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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I Ot lJOOi,.S\, . "i^ •^' .-. y^ ® f ■f . '« ADVENTURES IN AUSTRALIA, IN 1852 AND 1853. BY THE REV. H. BEEKELEY JONES'; M.A., LATB CURATE OP BBLORAVX CHAPEL. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. ^bltsIiR in ®t1)inni to Utr imajests. 1853. Oc xooft /sz t t.W,t ■ \ ^" %U.b I V J ix>ndon: Printed by Schuixe and Co., 13 Poland Street. h' DEDICATED TO BENJAMIN HARMAN, ESQ. Mt deae Sir, While doing myself the pleasure of dedicating this little Work to you, I must premise that the following pages have been written currente calamo; you may, nevertheless, depend upon the truthfulness of my state- ments. Aware how ready you ever are to promote the welfare of your humbler brethren, and the happiness of the industrial classes, I have the less scruple in inscribing to you my "Adventures in Australia." Yours very truly, H. Beekelet Jones. RECTOKY, SEPT. 1853. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. Page The " Maria Soames." Gf^ravesend. The col- lision. Stock taken on board. Amused the Emigrants. The Doctor. Visitors, Mr. Sea- ward and a young man employed by Ladies Emigration Committee. The Address. Sail for Plymouth. Visited by Eev. — Childs, and members of the Ladies Committee. Materials put on board to occupy passengers. Useful and acceptable. Earl and Countess of Morley and party. The filthy condition of the Ksh . 1 CHAPTEE n. Sea-sickness. Visits of friends and bum-boat at Hymouth. The thief. The general character of Emigrants. The Captain's wife and child. Our final departure. The schooner, and anchor dragging. The late arrival of the pilot. First Sunday at sea. The arrangements on board an Emigrant vessel. The filthy habits of Emi- grants incredible. " Speculum Gregis." Tem- per and character of Emigrants . .16 CHAPTEE III. Madeira. The ship. The provisions. The books put on board. Foolish advice they contain. The storm. Shipping a sea. The water- spout. The flying-fish. Birds. The man for Western Australia. The inquiry of the Emi- grants about the new Country. Most minute as to the rate of wages 28 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTEE IV. Page Calm. Emigrants' tmiiks. Squally latitudes. Trade winds. Currents at sea. Taking the altitude of the sun. Dolphin. Sinking an empty bottle* Hot nights. Sleeping on deck. Mrs. Wilder's ghost. Amsterdam and St. Paul's Islands . . . . . . . .38 CHAPTEE V. Mount "Warning. First sight of Australia. GHass- house Mountains. Moreton Island. Flinders' Eocks. Mud Island, and St. Helena. Pilot came on board. The two native boatmen. The health-officer. Visit to the island. Native camp of fifty. The eclipse. Pishing. Taming porpoises. Diamonds, pearls. Natives about to meet for war 50 CHAPTEE VI. The Brisbane Eiver. The visit to the ship vnth. " Emigration Board." Leave Brisbane at half- past two, A. M.. The course adopted by Emi- gration officers. Capt. "Wickham. The dep^t. The appearance of the towns of North and South Brisbane. The hiring of the immigrants. Their extravagant demands. Dislike of the bush. The squatters 61 CHAPTEE VII. Public meeting at Moreton Bay. Penal labour — Earl Grey. Parties to the question. The reli- ^ous. The squatters. The labourers' party. Chinese. Coohes. Eurasian labour. Petitions to Lord Grey from Moreton Bay, "Wide Bay, and Burnet Eiver. Western Australia. The assignment system. Transportation generally viewed .75 CONTENTS. VU CHAPTEE VIII. Pa^e Cooper'sPlams. Shepherd. Sheep. Bullock-dray. Native dog. Quail. Settler. Bucking horse. Cane, cotton, and coffee. Gk)ld mania towards Bingera. Duke of Tork. Yungun. Kangaroo hunt. Hospital 99 CHAPTEE IX. Steamer to Ipswich. Limestone. Scenery. Bre- mer. Wild fowl. Signer Pocofit. Boiling down. Pigs. Lost in the bush. Surgeon of " Meridian." Cologne. Storm. Creeks up. TCilling a bullock. Powder-flask lost and re- covered. Bush Hfe .... 114 CHAPTEE X. The start. A German doctor. " Homo mortuus semper fortunatus." The battle at Limestone. Parky appearance of Australia. Kent Station. The pemdty of riding. Hospitality of a squatter. His mode of life. Turn postman and doctor. The flock of sheep. Lambing season. The grave . . ... . . . 130 CHAPTEE XI. Birds. Cockatoos. Breakfast. In an English mansion. In the bush. A ride with the squat- ter. AgaUop. A stock-keeper. His whip. A young middy. The freedom of the bush. Gor- don Camming. Hon. G. Murray. An awkward surprise. The enquirv. A gentleman savage. The remedy for the blase. Bachelor squatters. Married squatters. The voyage. Humboldt. Isthmus of Darien 138 CHAPTEE Xn. Cmmingham's Ghtp. Main range. The Downs. Moss in Australia. The wood vines. A halt on the Blue Mountains. The Admiral. My Vm CONTENTS. P»ge immigrants. The station. The want of a wife Want of comfort. A station with a wife. An exquisite. Thackeray. Serpents. Colonial wine. Marshall's station. Plover. Quail. Snipe. An Oxford man 154 CHAPTEE Xin. Eaton vale. Arthur Hodgson. Bush turkey. The best way to get a shot. Leichardt. A comfortable station. Com stalks. The Na- tional Anthem. An aboriginal beUe. A Mexi- can. A bucker. Our return. Sawyers. A led horse. A dilemma. A short cut the longest way. A bullock dray. Carrion crows. Strych- nia. IVogs. TheRansB. Sheep-shearing. Hos- pitality. Scotch Emigrant. Troublesome ser- vant. Eeturn to Brisbane. Price of Land. Separation of Moreton Bay from Sydney. Eea- sons why desirable 167 CHAPTEE XIV. Sydney. The Heads. Botany Bay. Port Jack- son. Circular Quay. First fleeters. Statistics of first fleeters. Souls. Stock. Extinction of Sydney tribe. Colonel Collins' account. Dr. Lang's. Pitt-street and George-street. The shops. Gk)ld sales. Quantity in shop-windows. Bill Nash, the emancipist. The assignment ^stem. His aflfront upon our Most Gracious Sovereign. G-overnment-house. His Excel- lency's country-house. The fatal accident to Lady Mary. Sympathy expressed by colonists. His popularly in Sydney. His rumoured re- moval. The Treasury. The gold escort. Sub- scription library. The club-house. Cafe de Paris. The legislative Assembly. The want of a House. The forms of the House. The Go- vernment benches. QuaUfication and franchise. CONTENTS. IX Page The Opposition. The Speakers. "W". Went- woith. The Colonial Secretarj. StuartDonald- son. Bob Nicholls. D'ArviUe. The Speaker Solicitor-General. An English M. P. The race- course on Hyde Park. St. James' Church. The Eoman CathoHc Cathedral. Courts of Law 186 CHAPTEE XV. Sydney TJniversity. Bisbop of Newcastle. The good sense of clergy and laity. His own uni- versity. His correspondence with Sir Charles Nicholson. The Archdeacon. The probable result of the two systems. The opening of the University. Its constitution well adapted to Australia. The want of architectural oeau^. The Protestant cathedral. Lyons* Terrace. His antecedents. Wooloomooloo. Sydney Museum. The domain. The fashionable promenade. The botanical garden. Its beauties. The shipping. Flower-shows. The Curator. Gk)vemor Mac- quarie. Trial by jury. Attorney- Q-eneral finds True Bill. The Judges of New South Wales. Lord Shaftesbury and His Excellency. Sydney not worse than any English garrison or port town. Tallow fraud. Ghold fraud. Not only paupers and convicts sent out. Also young prodigals. The folly of sending them out. The best way to send them out. Letter of introduc- tion. The Mr. V.'s. The way to get on. . 203 CHAPTEE XVI. Petty's Hotel. The turquoise ring. The colonial church. "Want of a constitution. Absolute power of colonial Bishops. Perversions to feomanism. Bishops of New Zealand and New- castle. The petition presented on behalf of the clergy to the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Glad- stone's Church Bill. Suburbs of Sydney. Burial X CONTENTS. muiid. Hot winds and storms. Adelaide. Central Australia. Bange of thermometer. Mel- bourne. The Brickfielder, or Southerly Burster. •Ladies' bonnets. Menwear veils. The Sand. Hills bush-rangers. Wooloomooloo. Dr. "War- deU. A vile criminal. Mr. Eobert Lowe, M.P. His kindness. Convicts never received into so- ciety. Eemarks on general society. The appear- ance of residents. Average duration of me in New South Wales. The Press. The Market- 5 lace. Sydney Morning Herald. The Empire, ackson Creek. Lunatic Asylum. Frequency of insanity 221 CHAPTEE XVn. Beflections during night at sea. The polar star Orion. Pleiades. Worship of heavemy bodies. Tumer'spictures. The Christian feelings. Pro- fessor WneweU. Conjecture and speculation. The various systems. Their mighty mutations. Geology. Biev. H. Moseley's astronomical lec- tures. Dr. Chabners. Return from Sydney. A drunken black steward. Icebergs round the Horn. Floating or field ice. Accident to car- penter. Pall fipom fore-topsail yard. Bio de Janeiro. The harbour. The health officer. The custom-house book. The yeUow fever. Predis- posing causes. The *market-place or bazaar. Slavery. Treatment of slaves. Bought or sold like animals. A bellowing^black. What right of property in a slave. The appearance of Bio de Janeiro. Productions of Brazil. Emperor's residence. Artificial fiowers. The Brazilian constitution 236 CHAPTEB XVni. Australia metalliferous. Sir C. Pitzroy applies for ^ a geological surveyor. Steel. G-old. Pirst nug- "^ get. His Excellency's projected visit to Mel- CONTENTS. XI Page bourne. Eev. C. Clarke. Sir R. Murcliisoii. The shepherd M*Glregor. The aborigines as gold-finders. Mr. Hargreaves. Mr. Maclean. Mr. Wentworth. Mr. Hargreaves' reply. Mr. Hargreaves' declarations in Sydney. Mr. Stuch- bury. Coal. Mr. Hargreaves' statement with regard to the gold discovery. Mr. Hargreaves' report to Government. The localities in which, he found gold. Mr. Deas Thompson's letter to Mr. Stuchbury. His reply. Award due to Mr. Hargreaves 259 CHAPTEE XIX. The Great Exhibition. H.E.H. Prince Albert. The increase of gold. Free-trade. Gold-digging laborious and uncertain. Some fortunate. Kid gloves and penknives. Persons unfitted for the diggings. Government clerks. They are of the better classes who will go to the mines. Count first the cost. Many start for the gold-fields without means. Half-pay officers. Their dis- appointment. Hon. Keith Stuart. His success at Major's Creek, Braidwood. No aristocracy at the diggings. Sailor luck. Abuse of it. Publicans benefited. The large sums squan- dered by diggers. Knocking down his dust in Svdney. Demoralizing effect on society, A digger's wedding. Cabs. Champagne . 270 CHAPTEE XX. A provident steward. The political economist. A Somersetshire labourer. An old " lag's" luck. A sawyer's wife in silks and satins mal aise. Eoolish notions of immigrants. Sad plight of penniless immigrants. Work at 21. and 3^ per diem. A yoimg Scotchman's hardships at Melbourne. Savings lost at mining. An old railway nawie; his privations. A gardener's XU CONTENTS. P«ge trial of the gold-fields ; his account of them ; lost his savings. A persevering digger. An officer with his sons. The account of a gentle- man from Edmonton; his failure at Brngera; his success at the Turon ; shot at, and returns the compliment. Planting, or peppering, or salting. Hoax played on Mr. Hargreaves in the Northern districts. A bullet gilded. Gold at New Town. Publicans and Sydney 'busses did a good stroke. A serious fraud at Melbourne. I Spurious gold. Manufactured at Birmingham 279 CHAPTEE XXI. The investigation at Melbourne. Lead sold for gold. "Pointing." G-ambHng. Intoxication. The moral dangers the miner is exposed to. A scene on the Lord's day at the mines. Tossing. Preaching. A prize fight. Sly grog-sellers. An execution. The confession. Bailing up. Yan- demonians.' A vessel robbed. Insecurity of life. The Ovens. High price of drays, &c., on a move. Migratory character of the miners. Turon and Bathurst; state of society at those mines. Sir Charles Pitzroy's address. Danger of being abroad after simset. Hammering a man. Apprehensions of Lynch law at the Ovens. Shepherdmg a lucky digger. Cruel attack. Dysentery. Bad water. A successful practi- tioner. A dentist's charge. Ophthalmia. Sand. Insects. Plies. Musquitoes. Country salu- brious. Influenza. How the intending miner should provide himself. The best way for him to proceed. Who should go to the diggings. The last resort of young men unfit for miners. Colonial experience. Picks. Cradles. Ee- volvers 290 ADVENTURES DT AUSTRALIA. CHAPTEE I. THE "MARIA SOAMES" — GRAVESEND — THE COLLISION — STOCK TAKEN ON BOARD — ^AMUSED THE EMIGRANTS — THE DOCTOR — ^VISITORS, MR. SEAWARD AND A YOUNG MAN EMPLOYED BY LADIES EMIGRATION COMMITTEE — THE ADDRESS — SAIL FOR PLYMOUTH — ^VISITED BY REV, — CHILDS AND MEMBERS OF THE LADTF^S COMMITTEE — MA- TERIALS PUT ON BOARD TO OCCUPY PASSENGERS — USEFUL AND ACCEPTABLE — ^EARL AND COUNTESS OF MORLEY AND PARTY — THE FILTHY CONDITION OF THE IRISH. By instructions received from the Colonial Land Emigration Board, the writer was directed to embark at Gravesend, on the 18th of February, 1852, to join the " Maria Soames," which the Government had B Z STOCK TAKEN ON BOARD. chartered to convey bounty emigrants to Moreton Bay; a fine bark of 890 tons, on board of which 280 emigrants of the indus- trial classes were about to seek better fortunes in a far distant colony. While the " Maria Soames " was lying off Gravesend, she was run into by an Ame- rican vessel called the " Eichard Cobden," causing her damage to the amount of one or two hundred pounds, and a delay of several days to get into proper repair. During which time the stock was taken on board, which was to fiimish the captain's table, and his passengers' fare. The taking in of the live stock caused a good deal of fun among the people. The sheep had a sling pla<5ed round them, and were hoisted out of the boat on to the deck without offering any redstence or uttering »y cry. But the pig, when hung up in'nndL.^d not at dl approve of their elevated position, and, much to the merriment of the Irish emigrants, most lustily sung out. Pat laughed at the mis- fortunes and cries of his companions and friends. " Arrah, my lad/' called out one of EMIGRANTS AMUSED. O Erin's sons, " my boy, how do you faal ? " "Sure," responded another Pat, "does not he tell you he does not faal aisy at all/* One could see in their countenances the humorous satisfaction entertained at seeing an ould acquaintance and companion in an awkward position. For who loves a practical joke better than an Irishman? Who can enter with as much gusto into the ridiculous as the Celt from the Emerald Isle ? Piggy, notwithstanding his plaints and suppHca- tions, was safely secured under the long- boat. These little incidents distracted for a time our attention from, the subject upper- most to the minds of all — a long and distant voyage, and the painM separation from friel and old associations haUowed by many personally interesting events. To those who had never been at sea, the fears of a long sea voyage. The first thing which engages the at- tention of a person who has been at sea, is to see what they look like, who are to be in a small space and for some months his mess- mates: the captain, officers, and steward, b2 4 THE DOCTOR. on whom much of your comfort will depend, with regard to civiHty and cleanliness, and your fellow'-passengers. A single glimpse and glance often decide whether they are likely to prove agreeable or disagreeable companions. In the estimate made, as we call it, at first sight, we were not wrong in putting down our " doctor," with whom we were in some measure to act as a colleague, as a gen- tleman, intelligent, and well fitted by his former experience, to render the passage safe, as regarded the health of all on board, and pleasant from his amenity and maniere d' etre. And so we found it in the sequel. Not that we hold it as invariably wise to form our opinion on what are called first impressions. "Fronti nulla fides,*' is an adage often more correct, or as Shakespeare has it : — " There's no art To find the mind's construction in the face." So much of the failure or success of a voyage in an emigrant ship depends upon the attention of the surgeon to his im- THE DOCTOR. portant duties, and the judicious exercise of the authority with which he is en- trusted, that we were happy to find we were to co-operate with one who had abeady made four voyages, and whose conduct had invariably been such as to receive the cre- dentials requisite for re-employment, from the authorities in the colonies, to which he was engaged to take his emigrants. Excel- lent and minutely detailed as are the instruc- tions which he receives for his guidance from the Government, still many casualties and circumstances wiU and do arise, which re- quire the discretion and tact of an educated mind and judicious decision. The discipline, cleanliness, regularity, and order of the people, will be regulated by the energy, vigilance, attention, and temper of the medical officer. He requires the ** suaviter in modo" with the " fortiter in re." Persons of filthy habits, and generally of a low stand- ard at all times of personal cleanliness, of various dispositions and tempers, placed in new and novel circumstances; chosen also not from the best circles of our industrial IMPORTANT CHARGE population; the plagues of the parish^ the continual applicants of the parochial board* room ; from different countries, with national prejudices and jealousies :— -such a congrega- tion require for their wholesome government a person capable of exercising control with good temper and determination ; possessed of the power of enforcing obedience without harshness or coarseness of manner. The attention of Government has been directed to this important fact. We quote upon this subject from the Immigration Keport, laid upon the council table, 28th July, 1852, by the Colonial Secretary, and ordered to be printed by the Lower House. Beport for the year 1851, and signed H. Browne, Agent for Immigration, Sydney, 20th July, 1852. In paragraph 28, he thus expresses himself with regard to the conduct of Surgeons-superintendent : — " The conduct of some of the surgeons employed by the Commissioners to take charge of emigrants proceeding to the Australasian colonies hav- ing been strongly animadverted upon in Parliament last year, it appears to me due OF SUBGEON-SUPERINTENDENT. 7 to those medical gentlemen who had the superintendence of the immigrants who ar- rived in Sydney during the past year, that I should here bear testimony to the credit- able manner in which they discharged their duties; and a« they now receive an allow- ance towards their return passages to Eng- land, I am inclined to believe that many respectable surgeons wiU be induced to con- tinue in the service of the Commissioners, and that therefore there will be in future but little occasion afforded for dissatisfaction with the medical officers of government emigrant ships." It is agreeable to be able to make this extract, since the writer can also mention the general efficiency of the members of this profession, to which mankind is so much indebted, corporeally and iuteUec- tually, both in alleviating bodily suffering and enlarging by inductive science the powers of the human mind. The character of the needlewomen sent out by Mr. Sydney Herbert's Society, in the " Malacca" and "Euphrates," was anything 8 RULES AND REGULATIONS. but improving to the colony, arising from the want of proper precautions in the selection made at home, and the imperfect arrange- ments contrived for their supervisionon board. " If," writes Mr. Brown, " the arrange- ments made on board ships chartered by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commis- sioners, for the purpose of securing proper discipline on the passage, were adopted by the Female Emigration Fund Society, I have little doubt that the young women sent out by them would, in most instances, become useful members of this community, and that their arrival would be hailed as a boon by the colonists." The rules and regulations drawn up by the Emigration Commissioners are admirably well adapted for the moral, intellectual, and physical well-being of the emigrants. The point, therefore, in which any one of these advantages would fail, will be upon putting them into the hands of an inefficient agent, and if that agent, the Surgeon-superintendent, has been injudiciously selected, the com- pleteness and aptness of these rules to carry VISITORS. 9 out the ends proposed, must be frustrated. We may, however, assume from the paragraph which has been just quoted, that all human foresight can do, is done to obtain efficient medical officers. Further comments on the specific nature of these governmental regula- tions are reserved for another part of this book. Dr. Q-eorge Coward adhered strictly and literally to these instructions. To this rigid adherence, the success of our voyage is very much to be attributed. Before we left Gravesend, the ship was visited by many kind and weU-intentioned persons, distributing Bibles, Prayer-books, and religious tracts, to the emigrants, and giving them very good advice. Mr. Seaward, the visiting secretary of the Prayer-book and Homijy Society, came on board and addressed the people in the decks below, on brotherly love and forbearance and unity, founding his reflections on xvii John, and also left with us a weU-selected case of school books, and others which were to be lent out during the voyage to the adult emigrants and students. b3 10 SAIL FOR PLYMOUTH. As there were persons of various per- suasions on board, a young man employed by the Ladies Emigration Society, was invited to address any who might belong to his peculiar sect ; but he did not, very properly, deem it necessary, as they, the emigrants, had been aheady exhorted by a clergyman of the Established Church, and an oflB.cer of the Prayer-book and IV / Homijy Society. Neither did we consider it desirable to depress the minds and spirits of the emigrants by any other reiterated allusions to their departure from their na- tive homes. Visits from persons as ju- dicious, kind, and earnest, as Mr. Seaward, are doubtless beneficial and advantageous to the people on board, matured as his expe- rience is by age and the absence of excite- ment. At length the commander. Captain Davies, came on board; the muster having been made by Captain Lane, E.N., the emigration agent, apparently a valuable ofl5.cer of the Board, we weighed anchor, having got our bark repaired, and spread our wings for ADDRESS BY REV. MR. CHILDS. 11 Plymouth, where we were to take in the complement of our number. After a quick and favourable passage to Plymouth, we cast anchor off Egremont Castle, or rather with it in the distance, having passed the breakwater, which cost the country nearly 4,500,000/., and took thirty- five years in constructing. Here we remained one week, talmg in tJemigra^t,, who had awaited our arrival at the depot. The Eev. Mr. Childs, whom we understood to be the incumbent of the district of St. Mary's, imder the late SirEobertPeers Act, visited the ship, having, in addition to the charge of a populous district of five thousand souls, interested himself in the spiritual welfare of emigrants departing fi'om England for the colonies. We were given to understand that some funds had been provided, to give him the services of a curate, to enable him to meet the weight of this self-imposed and dis- interested duty. A depot has been formed at Plymouth, for the reception of materials likely to prove 12 ANCHOR WEIGHED. useful to emigrants, under his supervision; more especially such articles as would occupy the time and attention of the single women and female children, during the passage; and such as the religious instructor found weU-adapted in fulfilling the benevolent intentions of the contributors. The Rev. Mr. Childs' address was well fitted to his congregation, his services having been gladly accepted by the writer, who was sufiering from a severe cold and loss of voice. It was listened to with attention and interest by all the passengers. On Wednesday the 3rd of March, the blue-peter was flying at our mast-head, the emigrants all on board, but some causes prevented our departure as soon as was intended. Lieut. Carew, and Mr. Fowles the emigrant agent and dispatching officer, paid us a visit, for the purpose of enabling us to put to sea, but we were detained until Friday, when we weighed anchor at daylight. On Thursday, while the Doctor and the Captain were on shore, the officers from the LORD AND LADY MORLEY. 13 admiral's tender came on board the " Maria Soames," and stated that Lord and Lady Morley were desirous of visiting our emi- grants, to which request we were, of course, most happy to grant our ready compliance. The noble Earl and his wife came on board, and we conducted them, and the party which was with them, through the different depart- ments of the vessel, pointing out the va- rious arrangements in the married people's departments, the single men's and single women's, with which his lordship expressed himself well satisfied. Of the completeness of these arrangements the writer had then but had a brief experience. The admiral's yacht lay-to, and, perhaps, the late distinguished visitors spoke of their countrymen, who were on the eve of a long and eventful voyage, wishing them at their lunch, we make bold to coniecture, a prosperous passage, successful end, when the journey of all journeys has been completed. One subject Lord Morley will re* 14 FBLTHT COKDinOIf member, it having formed the topic of con- versation between himself and the writer— the personally filthy condition in which the Irish emigrants were sent on board from the depot at Plymouth. The clothes should be subjected to some process of fd- migation, similar to that which the dress of criminals is, on their entrance into prison. Not for one moment does the writer mean that no distinction is to be drawn between the bounty emigrant and the convicted felon — one who leaves volxmtarily, and the other who is sent out of his country. The vermin which they brought with them on board had very nigh been the cause of serious dispute, be- tween the English emigrants and the Scotch, generating, as it did, " in limine," a bad feel- ing between them. And even, generally, as it is not injurious to the apparel, fumigation would be a very desirable thing to smother any latent infection with which the clothes might be impregnated, but essentially ne- cessary, where vermin and possibly the element of scabies existed. OF THE IRISH. 15 The writer has directed the attention of the Colonial Land and Emigration Com- missioners to this point in his report at the close of his passage, and the remedy being so simple and so easily applied and inexpensive, he trusts the suggestion may meet with compUance on the part of the authorities whose special province it is to look to these matters. 16 SEA SICKNESS. CHAPTEE n. SKA SICKNESS — VISITS OF FRIENDS AND BUM-BOAT AT PLY- MOUTH — ^THE THIEF — THE GENERAL CHARACTER OP EMIGRANTS — THE CAPTAIn's WIFE AND CHILD — OUR FINAl. DEPARTURE — THE SCHOONER, AND ANCHOR DRAG- GING — THE LATE ARRIVAL OF THE PILOT— -FIRST SUNDAY AT SEA — THE ARRANGEMENTS ON BOARD AN EMIGRANT VESSEL — THE FILTHY HABITS OP EMIGRANTS INCREDIBLE — "SPECULUM GREGIS" — TEMPLR AND CHARACTER OF EillGRANTS. Such of the emigrants as had joined the vessel at Gravesend, had partially over- come their sea-sickness, and were prepared to spend some of the very little cash they might have with the bum-boat woman, who brought on board the most heteroge- neous assortment of goods it is possible to conceive ; everything which was likely to assist in impreparing the stomach for the coming sickness and nausea. It afforded. BUM-BOAT WOMAN. 17 however, an outlet to the sorrow and grief of farewell friends, especially manifested in a form substantial and palatable to grand, children, nephews, and nieces. The con- clusion of the moumfdl adieu terminating in a present of brandy-baUs, string, or Uquo- rice according to the whim of the little gourmand, whose departure was breaking the heart-strings of some loving old maiden aunt. This rubbish-eating continued for the week we were in Plymouth, without inter- mission, and was varied only by an imtoward discovery of a thief. A sawyer, from Bed- fordshire, had lost on his way from Grravesend to Plymouth five shillings and some token pennies which had been given to his chil- dren by difierent friends ; and which had been duly taken charge of by his wife.- He thought that the person possessed of his property would most likely spend it with the bum-boat woman. Hie watched for two days, and at last he detected an Irish emigrant paying away his marked token, and having taxed him with it, he denied 18 GENERAL CHABACTEB it. We had him brought aft, and searched, when such evidence of his guilt appeared 9a wafi sufficient to show that the charge was well founded. What was to be done with him? his mother, a widow, with a large family on board emigrating, and he the eldest son and an important protector to his parent ; although only twenty years of age. It was thought possible that his ac- count of the manner in which he became possessed of the money, and bag which contained it, might be true, viz., that one of his little brothers had picked it up and given it to him. On this supposition it was deemed better to let him continue his voyage, and the contrition he evinced, justified the conclusion arrived at. On the passage he was one of the most assiduous and attentive mo- nitors in the school-room. The general physical appearance of the emigrants was decidedly not of a fevourable description, and such as would recommend them as a boon to the colony, which so much required their labour. Many were very old worn-out men, only fit for shepherding. OF THE EMIGRANTS. 19 aad evidentiy had passed the meridian of life long ago. The single men and nnmar- ried females were healthy young persons and likely to be very useful to the colony. In many cases false representations must have been made to the government queries. An instance occurred in which one regula- tion was grossly violated. A tailor, by trade, had represented himself bs a single man, and had left a wife and large family at Glasgow, doubtless now receiving aid from the benevolent; when on shore this fact reached the writer's knowledge. The man was a good workman but a great drunkard. We met with him in Sydney, and there he informed us he was a teetotaller, and had saved money to get his wife and family out ; such might be the case, as the statement was confirmed by other emigrants to whom he was known. He was at that time earning from ten to twelve shillings per diem. The young children wiU eventually prove bene- ficial to Australia, as in feeling they wiU become colonial, and all their associations will attach to New South Wales. 20 captain's wife and child. After Captain D. with his wife and infant child, came on board, we began to look forward to our final departure, with a voyage before us of at least four months across the mighty waters of the deep, varied like life in its course with storm and sun- shine. A ship at sea is not an unapt emblem of human existence. " Such is life," is the signet on many a seal. In getting under way, a schooner passed imder our stem and carried away some of her rigging ; the pilot being late, we attempted to get away without him, and by some means or another, our anchor dragged and drifted us, but by the commander's coolness and skiU — for if he was not the most liberal, he certainly was a skilftQ and carefiil navi- gator — we cleared away, the sun rising beautifiilly over Egremont Castle, equal in the golden and crimson tints which he cast before him, to any in the tropical climes, where he may be seen to come forth from the deep in aU his splendour "as a bride- groom out of his chamber," and ill his bright career as " a lion rejoicing to run his FINAL DEPARTURE. 21 course ;" all tilings yielding to his powerful influences. It was the last sunrise on Albion's shores we were to see for many a long day, to some for years, to some for ever ; such were our feelings when we saw the Lizard Light gradually disappearing from our view. Our first Lord's day at sea was too stormy to admit of our having Divine Ser- vice performed; and too much sea-sickness prevailed among the newly-shipped emi- grants. The brief repose of the first shipped in harbour, had removed the season- ing which the trip from GJravesend had given them, and we may say every one on board was more or less on their beam ends, paying iheir tribute to fiither Neptune for entering upon his empire. What a debilitating, nauseating, dreadful sickness is the sea sickness, prostrating the energies of the mind and body 1 If any empiric could find a nostrum, he would achieve a fortune, larger than that made by the railway king Hudson ; instead of an iron crown, we would ensure him a crown of 22 SEA-SICKNESS. gold. The love-sick swam obtains little sympathy from his village friends, upon the same principle that a person who is suffer- ing from sea-sickness is equally unpitied and simply because neither complaint kills. Time is a healer of both. Punch says, in his letters of advice to his son, that ladies* hearts never break; but the commander's wife suffered so long and so intensely from sea-sickness, that the surgeon became appre- hensive that it might, in her case, prove an exception to the rule, and destroy life. There was one other case nearly as obstinate. A rosy-cheeked country rustic, with a face which required no histrionic brickdust for the most exaggerated barn-floor stage, with the piece commanded by the all-influential squire of the parish, became as pale and as feded as any debutante and belle of Almack's at the close of the London season. This Bedfordshire ploughman said, if he had known what the salt-water was Kke, he never would have set sail for Australia, not for all that ever was in it. By degrees, we aU got the better of our sorrows, and began DAILY ROUTINE. 23 to find our sea legs ; and then to put into operation the proper routine for the comfort and instruction of those committed to our care. One day^s system will be sufficient to describe it which foUowed for upwards of four months. Eise at six, cleaning decks, breakfast, fdmigating the vessel with chloride of lime, and Burnett's disinfect- ing fluid, of which the surgeon spoke very highly. The children mustered every morning at the capstan-head to show that they were clean, and were then sent down till dinner time for school; auing of the bedding, and after dinner the. adults taught to read and write ; and the female children exercised in knitting, sewing, &c., and such domestic occupations as would render them in their turn, when called upon to be mo- thers and wives, useful to society, and good housekeepers. In promoting a most im- portant branch of female education, we felt much indebted to those ladies who have formed themselves into committees to collect materials for the use of the emigrants, under 24 ABRANGEMENTS ON BOARD. the charge of the ojficial authorities. We hope, therefore, that they will continue in this " labour of love" towards their humbler brethren. One good effect was the association of aU persons' children, of various denominations, which we feel has a harmonizing influence on the heart. The single women were required to retire under the command of their matron, into their apartment at simset, and under no excuse whatever were they permitted to mix with the crew or single men, or to enter into their compartments. These regula- tions were strictly enforced by the surgeon, who was most regular and punctual, as well as constant in his attendance upon the persons he had in charge. They sang an hymn and retired, imtil morning again summoned them to the same round of duties. It would be tedious to the reader, and foreign to the purpose of the writer, to go into the detail of all the admirable arrange- ments laid down by Government; those FILTHY HABITS OF EMIGRANTS. 25 who feel interested in the subject, may obtain them from the office in Park-street, West- minster, by addressing S. Walcott, Esq., the diligent and untiring Secretary to the Emi- gration Board. The filthy habits of the emigrants, un- less it had practically come imder the notice of the writer, he could not have credited. Disease of every kind, and the most viru- lent form of fever, must inevitably be the result of such a disregard of cleanliness as would be manifested by the passengers in emigrant ships, if left to themselves. It is not only the physical welfare of those under his charge, that the surgeon has to look to, but actually to inspect personally, and enforce cleanliness, where decency and self- respect ought to suggest the necessity of its exercise. In the tropics an opportunity is given to those who feel disposed, to bathe every morning, when the decks are washed down. It is advisable to encourage as many as possible to make use of the bath, invi- gorating and giving energy and tone both to the mind and body. So subtle and c 26 TEMPER AND intimate is the connexion between the cor- poreal and mental being of man, that the one cannot be affected without the other. So responsive in sympathy, yet so different in essence, are the material and immaterial. In about ten days or so, we were enabled to make a " speculum gregis" of 9ur emi- grants, in order that we might, after exa- mination, classify them, according to their attainments, in our schoolroom. About twenty adults learned to read and write, while several improved themselves in ele- mentary knowledge. Considering the novelty of the circum- stances in which they were placed, they manifested no inclination to quarrel and riot. Any outburst of temper was immediately checked. In general character they were creditable enough. But it must be borne in mind that there was no trial of their faith, as there was an absence of any opportunity of temptation. So narrowly watched, with every circumstance tending to make a fall removed from them, it was not until they landed that the true or habi- CHABAC5TEB OF EMIGRANNTS. 27 tual disposition of the enugrant unfolded itself. But even this brief interval of four months of moral discipline and restraint of bad habits is so much gained ; it is a re- formatory means, which may lead to per- manent results. c2 28 MADEIRA. CHAPTEE in. MADEIRA — THE SHIP — THE PROVISIONS — THE BOOKS PUT ON BOARD— FOOLISH ADVICE THEY CONTAIN — THE STORM — SHIPPING A SEA — ^THE WATER SPOUT — THE FLYING FISH — BIRDS — THE MAN FOR WESTERN AUSTRAUA — THE ENQUIRY OF THE EMIGRANTS ABOUT THE NEW COUNTRY — MOST MINUTE AS TO THE RATE OF WAGES. After fourteen days we found ourselves off the island of Madeira, the soft and balmy air of which, and its mild equable tempera- ture, are the last remedies which skill can suggest to protract, although they cannot re- store, the life of those who are smitten with consumption. We could not, while gazing upon it, but recall the hectic tints upon the pale marble cheek of some interesting youth or maiden, fondly tended and taken here to save the existence so dear to mourning friends. Alas ! how melancholy the spectacle to be- hold the yoimg heart, so full of hope, and in all the warmth of life's dawn, Consumed by its FOOLISH ADVICE. 