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CHAPTER I.
1. To the people who lived four centuries ago
in Europe only a very small portion of the earth’s surface was known. Their
geography was confined to the regions lying immediately around the
Mediterranean, and including Europe, the north of Africa, and the west of Asia.
Round these there was a margin, obscurely and imperfectly described in the
reports of merchants; but by far the greater part of the world was utterly
unknown. Great realms of darkness stretched all beyond, and closely hemmed in
the little circle of light. In these unknown lands our ancestors loved to
picture everything that was strange and mysterious. They believed that the man
who could penetrate far enough would find countries where inexhaustible riches
were to be gathered without toil from fertile shores, or marvellous valleys;
and though wild tales were told of the dangers supposed to fill these regions,
yet to the more daring and adventurous these only made the visions of boundless
wealth and enchanting loveliness seem more fascinating.
Thus, as the art of navigation improved, and
long voyages became possible, courageous seamen were tempted to venture out
into the great unknown expanse. Columbus carried his trembling sailors over
great tracts of unknown ocean, and discovered the two continents of America;
Vasco di Gama penetrated far to the south, and rounded the Cape of Good Hope;
Magellan, passing through the straits now called by his name, was the first to
enter the Pacific Ocean; and so in the case of a hundred others, courage and
skill carried the hardy seaman over many seas and into many lands that had lain
unknown for ages.
Australia was the last part of the world to
be thus visited and explored. In the year 1600, during the times of
Shakespeare, the region to the south of the East Indies was still as little
known as ever; the rude maps of those days had only a great blank where the
islands of Australia should have been. Most people thought there was nothing
but the ocean in that part of the world; and as the voyage was dangerous and
very long—requiring several years for its completion—scarcely any one cared to
run the risk of exploring it.
2. De Quiros (The voyages of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, 1595-1606 ). —There was, however, an enthusiastic seaman
who firmly believed that a great continent existed there, and who longed to go
in search of it. This was De Quiros, a Spaniard, who had already sailed with a
famous voyager, and now desired to set out on an expedition of his own. He
spent many years in beseeching the King of Spain to furnish him with ships and
men so that he might seek this southern continent. King Philip for a long time
paid little attention to his entreaties, but was at last overcome by his
perseverance, and told De Quiros that, though he himself had no money for such
purposes, he would order the Governor of Peru to provide the necessary vessels.
De Quiros carried the king’s instructions to Peru, and two ships were soon
prepared and filled with suitable crews—the Capitana and the Almiranta,
with a smaller vessel called the Zabra to act as tender. A nobleman
named Torres was appointed second in command, and they set sail from Peru, on a
prosperous voyage across the Pacific, discovering many small islands on their
way, and seeing for the first time the Coral Islands of the South Seas. At
length (1606) they reached a shore which stretched as far as they could see
both north and south, and De Quiros thought he had discovered the great
Southern Continent. He called the place “Tierra Australis del Espiritu Santo,”
that is, the “Southern Land of the Holy Spirit”. It is now known that this was
not really a continent, but merely one of the New Hebrides Islands, and more
than a thousand miles away from the mainland. The land was filled by high
mountains, verdure-clad to their summits, and sending down fine streams, which
fell in hoarse-sounding waterfalls from the edges of the rocky shore, or
wandered amid tropical luxuriance of plants down to the golden sands that lay
within the coral barriers. The inhabitants came down to the edge of the green
and shining waters making signs of peace, and twenty soldiers went ashore,
along with an officer, who made friends with them, exchanging cloth for pigs
and fruit. De Quiros coasted along the islands for a day or two till he entered
a fine bay, where his vessels anchored, and Torres went ashore. A chief came
down to meet him, offering him a present of fruit, and making signs to show
that he did not wish the Spaniards to intrude upon his land. As Torres paid no
attention, the chief drew a line upon the sand, and defied the Spaniards to
cross it. Torres immediately stepped over it, and the natives launched some
arrows at him, which dropped harmlessly from his iron armour. Then the
Spaniards fired their muskets, killing the chief and a number of the naked
savages. The rest stood for a moment, stupefied at the noise and flash; then
turned and ran for the mountains.
The Spaniards spent a few pleasant days among
the fruit plantations, and slept in cool groves of overarching foliage; but
subsequently they had quarrels and combats with the natives, of whom they
killed a considerable number. When the Spaniards had taken on board a
sufficient supply of wood and of fresh water they set sail, but had scarcely
got out to sea when a fever spread among the crew, and became a perfect plague.
They returned and anchored in the bay, where the vessels lay like so many
hospitals. No one died, and after a few days they again put to sea, this time
to be driven back again by bad weather. Torres, with two ships, safely reached
the sheltering bay, but the vessel in which De Quiros sailed was unable to
enter it, and had to stand out to sea and weather the storm. The sailors then
refused to proceed further with the voyage, and, having risen in mutiny,
compelled De Quiros to turn the vessel’s head for Mexico, which they reached
after some terrible months of hunger and thirst.
3. Torres.—The other ships waited for a day or two, but
no signs being seen of their consort, they proceeded in search of it. In this
voyage Torres sailed round the land, thus showing that it was no continent, but
only an island. Having satisfied himself that it was useless to seek for De
Quiros, he turned to the west, hoping to reach the Philippine Islands, where
the Spaniards had a colony, at Manila. It was his singular fortune to sail
through that opening which lies between New Guinea and Australia, to which the
name of “Torres Strait” was long afterwards applied. He probably saw Cape York
rising out of the sea to the south, but thought it only another of those
endless little islands with which the strait is studded. Poor De Quiros spent
the rest of his life in petitioning the King of Spain for ships to make a fresh
attempt. After many years he obtained another order to the Governor of Peru,
and the old weather-beaten mariner once more set out from Spain full of hope; but
at Panama, on his way, death awaited him, and there the fiery-souled veteran
passed away, the last of the great Spanish navigators. He died in poverty and
disappointment, but he is to be honoured as the first of the long line of
Australian discoverers. In after years, the name he had invented was divided
into two parts; the island he had really discovered being called Espiritu
Santo, while the continent he thought he had discovered was called Terra
Australis. This last name was shortened by another discoverer—Flinders—to the
present term Australia.
4. The Duyfhen.—De Quiros and Torres were Spaniards, but the
Dutch also displayed much anxiety to reach the great South Continent. From
their colony at Java they sent out a small vessel, the Duyfhen, or Dove,
which sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and passed half-way down along its
eastern side. Some sailors landed, but so many of them were killed by the
natives that the captain was glad to embark again and sail for home, after
calling the place of their disaster Cape Keer-weer, or Turnagain. These Dutch
sailors were the first Europeans, as far as can now be known, who landed on
Australian soil; but as they never published any account of their voyage, it is
only by the merest chance that we know anything of it.
5. Other Dutch Discoverers.—During the next twenty years various Dutch
vessels, while sailing to the settlements in the East Indies, met with the
coast of Australia. In 1616 Dirk Hartog landed on the island in Shark Bay which
is now called after him. Two years later Captain Zaachen is said to have sailed
along the north coast, which he called Arnhem Land. Next year (1619) another
captain, called Edel, surveyed the western shores, which for a long time bore
his name. In 1622 a Dutch ship, the Leeuwin, or Lioness, sailed
along the southern coast, and its name was given to the south-west cape of
Australia. In 1627 Peter Nuyts entered the Great Australian Bight, and made a
rough chart of some of its shores; in 1628 General Carpenter sailed completely
round the large gulf to the north, which has taken its name from this
circumstance. Thus, by degrees, all the northern and western, together with
part of the southern shores, came to be roughly explored, and the Dutch even
had some idea of colonising this continent.
6. Tasman. (Abel Janszoon Tasman: His Life and Voyages)— During the next fourteen years we hear no
more of voyages to Australia; but in 1642 Antony Van Diemen, the Governor of
the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, sent out his friend Abel Jansen
Tasman, with two ships, to make new discoveries in the South Seas. Tasman first
went to the Island of Bourbon, from which he sailed due south for a time; but
finding no signs of land, he turned to the east, and three months after setting
out he saw a rocky shore in the distance. Stormy weather coming on, he was
driven out to sea, and it was not till a week later that he was able to reach
the coast again. He called the place Van Diemen’s Land, and sent some sailors
on shore to examine the country. These men heard strange noises in the woods,
and saw trees of enormous height, in which notches were cut seven feet apart.
These they believed to be the steps used by the natives in climbing the trees,
and they therefore returned to report that the land was exceedingly beautiful,
but inhabited by men of gigantic size. Tasman, next day, allowed the carpenter
to swim ashore and set up the Dutch flag; but having himself seen, from his
ship, what he thought to be men of extraordinary stature moving about on the
shore, he lost no time in taking up his anchor and setting sail. Farther to the
east he discovered the islands of New Zealand, and after having made a partial
survey of their coasts, he returned to Batavia. Two years after he was sent on
a second voyage of discovery, and explored the northern and western shores of Australia
itself; but the results do not seem to have been important, and are not now
known. His chief service in the exploration of Australia was the discovery of
Tasmania, as it is now called, after his name. This he did not know to be an
island; he drew it on his maps as if it were a peninsula belonging to the
mainland of Australia.
7. Dampier.(Life of William Dampier).— The discoveries that had so far been made
were very imperfect, for the sailors generally contented themselves with
looking at the land from a safe distance. They made no surveys such as would
have enabled them to draw correct charts of the coasts; they seldom landed, and
even when they did, they never sought to become acquainted with the natives, or
to learn anything as to the nature of the interior of the country. The first
who took the trouble to obtain information of this more accurate kind was the
Englishman, William Dampier.
When a young man Dampier had gone out to
Jamaica to manage a large estate; but not liking the slave-driving business, he
crossed over to Campeachy, and lived for a time in the woods, cutting the more
valuable kinds of timber. Here he became acquainted with the buccaneers who
made the lonely coves of Campeachy their headquarters. Being persuaded to join
them, he entered upon a life of lawless daring, constantly fighting and
plundering, and meeting with the wildest adventures. He was often captured by
the American natives, still more often by the Spaniards, but always escaped to
enter upon exploits of fresh danger. In 1688 he joined a company of buccaneers,
who proposed to make a voyage round the world and plunder on their way. It took
them more than a year to reach the East Indies, where they spent a long time,
sometimes attacking Spanish ships or Dutch fortresses, sometimes leading an
easy luxurious life among the natives, often quarrelling among themselves, and
even going so far as to leave their captain with forty men on the island of
Mindanao. But at length the time came when it was necessary to seek some quiet
spot where they should be able to clean and repair the bottoms of their ships.
Accordingly, they landed on the north-west coast of Australia, and lived for
twelve days at the place now called “Buccaneers’ Archipelago”. They were the
first Europeans who held any communication with the natives of Australia, and
the first to publish a detailed account of their voyage thither. Growing tired
of a lawless life, and having become wealthy, Dampier bought an estate in
England, where he lived some years in retirement, till his love of adventure
led him forth again. The King of England was anxious to encourage discovery,
and fitted out a vessel called the Roebuck, to explore the southern
seas. Dampier was the only man in England who had ever been to Australia, and
to him was given the command of the little vessel, which sailed in the year
1699. It took a long time to reach Australia, but at last the Roebuck entered what Dampier called Shark Bay, from an enormous shark he caught there.
He then explored the north-west coast as far as Roebuck Bay, in all about nine
hundred miles; of which he published a full and fairly accurate account. He was
a man of keen observation, and delighted to describe the habits and manners of
the natives, as well as peculiarities in the plants and animals, of the various
places he visited. During the time he was in Australia he frequently met with
the blacks and became well acquainted with them. He gives this description of
their appearance:—
“The inhabitants are the most miserable
wretches in the universe, having no houses nor garments. They feed upon a few
fish, cockles, mussels, and periwinkles. They are without religion and without
government. In figure they are tall, straight-bodied and thin, with small, long
limbs.”
The country itself, he says, is low and
sandy, with no fresh water and scarcely any animals except one which looks like
a racoon, and jumps about on its long hind legs. Altogether, his description is
not prepossessing; and he says that the only pleasure he had found in this part
of his voyage was the satisfaction of having discovered the most barren spot on
the face of the earth.
This account is, in most respects, correct,
so far as regards the portion of Australia visited by Dampier. But,
unfortunately, he saw only the most inhospitable part of the whole continent.
There are many parts whose beauty would have enchanted him, but as he had
sailed along nearly a thousand miles without seeing any shore that was not
miserable, it is not to be wondered at that he reported the whole land to be
worthless. He was subsequently engaged in other voyages of discovery, in one of
which he rescued the famous Alexander Selkirk from his lonely island; but, amid
all his subsequent adventures, he never entertained the idea of returning to
Australia.
