THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Btbo, j j'ifarn. 1 a^4S //J*^ i THE FIFTH CONTINENT, WITH THE ADJACENT ISLANDS; BEING AN ACCOUNT OF AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA, AND NEW GUINEA, SHiffc statistical Information to tfce latest gate. By CHARLES H. EDEN, Author of " My Wife and I in Queensland," " The Fortunes of the Fletchtrs," " Australia's Heroes," &c, &c. WITH MAP. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON : SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES \ 77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS J 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; 48, PICCADILLY J AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. New York : Pott, Young & Co. >#• * \ \ London : Printed by Jas. Truscott & Son, SaiTolk Lane E.C. PREFACE. In the following pages I have endeavoured to give a brief history of each of our Australian colonies, bringing all the information concerning them, that space would permit me to insert, down to the latest date. In accomplishing this, my work has been lightened by the courtesy of the Agents-General for the several colonies, who have shown great kindness in supplying me with material that other- wise would have been most difficult of access. After the section relating to South Australia had gone to press, I heard the sad news of Mr. Francis S. Dutton's death ; and must express my sympathy with the colonists he so ably represented, who have in him lost both an admirable servant, and an amiable and accomplished gentleman. To the excellent "Australian Handbook," published by Messrs. Gordon and Gotch, I am indebted for much use- ful statistical and other information. I must also acknowledge the kindness with which the Rev. Joseph Mullens, D.D., Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, met my request for the latest information regarding New Guinea. C. H. E. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. PAGE The Six Colonies — Physical Aspect — The River System — The Murray — Absence of Lakes — The Coast Line— Its Con- figuration — Bays, Inlets, and Harbours — Headlands — Islands— B6che-de-Mer Fishing ..... i CHAPTER II. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE FIFTH CONTINENT. The Great Plain — Theory that Australia was formerly divided by the Sea — Extinct Volcanoes — The Blanche Caves . 24 CHAPTER III. THE ABORIGINES. Large Number of Tribes — Ignorance of the Blacks — Their Personal Appearance and Adornments — Weapons — Food — A " Corrobbory " — Disposal of the Dead — Brutal Treat- ment of the Women — Absence of all Religious Feeling — Anecdotes of Educated Natives — Speculations regarding their Origin ......... 44 CHAPTER IV. NATURAL HISTORY. Absence of beasts of prey and larger quadrupeds — Marsupalia — The Opossum — Koala, or Native Bear — Kangaroo — Wombat — Bandicoot — TasmanianWolf — Tasmanian Devil VI CONTENTS. PAGE —Native Cat— Tapoa Taf a— Native Dog, or Dingo- Platypus — Rats — Fishes — Reptiles — Birds — Australian Jungle Fowl— Bower Bird — Cassowary — Professor Owen's remarks on the Australian Marsupials— Vegetable Pro- ductions .....•••••74 CHAPTER V. WESTERN AUSTRALIA. Geographical Position— Its Settlements and Early Struggles- Convict Labour— Features of the Colony— Ranges and Rivers — Climate — Agricultural Products— Indigenous Tim- ber—Mineral Resources— The Pearl-fishery— Population- Religious Denominations — Education — Letter from the Bishop of Perth regarding the Aborigines— Exports and Imports— Revenue— Rate of Wages 106 CHAPTER VI. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Geographical Position — Never a Penal Settlement — Its Foun- dation — Reckless Land-jobbing and Financial Embarrass- ments — Discovery of Copper, and Onward Progress — Physical Features — Productiveness of Soil — Climate — Squatters — Cereals — Mineral Resources — Railways — Popu- lation—The Church of England and other Religious Denominations — Education — Establishment for the Abo- rigines — Immigration .....•• 143 CHAPTER VII. VICTORIA. Geographical Position — Early Attempts at Colonisation— Its Permanent Settlement — A Disastrous Period — Separation from New South Wales — Discovery of Gold — Instances of Sudden Enrich ment — Population — Climate — Geological CONTENTS. Vll PAGE Formation — Enormous Trees — The Church of England and other Religious Denominations — The See of Ballarat — Education — Railways — Wages . . • . .168 CHAPTER VIII. TASMANIA. Discovery and First Settlement of the Island — Slow Progress of the Colony — Its Independence Granted — Physical Features and Mineral Resources — The " Black War " — The Last of the Aboriginals — Climate — Population — Agricultural Pro- ducts — The Church of England and other Denominations — Education — Exports and Imports — Immigration . .190 CHAPTER IX. NEW SOUTH WALES. Its Early Settlement — Geographical Position — Physical Features — Geological Formation — Mineral Resources — Climate — Agricultural Pursuits— Fruit-growing — Returns showing Number of Stock in the Colony — Population — The Church of England and other Religious Denominations — Education — Immigration — Wages — Railways . . . .201 CHAPTER X. QUEENSLAND. Its Separation from New South Wales — Geographical Position — Physical Features — Geological Formation — Climate — Agricultural Products — Mineral Resources — The Aborigines — Account given of their Customs by James Morrill, a shipwrecked sailor, who lived amongst them for seventeen years — Population of the Colony — The Church of England and other Denominations — Education — Immigration — Wages — Railways 222 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. PAGE Its Cession to South Australia — Early discovery of North Australia — Dampier's Account of the Country and its Inhabitants — Later Surveys — John McDouall Stuart, the Explorer — His opinion of the Adelaide River — Colonisation determined on by the South Australian Government — Land Sales — Colonel Finniss' Expedition — Its Failure — Mr. Goyder Founds Palmerston — Harbour of Port Darwin — The Metropolis — Southport — Gold Discovered — General Character of the Country — Climate — The Overland Tele- graph — Rev. J. E. T. Woods on Northern Australia. . 246 CHAPTER XII. NEW GUINEA. Its Geographical Position — Early Discovery — Visited by Torres, Schouten, and Le Maire, Tasman, Dampier, Roggewein, and Forrest — Description of the Papuans by Forrest — Captain Cook at New Guinea — Survey of the South-east Coast by Captain Owen Stanley — Description of the Natives by Doctor Macgillivray — Dutch Exploring Expedition — German Missionaries — Mr. Wallace's Theory regarding a former Junction between Australia and New Guinea — Captain Moresby's Surveys — Formation of the Island — Recent Discoveries — Doctor Maclay — Doctor Adolf B. Meyer — Signors Beccari and D'Albertis — London Mission- ary Society establish a Mission on the Coast — Ascent of the Fly River — Extracts from Mr. Lawes' Journal — Mr. Octavius Stone and Signor D'Albertis penetrate into the heart of the country by means of the Fly River — Speech made by Sir Henry Rawlinson ..... 266 THE FIFTH CONTINENT CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. The Six Colonies— Physical Aspect— The River System— The Murray— Absence of Lakes— The Coast Line— Its Configuration — Bays, Inlets, and Harbours— Headlands— Islands — Beche-de- Mer Fishing. &^di2> • i J t Y'y i \7f TtV h E vast insular tract of country lying to the JoijJSl^ Islands, formerly known by the name of south-eastward of Asia and the Sunda & New Holland, but now universally recog- \\ uh^> nised as Australia, the fifth continent on the >^ globe, lies entirely in the southern hemisphere, at least one-third of its surface being north of the tropic of Capricorn. Cape York, its extreme northern point, is in latitude i6° 43' S., and from thence to Cape B 2 GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. Wilson, the extreme southern point, in latitude 39 9' S., the distance is 1,900 miles. Its easterly limit is at Cape Byron, in longitude 153 37' E., and from thence to Cape Inscription, on Dirk Hartog's Island, in longitude 1 13 K, the distance is 2,600 miles. Its entire coastline embraces a circuit of 8,000 miles, and its total area may be roughly estimated at 3,000,000 square miles. To the southward of Cape Wilson lies the large island of Tasmania, formerly Van Diemen's Land, from which it is separated by Bass's Straits. On the north Australia is bounded by the Indian Ocean and by Torres Straits, the latter separating it from the large island of Papua, or New Guinea. On the east it is bounded by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Southern Ocean, and on the west by the Indian Ocean. To form a just idea of its vast proportions, the reader must regard it as three-fourths the size of the whole con- tinent of Europe. Such is the geographical position of Australia, and without entering minutely into the early voyagers who touched its coast, I may mention that the great Terra Australis was first sighted by the Provencals, about the year 1531. The Portuguese and Dutch both visited its shores on different occasions, but no attempt at perma- nent settlement was made until the year 1788, when the city of Sydney was founded by Governor Phillip. DIVISIONS. 3 With the gradual opening out of the country by means of Anglo-Saxon enterprise, I do not profess to deal in this volume, my sole object being to give the reader an accurate description of the colonies as they appear to the emigrant landing there to-day. Where many a noble city now stands the savage in his scanty robe of skins, the wild dog, and the emu roamed at will half a century ago. To trace the process by which the wilderness is peopled and the desert reclaimed is one of absorbing interest, but does not come within my province in these pages. I write of the Australia of 1877, not of the New Holland of the past. Australia is now divided into six distinct colonies, inclusive of the island of Tasmania, each being locally self-governed, though subject to the imperial sway of Great Britain. Of each of these separate provinces I propose to give a brief account, bringing all statistics down to the latest dates, and in place of taking them chronologically, I shall treat them as they stand upon the map, beginning at the west side of the continent. The names of the colonies are as follows : — 1. Western Australia, including a vast extent of terri- tory, bounded on the north and west by the Indian Ocean, on the south by the Southern Ocean, and on the east by South Australia. 2. South Australia, lying between Victoria, New South b 2 4 THE COLONIES. "Wales, and Queensland on die east, and Western Aus- tralia on the west. This colony runs right across the continent, being bounded on the north by the Indian Ocean. The northerly portion of this immense strip of country is known as the " Northern Territory," and will be treated of in a separate chapter. 3. Victoria, occupying the south-eastern extremity ot the continent. 4. Tasmania, an island lying to the southward of Vic- toria, and in old days regarded as a portion of the main- land. 5. New South Wales, occupying the southern part of the east coast, and stretching westward as far as the boun- dary line of South Australia. 6. Queensland, lying north from New South Wales, and comprising the north-eastern portion of the conti- nent. Before proceeding to describe the colonies, a brief account of the general aspect of Australia becomes neces- sary, inclusive of its geology, water system, mountains, etc. ; for, most of the prominent features being common to the several political divisions, much repetition will be thereby avoided. Our knowledge of the Australian sea-board is very full and accurate, and the whole of the coast line has been carefully examined and correctly marked on the charts. VN KNOWN INTERIOR. 5 It is when we cast our eye on the map and see the vast extent of country without a name to indicate that the foot of the white man has ever been set there, that we become conscious of how much still remains to be done. Every year, however, sees bands of hardy explorers turning their faces resolutely towards the interior, and increasing our knowledge of a hitherto unknown land. Since the con- struction by the South Australian Government of a telegraph line across the entire continent, from north to south, a new base for exploration has been formed, of which many in- trepid men' have availed themselves, and at this time its impenetrable secrets may be said to have been wrested from the desert. The new country encountered by War- burton, Ross, and Forrest possesses but little attractions to either the stock owner or the agriculturist, but perhaps at some future day overland communication between South and Western Australia may crown the efforts and reward the labours of the gallant pioneers. Viewed as a whole, the physical aspect of Australia is most peculiar, for the country may be regarded as one vast plain of table land, with an edging of fertile sea board, varying in depth from one to two hundred miles. The interior (or table land) is considerably elevated above the level of the sea, and is studded with groups of moun- tains, too diminutive and isolated to exercise much climatic influence on the continent, being neither of sufficient extent 6 PHYSICAL ASPECT. or altitude to precipitate rain, or to give birth to rivers whose cheering waters, did they but exist, would fertilise the desert and convert arid wastes into smiling cornfields and luxuriant pastures. An ordinary plate, if placed upside down on a table, would give a homely, but not inapt, representation of the physical geography of Australia. The flat bottom would represent the elevated interior, and the sloping sides the fertile tract lying between it and the sea, the table on which the plate rests doing duty for the latter. Of course, such an illustration would be very rough, for in some places the strip between the range and the sea narrows to fifty miles, while at others it ex- pands to over two hundred, but nevertheless it would serve to give a general idea of the formation of the con- tinent. Thus it will be evident that the principal mountain ranges are those lying parallel to the sea-coast, of which the chief are found on the east side of the continent, commencing in the Cape York peninsula at the north, and terminating in the Australian Alps to the south. This continuous range is sometimes designated the Eastern Cordillera, and from it spring all the rivers which water that part of Australia. With one exception, the Murray and its tributaries, these streams have their origin on the outer side of the mountains, and flow into the sea after a short course of a few hundred miles. Any that RIVERS. 7 emanate from the side next the interior are speedily drunk up by the thirsty sand, or form huge marshes, the breeding ground of the black swan, the goose, and the wild-duck. It may justly be said that there is no other country in the world possessing such a large extent of coastline that is blessed with so few navigable rivers. By far the most important belong to the eastern half of the continent, the western portion being very scantily supplied throughout the greater part of its territory. On the north coast we find the Albert, the Roper, the Adelaide, and the Victoria, some of them giving promise of an easy high road into the interior, but all running out in a few hundred miles, and serving only to drain the country seaward of the table- land. How disappointing these magnificent rivers, which after a short distance dwindle away to paltry little streams, and ultimately die out altogether, prove to explorers, is sufficiently evidenced by all journals of Australian dis- covery. I will take as an example the finding of the Victoria River, thus described by Captain Stokes, R.N. : — "Our preparations were rapidly made, a few days' pro- visions were stowed away in the boat, and as the western sky glowed red in the expiring light of day, the gig was running before a north-west breeze for the chasm in the distant high land, bearing S. 20 E., twelve miles from the ship. As we advanced the separation in the range became 8 THE VICTORIA. more marked and distinct, as long as the light served us, but presently darkness wrapped all in impenetrable mystery. Still we ran on, keeping close to the eastern low- land, and just as we found that the course we held no longer appeared to follow the direction of the channel, out burst the moon above the hills in all its glory, shed- ding a silvery stream of light upon the water, and reveal- ing to our anxious eyes the long-looked-for river, rippling and swelling as it forced its way between high rocky ranges. Under any circumstances the discovery would have been delightful, but the time, the previous darkness, the moon rising and spreading the whole before us like a panorama, made the scene so unusually exciting that I forbear any attempt to describe the mingled emotions of that moment of triumph. As we ran in between the frowning heights, the lead gave a depth of eighteen and twenty fathoms, the velocity of the stream at the same time clearly showing how large a body of water was pouring through. ' This is indeed a noble river ! ' burst from several lips at the same moment. ' And worthy,' con- tinued I, ' of being honoured with the name of her most gracious majesty the Queen ;' which Captain Wickham fully concurred in by at once bestowing upon it the name of ' Victoria River.' "A glance at the map will show that we have not over- rated its importance, or acted hastily in calling it the ITS SHORT COURSE. 9 Victoria ; and it must be admitted that as the Murray is to South-Eastern Australia, so in value and importance is the great river Victoria to the opposite side of the con- tinent." The reader will remark the last paragraph above quoted, which sufficiently indicates the great importance attached to their discovery by the surveying officers. The Beagle herself was moved fifty miles up the great river, and might have gone even further still. There is little wonder that her crew thought a water-road into the unknown interior had been found, and rejoiced accord- ingly. But further investigation dashed all such hopes to the ground. A well-furnished and strong expedition was equipped and sent to follow up the course of the mighty Victoria — the Murray of the North. They did so, and what was the result ? Why, simply that the vaunted river was found to run out in less than three hundred miles, being, in fact, only a large drain for a patch of country in the neighbourhood of the coast. Such disappointments as the above used constantly to befall explorers, for at that time a theory that the interior was a vast inland sea was rife, and every watercourse of any magnitude seemed to its excited discoverers the path by which that land-locked ocean was to be gained. We have grown wiser now, and, knowing that lofty 10 RIVERS. mountain ranges are absent, recognise the impossibility of any great rivers in the interior of Australia. The principal streams on the east coast are the Burdekin, the Fitzroy, the Brisbane, the Clarence, the Richmond, the Tweed, the Manning, the Hunter, the Hawkesbury, and others. On the south are the Murray, the Yarra-Yarra, and the Glenelg. On the west, the Swan River, the Murchison, the Fortescue, and the De Grey. Nearly the whole of the foregoing list consists of streams short in their course and uncertain as regards the body of water they carry to the ocean. There is but one notable exception, which I mentioned before — the Murray and its tributaries. The Eastern Cordilleras terminate in a magnificent wall of mountains reaching an elevation of seven thousand feet, known as the Australian Alps. On the west or land side of this range the Murray takes its rise, and is fed by the snows and the constant drainage of the lofty Alps, to which it owes its existence. Amongst the main tributaries of the Murray may be mentioned the Murrumbidgee and the Darling, and its course is a winding one of fifteen hundred miles in length, when it terminates in the sea at Lake Alexandrina. Although it is here and there interrupted by rapids, the Murray may be regarded as a sluggish river. As a rule it floods its banks once a year, but both the rise and the fall are very gradual. Captain Charles Sturt, who dis- THE MURRAY. II covered its lower waters, says, " The natives look to this periodical overflow of their river with as much anxiety as the Egyptians do to the overflowing of the Nile. To both they are the bountiful dispensation of a beneficent Creator ; for, as the sacred stream rewards the husband- man with a double harvest, so does the Murray replenish the exhausted reservoirs of the poor children of the desert with fish." The tributaries of the Murray drain the eastern margin of the great plain, the only portion of the continent pre- senting a fall of land sufficient to allow the streams having their birth therein to reach the noble river, which, rising in the Australian Alps, conducts their united masses of water to the sea. Of the Murray, Mr. Ranken says, " This river, then, is the only true and permanent outlet to the drainage — that is to any of the drainages — of an area of one and a half millions of square miles — at least half the country. It is the one river system of Australia only possible here." The Murray, although a permanent stream, depends greatly on its tributaries for water, and its depth varies according to the nature of the season. Of small size at its source, it soon swells into a fine river, its breadth at the junction of the Murrumbidgee being from three to four hundred feet. Here it flows over a clear bed, which abounds with sand banks, causing the depth of water to 12 THE MURRAY. vary considerably. Captain Sturt, who first entered the lower Murray from the Murrumbidgee, and followed its course to Lake Alexandria, describes it as flowing through an unbroken and uninteresting country of equal sameness of feature and of vegetation. /On proceeding further down the stream entered a limestone country. The intrepid explorer says, "The river, although we had passed occasional rapids of the most dangerous kind, had maintained a sandy character from our first acquaintance with it to the limestone division. It now forced itself through a glen of that rock of half a mile in width, fre- quently striking precipices of more than two hundred feet perpendicular elevation, in which coral and fossil remains were plentifully imbedded." On turning to the south- ward the Murray lost its sandy bed, and became still, deep, and turbid, the glen expanding into a valley, and the alluvial flats, which had hitherto been of inconsiderable size, becoming proportionately extensive. Its breadth also increased to more than four hundred yards, with a depth of twenty feet close to the shore. At some dis- tance from Lake Alexandria the limestone cliffs gave place to undulating and picturesque hills, beneath which thousands of acres of the richest flats extended. Such is a brief description of the most important amongst the Australian rivers. Those rising in the mountain ranges, and flowing directly into the sea after a SUDDEN FLOODS. 1 3 course of two or three hundred miles, are often mere beds of sand, lined with the tea tree {inelalenca), and she-oak (Casuarina), until the appearance of huge mangrove flats indicates that the point where tidal influence is perceptible has been reached. It is a common thing to hear people in conversation say, " The Australian rivers are dry." This is very often the case, for, as a rule, their course is so short, and the climate so dry, that, in the summer, they shrink into a chain of water-holes, though a few days' rain swells them into roaring torrents, carrying away everything before them. An instance of the rapidity with which a river will rise came within my own experience when camped with a flock of travelling sheep on the Burdekin. The bed of the river was at least a quarter of a mile wide, but drought had diminished the current to a little stream so narrow that we were able to bridge it with three ordinary hurdles. On a remarkably hot afternoon a distant rushing sound became audible, and on looking up the dry reach we saw a wall of water coming down. There was only just time to get the sheep across and remove the hurdles before the whole bed of the river became a turbid sheet of water. In half an hour it was saddle-flap deep, and at daylight on the following morning neither man nor horse could have crossed without danger. This sudden rise was occasioned by rain on a tributary of the Burdekin, several hundred 14 MARSHES. miles distant from the spot on which we were en- camped. There are but few lakes worthy of the name in Australia, though huge reedy marshes, formed by the drainage of insignificant watercourses, are found in some portions of the interior. One great peculiarity of these streams is the rapidity with which, even when full of water, they become totally lost in marshes or quicksands. Captain Sturt mentions a curious instance of this. He was following the course of the Macquarie at a spot where the stream was from thirty-five to forty yards in breadth, when the channel, which had hitherto promised well, without any change in its depth or breadth, suddenly ceased altogether, and the boat grounded. Ascending a tree, the explorer gazed around and beheld a desolate waste of high reeds in every direction except that from which he had come. He says : " As soon as we arrived at the end of the main channel, we again got out of the boat, and, in pushing up the smaller one, soon found ourselves under a dark arch of reeds ; it did not, however, continue more than twenty yards when it ceased, and I walked round the head of it as I had done round that of the other. We then examined the space between the creeks, where the bank receives the force of the current, which I did not doubt had formed them by the separation of its eddies. LAKES. 15 Observing water among the reeds, I pushed through them with infinite labour to a considerable distance. The soil proved to be a stiff clay; the reeds were closely embodied, and from ten to twelve feet high ; the waters were in some places ankle deep, and in others scarcely covered the surface. They were flowing from different points, with greater speed than those of the river, which at once convinced me that they were not permanent, but must have lodged in the night, during which so much rain had fallen. They ultimately appeared to flow to the northward, but I found it impossible to follow them, and it was not without difficulty that, after having wandered about at every point of the compass, I again reached the boat." A body of lakes — so called — are grouped together in South Australia, at the head of Spencer's Gulf, one of which, Lake Torrens, is one hundred and forty miles in length, but very narrow. It is nothing more than a salt sheet of mud, for Mr. Eyre penetrated into its bed for about six miles without finding anything but -mire, into which his horses sank up to their bellies. Viewed as a continent Australia may be fairly termed lakeless. But if deficient in inland waters and rivers, Australia possesses some excellent harbours and many capacious gulfs and bays, in which the navies of the world might ride in safety. A glance at the map will show that the 1 6 GULFS. configuration of the coast presents few irregularities ; there are but two or three peninsulas and four indentations, namely, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the large inlet leading to Cambridge Gulf on the north, and Spencer and St. Vincent Gulfs on the south. The long curve which forms the Great Australian Bight, can hardly be called an indentation, being only a huge bay exposed to the full fury of the Southern Ocean. With the exception of this unfavoured locality, the whole coast line abounds with small bays and inlets where the tempest -tossed mariner may find security and rest. The Gulf of Carpentaria, which indents the north coast from longitude 158 to 164 East, has several harbours on its shores, amongst which I may mention Melville Bay and York Harbour. From Cape York, the northern extremity of the conti- nent, the coast trends in a south-easterly direction as far as Cape Byron, at which point it suddenly turns south- west. Along the northern portion of this coast, for a distance of nearly thirteen hundred miles, extends the immense coral formation known as the Great Barrier Reef, lying at a distance off the shore which varies from fifteen to one hundred and twenty miles.- Of this stupendous mass Mr. Ranken says : " Founded upon the continent, it extended seaward as the land sank in the course of ages, for the ocean of builders only work in GREAT BARRIER REEF. 1 7 shallow water ; so that it now stands clear of the conti- nent, leaving a narrow inside passage, extending north to New Guinea, where the ship may pass out to the ocean, through innumerable and ever-changing coral isles and reefs, the most difficult navigation in southern seas." Throughout the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef numerous, though dangerous, passages are found, by which ships may gain the smooth belt of water lying between it and the shore. At its southern extremity the Barrier is a long distance from the land, and approaches the latter most closely at Cape Tribulation, where the passage is extremely narrow. Notwithstanding its shoals and sunken reefs, this inner channel is much used by vessels proceeding through Torres Straits, the smooth water and the distance saved more than counterbalancing the dangers incurred. There are many beautiful har- bours on this coast; one, indeed, Rockingham Bay, being the beau-ideal of a roadstead, from the advantages of good holding ground and smooth water which it possesses. Further south we find Port Denison, Keppel Bay, Moreton Bay, Port Stephen, Broken Bay, Port Jackson, Botany Bay, Jervis Bay, Twofold Bay, all of which are good harbours. On the south coast are Western Port, Port Phillip, and Portland Bay ; to the westward of which lie the two deep indentations named St. Vincent's Gulf c 1 3 HARBOURS. and Spencer's Gulf. The harbour and City of Adelaide stand on an inlet on the eastern side of the former. Port Lincoln lies to the west of Spencer's Gulf, and is the last harbour worthy of mention for many hundred miles, a distance occupied by the long sweep of coast known as the Great Australian Bight. In Western Australia are the harbours of King George's Sound (Albany), Swan River (Perth), and Shark's Bay; while to the north-west lie Exmouth Gulf, Roebuck Bay, Admiralty Gulf, Cambridge Gulf, and Port Darwin, besides many others that from the absence of any settlement in their vicinity need not be mentioned here. Tasmania possesses fine bays and harbours, the most prominent being Storm Bay, Oyster Bay, Port Dalrymple, and Macquarie Harbour. The reader must bear in mind that only a few out of the many havens scattered along the Australian coast are mentioned in the above list. To give the name of every anchorage would fill a volume, and would only prove tedious and confusing. Lofty and prominent headlands mark the entrances to some of the bays ; others are low- lying at the mouths of rivers, or, as in the case of Rockingham Bay and Port Denison, the anchorage is protected by islands. Of the headlands the most pro- minent are Cape York, at the north-east extremity of the continent ; Cape Howe, at the south-east ; Wilson's ISLANDS. 19 Promontory, Cape Otway, and Cape Northumberland on the south coast ; Cape Leeuwin at the south-west corner ; North-west Cape on the west ; and Cape Londonderry and Cape Van Diemen on the north coast. Tasmania boasts of Cape Grim, South Cape, Cape Pillar, Tasman's Head, and many others. There are but few islands on the Australian coast of any consequence, except Tasmania, which I shall describe by itself further on. The next in size is Kangaroo Island, situated at the entrance of Gulf St. Vincent, towards which it performs the part of a natural break- water. It is covered with dense scrub, and has a very scanty supply of water; therefore for agricultural purposes it is quite useless. It lies nearly east and west, and is a hundred miles in length. Following the coast westward, we come to Nuyts' Archipelago, at the eastern ex- tremity of the Great Bight, and the Recherche Archi- pelago at its western termination. They are mere clusters of little islands, barren and inhospitable. The same description applies to Houtman's Abrolhos, Dirk Hartog's Island, Dorre Island, Barow Island, and the Dampier Archipelago on the west coast. On the north coast are Bathurst Island and Melville Island, separated from each other by a narrow arm of the sea called Apsley Strait, and together forming a breakwater to Van Diemen's Gulf. They are low, c 2 20 ISLANDS. swampy, covered with mangroves, and, though of considerable extent, utterly useless. Running the coast along eastward, we find Wessel Island, Groote Eylandt, Sir Edward Pellew's Islands, and Wellesley Islands, all of which, except the first mentioned, are in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Off Cape York we become entangled in a mass of islands, with which Torres Straits is everywhere studded, and which extend the whole distance to New Guinea. Thanks to the accurate surveys taken by Her Majesty's surveying vessels, the shoals and reefs of this dangerous channel are clearly shown on the charts, but navigation will always be attended with risk, more par- ticularly to sailing ships. To the naturalist and con- chologist it appears a perfect paradise. In calm weather, Mr. Montgomery Martin tells us " the beautiful light of the tropics is increased by the reflection of the nearly colourless bottom, covered with various molluscs, some perfectly transparent, others of various hues. Fish of all sizes, shapes, and colours are seen : the voracious shark, eagerly pursuing his prey ; the turtle, rolling along in his unwieldly shell; and sea-snakes of large dimen- sions and of glowing lustre may be traced in their rapid, gliding movements, as clearly as if they were flying in the air." On the Great Barrier Reef, and amongst the islands of Torres Strait and the Coral Sea, are the hunting BECtTE-DE-MER FISHING. 21 grounds of the beche-de-mer fishers. The sea-slug of which they are in quest {Uolothuria), is a repulsive- looking object, varying from one to two feet in length, by four to ten inches in circumference, and more nearly resembles a German sausage in form than anything else I know. The vessels employed in their capture are of very small size, to allow of their threading the mazes and windings of the reefs with greater facility, and are usually manned by the owner, another white man, and half-a- dozen Polynesian islanders, or Kanakas, as divers. The latter are very expert at this work, and seem perfectly at home in the water, facing even the sharks with which the reefs abound, without hesitation. Having arrived on the fishing ground, the first care of the men is to select an island for their head quarters, on which they clear a patch of land, and sow enough vege- table seed to keep off the attacks of scurvy during their tedious sojourn on the reef, a stay which sometimes ex- tends to three years. On the calm days they repair to the most likely spots, and the keen-eyed islanders quickly detect the waving feathery tentacles of the slugs, whose bodies lie buried in the triturated coral sand. If the water is shallow enough, a sort of pronged eel-spear is employed to bring the fish to the surface; but if too deep, recourse is had to diving. When the slugs are plentiful, a Kanaka will bring up a dozen at a time. 2 2 PRESERVATION OF THE FISH. The most favourable time, however, for the capture of the edible Holothuria is when the moon is bright and the water calm, as the fish are nocturnal in their habits, coming forth at night to feed, when they may be discerned in the sandy rifts of the coral crawling from place to place with a motion much resembling that of a gigantic cater- pillar. At the close of the day the fish are split open, boiled in their own liquid,* pressed out flat, and dried in the sun. On returning to head quarters they are taken ashore and smoked over a wood fire, which last operation converts them into genuine beche-de-mer, and they are fit for the market. The Chinese are the chief consumers of this delicacy, and the business is a paying one, although the monotony of such a life would drive most men melancholy mad. There are several species of the edible slug, varying in value from eighteen or twenty to two pounds per hun- dredweight. The crews of these vessels receive no regular pay, but work on shares, which stimulates them to procure a full cargo as soon as possible ; indeed, unless self-interest were brought into play, I do not see * A full description of the manner in which the bfiche-de-mer is prepared for the market, will be found in Vol. III. of the " Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition," under Captain Wilkes, pp, 218 — 222. BOOBY ISLAND. 23 how an owner would ever get hands for such employ- ment. But to return to the islands of Australia. At the western entrance of Torres Straits is Booby Island, which lies right in the ordinary track of vessels passing through the channel. On it is erected a small building, within which are stored some casks of salt meat, biscuits, and other provisions, together with a supply of water. A book is also kept here, in which passing vessels frequently enter their names, and other particulars, or deposit letters. The provisions are intended for the use of shipwrecked crews who might be able to reach the island in their boats, and the depot is in every respect an admirable and well-chosen one. Further south, following down the east coast, we find the Claremont Isles ; Lizard and Hinchinbrook Islands, the latter off Rockingham Bay ; the Cumberland Isles, Curtis Island, Frazer's Island, Moreton Island, and Stradbrooke Island. The features of all these islands closely resemble the mainland off which they lie, and few of them are turned to any account, with the exception of Curtis Island, on which there is a cattle station, and some of the islands in Moreton Bay, where sugar is cultivated. Such is a brief description of the configuration and geography of Australia, which, I fear, will prove but dry reading, and I now pass on to its geology. Bill CHAPTER II. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE FIFTH CONTINENT. The Great Plain — Theory that Australia was formerly divided by the Sea — Extinct Volcanoes — The Blanche Caves. llTHIN the limits of a small volume of this description, any attempt to treat of so vast a subject as the geology of an entire con- tinent, nearly the size of Europe, would be absurd, and I shall therefore confine my .*& self to a general and brief outline, bringing before the reader a few instances in which the mountains and caves possess a special interest of their own. In- deed, the geological structure of a great portion of the island is still unknown, although every fresh explorer materially assists in filling up the blank spaces on the map. The most remarkable feature of Australian geology is the absence of a secondary formation. The main table- THE GREAT PLAIN. 25 land is found to rest on tertiary sandstone, which directly overlies primary rock. Mr. Ranken, in his admirable work, " The Dominion of Australia," says : " The great plain appears to have been, at one period, a plateau ot sandstone ; for the edges of this, where highest and apparently less reduced by denudation, are of that sedi- ment; and the interior, although washed and scooped out in places, shows nothing against this view. Upon the south margin it presents walls of sandstone cliffs, the edge of a seemingly interminable plateau. Upon the west this sandstone, saliferous and ferruginous, with marshes laden with salt and gypsum, is interrupted by granite. The northern watershed shows, in places, sand- stone plateaux and cliffs, and deserts of loose sand. And the eastern margin of the great plain is generally a sand- stone tableland, sometimes washed down in wide smooth gaps by its subsidences and emergencies, often interrupted by volcanic overflows. Thus the soils are very similar, if not identical, throughout the great inland plain ; but differing upon the eastern and western margins, as these are interrupted by different igneous rocks, the former often trappean, the latter granitic. " The strips of country which occupy the seaboard, between the western, northern, and eastern margins of the plain and the ocean, are, however, more varied. For it is in this belt of coast country that there are more of. 26 THE GREAT PLAIN. indeed nearly all, the upheavals of strata and volcanic interruptions to the formations which, with the irregular- ities of surface that permit of more alluvial deposits, give a richer and more varied character to the land. The soil, as the climate, has therefore more variety and power of production coastwise than towards the interior. The soil, as the climate, is generally more miserable, forbid- ding, and monotonous as the flat interior is reached, and more promising as the mountainous coast lands are entered, particularly towards the eastern seaboard. The south coast is itself the margin of this inland plain of sterile sand. The north coast is 200 miles or more from the edge of the interior region, but it often shows pla- teaus of sandstone, even to its most northern extremities. On the west coast an undulating tableland of syenite or granite falls westward, but without volcanic rocks intrud- ing to much extent. South-east, between Spenser's Gulf and the Darling, meridional upheavals have occurred, as along the east coast, giving increased power of production to the land, in soil and climate. But all the east and north-east coast country is upraised, broken, and inter- rupted by volcanic action. The great Cordillera has been rent in many places, and floods of basalt and trap have swept over the sterile plains; spurs and parallel ranges have again broken the surface east and west of the main ridge ; extinct volcanoes have covered immense THEORY OF RECENT SUBMERSION. 2J areas with the richest soils • and all in varied tempera- tures near the sea." The sandstone tableland was caused, according to the best authorities, by a sudden upheaval of land which had hitherto been submerged beneath the ocean ; and to this is attributable the absence of all secondary formation. Every indication leads us to believe that only in the latest geological period has Australia risen from the sea. The recent deposits following directly on the primary rocks ; the salt lakes, the whole construction of the continent indicate this ; and geologists affirm that the southern coast is still in process of imperceptible but constant upheaval. The two deep indentations on either side of Australia, the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north, and the Gulfs of St. Vincent and Spencer to the south, with the numerous salt lakes adjacent to the two latter, lie so immediately opposite to each other, and the land separating them is of such recent formation, that many geologists are of opinion that at some former period the continent was divided into two or more islands. North of Lake Tor- rens are desert flats stretching far away into the interior, which consist of limestone, with recent marine shells and salt water. Some portions of this wilderness are com- posed of ridges of drift sand lying parallel with each other in endless succession ; whilst others consist of 2S THEORY OF RECENT SUBMERSION. immense beds of shingle, amidst whose desolation no blade of grass grows, and on which neither wheel of dray nor iron shod hoof of horse leaves the smallest impression. These miserable deserts seem as though they had been raised from beneath the ocean only a week before, and it has been ascertained that the marine fossils of this central tertiary bed consist of forms corresponding with those at present existing in the Australian seas ; therefore, all these circumstances being taken into consideration, it seems pretty certain that at some not far distant period the ocean rolled over the central portion of the great tableland. Another strong evidence in favour of the theory that the continent was formerly divided by the sea is found in the fact that the mountain ranges of Western Australia consist of primary rock ; and the Eastern Cordillera — the continuous range which commencing at Cape York in the north is only terminated by the snow-clad Austra- lian Alps in the south — is composed of granite, porphyry, and other ancient rocks, neither of which ranges have ever been covered by a tertiary sea. Near the boundary of Victoria the Australian Alps take a westerly sweep, and from their drainage the prin- cipal rivers of the continent are derived, the land through which they run being of a very inferior quality at any distance from the banks. This is particularly observable as regards the Murray. SOUTH AUSTRALIAN CHAIN. 