29 own intensity— the lamp burning brightest wben it is soonest to be extinguished. *Tis sad to see the opening flower droop ere it matures ! And how often in the world does that which is beautiful perish in its loveliness ! The destroyer adorns the victim, that the sacrifice may be more costly. We had by this time, with the excep- tion of Mrs. D., become first-rate sailors, fairly on our sea legs ; our schools regularly attended, and in active and effective opera- tion; and the library books lent and dis- tributed among our people. Some advice given to the emigrants is not of the fittest. For instance, they are recommended to climb the rigging and to ask aU manner of questions from the sailors. This is most objectionable on two grounds; the first, that it might lead to an accident, and the second, that it inter- feres with the sailors when at work, which is displeasing to the Captain and officers. And again, the less intimacy existing between the crew and emigrants, the better for the order and discipline of the ship. The pro- visions placed on board were of excellent 30 THE STORM. quality. The Irish, some of whom had never before seen pickles, could not make out the use of them, and actually took them to the cook to be boiled, upon, it must be presumed, the supposition that they were raw vegetables. The preserved meats the writer never liked; everything except fish may be anything you please to call it ; no flavour at all — ^insipid, tasteless, and stringy. Large quantities of preserved milk are placed on board; and medical comforts, i. e., spirits, wine, porter, arrow-root, sago, &c., and everything which can be required by invalids, distributed, of course, at the order and command of the surgeon. Indeed, great care and kindness have been taken in drawing up the dietary for emigrants. A few days after losing sight of Madeira we had a terrible storm, during which we shipped a heavy sea, which found its way down to the married people's compartment, and caused among them a great deal of alarm, while, in fact, there was no real danger. But, reader, if you have never been at sea, you know not what fears the SHIPPING A SEA. 31 mind will conjure up during a heavy gale. The noise of the wind whistling through the rigging — ^the sailors taking in sail — ^the ropes falling on deck — ^the Captain's voice raised to give his commands above the roar of the storm, distinctly and audibly — all contribute, together with the labouring of the ship, to raise a thousand phantom fears to your inexperienced mind. It is not until you have become weU inured to these things that you can view the contending elements with admiration and sublimity of emotion towards Him, whose paths are on the great waters, and who holdeth the elements in his grasp. The roaring thunder-the vivid lightning — ^the howling winds — ^the rolling waves — ^aU lend their might, and contribute to the grandeur of the tempest. " Oh! who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried ? And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide, The exulting sense, the pulse's maddening play. That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way ? Not thou, vain lord of wantonness and ease ! Whom slumber soothes not — ^pleasure cannot please." So says Lord Byron (in the " Corsair "), 32 THE WATERSPOUT. and most truly too, when describing the elasticity of feeling and exultation which is enjoyed on the ocean by those whose fears have disappeared before long practice. There is an exhilaration and buoyancy of spirit at sea which one does not acknowledge else- where. There are also many wonders to amaze, and beauties to admire, and things unseen before to look upon — ^phenomena in nature, and the monsters of the deep to observe. We saw a water-spout, which landsmen dream of as dangerous to ships, in case they should break over them and swamp them ; and to avoid which a gun is fired, so that by the concussion of the air the water-spout may be dispersed. It has a singular appearance ; it may be seen gradually to ascend, and in- crease in the form of an inverted cone, with a white line of light within, as if it were a hoUow cylinder, and then suddenly breaks and disperses. To some of our emigrants, as the first they had ever seen, it was a sub- ject of interesting observation, and helped, among other wonders, to relieve the tedium THE FLYING FISH. 33 of a long voyage. Persons accustomed to daiy labour, who go forth to work in the fields from morning until evening, have little or no mental resources ; hence the passage is extremely irksome to them, and we were glad when an occasion occurred for the explana- tion of any unusual appearance belonging to the natural world. The country ploughman has heard tell of flying-fish, but he incredulously receives the statement, which he dares not rudely contra- dict; many, therefore, on board, did not think there were such things in existence, even when told so in the ship. Seeing is, however, believing, and soon we saw them flying along, to escape the swift and greedy dolphin, only to expose themselves to their other enemies, the sea-birds. Thus the poor flying-fish is nowhere safe; pursued by a deadly foe in his own element, he tries safety in a strange one, only to be destroyed by another. Clouds of these may be seen to rise at once, being chased by the dolphin, which devours them as they drop again into the sea, exhausted by their flight, and driven t 3 34 BIRDS. by the necessity of moistening the wing, if it be a wing ? In size and appearance the flying-fish is not unlike an herring. The birds likewise, form another source of attraction. The snow-white albatross, with his large brilliant eye, and the graceful sweep of his widely extended pinions over the ocean, just skimming the surface of the deep, affords a pleasing object to look upon. The chocolate-coloured bird of the same spe- cies, is also a very beautiful creature. And there are several varieties of the gull species, moUy-maws, sea-swallows, and the pretty Cape-pigeon ; and lastly, the stormy petrels, of which such fabulous tales are told by sailors ; namely, that they never sleep, and carry their eggs under their wings. They certainly are busy, restless, little beings, but that they do not carry their eggs under their wings, the writer can attest, as he has seen several caught, and there were no eggs about them. This little bird generally follows in the wake of the ship ; perhaps some animal- culse are thrown up for them to feed upon, by the agitation of the waters, which they mQTJIRY ABOUT WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 35 rarely rest upon, only striking the surface with their feet, to which custom they owe, as Goldsmith states, their name, being called " Petrel," because, as St. Peter the apostle did, they walk on the sea. Great numbers of them have been found in Van Diemen's Land, their breeding-place. They are sometimes called Mother Carey's chickens, as they love to be abroad when the elements are at hurly burly; as that mother of witches, in com- mon with all her tribe we presume, loves best to be at mischief in the storm and light- ning, like the weird sisters of Macbeth. While gazing upon these wonders of the deep, fer far away from land, an emigrant came up to enquire whether he would be £ar from Western Australia, when he got to Moreton Bay. It was there he had appHed to go, as his wife's sister had sent for them, which formed the chief inducement to their embarkation. He was very much dis- appointed when he saw that the place he was to land at was the very antipodes of the spot he wished to go to. Some others stated also, that Sydney, Melbourne, and 36 INQUIRY ABOUT THE even Adelaide, liad been the ports for which they had applied and received embarkation orders for. It is a pity that any orders should be granted for one port, and the emigrant taken to another, which is very like a breach of faith, and operates badly on those who remain behind, when they hear fipom their disappointed friends. We shall have occasion to speak of this party hereafter, as we met him in the bnsh. They were often, we may say all of them, very anxious to learn all they could of their new home. We had several works on Australia on board, placed there by the kindness and forethought of emigration societies, as also some which the writer had provided himself with. " Haygarth's " is accurate, portable, and pleasingly written, entitled " Ten Tears in the Bush." " Mac- kenzie's," and Arthur Hodgson's lectures; also those of " An old Etonian, and now a Squatter, on the Darling Downs," delivered in his father's parish at Eickmansworth ; enable the emigrant to get a very fair idea of New South Wales. RATE OF WAGES. 37 ' But the subject which engaged most deeply their attention, was the rate of wages ea^hcalliBg received The writer had provided himself with that useful and accu- rate compilation of Chambers', and to which is appended a scale of wages, which satisfied their eager anxiety ; very different in amount to the miserable pittance they had been accustomed to get in their overcrowded labour-market at home. But they formed some most preposterous notions concerning the value of their services, as the deader will by and bye perceive. 38 CALM AT SEA. CHAPTEE IV. CALM — emigrants' TRUNKS — SQUALLY LATITUDES — TRADE WINDS — CURRENTS AT SEA — ^TAKING THE ALTITUDE OF THE SUN — ^DOLPHIN — SINKING AN EMPTY BOTTLE — HOT NIGHTS — SLEEPING ON DECK — ^MRS. WILDER's GHOST — AMSTERDAM AND ST. PAUL's ISLANDS. A CALM at sea is, when it continues for several days, a most wearisome and monotonous oc- currence. Every sail flapping lazily against the mast, the rigging creaking and straining with the heavy roll of the ship, and to no purpose, as far as regards the attainment of our object, the completion of the voyage. It is what is called by Jack himself, a sailor's wind, because their axiom is "more days, more dollars," especially at the high rate of wages they are now receiving on board of the ship in which this is penned. But even emigrants' trunks. 39 he gets tired of it, the pulling and hauling of the ropes for every shift of light airs, is what he calls " humbuggiag ;" and it does not generally improve the temper of the " skipper/' i. e., commander ; his perceptions are doubled, and he sees faults where, under a fine stiff slashing gale, he would have seen none. All seem alive and exhilarated, when going along under a ten-knot breeze ; even the mates throw the reel over the side of the vessel with a swing of satisfaction and excitement. After having been at sea some time, the emigrants had their luggage, which was stowed away in the hold, brought on deck. The vessel looked like Monmouth Street, lined with all sorts of finery and faded un- mentionables. It was very amusing to survey the contents of some, and the non-contents of others. One widow womaa, with two smart lads, made a great fuss about getting her box, a large deal tnmk of most imposing dimensions ; and as she was always talking about the '*fine friends'' she had in the colony, one might have expected a very well- 40 SQUALLY LATITUDES. fiimislied wardrobe. But "au contraire," when opened it contained some mouldy le- mons, oranges, salt herrings, and a few rags, with a mass-book. AU this was truly Irish. She got it made large, not that she had much to fill it with, but that she might look " dacent and respectable/' She was not the only one who had acted on this theory to carry out a good external show. Gold- smith says, " if you are poor, never look poor," but keep up appearances, as the world judges by them. Poor Goldsmith would have been always poor and improvident, and good natured, let come what would. You have heard, reader, doubtless, of a middy's sea- chest, and of an " omnium gatherum" — unless you have seen disclosed to vulgar gaze the boxes of two or three hundred emigrants, of all trades, and from all countries, you have not had an opportunity of learning what it means to perfection. It is as various, but not as systematically arranged, as the matronly housewife's storeroom can be in its contents. As cahns occur in the low latitudes, i. e., near the Equator, so do squalls, and it so hap- TRADE WINDS. 41 pened that one of these tropical changes came upon us rather rapidly on a gala day, much to the confusion of ladies with silts and satins, and the many other perishable wares, which form the paraphernalia of the " fair defect of Nature," as the softer sex has been ungaUantly called. These sudden squalls are very frequent within the Tropical regions, owing to the continual atmospheric changes, induced by the rapid and frequent alternations in temperature, the motion of the earth, and the velocity at the equator, of the globe on its axis. At length we got into the trade- winds. How delightful is this part of a voyage, gliding along on the surface of the sea without much uneasy motion, the ropes scarcely for a fortnight or more moved out of their places, and the sails bellying out with a fine, steady, even breeze ! These south-east and north-east trades are, we be- lieve, caused by the rarefaction of the air at the Equator. The denser and heavier air rushing in from the poles to displace the lighter body, gaining its easterly direction 42 CURRENTS. by the revolution of the earth. The islands of the ocean which he within these trade- winds are salubrious and pleasant. In about 10° N. lat. we found a strong current setting westwards. These currents are produced by the continued change of temperature of the waters of the deep, and the submarine valleys and mountains. There are none more remarkable than that which sets into the Mediterranean and out of the Baltic, and the gulf stream, or Gulf of Florida, which returns and is felt on the banks of Newfoundland, and by some said to be perceptible on the coast of Ireland. How wonderful is the Lord in all his works ! It puzzled many of our people to see the Captain every morning take the altitude of the sun, and at mid-day the meridian altitude ; what the sailors call " the skipper shooting the sun." With some difficulty we succeeded in making a few understand its purpose and end. It was our custom to explain anything upon which they desired to be informed. The occasions thus afforded of DOLPHIN CAUGHT. 43 enlarging upon the power and benevolence of the Omnipotent were not to be lost. If being on ship-board is apt to make some idle, it is also to others a good opportunity of reflection and study. The beauty of the heavens, the wonders of the ocean, all help to enlarge the mind, and we hope to improve the heart. A dolphin was caught by the sailors, but as the finest of this kind was taken on the writer's return voyage to England, he assumes the privilege of an anachronism, in writing rather of the colours of that particular fish, when dying, than of those which were caught on the voyage out. The one to which he now alludes measured four feet eleven inches, and was struck by the chief mate. The "dying dolphin" is almost as celebrated as the "dying gladiator." Its camelion- changes are certainly very beautiM; the hues might serve for types to the best dyers of shot silk, so lovely are the tints which the struggle for life throws around its victim. The expiring dolphin alternately assumes all the variations of the rainbow. At times the 44 DYING DOLPHIN, most guttering silver, mingled with purple and gold, and saflfron, and then spotted with beantifal aznre ; as if life were so heavenly in all its fulness, that its ebbing should be of the most brilliant tints. The struggle to escape from its material form, is indicative of this unequal union. In fact, it is im- possible, unless for a poet or a painter, to describe or represent the perfect beauty of this singular exception to the ordinary laws of nature. Do dark and bright thoughts of memory, overshadow and give the sunshine of hope to the soul of man, when it leaves its consort, as varied in their alternations, as these chang- ing hues of which we are now writing ? It is painful to see a thing so graceful, so rapid and elegant in its motions, struggling for life; and we naturally ask, is each change, so much admired, the reflection of a fresh and renewed struggle for existence? How painfiil then to die ! But dominion was given to man over all the earth — ^not, indeed, to torture — ^but for his use. We tried the experiment of sinking a HOT NIGHTS. 45 bottle deep into the ocean, well corked and sealed, as it is said that it wiU be raised ftill, without the cork having been forced in. We were at some pains to try this, and wiU again. A soda-water bottle was tightly- corked, sealed, and a piece of parchment drawn over it ; so that every possible pre- caution was used, to prevent the cork being driven in, by the immense weight of water. The result, after sinking it about eighty fathoms, was, that it certainly did not come up ftdl, but with some water in it. The weight, during a calm, by which it was sunk, was the lead-line, used for sounding. It may be possible that a glass-bottle is sufficiently porous, to admit of the water being forced into it,^ by an equal pressure on all sides. The nights in this latitude, viz., near the equator, were exceedingly hot, and many of the emigrants would sleep on deck. It is not at all surprising that they should wish to do so, but I am convinced it is a dangerous prac- tice to allow. One young man brought on a fit of ague, which never left him during the voyage. The dews are very heavy in the 46 AN APPAEITION. tropics, the immense evaporation which takes place during the day, being condensed during the cooler atmosphere of the night. Sailors have some foolish notion that the danger of sleeping out at night, is lest the moon should shine upon and distort the countenance. During one of these oppressive nights, we heard hysterical screams in the single women's compartment, and cries arose that several were fainting. The medical officer, who was ever on the alert, immediately visited them, and found that the cause of this up- roar was, that one of the young women thought she had seen the apparition of a Mrs. Wilder, who died, during the pas- sage, in the hospital, which was badly placed, on account of the schoolroom, and its contiguity, in the event of any in- fectious disease, so near the rest of the single women. It appeared some foohsh old woman, who ought to have been wiser, had been telling a number of Irish ghost stories, which had wrought so on the imagination of these young persons, as FUNERAL AT SEA. 47 almost to throw them into convulsions. This caused a good deal of confusion and disturbance, which was not repeated. How- ever, no one hereafter could be induced to remain in the hospital alone, as the spirit of the departed one, " who died in the true faith/' was said to have been seen in a white sheet, to walk in and out of the hospital by the stem cabin-window. Dr. Johnson said, no one believed in ghosts, but all were afraid of them. This case was an exception to the great sage's apophthegm, since all these people both believed in and feared them. A funeral at sea is an affecting sight ; to see the poor body sent to corruption, there to lie until the ocean is commanded to give up its dead. AU are collected at the gang- way, and the body being placed on a board, is covered over with a flag ; a splash is heard, and the departed is hid from human eyes for ever. The burial of the dead, with the impressive church service, is ever an im- posing oflSce, but the mysteries of life and death are more powerfully forced upon the mind, when the funeral takes place at sea. 48 ISLANDS OF ST. PAUL Captain D. mentioned to the writer, that on one occasion, in a vessel, in which he was an officer, " The Pahnyra," a melan' choly catastrophe occurred : a death having taken place among the troops, many were anxious to witness what they had never be- held before — a ftmeral at sea, and in order to obtain a sight of it, seventeen climbed out on the fore-boom-yard, which broke with their weight, and all were precipitated into the water. Providentially, the ship had been hove- to for the burial, and only two were drowned, otherwise many more must have been lost. The last land we had seen, was one of the Cape de Verde Islands ; so, after sailing nine thousand miles, it was refreshing to see the Islaad of St. Paul, latitude 38° 18' S. 78° 53' E. ; being as it were our first landmark to Australia. It is of volcanic origin, and frequently visited by whaling-vessels ; we believe there are seven or eight Frenchmen, who have taken up their abode in these desolate regions, for the purpose of catch- ing seals and dealing with whalers, the crews of which are glad to obtain vegetables AND . AMSTERDAM. 4 9 and fresh meat from this little community. — There is another barren island not far from St. Paul's, called Amsterd^,m, which is iminhabited. We can hardly conceive how the lively and pleasure-loving character of the French mind has been able to exist in such soUtude and in such an inclement tem- perature. To leave elegant and gay Paris, to make, not a fortune, but barely a sub- sistence, — amid icebergs and storms ! But what will a man not do for a livelihood ? 50 MOUNT WARNINO, CHAPTEE V. MOUNT WARNING — FIBST SIGHT OP AUSTRALIA— GLASS- HOUSE MOUNTAINS — MORETON ISLAND — FINDER'S BOCKS — MUD ISLAND AND ST. HELENA — PILOT CAME ON BOARD — THE TWO NATIVE BOATMEN — THE HEALTH OFFICER — VISIT TO THE ISLAND — NATIVE CAMP OF FIFTY — THE ECLIPSE — FISHING — TAMING PORPOISES — DLAJIONDS, PEARLS — ^NATIVES ABOUT TO MEET FOR WAR. After having been one hundred and sixteen days at sea we sighted Mount Warning, a large conical-shaped mount on the east coast of Australia, which may be seen sixty miles off. With what eager eyes and with what anxious hopes did we gaze upon this new home, at least that which it was to become to many ! It was delightful to feel that, after a weari- some voyage, we were soon, at least in a few days, to stand once more on terra firma. GLASS-HOUSE MOUNTAINS. 61 On the third day we had in view Moreton Island and the Glass-house Mountains — three or four conspicuous eminences, deriving their name from the appearance of being vitri- fied. It was evening when we approached the port of our destination, and the con- sequence was that the commander mistook these prominent mark for sandhills ; so in the morning we found ourselves off Sandy Cape, a promontory a considerable distance to the northward of our haven. We were, therefore, obliged to return. When about doing so, down came a great puff, strong enough to blow the masts out of the ship. Above this promontory the coast of Australia is very dangerous, there being long coral reefs. Shortly before our arrival the '' Thomas King,'' commanded by Captain Walker, was wrecked on one of these reefs. The doctor, chief mate, and two sailors, were mas- sacred by the natives. The captain con- trived to escape by concealing himself in a mai-sh, and there remained for fourteen hours or more, and finally wandered, until he arrived at Brisbane, partly guided by D 2 52 MORETON ISLAND. some friendly blacks, exhausted with hunger and fatigue, and so debilitated as to be at times delirious. The natives as you ap- proach the Torres Straits become more war- like and cruel, partaking of the character of the Malay. Twelve months before, this same captain had been burned out of his ship. Our Surgeon-superintendent returned to England with him from Sydney, we hope with no catastrophe to be added to the cata- logue of the captain's misfortunes. We saw at a distance the curling smoke of several fires rise one after another along the heights — ^perhaps a signal that another vessel was off the dangerous coast, or perhaps the na- tives cooking a kangaroo or opossum. The first appearance of the coast does not present any very encouraging anticipations of the country — sandy, scrub-covered land — dark, stunted, almost leafless trees — everything having the appearance of thirsting for mois- ture and water. We anchored off Moreton Island on Sun- day morning, the 4th of July, having sailed from Plymouth on the 5th of March, making MtJD ISLAND. 53 a passage neither remarkable for its length nor quickness, but particularly stormy ; gale followed upon gale of wind — ^reefing, reefing, — ^we were always reefing. The Captain, whom we were now glad to leave, declared he had not had such a succession of bois- terous stormy weather for the last six or seven years as he had experienced during our passage. Some bold ledges of rocks stand detached far from the land, called Finder's Eocks, which may be seen at least three miles off, the sea dashing against and over them. When within the entrance into Moreton Bay, which is always made by large ships at the north end of Moreton Island, two other isles opened out upon tis. Mud Island and St. Helena. The latter bears no resemblance whatever to its more celebrated namesake, being flat and wooded. It is frequented by flying foxes, a large description of bat, eaten by the blacks, for what, in fact, will they not eat ? There we interred a poor emigrant and her infant child, who died just as she had completed her voyage, leaving a husband the guardian of ten surviving children — a heavy 54 Tu/yr on board. charge and drawback to this poor man, who was a peaceable, well-conducted Irishmau. The bay is at the mouth of the river, very shallow, even for boats. With the pilot came on board two blacks, grotesquely dressed, with feathers stuck in their hair, and a blanket thrown roimd one. The immigrants looked at them with won- dering curiosity. Many of them had never seen a black man before. The natives cer- tainly took it aU in very good part, and §eemed amused at the astonishment mani- fested by these new-comers. One could speak Enghsh pretty well, and was very communicative. They make excellent oars- men; and the pilot, Mr. Watson, declared he would as soon have them as white men ; they not only make good boatmen, but are exceedingly fond of the employment. We were aU anxiously looking out for the visit of the health-officer, in order that we might get on shore as soon as possible. He arrived late on Monday evening in the Cus- tom-house boat. With him the writer re- turned, having a clean biU of health, which. THE NATIVE BOATMEl!^. 55 thanks to Providence, we were enabled to present, having had Kttle or no sickness of any important or malignant nature since our departure out of port. The Surgeon and I, being anxious to see something of the tribe which inhabited Moreton Island, went on shore, and paid a visit to the aborigines, who were encamped close to the back of the pilot s house, a pretty white wood building, standing on a barren sandy soil. As he landed, out came black fellows, stark naked, with lighted sticks in their hands, to assist us in drawing the boat on the beach. They seemed to rise up suddenly out of the ground, and from aU sides, as it were by magic-so unexpectedly did they come down upon us. A fine young feUow begged for tobacco, of which they are passionately fond, and readily obtained some. They had harpooned a turtle, which was purchased by the crew. Now and again turtle are caught on the coast here, but by no means in abundance. After paying the pilot's wife a visit, who complained to the writer of her fears and 56 VISIT TO THE ISLAND. soKtude, some half-dozen or more of us pro- ceeded through the native camp, introduced by our friend Mr. Watson, who exercises great influence over them. We had seen bushmen of Africa, but had only read of New Hollanders in the study, and Prichard's Natural History of Man had given us some faint idea of how low they ranked in the scale of humanity ; but what we saw sur- passed anything that either experience or theory had before given us any idea of, con- cerning these specimens of mankind. It happened to be a cold blowing day, i. e., cold for Moreton Bay. They sat round a fire in groups or families, of five, eight or ten, without any covering at all, male or female, looking most simial. One old de- crepid woman, crippled by rheumatism, was beating, between two smooth stones, some roots, which had been collected during the day, and had the taste of potatoes, with the colour of chocolate. The only houses they had werea few branches of trees stuck into the ground, about five feet high; beneath which they sat, with^the fire in the centre NATIVE CAMP. 57 jabbering and begging tobacco from ns. This was the only protection they had from the weather. The commimity is very low in civilization, and numerically about fifty strong. They were preparing to go to war about " a gin," or woman who had been abducted from their tribe— a battle which the writer will speak of hereafter. The pilot stated that he was never alarmed, although alone among them, but on one oc- casion. He heard them howling and yelling most pitiably one night, aad in such a manner as he had never heard before. He tried to get some information from one who acted in the kitchen, about the cause of these dreadfol cries. He loaded his gun, ex- pecting nothing more or less, than to be at- tacked by them. At last he persuaded the servant to disclose the reason. She stated that the last time there was an eclipse some great chief had died, aad the one which had occurred that night was no doubt caused by a like event — some great chief had expired, and lamenting this disaster, was the cause of the uproar which had D 3 ¥ 58 FISHING. alaxmed him. This explanation dispelled his fears. He had an eagle chamed close to his door which he had wounded and pre- served, not having so much injured the bird as to cause its death; it was a pretty spe- cimen, but yoimg and small. After looking at some pearls and other gems, the produc- tion of Australian oysters and mines, we returned to our good ship the " Maria Soames," much interested in what we had seen. The Surgeon, we believe, purchased the root of a cypress pine, which makes very pretty fancy ware, such as you may see on the pantiles at that deUghtftd fashionable resort, Timbridge Wells. From the vessel we saw them fishing • along the coast. They watch the porpoises and keep a little ahead of them. The por- poises drive the mullet in towards the shore, and the black fellow rushes in with his wooden and jagged speax poised in the air, which he hurls from him with surprising force and accuracy. You see him dash after his spear, and at the end of it transfixed, you perceive the quivering fish. He seldom or TAMING PORPOISES. 59 ever misses his aim, and thus you may observe him, if he is a very expert sportsman, with a spear in each hand, carrying as it were, his double barrelled manton. These fellows are first-rate swimmers, in this respect al- most equal to the fish themselves. The roe of the mullet dried and salted is a very nice rehsh for breakfast. We were told they tame these porpoises and always feed them, as they look upon them entitled to a share of the sport which they had been instrumental in causing. Whether this is really the fact or not, the writer does not profess to avouch. Certainly they never injure or destroy them ; and it is quite possible, since we know that the finny race can be tamed, as the tench in the tanks in India are by the Brahmins, and sometimes trout have become sufficiently familiar to eat out of the human hand. A very fine fish, not unlike the cod in firmness and colour, is taken off* this island, called the snapper — a fish with a huge long head, and weighing thirty or forty pounds. The natives could be seen on the follow- 60 PBEPAKATIOITS FOB WAB. ing day, hastening on to the rendezvous 2ere L battle L to be fought for this sable Helen, a contest which the writer was close to in his progress up the country. These natives, although of extremely indolent habits, will walk great distances at a time and with incredible celerity, always stopping at sun-down, and carrying with them a lighted stick. Each goes armed with a long wooden spear, a boomerang, and a waddy, or thick club, not unlike a constable's stajff. BRISBANE RIVER. 61 CHAPTEE VI. THE BRISBANE RIVER — THE VISIT TO THE SHIP WITH *' EMI- GRATION board" — ^LEAVE BRISBANE AT HALF-PAST TWO, A. M. — ^THE COURSE ADOPTED BY EMIGRATION OFFICERS — CAPT. WICKHAM — ^THE DEPOT — ^THE APPEARANCE OF THE TOWNS OF NORTH AND SOUTH BRISBANE — ^THE HIRING OP THE IMMIGRANTS — THEIR EXTRAVAGANT DEMANDS — DISLIKE OF THE BUSH — ^THE SQUATTERS. The vessel was anchored at least fourteen miles from the town, and four from the mouth of the river; the row or sail up^J is very pretty. The small islands with which the river is stadded at its en- trance, covered over with verdure and lofty trees of the gum kind, or genus Euca- lyptus, the low and graceful mimosa, and harsh-looking iron bark and blood wood tree, with here and there parasitical plants, all lend their aid, and contribute to give a ^ /\.A^^r\. 62 BRISBANE RIVER. very picturesque appearance to the whole; the banks to the very water's edge are covered with fine timber ; the sides of the river, in some parts, are abrupt and preci- pitous, at others, descending in a gentle slope. Several districts have been cleared, and you may see occasionally a settler's garden, yellow with Indian com, among which is to be heard the discordant, note of the white cockatoo, or the provoking laugh of the bird called the laughing jackass, whip bird, and blue pigeon; with allotments marked out for sale or building upon. Above your head you may see swans, pelicans, but more frequently and commonly the large winged, brown-coloured fish hawk, hovering over his prey, and gracefully with motion- less wing, sweeping through the air, until he poises to make his pounce upon the victim. The river abounds with fish of difierent descriptions, aU of course salt-water fish, since the Brisbane is a salt-water river. You may see the porpoise far off rolling and gamboling about, at his ease and in security. That horrid monster, the shark, tempted by BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. 63 the refuse which is brought down from the boiling-down establishments, goes far up the river, and renders it dangerous to bathe. One black fellow lost a limb from the bite of one of them, and may be seen limping about the town. The scenery is really very strikingly beau- tiftil ; such as Turner and Gainsborough would paint, and such as they alone, or any of Nature's best painters, would do justice to. First impressions are said to predispose much in favour or against persons and things ; the former was the effect of our first view of Australia, and what our subsequent expe- rience has confirmed. The river, at its entrance, has not sufficient depth of water, and the consequence is, that the schooners and steamers which ply between Moreton Bay and Sydney are constantly delayed in their passage to and fro. But when the settlement becomes more advanced, the dredging-machine will be set to work, and remedy this hindrance to regular commu- nication. We visited the vessel for the last time with 64 VISIT TO THE SHIP the Emigration Board, the object of which was to inquire from each immigrant whether they had been treated properly, and whether they had any complaints to make concermng any- thing which had happened during the voyage. The Board consisted of two jus- tices of the peace, and the emigration clerk ; certain particulars were registered of each person, his age, religion, the extent of his knowledge, his trade, &c. This investigation by the Board we think is a very proper course to pursue ; it protects the emigrant against maltreatment, and gives him aa opportunity of redress if he has any grievance. However, one and all ex- pressed themselves fully satisfied with the treatment they had received during their voyage. If there had been any Kttle contra- diction between one and another, they were now, as they ought always to be, forgotten and forgiven at the close of the voyage ; for the differences which took place were not more important or greater than will occur between two friends doubled up in quarters on a march. Certainly not so grievous as OF EMIGBATIOK BOABD. 65 we are told sometimes happen among young " griffins/' and old " nabobs" on their route to India. We and the officials, together with the Eoman Catholic priest, on account of the tide, started for the ship at two o'clock in the morning in the custom-house boat, with a Mr. Duncan, an intelligent Scotchman, the collector of customs, who was to act as pre- sident of the Board, owing to the absence of Captain Wickham at Sydney, who returned with new honours ; hitherto called the sti- pendiary magistrate, henceforth the govern- ment resident. We should have been sorry to have missed this excursion. The morning was ha^. with a light mist hanging over the river, and the grass just crisp with hoar- frost. In repassing the river which we had previously sailed up, at a distance from its mouth, through the mist which was just clearing away, as the sun appeared above the horizon, having tinged the sky with rosy hues — ^the reason why old Homer calls it " rosy-fingered mom " — ^we saw several pe- Uoans resting upon one leg, upon an island 66 PLUMAGE OF THE BIRDS. eaUed PeUcan's Island, as being the pla<;e of their general resort. All had milk-white plu- mage, with large pouches hanging down : as we approached, away they soared. To the writer the sight was novel, picturesque and pleasing. The plumage of the birds here is very beautiful, and their notes, save that of the turtle, anything but melodious. If Nature has clothed them with colours which attract the eye, she has not poured out upon them the riches of her harmony. As we kept shortening the distance to- wards the vessel, we could not help, and who can help, having an interest, nay, even a feeling towards the ship, which has carried him so many, many thousand miles through storm and sunshine. There she lay before us resting herself after her long journey — reposing after the ceaseless motion of up- wards of four months — looking weary and battered. The " Maria Soames'' was a strong, old-fashioned ship, built by the late wealthy owner of that name, and named in honour of his widow, and as such was a favourite vessel, on which particular care had been bestowed. DEPOT AT BRISBANE. 67 The American, " Eichard Cobden/' was nearly extinguishing her at Gravesend. Perhaps the Messrs. Soames' were Protectionists. After the Government Board had finished its duties, the emigrants were at liberty to go on shore as soon as arrangements conld be mpde for landing them. The wife of the medical officer, Mr. Swift, had kindly as- sented to the writer's wish, that she should receive, with other ladies whom she might get to join her in the good office, the female single women at the depot; acting as a kind of responsive committee to that of the ladies in England, to give them advice and encouragement, which reception is a kind of protection, and certainly is a comfort to young persons far from home and friends in a new and distant country. And all this she most obligingly executed. The building used as a depot at Brisbane is the old barracks, a good substantial edi- fice, which was used as such while Moreton Bay was exclusively a penal settlement. The immigrants remain here until they are hired; of course, they are expected to 68 EXTRAVAGANT DEMANDS take a fair and reasonable offer of employ- ment, or else they must find quarters and rations for themselves. There are not many buildings of an imposing character at pre- sent. The towns of North and South Bris- bane are placed on the banks of the river, on a very pretty park-like looking plain. It reminded one of Blackheath, at least it did the writer. There is opposite to the jail a school of arts, which my friend, Mr. Ihincan, was chiefly instrumental in getting bmlt, and of which he is the worthy president. Lectures are delivered in it on various lite- rary and scientific subjects. The writer, at the request of the members, gave a lecture on the all-interesting question in the colony — on Immigration. The new-comers had formed a very ridiculous estimate of the value of their la- bour ; prompted by old hands, they asked the most extravagant rate of wages ; as if it was quite impossible to render the price of the labour-market so ruinously high as to make it suicidal in the employer to purchase it. It is a great pity that there should always OF THE IMMIGRANTS. 69 be such a competition between the employed and employer— one trying to obtain, by an undue pressure, labour for less than a remu- nerating equivalent, and the labourer, on the other hand, striving to exact much more than the employer can give without con- suming his capital, by taking advantage of the employer's necessity and wants. This hostility engenders a bad feeling between master and man. We asked a boy of seven- teen or eighteen what his engagement was for ? To make himself generally usefiil, was his reply. "What wages will you get?*' "Only," says he, "twenty pounds a-year, with rations.'' " Only !" we said ; " why you would not get sixpence a-day in Ire- land." He was the son of the widow whose elder boy had stolen the money, of which we have abeady spoken. Not only do they ask the most prepos- terous rate of wages, but undertake what they are profoundly ignorant of, with the same fecility and readiness which the witty Sydney Smith ascribed to Lord John Kussell, who he said would perform an operation for the 70 UNFITNESS OF THE IMMIGRANTS. stone, or assume the command of the channel fleet; and you would not perceive by his deportment that the patient had died, or the fleet had been captured, under his hands. This unfitness the residents complained of loudly, and really most justly. One Irish girl had engaged herself as a general house servant, to cook and wash being her prin- cipal occupations. She had not the slightest idea of either. Where she had hved we know not; but she barely knew how to boil potatoes, and could not read the clock. The bread she made might have been used to bombard Gibraltar, for harder could not have been compounded for can- non-balls. She dressed one day a fowl, which appeared as if it had expired by some horrid torture, or else had been at- tacked by convulsions of the most malig- nant kind, and died in a state of rigid collapse, its legs and wings sticking out in all directions : yet this young woman was hired at the rate of sixteen pounds per annum. The writer had also a specimen of her talents as a washerwoman, which were AVERSION TO THE BUSH. 71 not more brilliant than her accomplishments afi a culinary artiste. They aU have a great aversion to going up the country into the bush, and this they often individually expressed during the voy- age. One poor girl, who appeared to be- long to a more respectable class than the emigrants ordiuarily come from, wept bit- terly at the idea of having engaged to go into the interior. Subsequently the writer heard that she was married to a thriving well-conducted man. This reminds us of a case which occurred with another female. A settler, of sober age, heard that an emigrant ship had come into Moreton Bay; and, being well to do, like a sensible man he determined to have an helpmate to sweeten his success. He, therefore, came down with three hundred pounds to show his substantial wealth, with the ftill detemunation to return with " a cara sposa." He selected one of good per- sonal appearance, a fine healthy young woman, among the best-conducted in the ship, and offered her his hand and heart and 72 " MARRIAGE DE CONVENANCE. 