Dampier published a most interesting account
of all his travels in different parts of the world, and his book was for a long
time the standard book of travels. Defoe used the materials it contained for
his celebrated novel, Robinson Crusoe. But it turned away the tide of
discovery from Australia; for those who read of the beautiful islands and rich
countries Dampier had elsewhere visited would never dream of incurring the
labour and expense of a voyage to so dull and barren a spot as Australia seemed
to be from the description in his book. Thus we hear of no further explorations
in this part of the world until nearly a century after; and, even then, no one
thought of sending out ships specially for the purpose.
8. Captain Cook (THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK THE CIRCUMNAVIGATOR)(Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook).— But in the year 1770 a series of important
discoveries was indirectly brought about. The Royal Society of London,
calculating that the planet Venus would cross the disc of the sun in 1769,
persuaded the English Government to send out an expedition to the Pacific Ocean
for the purpose of making observations which would enable astronomers to
calculate the distance of the earth from the sun. A small vessel, the Endeavour,
was chosen; astronomers with their instruments embarked, and the whole placed
under the charge of James Cook, a sailor whose admirable character fully
merited this distinction. At thirteen he had been a shopkeeper’s assistant,
but, preferring the sea, he had become an apprentice in a coal vessel. After
many years of rude life in this trade, during which he contrived to carry on
his education in mathematics and navigation, he entered the Royal Navy, and by
diligence and honesty rose to the rank of master. He had completed so many
excellent surveys in North America, and, besides, had made himself so well
acquainted with astronomy, that the Government had no hesitation in making
their choice. That it was a wise one, the care and success of Cook fully
showed. He carried the expedition safely to Tahiti, built fortifications, and
erected instruments for the observations, which were admirably made. Having
finished this part of his task, he thought it would be a pity, with so fine a
ship and crew, not to make some discoveries in these little-known seas. He
sailed south for a time without meeting land; then, turning west, he reached
those islands of New Zealand which had been first seen by Tasman. But Cook made
a far more complete exploration than had been possible to Tasman. For six
months he examined their shores, sailing completely round both islands and
making excellent maps of them.
Then, saying good-bye to these coasts at what
he named Cape Farewell, he sailed westward for three weeks, until his outlook
man raised the cry of “land,” and they were close to the shores of Australia at
Cape Howe. Standing to the north-east, he sailed along the coast till he
reached a fine bay, where he anchored for about ten days. On his first landing
he was opposed by two of the natives, who seemed quite ready to encounter more
than forty armed men. Cook endeavoured to gain their good-will, but without
success. A musket fired between them startled, but did not dismay them; and
when some small shot was fired into the legs of one of them, though he turned
and ran into his hut, it was only for the purpose of putting on a shield and
again facing the white men. Cook made many subsequent attempts to be friendly
with the natives, but always without success. He examined the country for a few
miles inland, and two of his scientific friends—Sir Joseph Banks and Dr.
Solander—made splendid collections of botanical specimens. From this
circumstance the place was called Botany Bay, and its two headlands received
the names of Cape Banks and Cape Solander. It was here that Captain Cook, amid
the firing of cannons and volleys of musketry, took possession of the country
on behalf of His Britannic Majesty, giving it the name, “New South Wales,” on
account of the resemblance of its coasts to the southern shores of Wales.
Shortly after they had set sail from Botany
Bay they observed a small opening in the land; but Cook did not stay to examine
it, merely marking it on his chart as “Port Jackson,” in honour of his friend
Sir George Jackson. The vessel still continued her course northward along the
coast, till they anchored in Moreton Bay. After a short stay, they again set
out towards the north, making a rough chart of the shores they saw. In this way
they had sailed along thirteen hundred miles without serious mishap, when one
night, at about eleven o’clock, they found the sea grow very shallow; all hands
were quickly on deck, but before the ship could be turned she struck heavily on
a sunken rock. No land was to be seen, and they therefore concluded that it was
upon a bank of coral they had struck. The vessel seemed to rest upon the ridge;
but, as the swell of the ocean rolled past, she bumped very heavily. Most of
the cannons and other heavy articles were thrown overboard, and, the ship being
thus lightened, they tried to float her off at daybreak. This they were unable
to do; but, by working hard all next day, they prepared everything for a great
effort at the evening tide, and had the satisfaction of seeing the rising
waters float the vessel off. But now the sea was found to be pouring in through
the leaks so rapidly that, even with four pumps constantly going, they could
scarcely keep her afloat. They worked hard day and night, but the ship was
slowly sinking, when, by the ingenious device of passing a sail beneath her and
pulling it tightly, it was found that the leakage was sufficiently decreased to
keep her from foundering. Shortly after, they saw land, which Captain Cook
called “Cape Tribulation”. He took the vessel into the mouth of a small river,
which they called the Endeavour, and there careened her. On examining the
bottom, it was found that a great sharp rock had pierced a hole in her timbers,
such as must inevitably have sent her to the bottom in spite of pumps and
sails, had it not been that the piece of coral had broken off and remained
firmly fixed in the vessel’s side, thus itself filling up the greater part of
the hole it had caused. The ship was fully repaired; and, after a delay of two
months, they proceeded northward along the coast to Cape York. They then sailed
through Torres Strait, and made it clear that New Guinea and Australia are not
joined.
9. Subsequent Visits.—Several ships visited Australia during the
next few years, but their commanders contented themselves with merely viewing
the coasts which had already been discovered, and returned without adding
anything new. In 1772 Marion, a Frenchman, and next year Furneaux, an
Englishman, sailed along the coasts of Van Diemen’s Land. In 1777 Captain Cook,
shortly before his death, anchored for a few days in Adventure Bay, on the east
coast of Van Diemen’s Land. La Perouse, Vancouver, and D’Entrecasteaux also
visited Australia, and, though they added nothing of importance, they assisted
in filling in the details. By this time nearly all the coasts had been roughly
explored, and the only great point left unsettled was, whether Van Diemen’s
Land was an island or not.
CHAPTER II.
1. Botany Bay (A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay).— The reports brought home by Captain Cook
completely changed the beliefs current in those days with regard to Australia.
From the time of Dampier it had been supposed that the whole of this continent
must be the same flat and miserable desert as the part he described. Cook’s
account, on the other hand, represented the eastern coast as a country full of
beauty and promise. Now, it so happened that, shortly after Cook’s return, the
English nation had to deal with a great difficulty in regard to its criminal population.
In 1776 the United States declared their independence, and the English then
found they could no longer send their convicts over to Virginia, as they had
formerly done. In a short time the gaols of England were crowded with felons.
It became necessary to select a new place of transportation; and, just as this
difficulty arose, Captain Cook’s voyages called attention to a land in every
way suited for such a purpose, both by reason of its fertility and of its great
distance. Viscount Sydney, therefore, determined to send out a party to Botany
Bay, in order to found a convict settlement there; and in May, 1787, a fleet
was ready to sail. It consisted of the Sirius war-ship, its tender the Supply,
together with six transports for the convicts, and three ships for carrying the
stores. Of the convicts, five hundred and fifty were men and two hundred and
twenty were women. To guard these, there were on board two hundred soldiers.
Captain Phillip was appointed Governor of the colony, Captain Hunter was second
in command, and Mr. Collins went out as judge-advocate, to preside in the
military courts, which it was intended to establish for the administration of
justice. On the 18th, 19th, and 20th of January, 1788, the vessels arrived, one
after another, in Botany Bay, after a voyage of eight months, during which many
of the convicts had died from diseases brought on by so long a confinement.
2. Port Jackson (A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson).—
As soon as the ships had anchored in Botany
Bay, convicts were landed and commenced to clear the timber from a portion of
the land; but a day or two was sufficient to show the unsuitability of Botany
Bay for such a settlement. Its waters were so shallow that the ships could not
enter it properly, and had to lie near the Heads, where the great waves of the Pacific
rolled in on them by night and day. Governor Phillip, therefore, took three
boats, and sailed out to search for some more convenient harbour. As he passed
along the coast he turned to examine the opening which Captain Cook had called
Port Jackson, and soon found himself in a winding channel of water, with great
cliffs frowning overhead. All at once a magnificent prospect opened on his
eyes. A harbour, which is, perhaps, the most beautiful and perfect in the
world, stretched before him far to the west, till it was lost on the distant
horizon. It seemed a vast maze of winding waters, dotted here and there with
lovely islets; its shores thickly wooded down to the strips of golden sand
which lined the most charming little bays; and its broad sheets of rippling
waters bordered by lines of dusky foliage. The scene has always been one of
surpassing loveliness; but to those who filled the first boats that ever threw
the foam from its surface, who felt themselves the objects of breathless
attention to groups of natives who stood gazing here and there from the
projecting rocks, it must have had an enchanting effect. To Captain Phillip
himself, whose mind had been filled with anxiety and despondency as to the
future prospects of his charge, it opened out like the vision of a world of new
hope and promise.
Three days were spent in examining portions
of this spacious harbour, and in exploring a few of its innumerable bays.
Captain Phillip selected, as the place most suitable for the settlement, a
small inlet, which, in honour of the Minister of State, he called Sydney Cove.
It was so deep as to allow vessels to approach to within a yard or two of the
shore, thus avoiding the necessity of spending time and money in building
wharves or piers. After a few days the fleet was brought round and lay at
anchor in this little cove which is now the crowded Circular Quay. The convicts
were landed, and commenced to clear away the trees on the banks of a small
stream which stole silently through a very dense wood. When an open space had
been obtained, a flagstaff was erected near the present battery on Dawe’s
Point; the soldiers fired three volleys, and the Governor read his commission
to the assembled company. Then began a scene of noise and bustle. From dawn to
sunset, nothing could be heard but the sound of axes, hammers, and saws, with
the crash of trees and the shouts of the convict overseers. They lost no time
in preparing their habitations on shore; for the confinement of the overcrowded
ships had become intolerably hateful.
3. Early Sufferings.—More than a third of their number were ill
with scurvy and other diseases—sixty-six lay in the little hospital which had
been set up, and many of them never recovered. Those who were well enough to
work began to clear the land for cultivation; but so soon as everything was
ready for the ploughing to begin, the amazing fact was discovered that no one
knew anything of agriculture; and had it not been that Governor Phillip had
with him a servant who had been for a time on a farm, their labour would have
been of little avail. As it was, the cultivation was of the rudest kind; one
man, even if he had been a highly experienced person, could do very little to
instruct so many. The officers and soldiers were smart enough on parade, but
they were useless on a farm; the convicts, instead of trying to learn, expended
all their ingenuity in picking each other’s pockets, or in robbing the stores.
They would do no work unless an armed soldier was standing behind them, and if
he turned away for a moment, they would deliberately destroy the farm implements
in their charge, hide them in the sand or throw them into the water. Thus, only
a trifling amount of food was obtained from the soil; the provisions they had
brought with them were nearly finished, and when the news came that the Guardian transport, on which they were depending for fresh supplies, had struck on an
iceberg and had been lost, the little community was filled with the deepest
dismay. Soon after, a ship arrived with a number of fresh convicts, but no
provisions; in great haste the Sirius was sent to the Cape of Good Hope,
and the Supply to Batavia; these vessels brought back as much as they
could get, but it was all used in a month or two. Starvation now lay before the
settlement; every one, including the officers and the Governor himself, was put
on the lowest rations which could keep the life in a man’s body, and yet there
was not enough of food, even at this miserable rate, to last for any length of
time. Numbers died of starvation; the Governor stopped all the works, as the
men were too weak to continue them. The sheep and cattle which they had brought
with so much trouble to become the origin of flocks and herds were all killed
for food, with the exception of two or three which had escaped to the woods and
had been lost from sight.
4. Norfolk Island.—Under these circumstances, Governor Phillip
sent two hundred convicts, with about seventy soldiers, to Norfolk Island,
where there was a moderate chance of their being able to support themselves;
for, immediately after his arrival in New South Wales, he had sent Lieutenant
King to take possession of that island, of whose beauty and fertility Captain
Cook had spoken very highly. Twenty-seven convicts and soldiers had gone along
with King, and had cleared away the timber from the rich brown soil. They had
little trouble in raising ample crops, and were now in the midst of plenty,
which their less fortunate companions came to share. But the Sirius, in
which they had been carried over, was wrecked on a coral reef near the island
before she could return, and with her was lost a considerable quantity of
provisions.
