed 
 to a minimum of 20s. Large blocks called " special surveys," and one block of 
 a square mile in extent upon each squatting run, were, however, under orders in 
 Council, exempted from auction, and were permitted to be bought at £1 per 
 acre. In 1860 it was made permissible for any intending investor to select what 
 suited him from the surveyed lands at the uniform price of 20s., with the option 
 of paying for the whole, or only for one-half — the half unpaid being rented at 
 Is. an acre, with the right to acquire full possession at any time, upon paying 
 full price. No conditions whatever were imposed as to residence, or improve- 
 ment, or cultivation. The only stipulation was that where two or more persons 
 sought the same block, it should be put up to auction among them, other holders 
 being excluded. In 1862 it was enacted that the plan of a limited auction 
 should be discarded — the ballot being adopted as the method for determining 
 who should get the preference ; that the unpaid half of the purchase-money 
 should be forthcoming at the rate of 2s. 6d. a year, thus spreading the full pay- 
 ment over eight years ; that no more than 640 acres could be selected by any 
 person in one year ; and that the whole block should be fenced, a habitable 
 homestead be built, and one acre out of every ten selected be cultivated. 
 Three years later it was provided that agricultural land might be leased for a 
 payment of 2s. an acre during three years, if the lessee engaged to make improve- 
 ments upon it within two years, such as would represent a value of 20s. per 
 acre ; that, at the expiry of the three years, he might, if he lived upon the land, 
 buy his holding at £1 an acre ; and that, if he did not choose to buy, he might 
 require his leasehold to be offered for sale at that price — the value of his 
 improvements forming a reserved charge against the purchaser. In the begin- 
 ning of 1870 a new law came into operation. Under it no more than 320 acres 
 can be selected by one person. He may hold it under lease for three years 
 on the same conditions as those prescribed by the statute of 1865 ; but when the 
 three years have expired he may either buy the holding at the rate of 14s. an 
 acre, or may enter into a renewed lease for seven years at the old rent, upon the 
 expiry of which term it becomes his own possession. Crown lands unappro- 
 priated remain saleable at the upset price of £1 per acre, at the discretion of the 
 governor, the whole amount to be sold in any year not to exceed 200,000 acres.
 
 4fi2 THE HISTORY Ob AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe with anything like equal minuteness the 
 many changes that have been made in the rates of customs — duty leviable upon 
 various imports. It must suffice to say that the question of how far it is legiti- 
 mate or expedient to foster, or try to foster, the development of native manu- 
 factures and commerce by shutting out competitive products, or making it 
 difficult for them to get in, has been tested with singular intelligence, under new 
 conditions, with the result of modifying in many minds the degree of faith to be 
 placed in abstract theories, and develoiDing very discrepant opinions among 
 practical persons. Nevertheless, under every variety of administration, the 
 colony has been largely prosperous. Its population has gi'own immensely. At 
 the census of 1836 the entire inhabitants numbered 224. In 1841 they were 
 20,416 ; ten years later, 97,489 ; ten years after that, 541,800 ; in another 
 decade, 752,445 ; while for 1876, the Government statist, Mr Hayter, estimated 
 them at 840,300. The land in cultivation was in 1836, 50 acres ; in 1841 it had 
 gro^^Ti to 4881 ; in 1851 to 57,542 ; in 1861 to 439,895; in 1871 to 937,220; 
 while in 1876 it was computed to be not less than 1,230,000. Everything else 
 is on a corresponding scale — including even the amount of public debt. It 
 began in 1855 at the modest sum of something less than half a million; in 1861 
 it had mounted to £6,345,060; in 1871 it stood at £11,994,800; and in 1876 it 
 was reckoned at close upon £14,000,000. Throughout the colony the railways 
 (with the exception of two or three short lines connecting Melbourne with its 
 suburbs) are the property of the Government. For the most part they are 
 single lines. The average cost of construction has been a little over £16,000 per 
 mile. They have all a gauge of five feet three inches. This is common through- 
 out Australia, except in the case of New South Wales. Upon the whole, both the 
 laying out and the working of the system have given much satisfaction. In 1856, 
 almost simultaneously with the arrival of Sir Henry Barkly, a system of inter- 
 colonial mail service was established, liy which powerful and well-ordered 
 steamers were run from ]\Ielbourne to all the principal ports of the other 
 colonies. From time to time the swiftness and convenience of communication 
 with the mother country have been much increased. During 1876 the average time 
 of transit for letters passing from London to Melbourne, rid Brindisi, was forty- 
 four days, sixteen hours, and thirty-six minutes ; from ^Melbourne to London, 
 close on forty-six days. The service between Great Britain and Point de Galle 
 (Ceylon) has hitherto been at the cost and under the control of the Imperial 
 Government — the Victorian Government undertaking the further carriage upon 
 terms arranged with the various colonies. There is likewise communication 
 vid San Francisco and California, though this is specially for the advantage of 
 New South Wales and New Zealand ; as also by Singapore, though it is specially 
 available for Queensland. 
 
 The religious and educational progress of the colony has kept even pace with 
 its advance in material prosperity. The measure by which the clergy were dis- 
 endowed has not affected the multiplication of places for worship and of persons to 
 serve them. In 1851 there were 39 churches or chapels of all sorts; in 1861 they 
 had grown to 989 ; in 1871 to 1586 ; and in 1876 to 2602. The progress in regard
 
 Tllh: CONSTITUTIONAL ERA. AC^ 
 
 to oduration lias boon oven more remarkable. Up till 1862 two sj'stcms of cdti 
 ration, the denominational and the national (as they were called), were supported 
 by the State. In September of that year they Avere blended into one under the 
 Common Schools Act (25 Vict, No. 149). That Act was repealed in 1872 
 (30 Vict., No. 477). It came into force at the opening of 1873. By it a 
 INIinister of I'ublic Instruction was appointed, with a suitable staff. It was pro- 
 vided also that education should be compulsory — every child between six and 
 fifteen years of age being required to attend school for at least sixty days in 
 each half year ; that it should be free — so far as regards reading, writing, arith- 
 metic, grammar, geography, drill, and (where practicable) gymnastics, with the 
 addition of sewing and needlework for girls ; and that it should be secular — no 
 State teacher being allowed to imjiart direct religious instruction in any State 
 school building. In 1873 the number of schools was 1078 ; in four years they 
 had increased by 500. During the same period the number of pupils on the 
 rolls had risen from 207,826 to 231,560, while the average attendance had 
 grown from 98,746 in the first year to 106,758 in the last. While common 
 education Avas thus provided for, the interests of the higher learning were not 
 neglected. In 1853 the Melbourne University was founded, and Avas endowed 
 by the Government to the extent of £9000 a year. In 1859 royal letters-patent 
 were issued, directing that graduates of the University should be entitled to 
 equal rank, precedence, and consideration Avith those of persons holding from 
 any other recognised University equal academic distinction. The favour Avas 
 warranted, not only by the growing affluence of students, but by the high 
 standing of the professors and the rigid character of the examinations. 
 
 Victoria has been the most prosperous, as it remains the most populous and 
 progressive, of all the Australian colonies. Such a spectacle as it has presented 
 Avas never previously set before the eyes of man. Within the first half-century 
 of its existence it spread over a larger space than any other colony, acquired 
 a more numerous population, and developed in a richer profusion, Avith a 
 more settled chai'acter, all the elements of civilisation. Except in a fcAV sad 
 incidents connected Avith the early mining history, it presents the example of 
 a young community, Avhich has rapidly groAvn to manhood, having reaped all 
 the benefits that can accrue from an advanced organisation Avith the smallest 
 possible admixture of its evils. The convict invasion, and the gold-hunting 
 fcA'er, Avhich troubled its early years, were really evanescent ills. The vigour of 
 the community caused political and municipal arrangements rapidly to overtake 
 all the necessities of the people, both for repression and for jirogress. Cities 
 Avith all their complex interests and needs are usually the groAvth of time. 
 Ordinarily it is only in the course of ages that the nucleus of a settlement gi'ows 
 into anything like metropolitan importance ; but here Ave have Melbourne, 
 Geelong, Ballarat, Sandhurst — all of them the creation of a feAV marvellous 
 years ; and Melbourne, in respect of the A'ariety of its amenities and its material 
 conveniences, will challenge comparison with almost any city in either the Old 
 World or the New.
 
 BOOK VI I I. 
 
 niSTOEY OF SOUTH AUSTEALIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 
 
 STURT IN THE SOUTH — PROJECTED SETTLEMENT— FATHERS AND FOUNDERS — FIRST 
 COMMISSIONERS — GOVERNOR HINDMARSH — GOVERNOR GAWLER — RAPID PROGRESS 
 — A REACTION — SPECULATION MANIA — STRANGE STATE OF SOCIETY — EYRE's 
 FIRST EXPEDITION — GENTLEMEN OVERLANDERS — A COLONY OF SPECULATORS — 
 DISHONOURED BILLS — THE BUBBLE BURSTS — A TERRIBLE CRISIS — GOVERNOR 
 GREY — A SINKING COLONY. 
 
 When Captain Sturt discovered and explored the Murray River in 1830, and 
 ti'aced its course down to its embouchure into Lake Alexandrina, he was of 
 opinion that to the westward of that river, towards Gulf St Vincent, a rich and 
 fertile land existed, and that probably the lake disembogued into the gulf. His 
 men at the time had suffered so much from fatigue and privation, that it would 
 have endangered the safety of the party if he had attemjited to prosecute his 
 researches further than ascertaining generally the extent of the lake. On his 
 return to Sydney, however, he represented the matter so strongly to Governor 
 Darling, that he sent instructions to Captain Barker, commandant at King- 
 George's Sound — who was under orders for New South Wales — to land at Cape 
 Jervis, and explore the eastern shore of the gulf, and ascertain the outlet of the 
 lake. Unfortunately, that gallant officer, just as he had completed his task, 
 was inhumanly murdered by the aborigines at Encounter Bay, while in the 
 performance of a perilous portion of his duty. Mr John Kent, of the Com- 
 missariat Department, who accompanied Captain Barker during the expedition, 
 has recorded the particulars of this first exploration of the Adelaide country. 
 The party, consisting of seven persons, landed on the eastern shore of the gulf, 
 and proceeded inland in a north - easterly direction, ascending a range of 
 mountains, of which Mount Lofty formed the highest peak ; from whence they 
 could overlook the gulf to the westward as far as Yorke Peninsula. To the 
 northward this range trended in an unbroken line, which settled the point that
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 465 
 
 the lake had not an outlet in that direction : they descended accordingly, and 
 traversed the country through some fertile valleys and rich lands on Sturt's 
 Creek, until they reached Encounter Bay, Avhere the lake disendjogucd itself into 
 the sea through an insigniticant channel between hummocks of sand. Here 
 Captain Barker gallantly stripped and swam across the channel, with a comjiass 
 to ascertain its position. Mr Kent, in his MS. narrative, describes the 
 circumstance in these words : " Curiosity prompted me to time his crossing. 
 The current was running out strong; but he accomplished the feat at 9.58 a.m., 
 in three minutes. On arriving at the opposite shore, he ascended the sandhill, 
 gazed around for a few moments, and disappeared." He Avas never seen after- 
 wards. It was, however, subsequently ascertained that three aborigines had 
 speared him, as he rushed into the Avater to escape from them : his body Avas 
 carried away by the tide. Mr Kent, on his arrival in Sydney, gave a favourable 
 report to Captain Sturt of the country explored, coinciding with that gentleman's 
 OAvn impressions. This partial exploration Avas described by Cajitain Sturt in 
 his account of his discovery of the INIurray River, in Avhich he pointed this out 
 as a desirable locality for the establishment of a new colony. Here accordingly 
 the Colonisation Commissioners of South Australia fixed the site of the future 
 province. 
 
 South Australia is neither the oldest nor the youngest of the Australian 
 sisterhood of colonies. It Avas founded in the year 1836, and several of the first 
 colonists still remain to see the results of their early labours. As originally settled, 
 the colony contained 383,328 square miles, or 245,329,920 acres ; but since then 
 it has received tAvo large accessions of territory — the first, a strip of land lying 
 between its Avestern boundary and the eastern boundary of Western Australia ; 
 and the second, a large tract of country stretching northAvards from the 26th 
 parallel of south latitude to the Indian Ocean, and from the 129th to the 138th 
 degrees of east longitude. The first addition was knoAvn as " No Man's Land," 
 and the second is now known as the " Northern Territory." The colony may be 
 regarded as comprising three divisions — South Australia proper. Central 
 Australia, and the Northern Territory — and it stretches across the Avhole 
 continent from the Southern Ocean to the Indian Ocean — the total area 
 comprising 914,730 square miles, or 585,427,200 acres. 
 
 The settlement of South Australia as a separate and distinct colony originated 
 with a few gentlemen in London. Negotiations Avere opened Avith the Imperial 
 Government in 1831 Av^ith a vicAV to obtaining a charter giving certain concessions 
 to the projectors. Possibly from the affair not being in proper hands in the first 
 instance, the negotiations came to nought. They Avere resumed in 1834, when a 
 meeting Avas held in Exeter Hall for discussing the principles on Avhich the neAv 
 colony was to be established. Mr Edward Gibbon Wakefield, an advanced 
 political economist for those days, had thought out a system of colonisation, 
 which he maintained Avas the only true system possessing the elements of stability 
 and success. His system Avas based on tAvo principles : in all cases to sell the 
 land for a fair and reasonable value, and to devote the proceeds to the introduc- 
 tion of labour from the mother country. He maintained that the woi'st thing that 
 
 3 N
 
 466 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 could happen to a new country was to give tlie land away in large blocks ; and 
 he found a striking illustration of this in the history of Western Australia. 
 Grants of land of 20,000 or 50,000 acres had been made to favoured individuals, 
 but they had turned out to be utterly worthless. The " fathers and founders " of 
 the colony of South Australia resolved to start it on the principles laid down by 
 Mr Wakefield, and Colonel Torrens in his speech at the Exeter Hall meeting 
 entered into an elaborate exposition and defence of the Wakefield system. 
 
 This association, which contemplated fame and patronage rather than profit, 
 included George Grote, the eminent historian of Greece ; William Hutt, after- 
 wards Govern}*' of Western Australia ; Henry Bulwer, afterwards an ambassador 
 and K.C.B. ; Colonel Torrens; H. G. Ward, afterwards Governor of the Ionian 
 Islands and K.C.B. ; J. A. Koebuck ; Sir William Molesworth ; Benjamin 
 Hawes, afterwards Colonial Under-Secretary; and Edward Strutt, afterwards 
 chief commissioner of i^ailways. 
 
 While approving of the plan of colonisation suggested as regarded the disposal 
 of land, ]\Ir Secretary Stanley insisted that the government of the colony should 
 be left in the hands of the Crown until such time as it was able to govern itself. 
 After receiving this communication, the South Australian Association decided to 
 continue their operations for the purpose of forming a Crown colony, provided 
 that, by Act of Parliament, provision were made for the permanent establishment 
 of the mode of disposing of waste land, and of the purchase-money of such land, 
 devised by Mr Gibbon Wakefield. Before the negotiation concluded Mr Stanley 
 resigned. JNIr Spring Rice became Secretary for the Colonies. Under his 
 administration an Act was passed, in the session of 1834, substantially embodying 
 the terms agreed upon Avith Mr Stanley, by which the present province of South 
 Australia was established, the minimum price of land fixed at 12s. an acre, and 
 the business of colonisation was placed in the hands of a body of commissioners. 
 Lord Aberdeen having become Secretary for the Colonies, eight commissioners 
 were selected from the members of the South Australian Association, and 
 gazetted May 1835, Colonel Torrens being appointed chairman, because, as he 
 stated in his letter of application, he had " more knowledge of the object and 
 principles of the proposed colony than any of the other gentlemen willing to act." 
 
 The Act was favourable to the family emigration system — a clause expressly 
 providing that " no ^lerson having a husband or wife, or a child or children, shall, 
 by means of the emigration fund, obtain a passage to the colony, unless the 
 husband or wife, or the child or children of such poor person shall be conveyed 
 thither." The commissioners Avere empowered to borrow <£250,000 for defraying 
 the cost of introducing emigrants and founding the colony. 
 
 The first commissioners appointed Avere : Colonel Torrens (chairman), George 
 Fife Angas, EdAvard Barnard, William Hutt, J. G. ShaAV Lefevre, W. A. 
 Mackinnon, Samuel Mills, Jacob Montcfiore, George Palmer, George Barnes, 
 and RoAvland Hill. The latter gentleman (afterwards Sir lloAvland Ilill, 
 originator of the penny postal reform) subsequently became secretary to the 
 commissioners. Of the foundation principles on Avhich South Australia was 
 establishcid we may here mention these three : That it Avas never to be a charge
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 467 
 
 on the mother country ; that there was to be no State Church recognised ; and 
 that the transported prisoners from Great Britain were never to be admitted to 
 her sliores. These three principles have been fully carried out. Tho colony 
 has been no expense to Great Britain ; there is no State Church ; and convicts, 
 except those convicted in the colony, are unknown. 
 
 The first commissioners found considei'able difficulty in stalling their scheme, 
 and at one time there was a danger of the thing falling through and becoming 
 a grand fiiilure. To prevent this, Mr George Fife Angas, one of the commis- 
 sioners, was largely instrumental in starting the South Australian Company, for 
 the purchase of land and the settlement of a population on the land. Mr Angas 
 was one of the best and most useful colonists the province has ever had. He 
 devoted time and labour to the colony when it needed the best assistance of its 
 best friends. More than this, he risked to a large extent his considerable 
 private means to give the province a start on a safe footing. 
 
 The commissioners first offered the post of governor to the distinguished 
 General Charles James Napier ; but on being refused a small body of troops as 
 police, and power to draw on the British Government for money in case of need, 
 he declined the dangerous honour, observing, with wise prescience, "While 
 sufficient security exists for the supply of labour in the colony, and even forces 
 that supply, there does not appear to be any security that the supply of capital 
 will be sufficient to employ that labour." Thus South Australia lost an active 
 governor, and India obtained a great general. 
 
 The first governor of South Australia was Captain (afterwards Sir John) 
 Hindmarsh, who received his appointment early in 1836. Mr James Hurtle 
 Fisher (afterwards Sir James) was appointed resident commissioner for the sale 
 of Crown lands, and Colonel Light was appointed surveyor-general. Colonel 
 Light arrived at Kangai'oo Island in August of that year, and on 28th Decem- 
 ber 1886, Governor Hindmarsh and his party landed at Holdfast Bay from the 
 " Buffalo," and under a venerable gum-tree, a short distance from the shore, the 
 members of the Council and other officers were collected, and the orders in 
 Council creating South Australia a British colony, and the commission of 
 Governor Hindmarsh, were read. This is the colony's commemoration day; and 
 on the 28th of December every year very large crowds of persons from various 
 parts of the colony assemble at Glenelg— a marine township which has sprung 
 up in Holdfast Bay — to celebrate the foundation of the colony. 
 
 With difficulty the new governor found his way to the intended site of the 
 proposed city of Adelaide. The distance from the intended port being seven 
 miles, he was at once impressed with the error of the commissioners' agents in 
 fixing upon such an ineligible spot for a seaport town — a fault common, however, 
 to new settlements in these distant colonies. His arguments upon this and other 
 points with the local officers of the company led to an unseemly discussion ; so 
 that after two years' administration of affairs he was recalled, and left the colony 
 in 1838. 
 
 Meanwhile the emigrants, consisting mostly of "surveyors, architects, engineers, 
 clerks, teachers, lawyers, and clergymen," with traders and adventurers of every
 
 468 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 description, were landed in thousands upon the mangrove swamps around the 
 anchorage of the future Port Adelaide. Then commenced a system of land- 
 jobbing which can only find a parallel amongst the gambling transactions during 
 great railway mania in England. The land-orders issued by the commissioners 
 were negotiated like railway-scrip ; town allotments which were originally set up 
 to auction at £2, 10s. per acre, soon reached the apparent value of £2000 and 
 £3000 ; Avliile country sections, obtained at the upset price of £1 per acre, 
 realised as much as £100 per acre. Those who had secured special surveys of 
 16,000 acres upon payment of £4200 for that number of acres selected from the 
 whole, sold allotments in imaginary townships at enormous prices. To this land 
 mania were added building speculations on an equally extravagant scale ; and 
 the wages of ordinary labourers increased to 15s. and £1 per day. These facts, 
 set forth in the most attractive light, were extensively circulated through- 
 out England and Scotland, till the emigration fever rose to a pitch hitherto 
 unprecedented. 
 
 Governor Hindmarsh attempted to change the site of Adelaide. Differences 
 of a serious character arose between him and the resident commissioner : the 
 colony became divided into two parties, one of which supported the governor 
 and the other the resident commissioner. Both parties were greatly to blame. 
 Lord Glenelg settled the question by acceding to the request of the commis- 
 sioners and recalling Captain Hindmarsh. In the sequel the site of the capital 
 to which Captain Hindmarsh had objected was retained, and almost all the 
 officials, from whom he had experienced most vexatious opposition, were dis- 
 missed by his successor. 
 
 To rejDlace Captain Hindmarsh the commissioners recommended and secured 
 the appointment of Lieut.-Colonel George Gawler. At the same time Colonel 
 Gawler was ajDpointed resident commissioner — vice Mr Fisher, dismissed — 
 and thus united in his own person all the administrative powers of the colony. 
 He arrived in South Australia on the 13th of October 1838, and was recalled in 
 ]\Iay 1841. Under his administration the colony attained the highest state of 
 external prosperity ; the population quadrupled, the port Avas filled with ships 
 bringing imports and emigrants ; public buildings, shojis, mansions, and paved 
 roads were constructed on land which four years previously had been desert ; 
 wharves and warehouses on a swampy creek, Avhicli was converted into a con- 
 venient port; ornamental gardens Avere laid out, farms were cultivated, live stock 
 was imported by thousands, the interior explored, and the whole colony rendered 
 more familiarly and favourably known to the intellectual portion of the British 
 community than any other colony ; and under Colonel Gawler the land sales 
 ceased, capital and labour emigrated, insolvency Avas universal, and the colony, 
 loaded Avith pul)lic and private debt, collapsed more rapidly than it had I'isen. 
 
 The apparent success of the land and building speculations deceived the new 
 governor into a prodigality of expenditure during his administration, for which 
 ho has Ijoen unjustly condemned. It Avas, in fact, not more than equivalent to 
 the apparent revenue of the country, but Avas found, hoAvcver, at the close of 
 three years, to exceed that income by £400,000. Like the majority of the
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 469 
 
 colonists, lie imagined that all this interchange of paper gave value to the land; 
 and as there was plenty of it belonging to the commissioners, there was little 
 tear of the territorial revenue decreasing. As to ordinarj' revenue, there was an 
 increasing amount from the customs alone, which promised to meet all demands 
 in time. But in 1839 the reaction took place, followed by a universal bank- 
 ruptcy amongst the landholders, and the ruin of most of the small moneyed 
 settlers. As the colony was established at its commencement upon an insecure 
 foundation, it Avas no wonder that the inexperienced settlers, induced to build up 
 the superstructure, should have failed in the attempt ; for they Avere mostly 
 townspeople, Avho knew little or nothing about growing sufficient food for them- 
 selves. Hence their means Avere all expended on purchases from the neighbour- 
 ing colonies. After three years' occupation of the country — Avhile they had been 
 buying and seUing land by the thousand acres, and building towns and villages 
 throughout the country — there Avere not 1800 acres of land under cultivation ; 
 and that mainly consisted of vegetable and flower gardens, in the vicinity of 
 their mushroom city. 
 
 Colonel Gawler seems to have been an amiable, enthusiastic, simple-minded 
 man, ambitious of becoming the founder of a great, civilised, self-supporting com- 
 munity. But his ideas of the real state of things in the ncAV settlement Avere 
 utterly at fault. He found the treasury empty — the accounts in confusion. 
 TAvelve thousand pounds, being two thousand pounds more than the Avhole 
 amount authorised to be drawn for in England in the year, had been draAvn in 
 the first six months ; a large expense was required for the support of emigrants 
 sick of fever and dysentery ; provisions, wages, and house rent Avere enormously 
 high ; custom-houses, police stations, a gaol, and offices for transaction of pubHc 
 business Avere urgently required ; a police establishment, at colonial wages, in 
 the absence of a military force, AA^as indispensable ; the commissioners in their 
 calculations had omitted to provide for a postmaster, a sheriff", or a gaoler — for 
 letters, debtors, or criminals ; the surveys Avere seriously in arrear ; the head of 
 the staff and all his attendants had resigned ; the late resident commissioner and 
 accountant-general, the colonial treasurer, and several other officers were found 
 insubordinate, irregular in their accounts, and grossly inefficient ; it Avas necessary 
 to supersede tAvo of them peremptorily — almost immediately ; all officials Avere 
 dissatisfied Avith low salaries in the face of the high prices of provisions, house 
 rent, etc.; Governor Gawler himself, Avith Mrs GaAvler, his children, private 
 secretary, and servants, was compelled to occupy a small hut, and expend £1800 
 a year Avhilst receiving a salary of £800. With this imperfect machinery, and an 
 empty treasury, a population of some four or five thousand souls, partly encamped 
 on the site of the city of Adelaide, and partly dispersed in pastoral pursuits over 
 a tract of country one hundred miles long by forty miles broad, instead of being, 
 according to the theories of the commissioners, concentrated on ten square miles, 
 engaged in reproducing English agriculture, had to be governed, customs dues 
 and debts had to be levied, criminals imprisoned, and aborigines repressed. 
 
 He proceeded to supersede the incompetent officials, to bring all the Govern- 
 ment business into a regular form, to press on the survej-s, and to make proper
 
 470 THE II IS TOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 arranoements for the reception of the emigrants into barracks, and the numerous 
 sick of ship-fever and dysentery into an hospital. In order to obtain a revenue 
 from customs dues, to keep down ilhcit distillation, and protect the public from 
 criminals, it was necessary, as Colonel Napier had foreseen, to raise a police. As 
 labourers were worth from 10s. to 15s. a day, and indifferent horses cost £50 
 each, this was an expensive affair ; but, by giving a tasteful uniform, and making 
 the appointment rather honourable, he succeeded in obtaining a highly respect- 
 able body of men at 5s. a day. 
 
 The port on Colonel Gawler's arrival was a narrow swamp, through which, 
 for seven miles, emigrants dragged their luggage and merchandise. Under his 
 arrangements a road was constructed, and wharves and warehouses erected. He 
 built a government house of no extravagant pretensions, but which, nevertheless, 
 cost, from the price of labour and materials, £20,000 ; and he also built custom- 
 houses, police stations, and other public buildings, which were indispensable 
 ibr transacting public business. He expended a large sum in protecting and 
 endeavouring to civilise the aborigines. He contributed to two expeditions which 
 Avcre unsuccessfully made by INIr Eyre in search of tracts of fertile country. To 
 every charitable claim his purse was open; while his hospitalities were on a 
 liberal scale. The result of his measm-es was to give an extraordinary impetus to 
 the apparent prosperity of the colony. The brilliant reports of public and private 
 buildings in progress, building land sold at £500 and even £1000 an acre, of 
 balls, fetes, picnics, horticultural shows, dexterously reproduced in England, 
 tempted men of fortune to emigrate, capitalists to invest, and merchants and 
 manufacturers to forward goods of all kinds on credit. Port Adelaide was 
 crowded with shipping, which discharged living and dead cargoes, and departed 
 in ballast. AVhen 14,000 colonists had arrived, in the fourth year after the founda- 
 tion, scarcely a vestige of an export had been produced. The land sales and the 
 custom-house receipts rose to enormous amounts. 
 
 Among the successful there were scarcely any of the head-working, white- 
 handed class, but a number of hard-working, fi'ugal men, who, landing without a 
 penny, accumulated enough by labour to purchase a good eighty-acre section, and 
 there, by growing vegetables and wheat, rearing pigs and poultry, with the help 
 of their wives and families, throve steadily, and made money, in spite of the 
 system which was intended to retain them for an indefinite time as labourers at 
 some three shillings a day. These people often derived considerable advantage 
 from sections of land adjoining their own being the property of absentees. On 
 these sections they were able to pasture their live stock without expense. Where 
 labourers could not afford to buy a whole section, they clubbed together and 
 divided one ; for free men will have land wherever agriculture is the only manu- 
 facture, and no protective laws can prevent them. It was these cottier farmers 
 and a few sheep squatters who saved the colony from being totally abandoned 
 when the inevitable crisis came. 
 
 A lady, who landed at Port Adelaide a few months after the governor, in a 
 ;M.S. letter describes the then " dreary appearance of the shores ; the anchoring of 
 the ship in a narrow creek, where, as far as the eye could reach, a mangrove swamp
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 471 
 
 extended; disembarking from a small boat into the arms of long shoremen upon 
 a damp mudbaiik, under a persecuting assault of mosquitoes." On this nnidbank 
 lay heaps of goods of all descriptions, half covered with sand and saturated with 
 salt water, broken chests of tea and barrels of flour, cases of hardware, furniture 
 of all kinds, pianos and empty plate chests, ploughs and thrashing machines. A 
 little farther, at the commencement of the " muddy track which led to Adelaide, 
 bullock-drays stood ready to hire for conveying our baggage. The lowest charge 
 for a load was £10. All along the side of the track were streAvn baffs'a're and 
 broken conveyances, abandoned in despair by their owners. We stopped at a 
 small public-house to get a little refreshment. For a cup of tea, Avith Ijrown 
 sugar, bread, and oily butter full of insects, we paid 4s. Gd. each. The butter 
 seemed spread with a thumb. Our troubles partly vanished when we reached 
 the beautiful site of Adelaide, where it ahiiost seemed as if a large party of ladies 
 and gentlemen playing at gipsying had encamped. This was the third removal 
 of some who had pitched tents on Kangaroo Island, then built huts in Holdfast 
 Bay, and finally took up tlieir abode in the city of Adelaide. Several times, 
 before the small, bright green, highly-ornamented, wooden summer-house which 
 bad been engaged for us, our carriage had like to have been upset over stumps 
 and logs. . Every one we met seemed in the highest spirits ; and it was more like 
 a Avalk in Kensington Gardens than in a colony scarcely two j^ears old." This 
 bit of contemporary description aftbrds a key to much that is singular and 
 contradictory in the early accounts of the foundation of South Australia. 
 
 Governor Gawler held a little court, which was graced by the magnificent 
 uniforms of the officers of the volunteer corps — a corps which consisted of some 
 two dozen officers, from a cornet to a brigade-major, and four or five privates. 
 There were courtiers, too, and ladies in plumes and great airs ; there were 
 fashionables, and exclusives held to be the creme de la creme; there was an 
 aristocracy composed of the principal officials ; there were balls given, to be 
 invited to which great manoeuvres were practised. It Avas a life like that of one 
 of the little watering-places of Germany, Avith more heartiness, in consequence of 
 the constant arrival of friends and victims from England. The tOAvn lots of 
 Adelaide formed tlie great rouge-et-noir table. The climate rendered out-of-door 
 life delightful, the imaginary streets swarmed Avith Avell-dressed croAvds; so much 
 really good society, so many fashionable men, had never before been found in a 
 colony ; every one fancied himself the hero of a great enterprise, and enjoyed all 
 the pleasures of gambling, while dreaming that he Avas helping to found an 
 empire. In the morning the men dashed about on horses, in dog-carts, 
 barouches, and four-in-hands, w^hich cost fabulous sums, in search of eligible 
 sections and sites for villages. In the evenings grand dinners Avere given in 
 tents and huts, where champagne, hock, burgundy, and every luxury that could 
 be preserved in a tin case abounded ; fashionable dance music and the songs of 
 Rossini and Donizetti resounded from the cottages of the " great Avorld ; " and 
 at cock-croAV beaux in beards and Avhite Avaistcoats, "half saA-age, half soft," 
 might be met picking their Avay, in the thinnest, shiniest boots, through the dust 
 or mud of a projected crescent or arcade. There Avas scandal written and
 
 472 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 spoken ; political intrigue ; a court party and an opposition, with each a news- 
 paper; and everybody flattered everybody else that building, dining, dancing, 
 drinking, writing, and speechifying, "was doing the heroic Avork of colonisation." 
 Young men of spirit were not satisfied to retire into the bush and look after a 
 flock of silly sheep while it was possible to buy a section of land at £1 an acre, 
 give it a fine nanre as a village site, sell the same thing at £10 an acre, for a bill 
 the bank would discount, and live in style at the Southern Cross Hotel ; for 
 Avhen a man had made such a speculation he could not, and did not, do less than 
 invite a party of new-made friends to celebrate his good fortune by a dinner, a 
 ball, or a picnic, with a few cases of champagne imported by the merchant on 
 credit. 
 
 At this period a romantic air was infused into the simplest transactions. 
 For instance, in the old colony exploring expeditions had been undertaken either 
 by a Government surveyor, who marched out from some remote station without 
 any special demonstration, or by a squatter who, with a friend or two, a stock- 
 man, and perhaps a couple of black boys, all on horseback, set out as quickly as 
 possible to find new pastures for his stock. In South Australia they managed 
 things very differently. Mr V. Eyre having undertaken to explore the interior 
 of the province, on the day appointed for his setting out a grand entertainment 
 was given, over Avhich the governor presided. At the close of an affecting speech, 
 a band of young ladies clothed in white garments marched up the room, and 
 presented, amid the cheers of the men and the sobs of the women, a banner 
 which they Avorked, to be planted on the limits of his proposed discovery. Mr 
 Eyre's journey, and a second expedition, proved the hopeless barrenness of a 
 great part of the province. He afterwards became lieutenant-governor of the 
 settlement of Nelson, in New Zealand. It is rather curious that two gallant but 
 unsuccessful exploring expeditions, that of Mr Eyre and that of Lieutenant (now 
 Sir George) Grey, should have led to the appointment of two governors. 
 
 During the administration of Colonel Gawler important assistance was 
 afforded to the colonists by the arrival of the overlanders, who, led by love of 
 adventure and hope of gain, found their way from the bush of New South Wales 
 and Port Phillip, across inhospitable deserts, over precipitous hills, through 
 dense forests, rivers, and swamps, and, in spite of tribes of fiercely hostile 
 saA^ages, brought flocks of sheep and " mobs " of cattle and horses to the South 
 Australians, at a time when butchers' meat was rising to famine price, when a 
 good pair of bullocks could earn £60 a week in working from the port to the 
 city, and horses which had arrived from Van Diemen's Land, after a long voyage 
 of alternate calms and adverse Avinds, mere skeletons covered with sores, Avere 
 sold as a favour at £100 each. 
 
 The overlanders saved the colony from total abandonment during the first 
 crash of insolvency. The strength of Australia is in her pastures : sheep to the 
 Australian, Ix'fore the discovery of copper and gold, Avere Avhat the pine-tree 
 was to the Highland laird, Avho on his death-bed said to his son, "Jock, be aye 
 putting in a tree : it will be groAving Avliile ye are sleeping." The overlanders 
 who brought these invaluable animals were many of them men of education : the
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 473 
 
 enormous profits reaped by the first parties, in spite of tlic loss of both men and 
 beasts by (h-oii^ht and skirmislies witli the blacks, made the overland route a 
 favourite adventure with the young l)uslnuen. They brought with them, as well 
 as live stock, " old hands," who taught the Cockneys how to fell a tree and make 
 a fence, and sometimes gave the Gawler police a good deal of trouble. The 
 gentlemen overlanders affected a banditti style of hair and costume. They rode 
 blood or half-bred Arab horses, wore broad-brimmed sombreros trinnncd with 
 fur and eagle plumes, scarlet flannel shirts, In-oad belts filled with pistols, knives, 
 and tomahawks, tremendous beards, and moustachios. They generally encamped 
 and let their stock refresh about one hundred miles from Adelaide, and then rode 
 on to strike a bargain with their anxious customers. Before the journey became 
 a matter of course, the arrival of a band of these brown, bearded, banditti-looking 
 gentlemen created quite a sensation — something like the arrival of a party of 
 successful buccaneers in a quiet seaport, with a cargo to sell, in old Dampier's 
 time. In a few days the stock was sold ; the overland garments were exchanged 
 for the most picturesque and fashionable costume which the best Hindley Street 
 tailor " from Bond Street " could supply ; and then, with hair combed, brushed, 
 oiled, and gracefully arranged after Raphael or Vandyke, the overlander pro- 
 ceeded to spend freely the money he had so hardly gained, and, as one of the 
 lions of the place, to cast into the shade the pert, smooth, political economists 
 and model colonists fresh from the Adelphi. New arrivals from England, 
 fortunate enough to be admitted to the delightful evening parties given by a lady 
 of the "highest ton," the leader of the Adelaidean fashion, were astonished 
 when, to fill up basso in an Italian piece, she called on a huge man Avith brown 
 hands, brown face, and a flowing beard, magnificently attired, in whom they 
 recognised the individual they had met the day before in a torn flannel jersey, 
 with a short black pipe in his mouth. The overlanders included every rank, 
 from the emancipist to the first-class Oxford man. By the end of 1840 they had 
 introduced nearly 50,000 sheep into the colony, and taught the wiser colonists 
 the necessity of looking to pastoral pursuits for the safe investment of capital. 
 
 The trade of turning wild land worth a few shillings an acre into building 
 sections, to be sold at from four or five pounds to one thousand pounds an acre, 
 l)y the simple expedient of a few pegs and a coloured plan, was too good to be 
 monopolised by South Australia. The Government and pi'ivate speculators 
 followed the ingenious example in New South Wales and Port Phillip ; while in 
 England a dozen schemes were started, under the patronage of names as respect- 
 able as those who patronised the South American mines of 1824, and the rail- 
 way delusion of 1845, for colonising New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, New 
 C'aledonia, the Falkland Islands, and other countries having the inestimable 
 advantage of being very distant and almost unknown ; all to be divided into 
 " town, suburban, and country lots," to be sold in England at a " sufficient price.'' 
 
 The competition of these new bubbles, home and colonial, diverted the 
 attention of intending colonists from South Australia, where the high price of 
 town lots left but small margin for profits or premiums. Besides, in those 
 epochs of speculative frenzy which periodically recur in England and Scotland. 
 
 o O
 
 474 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 unknoAvn schemes have a certain advantage. About the end of the second year 
 of Colonel Gawler's administration, the resources of South Australia as an 
 investment for capital were partly known, Avhile, as nothing was known about 
 the resources of New Zealand, not even whether there was any available land 
 there at all, it became an excellent and fashionable subject for speculation. 
 
 Colonel Gawler piteously complained in some of his despatches of the mis- 
 representations of rival colonists, and of parties Avho, after a very partial inspec- 
 tion of the port and coast, had departed, exclaiming, "All is barren ! " But the 
 fact was that the capitalists who had landed found no advantageous opening for 
 the investment of capital ; town lots had been driven up to an enormous premium ; 
 the cultivation of land did not pay, and has never paid the employer of labour 
 on a large scale in any new country. Wool-growing and other pastoral pursuits 
 were more profitable in Port Phillip and the new districts of New South Wales ; 
 besides, under the forcing system, enough land, supposing it all fertile, had been 
 sold to support a population of 200,000. The population of the colony was 
 15,000, of which 8000 were settled in Adelaide, gambling with each other. As 
 for the labourers, they were partly employed in waiting and working for the 
 white-handed emigrants who had come out under Mr Wakefield's advicCj " to 
 labour with their heads, not with their hands," and who therefore required more 
 work done for them than old-fashioned colonists, who were not ashamed to 
 mend their own tools or cany their own packages, and partly in executing 
 works for the Government and for the South Australian Company. A consider- 
 able number were in the hosj)ital, and others were working at such sham labour 
 tests as drawing fallen timber from the park, to be used for fuel in the Govern- 
 ment offices. 
 
 It had been found impracticable then, as in all subsequent attempts, to carry 
 out the scheme of obtaining recruits for free passages " exclusively of yoimg 
 married couples not exceeding twenty-four years of age." The labouring classes 
 have their feelings and aff'ections as keenly in regard to family ties as their 
 superiors in fortune and education ; they are not to be draughted out like sheep 
 and cattle ; and the parties charged with supplying the quota of labourers 
 required for the ships, so recklessly despatched to South Australia, comjileted 
 the number by a percentage, who from age, feebleness, or unfitness for colonial 
 labour, became almost immediately chargeable on the Government. All who 
 were shipped, if able to work, claimed under their shipping order a minimum of 
 5s. a day. When more houses had been built than could be let — when the 
 capital, of which a large portion was exported for the importation of labour 
 Avhich it was impossible to employ profitably, began to grow scarce — the price of 
 land orders fell, and the rate of wages. Then the frugal labourers began to 
 retire- from service, to settle down on purchased sections, and combine to pur- 
 chase and divide sections of eighty acres, to the extreme disgust of the theorists. 
 In England the lai'ge drafts of the governor, in conjunction with the foiling 
 off of land sales, had driven the commissioners to endeavour Avithout success to 
 negotiate the remainder of the loan authorised by their two Acts of Parliament, 
 and then to apply for assistance to the Treasury, which was in the first instance
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 475 
 
 granted to a limited extent. In the colony Colonel Gawler was travelling on a 
 declivity, and could not arrest his course. When he found the commissioners 
 could no longer meet his bills he drew upon the Treasury for the exjienses of 
 government. The first bills were met ; but eventually a series of drafts, to the 
 amount of £69,000, were dishonoured. 
 
 The commissioners, Avho had been perfectly content with CJoloncl Gawler, as 
 long as the joublic continued to purchase land, fell upon him like a herd upon a 
 stricken deer, repudiated acts to which they had given tacit approval, and tried 
 to throw the failure due to their improvident conduct on " the governor's extra- 
 vagance." He was recalled abruptly, and left to hear of the dishonour of his 
 bills by a circuitous private source. The commissioners themselves were soon 
 after ignominiously dismissed. When the news of the dishonour of the gov- 
 ernor's bills reached the colony the bubble burst ; land became immediately 
 unsaleable ; an insolvency all but universal followed, from which the banks, from 
 early private intelligence, were able to protect themselves. The chief sufferers 
 were English merchants, shippers, and manufacturers. The colonial speculators 
 had long been trading on fictitious capital. A certain number of colonists of 
 fortune were reduced to absolute beggary. A rapid re- emigration of capital and 
 labour took place. Many labourers were thrown on the Government for support. 
 The price of food, rent, and wages fell rapidly. Adelaide became almost a 
 deserted village. The only persons busy were officials whom the commissioners 
 had forgotten to appoint, viz., the sheriff and his officers, engaged in pursuing 
 beggared debtors, and the judge of the Insolvent Court, by whom they were 
 rapidly whitewashed. 
 
 Colonel Gawler retired, after having sacrificed a considerable private fortune 
 to his fiiith in an impracticable system. But his hospitality, his charity, his 
 truthfulness, his genuine kindness of heart, rendered him respected and beloved 
 in South Australia. He was succeeded by Captain Grey, who, happening to be 
 in London at the time Colonel Gawler was recalled, and able to afford the 
 Colonial Office some information about the colony, received and accepted the 
 ungrateful office of governor. He had been exploring in Western Australia. 
 On the 10th of May 1841, he walked into Government House at Adelaide, and 
 handed to Colonel Gawler his own commission as governor in succession to 
 him. 
 
 When Colonel Gawler retired, land became unsaleable, emigrants ceased to 
 arrive, and of those who were in the colony a large percentage re-emigrated to 
 colonies where there were more cattle and fewer town lots. The population of 
 Adelaide diminished in twelve months to the extent of four thousand souls. 
 The price of everything fell 50 per cent. ; whole streets of Messrs Gouger's and 
 Stephens's cottages stood empty ; the South AustraUan merchants who had paid 
 their English creditors in the Insolvent Court, ceased to be trusted with specula- 
 tive shipments ; the police horses were turned to graze upon the beautiful 
 gardens constructed by Colonel Gawler on the banks of the Torrens ; Govern- 
 ment House, late the scene of vice-royal entertainments, Avas closed ; the little 
 world of Adelaide recovered its senses and lost some of its conceit ; and the
 
 476 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 sober and industrious were able to survey and take stock of the true position of 
 the colony. 
 
 The raw materials of colonisation had been provided, a road had been con- 
 structed from the port, others towards the interior had been marked out and 
 made practicable. Land suitable for cultivation had been discovered, surveyed, 
 and handed over to land purchasers, who had now no temptation to stay in 
 town, if they meant to remain in the colony ; labourers were willing to take 
 reasonable wages, or ready to set to work for themselves with hearty goodwill ; 
 and, what was most satisfactory of all, live stock by importation, by overland, 
 and by natural increase, afforded an ample supply of meat at reasonable prices, 
 with a certain and increasing quantity of wool and tallow for exj^ortation. Im- 
 poverished gentry were now happy to fall back, from imported fresh salmon, or 
 ducks and green peas in tin cases, at 50 per cent, above the Piccadilly tariff, 
 upon native poultiT, at almost nominal prices. During the land mania geese 
 imported from Van Diemen's Land sold at 12s. 6d. each, fowls 5s. a head, and 
 everything else in proportion. In 1842 country people used to drive a cart filled 
 with live poultry, fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, in fair condition, covered over 
 Avith a sheet, and sell the whole lot at from 14s. to 16s. Under the bountiful 
 genial climate of South Australia actual want was unknown, and industry pro- 
 duced immediate results. 
 
 Governor Grey's task was easy. The fjimine or speculative prices of labour 
 and provisions had fallen to reasonable rates, the emigration of paupers had 
 ceased, and with the immigration the cost of maintaining the infirm, the sick, 
 and the lazy. The unhired were set to work at such bare wages as induced 
 them to seek private employers as soon as possible ; the surveys were carried on 
 steadily without pressure, and without exorbitant expenses for stores and hire of 
 drays ; and the police expenses were partly superseded by the arrival of a com- 
 pany of soldiers granted to Governor Grey, although refused to Sir Charles 
 Napier. With these reductions of expenditure, and power to draw upon the 
 Home Government for a limited sum. Governor Grey was still unable, in homely 
 phrase, to make both ends meet ; but the colony survived and vegetated in a 
 sort of obscurity, which contrasted painfully with the brilliancy of its early, brief, 
 blooming, hot-house career. 
 
 In the meantime the model colonists were not idle in England. On the 7th 
 July 1840, the colonisation commissioners for South Australia brought under 
 the notice of the Colonial Secretary (Lord J. Russell) the embarrassed state of 
 the finances of the colony ; and in August they reported that the revenue of the 
 colony did not much exceed £20,000 per annum, and the current exi)cnditure 
 had risen to £140,000. Under these circumstances the Secretary of State, by 
 letter dated 5th November 1840, undertook to guarantee a loan of £120,000 to 
 be raised by the commissioners ; but negotiations to raise this loan failed. 
 
 Two Acts brought in and carried by Lord Stanley, the Colonial Secretary, in 
 the session of 1842, embodied the recommendations of the committee, and 
 arranged for the future government of South Australia. By one a mininuim 
 price of £1 an acre, with sale by auction, except in the case of special surveys
 
 A COLONY FOUNDED. 47: 
 
 of 20,000 acres, was imposed on all the Australian colonies, including Van 
 Diemen's Land. It is this Act against which the colonists, who were never 
 consulted, have not ceased to protest. By the other Act South Australia was 
 transferretl from the management of commissioners to the Colonial Office, and its 
 debts were arranged in the following maimer : The whole deijt amounted to 
 £405,433 ; of this, £155,000, which had been granted by Parliament in 1841 for 
 passing exigencies, were made a free gift; £45,936, of which £17,G4Gl)ad been 
 incurred by Governor Grey in maintaining unemployed emigrants, was to be 
 paid by the Treasury ; and the remainder Avas converted into debentures, partly 
 guaranteed by the Government and partly charged on the colonial revenues. 
 Eenewed sales of land, after the discovery of copper mines, paid off the greater 
 part of these debts, with interest, between 1845 and 1849, with the exception of 
 the £155,000. On the passing of this Act South Australia sank into obscurity, 
 and, in spite of the vigorous efforts of the South Australian Company, which 
 found itself in possession of large tracts of land that could neither be sold nor 
 let to rent-paying tenants, ceased to attract the attention of emigrants. Great 
 bankers and capitalists who had been induced to purchase lots of land wrote 
 them out in their books at value nil. So late as 1850 there were parties in the 
 city of London who had foi"gotten that they held some thousand acres in South 
 Australia until reminded by an application to purchase from returned colonists. 
 In very rare cases has the investment in rural land at £1 an acre turned out 
 profitable. 
 
 Dover, the quietest and least enterprising of English towns, contributed by 
 public subscription in 1837-38 one emigrant to South Australia. The fortunate 
 man no sooner arrived, with nothing to lose, than, carried away by enthusiasm 
 and the persuasions of the Colonial Secretary, Gouger, he became the purchaser 
 of a thousand acres of land, and boldly drew upon two of the gentlemen who 
 had charitably sent him out, advising them of the favour he had done them, and 
 promising to remit in due course the title-deeds. The good Doverians, on the 
 arrival of the tremendous bill, held a consultation, learned the total ruin that 
 would fall on the drawer if it were returned protested, wishing, too, not to have 
 the one Dover emigrant disgraced, and perhaps a little dazzled by the brilliant 
 reports of fortunes daily realised in Australian land, made up a subscription of 
 £100 apiece, met the bill, in due course received the grant, and from that time 
 forward never heard a word of the emigi-ant or the land.
 
 478 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MINING ERA. 
 
 RESULTS OF SPECULATION — DISCOVERY OF LEAD — DISCOVERY OF KAPUNDA MINE — 
 THE BURRA BURRA MINES — NOBS AND SNOBS — VAST MINERAL TREASURES — THE 
 COLONY SAVED — THE WALLAROO MINES — EXTENSIVE MINERAL DISTRICT — GOLD 
 DISCOVERY — MINERAL RESOURCES. 
 
 In 1843 the result of the false system on which the colony was founded began 
 to disappear. The ruined capitalists were forgotten, so, too, were the debts due 
 to the Home Government and home creditors. Those who had been able to 
 weather the storm of insolvency and keep a few sheep had retired towards the 
 interior. There dispersed they were able to live cheaply, to carry on their 
 business with little hired labour, and to look forward with confidence to annual 
 income from the clip of wool, and annual increase of wealth by the natural 
 increase of their flocks. Thus in 1843 South Australia, formed with so much 
 preparation, the subject of so much printing, colonised by a superior class, forced 
 forward by an enormous expenditure of public and private capital, instead of 
 presenting a picture of a contented population, divided into cajDitalists and 
 labourers engaged in scientific agriculture, owed all its exports to dispersion 
 after the manner of neighbouring colonies, whose " barbarous manners " had 
 been so much contemned, and presented a picture of cottier farmers, vegetating 
 in obscurity, content to live with few comforts, Avithout rent or taxes. Some 
 squatted on land the property of absentees, many more as tenants not paying 
 any rent, whom the landlords were glad to retain in order to keep their land in 
 condition. The tenants of the South Australian Company were in this state. 
 Looking back at the condition of South Australia after it had ceased to attract 
 the importation of capital, there can be no doubt that if it had been as far from 
 the old ports of the colonies as Swan River, and out of reach of the expeditions 
 of overlanders, it would have sunk even to a lower ebb than Western Australia. 
 When land jobbing had been exhausted, and all the schemes hatched in England 
 for employing capital had been tried and found wanting, an accident revealed to 
 the colonists the existence of a treasure which even the sanguine and poetical 
 promoters of the colony had never suspected or suggested. They had placed 
 coals, marble, slate, and precious stones among the probable exports ; but copper 
 and lead had not entered into their calculations. 
 
 In 1841 a little lead ore was di.scovered and sent to England. In 1843
 
 THE MINING ERA. 479 
 
 Mr Dutton, the brother of a gentleman of some means, but who had himself 
 been compelled by the general de})rcssion to accejjt tlu; situation of sheep over- 
 seer, accidentally discovered, and, in partnership with Captain liagot, became the 
 purchaser of the eighty-acre section, which included the Kapunda cojjper-mine. 
 Other mines were subsequently discovered ; but the great event, the turning- 
 point of the fortunes of South Australia, was the discovery of the Burra Burra 
 Mine. 
 
 The discovery of the Kapunda set all the colony hunting for mineral 
 outcrops ; the residue of the land-jobbers took up the geologist's hammer ; but 
 by a singular fortune, the investigations of Mr Mengs, a practised geologist, were 
 fruitless, Avhile a mine of wealth was turned up by the wheel of a bullock-dray. 
 In 1845 the existence of a remarkable and promising outcrop on the BuiTa hills 
 became well kno^vn in the colony : rumours on the subject had been afloat in 
 1840. In order to secure the whole district without the unlimited competition, 
 application was made to the governor for a special survey of 20,000 acres. At 
 the same time a party of speculators arrived from Sydney, intent on securing the 
 gi'eat prize if possible. The survey was ordered ; a day and hour was fixed for 
 the payment of the £20,000 ; the govei'nor decided not to accept bills of the local 
 bank, or anything but cash. Cash in 1845 was a very scarce commodity in 
 Adelaide, although corn was plentiful, and pride as rampant, and with as little 
 reason, as in any decayed watering-place in England. The retailers, and all not 
 within a certain indescribable line, were dubbed the " snobs ; " the officials and 
 self-elected aristocracy the "nobs." 
 
 To raise the £20,000, a union between the nobs and snobs became indispen- 
 sable ; but even that was not enough, for there was scarcely so much gold in the 
 possession of all the colonists, and the Sydney speculators were waiting ready to 
 bear oif the prize. On the last day for payment a hunt for gold was commenced by 
 half-a-dozen men of good credit. Cash-boxes in hand, they traversed the streets 
 and subui'bs of Adelaide, ofiering with ample security a handsome premium for 
 sovereigns. On that day many secret hoards were dug out ; husbands learned 
 that prudent wives had unknown stores, and old women were even tempted to 
 draw their £1 and £2 from the recesses of old stockings. Almost at the last 
 minute the money was collected, counted, and paid, and the richest copper-mine 
 in the world rewarded the long suSering of the South Australians, and awakened 
 all their old gambling spirit. The purchase efiected, the class spirit which forms 
 so absurd an element in the English character, broke out, and a division of the 
 20,000 acres was decided on. The toss-up of a coin give the " snobs " the first 
 choice ; they took 10,000 acres, to which they gave a native name, the Burra 
 Burra. The " nobs " named their 10,000 acres the Princess Royal. The outcrop- 
 pings on the hills of the Princess Royal were magnificent ; nevertheless in 1850 
 their £50 scrip was not saleable at £12. The history of this mine is the history 
 of the commercial progress of South Australia. 
 
 Copper ore became to South Australia what wool had been to the neighbour- 
 ing colony of Victoria, the main, if not the only, som'ce of its prosperity and 
 I'apid development of wealth. Up to 1845, when its mineral treasures were for
 
 480 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the first time, and by mere accident, discovered, the colony was in a languishing 
 state, and had altogether failed in fulfilling the expectations of those under 
 Avhose auspices it had been originally founded. It Avas deeply in debt — the 
 revenue yearly becoming less, while the expenditure had for some time gone on 
 annually increasing — the majority of the early colonists were ruined, or their 
 capital sunk in a manner which then appeared hopeless of return, and the entire 
 settlement seemed on the verge of bankruptcy and ruin. But the coj^per ore 
 turned the scale ; the hopes of the colonists were revived, the attention of 
 speculators in the mother country became aroused, mining companies were 
 formed, fresh capital and labour speedily flowed in to recruit the apparently 
 exhausted resources of the province, and since that period the progress of South 
 Australia has been equally rapid as that of the most flourishing of her sister 
 colonies. 
 
 The vast mineral deposits, existing over thousands of square miles of country, 
 have, for the past thirty years, contributed very largely to the national wealth. 
 At times the mineral products of the colony have been the highest in point of 
 value of any of our staples ; but they have for some years past taken the third 
 place — wheat now ranking first, and wool second. In 1843 the Kapunda INIine 
 was discovered on Captain Bagot's sheep run, fifty miles from Adelaide. In 
 January 1844, about ten tons of rich copper ore were sent down from the mine, 
 and caused considerable excitement. In 1848 the first steam-engine commenced 
 to pump the water from the mine, the depth of Avhicli had at that time reached 
 nearly twenty fathoms. Subsequently the workings have been carried down to 
 nearly four times that depth. In December 1849, the smelting of the ores was 
 commenced, and they were reduced to regulus, thus effecting a great saving in 
 cartage and freight. More recently the production of fine copper, in place of 
 regulus, was for many years successfully carried on. The quantity of ore raised 
 since the opening of the mine until it was made over • to an English company, 
 averaged two thousand tons a year, giving an average produce of about 19 i:)cr cent, 
 of fine copper. The Kapunda ]\Iine was the means of the establishment of one of 
 the principal provincial towns in the colony, and Avhich formed the nucleus of a 
 large and thriving population. 
 
 The Burra Mine was discovered about two years after the Kapunda, and at 
 double the distance from Adelaide — one hundred miles north of the city. .In the 
 year 1845, one hundred miles north was considered rather a formidable journey, 
 but the astounding reports of the wonderful richness of the new mine, induced 
 many persons of all classes to undertake the trip, in spite of the hardships and 
 privations to be experienced. The sjiecial survey of 20,000 acres requisite to 
 secure this valuable property according to the land regulations of the period-, 
 was taken up on 16th August 1845, and six weeks after the first shot was fired, 
 blasting a large mass of rich ore, with Avhich several bullock-drays were loaded 
 and de.spatched to Port Adelaide. For many years the carriage of stores, 
 machinery, etc., to the mine, and of ore to the port, was done entirely by bullock- 
 drays, and the tralHc on the Burra road Avas something enormous. "When it is 
 remembered that the journey under most favourable circumstances would occupy
 
 THE MINING ERA. 481 
 
 a bullock team from eight to ten days, and more frequently longer, and that there 
 was a constant stream of about eight hundred teams on the road, some idea may 
 be formed of the traffic. When wo add to this the facts that each team consisted 
 of eight bullocks, and that for the first six years of the mine's existence nearly 
 80,000 tons of ore, or 13,000 tons a year, were sent to the port and shipped to 
 England, the magnitude of the interest becomes apparent. An immense deposit 
 of exceedingly rich ore — red oxide, malachite, and blue and green carl)onatGs of 
 copper — was found on the surface, and at first the removal of it was more like 
 quarrying than mining. Some thousands of tons were taken away before any very 
 great depth was sunk in the shafts. Subsequently shafts and drives were sunk 
 and extended, until in the aggregate the galleries measured some miles in 
 length. But the sinking was not carried dowai to a greater depth than 
 seventy-five fathoms. For several years upwards of a thousand persons 
 were employed on the mine, and some five or six townships sprung up in 
 the neighbourhood, containing a considerable number of inhabitants besides 
 the miners and their families. The Burra is now connected with Adelaide by 
 railway. 
 
 The total quantity of ore raised from the Burra Mine during the twenty-one 
 years from its commencement was 215,132 tons, giving an average produce of 
 22 per cent, of fine copper, worth over £4,000,000. The total amount expended 
 by the company was £1,982,005, of which no less than £1,568,859 represent 
 wages. The gross profits amounted to £882,436, of which £776,160 were paid to 
 the shareholders in fifty-five dividends, or £315 on each share of £5. In years 
 gone by many thousands of pounds' worth of ore in fine particles was lost by 
 being washed away in the creek, for want of means to save it. INIore recently 
 thousands of tons of this waste material have been recovered and passed through 
 jiggers and other machines for saving the ore. 
 
 The Burra Mine, for many years, was one of the richest in the world, and its 
 discovery saved the colony from impending ruin after the terrible crisis of 1842. 
 For sixteen years the Burra INIine was without a rival, as to the vast extent and 
 richness of its deposits of ore. But in 1860 the discovery of the Wallaroo, and 
 shortly after of the Moonta Mines, on Yorke Peninsula, bid fair to disprove the 
 often-repeated saying that " there was only one Burra in the colony." Although 
 the Wallaroo Mines promised to turn out well, it was many months before the 
 proprietors felt sure that their enterprise would not prove a losing one. A very 
 large amount of capital was expended by the wealthy firm of Elder & Co. and 
 Mr W. W. Hughes, until the mine account stood with above £80,000 on the 
 debit side. A few months after this, however, their pluck and perseverance 
 were rewarded by rich discoveries of ore, which ensured profitable results from 
 the large outlay incurred. The development of the mine now proceeded so 
 rapidly as to induce the proprietors to erect smelting works at Wallaroo Bay, 
 about five miles from the mine, for the reduction of the ore. Since 1862 the 
 progress of the Wallaroo ]Mines has been very encouraging and satisfactory. 
 The lodes in some parts of the mine are extraordinarily large and productive, 
 measuring from ten to thirty feet in width of nearly solid ore, worth about 12 
 
 3p
 
 482 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRA LA SIA . 
 
 per cent, of fine copper, and producing as much as sixty toi s- of ore to the fathom. 
 The general run of the lodes, however, is from five to ten feet in thickness. In 
 connection with the Wallaroo jMines, extensive smelting Avorks were erected at 
 Wallaroo Bay, and are probably the largest and most complete in the southern 
 hemisphere. The same proprietary have another smelting establishment at the 
 Hunter River, in New South Wales. By this arrangement the vessels which bring 
 coal from New South Wales to Wallaroo, take back copper ore to the Hunter 
 Eiver smelting Avorks, so that a saving of freight is effected. During the fifteen 
 years since the opening of the Wallaroo Mines, the total quantity of ore raised 
 has been 290,069 tons of 21 cwt., but the average of the first five years 
 was under 8000 tons, while the average of the five years ending 1874 was 
 over 26,000 tons. The total quantity of copper made at these smelting 
 works was 58,777 tons up to 1874. This includes a portion of the produce of 
 the Wallaroo Mines, and of 197,394 tons purchased from the Moonta and other 
 mines. 
 
 The country in the neighbourhood of the Wallaroo Mines being evidently 
 metalliferous, numerous other claims were taken up in the vicinity, and a great 
 deal of work was done with the view of finding payable copper-mines. In some 
 instances good lodes were struck, and worked for a few years with fair results ; 
 but of all that were opened only three, besides the original Wallaroo Mine, are 
 now being worked Avith anything like payable returns. These are the DeA'on 
 Consols, the Kurilla, and a more recently discovered mine, the Dooro. This 
 last is the property of Mr W. W. Hughes, and is yielding large quantities of 
 payable ore. 
 
 About a year after the discovery of the Wallaroo Mines, a still more A^aluable 
 find Avas made eleven miles to the south-west, and two from the sea-coast. A 
 quantity of small stones of green carbonate of copper being found on the surface 
 of the ground, some pits were sunk, and a fine lode of ore was cut at a small 
 depth. This Avas the commencement of the noAV world-renoAvned Moonta Mines. 
 Several eighty-acre sections w^ere secured by the ]\Iessrs Elder & Co. and Mr 
 Hughes, and subsequently the Moonta Mining Company Avas formed. The 1600 
 acres of mineral land now held by the company is the richest mineral property 
 in the colony, and not far from being the richest in the world. Since the first 
 discovery several very rich and productive lodes have been cut, the most recent 
 being a splendid course of fine yelloAV ore, four feet in width, at the depth of a 
 hundred fathoms. During the first twenty months after the opening of the 
 Moonta Mine 8000 tons of ore, averaging nearly 25 per cent, of fine copper, were 
 raised, and dividends amounting to £64,000 were paid from the proceeds. 
 Dm-ing this early period of the mine's existence — in September 1862 — a large 
 quantity of ore being required for shipment at Port Wallaroo, eleven miles from 
 Moonta, 1700 tons were delivered in nine days by means of bullock-drays. On 
 another occasion, since the construction of the raihvay betAveen Moonta and 
 Wallaroo, forty tons of malleable or native copper Avere sent aAvay in one train 
 of ore trucks by rail. 
 
 There are several mines in the neighbourhood of the Moonta, Avhich have for
 
 THE MINING ERA. 483 
 
 some years been worked with more or less success. The Yelta is the oldest of 
 these, and it has turned out a considerable (juantity of ore. 
 
 In two or three localities, near the river JNlurray, copper has been found 
 and mines opened. At Callington, near the Bremer, and about thirty-six 
 miles from Adelaide in the direction of the Murray, a copper-mine has been 
 worked for many years with a moderate degree of success. There are also 
 several other mines in the neighbourhood which have turned out a considerable 
 quantity of copper. A few miles from this there is a remarkable mine, the 
 Wheal Ellen, about three miles from the town of Strathalbyn. It was originally 
 worked for silver-lead, and some fine lodes of galena Avere opened. About 2000 
 tons were raised, yielding a good percentage (about 70 per cent, of lead), and 
 90,000 ounces of silver, besides a proportion of gold, varying from one to two 
 ounces to each ton of pig lead. A large quantity of auriferous gossan is found 
 in this mine, and the assay of samples sent to England gave at the rate of from 
 four to six ounces of gold to the ton. In another silver-lead mine near Norman- 
 ville, on the south-west coast, gold at the rate of two ounces to the ton was 
 obtained from the lead. At the depth of thirty fathoms, in the Wheal Ellen, a 
 fine lode of red oxide of copper was discovered, and in this part of the mine the 
 lead seemed likely to give place to the copper. 
 
 The most extensive mineral district in the colony is that lying to the north, 
 north-east, and east of Port Augusta. It has, for convenience of descrijition, 
 been divided into four large districts, the central comprising the following 
 mines : The Blinman, Sliding Kock, INIount Rose, Warrioota, Vocovocana, 
 Malice Hutt, Mount Emily, etc. The Mount Plantagenet district, comprising 
 the JNIount Craig, Kanyaka, Willow Creek, Prince Alfred, jNIatawarangala, and 
 other mines. The western, comprising the Beltana, Lake Torrens, Mount 
 Deception, Wirtaweena, Mount Lyndhurst, etc. And the northern, including 
 the Yudanamutana, the Daly, and Stanley mines, etc., etc. That portion of the 
 country is for the most part ill adapted to agricultural purposes, on account of 
 the dryness of the climate, the nature of the soil, and the distance from a market. 
 It is, however, good pastoral country, and abounds in vast mineral wealth. 
 Enormous lodes of the richest iron ore may be seen rising high above the surface 
 of the gi'ound. Huge lodes of copper are traceable for miles through the country, 
 and in some places the green ore maybe seen for a considerable distance, though 
 generally speaking the nature of the ore is only discovered on a closer examina- 
 tion. In certain parts the copper ore lies scattered in quantities over the ground, 
 like broken road metal. Occasionally a huge " boil " of rich ore is found on 
 some elevated part of the lode, as at the Yudanamutana and the Xuccaleena 
 mines, from the latter of which 600 tons were quarried from near the surface. 
 Ores of 60 and 70 per cent, are frequently found cropping out above ground, 
 consisting of red oxides and rich grey and other ores. Sometimes green and 
 blue carbonates, green muriates, and malachites are met with. A common form 
 of copper ore in the north is a brown liver-coloured ore, largely mixed with iron, 
 but containing from 30 to 40 per cent, of fine copper. Crystallised red oxide 
 and ruby copper, also malleable or virgin copper, are frequently found.
 
 484 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The extent and richness of the mineral deposits in the north are almost 
 incredible to those who have not seen them; but hitherto the high cost of cartage 
 and labour has oj^erated A'ery much against their development. It may be stated 
 that mineral dejiosits of greater or less richness are very widely diffused through- 
 out the colony. These deposits have been traced over an area of country extend- 
 ing 600 miles from south to north, and 250 miles from east to west. The mineral 
 that has been most largely and profitably worked is copper ; and during three 
 years, ending December 31st, 1862, when a mining mania was at its height, no 
 less than 1576 mineral sections of eighty acres each had been taken up. The 
 deposits of iron are also of wonderful richness and enormous extent, but, owing 
 to the absence of coal, and the high price of labour, they have been but little 
 worked. Native iron has been found so pure that it has, Avithout any prepara- 
 tion, been welded on to a piece of manufactured iron, and stood well. An 
 attempt was made to undertake the smelting of iron in the southern j^art of the 
 colony, where certain facilities, as fuel, lime, etc., existed in close proximity to 
 exceedingly rich ore. As ftir as concerned the production of first-class pig iron, 
 and its subsequent manufacture into Avrought iron and steel, the attempt was 
 highly successful, but owing to two or three hitches at starting, the shareholders 
 in the company which had been formed lost heart, and the project was for a 
 time abandoned. 
 
 Lead ore also abounds and contains a portion of silver, in many cases as high 
 as fifty and even sixty ounces to the ton of galena. For many years, lead mines 
 were worked, but they were not considered suflflciently remunerative to warrant 
 the continuance of operations. If, however, at some future time, circumstances 
 should enable the ore to be raised, or the metal extracted at less cost than at 
 present, there is abundance of galena to be found in South Australia. Silver 
 ore yielding as high as 30 j)er cent, of silver has been found, and some rich 
 ore is known to exist on private property, but the largest attempt to work a 
 silver mine proved a failure. 
 
 Besides the metals already mentioned, many others have been met with. 
 Tin has only been found in small quantities. Manganese exists in certain 
 localities, associated with a small percentage of cobalt ; and a very large deposit 
 of manganese of 80 per cent., showing cobalt, is reported in the north. Plum- 
 bago is found in the Port Lincoln district and elsewhere, and zinc occurs with 
 cop})cr and other ores. Bismuth is found in various parts of the colony, some 
 hundreds of miles distant from each other — on the western side of Spencer's 
 Gulf, above Franklin Harbour ; in the Stanley Mine, 230 miles north of Port 
 Augusta ; and near Balhannah, sixteen miles to the south-east of Adelaide. 
 The Balhannah Mine contains an exceedingly rich deposit of bismuth, 
 and in other respects claims to be one of the most remarkable mines 
 in the world. Copper was first found in considerable quantities, associated 
 with bismuth, and about £25,000 worth Avas raised. Then gold made its 
 appearance, and after the bismuth Avas smelted, it Avas found to contain on 
 an average about five ounces of gold to the hundredAveight of metal. Some 
 of the specimens from this mine are exceedingly curious and beautiful —
 
 THE MINING ERA. 485 
 
 showing copper, native bismuth, and gnhl in the same stones. Cobalt in 
 small quantities, and antimony and plumbago, also exist in the ore from this 
 mine. 
 
 Although South Australia was the first of the Australasian colonies in which 
 gold was discovered, gold-mining has hitherto made but little progress. Gold 
 was found in the hills, about twelve miles from Adelaide, about the year 1844, 
 but at the time the finder was not aware of the nature and importance of his 
 discovery. About the year 1852-53, alluvial diggings were discovered in the hills, 
 near Echunga, about twenty miles south-east of Adelaide. The goldfield did 
 not prove very rich, nor of any great extent, but a few hundreds of diggers did 
 tolerably well by steady work, and some small fortunes Avere realised by the 
 more successful. For many years a number of plodding people made a fair 
 living at these diggings, and in the aggregate a considerable amount of gold — 
 about £GO0,000 — was obtained. Pi-ecious stones have been found on the 
 Echunga diggings. Some years later another goldfield was discovered a few 
 miles farther south, at Jupiter Creek, where a good deal of gold was obtained, 
 including a few respectable nuggets, the largest weighing twelve ounces. Farther 
 away still, in a south-easterly direction, gold has been found at the Meadows, but 
 the wet nature of the ground proved a great hindrance to working. More recently 
 another patch of auriferous country was opened and successfully worked, about 
 three miles north-west of the old Echunga diggings, about a mile from the village 
 of Hahndorf, and within the same distance of the Onkaparinga River, which has 
 been proved auriferous in many parts of its course. Some very good finds were 
 made, and one or two promising reefs 02:)ened. About 1869 a goldfield was dis- 
 covered in the Barossa Ranges, ten miles east of Gawler. For three or four 
 years it was worked with a fair amount of success, and proved in places to be 
 rich in the precious metal. The prospecting which was carried on in the neigh- 
 bourhood resulted in the discovery of a payable quartz-reef, where the Lady Alice 
 Gold Mine has been successfully worked. A singular feature in this mine is, that 
 a rich lode of copper ore was cut Avithin a hundred feet from the surface, and the 
 gold is frequently seen sticlcing in the copper. It was thought that the copper 
 would " kill the gold," but both metals appear to have improved as a greater 
 depth has been reached. 
 
 Another locality where a very rich deposit of gold was found is near Mount 
 Pleasant, and thirty-one miles east from Adelaide. A few inches below the 
 surface at " Scott's Gold INIine " the soil was rich in the precious metal, and 
 many loose stones of quartz were turned up containing lumps of gold. One 
 stone, about half the size of a man's head, contained thirty ounces of gold ! 
 Upwards of £'2000 worth was obtained in a short time, after which a company 
 was formed with the view of carrying on more extensive operations, and search- 
 ing for the reef supposed to exist on the land. The company purchased the 
 lease of the section for twentj^-one j^cars, and expended some ,£300() without 
 obtaining any great return, the gold produced only amounting to £510 in value. 
 Recently, however, a promising-looking quartz leader has been followed down 
 to a depth of eighty feet, where it has run into a good solid reef three feet thick.
 
 486 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 From the wouderful ricliness of the stuff found on the sui-face, and the nature of 
 the strata below, it is the opinion of experienced persons that a A-ery payable 
 reef should be found here. Other similar deposits of gold were discovered in 
 the same neighbourhood, and within a mile of Scott's. 
 
 The best-looking and richest gold-reef yet found in the colony is at 
 "Waukaringa, two hundred miles north of Adelaide. It is well defined, and, 
 geologically speaking, in excellent gold country, and extends for many miles 
 nearly east and west. Sufficient work has been done to prove the reef to be 
 gold-bearing — at least at intervals — for a length of seven miles, and forty miles 
 to the eastward in the same line of country gold has been found in the reef. 
 Three good mines have been opened, and the value of the reef proved in them 
 for above a mile in length. There are several other localities in various parts of 
 the colony where very promising discoveries of gold have been made, but where 
 the amount of work done has been insufficient to fairly test the A-alue of the 
 deposits. The belief, however, is gradually gaining ground, that the precious 
 metal is far more extensively diffused throughout South Australia than has 
 hitherto been thought to be the case. 
 
 Diamonds and other precious stones have been foimd in the neighbourhood 
 of the Echunga goldfields, and a number and variety of gems in different 
 parts of the colony. One of the Echunga diamonds is miique as a speci- 
 men of perfect crystallisation. Forty-eight facets may be distinctly counted 
 by the aid of a magnifying glass, and are as regular as though they had 
 been cut by a lai)idary. This diamond weighs one and a half carats, and 
 is of fine brilliancy. Other stones and gems Avhich have been found in 
 the colony may be enumerated as follows : Amethyst, agate, beryl (both 
 precious and common), bloodstone, cornehau, cairngorm, calcedony, emerald, 
 garnet, lapis lazuli, onyx, opal (both precious and common), spinel I'uby 
 and sapphire, sardonyx, and topaz. Of the last named some fine yellow 
 specimens have been obtained, equal to the Brazilian, and many colom-less 
 stones ; but these are generally inferior in point of hardness. The Angli- 
 can Bishop of Adelaide, some time since, had a pastoral staff presented 
 to him set with a number of native gems, including most of those named 
 above. 
 
 In the south-east, near the Coorong, there is a remarkable substance found on 
 the sui-face ; it occurs in tough thin cakes, and from its resemblance to indiarubber 
 it has been called mineral caoutchouc. These cakes vary in thickness from that 
 of a sheet of coarse brown paper to an inch. ISIany tons of it lie scattered over 
 a considerable area of ground. A quantity of the substance was collected and 
 brought to Adelaide, where a briUiant illuminating kerosine oil was obtained 
 from it by distillation. This oil was found to be superior to the best American, 
 in at least one very important quality, that of being non-explosive, and not 
 becoming inflammable under a temperature of \W Fahrenheit, whereas the 
 American oil ignites at lOS". The soil in the neighbourhood where it is found 
 appears to be impregnated with inflammable oil, which can be extracted by 
 means of distillation.
 
 THE MINING ERA. 487 
 
 The following brief summary of mineral exports at different periods will help 
 to show the progress made in this respect : 
 
 In 1845, the first year when copper was exported from the 
 
 Kiipumla and Burra Mines, the value was stated at . ,£19,020 
 
 In 1846 the export of miiiurals amounted to, . . . 143,231 
 
 In 1856 „ „ . . . 408,042 
 
 In 18G6 „ „ . . . 824,501 
 
 In 1874 „ „ . . . 700,323 
 
 It should, however, be explained that the greater value of the mineral 
 exports in 1800 arose from the higher price of copper in that year, and not 
 from the greater quantity produced : in fact the quantity was much less in 1800 
 than in 1874. In the former year the exports amounted to 0403 tons 12 c^vt. 
 of copper, and 10,824 tons of ore, while in 1874 they were 0029 tons 7 cwt. of 
 copper, and 22,854 tons of copper ore. In 1804 the value of the lead exported 
 was £13,318, and in 1800, £11,318, since which time it has almost ceased.
 
 488 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A PROGRESSIVE COLONY. 
 
 GOVERNOR grey's ADMINISTRATION — GOVERNOR ROBE — GOVERNOR YOUNG — A 
 REVERSE — GOVERNOR MACDONNELL — GOVERNOR DALY — GOVERNOR FERGUSSON. 
 
 Governor Grey during his administration displayed great firmness, prudence, 
 and decision. He commenced a policy of retrenchment, cutting down the wages 
 of those employed by the Government to the lowest point. The effect of this 
 action was that working-men, who had been hanging about the city, went into 
 the country, and thus the land was brought into cultivation. One important 
 improvement in the Government was made during this time : the commissioners 
 were dispensed with, and the Home Government undertook the direct manage- 
 ment of the colony. A new direction was given to the industry of the colonists ; 
 and when they became convinced that their success lay in subduing the earth, in 
 cultivating the soil, and in pastoral pursuits, a new impulse was given to their 
 energies. The necessaries of life became cheap ; and although money was not 
 over-plentiful, beef, mutton, and flour were cheap, and there was neither want 
 nor complaining amongst the people. Governor Grey's administration Avill 
 always be remembered with satisfaction and gratitude. He first inspired the 
 people with a feeling of self-reliance, and taught them to live within their means. 
 
 He was succeeded by Colonel Robe, a man very different from Captain Grey. 
 Governor Robe was a respectable, honourable, upright English Tory. All his 
 prepossessions and traditions were on the side of authority, which his military 
 training had deepened and intensified. He looked with something like contempt, 
 which he took no pains to disguise, at the liberal tendencies of the handful of 
 people he had been sent to govern in the Queen's name. He tried to govei'u by 
 a small clique of men Avho had but little sympathy with the bulk of the colonists. 
 The poor governor lived in hot water dui'ing the Avhole of his administration. 
 The colonists refused to be treated as children ; and, as he did not respect their 
 rights, they paid no attention to his feelings. He was very weary of his office 
 before he was relieved by the Home GoNi.inment. 
 
 He was succeeded by Sir Henry Young, who was a diff'erent stamp of man 
 altogether from his predecessor. He entered very heartily into all those schemes 
 which were likely to assist in the government and development of the colony. 
 One of the most important events that took place in Governor Young's time was 
 the opening of the river Murray for navigation. Up to Sir Henry Young's 
 time it had not been turned to any useful account. With properly-constructed
 
 A PROGRESSIVE COLONY. 489 
 
 steamboats, the river can Ije naviyated for something like two thousand miles ; 
 but unfortunately the outlet to the Southern Ocean is dangerous, and often 
 impractical )le. Besides assisting to open up the river. Sir Henry set his mind 
 on establishing a great port near to its mouth. A large sum of money was use- 
 lessly wasted on this fruitless attempt ; and the few stones which now lie at 
 what was ambitiously called Port Elliot Avill remain a lasting monument to 
 Governor Young's unwise zeal. 
 
 The gold discovery, which was the precursor of unexampled prosperity to 
 New South Wales and Victoria, proved deeply injurious to South Australia. 
 The very fact of her population having become more a mining than an 
 agricultural or a pastoral people militated against her. In twelve months after 
 the discovery of gold in the Jiathurst INIountains, out of a population of 7(),(>U0, 
 12,000 adults and 4000 children, almost entirely of the male sex, left that 
 colony. The city of Adelaide was left nearly destitute of able-bodied men, the 
 mines were deserted, the stations abandoned, and almost every industrial 
 occupation was at a standstill ; while the Government of the colony was for a 
 time paralysed. It was but for a time ; for the Legislative Council and the 
 governor. Sir H. E. F. Young, passed an Act making ingots of gold, stamped by 
 authority, a legal tender throughout the colony. This, added to the successful 
 attempt of INIr Tolmer in forming a practicable route from Adelaide to INIount 
 Alexander, brought a large portion of the gold from the colony of Victoria, and 
 some from New South Wales, into the coffers of the South Australian merchants 
 and the Treasury. Those also who had left their families behind — which four- 
 fifths had done — sent their earnings by this overland escort. 
 
 Sir Henry Young was succeeded by Sir Richard Graves INIacdonnell, a man 
 of very considerable ability and great energy of character. ]\Iore than any 
 governor who had preceded him he came into close contact with the colonists 
 as a whole. He had a pleasant manner, considerable tact, and warm sympathy 
 with all the interests of the colony, public and private. He was exceedingly 
 popular during the whole of his administration, and he left the colony amidst the 
 regrets of those who knew him. During his government, constitutional govern- 
 ment was established, with two branches of legislature, both elective. During 
 his administration the colony made rapid strides of progress. The full energies 
 of the people were brought out, and wisely directed towards objects of public 
 usefulness. The railway system was greatly extended, the electric telegraph 
 was established, and exploration was pushed forward to a remarkable degree. 
 New and valuable coppei'-mines were discovered on Yorke Peninsula, which 
 now support a population of some 20,000 persons, and farming operations were 
 largely extended. 
 
 In ISIarch 1862, Sir Richard was succeeded by Sir Dominic Daly, a man of 
 great oflBcial experience, an excellent administrator, and a very popular governor. 
 He was a Roman Catholic ; he kej^t his religious views to himself, and never 
 obtruded them into the region of politics. He was accessible to all classes of the 
 community, and identified himself with everything likely to promote the welfare 
 of the colonists. He died in the colony, and was deeplv mourned by all classes, 
 
 3 Q
 
 •490 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 whose loving esteem he had won by his urbanity and quiet EngHsh hospitality. 
 During his administration the colony was visited by the Duke of Edinburgh, 
 who, it is well known, formed a high opinion of the cheery and kind-hearted old 
 gentleman. 
 
 Durin£j the interrecrnum between Sir Dominic's death and the arrival of his 
 successor, the Right Honourable Sir James Fergusson, Bart., the government 
 was administered by Lieut. -Colonel Hamley, who was the senior officer in 
 command of her Majesty's forces in the colony at the time of Governor Daly's 
 death. Sir James was appointed by the Government, in whose ranks he had held 
 office as Under-Secretary for India and the Home Department. For several 
 years he represented Ayrshire in the House of Commons. Sir James was free 
 and open-handed in his expenditure, and very liberal in all his personal dealings 
 with the colony. He was a man of very considerable ability, a clear thinker, 
 and an effective speaker. Though, perhaps, his higher . qualities were not 
 recognised as they ought to have been, he was regarded as an intelligent 
 and a high-minded gentleman, who maintained the dignity of his responsible 
 position and creditably represented her Majesty by the liberal administration. 
 The establishment of telegraphic communication between Australia and Europe 
 was carried out during his Excellency's term of office : his effiDrts to aid in the 
 accomplishment of this great work were fully recognised ; and shortly after its 
 completion he was promoted, by Mr Gladstone, to the governorship of New 
 Zealand. Sir James suffered, while in Adelaide, a serious family affliction in 
 the death of his wife, Lady Edith Kamsay, daughter of the late Marquis 
 Dalhousie. 
 
 In the interval between the departure of Sir James and the arrival of his 
 successor, the administration of affairs was in the hands of the Chief-Justice, Sir 
 R. D. Hanson, whose long residence in the colony and thorough acquaintance 
 with its public affairs and history eminently qualified him for the position he 
 temporarily occupied. Mr G. M. Stephen and the Honourable B. T. Finniss 
 each discharged the duty of acting-governor, at different times, under circum- 
 stances similar to those under which Sir R. D. Hanson acted.
 
 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. 401 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. 
 
 POSITION OF NORTHERN TERRITORY — A NEW SETTLEMENT — MR FINNISS GOVERNMENT 
 RESIDENT — MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND QUARRELS — A DECIDED FAILURE — A 
 FORLORN HOPE — MR FINNISS RECALLED — MR MANTON APPOINTED — WASTED 
 YEARS — THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH — CAPABILITIES OF NORTHERN TERRITORY — 
 A SHIPWRECK — SOIL, CLIMATE, AND NATURAL PRODUCTS. 
 
 The Northern Territory, or Alexandra Land, comprises the immense tract of 
 country which was made over to South Austraha as one of the results of the 
 explorations of Mr J. Macdouall Stuart. It contains an area of 581,402 
 square miles, or 340,097,280 acres. It is bounded on the north by the Indian 
 Ocean ; on the south by the 26th parallel of south latitude ; on the east by the 
 138th meridian of east longitude ; and on the west by the 129th meridian of east 
 longitude. 
 
 When Stuart returned from his last journey across the continent, after having 
 successfully shown the practicability of the overland route, the Government 
 entered into negotiations with the Impei'ial Government for the cession of the 
 newly-discovered territory to South Australia. Whether it was wise for the 
 colony, having ample territory already and possessing but a limited population, 
 to undertake the responsibility of settling a new and immense district, may admit 
 of grave doubt. The matter, however, was taken up with considerable enthusiasm 
 at the time. It was resolved to survey and offer for sale a considerable quantity 
 of land on the north-western portion of the continent. The land sales took 
 place in Adelaide, in March 1864, before the surveys had commenced. The land 
 was divided into country sections and town blocks — the proprietor of a section 
 being entitled to a town block. The land was sold in order that the funds might 
 be devoted to the cost of surveying and settling the country in the first instance. 
 A considerable number of sections wei'e purchased by English speculators, who 
 risked their money on the chance of its becoming a profitable investment in the 
 future. Priority in choice of selections amongst the purchasers was to be 
 determined by lot ; and the Government entered into an arrangement with the 
 selectors to have the land surveyed and ready for selection within five years of 
 the time of the sale. The land was readily taken up, and preparations were 
 immediately made for despatching a party to North Australia to carry on the 
 work of survey, and to protect life and property there. 
 
 The most important question the Government had to determine was the
 
 492 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 choice of a Government resident, who should be at the head of the party, .and 
 under whom the surveys were to be carried out, and by whom the first Httle 
 community of settlers were to be governed. The gentleman selected for this 
 responsible position, Lieut. -Colonel Boyle Travers Finniss, Avas believed to 
 possess high qualifications for the office. He was an old colonist, Avho had large 
 experience in public life. He had been treasurer of the colony, and at one time 
 acting-governor. He was an officer of rank in the volunteer force, and he was a 
 surveyor by profession. The Government who appointed him were highly com- 
 mended for their judicious selection ; and the general impression was that a 
 better choice could not have been made. Mr Finniss set to work immediately to 
 prepare for the departure of the first expedition, in which he was liberally assisted 
 by the Government. The officers of the party were : B. T. Finniss, Government 
 resident ; J. F. Manton, engineer and surveyor ; F. E. Goldsmith, surgeon and 
 protector of the aborigines; Ebenezer Ward, clerk in charge and accountant; 
 Stephen King, storekeeper; John Davis, assistant storekeeper and postmaster; 
 W. Pearson, J. Wadham, and A. R. Hamilton, surveyors ; R. Watson and 
 J. W. O. Bennett, draughtsmen. In addition to these there was a strong party 
 of chainmen, labourers, and able-bodied seamen. 
 
 The Government chartered a good vessel — the " Henry Ellis " — for the first 
 expedition, and fitted her up in such a way as in all respects to promote the 
 comfort of the men during the voyage, and amply supplied her with stores, 
 instruments, and weapons for the protection of the party on their arrival. In 
 the instructions given to the Government resident, Adam Bay was suggested as 
 a likely jilace for the first town ; but he was left with full discretion to select 
 another site if, after examination, he found that unsuitable. Mr Finniss was 
 also instructed to establish and cultivate friendly and confidential relations with 
 his party, and especially to see that no injustice was done to the natives of the 
 country. 
 
 Before the expedition sailed a luncheon was given to the party at Port 
 Adelaide, presided over by the chief-secretary. Sir Henry Ayers, and in the 
 presence of Governor Sir Dominic Daly. It was an exceedingly interesting- 
 gathering, and high hopes were cherished of the success of this bold attempt to 
 establish a new settlement in Northern Australia. Mr Finniss made an admirable 
 speech, in the course of which he expressed the fullest confidence in his officers. 
 A few days afterwards the expedition sailed, carrying with it the best wishes of 
 the whole people of the colony. In June 1864, the "Henry Ellis" cast anchor 
 in Adam Bay, and the party landed. Unfortunately before the voyage was over 
 misunderstandings had grown up between the head of the party and some of his 
 officers, and these misunderstandings became more serious after the party had 
 taken possession of the territory. The first river camp was fixed on 1st July, and 
 the men celebrated what they regarded as the actual commencement of their 
 work by broaching a barrel of beer which some one of the party had brought to 
 the tent. 
 
