The History of Tasmania

Two Volumes Annotated

By John West

THE HISTORY OF TASMANIA

BY JOHN WEST

MINISTER OF ST. JOHN SQUARE CHAPEL, LAUNCESTON

VOLUME I

TASMANIA:

HENRY DOWLING, LAUNCESTON

TASMANIA: PRINTED BY J. S. WADDELL, LAUNCESTON.

TO HENRY HOPKINS, OF HOBART TOWN, ESQ.,

THE

HISTORY OF TASMANIA,

UNDERTAKEN AT HIS REQUEST, IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY

THE AUTHOR.

First published in 1852

ADVERTISEMENT

The author takes this opportunity to thank the gentlemen who have allowed him, for several years, the use of their works on the colonies, and valuable original papers; especially the trustees of Lady Franklin's Museum, Messrs. R. Lewis, Hone, Gunn, Joseph Archer, Henty, P. Roberts, Wooley, and Pitcairn.

The public are indebted to Ronald Gunn, Esq., for the section on Tasmanian Zoology; and to Mr. F. Wales for a useful list of the chief places in this country.

HISTORY OF TASMANIA

DISCOVERY

DISCOVERY

 

SECTION I

Nearly fifty years have elapsed, since Van Diemen's Land was numbered with the colonies of the British empire. A generation has risen up and is passing away. Thousands, while they venerate the land of their European ancestors, with an amiable fondness love Tasmania as their native country. They will, hereafter, guide its affairs, extend its commerce, and defend its soil; and, not inferior in virtue and intelligence, they will fill an important position in the vast system of Australasia.

To gratify their curiosity, and offer to their view the instructive and inspiriting events of the past, is the purpose of this history.

The difficulty of the task can be appreciated only by experience. To collect from scattered records, facts worthy of remembrance; to separate reality from romance; to remove partial coloring from statements made long ago; and to exhibit useful truth without disguise and without offence, required much research and deliberation.

It is not the intention of this history to relate every event which, when passing, may have been deemed momentous; much less to recal from obscurity the errors, absurdity, and wickedness which exercised no distinct influence on the common welfare. The author has endeavoured to realize the feelings and sympathies of the benevolent and just of another age, and to confine his pen to details which may maintain their interest, when the passions with which they were associated shall subside for ever.

In calling this work The History of Tasmania, a designation is chosen generally preferred by the colonists, and which their successors will certainly adopt. "Van Diemen" is a name affixed to the north coast of New Holland; and this country is the first known discovery of Tasman.

The name of Tasman is recognised by the royal patent constituting the diocese; by several literary societies and periodical works: it forms the term by which we distinguish our Tasmanian from our European youth.

Tasmania is preferred, because "Van Diemen's Land" is associated among all nations with the idea of bondage and guilt; and, finally, because while Tasmania is a melodious and simple sound, "Van Diemen" is harsh, complex, and infernal.

During the reign of Charles I. (Frederick Henry, grandfather of William III. being Stadtholder of Holland) the Dutch discovered this island. The enterprise of that people had raised them to the zenith of their power: unless by England, they were unrivalled in nautical science and commercial opulence. More for the purposes of trade than the acquisition of knowledge, they were anxious to discover unknown countries, and to conceal the information they possessed from the rest of the world.

At this time, Anthony Van Diemen was governor-general of Batavia: by him, Abel Jans Tasman was commissioned to explore the "Great South Land," the name by which New Holland was known until 1665, when, by the authority of the Netherland government, it received its present designation. A fragment of the journal of Tasman, containing an account of his discovery, was first published by Dirk Rembrant, and afterwards translated into most European tongues. In this abstract nautical details respecting Van Diemen's Land were omitted, but were described in the journal itself, and by thirty-eight charts, views, and figures. These were purchased by Sir Joseph Banks, on his return from his voyage to these seas. Tasman's journal was translated by a Netherland clergyman: he considered the age of the manuscript confirmed by the spelling: that it was genuine he had no doubt, although he questioned whether written by Tasman, or transcribed at his command. Sir Joseph Banks acquired at the same time a copy of instructions to Tasman, given by the Governor of Batavia in 1644, for a second expedition, and which recapitulated the various voyages of his predecessors. These, however, have no connection with Van Diemen's Land.

To adorn the new stadthouse of Amsterdam, erected in 1665, three hemispheres were wrought in stone, of twenty-two feet in diameter: the circles were inlaid with brass, and were executed by a celebrated artist. The southern hemisphere exhibited the discoveries of Tasman and his predecessors: they formed the pavement of the hall, until obliterated by the tread of several generations. They were quite forgotten when Sir Joseph Banks sought information from the inhabitants. A copy of these works of art was preserved, and displayed the extent to which New Holland and Van Diemen's Land were known.

The journal of Tasman has been greatly admired: it is clear, laconic, and devout.[1] It opens with an invocation: "May God Almighty be pleased to give his blessing to this voyage. Amen." The document is, indeed, full of pious sentiments: when a long desired breeze liberated the vessel from port, or refreshment was obtained, or safe anchorage found, he dots down a thanksgiving. He reckoned his longitude from the Peak of Teneriffe: the hours he called glasses; his miles were German, fifteen to a degree.

On the 14th of August, 1642, Tasman embarked at Batavia, on board the Heemskirk, the fly-boat Zeehaan, Jerit Zanzoon, master, in company. They set sail for the Mauritius, and arrived on the 5th of September. That island, then commanded by Van Steelan, was but little cultivated, and gave slight promise of its present importance.[2] On the 4th October, they were ready to depart, but were delayed by contrary winds until the 8th, when on a change in their favor they stood eastward to sea. On the 27th, a council being called, it was resolved that a man should constantly look out at the topmast head; and to encourage vigilance it was determined, that the first discoverer of land should receive three reals and a pot of arrack. On the 4th November they saw patches of duckweed and a seal, and inferred their vicinity to land. The first pilot, Francis Jacobzs, on the 7th, supported by the advice of the steersman, thus delivered his opinion:—"We should keep to the 44° south latitude, until we have passed 150° longitude; then make for latitude 40° south, and keeping in that parallel to run eastward to 220° longitude, and then steering northward search with the trade wind from east to west for the Solomon Islands. We imagine, if we meet with no main land till we come to 150° longitude, we must then meet with islands." On the 17th, they were in latitude 44° 15' and longitude 147° 3': they concluded that they had already passed the south land then known. On the 22nd they found their compass was not still within eight points, which they attributed to the influence of loadstone, and which kept the needle in continual motion. On the 24th, at noon, they found their latitude 42° 25' south, longitude 163° 31': in the afternoon, at 4 o'clock, they observed land, Point Hibbs, bearing east by north. The land was high, and towards evening they saw lofty mountains to the east south-east, and to the north-east two smaller mountains: here their compass stood right. They resolved to run off five hours to sea, and then to run back towards the land. On the 25th, the morning was calm, and at 5 o'clock they were within three miles of the shore, and had soundings at sixty fathoms. They approached a level coast, and reckoned their latitude 42° 30', and middle longitude 163° 50'. On this day they named their discovery: "we called it Anthony Van Diemen's Land, in honor of our high magistrate and governor-general, and the islands near (Boreels) we named in honor of the council of India, as you may see by the little map we made." Next day they lost sight of land. They fixed the longitude 163° 50', and gave orders to the master of the Zeehaan to adopt that reckoning. On the 28th land reappeared, and in the evening they came near three small islands, one of which they thought like the head of a lion (Mewstone, of Furneaux). On the following morning they passed two cliffs, one (the Swilly, of Furneaux) like the Pedra Branca, near the coast of China; the other, the eastern cliff, resembling a high misshapen tower (the Eddystone, of Cook). Between the cliff and the main land they passed, until they came almost to Storm Bay, where they found it impossible to anchor, and were driven by the wind to sea—so far, that land could scarcely be sighted in the morning. In the afternoon of the 1st December, they anchored in a good port (marked Frederick Hendrik Bay in the chart), with twenty-two fathoms water, and bottom of fine light grey sand.

On the following morning the boats were despatched to the shore: on their return, the steersman informed them that they had heard the sound of voices, and of a little gong; but saw no one. They remarked two trees, sixty feet from the ground to the branches, and two and a-half in circumference: the bark taken off with flint stones, and steps cut to climb for birds' nests, full five feet from each other, and indicative of a very tall people. They saw marks, such as are left by the claws of a tiger, and brought on board the excrements of some quadruped; gum lac, which dropped from trees, and greens "which might be used in place of wormwood." They saw people at the east corner of the bay:[3] they found no fish, except mussels: many trees were burned hollow near the ground; they were widely separated, and admitted an extensive view.

On the 3rd, they went to a little bay, south-west from their ships, in search of water: the surf prevented their landing, but the carpenter swam on shore; and near four remarkable trees, standing in the form of a crescent, he erected a post, on which a compass was carved, and left the Prince's flag flying upon it.[4] "When the said carpenter had done this in the sight of me, Abel Jans Tasman, of the master Jerit Zanzoon, and under merchant Abraham Coomans, we went in the shallop as near as possible, and the said carpenter swam back through the surf. We then returned on board, and left this memorial to the posterity of the inhabitants. They did not show themselves, and we suspected some to be not far from thence, and watching carefully our doings." The last object they noticed was a large round mountain (St. Patrick's Head), on the eastern coast, of which they lost sight on the 5th December.

From Van Diemen's Land they proceeded to New Zealand, where by an encounter with the natives several lives were lost: thence they passed Tongataboo, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, and arrived at Batavia on the 15th June, 1643. Tasman closes his journal with his usual devotion: "God be praised for this happy voyage. Amen."

That Maria Island was named after the daughter of Van Diemen, and that Tasman went over the ocean writing down her name in the imperishable records of his discoveries, is a pleasing tale; but the evidence on which it rests is far from conclusive. Thus at Amsterdam he called the anchorage Van Diemen's Road, and where the boats went for water Maria's Bay, "in honor of our governor-general and his lady." That a daughter of the same name existed is not improbable, but who can tell whether the Maria Island of Tasmania's coast was named in complaisance to the daughter, or to conciliate the mother! In hope to confirm the agreeable fiction the journal of Tasman has been examined, but in vain.

The spirit of discovery revived in Europe after a long slumber; and a succession of illustrious navigators, in their passage to regions deemed more important, touched at Van Diemen's Land, and thus rapidly developed its geography. After Tasman, the next visitor was Captain Marion, of the Mascarin and Castries, who in 1772 arrived from the Mauritius, in search of the "southern continent," then the grand object of nautical inquiry, and anchored in Frederick Hendrik Bay, the 4th March. The visit is chiefly memorable for a fatal collision with the natives, who, according to the French, exhibited uncommon ferocity. On his stepping on shore they offered Captain Marion a fire stick, which he supposed a ceremony of friendship; but when he lighted a heap of wood, as he imagined in compliance with their custom, they retired to a hill, and threw a shower of stones. The French fired their muskets, and the natives fled: their pursuers found in the wood a dying savage—the first victim of European intrusion. Marion and some others were injured slightly by the missiles of the natives, and a black servant was wounded by a spear.

The remarks they made are of no great value: they entered the country, and saw everywhere the effects of fire, which they supposed was intended to drive wild animals from the coast. They could not discover a tree suitable for a mast, and were unsuccessful in obtaining water. A small map, which sketched the form of the coast with considerable exactness, accompanied the account of this voyage, and tended to awaken the French to the importance of these seas.

The next visit was accidental, but most important: Captain Cook, in 1772, left Great Britain to explore the icy region near the Pole. There the vessels separated in a fog: they were unable to rejoin, and while Cook proceeded to New Zealand in the Resolution, Captain Tobias Furneaux, his second in command, touched at Van Diemen's Land in the Adventure. He made the south-west cape on the 9th of March, 1773, exactly one year after Marion left the island. After passing the Mewstone, a boat's crew sent on shore reported favorably of the country, and that they had seen beautiful cascades pouring from rocks two hundred feet high. Finding no anchorage, Furneaux passed the black rocks (the Boreels of Tasman), which he called the Friars, and discovered Adventure Bay, which is separated from Storm Bay by Cape Frederick Henry. There they found anchorage in seven fathoms, within half a mile of either shore, and obtained wood and water in abundance. The numerous islets and tortuous navigation of the coasts led Furneaux into several errors. To discuss them would tire the patience of nine readers in ten, and afford no pleasure to the tenth.

The Adventure sailed along the eastern coast to the latitude of 40° 50', where Furneaux observed the land turned towards the westward. He, however, narrowly missed the discovery of the straits, and turned off for New Zealand, convinced "that there was no strait between New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, but a very deep bay." The impression he adopted, he conveyed to Captain Cook, who had intended to visit Van Diemen's Land for the solution of this geographical problem, which now he considered determined.[5]

On his third and final voyage to the Pacific, Captain Cook touched at Van Diemen's Land in the Resolution, then accompanied by Captain Clerke. He sighted the island bearing north-west half-west, distant three leagues from Mewstone. A neighbouring rock, unnoticed by Furneaux, he called the Eddystone, from its resemblance to an English lighthouse of that name. Detained by calms, he did not reach Adventure Bay until the 26th, where at 4 P.M. he dropped anchor in twelve fathoms, within a mile of the shore. The officers were delighted with the country, and particularly with its gigantic forests. Mr. Anderson, the surgeon, spent his leisure wandering on the beach of Adventure Bay; angling in a lake, or ascending the neighbouring hills.[6] Captain Cook left swine on the shore, which were driven into the bush when the natives were not present; in the hope they might escape them, and thus add to the resources of the country. He departed on the 30th for New Zealand. The account left by Cook is chiefly interesting for its description of the natives, and will be noticed in the history of that unfortunate people.

On the 3rd July, 1789, the brig Mercury, John Henry Cox, master, entered a deep bay on the south side of Van Diemen's Land, and was about ten miles from the Mewstone: attempting Adventure Bay, he was carried to the eastward, and afterwards accidentally discovered Oyster Bay.

Captain Wm. Bligh, subsequently governor of New South Wales, touched at Van Diemen's Land in 1788, when on his voyage to Tahiti, whence he was instructed to convey the bread fruit tree to the West India Islands. His object was frustrated by the mutiny of his crew; and after a passage in an open boat, attended with extraordinary perils, he reached Great Britain. The Providence and Assistant were placed under his command: he was sent on the same errand, in which he was successful, and re-appeared in Adventure Bay in 1792. During his stay he planted several fruit trees, acorns, and vegetables.

An inscription found by the French crew on a tree, signified that near by, "Captain William Bligh planted seven fruit trees: Messrs. T. and W., botanists." They consisted of one fig, two pomegranates, and four quinces. An apple tree was found by Labillardière on the coast. They doubtless all perished. The Frenchman was greatly scandalised by the despotism which condemned men of science to initials, and gave a sea captain a monopoly of fame.

This celebrated naturalist was attached to the expedition of Rear-Admiral Bruné D'Entrecasteaux, sent out by the government of France to ascertain the fate of La Perouse, whose amiable reputation conciliated the good-will of all parties. Although concluded that the vessel he commanded must be lost, it was fondly hoped that he still survived. The national assembly paused in the midst of its conflict with the king, to request that vessels might be dispatched, and rewards offered, for his relief. In his decree, Louis XVI. describes the expedition as intended, beyond its primary design, to perfect the description of the globe. On the day the first colonists of New South Wales entered Port Jackson, the expedition of La Perouse was seen by the astonished English approaching the coast. After an interchange of those civilities which dignify the intercourse of polished nations, he left New Holland.

In a letter, dated September, 1787, Perouse stated his intention "to employ six months in visiting the Friendly Islands to procure refreshments; the south-west coast of Mendana, the land of the Arsacides, with that of Louisiade, as far as New Guinea."[7]

Many years after, relics were recovered, which demonstrated the vicinity of his misfortunes. A lascar informed Captain Peter Dillon, of the East India Company's service, that two Frenchmen survived at Manicola; he therefore visited the island, where he found several relics of the lost admiral, although the Frenchmen were dead; among the rest his sword guard, marked with his cypher.[8] Dillon was honored by the French government with the title of Chevalier, and received a pension.