5. The Second Fleet.—The prospects of the colony at Sydney had
grown very black, when a store-ship suddenly appeared off the Heads. Great was
the rejoicing at first; but when a storm arose and drove the vessel northward
among the reefs of Broken Bay, their exultation was changed to a painful
suspense. For some hours her fate was doubtful; but, to the intense relief of
the expectant people on shore, she managed to make the port and land her supplies.
Shortly after, two other store-ships arrived, and the community was never again
so badly in want of provisions. Matters were growing cheerful, when a fresh
gloom was caused by the arrival of a fleet filled to overflowing with sick and
dying convicts. Seventeen hundred had been embarked, but of these two hundred
had died on the way, and their bodies had been thrown overboard. Several
hundreds were in the last stages of emaciation and exhaustion; scarcely one of
the whole fifteen hundred who landed was fit for a day’s work. This brought
fresh misery and trouble, and the deaths were of appalling frequency.
6. Escape of Prisoners.—Many of the convicts sought to escape from
their sufferings by running away; some seized the boats in the harbour and
tried to sail for the Dutch colony in Java; others hid themselves in the woods,
and either perished or else returned, after weeks of starvation, to give
themselves up to the authorities. In 1791 a band of between forty and fifty set
out to walk to China, and penetrated a few miles into the bush, where their
bleached and whitened skeletons some years after told their fate.
7. Departure of Governor Phillip (The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay with an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island).—Amid these cares and trials the health of
Governor Phillip fairly broke down, and, in 1792, forced him to resign. He was
a man of energy and decision; prompt and skilful, yet humane and just in his
character; his face, though pinched and pale with ill-health, had a sweet and
benevolent expression; no better man could have been selected to fill the
difficult position he held with so much credit to himself. He received a
handsome pension from the British Government, and retired to spend his life in
English society. Major Grose and Captain Patterson took charge of the colony
for the next three years; but in 1795 Captain Hunter, who, after the loss of
his ship, the Sirius, had returned to England, arrived in Sydney to
occupy the position of Governor.
8. Governor Hunter.—By this time affairs had passed their
crisis, and were beginning to be favourable. About sixty convicts, whose
sentences had expired, had received grants of land, and, now that they were
working for themselves, had become successful farmers. Governor Hunter brought
out a number of free settlers, to whom he gave land near the Hawkesbury; and,
after a time, more than six thousand acres were covered with crops of wheat and
maize. There was now no fear of famine, and the settlement grew to be
comfortable in most respects. Unfortunately, the more recent attempts to import
cattle with which to stock the farms had proved more or less unsuccessful; so
that the discovery of a fine herd of sixty wandering through the meadows of the
Hawkesbury was hailed with great delight. These were the descendants of the
cattle which had been lost from Governor Phillip’s herd some years before.
9. State of the Settlement.—Twelve years after the foundation of the
colony, its population amounted to between six and seven thousand persons.
These were all settled near Sydney, which was a straggling town with one main
street 200 feet wide, running up the valley from Sydney Cove, while on the
slopes at either side the huts of the convicts were stationed far apart and
each in a fenced-in plot of ground. On the little hills overlooking the cove, a
number of big, bare, stone buildings were the Government quarters and barracks
for the soldiers.
Attempts had been made to penetrate to the
west, though without success. The rugged chain of the Blue Mountains was an
impassable barrier. Seventy miles north of Sydney a fine river—the Hunter—had
been discovered by Lieutenant Shortland while in pursuit of some runaway
convicts who had stolen a boat. Signs of coal having been seen near its mouth,
convicts were sent up to open mines, and, these proving successful, the town of
Newcastle rapidly formed. In 1800 Governor Hunter returned to England on
business, intending to come out again; but he was appointed to the command of a
war-ship, and Lieutenant King was sent out to take his place.
CHAPTER III.
1. No community has ever been more completely
isolated than the first inhabitants of Sydney. They were three thousand miles
away from the nearest white men; before them lay a great ocean, visited only at
rare intervals, and, for the greater part, unexplored; behind them was an
unknown continent, a vast, untrodden waste, in which they formed but a speck.
They were almost completely shut out from intercourse with the civilised world,
and few of them could have any hope of returning to their native land. This
made the colony all the more suitable as a place of punishment; for people
shrank with horror at the idea of being banished to what seemed like a tomb for
living men and women. But, for all that, it was not desirable that Australia
should remain always as unknown and unexplored as it then was; and, seven years
after the first settlement was made, two men arrived who were determined not to
suffer it so to remain.
When Governor Hunter came in 1795, he brought
with him, on board his ship the Reliance, a young surgeon, George Bass,
and a midshipman called Matthew Flinders. They were young men of the most
admirable character, modest and amiable, filled with a generous and manly
affection for one another, and fired by a lofty enthusiasm which rejoiced in
the wide field for discovery and fame that spread all around them. Within a
month after their arrival they purchased a small boat about eight feet in
length, which they christened the Tom Thumb. Its crew consisted of
themselves and a boy to assist—truly a poor equipment with which to face a
great and stormy ocean like the Pacific. They sailed out, and after tossing for
some time like a toy on the huge waves, they succeeded in entering Botany Bay,
which they thoroughly explored, making a chart of its shores and rivers. On
their return, Governor Hunter was so highly pleased with their work, that,
shortly after, he gave them a holiday, which they spent in making a longer
expedition to the south. It was said that a very large river fell into the sea
south of Botany Bay, and they went out to search for its mouth.
2. Boat Excursion.—In this trip they met with some adventures
which will serve to illustrate the dangers of such a voyage. On one occasion,
when their boat had been upset on the shore, and their powder was wetted by the
sea-water, about fifty natives gathered round them, evidently with no friendly
intention. Bass spread the powder out on the rocks to dry, and procured a
supply of fresh water from a neighbouring pond. But they were in expectation
every moment of being attacked and speared, and there was no hope of defending
themselves till the powder was ready. Flinders, knowing the fondness of the
natives for the luxury of a shave, persuaded them to sit down one after another
on a rock, and amused them by clipping their beards with a pair of scissors. As
soon as the powder was dry the explorers loaded their muskets and cautiously
retreated to their boat, which they set right, and pushed off without mishap.
Once more on the Pacific, new dangers awaited
them. They had been carried far to the south by the strong currents, and the
wind was unfavourable. There was therefore no course open to them but to row as
far as they could during the day, and at night throw out the stone which served
as an anchor, and lie as sheltered as they could, in order to snatch a little
sleep. On one of these nights, while they lay thus asleep, the wind suddenly
rose to a gale, and they were roughly wakened by the splashing of the waves
over their boat. They pulled up their stone anchor and ran before the
tempest—Bass holding the sail and Flinders steering with an oar. As Flinders
says: “It required the utmost care to prevent broaching to; a single wrong
movement or a moment’s inattention would have sent us to the bottom. The task
of the boy was to bale out the water, which, in spite of every care, the sea
threw in upon us. The night was perfectly dark, and we knew of no place of
shelter, and the only direction by which we could steer was the roar of the
waves upon the neighbouring cliff’s.” After an hour spent in this manner, they
found themselves running straight for the breakers. They pulled down their mast
and got out the oars, though without much hope of escape. They rowed
desperately, however, and had the satisfaction of rounding the long line of
boiling surf. Three minutes after they were in smooth water, under the lee of
the rocks, and soon they discovered a well-sheltered cove, where they anchored
for the rest of the night.
It was not till two days later that they
found the place they were seeking. It turned out not to be a river at all, but
only the little bay of Port Hacking, which they examined and minutely
described. When they reached Sydney they gave information which enabled
accurate maps to be constructed of between thirty and forty miles of coast.
3. Clarke.—On arriving at Port Jackson, they found that
an accident had indirectly assisted in exploring that very coast on which they
had landed. A vessel called the Sydney Cove, on its way to Port Jackson,
had been wrecked on Furneaux Island, to the north of Van Diemen’s Land. A large
party, headed by Mr. Clarke, the supercargo, had started in boats, intending to
sail along the coasts and obtain help from Sydney. They were thrown ashore by a
storm at Cape Howe, and had to begin a dreary walk of three hundred miles
through dense and unknown country. Their small store of provisions was soon
used, and they could find no food and little fresh water on their path. Many dropped
down, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, and had to be abandoned to their fate.
Of those who contrived to approach within thirty miles of Sydney, the greater
part were murdered by the same tribe of blacks from whom Bass and Flinders had
apprehended danger. Clarke and one or two others reached Port Jackson; their
clothes in tatters, their bodies wasted almost to the bones, and in such a
state that, when a boat was brought to carry them over the bay to Sydney, they
had to be lifted on board like infants. Mr. Clarke, on his recovery, was able
to give a very useful account of a great tract of land not previously explored.
The crew of the Sydney Cove were meanwhile living on one of the Furneaux
Group, and several small ships were sent down from Sydney to rescue the crew
and cargo; these also served to make the coast better known. Flinders was very
anxious to go in one of them, in order to make a chart of the places he might
pass; but his ship, the Reliance, sailed for Norfolk Island, and he had
to be a long time absent.
4. Discovery of Bass Straits ( The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders R.N).—His friend Bass was more fortunate; for
Governor Hunter gave him an open whaleboat, together with provisions for six
weeks, and six men to manage the boat. With these he discovered the harbour and
river of Shoalhaven; entered and mapped out Jervis Bay; discovered Twofold Bay,
then rounded Cape Howe, and discovered the country now called Victoria. After
sailing along the Ninety-mile Beach, he saw high land to the south-west; and,
standing out towards it, discovered the bold headland which was afterwards
named Wilson’s Promontory. Bad weather drove him to seek for shelter, and this
led to the discovery of Western Port, where he remained thirteen days. But as
his provisions were running short, he was forced, with a heavy heart, to turn
homeward. He had again to seek shelter, however, from strong head winds, and in
doing so discovered what is called Corner Inlet. In all he prolonged his voyage
to eleven weeks, before he again reached Sydney: during that time he had
explored six hundred miles of coast, and had discovered four important bays, as
well as what is perhaps the most important cape in Australia. His greatest
service, however, was the proof that Van Diemen’s Land is not joined to
Australia, but is divided from it by the wide strait to which Bass’s name is
now so justly given. All this, effected in an open whaleboat on a great ocean,
may well fill us with admiration for the courage and skill of the young
surgeon.
5. Flinders.—When Flinders returned from Norfolk Island,
he obtained leave to join the next vessel that should start for the wreck of
the Sydney Cove. Having arrived at Furneaux Island, during the time that
the wreckage and remaining cargo were being gathered, he obtained the loan of a
small boat for five days, and in it made careful surveys of the islands and
straits to the north of Van Diemen’s Land. It was in this trip that he made the
first discovery of that peculiar Australian animal, the wombat.
6. Circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land.—Next year (1798) Governor Hunter gave to the
two ardent young men a small sloop—the Norfolk—in which to prosecute
their discoveries. They received three months’ leave of absence, in which time
they proposed to sail round Van Diemen’s Land. This they did, and discovered
during their voyage the river Tamar and its estuary, Port Dalrymple. It was not
in discovery alone that they were successful. Flinders made the most beautiful
and exact charts of all the coasts; he sometimes spent whole days in careful
and laborious observations and measurements, in order to have the latitude and
longitude of a single place correctly marked.
7. Fate of Bass.—On their return to Sydney Bass met some
friends, who persuaded him to join them in making their fortune by carrying
contraband goods into South America, in spite of the Spaniards. What became of
Bass is not known, but it is supposed that he was captured by the Spaniards and
sent to the silver mines, where he was completely lost from sight. He who
entered those dreary mines was lost for ever to human knowledge; and Bass may
have perished there after years of wearisome and unknown labour. After all his
hardships and adventures, his enthusiasm and his self-devotion, he passed away
from men’s eyes, and no one was curious to know whither he had gone; but
Australians of these days have learnt to honour the memory of the man who
first, in company with his friend, laid the foundation of so much of their
geography.
8. The Publication of Flinders’ Charts.—Flinders remained in His Majesty’s service,
and in the following year was raised to the rank of lieutenant. With his little
ship, the Norfolk, he examined the coasts of New South Wales, from
Sydney northward as far as Hervey Bay. Next year (1800) he went to London,
where his charts were published, containing the first exact accounts of the
geography of Australia. They were greatly praised, and the English Government resolved
to send out an expedition to survey all the coasts of Australia in like manner.