 The expedition resulted in a decided failure. Quarrels between the Govern- 
 ment resident and his officers led to a state of utter disorganisation. The head
 
 THE NORTHERN TERllLTORY. 403 
 
 of the party seemed to lose all control over it. Mr Finniss selected Escape Cliffs 
 as the site of the town against the protests and remonstrances of some of his 
 officers and gentlemen who represented the selectors. ]>ut little progress was 
 made with the survey ; the party became dissatisfied, insubordinate, and idle. 
 Quarrels took place with the natives, who stole the insufficiently protected stores, 
 and who were punished without discrimination. The reports which came froTU 
 the Territory to ^Vdelaide were of the most disheartening character. The Govern- 
 ment resident complained of his officers, and his officers complained of him. 
 Meanwhile precious time was being wasted, and but little was being done towards 
 the survey of the country. 
 
 Some of the settlers purchased a small lioat — the " Forlorn ITope " — with 
 which to leave the settlement. In this boat they sailed sixteen hundred miles to 
 Champion Bay, and proceeded thence to Adelaide, where they brought before the 
 Government what they averred to be the actual state of things at Adam Bay. 
 The colony was indignant at what they heard. ]\Ir Finniss was called upon for 
 explanations, which being deemed unsatisfactory, ho was finally recalled to 
 Adelaide, and Mr Manton was left in command. A court of inquiry was 
 apjiointed by the Government to investigate certain charges Avhich had been laid 
 against Mr Finniss, and the evidence was fully reported. The court found that 
 the Government resident was wanting in tact in the management of his men, 
 that he had not shown skill in organising their labour, and that he had not taken 
 sufficient care to protect the stores upon which the party were dependent. A 
 majority of the commission also blamed Mr Finniss for selecting such an unsuit- 
 able site as Escape Cliffs for the township. They also found that he had not 
 shown sufficient tact and care in his dealings with the natives, and that he had 
 unnecessarily left the Territory without leave. The report, however, stated that 
 the party entrusted to Mr Finniss included many persons unfitted for the work 
 for which they were engaged, and that some of the witnesses called manifested 
 so much personal animosity towards Mr Finniss as to render their testimony of 
 comparatively little value. The result of the inquiry was the removal of the 
 Government resident from his position. 
 
 Under the administration of Mr Manton there was not much improvement. 
 The impression became stronger and more pronounced that Adam Bay was not 
 the proper place for the settlement ; and the question Avas gravely discussed 
 whether it would not be better to pay back to the selectors their money with 
 intereat, withdraw the expedition, and abandon the settlement. 
 
 The next step taken by the Government was to find, if possible, a better site 
 for a new settlement. Captain Cadell was despatched to the Gulf of Carpentaria 
 to see what advantages offered there. With his usual enthusiasm he luidertook 
 the congenial work, and on his return he presented a highly-poetical report of 
 his explorations and investigations, which was received with ridicule, almost 
 amounting to contempt. 
 
 The state of things was now becoming serious. The five years within which 
 the Government had pledged themselves to have the surveys completed, and the 
 land open for selection, were rapidly passing away and nothing practical had
 
 494 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 been done. Escajie Cliffs was abandoned, and the party recalled, and the 
 Government wore at their Avits' end to knoAV what was to be done. The London 
 selectors banded themselves together, and demanded back their money with 
 interest. This demand was resisted by the Government, Avho still hoped to finish 
 the siuTey. They passed a bill through the Parliament to give to the original 
 selectors a greatly increased area over that to Avhich they were entitled, in con- 
 sideration of the delay which had taken place in the sm'veys ; but this offer Avas 
 limited to those Avho undertook to Avithdraw the threatened legal action against 
 the Government. Many of the selectors accepted this offer, but the bulk of 
 those in London refused it, and persisted in their demand for a return of their 
 money. 
 
 At this time Mr G. W. Goyder, the energetic surveyor-general of the province, 
 Avas requested by the Government to go personally to the Northern Territory 
 A\ath a competent and thoroughly-equipped party, to select a site, and to com- 
 plete the survey without delay. Mr Goyder undertook this responsible Avork, 
 and soon got a fine party together. The Government justly had confidence in 
 his judgment and energy, and left the Avork very much to his discretion. He 
 selected Port DarAvin for the site, and laid the foundation of Palmerston as the 
 chief tOAvn. As soon as he arrived, Avithout alloAving one day for idleness, he set 
 his band of surveyors to work in A'arious parties, he himself moving amongst 
 them from place to place, directing, encouraging, and animating them all by his 
 personal presence and labours. There Avas no dissatisfaction, grumbling, or 
 insubordination ; and, under the controlling spirit of one energetic man, the great 
 Avork, AAdiich five years had failed to accomplish, Avas completed in a fcAV months. 
 Had INIr Goyder been despatched in the first instance, the colony Avould have 
 been saved the disasters Avhich attended the first attempts to settle the Northern 
 Territory, and the large sums of money which they cost and Avhich Avas 
 extravagantly Avasted in the most reckless Avay. 
 
 The overland telegraph has its northern terminus at Port Darwin. In the 
 course of its construction ample evidence was given of the auriferous nature of 
 much of the territory, and Avhen the surveys Avere completed a considerable 
 number of settlers went there principally Avith a vieAV to gold-digging. A form 
 of government Avas provided for the settlement, Avhich still exists, and Avhich has 
 been modified to some extent, especially in the judicial and administrative 
 dejiartments. 
 
 That the Northern Territory, notAvithstanding its disastrous and humiliating- 
 history, is a rich country and destined to become a great settlement, every one 
 Avho knoAvs it is convinced. It has been grossly mismanaged, and therefore has 
 so far been a failure. Its resources, however, only need to be prudently and 
 energetically developed to bring Avealth to the settlers. The Parliament has" 
 made Palmerston a free port, with a vicAV to encourage trade Avith other countries. 
 In this respect it possesses greater advantages than Singapore. It is almost 
 certain to become the entrepot from which Australian horses Avill be sujiplied to 
 the Indian Government as re-mounts for the army. The Northern Territory has 
 cost thft colony a great deal of money, but there can be no doubt that every
 
 THE NORTJIERN TERRITORY. 495 
 
 penny will one day be paid back with interest. The adoption of a wi.se and 
 energetic policy for the encouragement of semi-tropical products and for 
 developing the mines will give it a start ; and a fair start is all that it really 
 needs to ensure ultimate success. 
 
 In the year 1875 the Government determined to hold a circuit court at 
 Palmerston, presided over by one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the 
 province. Mr Justice Wearing, the third judge, was therefore despatched to 
 hold a court, and was attended by the necessary officers. He and his party 
 reached Port Darwin in safety ; the court was held, and they embarked in the 
 steamer "Gothenburg" for the return voyage. Unfortunately, however, the 
 steamer ran on a reef lying off the coast of Queensland, and in the course of a 
 foAV hours became a total wreck— the greater portion of her passengers and a 
 crew thus meeting with an untimely death. Over a hundred persons — men, 
 women, and little children — were ruthlessly swept from the deck of the ill-fated 
 vessel. A few escaped in boats, but the great majority Avent down making no 
 sign. Amongst the sufterers were Judge Wearing ; his associate, Mr Pelham ; 
 Mr Whitby, acting Crown Prosecutor ; the Honourable T. Reynolds, who for many 
 years had been a leading politician of the province, and his wife ; and the captain 
 and his chief officers. No calamity that ever befell the colony produced such a 
 feeling of sorrow or such a kind expression of heartfelt sympathy as this. For a 
 time people were stunned by the news, and walked like those in a dream. But 
 when the first shock passed away, there was an immediate cry for help for the 
 families of those who had gone ([ovn\ in the sea. The Parliament took care of 
 the families of those who died in the service of the Government, and made 
 liberal provision for them ; and the generous benevolence of the public took 
 charge of the rest. Between £9000 and £10,000 was at once contributed and 
 judiciously distributed amongst the sufferers ; and when this act of justice was 
 done, the colony breathed more freely. 
 
 The land bounding the coast is in a great measure low and uninteresting, in 
 very few instances being more than a hundred feet above the sea-level ; wherever 
 the coast is high, it is generally in the nature of cliffs, composed of sandstone, 
 marl, and ironstone ; the lower portions are partly sandy beaches, but principally 
 mud flats, thickly fringed with mangroves. The country inland is, generally 
 speaking, of a very level character, over which railways could be easily constructed, 
 and is in a great measure destitute of conspicuous land-marks. At a distance of 
 from thirty to one hundred miles from the coast a tableland is met with, varying 
 in height from three hundred to nine hundred feet, and near the Victoria Eiver 
 it attains a height of nearly seventeen hundred feet. 
 
 The year has two climatic divisions, consisting of the wet season, from 
 October to April, and the dry period, from May to September. The different 
 changes of these seasons are so uniform and regular that they may be predicted 
 almost to a day. With regard to the suitability of the country for European 
 labour, a writer affirms — after four years' experience — that a man cannot perform 
 the amount of constant work that he is capable of accomplishing in a more 
 temperate climate ; but still there is nothing to prevent a moderate day's work
 
 496 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 l)oing done — and further, there is an ahnost entire absence of those enervating 
 influences which prostrate the European labourer in other tropical countries, 
 such as India, Java, Singapore, or Africa. Workmen carry out their various 
 avocations throughout the day without taking any precaution to ward off the 
 rays of the sun — the eight hours' system being usually adopted, as in other parts 
 of Australia. The climate, in fact, may lie said to be more of that tj'pe which is 
 generally known as Australian, rather than tropical ; and the same remark will 
 — Avith very few exceptions — also apply to the flora, fauna, and jjersjDective of the 
 country. It is free from cholera and other scourges of hot countries, and on the 
 Avhole may be considered healthy. Intermittent fever, commonly known as fever 
 and ague, is prevalent, at times, especially in low-lying localities, or immediately 
 after the Avet season ; but this complaint is not dangerous in itself, and can often 
 be prevented by a moderate and judicious use of medicine and a small amount of 
 bodily exercise. The insect nuisances, such as flies, mosquitoes, or sandflies, 
 disappear very quickly on any extent of timber and grass being cleared away. 
 Clothing of a light description is worn throughout the year — white being the 
 best. 
 
 The white ant pest deserves a special paragraph ; in appearance he is fat and 
 yellow, about the size of the gentles used by anglers — the creature is rarely seen 
 unless unearthed, always working under cover, protecting itself by a shield of 
 glutinous earth as a shelter from the attacks of its constant enemy, the small 
 black ant. The white ant appears to have a wide margin for taste — it eats 
 through almost anything — leather, wood, tobacco, soap, books, clothes — nothing 
 short of sheet-iron will arrest its ravages. Ordinary fir or pine, or ordinary 
 hardwood, afford this ravenous insect a special feast, and no timber except cypress, 
 pine, and paper bark, iron bark, bloodwood, and a few other woods, obtained 
 in the Northern Territory, or the jarrah from Western Australia, is capable of 
 withstanding its attacks. There are hundreds of thousands of ant-hills in the 
 Territory, many being upwards of twenty-five feet in height, and six feet to ten feet 
 in diameter. They are very strong, resisting the heavy pressure of trojiical rains, 
 the larger ones appearing to be of great age — possibly some hundreds of years. 
 There is another destructive insect called the " borer," not met with near the 
 sea-coast, but very active and mischievous inland, its attacks being chiefly levelled 
 against timber. This creature is about the size of a large fly. Its head is armed 
 with a kind of auger, which it drives with great force against the wood proposed 
 to be attacked. The point of the auger is inserted while the body performs a series 
 of rapid revolutions, perhaps a thousand in a minute, and thus bores a hole into 
 the timber as perfectly as could be executed by a carpenter's gimlet. On a still 
 night the noise of this boring operation can be distinctly heard. In consequence 
 of the destruction caused to wooden buildings by the ravag-es of the white ant, 
 the Government authorities have determined on erecting all future structures of 
 stone, Avitli concrete floors of Portland cement. 
 
 The indigenous products of the Northern Territory, like the rest of the 
 Australian colonies, yield little or nothing adapted to sustain civilised life, while 
 they aflbril sullicicnt to support the aboriginal population. The native grasses
 
 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. 497 
 
 have, however, been practically tested, and found to yield abundant nutrition to 
 fotten horned cattle and horses. When it is stated as a fact that for Inindreds of 
 miles inland there is scarcely a foot of t^round which is uncovered by trees, plants, 
 or herbage of one kind or another, growing in rank luxuriance (in some cases on 
 rocky strata, without any apparent soil to sustain vegetable existence), and that 
 such fruits as the banana, cocoa-nut, custard-apple, pine-api)le, and tamarind 
 thrive on a hard clayey or ironstone soil, Avithin a few yards of the sea, it may 
 not be unreasonable to infer that the jungle and swamp might . be speedily 
 reclaimed and made to yield, under the genial tropical influence of this peculiar 
 clime, productions of gi'eat commercial value. 
 
 y R
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 HISTORY OF WESTEEN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 the swan etver settlement — a failure in colonisation — governmental ignor- 
 ance — captain stirling — the first settlers — terrible disasters — a penal 
 settlement — causes of the failure — description of western australia — 
 perth — fremantle — whaling — remarkable caves — guildford — strange 
 birds — natural productions — climate — natural capabilities — king 
 George's sound — abandoned settlements — melville island — fort Wel- 
 lington — PORT ESSINGTON, NORTH AUSTRALIA. 
 
 The name Western Australia is given to that large section of the continent 
 situated to the westward of 129° of east longitude, and between the parallels of 
 latitude 13° 44' and 85° S. It has the Pacific on the south, the Indian Ocean 
 on the west-north-west, and the Arafura Sea on the north. As yet, however, 
 only an insignificant corner of this vast region has been settled, and a great 
 l^ortion of it is unexjilored. What pastoral, agricultural, and mineral wealth 
 may lie concealed within its immense area remains yet to be revealed. 
 
 It was in the year 1829 that a British colony Avas founded at what was thou 
 called Swan River, but on principles and under cii'cumstances that inevitably 
 ensured failure. Mr Peel, a gentleman who had influence with Government, 
 combined with Sydney merchants to found a colony in some other part of 
 Austi'alia. The merchants found the money, Mr Peel the influence. The largo 
 fortunes which had been realised by colonists in New South Wales led the 
 colonisers to believe that the same might be realised in a new colony, without 
 the disadvantage of a convict population. Swan Iliver was the site chosen. 
 Sailors who had visited the shores gave the favourable reports, as sailors always 
 do of any safe harl)our where they find wood and water enough for their ship's 
 crew. Geographical reasons led the adventurers to expect a temperate climate ; 
 fui'ther precise investigations as to the quality of the soil, extent of pastures, and 
 character of the aborigines, were considered unnecessary. The Home Govern- 
 ment, in total ignorance of the simplest principles of colonisation, did its part by 
 bestowing a million acres on the founder, and to every other colonist acres in 
 proportion to his capital in cash, live stock, implements, or the iHnul)er of 
 labourers whose passage he paid.
 
 HISTORY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 490 
 
 The first governor appointed was Captain Stirling, R.N. During the years 
 1829 and 1M30 fifty-five ships arrived, bringing 1125 emigrants, and cargo to the 
 vahie of .£144,177. The future capital was named Perth, and its seaport 
 Fremantlc. Their sites were chosen with great judgment. 
 
 In 1831 the arrivals were less frequent, and the vessels numbered only 
 seventeen ; and after the first quarter of 1832, the immigration of persons and 
 projierty ceased, except so far as related to the friends and funds of persons 
 previously established in the colony. Officers of the army and navy, and the 
 ofiicers on the civil establishment of the colony, were authorised by Sir George 
 Murray to receive assignments of land on the terms of importation of property 
 Avhich were open to the public. To some naval and military officers, who 
 .engaged to return to the settlement at an early period with the property neces- 
 sary to qualify them to receive allotments, permission to select land was granted, 
 and the territory so selected was reserved for a considerable period. Thus many 
 of the settlers who arrived in 1829 and 1830, on expressing a desire to possess 
 themselves of lands in favourable localities, were informed " that 10,000 acres are 
 reserved for Cajitain A. ; that 6000 acres to Lieutenant B. ; that uOOO acres to 
 Mr C," and so on, over some of the best situated localities. 
 
 With these antecedents it would have been difficult for men unconnected 
 with Government and unaided by public support to have formed a colony, even 
 in the loveliest and most fertile land on earth ; and it is surprising that the 
 attemjit was not abandoned in the outset. The frightful struggles which the 
 settlers of 1829-30 had to undergo are described in a " monster address," signed 
 by nearly every non-official settler, Avhich was transmitted by the governor to 
 Earl Gvcj. The grievances therein complained of deserve mention, not only as 
 forming a chief cause of the slow progress made by the colony during ensuing- 
 years, but also as afi'ording a valuable example of what should and should not be 
 done on similar occasions. The errors in this case appear to have arisen chiefly 
 from sheer carelessness, and the most unaccountable want of forethought on the 
 part of all concerned. Had the proposal been to colonise one of the Channel 
 Islands, instead of to form a settlement in the southern hemisphere, matters 
 could hardly have been taken more easily. 
 
 The manner in which the terms for the grants of land were framed, rendered 
 its acquisition dependent on arrival in a stated time, and induced the emigrants 
 to bring out in excess servants, live stock, machinery, etc., of which each took 
 more than he required. The season selected for their arrival wa5 the month of 
 June (there mid-winter). Not a shed had been provided for their reception ; 
 not an acre had been surveyed, and even a safe anchorage had not been ascer- 
 tained. Several ships were driven on to the beach, which was crowded with 
 masses of human beings — families with infant children, ladies, civil officers, 
 sailors, soldiers, and farmers, while blood and cart horses, milch cows, prize bulls, 
 sheep, goats, poultry, pigs, pianofortes, ploughs, mills, barouches, casks, furniture, 
 bedding, tools, and seed-corn lay heaped together, drenched with torrents of rain. 
 The confusion was complete : the leaders of the enterprise were equally at a loss 
 with the settlers to know what to do or advise. Some demanded to be led to
 
 500 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 their lands, others gave way to despair ; servants attacked the spirit casks — • 
 masters followed their example. The farmers were told they must wait, ivait 
 till lands were discovered, and then ivait until they were surveyed. In fine, a 
 quarter of a million sterling of property Avas destroyed; the means of the 
 emigrants dissipated, their live stock perished. As soon as practicable, numbers 
 fled from this scene of ruin, carrying with them the wreck of their fortunes, to 
 find a home in the more advanced colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania. 
 It has been asserted, on good authority, that fifteen years elapsed before the 
 surveys were sufficiently advanced to enable a settler to put up a boundary fence 
 within five miles of the capital. Mr James Walcott, one of the earliest settlers, 
 affirms, that in common with others he suflFered severely because the Government 
 was unable to redeem its pledges to the colonists, and that one-half the property 
 he imported was lost before he could get a location which offered a prospect of 
 success. Subsequently, when a few, after gallantly penetrating the forest, 
 had discovei^ed good lands, and revived the drooping spirits of the rest, 
 and a chance arose that fresh emigrants arriving with new capital and stock 
 might do Avell, the conditions of land sales were altered to the same as those in 
 the old-established colony of Sydney, where no hazards were to be run. About 
 that time companies arose to support other colonies, each one naturally main- 
 taining the superior advantages presented by its own, and disparaging the merits 
 of the rest. So the neglected little settlement of Swan Eiver was soon forgotten, 
 and the infant nation left to establish itself, unaided by aught but the resources of 
 its country and climate, and its own natural but over-t<xxed energies. The effect 
 of the non-arrival of emigrants was soon evident. The hired labourer rapidly 
 acquired the means of independence, and became anxious in his turn to obtain 
 assistance, and the ruin of those who depended upon the hired labour of others 
 was the result. In this and the gold discoveries lies the secret of the failure of the 
 Swan River settlement. In one, and in only one, respect has it really failed, and 
 that is in attracting emigration ; in almost every other it has been most suc- 
 cessful. Its trade, including its exports, has continually increased ; and its 
 settlers have, in proportion to their numbers, effected a large extent of tillage, 
 partially explored the neighbouring territory and developed its mineral wealth, 
 exported large quantities of valuable timber, and cultivated in luxuriance, and 
 with perfect success, the rich and varied fruits of other lands, including those 
 most valuable productions, the vine and olive. But to revert again to its then 
 neglected condition. Without a London company, almost without a friendly 
 voice in its favour, can it appear strange that a settlement, ill-supported (to say 
 the least) by Government, and unrepresented in the mother country, failed to 
 attract the stream of emigration which it has been the object of so much combined 
 exertion to direct elsewhere ? Indeed, the miseries endured at the foundation 
 of the colony naturally gave rise to a strong prejudice against it. 
 
 The effect of the state of things thus brought about was that convicts were 
 sent from the mother counti-y, and Western Australia became a penal settle- 
 ment, and remains so to tliis day ; while the other Australian colonies have got 
 lid of transportation entirely. This has fixed a stigma on the colony which has
 
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 IIISTOR Y OF WESTERN A USTRA L I A . 50 1 
 
 operated against it apart from the overwhelming^' attractions of the gohl regions. 
 Yet it is but fair to say that no men of desperate character have been transported 
 to Western Austraha, and that the convicts are not assigned to private persons, 
 but employed by Government in the construction of roads, bridges, harbours, and 
 other works of i)ublic utility, the value of which, in a new country, cannot bo 
 over-estimated. The convicts being kept apart, there is no danger of contamina- 
 tion, and judicial records prove that the colony is singularly free from crime. 
 
 But the first attempt at settling Swan River was, as has been said, a miser- 
 able failure, solely on account of the want of intelligent comprehension of what 
 colonisation really is on the part of its founders. The first fleet of colonists 
 arrived to find the country not only unsurveyed, but unexplored. They were 
 disembarked on a narrow slip of beach, bordered by thickets filled with hostile 
 savages, who speared men and their cattle on every opportunity. A fine stud 
 of thorough-bred horses perished for want of fresh water; whole cargoes of 
 furniture and agricultural imi^lements rolled on the beach without being 
 unpacked. The labourers repudiated their home engagements, and obtained 
 exorbitant wages. When the country was further explored, the quantity of 
 available land turned out to be extremely limited ; the live stock was rapidly 
 consumed for food, while the remoteness of Swan River from the old colony 
 rendered importations of any kind difficult, expensive, and uncertain. The sheep 
 turned out to pasture repeatedly died, poisoned by a plant which, up to this day, 
 the colonists have been unable to extirpate. In a word, planted in a remote 
 district, far from other ports and out of the track of commerce, with very little 
 land available for agricultural or pastoral purposes — what little there was of the 
 one monopolised by a few hands, much of the other j^oisonous ; with colonists, 
 both high and low, the most unfitted by previous education for a rude, self- 
 dependent life, without leaders or servants of colonial experience, Avathout forced 
 labour — the Swan River settlement failed miserably. This failure would have 
 been confined to the fortunes of the first colonists, however bad the system of 
 colonisation, had there been, as in the other settled districts of Australia, vast 
 plains of sound pasture on which pure-bred merinoes could have fed and multi- 
 plied ; or coal, or copper, or gold to be had for digging ; but there M\as nothing 
 beyond the bare means of sustenance ; thus Swan River, in spite of a series of 
 systems of colonisation, Avas not able to rise from the condition of an eleemosy- 
 nary dependency, supported by the bounty of the parent state. With the failure 
 of Swan River the system of free grants of land ended in Australia. 
 
 In its i^hysical aspect Western Australia diff'ers from the colonies farther to 
 the east. The coast is laved by the placid waters of the Indian Ocean, and is 
 consequently not so extensively or deeply indented as are the shores exposed to 
 the tremendous roll of the Pacific. The estuaries and inlets are generally 
 obstructed by sand-banks at their entrance, and so not accessible to vessels of 
 deep draught. The best anchorages are Gages Roads, at the entrance of the 
 Swan River, formed by Garden, Rottnest, Peel, and Carnac Islands ; Owen's 
 winter anchorage; Cockburn Sound, in south latitude 32° 10'; Rockingham 
 Harbour, and Warnborough and King George's Sounds, in some of which vessels
 
 502 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 may discharge their cargo close to the shore. The principal rivers are the 
 INIurray, navigable by boats for sixteen miles, and the Swan — on -which Perth 
 ji^tands — for about forty miles. There are numerous small streams and fresh- 
 -\vater lakes, bordered by rich soil, and to the margin of these the farms are 
 almost -nholly confined. Several of the lakes have been drained, and produce 
 luxuriant crops. Viewed from the sea, the country wears an unfavourable 
 aspect, as only sand is visible, and no signs of cultivation are apparent. INIagnifi- 
 cent mountain ranges are, however, sighted at various jioints along the coast. 
 In Perth county, the Darling Range rises abruptly from the plain of Quartania 
 — rugged, round-topped hills of rock and gravel, extensively covered with 
 eucalyptus forests of excellent timber, well adapted for either house or ship 
 building. 
 
 Perth, the capital, is situated on a pretty sheet of water formed by the Swan, 
 smTOunded by gardens in which the banana, peach, nectarine, apple, pear, 
 lemon, orange, guava lognat, pomegranate, almond, fig, and mulberry flourish. 
 Successive terraces of vines and olives rise around, while the foi'est plain 
 stretches far away into the distance, and the mountain range stands out boldly 
 in the clear air. Its position is well chosen, not only on account of its beauty, 
 but for the more solid advantages which it possesses. The sandy soil, united to 
 an unlimited supply of good water, procured at an average depth ol fifteen feet, a 
 perfect drainage in each direction, exposure to the healthful sea-bi*eeze sweeping 
 up the succession of picturesque estuaries, and a frontage and rear of garden 
 grounds, offer great promise of salubrity ; while abundance of brick-clay, lime, 
 firewood, and timber of good quality, have aff"orded the materials for a substantial 
 style of building. There is a regular town ; excellent houses of brick and stone, 
 Avitli large verandahs and neat gardens around ; large stores ; places of worship 
 for diflFerent denominations of Christians ; a government house, court-house. 
 Western Australian bank, barracks, gaol, club-house, hospital, magazine, public 
 offices, hotels, inns, mills, fields, gardens, good roads, farms, and homesteads in 
 various directions. The military barracks at Perth occupy a jirctty situation, 
 about four hundred yards from the river Swan (here nearly a mile wide), and at 
 the Jicad of the Government Square, which slopes gently towards the water. 
 From the barracks there is an uninterrupted view of IMclville Water for a distance 
 of six miles, and the beauty of the scenery is much enhanced by the many strips 
 of land which run out from the shore on either side. On the left bank of the 
 river, separating Perth from IMclville Water, is a long tongue of land, Mith a 
 windmill ; and on the opposite shore of the narrow passage, ]Mount Eliza raises 
 its rugged and precipitous sides, which are studded here and there with white- 
 walled cottages, peeping out from the foliage of the casuarina and banksia. 
 
 Fremantle, the seaport of Perth, distant about fourteen miles by water, and 
 eleven by land, lies immediately belxind the little promontory of "Arthur's Head." 
 It is built entirely of white limestone, and the dazzling glare of the walls and 
 houses in summer-time is rather trying to visitors. It contains a very pretty 
 church, a Wcsleyan chapel, Government store-houses, good hotels, and conuno- 
 dious dwellings. During the winter season bay whaling is actively carried on,
 
 HISTORY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 and one of the most spirited undertakings in the colony is the tunnel made 
 throuyli ^Vvtliur's Head, from tlic principal street in Fremantle to the whalinLj 
 jetty. The inland face of the cliff", at the mouth of this tunnel, is cut and finished 
 like a fortification, and being surmounted by a stone gaol and court-house, has 
 a striking effect. The whaling companies' store-houses, etc., are partly cut out of 
 the rock, and their ranges of furnaces and try-pots, together Avith the long sharp 
 boats, suspended over the sea, ready for instant action, with oars, harpoons, 
 baskets of coiled line, lances, and muffled rowlocks, convey an idea of energy and 
 activity fully sustained by the character of the Fremantle resident Avhaling parties. 
 The jetty is built of the jarrah timber of the country, which defies even the 
 sea-worm. 
 
 Monger's Lake is situated in a flat tract, about three miles from Perth, and 
 when filled during the wet season (June), occupies an extent of five miles. There 
 is another lake contiguous. Summer gardens have been formed by the settlers 
 on the borders of these lakes, which yield plentiful crops of melons, carrots, 
 potatoes, and other vegetables. The scenery around, when the beds of the lakes 
 are dry, is dreary; but in June the margin of the water is exquisitely carpeted 
 with flowers. 
 
 The remarkable stalagmitic caves of INIaidin lie about thirty-five miles in a 
 north-west direction from Perth, the route being along a chain of beautiful lakes, 
 situated from four to six miles behind the sea-coast, whose fertile banks afford 
 luxuriant feed for live stock. These caves have been partially explored, and are 
 somewhat similar to the caves near Bathurst, and in Wellington Valley, New 
 South Wales. Six of the Maidin caves examined by Mr Roe presented a mag- 
 nificent appearance ; a narrow passage of a few yards expanded suddenly into 
 open, extensive chambers, which were traversed to the distance of 180 feet, and 
 found to have an average width of forty-five feet, and a roof of twelve or fifteen 
 feet, thickly studded with beautiful stalactites, some descending to the floor and 
 forming pillars of ten to twelve feet in circumference for the support of the roof. 
 The floor was covered with layers of smooth, white, semi-transparent stalagmite. 
 Another chamber, eighty feet long by thirty feet wide, had stalactites of all 
 shapes and sizes suspended from the roof. The cavei'nous entrances are in some 
 picturesque rocky glens, near Mambibby Lake. The aborigines consider these 
 recesses the abode of evil spirits. 
 
 Another town, or rather scattered hamlet, in Perth county, named Guildford, 
 is advantageously situated at the confluence of the Swan and Helena rivers, about 
 seven miles north-east from Perth, and four miles from the foot of the Darling 
 Range. It stands upon the high part of the alluvial flat fringing the river, which 
 extends from half-a-mile to one mile from it on either side. This flat is so rich 
 that Captain Stokes states it produced, after thirteen years of successive cropping, 
 without manuring, a more abundant harvest than it had done at first. This 
 officer notices, also, that in the year 1833 (a period when the settlers were in 
 want of food), a flight of strange birds, resembling the rail, but larger, appeared 
 in gTeat numbers near Guildford when the corn was green ; they were so tame as 
 to be easily taken by the hand, but disappeared in the same mysterious manner
 
 504 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 as they arrived, and have not since been seen. A similar occurrence took place 
 shortly after the first settlement of the INIormons at Utah, Salt Lake City. There 
 are no stock farms, properly so called, in this district, and the tillage farms are 
 generally small. Although there are extensive wastes, much fertile soil exists in 
 the colony. It is specially adapted for the groAvth of wine, silk, and tobacco, 
 and all Mediterranean produce. One great drawback to the settler is the 
 existence of a poison plant which destroys great numbers of cattle ; but on 
 enclosed farms its growth can be prevented. The jarrali timber, of which there 
 is an inexhaustible supply, is admirably fitted for shipbuilding, railway-sleepers, 
 etc., and is exported in large quantities. The horses in Western Australia com- 
 mand a high price in the Indian market. Copi^er, silver, lead, zinc, iron, and 
 coal, all of excellent quality, have been found in the colony. The " bush " of 
 Western Australia yields a " manna gum," which is coming much into request. 
 
 Western Australia has gi'eat advantages for irrigation in its geological 
 formation. Ample sujiplies of water can be procured by sinking artesian wells 
 to a depth of fifty feet. It is calculated that two men, with an engine, could, 
 by a fortnight's boring, obtain a supply of water for the irrigation of 500 acres. 
 Fish of excellent quality abound in the inland rivers and creeks, including 
 mullet, perch, the small lobster, and a fish resembling a sardine. From the 
 shore are caught whiting, mullet, bream, king-fish, mackerel, and the snajiper, 
 a fish between a halibut and a cod-fish, weighing fi'om ten to forty pounds, 
 readily sold at the Mauritius for about £10 per ton. Whaling is also carried 
 on successfully. Wild fowl, swans, kangaroos, and wallabies abound in the 
 interior. Of course there are no game laws. 
 
 In regard to the climate, Dr Rennie, staff surgeon, who resided upwards of 
 six years in the colony, having professional charge of soldiers, women, children, 
 foreign officers, and convicts, so that he had ample data from Avhich to draw 
 definite conclusions, says : " It would be difficult to imagine a more delightful 
 temperature and climate generally than that of Western Australia, more 
 especially the winter, which, though invigorating, is never very cold. The 
 summer is warm, but the average heat does not very materially exceed that of the 
 warmer portions of the winter months ; and as a general rule, it is free from any 
 depressing effects, readily admitting of active occupation and ordinary labour 
 being carried on in the sun by Europeans. It is almost impossible, by any 
 description I can give, to do justice to the Western Australian atmosphere. 
 To be appreciated it must be experienced. Many a time, on leaving my house 
 in the morning, have I been sti-uck with the wonderful elasticity of body and 
 mind which the cloudless sky and refreshing atmosphere seemed to develop ; 
 and often has the thought occurred to me, * What a splendid climate for a 
 sanitarium ! ' INIy impressions in this respect are by no means singular, and 
 I believe them to be those of residents there generally — except, perhaps, a few 
 whose vicious habits tend to counteract the blessings of climate they enjoy; 
 sensations of debility arising from sensuality and vice being attributed by them 
 to their residence in a temperature warmer than England — climate being too 
 frequently made the scapegoat for the evil effects of gluttony, narcotism, and
 
 HISTORY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. :m 
 
 intemperance. I luave been assured by old settlers, that at a time when the 
 affairs of the colony presented the gloomiest aspect, and everything connected 
 with it Avas calculated to depress them, still that their minds seemed to refuse 
 to yield to the pressure from without; and their siiirits kept up in a manner so 
 remarkable, that they could account for it in no other way than by referring it 
 to the clear and exhilarating atmosjihere in which it was at that time their 
 misfortune, in a financial point of view, to be residing. 1 doubt if any portion 
 of the world is better suited to the English constitution. The mean of the 
 barometer is about 30 inches, and of the thermometer about 63°." 
 
 The natural capabilities of Western Australia are certainly inferior to those 
 of other Australian settlements, but not to an extent sufficiently great to account 
 for its slow rate of progress. There can be no doubt that the colony possesses 
 resources much greater than have hitherto been developed. It has, besides, 
 advantages of position which do not belong to other parts of Australia ; it is 
 nearer to England than any other portion of the Australian coasts, and possesses 
 superior fixcilities for intercourse with India, China, and the trading communities 
 of the Eastern Archipelago. Moreover, it fully shares in the advantages of climate 
 which belong to this portion of the globe, and is perhaps, on the whole, possessed 
 of higher advantages in this respect than the other Australian provinces. Yet, 
 beyond the occasional visit of the few merchant ships trading thither, or of one 
 of the whaling vessels engaged in the adjacent seas, the settlement has for many 
 years remained almost isolated from the rest of the world, and is passed 
 comparatively unheeded amidst the rush of emigration to the neighbouring 
 colonies of the Australian continent. This has been mainly owing to the evil 
 impression regarding it which went abroad during its earlier years, and which 
 resulted from the unforeseen difficulties and disappointments which the first 
 settlers met with. Even to the present day, it has never lost the character 
 which it thus acquired, and there is nowhere to be found a more complete 
 example of the truth embodied in the popular adage regarding the consequences 
 which ensue from the giving " a bad name " to a Avelbknown domestic quadruped. 
 The settlement, however, has got a very much worse reputation than it deserves, 
 and there is nothing inherent in its resources or condition Avhich should prevent 
 its becoming a flourishing and important dependency of the British emi^ire. 
 
 The settlement at King George's Sound was formed much earlier than that 
 at Swan River, in anticipation of a projected scheme of colonisation by the 
 French Government. It was effected in 1826 by the Government of New South 
 Wales, who despatched a detachment of the 39th Regiment under INIajor Lockyer 
 for this purpose. After four years' occui)ation as a military post, the settlement 
 was ordered by the Home Government in 1830 to be transferred to the Govern- 
 ment of Swan River, both being within the new colony of Western Australia. 
 During the next twenty years of its existence it survived actual desertion in 
 conse(]^uence of its excellent harbour being frequented by whaling ships, which 
 found abundance of Avhales off the coast. Since the establishment of steam 
 communication between England and Australia, it has come into notice as the 
 first coaling station for the steamers on their outward voyage, rid the Cape, to 
 
 3 s
 
 506 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales ; and there is every likelihood 
 of the little township of Albany becoming a thriving seaport. The sound is a 
 magnificent roadstead, with from seven to fifteen and twenty fathoms Avater, 
 comijletely sheltered from south-west to east, and partially by two islands to the 
 south-east. It is only open to southerly winds, which in this locality bring fair 
 weather. On the west the sound is separated by a long tongue of land, termin- 
 ated at its northern extremity by Point Possession, from the Princess Royal 
 Harbour. The entrance to this nearly circular bay is between Point Possession 
 and Mount Clarence, being not more than two hundred yards across, with a 
 dejith of four and a half fathoms water. Princess Royal Harbour is capable of 
 containing many hundred vessels ; it is the finest harbour known to exist in 
 Australia to the west of Spencer's Gulf. It enjoys an equable climate, the 
 thermometer, during nineteen months' observations, ranging from 40° to 76" Fahr. 
 Vegetables also grow luxuriantly. 
 
 Besides these successful colonies, situated within the great southern or 
 temperate division of Australia, there have been several attempts on the part of 
 the British Government to establish settlements on the north and eastern shores 
 of tropical Australia, which require a brief notice. The first attempt was made 
 by Captain Bremer, in H.M.S. "Tamar," who, in company with two store-ships 
 and a party of military and convicts, established the stockade of Fort Dundas at 
 Melville Island, in latitude 11° 28' S., longitude 130° 30' K, in Apsley Strait. 
 This settlement, however, after an existence of four years, was abandoned on 
 31st March 1829, in consequence of the continued unfavourable accounts trans- 
 mitted to the Home Government. The settlement of Fort Wellington was formed 
 by Captain Stirling in H.M.S. " Success," on the 17th June 1827, on the north- 
 east side of Rafties Bay, in latitude 11° 14' S., longitude 132° 24' E., for the 
 purpose of carrying on a traffic with the INIalays fi'om Maccassar in the Celebes, 
 who frequent the coast of Northern Australia, in quest of the trepang or sea-slug. 
 This settlement was abandoned on the 29th August 1829, at a time when the 
 objects for which it was formed were about to be realised. On the 27th October 
 1837, a military post, with H.M.S. "Britomart" as tender, was estabhshed at 
 Port Essington, for the double purpose of affording shelter to the crews of vessels 
 wrecked in Torres Straits, and of endeavouring to throw open to British 
 enterprise the neighbouring islands of the Indian Archipelago. After having 
 struggled unsuccessfully for twelve years to rear sufficient food for themselves, 
 and having lost a number of their men through privations and hardships and the 
 unhealthiness of the climate, the sappers and miners finally abandoned the 
 settlement named Victoria on the 30th November 1849. In January 1847, the 
 staff of a new penal colony, to be called North Australia, headed by Colonel 
 Barney, R.E., settled on the shores of Port Curtis, on the east coast of Australia, 
 beyond the Tropic of Capricorn. After five months' occupation, and an expendi- 
 ture of upwards of £15,000, the attempt was abandoned.
 
 BOOK X. 
 
 niSTOKY OF QUEENSLAND. 
 
 QUEENSLAND : ITS EXTENT AOT) GENERAL CHARACTER — THE MORETON BAY TERRITORY 
 — DESCRIPTION OF MORETON BAY — FRAZER's ISLAND — WIDE BAY — CORAL REEFS 
 
 — BRISBANE — THE CLIMATE — CAPABILITIES COTTON GROWING — THE TWELVE 
 
 DISTRICTS — THE GOLDFIELDS — THE GYMPIE DIGGINGS — THE PALMER RIVER 
 DIGGINGS — THE CHINESE — THE DARLING DOWNS — FIRST SETTLERS — THE PORT 
 CURTIS RUSH — ROCKHAMPTON — SIR GEORGE BOWEN FIRST GOVERNOR — FIRST 
 PARLIAMENT — ABOLITION OF STATE AID TO RELIGION — -POPULAR EDUCATION — 
 THE POLYNESIAN LABOUR QUESTION — A PROSPEROUS COUNTRY. 
 
 Queensland extends from Point Danger, in latitude 28° 8', to Cape Yorke, the 
 northern extremity of the Australian continent. On the south-west it is bounded 
 by the north-east point of South Austraha, in longitude 141°, and on the north it 
 impinges upon the Gulf of Carpentaria. Its superficial extent is about 680,000 
 square miles, nearly 435 millions of acres, or about eleven times the size of 
 England and Wales. 
 
 A band of mountainous country traverses Queensland from north to south, 
 running nearly parallel with the Pacific at a distance of from fifty to seventy miles. 
 On the west of the main range, many secondary ones run in all directions, 
 diversifying and beautifying the extensive country that stretches away for 
 hundi'eds of miles, and rendering it most valuable pasturage for the ever-growing 
 flocks and herds of the squattei*. Here are the sources of numerous streams, 
 that converge into several large rivers, and drain the country of its superfluous 
 water in the wet seasons, and furnish innumerable water-holes for the supply 
 of man and beast when the seasons are dry. The country spreads out into 
 magnificent plains and downs, thinly timbered, well watered, and covered with an 
 abundance of feed for innumerable flocks of sheep, cattle, and horses ; while on 
 the east or seaboard side of the mountains, many spurs push themselves do^\Ti 
 into the low country. JNIany isolated hills rise picturesquely from the plains, and 
 broken or hilly country abounds. Generally speaking, this part of the country 
 is heavily timbered, well grassed, and nearly all of it fit for cvdtivation. Over 
 the thousand miles of coast, many rivers, several of them navigable for many 
 miles, intersect the country, and contribute largely to its fertility and its beauty. 
 
 Queensland, as a separate and independent colony, dates only from December
 
 508 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 1859. This colonial territory, however, had been long familiar under the general 
 name of the INIoreton Bay District, forming the northern district of New South 
 Wales, and distinguished for its pastoral adaptations. Moretou Bay, from ^^hich 
 the settlement took its name, is in south latitude 27°, and was discovered by Cook 
 in 1770, and named in honour of the Earl of Moreton, then president of the 
 Royal Society. The river Brisbane, on Avhich the capital, Brisbane, is situated, 
 was discovered only in 1823 by Oxley, who had been sent from Sydney to 
 discover a place suitalile for a new penal settlement. He reported that " Avhen 
 examining Moreton Bay Ave had the satisfaction to find the tide sweeping up a 
 considerable inlet between the first mangrove island and the mainland. A few 
 hours ended our anxiety ; the water became perfectly fresh, and no diminution 
 had taken place in the size of the river after passing Sea Reach. The scenery 
 was peculiarly beautiful ; the country along the banks alternately hilly and level, 
 but not flooded ; the soil of the finest description of good brush land, on which 
 gTew tindjor of great magnitude, some of a description quite unknoAVTi to us, 
 amongst others a magnificent species of pine. Up to this point the river was 
 navigable for vessels not draAving more than sixteen feet of water. The tide rose 
 about five feet, being the same as at the entrance. We proceeded about thirty 
 miles farther, no diminution having taken place in either the depth or the 
 breadth of the river, except in one place, for the extent of thirty yards, Avhere a 
 ridge of detached rocks extended across the river, not having more than twelve 
 feet upon them at high water. From this period to Termination Hill the river 
 continued nearly of uniform size. The tide ascends daily fifty miles up the 
 mouth of the Brisbane. The country on either side is of very superior descrip- 
 tion, and equally well adapted for cultivation or grazing." On Mr Oxley 's report, 
 which further explorations proved to be in no degree exaggerated, a penal settle- 
 ment was founded at Brisbane, and among other experiments for employing the 
 prisoners, sugar was cultivated, until a flood swept the machinery away. In 
 1842, however, the district was thrown open to free settlement, and the convict 
 establishment removed. Thenceforward there was rapid progress, chiefly due to 
 pastoral or squatting enterprise. 
 
 When Moreton Bay was a penal settlement, a convict of the name of Baker 
 escaped to the woods and became naturalised and domiciliated among a tribe of 
 black natives in the upper Brisbane district. The natives recognised, or supposed 
 they recognised, in the runaway, a deceased native of the tribe, Avho had died 
 some time before, of the name of Boraltchou, and who they suj^posed had re- 
 appeared in the person of the white man ; and although the convict, who, it 
 seems, did not relish the compliment, maintained that he was not Boraltchou, 
 the natives, who knew better, as they had seen both, insisted that he was, 
 and allotted to him as his own property the portion of land that had belonged to the 
 real Boraltchou. 
 
 Moreton Bay is sixt)'^ miles long and about twenty wide. It is studded with 
 islands, especially towards its southern extremity, Avhere it gradually narrows 
 to a mere river in appearance. A few of these islands are high land, and 
 capable of great improvement, as Peel's Island and St Helena Island, the latter
 
 UAofit^ yf.ieAX^obam<a.tiiah<\r^
 
 mSlO a Y OF Q UEENSLA ND. 509 
 
 of which received its name in the penal times of the settlement, from the circum- 
 stance of a blackfellow, who had been named Napoleon by the convicts, having 
 been placed upon it byway of punishment for some crime or misdemeanour; 
 the others are low, muddy, covered with mangroves, and merely in process of 
 formation from the gradual deposits of the Brisbane, the Logan, and the other 
 rivers that empty themselves into the bay. The three islands that form the bay 
 to seaward arc all hopelessly sterile, at least in regard to productions at all 
 useful for man, for they are all covered with indigenous vegetation, suited, doubt- 
 less, to the soil, or rather sand, and climate. 
 
 To the northward of ]\Ioreton Bay there is a long island called Frazer's 
 Island, parallel to the coast-line, about sixty-five miles in length, with an average 
 breadth of ten miles ; the northern half of which, being abreast of a bight in the 
 mainland, gave the latter the appearance of a deep bay, and induced Captain 
 Cook to designate it Hervey's Bay, anticipating, doubtless, that a river would 
 be discovered at its head. In this anticipation Governor Hunter concurred, but 
 when it was ascertained that the land forming the east side of the bay was 
 merely an island, the idea of finding a river on that part of the coast was aban- 
 doned. The southern half of Frazer's Island forms a long, narrow sound avail- 
 able for coasting navigation, and Wide Bay, into which the river Mary empties 
 itself, is situated at its southern extremity. Frazer's Island received its name 
 from Captain Frazer, of the .ship " Stirling Castle," a Scotch vessel, which has 
 obtained some celebrity in New South Wales from having brought out to that 
 colony a number of Scotch mechanics (the first free immigrants of this class who 
 had ever arrived in that colony), to erect buildings for an academical institution 
 in Sydney in the year 1831. On a subsequent voyage to the colony, Captain 
 Frazer was unfortunately wrecked on the Barrier Reef on his way to India. He 
 reached the coast, however, in his boat ; but it was only to experience a more 
 awful fate, for he was seized by the black natives on his landing, and inhumanly 
 murdered Avith most of his crew. Frazer's Island is rather of indifi'erent 
 character, in point of soil and general capabilities, in the estimation of Euro- 
 peans ; but it is an excellent fishing station, and abounds in the other requisites 
 of aboriginal life. 
 
 A remarkable feature of the Queensland coast is the great coral reef which 
 commences at Wide Bay and continues beyond Cape Yorke, rendering the 
 navigation of Toi'res Straits intricate and dangerous. Along its entire length 
 the coast is studded with islands and promontories, and indented by bays. 
 
 Brisbane, the capital, is beautifully situated on an elbow of the river, on its 
 left or northern bank. The river is there very nearly a quarter of a mile broad, 
 a breadth which it preserves for many miles farther up. At thirty-six miles 
 from Brisbane, it is joined by the Bremer from the Avcstward, and the steamers 
 from Brisbane ascend the latter river to the head of the navigation ; the main 
 stream, which is navigable for boats for 150 miles from the bay, having a 
 southerly direction in the higher part of its course, as it takes its rise in a ridge 
 of mountains stretching from the coast range to the ocean, and dividing the 
 waters that flow into Moreton Bay from those of Wide Bay, to the northward.
 
 510 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The Bremer Eiver is navigable for fourteen miles from the junction ; the town of 
 Ipswich, the second town in the colony, being situated at the head of the 
 navigation on the great road to the west. 
 
 The climate of Queensland, though warm, is undoubtedly healthy, productive 
 of much physical comfort, and not unfriendly to long life. As to the soil it is 
 varied, much of it light, but much also very rich, and largely productive. It 
 ranges from light quick loams, through all the varieties of friable clays, to the 
 richest vegetable mould. Very much of the land, especially in the interior, is 
 fit only for gTazing purjioses ; but it will be a long while before the proper 
 agricultural lands are exhausted. The geographical position of the country, 
 being partly within and partly without the tropics, contributes largely to the 
 productiveness of the soil. The capabilities are great, and the range of product 
 is also gi-eat. On the same farm may be seen growing, side by side, maize, 
 peas, potatoes, oats, coffee, sugar-cane, arrowroot, ginger, flax, cotton, peaches, 
 oranges, apricots, figs, mulberries, grape-vines, pine-apples, and bananas. All 
 these may be seen growing to perfection in the open air, and under any ordinary 
 treatment, in the neighbourhood of Brisbane. 
 
 Next to the rearing of cattle and sheep, which is and must long be the chief 
 industry of Queensland, the growth of cotton demands attention. The portion 
 of the territory adapted for cotton-growing is about six hundred miles long by 
 fifty wide, besides including all the islands on the coast. The Sea Island as well 
 as coarser varieties thrive well in this region. The crops are abundant and the 
 quality excellent. 
 
 Queensland is divided into twelve large districts : Moreton, Port Curtis, 
 Wide Bay and Burnett, Darling Downs, Leichhardt, East and West Maranoa, 
 Mitchell, Warrego, Gregory, Cook, and Burke. Of these the Moreton district 
 is well watered, having, besides the Brisbane, numerous rivers and creeks, 
 affording every facility for transit. On the Logan, and the Caboolture, and 
 their tributaries, there are several thriving cotton and sugar plantations, 
 belonging to companies and private growers. Indeed, the sugar-cane, ever 
 since its introduction into the colony by Captain the Hon. Louis Hope, is being 
 extensively cultivated. 
 
 The Wide Bay and Burnett district — the Wide Bay portion of this 
 extensive district, ranking with Moreton and Port Curtis as settled districts — 
 has Maryborough for its port, situated on the wide and beautiful river Mary, 
 sixty miles from its entrance into the sea at Wide Bay. The town of Gayndah, 
 at a distance of eighty miles inland from ]\Iaryborough, is conveniently located on 
 the river Burnett, which empties itself into the Curtis Channel, to the north of 
 Hervey's Bay. Port Curtis, the most northern part of the three settled districts, 
 which together occupy the coast-line from the Palmerston Islands to Port Danger, 
 for nearly six degrees of southern latitude, has the flourishing town of Eockhamp- 
 ton, .situated on the river Fitzroy, forty-five miles from the coast, for its capital. 
 
 Of the other districts, which are for the present termed "unsettled," 
 Keimedy and Cook have the seaboard to the north of Port Curtis, and Cook 
 and Burke nbnt on the Gulf of Carpentaria, all watered by navigable rivers.
 
 HISTORY OF QUEENSLAND. 511 
 
 To the south of Burke are Gregory and Mitchell, and farther south of the 
 latter, Warrego, intersected hy rivers and tributary streams in every direction. 
 In the Leichhardt district, to the west of I'ort Curtis, the land is chieMy occupied 
 by the squatter and his flocks and herds. It is well watered by navigable 
 streams. But the Leichhardt district is I'ich in mineral wealth as well, and the 
 Peak Downs Copper INIining Company was formed in 1862. Since then 
 numerous discoveries of auriferous deposits have been made, and profitable 
 goldfields are being worked in many places, especially at Gympie in the Wide 
 Bay district, and on the Palmer lliver farther north. Tin, copper, and coal 
 also abound. 
 
 The Gympie diggings were discovered by a cedar cutter named Nash, in 
 September 1807. For some time he kept the discovery secret, but was at length 
 induced to announce it, and to claim the reward offered by the Government. 
 The locality is fifty-five miles from Maryborough, and the entire male population 
 of that place rushed to the new diggings. A few months afterwards, the Curtis 
 nugget, value £3000, was found. The Gympie diggings are now a permanent 
 goldfield, and a town, containing four thousand inhabitants, has been established. 
 There are also several minor diggings in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The Palmer River diggings were discovered in 1874 by a prospecting party, 
 and a great rush to them took place. Their distance and the want of roads 
 caused a scarcity of food at first, and many deaths occurred in consequence. The 
 news of the richness of these goldfields reached China, and an immense influx 
 of Chinese miners resulted. The European miners did not relish the new immi- 
 grants, and a constant Avarfare was at first waged against them. A poll-tax of £5 
 a head was imposed by the Government, and this stopped, in a great degree, the 
 Chinese influx. The Chinese question is still a standing difficulty for the Queens- 
 land Government. 
 
 The Darling Downs were discovered by Allan Cunningham, the king's botanist, 
 in 1830, Avhen he travelled from Sydney to Moreton Bay by land. They are 
 watered by the river of the same name. These downs are part of a system of 
 high tabledands continued toward the north, where the boundaries are indefinite, 
 by the Fitzroy Downs, discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1846, and toward 
 the south by the New England district. There a rapid descent changes the 
 climate from snow and hail to the hot country of the Peel, Page, and the Liver- 
 pool Plains, bounded on the south by the Great Dividing or Liverpool Range, 
 through which Pandora's Pass gives exit to the Hunter River ; and thus with 
 intervals of mountain range or desert, a series of pastoral plains run parallel with 
 the interior of the mountain range which encircles the eastern coast of Australia, 
 including the Goulburn, Bathurst district, the Maneroo or Brisbane Downs, and 
 the Murray district, which flow into, if we may use the term, the province of 
 Victoria. And in this series of pastoral plains the climate is considerably modified 
 by their altitude above the sea. It was these plains, where fine-woolled sheep 
 increase and multiply at the least possible expense, which first gave exports and 
 wealth to Austi'alia. Before the shepherd and his flock the savage and the emu 
 gradually disappear.
 
 512 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRALA SI A . 
 
 The squatters hastened northwards for the purpose of occupying the country 
 found by Cunningham in 1841, when Mr Patrick Leslie, followed closely by 
 Messrs Hodgson and Elliott, and King, and Sililey, first bi'oke in upon the 
 beautiful district of Darling Downs, and at once occupied large tracts of country. 
 Ipswich, then called Limestone, was unknown to them — on the east side of the 
 range, twenty-five miles from Brisbane. It was a Government building for an 
 overseer, George Thorn, Avho superintended an agricultural station called the 
 " Plough," and had charge of the prisoners who Avorked on it. It was the first 
 white man's dwelling-place reached by Messrs Hodgson and Elliott, the first 
 squatters from any jDart of New South Wales who succeeded in reaching Moreton 
 Bay. Drayton, on the top of the main range, was formed on the last found 
 and now general high road some sixty miles north of the Gap — beyond which 
 Cunningham did not go towards INIoreton Bay — which bears his name ; a pinch, 
 the ascent of which was then deemed by bullock-drivers impossible from the east. 
 Drayton was known up to about 1847 as the " Springs " — a public-house, a black- 
 smith's shop, a store. Toowoomba, known as the " Swamps," a camping place 
 between the Springs and the descent of the main range, became a town simply 
 because AVilliam Orton, who lived at the Springs, built a brick public-house on 
 that spot in 1852, immediately after which it was declared a township, the land 
 was rapidly sold, and houses Avere built. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1857, a great sensation was produced, not 
 only in New South Wales, but in all the neighbouring colonies, by the reported 
 discovery of large deposits of gold in the district of Port Curtis. The locality 
 indicated as the jjlace in which the precious metal was to be found in abundance 
 was Canoona, to the northward of the Fitzroy Eiver, about a hundred miles north 
 of Gladstone. In the course of a few months the gold mania had aff"ected multi- 
 tudes, both of the mining population at all the existing diggings, and even of the 
 more staid inhabitants of the colonial towns ; and the result was a general rush 
 to Canoona from all jiarts of the Australian colonies. But the extraordinary 
 excitement was soon followed by a corresponding depression ; for the great 
 majority of the diggers never gave the country a fair trial, but retm-ned for the 
 most part to Sydney or Melbourne, not unfrequently in the very vessels in which 
 they had made their outward voyage, after wasting much valuable time and 
 expending a voiy large amount of money. Very many of the diggers who had 
 gone to Canoona were unable to meet the cost of their return voyage to Sydney 
 or Melbourne, and many more landed penniless in these cities ; and the Govern- 
 ment and the public were consequently obliged to interfere for their relief. The 
 Victorian Government paid the jiassages to Melbourne of over two thousand 
 persons, the expense having been £5, 10s. jDer head. In addition to this, a large 
 number of rations were issued, so that the Fitzroy rush cost the Melbourne 
 Government a very pretty sum. Upwards of £1700 were contributed at the 
 same time by the public of New South Wales, to which the Government added 
 a similar amount, to enable any of the returned diggers that chose to do so to 
 proceed to the difiercnt goldfiehls of New South Wales. 
 
 But, calamitous as this result proved to many of the gold-miners, it was of
 
 IIlSTOllY OF QUEENSLAND. 513 
 
 the utmost benefit, in a great variety of Avays, to the colony of Queensland, and 
 served to develop the cajiabilitics and resources of an important section of that 
 country to an extent that would otherwise not have been realised for many 
 years. It proved to the satisfaction of multitudes in all the neighbouring 
 colonies the perfect salubrity of the climate, notwithstanding the comi^aratively 
 low latitude of the country. It revealed to thousands the existence of a vast 
 extent of the finest land imaginable for all the purposes of man in that portion 
 of the Australian territory, and it led to the occupation and settlement of a 
 country which in all likelihood would otherwise have lain waste and unoccupied 
 for years to come. In a letter to the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, of 
 date 11th of July 1850, only a few months before the final separation of Queens- 
 land, Captain O'Connell wrote as follows : " The first blaze of excitement, con- 
 sequent on the discovery of gold, with its attendant inrush of population, having 
 died away, there succeeded to it a slumbering fire of expectation, which has 
 alternately threatened once more to burst out into flame, and then with a 
 greater or less interval of time has again sunk into almost total extinction, so 
 that it has only been within the last four weeks I have been enabled to arrive 
 at any satisfactory conclusion as to the probable development to the colonisation 
 of this portion of New South Wales, which the events I have alluded to above 
 are likely to give rise to. There are, however, at the present time, symptoms 
 making themselves apparent, which indicate a gi-eat impulse given to the per- 
 manent pastoral occupation of the country ; and there are lately discoveries of 
 gold in fresh localities which promise to be equally attractive to mining opera- 
 tions. The present condition of this settlement is indicative of greater prosperity 
 than has at any time characterised its previous history, the impulse given to its 
 growth by the events of last year having fostered and increased all species of 
 industrial occupation in a much more remarkable degree than had been done 
 before." 
 
 This episode in the history of Queensland resulted in the founding of Rock- 
 hampton. Sir Charles Nicholson wrote in enthusiastic terms, in the year 1860, 
 of the capabilities of the site of this new town on the Fitzroy Eiver : " The river 
 debouches into the bay on the southern side of a range of hills, known as 
 Broadmount. The highest and easternmost of the range has an elevation of 
 from 1200 to 1500 feet. At this point the breadth of the river is probably two 
 miles. The southern banks consist of extensive mangrove flats, extending on 
 towards JNIount Larcom and the picturesque ranges that bound the southern 
 horizon. Where the river sweeps round the base of Broadmount there is, I am 
 assured, a depth of Avater close to the shore suflicient for vessels drawing twenty- 
 four feet of water. To reach this point, a narrow bar (sfiid not to be more than 
 from forty to fifty feet broad) has to be crossed ; the tide rises some ten feet. 
 Accounts vary as to the minimum depth of water on this bar. I infer, however, 
 that some engineering efforts would be required to render it passable for vessels 
 of considerable tonnage. At the foot of Broadmount there is a strip of nearly 
 level land, admirably suited for the erection of a city. I cannot help regarding 
 this as the future site of some great commercial town. Having seen most of the 
 
 3t
 
 514 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 capitals of the old world, I could not ca,ll to mind any the geographical position 
 of which seemed to combine all the conditions necessary for becoming a great 
 emporium more strikingly than the locality here referred to. Seated at the 
 entrance of a tine river, the whole commerce of which must pass at its feet ; 
 placed on a smooth plateau at the base of a picturesque mountain, the gentle 
 acclivities of which might form healthful sites for houses and gardens, with 
 abundance of fresh water in its immediate neighbourhood, and in the constant 
 enjoyment of refreshing sea-breezes, with a soil of unsurpassed richness extend- 
 ing for an almost unlimited distance around it, it seems diflicult to suggest the 
 absence of any condition essential to prosperity. The one single drawback is the 
 existence of the narroAV bar above referred to. Even with this impediment, when 
 it is recollected that within a distance of a very few miles (probably not alwve 
 three or four) anchorage for vessels of any size can be commanded, the com- 
 mercial importance of a town at Broadmount could hardly fail to be soon realised, 
 if the settlement were once established." 
 
 Sir George Ferguson Bowen, the first governor, arrived in Queensland, which 
 was then proclaimed a British colony, on the 10th of December 1859. For some 
 time previous the colonists had been anticipating his Excellency's arrival with 
 great eagerness, and his coming was accordingly hailed with general rejoicing. 
 The form of government for the new colony was to be precisely similar to that of 
 the older colony of New South Wales, from which it had just been dissevered, 
 viz., an elective Assembly and a nominee Upper House. There was one parti- 
 cular, indeed, in which the constitution of Queensland differed from that of New 
 South Wales ; for as the imperial arrangements for the separation of the Moreton 
 Bay country, and its erection into a distinct colony, had been made previous to 
 the passing of the Electoral Reform Act of New South Wales, it was decided by 
 the judges that the new colony could only be established under the previously 
 existing colonial constitution. It was earnestly desired, by all parties concerned, 
 that the first Parliament of Queensland should be constituted and assembled as 
 speedily as possible ; but in consequence of some technical diiticulties, the Avi-its 
 for the election of members to serve in the Legislative Assembly could not bo 
 issued till the close of thcf month of April 1860, and the Parliament did not meet 
 till June thereafter. The Legislative Assembly at first consisted of twenty-six 
 members, and the first president of the Legislative Council or Upper Chamber 
 was Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart. 
 
 One of the first Acts passed by the legislature was the Act to discontinue 
 gi-ants from the revenue in aid of religion. Fortunately this important question 
 in-csented itself to the legislature of Queensland in a very simjile form. The 
 whole burden upon the revenue, under the previously existing system of New 
 South Wales, for the salaries of ministers of the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, 
 Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist communions, did not exceed £750 a 
 year; and while all were willing that the recipients of that amount should retain 
 the salaries they were respectively receiving under the previous system during 
 their lives, the voice of the public strongly demanded the entire discontinuance 
 of State support for religion for the future. A preliminary motion had been
 
 IlIkiTORy OF QUEENSLAND. 515 
 
 made by one of the members who advocated the sj'stcm of State support, to the 
 effect tliat the sum appropriatcil for distribution amon<:,f the cleri^y of the different 
 comnuuiions should be increased to £4U()0 a year ; but this motion having been 
 lost by a large majority, the Government having thus felt the pulse of the 
 Assembly, made a virtue of necessity, and introduced the bill, which was passed 
 almost without opposition, as a Government measure. 
 
 The subject of education engaged the early attention of the colonial legis- 
 lature, and a system has been established of the most efTicicnt and liberal char- 
 acter. In the primary schools, a good English education is brought within reach 
 of the very poorest classes, while in the grammar schools fjicilities are provided 
 for obtaining, at a very moderate cost, a good classical and general education, 
 such as will fit the pupil for the English universities. Eoys distinguishing them- 
 selves in the primary schools are eligible for scholarships at the gi-ammar schools ; 
 and again, the best scholars at these higher seminaries are eligible for exhibitions 
 of a certain annual value at any British or Australian university. 
 
 The history of Queensland since the establishment of responsible government 
 has been purely a history of domestic progress. The basis of the legislature has 
 been reformed and extended. An extensive railway system has been carried 
 into effect. Local industries have been fostered, and an Act Avas passed in 1868 
 — the Poljiicsian Labourers Act — to permit of the introduction of labourers from 
 the South Sea Islands to work on the cotton-fields. This Act is designed to 
 prevent the introduction of anything like slavery, and to protect the labourers. 
 But an agitation sprung uji against this trade, and some facts were brought to 
 light proving that, at bottom, it was little better than a slave trade. The conse- 
 quence was that it fell into disrepute, and the number of islanders now introduced 
 into the colony CAcry year is insignificantly small. At the present time (1878) 
 Queensland is in the full flood-tide of prosperity. The population is rapidly 
 increasing ; the land laws are of an extremely liberal character ; and the Queens- 
 landers are a spirited and enterprising people. With her imrivalled climate, her 
 inexhaustible mineral resources, her vast breadths of fertile soil for pasture and 
 agTiculture, her varied natural productions, her flourishing seaports, her numerous 
 rivers, and her favourable geographical position, Queensland must of necessity 
 become in time a populous, Avealthy, and even magnificent country.
 
 BOOK XI. 
 
 niSTOEY OF TASMANIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GOVERNOR COLLINS. 
 
 FIRST DISCOVERY — BASS AND FLINDERS — COLONEL COLLINS — SETTLEMENT AT DEU- 
 WENT — GOVERNOR COLLINS — THE NORFOLK ISLANDERS — COLLINS's EARLY 
 CAREER — HIS CHARACTER — FIRST OFFICERS — FIRST STRUGGLES — COLLINS'S 
 DEATH. 
 
 The discovery of Van Diemen's Land by Abel Jansz Tasman, in tl>c year 1642, 
 has already been narrated, as have also been the circumstances attending on the 
 visits of Furneaux in 1773 and of Cook in 1777. The belief of the English 
 na\igators Avas that the country really formed the southern portion of the 
 Australian continent ; and this belief was universally held until Bass and 
 Flinders rectified it, by sailing through the straits, and subsequently round the 
 island in the " Norfolk." Lieutenant Flinders, in his narrative of the voyage 
 of the " Norfolk," says : " In September 1708, his Excellency Governor Hunter 
 had the goodness to give me the ' Norfolk,' a colonial sloop of twenty-five tons, 
 with authority to penetrate behind Furneaux's Islands ; and should a strait be 
 found, to pass through it and return by the south end of Van Diemen's Land ; 
 making such examinations and surveys on the way as circumstances might per- 
 mit. Twelve Avccks Avere allowed for the performance of this service, and 
 provisions for that time were put on board. I had the happiness to associate 
 my friend Bass in this new expedition, and to form an excellent crew of eight 
 volunteers from the king's ships. My report of the seals at Furneaux's Islands 
 had induced jNIes.srs Bishop and Simioson, the conunander and su})crcargo of the 
 snow 'Nautilius' to prepare their vessel for a sealing speculation to that 
 qviarter; and on 7th October we sailed out of Port Jackson together." 
 
 The voyagers discovered and entered the Tamar Heads on the 3d of 
 November, casting anchor in Port Dah-ymple. They remained in this harbour, 
 detained by contrary winds, for nearly a month, and quitted it on the 3d of 
 December. It was shortly after named Port Dalrymple as a mark of respect to
 
 Loii^. E.of Gi'eeiivricli . 
 
 150
 
 GOVE It NOR COLLINS. 517 
 
 Alexander Dalrymple, hydro^iviplier to tho Admiralty. 'I'hc nnnie of the Tamar 
 was couforreil on tlio river by Lieut.-Culouol I'aterson, who was scut from I'ort 
 Jackson to settle a new colony there in 1804. The sources of the river were 
 then explored. The first toAvn established was York Town, at the head of the 
 Western Arm, 1)nt this proving inconvenient, it was removed to Launceston, 
 which was intended to be the capital of the new colony, at the junction of the 
 North and South Esks. 
 
 On the 7th of December Bass and Flinders, having kept to the Avestward, 
 found that they had passed through the straits dividing Van Diemen's Land 
 from the continent. On the 18th they were off the south-west capo of Van 
 Diemen's Land, and on the 23d entered the Derwent. The account says : 
 "On the 23d, the wind being fair,, we ran upwards between shores Avhich were 
 sometimes steep, but generally of a gradual ascent, and well clothed with grass 
 and wood. At nine miles from the entrance lies Sullivan's Cove, on the Avest side, 
 where a settlement has since been established by Colonel Collins ; and here the 
 width of the river is suddenly contracted from one mile and a half to less than 
 three-quarters of a mile, but the depth is not diminished. Four miles higher up 
 we found Risdon Cove, and anchored there in four fathoms, with the intention 
 of filling our empty water-casks at the Eisdon lliver of INIr Hayes ; but finding 
 it to be a little creek, which even our boat could not enter, I determined to seek 
 a more convenient watering-place higher up the Derwent." Sullivan's Cove is 
 the site of the present city of Hobart Town. The first settlement of Van 
 Diemen's Land (1803) was not, however, made there, but at Risdon Cove — ■ 
 which spot was selected by Captain John Bowen, of the Navy, who had been 
 sent from Sydney for that purpose by Governor King ; but on the arrival of the 
 first Governor of Van Diemen's Land — Colonel Collins — in 1804, he selected 
 Sullivan's Cove as a more suitable situation, and to that spot the settlement was 
 at once removed. Flinders, in his journal, notes that " the banks of the Derwent 
 are not remarkably high, but the country in general may be termed mountainous. 
 Mount Table [afterAvards named Mount Wellington], at the back of Sullivan's 
 Cove, is supposed to be three-quarters of a mile in height ; nor do I think, from 
 having seen it beyond the distance of thirty miles from the sloop's deck, that it 
 can be much less. The publication of JNIr Bass's remarks upon the soil and pro- 
 ductions of this part of Van Diemen's Land were so favourable as to induce the • 
 establishment of a colony on the banks of the Derwent four years afterwards." 
 
 The navigators sailed from Storm Bay (as the estuary of the Derwent had 
 been named) on the 3d of January 1709, and reached Port Jackson on the 
 11th of the same month. Flinders concludes his account of this remarkable 
 voyage with a generous recognition of his young companion's claims to the 
 honour of being the first discovei'er of the strait Avhicli bears his name : " To 
 the sti'ait which had been the great object of research, and whose discovery was 
 now completed, Governor Hunter gave, at my recommendation, the name of 
 Bass's Strait. This was no more than a just tribute to my worthy friend and 
 companion, for the extreme dangers and fatigues he had undergone in the first 
 entering it in the whaleboat, and to the correct judgment he had formed from
 
 518 THE IIISTOR Y OF' A USTRALASIA. 
 
 various indications of the existence of a wide opening between Van Dicmen's 
 Land and New South Wales." 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1803, the idea of abandoning the settlement at 
 Norfolk Island began to be entertained by the Home Government. That step 
 had long before been recommended by Governor Iluiiter. For notwithstanding 
 the high estimate which Governor King had formed of the capabilities of the 
 place, the want of a harbour and other disadvantages had made the settlement a 
 source of gi'eater trouble and expense than, in the oiiinion of many, it was worth. 
 Guided principally by the accounts given by Flinders of the capabilities of Van 
 Diemen's Land, it was determined to form a settlement at the river Derwent, 
 in the southern part of that island, with a view to the removal to that place of the 
 prisoners and settlers from Norfolk Island, and the ultimate breaking up of the 
 establishment there. In July 1803, a small party, consisting of Lieutenant Bowen, 
 Surgeon INIountgarrct, three soldiers, and sixteen prisoners, was despatched 
 to the Derwent, in the schooner " Lady Nelson." They landed and commenced 
 operations at a place on the left bank of the Derwent which they called Kest- 
 down (or Risdon) Cove, on the 10th of August. Colonel Paterson Avas also sent 
 from Sydney shortly afterwards to form a new settlement at Port Dalrymple. 
 He at first fixed his hcad(piarters at York Toato, near the entrance and on the 
 right bank of the estuary of the Tamar, but afterwards removed to George 
 Town on the opposite shore ; and ultimately a site, to which the name of 
 Launceston was given, at the head of the tidal waters, and about thirty miles 
 from the mouth, was chosen as the position for the northern capital of the island. 
 
 The attempt to found the settlement is understood to have been owing to 
 the desire of Lord Hobart, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, to 
 immortalise his name in connection with Australian colonisation. It was on 
 the advice of INIr Capper, one of the clerks of his office, that Port Phillip was 
 fixed upon as the site of the settlement Avliicli should transmit the name of 
 Hobart to future generations. This ambitious design was, however, frustrated, 
 so far as this particular site was concerned, by circumstances which will be pre- 
 sently narrated. The officer appointed to form the Port Phillip settlement was 
 Licut.-Colonel David Collins, Judge- Advocate of New South Wales. He had 
 proceeded to England in 1799, and was chosen from his long Austi'alian experience 
 to be the founder of the new colony on the northern shores of Bass's Strait. 
 
 Soon after the discovery, by Captain. Murray, of the magnificent bay on 
 whose shores it was intended to found the settlement, and the visit of Flinders, 
 I'ort Phillip was examined and reported upon by Captain Grimes, the surveyor- 
 eneral of New South Wales. The locality having been determined on, the 
 " Calcutta," a fifty-gaui ship, was commissioned in England to take out the 
 officers and people, and the merchant sliii) " Ocean," of six hundred tons, 
 chartered to convey the necessary provisions, tools, and stores to last for three 
 years. On board the former were three hundred prisoners, about fifty marines, 
 a few free settlers, with twenty-five Avomen, ten children, and the proper 
 complement of officers. The "Ocean" arrived at Port Phillip Heads in the 
 first week of October 1803, and tlu; "Calcutta" on the 10th of the same month. 
 
 o
 
 GOVERNOR COLLINS. 519 
 
 Shortly after landing, however, Collins anil those under his charge became 
 dissatisfied Avith the place and their pi-ospects ; the situation on which tlio 
 encampment was formed was badly chosen, water was scarce, and the natives 
 were numerous and turbulent. Collins at once represented to Governor King, in 
 Sydney, the desirability of removing the settlement to Van Dieracn's Land, and 
 having gained permission to do so, operations to effect that object were shortly 
 afterwards commenced, and the "Ocean" transport was em[)loyed for' their 
 removal to their new destination. The place to which it was determined to 
 remove the colony was Sullivan's Cove, at the Derwent, the place chosen by 
 Lieutenant Bowen as the site on which the people removed from Norfolk Island 
 were to form their new settlement. At Sullivan's Cove accordingly the first 
 party of the Port Phillip expedition landed on the 30th January 1804, and the 
 remainder in the month of June following. 
 
 The order which had reached the colony in 1803, for the abandonment of 
 Norfolk Island, Avas not attempted to be carried into effect until two years after- 
 wards. Governor King, Avho had been entrusted with the founding of the 
 settlement there in 1788, had always regarded the place with favour, and it is 
 probable, if his wishes had been consulted at this period, he Avould have advised 
 that New South Wales should be abandoned rather than his pet colony. But 
 Governor Hunter's opinion, after having visited the place on his way to England, 
 was against it, and his representations ultimately prevailed with the British 
 Government. Still Governor King managed to delay commencing to carry out 
 his instructions until 1805. He represented, and probably with truth, that the 
 settlers themselves were opposed to their removal. However that might be, five 
 years elapsed from the date of the order until its accomplishment by the entire 
 removal of the people. The population in 1805, Avhen the process of their 
 transportation to Van Diemen's Land commenced, numbered over one thousand. 
 The consideration granted by the British Government to the settlers for giving 
 up their little farms and homes Avas liberal, and their transference Avas carried 
 out Avith the utmost regard for their interests. The .place at Avhich most of them 
 settled in Van Diemen's Land they named New Norfolk, perpetuating in their 
 neAv home the name of the old one Avhich they quitted so I'eluctantly. The 
 formation of a colony in so small and remote an island AA^as, no doubt, a mistake. 
 Such a settlement could never repay the expense incident to its formation and 
 protection. But having been formed — all the heavy expenses having been 
 incurred — having existed for fifteen years, and having attained to a moderate 
 degree of prosperity, it is difficult to discover any good grounds for its abandon- 
 ment. When the settlement Avas broken up there Avas a large quantity of land 
 in cultivation, Avhich, from its exuberant fertility, yielded abundant returns. 
 Many substantial buildings, public as Avell as private, had been erected. If the 
 Government Avished to AvithdraAV the prisoners, they might have handed over 
 their abandoned structures to the free settlers. If these people had been allowed 
 to remain, they would, in all probability, have quickly risen to a flourishing com- 
 munity. But the orders for the abandonment of the island Avere imperative. 
 There Avas no appeal, and every soul had to obey.
 
 520 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Colouel David Collins deserves a more particular notice than he has yet 
 received. Next to Governor Phillip himself, he must ho regarded as the most 
 j)rominent and talented man connected with the foundation and early history of 
 British communities in Australasia. Colonel Collins was the son of General 
 Arthur Tooker Collins, and grandson of Arthur Collins, author of a Avclhknown 
 work on the peerage of England. He was of Irish extraction, but born at 
 Exeter, and entered the service of his country at a very early age. In 1770 he 
 was appointed lieutenant of marines. In 1772 he was engaged with Admiral 
 M'Bride, in the rcsoic of the luifortunatc ]\Iatilda, Queen of Denmark, sister of 
 George III. In 1775 he was serving in America, and married a lady of that 
 country. He greatly distinguished himself in the revolutionary war, and par- 
 ticularly at the battle of Bunker's Hill, in storming the redoul)t with the first 
 battalion of marines. In 1784 he took part, as captain of marines in the 
 " Coin-ageux," of seventy-four guns, in the relief of Gibraltar. In 1787, on the 
 "Ihitish Government resolving to found a colony in Australia, lie was ai:)pointed 
 Judge- Advocate and chosen as secretary by the governor. He filled this jiosition, 
 with credit to himself and advantage to his country, for a period of nearly ten 
 years, during which, in common Avith Governor Phillip and other ofliccrs, he 
 underwent great privations. He returned to England in 1707, and shortly after- 
 wards published his history of the settlement. This work, Avhich is written in a 
 style of attractive simplicity and good taste, abounds Avith information of a highly 
 interesting character, embellished with engravings of a very superior kind, 
 illustrative of the scenery and natural history of the country, and the customs, 
 ceremonies, Aveapons, and implements of the natives. He had the mortification 
 of finding, on his return to England, that his ten years of arduous service in the 
 colony Avere rewarded with merely the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel, Avhile his 
 renunieration Avas confined to the pittance of a half-pay captain, the time spent 
 in the colony not being allowed to count. This injustice, for Avhich he Avas never 
 able to obtain effectual redress, Avrung from him some remarks at the close of 
 his history. The attention thus drawn to his case induced those in poAver to 
 oiler him tlu; government of the settlement at Port I'hillip. This oiler ho 
 accepted. His landing there Avith the expedition under his command, and his 
 al)andonment of tlie place afterAvards for Avhat he considered a moi'c eligible site 
 on the shores of the Derwent, have been before related. His conduct in precii)i- 
 tately leaving so excellent a site for a settlement has been generally condemned, 
 and it must be confessed that he evinced a Avant of judgment or firmness, for it 
 Avas probably the persuasions of others rather than his oavu inclination that 
 induced him to leave Port Phillip for the less promising insular land. He under- 
 Avent at .Sullivan's Cove a re2)etition of the hardships and privations he had 
 experienced many years previously on the shores of I*ort Jackson. He governed 
 the settlement at the Derwent for about six years, during Avhich period the little 
 colony emerged from a condition of 'Struggling poverty into one comparatively 
 flourishing. He Avas a man of extremely prepossessing manners and handsome 
 person. To a cultivated understanding and literary tastes he joined a very lively 
 and social di.sposition. He Avas very popular Avith all classes of the settlers, the
 
 GOVERNOR COLLINS. 521 
 
 humbler part of tlio community especially, regarding him rather as a father and 
 a friend than as a ruler. 
 
 The numljcr and description of pcj'sons sent out with Collins to form the 
 settlement has been before stated. They were most of them transferred from 
 the shores of Port Phillip to the banks of the Derwent in the month of Febru- 
 ary 1804. The names of the officers were the Rev. R. Knopwood, chaplain ; 
 E. Bromley, surgeon-superintendent ; W. Anson, colonial surgeon ; j\I. I3oden 
 and W. Ilopley, assistant-surgeons ; P. H. Humphrey, mineralogist ; Lieutenant 
 Fosbrook, deputy commissary-general; G. P. Harris, deputy-surveyor; John 
 Clarke and William Patterson, superintendents of convicts. The military con- 
 sisted of forty-four marines, under Lieutenants Sladen, Johnson, and Lord, 
 having in their charge 367 male prisoners. In addition to the party from 
 Sydney, imder command of Lieutenant Bowen, which Collins found at liisdon 
 Cove, a number of prisoners were soon afterwards sent from Sydney. These 
 consisted for the most part of pei'sons who had been transported for their share 
 in the Irish rebellion, and who were connected, or were susjjected of being con- 
 nected, with the outbreak at Castlehill. To these were afterwards added some 
 of the Norfolk Island settlers, both free and bond, whose removal from their 
 little home commenced a few months after Collins had established his settlement 
 at the Derwent. ISIany were free settlers, and this class evinced great reluctance 
 to quit a place Avhere, by many years of industry, they had built comfortable 
 houses and cleared farms, which, although in general of small extent, were of 
 remarkable fertilit)^ The prison class were, of course, ready to go anywhere or 
 to do anything to escape from a spot where they were obliged to toil for the 
 benefit of others. The first A'essel sent to effect their removal was mainly filled 
 by these people, as only four free persons could then be induced to embrace 
 the offers of the Government. H.M.S. "Buffalo" was sent shortly afterwards, 
 and more of the free settlers having become reconciled to the change, and the 
 offers made for their settlement elsewhere being really advantageous, a larger 
 nuaiber at length agreed to accept them. A majority of their number preferred 
 Van Diemen's Land to Sydney as their future home. The first detachment, 
 consisting mostly of prisoners, was taken to Port Dalrymple, the others to the 
 Derwent, where the names of New Norfolk and Norfolk Plains still indicate the 
 spots on which they were located. Their reasons for j^referring Tasmania to 
 Sydney were probably mostly of a personal character. They all knew both Gover- 
 nor King and Colonel Collins, and although the former was by no means disliked, 
 the greater popularity of the latter, his kindness, gentleness, and conciliatory 
 conduct on all occasions, induced them to prefer his rule to that of his more 
 arbitrary and impetuous supei-ior. Holt, whose memoirs have been referred to 
 in these pages, and who was sent to Norfolk Island for his supposed complicity 
 wdth the Castlehill insurrection, was one of those who went to Van Diemen's 
 Land. He speaks in the highest terms of 4;hc character and conduct of Collins : 
 " This gentleman had the goodwill, the good wishes, and' good word of every 
 one in the settlement. His conduct was exemplary, and his disposition most 
 humane. His treatment of the runaAvay convicts was conciliatory, and even 
 
 3 u
 
 522 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 kind. He would go into the forests, among the natives, to allow these poor 
 creatures, the runaways, an opportunity of returning to their former condition ; 
 and, half dead with cold and hunger, they would come and drop on their knees 
 before him, imploring pardon for their behaviour. * Well,' he Avould say to them, 
 ' now that you have lived in the bush, do you think the change you made was 
 for the better 1 Are you sorry for what you have done ? ' ' Yes, sir.' ' And 
 will you promise me never to go away again ? ' 'Never, sir.' * Go to the store- 
 keeper, then,' the benevolent Collins would say, ' and get a suit of slops and your 
 week's ration, and then go to the overseer and attend to your work. I give you 
 my pardon; but remember that I expect you will keep your promise to me.' 
 I never heard of any other governor or commandant acting in this manner, nor 
 did I ever witness much leniency from any governor. I have, however, been 
 assured, that there was less crime, and much fewer faults committed among the 
 people under Governor Collins, than in any other settlement, which I think is a 
 clear proof that mercy and humanity are the best policy." 
 
 The records of the early days of Tasmanian colonisation resemble in their 
 general features those of New South Wales. Frequently recurring scarcities of 
 food, hardships, privations, crimes, and conflicts with the natives, make up the 
 staple of both narratives. The settlement formed by Colonel Paterson at York 
 Town, on the Tamar, underwent as full a share of difficulties and disasters as the 
 larger settlement at the Derwent. For several years both had to make desperate 
 struggles for existence. Sometimes there Avas no beef, sometimes no flour. 
 Kangaroos were purchased by the commissai'iat at eightpence a pound, and flour, 
 when it could be had at all, was often more than £100 sterling a ton, and at 
 one time as much as £200, and wheat £4 a bushel. Very few official documents 
 relative to the early days of the settlements are now in existence ; and it is 
 asserted that on the night of Governor CoUins's death, all his official papers were 
 destroyed by fire. For one year, indeed, that of 1809, the only record now in 
 the archives of the colony is the garrison order-book. 
 
 This was the last important occurrence in the eventful life of Collins. He 
 died on the 24th of March 1810, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, having held 
 the administration six years and thirty-six days. His death Avas sudden : except 
 a slight cold, there was little warning of its approach. He died while sitting in 
 his chair and conversing Avith his attendant. His funeral was celebi'ated with all 
 the pomp the colony could command, and six hundred persons were present. 
 The share he accepted in the responsibility of the deposition of Bligh disturbed 
 his tranquillity, and it was thought hastened his end. Governor Collins was 
 bm-ied in the churchyard of St David's, Hobart Town. To provide a temporary 
 place for jiublic worship, a small Avooden church Avas erected on the spot, and its 
 altar Avas reared over his grave. This building Avas afterAvards bloAvn down in a 
 tempest, and its materials being carried oft', left the resting-place of Collins long- 
 exposed to the careless tread of the stranger. Sir John Franklin, always 
 generous to the memory of official Avorth, reared a monument bearing an inscrip- 
 tion, commemorating him as the first governor of the settlement and the founder 
 of Hobart Town.
 
 GO VERNOR DA VE Y. 523 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 GOVERNOE DAVEY. 
 
 LIEUTENANT LORD — GOVERNOR MACQUARIE'S VISIT — COLONEL GEILS — CONDITION OF 
 THE COLONY IN 1812 — GOVERNOR DAVEY ARRIVES — HIS CHARACTER — FIRST 
 NEWSPAPERS — SOCIAL AND MORAL CONDITION — PROGRESS DURING GOVERNOR 
 DAVEY's RULE. 
 
 On the demise of Colonel Collins the government devolved on Lieutenant 
 Edward Lord until the arrival of Captain Murray of the 73d Regiment. The 
 governor-in-chief visited Van Diemen's Land during Captain Mm-ray's adminis- 
 tration. This auspicious event was the subject of gi^eat exultation. Macquarie 
 was I'eceived with all possible formality and tokens of gladness ; a salute from a 
 battery of no great power ; an illumination in the small windows of the scattered 
 cottages ; and an address delivered by delegates not bound to declare the 
 number of their constituents. Nothing remarkable is remembered of this visit, 
 except that Macquarie traced the future city. He complained of the utter 
 neglect of right lines in the erection of dwellings, which advanced or retreated 
 according to the whim of the builder. The centre of the projected town he 
 called St George's Square ; in this he intended to rear a church and town hall, 
 and the quarters of the main guard ; the open space he designed for a market. 
 The streets which intersect each other he called by the names which still dis- 
 tinguish them : Liverpool Street, after the minister of that name ; Macquarie 
 Street, after himself; Elizabeth Street, in honour of his lady; Argyle Street, of 
 their native county; and INIurray Street, in compliment to the officer in com- 
 mand. The plan sketched by Macquarie has not been absolutely followed, nor 
 has it been improved. He ordered the erection of a signal staff on Mount 
 Nelson, named after the vessel which brought him to port, and conveyed him 
 safely to Port Jackson. The settlers on the Derwent expressed a fervent 
 admiration of his devotedness in thus venturing to face the dangers of the visit ; 
 especially accompanied by his " consort " — so they distinguished ]\Irs Macquarie. 
 The governor merited their gratitude, for his hand was liberal. 
 
 In February 1812 Colonel Geils liecame acting lieutenant-governor, and 
 remained until the arrival of Colonel Davey. Colonel Geils devoted great 
 attention to agricultural pursuits, and first formed at Risdon a considerable 
 farming establishment. Ordered to India with the troops under his command, 
 he forwarded his youthful sons to the Cape of Good Hope, thence to be conveyed
 
 524 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 to England. The colonists heard soon after with deep commiseration that the 
 vessel in which they re-embarked was lost. 
 
 The condition of Van Diemen's Land at this period (1812), although 
 Macquarie had termed it "one of the finest countries in the world in a state of 
 rapid improvement," was by no means a very prosperous one. The population 
 did not exceed fifteen hundred souls, and their habitations were of the most 
 A\Tetched description ; there were no fences, very few cattle, and little that was 
 worthy of the name of agi'iculture had been attempted. There were no capitalist 
 settlers as in the older colony, and very few'persons in a jiosition to employ others. 
 There were a few free persons, but the great majority of the people were, or had 
 been, prisoners. The want of employment, or the absence of that sturdy energy 
 required to subdue the forest and make homes in the wilderness, impelled many 
 idle and reckless men to seek a living by hunting. The prisoners, for whose 
 labour there was little demand, if not encouraged were at least permitted by the 
 authorities to follow the same irregular and lazy course of life. Many of the 
 most vicious and abandoned of these people associated with the aboriginal 
 natives of the island — at first the most gentle and inoffensive of all the AustraUan 
 tribes, but rendered at length by the oppressions and crimes of these outcasts of 
 the civihsed world the most intractable and remorseless of foes. When the 
 unfortunate aborigines had been reduced in numbers or driven from the vicinity 
 of the settlements, many of the white savages turned their hands against their 
 more peaceful and industrious neighbours. This was the first outbreak of 
 Australian bushrauging. 
 