In 1792, D'Entrecasteaux in the Recherche, and Captain Huon Kermandee in the Esperance, reached Van Diemen's Land. On the 20th April, when looking for Adventure Bay, they discovered the channel which bears the name of D'Entrecasteaux. They remained a month, when they departed on their search, and returned on the 20th January, 1793, to complete their observations. They found that the channel extended to the Storm Bay of Tasman: they entered and named the Huon, and the Rivère du Nord, now the Derwent, and examined the different harbours. Their charts are said to exhibit the finest specimen of marine surveying ever made in a new country.[9] Of D'Entrecasteaux's Channel, then deemed the most important discovery since the time of Tasman, Rossel, who recorded the events of the voyage, writes with rapture:—"A harbour, twenty-four miles in length, and equally safe in every part. Such a retreat, in a gulph which bears the menacing name of Storm Bay, is a luxury that, to be able to express, must be felt."

Captain John Hayes, of the Bombay marine, with the private ships Duke and Duchess, examined Storm Bay and D'Entrecasteaux's Channel, in 1794. He passed up the Rivère du Nord much farther than the French, which he called the Derwent; and in his passage affixed names to various places, which have effaced those given by the original French discoverers—whose survey, however, to the extent of their navigation, was more correct than his own.

The form of Van Diemen's Land had long been a nautical problem. Captain Hunter, observing the swell of the ocean, deemed the existence of a strait highly probable. Mr. George Bass, surgeon of the royal navy, a gentleman to whom his generous friend Flinders refers with great admiration, resolved to test the conjecture. He had already given proof of intrepidity: in company with Flinders and a boy, he embarked in a boat, eight feet long, called Tom Thumb. After escaping great dangers, they returned to Port Jackson with valuable information respecting the coast.

In 1798, Bass obtained from Governor Hunter a six-oared whale boat, six men, and six weeks provisions: with this outfit he proceeded along the eastern coast of New Holland, occasionally landing and obtaining supplies, which enabled him to prolong his absence to eleven weeks. He continued his course until the agitation of the water convinced him that the open sea was not far distant: he discovered Western Port, and a country of great attraction. He explored six hundred miles of coast, one-half of which was hitherto unknown; an enterprise beyond example in nautical adventure, and entitling him to that renown which belongs to his name.

To test this discovery, the governor authorised Lieutenant Flinders and Mr. Bass to sail through the strait in the Norfolk, a colonial sloop, of 25 tons. Twelve weeks only were allowed for the voyage, which compelled the navigators to content themselves with a cursory survey.

In October, 1798, they left Port Jackson: after spending some time among the islands which crowd the straits, they sighted Cape Portland, a name given it in honor of the Duke of Portland, then secretary for the colonies; thence they passed Port Waterhouse, so called after the captain of the Reliance. The first important discovery was Port Dalrymple, called after the hydrographer of the admiralty, Alexander Dalrymple.[10] Green Isle, Western Arm, Middle Island, Whirlpool Reach, Swan Point, and Crescent Shore, preserve memorials of the visit in their designations.

They reported Port Dalrymple an excellent place for refreshments: black swans, whose quills covered the beach in countless thousands; kangaroos, of the forest kind; flocks of ducks and teal, and mussels and oysters, were found in abundance.

Proceeding along the coast, they came to a headland, which they called Circular Head, from its resemblance to a Christmas cake. They now approached the solution of the question which had dictated their voyage. They remarked a long swell from the south-west breaking on the western shore: they hailed it with joy and mutual gratulation, and passed in safety the clustering islets in their course: the extreme north-west they called Cape Grim. Proceeding round the western coast, they observed the mountains noticed by Tasman when he visited the island, which in memory of his vessels they called Mount Heemskirk and Mount Zeehaan. They named Point Hibbs after the master of the Norfolk. The discoveries of Flinders here may be said to terminate, until he proceeded up the Derwent.

The utility of the strait was highly rated. It secured perpetual renown to Bass, whose name it bears: this was given by Governor Hunter at the recommendation of Flinders, whose candour is always conspicuous in awarding the palm of discovery to those to whom it is due! Not only does the strait curtail a voyage from the Cape by four degrees, but vessels avoid the winds which obstruct navigation round the South Cape and Cape Pillar of Van Diemen's Land, which prolong the passage several days; a point of great importance in the conveyance of passengers.

The Norfolk steered into the Derwent by the chart of Hayes. Both Flinders and Bass observe, with indignation, how creeks are magnified into rivers, coves into bays, and a few acres into plains: as Risdon River, Prince of Wales's Bay, and King George's Plains. They corrected his definitions, but left him the honors of discovery. Flinders proceeded to Herdsman's Cove, which he so distinguished for its extensive pasture and plentiful waters.

Bass depicts the Derwent as a dull and lifeless stream, respectable only because the Tasmanian rivers are insignificant![11] To a bay they entered on the western side of Tasman's Peninsula, they gave the name of their vessel, which was built at Norfolk Island, of the pine peculiar to that place.

Flinders continued, after the departure of Bass, to prosecute researches on the coast of New Holland, until the Reliance returned home. In that vessel his charts were conveyed, and were published. On a plan being offered by Sir Joseph Banks for completing the survey, the Investigator was placed under the command of Flinders, who was promoted to the rank of commander, furnished with a chosen crew, and attended by Westall, a painter, and Brown, a naturalist whose collection added largely to his department of science. Flinders received a passport from the French government, expressed with the usual amplitude. It inhibited all vessels of war from molesting the Investigator, and gave right of entry to all ports subject to France, for refitting or refreshment, on condition that nothing were done hostile to that power. This protection was demanded by Lord Hawksbury, of M. Otto, the celebrated representative of the Republic in England. Flinders had proposed to visit Van Diemen's Land, but had been partly anticipated by the Lady Nelson, sent from England to be employed as tender to the Investigator, and fitted with a keel suited to shallow waters. Brown, the naturalist, remained some time after the expedition was interrupted. He wandered on the banks of the Derwent and Tamar, collecting shrubs and flowers during a stay of several months; and although some specimens of plants were lost in the Porpoise, not one out of 3,900 species was wanting.[12]

In June, 1803, Flinders passed the north coast of Van Diemen's Land: eighteen men were lying in their hammocks almost hopeless of recovery, some of whom died before the vessel entered Port Jackson, and several afterwards. A survey was instantly held, and the Investigator was condemned: the hull was found rotten, both plank and timbers, and it was declared that reparation was impossible. On inspecting her condition, Flinders expressed great astonishment, and remarked that a hard gale must have sent her to the bottom.[13]

The volumes of Captain Flinders, though of vast scientific worth, are not greatly interesting to the general reader, except when he tells of his trials, which were many. His work was patronised by the admiralty, and he had the prospect of reward; but on the day of publication, fame ceased to be valuable to him,[14]—he cast that anchor which is never weighed.

A long imprisonment in the Isle of France, and the mental anxiety inseparable from a strong sense of injustice, it is said, destroyed him. His case may be told in few words: the Investigator was condemned as unfit for service, and Flinders embarked at Port Jackson on board the Porpoise, in company with the Cato and the Bridgewater. When passing through Torres Straits, at between eight and nine knots, they saw breakers a-head. Before signals could be made, the other vessels were seen hastening to the same destruction. They hauled to the wind across each other; a collision seemed inevitable: a death-like silence prevailed during the awful crisis; but happily they passed off side by side. Instantly, however, the Cato struck on the reef, and was totally lost. All hands were preserved, except three boys; of these, one spent the night on a spar, bewailing his unhappy lot: four times he had embarked in different vessels, and each time had been wrecked; this was the last, for before morning he disappeared. The Bridgewater was yet safe: she was seen at dawn; but while awaiting her help, the captain, with a selfishness happily not common—without even sending a boat to pick up a cast-away—proceeded on his voyage.[15] He reached India in safety; sailed for Europe, and was never heard of more: the people he had abandoned were all rescued.

This was effected by Flinders. A cutter was built and provisioned from the stores saved on the reef: in this, which he called the Hope, he set out for Port Jackson, 750 miles distant. There he obtained the assistance of two vessels, beside the Cumberland, a colonial schooner of 29 tons. The inhabitants, unsolicited, sent many presents to the sufferers, who soon hailed the arrival of Flinders with rapturous cheers.

Having performed this duty, he proceeded towards England in the Cumberland, with seven men and three officers; but finding that she was unable to bear the voyage, he resolved to confide in the honor of the French, and present his passport at the Mauritius. There he was detained a prisoner six years; first charged with imposture, then treated as a spy; and when these imputations were refuted, he was accused of violating his passport. The French had found in his journal a wish dotted down to examine the state of that settlement, written when a stranger to the renewal of war. Some doubt seems to have been really entertained, for the moment, respecting him; but his long detention after his release was promised, was ascribed to the ambition of Napoleon, and the dishonesty of the French Institute, who from Flinders' papers were appropriating to Baudin the honor of discoveries he never himself claimed.

Before the Investigator left England, the Geographe and Naturaliste, under Captains Baudin and Hamelin, visited this island. During a pause in the hostilities of Europe, the French government obtained from Mr. Addington, then premier, a safe conduct for this expedition. The terms granted entitled them to freedom from search; to supplies in any English colony, notwithstanding the contingency of war: it being well said by the French, that the promoters of scientific knowledge were the common benefactors of mankind. While Flinders was prosecuting his voyage he met Baudin on the coast of New Holland, at a place thence called Encounter Bay. The interview was civil, rather than cordial; both nations were competitors in science, and rivals are rarely kind. Yet the suffering of the French may be mentioned with pity: of twenty-three scientific men who accompanied the expedition, three only survived. The vessels were ill-provisioned, the water corrupt, and they encountered fearful tempests, in attempting to circumnavigate this island.

Captain Baudin had been directed by his government to examine the eastern coast of Van Diemen's Land, the discoveries of D'Entrecasteaux, and the channels and rivers of the coast. The surgeon of the Geographe, Monge, fell by an attack of the natives, and was buried on the spot which bears his name.[16] The French surveyed the eastern coast, and finally determined the position of the Frederick Henry Bay of Tasman. They examined the intricacies which had escaped the observation of earlier navigators, who erroneously numbered the islands on their charts, and thus overlooked the bays. They coasted between the main and the Schoutens, and gave the name of Fleurieu to the Oyster Bay of Cox. They then passed through a strait heretofore unnoticed, which divides the Schoutens and Freycinet's Peninsula. Their survey was minute, and sometimes three boats were employed in different directions. The French vessels parted company, and the Naturaliste, after a long search for her consort, proceeded to New South Wales.

Baudin, of the Geographe, was far more unfortunate. Having touched at his land of Napoleon, instead of returning through Bass's Strait to Port Jackson, he resolved to pass the south cape of Van Diemen's Land. Throughout the passage he experienced the most fearful storms: the darkness at night often prevented the execution of naval manoeuvres, and the vessel was drenched with water. The condition of the crew was terrible; "cries of agony made the air ring:" four only, including the officers of the watch, were able to keep the decks. After beating about Port Jackson for several days, a boat appeared which had been dispatched by the governor, who saw the French were unable to manage the vessel. By a change of diet, they speedily recovered.

When at Port Jackson, Flinders showed his discoveries to the French, who admitted the justice of his prior claim, but with little sincerity.

M. Baudin died: Captain Hamilin, of the Naturaliste, returned to the Mauritius. He eulogised the conduct of the colonists to extravagance;[17] but it is mortifying to find, that soon after, having captured a small English settlement, he burned the property he could not carry off; and invited upon deck the ladies, his prisoners, to witness the devastations of their late peaceful dwellings.

The misfortunes of the distinguished navigators, whose success has been recorded, fully equalled their fame. The fate of Cook belongs to a story which mingles with our early remembrance. A child need scarcely be told, that after a career eminently glorious to his country and profession, while attempting to restrain his men who were firing to protect him, he fell by the dagger of a savage.

His colleague, Captain Clerke, who attended him through all his expeditions, did not long survive him. Resolved to complete his instructions, he remained in the neighbourhood of Kamschatka, which hastened the crisis of a consumption. He was buried beneath a tree at the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, and an inscription pointed to his grave.[18] This was found by M. Perouse defaced, who restored it. On his arrival at Botany Bay, he interred the naturalist of his expedition: the memorial he set up was destroyed by the natives, and Governor Phillip repaid, by the substitution of another, the honor done to his own countryman.[19]

De L'Angle, the companion of Perouse, with eleven officers and men, lost their lives by a misunderstanding at the Navigators' Isles: the manner of his own death may be inferred from the native tradition.[20]

The end of D'Entrecasteaux and Huon, was hardly less melancholy: both commanders were buried by their crews; the admiral at Louisiade, and Huon at New Caledonia. The vessels were detained by the Dutch at Java, and many of the seamen died in captivity. There the calamities of their country became known to them: some sided with the royalists, others with the jacobins, but few regained their native land; among these, however, was Labillardière.[21]

The fate of Captain Flinders is already told; that of Dr. Bass is involved in obscurity. A rumour that he was alive in 1812, in South America, was circulated in London.[22] In the colonies it was reported, that the vessel in his charge foundered at sea; others alleged that he attempted a contraband trade in the Spanish colonies, was taken prisoner, and with his companions sent to the quicksilver mines, and there died.[23]

The whale-boat of Bass, which first swept the waters of the strait, was long preserved at Port Jackson. Of its keel snuff boxes were wrought, and regarded as valuable relics. A fragment, mounted with silver, engraven with the particulars of the passage, was presented to M. Baudin, as a memorial of the man whose example had stimulated colonial discovery.

Flinders[24] predicted that the name of Bass would be conspicuous among the benefactors of mankind: the glory of his own will enlarge with the value of his discoveries. They resulted not from accident, which may give reputation to success without merit, but were the reward of prudent enthusiasm. A small community cannot, indeed, rear a monument worthy the destinies of their names: private memorials may be perishable, like the sympathies which inscribed them, but a future and opulent era will display the moral grandeur of their enterprise, and posterity will pay public honors to their fame.

At the cost of £250, Sir John Franklin erected an obelisk on the rock of Stamford Hill, Port Lincoln, with the following inscription:—

This place,

from which the gulf and its shores

were first surveyed,

on the 26th of Feb., 1802, by

MATTHEW FLINDERS, R. N..

commander of H.M.S. Investigator,

and the discoverer of the country now called South Australia,

was

on 12th Jan., 1841,

with the sanction of Lieut.-Colonel Gawler, K.H.,

then Governor of the Colony, then set apart for,

and in the first year of the

Government of Captain G. Grey,

adorned with this monument,

to the perpetual memory of the illustrious navigator,

his honoured commander,

by John Franklin, Captain R.N., K.C.H., K.R., Lt.-Governor of

Van Diemen's Land.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following is its title:—Journal of Discovery, by me, Abel Jans Tasman, of a Voyage from Batavia for making discoveries of the unknown South Land, 1642.—Burney's Chronological History, 1813.

[2] Discovered in the year 1505, by Don Pedro Mascarequas, a Spanish navigator: he gave it the name of "Cerné." It was uninhabited, and destitute of every species of quadruped. In 1598 it was visited by the Dutch Admiral Van Neck, who finding it unoccupied gave it its present name, in honor of Maurice, Prince of Holland. In 1601 a Frenchman was found on the island by a Dutch captain. He had been left by an English vessel, and had remained two years subsisting on turtle and dates: his understanding was impaired by his long solitude. The Dutch had a small fort, when it was visited by Tasman, which is represented in the drawings that illustrated his journal. The Dutch afterwards abandoned the island, and it has passed through many changes, until it was conquered by Great Britain.—Grant's History of the Mauritius.

[3] Probably their fires: had they seen them, they could not have fallen into error respecting their height.

[4] "The same romantic little rock, with its fringe of grey ironstone shingle, still shelters itself under the castellated cliffs of trap rock, on its northern and southern horns; embosomed in its innermost recesses by a noble forest, whose green shades encroach upon the verge of the ocean. It is less than half-a-mile across, and nearer its northern than its southern extremity, the sea has cast up a key of large grey rounded ironstone, which interrupts the equal curve of the beach, and doubtless marks the spot where the ship's carpenter swam ashore."—Gell's Remarks on the First Discovery: Tasmanian Journal, vol. ii. p. 327.