Flinders was placed at the head of it; a vessel was given to him, which he
called the Investigator; a passport was obtained for him from the French
Government, so that, though England and France were then at war, he might not
be obstructed by French war-ships. Sailing to the south coast of Australia, he
discovered Kangaroo Island and Spencer’s Gulf, and then entered Port Phillip
under the impression that he was the discoverer of that inlet, but afterwards
learnt that Lieutenant Murray, in his ship the Lady Nelson, had
discovered it ten weeks before.
9. Baudin.—As Flinders sailed down towards Bass Strait
he met with a French expedition, under M. Baudin, who had been sent out by
Napoleon to make discoveries in Australia. He had loitered so long on the coast
of Tasmania that Flinders had been able to complete the examination of the
southern coast before he even approached it. Yet Baudin sailed into the very
bays which had already been mapped out, gave them French names, and took to
himself the honour of their discovery. Some months later the two expeditions
met one another again in Port Jackson. Flinders showed his charts, and the
French officers allowed that he had carried off the honours of nearly all the
discoveries on the south coast; but, in spite of that, a report was published
in France in which Flinders’ claims were quite ignored, and Baudin represented
as the hero of Australian discovery. The colonists at Port Jackson, however,
treated the French sailors with much kindness. Many of them were suffering from
scurvy, and these were carried to the Sydney hospital and carefully tended; and
though the colonists had themselves eaten only salt meat for months before, in
order to preserve their cattle, yet they killed these very cattle to provide
fresh meat for the sick sailors. Baudin and his officers were feasted, and
everything was done both by Flinders and the people of Sydney to make their
stay agreeable.
Cook’s Monument, Botany Bay.
10. Imprisonment of Flinders.—Flinders continued his voyage northwards,
rounded Cape York, and examined the northern coasts, making an excellent chart
of Torres Strait; but his vessel becoming too rotten to be longer used, he was
forced to return to Sydney. Desiring to carry his charts and journals to
England, he took his passage in an old store-ship, but she had not sailed far
before she struck on a coral reef; the crew with difficulty reached a small
sandbank, from which they were not released till two months after. Flinders
saved his papers, and brought them back to Sydney. A small schooner, the Cumberland,
was given him in which to sail for England; but she was too leaky, and too
small a vessel to carry food for so long a voyage; so that he was forced to put
into the Mauritius, which then belonged to France. He fancied that his passport
from Napoleon would be his protection; but the Governor, De Caen, a low and
ignorant fellow, seized him, took his papers from him, and cast him into
prison.
Baudin soon after called at the Mauritius,
and would probably have procured the release of his brother-mariner had he not
died immediately after his arrival. The charts of Flinders, however, were all
sent to France, where they were published with altered names, as if they were
the work of Frenchmen. Meanwhile, Flinders was spending the weary months in
close confinement at the Mauritius.
11. Death of Flinders.—Nearly six years passed away before the
approach of an English fleet compelled the French to release him; and when he
went to England he found that people knew all about those very places of which
he thought he was bringing the first tidings. He commenced, however, to write
his great book, and worked with the utmost pains to make all his maps
scrupulously accurate. After about four years of incessant labour, the three
volumes were ready for the press; but he was doomed never to see them. So many
years of toil, so many nights passed in open boats or on the wet sands, so many
shipwrecks and weeks of semi-starvation, together with his long and unjust
imprisonment, had utterly destroyed his constitution; and on the very day when
his book was being published, the wife and daughter of Flinders were tending
his last painful hours. He was, perhaps, our greatest maritime discoverer: a
man who worked because his heart was in his work; who sought no reward, and
obtained none; who lived laboriously, and did honourable service to mankind;
yet died, like his friend Bass, almost unknown to those of his own day, but
leaving a name which the world is every year more and more disposed to honour.
CHAPTER IV.
1. Governor King.—Governor Hunter, who left Sydney in the year
1800, was succeeded by Captain King, the young officer who has been already
mentioned as the founder of the settlement at Norfolk Island. He was a man of
much ability, and was both active and industrious; yet so overwhelming at this time
were the difficulties of Governorship in New South Wales, that his term of
office was little more than a distressing failure. The colony consisted chiefly
of convicts, who were—many of them—the most depraved and hardened villains to
be met with in the history of crime. To keep these in check, and to maintain
order, was no easy task; but to make them work, to convert them into
industrious and well-behaved members of the community, was far beyond any
Governor’s power. King made an effort, and did his very best; but after a time
he grew disheartened, and, in his disappointment, complained of the folly which
expected him to make farmers out of pickpockets. His chances of success would
have been much increased had he been properly seconded by his subordinates.
But, unfortunately, circumstances had arisen which caused the officers and
soldiers not only to render him no assistance whatever, but even to thwart and
frustrate his most careful plans.
2. The New South Wales Corps.—In 1790 a special corps had been organised
in the British army for service in the colony; it was called the New South
Wales Corps, and was intended to be permanently settled in Sydney. Very few
high-class officers cared to enter this service, so far from home and in the
midst of the lowest criminals. Those who joined it generally came out with the
idea of quickly gathering a small fortune, then resigning their commissions and
returning to England. The favourite method of making money was to import goods into
the settlement and sell them at high rates of profit; and, in their haste to
become rich, many resorted to unscrupulous devices for obtaining profits. A
trade in which those who commanded were the sellers, whilst the convicts and
settlers under their charge were the purchasers, could hardly fail to ruin
discipline and introduce grave evils, more especially when ardent spirits began
to be the chief article of traffic. It was found that nothing sold so well
among the convicts as rum, their favourite liquor; and, rather than not make
money, the officers began to import large quantities of that spirit, thus
deliberately assisting to demoralise still further the degraded population
which they had been sent to reform. So enormous were the profits made in this debasing
trade that very few of the officers could refrain from joining it. Soon the New
South Wales Corps became like one great firm of spirit merchants, engaged in
the importing and retailing of rum. The most enterprising went so far as to
introduce stills and commence the manufacture of spirits in the colony. By an
order of the Governor in Council this was forbidden, but many continued to work
their stills in secret. This system of traffic, demoralising to every one
engaged in it, was shared even by the highest officials in the colony. In the
year 1800 the chief constable was a publican, and the head gaoler sold rum and
brandy opposite the prison gates.
3. State of the Colony.—Under these circumstances, drunkenness
became fearfully prevalent; the freed convicts gave themselves up to
unrestrained riot, and, when intoxicated, committed the most brutal atrocities;
the soldiers also sank into the wildest dissipation; and many of the officers
themselves led lives of open and shameless debauchery. This was the community
Governor King had to rule. He made an effort to effect some change, but failed;
and we can hardly wonder at the feeling of intense disgust which he entertained
and freely expressed.
4. Mutiny of Convicts.—Most of the convicts, on their arrival in the
colony, were “assigned”—that is, sent to work as shepherds or farm-labourers
for the free settlers in the country; but prisoners of the worst class were
chained in gangs and employed on the roads, or on the Government farms. One of
these gangs, consisting of three or four hundred convicts, was stationed at
Castlehill, a few miles north of Parramatta. The prisoners, emboldened by their
numbers and inflamed by the oratory of a number of political exiles, broke out
into open insurrection. They flung away their hoes and spades, removed their
irons, seized about two hundred and fifty muskets, and marched towards the
Hawkesbury, expecting to be there reinforced by so many additional convicts
that they would be able to overpower the military. Major Johnstone, with
twenty-four soldiers of the New South Wales Corps, pursued them; they halted
and turned round to fight, but he charged with so much determination into their
midst that they were quickly routed, and fled in all directions, leaving
several of their number dead on the spot. Three or four of the ringleaders were
caught and hanged; the remainder returned quickly to their duty.
5. Origin of Wool-growing.—During Governor King’s term of office a
beginning was made in what is now an industry of momentous importance to
Australia. In the New South Wales Corps there had been an officer named
Macarthur, who had become so disgusted with the service that, shortly after his
arrival in Sydney, he resigned his commission, and, having obtained a grant of
land, became a settler in the country. He quickly perceived that wool-growing,
if properly carried on, would be a source of much wealth, and obtained a number
of sheep from the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope, with which to make a
commencement. These were of a kind which did not suit the climate, and his
first attempt failed; but in 1803, when he was in England on a visit, he spoke
so highly of New South Wales as a country adapted for wool-growing, that King
George III. was interested in the proposal, and offered his assistance. Now,
the sheep most suitable for Macarthur’s purpose were the merino sheep of Spain;
but these were not to be obtained, as the Spaniards, desirous of keeping the
lucrative trade of wool-growing to themselves, had made it a capital crime to
export sheep of this kind from Spain. But it so happened that, as a special
favour, a few had been given to King George, who was an enthusiastic farmer;
and when he heard of Macarthur’s idea, he sent him one or two from his own
flock to be carried out to New South Wales. They were safely landed at Sydney,
Governor King made a grant of ten thousand acres to Mr. Macarthur, at Camden,
and the experiment was begun. It was not long before the most marked success
crowned the effort, and in the course of a few years the meadows at Camden were
covered with great flocks of sheep, whose wool yielded annually a handsome
fortune to their enterprising owner.
6. Governor Bligh.—In 1806 Governor King was succeeded by
Captain Bligh, whose previous adventures have made his name so well known. In
his ship, the Bounty, he had been sent by the British Government to the
South Sea Islands for a cargo of bread-fruit trees. But his conduct to his
sailors was so tyrannical that they mutinied, put him, along with eighteen
others, into an open boat, then sailed away, and left him in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean. Bligh was a skilful sailor, and the voyage he thereupon
undertook is one of the most remarkable on record. In an open boat he carried
his little party over 3,500 miles of unknown ocean to the island of Timor,
where they found a vessel that took them home.
In appointing Captain Bligh to rule the
colony, the English Government spoiled an excellent seaman to make a very
inefficient Governor. It was true that New South Wales contained a large
convict population, who required to be ruled with despotic rigour; yet there
were many free settlers who declined to be treated like slaves and felons, and
who soon came to have a thorough dislike to the new Governor. Not that he was
without kindly feeling; his generous treatment of the Hawkesbury farmers, who
were ruined by a flood in 1806, showed him to have been warm-hearted in his
way; he exerted himself to the utmost, both with time and money, to alleviate
their distress, and received the special thanks of the English Government for
his humanity. And yet his arbitrary and unamiable manners completely obscured
all these better qualities. He caused the convicts to be flogged without mercy
for faults which existed only in his own imagination; he bullied his officers,
and, throughout the colony, repeated the same mistakes which had led to the
mutiny of the Bounty. At the same time, he was anxious to do what he
conceived to be his duty to his superiors in England. He had been ordered to
put a stop to the traffic in spirits, and, in spite of the most unscrupulous
opposition on the part of those whose greed was interested, he set himself to
effect this reform by prompt and summary measures, and with a contemptuous
disregard of the hatred he was causing; but, in the end, the officers were too
strong for him, and in the quarrel that ensued the Governor was completely
defeated.
7. Expulsion of Bligh.—Month after month Bligh became more and more
unpopular; those whom he did not alienate in the course of his duty he offended
by his rudeness, until, at last, there was scarcely any one in the colony who
was his friend. Many were inflamed by so bitter a hatred that they were ready
to do anything for revenge, and affairs seemed to be in that critical state in
which a trifling incident may bring about serious results.
This determining cause was supplied by a
quarrel which took place between Mr. Macarthur and Mr. Atkin, the new
judge-advocate of the colony. Mr. Macarthur was condemned to pay a heavy fine
for neglect, in having permitted a convict to escape in a vessel of which he
was partly the owner. He refused to pay, and was summoned before the court, of
which Atkin was the president. He declined to appear, on the ground that Atkin
was his personal enemy. Thereupon Atkin caused him to be seized and put in
gaol. Bligh appointed a special court to try him, consisting of six officers,
together with Atkin himself. Macarthur was brought before it, but protested
against being judged by his enemy, stating his willingness, however, to abide
by the decision of the six officers. The officers supported his protest, and
the trial was discontinued. Bligh was exceedingly angry, and, by declaring he
would put the six officers in gaol, brought matters to a crisis. The officers
of the New South Wales Corps all took part with their comrades; they assisted
Mr. Macarthur to get up a petition, asking Major Johnstone, the military
commander, to depose Governor Bligh, and himself take charge of the colony.