 At length, in February 1813, three years after Colonel Collins's death, his 
 successor. Colonel Davey, of the Marines, reached the Derwent. His arrival 
 was unexpected, for opportunities of communicating with the mother country 
 were few, and the manner of his entrance into his capital exceedingly singular. 
 The day was a very hot one, and he landed, with his coat under his arm, from 
 the vessel which brought him out, and after stating who he was, requested tem- 
 porary accommodation at almost the fii-st house he approached. What led to 
 Colonel Davey's appointment to the government of Van Diemen's Land has 
 never been discovered. He Avas a man whose disregard of conventional forms 
 and outward appearances amounted to eccentricity, but this did not prevent his 
 quickly becoming very popular. He had gained the character of a brave soldier 
 in many a battle Avith the enemies of his coxmtry, and was, like many of his class 
 in that day, a hard drinker. He was wiUing to join in a carouse whenever 
 invited, and was by no means fastidious as to the companionship in which he 
 found himself. Yet it does not appear that he neglected his duties, although the 
 way in which they were performed was not perhaps quite so studied and de- 
 liberate as might have been desired. He seems to have thought the place was 
 in reality what it was called, " the Camp," for such was the common designation 
 of Hobart Town in his time, and for many years afterwards. His period of rule 
 lasted about four years, and was characterised by the prevalence of crime and 
 jjarticularly of bushranging to a deplorable extent. Colonel Davey was not the 
 man to devi.se a .suitable remedy for such a condition of things. If the despera-
 
 GOVERNOR DAVEY. ' 525 
 
 does Avlio infested the country wouM liuvc mot him in a body in the open lidd, 
 lio would pr()l)al)ly luivc been able to give a t^ood account of them, but nature 
 and habit had alike unfitted him for coping with such men in a maimer in accord- 
 ance with civilian notions and ajjplianccs. 
 
 His proceeding's did not lack energy, but Avere often in direct o2)position to 
 law. Sometimes, if suspected persons escaped conviction, the witnesses were 
 flogged, and many captured jirisoners Avcre hanged on very slight evidence. 
 Colonel Davey's ijrocecdings at length brought him into collision with INlacquarie, 
 the governor-in-chief, who did not hesitate to express his dislike and disapproval 
 of the lieutenant-governor's proceedings. Many of the inhabitants, however, 
 commended Davey for his promptness and eulogised his stretches of power. 
 Finding himself thus hampered by his superior officer, he at length relinquished 
 his office and turned settler. His agricultural operations were not, however, 
 very successful, and soon afterwards he returned to England. His memory is 
 still cherished as that of a plain, open, generous man, if not quite a model 
 governor. 
 
 It was during Colonel Davey's period of rule, however, notwithstanding all 
 the drawbacks of that period, that the press first became a permanent insti- 
 tution in Van Diemen's Land. Colonel Collins's abortive attempt to establish a 
 newspaper in 1810 has already been noticed. A second attempt, also a failure, 
 occurred in 1814. A third and more successful effort was made in 1816. In 
 June of that year Mr Andrew Bent commenced the publication of the IIohaH 
 Town Gazette, a newspaper which existed for several years, and which became 
 the forerunner of the many journals which afterAvards sprung into existence in 
 Tasmania. 
 
 The social and moral condition of the Van Diemen's Land settlements 
 appears for many years after their foundation to have been inferior to that of 
 New South Wales. The example of raen of character and position was almost 
 wholly wanting in the former ; the regulations for enforcing order, and even the 
 usual appliances of government, were in a great degree absent ; very insufficient 
 means of controlling the turbulent and vicious were at hand ; the examples of 
 immorality often set by the officers themselves, completely removed as they 
 Avere from the curbing restraint of public opinion, exercised a most deplorable 
 influence on the characters of those over whom they Avere placed. Sydney Avas 
 bad enough in this respect, but the presence of a virtuous, actiA'c, and popular 
 lady like JNIrs Macquarie, and the influence of some of the officers' wives, Avas 
 sufficient to give a healthier tone to society there, and to check at least any open 
 or unblushing display of vice on the part of those who would otherAvisc have set 
 a bad example, and Avhose private lives, notwithstanding their compliance Avith 
 the external forms of propriety, Avere anything but Avhat they ought to have been. 
 In Hobart ToAvn things might not have been much worse in reality, but there 
 Avas less restraint pi'actised. Colonel Collins himself, if contemporary accoimts 
 can be relied upon, Avas far from blameless in his social relations. The Avife of 
 Colonel Davey, his successor, Avas too meek, retiring, and timid a Avoman to 
 exert that authority and to exercise that influence in social life Avdiich her position
 
 526 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 entitled her to assume. Besides, there were few or none to second her efforts, if 
 she had been indined to make any, for at that period the women of the colony 
 were for the most part of a class that it would have been impossible for her to 
 associate with. The practice of assigning female convicts to the military and 
 other officers, which had obtained from the earliest days of the colony, was a 
 fruitful source of vice, and for many years the cause of the most deplorable 
 social demoralisation. 
 
 Governor Davey died in England in jSIay 1823. During his short term of 
 government there was some considerable improvement in the condition of the 
 settlement. The ports were opened for general commerce ; some houses of 
 trade were established ; JNIr Birch, an enterj)rising merchant, fitted out a vessel 
 to survey the western coast ; Captain Kelly discovered INIacquarie Harbour and 
 Port Davey ; a new species of pine, highly valued by artificers, was found by 
 Captain Florence ; the whale fishery was enlarged considerably ; corn was 
 exported ; the plough was introduced, and gradually superseded the hoe ; a 
 mill was erected ; passage boats connected the banks of the Derwcnt ; a 
 civil court for the recovery of small debts was established ; and the foundation 
 of St David's Church was laid. The ship that conveyed Davey's luggage to 
 England was taken by the Americans, as war was then raging, and the governor 
 was indemnified by a grant of three thousand acres of land, the largest grant 
 ever made in the island.
 
 GO VERNOR SORELL. 527 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GOVERNOR SORELL. 
 
 BUSHRANGING — MICHAEL HOWE — IMMIGRATION — AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS — MAC- 
 QUARIE's second visit — PROGRESS — NO CIVIL LAW COURT— A BRITISH COLONIAL 
 COMPANY — GOVERNOR SORELL's ADMINISTRATION — HIS CHARACTER — HIS RETIRE- 
 MENT — PENSION — STATE OF THE COLONY — CHIEF-JUSTICE FIELD — PRIMITIVE 
 MANNERS — A POETICAL PROPHECY, 
 
 In 1817 Colonel William Sorell succeeded Colonel Davey as lieutenant-governor. 
 He found the Tasmanian settlements in an exceedingly disturbed state from a 
 large number of bushrangers, whose depredations had been carried on in a very 
 daring manner for several years. Mr Humphrey, police magistrate at Hobart 
 Town, attributed the origin and spread of this description of crime to the 
 necessities of the prisoners in the early days of the settlement, and the frequent 
 scarcity of food which led the authorities there to sanction their attempts to live 
 by hunting and associating with the aborigines. The prisoners assigned to the 
 military officers were, in times of scarcity, not only obliged to procure food for 
 themselves, but to furnish weekly to their masters a certain quantity of kangaroo 
 flesh. The experience thus gained in the capture of game, and the knowledge 
 acquired of the bush, together with the lax state of discipline Avhich prevailed, 
 encouraged these men in their tendency to roving and predatory habits, and 
 ultimately led to the formation of gangs of marauders, distinguished for their 
 violence and rapacity. The excesses of these daring outlaws both on the northern 
 and southern sides of the island had attained an alarming height at the period 
 of Colonel Davey's arrival, and continued with little intermission during his 
 administration of the government of the colony. The success of the desperadoes, 
 and the impunity with which they carried on their depredations, at length induced 
 persons to join them who had no such excuses to offer for their conduct as might 
 be urged on account of many of the convicts. Two of these amateur robbers 
 were named INIills and Williams, both of whom left subordinate situations in tho 
 Commissariat Department to enter upon a career of crime. They and the gangs 
 with which they became connected carried on such a successful system of plunder 
 upon the persons and property of individuals of every description, that tho 
 inhabitants of several districts were forced at length to abandon their dweUings, 
 and remove for safety to the towns. 
 
 The measures adopted by Lieut. -Governor Sorell, on his arrival at Hobart 
 Town, to check these wholesale outrages, were of a very judicious and effectual
 
 528 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 kind. He first endeavoured to awaken in all wlio wished to save their persons 
 from outrage and their property from plunder a sense of the necessity for co-opera- 
 tion in measures of self-defence, and of combination against the common enemy; 
 and such was his success, that liberal subscriptions were at once entered into in 
 order to carry his plans into effect, and to offer large rewards for the capture of 
 the ringleaders of the gangs. By keeping a watchful eye on those who were 
 suspected of giving aid or information to the banditti, by sending assistance to 
 those who were believed to be in danger of attack, by establishing a more vigilant 
 system of control over the gangs of prisoners, and especially by their frequent 
 removal from one district to another, he succeeded in a short time in checking 
 the movements and intercepting the supplies of the bushranging desperadoes. 
 Some of those who still continued their dej^redations were at length reduced by 
 the spirited pursuit and exertions of a detachment of the 46th Regiment ; others 
 fell victims to the cruelty and treachery of their companions, the greatest atrocities 
 being joerpetrated amongst them from fear of betrayal by each other, or with the 
 hope of obtaining a share of the promised reward. A price was set upon the 
 heads of some of the ringleaders, and it is asserted, but doubtless with consider- 
 able exaggeration, that it was no unusual thing for a man to make his appearance 
 at a settlement of a morning, with the head of one of his companions in crime 
 under his arm, in order to claim the reward. In more than one case it was 
 afterwards suspected and generally believed that the head produced was not that 
 of the bushranger for whom the reward had been offered, but of some unfortunate 
 shepherd or solitary wayfarer who happened to bear some resemblance to him, 
 and who had been murdered in order to secure the offered premium. 
 
 A notorious leader of the principal party, named jNIichael Howe, after 
 surrendering to the lieutenant-governor on an assurance of present safety, and a 
 recommendation in his favour to Governor Macquarie, suspecting he had been 
 entrapped, made his escape from the gaol at Hobart Town, and attempted, in 
 concert with a servant of the Judge-Advocate, to leave the colony in an American 
 vessel. Foiled in this effort, Howe returned to his former desperate courses, 
 and was apprehended a second time and secured; but by means of a knife, which 
 he had managed to conceal, he stabbed both the men who were guarding him, 
 and again took to the bush, where he subsisted for some time Avith much diffi- 
 culty on account of the loss of his fire-arms, and "the detestation with which he 
 had come to be regarded in consequence of his atrocious crimes. Driven at 
 length to enter a hut with the hope of obtaining arms and ammunition, he 
 encountered a soldier and another man who were lying in wait for him. They 
 fell upon him at once, and after a desperate conflict, killed him on the .spot. 
 This took place in October 1818, and may be looked upon as the termination for 
 that time of a system of terror and plunder which had existed for a long period ; 
 although the effects of the predatory and wandering habits which the convicts 
 had ac(piircd led to many isolated crimes during the next few years. The only 
 subsequent attenqit to form a gang appears to have been made on the northern 
 side of the island, by a desperado named Hector Macdonald, who at the head of 
 four others committed several robberies between George Town and Launceston.
 
 GOVERNOR SORKLL. 529 
 
 But hchv^ hotly pursued, the header was sliot by two civiliaus, and auotlier of 
 the gang- by a sohlier of the 48th liegimeut. The other three were afterwards 
 taken and punished. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties which Governor Sorcll had to contend with in 
 restoring order arose from the want of suitable persons amongst the settlers to 
 fill the office of magistrate. Most of those who had been removed from Norfolk 
 Island to Van Diemen's Land at the formation of the settlement in 1<S()4 had 
 originally been prisoners, and many others who had been sent from Ncav South 
 Wales were men who had been doubly convicted, and consequently suitable 
 materials for local government and the maintenance of order were less a*».'ulable. 
 
 This want of settlers of means and respectal.Mlity was, however, remedied a 
 few years after the time of which we are now speaking by the arrival (in ls-22) 
 of a considerable number of suitable emigrants from England, attracted by the 
 favourable accounts of the colony which had reached the mother country ; and 
 in truth, whatever might be said in disparagement of the social and moral condi- 
 tion of the island up to this time, it is clear that it had at length emerged into a 
 state of great material prosperity. The farmers, although their operations were 
 conducted in an exceedingly rude and slovenly manner, had, as there was 
 abundance of elbow-room, selected the most fertile spots, and their crops for 
 several years had been so iirolific that in 1820 they were able to export wheat to 
 the value of £20,000 to Sydney. 
 
 The capital introduced by the newly-arrived settlers soon gave an impetus to 
 trade, while their intelligence, energy, and character affiirded examples which 
 produced the best effects upon the moral and social condition of the community. 
 In 1821 the population of Van Diemen's Land amounted to 7400, and the lantl 
 in cultivation to 15,000 acres. The horned cattle, sheep, and horses had 
 increased in proportion. The extraordinary progress made in the two or three 
 preceding years may be judged of from the fact that in 1818 the population was 
 only 3557, the land in cultivation but 5080 acres, and the quantity of live stock 
 correspondingly small. 
 
 Governor INIacquarie visited Van Diemen's Land for the second time in April 
 1821. He found the place wonderfully improved. At his first visit, about nine 
 years before, although the settlement had then been established about seven years, 
 very little progress had been made, so that in 1821 he was both surprised and 
 gratified by the changed condition of things. On his return to Sydney, after a stay 
 of more than two months, he published in the Gazette a very flattering account 
 of the industry, enterprise, and progress of the insular colonists. He lauded the 
 taste displayed in their buildings, the beauty and spaciousness of their harbour, 
 their appliances and facilities for trade, and ended as usual by conferring his 
 name, or the name of his native place, or that of his wife, or something which 
 was his, on a large number of places or things on the fortunate island. 
 
 With the influx of immigration in 1821, trade began to assume regularity; 
 distilleries and breweries were erected ; the Van Diemen's Land Bank was 
 established ; St David's Church at Hobart Town was completed and opened ; 
 and many other stops were taken in the direction of public improvement. Still, 
 
 3x
 
 530 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the settlement laboured under the disadvantage of having no regular civil or 
 criminal court ; suitors in the one for sums above £50, and all prosecutors in the 
 other, were compelled to wait the uncertain arrival of the judges from New 
 South Wales to hold an occasional sessions ; or else they were compelled to 
 sustain all the inconvenience and expense of repairing to Sydney. 
 
 In the early journals the name of Sorell occurs frequently to illustrate the 
 qualities which adorn a ruler, and to point a satire on his successor. On 
 his departm-e a banquet was given him, " where," said the rej^orter, " the cup 
 was often replenished, and the flow of reason never ebbed." It was observed 
 that the return freight for merino wool which the colony owed to his care and 
 foresight anchored beside the " Guildford," that was to carry him home. Towards 
 the close of Sorell's government the commerce of the colony was assisted by the 
 enterprise of some British merchants. A company was formed at Leith, with a 
 capital of £100,000, professing to promote the welfare of the colonies by taking 
 their produce in exchange for merchandise. A succession of vessels were des- 
 patched ; the first was the "Greenock," among the rest the "Triton," Captain 
 Crear. These vessels introduced many families from Scotland, whose moral 
 Avorth and successful enterprise have established their families among the chief 
 of the land. The shipments provoked the anger and broke up the monopoly of 
 the local merchants. 
 
 The administration of Sorell was successful in colonial estimation ; his habits 
 were familiar without rudeness, and his fine countenance attracted the confidence 
 of the stranger. He was accustomed to linger about the gate of Government 
 House chatting with the passers-by, and a slight excuse entitled the humblest 
 persons to prefer their solicitations. The admiration expressed by the settlers 
 for his character was partly the result of their relative positions. He was a 
 dispenser of Crown favours, and when compelled to refuse an immoderate suitor, 
 he could refer his request to the governor-in-chief. The rigour of king's commis- 
 sioner was softened by his oflScial worth ; nor is it necessary to search for a 
 censure amidst such concurrence of praise. The settlers, to express their regard, 
 agreed to offer Sorell a testimonial of £750 value. They deprecated his recall 
 by petition — a I'are instance of popular favour ; there was but one dissentient. 
 A request so unusual might perhaps have been successful had it not come too 
 late. On his return to England he received a pension which, commencing in 
 1825, continued until his death — twenty-four years — and amounted in all to 
 £11,500, more than the official salary he received during his government twice 
 told. This pension was authorised by the Crown, and charged on the colonial 
 revenue. Soi'ell was colonel of the 48th Regiment. He died on the 4th Juno 
 1848, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. 
 
 The aspect of the country at this time was not inviting to strangers ; but the 
 current of colonisation Avas set in, and its idtimate superiority, compared with all 
 others, became an article of Tasmanian faith. On this subject the agricultural 
 societies maintained a war of papers. Barron Field, the Chief-Justice of New 
 South Wales, was the cliamiiion of that country, and dwelt on its vast forests, its 
 wool, its boundless pastures, and its rivers. The president of the Tasmanian
 
 GOVERNOR SORELL. 531 
 
 agriculturists urged all in the defence of Van Diemen's Land which became liis 
 position. At that time protective laws had not furnished them with more formid- 
 able weapons. The trials and disappointments of the colonist pioneer have been 
 long since forgotten. The modern emigrant to Australia can know them only in 
 part. He is carried to his destination by a public conveyance, at a cost deter- 
 mined by extensive competition. He can have the mechanical labour he may 
 need ; he can buy the stock descended from European flocks and herds 
 lower than in their native regions. The choice fruit-trees, flowers, and plants, 
 which multitudes have combined to collect, he can obtain often as a gift. The 
 costly experiments of his predecessors have established the rules which preserve 
 his crops from destruction, or his folds from disease. There is a market for his 
 produce, and a bank for his money, and a school for his children. 
 
 A poet, of some celebrity at the time, predicted the fortunes of Tasmania. 
 The picture he drew is no unpleasing prospect for posterity : 
 
 " Now on my soul the rising vision warms, 
 But mingled in a thousand lovely forms ; 
 Methinks I see Australian landscapes stUl, 
 But softer beauty sits on every hill : 
 I see bright meadows decked in livelier gi'een, 
 The yellow cornfield, and the blossomed be<in : 
 A hundred flocks o'er smiling pastures roam, 
 And hark, the music of the harvest home ! 
 Methinks I hear the hammer's busy sound, 
 The cheerful hum of human voices round, 
 The laughter and the song that lightens toil, 
 Sung in the language of my native isle : 
 The vision leads me on by many a stream j 
 And spreading cities crowd upon my dream. 
 Where tuiTeta darkly frown, and lofty spires 
 Point to the stars and sparkle in their fires ! 
 Here Sydney gazes from the mountain side, 
 Narcissus like, upon the glassy tide ; 
 O'er rising towns Notasian commerce reigns, 
 And temples crowd Tasmania's lovely plains. 
 The prospect varies in an endless range ; 
 Villas and lawns go by in ceaseless change ; 
 And wafted on the gale from many a dell 
 Methinks I hear the village Sabbath-bell ; 
 Faith upwards mounts upon devotion's wings, 
 And, like the lark, at heaven's pure portal sings ; 
 From myriad tongues the song of praise is poured, 
 And o'er them floats the Spirit of the Lord ! "
 
 532 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 GOVEENOR ARTHUR. 
 
 Arthur's early career — first impressions — his unpopularity— chief-justice 
 
 PEDDER — separation FROM NEW SOUTH WALES — FIRST EXECUTIVE COUNCIL — 
 
 Arthur's dealings with the natives — a benevolent despotism — the van 
 
 DIEMEN's land company — JORGEN JORGENSON — ARTHUR'S RECALL — ARTHUR'S 
 ADMINISTRATION — PROGRESS OF THE COLONY — A SEVERE CRISIS — ARTHUR'S 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 The successor of Sorell in the government of Van Diemen's Land was George 
 Arthur, Esq., formerly superintendent of Hondui'as, where he was extensively 
 kno^ni as an officer of an inflexible and energetic disposition. His adminis- 
 tration there had occasioned much debate, and was the subject of parliamentary 
 and judicial inquiries. At that time, slavery existed at Honduras in its foulest 
 foi-ms, and the superintendent was a decided enemy to slavery. He won the 
 regard of the anti-slavery party in England, headed by Wilberforce and Stephen, 
 by his efforts to suppress the evils connected with the system, and his fearless 
 exposm-e of the connivance of magistrates at the cruelty of the masters. It was 
 probably through the influence of the leaders of the party that he was appointed 
 to the command of the penal settlement of Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 His first appearance before the settlers, however, was not favourable. An 
 address of Avelcome Avas presented to the new governor, and the reply to it was 
 cold and formal. In truth, Arthur was not of the stamp of his predecessor. The 
 one was mild and indulgent ; the other carried strictness to an extreme. The 
 one was familiar in his manners, easy of access, Avliile the other was haughty and 
 dictatorial. The one acted as if he felt himself to be a member of the community 
 over whose affixirs ho presided ; the other appeared to look upon the colonists 
 generally as criminals whom he had been sent to control. He regarded all their 
 claims to constitutional rights as absurd. Liberty of the press and trial by jury 
 found in him an uncompromising opponent. His opposition to these measures — 
 unlike that of Darling, his kindred spirit in New South Wales — Avas successful. 
 Arthur's views were supported by a pliant Chief- Justice, J. L. Pedder, Esq., who 
 had arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1824, about the time that Sir Erancis 
 Forbes had reached Sydney. Owing to the diflerence in the character and views 
 of these judges, a striking variation arose in the manner in Avhich justice was 
 administered in the two Australian communities. Judge Pedder had brought 
 with him from England a charter for cstabhshing a Supreme Court in Van
 
 GOVERNOR ARTHUR. 533 
 
 Dicmen's Land, which was indeed identical with that granted to the elder colony. 
 When information respecting Chief-Justice Forbes's construction of the charter 
 in favour of trial hy jury reached Ilobart Town, the matter was brought before 
 the Supreme Court there by the Attorney-General, Mr Alfred Stephen, who 
 contended that the Act ought to be administered in the form most favourable to 
 the subject. Judge Pedder, however, acting probably under the influence of the 
 lieutenant-governor, ignored the ruling of Judge Forbes, and decided in favour 
 of retaining the military jury. In respect to the liberty of the press, which 
 subsequently agitated the public mind in both colonies, Judge Tedder's conduct 
 was equally opposed to popular rights ; and was afterwards adduced by Governor 
 Darling in New South Wales as an argument against the course pursued l)y 
 Chief-Justice Forbes. A comparison of the results in the two cases will tend to 
 shoAv the debt of gratitude Avhich the people of New South Wales owe to that 
 eminent judge. Darling and Arthur were equally the enemies of popular insti- 
 tutions. But while one colony Avas blessed with an upright and able administrator 
 of the law, the other had the misfortune of having its Supreme Court presided 
 over by a pliant time-server, Avho did not hesitate to give effect to the will of au 
 ai'bitrary ruler. 
 
 The reasons urged by the colonists for the separation of Van Diemen's Land 
 from New South Wales were so strong that, notwithstanding Sorell's opposition, 
 they Avere acceded to by the Home authorities soon after his departure, and 
 Avhen, in the latter part of 1825, Genei\al Darling Avas appointed to the govern- 
 ment of New South Wales, he Avas commissioned to call at Hobart ToAvn on 
 his voyage out, to formally proclaim the independence of the island from the con- 
 trol of the elder colony. Executive and Legislative Councils Avere appointed, and 
 the machinery and poAvers of the Government made to correspond Avith those of 
 NeAv South Wales. The ExecutiA'e Council consisted of Dudley Montague 
 PerciA'al, Colonial Secretary; John LeAvis Pedder, Chief-Justice; A. W. H. 
 Ilumiihrey, and Jocelyn Thomas. The members of the Legislative Council 
 Avere the Colonial Secretary, the Chief-Justice, and Messrs Abbott, Hamilton, 
 Humphrey, and CmT. 
 
 Sorell's accommodating character had caused his rule to sit lightly upon the 
 prison population, and that class, ever ready to take advantage of the AA-ant of 
 strictness and vigilance in their rulers, had fallen into habits of vice and dis- 
 sipation to an extent in all probability seldom before Avitnessed. It Avas not 
 that great crimes were more frequent than at other periods, for that consequence 
 has never attended a laxity of penal discipline in the Australian colonies — 
 rather the reverse ; but the habits of the people became looser and their conduct 
 more vicious every day. The extremities of the executive poAver were paralysed 
 by the Aveakness of the head. The police serAace had gradually grown irregular 
 and inefllcient, until theft, intemperance, and other minor offences Avere alloAved 
 to go almost unchecked. In such a condition of things the arriA'al of a ruler of 
 firm and determined character was a fortunate cu-cumstance for the colony. 
 Arthur's ai'bitrary conduct in respect to matters of constitutional right may be 
 incapable of defence ; l)ut many Avill be inclined to overlook his shortcomings in
 
 534 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 that respect, because of his vigorous and successful efforts in the repression of 
 crime, and the influence of his example as a model of virtuous conduct in 
 private life. At the time of his arrival roving bands of bushrangers pillaged the 
 country, and their depredations, together with those of the aboriginal natives, 
 kept the settlers in the outlying districts in a constant state of alarm. Arthur 
 made successful endeavours to enlist and combine the well-disposed part of the 
 population in upholding law and order, and the unsparing way in which he 
 disposed of captured delinquents tended to strike terror into those who remained 
 at large. The records of Tasmanian bushranging in those days afford a painful 
 picture of the dark side of human nature ; but their details, although sufiiciently 
 attractive to have enlisted the pens of many local writers, are not of such an 
 important character as to demand a place in a general history of Australia. 
 
 Not so, however, Arthur's proceedings with reference to the aboriginal 
 natives, for those proceedings may be said to have been the commencement of 
 a conflict which ended in the destruction of a race. The aborigines of Van 
 Diemen's Land, if the statements of early navigators are to be credited— and 
 they are singularly accordant — were, before their intercourse with the settlers 
 and convicts, the most gentle and inoftensive of savages. Twenty years of contact, 
 however, with the offscourings of the most degraded class of England's criminals, 
 made the original possessors of the country little better than beasts of prey. 
 The seeds of treachery and cruelty planted by their white oppressors quickly 
 bore fruit ; and the black man's hand was at length raised against every man as 
 every man's hand was against him. At the time of Colonel Arthur's advent it 
 might be said with truth that the two races seldom met but to shed each other's 
 blood. Various schemes were propounded — some for concihating and others 
 for subduing the blacks. The natural bent of Arthur's mind Avas to the more 
 arbitrary and despotic course ; and at length, in 1830, he resolved to try one 
 of the most extraordinary plans to effect his purpose that was ever conceived. 
 This notable scheme was nothing less than to drive the whole aboriginal race 
 into a narrow corner of the island, and there to confine them by guarding the 
 only api)roach to the place. Tasman's Peninsula was selected as the most 
 appropriate spot for this purpose. Situated on the south-eastern coast, and 
 joined to the mainland by only a narroAv neck, it was thought if the natives 
 could be cooped up there, that conflicts between them and the settlers would be 
 impossible. East-bay Neck, the narrow strip which joined the peninsula to 
 the main, was to be carefully guarded, so that no aboriginal should ever again 
 set foot on the rest of the island. 
 
 To carry out this singular scheme all the able-bodied settlers were called out, 
 and in conjuction with the military were ordered to form a cordon across the 
 island, and thus to drive the blacks like so many sheep before them. Arthur 
 himself and his suite took part in the enterprise. The soldiers were three 
 liun(li-L'd in number, and the settlers above three thousand. Every man in the 
 colony possessed of the slightest experience of the bush, knew that the plan was 
 as impracticable in execution as it was silly in conception. Impassable gullies 
 and precipices, and almost impenetrable woods, allurdcd the blacks innumerable
 
 GOVERNOR ARTHUR. 535 
 
 places of shelter, from Avliich, if they had chosen to remain, the whole British 
 army could not have dishxlged them ; and even if they wished to lly, and their 
 numbers had been ten times as great as they were, all might have escaped by 
 slipping past in the night in the shade of trees, bushes, and rocks. Knowing as 
 they did every cavern and corner, every gully — every defile in the mountains and 
 every hiding-place in the plains — it was as impossible to hem them in as if they 
 had been so many birds. liules and regulations for the guidance of the men- 
 hunters prescribed the distance that each was to keep from the other in the lino 
 of march. Large fires were to be lighted at night, Avntchwords to be given every 
 ten minutes, and the sentinels were to pass them along with their numljcr and 
 "All's well." When, hoAvever, the line reached the neck of Tasman's Teninsula, 
 after weeks of toil and privation, it became known that not a single blackfellow 
 was before them, and that only two miserable creatures had been captured by the 
 way. Those who knew the habits of the blacks were, of course, quite prepared for 
 this result. They knew how easily the cunning savages could have slipped through, 
 if so minded, in full day — much more under cover of night. It was calculated 
 that the expenses and loss occasioned by this absurd expedition amounted to 
 £70,000, and that consequently the two Avretched natives taken prisoners cost 
 the colony £35,000 apiece. Other methods of a more humane character were 
 afterwards successfully adopted. The history of the Tasmanian aborigines 
 affords one of the most melancholy chapters in the annals of colonisation, and 
 cannot be read without arousing feelings of a most painful kind. 
 
 The population of Van Diemen's Land at the time of its separation from 
 New South Wales (1825) exceeded 12,000 in number. The local revenue was 
 mainly raised by customs duties, which at that period amounted to about £2 per 
 head of the population. The principal article of export was wheat, of which, in 
 1823, 55,522 bushels were exported, mostly to Sydney. The other exports were 
 oil, whalebone, and skins, with small quantities of potatoes and barley. Owing 
 to the insular position of Van Diemen's Land, the climate is more equal and 
 temperate than that of the Australian continent, and to this circumstance more 
 than to any superiority of soil the fact is probably due that agriculture there has 
 generally been regarded as a more reliable and successful pursuit than in the 
 other Australian colonies. The climate is not unlike that of the south of 
 England, and this perhaps has had its influence on the social habits of the popula- 
 tion, which have generally sti'uck visitors as being more in accordance with those 
 of the mother country than is the case with their continental neighbours. 
 
 To a young, struggling, and energetic community like that of Van Diemen's 
 Land, pervaded as it was to a gi-eat extent by persons of a most vicious and dis- 
 orderly tendency, the rule of a benevolent despot like Colonel Ai'thur brought 
 many benefits. His want of sympathy with popular liberty was, in the circum- 
 stances of the colony at that period, a matter of comparatively little moment. 
 It was of much greater importance to the welfare of the virtuous and well- 
 disposed part of the population that crime should be repressed, and the vicious 
 and dishonest effectually controlled and punished, than that, under the name of 
 liberty, vice and disorder should be permitted to run riot. Arthur's proceedings.
 
 536 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 however arbitrary, were prompted by a desire to promote the welfare of the 
 country he was sent to govern. Under his rule the resources of the colony were 
 rapidly developed, many extensive and durable public works executed, order 
 preserved, and vice discountenanced. He acted as he thought best for the 
 benefit of all, and could hardly comprehend the motives of those who presumed 
 to tender their advice or to oppose his plans. During his rule the Van Diemen's 
 Land Company was formed in London, to develop the resources of the colony. 
 
 Amongst those employed in the company's service was Jorgen Jorgeuson, 
 whose adventurous life made him remarkable even amono- vaijabonds. He was 
 born at Copenhagen, 1780. After some employment in the coal trade, he 
 accompanied the expedition of Flinders, and afterwards, as mate on board the 
 " Lady Nelson," attended the first party to Risdon. Having returned to Evn-ope 
 and become commander of a privateer in the service of his country, ho was 
 captured, after a smart resistance, by the British ships " Sappho " and " Oio." 
 He obtained, while out on his parole, the merchant ship " Margaret and Anne," 
 to carry provisions to Iceland, where the people Avere suffering extreme privation. 
 On a second voyage the governor. Count Tramp, prohibited the intercourse. 
 Jorgenson landed while the people were at church, and, aided by his seamen, 
 took the governor prisoner. He then, with extraordinary impudence, issued a 
 proclamation stating that he had been called by an oppressed people to take the 
 reins of government. He proceeded to reform its various departments ; he 
 lightened the taxes ; augmented the pay of the clergy ; improved the system of 
 education; established trial by jury; formed an army consisting of eight soldiers; 
 and fortified the harbour with six guns. Having performed these exploits, ho 
 returned to London in a prize taken from the island. His proceedings Avere 
 already known to the ministry, and he was arrested as an alien at large. Jor- 
 genson made no small stir by his appearance among legislators and conquerors. 
 After a variety of adventures, in which he was often on the borders of crime, he 
 paAvned the linen taken from his lodging, and was sentenced to transportation. 
 In Newgate he was emploj^ed as a dispenser of medicine. After four years' 
 detention he was released, but was retaken, having neglected to quit Great 
 Britain, and Avas transjoorted for life. Such is the account he gave of his 
 imprisonment. The penalty might have been commuted, but he undertook to 
 write on various subjects and created some trouble. He Avas therefore forAvarded 
 to Van Diemen's Land. Here he Avas chiefly employed as a constable, detected 
 many crimes, and brought several to the scafibld. A Avoman, Avho had assisted 
 him in discovering certain off'enders, became his wife ; and he Avas often seen 
 llecing from her fury through the streets. He, hoAvever, survived her, and at 
 length closed his singular career in the colonial hospital. 
 
 The recaU of Arthur, long anticipated by his enemies, at length arrived. 
 Some months before he had been informed by the Secretary of State that, having 
 continued in his government for the unusual period of tAvelve years, the Crown 
 intended to name his successor. On the recommendation of ]\Ir Huskisson, the 
 duration of an ordinary government Avas limited to six years ; but special reasons 
 Avitlidrew Van Diemen's Land from the operation of this rule.
 
 GOVERNOR ARTHUR. 637 
 
 The ministerial changes at the seat of empire left Arthur's influence un- 
 imiiaircd. The variations of national policy rari'l}' reached liis sphere. Unwel- 
 come orders he managed to modify or evade. The dilHcult nature of his duties, 
 the distance of his government from supervision, and the weakness of the free 
 population, enabled him to assume and maintain for many years a discretion 
 all but unlimited. The state of the coh)ny on his arrival has been already 
 noticed. His dealings Avith the aboriginal inhaljitants have been narrated. lie 
 repressed the outrages of the lawless, and restored comparative tranquillity. 
 Under his auspices the chief town, which he found consisting of a few frail 
 dwellings, assumed the aspect of a commercial city. Many whom he received 
 in chains were established in social happiness ; many immigrants, who arrived 
 with slender resources, had risen to opulence. A series of statistical tables, 
 prepared by the Colonial Secretary, his nephew, exhibit a progress then 
 almost unexampled. In 1836 the revenue had increased, from £16,8GG to 
 £106,639 ; the imports from £62,000 to £583,646 ; the exports from £14,500 
 to £320,679 ; mills from five to forty-seven ; colonial vessels from one to 
 seventy-one ; churches from four to eighteen ; the population had risen 
 from 12,000 to 40,000 ; and every branch of public and private enterprise 
 exhibited the same general asj^ect. It would be absurd to ascribe to Arthur 
 even the main credit of these results ; they were the effect of that spirit of 
 industry which ever characterises the native of Great Britain, and which 
 nothing can wholly extinguish. Nor was this prosperity Avithout alloy. The 
 unproductive improvement encouraged was sometimes unhealthy. The settlers 
 were deeply involved ; the valuation of property was raised beyond reasonable 
 calculation. The pleasing delusion was cherished by the members of the Govern- 
 ment, whose official and private interests concurred to dupe them. Happy were 
 they who sold ! Arthur left many Avho, acquiring his favour by the extent of 
 their outlay and the vigour of their enterprise, were laden with debts from which 
 they never recovered, and made them a prey to jDcrpetual solicitude. The great 
 demand for sheep and cattle, created by the establishment of new colonies, gave 
 a temporary respite ; flocks were sold at £2 per head, and were purchased in 
 lai'ge quantities. These ameliorations were only transient, and the Avide regions 
 open to adventure lessened the Avorth of those properties which had been valued 
 by the farms of Great Britain, not by the unpeopled Avilds of Ncav Holland. A 
 just estimate of Arthur's administration must include all the peculiarities of his 
 position, and the complicated interests he held in trust, whether they relate to 
 the Imperial Government, the free, or the bond. The measures best adapted 
 for the colony Avere not ahvays compatible Avith the design of its establishment. 
 Nor must we forget that in surveying the past we have lights which rarely 
 attend the present ; that much Avhich experience may amend, it is not possible 
 for Avisdom to foresee.
 
 538 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GOVERNOR FRANKLIN. 
 
 COLONEL SNODGRASS — FRANKLIN's APPOINTMENT — FIRST IMPRESSIONS — A HEARTY 
 RECEPTION — A FIRST DESPATCH — RIVAL PARTIES — MESSRS MONTAGU AND FORSTER 
 —PRIVATE INFLUENCE — FRANKLIN's IMPARTIALITY — THE " COAT-TAILS " — CON- 
 CILIATORY POLICY — JUDGE MONTAGU — MR ALFRED STEPHEN — PUBLIC ADMISSION 
 TO LEGISLATURE — CHURCH SQUABBLES — SUPERIOR IMMIGRATION — LAND AND 
 LABOUR — HELP FOR ADELAIDE — SUBSIDY TO IMMIGRATION — BAD POLICY — 
 GENERAL DISTRESS — GOVERNMENT BLUNDERS — A SEVERE REACTION — AN EMPTY 
 TREASURY — BOILING-DOWN — FRANKLIN'S LAST THREE YEARS — HIS ADMINISTRA- 
 TION — HIS GENEROSITY, JUSTICE, PIETY, AND GENTLENESS — FRANKLIN'S GREAT 
 SERVICES TO THE WORLD — AN IMMORTAL MEMORY. 
 
 Before the departure of Colonel Arthur, the brigade-major of the military 
 district, Lieut. -Colonel Kenneth Snodgxass, C.B., arrived at Hobart To\vn from 
 Sydney. He was sworn in as acting lieutenant-governor on 31st of October 
 IboG. He had attained a military reputation in the Burmese AVar, of which he 
 published a narrative. He was cordially received, and his temporary relations 
 were too brief to leave any impression on colonial affairs. 
 
 The appointment of Sir John Franklin, captain in the Royal Navy, and 
 Knight of the Guelphic Order of Hanover, was announced by Sir George Grey 
 in the House of Commons on 13th April 1836. He was presented to the king 
 by Lord Glenelg on the 20th of August, and embarked in the " Fairlie " on the 
 27th. He was accompanied by Captain Maconochie, late secretary of the 
 Geographical Society, and- one of the professors of the London University, and 
 by the Rev. William Hut chins, in whose favour Van Diemen's Land was erected 
 into, an archdeaconry. Sir John Frankhn assumed the government on the 6th 
 January 1837. The nomination of Franklin was acceptable to the colony. His 
 pi'ofession, his career, and character, were considered auspicious. He had 
 accompanied the illustrious Flinders on his A^oyage of discovery, and was at 
 Sydney Avhen the first party left that port to colonise Van Diemen's Land. 
 During thirty-four years he had himself obtained great nautical renown ; his 
 intrepidity, his sufferings, his humanity, and piety, had been often the theme of 
 popular admiration, and were not unknown in Tasmania. The colonists were 
 resolved to give him an approjDriate welcome. He saw with astonishment the 
 signs of wealth and activity in a country which he only remembered as a wilder- 
 ness. Crowds followed him with acclamations ; addresses, couched in language
 
 GOVERNOR FRANKLIN. • 539 
 
 of eulogy and hope, poured in from every district. The progress of the governor 
 through the colony was attended with feasting, balls, and public festivities. On 
 his (uitrance into Launcestou he was escorted by three; hundred horsemen and 
 seventy carriages ; the streets were thronged ; the windows were crowded by 
 fair spectators, avIio shared the general enthusiasm. The private settlers re- 
 ceived him with unsparing hospitality ; he was both ojjjiressed and delighted 
 with the signs of popular joy. The hearty frankness of his replies was con- 
 trasted with the otHcial coldness ascribed to his predecessor, lie repeatedly 
 reminded the colonists that, although ambitious of their favour, the duties of his 
 station would probably oblige him to disapiioint their desires. lie assured them 
 that he came among them Avithout jircjudice, and determined to " see with his 
 own eyes, hear with his own ears, and judge with his own judgment." On his 
 return to the seat of government, Franklin addressed a despatch to liOrd 
 Glenelg, containing an exulting description of his tour. He had seen the colony 
 in its holiday dress, and all parties had mingled their acclamations. He depicted, 
 with expressions of astonishment, the easy circumstances and general intc^lli- 
 gence of the settlers, and especially noticed their exertions to acquire religious 
 and educational advantages. His lordship replied that this report confirmed his 
 estimate of Franklin's predecessor. In his fii'st minute to the Legislative Council, 
 Franklin pronounced a eulogium on Arthur's services, and laid on the table a 
 despatch of the Secretary of State of similar import. 
 
 The admirers of the late governor Avere gratified by these flattering tributes ; 
 but they were not without risk to Franklin's general popularity. The party of 
 Arthur was dreaded by the opposition, and was still powerful ; nor was it 
 difficult to perceive that past animosities had lost but little of their vigour. 
 Captain John Montagu had been recently confirmed as Colonial Secretary, and 
 Captain Matthew Forster held the office of chief police magistrate. ]\Iost details 
 of government were transacted in their offices. They were both clever men; 
 they exercised considerable local influence, especially IMontagu, in connection 
 with the Derwent Bank. Their advice Franklin could not easily evade. Thus 
 the policy of their distinguished relative survived in his nephews. Franklin was 
 scarcely seated when the press professed to discover that he was an instrument 
 in the hands of the " Arthur faction." Arthur, anxious for the welfare of his 
 relatives and friends, commended them to the confidence of his successor. INIany 
 unsettled claims were left to his final decision. Colonists aggrieved by the late 
 governor, when their appeals for redress to Franklin (not unfi-ecpiently inequitable) 
 were unavailing, fancied that their former antagonists still turned the course of 
 justice. The sanguine hopes excited by an auspicious name gradually gave way, 
 and the governor was assailed with remonstrances, which enlarged into re2)roaclies 
 by a rapid growth. A design was commonly imputed to the advisers of Franklin 
 to render him unpopidar, and thus make the late ruler an object of regret. They 
 slighted, however, the reproaches they had been accustomed to despise. " These 
 lingering traces of discord " were distressing to Franklin. In answer to an 
 address from Richmond, which deplored the absence and invoked the restoration 
 of social peace, he expressed his anxiety with touching ardour : " With my whole
 
 540 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 heart I agree witli you. Let us be divided, then, if we cannot be united in 
 political sentiments, yet knit together as friends and neighbours in everything 
 besides. Let us differ where honest men may differ ; and let us agree, not in 
 undervaluing the points of political dissent, but in respecting the motives which 
 may jiroduce it, in cherishing domestic virtues which will be found to characterise 
 individuals of every party, and in making the generous sacrifice of private feelings 
 for the general good, rather than aggravating the importance of grievances which 
 must render such forbearance impossible." These sentiments, not less charming 
 for their amiable spirit than happy in expression, are important as maxims of 
 political life, and they depict the main difficulty of the governor's position. To 
 promote the harmony of parties, Franklin considerably added to the list of magis- 
 trates ; persons, discountenanced by Arthur, were placed on a level with their 
 late antagonists. But selection is difficult where many are candidates. Free 
 settlers of all sorts were equally eligible by their wealth, and made equal preten- 
 sions. Thus, when the list was issued, it was received with mockery and laughter; 
 and, said the scorners, all the " coat-tails " — rarely worn except by freemen — 
 contain a commission. They were certainly numerous — large in proportion to the 
 emigrant adult population ; but who can extinguish the flames of envy without 
 kindling contempt ? To further his conciliatory policy, Franklin nominated to 
 his council Mr W. E. Lawrence, a gentleman of wealth and intelligence, and great 
 liberality of opinion. An early disagreement with Arthur had been aggravated 
 by frequent irritation, and excluded Mr Lawrence from a station for which his 
 qualifications were many. 
 
 But the Government was disquieted by internal discord. Judge Montagu and 
 the Attorney-General had quarrelled in open court. Mr Stephen had eaten sand- 
 wiches in the judge's presence, so it was said, and had delayed a trial. INIontagu 
 assailed him with a virulence scarcely tolerated even at the bar. Without await- 
 ing his defence, the judge poured forth a torrent of reproof, among which the 
 following : " No, sir ; in your official capacity I shall always treat you with the 
 courtesy and respect due to you. Were you elsewhere, I should treat you after 
 your conduct with less courte.sy than a dog." Such quarrels were little regarded 
 by Arthur ; but when the authority fell into the hands- of Franklin, the alterca- 
 tions of parties were less disguised, and the moral weight of the Government was 
 seriously injured. The Attorney-General resigned his appointment ; and shortly 
 after as judge obtained the object of professional ambition. JN'Ir Stephen, while 
 the law officer of the Crown, was said to display eminent legislative skill ; his 
 drafts often elicited considerable opposition, and he did not disdain to explain 
 the principles he embodied in his measures Avhenever they were seriously 
 questioned by the public. Before his removal from the colony, ]\Ir Alfred 
 Stephen prornoted a petition to the Crown for the concession of British institu- 
 tions ; an instance remarkable for the unanimity of the colonists, and the friendly 
 countenance of the governor. It Avas almost universally signed (June 1S38), 
 but, like its predecessors, was unavailing. The opinions adopted by Captain 
 Maconochie on convict discipline, and which placed him in opposition to every 
 colonial party, rendered his dismissal necessary ; but it deprived the governor of
 
 GOVERNOR FRANKLIN, 541 
 
 a long'-cherislied friend, and who, in happier circumstances, miyht have greatly 
 facilitated his affairs. Thus Franklin stood alone; and tiic nepliews of Arthur 
 absorl)cd the influence which subordinate odicers rarely acquire without renderiug 
 their chief contemptible. 
 
 Many efforts had been made to obtain admission for the public during the 
 sittings of the legislature. The members had been long released from the oath 
 of secrecy, and their votes, and even the substance of their speeches, were occa- 
 sionally known. Franklin determined to throw open the doors of the council 
 chamber in 1837, and he expressed a conviction that the freedom of public dis- 
 cussion, founded on accurate knowledge, would confirm the measures or correct 
 the wanderings of the legislature. At the first sittings of the Council, the 
 novelty of the privilege secured an attendance at the debates, but the desultory 
 and heavy discussions soon tired the patience, and members pointed with exulta- 
 tion or regret to those deserted benches where patriots had vowed to watch the 
 course of legislation. The principle of open debate is, however, invaluable ; 
 reporters were there, and the public could read in au instant what it required 
 hours to gather. Nor is the exercise of a privilege necessary to establish its 
 worth ; the title to be present belonged to the whole people, and Britons esteem 
 and acknowledge a real treasure in a right. An open threshold, although 
 rarely darkened by guests, is the pledge that all is honest within. 
 
 To compose ecclesiastical claims has ever been amongst the most difficult 
 functions of the civil government. Franklin found the relations of the Churches 
 unsettled, and among his earliest measures was one to define the objects and fix 
 the amount of clerical pay. The chaplains appointed for the Australian colonies 
 by the Crown had been always ministers of the Church of England ; the greater 
 part of the population, mostly prisoners of the Crown or their descendants, were 
 members of the Anglican Church. Thus expediency corroborated the exclusive 
 claims of the clergy to the spiritual oversight of the colonies. It was, however, 
 impossible to obtain qualified clergymen of the English Church in sufficient 
 numbers to supply the penal establishments. Thus the Government employed 
 ministers of other denominations, chiefly the Wesleyan, as rehgious instructors, 
 sometimes with the express sanction of the chaplains. In the country, catechists 
 were appointed with the concuiTence of Ai'chdeacon Scott, who, however, Avere 
 often members of dissenting communions. 
 
 The emigration of respectable families from Scotland produced an important 
 revolution ; they, it is alleged, constituted one-half of the free settlers in the 
 country districts. Their attachment to that form of Christianity which is pro- 
 fessed in North Britain was not weakened by their migration. The Eev. A. 
 Macarthur, ordained a missionary minister by the United Associate Synod of 
 Scotland, arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1823, the first Presbyterian clergy- 
 man established in this hemisphere. 
 
 The extensive land sales, combined with the demand for labour, in 1840, 
 induced Sir John Fi-anklin to promote emigration. The impression was general 
 that transportation to Van Diemen's Land would cease ; such had been announced 
 -as the policy of the Crown. A vessel was despatched to Adelaide, where many
 
 542 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 were suffering severe distress. The New Zealand emigrants were also dissatis- 
 fied, and many found their way to colonies where wages were high. This course 
 was inconvenient, and excited great indignation among employers in South 
 Australia, who prevailed on the Government to pass a law intended to check 
 emigration to Van Diemen's Land. Sir John Franklin disapproved of these 
 methods of supplying the labour market, and proposed to devote £60,000 for the 
 introduction of suitable working families from Great Britain. By many this 
 movement Avas hailed with strong expressions of approbation as a pledge of the 
 social elevation of the working classes. An exceedingly useful class of emigrants 
 arrived under the commissioners, Avho readily sanctioned the applications, regard 
 being had to the equality of the sexes. The commissioners defended their oppo- 
 sition to the plans of the local government. They asserted that private agents 
 could never select labourers in numbers sufficient to freight a ship, and they 
 inferred that transferable orders for the payment of bounty on the arrival of 
 emigi-ants would be either matters of traffic, or that private persons, discouraged 
 by the difficulties of their task, would abandon it in despair. For two or three 
 years the emigrants Avere satisfied and moderately prosperous. The subdivision 
 of town property was rapid. On every side small brick tenements multiplied. 
 Every mechanic aspired to possess a dwelling of his own. But Lord Stanley's 
 system of probation rapidly told on the condition of the workman. He stood 
 aghast ; he persevered for a time ; he appealed to the Government for protection 
 against convict competition. For one-fourth its actual cost, his property passed 
 into the hands of others ; and in Launceston especially many suburban neigh- 
 bourhoods were deserted. The emigrants brought out at so much private cost 
 were expelled to the adjacent settlements to begin the Avorld anew. 
 
 One of those seasons of general distress to which small communities are 
 especially liable pervaded the entire colonies in 1841-44. A variety of causes 
 contributed to augment its pressure, and to involve the Avhole in commercial 
 embarrassment. The imports of Ncav South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, 
 exceeding £20 per head ; the high price of grain, reaching 28s. per bushel ; the 
 enormous rate of interest, and the boundless extravagance of credit and expense, 
 produced a convulsion all but universal. The measures of the Government 
 increased the pressure of these difficulties. The land sales by auction at Port 
 Phillip were succeeded by the system of selling on special surveys at £1 per 
 acre; and he who, one year before, had competed for his purchase, found the 
 next section in the hands of his neighbour at half the price he had given. The 
 settlers in the elder colonies had speculated deeply. Stock and implements 
 were transferred to the new country under cover of credit. Competition raised 
 the value of bullocks to £30 per pair, of horses to £G0, of sheep to £2, and 
 the wages of servants to £50 per annum. The Government had raised the 
 minimum price of land, and thus those who Avcre entitled to take up their 
 surveys under a lower denomination hastened their purchases Avith borroAved 
 money. The London merchants consigned immense quantities of goods on 
 speculation, Avhich were poured into the market ; the promissory notes of 
 irresponsible persons were taken by their agents ; the fraudulent laid up for the
 
 GOVERNOR FRANKLIN. 543 
 
 crisis; insolvent estates were crowded into auctions; goods sunk below the 
 expenses of the factor ; dividends of a few shillings in the pound represented the 
 assets of persons indol)ted from £r)(>,00(.) to £100,000; and had not the chief 
 losses finally rested with the London merchants and the English baidis, the 
 disasters of the times must have long retarded coloiiial prosperity. The effects 
 of this revulsion were soon felt in Van Diemen's Land, where 2)eddling ti-adcrs 
 had thriven in momentary credit by the union of Avorthless names on their bills. 
 As an instance : one hundred bushels of wheat, sold ultimately for £40, were 
 transferred to a succession of speculating purchasers, who raised among them 
 £1000 on credit of the exchange from one to another. The governments of the 
 colonies had exhibited remarkable miscalculations. In all, the Treasury failed 
 to meet the expenses. The deposits formerly realised by land sales were with- 
 drawn from the banks. Debentures were issued, new taxes were imposed. The 
 commercial panic was in full career when the Crown renewed transportation to 
 Van Diemen's Land, and thousands and tens of thousands of British offenders 
 were gathered on its shores. The expenditure of the Government, though large, 
 was chiefly confined to the capital, or fell into the hands of the merchants ; but 
 it is worthy of remark that, except one house, all who could pretend to that 
 rank maintained their jDOsition. The settlers were, however, deeply involved. 
 They were most induced to purchase at the land sales by borrowed capital. 
 They complained bitterly of the usury to which their produce bore no com- 
 parison, and incessantly invoked the legislature to limit the exactions of money- 
 lenders. To aggravate these evils, American flour poured into the colonial 
 markets, drawing their cash and rendering agi'iculture profitless. The declara- 
 tions of insolvency were daily. Whole streets of mechanics and traders followed 
 each other. A common liability to the same ordeal introduced a system of 
 dangerous license, and men walked away with their creditors' property without 
 molestation, and almost without reproach. The statistics of these times aftbrd 
 a memorable warning to all. To the Government, that by enticing the people 
 to purchase land, the general revenue will sufter by their imprudence ; to the 
 banks, that by reckless advances capital will be sacrificed for nominal assets ; 
 and to the British merchants, that by glutting every store with speculative con- 
 signments, they render their exports of no value, that they ruin the shopkeeper, 
 whose capital they destroy by the competition and sacrifice of their own. But 
 the great resources of the colonies soon manifested themselves. A settler at 
 Port Phillip discovered, or applied, the art of boiling down the surplus stock so 
 as to produce the tallow of commerce; and sheep lately worth only 2s. 6d. 
 became worth 8s. The discovery of the Burra Mines raised Adelaide from deep 
 prostration. The opening of new tracts of country offered a vast field for suc- 
 cessful enterprise ; wool once more rose in price ; the banks lowered their 
 discounts to a reasonable level ; the goods saved from the general wreck 
 appeared in the shops of those who took the tide at its flow ; and every colony 
 exhibited the signs of returning vigour, all but Van Diemen's Land. The last 
 three years of Sir John Franklin's administration were chiefly employed in 
 arranging the details of the system of convict discipline, afterwards expanded
 
 544 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 by Lord Stanley to gigantic proportions. Accompanied by Lady Franklin, Sir 
 John penetrated the western district of Van Diemen's Land to Macquarie 
 Harbour, formerly a penal station, to ascertain its fitness for a similar purpose, 
 and some of the perils of his early life were renewed. His absence for several 
 weeks awakened great anxiety, and his return was greeted with a general 
 welcome. 
 
 The appointment of Franklin was made at the instance of William IV., by 
 Avhom he was greatly esteemed. It was the expectation of Sir John to find an 
 easy retreat like some of the military governments, where veterans enjoy the 
 dignity of office without its toils. But he found himself doomed to encounter 
 all the responsibilities of ordinary legislation and government, with difficulties 
 peculiar to a penal colony. For this his former pursuits had not prepared him. 
 His manner was often embarrassed and hesitating, and presented a contrast to 
 the quiet vigour of his more able but not more amiable predecessor. The colony 
 had attained that development Avhen the public institutions require recon- 
 struction, and the popular will must in some measure regulate their form and 
 spirit. The administration of the governor was eminently disinterested. He 
 had no private speculations or secret agents, and his measures were free from 
 both the taint and the reproach of corruiJtion. Such faults were sometimes 
 imputed, but they were the staple slandei's of waiters without credit or name. 
 His expenditure greatly exceeded his official income, and while the plainness of 
 his establishments and entertainments was the topic of thoughtless censure, the 
 charities of his family were scattered with a liberal hand. The piety of Franklin 
 was ardent, and his conscience scrupulous. His remarks in Council on the 
 sports of some idle boys in the Government Domain on the Lord's'Day exposed 
 him to the satire of scorners. He thought that youths who violate the sanctity 
 of the Sabbath take the first ordinary steps in a dissolute and dishonest life. 
 An anecdote on the authority of Captain Back shows his harmless character in 
 a striking light. The writer observes : " As an illustration of the excellent 
 individual to whom it refers, I may be pardoned for introducing it here. It was 
 the custom of Sir John Franklin never to kill a fly, and though teased with 
 them beyond expression, especially when taking observations, he would gently 
 desist from his work and patiently blow the half-gorged intruders from his 
 hands, saying, ' The world is wide enough for both.' Manfelly (an Indian chief) 
 could not refrain from expressing his surprise that I should be so unlike the 
 ' old chief,' who would not destroy a single mosquito." 
 
 The name of Franklin is indissolubly connected with the great problem of 
 modern geography — the connection of the Polar seas with the North Pacific 
 Ocean. In 1818 he was first employed in this service, but returned without 
 success. In 1820 he conducted an overland expedition to the Coppermine 
 River. This party suffered every kind of hardship from the loss of boats and 
 the nuitiny of their attendants ; several perished, having eaten their old shoes 
 and scraps of leather ; yet Franklin recorded in his journal the following 
 grateful expressions : " We looked to the Great Author and Giver of all good 
 for the continuance of the support hitherto supplied in oui' greatest need."
 
 GOVERNOR FRANKLIN. 545 
 
 They completed a journey of 5550 miles.' The narrative of this expedition 
 excited at the time much admiration, as a rare example of intrepidity, per- 
 severance, and elovated piety. In 1824 Franklin was entrusted with the charge 
 of another expedition. They were attacked by the Indians, and the party was 
 saved from destruction by the coolness and judgment of the leaders ; they 
 encountered storms, fogs, and cold, which prevented their reaching their 
 destination. These efforts considerably enlarged our scientific knowledge of 
 the icy regions. Oh his return to England in 1843, it Avas resolved to con- 
 fide to Sir John Franklin a new effort to discover the North-West Passage. 
 Accompanied by Captain Crozier, he sailed in May 1845. The vessels — the 
 " Erebus " and " Terror " — Avere furnished Avitli provisions and artificial fuel for 
 four years. They w^ere last seen by whalers in Lancaster's Sound. In 1847 
 the long absence of Franklin and the 136 persons under his command awakened 
 considerable alarm. English expeditions, both by land and water, a reward of 
 £20,000 offered by Parliament, and the earnest co-operation of foreign powers, 
 have done all that money, or daring, or affection could accomplish to solve the 
 mystery of their fate, Avhich was never fully cleared up. 
 
 3z
 
 546 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GOVERNOR WILMOT. 
 
 SIR EARDLEY WILMOT — X SHORT AND TROUBLED RULE — A HEAVY TASK — HIS PREVIOUS 
 CAREER — FIRST IMPRESSIONS — COLLISION BETWEEN EXECUTIVE AND THE JUDGES 
 — KAVANAGH THE BUSHRANGER — AGRICULTURE ENCOURAGED — BUSHRANGING 
 AGAIN — A YEOMANRY CORPS — LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — INCREASED SALARY — 
 MAJOR cotton's PLANS FOR IRRIGATION — DEFICIENT WAYS AND MEANS — NEW 
 LICENSE FEES — POPULAR DISCONTENT — WILMOT RECALLED — HIS UNHAPPY 
 ADMINISTRATION — HIS DEATH — CLERICAL SQUABBLES — WILMOT's FAMILY — MR 
 LA TROBE. 
 
 Sir John Eardley Eardley Wilmot, Bart., succeeded Sir John Franklin, 
 21st August 1843. His short and troubled administration, although crowded 
 with incidents, presents few events of permanent interest. Charged with the 
 development of a gigantic scheme of penal discipline founded on erroneous data, 
 and imperfectly sustained by material resources, he was involved in the discredit 
 of its failure. The opposition of the colony to his measures he too readily 
 resented as disrespectful to himself, and thus a long and useful public life was 
 closed in sadness. Sir Eardley Wilmot received his appointment from Lord 
 Stanley, whose political leadership he followed in his secession from the Whigs, 
 occasioned by the reduction of the Irish Church. During successive Parliaments 
 he represented Warwickshire, and for twenty years was chairman of the quarter 
 sessions of that county, in England a post of some consequence. He inclined 
 rather to the Liberal than the Tory section of the House, and supported most 
 measures favourable to civil and religious freedom. On the question of negro 
 slavery he was a coadjutor of the decided abolitionists, and on his motion 
 apprenticeship, a milder form of slavery, was finally terminated. He contributed 
 pai:)ers on prison disciiiline, and initiated a bill for the summary trial of juvenile 
 offenders. Thus he appeared not unqualified to preside in a colony where penal 
 institutions constituted the main business of government, and where many reli- 
 gious opinions divide the population. Wilmot landed at a distance from Hobart 
 Town, and delayed his entrance on office to afford time for a removal of Franklin's 
 household. When he was sworn in, the town was illuminated, and the usual 
 excitement of novelty wore the appearance of public welcome. 
 
 The open and affable address of the governor attracted the people. He rapidly 
 traver.sed the island. The agricultural knowletlge he possessed, his promjititudo 
 in forming and expressing opinions, contrasted with the habits and manners of
 
 GOVERNOR WILMOT. 547 
 
 his predecessor. Those Avho were experienced in official life foresaw the dangers 
 of a temper so free and of movements so informal. The opponents (A' the late 
 governor recommended the neglect of all the distinctions which had limited inter- 
 course, and some persons never before seen at Government House were admitted 
 to the closet and boasted their intimacy and influence. 
 
 Scarcely had Wilmot entered office when an exercise of mercy brought him 
 into collision with one of the judges. Kavanagh, a notorious bushranger, was 
 condemned to death. He had fired on a settler, whose house he attempted to 
 pillage. In giving sentence, the judge remarked that he had seldom tried a 
 culprit stained with so great an aggregate of crime. Ten minutes before the 
 time appointed for his execution, the governor granted a reprieve. Judge 
 Montagu was indignant, anil those who had suffered by the depredations of the 
 robber shared in his opinion. The press, in commenting on the commutation, 
 predicted that the culprit would not long escape the scaffold. He Avas impli- 
 cated in the murders of Norfolk Island and suffered death (184G). Judge 
 JMontagu, shortly after the reprieve, tried four men for a similar crime, and 
 instead of pronouncing sentence, directed death to be recorded. He stated that 
 the sparing of Kavanagh could only be justified by the almost total abolition of 
 capital punishment. At a meeting of the Midland Agi'icultural Association, 
 Wilmot noticed these reflections, and declared that he Avould never inflict death 
 in consideration of offences not oh the records of the Court, and that in this case 
 robbery only had been proved. He thus early complained of anonymous attacks, 
 and admitted that in offering these explanations he was outstepping the line of 
 his situation. Topics of a fiir more agreeable nature were suggested by the 
 special business of the day. He dwelt with great fluency on the advantages of 
 . agriculture, and dilated on the importance of independent tenants and an indus- 
 trious peasantry. " You," he observed, " are to consider youi'selves as the 
 column of a lofty pillar, but depend upon it a tenantry foi'm the pedestal, a 
 virtuous, moral, and industrious peasantry the foundation on which that pillar rests. 
 I see around me some of your largest proprietors, who this day are lords of wastes 
 and princes of deserts ; but who, if the system of tenantry be carried out as 
 fully as it deserves, will become patriarchs, and the future Russells, Cavendishes, 
 and Percys of the colony may be proud to date their ancestry from any one of you." 
 This strain of compliment was I'eturned by Mr Kemp, the oldest of the settlers — 
 so many years before distinguished in the deposition of Governor Bligh. He 
 congratulated the meeting on the ai^pointment of his Excellency, whose presence 
 he comi^ared to the vivifying rays of the sun after a long cheerless winter 
 encouraging the ploughman to resume his labours with fresh spirit. 
 
 The prevalence of bushranging, though far less than at an earlier period, 
 induced the midlanders to project a yeomanry corps. They were to provide 
 weapons meet for exercise, and always stand prejiared to answer a summons. 
 They proceeded to the choice of a treasurer and secretar)^ IMessrs Keach and 
 Leake, jun. They were, however, informed that the levying of armed men is the 
 prerogative of the Queen. On reference to the governor he declined to sanction 
 their incorporation, while he praised their martial spirit. Bushrangers rarely
 
 548 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 move in numbers, and a military is not the kind of power best adapted to sup- 
 press them. 
 
 On meeting his Council for the first time (October 21, 1843), Wilmot exprassed 
 his admiration of the colony, its soil, its climate, and immense resources. He 
 promised to consider the pecuniary difficulties of the settlers with a view to 
 their alleviation. Referring ta the appointment of a comptroller-general, the 
 chief officer of the convict department, he declared his cordial concurrence 
 with the new discipline as a reformatory system, and noticing the recent arrival 
 of a bishop, he avowed his preference for the Episcopal Church, and in still 
 stronger terms his attachment to religious liberty and equality. The salary of 
 the governor was augmented to £4000 per annum ; the former uncertain but 
 expensive allowances were withdrawn. Franklin had enjoyed £2000 per annum 
 as salary, and the government houses of Hobart Town, New Norfolk, and Laun- 
 ceston, a farm at New To^vn, and a large garden in the Domain. The salary of 
 the new governor was given in full discharge of all demands. The beautiful 
 garden he determined to throw open to the public. To benefit the rural interest 
 the governor proposed a grand scheme of irrigation. An eminent engineer. Major 
 Cotton, was employed to report on the subject, and suggested the detention of 
 the waters of the vast lakes which overflow from the heights of the western 
 mountains. A rate to be imposed on the various estates was to discharge the 
 cost. Thus in those seasons of drought which sometimes occur, the lowlands 
 would be made increasingly fertile. The immediate object — the employment 
 of probation labour at the colonial cost — detracted something from the charms of 
 the project. Nor did it seem just that the settlers should risk the ultimate cost 
 of an undertaking they could not limit. Sir E. Wilmot earnestly recommended 
 the scheme to the Home Government, but Lord Stanley hesitated until the evils 
 of the probation system enforced a change and lessened the labour at the disposal 
 of the Crown. Had the men been employed on a work so popular, they would 
 have been withdrawn from the colonial eye, and the interest of their new labours 
 might have extinguished the prevailing discontent. But while the governor 
 waited for instructions the men were idle or employed in useless attempts at 
 cultivation on barren land, of which the produce rarely defrayed the cost of the 
 implements destroyed. 
 
 A committee of the Council had been appointed to ascertain how the expendi- 
 ture could be reduced and the revenue augmented. They enumerated various 
 forms in which further taxation might be practicable. These were proposed by 
 the governor. Auctioneers, pawnbrokers, publicans, butchers, eating-house 
 keepers, stage-coach and steamboat proprietors, cabmen and watermen, Avere to 
 be subject to new or increased license fees. 
 
 This project aroused the people to an unusual degree. On the day of public 
 meeting a procession of cal)s and waggons, decorated with flags, bearing the 
 inscription, "No taxation without representation," presented a novelty in colonial 
 agitation. IMr Kemp, the veteran politician, presided. The oppositicm prevailed, 
 and the governor resolved to withdraw the obnoxious measure. It Avould be 
 difficult to discern a line beyond which taxation might not pass if every trade
 
 GOVERNOR WILMOT. 549 
 
 atid profession can lie subject to arbitrary imposts levied by a legislature at llio 
 more dictation of the Crown. 
 
 In closing the session (September 184.")) Sir E. Wilmot announced his recall. 
 Although not usual then to address the Council, he stated that he could not 
 permit the members to disperse without acknowledging their assistance. A 
 delusion for a time might expose a public man to popular injustice ; but however 
 misjudged, cither din-ing his lifetime or after death, his character would require 
 no other vindication than truth would aiford. lie informed them that his recall 
 was not occasioned by his differences with the late members, but was ascribed to 
 an imputed neglect of the moral and religious welfare of the prisoners ; and he 
 added that the memory of their kindness would remain with him during the short 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 No governor ever was more unfortunate in his political position. He could 
 only tax and restrain. There was nothing in his gift. To the substantial 
 difficulties of the people around him he was unable to offer more than those 
 general assurances which often exasperate rather than console. The state of 
 religious parties increased his disquiet. He had to adjust the claims of churches 
 to spiritual authority. In declining to erect ecclesiastical courts Wilmot not 
 only gratified many, but he followed the direction of his legal advisers. 
 
 The usual order had been given, that the governor during his residence in the 
 colony should enjoy the complimentary distinctions of oflice. It was commonly 
 understood that his stay would be prolonged ; but he died soon after his I'etire- 
 ment (February 3, 1847), in the sixty-fourth year of his age. The treatment he had 
 received from the Colonial Office, and his death, for from the honoured sepulchre 
 of his fathers and the scenes of his early political fame, produced a general senti- 
 ment of regret. All the houses of business showed marks of mourning. A public 
 funeral, attended by the administrator and the newly-arrived governor, was 
 thronged by the citizens. It had been officially arranged that except the 
 ministering priest, the clergy of all denominations should walk in their several 
 classes, but in one body, and the archdeacon, the moderator, and the vicar- 
 general, as representatives of the three endowed churches, abreast. The Anglican 
 clergy evaded this plan by stejDping up before the coffin. "When, however, the 
 bearers were in motion, the Catholic priests, by a rapid evolution, shot ahead of 
 the procession. An ornamented Gothic tomb was erected in St David's burial- 
 ground to the memory of Sir Eardley Wilmot by subscription. It stands near 
 the highway. His remains were interred close to the tomb of Collins. 
 
 Sir John Eardley Eardley Wilmot was descended from the ancient family of 
 Eardley of Audely, Staffordshire. He was grandson of Wilmot, Lord Chief- Justice 
 of the Court of Common Pleas — a judge celebrated for justice and piety. Sir E. 
 Wilmot was twice married — first to Elizabeth, daughter of Dr Parry of Bath ; 
 and afterwards to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir E. Chester of Bush Hall, Stafford- 
 shire. 
 
 Chai-les Joseph La Trobc, Esq., superintendent of the lV>rt Phillip district, 
 and subsequently first governor of that territory now called Victoria, superseded 
 Sir E, Wihnot (October 13, 1846). During his short stay as administrator he
 
 550 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 was employed in a careful scrutiny of the Probation Department. In performing 
 this difficult duty he displayed exemplary activity and decision. He resolved 
 to remove every officer chargeable with incapacity or neglect, and thus many 
 were dismissed. This promptitude exposed him to imputations of harshness; but 
 although it is probable he did not wholly escape errors of judgment, the chief 
 acts of his administration were amply vindicated by the facts he saw. The 
 opinions he expressed sustained the colonial impressions respecting the convict 
 system. While he suggested many improvements in its details, he concurred 
 with the general wish for its extinction. JNIr La Trobe never met the Legislative 
 Council ; and his government being limited to the established routine, left nothing 
 to record.
 
 GOVERNOR DENISON. 551 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 GOVERNOK DENISON. 
 
 SIR W. DENISON— PKEVIOUS SERVICES — A COOL RECEPTION — AN ELECTIVE LEGISLA- 
 TURE — AGAINST DEMOCRACY — POLITICAL FREEDOM — POPULAR REJOICINGS — 
 GOVERNOR SUPPORTS TRANSPORTATION — POPULAR OPPOSITION TO HIS VIEWS — 
 ARGUMENTS ON BOTH SIDES — RESOLVES FOR FREEDOM — A SERVILE DESPOT. 
 
 Sir William Thomas Denison, Knight, captain of the Royal Engineers, presented 
 his commission on the 26th January 1847. He had been employed in the 
 dockyards and in the survey of important public works. His eminent abilities 
 in a deiiartment connected with the employment of prisoners, not less than his 
 respectable connections, led to his nomination. His professional habits had not 
 qualified him equally for civil affairs ; but the chief object proposed by the 
 minister, Mr Gladstone, was the better disposal of prison labour and the more 
 eftectual control of the convicts. Sir William entered on his office with less 
 acclamation than usual. The changes had been too rapid and unfortunate to 
 encourage much enthusiasm. 
 
 Sir William Denison was instructed to report on the subject of an elective 
 legislature for Van Diemen's Land. He furnished Lord Grey with various 
 opinions and suggestions. He had recommended a frame-work the counterpart of 
 the New South Wales Assembly, only, however, that he deemed it undesirable for 
 colonies so contiguous to differ in their institutions. The experience of the 
 Tasmanian Council had, he asserted, assisted him in forming an opinion on the 
 character of the people. " When we see," said Sir William, " the low estimate 
 which is placed upon everything which can distinguish a man from his fellows, 
 with the sole exception of wealth ; when we see that even wealth does not lead 
 to distinction or ojien the road to any other ambition save that of excelling in 
 habits of self-indulgence — it can be hardly a subject of surprise that so few rise 
 above the general level, or that those few owe more to the possession of a certain 
 oratorical facility than to their powers of mind or the justness of the opinions 
 they advocate. There is an essentially democratic spirit which actuates a large 
 mass of the community ; and it is with a view to check the development of this 
 spirit that I Avould suggest the formation of an Upper Chamber." Sir William 
 Denison suggested that bishops might be members of an Upper House, and 
 certain ex-officio representatives of Government ; the rest, whether nominated by 
 the Crown or elected by the people, to hold their seats for life. 
 
 When the new bill arrived in the colonies, the joy of Port Phillip was
 
 552 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 unbounded. Several days were devoted to processions and feasting. Numbei'- 
 less devices were exhibited displaying the political bias of the jDeople. Many 
 thousand pounds were spent in the festivities. A similar though less magnificent 
 display was made in Van Diemen's Land. All ranks were inclined to forget 
 their differences, and public dinners, at which many hundreds were guests, 
 celebrated the constitutional victory. 
 
 Sir William Denison, although opposed to one form of transportation, main- 
 tained its substance with a jiertinacity which never wavered. He stood almost 
 alone. He adopted the opinion that the supply of labour to the colonies of this 
 hemisphere was within the special province of his government. The tendency 
 of high wages to demoralise the workman and retard the prosperity of employers 
 are prominent topics in all his discourses and writings. Thus the masses of the 
 l^eople inferred that his schemes were hostile to their welfare, and that the 
 dej^ression of the working classes was a primary object of his policy. The 
 opulent settlers had abandoned these considerations under the influence of higher 
 aims. They were resolved to trust to the expei'ience of other colonies Avhere — 
 with a demand for labour — a rapid enlargement of capital and diminished crime 
 seemed to prove that the moral and material interests of the wealthy and 
 industrial classes were not incompatible. The social recovery of the colony 
 could only be eff'ected by the influx of families, and a comfortable subsistence 
 Avas indispensable to attract them. The arguments of the governor, addressed 
 to momentary interests, Avere overpowered by a desire to stand on a level with 
 free people. The disputants on both sides were in possession of facts favourable 
 to their respective opinions. Whatever evils were proved against transportation, 
 the labour it afforded had been long employed. Habit had reconciled the minds 
 of many to its inferiority ; and the means of supplying its place were confessedly 
 contingent and remote. A new society having no disabilities to remove, no 
 moral stain to obliterate, and formed of elements in natural proportion, could 
 not hesitate a moment. Economical experience would dictate the rejection of 
 slaves. But to clear away the refuse of a long-existing social state and to build 
 a new was a formidable undertaking, however certain of reward. Many land- 
 holders and masters foresaw the trials attending the transition, but were Avilling 
 to encounter them to attain an object beyond all price. The opposition of Sir 
 William Denison to the colonial Avill on this subject, his injustice to the judges, 
 and his sarcastic delineations of colonial character, narrowed the circle of his 
 friends. In future times an opinion more favourable to his reputation may 
 be expected to i^revail. It will then be remembered that he promoted the 
 advancement of scieiice, fostered liberal education, increased the facilities of com- 
 merce, abated the practical evils of the convict department, advocated the jirin- 
 ciples of legislative freedom, and by a respectable private character sustained 
 the moral dignity of government. But even then it will not be forgotten that, 
 in perpetuating the convict curse, he adopted any argument however false, and 
 tolerated any ally however abject. At the conclusion of his term in Van 
 Diemen's Land, Sir William Denison was transferred to the governorship of New 
 South Wales.
 
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 STEWART I 
 
 
 
 ■tMrn*ta 1 170 
 
 Xoit^tn^ E«At 1 '•!• of Gvraiwieh
 
 BOOK XI L 
 
 niSTOEY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY DAYS. 
 
 FIRST DISCOVERIES — FIRST PROPOSALS OF SETTLEMENT — WHALERS — GEORGE 
 BRUCE — THE NATIVE RUATARA — ADVANCING CIVILISATION — MASSACRE OF 
 THE CREW OF THE " BOYD " — A SIGNAL REVENGE — TE PAHl's FATE — OUTRAGES 
 ON THE NATIVES— HONGI HIKA's STORY — DEMAND FOR FIRE-ARMS — PIONEERS OF 
 CIVILISATION — BAY OF ISLANDS — NATIVE WARS — GOOD FROM EVIL — PRESERVED 
 HEADS. 
 
 The discoveries of Cook and Crozet made New Zealand known all over. 
 Europe; and men of the highest and lowest intellects read their narratives with 
 intense interest. The existence of an undoubted race of cannibals furnished 
 seasoned food for vulgar minds, Avhile the intelligence of the New Zealanders, 
 their anxiety for iron nails and fish-hooks, and their contempt for beads and 
 baubles, attracted the attention of the learned and philanthropic. Dr Franklin, 
 then in the zenith of his fame, proposed that a ship should be filled with various 
 useful a.rticles, and sent to trade with them — a proposition indicative of the 
 accurate judgment the philosopher had formed of the character of the people. 
 New Zealand was at this time likewise proposed in the House of Commons as an 
 eligible field for convicts ; but the cannibal propensities of the aborigines over- 
 powered every argument in favour of the scheme. The islands were, however, 
 ■included in the royal commission of 1787, as a part of the British dominions, in 
 virtue of the sovereignty established by Cook. 
 
 The islands were occasionally visited by whaling ships, and in 1793 a vessel 
 was sent to cruise about the New Zealand coast with the avowed purpose of 
 kidnapping one of the aborigines. When it arrived off the Bay of Islands, two 
 men were enticed on board, and the captain immediately trimmed the ship's sails 
 away for Norfolk Island. Unluckily one of the captives was a chief and the 
 other a priest, and neither would admit they knew anything about dressing flax— 
 an occupation which they contemptuously termed woman's work. After a six 
 
 4a
 
 554 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 moiitlis' detention at Norfolk Island, these men were conveyed to their native 
 land l)y the governor, Captain King, where they were received with joy and 
 astonishment. A few Eiiropean sailors, fascinated by the dark restless-eyed women, 
 and a love of freedom, left their ships and took up their abode among the natives. 
 One of the first of this afterwards important class of settlers was George Bruce. 
 This sailor lad had bestowed kind attention on a sick chief named Te Pahi during 
 his trip from Sydney to the Bay of Islands, in the year 1804, and was begged by 
 him to stop in the country. Fascinated with the offer of Te Pahi's youngest 
 daughter, and a large piece of land, Bruce left his ship and settled at the Bay of 
 Islands. To gain his -wife's affections, Bruce submitted to be tattooed ; his gentle 
 manners and usefulness as an interpreter between the whalers and the natives, 
 caused the tribe to respect and value him. One unfortunate day the " General 
 Wellesley," an English vessel, arrived off the coast, and Captain Dalrymple 
 begged Bruce and his wife to come on board to assist him in searching for gold 
 near the North Cape. Distrusting Dalrymple's simple word, Bruce extracted a 
 solemn promise that both would be safely landed at the place where they had 
 embarked. Disappointed at not finding gold, Captain Dalrymple broke his 
 promise and carried Bruce and his wife away from New Zealand. At Malacca 
 Dalrymple left Bruce on shore, carrying off his wife to Penang, where he sold her 
 to the master of another ship. Here Bruce, who followed in pursuit, found her, 
 and with the governor's aid got her back, and a passage for both to Calcutta, in 
 the hope of meeting there with a vessel bound for Sydney. But neither Bruce 
 nor his wife ever returned to the Bay of Islands. 
 
 A native named Kuatara was the most intelligent traveller of this era. In 
 1805, Avhen a mere lad, he shipped on board a whaler, and after many adventures 
 reached London in 1809. He returned to Australia with the Eev. ]Mr Marsden, 
 and resided a year with that gentleman learning agriculture. From Sydney he 
 proceeded to New Zealand, which he reached after a long detention at Norfolk 
 Island. In 1814 Ruatara again visited Sydney, accompanied by Hongi, returned 
 M'ith ]\Ir ]\Iarsden and the missionaries to New Zealand, and died suddenly a few 
 days afterwards. Ruatara was the first native who cultivated wheat, and was 
 very instrumental in introducing Christianity and letters among his countrymen. 
 Travelled New Zealanders spread and magnified England's power and gTcatness 
 among their countrymen, and the people soon became aware of the advantage of 
 keeping on friendly terms Avitli Englishmen. 
 
 Meanwhile the people at large were advancing in civilisation, and in 1808 
 they were living more peaceably than they were in 1780. Trade and the industry 
 commerce brings in her train were now producing a visible effect among them. 
 Several Europeans had taken up their abode in the ISIiddle Island, and whale 
 ships annually resorted to the North Island for the pui'pose of changing blankets, 
 axes, fish-hooks, and other articles, for pigs, potatoes, spars, and flax. Neither 
 tobacco smoking nor much anxiety to possess fire-arms had yet arisen among 
 them. 
 
 Tills growing confidence betw.een Europeans and New Zealanders was 
 iuteiTUptcd by the massacre of the. crew and passengers of the ship "Boyd," in
 
 EARLY DAYS. 555 
 
 the year 1809. This vessel started from Sydney for England, with the intention 
 of tonchiiiL!,' at Wangaroa for spars. She carried seventy Europeans and five 
 New Zealauders, who were shipped to work their passages to their own country. 
 Tarra, or George, one of the New Zealauders, was the son of a Wangaroa chief. 
 During the voyage George refused to Avork, because he was sick, for which 
 conduct the captain stopped his food, and twice flogged him at the gangAvay with 
 much severity. When the vessel arrived at Wangaroa, George cxhil)ited his 
 scarified back to his father's tribe, and they unanimously resolved to revenge the 
 starvation and stripes their chief's son had suffered. This was accomplished by 
 treachery. The captain and a considerable number of the crcAV were allured on 
 shore, murdered, and eaten ; and all left on board, save one woman, two children, 
 and a cabin boy, shared a similar fate. The lad was saved by George, in grati- 
 tude for a trifling kindness, and the Avoman and children preserved themselves by 
 concealment. These Europeans were rescued from the natives by Te Pahi and Mr 
 Berrej^, the supercargo of a ship then at the Bay of Islands. They resolved on 
 taking revenge, which Avas managed thus : Five Avhaling ships met in the outer 
 harbour at the Bay of Islands soon after the massacre. Here their crcAvs, 
 maddened by reading an account of it, and confident in their numbers, Avere 
 falsely told that Te Pahi Avas the sole instigator of the bloody transaction. This 
 chief had a village on an island in the bay, very accessible and Avithout any 
 stockade, Avhere he and his people Avere then living in the security of peaceful 
 innocence. Secretly the Avhalers fell upon Te Pahi's village, killed young and 
 old, sick and healthy, males and females, to the number of thirtj^, and then 
 burned Avhatever stood or grew on the soil. Te Pahi escaped severely Avounded, 
 and Avas slain soon afterAvards in a conflict Avith the Wangai'oa tribes Avhich 
 originated in his having attempted to save some of the crew of the " Boyd." 
 Misfortune Avas Te Pahi's lot from the day he became acquainted Avith the 
 English. His youngest daughter Avas stolen aAvay from him by Europeans ; his 
 favourite son died from a disease conti'acted in England ; his generous attempt 
 to save life connected his name Avith an affair Avliich brought extinction ujjon 
 his tribe, partly from his own race and partly from the English, the heaviest bloAV 
 coming from the European side, a quarter from Avhich he least expected or 
 deserved such a rcAvard. 
 
 The evil effects of the massacre of the crcAV and passengers of the " Boyd " 
 did not terminate Avith the murder of Te Pahi's people. It prevented for five 
 years the introduction of Christianity into the country, caused the natives to be 
 denominated the enemies of mankind, and justified in the minds of certain men 
 the cruelties and murders conuiiitted by the masters of trading vessels. Several 
 of these actions are so atrocious as, for human nature's sake, to excite a hope 
 they are untrue, or exaggerated. It is related that a European gave a chief 
 corrosive sul^limate to poison his foes at a feast held to commemorate peace ; 
 that a European trader enticed Ncav Zealauders on board his ship, and 
 landed them in the midst of their enemies ; and that Avhalers often forcibly 
 kidnapped natives of both sexes. In 1814 the Government of Noav South Wales 
 tried to suppress these outrages, by appointing INIr Thomas Kendall, and the
 
 556 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 chiefs Ruatara-, Hongi, and Koro Koro, magistrates for the Bay of Ishincls 
 territory. 
 
 About the year 1777 was born, near the Bay of Islands, Hongi Hika, a scion 
 of the ilkistrious Ngajjuhi nation. In early manhood he distinguished himself 
 in battle ; and although influential from his birth, he soon became more so by 
 his deeds. After rendering his name famous in his country's annals, he accom- 
 panied Ruatara to Sydney in 1814, lived in the Rev. Mr Marsden's house, and 
 returned to New Zealand the patron and protector of Christianity and letters. 
 These offices, however, did not restrain him from plunging into war and ravaging 
 the Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Wangaroa, and Hokianga ; when, having subdued 
 every foe he could safely reach, he grew restless from idleness, and announced 
 his intention of visiting England " to see King George and bring back mission- 
 aries, carpenters, blacksmiths, Europeans, and twenty soldiers." In 1820 
 Hongi and Waikato embarked for England, accompanied by Mr Kendall, a 
 missionary ; and on arriving at London were of great assistance to Professor 
 Lee of Cambridge in the construction of a vocabulary and grammar of the New 
 Zealand language. George IV. gave Hongi an audience, and dismissed him 
 Avith a suit of armour and many presents. After a month's residence in England 
 he returned to Sydney. There a New Zealander informed him that during his 
 absence his son-in-law had fallen in battle on the banks of the river Thames. 
 From the grief this news produced he soon recovered, and immediately com- 
 menced collecting guns and powder. All the valuable presents brought from 
 England, excepting the coat of mail, were sold to purchase three hundred 
 muskets ; and with this supply he returned home to revenge his son-in-law's 
 blood. Early in 1822 Hongi embarked in his war canoes at the Bay of Islands, 
 with a thousand followers, steered up the Houraki Gulf, and entered the river 
 Thames. Totara, a fortification standing on its left bank, was taken by strata- 
 gem, five hundred of its defenders slain, and three hundred eaten. The enemy 
 then sought safety in Matakitaki, a stronghold on the Waipa River. Thither 
 Hongi pursued them, and slew fourteen hundred out of a garrison of four 
 thousand. Rauparaha, who lived at Kawhia, terrified at his deeds, fled south- 
 Avards. One portion of the army, under Thomas Walker Nene, advanced on 
 Taranaki, and Hongi returned home from the greatest of his campaigns Avith 
 croAvds of slaves. A missionary Avitnessed the conqueror's disembarkation at 
 the Bay of Islands. The Avomen, Avho remained at home, rushed out to meet 
 the warriors, and those who had relatives slain during the expedition gave vent 
 to their passions by murdering unarmed and unresisting slaves. During this 
 campaign the enemy Avere Avithout fire-arms, Avhile Hongi's Avarriors mustered 
 upwards of three hundred stand of arms. In 1820 he fought a pitched battle at 
 Kaipara, Avhere his favourite son was slain ; and, in revenge, he scooped out and 
 .swalloAvcd the eyes of several of the prostrate Avounded on the battle-field. At 
 tiiis engagement he Avore the suit of armour King George had given him, as a 
 protection from the guns the enemy had noAV obtained. His last and fatal 
 expedition was made in 1827 against his old foes at Wangaroa. During an early 
 part of the conflict a bullet passed close to his ear, and whispered death was at
 
 EARLY DAYS. 557 
 
 hand ; subsequt'iitly one pcnotrated liis lungs, for he wore upon tlii.s occasion his 
 hehnet but not his breastplate, and the wound never healed, although ho 
 recovered so far as occasionally to entertain his friends by making the air whistle 
 through the hole in his back. Fifteen months after receiving this wound he 
 died from its effects, aged fifty-five years. On his death-bed, which was decked 
 out with instruments of war, he exhorted his followers to be courageous, to 
 protect the missionaries, and not allow these holy men to leave the country ; 
 "For," said he, " they have done good and have done no harm." Ilongi left a 
 son who lives without a name, and will probably die without posterity. 
 
 The demand for fire-arms now sprung up amongst the natives, and this, 
 together with the high conmiercial value of llax, caused several vessels to bo 
 fitted out at Sydney for the New Zealand trade. The governor of that colony 
 dreading bloodshed tried to prevent all traflic : finding this impossible, he en- 
 deavoured to keep the trade in the hands of Government, by chartering several 
 vessels in the year 1S24 ; but as it was soon found that free trade could not be 
 prevented, the attempt ceased. The result Avas that in 1830, vessels amounting 
 to 5888 tons cleared out of Sydney for New Zealand ; and twenty-six vessels, 
 having an average burthen of one hundred tons, arrived there from the latter 
 country laden with flax. 
 