29 To the westward of the Australian Alps is another great range commencing at Cape Jervis in the south, and con- tinuing, with varied heights, until it reaches Lake Torrens, occasionally, in its northern course, throwing off spurs to the right and left. This range is entirely disconnected with the Eastern Cordillera, and is detached and broken in many places. It perhaps attains its greatest height near Adelaide, where Mount Lofty rises 2,100 feet above the level of the sea. Between this range, denominated by the Rev. Julian Woods (to whose research we are chiefly indebted for our knowledge of Australian geology) the South Australian chain, and the western extremity of the Alps, is found a country which displays unquestionable evidence of having been, at some remote period, subject to fearful volcanic eruptions. This tract lies between Geelong and Cape Northumberland, and includes Mount Gambier, of which mention will be made further on. The plains in this region are studded with conical- shaped hills, each possessing a crater averaging from fifty to one hundred feet in depth ; but the volcanoes are now quiescent, scrub and brushwood grow in the funnel-like craters, and sheep dot the grass-clothed sides of the slum- bering hills. For miles around there are to be found large quantities of iron and pumice-stone, the latter as light as sponge and bearing token of a former state of 30 VOLCANIC REGION. fusion. At one spot in the Warrian Hills there are several exhausted craters within a circuit of a few miles, the bottom of each forming a little salt lake, whose sides are adorned with evergreen shrubs, and on whose placid waters float wild fowl of every description. On gaining the edge of one of these craters and gazing downwards, the visitor must be callous indeed if no cry of admira- tion at the lovely scenery escapes his lips. Further west we arrive at a continuation of this volcanic region, which may be included under the general title of Mount Gambier. It is a chain of craters extending nearly east and west, and three of these extinct volcanoes have lakes at the bottom. The Mount itself and its surround- ing scenery is so curious and yet so beautiful that I venture to quote the account of a visit made to it in 1844 by Sir George Grey and Mr. Angas, the well-known Australian artist. The latter says : — " A ride of nine miles, through a rich country thickly studded with blackwood trees, brought us to the foot of Mount Gambier, which is composed of the united shells or walls of three distinct craters (each containing a lake of water) that rise in abrupt peaks from a fertile and level country composed of a dark volcanic soil. After toiling up the outward slopes of the mountain at the most acces- sible place we could find, the sudden view of the interior of the largest crater burst upon us, and called forth our MOUNT GAMBIER. 3 1 rapturous admiration. It was, indeed, a glorious and enchanting scene : a vast hollow basin, rising at one side into a lofty peak, shut out from the world by the walls of lava that surrounded it, and covered with emerald verdure, burnished to an almost metallic brightness on those emi- nences that caught the golden tints of evening, which now lit up with a fairy-like radiance the eastern walls of the crater. Small hillocks, interspersed amongst miniature plains and valleys, carpeted with grass of the most velvet smoothness, and dotted here and there with a few trees, formed one portion of this enchanted dell. At its western extremity terrace above terrace rose along the edge of the crater, and caverns of red cellular lava opened in its sides occasionally. But the most pleasing sight, as we stood gazing on this scene of natural beauty, was the deep, still lake that filled the other half of the crater ; its dark- blue waters, never ruffled by the wind, lay in calm repose at the base of lofty cliffs of pure white coral limestone, every line of which was mirrored on its tranquil bosom. Some tern were skimming over the lake, and several small lakes or ponds ornamented the green carpet of this wondrous spot. The declining sun threw orange and amber reflections across the sky ; and as the light faded away, the steep walls of the volcano loomed solemn and terrible, the cold mists of night settled down upon the lake, and the scene of fairy loveliness was changed to one 32 BLUE LAKE. of lonely grandeur. All was still save the shrieking of the podargus ; and when the moon rose up from behind the dark peaks of lava, the effect was beautiful indeed ; the soft light bathing every object in that vapoury splendour which adds sublimity to the landscape. We bivouacked for the night within the crater, our fires glimmering like stars along the edge of the lake." The eastern crater, called the " Blue Lake," is a large and deep body of water of an oval shape, surrounded on all sides by banks between two and three hundred feet in height, and so steep and rugged that, except in one or two places, it is impossible to approach the water. The sides are thickly wooded, except where crags descend precipitously to the lake, whose dark-blue tint is rendered still more gloomy by the reflection of their stern and sombre fronts. This lake is two hundred and forty feet deep in the middle, and from soundings, the bottom appears to be flat and of equal depth throughout. The middle lake has no distinct peculiarity, being simply a good-sized sheet of water of moderate depth. In his book entitled " Geological Observations in South Australia," Mr. Woods gives a very full and accurate ac- count of the Mount Gambier district. He says that the spot now occupied by beautiful lakes has been succes- sively a coral reef, a desert, and a burning mountain. His conclusion is so striking, and conveys such a perfect GEOLOGICAL CHANGES. 33 notion of the wondrous changes the country must have undergone, that I trust the reader will bear with me if I extract it in full : — "Going back, in imagination, to the time when the coral was alive and covered by the sea, who could have thought it would come to be what it is now ? But ima- gination is not needed. We have only to glance at the remains before us to realise the truth of the tale they tell. These rocks were once covered by the green waters. There, while the rising tide dashed its sparkling waves through the groves of coral, where the busy polypi were plying their variegated arms in search of matter to add to these structures, a thousand fishes frisked for a while to die and leave their forms imprinted on the stone, while the cunning saurian slept among the aborescent forms, or wilily watched his prey. Then the earth slowly raised them from the waters, and life faded away. Fishes and reptiles are gone, and stones tell how they lived and died. The reef became a sandy desert, without a drop of water or a sign of vegetation to relieve the eye — a vast and dreary solitude. But Nature soon changes the scene. Subterranean thunders are heard ; earthquakes rumble and rock the ground. Then masses of stone fall in and give vent to smoke and steam, which rush from the centre of the earth. By and by, fire begins to appear, and Nature, no longer able to restrain the D 3-J. GEOLOGICAL CHANGES. ravages of heat, sends it forth into a bubbling, hissing cauldron of molten stone. Standing upon the brink (if human being could stand alive on such a place), while the air is darkened with smoke and ashes, and huge fragments of stone are being hurled into the air to fall into the hissing, seething mass below, while the light from the fire and the noise of explosion blinds the lightning or outbids the thunder overhead ; while the bellowing and splashing of a lake of fire make a scene at once horrible and magnificent, one could almost imagine one- self on the bank of Tartarus. But comparison would be in vain ; not even Vulcan could stand and describe such a scene. He might have thought — ■ ' In Chaos antiquum confundimur . . . . . . Ncque enim tolerare vaporem Ulterius potuit, ncc diccre plura.' Ov. Phaeton. " But now how changed is the scene ! The smoke has cleared away, and the fires are extinct. Nature is at her repose. The melted walls have cooled, and an azure lake covers them. The ashes on the bank are covered with verdure, and reeds grow where fire glowed. The underground thunders are indeed heard no more, but the wind sends a soft moaning through the shrubs, while the gentle splashing of the calm and glassy lake is now the only echo that is heard from shore to shore." MOUNT SCHANK. 35 About ten miles from the sea and eight miles from Mount Gambier another peculiar truncated cone is seen rising six hundred feet above the level plain ; this is Mount Schank. Its ascent is very steep, and the sides of the mount are clothed with grass, groups of shea-oak trees being scattered every here and there. On gaining the summit the visitor notices that the lakes which gave an air of placid loveliness to Mount Gambier are absent, but from the rim or outer edge of the crater, a grand and stupendous scene is opened to the view. The interior is one vast hollow basin, upwards of two miles in circum- ference, and so deep that the trees growing in the rich soil of the sheltered bottom appear to the eye like small shrubs dotted over its surface. Looking beyond, the panorama is bounded only by the thin blue haze of immeasurable distance. The far off horizon of the south- ern ocean stretches away, until broken by the high land at Cape Nelson; the sinuous course of the Glenelg, marking the boundary between Victoria and South Aus- tralia, Bridgewater and Discovery Bays, and the bold headland of Cape Northumberland, may all be clearly discerned from the brow of Mount Schank. Heaps of black cellular lava surround its base, and in one place is found a little lake of great beauty, which is supposed to have afforded a vent for the steam in the time of the volcano's activity. 36 BOTTOMLESS HOLES. An extraordinary thing, which is common amongst the rocks about midway between Mounts Gambier and Schank, is the existence of well-shaped holes in the ground, which descend perpendicularly into the earth, and to which no bottom can be found." One is three feet in diameter, the others of smaller dimensions, and if any solid substance, such as a good-sized stone, be dropped down, it can be heard rumbling in the distance, the noise dying gradually away, and giving no indication of any obstacle to stop its downward career. There are not many caves in Australia, except in two or three localities, the principal being found in the lime- stone formations of South Australia, and Mr. Woods appears to be the only person who has attempted a description of their beauties ; his account, though very curious, is far too long to admit of my inserting it in full, so I shall content myself with a few extracts. On the Mosquito Plains, about twenty-five miles north of Penola, in the midst of a sandy, swampy country, are found the Blanche caves, whose internal beauty offers a striking contrast to the wildness reigning without. No outward indication leads the traveller to expect any great subterranean excavation, the entrance being merely a round hole, situated on the top of a hill, which a stranger * " Geological Observations in South Australia," by the Rev. Julian Edmund WooJs, F.G.S., F.R.S.V., F.P.S., &c, page 265. A NATURAL CATHEDRAL. 37 might pass a dozen times without noticing anything peculiar. On going to the edge of this hole, a small path, leading under a shelf of rock, is observed, and on descending this the first glimpse is caught of the wonders thus unex- pectedly revealed. " The observer finds himself at the entrance of a large oblong square chamber low, but per- fectly lighted by an aperture at the opposite end, and all around, above and below, the eye is bewildered by a pro- fusion of ornaments and decoration of Nature's own devising. It is like an immense Gothic cathedral, and the number of half-finished stalagmites, which rise from the ground like kneeling or prostrate forms, seem wor- shippers in that silent and solemn place. " The walls are pretty even in outline, generally un- broken nearly to the floor, and then for the most part they shelve in as far as the eye can reach, leaving a wedge-shaped aperture nearly all round. This seems devised by Nature to add to the embellishment of the place ; for in the space thus left, droppings of limestone have formed the most fanciful tracery, where pillars of every shape wind into small groups, like garlands of flowers, or stand out like the portico of a Grecian temple, the supports becoming smaller and smaller till they join like a mass of carved marble. "At the farther end there is an immense stalactite, 3b THE BLANCHE CAVES. which appears like a support to the whole roof. This shuts from the view the aperture in the roof behind it, so that the light steals in with a subdued radiance, which mellows and softens the aspect of the whole chamber. The pillar is about ten feet in diameter, and, being formed of the dripping of limestone from above, in successive layers, seems as though it owed its elaborate appearance to the hand of Art, not the least beautiful part of it being that it is tinted by almost every variety of colour, one side being a delicate azure, with passages of blue and green and pink intermingled ; and again it is snowy white, finally merging into a golden yellow." The length of this cavern is about 190 feet, and it is separated from the second cave by the stalactite described above. This next subterranean chamber is smaller than the first, and differs from it in being so thickly studded with stalactites that a clear glance through it is impossible. These have the appearance of groined arches, being broader at the top than at the base. " Some are thin, and look, from the manner in which they are deposited, as if they were gracefully festooned in honour of some festival ; some are mere delicate shafts, and every now and then some large unfinished stalagmite appears in the form of a veiled statue, mysteriously enshrouded in heavy white drapery." This cave is about half the length of the first, and at '1HE LAST CHAMBER. 39 its end is an aperture caused by the falling in of a portion of the roof. Many years ago the natives destroyed three hundred sheep at this spot, by throwing them down the hole on to the hard rock beneath. An opening on one side conducts the visitor to the third cave, which is so thickly studded with stalactites and boulders that tra- velling becomes a difficult matter, particularly as the darkness is impenetrable and torches must be resorted to, to enable the explorer to avoid the dangerous fis- sures, a fall into which would prove fatal. As you advance the roof becomes lower and lower, and finally it is necessary to stoop very low in order to proceed. "It is not without a shudder that one goes through this passage. Far away from the light of day, this groping along a small vault makes one dread to be bent down between stone walls, unable to stand straight or breathe freely. The passage widens, however, when the last chamber is reached. There are few stalactites here, but the number of boulders increases, so that to explore the place is to climb and scramble from rock to rock. - At the upper end there is an immense mass of stone, by scaling which the cave is seen to narrow, so that human beings can hardly go farther. There are, however, many passages at either side of this and the other chamber, some of which have been explored, and it would appear that they are continuous to an immense 40 PAINFUL STILLNESS. depth underground. This, therefore, may be called the last chamber, though filled to bewilderment with fissures and galleries which may lead into as many more. " A painful stillness reigns in this last cavern, which becomes positively unbearable after remaining a little time. Humboldt, in his account of the caves of Guacharo, complains that the noise of the birds dwelling there gives an awful addition to the horror of those underground vaults ; but any noise would be less dreary than the dead silence which reigns here. Whether it is that the air is hot and close, or whether the depth compresses the atmosphere beyond its usual density, I cannot say, but certainly the quiet presses painfully upon the sense ot hearing, and the closeness gives a feeling of smothering which adds to the horror of a place deep in the earth and far from the light of heaven. " At the side of one of the boulders, on the right-hand side in entering, in a crevice between it and the wall where Nature seems to have made a natural couch, lies, in the position of one asleep, with the head resting on the hand and the other limbs reclining, the dried and shrivelled corpse of a native, but slightly decayed, and almost petrified by the droppings of the limestone. It is known to have been there many years without decom- position, though the fingers and feet become annually more encrusted with stalactite." A SOLID SHROUD. 4 1 About the time that the natives destroyed the sheep mentioned above, this black fellow was mortally wounded by a rifle ball, and crawled away into the recesses of the inner cavern, either for the sake of concealment or to die in quiet. When after a great number of years the remains were discovered, the limestone had furnished a solid shroud which effectually prevented decay. The body is no longer there, having been stolen by an enterprising showman, from whose hands it was once rescued, but who was finally successful in carrying it off, despite the efforts of the Government to recover it. On leaving the last cave a narrow fissure is observable on the right-hand side, which conducts to a dark vaulted chamber, of whose beauties Mr. Woods speaks in such glowing terms that I cannot find the heart to abridge his description : — " Here, above all other portions of the caves, has Nature been prodigal of the fantastic ornament with which the whole place abounds. There are pillars so finely formed and covered with such delicate trelliswork, there are droppings of lime making such Scrollwork, that the eye is bewildered with the extent and variety of the adornment : it is like a palace of ice, with frozen cascades and fountains all around. At one side there is a stalactite like a huge candle that has guttered down at the side ; at another, there is a group of pillars, which were originally like a series of hour-glasses, set one upcn 42 DEEP CAVE. another from the roof to the ground, and the parts bulging out are connected by droppings like icicles, making them appear most elaborately carved. In addition to this, there is above and below — so that the roof glistens and the ground crackles as you walk — a multitude of small stalactites, which fill the whole scene with frostings that sparkle like gems in the torchlight." In one of the passages leading away from this chamber there is an opening, which after being followed for some distance (on all-fours, for it is exceedingly small), leads into another spacious chamber, full of stalactites, open to the sky at one end by a wide aperture. This latter cave was known for a long time as Deep Cave, and con- tains nothing peculiar beyond its magnificent stalactites. I am afraid that I have quoted at great length from Mr. Woods, concerning the Blanche caves, but my excuse must be that they are but little known either in England or in Australia ; and the latter country presents so few natural beauties compared with other more favoured portions of the globe, that I should be doing it injustice were I to skim lightly over what are undeniably very curious and beautiful freaks of nature. At Wellington Valley, in New South Wales, there are some very fine caves, in which are found large deposits of the bones of extinct animals. In appearance they much resemble the caverns of South Australia. Pro- SANDSTONE PILLARS. 43 fessor Owen has proved the existence of a past genera- tion of huge marsupials, much bigger than the ordinary kangaroo of the present day, from specimens of bones found in these caves. Captain (now Sir George) Grey, whilst exploring on the north-east coast, found several caves, of no great dimensions, but remarkable from the fact that they contained paintings of human figures, kangaroos, birds, &c, daubed on the walls by the natives in red, blue, yellow, and white pigments. The tableland on the summit of some of the sandstone ranges in that part of the continent is remarkable from the number of lofty isolated pillars of fantastic form, found standing in such close proximity to each other that they present no slight resemblance to an unroofed cathedral aisle. The constant action of water accounts for these. In many parts of Australia the depressions in the flat country are occupied by shallow briny lagoons. The Great Salt Lake of Korangamyte, sixty miles west of Geelong, measures eighty miles in circumference, and although its waters are so salt as to be undrinkable, large flocks of wild fowl choose its surface for their abode. A considerable trade in the collection and transport of salt is carried on in the neighbourhood of Geelong, hundreds of tons being obtained annually from these natural sources. CHAPTER III. THE ABORIGINES. Large Number of Tribes — Ignorance of the Blacks — Their Personal Appearance and Adornments — Weapons — Food — A " Cor- robbory" — Disposal of the Dead — Brutal Treatment of the Women — Absence of all Religious Feeling — Anecdotes of Edu- cated Natives — Speculations regarding their Origin. ■ . .. ~J^j\ I . ^■'.'V\EPvN F may be regarded as a general rule ' ''' >4l "* \ throughout the world, that as the wave of |V ';? civilisation sweeps onward the primitive ^ * inhabitants of the country are driven back *■ into the wilderness, to make room for the ■*y new-comers. Dispossessed of the lands from which they wrung a subsistence, and barely tolerated by their formidable invaders, the children of the soil diminish annually in number, and ultimately die out, leaving but a few musical names to indicate where powerful tribes had perhaps roamed for centuries. In America, in Africa we see this, and Australia is no NUMEROUS TRIBES. 45 exception to the rule. Where the aboriginal once turned up the earth with a fire-hardened stick in quest of wild yams and other roots, the mould-board plough of the settler now glints in the sun. The scrub he was wont to watch for wallabies has fallen beneath the axe, and it is vain for him to seek for kangaroos and emus on the plains, for the latter have long since been appropriated by the white man for the nourishment of his sheep and cattle. What is left for the black fellow ? Nothing but to die out ; and this he is doing with great rapidity, his exit from the scene being frequently hastened by a bullet, or by the new vices his displacers have taught him. The Australian aboriginals are a nomad race, thinly scattered over all parts of the continent, but being most numerous on the coast, or in the neighbourhood of large rivers with permanent water. Into how many different tribes this people is divided it is quite impossible to say, for in some parts each creek has a clan of its own, who speak a language quite distinct from their neighbours. The abundance or the scarcity of game entirely rules the number, the distribution, and the physical character of the natives. In the vast interior they can hardly be classed as tribes, but are rather families of miserable savages, ever struggling to escape destruction by famine and drought. When two parties of these wretched beings meet they do not come to blows, but the weakest vacates 46 NUMEROUS TRIBES. the district — the desert will not afford sustenance for all. On the sea-coast and on the great rivers the aboriginals obtain a more generous diet ; they look to the sea for a supply of fish, and they capture the marsupial animals in the forest. These men are loftier in stature, more intelligent and more warlike than the people of the interior ; and above all, they are much more numerous, swelling into tribes that number several hundred war- riors. The produce of the sea, the river, and the forest enables the country to support them. How numerous the tribes on the coast are may be judged from the fact that James Morrill, a shipwrecked sailor who had lived for seventeen years amongst the blacks in the neighbourhood of Port Denison, was unable to hold converse with any but the tribe that sheltered him, the area of whose hunting ground was very limited ; and yet the district was thickly peopled with natives in comparison with other parts. All of these had a distinct dialect, and wandered over a recog- nised tract of country ; any trespass leading to reprisals and sanguinary raids. It is justly said that no other country in the world supports so few inhabitants ; and I much doubt if any other country is peopled by so low a type of natives. Mr. Ranken says, " The inferiority of the aborigi- INFERIORITY OF THE RACE. 47 ml race is shown more by its extremely low stan- dard of intellect than by its numerical weakness. The race is without vigour, much less ferocity or warlike energy ; it is listless, by no means aggressive ; it is held down by the continual struggle with nature, and only survives as a wretched specimen of humanity. Some races are conquered or spoilt by the luxuriant kindness of nature, as in tropical gardens ; and others are over- come in the fight against starvation, as in the polar wastes. But here we have a race first enervated by a mild temperate climate, which has no winter nor a regu- larity of season, and then subjected to uncertain ex- tremes of drought and famine. The coldest season in Australia, except upon the highest southern ranges, cannot be called a winter ; it requires no provision to be made against it, so the people have no thought of to-morrow; they are utterly improvident. The driest and the wettest season cannot be foretold; they occur at ever-varying intervals, not of months, but of years ; they cannot be anticipated, so the people are careless, listless, and hopeless in calamity. The struggles required to survive are frequent and severe, but the mild climate never braces her children for that struggle. Intellectually, as physically, the race is poor and weak. Ignorant beyond comparison, they are abjectly subject to terror, yet have not acquired a mythology, nor any one 4S THEIR IGNORANCE. general superstition. In the darkest forest, beneath the highest mountains, by the dreary silent lakes of the southern highlands, they have retained the tradition of some animal, probably an inland seal, which is now extinct. They have in their ignorance learned to dread the re-appearance of this animal, and have some common feeling approaching a superstition regarding it. White men came, and spoke of a devil. Now, the step is short from their ' banyip ' to this ' devil ' ; so they learnt a superstition. But it is not indigenous. Where there is no tradition of an extinct animal, as in the north of the continent, there is neither banyip nor devil ; few abori- ginals have any such idea, even from white men. It has been stated that they have an idea of the Supreme Being and of the transmigration of souls ; but he who has been coversant with untutored ' black fellows,' he who has spent weeks and months with his black boy, riding alongside daily, and camping at the same fire nightly, and who has thoroughly surveyed that savage's mental range, knows well that there is not only no glimmering of such conceptions in that mind, but that these are quite beyond the grasp of such a weak intelligence." In stature the Australian savage is generally below the average height of the European ; more particularly as regards the women, who are shorter in proportion than the men, and whose limbs are not so well formed. PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 49 Occasionally tall men, over six feet high, are met with, but these are exceptions ; five feet seven, or even less, may be regarded as their average stature. The quality of the food on which they subsist has most to do with their physique, some of the tribes who live on abundance of animal food, being stout and robust, while the shrunken and attenuated limbs of the semi-starved natives of the interior seem hardly capable of supporting their emaciated bodies. The Australian natives are always called " blacks," but the real colour of their skin hardly warrants that appella- tion. When freed from the grease, charcoal, ochre, and dirt with which the savage delights in adorning himself, the skin is seen to be of a purplish-copper hue, many degrees removed from ebon. They have thick black curly hair, coarse, but never woolly like the negro ; and the beards and whiskers of the men are wiry and abun- dant ; indeed the whole body is often covered with hair to a greater or lesser degree. Their eyes are of a dark hazel, the white being tinged with yellow and bloodshot, which gives them a ferocious aspect. Their heads are pronounced by craniologists to possess the perceptive faculties, though in the reflective they are deficient ; amongst the women the intellectual development is ex- ceedingly small. As regards features, the natives have generally highish cheek bones, projecting brows, broad E 50 £>K£SS. depressed noses, large but pleasing mouths, beautiful teeth, narrow jaw-bones, and retiring chins. Some of them, both men and women, are really handsome, more particularly when the countenance is lighted up by a smile, and the whiteness of the ivory teeth is revealed. Their figures are generally good, but too meagre to suit European notions. Few black fellows run to fat ; I only remember to have seen one stout native during a stay of eight years in the country. Both men and women have a peculiar odour, which is very disagreeable, and which they heighten by rubbing their bodies with oil. It may easily be imagined that the close companionship of a black fellow who has covered his head with the entrails of a fish, and stood in the scorching sun until the oil has streamed down over his face and shoulders, is not de- sirable. The wardrobe of a native may in most cases be summed up in the word " nil" In the summer he wants no clothes, and in the winter — if such it can be called — he cannot get any. Some of them rejoice in rugs made of opossum skins, but the great majority wander about the forest naked as the day they were born. At Rock- ingham Bay I procured several blankets — there was no wool in them — from the natives, fabricated by beating out the inner bark of the tea-tree {Melaleuca) after it had gone through certain preparatory stages of soaking, &c. A DORNMENTS. 5 1 They could have afforded but little warmth ; however, in that tropical climate, this was of no consequence. A certain interest was attached to them from the bare fact of their being of native manufacture. When the black fellow is going to a fight or to a dance, he heightens his charms by a liberal application of paint, marking every rib on his body with a stripe of white ochre, which when viewed in the dusk against the dark background, appears like a skeleton careering about the earth. Besides the usual amount of grease or oil, the hair is, on festive occasions, plastered with bright red ochre and decorated with feathers. Some tribes wear a. long kangaroo bone thrust through a hole in the cartilage of the nose ; I have often seen blacks carrying their clay pipes in that fashion. A common personal adornment with both sexes is tattooing, not performed by puncturing the flesh with a shark's tooth or needle, as amongst the South Sea Islanders, but by cutting gashes with a shell and stuffing them with clay. The flesh, being unable to join, heals in raised wounds, of which the possessors are very proud. The Australian native never dreams of cultivating the ground, and prefers seeking a precarious subsistence in the bush to the little labour that would be requisite to keep himself and his family in plenty. Neither has he any fixed abode or habitation. His home is the first E 2 52 WEAPONS. convenient water-hole or river that seems likely to supply him with fish and fowl. He lights a fire, puts up half-a- dozen boughs to keep off the wind, and when night falls coils up by the embers and goes to sleep. Their principal weapon is the spear, in throwing which they exhibit wonderful dexterity. In some districts a "wimmera" or throwing-stick, is employed, and the spears in this case are made very light, generally of reed or grass-tree shoots (Xanthorrhcea hastilis), tipped with hard wood and barbed. When the weapon is launched straight from the hand, it is constructed of hard wood, sometimes plain, at other times rendered more formid- able by the addition of sharks' teeth, or the fearful spike of the stingaree. Another weapon peculiar to Australia is the boomerang, with whose curved flat form all my readers must be so familiar that it would be needless to describe it. In throwing it, the black stands with the weapon in his right hand (the curve being outward as a sickle is held in reap- ing) and his back turned towards the object he wishes to strike. Receding rapidly a few paces, he wheels half round and dashes the boomerang downward so that it meets the ground at a few yards distant from his feet. With a velocity seemingly increased by the contact it flies into the air with a loud whirring sound, and after performing a circuit of at least one hundred yards in SHIELDS AND CLUBS. 53 diameter, returns to within a few feet of the spot from whence it was launched. Some are constructed not to recoil, and are used for hunting purposes. Shields are oval in shape, made of a wonderfully light wood, and grotesquely stained with red and white clay and charcoal. Though not above two feet in length and five inches in width, they form a perfect defence for a warrior against the missiles of his enemies. Clubs are found in use everywhere under the names of " waddies " or " nulla-nullas," and seem put to every sort of employment, from braining an adversary to breaking the legs of a wife, should she need a little marital correction. It is very curious that the race of men who invented so puzzling an instrument as the boomerang, should never have discovered the bow and arrow — the most primitive of all weapons. This latter is totally unknown to the Australian tribes in all parts except the extreme north, in the vicinity of Cape York. Here the natives, who are very warlike, use long clumsy bows, made out of bamboo. The canoes vary much. In the north they are good- sized substantial vessels, chopped or burned out of a solid log ; in the south they consist simply of a sheet of bark turned up at the edges, and so crazy that it seems quite marvellous how the fishermen maintain their 54 HUNTING. balance. The hatchets used in hollowing out canoes, cutting spears, &c, are of stone, the handles being formed of pliable saplings twisted up in the way that blacksmiths fix hazel withes on their chisels and punches. They are awkward-looking tools, but the natives are very expert in their use. In the settled districts they all manage to obtain iron tomahawks. Most tribes manufacture baskets of grass or split cane, an art which is said to have been taught them by a ship- wrecked mariner. Nets, also, for catching fish and snaring game, are made from the fibres of various plants, and run to a large size. They sometimes build dams for the capture of fish, but not often. According to the season of the year, and the nature of the game he intends to pursue, so does the black arm himself for the chase, but in every case he is totally destitute of clothing. If in quest of opossums, he takes his tomahawk and two or three waddies. Scrutinising the trunks of the gum trees, his keen sight enables him to tell, by the scratches on the bark, whether the game is snugly within the hollow trunk or abroad. To climb up a forest giant without a lateral bough for eighty feet, he cuts a notch in the stem large enough to hold his big toe. Resting in this, he makes another incision, and so mounts upward until he reaches the branches and cuts out his sleepy victim. food. 55 If he is in search of wallaby, he watches by their runs in the scrub, and brings them to the ground by a blow from a "waddy," flung with unerring pre- cision. If he seek for wild duck, he lays aside all weapons, and having wreathed his head with a mass of grass, glides into the water and cautiously approaches the unsuspicious birds, whom he pulls down by the legs. If his object be to slay the stately emu, he takes waddy and spear, dragging the latter along by the toes. His back covered with an old emu skin, and his left arm raised to imitate the neck and head of the birds, he gradually approaches his game, and when near enough to make sure of his aim, launches the spear that rarely flies wide of its mark. In the matter of food the native is by no means over particular, eating with avidity snakes, iguanas, lizards, grubs of various kinds, the larvae of white ants, or in- deed anything that presents itself. The huge fat cream- coloured maggot found in the bark of the swamp oak is esteemed a peculiar delicacy. They are the grub of a species of moth of the cossus tribe, and even Euro- peans have been driven by hunger to overcome their disgust at the repulsive appearance of the maggots, and have perhaps saved their lives thereby. I remember their being first shown to me in Northern Queensland, 56 AN ADVENTURE. by one of the oldest and most experienced officers in the native police force. " These fellows carried me through once," said M y, "when it seemed likely to go hard with myself and my troopers. Poor Dick H was the only white man with me, and we had followed up a tribe of blacks, who had committed several murders, for nearly a fort- night. All our provisions were expended, and after we had settled old scores with the Myalls (blacks), we began to think how we should get back to the settled districts alive, for not a bird, kangaroo, or wallaby could be seen in the desolate basalt waste amidst which we found our- selves. After two days' fasting, I saw it was no use keeping the party together, and told the troopers to find their way back to camp as best they could. They started off in couples, leaving Dick and myself alone. By sundown on the following day we were reeling in our saddles with exhaustion, and resolved to kill one of our horses in the morning, if no game appeared at the water- hole near which we were camped. " Dawn appeared after a long night of misery. Neither bird nor beast had made their appearance, and nothing was left but to sacrifice a horse in hopes of saving our lives. We looked round for them, but they had wan- dered away in the night, and we were too weak to follow them. DIGGING GRUBS. 57 "'Come along, John, they have headed down the creek, and we must go after them,' said Dick, pointing to tracks in the sand. " Leaving our saddles at the camp, we started oft together, but before half a mile was covered my strength failed, and I was compelled to rest. Dick struggled on, leaving me behind, but within ten minutes my reflections, which were of anything but a pleasant nature, were broken by a loud coo-eh. Fearing that some accident had befallen Dick, I gained my legs and staggered on, anxiety probably supplying me with strength. From time to time the coo-ehs were repeated, and as I ap- proached I found they proceeded from a patch of swamp oak. Here I found Dick, with a knife in one hand and a pint pot in the other, digging grubs out of the trees. They were not plentiful, and our utmost exertions enabled us to collect only the pot full, a scanty meal for two famished men. " ' You eat them, John ; I can hold out better than you.' " ' Not I,' was my reply ; ' you found them, and they are yours.' " Dick was obstinate, so was I, and every moment was of importance. " ' Let us toss up for them,' I cried. " We did so, and I won. All efforts on my part to 58 NARDOO. induce H to share with me were useless, so I com- menced my disgusting breakfast, and soon found that I could have eaten half-a-dozen pots full. Strengthened by the food, I started after the horses, recovered them, managed to shoot a wallaby, and our lives were saved. Dick was a noble fellow. He might have eaten every one of the grubs himself without my knowing that he had found them. Poor fellow ! he is gone now." " Well, M y, what did they taste like ? " I asked with some curiosity. "That is more than I can tell you," he replied. " 'When a man is as desperately hungry as I was, he don't think much of flavour. From what I remember, they were delicious." Amongst the Murray blacks the root of the bulrush is largely eaten, cooked in ovens over heated stones. Wild yams are sought by all the tribes, the women digging them up with sharp-pointed stakes, called "yam-sticks" by the settlers, and kattas by the natives. The root of the lotus is also used for food in the north ; and the fleshy leaves of the mcscmbryantliemum, the " nardoo " seed (rendered memorable by the fate of Burke and Wills), the pulpy rind of the pandanus, and the heart of certain palms, together with the bringabunga, the wild plum, and various other indigenous fruits, are all used for food throughout the districts in which they are found. CA NNIBA L ISM. 5 9 Every living thing that frequents the water is eaten up by the natives — except the leech. I don't think they touch these. Tortoises, fish, eels, young alligators or the eggs containing them, water snakes, cray-fish and muscles, all are greedily devoured by the poor children of the wilderness. They are also at times cannibals. Some writers doubt this, but I know it to be a fact, if personal observation can be regarded as any evidence.* A German missionary states that, " At Moreton Bay, a lad having died, several men gathered round the body and removed the head and the thick outer skin, which was rolled upon a stake, and dried over a slow fire. During this horrid ceremony the father and the mother stood by, loudly weeping and lamenting, and the thighs were then roasted and eaten by the parents. The liver, heart, and entrails were divided amongst the warriors, who carried away portions on their spears ; and the skin and bones, together with the skull, were rolled up, and carried about by the parents in their grass bags or wallets." The Australian natives are by no means devoid of hu- mour, and laugh very heartily at a funny story. They also improvise cleverly, and bring in little local hits with great effect. A " corrobbory," or dance, on a large scale is a very curious thing to see, and some writers allege that on such occasions the performances are nearly allied to the * See " My wife and I in Queensland," page 270. 60 A CORROBBORY. ancient religious rites of Assyria and Phoenicia. In Mr. Angas's book, called " Savage Life in Australia," occurs the following description of the Kuri dance, which, for uniqueness and dramatic effect, stands unrivalled amongst the ceremonies of the aborigines : — " The performers were divided into five distinct classes, the greater body comprising about twenty-five young men, including five or six boys, painted and decorated as follows : — In nudity, except the yoodna, which is made expressly for the occasion, with bunches of gum leaves tied round the legs just above the knee, which, as they stamped about, made a loud switching noise. In their hands they held a katta or %vim\ and some a few gum leaves. The former were held at arm's length, and struck alternately with their legs as they stamped. They were painted from each shoulder down to the hips with five or six white stripes, rising from the breast ; their faces also with white perpendicular lines, making the most hideous appearance ; these were the dancers. Next came two groups of women, about five or six in number, standing on the right and left of the dancers, merely taking the part of supernumeraries ; they were not painted, but had leaves in their hands, which they shook, and kept beating time with their feet during the whole performance, but never moved from the spot where they stood. Next fol- lowed two remarkable characters, painted and decorated THE KURI DANCE. 6 I like the dancers, but with the addition of the palyer- iatta, a singular ornament, made of two pieces of wood put cross-wise and bound together by the mangua in a spread- ing manner, having at the extremities feathers opened, so as to set it off to the best advantage. One had the palyertatta stick sideways upon his head, while the other, in the most wizard-like manner, kept waving it to and fro before him, corresponding with the action of his head and legs. Then followed a performer, distinguished by a long spear, from the top of which a bunch of feathers hung suspended, and all down the spear the mangua was wound. He held the koonteroo (spear and feathers) with both hands behind his back, but occasionally altered the position, and waved it to the right and left over the dancers. At last came the singers — two elderly men in their usual habiliments ; their musical instruments were the katla and wirri, on which they managed to beat a double note ; their song was one unvaried, gabbling tone. " The night was mild — the new moon shone with a faint light, casting a depth of shade over the earth, which gave a sombre appearance to the surrounding scene, that highly conduced to enhance the effect of the approaching play. In the distance, a black mass could be discerned under the gum trees, whence occasionally a shout and a burst of flame arose. These were the performers dressing 6 2 THE KURI DANCE. for the dance, and no one approached them while thus occupied. "Two men, closely wrapped in their opossum-skins, noiselessly approached one of the wurh'es, where the Kuri was to be performed, and commenced clearing a space for the singers ; this done, they went back to the singers, but soon after returned, sat down, and began a peculiar, harsh, and monotonous tune, keeping time with a katta and a wirri, by rattling them together. All the natives of the different wurlies flocked round the singers, and sat down in the form of a horse-shoe, two or three rows deep. By this time the dancers had moved in a compact body to within a short distance of the spectators ; after standing for a few minutes in perfect silence, they answered the singers by a singular deep shout, simultaneously ; twice this was done, and then the man with the koo?iteroo stepped out, his body leaning forward, and commenced with a regular stamp. The two men with the palyertattas followed stamping with great regularity, the rest joining in. The regular and alternate stamp, the waving of the palycrtatta to and fro, with the loud switching noise of the gum leaves, formed a scene highly characteristic of the Australian natives. In this style they approached the singers, the spectators every now and then shouting forth their applause. For some time they kept stamping in a body before the singers, which had an admirable THE KURI DANCE. 