[5] Cook's Voyages.

[6] A folio edition of Cook's Voyages, published in the last century, at the "King's Arms," Paternoster-row, London, contains the following sentence, which, as perhaps the first example of invention in reference to the country, may deserve remembrance:—"Stately groves, rivers, and lawns, of vast extent." "Thickets full of birds of the most beautiful plumage, of various notes, whose melody was truly enchanting. It was now the time (29th January!) when nature poured forth her luxuriant exuberance, to clothe this country with rich variety."—Vol. ii. p. 425.

[7] Voyage of Perouse (translation). London, 1799.

Letters buried in a bottle, beneath a tree in Adventure Bay, were found by Captain Bunker, of the Venus, in 1809, to which he was directed by the words, still legible, "dig underneath;" and supposed, from his imperfect knowledge of the language, that they were left by Perouse. In this he was mistaken: they were deposited by D'Entrecasteaux, at his second visit. Bent's Almanack, 1828, adopted Bunker's mistake: it was copied by Mr. Widowson, who adds—"these letters were dated one month after his departure from Port Jackson, and led to the opinion that the expedition must have perished on some reef of Van Diemen's Land. In consequence of this idea, the French government in 1791," &c. The first mistake can be allowed for; but not that a discovery of letters in 1809, prompted an expedition in 1791.

[8] Hobart Town Gazette, 1827.

[9] Flinders' Introduction, &c.

[10]

Position of Low Head:—Lat. 41° 3' 30" S.

Long. 146° 48' 15" E.—Flinders.

[11] Collins, vol. ii. p. 183.

[12] Remarks by Robert Brown, F.R.S. Appendix to Flinders, vol. ii. p. 533.

[13] Flinders, vol. ii. p. 275. Jorgenson, the Dane, who was a seaman on board the Lady Nelson, tender to the Investigator, stated, in his rattling way, that she was in good condition, and absurdly insinuated foul play. The Investigator was cut down, and returned to Europe in charge of Captain Kent, R.N.

[14] Quarterly Review, 1814.

[15] See Flinders, vol. i. p. 305.

[16] This statement, after Rev. Mr. Gell, is erroneous. Mougé died from diseases occasioned by the climate of Timor, and the hardships of the voyage (See Peron's work). He arrived in an exhausted and consumptive state: when he attempted to land (20th January, 1802), he fainted, and was instantly conveyed on board. He went no more on shore, but to the grave. He was buried at the foot of a tree, at Maria Island, and the name Point Mougé was given to the spot.

On the 17th January, the French were attacked by natives at Swan Port, and Mougé was probably of the party. A native attempted to snatch the drawings; "then to strike down our weak friend, when he was prevented by those who ran to his assistance." The French say, they loaded them with favors, and did not avenge this violence. It is, no doubt, this account which Mr. Gell confused with the death of Mougé.

[17] "The famous northern confederacy placed England on the verge of destruction, and Captain Hamilin had reason to fear that he should not have been allowed to remain in port, or at least should be refused succour; but the English received him with liberality, grande et loyale: the first houses at Port Jackson were open, and the whole resources of the colony were at the disposal of the French captain." "Oftentime did they repeat that excellent maxim, that France first inscribed on the code of nations: causa scientiarum causa populorum"—the cause of science is the people's cause. So writes M. Peron; but the benefit of these sentiments was denied Captain Flinders.

[18] Cook's Voyages.

[19] Tench's Narrative, p. 99.

[20] "The Astrolabe, M. de la Perouse, and the Boussole, M. de L'Angle, were lost on the S. W. side of Manicolo. On one stormy dismal night, the oldest natives state, the vessels were blown upon a reef. One was a complete wreck by day-light, and all hands perished! From the other, however, some of the crew managed to effect a landing, when many of them were massacred as they gained the shore, the natives taking them for white spirits, with long noses (their cocked hats being considered a part of the face!). As soon as the unfortunate mariners were proved to be human beings, those that had escaped death from the waves and the savages were allowed to remain unmolested. A small vessel was built from the wrecks, which spot Captain Dillon saw; and as soon as the bark was ready, the survivors, with the exception of two, left Manicolo, and have never been heard of since! The natives further represented, whilst on the island, that the strangers were continually looking at the sun, and taking their usual observations. So late as six years ago, the two Frenchmen were alive; but one joined a party of the natives in a war, who were defeated: the other died at Manicolo about three years since. Captain Dillon has secured several nautical instruments, many silver spoons, a silver salver, which are all marked with the fleur-de-lis; a pair of gold buckles, some China ware, a Spanish dollar, a piece of the ornamental work of the stern of a ship (with the arms of France) much decayed; several brass sheaves belonging to a frigate's topmast, a composition pump, copper cooking utensils, a large quantity of iron knees; the silver handle of a sword-guard that was taken to Calcutta in the St. Patrick, which led to this important discovery, and which bears the ciphers of the unfortunate Count; several large brass guns, which were found where one vessel was totally wrecked; together with about four or five tons of other valuable and recognisable articles. Most of the houses, or huts, were found to have bags suspended to their sides, and those contained human sculls in a decaying condition; but whether they were of European or aboriginal extraction, in the absence of an able phrenologist, could not be ascertained."—Sydney Gazette, January, 1828.

The following curious relation, is of a dream of John Maatzuiker, whose name is given by Tasman to a rock on the coast. On the 11th of Feb., 1662, he dreamed, "that he saw Arnold de Vlaming, member of the council of India and admiral of the fleet, who sailed for his native country on the 23rd of December, 1661, in extreme danger, and heard him call several times for help." The dream was repeated: "he then remained awake, noted the day," &c., "sealed it, and gave it to the other members of government." "Accounts were brought from the Cape, that the same day his ship and some others had sunk with man and mouse." "The paper still remains at Batavia, or did twenty years ago."—Collection of remarkable Dreams, by Dr. Wm. Greve. Amsterdam, 1819. The story is taken from Old and New West Indies. By François Valentijn. vol. iv. p. 312.

[21] Rossel, the editor of D'Entrecasteaux's Voyage, on returning homeward was captured by the English, and being a royalist was employed in the admiralty; but when emigrants were permitted to return, he went home, and was patronised by Napoleon. His account of D'Entrecasteaux is more favorable than that in the work of Labillardière.

[22] Penny Cyclopædia: art. Bass.

[23] Ross's Almanack, 1835.

SECTION II

The settlement of New Holland was proposed by Colonel Purry, in 1723: he contended that in 33° south, a fertile region would be found, favorable to European colonisation. He offered his theory to the British government, then to the Dutch, and afterwards to the French; but with little encouragement. His views were submitted to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, who replied that "they could not judge of countries they had not seen."[25] Thus the project slept, until the great English navigator in 1770 gave certainty to what had been conjecture.

To Dalrymple, the hydrographer, the impulse of this enterprising era is largely due. He fully believed that a vast southern continent must exist, to balance the antipodes. So firm was his conviction, that he defined its extent as "greater than the whole civilised part of Asia, from Turkey to the extremity of China. Its trade would be sufficient to maintain the power of Great Britain, employing all its manufactories and ships." The position of this region of fancy was traversed by Cook, who found nothing but ocean. The doctrine of terrestial counterpoise was disturbed; he, however, alighted on a great reality.

The description of New South Wales by Cook and his companions, which charmed the public, attracted the attention of the crown; and Botany Bay, named on account of the variety and beauty of its vegetation—long known through Europe as a region of gibbets, triangles, and chains; to be celebrated hereafter as the mistress of nations—was selected for a settlement. 565 men and 192 women, the pioneers of a larger division, were embarked under the charge of a military force composed of volunteers; comprehending, besides the staff, sixteen commissioned officers.

The fleet consisted of H.M.S. Sirius, Hyena, and Supply; six transports and three victuallers: they assembled at the Motherbank on the 16th March, and sailed on the 13th May, 1787.[26] They touched at Teneriffe, and then at the Cape. Separated into two divisions, they reached their destination within forty-eight hours of each other. On the day of their junction, dense clouds threw a gloom over the sea; but they rejected the omen, and believed that they had seen "the foundation, and not the fall of an empire." Having found the bay unsuitable for location, they proceeded to examine the port called after Jackson, a seaman, who observed it from the mast, and immortalised his name. As they passed the capes, which form an entrance, they were in raptures with the scene:—the tall mouldering cliffs; the trees, which touched the water's edge; and the magnificent harbour, four miles in length, begirt with a luxuriant shore.

It was on the 7th February, 1788, that the Governor was inaugurated: an area being cleared for the purpose, the military marched to the ground with music, and colors flying; 750 convicts, 212 marines and their officers, were assembled. The standard of England was unfurled, the commission of Phillip, the first governor, published, and the courts of justice proclaimed. The usual formalities being complete, Phillip turned to the prisoners, and declared his intentions. He had resolved to cherish and render happy such as might deserve his favour; but to allow the law its course with the impenitent and unreformed. In such language we discern the sentiments which prevailed: banishment, not punishment for past crimes, was implied in the cheering alternative. From that moment he possessed authority to manumit not less absolute than the sovereign, but immeasurably more power to avenge.

Those who first entered New Holland, and witnessed the elevation of the royal standard on the shores of Port Jackson, described in terms of despondency its barren soil, barely compensated by its salubrious atmosphere. Contemporary political writers looked coldly on the infant establishment, as the diseased and hopeless progeny of crime: one, which could never recompense the outlay of the crown, either by its vigour or its gratitude. The projects entertained, in connection with commerce, were the growth of flax and the supply of naval timber, both of which had been reported by Cook as indigenous to Norfolk Island. "When viewed in a commercial light," Captain Tench observes (writing in 1789), "the insignificance of the settlement is very striking." "Admitting the possibility," he continues, "that the country will hereafter yield a sufficiency of grain, the parent state must long supply the necessaries of life. The idea of breeding cattle sufficient to meet the consumption, must be considered very chimerical." Such desponding sentiments mostly attend the first stages of colonisation; but in a much later period, the enterprise was regarded with scarcely less suspicion: "Why," said a celebrated critic, "we are to erect penitentiaries and prisons, at the distance of half the diameter of the globe, and to incur the enormous expense of feeding and transporting its inhabitants, it is extremely difficult to discover. It is foolishly believed, that the colony of Botany Bay unites our moral and commercial interests, and that we shall receive, hereafter, an ample equivalent in the bales of goods, for all the vices we export."[27] With what obstinacy an idea once mooted is cherished, may be inferred from an opinion afterwards expressed by an authority of still greater pretension:—"The most sanguine supporter of New South Wales system of colonisation, will hardly promise himself any advantage from the produce it may be able to supply."[28] Its corn and wool, its timber and hemp, he excludes from the chances of European commerce, and declares that the whale fishery, after repeated failures, had been relinquished!

It is not less instructive than pleasing, to notice the past epochs of opinion: we find consolation against the dark clouds overshadowing the future, by discovering how many forebodings of ancient seers have vanished before the light of the event.

These discouraging views were not, however, universal. Many distinguished men imagined an advancement, which our age has been sufficient to realise. To commemorate the foundation of the colony the celebrated artist, Wedgewood, modelled, from clay brought from the neighbourhood of Sydney, an allegorical medallion, which represented Hope encouraging Art and Labor, under the influence of Peace.[29]

The French, however, always represented this colony as a masterpiece of policy; an element of Anglican power, pregnant with events. Peron, when dwelling on the moral prodigies of the settlement, declared that these but disguised the real objects of its founders, which, however, could not escape the discernment of statesmen: they saw the formidable germ of great revolutions.[30]

The expedition of Baudin was connected by English politicians[31] with a project of French colonisation. His instructions directed him to inspect narrowly the places eligible for occupation, and it was expected that an Australian Pondichery would become a new focus of rivalry and intrigue. The special injunctions to survey the inlets of Van Diemen's Land, seemed to indicate the probable site of an establishment so obnoxious.

Dr. Bass had, however, already examined this country with similar views, especially the margin of the rivers. To him no spot on the eastern side of the Derwent appeared to equal the neighbourhood of Risdon Creek, around which he observed an expanding area of fertile land. He delineated not less favorably the valley of the Tamar. This country he considered preferable to New South Wales: with a greater proportion of fertile soil, more amply supplied with water, and well adapted for colonisation.[32]

FOOTNOTES:

[24] Introduction. p. 120.

[25] Literary Chronicle, 1822.

[26] The incidents of the voyage are related by Captain Tench.

[27] Edinburgh Review, 1803.

[28] Quarterly Review, 1814.

[29] On this medal an author, quoted in Phillip's Voyages, ventured a poetical prophecy, which has at least the merit of truthfulness:—

VISIT OF HOPE TO SYDNEY COVE.

Written by the author of the Botanic Garden, 1791.

Where Sydney Cove her lucid bosom swells,

Courts her young navies, and the storm repels;>

High on a rock, amid the troubled air,

Hope stood sublime, and wav'd her golden hair.

"Hear me," she cried, "ye rising realms record

Time's opening scenes, and Truth's unerring word:

There shall broad streets their stately walls extend,>

The circus widen, and the crescent bend;

There, ray'd from cities o'er the cultur'd land,

Shall bright canals and solid roads expand.

Embellish'd villas crown the landscape scene,

Farms wave with gold, and orchards blush between;

While with each breeze approaching vessels glide,

And northern treasures dance on every tide!"

Then ceas'd the nymph: tumultuous echoes roar,

And Joy's loud voice was heard from shore to shore.

Her graceful stops descending press'd the plain,

And Peace, and Art, and Labor, joined the train.

—Governor Phillip's Voyage to Botany Bay.

[30] Vol. i. p. 12.

[31] Quarterly Review.

[32] Collins's New South Wales, vol. i. p. 180.

 

FROM 1803 TO 1824

FROM 1803 TO 1824

SECTION I

The establishment of a settlement in Van Diemen's Land, perhaps thus hastened by the jealousy of a rival power, was at first chiefly intended to relieve Port Jackson. Fifteen years had elapsed since its foundation, and from six to seven thousand prisoners had been transported thither: dispersion became necessary to security—to repress alike the vices of the convicts, and the growing malversation of their taskmasters. The want of prisons, or places of punishment, and the indolence and intemperance of emancipist settlers, endangered authority.

In 1800, the transportation of the defenders from Ireland, appears to have created continual anxiety: a committee of officers was formed to examine persons suspected, when Harold, a priest, was arrested, and accused his fellow prisoners. His testimony was insidious, and discredited; but the alarm led to the formation of a volunteer company of a hundred persons, who armed for the suppression of rebellion. The more distrusted of the Irish prisoners were conveyed to Norfolk Island; there, some months after, a conspiracy was detected to massacre the officers, and seize the island. On the night fixed for action, the plot was discovered. An Irish servant, muttering words of compassion, was overheard by his master: he was induced to explain, and was immediately taken to Major Foveaux, the officer in command. The danger was imminent: the warmth of the season (December) had tempted the soldiers to slumber with open doors, and it was said that the sentinels were implicated who that night kept watch. These being changed, and other precautions adopted, the plotters postponed their design; and next day were marched to church without suspicion. The door was beset with soldiers: the leaders were arrested; one executed—and on the following day, the blacksmith, charged with fabricating arms, was also hung. The necessity for dispensing with the forms of law was not made out, and these summary punishments were censured. That the danger was not imaginary, may, however, be inferred from the after attempts at Port Jackson.

The military force of New South Wales, drawn together by a love of adventure, or the hope of gain, when their own status was assailed, were often exacting and severe: but they slightly sustained the moral strength of the government. To select mistresses from the female prisoners was one of their earliest and most valued prerogatives, who, standing in this equivocal relation, became their agents and sold their rum.

The Governor, after struggling to abate the abuses around him, yielded to a pressure which seemed irresistible. He endeavoured to mollify by his liberality, those he could not govern by restraint: he multiplied licenses for the sale of rum, and emancipists aspired to commercial rivalry with the suttlers in commission. The chief constable was himself a publican, and the chief gaoler shared in the lucrative calling, and sold spirits opposite the prison.