Major Johnstone was only too glad of the opportunity. He held a council of
officers, at which Mr. Macarthur and several others were present. Their course
of action was decided upon, and next morning the soldiers marched, with colours
flying and drums beating, to the gate of the Governor’s house. Here they were
met by Bligh’s daughter, who endeavoured to persuade them to retire; but they
made her stand aside and marched up the avenue. Meantime the Governor had
hidden himself in the house; the soldiers entered and searched everywhere for
him, till at length they discovered him behind a bed, where he was seeking to
hide important papers. He was arrested, and sentinels were posted to prevent
his escape. Major Johnstone assumed the Governor’s position, and appointed his
friends to the most important offices in the Government service. He continued
to direct affairs for some time, until Colonel Foveaux superseded him. Foveaux,
in his turn, was superseded by Colonel Patterson, who came over from Tasmania
to take charge of the colony until a new Governor should be sent out from home.
Patterson offered Bligh his liberty if he would promise to go straight to
England, and not seek to raise a disturbance in the colony. This promise was
given by Bligh, and yet no sooner was he free than he began to stir up the
Hawkesbury settlers in his behalf. They declined to assist him, however, and
Bligh went over to Tasmania, where the settlement to be described in the next
chapter had been formed. Here he was received with great good-will, until the
news arrived from Sydney that, according to the solemn promise he had given, he
ought at that time to have been on his way to England. An attempt was made to
capture him, but he escaped to England, where his adventures in New South Wales
were soon forgotten, and he rose to be an admiral in the English navy. When the
news of the rebellion reached the authorities in England, Major Johnstone was
dismissed from the service, and Major-General Lachlan Macquarie was sent out to
be Governor of the colony. Major Johnstone retired to a farm in New South
Wales, where he lived and prospered till his death in 1817.
CHAPTER V.
1. First Settlement.—After the departure of Baudin from Sydney it
was discovered that there was an inclination on the part of the French to
settle in some part of Australia. It was known that the inlet called Storm Bay,
in the island then known as Van Diemen’s Land, had especially attracted their
notice, its shores having been so green and leafy. It was now known that Van
Diemen’s Land was severed by a broad strait from the mainland, and the Governor
at Sydney thought that if the French proposed to make a settlement anywhere
they would be certain to appropriate this island, and deny that the English had
any claim to it. He, therefore, prepared an expedition to proceed to Storm Bay
and take possession of its shores. For that purpose he chose Lieutenant John
Bowen, who had recently arrived as an officer of a ship of war, and appointed
him commandant of the proposed settlement. The colonial ship called the Lady
Nelson was chosen as the means of conveying him and eight soldiers, while a
whaling ship called the Albion was chartered for the purpose of carrying
twenty-four convicts and six free persons, who were to found the new colony.
This was a very small number with which to occupy a large country; but Governor
King thought that in the meantime they would be sufficient to assert a prior
claim, and that the authorities in England could subsequently decide whether
the settlement should be increased or withdrawn.
Governor King saw also another object in
founding this new colony. He had some most unruly convicts in Sydney, who were
only a source of trouble and annoyance to all the rest. It seemed to him an
advantage to be able to send these off to a place by themselves, under
specially severe discipline. In September, 1803, the two ships sailed up Storm
Bay and into the mouth of the river Derwent. Lieutenant Bowen caused them to
anchor on the right side of the estuary, in a little bay called Risdon Cove.
The people were soon on shore, and pitched their tents on a grassy hill a
little back from the water. Bowen went out to survey the country, while the
convicts set to work to build huts for themselves; a little village soon
appeared, and in the long grass that surrounded it a few sheep and goats were
pastured for the use of the rising colony. The place was named Hobart Town,
after Lord Hobart, who was then Secretary of State for the Colonies. A month
later Governor King sent forty-two convicts and fifteen soldiers to increase
the strength of the settlement; and the little village was beginning to look
populous, when, unexpectedly, there came a great accession from another source.
2. Collins.—During this same year, 1803, the British
Government, moved by fears of a French occupation, had resolved to form a
settlement on the shores of Port Phillip. Accordingly David Collins, who had
been judge-advocate at Sydney, but had taken a trip to England, was chosen to
be Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony, and was despatched with 307 convicts,
24 wives of convicts, 51 soldiers, and 13 free settlers, on board two ships,
the Calcutta and the Ocean. Collins had made an effort to form a
settlement at Port Phillip, on a sandy shore, near the site of Sorrento, but
had grown disgusted with the place; and early in 1804 he carried off all the
people, and resolved to abandon Port Phillip in favour of the Derwent. He
landed at Risdon on the 15th February, and, after a short examination, came to
the conclusion that the situation was unsuitable. Next day he went in search of
a better place, and chose a little bay on the opposite side, some six miles
nearer the mouth of the estuary, and thither the whole settlement was soon
after removed. There, at the very foot of the lofty Mount Wellington, Hobart
Town began to grow in its new situation. Houses were rapidly erected; most of
them consisted of posts stuck in the ground, interwoven with twigs of wattle
trees, and then daubed over with mud. The chimneys were built of stones and
turf, and the roofs were thatched with grass. Whilst the new town was growing,
a party of convicts and soldiers was still busy on the little farms at Risdon,
and early in May they had a most unfortunate affray with the natives. A party
of two or three hundred blacks, who were travelling southward, came suddenly in
sight of the white men and their habitations. These were the first Europeans
whom they had seen, and they became much excited at the strange spectacle.
While they were shouting and gesticulating, the Englishmen thought they were
preparing for an attack and fired upon them. The blacks fled and the white men
pursued them, killing about thirty of the unfortunate natives. Thus was begun a
long warfare, which ended only with the complete extinction of the native
races.
3. Patterson.—Next year, 1804, the Sydney Government sent
another party of convicts, under Colonel Patterson, to found a colony in the
north of Tasmania. The position selected was near the entrance to Port
Dalrymple; and here, for eight years, a small settlement continued to exist in
an independent state, until, in 1812, it was placed under the charge of the
Governor at Hobart Town.
4. Death Of Collins.—The colony at the latter place was meanwhile
slowly establishing itself; and in 1808, when Bligh visited it after his
expulsion from Sydney, he found the little township with quite a settled and
comfortable appearance. In 1810 it lost its amiable and warm-hearted Governor.
While calmly and cheerfully conversing with a friend, Mr. Collins fell back
dead in his chair. He was a man of a good and kindly nature, a little vain and
self-important, but earnest and upright, and possessed of very fair abilities.
The distinguished part he played in the early colonisation of Australia will
always render him a prominent person in our history.
5. Governor Davey.—It took some time for the news of the
Governor’s death to reach England, and during the three years that elapsed
before his successor could be sent out, the place was filled in turn by three
gentlemen, named Lord, Murray, and Geils, till, in 1813, the new Governor,
Davey, arrived. He had been a colonel of marines, and had shown himself a good
soldier, but he had few of the qualities of a Governor. He was rough and
excessively coarse in his manners, and utterly regardless of all decorum. He
showed his defiance of all conventional rules by the manner of his entry. The
day being warm, he took off his coat and waistcoat, and marched into the town in
a costume more easy than dignified; he listened to the address of welcome with
careless indifference, and throughout showed little respect either for himself
or for the people he had come to govern. Yet, under his rule, the colony made
progress. In his first year he opened the port to ordinary merchant ships; for,
previously, as the town was a convict settlement of the most severe type, no
free person was allowed to land without special permission. From this time
commerce began to spring up; free settlers spread over the country, and
cultivated it with such success that, in 1816, besides supplying all the
necessities of their own community, they were able to export grain to Sydney.
6. New Norfolk.—In 1807 the settlement of Norfolk Island had
been abandoned by the British Government, on account of its expense, and the
convicts, of whom many had there grown to be decent, orderly farmers, were
brought to Tasmania. They formed a new settlement on the Derwent, about fifteen
miles above Hobart Town, at a place which they called “New Norfolk,” in
affectionate memory of their former island home.
7. Bushranging.—About this time the colony began to be
greatly annoyed by bushrangers. From twenty to forty convicts generally escaped
every year and betook themselves to the wild country around the central lakes
of Tasmania. There, among the fastnesses of the western mountains, they led a
desperate and daring life, sometimes living with the natives, whom they quickly
taught all the wickedness they themselves knew. Their ordinary lives were
wretchedly debased; and, in search of booty, or in revenge for fancied
injuries, they often committed the most savage crimes. They treated their
native companions like beasts, to be used for a while, and then shot or mangled
when no longer wanted; and it is not surprising that the blacks soon became
filled with intense hatred of all the white invaders of their land. Frequently
the aboriginal tribes united to attack the lonely farm-house and murder all its
inhabitants. Hence, every settler in the country districts was well supplied
with arms, and taught all his household to use them; the walls were pierced
here and there with holes, through which a musket might be directed in safety
against an advancing enemy. The fear of bushrangers who might attack them for
the sake of plunder, and of natives who might massacre them in revenge, kept
the scattered settlers in constant terror and trouble.
8. Governor Sorell.—But in 1817, when Governor Davey grew tired
of his position and resigned it, choosing rather to live an easy-going life on
his estate near Hobart Town, than be troubled with the cares of office, Colonel
Sorell, the new Governor, set himself with vigour to suppress these ruthless
marauders. He was to some extent successful, and the young colony enjoyed an
interval of peace. Farming was profitable, and the exports of wheat began to
assume large dimensions. The best breeds of sheep were brought into the island,
and Van Diemen’s Land wool, which at first had been despised in England, and
used only for stuffing mattresses, grew into favour, and was bought by the
manufacturers at high prices. Thus many of the settlers became wealthy, and the
estates from which their wealth was derived began to have a correspondingly
high value, so as to give the colony an assured prosperity which was certainly
remarkable in the sixteenth year from its foundation. Another industry was
added, which indirectly contributed to the wealth of Tasmania. The captain of a
merchant vessel, on his way to Sydney, had seen a great shoal of whales off the
south coast of Tasmania, and, along with the Governor of New South Wales,
secretly formed a scheme to fit out a whaling expedition. But his crew also had
seen the whales, and soon made the fact widely known; so that, by the time the
captain’s party was ready to sail, there were several other whaling vessels on
the point of starting. They were all successful, and very soon a large number
of ships was engaged in whale fishing. Now, as Hobart Town was the nearest
port, the whalers found that it saved time to go thither with their oil, and to
buy their provisions and refit their ships there; so that the trade and
importance of the little city received a very material impetus in this way.
Much of the progress was due to the sensible
management of Governor Sorell, who spared no effort to reform the convicts, as
well as to elevate and refine the free settlers. Hence it was with great regret
that the colonists saw his term of office expire in 1824. They petitioned the
English Government to allow him to stay for another six years; and when the
reply was given that this could not be done, as Colonel Sorell was required
elsewhere, they presented him with a handsome testimonial, and settled on him
an income of £500 a year from their own revenues.
9. Governor Arthur.—After Colonel Sorell had left, bushranging
became as troublesome as ever. Governor Arthur arrived in 1824, and found the
colony fast relapsing into its former unsettled state. He learnt that, shortly
before, some thirteen or fourteen convicts had succeeded in escaping from the
penal settlement in an open boat, and had landed on a lonely part of the coast.
They were joined by a great crowd of concealed convicts, and, under the
leadership of Crawford and Brady, formed a dangerous horde of robbers, who, for
years, kept the whole colony in terror. For a while they plundered without
hindrance, till a party of about a dozen attacked the house of an old gentleman
named Taylor, who had the courage to fight and defeat them. With his three
sons, his carpenter, and his servant, he fired upon the advancing ruffians,
whilst his daughters rapidly reloaded the muskets. The robbers retreated,
leaving their leader—Crawford—and two or three others, who had been wounded, to
be captured by Mr. Taylor and sent to Hobart Town, where they were executed.
Brady then became chief leader of the band, and though his encounter with Mr.
Taylor had taken away all his ardour for fighting, he contrived to plunder and
annoy for a long time. Deep in the woods, along the silent banks of the
Shannon, the outlaws lived securely; for, even when the soldiers ventured to
penetrate into these lonely regions, the outlaws could easily escape to the
rugged mountain sides, where they could hide or defend themselves. Governor
Arthur’s task was not an easy one, for Brady could command a powerful force,
and his was not the only one of the kind; the result was that, for a long time,
the country was unsettled and trade was paralysed. Seeing no other course open,
Governor Arthur offered a pardon and a free passage home to those who
surrendered. So many were thus induced to submit peaceably that, at length,
Brady was almost alone; and whilst he wandered in a secluded valley, without
followers, he was surprised by John Batman, who, several years after, assisted
in the settlement of Victoria. Brady surrendered and was executed; the
bushrangers, by degrees, disappeared, and the colonists once more breathed
freely.