63 effect, and did great credit to their dancing attainments ; then one by one they turned round and danced their way back to the place they first started from, and sat down. The palyertattas and koonteroo men were the last who left ; and as these three singular beings stamped their way to the other dancers, they made a very odd appearance. The singing continued for a short time, and then pipes were lighted ; shouts of applause ensued, and boisterous conversation followed. After resting about ten minutes, the singers commenced again ; and soon after the dancers huddled together and responded to the call by the peculiar shout already mentioned, and then performed the same part over again, with this variation, that the palyertatta men brought up the rear, instead of leading the way. Four separate times these parts of the play were performed with the usual effect ; others followed, the concluding one as follows : — After tramping up to the singers, the man with the koonteroo commenced a part which called forth unbounded applause ; with his head and body inclined on one side, his spear and feathers behind his back, standing on the left leg he beat time with the right foot, twitching his body and eye, and stamping with the greatest precision. He remained a few minutes in this position, and then suddenly turned round, stood on his right leg, and did the same over with his left foot. In the meanwhile, the two men with the 64 THE KURI DANCE. mystic palyertatta kept waving their instruments to and fro, corresponding with the motion of their heads and legs, and the silent trampers performed their part equally well. The koonteroo man now suddenly stopped, and, planting his spear in the ground, stood in a stooping position behind it. Two dancers stepped up, went through the same manoeuvre as the preceding party with wonderful regularity, and then gave a final stamp, turned round and grasped the spear in a stooping position, and so on with all the rest until every dancer was brought to the spear, so forming a circular body. The palyertatta men now performed the same movement on each side of this body, accompanied with the perpetual motion of head, leg, and arm, and then went round and round, and finally gave the arrival stamp — thrust in their arm and grasped the spear; at the same time all sank on their knees and began to move away in a mass from the singers, with a sort of grunting noise, while their bodies heaved and tossed to and fro ; when they had got about ten or twelve yards they ceased, and, giving one long semi-grunt or "roan (after the manner of the red kangaroo, as they say), dispersed. During the whole performance the singing went on in one continued strain, and after the last act of the performers, the rattling accompaniment of the singing ceased, the strain died gradually away, and shouts and acclamations rent the air." SECRET RITES. 65 The above minute description will apply to the corrob- bories of all the tribes on the continent, many, of course, being on a much smaller and less imposing scale. When the young men are admitted to the privileges of manhood certain rites are observed, but with such secrecy that the whites know little of what actually transpires. They see that the newly enrolled young warriors have one or more front teeth out, or a joint cut off their fingers, but how this is performed is only guessed. In the north of Queensland large open spaces called " bora grounds "are annually resorted to for some great ceremony, and the grass is completely worn away by the action of many feet ; the nature of the rites performed are unknown, for the natives of that part are hostile to the white popula- tion. In the disposition of their dead the various Australian tribes differ considerably. Some, as we have seen, eat their defunct children ; others bury them in a crouching position, and place sticks horizontally across the mouth of the grave, on which they raise a mound like an ant hill. The New South Wales natives used to burn their dead. A pile of dry wood, about three feet high, was erected, on which the body was laid with the face turned towards the rising sun, and the departed warrior's spears and other weapons arranged beside him. The surviving relatives covered over the whole with other logs and fired F 66 MOURNING. the pile. The calcined bones were afterwards carefully removed, and carried about with the tribe or buried. Near the north-west bend of the river Murray, where the dead are deposited beneath small mounds, the widows adopt a curious fashion of showing their grief. Imme- diately on the death of her husband the lady shaves her head with a sharp mussel shell, covers the scalp with netting, and then applies a coating of pipeclay, which forms a cast of the skull upwards of an inch in thickness, and weighing several pounds. Among the tribes on the Coorong, the relatives turn the skulls of their dead to account by using them as drinking vessels. Favourite children are put into bags, and either placed in the forks of trees or carried about by the mother. Angas men- tions a sad instance of this custom. " Near these decrepit old women, we met with another gloomy picture of the lowest grade of our species, — a woman, and a mother, wandering in search of roots, with her digging- stick in her hand. She was almost naked, and her dark limbs were thin and poor ; yet she carried a heavy load at her back. Night and day she bore her burden onwards, without complaint, though it was a loathsome and decaying corpse that she cherished. It was the dead body of her son, a child of ten years old ; and she had carried it for three weeks in her bundle, as a tribute of her affection. Oh, how strong is a mother's love, when BURIALS. 67 even the offensive and putrid clay can be thus worshipped for the spirit that was once its tenant ! She begged some flour, and then passed on into the wilderness — a dark and solitary mourner, beneath the bright sky." The bodies of the aged women are not regarded with so much respect, being expeditiously interred in the ready- made graves presented by wombat holes or the hollow trunks of trees. Those of the old men are placed upon an elevated framework, where they remain until the slight structure falls to pieces; the bones are then collected and buried in the most convenient place at hand. With the young men and warriors it is different. On one of these dying or being slain in battle, a platform is erected, on which the corpse is placed crosslegged, with its face towards the rising sun, after it has undergone a certain preparation. The arms are extended by means of props, the head fastened back, the hair plucked off, and the kidney fat of the deceased, which had previously been extracted, is now mixed with red ochre, and nibbed over the body, all the apertures in which have been care- fully sewn up. Fires are then kindled under the plat- form, around which the friends and relatives gather and remain for ten days, during which protracted period they are not allowed to speak a word to each other. Two of their number are armed with boughs of trees, with which they keep flies and other insects from the body. Should F 2 68 WOMEN. the deceased have been slain in fight, his weapons are laid across his lap and his limbs striped with coloured paints. After remaining for several weeks on the platform the body is taken down and buried, the skull being con- verted into a drinking cup by the nearest relation. Bodies thus preserved show no signs of decay, neither will the wild dogs devour them. In the north of the continent the dried corpse of a black fellow is sometimes met with in the fork of a tree, but the habits of the natives in that region are as yet but imperfectly known. In one point the whole race, from Cape York to Wil- son's Promontory, are exactly alike, namely, in the treat- ment of their women. To the latter wretched beings fall all the hard work and drudgery of the camp, in ad- dition to the fearful chastisement bestowed upon them by their brutal husbands on the slightest provocation, or in- deed for no apparent reason whatever. If the camp is to be shifted, the savage never thinks it necessary to do a hand's turn of work himself. Being lord and master he has only to signify his wishes to his gin, and she has to pack up and carry every article the family may possess, in addition, probably, to a couple of heavy piccaninnies slung at her back. The husband stalks majestically for- ward carrying only his weapons, the poor gin follows slowly after, bent double under her heavy burden ; and RELIGION. 69 if she drops too far behind, a murderous blow with a nulla-nulla admonishes her that in that free country lagging is inadmissible. There is no distinct form of government amongst the Australian tribes, but all the members of a community make common cause in case of injustice or wrong suf- fered from the hands of neighbouring clans. They recognise no regular head or chief, but accord a certain respect and obedience to their most distinguished war- riors. These men manage to possess themselves of all the young women, which is a great evil, as the junior warriors can find no wives of their own age. Regarding their belief or religion it is difficult to know what to say. We must presume that they acknowledge the immateriality of the soul, for they think that after death they will "jump up white fellow." They also dread a "devil-devil," or " bunyip," though what they mean thereby no one knows ; and they are terribly afraid of ghosts. A gin in my employment succumbed from sheer terror on its being told her that she would die soon as a punishment for cruelty to her sister.* They are most unwilling to wander about after nightfall unless they carry a fire- stick in their hands ; and when this is said, I verily believe that we have arrived at the sum total of their religion, if a superstitious dread of the * See "My Wife and I in Queensland," p. 109. jo religion: unknown can be so designated. Their mental capacity does not admit of their grasping the higher truths of pure religion. The devil is all very well, they find no difficulty whatever in realising his existence, and will willingly see one in every bush. He can punish them for wrong- doing, can lure their best warriors to destruction, can send painful droughts or equally destructive floods. This is all plain sailing, and comes within the savage's com- prehension, chiming in, as it does, with the love of the supernatural innate within him. But when a God of love is spoken of, who is all powerful to avert the designs of the evil one, the native simply discredits it. I have talked on the subject of religion over and over again, with most intelligent blacks, and find their theory to be this : — If the God of love is stronger than the devil, why does He permit the latter to exist ? Any attempt to explain the fall of man and the great scheme of his redemption seems utterly hopeless. Either the savage is unable to grasp the truth, or his nature repels the idea of the possibility of a good and bad spirit co-existing. Of course I am speaking only of adults, who have been brought up without religious instruction as children. If taken away from their tribe at an early age, and placed in the schools set apart for natives in several parts of the colonies, very excellent results have followed, and the children have shown some aptitude for learning, picking EDUCATED BLACKS. 7 1 up English and the art of reading and writing without difficulty. But the savage nature is rarely completely subdued, or the tendency to roam eradicated. Without a day's warning, the black fellow whom you have hitherto regarded as perfectly civilised, will cast aside his garments, and take to the forest. Judge Thierry mentions the case of a native named Benelong, who after a course of edu- cation in England returned to New South Wales, and was even admitted as a guest at the Governor's table. It would have been thought that this man was broken of his wandering habits. But no ; the old love of roaming returned in full force, the savage instinct was only dor- mant, not dead. One fine morning his clothes were found, and when next Benelong was seen his limbs were un- fettered by ought more decorous than a scanty opossum- skin rug. I knew a black boy, who had been educated in Scot- land, and who spent his time at the door of his hut read- ing green-backed novels. As a tracker he was perfectly useless, and the superintendent of the cattle station on which he was employed was heartily glad when he took himself off to his native wilds. Now this man knew the advantages a comfortable hut, unlimited food, and abundant clothing possessed over a wandering life in the bush, where a bare existence was not sustained without real hard work, yet the savage was too strong within him, 72 EDUCATED BLACKS. and he relinquished beef steaks and raiment for grubs and nudity. One more instance. Some years ago the wife of one of the colonial governors took a girl from the Mission school, with the intention of civilising and Christianising her. For a long time the girl behaved remarkably well, acted as lady's maid to her mistress almost as satisfactorily as a European servant, attended church regularly, joining in the service with the congregation, and, in fact, was pointed out as a living proof that the natives were capable of the highest degree of civilisation. One morning, however, black Sarah was nowhere to be found ; search was made for her, but in vain ; and it was feared that the poor girl had met with foul play from a tribe of wild blacks who had encamped near the town. Some weeks after this, her mistress, whilst visiting a distant part of the colony, happened to observe, amongst the occupants of a native encampment, her long-lost maid, covered with grease and ochre, and clad in a kangaroo skin, sitting contentedly beside a wild-looking young savage, to be- come whose wife she had absconded from Government House. Perhaps in this instance there was some excuse for the dusky beauty. Regarding the origin of the Australian race ethnologists differ, some holding the opinion that they came from the Asiatic islands, and, crossing Torres Straits, gradually ORIGIN OF THE RACE. 73 spread themselves over the continent ; others thinking that they constitute a race of themselves peculiar to that quarter of the globe. They are found only in the Australian islands, in New Guinea, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Solomon islands. There are no natives now existing in Tasmania. How they came to be destroyed and driven out will be mentioned further on in the volume, when that island is fully treated of. The inhabitants of New Guinea will also be described, as far as they are known, in their proper place. From the foregoing account, I fear the reader will not have imbibed an exalted idea of the Australian aborigi- nals, I shall therefore conclude this brief sketch by quot- ing Sir George Grey's testimony concerning them. He says, "In their intercourse with each other, I have per- sonally found the natives speak the truth and act with honesty." This is a noble tribute to the character of the poor, degraded, fast disappearing children of the southern wilderness. CHAPTER IV. NATURAL HISTORY. Absence of beasts of prey and larger quadrupeds — Marsupialia — The Opossum — Koala, or Native Bear — Kangaroo — Wombat — Ban- dicoot — Tasmanian Wolf — Tasmanian Devil — Native Cat — Tapoa Tafa — Native Dog, or Dingo — Platypus — Rats — Fishes — Reptiles — Birds — Australian Jungle Fowl — Bower Bird — Casso- wary — Professor Owen's remarks on the Australian Marsupials — Vegetable Productions. Y/^\¥jfc>cN the very able article on Australasia in j^3r£ffl^s# the eighth edition of the " Encyclopedia (C°^»)CJB2^f Britannica," will be found the following ^v^p/,) passage concerning the natural history of •^-^j*""*" the country : — " If the rocks and moun- )?S. tains and the earths resemble nearly the in- ' organic substances which are met with in other parts of the world, there is at least a very extraordinary and characteristic difference in both the animal and vegetable part of the creation, which makes FAUNA AND FLORA UNIQUE. 75 a considerable class of subjects in both these king- doms peculiar to Australia. The fauna and flora of this arid region are so unique, so far removed in their nature and habits from the generality of species which exist in other parts of the world, so low in the scale of classified animals and plants, and bearing so close an affinity in their structure to the extinct tribes and genera whose fossil remains are found imbedded in European rocks of the eocene geological period, that some ethno- logists are tempted to advance the hypothesis that Australia exhibits the most ancient surface-geology for our investigations of any portion of the terraqueous globe. In other words, that this great south land has existed, upheaved from the ocean, contemporary with the bygone epochs of the palaeozoic formation, which at a recent geological era was submerged below the sea ; * and that its groups of living creatures and its vegetation have been perpetuated throughout subsequent epochs which have extinguished whole genera of animals and plants in the northern hemisphere. The recent investi- gations of naturalists in Australia and the surrounding seas, have shown that certain forms of star-fishes and bi-valve shells found petrified in the chalk formations of Europe, have existing types in the tropical seas of Aus- * This is at variance with the theory advanced by geologists. See pp. 25. 26 - 76 HARMONY OF NATURE. traiia, and that the Port Jackson shark is the only living example of the ancient group of Cestrationte fishes. And while the superficial observer perceives, in the apparently anomalous examples of plants, in the grasses and gum trees, and animals, in the kangaroo and duck-billed platypus, a mere assemblage of lusus natures, when com- pared with the productions of other regions, the attentive student of natural history finds at every step some useful harmony between the individuals of the organic king- doms, and the peculiar physical geography of this great southern land. Here he finds the grasses containing an unusual pith in their stems, from which they derive nou- rishment during the dry seasons which occur in this arid climate, when the hollow-stemmed grasses of Europe would perish. And when he examines the structure of that curious animal the duck-billed platypus (Ornitho- rhynchus paradoxus\ht discovers that its organism is pecu- liar to the manner in which it secures food from the water insects, where, in its burrowings in the earth, scarcely any worms are to be found. These and other anomalous forms of the organic world in Australia, are doubtless reconcilable to the universally harmonious system of nature, and require only further investigation to be made manifest." One of the most remarkable features of Australian natural history is the absence of all beasts of prey, such ABSENCE OF BEASTS OF PREY. 77 as lions, tigers, and bears, and of the larger quadrupeds, such as elephants, giraffes, antelopes, &c. ; to this pecu- liarity must be added another, namely, that the whole of the extraordinary animals which are grouped together under the generic title of Macropidse, are, with one ex- ception,* inhabitants of the fifth continent. The peculiar organs of nutrition with which the females of this group are provided, has led to the adoption of the title Marstj- pialia — a name derived from the Latin word marsupium, signifying a purse. Throughout the entire extent of the continent the mar- supials are found, as well as in the neighbouring islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. Of these the most highly organised are the Phalangistines, so called from the curious manner in which two of the toes of the hind feet are joined together. Under this head come the opossums and several other small animals, such as the flying squirrel, &c. The opossum (Phalangista vulpina) is extremely com- mon throughout the whole of Australia, more, particularly in the parts from which the natives have been driven. It is a pretty little animal, averaging from five to eight pounds in weight, and bearing a strong resemblance to a cat, but its appearance is doubtless familiar to the reader. In colour the opossums vary considerably, those in * The Virginian Opossum, 7 8 THE NATIVE BEAR. Tasmania being of a rich dark brown, which changes to a silver grey in the north of the continent. The animal is strictly nocturnal, retiring during the day into a hollow tree. The natives esteem them beyond anything else for food, but all those I ever ate had a strong taste of gum. They are easily tamed, and make amusing but rather mischievous pets. Their skins are in great request for rugs by both colonists and natives. Next in the naturalist's list comes the Koala, or native bear {Phascolardos cincrens), which from its sluggish habits is frequently called the Australian sloth. It is a curious-looking animal, about as large as a good-sized spaniel, and is of some importance in the zoological world, as it fills the gulf that would otherwise exist be- tween the phalangistines and the kangaroos. It is of a greyish colour, with a white throat and rump, and no tail ; and has a round bald face, small black eyes, and square hairy ears. Like the opossum, the native bear is nocturnal, but it is not nearly as agile as the former animal. At Brisbane the blacks often bring them in alive to sell as pets, and very comical the poor little things look staring about sleepily with their grave faces. They seldom live long in confinement. Compared with the other marsupials the koala is a rare animal, and from its frequenting high trees is shot with difficulty. The hide makes very strong leather, and it is useless attempt- MACROPIDJE. 79 ing to bring it down with a charge of shot, for the pellets will not penetrate the skin. The blacks esteem the flesh, and one English naturalist compares it to the meat of the northern bear. As soon as the young cubs are strong enough to quit the warm pouch in which their mother has hitherto carried them, they transfer themselves to her back, and clinging on with their little paws, accompany her in her nocturnal journeys. We next come to the kangaroos, those extraordinary animals peculiar to Australia, of which we find a great variety spread throughout the continent, ranging in size from the " old man " or " boomer," of one hundred and sixty pounds in weight, to the diminutive "paddy melon," no larger than a rabbit. The general appear- ance and peculiar mode of progression employed by these animals is too well known to merit description ; and as there are already upwards of eighty species known,* I cannot attempt to enter fully into their natural history. Bones found in caves and elsewhere indicate the ex- istence, in former periods, of Macropidse of enormous size. The largest kangaroos of our day measure a little over eight feet from the point of the nose to the tip of the tail. Their flesh is good, more particularly the tail and the hams. The former is usually made into soup, * " The Illustrated Natural History." By the Rev. J. G. Wood. So THE "BOOMER. and the latter are cured. The natives muster en masse for a kangaroo hunt on a large scale, form a wide circle round the unsuspecting animals, and kill them with spear and nulla-nulla. The whites hunt them with dogs bred for the purpose, a species of greyhound, but much larger and more powerful from an admixture of the mastiff strain. They afford very excellent sport, as the following account written by Mr. Gould, the eminent naturalist, will show : — " The ' Boomer ' is the only kangaroo which shows good sport, for the strongest brush kangaroo cannot live above twenty minutes before the hounds. But as the two kinds are always found in perfectly different situations, we were never at a loss to find a ' boomer,' and I must say that they seldom failed to show us good sport. "We generally 'found' in a high cover of young wat- tles, but someti mes in the open forests, and then it was really pretty to see the style in which a good kangaroo would go away. I recollect one day in particular, when a very fine boomer jumped up in the very midst of the hounds in the ' open ' ; he at first took a few jumps with his head up, in order to look about him, to see on which side the coast was clearest, and then, without a moment's hesitation, he started forward and shot away from the hounds, apparently without an effort, and gave us the longest run I ever saw after a kangaroo. KANGAROO HUNTING. 8 1 " He ran fourteen miles, by the map, from point to point, and if he had had fair play, I have very little doubt that he would then have beaten us ; but he had taken along a tongue of land which ran into the sea, so that, being pressed, he was forced to try to swim across the arm of the sea, which, at the place he took the water, cannot have been less than two miles broad. In spite of a fresh breeze and a hard sea against him, he got fully half-way over, but he could not make head against the waves any farther, and was obliged to turn back, when, being faint and exhausted, he was soon killed. "The distance he ran, taking the different bends in the line, cannot have been less than eighteen miles, and he certainly swam two. I can give no idea of the length of time it took him to run this distance, but it took us something more than two hours, and it was evident by the way the hounds were running that he was a long way before us ; it is also plain that he was still fresh, as quite at the end of the run he went on the top of a long, high hill, which a tired kangaroo will never attempt to do, as dogs gain so much on them in going up-hill. His hind quarters weighed within a pound or two of seventy pounds, which is large for the Van Diemen's Land kangaroo, though I have seen larger. "We did not measure the length of the hop of this kangaroo, but on another occasion, when the boomer G 82 LENGTH OF STRIDE. had taken along the beach and left its prints in the sand, the length of each jump was found to be just fifteen feet, and as regular as if they had been stepped by a sergeant." Another writer* makes the jump longer. He says, " I never fairly measured one of these strides or springs, but I am certain, when hard pressed, an 'old man,' or 'flying doe,' will clear nearly ten yards at a spring." From my own personal observation I am inclined to think the last named measurement by no means over- drawn, more particularly if the ground sloped where the estimate was made. The bounds that a kangaroo will make in descending a hill are prodigious. If brought to bay in the water, the kangaroo not unfrequently drowns the dogs, by embracing them in his short fore-paws, and holding them under water. If he make a stand against the trunk of a tree, he must also be approached with caution, for the powerful claw with which the hind leg is furnished will rip open either dog or man at a single blow. It is usual, under these circum- stances, to shoot the infuriated animal with a revolver, or approaching it quietly from behind, to knock it on the head with a stick. The Wombat (Phascolomys ursi/ii/s), or Australian I'adger, is a heavy, clumsy animal, larger than the koala. * "Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist."' By an Old Bushman. TASMANIA N WOLF. 83 It lives entirely on herbs and roots, which it seeks at night, retiring during the day into the deep burrows which it excavates in the earth. These are highly dangerous to horses, and many a good bushman has suffered broken bones from his horse coming to grief at a wombat hole. There are several species of the Bandicoot (Peramcles) in Australia ; they are small, rat-like animals, living in hollow logs. We next come to the Dasyurines, whose pointed teeth indicate their carnivorous propensities. Foremost amongst this class is the Tasmanian Wolf (Paracyon Cynocephalus), an animal about the size of a jackal, with peculiar blackish stripes on the back. Formerly it was very numerous in Van Diemen's Land, and made great havoc amongst the flocks and hen roosts of the inhabitants ; it is now rare in the settled districts. The Tasmanian Devil {Diabolas ursinus) is another destructive animal, and all who have had dealings with it fully agree that it is in every way deserving of its sinister name. The colour of the native devil is black, dashed here and there with patches of pure white. It is only twenty-eight inches in length, in- clusive of the tail, yet its ferocity is so great that few dogs can vanquish it single-jawed. Mr. Woods says : " The innate and apparently ineradicable ferocity c 2 84 TASMANIAN DEVIL. of the creature can hardly be conceived except by those who have had personal experience of its demeanour. Even in captivity its sullen and purposeless anger is continually excited, and the animal appears to be more obtuse to kindness than any other creature of whom we have practical knowledge. Generally, a caged animal soon learns to recognise its keeper, and to welcome the hand that supplies it with food ; but the Tasmanian Devil seems to be diabolically devoid of gratitude, and attacks indiscriminately every being that approaches it. " I have frequently had opportunities of testing the character of this curious animal, and have always found it to be equally savage and intractable. Without the least cause it would fly at the bars of its cage, and endeavour by dint of teeth and claws to wreak its ven- geance on me, while it gave vent to its passionate feelings in short hoarse screams of rage. There was no reason for these outbursts of anger, for the animal behaved in precisely the same manner whenever any visitor happened to pause in front of its domicile." The Devil is now very rare, for, as may easily be imagined, neither poultry nor sheep thrived in its neigh- bourhood. It flesh is said to be a great delicacy, resem- bling veal in taste. The Native Cat {Dasyums viverrinus) is a pretty NATIVE CAT. 85 animal, somewhat like a ferret, having its dark grey fur thickly spotted with white. It is a most destructive little beast, and will enter a house boldly in the night. I used frequently to kill them in my store-room at Rockingham Bay. On one occasion I went in at daylight and found that a native cat had smashed half the spare crockery deposited on the shelves. Further investigation revealed the delinquent himself sound asleep inside a tin half full of moist sugar, the lid of which had been inad- vertently left off. I lost no time in clapping the cover on, and carried my captive off to a small unfurnished room, for the purpose of putting him to death with a black fellow's waddy I had provided for the purpose. But when I opened the box he ensconced himself in a corner, and stood showing his teeth like a little fury. To his last breath he showed fight, and indeed I was not sorry when the conflict came to an end, for native cats bite very severely, and he made several attempts to charge. The Phascogale, or Tapoa Tafa {Phascogale penicillata), is another diminutive animal much resembling the native cat, but not larger than our common rat. Beautiful to look at, with a long feathery tail and a mild peaceable demeanour, the stranger to Australia would involuntarily exclaim, "What a charming little creature for a pet." Mr. Wood says : " Never did animal or man hide under 86 THE TAPOA TAFA. a specious mask of innocence a character more at variance with its mendacious exterior. For the Tapoa Tafa is one of the pests of the colonists, a fierce, blood- thirsty, audacious creature, revelling in the warm flesh of newly- slaughtered prey, and penetrating, in search of food, into the very houses of civilised men. Its small size and sharply pointed head enable it to insinuate itself through the crevices which are almost necessarily left open in fences and walls, and its insatiable appetite induces it to roam through the store-rooms in search of any animal substances that may have been laid up by the owners. Unless placed under lock and key, behind tightly closed doors, provisions of various kinds are invaded by the Tapoa Tafa, for its powers of climbing are so great that it can ascend even a perpendicular wall, unless its surface be smooth and hard, so that its sharp curved claws can take no hold. " Fortunately for the farmer, the Tapoa Tafa is not possessed of the chisel-shaped incisor teeth which enable the Furopean rat to gnaw its way through opposing obstacles, so that a wooden door will afford a sufficient barrier against its depredations, provided it be closely fitting and of solid material. It is said to be very destructive to poultry, and to penetrate by night into the fowl-houses, creeping towards its prey so silently that its presence is not detected, and slaying the inmates as THE NATIVE DOG. 87 they are slumbering quietly on their perches. Were its size equal to that of the Tasmanian wolf, the Phascogale would be an effectual bar to civilisation in any district which it might frequent. In its wild state its food is of a mixed vegetable and animal nature, and in the stomach of one of these creatures was found a heterogenous mass of insect remains, mixed with portions of certain fungi." This little pest is widely distributed over Australia, and chiefly frequents trees, amidst whose branches it may be seen skipping with the agility of a squirrel. Of the remaining Australian animals I need only men- tion the Native Dog and the Platypus. The former, which in the colonies is more commonly known as the " dingo," is very like a small wolf, though it has not the courage of that animal. The dingo varies in colour from cream colour to dark brown, but its most usual hue is a reddish yellow. They are hunted with hounds as the fox in England, and afford very tolerable sport. From their destructive qualities to sheep the native dogs are held in universal abhorrence throughout Australia (there are none in Tasmania). By traps, by poison, and by rewards offered to their shep- herds, the squatters have endeavoured to exterminate them, and with some success in the settled districts. When they attack a flock they worry mercilessly right and left, and kill more sheep by fright than with their 88 THE DIXGO. teeth. A sheep once touched by a dingo, be the wound ever so insignificant, never rallies. In the north it is necessary to fold the flocks at night in dog proof yards, and even then they are not altogether safe. The origin of the dingo has exercised the ingenuity and excited the curiosity of many naturalists. The animal is not marsupial, and is capable of domestication in a certain degree. Mr. Gould is of opinion that it followed the black man in his wanderings from Asia, through the Indian islands to Australia. Numbers of them hang about the camps of the natives, who, I fancy, use them for food in time of great scarcity. They are never bold enough to attack a live man, but will make short work of a dead one, or of any carcase they can find. The long lugubrious howling of these brutes is particularly disagreeable to the tired traveller camping in the bush. The Platypus {Ornithorhynchus paradoxus) is by far the most curious and anomalous of all the Australian quadrupeds ; and at one time, before its habits were sufficiently known, various extraordinary reports were circulated regarding its mode of life, some people even believing that it laid eggs. Only in its beak, its web-feet, and the peculiar conformation of the collar-bone does the platypus resemble a bird. In length this animal measures about twenty inches, inclusive of the tail ; the THE PLATYPUS. 89 body is broad and flat, the fur thick and bristly, and its whole appearance clearly indicates the amphibious mode of life to which nature has adapted it. The feet are broad, webbed, and very powerful, being used for digging out the deep burrows in which the animals live, as well as for propellers in the water. Their nests are formed of dried weeds, carelessly heaped together in an artificial chamber, communicated with by means of a tunnel, varying in length from twenty to forty feet. This passage has, in every case, an upward bend, so that the recess at its extremity may be free of water. The eyes of the platypus, like those of the English mole, are barely per- ceptible ; the absence of teeth is compensated for by two horny projections at the root of the tongue. In stuffed specimens the duck-bill appears hard and leathery, but in the live animal it is soft, rounded, and of a pinky hue at the tip. This organ assists it in burrowing, and is peculiarly adapted for shovelling up shells, &rc, from the bottom of the water. The platypus is said to be sufficiently active to climb. Dr. Bennett, who had several of these animals in confinement, mentions that they were in the habit of ascending a perpendicular bookcase, performing this curious feat by placing their backs against the wall and the feet upon the shelves, and so pushing themselves upwards as a sweep ascends the chimney. QO RATS AND BATS. Various kinds of rats are abundant in all parts of the continent, and unfortunately the European rat has been introduced into the country irom the shipping, and is a constant source of annoyance. At Rockhampton, on the Fitzroy River, they were so numerous that the bushmen used to amuse themselves by firing at them with their revolvers — a pleasant occupation, but rather dangerous to passers-by. Colonel Warburton found rock rats in north-western Australia, and Mr. Eyre, during his painful journey round the Great Bight, often came on broad beaten tracks, which were mistaken for native paths, and were afterwards ascertained to be caused by legions of rats. Bats of many kinds and sizes are found, notably the Flying Fox {Ptcropus Poliocephalus), which measures from three to four feet between the wings. These animals are fruit-eating, and commit great havoc in a garden. The Australian seas contain whales, sharks, valuable for their oil, seals, dugong, turtle, oysters, both edible and pearl, and fish of many kinds. Reptiles also are very numerous, and range in size from huge alligators (I believe they are really crocodiles, but I give them the title they are most commonly known by in the country) to little lizards three inches long. Mr. Wood gives the following simple rule by which REPTILES. 9 [ crocodiles and alligators may be distinguished from each other : — " All the members of these families can be easily dis- tinguished by the shape of their jaws and teeth, the lower canine teeth of the crocodiles fitting into a notch in the edge of the upper jaw, and those of the alligators fitting into a pit in the upper jaw. This peculiarity causes an obvious difference in the outline of the head, the muzzle of the crocodile being narrowed behind the nostrils, while that of the alligator forms an unbroken line to the extremity. A glance, therefore, at the head will suffice to settle the family to which any species belongs. In the crocodiles, moreover, the hind legs are fringed behind with a series of compressed scales." Snakes, both land and water, are found throughout the continent, and as a rule are venomous. Some of the boa species, as the carpet snake, attain a great size, and have been found over twenty feet in length. Wherever you may be in Australia, it is always needful to keep a sharp look-out for snakes, for they are found in all parts of the continent. A book might easily be filled with accounts of narrow escapes from death by these reptiles. In the variety, beauty of plumage, and peculiarity of habits of its feathered tribes, Australia stands unrivalled. I can, however, only afford space to mention some of the 92 BIRDS. most prominent species. Throughout the whole conti- nent are found pigeons, parrots, eagles, hawks, kites, owls, goatsuckers, swallows, honey-birds, kingfishers, magpies, crows, and emus, besides immense numbers of wild water-fowl, including black swans, geese, ducks, teal, widgeon, and waders of many kinds. A full ac- count of all these may be found in Mr. Gould's magnifi- cent book on Australian birds, certainly the most per- fect work of the kind ever presented to the public. The number of species already known equals, if it does not exceed, that of all Europe. I shall make particular mention of two or three of the most notable amongst these. Under the name of Megapodince, or Great-footed, are found several curious birds, such as the Australian Jungle Fowl {Megapodius tumulus); the Leipoa, or Native Pheasant {Leipoa ocellata) ; and the Brush Turkey ( Talle- galla Lathami. The first-named bird is found chiefly in the north of the continent, where it has raised mounds of earth so large that for many years they were mistaken for the burial- grounds of the aboriginals. One of these tumuli was found to measure fifteen feet in perpendicular height, and sixty feet in circumference at its base. This enormous heap is the sole work of the Jungle Fowl; the bird throws back fallen leaves, grass, and earth with one foot, THE LEIPOA. 93 whilst it supports itself on the other. The object of the heap is to act as an artificial hatching apparatus, and if the hand be thrust in, the interior will be found quite warm. The bird deposits its eggs by digging holes from the top of the mound, laying its egg at the bottom, and then throwing back the earth it had scooped out. Mr. Gilbert, whose researches are quoted in Mr. Gould's book, gives the following account of these tumuli : — " The birds are said to lay but a single egg in each hole, and after the egg is deposited the earth is imme- diately thrown down lightly until the hole is filled up ; the upper part of the mound is then smoothed and rounded over. It is easily known where a jungle fowl has been recently excavating, from the distinct impression of its feet on the top and sides of the mound, and the earth being so lightly thrown over that with a slender stick the direction of the hole is readily detected, the ease or diffi- culty of thrusting the stick down indicating the length of time that may have elapsed since the bird's opera- tions. "Thus far it is easy enough, but to reach the eggs requires no little exertion and perseverance. The natives dig them up with their hands alone, and only make suffi- cient room to admit their bodies and to throw out the dirt between their legs. By grubbing with their fingers alone, they are enabled to feel the direction of the hole 94 THE LEIPOA. with greater certainty, which will sometimes, at a depth of several feet, turn oft" abruptly at right angles, its direct course being obstructed by a clump of wood, or some other impediment. '•Their patience is, however, often put to severe trials. In the present instance, the native dug down six times to a depth of at least six or seven feet without finding an egg, and at the last attempt came up in such a state of exhaustion that he refused to try again. But my interest was now too much excited to relinquish the opportunity of verifying the native's statement, and by the offer of an additional reward I induced him to try again. This seventh trial proved successful, and my gratification was complete when the native, with equal pride and satisfac- tion, held up an egg, and after two or three more attempts, produced a second; thus proving how cautious Europeans should be in disregarding the narratives of these poor children of nature, because they happen to sound extraordinary, or different from anything with which they were previously acquainted." The leipoa also constructs a mound in which to deposit its eggs, but of less size than the tumulus of the jungle fowl. It rarely takes to flight, trusting almost entirely to its legs for safety. In size the native pheasant is about equal to a very small turkey. The Tallegalla, or Scrub Turkey, is a peculiar-looking THE TALLEGALLA. 95 bird, owing to his head being devoid of feathers, and decorated with naked fleshy wattles. It is a gregarious bird, and has been successfully introduced into England, where its habits were closely noted, and the following most valuable account given by Mr. Sclater, Secretary to the Zoological Society : — "Since the year 1854 (the date of the notice is May, 1 861), the singular phenomenon of the mound-raising faculty of the tallagulla, which had been well-ascertained in Australia by Mr. Gould, has been annually displayed in this country. " On being removed into an inclosure, with an abund- ance of vegetable material within reach, the male begins to throw it up into a heap behind him, by a scratching kind of motion of his powerful feet, which project each footful as he grasps it for a considerable distance in the rear. As he always begins to work at the outer margin of the inclosure, the material is thrown inwards in con- centric circles, until sufficiently near the spot selected for the mound to be jerked upon it. As soon as the mound is risen to a height of about four feet, both birds work in reducing it to an even surface, and then begin to excavate a depression in the centre. In this, in due time, the eggs are deposited as they are laid, and arranged in a circle about fifteen inches below the summit of the mound, at regular intervals, with the smaller end of the egg pointing 96 THE SCRUB TURKEY. downwards. The male bird watches the temperature of the mound very carefully ; the eggs are generally covered, a cylindrical opening being always maintained in the centre of the circle for the purpose of giving air to them, and probably to prevent the danger of a sudden increase of heat from the action of the sun, or accelerated fermen- tation in the mound itself. In hot days the eggs are nearly uncovered two or three times between morning and evening. " On the young bird chipping out of the egg, it re- mains in the mound for at least twelve hours without making any effort to emerge from it, being at that time almost as deeply covered up by the male as the rest of the eggs. " On the second day it comes out, with each of its wing-feathers well developed in a sheath which soon bursts, but apparently without inclination to use them, its powerful feet giving it ample means of locomotion at once. Early in the afternoon, the young bird retires to the mound again, and is partially covered up for the night by the assiduous father, but at a diminished depth as compared with the circle of eggs from which it emerged in the morning. On the third day the nestling is capable of strong flight, and on one occasion one of them, being accidentally alarmed, actually forced itself, while on the wing, through the strong netting which THE BOWER BIRD. 97 covered the inclosure. The accounts ot the habits of the tallegalla, given by Mr. Gould in his ' Birds of Australia,' in 1842, strange as it appeared at the time, are thus perfectly verified in every respect." The general plumage of this bird is a blackish-brown, and it bears a great resemblance to a small hen turkey. The next of the feathered inhabitants of Australia whose peculiarities render it worthy of especial notice, is the Bower Bird, of which there are two kinds, the Satin and the Spotted, both belonging to the large family of starlings. These birds are remarkable from the pains they take to construct a " bower," or " run," in which to amuse themselves. Mr. Gould says, " On visiting the Cedar Brushes of the Liverpool range, I discovered several of these bowers or playing places; they are usually placed under the shelter of the branches of some overhanging tree in the most retired part of the forest ; they differ considerably in size, some being larger, whilst others are much smaller. The base consists of an exterior 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 H gS THE BOWER BIRD. 