1* all his store. She very prudently, not pru- dishly, requested a fortnight's consideration, to ascertain something about his habits and character. It was so completely a "mar- riage de convenance," that passion had not blinded judgment; the love was not suffi- ciently impulsive. To this he made no ob- jection, though he urged less delay. He went across the river to North Brisbane, and related his success to the landlady of his hotel, ac- companied with regrets that it could not be done at once, as he wished to get home. She replied, he need not fret about it at all, for she knew two young girls, one of whom she was certain would suit him very weU. He had only to go and smarten him- self up, and get a new suit of clothes, and he was tidy enough for any young woman in the colony. Taking her advice, he met these candidates, though, to the honour of the sex, it must be added they were quite ignorant of the cause to which their invitation to supper was to be attributed. He made a selection at once not being in the perplexity in which the late Sir Eobert Peel found himself, even THE SQUATTERS. ' 73 after having consulted Hansard — ^thc not being prepared to say wliich of two courses he should adopt. Onr emigrant lost a for- tune and a husband. However, she subse- quently married a boatman — ^an union not so much approved of by her family as would have been the one with the rich old bachelor. The squatters came down from the in- terior, some upwards of two hundred miles, to hire servants, shepherds, and labourers. This gave me first the idea of how little distance is thought of in the bush. They were weU-dressed gentlemanly young feUows, of good family in many instances, some old Etonians and college men, who had come out here to better their fortunes. They were all booted and spurred, with cabbage- tree hats and light-coloured clothes, although this was the depth of the winter. We can- not say much for the condition of the horses which had brought them such great dis- tances ; only grass-fed, with perhaps at some public-house or station an occasional feed of Indian corn, the cultivation of which Cobbett pressed so much upon the farmers E 74 THE SQUATTERS. at home. A horse, after he has borne you say forty or fifty miles, only has his saddle and bridle taken off him ; then he is hobbled, and turned into the bush to graze till he is wanted the next day or two, as the rider may feel disposed to stay at the station or not, — and if he is able to find him. MEETING AT MORETOX BAY, 75 CHAPTEE VII. PUBLIC MEETING AT MORETON BAY — PENAL LABOUR — EARL GREY — PARTIES TO THE QUESTION — THE RELIGIOUS — ^THE SQUATTERS — THE LABOURERS* PARTY — CHINESE — COOLIES — EURASIAN LABOUR — PETITIONS TO LORD GREY FROM MORETON BAY, WIDE BAY, AND BURNET RIVER — WESTERN AUSTRALIA — THE ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM — TRANSPORTATION GENERALLY VIEWED. A MEETING was held at Moreton Bay to petition for the separation of that district from Sydney, and to have a self-governing body, under the 13 and 14 Vic, c. 59. And the address, passed at that meeting, to Earl Grey, the late Secretary for the Colonies, contained a request that convict or exile labourers should be sent to Moreton Bay. The dearth of labour was so great, and the rate of wages so high, that the interests of the squatters were becoming seri- ously damaged. This clause, advocating the advantage to £ 2 76 PENAL LABOUR — that district of the introduction of penal labour, was regarded by some as a premium oflfered to Government to obtain separate government and a local council. The reply made by Lord Grey was favourable to the wishes of the inhabitants, reserving for the coimcil to decide, whether or no, criminal labour should be introduced ; hereby showing that Earl Grey was desirous of meeting the wishes of the colonists, much as he has been misrepresented by an opposite statement. What interest could he possibly have to propose any measures inimical to the welfare and prosperity of the colonies? Under his administration Australia is indebted for a liberal and free constitution; the greatest extent of freedom has been conceded, con- sistent with imperial interests. There are three parties with different objects, who view the question of the in- troduction of convict labour with the pre- judices which belong to their own exclusive views. One party, the rehgious party, objects to the introduction of convicts upon moral OBJECTIONS URGED. 77 grounds, as bringing upon the colony a wide-spreading pestilence, by letting loose upon it aU the abandoned characters of the home population. The fashionable swindler, garotte robber, pickpocket, and murderer, all poured out upon a small population, even after each has undergone a probationary process of reforming discipline, are not elements likely to improve society. The ground on which this party rests its objec tion, all admit is of the most incontro- vertible kind. The arguments they advance are of the highest quality, they are " not to do evil that good may come ;" they allege that the people of God are to separate them- selves from evil persons, without any com- promise between principle and utility. They also look to the disastrous consequences to their family ; " evil communications corrupt good manners ;" and it is not desirable that the young should be exposed to contamina- tion, by intercourse with the felons of the mother country. While all these arguments and objections, which this party put forth, have in themselves undeniable weight, one 78 RELIGIOUS VIEW important element of a punitive code is overlooked, viz., the redemption of the criminal from his evil course, and his moral reformation. While upon the same groimds on which they base their resistance of the introduction of exiles into their community, they admit the desirableness of the sinner*s conversion ; the oflfender is " to cease to do evil and to learn to do well ;' but they do not wish to see their particular society, the arena upon which the maxim is to be carried out. A splendid rising colony like Aus- tralia is not, they consider, the place where convicts should be sent to. With a redun- dant population at home, say they, let the honest and indigent labourers be trans- ferred, who, while they benefit, will not by vicious habits, deteriorate and demorahze the community they come to augment. This is the position taken by the religious party, who consider this the higher obh- gation to be considered, and to stand at the very threshold of the question, aU other points being inferior and morally subser- vient. We think, especially in that district OF THE QUESTION. 79 of which we are now treating, this opinion against the introduction of penal labour, is not the expression of the wealthy and ex- alted. The men of property do not like to depend on free immigration, which is irre- gular, over-priced and migratory. To supply this very serious dearth in the labour market, several squatters were com- pelled, at their own cost, to introduce Chinamen, the very worst description of hands any employer can supply himself with. Vindictive, vicious, and passionate — they have found out now, how injurious was the acceptance of the alternative into which they were driven. Yet bad as this alternative was, it was better than the utter destruction of aU they possessed. If you saw your property disappearing before you, as snow melted by the noon-day sim, any- thing that offered itself for its preservation, or its protracted destruction, you would gladly avail yourself of. Of two evils choose neither, if you can help yourself, but if you are compelled, choose the least. Mr. Gibbon Wakefield has advocated the introduction 80 CHINESE— COOLIES. of the Chinese ; but he is writing without experience. They are very troublesome, and have introduced with them abominable vices. Imprisonment to these people is no punishment, accustomed as they have been in China to filth, want, and perse- cution. r Coolies fi'om India would have been more extensively introduced, had the Indian go- vernment permitted it. Such as have been got, about two hundred, have given satisfac- tion. They have been very well approved of at the Mauritius, where the writer was a Special Justice, under the Apprenticeship Act. They are patient, diligent, and provident. A boon is conferred on them by removing them from India, where they are suffering much from a crowded population. They are only adapted to predial labour. Mr. Wentworth has introduced a measure for the introduc- tion of a limited number, and under certain Governmental regulations, mutual advantage will be the result. With this " surveillance" the horrors of the slave trade cannot be re- newed. Sufficient room will be appointed EURASIAN LABOUR. 81 them in the ship, proper food and clothing, with a fair proportion of the other sex. Moreton Bay, if ever it becomes a cotton or a cane-producing district, must be culti- vated by labour from Asia. It is a country capable of yielding either ; but the cultiva- tion of each, is in cHmates unadapted to Europeans, who cannot bear, during the day, exposure to a burning sun. If, therefore, this fine district of Australia is to have justice done to it, it must be by the intro- duction of this class, both because their con- stitutions are fitted for tropical heat, and the wages they will accept are such as wiU enable the cotton-grower to produce it at a remunerating price. Eurasian labour has been mooted as likely to prove useful ; that is, the children of Europeans by native Indian women. Many are of opinion, and the writer is one of them, that it is not at aU desirable to bring this into the labour-market of Australia. A race with the indolence and vices of Asia, and with European constitu- tions. The feeling against this proposition E 3 82 OBJECTIONS TO is almost xmiversal among the influential employers. The squatters are charged with wishing for convict labour from self-interested mo- tives, careless of the moral condition of the colony ; as what they want to do is to make a fortune, and to return home as soon as possible, and that the cheaper they can ob- tain hands the quicker wiU this end be ac- complished. Self-interest may form one of their motives, but it does not constitute them all. Moreover, new associations are formed by young men in the colony which attach them to it, and cause them to remain altogether, or else to stay so long that they return again, even after they have revisited the mother-country. It is not alone because they want cheap la- bour that they advocate the introduction of convicts, but also because they require efficient labour, which the immigrants do not bring into the market. Paupers are not the best materials for the squatters — men who have lost their self-independence, indolent, dirty, and listless, debilitated by want and poverty, PAUPER LABOUR. 83 and dissipation its parent. The healthy and athletic labourer — ^the steady, sober man in a parish — can command a market. Upon this ground it was that Earl Grey trans- ported exiles to Australia. A compensation for the introduction of the physical deficiency of the immigrant ; taking care that honest persons, at any rate not convicted of crime, should balance the defect of moral rectitude introduced by the convicts. The view which his Lordship took of the question was sound and statesman-like, however much upon this point he has been misrepresented, both in and out of the colony. Doubtless, the press, taking an utilitarian view of the matter, would prefer sending out all the refuse and sweepings of society, and all that were in any way chargeable on the industry of the country; but the squatter, who also takes his own utmtarian view, would rather not have them, to the utter exclusion of the felons. In some districts of Australia, More- ton Bay, Wide Bay, Burnet River, and Western Australia, the introduction of penal labour at present would be beneficial to the 84 PETITIONS TO LORD GREY settlers there located. And in all these places no gold-fields had been discovered when the writer left the colony. The im- migrants from these districts are, there- fore, attracted by the southern gold-fields, leaving as soon as possible their difierent employers " to have a try of their luck" in the diggings. The settlers in those quarters petitioned Earl <3rrey for exiles. Sir Charles Fitzroy, in a despatch bearing date April 30th, 1850, thus addresses the Colonial Secretary : — " One of these petitions is signed by many 'stock- holders and employers of labour in the dis- trict of the Darling Downs.' . . . The other is from the ' stockholders and employers of labour,' who have signed it (the petition), in the districts of Moreton Bay, Wide Bay, and Burnet River. The first of these two pe- titions was sent to His Excellency imme- diately before the receipt of your Lordship's despatches announcing that * no more con- victs should be sent to this colony.'" A despatch bearing date July 17th, 1850, was forwarded by the governor of Western FROM MORETON BAY. 85 Australia to the same eflfect. To a new colony, convict labour is in its infancy most important. With convict labour, roads, wharves, public buildings, bridges, &c., are erected, whUe the colonist is compelled to employ his own resources in cultivating the ground to supply his own personal wants. In colonies, or in the parts of this extensive colony, where society has arrived at a certain maturity, the introduction of penal labour is not desirable, neither is it required, and by the settlers justly and wisely resisted. But we conceive that the question does not turn alone upon whether it is advan- tageous to a new colony, but also includes another very important feature — ^What is it to the criminal ? as well also as what is to be done with the criminal population of Eng- land ? To the latter, the Australian answers you at once, that it is not the problem which he is called upon to solve. Send them where you like, but not here. It was once a colony for felons, it is not so now, neither shall it continue so. In the earlier days of transportation, the convicts openly declared 86 ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM. it was not intended for free immigrants, and that the class of those who came out, and to whom they (the convicts) were assigned, were little better than the felons themselves ; and we conceive that in character the exile from home now is of a better cast than for- merly. So much attention has been directed by government to improve prison discipline, so much of the thoughts of philanthropists have been bestowed upon the reformation of criminals, that certainly a great moral im- provement has been the result in the moral qualities of the convict, very different when he is landed now, in disposition, to what he would have been if disembarked in the earliest days of transportation. The Jig^nent l^u. was a. evU in itself The masters to whom the convicts were assigned, were exigent and cruel. A man was the bearer himself to a magistrate (a brother settler), for the infliction of fifty or a hundred stripes for a trifling offence or omission of duty, more cruel and oppressive than slavery. ''Man is naturally cruel to his own species," is a remark of the chaplain ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM. 87 of Pentonville model prison, and his obserra- tion is fully borne out by the history of New South Wales when it was first a penal settlement. Severity was the instrument used in colonial practice to coerce the felolis. The law of kindness was never tried, as it is now, to improve the offenders ; that law which is much more effective than the law of terror, as experience has proved. Emi- nently successful has Dr. Browning been in proving the efficacy of kindness over pri- soners, and for which he has received the thanks and testimony of Sir Geo. Arthur and Sir Wm. Denisdn. Eeference to the " first fleeters " and to those subsequently sent out, for arguments or objections against the intro- duction of the present convicts, is to build upon false premises. The three probatio- nary stages which the prisoners have to pass through now, constitute a discipline so whole- some and so severe, that if they do not effect the work of reformation in them, they are justly termed and sent out as " incorrigibles ;" eighteen months as the extreme punishment which the human mind can bear in soKtary 88 GENERAL VIEW confinement, the period of associated labour, and eventually transportation under a ticket of leave, do, we are informed by persons capable by experience of forming an opinion, produce a moral reformation in the pri- soner ; if not always complete and entire, still such a social change, if not a spiritual one, as to render him hereafter an useful and diligent member of the community into which he is sent. When we consider that three thousand are ** annis communibus " transported, after hav- ing undergone this reformatory process, we may, after the testimony of Sir W. Denison, believe that the treatment of crime, as re- spects the class dangerous to society, is suc- cessful in its results. If these men, mani- festing an improvement in their moral being, are to be excluded from all opportunity of leading a new life in new scenes, are we acting by their exclusion as a Christian people? These unhappy beings although felons, are men. To return them again upon the world is almost certainly to send them back to their old habits ; as Sir James Graham OF TRANSPORTATION. 89 remarks in his letters to the Commissioners of PentonviUe, ] 842, with reference especially to the disposal of this unhappy class : "If you throw the convict back on society," he says, " he would still be branded as a criminal." . . . ^' His degradation and his * wants would soon obliterate the good im- pressions he might have received, and by the force of circumstances which he could not control, he would be drawn again into his former habits ; he would rejoin his old com- panions and renew his career of crime." Whereas if he is sent out of England he has an opportunity of recovering himself. He is not at any rate the same object of sus- picion and distrust in his new sphere of action that he would be in the old one. The Government will act most wisely by continuing the present system of transporta- tion to some colony, or some part or parts of Australia. Dr. Lang, who seems only to* feel himself acting rightly when he is op- posing constituted authority and abusing Lord Grey, has, in a letter published in the " Sydney Empire," admitted, since his late 90 GENERAL VIEW visit to England, that it is necessary, he be- lieves, that some place should be found whereto to transport convicts, amounting to three or four thousand per annum. He points to the Falkland Islands. Why not New Caledonia, Port Curtis on the eastern coast of Australia, Moreton Bay, and those other districts where convicts have been asked for by the inhabitants ? Doubtless all colo- nies will reject the introduction of felons as they become independent of their labour. The writer does not intend the reader for a moment to suppose that he has any morbid sympathy or preference towards prisoners over free immigrants. He only reflects on the question as he finds it ; and as it is a question which now occupies strongly the public mind, and one which is of important and paramoxmt moment. The objects of punishment are for the sake of example, for 'the removal of evil-disposed persons from the opportunity of injuring society, and for the reformation of the culprit, This is laid down by Blackstone as the end which the law has in view when inflicting OF TRANSPORTATION. 91 penalties. Eetaliation forms no part of the system. If convicts were employed at home, they would interfere with the labour of honest persons ; the competition would be nnfair towards them ; and it is upon this ground that the working-man in Australia, objects to the introduction of exiles. The depre- ciation of the market is the loss he has to bear, in addition to his having these per- sons as his companions and feUow-labourers in the bush. And while it is gratifying to read such accoimts as those published by Dr. Browning, in his book, intituled " England's Exiles," of the ejffect of power- ful, earnest, prayerful exertions, which few could equal, and we believe no one could surpass, upon the convicts under his charge, as well as the opinions of the various chap- lains to gaols, yet it must be admitted that traces of the early character of the persons introduced into the colony may still be foimd in the profane and awfiil language of the classes in New South Wales, and the dreadful and terrible extent to wliich drunk- 92 GENERAL VIEW enness prevails. The following is an extract made from the letter of a convict from Pen- tonville Prison : — " I am happy to say that many seem to have profited by their late afflictions, and to live an honest and upright life. But, on the other hand, I am sorry to say that some appear to be almost past re- covery, and to have forgotten all the good resolutions, and the many solemn promises made while in their solitary cell." We give this extract to show that we do not take an exaggerated view either way, of the permanent result of penal discipline on the one hand, and on the other, of the complete failure of it as a remedial process of reformation. When the royal prerogative of pardon has been granted to the convict, we think that he should be received again as one who is to be treated as if he had never offended at all. The very character of pardon, we do not speak of the commutation of sen- tence, is to replace a man where he was before he injured society ; it is to receive him back as the prodigal who has come to him- OF TRANSPORTATION. 93 self; as "the lost sheep found again," we should rejoice over him, and encourage him in well doing. This, however, is not ex- actly the spirit in which convicts are treated in New South Wales. They are not, how- ever, the' objects of suspicion there as they are at home. The class of immigrants most desirable to the colonists, in pastoral districts, are the labouring and farming people of England. Toimg persons with small families, of active and industrious habits, and handy workmen, willing to turn their talents to anything they may be called upon to perform; to become, in fact, what they agree to in their contract, — " Generally useful." Many plans have been adopted to promote the introduction of the description of labour required. It was thoughtby the Gt overnment that, owing to the discovery of gold, the territorial revenue, which is already heavily burdened, need not be expended in promoting immi- gration. His Excellency Sir C. Fitzroy yielded however to the evidence, that the 94 GENERAL VIEW suspension of bounty immigration was de- trimental to the colonial interests; and therefore, with the advice of the coimcil, 100,000/. was remitted for its resumption. 10,000/. has been voted to the Chishohn Association, upon the loan principle, on the presumption that it will work (has worked ?) well ; it is a measure which did not originate with the Government, but was sanctioned as an experiment which the colony, upon the report of an Immigration Committee, was desirous of trying. It is the opinion of persons whom the writer considers better capable of forming an opinion than himself, that it is a system which will end in dis- appointment and failure. The machinery to carry it into operation will be cumber- some and complicated. The very outset is bad in principle, to let a man b^in in debt. The writer in an interview and conver- sation with the Honourable Deas Thompson, the Colonial Secretary, was informed by him, that there is ample scope for occupation in the colony, and will be for years to come, OF TRANSPORTATION. 95 foB good and industrious persons. The stockholders and sheep owners engage with reluctance persons with a numerous family, not so much on account of the rations with which they have to provide them, but, as he stated to the writer, in consideration of the expense and inconvenience of trans- porting them to the stations up the country. Good reUgious persons are the description we want, was his expression, " ipsissimis verbis." The writer is well and practically ac- quainted with the utter destitution and wretched poverty of many of the industrial classes, either in town or country, at home. The miserable wages of a labourer in Dor- setshire, Bedfordshire, and other agricul- tural counties of England, are six, eight, and ten shillings per week, with four, six, or eight, nay, sometimes ten children to sup- port, under a rent of four or five pounds per annum for a cottage, hardly deserving sucji an appellation, rather an hovel, with a smaU garden; paying higher for his ex- ciseable articles of consumption, than the 96 LOW RATE OF AGRICULTURAL squire at the hall, who obtains them from his London tradesman, while the former buys at the petty shop of the village an inferior article at a high price, passing through the hands of so many retailers before it reaches his. If the parish would supply this suffering class with the means of advancing the sum required by the Emigration Com- missioners from each family or person, re- gulated by a scale, which may be obtained from them, it would relieve itself of a burden of squalid petitioners at the Board of Guar- dians, and they who are only now consumers without being producers of wealth, would in a new coimtry not only be both, but would also enrich by their wants, that country which those wants had tended to impoverish, and they themselves would be- come happy and well fed. In referring to our diary, one man told us that he earned in Huntingdonshire, eight shillings per week, upon which he had to support six persons in family. Upon the report of his brother from Australia, he de- termined to leave England for New South WAGES IN ENGLAND. 97 Wales. He wished to leave his parish as he had lived in it, though rough in exterior, ajid a fine specimen of an Enghsh farm- labourer, respected, and with a good name. When he had sold all he possessed — and what property has a cottager, further than an eight-day clock, a mahogany chest of drawers, and a bed with bedding ? — ^he foimd when his reckoning at the shop, the tally-man, and his rent were paid, that he had not sufficient remaining to provide himself with the outfit required, imder the emigration regulations, neither enough to meet the capitation de- posit. He obtained the necessary sums fi'om the residents of his parish, not because they were desirous of ridding themselves of an able and athletic labourer, but from the good opinion which they entertained of the man ; they assisted him in carrying out his views, for his own advantage. If an individual of this character found difficulty, although always employed, in getting together a sufficient sum of money to emigrate, how much greater must that difficulty be with indifferent work- men, and whom it is policy in the parish to 98 CREATION OF MIDDLE CLASS. relieve themselves of. The industrious la- bourer deserves encouragement, such as the man spoken of appears by his own statement to have obtained. This class of man in the colony becomes an employer himself in a few years, and will help to form that middle rank so necessary to give solidity and firmness to the social body in any state, and at present so much required in Australia. This class will rapidly increase, as small capitalists are induced by the recent discoveries of gold, to emigrate, where they are not overpowered and beat out of the market by the pressure and weight of large speculators. It will also be created by those who have accumulated by gold digging sufficient to buy an allot- ment, glad to escape the diseases and dangers which miners are exposed to. A scale of wages is annexed in the Appendix of this work, taken from statistics ordered by the Legislative Council to be printed, and laid upon the table on the 25th of July, 1852, ranging from 1837 to 1851. cooper's plains. 99 CHAPTEE Vin. cooper's plains — SHEPHERD — SHEEP — BULLOCK DRAY — NATIVE DOG — QUAIL — SETTLER — BUCKING HORSE — —CANE, COTTON, AND COFFEE — GOLD MANIA TOWARDS BINGERA — DUKE OF YORK — YUNGUN — KANGAROO HUNT — HOSPITAL. We took a ride over Cooper s Plains, which are close to Brisbane ; do not, however, figure to your mind plains such as you see at home, wide treeless spaces of open ground ; here a district is called a plain in contra- distinction to scrub, a forest with impene- trable jxmgle. Although in the middle of winter, the trees were green and covered with foliage. It is a peculiarity of the trees in Australia, that they do not shed the leaf, but the epidermis, the outer coat, peals off. The prevailiQg kinds are of the eucalypti, the white and red gum, blood wood tree, cedar, f2 100 SHEPHERD AND and iron bark; all used for building and erecting ganyas or bark huts. Suddenly we dropt on a shepherd with his flock — as suddenly and as mysteriously as the "man in the moon" did into Ayles- bury, when Calvert was imseated — ^tending fifteen himdred sheep. He was what is called a "lag," i.e., atransported felon, and a very old hand ; then free ; he had lost by ophthalmia the sight of an eye, and was lame of a leg ; notwithstanding these natural defects, he made an excellent shepherd, and had — a very rare exception to his class— saved some money. Q-enerally, even now, but not so much the case as formerly, the men come down to the nearest public house or township, and there squander away in a few days the earn- ings of a whole year ; placing the amount in the hands of the landlord, and requesting him to keep it until he has drunk it all out : of course, he does not get the whole value of what he thus deposits, and better for him that he should not. When he is told that the sum is expended, he starts again to live a life of sohtude and monotony in the bush. mS FLOCK. 101 fax away from society and its hiimaiiizing influences, provided he has not first to re- cover from an attack of " delirium tremens/' or what he calls "the horrors/' from the dreadful spectres his stimulated brain con^ jures up before his eyes. Drunkenness is one of the crying dns of New South WaJes. This shepherd of whom we spoke was an exception to the order. In coming up to him, we had passed by his bark hut, with a little verandah before it, and by the side a small kennel for his dog, his faithftd and only companion for days and weeks together ; his own house was precisely similar in form, but of larger dimensions. Conceive a house built from a pack of cards by children, and sub- stitute for them the bark of a tree, and you have his dwelling, with a trench round it, to let the water dram away when the wea- ther is rainy. This, from the extreme salu- brity of the air, is a sufficient protection from the climate ; his bed is a sheet of bark from the same tree which has afforded him the materials to raise his abode ; before him lie his flock penned in, and he holds him- 102 INJURIES CAUSED BY self ready at a moment's notice to scare away, or destroy if he caa, the " dingoe," or native dog, the squatters' great and serious enemy. Hanging up at the end of his verandah was the tail of one, which he had placed there as a trophy, similar in appearance to a fox's brush — ^the wild dog resembles him in colour and form — ^here he had placed it, just as a game-keeper nails vermin against the barn- door to let his employer see his diligence and watchfulness. In coming up to a flock, there is something very striking in the stillness all around, interrupted only by the sound of the browsing sheep, moving quietly and noiselessly along, with only one guardian to tend them, for the use of his fellow ; and to cloathe, nourish, and enrich himself by the death of this peaceful creature. The native dog " rushes " into a flock, bites and lacerates numbers, causing great loss to the master, not by what he devours, but by the number he wounds. Whether settlers will be able to extinguish this serious nuisance or not is, in our opinion, very questionable. Carcases are rubbed over with THE NATIVE DOGS. 103 strychnine, the active principle of nux vomica, and placed in different parts of the station. Numbers, doubtless, have been destroyed by this means, and so particular districts may be delivered from the plague, but not the coimtry generally. An Act has been passed in the Legislative Council for the destruction of the " dingoe." This is not the only foe the shepherd has to contend against. The scab and the catarrh mow down by hundreds his flock in the course of a few hours. His only resource is to send them off to the boiling-down establishments and convert them into tallow, instead of the fleece into cloth. One man can tend from twelve to fifteen hundred sheep, with a hutkeeper, who shifts the hurdles and cooks his meals, which con- sist of tea, mutton, and damper. In our ride over the plains we met one of our immigrants, who with his wife were on their way to the Logan, some forty miles or so distant. We came upon them about mid- day, " camped " under a gum-tree. They were Somersetshire folk, and not the brightest specimens, we should hope, of the county 104 ROUGH PIC NIC. The woman told me it was like gipsying. They had slept there the night before, and could not proceed, as the bullocks had strayed, and they had sent a black fellow to look after them. There was a chance, by no means an uncommon occurrence, of their remaining there a week. She said she thought it a strange coimtry; but still did not regret having left England. She was lying on the top of the dray, while her husband was preparing the dinner. Now we make bold to say the group might have been a subject for Grould's or Ward's pencil, or for any of our modem artists; and would not look amiss when hung up in Lord Northwick's or Lord Ward's gallery, or that of any other patron of the Fine Arts. Well, what was the group ? The bullock dray, with its fair burden — ourselves, new chums — an old lag, with our horses — the bridles passed through the stirrups— the ani- mals grazing where they would — ^an old hand making tea, and we sitting on a fallen tree, with a piece of damper and meat, the former the platter, which gradually disap- peared as the superincumbent load dimi- ROUGH PIC NIC. 105 nished, with a tin pot of tea at our feet, and some three or four dogs, of any or every breed you please — ^the tea thrown into the pot, together with a handfiil of the coarsest sugar, for travellers in the bush do not mea- sure either the one or the other, as careful housewives do in England. There is a coarse abundance of each in the colony. In the midst of our repast the " darkies " came in from their unsuccessful search after the stray oxen. One of them had had his arm shot off by a "white fellow." The aborigines have a great dread of a gun, which they call "bung-bimg." When we had finished our pic-nic, which, rough as it was, we enjoyed after a long ride, away we went to see some- thing more of the plains, learning a great deal from our guide, who had been a whipper- in to some hounds before he was ** lagged," somewhere in the neighbourhood of Whally, in Lancashire, of which, as we had some knowledge, he inquired with considerable interest, after a long absence. He had been Buccessftd at the " diggings." In our ride we flushed quail, and some bird which he p3 106 OLD « LAG." called a bustard. We came upon a herd of horses, which were turned out to take care of themselves where they pleased, until wanted and found, which it is not always easy to do in the bush just when you require your steed. Founded on our acquaintance with his county, he . became very civil and commu- nicative, and particularly warned us never to let a black fellow walk behind, if he were employed as a guide, because he is so trea- cherous, that he is very likely to knock your brains out with his waddy or club, when you feel most at your ease, and repose the utmost confidence, in him, or to cut you down sud- denly with his " tommy-hawk." He pointed out a flower of a yellow kind, something like the blossom of the horse chestnut, which before the sun is up, contains a considerable quantity of honey, sufl&cient to moisten the mouth, and to leave in it an agreeable taste, when one rises after sleeping in the bush. He had acquired great practical knowledge of the country, and had been recently em- ployed to recover the property which had be- BUCKING HOBSE. 107 longed to the Tinfortunate surgeon and mate of the ship " Thomas King," who were mur- dered by the blacks at Wide Bay. He had succeeded in obtaining from the natives a great part of it, and was well acquainted with the habits and character of the " darkies." After riding many hours, we gojb some damper and milk at a settler's, and of course, mutton. The horse we rode not having proved a bucker — ^but of the nature of " bucking," we shall speak hereafter — we were very appre- hensive of being put upon a steed accom- plished in this art, by one of the old hands, who are rather apt to play practical* jokes on " new chums." We returned at sun-down in safety to Moreton Bay, and saw some cane grown by Mr. E. Jones, the member for that district, which looked well, but not quite so weU as we have seen at the Mauritius, or in the BrazUs ; as also some cotton plants in the garden of a Dr. Hobbes, one of Mr. Lang's im- migrants, which looked very promising. The chemist of Brisbane, a Mr. Poole, has planted twenty acres, so that a pretty fair experiment will be made as to the capability of this fine 108 GOLD MANIA. and picturesque district for producing cotton. The coffee plants we saw in the garden of Dr. Hobbes, did not look healthy. It is a delicate plant, and requires care, shade, and moisture, the two last of which it had not, so that this was not a fair criterion to judge by. While sojourning at Brisbane, a report came down, that a gold field had been dis- covered at Bingera, near the Grwyder. All were immediately on the " qui vive," every body was off to make a fortune ; women and children, and empty houses were the only things visible. Several of the storekeepers started with dray loads of goods, only to re- turn losers by their hasty speculations, one proceeded about twenty or thirty miles, sold off and returned, having lost SOOL by his trip. The pedestrians started to other dig- gings, as although gold had been found at Bingera, it could not be profitably worked from the want of water. The writer addressed a black by the usual salutation used there, " Peroo, you feUow, what you name?" he replied, "Duke of York;" HUNTING PARTY. 109 and then commenced some antics and capers, as if he were at a corrobary or war dance. He was a short grey-bearded old man, and had been so called by some of the convicts, when Moreton Bay was a penal settlement; this swarthy prince was an amusing old feUow, and rather a favourite among the inhabitants. The writer was invited to join a hunt- ing party, not after the Meltonian style over hedges and ditches, in pint jackets and top boots, but in a boat after a fish, called the " Tungun/' The chase was graphi- cally described to us by the Eoman Catholic priest, father Haudley . It is a large fish, of the order mammalia, suckling its ofispring, like the whale, and grazes on the banks at the opening of the river, at certain periods of the year; and while it crops the rank grass which grows on the shelves of the bank, the hunters approach stealthily and noise- lessly in the boat, and harpoon it. The flesh is liked very much by the natives, and it yields plenty of oil. The aborigines before they learned the use of the harpoon, caught them m strong large nets, made from the grass. 110 BOAT ACCIDENT. or of the bark of the enrrajing tree. A skeleton of this fish may be seen in the Sydney Museum. The writer might, perhaps, have formed one of the party, had he not had much previous experience of small boats on a tropical coast. Not long before, the Surgeon-superintendent of the emigrant ship the " Argyle," who was on his way to visit the quarantine ground, together with the chief mate of the vessel, and two emigrants, were capsized in the ship's boat in a heavy squall ; the two first named were drowned, while the two last were taken firom off the keel of the boat, after having hung there many hours, in a very exhausted state, by some natives who swam to them from the shore. It was sad after having sailed so many thousand of miles to meet a watery grave, when the port was gained, but such was the destiny of the suf- ferers. The surgeon's widow heard of his safe arrival and his death by the same com- munication; the mate, also, left a young family to mourn his loss. On this occasion the blacks behaved with great humanity. KANGAROO HUNT. Ill Our reverend friend was also a great Nimrod on land, being a lover of kangaroo hunting. Away you go with dogs of non- descript race, something of every breed in them, lurcher, greyhound, and sheep-dog; mounted on lean looking horses, perhaps with rusty stirrups, bearing for the ridges, where the " old man" may be seen in the long grass, which takes its name after him. Away go the dogs after the " flyer," who bounds, by the aid of his tail, many yards at a time ; and take care of the trees as your nag threads his way between them ; broken ribs and limbs are sometimes the penalty of care- less riding. If there are no ox-fences, or five-barred gates, and raspers to get over, as in Lincolnshire, the plains are not as free from impediment as Leicestershire, nor is the pace as killing. Look out for fallen logs, which lie concealed in the long grass, or else you will get such a pealer as you will remember as you do your first " blooding." At last the " old man" puts his back against a tree, and stands at bay ; the dogs are at him, he seizes one in his short fore-paw, and 112 BRISBANE HOSPITAL. rips up the other with the claw at the end of his long hind-leg ; you dodge behind the tree, and knock him down with your "waddy," a heavy-headed hunting-whip ; cut off his tail for soup ; preserve his skin for a carpet ; and make steaks of his flesh, there and then. Lookat him after a burst of twenty minutes without a check : he lies dead at your feet, weighing thirty pounds, a big « old man kangaroo" — such is hunting in Australia. At Brisbane there is a very good hospital^ supported by voluntary subscriptions, with a resident house-surgeon, who is skilful and attentive. Mr. Barton corroborated to us the statement relative to the virulent form in which syphilis developes itself in the colony among the "aborigines." We saw some lamentable cases in its most malignant stages. Bullock drivers and stocksmen, far from medical advice in the interior, saturate the system with mercury, and then expose themselves to the effects consequent on riding in the long wet grass. An operation was performed very neatly and successfully by the surgeon on a withered finger of a stock- SALUBRITY OF BRISBANE. 