10. Separation.—Hitherto Tasmania had only been a dependency
of New South Wales, but in 1825 it was made a separate colony, with a Supreme
Court of its own. In 1829 it received its first legislative body, fifteen
gentlemen being appointed to consult with the Governor and make laws for the
colony. For some years after, the history of Tasmania is simply an account of
quiet industry and steady progress. Hobart Town, by degrees, grew to be a fine
city, with handsome buildings and well kept streets. The country districts were
fenced in and well tilled, good roads and bridges were made, and everything
looked smiling and prosperous. The only serious difficulty was the want of coin
for the ordinary purposes of trade. So great was the scarcity of gold and
silver money that pieces of paper, with promises to pay a certain sum—perhaps a
sixpence or a shilling—were largely used in the colony, in place of the money
itself. At the request of Governor Arthur, coins to the value of a hundred
thousand pounds were sent out from England for the use of the colonists.
Governor Arthur’s period of office expired in
1836, and he left the colony, greatly to the regret of the colonists, who
subscribed £1,500 to present him with a testimonial. He was succeeded by Sir
John Franklin, the famous voyager, whose history will be related in a
subsequent chapter.
CHAPTER VI.
1. Governor Macquarie.—In 1808 the English Government held an
inquiry as to the circumstances which had caused the expulsion of Governor
Bligh; and though they cashiered Major Johnstone, and indeed ordered the whole
of the New South Wales Corps to be disbanded, yet, as it was clear that Bligh
had been himself very much to blame, they yielded to the wishes of the settlers
in so far as to appoint a new Governor in his place, and therefore despatched
Major-General Macquarie to take the position. He was directed to reinstate
Bligh for a period of twenty-four hours, in order to indicate that the
authorities in England would not suffer the colonists to dictate to them in
these matters; but that they reserved completely to themselves the right to
appoint and dismiss the Governors. However, as Bligh had by this time gone to
Tasmania, Macquarie was forced to content himself, on his arrival, with merely
proclaiming what had been his instructions.
In the early days of the colonies their
destinies were, to a great extent, moulded by the Governors who had charge of
them. Whether for good or for evil, the influence of the Governor was decisive;
and it was, therefore, a matter of great good fortune to Sydney that, during
the long administration of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, this influence was
almost wholly on the side of good. Not that Macquarie had no faults. He was a
man full of vanity and self-conceit; a man who, instead of sober despatches to
his superiors in England, wrote flowery accounts of himself and his wonderful
doings; a man who, in his egoism, affixed the names of himself and of his
family to nearly every place discovered in the colony during his term of
office. Yet, apart from this weakness, Macquarie may be characterised as an
exemplary man and an admirable Governor. He devoted himself heartily to his
work; his chief thought for twelve years was how to improve the state of the
little colony, and how to raise the degraded men who had been sent thither. An
ardent feeling of philanthropy gave a kindly tone to his restless activity.
Once every year he made a complete tour of the settled portions of the colony,
to observe their condition and discover what improvements were needed. He
taught the farmers to build for themselves neat houses, in place of the rude
huts they had previously been content with; he encouraged them to improve their
system of farming, sometimes with advice, sometimes with money, but more often
with loans from the Government stores. He built churches and schools; he took
the warmest interest in the progress of religion and of education; and
neglected nothing that could serve to elevate the moral tone of the little
community. Certainly, no community has ever been in greater need of elevation.
The fact that the British Government thought it necessary to send out 1,100
soldiers to keep order among a population of only 10,000 indicates very plainly
what was the character of these people, and almost justifies the sweeping
assertion of Macquarie, that the colony consisted of those “who had been
transported, and those who ought to have been”. Yet Macquarie uniformly showed
a kindly disposition towards the convicts; he settled great numbers of them as
free men on little farms of their own; and if they did not succeed as well as
they might have done, it was not for want of advice and assistance from the
Governor.
2. Road over the Blue Mountains. The most important result of Macquarie’s
activity was the opening up of new country. He had quite a passion for
road-making; and though, on his arrival in the colony, he found only forty-five
miles of what were little better than bush tracks, yet, when he left, there
were over three hundred miles of excellent and substantial roads spreading in
all directions from Sydney. He marked out towns—such as Windsor, Richmond, and
Castlereagh—in suitable places; then, by making roads to them, he encouraged
the freed convicts to leave Sydney and form little communities inland. But his
greatest achievement in the way of road-making was the highway across the Blue
Mountains. This range had for years presented an insurmountable barrier. Many
persons—including the intrepid Bass—had attempted to cross it, but in vain; the
only one who succeeded even in penetrating far into that wild and rugged
country was a gentleman called Caley, who stopped at the edge of an enormous
precipice, where he could see no way of descending. But in 1813 three
gentlemen—named Wentworth, Lawson, and Blaxland—succeeded in crossing. After
laboriously piercing through the dense timber which covers some of the ranges,
they traversed a wild and desolate country, sometimes crawling along naked
precipices, sometimes fighting their way through wild ravines, but at length
emerging on the beautiful plains to the west. On their return they found that
by keeping constantly on the crest of a long spur, the road could be made much
easier, and Governor Macquarie, stimulated by their report, sent Surveyor Evans
to examine the pass. His opinion was favourable, and Macquarie lost no time in
commencing to construct a road over the mountains. The difficulties in his way
were immense; for fifty miles the course lay through the most rugged country,
where yawning chasms had to be bridged, and oftentimes the solid rock had to be
cut away. Yet, in less than fifteen months, a good carriage highway stretched
from Sydney across the mountains; and the Governor was able to take Mrs.
Macquarie on a trip to the fine pasture lands beyond, where he founded a town
and named it Bathurst, after Lord Bathurst, the Secretary of State. This was a
measure of great importance to the colony, for the country between the
mountains and the sea was too limited and too much subject to droughts to
maintain the two hundred and fifty thousand sheep which the prosperous colony
now possessed. Many squatters took their flocks along the road to Bathurst, and
settled down in the spacious pasture lands of the Macquarie and Lachlan Rivers.
3. Governor Brisbane.—In 1821 Governor Macquarie left for England,
much regretted by the colonists. The only serious mistake of his policy had
been that he had quietly discouraged the introduction of free settlers,
“because,” as he said, “the colony is intended for convicts, and free settlers
have no business here”. His successor—Sir Thomas Brisbane—and, afterwards, Sir
Ralph Darling—adopted a more liberal policy, and offered every inducement to
free immigrants to make their homes in the colony. It was never found possible,
however, to obtain many of that class which has been so successful in America,
consisting of men who, having with difficulty gathered sufficient money for
their passages, landed in their adopted country without means and with no
resources beyond the cheerful labour of themselves and of their families, yet
settled down in the deep, untrodden forests, and there made for themselves
happy and prosperous homes. This was not the class of immigrants who arrived in
New South Wales during the times of Brisbane and Darling. For in 1818 free
passages to Australia had been abolished, and the voyage was so long and so
expensive that a poor man could scarcely hope to accomplish it. Hence, those
who arrived in Sydney were generally young men of good education, who brought
with them a few hundred pounds, and not only were willing to labour themselves,
but were able to employ the labour of others. In America, the “squatter” was a
man who farmed a small piece of land. In Australia, he was one who bought a
flock of sheep and carried them out to the pasture lands, where, as they
increased from year to year, he grew rich with the annual produce of their
wool. Sir Thomas Brisbane was pleased with the advent of men of this class: he
gave them grants of land and assigned to them as many convicts as they were
able to employ. Very speedily the fine lands of the colony were covered with
flocks and herds; and the applications for convicts became so numerous that, at
one time, two thousand more were demanded than could be supplied. Hence began
an important change in the colony. The costly Government farms were, one after
another, broken up, and the convicts assigned to the squatters. Then the
unremunerative public works were abandoned; for many of these had been begun
only for the purpose of occupying the prisoners. All this tended for good; as
the convicts, when thus scattered, were much more manageable, and much more
likely to reform, than when gathered in large and corrupting crowds. In
Macquarie’s time, not one convict in ten could be usefully employed; seven or
eight years after, there was not a convict in the colony whose services would
not be eagerly sought for at a good price by the squatters.
This important change took place under
Governors Brisbane and Darling, and was in a great measure due to those
Governors; yet, strange to say, neither of them was ever popular. Brisbane, who
entered upon office in 1821, was a fine old soldier, a thorough gentleman,
honourable and upright in all his ways. Yet it could not be doubted that he was
out of his proper sphere when conducting the affairs of a young colony, and in
1825 the British Government found it necessary to recall him.
4. Governor Darling.—He was succeeded by Sir Ralph Darling, who
was also a soldier, but was, at the same time, a man well adapted for business.
Yet he, too, failed to give satisfaction. He was precise and methodical, and
his habits were painfully careful, exhibiting that sort of diligence which
takes infinite trouble and anxiety over details, to the neglect of larger and
more important matters. His administration lasted six years, from 1825 to 1831.
During this period an association was formed in England, consisting of
merchants and members of Parliament, who subscribed a capital of one million
pounds, and received from Government a grant of one million acres in New South
Wales. They called themselves the Australian Agricultural Company, and proposed
to improve and cultivate the waste lands of Australia, to import sheep and
cattle for squatting purposes, to open up mines for coal and metals, and, in
general, to avail themselves of the vast resources of the colony. Sir Edward
Parry, the famous Polar navigator, was sent out as manager. The servants and employés of the association formed quite a flourishing colony on the Liverpool Plains,
at the head of the Darling River; and though, at first, it caused some
confusion in the financial state of New South Wales, yet, in the end, it proved
of great benefit to the whole colony.
5. The Legislative Council.—In 1824 a small Executive Council had been
formed to consult with Governor Brisbane on colonial matters. In 1829 this was
enlarged and became the Legislative Council, consisting of fifteen members, who
had power to make laws for the colony. But as their proceedings were strictly
secret, and could be completely reversed by the Governor whenever he chose,
they formed but a very imperfect substitute for a truly legislative body. Yet
this Council was of some service to the colony: one of its first acts was to
introduce the English jury system, in place of arbitrary trials by Government
officials.
6. The Newspaper War.—Governor Darling was never popular. During
the greater part of his period of office intrigues were continually on foot to
obtain his recall; and from this state of feeling there arose what has been
called the newspaper war, which lasted for four years with great violence. The
first Australian newspaper had been established in 1803 by a convict named
Howe. It was in a great measure supported by the patronage of the Government,
and the Governors always exercised the right of forbidding the insertion of
what they disliked. Hence this paper, the Sydney Gazette, was considered
to be the Government organ, and, accordingly, its opinions of the Governors and
their acts were greatly distrusted. But, during the time of Brisbane, an
independent newspaper, the Australian, was established by Mr. Wentworth
and Dr. Wardell. A second of the same kind soon followed, and was called the Monitor.
These papers found it to their advantage, during the unpopularity of Darling,
to criticise severely the acts of that Governor, who was defended by the Gazette with intemperate zeal. This altercation had lasted for some time, when, in the
third year of Darling’s administration, a very small event was sufficient to
set the whole colony in an uproar.
A dissipated soldier named Sudds persuaded
his companion, Thompson, that their prospects were not hopeful so long as they
remained soldiers; but that, if they became convicts, they had a fair chance of
growing rich and prosperous. Accordingly, they entered a shop and stole a piece
of cloth. They were tried, convicted, and sentenced to be transported to
Tasmania for seven years. This was what they wished; but Governor Darling,
having heard of the scheme they were so successfully carrying out, took it upon
himself to alter the course of the law, and directed them to be chained
together with heavy spiked collars of iron about their necks, and to be set to
labour on the roads. Sudds was suffering from liver disease; he sank beneath
the severity of his punishment, and in a few days he died—while Thompson, about
the same time, became insane. This was an excellent opportunity for the
opposition papers, which immediately attacked the Governor for what they called
his illegal interference and his brutality. The Gazette filled its
columns with the most fulsome flattery in his defence, and Darling himself was
so imprudent as to mingle in the dispute, and to do what he could to annoy the
editors of the two hostile papers. Very soon the whole colony was divided into
two great classes—the one needlessly extolling the Governor, the other
denouncing him as the most cowardly and brutal of men. For four years this
abusive warfare lasted, till at length the opponents of Darling won the day;
and in 1831 he was recalled by the English Government.
7. Governor Bourke.—Sir Richard Bourke, who succeeded him, was
the most able and the most popular of all the Sydney Governors. He had the
talent and energy of Macquarie; but he had, in addition, a frank and hearty
manner, which insensibly won the hearts of the colonists, who, for years after
his departure, used to talk affectionately of him as the “good old Governor
Bourke”. During his term of office the colony continued in a sober way to make
steady progress. In 1833 its population numbered 60,000, of whom 36,000 were
free persons. Every year there arrived three thousand fresh convicts; but as an
equal number of free immigrants also arrived, the colony was benefited by its
annual increase of population.