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. " 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, who when there assembled run through and round the bower in a sportive and playful manner, and that so frequently that it is seldom entirely deserted. " The interest of this curious bower is much enhanced by the 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 Hill and Lory Parrots, bleached bones, the shells of snails, &c. Some of the feathers are stuck in among the twigs, while others, with the bones and shells, are strewed about near the entrance. The propensity of these birds to fly off with any attractive object is so well known that the blacks always search the runs for any missing article." In size these birds resemble the ordinary pigeon, and their colour is a rich brown covered with buff spots. They may be seen alive at the Zoological Gardens, and their "runs" are deposited in the British Museum. THE CASSOWARY. 99 The last bird which I shall attempt to describe is also the latest discovered, and by far the finest bird to be found on the Australian continent, namely, the Casso- wary ( Casuarius J ohnsonii). Only within the last ten or twelve years has the existence of this noble bird in that part of the world been known. It is found only in the north part of Queensland, and inhabits the dense scrubs that fringe the rivers on the east coast — scrubs so thick that it is impossible to see three yards in any direction, and in whose depths any one but a black boy would be immediately lost. The cassowary stands over five feet in height, and although somewhat resembling the emu — with which I take it for granted that the reader is familiar — is a stronger, heavier bird, and in every respect handsomer. The general plumage is glossy black ; it has no wings, four or five strong quills armed at the end with a claw taking their place. The neck is nude, but is adorned in front with a wattle, both being exquisitely coloured green, purple, and vermilion. A noble horny helmet seven inches in height form? the crest, and the claws are exceedingly sharp and powerful. Only twice was I ever lucky enough to see this beautiful bird in the open, and then it remained within fifty yards of the scrub, into which it vanished like lightning, tearing a way through the tough and tangled vines without seeming difficulty. I tried many times to shoot one, but was H 2 IOO INSECTS, &*C. never successful, though I have spent hours in the scrub exposed to all the miseries of sandflies and mosquitoes. On one occasion I heard one crashing along within a few yards of me, but the thicket was too dense to allow of my catching even a glimpse of the game. I once dined off a young one, which a native trooper shot, and the flesh was very good, resembling veal with a dash of sucking-pig running through it. The stuffed specimen in the British Museum was killed by Mr. Johnson — after whom it is named — within a few miles of Rockingham Bay. Into a description of all the insects, butterflies, and beetles to be found in Australia it would be an absurdity to enter within the limits of a volume such as this. Suffice it to say that they are in abundance ; indeed, the insect world, as represented by mosquitoes and blow-flies, is far too numerous for the comfort of either man or beast. I shall conclude this slight and imperfect sketch of the natural history of Australia by inserting Professor Owen's remarks on the fact that almost every animal found there is marsupial. He observes : " I have always connected with the long droughts in Australia — with the extensive tracts where there are no waters — with the difficulty of obtaining that necessary element of life, the singular peculiarity of organisation which prevails amongst the quadrupeds of Australia. No matter whether they burrow like the wombat, climb like the REMARKS ON THE MARSUPIALS. 101 phalanger, jump like the kangaroo, trot like the bandicoot, or fly like the petaurist — all these creatures are mar- supial. They are creatures carrying their delicate, pre- maturely-born young about with them wherever they go. They have this condition, viz., a soft, warm, well-lined, portable nursery-pocket, or ' perambulator.' Take the case of one of our wild quadrupeds — a fox, or a wild cat : they make their nest, they have their litter. Sup- pose it should happen that they must travel one or two hundred miles to get a drink of water, and are obliged to leave the little family at home, where would that family be when the parent returned from its journey? Why, starved to death. In order that quadrupeds should be fitted to exist in a great continent like Aus- tralia, where the meteoric conditions are such as to pro- duce the dilemma I have instanced, those quadrupeds must possess an organisation suited to such peculiar and climatal conditions. And so it is : that form of mammalian quadruped in this great continent, native to it, and born so as to make these migrations to obtain that necessity of life, has the super-added pouch and genetic peculiarities, enabling them to carry their young ones wherever they go ; and since we find that mar- supial animals have lived in Australia from a very remote period, so we may infer that its peculiar climate has pre- vailed during as vast a lapse of time." 102 VEGE TABLE PROD UC TIOXS. I shall now make a few remarks on the vege- table productions of the fifth continent, which are varied in character, and in some instances present forms distinct from those of any other part of the globe. In the north of Australia the dense forests or jungles bordering the rivers and creeks are thoroughly tropical in their character ; but further south the country presents a vegetation peculiar to itself. A stranger is immediately struck by the sombre appearance of the bush, which is the result of all the trees being evergreen. Their dark foliage having an almost uniform hue, there is little perceptible difference in the landscape throughout the year, except that during the heat of summer the grass becomes of a yellow colour, like hay. Most of the mountain ranges are clothed with magnificent timber, whilst the plains are often entirely destitute of trees, stretching away for many miles in broad grassy dcwns, which during the spring are enamelled with a carpet of wild flowers. The gently undulating country, where the soil is good — as on the Darling Downs — presents the appearance of a thinly-timbered park, but it is in the neighbourhood of water or on the ranges, that forest trees are seen in greatest perfection. It is said that nine-tenths of the eight thousand species of plants found in Australia are unknown elsewhere, and are entirely EUCALYPTI AND ACACIAS. IO3 unconnected with the forms of vegetation of any other division of the world. The great majority of these belong to two genera, the eucalypti and the acacias, and have some remarkable peculiarities. Both have their leaves perpendicular to the surface of the earth, with their edges instead of the flat sides turned towards the ground. Few of the eucalypti — amongst which the many kinds of gums are numbered — are deciduous, the leaves remaining on the trees throughout the year, but they shed their bark at certain seasons. Clothing the slopes of the Eastern Cordilleras are seen forests of infinite beauty, teaming with a vegetation almost tropical in its luxuriance. Mr. Angas thus describes the descent into one of these forests, from the brow of Mount Keerah in New South Wales : — " On entering Illawarra it seemed as though we had become suddenly transported into a region of tropical verdure ; and the scene all around us was totally new in aspect and character. We had passed into another climate ; the dry, arid soil of the stringy-bark forest, with its stunted vegetation, was ex- changed, as if by magic, for a damp, humid region, sheltered from the wind by colossal barriers of rock, and presenting a wealth of foliage almost inconceivable. Plants and trees were here altogether of a different species from any we had before witnessed ; the graceful cabbage-palm towered to a height of seventy and even a 104 FOREST SCENERY. hundred feet ; the Indian fig reared its tortuous branches high into the air, clothed with rich draperies of curious and spreading parasites ; and the graceful tree-ferns, thirty feet high, flourished in the warm and damp atmo- sphere of these windless dells. In short, nothing can exceed the beauty of the scenery, as the traveller descends the difficult and winding path that leads down the moun- tain to the rich pastures below ; here and there a group of palms shoot upwards towards the sky ; and on either side, the forest is so rank with creepers, ferns, and vines as to be quite impassable. Here we gathered wild rasp- berries, and beheld the gigantic stag-horn fern growing from the trunks of the loftiest trees." Of the numerous varieties of gum tree, nearly all are in some way useful to the colonist. The Iron Bark serves for house or ship-building; the Blue Gum makes a valuable hard-wood timber ; the Box is suitable for agri- cultural implements ; the Rose or Violet Wood for gig- shafts, &c, being similar to lance-wood; the Stringy- Bark, Silk Oak, Forest Oak, and Tulip Wood, all have their several good qualities. Amongst the curiosities of the Australian flora are the arborescent ferns, which attain the perfection of trees, putting forth fronds from ten to twelve feet long ; the giant lily (doryanthcmtim), an object of great beauty ; the tea tree {leptospermum grandiflorum) ; the stench plant SPINIFEX. 105 (Jiydrocotyle densiflora); and the stinging tree {Urtica gigas), which is of all sizes, from a little plant to a tower- ing shrub of thirty feet. The parched and arid wastes of the interior are covered with the hard, sharp spinifex, {triodia pimgens), so unwelcome to explorers ; and in some places, where the soil is a little better, grows the giant kangaroo grass, high enough to conceal cattle, or even a horse and its rider. Most of our fruits are found to grow well in Australia, and many English trees have been planted and flourish. The principal vegetable products of the country, such as corn, wine, sugar, &c, will be mentioned under the various colonies in which they are grown, and to these I shall now pass — commencing with Western Australia — with the hope that the foregoing chapters will have given my readers some slight idea of the principal features and peculiarities by which the fifth continent is distinguished from every other portion of the globe. 1 ^;4%^> 00 S&F '^^i&Wffli^ ^yMR^MH m^m^^^sm CHAPTER V. WESTERN AUSTRALIA. Geographical Position— Its Settlement and Early Struggles — Convict Labour — Features of the Colony — Ranges and Rivers — Climate — Agricultural Products — Indigenous Timber — Mineral Resources — The Pearl-fishery — Population — Religious Denominations — Education — Letter from the Bishop of Perth regarding the Aborigines — Exports and Imports — Revenue — Rate of Wages. V"-M^DK S regards its geographical position, Western Australia is the portion of the island-con- tinent which lies nearest to the shores of Great Britain. It includes all that part of Australia situated to the westward of longitude A-v 1 2 9° E. On three sides — namely, on the south, west, and north— it is bounded by the ocean, and extending from latitude 13 44' S. to the 35th parallel south, its coast line is of enormous extent. A better idea of its vastness may be gained when I state that it is about eight times the size of Great Britain, or seventeen {•> DAM PIER. 107 times as large as England and Wales, and contains nearly 1,000,000 square miles, or 640,000,000 acres. In its earlier days the colony was known as the Swan River Settlement. This part of the continent was visited by adventurous navigators as long as three hundred years ago, particularly by the Dutch, who have left traces of their presence in such names as De Witt's Land, Nuyt's Land, Houtman's Abrolhos, Dirk Hartog Island, and Cape Leeuwin (Lioness). Our own countryman, Dampier, also visited the shores of Western Australia in 1699, and anchored in Shark's Bay, where the old buccaneer reports that he found the head of a Hippopotamus in the stomach of a shark. " The hairy lips," he says, " were still sound, and the jaw was also firm. Out of this we plucked a good many teeth, two of which were eight inches long, and the rest as big as a man's thumb, small at one end, and a little crocked." This was, of course, a sea-lion or some animal of the seal tribe. Dampier seems to have formed but a low estimate of the country, which was perhaps in- creased by his coming into collision with the natives, one of whom he shot. Western Australia was first occupied in 1826, by a detachment of the 39th Regiment, but its history can hardly be said to commence until three years later. In 1827-8, Captain Stirling, of the Royal Navy, visited the I08 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. south-west parts of the continent, and made so favourable a report concerning the beauty of the climate and the capabilities of the soil, that the British Government pro- jected a scheme of colonisation, by which settlers prior to 1838 were to receive forty acres of land for every ^3 they were ready to invest in developing its resources ; and those who took over labourers were to receive two hundred acres for every person introduced in that capa- city. A certain number of acres was also allowed for children. Captain Stirling received the appointment of lieutenant-governor, with a grant of two hundred thousand acres ; and a Mr. Peel, who was a principal mover in the project, received two hundred and fifty thousand acres, on condition that he should take out 400 emigrants. In the autumn of 1829 Stirling landed at the Swan River, on the banks of which it was proposed to found the new settlement. Several ships had already arrived, and their anxious passengers were encamped disconsolate on the muddy river ; by the end of the year nearly 1,300 persons had landed in a colony where not a single acre of land was yet surveyed. The effects of this mismanage- ment but too soon became apparent, and the very class from which the emigrants were chiefly drawn added to their misfortunes. The bulk of the new arrivals con- sisted of small capitalists and tradesmen, wholly unac- customed to manual labour, and with no idea of the stern, ITS EARLY STRUGGLES. IOQ hard work they would be called upon to encounter. Delicate ladies and white-handed gentlemen were shivering under wretched tents on the banks of the Swan, whilst the pianos, pictures, and other articles of luxury they had unwisely imported, were rotting on the crazy wharf. The greatest misery prevailed, and despite the efforts of the governor and his subordinates to ameliorate the con- dition of the settlers, so gloomy seemed the prospect that hundreds left without giving the place a fair trial. All the blame for this disastrous attempt at colonisation must be attached to those interested speculators who cried up the new settlement at the expense of truth, and who encouraged a class of people to emigrate whose previous habits of life rendered them more than useless in a land without houses, shops, or even roads. For upwards of twenty years Western Australia strug- gled on, a prominent feature in the maps of the fifth continent, managing to exist as a colony, but with diffi- culty compassing even that. As late as 1848 the general depression was so great that the inhabitants seriously contemplated abandoning the settlement altogether, but circumstances favourable to the drooping colony were taking place around it. The more flourishing commu- nities on the south and east coast were commencing to murmur at the constant flow of the refuse from Great Britain into their settlements, and demonstrations against 110 WES TERN' A US TRALIA . the landing of convicts were held in all the principal cities. The Western Australian statesmen were clear sighted enough to see the opening presented to them, and at once petitioned the mother country for that which their more thriving neighbours refused. Their request was readily and even thankfully acceded to by the Home Government, Western Australia became a penal settle- ment, and in 1849 the arrival of a batch of convicts at once imparted a fresh vitality to the moribund colony. This measure called forth many censures at the time, but considering the universal stagnation then prevailing throughout the settlement, the importation of fresh blood, even though tainted with moral disease, was wisely held advisable. The result has fully justified the expecta- tions of the Western Australians. With no immigration to her shores, and but little capital, the colony must have dropped quietly out of existence ; convicts came, and her prospects brightened forthwith, for with them came the labour requisite for the construction of roads, bridges, and other public works, the certain precursors of future settlements. Between the years 1850 and i860 over 5,000 prisoners were introduced into Western Australia, and more than double the same number of free persons, many of them the families of the enforced exiles. In 1868 transporta- tion ceased altogether, owing to the remonstrances of CONVICT LABOUR. Ill the other colonies ; but since its commencement over ten thousand prisoners had been landed, and the colony had been tided over a period so disastrous, that its con- tinuance must have ended in her collapse. At first apprehensions were entertained by the inhabitants that another term of depression was at hand, but happily all fears on that score have been averted, and a judicious system of free immigration bids fair to compensate amply, both morally and financially, for the abolition of the convict system. Mr. Weld, the late governor of Western Australia, describes the principal features of the country in the following terms : " The whole of the settled district, nearly the size of France, is usually level, often undu- lating, but never mountainous. The western seaboard is generally comparatively flat country, of a sandy character, composed chiefly of the detritus of old coral reefs, which has been again deposited by the action of water ; more inland, a formation, which is here called ironstone, is met with. It appears to be chiefly a conglomerate of disintegrated granite, stained with iron : granite, slates, quartz, pipe-clay, and in places trap, are all found in this country. The Darling Range, for instance, presents these characteristics ; it runs from north to south in the central district inland of Perth, and appears once to have formed the coast-line. The whole country, from 112 WESTERN A USTRALIA. north to south, excepting the spots cleared for cultivation, may be described as one vast forest, in the sense of being heavily timbered. Sometimes, but comparatively seldom, the traveller comes upon an open sand plain, covered with shrubs and flowering plants in infinite variety and exquisite beauty, and often, especially in the northern and eastern districts, low scrubby trees and bushes fill the place of timber ; but taking the word ' forest ' in its widest sense — as wild, woody, and bushy country — Western Australia, as far as I have seen, is covered with one vast forest, stretching far away into regions yet unexplored. A very large proportion of this is heavy timber country. The jarrah, sometimes erron- eously called mahogany, a tree of the Eucalyptus tribe, covers immense tracts of land ; its timber is extraordi- narily durable, and as it resists the white ant and the 'Teredo navalis,' it is admirably adapted for railway sleepers, and for piles for bridges and harbour works. This timber, when properly selected and seasoned, has stood the severest tests, and no term has yet been dis- covered to its durability. It is hoped that, with increased facilities for transport, the trade in jarrah may be indefi- nitely increased. The sandalwood already affords an export ; the tuart and kari, both Eucalypti of enormous size, are valuable timber trees. In southern districts I have ridden for miles amongst kari trees, some of ITS MOUNTAIN RANGES. 113 which, lying on the ground, I have ascertained, by actual measurement, to reach 150 feet to the lowest branch; many, I estimate, when standing, to attain nearly double that height from the ground to the topmost branch, thus emulating the great Californian ' Wellingtonia,' the kauri (Damnara Anstralis) of New Zealand, or the great Eucalyptus Purpurea of Tasmania, a kindred tree, re- ported on by Sir W. Denison ; the difference being that these instances are of rare and exceptional growth, whilst in parts of this country there are forests of these giants of the vegetable world." The Darling Range extends from the sea at Cape Chatham, in lat. 34 40' S., in a northerly direction for at least three hundred miles. The distance of these moun- tains from the coast varies from fifteen to twenty-five miles, but they do not attain nearly the altitude of the Eastern Cordilleras, though they resemble them in many respects. Their average height is from 800 to 2,000 feet, and the loftiest mountain known in the colony — Koikenneruf, near King George's Sound — only attains an altitude of 3,500 feet. The other ranges to the south of the province are the Stirling, Roe, Bennett, Dundas, and Russell ranges. The country lying between these chains is occupied with ravines, bounded here and there with inaccessible cliffs, and wide valleys termi- nating in fertile plains, which skirt their entire length. 1 H4 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. Several rivers have their sources in these mountains, most of those emanating from the Darling Range flowing into the Indian Ocean on the western' shores of the colony. Like nearly all the minor Australian rivers, these streams at their source are mere mountain torrents, which become tame and sluggish in the low lands ; they are mighty volumes of water at some seasons, and trum- pery brooks at others. The principal amongst these rivers is the Swan, which rises in the central range, and after a winding course of over a hundred miles, during which it is augmented by several tributaries, enters Cock- burn Sound by an estuary, into which the Canning also flows from the south. The Collie, the Preston, and the Blackwood disembogue into the sea on the west coast, the latter near Cape Leeuwin. The Forth finds an outlet on the south coast, and there are besides, in the Swan River District, many small streams or creeks ; but the facilities offered for navigation by the* L rivers of West Australia are very few indeed. Further north are found other ranges under different names, from which some rivers of no importance flow westward ; and on the northern side of North-west Cape are the De Grey, the Fortescue, the Oakover, and several other streams. Western Australia can hardly be regarded as rich in fine harbours. The principal ports in the settled or ITS KIVERS AND SOIL. 115 south-western portion of the colony are, Doubtful Island Bay, which is near the Recherche Archipelago, and affords access to the districts in its immediate vicinity ; King George's Sound, at the southern extremity of the colony, the best and finest harbour in the western portion of Australia ; Parry's Inlet, Peel's Inlet, Port D'Entrecasteaux, Torbay, Collingwood Bay, Champion Bay, and Gautheaume Bay. Further to the north we find Shark's Bay, beyond which are Roebuck Bay and King's Sound, and Cambridge Gulf lies to the north. As far as it has yet been occupied or explored, the ter- ritory seems to rest on a granite basis. The soil in the neighbourhood of the coast is of a poor quality, but im- proves considerably to the eastward of the Darling and Roe ranges, on whose slopes many thriving homesteads are found. Taken altogether the country appears better adapted for pastoral than for agricultural purposes. That the soil is of an inferior quality to that in the more favoured eastern provinces is evidenced by the fact that up to the year 1851 Western Australia was dependent on her neighbours for agricultural produce. The climate has much to do with the nature of the soil, its extreme dry- ness, and the conflagrations, which during the summer travel through hundreds of miles of forest, destroy the decayed vegetation, and prevent the accumulation of 1 2 Il6 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. mould which is absolutely necessary to produce a rich fertile loam. But, if injurious to the farmer, the climate is perfect for the invalid, the conditions required for each being widely different. The decomposed vegetation that would enrich the former would give birth to miasma that might prove fatal to the latter. The aridity and consequent sterility of Western Australia renders its climate one of the finest and most salubrious in the known world ; even more so than the eastern portions of the continent. The Lieu- tenant-Governor, in a despatch dated April 12th, 1852, says : " The country maintains its character of being perhaps the most healthy on the globe, there having been only 37 deaths recorded during 1851, in a population of 7,096 souls." The extent of the colony is so great that the climate of necessity varies considerably ; but through- out its whole length and breadth the chief characteristic of Western Australia is dryness, combined with an elasticity of atmosphere most beneficial to all who may be sufferers from consumption or any bronchial affection. Although the summer heat is undeniably very great, it brings with it no disease. The wet season commences in April, with slight showers, which continue to increase in number and force throughout the succeeding three months, after which they gradually decrease, and terminate alto- gether in October, when the summer sets in. ITS CLIMATE. 117 It is perhaps superfluous to remind the reader that, Australia lying entirely in the southern hemisphere, her seasons are the reverse of those in Europe. With the cessation of the rains the dry season com- mences, during which thunderstorms sometimes occur. In the height of summer a hot land wind prevails during the night, but by day the cool south-western sea breeze more than counteracts its disagreeable effect. During the winter months gales from the north-west and south-west are fre- quent, and are usually accompanied by heavy falls of rain. In summer the atmosphere retains so little moisture that none but hardy and fibrous plants can withstand its aridity, but the seasons recur with such regularity that the agriculturist is enabled to carry on his operations without interruption, and the prolonged periods of drought, alter- nated by equally injurious floods, which sometimes afflict the neighbouring colonies, are unknown in Western Australia. The average mean temperature throughout the year is about 65 , and the mean of the barometer thirty inches. In the months of July and August there are sometimes sharp hoar frosts in the southern portion of the colony, and now and then a little ice, but all traces of these disappear shortly after sunrise. Hailstones of great size occasionally accompany the summer thunderstorms, but snow is unknown. To sum up, it may be said that the greater part of the winter is fine and temperate, and Il8 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. during the rest of the year the climate generally is delight- ful, resembling in a great measure that of Southern Italy and parts of Spain. The salubrity of Western Australia is so well known that at one time the establishment of an Indian military sanitarium in the colony was contemplated. Western Australia labours under a great disadvantage in possessing no safe natural harbour on its western coast. Fremantle, at the mouth of the Swan River, is the chief trading place on that side, but the construction of exten- sive works, involving a considerable outlay, are necessary before the port can be regarded as perfectly secure. The coast line is very uninviting, being for the most part com- posed of low barren sand hills. Within there is found a belt of tolerable country, extending backward for ten or twelve miles to the foot of the Darling Range. To the eastward of these mountains the best land is found, and country, suitable to either pastoral or agricultural purposes, may be selected at most places between the Range and the great desert of the interior, which commences to show itself about two hundred miles inland. In the north large tracts of fertile country, admirably adapted for grazing purposes, have been discovered and stocked. Cereals are the chief agricultural product of the coun- try, comprising wheat, barley, and oats ; of these grain- crops the first mentioned gains most favour in the eyes of ITS AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 119 the Western Australian farmer, and is more largely culti- vated than the other two. A careless system of farming, by which a not over rich soil has been completely ex- hausted, has taught its own lesson, and more attention is now paid to the elementary principles of husbandry. A disease known as the " red rust " ravaged the colony from 1868 to 1872, and did immense damage to the wheat crops, otherwise large quantities of corn would have been exported. The adjacent colonies had previously suffered from this scourge, which disappears in a few years. The capabilities of the soil for corn-growing are best shown by the fact that the first prize at the Intercolonial Exhibition, held at Sydney in 1873, was awarded to a sample of wheat, part of the crop of 1872-3, grown on the Swan River by Mr. Strickland. All our English fruits, as well as those from other parts of the world, flourish luxuriantly, and vegetables may be cultivated at almost any season of the year. The olive has been introduced, and proved a great success ; and the cultivation of mulberry trees, for the purpose of rearing silkworms, is amongst the new industries of the colony. The Government have established a plantation of mulberry trees near Perth, and the young plants are to be distributed amongst the other districts ; so a very few years will show whether the undertaking will prove successful or the re- verse. I2o WESTERN AUSTRALIA. The number of vineyards is largely on the increase, both soil and climate being admirably adapted to the growth of the grape vine. A good deal of wine is made in the colony, and with increased experience in its manufacture an export trade will probably arise, although South Australia must always be a most formidable com- petitor in regard to this industry. The chief vineyards are in the neighbourhood of the capital, Perth, or in the country lying immediately south of it ; the vines are both standard and trellised ; and the raisins dried in the colony are pronounced to be unsurpassed in size and flavour. We have seen from Mr. Weld's despatch what a valu- able natural product her timber is to Western Australia, and the magnificent jarrah is there fully described. There is a steady demand for this wood for the Indian railways, and several companies, having each a line of tramway from the forest to the coast, are engaged in felling, saw- ing, and preparing it for railway sleepers or piles. Her splendid sandalwood is also a source of wealth to the colony, being largely exported to China, where it is in great request for ornamental cabinets, owing to the rich fragrance it possesses. Of even greater importance to the colony than her timber, are her as yet imperfectly developed mineral resources, for though gold in payable quantities has not yet been discovered, both lead and copper form a valu- ITS TIMBER AND MINERAL WEALTH. 121 able item of export. Both these minerals exist in large quantities, particularly in the northern districts. During the year 1875, 2,289 tons of lead ore were exported, and there is no doubt of its existence throughout an area comprising many hundreds of square miles, in parts of which it crops up to the surface. This is exclusive of the extreme northern territory, where large quantities of ore, yielding on an average over 30 per cent, of pure metal, are reported to have been found on the surface. Want of capital, and the expense of transport seem the principal drawbacks to the development of the mineral wealth un- doubtedly possessed by Western Australia, but in time both these obstacles will probably be overcome. Railways will do away with one, and Victoria speculators are said to have been much attracted by the richness of the ore displayed at the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1873. Writing on this subject, Mr. Laurence says : — " The great hindrance to mining has hitherto been the expense ot transport ; the only mine that has continued its operations is one owned in England, and all the ore raised from it has had to be carted 35 miles over the roughest of roads to the port of shipment, and then gene- rally taken away in coasting vessels to another port, and transhipped for England or India. Probably no mine in the world is working under such conditions, and it is sufficient proof that the ore is rich. I have seen in the 122 WESTERN' AUSTRALIA. neighbourhood of the mine in question lodes 14 feet wide, and the country round seems thick with lead. The draw- back of bad means of transport is now about to be done away by the construction of a railway from Champion Bay to Northampton, the town in the centre of the mining district, a distance of 33 miles. Governor Weld turned the first sod of this line in October, 1874, and its con- struction is now in progress.* I cannot pass from minerals without a word about gold. Alluvial gold is not known to exist in paying quantities, though it would be rash to say that any day might not reverse this assertion. Gold in quartz reefs has, during 1874, been proved to exist and to yield a rich percentage; these auriferous reefs are found in many directions, and the close of the year 1874 witnessed the formation of the Quartz Crushing Company, the shares being subscribed in the colony very quickly. This is no doubt the precursor of many such companies, and there seems no reason to doubt they will yield hand- some profits, and employ a number of hands." Mr. Laurence's anticipations have failed to be realised, for the Company has been recently wound up, after importing valuable crushing plant. There seems, how- ever, no reason to despair of gold being ultimately found in Western Australia. For years the Government have offered a reward of ^£ 5,000 for the discovery of a payable * See page 139. ITS MINERAL WEALTH. I 23 gold field within three hundred miles of a declared port ; and by a recent Act has provided salaries, for a limited time, for a small number of experienced prospectors. During five years 4,500 tons of copper ore were exported from this colony. In the Champion Bay districts smelt- ing works are in course of erection ; and in the north, near Roebourne, new mines are working remuneratively. I now pass on to an industry peculiar to Western Aus- tralia, namely, the pearl and pearl-shell fishery, which annually becomes of greater value to the colony. In the "Australian Handbook" for 1877, is the following con- cise account of its details : — " In 1874 fifty-four ships and 135 boats were engaged in it. The value of shells exported in 1872 was ^25,890, against ;£i 2,895 worth exported in the previous year, and the estimated value of pearls and pearl-shells sent from the colony in 1874, representing the take of the season, is about ^72,162. The exports during 1875 were valued at ^65, 000. The natives are employed as divers, and work for a mere subsistence ; but owing to the stringent laws existing for the protection of the aborigines, most of the pearling-craft — in fact, all who can — employ Malays, whom they bring, under an agreement for a term of years, from the Coromandel coast and Java. Greater security has lately been demanded on behalf of the Malays, for their return on expiration of service, which is likely to 124 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. stop the demand. The Dutch Government required a deposit of 200 guilders per head, previous to hiring, to insure their protection. These men are paid at a rate varying from one to two pounds per month, are kept free of charge, and returned to their native country on the expiration of their term of service. They are considered less expert divers than the natives; nevertheless, a diver will frequently bring up about 30 lbs. weight of shells after one dive. The value of shells in the colony averages from ^7 to £8 per cwt. These shells, the home of the melcagrina margaritifcra, weigh on the average about 2 lbs. per pair, and measure from six to ten inches in diameter. It is to their intrinsic commercial value rather than to the pearls they contain, that the north-west fisheries owe their importance, although, occasionally, pearls of considerable value are obtained — one, supposed to be worth upwards of ,£1,500, having been found recently. Another lucrative fishery exists in Shark's Bay, a large inlet, extending in the south-easterly direction from Dirk Hartog's Island, about the 25th degree of south latitude, to a distance of 150 miles. The shells found in this region are those of the true pearl oyster, the avicida margaritifera, an oyster only slightly larger than its Euro- pean congener, and valuable from the pearls it bears. The shells have lately been introduced into the European market, and have assumed considerable commercial THE PEARL FISHERY. 1 25 value. The other fisheries, which produced in 1872 value to the extent of ,£3,248, are the whale and miscellaneous fisheries. Hitherto the whale fishery has been conducted by vessels which come all the distance from Boston and other ports in the north of the United States. Lately, however, the industry has been prosecuted with success by a few vessels, the property of local speculators, in consequence of the large results of American enterprise in this industry." It has been satisfactorily proved that the pearl banks become covered again after a lapse of two or three years, so that the fisheries are likely to be tolerably permanent. Amongst the minor industries pursued by the inhabi- tants of Western Australia may be mentioned the prepara- tion of leather from the skins of the kangaroo and dugong, the collection of gum and tortoiseshell — the latter obtained from the hawksbill turtle, and the snapper and mullet fisheries, in which a preserving and drying business has sprung up. Of the Western Australian fauna I need make no mention, for the few animals and birds it possesses are common to the whole continent. A census was taken on the last day of December, 1874, which showed the population to be 26,209, of whom 15,772 were males, and 10,487 females. The houses numbered 4,000. The total population on the 31st of 126 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. December, 1875, was estimated at 26,709. During that year there were 192 marriages and 473 deaths. According to a census taken in 1870, the various reli- gious denominations were thus represented : — Church of England, 14,619; Roman Catholics, 7,118; Wesleyans, 1,374; Independents, 882 ; Presbyterians, 529; Baptists, 54; Jews, 62 ; while 147 are returned as of no denomi- nation. The colony contains 24 places of worship belonging to the Church of England, capable, altogether, of containing 3,616 persons; there are 11 parsonage houses, and about 15 Sunday-schools belonging to the same denomination ; the Roman Catholics have a hand- some cathedral in Perth, and nine chapels in various districts of the colony ; the Wesleyans have seven places of worship, the Independents three, and the Presby- terians one. The whole colony constitutes a Church ot England diocese, governed by the See of Perth, in which city is the Bishop's residence. Mr. Laurence, describing Perth, says : " The Anglican cathedral church has no beauty, but is commodious and centrally situated ; it has a row of beautiful mulberry trees in front, the dean- ery and the Sunday-schoolroom adjoin it, while the Government offices and the public gardens are on the opposite side of the street." The "Australian Handbook" for 1877 has the following paragraph under the head of Education :— " The edu- POPULATION AND EDUCATION. I 2 7 cational system is framed under the clauses of the Edu- cation Act passed in 1870, which is based upon the prin- ciples of the Act now in operation in the mother country. By this Act schools are divided into Elementary and Assisted. The former are maintained wholly at the cost of the colony; the latter are private, but a capitation grant is given on condition of submitting to government inspection for secular results, and to the observance of a strict conscience clause during the four hours of secular instruction insisted on by the Act. The Elementary Schools are under the control and supervision of a Central Board and the Local District Boards. The Central Board, consisting of five members, laymen, no two of whom can be of the same religious denomination is appointed by the governor, and the Local District Boards are elected by the general body of electors for three years. Compulsory attendance of children can be enforced by the Local Boards. In the Elementary schools four hours a day are devoted to secular instruc- tion, and one hour, under the provisions of a conscience clause, to reading the Bible, or other religious books approved of by the Board ; but no catechism or religious formulary of any kind may be used ; and the Bible, if read, must be read without note or comment. The school fees vary from 2d. to is. per week, according to the circumstances of the parents. On December 31, 128 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 1S74, there were 67 Elementary Schools, and 18 Assisted Schools, making 85 in all, with an annual average aggre- gate attendance of about 3,000. The attendance at the Elementary Schools was 2,530: 1,391 boys, and 1,139 girls. A Government Inspector makes periodical visits to the schools, National and Assisted, throughout the colony ; and the salaries of teachers of the schools estab- lished and conducted under the new system are dependent upon his report of regularity of attendance, and proficiency on the part of the scholars. The Roman Catholics have admirable educational establishments throughout the colony. Some of their schools, coming within the pro- visions of the Educational Act of 1870, are subsidised or ' assisted ' by the Government. The Catholics have, also, two independent schools in Perth, and one in Fre- mantle, conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph. Several private Protestant seminaries for young ladies have been established from time to time, and some of them still exist, and are comparatively flourishing." The Charitable Institutions of Western Australia con- sist of eight hospitals, one lunatic asylum, two poor- houses, two native institutions, a Protestant orphanage, and a Roman Catholic orphange. The natives of this colony need no particular mention, being in their habits similar to the tribes found elsewhere, and described in a former chapter on this subject. Both THE ABORIGINES. I2Q the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches have made strenuous efforts to reclaim them. The latter have an agricultural establishment on which the natives are employed, and found useful. There is also a Protestant school under the control of the Bishop, where it is sought to train the children in Christian knowledge and civilised habits. In the Blue Book for 1874 we find some most interest- ing matter concerning this school embodied in a letter addressed by the late Bishop, Dr. Hale,* to the Colonial Secretary, concerning a paragraph in the Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council appointed to consider and report upon departmental expenditure. The paragraph was as follows : — " Eighth, Aborigines. — Your committee are of opinion that the money voted for supporting a number of native children in an establishment under the supervi- sion of the Bishop of Perth might be more judiciously expended." Under the head of Aborigines, in the -estimates for 1874, we find — " Board and clothing of 24 children at Perth, ^438." I am unable to quote the Bishop's reply to this most * Dr. Hale has since been translated to the See of Brisbane, in Queensland. The present Bishop of Perth is the Right Rev. Dr. Parry. 13° iy£S TERN A US TRALIA . uncourteous paragraph in full, for it would occupy more space than I have at my disposal, but shall give certain extracts which can hardly, I venture to think, fail to interest all who have the reclamation of these poor savages at heart. Presuming the paragraph to mean (for it may be read in more than one sense) that the money would be more judiciously expended if it were not applied to the pur- poses of native education at all, but expended in some different way, the Bishop remarks : "I have, upon many occasions, and frequently in the most open and public manner, expressed my opinion that the inhabitants of this colony, unless they renounce their profession of Christianity, and, in so doing, cease to call them- selves a Christian people, are bound, by the most solemn obligations of their religion, to endeavour to make the Aborigines of this country participators with them- selves in the blessings and privileges of the Gospel of Christ. " There are, at this present time, very many aboriginal children to be seen in all parts of the colony, who (I speak advisedly) are as capable of being instructed and brought up in the Christian faith as the children of our own families. More than this, children and young persons of mixed blood, many of them more than half Europeans, are to be seen frequently throughout the EDUCATION OF THE ABORIGINES. 