The moral laxity which prevailed, produced its natural consequences—violations of discipline, which led to great crimes. The offenders, to escape immediate punishments, retreated to the remote districts; occasionally sheltered by the emancipist cotters. The feeble resistance offered to their depredations, inspired, and almost justified the prisoners in the hope, that the common bondage might be broken. A large agricultural establishment, belonging to the government, at Castle-hill, Parramatta, employed many Irishmen implicated in the recent disorders of their country. These prompted the rest to attempt to recover their liberty, but they were subdued by the military under Major Johnstone: some were shot, and several executed.

In this unsatisfactory condition was the colony of Port Jackson, when Van Diemen's Land was occupied. Its remote distance, its comparatively small extent and insular form, fitted it for the purposes of penal restraint—a place where the most turbulent and rapacious could find no scope for their passions. Its ports closed against commerce, afforded few means of escape. In New Holland, labor and produce were redundant: overwhelming harvests reduced the price of grain so low, that it was rejected by the merchants; goods could not be obtained in exchange;[33] and the convicts at the disposal of government were a burden on its hands—almost in a condition to defy its authority. Thus, Van Diemen's Land was colonised; first, as a place of exile for the more felonious of felons—the Botany Bay of Botany Bay—

"And in the lowest deep, a lower deep!"

Lieutenant Bowen, in the Lady Nelson, set sail from Sydney, and in August, 1803, landed at Risdon, on the east bank of the Derwent: his party included a few soldiers and prisoners, and Dr. Mountgarrat, the surgeon. A far more important immigration soon followed.

Port Phillip, on the east coast of New Holland, first discovered by Captain Murray in the Lady Nelson, 1799, was surveyed by Flinders in 1802, and in 1803 by Grimes, the surveyor-general. They reported the country to be lightly timbered, to abound in herbage, and gentle slopes suitable to the plough. The port offered an asylum against both war and tempests, sufficient for the fleets of all nations.[34]

The establishment of a settlement at Port Phillip being determined on by the ministry of Great Britain, an expedition was forwarded, which consisted of the Calcutta, 50 guns, Captain Woodriff, and the Ocean, a transport of 500 tons. In addition to the convicts, there were forty marines, four hundred male prisoners, twelve free settlers and their families, six unmarried women, six the wives of prisoners, and six children. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the morals of the officers, or of the women, were not superior either to the service or to the times. The events of the voyage, worthy of remembrance, were not numerous; it was disturbed by rumours of plots and conspiracies; punishments were not infrequent, and one woman was flogged for stealing the cap of a companion.

The Calcutta did not convey the settlers to the Derwent. On her return to Great Britain, Lieutenant Tuckey published an account of the voyage to Port Phillip, which he surveyed. In the year following (1805), the Calcutta was convoy to St. Helena, and encountered the Rochefort squadron. Captain Woodriff determined to engage the whole division: the merchantmen escaped; but the Calcutta, in the unequal contest, became unmanageable, and struck her colors. Captain Woodriff was soon exchanged, but Lieutenant Tuckey remained in captivity until the allied armies entered France.

Promoted to the rank of commander, he received charge of the expedition in 1816, sent to explore the Zaire; but with most of his people fell a martyr to the spirit of African discovery. He is said to have been handsome in person, and generous in hand. "He knew nothing of the value of money, except as it enabled him to gratify the feelings of a benevolent heart."[35]

The spot selected at Port Phillip, was ill-chosen as the site of a town, and they found great difficulty in obtaining pure water. These circumstances, represented by Collins to the Governor-in-chief, were thought sufficient to justify a removal to Van Diemen's Land, and long postponed the occupation of a country, inferior to few in this hemisphere; a measure lamented by several of the settlers. A lady, writing to her friends from the banks of the Derwent, censured, in terms of great contempt, the relinquishment of Port Phillip, which she described in glowing language: she seemed alone capable of estimating its future importance; but she pronounced Van Diemen's Land a dreary and desert region, destined never to prosper—thus she forfeited the credit of prophecy.[36]

Several prisoners attempted to escape; in one instance, with a singular result. Buckley, a man of gigantic stature, and two others, set off, it was said, for China! They rambled for some distance together, and suffered great misery: at last, they parted. Of his companions, Buckley saw no more, and when he returned to the settlement all was deserted. After months of solitary wandering, he found a tribe of natives, by whom he was adopted: he remained among them for three-and-thirty years, conforming to their barbarous customs, and forgetting his own language. Once only he saw the faces of white men; a boat's crew landed to bury a seaman: he endeavoured to arrest their attention; they looked at him earnestly, but took him for a savage—he was dressed in a rug of kangaroo skin, and was armed with spears. This man still survives: he contributed to the friendly reception of his countrymen; but during his long sojourn, he had imparted no ideas of civilisation.

The Lady Nelson and the Ocean conveyed the party from Port Phillip to the Derwent. The situation of the camp at Risdon had been found undesirable, they therefore landed at Sullivan's Cove. They arrived in two divisions, on the 30th January and 16th February, 1804. The names of the principal persons are as follows:—Lieutenant-Governor Collins; Rev. R. Knopwood, chaplain; E. Bromley, surgeon superintendent; W. Anson, colonial surgeon; M. Boden, W. Hopley, assistant surgeons; P. H. Humphrey, mineralogist; Lieutenant Fosbrook, deputy-commissary-general; G. P. Harris, deputy-surveyor; John Clarke and William Patterson, superintendents of convicts; Lieutenants W. Sladen, J. M. Johnson, and Edward Lord; 39 marines, 3 sergeants, 1 drummer, 1 fifer; and 367 male prisoners.

Meantime, the Lady Nelson was dispatched to Port Dalrymple, and surveyed the entrance of the Tamar: the report being favorable, a small party of prisoners were sent from Port Jackson, under Colonel Paterson, to form a settlement, who landed in October, 1804, and for some time held little intercourse with the settlement on the Derwent. Such were the pioneers of this important colony; and to so many casual but concurring incidents, we owe its existence.

The first annals of the settlement offer few events worthy of record. The transactions of a community, which in 1810 did not comprehend more than thirteen hundred and twenty-one persons,[37]—the greater part subject to penal control—could not, unassociated with the present, detain attention for a moment. The discipline which prevailed in Van Diemen's Land, and the results which it produced, will be hereafter related to illustrate transportation; for who would load the colonial fame with details, from which the eyes of mankind turn with natural disgust, or blend them with the fabric of Tasmanian history?

The first Governor-in-chief of Van Diemen's Land, the third of New South Wales, was Philip Gidley King, son of Philip King, a draper, of Launceston, Cornwall, England. At twelve years of age he entered the royal navy: by Admiral Byron he was made lieutenant, and holding that rank in the Sirius, he attended the expedition of Phillip in 1788.[38] He was employed to establish the settlement of Norfolk Island, where his proceedings, recorded in his official journal, and afterwards published in various forms, afforded great amusement and satisfaction. There he united in his person, for some time, the priest and the ruler: he experienced during his residence, most of the anxieties and difficulties incident to such stations, and detailed them with curious minuteness. As a cultivator he was energetic and persevering; but the rats devoured his seed, or torrents washed it away: or a tropical hurricane, which tore up huge trees, overthrew the frail buildings he reared. His people conspired to seize his government; he detected, and forgave them: yet he was not scrupulous in his methods of punishment. A woman he repeatedly flogged, for stealing the provisions of her neighbours. He, however, saw the little settlement gradually improve: it became the favorite residence of the officers; and, as the climate was better understood, the fertility of the soil yielded a surpassing abundance.

King was not inattentive to his own interest, and became the owner of considerable stock. Anecdotes of his humour circulate through the colonies: being asked by a settler to find him a man to perform certain work, he took him into his room and pointed him to a mirror. Again, when a marine was the suitor for some favour, in rejecting his petition he put him through his exercises, which ended in quick march. He had the frankness of the sailor, and neither aspired to state nor exacted homage.

David Collins, Esq., long judge advocate of New South Wales, was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land. He was present with his father, General Collins, at the battle at Bunker's Hill, and thus witnessed an event accepted by exulting Europe as a signal that British sway over that region was lost. It was the lot of Collins to proclaim the dominion of Great Britain at the inauguration of Phillip, and thus announced the first day of a second and not less valuable empire.

Such incidents teach us that a single life may embrace events beyond the scope of imagination. We are reminded of the most brilliant passage in the oratory of Burke, delivered while the authority of the crown was trembling in the balance of fate. When illustrating how far the realities of the future might exceed the visions of the present moment, he stated that a venerable nobleman, Lord Bathurst, could remember when American interests were a little speck, but which during his life had grown to greater consequence than all the commercial achievements of Great Britain in seventeen hundred years. "Fortunate man," he exclaimed, "he has lived to see it: fortunate, indeed, if he lives to see nothing which will vary the prospect, and cloud the setting of his day."[39]

Collins was favorably known to the public by his Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: his work was distinguished by the reviewers, amidst a crowd of publications, as superior to them all.[40] The stateliness of his style, and the pomp with which he ushers trivial events, were less apparent when the topics were new. In the last page he, however, complains that he had spent nine years in the colonial service, which intercepted the honors of his profession; a case of hardship, he remarks, everywhere admitted, both by those who could compensate, and those who could only condole.

In his dedication to Lord Hobart, the principal secretary of state, he drops the tone of complaint and disappointment: he tells that nobleman that his private virtues were rendered more conspicuous by the splendour of his talents as a statesman, and that praise could not be interpreted as flattery, when devoted to a name which commanded the veneration of the world. Remonstrances so skilfully advanced could not be unnoticed: Collins was at once raised to the rank of colonel, and the intelligence with which he delineated the proper objects and agents of penal government, exalted him still higher. He dated his dedication in 1802, and embarked the following year as governor of the settlement it had been resolved to form.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] Wentworth's New South Wales, p. 210.

[34] Flinders, vol. i.

[35] Narrative: published by authority of the Admiralty, 1818.

[36] "We arrived in October, 1803: my pen is not able to describe half the beauties of that delightful spot: we were four months there. Much to my mortification, as well as loss, we were obliged to abandon the settlement, through the whim and caprice of the Lieutenant-Governor: additional expense to government, and additional loss to individuals, were incurred by removing to Van Diemen's Land, which can never be made to answer. Port Phillip is my favorite, and has my warmest wishes. During the time we were there, I never felt one ache or pain, and I parted from it with more regret than I did from my native land." The following is the endorsement of this letter:—"Dated May 23rd, 1805; received October 10th, 1805—half a year! From an officer's wife, Mrs. Hartley (quere Hopley?), to her sister."—Collection of Letters, for a History of New South Wales. By a Merchant. London: Valpy, 1812.

[37] Report of Commons on Transportation, 1812.

[38] Phillip's Voyage, p. 95.

[39] The reader will not be displeased to see the whole passage. On the 22nd of March, 1775, upon moving his resolutions for conciliation with America, Edmund Burke thus addressed the house:—

"Mr. Speaker,—I cannot prevail on myself to hurry over this great consideration. It is good for us to be here. We stand where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. Clouds indeed, and darkness rest upon the future. Let us, however, before we descend from the noble eminence, reflect that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within the short period of the life of man: it has happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose memory might touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress. He was in 1704, of an age, at least, to be made to comprehend such things. He was then old enough—acta parentum jam legere et quæ sit poterit cognoscere virtus. Suppose, Sir, that the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues which made him one of the most amiable, as he is one of the most fortunate men of his age, had opened to him in vision, that when in the fourth generation the third prince of the house of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne of that nation, which (by the happy issue of moderate and healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to higher rank of peerage whilst he enriched the family with a new one. If, amidst these bright and happy scenes of domestic honor and prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the curtain and unfolded the rising glories of his country, and whilst he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a little speck, scarce visible in the mass of national interest—a small seminal principle rather than a formed body—and should tell him: Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by succession of civilising conquests, civilising settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as much added to her by America in the course of a single life! If this state of his country had been foretold to him, would it not require all the fervid glow of enthusiasm to make him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it: fortunate indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the prospect, and cloud the setting of his day."—Parl. Hist., vol. xviii. p. 487.

[40] Edinburgh Review, 1803.

SECTION II

When Collins determined to relinquish Risdon, after survey and comparison of the places offered to his choice, he preferred the spot on which stands Hobart Town, called after the name of his patron. Imagination has traced in its natural outlines a resemblance to the seven-hilled Roman capital, once the mistress of the world.[41] Its chief recommendation was the stream which runs through the centre of the city, whose margin was then beset with brushwood, and choked with prostrate trees: these often obstructed its course, and threw over the adjacent banks a flow of water, and thus formed marshes and pools.[42]

Hobart Town is built on the west side of the Derwent, a river named after the Derwent in Cumberland, celebrated by Wordsworth, the laureate of England, and the poet of the lakes, who thus associates with its beauties the recollections of his childhood:—

"Among the mountains were we nursed, loved stream!

Thou near the eagle's nest,

Where thy deep voice could lull me."

"————Glory of the vale!

Kept in perpetual verdure by the steam

Of thy soft breath."[43]

The county, including at first half the island, was called after the same nobleman, who was then Lord Buckinghamshire.

The northern settlement, formed by Colonel Paterson,[44] was seated on the Western Arm of the Tamar, and called York Town. In describing the site, the difficulty of obtaining water is noticed by Flinders; but by Dr. Bass, the adjacent land was represented as adapted for both agriculture and pasture: he added, "If it should be ever proposed to make a settlement, this part seems to merit particular attention." From this spot the greater part of the new establishment was removed (1806) to the country above the North and South Esk; where the colonists were delighted to discover extensive plains equally suitable for tillage and pasture, where not a tree obstructed the prospect.[45]

The Tamar was traced, and named by Paterson after a Cornish stream, and the valley of Launceston, after a town in Cornwall, and both in honor of Governor King. At Launceston he proposed to establish a sea port town, for the northern section of the island. Port Dalrymple, as this settlement was then called, was not under the government of Hobart Town until 1812.[46]

The first communication between Hobart and Launceston was opened by Lieutenant Laycock and his party, they were nine days in the journey, and their unexpected appearance excited great astonishment at Hobart.[47] A loaded cart was subsequently sent to Launceston, and passed over the country without falling a single tree.[48]

The first Tasmanian house stood on land adjoining the Macquarie Hotel: it was built by Lieutenant E. Lord, of wattle and dab—its windows, like the port-holes of a vessel. That it was the first, constituted its chief claim to distinction: it was considered as an achievement of civilisation—a trophy gained upon the wilderness. All were not so well lodged; yet such houses are soon reared. Posts, joined by wall plates, fixed in the ground; woven with wattle rods, plastered with mingled clay, sand, and wiry short grass, and whitened—a grass thatched roof; a chimney of turf piled on stone, a door and a window: the cottage is finished.

The removal of the settlers from Norfolk Island, colonised in 1788, was the next most important event. On his return to Great Britain, Collins visited that place, in company with Hunter, the late governor-in-chief. On the whole, he represented Norfolk Island as by no means promising to repay the annual cost, and it was resolved to abandon it.

In 1803, directions were issued by Lord Buckinghamshire (Lord Hobart). The opposition of the settlers, and the fear of famine, for some time occasioned delay. In 1805, only four free settlers had removed. The order was renewed in 1808 by Mr. Windham, then secretary of state, and Captain Bligh directed Captain Piper to compel the colonists to evacuate the island, and even to shoot any one who might retreat to the woods to avoid embarkation.[49] They were conveyed to this island chiefly in the Estramina, City of Edinburgh, and Sydney: 254 arrived on 15th October, 1808.[50]

Norfolk Island, so celebrated for its genial climate and unusual fruitfulness, is of volcanic origin, and contains about 14,000 acres. It lies on the 29th parallel,[51] north of New Zealand: it is nine hundred and ninety miles from Port Jackson, thirteen hundred miles from the Derwent, and until seen by Captain Cook, was probably never visited by man. Norfolk Island has twenty-eight miles of sea shore: its greatest elevation is Mount Pitt: it is a succession of hills and valleys. Its lofty cliffs, which breast the ocean, are crowned by the elegant white wood and the gigantic pine. The wild jasmine and convolvuli, which reach from tree to tree, form bowers and walks of exquisite beauty. Twice in the year the settler gathered his harvest: the lemon, the orange, and the pine, shed their fragrance in profusion, and yielded the richest fruit. Though liable to occasional storms and destructive insects, the husbandman could scarcely be said to toil. Gentle showers frequently refresh the undulating soil, and pour down rivulets to the ocean. Sea breezes cool the atmosphere, and the diseases often incident to such latitudes, are unknown; but no ships can anchor: it is a land unsuited to commerce.