St. Andrew’s Cathedral,
Sydney.
8. The Land Question.—Governor Bourke, on his landing, found that
much discontent existed with reference to what was called the Land Question. It
was understood that any one who applied for land to the Government, and showed
that he would make a good use of it, would receive a suitable area as a free
grant. But many abuses crept in under this system. In theory, all men had an
equal right to obtain the land they required; but, in practice, it was seldom
possible for one who had no friends among the officials at Sydney to obtain a
grant. An immigrant had often to wait for months, and see his application
unheeded; while, meantime, a few favoured individuals were calling day by day
at the Land Office, and receiving grant after grant of the choicest parts of
the colony. Governor Bourke, under instructions from the English Parliament,
made a new arrangement. There were to be no more free grants. In the settled
districts all land was to be put up for auction; if less than five shillings an
acre was offered, it was not to be sold; when the offers rose above that price,
it was to be given to the highest bidder. This was regarded as a very fair
arrangement; and, as a large sum of money was annually received from the sale
of land, the Government was able to resume the practice, discontinued in 1818,
of assisting poor people to emigrate from Europe to the colony.
9. The Squatters.—Beyond the surveyed districts the land was
occupied by squatters, who settled down where they pleased, but had no legal
right to their “runs,” as they were called. With regard to these lands new
regulations were urgently required; for the squatters, who were liable to be
turned off at a moment’s notice, felt themselves in a very precarious position.
Besides, as their sheep increased rapidly, and the flocks of neighbouring
squatters interfered with one another, violent feuds sprang up, and were
carried on with much bitterness. To put an end to these evils Governor Bourke
ordered the squatters to apply for the land they required. He promised to have
boundaries marked out; but gave notice that he would, in future, charge a rent
in proportion to the number of sheep the land could support. In return, he
would secure to each squatter the peaceable occupation of his run until the
time came when it should be required for sale. This regulation did much to
secure the stability of squatting interests in New South Wales.
After ruling well and wisely for six years,
Governor Bourke retired in the year 1837, amid the sincere regrets of the whole
colony.
CHAPTER VII.
1. Oxley.—After the passage over the Blue Mountains
had been discovered—in 1813—and the beautiful pasture land round Bathurst had
been opened up to the enterprise of the squatters, it was natural that the
colonists should desire to know something of the nature and capabilities of the
land which stretched away to the west. In 1817 they sent Mr. Oxley, the
Surveyor-General, to explore the country towards the interior, directing him to
follow the course of the Lachlan and discover the ultimate “fate,” as they
called it, of its waters. Taking with him a small party, he set out from the
settled districts on the Macquarie, and for many days walked along the banks of
the Lachlan, through undulating districts of woodland and rich meadow. But,
after a time, the explorers could perceive that they were gradually entering
upon a region of totally different aspect; the ground was growing less and less
hilly; the tall mountain trees were giving place to stunted shrubs; and the
fresh green of the grassy slopes was disappearing. At length they emerged on a
great plain, filled with dreary swamps, which stretched as far as the eye could
reach, like one vast dismal sea of waving reeds. Into this forbidding region
they penetrated, forcing their way through the tangled reeds and over weary
miles of oozy mud, into which they sank almost to the knees at every step. Ere
long they had to abandon this effort to follow the Lachlan throughout its
course; they therefore retraced their steps, and, striking to the south,
succeeded in going round the great swamp which had opposed their progress.
Again they followed the course of the river for some distance, entering, as
they journeyed, into regions of still greater desolation; but again they were
forced to desist by a second swamp of the same kind. The Lachlan here seemed to
lose itself in interminable marshes, and as no trace could be found of its
further course, Oxley concluded that they had reached the end of the river. As
he looked around on the dreary expanse, he pronounced the country to be “for
ever uninhabitable”; and, on his return to Bathurst, he reported that, in this
direction at least, there was no opening for enterprise. The Lachlan, he said,
flows into an extensive region of swamps, which are perhaps only the margin of
a great inland sea.
Oxley was afterwards sent to explore the
course of the Macquarie River, but was as little successful in this as in his
former effort. The river flowed into a wide marsh, some thirty or forty miles
long, and he was forced to abandon his purpose; he started for the eastern
coast, crossed the New England Range, and descended the long woodland slopes to
the sea, discovering on his way the river Hastings.
2. Allan Cunningham.—Several important discoveries were effected
by an enthusiastic botanist named Allan Cunningham, who, in his search for new
plants, succeeded in opening up country which had been previously unknown. In
1825 he found a passage over the Liverpool Range, through a wild and
picturesque gap, which he called the Pandora Pass; and on the other side of the
mountains he discovered the fine pastoral lands of the Liverpool Plains and the
Darling Downs, which are watered by three branches of the Upper Darling—the
Peel, the Gwydir, and the Dumaresq. The squatters were quick to take advantage
of these discoveries; and, after a year or two, this district was covered with
great flocks of sheep. It was here that the Australian Agricultural Company
formed their great stations already referred to.
3. Hume and Hovell.—The southern coasts of the district now called
Victoria had been carefully explored by Flinders and other sailors, but the
country which lay behind these coasts was quite unknown. In 1824 Governor
Brisbane suggested a novel plan of exploration; he proposed to land a party of
convicts at Wilson’s Promontory, with instructions to work their way through
the interior to Sydney, where they would receive their freedom. The charge of
the party was offered to Hamilton Hume, a young native of the colony, and a
most expert and intrepid bushman. He was of an energetic and determined, though
somewhat domineering disposition, and was anxious to distinguish himself in the
work of exploration. He declined to undertake the expedition in the manner
proposed by Governor Brisbane, but offered to conduct a party of convicts from
Sydney to the southern coasts. A sea-captain named Hovell asked permission to
accompany him. With these two as leaders, and six convict servants to make up
the party, they set out from Lake George, carrying their provisions in two
carts, drawn by teams of oxen. As soon as they met the Murrumbidgee their
troubles commenced; the river was so broad and swift that it was difficult to
see how they could carry their goods across. Hume covered the carts with
tarpaulin, so as to make them serve as punts. Then he swam across the river,
carrying the end of a rope between his teeth; and with this he pulled over the
loaded punts. The men and oxen then swam across, and once more pushed forward.
But the country through which they had now to pass was so rough and woody that
they were obliged to abandon their carts and load the oxen with their
provisions. They journeyed on, through hilly country, beneath the shades of
deep and far-spreading forests; to their left they sometimes caught a glimpse
of the snow-capped peaks of the Australian Alps, and at length they reached the
banks of a clear and rapid stream, which they called the Hume, but which is now
known as the Murray. Their carts being no longer available, they had to
construct boats of wicker-work and cover them with tarpaulin. Having crossed
the river, they entered the lightly timbered slopes to the north of Victoria,
and holding their course south-west, they discovered first the river Ovens, and
then a splendid stream which they called the Hovell, now known as the Goulburn.
Their great object, however, was to reach the ocean, and every morning when
they left their camping-place they were sustained by the hope of coming, before
evening, in view of the open sea. But day after day passed, without any
prospect of a termination to their journey. Hume and Hovell, seeing a high peak
at some little distance, left the rest of the party to themselves for a few
days, and with incredible labour ascended the mountain, in the expectation of
beholding from its summit the great Southern Ocean in the distance. Nothing was
to be seen, however, but the waving tops of gum trees rising ridge after ridge
away to the south. Wearily they retraced their steps to the place where the
others were encamped. They called this peak Mount Disappointment. Having
altered the direction of their course a little, in a few days they were
rejoiced by the sight of a great expanse of water. Passing through country
which they declared to resemble, in its freshness and beauty, the well-kept
park of an English nobleman, they reached a bay, which the natives called
Geelong. Here a dispute took place between the leaders, Hovell asserting that
the sheet of water before them was Western Port, Hume that it was Port Phillip.
Hume expressed the utmost contempt for Hovell’s ignorance; Hovell retorted with
sarcasms on Hume’s dogmatism and conceit; and the rest of the journey was
embittered by so great an amount of ill-feeling that the two explorers were
never again on friendly terms. Hume’s careful and sagacious observations of the
route by which they had come enabled him to lead the party rapidly and safely
back to Sydney, where the leaders were rewarded with grants of land and the
convicts with tickets-of-leave.
4. Captain Sturt.—The long drought which occurred between 1826
and 1828 suggested to Governor Darling the idea that, as the swamps which had
impeded Oxley’s progress would be then dried up, the exploration of the river
Macquarie would not present the same difficulties as formerly. The charge of
organising an expedition was given to Captain Sturt, who was to be accompanied
by Hume, with a party of two soldiers and eight convicts. They carried with
them portable boats; but when they reached the Macquarie they found its waters
so low as to be incapable of floating them properly. Trudging on foot along the
banks of the river they reached the place where Oxley had turned back. It was
no longer a marsh; but, with the intense heat, the clay beneath their feet was
baked and hard; there was the same dreary stretch of reeds, now withered and
yellow under the glare of the sun. Sturt endeavoured to penetrate this
solitude, but the physical exertion of pushing their way through the reeds was
too great for them. If they paused to rest, they were almost suffocated in the
hot and pestilent air; the only sound they could hear was the distant booming
of the bittern, and a feeling of the most lonely wretchedness pervaded the
scene. At length they were glad to leave this dismal region and strike to the
west through a flat and monotonous district where the shells and claws of
crayfish told of frequent inundations. Through this plain there flowed a river,
which Sturt called the Darling, in honour of the Governor. They followed this
river for about ninety miles, and then took their way back to Sydney, Sturt
being now able to prove that the belief in the existence of a great inland sea
was erroneous.
5. The Murray.—In 1829, along with a naturalist named
Macleay, Sturt was again sent out to explore the interior, and on this occasion
carried his portable boats to the Murrumbidgee, on which he embarked his party
of eight convicts. They rowed with a will, and soon took the boat down the
river beyond its junction with the Lachlan. The stream then became narrow, a
thick growth of overhanging trees shut out the light from above, while,
beneath, the rushing waters bore them swiftly over dangerous snags and through
whirling rapids, until they were suddenly shot out into the broad surface of a
noble stream which flowed gently over its smooth bed of sand and pebbles. This
river they called the Murray; but it was afterwards found to be only the lower
portion of the stream which had been crossed by Hume and Hovell several years
before.
Sturt’s manner of journeying was to row from
sunrise to sunset, then land on the banks of the river and encamp for the
night. This exposed the party to some dangers from the suspicious natives, who
often mustered in crowds of several hundreds; but Sturt’s kindly manner and
pleasant smile always converted them into friends, so that the worst mishap he
had to record was the loss of his frying-pan and other utensils, together with
some provisions, which were stolen by the blacks in the dead of night. After
twilight the little encampment was often swarming with dark figures; but Sturt
joined in their sports, and Macleay especially became a great favourite with
them by singing comic songs, at which the dusky crowds roared with laughter.
The natives are generally good-humoured, if properly managed; and throughout
Sturt’s trip the white men and the blacks contrived to spend a very friendly
and sociable time together.
After following the Murray for about two
hundred miles below the Lachlan they reached a place where a large river flowed
from the north into the Murray. This was the mouth of the river Darling, which
Sturt himself had previously discovered and named. He now turned his boat into
it, in order to examine it for a short distance; but after they had rowed a
mile or two they came to a fence of stakes, which the natives had stretched
across the river for the purpose of catching fish. Rather than break the fence,
and so destroy the labours of the blacks, Sturt turned to sail back. The
natives had been concealed on the shore to watch the motions of the white men,
and seeing their considerate conduct, they came forth upon the bank and gave a
loud shout of satisfaction. The party in the boat unfurled the British flag,
and answered with three hearty cheers, as they slowly drifted down with the
current. This humane disposition was characteristic of Captain Sturt, who, in
after life, was able to say that he had never—either directly or
indirectly—caused the death of a black fellow.
When they again entered on the Murray they
were carried gently by the current—first to the west, then to the south; and,
as they went onward, they found the river grow deeper and wider, until it
spread into a broad sheet of water, which they called Lake Alexandrina, after
the name of our present Queen, who was then the Princess Alexandrina Victoria.