113 man, or shearer, who had been stung by a centipede ; the man did well after the ampu- tation. Neuralgia, diseases of the eye, and rheumatism, are the endemics of the colony. There were several invalids with pulmonary complaints at Moreton Bay, sent there by their medical advisers ; one had tried Egypt and Madeira, but found more benefit from the air at Brisbane. One thing in favour of this pleasant district is, that it is free from hot winds and sand storms. 114 STEAMER TO IPSWICH. CHAPTEE IX. STEAMER TO IPSWICH — LIMESTONE — SCENERY — BREMER — WILD FOWL — SIGNOR POCOFIT — BOILING DOWN — PIGS — LOST IN THE BUSH— SURGEON OF "MERIDIAN" — COLOGNE — STORM— CREEKS UP — KILLING A BULLOCK — POWDER FLASK LOST AND RECOVERED — BUSH LIFE. We started to go two hundred miles into the interior, and took the steamer to Ipswich, distant from Brisbane about twenty-six miles by land, and seventy odd by the river. Limestone is contiguous to Ipswich, and bmlt, as its name indicates, on that formation. It is a thriving Httle place, and much of the wool from the interior is brought down, to be placed on board these steamers, and then shipped for Sydney, by schooners from Bris- bane. " There will be a great mob of things going down to-day," said one to another. SCENERY OF THE RIVER. 115 which meant, that there would be a heavy- cargo in number ; we must remark that the Australians have a patois of their own, particularly idiomatic among the old hands, a mixture of slang, Saxon, and aboriginal languages. There wiU soon be an Austra- lian as there is already a Tankey, dialect. The scenery along the river is pictu- resque, with wide sloping banks on either, side, crowned with lofty timber. Where the Bremer and Brisbane rivers meet, the view is very interesting; the waters are overhung by large bluff rocks, with here and there the geranium, and convolvulus, and acacias studded about them. In our journey to the gentleman whom we were about to visit, we flushed, but at a consider- able distance from the steamer, several wild ducks, teal, and widgeon. While we were walking the deck of this small steamer, " The Hawk," which, with her companion, made a flight each alternate day to Limestone, an individual addressed himself to us, with a fine pair of mustachios, and something of a foreign air and appear- 116 SIGNOR POCOFIT. ance. In course of conversation he stated that he had been a contributor and reporter to " The Times/' and had visited most parts of the globe, had lived among the Ashantees, Gaffers, and Bosjesmen, and was writing a work on Australia; in fact, had part of it in type. At aU times a gentleman connected with the press is an imposing personage, much to be dreaded and conciliated, but one lately on " The Times," the great guide and exponent of pubUc opinion, is to be especially stood in awe of. We, therefore, entertained towards him all due respect ; and stated that we should have much pleasure in perusing his volume at the British Museum. '^ Do you publish anonymously.'' " Oh, no, certainly not." " Pray will you honour us with your name ?" " With pleasure, — Signor Pocofit." " An Italian, we presume." " Yes, by one parent's side ; I have been a good deal in Italy." " Tou speak French, no doubt, Signor." " Excuse me Sir," he observed, " in Ita- SIGNOR POCOFTT. 117 lian, we sound the ' g' harshly, and not as you do, soft," " Indeed, our impression was different ; and our recollection was that a relative who owned a celebrated mare, which won the oaks, pronounced her name making the ' g' soft, viz., * Signorina/ " " It was wrong, Sir — ^wrong altogether/' We addressed him in French, he shrugged his shoulders and gesticulated very as our Gallic neighbours do, but no French was enunciated. "Tou speak English,'' we observed, "with the purest accent, we ever remember to have heard from a foreigner." We then addressed him in Italian, of which we knew but little, but quite sufficient to confound our distinguished Italian fellow- traveller, who instantly commenced speaking broken English, as if a foreigner. We re- quested he would not be at the trouble of spoiling his Saxon accent, for his was so pure, and we understood it, and preferred it, when spoken in its native purity. Upon which, finding himself detected, he fairly 118 SIGNOR POCOFIT. ran away into the fore part of the vessel, amidst the laughter of those who had over- heard lis, and was not seen again during the rest of the passage. It is needless to say he was an impostor, and one of the exiles, who had acted as an assistant in the hospital, both in the convict ship and at Brisbane. The latter place he had been discharged from for tampering with some dying patient, and obtaining from him on his death what money he had to dispose of. His real name was " Fit ;" but he had added to it the prefix " Poco," to make it foreign. He was reported to have been a clown at " Astley's." Whether true or not, Mr. Duncan, the collector of customs at Brisbane, told the writer he was a smart, clever, impudent feUow ; and he was exactly what he stated. Mr. D. himself was a very competent judge of ability, being an intelli- gent, well-informed person. One awkwardness felt by a " new chum " is, that you do not know whether the man who addresses you is or has been a convict ; and it is not very complimentary A DILEMMA. 119 to ask one who speaks to you, " Are you," in the idiomatic phraseology of the bush, " ' a clean potato ?' " If he is not a convict, he must think he has a convict's look ; if he is, why recall to him — ^why reproach him — ^with that which he is trying to make reparation to society for ? We remember visiting Beth- lehem with a Sardinian Count de B., and a similar embarrassment came over us. We could not tell who were the sane or the in- sane. We determined to be, in a good sense, "all things to all men." The reli- gious instructor, a Mr. Mose, of the ship in which this " signor " was transported, re- turned to England with us in the s^me vessel, " The Cuthberts," who corroborated the remark of Mr. D. respecting his talei^t and effrontery. Had we been like some of our country- men, who place themselves in the comer seat of a railway carriage, looking sour and surly, with the caution written on their countenance, " Beware of the dog " — if you speak to hiTn he will growl, and perhaps gixap — ^we should have missed a great deal 120 BOILING-DOWN ESTABLISHMENT. of fiin and humour. Where our friend the signor went to, or where he now is, we never afterwards heard. At last we arrived at the " boiHng-down establishment," not, however, without some difficulty as to which Smith it was we were to visit, as they both had boiling-down esta- blishments. "Do you mean Schemer or E. J. Smith ?" asked the commander. " We mean E. J. Smith," which was sufficiently descriptive of the person we required, and who was to put us in the way of getting up the country. The Saxon " Smith " is as common as the Celtic " Jones," or Mc or O' of the inhabitants of the land of cakes, and requires some soubriquet, such as Stanhope, Paget, or Ponsonby, or any other euphonious prefix. We found ourselves agreeably housed in a very pretty dwelKng, surrounded by grounds laid out with great taste. Before we retired for the night, our fair and amiable hostess cautioned us not to be alarmed at the mice running about between the paper and the wall ; and, certes, we did not repose much, for incessant races they ran: BOILING-DOW'N ESTABLISHMENT. 121 it must have been a great field day, alias night, with them. Some great political changes must have been on the tapis in their commonwealth, if we could judge correctly from their activity. At any rate, what with the noise which they made and the buzzing of musquitoes, we had not much balmy sleep ; and early in the morning, the breeze having set towards the house, we were aware of an odour acting on our olfactory nerves, which certainly did not arise from the distilleries of Hendrie or Atkinson. Oh ! such an odour ! Would that Mr. E. Chadwick or Dr. South- wood Smith could have an opportunity of exercising their anti-mephitic talents; or that any of the savans who are experiment- ing upon the deodorizing of fluids, would try their skill upon these masses of putrescent matter, which lie distant from this pretty place about five hundred yards, fiUing a ditch of twelve feet deep, with swine feeding upon a heap of coagulated filth, the refuse of the boiling-down house. We could not remain above a few hours with the kind and hospit- able owners, and, therefore, before lunch we 122 WALK TO IPSWICH. bade adieu to tliis mode of tTiming the penny, after having gone over the " boiling down," where the fat and diseased cattle of the land are converted into tallow to iQumine the residents at home. Perhaps the gentle reader who now reads this account of the writer's " degouement " is indebted to Australian settlers for the mutton which blazes before him. At the gorge of this mass many shaxks feed to surfeit. We determined to return from thence to Brisbane by the steamer, and crossed over to the other side of the river, to trudge to Ipswich, for, strange as it may appear, by crossing a river, you may be only three or five miles distant, whereas if you ride by land, you m st travel thirty or forty. We therefore preferred walking; and in the attempt we lost our way in the bush. After proceeding for an hour or more, marking most closely our route, we deter- mined to return, when we came upon a camp, which belonged to the blacks, and from the nature of the " gunya," we conceived it to be a place where some were buried. LOST m THE BUSH. 128 Ejiowing tliat hostile tribes were to meet not far off, we did not feel very comfortable. To be felled by a whizzing boomerang, or transfixed by a spear from some invisible hand, or to have our brains knocked out by a waddy, was anything but the destiny we de- sired ; to die like Mimgo Park, or Leichardt, with their posthumous celebrity, our ambi- tion did not sigh for ; or to bear about us, as some do in Australia, the marks of a black fellow's vengeance for killing his kangaroos, was a distinction we by no means coveted, unnecessarily and ingloriously obtained. So considering discretion the better part of va- lour, we retraced our steps to where we had sought direction, and found that we had really lost our way, and were progressing in a line diametrically opposite to the one we sought. Eeflecting upon the truth that the aborigines were not " vegetarians," but sus- pected even of cannibalism, the apprehension of being devoured acted as a most powerftd sudorific ; the knowledge of which fact may perhaps become useful to the faculty. The Surgeon-superintendant of the emi- g2 124 COLOGNE. grant ship, the " Meridian," determined to go alone, botanizing and calling at stations as accident or inclination decided. He bought a horse, and had not got fifty miles from Brisbane before his charger having thrown him, and run into the woods, he had to wander about for three days and nights, and at last met with some " darkies," who led him to a station, much exhausted by fatigue and want of food ; as far as we know, he never recovered his horse — a lesson to him not to disregard the good advice and warning which were given to him before he started, of not going by himself to explore the country, as many have perished in doing so of hunger, or have fallen by the hands of the blacks. We found rest at "Cologne," a name humorously given by its owner to a settle- ment opposite to the boiling-down establish- ment of which we have already spoken, and occasionally catching a slight whifi^of its deli- cious aroma. We found the owner in his shirt sleeves, and dressed " en degagee" negli- gence, planting vines ; when we sought the favour of a temporary asylum, and figured to THUNDER STORM. 125 OTiPselves that he was some yoTing enter- prising man from the mother country, perhaps a former's son. He met us with great kind- ness, and with the proverbial hospitality of the bush, invited us to sit down and take some refreshment in a slab-buHt and shingle- roofed house, consisting of two rooms, while his better residence was in course of erection. We saw on his brow that nature had written " gentleman," and more so when in this hovel we observed, by a well-selected library, that our host at any rate had agreeable though silent companions with him. He was an old Etonian, the partner in a station up the country, which we subsequently visited. We were detained from continuing our journey by a violent storm of thunder and incessant rain, which lasted for three days without any intermission. Creeks and gullies, before quite dry, were now roaring with the waters which filled and rendered them impassable. It commenced raining on Friday, and came down in one unbroken fountain till Monday morning. In the mean time ten persons had been taken out of the creeks, one poor fellow 126 KILLING A BULLOCK. • who attempted to cross, was carried off his feet and held on to a log of a tree several hours, " cooeeing'' for aid, when some one from the station extricated and brought him in, in a state of utter exhaustion. ** Coo-ee, coo-ee,'' is the cry made by the aborigines, either for assistance, or to call your attention to any- thing, or to recover themselves if lost in the wood. In the evening of Monday we killed a bullock, an event which, when it became known as likely to occur, brought about our host's dwelling a number of darkies, to par- take of the spoil. The ox had been placed for twelve hours previously in a stock, and when the man went to shoot him, dashed about the small space he was confined in, with flaming eyes and extended nostrils, mad with hunger and fright — ^woe betide us if he gets loose ! The executioner was a good marksman, and the victim fell ingloriously, having received the bullet in the centre of his skuU, right in the very star. It was but a short business to skin and hoist him to the cross pole ; around us sat " kippers/' i. e. " hobbledehoy blacks," and warriors, at one fire, eating, half roasted, POWDER FLASK LOST. 127 any part of the offal which was bestowed on them ; at another, " gins" or " lubras," wrapped up in the blankets given to them by the " bujjnree" (i. e. good) queen; roasting tit-bits by their ember fire — displaying each a pearly set of teeth, such as any belle might be proud of, or Cartwright desire to imitate. One man who had been cutting firewood, and to whom had been promised the head of the ox, was sent by our Mend to recover a powder- flask, which had been dropped in the morn- ing, on the margin of a lagoon, whHe shoot- ing ducks. He very reluctantly undertook the task, feaxing lest he should lose his head— or rather, we should say, the ox's head. So we remarked, ^' He will never find it, let the poor feUow stop here." " Not find it,^' said Da- vidson, " if it was a needle, having been of the party, he would track the spoor, and bring it here." He was assured that his promised share of the feast should be kept and put by in safety for him, to take to the camp. Away he flew, and in a very short space of time re- turned, sure enough with the flask we had lost. So acute are their senses of sight and hearing, 128 BUSH LIFE, that they will see what a white fellow cannot, and also hear sounds which mate no impres- sion on a Caucasian tympanum. It was with some difl&culty we could get them to be bearers of the skin, &c. of the bullock, to the " humpy," i. e. station, which was " close up," (near), for they will not work at all if they are fiiU. My friend having dispersed their fires, they grinned and then assisted us. If you want them to do aaything you must give them no food until the task is accomplished, for if you do, they instantly leave off work. " Black fellow laugh, white fellow work," say they, displaying a regular and beautiful set of ivories. At our behest the same man climbed a gum-tree for a fig or bar of tobacco. In the bush, you must be your own valet. It is no use for fastidious dandies to under- take this line of life unless they are prepared to turn the tables and rough it. Straw- coloured kid gloves and patent leather boots are as useless here as a gossamer hat and nankeen unmentionables would be in the BUSH LIFE. 129 Arctic regions. A pubKc school is a good training for this independent and not un- pleaisant existence. A man soon qualifies himself to be his own valet, cook, housemaid, and if he understands something of washing it will not be amiss ; and, moreover, let him learn to do all " de bon coeur." The weather having cleared we started for the interior, a journey of some two hundred miles, over hill and dale, marsh and brook. g3 180 THE START. CHAPTEE X. THE START — A GERMAN DOCTOR — *' HOMO MORTUUS SEMPER FORTUNATUS " — THE BATTLE AT LIMESTONE — PARKY APPEARANCE OF AUSTRATJA — ^KENT STATION — THE PENALTY OF RIDING — HOSPITALITY OF A SQUATTER — HIS MODE OF LIFE — TURN POSTMAN AND DOCTOR — THE FLOCK OF SHEEP — LAMBING SEASON — THE GRAVE. We left Cologne for the bush, respectively mounted on Admiral, Abelard, and Polka, with a young "tiger" carrying our saddle bags and " swag," i. e. luggage, which con- sisted of a change ; since in the bush, travellers must learn to do with somewhat less than a portmanteau, and the endless wrappers, plaids, and comforters of an '* exquisite," starting from Euston Square, for grousing, or to join the " heavies" at Brummagem. We did not fail to take with us, the ever present tin pot of the colonist, to make tea in, and quench A GERMAN DOCTOR. 131 his thirst at the creek; but should he fail to have this, the bark of a tree or a large leaf can be readily converted into a drinking cup. Our host, of course, did not forget his pipe, and tobacco to provide his own with and that of some stray shepherd — ^for tobacco is almost as current a medium of exchange and standard of value in New South Wales as Mungo Park describes it to have been in Africa. Our little groom, a sharp lad, the son of an old convict and brought up in Whitechapel, though not so well appointed as may be seen behind a coronet-crested cab, in Eotten Eow, or riding behind a d'Orsay, was, perhaps, more useful and handy for our purpose, than if he had been sprucely got up as a London page. At Limestone, we encountered a German surgeon, who had acted as a medical super- intendant on board an emigrant vessel from Germany. We had already met with him in Brisbane, really an agreeable gentlemanly man, young, yet he had travelled much in many countries, and also in AustraUa. He appeared in despondency, perhaps he was in / 132 A GERMAN DOCTOB. love, as we saw subsequently his happiness by marriage announced in the newspapers ; he wanted us to talk Latin, when our friend and ourselves mustered three languages be- tween us. We were compelled to decline, although he might, for ought we know to the contrary, have spoken as classically as, per- haps. Dr. Townsend and the pope did, when the former was on his Quixotish errand at Eome to unite the Eastern and Western Churches. At all events, we understood his mournful quotation, " Homo mortuus semper fortunatus," although we could not, as we told him, subscribe to his melancholy mood. Now, probably, he would exclaim, " terque quaterque beate," &c. ; but " the course of true love," Shakspeare says, "never did run smooth," in novel or romance, no more than in real Kfe. We here had an account from one of our immigrants, the same who had desired to have been landed at Swan Eiver, of a fight which he had witnessed between several tribes, which we have already alluded to. Between three and four hundred met. His BATTLE AT LIMESTONE. 133 earnest and enthusiastic description of the engagement was very amusing, but we re- gretted to learn that two of the blacks had fallen, a very unusual occurrence in their wars. They fought with their usual weapons, the spear, boomerang, and waddy, guarding themselves, as best they could, with a smaU shield bedaubed with paint and charcoal, and feathers stuck over their bodies, and in the Jiair. The " gins," i. e., wives and women, like the inhabitants of Ipswich, stood apart looking on. But my friend, finding a boo- merang fall inconveniently near him, retired from the fray. " Was it," we asked, " a real fight, as you would have seen in ould Ireland, in the true Tipperary style ? " " Sure, your honour," he replied, " it was, only the * gins ' (wives), cut themselves when the men were slain." One was transfixed with a spear through the heart, the other died of his wounds in a short time after being struck, and he added, they were eaten by their enemies; this, however, we suspect, was an exaggeration, although the Macintyre blacks 134 PARKY APPEARANCE have the reputation of being cannibals. This battle occurred within three miles of where we were located, and which, had we known of, we might perchance have witnessed. It is much to be lamented that the au- thorities do not interfere to put a stop to these meetings between savage tribes ; a very- slight force would suffice to suppress them, as they have a great dread of fire-arms. Leaving the field of Mars, and my friend from the Emerald Isle, who was resting here on his way to the interior, and having wished our erudite son of Esculapius " vale," we continued our journey into the bush. The general appearance of the country in Aus- tralia, is, as generally represented in books, of a very park-like nature, and exceedingly inviting in aspect, only more thickly timbered than we should like in England. We pushed along at a pretty good pace, and then after sun-down had a sharp ride, in a dark evening, before we reached Mr. K.'s station. As we were not well provided for a bivouac, having only the one requi- site an Australian always carries with him. OF AUSTRALU. 135 namely, the saddle for a pillow, without any blankets, we were not sorry when we found ourselves under the hospitable roof of our host. In return for our reception we poured out upon his table, letters, papers, &c., which had been lying for him at the post- oflGlce. No one refiises to act as a postman for residents in the bushi who might other- wise be a sorry time without any news. We also prescribed for him, and flatter our- selves that he derived some benefit from our knowledge of the healing art ; using one of these grand remedies, considered by Louis Philippe and Lord Brougham as sufficient to cure any malady, and which may be carried in the top of a walking-stick, viz., opium, a lancet, and calomel. Our friend was suffering from the effect of exposure to tropical climates, having been previous to sheep-farming tie mate of a sHp. We had also to attend to our own ^' malheurs." After several months at sea, we were not in the best condition for a fifty mile ride, and found the prescription of an unguent to our chafed limbs very seasonable. Burckhardt 136 squatter's mode of life. recommends, if dressed as an Arab, to have the parts exposed to a scorching sun bathed with milk and water. He complains of having suffered much pain in his travels from the blistering of his ancles aad feet: it was not in those regions that we paid the penalty of a long ride. Here we rested three days, and became first initiated into the routine and character of a " squatter's " life during the busy season of lambing and shearing. It cannot be better pourtrayed than in the words of Mr. Forster — Chambers' Emi- grant's Manual, page 46, " Victoria." — " The life of one of these great sheep proprietors is described as being a condition of leisure and coarse abundance, interspersed with a peculiar class of cares. There is always a certain fear of shepherds deserting their charges, of sheep being worried, or dispersed by wild dogs, or of catarrh, scab, or foot rot having broken out in the flocks. Then there is a period of anxiety at the lambing season — ' when a storm of sleet may destroy hundreds of lambs.' There is the trouble connected with the great sheep-shearing THE GRAVE. 137 season, sheep-washing, and minor anxieties consequent on the running away of cattle, the training of horses, &c." At the end of the garden was a grave standing alone, re- cording a few years before, the death of a former proprietor's wife, who in giving life to another lost her own, the mother and infent, as their plain simple tablet told, lay there, the rose and the bud both stricken together. It was very touching to see in the wilds, we might say, this last resting- place, surrounded by a neat wooden palinjg, and dressed with flowers, for although the property had passed into other hands than those which first held it, the present owner was a man of too much tenderness of feeling to suffer the tomb to go to decay, or to be disturbed. Often, doubtless, does that spot appear to the memory of the survivor, where aU his hopes, and the brightness of his sun. were dimmed, and it may be pleasing to him to learn that the poor clay which lies there, lies respected and ia peace. 138 BIRDS. CHAPTEE XI. BIRDS — COCKATOOS — BREAKFAST — IN AN ENGLISH MANSION — IN THE BUSH — ^A RIDE WITH THE SQUATTER — A GAL- LOP — A STOCK-KEEPER — HIS WHIP — A YOUNG MIDDY — THE FREEDOM OF THE BUSH — GORDON CUMMING HON. G. MURRAY — ^AN AWKWARD SURPRISE — ^THE ENQUIRY — ^A GENTLEMAN SAVAGE — THE REMEDY FOR THE BLAsi — BACHELOR SQUATTERS — MARRIED SQUATTERS — THE VOYAGE— HUMBOLDT — ISTHMUS OF DARIEN. In a new country the slightest novelties, in themselves trifling, arrest the attention: while here sitting at breakfast in the depth of winter, with all the windows and doors open, we were much amused by watching the confidence with which the swallows flew in and out, picking the flies and insects from ofi* the cloth ceiling of our room. One great nuisance we experienced at a particular sta- tion was, the ceaseless song — song did we say ? — ^noise of the birds ; at night of the curlew, and during the day of the bird called COCKATOOS. 139 the "Gripsy Boy," because his note sounds something like these words. The woods re- sound with these echoes, as also with the note of the cockatoos, which are a great plague to the settler, particularly the small farmer, from their destructiveness and - boldness. Picture to yourself a white tablecloth thrown over a newly-planted field of wheat, and you see it as it appears with a flock of these de- vourers upon it. We eat some of them cooked in a pie, palatable enough, though certainly not adapted to suit the taste of gentlemen to whom an ortolan is no delicacy. A breakfast, reader, in the bush, is a very different affair to the one perhaps you are now sitting down to, in a good stately man- sion in the country. We know no pleasanter meal than the breakfest-table in a large house, where there is a large party. Each coming down at the proper hour, siace we are old-fashioned enough to Uke punctuaUty, and early rising ; refreshed after repose, except where Cupid has disturbed some smitten heart by anxious hope. To see the blooming beauty of eigh- 140 BREAKFAST IN AN ENGLISH MANSION. teen, with all the freshness of youth, bearing on her brow the impress of high birth, and the still nobler impress of purity, intellect, knowledge of the world in which she moves, chastened by religious feith and the sense of her own moral dignity ; built up by the care and guidance of the best instructors, newly risen from her morning sacrifice, with the halo of prayer stiU beaming on the serene coxmtenance, is a sight most agreeable, and affords a delight which is indescribable. More so when she salutes her silyer-headed parent, of whose heart she is the joy and pride. Surely her destiny must be happy ! to love and be loved ; formed " for softness she and sweet attractive grace." Who can tell her destiny ? But a big house is a big world. Is it not, we ask ? The next comer in, although very gentle- manly in manners, and quite correct in dress, with an " air distingue," may be a very great rogue, but, of course, in a styhsh way ; on the race-course, at the hazard and card-table, or in initiating at billiards some BREAKFAST IN THE BUSH.. 141 young heir who has come into a good estate. A heartless gambler, a destroyer of virtue, in fact, a roue of the first class, correct in all the forms of polite society, but a lazar-house of moral putrescence within, the evidence of the conclusion borne on the exterior, for vice does leave its tracings : — " Heu ! qudm difficile est crimen non prodere vultu." Ovid. In the bush we have met the same subjects to reflect upon ; though " the study of man- kind is man," we have rougher materials from which to leaxn our lesson. There is not so well an assorted collection of viands on a side-table, or well-polished silver urns and mugs, &c., steaming with ihe berry of Arabia, and the leaf of China. No post arrival with letters, papers, and serials ; yet withal there is an abundance of good, plain, wholesome food, such as the settler has a right good appetite for after a thiriy-mile ride before breakfast. The host does not ask his guest whether he will drive in the park, or ride into the post town, or go into the Ubrary. or the drawing-room, or take a turn with 142 RIDE WITH A SQUATTER. the gamekeepers in strictly-preserved woods, or a run with the hounds. Although it would have puzzled Lord Byron to have found all these amusements for his hero here, as he did at Lord Henry's, stiU there was no ennui. IS you are fond of shooting, there is before you any quantity of ground you like ; no man-traps or spring-guns ; plenty of game — quails, snipes, ducks, spurwinged plovers, wild turkeys, geese, kangaroos, and emus — go and shoot them, if you can, that is to say. Do you feel disposed to take a ride on horseback, not lazily in a park, with a flimky in silver and gold behind you, only say the word, and the stud-groom is sent into the bush, aud brings in from fi% to a. hundred first-rate cattle (tits) ; choose any one you like, they are all good, can go the pace and distance, such distances as wiU astonish you, though grass fed, and no com in them, and without any gallop, save for their plea- sure in the bush ; but mind do not choose a ** bucker." * Now ride with the host to a * A " bucker " is a vicious horse, to be found only in Australia. His peculiarity consists in curling his EroE WITH A STOCK-KEEPER. 143 sheep station, aiid spin a yam with him about sheep-farming ; he does not care a pin for county influences and borough interests, whether my Lord Doodle is in or out, or whether Squire Poodle's son, who is at Oxford, wiU turn out the Hon. Colonel Whiskerandos of the Blues, at the next dis- solution. He neither troubles himself about the Eussian ukases, nor the decrees of the Emperor of the French ; the chicaneries and secrets of diplomacy do not interest or excite his curiosity. He is more concerned about the price of wool, and that proper attention is paid by his servants to the golden fleece. K you prefer hard riding, take a gallop with a stock-keeper ; but mind you do not break your neck over logs in the long grass, or in tearing away at fiill speed after cattle, down a guUy or ridge. You can always teU a stock- keeper by his long whip, made of green hide, with a stout handle of about two feet, to which is attached a thong of some eight to ten feet more plaited together ; he is in shirt back upwards, till he wriggles saddle, girth, and rider over his head. 144 A YOUNG MIDDY. sleeves, with trowsers banded up by a belt, a cabbage-tree hat, with a ribbon under his chin to keep it on. His well-trained horse will thread his way after cattle between trees without injury to his master ; crack goes his whip, resounding through the lulls and woods like the report of a gun ; terrible too is the punishment he can inflict with that " knout;" he can draw blood at every blow if he pleases, or cut a pewter-pot into two pieces. In the chase after the bullocks, the horse is said to take as much pleasure in the excitement as the rider himself. The writer was repeatedly asked by a young middy, Mr. Walter Davidson, who was rusticating in the bush, whether a Melton man would venture to ride down the decli- vities he pointed out at the pace stock-men did. We were very sorry, but we could ndt satisfy his inquiring mind ; all we could say was, that Melton men did do desperate things without breaking their necks, and, perhaps, they might manage this feat. It was very clear that our young friend could run up the ratthngs of a man-of-war with FREEDOM OF THE BUSH. 145 greater safety than he could break in a " bucker," judging by the limp he got for his temerity. He was a gentlemanly, amusing yoimgster, ftiU of frohc and fan, but no horseman. Now with all these resources in the bush, and with books, if you prefer remaining in the house, at your command, few in number and well selected, the time does not pass wearily away, particularly at the busy season of lambing and shearing. There is a free- dom, an independence in these new lands which is not describable ; wander where you will, gallop where you please, rest where you like, you wiU not be "prosecuted as tres- passers with the utmost rigour of the law." In the absence of this terrible threat, which is enough of itself to set your hair on end, you feel a degree of liberty not experienced elsewhere. Tour position is far preferable to that of Mr. Grordon Gumming amid lions, and pirouetting with hippopotami in the wilds of Africa ; though you might meet with an enemy in the " human shape divine," embodied in a black fellow, less generous than H 146 AS AWKWARD SURPRISE. the tribe which, the Hon. C. Murray wan- dered with in America buffalo-shooting, who only menaced him to test his personal con- rage. Should you prefer a ramble, as the writer did on one occasion, in the plains or woods, you may meet with such an adventure as he encountered. Eoaming and ruminating about this strange world of ours, we suddenly o^e upon on/of the aborigines, „^«i amidst some very long rushy grass, armed " cap-a-pie," slicing a pumpkin with his toma- hawk, stark naked, his tattooed face begrimed and smeared with charcoal and paint. Hav- ing nothing with us but a Moreton-Bay cane, and not knowing in what mood this sable lord of creation might be, we confess we felt ill at ease. We however addressed him as best we could. He seemed to perceive that we were strangers in the place. He laid down his arms, and walked a few paces with us, asked of course for tobacco, of which we had not any to give him, as we informed him in his jargon. " Bale (no) baccy ; white fellow give him black fellow." He wished to GENTLEMAN SAVAGE. 147 know, pointing to a hut, whether my wife and children lived there. " You white fel- low — Mary — ^piccaninie — sit down humpy," pointing to the building. We gave him to understand we were blessed with neither a Mary nor piccaninie. "Where you 'nan- gerie?'" i.e., where do you live? was his next interrogatory. We satisfied his curi- osity, and bade him good morning, not sorry to have this sudden and xmexpected interview over. Of course our apprehensions were laughed at by our firiends at the station. We remember at the time of the Grreat Exhibition, the special correspondent of the " Temps " wrote to Paris that *^ la noblesse" of England might be seen in the parks riding thorough-bred horses, fatigued with " eimui," and surfeited with self-indulgence and ex- citement. In fact, so **usee" were they, tiiat the tone of society was such as to re- present to his imagination the most profli- gate period of the Eoman empire; that now they required men to fight with wild beasts, and which scenes they crowded to look at — ^alluding to the exhibition of Carter, h2 148 REMEDY FOR ENNUI. the lion-tamer; and lie did not think the day far distant when gladiatorial contests, as of old, would take place for their amuse- ment. He contrasted their splendid luxury with the squalid misery and wretchedness he saw around him in all parts of the metro- polis. To save us from gladiatorial exhibi- bitions, send the blase to the bush; there, will be novelty, freshness, and wholesome excitement, in lieu of the arena stained with human gore ; send his poor starving fellow- creature there also, where he will find food in abundance. Each wiU be benefited by transportation. There wiU be occupation for the leisure of the one, and food for the hun- ger of the other. Our host mounted me on one of his quiet nags, and we rode over ridges for some ten miles from home, to see if we could meet with a kangaroo, which we were not fortunate enough to do on that occasion. We had, however, a fine and extensive view from the summit of the country around us. We met some of his sheep grazing homeward, sun- down coming on fest. This led our conver- OBSCENE LANGUAGE. 149 sation to the all-absorbing pursuit of New South Wales. He informed us that many owners had to blame themselves for losing their labourers ; they disgusted them by their bad management, bad tempers, and sometimes bad faith, speaking rudely and coarsely to them, and attributing to their negligence the loss of sheep, in order that they might be mulcted of their due ; in fact, to bring them in debtors at the end of the year, and so defraud them of their wages. Of the lan- guage in Australia among the labouring classes, the reader can form no conception; the colony in this respect has gained a most disgraceful and unenviable notoriety. Such swearing, cursing, and obscenity were never equalled by anything which you may have accidentally heard — surpassed would be im- possible. The custom is so habitual, that we beUeve many are imconscious of its use. This disgraceful and profane habit seems to have descended from the early convicts. One of our emigrants, a plain, steady countryman, said he was quite shocked at it ; but for this he would have liked the country and the bush 150 ADVANTAGES OF MARRIED well enough, as he had good wages and plenty to eat, and a good hut to he in. Our host, who was a Christian in principles and feelings, and as we casually heard long after was much esteemed and highly spoken of by his men, said that the squatters could afford to pay the wages then current among our people ; viz., from twenty-five to thirty poTinds a-year, and still have a good margin for proj&ts. After remaining three or four days, we started for another station, aad in the course of our march called at one where we met with some more of our friends who had come out with ns, graduaJly dispersing and settling themselves in different localities. Some writer on Australia advises every emigrant to marry before he starts for the colony, or as soon after he is in it as he can; that is, if he is fortunate enough to get any one to listen to his suit, as without a spouse he is as useless as the fifth wheel of a coach. Young married couples are the best descrip- tion of emigrants to send to New South Wales. The truth of this remark does not apply only to the case of the iadustrial SQUAITEBS OTEB SINQLE ONES. 151 classes ; we extend it to that of the squatters and settlers ; marry if you want to be happy and to grow rich, and marry before you come out; surely among Albion's fair daughters, distinguished for beauty and virtue, you can find orwho wiU i^e compassion on your misery and solitude. We repeat our advice, marry, not only that you may be comfort- able, but that you may be rich, if that is your " summum bonum." Solomon says, " The glory of a king is in the multitude of his people." The riches of a settler are in the number of his children, and they are no hindrance to the aristocratic squatter, as there are no taxes, no tithes, no water-rates, light-rates, road-rates, nor any of the simi- lar ills attendant on residence in the old country. Another good effect is, it will keep him at home, and out of the dissipation and expense of Sydney. Instead of " sweating his wool,*' into empty pockets, and a doc- tor's bill to pay when he has converted it into currency, he will have a good balance at his banker's, and be out of the power of the merchant from whom he gets his stores, 152 OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE the vampire of embarrassed sheep-owners. We hope the 500,000 spinsters who exceed the bachelors, by the last census, to that amount, will take up arms and defend us against merciless critics, for wishing them happily and well married, in a beautiful and salubrious climate, where there is abundance, and where they may roam without the feeling so forcibly conveyed by the French word " gene." But perhaps you exclaim, fair reader, " Oh ! the voyage — four months at sea — I never could undertake it." We reply, the voyage is long, certainly, but not of necessity tedious ; you are not compelled to be dull at sea ; there is always something to attract attention, and with a few weU- selected books, the time passes agreeably enough. But the dangers? Not greater than going to Birmingham or Exeter by an express train. Take the map of the world and place it before you. London to Aus- tralia 14,000 miles, via the Cape of Good Hope; average passage, from 90 to 120 days; but that will not long continue the route. The one which has been warmly advocated VOYAGE COMBATED. 