 As commerce increased, numbers of Europeans took up their abode among 
 the New Zealanders, acquired their language, and managed the trade between 
 the two races. These men were the pioneers of civilisation, and must not be 
 confounded with the lawless band of Europeans congregated at Kororareka, in 
 the Bay of Islands. There is, however, no good without an alloy of evil. That 
 very commerce which led to peace between the New Zealanders and their foreign 
 foes rendered war for some time more frequent among themselves ; and at no 
 former period in the country's annals were conflicts so general as they were 
 during the twenty years preceding the establishment of British rule. The 
 example of Hongi, the novelty of fire-arms, the ambition of Eauparaha and Te 
 Whero Whero, produced these results. In 1824, Eauparaha; having purchased 
 a large stock of powder and muskets from the Cook's Strait whalers, commenced 
 his depopulating wars among the natives residing on the east and west coasts of 
 the North and Middle Islands. No security Avas felt within a hundred miles of 
 his headquarters. Portions of the Ngatiawa nation fled from New Zealand, to 
 get away from him, in the English brig " Eodney," to the Chatham Islands in 
 1838, and Europeans with half-caste families left the country to avoid his extor- 
 tionate demands. 
 
 Twenty thousand lives were sacrificed directly and indirectly during those 
 twenty years of strife in New Zealand. By the principle of retaliation upon 
 which the natives acted, the rude idea of natural justice, the breach between the 
 combatants was daily widened ; new deaths involved distant connections, tribe 
 after tribe became partners in the conflict, truces without alliances occurred, and 
 peace, or rather an intermission of mm-ders, Avas only produced by exhaus- 
 tion. It may appear a paradox, but it is nevertheless true, that the cause Avhich 
 generated this universal strife ultimately produced harmony. The darkest hour
 
 558 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 often precedes the dawn. Fire-arms, in the first instance, led to war ; but after 
 the whole population had obtained them battles became less frequent and less 
 fatal. Men's passions are less excited in distant than in close conflict. Formerly 
 warriors were maddened by the deadly struggle of man Avitli man, now actions 
 are commenced and maintained at a distance ; and while men skilful in fence in 
 ancient fights frequently saved their lives by dexterity, it has now become a 
 proverb among the people that " the blow from a bullet, like a curse, strikes 
 nnseen and cannot be warded off"." 
 
 The people of the Bay of Islands were defeated with considerable loss at 
 Tauranga in the year 1830, and the conquerors dried the heads of the slain and 
 sold them to the master of a schooner called the " Prince of Denmark," bound 
 for Sydney, but intending to touch at the Bay of Islands. On the arrival of the 
 vessel at the latter place, a nnmber of natives came on board to trade. The 
 master of the ship, in a state of tipsy jollity, brought up a sack containing twelve 
 heads, and rolled them out on the deck. Some of the New Zealanders on board 
 recognised their fathers' heads, others those of their brothers and friends. 
 Api:)alling weeping and lamentations rent the air, and the natives fled precipi- 
 tately from the ship. The master, seeing his dangerous position, put to sea 
 before the news of his cargo spread on shore. Fortunately the scene now 
 described was reported to Governor Darling of New South Wales, who issued 
 a proclamation against this degrading trade, and called upon all who had brought 
 heads from the " Prince of Denmark," to deliver them up, for the purpose of 
 having them restored to the relatives of the deceased parties " to whom those 
 heads belonged." The governor, after earnestly pointing out the dreadful 
 consequences produced by this inhuman traffic, imposed a fine of forty pounds, 
 Avith the publication of the names of persons detected in such a disgraceful 
 occupation.
 
 PERIOD OF CIVILISATION. 550 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PERIOD OF CIVILISATION. 
 
 FinST ROOTS OF CIVILISATION — WHALERS AND SEALERS — THE PAKEHA MAORIS — THE 
 MISSIONARIES AND THE SHIP " DUFF " — REV. SAMUEL MARSDEN — CHRISTIANISING 
 THE NATIVES — MISSIONARIES — BIBLE TRANSLATED — MISSIONARIES LAND-JOBBING. 
 
 Civilisation was planted in New Zealand by the crews of the early ships, and 
 by the sealers, whalers, and Pakeha Maoris. These men sprung from various 
 classes ; many were sailors who preferred ruling savages to serving white men ; 
 several were runaway convicts, whose fear of the gallows overpowered the horror 
 of cannibalism ; some were liberated convicts, who dreaded returning to exas- 
 perated kindred, and others were men of obscure origin with the education and 
 manners of gentlemen. A few were Frenchmen, but the majority were English- 
 men and Americans. 
 
 The sealers formed the next arrival. These men commenced their intercourse 
 with the natives in the southern parts of the Middle Island about the beginning 
 of the century, being landed from whale shijjs for the purpose of killing the seals 
 then very numerous all round the coast. . Disputes at first arose between the 
 sealers and the natives relative to property and women, and in such conflicts the 
 sealers adopted the New Zealand war custom of slaying the first native they 
 encountered ; but both races soon became sensible of the benefits of peace, and 
 the savages to promote this great object gave the strangers wives and Cod-fish 
 Island as a residence. Here they built houses and cultivated the soil ; and 
 when their numbers increased, they spread themselves round the coasts. 
 Between 1816 and 1826 a hundred sealers were permanently settled in New 
 Zealand, and in 1814 a vessel 150 tons burthen was built by them at Dusky Ba}'. 
 These whalers were living in the country years before the missionary ever visited 
 the districts, and they purchased fi-om the natives the exclusive right of fishing 
 along a certain line of coast. Sydney merchants generally made the first outlay 
 in forming stations, and whalers received a certain percentage of the profits. 
 At twelve stations south of Banks' Peninsula, during the thirteen years preced- 
 ing 1843, seventy whales were killed on an average annually, and thirty-nine 
 whale ships were counted in Cloudy Bay at one time. Three hundred whalers 
 were settled in New Zealand in 1840, and such men must not be confounded 
 witk whaling sailors landed from ships to enjoy riotous living for a few days 
 after long voyages. Killing whales being an exciting and dangerous occupation,
 
 660 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 whalers were held in high estimation by the natives, who gloried in accompany- 
 ing them in their daily avocations. 
 
 Sprung from the same class of men as the whalers were the Pakeha Maoris, 
 a term which being interpreted signifies "strangers turned into natives." They 
 were the next pioneers of civilisation, and their influence was exerted on the 
 natives living in the North Island. The Pakeha Maori must not be confounded 
 with the idlers and beach-combers who loitered about Kororareka, nor with the 
 sawyers hewing down the giant kauri trees in the Hokianga forests, as few of 
 these men spoke Maori or had intercourse with natives in the interior. Pakeha 
 Maoris lived among the New Zealanders years before the advent of the mission- 
 aries, and they Avere spread over the country Avhen the missionaries were con- 
 gregated at the Bay of Islands. In 1S04 a European lived in the neighbourhood 
 of Kororareka, of whom the natives spoke well; and not long after George Bruce. 
 In 1812 an American sailor and four other white men lived among the natives, 
 and were w^ell treated. These men were known all over the country, and their 
 physical conformation and customs afforded endless matter for conversation. 
 From the coasting traders Europeans proceeded into the interior to procure flax, 
 and as they frequently lived in the country for several weeks until the cargo was 
 ready, they provided themselves with wives. These dark-eyed women twined 
 themselves round the rough hearts of these men, who, when the flax was ready, 
 tore themselves aw\ay to sea with regret ; some, not having sufficient energy for 
 this separation, remained in the country under ah engagement with the traders 
 to have cargoes of flax ready at certain periods. Europeans, who were treated 
 as slaves in 1820, Avere considered chiefs in 1830, and every inducement was held 
 out to white men to settle in the country ; houses were built for them, land was 
 given them, they were allowed to select wives from among the daughters of 
 chiefs, and were not required to hew wood or draw water. In return for these 
 royal privileges, Pakeha Maoris were required to barter pigs, potatoes, and flax, 
 for guns, blankets, tobacco, and other articles. But the influx of European 
 traders, travelling about the country, proved a death-blow to the royal privileges 
 of the Pakeha INIaoris. INIany of them, in consequence, left their native habita- 
 tions, and took up their abode in the English settlements. Women with half- 
 caste children accompanied their lords ; childless Avomen returned to their oavu 
 race ; as most of the Pakeha INIaoris after this revolution Avcre more destitute 
 than the aborigines. One unemijloyed tattooed Pakeha INIaori visited England, 
 and acted the part of a New Zealand savage in several provincial theatres. Here 
 he married an EnglishAvoman, who accompanied him to New Zealand, but she 
 eloped Avith a Yankee sailor, because the tattooed actor's old Maori Avife met him, 
 and obtained an influence over him the Avhite Avoman could not comliat. 
 
 The year 1796 will be ever memorable in the annals of our faith, as that in 
 Avhich the " Duff" sailed out 6f the river Thames with thirty missionaries, for the 
 purpose of converting the people of Tahiti, the INIarquesas, and the Tonga or 
 Friendly Islands, to Christianity. These places Avere chosen from among the 
 numerous islands in the Pacific, as the first field for missionary operafeions, 
 because tlu! aborigines were reputed kind to strangers. No allusion Avas then
 
 PERIOD OF CIVILISATION. 561 
 
 made to New Zealand. A proposal to send convicts there, guarded by soldiers, 
 was a])out this period scouted as refined cruelty; and the idea of landing unarmed 
 missionaries was never contemplated, until the liev. Samuel ]\Iarsden, originally 
 a Yorkshire blacksmith, senior chaplain of the colony of New South Wales, drew 
 attention to the country. Mr Marsden was led to suggest the formation of a 
 settlement in New Zealand for the civil and religious improvement of the people, 
 by the noble appearance of several chiefs he accidentally saw in the streets of 
 Sydney. This proposal was carefully considered by the Church Missionary 
 Society, and in 1810 twenty- five persons left Great Britain for the conversion of 
 the New Zealandei's. Unfortunately, news reached Sydney before their arrival 
 of the massacre of the crew and passengers of the ship "Boyd;" and the 
 Governor of New South Wales was more inclined to send a ship of war to 
 slaughter the natives than a body of missionaries to preach peace. 
 
 The idea of Christianising the New Zealanders was now considered hopeless 
 by all, save ISIarsden. To his mind the day was only delayed, and he spared 
 neither labour nor money to accomplish the favourite scheme of his life. Early 
 in 1814, an event occurred which hastened it. Hongi, the Napoleon of New 
 Zealand, accompanied his cousin Euatara to Sydney, and both chiefs resided 
 with the colonial chajjlain. Mr Marsden soon discovered that Hongi was 
 endowed with a reflective mind, and, although he knew him to be a notorious 
 cannibal, he determined to make his influence useful. He saw that even Hongi's 
 seared conscience had a tender sjDot, and acting on it by kindness, he obtained 
 from the cannibal hero a declaration that he would protect all missionaries ; in 
 virtue of which promise INIr Marsden, accompanied by Messrs Kendall, Hall, and 
 King, their wives, several mechanics, Hongi and Ruatara, and a few shecj) and 
 cattle, embarked for New Zealand in November 1814, in a brig navigated by 
 convicts. On arriving at the Bay of Islands they were received by the natives 
 as Hongi's friends, and for twelve axes they purchased two hundred acres of 
 land at Eangihu, a place near that chief's residence, upon which to form a 
 station. Here a white flag was hoisted, on which were painted a cross, a dove, 
 an olive branch, and the word " Rongopai," or " good tidings ; " and the mission- 
 aries commenced building houses, studying the language, educating children, and 
 preaching. 
 
 When it became known in England that several of these good men had 
 actually taken up their residence in New Zealand, more Christian pioneers were 
 sent to this heathen out-post, and new settlements were established in the 
 country. In 1819 a station was formed at the Kcrikeri. In 1822 the Ecv. INIr 
 Leigh, from the Wcsleyan Missionary Society, and two clergymen, established 
 themselves at Wangaroa, on the east coast, among the tribe rendered infemous 
 by the massacre of the " Boyd." In 1827 the Weslej^an missionaries fled from 
 AVangaroa in terror of their lives, and, on the entreaty of Patuone, settled at 
 Hokianga. In 1832 the Church mission station was moved from Eangihu to 
 Te Puna. As all these settlements were in the northern part of the North 
 Island, the people in England, who furnished the funds for the conversion of the 
 heathen, suggested to the missionaries the propriety of spreading themselves 
 
 4b
 
 562 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 over the land ; and, in accordance with this request, stations were formed in 
 1834 on the Thames and Waipa rivers ; in 1835 at Tauranga in the Bay of 
 Plentj'^, at Eotorua in the interior, and at Kawhia and Whaingaroa on the west 
 coast. From this date the missionaries, hke Saxon bishops and Protestants in 
 the early days of the Reformation, made expeditions into the country, and 
 jDreached the Gospel far away from their stations. In 1839 they penetrated to 
 Cook's Strait and the Middle Island. 
 
 In the year 1836, Pope Gregory XVI. appointed J. B. F. Pompallier Roman 
 Catholic Bishop of New Zealand, and the Lyons Association for the Propagation 
 of the Faith furnished him with money. In 1838 he arrived, with several 
 priests, and took up his abode in Kororareka ; and since that period stations 
 have been formed all over the islands, by the three missionary bodies. 
 
 The Wesleyan missionaries at Wangaroa lost all but their lives in 1827 at 
 the hands of the natives; and in 1836 the Church missionaries were similarly 
 treated at Tauranga and Rotorua. The anxiety and dangers these Christian 
 pioneers then underwent are detailed in the missionary journals ; but the wars 
 Avhich caused these misfortunes were not directed against them ; they were 
 merely sufferers from the calamities of the country, for the blood of no European 
 connected with the missions has yet been spilt. As no people were ever con- 
 verted but by preaching to them in their own tongue, one of the first duties of 
 the missionaries was the settlement of the orthography of the language, and its 
 reduction to the rules of grammar. This was a difficult task to men unused to 
 literature, and advantage was therefore taken of the visit of Hongi and Waikato 
 to England in 1820 to refer the work to a scholar. Both these chiefs were taken 
 to Cambridge by Mr Kendall, where they remained two months, and had fre- 
 quent intercourse with Professor Lee, who shortly afterwards published a gram- 
 mar and vocabulary of the New Zealand language. The translation of the 
 Bible was subsequently completed by Bishop Williams and the Rev. Robert 
 Maunsell, portions having previously been translated by various missionaries. 
 
 No miraculous success attended the rise of Christianity in New Zealand. 
 For fifteen years the missionaries were like men crying in the wilderness, and 
 they frequently said they were casting their seed on a rock. Six years after their 
 arrival they had not made a single convert. In 1825 the Rev. Henry Williams 
 stated that the -natives were " as insensible to the necessity of redemption as 
 brutes," and in 1829 the Wesleyan mission contemplated Avithdrawing their 
 establishment from want of success. When Christianity did take root it grew 
 rapidly, and soon after 1830 the scattered seed began to sprout. Churches were 
 filled after this date by attentive audiences, Avho listened with respect to that 
 grotesque phraseology which men always use who think in one language and 
 speak in another. The feeling of the missionaries was changed from despon- 
 dency to exultation ujion witnessing this haj^py change in the people. Before 
 1S3S two-thirds of the natives had never seen a missionary's face, although all 
 had heard of them. Natives living around the base of Tongarii'o, at Poverty 
 Bay, and on the banks of the Mokau and Wangauui rivers, all knew that a 
 small body of unarmed men had taken up their abode in Hongi 's territory. New
 
 PERIOD OF CIVILISATION. 5G3 
 
 Zoalaiulcrs, who went to and from tlio north, l)rou<^ht with them occasionally 
 religious books, and always news of the sayings and doings of the missionaries. 
 Masters of whalers reported that the aborigines far away from the mission 
 stations prayed night and morning in nasal psalmody, and chanted Christian 
 l)salnis to heathen tunes. It passed from hamlet to hamlet that the; missionaries 
 were a different class from the whalers and the Pakeha Maoris, that they kept 
 schools, and instructed persons to write on paper words which otiiers seeing 
 comprehended, gave books for nothing, performed a ceremony called baptism, 
 opposed war, promoted peace, cultivated new sorts of food, preached against 
 cannibalism, and of a God who did good and not evil. Rauparaha's son and 
 liangihaeata's nephew, hearing in Cook's Strait of the reformation now at woi-k, 
 passed through hostile tribes to the Bay of Islands in 1839, and prevailed on 
 the Rev. Mr Hadfield to return with them to Otaki to teach God's Word to their 
 kindred and clan; and after some time Rauparaha's son visited the ]\Iiddle 
 Island, preaching the Gospel of peace to men who had suffered from his father's 
 wars. 
 
 The civilising influence and blessings Avhich Christianity has conferred on 
 New Zealand cannot be weighed in the scales of the market. Like musk in a 
 room, it has communicated a portion of its fragrance to everything in the country. 
 It has broken the theocratic principle of the tapu and other superstitions ; it has 
 put an end to cannibalism, and has assisted in eradicating slavery ; it has proved 
 a bond of union between the races, the native Christian and the settler feelintr 
 themselves members of one federation ; it has led the way to intellectual develop- 
 ment, industry, peace, contentment, regard for the rights of every class, and 
 progressive civilisation. 
 
 Seven times did the planter of Christianity in New Zealand revisit the country, 
 to see how the tree grew ; and in 1820 he landed at Coromandel, and travelled 
 overland to the Bay of Islands. His name and personal appearance long survived 
 among the natives in the north. His last visit was made to the country in 1837, 
 and he died in 1838, aged seventy-two years, after having been forty-four years 
 chaplain of the colony of New South Wales. Marsden has left a name which 
 all admire, but few can hope to rival ; and was rewarded by one of the greatest 
 felicities Avhich God vouchsafes to man on earth — the realisation of his own idea. 
 
 But some of the missionaries Avere not slow to take advantage of the oppor- 
 tunities of amassing worldly fortune lying open before them. In 1821 Mr William 
 Fairburn, a Church missionary catechist, purchased four hundred acres of land 
 for ten pounds' worth of merchandise. In 1822 Bai'on de Thierry bought, through 
 Mr Kendall of the Mission Society, 40,000 acres of land on the Hokianga River 
 for thirty-six axes. One million of acres were purchased between the years 1825 
 and 1829 by settlers and merchants in Sydney. Twenty-five thousand acres were 
 bought during the five years ending 1885 at Kaitaia, the Bay of Islands, and 
 Hokianga; 17,000 acres of which, or twenty-seven square miles, were purchased 
 by missionaries. Before the year 1839, 20,000,000 acres of land were claimed as 
 having been purchased by white men.
 
 564 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COLONISATION. 
 
 THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY — MR BUSBY GOVERNTNIENT RESIDENT — WRECK OF THE ' 
 "HARRIET" — guard's STORY — BARON DE THIERRY's STORY — FIRST GROG-SHOP 
 — COLONIAL PROGRESS — VIGILANCE ASSOCIATION— WAKEFIELD's EXPEDITION — 
 FAILURE OF THE COMPANY — A CROWN COLONY — MODERN IMPROVEMENTS — THE 
 EIGHT PROVINCES. 
 
 In 1825 a company was formed in London of higlily influential men, among whom 
 was Lord Durham, to colonise New Zealand. jNIr Huskisson, the president of 
 the Board of Trade, approved of the project. A vessel was fitted out, sixty 
 settlers embarked, and late in the year 182G they arrived in New Zealand. The 
 place chosen for the settlement was near the mouth of the Hokianga Elver ; and 
 here Captain Herd, the company's agent, purchased a quantity of land, since found 
 to be only one square mile, and two islands in the Houraki Gulf. Unluckily for 
 the success of the colony, the Hokianga natives were at war with those of the 
 Bay of Islands when the settlers disembarked ; and the sight of a war dance, 
 and alarming reports of battles won and lost in the neighbourhood, so terrified 
 the colonists that most of them left the country after a short residence. Twenty 
 thousand pounds were squandered on this ill-managed aifair, and its failure was 
 described by some persons as a death-blow to the colonisation of Ncav Zealand ; 
 while others, who had acquired land in the country, prophesied that the forma- 
 tion of a British colony was only deferred, not abandoned. 
 
 At length ISIr James Busby, a well-known settler in Australia, was appointed 
 by his Majesty's ministers to jiroceed to New Zealand as British resident, an 
 ofiicer the East India Government have living at all native courts. INIr Busby 
 arrived at the Bay of Islands in May 1833. The natives received him with 
 respect, but the English settlers laughed at him as a " wooden gun." He sug- 
 gested to the Governor of New South Wales that New Zealand should have a 
 national flag, and that ships owned by New Zealandcrs should be registered. 
 Sir Kichard Bourke, a soldier more than a diplomatist, readily fell into the snare, 
 and ordered his Majesty's ship "Alligator" to the Bay of Islands with three 
 pattern flags for the chiefs to select one from. Prompted by some Yankee whaler, 
 these warriors chose an ensign adorned with stars and stripes, Avhich flag after- 
 wards altered was inaugurated with a royal salute from the "Alligator's" guns. 
 An account of tliis ridiculous farce was transmitted to the Colonial Secretary of 
 State, who approved of it in the king's name, and the Lords of the Admiralty
 
 COLONISATION. 5G5 
 
 instructed their officers to acknowledge and respect New Zealand's national 
 flag. 
 
 The twenty-four pounders which inaugurated this standard were soon after- 
 wards turned against the people. In April 1834 the barque " Harriet," J. Guard, 
 master, liound for Cloudy Bay, was wrecked at Taranaki, near to the spot where 
 the English settlement now stands. For six days the shipwrecked mariners were 
 ti'eated as friends ; but from some unexplained cause a quarrel arose, in which 
 twelve sailors and twenty-five natives were slain, and Mr and Mrs Guard, two 
 children, and ten seamen were made prisoners. Guard and several sailors were 
 allowed to depart, on promising to return with powder as a ransom for the others. 
 In consequence of Guard's representations, the Government of New South "Wales 
 sent the ship "Alligator," Captain Lambert, and a company of the SOtli llegimeut, 
 to rescue the prisoners. On the arrival of the force at Taranaki, the captured 
 sailors were delivered up, and the two interpreters who were sent on shore 
 promised that a payment should be made when the woman and children were 
 released. The soldiers were then landed, and as they formed in battle array on 
 the beach, two unarmed and unattended natives came down to meet them. One 
 introduced himself as the chief who had got the woman and children, rubbed 
 noses with Guard in token of ancient friendship, and told him that ]Mrs Guard 
 and the children were well, and that they would be surrendered on the natives 
 receiving the promised payment. The officer in charge of the boat attributing 
 evil motives to this man, seized him, dragged him into the boTit, and stabbed 
 him with a bayonet. A few days afterwards Mrs Guard and one child were 
 released, and the wounded chief was restored to his friends. The other child 
 was subsequently brought down to the strand on the shoulder of the chief who 
 had fed it, and he requested to be allowed to take the child on board ship in 
 order to receive the promised ransom. When told none would be given, he 
 turned away ; but before getting many yards he was shot, and the infant was 
 taken from the agonising clutch of the dying man, to Avhom it clung as to a friend. 
 The dead man's head was then cut off, and kicked about the sand ; and Mrs 
 Guard afterwards identified it as the head of their best friend. In consequence 
 of a shot discharged, by whom and at whom none knew, the ship's guns and the 
 soldiers commenced filing, and after destroying two villages and several canoes, 
 and killing many natives, the troops re-embarked, and the expedition returned to 
 Sydney. The Government of New South Wales then urged on his jNIajesty's 
 Government the necessity of supporting the British resident with an armed force, 
 as that officer Avas placed in a position neither creditable to himself nor to the 
 English he represented. 
 
 In 1835 Baron de Thierry claimed to have purchased, for thirty-six axes, all 
 the territory north of the isthmus on which Auckland stands. He informed the 
 British resident of his intention of establishing, in his own person, an independent 
 sovereignty in the country ; and announced that he had already declared his 
 intentions to their Majesties the Kings of Great Britain and France and to the 
 President of the United States. This declaration was dated from the island of 
 Tahiti, where, according to the proclamation, " Charles, Baron de Thierry,
 
 566 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Sovereign Chief of New Zealand, and King of Nuhuheva " — one of the Marquesas 
 Islands — " was awaiting the arrival of an armed ship from Panama to enable 
 him to proceed to the Bay of Islands with strength to maintain his authority. 
 To the settlers and the missionaries King de Thierry was graciously pleased to 
 forward an elaborate exposition of his intended system of government, signed 
 with a crown seal ; and promised salaries to those missionaries who would act 
 under his authority as magistrates. The whole production resembles the vagaries 
 of those unfortunate beings who are confined in asylums, and labour under the 
 delusion that they are kings and emperors. The British resident, although 
 evidently confounded at the baron's proclamation, lost no time in appealing to 
 the loyalty and good sense of the English settlers against what he denominated 
 the " schemes of an adventurer ; " and announced his intention of assembling the 
 natives to inform them of this attempt on their independence, and to instruct 
 them in what should be done to demonstrate its utter hopelessness. The assembly 
 was held, and from it was issued a declaration of independence in the name of all 
 the chiefs, repudiating the baron's claim. His assumption of sovereignty was a 
 sort of monomania ; and Mr Busby's Declaration of Independence, and the 
 subsequent events which occurred, were described by Sir George Gipps, the 
 Governor of New South Wales, as "a silly and unauthorised act, a paj)er pellet 
 fired off at Baron de Thierry." 
 
 In March 1837 Baron de Thierry issued another address to the white inhabi- 
 tants of New Zealand, dated from Sydney, in which, while announcing his 
 intention of visiting the country in a peaceable attitude, he moderated his claim 
 to sovereignty. Every ship which touched at the Bay of Islands after his 
 declaration was expected to have him and his fillibusters on board ; and the 
 arrival of Captain Fitzroy in his armed surveying vessel threw the whole settle- 
 ment into a panic. Early in 1838, Baron de Thierry landed in his dominions at 
 Hokianga, with ninety-three Europeans, the majority being men picked up in the 
 streets of Sydney. Here he unfurled a silken banner, ordered his subjects to 
 back out of his presence, and oSered to create the master of the ship which con- 
 veyed him to his kingdom an admiral. In the midst of his gi'eatness King de 
 Thierry was startled with the intelligence that the thirty-six axes given by Mr 
 Kendall to the natives for the land did not purchase it, but were merely a deposit. 
 He commenced cutting a carriage road to the Bay of Islands, but his exchequer 
 being soon exhausted, his subjects threw off' their allegiance, and took up their 
 abode in Kororareka. The natives, pitying a king without subjects or domin- 
 ions, allowed him to squat on a piece of gi-ound, for which he promised to 
 give them some blankets at a future day. In 1839 a visitor at Hokianga found 
 the baron living in a humble way for a sovereign prince. When war broke out 
 in the north part of New Zealand in 1844, it was announced in a London journal 
 that Baron de Thierry had been killed and eaten by his own subjects — an untrue 
 statement. He went through many adventures on Pitcairn's Island and the 
 Sandwich Islands since then, and subsequently lived at Auckland, usefully 
 employed in trying to discover a mode of cleaning the flax fibre of its gum. Do 
 Thierry's French name and his Continental and obscui'e origin, revived in 1836
 
 COLON ISA TION. 507 
 
 tlie groundless rumour that the French were about to form a colony in New- 
 Zealand. 
 
 In 1825 a few Europeans had peaceably located themselves in the Bay of 
 Islands, and in 1880 Benjamin Turner opened the first grog-shop. In these 
 days the settlers lived apart in remote inlets, until experience taught them that 
 the most convenient place for erecting huts was around the deep-water beach at 
 Kororareka, in close proximity to the native village. In these l)cautiful inlets the 
 free-trading flax schooners and whalers rode out gales in safety, and their crews, 
 although leading a piratical sort of lives themselves, objected to all intruders. 
 One morning, in 1827, a Sydney vessel anchored in the bay with eighty men 
 on board. An old New Zealand trader, named Duke, invited, the captain on 
 board, and discovered that he and his crew were convicts who had overpowered 
 the guard, and seized the vessel, during their voyage from Sydney to Norfolk 
 Island. Duke hoisted two guns out of the hold, and with the aid of several 
 Maori war canoes he commanded the convicts to surrender ; this being refused, 
 an engagement ensued, which ended, after considerable loss to the convicts, in 
 Duke's victory. The vessel was taken back to Sydney, where nine of the 
 mutineers were hung, and the others again shipped to Norfolk Island. In 
 1832 there were a hundred white settlers permanently located in Kororareka, 
 and the place was then described as the Cyprus of the Southern Ocean, in which 
 life was one unceasing revel. Meanwhile Kororareka prospered. In 1838 it 
 was the most frequented resort for whalers in all the South Sea Islands ; and its 
 European jjopulation, although fluctuating, Avas then estimated at a thousand 
 souls. It had a church, five hotels, numberless grog-shops, a theatre, billiard 
 tables, skittle alleys, finishes, and "hells." For six successive years a hundred 
 whale ships anchored in the bay, and land facing the beach sold at £3 a foot. 
 Thirty-six large Avhale ships were anchored at Kororareka at one time in 1836 ; 
 and in 1838 fifty- six American vessels entered the bay, twenty-three English, 
 twenty-one French, one Bremen, twenty-four from New South Wales, and six 
 from the coast. 
 
 A vigilance association was established at Kororareka, and his Majesty's 
 ministers were startled on hearing of this new declaration of independence in New 
 Zealand, and the Secretary of State now saw that British authority must hence- 
 forth be established, to prevent the Kororareka association growing into a 
 republic, and perhaps ultimately governing the country through the fictitious 
 aid of the united tribes. In December 1838, Lord Glenelg suggested that a 
 British consul should be sent out ; but no steps were taken towards the appoint- 
 ment of that officer until the New Zealand Company's expedition had actually 
 sailed for the purpose of laying the foundation of a republican settlement . in 
 Cook's Strait. Then Captain Ilobson, an officer of the Royal Na^^, was 
 ordered to New Zealand as a consul with a lieutenant-governor's commission in 
 his possession. 
 
 In 1837, Lord Durham, as the representative of a number of gentlemen 
 who called themselves the New Zealand Land Company, proposed to the 
 Government that they should be incorporated, with powers to colonise the
 
 568 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 country. The negotiations Avere at first friendly, and the Government favoured 
 the plan ; but ultimately misunderstandings arose, when the New Zealand Com- 
 pany determined to take the matter into its own hands, and despatched its 
 preliminary exj)edition on the 12th May 1839, under the command of Colonel 
 William Wakefield, who held instructions to purchase land from the natives, 
 and to select the site of the first settlement. He an'ived in August of the 
 same year, and selected Port Nicholson, in Cook's Strait ; and on the 22d 
 January following, the first batch of immigTants arrived. In twelve months 
 they had increased to upwards of twelve hundred from Great Britain, besides a 
 few from Australia. 
 
 The object of the founders of the New Zealand Company was chiefly to 
 revive systematic colonisation, and to conduct on fixed principles operations 
 which had certainly, since the colonisation of the British colonies in America, 
 been left very much to haphazard. South Australia was founded by nearly the 
 same persons, and on the same principles, and almost at the same time ; but the 
 colonisation of New South AVales and Tasmania, so far as they existed outside 
 of the convict establishments, which Av^cre their nucleus, may be said to have 
 been founded without any principle, and the result left to chance. The founders 
 of New Zealand colonisation sought to transplant to its shores, as far as possible, 
 a complete and ready-made section of the society of the old country, with various 
 social orders, its institutions and organisations, maintaining also, as far as circum- 
 stances would admit, the relations of the difterent classes of the population as they 
 had existed at home. Above all things, they believed that the failure of other 
 colonies to become duplicates of the old country, was owing chiefly to the indis- 
 criminate manner in which the waste lands of the Crown had been disposed of, 
 and to the defective proportion which, as a consequence, existed between capital 
 and labour. They determined to remedy this by the adoption of what was 
 known as the Wakefield theory, which consisted mainly in fixing the price of 
 the land so high as to prohibit, for a considerable time at least, its purchase by 
 the labouring man, thus compelling him to Avork as a labourer till he might be 
 supposed^ to have compensated the capitalist or the State for the cost of his 
 importation to the colony. The immigration fund was to be supplied by the 
 land sales. The application of these principles can hardly be said to have been 
 tested at all in the three first founded of the company's settlements — W^cllington, 
 New Plymouth, and Nelson. Its inability to put the colonists, for many years, 
 in quiet possession of the lands it had sold to them, its long and ruinous con- 
 troversy with the Imjierial Government, and the consequent exhaustion of its 
 resources, precluded altogether the experiment receiving a fair trial in the 
 settlements mentioned. In Otago and Canterbury, however, founded at a later 
 date, there were fewer, if any, obstacles, and the remarkable success of those 
 settlements is by many attributed to the principles on which they were founded. 
 The elements of class association (the Free Church of Scotland and tlie Church 
 of England Ijeing respectively taken as the bonds of union), and the high jirice 
 of land which has been maintained, though with modifications of the original 
 scheme, have no doubt had nuich to do with the form into Avhich society in
 
 COLONISATION. 509 
 
 those settlements has developed itself, though the unforeseen discovery of gold, 
 and the existence of great pastoral resources, which formed no clement in the 
 Wakefield scheme, have perhaps contributed more to the great prosperity of 
 those settlements than any special principle on which they were founded. 
 
 Those who are now seeking a home in New Zealand can scarcely appreciate 
 the feelings of the early colonists, or the trials and difficulties they had to 
 encounter. To descend from the deck of a ship 15,000 miles from home, at the 
 end of a weary voyage of from three to five months' duration, on to a shore 
 im prepared for their occupation, Avithout a single house to shelter them, with 
 no friend or fellow-countryman to welcome them, quite uncertain as to the recep- 
 tion they would meet witli at the hands of the savage race whose territory they 
 were peacefully but aggressively invading, with few of the conveniences of 
 civilised life, or the appliances for creating them, except so far as they brought 
 them with them in very limited quantities — how different from the experience of 
 those who now arrive in the colony, where, though many external differences 
 present themselves, they find all the machinery of social life, and the general 
 aspect of everything very much as they left them at home. The emigrant who 
 now lands at Lyttelton, Dunedin, Auckland, or Wellington, finds himself 
 surrounded by numbers of his own countrymen, dressed like himself, hurrying 
 about on the various businesses common on the wharfs of any considerable sea- 
 port of the old country : he sees shops, with plate-glass windows, and English 
 names above the doors, filled with the latest novelties from London, Birmingham, 
 or even Paris; cabs plying for customers; omnibuses rumbling along the streets; 
 hotels innumerable; churches and schools in moderate numbers; public buildings 
 exhibiting pretentious feats of architectural skill; asphalte pavements and 
 macadamised streets leading out to suburbs thick with comfortable and even 
 handsome mansions, surrounded by well-kept gardens, gay with brilliant flowers 
 and semi-tropical vegetation. Amidst all this he may, perhaps, in any of the 
 towns of the North Island, notice a stray Maori or two, not, however, clad in 
 the dirty blanket or rough flax mat, but " got up " in fashionable European 
 costume, with polished boots, silk hats, gold watch-guards, and probably a silver- 
 mounted riding-whip ; and only distinguishable from the other passers-by by the 
 dark skin, and, perhaps, the ineffaceable tattoo. In the early days the settlers 
 felt that they were " colonising " — adding a new province to the empire. Now, 
 the new arrivals "immigrate," entering into the labours of those who went 
 before them. The former was, perhaps, the more "heroic work." The latter is 
 probably the most profitable, and certainly the least laborious. If it is colonising 
 at all, it is colonising made easy ; and the immigrant may so far congratulate 
 himself that it is so. 
 
 It remains briefly to mention the order in which the various settlements were 
 formed : 
 
 1. Wellington was founded by the New Zealand Company in 1840. Pre- 
 liminary expedition for selection of site, August 1839. 
 
 2. Auckland, established by the first governor, Captain Hobson, in the same 
 year. It remained the seat of government till 1865, when, by Act of the Colonial 
 
 4c
 
 570 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Parliament, and the selection of certain commissioners appointed at its request 
 by the Australian governors, Wellington became the capital 
 
 3. Xew Pl\':*iouth, also founded by the Xew Zealand Company, in September 
 ISJrl. Preliminary expedition, August 1S40. 
 
 4. Xelsok, fovmded by the company in October 1841. 
 
 5. Otago, founded in March 1S4S by a Scotch company working in connec- 
 tion with the Xew Zealand Company, and by means of its machinery, imder the 
 auspices of the Free Church of Scotland, and with an appropriation of a portion 
 of its lands and pecuniary resom'ces to Free Church pm-poses. 
 
 6. Cantekbuky, similarly founded in December 1850 in connection with the 
 Church of England. 
 
 7. Hawke"s Bay was originally a part of Wellington Province, but separated 
 from it, and created a province of itself in 1S53. 
 
 8. Marlborough, originally part of Xelson, separated in the same manner in 
 1S60.
 
 THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 671 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EIGHT PEOVINCES. 
 
 WELLINGTON — AUCKLAND — WESTLAND — NELSON — OTAGO — CANTERBURY — 
 
 MARLBOROUGH — TARANAKL 
 
 Wellington was the first settlement in New Zealand, and was founded in 1840 
 by the New Zealand Company, an association formed in London for the purpose 
 of carrying on colonising operations in this colony. The first emigrant ship, the 
 "Aurora," anchored in Port Nicholson on the 2:2d January of that year. 
 
 Until 1841 New Zealand was a dependency of New South Wales, but in that 
 year it was made an independent colony, and in January 1848 was divided into 
 two provinces. New Ulster and New INIunster ; the fii'st comprising the northern 
 portion of the North Island, and the second the remaining portion of the North 
 and the whole of the Middle Island. What is now the Wellington Province was 
 included in New Munster. Sir George Grey was then governor of the colony, 
 and a lieutenant-governor, Edward John Eyre, Esq., resided in Wellington. 
 Under the New Constitution Act, the first elections took place in 1853, when 
 Dr Featherston Avas chosen superintendent, which office he retained by successive 
 re-elections until April 1871, Avhen he resigned it in order to undertake the 
 duties of agent-general of the colony in London, being succeeded in the super- 
 intendency by the Hon. William Fitzherbert, Avho was re-elected in January 
 1873. Dr Featherston met the first Council on the 28th October 1853, and in 
 his opening speech expressed his intention of adopting the system of responsible 
 government in the conduct of the aftairs of the province, and accordingly chose 
 an executive on that principle. He stated that of the 10,502,000 acres of -which 
 the province then consisted (Hawke's Bay forming part of the province at that 
 time), the native title had already been extinguished over 2,015,000, of which 
 235,000 acres had been alienated, leaving a balance of 1,780,000 acres open to 
 purchase, which would be immediately increased to 3,000,000 acres, arrange- 
 ments having been made for the purchase of other blocks iu Hawke's Bay and 
 the Wairarapa. His honour estimated the revenue for the year ending 30th 
 September 1854, at £18,000, of which £8500 would be available for public works. 
 In opening the session of the Provincial Council in 1873, the superintendent 
 estimatetl the income for the financial year ending 31st INIarch 1874, at £85,942, 
 of which £54,908 were proposed to be expended on public works. 
 
 Leaving the ISIanawatu Gorge and going westward along the railway line to 
 the Rangitikei River, the traveller passes for twenty miles through a stretch of
 
 572 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 rich level land, known as the " Manchester " block. This block is twenty miles 
 in length and about eight miles in width, wath an area of 106,000 acres, and being 
 the subject of an interesting and important colonising operation, is worthy of 
 more than a passing notice. 
 
 In December 1871, the Hon. Colonel Fielding, as representative of an Eng- 
 lish company, presided over by the Duke of Manchester, and called " The 
 Emigrant and Colonist's Aid Corporation," visited New Zealand, after going- 
 through the Australian colonies, his object being to find a field for the com- 
 mencement of colonising operations. Finding in New Zealand a climate 
 eminently suited to the English constitution, a soil abundantly fertile, internal 
 communications fairly developed already and rapidly progressive, and, above all, 
 a Government anxious to foster any reasonable scheme for the settlement of 
 peojile on its unoccupied territory, Colonel Fielding had little difficulty in select- 
 ing a favourable site, and making terms with the Colonial and Provincial 
 Governments. Negotiations resulted in the purchase of this block at 15s. per 
 acre. The corporation undertook to introduce to the colony, and to settle on 
 the land, two thousand people within six years. The Government, on the other 
 hand, was to provide free passages for these people from England, and to find 
 work, in the formation of the railway line through the property, or on other 
 public works in the neighbourhood, for a cui'rent number of two hundred 
 labourers. The Provincial Government made a conditional agreement to expend 
 a sum not exceeding £2000 per annum for five years, to assist in foi-ming by- 
 roads. The scheme hung fire awhile on Colonel Fielding's return to England ; 
 but the work of colonisation has now commenced in earnest, and the result is 
 anxiously watched : for, if successful, private capital and enterprise will be 
 certainly directed to the formation of similar settlements in some of the large 
 tracts of country from time to time falling into the hands of the Government by 
 pm-chase from the natives. 
 
 The early history of the province of Auckland is, in a great degree, identical 
 with that of the colony of New Zealand. This portion of the country was the 
 first in which a European landed ; in this the missionaries of religion began, and 
 mainly carried on, their enterprise, the effects of which, in a social and political 
 point of view, have been extremely important ; here was the scene of that 
 celebrated transaction called "The Treaty of Waitangi," on which the British 
 Government ultimately based their right of sovereignty over these islands ; in 
 this province a British governor first resided ; and the locality in which the city 
 of Auckland now stands was chosen by tlie first governor as the site for the 
 capital of New Zealand. 
 
 About thirty miles eastward from Auckland is the extensive mountainous 
 peninsula named Coromandcl. Numerous quartz veins run through the primary 
 rocks, and it is in these that the gold is found. Mining operations wore com- 
 menced in the creeks at Kapanga, where rough gold, washed out of the hills, 
 was discovered. Tliis deposit was of small extent. The hills were then i)ro- 
 spected, and mining carried on with varying results, and it is still continued. 
 During the first eleven months of 1873, 8549 tons of stone were crushed in the
 
 THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 573 
 
 Coromandel (tliat is, the Kapanj^a) district, and yielded 14,867 ounces of f^old. 
 The Tliames goldfield, situated on the same peninsuhi, fartlier soutli, was 02iencd 
 in August 1807, nuich later than Curiuiiandcl ; yet it has altogether outstripped 
 the previously-prospected goldfield. The richness of this field is indicated by the 
 fact that amongst the pioneers the six owners of Hunt's claim, one of the first 
 taken up, obtained 2."), (100 ounces of gold in a few days' work. The G(jlden 
 Crown ])aid .£i!00,UUO dividends in twelve months ; and the Caledonian I\Iine 
 subsequently yielded ten tons of gold in about the same period of time, and 
 distributed £572,000 amongst the shareholders. Other mines have given hand- 
 some returns, although less dazzlingly rich than those mentioned. There is little 
 doubt that the whole of the peninsula from Cape Colville to Te Arolia IMcnintain, 
 a distance of 120 miles, is more or less auriferous, and will afford emjjloyment 
 to a large mining population for an indefinitely lengthened period of time. 
 
 In 1861 the Avhole of the land comprising the province of Westland was 
 purchased by the Government from the original inhabitants. There were not 
 more than thirty of them in the province at that time. The natives of this 
 province had formerly been subject to frequent attacks from the natives of the 
 North Island, who made predatory excursions to the Middle Island in search of 
 greenstone, for which this province is noted. Twenty-five years previous to the 
 Government purchasing the land of the jirovince, two native commanders, Niho 
 and Takerei, after having served under Te Eauparaha in attacking the native 
 settlements on the east coast of this island, proceeded with their followers down 
 the west coast as far as the Hokitika River, killing and taking prisoners nearly 
 all the existing inhabitants. Niho and Takerei settled at the mouth of the river 
 Grey, and parties of their followers formed detached settlements on the coast 
 north of the Grey, and as far south as Bruce Bay. The natives have now no 
 claims to any lands in the province, except to a few reserves that have been 
 made for their use, and to secure to them a right to any greenstone that may 
 exist in those reserves. In 1864 gold was discovered in the province, at the 
 Hohonu Eiver, and a rush of miners from the other provinces then set in to the 
 Greenstone. Discoveries of gold were soon made at the Totara, Waimea, Salt- 
 Avater, Kanieri, Grey, and Okarita districts. 
 
 The province of Westland extends from the province of Nelson on the north 
 to the province of Otago on the south, and from the province of Canterbury on 
 the east to the sea-coast on the west ; its boundaries being — on the north the 
 river Grey, on the south the river Awarua (flowing into Big Bay), and on the 
 east the watershed of the Southern Alps. Its divisions are — the municipalities 
 of Hokitika and Greymouth, and the road board districts of Taroa, ^Vi'ahura, 
 Kanieri, Totara, and Okarita. 
 
 The success which attended the first colonising effort of the New Zealand 
 Company, in forming the settlement of Wellington in 1839, induced that body, 
 in the early part of 1841, to bring out the scheme of a second settlement, to be 
 named after England's greatest naval hero. Nelson. It was proposed that this 
 should consist of 1000 allotments, each to comprise 50 acres of suburban and 150 
 acres of rural land, to be sold at thirty shillings per acre, and that a town acre
 
 574 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 should be given with each allotment. It was further agreed that 100 allotments 
 should be added as reserves for natives, so that the entire settlement should 
 consist of 221,100 acres, which were expected to reahse £300,000. 
 
 As verj' little about New Zealand was known in England at that time, no site 
 could be assigned to the settlement, and Captain Arthur Wakefield, a distin- 
 guished naval officer, and a man eminently fitted for the task, was appointed to 
 lead the expedition, select a site, and represent the company at Nelson when the 
 settlement should be formed. This expedition, consisting of a party of surveyors 
 and about seventy labourers, left the Thames at the end of April 1841, in two 
 barques, the " Whitby " and " Will Watch," accompanied by the brig "Arrow," 
 laden with stores, and the three vessels arrived at Wellington at the end of the 
 following September. When Captain Wakefield took his departure, it was gene- 
 rally supposed in England that Port Cooper, and the country afterwards selected 
 for the settlement of Canterbury, would be selected as the site for Nelson. 
 
 A French whaler had some time before visited Port Cooper, and the master, 
 on retm^ning home, gave such a favourable report of the adjacent country — which 
 he described as capable of maintaining a Paris and a London — as to leave no 
 doubt of its suitability for settlement. It was Captain Wakefield's intention, 
 after consulting with his brother at Wellington, to have proceeded at once to 
 Port Cooper, and planted the settlement of which he was the leader on the plains 
 spoken of by the French whaling master. Captain Hobson, R.N., who had some 
 time before come out as governor of the colony, was opposed to this. The 
 territory which the New Zealand Company was supposed to have acquired and 
 were free to settle, did not quite extend to Port Cooper, and it was only within 
 some stated degrees of latitude that the British Government were supposed to 
 have sanctioned the company's colonising proceedings. This restriction had 
 been waived by Lord John Eussell, Secretary of State, before Captain Wakefield 
 left England ; but Captain Hobson, who wanted the Nelson settlement to be 
 planted a little north of Auckland, where he offered an insufficient site for it, 
 obstinately opposed Cajitain Wakefield settling at the spot which that officer 
 considered the most eligible for his purpose. The conduct of the governor com- 
 pelled the leader of the expedition to look elsewhere than the broad grassy plains 
 south of the Kaikoura Mountains for a site for Nelson ; and finding in Wellington 
 a Captain Moore (master of a small trading vessel), who reported that Blind Bay 
 possessed all the requirements needed. Captain Wakefield engaged his services to 
 pilot him to the spot, and the three vessels crossed Cook's Strait, and anchored in 
 Astrolabe Road, on the western side of Blind Bay, about the middle of October. 
 Here was a roadstead capable of affording complete shelter to a few ships, but 
 no land suitable for settlement, nor even a site for a town. If land in sufficient 
 quantity for the settlement, and of fair quality, could have been found in the 
 neighbourhood of Motueka, it is not improbable that Captain Wakefield would 
 have put up with the inconvenience of two harbours and a small township ; but 
 when the exploring parties which had been sent out to examine the country 
 returned, and reported unfavourably of its extent and capabilities, he determined 
 to proceed to Port Cooper, to plant the settlement there in defiance of the
 
 THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 575 
 
 governor, and justify himself by the necessity of the case. But before carrying 
 this resolution into execution, he thout;lit it prudent to thoroughly satisfy him- 
 self that Blind Bay afforded no sfiot where the Nelson settlement could advan- 
 tageously be planted. A boat was placed in charge of ISIr Cross, who was 
 ordered to proceed to Pepin Island, on the east side of the bay, follow down the 
 coast, and examine every opening that presented itself. A short distance below 
 Pepin Island, Mr Cross observed the long low spit, now called the Boulder 
 Bank, which forms the harbour, and as he sailed along was able, by standing up 
 in the boat, to see water inside. Proceeding down its edge and crossing the bar, 
 he at length reached the termination of the Boulder Bank, and found a splendid 
 deep-water basin inside, capable of accommodating a large number of vessels. 
 This discovery was made on the 5th of November, and IVIr Cross returned 
 immediately to Astrolabe. Captain Wakefield lost no time in crossing the bay, 
 and after examining the harbour, decided on making it the Port of Nelson, and 
 to abandon all idea of proceeding to Port Cooper. Adjoining the harbour was 
 an admirable site for a town — a flat of about seven hundred acres of good dry 
 land, and about the same quantity of low hills. It was well watered by two 
 small streams, and was sheltered from the southward, but open to the north, 
 facing the sea, and possessed an ample supply of timber for immediate require- 
 ments. It had the additional recommendation of easy communication with a 
 considerable tract of land of fair quality. These were advantages which pre- 
 eminently adapted the spot for settlement, and, together with its exceptionally 
 fine climate, have rendered Nelson by common consent the most charming place 
 of residence in New Zealand. 
 
 Like many other young colonial settlements. Nelson had its infantile troubles. 
 The New Zealand Company, as an inducement to the working classes to go out 
 to a country of which at that time little was known in England, except as being 
 inhabited by a race of ferocious and warlike savages, promised to find well-paid 
 employment for all labourers who would emigi'ate thither, without any restrictions 
 as to duration. As a natural consequence, the company monopolised all the 
 labour they imported ; and as there was no stipulation of a fair day's work for a 
 fair day's wages, the " company's stroke " became proverbial. Private capitalists 
 found themselves unable to compete with the company in the labour market, and 
 thus but little was done in the way of legitimate settlement. This was a state of 
 things which could not last. The company endeavoured to get the labourers off 
 their hands by giving liberal encouragement to them to settle on the land and 
 become cottier farmers ; and aftei'wai'ds, by placing all their labourers on piece- 
 work and paying them full wages for half Avork, sought to encourage them to 
 cultivate their farms and become independent of employers. The crisis which all 
 thinking persons had foreseen came at last. After this fostering treatment had 
 been pursued for the greater part of a year, instructions were received by the 
 company's agent to discharge the whole of the labourers at once, and this of 
 necessity had to be done. Then ensued a time of real trial. The men who had 
 been industrious and provident got over the difficulty of their new position with- 
 out sustaining any very severe privations, but the indolent and improvident were
 
 576 THE HTSTOR Y OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 reduced to very severe straits, some families being compelled to dig np and eat 
 their seed potatoes to escape actual starvation. A large re-emigration took place 
 to other colonies, particularly to South Australia ; but severely as the pinch was 
 felt at the time, it was afterwards universally admitted that the lesson of self- 
 dependence it taught was highly salutary, and that it imparted healthy life to the 
 settlement. 
 
 But long before the New Zealand Company ceased operations in Nelson, a 
 calamity of another kind befell the settlement. It was soon discovered, when 
 surveys were commenced, that the land required for the Nelson scheme could 
 not be obtained within the limits of Blind Bay, and exploring parties were sent 
 out in search of more country. Following up a series of valleys which have 
 their drainage in Blind Bay, one party of explorers turned the mountain range 
 on the east side, and found their way into the head of the Wairau valley, which 
 they followed down for fifty miles to the sea. Here was a district capable of 
 furnishing all the land required, and surveyors were at once engaged to lay it off 
 in sections. Although Colonel Wakefield had purchased, as he believed, the 
 district of Wairau tAvice over, Rauparaha and Eangihaeata, the two chiefs who 
 claimed it in right of conquest, disputed the sale ; and when the surveyors 
 were about to commence, those chiefs, with a strong body of followers, crossed 
 Cook's Strait in canoes fi'om the neighbourhood of Kapiti, a small island on the 
 north-eastern side of the strait, where they resided, and warned the surveyors 
 not to proceed with their work. They also burned the survey pegs and tent 
 poles, but did no violence to the men or their property. When intelligence of 
 this reached Nelson, the company's agent supported by Mr Thompson, police 
 magistrate, swore in about seventy special constables, and the Government brig- 
 being in Nelson at the time, those gentlemen induced the captain to convey the 
 whole party to the Wairau, nothing doubting but that before so imposing a 
 force, armed with old flint firelocks, the IMaoris would bo cowed, and the 
 chiefs submit to be taken on board the brig, and have their offence investi- 
 gated by the magistrates. If the force had been under the sole command 
 of Captain Wakefield, a man of singular tact and courage, it is probable 
 that an amicable settlement would have been come to, for no outrage had 
 been committed on the settlers up to that time, the natives holding the power 
 of the white man in almost superstitious veneration. Unfortunately, the 
 representative of the Government, Mr Thompson, was a man of excitable 
 temperament, and when Rauparaha and his followers Avere found at the entrance 
 of the Tua Marina valley, by his threats and demeanour, he so excited the 
 natives that a collision ensued, and the Europeans — mostly labouring men, 
 unaccustomed to the use of fire-arms, and without organisation — were no match 
 for born warriors. It was always a disputed point which jDarty commenced the 
 fray, but according to the evidence afterwards taken by the magistrates in 
 Nelson, the first shot came from the Maoris, and was immediately replied to by 
 a shot from one of our men, which killed the wife of Rangihaeata, who was also 
 a daughter of Rauparaha. The firing then became genei'ai on both sides, 
 although no order to fire was given by the leaders of the Europeans, and
 
 THE EIGHT PRO VINCES. 577 
 
 Captain Wakefield ordered his men to cease as soon as he could make himself 
 hoard. Tlic Europeans, who had kept toi;cthcr, retreated up the spur of the 
 hill at the entrance to the Tua Mai'ina valley, where they were overtaken by 
 the natives, and, having thrown down their arms, the whole party w'ere toma- 
 hawked. Added to the men Avho had been shot, the fray cost the infant 
 settlement twcntj^-two lives, including several of its leading men ; and this 
 untoward occurrence utterly destroyed the prestige of the iMiropeans in New 
 Zealand. Evidence was afterwards obtained, which showed that on the first 
 discharge of the guns, the natives were so alarmed that they were on the point 
 of seeking safety in flight, having taken up a position from which they could 
 reach the head of Queen Charlotte Sound by an intricate native path, and, by 
 the aid of canoes obtained from their countrymen, could have recrossed the 
 strait to a place of refuge. But the untrained men, of which the English party 
 was mainly composed, as soon as firing commenced (with a few exceptions), ran 
 from the scene. This emboldened the natives, who thereupon abandoned their 
 intended retreat to Waitohi, and pursued the Europeans. Had Captain Wake- 
 field possessed a few men properly armed and disciplined, many valuable lives 
 might have been saved, as it is not likely a man of his cool judgment would have 
 surrendered to savages had he been properly supported. Had no collision taken 
 place at Wairau, it is not likely bloodshed between the races would have been 
 long averted. Some other cause of quarrel must sooner or later have arisen, 
 and force been resorted to ; but nothing more deplorable could have happened 
 than what occurred at Massacre Hill, as the spot is still called, where the gi'aves 
 of the victims are marked by a small monument. 
 
 The intelligence of this sad calamity Avas received in Xelson with grief and 
 consternation. The settlers were without arms or organisation, nor was there 
 any force in the country to afford them protection. For several succeeding 
 months there Avas constant apprehension of danger ; and when disturbances 
 broke out in the North Island, at the Bay of Islands, at the Hutt, at Wanganui, 
 and elsewhere, the sense of insecurity increased. Happily, no serious dis- 
 turbance arose, although the natives residing at a pa about fifteen miles from 
 the town, were at one time troublesome ; but the danger passed away, and the 
 Wairau massacre, which occurred more than thirty years ago, was the first and 
 last coUision in the South Island of New Zealand between the natives and 
 settlers. 
 
 The portion of the INIiddle Island of New Zealand known as the province of 
 Otago was, previous to the arrival of the first immigrants, occupied by a few 
 white men engaged in pastoral or whaling pursuits, and by a small number of 
 natives. In 1840 a missionary from Sydney was located at Waikouaiti, where a 
 small settlement had been established, and his charge extended to the south of 
 the Clutha, a few individuals being sparsely settled there. Otago was originated 
 as a special settlement, and a block of 400,000 acres having been purchased from 
 the New Zealand Company, the carrying out of the experiment was entrusted to 
 a committee of laymen belonging to or sympathising with the Free Church of 
 Scotland. The association, as the scheme was named, despatched the ships 
 
 4 D
 
 578 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 "Philip Laing" and "John WicklifF" with the first emigrants from Britain ; 
 both vessels arriving safely in March 1848. At that early period the navigation 
 of the south portion of the colony was considered dangerous, as thoroughly 
 reliable charts did not exist, and the coast was known only to the few Avhalers 
 on the station. The prospects were not very cheering to those harbingers of the 
 l^resent community, and doubtless the hearts of many of them failed them, while 
 sailing up the harbour, on seeing on both sides steep hills densely Avooded to 
 their summits, without a patch of open land except the barren sands at the 
 ]\Iaori settlement. The discomfort of being conveyed in open boats, along with 
 tlicir household effects, from Port Chalmers, and landed on the shores of the 
 town of Dunedin, its surface an entanglement of scrub and flax, without a roof 
 to cover or protect them or a known face to welcome them, and the dread 
 uncertainty as to how or where provisions could be obtained until they could 
 grow their own, the time of their arrival being near the beginning of wintei', 
 must all have tended to damp their enthusiasm. Now, such doubts or discom- 
 forts cannot exist. Accurate charts and splendid lighthouses along the coast 
 command the mariner's confidence ; and on arrival at the Heads, a powerful 
 steamer is ready to tow the immigrant ship \x\) the harbour, both sides of which 
 are now, to the hill tops, studded with snug homes and luxuriant clearings. On 
 the ship berthing at Port Chalmers or the Bluff, the train carries the passengers 
 either to Dunedin or luvercargill, both handsome cities, replete with comfort, 
 where anxiously-expectant friends, acquaintances, or emjiloyers anxious to 
 employ labour, and to whom the news of the arrival of the ship has been flashed 
 by the telegraph, are waiting to receive the strangers either with a hearty friend- 
 ship's welcome or a profitable business engagement. 
 
 The pioneers of the settlement were neither daunted nor discouraged by their 
 difficulties. Bracing themselves to suffer hardships, to endure fatigues, to do 
 their duty, they did it nobly and well, a fact attested by the solid foundation on 
 which the institutions of the province rest, the character the settlers have gained, 
 and the success which has attended their efforts. The preliminary labour of 
 clearing the land and building houses — some of them as primitive as unskilled 
 hands could make them — being so far effected, moral and intellectual require- 
 ments were at once attended to. On the first day of September 1848, the first 
 public building, to be used as a church and school, was opened, the average 
 attendance of scholars being forty, although on some days it reached seventy. 
 This was under the auspices of the association and connected with the Free 
 Church. A few months later, the first newspaper, the Otago News, was pub- 
 lished, and in May 1849, a public liljrary was opened. Following in close suc- 
 cession, building societies were started, and a INIechanics' Institute, which has now 
 groA\Ti into a flourishing Athenaeum, with its library, reading, and class rooms. 
 
 Upon the retirement of the NeAV Zealand Company in 1850, and the granting 
 of a constitution to the colony, Otago was erected into a pi'ovince, and its 
 original boundaries were so extended as to include all the country south of the 
 Waitaki. 
 
 The meeting of the first Provincial Council on 30th December 1853, marks
 
 THE EKJUT PIIOVINCKS. 
 
 llio first o])oc]i in the history of Otago. Prior to tin's date, there was no 
 rcsponsil)ility for the conduct of pubhe affairs. Now there was a responsible 
 l)ody possessing considerable powers, and a largely-extended estate to administer. 
 In his opening address, the superintendent said, "A return mail from the seat 
 of government (Auckland) is just in the same category as a return from England, 
 business in the meanwhile being in a state of abeyance and confusion. ]\Iean- 
 while, it is our duty to do all that avc can for the puljlic good." How was this 
 done ? Assembled in a small, unpretending wooden building, described at the 
 time as " one of the most elegant buildings in Dunedin, capable of containing 
 from eighty to a hundred people," and " an erection the like of which no other 
 settlement in New Zealand could boast," the Council at once conunenced Ijusi- 
 ness and proceeded to set their house in order. The monetary condition was, 
 " Treasury grant closed, land fund reduced to nil, and the province left with 
 two-thirds of the general revenue (£1480) to do all for themselves and as they 
 best can." What they had to do was — provide for expense of government, form 
 roads and build bridges, attract immigration, attend to education, and open up 
 communication with other provinces and the outer Avorld. To accomplish all 
 these objects with an income of £2000 a year must have been a pleasing task ! 
 Yet a determined start was made, and the province began, and still continues, 
 its onward march. 
 
 The advantage of opening up the southern portion of the province, in which 
 there were large ti'acts of splendid land both clear and timbered, Avas early 
 recognised, and sites for the towns of Campbelltown and Invcrcargill being fixed, 
 the country Avas surveyed, and very soon a large number of sections Avere bought 
 and settlers located thereon. Complaints were made by the inhabitants that 
 this outlying district was not receiving its due share of attention from the 
 authorities ; and a memorial Avas, in terms of the New Provinces Act, 18.3S, 
 presented to the Colonial Government, requesting that the district might be 
 detached from Otago and created into a ncAV province. This Avas granted, and in 
 18G1 the province of Southland Avas created, Avith an area of 2,300,000 acres. 
 Embarrassments, hoAvever, so accumulated on the little proAince, that in 1870 it 
 Avas found advisable to reunite it to Otago, Avhich was done, and it uoav partakes 
 of the general prosperity. 
 
 The discovery of the goldfields in 1861 may be considered the next epoch in 
 this history. Rumours of the existence of gold had before this date been freely 
 circulated ; but until the discovery, by Gabriel Read, of the gully Avhich liears 
 his name, no payable Avorkings had been opened up. The extraordinary richness 
 of this goldfield, together Avith the ease Avith which the gold Avas obtained, at 
 first hardly obtained belief; but as specimens of the precious metal arrived in 
 toAvn day after day by trustAvorthy messengers, Avho Avere in hot haste to get 
 back again, the fever became general, and every man, tradesman and store- 
 keeper, left his occupation and Avas "off' to the diggings." The report of this 
 really rich goldfield soon reached the adjacent provinces and colonies, and a great 
 " rush " Avas the consequence — thousands arriving in a single day. For a time, 
 other occupations Avere forgotten; but the excitement gradually subsided ; the
 
 580 THE IIISTOR Y OF A USTRA LA SI A . 
 
 lucky digger having a good many pounds to his credit, and high prices ruling for 
 every article that could be raised, soon induced many to return to their legitimate 
 industries, and leave the more precarious trade of gold -finding to men ^vho 
 followed it as their profession. The discovery of the Tuapeka goldfield was 
 followed, in 1862, by the Dunstan, the Lakes, Nokomai, and several others, which 
 have proved to be very A'aluable and afford employment to a large number of men. 
 The portion of the province in which the goldfields are situate had hitherto been 
 an almost unknown country, and to the energy and enterprise of the gold-seeker 
 the credit is due of opening it up much sooner than it would otherwise have 
 been. The risk these hardy men undertook deserved reward, as the result of 
 their efforts has been of incalculable advantage to Otago. The quantity of gold 
 exported from the province up to 31st March 1874, was 3,257,80-1 oz., and its 
 value, £12,762,892. 
 
 The foundation of the province of Canterbury dates from 1848, in which year 
 a number of men of influence in England, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Lord Lyttclton, and the present Duke of jNIanchester, formed themselves into 
 what was called the " Canterbury Association for Founding a Settlement in New 
 Zealand," which M\as incorporated by royal charter in 1849. The portion of the 
 colony in which the association was to establish its members was for some time 
 not fixed, as it was doubtful whether the plain adjacent to Banks' Peninsula, or a 
 tract of land near Wairarapa, in the present province of Wellington, Avas the 
 better adapted for their requirements. Captain (afterwards Sir George) Grey, 
 the then Governor of New Zealand, in a despatch to the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies, dated 6th December 1848, somewhat strongly advocated the choice 
 of the latter district ; but a great obstacle to the carrying out of this idea was 
 found in the difficulty of acquiring the land on reasonable terms from the native 
 owners. On the other hand, the whole of the enormous tract of country lying 
 between the river Hurunui (the southern boundary of Nelson) and Port Chalmers, 
 or Otago, and stretching from sea to sea, had already been ceded by the ]\Iaori 
 owners to the Europeans. On 2oth August 1848, Governor Grey forwarded to 
 the Secretary of State for the Colonies a copy of the agreement by which the 
 chiefs and people of the Ngaitahu tribe formally made over to Colonel Wakefield, 
 agent of the New Zealand Company, all the country comprising what are now 
 known as the Canterbury Province, the province of Wcstland, the great part of 
 Otago, for a comparatively small sum of money. This cession did not, however, 
 include Banks' Peninsula itself, as the natives had already sold the whole of that 
 block to a French comijany, whose settlers Avere actually residing on it. The New 
 Zealand Company made no attempt to colonise the large area they thus acquired, 
 further than by handing over to the new Canterbury Association an extent 
 of 1,000,000 acres on the plains. This was afterwards increased to 2,400,000 
 acres. In 1849, Captain Thomas, agent for the association, wrote from Auckland 
 to Governor Grey, stating that he had examined the harbour of Port Cooper 
 and the surrounding country, and having found the land suitable for the 
 purposes of the association, he formally requested his Excellency's sanction to 
 Port Cooper as the site of the Canterbury settlement. This was granted ; the
 
 THE Eiail T PRO VINCES. 58 1 
 
 surveys of the liarboiu' iind plains were at once pushed on, and preparations- 
 made for rcceivint;' the settlers sent out by the association. In the nieanlinie, 
 neyoliations Avere also being' carried on between the New Zealand Company and 
 the French association who held possession of Banks' Peninsula; and on 12th 
 October 1849, the directors of the former company announced to the Colonial 
 Office that they had taken over all the property and interests of the French, 
 or Nanto-Iiordelaisc, Company in New Zealand, for the sum of £4500. 
 
 On IGth December 1850, the first emigrant ship from England arrived at Port 
 Cooi)er, and the actual commencement of the settlement may be said to have 
 then taken place. The design of the Canterbury Association, as put forward in 
 the prospectus issued in 1848, was to estal>lish in New Zealand a settlement com- 
 plete in itself, having as little connection as jjossible Avith the other centres of 
 population in the colony, and composed entirely of members of the United 
 Church of Great Britain and Ireland. The committee of management proposed 
 to reserve to themselves the right "of refusing to allow any person of whom they 
 might disapprove to become an original purchaser of land." This is not the 
 place to discuss the theory of the scheme of the founders, nor to detail the rapid 
 steps by which the Church of England settlement, as proposed, became an 
 ordinary community of mixed denominations. It Avill be sufficient to say that 
 long before the establishment of representative government for the colony, by 
 Act of the Imperial Parliament of 1852, grave doubts were expressed, even by 
 some of the managers of the association themselves, of the success of this part 
 of the scheme ; and, in point of fact, Canterbury offered so many material and 
 temporal advantages to immigrants of all kinds and classes, that the Avail of 
 exclusiveness Avas soon broken doAvn, and the community became, like all other 
 communities, an aggregation of settlers from various countries and of various 
 denominations. 
 
 The affairs of the Canterbury Association were managed in England by a 
 committee, and IMr John Robert Godley Avas sent out by them to conduct their 
 public business in Ncav Zealand. Mr Godley arrived in Canterbury in the year 
 1850, and remained as its resident official head until 1853 ; then the elevation 
 of the settlement into one of the provinces of Ncav Zealand, under the Constitu- 
 tion Act, 1852, and the annulling of all previous charters to the separate little 
 colonies, rendered the further continuance of the association needless. During 
 his term of office, Mr Godley's remarkable energy, activity, and earnestness of 
 purjDose contributed most poAverfuUy to the success of the settlement, and he 
 left NcAV Zealand for England foUoAved by the general regret of the colonists — 
 regret which Avas increased by the knoAvledge that his uuAvcaried attention to his 
 Avork, and to the Avelfare of those under his charge, had entailed upon him a 
 Ijermanent loss of health and strength. The first superintendent of Canterbury 
 under the ncAV Act Avas Mr James Edward Fitzgerald, another original member 
 of the association, avIio held office till 1857. 
 
 In the three years which elapsed betAvcen the arrival of the first settlers and 
 the meeting of the first Provincial Council, the Canterbury settlement made 
 remarkable progress, and actually became in that short time not only self-sup-
 
 582 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 porting, but able to export largely to other colonies. This progress has been, 
 almost Avitliout a check, continued to the present time. The revenues of the pro- 
 vince, both from sales of Crown lands and from other sources, have been steadily 
 and rapidly increasing. In 1858 Mr Godley was able to announce to the friends 
 of the colony in England that the province of Canterbury alone, with a population 
 at that time of 7000, raised a revenue of £96,000 — seven times as much, per head, 
 as the revenue of England, and nearly twice as much, per head, as the revenue 
 of the colony of Victoria, "the richest community in the world up to this time." 
 This, of course, was exclusive of the revenue raised in the province for the general 
 colonial purposes of New Zealand. For the year ending 30th September 1873, 
 the revenues of the province of Canterbury, also exclusive of colonial revenue, 
 amounted to almost £650,000, the estimated population being 53,700. 
 
 It is not possible to fix any date at which it can be said that the settlement 
 of Hawke's Bay was founded. In the cases of the Canterbury, Otago, and Cook's 
 ►Strait settlements, they have this date definitely fixed by the arrival of the ships 
 bearing to their shores the first colonists. Hawke's Bay, however, was settled 
 differently. Its natural advantages of soil and climate, as soon as they became 
 known, drew settlers, in ever-increasing numbers, from the south. As early as 
 1848, blocks of native land were being taken up extensively as runs, in spite of 
 the precariousness of a tenure dependent altogether on the goodwill of the 
 natives. This description of irregular settlement had gone to such a length by 
 the end of 1850, that it was felt by the then Government that the time had come 
 for endeavouring to acquire a landed estate from the natives. In the December 
 of that year, accordingly, ]\Ir Donald INI'Lean, Avent to the district as land 
 purchase commissioner ; and the purchase, from the chief Tc Hapuku, of some 
 blocks in the interior, including those Avhich now form the extensive and very 
 valuable Pourerere and Homewood estates, was effected simultaneously with the 
 purchase of Scinde Island, now the site of the town of Napier, and the 
 surrounding district, from the chief Tareha Te Moananui. From this date 
 forward Hawke's Bay became daily better known, and every month brought 
 new settlers into it. The Land Purchase Dejiartment at the same time extended 
 its operations, and further lai'ge tracts of country Avere acquired. 
 
 On the 5th April 1855, the township of Napier, having been laid out in 
 sections, was sold by auction. In 1858 Hawke's Bay was constituted a new 
 province. 
 
 In 1857 a quarrel broke out between two sections of the Hawke's Bay 
 natives. A skirmish took place, in which some half-dozen jjcople (all, of coui'se, 
 ]\Iaoi-is) were killed. Some alarm being felt by the European settlers as to the 
 possible ultimate results of the struggle, INIoananui, the leading chief of the 
 successful faction, Avrote as folloAvs to the local newspaper : " Hear us. You 
 have notliing to fear from us. Do you suppose that Ave are so fond of fighting, 
 that Ave are anxious to have tAvo enemies, the Pakeha as Avell as Te Hapuku ? 
 No, our oAvn quarrel is sufficient. Let the settlers remain in peace amongst us. 
 We Avould not act treacherously towards the people of our country. Were we 
 to turn on them, we should be shutting up the road by Avhich avc receive many
 
 THE EIGHT rUOVLWES. 583 
 
 advantages." There is miicli more than idle profession here — there is close 
 reasoning. ]\roaii;iiuii deserves niucli credit for his sagacity in perceiving lliat 
 he could best allay the suspicions of his Euroi)ean neighbours, by showing them 
 tliat his tribe Avere perfectly alive to the personal advantages which they derived 
 from the maintenance of friendly relations with them. Te Ilapuku's faction 
 were equally decisive in their professions of friendship towards the Pakeha. 
 The struggle, we may remark, ended by the retirement of the latter to their 
 hereditary lands at Poukawa, some thirty miles inland, leaving INIoananui and 
 his party in possession of the extensive and valuable Ahuriri plains. 
 
 The only other instance of hostilities within the settled districts of the province 
 occurred in October 18GG, when a band of about a hundred natives, l)clonging 
 for the most part to the tribes inhabiting the south-eastern districts of ^Vuckland, 
 led on by one of their projiliets, who told them that the town of Napier would 
 be given over to them, came down and located themselves at Omaranui, about 
 eight miles inland, with the view of making that their base of ojierations. No 
 eiibrt was spared to represent to them the madness of their proceedings. It Avas, 
 however, found to be impossible to do so eftectually. The matter ended by the 
 Hawke's Bay natives joining with the European settlers in making an attack 
 upon them, which resulted in the annihilation of the band, all who were not killed 
 having been taken prisoners. Now that the European population has become 
 three or four times as numerous as the natives, hostilities are never dreamt of. 
 Hawke's Bay, in that respect, is as secure as Canterbury or Otago. 
 
 What is now the province of Marlborough formed, under the Constitution 
 Act of 1852, a part of the province of Nelson, the northernmost of the three 
 original divisions of the Southern Island, and continued so up to the time when 
 the energy of the settlers in the Wairau and surrounding districts succeeded in 
 severing the political connection of the north-eastern from the remaining portion 
 of the province, and giving to the latter the advantages of local self-government. 
 On the 1st of November 1859, availing themselves of the provisions of the 
 New Provinces Act, 1858, the inhabitants of those districts separated from the 
 parent stock, and forming a new division under the name of the province of 
 Marlborough, entered upon a career of independence and self-government. 
 
 At the time of the dismemberment of the original province of Nelson, the 
 population of the separated districts forming the new province of JMarlborough 
 was about 1000; at the census taken in 1871 it was somewhat over 5000; and 
 at the census in March 1874, the population had increased to 6143. Small as 
 were the resources of the new province at the time of sejiaration, that movement 
 was the commencement of an era of prosperity and piogress. IJoatls were formed, 
 population increased, absenteeism Avas gradually replaced by bona fide settlement, 
 and communication between the various districts was opened up. Year by year 
 its industrial capabilities have increased, until at the present time, in proportion 
 to its size and population, it may be considered one of the largest exporting 
 provinces of New Zealand. In wool, it rivals Canterbury; in timber, ^Vuckland; 
 in the development of the flax industry, it is second to none ; while in agricul- 
 tural and general jiroduce it also holds a high position.
 
 584 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The province of Taranaki takes its name from the lofty snow-clad mountain 
 called by Europeans Egmont, but by the natives Taranaki. The first Europeans 
 who beheld Taranaki were probably Tasman and his companions, in December 
 1642. On the evening of Wednesday the 10th January 1772, Captain Cook first 
 sighted the mountain, which he named Egmont, in honour of the earl bearing 
 that title. On the 10th February 1772, M. jNIarion, the French navigator, made 
 the land here, and named the mountain Le Pic INIascarin, after his ship. From 
 this time to 1839, Taranaki Avas occasionally visited by whalers, some of whom 
 established a station at the Sugar Loaf Islands. In 1831, when the Waikatos, 
 under their great chief Te "Whero Whero, made their memorable descent on the 
 district to punish the Ngatiawa for having assisted the fighting chief Kauparaha 
 — and also because Kaeaea, one of their chiefs, had, in a preceding war, crucified 
 the Waikato chief Taiporutu in the gateway of his ^w, after taking the pa at 
 Pukerangiora, and killing and devouring several hundreds of its occupants — they 
 proceeded to attack Ngamotu Pa, near the Sugar Loaves. This was garrisoned 
 liy 350 Ngatiawa, under their chief Warepori, and six English whalers and 
 traders, whose names have been preserved by the INIaoris. These were Barrett, 
 Love, Oliver, Wright, Akers, and Phillips. The besieged, armed with muskets 
 and four small merchant-ship guns, made such a heroic defence that the Waikatos 
 at last retreated with great loss; but after the victory, the Kgamotu defenders, 
 with the other natives of the district, fled to the south, leaving the country almost 
 entirely without inhabitants. 
 
 In the year 1839, a company was formed in England, called the Plymouth 
 Company, the object of which was the establishment of a colony in Ncav Zealand. 
 It was a joint-stock association, which invested £10,000 in the purchase of 50,000 
 acres of land from the New Zealand Company. Colonel Wakefield, acting for 
 the company, in 1839 found many fugitives from Taranaki on the shores of Cook's 
 Strait, and from them he purcliased the land of their fathers, from which they 
 had been driven, and to which the dread of their victorious foes prevented their 
 return. About the end of the same year the company's naturalist, Ernst DiefFen- 
 baeh, proceeded to Taranaki. He found a handful of wretched natives there, living 
 stealthily on obscure plantations hidden deep in the recesses of the forest, while 
 the rest of the beautiful country was completely desolate. He travelled for miles 
 without meeting a single person, and seeing no trace of man except some deserted 
 plantations. AMiile there he investigated the geology, botany, and natural history 
 of the place, and succeeded in scaling the lofty mountain. He also, in conjunc- 
 tion with an agent of the company, succeeded in purchasing from the few natives 
 in possession their rights in the soil. 
 
 In February 1841, INIr Cariiugton, the company's surveyor, having previously 
 explored the coast for a site for the new settlement, and fixed on the Taranaki 
 district, in January of the same year arrived, accompanied by his staff, and the 
 survey of the district Avas commenced. On the 31st INIarch of that year, the 
 barque " ^^'illiam Bryon " arrived with the first batch of immigrants. This vessel 
 v»as fullowed liy the "^Vmelia Thompson," which arrived on the 3d Septcml)cr, 
 and by her tender, a small vessel destined for coasting, called the " liegina,"
 
 THE RIGHT PRO VINCES. 585 
 
 which wiis unfortunately wrecked on the Taranaki beach shortly after her arrival. 
 The "Oriental" arrived on the 7th November 1841, and the " Timandara " on 
 2d February 1842, and these were followed at intervals by the "lUenhcim" and 
 " Essex." The immigrants were from the English western counties ; they 
 numbered nearly two thousand, and were selected so carefully with regard to 
 character, that for many years crime was almost unknown in the province. The 
 majority were agricultural labourers and miners, but there were some tradesmen 
 and professional men. The first work performed was the erection of huts to 
 live in ; these Avere chiefly constructed of the broad rush of the country, after the 
 fashion of the natives, and were thatched with sedge. Every able-bodied man 
 was engaged in making roads, constructing bridges, and cutting lines through the 
 fern and foi'cst lands. When the immigrants landed, the few natives who 
 greeted them were miserable and dejected. JNIany of them at times were 
 absolutely naked. After a while, gaining confidence, they came out of their 
 hiding-places in the forest, and from distant places on the coast, in order to see 
 the white man, to marvel at his works, to trade with him in fish, firewood, and 
 potatoes, and to share in the blankets and other things which had been pi'omised 
 in payment for the land. The first unpleasantness between the races arose 
 through a quantity of goods which had been promised not being forthcoming. 
 To rectify this, INIr Carrington wrote to Colonel Wakefield, and that gentleman 
 despatched the schooner " Jewess," freighted with the promised articles. The 
 vessel was unfortunately wrecked in the strait, and the natives never received 
 the goods, but they accepted the intention for the deed. 
 
 After this aflfliir had been thus amicably settled, the great chief of the Waikato 
 tribe, who had conquered the tribes of Taranaki, sent a subordinate chief named 
 Te Kaka {Anglice, the Parrot) with two hundred men to claim the land by right 
 of conquest. This claim was satisfied by the English governor, Hobson, paying 
 the chief XI 50 in money, two horses, two saddles, two bridles, and a hundred 
 red blankets. A part of the bargain made with the natives Avas, that one-tenth 
 of the purchased land should be returned to them when it was surveyed ; and in 
 order to expedite their civilisation, it was judged prudent to give them their 
 reserves in the midst of the lands selected by the Europeans. 
 
 As soon as the surveys were completed, the immigrants began to take up 
 their allotments, to build and to cultivate. A village was soon formed on a 
 beautiful and level tract of land, about six miles from the township of New 
 Plymouth. Scarcely had this been done, when a number of slaves, the original 
 owners of the district, were set at liberty through the entreaties of the Rev. John 
 Whitely, a Wesleyan missionary, who has since fallen by the hands of those to 
 whose welfare he devoted his life. These manumitted slaves, who, of course, had 
 not received any part of the payment for the land, became insolent and tyrannical, 
 and demanded that the land should be given up to them. At length, a commis- 
 sioner, INIr Spain, was sent by the Home Government to investigate their claims. 
 He decided against them, and made an award in favour of the New Zealand 
 Company ; but, discontent still prevailing — being, if anything, rather increased 
 by this decision — Governor Fitzroy reversed the award of the imperial commis- 
 
 4e
 
 586 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 sioner, declared all the EuroiDeans ti-espassers for the time being, and gave back 
 all the country lands to the natives ; with the understanding, however, that on 
 the extinction of the native title, by purchase or otherwise, the dispossessed 
 settlers should re-enter on their original selection. This was a great blow to the 
 settlement ; many settlers left, and further to reduce it, the governor induced 
 many of the Cornish miners to go to the Government settlement at Auckland, to 
 work a newly-discOvered mine yielding copper and manganese. Some of the 
 best settlers were compelled to go into the heavily-timbered lands and hew out 
 for themselves farms Avith the axe, while thousands of acres of fine open laud 
 were left a barren and totally unproductive waste. The land was given back to 
 the natives in 1844, and during the succeeding ten years a few small blocks Avere 
 repurchased at great expense and in the face of much opposition. Then a land 
 league was formed, the outcome of which was the great war of 1860. 
 
 There were, however, a few things that tended to cheer the pioneers of the 
 settlement in the midst of their severe struggles. The country was very healthy 
 — the year would pass without a single death occun-ing in the community. The 
 earth also yielded abundantly — wheat just chipped in with a mattock returned 
 rich hai'vests of golden grain. Mills were erected, and quantities of fine flour 
 exported. Grass also flourished ; Dutch white clover sprang up in all directions; 
 and butter soon became an article of export. Poultry became plentiful, and the 
 bee produced great quantities of honey. The settler found comfort, and if his 
 farm brought little cash to his pocket, he was anqjly supplied by it with all the 
 necessaries of life, and was cheered by seeing the daisy, primrose, and other 
 British flowers, and all the fruits of his native land, flourish round his cottage.
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 587 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 
 
 EARLY CAREER OF IIEKI — BRITISH FLAGSTAFF CUT DOWN — CONFERENCE WITH THE 
 NATIVES — FLAGSTAFF AGAIN CUT DOWN — DESCRIPTION OF KORORAREKA — ATTACK 
 ON THE TOWN — EXPEDITION DESPATCHED AGAINST HEKI — UNSUCCESSFUL ASSAULT 
 ON OKAEHAU — SECOND EXPEDITION — ATTACK ON OHAIOWAI — FALL OF RUA-PEKA- 
 PEKA — SURRENDER OF KAWITI AND DEATH OF HEKI — THE WAIRAU MASSACRE — 
 ATTACK ON BOULCOTT'S FARM — CAPTURE OF TE RAUPARAHA — MASSACRE OF THE 
 GILFILLANS. 
 
 The following nari'cative of the INIaoii vrars of 1845-46 is taken chiefly from 
 Colonel Mundy's work, entitled " Our Antipodes." 
 
 It was on account of the growing ill-will between the English and the natives, 
 that the first governor applied for a military force to be stationed in New Zealand. 
 In consequence of this requisition, the Governor of New South Wales was 
 directed to send a force from Sydney ; and accordingly a party of the SOth Regi- 
 ment, consisting of three officers and eighty-four men, with a commissariat officer 
 and an ordnance storekeeper, Avere despatched from Sydney to the Bay of Islands, 
 and reached that place — then the seat of government — early in April 1840. The 
 detachment of the SOth had not long to wait for employment ; for in less than 
 two months after their arrival, a party was sent to quell a distui'bance between 
 some American seamen and the inhabitants of a native pah belonging to an influ- 
 ential chief It was a drunken night-brawl, and no one was hurt on either side 
 except a tips-y sailor and one native. Yet this first and trifling shock between 
 the native and the English soldier was certainly not forgotten by the former. 
 
 An apt instrument in the hands of the enemies of order and the British 
 Government, was found in the now famous Ileki. This turbulent warrior, not a 
 chief by descent, and, perhaps fortunately for the fate of the British settlements, 
 never either liked or much respected by the majority of the real chieftains, lived 
 as a boy in the capacity of servant at the Church of England missionary station 
 at Pallia. Accompanying the worthy Mr Marsden to New South Wales, and 
 residing in his service at Paramatta, he was continually found al)sent from his 
 duties, and was as constantly discovered in the barrack-yard, looking on at the 
 drill. His missionary education so far profited him that he had read as well as 
 " heard of battles," and had longed, like the less ambitious Norval, not only " to 
 follow to the field some warlike lord " — but to be himself that lord. The exter- 
 minator Hongi — Christian like himself by very loose profession — gave him his
 
 588 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 first lessons in war and his daughter in marriage. At length his longings took 
 the peculiar form of cutting down the British ilagstaff, which designing persons 
 had taught him to regard as the symbol of Maori subjugation and slavery. This 
 desire seems to have amounted to a kind of monomania. Wound up for 
 mischief, Honi Heki commenced operations by sundry depredations on the white 
 settlers^carrying off horses, cattle, boats, etc. ; and in July 1844, on a trivial 
 plea of having been insulted by a native woman married to an Englishman of 
 Kororareka, he made his appearance at that settlement with an armed party of 
 wild young men, who remained there for two days bullying and plundering 
 the men, and brutally insulting the women. These unworthy eleves of the 
 missionaries, " after performing prayers with arms in their hands," proceeded in 
 a body to the Signal Hill, and cut down the flagstaff with great ceremony. The 
 police magistrate on this occasion dissuaded the male inhabitants from armed 
 resistance of this savage inroad, although there were, it is said, a hundred men 
 ready and willing to turn out under his orders. It was evidently Heki's main 
 object to excite the whites to hostilities, as a pretext for the commission of every 
 horror whereof the man-brute is capable. Yet it is difficult to believe that an 
 English magistrate, with a hundred armed Englishmen at his back, would have 
 counselled tame submission to a couple of hundred Maoris ; or that, if such 
 counsel had been given, a hundred Englishmen would have been found to follow 
 it, and in so doing to see their wives and daughters insulted, and their property 
 despoiled by the barbarians ! 
 
 This first crusade against the standard of England by Heki was, in fact, a 
 deliberate declaration of war; for it was undertaken by previous and open 
 arrangement, and, in spite of the remonstrances of the missionaries, the protector 
 of aborigines, and the police magistrate. " Is Te Eauparaha to have all the 
 honour of killing the Pakehas 1 " exclaimed the pseudo-Christian chief, advert- 
 ing to the massacre of the Wairau which occurred some ten months before — a 
 tolerably plain avowal of his intentions, and furnishing a motive for the evidently 
 premeditated insults inflicted on these placid settlers of Kororareka ; for, placid 
 to a Quakerish extent they must have been as a body, however individually 
 intrepid, to have " turned the other cheek," not only on this comparatively trivial 
 occasion, but on that of the subsequent destruction of the place. 
 
 The unlucky flagstaff" of Eussell, on which the Government chose to hoist the 
 red cross of England, was situated on the top of a high and rugged hill, sur- 
 rounded by tangled ravines, half-a-mile from the town ; and was, in fact, so 
 placed as a signal-mast for telegraphing shipping outside the bay. The proper 
 place for the standard would have been within the town stockade ; and, surely, 
 on the first occupation of a country where our welcome was so doubtful and 
 partial obstruction absolutely certain, no settlement ought to have been made or 
 left without such a place of refuge for the inhabitants in case of need, and where 
 a few stui'dy soldiers might have defied any Maori attempt. But the fable of 
 "the flagstaff'" was like that of the "wolf and the lamb;" and Heki, in the 
 character of the former ravenous animal, would have found other bone of conten- 
 tion to pick, if flagstaff" there had been none.
 
 THE MAURI WARS. 589 
 
 At the time of the first foil of the flag at Kororareka (which iiii<>ht be coii- 
 sidert-d, and was, indeed, regarded hy the Government and the settlers as a most 
 siguilieant declaration of hostility on the part of Honi Ileki's faction), the mili- 
 tary force at Auckland, the new scat of Government, amounted to about 180 
 soldiers of all ranks, belonging to the 80th and OGth Regiments. Lieut.-Governor 
 Fit/ Ivoy, on hearing of Ileki's outrages, immediately detached a small party — 
 one otlicer anil thirty men — to the scene of riot, and wrote a pressing requisition 
 for a strong reinforcement to the Governor of New South Wales, who so promptly 
 acted upon it, that on the 14th of the following month a detachment of 150 men 
 of the 99th Regiment, with two light guns, field equipages, stores and provisions, 
 were disembarked at Kororareka, and encamped there. The lieutenant-governor 
 himself soon afterwards arrived at the Bay of Islands in H.M.S. "Hazard," and 
 instantly caused to be put on board this ship and some other vessels a party of 
 210 soldiers, with which force, together with a body of armed seamen, he crossed 
 the harbour to Heki's country. This sudden demonstration of force, its encamp- 
 ment at Kororareka, and its rapid descent upon the enemy's coast, had, doubt- 
 less, a good effect upon the wiser and less warlike native leaders, whose consequent 
 mediation between the governor and Heki prevented a collision which, consider- 
 ing the weakness of the Enghsh force, and the determined character of the 
 natives — not then fully appreciated — with the strong and difficult country 
 through which the invasion was to be carried, might have proved disastrous to 
 the British. 
 