131 country, utterly neglected and abandoned to their fate, with no future before them but that of ignorance and vice, and depravity of the most revolting character. Their condition seems to send up a loud cry to heaven, ' Refuge fails us ; no man careth for our souls.' " I affirm again, as I have often affirmed, as a minister and messenger of God, that the existing neglect of these persons is a heinous sin in God's sight, and a foul blot upon our good name as a Christian people. " The maintenance of the little school, formerly under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Camfield, and now under my care, has never been regarded by me as an adequate attempt on the part of the country to discharge its duty to God in the matter of these people. But I have always regarded the school with the deepest interest as, at least, an acknowledgment on the part of the country of its duty to God, and as an expression, however faint, of its willing- ness to do at least something in discharge of that duty. So strongly have I felt upon this subject that when, upon the occasion of the late Mr. Camfield's illness, there seemed reason to fear that the school might fall to the ground, I signified my wish to retire from my present position in order to take charge of it. Its existence, as I have already said, I looked upon as an acknowledg- ment of a great duty. The abandonment I should have regarded in the light of a public repudiation of that duty. K 2 132 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. And I was prepared to do anything, and to make any sacrifice rather than that this colony, so long as I con- tinue to be identified with it, should be guilty of so grievous a sin. In the same light do I regard the matter now. And I implore the members of the Legislative Council not to entertain for a moment the idea of draw- ing back from this attempt, feeble though it be, to dis- charge a great duty to God." After dealing with the paragraph under the supposition that it meant that the money should still be expended in supporting native and half-caste children, but that such children should be supported in an institution of a different kind from the existing one, the Bishop con- tinues : " I now come to the supposition that the paragraph does not mean that the children should be supported in an institution differing, in its main features, from the present school, but that the committee discover a want of judgment in the management of the present school. In this case, however, I am left altogether in the dark as to the supposed proofs of such want of judgment, and as to the manner in which that want of judgment shows itself. To meet the charge implied is therefore impos- sible. All I can say is this, the duty which I intended to discharge towards the Government when I took the children under my care I have discharged. I intended EDUCATION OF THE ABORIGINES. 1 33 that the children should be trained in the habits of civilised life ; that they should be made cleanly and industrious; should receive a suitable and useful edu- cation ; and, above all, that they should be taught the great truths of Christianity, and should be brought up in the love and fear of God. "The school, when it was first established by the joint action of the Government, Mr. and Mrs. Camfield, and Archdeacon Wollaston, was intended to be such a school as I have described. The same intention, to the best of my knowledge and belief, has been adhered to from that day to this. I have never been informed of any change of purpose with reference to the school. And if it be intended to fulfil the same purposes as in time past, and if it be now judged by those tests which are usually applied to such schools, I am justified in repeating the assertion — I have discharged the duty I undertook to discharge. "The Committee may have thought, or some of the members of it may have thought, that the children ought to be more extensively employed as cultivators of the soil. But any one who will take the trouble to inspect these children one by one, and thus to judge for himself of their apparent age and strength, must be satisfied that the ways in which they are employed are more suitable to them than the tillage of the earth. The particular 134 Jl r£:s TERN A US TK A L I A . kind of work which mere children are put to is not of primary importance, provided they be made to do work of some kind, according to their strength and ability. These children necessarily have a full allowance of time for play and recreation ; but that they also work is made evident by the following facts : — There are eighteen children in the Institution, superintended by two females. This establishment does all its own washing, cooking, tailoring, making up dresses and linen clothing, house- cleaning, drawing and carrying water, cutting and carrying wood, emptying cesspools, removing night-soil, &c, and is thus, except in some very few particulars, independent of all extraneous help. Moreover, two of the elder boys, sometimes one and sometimes the other, are frequently on my premises. They see, and take part in, the ordi- nary operations of the garden, and they learn the general management of the stable, including saddling and har- nessing horses, &c. Jf any one will favour me with the particulars of any other institution of a kindred nature, with children of similar size and strength, and a similar amount of superintendence, which does more for itself than this one, I shall be only too thankful to study such particulars, and to profit by any lesson which I may be able to learn therefrom. "The matron was asked why some who, as children, had been inmates of this Institution, had been removed EDUCATION OF THE ABORIGINES. 1 35 to become inmates of another institution not in this colony. This is the reason. Natives, as human beings like ourselves, require companionship. It is contrary to their nature, as it is contrary to our nature, to live with- out companions. We must have companions ; and those companions must, to a certain extent, be like-minded with ourselves ; they must be persons whose sentiments and feelings and thoughts and desires are, in some degree at least, in unison with our own. The same is the case with natives ; and natives who in this colony go forth as civilised and Christianised persons, to make their way for themselves, cannot find such companionship. They may find, here and there, a person better disposed than the rest, who will be kind to them and who will act fairly and honestly towards them in his engagements and dealings. But they will not find companions, and if they could find some who would be real companions to them, even then they would be sure to come in contact, almost daily, with persons of a different mind, who, by their demeanour and mode of address, would make them feel that they were despised and looked down upon. They would be made to understand that they were regarded as persons never to be treated as equals. They might think themselves happy if they passed many days without meeting with persons who would scoff at their Bible reading, and would ridicule the idea of their living holy I36 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. and godly lives. Sir George Grey relates the following incident, and I make no apology for introducing it here, because he so clearly points the lesson which that inci- dent should teach us as regards the treatment of natives. Between thirty and forty years have passed by since that incident occurred ; very many cases similar to this have happened since then, all teaching the same lesson, and yet that lesson is still unlearned. The lesson is, that no amount of kindness on the part of Europeans towards natives, however well-intended, can make up to those persons for the absence of companionship. Companion- ship man must have, and if he cannot have it one way, an irresistible impulse urges him to seek it in another way. This is Sir George Grey's story, with the moral (Vol. II., p. 370) :— " ' The officers of the Beagle took away with them a native of the name of Miago, who remained absent with them for several months. I saw him on the north-west coast, on board the Beagle, apparently perfectly civilised. He waited at the gun-room mess, was temperate (never tasting spirits), attentive, cheerful, and remarkably clean in his person. The next time I saw him was at Swan River, where he had been left on the return of the Beagle. He was then again a savage, almost naked, painted all over, and had been concerned in several murders. Several persons here told me, " You see, the taste for a ANECDOTE OF A NATIVE. 137 savage life was strong in him, and he took to the bush again directly." Let us pause for a moment and con- sider. " ' Miago, when he was landed, had, amongst the white people, none who would be truly friends of his; they would give him scraps from their table, but the very out- casts of the whites would not have treated him as an equal — they had no sympathy with him; he could not have married a white woman ; he had no certain means of subsistence open to him ; he could never have been either a husband or a father, if he had lived apart from his own people. Where, amongst the whites, was he to find one who would have filled for him the place of his black mother, whom he was much attached to ? What white man would have been his brother? What white woman his sister? He had two courses left open to him. He could either have renounced all natural ties, and have led a hopeless, joyless life amongst the whites, ever a servant, ever an inferior being; or, he could re- nounce civilisation, and return to the friends of his childhood and to the habits of his youth. He chose the latter course; and I think I should have done the same.' "When natives who have lived for some time with Europeans return to their former mode of life, people persist in saying now, as they said to Sir George Grey, 'The taste for a savage life was strong in them.' My 13^ WESTERN AUSTRALIA. experience of civilised and Christianised natives, and my information concerning them, extending now over a period of more than twenty years, enable me to say most positively that the civilised and Christianised native has no taste whatever for savage life. Give him suitable companions, give him suitable occupation, and he is as happy and contented a man as any on the face of the earth. " This, then, is my answer to those who ask why these children go to a far-off institution as they grow up ; they go that they may find there suitable companions and suitable occupation. And why should any inhabitants of this colony grudge to these few poor creatures this measure of happiness — this means of Christian living? It is said, ' They ought to remain here ; the inhabitants of this colony ought not to be deprived of their services.' What ! are there not enough of these people, old and young, in all parts of the colony, without laying hands on these ? Are there not enough half Europeans, and more than half Europeans, roaming about uncared for and neglected — will not these serve the purposes of would-be employers ? If people want servants from this class, do I say anything unreasonable when I say — let them make Christians of them ; let them make servants of them themselves ? Doing this they will do something towards the discharge of a great duty to God ; something, APPEAL FROM THE BISHOP OF PERTH. 1 39 also, they will do towards wiping out a foul blot which is now a disgrace to us as a Christian people. If would-be employers do not care for the souls of those about their homesteads and stations, how can we suppose that they would care for the souls of these poor little outcasts, who have been rescued and brought home and watched over for their Saviour's sake ? " I entreat, then, that no impediment may be thrown in the way of removals such as those I have referred to. I have spent no public money in such removals ; and I have no wish so to spend it. All I ask is that those children who are, or who may be brought up in this Institution may, as they grow out of their childhood, be left, as free agents, to dispose of themselves as they may desire, and as the advice and counsel of myself and other friends may guide them." After having perused the above extracts from the noble and eminently sensible letter of the Bishop of Perth, I am sure my readers will be glad to know that the same sum as heretofore was voted in the estimates for 1875 for the aboriginals. I find I have entered into this sub- ject at greater length than I had at all contemplated, but it is one full of interest, and I can hardly think it out of place in the pages of this volume. To return to the colony. There are no railways open yet, but it is expected that the first section of the line 140 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. from Geraldton to Northampton, a distance of eighteen miles, will be in operation this year. I have made but little mention of pastoral pursuits, although wool is one of the chief exports of the colony. Compared with its sister provinces the breeding of sheep is carried on on a small scale in Western Australia, but every year sees fresh tracts of country stocked, so that both sheep and cattle grazing are certainly on the in- crease. The fact that the poison plant is very abundant has proved detrimental to this pursuit. The " Australian Handbook " gives the following in- formation concerning the exports, imports, revenue, &c. : — "The value of the imports into the colony during the year ending 31st December, 1875, was £ZA9^A 1 - The ex- ports during the same year were valued at ,£391,218. As usual, wool was the largest item of export, the amount shipped was to the value of ,£182,112. Next to this come sandal-wood and pearl-shells. The value of the pearls sent from the colony is not accurately known, but those exported in 1874 was estimated at ^12,000. Horses, sheep, fish, (lour, gum, hides, leather, oil, ore, tallow, and tortoise-shell also figure among the articles of export. The actual revenue from all sources, including customs, for the year 1875 was ,£i57:775 10S - 1^-> tne expenditure being ^169,230. In the land sales there was an increase of ,£3,226 ioj. \\d.) and in the revenue ITS REVENUE, &=C. I4 1 of £"12,744 6s. gd. In postages, telegrams, and miscel- laneous items there was also an increase. According to the Treasurer's report, it was estimated that the revenue from all sources for the year 1875 would be £"132,829, which, coupled with the balance of the previous year, would make a sum of ,£156,396 available for expendi- ture. The result exceeded this. Of this £"100,000 would be absorbed by the general services ; £"28,500 would be expended in the construction of a line of telegraphs to South Australia — that is, from Albany to Eucla; a further sum for immigration purposes, £10,000 on public works, and the remainder in local improve- ments. The public debt was £"135,000, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent, on £"35,000, and £"5 per cent, on £100,000 per annum." A new system of emigration was adopted in 1874, and is now in operation, whereby free passages are granted to agricultural labourers, domestic servants, and mechanics of various descriptions, and the families of married men are taken free of charge. Emigrants pay 15s. each for bedding and mess kit, and their own expenses up to the port of embarkation ; but must sign an undertaking to remain in the colony for three years from the date of arrival, or, failing this, to pay to the Colonial Treasurer the sum of £"18 per adult. Allotments of land, from 25 to 150 acres, are made to 14- WESTERN AUSTRALIA. emigrants after two years' residence, on certain conditions of improvement. Wages are as follows : — Ploughmen, teamsters, and other labourers, 25J. to 30s. a week; or 50J. to 60s. a month, with board; shepherds, ^3 to £5 10s. per month, with board; domestic servants, from ^"16 to jCzS P er annum, all found; flour millers, 5.3-. to 6s. a day, with board and lodging; mechanics, usually by piece work, 8,r. to 12s. a day. The agents for the colony are Messrs. Felgate and Co., 12, Clement's Lane, London, E.C., to whom I am indebted for the above rate of wages, based on the most recent attainable information. Although she has hitherto been considerably behind the sister colonies in wealth, population, and general prosperity, there is no doubt that during the last few years Western Australia has made rapid progress. The discovery of fresh tracts of pasture land in the north will give an impetus to sheep-farming, the mineral wealth will attract the capitalist, and the liberal emigration system will doubtless tempt many to try their fortunes in a colony which possesses numerous attractions for a steady and industrious man. CHAPTER VI. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Geographical Position — Never a Penal Settlement — Its Foundation — Reckless Land-jobbing and Financial Embarassments — Discovery of Copper, and Onward Progress — Physical Features — Productive- ness of Soil — Climate — Squatters — Cereals — Mineral Resources — Railways — Population — The Church of England and other Religious Denominations — Education — Establishment for the Aborigines — Immigration. a ^S OUTH AUSTRALIA is the name given "^v^Sfer^j) t° an immense tract of country which mm stretches across the entire continent from south to north. It is bounded on the ^WyTc^ east by Victoria, New South Wales, and f Queensland ; on the north by the Indian Ocean ; on the west by Western Australia ; on the south by the Southern Ocean; and comprises a total area of 914,730 square miles, or 585,427,200 acres. Why a territory that embraces as much land at one 144 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. extremity of the continent as at the other should be termed " south " is a little puzzling, until it is explained that on its first erection into an independent colony, this province had the 26th parallel of latitude assigned as its northern boundary ; -when, lying to the south of the continent, it received its present designation. As ori- ginally settled, it contained 383,328 square miles; but it has since received two large accessions of territory — the first a strip of country that lay between it and Western Australia, appropriately known as " No Man's Land " ; and the second, a vast tract stretching north- ward from the 26th parallel to the Indian Ocean, and commonly called "the Northern Territory." This por- tion of the continent will be described in a separate chapter. The colony may now, therefore, be regarded as com- prising three great divisions, namely, South Australia proper, Central Australia, and the Northern Territory. Of all the Australian colonies the one of which I am now treating stands alone in this particular — that it has not had its origin in a penal settlement. Mr. Trollope says : " New South Wales was taken up by Great Britain as a convict depot, and grew as such till the free inha- bitants, who' had followed and surrounded the convicts, became numerous and strong enough to declare that they would have no more such neighbours sent among them. NEVER A PENAL SETTLEMENT. 1 45 Van Diemen's Land, which is now Tasmania, and More- ton Bay, which is now Queensland, were occupied as convict dependencies by the parent establishment. Moreton Bay was still part of New South Wales when New South Wales refused to be any longer regarded as an English prison, and Van Diemen's Land did for her- self that which New South Wales had done before. Even Port Phillip, which is now Victoria, was first occu- pied by convicts sent thither by the parent colony, though it is right to say that the convict system never took root there, and that the attempt never reached ful- filment. On the same principle New South Wales sent an offshoot convict depot to King George's Sound, which is now a part of Western Australia — an unhappy colony which, in its sore distress, was destined to save itself from utter destruction by delivering itself to the custody of compelled immigrants, who could be made to come thither and work when others would not come. In this way all the now existing Australian colonies, except South Australia, have either owed their origin to convicts, or have been at one period of their existence fostered by convict labour ; but South Australia has never been blessed — or cursed — with the custody of a single British exile." South Australia was founded on a well arranged plan (commonly known as the Wakefield system), designed to L 146 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. economise its resources, and to secure a regular, and, at the same time, a rapid progress for the infant settlement. Several gentlemen formed themselves into a body under the name of " the South Australian Association," and in August, 1834, obtained the passing of an Act by the Imperial Legislature defining the new colony, and giving power to persons approved by the Privy Council to frame laws, establish courts, appoint officers, chaplains, and clergymen of the Church of England or Scotland, and to levy duties and taxes. The three great principles on which the colony was founded are briefly as follows : — That it was never to be a charge 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 its shores. By the new system of colonisation, the land was to be disposed of in moderately sized blocks, at a reasonable price, and the proceeds to be employed in the introduc- tion of free emigrant labour ; and thus, as the arrival of population caused a demand for more land, the sale of that land enabled an additional supply of population to be introduced, and so on indefinitely. The conditions of the Government were that the land should not be sold at less than ^ 1 per acre; and the control of the affairs con- nected with the working of the scheme was vested in a body of commissioners approved of by the Colonial Office. its foundation: 147 Under these auspices the first governor (Hindmarsh) landed on the shores of Holdfast Bay in December, 1836, and the colony was formally proclaimed in the presence of his staff and the emigrants who had accompanied them. Previously to this, however, several vessels had been despatched from London by the South Australian Company, and so little did any one know about this part of Australia at that time, that the Company's ships went to Nepeau Bay in Kangaroo Island, and there exercised the first rights of land selection. This unwise choice is attributable to the fact of a good harbour being there, and to the exaggerated reports of the resources of the sterile island promulgated by whaling captains who had visited it. The town of Kingscote was founded, but in a very short time the settlers removed to the mainland, and at the present moment this earliest of the South Australian settlements consists of some ten or twelve houses, whose inhabitants lead a life of patriarchal sim- plicity. After various spots along the coast had been visited by Colonel Light, the first Surveyor-General, for the purpose of establishing the site of the future capital, the colonists encamped at Holdfast Bay, an anchorage a few miles to the south of the present port, and where the popular watering-place of Glenelg now stands. Finally, the city of Adelaide was established and laid out on the banks of the river Torrens, about four miles from Glenelg, l 2 148 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. and seven from the port, which latter is situated on a broad salt-water river or arm of the sea on the eastern side of Gulf St. Vincent. The absence of any export trade, combined with reck- less folly and extravagance, brought about a series of financial embarrassments which almost destroyed the settlement. Land-jobbing rose to a height only compar- able with the railway mania in England. The writer of the article on Australia in the " Encyclopaedia Britan- nica" says, that when he arrived at Adelaide in 1S40, " there was a population of 8,489 persons in the town, and only 6,121 in the country, making a total ot 14,610 for the colony in the fourth year of its existence. The exports for that year were ;£ 15,650, or a fraction over jQ\ per head; while the imports from Great Britain and the neighbouring colonies were above ,£273,000, or at the rate of ^"18 \os. per head of population." He also says : " The writer of this article has paid y. 6d. for the four pound loaf, and if. 3*/. per pound for meat ; and he has seen one hundred sovereigns paid for a ton of flour — the surplus stores of an emigrant ship." In 1 841 Captain (now Sir George) Grey was appointed as Governor, and at once commenced a course of re- trenchment, under which the colony emerged from its earlier embarrassments. In 1842 the number of acres under cultivation was only 2,503; in 1843 this number ITS PROGRESS. 1 49 had increased to 19,790. In 1843 a discovery, which more than any other has augmented the wealth of South Australia, was made in the finding of copper by Mr. Dutton, the present Agent-General for the colony in London. In 1845 tne great Burra-Burra mine was acci- dentally discovered, which yielded in three years 10,000 tons of pure copper, valued at ^700,000. The colony now progressed apace, and continued to do so until the discovery of gold in Victoria, which took place in 1S51. Thousands of South Australians then crossed the border and repaired to the adjacent colony ; but many returned disappointed, and by 1855 South Australia resumed the onward progress which has con- tinued unarrested to the present day. How great that advance has been will be readily shown when I state that in i860 the number of acres under cultivation was 361,884, and in 1874-5 the number of acres under wheat alone was 839,638, producing 9,862,693 bushels, which, at the moderate estimate of^io per ton, gives^i, 800,000 sterling as the result of the harvest, after supplying all local wants. The Rev. Julian Woods says : " There is no country more interesting in its formations, or more varied in its mineralogical productions than South Australia ; lofty mountains, extensive plains, sandy deserts, and inland seas, are all included in its far-stretching boundaries ; 150 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. with a climate like that of the south of Spain, it possesses the scenery of the Highlands in some places, while in others are deserts like those of Arabia, and vying with them for bleakness, aridity, and burning heat. There are chains of salt lakes which render unprofitable a larger area than England ; there are marshes and salt swamps, more dank and desolate and extensive than any in the United States ; there are rocky precipices, and chasms, and waterfalls to rival almost the Alps ; there are extinct volcanoes of large dimensions, almost as numerous as those of Auvergne ; and, finally, there are caves which exceed in magnitude the Guacharo caverns of Humboldt, and in stalactites the Antiparos of the yEgean Sea." A country so large must naturally possess much diver- sity in its physical features. For hundreds of miles stretch mountain ranges overlooking rich plains of agricul- tural land, through which small rivers run and fertilise the soil, so that in some portions the colony is one vast wheat- field. On the other hand, arid tracks exist in which all attempts at cultivation would prove abortive. But the latter are not the drawback it might be expected, for on such sterile plains the greatest mineral wealth of the pro- vince has been found, and it is generally believed that only capital and labour are requisite to develope still greater riches. The southern part of South Australia is, perhaps, as ITS PRODUCTIVENESS. 15 I productive as any known region on the face of the globe, and the finest wheat in the world is stated to have been grown within a few miles of Adelaide.* But the capabi- lities of the soil are not confined to cereals alone, for all our English fruits flourish. Mr. Harcus says : " Apples, pears, almonds, cherries, strawberries, currants, rasp- berries, gooseberries, rhubarb, and filberts, have been produced in the southern part of the colony. But, in addition to these, Ave can grow in abundance those fruits which are only produced in hothouses in England. Grapes, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and figs grow in the open air with a small amount of culture. Oranges do wonderfully well in the colony, with only a little care. I have seen whole acres of healthy orange trees laden to the very ground with the golden fruit. At the same time may be seen, on the same tree, the lovely orange blossom, the green fruit, and the oranges fully ripe. Some of the colonists have gone to great expense in the cultivation of the orange, and their labour and enterprise have been amply rewarded. All these fruits, which are luxuries to the poor,' and even to a large section of the middle class in England, are, during the season, the daily fruit of the poorest in South Australia. When the fruits are ripe, there are but few tables on which several pounds of * " South Australia : its history, resources, and productions." Edited by William Harcus, Esq., J. P. 152 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. grapes or dozens of peaches and apricots are not found. A dozen pounds of grapes can be bought in the market for sixpence, and a dozen peaches for threepence or four- pence. Another delicious luxury in hot weather is the water-melon, which grows freely, and is eaten with avidity to any extent — especially by children — without the slightest evil effect. It would do an Englishman's heart good to look upon the breakfast-table of a South Australian of moderate means, groaning under the weight of the most luscious fruits." South Australia enjoys a most lovely and salubrious climate. During the summer, from December to the end of March, the heat is very great, the thermometer fre- quently marking no in the shade; but the total absence of moisture prevents the lassitude which would otherwise be caused by so high a temperature. Two or three times in the year the colony is visited by dust storms, accom- panied by hot winds, which even the inhabitants regard as "an unmitigated nuisance." They rarely last more than a day or two, and their cessation is followed by an abrupt fall in the temperature. The spring, winter, and autumn are delightful, even the heavy rains being welcomed by agriculturists as the precur- sors of heavy yields from the wheat fields. The wet season is from May to October, and the annual rainfall about twenty-one inches at Adelaide, and thirty in the hill districts. PASTORAL PURSUITS. 153 The climate is pronounced by the faculty to be most beneficial in chest complaints, and superior to that of Madeira for persons with weak lungs * Pastoral pursuits, agriculture, and mining are the three industries which have enriched South Australia, and a short account of each becomes necessary. I shall com- mence with the first-mentioned, premising that pastoral pursuits in the sister colonies are precisely similar, and will need no further explanation. The sheep and cattle farmers throughout all the Austra- lian provinces are known as "squatters," and the possessors of this not euphonious soubriquet are amongst the wealthiest men in the country. In the early days of the colony, men with a little capital invested it in the purchase of a few hundred sheep or cattle, and started off with them into the bush, either to some likely piece of country already discovered, or to find fresh pastures for them- selves. Having selected a suitable spot, they leased it from the Government at a nominal rent, ran up a wooden hut or two for dwelling-places, constructed yards, and became — squatters. It must not be supposed that because a few words can describe their mode of procedure, the life of a squatter was an easy one, or the chances of success assured. It * " South Australia : its history, resources, and productions," Edited by William Harcus, Esq., J. P. 154 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. was quite the reverse. The occupation was one requiring ceaseless activity and vigilance. In the new country blacks were both numerous and daring, and a constant guard had to be maintained against their insidious attacks. Droughts were not unknown, and the squatter might be compelled to abandon all his improvements and start forth afresh with his flocks in search of a " run" possessing a more copious water supply. In place of droughts, floods might convert his block of country into a vast lake, in which his sheep perished. A bush fire might destroy all his grass ; or a swollen river might cut him oft from all supplies. Again, he might find that although the country was admirably adapted to the growth of wool, the distance from any settlement was so great that the bare transport of necessaries, such as flour, sugar, tea, &c, and the expenses attendant on sending down his wool to port, completely ate up all hopes of profit, even if they did not place a balance on the wrong side of his agent's ledger. These and numerous other drawbacks had to be encountered and vanquished before success could be assured, but Anglo-Saxon energy and pluck carried the squatters safely through, and the squatting interest has risen triumphantly in spite of all obstacles. All pastoral leases in South Australia are granted on the condition that whenever the land is required for agricultural purposes the squatters must turn out on AGRICULTURE. 155 receiving six months' notice ; but they are paid for all improvements made during the time the land was in their possession. A few years ago the leases held by the squatters — on almost nominal terms — were subjected to a new and much increased valuation. Two years of drought followed, and some few squatters succumbed to the joint influences of bad seasons and increased assessments, but that both combined failed to do them permanent mischief is pretty clearly shown by a glance at the statistics, when it will be found that the export of wool has increased fifty per cent, during the past five years, and doubled during the decade. The total value of South Australian wool shipped in 1856 was ,£412,163 ; in 1866, ,£990,173 ; and in 1875 it reached ,£1,833,519 sterling. Let us now pass on to agriculture. When the province was first colonised, the hard parched ground appeared so uninviting, that the early settlers sat down fully convinced that any attempt to get a crop from it would result in utter failure. Having, however, to im- port their breadstuffs from Tasmania, at the ruinous price of ;£ioo per ton, became such a heavy tax upon the colonists, that some of the most enterprising amongst them resolved on making a trial, and finding out whether wheat could be produced on the Adelaide plains. The experi- ment succeeded beyond the expectations of the most sanguine, and completely nullified the predictions of the 156 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. croakers. The seed only required putting into the ground, and it grew in unequalled perfection. No more Van Diemen's Land flour was now needed for South Australians. They had been walking about on the granary of the continent, and had not known it. A new source of wealth was unexpectedly revealed, and the settlers were soon in a position, not only to supply their own wants, but to export wheat to other countries. Notwithstanding the rare capabilities of the soil for the production of breadstuffs, the climate is capricious, and the average yield per acre varies considerably year by year. In the last chapter I made some mention of the disease known as "red rust," and to this must be added " takeall," occasional swarms of locusts, and sometimes drought. Thus the farmer has his drawbacks to contend with as well as the squatter, but he has, on the whole, pursued his calling with equal success. The cost of cultivating wheat in South Australia is very small, for scientific farming is rarely resorted to. Year after year the same ground goes through the same pro- cess, and bears the same crop. The soil is merely turned up by the plough, and the seed thrown in, often without even following it. Nothing like a rotation of crops is ever attempted. Mr. Harcus says : " There are farms in South Australia which have been annually cropped with wheat for twenty or twenty-five years, and yet last harvest AGRICULTURE. 157 they produced as abundantly as ever. Though the farm- ing is what would be called slovenly in England, yet as a whole, and over a series of years, it answers the purpose of the agriculturist. There are many farmers who have grown rich in this way. Beginning on a small scale, with a section or two of eighty acres, they have, from the profits of one year, enlarged their freeholdings for the next, until several of them now have very large and valuable estates, which yield them a handsome in- come." Ridley's reaping machine has proved a great boon to the agriculturists of South Australia, where the dryness of the climate admits of its being put into the field directly the corn is ripe, when the wheat is reaped and threshed with great expedition and at little expense. Soon after the foundation of South Australia it showed indications of its mineral treasures, a rich vein of silver- lead ore being discovered in the vicinity of Adelaide. Gold also was found in small quantities, although gold digging has never assumed the proportions of a staple industry. Far otherwise with copper, the amount of which within the colony seems almost inexhaustible. Copper is the great mineral product of South Australia, and the first mine of any importance was discovered by Mr. Francis S. Dutton on a sheep run at Kapunda in I58 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 1S43. Two years later the great Burra-Burra mine was found, and worked with extraordinary success. This in turn was eclipsed by the Wallaroo Mines on Yorke's Peninsula, discovered in i860, and by the Moonta Mines a little later. Of the last-mentioned mine it is stated that from the time that ore was found it was sufficiently remunerative to pay all working expenses ; not a penny of capital was ever subscribed, and within two years a dividend was paid. The company is a public one, and the property is divided into 32,000 shares ; their price is now quoted at ^19 per share. Thus a property which cost the shareholders nothing is now valued at over ^£500,000. On these mines dividends have been paid, amounting to^728,ooo ; and in 1S75 six dividends were paid — two of 205-., one of i$s., and three of jos., amount- ing for the year to ^136,000. In the north, mines have been opened, the best known and largest being Yudan- amutana and Blinman. Of twenty-eight mines working in 1873, all but one were copper. Mr. Harcus says: "It is difficult to form any trust- worthy estimate of the amount of capital which has been invested in mining. It has, however, amounted to many hundreds of thousands of pounds, a great portion of which has been hopelessly lost. The colonists are sub- ject to periodical fits of mining mania, which runs like wildfire through the community, infecting all classes. It ITS MINERAL WEALTH. 1 59 is difficult to know how these fits originate. Something promising is discovered in some likely locality. Mysteri- ous hints are whispered about on 'Change about a ' big thing' being discovered. Curiosity is excited, and mining brokers are on the qui vive. They who are in the secret wear an air of mysterious importance. Knots of knowing hands gather on the 'flags.' There are secret conferences, rushing of brokers to and fro, han- som cabs are summoned, and one or two of the smartest of the brokers drive off in haste. All this indicates that something is up. Keen mining men, undeterred by past experience, are drawn into the excitement. A prospectus (more or less truthful) is drawn up, shares are offered and taken up. After a while the shares are 'bulled' or ' bear'd ' as occasion may arise. Often the discovery is a genuine one, and samples are shown to prove its value. Then the country in the neighbourhood of the discovery is examined and becomes immediately valuable. Where the lode is rich in a given locality, it must be rich all around it. If the original discovery, of which the value has been proved, is called, say, the ' Nil Desperandum,' there is soon started the " North Nil Desperandum," the 'West Nil Desperandum,' the 'Great Extended Nil Desperandum,' and such like. There is then a rush for shares, the brokers put money into their purses, and in a few days the excitement is at fever heat. Most i6o SOUTH AUSTRALIA. of the contiguous claims prove ' duffers ' or ' shicers '; and the unfortunate shareholders, having rushed into the speculation in haste, have opportunity to repent at leisure." Such is a brief account of the three chief sources of the material wealth of South Australia. How they have prospered will be seen by reference to the following abstract, showing the progress made from 1851 to the present time, stated at intervals of five years : — * STAPLE PRODUCE EXPORTS. Years. Total. Breadstuffs. Wool. Minerals. £ £ £ £ 1851 540,962 73,359 148,036 310,916 1856 1,398,867 556,371 412,163 408,042 1861 1,838,639 712,789 623,007 452,172 1866 2,539'723 645,401 99°' T 73 824,501 1871 3,289,861 1,253,429 1,170,885 648,569 1875 4,442,100 1,680,996 1,833,5 19 762,386 From the foregoing statement, it appears that out of ^4,442,100 worth of staple produce, the value of bread- stuffs amounted to ,£1,680,996, or thirty-six per cent, of the whole; that wool represented £1,833,519, or forty- * "Statistical Sketch of South Australia." By Josiah Boothby, Ksq., J.P., Under-Secretary and Government Statist. ITS EXPORTS. l6l two per cent. ; and copper ,£762,386, or twenty-eight per cent.; the balance of ^165,199, or four per cent., being miscellaneous products. Having seen the valuable commodities which South Australia is able to produce, let us take a glance at a most important subject, namely, the means at her disposal to transport such commodities to the sea. One river only in the colony, the Murray, is navigable, and is available for but a small portion of the province. The majority of the traffic is therefore of necessity carried on by land, over roads and railways. Of the former, 2,707 miles have been constructed, of which 884 miles have been thoroughly made with metal, at a cost during the last twenty-two years of ^1,800,000 sterling. Of the latter, 196 miles are completed, of which 133^ are tra- versed by locomotive engines, horses being in use on the remainder. Including those approaching completion, the total mileage is 371, of which 300 miles will be worked by locomotives. Very considerable railway extensions are projected by the present Government, who propose borrowing ^3,000,000 for that purpose. After paying all costs for working, repairs, &c, the Government lines showed in 1874 a clear profit of ^180,789. The South Australian telegraph system is very com- plete, and the trans-continental line must always be re- garded as a magnificent achievement. There are at M 162 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. present in the colony 105 stations, 3,904 miles of wire, and 3,069 miles of line opened. The population of South Australia, according to the census taken in March, 1876, was estimated at 213,271 souls, of whom 110,491 were males, and 102,780 females. The aborigines numbered under 4,000. The aggregate number of churches and chapels in the colony in 1874, was 610, with seats for over 120,000 persons, and this does not include 266 buildings and rooms occasionally used for devotional purposes. As we have seen, the colony was founded on the principle that no form of religion should be distinctively recognised by the State, but that all churches should be on the same footing of equality, none being specially honoured or subsidised, and none being placed under any civil dis- abilities. In South Australia the Church of England is numeri- cally at the head of all the denominations. Its Bishop, the Right Rev. Augustus Short, D.D., was appointed by Letters Patent in 1847. Mr. Harcus' notice of this prelate cannot fail to interest the reader. " Bishop Short is a fine, hale old gentleman of seventy, with a robust physique, and a vigorous mind. He is the beau ideal of a Missionary Bishop, working as hard as the most hard- worked curate in his church. He is indeed ' in labours more abundant.' His career in the colony has been a THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 1 63 very honourable and successful one. He is a churchman to the backbone, and has defended his Church, when occasion called for it, with great vigour ; but he is respected by all sections of the religious community for his ability, consistency, and kindness of spirit. He is, too, a thorough man of business, with high administra- tive powers." The Bishop has under him in his diocese the Dean of Adelaide, two archdeacons, two canons, about fifty clergy- men, and a large staff of lay-readers, who conduct reli- gious services in various parts of the colony. The pro- perty of his Church is valuable, and so wisely invested as to produce an annually increasing revenue for Church purposes. The Roman Catholic Church is also an important body, having at its head a bishop, Dr. Reynolds, who was for many years a priest in the colony. The census of 1871 showed the number of the various denominations to be as follows : — Church of England, 50,849; Roman Catholics, 28,668; Wesleyans, 27,075; Lutherans, 15,412 ; Presbyterians, 13,371 ; Congrega- tionalists, 7,969; Bible Christians, 7,758; Primitive Mediodists, 8,207 ; an d Baptists, 8,731 ; Unitarians, Moravians, Friends, and other smaller sects, complete the population. Education is widely spread throughout South Australia, m 2 164 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. and by a recent Act its management is placed in the hands of a Council responsible to the Minister for Education. The three leading features of the system are : — That education is secular, but not to the exclusion of the Bible ; free to those who cannot afford to pay a small fee ; and compulsory wherever practicable. Teachers receive salaries varying from ,£100 to ,£300 per annum, for which purpose a sum of ^60,000 has been granted by Government, together with a further sum of ^60,000 for the erection of school buildings. The total number of licensed schools open at the close of 1874 was 320. A university is now established at Adelaide, towards the endowment of which Messrs. Hughes and Elder each gave the munificent gift of ^20,000. Great efforts have been made in this colony to educate and civilise the aborigines, and at one time they were attended with considerable success. The old drawbacks, however, always prevailed, and both boys and girls would suddenly disappear to resume their savage life. Bishop Hale, lately translated from the see of Perth to Brisbane, when Archdeacon in South Australia, took the same interest in the aborigines that he has manifested ever since,"" and to remove the elder children from native influences and associations, established an institution at Poonindee. The Bishop of Adelaide thus describes the * See close of preceding chapter on Western Australia. ABORIGINAL MISSION. 