153 by my friend Colonel Lloyd of the Mauritius will soon be in general use, namely, by the Isthmus of Darien ; 3,000 miles to Chagres ; fipom thence to Sydney, 7,800 ; a canal cut across of only 25 miles will unite the Atlantic Ocean and the South Pacific, and Humboldt the traveller and philosopher says the levels will admit of this being accomplished ; and then the voyage will not exceed 60 days, without changing the ship, steaming right through from one hemisphere into the other, joined by the ingenuity and art of man. S<^ we hope the difficulty of the passage will not stand in the way of your making Australia your home. H 3 154 CUNNINGHAM'S GAP. CHAPTEE Xn. Cunningham's gap — main range — ^the downs — moss in australia — ^the wood vines — a halt on the blue mountains — the admiral — my immigrants — the station — the want of a wife — ^want of comfort — A STATION WITH A WIFE — AN EXQUISITE — ^THACKERAY — SERPENTS — COLONIAL WINE — MARSHALL'S STATION — PLOVER — QUAIL — SNIPE — AN OXFORD MAN. We crossed the main range by Cmming- ham's Gap, first passed by a gentleman of that name, from whence burst upon him that beautiful and extensive country, the Darling Dovras, twelve hundred feet above the level of the sea. In ascending it we were obliged to get off our horses, and drive them before us for thre.e miles, the mountain being so steep. The day being warm, we found it hard work ; but the magnificent view we enjoyed amply repaid us for our MOSS JN AUSTRALIA. 155 trouble and toil. Lofty cedars, gum-trees, and iron bark, clothed the sides of the moun- tains around us, and skirted the ravines along which the torrents of rain jSnd their way into creeks and gulleys which occa- gionaUy fall here during thunder-storms, kde- ^th the guttering detritu, deporited in the beds of creeks and their bars, or in alluvial plains, for lucky diggers to disen- tomb. Many of the trees are laden with parasitical plants ; the stag-headed fern may be seen in great abimdance, and various, mosses, which by some writers were said not to grow in the colony. This is a mistake, as the curator of the Botanical Gardens assured us. The club moss is found in Australia, which is the connecting link be- tween plants which are cellular and vascular, the Kchens, algse, &c., not being so. The woodbines are almost trees themselves, which creep round the sturdy monarchs of the forest, and by means of these a black fellow will run up after an opossum with the agility of a monkey. We rested at the summit of a waterfall, which arched over 156 HALT ON THif MOUNTAINS. the rocks to several hundred feet below. Here we refreshed ourselves with some cold beef, damper, and water from the rill in a tin pot. With first-rate appetites, we enjoyed it as old Carthusians and Etonians could do (for such we were), as much and more than we should have done the finest spread in Belgravia. While my friend was smoking his pipe, I occupied myself in cutting out my name on the bark of a gum-tree — ^let me be pardoned for the foUy. But what public schoolboy has not learned to use his knife ? Even the grave Sir Eobert Peel, who hardly ever ventured upon anything without con- sulting Hansard, and who could not be ac- cused of being a trifler, inscribed his name at Harrow on the desk, which may be seen to this day, and we beheve Byron's also. An amusing brochure, written by " Cantab,'" and entitled "Across the Atlantic," states that while ruminating, with folded arms, Uke Napoleon and other great men, he saw that others of his countrymen had cogitated on the same spot. Mount Vernon, celebrated as the residence of Washington ; — as he per- HOTEL Olf THE DOWNS. 157 ceived by the inscription on the seat, that Potts of London had visited it in 1836, and WiLdnson of Manchester as late even as 1843. If the spirit of wandering leads the Cantab to go as far as Australia, he will find recorded on this portion of the main range the interesting fact that it was visited in 1852 by the writer, immortalized on a blue gum-tree. After catching our horses, and having accomplished this labori- ous idleness, we proceeded on our journey, without accident by flood or field, or any incident worthy of recording, unless it was that our groom nearly fell off the Admiral, who certainly was entitled to his rank if age and long service are the chief recommenda- tions for high promotion. We stopped at a public-house to give the horses a feed of Indian com. We remained an hour at this hotel on the downs, where we found the landlady in a state. which Burns calls " unco fou," and the mistress of a really comfortable hostelry. Her husband was out in the bush, looking after cattle. We were served to some excellent roast sirloin of beef and boiled 158 ARRIVAL AT A STATION. eggs by two of our emigrants, who were located here, and, being a sober, steady, mar- ried couple, did not at all like (as they told me) the master they had hired themselves to. We were not sorry to find ourselves at sun-down at the station we were making for, and just in time to sit down to a very substantial and capital dinner, but very roughly served. Our drinking-vessels were broken coffee-cups. This was the rudest- constructed squatter s residence we had yet seen. It was a slab hut, roofed with sheets of bark, and consisted of apartments, with a recess for the fire-place. Our host, a very gentlemanly young man, apparently in an incipient consumption, had papered its walls, partly for ornament and partly for shelter, with pictures from " Punch," " The Illustrated London News," and prints from sporting ma^ gazines, and every outre thing he could get hold of; so that, while stretched upon a cane sofi^ with a blanket over us, and a lexicon for a pillow, we could peruse, by the morning sun, "Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures," pasted against the walls, or get some hints frond WANT 01* COMFORT. 159 " Punch's Letters to his Son," with the ad- vantage of a fine current of air permeating the gaping chinks of the slabs. Above our heads was the nucleus of a very well-selected library. Our host had been educated prin- cipally in Germany, and although an ex- tremely pleasant, gentlemanly fellow, was certainly in his own way a great oddiiy. His room was hung round with guns, foils, singlesticks, boxing-gloves, bugles, spears, boomerangs, diUies, nets, meerschaum pipes, and every nondescript article you could think of, and the use of many of which you would never divine, however fertile your brain might be. The cook's and attendants' hut was at some distance from ours; he sum- moned them by the most shrill and piercing dog-whistle we ever heard, and each time he required the Chinaman, we thought the drum of our ears would have been cracked by tliis steam-engine whistle. It certainly could not have been one of the mellow-toned silver whistles used in the time of Queen Bess, and handed down as a family heir- loom. 160 WANT OF A WIFE. We were pressed to remain there the day, and start next morning ; but the smoke was blown into the room in such clouds, that we were fairly smothered out of the place, and thought it advisable to proceed. When we bade adieu to our friend, who was giving di- rections to some men digging trenches for planting vines, in a shawl dressing-gown, with scarlet-morocco slippers on liis feet, he seemed rather annoyed at our departure. Why was he so odd and untidy, so com- fortless and careless? Not because he had not the means of being otherwise, for he possessed a fine run of goodly flock, but simply because he had no wife. We hope Mr. W will change his state before we visit him again. On our journey we lunched at a house, the very opposite of this in com- fort, neatness, and really, we might say, in elegance. A neat verandah ran round the building, interlaced with creepers, the pas- sion-flower and jessamine, with a very pretty terraced garden. Within, the apartments had the air of well-furnished English draw- ing-rooms, and we were waited upon by a STATION WITH A WIFE. 161 page in green broadcloth, variegated with buttons. This abode belonged to one of the earliest settlers on the downs ; his wife, whom we discovered in course of conversa- tion to be a native, (bom in Australia,) was a lady-like person, pretty, lively, and accom- plished, and doubtless to her taste he was indebted for so much comfort and elegance. It was quite a cottage omee. She had never been out of her own country. While dis- cussing the relative merits of England and Australia, we pleaded in favour of the former, that if there were fogs and a gloomy climate, we had no apprehension of being stung by venomous serpents. She admitted that this was a great drawback; but that, lest the creepers should harbour any, and an accident occur, she was always prepared with anti- dotes, as she had a great terror of being bitten. Although we think Australia a splendid country, we had too much of the "amor patri»" to concede everything to it. A gentleman, who was standing, as English gentlemen usually do, before the fire, to the exclusion of every one else wishing to enjoy 162 AN EXQUISITE. it, with his hands behind the flaps of his coat, quite " a son aise," said England was only fit to live in, if a man had ten thousand pounds a year. This made a person of onr hnmble origin a^d moderai. notions look at him again. What a curiosity to pick up a man, who could not hve at home upon less than the income of the next Bishop of London, vege- tating in the bush of Australia ! We ven- tured to suggest that many members of clubs managed to hve upon half-pay, pretty com- fortably, although of course very economi- cally. And added, that we thought Major Pendennis, as described by our old school- fellow Thackeray, contrived to get on weU enough, without Tittlebat Titmouse's Whaddo estate, wearing his gold eye- glasses, through which he read with rage and horror the passionate declaration of his nephew's love for the actress. Our new acquaintance certainly had a " poco curante " manner, and an air of " non- chalance" about him, which made us curious to learn something of his history. It appeared that this Australian Brummel SERPENTS IN AUSTRALU. 163 was a gentleman by birth, and had been one of those numberless hangers-on about town, who can only spend money and lose it, but without energy or industry to earn any for themselves : one of the " nati consumere fruges/' — He is now the acting super- intendant of the adjoining station, and can there at leisure devise plans for spending ten thousand pounds per annum, i. e. if he ever gets such an income, of which there is as much probability as of old-fashioned Toryism and defunct Protection coming to Hfe again. It must not be supposed that serpents are so abundant as to render residence in the colony dangerous. At certain seasons of the year they emerge from their winter hiding- places, and occasionally you may hear that some one has been bitten, in gathering fire- wood, and breaking up the decayed branches, in which they nestle. , There are three sorts — ^the carpet snake, bla<;k snake, and deaf adder, which last is as poisonous as the cobra de capeUa: coldness and rigidity of muscular action supervening immediately. / . COLONUL WINE.' the patient expires in half an hour after be- ing attacked. An ipecacuanha, poultice is the best remedy to applv. ''uLber largest serpent of this kind wiU gorge an opossum the size of an ordinary cat. After having tasted at this squatter s, for the first time, the colonial wine, made at Camden, on Mr. M' Arthur's estate, which we found palatable enough, very like the light-coloured Ehenish wines, we proceeded on pur way, and arrived tired and chafed after a long ride at Mr. M.'s, where we re- mained during the greater portion of three days. The downs before us, reminded us of Newmarket Heath, with spurs on each side thrown out from the main range ; a flat open country, as far as the eye could see. Mr. M. possesses a very valuable station, and in the course of a few years, with small capital and imtiring perseverance, has accumulated nearly a lac of rupees. There was plenty of game here, quails, plovers, ducks, and large full snipe, some of which we tasted for dinner. Owing perhaps to the mode of cooking, the game is hard and dry. The next station we AN OXFORD MAN. 165 were to make, was one in which toy Mend and companion had an interest, called Eaton Vale, where his co-partner Mr. Arthur Hodgson resided. On our way thither, we picked up a letter addressed to a squatter, a little off our road, but which we determined to deliver, in case it might contain matter of importance; it is no uncommon occurrence to pick up epistles which have been dropped days before, in tracts which are not often disturbed by travellers. We met here an Oxford man, who had a taken a good degree at the University, but was now acting as a superintendent and engaged in sheep-wash- ing: he had gone wrong, it was reported, through disappointment inlove; and although one who had drawn deeply from the altar of the blue-eyed goddess of wisdom, had sought refiige at the shrine of Bacchus. What a state for a man of cultivated and classical mind to be reduced to ! My firiend told me, in colonial parlance, he was a dreadful " lush- ington;" a term commonly appUed to a person who is addicted to drink. Never- theless he appeared to be an accomplished 166 AN OXFORD MAN. person, and an agreeable companion. But of such examples there are numbers in the bush, a condition brought on by their own heedlessness and folly ; " their sin has found them out." We could not help feeling pity for this victim of a hopeless passion : how different, perhaps distinguished and happy, might have been his career, had he siun- moned fortitude to combat against defeat, or been fortunate in his projects ! We regarded him with very different sentiments to those excited by the " quondam" man of fashion, whom we could only laugh at and despise. EATON VALE. 167 CHAPTER Xin. EATON VALE — ARTHUR HODGSON — BUSH TURKEY — THE BEST WAY TO GET A SHOT — LEICHARDT — A COMFORTABLE STATION — CORN STALB3 — ^THE NATIONAL ANTHEM — ^AN ABORIGINAL BELLE— A MEXICAN— A BUCKER— OUR RETURN — sawyer's — ^A LED HORSE — ^A DILEMMA — ^A SHORT CUT THE LONGEST WAY — ^A BULLOCK DRAY — CARRION CROWS — STRYCHNIA — FROGS — ^THE RAN.E — SHEEP-SHEARINQ HOSPITAUTY — SCOTCH EMIGRANT — TROUBLESOME SER- VANT — RETURN TO BRISBANE — ^PRICE OF LAND — SEPARA- TION OF MORETON BAY FROM SYDNEY — ^REASONS WHY DESIRABLE. Wb arrived at length at Mr. Arthur Hodgson's, of Eaton Vale, a retired naval officer, who has here an extensive station and many thousands of sheep and cattle ; he has fenced in many miles in a fine large pad- dock. The fencing is made of iron bark, split ; the post and rail are awkward things to get over, as there is every probability of getting pierced by a long splinter. The proprietor, who was an old Etonian, takes an active part in politics, and on that account we 168 MR. ARTHUR HODGSON. had not the pleasure of seeing him, he being at a meeting held at Brisbane to petition for the separation of Moreton Bay from Sydney. The Herald,* in a leader on the pro-convict party says, " On this ques- tion Mr. Arthur Hodgson is a host in him- self, and will exert more influence with Her Majesty's advisers than the league and the four legislatures put together." This gentle- man advocated exile-labour, because none other could be obtained ; but now that the Commissioners are sending emigrants to Moreton Bay, he has withdrawn his support from the party which desires the introduc- tion of criminals : this he avowed at a meeting held in September, at Brisbane. But while some difier on the convict question, all agree on the separation of their district from New South Wales. While here we saw numbers of wild turkeys standing above the grass of the plains, stretching out their long necks. As soon as they suspected us of trying to ap- proach, away they stalked, walking at a * June 6tli, 1852, " North Brisbane Petition." BUSH TURKEYS. 169 smart pace. We saw several of the com- missioners belonging to a surveying party trjdng to shoot some, but without success. If you walk directly towards them they rise immediately. The best way (as we heard) is to ride round them, diminishing the radius of your circle until you approach near enough to make sure of your game. This plan was more successful formerly than now, as having been so much shot at they are very shy. We were told that they are excellent eating,and weigh from eighteen to twenty-five pounds. Another mode sometimes adopted is to drive a flock of sheep towards them, which they will aUow to approach pretty near, at any rate nigh enough for a good marksman. Mr. Watt, an overseer at Eaton Vale, has been very successful, bringing home occasionally three and four of a morning, by watching at a water-hole in the creek, where they come down in troops to drink. Beyond this station there are not above one or two more on the downs before you get into country uninhabited by white people. It was along this route that Leichardt I 170 COMFORTABLE STATION. the German traveller intended to penetrate as far as Swan Eiver ; but lie and his com- panions have perished in the attempt — slain by the blacks, as ascertained by Mr. Healy and party, appointed by government to make inquiries concerning their fate. This was one of the comfortable stations, wheice we were kindly and hospitably enter- tained by Mrs. Hodgson in the absence of her husband. She was a daughter of Chief Justice Dowling, and a native. The chil- dren bom in Australia are, from their lanky appearance and extreme leanness, called " com stalks ;'* they have the appearance of poplars, shorn of their branches. Had we drawn our conclusions from the specimen which presented itself in one of Mr. Hodg- son's children, they would have been the very opposite to the " soubriquet " generally applied, for a fine little fellow he was, whose cheeks would have done credit to any county in England. At these large stations there are gene- rally hanging about some of the natives, who are looking out for " patter" (food) ; the THE NATIONAL ANTHEM. 171 scraps which are left. They dislike work, but will, if hungry, fetch a little water or cut and break up firewood. We were much entertained here by a young woman who lay stretched before the fire, smoking, by the side of her mother, with two boys, her children, who attempted to sing, or rather htun in a low unmeaning moan ; with very little of either harmony or time, as they have no poetry, or historical tradition of aaykind. I sang for her the National An- them with which she was much delighted, and asked my name, — " What you call?" I told her, and henceforth her boy is to bear it. Mr. A. Hodgson had an overseer who was a Mexican, whom no "bucker" could un- horse. We heard of his prowess with these troublesome customers, and s^w an inve- terate specimen in a beautiful grey mare. It was impossible to throw this man; he has kept his seat tiU the saddle was wriggled over the animal's head. These brutes have a way of their own of curving the back with their head between their legs, and working away till they throw the rider some feet into i2 172 OUR RETURN. the air, or twist the saddle off entirely, in- credible as this may appear to persons who have no experience in horse-flesh. It is not an easy matter to get a horse altogether free from vice in Sydney ; they are often only half handled and half-broken in, then turned into the bush, and allowed to run wild for twelve months or two years, and, when caught again, are as unmanageable as if a saddle had never been on their backs Our friend left us here to find our way, as best we could, with the young groom for a guide, he having to return with great haste to meet a person from whom he was about to purchase a station. On his journey he was overtaken by one of those awful thun- der-storms, which no one can imagine, except travellers who have witnessed them in Aus- tralia. On the following day we started to return to Brisbane, by a route over the main range or Corderillas, different to the one by which we came. Accompanied by Mr. W. D , who was to put us in the right direc- tion, we arrived at a sawyer's hut, where three men were regaling themselves with tea A DILEMMA. 173 and damper, and as a great additional treat a few scallions. These men had from two to three hundred pounds in the bank. One of the party, a native, had been home to see London and to be present at the Great Exhibition ; the trip, he said, had cost him a hundred pounds, which, however, he did not at all grudge. We sat down and partook of the fare which they offered us, rough enough, but with that hearty welcome, which, in this selfish world, makes anything agreeable. Here the elder brother of my friend had left his led horse, which he could take no fiirther, under the charge of his party; so " Abelard" was soon found and consigned to our care — a pretty roan, and a fast-goer. At the top of the range our friend took leave of us, with directions to keep the dray-track, and we could not possibly miss our way; and with now and then some misapprehensions, we found it tolerably weU, except that our Lilliputian attendant and his horse got bogged, and extricated themselves with con- siderable difficulty. But the old " Admiral" having a light burden on his back blundered 174 A 5ULL0CK-DRAY. himself out of it ; if he had not, we know not by what process we should have got the boy again upon ** terra firma." Afterwards this precocious youth persuaded us to try a short cut over some sand ridges, which glis- tened with crystals of salt as bright as gold, but in reality not the popular talisman ; the effect was beautiftil, though the cause was not the all-pervading one which now en- grosses the attention of everybody in New South Wales, We met several bullock-drays, which had been on the road upwards of three weeks, with from eight to ten oxen in a team, managed as much by the voice as the whip. There was at one station, which we did not visit, an old sailor, who addressed his draught cattle in nautical terms— luff — port — ^larboard — starboard, &c., and the conse- quence was that no one could guide them but himself, and we were told he made an excellent driver. How drays hold together on the roads they are taken through is to us most surprising. Such pitches, and hills ! Nay, we should not exaggerate if we said CARRION CROWS. 175 these heavily-laden carts, carrying stores up to the settlers, and bringing back wool, go up and down ravines. It is no nnconunon thing in the colony to see a dead bullock by the side of the road, surrounded by car- rion-crows and wild native dogs. The former are very troublesome in snatching up young poultry about a station, and the best way to get rid of them is to place upon trees pieces of meat poisoned with strychnia, and before they fly any distance down, you may see them tumble, as if shot by some noiseless gun. Notwithstanding these depredations, we must regard them as useM scavengers, in devouring the putrid carcasses^ which would otherwise infect the air with mephitic odours, enough to puzzle the hygeian talents of Dr. Southwood Smith and Mr. Chadwick. Even the troublesome mosquito has a use, as naturahsts inform us; by living in swampy grounds they purify the noxious gases there generated, when nothing else could, save the croaking frogs, of which there seem to be a countless mul- titude in the colony, with certainly harsher 176 FROGS — ^WANT OF WATER. notes than in the days of Aristophanes. We seldom hear their accents without the thought recurring that by the chorus of frogs in the "Eanae" of the (jrecian dra- matist, the right pronunciation of the dead language has been determined, unless ani- mals, as well as men, change their natural notes in course of time. We are disposed to think frogs in these days are the same " croakers" they were formerly. In Australia, where the great drawback is the want of water, the weary traveller is glad after many miles of riding or walking, to welcome the sound of the frogs' discordant cry, indicating as it does an approach to- wards the coveted Kquid. The party which was sent in search qf Leichardt, had to drink the blood of the horses. Have you ever, reader, endured the agony of thirst? It is far greater than the pangs of hunger. At sun-down we made a station belonging to a settler of the name of Turner, who by industry and perseverance from being a poor emigrant had become a tolerably substantial proprietor. By him we were made welcome SHEEP SHEARING. 177 for the night, and found him suffering from a relaxed sore throat ; and a friend, also an invalid, who had injured himself by driving tandem with a restive leader. The distance from medical advice is a great qualifier to the pleasures of a bush-life, since it is not every one who is as distinguished a sciolist as my Lord Brougham. What a pity it is that, amid the many vagaries which seize upon his lordship, that of paying a visit to the bush has not been one of his eccentricities. At this place all were busy shearing. '' Chp close, my boys, clip close," was the cry to the shearers. One ounce of wool left on each sheep, when perhaps fifteen or twenty thousand are shorn, forms in the aggre- gate a serious amount ; here any one who thinks lightly of fractional parts will soon learn their value. And clip close some did, to the mutilation of the poor crea- ture, large pieces of the skin being taken off by the shears. A small bucket of tar is placed in the middle of the wool-shed, with a brush in it. When a sheep has been wounded, it is dressed over with this tar mixture and i3 178 SHEEP-SHEARING. turned adrift. An expert man will shear jGrom four to five score, and even six in a day, (z for which they were then receiving three shillings per score, with one shilling for diet. The sheep is placed with its head between the knees, and the operation of denuding it of its coat to make a jacket for us is com- menced at the head ; a boy, or boys, pick up the wool, fold it, and hand it in to a man, who packs it ready for pressing into bales. A sheep yields from two and a half to three, or three and a half pounds of wool, which may be taken at an average value of one shilling and threepence, depending, of course, upon the quality and the state of cleanliness in which it may be presented to the market. Sheep-washers were getting five shillmgs a.day, and three glasses of grog. This is very hard work; immersed all day up to and ^bove the waist in water, washing the dirt fi'om the sheep previous to shearing. The wool pressed in the bush is pushed into the bale by a clumsy and primitive con- trivance of a screw-press; in Sydney by the more powerful and scientific means of HOSPJLTALITY IN THE BUSH. 179 hydraulic pressure. To give the reader some idea of the hospitality of the bush, three more unexpected visitors arrived to rest for the night, and were made heartily wel- come. Our couch was in the store, amid saddles, bridles, rum casks, hides, tea, sugar, and general stock for the use of the station ; and from which the shepherds and stockmen are supplied with clothing and everything else they may require. Before sun-down the next day we made another home at a supervisor's ; a gentleman who had once had a large flock in the Mel- bourne district, but had, during the great d^ression of trade, become unfortunate. A " Super/' as he is termed, gets from a hun- dred to a hundred and fifty pounds per annnm.witt. house and raZs. L the uL of a nice garden, the constant appendage of every squatter's station: horticulture he is allowed to practise, but not agriculture on Ucensed runs. He was a very pleasant, cheer- M UtUe body, and; we were Mormed, a first- rate jockey, and bore ids adverse fortunes with fortitude and good temper: he had 180 SCOTCH EMIGRANT. married (paradoxical as it may appear to ladies in the " beau monde," who look for settlements and an establishment), in order that he might become rich. We remained here until Monday morning, and our little groom, who certainly was a very smart lad, but who always contrived to be at mischief, when out of sight, had gone off at day-break, of course on horseback, together with a native black, for a gallop, under the excuse of looking for some horses in the bush, without any orders to that effect. Of course he had not spared his horse, as either were never satisfied, except when at score. We were too slow for him. He liked to go the pace. He had, in fact, gone off to escape his catechism and the collect, which since making our acquaintance he had been rather reluctantly compelled to say. We were sorry here to see one of our Scotch emigrants going out with his gun on the Sabbatlv^o readUy does the natural man fall into 'e¥il habits. His eldest boy, whom we instructed in some of the first propositions of EucHd, was acting as a rROUBLESOME SERVANT. 181 shepherd, an occupation he told me he very much disliked, and hoped as soon as possible to give up. He had charge of three valuable rams, which had been lately im- ported, having cost upwards of forty pounds a-piece. The calling is doubtless very mo- notonous, and they who follow it for any length of time become too indolent and list- less to attend to any other employment which requires active and continuous application. At this station we were quite abashed at observing one of the aborigines walking about in all directions and at all seasons, in the presence of everybody in pure buff; but no notice being taken of it, we soon became like the rest, accustomed to the novelty. We started again with our troublesome little companion, who, in spite of remon- strance and command, would chatter and talk to us when our thoughts were busy with the surrounding objects. He was a clever boy, but a great plague ; he had got from some shepherd or crony, a horrible imitation of a musical instrument, producing a sound something between a jew*s-harp and 182 RETURN TO BRISBANE. a comb and piece of paper, which he kept incessantly playing- for sixty miles, when not allowed to taJk. For the sake of variety we encouraged him in his harmonious propen- sity. We passed through a dense scrub or jungle, rendered almost impervious by tea- tree and brushwood of different kinds, with our horses up to their hocks in mire. " Here," says our groom, " a dray has been, " and sure enough it had ; " and here are some native cherries." On all sides of us we heard the endless dis- sonance of birds. On emerging from this pass, we met, in the afternoon, some drays camped for the night; and having had nothing since the morning, we took a snack with them. Their bullocks were hobbled; tea and meat on the fire ; opossum rugs and blankets under the dray, or upon it, formed their only bed, and this perhaps for weeks and weeks together, always ending with a smoke of the pipe. We generally met with the drays one or two blacks, and in some cases, women with the drivers ; it may be hoped, their wives, for we are sorry to say PRICE OF LAND. 183 there is no morality to spare among them. We travelled a long way without coming to water, which our horses sadly required. After a tedious, wearisome, but interesting ride, at midnight we arrived at Ipswich and re- turned to Brisbane by the steamer, where we had not time to deliver another lecture upon our impressions; and if we had, the at1.endance would have been very scanty, as the whole town was to let, the men having gone off to the Bingera diggings. The country we travelled is divided into settled, intermediate, and unsettled districts. In the unsettled parts, the squatters are the pioneers of civilization, renting large blocks of land, or as they are called in Mexico, " ranches," upon which they depasture sheep, horses, and cattle. The wealth of an individual, as in the patriarchal ages, is mea- sured by the number of sheep or cattle he possesses, and is so expressed. The price of land (one pound per acre) is preposterously high in Australia, and, in many instances, impracticably so. Centrali- zation was the favourite theory of Mr. G. 1 84 REASONS WHY SEPARATION Wakefield, and has proved, as some others he has attempted to carry into practice, a failure. In lieu of consolidating colo- nization, it has had a diametrically opposite efiect. This plan scattered and dispersed sheep proprietors : they sought out and took undisturbed possession of immense tracts in a large country, so that it became policy to recognise the tenure by granting leases, upon something like a quit-rent, of those lands which the Government had not the power of recovering. Whether it has introduced this tenure as one which will become per- manent, we know not. But it is very evi- dent to any one, that, for very many years to come, it will be quite impossible for squatters to purchase the fee-simple of runs at the present upset price. J£ the purchaser obtains the frontage of water, all the land behind him may be said to be his, for no one will settle where he has no access to water. One reason why the inhabitants of More- ton Bay wish to be separated from Sydney is, the delay and inconvenience arising to them IS DESIRABLE. 185 from the surveying of land. Suppose an immigrant of small capital is desirous of an allotment, — ^it has to be surveyed, sent for approval to Sydney, and, by the time the purchase can be legally and formally com- pleted, the purchaser has consumed his capital and lost his time in waiting for pre- liminary arrangements. It was the most fatal policy ever adopted. The high price of land, instead of producing funds to sup- port emigration from home, checked the stream, by lessening the number of pur- chasers. Who would go further to pay more ? Land could be bought, and better for agricultural purposes, in America, and Ca- nada, and the Cape; but at the antipodes, the immigrant is made to pay four and even eight times as much per acre, as if he located himself nearer England. Separation was also desirable on account of the delay in the administration of justice. 186 SYDNEY. CHAPTEE XIV. SYDNEY — THE HEADS — BOTANY BAY — PORT JACKSON — CIRCULAR QQAY — FIRST FLEETERS— STATISTICS OF FIRST FLEETERS — SOULS — STOCK — EXTINCTION OF SYDNEY TRIBE — COL. COLLINS* ACCOUNT — DR. LANQ'S — PITT- STREET AND GEORGE-STREET — THE SHOPS — GOLD SALES — QUANTITY IN SHOP WINDOWS — BILL NASH, THE EMANCIPIST — THE ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM — ^HIS AFFRONT UPON OUR MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN — GOVERNMENT HOUSE — HIS excellency's COUNTRY HOUSE — THE FATAL ACCIDENT TO LADY MARY — SYMPATHY EXPRESSED BY COLONISTS— HIS POPULARITY IN SYDNEY— HIS RUMOURED REMOVAL — THE TREASURY — ^THE GOLD ESCORT — SUB- SCRIPTION LIBRARY — THE CLUB-HOUSE — CAFi DR PARIS — THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY — THE WANT OF A HOUSE — ^THE FORMS OF THE HOUSE — THE GOVERNMENT BENCHES — QUALIFICATION AND FRANCHISE — THE OPPO- SITION — THE SPEAKERS — W. WENTWORTH — ^THE COLO- NIAL SECRETARY — STUART DONALDSON — BOB NICHOLLS — d' ARVILLE — THE SPEAKER — SOUCITOR - GENERAL — AN ENGLISH M.P, — THE RACE-COURSE ON HYDE PARK — ST. JAMES' CHURCH — THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL — COURTS OF LAW. The steamer called the " Eagle," wliich plies between Moreton Bay and Sydney, being under repair, we were necessitated to take a FIRST FLEETERS. 187 passage in one of the coasting vessels. After ten days' sail we entered the Heads, at three o'clock, on a beautiful starlight mom. Either side of this magnificent port is ornamented with handsome houses, the residences of the government officials, professional and mer- cantile gentlemen. The harbour is second only to Rio de Jaueiro. Some islands rise up here and there, but not so numerous as in the waters of Eio. Port Jackson derives its name from a sailor who first discovered it when the original explorers landed at Botany Bay about six or seven miles distant. The Circular Quay is the spot where the first fleet landed their convicts. Captain and Governor Phillip anchored off this place 1 9th January, 1788, in the "Sirius," accompanied by a tender, three store ships, and six trans- ports, having found Botany Bay, the in- tended place of their destination, unsuitable for a settlement. The expedition numbered one thousand and thirty persons, seven hun- dred of whom were felons. The 26th of January is held as the anniversary of the 188 STATISTICS. colony. Here was to be seen only the poor ignorant, unclad savage, wondering at his white brother, before whom he was to dis- appear. There are only three left of the Sydney tribe. Compare the town now with the few hovels and huts which the first settlers raised upon its site, only sixty-five years ago, and you can scarcely credit its so recent growth. It is amusing to read the history of the expedition, written by persons, contempora- neous with its formation ; one by Lieutenant O'Hara, and another by Colonel Collins, which, in the beginning of this century, were humorously reviewed by the witty canon of St. Paul's, Sydney Smith. It is also in- structive as showing what changes a few years may bring about, for weal or woe.* Dr. Lang, a Presbyterian clergyman, has pubHshed a very interesting historical ac- count of New South Wales ; and one which may be depended upon, where his violent * A.D. 1788. — 2 bulls, 6 cows, 1 horse, 3 mares, 3 colts, 29 sheep, 19 goats, 74 pigs, 5 rabbits, 18 turkeys, 29 geese, 35 ducks, 210 fowls. DR. LANG. 189 prejudices do not pervert or contract his judgment. He arrived in the colony in 1823, and may be said to have kept himself in hot water ever since, and not without coming under the punishment of the law. Feb. nth, Sydney Herald. — "Our readers wiU be surprised to hear that Dr. Lang has clandestinely left the colony. It appears that he was in negotiation with a creditor, who has had an execution against him for some months, as late as three o'clock on Saturday ; and finding that he would not agree to his terms, Dr. L. procured a special clearance at the Water Police-office, and sailed yesterday morning in the * Wands- worth' for London. A messenger was sent to the heads of the ship, but was just in time to meet the pilot-boat coming back : the Doctor was off." The two principal streets are George- street and Pitt-street. In the first are some very tasty shops, with plate-glass windows, and some very handsome buildings are in the course of erection on the site on which barracks once stood, now designated Wjm- 190 GOLD SALES. waxd-sqnaxe, in compliment to the gallant officer of that name. In these windows may be seen gold gUttering in every variety of form, natural and artificial — ^in nnggets, dust, and in the original matrix of quartz; specimens of all kinds, with notices that gold will be bought to any amount, at the best prices ; and to attest the ability to do so, that it is not colonial bounce, the window siU is spread over with heaps of sovereigns and bank-notes, and you may see within some lucky digger, who having escaped robbery, dysentery, and ophthalmia, has come down, to convert into currency his golden harvest. Or if you turn into any of the numerous auction rooms, the day after the escort comes in, you may see — and if you can, buy — pretty yellow-looking lumps from about the size of a pin's head to a horse-bean ; or if you prefer it, a flat piece, which some of Fortune's favourites have fallen in with, about the size of a small dessert-plate. One of the greatest buyers is an old pardoned convict of the name of WilKam, or as he is there BILL NASH. 191 more commonly called Bill, Nash, who robbed the Bristol mail, of which he was the guard. His wife (or better half ?) followed him, as some say, with the booty, and set up a fine shop in Pitt-street, in the haberdashery line, or to speak idiomatically, in the soft goods' business. Under the old system, what some would call the good old times, he was assigned to her as a servant ; her own hus- band her domestic! What a burlesque on transportation as a punishment ! He is very unpopular with the old hands, as he returned to England, and ofiered an intentional affi*ont to our most Excellent Sovereign, when driving out in the park, by drawing his horses ax^ross the road, as her equipage was passing by. He cut a great dash in the Eegent's Park, and was known as the flash returned convict. We stood by him at Messrs Cohen*s auction- room, when the gold fraud, which was in course of investigation at Melbourne, was discussed. He addressed us, and we caimot add that he prepossessed us much in his favour. He looks what he is and has been. 192 GOVERNMENT HOUSE. In a little cupboard-looking shop in "King- street, he may be seen in shirt sleeves spreading a tray full of sovereigns in the shop front, and heaping up bank-notes as a border to them, inviting any one to sell their gold to him. We believe he is among the wealthiest men in New South Wales, if he is not the most distinguished in manners and reputation. Government House, the residence of Sir Charles FitzEoy, the Governor, is a hand- some castellated building, in something of the Elizabethan style, with well-propor- tioned and commodious apartments. EQs Excellency has also a residence in the country at Paramatta, about twelve miles from Sydney, associated with which, to him are some painful and distressing circum- stances. In starting from his house in a carriage and four, he driving, his wife and aid-de-camp inside, the horses took fright, and dashing off, became unmanageable, by which the carriage was upset, the aid-de- camp was killed on the spot, and Lady Mary expired after lingering a few hours in POPULARITY OF SIR C. FITZROY. 