Thus it presented no incitement to exertion: it gave the indolent abundance without labor; it afforded a leisure, in which man is prone to degenerate and sink into the savage. Distillation from the cane produced spirits, more than usually deleterious: unacquainted with the process by which saccharine is crystalised, the settlers were unable to prepare sugar. They found the raw rum destructive, and attributed its fatal effects solely to the leaden worms![52]

In 1800, the population of Norfolk Island comprehended 960 souls:[53] 3,521 acres of land were granted; divided into farms of from ten to thirty acres each. A station, where rather more refractory offenders were sent, its government varied with the character of each officer. Of the moral condition of the island nothing good could be expected, and little favorable is remembered.

Always a place of banishment, even when a colony, Norfolk Island seemed destined to exhibit the extremes of natural beauty and moral deformity. The language of Holt, the Irish rebel, who spent several months there, might be better suited to a latter period, but expressed the intensity of his abhorrence, not wholly unfounded—"That barbarous island, the dwelling place of devils in human shape; the refuse of Botany Bay—the doubly damned!"[54]

On the determination of the government being announced, the settlers manifested great repugnance: the elder people declared they would not quit the country; it was, however, the decree of an irresistible will. The inhabitants were offered a settlement in Van Diemen's Land or New South Wales; mostly, they chose this country. They received from the government whatever would contribute towards reconciling them to the change. Vessels were provided for their removal, their possession in land was doubled, and it was freed from all conditions and reservations. They received cattle on loan, and they were rationed as new settlers from the public stores. That the change was beneficial to the rising generation can hardly be doubted; but the effect on the parents was generally painful. Time was required to equal the cultivation of the spot they had left, compared with which even Van Diemen's Land seemed blank and barren. Years after, they spoke of the change with regret and sadness.

The settlers, divided into three classes, according to their origin or wealth, were located part in the neighbourhood of Hobart Town, at Pittwater, and New Norfolk, and part at Norfolk Plains. Thirty, forty, or fifty acres was the ordinary grant, until a later period: a large extent was neither possessed nor desired. Many valued nothing but the immediate benefits to which their character as immigrant farmers then entitled them. They drew their rations from the royal stores, and bartered away their homesteads for a few bottles of spirit; and it was no idle boast, that a keg of rum was then worth more than a common farm. Their hopeless and dissipated state is remarked in every document of the times: their frail dwellings soon exhibited all the signs of decay, and their ground was exhausted by continual cropping. Thus the exhilarating influences of youth and vigour, usual in the first steps of colonisation, were here unknown, and a civilising agency rarely counteracted the social evils which prevailed. The transactions of those early days are scarcely colonial: charged with debauch and outrage, they denote a time of social disorganisation—the dark ages found in the history of every country, where men have been their own masters, and remote from a public opinion, which cannot be corrupted or controlled.

There were, however, a few settlers from Norfolk Island, distinguished from the rest by their enterprise and diligence, and who rose to wealth; but in glancing down the list, a colonist observes how few have retained their heritage.

During the administration of Colonel Collins, the progress of the colony was barely perceptible. There were no roads in the interior; no public buildings: the house of the governor was a mere cottage, too mean for the accommodation of a modern mechanic.

The transfer commenced at the close of 1805. The Sydney, Captain Forrest, was employed to convey to the Derwent a party of the settlers, and the stock belonging to the governor-in-chief: this was purchased by Mr. George Guest, who sold the sheep at £5 per head, and was repaid in cattle. In the Sydney, Joseph Holt, now discharged from restraint, visited Van Diemen's Land, and contributed to its welfare by his agricultural and pastoral experience. He found Collins still living in a tent. A few acres of land had been cultivated at New Town by convicts, in charge of Clarke, the superintendent: cattle had arrived from Bengal, and sheep from Port Jackson; but the progress of the settlement had hitherto been slow.

In New South Wales,[55] gangs of men, stripped to the waist, labored together, and were exposed to rigorous discipline, common to slaves. These methods of tillage were introduced into Van Diemen's Land, where as yet there were no fields prepared for the plough, nor beast of draught to facilitate human toil. The chief overseers were not skilled in cultivation: one had been a shoemaker, the other a tailor; and while they were expecting large returns, they were ignorant that the full ears which promised an abundant yield, were smut, not grain. This early failure was attended with disastrous results.

On the arrival of the Sydney, Collins looked narrowly into the probable resources at his disposal, and sent Joseph Holt to examine the land on the Derwent, with a view to future location. He proceeded along its shores, until a ledge of rocks obstructed the passage of his boat: then ascending an eminence, not less in apparent height than the Dromedary Mountain, "I sat down," he writes, "on its top, and saw the finest country eyes ever beheld." This was that extensive district which, from the previous residence of its occupiers, was named New Norfolk. The spot whence he surveyed the subjacent land he called Mount Casha.

Joseph Holt, general of the rebel army of Wexford in 1798, at one time commanded 1,300 men. Memoirs, written by himself, were purchased by the keeper of the Irish records, and were edited by Thomas Crofton Croker. The result of that sanguinary struggle added considerable numbers to the population of these colonies, but on various terms. Holt was an exile, though often treated as a convict. As a commander he displayed great natural talents, courage, and fidelity. He ascribed his position as a rebel, solely to necessity of choosing between immediate death or insurrection. A neighbour wrecked his property, and denounced him a traitor in revenge: then loyal men were privileged to condemn without trial, and slaughter on the spot. In New South Wales, Holt was often suspected of sedition: he was imprisoned, and was forwarded to Norfolk Island without trial; on returning to Port Jackson, he visited the Derwent. Of Collins, Holt speaks with great enthusiasm, as the most lenient of the governors, and the finest of gentlemen: when he entered the forests, absconders would fall down on their knees before him, and obtain his forgiveness.[56]

Holt's notices of this place are scanty, and of the people more so; but he observes that the daughter of Mrs. Hayes was a "beautiful girl: the prettiest violet I saw growing on the Derwent." Of such charms he was no mean judge.[57] Collins was desirous that Holt should settle on the Derwent, and wrote to Governor King for his consent: the knowledge he possessed of the treatment of stock, it was thought, would have been useful; but he resolved not to move farther from the port of embarkation. He at length returned to Ireland, with £2,000—a step he lived to deplore.

The settlement was early involved in great difficulties. The hoe, the usual implement of husbandry, effected but a slow and discouraging progress: supplies from Port Jackson were forwarded in small quantities, and were soon altogether interrupted. In 1806 a disaster occurred, which reduced the elder colony to severe privation. The tempting fertility of of the land bordering on the Hawkesbury, the Nile of this hemisphere, induced the petty farmers, whose homesteads dotted its margin, to overlook its dangers. An inundation, remembered as the great flood, exceeded all former devastations: vast torrents, of which the origin was unknown, descended from the mountains, and pouring down with prodigious violence, suddenly filled and overflowed the channels of the river; and rising to the height of sixty and eighty feet in a few hours, swept away the stacks of corn, the live stock, and even the dwellings. A vessel approaching the coast, saw fragments of the floating ruins many miles distant from the shore. Thus, lately possessing a superabundant store, the poor suffered extreme destitution, and the price of maize and wheat rose to £5 and £6 per bushel.[58]

Unable to succour this colony, the government left it to its own resources, and for several years the scarcity continued with various intensity. The kangaroo hunters were the chief purveyors of food. The officers allowed servants, sent them to the woods, and sold their spoil to government. Considerable profits were made by the more successful: the commissariat allowed 1s. 6d. per lb., and the foundation of some fortunes were laid by persons whose servants were faithful and expert. A marine, assisted by two convicts, delivered to the king's stores, 1000 lbs. of kangaroo per month, and continued in this occupation for several years. A few coarse biscuits were distributed while they lasted, but the substitute for bread was the dried and pounded flesh of kangaroo! The government, unable to feed, could no longer task the prisoners: to lessen the pressure, they were sometimes permitted to disperse in search of subsistence, and thus laid the foundation of those lawless habits which afterwards brought the colony to the verge of ruin.

The Sydney had been chartered to India for wheat, but was lost, and the colony disappointed of the expected relief. When this calamity became known, a second effort was made: Colonel Paterson, while acting Governor of New South Wales, contracted with Captain Bunker, of the Venus, to bring a cargo of wheat from Bengal. It was not until 1810, that she anchored in the Derwent: the dread of famine was removed, and wheat was now valued at 12s. a bushel. The change of seed enabled the farmers to clear their ground of that mixed and inferior grain which had disappointed all attempts at agricultural independence.[59]

When at Bengal, the captain of the Venus received from the governor two prisoners, supposed to be cast-aways from a vessel seized at Port Jackson. Stewart, formerly a lieutenant in the navy, secretly contrived a plan to take the Harrington, a vessel richly laden, and provisioned for a long voyage. The wind blew fair as she lay in Sydney harbour, a tempting prize: embracing the favorable moment, Stewart called together several companions whom he could trust, and submitted his project, at the instant proper for its execution—the first successfully attempted by prisoners. Thus, before suspicion was awakened, he had seized a boat, hurried on board, mastered the crew, and was scudding before the breeze. But at sea his good fortune forsook him: the Harrington was recaptured by the Greyhound, and both vessels were lost on the coast of Luconia.[60]

These pirates were permitted to land at the Derwent, and were left behind by the Venus. They were found at the house of Garth, a settler, by soldiers sent to seize spirits secretly landed from the vessel. Mistaking the errand of the soldiers, one of these men called on his comrade to resist them; and being enraged by a refusal, he fired, and inflicted a mortal wound.[61] Such complicated crime was not extraordinary; but the kind of force necessary in the civil government, and the shelter afforded to outlaws, were symptoms of social disorder, which soon after assumed an alarming character.

It was the misfortune of Collins to be involved with the parties responsible in the deposition of Governor Bligh. This remarkable deviation from the ordinary conduct of British soldiers, has been attributed partly to the composition of the military force raised for that colony, and partly to the temper of Bligh. The officers merged the military character in the mercantile spirit, and were accustomed to enjoy privileges in virtue of their commissions, which they converted into a monopoly of trade. The distance of New South Wales from the centre of commerce, induced the crown to provide for the settlers the miscellaneous articles which are usually kept only by the shopkeepers. At Port Jackson, there were public magazines stored with every requisite for domestic use, such as potters' ware, utensils for the kitchen, and the implements of farming.[62] These were issued at stated prices, rather less than such commodities cost in Europe; but to prevent them becoming the objects of speculation, an official order for every issue, specifying the article, was necessary. Such methods of distribution gave, notwithstanding, ample room for partiality and corruption. On the arrival of Bligh, he found the improvident settlers, discontented and poor, completely in the hands of the martial dealers. Perhaps, from a love of justice, he attempted to rescue them from the grasp of these intermediate agents, who bought their produce at a narrow price, and gave them in exchange goods bearing an enormous per centage.[63] Bligh permitted the farmers to draw from the public magazine whatever was necessary for private use, and took their engagement to deliver their grain to the stores at the close of the harvest. This interruption to the customary dealings of the officers, naturally provoked them: Bligh reciprocated their aversion, and resented their disrespect. It is, indeed, stated by Wentworth, that this unfortunate officer renewed in New South Wales, the same tyranny which it is alleged had driven seamen of the Bounty to mutiny: that his disposition was brutal, and that he refined on the modes of inflicting torture.[64]

Bligh was arrested on the 26th January, 1808. A complicated quarrel with Mr. Macarthur, formerly paymaster of the New South Wales corps, arising out of mercantile transactions, was the occasion of the military insurrection. Having refused to attend a summons, Macarthur was apprehended on a warrant, and committed for trial: he was charged with an intention to stir up the people of the colony to hatred of the governor and of government—words of ominous import, when read in the light of colonial history.[65] Except the president of the court, the officers were more favorable to the accused than to the governor, and regarded him as the victim of a common cause. In his address to the court, Mr. Macarthur objected to the judge advocate, as a person disreputable in character, and actuated by feelings of hostility against himself. That functionary then threatened to commit Macarthur for contempt: Captain Anthony Fenn Kemp interposed, with a threat "to commit the judge advocate himself;" who, seeing among the spectators many soldiers wearing side-arms, and fearing for his personal safety, left the bench. Macarthur again appealled to his military brethren to preserve him from the ruffian constabulary: they immediately ordered the soldiers present to protect him against the peace officers. This interference was represented as an illegal rescue; Macarthur, however, surrendered to the provost marshal, and was lodged in gaol.

The governor resolved to bring to trial the six officers who had repelled the judge advocate, for treasonable practices; and, as a preliminary step, ordered that they should appear before the bench of magistrates, of whom Colonel Johnston, their commander, was one. It was now supposed, that Bligh intended to constitute a novel court of criminal jurisdiction, and that he had resolved to carry to the last extremes the hostility he had declared. Colonel Johnston, as a measure of self defence, was induced to march his regiment to government house, and place his Excellency under arrest—demanding his sword, and his commission as governor.[66]

This transaction throughout, caused a very strong sensation, both in the colony and at home. Opinions widely differ respecting its origin and its necessity. That it was illegal, it may be presumed, no one will deny: that it was wanton, is not so indisputable. The unfortunate termination of Bligh's first expedition to Tahiti, the imputations of harshness and cruelty for ever fastened to his name, and the disreputable agents he sometimes employed in his service, made the position of the officers extremely anxious, if not insecure. Bligh had become popular with the expiree settlers, who reckoned a long arrear of vengeance to their military taskmasters; and who, with the law on their side, or encouragement from the governor, might have been expected to shew no mercy. Had Bligh escaped to the interior, the personal safety of the officers might have been perilled. The settlers, led on by the undoubted representative of the crown, would have been able to justify any step necessary for the recovery of his authority, and at whatever sacrifice of life.

Bligh was permitted to embark on board the Porpoise[67], to proceed forthwith to Great Britain, engaging not to communicate with any intermediate British colony. He bound himself upon his honor as an officer and a gentlemen to attempt nothing to the disturbance of the existing government, pending the reference to Downing-street. This agreement he made with Colonel Paterson, who had no part in the revolt. When upon the quarter-deck of the Porpoise, he repudiated these engagements, and ordered Lieutenant Kent, then in command, to batter down Sydney, and to restore his authority by force;—a task he declined. He, however, sailed for the Derwent, where his vessel was still lying, when unknown to him Macquarie arrived in New South Wales. Bligh had dispatched information of the insurrection at the earliest opportunity, and the ministers lost no time in forwarding new troops. The ships approached the harbour, prepared to pour in a broadside, but the government was instantly delivered up to the newly appointed head, by Colonel Paterson, the officer in command. The greater part of his official acts were prudently confirmed by Governor Macquarie, although the gifts and appointments of the interim government were declared null and void.

When Bligh arrived at Hobart Town, he was received by Collins with the respect due to his station; he was, however, soon followed by despatches, which informed the lieutenant-governor of the movements at Sydney. Collins, Bligh stated, intended to arrest him; at all events he re-embarked, and the settlers were interdicted from holding communication. A free man, Mr. Belbin, was flogged for the infraction of this order, but afterwards received a grant from the crown in reward for his loyalty. Mr. George Guest espoused the same side: the vessel was ill-provisioned, and he secretly drove down his cattle to the beach, where some were slaughtered for the use of the Porpoise.

In extenuation of the conduct of Collins, it will be remembered that Bligh was already deposed, when he appeared in the Derwent; and that his attempted resumption of office was a breach of his parole. The impression prevailed that Bligh, if restored, would exact sanguinary vengeance. The union of the officers was requisite to preserve order, even in the most quiet times: when deprived of military authority, it was the moral duty of Bligh to await the interference of the supreme government, and not needlessly expose those whom he was unable to protect, to the double danger of disloyalty and faction.