1 65 establishment : — " The mission now consists of fifty-four natives, comprising eleven married couples ; the rest children of either sex, thirteen being from the Port Lincoln district. The married couples have each their little hut, built of the trunks of the shea-oak set up in the ground, the interstices being neatly plastered and whitewashed, and roofed with broad paling. The other children, in small divisions, occupy the remaining ones. They have their meals in common in the general kitchen ; the working party first, then the women and children. Narrang, one of the elder young men, assisted by two mates, is steward, butcher and cook. At half-past six in the morning, and after sundown, all assemble at the Archdeacon's cottage for the reading of Scripture and prayer. The schoolmaster, Mr. Hasop, leads the singing of a simple hymn, and the low soft voices of the natives make pleasing melody. A plain exposition follows. After breakfast they go to their several employments, the cowherds, milk, &c. ; some were engaged in putting up posts and rails for a stock-yard ; the shepherds were with their flocks ; two assisted the bricklayer, one preparing mortar, the other laying bricks. At the proper season they plough, reap, shear, make bricks, burn charcoal, cut wood, do, in fact, under the direction of the overseer, the usual work of a station. Six hours are the limits of the working day. Shepherds, &c, receive 8s. per week and l66 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. rations ; second class labourers, 5 s. ; third, y. 6d. ; fourth, 2S. 6d. The younger children attend school ; the married women wash, sew, and make and mend the clothes. Such is an outline of the occupation, education, and religious training adopted at Poonindee, which, begun with very limited means, and with no previous instance of success to encourage hope, has, neverthe- less, through a blessing upon the Archdeacon's patient, quiet zeal, reached a very promising state of maturity." The Colony of Western Australia formed a portion of the diocese of Adelaide up to 1S57, when it was erected into a separate see, the two venerable Church societies contributing ,£5,000 towards its endowment. The flora and fauna of South Australia need no especial description, and I shall conclude this brief account of the colony by stating that in the year 1875 its exports amounted to £"4,805,051, and its imports were returned at £4,203,802. The revenue for the year 1875 amounted to £"1,143,312, and for the year ending June 30th, 1876, to £"1,316,800. Immigration is both free and assisted. Land orders of the value of £"20 being given to persons paying their own passage. Concerning this, and other particulars which I am unable to give here, full information can be obtained at the office of the Agent-General for South Australia, 8, Victoria Chambers, Westminster. ITS ADVANTAGES. 167 For farm-labourers, miners, and domestic servants, the Colony seems to possess great advantages, and the steady flow of emigrants towards its shores must every year increase its already abundant measure of wealth and prosperity. CHAPTER VII. VICTORIA. Geographical Position — Early Attempts at Colonisation — Its Perma- nent Settlement — A Disastrous Period — Separation from New- South Wales — Discovery of Gold — Instances of Sudden Enrich- ment — Population — Climate — Geological Formation — Enormous Trees — The Church of England and other Religious Denomi- nations — The See of Ballarat — Education — Railways — Wages. {fsfyjn? "Vr HE wealthy and populous colony of Victoria o vf\mf^)^ occupies the south-eastern corner 01 the f^ijJXj%i great island-continent, and is bounded on G^N^/r ^ the north by the river Murray, on the west V HL^>o by South Australia, on the south by the Southern >% Ocean, Bass's Straits, and the Pacific Ocean, and :(3 ... on the east by New South Wales, from which it is separated by an imaginary line drawn from Cape Howe to the sources of the Murray, at a place called the Springs on Forest Hill. According to the latest computation, the area of Victoria is 88,198 square miles, or 56,446,720 acres, being about 1-34U1 part of the entire continent. ATTEMPTS AT COLONISATION. l6Q Cook, Flinders, and Grant all coasted along the Vic- torian shores, naming prominent headlands, and little dreaming of the future importance of the unknown land opening to their view. On the ioth January, 1802, Port Phillip Bay was discovered by Lieutenant Murray, R.N., who had received orders to survey the southern coast in the Lady Nelson, and about three months later it was entered by Flinders, who had been sent from England in the Investigator to complete the work so intrepidly com- menced by George Bass and himself in the little boat Tom Thumb. The first attempt to colonise the Port Phillip territory was made by an expedition under the command of Colonel Collins, consisting of a few troops and a body of convicts — 402 persons in all. They arrived in the Bay in October, 1803, and landed at a spot in every way unsuitable for a settlement ; water was scanty and of bad quality, and timber for building purposes had to be brought from Arthur's Seat, fourteen miles distant. In a few weeks the brackish water so seriously affected the men 'that several of them died, and others ran away from the unendurable hardships of such an existence. Amongst these was Buckley the Wild Man, who lived with the natives for thirty-three years. A runaway, who returned in a starving condition, reported having discovered a river flowing into the northern part of the bay, a statement 170 VICTORIA. afterwards confirmed by Lieutenant Tuckey, but Colonel Collins took not the slightest notice of the discovery, and seems to have made no effort to ameliorate the condition of the settlement. Matters grew from bad to worse, and having obtained the necessary permission, Collins shipped his men and stores, and abandoned Port Phillip on the 27th January, 1804, sailing from thence for the Derwent in the south of Van Diemen's Land. Thus was a coun- try, so fertile and beautiful that Sir Thomas Mitchell thought it worthy of being called Australia Felix, left utterly uninhabited save by the wandering savage and his half wild dog. For many years Victoria attracted but little attention ; another convict settlement was attempted at Western Port in 1826, but was speedily abandoned ; and not until 1834 was a permanent settlement founded by Mr. Thomas Henty, a Tasmanian merchant, at Portland Bay. This site was not happily selected, for the sterility of the soil was unfavourable to agriculture, and the bay proved too open for shipping. In the following year two other parties from Van Diemen's Land established themselves on the shores of Port Phillip, and led the way to the per- manent colonisation of the district. The leader of the first party, Mr. John Batman, acting on behalf of an association, landed with seventeen persons at Indented Heads on the west side of Port Phillip Bay ITS SETTLEMENT. I J I towards the end of May, 1835. Unable to communicate with the natives, he weighed and stood further up the Bay to the entrance of the river Werribee. Here he landed, fell in with the aborigines, and purchased from them a large tract of country in exchange for blankets, toma- hawks, flour, &c. Two deeds were drawn up conveying to Batman, his heirs, and assigns, 600,000 acres of land within certain defined limits, to which instruments seven of the principal chiefs affixed their marks. This treaty, it may be here said, was disallowed by Government as being in violation of the rights of the Crown. The other party was organised by six residents of Van Diemen's Land, and placed under the command of Mr. John Fawkner, a name that will ever remain connected with the rise of the colony of Victoria. Proceeding first to Western Port the party landed, but, finding the situa- tion unsuitable, entered Port Phillip Bay, and, despite the opposition of Batman's people, pursued their course to the mouth of the noble Yarra Yarra, up which river their little schooner boldly pushed her way, and on the 28th August, 1835, was made fast to trees opposite the spot on which the city of Melbourne now stands. Habitations were soon erected, fresh adventurers from Van Diemen's Land and Sydney arrived, and a flourishing community rapidly sprang into existence. The absence of some form of government soon made itself felt, and the 172 VICTORIA. colonists petitioning the governor of New South Wales to supply this want, Captain Lonsdale was appointed to discharge the duties of resident magistrate, and with his arrival on the 29th September, 1836, the regular govern- ment of the settlement may be said to have commenced. The first act of the new magistrate was to fix the site of the future capital, his choice coinciding with that of Fawkner's party, and a few months afterwards his selec- tion was approved on personal inspection by Sir Richard Bourke, who bestowed upon the infant township the name of " Melbourne." It is not my intention to follow the development of the future Victoria through all its details. A great similarity is observable in the earlier stages of all the Australian colonies, and Port Phillip proved no exception to the rule. As elsewhere the mania for speculation possessed all classes of society, and amidst the fever of land-jobbing steady industry found no place, and the very necessaries of life could only be obtained at inordinately high prices. Specie was scarce, though paper-money was plentiful and credit unlimited. Ordinary moderation was unknown, all classes of the community lived in a style of reckless extravagance, and it is recorded that even rough labourers and bullock-drivers indulged in champagne and other luxuries of a similarly expensive character. The inevitable result of this was easy to foresee, a commercial crisis PORT PHILLIP. 173 ensued, producing universal ruin and distress, whilst, to add to the troubles of the colonists, the price of their chief export (wool) underwent a considerable fall in Eng- land. A writer on that disastrous period states that " real property became so reduced in value that only about one-tenth of its former price could be realised for it. Sheep had depreciated so much that flocks, worth from £\ \os. to £2 in the first phase of Port Phillip settle- ment, had been sold from is. 2d. to 4s. per head."* At the time of this crash (1842) the Port Phillip district had a population of 24,000. It slowly rallied from the depression, a sounder business system took the place of reckless speculation amongst the commercial portion of the community, and the squatters were materially relieved from their embarrassments by the introduction of a new system, whereby they were not entirely dependent on their wool, it being found remunerative to boil down the sheep for tallow. During all this period Port Phillip was a dependency of New South Wales, and for many reasons separation from the mother-colony became desirable. Agitation having this object for its end was carried on with great activity, and at length the demand was granted by the home authorities. On the 1st July, 1851, the Port Phillip * " History of Victoria," by the Hon. Thomas McCombie. London: i8c8. 174 VICTORIA. district of New South Wales was erected into the separate colony of Victoria amidst the rejoicings of its inhabitants, who illuminated their principal city, and have ever since observed the auspicious day as a general holiday. At the commencement of the year of separation the population of Port Phillip numbered 76,000 ; the sheep, 6,000,000; the cattle, 380,000; the horses, 21,000; and the land in cultivation, 52,000 acres. In the preceding year the public revenue had amounted to ^"260,000, the public expenditure tO;£i96,ooo, the imports to^745,ooo, the exports to ;£ 1,000,000. The ships which arrived numbered 555, of an aggregate tonnage of 108,030, and the ships which departed numbered 508, of an aggregate tonnage of 87,087. The wheat grown amounted to 550,000 bushels, the oats to 100,000 bushels, the hay to 21,000 tons. The wool exported amounted to 18,000,000 lbs., and the tallow to 10,000,000 lbs. But another and all important crisis for the new colony was at hand — the discovery of gold, or more properly speaking, the recognition by Government of the existence of the precious metal. Two years previously a shepherd had picked up a nugget in the Pyranees range, but this fact seems to have attracted little public attention, for the man being unable to point out the spot where he found it, was supposed to be an impostor, who had obtained the gold by melting DISCOVERY OF GOLD. I 75 stolen jewellery. But when, in 185 1, Mr. Hargreaves discovered gold in New South Wales, so many Victorians emigrated to that colony, that a public meeting was held in Melbourne on the 9th June, at which a "Gold-dis- covery Committee" was appointed, authorised to offer rewards for the opening of remunerative gold fields. Even before the meeting was held the colonists were on the alert, and several parties were out searching for the precious metal. It was first discovered at Clunes by Mr. Campbell, then in the Yarra ranges at Anderson's Creek, soon after at Buninyong, Ballarat, and Mount Alexander, and eventually at Bendigo. Hitherto the Government had presented every obstacle in their power to the search for gold, but these discoveries following each other so quickly, brushed all opposition aside as though it had been a spider's web. The Government were forced to recognise the existence of gold within the boundaries of the colony, and the first mining licences were issued on the 1st September, 185 1. And now commenced an era unexampled in- the history of any of our English dependencies. A writer * on this stirring time says: "The discovery of gold in 185 1 changed, as by the wave of a magician's wand, the entire features of life in Australia. The pulse of the * " Hemes and Homesteads in the Land of Plenty," by the Rev. James Ballantyne. Melbourne: 1874. 176 VICTORIA. community, which erewhile beat quietly and steadily, at once mounted to fever heat. There was but one theme on every lip, and that theme was 'gold.' It intoxicated the whole body of the people. They rushed pell-mell to the various spots where the dazzling metal was supposed to be obtainable. The labourer left his implements of toil, and ran. The mechanic quitted his bench. The clerk abruptly threw up his situation. The merchant left his counting-room. The barrister left his case unfinished. Melbourne was all but deserted. In the course of a few months about one-half of the entire male population of the colony had left their wonted avocations and gone on the popular adventure. Then, too, the people came ' in hot haste ' from the neighbouring colonies, crowd following crowd as fast as ships by sea and conveyances by land could bring them — men of every shade of character, and thousands with no character at all, each and every one attracted by the bewildering glare of the virgin gold. Little wonder that business came to a stand-still, that the old landmarks were torn up, that the foundations of society were out of course, and that social disorganisation, rapine, dissipation, and even murder, speedily prevailed. Yet in the dawn of the golden era would we recognise the hand of God. Wisely too and well did that hand work. It did two things greatly wanted : relieved the over-crowded cities SUDDEN ENRICHMENTS. I J J at home of a portion of the surplus population, and drew men to a young and inviting country to which otherwise they would not come, and which most urgently needed them. A perplexing problem, which was baffling politi- cal economists and social reformers at home, was thus solved." Some few instances of the sudden manner in which people found themselves enriched may prove of interest to the reader. A man was driving his waggon, when the wheel turned up something bright and shining. Out of curiosity he stopped his team and stooped down to examine it. When he regained an upright position, he was ^1,600 richer than he had been a few moments previously, for that was the value of the nugget thus unexpectedly exposed to view. A gentleman who had taken to the diggings opened a claim with his mate, and after several weeks of fruitless toil abandoned it in disgust. Another party took pos- session, and at the first stroke of the pick brought to light the precious metal, taking out ^5,000 worth of gold in a very short time. In 1S69 two labouring men were at work in a gully, and whilst digging round the roots of a tree one of them struck his pick against something hard. " Hope it 's a nugget," he said to his mate, and his wish was true ; it N 1 78 VICTORIA. teas a nugget, and no less a one than the " Vv elcome Stranger," which yielded the fortunate discoverers nearly ,£10,000. In the Bendigo district many parties in succession worked at a quartz reef, but all abandoned it in despair. An enterprising man took it up, trusting to his previous savings to pay men to sink more deeply. They worked away until his money was exhausted, and as yet no gold had appeared to gladden his heart, so he in like manner was compelled to give it up. He came to this resolution in the evening, and with a heavy heart fired the last blast and turned away penniless. On the following morning he returned for his tools, and found them lying in what looked like a jeweller's shop, so thickly scat- tered around lay the glistening specks of gold. The final blast had unearthed the treasure, and the first crushing yielded ^1,500. Mr. Ballantyne mentions the two following instances. In the early days of sluicing, a Scotchman was working an extensive claim, and had a number of men in his employ. No gold was to be had. He prosecuted the work in hope till he had spent his last shilling. He then called the men together, and informed them that his funds were exhausted, and that he could proceed no further. The men had great respect for him as master, and subscribed among themselves a sum sufficient to SUDDEN ENRICHMENTS. I 79 cany on the works for a few weeks longer. In about a fortnight they struck the gold. So abundant did it prove that in a few weeks he had cleared the sum of ^40,000. With this he was satisfied. With a sense of obligation that did him great credit, he called his men together again, and made over to them the mine, while yet it was giving up its tribute of gold with unabated generosity. Two new arrivals, bound for the gold-fields, sat down to rest on the outskirts of a recent rush. The day was broilingly hot, and they were glad to seek the little shade afforded by the fire-blasted trunk of an old gum tree. One of them, removing a little earth with the heel of his boot, disclosed to view something hard and yellow- looking. It did not seem to be stone ; what then could it be ? They had not seen a lump of gold as yet, but they had come to a land reported to be a golden one, and had been attracted hither by the fairy-looking tales of its princely nuggets. Might not this be one ? Very wisely they unearthed it, and, lo ! it proved to be a huge cake of veritable gold. Their fortune was made. With- out ever putting pick or spade in the ground, they retraced their steps, and took the first ship home, carrying with them an independence for life. Numberless other instances of unexpected finds might be recorded, but enough has been said to show how N 2 l8o VICTORIA. capricious Fortune proves in the distribution of her favours. From the date of her erection into an independent colony to the present day, Victoria has progressed with giant strides. On the 15th of August, 1835, the white population of Port Phillip was 14; at the end of 1868 it amounted to 684,316. By the census of 187 1 the total corrected returns were 731,528, of whom 401,050 were males, and 330,478 females ; and on the 30th June, 1875, the population was computed by the Registrar- General to be 813,588 — 441,742 males, 371,846 females, which at the close of the year had increased by nearly 15,000 persons. Among the population are 17,935 Chinese, only 36 of whom are females. The aboriginal tribes were originally computed as numbering some 5,000 souls, but they have gradually dwindled away, and at the end of 1875 the total number of aborigines in the colony was estimated at 1,553. Of the Victorian climate little or nothing need be said, as all that has been recorded in the section on South Australia applies to this colony. A competent authority says: "The climate is, indeed, delicious. Probably in no part of the world is it possible to find fewer impedi- ments to out-door labour or recreation as regards the weather than in Victoria. Though the summer is in- variably marked by a few days of great heat, yet even ITS CLIMATE. l8l in that season there are many days when the weather is pleasant and cool, and nothing can exceed the climate experienced in the colony during the autumn, winter, and spring. A cloudless sky, a bright sun, and a refreshing breeze are characteristics of the greater number of days in each of those seasons ; and while the salubrity of the climate is shown by the absence of those diseases which yearly sweep off so many of the inhabitants of England, it is yet equally favourable to the growth of fruits and vegetables of the colder countries." The geological formation of Victoria is, according to the "Australian Handbook," a great mass of palaeozoic rock, through which protrude large areas of granite and trap, and upon which repose, near the coast, belts of Mesozoic and Tertiary strata, and volcanic products. The younger members of the Tertiary or Cainozoic series, and the older members of the primary or Palaeozoic series, are by far the most widely distributed, and are in all respects the most prominent and important formations. With their associated granitic and plutonic or igneous and volcanic rocks, they occupy nearly nine- tenths of the surface of the country. Neither the flora nor fauna of Victoria require any particular mention. Some of the eucalypti attain an enormous size, and yield timber of great local value. In the Dandenong ranges trees 420 feet in height have 1 82 VICTORIA. repeatedly been measured ; and near Healesville a fallen tree measured 480 feet, being fourteen feet higher than the spire of Strasbourg cathedral. Many of our English animals and birds have been introduced into the colony, and found to answer well. Hares, rabbits, pheasants, partridges, thrushes, larks, &c, have' become quite common. Thirty-five Axis deer turned out at the Wimmera some years ago, have increased wonderfully, as has been the case with fallow deer and Angora goats, liberated in various parts of the colony. It was provided by the Constitution Act that for the advancement of the Christian religion in Victoria, the sum of ^5 0,000 should be set apart each year from the general revenue, to promote the erection of buildings for public worship, and the maintenance of ministers of religion, which sum should be apportioned to each denomination according to the number of its members at the preceding census. This provision, however, was repealed by an Act which received the royal assent on the 6th January, 1871 ; the repeal to take effect from and after the 31st December, 1S75. At this time, therefore, no monetary aid to religion is given by the State. The following is a return of the number of registered clergy of different denominations during 1874, the num- ber of churches and other buildings used for public RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 183 worship, the number of persons for whom there is accom- modation, and the number usually attending at the prin- cipal Sabbath or Sunday service, and the number of ser- vices performed during the year : — Churches and Clergv, 1874. Religious Denomination. Ph bo Churches and other buildings used for Public Worship. 2. o ° D 2 S3 Baptists 4> I 5 I Unitarians 849 Protestants undescribed 2 >S49 Other Protestants 4> 6 59 Total Protestants 339>39 2 Roman Catholics I45>93 2 Catholics undescribed 1)695 Total Catholics i47>627 Hebrews 2 >39S Other Persuasions 1,166 Pagans 7>455 Unspecified 5>946 Total 16,962 Total Population 503,981 2lS NEW SOUTH WALES. The total income of the clergy of the Church of England in New South Wales is about ;£ 14,000 per annum, of which ,£1,576 comes from the General Church Fund, the remainder being paid voluntarily by the people. The usual stipend of an incumbent is ^"200 per annum ; on this subject Mr. Trollope says : " Very much praiseworthy energy has been used throughout the colonies to bring religious teaching withing the reach of the people under very disadvantageous circumstances. No doubt the fact of an endowed Church at home, and the theory of endowments which was brought from home to the colonies, has given rise there as well as here to an idea that religion and religious teaching and rites should be administered to a people without any demand upon them for direct payment. People in Australia will com- monly make it a matter of complaint that no clergyman has ever been near them, that no religious aid has ever been sent to them — although they themselves have taken no measures and paid no money towards bringing a clergyman into their districts. For the doctor and the lawyer they know they must pay— as the Roman Catholic knows also that he must pay for his priest. But the normal English Protestant, even when dissenting from the Church of England, thinks that his spiritual pastor should be sent to him by some unknown authority which is supposed to have such matters in keeping. If the THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 219 spiritual pastor be not sent, the Protestant goes on without clerical assistance, perhaps complaining — more probably troubling himself very little on the matter. He would go to church if there were a church near him ; but if there be none within reach the fault does not rest with him, and thus his conscience is at ease. And again, the spareness of the population and the great distances which lie between the small towns add greatly to the difficulty. Clergymen of all denominations are, when employed in the pastoral districts, obliged to take charge of wide areas of country rather than of parishes — of areas so wide that services can be held by each perhaps only once a fortnight, and perhaps only once a month. The travelling also is expensive, laborious, and very disa- greeable. It necessarily follows that in many places there is no religious worship set on foot with clerical aid, and that squatters, with their families and their attendant shepherds, stockriders, shearers, and the like, recognise Sunday only as a day of rest." The educational system in New South Wales is very complete, and under it pupils are found to attain a high degree of proficiency. In 1874 there were 1,547 schools, having 1,184 male and 1,254 female teachers; and a total of 119,133 scholars. Towards the support of these schools the Government contributed ,£120,600, and ^60,245 was received as voluntary and free contributions, 2 20 NEW SOUTH WALES. making a total of ,£180,845. In 1S75 the number of schools had increased to 1,586, and the total amount contributed for their support to ,£277,723 $s. 3^.* Passages are provided by the Agent-General for New South Wales for such farmers, mechanics, miners, do- mestic servants, farm and other labourers as may desire to emigrate to the colony, at a mere nominal rate of payment. Wages are much the same as are quoted in the section on Victoria. All information can be ob- tained at 3, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, S.W. On the 31st December, 1875, 437 miles of railway were open, and 2 5 1 \ in course of construction. At the same date 8,612 miles of telegraph wire were open, and 1,317 in course of construction. , The total value of trade (imports and exports) in 1875 was ,£27,161,780, being ^45 1 2S. 3d. per head of the population, exceeding the similar percentage of any other Australian colony. I conclude this brief account of New South Wales with the following extract from a speech delivered by the Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson, at Bathurst, on 6th March, 1873 : — " I know of no sight more calculated to impress an Englishman with feelings of pride and thankfulness than to travel through a great new Country like this, and to * "Australian Handbook for 1S77." ITS PROGRESS. 221 see on all sides the evidence which it affords of industrial progress and social improvement, — to see scattered every- where thriving bustling townships and homesteads, where, but a few years since, there was only the wigwam of the savage, — to see lands, which, within the memory of the present generation, were unproductive swamps and pri- meval forests, covered with flocks and herds and corn, and administering to the wants and contributing to the hap- piness of hundreds of thousands of the human race, — and above all to see the land inhabited by thriving com- munities of citizens, who are striving to attain a high moral standard, who are enjoying to the utmost degree constitutional liberty, and who are proving by their loyalty and good order how well they appreciate its blessings. I say that a sight such as this always makes me feel proud of the genius of my countrymen for colonisation, and jus- tifies me in looking forward with confidence to the future of this great Country. The resources of the land are boundless, and thousands upon thousands of working- men, who are often suffering in the Old Country from want or insufficient means, would here find an easy and comfortable subsistence." mmm CHAPTER X. QUEENSLAND. Its Separation from New South Wales — Geographical Position — Physical Features — Geological Formation — Climate — Agricul- tural Products — Mineral Resources — The Aborigines — Account given of their Customs by James Morrill, a shipwrecked sailor, who lived amongst them for seventeen years — Population of the Colony — The Church of England and other Denominations — Education — Immigration — Wages — Railways. 'E now pass on to Queensland, the youngest member of the Australian family, but one that shows unmistakable signs of rivalling, ■ - ■■■■(. w if not surpassing, the older established y,'i*r^ colonies in wealth, importance, and general .c- A prosperity. Until December, 1859, the north-west portion of the Fifth Continent was known as the Moreton Bay district, and belonged to the colony of New South Wales, but at that date it had grown so large that it was erected into a separate and independent colony, under the name ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. 2 23 of Queensland. It lies between lat. io° 43 S. and 29 S., and long. 138 and 153 E., bounded on the north by Torres Straits ; on the north-east by the Coral Sea ; on the east by the South Pacific ; on the south by New South Wales and South Australia ; on the west by South Aus- tralia and the Northern Territory; and on the north-west by the Gulf of Carpentaria. It covers an area of 678,000 square miles,, equal, in round numbers, to 435,000,000 acres ; being a tract of country twenty times as large as Ireland, twenty-three times as large as Scotland, and eleven times the extent of England. The tropic of Capricorn, running east and west, divides Queensland into nearly two equal parts, but a more important division is effected by the great Australian Cordilleras, which stretch from north to south throughout the entire length of the colony (roughly speaking), fol- lowing a direction nearly parallel with the coast, distant from it fifty to one hundred miles, and attaining an average height of 4,500 feet. This fine chain of moun- tains we have already made acquaintance with in New South Wales, under the name of the Australian Alps and the Blue Mountains ; in Queensland it is known as the Main Range. The country lying to the east of the Range — the coast country — is mountainous and well-wooded, with many plains and valleys of rich alluvial soil, invaluable to the farmer and the planter. 2 24 QUEENSLAND. Surmounting the Main Range and viewing the country stretching away far into the distant west, the character of the landscape is found to be completely changed. The traveller sees around him a park-like expanse of elevated table land, forming vast undulating downs, almost devoid of timber, rich with herbage, well watered, and gladdening to the heart of the sheep farmer or stock owner, who beholds visions of future wealth in the glorious prairies spread out before him. Nor is this fine pasturage con- fined to the immediate vicinity of the Main Range ; for hundreds of miles the country slopes back gradually towards the interior, and at the distance of a thousand miles from the sea has proved eminently adapted for grazing purposes. The climate here is also far more temperate than on the coast owing to its greater eleva- tion, and it is perhaps suitable to the production of cereals, but this I should think a little doubtful. Its capabilities for the growth of wool are unrivalled through- out the continent, and Queensland may be said to consist of two different descriptions of country — that lying between the Main Range and the Pacific, adapted to agricultural pursuits ; and the far more extensive table land running westward from the mountain chain, in every way suitable for depasturing millions of sheep and cattle. Almost the whole of Queensland, as far as it has been explored, is fitted for pastoral occupation. ITS PASTORAL CAPABILITIES 225 The shores of this fine colony were first made known to Europeans through Captain Cook, who discovered Moreton Bay in May, 1770, and subsequently sailed along the coast to the northward, giving to many bays and headlands the names they still bear, and narrowly escaping destruction on the Great Barrier Reef, of the existence of which he was then unaware. Later on Captain Flinders explored the coast, and in 1823 the Brisbane River, which disembogues in Moreton Bay, was discovered by Mr. Oxl ey. Two years afterwards (1825) a penal settlement was established on its banks, which existed until transportation to New South Wales ceased. To this over a thousand of the worst class of convicts were removed, and had ordinary common sense guided the authorities having this amount of forced labour in charge, many useful public works might have been erected of the utmost value to the future colony. But the grossest and most culpable mismanagement existed. The overseers receiving a small sum for every acre cleared by the gangs under their charge, naturally selected the most thinly timbered land, and accordingly Moreton Island, a useless heap of sand, was laid bare of the trees that then covered it, without the slightest good result to any one but the officials themselves. This is but one instance out of many that might be quoted of the shameful mismanagement of convict labour. Dr. Lang records an o 2 26 QUEENSLAND. amusing circumstance which occurred at this period of the settlement's existence. A swamp on the Brisbane River, near Brisbane, was drained at a very considerable ex- pense, under the idea that it would be well adapted for the growth of rice, and the superintendent had it sown accordingly ; but instead of sowing the grain in its natural state of paddy, it was sown in its manufactured state of rice, procured for the purpose from a merchant's store in Sydney ! It was much the same as if an English farmer had sown his field with pearl barley. Of course the settlement was pronounced unsuited for the cultivation of rice. The " Australian Handbook " says : " Partly from the turbulent character of the convicts, over whom they (the military commandants) ruled, and partly from the almost unlimited power entrusted to them, this period of the history of the settlement is not of the most satisfactory character, and will not bear dwelling upon. In 1842 this era came to a close, and thenceforward the colony marched rapidly on its career of progress." In August, 1837, the first steamer, the J^ames Watt, anchored in Moreton Bay; two years afterwards (1839) convict immi- gration ceased altogether; and in 1842 the district was thrown open to free settlers. The length, north and south, of Queensland is about 1,300 miles, the breadth 800, and the coast line 2,550. ITS HARBOURS AND RIVERS. 227 Throughout the whole extent of the latter numerous good harbours are found, many of which form the outlets of navigable rivers. The principal of these are, Moreton Bay, at the head of which stands Brisbane, the capital of the colony, Hervey Bay, Port Curtis, Keppel Bay, Port Denison, and Halifax, Rockingham, Trinity, Weymouth, and Shelburne Bays. The whole east coast is strewn with islands of no great size, the largest, Frazer Island, being eighty miles long by twenty broad. In Torres Straits are Mulgrave, Banks, and Prince of Wales' Islands ; and in the Gulf of Carpentaria is a group called Wellesley Islands, the largest of which is Mornington. Queensland is drained by many rivers, several of which are navigable. Most of those found in the southern por- tion of the colony flow into New South Wales ; the chief streams disemboguing on the east coast being the Bris- bane, navigable as far as Ipswich, seventy-five miles froni Moreton Bay, into which it flows ; the Mary and the Burnett ; the Fitzroy, which, with its affluents, the Daw- son, Mackenzie, and Isaacs, drains several hundred miles of country, and is navigable for sixty miles above its mouth in Keppel Bay ; and the Burdekin, which is fed by the Bowen, Suttor, Clarke, and others, and empties into Wickham Bay. The Mitchell, Flinders, and Albert flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The banks of the Queens- land rivers are very beautiful, more particularly in the Q 2 2 25 QUEENSLAND. north, where the tropical climate clothes their sides with dense masses of luxuriant vegetation. At their entrance to the sea they are mostly low and fringed with man- grove flats, but beyond tidal influence the banks become high, and are well wooded with the many varieties of the eucalyptus and fig-trees, festooned with flowering vines. The geological formation of Queensland may be said to consist of two kinds — the western interior of sandstone, and the eastern and northern parts of the colony of primary and secondary rocks. The Dividing Ranges are here composed of granite, which continues along the coast from Cape York to Broad Sound, and occurs occasionally further south. According to Mr. Daintree, the granite area is 114,000 square miles, or one-sixth of the entire colony. Our knowledge of the geology of the colony is, as yet, very limited. The climate of Queensland varies considerably, accord- ing to the position of the place and its elevation above the sea. It has been the fashion to liken it to Madeira, and perhaps with justice in the south, but the northern part, Capricornia, is far hotter than Madeira ever was, or ever will be. But concerning the great heat, it must be remarked that it is unaccompanied by the hot winds from which the other Australian colonies frequently suffer, and furthermore causes little or no inconvenience to new- ITS CLIMATE. 2 20 comers beyond an attack of prickly heat ; and the older colonists would no more think of putting off any expedi- tion, or even pleasure party, on account of the sun, than they would think of going without their bath and their breakfast. A recent writer* on this colony says : " Queensland, as lying further to the north than any of the sister colonies, has of course a greater degree of the sun's heat. But this is more than counter-balanced by the sea-breeze that invariably blows inland every day in the summer season. We were for the greater part of our residence in the colony working in the open air, and always noticed that there were never more than two or three days in any summer, and none in some, in which this sea- breeze did not blow. It usually begins to be felt about nine a.m., before which time it will be hot ; but as soon as the toiler feels the cooling breeze playing about his forehead he is sensible of a wonderful change. Although the sun rises higher and higher, until it shines down the chimneys into the pots on the fire, the cool breeze tem- pers his rays and makes them bearable. Were it not for this breeze we believe it would be almost impossible for the European to do much manual work in the Queens- land summer. As it is, he can work with as much comfort and more safety than in the more southern colonies, or * "The Queen of the Colonies," by an Eight Years Resident. London: 1876. 23O QUEENSLAND. even in the fields of Upper Canada, or on the prairies of the Western States. We are aware that many will be inclined to doubt this statement. But we have found the summers of Queensland more endurable than those of Upper Canada, frost-bound region as many suppose that to be. As to safety, it is only necessary to compare the deaths from sun -stroke in those places to prove the truth of our assertion. We have known ten or twelve cases of sun-stroke in New York in one day. We never heard of half that number in eight Queensland summers. Pro- bably this arises from the care taken by the inhabitants to guard themselves from danger, but the fact is patent to all residents in the colony, that people engaged in open- air occupations carry them on throughout the summer without any ill consequences. There is to this rule, as every other, a slight exception. As we have said, there will be an occasional day when no sea-breeze blows ; then the weather will be close, sultry, and oppressively hot, and most people will find it impossible to continue working for five or six hours in the middle of the day. But 'these days are of very rare occurrence." During 1874 the mean reading of the barometer was 29*983, the mean temperature of the year was 69*9, showing a slight increase on the two previous years. The highest register- ing of the thermometer was in November, when it stood at 131, the lowest being 35-0 in August. South-west were ITS SOIL. .231 the prevailing winds, and rain fell on 135 days during the year, when 3871 inches of depth were recorded, being nearly 24 inches less than in the preceding year (1873).* Like all the Australian colonies, Queensland is remark- ably healthy, both endemic and epidemic diseases being of rare occurrence. Between the two principal divisions of the colony the soil is widely different. Eastward of the Main Range, throughout the whole length of the coast, are found numerous rivers and creeks flowing through lands ren- dered fertile by the alluvial deposits of ages. Barren wastes are, of course, encountered every here and there, and occasional tracts of marsh and swamp land, but the great proportion of the valleys are rich with vegetation, and fit to repay the husbandman's labour by yielding abundant crops. Cattle also thrive well near the coast, where the feed is too rank and luxuriant for sheep. On the table land, to the westward of the Main Range, the decomposition of volcanic rocks has formed a rich black soil of a different character. Near water it would doubt- less yield freely, but the herbage natural to it is so thoroughly adapted to grazing that nearly the whole of the country as yet taken up is employed to depasture sheep. The products of the tropics and of the temperate zone both find a home in Queensland. Maize and potatoes * " Australian Handbook for 1877." 232 QUEENSLAND. are the articles most generally cultivated by farmers, in addition to lucerne, pumpkins, arrowroot, sugar, and cotton. Queensland has fully proved herself eminently suited to the growth of sugar, and many large plantations, with crushing-mills and all requisite machinery, have been established on the fertile banks of the Caboolture, Mary, Mackay, and other rivers. Cotton at one time seemed likely to prove a great success, but the want of labour has caused it to fall off. Coffee and tobacco need only planting to thrive, more particularly in the tropical part of the colony. Of fruits Queensland has the fig, peach, plum, lemon, orange, mulberry, guava, passion-fruit, and pomegranate, besides the pine-apple, banana, custard- apple, jack-fruit, papau, and granadilla. Squatting has always been a favourite and profitable pursuit in Queensland, and although fully three-fourths of the colony is pre-eminently suited for pastoral pur- poses, not one-fourth of it has yet been taken up. When the squatter's lease expires the land is sold in fee, in large or small tracts, to suit settlers who combine tillage with grazing, by which means the capabilities of the soil are fully developed. By a little cultivation of green crops to help the natural grasses, the farmer can quadruple the number of stock which a given piece of ground would support without any such assistance ; and from the favourable land laws in force throughout the ITS MINERAL WEALTH. 