193 great agony. The inhabitants deeply sym- pathised with him; as he is deservedly popular and esteemed by the good people of Sydney; evincing, as he does, an earnest wish to advance the interests of the colony, and promote the wishes and happiness, nay, even the amusements, of its people. The only cloud which overcast his popularity, arose in consequence of some representations he made to the Home Go- vernment, with reference to a meeting which took place on the 11th of June, 1849, at the Circular Quay, and which, notwithstanding the weather being most unfavourable, was numerously attended, to protest against the continued introduction of convicts, threat- ened by the arrival of the ship " Hashemey." The people of New South Wales are unani- mously opposed to this measure, and the colony is now so far advanced as to be jus- tified in depending solely on free labour. It was rumoured, while the writer was there, that Sir Charles was likely to have the com- mand of one of the Indian presidencies : we think the Australians will lose him with 194 THE TREASURY. regret, whenever he is relieved or promoted from his post. Opposite to Government House is the Treasury, the Whitehall and fiitnre Downing- street of Sydney. Here every ten days is deposited the gold brought down from the interior by the armed escort, in a crazy, jingling old dray. From hence may be seen a very goodly structure, the nucleus, we hope, at some ftiture period, of a fine national institution — a subscription library, supported by shareholders, and containing, at present, several thousand volumes, with a reading-room attached, supplied with Euro- pean newspapers and literary periodicals. In the same street is the club-house, the Athenaeum or " White's " of the aristocracy of New South Wales, a very neat-looking edifice, and well enough appointed ; but by and bye, we presume, as Sydney in- creases in wealth and population, and con- sequently with it the introduction of more abundant labour, the "squatters " and landed gentlemen and merchants will unite, and have as fine a building as those we see LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 195 at home — ^the tempters to selfishness and ease. Let us now go to the Legislative Council, met under the Nev^ Australian Constitution Act, as passed by Parliament in 1850. The chamber is at the extreme end of the old convict barracks, the other being the depot for emigrants, &c. There is a sad want of "a house" for the senators to meet in. They follow as much as possible the forms observed in the British House of Commons. On the right of the Speaker sit the organs of Government, and such of the Executive Council as are entitled to claim a seat among the legislators of Australia, two- thirds of whom are elected by the people, the rest being nominees and officials. The franchise is reduced from twenty to ten pounds, and ftimished by the same Act with powers of self-modification. On the left of the chair the Opposition place themselves. As we enter we perceive that a question is before the House, and a harsh -featured, curly -headed old man is on his legs, stuttering and stumbling out his words, k2 196 MR. WILLIAM WENT WORTH. apparently in great wrath, if we may judge truly from external signs what is working within ; his countenance coloured by emo- tion or else by the sun, fiimbling his spec- tacles, shutting and opening the case, and speaking with awkwardness and an ungainly gait, sending out venom and invective against Earl Grey and the local Government, attri- buting to either the worst motives possible — tyranny, mal-govemment, jobbery, and every evil intention which can be conceived as the motives to action in ill-constituted authorities. Full of self-esteem and con- fidence, with an absurdly exaggerated esti- mate of his own importance, this is a Member who never overlooks the interests of number one. He wanted a grant of a million acres or more in New Zealand from Sir George Gipps for a few blankets and old rusty muskets, and has managed pretty weU to get extensive grants of land in days gone by ; — ^he wanted to sell his estate by lottery, but was not allowed by the Attorney-General, and on that same land a gold-field has since been discovered. As a grateful return to THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. 197 the discoverer of Australia's treasures, he called Mr. Hargreaves an " impudent and shallow fellow." It is the Member for Sydney we are speaking of, William Went- worth, the son of an old settler, and gene- rally called " Billy," the leader of the party which sets itself against Government, and heading a section which wants, what New South Wales is not ripe for at present, a "responsible Government." He may be known by being always dressed in a pepper- and-salt suit. We consider that the mannerism and idiosyncracy of any public man who assumes a prominent place, is a legitimate and fair subject of criticism ; but beyond that, we have no right to enter into the sanctity of the domestic circle and the history of private life* Who is he who rises with so much tact and good-temper to reply, with an air of official self-possession and truthftdness, in honesty of purpose, to the intemperate and violent attacks of the Honourable Member for Sydney, evidently received with respect and regard by the House ? It is the Honour- 198 THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. able Deas Thompson, the Colonial Secretary, a man respected and relied upon throughout Australia as an excellent man of business in detail, and with a perfect knowledge of the wants and resources of the colony; an old and eflBcient servant of the Government : and the estimation in which those services were held may be gathered from the substantial proof of it which was given by the Council, with the complete, and, we may say, the unanimous approbation of the community, by voting a sum of three thousand pounds upon a prospective increase to his income of five hundred pounds per annum. His ability as a speaker is not great ; he wants fluency and smoothness; but the reporters make his speeches read well. His remarks are always business-like, to the point, and practical. He is no orator, but possesses one very important talent in an Executive — he can receive sarcastic and virulent attacks from Members without being irritated into an unguarded and hasty reply. He is con- sidered an able man by all the Australian colonies. He is as estimable in domestic MR. STUART DONALDSON. 199 as he is useful in public life, and, therefore, in all relations regarded and respected. An opposition, Edmund Burke remarked, is essential to produce an efficient and active government; in the Sydney Council, this element is at present in a very flourishing condition. There is another gentleman, a Mr. Stuart Donaldson, who may be said to be the Joseph Hume of the House, as he looks narrowly to the expenditure. As there is a " Cupid " in our own House of Commons — ^my Lord Pahnerston — so we would say there was an Adonis in the Sydney Legislative Council in the person of Mr. Stuart Donaldson, who is rapid, voluble, and embarrassed in his delivery, but still with the material of a fair, if not quite a first-rate, speaker within him. It would have been some advantage to the colony had he been selected to be the bearer of the draught of the new constitution for the formation of the Upper House, but which is not to come before the Council until another Session, when Mr. William Went- worth intends to bring it home with him. 200 BOB NICHOLLS. under his particular auspices. This was a disappointment to Mr. Donaldson, the Member for Durham, as it was a disad- vantage to his constituents. He would have had an easy access, in all probability, to the House of Commons, in which he might have acquired a better style of senatorial oratory. There would have been an " avenir " for him, not as great as that which he prophesied to the colony in his valedictory address, but still gratifying and encouraging. There is also a lawyer of the name of Nicholls, an attorney of considerable prac- tice, whom it is rather amusing to hear address the House, as he speaks to the Chair, as if he were examining a reluctant witness at the Old Bailey. The most Parliamentary speaker is a honourable gentleman of the name of D' Ar- viUe, who has been many years in the colony, and has the leading practice at the colonial bar. He speaks with ease and smoothness ; his language is pure and unaffected ; his de- livery agreeable and persuasive; his voice weU-managed and melodious. He has been SIR C. NICHOLSON. 201 recently offered a seat on the judicial bench by the authorities at Melbourne, which he has declined. He is justly popular and re- spected as an independent member and leader at the bar. We met him at the mess of the regiment quartered in Sydney, the 11th. HSs amenities in social life accord with his public courtesy. The Speaker, Sir C. Nicholson, has lately had his income voted to eight hundred pounds per annum, upon a motion intro- duced by Mr. W. Wentworth, in which he stated it was not intended to allow the speakership to be any longer an undisputed tenure. He has given satisfaction to all parties in the House by his impartiaUty and gentlemanly deportment. The Attorney-General, the Honourable Mr. Plimkett, has a weak, feeble voice, and unprepossessing delivery, more so than his colleague, the Solicitor-General, who is the son of a former judge in the colony. Judge Maiming, and has an agreeable maimer, with considerable facility of language. When there on one occasion we were k3 202 HYDE PARK. addressed by a gentleman under the reporters' gallery, with a beard that an Arab might have envied, and who subsequently we dis- covered to be an M.P. for some Scotch county (Linlithgowshire), and who, we believe, is still a member, who had come out, perhaps, to get up colonial politics. After leaving the Legislative Council Chamber, by winding your way to the left, you will arrive at the race-course, or Hyde Park, and from the top of it, on the right, St. James's Church presents itself; a little to the left stands the Eoman Catholic Cathe- dral. Either of these buildings the metro- poHs of London would not be disgraced by ; and below St. James's Church are the courts of law. SYDNEY TJNIVEESnT. 203 CHAPTER XV. SYDNEY UNIVERSITY — BISHOP OF NEWCASTLE — THE GOOD SENSE OF CLERGY AND LAITY — HIS OWN UNIVERSITY — HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR CHARLES NICHOLSON— THE ARCHDEACON — THE PROBABLE RESULT OF THE TWO SYSTEMS — THE OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY-^ITS CON- STITUTION WELL ADAPTED TO AUSTRALIA — THE WANT OF ARGHITECrURAL BEAUTY — THE PROTESTANT CATHE- DRAL — LYONS* TERRACE — HIS ANTECEDENTS — WOO- LOOMOOLOO — SYDNEY MUSEUM — THE DOMAIN — THE FASHIONABLE PROMENADE^-i-THE BOTANICAL GARDEN — ITS BEAUTIES — THE SHIPPING — FLOWER-SHOWS — THE CURATOR— GOVERNOR MACQUARIE — ^TRIAL BY JURY — ATTORNEY-GENERAL FINDS TRUE BILL — THE JUDGES OF NEW SOUTH WALES — LORD SHAFTESBURY AND HIS EXCELLENCY — SYDNEY NOT WORSE THAN ANY ENGLISH GARRISON OR PORT TOWN — TALLOW FRAUD — GOLD FRAUD — NOT ONLY PAUPERS AND CONVICTS SENT OUT — ALSO YOUNG PRODIGALS — ^THE FOLLY OF SENDING THEM OUT — ^THE BEST WAY TO SEND THEM OUT — LETTER OF INTRODUCTION — ^THE MR. V.'S — THE WAY TO GET ON. In the middle of the race-course stands the Sydney University, for which the colony, in a great measure, is indebted to Wentworth — the most useful measure he has ever pro- pounded for their advantage. * But it has 204 BISHOP OF NEWCASTLE. raised a controversy, which was raging with considerable warmth, between the Bishop of Newcastle, the clergy, and some portion of the laity. The Principal is a first-class Oxford man, and formerly head-master of Bury St. Ed- mund's ; a person of unquestionable literary and classical attainments. The Professor of Mathematics was senior wrangler of his year; as also was the Professor of Chemistry, a gentleman of the highest pretension in the inductive sciences. So far, therefore, as suf- ficiency of talent was concerned, there could be no doubt respecting the efficiency of the institution. But the Bishop of Newcastle, in the absence of the Bishop of Sydney, thought that a portion of the five thousand pounds per annum which was voted by the Council, should be appropriated to found- ing professorships of theology, regulated in amount by the same principle that the Church funds are, for teachers of dijfferent creeds. The College was separated from the Uni- versity; but this was not sufficient for his lordship, who is rather arbitrary in his dis- cipline, bein§ of a " sic volo, sic jubeo " BISHOP OF NEWCASTLE. 205 temperament. He assumed that the Bishop of Sydney would object to the principle of the University, as being a godless (so he said), even an heathen University, because secular knowledge was alone taught in it. Upon this ground he objected also to affi- liated colleges. But the good sense of the laity and clergy called a meeting, which wisely decided on founding a College in conjunction with the University, for members of the Established Church. The Bishop of Newcastle stated in a correspondence he had with the Speaker of the Council, that it was his intention to appropriate his house for the purposes of education in his diocese, if such a resolution was carried. He will now have an oppor- tunity of gratifying his opposition and satis- fying his conscience. It is, however, no more than consistent in him to express these sentiments, as he decidedly belongs to the Oxford school of Divinity. So does the Venerable the Arch- deacon to the old-fashioned high church party. The exaggerated notions of the powers of priesthood entertained by either 206 OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY. have not lost any of their force, by a resi- dence of forty-five years among a convict population, where authority was aU-powerful and arbitrary. Surely it must have a humanizing effect on youths of different religious views and opinions to meet together for secular instruction, who are hereafter to meet in the commerce and transactions of life, in one common arena of honourable com- petition. This association is certainly less likely to engender and foster bigotry, intole- rance, and the "odium theologicum," than the system which its opponents would main- tain. We were present at the opening of the University, at which the clergy (of all deno- minations) attended in full canonicals, as also his Excellency the Governor and staff, civil and military. An inaugural address was de- livered by the Principal, in which he com- pared Wentworth to Alfred, and dilated on the future literary eminence of Australia's sons. It was an important day in the history of New South Wales. Sir C. Nicholson, the Speaker of the Legislative Council, in an oration full of talent and eloquence, ITS coNSTrrunoN. 207 stated that Australia had no past, but a glo- rious ftiture before her. The constitutioii of the University is one well adapted to the state of the colony, if not (but why not ?) capable of general adop- tion : certainly well suited to Sydney, the capital of a country in which there is no established church endowed by the State. A sum of twenty-eight thousand pounds or thereabouts is, under Governor Bourke's Church Act, apportioned according to the population of the various denominations. The amount is distributed among the Anglo- Catholic, the Eoman Catholic, the Presby- terian, and other Protestant sects. Much reliance is not to be placed upon the subjoined census, which was made pre- vious to the gold discoveries.* The Boman £. * Church of England - 17,064 Presbyterian - 2,174 "Wesleyan Methodists - 660 Eoman Catholic - - 7,511 Total at Sydney - £27,399 Census, March 1st, 1851.-98,137 Church of Eng- land; 56,899 Eoman Catholics ; 18,156 Presbyterians; 10,008 Wesleyans. 208 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Catholic population, by the great influx of Irish, is increasing rapidly. We cannot say much for the architectural beauties of the University, which are readily eclipsed, such as they are, by the Roman Catholic Cathedral — a fine edifice. We regret to say that the Anglo-Saxon Ca- thedral, St. George's, stands still, a monu- ment of the tardiness of any gifts from the members of the Established Church. When completed, it will be a very handsome and imposing structure. St. James's Church, at the head of Hyde Park, or the race-course, is a handsome brick building, with a lofty spire, well attended on Sundays, and with a fine organ. When looking round, one can scarcely realize the truth that sixty-five years ago there were only to be seen the wandering savage, and a few huts, where now this fine city extends in all directions. Across the park may be seen a fine row of houses caUed Lyons' Terrace, which are now letting at a rent of three hundred pounds a-year. They were erected by an old convict of the name of Sam Lyons, a person who lyon's terrace. 209 amassed a considerable fortune. He is one among the number of successful felons, and bore the character of a man most punctual and honourable in his transactions in the colony. This quarter may be said to be the commencement of the Belgravia of Sydney. From hence may be seen the jail and military barracks, standing on a plain of sand, with a view of the swamps which supply the town with water. That part of the city is called Wooloomooloo, and looks down upon busy crowded streets not many years ago the refiige and hiding-place of bush-rangers. We had nearly omitted the Australian Museum, in which there is a collection of the mineral productions of the colony, with the various implements used by the in- habitants of the Polynesian isles, the abo- rigines, and New Zealanders, in warfare and agriculture. Continuous with Hyde Park is the domain in which the band of the 11th regiment plays once a week, when it becomes the rendezvous of the fashionable and elite of Sydney; some on horseback, and some in 210 BOTANICAL GARDENS. pretty carriages, Here and there you may notice a squatter, or as they are called by the Sydneyites, a "Jacky Eue," who has ridden from Wellington or Bathurst, or per- haps five or six hundred miles, to have an interview with his merchant or agent, and to purchase his yearly stock for his store. Why they have received this soubriquet, we know not. They generally spend a good sum before they return into the bush, to vegetate for another twelve months on tea, mutton, and damper, with the scarcely ever extinguished pipe of tobacco. His Excellency the Governor, and his daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Keith Stuart, are very regular attendants at these weekly promenades. From hence may be seen the Botanical Gardens, as pretty a spot as any poet could wish to be in when under the influence of the Nine, or climbing tfie heights of Parnassus. The lower garden on a Sunday is crowded with people : in the afternoon all classes of the community may be seen enjoying themselves en masse. When the tide is in, the walk which is laved at its FLOWER SHOWS. 211 base by the sea, and over which the spray is thrown, is indeed a beautiftd place for a stroll. Before you are the shipping, and you may see a large vessel sailing up the haxbour almost within a stone's throw of where you are seated. The men-of-war and large steamers catch your eye in the distance, and the north shore opposite forms a very pretty background to the landscape, worthy of any painter s pencil. The writer has ruminated many an hour agreeably away, in a delicious climate, in these grounds, listening to the dashing of the tide as it gradually came up. As there are plenty of chairs about, without selfishness, one may take a book and pass half the day reading under the shade of the Moreton Bay fig-tree, or under the canopy of the mimosa, or beneath the yeUow jessamine. ^ There are flower-shows in Sydney. The curator of the garden, Mr. Moore, an intelli- gent and well-informed Scotchman, delivers during the year a course of lectures, which the public are invited to attend; but some over-prudish persons object to the presence 212 THE CITRATOR. of young people, because the lecturer must descant upon the sexes of plants. So this interesting study of nature is to be neglected, because her laws must be explained. We hope that this false delicacy may wear out, with the gradual enlightenment of the age in which we live. Mr, Moore was commissioned by the Governor to go to New Caledonia, an island off Wide Bay, in H.M.S. " Havannah," to collect plants, and to make any botanical dis- coveries he could. He was successftd in his explorations, and spake to us highly of the beauties of the place. In the Sydney gardens may be seen most of the tropical plants — ^the coral tree, the judas tree, the heliotrope, the geranium, a great variety of the passion - flower, the Westraria from China, the sugar-cane, coffee plant, cotton plant, flax, the English oaS:, and common privet. There is a drive round the domain and gardens, bringing you to a seat cut in the solid rock, called Mrs. Macquarie's Chair: the drive continued brings you out by the TRIAL BY JURY. 213 Govemment House. No occasion ever seems to have been omitted by Governor Macquarie of imprinting his name where he could do so. It may, therefore, be seen on many public buildings. Sydney is much indebted to him for his good taste and judg- ment in brick and mortar. In 1824, that bulwark of the liberty of the subject, trial by jury, was introduced into the courts. A just and impartial ad- ministration of the laws commenced, which previously had been so lamentably wanted, as may be gathered from the accounts of the early condition of the colony, when under the rule of the New South Wales Corps, which, in 1808, put Governor BUgh, under arrest: a corps of gentlemen who disgraced the honourable profession to which they belonged. The Attorney-General at present performs the functions of a grand jury, until that body are brought into operation. The judges are respected and regarded as men morally and intellectually competent to fulfil the responsible and arduous ofiice which they occupy. There are some able 214 CRIMINAL STATISTICS. men at the Australian bar. The number of civil cases tried in the Supreme Court in 1851 was 119; in 1842 there were 1,069; but that was a year of great commercial de- pression throughout the colony; a state of affairs in which the gentlemen of the long robe find most to do, when aU other in- terests are at a discount. Whether this indicates a htigious spirit or not, in a popu- lation of 260,000 souls, we must leave others better versed in these matters than ourselves to decide. The number of criminal convictions in the like amount of population was, in 1851, 574 ; in 1837, 866 : each year since showing a gradual decrease in crime with an in- creasing population, speaks loudly in favour of free immigration, the absorption of the old felons by a better class. Lord Shaftes- bury had stated in pubUc, that Sydney was one of the most wicked and dissipated cities in the world. His Excellency SirC. Fitzroy called him to account for this statement. It was alleged in defence, that it was not worse than any other maritime or garrison TALLOW FRAUD. 215 toAvn of Kke size, that the decencies of society were not more openly violated than is ordinarily the case under similar conditions. This, we believe, is the truth; but the general tone of morals, although not offen- sively conspicuous in broad dayhght, is, we fear, very low ; at least so we were informed by persons likely to be well acquainted with the subject, and competent to draw just con- clusions. Drunkenness and immorality are rife ; and in the trading there is too much of what is called '* colonial experience " and " pointing," too Yankee and Yorkshire. Ab- solute frauds have been practised on London houses ; advances were obtained by a Jew upon what was represented to be a cargo of tallow : into the casks had been intro- duced a tube of a few inches in diameter through which the probe might be inserted to discover its quality, the tester Kttle dream- ing that the rest of the cask was filled with rubbish ; this was not detected until it reached the consignees. A more recent fraud was perpetrated in the sale of a gold field in shares, by false representations, to the amount of 216 AUSTRALIAN PRODIGALS. forty thousand pounds. So much for the gullibility and avarice of the British pubKc. Not that we are to judge of the whole com- munity by one or two of its black sheep, or to draw general conclusions from particular premises ; but, doubtless, as the colony ad- vances, this spirit of "pointing" will dis- appear, and a fair legitimate system of trading and commerce will be introduced. Australia has not been only the receptacle of England's criminals and parish paupers, but too often of the unmanageable members of families at home sent here to break off evil associations, and bad habits of idleness and intoxication ; or who, like the prodigal, have demanded their inheritance : and their history is, alas, too often the exact counterpart of the parable of our Lord — ^they come to want, or are obliged to adopt occupations more debased and degrading than the servants who serve in the homes they have left, and the happiness they have darkened by their heedless sinful career. We would strongly* argue against the absurdity of parents sending young men out BEST WAY OF SENDING YOUNG MEN OTJT. 217 to New South Wales with money to invest in sheep farming. In nine cases out of ten they never get further than Sydney, until aU their money has been expended in ex- travagance and foUy. Associated with others similarly situated on the voyage, they are not likely to throw off the habits which have led to expatriation ; but, on the con- trary, to augment their force and predomi- nance. There are plenty of sharpers at the antipodes, as weU as in London, constantly on the look-out to profit by the thoughtless- ness and recklessness of these improvident youths. Many of the sons of persons in the higher walks of life enter the poUce force, as the last desperate chance of their forlorn hope. This is sometimes the case in South Australia, at Adelaide, as the writer was in- formed by a near connexion, who acted as private secretary to Colonel Eobe, the Governor. But what would you advise to be done with troublesome or superfluous members of families, who can be sent from home with from one to three thousand pounds? We 218 DESTITUTION CAUSED BY EXCESSES. should say, supply them with a letter of credit for a sum to be paid quarterly, suffi- cient for their maintenance, and consign them if possible to some squatter, to gain experience and to get an insight into the ways of the colonists, and when correct in- formation can be obtained concerning the necessary mode of life, let them then have their inheritance. There will be more proba- bility, even imder the most unfiavourable cir- cumstances, of their moral condition having improved, of their making some advan- tageous use of money, at any rate of delaying the destitution which they would sooner arrive at under the other plan so often adopted. It is reaUy almost cruelty to send young men out under the system of which we have spoken. Some even have to resort to shepherding and menial duties for sub- sistence. The writer met a noble lord who is described by one writer as on his travels, who was reported subsequently to be wash- ing bottles for a livelihood, a consequence resulting entirely and solely from his own excesses. We saw a young gentleman who LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION. 219 landed with upwards of two thousand pounds, and had been, as it is called, " cleaned out," eagerly seeking after employment in the New Gold Escort Company, from Sydney to Melbourne, after running a career of two years with the reputation of being a fine " sporting fellow," who had come out to New South Wales for the sake of the turf ! Another class of recruits for the colonies are those with perhaps very slender resources, but fiimished with letters of introduction which really are worth nothing to them, — as useless as themselves. His Excellency has hundreds of such applications for employment constantly made to him, as his private secre- tary could affirm. We brought with us two Mr. V.'s, distant relatives of Lord V., from the south of England, with special commen- dations to the governor, and sent them with an expectation of success, but received no reply, which we consider rather strange. These young men possessed a sum of about fifty pounds between them, which, at the present rate of expenditure in Sydney, and with their extravagant notions, would not l2 220 THE WAY TO GET ON. last very long. The idea is that any place is to be had for the asking, and that appoint- ments rain down upon new-comers ; a great mistake, as the Australians view with extreme jealousy the employment of new arrivals, of this class particularly, until the natives have been provided for; and the pohcy of the government is now to give occupation to the descendants of old settlers. Fortunately for the lads I have just mentioned, a letter of introduction to some old maiden cousin, who was in easy circumstances, excited her pity, and afforded them a home. Australia is not at present at all the place for this class of immigrants, unless they have the moral courage to descend, not in morals but in position ; " they must stoop to conquer.** There are now certainly the gold fields open to them. Trade and commerce are the only available pursuits in Australia : it is not yet sufficiently matured or populated (like New York) to sustain men of literary habits and followers of the fine arts, much less idle young gentlemen. All is bustle, enterprise, and activity. PETIT'S HOTEL. 221 CHAPTEE XVI. PEFTY's hotel — THE TURQUOISE RING — THE COLONIAL CHURCH — ^WANT OF A CONSTITUTION — ABSOLUTE POWER OF COLONIAL BISHOPS — PERVERSIONS TO ROMANISM — BISHOPS OF NEW ZEALAND AND NEWCASTLE — ^THE PETI- TION PRESENTED ON BEHALF OF THE CLERGY TO THE LE- GISLATIVE ASSEMBLY — MR. GLADSTONE'S CHURCH BILL — SUBURBS OF SYDNEY — BURIAL GROUND — HOT WINDS AND STORMS — ADELAIDE CENTRAL AUSTRALIA — RANGE OF THERMOMETER — MELBOURNE — THE BRICKFIELDER, OR SOUTHERLY BURSTER — LADIES* BONNETS — MEN WEAR VEILS — THE SAND HILLS BUSH-RANGERS— WOOLOOMOOLOO — DR. WARDLLE — A VILE CRIMINAL — MR. ROBERT LOWE, M.P. — HIS KINDNESS — CONVICTS NEVER RECEIVED INTO SOCIETY — REMARKS ON GENERAL SOCIETY — THE APPEAR- ANCE OF RESIDENTS — AVERAGE DURATION OF LIFE IN NEW SOUTH WALES — THE PRESS — THE MARKET-PLACE — SYDNEY MORNING HERALD— THE EMPIRE — ^JACKSON CREEK LUNATIC ASYLUM — ^FREQUENCY OF INSANITY. It often occurs that a young man goes to a hotel quite beyond his means, and when all his ready money is gone, a stranger in a strange land, the broker is sent for to buy his stock, gun, and any convertible property he mayposs ess; he is then thrown upon the 1 222 THE TURQUOISE RING. wide world : certainly he can find occupation, BUT OF WHAT KIND ? Melancholj as this pic- ture is, it is quite as melancholy to be obliged to say it is not highly coloured, but one which is frequently witnessed. We heard a well- dressed gentlemanly man, sitting in the coflPee-room of Petty's hotel, the Clarendon of Sydney, with a handsome turquoise ring on his finger, perhaps the keepsake of some loving manmia, and otherwise weU ap- pointed, declare that he would be very glad to get a bullock-driver s place up the country at seventy pounds per annum. What an al- ternative ! Sent away as far as possible from home to sink into " deeper depths," to associate with the refuse population of England, the misfortune and disgrace of the colony ; to become familiarized with vulgar and disgusting language, and never to hear the name of his Creator mentioned, except in conjunction with swearing and blasphemy. Let parents and guardians pause before' they hurl these youths into perdition: "Nemo repente fit turpissimus." But to dwell no longer on this unhappy topic, we will lay THE COLONIAL CHURCH. 223 before our readers the more interesting ques- tion of the Church constitution, which now occupies the attention of her members, and which the Lord Bishop of Sydney has gone to England, as we believe, to obtain : namely, the self-government of itself by a mixed authority of laity and clergy. The authorities at home are of opinion that the constitution prayed for will interfere with the Queen's supremacy. That the Church should have some self-polity we think no one will question, although there may be some difference of opinion as to its degree. We must also bear in mind that the pre- valent tendency of the colonial Church au- thorities and dignitaries is towards high Puseyitical doctrines, which not only mani- fests itself in the diocesan charges, but also in the internal arrangements. This state of things may be accounted for from the fact that most of the prelates were appointed during the late Archbishop of Canterbury's primacy, and all belong to that school except the Bishop of Melbourne. The arbitrary power possessed by the 224 ABSOLUTE POWER OF BISHOPS. bishops over the clergy, who really have no protection at all, the bishops themselves desire to give up; and in one or two in- stances it has been a power which has been tyrannically, or, to speak mildly, injudiciously, used. Bishops not more than any other class of men are to be intrusted with undefined and unlimited powers. It is justly observed by Blackstone, such powers should never be committed to one person, where there is no responsibihty for their abuse. Two clergy- men, we are sorry to say, have seceded from the Established Church to Eomanism. The clergy are in general well respected, and de- servedly so, although the style of preaching is cold, formal, and legal, without warmth or feeling. The Bishop of Newcastle is no great orator, although by much labour he appears to have acquired the abihty of preaching extemporaneously, but his delivery is stiff and lifeless. He has the name of being active in his diocese, rides fast, and gets over a vast quantity of ground in a short time ; an advantageous faculty in an extended charge. He and the Bishop of New Zealand POVERTY OF THE CLERGY. 225 lately took a yachting cruise among the Poly- nesian seas. While we were at Sydney, a petition was presented by the churchwardens to the Legis- lative Council for an increase of stipend, (founded on the gold discoveries), which was rejected ; upon something of the arguments resorted to by advocates of the voluntary principle. It was alleged in the petition that they were in great poverty. How far the different congregations should have al- lowed them to fall into these straits, is a fair question.. At the best the income is very inadequate for a married man, where rent is so high as in Sydney, and the gap be- tween the bishop and the clergy is too great ; there being no intermediate grades of incum- bents. In fact, the clergy have, with very few exceptions, no fee in their appointments, but depend entirely upon the continuance of the good pleasure of the bishops, whose curates they virtually are. Mr. E. Gladstone exemplified this position in his speech on the introduction of his Church Discipline Bill for the Established Church in Her Majesty's Colonies. l3 226 SUBURBS OF SYDNEY. There are many suburbs about Sydney worth visiting : Babnain, Camperdown, Newton, Paddington, Eedfem, &c., to which there are omnibuses and stage-coaches. A visit to the burial-grounds on the lejpb of the Paramatta road amply repays any one, who seeks either recreation or instruction in morahsing upon the destiny of poor hu- manity. To the righteous believer in Grod's mercy displayed in his Son, it suggests the way to happiness and glory ; while, alas ! to the unrepenting child of Adam, it points the path to his punishment and sorrow. Here then end all man's efforts and hopes, the goal of all his desires and passions. The record we read on the tablet, shows that in the zenith of his suc( ess and sunshine of his prosperity, in the fulfilment of his ambition, he is cut down. The Eoman Catholic and Protestant burial-grounds are contiguous ; and here lie side by side, in the peaceful slumber of the grave, many who in life could hold no com- munion without rancour and animosity. In this delightful chmate, as we are bound in justice to call it, notwithstanding many objections arising from the sudden changes HOT WINDS. 227 of temperature, hot winds and sand-storms — ^there are, perhaps, not more disagreeable days in the year than we experience at home during the foggy and murky months of winter and spring. The hot winds blow from the northward, and come down upon you as if propelled from a ftimace, or after having passed over red-hot plates of iron. Immediately they commence every window and door is closed to keep them out. Everything cracks with the heat, the very walking-stick in your hand feels hot. The papers which you inay carry in your hand curl up and become quite crisp, and an unquenchable thirst seizes upon you. The bush is set on fire and adds to the already scorching atmosphere. You are stimned by the incessant chirp of the locusts. The birds are said, at times, to drop down dead under its baleful influence. The effect is much worse at Adelaide, as they last there for ten and fourteen days at a time ; the ftimiture, as the writer was informed by his sister, becomes so hot that it is almost im- possible to lay a hand upon a wardrobe. The 228 RANGE OF THERMOMETER. interior of Australia is yet a region untrodden by the white man's foot, but is generally supposed to be a vast desert of sand and rocks, which heat the wind as it passes over them, descending from the Grulf of Carpentaria and the Torres Straits. The writer did not find these dreaded blasts very oppressive; they seldom last more than twenty-four hours at Sydney. Christmas-day and New* Year's-day were two of the hottest ever known there, the thermometer at half-past one p.m. stand- ing at 102i° in the shade, on the first, and at 108° on the last occasion. But the heat was not so oppressive as to render it either dangerous or utterly unpleasant to be abroad, which we happened to be on each of these memorable anniversaries. Melbourne is subject to the same visi- tation ; but not Moreton Bay, as it is fur- ther north, and lies above the cause which produce these " siroccos." After the lan- guor, the lassitude, and enervation which some persons experience during these hot blasts, comes the " Brickfielder," or south- erly burster. The air cooled by passing "THE BRICKFIELDER." 229 over plains of ice, at the south pole, rushes in with great velocity, the two giants con- tending for mastery; Boreas has in this hemisphere to yield before the strength and weight of Notus. While the contest is going on, clouds of sand invest the city, we should rather say obscure it altogether ; but a storm, such as you, reader, imless you have seen it, can form no conception of. Tour hair is clotted with it, your eyes blinded, and your throat parched ; your hat and clothes matted with sand, your path scarcely traceable before you, and your vestments invisible — ^you look a walking pillar of sand or brick-dust. Ladies make sad lamentations over ruined bonnets ; and a favourite dress put on for the first time since its arrival from home, becom- ing quite spoiled, is trying to the most amiable temper. Grentlemen wear veils, green and purple, such as you see worn by sporting celebrities, going to Epsom on the Derby day, and for the same reason — ^to escape the dust and sand. They who adopt this precaution 230 BUSH-RANGERS. act with sound practical wisdom. Making all due allowances for this drawback, Sydney- is a delightful climate, to persons who prefer warmth to the cold and damp of England. There is no sultry weather in Australia. But do not measure the dust which some- times envelopes Sydney by the very worst Derby day that ever was seen. The sand-hills and Wooloomooloo were, no great while ago, the lurking places of ^' bush-rangers." In St. James's Church may be seen a tablet raised to the memory of a Dr. Wardell, by his sisters : he was assassinated by two " bush-rangers," on his way home. They were lying in wait for some other person, when he passed ; he seeing them intended to capture them — they desired him not to approach, and said that although he was cruel to his assigned servants, they did not wish to do him any injury ; but that if he attempted to come near, they would assuredly fire upon him; he persisted, and the consequence was, they shot him. Had they allowed themselves to be taken, they A VILE CRIMDTAL. 