On crossing this lake they found the passage to the ocean blocked up by a great
bar of sand, and were forced to turn their boat round and face the current,
with the prospect of a toilsome journey of a thousand miles before they could
reach home. They had to work hard at their oars, Sturt taking his turn like the
rest. At length they entered the Murrumbidgee; but their food was now failing,
and the labour of pulling against the stream was proving too great for the men,
whose limbs began to grow feeble and emaciated. Day by day they struggled on,
swinging more and more wearily at their oars, their eyes glassy and sunken with
hunger and toil, and their minds beginning to wander as the intense heat of the
midsummer sun struck on their heads. One man became insane; the others
frequently lay down, declaring that they could not row another stroke, and were
quite willing to die. Sturt animated them, and, with enormous exertions, he
succeeded in bringing the party to the settled districts, where they were safe.
They had made known the greatest river of Australia and traversed one thousand
miles of unknown country, so that this expedition was by far the most important
that had yet been made into the interior; and Sturt, by land, with Flinders, by
sea, stands first on the roll of Australian discoverers.
6. Mitchell.—The next traveller who sought to fill up the
blank map of Australia was Major Mitchell. Having offered, in 1831, to conduct
an expedition to the north-west, he set out with fifteen convicts and reached
the Upper Darling; but two of his men, who had been left behind to bring up
provisions, were speared by the blacks, and the stores plundered. This disaster
forced the company soon after to return. In 1835, when the major renewed his
search, he was again unfortunate. The botanist of the party, Richard
Cunningham, brother of the Allan Cunningham already mentioned, was
treacherously killed by the natives; and, finally, the determined hostility of
the blacks brought the expedition to an ignominious close.
In 1836 Major Mitchell undertook an
expedition to the south, and in this he was much more successful. Taking with
him a party of twenty-five convicts, he followed the Lachlan to its junction
with the Murrumbidgee. Here he stayed for a short time to explore the
neighbouring country; but the party was attacked by hordes of natives, some of
whom were shot. The major then crossed the Murray; and, from a mountain top in
the Lodden district, he looked forth on a land which he declared to be like the
Garden of Eden. On all sides rich expanses of woodland and grassy plains
stretched away to the horizon, watered by abundant streams. They then passed
along the slopes of the Grampians and discovered the river Glenelg, on which
they embarked in the boats which they had carried with them. The scenery along
this stream was magnificent; luxurious festoons of creepers hung from the
banks, trailing downwards in the eddying current, and partly concealing the
most lovely grottos which the current had wrought out of the pure white banks
of limestone. The river wound round abrupt hills and through verdant valleys,
which made the latter part of their journey to the sea most agreeable and
refreshing. Being stopped by the bar at the mouth of the Glenelg, they followed
the shore for a short distance eastward, and then turned towards home. Portland
Bay now lay on their right, and Mitchell made an excursion to explore it. What
was his surprise to see a neat cottage on the shore, with a small schooner in
front of it at anchor in the bay. This was the lonely dwelling of the brothers
Henty, who had crossed from Tasmania and founded a whaling station at Portland
Bay. On Mitchell’s return he had a glorious view from the summit of Mount
Macedon, and what he saw induced him, on his return to Sydney, to give to the
country the name “Australia Felix”. As a reward for his important services he
received a vote of one thousand pounds from the Council at Sydney, and he was
shortly afterwards knighted; so that he is now known as Sir Thomas Mitchell.
CHAPTER VIII.
1. Discovery of Port Phillip.—The discovery of Bass Strait in 1798 had
rendered it possible for the captains of ships bound for Sydney to shorten
somewhat their voyage thither; and as this was recognised by the English
Government to be a great advantage, a small vessel, the Lady Nelson, was
sent out under the command of Lieutenant Grant, in order to make a thorough
exploration of the passage. She reached the Australian coast at the boundary
between the two present colonies of Victoria and South Australia. Grant called
the cape he first met with Cape Northumberland. He saw and named Cape Nelson,
Portland Bay, Cape Schanck, and other features of the coast. When he arrived in
Sydney he called the attention of Governor King to a small inlet which he had
not been able to examine, although it seemed to him of importance. In 1802 the
Governor sent back the Lady Nelson, now under the command of Lieutenant
Murray, to explore this inlet. Lieutenant Murray entered it, and found that a
narrow passage led to a broad sheet of water, thoroughly landlocked, though of
very considerable extent. He reported favourably of the beauty and fertility of
its shores, and desired to name it Port King, in honour of the Governor; but
Governor King requested that this tribute should be paid to the memory of his
old commander, the first Australian Governor, and thus the bay received its
present name, Port Phillip. Only sixty days later Flinders also entered the
bay; but when he arrived, some time afterwards, in Sydney, he was surprised to
find he was not the first discoverer.
It was at this time that the Governor in
Sydney was afraid of the intrusion of the French upon Australian soil, and when
he heard how favourable the appearance of this port was for settlement he
resolved to have it more carefully explored. Accordingly he sent a small
schooner, the Cumberland, under the charge of Mr. Robbins, to make the
examination. The vessel carried Charles Grimes, the Surveyor-General of New
South Wales, and his assistant, Meehan; also a surgeon named MʻCallum, and a liberated
convict named Flemming, who was to report on the agricultural capabilities of
the district.
On arriving at Port Phillip they commenced a
systematic survey, Robbins sounding the bay, and making a careful chart, while
the other four were every morning landed on the shore to examine the country.
They walked ten or fifteen miles each day, and in the evening were again taken
on board the schooner. Thus they walked from the site of Sorrento round by Brighton
till they reached the river Yarra, which they described as a large fresh-water
stream, but without naming it. Then they went round the bay as far as Geelong.
They carried a good chart and several long reports to the Governor at Sydney,
who would probably have sent a party down to settle by the Yarra, had it not
been that an expedition had already set sail from England for the purpose of
occupying the shores of Port Phillip.
2. Governor Collins.—This was the expedition of David Collins,
already mentioned. He brought out nearly 400 persons, of whom over 300 were
convicts. There is good reason to believe that Collins from the first would
have preferred to settle at the Derwent, in Tasmania, but at any rate he
carried out his work at Port Phillip in a very half-hearted manner. Tuckey
chose for the settlement a sandy shore at Sorrento, where scarcely a drop of
fresh water was to be had, and where the blazing sun of midsummer must have
been unusually trying to a crowd of people fresh from colder climates.
It soon became apparent that the site
selected would never prove suitable, and Collins sent Lieutenant Tuckey in
search of a better place. That officer seems to have made a very inefficient
search. He found no river, and no stream better than the little one on which
the town of Frankston now stands. Here he was attacked by a great crowd of
blacks, and had a conflict with them sufficiently severe to prevent his landing
again. He was thus debarred from exploration by land, and the stormy weather
prevented him from remaining long in the open bay. Tuckey therefore returned
with a very gloomy report, and increased the despondency of the little
community. Every one was dull and dispirited, except the two or three children
who had been allowed to accompany their convict parents. Among these, the
leader of all their childish sports, was a little lad named John Pascoe
Fawkner, who was destined to be afterwards of note in the history of Port
Phillip. Everybody grew dispirited under the heat, the want of fresh water, and
the general wretchedness of the situation; and very soon all voices were
unanimous in urging the Governor to remove. Collins then sent a boat, with
letters, to Sydney, and Governor King gave him permission to cross over to
Tasmania. He lost not a moment in doing so, and founded the settlement at the
Derwent, to which reference has already been made.
Before he left, there were four convicts who
took advantage of the confusion to escape into the bush, hoping to make their
way to Sydney. One returned, footsore and weary, just in time to be taken on
board; the other three were not again seen. Two are believed to have perished
of hunger, and thirty-two years passed away before the fate of the third was
discovered.
3. Western Port.—When Hume and Hovell returned to Sydney
after their exploring expedition, Hovell insisted that the fine harbour he had
seen was Western Port. He had really been at Geelong Harbour, but was all that
distance astray in his reckoning. Induced by his report, the Government sent an
expedition under Captain Wright to form a settlement at Western Port. Hovell
went with him to give the benefit of his experience. They landed on Phillip
Island; but the want of a stream of permanent water was a disadvantage, and
soon after they crossed to the mainland on the eastern shore, where they
founded a settlement, building wooden huts and one or two brick cottages.
Hovell had now to confess that the place he had formerly seen was not Western
Port, and he went off in search of the fine country he had previously seen, but
came back disappointed. The settlement struggled onward for about a year, and
was then withdrawn.
It is not easy to explain in a few words why
they abandoned their dwellings and the land they had begun to cultivate. It
seems to have been due to a general discontent. However, there were private
settlers in Tasmania who would have carried out the undertaking with much more
energy. For in Tasmania the sheep had been multiplying at a great rate, while
the amount of clear and grassy land in that island was very limited. One of the
residents in Tasmania, named John Batman, who has been already mentioned,
conceived the idea of forming an association among the Tasmanian sheep-owners,
for the purpose of crossing Bass Strait and occupying with their flocks the
splendid grassy lands which explorers had seen there.
4. Batman.—John Batman was a native of Parramatta, but
when he was about twenty-one years of age he had left his home to seek his
fortune in Tasmania. There he had taken up land and had settled down to the
life of a sheep-farmer in the country around Ben Lomond. But he was fond of a
life of adventure, and found enough of excitement for a time in the troubled
state of the colony. It was he who captured Brady, the leader of the
bushrangers, and he became well known during the struggle with the natives on
account of his success in dealing with them and in inducing them to surrender
peaceably. But when all these troubles were over, and he had to settle down to
the monotonous work of drafting and driving sheep, he found his land too rocky
to support his flocks. Knowing that others in Tasmania were in the same
difficulty, he and his friend Gellibrand, a lawyer in Hobart, in the year 1827
asked permission to occupy the grassy lands supposed to be round Western Port,
but the Governor in Sydney refused. In 1834 some of them resolved to go without
permission, and an association of thirteen members resolved to send sheep over
to Port Phillip, which was now known to be the more suitable harbour.
Before they sent the sheep, they resolved to
send some one to explore and report. John Batman naturally volunteered, and the
association chartered for him a little vessel, the Rebecca, in which,
after nineteen days of sea-sickness and miserable tossing in the strait, he
succeeded in entering Port Phillip on the 29th of May, 1835. Next morning he
landed near Geelong and walked to the top of the Barrabool Hills, wading most
of the way through grass knee-deep. On the following day he went in search of
the aboriginals, and met a party of about twenty women, together with a number
of children. With these he soon contrived to be on friendly terms; and after he
had distributed among them looking-glasses, blankets, handkerchiefs, apples and
sugar, he left them very well satisfied.
5. The Yarra. A day or two later the Rebecca anchored in Hobson’s Bay, in front of the ti-tree scrub and the lonely shores
where now the streets of Williamstown extend in all directions. Batman again
started on foot to explore that river whose mouth lay there in front of him.
With fourteen men, all well armed, he passed up the river banks; but, being on
the left side, he naturally turned up that branch which is called the
Saltwater, instead of the main stream. After two days of walking through open grassy
lands, admirably suited for sheep, they reached the site of Sunbury. From a
hill at that place they could see fires about twenty miles to the south-east;
and, as they were anxious to meet the natives, they bent their steps in that
direction till they overtook a native man, with his wife and three children. To
his great satisfaction, he learnt that these people knew of his friendly
meeting with the women in the Geelong district. They guided him to the banks of
the Merri Creek, to the place where their whole tribe was encamped. He stayed
with them all night, sleeping in a pretty grassy hollow beside the stream. In
the morning he offered to buy a portion of their land, and gave them a large
quantity of goods, consisting of scissors, knives, blankets, looking-glasses,
and articles of this description. In return, they granted him all the land
stretching from the Merri Creek to Geelong. Batman had the documents drawn up,
and on the Northcote Hill, overlooking the grass-covered flats of Collingwood
and the sombre forests of Carlton and Fitzroy, the natives affixed their marks
to the deeds, by which Batman fancied he was legally put in possession of
600,000 acres. Trees were cut with notches, in order to fix the boundaries, and
in the afternoon Batman took leave of his black friends. He had not gone far
before he was stopped by a large swamp, and so slept for the night under the
great gum trees which then spread their shade over the ground now covered by
the populous streets of West Melbourne. In the morning he found his way round
the swamp, and in trying to reach the Saltwater came upon a noble stream, which
was afterwards called the Yarra. In the evening he reached his vessel in the
bay. Next day he ascended the Yarra in a boat; and when he came to the Yarra Falls,
he wrote in his diary, “This will be the place for a village,” unconscious that
he was gazing upon the site of a great and busy city. Returning to Indented
Head, near the heads of Port Phillip, he left three white men and his Sydney
natives to cultivate the soil and retain possession of the land he supposed
himself to have purchased. Then he set sail for Tasmania, where he and his
associates began to prepare for transporting their households, their sheep and
their cattle, to the new country.
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