2$$ colony the poorest emigrant may in a short time become the possessor of such a farm. The mineral wealth of Queensland is very great, and every year sees it more fully developed. Gold, copper, coal, tin, in almost exhaustless quantities, cinnabar, antimony, and manganese are found. Until the year 1867, when the Gympie field was dis- covered, gold mining as an industry was hardly known in Queensland. The following extract from the Brisbane Courier, of 3rd March, 1876, will give some notion of the proportions it has now assumed :— " The Commissioners for Philadelphia, in order to give visitors to the Cen- tennial Exhibition some tangible means of estimating the magnitude of our annual export of gold, have determined on showing in bulk the quantity of pure gold sent out of the colony since 1868, the date of opening up the Gympie gold-fields. The total quantity up to the end of last year having been found, and the number of cubic feet it contained having been ascertained by Mr. Staiger, Mr. F. G. D. Stanley, the colonial architect, supplied a drawing of an obelisk three feet square at the base, eighteen inches at the apex, and twenty feet two inches high. The drawing also shows eight cubes, intended to represent the amount of the pure metal exported each year, from 1868 to 1875 inclusive, which are intended for surroundings to the obelisk. These vary in size from 234 QUEENSLAND. two feet to two feet ten inches, the weight exported during the last two years being almost equal." In its northern portion the flora of Queensland displays a more tropical character than is found in any other part of the continent. The wild nutmeg tree, the banian, huge fig-trees, the Leichharclt tree, and numerous palms, are found in the dense jungle with which the river banks are lined. No especial peculiarities mark any of the fauna, with the exception of the cassowary mentioned in the earlier part of the book, and snakes and alligators of large size. The aboriginals are probably much more numerous in this colony than in any other part of Australia, and in many instances are treacherous and daring. We have also a tolerably fair knowledge of their customs from the account given by James Morrill, a sailor, who was ship- wrecked on the north eastern coast, and lived for seven- teen long years in intimate companionship with the natives. I knew the man well myself, and when he could be induced to talk of his savage life and ex- periences, his conversation was full of interest. James Morrill died within a few years of his restoration to civilised society; an old wound caused by a Burdekin River alligator broke out afresh and carried him to his grave. He, however, left a written account of his life and the habits of the tribe with which he was associated, THE ABORIGINES. 235 and from this I subjoin a few extracts in preference to trusting to my memory for the information he imparted. He writes : — " The aboriginals among whom I have been living are a fine race of people, as to strength, size, and general appearance ; but, like those of other parts of this colony, they are treacherous, jealous, and cunning. They are not black ; they are more of the colour of half-castes. When born they are nearly white ; but when they are three days old the gins squeeze their own milk on them, and rub charcoal into their skins to make them black and shine. They have sunken eyes, broad noses — which are made so by their parents in infancy — and broad mouths. The infants are allowed to suck at the breast a long while — indeed, until they are old enough to get their own food. I have seen a child sucking at the breast with its next brother or sister. I have also seen the little things working in the swamps with their mothers, setting roots, and every now and then go and take a suck at the breast. The women have very few children, seldom exceeding four, and very seldom more than one at a time. I know of about four cases of twins. I also remember that in one case, when there was a boy and a girl born to a woman, the father killed the boy and saved the girl, to save the trouble of bringing them up, for they are very lazy. It caused, however, a great disturbance in the camps among their 236 QUEENSLAND. friends, who thought they ought to have brought them up. The women go in the swamps the next day after their confinement as usual, to gather food, as though nothing had happened. The men have several wives, in some instances as many as eight or nine, and it is about these wives that all their wars, fights, and feuds occur ; they steal them from each other, and frequently lend them, or sell them for a time, for a slight consideration. "They never stay long in a locality; as soon as one place becomes a little exhausted of food they travel to another. In the wet and cold season they put up small gunyahs to live in, but in no particular order. They live in tribes, each tribe speaking a different dialect — it can hardly be called a different language. I could speak eight of these dialects. They have no chief; the strongest is the best man. " They get their living by fishing, hunting, digging in the earth for roots, gathering fruits, &c. They can eat anything ; among other things, sharks, alligators, shrimps, shell-fish, and fish of all kinds. Kangaroos, rats, wal- labies, snakes, grubs, snails, and all kinds of creeping things. Wild ducks, geese, turkeys, several kinds of roots, one of which grows at the tops of the mountains, is the best eating, called moogoondah, it is white, sweet, firm, dry, and grows in red clay soil." Morrill proceeds to describe a variety of roots used ACCOUNT OF THE BLACKS. 237 by the blacks, and continues : " There is plenty of honey in the hollows of the trees from the native honey- bees. They eat honey, combs, and bees too if they are hungry. There is plenty to eat if they are not too lazy to fetch it. Human flesh cannot be considered a part of their food, although they sometimes eat it. They eat young men killed in battle, or if killed by accident, also young women and children, but never those of their enemies. They cut their enemies up in stripes, dry them, and distribute the pieces through the tribe, by which means they think they have their enemies' strength added to their own, and that they will be lucky in hunting and fishino-. " They have no written language whatever, and con- sequently very little tradition. It is very gutteral in sound, and extremely limited in power of expression. Ot course they have no means of teaching their language but by imitation and memory, assisted by their wants. The different animals are arranged according to the size of their feet, hence the sheep have the same name as their Wallabies {cargoon) ; all kinds of sailing vessels have the same names as their canoes, because they float on the water (woolgoora). The heavenly bodies are named dif- ferently, the sun is iingin), which they think is a body of fire, because of its warmth, and especially so since they saw us light rag with a burning glass. The moon (wer- boonburra) they say is a human being like themselves 238 Q UEENSLA ND. and comes down on the earth, and they sometimes meet it in some of their fishing excursions. They say one tribe throws it up and it gradually rises and then comes down again, when another tribe catches it to save it from hurting itself. They accordingly think there is a new sun and moon every day and night. There is a very large open space on Mount Elliott with not a vestige of vegetation on it, whilst up to the very margin of it is a thick scrub, and they told me it was done by the moon, which once threw its circle stick round it, meaning its boomerang, and cut it off. Throwing the sun and moon up by one tribe and catching them by another, will easily be recog- nised as their explanation of the rising and setting of those bodies. They have no knowledge of the earth beyond the locality they inhabit. The stars and comets are both the same in name {mi goolerburdd). They think the falling stars indicate the direction of danger, and that comets are the ghosts or spirits of some of their tribe, who have been killed at a distance from them, working their way back again, and that they come down from the clouds on the coast. We saw one this last dry season which they thought was one of the tribe who had been killed in war. They think all the heavenly bodies are under their control ; and that when there is an eclipse, some of their tribe hide it with a sheet of bark to frighten the rest. About six years ago there was nearly a total THE BLACKS. 239 eclipse of the sun, the only one I saw. I asked an old man what it meant, and he told me his son had hid it (the sun) to frighten another of his tribe. But they are very uneasy during its continuance. They pick up a piece of grass and bite it, making a mumbling noise, keeping their eyes steadily fixed on it till it passes over, when they become easy again and can go to sleep com- fortably. They think they have power over the rain (durgun), and make it come and go as they like. The rainbow [tcrebare) they think is the clouds spewing fish in the lagoons, and roots on the hills, or something for their good, wherever the end points. They are very frightened at thunder (ieegoora) and lightning (timulba), although I never knew an instance of any harm being done with the lightning. They have no knowledge of how they came into existence, they think they live and die like dogs, but there is a kind of innate fear of death, and they have some thought that they will jump up white fellows ; the reference to their friends in the comets points to some undefined hereafter, but the knowledge of the future is nearly obliterated. They told me that their forefathers witnessed a great flood, and nearly all were drowned, only those who got on a very high mountain were saved. I understood them to refer to the flood mentioned in Scripture, especially as they say only a few were allowed to go up." 240 Q UEENSLAND. Morrill then gives an account of the irregularity of the language and of the ceremonies performed before the young men are permitted to marry, together with much other matter of considerable interest. He concludes thus : " The work of extinction is gradually but surely going on among the aboriginals. The tribe I was living with are far less numerous now than when I went among them. What with the wars, fights, destruction by the settlers and black police, and the natural deterioration in the people themselves, they are fast disappearing. During the time I was among them I suffered a great deal from rheumatism, which has left its mark on me ; so much so, that I have very little strength left, and I feel I should not have lasted much longer among the natives. " It will perhaps be pardonable in me if I refer to a suggestion thrown out by a correspondent in the Courier newspaper, to the effect that the natives who were so kind to me should be dealt with in a similar manner as those who succoured Burke, Wills, and King. I would just call attention to what I previously mentioned; almost their last wish to me was, with tears in their eyes, that I would ask the white men to let them have some of their own ground to live on. They agreed to give up all on the south side of the Burdekin River, but asked that they might be allowed to retain that on the other, at all events that which was no good to anybody but themselves — the THE BLACKS. 24 1 low swampy grounds near the sea coast. It would be useless to send them flour, they would not eat it, not knowing anything about it, nor cattle or sheep, they would run away from them with fear; besides, if they once understood the use of them as food, it would make it more dangerous to the settlers, but a good blanket would be invaluable, so would some small tomahawks, knives, old iron hoops, and fishing hooks." Morrill held a small Government post at Port Denison, and to the last retained a strong affection for the tribe who had sheltered him. He proved of great service on one or two occasions when the blacks and the settlers seemed likely to come into collision. Several attempts to civilise the natives have been made in Queensland, but each has proved a failure. The Rev. Mr. Fuller established a mission on Frazer's Island, where his pupils learned singing, reading, &c, but owing to the miserable soil he could employ the natives in no remune- rative work, and they soon left him. Recently an indus- trial school and farm have been started on the Mackay River, with a view of teaching the natives the useful arts of life in addition to the spiritual truth, and Government has voted ^5 00 in support of the enterprise. The present Bishop of Brisbane is certain to strain every nerve for the amelioration of the poor Queensland savages. At the time of separation from New South Wales the R 242 QUEENSLAND. population of the colony was 25,146 ; the census of 187 1 gave it as 120,306 ; and on the night of 1st May, 1876, it had increased to 173,180, of whom 105,016 were males, and 68,164 females. Among these are 10,342 Chinese, of whom nine only are females ; and 4,811 Polynesians, of whom 149 are females. This in a measure explains the large minority in which the gentler sex appears. In Queensland there is no State Church, and all re- ligions are regarded as equal. The Church of England and the other denominations have places of worship in every centre of population. The voluntary system has prevailed since i860, in which year an Act was passed abolishing State aid to religion. Those ministers who, at the time this Act was passed, were receiving stipends an- nually from the public treasury, continue to receive them so long as they officiate in the colony. The voluntary system has hitherto worked very well ; the members of the various denominations subscribing liberally to the funds for providing salaries for the ministers and church accommodation. In 1876 the Church of England was represented by the Bishop of Brisbane, the Right Rev. Dr. Hale, and thirty-one clergymen. The number of places of worship is not given, which would seem to indicate that Queensland is behind the sister colonies in that respect. Doubtless under the present Bishop the Church will display great vitality. IMAGES. 243 The system of education is sound and free, the law forbidding the payment of fees altogether. In 1875 the number of schools throughout the colony was 231, ex- clusive of 54 private seminaries. Assisted, and in some cases free, passages are granted to farmers, shepherds, labourers, miners, carpenters, bricklayers, &c. Information can be readily obtained on application to the Agent-General, 32, Charing Cross, S.W. The average rates of wages are as follows : — Per Diem Nett. Plumbers 10s. to 12s. Painters ios. to 12s. Shoeing Smiths... ios. to 12s. Bookbinders ios. to 12s. Brass Founders ... ios. to 12s. Brickmakers 7s. to 8s. Bricklayers ios. to 12s. Per Diem Nett. Labourers 63. to 8s. Blacksmiths ios. to 12s. Carpenters 12s. to 14s. Engineers 1 2s. to 14s. Saddlers ios. to 12s. Tinsmiths ios. to 12s. Masons ios. to 14s. Per Annum, "with Board and Lodging. £ £ Agricultural labourers 45 to 50 Bakers 50 to 60 Bullock Drivers 50 to 60 Cooks 45 to 50 Butchers 30s. to 35s. per -week, ivitb rations. Per Annum, with Board and Lodging. £ £ Gardeners 45 to 60 Sawyers 50 to 60 Shepherds 451050 The gross revenue of Queensland for the year endir.g R 2 244 QUEENSLAND. June 30th, 1S76, was ;£ 1,288,3 7 7, the expenditure being ;£ 1,3 14,93 2. In 1875 the exports amounted to ,£3, 608,331, and the imports were ,£3, 194,312. The principal exports in name and value were : — Copper, ore and smelted, ,£111,263; cotton, ,£8,813; gold, ^1,383,710; rum, ,£18,371 ; sugar, ,£"70,007 ; tin, sand, ore, and smelted, ^237,879; wool, £ 1,336,030- ; tallow, ,£43,°°! ; hides, .£80,374; preserved meats, ^"52,110; miscellaneous, ,£237,403.* At the end of 1875 there were 263 miles of railway open for traffic in the colony, and 152 miles more in course of construction. At the same date there were 4,609 miles of telegraph lines, and 6,058 miles of wire, with 98 stations.f I take leave of this splendid colony, in which I passed many years of my life, with a short quotation from a recent writer, who says : " Quite as much as Palestine she (Queensland) answers to the Mosaic description of ' a good land, a land of brooks of water ... a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pome- granates ; a land of oil, olive, and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, and thou shalt not lack anything good in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.' " * "Australian Handbook for 1877." f " Statesman's Year Book for 1877." ITS PROSPECTS. 245 The author of "The Queen of the Colonies" may be perhaps inclined to view matters through glasses of the most roseate hue, but there still remains a vast amount of solid fact and truth in the comparison he has in- stituted. CHAPTER XL THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. Its Cession to South Australia — Early discovery of North Australia — Dampier's Account of the Country and its Inhabitants — Later Surveys — John McDouall Stuart, the Explorer — His opinion of the Adelaide River — Colonisation determined on by the South Australian Government — Land Sales — Colonel Finniss' Expedition — Its Failure — Mr. Goyder Founds Palmerston — Harbour of Port Darwin — The Metropolis — Southport — Gold Discovered — General Character of the Country — Climate — The Overland Telegraph — Rev. J. E. T. Woods on Northern Australia. LTHOUGH correctly speaking the Northern Territory belongs to South Australia, having been granted by letters patent to that colony in 1863, consequent on the representations made by the eminent Q-? explorer John McDouall Stuart, who, after repeated failures, finally succeeded in crossing the continent, determining its centre, and discovering an enormous tract of available pastoral country in the ITS ANNEXATION TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 247 vicinity of the Indian Ocean, I have thought it advisable to treat it in a separate chapter, hoping thereby to avoid the confusion which would inevitably result from de- scribing it in conjunction with South Australia, which colony, at the date of cession, was bounded on the north by the twenty-sixth parallel of south latitude. The letters patent run as follows : — " We do hereby annex to our said colony of South Australia, until we think fit to make other disposition thereof, or of any part or parts thereof, so much of our said colony of New South Wales as lies to the northward of the twenty-sixth parallel of south latitude, and between the one hundred and twenty-ninth and one hundred and thirty-eighth degrees of east longitude, together with the bays and gulfs therein, and all and every the islands adjacent to any part of the mainland within such limits as aforesaid, with their rights, members, and appurten- ances." One glance at the map will show the enormous tract of country thus added to the colony of South Australia, a tract containing an area of 531,402 square miles, or 340,097,280 acres. Whether the South Australian legis- lature did wisely in cumbering themselves with this extra burden remains yet to be seen ; but the scheme was received with enthusiasm by the colonists, who were justly proud of the achievements of their great explorer, 248 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. Mr. Stuart. Public-spirited South Australians had assisted him again and again with money and other supplies, and if any benefit was ultimately to be derived from the country laid open by him, such advantages should unquestionably belong to the colony that had borne the expense of the various expeditions. But before entering into an account of the settlement of the Northern Territory, let us take a glance at the whole northern coast of the continent, not confining ourselves to the geographical limits set forth in the letters patent above quoted, but embracing also the shores of Carpentaria, and the northern portion of Western Australia. The coast of North Australia seems to have been known as early as the first half of the sixteenth century, the French, Spanish, and Portuguese all visiting it on various occasions.* The Dutch also were early afield, and the first approximately accurate map of the north- west coast was constructed by Abel Tasman in 1644. Unfortunately no account of his voyage exists, beyond a few notes by Burgomaster Witsen. These describe the land as low and barren, but supporting a numerous population, who attacked the Dutch without any provocation. On the 4th January, 1688, our own countryman William * See "Australia's Heroes," page 3. ITS EARLY DISCOVERY. 249 Dampier struck the north-west coast of Australia, and gives a most minute and interesting description of the natives, the flora and the fauna. He says : — "The land* is of a dry sandy soil, destitute of water unless you make wells (I omit the capitals with which the old mariner commences each substantive) ; yet producing divers sorts of trees ; but the woods are not thick, nor the trees very big. " 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. There are a few small land-birds, but none bigger than a blackbird : and but few sea-fowls. Neither is the sea very plentifully stored with fish, unless you reckon the manatee 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 iron. " The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, 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, ccc, as the Hodmadods have ; and setting aside their humane (sic) * Dampier must have struck the coast somewhere in the neighbour- hood of Roebuck Bay ; probably between that inlet and the group of islands further south which still bear his name. 250 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. shape, they differ but little from brutes. They are tall, straight bodied, and thin, with small long limbs. They have great heads, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eye-lids 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 ; 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. " They have great bottle-noses, pretty full lips, and wide mouths. * * * 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 face and the rest of their body, is coal black, like that of the Negroes of Guinea. " They have no sort of clothes ; but a piece of the rind of a tree tied like a girdle about their wastes (sic), and a handful of long grass, or three or four small 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. * They do live in com- panies, twenty or thirty men, women, and children together. Their only food is a small sort of fish, which they get by making wares (weirs) of stone, across little DAM PIER'S DESCRIPTION. 25 I 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. * * * " Sometimes they get as many fish as makes 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, who are not able to go abroad, as the strong and lusty. When they have eaten they lie down until the next low water, and then all that are able march out, be it night or day, rain or shine, 'tis all one : they must attend the wares, or else they must fast : for the earth affords 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. " I did not perceive that they did worship anything. These poor creatures have a sort of weapon to defend their ware, 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 on shore, deterred them from some of their fishing- places. Some of them had wooden swords, others had a sort of lance. The sword is a piece of wood, shaped somewhat like a cutlass. The lance is a Ions: straight 252 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. pole, sharp at one end, and hardened afterwards by heat. I saw no iron, nor any other sort of metal. " How they get their fire, I know not : but probably as Indians do, out of wood. I have seen the Indians of Bon- Airy 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 sharpening it at one end like a pencil, they put that sharp end in the hole or dent of the flat soft piece ; and then rubbing or twirling the hard piece between the palms of their hands, they drill the soft piece till it smokes, and at last takes fire." I have quoted at length from the old buccaneer, because his description is quite applicable to the natives of the present day, and betokens great observation on his part. In this age of universal travel minutiae are seldom entered into, but the writers of Dampier's time and class carefully note the smallest detail. It is to be presumed that there being then fewer books, authors were not so much in dread of boring their readers. For more than a century no further discoveries in North Australia are noted on our maps; but in 1802 Captain Flinders commenced a survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria. He found that the east coast had been accurately laid down by the Dutch ; but the low swampy EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 253 appearance of the country was desolate in the extreme. The west side of the gulf was better, the land being high and rocky, and the soil fertile. Captain King succeeded Flinders, and surveyed Arnheim's Land, discovering Melville Island, Port Es- sington, and Cambridge Gulf. Twenty years afterwards Captains Wickham and Stokes completed the survey of the northern coast, discovering the Fitzroy, Victoria, and Adelaide Rivers ; and in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Albert and the Flinders. In the year 1831 a military settlement was established at Port Essington, but it turned out unhappily, and after a dreary existence of nineteen years was finally abandoned in 1850. It was this station that Leichhardt reached on the termination of his memorable journey from Brisbane in 1845. Nothing further in the direction of permanent settlement was carried out until Mr. Stuart's discoveries were made known. The gallant explorer, naturally anxious that the magnificent country he had laid open should be settled, but debarred from heading such an expedition by shat- tered health, consequent on the terrible hardships he had encountered in his last eventful journey, writes as follows : " Judging from the experience I have had in travelling through the Continent of Australia for the last twenty-two years, and also from the descriptions that other explorers 254 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. have given of the different portions they have examined in their journeys, I have no hesitation in saying that the country that I have discovered on and about the banks of the Adelaide River is more favourable than any other part of the continent for the formation of a new colony. The soil is generally of the richest nature ever formed for the benefit of mankind : black and alluvial, and capable of producing anything that could be desired, and watered by one of the finest rivers in Australia. This river was found by Lieutenant Helpman to be about four to seven fathoms deep at the mouth, and at one hundred and twenty miles up (the furthest point he reached) it was found to be about seven fathoms deep, and nearly one hundred yards broad, with a clear passage all the way up. I struck it about this point, and followed it down, encamping fifteen miles from its mouth, and found the water perfectly fresh, and the river broader and apparently very deep ; the country around most excellent, abundantly supplied with fresh water, running in many flowing streams into the Adelaide River, the grass in many places growing six feet high, and the herbage very close — a thing seldom seen in a new country. The timber is chiefly composed of stringy-bark, gum, myall, casuarina, pine, and many other descriptions of large timber, all of which will be most useful to new colonists. There is also a plentiful supply of stone in the low rises suitable for building pur- MR. JOHN M l DOUALL STUART. 255 poses, and any quantity of bamboo can be obtained from the river from two to fifty feet long. I measured one fifteen inches in circumference, and saw many larger. The river abounds in fish and water-fowl of all descrip- tions. On my arrival from the coast I kept more to the eastward of my north course, with the intention of seeing further into the country. I crossed the sources of the running streams before alluded to, and had great difficulty in getting more to the west. They take their rise from large bodies of springs coming from extensive grassy plains, which proves there must be a very considerable underground drainage, as there are no hills of sufficient elevation to cause the supply of water in these streams. I feel confident that, if a new settlement is formed in this splendid country, in a few years it will become one of the brightest gems in the British Crown. To South Australia and some of the more remote Australian colonies the benefits to be derived from the formation of such a colony would be equally advantageous, creating an outlet for their surplus beef and mutton, which would be eagerly consumed by the races in the Indian Islands, and pay- ment made by the shipment of their useful ponies, and the other valuable products of those islands ; indeed I see one of the finest openings I am aware of for trading between these islands and a colony formed where proposed." As I mentioned at the commencement of this chapter, 256 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. Mr. Stuart's scheme found favour with the South Aus- tralians, who, immediately on the receipt of the letters patent giving them a legal right to the territory, resolved to survey and offer for sale a large portion of the country newly annexed. Even before the surveys had com- menced the sales were held, the land being divided into country sections and town blocks, the proprietor of a section being entitled to a town block. The money thus realised was intended to defray the costs of survey- ing, and priority in the choice of selections was to be determined by lot, the Government binding itself to have the land ready within five years from the date of sale. No difficulty was found in disposing of the sections, many of which were purchased by English speculators, and a party was immediately despatched under the com- mand of Lieut.-Colonel Boyle Travers Finniss, who was named Government-Resident, to commence the neces- sary surveys. Colonel Finniss' expedition, amply provided with stores, instruments, and weapons as a means of defence against the natives, sailed from Port Adelaide in the Henry Ellis, and arrived in Adam Bay in June, 1864. This spot had been suggested to the leader as a fitting place for the site of a township ; but his hands were left perfectly free, and he was enjoined to use his own dis- cretion in the selection of the future city. FINMSS* EXPEDITION. 2 57 I shall not enter at length into the circumstances that led to the utter failure of this expedition. Misunder- standings had arisen between the Government-Resident and his subordinates even before the Henry Ellis reached her destination ; and after landing, the breach between the chief and his officers became wider every day, lead- ing to a state of utter disorganisation. Mr. Harcus says, "The head 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. But 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 discri- mination. The reports which came from the territory to Adelaide were of the most disheartening character. The Government-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." This deplorable state of affairs continued until some of the settlers abandoned the new township in a small boat — the Forlorn Hope — and reaching Champion Bay, a distance of 1,600 miles, proceeded from thence to Ade- laide. The report they gave at the capital raised the s 258 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. utmost indignation throughout the colony, and the Resi- dent's explanations not proving satisfactory, he was re- called, and a court of inquiry appointed to investigate the charges preferred against him. The court found that he had been 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 pro- tect the stores upon which the party were dependent. A majority of the commission also blamed Colonel Finniss for selecting such an unsuitable 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 en- trusted to Colonel Finniss included many persons unfitted for the work for which they were engaged, and that some of the witnesses called manifested so much personal ani- mosity towards him as to render their testimony of com- paratively little value. The result of the inquiry was the removal of the Government-Resident from his position.* W hen Colonel Finniss quitted Adam's Bay, Mr. Man- ton, as next senior officer, assumed the command. But little improvement took place, and the South Australians seriously debated whether it would not be best to pay the selectors back their money, with interest, and abandon this * " South Australia." Edited by W. Harcus, Esq., J.P. Pp. 151—2. A FAILURE. 259 the first attempt at colonisation. Pride, however, urged them to persevere, and Captain Cadell was sent to the Gulf of Carpentaria, to examine the coast in quest of a suitable site. The accounts brought back by that gentle- man were of so roseate a hue that they were received by his fellow-colonists with ridicule and incredulity. Matters now assumed a very serious aspect. Escape Cliffs was given up as a settlement, and the party re- turned to Adelaide. The time appointed by the South Australian Government for the fulfilment of their agree- ment was rapidly slipping away, and the London pur- chasers, banding together, threatened the Colonial Govern- ment with legal proceedings. At this crisis Mr. G. W. Goyder, Surveyor-General of South Australia, proceeded, at the request of the Government, to the Northern Terri- tory, with a numerous staff of trustworthy and experienced subordinates. The first object was of course the selec- tion of a site for the new township, and the leader, with great judgment, pitched his camp at Port Darwin, and laid the foundation of Palmerston. Under Mr. Goyder's energetic rule marvels were accomplished ; not a day was lost in setting about the business that had brought the party there, and the survey progressed rapidly under the eye of the leader, who moved about from place to place encourag- ing and cheering his followers. Mr. Harcus says, " There was no dissatisfaction, grumbling, or insubordination, and, s 2 z6o THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. under the controlling spirit of one energetic man, the great work, which five years had failed to accomplish, was completed iu a few months. Had Mr. Goyder been despatched in the first instance, the colony would have been saved the shameful disasters which attended the first attempts to settle the Northern Territory, and the large sums of money which they cost, and which were extravagantly wasted in the most reckless way." The harbour of Port Darwin is unquestionably one of the finest in Australia, being held second only to Port Jackson in size, and the security it affords to shipping. Situated in latitude 12 29' S., and longitude 130 32'E., its close proximity to the fertile islands of the Eastern Archipelago must eventually draw to the town of Pal- merston, situated on its shores, an extensive and lucra- tive trade. Even now the coast is annually visited by a large number of Malay prows from Maccassar, whose occupants resort thither for the be'che-de-mer fishing ; and when the danger of so long a voyage in these crazy vessels is taken into consideration, the business must of necessity be very profitable, or the islanders would never risk it. Port Darwin is completely land-locked, is free from banks or shoals, and has deep water close to the shore. Palmerston, the northern metropolis, is situated on the eastern shore of Port Darwin, and the "Australian Hand- PALMERS TON, PORT DARWIN. 261 book" informs us that the site of the city is a most eligible and healthy one for a tropical climate, being about sixty feet above the level of the sea, and almost surrounded by it. From the nature of the ground the heavy rains of the wet season run off into the harbour immediately after falling, and so lessen the danger of malaria. Cool breezes also blow almost constantly throughout the year, mitigating the tropical heat, and rendering it bear- able to Europeans. The city has not as yet assumed very gigantic proportions, but all who have visited it are loud in their praises of the judicious manner in which it has been laid out. The two or three existing streets are occupied by substantial wooden stores and shops, amongst which may be seen the more pretentious stone edifices erected for public purposes by the South Austra- lian Government. Although only founded in 1869, Pal- merston possesses a bank, a hospital, a postal, a telegraph, a money-order office, six hotels, two schools, and a weekly newspaper, the Northern Territory Times and Gazette. Southport, the only other town at present existing in the Northern Territory, lies inland, about twenty-four miles south of the metropolis. It is situated on an arm of the sea, terminating in a river called the Blackmore, and is of importance as a landing-place for stores and machinery. Steam-launches ply regularly between the town and Palmerston. 2 62 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. One great cause of the progress recently made in the Northern Territory has been the discovery within its limits of gold in payable quantities. In the construction of the Overland Telegraph between Adelaide and Port Darwin — nearly two thousand miles — the auriferous na- ture of much of the new country was amply evidenced, and many miners at once proceeded to Palmerston with a view solely to gold-digging. The only available in- formation regarding this industry is embodied in a short sketch by Mr. McMinn, the senior surveyor of the settlement, published in a supplementary chapter of Mr. Harcus' work, before quoted. This gentleman writes : " The gold-fields of the Northern Territory are now ascer- tained to be very extensive. At present gold is known to exist over a block of country containing about 1,700 square miles, which has been indifferently prospected ; and as country of a similar character extends for a much greater distance, it is more than probable that, when it has been prospected, the area already known will be but a small portion of the whole auriferous country. Many valuable gold-bearing quartz reefs have been discovered and worked ; about ninety leases for mining have been granted, the larger portion of which are at present lying idle, owing to want of capital to develop them. Rich deposits of alluvial gold have also been found ; but it is believed that the main lode or deposit has not yet been ITS MINERAL RESOURCES. 263 struck ; many competent mining authorities who have visited the Northern Territory giving it as their unquali- fied opinion that ultimately this will be one of the largest and best producing gold-fields known." As regards the general character of the country, the land bordering the ocean is described as low and un- interesting, in few instances rising to more than ioo feet above the sea level] wherever the coast is high, it is generally in the nature of sandstone, marl, and ironstone cliffs ; the lower portions are partly sandy beaches, but principally mangrove-fringed flats of black ooze. The country inland is of a level character, almost destitute of landmarks, but offering great facilities for the construc- tion of a railway, should the development of great mineral wealth ever demand one. The geological formation of the Northern Territory is described as being a hard ferruginous sandstone, with veins of quartz, talc, and clay slate. The climate is of course tropical, and though hot, is very enjoyable, as both the mornings and 'evenings are fine and cool, and there is generally a welcome breeze during some portion of the day. Sandflies, mosquitoes, and marchflies are very troublesome, and most of the inhabitants wear gauze veils as a protection from these insects. Crocodiles and dugong are very plentiful in Northern 264 THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. Australia, in addition to the fauna common to the remainder of the continent, with the exception of the wombat and black swan, which avoid so hot a climate. The submarine cable connecting Australia with Europe is laid down between Port Darwin and Banjo wangie — 970 miles, and from thence the wire runs overland to Batavia — 480 miles. The construction of the telegraph line from Port Augusta to Port Darwin, a distance of 1,800 miles, is a work of which the South Australians may justly be proud. The absence of suitable timber for poles proved a serious obstacle, many of these having to be transported 100 miles. The population of the Northern Territory, according to the "Australian Handbook" for the present year (1877), is estimated at 600, of whom one-third are coolies intro- duced from Singapore under the auspices of the Govern- ment. Our knowledge of this large tract of country is at present exceedingly limited, the residents having but little time to bestow on scientific research other than prospecting for the precious metals. In Mr. Harcus' work on South Australia will be found the most ample account as yet published, and to him I am indebted for the greater part of the information conveyed above. I conclude this chapter with extracting the opinion of the BUT LITTLE KNOWN. 265 Rev. Julian E. Tenison Woods regarding the future of the Northern Territory : — " I fear/' he writes," •' that the greatest evil the coun- try will have to contend against will be the hasty conclu- sions of inexperienced new-comers. It is not in many parts of the world that several tons of hay can be cut and pressed into bales from the wild vegetation on the sides of a river ; yet this has been done on the north-western coast ; so we can see from this that we have not as yet learned the best features of the country. It would be wrong to tell any persons that they can attempt to settle on a new and almost unknown country, with a tropical climate and an untried soil, without having to overcome difficulties, trials, and dangers of the sternest character; but at least it can be said of North Australia that, taken as a whole, it has a larger extent of fertile country, is better watered, has more rivers, and better grass than the south coast from West Australia to Cape Howe. Par- ticular districts may be better, and we may be sure that there is in no other part of the continent such an extent of good land as Victoria ; but take it as a whole, and including the Australian Bight, the south coast will not bear comparison with North Australia.'' * " North Australia : its Physical Geography and Natural History," by the Rev. J. E. T. Woods, F.R.G.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c, &c. CHAPTER XII. NEW GUINEA. Geographical Position — Early Discovery — Visited by Torres, Schouten, and Le Maire, Tasman, Dampier, Roggewein, and Forrest — Description of the Papuans by Forrest — Captain Cook at New Guinea — Survey of the South-east Coast by Captain Owen Stanley — Description of the Natives by Doctor Macgilli- vray — Dutch Exploring Expedition — German Missionaries — Mr. Wallace's Theory regarding a former Junction between Australia and New Guinea — Captain Moresby's Surveys — Formation of the Island — Recent Discoveries — Doctor Maclay — Doctor Adolf B. Meyer — Signors Beccari and D'Albertis — London Missionary Society establish a Mission on the Coast — Ascent of the Fly River — Extracts from Mr. Lawes' Journal — Mr. Octavius Stone and Signor D'Albertis penetrate into the heart of the country by means of the Fly River — Speech made by Sir Henry Rawlinson. EW Guinea or Papua, the largest island near the Australian coast, claims a some- what full description, not only from its magnitude, but also on account of the great interest it has excited throughout our If Australian possessions, where rumours of vast tracts of unexplored country, watered by magni- ITS EARLY DISCOVERY. 267 ficent rivers and abounding with mineral wealth, have been greedily devoured by the restless portion of the inhabitants of the Fifth Continent, who long to see so fair a land added to the British dependencies. New Guinea lies between the north-east portion of Australia and the equator, and is separated from the former by Torres Straits. The Pacific Ocean bounds it on the east, and the Indian Ocean with its numberless isles on the west. The island extends in a general south- easterly direction for a distance of 1,500 miles, having a breadth varying from thirty to 400 miles, and an esti- mated area of 250,000 square miles. New Guinea can claim a priority in discovery over Australia and every other island in that sea, it having been visited so long ago as the year 1511 by Antonio Ambrea and Francis Serrano.* A Portuguese vessel, under the command of Don Jorge de Meneses, whilst on a voyage between Malacca and the Moluccas in 1526, being driven out of her course, came in sight of the north coast of New Guinea, on which the. crew landed and remained for several weeks. They called it " Papua, " meaning, according to some philologists, " black," and according to others " curly haired/' both of which de- scriptions apply to the natives. Alvara de Saavedra * " Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas by Capt. Thomas Forrest, during the years 1774, 1775, and 1776." 