231 knew they were certain of being executed, and even pointed out to him, that they would fare no worse for his death, than if they allowed themselves to be made prisoners by him. unarmed too a« he wa«. One of the vilest wretches that was ever sent out as a felon, a disgrace to a name in other members of the family highly respected, was a certain Knatchbull, who had been an officer in the British navy, and who, after attempting and accomplishing a long and black catalogue of crimes, was publicly exe- cuted at Sydney for the diabolical murder of a poor widow, by striking her on the head in her own petty shop with a toma- hawk, for the sake of a few shillings she might be possessed of, and which he coveted, as he was going to be married to some maid- servant in the morning. He died, we heard, as he had lived, a hardened villain. Sir Edward Knatchbull sent, for the benefit of the orphans, a boy and a girl, one thou- sand pounds. Previous to this signal act of kindness, we believe Mr. E. Lowe, the M.P. for Kidderminster, had taken compas- sion on them, and had adopted them into 232 CONVICTS NOT RECEIVED INTO SOCIETY. his own family. This wanton and cruel mur- der deeply excited the public sympathy, and roused universal indignation when it was rumoured that the murderer was to be re- prieved. However successful in commercial speculations convicts may become, they are never received into general society ; but, as one said to me, "we mix among our pals and feel our own independence." They give their children the best education Eng- land affords — a voyage which now for that purpose will be rendered unnecessary, from the institution of the Sydney University. Some of their descendants are members of the Legislative Council, but with only one exception, that of a surgeon, who was transported for a duel, no convict has ever been returned to the Assembly. The chil- dren are not weU received, the mark of Cain being still recognised as handed down through the parent. The society of Sydney is exclusively com- posed of men of business : all are engaged in making money ; and that being the para- moimt object, gives one uniform colouring to the general tone of conversation. There APPEARANCE OF RESIDENTS. 233 being no men of leisure, but all consisting of active spirits whom the pressure of numbers and competition in their respective spheres have forced out to seek fortunes abroad, the table-talk runs on money, the price of wool, tallow, gold-fields, flour, and commercial spe- culations in general. It is not about the last new opera, or play, or novel, or lady B's. or C's. last soiree, or any other of the fashion- able topics which engross the conversation in London circles ; nor do they even waste time in questioning how long this ministry or that may be in or out, except as far as the colonial policy may afiect their local interests. One circumstance which arrested the at- tention of the writer, having visited other tropical climes, was the absence in the resi- dents at Sydney, and also at Moreton Bay, of that dried-up, parchment look, which may be observed in old Indians. They have not the Asiatic appearance which may be seen in an European regiment on its return from a long servitude in the East. The native- bom women are very pretty, lively, and agreeable, without the indigenous listlessness of India. 234 DISTURBED CONDITION OP TRADE. It is not possible at present to say whether the average duration of life is greater or less than in Europe, as this vast region has not been colonized by us long enough to form a correct estimate. Trade is now in so disturbed a condition, owing to the discovery of the gold, that it is impossible to give anything like an average of prices. Perljaps at present the coming supply will be greater than the demand. The Americans were expected to arrive with large cargoes of " notions," i. e., " odds and ends." The interest of money is now six per cent, upon tangible and good security. It has been fifteen per cent. The enormous prices which land and houses are fetching at Mel- bourne, and the spirit of wild speculation which is abroad there, are likely, it is deemed by persons competent to form a judgment, to end in a great monetary crisis; such a one as the colony experienced in 1842, when every one, to speak generally, sought puri- fication in the insolvent court. However, Sam Lyons, an auctioneer, and formerly a convict, paid all his dues up to twenty shil- lings in the pound, leaving himself nothing SYDNEY PRESS. 235 but his credit. The markets are well sup- plied with fish, meat, fruit, and esculents. At one period of the history of the colony it was inundated with newspapers, which were continually waging war one against the other, and all against the government. At present the press is in able and impartial hands. The " Empire " and the " Sydney Herald" are the two metropoUtan papers. The latter is considered the " Times " of Australia, the earliest and most authentic news always appearing in that journal. The former has not the same extent of circulation and age to recommend it; but it is ably conducted, and doubtless with an increasing population, there will be ample scope for both. The proprietors of the Sydney " Morning Herald " have realized a handsome fortune, although not originally brought up in the trade of catering for public curiosity. Dr. Chapman, the chief medical officer on the staff, mentioned to the writer that in- sanity was frequent among the people in Australia, arising from excessive drinking. 236 REFLECTIONS DURING CHAPTER XVn. REFLECTIONS DURING NIGHT AT SEA — THE POLAR STAR- ORION — PLEIADES — WORSHIP OF HEAVENLY BODIES — turner's PICTURES — THE CHRISTIAN FEELINGS — PRO- FESSOR WHEWELL — CONJECTURE AND SPECULATION — THE VARIOUS SYSTEMS—THEIR MIGHTY MUTATIONS— GEOLOGY — REV. H. MOSELEy's ASTRONOMICAL LECTURES — DR. CHALMERS — RETURN FROM SYDNEY — ^A DRUNKEN BLACK STEWARD — ICEBERGS ROUND THE HORN — ^FLOATING OR FIELD ICE — ACCIDENT TO CARPENTER — FALL FROM FORE-TOPSAIL YARD — RIO DE JANEIRO — THE HARBOUR — ^THE HEALTH OFFICER — ^THE CUSTOM-HOUSE BOOK — THE YELLOW FEVER — PREDISPOSING CAUSES — THE MARKET-PLACE OR BAZAAR — SLAVERY — TREATMENT OF SLAVES — BOUGHT OR SOLD LIKE ANIMALS — A BEL- LOWING BLACK — WHAT RIGHT OF PROPERTY IN A SLAVE — THE APPEARANCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO — PRO- DUCTIONS OF THE BRAZIL EMPEROR'S RESIDENCE ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS — THE BRAZILIAN CONSTITUTION. One of the most exquisite and sublimest emotions a person experiences in taking a voyage, is the contemplation of the firmament on a fine cloudless night in the tropics. The brilliancy and number of the heavenly bodies A NIGHT AT SEA. 237 in the southern hemisphere exceed those of the northern. Gradually we left behind us the Great Bear, or Charles's Wain, and Polar Star, and substituted in their place the Southern Cross and the Magellan Clouds. Now the writer and his fellow-passengers are glad to see the very converse of this taking place, these clouds having disappeared, and the Southern Cross describing a small arc on its visible horizon, which appears as the chord, and the Polar Star rising higher each evening, as the two pointers which form a part of Ursa Major direct him towards that brilliant object. The constellation of Orion, his belt and square, the Pleiades and Sirius, are all leading points in the celestial sphere which arrest and engage his attention ; and the soft, pale light of the Milky Way, and those balls or globes of fire which the planets seem to be when they emerge on the circum- ference of that unchanging circle of which he appears in his vessel to be the centre, " on that deep which He maketh to boil like a pot." These heavenly bodies have been often. 238 WORSHIP OF HEAVENLY BODIES. in many countries, objects of adoration. And it is not surprising that where the glorious light of the gospel does, not shine, these should become subjects of worship. There is in their appearance an imposing beauty and sublimity, which relieve the mind, in paying homage to them, of its load of speculation and of wondering conjecture, how worlds have been called into being. Perceiving the influence of Ught and warmth upon the animal and vegetable kingdoms, it is natural that a labouring imagination should resort to them, as the architects and preservers of aU things, which it cannot explain to itself. There is something in- dicating a more inquiring and intelligent spirit in adoring the great luminaries, than in kneeling before stocks and stones and creeping things, as many pagans still con- tinue to do. If we could ever desire a poet's mind, it is when we gaze upon the heavens on a serene, calm night at sea, with a light, balmy air, the ship tracing her way on the phosphorescent waters ; for to his imagina- tion they must present themselves with an turner's pictures. 239 intensity and a height of sublimity which do not belong, even in conception, to the ordinary mind, or to the colder and severer calculations of philosophy and mathematics. Often has the writer looked upon moon- light scenes with a fellow-passenger who is well acquainted with Turner's pictures, and speculated whether if faithfully transferred even by such a hand to canvas, they would not have been considered exaggerated in eflTect and untrue to nature. A painter is said to admire all that is good and beautiful in the natural world : here is food for his mind of the richest quality, and inexhaustible materials. But to the Christian believer with the Book of Books in his hand, or in his memory, how does the survey of the vaulted sky studded with sparkling lights, on an azure ground, raise the soul from earth to the throne of the Ancient of Days ! If the beauty of His work fills the heart of the beholder with adoring reverence and delight, so does its universality astound the mind. The one is a witness to man of His Jove, the latter is 240 PROFESSOR WUEWELL. a testimony of His power. " The heavenis declare the glory of God ; and the firmament showeth his handywork." It was to these He pointed when He challenged his servant Job to answer Him. " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ?" "It is," says Professor Whewell, in his Bridge water Treatise, " extremely difficult to devise any means of bringing before a com- mon apprehension the scale on which the universe is constructed, the enormous pro- portions which the larger dimensions bear to the smaUer, and the amazing number of steps from larger to smaller, and from small to larger, which the consideration of it offers.'' The soul delights to wander amid the mazes of conjecture and speculation when beholding the heavenly bodies, which have been placed there for signs. Does it not ask itself whether these worlds are inhabited by beings of intelligence and life? and if so, whether of a Jiigher or inferior order? CONJECTURE AND SPECULATION. 241 Whether their history assimilates itself to the history of ours ? Are there in those bright orbs, sin and bloodshed — ^war and the different passions which disturb the peace- fulness of this ? And if so, is the Eedeemer the Captain of their salvation as of ours ? and does the ejB&cacy of that meritorious obedience and precious bloodshedding extend to them ? Are they justified by the same righteousness, " The blood of His cross having made peace, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven?" Col. i. 20. When we behold in them the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Omnipotent, how stupendous and great without controversy does appear " the mystery of godliness !" 1 Tim. iii. 9. Or are they the spirits of the righteous and the pure which are ftdl of Hght and glory? We say that the soul loves to make these conjectures pass like a bright doud before it, for conjecture it is, and no more ; and if it elevates the immaterial part of man to his Creator, the speculation is not only harmless but beneficial. Surely these systems, independent as we |u:e told they are H 242 MIGHTY MUTATIONS — GEOLOGY. of the great laws which adjust the globes of our system, were not called into being for no other purpose than monuments of the Gbeat Creator's power ? No, — doubtless they teem with intelligence and life ! But while under the blessed light of revelation they are the subjects of our thoughts, imder the same light we are to look upon them as re- served for stupendous and terrible changes. To the savage they are objects of wonder and admiration, as evidences of a creative power, benign and great. To the Christian as re- served for mighty mutations, in the terrible convulsion of nature, when the world shall be destroyed by " fire,^' as it bears now the evidence to science of having been once sub- merged. The same science, viz. Geology, fortifies the probability of its next destruction by fire. The deeper we descend into it, the greater the heat.* The Eev. H. Moseley, in his Lectures on Astronomy, says, "the increase of tempera- ture for every thirty-seven feet we descend^ is 1° Fahrenheit. Now, if this law of varia- tion regularly continues, the temperature of REV. H. MOSELEY. 243 boiling water will te obtained at about two miles below the surface, and that of melting iron at about twenty-four miles. At the centre it might be somewhere about one hundred and twenty times this heat," (page 27). There are then, it appears in the earth itself the elements of its own diflPiision; its internal fires, keeping, as S9me tell us, the interior in a state of fluidity. " The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces. The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Tea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, — And, Kke the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a rack behind." The sun is to become black as sackcloth, and the moon as blood " at the opening of the sixth seal, and the stars of heaven are to fall unto the earth" (Eev. vi. 12 — 17). Many stars have disappeared in the heavens after apparently burning with a bright flame. " Some have undergone permanent changes, or have absolutely disappeaxed ; as the celebrated star of 1572 (observed by TychoBrahe) in the Constellation Cassiopeia." — (Wheweirs Bridgewater Treatise. Vide M 2 244 DR. CHALMERS. Barnes' Notes on 2 Peter iii.) We miglit suppose that the destruction of this earth, or the perturbation of the solar system, would produce such a convulsion, as to hurl all the celestial order into one universal conflagra- tion and confusion ; — ^it would affect all other heavenly bodies. Science has taught us that such is not of necessity the consequence of the fiiimment of Scripture. Dr. Chalmers, we remember, has a very beautiftd passage on this point in his Astro- nomical Sermons. He says the destruction of a world, although a work of desolation and ruin to its inhabitants, would no more affect the universe, than the eddying leaf falling into the stream from a tree would disturb the forest, although its population of myriads of insects and life, would be extinguished by the catastrophe. On the 13th of January we took our de- parture in the bark" Cuthberts" for England, commanded by a skilftd mariner and an obhging Captain, vigilant in the discharge of duties, and attentive to the comfort of his passengers ; therefore with Captain William RETURN FROM SYDNEY. 245 M'Dean we should be glad to sail, if ever again we traverse the ocean. Our passengers con- sisted of a motley crew, as is usually the case at present in all ships bound from Sydney to England. The sailors, considering the mixed character of the men, and that they were all runaways, behaved well, and gave us no cause of complaint; and this was more than in these times might be expected, as nearly aU of tlxem had been at the diggings ; and, having been more or less successful, had contracted or increased habits of self-indulgence and dissipation. I should not, however, omit here to enter in the log the misfortune we had in having for a steward a dirty, drunken, insolent black to wait upon us in the cuddy — an American repubUcan, who was even tyrannical over the passengers, but who was eventually dismissed and sent forward among the sailors, it having been discovered that he had consumed and wasted a great quan- tity of the cabin stores, and swilled two bar- rels of rum. His substitute was the stiU more drunken cook, who was also cashiered, and we found in one of the crew a person who 246 ICEBEBGS ROUND had acted before in that capacity — an excels lent, clean, steady young man, who would have contributed greatly to onr comfort had he been the attendant from the commence- ment. He and his mate had made at Port PluUip diggings twelve hundred pounds be- tween them, but had been robbed by a partner. We had Kttle incident on our way home. On the 11th of February, not far from Cape Horn, we sighted two large icebergs, and passed between them at half-past 1 p.m. ; they were of great altitude and extent, and about four miles distant. One had the appearance of a huge block of solid ice, and was nearly tha largest ever seen by the Commander, who had been trading for years previously on the coast of North America. The other bore a resemw blance to a high mountain, which had been worn down by torrents, and frosted over with silver : it seemed by its form to have turned over. It was very cold, blowing strongly, with occasional storms of haiL The thermometer was 29a° Fahr. ; rate of sail- ing, 9i knots; course, E. iN. by compass; CAPE HORN. 247 wind, S.W.; lat. 56^ 10' S.; long. W. 129° 30'. Sailing under reefed mainsail, whole foresail, with double-reefed topsails, and fore-topmast staysail set. Sea running very hisrh, and of a creamy appearance. EvTn in tLse icy ^ ui,oiJ^ repor. there were birds flying about. Our thoughts reverted to the unhappy expedition of Sir John Franklin, who has, in all probability, perished amid similar regions of eternal snows and ice. We saw afterwards, at great distances, several more icebergs, and were not sorry when we got out of the way of meeting any more, or being jammed up by floating masses, which in these latitudes are very dangerous; more especially in the sommer months, if there is anything like the season which the term conveys to the minds of those who live in more genial cHmes, as the ice then melts and floats about, affecting the temperature, and causing by its disper- sion, thick hazy weather. We had a re- markably fine passage roimd the much- dreaded Cape Horn, but lost time by spring- ing the main-topsail yard ; in repairing which 248 RIO DE JANEIRO. the carpenter nearly cut off his foot by a stroke of the axe, which incapacitated him for at least a fortnight — a very serious hind- rance to our progress. Fortunately we had on board a Surgeon-Superintendent of a Government emigration ship on his return home, who soon put him to rights. Considering the number of fells wHch the men had from different parts of the ship, it was wonderful that there were no serious axjcidents. One sailor, while reefing, feU from the fore-topsail yard, and was saved by being caught in the rattHngs on his descent. On the 19th of March we got sight of Eio de Janeiro : on the sixty-fifth day we anchored in that beautiful harbour, the finest in the world. It was a fine Sunday after- noon. We passed imder the miserable- looking fort of Santa Cruz, from which we were hailed. This stood on our right ; on our left was the Sugar-loaf Mountain and another contemptible fortress. But the harbour ! Here Nature has poured out the riches of her beauties with no sparing hand. A magnificent entrance, so easy, and at the ITS HARBOUK. 249 same time, so secure when within, as to need no pilots, where, by a needy government, they would certainly have been placed, if the most distant shadow of a pretence could have been made, in order to squeeze money from ships. On either side are precipitous mountains, bold and barren, conveying the impression of having been heaved up by some tremendous convulsion of the elements. Immense blocks of porphyry and granite occur in their formation. Here is exemplified a good illustration of Mrs. Mary SomerviUe's work on physical geography, descriptive of those mighty changes which ages produce, gradually, yet certainly and efiectually. While we were admiring the harbour and the many isles with which it is studded, the health-officer came on board — an individual with a pale tropical complexion, dried up like a piece of parchment, as if all nutritious matter was evaporated from him, and nothing remaining but a withered wreck. He had been many years resident in this unhealthy and mortiferous climate, rather different to his native comxtry. which was Denmark : his ]i3 250 YELLOW FEVEE. demeanour was gentlemanly and prepossess- ing. After him came the Custom-honse boat. We were then at liberty to land in this pestiferous city. The fever, that is, the yellow fever, had been very fatal this season, and had carried off a great number of persons. We were warned that, although much on the decrease, it was still very prevalent. It may be produced by any violent emotion either of passion or fear ; but more frequently among European sailors drunkenness and exposure at night are the predisposing causes. Twice a-day a steamer cruises among the shipping to take to the hospital any patients who may have been suddenly seized with the fever during their stay in the harbour — ^a very excellent precaution to prevent the spread of this malignant endemic. Should the reader ever have occasion to visit Eio de Janeiro, let him take care never to be tempted, during the heat of the tropical night, to sleep on deck, exposed to the dew. To do so is almost like giving a challenge to the fever to commence its deadly attack At 7 A. M. on Monday morning we landed MARKET-PLACE OR BAZAAR, 251 at the market-place or bazaar, which pre- sented the usual appearances of a tropical mart. All the jGruits and esculents which may be met with in similar latitudes, were exposed here for sale, with this exception that the market was exclusively tended by slaves, who rent themselves at so much " per diem," say one, two, or three millereis a-day, the coin being worth 2s. 4cZ. These poor crea- tures may be seen bearing heavy loads of hides, coffee, and sugar, in droves, lightening their weight of woe by singing a low, mono- tonous, drawling song, taken up in time, one after the other, in regular rotation. These poor brethren, as we must call them, not- withstanding their sable skins, believing, as we do, in the unity of the human race, are bought and sold like beasts of burden, and fetch in the slave market at present about lOOZ. per head. The ship-chandler, who supplied us with stores, stated, that he pur- chased from a widow, a slave, whom she was desirous of selling to a master who would treat him with kindness and consideration, as she was compelled to part with him, not being in 252 .TREATMENT OF SLAVES, such circumstances as would enable her to keep him longer ; and having been a favourite with her husband she wished him to fall into hands, who, on that account, would give him indulgences he might not receive from one, who had been entirely a stranger to his former owners. This slave got intoxicated, and perched himself on the top of the house, in such a situation that it was dangerous to attempt any approa<5h towards him, and there he sat, bellowing most lustily the whole night through, to the great annoyance and terror of the neighbourhood. In the morn- ing, when he had recovered from the fames of his intoxicating draught, he descended. As the new purchaser found him so untractable he sent him to the slave-market, to be sold by auction for whatever he would fetch. I cannot understand by what possible argu- ment one human being can be possessed of any vested right in the body of another. Nor is it surprising that slaves should use every effort to obtain freedom. Forming, as they do in the Brazils, two-thirds of the population, a rise has been apprehended APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN. 253 among them, and, consequently, fear has operated to a certain extent as a check on any farther increase of their numbers. The slave trade is, therefore, carried on surrepti- tiously. While we were there, an English man-of-war steamer, called the "Sharp- shooter," was preparing to cruise along the Brazilian coast, to prevent the running in of tTwo American vessels, well armed, and who were determined to risk an engagement in the event of their meeting with any opposi- tion. The slaves are now we were told weU treated by the Portuguese, from commercial rather than humane considerations, as a strong young dave is worth a considerable sum of money. The town of Eio, is a tawdry-looking place, and dirty beyond the power of lan- guage to describe. Lisbon is a paradise in comparison. No wonder it is visited by such fatal maladies when so Uttle pains are taken to pix)mote health or cleanliness. In every comer, filth seems to remain just where each depositor finds the most convenient resting- 254 APPEARANCE OF THE INHABITANTS. place^ without any propriety of selection. The water lodges in the centre of the streets, which have no flag-way, and are so narrow, that when one of their miserable conveyances passes you by, you are splashed over just as you would be on a slushy day in London, by some careless cabman, driving too close to the curb-stone. The liveries, trumpery al- though bedizened with lace, have a comic appearance on the black lackeys. The inha- bitants look cadaverous and grave, there is scarcely a smile to be seen on any one coun-. tenance, as if all gaiety and gladness of heart had fled away from their part of the world. The mules are noble-looking animals. Your attention will be drawn to the fine seat which the men have on them, riding with very long stirrup-leathers, and large rowelled spurs at their heels. The women of the better class had a very personable appearance. After breakfasting at the Hotel de Bourse, in the Eue Ahbnda, where we were well ac- commodated, we went again into the bazaar, and saw a good supply of fish, poultry, pigs, and fruit. The poultry was very excellent, PRODUCTIONS OF THE COUNTRY. 255 of which we had evidence on board during our subsequent passage ; so were the pigs ; but the sheep, which cost 2 Z. 105. per head, were the most miserable animals any one can conceive, being no more than skin and bones, without an ounce of fat or flesh upon them. At the steps, on entering the market, sat many- mendicants, wretched objects of disease and penury, begging ahns from all who passed by to provide for their miserable daily sub- sistence. The principal productions of the country are sugar, coffee, a bean upon which the slaves are fed> and cattle. Bananas, pines, citrons, oranges, custard apples, and aQ fruits belonging to the tropics, are seen exposed for sale. The population of this execrably dirty place amounts to 260,000. Here the Eoman Catholic faith is to be seen in all its supre- macy, and exhibits its overweening love of dominion. It is said that money can obtain immunity from anything save an insult or offence against the church. Just as on. the continent of Europe^ may be seen monks and 256 BOTAL PALACE AND REVENUE* Maxs of various orders walking about in the costumes belonging to their different corps. Every natural sentiment is sapped from them to aggrandize their Church. At the head of the great square is a very fine cathedral, most gorgeously adorned inside with gilded roof and a fine altar-piece; it reminded me, by its splendour, of the Houses of Lords and Commons. Adjoining it is the Eoyal Chapel, which we had not the opportumiy of visit- ing, as the Emperor was in the mountains during the sickly season with the Empress and family, consisting of three children. The palace of the ancient and proud House of Braganza is placed in the midst of filth and poverty, a luxurious court surrounded by squalor and pestilence. The royal revenue is somewhere about 100,000/. a-year, which would be in this coxmtry a large sum, but that the Emperor has many loans to liqui- date. Here the Prince de JoinviUe came for his wife in the heyday of King Louis Philippe's prosperity. One thing which will make any visitor remember Eio above all otherSi is the extortionate price asked for ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS. 257 every article of sale, not only by the natives, but. also by foreigners. Tour own country- men are quite as ready and apt in pawning upon you spurious diamonds and pebbles as any Portuguese, and squeezing you as far as you are to be compressed. So keep a good look out after your pockets, and draw your purse's strings extra tight when you have landed, and return to your ship every night ; or else, during the sickly season, go some short distance from the town to sleep, as there you escape the contagious and fatal in- fection of the yellow fever. It is a sad pity to see a country, for which nature has done so much, rendered almost uninhabitable by the neglect and filth of its people. The only man who seems to partake of the spirit of the age in progress is the President of the Customs'-house Duty, who is now causing vast and important improvements to be made in the department and buildings over which he has control, and all of which we surveyed. Opposite to the Custom-house, you pass into the street where artificial flowers are made with feathers, very elegant, beautiftd, and 258 BRAZILIAN CONSTITUTION. expensive. A bouquet of these makes a very pretty ornament for a plateau. You must take care that the feathers have not been dyed, but are the natural plumage of a bird. The Government is composed of two Houses of Assembly, as we were informed by an Englishman. The Upper House is self-elective, and the members are chosen for life; the representatives of the Lower House are elected by persons duly qualified, under certain conditions, to vote them into that office. AUSTRALIA METALLIFEROUS. 259 CHAPTEE xvrn. AUSTRALIA METALLIFER0US-H5IR C. FITZROY APPLIES FOR A GEOLOGICAL SURVEYOR — STEEL — GOLD — FIRST NUGGET — ^mS excellency's projected visit to MELBOURNE — REV. C. CLARKE — SIR R. MURCHISON — ^THE SHEPHERD M*GREGOR — THE ABORIGINES AS GOLD-FINDERS — MR. HARGREAVES — MR. MACLEAN — MR. WENTWORTH — MR. HARGREAVES* REPLY — MR. HARGREAVES* DECLARA- TIONS IN SYDNEY — MR. STUCHBURY— COAL — MR. HAR- GREAVES* STATEMENT WITH REGARD TO THE GOLD DISCOVERY — MR. HARGREAVES* REPORT TO GOVERNMENT — ^THE LOCALITIES IN WHICH HE FOUND GOLD — MR. DEAS THOMPSON*S LETTER TO MR. STUCHBURY — HIS REPLY — AWARD DUE TO MR. HARGREAVES. Australia was long known as a metalliferous country. The discovery of copper in the Burra Burra Mines, near Adelaide, together with other information, which the govern- ment of the Australian colonies had received, suggested, we may suppose, to his Excellency Sir C. FitzEoy, the advantage the colony 260 APPLICATION OF SIB C. FTTZROT woTild receive from the appointment of a geological surveyor. It was ascertained that other ores besides copper and iron were abundant ; consequently in a despatch to the Earl Grey, bearing date, Sydney, 1st March, 1849, his Excellency writes, requesting the Secretary for the Colonies to send out a gen* tleman competent to undertake the minera- logical and geological survey of the colony. Copper mines had been opened in the district of Bathurst, Carcoar, and Summer Hill, and an iron mine had also been opened in the neighbourhood of Bermera, of so fine a quality, that it was adapted for the manu- facture of the best description of cutlery and hardware ; the ore found on the sur&^ yielding from sixty to seventy per cent, of the purest metal. In paragraphs 8 and 9 of the same despatch, His Excellency writes, " In some parts of the colony, I am informed, that auriferous ores have been discovered. A specimen, weighing three ounces and a half, was lately exhibited to me. I have not been able to learn the precise locality where it was- found, except that it is on the western FOR GEOLOGICAL SURVEYOR. 261 side of the great dividing range in the Sydney or middle district. " An extensive gold field is also said to have been recently discovered at the Pyrenees, in the Port Phillip district ; bnt I have been as yet unable to obtain any authentic infor- mation on the subject. If in the course of the visit I am about to make to that district, I should obtain any particulars respecting it worthy of being communicated, it will be my duty again to address your Lordship on the subject." From this communication it clearly ap- pears that the government was quite alive to the probable auriferous character of Australia, previous to the confirmation of the expecta- tion, by the public declaration of Mr. H. Hargreaves. It had been prognosticated by eminent geologists of different countries, that gold existed in New South Wales, from the general natural features of the country. The Eev. C. Clarke and Sir E. Murchison, had both published their opinions on the subject ; their conclusions being deduced from the gee- 262 DISCOVERY OF GOLD » logical formation of the coimtry. There is but little doubt, that gold had been long obtained by a shepherd of the name of M'Gregor,* who came into the colony in very indigent circumstances, and gradually increased in wealth, by means which could not be under- stood, and which were known to himself alone. It has also been aflfirmed by some, that the aborigines occasionally brought gold into the settled districts from the Macquarie. It was reserved for Mr. Hargreaves to announce the existence of gold, in such quan- tities as to render the development of it profitable to the miner. The attack, the un- generous and ungrateful attack made upon him by W. Wentworth, Esq., in the Legis- lative Assembly, provoked from Mr. H. the following history of himself, and of the cir- cumstances which led to the discovery of gold by him. Mr. Wentworth designated Mr. H. as a " shallow impudent fellow," and * M*Ghregor was shepherd to Mr. Templar, very poor, shoeless, and gradually became possessed of cattle : he sold his gold in Sydney, but would not di- vulge where he got it. BY MR. HARGREAVES. 263 was seconded by a Mr. M'Clean, Member of the Council of Legislature, adding tliat the discoverer was an "impostor." Mr. Har- greaves is the son of a British oflSicer, was bom on a march, and emigrated to Australia, of which country he has been a resident for twenty years. Having, he says, nothing to lose, he determined, being of robust consti- tution and health, to try his fortunes in the mines of California, where he states that he was a successful digger. From his observation of that auriferous region, and the similarity of its construction to that of Australia, he felt convinced that in the gigantic rocks of Australia, which hved in his memory, he had left greater treasures behind him than those which he was seeking in the western hemisphere. He does not assume to himself any scientific knowledge, he is not versed in the technical phraseology of the erudite geologist, he only claims the credit of having discovered a gold-field worth working, simply from analogical reasoning, based upon his own practical observation. Mr. H. had often expressed his conviction when working 264 DISCOVERY OF GOLD in California, tliat there was a widely ex^ tended gold-producing field in New South, Wales. This conviction was confirmed by an Australian shepherd, who was with him at the diggings, and as the report runs, revealed to Mr. H. on his death bed, the place, where he had, previous to his departure from Aus- tralia, gathered in small quantities pieces of gold whUe tending his flock. Mr. H. says that on his return from California to Sydney, he frequently stated to certain friends his certain conviction that he could show them a gold-field in the colony This declaration was laughed at, and his reiterated statements were attributed to an imagination excited by his success in Cali- fornia, and by some of his intimate friends were regarded in a serious light as indicative of an unsound mind ; or, in colonial parlance, they decided that he was neither more nor less than " cranky." At this very time, Mr. Stuchbury, the Government geologist sent out by Earl Grey at the request of Sir C. Fitzroy, and upon the recommendation and by the selection of Sir H. de la Beche,, BY MR. HARGREAVES. 265 (Mr. Bate Jukes and Mr. Bristow having re- spectively declined the appointment), was engaged in a scientific survey of the colony. But he had not recorded any discovery of gold in his explorations, although the existence of the precious metal had been surmised by dis- tinguished geologists, based upon scientific theories, and such theories had been con- firmed by the piece of gold weighing three ounces and a half, which His Excellency had reported to Earl Grej in his despatch of 1st March^ 1849. By instructions given to Mr. Stuchbury through the Colonial Secretary, and by order of His Excellency the Go- vernor, the surveyor was directed " to pro- ceed at the earliest opportunity to those districts in which metalliferous ores had been already discovered, and in some of which mines had been already opened. These were, Yass, Molong near Wellington, Carcoar, where copper ore had been obtained, and Bermera, where an iron mine had been com- menced, and from which steel, apparently of the first quality, and adapted for the manu- &cture of the best descriptions of cutlery, had N 266 DISCOVERY OF GOLD been produced.* In some parts of the colony auriferous ores are stated to have been dis- covered, and a specimen weighing about three ounces and a half was exhibited to the Governor in 1849. The precise locality where it was found was not ascertained, but it was understood to be on the western side of the great dividing range, in what is known as the Sydney, or Middle District. Coal is chiefly found at Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, and Dlawara." These instructions of Mr. E. Deas Thompson bear date the 23rd De- cember, 1850. In a letter dated Sydney, 3rd April, 1851, from Mr. H. Hargreaves to the Colonial Secretary, Mr. H. states that he made the first discovery of gold upon Crown lands at his own expense, " as a speculation, and as a means of bettering my fortunes, in the event of my search proving successful. I have succeeded beyond my expectations. .... My first discovery was made on the 12th February," 1851. On the 30th of April, * A pair of scissors was sent to the Eidiibition by Mr. Jennings of Sydney. BY MR. HABGREAVES. 267 1851, Mr. E. Deas Thompson encloses to Mr. Stuchbnry the following communication of Mr. Hargreares, pointing out the locali- ties where gold had been discovered by him : — " Sir, I have the honour to acknow- ledge the receipt of your letter of the 1 5th instant, and in reply beg to say that I am quite satisfied to leave the remuneration for my discovery of gold on Crown lands to the liberal consideration of the Government. " The following are the localities where it exists, viz., Lewis Ponds and Summerhill Creeks, Macquarie and Turon Eivers, in the district of Bathurst and Wellington. I am now waiting His Excellency's pleasure as to the mode of testing the value of my dis- covery." Mr. S., upon this direction, pro- ceeded with Mr. H. to the localities pointed out, and thus writes of Mr. H., " who will remain at Enyong. ... I think, from Mr. H.*s experience, you could not, at the first moment, engage a better person to carry out your views.'* On May 19th, 1851, dated from Summer- hill, Mr. S. thus writes: — "Gold has been n2 268 MR. DBAS THOMPSON'S LETTER obtained in considerable quantities. Many- persons, with a tin dish, or such inefficient apparatus, having obtained from one to two ounces per day, about four hundred persons of all classes are digging, occupying about one mile of the creek. I have no doubt of gold being found in greater or less quantities over a vast extent of country.** On the 26th May, 1851, Mr. E. Deas Thompson writes to Mr. Stuchbury: — "I am directed by His Excellency the Grovemor to call your attention to the very meagre and unsatisfactory, and particularly to the unscientific and unbusiness-like character of the information you have as yet afforded the Government on the subject of the gold discovery." On the 26th of May, 1851, Mr. S., dating from three miles west of the gold-diggings, writes : — " Lumps have been obtained varying in weight from one ounce to four pounds, the latter being the heaviest I have heard of." On the 9th of June, 1851, Mr. S., from Orange, states in reply to queries put by the Colonial Secretary, "I have not found gold in its natural matrix. TO MK. STUCHBURT. 269 I am not awaxe that any ore of mercuiy has been found, but report says it has been disco- vered near Caputu." This is a correct account of the gold dis- covery, gathered from the best and most authentic sources, viz., official documents. It is but just and fair that he who has laid open to the world such vast resources of wealth should have awarded to him the meed of praise which he deserves : " Palmam qui meruit ferat." The colonial press imani- mously upheld Mr. H. Hargreaves' character, then subjected to the attack abeady referred to, and made by an old political schemer. 270 GOLD-DIGGING CHAPTEE XrX. THE GREAT EXHIBITION H.B.H. PRINCE ilLBERT — THE INCREASE OF GOLD — FREE TRADE — - GOLD DIGGLStO LABORIOUS AND UNCERTAIN — SOME FORTUNATE — KID GLOVES AND PENKNIVES — PERSONS UNFITTED FOR THE DIGGINGS — GOVERNMENT CLERKS — ^THEY OF THE BETTER CLASSES WHO WILL GO TO THE MINES — COUNT FIRST THE COST — ^MANY START FOR THE GOLD FIELDS WITHOUT MEANS — ^HALF-PAY OFFICERS — TWEIR DISAPPODTTMENT — HON. KEITH STUART — ^HIS SUCCESS AT MAJOR's CREEK, BRAIDWOOD — ^NO ARISTOCRACY AT THE DIGGINGS — SAILOR LUCK — ABUSE OF IT — PUBLICANS BENEFITED — ^THE LARGE SUMS SQUANDERED BY DIGGERS — KNOCKING DOWN HIS DUST IN SYDNEY — DEMORALIZING EFFECT ON SOCIETY — A digger's WEDDINO — CABS— CHAMPAGNE. It is, indeed, incredible to realize the fact of thousands upon thousands of people occupied in picking up gold, with simple implements, and in the purest state, and in large quanti- ties. Had it been predicted that simul- taneously with the opening of the Ghreat LABORIOUS, CAPRICIOUS, AND UNCERTAIN. 