 Prior to sending back the troops to New South Wales (pursuant to the desire 
 of the governor of that colony), the lieutenant-governor called a convocation of 
 the neighbom-ing chiefs, and he met them at Waimate, the Church jNIissionary 
 settlement in the Bay. The conference between the English governor and his 
 officials, civil and military, the missionary clergy, the Maori leaders and their 
 adherents, must have been a singular and interesting spectacle. His Excellency 
 addressed the assembly in a speech full of indignation. He reminded them of 
 the benefits wrought among them by the missionaries, and explained to them 
 that the Queen of England assumed the government of their islands for their 
 own good, and to protect them from aggression by other nations ; that the flag 
 was the sacred symbol of that protection. His Excellency closed his speech by 
 a demand for a number of fire-arms to be given up by the assembled natives as 
 an atonement of Heki's misconduct. Thereupon several chiefs sprang up, and 
 bringing about twenty guns laid them at the governor's feet. These he accepted 
 in acknowledgment of Honi's errors, and immediately restored them to the 
 Maoris. In return, his Excellency had to listen, through his interpreter, to 
 some very long-winded speeches (not, however, devoid of wild eloquence, and 
 even of good feeling) from the native chiefs, among whom the passion for oratory 
 is very strong. No fewer than twenty-four men of note got upon their legs on this 
 occasion. Subjoined are a few specimens of these orations, or rather their pith: 
 
 Moses Tawhai (a brave warrior, and staunch ally of the British afterwards), 
 said : " Welcome, governor ! your kindness is great. My heart has been roasted 
 and cooked on account of this circumstance of Heki's. . . . Don't imagine that
 
 590 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 evil will entirely cease. It will not. You must expect more troubles from us ; 
 but when tliey come, settle them in this way ; and not with guns and soldiers. 
 Governor, I give you my first Avelcome, fully acknowledging you as governor of 
 this country." 
 
 Anaru said : " My people are a troublesome people. Do not be discouraged. 
 ]\Iany Europeans have had troubles Avith the Maoris ; but nothing very serious 
 has ever taken place. Do not be discouraged. Governor, welcome ! Remember, 
 Heki is a child of Hongi, and has always been troublesome. Do not be dis- 
 couraged." 
 
 Tomati Waka Nene {our firmest native friend) : " Governor, if that flagstaff* 
 is cut down again, Ave will fight for it : Ave Avill fight for it all of us. We are of 
 one tribe, and Ave Avill fight for the staff and for our governor. I am sorry that 
 it has occurred ; but you may return the soldiers. Return, governor ; Ave Avill 
 take care of the flag ; Ave, the old folks, are well-disposed, and will make the 
 young folks so also." 
 
 Hihiatoto (the Avould-be Quintius Curtius of the Maori race) then sprang up 
 and said : " I am the man Avho cut the staff down. Do not look after that man, 
 Heki. Take me as payment. Who is Heki ? — Avho is Heki ? Take me !" 
 
 The self-saci'ifice does not appear to have been accepted. Before leaving 
 AVaimate, his Excellency received a characteristic letter from Heki, couched in 
 these terms : 
 
 " Friend Governor, — This is my speech to you. My disobedience and my rudeness is no new 
 thing. I inherit it from my parents, from my ancestors. Do not imagine that it is a new feature in 
 my character. But I am thinking of leaving off my rude conduct towards the Europeans. Now, I say 
 that I will jsrepare a new pole, inland at Waimate, and I will erect it in its proper place at Kororareka, 
 in order to put an end to our present quarrel. Let your soldiers remain beyond sea and at Auckland. 
 Do not send them here. The pole that was cut down belonged to me. I made it for the Blaori flag, 
 and it was never paid for by the English. — From your friend, 
 
 "(Signed) HoNi Heki Pokai." 
 
 The hollow truce effected by the koriro above noticed was of short duration. 
 Enemies of England and order, national and denominational adversaries, Avere 
 active in perverting the minds of the Maoris by every means — among Avhich the 
 practice of translating according to their views, and garbling passages from the 
 local and English ncAvspapers, Avas very effective. In January 18-4."), accordingly, 
 Johnny Hicky (as the soldiers called him) made another gathering of the wild 
 youngsters at his beck for any deed of mischief, and Avith them paid a nocturnal 
 visit to the old object of his antipathy, the flagstaff, Avhich had ])een duly 
 re-erected, and Avas guarded by friendly natives. These recreant guardians, 
 being connected Avith Honi's tribe, and unAvilling, as they afterAvards said, to 
 shed blood for a bit of wood, made but a faint resistance ; the axe Avas once 
 more laid to the root of the staff"; the red cross kissed the dust; and the rebel 
 chief sent his compliments to the resident magistrate, to say that he avouUI return 
 in a couple of months to burn the Government buildings, and eject tlic Govern- 
 ment officers from the settlement. His Excellency, uoav convinced tliat the 
 disaffected party liad gained strength, and Avere bent on coming into actual
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 501 
 
 collision with the authorities, again applied to New South Wales for an accession 
 of force — which, however, owing to the dilliculty of obtaining tonnage for its trans- 
 port and stress of weather, did not leave Sydney until the 11th March, the very 
 day on which the third and crowning visitation of the Wainiate missionary pet 
 to the doomed settlement of Kororareka occurred, Avhen it was effectually sur- 
 prised, taken, sacked, and burned ! 
 
 In the previous mouth II. M.S. " Hazard " had conveyed to that i)lace from 
 Auckland, a detachment of lifty men with two subaltern oflicers — all that could 
 be spared from the weak garrison of the capital ; and they carried with them 
 the materials for a musket-proof blockhouse to protect the already twice dis- 
 honoured tiagstaft'. "The settlers," relates Captain Fitz lioy, "were armed and 
 drilletl, although very reluctantly on their part. A strong stockade was erected 
 as a place of safety for the women and children, and some light guns were 
 mounted. No anxiety as to the result of any attack was entertained, but on the 
 contrary there was rather over-confidence, and far too low an opinion of the 
 native enterprise and valour." During the first days of INIarch armed parties 
 of natives collected in the neighbourhood of Eussell, carrying ott" horses and 
 destroying property. Other forays followed, which prepared the English — or 
 ought to have prepared them — for further troubles ; but no one expected, no 
 Englishman had a right to expect, the disastrous and disgraceful results of the 
 nth March 1845. 
 
 Having brought the reader up to that period which may be looked u2:)on as 
 the opening of the Anglo-Maori war, we will look forth over the scene of 
 operations. We are about three or four hundred feet above the sea, on a 
 narrow platform of tolerably level ground, where a company of infantry could 
 scarcely be paraded. It is as though we stood on the crest of a huge wave, 
 surrounded by hundreds of similar billows with deep dark hollows between them. 
 The flanks of these surging elevations and the gorges dividing them are thickly 
 clad with fern nearly man's height, and with stunted storm-worn shrubs. The 
 cluster of hills forms a rugged peninsula, whereof three sides are embraced by 
 the devious waters of the Bay of Islands. The view across this fine estuary is 
 remarkable for picturesque beauty — various pretty islands gemming its glossy 
 bosom. On its opposite shore, some four or five miles distant, you descry the level 
 plains of Victoria, where the first Government officer ever employed in New 
 Zealand first pitched his tent ; and, farther on, the green, sheltered, and peaceful 
 nook of the Waimate station, eloquent of missionary thrift and emulative of 
 ancient monastic acumen in choice of site. Beyond these the swelling ferny 
 hills, rising gradually into mountains of wilder and grander form, lose themselves 
 in the showery clouds common to this climate. 
 
 Rounding the head of the bay we pass over the snug-looking but ill-chosen 
 military cantonment of Wahapu — not more than three miles from Kororareka by 
 water, but separated by seven miles of roi;gh hill and gully from this place, 
 which it is intended to supjiort. Approaching Kororareka from that direction, 
 our eyes fall upon a mass of heights somewhat similar to that on which we 
 stand, but of smaller extent and elevation, and between them, under our feet,
 
 592 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the yellow crescent of Kororareka Cove, about three-quarters of a mile in length. 
 Accommodating itself to the curve of the beach, runs a double line of white- 
 washed wooden houses, constituting the present tow^n, arisen, though much 
 reduced in size, from its ashes. At the farthest extremity thereof, close under 
 the opposite buttress of the little cove, is seen a group of buildings, showing 
 more of age and gi'eater evidence of care and prosperity than its neighbours. 
 This is the French Eoman Catholic missionary station, then presided over by 
 Bishop Pompalier — the only portion of the town spared by the invaders. 
 Immediately behind the town extends a somewhat swampy plain or common, 
 backed by a ridge of shrubby hills, which completes the semicircular enclosure 
 of the settlement by high ground within musket range. 
 
 With its quiet anchorage, land-locked from prevailing winds, and its level 
 site iiivourable for building, it is difficult to conceive a more convenient spot as 
 a resort for whaling or other vessels seeking refreshment, repair, or recreation 
 such as Jack ashore loveth ; and niched within a cluster of hills, Avith somewhat 
 similar coves favourable for the landing of canoes in rear of them, it is equally 
 difficult to conceive a settlement, founded in the midst of a country of Avarlike 
 savages, more vulnerable to attack and surprise ; except indeed its neighbour 
 Wahapu. Half-way up the ridge behind the village stand the Episcopal and 
 Catholic places of worship — modest weather-board edifices. With the glass we 
 can perceive several gun-shot holes in the front wall of the former, for Avhich it 
 was indebted to the broadside of the " Hazard." Near the base of the heights 
 on which we stand some blackened ruins and dismantled gardens, with two or 
 three rusting carronades lying amongst them, denote the site of the stockaded 
 house blown \\^ during the attack. Thence, the ascent to the Signal Hill is 
 extremely steep — so steep as to be cut into steps of earth fronted with plank. 
 The last object the eye rests on in completing the circle within its range, is the 
 fixllen flagstaff' rotting where it fell, Avhilst the native-cut kauri spar intended to 
 replace it lies helplessly on the beach below, as if Avaiting for a centipede's power 
 to crawl up to its appointed station ! There are traces also of tAvo blockhouses 
 — one protecting the flagstaff", the other beloAv the dip of the hill, Avell posted to 
 cross a fire with the town stockade and barrack, but affording no support to the 
 upper blockhouse. 
 
 On the night of the 10th of March, Held and his veteran associate in arms 
 and mischief, KaAviti, Avith a force variously computed at from tAvclve hundred 
 to five hundred men (the former chief afterAvards declared that not more than 
 two hundred were in the attack, although ten hundred joined in the sacking), 
 landed their respective parties in the two coves of Onoroa and Matavia. The 
 former disposed his men in close ambush among the ferny ravines in rear of the 
 Signal Hill ; and so fiivourable is the ground for such an operation that the 
 chief and his foremost men lay undiscovered and unsuspected Avithiu a fcAV 
 yards of the blockhouse, biding their time Avith all the i)atience and motionless 
 silence of the savage. So Avell matured Avere their plans to make the surprise 
 complete, that they were not tempted to deviate from them by kilhng or 
 capturing the junior of the two officers, Avho late that night passed close to one
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 593 
 
 of their bands, little thinking of the fierce eyes that were glaring on him through 
 the underwood skirting his path. Kawiti placed his followers in concealment 
 close to the opposite ilnnk of the scttlcMiiont. Although IToki, in accordance 
 M'ith jNIaori custom, had given the authorities of Kororareka a bhisteriiig promise 
 of attack, and various and, if report be veracious, equally blustering preparations 
 to moot it had been made, on the night in question no person, civil, naval, or 
 military, dreamed of the cordon of Unking savages by which they were compassed 
 round. Instead of lynx-eyed vigilance, careless carousing was the order of the 
 day in many of the houses of the town. The jirofcssional belligerents, it appears, 
 were perfectly on the alert — the little detachment of soldiers, disposed in the upper 
 blockhouse and the barrack, sleeping with their loaded arms by their sides, and 
 an armed body of seamen and marines, under the command of the acting com- 
 mander of the " Hazard," being stationed on shore for the night. The lower 
 blockhouse was occupied by some twenty of the townsfolk, with three small 
 guns mounted on a platform in front of it. 
 
 The Aveather favoured the assailants, for the morning of the 11th ]\Iarcli 
 broke over the earth in clouds and haze. At the first gleam of day the young 
 ensign in charge of the blockhouse started with a few men, and with more zeal 
 than prudence, to finish a breastwork on a height looking into Onoroa Bay, 
 where a picquet had been posted during the day, at a distance and separated by 
 rugged ground from his post. This working party carried with them their 
 entrenching tools and arms. Fifteen men Avere left under a corporal in the 
 signal blockhouse. The lieutenant in command had repaired to the barrack to 
 turn out his detachment, and the commander of the " Hazard " had proceeded 
 with an armed party to complete a little fieldwork for a gun on the spur of a 
 hill commanding the road to JNIatavia Bay. The ensign had just broken ground 
 when several shots from the side of Matavia attracted his notice, and he 
 immediately fell back towards the blockhouse. Under the impression that his 
 officer had been attacked, the corporal got his men under arms, and, with as 
 little forethought as his superior had shown, advanced towards the brow of the 
 hill, leaving only three or four men at the post. But finding that the firing was 
 from the farther side of the town, the gallant but outwitted non-commissioned 
 officer was in the act of returning to his little fortress, when suddenly, and as if 
 from the bowels of the earth, a strong body of well-armed INIaoris .sprang with 
 loud yells out of the gullies on its flanks and rear, one party of them rushing into 
 the blockhouse and instantly destroying its few defenders, another opening on 
 the soldiers a heavy fire, which, as reports the gallant corporal, " repelled us 
 back." "Firing and retiring," he retreated upon the officer's party, who, 
 reforming the whole of his men, attempted to retake the lost blockhouse. In 
 this he was frusti-ated by the fire of a cloud of native sharpshooters spread 
 unseen among the brushwood, as well as from the captors of the post, when 
 finding that these soldiers of nature were striving to throw a force between him 
 and the lower blockhouse, his only rall}ang-point, he retreated upon and took 
 possession and command of it. 
 
 Meanwhile the lieutenant of the 96th and the naval commander had barely 
 
 4 F
 
 594 THE HIS TOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 reached their posts, when the latter was attacked, as is said, by about two 
 hundred men, who, taking advantage of the darkness, their knowledge of the 
 ground, and the cover afforded by the brushwood and flax tussocks, outflanking 
 and outnumbering the English, gradually drove them, fighting hand to hand, 
 back upon the town, killing and wounding several, but sufi^ering severely them- 
 selves. Near an angle of the churchyard-fence was the spot where the gallant 
 Captain Robertson cut down a stalwart chief, and received five desperate wounds 
 while dealing sturdy blows right and left among the swarthy foes by whom he 
 was encompassed. Lieutenant Barclay, with his detachment, was so briskly 
 attacked in front and flank as to bring him to a check, and finally to compel him 
 to retire with the naval party, whose ammunition had failed them, to the lower 
 blockhouse, into which he threw his people just as its beleaguers, becoming more 
 audacious, had pressed close up to its walls. 
 
 A considerable reinforcement of Maoris now came jDouring over the hills, and 
 a large party, rushing down a gully, seized the barrack, of which, always inde- 
 fensible and now deserted, they took possession. A gun on the platform opened 
 upon the barrack to dislodge them, while the two others blazed away among 
 the thickets in front, filled with skirmishing natives. The gallant Philpotts, an 
 officer of the " Hazard," who fell afterwards at Ohaiowai, proposed " to rush the 
 hills " if supported by the soldiers, and drive off" these daring savages ; and 
 although this measure was not acceded to by the heutenant in command, a few 
 soldiers and sailors dashed out,' without orders, and cleared the front of the 
 blockhouse. An attempt to retake the upper blockhouse was also proposed 
 by a bold civilian, but his proposal was not seconded ; nor could it possibly have 
 succeeded, the fern being filled with outlying savages close upon the work, and 
 ready to cross their fire with their friends within it. What has been lost by an 
 act of gross neglect can rarely be redeemed by one of gross temerity, although, 
 perhaps, the commission of the former fault might account for and excuse the 
 latter. 
 
 It was now mid-day. The women and children had been removed from the 
 crowded rooms and cellars of the stockade to the shipping ; and this fortunate 
 migration had barely been completed, when, to put a climax to the confusion, 
 the magazine within the building exploded, wounding several persons and 
 entirely destroying the place, the last refuge of the non-combatants. In conse- 
 quence of this mishap, whereby the greater part of the spai'e ammunition was 
 lost, a council of war was held on board the " Hazard," and the resolution to 
 evacuate and abandon at sundown the settlement of Kororareka was passed and 
 adopted. Accordingly, during a truce which had been demanded by the chiefs 
 to carry off" their killed and wounded, the military and civilians were embarked 
 on board H.M.S. "Hazard," the United States corvette "St Louis" (which was 
 present during the conflict, but remained neutral), the whale-ship " Matilda," 
 and the " Dolphin " schooner. The party of military in the blockhouse were 
 the last to embark. During the evening a few of the townspeople who were 
 most popular with the natives were employed in bringing ott" portions of their 
 property. Astonished at their own success, the Maoris deliberately performed
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 595 
 
 the usual rites over the dead, danced the usual quantum of war-dances, indulged 
 in lono-winded knriros or boasting sjioechcs over their jiipcs, and then coming 
 down from the hills in a body, phnulei-ed the stores and dwelling-houses so 
 obligingly ceded to them. On tlie afternoon of the following day they burned the 
 town to the ground, " and a settlement of very early days, but of great iiii(|nity," 
 reports Colonel Hulme, "is now a mass of ruins." 
 
 The 9Gtli's loss was four men killed and live wounded. The " Hazard " lost 
 six men killed and eight wounded ; and Captain llobcrtson's hurts were so 
 severe, that his life was for some time despaired of. The loss of the natives was 
 put down at about eighty killed and wounded, but they acknowledged to no 
 such amount. The officers lost the greater part of their baggage, and about £40 
 of public money ; and the soldiers the whole of their greatcoats and kits, 
 barrack-bedding and utensils— fine plunder for tlie Maoris, in whose eyes an 
 English blanket was as great a treasure and an article of costume as absolutely 
 de rigueur as a Cashmere shawl in those of a French lady. On the 13th the 
 shipping got under way from the cove on its way to Auckland, and Kororareka 
 ceased to exist as a British settlement. 
 
 Such is the singular, the almost incredible, story of the fall of Kororareka. 
 The word panic affords probably its only solution. The toAvnspeople, the 
 garrison, the marine force, were duly forewarned of an intended attack ; there 
 was a detachment of fifty British soldiers — composed, indeed, as the colonel 
 reports, of very young men, " scarcely dismissed drill " — with two bullet-proof 
 blockhouses and a stockaded building ; a British sloop-of-war, carrying fourteen 
 guns, moored within a quarter of a mile of the shore, with pinnace, or other heavy 
 boat, capable of placing a gun or two in closer action if necessary. A strong 
 party of seamen and marines, well armed and officered, were stationed ashore ; 
 there were some police, two or three old soldiers capable of managing the guns 
 in battery; there were arms and ammunition for all hands, and more than one 
 fuU-of-fight-ful toAvnsmen ready to lead to battle the armed civilians, of whom a 
 few months before, as reported by one of their number, " there Avere not less 
 than a hundred men ready to stand up in defence of their families and property." 
 These seem admirable materials for defence against a desultory foray of undis- 
 ciplined barbarians; but there was no head, or too many, to direct them! 
 Civilians were permitted to interfere with the military, instead of being compelled 
 to act as subordinates, or to manage their own amateur soldiering independently 
 of the regular forces. The round shot of the sloop and the blockhouse did 
 but little execution amongst a wily enemy dispersed over broken and scrubby 
 ground ; and for the same reason the musketry Avas nearly as innocuous ; the 
 glacis of the signal blockhouse was obstructed by the hut of the signalman and 
 jjy rough gullies running up close to the ditch ; the two works were not pro- 
 visioned ; they did not enfilade each other. The loss was irretrievable, the error 
 inexplicable ; because it opened the eyes of the natives to their own power, and 
 broke down the prestige of British superiority and the previous inliiUibility of the 
 British soldier. Nothing could have been more foreign to Heki's intention, or 
 more utterly beyond his hopes, than the idea of taking, sacking, and destroying
 
 596 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 an English garrison town ! His visit was to the kara — the colour — type as he 
 thought of INIaori subjugation. He had outwitted and outmanoeuvred its 
 incautious defenders, and having cut it down his object was effected. His quarrel 
 was not with the inhabitants, but with the Government, Avith the flag, and its 
 guard. The evacuation of the settlement by the townsfolk was an absurdity. 
 The land and marine forces would, of course, have stood by them had they 
 remained, and the town could scarcely have been plundered under the guns of 
 the " Hazard." 
 
 Two Christian bishojis, Dr Selwyn and M. Pompalier, head of the Jesuit 
 mission, were present at this unblessed conflict. The former, who had arrived 
 in his little yacht, employed himself with the greatest assiduity in assisting the 
 wounded and helpless in embarking. " Was it not a terrible scene 1 " said 
 Captain Mundy to the good prelate one day, striving to elicit his oi^inion of the 
 afiair. " It was a painful, a very painful sight ! " was the grave reply. He added 
 that the plundering was conducted Avith the utmost moderation — the savages 
 pillaging from one door of a house, whilst the owners were removing goods by 
 the other. There were not wanting those who read in the destruction of 
 Kororareka a judgment upon its crimes. 
 
 On the arrival of the ships in Auckland, great was the tumult and panic, for 
 Honi had boasted that he would attack the capital next. The late inhabitants 
 of Kororareka, who had lost all their property, and perhaps no little of their self- 
 respect, were loud in their reproaches against the military and the Government 
 officials, making such gross imputations against the two young ofiicers as com- 
 pelled the lieutenant-colonel commanding in New Zealand to convene a court- 
 martial for the investigation of the charges. The lieutenant was " most fully 
 and most honourably acquitted " by the court. The ensign was arraigned " for 
 that he did heedlessly and carelessly guard the blockhouse committed to his 
 charge, and evacuate the same without sufficient cause and without orders from 
 his superior ofllcer." He was found guilty, with the exception of the word 
 " evacuating," and sentenced to be severely reprimanded. His were merely the 
 errors of inexperience. 
 
 A sentence of outlawry was passed against Heki and his ally, Kawiti — which, it 
 is likely, did not seriously affect the spirits, appetite, and health of these warriors ; 
 but what was much more important, the governor was assailed by writers in the 
 papers and " other thoughtless persons," burning for vengeance, and blind to all 
 risk from its hasty indulgence, who urged him to fit out a retributive expedition 
 against the rebel chiefs. Sorely against his own judgment and expressed opinion, 
 he therefore gave directions for the ill-fated expedition under Lieut.-Colonel 
 llulme. 
 
 A rumour was rife in Auckland that Heki, the missionary Christian — the 
 great quoter of Scripture, and, therefore, perverter thereof — elated with his 
 success, intended to attack the Christian capital with two thousand men at the 
 next full moon. Fortunately, however, a considerable accession of force reached 
 that station towards the end of March, in H.M.S. " North Star," which, together 
 with a small transport, brought six ofiicers and two hundred men of the 58th
 
 THE MAORI WARS. i597 
 
 Keyiment to restore confidence to the despondini,' colonists, many of whom, undt^r 
 the influence of the hotter part of valour, were leaving New Zealand for more 
 tran<piil (quarters. Civil warfare, moi'eover, operated pretty strenuously to divert 
 Johnny's attention from his object ; for the brave and loyal chief of llokianga, 
 Tomati Waka, Avith his brother, raised their tribe, and, true to his promise at the 
 Waimate convention, attacked the conqueror of Kororareka and the enemy of the 
 British Hag, on his own territory. Finding himself, however, unable to cope 
 with superior numbei's, or tired of fighting — for the INIaori, though fond of war, 
 is incapable of long-sustained operations — Waka urged the governor to hasten to 
 his assistance ; and accordingly his Excellency, conceiving that the case admitted 
 of no delay, despatched all the force he could muster to the Bay of Islands with 
 discretionary orders to its leaders, Lieut-Colonel Hulme and Captain Sir E. 
 Home, to attack Ileki in conjunction with Waka whenever fit occasion might 
 occur. 
 
 The expedition, embarking at Auckland, reached Kororareka on the 28th of 
 April, and found the " North Star " in the bay. The gallant captain and coloneh 
 in order to re-establish the authority of the Queen at that place, landed immedi- 
 ately Avith a guard of honour, and once more, with every ceremony, hoisted the 
 British flag. After seizing the person and the pah of a disaffected chief named 
 Pomare, a few miles up the harbour, the expedition sailed for, and anchored off 
 the missionary station of Pahia, across the bay, where Tomati Waka came on 
 board, and held a conference with the British commanders, urging instant action 
 against Heki, whose force he rated at twelve hundred men. This sagacious and 
 loyal chief indicated the best route for the march, and promised to co-operate 
 with eight hundred of his tribe. H.IM.S. " Hazard " having meanwhile joined 
 the expedition, at daylight on the 3d of May the force, consisting of the 
 small-armed seamen, the marines, and the military — in all about four hundred, 
 men — disembarked at a point about thirty miles distant from Waka's pah, 
 which they hoped to reach in two days, carrying five days' biscuit and two days' 
 cooked meat. There were no means of transport for spare ammunition, camp 
 equipage, cooking utensils, or the spirit ration. So tremendous Avas the weather 
 and the state of the roads, that the colonel did not reach his destination until 
 the 5th, and he found there but Avi'etched shelter from the continual rain. 
 
 The following morning the colonel, as he reports, " had a kuriro with Waka ; 
 and when he found that I intended to assault Heki's pah, and force an entrance 
 by pulling down the palisades, he smiled, and said we were all madmen, and that 
 every man would be sacrificed in the attempt ; and to impress his opinions more 
 forcibly he declared that Ave could not easily take his pah, AAdiich Avas not half so 
 strong as Heki's." White persons Avho had been there informed him, "that 
 it had three roAvs of palisades all round it ; that there was a deep ditch inside ; 
 that large stones had been piled up against the inner palisades ; and that 
 traverses had been cut from side to side, and deep holes dug, in Avliich the rebels 
 Avould shelter themselves from our fire and destroy the troops as they advanced." 
 He had no artillery, but he possessed a feAv rockets, the effect of Avhich he was 
 resolved to try ; and feeling, as he says, " that the chances of Avar arc many,"
 
 598 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the gallaut officer placed his force in position near that of the enemy, formed 
 in three parties of assault and a reserve, prepared to seize an opportunity for 
 storming it should accident offer one. 
 
 On the morning of the 8th of May, the English force, accompanied by about 
 three hundred of Waka's tribe, marched from that chief's stockade towards 
 Heki's camj) — the friendly natives Avearing a white head-band to distinguish 
 them from the foe. The reserve halted in rear of a ridge about three hundred 
 paces from the rebel j^h ; while the three assaulting parties — one composed of 
 armed seamen, another of the 58th Light Company, and the third of detachments 
 of the marines and 96th Eegiment — advanced and occupied under a heavy fire 
 the positions previously arranged, Avithin two hundred yards of the work, driving 
 some natives from a small breastwork. "And now," observes the colonel in his 
 despatch, "more closely examining Heki's pah, I Avas convinced that it was 
 impossible to take it by assault, until it Avas first breached, without a great 
 sacrifice of life and with uncertain success, for the j'>f//i had been unusually 
 strengthened, the flax leaf having been forced into the interstices of the outer 
 palisades to turn the musket balls. The rocket party, under command of Lieu- 
 tenant Egerton, of H.M.S. 'North Star,' took up a position, and fired several 
 rockets, but in consequence of Heki having covered the roofs of the huts with 
 flax leaf, they did not set them on fire. A few of the rebels left the pah on the 
 first rockets exploding, but they afterwards returned to it — the affair of Koror- 
 areka having accustomed Heki and his main body to the operation of shells." 
 
 MeauAvhile the besieged were not idle, nor did they show themselves ignorant 
 of that very effective method of protracting defence — the sortie ; for a strong 
 body under Kawiti, stealing through the bush, Avere in the act of falling upon 
 the unprotected flank of the advanced posts — Avhen the ambush was detected by 
 the sharp and practised eye of a friendly native. Warned of the impending 
 danger, these parties, directing a heavy fire upon the spot, made a spirited charge, 
 driving the enemy in confusion before them, and killing many at close quarters ; 
 the British bayonet doing its AA'ork in its usual style Avhen fairly brought to bear 
 on its object. Soon afterAvards some signalising, by means of flags, took place 
 between Heki Avithin the fortress and KaAviti Avithout. The result was a com- 
 bined attack by these leaders on the advanced position, in which many of the 
 boldest reached the entrenchment previously taken, and Avere there killed. 
 KaAviti Avas again repulsed by the bayonet Avith some loss. Yet was this not the 
 last effort of the hoary Avarrior, Avho was much more liberal of his person than 
 his younger and stronger associate (a tall and athletic man, Avhile Kawiti Avas 
 small and decrepit) — for AA'hen the advanced posts Avcre ordered to retire on the 
 reserve, and were bringing off' their Avoundcd, unsupported by Heki he made a 
 third and fierce attack upon our people, Avhich was checked and finally repulsed 
 by the skirmishers. It Avas said that the old chieftain here narroAvly escaped 
 the bayonets of a party inider the adjutant of the 58th, himself a formidable 
 antagonist — making up for his Avant of activity by his skill in concealing his 
 person in the scrub, he Avas fairly run over more than once. The British loss 
 was fourteen soldiers, seamen, and marines, killed ; two officers, four sergeants.
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 599 
 
 thirty-two soldiers, seamen, and marines, and one private servant wounded. The 
 loss of the rebels could not be correctly ascertained. Several chiefs were slain ; 
 old Kawiti was rendered childless, two of his sons being killed ; besides which 
 several near relatives, and noaily tlio whole of his tTil)n wlio were present, fell in 
 the skirniislies. Having collected his wounded, the Eiigli.sli leader commenced 
 a retrograde movement, and reached on the evening of the 8th Waka's stockade. 
 Harassed by heavy rain, and encumbered with his wounded, he arrived on tho 
 12th at Pallia, the missionary settlement, where he awaited further orders from 
 the governor. 
 
 Thus ended the first series of operations undertaken against Honi Heki, the 
 missionary lad, in his fortress of Okaehau. The unsuccessful issue of this 
 expedition is attributable to one radical want — the want of battering artillery. 
 The troops, indeed, suffered under a multitude of minor difficulties, such as are 
 enumerated in the official letter of Colonel Hulme — most of them rendered 
 unavoidable by the public indigence ; among which were the absence of carriages 
 or beasts of burthen, of camp equipment, and of hospital, commissariat, and store 
 departments. But soldiers belonging to an army Avhose energies the flaming 
 sun of Ilindostan and the icy hurricanes of America have alike failed to daunt, 
 would have derided hardships such as befell them here, however severe, if the war 
 munitions absolutely necessary to place their enemy within their reach had been 
 afforded them. The colonel states his unquestionably correct opinion, that in 
 New Zealand " the troops should be actively employed only when the season of 
 the year is favourable for military movements;" and that "whenever it may be 
 necessary to assemble a force to crush a rebellion of the natives, the troops 
 should not be employed on that duty without a proper equipment, in order to 
 be able to act with vigour and alacrity ; and every aid which modern warfare 
 affords." 
 
 A few days after the affair of Okaehau, Archdeacon Williams had an inter- 
 view with Heki — once his mission servant, now a great rebel chieftain successful 
 in two battles, in both attack and defence, against English disciplined forces ; 
 and the reverend missionary proposed terms of peace to him. Certain places 
 were to be vacated by the natives, and ceded to the English ; horses, boats, and 
 other property belonging to Europeans to be restored ; the flagstaff to be paid 
 "staff for staff;" the rebel leader himself to retire to Wangaroa for two years; 
 "after which, if he remained quiet, the governor would receive him." 
 
 Upon the subject of this proposal, Honi addressed a letter to the governor, 
 of which the following are a few characteristic passages : 
 
 "ifo2/21«<, 1845. 
 
 "Friend the Governor,— I have no opinion to offer in this affair, because a death's door has been 
 opened. . . . Where is the correctness of the protection offered in the treaty I Where is the correctness 
 of the goodwill of England ] Is it in her great guns ? Is it in her Congrcve rockets ? Is the goodwill 
 of England shown in the curses of Englishmen and in their adulteries 1 Is it shown in their calling us 
 slaves ? or is it shown in their regard for our sacred places I 
 
 "... The Europeans taunt us. They say, ' Look at Port Jackson, look at China, and all tho 
 islands ; they are but a precedent for this country. That flag of England which t;ikes your country is 
 the commencement.' After this the French, and after them the Americans, told us the same.
 
 600 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 " Well, I assented to these spoeches, . . . and in the fifth yeai' (of these speeches) we interfered with ' 
 the flagstaff for the first time. We cut it down, and it fell. It was re-erected ; and then we said, ' All 
 this we have heard is true, because they persist in having the flagstaff up.' And we said, 'We will die 
 for our country which God has given us. ' . . . 
 
 " If you demand our land, where are we to go to % To Port Jackson ? to England 1 If you will 
 consider about gi%-ing us a vessel it will be very good. Many people — (here he enumerates tribes) — ■ 
 took a part in the plunder of Kororareka. There were but two hundred at the fight, but there were teu 
 hundred at the plundeiing of the town. Waka's fighting is nothing at all. He is coaxing you, his friend, 
 for property, that you may say he is faithfiil. I shall not act so. He did not consider that some of his 
 people were at the plunder of the town. ... It was through me alone that the missionaries and other 
 Europeans were not molested. Were anything to happen to me all would be confusion. The natives 
 would not consider them harmless Eiu-opeans, but would kill in all directions. It is I alone who restrain 
 them. ... If you say we are to fight, I am quite agreeable ; if you say you will make peace with 
 your enemy, I am equally agreeable. ... I now say to you, leave Waka and myself to fight. We 
 are both Maoris. Yoii turn and fight with your own colour. It was Waka who called the soldiers 
 to Okaehau, and therefore they were killed ; that is all. Peace must be determined by you, the 
 governor. — From me, John William Pokai (Heki)." 
 
 In this original letter there is too much of truth to be pleasant to the reader 
 possessing a conscience and a recollection of some passages in our colonisation 
 of countries peojDled by races wearing skins of any shade darker than our own. 
 The " little learning" the savage mission-boy had jjicked up at the station of 
 Waimate had taught him to distrust the disinterestedness of our conquests and 
 the purity of our rule. The barbarian chief argues from analogy, judges of the 
 future by precedents in past history, and arrives at the logical conclusion, that 
 whether he fights or truckles, he will eventually be swallowed up by King Stork ! 
 A few days after writing the above letter, Heki, in making an attack upon the 
 pah of his pertinacious old foe Waka, who, nothing daunted by the retreat of 
 the British, held his ground, received a bad wound by a musket shot in the 
 thigh, from the effects of which he never entirely recovered, and which partly 
 caused his death in the year 1850. Heki was more of a diplomatist than a 
 sabreur — not possessing much physical courage ; his person and features were 
 fine, with a small cunning eye, and a massive obstinate chin. 
 
 The expedition under Colonel Hulme — a most intrepid and experienced 
 .soldiei' — although in the main unsuccessful, caused the dispersion of the rebels 
 for a time at least, as well as the loss of some of their bravest men. But 
 scarcely had the ships and troops returned to Auckland when information was 
 received that Heki was again collecting forces, and was actively engaged in 
 building a new ^wA which would be stronger than any yet constructed in New 
 Zealand. Reinforcements continued to arrive from Sydney, where Sir George 
 Gi^ips and the commander of the forces were making every exertion in their 
 power to assist the local government of New Zealand. It was of the utmost 
 importance to prevent the rebels from making head, and collecting the disaffected 
 from other parts of the island : therefore, without delay, another expedition was 
 prepared on a larger scale ; and the command of it was confided to Colonel 
 Desjxard of the 99th Regiment. The first expedition had expected to carry all 
 before them, and failed. The second expedition, organised with greater fore- 
 sight, and with the experience afforded by past disaster, was still more sanguine,
 
 THE MAORI WARS. GOl 
 
 and had better cause to be so ; yet the attempt to storm Heki's new stronghold 
 was frustrated with a deplorable loss of life on our side. 
 
 Colonel I)cs2)ard having heard on the 13th June, from an Englishman who 
 had seen Ileki, that his wound was very severe and that the ball had only been 
 cut out the day before, resolved to hasten his movements. The vessels accord- 
 ingljf got under Avay.'from Kororareka at daylight on the l(3th; crossed the Bay 
 of Islands quickly ; and the troo2)s being landed, reached the station at ^yaimatc 
 the following morning early. By a return, dated l.'^th June, the force (not 
 including the armed seamen and marines, who are not mentioned) appears to 
 have consisted, in round numbers, as follows: Twenty-four ofBccrs and 510 
 men of all ranks of the 58th, 9Gth, and 99th llegiments ; one oflicer of engineers, 
 one of artillery, two of the commissariat ; volunteers from the Auckland ^lilitia 
 for the services of the Royal Artillery and Engineers, two officers and seventy- 
 five men ; ordnance — two 12-lb. howitzers, two six-pounders. Nearly the same 
 difficulties which harassed the former, beset the present expedition — rainy 
 Avcathcr and almost imp;xssable roads; paucity of means of transport, and con- 
 sequent short supply of military and commissai-iat stores; a difficult country, 
 covered in some parts with brushwood seven or eight feet high and only a foot- 
 path traversing it, and intersected with high-banked and swampy streams; guns 
 without tumbrels or limbers, having ship-carriages with wheels fifteen inches 
 high, little suited to New Zealand mud, famous for depth and tenacity — such 
 were a few of the impediments in the way of the troops on the road to Waimate. 
 
 It was not until the 23d that the force was encamped in front of Ohaiowai — 
 about 350 yards from the face of the stockade, covered by an eminence. From 
 Waka's position the colonel, as he writes, " obtained a bird's-eye view of the 
 pah. It is situated in a hollow plain, in form a parallelogram, about 150 to 200 
 yards long, by 100 broad each face. On two angles there are projecting out- 
 Avorks, but the others have none. There is an outer barricade of timber, about 
 ten feet high, and, as well as I could judge with a good glass, each upright piece 
 I'rom six to eight inches in thickness, and fixed in the ground close to each other. 
 On the outside of this barricade a quantity of the native flax is tied, so as to 
 make it more ball-jDroof Within this barricade there is a ditch, from four to 
 five feet deep, and about the same broad. Within the ditch there is a second 
 barricade, similar to the outer one ; and the whole place is divided into three 
 parts by two other barricades crossing it, of similar height and strength to the 
 outer one. During the night of Monday, a battery of four guns was erected for 
 the purpose of breaching the face opposite where the troops were encamped, 
 Avhich opened at seven o'clock a.m. on Tuesday, but not with the effect I antici- 
 pated, as the shot frequently passed between the timbers, without displacing 
 any of them. After firing a short time it was discontinued, and during the niglit 
 the battery was removed to a better position, not more than 250 yards distant." 
 
 The shells plumped right into the midst of the stockade, the six-pounders 
 whistled through its wooden walls from one side to the other ; yet the tattooed 
 rogues made no sign. They slipped into their burrows underground when a 
 match Avas laid to a touch-hole, and kept up a brisk fusillade from their danger- 
 
 4g
 
 602 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ous and well-contrived loopholes d fleur de terre. After some time, " the small 
 brass pops " (as a former %yriter designates the breaching guns brought from 
 Hobart Town), tumbled off their platforms into the soft mud, as if astonished at 
 their own efforts. A battery at closer quarters was next tried, but with no 
 better success, for the breastwork being shaken down, it was soon silenced by- 
 musketry, and the guns were withdrawn after the enemy had made an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt to take them by a rush. 
 
 On the 30th June, with infinite labour and difficulty, a 32-lb. gun was brought 
 up to the camp from the " Hazard "—a distance of fifteen miles, and was posted 
 on the hill occupied by Waka's tribe — where a hght gun had already been posted 
 under a guard, to enfilade the defences. At ten a.m., on the 1st July, the great 
 gun opened with a diapason that astonished the natives, and the six-pounder 
 yapped like a small cur by its side. Great were the expectations raised by this 
 formidable acquisition ; and whilst the attention of every one was occupied in 
 observing its effects, old Kawiti once more tried his favourite trick of a flank 
 attack. Eushing from a thick wood close in rear of the battery, he drove 
 Tomati's " Irregulars " in confusion from the hill, and would undoubtedly have 
 overpowered the guard and taken the two guns, but for a timely and spirited 
 charge of a party of the 58th, who recovered the position and drove away the 
 enemy with loss. Yet they succeeded in carrying off a small union-j;xck, which 
 shortly afterwards was seen flying below the rebel standard in the stockade. 
 This impudent sortie " put the colonel's dander up considerable " (as Sam Slick 
 has it) ; and by three o'clock, not having a heavy shot in his locker — for the 
 32-lb. shot, twenty-six in number, brought from the " Hazard," were by this time 
 expended — he resolved on assaulting the place by escalade. Indeed he had been 
 prepared since the morning for this bold measure ; and the orders issued for the 
 distribution and direction of the storming parties were so detailed and so suit- 
 able to circumstances, and the troops under his command so admirable iu every 
 way, that had the breaching battery been tolerably effective no reasonable doubt 
 can be entertained of his perfect success. The sequence demands but iow 
 words of narrative. 
 
 Soon after three o'clock all was prepared ; the Englishmen ready to rush on 
 their savage enemy ; the INIaoris awaiting in grim silence their onset. Not a 
 shot was fired, not a sound heard ; when suddenly a bugle-blast, the signal for 
 advance, rang through the forest. Its notes were instantly drowned by a deafen- 
 ing cheer from the British ; and the wild yells of the savages joined in the fierce 
 concert, with the shouts of the officers and the rattling of musketry. In ten 
 minutes all was over ! one-third of the English force had bitten the dust. The 
 remainder recoiled, baffled, from the absolutely impregnable stockade. 
 
 The following is the list of the British loss before the fortified den of the 
 savage at Ohaiowai : — Killed : officers, 2 ; sergeants, 4 ; rank and file, 29 ; sea- 
 men, 2. Wounded : officers, 5 ; sergeants, 3 ; rank and file, 75 ; seamen, 3. 
 Names of officers killed: Lieutenant Philpotts, II.INI.S. "Hazard;" Captain 
 Grant, 5<Sth liogimcnt. Names of officers wounded — 99th Regiment : Brevet- 
 Major IStacpherson, severely; Lieutenant Beattie, severely; Lieutenant John-
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 603 
 
 stone, slightly ; Ensign O'Reilly, severely ; Mr W. Clarke, interpreter, severely. 
 Since dead of their wonnds : Lieutenant Bcattic and four privates. 
 
 During the night after the assault, the shrieks of a tortured prisoner of the 
 Onth, mingling Avitli the yells and roars of the war-dance witliin the pah, harrowed 
 the souls of his comrades. This unfortunate was never again heard of. 
 
 All the shot and shells being expended, and no transport for further sup- 
 plies being available, the colonel contented himself with holding his position, 
 directing his chief attention to the convcj'ance of the wounded to Waimate. 
 INIeanwhile the rain fell in torrents, night and day ; the men were harassed by 
 rumours of night attacks : the native allies rendered no assistance ; for, although 
 they admired the determined hardihood of the attempt upon that impregnable 
 stockade, they condemned, even ridiculed it as the act of mere madmen ; and 
 appeared to have lost all interest in the business so soon as the British took the 
 lead and the operations lost that stealthy and desultory character which suited 
 their tactics. Preparations were accordingly in progress for a general retreat to 
 Waimate, there to await fresh supplies and reinforcements ; when, early on the 
 morning of the lOtli July, it was discovered that the enemy had evacuated the 
 pah, leaving behind them four iron guns on ship-carriages, which do not appear 
 to have been used during the siege, immense quantities of provisions above and 
 under ground, and many INIaori A^aluablcs, such as muskets, axes, saws, and the 
 like — intended probably to engage the cupidity, and to prevent the pursuit of 
 their countrymen under Waka. They had no fear — could have none — of the red- 
 coat in the bush ; for they had already seen enough of him to know that it was 
 only on open ground he was their superior, and they took very good care not to 
 meet him there. 
 
 Upon taking possession of the ^?«7i, active search was made for the body of 
 the gallant Grant, grenadier captain of the 58th, and after disturbing several 
 INIaori graves, it was found. On stripping in order to wash the corpse, what 
 Avas the horror of the officers, his comrades, to find that it had been brutally 
 mutilated : after cutting off" the ffesh, Avhich the monsters had probably devoured, 
 they had carefully re-fastened the dress over the denuded bones ! There is some 
 consolation in knowing that no tortures could have been inflicted upon his living- 
 body, for the death-shot had passed through his gallant heart. The deceased, it 
 is said, had the strongest presentiments of death. In the old church at Para- 
 matta, in New South Wales, is a tablet raised by his brother officers to com- 
 memorate the loss " of a good soldier and a warm friend." Poor PhiljJOtts was 
 shot dead whilst bravely but vainly striving to force his way through the 
 palisades, and was scalped by the barbarian enemy. Beat tie, a fine young 
 officer, and much beloved by his brethren in arms, died of his wound ; and 
 these two lamented officers of the sister professions, buried with military 
 honours, lie side by side in the Mission churchyard at Waimate."' 
 
 On the 11th and 12th i\\c pa It of Ohaiowai was burnt. The strength of the 
 place struck every one with astonishment. The enemy was now dispersed in 
 different directions ; the winter was fairly set in ; there were not seventy effective 
 
 * Waimate, "The Eiver of Tears."
 
 C04 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 soldiers at Auckland. No choice therefore remained but to wait for better 
 weather and reinforcements from Sydney, before operations could be recom- 
 menced. The gallant colonel, in a letter to the lieutenant-governor, concludes 
 with the remark, that, " whatever has been the real cause of our want of success, 
 it is not to be attributed to the officers or men under my command, for a braver 
 or more intrepid body never wore the British uniform "—an indisputable truth, 
 for there were present at this disastrous combat portions of three si^lendid regi- 
 ments, and a small but picked body of man-o'-war's men, all eager for distinction, 
 working well together, and led by zealous, able, and dashing officers. They did 
 all that could be done by human strength and courage, unassisted by those 
 appliances and inventions of war which alone give advantage to the civilised 
 over the savage combatant. 
 
 The direct and material causes of Colonel Despard's failure in his dashing 
 assault on the pah of Ohaiowai were general poverty of means, of munitions, of 
 information, badness of weather and roads, owing to the expedition having been 
 undertaken at a season wiien the troops ought to have been in winter quarters — 
 the inefficiency and bad practice of the guns— and the scarcity of heavy shot, 
 which precluded a sustained fire on the defences, and permitted repairs by the 
 besieged — the subterranean safety cells of the defenders— flint locks in combina- 
 tion with floods of rain — and finally, the disobedience of orders, which, as at the 
 fatal affair of New Orleans, caused the ladders, ropes, and axes to be thrown 
 away by those told off to carry them. It was therefore an attempt at escalade 
 sans echeUes! a practical abuse of terms, a "bull," in short, on whose horns our 
 chance of success was tossed to the winds ! 
 
 When the troops were withdra-mi shortly afterwards to Kororareka, some 
 uneasiness was felt on the score of Waimate, the missionary station ; but the 
 Maoris respected the place for the sake of the "just men" it contained; they 
 warred, as they said, against the soldiers and the flag, not against the missionary 
 and the settler. It is impossible to deny to the Maoris the possession of great 
 instinctive magnanimity. Their foulest crimes, their most atrocious acts of 
 ferocity, are seldom committed on impulse, but are dictated by custom and 
 sanctioned by long tradition. To forgive an injury is not a tenet of the Maori 
 creed ; nor have we Europeans to exert a very distant retrospect into our own 
 history to find hereditary feuds inexorably followed up for successive generations 
 — it will take a shorter time to teach the New Zealander to love his enemy than 
 was consumed ere the Scottish chieftain of former days forgot and forgave his 
 wrongs, or the wrongs of his forefathers. 
 
 In the middle of November Governor Grey reached Kororareka, and gave the 
 rebels a few days to consider the terms of peace dictated by his predecessor. 
 Iloni Heki, still smarting under his wound and from an attack on the lungs, 
 sued for peace in tolerably humble terms. " Give me a ship, and I will leave the 
 country altogether," cried Iloni sick ; but Honi convalescent sung by no means 
 so small. However, he held aloof from his old ally, Kawiti, whose overture to 
 the governor, couched as follows, evinced no great humility. A translation is 
 ai)i)C)idcd :
 
 77/ A' MAORI WARS. 005 
 
 " RuA-PEKA-PEKA, September 24, 1845. 
 " Sir, the Governor, — How do you rlol I am willing to make ])oacc — that jioace sliould be made. 
 ]\Iany Europeans have been killed, and many natives also have been killed. You have said that I must 
 be the first to begin peace-making. Now thLs is it. Now I agree to it. This is all I have to say. It 
 ends here. — From me, Kawiti." 
 
 The old warrior was only gaining time to .strengthen hi.s new fortress, llua- 
 pcka-peka, or the Bat's Nest. The governor, however, quickly put an end to 
 his evasions, and to the possibly not very single-minded negotiations of the mis- 
 sionaries, by giving orders for the recommencement of hostilities ; and no time 
 was lost in carrying them into effect. Churchmen were hardly the best heralds 
 to employ in treating for peace or war between the British Government and the 
 Maori in arms ; an honest interpreter, to deliver a plain message and bring back 
 a plain answer, would have been a better medium. To be sure, an honest inter- 
 preter is not an everyday article, and a plain answer from a savage is as rare. 
 As it Avas, much delay, and some loss of character for prompt action on our part, 
 were incurred by these negotiations ; and rumour did not scruple to charge the 
 reverend gentlemen of Waimate with a desire, from motives of personal and 
 worldly gain, to protract rather than to terminate the war. It is quite true that 
 the relatives of the Church missionaries contracted for the supply of provisions 
 to the troops in the Bay of Islands, and that they raised so high the price of 
 meat that it became necessary to meet the increased expense by issuing salt \)Y0- 
 visions five days out of seven to the soldiers ; and as for luxuries of a higher 
 nature, there were some stories of butter being sold to the officers at the 
 moderate rate of lOs. and 15s. a pound ! It is impossible to believe that the self- 
 denying missionary himself would, by fostering the war, imperil, for private pi'o- 
 fit, the bodies of those whose souls he came so far to save ; but that their sons, 
 being farmers and graziers, should take advantage of the exigencies of the public 
 market, is by no means incredible ; and indeed these gentlemen did undoubtedly 
 reap a rich harvest at this juncture, from the wants of the troops and seamen. 
 
 It was towards the middle of December that the commandant, with a force 
 and with means infinitely more commensurate with his undertaking than had 
 hitherto been employed in New Zealand, advanced from Kororareka towards the 
 rebel stronghold. His route lay about ten miles by water up the bay and the 
 Kawa-Kawa River, to a point on the latter where stood the ^>«/i of a friendly 
 chief named Puku-Tutu, beyond which some twelve or thirteen miles of difficult 
 country lay between him and the Bat's Nest. 
 
 On the 22d the colonel ijushcd on with the greater part of his little army, 
 and, overcoming a thousand difficulties by dint of extraordinary exertion, was 
 soon enabled to take up a fine position about twelve hundred yards from his 
 enemy, where the rest of the force quickly joined him, and where they had to 
 halt in their bivouacs under heavy rain on the 24th and '2.3th. On the 29th 
 December the force before Kawiti's ^;c/A was, in rough numbers, as follows : 
 Staff — 1 acting colonel and 1 acting major of brigade ; artillery and engineers — 
 1 captain and 1 subaltern; small-armed seamen — 10 officers and 211 seamen; 
 Royal Marines — 8 officers, 79 men of all ranks ; detachments of the 58th and 99th
 
 606 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Regiments — 27 officers, 750 men ; Hon. East India Company's Artillery — 3 
 officers, 21 men ; volunteers as pioneers — 1 officer and 48 men ; artillery— two 
 medium 32-pounders, one 18-pounder, two 12-pounder brass howitzers, two 
 6-pounders, and four 5^-inch mortars, with shot, shell, and rockets. 
 
 The veteran chief must have felt flattered, if not frightened, by the very 
 respectable armament assembled for his subjugation. Kawiti himself had shown 
 no little shrewdness in the choice of his new position. The general aspect of the 
 country between Puhu-Tutu's village and the Eua-peka-peka is that of bare and 
 steep downs, intersected by occasional strips of bush, through several of which 
 the troops had to pioneer their way by axe-work. The pah itself was erected on 
 a rising spur of land, about a quarter of a mile within the margin of an extensive 
 tract of the heaviest timber and brushwood, which screened its front and flanks, 
 and stretched away interminably in its rear. About two hundred yards of 
 cleared glacis surrounded it. The chief strength of the place lay in its difficulty 
 of approach and the massiveness of its palisading. The commander of the incur- 
 sion, warned by foregone events, resolved to proceed against the work by regular 
 trench — a method which, if ever contemplated in the aflair of Ohaiowai, would 
 probably have failed, owing to the excessive wetness of the ground. 
 
 Following the colonel's trail, the military road leads for the most pai't over 
 open downs, occasionally skirting, at respectful and prudential distance, patches 
 of dark and tangled bush — fit lair for ambushed foe. Here it zigzagged down 
 the slope of a tremendous hill, at the foot of which yawned a SAvamjjy gully, 
 ready to swallow guns, tumbrels, and the many impedimenta of an army. There 
 it i^lunged headlong into an unavoidable strip of forest, festooned and matted 
 with huge creepers and supplejacks, through which the pioneers, protected by 
 skirmishers, had to hew a path. The march of the troops was both tedious and 
 harassing, and they were continually annoyed by heavy rain. However, blue 
 and red jackets combined have dragged guns through rougher ground and 
 rougher circumstances than those now noticed ; and although their progress was 
 slow, it was not the less sure — for all obstacles and hardships being cheerfully 
 and vigorously encountered, were successfully overcome. 
 
 In front a profound, rocky, and thickly-wooded gully presented an impassable 
 barrier to artillery, and beyond it a small plain opening to the sight was termin- 
 ated by the dense bush, within whose verge lay the Bat's Nest, almost entirely 
 masked by high trees. The troops were compelled to turn the head of the 
 ravine by carving their w'ay through a thick wood, absolutely laced together 
 with a net-work of creepers. The old rebel was as hard to get at as the 
 " Sleeping Beauty " in the fairy tale. Like the knight of old, the English 
 commander had to cut a path through an almost impervious forest to reach the 
 object of his enterprise. Following his track for about a quarter of a mile 
 through a kind of cloister of foliage — result of the pioneers' labours — you 
 emerge ujjon the small plain above mentioned, in the centre of which stand the 
 remains of a temporary stockade — the handiwork of our native ally and 
 excellent skirmisher, Moses Tawhai, who, just before daylight on the 29th 
 December, pushed silently through the bush with some picked men of his tiibe,
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 007 
 
 and seizing this forward position, quickly and cleverly ran up some palisades 
 and bieastwork, sufficient to cover his party from musketry and from a sudden 
 rush of the enemy. The colonel promptly joined the enterprisinjf Moses with 
 two hundred men and a couple of guns ; and the position, six hundred yards 
 from the ^^^A, was secured befox'e the enemy were aware of the movement. Not 
 far from this spot are the graves of twelve British seamen and soldiers who fell 
 in the assault, which, to the honour of the ]\iaoris, have to this day never been 
 disturbed. 
 
 Thus pursuing the line of advance, we are quickly drawn by it into the 
 forest where the ^^«/i stood, and, struggling through fern higher than the tallest 
 grenadier, find ourselves on the site of the breaching batteries, some 3.50 yards 
 distant from the front face of the fortress, where remnants of platforms, breast- 
 works, broken entrenching tools, and the ruins of burnt bivouacs, brought the 
 whole scene vividly before the mind's eye. A narrow path through a labyrinth 
 of coiled and matted creepers mixed with fallen timber and enclosed by tall 
 trees, many of them dimpled or splintered by gun-shot wounds, guide to the 
 glacis of Kua-peka-pcka. The glacis had been easily and naturally formed, by 
 cutting down the trees necessary for making the picquets of so extensive a stockade. 
 Although the interior of the p^A is now entirely overgrown by gigantic fern and 
 other underwood, it is not difficult to trace its figure, which, in the several 
 flanking angles and in the stockaded divisions of the enceinte, evinced consider- 
 able practical knowledge of the science of defence. And, indeed, it would bo 
 strange if the Maoris, like the Sikhs and Afghans, were not in some sort skilled 
 in warfare, since they are habituated from childhood to all its stratagems, and 
 their history, as far back as tradition can reach, is an almost uninterrupted series 
 of hostile incursions, battles, and massacres. The height and solidity of the 
 picquets composing the curtains — -whereof there were two, distant some six feet 
 apart — fill one with astonishment; nor was the ingenuity displayed in the formation 
 of the trenches and covered ways less remarkable, from whence the defenders 
 could take deadly aim along the glacis at the exposed stormers. JMost of the loop- 
 holes for musketry were on the ground level ; and, across the trenches in which 
 the musketeers stood or crouched were erected regular traverses, with narrow 
 passages for one person, to guard against the ricochet of the British shot. The 
 interior was, as has been said, siibdivided into many compartments, so that the 
 loss of one of them would not necessarily prevent the next from holding out. 
 
 How these rude savages had contrived in a few weeks, and without mechani- 
 cal appliances, to prepai-e the massive materials of their stockade and to place 
 them in their proper positions, deeply sunk in the earth and firmly bound 
 together, is inconceivable. To be sure, the timber and flax grcAv on the spot, 
 and the labourers engaged in the work were working and preparing to fight for 
 their native land and for liberty — what more need be said 1 
 
 The j)(ih was studded with subterranean cells, into which the more timid or 
 prudent ran — like rabbits at the bark of a dog — when they heard the whizz of a 
 shell or a rocket, or had reason to expect a salvo from the guns. Descending 
 by the notched pole, forming the usual staircase, into more than one of these
 
 COS THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 INIaori war-crjq)ts, we find tbem about eight or nine feet deep, and large enough 
 to contain an Auckland whist party. The mouth was defended by a bomb-proof 
 roof and breastwork of logs and earth. The ground was thickly strewed with 
 English round shot, and fragments of bombs and rocket-cases ; and amongst the 
 weeds was found a couple of the enemy's guns — one of which, a good-sized 
 howitzer, had been dismounted and split to atoms by a still larger shot from the 
 T)atterics, which had made an unconscionable attempt to enter its mouth — to the 
 infinite amazement, one may suppose, of the Maori gunner, who, in the act of 
 taking aim, was "hoist by his own petard." There lay, also, the flagstaff" of 
 revolt, cut in two like a carrot by the initiative shot of Lieutenant Bland of the 
 "Eacehorse" — some offset for the oft-demolished staff" of Kororareka. The 
 resolution of the British leader to approach by regular trench and to eff"ect 
 a practicable breach before storming, leaves no doubt as to what would have 
 been the result had the affair proceeded to the length of a regular assault, which 
 it can scarcely be said to have done. 
 
 It was quite apparent that the stout wooden walls had been no match for the 
 heavy guns. Many of the huge picquets, eighteen or twenty feet high by two 
 feet tliick, lay in a heap knocked into splinters, and more than one of them had 
 been regularly bowled out of the ground by the 32-pounders. A concentrated 
 fire would therefore have soon made a good breach. The actual capture of the 
 Eua-pcka-pcka occurred somewhat fortuitously. The "Mihonari," or Christian 
 poi'tion of the garrison, had assembled for their karakia, or church service, on 
 the outside of the rear face of the fortress, under cover of some rising ground. 
 A party of loyal natives, wide awake to the customs of their countrymen, 
 approached under command of Wiremu Waka, brother of Tomati, and recon- 
 noitred the breaches. Discovering the employment of the defenders, a message 
 was sent back to the English, reporting this most righteous and laudable act of 
 leligion, but most unpardonable breach of military tactics, on the part of their 
 hostile compatriots. And who shall say that this neglect of man's ordinances 
 and observance of God's in the time of their trouble did not bring with them 
 a providential and merciful result ? It led doubtless to their almost instantaneous 
 defeat ; but it saved them and the English from the tenfold carnage which a more 
 vigilant and disciplined resistance, from within their walls, would have infallibly 
 caused. An officer or two with a small party of soldiers and seamen stole quietly 
 into the almost deserted j)uh, and further reinforcements followed quickly from 
 the trenches. The Maoris, too lately discovering their error and the movements 
 of their foes, rushed tumultuously back into the work, and made a fierce but 
 futile attempt to retake it. Hand to hand and unfavoured by position they had 
 no chance against the British bayonet and cutlass. Baffled and overpowered, 
 they fled by the rear of the stockade, and the Bat's Nest was ours. 
 
 Thus fell, on the 11th January 1846, Kawiti's pah of Eua-peka-peka ; and 
 with its fall ended the active resistance of that chief and Heki and our military 
 operations in the northern district. The brave and cunning INIaori was not only 
 fairly defeated but fairly outwitted. The lesson was salutary ; for this people 
 are sagacious enough to " know when they are beaten " — a branch of knowledge
 
 THE MAORI WARS. G(i9 
 
 which that great preceptor in the art of war. Napoleon, was disgusted to lind he 
 could never instil into the English armies. The rebel chieftain must have had 
 a Ijold heart to hold out against a force of nearly a thousand British seamen and 
 soldiers arrayed against him, Avhile H.INI. ships " Castor," " Calliope," " North 
 Star," and " Racehorse," with the East India Company's sloop " Elphinstone," 
 lay at the mouth of the Kawa-Kawa River, within fifteen miles of his wooden 
 fortress. 
 
 Our loss during the assault was : Seamen and marines^killcd, 9 ; wounded, 
 1 midshipman and 17. Soldiers — killed, 3; wounded, 11; and 2 volunteers 
 wounded. 
 
 The pah was dismantled by the troops; and the aborigines have since 
 deserted and avoided the place as a spot accursed. The paths leading to it are 
 grown up and nearly obliterated ; and the Genius of the Wilderness, true to her 
 children, is fast erasing every trace of the Maoris' defeat at the Rua-peka-peka ! 
 
 Kawiti, who had made his escape on the capture of his fortress, was, in the 
 INIay following, received by the governor on board H.M.S. "Driver," in the Bay 
 of Islands, and there and then gave in his allegiance to the British Government, 
 expressing regret for " the trouble he had given," and gratitude for the treat- 
 ment he had received. The old warrior, it is said, appeared deeply humiliated 
 in making such concessions in the presence of other chiefs, who hatl fought on 
 the English side, and had eventually triumphed over him after a long and stout 
 resistance. His letter, written a week after his defeat, and expressing a desire 
 for peace, is a ridh specimen of Maori epistolisation. There is a vein of ironical 
 fun peeping out of it, quite in keeping with the Maori character : 
 
 "January 19//t, 1846. 
 " Friend, — Oh my esteemed friend, the governor, I salute you. Great is my regard for you. . . . 
 Friend governor, I say, let us have peace between you and me — because I am filled (satisfied, have had 
 enough) of your riches (cannon balls). Therefore I say, let you and I make peace. Will you not ? 
 Yes ! This is the termination of my war against you, friend governor. . . . This is the end of mine 
 to you. It is finished. 
 
 " To my esteemed friend, 
 
 " To the governor, 
 
 " (Signed) Kawiti." 
 
 Honi Heki died on the 6th of August 1850, the cause of his death being said 
 to be a blow from his wife. 
 
 THE WAIRAU MASSACRE. 
 
 The massacre of the Wairau occurred in the same year as the battle above 
 . cited. 
 
 Certain pm-chasers of land from the New Zealand Company having been put 
 in possession of their to^vn and suburban sections at Nelson (the chief settlement 
 on the southern shore of Cook's Straits), it was found necessary, in order to 
 obtain land for the country lots, to resort to the Wairau, an extensive valley 
 abutting upon Cloudy Bay — about seventy miles from the township. The 
 
 4 H
 
 610 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 company's surveyors, who were despatched to this district to prepare it for 
 dehvery to the settlers, were immediately Avarned oft' by the natives, who did all 
 in their power to obstruct the survey. INIeanwhile, Te Kauparaha and his friend 
 Eangihaeata, the original owners of the land in question — owners by conquest — 
 arrived from the other side of the straits, where they had been attending the 
 court of the Commissioner of Land Claims, whom they had settled to meet at 
 Cloudy Bay towards the end of the current month, for the purpose of adjudicating 
 the dispute regarding the purchase of this very district. These chiefs finding the 
 surveyors at the Wairau, informed them that if they persisted in the survey, 
 they would turn them off. They then proceeded to burn down the hut of the 
 chief surveyor — first, however, removing his property to prevent its destruction. 
 They pulled up and burned the ranging rods, flags, etc., and drove away the men. 
 The surveyor's assistant upon this proceeded to Nelson, where, on the 12th June 
 1843, he laid an information before the police-magistrate, the result whereof was 
 the issue of a warrant against Kauparaha and Eangihaeata for burning the hut ; 
 and the magistrate resolved to attend in person its execution. 
 
 INIr Thompson, the police-magistrate, was accompanied on this ill-fated 
 expedition by the following gentlemen : Captain Wakefield, R.N., the company's 
 agent at Nelson; Captain England, J.P., late of H.M. 12th Regiment; Mr 
 Richardson, the Crown Prosecutor ; Mr Howard, company's storekeeper ; Mr 
 Cotterell, assistant surveyor, with several others ; also an interpreter, four con- 
 stables, and twelve special constables, the whole amounting to forty-nine persons, 
 among whom were distributed thirty-three muskets and one* or two fowling- 
 pieces. On Friday, the 16th, the expedition proceeded in boats a few miles up 
 the Wairau River, and camped for the night — having been watched all day by 
 Maori scouts. On Saturday morning, pursuing their course, they came upon the 
 Maori party, squatting in groups on the opposite side of a narrow, deep brook 
 called the Tua Marina, with a dense scrub covering their rear. The Avhite men 
 halted on the left bank ; the armed escort were formed in two subdivisions under 
 IMessrs England and Howard, with strict directions not to fire Avithout orders ; 
 while the jjolice-magistrate and Captain Wakefield, with some others, crossed 
 the stream on a large canoe which the natives permitted them to use as a bridge. 
 Approaching the Maoris, Mr Thompson produced his warrant and commanded 
 Rauparaha to accompany him, with any followers he chose, on board the brig — 
 to be bi'ought to trial at Nelson for burning the hut of the surveyor. The chief 
 replied, " I will not go — I will stay where I am ! " The other then threatened to 
 compel him, and pointed to the armed escort ; when Rangihaeata arose from 
 among the bushes, came forward, and in vehement tones defied the magistrate. 
 ]\Ir Thompson, under great excitement, now called upon Captain Eugland to 
 "bring down the men," whereupon the Maoris arose with a shout, and fell back. 
 under cover of the wood. The Englishmen, who had crossed over the brook, 
 retreated immediately towards the armed escort, and began in great confusion to 
 recross the stream by the canoe ; when, as the escort rushed forward to support 
 them, a .shot was fired — probably by accident — and instantly a general fusillade 
 commenced on both sides. Several of the English leaders soon falling, a sudden
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 611 
 
 and shameful panic seized their ft)llowers, and the greater part of them, turning 
 their backs, fled in disorder. Te IJauparaha and Rangihaeata with their myrmi- 
 dons, in number about forty, rushed across the creek in pursuit. The English 
 gentlemen, deserted by their escort, gave up their arms and surrendered them- 
 selves prisoners ; and Mr Thompson and To liauparaha had reciprocated the 
 word "Kati" ("Peace"), when Kangihaeata coming up exclaimed, "liauparaha, 
 remember your daughter ! " (one of the former's wives, killed by a chance shot 
 during the atiray), and instantly struck down Captain England, when a general 
 massacre followed. 
 
 A Maori woman, who, on the subsequent investigation, gave her evidence 
 Avith a fearful simplicity, said, " Rangihaeata killed them all with his own hand, 
 Avith a tomahawk ; I saw him do it. I saw him kill Captain Wakefield, 
 IMr Thompson, and Mr Richardson. I saw him kill John Brooks, near the 
 bunch of trees up the hill. I saw him kill Mr Cotterell. I saw Rangihaeata 
 snatch away Captain Wakefield's watch after he had knocked him down. He 
 afterwards offered it to the missionary natives who were present, but they refused 
 to take it, saying, 'Let it He with the dead, and all that belongs to them.'" 
 
 Seventeen dead bodies of Englishmen were afterwards found, and buried by 
 a Wesleyan clergyman who went there Avith two boats' crews of whalers. The 
 skulls of all had been cleft Avith tomahaAvks and generally disfigured by repeated 
 bloAvs, struck Avith such ferocity that any one of them must have been instantly 
 fatal. The killed amounted to tAventy-tAVO, the AA^ounded to five ; tAventy eff'ected 
 their escape, ^uch are some of the terrible details of the massacre of the 
 Wairau. In reporting its occurrence to the Home authorities, the acting 
 governor stated that the measures of the police-magistrate were undertaken not 
 only Avithout his sanction, but in direct opposition to previous instructions ; and 
 that, as far as his information Avent, they av ere in the highest degree unjustifiable, 
 inasmuch as the question of the OAvner.ship of the land on Avhich the hut was 
 burned by the natives Avas yet unsettled, and was on the point of coming under 
 the consideration of the commissioners. 
 
 It Avas the aiTair of the Wairau first broke down the prestige of the superi- 
 ority of the Avhite man, especially of the Avhite gentleman, over the semi- 
 civilised INIaori. Heki's well-known taunt on his foray to Kororareka — "Is 
 Rauparaha to have all the credit of killing the Pakehas ? "• — and its corollary, his 
 attack and sacking of that place, are practical jiroofs of this. The series of 
 operations in the north against that chief and KaAviti, those against Rangihaeata 
 and Maketu in the south — in a Avord, the Nbav Zealand Avar, Avith its sacrifice of 
 valuable lives and its expenditure of half a million, together Avith the consequent 
 stagnation in the progress of the colony — Avere the lineal and legitimate descend- 
 ants of the uuAvisely undertaken, miserably conducted, and fearfully consum- 
 mated affair of the Wairau. Yet, however miAvarr an table the persistence of the 
 English claimants in surveying lands still under dispute ; however lamentable 
 the loss of life infiicted on the natiA'cs by the English fire ; the amount of obloquy 
 heaped upon the vanquished i^arty, dead and survivors, by certain public oflicials 
 at home and abroad, Avas certainly unmerited.
 
 612 rilE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 THE ATTACK ON BOULCOTt's FARM IN THE HUTT VALLEY. 
 
 Besides more than one cruel murder of settlers, several British soldiers fell 
 under the musket and tomahawk of the Maoris at Boulcott's Farm and in its 
 neighbourhood. The farm consisted of a weak wooden cottage and offices, with 
 a barn hard by, which had lieen partially stockaded by the officer in command, 
 thereby making it bullet-proof, which was by no means the case with the other 
 tenements. The premises were surrounded by a rough clearing of no great 
 extent ; which, in its turn, was shut in by the primeval forest. The river Hutt, 
 fordable in ordinary seasons, but impassable except by boats or canoes during 
 flood, runs at half-musket shot distance from the post ; and at the time of the 
 attack the opposite shore, covered with thick scrub, was in the hands of the 
 enemy. The garrison consisted of a single officer and fifty men of the 58th — 
 one-half of them occupying the barn. 
 
 Just before dawn of day on the 16th May 1846, the sentry in front of the 
 inlying picquet observed a dark object crawling towards him. He fired, and in 
 an instant the air Avas rent with a chorus of yells, as fifty naked savages, spring- 
 ing up from the herbage, rushed upon him and overpowered and slew both the 
 men of the picquet and himself, before any effectual resistance could be offered ; 
 while a general onslaught was made upon the post from all parts of the surround- 
 ing bush, and a heavy fire was poured upon the fragile building in which the 
 officer and a section of his people were housed. The gallant lieutenant hurried 
 from his quarters with two men, intent on joining the party in the stockade, but 
 was immediately driven back by a rush from the JNIaoris. The sergeant got a 
 few men together and checked the furious assailants, and in a second attempt — 
 with only six men carrying three others wounded — the officer succeeded in 
 reaching the barn — whence, leaving a sufficient force to protect it, he sallied 
 against the enemy with the rest, and, advancing and firing in extended order, 
 soon drove them across the river. There they danced a spirited war-dance, 
 showing their numbers to be about two hundred, within view of the British post. 
 "But for the alertness of all in turning out," says the officer in his report, "and 
 the determination of the men, we should all have fallen." The British loss was 
 six killed and four severely wounded. The bugler, quite a lad, was struck by a 
 tomahawk on the right arm, while in the act of sounding the " alarm ; " the 
 brave boy changed the bugle to the other hand and continued to blow, when the 
 savage split his skull with a second stroke of his weapon. The Maoris had 
 good right to be satisfied with the havoc they had committed, without pushing 
 their audacity further. As to the loss on their side, if there was any, both 
 killed and Avounded Avere carried off' as usual. The affiiir of Boulcott's Farm 
 was a successful surprise of a British picquet on the part of the natives ; a 
 gallant repulse of a superior force in a night attack on that of the British. The 
 Maoris did not want the post — they wanted blood as they afterwards boasted, 
 and they got it. The force in the valley Avas immediately augmented by the 
 officer commanding in the southern district, who drove the still hovering rebels 
 from their woodland position on the right bank of the river, with some loss.
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 613 
 
 About a inoutli after the combat at the f'aiiii, w Iiicli had subsequently been 
 reinforced and phiccd Tinder chari,'e of a captain, that ollicei', with a view to 
 acquaint himself Avitli tlie roads in the vicinity of his post, th(! fords of tlie river, 
 and the position of the enemy, who were reported to be encamped not far distant, 
 and, perhaps, with a desire to avenge the loss inflicted by them on the 16tli May, 
 marched out to his front with forty soldiers, a small party of loyal natives under 
 the chief Waiderapa, and a few militiamen ; accompanied also by a young officer 
 of the TiSth, a volunteer on the occasion. 
 
 The main road along which they proceeded was at that time extremely narrow, 
 full of deep holes, and in some places up to the knees in mud, the bush so thick 
 that the view of the advancing jiarty hardly extended l)eyond a few paces to 
 their front and flanks. On reaching a piece of cleared land, or rather land with 
 felled timber lying upon it, a smart volley delivered at fifteen paces from among 
 the logs on the left of the road informed the captain that he had fallen into an 
 aml)uscade. The loyal natives threw themselves into cover, and returned fire 
 from the same side of the road as the enemy. The English, in skirmishing order, 
 answered it briskly from among the trees on the opposite side of it. In about 
 ten minutes some of the Maoris were seen crossing the road so as to obtain a 
 flanking fire on the right of the soldiers, while a strong party were observed to 
 move swiftly towards the road in their rear so as to cut them off from the stock- 
 ade. This display of tactics on the part of the barbarians induced the officer to 
 sound the retreat, which movement was accordingly effected without further loss 
 of time or blood. Indeed, the casualties had already been pretty severe ; four 
 soldiers being severely wounded, of whom one died, and two missing ; while the 
 officer of the 58th was severely hurt, maimed perhaps for life, by a shot through 
 the arm. Meanwhile, the subaltern of the stockade, hearing the firing, promptly 
 armed his men, who were working on the defences, and, inviting the co-operation 
 of a friendly tribe encamped hard by, advanced with forty soldiers, and no less 
 than a hundred aborigines under their veteran chief, E Puni, to the suj^port of 
 his superior. Meeting him half-way on his retreat, he was, after a short con- 
 sultation, directed to form an advanced guard in the direction of the camp, to 
 which the entire British party accordingly retired. The two native chiefs, on 
 meeting, held a brief koriro, or talk, when Waiderajoa and E Puni, joining their 
 forces, determined to return to the scene of action ; which they accordingly did, 
 reaching it just in time to see some of the rebels retreating to the river across the 
 clearing, and dropping blankets, cartridges, and potatoes in their track. 
 
 The account of the action given by Waiderajia affords an amusing sjiccimen 
 of the vain-glorious bombast of the Maori warrior. " The reason why we 
 retreated," said the gallant and self-satisfied chief, in his evidence before a court 
 of inquiry, " was, because we were partly composed of soldiers and jmrtly of 
 natives ; had Ave been all natives, we would have driven away Eangihaeata's 
 people." "The soldiers," he added, "retreated because they thought the enemy 
 were dividing into two parties to cut them off". I did not think so, because they, 
 the enemy, had seen the position that / had taken up ! " 
 
 Here was indeed an unfortunate aft'air from beginning to end. The leader oi
 
 614 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the reconnaissance having fallen into the snare deliberately laid for him, had the 
 choice of two alternatives — to finht his Avay through it, or extricate himself by 
 reti-eat. All the evidence collected by the inquiry held to investigate the details, 
 agree that the commander was justified in retiring when he was satisfied that the 
 enemy, whom he supposed to be the whole of Eangihaeata's disposable force, 
 had turned one of his flanks and were menacing to cut him off from his reserve ; 
 that the retreat was conducted slowly and with regularity; and that the captain 
 was the last man to retire — himself taking chai'ge of the rear-guard. 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF TE RAUPARAHA. 
 
 Te Eauparaha, a wily old chief, pretending friendship to the English during 
 the rebellion, Avas found to be secretly supplying his old ally, Eangihaeata, then 
 in hostility against them, with provisions and intelligence ; and suspicions 
 existing that he and other disaffected chiefs were conniving at the movement of 
 a hostile body from the Wanganui tribes down the coast, to form a junction with 
 the latter rebel leader, his arrest was resolved on. 
 
 On the 2yd July 1846, accordingly. Major Last of the 99th, with Captain 
 Stanley of the " Calliope," and a party of about 130, landed before daylight with 
 such perfect silence and order, that the stockade of Taupo Avas surrounded and 
 entered before the inmates caught the alarm. Te Eaui^araha Avas seized in his 
 bed by a band of seamen, and struggling, biting, and shouting, " Ngatitoa — 
 lu/atitoa! " (" To the rescue ! ") he was safely carried off to the ship Avithout any 
 casualty. A considerable quantity of muskets and ammunition and a small iron 
 gun were also taken in the stockade. 
 
 The attention of " the fighting governor " — thus was Captain Grey styled by 
 the Maoris — was then turned to Eangihaeata ; and a combined movement from 
 Wellington, Porirua, and from the Hutt Valley across the hills, was planned. 
 The arch-rebel's courage failing him, he fled from Pahatanui Avith his foUoAvers 
 before the force had assembled; and a party of militia, guided by friendly Maoris 
 along a native path from the Hutt, cleverly slipjied in and secured the evacuated 
 fortress. Had he remained and fought Avell, there Avould unquestionably have 
 been "wigs on the green," for the position and construction of the jjah are 
 remarkably strong. Eangihaeata, hoAvever, Avas aware that there Avere cannon 
 at Porirua that would soon have levelled his wooden Avails. Perhaps, too, his 
 conscience made a coward of the once bold and bloody Avarrior — jierhaps his 
 tliousand murders, like those of King Eichard, sat on his right arm and unmanned 
 him for the field. 
 
 About midAvay betAveen Pahatanui and Porirua stands the entrance of the 
 HorokiAvi Valley. Up the forest defiles of this rugged pass, and through regions 
 alnK)st impracticable to man or beast, Major Last, Avith a strong force of troops, 
 militia, and native allies, pursued the flying Eangihaeata. Hotly pressed, the 
 rebel chief soon turned to bay on a sj^ot Avhich had been previously prepared for 
 a stand — a rough breastAvork of horizontal logs, pierced for musketry, having 
 been draAvn across a narroAv and steep spur of a thickly-Avoodcd hill flanked by
 
 THE MAORI WARS. (il.> 
 
 steep ravines. On the mnrninir of the 6th August 1840, this stronc^ position was 
 attacked with but little ellecl, and with the loss of a pronii.siny younjf ollicer, 
 Ensign Blackburn of the 99th llegiment, and two privates killed and nine 
 wounded. Two small mortars having meanwhile arrived, the position was again 
 assailed on the 8th. The height and thickness of the trees, howcvei', prevented 
 the ellicient practice of the shells ; and the inaccessible nature of the country, 
 with the evident intention of the enemy to abandon post after post, firing a few 
 destructive volleys and then flying from their valueless positions with little or no 
 loss to themselves, together with the difficulty of subsisting so numerous a force, 
 induced the officer commanding the expedition to desist from further pursuit 
 of his sli^jpery foe. The troops were accordingly Avithdrawn into the stockades, 
 and the loyal natives, in pui-suance of their gallant otter, Avere left to -watch 
 the enemy, to cut off his supply of provisions and water, and thus eventually to 
 capture or drive him back. 
 
 On the 13th, the rebels opening a brisk fire on the loyalists, I'uaha, the 
 leading chief of the latter, rushed with his followers to meet them, and, finding 
 that the others retreated, pressed forward and entered their works by the front 
 as the rebels passed out by the rear. The poor wretches had been fairly starved 
 out — no remains nor signs of provisions being found in the camp except the 
 mamuka or edible fern. A day or two later, the Christian chief, Wiremu Kingi 
 (William King), issuing from Waikanae, fell upon the rear of the discomfited 
 rebels, capturing a few half-famished creatures who had been driven by hunger 
 to approach the coast. Harassed on all sides, Rangihaeata thought himself 
 fortunate in making his escape to the mountains, almost totally denuded of his 
 " tail ; " and deeply humbled by the foregoing events, this turbulent chief never 
 again appeared openly in arms against the British Government. 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE GILFILLANS. 
 
 It was in December 1846, soon after the defeat and dispersion of Rangihaeata 
 and his taua in the Horokiwi Valley, that Wanganui was first occupied by 
 soldiers. Sites were quickly selected for stockades and blockhouses, officers 
 and men were soon hutted in temporary warrees of reeds, the position was 
 entrenched and surrounded with double palisades bullet-proof, and a few light 
 guns and mortars were mounted. 
 
 In the following April occurred near the township one of the most appalling 
 and sweeping massacres of a peaceful household that ever blackened the history 
 of a savage race, and harrowed the feelings of a white community — namely, 
 the destruction of the Gilfillan family. On the evening of the 18th April, ]VIr 
 Gilfillan, a settler residing about five miles from Wanganui, was heard calling 
 from the opposite bank of the river for a boat to be sent for him, as he had been 
 wounded by some natives. He was brought across the water, and found to have 
 been severely hurt by a cut from a tomahawk on the back of the neck. Next 
 morning, the officer commanding the post despatched a party of armed police 
 and friendly Maoris, accompanied by two or three gentlemen, to Matarana, the
 
 G16 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 residence of the sufferer, in order to ascertain the fate of the family, when they 
 discovered the house burned to the ground, and lying around the ruins the 
 mutilated bodies of the mother, two sons of twelve and four years old, and a 
 daughter of fomleen years. The eldest daughter, a girl of sixteen, had escaped, 
 badly wounded, and four other children remained unhurt. The same day, the 
 news of the murder and the names of the murderers having reached the 
 missionary j'jaA of Putiki, just opposite the cantonments, some of the natives 
 tendered their services to attempt their capture, for they were known to have 
 tied up the river with their booty. The Christian chief, Honi Wiremu (John 
 Williams), with six other young men, in a swift canoe, pursued, overtook, seized, 
 and brought prisoners to the British camp five of the six assassins. A coroner's 
 inquest, assembled by the commandant, returned a verdict of " wilful murder" 
 against four of the prisoners, expressing a strong conviction that the fifth was 
 also an accomplice. The district of Wanganui was at that time under martial 
 law, which, however, would expire with the current month. No time was 
 therefore to be lost, and Captain Laye (58th Regiment), the commandant, lost 
 none. He brought the villains to trial by a general court-martial, composed of 
 seven officers, on the 23d of April, continued by adjournment to the 2-ith. All 
 the five prisoners pleaded guilty to charges of murder and robbery— one of the 
 miscreants acknowledging that they had cut off and devoured a part of the cheek 
 of the slaughtered mother. The four men were condemned to death ; the other 
 prisoner, a boy, to transportation for life. The 25tli was the Sabbath. On the 
 morning of the 26th April, the four murderers were hanged on a gibbet in front 
 of the stockade. 
 
 It was a good and gallant act on the pai-t of Honi Wiremu and his com- 
 panions, and an interesting proof of the ameliorating effects of Christian teaching, 
 that they should have so strongly testified their abhorrence of the barbarities 
 committed by their countrymen, as to resolve to bring them to justice at the risk 
 of their own lives. Indeed, the forcible apprehension, by only equal numbers, 
 of a band of ruffians from whom a desperate resistance might be expected, 
 required a mixture of rashness and ruse that seldom go hand in hand. Mr 
 Power, one of the gentlemen who volunteered to ascertain the fate of the 
 wretched family, thus closes his animated account of the pursuit of the assassins: 
 " The fugitives, who by this time were fifty miles from the settlement, and no 
 longer feared pursuit, were taking it easy, singing songs, and bragging of what 
 they had done. As their canoe ran alongside of that of the murderers, Patapo, 
 a wild young chief, and a great favourite of the officers, who was hidden in the 
 bow, saw that one of the fugitives had a cocked musket beside him, and that the 
 others had arms lying within reach ; and being anxious to take them alive, he, 
 with a tomahawk between his teeth, made one spring on the fellow with the 
 musket, seizing it, and at the same time upsetting the canoe. In a few minutes 
 tiic whole party were captured in the water." Yet nothing could be more modest 
 than the tenor of the evidence he gave on this exjjloit before the court-martial; 
 it was a model for a despatch after action. It would seem that this brave young 
 chief was still a heathen, as he knew not the nature of an oath. The governor-
 
 THE MAORI WARS. 617 
 
 in-chief, in reporting these matters to the Secretary of State, writes, that he had 
 "satisfied himself tliat Captain Lave, in adoptin^if these procecflings, had followed 
 the only course that was open to him, and that there is little doubt that his firm- 
 ness and decision saved the country from a serious rebellion." ISlilitary law, 
 right or wrong, had been proclaimed by the gallant captain's superiors; the 
 ordinary law was therefore in abeyance ; and it was a happy circumstance that at 
 such a juncture a prompt arraignment, a simple formula, a trial " according to the 
 consciences and to the best of the understandings " of seven honourable gentle- 
 men, and a swift execution, should have filled, for the nonce, the place of that 
 cumbrous piece of machinery — that net full of large meshes, called the civil law. 
 
 White apologists of the New Zealanders asserted that the massacre of the 
 Gilfillan family Av^as perpetrated in utu for a wound inflicted upon a Putiki chief 
 by a young midshipman — his pistol having gone off by accident. The truth is, 
 that the natives of Putiki were totally unconnected by relationship or friendship 
 with the assassins ; and that the wounded man, being kindly and skilfully treated 
 by the English surgeons, entertained no ill-will to the youthful cause of his 
 injury— much less an indiscriminate desire for vengeance on the white race. 
 
 On the 18th May large bodies of the insurgent Maoris were seen approaching 
 the place from all directions. They took possession of the surrounding hills and 
 of several houses on the outskirts of the town, and keeping well under cover, 
 opened a harassing fire on the stockades, the village, and the gunboat in the 
 river. Too weak in numbers to move out by daylight to attack the enemy, the 
 captain despatched at night two strong parties to seize the buildings occupied 
 by the foe^a duty which they gallantly performed — the INIaoris plundering and 
 evacuating them at the first onset. The troops suffered no loss, but the rebels, 
 in addition to some thirty men wounded, lost a great " fighting chief," Maketu 
 by name, who was killed by a musket-shot in a house which stands at a distant 
 extremity of the village. The course of the bullet was afterwards traced, and 
 afforded no bad proof of " Brown Bess's " power. At 150 paces the ball had 
 passed through five planks including the gax'den paling, as well as through the 
 skull of the chief, as he crouched on the floor fancying his person quite secure. 
 Another minor chief was also slain. After the fight their friends retired for a 
 time to bake the bodies of the slain, and to vow vengeance. They were seen the 
 following morning sitting disconsolate on the hills lamenting their loss, and soon 
 afterw^ards all had disappeared. 
 
 On the 4th June Lieut. -Colonel M'Cleverty arrived at Wanganui in the 
 " Inflexible " with a strong reinforcement — raising the numbers in the camp to 
 about 550 men, and assuming the command. During the week he made recon- 
 naissances three or four miles up each bank of the river, thereby ascertaining 
 that the enemy's camp, which was posted on the right bank, was covered by a 
 series of entrenched ravines, stretching from a swamp to the river , but that 
 there was no regular pah. His Excellency the governor, who had repaired to 
 Wanganui, took active interest in these movements, as well as others. A few 
 days afterwards the rebel tribes seemed to be gradually closing round the settle- 
 ment — considerable numbers showing themselves on either side of the river, as 
 
 4i
 
 618 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 well as on the before-mentioned heights, distant about a mile and a half from 
 the town. Finally, so insolently bold were some of the native scouts in an 
 attempt to cut off a herdsman and his charge under the very guns of the fortress, 
 that two parties under active subalterns were sent to drive them off. The scouts 
 fled — doubtless according to pre-arrangement — towards the hill of St John's 
 Wood, and up a steep ravine which had been strongly entrenched, and behind 
 which among the trees a body of the rebels lay concealed. The soldiers, dash- 
 ing after the runaways, were received with a heavy fire, which they of course 
 returned, and an action was commenced. The colonel, having come up, sent to 
 the camp for reinforcements ; the insurgents were strengthened from their sup- 
 ports in rear of the wooded heights ; and in a short time about four hundred 
 men on either side were briskly engaged. 
 