26S NEW GUINEA. visited its shores during the following year, and Antonio Urdanetta in 15283 the first named voyager bestowed upon the island the title of "Isla del Oro." In 1543 Ortez de Rotha sighted Papua, but not knowing Saavedra had been there before, he assumed the credit of a fresh discovery and called it New Guinea,* from the frizzled locks of the inhabitants. One authority states that Saavedra named the island New Guinea in 1527, "as being opposite on the globe to Guinea in Africa." In 1606 Torres made the east coast of New Guinea, which he followed for several hundred miles, and doubling the south-east point continued his voyage for some distance along the southern coast, passing through the straits which now bear his name. He describes the inhabitants as being of a dark colour and entirely nude, with the exception of a waist-cloth manufactured from the bark of a tree. They were armed with clubs and darts ; on the north coast he fell in with Mohammedans armed with swords and muskets. Ten years later (1616) Schouten and Le Maire, after leaving an island they called St. John, came to the coast of New Guinea, and sent their boat inshore to sound. She was surrounded by hostile canoes, whose occupants discharged stones * Nova Guinea a nautis sic dicta, quod ejus littora locorumque facies Guinese Africanse admodum sunt similia. Ab Andrea Corsali videtur dici terra Piccona. Linschooten, p. 328. TORRES, SCHOUTEN, AND LE MAI RE. 269 and other missiles at the intruders, and on the following day (26th June) the Papuans ventured to attack the vessel herself, when, in self-defence, the Europeans were compelled to open fire on their assailants, killing ten of them, and taking three prisoners, together with four of their canoes. The latter they destroyed, but ransomed two out of the three prisoners for a hog and some plan- tains. The islanders, though ferocious, seemed perfectly willing to barter, and on the next day Schouten's men procured another pig in exchange for a few nails and trinkets. On the 28th a handsome canoe containing twenty-one natives visited the ship, which they admired beyond measure. These people called themselves Papuas. As they showed not the slightest intention of ransoming their countryman, who still remained a pri- soner, Schouten put him on shore, and proceeded along the coast to the westward, passing a burning island or volcano. On the 1 3th July the vessel was brought to an anchor within a couple of miles of the mainland, and a boat, well armed, was despatched to bring .off cocoa-nuts, groves of this tree being seen at no great distance from the shore. But the Papuas were not to be so easily de- frauded, and attacking the Europeans, wounded sixteen of their number, and forced them to retire empty-handed. Schouten describes the natives as " a wild, strange, and ridiculous people, active as monkeys, having black curled 270 NEW GUINEA. hair, rings in their ears and noses, and necklaces of hogs' . tusks." Abel Tasman, in 1642, after sailing round Australia, and thus proving it to be an island, returned by New Guinea, obtaining fresh provisions from the inhabitants of Moa, a small island on the north-east coast. These friendly people brought off 6,000 cocoa-nuts for the Dutch- men and 100 bags of plantains, which they bartered for knives made from the hoops of casks. No collision of any kind occurred, and one of the sailors being accidentally wounded by an arrow, the natives gave the offender up. Our own countryman, Dampier, sighted the coast of New Guinea in 1699, but made no landing. There seems little doubt that he was guilty of an indiscretion in firing with his heavy guns at the natives, "to scare t/iem" as he himself admits, and he subsequently landed on an island and removed hogs by force. He discovered the passage between New Guinea and New Britain, which bears his name. Commodore Roggewein coasted the north part of New Guinea in 1722, and touched at the islands Moa and Arimoa, at the former of which his people commenced felling the cocoa-nut trees, a wanton act of injustice which the islanders resented by opening a heavy fire of arrows on the depredators from the thicket in which they lay concealed. Such conduct on the part of the Dutch TASMAN, DAMPIEK, AND ROGGEWEIN. 27 1 can hardly be understood, for the Moans had always shown themselves friendly to Europeans, and only the day previous had brought off abundance of fresh provi- sions to the vessel. In 1775 Forrest anchored in Dorey Bay, on the northern extremity of New Guinea, and has given a most minute and interesting account of his transactions with the natives. From the fact of a Mohammedan Hadji accompanying him on the voyage, he gained information concerning this people which had hitherto been unattain- able by Europeans. He says, " Off the mouth of the bay, before the harbour, but out of the swell, a boat, with two Papua men came on board ; after having conversed a good deal with our linguists at a distance, satisfied we were friends, they hastened ashore to tell, I suppose, the news. Soon after many Papua Caffres came on board and were quite easy and familiar ; all of them wore their hair bushed out so much round their heads, that its cir- cumference measured about three feet, and, where least, two and a half. In this they stuck their comb, consisting of four or five long diverging teeth, with which they now and then combed their frizzling locks, in a direction per- pendicular from the head, as with a design to make it more bulky. They sometimes adorned their hair with feathers. The women had only their left ear pierced, in which they wore small brass rings. The hair of the 272 NEW GUINEA. women was bushed out also, but not quite so much as that of the men. "We anchored about four in the afternoon, close to one of their great houses, which is built on posts, fixed several yards below low-water mark, so that the tenement is always above the water; a long stage, supported by posts, going from it to the land, just at high-water mark. The tenement contains many families, who live in cabins on each side of a wide common hall, that goes through the middle of it, and has two doors, one opening to the stage towards the land, the other on a large stage to- wards the sea, supported likewise by posts in rather deeper water than those that support the tenement. On this stage the canoes are hauled up ; and from this the boats are ready for a launch at any time of tide, if the Haraforas* attack from the land ; if they attack by sea, the Papuas take to the woods. The married people, un- married women and children, live in these large tene- ments, which, as I have said, have two doors, the one to the long narrow stage that leads to the land, the other to the broad stage which is over the sea, and on which they keep their boats, having outriggers on each side. A few yards from this sea-stage, if I may so call it, are built, in still deeper water, and on stronger posts, houses where only bachelors live. This is like the custom * An inland tribe. FORREST. 273 of the Batta people on Sumatra, and the Idaan or Moroots on Borneo, where, I am told, the bachelors are separated from the young women and the married people. "At Dorey were two large tenements of this kind, about 400 yards from each other, and each had a house for the bachelors close by it ; in one of the tenements were fourteen cabins, seven on a side ; in the other, twelve, or six on a side. In the common hall I saw the women sometimes making mats, at other times forming pieces of clay into earthen pots, with a pebble in one hand, to put into it, whilst they held in the other hand also a pebble, with which they knocked, to enlarge and smooth it. The pots so formed they burnt with dry grass or light brushwood. The men, in general, wore a thin stuff that comes from the cocoa-nut tree, and resembles a coarse kind of cloth, tied forward round the middle, and up behind, between the thighs. The women wore, in general, coarse blue Surat baftas round their middle, not as a petticoat, but tucked up behind like the men • so that the body and thigh were almost naked, as boys and girls go entirely. I have often observed the women with an axe, or chopping knife, fixing posts for the stages, whilst the men were sauntering about idle. Early in the morning I have seen the men setting out in their boats with two or three fox-looking dogs, for certain places to hunt the wild hog, which they call Ben • a dog 274 NEW GUINEA. they call Naf. I have frequently bought of them pieces of wild hog; which, however, I avoided carrying on board the galley, but dressed and ate it ashore, unwilling to give offence to the crew." It appears that amongst the small islands the wild hogs often swim in a string from one to the other, the hog behind leaning his snout on the hind quarters of the one before him. Taking advantage of them in this posi- tion the Papuas kill the whole herd with ease. Captain Forrest found the natives of Dorey Bay acquainted with music, some of the tunes being very melodious and much superior to Malay airs in general. The children were remarkably well conducted, never snatching at the trifles the good-natured sailor offered them, but waiting pa- tiently and modestly with their hands raised to their foreheads. The bachelors, if courting, come freely into the common hall and sit down by their sweethearts. The old people, who are watching the progress of the love-making, when they think that a good understanding has been established between the young people, call out, "Well, are you agreed?" and if the answer should be in the affirmative, a cock is procured and killed in the pre- sence of witnesses, and they are man and wife. The cabins are scantily furnished with mats, a fire-place, and an earthen pot or two, and there being no proper outlet for the smoke it issues from all parts of the roof, which. FORREST. 275 gives the appearance of the whole dwelling being on fire. Forrest saw no gold ornaments worn by the Papua people, but they pointed to the hills and declared that buloan (gold) was to be found there. The Papuas were very unwilling that Forrest should open communication with the inland people, or Haraforas. The latter seem a curious race, inhabiting the hills, and engaging largely in the cultivation of the plantain and a kind of white bean, called kalavansas. These they supply to the coast Papuas in exchange for axes and tomahawks. The Hadji who accompanied the captain had on some former occasion visited the Haraforas, and described them as a long-haired, dark-complexioned people, who built their houses in the branches of trees, and ascended to them with the greatest agility, by means of a long notched stick, which they pulled up on gaining their habitation, and thus cut off all further access from the ground. Forrest gives a long account of the beautiful Birds of Paradise found in New Guinea, of which he mentions no less than seven species. For a long time" fabulous ac- counts concerning these birds were gravely received, and it was fully believed that nature had deprived them of legs as an useless appendage, and that they passed their whole lives soaring tranquilly in the air. This absurd fable arose from the natives cutting off the legs, finding the skins could be preserved much better without them. T 2 276 NEW GUINEA. Captain Cook, in 1770, made the coast of New Guinea in the neighbourhood of Cape Valscher, and sent a boat ashore to a clump of cocoa-nut trees, when three savages rushed out of the wood with hideous howls. " They instantly ran towards our countrymen, the first of the three throwing something out of his hand, which flew on one side of him, burning in the same manner as gun- powder, but making no noise, whilst the other two threw their lances. The English now fired, when the natives stopped and cast another lance, on which the musquets were loaded with ball and again fired. The poor Indians now ran off with expedition, having most probably been wounded in the unequal conflict. Captain Cook and his companions, unwilling farther to injure those who could not originally have intended them any harm, retreated hastily to the boat, which having reached they rowed abreast of the natives, who by this time were assembled to the number of about eighty. Their stature was nearly the same with that of the inhabitants of New South Wales, but their colour not quite so dark. During the survey that was taken of them, they continued letting off their fires, a few at a time, in a kind of regular platoons ; they were discharged by means of a piece of stick, almost like a hollow cane, which being swung sideways produced fire and smoke exactly like that occasioned by the firing of small arms. The crew on board the ship saw this strange COOK. 277 phenomenon, and thought the natives had fire-arms. The gentlemen having satisfied their curiosity, by attentively looking at these people, fired some musquets above their heads, the balls from which being heard to rattle among the trees, the natives deliberately retired. The lances which had been thrown soon after the gentlemen landed, were made of a reed or bamboo-cane, and the points were made of hard wood, barbed in several places ; it is imagined that these lances were discharged by means of a throwing-stick, as they flew with great swiftness above sixty yards." * Cook describes the coast as low, but clothed with a richness of trees and herbage which exceeded all descrip- tion. What material caused the fire seen by the Endeavour's crew it is difficult to say, unless we ac- cept as an explanation a remark made by Forrest, who mentions that the Chinese from Tidore trade with New Guinea, and may possibly exchange gunpowder for the slaves, birds of paradise, &c, which they take back with them to China. Curiously enough Torres had observed the same kind of fire used by the Papuas at no great distance from the spot where it was seen by Cook. The reader will have doubtless remarked that very little is to be recorded of New Guinea except the accounts of the natives we have received from marine explorers. * " Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels." Vol. XL, p. 557. 278 NEW GUINEA. Of the interior scarcely anything is yet known ; what little has been recently discovered I shall endeavour to convey further on. Passing over various visits made to different parts of New Guinea by Bampton, Alt, D'Urville, and others, we come to the year 1849, when H.M.S. Rattlesnake, under the command of Captain Owen Stanley, surveyed the Louisiade Archipelago and the south-east coast of New Guinea. Immediately on making the coast the Rattlesnake anchored at an island lying a short dis- tance from the mainland, and friendly communication was established with the natives. Several of the officers proceeding through the surf to the shore ascended a rugged wall of basaltic rock, fifty feet in height, by a winding path, and on reaching the summit saw the Papuan village of Tassai, at the foot of a declivity some two hundred yards in length. It was beautifully situated on a level space close to the beach on the wind- ward side of the island, which was here not more than a quarter of a mile in width, and numerous cocoa-nut trees threw a grateful shade over the cluster of habitations. Advancing to the outskirts of the village both men and women hurried forth to meet the visitors without manifest- ing the slightest apprehension. One of the natives who accompanied them had a hollow cylinder of palm-wood two feet and a half in length, four inches in diameter H.M.S. "RATTLESNAKE." 279 with one end covered over with the skin of a large lizard, and on this primitive kind of drum he beat vigorously with the palm of his hand, singing and dancing at the same time, as if in honour of their arrival. As fresh natives arrived on the spot they joined in the merriment until the whole community was in an uproar. The Papuans seemed immensely pleased at the visit, bustling about, watching the motions of the officers, examining their dress, and laughing and shouting immoderately as new objects were presented to their view. The hoop- iron, knives, fish-hooks and calico which the English distributed as presents were eagerly welcomed, as were also a collection of seeds, the use of which the natives understood at once. The fair sex displayed the greatest curiosity, and seemed excessively proud at being noticed, for on Doctor Mac- gillivray examining the tattooing on one woman, the others immediately pressed forward to show theirs, directing particular attention to the difference of patterns. This mode of adornment was rare amongst the men, but among the women it extended over the face, forepart of the arms, and the whole front of the body, usually, but not always, leaving the back untouched. The pattern for the body consisted of series of vertical stripes less than an inch apart, connected by zig-zag and other mark- ings ; that over the face was more complicated, and on 2 So NEW GUINEA. the forearm and wrist was frequently so elaborate as to assume the appearance of beautiful net-work. The men were dressed in the scanty manner described above by Forrest, but the females wore petticoats of pandanus leaf, divided into long grass-like shreds, which extended to the knees. The covering worn by the girls consisted of single lengths of the same material attached to a string tied round the waist ; but the women's petticoats were larger and thicker, composed of three layers of different degrees of fineness and lengths, forming as many flounces, the upper one of more finely divided stuff than the rest. Two or three of these petticoats are usually worn, and in cold or wet weather the outer one is untied and fastened round the neck, covering the upper part of the body like a cape or short cloak. The ladies dressed their hair twisted up into " thrums," like those of a mop. Many pigs — small in size, lean, and long-legged — were running about the village, also two or three dogs. One young lady was carrying about a pet little porker in her arms, which she fondled as though it were a King Charles' spaniel. The village was of considerable extent, covering a space of about half an acre, and consisted of twenty-seven huts built at right angles to each other, but without any attempt at arrangement. The largest building was thirty- five feet long, twelve wide, and twenty-five high, but they macgillivray's account. 281 varied considerably in size, although the style of archi- tecture was precisely similar in each. They were raised four feet from the ground on posts, which passed through circular wooden discs and prevented rats or other vermin from scaling them. The sides and roofs of the huts were continuous, sloping sharply upwards, and the ridge pole was considerably depressed at its centre and rising to a point at either end. The roof was thatched very neatly with grass, and the sides covered in with sheets of a bark- like substance, which Dr. Macgillivray supposes to have been the base of the leaf of the cocoa-nut tree, flattened out by pressure. The entrance was at one end, with a small stage to ascend by. Within, there was a second partial floor above the first one, and the officers saw large bundles of spears stowed along the sides of the hut into which they looked, together with some human skulls suspended near the entrance, but from a desire to avoid giving offence by exhibiting too great curiosity but a cursory glance was obtained of the interiors of these dwellings. After the Rattlesnake had been at anchor for two or three days, a very large canoe, with twenty-six people on board, arrived from the mainland, and made fast under the vessel's stem. She measured about forty feet in length, and was constructed of a hollowed-out tree, raised upon by adding large planks closed with high end boards 282 NEW GUINEA. beautifully carved and painted. Two rows of carved fish ran along the sides, and both ends were peaked, the bow rising higher than the stem and profusely decorated with red and white carving, streamers of palm-leaf, egg-cowries, and plumes of cassowary feathers. The outrigger frame- work was completely covered over, forming a large platfonn, above the centre of which a small stage rested on a strong projecting beam, the outer end of which was carved into the figure of a bird, while the inner reached to the centre of the body of the canoe, and served to support the mast. The planks forming the sides were strongly supported by knees ; and the mast stepped into a massive bent timber crossing the centre of the canoe, and being kept steady above by two fore and aft stays. The sail also was of great size, being as long as the platform. Dr. Macgillivray remarks that the Papuans he en- countered seemed resolvable into several indistinct types, with intermediate gradations ; and he occasionally met with strongly-marked Negro characteristics, but more fre- quently with the Jewish cast of features, and now and then with a face perfectly Maylayan in its outline. In general the head was narrow in front and very high behind, the face broad from the great projection and height of the cheek bones and the depression at the temples ; the chin narrow ; the nose flattened and widened at the wings, LOFTY RANGES. 283 with dilated nostrils, and broad rounded bridge, pulled down at the tip by the use of the nose-stick ; and the mouth wide, with thickened lips, and incisors flattened on top as if ground down. The officers of the '"Rattlesnake estimated the height of Mount Owen Stanley — the principal peak of the range bearing that name, which extends along the south-east portion of New Guinea — to be 13,205 feet above the level of the sea. This was not the result of a single observation, but the mean of five, taken at different stations. It seems probable that the Owen Stanley Range is often obscured by vapourous moisture, and would thus be unseen by any passing ship ; but at certain seasons the atmosphere is remarkably clear. Dr. Macgillivray men- tions : " On one occasion, during a light breeze from the north-west, we clearly saw Mount Yule (10,046 feet high) and the summit of Mount Owen Stanley, distant respec- tively one hundred and twenty and eighty miles from the ship."* But before proceeding to describe the more recent discoveries in New Guinea, let us say a few words regard- ing what is known of its settlement by Europeans. Although the north-west coast of the island was visited frequently for trading purposes by the Dutch, Malays, * "Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake," by John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Vol. II., p. 60. 284 NEW GUINEA. Chinese, and other nations, yet no settlement was ever attempted, as far as we know, until the year 1828, when the Dutch sent out an exploring expedition in the ship Triton, under the command of Captain Steenboom. This gentleman, who was accompanied by several scientific men, established a settlement at Triton Bay, a place on the south side of the narrow neck of land left by the deep indentation of Geelvink Bay. But although the Dutch ran up a fort, the dense vegetation with which the place was overgrown rendered it so unhealthy that they were compelled to abandon the settlement after a residence of only three months. During this short stay the naturalists attached to the expedition collected some 160 species of birds, belonging to sixty genera, all of great beauty; also six species of marsupial animals, in- cluding two distinct and very curious specimens of the kangaroo tribe. In 1835 the Dutch ascertained that the River Doorga — also on the south-west coast — was a strait, separating Frederick Henry Island from the main- land. In 1859 this nation formed another settlement on the west coast, and took possession of the island as far east as the 141st meridian, in the name of the King of the Netherlands. Previous to this no white men were resident in Papua, for in April, 1858, Mr. Wallace writes : " The next day our schooner left for the more eastern islands, and I found myself fairly established as THE DUTCH. 285 the only European inhabitant of the vast island of New Guinea." There were, however, two German missionaries dwelling at the small island of Mansinam in Dorey Bay. The Dutch war steamer, Etna in 1858-9, surveyed a large portion of the north-west coast of New Guinea, pro- ceeding to Humboldt Bay on the north — the eastern ex- tremity of the territory claimed by the Netherlands ; and on the south penetrating several miles up the Karufa River and visiting the Bay of Kamora, Arguni, Kaimani, Speelman's and Triton's Bay. At the latter place Fort Du Bus, which the Dutch had erected in 1828, was looked for in vain. It had disappeared, together with the nomad tribes then resident in its vicinity.* Mr. Wallace, the celebrated natural historian and philosopher, spent several months at Dorey Bay collecting specimens, and he gives us some slight account of Messrs. Otto and Geisler, the two German missionaries mentioned above. The latter gentleman had with him his young wife, who had only arrived from the Fat.herland three months previously. These missionaries were working men, and had been at the island of Mansinam two years at the time of Mr. Wallace's visit. Mr. Otto had mastered the Papuan language sufficiently to speak it * " Neu Guinea und seine Bewohner ; von Otto Fiusch." Bremen, 1865. 2 86 NEW GUINEA. with fluency, and had commenced translating portions of the Bible into that tongue, but, owing to the poverty of the language, a considerable number of Malay words had to be used, which rendered it extremely questionable whether the Papuans would understand its meaning. Mr. Wallace makes the following remarks on this mis- sion : — " The only nominal converts yet made are a few of the women ; and some few of the children attend school, and are being taught to read, but they make little progress. There is one feature of this mission which I believe will materially interfere with its moral effect. The missionaries are allowed to trade to eke out the very small salaries granted them from Europe, and of course are obliged to carry out the trade principle of buying cheap and selling dear, in order to make a profit. Like all savages, the natives are quite careless of the future, and when their small rice crops are gathered they bring a large portion of it to the missionaries, and sell it for knives, beads, axes, tobacco, or any other articles they may require. A few months later, in the wet season, when food is scarce, they come to buy it back again, and give in exchange tortoise-shell, tripang, wild nutmegs, or other produce. Of course the rice is sold at a much higher rate than it was bought, as is perfectly fair and just; and the operation is on the whole thoroughly beneficial to the natives, who would otherwise consume GERMAN MISSION. 287 and waste their food when it was abundant, and then starve ; yet I cannot imagine that the natives see it in this light. They must look upon the trading missionaries with some suspicion, and cannot feel so sure of their teachings being disinterested, as would be the case if they acted like the Jesuits in Singapore. The first thing to be done by the missionary in attempting to improve savages is to convince them by his actions that he comes among them for their benefit only, and not for any private ends of his own. To do this he must act in a different way from other men, not trading and taking advantage of the necessities of those who want to sell, but rather giving to those who are in distress. It would be well if he conformed himself in some degree to native customs, and then endeavoured to show how these customs might be gradually modified, so as to be more healthful and more agreeable. A few energetic and devoted men acting in this way might probably effect a decided moral improvement on the lowest savage tribes, whereas trading missionaries, teaching what Jesus said, but not doing as He did, can scarcely be expected to do more than give them a very little of the superficial varnish of religion." * The same author describes the villages in almost * " The Malay Archipelago," by Alfred Russell Wallace. London, 288 NEW GUINEA. precisely similar terms to those used by Forrest, and in- forms us that the Papuans were many of them very hand- some, being tall and well made, with well-cut features, and large aquiline noses. Their hair was frizzled out like a mop, and was evidently considered a great ornament, a six- pronged bamboo fork being stuck in to serve the purpose of a comb, and assiduously used at every spare moment to prevent the densely-growing mass becoming matted and entangled. Mr. Wallace has furthermore ascertained that there is a deep sea-belt running in a north-easterly direction, which divides the Malay Archipelago into two parts, having perfectly distinct flora and fauna. This belt runs to the eastward of Borneo and Java, and to the westward of Celebes. The islands lying to the westward, or on the Asiatic side, of the belt form the Indo-Malayan region, and were doubtless at some remote period a portion of Asia, for the sea around them is shallow and the vegetation similar to the Asiatic flora. The islands lying to the eastward of the belt, including Celebes, Lombock, Timor, New Guinea, New Britain, the Loui- siade Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands, are similarly situated in a shallow sea, and in their flora and fauna bear such close resemblance to Australia that Mr. Wallace has designated them the Austro-Malayan region. Briefly, the islands eastward of Celebes have the flora and fauna Wallace's belt. 289 peculiar to Australia, marsupials, &c, and the sea be- tween them is very shallow ; then comes a belt of deep water, and to the westward of it the islands, standing also in a shallow sea, bear all the characteristics peculiar to Asia. Thus Mr. Wallace thinks that the islands on either side of this belt, together with the shallow sea connecting them, are submerged portions, the one of Asia, the other of Australia ; and when these continents were above water in their entirety, the aforesaid deep sea belt was the channel dividing them. It is a difficult subject to render clear without the aid of a physical map, and the reader is strongly recommended to examine the theory as set forth by Mr. Wallace himself. Hitherto we have known exceedingly little of any part of New Guinea except the few places in the north-west portion of the island visited by Dutch traders from Tidore and Ternate. Let us now take a glance at the eastern part of Papua, that end which, passing to the north of Australia, terminates in the thousand little islands known as the Louisiade Archipelago. A portion of the south- east coast was surveyed, as we know, by Captain Owen Stanley, in H.M.S. Rattles?iake, but the greater part of the eastern extremity of the island was only laid down on the charts by guesswork. In 1873 Captain Moresby, commanding H.M.S. Basilisk, continued and completed Stanley's survey, discovering a new passage — China u 29O NEW GUINEA. Strait — at the south-east point of the main island, which is navigable for large ships, and presents an unquestion- ably shorter route between Australia and China than any hitherto known. Thanks to this enterprising officer, we have now an accurate, in place of a hazy, notion of the general shape of the island and its principal features, which may be thus roughly described. New Guinea is of very irregular outline, being deeply- indented by several large bays, which form both its north- western and south-eastern extremities into extensive peninsulas, the more compact portion of the island being situated between the 136th and the 144th meridians. On the north coast, between the 134th and 138th meri- dians, Geelvink Bay, over 150 miles wide at its mouth, penetrates 120 miles southward, leaving a narrow isthmus of only thirty-five miles in breadth between its waters and those of Etna Bay on the south coast. The peninsula so formed stretches in a north-westerly direction, and is, in its turn, deeply indented by M'Clure Bay, which extends inland to within twenty miles of Geelvink Bay, on the op- posite coast. From thence a second peninsula stretches to Garewo Strait, which is only three miles wide in some places, and separates New Guinea from the neighbouring island of Salwatty. The great peninsula forming the eastern extremity of the island maybe considered as com- mencing at the 146th meridian, near Cape Astrolabe, on ITS CONFIGURATION. 201 the north, and near the head of the Gulf of Papua on the south coast, and extending from that line in a south- easterly direction. It terminates in a broad fork, con- sisting of two promontories, separated by Milne Bay, an inlet twenty miles long, and about eight miles wide. Of the two prongs of this fork the northern is by far the longest and narrowest ; off the southern, lie the islands of Mourilyan, Moresby, Heath, and others, amidst which China Strait winds its way. The north-east of this large peninsula borders on Dampier Straits, between Papua, and the island of New Britain, and is indented by Huon Gulf; following the northern coast eastward we arrive at Humboldt Bay, in longitude 141, which is the only inlet worthy of mention until the eastern point of Geelvink Bay is reached. Several islands lie off the coast of New Guinea, the principal being William Schouten and Jobie, near the mouth of Geelvink Bay; Salwatty at the western ex- tremity ; and Prince Frederick Henry's Island, situated close to the south coast, from which it is separated by the Princess Marianne's Strait, a narrow channel ninety miles in length, formerly known as the Dourga River. Unless the reader is provided with an atlas published subsequently to Captain Moresby's survey in 1873, he will find the eastern coast line laid down incorrectly. * * See Map accompanying this book. U 2 292 NEW GUINEA. New Guinea is a very mountainous island, having a hot, damp climate, which clothes it with most luxuriant vegetation throughout its known extent. The southern coast is principally low and swampy; the northern, hilly and mountainous, but both are covered with thick forest. Hardly anything of the interior can be called well known, but mountains are visible from all parts of the coast. The chief chains are the Owen Stanley Range, running throughout the whole eastern peninsula, at a distance from the coast varying from fifty to one hundred miles ; the Charles Louis mountains, commencing on the south coast near Etna Bay, and running due east; and the Arfak and Amberbaki Ranges on the north-west coast. The Charles Louis Range is snow-capped in many places, and is estimated to attain an altitude of 1 7,000 feet ; there is also reason to believe that this chain of mountains con- tinues along the centre of the island, and eventually joins the Owen Stanley Range; but this is as yet mere conjecture. In the year 1869 the German Geographical Journal, Petermanns Mittheilungen, called attention to the apathy displayed with regard to this splendid island, and the exploring world immediately turned their eyes in the direction indicated. The history of New Guinea is being now built up day by day, or perhaps it would be more correct to say it has no history, but that every mail brings us news of new places discovered, and friendly intercourse INTEREST AWAKENED REGARDING IT. 2 93 with the inhabitants established. When the German journal reproached Europe for the small interest hitherto bestowed on Papua, our knowledge of its shores and people was scanty to a degree that seems hardly credible, and such little information as we possessed was principally confined to a few scattered spots on the western peninsula, and to the south-east coast surveyed by H.M. ships. Now light is beginning to penetrate the obscurity that has hitherto enveloped Papua ; Russians, Italians, Germans, English, all have awakened from their trance, and resolutely determined to dispel the mist of ignorance which had for ages shrouded the island. It may be safely said that within the last ten years we have learnt more concerning Papua than has been known in the three centuries and a half that have elapsed since its first dis- covery by Europeans. I shall now give a brief sketch of the later discoveries, regretting much that the space at my command precludes the insertion of much interesting information respecting the customs of the natives. On 19th September, 1871, the Russian corvette Vitias anchored in Astrolabe Bay, on the north-east coast of New Guinea, and there landed Doctor Miklucho Maclay, a Russian naturalist, and two attendants, one a Swede, the other a Polynesian, after a hut had been erected for their accommodation by the crew of the corvette. 294 NEW GUINEA. At this spot the intrepid adventurer remained for fifteen eventful months, studying the manners of the islanders, of which he has given a most interesting record ; and during this period he was practically alone, for the Polynesian died within a few weeks of their landing, and the Swede falling sick required constant attention, and thus considerably hampered the doctor's movements. The natives of " Maclay Coast," as the doctor has named that portion of Astrolabe Bay, showed themselves jealous of a stranger's presence in their midst, and dis- played it by discharging arrows close to his face, and pressing their spears against his teeth. These annoy- ances he bore with the utmost good humour, and his medical skill becoming known, the savages arrived at the conclusion that he was a supernatural being, a Karam- tamo, or man-in-the-moon, and ceasing their persecutions, treated him with much respect. Doctor Maclay made expeditions in various directions, and came in contact with the inhabitants of the whole coast of Astrolabe Gulf, together with the islands in its vicinity. These people had never seen a white man be- fore, and no trace of European intercourse could be found amongst them ; their tools and weapons being of wood, stone, or bone. These villages were built at dif- ferent heights above the sea, but none at a greater altitude than 1,500 feet. Strange to say he never saw an old DOCTOR M ACL AY. 295 person amongst them during the fifteen months he was on the coast, and can therefore give no account of their average duration of life. These people live in such per- fect peace and happiness that Maclay named the islands off Cape Duperre', " the Archipelago of Contentment." On the 24th December, 1872, Doctor Maclay left New- Guinea in the Russian steamer Izoumroua, which had been especially sent to search for him, and as the vessel steamed away the sound of the Baroem, or great wooden gong, was heard announcing the abrupt departure of the " man-in-the-moon." The islanders of that part seem, from Dr. Maclay's account, to be a well-behaved, peaceful race. A fuller description will be found in a paper by Mr. Galton in the number of Nature for February 26, 1874, and in the Geographical Magazine for January, 1875. In 1873 Doctor Adolf Bernard Meyer, an eminent Austrian naturalist and traveller, who had spent some years on the island of Celebes and in the Phillipines, resolved to visit New Guinea, and to penetrate the interior. He selected Dorey Bay as a starting-point, and having hired a schooner with a number of Malays and other natives to the number of thirty-five, at Ternate (Moluccas), he sailed from thence early in March, and arrived at his destination ten days later. Here he saw that it would be possible to go immediately into the interior up the Arfak mountains, from a river a little to the south of Dorey 296 NEW GUINEA. Bay, but previous to attempting this he visited the islands in Geelvink Bay, together with the east coast of the bay itself, at all of which places he collected objects of interest, but found the people very savage and trouble- some. They quarrelled without the slightest cause, attacked the party and wounded one of Meyer's men ; these people are cannibals. He then made a somewhat lengthened stay at the most southern point of Geelvink Bay, visiting parts of New Guinea, which had never before been seen by a European eye, nor even by Malay traders. Here he attempted to cross the island towards Etna Bay, but owing to scarcity of provisions failed to do more than sight the southern sea from an elevation of 3,000 feet. He imagines that to the east of this route must lie a large, fresh-water lake, the shores of which are densely inhabited. Baffled in this attempt, Dr. Meyer proceeded along the coast of Geelvink Bay to the north-west for the purpose of finding a spot from whence he might cross the island to M'Clure Inlet. In this he was perfectly successful, the journey occupying four days, and the route lying over a small range 2,000 feet in height. On his return to the schooner which awaited him in ink Bay, Dr. Meyer writes : " But my chief task was still to be accomplished — the ascent of the Arfak Moun- tains, which have been for a century the object of the most DOCTOR MEYER. 297 fabulous reports. It was no easy thing, but after very careful preparation I succeeded perfectly. On my hunt- ing expeditions a height of 6,000 feet was reached. The highest point of the whole mountain chain cannot, accord- ing to my calculation, be more than 7,000 feet, perhaps not even so much. It was here, between three and six thousand feet, that I obtained all those rare and splendid birds of paradise for which New Guinea is famous, and I never shall forget the days spent in these forests and among the wild tribes which inhabit them." The Italian travellers and naturalists, Beccari and D'Albertis, also paid several visits to the north-west parts of New Guinea, both in the Galewo Straits, and at Andai on the Arfak Mountains, besides carrying out various scientific investigations at the Aru and other groups of islands at no great distance from the coast. Dr. Beccari's last voyage to New Guinea was made early in 1876, when he visited Humboldt Bay in the Dutch war-steamer Sourabaya at the special request of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. A most interesting account of this visit will be found in the Geographical Magazine for August, 1876. Mr. Giglioli says that, on visiting at Genoa the immense collection Dr. Beccari had sent home, he was quite bewildered at the riches amassed, " whole drawerfuls of the rarer paradise birds, parrots, Tanysiptera and pigeons of Papuasia, about 7,000 bird-skins ; large 298 NEW GUINEA. series of Bendrolagus, discus, bats and other mammals of that region ; jars of large size filled with strange and rare reptiles, amphibia, and fish." Nearly 200 Papuan skulls, some mummified, were amongst the doctor's treasures. But let us now see what our own countrymen have contributed towards the great task of opening out New Guinea. With the exception of Mr. Wallace, almost all the English have devoted themselves to the eastern por- tion of Papua, which lies in such close proximity to the Fifth Continent. In 1845 Captain Blackwood, in H.M.S. Fly, surveyed a portion of the Gulf of Papua, and dis- covered the Fly river, the largest stream yet known in the island, flowing into the west side of the Gulf. Next came Captain Owen Stanley (brother to the present Dean of Westminster), of whose survey I have already made men- tion. From then to the year 1873, when Moresby, in the Basilisk, made his splendid survey, the coast was un- visited except by small craft engaged in the beche-de-mer trade or the pearl fisheries, and by two or three enterpris- ing ministers belonging to the London Missionary Society. In 187 1 these gentlemen visited the islands between Cape York (Australia) and the Gulf of Papua, and suc- ceeded in placing native South-sea Island teachers amongst their inhabitants. In general, they were well received, but at Bampton Island, near the mouth of the Fly, the teachers were murdered. The missionaries found great LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 299 difficulty in hiring a small vessel to take them from place to place, but this was at an end in August, 1874, when the little steamer Ellangowan, a gift to the Society, arrived at Cape York. They were now quite independent, and established a mission at Port Moresby, to which Mr. Lawes and his wife removed. The Basilisk had by this time completed her work of exploration, and the real formation of the extreme south-east portion of New Guinea was correctly known, but we are indebted to the little Ellangowan and her enterprising crew for many entirely fresh discoveries. Mr. Macfarlane, accompanied by the Italian naturalist Signor D'Albertis, proceeded 160 miles up the Fly River, and Mr. Lawes penetrated a con- siderable distance into the interior from Port Moresby. From the journal kept by the former gentleman we learn that the Fly River is about five miles wide at the entrance, with two large villages on its eastern side, some of the houses belonging to which are between three and four hundred feet long. The water was shallow, and the vessel often grounded, but the tide always' floated her again ; indeed, they seem to have taken the precaution to ascend with the flood. On the second day several large canoes, containing 200 men, bore down on the Ellangowan and discharged a shower of arrows. Luckily these fell harmlessly, and a few bullets fired across their bows caused the savages to beat a precipitate retreat. The 300 NEW GUINEA. river about here was very populous. On the fifth day they had reached an island at least 150 miles from the mouth of the stream, which they could still see stretching away to the north-west, broad and deep as ever, and having all the appearance of continuing so for another hundred miles. The explorers were now compelled by want of time and provisions to return ; moreover, some of the men were already down with fever, and all the Euro- peans had become dropsical, their legs taking any impres- sion like putty.* Signor D'Albertis gives the following account of the village at the entrance of the Fly : " It was composed of four large houses only. These habitations are remarkable for their great length, and each has accommodation for a number of married people. The houses are built on piles, and the floor is upwards of ten feet from the ground, and not far distant from high-water mark. The houses have two frontages and two entrances opening upon a small verandah, where the natives are in the habit of sitting or employing themselves in various occupations or in conversation. Two wooden ladders communicate with the verandah, and are in make superior to any I had seen before in New Guinea. The people, houses, and village are kept in a very dirty state, and the interiors of the * " Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society, June 26th 1876." Vol. XX., No. iv. THE FLY RIVER. 301 habitations were also in a similar condition ; and from there not being any other openings to these extensive houses than those before mentioned, and from being in a smoked and dingy state, a visitor entering them would have to get his eyes accustomed to the darkness before he would be capable of distinguishing the objects or persons inside. Many families inhabit these houses, and to every family there belongs a small compartment where they cook and sleep. These houses resemble those used by the inhabi- tants of the north-western part of New Guinea, and the resemblance is still more striking to the traveller when he observes a trophy of skulls suspended near the entrance." Signor D'Albertis also informs us that the natives always carry a bamboo knife for the purpose of severing the heads of their enemies, and a gaily ornamented dagger formed from the thigh-bone of the cassowary, wherewith they despatch the wounded before the decapitation pro- cess. Previous to this ascent of the Fly River the missionaries had discovered a fine stream named by them the Baxter ; and in April, 1876, they visited China Strait, examining the coast between Port Moresby and that passage, and finding thickly-populated villages where they were re- ceived with friendly demonstrations by the natives. Through this expedition our geographical knowledge of the coast has been increased by the discovery of two 3