271 Exhibition, a mine of countless wealth would be laid open at the antipodes, as was the fact, the seer would have been looked upon as labouring under some aberration of mind. While the noble and philanthropic philo- sophy of an accomplished, wise, and virtuous prince had conceived and matured a palace for the commerce of the world to meet in ; instructing nations that the noblest descrip- tion of contest and competition was in arts and science, rather than in war and blood- shed ; the medium of exchange to go, *^ pari passu," with the increased commerce which this design might create, was by Providence laid open to man. It was a year memorable for Australia as well as for England. Grold- digging is laborious and its result capricious and uncertain; It cannot be said of it, as Mr. McCuUoch said of writing for the press, that it is laborious, unprojitahley and disreputable. It is certainly laborious, and may be both unprofitable and disreputable. It would mislead the reader and would be contrary to the truth to say that all who go gold-digging are successful ; but on the other 272 KID GLOVES AND FEKENIVES. hand it is undeniable tliat many persons have in a few months acquired sums, which they never would have got together in a lifetime of laborious and long-continued in- dustry. Failure and success do not apper- tain to gold-digging alone, they JVhe alternations of all callings and professions in life. Many, without counting the cost, undertake what they are incompetent to perform. On the first discovery of gold, before the real character of gold-digging was understood, young gentlemen went pros- pecting and gold-seeking with kid gloves and penknives, just turning over a piece of quartz with the open blade, and expecting to have as a reward for this condescension to toil a large piece of gold. Of course such persons acted most unwisely when they gave up, small though they might be, the incomes which they obtained in government offices, or at lawyer's desks. Some there were, who, notwithstanding the blisters which they got on their fingers, persevered, till at last they could go to work " secundum artem,** and dig down their forty, fifty, or sixty feet. PERSONS UNFITTED FOR THE WORK. 273 if necessary, to get at the precious ore, either in the more portable and agreeable form of nuggets, or of auriferous earth to be washed out at the cradle. Any one of the genteel classes, or such whose training has not accus- tomed him to labour, must prepare himself, if he goes to the diggings, to undergo fatigue and privations which he has never experienced before, and with a hearty resolution and fixed- ness of determination that wiU insure his conquest over them. Many have returned penniless and disheartened to Sydney and Melbourne from the diggings, and would gladly resume the occupations they had thrown up to make a fortune in the gold field, simply because they had not looked well before they leapt ; they had no doubt a hearty good will to find the gold, but they waiited one very important element of sue- cess — aptitude to get at it. Such persons were physically unfit for the calling : if they make up their mind to seek the fickle lady in this path, their pluck must compensate for what they lack in experience and habits. Another great source of failure and disap- n3 274 CAPITAL BEQUIRED. pointment to such persons is that they go up to the gold field without sufficient means, also with exaggerated ideas of the facility with which gold is obtained. They have not the necessary provision to give themselves a fear chance, or their industry and resolution an opportunity ; for the maxim " labor omnia vincit'* holds most especially in gold-mining ; it is here as ever, in aU pursuits of life, " the hand of the diligent that maketh rich." But if the miner has not capital enough to meet temporary failure, he returns, as has often been the case, disgusted and disheartened. This has been the upshot with numberless persons, indeed, of all classes. Many have gone to the mines, remained scraping the surfsuje, expecting to obtam gold at once, and their expectations, extravagant as they were, failing to be reahsed, they say gold-digging is all nonsense, and in many cases are too glad to return to their ordinary callings. Another class of persons who have at- tempted gold-digging are half-pay officers; One steamer brought out quite a cargo of them ;. they also were not prepared fw tiie HON. KEITH STUART. 275 laborious process of delving, and the conse- quence has of course been bitter disappoint- ment. Here and there, even among this class, I know of some who have been suc- cessful after long perseverance. The Hon. Keith Stuart, the son-in-law of His Excel- lency the Governor, Sir C. Fitzroy, has been upwards of twelve months digging on Major's Creek, at Braidwood, and for a considerable time, although employing six or seven men, did very little good, stiU always clearing expenses; now having taken into partner- ship a hard-working Scotchman, who acts as overseer, he is making a profitable return; say, as generally understood, a hundred ounces per week. K officers, who will try their fortunes in this path, would exercise the same durability of purpose and continuous application, there is no doubt in my mind but that eventually they will be successful. But let it be remembered, that they must expect and be ftdly prepared to rough it in every sense of the word. There is no aris- tocracy at the diggings, no distinction of classes — all are '' hail fellow, well me^" and 276 LUCE OF SAILOBS. the wise course to pursue is to hold good fellowship with the industrious and honest, however humble they may be. Twelve to fourteen months of continued labour and repeated interruption by flood is a good trial of perseverance; many are prepared for a month or two months' hardship, but shrink from a lengthened privation, such as the Hon. Captain Stuart has endured. A gen- tleman who a|Ccompanied the German tra- veller, Leichardt, to the Gulf of Carpentaria, along the east coast of Australia, has been successful, and now by my side, my friend and fellow-passenger, Mr. Armstrong, from the north of Ireland, has, by a continued perseverance of eighteen months' hard work obtained a considerable quantity of the pre- cious metal. The persons who have been most success- fed at the mines have been sailors. It is a mistake to suppose that an experienced digger has better promise of success than one who is new to the business. In prospecting, expe- rience may give an advantage, but in mining it is apparently quite a lottery. Although THEIE ABUSE OF IT. 277 sailors have been remarkably fortunate, it is to be feared that they have benefited but little by it permanently. The publicans and inn-keepers are the parties for whom they have worked, the idle and dishonest, those for whom they have toiled. It will appear incredible to strangers who have never come in contact with society in Australia, as now constituted, what sums of money are spent and lost in a few days, which it has cost months of toil and self-denial to accu- mulate. One sailor who had made 600/. in two months, spent it in six weeks, in dis- sipation, drunkenness, and every kind of excess. Another, the son of a Presbyterian minister, who had been mate of a ship, spent 800L in fourteen days. A digger of this class thinks very Kttle of 201. a-night, as long as the money lasts ; . then he returns to his claim to get more, and when he has got together another sum, he comes again into town to knock it down; and returns again with fewer shillings in his pocket than he had hundreds of pounds when he first came down. The effect of this dissipated practice injures 278 A digger's wedding. the constitution, and by the habits which are contracted of sensnal indulgence, is and must be highly demoralising. And in fact, the truth is, that such persons, as justly observed to me, are quite spoiled for steady work and moderate, yea, even abundant, remuneration. Large sums are expended at weddings. A successful miner comes down and gets a wife; cabs and hackney-coaches are hired at enor- mously high prices, for a week or a fortnight, and hundreds are thus squandered in riot and excess, and a great quantity of champagne is consumed. Prudence and prodigality distin- guish all classes of persons. While it is deplorable to see the extravagance and dissi- pation of some, it is equally satisfactory to see men who could never have obtained suf- ficient means in any other way, apply their good fortune to beneficial and legitimate pur- poses. These instances are also to be found among the notoriously thoughtless and im- provident class of mariners. PEOVIDENT ffTEWARD. 279 CHAPTER XX. A PROVIDENT STEWARD — THE POLITICAL ECONOMIST — A SOMERSETSHIRE LABOURER — ^AN OLD " LAG*S'* LUCK — A sawyer's WIFE IN SILKS AND SATINS MAL Aisi — FOOLISH NOTIONS OF IMMIGRANTS — SAD PLIGHT OF PENNILESS IM- MIGRANTS — ^WORK AT 2Z. AND 31. PER DIEM — A YOUNG SCOTCHMAN'S HARDSHIPS AT MELBOURNE — SAVINGS LOST AT MINING — AN OLD RAILWAY NAWIE ; HIS PRIVATIONS — A gardener's trial of the gold FIELDS ; HIS AC- COUNT OF THEM; LOST HIS SAVINGS — A PERSEVERING DIGGER — ^AN OFFICER WITH HIS SONS — THE ACCOUNT OP A GENTLEMAN FROM EDMONTON ; HIS FAILURE AT BIN- GERA; HIS SUCCESS AT THE TURON ; SHOT AT, AND RETURNS T^p COMPLIMENT — PLANTING, OR PEPPERING, OR SALTING — HOAX PLAYED ON MR. HARGREAVES IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICTS— A BULLET GILDED — GOLD AT NEW TOWN — PUBLICANS AND SYDNEY 'bUSSES DID A GOOD STROKE — ^A SERIOUS FRAUD AT MELBOURNE — SPURIOUS GOM> — MANUFACTURED AT BIRMINGHAM. The steward of a vessel obtained in a few months several hundreds of pounds ; he has married, bought land, and settled down to steady and regular labour. A feUow-passen- 280 SOMEBSETSHIBE LABOURER. ger has a nugget which this miner struck out of Bendigo, weighing eighteen ounces and arhalf, in which may be seen distinctly the mark of the pick, presenting the appearance of having been subjected to the action of fire. K the monies made at the mines were more generally invested iu this manner, it would produce that middle class so much wanted in the colony. It would rejoice every one to see the hard-working man successful. The pohtical economist would recognise in this apphcation of wealth the elements of great national prosperity, viz., the cultivation of the soil, and the extension of legitimate commerce. A Somersetshire labourer, who had worked in England for ten and eleven shillings per week, and came out a bounty emigrant, settled, after three years' service, iu Adelaide ; he went to Mount Alexander, and in eight weeks netted three hundred pounds ; he re- turned to his farm, satisfied with his success, to join his wife and family, and to improve his land with this most important accession of capital. Two successful men, whom the writer met with at Moreton Bay — one an old diggers' wives in silks. 281 sapper and miner, an intelligent Scotchman, who had been employed in the survey of Scotland ; the other, an old convict, formerly a whipper-in to a pack of hounds near Whally, inLancashire — after an absenceof ten months, bought allotments, and then returned to the mines. It is pleasing to be able to men* tion such instances of the useful application of money, when so great a misuse of it pre- sents itself in every direction. It is also amusing to see the wives of diggers rustling in silks and satins at one time, and at another, without shoes or stockings, and in working clothes, looking much more at ease and at home in this costume than in the dress of a higher order. I particularly remarked a sawyer, who I knew had been lucky, when taking his wife to their kirk, survey her with just and honest marital pride, in her silken dress, although it was very manifest that she was evidently labouring under what our Gallic neighbours well express by " mal aise." The erroneous and extravagant notions formed about the diggings by immigrants cannot be removed too soon, and they should 282 SXTRAVAGANT WCfSWBB, be told the naked tmth at once, that while many prosper;^ many also £ul. From the highly-coloured accounts given by the press, there is no doubt that many persons unfitted for the occupations most in demand have left home, and find themselves without any re- sources, unless they resort to shepherding. Some came out with such absurd ideas, as that the gold-seeker had only to go out of his tent or hut after a shower of heavy tro- pical rain, and scrape the gold off the surfece of the soil. Several also of the new comers land without one ferthing in their pockets, and yet will not engage themselves m service in the colony, as they left England expressly to go and try their luck at the gold-mines. The consequence is that they are quite incompetent to meet the expenses of travelling fi-om one hundred to two hundred miles up to the mines; and even if with perseverance, and the sale of a few articles of clothing which they have brought out with them, they are able to reach the auriferous districts, they are unprovided with means to purchase necessaries, implements^ PEBSEYEBIKG SCOTCHMAN. 283 and the license fee. They may, as some have done who have attempted and succeeded in reaching the desired spot in this sad phght, obtain wages, amonnting to %l, or SI. per week, but this is very uncertain, as the work is generally carried on by parties, f<™>ed Jore they p«ceed b, the di^. and strangers are seldom employed. The proprietors who engage labour are very few in number, and quite the exception, the rule being the other way. A young man, a native of Glasgow, came over from the Scotch settle- ment of Otago, in New Zealand, and when he reached the mines, and had paid for tools and Kcense fee, found that he and his companion had only one shilling between them to buy food with until their claim yielded. On the diggings many sheep's heads are thrown about, and they collected these and lived upon them for one week, when fortunately their claim began to yield, and in fourteen days they were in possession of 400?. ; but our friend was no advocate for gold seeking. There are several remarkable instances of persons succeeding who reached the mines 284 PRIVATIONS ENDURED. penniless ; but the best course to pursue with- out money, is to look for work until they have sufficient to give themselves and the gold-mines a fair chance. To be induced to attempt it without Amds because some have not failed, would be just as sensible and rea- sonable as for young barristers to eat sprat suppers because Lord Eldon did so, and be- came Chancellor; or tripe and ham, be- cause Erskine when Uving at Blackheath was forced also by poverty to adopt that diet, a^d he too amVed at the di^% of Lord High Chancellor of England; or to suppose that because Johnstone and Ghxrick came up to London with only three half- pence, every one to arrive at great celebrity and fame should do the same — ^if they had the exact sum. Many have lost the savings of years at the diggings. One old man, who had been a contractor for tunnelling on some of Brassy and Mackenzie's railway lines, took up with him 200Z., and five of his feUow-passengers formed the party; for five months they worked away at the Turon and buried all. SUCCESSFUL DIGGERS. 285 owing to the holes filling with water. The privations were too great for this man ; he had not been accustomed to a sheet of bark for a bed and a gunya hut, and to the unvary- ing tea and damper. To use his own words — " it nearly finished me." Immediately on landing he went off without experience, and abnost without inquiry. One of the gardeners of the Botanical Gardens at Sydney, went up to the Turon, took his wife with him, and in three months lost all his savings, 75/., and also his health ; he was glad to return to his former occupation. Another acquaint- ance of the writer's lost 30?. in four months on one occasion, in Bell's Paddock, Braid- wood ; and 201, in two months on another trial, but he means to return to it, and perhaps wiU eventually succeed. An officer, with his two sons, now a stipendiary magis- trate, an aged man, lost 50/. in five months ; but neither he nor his party had in them any elements of success. A young gentleman, the son of a merchant from Edmonton, came out with three friends with the sole object of going to the diggings ; he went from Sydney 286 PRACTICE OF "SALTING." to Maillandy and overland from thence to Bingera, about 250 miles ; lost at the Bingera gold-field 40?. ; from the scarcity of water they could not make the yield profitable ; he passed on to the Haaging Eock, made Ihl in a fortnight, and from thence proceeded to the Turon, where, after eight months, he foimd he had netted 700Z. He justly remarked, that the diggings were demoralizing from the rambling, erratic sort of life. However, he intended to try Mount Alexander after Christmas. He had been shot at and struck in the leg, by a ball, fired by a black fellow ; for which he returned a heavy charge of buck-shot in the part that people usually employ to sit down upon. AU townships have been anxious to have gold found in their vicinity, to increase the trade of the place and enhance the value of every description of property. And the most ingenious methods have been practised to in- duce a rush to the spot. Hence the custom of ^^ salting," i. e., burying gold in localities where prospectors are attracted by rumours of the precious ore having been found. One HOAX ON MR. HARGREAVES. 287 instance of this kind occurred at Adelaide, which became pretty generally known ; the object in this case was to sell the land at a high price to a Minmg Company. And the Bishop of Sydney, in laying the foundation stone of a church at Sofala, at each turn of the trowel brought to light a nugget of some value, which however it appeared had been placed there with a view of enhancing the value of the neighbouring land. This in technical gold-digging phraseology, is called ''planting'' Mr. H. Hargreaves, when sent to explore the northern districts, had the following at- tempt palmed upon him, as he reported to Government. Messrs. Hay and Leslies, su- perintendents and squatters, stated that gold had been found in the viciniiy of the Darling Downs, anxious to attract diggers to those districts. Mr. H. Hargreaves addressed the Colonial Secretary, after haviug inspected the Northern districts, in these terms : — ** The Canning Downs' gold excitement was got up with a leaden bullet covered up or rather over, with gold leaf, previously 288 SPURIOUS GOLD beaten out into a nugget-like looking specimen. The perpetrator of this hoax, a Mr. Thompson, an artist, told me so him- self, in presence of other gentlemen." This is one of many hoaxes of the same description. Another quite recently attempted, was a pre- tended discovery of gold at New Town, six miles from Sydney, which field Mr. Deas Thompson and several other gentlemen rode out to examine, but the result was foimd to be no more than a trick played by some of the publicaas and omnibus proprietors, to induce (as it did), an influx of people from town, and during which excitement they managed to do a " good stroke." But a fraud of a much more serious character has been discovered, viz, the adulteration of gold with twenty per cent, of copper, or as is stated in evidence at the police court in Melbourne, with Muntz' metal. Advices had previously come out that spurious nuggets and gold dust had been extensively manufactured in Birming- ham, either to be sold to gold buyers or else for the purpose of " peppering" or " salting " MANUFACTURED AT BIRMINGHAM. 289 claims, for fraudulent sale on the diggings. The principals sent out to their agents in the colony, the strongest acids and hardest stones to try the gold with, but the spurious metal was so well and strongly gilded as to resist the usual tests ordinarily applied. The writer, when present at Mr. John Cohen s gold sales, saw some of this facti- tious metal, of the form of shot, in which form pure gold is found, with a slight pellicle hanging to it ; but it was agreed on by all present that the imitation was most ingeniously contrived ; and when acids were applied by Mr. Hall, a jeweller and purchaser for the banks, the metal was found not to be acted upon. The extent to which this fraud may have been carried on, and with what degree of success, is unknown, and will remain so until advices are received from home. The loss to some will, no doubt, be a very serious matter. 290 INVESTIGATION AT MELBOURNE CHAPTEE XXI. THE INVESTIGATION AT MELBOURNE — LEAD SOLD FOR GOLD — " POINTING " — GAMBLING — INTOXICATION — THE MORAL DANGERS THE MINER IS EXPOSED TO — ^A SCENE ON THE lord's DAY AT THE MINES — ^TOSSING — PREACH- ING — A PRIZE-FIGHT — SLY GROG-SELLERS — ^AN EXBCU^ TION— THE CONFESSION—" BAILING UP"— VANDEMONIANS — A VESSEL ROBBED— INSECURITY OF LIFE — THE OVENS —HIGH PRICE OF DRAYS, ETC., ON A MOVE — MIGRATORY CHARACTER OF THE MINERS — ^TURON AND BATHURST ; STATE OF SOCIETY AT THOSE MINES — SIR CHARLES FITZROY's address — MELBOURNE — DANGER OF BEING ABROAD AFTER SUNSET — HAMMERING A MAN — APPRE- HENSIONS OF LYNCH LAW AT THE OVENS — " SHEPHERD- ING " A LUCKY DIGGER — CRUEL ATTACK — ^DYSENTERY — BAD WATER — A SUCCESSFUL PRACTITIONER — ^A DENTIST'S CHARGE — OPHTHALMIA— SAND — ^INSECTS — FLIES — MOS- QUITOES — COUNTRY SALUBRIOUS — ^INFLUENZA — ^HOWTHB INTENDING MINER SHOULD PROVIDE HIMSELF ; THE BEST WAY FOR HIM TO PROCEED — ^WHO SHOULD GO TO THE DIGGINGS — THE LAST RESORT OF YOUNG MEN UNFIT FOE MINERS — COLONIAL EXPERIENCE — PICBB — CRADLES — REVOLVERS. The investigation into this fraud took place at Melbourne, on December 31, 1852, before the mayor and Mr. Hall, J. P., when a ON THE FRAUDULENT GOLD. 291 charge of selling spurious gold was brought against James Karey, by Mr. L. J. Mon- tefiore, who stated that he bought 732 ounces at 3/. 95. lOd, per ounce, and that the purchase was made conditionally, viz., that the gold should be assayed. The pro- secutor deposed, that he detected some as counterfeit. ^* I examined every particle of the gold, with the acid test, and the result was the discolouration of two pieces, which indicated the presence of copper. The defendant said this was only dirt, and I thinking it was copper, was not deceived by its appearance." Mr. Charles Bruce Skinner, the Govern- ment gold assayer, who held a certificate from the Government Assay Master at Cal- cutta, stated that about ten days ago Mr. Montefiore brought him two parcels of metal in a paper. One resembled Moimt Alex- ander gold, and the other a sort of spurious gold. Mr. Montefiore expressed a wish that he would assay the latter, which he did, and foimd it to be ITf carats or 4i less than standard gold. He had not the o 2 292 FRAUDULENT GOLD. slightest doubt but that the spurious parcel was not native gold, and he thought there could be no second opinion upon this point. Did not test the other parcel of gold, as he did not think Mr. Montej&ore required it. One of the bags was opened in court and examined by witness, who swore that its contents contained a proportion of spurious gold similar to that he had assayed, and which he was certain was not the native gold of the colony, and it must have gone through some manufacturing process to be in its present state. His opinion was that Muntz' patent metal must have been mixed with it — such gold never came from the dig- gings. He did not think the gold had been alloyed here, but in England. The loss on the quantity bought by pro- secutor would be from 500?. to 600?. The Mayor said the case appeared to be one of very great importance to the com- mercial interests; they would, therefore, postpone their decision until Monday, the defendant's bail to be extended. Thus the case stood when the writer sailed LEAD SOLD FOR GOLD. 293 jfrom Sydney. The effect of this has been to make buyers cautious and shy, and to suggest the necessity of gold-sellers being licensed ; but the best safeguard will be the precautions which buyers and gold dealers will take for themselves, by increased skill in applying the necessary tests, and by multiplying the number of persons com- petent to assay, which has been already done. Considerable profits have been made by speculators in the precious metal since its discovery. One species of fraud practised at the diggings was the following ingenious contrivance: — A digger took to the Com- missioner his bag of gold dust, had it weighed in his presence and sealed; a receipt of its weight, not contents, is given to him, upon presenting which at the Treasury to which it may be consigned, the same bag is de- Hvered to him. He offers for sale the re- ceipt of the Commissioner, and the unlucky purchaser finds the bag, when opened, con- tains not gold dust, but lead shot. Of course this has ceased to entrap any one now. Doubtless some more complicated 294 lord's day at method will be discovered to defeat detection, as is generally the case; the vigilance of society provokes and sharpens the ingenuity of those who prey upon it. Some gold buyers have been suspected of using false weights, and what is called in colonial dialect, " pointing." Many are the dangers morally and bodily which attend the fortunes of the digger. Gambling, drunken- ness, and dissipation of every kind and degree, are helping to demoralize any vir- tuous sentiments which may linger amid the wreck of the human heart. Conceive such sights as the foUowing, which have been seen at the mines, all enacted within a stone's throw of each other on the Lord's day. The service of the church being performed on one part of the creek, attended by the sober-minded and industrious miners ; on another part, within the sound of the preacher's voice, a prize-fight was going on between two diggers for 20^., which lasted for three hours ; and contiguous to them a party gambling and drinking. The Com- missioners, it must be mentioned to their THE DIGGINGS, 295 credit, on the day following punished the prize-fighters. It is not intended, by record- ing this instance of brutality, to produce the impression, that such is the usual and ordinary state of social order at the diggings. There are many well-disposed as well as evil-disposed persons collected on the gold fields. But the mind, not weU fortified by rehgious sentiments, is apt, in the absence of the softening influences of domestic life, to be degraded step by step into paths which it never contemplated before without horror and dismay. The descent to sin is gradual. Sly grog-selling is also one of the sources of great evil and disorder. A culprit who was executed on the 24th of September, 1852, for the murder of Ms mate, was engaged with others in this illicit commerce. He attributed his career of crime to the vice of gambling and neglect of all religious impres- sions. It was sad to see a young man in the prime of life die on the scaflfold, well-in- formed and well-educated. He said it was fortunate their career had been stopped ; one was murdered, one was drowned in crossing 296 "BAILING UP." a creek, and he himself executed, for they had together led a cruel life. In many, say most, sly grog-shops, the spirits are adulterated and drugged so that the digger may be robbed while in a state of insensi- bility, and if resistance is offered, murdered. It is presumed that the unhappy man and his malshaabeeo engaged in mLyUwUss acts of robbery and violence. " Bailing up " is stopping a man for the purpose of robbing him. Either waylaying him, or going into his hut or store in gangs of three or four, and obliging him to reveal his wealth, and deliver it up. This has often occurred, and more frequently at Mount Alexander in consequence of the contiguity of Van Diemen's Land. An assize has been instituted at the diggings, over which Judge Barry presided. Forty out of sixty cases of crimes were committed by the Vandemo- nians. There was a most formidable band, composed of liberated and run-away convicts at Victoria, headed by a lag who has been celebrated in the colony as an excellent race-jockey. Happily for society these INSECURITY OF LIFE. 297 desperate banditti have been taken up. Not, however, before they had committed many depredations, and been guilty of many acts " Nelson," lying in the harbour of Victoria, was boarded and robbed of a large quantity of gold-dust which had been shipped for ex- port. Some of the party concerned in this act of piracy have been captured. Several stringent enactments in the Vagrant Act have been passed by the Melbourne Legis- lative Council to prevent the immigration of the convict and ticket-of-leave men. Life is at the best generally insecure at the gold-fields ; not however so much so in Australia, as it has been in California, and it is less exposed to the hand of the mur- derer in New South Wales, than in Victoria. At some diggings, lately found on the banks of the Ovens river, society has been in a most frightfiil state of rapine and bloodshed. The concourse of people was very great, as the field was reputed to be marvellously and incredibly auriferous, which will appear when we come to consider the comparative value o3 298 STATE OP SOCIETY of gold-bearing localities. When any jiew place is reported to be rich in the precious ore, all means of locomotion rise to an enor- mous price ; horses, drays, and carriages fetch apparentiy impossible rates. This migratory disposition of gold-diggers affords a veil to the lawless, to escape the vigilance of the law, while the absence of the victim pre- vents any particular notice, and confines all proceedings to a passing enquiry. Many deeds of violence and robbery which have never come to light, have, doubtless, been committed in drunken brawls. The Turon and Bathurst fields have hitherto been the most secure. His Excellency, Sir Charles Fitzroy, in his address to the Legislative Council on its prorogation, thus expresses himself concerning the state of society at the mines within his government, on the 28th December, 1852 : "I have much plea- sure in observing, that the same good order and willing obedience to the laws and the regulations of the Government which have so creditably characterized the conduct of the population at the gold fields since their first IN MELBOURNE. 299 occupation, are still maintained." But as the diggings approach nearer to Sydney from Port Phillip, it is feared this creditable cha- racter now justly commended by Sir Charles, will be lost in the accession and approach of the Vandemonians. In Melbourne no one who values life (or property if he has any), ventures about after sunset. The insolence and power of the wicked is so dominant, that if an unlucky or prudent wight is without money or valuables when attacked, he is well " ham- mered," for his misfortune or his precaution. No one goes out without fire-arms. This, however, is not the condition of Sydney. But it is to be borne in mind that the latter is the elder settlement; and has that best and most effective police — ^good and plentiful gas lights. It was apprehended that at the Ovens, lynch law would come into common practice if the disorganized state of society continued much longer. A short time before the writer left, a digger who was known to have about forty pounds weight of gold, was " shepherded" for a consider- ( a * 300 " SHEPHERDING ff able time, i. e., watched until a favourable opportunity presented itself to attack him. That opportunity, lucklessly for the poor fellow, occurred ; he was " bailed up" by four men, and just as the party was leaving him, the disguise of one of them fell off, by which accident he discovered the robber, and calling him by name, the party returned and cut his throat; happily these horrid wretches have been captured. At the Ovens river a case happened which came to the knowledge of the writer by a private channel. The Commissioners, to defeat as much as pos- sible the schemes of these thieves, give to the depositor a receipt for his gold ; the bag containing it is registered with the name of the digger (or owner) written by his own hand, but a blank space is left in the receipt to be presented at the Treasury or Bank, to be filled up. by the applicant or his agent, so that if a person is robbed of this voucher, unless the blank could be filled up, no use could be. made of it. A man was known by a gang to have made a deposit of treasure at the Commissioners', and to have in his LUCKY DIGGER. 301 possession a receipt with the blank space to be fiUed up by himself with his own name, when presented for the deposit ; they " baQed him up," and insisted on his filling up the blank with his own hand- writing to be by one of them presented at Melbourne ; he for some time refused to do so ; to murder him would not have served their end; they therefore kept him in durance, and punctured him with probes, until, finding himself growing faint from loss of blood, he was compelled to fill up in due form the Com- missioners' receipt, which one of the party took into Melbourne before any intimation of the circumstances under which it had been obtained could be made known to the authorities. This was an instance of the most refined barbarity, cruelty, and daring. Other deeds of violence were constantly re- ported of the dissolute from the Ovens. The Califomians are not the most lawless at the diggings, as has been presupposed. For safety the well disposed camp together, for the "pointers" go in gangs and large bodies. This practice, and keeping in-doors 302 A SUCCESSFUL PRACTITIONER. after sun-down, axe the best security that can be adopted. These are not the only dangers the miner has to encounter, and against which he must be prepared to contend. Dysentery has been very prevalent at the mines, arising from bad water and exposure to wet; in many cases at the different gold fields, the digger has to work up to his waist in water. The same sickness is also produced by the excessive heat. As there are all professions at the diggings, there is no lack of medical advice ; and some surgeons have found the practice of their calling as profitable, and more so, than delving for gold. Mr. Gt., rather an aged man, came up to the mines, very poor, in fact, penniless. He borrowed from a friend of the writer's a pan, to wash the earth from his claim on his first arrival. Having been a practitioner in the West Indies, he had had considerable experience in the disease of dysentery ; gradually, his fame spread, and in a few months having abandoned digging, he realised, by medical practice, and the sale of paper, pens, wafers, and cooling effervescent FLIES — ^MOSQUITOES. 308 draughts, a handsome fortune. A miner went to one practitioner and oflfered a pound to have a tooth extracted. This son of iEIscnla- pius told him the price was two pounds, and as he would not pay it, he had to endure the pain. A sort of ophthalmia is very prevalent, arising from the refraction of light, the great heat, and that peculiar local nuisance of Aus- tralia, clouds of sand and dust, which are neither more nor less than sand storms ; to protect themselves from which many wear veils, similar to those you may see used by gentlemen of the turf when going to the Derby on a dusty day. Ophthalmia may also be produced by the irritation caused by minute insects. But the chief tormentors in the hot weather are the flies and the mos- quitoes ; any one who could find a specific against these, may reckon upon being, in a very short time, a Bothschild or Overstone. From the great salubrity of the climate of Australia, and the absence as yet of any local disease, the general health at the mines has been remarkably good, and the mortality comparatively small. The reverse is the case B04 IMFLUENZA. at California; there the places of burial present the appearance which might be ex- pected in a long populated country ; there, fever and ague are doing their fiiU work on poor humanity. Perhaps neuralgia and rheu- matism are the only endemics in the southern hemisphere ; otherwise, it is a most delight- ful and healthy country ; you may sleep out in the open ab at night with impunity, and, notwithstanding the great and rapid alter- nations of temperature, the climate is invi- gorating and salubrious. Influenza carried off great numbers both in Sydney and also at the diggings, attack- ing fatally the aged, the delicate, and the young during the close of last year. The intending immigrant who purposes visiting Australia with the view of trying his luck at the mines, will be curious to know how he had best equip himself, to succeed in his design. If he has been ac- customed to labour, he has one most essential property of probable success. He had better choose some companions like himself, say three or four, and then look out for a ship BEST MODE OF PROCEDURE. 305 to New South Wales, from the nearest port to his residence, and select one, the regula- tions of which assimilate most to those laid down by the Land and Emigration Coloniza- tion Society; these are so nicely framed, that the moral, and physical comfort of the passenger is ensured. The food sufficient, nay, ample, wholesome, and palatable. This forms a very important consideration in undertaking a voyage, the average duration of which may be computed at one hundred and twenty days. Every precaution is also taken by the Government to ensure the cleanliness and safety of the ship which they charter for the accommodation of the bounty emigrants. The writer must, in justice to the general liberality publicly acknowledged in the press (while he was in Sydney), by the passengers in free ships, state, that the comfort of free emigrants is fairly and suffi- ciently attended to by the owners and cap- tains. The Passenger Act is a great protec- tion to those for whom it was enacted. Who should go to the diggings? AH 306 WHO SHOULD GO who think they can improve their fortnnes, is our reply ; who have strong perseverance and ftill determination. Napoleons, in the explanation of the word impossible — a word which is not found in their vocabulary. But if, reader, you have a competent income at home, meeting your wants, and adapted to the requirements of your station in society, stay in England, because you may not suc- ceed; and if you do, you must certainly undergo privations to which you have been unaccustomed, and which your previous comforts doubly unfit you to contend with. This most particularly is advanced as advice to those who are engaged in merchants' offices and Government employments; for since, if your health fails, or your means become exhausted at the mines, you would find it difficult to fall back upon your former calling, and then you present the most de- plorable object in New South Wales, of which, alas ! there are already too many in- stances in well-informed and well-conducted young men, who cannot find suitable occu- TO THE DIGGINGS. 307 pation for themselves, and being without " colonial experience," are not selected even by those who do require the description of labour these young men can offer for employment. The alternative is then starvation or the bush; i. e., becoming a shepherd, or a police or storekeeper's over- seer, after some " colonial experience " has been obtained. This last is a quality rather difficult to explain; but it implies in its idiomatic sense a great deal that is of a very questionable cast. It was defined to the writer as ''learning to efo by having been done'' This is what is tacitly un- derstood by the advertiser who wants a person with " colonial experience ;" or as the Australian native or old hand tersely and expressively construes it, "being up to a move or two," or "knowing a thing or two." Supposing the intending emigrant digger to have taken his passage, the less he encumbers himself with luggage the better, as it will only be in his way on land- ing, and it is as impossible as unnecessary 808 PICKS— CRADLES — ^REVOLVERS. for him to cany a wardrobe to the mines. Even in this respect he would act wisely to provide himself with an outfit laid out for the information of the bounty Govern- ment emigrant, remembering that he has two climates to provide against — sl warm and a cold temperature. In the tropics, which extend twenty-three degrees and a-half on each side of the equator, he will require Hght vestments; but when he is running East, in 52° south latitude, he will find warm clothing absolutely necessary to his health and comfort, and this he may lay aside again on his approach to Australia. The writer saw stated in a London newspaper when he was in Sydney, that a company had started fi-om Liverpool armed to the teeth with guns, revolvers, and knives, together with pans, cradles, picks, and all the other paraphernalia requisite for mining. It is well, doubtless, for miners of a certain class to provide themselves at home with aU the necessary implements, that is, if they are persons with some means ; but unless EXPENSE OF CARRIAGE. 309 they axe, these tools which they bring with them would only encumber them, since car- riage to any of the diggings by public con- veyance, is too expensive to be practicable. k •3"..!;;=- i -rt ;2 :s ;s ;3 :sP= mi = 1 j ::::;::::::: :::: : : ^ ikSS:", i » s :3 :s :s :e :r= 5!v3:- = 1 11 "siSH 1 ::::::;::.: : : : : : : ; | -s-JS-i 1 ^' :s '.5 :s :s ;s|3 W-'i -■ 1 i! rxSSS ;:-.::::::::;: : : : : : : =HSv i '—- •- In ■WLai^ p» 2 ::::;:::;::: :::: : : | ^s '-;^£5S i