 In the hope of tempting the enemy from their cover, the colonel now tried 
 the effect of a partial retreat, which movement was no sooner observed by the 
 Maoris than, with a deafening shout, they rushed boldly down the hill, and, 
 musket and tomahawk in hand, fell upon the nearest of their white opponents. 
 Then the soldiers, turning upon their savage assailants, charged the foremost at 
 the distance of fifteen paces, overthrowing those who waited for the touch of the 
 bayonet, and driving the others, in hot haste, back to their breastworks and 
 reserves. On our side one officer was wounded, two privates were killed 
 and eleven wounded, one of whom died subsequently. Nothing but the well- 
 known awkwardness of the New Zealanders in the use of fire-arms can account 
 for the small execution done by them during this skirmish. 
 
 After the brisk brush just I'elated, the rebels stuck fast to their works, which 
 were admirably though only temporarily consti'ucted— all approach to them 
 being impossible except under a front and flank fire. A few days later the taua 
 broke up altogether from the British front, and dispersed into winter quarters — 
 a movement to which their usual desultory mode of warfare, the scarcity of 
 ammunition and provisions (for these wild warriors had hitherto lived from hand 
 to mouth by plundering the cattle and swine of the settlers and loyal natives), 
 the severe cold of the season, and, perhaps, the slight taste of the bayonet they 
 had enjoyed, all contributed to incline the insurgents. A long-threatened, and 
 by the troops ardently hoped-for, assault on the British stockades never took 
 effect, though, it is said, the storming parties for each, with the chiefs to lead 
 them, had all been regularly " told off." 
 
 The sustained blockade of the river, and other stringent measures enforced 
 by the English, reduced the natives residing on its banks to the greatest straits ; 
 and, under the pressure of fiimine, a numerous deputation of men of note came 
 down to the camp, and tendered their 2)e(xam to the officer in command. He 
 assured them of the pardon of the governor-in-chief upon certain conditions, 
 which were accepted, and peace was restored.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 
 
 The nature of this work precluded the writer from entering into the political 
 history of the various colonies, or the details of the Maori wars in New Zealand. 
 Those topics, to treat them fully, would require the space of many volumes. In 
 the composition of the work free use has been made of the best authorities 
 attainable on the subjects dealt with ; and care has been taken to omit every- 
 thing relating to local conflicts on political questions. The history is a history 
 of facts, and it may safely be affirmed that no such magazine of facts relating to 
 the British dominions in the south has ever before been given to the world. 
 
 An appendix of curious facts and anecdotes relating to early colonial times 
 is added. 
 
 In the foregoing pages we have followed step by step the series of social, 
 commercial, and political events which have estalilished free and prosperous 
 colonies on the island-continent of Australia ; the progrccs of the pastoral 
 interest from the eight merinos imported by Macarthur to the millions of fine- 
 wooUed sheep which now graze over Australian pastures ; the progress of 
 emigration, from the few score officials, soldiers, turnkeys, and rum-traders, who, 
 for a quarter of a century, formed the only free additions to the native-born 
 population, to the present time, when armies of emigrants, counted in tens of 
 thousands, arrive from all countries of Europe and America ; the progress of 
 the value of land from the period when a bribe of I'ations and the aid of 
 Government-fed slave labour was needed to induce a colonist to accept a farm, 
 to the jiresent year, when land is sold by the foot at the rate of thousands of 
 pounds per acre; the progress of trade from the mere barter of the year 1800, 
 with imports dejiendent on the expenditure of the Home Government, to the 
 year 1853, when millions of Australian exports in gold and wool created a new 
 and profitable export for almost every branch of British manufactures, and 
 afforded employment for an amount of tonnage Avhich British shipowners find 
 themselves unable to supply ; the progress of political institutions, from the 
 irresponsible despotism of the first governor and gaoler, to the concession of the 
 amplest powers of self-government and taxation, with full control of land and 
 land funds, customs and casual revenues, to the legislatures of New South 
 Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand. 
 These splendid possessions of the British Crown now contain nearly two millions 
 of loyal subjects, enjoying the utmost amount of individual and general pro-
 
 620 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 sperity attainable by man, and with a prospect before them of literally unlimited 
 expansion. Such are the results of British energy and enterprise in the New 
 Empire of the South ! 
 
 AUSTRALIAN FACTS AND ANECDOTES. 
 
 PORT JACKSON. 
 
 It is erroneously stated in the text that Cook named Port Jackson after the 
 sailor who first sighted the entrance. The true statement is as follows : There 
 is an epitaph on a tablet in Cleveland Church, Yorkshire, to the memory of Sir 
 George Duckett, erected by his widow, which states, among other things, that 
 the deceased, " formerly Sir George Jackson, for many years joint-secretary 
 to the Admii'alty, afterwards Judge- Advocate of the Fleet," had been a zealous 
 patron of Cajjtain Cook ; and that the latter, " in recognition of their friendship, 
 called after him Point Jackson in New Zealand, and Port Jackson in Ncav 
 South Wales." We thus learn that the family name of Jackson had been 
 changed to Duckett. There was no sailor of the name of Jackson on the 
 " Endeavour's " books. 
 
 NATIVE NAMES. 
 
 I like the native names, as Paramatta, 
 
 And Illawarra and WoolloomooUoo, 
 Toongabbee, Mittagong, and Coolingatta, 
 
 And Yurumbon, and Coodgiegang, Meroo, 
 Euranarina, Jackwa, Bulkomatta, 
 
 Nandowra, Tumbarumba, Woogaroo ; 
 The Wollondilly and the WingycaiTibbee, 
 The Warragumby, Daby, and Bungarribbee. 
 
 " COO-EY ! " 
 
 Coo-ey, ■R'ith the rising inflection on the second syllable, is the call universally 
 used by the aborigines of Australia. It can be heard to a much greater distance 
 than any call made by Euroi^eans ; and the repetition of the coo-ey, it may be 
 from a distant part of the forest, establishes a communication between two 
 parties at once. The colonists all use the coo-ey. It was once used by a young- 
 lady, a native of New South Wales, who had been accidentally separated from 
 her party in the crowd on the streets of London ; and it answered its purpose at 
 once — no doubt to the great astonishment of the Cockneys, Avho would naturally 
 think the strangers mad. 
 
 leichhardt's grave. 
 
 LINES ADDRESSED TO THE PARTY PROCEEDING ON THE TRACK OF DR LEICIIUARDT. 
 
 13Y R. LYND, ESQ. 
 
 Ye who prepare, with pilgrim feet, 
 
 Your long and doubtful path to wend, 
 If — whitening on the waste — ye meet 
 
 The relics of my murdered friend —
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 621 
 
 His bones with rev'icnce ye shall bear, 
 To where some mouiitjiiu streamlet flowB : 
 
 There, by its mossy bank, prepare 
 The pillow of his long repose. 
 
 It shall be by a stream whose tides 
 
 Are driink by birds of every wing ; 
 Where ev'ry lovelier flower abides 
 
 The earliest wak'ning touch of spring 1 
 O meet that he — (who so carest 
 
 All-beauteous Nature's varied charms) — 
 That he — her martyred son— should rest 
 
 "Within his mother's fondest arms ! 
 
 When ye have made his nan-ow bed, 
 
 And laid the good man's ashes there, 
 Ye shall kneel down around the dead, 
 
 And wait upon your God in prayer. 
 What though no reverend man be near — 
 
 No anthem poui- its solemn breath — 
 No holy walls invest his bier 
 
 With all the hallowed pomp of death 1 
 
 Yet humble minds shall find the grace, 
 
 Devoutly bowed upon the sod, 
 To call that blessing round the place 
 
 Wliich consecrates the sod to God. 
 And ye the wilderness shall tell 
 
 How — faithful to the hopes of men — 
 The Mighty Power he served so well, 
 
 Shall breathe upon his bones again ! 
 
 When ye your gr-acious task have done. 
 
 Heap not the rock above his dust ! 
 The Angel of the Lord alone 
 
 Shall guard the ashes of the just ! 
 But ye shall heed with pious cai-e. 
 
 The mem'ry of that spot to keep ; 
 And note the marks that guide me where 
 
 My vu-tuous friend is laid to sleep ! 
 
 For oh ! bethink — in other times 
 
 (And be those happier times at hand), 
 When science, like the smile of God, 
 
 Gomes bright'ning o'er that weary land ! 
 How will her pilgrims hail the power. 
 
 Beneath the drooping myall's gloom, 
 To sit at eve, and mourn an hour, 
 
 And pluck a leaf on Leichhardt's tomb ! 
 
 Sydxev Barracks, 2d July 1845.
 
 622 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 cook's monuments. 
 
 There is now a fine statue to Cook, from the chisel of Woohier, erected 
 in Hyde Park, Sydney. A second stands in the garden of Captain Thomas 
 Watson, near Sydney, erected by that gentleman himself in 1874. 
 
 STORY OF JAMES DAVIES. 
 
 James Davies was the son of a Scotch blacksmith, who followed his calling 
 first in the Old Wynd, and afterwards at the Broomielaw, in the city of Glasgow, 
 about sixty years ago. The father brought up his son to his own business, but 
 the latter turned out a bad character, and was transported to New South Wales, 
 per the ship "Minstrel," in the year 1824, being only sixteen years of age at the 
 time. His transportation, hoAA'ever, does not seem to have reformed him in any 
 degree, for he Avas again transported for some colonial misdeed to the penal 
 settlement at Moreton Bay. He Avas there employed at the forge along with 
 another young man in similar circumstances. The commandant at Moreton Bay 
 at that period Avas Captain Logan, of the 57th Regiment, Avho being very zealous 
 in the cause of geographical discovery, and accustomed to take long solitary 
 excursions into the Avild bush, Avas at length unfortunately murdered by the 
 black natives, probably in revenge for some act of aggression committed upon 
 themselves, by one or other of the convicts under his charge. Captain Logan 
 Avas a strict and rather severe disciplinarian, and so liberal in the ai:)plication of 
 the lash, that Davies and his companion, fearing that it might shortly be their 
 turn to be flogged, although they had never been punished in the settlement, 
 absconded, and " took to the bush." Proceeding to the northAvard, they soon 
 fell in Avith a numerous tribe of black natives, by Avhom they were kindly 
 received, and treated Avith the utmost hospitality — Davies being recognised as 
 one of their OAvn number, Avho had died, or been killed some time before, 
 returned to life again. Davies was by no means good-looking as a white man. 
 The name of the native Avhom he Avas supposed to rejiresent had been Darum- 
 bo}', and this Avas thenceforth his native name. The recognition of the sup- 
 posed relationship Avas attended, in the first instance, Avith lamentations, mingled 
 Avith rejoicing; and Davies was immediately adopted by the parents of Darum- 
 boy, Avlio Avere still alive, and regularly supi)lied Avith fish in abundance, and any 
 other descri2:)tion of provisions they happened to possess. 
 
 The tribe in Avliich Davies and his companion Avei'e thus naturalised, had 
 their usual place of habitation (if such a phrase can be used with propriety in 
 reference to a migratory iieojile, Avho never stay more than a fcAV nights in any 
 one place), at a considerable distance in the interior, although they occasionally 
 Aisited tlie coast to vary their usual sustenance and mode of life by fishing; and 
 it Avas on one of these occasional visits to the coast that Davies was found and 
 brought back to civilised society, by Mr Andrew Petrie, after he had been 
 upwai'ds of fourteen years among tlio natives, and had long given up all thoughts 
 or expectation of ever returning to the society of civilised men. His companion.
 
 SUPPLEMENT A R Y CIJA P TER. 623 
 
 however, had in the meantime, and when they had both been only a short period 
 among the natives, i'allen a victim to his ignorance of the native superstitions. 
 For the tribe being on the coast, and encamped near some inlet of the sea, 
 where oysters and other shell-fish were alnmdant, and all that were able being 
 employed in gathering the shell-fish, Davies's companion being in want of a 
 basket or other receptacle for those he had collected, and observing a (////// or 
 native basket (which is usually formed of a strong native grass, very neatly 
 plaited), hanging in the hollow of a tree close by, he took it down, and finding it 
 contained only a quantity of bones, he threw them out, and filled the dilly with 
 oysters. These bones, however, were those of a deceased native of the tribe 
 which had thus, in conformity to the native usage in such cases, been solemnly 
 deposited in their last resting-place ; and the deed which the white man had 
 done quite unconsciously in removing them and throwing them out, was 
 regarded by the natives as the greatest sacrilege, and punishable only with 
 death. The unfortunate young man was accordingly surprised and killed very 
 shortly thereafter. 
 
 PARAPHRASE AND TRANSLATIOX OF A SONG OF THE ABORIGINES. 
 
 " Ngaan nubang dhuraa 1 
 Barrabooriong gil-waa ! " 
 
 " A warrior lies in yonder dell, 
 
 His eyelids closed for ever ! 
 Heroes ! I slew him, and he fell 
 
 Near Warragumby rivex'. 
 Who is he ere we dig his grave ? 
 
 Come tell me in the song. 
 Oh, he is like a warrior brave. 
 
 Bold Bari'abooriong." 
 
 THE COROBBORY. 
 
 Sir Thomas Mitchell describes this dance. He says : " The amusement always 
 takes place at night, and by the light of blazing boughs. They dance to beaten 
 time, accompanied by a song. The dancers paint themselves white, in such remark- 
 ably varied ways, that no two individuals are at all alike. The surrounding dark- 
 ness seems necessary to the effect of the whole, all these dances being more or less 
 dramatic ; the painted figures coming forward in mystic order, from the obscurity 
 of the background, while the singers and beaters of time are invisible, have a 
 highly theatrical effect. Each dance seems most tastefully progressive, the 
 movement being at first slow, and introduced by two persons, displaying the 
 most graceful motions, both of arms and legs, while others, one by one, drop 
 in, until each imperceptibly weai's into the truly savage attitude of the 
 'Corobbory ' jump — the legs striding to the utmost; the head turned over 
 one shoulder ; the eyes glaring, and fixed with savage energy in one direction ; 
 the arms raised and inclined towards the head ; the hands usually grasping 
 waddles, boomerangs, or other warlike weapons. The jump now keeps time with
 
 624 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 each beat, and at each leap the dancer takes six inches to one side, all being in a 
 connected line, led by the first dancer. The line is donbled, or tripled, according 
 to space and numbers ; and this gives great effect, for when the fii'st line jumps 
 to the left, the second jumps to the right, the third to the left again, and so on, 
 until the action acquires due intensity, when all simultaneously and suddenly stop. 
 The excitement which this dance produces in the savage is very remarkable. 
 However listless the individual, lying half asleep, perhaps, as they usually are 
 when not intent on game, set him to this dance, and he is fired with sudden 
 energy — every nerve is strung to such a degree that he is no longer to be 
 recognised as the same individual, until he ceases to dance, and comes to you 
 again. There can be little doubt but that the Corobbory is the medium 
 through which the delights of poetry and the drama are enjoyed, in a limited 
 degree, even by these primitive savages of New Holland." — Three Expeditions 
 into the Interior of Eastern Australia, etc., etc., by Sir T. L. ]\Iitchell, etc., etc., 
 vol. ii., p. 5. 
 
 THE MAUNGATAPU MURDERS. 
 
 Distant about nine miles from the city of Nelson is the base of a large 
 mountain forming a portion of one of the many mountain ranges which are so 
 plentiful in this country, and whose great size and rugged character foi'm one of 
 the most remarkable features in New Zealand scenery. It is reached by a 
 narrow track winding along the river Maitai. This track will not allow of t\vo 
 horsemen moving together abreast, and is often a mci-e ledge cut out of the 
 mountain side, and overhanging precipitous banks which take a sheer descent to 
 the river that is sometimes fifty or sixty feet below. The mountain, forest, and 
 river scenery is grand and wild ; and the thickly-timbered hill-side frequently 
 " glasses itself " in the deep and placid pools, where in some parts the stormy 
 mountain stream sinks into perfect and um-uflled stillness and calm beautj^ 
 
 The track takes its name from the Maungatapu, a mountain over which it 
 passes. This word signifies in the Maori the tapiCd (tabooed) or " sacred moun- 
 tain," which is about 5000 feet high, and the winding pathway which leads over it 
 is about five miles long from base to base. This path is cut through a dense 
 primeval forest, which clothes the mountain and its many spurs and steep river 
 gorges with continual and luxuriant foliage ; and the man who, for the first 
 time, rides through the lonely yet majestic and changing scenery with its rushing 
 river, dark gullies, dense bush, and hazardous side-ways, huge mountain tops, 
 some jagged with huge rocks, and others rising into lofty peaks, must confess 
 that seldom is there to be met with such splendid solitudes and scenery as those 
 which embrace this narrow and tortuous pass. 
 
 This track connects by land the two provinces of Nelson and Marlborough, 
 and forms the overland route to what, at one time, was a part of Nelson 
 Province, the large and rich pastoral and agricultural valley of the Wairau. 
 Mining enterprise first led to its formation some time since. 
 
 Some years ago the expectations of a yield from a copper-mine, believed to 
 exist in the Dun Mountain (which lies about twelve miles to the south-east of
 
 SUrVLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 625 
 
 Nelson), led to the expenditure of large sums of money for the purpose of forming 
 a road suitable for the transit of the ore to Nelson, the port for shipment; and 
 the valley of the ]\Iaitai having been chosen as the best route, some half-score of 
 miles of its coin'se were gradually converted into a tolerable track, practicable for 
 horses and pack bullocks. Rude bridges spanned the river at various parts of its 
 devious course ; rocks were toppled down into its channel ; dense bush on its 
 precijiitous banks was cleared aside to enable horsemen to travel its course in 
 single file, while pursuing a new road from Nelson, and to enjoy a day's travel 
 amongst the changing scene of the rushing mountain torrent, dark gullies, dense 
 bueh, and dangerous-looking sidings that alternate the track. This road had not 
 long been formed when it was discovered that by diverging from the track at the 
 junction of the river, about nine miles from Nelson, and jiursuing a more easterly 
 course towards the Maungatapu, that a short cut across the mountains could be 
 made in the direction of Wairau. Hence arose this road, which has from time 
 to time been improved, and now extends about seventy miles from Nelson to 
 Pictou, in jSIarlborough Province. 
 
 While there are few jDlaces more beautiful and striking than this road displays, 
 there are also few places offering greater facilities for the commission of deeds 
 of violence, with greater chances of escape for the perpetrators, or means of 
 hiding their crimes. Yet never until 1866 had a single offence been heard of 
 along its whole extent since its formation. Comparatively free from deeds of 
 violence, and even from petty oflFences, such as thefts, has this part of New 
 Zealand been since its settlement in 1842. The people of Nelson felt so secure 
 in life and property that for nearly a generation their household doors were 
 rarely locked, until very recently, when the gold discoveries of the province 
 attracted a strange and moving population, multiplied largely the strange faces 
 in our sti'eets, and induced something more like caution and watchfulness than 
 ever was practised before. The sense of security which had been so long enjoyed 
 made all the more startlins; the intelligence of those dreadful occurrences which 
 Ave now proceed to narrate. 
 
 On the morning of the 12th June 1866, four men left Deep Creek, a small town- 
 ship on the gold-diggings of the Wakamarina Eiver, in the province of JSIarl- 
 borough, for Nelson, in order to proceed thence to the Grey River goldfields on 
 the west coast of the province of Nelson. They were John Kempthorne, store- 
 keeper at Deep Creek; Felix Mathieu, hotel-keeper there; James Dudley, store- 
 keeper there ; and James Pontius, miner there. Kempthorne and Dudley were 
 Englishmen ; Mathieu was a Frenchman ; and Pontius an American belonging 
 to New York. All were men in the prime of life, the eldest being not more 
 than forty years of age. Deep Creek is the only settlement on the Wakamarina 
 diggings which remains of the gold " rush " that arose on the discovery of gold 
 on the Wakamarina, in April 1864. It has always maintained a small popula- 
 tion, and yielded ftiir results to the few miners who remained out of the 
 thousands that flocked to that quarter when the diggings first "broke out." 
 The superior attractions of the Grey goldfields induced the four men above 
 named to leave Deep Creek, with the intention of trying their fortune on the 
 
 4k
 
 626 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 west coast. This they were fated never to reach, for their bodies Avere found, 
 foull}' murdered, lying on the side of a mountain gorge, on the lonely road which 
 separates Xelson from the Wakamarina River. The jiass spoken of leads to 
 that river, which is thirty-five miles from Nelson, and close by the Wakamarina 
 ford is Canvastown, once a spot well peopled with miners, now almost deserted. 
 Deep Creek lies at a distance of seven miles farther up the Wakamarina, through 
 a heavy bush path. The four murdered men reached Canvastown before noon 
 on Tuesday, 12tli June, and left on their way to Nelson the same afternoon. 
 They had with them altogether about £300 in gold dust and notes, and Avere 
 accompanied by a pack-horse, which carried their " swags," the diggers' phrase 
 for baggage. They rested on Tuesday night at the Pelorus Accommodation 
 House, six and a half miles from Canvastown, kept by Mr Couper, whence they 
 started on the memorable morning of Wednesday, 13th June, for Nelson, Avhere 
 they expected to arrive that night, but which they, or rather all that remained of 
 them, reached in a melancholy procession, sixteen days after, as "dead corpses." 
 Previous to leaving Deep Creek, Mathieu, who owned the pack-horse which 
 the party took with them, had arranged that a man named MoUer should follow 
 them to bring back the horse from Nelson. Moller, Avho was a good walker, 
 and unencumbered with baggage, left Deep Creek at daybreak on Wednesday, 
 13th June, a day after his friends. He passed Canvastown at an early hour, 
 and gradually gained ground upon his four friends, Avho were obhged to adhere 
 to the slow pace of their heavily-laden pack-horse. INIollcr had been informed 
 that the party he was in quest of was but a short way in advance of him, and 
 this he learned from several travellers, who were, on that particular day, more 
 than usually numerous on the road. The four lost men Avere last seen alive by 
 travellers on the road at a small flat a little more than half the distance between 
 Canvastown and Nelson. This spot is called Franklin's Flat, from the name of 
 a storekeeper who started an accommodation house there during the " rush " 
 that existed in the early days of the Wakamarina diggings. The flat is now 
 deserted, but it is frequently chosen as a resting-place by travellers, being a 
 convenient spot at which to feed their horses and refreshen themselves. Kemp- 
 thorne and his companions were seen on this flat by a horseman named Birrell 
 about one o'clock in the afternoon, and a few minutes afterwards were seen 
 leaving the place by a man named Livingstone and a woman of the name of 
 Fulton (referred to by Burgess in his confession before the magistrate). These 
 were the last persons, Avith the exception of their murderers, Avho saw the four 
 men alive ; Avithin a mile and a half of this spot all trace of them Avas lost. 
 i\l(illcr, after pas,sing this man and woman Avho reported having seen his friends, 
 Avalked on, and less than a mile and a half on the Nelson side of it, close by the 
 rock already spoken of, he met a settler on horseback named BoAvn, who, in 
 answer to his inquiries, said he had seen nothing of the men or their horse, that 
 no sucli party had passed, and that, from the nature of the road, he must have 
 seen them if they had gone on. Moller was bcAvildered, and came on to Nelson, 
 liut f(jund no trace of his friends, avIio had not been seen there. He returned to 
 Canvastown, arriving there on Saturday, 16th June. On telling his story of the
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 627 
 
 disappearance of the men to Mr Jorvis, a storekeeper at Canvastown, the hitter 
 ahnost intuitively conchi(le<l that tlie men had been murdered, and that their 
 murtk^rers were a party of four strange and suspieiousdookinf? men whom he 
 had allowed to lodge for three days in an empty building adjoining his own 
 store. These four had arrived at Canvastown from Nelson on Saturday, 9th 
 June. One of the four went up to Deep Creek on the Sunday following, leaving 
 the three others at Canvastown. This emissary returned on jVIonday, and all kept 
 up a secrecy of movement, refusing to admit any one to the house, and seemingly 
 actively engaged the while within. It was the suspicious appearance and con- 
 duct of these four men which led JSIr Jervis to suspect them of having murdered 
 the four missing men, on hearing of their non-arrival in Nelson. The one who 
 visited Deep Creek was recognised there by the wife of a miner, ]\Irs ^Morgan, 
 who knew him on the Dunstan diggings, in Otago, and whose attention was 
 directed to him by Mrs Mathieu, the wife of one of the men since murdered, and 
 who said he refused to give any name. Mrs Morgan spoke to him. She said, 
 " What, Phil Levy ! what do you want here 1 " Levy rose and shook hands 
 with the Avoman, who again asked him, " Where is the woman Ennna, that was 
 living with you on the Dunstan 1 " This woman was said to have mysteriou.sly 
 disappeared. He replied, hurriedly : " Hush, don't say a word about her now; " 
 and no more passed on the subject. He had a good deal of conversation Avith 
 Dudley, another of the murdered men ; and told Mrs INIorgan and others that he 
 had come to Nelson to buy goods, but having heard of a rush at Deep Creek he 
 had come up to see about it. After staying a night at Mathieu's hotel he 
 returned to Canvastown, which he reached on the Monday evening, and rejoined 
 his three comrades there. 
 
 These four men were afterwards proved to be the prisoners — Richard Burgess, 
 William or Phil Levy, Thomas Kelly, Joseph Thomas Sullivan. Descriptions of 
 the four men had been furnished to the police of Nelson by the police authorities 
 of Greymouth, on the west coast goldfields, at which place it was discovered they 
 were wanted on the charge of being concerned in the murder of ISIr George 
 Dobson, a young gentleman employed as a surveyor by the Provincial Govern- 
 ment of Canterbury, and who had suddenly disappeared. As afterwards 
 appeared from the confessions of some of the prisoners, it was this gang who 
 killed and buried Dobson, whose body was subsequently found where it had 
 been buried, after they had strangled him, on the banks of the Grey Kiver, about 
 seven miles up from the town of Greymouth. 
 
 LAMENT FOR A NEW ZEALAND CHIEF. 
 
 Behold the lightning's glare, 
 
 It seems to cut asunder Tuwhara's rugged mountaina 
 
 From thy hand the weapon dropped : 
 
 And thy bright spirit disappeared 
 
 Beyond the heights of Raukawa. 
 
 The sun grows dim and hastes away. 
 
 As a woman from tlie scene of battle. 
 
 The tides of the ocean weep as they ebb and flow,
 
 028 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 And the mountains of tlie south melt away : 
 
 For the spirit of the chieftain 
 
 Is taking its flight to Eona. 
 
 Open ye the gates of the heavens. 
 
 Enter the first heaven, then enter the second heaven, 
 
 And when thou shalt travel the land of spirits, 
 
 And they shall say to thee, " What meaneth this 1 " 
 
 Say the winds of this our world 
 
 Have been torn from it, in the death of the brave one, 
 
 The leader of our battles. 
 
 Atutahi and the stars of the morning 
 
 Look do\\Ti from the sky. 
 
 The earth reels to and fro, 
 
 For the great prop of the tribes lies low. 
 
 Ah ! my friend, the dews of Hokianga 
 
 Will penetrate thy body. 
 
 The waters of the rivers will ebb out 
 
 And the land be desolate. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND CUSTOMS. 
 
 Connected with the mj-tliology of the New Zealanders there was a singular 
 ceremony called Iriiri, or Eohi. Before a child was a month old, often before it 
 was ten days, its head was adorned with feathers, all the family greenstones 
 were hung about it, and it was rolled up in a mat and carried to the side of a 
 stream. Here the mother delivered the child into the hands of the priest, who, 
 raising it in his arms, and looking steadily in its face, chanted : 
 
 " Wait till I pronounce your name. 
 What is your name 1 
 Listen to your name. 
 This is your name : 
 Wai Kui Manecane." 
 
 Here a long list of names belonging to the child's ancestors was repeated by 
 the priest, and when the child sneezed or cried, the name which was then being 
 uttered was the one selected. Then, if it was a male child, the priest in a 
 falsetto voice sung : 
 
 *o 
 
 " Let this child be strong to gi-asp the battle-axe, 
 To gi-asp the spear. 
 Strong in strife. 
 Foremost in the charge. 
 First in the breach. 
 Strong to grapple with the foe, 
 To climb lofty mountains. 
 To contend with raging waves. 
 May he lie indiistrious in cultivating the ground, 
 In building large houses. 
 In constructing canoes suited for war. 
 In iifttin;; nets ! "
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. G29 
 
 Whilst over a female child he said : 
 
 " ilay she be industrious in cultivating the ground, 
 In searching for shell-lish, 
 In weaving garments, 
 In wea\4ng ornamental mats ! 
 May she be strong to carry burdens ! " 
 
 Then the priest sj)rinkled over the child water shaken out of the branches of trees, 
 or he immersed it in the river. Occasionally it was held before a notched stick, 
 and if any event occurred during the time which could be construed into a good 
 or bad omen, it was foretold whether the future man would turn out a warrior or 
 a coward, or whether death would overtake the infant before it reached maturity. 
 Priests received presents for performing this ceremony, and when it was over food 
 was cooked for the gods and for the guests. The rite was celebrated differently 
 among difterent nations. It was, however, only over the children of chiefs that 
 Iriiri was carefully performed. But all new-born iufimts were sacred, and could 
 not be handed about until the tapu was removed from them by cooking food. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND STORIES. 
 
 STORY OF WAIHUKA AND TUTEAMOAMO. 
 
 There were two brothers, and they had neither father nor mother, nor tribe 
 nor place. 
 
 The younger was named Waihuka, the elder Tnteamoamo. When the former 
 married Hineitekakara, a very beautiful woman, the elder brother the moment 
 he saw her was struck with love, and he made up his mind to destroy Waihuka, 
 to obtain possession of his wife. 
 
 One day Tnteamoamo took Waihuka a long distance out to sea to fish, and 
 after catching a hundred fish, the elder brother said to the younger, " Haul up 
 the anchor of our canoe ;" but being unable to do so, he was prevailed on to dive 
 for it. While under the water his brother cut the rope and paddled to a distance. 
 When Waihuka came to the surface he cried to his brother to come and take 
 him on board, but Tuteamoamo sailed away after throwing into the sea Waihuka's 
 mat, fishing-line, and paddle, which he told him to use as a canoe, 
 
 Waihuka now prayed to the birds to carry him to land, but none came to his 
 assistance ; he then called on the fish, and the whale hearing his supplications 
 carried him ashore on its back. 
 
 When Tuteamoamo reached the land he rushed home, and tohl Hineitekakara 
 that her husband was on board his canoe, but she immediately suspected he was 
 drowmed, and fell a-weeping. 
 
 In the evening Tuteamoamo went to Hineitekakara's house and cried, " Draw 
 back the slide of the door," and she replied : 
 
 "O let me weep, 
 Let me utter now the lamentation 
 For thy younger brother Waihuka ! 
 Lo, the year is long, O Tuteamoamo, 
 And tliis Ions; vcar is thine."
 
 630 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 While uttering these words, she dug a hole in the floor of the hut, before 
 Tuteamoamo broke open the door, and escaped to the beach to search for her 
 husband's body. Here she asked various birds, without obtaining any informa- 
 tion, but a whale pointed out where Waihuka Avas to be found alive. 
 
 When Waihuka and Hineitekakara had ceased weeping, they returned quietly 
 home. In the eventide Tuteamoamo again visited the house, and asked Hineite- 
 kakara to draw the slide of the door, which she did, and as he entered Waihuka 
 sprang forward and slew him. 
 
 LEGEND OF THE KILLING OF THE MONSTER HOTUPUKU. 
 
 This is an account of the brave deeds of the men of Rotorua in the olden time. 
 
 Travellers between Rotorua and Taujjo Avere frequently lost, and their friends 
 invariably supposed they fell in with a war party, until one traveller escaped and 
 reported that they were slain by a beast armed with scales and spikes, like a 
 sea monster, living in a cave on the road. 
 
 This news quickly spread, and 340 Rotorua Avarriors took up arms to slay 
 the monster. The party first travelled to the plain of Kapenga, Avhere they 
 plaited ropes and made snares with cabbage-palm leaves ; and when they had 
 finished, chiefs stood up and recounted tales of their ancestors' bravery, to 
 animate each other's courage for the coming struggle. 
 
 It was then arranged the party should not ap^jroach too close to the monster, 
 but Avait until the Avind blew towards them ; " for should it bloAV from us towards 
 him he Avill scent us, and then Ave shall be prevented from making our prepara- 
 tions by his coming upon lis before Ave are ready for him." Parties Avere told oft" 
 to be in readiness Avith the snares, and others to entice him out of the cave. 
 
 These arrangements Avere scarcely completed Avhen the monster, scenting the 
 approach of men, rushed out of his den. Long before he was seen, a rumbling 
 noise like thunder AA^as heard, and the monster ficAV at the AA^arriors with an open 
 mouth and a flaming tongue. They fled, and in their retreat " cunningly drcAV 
 him into the snare, Avhere his fore-legs and head Avere caught." Here he struggled 
 hard for life ; but after frequent attacks from the Avarriors on diftbrent parts of 
 his body, he stretched himself out like a dying grub and expired. 
 
 Next day the Avarriors cut open their enemy. He Avas as large as a black 
 Avhale, and in shape like a tuatara. In his stomach Avero found bodies of men, 
 Avomen, and children, some Avliole, others mutilated, and large quantities of 
 Avarlike Aveapons and mats. The dead inside the monster Avere carefully buried ; 
 and after preserving his fat in calabashes, and eating portions of his flesh in 
 revenge for his deeds, the Avarriors returned in triumph to Rotorua. 
 
 This story is not unlike that of St George and the dragon ; but there is 
 nothing European in it, for the dragon is the emblem of the Chinese, and all 
 Malays hold in terror animals resembling dragons. 
 
 Fables, like stories, furnished amusement to the people. Every fjible possessed 
 a moral, Avhich is, hoAvever, often obscure. From the folloAving specimens it will 
 be seen ihat the Ncav Zealand fables are apologues, not parables.
 
 SUPPLEMENTA R Y ClIA PTER. 631 
 
 THE EEL AND THE. CODFISH. 
 
 " Which is your best part ? " said the codfish to tlie eel. " I am good," 
 replied the eel, " from my tail to my middle. 15ut which is your good part ? " 
 The codfish answered, " INIy tail and fins." Then the codfish asked the eel 
 which was his fattest part ; and he replied by looking at his tail and referring a 
 similar question to the cod, who by opening his eyes signified his head was the 
 fattest part of his body. 
 
 This fable teaches us the best part of these fish. 
 
 THE GUANA AND THE ROCK COD. 
 
 A guana said to a rock cod, "Let us go inland." And he replied, "No ; go 
 yourself." But the guana urged the cod to go lest man should destroy him. 
 The rock cod answered, " It is you, not me, men will destroy." To which 
 insinuation the guana replied, " I will set up my spines, stick out my claws, and 
 men will run from me." 
 
 THE RAT AND THE GREEN PARROT. 
 
 " Let US climb this tree," said the green parrot to the rat. " What shall we 
 do there ? " asked the rat. " Eat fruit," answered the parrot. " INIy friend," 
 said the rat, " both our tribes are diminishing by the arts of man : he twists 
 your neck and snares me." 
 
 This fable inculcates man's power over the lower animals. 
 
 THE KAURI-TREE AND THE AVHALE. 
 
 " Come to the sea," said the whale to the kauri. " No," replied the tree, " I 
 prefer the land." "Then," said the whale, "let us change skins, for you are in 
 danger of being cut down by man and made into a canoe." 
 
 THE EAT AND THE LIZARD, 
 
 Lizard {in a tree). O Eat ! 
 
 Jlat. AVhat? 
 
 Lizard. Come up hither to me. 
 
 Rat. What are we to do there ? 
 
 Lizard. Gather the fruits of the trees. 
 
 Rat. O son, our place is here below, we only know how to burrow in the earth. 
 
 This fable shows each man has his proper sphere on earth. 
 
 Proverbs are numerous among the New Zealanders, and are often the wise 
 or witty sayings of ancestors. Some are pointed and elegant, while others are 
 destitute of wit and sense to a European, although highly relished among them- 
 selves. 
 
 Proverbs are used to support arguments, to excite men to exertion, and to 
 produce amusement. The introduction of an applicable proverb in a speech 
 often carries more weight than any other sort of argument. Every proverb
 
 632 THE HI ST OR Y OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 inculcates some principle. The following instilled into men's minds the 
 necessity of cultivating food : 
 
 Whoever trusts to another man's labour for his food will be disappointed, 
 but he Avho labours with his own hands will have enough and to spare. 
 
 " In the procession the priest goes before and the multitude follow after." 
 
 Prosperity is promised to "those Avho give as well as take." 
 
 People who ask for advice which they do not follow are compared to " dogs, 
 snatching food from their masters' hands and running away." 
 
 No man is a prophet in his ow^l country has an equivalent in the proverb, 
 "A mussel at home, a parrot abroad." 
 
 Greedy fellows are compared to rats, and the " rat has a double 
 stomach." 
 
 The early bird gets the worm, is less pointedly expressed in the proverb, 
 " He who goes before gathers treasures, but he who follows looks for them in 
 vain." 
 
 "currency" and "corn-stalks." 
 
 In New South Wales the native-born population are distinguished as the 
 " currency " — in opposition to the emigrant portion of the inhabitants, who are 
 (or formerly Avere) considered as "sterling." These terms originated in the 
 difference which, at one period, some of the financial arrangements of the colonial 
 government had occasioned between the nominal value of the pound sterling and 
 its real worth as an article of currency — the latter being then considerably lower 
 than its proper and standard estimate. 
 
 The " currency " of New South Wales are, however, a fine and manly race, 
 by no means unworthy representatives of England's greatness ; and, like all 
 successful dwellers in a new country, they grow up in the practice of that 
 gTeatest of moral qualifications — self-reliance. The colonial-born men are also 
 popularly knowTi by the name of " Corn-stalks " — from their frequent lank and 
 bony appearance. With his independent and self-satisfied gait, his loose and care- 
 less dress (of which the cabbage-tree hat forms an invariable portion), his shrewd 
 and ready intelligence, and his quick appreciation of the monetary value of 
 things around. Brother " Corn-stalk " in not a few particulars resembles Brother 
 Jonathan — his fellow-descendant from the same parent stock. The juvenile 
 population of Sydney, and other towns in the Australian colonies, are also dis- 
 tinguished by the same precocious " smartness " Avhich marks their congeners in 
 the New World, and which often attracts amusingly the notice of visitors to the 
 United States. In Australia, this is mainly the result of the comparative 
 scarcity of labour, and the early age at which the youthful portion of the popula 
 tion find their services called into requisition — at a period when, in many cases, 
 they are still within the limits of childhood. A numerous family is the revei'se 
 of an incumbrance to the industrious settler in these distant lands. A striking 
 contrast, this, to over-populated Britain, in which a man too often has occasion 
 to measure his pecuniary struggles by the catalogue of names inscribed within 
 the cover of his family Bible !
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 633 
 
 THE SHIPWRECKED MISSIONARY. 
 
 The Rev. William Longbottom had been a Wesleyan missionary in India. 
 The climate enfeebled his health. He sought the restoration of his vigour in the 
 charming salubrity of Australia. 
 
 After a little rest, it was arranged that he should be stationed awhile at 
 Swan River, "Western Australia. As there was then more communication Avith 
 that place from Hobart Town than from Sydney, he got a passage at the port of 
 Van Diemen's Land. In these days of " Great Britains " and " Great Easterns," 
 the insignificance of our ancient colonial craft might well provoke a smile. The 
 good man was content to sail in a little boat of forty tons, called the " Fanny." 
 A voyage of some two thousand miles, Avith many inconveniences, had to be 
 undertaken by the invalid minister, accompanied by his wife and little child. 
 This was in the month of June 1838, a time of year which, for rough weather 
 and season, answers to the English December. 
 
 It Avas i-ather natural that so small a A^essel should seek to hug the land a 
 little for shelter; but it Avas singular imprudence, negligence, or something 
 worse, that led the captain out of his route in proximity to a dangerous coast. 
 
 After sailing along the southern limestone rocks of Port Phillip, now Victoria, 
 leaving Portland Bay, the Basaltic Heads, the Guano Isle, and the craggy 
 heights of Cape Northumberland, he crept northward into Encounter Bay. 
 This was so called from the accidental meeting of a French and English exjilor- 
 ing ship in 1802. The first was commanded by Captain Baudin, who had 
 received his commission of peace from the Consul Napoleon ; the other was 
 under Captain Flinders, the discoverer of Bass's Strait and the whole coast of 
 South Australia. 
 
 Encounter Bay is of a crescent shape. Its two horns are bold promontories, 
 the one of primitive rock, and the other of limestone beds. Between these not 
 a stone or rise is seen. The curve line is traced on sand. The frolicsome 
 Avaves will here and there throAV up a hillock only to tear it down again, and 
 strew its fragments far on the ocean bed. And yet this Aveak rampart repels 
 the Avild charges of the massive billoAvs, and rolls back the mad seas that would 
 engulf the land. A strong contest takes place, however, Avhere the river IMurray, 
 after a tranquil course of 2400 miles, glides noiselessly through the salt Avaters 
 of the Victoria Lake, and seeks then to fall into the Southern Ocean. The battle 
 there is found with the shifting sands. The indignant sea hurls up huge banks 
 to stay the irruptive waters ; but, like the ancient forest tribes that broke across 
 the frontiers of Rome, the repulsed foremost ranks of the stream are forced 
 ouAvard again by rearAvard hosts Avho must have room, until the Avail is beaten 
 down, and the imprisoned Avaters fly. Then Avill the ocean rush to the strife 
 once more, and rebuild its fallen fortress. 
 
 SouthAvard of this point, and extending for ninety miles parallel to the coast, 
 is a singular physical feature. A few hundred yards from the sea, divided from 
 it by sand hummocks only, and fed from it by the percolations through the sand, 
 is an inland sea or lake, Avhich, though nearly a hundred miles in length, is 
 
 4l
 
 634 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SIA . 
 
 seldom a mile broad, and but a few feet in depth. The salt Coorong has some 
 dreary, shrubless islands, just sho^ving their sandy heads above the glistening 
 waters. Beyond, again, is the ever dreary sand of one of the many deserts of 
 South Australia. The kangaroo and opossum fly this inhospitable part. The 
 screaming of the gull is unanswered by the note of the land birds. Woe to the 
 poor traveller caught in this wretched thirsty land ! 
 
 The " Fanny " came drifting heedlessly along this low and barren shore. 
 The swell that sets in there is strong and even daugei'ous in fair weather, and is 
 overwhelming in a storm. The sky was clear and the wind was light, as in the 
 still hour of night the missionary was thrown out of his berth by the keel of the 
 vessel impinging on the sands. A gracious Providence was watching over 
 them all. The captain, his four seamen, and the missionary family landed in 
 safety. 
 
 Their first thought was to secure themselves with a little provision on the 
 leeward side of the hummocks, where the cold wind could not annoy them. 
 There they waited anxiously for day. As the morning was calm, and the ship 
 was still hanging together with its end in the sands, a visit was paid to the 
 cabin and the hold. Two days of fine weather enabled the shipwrecked ones to 
 recover some biscuits, watei", and clothes. They were unsuccessful, however, in 
 the search for the charts and compass. These, with the ship's log and papers, 
 had disapi^eared. There were several circumstances that tended to excite sus- 
 picions against the master. 
 
 A sort of tent was erected, and all availing means were employed to make 
 themselves comfortable. The captain seemed to be wholly unaccpiainted Avith 
 the locality, and made no early effort to shift his quarters. For a whole month 
 the party were in a wretched plight, exposed on that stormy coast to the violence 
 of wintry winds. Before the waves destroyed the vessel, and carried off" the frag- 
 ments, timber was secured for firing ; but when that was exhausted they suff'ered 
 much from cold and damp. From this trouble they were relieved by some natives, 
 who, seeing at a distance the tent, came near to observe the visitors. Instead 
 of acting the savage, they courteously provided them with sticks for their fires ; 
 the wood they brought from distant forests. 
 
 Strange to say, these very Coorong aborigines, Avho behaved with such kind- 
 ness to these unfortunate Englishmen, were afterwards known for their horrible 
 brutality towards another shipwrecked party. 
 
 A colonial brig had been cast ashore in a gale there. The people, crew and 
 passengers, men, women, and children, attempted to follow the coast round to 
 Adelaide. Day after day they pursued their toilsome way over the sands. They 
 were thus separated into distinct parties. The natives, who at first appeared 
 favourable, and even gave them food and directed them to water, suddenly, from 
 some unexplained cause, set upon the stragglers, speared them at a distance, or 
 beat out their brains with clubs. For a long time after, a piece of tattered dress 
 disclosed the scene of some part of this terrible tragedy. 
 
 From such a fate the party of the " Fanny" were preserved. They were kept, 
 however, in painful suspense. At length they were unexjiectedly aided by others
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 637 
 
 The evcr-gi-accful kangaroo 
 Would bound, and often stop to view, 
 And look as if he meant to scan 
 The traits of European man. 
 
 THE KUM HOSPITAL. 
 
 In the primitive period of New South Wales the rum currency prevailed. In 
 a purchase the worth was estimated in quarts or gallons of rum. One Sergeant- 
 major Whittle sold a house to Governor Macquaric for two hundred gallons of 
 rum. Both gained by the bargain. His Excellency could buy drink cheap, and 
 the sergeant could sell it dear. 
 
 A good hospital being much required, three gentlemen — one subsequently 
 becoming a wealthy citizen and most distinguished statesman — undertook the 
 erection of the same, providing they had the right of purchasing imported spirits 
 during four years, to the extent of 15,000 gallons. They not only supplied the 
 various publicans of the colony, but opened a drinking-place on their own works. 
 In this way, said the Rev. Dr Lang, they were the means of injuring the settle- 
 ment, in " overspreading the whole surface of its body politic, in a moral and 
 spiritual sense, with Avounds and bruises and putrefying sores." Holt says these 
 persons bought the rum for 10s., and sold it at £2, 17s. 6d. per gallon. 
 
 The rum mania was the blight of the early times. When the farmers of the 
 Hawkesbury applied for Government help in their distress, in 1798, the first 
 thing the authorities did was to shut up all places selling liquor. In an order 
 the governor called such " the chief cause from which many confessed their ruin 
 to have sprung." When the sale of drink was stayed, prosperity naturally 
 returned. A similar complaint came to Sydney from the Norfolk Island settlers 
 in 1799. An inquiry was instituted, the drink cause was found, and the governor 
 urged them not " to indulge in such dangerous gratifications." — Bouwick. 
 
 SORROWS OF THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN PRINTER. 
 
 ]\Iuch has been written and sung of the trials and griefs of first discoverers, 
 first inventors, and original shareholders. But the sorrows of the earliest printer 
 of Sydney should surely awaken the interest of brother craftsmen, and enlist the 
 sympathies of brother editors as well. Bound at once to furnish matter and 
 material, to handle type and pen, he had even greater tasks to attempt, in pro- 
 curing paper and collecting subscriptions. 
 
 In the record of Mr George Howe's death, 11th May 1821, his son and 
 successor states some of his father's difliculties. Born on the island of St Kitts, 
 West Indies, a printer on a London paper, George Howe found himself in 
 Sydney in 1800. Three years after, under Government sanction, and with some 
 Government aid, for he afterwards received a salary of £00, the Gazette was 
 established; or, as his son describes it, "was founded jt?>'0 bono puhlico in 
 adversity ; and carried on for the first seven years, under that goading penury, 
 from which, when nearly spent, it at length emerged by the pi'ovidential inter- 
 vention of his Majesty's present Government."
 
 638 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The printer had brouglit up his son to the trade from the age of nine years. 
 " And" ever since," said Robert Howe, " that early period to the present day, 
 comprising no less a space than seventeen years, the present printer has been 
 employed, under his universally respected parent, in the service of the British 
 Government and of the Australian public ; he is not yet twenty-six. Will the 
 public reject so old, and it is hoijed, so faithful a servant ? " 
 
 The troubles of the first printer were no slight ones. The apology presented 
 after some years' sti'uggle, when complaint had been made, runs thus : " But 
 every one aware of the present contractedness of the typographical machinery, 
 will at once be satisfied that the utmost is done. ^Modesty is our best attire ; 
 but we cannot help saying, as opportunity now favoiu's, that it is the means we 
 are deficient in and not exactly ability." This modest avowal had much truth in it. 
 
 The one great difficulty was paper. It was the time of war. "War prices 
 prevailed. "War risks increased the value of all exports. Communication 
 between England and her colony Avas very irregular, and often after long- 
 intervals. ^Many articles ran out altogether, and others fetched famine prices. 
 The poor printer shared in these vicissitudes, and suffered from the delays. 
 
 The unfortunate man thus addressed his constituency on 31st August 1806 : 
 "As we have no certainty of an immediate supply of paper, we cannot promise a 
 publication next week." On 7th September he cries: "Under the assm-ance of 
 a fiu'ther temporary supply of paper, we have been enabled to provide an exact 
 sufficiency for this scanty publication." There were but two pages of foolscap 
 consumed. A glance at the paper the printer had to use would satisfy any one 
 as to the scarcity of the article. Varied in colour, texture, size, and material, 
 the paper was quite Protean in its appearance. It was under these circum- 
 stances, lasting many years, that ladies, going to the grocery store, would provide 
 against the want of shop paper by putting the tea at one end of a stocking, and 
 the sugar at the other. 
 
 After a suspension of some weeks, there is this announcement on 7th June 
 1807: 
 
 " Regretting the necessity which rendered the suspension of tliis publication 
 unavoidable, Ave have used every exertion as speedily as possible to resume our 
 lal)Ours, and a small unexpected supply of paper enables us once more to 
 court the attention of our readers. We have frequently been reduced to the 
 necessity of varying the size, shape, and very colour of the paper ; and probably 
 none of the transitions that have marked our progress here have been more 
 observable than in the present instance." We are then informed that "quarto 
 letter paper retails at the present moment at the enormous rate of six, seven, 
 and even eight shillings per quire." The charges are thus mentioned : " Terms, 
 three shillings upon the delivery of every fourth paper." 
 
 A suspension took place between 30th August 1S07 and 15th jNIay 1808. 
 We have, therefore, no newspaper record of the Great Rebellion of New South 
 Wales, the seizure and confinement of the governor, and ultimate exile of 
 Admiral Bligh. The paper question is again quoted on tlie renewal of the 
 Gazette.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER 639 
 
 "We have once more," says the editor, "the satisfaction of rendering our 
 services to the public. We have had repeatedly to lament the necessrty of 
 vieing with the chameleon its change of colour, and of being comjjelled to rival 
 the prophetic son of Occanus in the frequency of change that has been given to 
 our shape. To necessity wc cannot dictate. As servants of the puljlic, exertion 
 is our duty, and commendation our hoped reward. A su])])ly of ))aper guaran- 
 tees the promise of a continuance of this jiublicalion, until other arrivals may take 
 its place ; and should our adverse destinies to any great length of time protract 
 so desirable an event, we hope, nevertheless, in all the lively tints in which the 
 Chinese favour us, to prosecute our labours, until relenting fate should put an 
 end to our vicissitudes. This paper is printed upon a half sheet of demy, the 
 |)ages (two) made up to the very extent of our press." 
 
 This composition was so beyond the editorial capacity, that some learned 
 convict clerk must have brought his classical ability to the rescue of the printer. 
 
 In the early days, trade to India and China furnished the colonists with 
 many manufactured goods besides paper. Another allusion, at a subsequent 
 date of several years, is made to the rice material. " We are reduced," groans 
 the editor, " to the necessity of jjrinting the Gazette on China paper. Of all 
 evils this is one of those most wished to be avoided, more particularly as it 
 increases our labours twofold." It could only be printed on one side. 
 
 As late as 1823, two difficulties are mentioned. One relates to type. Year 
 after year a better letter was hoped for and promised. It was always coming, 
 but its absence perpetually apologised for. At last came forth the joyous cry, 
 "The type has arrived." The week after, 21st August 1823, is this unhappy 
 announcement of an annoying mistake on the part of the shippers : " The new 
 type has reached us, but we lament to say it is of small utility, being from its 
 minuteness nearly imperceptible to the eye." There was no desire on the part 
 of the public to have a diamond edition of the Gazette; and had there been, the 
 printer would have objected to the trouble oi picking up. 
 
 Just before the last date, the paper was really in a most miserable plight. 
 The paper was bad enough, the type was in the very last stage of decrepitude, 
 but the ink was so utterly 1)ad as to make the number absolutely illegible. The 
 proprietor, ever struggling with difficulties, tries to soothe the perturbed feelings 
 of his subscribers on the following publication day : 
 
 " We have to apologise for the illegibility of last week's Gazette. JNIany of 
 them were scarcely readable ; and this was a ftiult that appeared without 
 remedy, in consequence of two failures having occurred in making experiments 
 upon manufacturing ink. It is one of the most difficult and disagreeable tasks 
 that possibly can devolve to the printer of a paper, to make his own ink. 
 About three months since, some was turned out of hand pretty fair ; since which 
 two attempts have been made, and both fruitless, though laborious and expensive." 
 
 But it is time to turn to another and more vulgar trial. This is one from 
 which modern proprietors of papers are not yet wholly free, and for Avhich no 
 adequate provision can be made. It is a commercial one. It is the old-fashioned 
 worry of accoimti^. It is one thing to print ; it is another to get paid for the printing.
 
 G40 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTBALASIA. 
 
 It is easier to instruct the public than procure the payment for lessons given. 
 Every man knows the frailty of his own times in this respect ; but it is sad to 
 recognise the antiquity of the anti-paying-the-printer system. There cannot be 
 furnished to that worthy labourer a more convincing evidence of the depravity 
 of, at least, a portion of his species. 
 
 In a review of the past, published on Christmas Day 1819, ]\Ir Howe refers 
 to his older trials. Speaking in the third ^^erson, he says, " He bought the paper 
 at a very dear price ; he distributed his type ; he invented and obtained new 
 matter, without any auxiliary assistance ; he worked the paper off at press ; and 
 he afterwards carried it out, that is to say, delivered it to the Sydney subscribers. 
 A paper in England, under seven hundred in number, is sensibly a losing con- 
 cern : and what must be a paper within half the number, and half of that unpaid 
 for ? " Could the proprietor of the Times speak of such an experience as this ? 
 
 As early as 14th April 1805, the complaint is raised. The subscribers are 
 urged to pay up their long arrears. The price is only sixpence, and the necessity 
 is great, from "the very extravagant price of paper." The appeal is a moving 
 one. The payment may be made in copper coin, grain, or bills. 
 
 The dunning subscribers got in those days was a caution, or ought to have 
 been so. Again and again Avere protests entered, and again and again were 
 really pathetic appeals sent forth. They were assured that payments in wheat 
 would be "most thankfully received." On 28th December ISOG, we read: 
 " G. Howe, dreading the necessity of a peregrination through the extensive 
 Hawkesbury settlement, is nevertheless compelled to form a resolution of once 
 more encountering the fatigues certain upon so distressing a journey, under a hope 
 that persons in arrears of subscriptions will liquidate their accounts." 
 
 And the poor fellow had to trudge on foot, from homestead to homestead, 
 many a weary mile, and collect his hard-earned cash. As this was to a large 
 extent paid in copper coinage, the swag must have been burdensome enough 
 under the midsummer sun, and while toiling in the teeth of a burning, dusty 
 hrickjielder. He had to run the risk of snakes, bushi-angers, and other vermin 
 of the pathless woods. 
 
 Harassed beyond all endurance at last, and fairly wrought to a fever heat, the 
 editor declared on the day before Christmas in 1809, that he certainly would and 
 must stop the paper. He could not carry on any longer, for his credit was gone 
 along with his subscribers' arrears. 
 
 The governor now came humanely and authoritatively to the rescue. After 
 some declaration about the reception of grain from the debtors, he is pleased to 
 say: 
 
 "As it is his Honour's wish to strengthen as much as possible the prosjDect 
 of its uninterrupted continuance, he is further pleased to recommend punctuality 
 in the discharge of subscriptions, etc., Avithout which the publisher must always 
 l)e exposed to inconvenience, against which he has been under the necessity of 
 complaining that his circumstances are unable to contend. 
 
 " By command of his Honour the lieutenant-governor, 
 
 "James Finacane, Secretary"
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 641 
 
 It is something to have the interposition of Government on behalf of one's 
 collection of debts. 
 
 One last appeal must be added for its pathos. "In England," says the 
 writer, in March 1&J19, "newspapers are paid for before they (piit the office; and 
 here we are told, after years of patient forbearance, that the account shall be 
 li(][ui(lated, when the person to whom presented shall think proper to pay ! Now, 
 generous subscribers, do not let your faithful publisher take his Avhity-brown 
 locks with sorrow to the grave, when it is so happily in your power to pay the 
 servant who is ever at your service. N.B. — The year's accounts are furnished." — 
 Bouwick. 
 
 A PROPHECY FULFILLED. 
 
 Captain Flinders's vessel, the " Investigator " sailed from King George's Sound 
 on the 5th January 1802, and after visiting the Recherche Archipelago, and the 
 head of the Great Australian Bight, and naming and determining the true 
 position of a great number of capes, heights, and islands, they kept on their 
 course towards the unexplored part of the Australian coast. On the 21st 
 February they had the misfortune to lose ISIr Thistle, the master of the 
 " Investigator," and the Avhole of the crew of one of the boats, which was 
 SAvamped in returning from the shore, where they had gone in search of water. 
 Respecting the fate of ]\Ir Thistle and his companions Captain Flinders relates a 
 very singular prediction of a fortune-teller, which unfortunately pi-oved true, not 
 only in respect to Mr Thistle, but regarding the shipwreck and other circum- 
 stances which took place after his death. "This evening," says Cajitain 
 Flinders, speaking of IMonday, 22d February 1802, the day after INIr Thistle's 
 death, " Mr Fowler told me a circumstance which I thought extraordinary ; and 
 it afterwards proved to be more so. Whilst we were lying at Spithead, Mr 
 Thistle was one day waiting on shore, and having nothing else to do he went to 
 a certain old man, named Pine, to have his fortune told. The cunning man 
 informed him that he was going out a long voyage, and that the ship, on arriving 
 at her destination, would be joined by another vessel. That such was intended, 
 he might have learned privately ; but he added, that Mr Thistle would be lost 
 before the other vessel joined. As to the manner of his loss the magician 
 refused to give any information. My boat's crew, hearing what ]\Ir Thistle said, 
 went also to consult the wise man ; and after the prefatory information of a long 
 voyage, were told that they would be shipwrecked, but not in the ship they Avere 
 going out in : whether they would escape and return to England, he was not 
 permitted to reveal. This tale ]\Ir Thistle had often told at the mess table ; and 
 I remarked with some pain in a future part of the voyage, that every time my 
 boat's crew went to embark with me in the " Lady Nelson," there was some 
 degree of apprehension amongst them that the time of the predicted shipwreck 
 was arrived. I make no comment upon this story, but recommend a com- 
 mander, if possible, to prevent any of his crew from consulting fortune-tollers." 
 
 The Mr Thistle whose unfortunate fate is here narrated, although he occupied 
 when he first visited Australia no higher position than that of an ordinary 
 
 4 M
 
 642 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 seaman, deserves honourable mention as one of the most enterprising and ardent 
 of the exjilorers of that day. He was one of the vohmteers who accompanied 
 Mr Bass in his perilous expedition in the whaleboat when that youthful 
 navigator discovered the straits which bear his name. Mr Thistle then joined 
 Messrs Flinders and Bass in their circumnavigation of Van Diemen's Land, and 
 shortly afterwards accompanied the former in his voyage to INIoreton Bay and 
 the north. Proceeding to England in 1801, he was, as a reward for his intelli- 
 gence, skill, and good conduct, promoted from before the mast to be a midship- 
 man, and shortly afterwards a master in the Eoyal Navy. His zeal for discovery, 
 and his attachment to his former commander, induced him to join the " Investi- 
 gator " when at Spithead ready to sail, although he had returned to England 
 only three weeks before, after an absence of six years. This deserving young 
 sailor was not only most zealous in the performance of his ordinary duties, but had 
 made himself master of nautical astronomy and acquainted with marine surveying. 
 Captain Flinders, in memory of his talents and worth, named the place at the 
 mouth of Spencer's Gulf, where he was lost. Memory Cove, and the island itself 
 Thistle Island. There he also affixed to a post, with a suitable inscription, a brass 
 tablet, and concluded his account of the circumstance as follows : " His loss 
 was severely felt by me ; and he was lamented by all on board, more especially 
 by his messmates, who knew more intimately the goodness and stability of his 
 disposition." As one of the earliest and most enthusiastic of the many brave 
 men who have lost their lives in the cause of Australian discovery, although 
 occupying a comparatively humble position, he deserves this brief notice of his 
 character, services, and fate. — Bennett's History of Australian Discovery. 
 
 AN ABORIGINAL MURDER. 
 
 A murder was perpetrated by the aborigines of Port Phillip on the 23d of 
 August 1846, under circumstances of unwonted barbarity. The victim was a 
 young settler of considerable promise, named Andrew Beveridge, who, with his 
 brother, occupied a tract of country on the bank of the Lower INIurray. 
 
 From the evidence of two men named Kelly and Ryan, who were present, it 
 appeared that six of the natives had remained on the station during the night of 
 the 22d, and that, on the morning of the 23d, while at breakfast, some of them 
 "coo-eyed," and ]\Ir Beveridge went out. Two black men, named Bobby and 
 Ptolemy, had their spears in their hands, which they threw at Mr Beveridge, who 
 immediately retreated towards the hut ; one of the spears had entered his body 
 about six inches, and the unfortunate young man almost instantly expired. The 
 two men Kelly and Ryan got on their horses in the confusion and rode away. The 
 murderers were afterwards captured by three of the Western Port Border Police, 
 assisted by Messrs Kirby, French, and Mr Beveridge, the brother of the murdered 
 gentleman. The police, disguised as bushmen, proceeded to Mr CoghilFs station, 
 and concealed their arms from observation in a hut. The blacks were camped 
 on the opposite side of the Murray, but were very shy and afraid of policemen. The 
 troopers represented themselves as white men looking for a run, and offered to 
 pay the blacks if they would cut bark for building purposes. The hut had a
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 643 
 
 yard with a palisade in front ; a large fire was made within it, and an enormous 
 pot placed on it; the blacks were invited to dine on a pudding made of flour, sugar, 
 anil water, which was being made ready. The police got six plates out, and 
 informed the tribe that only six blackfellows could enter the yard at one time ; 
 they took care that the three murderers of Mr Beveridge should dine in one party, 
 and, after great difficulty, they managed to rush upon the party suddeidy and to 
 throw strong cords round the necks of Bobby, Bullet-eye, and I'tolemy, and in this 
 manner pinned them to the ground. The rest of the blacks dashed across the river, 
 yelling fearfully ; and such were the frantic efforts of the prisoners to get clear, that 
 they dragged their captors over the palisade, and it was only by force of arms that 
 they were at length finally secured and carried into the hut. The police, aware 
 of the hazard they ran from the general attack which would inevitably be made on 
 the hut, despatched mounted messengers to the two adjoining stations for aid. 
 The reinforcements received before nightfall only amounted to three men, who came 
 in from Mr Beveridge's station ; so that there were only eight individuals to 
 man the little fortress which had to withstand the onset of the most daring and 
 bloodthirsty tribe in the colony, or, perhaps, in the whole Australian continent. 
 The garrison were on the alert all night, but the attack did not commence until 
 just before daybreak. The blacks mustered on the bank of the river, and took 
 up a strong position in the scrub ; an advanced body of about seventy picked 
 men came on immediately to attack the hut; just as the first faint streaks of 
 daylight began to glimmer in the horizon they marched forward with silent 
 tread, until they perceived that they were observed, when they gave forth the 
 most savage and hideous yells, and sprang like tigers on the hut, clearing the 
 palisade at a bound, and sending their spears against it with such force that 
 they went half-way through the slabs, and penetrated the doors and shutters, 
 wounding Johnston, the sergeant of the police, who had the command. The 
 defenders were momentarily paralysed by the sudden energy of the attack, but 
 soon recovered their coolness, and fired a volley from various apertures in the 
 walls of their little fortress ; and the leader of the attack, " Dick, the Needle," 
 as he was called, a chief of the Murrumbidgee tribe, fell dead with a convulsive 
 spring. Still the attack continued, the blacks endeavouring to unroof the hut, 
 and force an entrance by that means, and the besieged defending this part as the 
 most vulnerable point. The cool resolution of the Europeans checked the 
 violence of the onset, and the party of aborigines retreated to their friends on 
 the bank of the river. It was now broad daylight, and the garrison were calmly 
 awaiting a second attack ; they had heavy anticipations, it may well be supposed, 
 for they Avould have to meet a fresh column of enemies, while they Avere exhausted 
 with the previous struggle. Assistance, however, was at hand, and, before any 
 further injury could be inflicted, a party of armed horsemen, who had galloped 
 seventy-five miles to aid them, reached the scene, and changed the aspect of 
 affairs very quickly. The aborigines had to retreat, and the police, assisted by a 
 strong body of civilians, set forth with the prisoners for ]Melbourne. It is but 
 right to state that one of the party who defended the hut was severely wounded 
 in the hand by his own pistol, which accidentally Avent off in the affray, and ho
 
 644 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 lost the use of the injured limb. The Government were petitioned to assist this 
 unfortunate gentleman, and gave him the very inadequate sum of fifty pounds as 
 compensation. 
 
 The prisoners were brought to trial at Melbourne, and the usual defence was 
 attempted to be made on their behalf — that they were not sufficiently acquainted 
 with the proceedings. After some delay, however, parties Avere obtained who 
 could interpret to all the three, and, the evidence being conclusive against Bobby 
 and Ptolemy, they were convicted and sentenced to death. Thei*e Avas no 
 evidence to implicate Bullet-eye, and he was discharged. 
 
 The huge, dreary mass of dark stone which looms on the rising ground in the 
 rear of the hospital and court-house has, during the brief period that it has been 
 in use as the receptacle of criminals, Avitnessed many sad and shocking spec- 
 tacles ; but it is questionable if ever a more afflicting drama has been enacted 
 within its gloomy portals than that of the 30th April 1847. The unfortunate 
 murderers of Mr Beveridge, Bobby and Ptolemy, were led forth, neatly clad in 
 duck frocks and trousers, attended by the Kev. A. C. Thompson, rector of St 
 James's Church, Mr Protector Thomas, Mr French, and various other persons 
 interested in them. They were sensible of their awful position, and the powerful 
 working of their feelings was fully exhibited by the twitching of the muscles of 
 their faces during the time that the prayers usual upon such occasions were read. 
 When they Avere pinioned their feelings overpowered them, and they cried and 
 sobbed in a manner most painful to Avitness. As the two sable denizens of the 
 far-off forest emerged from the gloomy corridor of the gaol into the open air, the 
 sun shone forth on their upturned countenances with uncontrollable splendour. 
 In a scene, strange, new, and terrible — haunted by the fear of a terrible death, 
 and shut up, as they had been, for many months from the blessed light of heaven, 
 they looked on the glorious orb for a moment, and their faces lightened up as if 
 they had met a dear friend. No doubt their thoughts wandered to their hunting- 
 grounds and mia-mias on the Murray, to their relations and companions, and, for 
 that instant, they heeded not the terrible engine Avhich Avas noAv in full vicAV. It 
 seemed a happy, but, alas ! a brief moment. The terrible reality of the actual 
 scene again presented itself; they gave a dread shudder, and, Avitli a quiet, sub- 
 dued air, aAvaited their terrible doom. Ptolemy died almost instantaneously, but 
 Bobl)y struggled for a considerable time, having broken his fall by standing Avith 
 one foot off the platform. — M'Combie's History. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF GIPPSLAND. 
 
 Mr Angus MacMillan claimed to be the original discoverer of the noble 
 district of Glippsland. At a public dinner given to Mr MaclNIillan, at Port 
 Albert, in March 1856, he gave the folloAving account of circumstances attending 
 the discovery : " In February 1839, I arrived at Carravong, Maneroo, having 
 received instructions from Mr M'Alister to look out for stations. I heard from 
 the natives that there Avas to the south-Avest of Buchan (a place discovered by Mr 
 Bayliss) a fine country. I got Jemmy Gibber, chief of the Maneroo tribe, to 
 obtain all the information he could from the old black, who affirmed he AVas
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 645 
 
 1 ■ — - — ^ — ■ — ■ — ■ 
 
 once there ; and on the 26th May 1839, Jemmy volunteered to accompany me. 
 I provided myself with arms, and also provisions for four weeks ; in four days 
 reached a hill, which I named ]\Iount M'Leod, now called the Haystack, from 
 the summit of which I had a bird's-eye view of the country lying between me 
 and Corner Inlet, and of the long beach stretching to the south-west. My friend 
 was beginning to get alarmed, and wished to return, but seeing me determined to 
 proceed, he threatened to leave me. On this night I was nearly paying dearly for 
 placing so much contidence in my companion. Whilst lying at the camp-fire I 
 was aroused by the circumstance of his raising his club to strike me. I had just 
 time to present my pistol to his breast : he begged hard for his life, saying he 
 dreamt a blackfellow was taking away his gin, and he wanted to kill him. I 
 was satisfied that he intended to kill me, and report that I had been killed by 
 the blacks of the district. Next morning started for Omeo ; aiTived there in six 
 days ; it Avas a very rough journey ; Avas more determined than ever to explore 
 the country, and form a station as near to it as possible. While at Omeo 
 gleaned the intelligence that INIr Walter Mitchell, a nephew of ]\Ir JNI'Farlane, 
 had been as far as Bruthen, but had discovered no country worth occupying. I 
 then started for Clifton, the station of Mr M'Alister, and received from that 
 gentleman every encouragement to explore the country, and find my way to Corner 
 Inlet. After many unsuccessful attempts, I again, on the 9th February 1841, 
 formed a party, with instructions from Mr M'Alister to abandon the country 
 unless I could find a road to the inlet ; and we started from our station — which 
 we had formed on the Avon — this time with the determination to accomplish it 
 or die in the attempt. On the 10th crossed the Thompson, and the Glengarry 
 on the 11th; on the 14th discovered the Old Port, and marked a road from 
 thence to the plains. In May following came down from the Avon with a dray; 
 great credit is due to the driver, James Lawrence, and, in fact, to all my com- 
 panions, who, whenever an expedition was talked of, were always eager to 
 accompany me. I am proud and happy to see one of them here present, Avho 
 shared with me many hardships and privations. For sixteen months, during two 
 years, we never slept on a bed, and were deprived of many comforts of life, even 
 the luxury of a tent. In my expeditions I had no other guide than a pocket 
 compass, and a copy of Flinders's chart of the coast. With regard to the natives, 
 who at that time were numerous, I will mention that at first they were very 
 terrified at the sight of white men ; on one occasion some of them approached 
 our party, and, as I dismounted to salute them, they all set up yeUing, and ran 
 away. Since then I have learnt that they imagined that the horse and rider 
 were one. On another occasion, after saluting us by a shake of the hand, they 
 conferred the same honour on the horse by shaking his bridle. After we had 
 been at the station, which we formed on the Avon, some time, they attacked us 
 in a body, compelling us to leave the district : we, however, by force of arms, 
 again regained our station, and kept possession. Count Strzelecki, a Pole, has 
 also claimed the discovery of Gipi)sland, but I leave it to the public to decide. 
 On the 7th of March 1840, he called at my station, Avhere he was supplied with 
 provisions and a camp kettle. Mr M'Alister went a day's journey with him.
 
 646 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 told him the name I gave the country (Caledonia Australis), and described where 
 he might cross the rivers." 
 
 MELBOURNE IN 1837. 
 
 James Backhouse, the Quaker missionary, visited Port Phillip in 1837. The 
 following is his description of the infant city of Melbourne : 
 
 " Vith Noremher. — The Yarra Yarra is deep, but it is difficult to navigate for 
 boats, on account of the quantity of sunken timber. It is about sixty feet wide, 
 margined with trees and scrubs. The river is fresh to Melbourne, where there is 
 a rapid. The countiy on its banks is open grassy forest, rising into low hills. 
 The town of Melbourne, though scarcely more than fifteen months old, consists 
 of about a hundred houses, amongst which are stores, inns, a gaol, a barrack, and 
 a schoolliouse. Some of the dwelling-houses are tolerable structures of brick. 
 A few of the inhabitants are living in tents, or in hovels resembling thatched 
 roofs, till they can provide themselves with better accommodation. There is 
 much bustle and traffic in the place, and a gang of prisoners are employed in 
 levelling the streets. The town allotments (of half an acre each) were put up 
 here a short time since, at £5 each, the surveyor thinking £7 too much to ask for 
 them. But the fineness of the country has excited such a mania for settling here 
 that they sold for from £25 to £100 each. 
 
 " Business was at this time conducted on a very disagreeable and unsound 
 plan. Almost everything, including labour, was paid for by orders on Sydney 
 or Van Diemen's Land ; the discount required by a few persons who had cash 
 was from £20 to £40 per cent. A mechanic received half his wages in goods, 
 charged at about 30 per cent, jirofit, and the rest in an order, which he paid his 
 employer 10 per cent, to discount." 
 
 Mr Backhouse remained from the 6th to the 19th November in Melbourne, 
 residing at the missionary station on the Yarra Yarra, under the charge of Mr 
 George Langhorne. He also visited Mr J. Gardiner, who then resided on the 
 creek which still bears his name, and who was one of the first overland travellers 
 from New South Wales. Mr Backhouse also visited Mr Batman, who expressed 
 a deep interest in the welfare of the aborigines, and who had several Sydney and 
 Van Diemen's Land aborigines in his employment as servants. 
 
 AN ABORIGINAL DEED OF GIFT. 
 
 The following is a copy of the original deed of gift alleged to have been made 
 by the natives of Port Phillip to John Batman in 1835 : 
 
 "Know all persona that wo, throe brothers, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, being the three principal 
 chiefs, and also Cooloolook, Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip, Monmarmalar, being the chiefs of a certain 
 native tribe called Duttigallar, situated at and near Port Phillip, called by us the above-mentioned chiefs, 
 Irausnoo and Geelong, being possessed of the tract of land hereinafter mentioned, for and in consideration 
 of twenty pair of blankets, thirty knives, twelve tomahawks, ten looking-glasses, twelve pair of scissora, 
 fifty handkerchiefs, twelve rod shirts, four flannel jackets, four suits of clothes, and lifty pounds of flour, 
 delivered to us by John Batman, residing in Van Diemen's Land, Esquire, but at present sojoui-ning 
 with us aud our tribo, do, for ourselves, our heire, and successore, give, grant, enfeofl", and confirm unto the 
 said .John Batman, his heu-s aud assigns, all that tract of country situate aud being in the Bay of Port
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 047 
 
 Phillip known by the name of Indented Head, but called by us Gcelong, extending across from Geelong 
 harboiir, about due south, for ten miles, more or less, to the head of Port Pliillii>, taking in the whole neck or 
 tmct of land, contiiining about 100,000 aci-cs, as the same hath been before the execution of these presents 
 delineated and marked out by us, according to the custom of our tribe, by certain marks made upon tho 
 trees gi'owing along the boundaries of the said tract of land, with all advantages belonging thereto, unto 
 and to the use of the s;vid John Batman, his heirs, said tract of land, and place thereon sheep and cattle, 
 yielding and delivering to us and assigns, to the meaning and intent that the said John Batman, his boil's 
 and assigns, may occupy and possess the same, and our heirs and successore, the yearly rent or tribute of 
 fifty pair of blankets, fifty knives, fifty tomahawks, fifty pair of scissors, fifty looking-glasses, twenty suits 
 of slops or clothing, and two tons of flour. In witness thereof we, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, the 
 three principal chiefs, and also Cooloolock, Bungarie, Yanyan, Moowhip, and Monmarmalar, the cliiefs 
 of the said tribe, have hereunto alExed our seals to these presents, and have signed the same. Dated, 
 according to the Christian era, this 6tb day of June 1835. 
 
 " Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of us, the same having been fully and properly inter- 
 preted and explained to the said chiefs. 
 
 Jagajaga, his X mark. 
 
 Jagajaga, his X mark. 
 
 (Signed) Jagajaga, his X mark. 
 
 James Gumm. _ Cooloolock, his X mark. 
 
 Wm. Todd. Bungarie, his X mark. 
 
 Yanyan, his X mark. 
 MoNMARMALAE, his X mark. 
 (Signed) John Batman. 
 
 " Be it remembered that, on the day and year within written, possession and deliveiy of the tract of 
 land within mentioned was made by the within-named Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Cooloolock, Bun- 
 garie, Yanyan, Moowhip, Monmarmalar, chiefs of the tribes of natives called Duttigallar Geelong, to the 
 within-named John Batman, by the said chiefs, taking up part of the soil, and delivering the same to the 
 said John Batman in the name of the whole. 
 
 Jagajaga. 
 Jagajaga. 
 Jagajaga. 
 In presence of Cooloolock. 
 
 (Signed) Bungarie. 
 
 James Gumm. Yanyan. 
 
 Alexander Thompsojt. Moowhip. 
 
 Wji. Todd. Monmarmalar." 
 
 THE M'RECK OF THE " FALMOUTH " MAN-OF-WAR. 
 
 In the present day, when all parts of India and Australia are in constant 
 intercourse with each other and with Europe, when steam communication is 
 regular and rapid between almost all parts of the world ; when a voyage to the 
 parent country is but a matter of a few weeks ; when arrangements for visiting 
 the most distant parts of the earth are made and carried out with as much 
 certainty and as little difficulty or delay as our grandfathers experienced in 
 performing a journey from Exeter or York to London, it is difficult to comprehend 
 fully the great distance in time which, only a century .since, separated the countries 
 of the Indian Ocean and the South Seas from Europe. The case of the crew of 
 the " Falmouth," an English man-of-war of tifty guns, illustrates in a remarkable 
 manner the difference between the two periods. This ship having been several 
 years out from England, cruising in the Pacific and China Seas, was on her 
 voyage home, in the year 1762, when she ran aground on a mudbank on the
 
 648 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 coast of Batavia. It does not appear that she was much injured ; still she could 
 not be got off. Her commander, and some of her officers and crew, after a time 
 quitted her with the hope of reaching England. The fate they met Avith is not 
 knomi. They left the ship and stores, part of which had been landed in an 
 attempt to lighten the vessel, in charge of that portion of the officers and crew 
 which remained behind. These unfortunate people stayed by the ship for eight 
 years before they were afforded an opportunity of cj[uittiug her and of being taken 
 liome. In 1767, five years after the vessel struck on the mudbank, the ship 
 " Dolphin," Captain Wallis, then on a voyage round the world, discovered them; 
 and the following account of their then condition is given in the history of the 
 " Dolphin's " voyage : " On the examination of the stores and ship, everything was 
 found in so decayed a state as to be totally useless ; the masts, yards, and cables 
 were dropping to pieces ; the ironwork was so rusty that it was worth nothing ; 
 her hull was in a most shattered condition ; many of her ports Avere washed into 
 one, and there was no place in her where a man could be sheltered from the 
 weather. The officers and crew were in as wretched a state as the ship herself 
 The boatswain, through vexation and distress, had lost his senses, the carpenter 
 was dying, and the cook wounded and a crijjple. The warrant officers presented 
 a petition to Captain Wallis, requesting that he would take them on board the 
 ' Dolphin.' They stated that nothing now remained for them to look after; that 
 although they had ten years' pay due they would gladly forfeit it to be relieved 
 from their present sufferings ; and that they were frequently robbed by the 
 ]\Ialays, and Avere in continual dread of being murdered by them. Captain 
 Wallis told them, with the utmost regret and compassion, that the relief they 
 prayed for Avas not in his poAver to render ; that as they had received charge of 
 the ship and stores they must wait for orders from home. He assured them that 
 he would do all in his power on his arriA'al in England to relieve them ; and Avith 
 this remote consolation only," continues the narrative, " these poor, neglected, 
 forgotten, unassisted, suffering men, took their leave Avith tears in their eyes." 
 Upwards of two years more elapsed, and still these poor fellows, true to what 
 they considered their duty to their country, remained by the rotting ship, and 
 still no relief arrived from England. At length the Government at Batavia 
 interfered, and sent them home in a Dutch ship. This took place a fcAV months 
 before Captain Cook touched at BataAia on his first voyage in the latter part of 
 1770. The hardships they endured, and the apparent neglect Avith Avhich they 
 were treated, Avere no doubt mainly due to the infrequency and difficulty of 
 communication in those days, for it cannot be supposed that the British Govern- 
 ment Avould have alloAved nearly the Avhole crew of a man-of-Avar to perish in the 
 miserable manner narrated, if the circumstances under Avhich they Avere placed 
 Avere rightly understood. Captain Wallis's refusal to rescue them, although he 
 no doul)t acted in strict accordance Avith the Admiralty regulations of that period, 
 would have brought him to a court-martial, and probably to condign punishment, 
 in the present day. The case affords a remarkable illustration of the progress 
 Avhicli has Ijcen made in navigation, and the changes that have been eftected in 
 travelling and in communicating Avitli distant parts of the Avorld through thp
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 649 
 
 instrumentality of steam and the agency of the electric telegraph, during the 
 present cewiwYy.— Bennett's History of Australian Discovery. 
 
 THE SATIN BOWER DIKD. 
 
 On visiting the cedar brushes of the Liverpool Range, I discovered several of 
 the extraordinary bower-like structures, or playing places, built ])y the bower 
 bird. They are usually placed under the shelter of the branches of some over- 
 hanging tree, in the most retired i)art of the forest, and differ considerably in 
 size. The base consists of an extensive, and rather convex platform of sticks 
 firmly interwoven, on the centre of which the bower itself is built ; this, like 
 the platform on which it is placed, and with which it is interwoven, is formed 
 of sticks and twigs, but of a more slender and flexible description, the tips of the 
 twigs being so arranged as to curve inwards, and nearly meet at the top. In the 
 interior of the bower, the materials are so placed, that the forks of the twigs are 
 always presented outwards, by which arrangement not the slightest obstruction 
 is offered to the passage of the birds. The interest of this curious bower is much 
 enhanced by tlie manner in which it is decorated at and near the entrance with 
 the most gaily-coloured articles that can be collected, such as the blue tail 
 feathers of the rose-bill and Pennantian parrots, bleached bones, the shells of 
 snails, etc. Some of the feathers are stuck in among the twigs, while others, 
 with the bones and shells, are strewed about the entrances. The propensity of 
 these birds to pick up and fly off with any attractive object is so well known to 
 the natives, that they always search the runs for any small missing article, as the 
 bowl of a pipe, etc., that may have been accidentally dropped in the brush. 
 I myself found, at the entrance of one of them, a small neatly-worked stone 
 tomahawk, of an inch and a half in length, together Mitli some slips of blue 
 cotton rags, which the birds had doubtless picked up at a deserted encampment 
 of the natives. 
 
 For what purpose these curious bowers are made is not yet, perhaps, fully 
 understood. They are certainly not used as a nest, but as a place of resort for 
 many individuals of both sexes, which Avhen there assembled, run through and 
 around the bower in a sportive and playful manner, and that so frequently, that 
 it is seldom entirely deserted. 
 
 The proceedings of these birds have not been sufficiently watched to render it 
 certain whether the runs are frequented throughout the whole year or not ; but 
 it is highly probable that they are merely resorted to as a rendezvous, or playing 
 ground, at the pairing time, and during the period of incubation. It was at this 
 season, as I judged from the state of the plumage, and from the internal indica- 
 tions of those I dissected, that I visited these localities ; the bowers, I found, had 
 been recently renewed. It was, however, evident, from the appearance of a 
 portion of the accumulated mass of sticks, etc., that the same spot had been used 
 as a place of resort for many years. Mr Charles Coxen informed mc, that after 
 having destroyed one of these bowers, and secreted himself, he had the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing it partially reconstructed ; the birds engaged in this task, he added, 
 were females. With much care and trouble I succeeded in bringing to England 
 
 4 N
 
 G50 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 two fine specimens of these bowers, one of Avliicli I presented to the British 
 Museum, and the other to the collection at Leyden, Avhere they may be seen by 
 all those who take an interest in the subject. — GoukVs Birds 0/ Australia. 
 
 AUSTKALIA AND AMERICA CONTRASTED. 
 
 From time to time it has been the lot of England to plant nations in every 
 portion of the habitable globe — speaking her language, nurtured in her own 
 institutions, and expanding her population under new conditions. Few more 
 interesting and important studies present themselves than to trace the modifi- 
 cations which have been produced on these portions of her race, under the 
 varying circumstances of clime, mode and time of settlement, and, above all, 
 the progressive character of England's own colonial policy. Nowhere, indeed, 
 will the marks of a common origin be found quite obliterated. There are 
 streams so strong that their waters may be traced for many miles through the great 
 oceans into Avhich they discharge themselves. And thus, in a similar manner, 
 the great stream of English colonisation will be found nowhere to have wholly 
 lost the chief characteristics of its source. They may be traced under the 
 tropical suns of the Indies, and amid the perennial snows of the Canadas — by 
 the banks of the INIississippi, and the banks of the ISIurray. Everywhere, how- 
 ever, we shall find these characteristics forming new combinations, and passing 
 into new institutions. 
 
 Amid many such minor settlements and plantations, two great groups occupy 
 by far the most conspicuous positions in this wide-spreading colonial empire. 
 In the western hemisphere, we have the American group ; in the eastern, the 
 Australasian. In many respects these two groups present the most extra- 
 ordinary features Avhich the progress of colonisation has yet exhibited. In all 
 that constitutes the elements of great and powerful nations, no portion of the 
 Old World has shown a growth so rapid as the American plantations; no 
 portion of the American plantations has shown a growth so rapid as the 
 colonies of Australasia. 
 
 Those, however, who more nearly compare the physical configuration, the 
 origin, and the history of the North American and the Australian colonies of 
 Britain, will be at no loss to discover causes which very diff'erently aff"ect their 
 future destinies. The American continent, Avith its numerous harboui's, its 
 unbounded plains intersected by navigable rivers, its northern lakes, and its 
 interminable forests, is the very opposite of the dry plateau of Australia, where 
 a belt of pasture land encircles a huge unwatcred waste, if not a desert. 
 America, even before the arrival of the European, Avas inhabited by numerous 
 and poAverful Indian tribes, and possesses some memorials of a still more 
 ancient civilisation. Australia Avas essentially a new region, containing no 
 human beings but a foAV of the loAvest race of mankind, and not even any animals 
 known to the rest of the Avorld. The American continent Avas soon invaded by 
 the confiicting standards of European nations and parties : Spaniards, Dutch, 
 French, and English, both of the Cavalier and the Puritan factions, left their mark 
 upon the soil, and fur moi-e than two centui'ies the Avars of European states
 
 S UPFLEMJ'JNTA Ji Y CHAPTER. 651 
 
 Avcrc waged in part l)c>y()iul the Atlantic. In Australia the modern English race 
 holds an undivided sway: the peace of the country has never been broken: 
 the natives were never formidable, and no foreign foe lias ever approached its 
 shores. The soil and climate of America are peculiarly favourable to the growth 
 of all the products of agriculture : those of Australia encourage the broad 
 operations of pasturage by one class of adventurers, and the speculative opera- 
 tions of mining by another : therefore the American settlers soon became more 
 closely and permanently rooted to the land than those of the younger colonies. 
 The institutions of the American colonies Avere moulded by the circumstances of 
 their origin, and we still may discern in the events of the day the proud and 
 warlike spirit of Virginia, the stern enthusiasm of New England, the French 
 descent of Louisiana and Lower Canada. Their growth has been slow, their 
 history gradual. Australia has no history, but that of a few srpiabbles with the 
 Colonial Office, and she has risen in a couple of generations to the full exercise 
 of all the powers of self-government and to the possession of enormous wealth, 
 without any of those trials and efforts by which men are trained to the discharge 
 of public duties and the knowledge of public affairs. With so many essential 
 points of difference, Ave by no means anticipate that Australia will become an 
 America of the East. On the contrary, the dissimilarity will probably increase 
 between the nations. But it is interesting to remember that they are offsets 
 from the same trunk, though planted in different soils ; and to trace in their 
 political condition at the present time the indicia of their future destiny. Their 
 destiny is that of hundreds of millions of men of the English race, yet unborn, 
 who may hereafter have to settle, for themselves and for the world, the greatest 
 problems in the government of mankind. — Edinburgh Reciew. 
 
 NATIVE NAMES. 
 
 The language appeared to me soft and full of vowels and liquids, and is spoken 
 with extreme volubility, especially by the Avomen. Some of the native names of 
 places are grandly sonorous and polysyllabic ; it is well when they are retained 
 by the English possessors of the lands, instead of substituting vulgar and 
 unmeaning European titles. Here is a string of names — taken at hazard (that 
 sort of hazard that suits a purpose) — almost as round-sounding as old Homer's 
 muster-roll of iieroes, and not unmusical in the shape of hexameters : 
 
 WoUondilly, GSlong, Bendendera, Coolapatamba, 
 Tangabalanga, PSjar, Paramatta, Rhyana, Menangle, 
 Gobberalong, Nandoi^Ta, Memendere, Ponkeparinga, 
 Yass, Candalga, MOlong, Karajong, Naiadandaia, Bongbong ! 
 