Bligh returned to Port Jackson: though the time for his honorary restitution was passed, he was received with respectful formality. A proclamation had already been issued, prohibiting suits of law for injuries suffered from the usurping government, and giving indemnity and protection to all who had acted under its authority; but Bligh was empowered to carry home all who might be able to throw light on his deposition. This order must have terminated the government of Collins, had he survived. Colonel Johnstone was tried and cashiered (but permitted to sell his commission), and the mildness of his sentence was attributed by the crown to the extraordinary circumstance of the case.[68]

This was the last important occurrence in the eventful life of Collins: he died on the 24th March, 1810, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, having held the administration six years and thirty-six days. His death was sudden: except a slight cold, there was little warning of its approach. He died whilst sitting in his chair, and conversing with his attendant. His funeral was celebrated with all the pomp the colony could command, and 600 persons were present.[69] The share he accepted in the responsibility of the deposition of Bligh, disturbed his tranquillity, and it was thought hastened his end.

In 1810, Collins attempted to establish a newspaper—The Derwent Star, and Van Diemen's Land Intelligencer.[70] Though but a quarto leaf, with broad margin, and all the contrivances which dilate the substance of a journal, it was much too large for the settlement—where often there was nothing to sell; where a birth or marriage was published sooner than a paragraph could be printed; where a taste for general literature had no existence, and politics were excluded. The chief contents were droll anecdotes and odd exploits. The second number contains a rather pompous account of Governor Macquarie's inauguration at Sydney. The next issue, beside a government order or two, describes the feat of Barclay, the pedestrian—a thousand miles in a thousand hours; the wonderful longevity of Joseph Ram, a black of Jamaica, who died in his 140th year; then the greatness of Lambert, whose body weighed 52 lbs. fourteen times told; and who was sent by an inclined plane into his grave. Then follow an eulogy on the governor's profession, one trial, one ship, two births, and one marriage. The notice of a wedding is characteristic and unique—the first published by the Tasmanian press:—"On Monday, 26th ult., R. C. Burrows to Elizabeth Tucker, both late of Norfolk Island. They had cohabited together fourteen years, verifying at last the old adage—better late than never."[71] Such were the topics of this ephemeral journal, which, however, survived the governor himself. In the number published a few days before his decease, are the following lines:—

"And thou, dear Cobham, with thy latest breath

Shall feel thy ruling passion strong in death:

Such in that moment, as in all the past:

'O, save my country, heaven!' shall be thy last."

Collins was the son of General Arthur Tooker Collins and Harriet Fraser, of Pack, in King's County, Ireland: he was the grandson of Arthur Collins, author of the Peerage of England.[72] At fourteen years of age he was lieutenant of marines; two years after, he commanded the military guard which attended Matilda, Queen of Denmark, to her brother's Hanoverian dominions, and had the honor of kissing her hand. It is said that, three years subsequent, he distinguished himself in that fatal conflict already noticed—the battle of Bunker's Hill. In 1774, he was captain of marines in the Courageux, of 74 guns, commanded by Lord Mulgrave, and was present with Lord Howe, at the relief of Gibraltar. At the peace of 1782, he retired to Rochester, in Kent, with his lady, an American, who survived him. The despatch, announcing his decease, was filled with lamentations: "I am sure," said the writer, "when I speak the feelings of my heart on this melancholy occasion, that it is not my single voice, but that of every department whatsoever in the settlement, who with the most heartfelt regret acknowledge him to have been the father and the friend of all," His person was remarkably handsome, and his manners prepossessing: to a cultivated understanding, and an early fondness for literature, he joined a most cheerful and social disposition.

Colonel Collins was buried in the church-yard of St. David's, Hobart Town. To provide a temporary place for public worship, a small wooden church was erected on the spot, and its altar was reared over his grave. This building was blown down in a tempest, and its materials being carried off, left the resting place of Collins long exposed to the careless tread of the stranger. Sir John Franklin, always generous to the memory of official worth, reared a monument, bearing this inscription:—

Sacred

to the Memory of

DAVID COLLINS, ESQ.,

Lieutenant Governor of this Colony,

and Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Marine Forces.

On the first establishment of the colony of

New South Wales he was employed as Judge Advocate,

And in the year 1803

he was entrusted by his Majesty's government

with the command of an expedition,

destined to form a settlement at Port Phillip,

on the south coast of New Holland;

but which was subsequently removed to

Van Diemen's Land.

—————

Under his direction as Lieutenant Governor,

the site of this town was chosen,

and the foundation of its first building

laid in 1804.

He died here on the 28th of March, 1810,[73]

aged 56 years.

And this monument long projected

was erected to his memory in 1838,

by direction of His Excellency

Sir John Franklin, K.C.H., K.R.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] Ross's Almanack, 1829.

[42] Ibid, 1835.

[43] Wordsworth's Sonnet to the Derwent.

[44] Colonel Paterson had been distinguished by his researches in Africa, and had gained considerable reputation as a botanist. This spirit of enterprise and intelligence he always preserved: he directed the government botanical establishment at Parramatta, and the French delineated his attainments with more than their usual enthusiasm. He superintended the exotic plantation provided for the colonies, and the repository of native shrubs intended for the gardens at Kew. His name not unfrequently occurs as an adjunct to the scientific descriptions of the botanist. Formerly acting governor and commander of the military corps of New South Wales, he was not unsuitable for the more direct duties of his office. It is, however, as a naturalist that he is remembered. He planted trees: some are still growing amidst the desolation of York Town. He was the first who attempted to improve the grass of the country. He was the author of a volume of travels, published in 1789, entitled, Narrative of Four Journies into the Country of the Hottentots and Caffraria, in the years 1777-8, and 9.

[45] Sydney Gazette, 1806.

[46] Ibid, May, 1812.

[47] Ibid, May, 1807.

[48] Lieut. Lord's Evidence, Par. Pap., 1812.

[49] Johnstone's Trial, p. 337.

[50] Sydney Gazette, 1808.

[51] "After numerous observations, we found it—Lat. 29° 4' 40". Long. 161° 12' East Greenwich."—Hunter's Historical Journal.

[52] Backhouse's Journal.

[53] Collins.

[54] Holt gives the following curious anecdote:—"The Rev. Henry Fulton was reading the commandments, when Tony Chandler sung out—'turn out, you d——d villians, and launch the boat!' As I was going out, I said to Mr. Fulton, 'I perceive Tony Chandler's word has more power here than the word of God.' Fulton smiled, and shook his head."—Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 232.

[55] "At a distance, I saw about fifty men at work, as I thought dressed in nankeen jackets, but on nearer approach I found them naked, except trousers: they had each a kind of large hoe, about nine inches deep and eight wide, and the handle as thick as a shovel, with which they turned up the ground."-Holt's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 79.

[56] The work is written with considerable strength of delineation; although his accounts are not quite safe authority for the character of his enemies. His words he spelled after a provincial pronunciation: thus, describing the crew of the Sydney, he writes, instead of Sepoys and Lascars, "Saypies and Glascars."

[57] Of the women at Rio, he says—"Their skin is equal in clearness to the skin of a new laid egg: their eyes black as sloes; their hair like polished jet; their teeth as even as rows of printing, and as white as pearls; their eye-brows like those of a doll: their feet and legs, as if they were modelled in wax-work. They are the most complete patterns of the neatest form of a woman!"

[58] Wentworth.

[59] Derwent Star, January, 1810.

[60] Cunningham's Two Years in New South Wales, p. 201.

[61] Derwent Star, February, 1810.

[62] Peron's Voyage.

[63] "It was, we must confess, very provoking to see the officers draw goods from the public store, to traffic in them for their own private gain, which goods were sent out for the advantage of the settlers, who were compelled to deal with those huckster officers for such articles as they might require; giving them from 50 to 500 per cent. profit, and paying them in grain."—Memoirs of Holt, vol. ii. p. 296.

[64] The instance given by Mr. Wentworth (p. 202), of a man who was sent by Bligh with a note to the constable, who was directed to flog him, without informing him of its purport, however it might read in London, will not seem enormous to a colonist, who could produce many parallel cases; it was a practice too common.

[65] In 1702, Colonel Bayard was tried in New York, charged with having used divers indirect practices and endeavours to procure mutiny and desertion among the soldiers in the fort, &c. For sending a petition to the home government, which received a few military signatures, against the governor and the ruling faction, he was condemned to death—in the horrid terms included in the penalty of high treason. Before the sentence was executed, Lord Cornbury arrived: the chief justice fled to England; Lord Cornbury, however, it is said; destroyed the factions of New York, by oppressing them both: "and the contest soon began, which ended in the establishment of a free and independent nation."—Chandler's American Trials. Boston: vol. i. p. 294.

[66] Lang's History of New South Wales, vol. i. p. 110.

[67] Dr. Lang states, that "he was obliged to sign an agreement to quit the colony forthwith; but instead of proceeding to England, Governor Bligh landed at the Derwent."—(vol. i. p. 121). And seems rather to extenuate this breach of faith. Were no agreement of this class binding the rigours of captivity and civil strife could never be mitigated. The following is Bligh's own statement:—"I took the Porpoise on the terms they proposed to me, and the moment I got the command of the Porpoise, I took care to keep it, and would not suffer any of these terms, or any thing which they said to have the least influence on my mind."—Johnstone's trial, p. 33.

[68] Horse Guards. July 1811.

[69] New South Wales Gazette, 1810.

[70] Printed by J. Barnes and T. Clark, at the Government Press, Hobart Town.

[71] Derwent Star, March 6th, 1810.

[72] Collins's Peerage: of venerable authority.—Quarterly Review, 1820.

SECTION III

On the demise of Colonel Collins, the government devolved on Lieutenant Edward Lord, until the arrival of Captain Murray, of the 73rd regiment.

The governor-in-chief visited Van Diemen's Land during Captain Murray's administration. This auspicious event was the subject of great exultation. Macquarie was received with all possible formality and tokens of gladness: a salute from a battery of no great power; an illumination in the small windows of the scattered cottages; and addresses delivered by delegates, not bound to declare the number of their constituents.[74]

Nothing remarkable is remembered of this visit, except that Macquarie traced the future city. He complained of the utter neglect of right lines in the erection of dwellings, which advanced or retreated according to the whim of the builder. The centre of the projected town he called St. George's Square: in this he intended to rear a church and town hall, and the quarters of the main guard: the open space he designed for a market. The streets which intersect each other he called by the names which still distinguish them: Liverpool-street after the minister of that name; Macquarie-street after himself; Elizabeth-street in honor of his lady; Argyle-street, of their native country; and Murray-street in compliment to the officer in command. The plan sketched by Macquarie has not been absolutely followed, nor has it been improved. He ordered the erection of a signal staff on Mount Nelson, named after the vessel which brought him to port, and conveyed him safely to Port Jackson. The settlers on the Derwent expressed a fervent admiration of his devotedness in thus venturing to face the dangers of the visit; especially accompanied by his consort—so they distinguished Mrs. Macquarie. The governor merited their gratitude, for his hand was liberal.[75]

In February, 1812, Colonel Geils became acting Lieutenant-Governor, and remained until the arrival of Colonel Davey. Colonel Geils devoted great attention to agricultural pursuits, and first formed at Risdon a considerable farming establishment. Ordered to India with the troops under his command, he forwarded his youthful sons to the Cape of Good Hope, thence to be conveyed to England. The colonists heard soon after with deep commiseration, that the vessel in which they re-embarked was lost.

Colonel Davey, the second Governor of Van Diemen's Land, arrived on the 4th February, 1813. His manner of entrance indicated the peculiarity of his character, for the weather being warm he carried his coat on his arm, and announced himself at the house where he sought temporary accommodations: nor did his subsequent administration differ from its unceremonious beginning. He took pleasure in practical jokes and rough humour: his countenance was strongly marked, and, by a peculiar motion of the scalp, he delighted to throw his forehead into comical contortions. He shared in common a taste for spirituous liquors, and was not unwilling to participate wherever he was welcome as a guest. On what principle he was selected to conduct the affairs of a remote and reformatory settlement, it would be useless to conjecture. As a marine, he had been present in many important actions; among the rest, at the battle of Trafalgar. His intended departure from England he concealed from his family, by whom it was discovered accidentally: they reached the vessel by extraordinary exertions, and in neglect of all the usual preparations for the voyage. The ship which conveyed his luggage was taken by the Americans, during the war—for him a fortunate loss: indemnified by the largest grant ever conferred in this island (3,000 acres); for it was not pretended that the captors could have made an extensive prize.

Mrs. Davey, a lady of a meek and uncomplaining spirit, is spoken of with respect, and the governor himself with kindness; for under a rough exterior was concealed a generous disposition.

During Davey's government, two hundred female prisoners were brought down from Sydney, in the brig Kangaroo: proclamation was made, and the settlers were invited to receive them. There was little delicacy of choice: they landed, and vanished; and some carried into the bush, changed their destination before they reached their homes. Yet such is the power of social affections, several of these unions yielded all the ordinary consolations of domestic life!

The conveniences of civilisation were not wholly neglected. The ports were opened for general commerce (June, 1813): houses of trade were established, and Messrs. Kemp and Gatehouse, Messrs. E. Lord and J. H. Reibey, supplied the colony with English goods: the most necessary articles had often been wanting. The settlers purchased even the clothing of the prisoners, as preferable to the skins of animals by which they were often clad.

The resources of the colony were developed: Mr. Birch, an enterprising merchant, fitted out a vessel to survey the western coasts (1816), and Captain Kelly discovered Macquarie Harbour and Port Davey: Captain Florence found a new species of pine, very highly valued by artificers. Mr. Birch was rewarded with one year's monopoly of the trade he had opened.

The whale fishery was considerably enlarged: corn was exported; the plough introduced, and gradually superseded the hoe; a mill erected; and (February, 1817) the foundation of St. David's Church was laid. Passage boats connected the banks of the Derwent; a civil court for the recovery of debts, not exceeding £50, was established. A newspaper—a second time attempted in 1814 without success, when the commercial strength of the community was indicated by two or three advertisements—was at length published under better auspices. On the 1st June, 1816, Mr. Andrew Bent issued the first number of the Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter, and thus brought into permanent action an agency which has promoted as well as recorded the advancement of the community. Nor can it be recollected without regret, that he, an undoubted benefactor of the colony, is left to an indigent old age, cut off from the prosperity to which his early labors contributed.

The welfare of Van Diemen's Land was greatly retarded by the number, daring, and prolonged depredations of the bushrangers. In some districts, the inhabitants offered a sanctuary to criminals, and, as their scouts, gave notice of the approach of danger; while in others the settlers were driven before them. To check their ravages, Colonel Davey declared the whole colony under martial law: he punished with flogging persons, whether free or bond, who quitted their houses by night. Several offenders were captured, and suffered death.[76] The inhabitants, to the number of six hundred, expressed their approval of this stretch of power, but it was promptly disallowed by the governor-in-chief. On many previous occasions the same course had been pursued. To constitutional law, the lieutenant-governor was both indifferent and a stranger.

Colonel Davey, when he relinquished his office, remained for some time as a settler; he was not, however, successful. He returned to England, where he died on the 2nd May, 1823. His contemporaries speak of his character in terms of eulogy. The modern colonist will remember, that the tastes of society have since that period been modified, even in Great Britain; and that character can never be fairly judged when separated from the circumstances in which it is developed. Then, the town was a mere camp: the etiquette of office, necessary when a community is advanced, would be folly in its infancy.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] Collins, according to most authorities, died on the 24th March, 1810.

[74]

"To his Excellency Lachlan Macquarie, Esq., Captain-General

and Commander-in-chief of his Majesty's Territory of New South

Wales and its Dependencies, &c. &c. &c.

"We, the inhabitants, settlers, and freeholders of his Majesty's settlement established at the Derwent, Van Diemen's Land, impressed with the most fervent zeal for his Majesty's government, and the most profound respect, esteem, and veneration for your Excellency, most dutifully congratulate you on your arrival at Hobart Town.