 — Colonel Mundtf. 
 
 A SYDNEY "BRICKFIELDER." 
 
 From some of the more elevated points of the country through Avhich the 
 South Head Koad is conducted, the vIcaa'S of the harbour are truly splendid. It 
 was from one of them, during an afternoon ride, that I saAv toAvn and country
 
 652 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 for the first time under the influence of a " brickfielder." There had been a 
 morning of terrible heat ; the sky was free of clouds, yet not bright ; a hot wind 
 had raised the thermometer to 102° in the shade. Towards the afternoon the 
 Avind fell, a sullen and sultry calm came on, and, ordering my horse, I cantered 
 towards the Heads, to meet a breath of air from the ocean, if breath might be 
 had. Turning my eyes casually towards the town, I was astonished to find that 
 it had disappeared. It had been swallowed up in clouds and columns of red 
 and white dust, which, rising madly on tke winds and sweeping across the 
 harbour, gradually veiled fi-om my sight also the pretty suburb of St Leonard's 
 on the North Shoi'e. Around my station, about five miles from Sydney, the 
 trees and shrubs even to the minutest spray were motionless, and a little bay 
 below me was unruffled as a mirror ; yet I distinctly heard the fierce roaring of 
 the tempest as it rushed through the city and the countiy beyond it, lashing the 
 upper portion of the harbour into white foam. The boats were flying for shelter 
 in all directions, and one, with calm-Aveather canvas spread, heeled over, filled, 
 and vanished ! Soon the line of road from Sydney towards my post, hitherto 
 hidden by the bordering bush, became visible in all its curvatures by thick coils 
 of dust ; the itall still trees bowed their heads, and the exj)anse of bush before 
 and below me seemed to put itself in motion and to rush towards the hill whereon 
 I stood. Then a torrid gust, like the blast of a furnace, caught my face, almost 
 stopping my respiration ; and the dust which had ridden on the wii^gs of the 
 wind for so many miles came flying into my eyes and grated in my teeth. In a 
 few moments there was once more a perfect calm. During the progress of the 
 dust-storm a black battalion of clouds had been rapidly collecting on the southern 
 horizon. Rolling aiid coiling about in confused masses, with mutterings of 
 thunder and half-smothered flashes of lightning, their intention and direction 
 were soon developed. Torrents of heavy rain and hail, accompanied by a chilling 
 tornado, came drifting horizontally over the face of the country, whilst an ebon mass 
 of vapour inght overhead poured a perpendicular flood full upon my croA\Ti. The 
 lightning becanae fearful in its vividness and apparent proximity ; the thunder, 
 stunning in its magnificent diapason, reverberated from the bluffs around. Join- 
 ing in the general uproar, the surf on the North Shore flung itself madly up the 
 steep cliffs to their very summits, seemed to stand suspended in the air for a 
 space, and recoiled slowly and unwillingly to its wonted level. 
 
 This Avas " all very fine " certainly, but so unsuited to a " patent ventilating 
 gossamer hat " and a filmy paletot by Nicol, as to drive me at length to a tem- 
 porary shelter. The thunderstorni, satiated Avith an incursion round every 
 point of the compass, rolled aAvay sullenly in the distance. Its rear-guai-d of 
 light cumuhis closed up to the main body, and disappeared at length in the 
 north-east, leaving only one heaA^y stationary mass — a sort of army of occupjition 
 —just above the setting sun, Avhich, shooting its last rays from a bright stripe of 
 .sky over the distant Blue ]\Iountains, and behind the long I'idge Avhcre Sydney 
 stands, shoAvcd the mere silhouette of a city — the council chamber, the infirmary, 
 the staff offices, the spire of St James's, the barracks, and the gaol — in strong 
 hard lelicf iiiinn tlie rose-cohiurcd haze. Tlie valleys across which I rode on my
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. Go3 
 
 way homo, and tlio doopor ravines, were already in darkness, while the slantinL^ 
 sunbeams still gilded the hilltops, the Avet shining faces of the rocks, and the 
 milk-white boles of the gigantic gnm-trees. Night followed quickly — for there- 
 is but little twilight at the antipodes. Such is a slight sketch of a Sydney hot- 
 wind, and its constant follower the "brick fielder," or, as the Port Jackson boat- 
 men call it, the " sutherly buster ! " No words can do justice to the degree of 
 discomfort inilicted by the first upon the Sydney citizens during the season of 
 its prevalence. Luckily the rush of wind from the colder regions, disjilacing the 
 more rarified air of the preceding " hot-wind," brings back a respirable atmo- 
 sphere to the gasping inhabitants, while the floods of rain carry away all accumu- 
 lated impurities. On the occasion I have just recounted the thermometer fell 
 at once from 102° to 53°. When I started on my ride the lee side of an Indian 
 taltee would have been luxury itself. Two liours later I was well pleased to " take 
 an air," as the Irish say, of the kitchen fire. Subsequently, however, I witnessed 
 instances of a much greater variation of the glass. One morning, while the hot- 
 winds were raging in Sydney, I walked to the Australian Library, facing with 
 some difficulty the scorching gale. Seating myself in the large room to read, I 
 was soon seized with a chill shivering, and, looking at the thermometer within 
 the apartment, was surprised to find it as high as 81°. The instrument outside 
 the window in the shade stood however at 110°. Thus the sudden change of tem- 
 perature from a superlative degree of heat to a merely positive one, gave me as 
 decided a case of catarrh as I ever got by a plunge from the hot-aired club-rooms 
 of London to the frosty streets, or tice rei'sd. In October 1848, as I find by my 
 diary, I witnessed a fine instance of a nocturnal "brickfielder." Awakened by the 
 roaring of the wind, I arose and looked out. It Avas bright moonlight, or it 
 would have been bright but for the clouds of dust which, impelled by a perfect 
 hurricane, curled up from the earth, and absolutely muffled the fair face of the 
 planet. Pulverised specimens of every kind and colour of soil Avithin tAvo miles 
 of Sydney, flcAv past the house high over the chimney-tops in liu-id Avhirlwinds, 
 now Avhite, noAv red. It had all the appearance of an American prairie fire— 
 "barring" the fire. Had the " Avild huntsman" and his skeleton field and pack 
 galloped past along Avitli this fierce commixture of earth and air, I should have 
 taken the apparition as a matter of course ! One of the greatest miseries of the 
 "southerly burster" is, that (Avelcome to all animated nature as are its cooling- 
 airs) its first symjitoms are the signal for a general rush of housemaids to shut 
 hermetically every aperture of the dAvelling. The thermometer in the draAving- 
 room, and one's own melting mood, announce some 86° of heat ; Avhile the gale, 
 driving so refreshingly past your AvindoAvs, is probably 30° loAver ; but if you 
 have any regard for sight and respiration, for carpets, chintzes, books, and other 
 furniture, you must religiously shut up shop until the "chartered libertine," 
 having scavenged the streets of every particle of dust, has moderated its AATath. 
 Even then, hoAvever Avell fitted may be the doors and AvindoAA's, the volatile atoms 
 Avill find their AA'ay everyAvhere, to the utter disturbance of household and per- 
 sonal comfort. IIot-Avinds and sand-storms, sirocs and simoons, are common to 
 many countries ; in the deserts of Africa they arc, as avc knoAv, a deadly A-isita-
 
 G54 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 tion. Ill New South Wales these storms sometimes cause the eye-bhght, or 
 sand-blight, as the malady is indifferently called, than which, as experience 
 taught me, nothing can well be more jjainful and irksome, involving actual loss 
 of vision while inflammation is at its height — a loss sometimes, though rarely, 
 as permanent as that occasioned by the Egyptian ophthalmia. — Mundy's Oar 
 Antipodes. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN FLOWEltS. 
 
 The drive along the southern shore of the harbour to the Heads or 
 entrance to Port Jackson, and thence back to Sydney by the "old South 
 Head Eoad," about thirteen miles, has hardly its equal for picturesque 
 beauty. The harbour itself rudely resembles, in its projections and indenta- 
 tions, the form of an oak leaf — or, to enlist a monstrous simile, it may bo 
 likened to the gaping mouth of some huge antediluvian saurian, the bluffs and 
 inlets representing the teeth and the interstices between them. The eye, follow- 
 ing the profile of the two opposite shores, cannot but perceive that if the said 
 enormous sandstone jaws were, by some geological miracle, to snap together 
 again, so neat would be the fit that there would remain but little more than a 
 serpentine line of demolished rocks and gum-trees to mark where w\as once Port 
 Jackson. The views of the harbour from the higher points of the road, over the 
 tufted tops of the forest, and the glimpses of its glittering waters between the 
 boles of the enormous gum-trees, are truly beautiful. So completely is this great 
 port shut in from the ocean, that I know of no spot a mile within its gates from 
 which the stranger would even surmise the position of its mouth — were it not 
 for the tall bluff of the North Head, which lifts a hundred feet of its sheer, wall- 
 like profile above any of the interior headlands. I cannot describe botanically 
 the trees, plants, and shrubs among which the eye of the rider wanders, well 
 pleased, on either side of the road. The eucalyptus, and other gums of infinite 
 variety, form the larger gi'owth of "the bush." But there are trees distantly 
 resembling in aspect the European ash, the holly, larch, and myrtle, with a 
 luxuriant undergrowth of ferns and lichens, and a multitude of flowering shrubs 
 clad in spring and autumn with blossoms so lovely in form and hue as to justify 
 the name of " Botany," conferred by Dr Solander as a title of honour on the 
 neighbouring bay. There is the correa, with stiff stem and prickly leaves, but 
 with a string of delicate little pendulous flowers, red, orange, and white, some- 
 thing like the fuchsia, but, in my mind, a hundred times more brilliant. The 
 native rose has the colour but no other resemblance to the European queen 
 of flowers. It is one of the few bush-flowers possessing any odour. Wafted on 
 the passing gale, it commends itself pleasantly to the senses ; but, strange 
 enough, on closer acquaintance there mingles with the rich perfume an 
 undoubted scent of the fox ! a scent which, however creative of rapture in " the 
 field," is ill adapted to the boudoir. The South Sea myrtle, or Leptosj^ermum, 
 grows in line rovuid jjushes, spangled with white stars. Of the heath-like epacris 
 there is an iiilhiite variety, among which I name the .styphelia because it 
 possesses the rare quality of a green flower. The boronias shoot up their
 
 SUITLIIMENTARY CllAVTElL 655 
 
 slender stems, among the roughest rocks and stubliornest i)]ants, towards the 
 sun, their wax-like petals showing every delicate shade between deep pink and 
 snowy white. All these shrubs are evergreen. Aniongst their branches and 
 those of the higher trees the most beautiful creepers wreathe themselves. The 
 Kennedya, with a purple vetch-like blossom, is among the most graceful. There 
 is also a white vai'iety, whose flower is so small, tiiat a microscope is necessary 
 to examine its ininute beauties. I must not forget the botlle-brush, one of the 
 most characteristic plants of the bush. It has rough, twisted branches, and 
 a leaf something like the holly. Sir Joseph IJanks gave it the botanical name of 
 I5anksia, and his butler, perhaps, bestowed on it the vulgar ajjijellation by which 
 it is generally known. The upright, conical flowers with which this eccentric- 
 looking shrub is thickly covered resemble pretty closely that useful imjjlement 
 of the pantry. When at its prime, the deep orange hue of the flower makes it 
 almost handsome. In the swamps is a smaller and prettier kind of Banksia, of 
 a softer fabric and Avith a flower of rich crimson. I used to fancy that my 
 favourite charger loved to wear one of these brilliant natural rosettes in his 
 headstall. There are several pretty iris-like bulbs in the moister soil ; and in 
 the lowlands of the Botany Scrub I noticed a crimson and orange flower, like 
 the foxglove in form, very handsome, but so hard and horny in texture that the 
 blossoms actually ring with a clear metallic sound as the breeze shakes them. 
 It might be the fairies' dinner-bell, calling them to their dcAv and ambrosia ! 
 Alas! there ai-e no "good people" in Australia; no one ever heard of a ghost, 
 or a bogle, or a fetch here ! — all is too absolutely material to aftbrd a niche for 
 imagination or superstition. Perhaps the greatest ornament of the bush, how- 
 ever, is the acacia, of which there are many varieties. In autumn the trees 
 look as if a golden snowstorm had ftiUen on their branches, bending down with 
 their burden of blossom towards the earth. Some of the acacias possess a 
 delicious almond-like perfume. The bark is extensively used for tanning. A 
 bouquet of bush-flowers is highly ornamental in the (;per(jne of the dinner-table, 
 for they do not soon fade, and keep better out of water than in it ; but he who 
 would not implant a thorn in the bosom of beauty will never desire to see them 
 worn in the ball-room, for, Avith scarcely an exception, they are harsh and 
 thorny as the holly itself. As the flowers of Australia are generally beautiful, 
 but scentless, so are the birds for the most part as gorgeous in plumage as they 
 are harsh in song. Indeed, they have no sustained melody, although isolated 
 notes of great sweetness do occasionally break the silence of the bush. — Miuidy's 
 Our Antipodes. 
 
 A NIGHT IN THE BUSH. 
 
 Hitherto the country had been tolerably flat and open ; the road soon, how- 
 ever, began to cross a succession of stony ridges, with here and there a patch of 
 scrub ; and there Avere now nothing but the marked trees to guide me, as the 
 ground was too rough to receive any tracks which I was likely to find. A dis- 
 agi'eeable change in the Aveather Avas also on the point of taking place ; the wind 
 began to rise in Ioav fitful gusts, luul the air liecame cold and raAv, and right in
 
 656 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the wind's eje there rose a great pile of bUxck thunderclouds. The day hail 
 been unusually hot, but the cold wind was now by no means a relief, as there 
 was an unnatural feeling about its ehilness. I hurried on, hoping to reach some 
 place of shelter, although I knew perfectly Avell that there was none at hand. 
 One of my boots was at this time a great nuisance to me ; the front part of the 
 sole had become separated from the leather, and kept flapping and doubling 
 under my foot ; I essayed to mend it as well as I could with a piece cut from one 
 of my straps, and just as I was performing this operation the first big drops 
 began to fall. The storm was ushered in, as usual, by a tremendous blast of icy 
 wind, carrying with it just enough rain to wet me thoroughly ; then came the 
 lightning, the wind ceased at the first flash, and I believe that the sun set at the 
 same moment, at all events the darkness seemed to come on instantaneously. I 
 was in such a rage, with my boot, and everything else, that I took it off', and 
 hurled it as far as I could into the darkness ; I heard it rattling against a tree at 
 some distance. Every minute the storm increased in violence. The lightning 
 kept up a continual crackling and growling, with, now and again, a loud explosion, 
 which seemed to be only a few feet off". The air Avas full, as it seemed, of fire, 
 which ran along the ground, and illuminated all things with a ghastly light. I 
 never before remember realising thoi'oughly the intimate connection between 
 lightning and thunder, for here the lightning itself seemed actually to speak and 
 roar. The uproar was simply appalling while it lasted. The whole scene was 
 like nothing that I had ever experienced before, and I hope never to witness the 
 like again. A large iron-bark tree Avhich stood a few yards away from me was 
 suddenly split and rent into pieces ; it seemed to melt away amid a shower of 
 splinters, and the crash of falling branches, and nothing remained but a smoulder- 
 ing and unsightly stump. The lightning did not last in this fashion more than a 
 very few minutes, and it was with a great sigh of relief that I welcomed the rain, 
 Avhich now came down with a steady pour, no longer in drops, but in a regular 
 sheet of watei*. Every ridge became a cataract, and every little gully a raging 
 torrent, for the rain descended in such quantities that the thirsty ground could 
 not suck it up fast enough. In other respects the storm assumed the aspect of _ 
 an ordinary European thunderstorm. The lightning still flashed and gleamed, 
 ])ut there was now some interval between the flash and the thunderclai)s, which 
 gradually increased. To say that I was now wet through, soaked, would be 
 nothing, for I felt utterly beaten down, sopped and crushed by the falling water. 
 I could go no farther, even if I could have found which way to go ; so I reached 
 the highest ridge I could find, where the water ran down on each side, and 
 having unpacked my swag, rolled myself on the ground in my blankets, and 
 settled myself to make the best of it. Of all the strange things that happened to 
 me while I was in Capricornia, this always seems to me, when I recur to it, the 
 strangest — that I should have quietly rolled myself up like this, in such a place 
 and such A/eather, and sink quietly to sleep. I can remendjer perfectly the first 
 sensation of cold, M'hen the water soaked through my blankets, after that I felt all 
 in a glow, as if I had been in a warm bath, or was undergoing some cooking pro- 
 cess ; but I .suuu 1(11 asleep, and slept soundly, though I had a kind of conscious-
 
 SUPPLEMENT A II Y CHAPTER. 
 
 ness of damp and rain pervading my dreams. Just at daybreak the clouds 
 rolled away, and l)eforc the sun rose, tlie sky was clear and glorious. The efiect 
 of a beautiful climate, and genial sunshine, is wonderful in dispelling feelings of 
 discomfort or annoyance. When I awoke I was rather stiff, but I got up and 
 stretched myself and wrung the water out of my blankets, and soon felt quite 
 brisk and jolly. — Colonial Adce/itiin's and Experiences. 
 
 BUSHRANGING I\ QUEENSLAND. 
 
 In stories of colonial life gold and bushrangers are usually connected. Now, 
 although Queensland has not as yet become a bushranging colony, yet specimens 
 of this class have from time to time appeared there, and have sometimes had a 
 tolerably long and successful career. Queensland, however, does not hold out 
 many attractions for the profession, which is fast dying out in Australia. Those 
 " bushrangers " who have practised in Queensland have been usually such as 
 have found the other colonies too hot to hold them. The most noted Queensland 
 bushranger was the " Wild Scotchman," as he was called. He had several times 
 intimated that he wished to be known by this name, his real one being ]\Iacgregor. 
 He came originally with a gang from New South Wales, as it was supposed, and 
 depredations were chiefly carried on, at first, in the south of the colony, among 
 the larger townships. At that time there had been few finds of gold, and there 
 were no gold escorts to rob ; but their way was to break into stations and public- 
 houses, and take whatever portable property they could lay their hands on. 
 Another plan was to waylay tire squatters on their road to and from the meeting 
 of Parliament at Brisbane. This practice is colonially called " sticking a man 
 up." The man thus " stuck up," is usually tied to a tree, and his horse, if not 
 required by the bushrangers, turned adrift. The injured party is usually released 
 in a few hours by chance travellers. After carrying on this game for some time 
 with impunity, the gang was " come upon " by the police, and, after a fight, three 
 of their number were captured. The " Wild Scotchman " himself, being, as 
 usual, well mounted, managed to escape, and went up among the stations in the 
 north. During his sojourn there, he "stuck up," single-handed, several stations 
 and public-houses, and shot one man through the cheeks who tried to defend his 
 property. But he made a chivalrous declaration that he only intended to favour 
 the squatters and publicans with his attentions, and that no working-man should 
 be molested. Few people, I should imagine, have had the honour of entertaining 
 a bushranger unawares, yet such has been one of my experiences. I was shep- 
 herding at the time in a hut about two miles off the road, and one evening, 
 coming home, as usual, to supper, I found the hut occupied by four men, dressed 
 in the usual bush costume of shirt, trousers, belt, etc., and cabbage-tree hat. 
 They had made free use of my rations, which they were, of course, perfectly 
 welcome to do ; and supposing them to be travellers, I was very glad to see 
 them, although they had only left just enough tea and damper for my supper. 
 After tea they produced a keg of rum, which they began to discuss, laughing and 
 talking, and, of course, offering me a share. It transpired from what they let fall, 
 
 4 o
 
 658 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 that they had met on the road a publican, to whom they o^yed a gi'udge, who was 
 bringing up on his saddle two gallons of rum. They had " stuck him up," and 
 made him dismount, turning his horse adrift, and had insisted on his sharing part 
 of the rum with them then and there. They had then left him to make his way 
 home as best as he could, striking across the bush to my hut, and bringing with 
 them the keg and the publican's saddle and bridle. In the morning they started, 
 promising to leave word at the station that I wanted more rations, and requesting 
 me to get the empty keg and saddle and bridle forwarded to their owner. The 
 man who seemed to be the leader of the party, added, " You can let him know that 
 the Wild Scotchman does not always let people off so easy. I shall be far enough 
 away before he knoAvs who it was that stuck him up." The Wild Scotchman 
 was captured a week or two afterwards, having ventured too near the police 
 barracks, but managed to escape on his way to Rockhampton gaol. He took to 
 the bush again, but was eventually ridden down and captured by two magistrates, 
 who got fresh horses at several stations, Avhile the bushranger had but one. He 
 rode eighty miles before he was caught. He is now undergoing penal servitude 
 in Brisbane : his sentence was twenty years, no charge of mortal violence having 
 been preferred against him, though there were more than a hundred indictments 
 against him for various robberies. Since his capture and conviction, bushranging 
 in the colony has been at a discount, and bids fair to become extinct altogether 
 — a fate which has already befallen it iu the other colonies. — Colonial Adcentures 
 and Eocjjeriences. 
 
 AUSTRALIAN AND ENGLISH SEASONS CONTRASTED, 
 
 I wonder whether any one has observed how completely the antipodal posi- 
 tion of Australia falsifies many of the images of the English and ancient poets. 
 To the born Australian, Thomson knows nothing about the seasons ; Shake- 
 speare is no longer the poet of nature : what does he mean by — 
 
 " The sweet South, 
 That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
 Stealing and giving odour ! " 
 
 The south wind brings sleet and hail and chilly hurricanes, blighting and blasting 
 every blossom it touches ! What does Horace mean by his " rahiem noti ? " 
 'Tis a libel on our soft Australian northern breezes. " Keen Aquilon " is not 
 keen, whatever Herbert may say or sing. As for the east wind, so much abused 
 in English prose, if not in verse — here it is the balmy breath of the Pacific — the 
 sweet sea-breeze, for whose daily advent during the summer the Sydneyite 
 watches and prays Avith all the fervour that inspired the "Aura veni!" of 
 Cephalus. The veteran Spenser must have been dozing or doting when he 
 wrote : 
 
 " Then came old January, wrapped well 
 
 In many weeds to keep the cold away; 
 Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell, 
 
 And blow his uayles to warm them if he may !"
 
 SUPPLEMENTA R Y CHA PTElt. 659 
 
 To cool them, of course he meant ; for, as I have before quoted, au Australiau 
 bard sings : 
 
 " When hot December's sultry breeze 
 Scarce stira a leaf on yonder trees." 
 
 And if December be hot, January is hotter ! One of the greatest advantages of 
 an Austrahan clime is, that whatever you may have planned for out-door work 
 or pastime you may, for three hundred and twenty days out of the three hundred 
 and sixty-five, pretty assuredly perform. The words "weather permitting" is a 
 reservation unheard of here — whilst in dear, drizzly old England a picnic and 
 wet weather are proverbial companions. It is a great blessing, too, to be able to 
 go abroad in an ordinary in-door dress, instead of piling on extra i)ellicles, 
 graduated according to the season. Here the family of clogs, goloshes, umbrellas, 
 etc., imjiortcd from Europe by the careful emigrant, are " hung up as monu- 
 ments ! "' I am aware of the existence of one warming-pan in New South Wales 
 — one only ; and I shall move the owner to present it to the Sydney ]\Iuseum 
 when she returns to England — perfectly certain that to ninety-nine out of a 
 hundred Anglo-Australian visitors of the institution the intent and jiurposes of 
 the implement would be utterly inscrutable. One of our old essayists defends 
 the English practice of making the weather the first theme of conversation. 
 Contrasting it with some other matters of common interest, he says : " The 
 weather is a nobler and more interesting subject; it is the present state of the 
 skies and of the earth, on which plenty or famine are suspended — on which 
 millions depend for the necessaries of life." In New South Wales the words, 
 " a fine day," as part of a salutation, are absurdly expletive, and have therefore 
 become obsolete — a fine day being a mere matter of course — sunshine the rule — 
 clouds the exception. Yet with all its beauties the Australian climate, taken as 
 a whole, is hard, glaring, almost withering in its excessive aridity. If it does 
 not prompt to languor and listlessness, like that of some other southern countries, 
 neither is there in it anything voluptuous. Perhaps, however, so business-like a 
 people would not be sentimental, romantic, poetical, or amorous under any skyey 
 influences. The winter season and the autumn mornings are thoroughly deliglit- 
 ful. I often think how much we shall miss when we shall have lost them. Yet 
 after all — bigot that I am — welcome, thrice welcome ! misty atmosphere, " lack- 
 lustre " skies of "my own, my native land." When the sun does shine he shines 
 on landscapes that in my eyes at least have no counterpart. There are days I 
 well remember (little as I have lived in England) Avhich no climate or country 
 can equal in loveliness — more delicious than any others — anywhere else — under 
 any circumstances ! What think you, sportsman readei', of a fine first of Septem- 
 ber morning in a good old-fashioned English count rj' house ? You spring from 
 your couch, and throw up the window-sash to see if the weather favours the 
 intended business of the day. How sweet and fresh the early air ! How gTate- 
 fully it plays upon the brow and fills the lungs ! How pleasantly the sun, about 
 an hour above the horizon, is "warning off" the lingering mists Avith his rays, 
 like so many flaming swords ! How cheerful the music from the rookery ! You 
 look out over the Avide-spread park— over oak and elm clumps — bright sheets of
 
 660 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 & 
 
 water, where the fog still loiters among the sedges — fern-clad knolls, upon which 
 the deer and cattle are browsing. Through vistas in the woodlands you catch 
 glimj^ses of golden stubbles ; here and there a dark -green turnip field ; a brown 
 fallow or two ; bej'ond them a ridgy potato piece, and a narrow strip of gorse 
 dotted with birch-trees, trending away until it is lost in the deep purple of a 
 heathery upland. Bringing your eyes more homeward, they alight on the 
 smooth-shaved dewy lawn, where the strutting cock pheasant — happy in a 
 month's impunity — is sunning his golden plumage ; and the " limping " hare, 
 sponging his " innocent nose " with his wet forepads, is longing for a nibble at 
 the lady's well-guarded carnations. . . . And, by Jove ! here come the 
 keeper and his assistants, with a leash of pointers and a shaggy pony. — Mundys 
 Our Ant/'jMdes. 
 
 RESULTS OF RECENT AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION. 
 
 We have endeavoured to show what has recently been done to obtain a 
 knowledge of the nature of the extensive region of Western Central Australia, 
 and the reader himself will be able to point the moral. Pioneers have been at 
 work in other parts of Australia, in the north-east and north, and, generally, it 
 may be said, that the great bulk of the country east of the telegraph line invites 
 and will repay occupation, and, indeed, is being rapidly settled. The central 
 Avaste on its east, north, and west sides is surrounded by a border which, at 
 greater or less intervals, is fairly fitted for cattle or sheep runs. On its south 
 side, along the Great Bight, are considerable patches suitable for settlement, if 
 only the water difficulty could be solved, and we have yet to learn that this has 
 been the case. In the centre there is at least half a million square miles (about 
 one-fifth of the whole area of the continent) totally unfit for occupation by civil- 
 ised man, unless by science or miracle he is able essentially to modify his own 
 constitution, or materially alter the conditions of what is at present " a waste 
 howling wilderness." The southern portion of this wilderness appears to be 
 thickly clad with vegetation — such as it is ; while the north, along the route 
 traversed by Warburton, Forrest, and Giles, seems to have its almost unvarying- 
 sandhills by no means so thickly clad with the usual spinifex and scrub. Over 
 the waste as a whole there seems to be considerable variety of vegetation, judg- 
 ing from the list published by Baron Von Mueller ; but, except the desert oak 
 and the eucalyptus, none of it seems capable of being turned to any practical use. 
 At the same time, those whose faith and hope are sti'ong may derive some little 
 comfort from the observation of Mr Landsborough, an old settler, whose name 
 is well known as an explorer in North-Eastern Australia. In a recently-pub- 
 lished paper he adduces a variety of interesting facts to prove that dense forests 
 are on the increase in Australia, that the climate is becoming moister, and thei-e- 
 fore improving ; that the country is gradually ceasing to be favourable to sheep- 
 farming, and becoming well adapted to agriculture. Formerly, in the now 
 settled districts, when there was no sheep to keep down the grass, fires were 
 frequent (as they arc now in the central waste), and terribly destructive to trees 
 and all vegetation ; but since the stocking of the country there is less grass foi-
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 661 
 
 the fires to consume, and tlieir ravages are consequently becoming limitcil in 
 extent. Queensland espcciiilly, Mr Landsborougli states, is now so unfit foi 
 sheep pasturing that no one thinks of making a living by it. ]\Ir Landsborough's 
 observations are worthy of attention, but they are founded, it should be remem- 
 bered, mainly on data collected on the eastern and by far the better half of the 
 continent. Were it not for the almost absolute want of water, it is hard to say 
 what might not be accomplished in the region with which we are dealing. But 
 it should be remembered that our knowledge of the central waste has been 
 obtained from observations made in the greatest possible haste, as every expedi- 
 tion which has crossed it has been really a race for life. What is now required, 
 it appears to us, is a series of continuous observations Ity the meteorologist and 
 geologist. There are, at various points on the east, north, and west border, if 
 not on the south, oases at which observing stations might be established, and 
 which might form a good basis for operation by skilled and properly-equipped 
 geological parties, who might in time obtain data of great scientific importance 
 and of the highest practical value. Judging from the innumerable creeks and 
 various broad river beds as well as the clay pans and native wells met with, rain 
 must fall in some abundance at certain intervals, and it seems to us to be well 
 worth while for the various colonies — for they are all really interested in the 
 matter — to unite and obtain by skilled observation some knowledge of the laws 
 which govern the meteorology of Central Australia. At one point in the early 
 part of Mr Giles's southern journey, about a hundred miles east of Youldeh, we 
 are informed by one of his companions, they came upon a solitary white man, 
 who somehow had found his way there, and who had been for many days with- 
 out water, having only obtained a supply on the day the expedition came up by 
 sinking a well seventy feet deep. In many places water in small quantity is ob- 
 tainable by scratching the sand for a few feet ; but might not the fact just men- 
 tioned justify some experiments being made at various points on the desert 
 border in the sinking of wells ? At all events, there does not appear to be any 
 need for sending out another expedition similar to those of Warburton, Forrest, 
 and Giles. We have obtained a satisfactory general idea of the natm-e of the 
 great Australian waste, and what is now wanted is minute observation and 
 experiment, Avhich, as we have said, it is the interest of all the Australian 
 colonies to join in making. — Times, 26th December 1877. 
 
 king's island. 
 
 Although King's Island — which forms a portion of the Tasmanian territory- 
 is within ten hours' steaming distance from Port Phillip Heads, it is almost a 
 terra incognita. There are occasional accounts in the columns of the Argus of 
 " a wreck at King's Island," but there are very few people outside the seafaring 
 world who know anything definite about the size and position of the island. 
 Notwithstanding its proximity to the Tasmanian coast, and its forming a portion 
 of that colony, whenever it has to be visited by any of the Government ollicials 
 they have to make Melbourne their starting-point, and either charter a vessel for 
 the trip or take the chance of a small craft going across to fish along the coast.
 
 662 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 King's Island is about thirty-five miles long from north to south, with a varying 
 breadth of from five to fifteen miles. The eastern coast generally consists of low, 
 sandy hummocks, toi:)ped with thick scrub. This continues from Cape Wickham 
 until Sea Elephant Island is reached, but after passing that point the coast-line 
 alters. The hills rise to a height of two hundred to three hundred feet, and they 
 are thickly wooded to the summit. The coast is of a rocky nature, and there is 
 no safe anchorage until the south portion of the island is rounded. Stokes Point 
 is the southernmost j^romontory, but as there are a number of outlying rocks, and 
 the tides and currents run with varying force, and in different directions conse- 
 quent upon the prevailing winds, mariners generally give the south end of the 
 island as wide a berth as possible. After rounding the Stokes Point, the rocky 
 coast continues to Fitzmaurice Bay, where there is anchorage for small craft as 
 long as the wind keeps to the southward or eastward, but it is quite ojien to the 
 north and west. It was on the point near this bay that the shijD " Cataraque " was 
 lost, in the year 1845. She had emigrants on board, and no less than 414 lives 
 were lost, only six seamen and one passenger being saved. The coast still con- 
 tinues of a rocky nature until Currie Harbour is reached, the only exception 
 being the long sandy beach, on an outlying reef, off which the ship " British 
 Admiral" was lost in 1874. From Currie Harbour to Cape Wickham — the 
 north point of the island — the coast is generally of a sandy nature, Avith occasional 
 l^atches of rock. Along the whole of the western coast there are numerous 
 outlying rocks, which render it very dangerous to mariners with the wind at all 
 from the westward, as there is no anchorage at all for lai'ge vessels. There is 
 very good shelter for small craft under New Year's Island, and they can also 
 .•emain safely in Currie Harbour, but cannot get out again as long as the wind 
 seeps to the westward. The geological formation of the island is principally 
 slate and granite, the latter being a very handsome dark mottled stone. The 
 hunters living on the island state that on the southern portion quartz is frequently 
 found, but it has never been ascertained whether the reefs contain gold. The 
 soil generally appears to be good, consisting mainly of a black sandy loam, iu 
 which English grasses and vegetables grow luxuriantly, but near the sea-coast 
 the plants are liable to be blighted by the westerly gales. In some jmrts of the 
 island the scrub is very thick, but there are large areas of open, rolling, grassy 
 downs, the look of Avhich would gladden the eye of the grazier. There are 
 several fresh-water streams running into the sea, both on the east and west sides, 
 and there are also some large, swampy lagoons, where are to be found plenty of 
 black swans and wild ducks. Kangaroos and Avallabies are numerous, while 
 snakes are far from uncommon. The area of the island is estimated at 27,000 
 acres, and it is rented from the Tasmanian Government for £270, being at the 
 rate of .£1 per 100 acres. The island, however, swarms with a small plant, 
 like a tare, called by some the Darling pea, and according to the hunters this 
 ])roves poisonous to stock, animals eating it gradually getting thin and dying ofi'. 
 Tliat they believe such is the case is evident I'roni the fact that the two or three 
 horses and cows they possess are carefully tethered or kept in enclosures during 
 the summer niontlis, when the animals are likely to eat this plant owing to the
 
 SUPPLEMENTA R Y CIIA PTEIL 
 
 GG3 
 
 scarcity of other feed. The population of the ishand does not exceed twenty five 
 persons, about one-half of Avhoni are in the employ of the Tasmanian Govern- 
 ment at the Cape ^Mckham lighthouse. The remainder arc men who make a 
 living by hunting and snaring kangaroos for their skins. Occasionally they make 
 a good thing out of a wreck — of which unfortunately there have "been too many 
 of late years, as is shown by the fact that the whole of the coast of the island is 
 thickly strewn with wreckage, and articles of use or value are continually being 
 thrown up on the beach above high-water mark. 
 
 The following is the list of the ships lost on King's Island since 1835 : 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 liivcs Lost. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Lives Lost. 
 
 Neva, .... 
 
 1835 
 
 300 
 
 Omagh, .... 
 
 18G8 
 
 ^_ 
 
 Rebecca, 
 
 1843 
 
 1 
 
 Mary Ann, . 
 
 1868 
 
 — 
 
 Cataraque, . . 
 
 184.5 
 
 414 
 
 Ocean Bride, . 
 
 1871 
 
 — 
 
 Isabella, 
 
 1845 
 
 — 
 
 Martha and Lavinia, 
 
 1871 
 
 — 
 
 City of ^Melbourne, 
 
 1853 
 
 — 
 
 Loch Leven, . 
 
 1871 
 
 1 
 
 Brahmin, 
 
 1854 
 
 7 
 
 Katheraw, 
 
 1872 
 
 — 
 
 Waterwitch, . 
 
 1854 
 
 — 
 
 Anna, .... 
 
 1873 
 
 — 
 
 Maypole, 
 
 1855 
 
 3 
 
 British Admii-al, . 
 
 1874 
 
 79 
 
 Whistler, 
 
 1855 
 
 — 
 
 i Blencathra, . 
 
 1875 
 
 — 
 
 An-ow, .... 
 
 1865 
 
 — 
 
 Flying Squin-el, 
 
 1876 
 
 — 
 
 Netherby, 
 
 1866 
 
 — 
 
 Abeona, 
 
 1877 
 
 — 
 
 Europa,. 
 
 1867 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 Total vessels •wrecked. 
 Lives lost, 
 
 23 
 805 
 
 — Melbourne Argus, February 3, 1878. 
 
 YOUNG AUSTRALIA. 
 
 The ladies in the grand stand were scarcely to be distinguished from English- 
 women in dress or countenance, but the crowd presented several curious types. 
 The fitness of the term " cornstalks " applied to the Australian-born boys was 
 made evident by a glance at their height and slender build ; they have plenty of 
 activity and health, but are wanting in power and weight. The girls, too, are 
 slight and thin ; delicate, without being sickly. Grown men who have eniigi-ated 
 as lads and lived ten or fifteen years in New Zealand, eating much meat, spending 
 their days in the open air, constantly in the saddle, are burly, bearded, strapping 
 fellows, physically the perfection of the English race, but wanting in refinement 
 and grace of mind, and this apparently by constitution ; not through the accident 
 of occupation or position. In Australia there is promise of a more intellectual 
 nation ; the young Australians ride as well, shoot as well, swim as well, as the 
 New Zealanders ; are as little given to book-learning ; but there is more shrewd 
 intelligence, more wit and quickness, in the sons of the larger continent. The 
 Australians boast that they possess the Grecian climate, and every young fi\ce in 
 the Sydney cro-svd showed me that their sky is not more like that of Attica than 
 they are like the old Athenians. The eager burning democracy that is springing 
 up in the Australian great towns is as widely diff'erent from the lepnblicanism of
 
 CG4 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the older states of the American Union as it is from the good-natured con- 
 servatism of New Zealand, and their high capacity for personal enjoyment would 
 of itself suffice to distinguish the Australians from both Americans and British. — 
 Sir C. W. Dilke. 
 
 THE POLYNESIANS. 
 
 The wanderings of the Polynesian race were, probably, not confined to the 
 Pacific. Ethnology is as yet in its infancy ; we know nothing of the Tudas of 
 the Neilgherries ; we ask in vain who are the Gonds ; we are in doubt about the 
 Japanese ; we are lost in perplexity as to who we may be ourselves ; but there is 
 at least as much ground for the statement that the Red Indians are Malays as for 
 the assertion that we are Saxons. The resemblances between the Red Indians 
 and the Pacific Islanders are innumerable. Strachey's account of the Indians of 
 Virginia, written in 1612, needs but a change in the names to fit the Maoris: 
 Powhatan's house is that of William Thompson ; cannibalism prevailed in Brazil 
 and along the Pacific coast of North America at the time of their discovery, and 
 even the Indians of Chili ate many an early navigator ; the aborigines of Van- 
 couver Island are tattooed ; their canoes resemble those of the Malays, and the 
 mode of paddling is the same from New Zealand to Hudson's Bay — from Florida to 
 Singapore. Jade ornaments of the shape of the JNIaori Heitiki (the charm worn 
 about the neck) have been found by the French in Guadalupe ; the giant masonry 
 of Central America is similar to that of Cambodia and Siam. Small-legged squat- 
 ting figures, like those of the idols of China and Japan, not only surmount the 
 gate-posts of the New Zealand 2^ahs, but are found eastwards to Honduras, west- 
 wards to Burmah, to Tartary, and to Ceylon. The fibre mats, common to 
 Polynesia and Red India, are unknown to savages elsewhere, and the feather 
 head-dresses of the Maoris are identical with those of the Delawares or Hurons. 
 In the Indians of America and of Poljaiesia there is the same hatred of continued 
 toil, and the same readiness to engage in violent exertion for a time. Super- 
 stition and witchcraft are common to all untaught peoples, but in the Malays 
 and red men they take similar shapes ; and the Indians of Mexico and Peru 
 had, like all the Polynesians, a sacred language, understood only by the priests. 
 The American altars were one with the temples of the Pacific, and Avere not 
 confined to Mexico, for they form the " mounds " of Ohio and IlHnois. There is 
 great likeness between the legend of Maui, the Maori hero, and that of Hiawatha, 
 especially in the history of how the sun was noosed, and made to move more 
 slowly through the skies, so as to give men long days for toil. The resemblance 
 of the Maori runanga, or assembly for debate, to the Indian council is 
 extremely close, and throughout America and Polynesia a singular blending of 
 poetry and ferocity is characteristic of the Malays. In colour, the Indians and 
 Polynesians arc not alike ; but colour does not seem to be, ethnologically speak- 
 ing, of much account. The Hindoos of Calcutta have the same features as those 
 of Delhi ; but the former are black, the latter brown, or, if high-caste men, almost 
 white. Exposure to sun, in a damp, hot climate, seems to blacken every race 
 tliat it does not destroy. The races that it will finally destroy, tropical heat first
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 665 
 
 whitens. The English planters of Mississippi and Florida are extremely dark, yet 
 there is not a snspicion of black blood in their veins : it is the white blood of the 
 slaves to which the abolitionists refer in their philippics. The Jews at Bombay 
 and Aden are of a deep brown ; in Morocco they are swarthy ; in England, nearly 
 white. Religious rites and social customs outlast both physical type and 
 language ; but even were it otherwise, there is great resemblance in build and 
 feature between the Polynesians and many of the " Red Indian " tribes. The 
 aboriginal people of New York State are described by the early navigators not 
 as tall, grave, hooked-nose men, but as copper-coloured, pleasant-looking, and 
 with quick, shrewd eyes ; and the Mexican Indian bears more likeness to the 
 Sandwich Islander than to the Delaware or Cherokee. — Sir C. W. Dilke. 
 
 PITCAIRN ISLAND. 
 
 After traversing lonely and hitherto unknown seas, and looking in vain for a 
 new guano island, on the sixteenth day we. worked out the ship's position at 
 noon with more than usual care, if that were possible, and found that in four 
 hours we ought to be at Pitcairn Island. At half-past two o'clock land was 
 sighted right ahead ; and by four o'clock we were in the bay, such as it is, at 
 Pitcairn. Although at sea there was a calm, the surf from the ground-swell 
 beat heavily upon the shore, and we were fain to content ourselves with the view of 
 the island from our decks. It consists of a single volcanic peak, hung with an 
 arras of green creeping plants, passion-flowers, and trumpet-vines. As for the 
 people, they came off to us dancing over the seas in their canoes, and bringing 
 us green oranges and bananas, while a huge i;nion-jack was rim up on their 
 flagstaff" by those who remained on shore. As the first man came on deck, he 
 rushed to the captain, and shaking hands violently, cried, in pure English, 
 entirely free from accent, " How do you do, captain 1 How's Victoria ? " There 
 was no disrespect in the omission of the title " Queen ; " the question seemed to 
 come from the heart. The bright-eyed lads, Adams and Young, descendants of 
 the " Bounty " mutineers, who had been the first to climb our sides, announced the 
 coming of Moses Young, the " magistrate " of the isle, who presently boarded us 
 in state. He was a grave and gentlemanly man, English in appearance, but 
 somewhat slightly built, as were, indeed, the lads. The magistrate came off" to 
 lay before the captain the facts relating to a feud which existed between two 
 parties of the islanders, and upon which they required arbitration. He had been 
 under the impression that we were a man-of-war, as we had fired two guns on 
 entering the bay, and being received by our officers, who wore the cap of the 
 Naval Reserve, he continued in the belief till the captain explained what the 
 " Rakaia " was, and why she had called at Pitcairn. The case which the captain 
 was to have heard judicially was laid before us for our advice while the flues of 
 the ship were being cleaned. When the British Government removed the 
 Pitcairn Islanders to Norfolk Island, no return to the old home Avas contem- 
 plated, but the indolent half-castes found the task of keeping the Norfolk Island 
 convict roads in good repair one heavier than they cared to perform, and fifty- 
 two of them have lately come back to Pitcairn. A widow who returned with 
 
 4 p
 
 666 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the others claims a third of the whole island as having been the property of her 
 late husband, and is supported in her demand by half the islanders, while INIoses 
 Young and the remainder of the people admit the facts, but assert that the 
 desertion of the island was complete, and operated as an entire abandonment of 
 titles, which the re-occupation cannot revive. The success of the woman's claim, 
 they say, would be the destruction of the prosperity of Pitcaii'n. The case 
 would be an extremely curious one if it had to be decided upon legal grounds, 
 for it would raise complicated questions both on the nature of British citizen- 
 ship and the character of the " occupation " title ; but it seemed probable that 
 the islanders would abide by the decision of the Governor of New South Wales, 
 to which colony they consider themselves in some degree attached. When we 
 had drawn up a case to be submitted to Sir John Young at Sydney, our captain 
 made a commercial treaty with the magistrate, who agreed to supply the ships 
 of the new line, whenever daylight allowed them to call at Pitcairn, with oranges, 
 bananas, ducks, and fowls, for which he was to receive cloth and tobacco in 
 exchange — tobacco being the money of the Polynesian Archipelago. ]Mr Young 
 told us that his people had thirty sheep, which were owned by each of the 
 families in turn, the household taking care of them, and receiving the profits for 
 one year. Water, he said, sometimes falls short in the island, but they then 
 make use of the juice of the green cocoa-nut. Their school is excellent; all the 
 children can read and write, and in the election of magistrates they have female 
 suffrage. When we went on deck again to talk to the younger men, Adams 
 asked us a new question : " Have you a Sunday at Home, or a British Work- 
 man ? " Our books and papers having been ransacked, Moses Young prepared 
 to leave the ship, taking with him presents from the stores. Besides the cloth, 
 tobacco, hats, and linen, there was a bottle of bi'andy, given for medicine, as the 
 islanders are strict teetotallers. While Young held the bottle in his hand, afraid 
 to trust the lads with it, Adams read the label and cried out, "Brandy? How 
 much for a dose 1 . . . Oh, yes ! all right — I know : it's good for the 
 women ? " When they at last left the ship's side, one of the canoes was filled 
 with a crinoline and blue silk dress for Mrs Young, and another with a red-and- 
 brown tartan for Mrs Adams, both given by lady passengers, while the lads 
 went ashore in dust-coats and smoking-caps. Now that the French, with their 
 singular habit of everywhere annexing countries which other colonising nations 
 have rejected, are rapidly occupying all the Polynesian groups except the only 
 ones that are of value — namely, the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand — 
 Pitcairn becomes of some interest as a solitary British post on the very border 
 of the French dominions ; and it has for us the stronger claim to notice which is 
 raised by the fact that it has figured for the last few years on the Avrong side of 
 our British budget. — Sir C. W. Dilke. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND SCENEKV. 
 
 When I left Hokitika, it was by the new road, 170 miles in length, which 
 crosses the Alps and the island, and connects Christchurch, the capital of 
 Canterbury, with the western parts of the province. The bush between the sea
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. GOT 
 
 and mountains is extremely lovely. The highway is " corduroyed " with trunks 
 of the tree-fern, and, in the swamps, the sleepers have begun to grow at each 
 end, so that a close-set double row of young tree-ferns is rising along portions of 
 the road. The bush is densely matted with an undergrowth of supple-jack and 
 all kind of creepers, but here and there one finds a grove of tree-ferns twenty 
 feet in height, and grown so thickly as to prevent the existence of underwood 
 and ground plants. The peculiarity which makes the New Zealand west-coast 
 scenery the most beautiful in the world to those who like more green than 
 California has to show, is that here alone can you find semi-tropical vegetation 
 growing close up to the eternal snows. The latitude and the great moisture of 
 the climate bring the long glaciers very low into the valleys ; and the absence of 
 all true winter, coupled with the rainfall, causes the growth of palm-like ferns 
 upon the ice-river's very edge. The glaciers of Mount Cook are the longest in 
 the world, except those at the sources of the Indus, but close about them have 
 been found tree-ferns of thirty and forty feet in height. It is not till you enter 
 the mountains that you escape the moisture of the coast, and quit for the scenery 
 of the Alps the scenery of fairyland. Bumping and tumbling in the mail-cart 
 through the rushing blue-grey waters of the Taramakao, I found myself within 
 the mountains of the Snowy Range. In the Otira Gorge, also known as Arthur's 
 Pass — from Arthur Dobson, brother to the surveyor murdered by the Thugs — 
 six small glaciers were in sight at once. The Rocky Mountains opposite to 
 Denver are loftier and not less snowy than the New Zealand Alps, but in the 
 Rockies there are no glaciers south of about 50° N. ; while in New Zealand — 
 a winterless country — they are common at eight degrees nearer to the line. 
 The varying amount of moisture has doubtless caused this difference. As we 
 journeyed through the pass, there was one grand view — -and only one : the 
 glimpse of the ravine to the eastward of Mount Rollestone, caught from the 
 desert shore of Lake Misery — a tarn near the "divide" of waters. About its 
 banks there grows a plant, unknown, they say, except at this lonely spot — the 
 Rockwood lily — a bushy plant, with a round, polished, concave leaf, and a 
 cup-shaped flower of virgin white, that seems to take its tint from the encircling 
 snows. In the evening, we had a view that for gloomy grandeur cannot well be 
 matched — that from near Bealey township, where we struck the Waimakiriri 
 Valley. The river-bed is half-a-mile in width, the stream itself not more than 
 ten yards across, but, like all New Zealand rivers, subject to freshets, which fill 
 its bed to a great depth with a surging, foaming flood. Some of the victims of 
 the Waimakiriri are buried alongside the road. Dark evergreen bush shuts in 
 the river-bed, and is tojiped on the one side by dreary frozen peaks, and on 
 the other by still gloomier mountains of bare rock. Our road, next morning, 
 from The Cass, where we had spent the night, lay through the eastern foot-hills 
 and down to Canterbury Plains by way of Porter's Pass — a narrow track on the 
 top of a tremendous precipice, but soon to be changed for a road cut along its 
 face. The plains are one great sheep-run, open, almost flat, and upon which 
 you lose all sense of size. At the mountain-foot they are covered with tall, 
 coarse, native grass, and are dry, like the Kansas prairie ; about Christchurch,
 
 668 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the English clover and English grasses have usurped the soil, and all is fresh 
 and green. — Sir C. W. Dilke. 
 
 THE TWO FLIES. 
 
 " As the Pakeha fly has driven out the Maori fly ; 
 As the Pakeha grass has killed the Maori grass ; 
 As the Pakeha rat has slain the Maori rat ; 
 As the Pakeha clover has starved the Maori fern. 
 So will the Pakeha desti-oy the Maori." 
 
 These are the mournful words of a well-kno-wTi Maori song. That the English 
 daisy, the white clover, the common thistle, the camomile, the oat, should make 
 their way rapidly in New Zealand, and put down the native plants, is in no way 
 strange. If the ]Maori grasses that have till lately held undisturbed jDOssession 
 of the New Zealand soil, require for their nourishment the substances A, B, and 
 C, while the English clover needs A, B, and D; from the nature of things A and 
 B will be the coarser earths or salts, existing in larger quantities, not easily 
 losing vigour and nourishing force, and recruiting their energies from the decay 
 of the very plant that feeds on them ; but C and D will be the more ethereal, 
 the more easily destroyed or wasted substances. The Maori grass, having 
 sucked nearly the whole of C from the soil, is in a weakly state, when in comes 
 the English plant, and, finding an abundant store of untouched D, thrives 
 accordingly, and crushes down the Maori. — Sir C. W. Dilke. 
 
 CONTRAST BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA. 
 
 No two countries in the world are so wholly distinct as Australia and New 
 Zealand. The islands of New Zealand are inhabited by Polynesians, the 
 Australian continent by negroes; New Zealand is ethnologically nearer to 
 America, Australia to Africa, than New Zealand to Australia. If we turn fi-om 
 ethnology to scenery and climate, the countries are still more distinct. New 
 Zealand is one of the groups of volcanic islands that stud the Pacific throughout 
 its whole extent ; tremendous cliffs surround it on almost every side ; a great 
 mountain-chain runs through both islands from north to south; hot springs 
 abound, often close to glaciers and eternal snows ; earthquakes are common, and 
 active volcanoes not uuknow^n. The New Zealand climate is damp and windy ; 
 the land is covered in most parts with a tangled jungle of tree-ferns, creepers, and 
 parasitic plants ; water never fails, and, though winter is unknown, the summer 
 heat is never great ; the islands are always green. Australia has for the most 
 part flat, yellow, sun-burnt shores ; the soil may be rich, the country good for 
 wheat and sheep, but to the eye it is an arid plain ; the winters are pleasant, but 
 in the hot weather the thermometer rises higher than it does in India, and dust- 
 storms and hot-winds sweep the land from end to end. It is impossible to con- 
 ceive countries more unlil^e each other than are our two great dominions of the 
 south. Their very fossils are as dissimilar as are their flora and fauna of our 
 time.— ^Sir C. W. Dilke.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 6G9 
 
 EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 One of the best features of the colonial democracy is its earnestness in the 
 cause of education. In England it is one of our worst national peculiarities that, 
 whatever our station, Ave cither are content with giving children an " education " 
 Avhifh is absolutely wanting in any real training for the mind, or aid to the Ijrain 
 in its dcveloiiment, or else we give them a schooling Avliicli is a mere preparation 
 for the Bar or Church, for it has always been considered with us that it is a far 
 greater matter to be a solicitor or a curate than to be wise or happy. This is, of 
 course, a consequence partly of the energy of the race, and partly of our aristo- 
 cratic form of society, which leads every member of a class to be continually 
 trying to get into the class immediately above it in wealth or standing. In the 
 colonies, as in the United States, the democratic form which society has taken, 
 has carried with it the Continental habit of thought upon educational matters, so 
 that it would seem as though the form of society influenced this question much 
 more than the energy of the race, which is rather heightened than depressed in 
 these new countries. The Enghsh EngHshman says, " If I send Dick to a good 
 school and scrape up money enough to put him into a profession, even if he don't 
 make much, at least he'll be a gentleman." The Australian or democratic 
 Englishman says, " Tom must have good schooling, and must make the most of 
 it ; but I'll not have him knocking about in broadcloth and earning nothing ; so 
 no profession for him ; but let him make money like me, and mayhap get a few 
 acres more land." — Sir C. TV. Dilke. 
 
 DEMOCRACY IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 There is no sign that in Australia any more than in America there will 
 spring up a centre of opposition to the dominant majority ; but there is as little 
 evidence that the majority will even unwittingly abuse its power. It is the 
 fashion to say that for a state to be intellectually great and noble, there must be 
 within it a nucleus of opposition to the dominant principles of the time and 
 place, and that the best and noblest minds, the intellects the most seminal, have 
 invariably belonged to men who formed part of such a group. It may be 
 doubted whether this assumed necessity for opposition to the public will is not 
 characteristic of a terribly imperfect state of society and government. It is 
 chiefly because the woi'ld has never had experience of a national life at once 
 throbbing Avith the pulse of the Avhole people, and completely tolerant not only 
 in law but in opinion of sentiments the most divergent from the views of the 
 majority — firm in the pursuit of truths already grasped, but ready to seize Avith 
 aA'idity upon ncAV ; gifted with a love of order, yet prepared to fit itself to shift- 
 ing circumstances — that men continue to look Avith complacency upon the 
 enormous Avaste of intellectual poAver that occurs Avhen a germ of truth such as 
 that contained in the doctrines of the Puritans finds development and accept- 
 ance only after centuries have passed. Australia Avill start unclogged by slavery 
 to try this experiment for the world. — Sir C. W. Dilke.
 
 670 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 CONFEDERATION. 
 
 There are many difficulties in the way of confederation. The leading- 
 merchants aiad squatters of Victoria are in favour of it ; but not so those of the 
 poorer or less populous colonies, where there is much fear of being swamped. 
 The costliness of the federal government of New Zealand is a warning against 
 over hasty confederation. Victoria, too, would probably insist upon the exclu- 
 sion of West Australia, on account of her convict population. The Continental 
 theory is undreamt of by Australians, owing to there having always been inhabit- 
 ants of comparatively small states, and not, like dwellers in the organised terri- 
 tories of America, potentially citizens of a vast and homogeneous empire. The 
 choice of capital will here, as in Canada, be a matter of peculiar difficulty. It is 
 to be hoped by all lovers of freedom that some hitherto unknoAvn village will be 
 selected. There is in all 'great cities a strong tendency to imperialism. Bad 
 i:»avement, much noise, narrow lanes, blockaded streets, all these things are ill 
 dealt with by free government, we are told. Englishmen who have been in 
 Paris, Americans who know St Petersburg, forgetting that Avithout the emperor 
 the prefet is impossible, cry out that London, that New York, in their turn 
 need a Haussmann. In this tendency lies a terrible danger to free states — a 
 danger avoided, however, or greatly lessened, by the seat of the legislature being 
 placed, as in Canada and the United States, far away from the great cities. 
 Were Melbourne to become the seat of government, nothing could prevent the 
 distant colonies from increasing the already gigantic power of that city by choos- 
 ing her merchants as their representatives. The bearing of confederation upon 
 imperial interests is a more simple matter. Although union will tend to the 
 earlier independence of the colonies, yet, if federated, they are more likely to be 
 a valuable ally than they could be if remaining so many separate countries. 
 They would also be a stronger enemy ; but distance will make all their wars 
 naval, and a strong fleet would be more valuable to us as a friend than dangerous 
 as an enemy, unless in the case of a coalition against us, in which it would probably 
 not be the interest of Australia to join. From the colonial point of view, federation 
 would tend to seciu'e to the Australians better general and local government 
 than they possess at present. It is absurd to expect that colonial governors 
 should be upon good terms with their charges when we shift men every four 
 years — say from Dcmerara to New South Wales, or from Jamaica to Victoria. 
 The unhappy governor loses half-a-year in moving to his post, and a couple of 
 years in coming to understand the circumstances of his new province, and then 
 settles down to be successful in the ruling of educated whites under democratic 
 institutions only if he can entirely throw aside the Avhole of his experience, 
 derived as it will jorobably have been from the despotic sway over blacks. We 
 never can have a set of colonial governors fit for Australia until the Australian 
 governments are made a distinct service, and entirely separated from those of the 
 West Indies, of Africa, and Hong-Kong. Besides improving the government, 
 confederation would lend to every colonist the dignity derived from citizenship 
 of a great country — a point the importance of which will not be contested by any
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 671 
 
 one who has been in America since the war. It is not easy to resist the con- 
 chision that confederation is in every way desirable. If it leads to independence, 
 we must say to the Australians what lloumai ta Wliiti said in his great speech 
 to the progenitors of the Maori race when they were quitting Hawaiki : " Depart, 
 and dwell in peace ; let there be no quarrelling amongst you, but build up a 
 great people." — Sir C. W. Dilke. 
 
 A MAORI "RUNANGA." 
 
 Sir Charles W. Dilke, in his " Greater Britain," gives an amusing account of 
 a Maori assembly at which he was present, convened to negotiate the sale of 
 some land to the Government. The site of the meeting was Parewanui Pah. 
 
 " Here is P^taton^. 
 Tliis is the 10th of December; 
 The sun shines, and the birds sing ; 
 Clear is the water in rivers and streams ; 
 Bright is the sky, and the sun is high in the air. 
 This is the 10th of December; 
 But where is the money? 
 
 Three years has this matter in many debates been discussed, 
 And here at last is P6taton§ ; 
 But where is the money 1 " 
 
 " A band of Maori women, slowly chanting in a high-strained key, stood at 
 the gate of a pah, and met with this song a few Englishmen who were driving 
 rapidly on to their land. 
 
 " Om" track lay through a swamp of the New Zealand flax. Huge sword- 
 like leaves and giant flower-stalks all but hid from view the Maori stockades. To 
 the left was a village of low wahres, fenced round with a double row of lofty 
 posts, carved with rude images of gods and men, and having posterns here and 
 there. On the right were groves of karakas, children of Tanemahuta, the New 
 Zealand sacred trees ; under their shade, on a hill, a camp and another and larger 
 pah. In startling contrast to the dense masses of the oily leaves, there stretched 
 a great extent of light-green sward, where there were other camps and a tall 
 flagstafi", from which floated the white flag and the union-jack — emblems of 
 Bi'itish sovereignty and peace. 
 
 " A thousand kilted Maoris dotted the green landscape with patches of 
 brilliant tartans and scarlet cloth. Women lounged about, whiling away the 
 time with dance and song ; and from all the corners of the glade the soft 
 cadence of the Maori cry of welcome came floating to us on the breeze, sweet as 
 the sound of distant bells. 
 
 " As we drove quickly on, we found ourselves in the midst of a thronging 
 crowd of square-built men, brown in colour, and for the most part not much 
 darker than Spaniards, but with here and there a woolly negro in their ranks. 
 Glancing at them as we were hurried past, we saw that the men were robust, 
 well-limbed, and tall. They greeted us pleasantly with many a cheerful open 
 smile, but the faces of the older people were horribly tattooed in spiral curves.
 
 672 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 The chiefs carried battle-clubs of jacle and bone; the women wore strange orna- 
 ments. At the flagstaff we pulled up, and, while the preliminaries of the council 
 were arranged, had time to discuss with Maori and with Pakeha (white man) 
 the questions that had brought us thither, 
 
 " The purchase of an enormous block of land — that of the Manawatu — had 
 long been an object wished for and worked for by the Provincial Government of 
 Wellington. The completion of the sale it was that had brought the superinten- 
 dent, Dr Featherston, and humbler Pakehas to Parewanui Pah. It was not only 
 that the land was wanted by way of room for the flood of settlers, but purchase 
 by Government was, moreover, the only means whereby war between the various 
 native claimants of the land could be prevented. The Pakeha and Maori had 
 agreed ujdou a price ; the c[uestion that remained for settlement was how the 
 money should be shared. One tribe had owned the land from the earliest times ; 
 another had conquered some miles of it ; a third had had one of its chiefs cooked 
 and eaten upon the ground. In the eye of the Maori law, the last of these titles 
 Avas the best ; the blood of a chief overrides all mere historic claims. The two 
 strongest human motives concurred to make war probable, for avarice and 
 jealousy alike prevented agreement as to the division of the spoil. Each of the 
 three tribes claiming had half-a-dozen allied and related nations upon the 
 ground ; every man was there who had a claim direct or indirect, or thought he 
 had, to any portion of the block. Individual ownership and tribal ownership 
 conflicted. The Ngatiapa were well armed ; the Ngatiraukawa had their rifles ; 
 the Wanganuis had sent for theirs. The greatest tact on the part of Dr 
 Featherston Avas needed to prevent a fight such as would have roused New 
 Zealand from Auckland to Port Nicholson. 
 
 " On a signal from the superintendent, the heralds went round the camps 
 and pahs to call the tribes to council. The summons was a long-drawn minor- 
 descending-scale ; a plaintive cadence, which at a distance blends into a bell-like 
 chord. The words mean : ' Come hither ! Come hither ! Come ! come ! 
 
 Maoris ! Come ! ' and men, women, and children soon came thronging in 
 
 from every side, the chiefs bearing sceptres and spears of ceremony, and their 
 women wearing round their necks the symbol of nobility, the Heitiki, or green- 
 stone god. These images, we were told, have pedigrees, and names like those of 
 men. 
 
 "We, with the resident magistrate of Wanganui, seated ourselves beneath 
 the flagstaff". A chief, meeting the people as they came up, stayed them with 
 the gesture that Homer ascribes to Hector, and bade them sit in a huge circle 
 round the spar. No sooner were we seated on our mat than there ran slowly 
 into the centre of the ring a plumed and kilted chief, Avith sparkling eyes, the 
 perfection of a savage. Halting suddenly, he raised himself upon his toes, 
 frowned, and stood brandishing his short feathered spear. It was Hunia t^ 
 Hakeke, the young chief of the Ngatiapa. 
 
 "Throwing oft' his plaid, he commenced to speak, springing hither and 
 thither with leopard-like freedom of gait, and sometimes leaping high into the 
 air to emphasise a Avord. Fierce as Avere the gestures, his speech Avas concilia-
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 673 
 
 tory, and the Maori flowed from his lips — a soft Tuscan tongue. As with a 
 movement full of vigorous grace, he sprang back to the ranks to take his seat, 
 there ran round the ring a hum and buzz of popular applause. 
 
 " ' Governor ' Ilunia was followed by a young Wanganui chief, who wore 
 hunting-breeches and high boots, and a long black mantle over his European 
 clothes. There was something odd in the shape of the cloak : and when we 
 came to look closely at it, we found that it was the skirt of the riding-habit of 
 'lis half-caste wife. The great chiefs paid so little heed to this flippant fellow, 
 is to stand up and harangue their tribes in the middle of his speech, which came 
 thus to an untimely end. 
 
 "A funny old grey-beard, Wait^r^ Maru INIaru, next rose, and, smothering 
 down the jocularity of his face, turned towards us for a moment the typical head 
 of Peter, as you see it on the windows of every modern church— for a moment 
 only ; for, as he raised his hand to wave his tribal sceptre, his apostolic drapery 
 began to slip from off his shoulders, and he had to clutch at it with the energy 
 of a topman taking in a reef in a whole gale. His speech was full of Nestorian 
 provei'bs and wise saws, but he wandered off into a history of the Wanganui 
 lands, by which he soon became as wearied as we ourselves were ; for he stopped 
 short, and, with a twinkle of the eye, said : ' Ah ! Waitdre is no longer young : 
 he is climbing the snow-clad mountain Ruahind ; he is becoming an old man ; ' 
 and down he sat. 
 
 "Karanama, a small Ngatiraukawa chief with a white moustache, who 
 looked like an old French concierge, followed Maru Maru, and; with much use 
 of his sceptre, related a dream foretelling the happy issue of the negotiations ; 
 for the little man was one of those ' dreamers of dreams ' against whom Moses 
 warned the Israelites. 
 
 " Karanama's was not the only trance and vision of which we heard in the 
 course of these debates. The Maoris believe that in their dreams the seers hear 
 great bands of spirits singing chants ; these when they wake the prophets reveal 
 to all the people ; but it is remarked that the vision is generally to the advan- 
 tage of the seer's tribe. 
 
 " Karanama's speech was answered by the head chief of the Eangitan^ 
 Maoris, T^ Peeti T^ Aw6 Awd, who, throwing off" his upper clothing as he 
 warmed to his subject, and strutting pompously round and round the ring, 
 challenged Karanama to immediate battle, or his tribe to general encounter ; 
 but he cooled down as he went on, and in his last sentence showed us that 
 Maori oratory, however ornate usually, can be made extremely terse. ' It is 
 hot,' he said ; ' it is hot, and the very birds are loath to sing. We have talked 
 for a week, and are therefore diy. Let us take our share — £10,000, or what- 
 ever we can get — and then we shall be dry no more.' 
 
 " The Maori custom of walking about, dancing, leaping, undressing, running, 
 and brandishing spears during the delivery of a speech is convenient for all 
 parties : to the speaker, because it gives him time to think of what he shall say 
 next ; to the listener, because it allows him to weigh the speaker's words ; to 
 the European hearer, because it permits the interpreter to keep pace with the 
 
 4q
 
 674 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 orator without an effort. On this occasion the resident magistrate of Wanganui, 
 M¥ Buller — a Maori scholar of eminence, and the attached friend of some of the 
 chiefs — interpreted for Dr Featherston ; and we were allowed to lean over him 
 in such a way as to hear every word that passed. That the able Superintendent 
 of Wellington — the great protector of the Maoris, the man to whom they look 
 as to Queen Victoria's second in command — should be wholly dependent upon 
 interpreters, however skilled, seems almost too singular to be believed ; but it is 
 possible that Dr Featherston may find in pretended want of knowledge much 
 advantage to the Government. He is able to collect his thoughts before he 
 replies to a difficult question ; he can allow an epithet to escape his notice in the 
 filter of translation ; he can listen and speak with greater dignity. 
 
 " The day was wearing on before T<^ Peeti's . speech was done, and, as the 
 Maoris say, our waistbands began to slip down low ; so all now Avent to lunch, 
 both Maori and Pakeha, they sitting in circles, each with his bowl, or flax-blade 
 dish, and wooden spoon, we having a table and a chair or two in the mission- 
 house ; but we were so tempted by Hori Kingi's * whitebait that we begged 
 some of him as we passed. The ]\Iaoris boil the little fish in milk, and flavour 
 them with leeks. Great fish, meat, vegetables, almost all they eat, in short, save 
 whitebait, is ' steamed ' in the underground native oven. A hole is dug and 
 filled Mith wood, and stones are piled upon the wood, a small opening being left 
 for draught. "While the wood is burning, the stones become red-hot, and fall 
 through into the hole. They are then covered with damp fern, or else with wet 
 mats of flax, plfuted at the moment ; the meat is put in, and covered with more 
 mats ; the whole is sprinkled with water, and then earth is heaped on till the 
 vapour ceases to escape. The joint takes about an hour, and is delicious. Fish 
 is wTapped in a kind of dock-leaf, and so steamed. 
 
 " While the men's eating was thus going on, many of the women stood idly 
 round, and we were enabled to judge of Maori beauty. A profusion of long 
 crisp curls, a short black pipe thrust between stained lips, a pair of black eyes 
 gleaming from a tattooed face, denote the Maori belle, Avho wears for her only 
 robe a long bedgown of dirty calico, but whose ears and neck are tricked out 
 with greenstone ornaments, the signs of birth and wealth. Here and there you 
 find a girl with long smooth tresses and almond-shaped black eyes : these charms 
 often go along with prominent thin features, and suggest at once the Jewess and 
 the gipsy girl. The women smoke continually ; the men not much. 
 
 " When at four o'clock we returned to the flagstaff", we found that the 
 temperature, which during the morning had been too hot, had become that of 
 a fine English June — the air light, the trees and grass lit by a gleaming yellow 
 sunshine that reminded me of the Californian haze. 
 
 " During luncheon we had heard that Dr Featherston's proposals as to the 
 division of the purchase-money had been accepted by the Ngatiapa, but not by 
 Hunia himself, whose vanity would brook no scheme not of his own conception. 
 We were no sooner returned to the ring than he burst in upon us with a defiant 
 speech. ' Unjust,' he declared, 'as was the proposition of the great " Pdtatond " 
 
 * " Hon Kingi t* Anansia died on the 18th of September 1868."
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 675 
 
 (Featherstou), he would have accepted it for the sake of peace had he been 
 allowed to divide the tribal share ; but as the Wanganuis insisted on having a 
 third of lii.s .£15,000, and as P(^taton(5 seemed to support them in their claim, he 
 should have nothing more to do with the sale.' 'The Wanganuis claim as our 
 relatives,' he said : 'verily, the pumpkin-shoots spread far.' 
 
 " Karanama, the seer, stood up to answer Hunia, and began his speech in a 
 tone of ridicule. ' Hunia is like the ti-tree : if you cut him down he .sprouts 
 again.' Hunia sat quietly through a good deal of this kind of wit, till at last 
 some epithet provoked him to interrupt the speaker. 'What a fine fellow you 
 are, Karanama ; you'll tell us soon that you've two pair of legs.' ' Sit down ! ' 
 shrieked Karanama, and a Avord-war ensued, but the abuse was too full of native 
 raciness and vigour to be fit for English ears. The chiefs kept dancing round 
 the ring, threatening each other with their spears. ' Why do not you hurl at me, 
 Karanama?' said Hunia; 'it is easier to parry spears than lies.' At last 
 Hunia sat down. 
 
 " Karanama, feinting and making at him with his spear, reproached Hunia 
 with a serious flaw in his pedigree — a blot which is said to account for Hunia's 
 hatred to the Ngatiraukawa, to whom his mother was for years a slave. Hunia, 
 without rising from the ground, shrieked ' Liar ! ' Karanama again spoke the 
 obnoxious word. Springing from the ground, Hunia snatched his spear from 
 where it stood, and ran at his enemy as though to strike him. Karanama stood 
 stock-still. Coming up to him at a charge, Hunia suddenly stopped, raised himself 
 on tiptoe, shaking his spear, and flung out some contemptuous epithet ; then 
 turned, and stalked slowly, with a springing gait, back to his own corner of the 
 ring. There he stood, haranguing his people in a bitter undertone. Karanama 
 did the like with his. The interpreters could not keep pace with what was said. 
 We understood that the chiefs were calling each upon his tribe to support him, 
 if need were, in war. After a few minutes of this pause, they wheeled round, as 
 though by a common impulse, and again began to pour out torrents of abuse. 
 The applause became frequent, hums quickened into shouts, cheer followed 
 cheer, till at last the ring was alive with men and women springing from the 
 ground, and crying out on the opposing leader for a dastard. 
 
 " We had previously been told to have no fear that resort would be had to 
 blows. The Maoris never fight upon sudden quarrel : war is with them a solemn 
 act, entered upon only after much deliberation. Those of us who were strangers 
 to New Zealand were nevertheless not without our doubts, while for half an 
 hour we lay upon the grass watching the armed champions running round the 
 ring, challenging each other to mortal combat on the spot. 
 
 "The chieftains at last became exhausted, and the mission bell beginning to 
 toll for evening chapel, Hunia broke off" in the middle of his abuse : ' Ah ! I 
 hear the bell ! ' and turning stalked out of the ring towards his pah, leaving it 
 to be inferred, by those who did not know him, that he Avas going to attend the 
 service. The meeting broke up in confusion, and the Upper Wanganui tribes at 
 once began their march towards the mountains, leaving behind them only a 
 delegation of their chiefs.
 
 676 THE lilSTOR Y OF A US TEA LA SI A . 
 
 "As we drove down to the coast, we talked over the close resemblance of the 
 Maori runanga to the Homeric council ; it had struck us all. Here, as in the 
 Greek camp, Ave had the ring of people, into which advanced the lance-bearing 
 or sceptre-wearing chiefs, they alone speaking, and the people backing them only 
 by a hum : ' The block of wood dictates not to the carver, neither the people 
 to their chiefs,' is a Maori proverb. The boasting of ancestry, and bragging of 
 deeds and military exploits, to which modern Avind-bags Avould only casually 
 allude, Avas also thoroughly Homeric. In Hunia Ave had our Achilles ; the 
 retreat of Hunia to his tmhre Avas that of Achilles to his tent , the cause of 
 quarrel alone was different, though in both cases it arose out of the division of 
 spoil, in the one case the result of lucky Avars, in the other of the Pakeha's weakness. 
 The Argive and Maori leaders are one in fire, figure, port, and mien ; alike, too, 
 even in their sulkiness. In Waitdr6 and Aperahama Tipai we had tAVO Nestors ; 
 our Thersites was Porea, the jester, a half-mad buffoon, continually mimicking 
 the chiefs or interrupting them, and being by them or their messengers as often 
 kicked and cuff'ed. In the frequency of repetition, the use of proverbs and of 
 simile, the Maoris resemble not Homer's Greeks so much as Homer's self; but 
 the calling together of the people by the heralds, the secret conclave of the 
 chiefs, the feast, the conduct of the assembly — all were the exact repetition of 
 the events recorded in the first and second books of the Iliad as having 
 happened on the Trojan plains. The single point of diff'erence was not in 
 favour of the Greeks : the Maori Avomen took their place in council with the 
 men. 
 
 "As we drove home, a storm came on, and hung about the coast so long, 
 that it was not till near eleven at night that Ave were able to take our swim in 
 the heated waters of the ManaAvatu River, and frighten off every duck and heron 
 in the district. 
 
 " In the .morning we rose to alarming news. Upon the pretext of the 
 presence in the neighbourhood of the Hau-Hau chief Wi Hapi, Avith a Avar party 
 of two hundred men, the unarmed PareAvanui natives had sent to Wanganui for 
 their guns, and it was only by a conciliatory speech at the midnight runanga 
 that ]Mr BuUer had succeeded in preventing a complete break-up of all the camps, 
 if not an interti-ibal Avar. There seemed to be Avhite men behind the scenes Avho 
 Avere not friendly to the sale, and the debate had lasted from dark till daAvn. 
 
 " While Ave Avere at breakfast, a Ngatiapa officer of the native contingent 
 "brought down a letter to Dr Featherston from Hunia and Hori Kingi, calling us 
 to a general meeting of the tribes convened for noon, to be held in the Ngatiapa 
 Pah. The letter was addressed, ' Kia t6 P^taton^ t^ Huperint^nd ' (' To the 
 Featherston, the Superintendent') — the alterations in the chief Avords being 
 made to bring them Avithin the grasp of Maori tongues, Avhich cannot sound /'s, 
 tic?,, nor sibilants of any kind. The absence of harsh sounds, and the rule 
 which makes every word end Avith a vOAvel, give a peculiar softness and charm 
 to the Maori language. Sugar becomes Imka; scissors, Jiikiri; sheep, hijn: and 
 so with all English Avords adopted into Maori. The rendering of the Hebrew 
 names of the Old Testament is often singular : Genesis becomes Kenehi; Exodus
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 077 
 
 is altered iwto Ekoruhe; Leviticus is hardly recognisable in 72e?<;27«7c«/ia ; I'iutev- 
 onomi reads stran<;ely for Deuteronoiny, and Iloliaa for Joshua; Jacob, Isaac, 
 Moses, become llakopa, lluika, and Molii; Egypt is softened into Ihipa, Jordan 
 into Uordmo. The list of the nations of Canaan seems to have been a stumbling- 
 block in the missionaries' way. The success obtained with Girgashites has not 
 been great; it stands Kirekali; Gaash is transmuted into A'art/ftf, and Eleazar 
 into Ereatam. 
 
 " When we drove on to the ground, all was at a dead-lock — the flagstaff 
 bare, the chiefs sleeping in their tvahres, and the common folk whiling away the 
 hours with haka songs. Dr Featherston retired from the ground, declai'ing that 
 till the Queen's flag was hoisted he would attend no debate ; but he permitted us 
 to wander in among tlie Maoris. 
 
 "We were introduced to Tamiana t^ Eauparaha, chief of the Ngatitoa 
 branch of the Ngatiraukawa, and son of the great cannibal chief of the same 
 name who murdered Captain Wakefield. Old Eauparaha it was who hired an 
 English ship to carry him and his nation to the South Island, where they ate 
 several tribes, boiling the chiefs, by the captain's consent, in the ship's coppers, 
 and salting down for future use the common people. When the captain, on 
 return to port, claimed his price, Eaujjaraha told him to go about his business, 
 or he should be salted too. The captain took the hint, but he did not escape for 
 long, as he was finally eaten by the Sandwich Islanders in Hawaii. 
 
 " In answer to our request for a dance-song, Tamiana and Horomona Tordmi 
 replied through an interpreter that ' the hands of the singers should beat time as 
 fast as the pinions of the wild duck ; ' and in a minute Ave were in the middle of 
 an animated crowd of boys and women collected by Porea, the buftbon. As 
 soon as the singers had squatted upon the grass, the jester began to run slowly 
 up and down between their ranks as they sat swinging backwards and forwards 
 in regular time, groaning in chorus, and looking upwards with distorted faces. 
 
 " In a second dance, a girl standing out upon the grass chanted the air — a 
 kind of capstan song — and then the 'dancers,' who were seated in one long 
 row, joined in chorus, breathing violently in perfect time, half forming words, 
 but not notes, swinging from side to side like the howling dervishes, and using 
 frightful gestures. This strange whisper-roaring went on increasing in rapidity 
 and fierceness, till at last the singers worked themselves into a frenzy, in which 
 they rolled their eyes, stiffened the arms and legs, clutched and clawed with the 
 fingers, and snorted like maddened horses. Stripping off" their clothes, they 
 looked more like the Maoris of thirty years ago than those who see them only at 
 the mission-stations would believe. Other song-dances, in which the singers 
 stood striking their heels at measured intervals upon the earth, were taken up 
 with equal vigour by the boys and women, the grown men in their dignity keep- 
 ing themselves aloof, although in his heart every Maori loves mimetic dance and 
 song. We remarked that in the haka the old women seemed more in earnest 
 than the young, who were always bursting into laughter, and forgetting words 
 and time. 
 
 "The savage love for semitones makes Maori music somewhat wearisome to
 
 678 THE HISTOR Y OF A USTRALASIA. 
 
 the English ear ; so after a time Ave began to walk through the pahs and sketch 
 the Maoris, to their great delight. I was drawing the grand old head of a vener- 
 able dame — Oriuhia t6 Aka — when she asked to see what I was about. As 
 soon as I showed her the sketch, she began to call me names, and from her 
 gestures I saw that the insult was in the omission of the tattooing on- her chin. 
 When I inserted the stripes and curves, her delight was such that I greatly- 
 feared she would have embraced me. 
 
 " Strolling into the karaka groves, we came upon a IMaori wooden tomb, of 
 Avhich the front was carved with figui'es three feet high, grotesque and obscene. 
 Gigantic eyes, hands bearing clubs, limbs without bodies, and bodies without 
 limbs, were figured here and there among more perfect carvings, and the whole 
 was of a character which the Maoris of to-day disown, as they do cannibalism, 
 wishing to have these horrid things forgotten. The sudden rise of the Hau-Hau 
 fanaticism within the last few years has shown us that the layer of civilisation 
 by Avhich the old ]\Iaori habits are overlaid is thin indeed. 
 
 " The flags remained down all day^, and in the afternoon we returned to the 
 coast to shoot duck and pukeko, a sort of moor-hen. It was not easy work, for 
 the birds fell in the flax-swamp, and the giant sword-like leaves of the Phormium 
 tenax cut our hands as we pushed our way through its dense clumps and bushes, 
 while some of the party sufi"ered badly from the sun ; Maui, the Maoris say, 
 must have chained him up too near the earth. After dark, we could see 
 the glare of the fires in the karaka groves, where the Maoris were in council, 
 and a Government surveyor came in to report that he had met the dissentient 
 AVanganuis riding fast towards the hills. 
 
 " In the morning we were allowed to stay upon the coast till ten or eleven 
 o'clock, when a messenger came down from Mr BuUer to call us to the pah ; the 
 council of the chiefs had again sat all night — for the Maoris act upon their pro- 
 verb that the eyes of great chiefs should know no rest — and Huuia had carried 
 everything before him in the debate. 
 
 " As soon as the ring was formed, Hunia apologised for the pulling down of 
 the Queen's flag ; it had been done, he said, as a sign that the sale was broken 
 off", not as an act of disresjiect. Having, in short, had things entirely his own 
 way, he was disposed to be extremely friendly both to whites and ]\Iaoris. The 
 sale, he said, must be brought about, or the ' world would be on fire with an 
 intertribal war. What is the good of the mountain-land ? There is nothing to 
 eat but stones ; granite is a hard but not a strengthening food ; and women and 
 land are the ruin of men.' 
 
 "After congratulatory speeches from other chiefs, some of the older men 
 treated us to histories of the deeds that had been wrought upon the block of 
 land. Some of their speeches — notably those of Aperahama and Ihakara — Avere 
 largely built up of legendary poems ; but the orators quoted the poetry as such 
 only when in doubt how far the sentiments Avere those of the assembled people ; 
 Avhen they Avere l)acked by the hum Avhich denotes applause, they at once com- 
 menced Avith singular art to Aveave the poetry into that Avhich was their OAvn. 
 
 " As soon as the speeches were over, Hunia and Ihakara marched up to the
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 679 
 
 flagstaff, carrying between them the deed of sale. Putting it down before Dr 
 Featherston, they shook liands with each other and with him, and swore that 
 for the future there shoukl be eterual friendsliip between their tribes. The deed 
 was then signed by many hundred men and women, and Dr Featherston started 
 with Captain Td K^pa,* of the native contingent, to fetch the £25,000 from 
 Wanganui town, the ]\Iaoris firing their rifles into the air as a salute. 
 
 " The superintendent was no sooner gone than a kind of solemn grief seemed 
 to come over the assembled people. After all, they were selling the graves of 
 their ancestors, they argued. The wife of Hamudra, seizing her husband's green- 
 stone club, ran out from the ranks of the women, and began to intone an im- 
 promptu song, which was echoed by the women, in a pathetic chorus-chant : 
 
 '^The sun sUnes, but we quit our land ; we abandon for ever its forests, its mouxitains, it« groves, its 
 
 lakes, its shores. 
 All its fiiir fisheries, here, under the bright sun, for ever we renounce. 
 It is a lovely day ; fair will be the children that are bom to-day ; but we quit our land. 
 In some parts there is forest; in others the ground is skimmed over by the biwls in their fliglit. 
 Upon the trees there is fruit; in the streams, fish; in the fields, jiotatoes; fern-roots in the bush ; but 
 
 we quit our land.' 
 
 " It is in chorus-speeches of this kind that David's psalms must have been 
 recited by the Jews ; but on this occasion there was a good deal of mere acting 
 in the grief, for the tribes had never occupied the land that they now sold. 
 
 " The next day Dr Featherston drove into camp surrounded by a brilliant 
 cavalcade of jNlaori cavalry, amid much yelling and firing of pieces skywards. 
 Hunia, in receiving him, declared that he would not have the money paid till the 
 morrow, as the sun must shine upon the transfer of the lands. It would take 
 his people all the night, he said, to work themselves up to the right pitch for a 
 war-dance ; so he sent dowTi a strong guard to watch the money chests, which 
 had been conveyed to the missionary hut. The Ngatiapa sentry posted inside 
 the room was an odd cross between savagery and civilisation : he wore the cap 
 of the native contingent, and nothing else but a red kilt. He was armed with a 
 short Wilkinson rifle, for which he had, however, not a round of ammunition, his 
 cartridges being Enfield, and his piece unloaded. Barl:)anan or not, he seemed 
 to like raw gin, with Avhich some Englishman had unlawfully and unfairly 
 tempted him. 
 
 " In the morning the money was handed over in the runanga-house, and a 
 signet-ring presented to Hunia by Dr Featherston in pledge of peace and 
 memory of the sale ; but owing to the heat, we soon adjourned to the karaka 
 grove, where Hunia made a congratulatory and somewhat boastful speech, offer- 
 ing his friendship and alliance to Dr Featherston. 
 
 " The assembly was soon dismissed, and the chiefs withdrew to prepare for 
 the grandest war-dance that had been seen for years, Avhile a party Aveut off to 
 catch and kill the oxen that were to be 'steamed' whole, just as our friends' 
 fathers would have steamed us. 
 
 * " Wounded at the defence of Okutuku, against the escaped Hau-Haus, 7th of November 1868."
 
 080 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 " A chief was detached by Hunia to guide us to a hill whence we commanded 
 the whole glade. No sooner had we taken our seats than the Ngatiraukawa, to 
 the number of a hundred fighting-men, armed with spears, and led by a dozen 
 women bearing clubs, marched out from their camp and formed in column, 
 their chiefs making speeches of exhortation from the ranks. After a j^ause, we 
 heard the measured groaning of a distant /uika, and, looking up the glade, at the 
 distance of a mile, saw some twoscore Wanganui Avarriors jumping in perfect 
 time, now to one side, now to the other, grasping their rifles by the barrel, and 
 raising them as one man each time they jumped. Presently, bending one knee, 
 but stiffening the other leg, they advanced, stepping together with a hopping 
 movement, slapping their hips and thighs, and shouting from the palate, ' Hough ! 
 hough ! ' with fearful emphasis. 
 
 " A shout from the Ngatiraukawa hailed the approach of the Ngatiapa, who 
 deployed from the woods some two hundred strong, all armed with Enfield rifles. 
 They united with the Wanganuis, and marched slowly down with their rifles at 
 the 'charge,' steadily singing war-songs. When within a hundred yards of the 
 opposing ranks they halted, and sent in their challenge. The Ngatiraukawa and 
 Ngatiapa heralds passed each other in silence, and each delivered his message 
 to the hostile chief. 
 
 " We could see that the allies were led by Hunia in all the bravery of his 
 war-costume. In his hair he wore a heron plume, and another was fastened 
 near the muzzle of his short carbine ; his limbs were bare, but about his 
 shoulders he had a pure white scarf of satin. His kilt was gauze-silk, of three 
 colours — pink, emerald, and cherry — arranged in such a way as to show as much 
 of the green as of the two other colours. The contrast, which upon a Avhite skin 
 would have been glaring in its ugliness, was perfect when backed by the nut- 
 brown of Hunia's chest and legs. As he ran before his tribe he was the ideal 
 
 -'o'- 
 
 savage. 
 
 " The instant that the heralds had returned, a charge took place, the forces 
 passing through each other's ranks as they do upon the stage, but with frightful 
 yells. After this they formed two deep in three companies, and danced the 
 ' musket-exercise war-dance ' in wonderful time, the women leading, thrusting out 
 their tongues, and shaking their long, pendant breasts. Among them was 
 Hamudra's wife, standing dra-\vn up to her full height, her limbs stiffened, her 
 head thrown back, her mouth Avide open and tongue protruding, her eyes rolled 
 so as to show the Avhite, and her arms stretched out in front of her, as she slowly 
 chanted. The illusion was perfect : she became for the time a mad prophetess ; 
 yet all the frenzy was assumed at a whim, to be cast aside in half an hour. The 
 shouts were of the same under-breath kind as in the haka, but they were aided 
 by the sounds of horns and conch-shells, and from the number of men engaged the 
 noise was this time terrible. After much fierce singing, the musket-dance was 
 rejoeated Avith furious leaps and gestures till the men became utterly exhausted, 
 when the review was closed by a general discharge of rifles. Running Avith 
 nimble feet, the dancers were soon back Avithin their pahs, and the feast, begin- 
 ning noAV, Avas, like a Russian banquet, prolonged till morning.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. ORl 
 
 " It is not hard to understand the conduct of Lord Durham's settlers, who 
 landed here in 1837. The friendly natives received the party with a war-dance, 
 Avhich had upon them such an cHect that they immediately took ship for Australia, 
 Avhere they remained. 
 
 "The next day, when we called on Governor Hunia at his wahre to bid him 
 farewell, before our departure for the capital, he made two speeches to us which 
 are worthy recording; as specimens of Maori oratory. Speaking through IMr 
 Buller, who had been kind enough to escort us to the Ngatiapa's ivahre, Hunia 
 said : 
 
 "'Hail, guests! You have just now seen the settlement of a gx'cat dispute 
 - — the greatest of modern time. 
 
 " ' This Avas a weighty trouble — a grave difficulty. 
 
 "'Many Pakchas have tried to settle it — in vain. For Pdtatond was it 
 reserved to end it I have said that great is our gratitude to Petatond. 
 
 " ' If P^tatond hath need of me in the future, I shall be there. If he climbs 
 the lofty tree, I will climb it with him. If he scales high cliffs, I wall scale them 
 too. If Pdtaton^ needeth hclji, he shall have it ; and where he leads there will 
 I follow. 
 
 " ' Such are the words of Hunia.' 
 
 "To this speech one of us replied, explaining our position as guests from 
 Britain. 
 
 " Hunia then began to speak : 
 
 " ' O my guests, a few days since when asked for a war-dance, I refused. I 
 refused because my people were sad at heart. 
 
 " ' We were loath to refuse oui' guests, but the tribes were grieved ; the 
 people were sorrowful at heart. 
 
 " ' To-day we are happy, and the war-dance has taken place. 
 
 " ' my guests, when ye return to our great Queen, tell her that we will fight 
 for her again as we have fought before. 
 
 " ' She is our Queen as well as your Queen — Queen of INIaoris and Queen of 
 Pakeha. 
 
 " ' Should wars arise, we will take up our rifles, and march whithersoever she 
 shall direct. 
 
 " ' You have heard of the King movement. I was a Kingite ; but that did 
 not prevent me fighting for the Queen — I and my chiefs. 
 
 "My cousin, Wiremu, w^ent to England, and saw our Queen. He re- 
 turned. ... ■ ■ 
 
 " ' When you landed in this island, he was already dead. . . . 
 
 " ' He died fighting for our Queen. 
 
 " 'As he died, tve will die, ii' need be — I and all my chiefs. This do you tell 
 our Queen. 
 
 " ' I have said.' 
 
 " This passage, spoken as Hunia spoke it, was one of noble eloquence and 
 singular rhetoric art. The first few words about Wiremu were spoken in a luilf- 
 indilferent way ; but there was a long pause before and after the statement that 
 
 4r
 
 682 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 he was dead, and a sinking of the voice Avhen he related how Wiremu had died, 
 followed by a burst of sudden fire in the 'As he died, ive will die — I and all my 
 chiefs.' 
 
 "After a minute or two, Hunia resumed : 
 
 " ' This is another word. 
 
 " ' We are all of us glad to see you. 
 
 " ' When we wrote to Petatone, we asked him that he M'ould bring with him 
 Pakehas from England and from Australia — Pakehas from all parts of the Queen's 
 broad lands. 
 
 " ' Pakehas who- should return to tell the Queen that the Ngatiapa are her 
 liegemen. 
 
 " ' We are much rejoiced that you are here. May your heart rest here among 
 us ; but if you go once more to your English home, tell the people that we are 
 P^tatone's faithful subjects and the Queen's. 
 
 "'I have said.' 
 
 "After pledging Hunia in a cup of wine, we returned to our temporary home." 
 
 THE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 In Austi'alia, it is often said, we have a second America in its infancy ; but 
 it may be doubted Avhether we have not become so used to trace the march of 
 empire on a westward course, through Persia and Assyria, Greece and Eome, 
 then by Germany to England and America, that we are too readily prepared to 
 accept the probability of its onward course to the Pacific. The progress of 
 Australia has been singularly rapid. In 1830 her population was under 40,000 ; 
 in 1860 it numbered 1,500,000; nevertheless, it is questionable how fiir the 
 progress will continue. The natural conditions of America in Australia are 
 exactly reserved. All the best lands of Australia are on her coast, and these 
 are already taken up by settlers. Australia has three-quarters the area of 
 Europe, l)ut it is doubtful Avhether she will ever support a dense population 
 throughout even half her limits. The uses of the Northern Territory have yet to 
 be discovered, and the interior of the continent is far from being tempting to 
 the settler. Upon the whole, it seems hkely that almost all the imperfectly- 
 known regions of Australia will in time be occupied by pastoral Crown tenants, 
 but that the area of agricultural operations is not likely to admit of indefinite 
 extension. The central district of Australia, to the extent, perhaps, of half the 
 entire continent, hes too far north for winter rains, too far south for tropical 
 wet seasons, and in these vast solitudes agriculture may be pronounced impos- 
 sible, sheep-farming difiicult There will be no difficulty in retaining in tanks, 
 or raising by means of wells, sufficient Avater for sheep and cattle-stations, and 
 the wool, tallow, and even meat, will be carried by those railways for which the 
 country is admirably fitted, while the construction of locks upon the Muriay 
 and its tributaries will enable steamers to carry the whole trade of the Riverina. 
 8o far, all is well ; but the arable lands of Australia are limited by the rains, 
 and apparently the limit is a sadly narrow one. Once in a while, a heavy winter 
 rain falls in t]i(> interior; grass springs up, the lagoons are filled, the up-country
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. H83 
 
 squatters make tlieir fortunes, and all goes prosperously for a tiiiu!. Accounts- 
 roach the coast cities of the astonishing fertility of the interior, ami hundreds 
 of settlors set off to the remotest districts. Two or three years of drought then 
 loUow, and all the more enterprising squatters are soon ruined, with a gain, 
 however, sometimes of a few thousand stpiare miles of country to civilisation. 
 Small as are the inhabited portions of Australia when compared with the cor- 
 responding divisions of the United .States, this counti'y nevertheless is huge 
 enough. The part of Queensland already peopled is five times larger than the 
 Unit(}d Kingdom. South Australia and "West Australia are each of them nearly 
 as large as British India, but of these colonies the greater part is desert. 
 Fertile Victoria, the size of Great Britain, is only a thirty-fourth ptut of 
 Australia. In face of the comparatively small amount of good agricultural 
 country know^l to exist in Australia, the disproportionate size of the great cities 
 shows out more clearly than ever. Even Melbourne, when it comes to be 
 examined, has too much the air of a magnified Hobart Town, of a city with no 
 country at its back, of a steam-hammer sot up to crack nuts. Queensland is at 
 present free from the burthen of gigantic cities, but then Queensland is suljject 
 to the greater danger of becoming what is in reality a slave republic. JMorally 
 and intellectually, at all events, the colonies are thriving. A literature is 
 springing up, a national character is being grafted upon the good English stock. 
 What shape the Australian mind will take is at present somewhat doubtful. In 
 addition to considerable shrew^dness and a purely Saxon capacity and willingness 
 to combine for local objects, we find in Australia an admirable love of simple 
 mirth, and a serious distaste for prolonged labour in one direction ; while the 
 downrightness and determination in the pursuit of truth, remarkable in America, 
 are less noticeable here. Australian manners, like the American, resemble the 
 French rather than the British — a resemblance traceable, perhaps, to the essen- 
 tial democracy of Australia, America, and France. One surface point which 
 catches the eye in any Australian ball-room, or on any race-course, is clearly to 
 be referred to the habit of mind produced by democracy — the fact, namely, that 
 the women dress with great expense and care, the men with none Avhatever. 
 This, as a rule, is true of Americans, Australians, and French. Unlike as are 
 the Australians to the British, there is nevertheless a singular mimicry of British 
 forms and ceremonies in the colonies, which is extended to the most trifiing 
 details of public life. Twice in Austi'alia was I invited to ministerial dinners, 
 given to mark the approaching close of the session ; twice also was I present at 
 university celebrations, in which home whimsicalities were closely copied. The 
 Governors' messages to the Colonial Parliaments are travesties of those which 
 custom in England leads us to call the " Queen's." The very phraseology is 
 closely followed. We find Sir J. IManners Sutton gravely saying : " The repre- 
 sentatives of the Government of New South Wales and of my Government have 
 agi-eed to an arrangement on the border duties. . . ." The "my" in a 
 democratic country like Victoria strikes a stranger as pre-eminently incongruous, 
 if not absurd. The imitation of Cambridge forms by the University of Sydney 
 is singidarly close. One almost expects to see the familiar blue gown of the
 
 684 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 " bull-dog " thrown across the arm of the first college servant met within its 
 precincts. Chancellor, vice-chancellor, senate, syndicates, and even proctors, all 
 are here in the antipodes. Registrar, professors, " seniors," fees, fines, and 
 " petitions Avith the university seal attached;" " Board of Classical Studies" — 
 the whole corporation sits in borrowed plumage ; the very names of the colleges 
 are being imitated : we find already a St John's. The Calendar reads like a 
 parody on the volume issued every ]\Iarch by Messrs Deighton. Rules upon 
 matriculation, upon the granting of testamurs; prize-books stamped with college 
 arms are named, ad eundein degrees are known, and we have imitations of 
 phraseology even in the announcement of prizes to " the most distinguished 
 candidates for honours in each of the aforesaid schools," and in the list of 
 sulijects for the INIoral Science tripos. Lent Term, Trinity Term, Michaelmas 
 Term, take the place of the Spring, Summer, and Fall Terms of the less preten- 
 tious institutions in America, and the height of absurdity is reached in the 
 regulations upon "academic costume," and on the " respectful salutation" by 
 undergraduates of the " fellows and professors " of the university. The situation 
 on a hot-wind day of a member of the senate, in " black silk gown, with hood of 
 scarlet cloth, edged with white fur, and lined with blue silk, black velvet 
 trencher cap," all in addition to his ordinary clothing, it is to be presumed, can 
 be imagined only by those who know what hot-winds are. We English are 
 great acclimatisers : Ave have carried trial by jury to Bengal, tenant-right to 
 Oude, and caps and gowns to be Avorn over loongee and paejama at Calcutta 
 University. Who are Ave, that we should cry out against the French for " carry- 
 ing France about Avith them everj'Avhere ? " 
 
 Of the religious position of Austi-alia there is little to be said : the Wesleyans, 
 Catholics, and Presbyterians are stronger, and the other denominations Aveaker, 
 than they are at home. The general mingling of incongruous objects and of con- 
 flicting races, characteristic of colonial life, extends to religious buildings. The 
 graceful Wesleyan church, the Chinese joss-house, and the Catholic cathedral 
 stand not far apart in INIelbourne. In Australia the mixture of blood is not yet 
 great. In South Australia, Avhere it is most complete, the Catholics and Wes- 
 leyans have considerable strength. Anglicanism is naturally strongest Avhere 
 the race is most exclusively British — in Tasmania and New South Wales. As 
 far as the coast tracts are concerned, Australia, as Avill be seen from Avhat has 
 been said of the individual colonies, is rapidly ceasing to be a land of great 
 tenancies, and becoming a land of small freeholds, each cultivated by its owner. 
 It need hardly be pointed out that, in the interests of the country and of the 
 race, this is a luqjpy cluiugo. When English rural labourers commence to fully 
 realise the misery of their position, they Avill find not only America, but Australia 
 also open to them as a refuge and future home. Looming in the distance, Ave 
 still, hoAvever, see the American problem of Avhetlier the Englishman can live out 
 of England. Can he thrive except Avhere mist and damp preserve the juices of 
 his frame ? lie comes from the fogs of the Baltic shores and from the Flemish 
 loAvlands ; gains in vigour in the South Island of New Zealand. In Australia and 
 America — hot and dry — the type has already changed. Will it eventually dis-
 
 SUPPLEMKNTA It Y CIIA PTER. 685 
 
 appear ? It is still an open question Avhethor the change of type among the 
 English in America and Australia is a climatic adaptation on the part of nature, 
 or a temporary divergence produced by abnormal causes, ami capable of being 
 modilied by care. — Sir C W. JJilke. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE. 
 
 In America we have seen the struggle of the dear races against the cheap 
 — the endeavours of the English to hold their own against the Irish and Chinese. 
 In New Zealand we found the stronger and more energetic race pushing from 
 the earth the shrewd and laborious descendants of the Asian Malays ; in Aus- 
 tralia, the English triumphant, and the cheaper races excluded from the soil not 
 by distance merely, but by arbitrary legislation ; in India we saw the solution of 
 the problem of the officering of the cheaper by the dearer race. Everywhere we 
 liave found that the difficulties which impede the progress to universal dominion 
 of the English people lie in the conflict with the cheaper races. The result of 
 our survey is such as to give us reason for the belief that race distinctions will 
 long continue, that miscegenation wdl go but little way towards blending races ; 
 that the dearer are, on the whole, likely to destroy the cheaper peoples, and that 
 Saxondom will rise triumphant from the doubtful struggle. The countries ruled 
 by a race whose very scum and outcasts have founded empires in every portion 
 of the globe, even now consists of nine and a half millions of square miles, and 
 contains a population of three hundred millions of people. Their surface is five 
 times as great as that of the empire of Darius, and four and a half times as large 
 as the lloman empire at its greatest extent. It is no exaggeration to say that 
 in power the English countries would be more than a match for the remaining 
 nations of the world, whom in the intelligence of their people and the extent and 
 Avealth of their dominions they already considerably surj^ass. Kussia gains 
 ground steadily, we are told, but so do we. If we take maps of the English- 
 governed countries and of the Russian countries of fifty years ago, and compare 
 them with the English and Russian countries of to-day, we find that the Saxon 
 has outstripped to Muscovite in conquest and in colonisation. The extensions 
 of the United States alone are equal to all those of Russia. Chili, La Plata, 
 and Peru must eventually become English : the Red Indian race that now 
 occupies those countries cannot stand against our colonists ; and the future of 
 the tablcrlands of Africa and that of Japan and of China is as clear. Even in 
 the tropical plains, the negroes alone seem able to withstand us. No possible 
 series of events can prevent the English race itself in 1970 numbering three hun- 
 dred millions of beings — of one national character and one tongue. Italy, Spain, 
 France, Russia, become pigmies by the side of such a people. Many who are 
 well aware of the power of the English nations are nevertheless disi)osed to 
 believe that our own is morally, as well as physically, the least powerful of the 
 sections of the race, or, in other words, that we are overshadowed by America 
 and Australia. The rise to power of our southern colonies is, however, distant ; 
 and an alliance between ourselves and America is still one to be made on equal 
 terms. Although we are forced to contemplate the speedy loss of our manu-
 
 686 THE HISTOR Y OF A US TJiA LA SI A . 
 
 facturing supremacy as coal becomes cheaper in America and dearer in Old 
 England, we have, nevertheless, as much to bestow on America as she has to 
 confer on us. The possession of India offers to ourselves that element of vast- 
 ness of dominion- which, in this age, is needed to secure width of thought and 
 nobility of purpose ; but to the English race our possession of India, of the 
 coasts of Africa, and of the ports of China, offers the possibility of planting free 
 institutions among the dark-skinned races of the world. The ultimate future of 
 any one section of our race, however, is of little moment by the side of its 
 triumph as a whole, but the power of English laws and English principles of 
 government is not merely an English question — its continuance is essential to 
 the freedom of mankind. — Sir C. W. Dilke. 
 
 MARRIAGE AMONGST THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 
 
 It is generally admitted that the Australians Avere a law-abiding people, in 
 so far as the observance of traditional customs may be termed law ; but certainly 
 in no feature of their social customs did their adherence to laws, or tribal usages 
 of a most complicated character, appear more manifest than in those relating to 
 marriage. It is even now believed by many of the old natives that the disor- 
 ganisation of their tribes and the dying out of the natives themselves, together 
 with the infecundity of the luhras, were all due to the neglect of the require- 
 ments of their ancient marriage laws. It has been supposed that restrictions of 
 totem existed, by which no native could marry a woman of the same totem as 
 himself; and there can be no doubt that some such restrictions did exist, 
 although not, perhaps, to the extent of prohibiting all marriages between persons 
 of the same totem. It may be that the matrimonial limitation drawn by the 
 Rev. Mr Eidley, as existing among the Kamilaroi, extended even into Victoria. 
 Among them, and among tribes in Gijjpsland, the restriction Avas that a man 
 could not marry a woman of the same name as his sister ; to avoid, as far as 
 possible, such a circumstance ever recurring, all precautions Avere used to give 
 each female infant reared a different name. The Rev. Mr Mackie informs me 
 that, from his questioning of Tommy Farmer, one of the most intelligent natives 
 at Corranderrk, Avhose original home was on the Loddon, he inferred " that 
 there Avcre no restrictions as to marriage " (that is, there Avere no tribal restric- 
 tions of totem). "A man might marry any Avoman, or he might have three or 
 four Avives ; but in such cases the consent of the king and the relatives of the 
 females had to be obtained. They seldom, however, went out of their oAvn 
 ti'ibe for a Avife, unless it Avas desired to make peace Avith some neighbouring 
 tribe Avith Avhom they had quarrelled." In some of the Australian tribes it Avas 
 essential for a man, in obtaining a wife, to give a sister, or some female relative 
 in exchange ; for only by such exchange Avould the marriage be recognised in 
 the tribe. Sliould the Avife in sucli niairiages fail to give satisfaction to her 
 husband, cither by being lazy, unfaithful, or sickly, he could cancel the contract 
 by leaving her Avhere he had obtained her, and recalling his sister or relative. " 
 Should either of the husbands become dissatisfied with the other, from any 
 cause, he Avould not think twice before cancelling the am-cement between them.
 
 SUPPL EMENTA R Y CIIA PTER. 687 
 
 In these transactions tlie women themselves liad no voice, nor indeed were they 
 in any part of the colony allowed to nso their judgment or make their own 
 matrimonial an-angcments ; they were regarded as in every respect man's inferior, 
 and intended only as his slaves — in ftict, as his beasts of bunlen, who were to 
 have no will of their own, but to bow at all times in abject submission to the 
 will of their master. Says a writer on the Australian abori^nnes in Chambers's 
 Journal, quoted by M'Lellan, in the yVppondix to his " Studies in Ancient 
 History : " " In nothing is the brutality of tlieir nature more clearly shown than 
 in their treatment of their females. Amongst them women are considered as an 
 inferior class, and are used almost " (he might have said altogether) " as beasts of 
 bm-dcn ; so that it is not at all uncommon to meet a blackfcllow travelling 
 merrily along with no load but his spear or war-club, whilst his unfortunate 
 liibra is panting under the weight of their goods and chattels, Avhich she is 
 compelled to carry from camp to camp." Other methods of obtaining wives 
 than that of bartering sisters were also practised — thus marriage l)y captui'o, 
 both as a " form " and de facto existed ; indeed, in marriages by private agree- 
 ment between the husbands, the form of capture had in most instances to be 
 observed, and wives Avere only secured after a pretended struggle, which afibrded 
 considerable amusement to the bystanders. Soon, however, the luhra would lay 
 down her yam stick, with which she had been defending herself, and quietly 
 accompany the man to whom her brother had assigned her to his giiniiah, where 
 she would light a fire, and from that moment regard herself as his wife. In 
 other parts of the colony marriage by capture existed as a fact, and afforded the 
 only means by which the majority of males could obtain wives for themselves. 
 "With those tribes where this state of things existed, female infanticide was 
 generally more or less practised, induced probably by the hardness of their 
 struggle for life ; and with most tribes of Australian blacks, there can be no 
 doubt the struggle was at all times excessively keen. Should any more trying 
 season than usual come upon them, not only are they likely to have resorted to 
 cannibalism, but they would also endeavour to lessen the individual severity of 
 the struggle by destroying as many of the most helpless and dependent members 
 of the tribe as possible. It is but natural for us to infer that, as savages every- 
 where regard women as of less value — either actual or probable — to their tribes 
 than are its male members, that female infants would be those chosen for 
 destruction, although it is quite possible, and very probable, that during the 
 pressure of extra severe seasons all infants might have been killed ; yet, when 
 there would be a relaxation of this pressure, and the customary supplies were 
 again forthcoming, the numbers destroyed would gradually lessen, those escaping 
 death being the male infsints, as of greater value to the trilie than female ones. 
 Once female infanticide became an established practice, and the adult males of 
 the tribe succeeded in securing for themselves wives from some neighbouring 
 tribe, there would be a constant tendency to perpetuate the practice, consequent 
 upon the increase of adults adding to the intensity of the natural struggle. 
 Laziness, too, on the part of the lubras, was a frequent cause of indiscriminate 
 infanticide. We must not, however, be too severe in our judgment of the poor
 
 688 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 luhra, for often it was the distraction of sheer necessity, and the despair of cruel 
 ill-usage — not lack of affection — that determined the murder of her child, 
 lleturning again for a few moments to the capturing of wives, I may state that 
 the following was one of the most generally adopted modes of capture. The 
 young man who desired to procure a Avife (usually there would be several young 
 men banded together for the purpose of wife-capturing) would reconnoitre the 
 position of some neighbouring tribe, or ascertain the whereabouts of some 
 beauty, the fame of whose charms had extended beyond the limits of her own 
 tribe. Armed with his nuUa-nulla and spear, he would steal, in some very dark 
 night, perfectly nude, as near to the camp-fire as possible. After having dis- 
 covered the object of his search, he would await until all the tribe had sunk 
 into the silence of sleep, and then place the point of his spear gently, but firmly, 
 against her throat. Being thus rudely disturbed from her slumbers, and well 
 knowing what was meant, she Avould in most instances arise quietly and follow 
 her captor ; should she, however, make any noise, or off"er the least resistance, 
 a blow from the nulla-nulla, not at all tempered by affection, generally made 
 matters quiet. I remember, about fifteen years ago, on one of the stations of 
 the late Mr Hugh Glass, on the Avoca River, seeing a woman who had been 
 stolen. She had not had time nor opportunity to attend to her toilet when I 
 saw her, which was several hours after her capture ; but even, then she was half 
 stupid from the effects of a blow on her head from a waddy. Her hair was 
 clotted with blood, little streams of which were oozing out of the wounds which 
 had been inflicted. Love marriages, and even elopements, are not altogether 
 unknown in the social history of the Australians ; but, in most cases, such came 
 to untimely end. When missed, the friends of the bride's parents set out in a 
 general search. "As soon as caught," writes the Rev. John Bulmer, in a letter 
 which I received from him, " the young woman is Avell beaten by her mother, 
 sisters, or female friends, each forgetting that they themselves may have acted in 
 the same manner. The young man has to stand and fight for his wife, and 
 generally gets a good thrashing ; but the person who gets the most punishment 
 is the female, for she was usually given up as a prostitute, for a time, to the 
 whole male portion of her tribe." In my own experience, the practice has been 
 slightly diff"erent from that related above. In most parts of Australia, each 
 female (if to be reared) was, from her birth, assigned to some male friend of her 
 parents, without any regard to parity of age or natural suitableness, and often 
 when the girls grew up, they were not at all pleased with their allotted 
 husbands ; and if not stolen from their tribe, they would find some young man 
 of their own choice with whom they would elope. When the elopement became 
 known, there would be a general pursuit ; when caught, as they invariably were, 
 the young man had to fight for his wife against considerable odds, or yield her 
 quietly up, and be branded as a coward for the remainder of his life. The mode 
 of fighting was that the young man should stand in a certain position, at a given 
 distance, and receive from each of his pursuers, or as many as had been agreed 
 upon, a shot with either the spear or boomerang, he being allowed a shield with 
 which to defend himself Should he escape death, he was then permitted to
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 689 
 
 have one shot at any one of his assailants he chose (usually Ids bride's prospec- 
 tive husband), and often the whole affair would end in a duel, in which either 
 one or other would be seriously wounded. Should the runaway not be killed 
 (which seldom happened), he was allowed to retain possession of his wife, and 
 from that moment all intercourse between him and his lubras parents was at an 
 end. Even were he on the point of death, they would not go near him, nor must 
 he look upon them — he must particularly abstain from seeing his mother-in-law, 
 although he must minister to her wants. Should he fail to do so, she will make 
 herself heard, if not seen. I do not deem it advisable to enter into the question 
 of polygamy, or that of polyandry, further than to state that the former was 
 almost universally practised where there were sufficient labms to allow of it, 
 while in many tribes there was evidence to prove that at a former period of 
 their tribal existence the latter had also been a connnon practice. Most tribes 
 had certain ceremonies thi-ough which the youth of the male sex had to pass 
 before they Avere entitled to the privileges of manhood, and until they had 
 undergone these, they were not permitted to marry, nor to associate ^Y\th. 
 women, nor were they allowed to take part in the general business of the tribe. 
 They were made men, by a process which differed in different tribes, and was not 
 by any means universal in its observance, but which was always, where practised, 
 both painful and disgusting — as, for instance, the practice of the Western and 
 many other Australian tribes, which was as follows : The nose was pierced by 
 a particular bone from a kangaroo's leg, about eight or ten inches long, which, 
 after having been properly prepared, was thrust with great ceremony through 
 the cartilage between the nostrils, and kept there for a month, and even a longer 
 time, in order that there would be no chance of the hole made healing up— 
 while other tribes knocked out the front teeth, and still others plucked large 
 quantities of hair from the head and different parts of the body ; but whatever 
 the practice was, where any such practice was observed, it was always preluded 
 by a most severe preparation, the professed object being to inure the young men 
 to pain, and whatever was done, or whatever had to be passed through, all had 
 to be borne without a murmur. As soon, however, as the initiatory service was 
 over and the young man returned to his tribe, he was admitted to the council 
 meetings, and a woman was provided to work for him, it being left to his own 
 skill, energy, or courage, to procure a wife for himself. Aboriginal marriages 
 were tolerably happy, although their mode of life, their savage and inhuman 
 condition and attainments, made conjugal chastity, or a continuance of the 
 domestic relations between coolies and their lubras, impossible ; and the violent 
 temper of the men frequently expended itself on the unfortunate lubras, who, on 
 the whole, were dreadfully ill-used by their coolies. — Mr D. Macallister in 
 Melbourne Review. 
 
 ABORIGINAL TRADITIONS. 
 
 I may premise my remarks on the traditions of the Australians by stating 
 that, almost without exception, they are preserved in the poetical form. Among 
 other peculiar traditions, there was one, not by any means local or confined in 
 
 4s
 
 690 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 its acceptance, ■which informed the natives that, long ago, before there were any 
 blackfellows, this earth was inhabited by a race of beings, or spirits, different 
 from the natives themselves. From some cause, the nature of which I have 
 never been able to ascertain, these spirits left this world at the advent of the 
 blackman, or, rather, they were transformed into certain of the stars which now 
 shine in the heavens. Other stars are held to have been at one time animals, 
 who, for some work performed for the good of man, were rewarded by being 
 converted into these stars, the very works being preserved in the traditional 
 stories, and often recited at the social gatherings of the tribes. The natives 
 along the JNIuri'ay and Edward rivers, and in many other localities, believed that 
 the sun is simply a large fire, which is renewed every morning and extinguished 
 everj^- evening ; but, from their traditions, it is evident that they believed that, 
 at one time, the sun's fire burned constantly both night" and day — the very words 
 used wdien the change Avas made being still preserved in some of their songs, ol 
 which the following is a translation of one verse, as furnished me by the iiev. 
 ]\Ir Buhner ; 
 
 Ybuko Wany Yhuko Warry 
 
 Siui You Sun Yoii, 
 
 Yarra Yarroma Warredilyee 
 
 Wood Wood of yours Burn 
 
 Yuiitlio Yimtboma ■Warradiljee 
 
 Bowels Bowels of yours Burn 
 
 Tule Tule 
 
 Go down ! Go down ! 
 
 Since the utterance of these mystic words, the rising and setting of the. sun has 
 been constant. 
 
 Of the moon, " Night's fair Queen," there appears to have been a general 
 paucity of traditional stories ; at any rate, but few have ever come under my 
 notice. From these few I infer that, when the moon is young (/.g., every new 
 moon), it is shielded from its enemies by the clouds which envelop it, until such 
 time as it gains sufficient strength to fight its own battles, when they withdraw. 
 The following is the aspect of the idea, as related to me by ]\Ir A. W. Robertson : 
 He was out riding with Tommy, son of King IMangotah, of the Barratta tribe, 
 on the Edward liiver, N.S.W., when, observing that the sky was overcast, he 
 inquired if they were going to have any rain, to which Tommy replied, " Bel,'^ 
 any fellow rain, like it little-fellow Moon up there. Keep him dark ; by-and-by, 
 grow big- fellow Moon : make it all the same day at night." 
 
 It seems to have been currently believed all over Australia that there Avas a 
 time when the natives did not possess fire ; but the manner in which this most 
 useful and necessary accessory to progress came into their possession is diflTer- 
 cntly told by different tribes, no doubt some local incident or condition giving 
 colour to the i)articular tradition; but, in the majority of cases, the tribes were 
 agreed in ascribing its introduction to some bird or animal ; and it was also 
 pretty generally believed to have been stolen by one animal from some other, 
 for man's special use (indeed, in the traditional lore of the aboriginals, animals 
 
 * " Bel " is ;m iil)ori;;iiud iu'''.itive.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. GOl 
 
 and birds jflay a very conspicuous and iiiii)nrtaiit part). 'J'lio l)lack.s of tlio 
 Loddon district appear to have formed somewhat of an exception to tlio 
 general rule; for with them there seems to have been a total absence t)f tradi- 
 tions relating to the Prometheus idea, nor had they any notion of how they 
 became possessed of fire. 
 
 After having obtained fire, and finding it was good, man's constant care was 
 to retain his possession of it ; but how early, or how the aboriginal gained the 
 knowledge necessary to produce fire for himself, I am unable to say. Probably, 
 however, the discovery was of an accidental nature : thus, the cliii:)ping of flint 
 would give rise to sparks, and some of these falling in grass which had been 
 previously heated by the summer sun was likely enough to ignite that grass and 
 end in a fire ; but I cannot conceive such to have been the origin of the Austra- 
 lian method of producing fire, Avhich was far more artless and laljorious than the 
 striking of fire from flint — friction, by rubbing the sharp end of one stick on the 
 surface of another, being the principal method. It was seldom, however, such 
 means had to be resorted to, for one of woman's chief occupations was to tend 
 to the fire, and, on the removal of the camp, to carry a firebrand in her hand. 
 They have even been known to Avalk a considerable distance to some neighbouring 
 tribe, or Avhite settler's camp, to procure a burning stick. — Melbourne Review. 
 
 THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SERVICE IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 The INIaoris of New Zealand, in their pagan state, never ventured to launch 
 their fishing-boats in the moi'uiug, until they had knelt upon the sandy beach 
 before their gods, and asked a blessing on their labour. Heathen nations of 
 antiquity and heathen people of modern times were never known to undertake 
 anything of national importance without at least the semblance of religious 
 service. 
 
 Let us see how the Christian emigrants from Britain acted in the foundation 
 of their first southern colony. 
 
 It was in the first month of 1788 that Governor Phillip took formal posses- 
 sion of the new territory of New South Wales, w^ithout a thought of any claim to 
 the land by the aborigines, or the expression of a wash to repay them for this 
 invasion of their real or pretended rights by the bestowal of the advantages of 
 ci\'ilisation upon them. 
 
 A jubilee was proclaimed. It was not a heathen one, much less a Christian. 
 It was a demonstration of strength and power, for the military took a leading 
 part in it. The flag of England was displayed, and volleys of musketry were 
 fired in honour of it. The principal feature of the opening day was, as might be 
 supposed, the reading of the royal proclamation, by which the colony was estab- 
 lished. The next and most conspicuous act of the celebration was the festival. 
 The governor sat at a sumjituous board, and, surrounded by his officers, drank 
 the king's health, and success to the settlement. We then find this formality 
 followed by most immoral excesses. 
 
 • No one thought it necessary to bring the chaplain forward to take any i)art 
 in the proceedings. A God ■was not to be acknowledged then. We know not
 
 G92 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 ■what eftbrts the clergyman made to declare their impiety, and to ui^hold the 
 honour of his faith. We can believe his gentle nature was grieved at this denial 
 of Providence, and would fain hope that he was no party at the godless banquet. 
 
 Judge Burton may well ask, " Was there then no act of contrition, no act of 
 gratitude, which it had been becoming on such an occasion for Englishmen to 
 offer to the God of their fathers, upon the erection of the national flag of England 
 upon this distant land 1 " He furthermore says, " How different might have 
 been the efiect upon the minds of the poor convicts, if the day of their first land- 
 ing in a new world had been solemnly marked as the beginning of a new life 
 under God by an act of confession and prayer ! " 
 
 We have seen how the officers inaugurated the new colony ; let us now 
 observe the way in which the convicts behaved on their landing. The governor, 
 after an address to them, hoping they would behave themselves, gave them some 
 grog to drink the health of George III. and their own destruction. More liquor 
 was surreptitiously obtained from the sailors, and the grossest of intemperance 
 reeled over the settlement. It was a drunken celebration throughout. 
 
 As to morals in general, a qiiotation from a work published in 1789, the year 
 after the colonisation, will speak intelligibly enough. Captain Tench is speaking 
 of the prisoners when he writes, " While they were on board ship, the two sexes 
 Avere kept most rigorously apart ; but when landed, their separation became im- 
 practicable, and would have been, perhaps, wrong. Licentiousness was the 
 unavoidable consequence, and their old habits of depravity were beginning to 
 recur. What was to be attempted ? To prevent their intercourse was impos- 
 sible ; and to palliate its evils only remained. ISIari'iage was recommended." 
 This very wild state of the grossest debauchery may illustrate the opening service 
 of the colony. 
 
 Before Sunday, however, the officials got a little more sober, and the 
 entreaties of the chaplain were heard. It Avas resolved then to pay some outward 
 respect to religion. All hands were summoned to attendance. We quote the 
 account given by an eye-witness. 
 
 " On the Sunday after our landing," writes Captain Tench, " divine service 
 was performed under a great ti'ee, by the Rev. Mr Johnson, chaplain of the 
 settlement, in the presence of the troops and convicts, whose behaviour on the 
 occasion Avas equally regular and attentive." This was the first public prayer in 
 Australia. — Bumvick's Curious Facts. 
 
 THE WESLEYAN PIONEER OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 Samuel Leigh had the honour of being the first Methodist minister of 
 Australia. He had been previously educated in the Independent connection. 
 
 The good man arrived on 15th August 1815. Although the English 
 Government Avould not allow him to go out as a preacher, he resolved to act as 
 one, and regularly conducted service on the passage out in the " Hebe." He 
 read the Church prayers, and then exhorted. After landing he had to appear 
 before the governor, Avho had received some instructions concerning this 
 Methodist intruder. "I regret," said his Excellency, " you have come here as
 
 SUPPLEMENTA R Y CllA PTKlt. 693 
 
 a missionary, and feel sorry that I cannot give you any encouragement in that 
 capacity." This was a poHte intimation that he must keep his hps closed in 
 public. " But," added General ISIacquarie, a kind-hearted ruler, " if you will 
 take office under Government, I will lind you a situation in which you may 
 become rich, and one in which you will be more comfortable than in going 
 about preaching in such a colony as this." 
 
 It was a tempting offer to a needy man. lie might have quieted his 
 conscience with the hopelessness of his attempting to preach against the will 
 of the authorities, and the expectancy of being useful in an official situation, 
 where he might make plenty of money to do good with hereafter. But no such 
 reasoning came to this simple-minded man. He retired from the governor's 
 presence with a sigh of disappointment, but with a determination to carry out 
 his mission. 
 
 • He proceeded, however, with great discretion. He paid court to the worthy 
 chaplain, who, with all his good qualities, had a weakness in his love of pat- 
 ronising others, or being unpleasantly obstructive to those who crossed his will. 
 
 Mr Leigh pi'ofessed his anxiety to act in obedience to his suggestions, and 
 on no account to show the least symptoms of antagonism to the Church of 
 England. On this understanding Mr Marsden undertook to be friendly ; and, 
 certainly, in many ways, showed no little kindness and active assistance to the 
 early ]\Iethodists. Under his protection Mr Leigh ventured to break faith with 
 the Government, and commence preaching. 
 
 His next object was to hunt up the members of society. He found that if 
 he had delayed his coming much longer, he could have had none of his communion 
 left. As it was, he could but muster a class of six persons. He might well 
 write home : " I found that Satan had entered in among them, and had scattered 
 the feeble few." By the 16th of March 1816, however, he had collected forty- 
 four members in six classes, and had held service at fifteen different places. 
 
 INIr Leigh soon added to their number. In all his operations he had an able 
 helper in that early Methodist and sincere Christian, Sergeant Scott. 
 
 His first sermon was preached in a private house in Sydney. He then got 
 permission to speak in a schooh'oom. His first convert was a convict, who 
 afterwards rose to a respectable position, and was the first man in Australia to 
 start a stage-coach. In Windsor, a thriving settlement on the Hawkesbury, ]\Ir 
 Leigh preached in a skillion. He undertook to visit every house in Sydney, to 
 find what state of religion existed, and discovered an average of one cojiy of the 
 Scriptures to every ten families. A few Scotch farmers had raised the first 
 voluntary church in Australia, with the hope of getting a Presbyterian minister, 
 but who never came. In that little wooden church Mr Leigh preached in 1S15. 
 Some of his audience came a distance of thirty miles. A magistrate of the city, 
 annoyed, like many more, at the zeal of this INIethodist evangelist, suggested the 
 propriety of putting him, as a meddlesome fellow, into a chain gang, and sending 
 him to the extra penal station of Newcastle, to work in the coal mines there. 
 
 The Sydney society wrote home, in 1816, for a little help. " Our temporal 
 circumstances," said they, "arc not opulent, and our expenses at the present
 
 694 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 fall upon a few individuals." They represented their position, straitened for 
 room. A rented house for worship cost them £15 a year. They wished to 
 build two small chajiels. " The expense," urged the friends, " exclusive of sub- 
 scriijtions, will be about £200. And what adds to our difficulties, and which, 
 we trust, will recommend us to your notice, is the total impossibility of borrow- 
 ing money in this colony on any interest or security whatever." This desperate 
 state of things in the trying day of the settlement pressed hard upon the faith 
 of the few. 
 
 " Help us," was the cry from Port Jackson : " help us — help the outcasts of 
 New South Wales. We have claims on your notice by the ties of consanguinity. 
 We are bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh." Help was given, and 
 another missionary promised. 
 
 Help came from other quarters. The governor approved of ]\Ir Leigh's 
 labours, and offered him a grant of land. Mr Leigh in his simplicity declined 
 the off'er, as he was only a missionary. The governor stared, and said, " Why, 
 you Avill be always poor at this rate." A site Avas needed for a chapel at 
 Windsor. The chaplain had considerable projierty in that quarter, and generously 
 gave the ]\Iethodists an allotment in the township. In acknowledgment of 
 their letter of thanks, Mr Marsden uses the following generous language : " To 
 give you the right hand of fellowship is no more than my indispensable duty ; 
 and were I throw the smallest difficulty in your way, I shall be highly criminal 
 and unworthy the Christian name." 
 
 As the colony progressed, so rose the Wesleyan interest. The six of 1815, 
 extended to forty-four, grew to fifty-eight in May 1816, and eighty-three in June 
 1820. In 1817 Mr Leigh had a part in the formation of the Bible Society, got 
 up through the zeal of the Eev. S. Marsden, and receiving the active support of 
 the governor, Of the meeting held on ]\Iarch 7th, it was written, " Never was 
 there so numerous and respectable a jDublic meeting in New South Wales." 
 
 One of the chaplains explained to Mr Marsden that ISlx Leigh in one place 
 had the bell rung for his service. ]\Ir Leigh proved that the magistrate had 
 ordered the bell to be rung. He felt hurt that the chaplain sought to injure one 
 who had been the means of converting his Avife, and who had otherAvise helped 
 his district. The other jDresented the simple apology that the bishop in 
 England, Avhen ordaining him, had directed him to " haA'e nothing to do Avith 
 Dissenters." And yet, strange to say, he had been an Independent minister 
 previously. ]\Ir ]\Iarsden rebuked him for his Avant of Christian kindness. 
 
 To a friend in London, who had urged his return, Mr Leigh Avi'ote in this strain : 
 " Return to England, do you say ? You tell me I should have thousands to 
 preach to ; but I should not have my twelves and twenties all in tears, Avaiting 
 to receive the Word. Yes, I have Avitnesscd the tears of many ; and after I have 
 travelled tAvcnty miles and preached to twenty persons, I have returned to rest 
 with twenty thousand blessings." He was a true bush missionary. 
 
 His health failing, Mr Marsden kindly offered him a trip to NeAV Zealand, to 
 look after the Church agents Avho had recently been established there. Lut 
 he rallied once more for his Avork. Others came to his help. ]Mr Lawiy
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 695 
 
 arrived in 1818, but left four years after for the mission to Tongataboo. Before 
 he left the colony, he was two years in chari^^e, as continued illness obliged the 
 pioneer to retire from the work and take a voyage to England. 
 
 After a while, ]\Ir Leigh returned to the southern hemisphere, and took up 
 his residence at the Wesleyan mission in New Zealand. Here he was the 
 fellow-labom-er of the Rev. Nathaniel Turner, one of the most beloved ministers 
 in Australia, and the father of a most interesting family. His son George is a 
 popular minister in the colonial world. Messrs Turner and Ilobbs arrived in 
 Sydney, on their way to New Zealand, about the year 1823. 
 
 Mr Leigh returned to New South Wales, and again fell a victim to the heat 
 of the climate, and the extent of his labour. He retired, in 1831, on the London 
 Supernumerary list. Two years after, he was sufficiently recovered to resume 
 full circuit employment. He died in England in 1851, at the age of sixty-six. 
 
 Although a man, perhaps, not much endowed with intellectual vigour and 
 literary ability, he faithfully did his duty to the utmost of his power. He may 
 have lacked independence of will, but was never rebuked for negligence. He 
 was warmly attached to his Australian mission, and he cannot fail to be affec- 
 tionately remembered by Methodists as a pioneer of their cause in New South 
 Wales. 
 
 The IMethodist interest rapidly advanced. In 1822 there were four Sunday- 
 schools in the Sydney circuit. One at old Botany Bay had twenty children. 
 The quarterly collection of that early date for the mission was but £32. The 
 anniversary sermon of that year was preached by the Kev. John Williams, of 
 South Sea enterprise. Mr Carvosso came to Sydney in 1820, bringing with him 
 much simplicity and earnestness. ]SIr Scott erected a chapel in his garden at 
 his owa. expense of £500, in 1819. The governor the same year gave land in 
 Macquarie Street, Sydney, for a site, on which a stone building arose fifty feet by 
 thirty. York Street Chapel subsequently was erected at a cost of £6000. 
 
 The Rev. Mr Horton arrived in 1832, jNIr Orton in 1834, :Mr Schofield in 
 1835, and Messrs JNI'Kenny, Draper, and Lewis in April 1836. ISIr Turner 
 returned in 1839. The Rev. Joseph Waterhouse came out as general super- 
 intendent of the Wesleyan missions in the South Seas in 1838. He died in 
 Hobart Town in 1842. Two of his sons were successful missionaries in Fiji, and 
 two are now engaged in the colonial ministry. Mr La^vry succeeded ^Mr AVater- 
 house as superintendent. — Bouwick's Curious Facts. 
 
 THE FIRST INDEPENDENT MINISTER OF HOBART TOWN. 
 
 The story of the moral history of Van Diemen's Land is so dark that it seems 
 in vain to look for any goodness in the country. And yet, in spite of the surges 
 of crime and \'iolence beating against the band of Christians there, the honest 
 faithful ones stood firmly as if planting their foot upon a rock. Each represen- 
 tative body of the Church proper hail many excellent characters, that appeared 
 to shine the more brilliantly by the contrast of the evil surrounding them. 
 
 Among the first free settlers to the colony were those who became the 
 prominent leaders of their respective denominations. Several of these were
 
 696 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Independents. They anxiously sought a minister of their own views, having 
 heretofore worshipped either with the Presbyterians or the Wesleyans. The 
 foremost among them was Mr Henry Hopkins, one of the most princely of 
 benefactors to all objects for the elevation of humanity. 
 
 In 1830 the Eev. Frederick Miller had his attention directed to the distant 
 land of penal servitude. The place was then associated with the worst of 
 crimes. It was the Sodom of the southern hemisphere. It was the abode of 
 bushrangers. It was the scene of bloodshed between naked savages and clothed 
 ones. It was, apparently, the last retreat a man of refined feeling and sensitive 
 nature, like Mr Miller, would think of seeking. But the man was heroic, and 
 consulted neither ease nor interest. The very recital of horrors but enkindled 
 his enthusiasm. It was the more necessary that he, and such as he, should go 
 there, and should aid the struggling few to stem the on-sweeping torrent. 
 Favoured by the well-kno^vn Thomas Wilson, Esq., he came to the Fern Valleys 
 of Tasmania. A chapel was raised. The land cost £200, the building £1400. 
 Mr Miller opened it in April 1832. The few, a mere dozen or two, who formed 
 his people, contributed nobly. But when bad times came, in 1834, and a debt 
 of £600 remained, with heavy necessities for the erection of schools and par- 
 sonage, the trustees became anxious. Other dissenting bodies had been afforded 
 help, why should not these accept a Treasury loan ? At that time the particular 
 views now entertained by Nonconformists in the colonies were not rigorously, 
 or at least not universally, held, especially in respect to grants of land. 
 
 In 1835 a grant of £500 was made toward the liquidation of the debt on the 
 Brisbane Street Chapel. The respect in which the minister was personally held 
 induced the governor to place his name on the estimates for a salary of £200. 
 The grant was accepted, for the pressure was great on the trustees ; but the 
 ."^alary was resjDectfully declined on the ground of conscience. It Avas not long 
 before the worthy pastor saw the mistake into which by their necessities they 
 had been driven. He recommended that the money be repaid as soon as pos- 
 sible ; and he took pains to represent to his Excellency that, with all becoming 
 gratitude, the Church could not but consider themselves indebted tq the State 
 for the amount. 
 
 But years passed on Avithout an opportunity to meet the claim. It was 
 sufficient for the little body to pay its way, without troubling to do more. The 
 goldfields gave the means. A subscription was raised, and the money respect- 
 fully tendered to the Tasmanian Government and accepted. It is right to add 
 tliat the Colonial Missionary Society reported in 1849 : " In Van Diemen's Land 
 the churches have never been dependent on the Colonial Society. They are still 
 sustaining their awn pastors, and carrying on witU energy and liberality various 
 benevolent and evangelical labours." 
 
 Perhaps no association, for its means, accomplished so much for the general 
 good of their fellows as that luider the pastorate of tlie Eev. F. Miller. He was 
 pre-eminently a good man. His preaching was of a high order. His life was 
 consistent with his words. Ill-health on several occasions took him from his 
 ]iulpit. A total rest in a long sea-voyage being recommended, he visited England.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 697 
 
 He returned to his beloved Tasmania in 1862 — to die. A verse of his own may 
 be applied to himself : 
 
 " If disease thy soul should darken. 
 Struggling in death's agonies ; 
 Soon thy God will bid thee hearken 
 To the music of the skies." 
 
 The second minister of the Congregationalists was the Rev. C. Price, wdio 
 established himself at Launceston. If not possessed of great pulpit power, he 
 has endeared himself to many by his public spirit, his self-denying effort, his 
 practical benevolence. His earnest advocacy of temperance princijilos was 
 attended with success. Some years after, in 1839, the Rev. John West, now 
 one of the leading literary men of Australia, and author of the " History of 
 Tasmania," settled also in Launceston. The Rev. Mr Nesbitt was stationed in 
 Hobart Town. — BouwicKs Curious Facts. 
 
 THE LUTHERANS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
 
 South Australia has been called the refuge of the ojipressed, and the home 
 of the free. It alone of all the Australian colonies was untainted with the 
 presence of crime. No transported felons were ever permitted to land upon its 
 shores or cross its borders. A popular government was established. Religion 
 was free. It presented neither the exclusiveness of Rome nor that of Geneva. 
 
 When, therefore, a persecution arose in Germany, and a number of men 
 suffered the loss of goods for conscience' sake, even in that Protestant country, 
 because their evangelical views were confronted by an establishment that denied 
 freedom of dissent. South Australia opened its port to receive them. By the 
 munificence of Mr George Fife Angas, the real founder of the colony, a number 
 of these German pietists were placed upon farms in the sunny land. 
 
 They removed under the care of their worthy pastors ; and vineyards and 
 olive3^ards, cornfields and orchards, were spread through the fertile valleys of 
 the provinces by this industrious and excellent peojjle. The South Australian 
 thus notices the event in May 1839 : " Driven from their native country because 
 they would not yield to the worst kind of tyranny, which seeks to rivet chains 
 on men's minds, and dictate to them their faith, they came hither, erected their 
 altar among us, and are now presenting us with a model of practical colonisation 
 well worthy our individual imitation." — Bouwlck. 
 
 NO CHURCH STATE AID IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
 
 At no period, perhaps, in the history of the world was colonisation so dis- 
 cussed as it was in England nearly forty, years ago. Able men treated the 
 subject philosophically ; politicians reviewed it as affecting the welfare of com- 
 monwealths ; philanthropists spoke of it as the panacea for misery ; and practical 
 persons contemplated it as a means of bettering their fortunes. All shades of 
 opinion were exjjressed, and most sanguine expectations were indulged. For 
 the first time it formed a question of serious debate in Parliament, and received 
 
 4 T
 
 698 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 a strono- ami even enthusiastic support from statesmen of high authoritj' and 
 well-known benevolence. 
 
 Out of this discussion upon colonisation arose the three colonies of Western 
 Australia, South Australia, and New Zealand. Novel principles of government 
 were to be tried there, and advanced views of human progress were to be 
 developed there. 
 
 Among the subjects of inquiry was that of religion. It was asked whether 
 this national emigration was to be assisted with Church establishments or not. 
 The old colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania were provided with a State 
 Church ; though, subsequently, other denominations were permitted to approach 
 and receive the State loaf It was contended by some that this laxity of Church 
 principles would eventually lead to the decline of piety and growth of atheism 
 in the colonies, but that the evil might be averted by the re-establishment of 
 Episcopalian supremacy, and absolute exclusiveness of right to the charms of 
 the ]3ublic treasury. Others thought the revival of piety and the acknowledged 
 decrease of crime in these old penal settlements, might be attributed to the 
 development of religious freedom there, which permitted the expansion of other 
 ecclesiastical bodies. The Roman Catholics, the Presbyterians, and the Wes- 
 leyans, believed that the State aid they received had enabled them to occupy 
 gi'ound they could never otherwise have done, and so reached the consciences of 
 men that would not have been awakened. Many others, not sectarian in their 
 prejudices, were strenuous supporters of Church aid, on the principle that 
 religion Avas a good check upon social disorders, and that clergymen, of whatever 
 name or opinion, were useful as moral policemen. 
 
 But it so happened that the majority of those interested in the great colonis- 
 ing movement of the day had doubts of the advantage of either system. They 
 regarded the dominancy of one Church an injustice, and esteemed the favouring 
 of all Churches a folly. As Protestants they objected to the endowment of 
 Popery, and as Roman Catholics they demurred to their exclusion from the 
 chest. On the whole, they thought that each party should support their own 
 system, and not be called ujion, through the Government, to aid the promulga- 
 tion of views to which they were conscientiously opposed. 
 
 When the colony of South Australia was established under the auspices of 
 an association, the principle of simple non-interference with religious opinions 
 was adopted. Each denomination, whether Protestant Episcopal, Roman 
 Catholic Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, or Wesleyan, was to stand 
 alone, without favour, without State support, but without prejudice. 
 
 From 1836 to 1848 this state of things continued. It survived the terrible 
 commercial distress of 1841 and 1842, and it remained upon the transference of 
 the province from the proprietorship of a private company to its becoming a 
 Crown colony. 
 
 In 1848 a successful effort was made to establish the system adopted in New 
 Soyth Wales, but even more liberal in character. All denominations were pro- 
 claimed equal in the eyes of the law, and all were invited to the State feast. 
 But the specific grants were made dependent upon the attendants on Sunday
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 699 
 
 service, and the amount of cash raised by vohintary effort. Tn this way, the 
 Wesleyans, because of their zeal, their energy, and their Hlterality, obtained far 
 more proportionate assistance for chapel building and ministerial .support than 
 other bodies. As to Independents, Baptists, and many individual members of 
 the' other denominations, strongly opposed to change in the constitution, the 
 State aid was declared an experiment limited to a term of throe years. In ISol 
 the Colonial Parliament reversed the decree of 1848, and the colony is once more 
 free of State aid. 
 
 The Church of England in South Australia sensibly felt the change. The 
 bishop thus stated the case : " Our difficulty lies in the comparative poverty of 
 our gentry, and the want of habit of giving and paying for the support of 
 religion on the part of the labouring classes." Again, he wrote in his despair to 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel : " Our people are faithless as to 
 paying the clergy : without help from England they would be starved out, or 
 miserably supported." 
 
 In justice to the Adelaide Episcopalians it must be said that this reproach is 
 now removed by their liberality toward their Church, and their real interest in 
 its affiiirs. The system has worked satisfactorily, moreover, in its promotion of 
 fraternal feeling among religionists of different faiths. They have learned 
 charity in respect to the conscientious belief of their neighbours, the force of 
 nationality, and the influence of educational training. — Bouivick. 
 
 PORT PHILLIP IN 1850. 
 
 A friendly critic of the period (Mr Leslie Foster) paints these pioneers of 
 civilisation a little en beau. In a pamphlet published in London, in 1850, he 
 affirms that there might be found among them " men retired from their professions, 
 whether clerical, military, naval, legal, or medical ; and the younger sons of 
 good and even noble families, who preferred seeking an active independence to 
 pursuing the lounging life of drones in the mother country." There might also 
 be found among them, however, pi'udent overseers, and even shepherds and 
 stock-riders, who had managed to buy out their masters ; and adventurous 
 farmers and artisans who had risen by prudent industry to find an opening in 
 this fortunate pursuit. Their precise tenure of the public lauds and their 
 relations to the Executive were questions which constantly disturbed the future 
 annals of the colony ; here we have only to take note of the inevitable influence 
 of a class so prosperous in a community so limited. Their prosperity, however, 
 had not been without check ; there had been serious fluctuations in the value of 
 money and in the price of wool ; but, though individuals suffered, the class had 
 prospered. The stock in the colony was valued at three millions and a half, of 
 which nearly all was theirs, and the fixed property in purchased land, houses, 
 and imi^rovements belonging chiefly to other classes was barely worth as much 
 more. To estimate this community by its numbers alone, would give a very in- 
 adequate gauge of power and resources. Every fifth man you met had done 
 some successful work. He had made a prosperous business, or reclaimed and 
 fenced wild land, or imported valuable stock, or explored new country, or at
 
 700 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 lowest had built a house and planted an orchard and vineyard, when orchards 
 and vineyards were in effect nurseries for the whole community. Or he had 
 taken a part in the successful resistance to the Colonial Office on the convict 
 question, or co-operated in the movement for separation. At any rate he had 
 furnished evidence of a certain vigour and decision of character by crossing two 
 oceans to seek a new home. And the life of the squatter, who in those days 
 lived on his station, and partook of its cares and toils and its occasional dangers, 
 was training in a sort of rude chivalry — rude enough in truth sometimes. Who- 
 ever has seen the charming mansions and gardens, and the graceful plantations 
 and parks which a few of the great flock-owners have created in latter years, 
 will not be warranted in assuming that they developed by natural progression 
 from brick or wooden villas and patches of green kitchen garden. In not a few 
 cases they were preceded by squalid huts roofed with bark, and standing in the 
 midst of shambles or j^eltries, reeking with foul air, and where fruit, vegetables, 
 and milk, were unknown luxuries. And the feats of chivalry were often no 
 more than unequal encounters with the blackman. But those early settlers 
 were trained by the nature of their pursuits to frank, fearless lives, at a time 
 when men travelled with no other guide than the firmament and the landmarks 
 of nature, and no protector but their right hands. Highways and bridges, or 
 punts, there were none ; and houses of entertainment in the bush were far 
 apart ; but hospitality was universal, and if there was no question of their 
 "rights," of which they were as jealous as Alabama planters, these big-bearded, 
 sunburnt men were pleasant hosts and good fellows ; and for any adequate 
 public need, would have furnished such soldiers as rode after Stonewall Jackson. 
 The settlement had escaped, by a singular fortune^ — not to be too much rejoiced 
 over, perhaps — the sufferings and perils which tried the early colonists of 
 America ; but if they were not disciplined in war, they had been taught the 
 equivalent virtue of self-help, not having been too tenderly fostered, as we have 
 seen, by the Colonial Office, or aided in any manner from the resources of the 
 empire. Into this peaceful community, free from all gross excesses, not fevered 
 by the desire of sudden wealth, reiDosing like untroubled water under the genial 
 sky of the south, there was soon to burst a turbulent stream, and presently a 
 rancid sewer ; and many years passed before the sediment disappeared and the 
 waters were again clear and tranquil. — Melbourne Review. 
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 
 
 Tlie protectorate of these important islands, or rather the annexation of them 
 to Great Britain, was offered to Her Majesty by their king, Thakambau, and 
 the principal native chiefs; and the formal acceptance took place early in 
 1875. The Hon. 8ir A. H. Gordon was appointed first governor.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 701 
 
 The following account of this new island-colony is taken from Silver's 
 " Handbook to Australia and New Zealand : " 
 
 The first account we have of the discovery of these islands is by Tasman, 
 who, in the year 1643, sailed past several of them, to which he gave the name 
 of Prince William's Islands ; the inhabitants themselves styling them collectively 
 " Viti," which, by the Tongans and other nations, has been corrupted to Fiji. 
 For two hundred years after Tasman nothing further was known respecting 
 them, although Captain Cook sighted one of the islands ; and Captain Wilson 
 nearly lost the first missionary ship, the "Duff," on the reefs of Taviuni. It was 
 not until the visits of D'Urville, and of Commodore Wilkes, of the United 
 States' Exploring Expedition, that anything was known to us of the Fijis and 
 their inhabitants ; whilst the still more recent survey of the entire group by 
 Captain Denham, in H.M.S. " Herald," has rendered us familiar with their 
 geographical features. 
 
 Towards the commencement of the present century the Fijis were occasion- 
 ally visited by vessels in search of sandal-wood and " trepang " for the Chinese 
 market. These ships were always well armed, and no bartering was commenced 
 with the natives until some of their chiefs had been sent on board as hostages, 
 these people being then regarded as the most ferocious of cannibals. 
 
 In 180-i a number of escaped convicts from New South Wales managed 
 to reach Fiji, and dwelt amongst the natives for a long period, teaching them 
 the use of fire-arms, and aiding them in their perpetual tribal wars, by which 
 means they acquired a considerable influence over them. Rather more than 
 fifty years ago the Wesleyan missionaries commenced their labours in the Tonga 
 Islands, some 250 miles to the windward of the Fijis ; and, in the year 18oj, 
 they pushed onwards to the latter group, landing their first missionaries at 
 Lakemba. It is mainly owing to the indefatigable exertions of these self-denying 
 men that the Fijians have been gradually reclaimed from paganism and the 
 most revolting cannibalism to Christianity. Their work has so far civilised 
 many of the islands as to pave the way for the advent of white settlers and 
 adventurers from the neighbouring Australian colonies, of whom there are now 
 nearly two thousand resident in Fiji, many being engaged in sugar and cotton 
 planting, sheep-farming, and various commercial pursuits. As far back as 
 1859, the present reigning monarch, Thakambau (who five years previously had 
 embraced Christianity), with the consent of the leading chiefs, made his first 
 offer of the sovereignty of these islands to the Crown of England, which offer 
 the Government of that day declined to accept. For several years past a form 
 of government, initiated by the white settlers principally for their own protec- 
 tion, has been carried on in Fiji. It consisted of the king as the head, with a 
 salary of £1500 a year, and £200 for private expenses ; an Executive Council, 
 composed entirely of white men ; a Legislative Privy Council, and a House of 
 Representatives ; the former being made up of the native governors of the 
 provinces into which the Constitution Act directs that the kingdom shall bo 
 sub-divided ; and the latter formed of European delegates from the electoral 
 districts proclaimed throughout the islands, the members being elected by white
 
 702 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 men, from whom the Government must be chosen. The judicature was vested 
 in a Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief-Justice and two associate judges, one 
 of whom was a native. 
 
 The archipelago of Fiji is situated in the South-Western Pacific, between the 
 parallels of 15° and 19° S. latitude, and the meridians of 177° E. and 178' W. 
 longitude. It comprises nearly two hundred islands, besides islets, rocks, and 
 reefs. The two largest of these, called Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, are of 
 considerable size, having each a circumference of from 200 to 250 miles ; the 
 names of the other more important islands are Ovalau, Kandavu, Taviuni, Koro, 
 Kgau, and Lakemba. Sixty-five of them are described as being inhabited. There 
 are several good harbours in the group, the principal of which is that of Levuka, 
 on the eastern side of the island of Ovalau, where the capital or chief European 
 town of the same name is situated. The native capital is Bau, the former 
 residence of the kings. It occupies a small island close to the mainland of Yiti 
 Levu, and is only a few hours' sail from Levuka. The largest river, the Rewa, is 
 in Viti Levu ; it is a broad and rapid stream, from four hundred to five hundred 
 yards wide, and navigable for small vessels for a considerable distance. Most of 
 the islands rise abruptly from the sea, and present in their bold and irregular 
 outline the peculiar character of the volcanic formation to which they belong. 
 In Viti Levu there are thousands of acres of splendid flat lands ; and, although 
 most of the country is undulating, and in some places mountainous, the soil 
 everywhere is remarkably fertile and productive ; indeed, it is said that there is 
 hardly an acre of land throughout this group that might not be either converted 
 into a pasture or a plantation. The lofty peaks of Voma and Buke Levu are 
 four thousand feet high. 
 
 Like most islands situated within the influence of the eastei'ly trade Avinds, 
 the aspect of the weather side of all of them is essentially ditterent from that to 
 leeward. Owing to the constant moisture brought with the trade winds from 
 the ocean, the former teems with a dense mass of vegetation, huge trees, and 
 innumerable palms, ferns, creepers, and epipliytes — hai'dly a break occurring in 
 the luxuriant green mantle spread over hill and dale. The leeside, on the 
 contrary, displays a fine grassy country, scattered with the jjondanus, or screw- 
 pine, casuarinas, and acacias. The high ridge of mountains that form the back- 
 bone of the two large islands, attracting the moisture from the clouds, and 
 intercepting the numerous showers, send down streams of never-failing water 
 to fertilise the valleys below. The coast-line is, for the most part, fringed with 
 a dense belt of cocoa-nut palms, intermixed with bananas, plantains, and other 
 tropical trees. White beaches extend for miles round the various bays. At a 
 greater or less distance from the shore are the encircling coral reefs, against 
 which the surf of the outside ocean dashes in majestic grandeur ; whilst the 
 sheltered lagoons within are glassy and smooth, teeming with gorgeously coloured 
 fish and beautiful marine productions of all kinds, which are clearly seen at the 
 bottom through the transparent water. 
 
 The Fijian Islands owe their origin to volcanic ujiheavings and the busy 
 operations of corals. At present there are no active volcanoes ; but several of
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 703 
 
 tlio highest mountains must, in former times, have been formidalilo craters. 
 Hot springs occur in dilfcrcnt parts, especially at Savu-savu, where the tempera- 
 ture of the water stands at from 200" to 210'. PLarthquakes are occasionally 
 experienced ; and some few years ago an entire island was lifted above the level 
 of the sea between Tonga and Fiji. The soil consists in many places of a dark 
 red or yellowish clay, or of decomposed volcanic rocks, which prove very fertile 
 when plentifully supplied with moisture. Near Namosi, in Viti Levu, is a 
 mountain abounding with malachite and antimony ore. 
 
 The only terrestrial mammals are a species of rat, and five kinds of bat, one 
 of them being a large fruit-eating bat. The white settlers have introduced 
 cattle, horses, goats, sheeji, rabbits, dogs, and cats, all of which seem to thrive 
 well. Of birds Dr Seemann has given us a list of forty-six species, consisting of 
 hawks, owls, ducks, pigeons, etc., and several kinds of parrots; the scarlet 
 feathers of one, the kula, being greatly esteemed by the natives for ornamental 
 purposes. Over 120 species of marine fishes have already been enumerated, 
 most of which are good eating, and form a considerable portion of the iood of 
 those Fijians dwelling on the sea-coasts. There are no less than nine kinds of 
 salt-water sharks, besides several fresh-water ones. Amongst the endless variety 
 of beautiful little fishes that adorn the coral beds inside the reefs is one as large 
 as a goldfish, entirely of the finest ultramarine blue colour. Reptiles are not 
 numerous. There are ten sorts of snakes, none of them more than six feet long, 
 and mostly arborescent and harmless. A large frog is common in the swamps. 
 The green turtle is called vonu-dina, and that Avhich yields the tortoise-shell, 
 vojiu-taku. Lizards are represented by a chameleon and four other species, the 
 largest of which is a beautiful green lizard with a body two feet long. Land 
 and fresh-water shells appear to be numerous, and some of the species are of 
 considerable size. The reefs abound with handsome marine shells. On the 
 south-west coast of Viti Levu, at a place called Nandronga, that rare and 
 valuable shell, the orange-cowry, or "morning dawm," is occasionally met with. 
 The possession of a specimen formerly gave a man a certain rank among his 
 tribe. Crustaceous animals are well represented in the Fijis. There is a very 
 large kind of land-crab, which climbs the most lofty cocoa-nut trees and breaks 
 the nuts, upon which it feeds. Insects are very numerous, and some of the 
 butterflies and beetles are extremely handsome. At dusk the woods swarm 
 with m}Tiads of fireflies. 
 
 Very few regions are so prolific in vegetable productions as is this favoured 
 group of islands. Whilst the indigenous trees and plants are endless in their 
 variety and usefulness, all those that have been hitherto introduced appear to 
 flourish remarkably well. The seeds of the dilo tree produce a valuable oil, 
 which enjoys a wide reputation as a liniment in cases of rheumatism ; and its 
 timber, of which boats and canoes are built, is valued on account of its beautiful 
 grain and hardness; whilst a resin which exudes from its stem is used as a perfume. 
 The candle-nut, the croton-oil plant, and the castor-oil plant arc abundant. The 
 Fijians manufacture fine arrowroot from the Tacca innnatifida. Groves of the 
 sago-palm extend for miles in the swamps of Viti Levu ; and turmeric grows plenti-
 
 704 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 fully in all the lower districts, as does a species of ginger, and the 'male ' nutmeg. 
 The staple food of the natives is the yam, which in Fiji attains an enormous size 
 and the perfection of mealiness. Next to the yam, as an article of food, come 
 the taro (which is grown on irrigated ground), the cocoa-nut, the bread-fruit, 
 the banana, and the plantain, of which two last there are about eighteen 
 varieties. The wi is a tree sixty feet high, covered with large oval yellow 
 fruit of a fine apple-like and most agreeable flavour, highly suitable for pies. 
 Boiled or roasted taro, with the fruit of wi as a dessert, is a common dinner 
 with a Fijian family. The papaw, the guava, citrons, oranges, lemons, loquets, 
 and custard-apples have all been introduced at various times, and flourish 
 luxuriantly. Shaddocks are extremely common, and the trees line the banks 
 of the rivers. Water-melons and bottle-gourds grow every^vhere, and sweet 
 melons, pumpkins, and cucumbers have found their way to these islands. The 
 pine-apple thrives well, especially near the sea. The national beverage is the 
 kava, prepared from the root of the Macropiper methysticum by chewing, and 
 the plant is cultivated in small patches around the dwellings of the natives. 
 Nearly all the lowest class of whites in Fiji are kava-drinkers. A tree 
 dreaded by the inhabitants for its noxious qualities is the itch-wood. A drop of 
 the juice falling on the skin produces a pain similar to that caused by contact 
 with red-hot iron. Another poisonous tree is the sinu-gaga, the thick black 
 smoke from the burning wood of which is the native cure for lejjrosy. Two 
 kinds of nettles, one sixty feet high, sting most unmercifully. In former times 
 the sandal-wood was plentiful in Fiji ; but, owing to the great demand for this 
 perfumed wood in the China market, it has now become exceedingly scarce, only 
 a few trees here and there remaining. The paper-mulberry tree supplies the 
 Fijians with the material for their tapjm or native cloth, which they wear as a 
 toga. Distinguished persons enveloji their bodies in pieces of tapjm many yards 
 long, and allow extensive trains to drag after them on the ground. Timber of 
 excellent quality abounds on the larger islands, and a trade in it has sprung up 
 with the Australian colonies. The Fiji Kowi'ie pine rivals that of New Zealand. 
 A species of casuarina produces an exceedingly hard and heavy wood, formerly 
 used for making war-clubs. Six species of palms ornament the forests, as well 
 as many ferns of extraordinary beauty. Some of the native flowers are gaily 
 coloured, and others emit a delightful fragrance, with which the natives pro- 
 fusely decorate their persons. Sugar, coff'ee, tarmarinds, and tobacco, as well as 
 cotton, thrive Avonderfully well, the former growing wild in many localities. 
 
 The climate of the Fijis, though tropical, is, as a rule, remarkably pleasant 
 during the greater portion of the year. The heat is moderated by the trade 
 wind, so that its mean temperature does not exceed 80° Fahr. The lowest read- 
 ing of the thermometer is 65", and when it falls so low as this the days are by 
 comparison cold and damp, and the native population do not care to stir out of 
 doors ; whilst the Europeans find the benefit of an overcoat. Such weather, 
 however, only occurs during periods of strong gales and rain. Fevers occurring 
 as epidemics are unknown, the only disease that Europeans have to fear beiiig 
 dysentery. Ek'pliantiasis and occnsional leprosy, together with glandular swell-
 
 SLTPLEMEiYTA It Y CIIA PTEIl. 705 
 
 ings, arc frequent amongst the native population. From October to April, the 
 hottest season, a con.sideraljle (juantity of rain falls ; -whilst there are occasional 
 showers during the dry season, which lasts from May to September. Hurricanes, 
 or revolving storms, occasionally visit the islands during the first three months 
 of the year, but successive years frequently pass by withoiit their occurrence. 
 
 The native population at the present time is variously estimated at between 
 1 "20,000 and 200,000. The Fijians are a tall, well-made, muscular race of men. 
 Neither so black nor so woolly-haired as the true Papuans, they are, neverthe- 
 less, nearer akin to them than to the lighter-coloured Polynesians of Tonga and 
 Samoa. Formerly they were considered to be the most inveterate cannibals of 
 any existing race ; and although the introduction of Christianity amongst them 
 has abolished this terrible custom wherever the missionaries have established 
 themselves, it is affirmed that it still exists to a certain extent amongst the 
 heathen tribes who inhabit the mountainous and as yet almost unknown interior 
 of Viti Levu. The former method of dressing their crisp and somewhat woolly 
 hair, spread out like a mop to a distance of ten or twelve inches from the head, 
 is still adhered to by the less civilised tribes. They are very careful not to 
 crush these grand wigs ; and when they lie down they rest their necks on 
 wooden pillows, elevated with legs some eight inches from the floor, so that the 
 elaborately-dressed hair may sustain no pressure. They build large canoes, in 
 which they perform somewhat distant voyages from one island to another. In 
 the manufacture of their houses and weapons, as well as in their handsomely- 
 chequered tapim cloths, their wicker-work baskets, and their earthenware 
 vessels, they exhibit both taste and skill. In the Windward Islands there is 
 a considerable mixture of the lighter Tonguese blood, OAving to the colonisation 
 of that portion of the group by the powerful Tongans, who were attracted 
 thither by the plentiful supply of large timber for canoe-building. 
 
 During the American war, when cotton was everywhere in demand, and 
 realised such high jDrices, there was a general rush from the Australian colonies 
 to I^ji, and the cultivation of cotton was extensively carried on with consider- 
 able success ; but owing to the subsequent reaction in prices, the planters in Fiji 
 have latterly been less fortunate. Sugar will, eventually, form one of the most 
 valuable products of these islands, but the present state of depression, and the 
 want of capital to procure the necessary plant for the mills, have retarded the 
 progress of its cultivation. Tobacco offers a promising field to those who 
 understand its management ; the leaf in Fiji, grown from the best Cuban seed, 
 being said to equal in every respect the finest productions of the Antilles. 
 Sheep and cattle have been introduced by energetic adventurers from Australia; 
 and some of the well-grassed smaller and uninhabited islands have been purchased 
 from the chiefs and turned into sheep-runs, the wool being of a good quality, 
 and realising a fair price in the market. 
 
 The value of the exports in 1872 was over £90,000. They consisted chiefly 
 of Sea Island and other cotton (400,000 dollars) ; cocoa-nut oil, wool, tortoise-shell, 
 heclie-de-mer , candle-nuts, and other products of the islands. The imports 
 amounted to £82,584. 
 
 4u
 
 700 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 Many of the earlier white settlers possess large tracts of land, wlxich they 
 have obtained from the natives. Desirable holdings may be bought from them 
 at prices varying from six to twenty-five dollars per acre. In purchasing 
 direct from the native chiefs, much care is necessary to see that the lawful 
 o\\Tier is the party dealt with. About 350,000 acres of land have already 
 passed into the possession of Europeans, and 10,000 acres are under culti- 
 vation. 
 
 Levuka, on the island of Ovalau, may be considered the commercial capital 
 of Fiji. It is picturesquely situated on the seashore, backed by wooded moun- 
 tains. It contains (besides the consular aud Government establishments, and 
 those of the Wesleyan and Roman Catholic missionaries) several churches and 
 schools, fourteen Avooden hotels, stores of all kinds, a printing-office, and the 
 usual contingent of carpenters, boat-builders, butchers, bakers, shoemakers, 
 tailors, etc.; including four milliners and two photographic establishments. The 
 aggregate tonnage of the shipping annually visiting the Fijis may be roughly 
 stated at 40,000 tons. 
 
 It only requires a good, sound, and safe government under the British flag, 
 and the introduction of capital into the Fijian Islands, to render them one of the 
 most (if not the most) valuable possessions throughout Polynesia. 
 
 NEW GUINEA, OR PAPUA. 
 
 As the island of New Guinea is rapidly coming into note, and will probably 
 ere long be annexed to the Bintish possessions in the south, we extract the 
 following account of it from Westgarth's "Australia :" 
 
 New Guinea, or Papua, is, after Australia, not only the first in point of 
 magnitude, but claims a priority in discovery over that and every other island in 
 the Australian Sea. In the year 1526, when the Portuguese and the Spaniards 
 were disputing their respective claims to the Spice Islands, Don Jorge de 
 Menenes, of the former nation, had, in his passage from ^Malacca to the Moluccas, 
 by extraordinary and accidental circumstances, discovered the north coast of 
 Papua, so called, according to some, because the word signifies black, which 
 was the colour of the natives, or curled hair, according, to others. Menenes 
 remained at a port called Versija till the change of the monsoon, and then returned 
 to the INIoluccas. The next navigator who touched at Papua was Alvarez de 
 Saavedra, on his homeward voyage from the INIoluccas in 1528, for New Spain; 
 and, from an idea that the country abounded in gold, he gave it the name of Isla 
 del Ora. He stayed a month, and obtained provisions ; but some Portuguese 
 deserted with the only boat the ship had, and were left behind. They found 
 their way, however, to Gilolo, and reported that Saavedra had been wTecked ; 
 but on his subsequent arrival they were tried, condemned, and executed. He
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 707 
 
 is supposed to have added about fifty leagues of discovery to that of ]\Ienenes. 
 In 1529 Saavedra sailed a second time from New Spain, and, according to 
 Oalvaom (or Galvano), followed the coast of Papua eastwards above live hundred 
 leagues. 
 
 In 1537 Gonzalvo and Alvarado wore despatched on discovery by the Viceroy 
 of Peru ; but the former being killed in a mutiny, the crew chose another com- 
 mander, and the first land they made was Papua. The ship was in so crazy a 
 state that she was abandoned ; the crew, only seven in number (the rest having 
 died of hunger and fatigue), were made captives, and carried to an island 
 calleii Crespos (curly-haired men), whence they were sent to the jNIoluccas and 
 ransomed. 
 
 In 1545 Ynigo Ortiz de Retz, in his voyage from Tidore to New Spain, came 
 to an archipelago of islands near the land of Papua, sailed 230 leagues along the 
 north coast, and not knowing it had been before visited by Europeans, he called 
 it Nueva Guinea, from the resemblance of the natives to those of the coast of 
 Guinea. 
 
 In 160G Torres made the east coast of New Guinea in his way to the ]Moluccas, 
 sailed westward three hundred leagues, doubled the south-east point, sailed 
 along the southern coast, saw the northern coast of New Holland, and passed 
 the strait Avhich now bears his name. He describes the coast of New Guinea as 
 inhabited by a dark peojilc, naked except a covering round the middle, of painted 
 cloth made of the bark of a tree. They had arms of clubs and darts ornamented 
 with feathers. He fell in with many large islands, ports, and i-ivei's. Towards 
 the northern extremity he met with Mohammedans, who had swords and fire- 
 arms. 
 
 In 1G16 Schouten came in sight of a burning mountain on the coast of 
 New Guinea, which he named Vulcan, and immediately after of the coast itself. 
 The island was well inhabited, and abounded with cocoa-nuts ; but no anchoring 
 ground could be found. The natives were black, with short hair ; but others 
 appeared more of a tawny colour, with canoes of a different shape. Among the 
 islands in sight to the northward, four small ones continually smoked. On 
 approaching the mainland, the natives, whom he calls real Papoos, came off, " a 
 wild, strange, and ridiculous people, active as monkeys, having black curled hair, 
 rings in their ears and noses, and necklaces of hogs' tusks." They had all 
 some personal defect ; one was blind, another had a great leg, a third a swelled 
 arm ; from which Schouten concluded that this part of the country was unhealthy, 
 an inference which was confirmed by observing their houses built upon stakes 
 eiaht or nine feet from the £fround. At the two little islands of jMoa and Insou, on 
 the north-east coast, the friendly natives supplied them with abundance of cocoa- 
 nuts. At twenty-eight leagues from ]Moa,'Schouten fell in with a group of fourteen 
 small islands covered with wood, and apparently uninhabited ; but sailing to the 
 northward, they were followed by six large canoes, the people in which were armed 
 with javelins. Those in some canoes from another island were of tawny com- 
 plexion, had long curly hair, and appeared by their persons and language to be a 
 (liff"erent race from the natives of Papua : they had rings of coloured glass, yellow
 
 708 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 beads, and vessels of porcelain, whicli were regarded as " evidences of their having 
 communication with the East Indies." Schouten's Island is the largest of this 
 group. Tasman visited all these islands and the coast of New Guinea in 1643, 
 but made no discoveries in this part of his voyage. 
 
 Our countryman Dampier saw the coast in 1699, but did not land : the 
 natives came off to his ship, and he speaks in admiration of their large and 
 picturesque proas. He discovered, however, a strait unknown before, which 
 divides New Guinea from New Britain, and is now called after his nanie. 
 Bougainville was less fortunate, when, in 1768, he touched on the coast of what 
 he considered a separate island, and to which he gave the name of Louisiade. 
 D'Entrecasteaux, in 1792, passed along the northern coast of Louisiade, and 
 through Dampier's Strait ; but left the point of its identity Avith, or separation 
 from, New Guinea undecided. 
 
 Sonnerat published " A Voyage to New Guinea," though he evidently 
 never was there, but describes the natives and productions from what he saw 
 and from what he could collect at the island of Gibby, to the eastward of 
 Gilolo. 
 
 Forrest, in 1775, anchored in the Bay of Dory, on the northern extremity of 
 New Guinea, and collected some information respecting the inhabitants from a 
 ^Mohammedan hadji, who accompanied him. CajDtain Cook also, in his first 
 voyage in 1770, made the coast in about 6° 30' S. latitude, a little to the north- 
 ward of Cape Valschar, but did not bring his ship to anchor, on account of the 
 hostility of the natives. A party landed near a grove of cocoa-nut trees, and 
 not far from it found plantain and bread-fruit trees. The breeze from the 
 trees and shrubs is said to have been charged with a fragrance not unlike that 
 of gum benjamin. 
 
 The south-east coast of New Guinea was visited in June 1793 by Bampton, 
 master of the " Ilormuzeer," and Alt, master of the " Chesterfield," two British 
 merchant vessels, who, in their endeav.ours to find a passage to the north-west 
 Avhile beating up the Great Bight of this island, added some valuable information 
 to what was previously known of that part of the coast. Captain Bristow, also 
 the discoverer of the Auckland Islands, visited in 1806 the northern shores of 
 the smaller islands, Avhich were described by D'Entrecasteaux in 1793. But the 
 southern shores of the Louisiade remained unexplored from the period of 
 Bougainville's voyage in 1768 until the year 1840, when a French navigator. 
 Captain D'Urville, attempted a flying .survey of them in the "Astrolabe" during 
 his voyage round the world. He Avas not sure, hoAvcvcr, Avhether the land he 
 observed belonged to Ncav Guinea or the Louisiade, although he passed a multi- 
 tude of islands Avith navigable channels betAveen them. 
 
 In 184.3 Captain BlackAvood, in H.M.S. " Fly," surveyed 140 miles of the 
 south-east coast of Ncav Guinea Avithin the Great Bight. Here he found a low 
 muddy shore extending many miles inland of the same character, intersected by 
 channels, Avhich evidently Avere the estuaries of streams. One of these he 
 ascended for a distance of twenty miles in the ship's boats, and saAv numerous 
 native villages Ijuilt at intci'vals along the banks ; but being confronted by the
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 709 
 
 inhabitants, -who appeared to be of warlike disposition, he considered it danj^er- 
 ous to attempt a hmdini;. This partial survey was fcillowed up in 1840 by Lieu- 
 tenant Yule in II. M. schooner "Bramble," who laid down the coast-line from where 
 lilackwood's survey had terminated east of Aird's Kiver, along the south-east 
 shore of the bight. As he proceeded southerly, where the coast trends to the 
 eastward, he found the country inland i^radually improve in aspect fi-om low 
 mud baidvs to densely-wooded hills, with a lofty i-ange of mountains in the 
 distance. At this point, where he sighted a high peak of this mountain- 
 chain — which now bears his name — he returned to Australia to await further 
 orders. 
 
 On the 10th of June 1848, Captain Owen Stanley in II.M.S. "Rattlesnake," 
 accompanied by the " Bramble," Lieutenant Yule, as tender, commenced a further 
 survey of the doubtful south-east peninsula of New Guinea, and Bougainville's 
 Louisiade. During their combined indefatigable exertions for four months, 
 they not only determined the fact that the latter island is separated from the 
 mainland, but that it forms one of several groups of smaller islands, more or less 
 surrounded by dangerous coral reefs, which extend for upwards of two hundred 
 miles east by south of the great Papuan island, between 151° and 154° 30' E. 
 longitude, and the parallels of W and 12° S. latitude : the entire assemblage of 
 islands and reefs, including the Calvados Group, being now denominated the 
 Louisiade Archipelago. 
 
 Much valuable information has been added to the natural history and ethno- 
 graphy of those coral-bound isles which Captain Stanley has now detei'mined 
 upon the charts of Australasia, by John Macgillivray, the naturalist who accom- 
 panied the expedition ; and who has furnished us with the journal of the voyage, 
 which the death of the captain prevented himself from publishing. In his 
 graphic descriptions of these new and interesting islands, he thus describes their 
 appearance: "From the anchorage we enjoyed an extensive view of the south- 
 eastern portion of the Louisiade Archipelago. On the extreme right is the 
 large south-east island, with its sharp, undulating outline, and Mount Rattlesnake 
 clearly visible, although distant foity-five miles. Next, after a gap partially filled 
 up by Pig Island, Joannet Island succeeds, ten and a half miles in length, not so 
 high as South-East Island, but resembling it in dimness of outline : its highest 
 point, ISIount Asp, is 1104 feet in height. Next come the Calvados, of variou.s 
 aspect and size, some Avith the undulating outline of the larger islands, others 
 rising more or less abrujitly to the height of from four to upwards of nine 
 hundred feet. They constitute a numerous group — upwards of forty — some of 
 which, however, are mere rocks: they are delineated upon the "Rattlesnake's" 
 chart, and there are others to the northward. Behind them, in two of the inter- 
 vals, the large and distant island of St Aignan (so named after one of D'Entre- 
 casteux's lieutenants) fills up the background, foiling low at its eastern extreme, 
 but the western half is high and mountainous, with an elevation of ui'79 feet. 
 Farther to the westward, the last of the Calvados in this view was seen to form 
 a remarkable peak, 518 feet in height, to which the name of Eddystone was 
 applied ; .-ind still farther to the left, He Real of Dl'rvillc's cliart sho(fts up to
 
 710 THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 the height of 554 feet, as a solitary rocky island with a rugged outline and an 
 abruptly peaked summit."^'" 
 
 Leaving these islands, Captain Stanley proceeded on his general sui'vey along 
 the south-east coast of New Guinea, until he reached that point of land where. 
 Lieutenant Yule in the " Bramble" had left off. On making the south-east cape 
 of the island, the land appeared of a mountainous character inland, and this con- 
 tinued increasing in elevation for 250 miles, until he came to Yule's Peak. It is 
 evident that this great mountain-chain divided the watershed on each side of the 
 peninsula. On determining the altitude of this range of mountains, it was found 
 to average double that of the Australian Alps — the highest section of the great 
 Cordillera of that island. JNIount Owen Stanley is 13,205 feet in height, being 
 more than double that of Mount Kosciusko (6510 feet) — the highest mountain in 
 Australia. Of fifteen other peaks in the range, whose altitudes are laid down 
 on the " Rattlesnake's " chart, eight are above 7000 feet. Doubtless there are 
 rich fields for discovery to future naturalists on these tropical-alpine ranges. At 
 l^resent, however, the hostile disposition of its savage occupants renders it 
 inaccessible to European exjilorers. 
 
 If we except the Louisiade Ai'chipelago, New Guinea extends in a south-east by 
 east direction from the Cape of Good Hope, nearly under the equator, to South- 
 east Cape, in 10° 35' S., being in length about 1200, and medial breadth about 
 150 geographical miles. The accounts of all the navigators who have touched 
 on the different parts of its coast, describe it as a rich and magnificent country, 
 containing, in all hunmn probability, from its situation and appearance, the most 
 valuable vegetable products of the Moluccas and the several Asiatic islands. 
 Forrest found the nutmeg tree on Manaswary Island, in the Bay of Dory; and 
 he learned that a people in the interior, called Hamforas, cultivate the ground, 
 and bring the produce down to the sea-coast ; that they are very poor, and some 
 of them have long hair ; and that they live in trees, which they ascend by cutting 
 notches in them. The people of New Guinea, in many parts of the coast, live in 
 huts or cabins, jilaccd on stages which are erected on posts, commonly in the 
 water, and probably as a protection against snakes and other venomous creatures, 
 though Forrest seems to think against the Haraforas. On these stages they 
 haul up their proas or canoes. These people are invariably described as being 
 liideously ugly. Their large eyes, flat noses, thick lips, woolly hair, and black 
 .shining skin, impressed the early navigators with the idea that they were of 
 African origin ; but closer investigation, of late years, has shown them to be a 
 very mixed race indeed. ' Mr ]\Iacgillivi"ay resolves them into several indistinct 
 types with intermediate gradations. Thus, occasionally he met with strongly- 
 marked negro characteristics, but still more frequently with the Jewish cast of 
 features ; while every now and then a face presented itself which struck him as 
 Malayan. Although the hair of these aborigines was invariably frizzled out into 
 a mop, and woolly, instances were met with in both sexes where it was black, 
 soft, and cuily, while in others it was red and frizzly, and the males mostly 
 beardless. The colour of the skin varies from a light to a dark copper shade ; 
 
 * '•V'oyii^'c of II. M.S. ' Pialtk'.snak(.',' CapUiiu Owen Stanley," by J. Murgillivr:iy, vol. i., \\ 2-11.
 
 S urn EM EN T A R Y CTIA P TER. 7 1 1 
 
 and their stature does not average more than five feet four inches. Instead, there- 
 fore, of considering them a i)ure race, tliosc hite investigations woukl lead us to 
 suppose that the races from all the neighbouring Polynesian and ]\Ialayan islands 
 had their representatives on this beautiful and fertile group of islands, who have 
 amalgamated and formed the most warlike race in the Australasian seas. Their 
 habits, however, are much the same as their neighbours'; and they show equal 
 skill in the management of their canoes and weapons, and in the building of 
 huts. The Papuans also increase their natural deformity by passing bones or 
 })ieces of stick through the cartilage of the nose, and, as already mentioned, friz- 
 zing out their curly locks like a mop, sometimes to the enormous circumference 
 of three feet. They appeal*, however, to be one degree farther removed from 
 savage life than the Australian aborigines, having permanent houses, and both 
 men and women wearing wrappers round the waist, which are among the articles 
 brought to them by the Chinese and INIalays. 
 
 The only quadrupeds known to exist on this island are dogs, rats, and wild 
 hogs ; but the feathered race are of great beauty and infinite variety. New 
 Guinea is the native country of the bird of paradise. They are said to migi'ate 
 in large flocks, in the dry monsoon, to the islands of Arroo, and other islands to 
 the west and north-west of New Guinea. The great crown pigeon, parrots, 
 lories, and minas, are natives of Papua. 
 
 The whole of this great country is indented with deep bays on every side, 
 some of which nearly intersect the island ; and the coast is surrounded on every 
 side by a multitude of small islands, all peopled with the same description of 
 blacks, excepting those already mentioned on the north-west, near the equator, 
 most of which ai'e under the government of Mohammedan INIalays, with whom 
 both the Dutch and Chinese have long kept up intercourse. 
 
 if'Jibrlanc d- Ursirine, J'rinhrs, Ki!iiihiiri)k.
 
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