"When men, whose characteristic is industry, consider themselves governed by an Officer in whom his Majesty has reposed merited confidence, who in order to promote agriculture, encourage morality, efface dissension, and patronise the industrious and deserving part of our community, leaves his seat of government, and exposes himself and his worthy Consort, under many privations, in a small vessel, to the dangers of a coasting voyage on these seas, a natural emulation must necessarily arise in the breasts of the inhabitants to merit, by an inviolable attachment to the laws, and an adherence to the regulations of the colony, the patronage, favour, and protection of such an unequalled Governor.

"We humbly presume to hope that the favorable impressions which our industrious exertions have made on your Excellency's mind on your seeing Hobart Town and its vicinity, will become much increased on your return from that tour through the different settlements which your Excellency's intuitive mind may induce you to make.

"Independent of the high consideration in which we hold your Excellency as the Representative of our Most Gracious Sovereign, we presume to solicit your acceptance of our most unqualified respect for your Excellency's person, and with duty, in the name and on the behalf of the inhabitants in general, subscribe ourselves your Excellency's most devoted servants,

"R. W. Loane, J. Ingle,

"T. W. Birch, A. Whitehead."

"Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land, November 26, 1811.

"Gentlemen,—The address which I have this day the satisfaction to receive from you has been gratifying to me, and I beg you to believe that the inconveniences I have experienced in my voyage to Van Diemen's Land, have been amply compensated in the pleasure I feel on seeing one of the finest countries in the world in a state of rapid improvement by the exertions of his Majesty's loyal subjects settled here, in whose welfare I shall at all times feel a warm interest; and sincerely hope that the industry so happily begun will be persevered in with success.

"I return you many thanks for the sentiments of regard you have been pleased to express towards me.—I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble servant,

"(Signed) Lachlan Macquarie.

"To Messrs. R. W. Loane, J. Ingle, T. W. Birch, and

A. Whitehead, the Committee who presented the

Address from the inhabitants of the Settlement at

Hobart Town, in Van Diemen's Land."

[75] The complimentary style in which the settlers addressed the Macquarie family was not without reason. It is said that Mrs. Kate Kearney, when the high price of her butter was complained of by the governor, stopped the supply. Mrs. Macquarie, curious to see this independent milk-seller, paid her a visit: when she entered, the old lady received her very graciously, and asked after the health of the Governor, and added, "how is the young Prince?" The story goes, that she received a valuable grant of land for this well-timed compliment. A bullock driver, who attended Mrs. Macquarie during one of these visits, annoyed her by swearing at the cattle: she promised to obtain him his free pardon, if he would only treat the animals with more civility. A hundred such stories are current; but he who has been accustomed to sift them, may take them for their worth.

[76] See vol. ii, p. 129, of this History, for an account of bushranging.

SECTION IV

In planting the colony of New South Wales, it was requisite to provide a form of government adapted for a community without precedent. That instituted was equally alien from established usage. It conferred powers on the governor beyond the dreams of ordinary princes, and violated all the constitutional guarantees which support the rights of subjects. The American colonies derived their constitutions, some from the prerogatives of the crown, others from parliament, under acts prescribing their structure and limiting their jurisdiction. In some cases the British legislature authorised the crown to convey the powers of government at its own discretion, and its own agents. In the reign of George III.[77] the parliament passed the Quebec Act, which defined the powers of Canadian legislation and judicature, and thus established a course that has never since been abandoned.

The immediate design and composition of the Australian colony precluded the forms of constitutional freedom: the object of the laws and regulations were but remotely connected with the ordinary interests of British citizens. Having obtained, therefore, the authority to institute a government, the crown put into commission the powers it received, but left to the local authorities to interpret and apply them.[78]

The court of criminal jurisdiction was composed of seven officers, of whom the judge advocate was one. It could only assemble on the summons of the governor: his precept determined who, or whether any should sit, and thus regulated the jury: as their commander his influence was great—greater, as the dispenser of royal patronage.

The powers of the grand jury devolved on the judge advocate, who framed the indictment, and determined beforehand the probability of guilt: he thus sat in a cause which he had judged already. The prosecutor conducted his own case: witnesses were examined in open court, and the accused was unassisted by counsel. Nor was unanimity required: yet five in seven were necessary in capital cases, to authorise an immediate execution. The judge advocate deliberated with his co-jurors in secret, and the court was re-opened only when they had agreed upon their verdict, and determined the sentence. Thus in ordinary cases the weight of authority in deciding guilt, as well as apportioning punishment, usually rested with an officer officially connected with the government. The operation of this court was liable to serious constitutional objections. It was in the power of the governor to exclude the subject from the protection of the law, by shutting up the court, and by the arbitrary selection of its members to anticipate its decision.

In conducting the business of the court, its members dispensed with the niceties of law, and gave their verdict upon what appeared to be the substantial merits of the case. From the age of fourteen, the first judge advocate had been employed in the royal marine service, and whatever intelligence his writings display, they exhibit utter disregard of rights recognised by the British constitution. His successors in office, for two-and-twenty years, until the appointment of Mr. Ellis Bent, were gentlemen connected with the military profession, who were unassisted, except by such lawyers as the lottery of transportation threw in their way: thus, while they were limited by parliament to a jurisdiction according to the laws of the realm,[79] they were more than usually unacquainted with their nature, and indifferent to their observance.

Such were the inherent defects of this form of judicature, from the large influence possessed by the executive; which could determine the time of sitting and the members of the court; which denied the right of challenge, and accepted the concurrence of five voices only in cases of life and death—and those of persons subject to the influence of the governor and unaccustomed to weigh evidence, or to defer to the maxims of civil tribunals. But if the constitution of the court was a subject of just complaint, the creation of new offences by unauthorised legislation, was still less acceptable to English statists.

The court proceeded smoothly, so long as none but convicts or persons of trivial influence were in question; but the dispute with Governor Bligh disclosed the dangers with which it was fraught: the sympathy of the jurors with the accused frustrated his prosecution, and overthrew the executive.

The esprit du corps of the jurors occasionally appeared in their verdict: the decision of a cause in which an officer was the aggressor, or one which interested the passions, did not command the confidence of the people.

The jeopardy of justice was illustrated by a dispute, in which the Rev. Mr. Marsden was complainant, and the secretary of the governor the defendant. Mr. Campbell was the censor of the New South Wales press: he admitted an article, which imputed to Mr. Marsden (1817) the abuse of his office as agent for the missionary societies, and of using muskets and gunpowder as articles of traffic with the natives of the Pacific. The judge advocate in this instance was said to attempt to shelter the offender by the influence of his three-fold office—as the law adviser of the governor, the public prosecutor, and member of the court of criminal jurisdiction. His reluctance to admit the evidence, and to take the preliminary steps in the prosecution, and his direction to deliver an inoperative verdict, were held fatal evidences that impartiality could not be secured by uniting functions so inconsistent with each other.

The jurors were not unfrequently interested: in some instances the prosecutor sat as witness and judge, giving the principal evidence in the case in which he was both to decide the guilt and apportion the punishment.[80]

The establishment of a court of criminal jurisdiction was alone authorised by the parliament: the necessity for supplemental laws was not foreseen, but was soon perceived. The governors assumed the legislative authority, under the disguise of orders and regulations, often contrary to the principles of English law, and sustained by penalties unknown in Great Britain. These were not collated until a late period: their provisions were imperfectly promulgated. In enforcing them, the governors relied on the impotence of resistance, and justified their enactment on the ground of expediency.

Had the parliament conveyed a legislative power, the ordinary precautions and limitations would have been embodied for that purpose: thus the free subjects of the king would have known the extent of their liabilities, both to prohibitions and penalties. An unfettered despotism drew no distinction, but rejected all questions of legality as contumacious.

Among the subordinate officers, were some high in rank, natives of France, who had emigrated during the revolution, or had by incurring the hatred of its government deserved the patronage of our own. Profoundly indifferent to the rights of freedom, and ignorant of the forms or proper subjects of judicial investigation, an "order" was far more sacred in their eyes, than the volumes of Blackstone. English gentlemen might have recalled the solemn warnings of history which check aggressions on private liberty, but an exiled adherent of Bourbon princes was not likely to be embarrassed by educational prejudices. Not that British officers were really more scrupulous, or offered by their habits a better guarantee for the legality of their administration.[81]

The minor offences of prisoners passed under the summary adjudication of magistrates. They often indulged in the lowest humour or furious passion: they applied torture to extract confessions, and repeated flagellation until it became dangerous to life.

The long delay of legislative remedies, when omissions and defects were discovered, is a proof of ministerial indifference. The crown provided a court of criminal jurisdiction for Port Phillip: the jurisdiction was strictly local, and the judge advocate ceased to act when Van Diemen's Land was occupied; but twenty years elapsed before the deficiency was supplied. Again, the criminal court of New South Wales was limited to islands adjacent to the eastern coast.[82] The discovery of Bass's Strait proved that Van Diemen's Land was not included in this geographical definition, and the scrupulous or idle judges for a long time evaded the holding of courts in this island, which was thus surrendered to disorder. In the absence of a legal court, the magistrates set up a jurisdiction of their own. Criminal trials were dispatched by the simplest process, and the mixed penalties of a military and civil court inflicted on the assumed offender.[83] Thus, the negligent provision for the administration of justice secured impunity to crime, or seemed to require an arbitrary tribunal.

The proclamation of martial law, was to relieve the government from the restraints of forms. The facility with which justice could be administered by it, was illustrated at the Castle Hill insurrection: no life being lost on the government side, the victorious troops arranged that every third man convicted should be hanged. They drew the names of the sufferers by lot, and were proceeding with great vigour, when the appearance of the governor suspended the execution.[84] The dangerous usurpation in both Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land, led to the hasty sacrifice of life.

The scarcity of corn was once deemed a sufficient justification, when there was no appearance of sedition: at these times the government seized boats, or whatever was deemed useful for the public service, and imitated the most irregular actions of the Stuarts.

The subordinate authorities were supposed to partake the license of their superiors. One commandant, Colonel Geils, fixed a spiked collar on the neck of a free woman; another flogged a female through Hobart Town for abusive language; and another tied up a free man on the spot, for placarding a grievance, when as yet there was no press.[85] Davey, having ordered a person to the triangles, answered his remonstrances with a pleasant jest: the sufferer reminded him that he could not flog him; the governor answered that "he would try," and the flagellator soon determined the problem in favor of authority. Indignant exclamations of free men were deemed preposterous by a body of officials, who regarded the diffidence of civil government as absurd, and considered power as the standard of right.

The administration of justice is described by a work of the times:—"I have known," wrote a contemporary witness, "men, without trial, sentenced to transportation by a single magistrate at his own door: free men, after being acquitted by a court of criminal judicature, banished to another of the dependant settlements. I have heard a magistrate tell a prisoner (then being examined for a capital offence, and who had some goods, supposed to be stolen, for which he would not account), that were he not going to be hanged so soon, he (the magistrate) would make him say whence he got them. I have known depositions destroyed by the magistrate."[86]

The courts were limited by the laws in force within the realm, but the realm was not defined;[87] and thus what portion of the law was applicable, was left in thirty years' doubt, until the commissioner royal stated that the omission had prevented several executions.[88] The same number of years were required to ascertain whether laws passed in Great Britain subsequent to the era of colonisation were the laws of the colony.

Law officers of the crown were permitted to define authoritatively the import of acts of parliament, and on their official decisions the colonial judge convicted, and the governor executed a criminal.[89]

The persons commissioned as justices constituted a court in avowed conformity with such tribunals in England, but they adjudicated on the orders of the governor, and inflicted the penalties he appointed; though the supreme court, sitting concurrently with these "benches," rejected the legislation of the governor as invalid, when the basis of an action: one judge supported them by his moral countenance, although he knew them to be without legal authority.[90] Judge Advocate Wylde, however, declared the legislative authority of the governor equally binding with acts of parliament—a doctrine never surpassed by the most subservient advocates of an unlimited monarchy.[91]

The crown authorised the governor to grant remissions, but while he omitted the formalities requisite to perfect those pardons, the minister neglected to require them. For thirty years the error was undetected, and until a fraudulent creditor evaded a bill due to an emancipist; but several years were allowed to pass, even when the mistake was discovered, before it was fully corrected.

The ministers authorised the governors to grant land to settlers. For forty-six years these delegates divided the domain of their sovereign, as if it were his personal property, and without the consent of parliament, when a court of this colony decided that all such titles were void in law, whether acquired by purchase or under the old quit-rent tenure.[92]

Above two hundred thousand pounds had been levied by successive governors since the illegality of taxation was first submitted to the notice of the cabinet. In gathering this money, not only had property been seized, destroyed, and confiscated, but many persons had been imprisoned, and suffered all the miseries of felon bonds: yet when arrears, which the indulgence of the government had permitted to accumulate, were made a subject of legal procedure, the whole fabric of taxation and legislation by the governor's will, fell down.[93]

The judge of the supreme court could not be insensible to the serious personal responsibility of longer supporting illegal taxation: he privately admonished the governor, who withdrew his actions. An act of indemnity released the ministers who advised, and the governors who enforced their demands, from the punishment of usurpation; and granted them power to do by law, what in defiance of law they had done so long.[94]

Ingenious aggravations were made to the common penalties of a crime: Collins relates that a witness convicted of perjury, was condemned to the pillory: his ears nailed to the post as an additional punishment.[95]

The courts of those times confounded everything together, and deciding the perjury of a witness, often tried two parties at the same moment. Flogging witnesses was an ordinary result of investigations, when they did not end in convictions: so late as 1823, Judge Wylde ordered a witness to be taken outside, and receive instanter one hundred lashes.[96]

The long privation of this colony of judicial protection, not only hindered the due administration of justice, but encouraged imprudence and fraud. In the year 1814, when the crown erected a supreme court at Sydney for the decision of civil causes, Major Abbot, a member of the New South Wales corps, was commissioned as deputy judge advocate in Van Diemen's Land. He adjudicated in petty session as a magistrate, and by the accommodation of law to the circumstances of the colony, dealt in a summary manner with capital offences where prisoners were concerned. Thus sheep stealing and crimes against the person, committed by prisoners, were punished by flogging, and removal to a more penal station; and thus, while a prisoner of the crown might escape with a milder sentence, free persons for similar offences were placed in jeopardy of their lives.

"The experiment of a reformatory penal colony," said Sir James Mackintosh, "is the grandest ever tried; but New South Wales is governed on principles of political economy more barbarous than those which prevailed under Queen Bess."[97] This great statesman, who declared no provincial sphere seemed to him so worthy a noble ambition, as to become the legislator for these colonies, never failed to denounce the accumulation of illegality and folly.

At this stage of our inquiry, it may be proper to scan this singular government. The legislators who authorised its establishment, prescribed as little as possible: all beyond the repression of crime was hidden from their eyes. They saw that punishments must be necessary, and provided for their infliction; but the complicated arrangements which grew out of the colonisation, were left to the adjustment of chance, or the discrimination of ministers, and ultimately to the caprice of naval and military governors.

The extemporary character of their contrivance and expedients, is sufficiently apparent. Nothing was expected: nothing was dreaded: no checks were opposed to abuses. Thus acts of tyranny were perpetrated beyond the ordinary excesses of arbitrary governments, and all classes were confounded in one regimen of despotism. The commencing measures manifested their indifference to personal rights. Intending to banish men for life, the ministers selected for the first fleet chiefly persons whose crimes only forfeited their freedom for a few years. By withholding, or neglecting to forward lists of their names, their crimes, or their sentences, they consigned them not only to perpetual exile but protracted and illegal bondage. Imitating the ministers of the crown, the governor imposed compulsory labor on free men, or detained them when their liberation was notoriously due.

Thus again, law had conveyed power to the king to deliver prisoners by assignment to shippers, but jealous of trusting the executive, the actual transportation could only be carried out as the result of a covenant with private persons. Regardless of these well-advised precautions, the ministers delivered prisoners to ships of war, in custody of captains in the royal navy, bound to obey the orders of the crown; and when loud remonstrances induced them to obtain a legislative sanction to the innovation, they were silent in reference to the past, and trusted in their party influence to protect their own agents from legal penalties.[98] No wonder, with such examples before them, the governors detained or released at their pleasure.

Bentham was the first to protest against this illegal and violent system of government, as opposed to every principle made sacred by the Revolution, by judicial decisions, or by the oaths of sovereigns. He asserted that the movers and ministers of these despotic proceedings were liable, one and all, to the visitations of the most penal laws.[99] They had legislated without warrant, had detained free persons in bondage, levied illegal duties and imposed unconstitutional restrictions, and had inflicted cruel punishments for crimes invented by themselves. The apology for usurpation, was its obvious importance and general utility; but no one will dissent from the strong indignation expressed by the philosopher, at wanton violations of British law, neglect of personal rights and parliamentary privileges.

Governor King, it is believed, first established customs.[100] Hunter had assessed the property of the colonists, upon obtaining the consent of several, for the erection of a gaol.[101] The poorer inhabitants refused to comply with the levy, and were threatened with vengeance: they knew that however useful, such taxes were illegal though otherwise just. Thus, although legislation was not shadowed by the parliamentary act, the governors assumed it in its amplest form. Among the earliest were orders respecting the production and sale of spirits: to this, the oriental penalty was attached—"his still shall be destroyed, and his house pulled down." Infraction of this law was subsequently punished by imprisonment and transportation.

Of torture, to extort confession, we have ample proof, both written and traditional: of one Collins observes, "when he trifled he was punished again; he then declared that the plunder was buried. He went to the spot, but could not find it; he was then taken to the hospital." Another was tortured in the same form; but, adds the judge, "the constancy of the wretched man was astonishing:"[102] he was in consequence acquitted! This practice continued for twenty years, and in 1825 a prosecution was instituted against a magistrate for attempting to extract confession by torture.

The tendency of undefined power to run into tyranny, is illustrated by Macquarie himself. He had prohibited the entrance of strangers within the government grounds, and to detect the offenders stationed constables on the spot, who lay in ambush: three men and two servant girls were captured and committed. The next morning, the men each received twenty-five lashes, by the written order of the governor: the women were detained in the cells for forty-eight hours. There was no appeal to law; and the sole actors were the governor and the gaoler. A process so simple was no longer to be tolerated: the public were alarmed.[103] The assumption of magisterial powers was not compatible with the office of the governor; but to authorise the flagellation of free men without trial, for a perhaps innocent trespass, was both dangerous and unjust.

This was, perhaps, the last instance of such extravagant despotism, and it exposed Macquarie to much inquietude during his life. That a person so humane in his general character should forget the precautions due in equity and in law, and punish arbitrarily for imaginary offences, proved that no power is safely bestowed, unless its objects and extent are minutely defined.

The civil, called the "Governor's Court," was instituted by George III. in virtue of his prerogative. It consisted of the judge advocate, and two inhabitants chosen by the governor: it was empowered to decide in a summary manner all pleas in relation to property and contracts, and it granted probates of wills.

When convicts contracted pecuniary obligations, the governor specially withdrew them from liability to arrest; and told the creditors that in trusting these debtors their opinion of their honesty must be their sole guarantee: government could not spare "the servants of the public" from their toils to answer the plaints of suitors.[104]

From its decisions, a cause could be carried to the governor; and in sums exceeding £300, to the king in council.

Though unsanctioned by an act of parliament, this court departed widely from the practice of England. Its authority was keenly disputed by Bentham; and Commissioner Bigge, in stating its origin and operation, hints a similar doubt.[105]

Undisturbed by objections the crown, by the patents and commissions of 1814, separated the criminal jurisdiction from the civil, and created a supreme court, which adopted the English practice. By the new patent, an appeal was permitted from the supreme court to the "High Court of Appeals," consisting of the governor and the judge advocate; and, except when £3,000 were in issue, his judgment was final![106] To both these tribunals the Tasmanians were amenable; but in civil cases the appointment (1814) of a local court under the deputy judge advocate, terminated the absolute dependence on Port Jackson for judicial relief. Plaints for debts not exceeding £50 were entertained by this court, and creditors contrived to bring their claims within its jurisdiction, by dividing the amount into bills of £50. This evasion of the law, although it defeated the intention of a superior court and lessened its business, was useful to both parties; it decreased the difficulty and expenses of suits. It was more equitable in its operation than the supreme court: the owner of a vessel could carry up his own witnesses to Sydney, and at the termination of a trial convey them home without delay; but the less opulent debtor or creditor found himself practically excluded from redress.

Mr. Judge Abbot was, however, not eager to assume his office, and it was not until 1816 that he commenced operations. The accumulation of debts must have been great, for at his first session fourteen hundred plaints were entered: nor did he exhaust the suitors by delay, for eleven hundred were disposed of during that year. Two inhabitants, chosen by the governor sat as assessors; and being known, and knowing all parties, they often discussed in private beforehand the causes awaiting their verdict![107]

The deputy judge advocate held in contempt the net-work of the law, by which equitable rights are sometimes entangled: his was a court of request without appeal, and he took pleasure in asserting its finality. For the convenience of suitors he allowed agents to practice in his court: these gentlemen had somewhat more legal knowledge than the judge, and often exasperated his antipathies by its ostentation. They would dwell on the dignity of his court: his decision was irrevocable; even the lord chancellor of England, they would say, was subject to the revision of a still higher court than his own, but the deputy judge advocate decided the cause for ever. Trusted with such resistless jurisdiction—such onerous responsibility, how great must be his care to avoid an error beyond correction—an injustice that could not be undone but by an act of parliament! Such were their addresses: occasionally heard with complacency—and, it is said, not always unsuccessful. The most famous of these practitioners were Messrs. R. L. Murray and Evan Henry Thomas. The last gentleman was an emigrant, and issued a rhetorical advertisement for employment as a preceptor; but renouncing that calling, he provided himself with a blue bag, the sole qualification essential, and paraded the vicinity of the court: here some suitor found him. What he wanted in experience he made up by industry; and thus carrying his cause, established his reputation as a pleader.

Abbott was a lover of fair play: when one of these gentlemen stated a cause, he expressed a wish that the other side could be placed in as clear a light. Willing to show how well he comprehended the case, the agent for the plaintiff set before the court what the defendant might allege; and Abbott, admitting its force, determined in his favor! The equitable judge decided that the plaintiff should pay the defendant the unsought balance of his bill.

On such a primitive plan were minor rights protected. Although the decisions were often grounded on imperfect proof, the substantial equity of Abbott's adjudications was rarely questioned. In cases under £5 the court received no fee, but in higher causes a small sum was paid. The agents obtained what they could, as the recompense of their professional toils.

Major Abbott continued to preside as deputy judge advocate, until his office was abolished. After visiting England he returned to Launceston with the appointment of civil commandant. He died in 1832: the inhabitants spontaneously honored his funeral. He was esteemed as a person of a generous nature and upright intentions. Major Abbott entered the army at the age of thirteen: he was in the service of the crown fifty-three years, forty-three of which were spent in the colonies.

FOOTNOTES:

[77] 14 Geo. iii. c. 83.

[78] "Whereas it may be found necessary that a colony and a civil government should be established, and that a court of criminal jurisdiction should also be established, with authority to proceed in a more summary way than is used within this realm, according to the known and established laws thereof." The court, described as above, is then authorised, to try "outrages and misbehaviours, as if committed in this realm would be treason or misprision thereof, felony or misdemeanour."—27 Geo. iii. Nothing is said of legislative power.

[79] Collins, vol. i. p. 32.

[80] Bigge's Jud. Report, p. 34.

[81] Holt has left a graphic picture of a justice, which must be received, perhaps, with some reservation;—"I was walking with Barrington, the most accomplished pickpocket: he was arm-in-arm with Richard Atkins, Esq. I wished to have some conversation with them. A bottle of rum was produced, and some pleasant conversation about Ireland passed. At length I wished to retire, and Mr. A. said he never allowed any bottle off his table till he saw it emptied. We finished the half gallon bottle, and of course were not a little elevated. Mr. A. acted as a kind of deputy, when Judge Dore was not able, which not unfrequently happened: when spirits were plenty in the colony, he was generally indisposed." Mr. Croker adds, that "Atkins was appointed as a substitute to Collins in 1796, by the secretary of state, until the arrival of Mr. Dore in 1797."

[82] Bigge's Jud. Report, p. 2.

At Norfolk Island a court of criminal jurisdiction departed still further from the precedents of civil justice. An act authorised the government to convene a court of four military or naval officers, to decide on questions of life and death, even when free men were implicated.

[83] "Yesterday, the bench assembled, when a free man, formerly belonging to Fort Dalrymple, was found guilty of stealing a silver watch from George Guest, jun., his property, and sentenced to labor for the government for the term of five years, and moreover to receive 500 lashes."—Derwent Star, Feb. 6th, 1810.

[84] Holt's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 202.

[85] Such punishments were not always unmerited, but they were capricious. A magistrate tied a carter to the wheel of his waggon, and inflicted 300 lashes for cruelty to his bullocks; but Dr. Montgarret ordered the blacksmith to be flogged, for presenting his bill!

[86] Mann's Picture of New South Wales, 1811.

[87] Bentham's Plea.

[88] Bigge's Jud. Report, p. 17.

[89] Ibid.

[90] Bigge's Jud. Report, p. 6. Wentworth, p. 43. edit. of 1820.

[91] Bigge's Report, p. 48.

[92] Macarthur's New South Wales: its present state and future prospects, 1837.

[93] Bigge's Report.

[94] 59 Geo. iii. 1819.

[95] "This sentence was put in execution before the provision store, when the mob, either to display their aversion to the crime, or what might be more probable, to catch anything that wore the form of amusement, pelted him with rotten eggs and dirt."—Collins, vol. ii. p. 54.

[96] Gazette, 1823.

[97] Maconochie, in his supplement to Australiana, extracts the following passages from one of Sir James Mackintosh's private letters, published in his Memoirs, p. 342-3:—"Even out of England there are many places which I should prefer to this (Bombay). You will smile at the mention of Botany Bay; but I am most serious, and I assure you that next to a parliamentary situation, to which either nature or early ambition has constantly directed my views, I should prefer, without much regarding pecuniary advantages, that of being the lawgiver of Botany Bay.... England, in rearing such a community, is preparing not only conquerors of India, but enemies to herself and to all mankind. While on the one side the experiment of a reforming penal colony is, perhaps, the grandest ever tried in morals, it is one which is perfectly safe; for the settlement never can be worse than it is now, when no attempt towards reformation is dreamed of, and when it is governed on principles of political economy more barbarous than those which prevailed under Queen Bess. Every day the difficulties of the experiment grow with the increase of the (criminal) population.... I have heard, read, and thought so much about this extraordinary colony, that I am very confident in my general opinions; and I confess, between ourselves, that I am a piece of an enthusiast in my reforming projects," &c.

[98] 43 Geo. iii.

[99] "Not a governor, not a magistrate, that has acted thus, but has exposed himself to prosecutions upon prosecutions, to actions upon actions, from which not even the crown can save him."—Bentham's Plea for the Constitution, 1804.

[100] Wentworth, p. 389. 1820.

[101] Collins, vol. ii. p. 214.

[102] Collins, vol. i. p. 268.

[103] Bigge's Jud. Report, p. 76.

[104] Collins.

[105] Bigge's Jud. Report.

[106] Ibid.

[107] Ibid.

SECTION V

William Sorell, Esq., third Lieutenant-governor, landed 8th April, 1817. To restore safety to the colony was the first duty of the governor: on his assumption of office he called the inhabitants together, and enabled by their subscriptions he offered large rewards, and thus inspirited both the soldiers and the constables. In less than three months the greater portion of the bushrangers were destroyed or captured. During Sorell's administration the colony suffered no serious disturbance from outlaws. This display of rigour was followed by judicious precautions: he ascertained more frequently the distribution and employment of the prisoners of the crown, and removed many temptations to disorder and crime.

It was the practice, established first a few months after his arrival, to muster the whole population annually. Notice was sent through the districts, requiring the attendance of the several classes, who accounted for their families and their stock: the name, the residence, and civil condition of every inhabitant became known. Sorell thus ascertained the increase of cultivation and cattle, and whatever indicated progress.

The landing of settlers direct from Great Britain was an important event: their efforts were experiments, and their achievements were prophetic. The political philosopher may trace in their errors, trials, and successes, the lessons afforded by experience for the instruction of nations. The rapid advance of modern colonisation tends to underrate the first efforts of our predecessors. The first colonial boat-builder founded a great commercial navy; the first shepherd held in his slender flock a treasure of unimaginable worth.

The arrival of many emigrants led to the exploration of the country. The hunters were usually the pioneers, but beyond the general features of the scenery, they afforded little information: wild cattle were the better guides. To provide a settlement for strangers, Sorell explored the region lying between the Shannon and the Clyde to its junction with the Derwent; free from timber, and within twenty miles of navigable waters. At this district were located several distinguished settlers.

The narrow grants and wretched homesteads of the emancipist cotters, the sole farmers at the time of this immigration, presented but little to please. The settler, whose imagination pictured the rustic beauties and quiet order of an English farm, saw unfenced fields of grain, deformed with blackened stumps: a low cottage of the meanest structure,[108] surrounded by heaps of wool, bones, and sheepskins; harrows and water carts amidst firewood; mutton and kangaroo strung on the branches of trees; idle and uncleanly men, of different civil condition but of one class; tribes of dogs and natives. No green hedges or flowery meadows, or notes of the thrush or nightingale; but yet there was the park-like lands, the brilliant skies, the pure river; and, above all, the untainted breath of the morning.

In 1820, there were only two estates, those of Mr. E. Lord and Colonel Davey, on which fences were erected; and the destructive incursions of cattle were subjects of many complaints: yet in that year £20,000 had been obtained for wheat exported to Sydney. The first crops were prolific: the early settlers chose the more fertile and open plains; and many selected sites for their dwellings on natural lawns of surpassing beauty.

The dispatch of vessels direct from England rapidly increased the population: in one year (1822) six hundred settlers entered the port, and by the capital which they invested, and the habits of decency and enterprise they exhibited, gave a new tone to the colony. A succession of publications drew attention at home to the capabilities of Van Diemen's Land. It was described in the Quarterly Review (May, 1820) by a friendly pen, which stated that during three years, a detachment of one hundred men had not lost three, and that Hobart Town had been sixteen months without a funeral.

The work of Lieutenant Jeffries, who spent several months in a passage from Sydney to Van Diemen's Land, and who wrote much in praise of the native women, and the pleasures of a bush life, drew a pleasing picture. The more sober sketch of Captain Dixon, and the copious delineations of Mr. Wentworth, directed the public curiosity to Tasmania. For several successive years new books were published, describing the fertility of the soil and the beauty of the climate. These generally contained a theory of pastoral increase—a geometrical progression towards wealth. The increase was, indeed, rapid beyond oriental precedent. Between 1810 and 1820, it was estimated at fifty fold.[109] The adaptation of these colonies for the growth of wool first drew the attention of several gentlemen of Hamburgh, whose importations afterwards promoted the improvement of our flocks.

The position of Van Diemen's Land favored its settlement. Vessels bound to Port Jackson often touched at the Derwent to discharge portions of their cargo; and weary with the length of the voyage, emigrants listened to the persuasions of the colonists, and the hints of the lieutenant-governor himself.

The advantages offered to settlers, so late as 1818, included not only grants of land, but loans of stock and seed; and a price for wheat, long standing at 10s. per bushel, and for meat 6d. per lb. The settlers were entitled to rations for themselves and their convict servants for six months. It was stipulated that the stock should be replaced by the increase, and the wheat repaid at the harvest. Such engagements were, however, rarely fulfilled. No suits could be prosecuted by the crown in the local court, and vague threats of disfavor were the only means of recovery: these were understood as formalities. The crown, by the prohibition of distillation, prevented a consumption of grain, and until a fixed price was given corn had been sometimes of no value whatever. A partial market was assured, to prevent the total neglect of agriculture. The patronage, of course, led to official corruption: many officers received wheat from their servants in commutation of labor, and some of more than usual inferiority was thus admitted by a Launceston commandant, a refugee Frenchman, who threatened to transport the storekeeper for calling in question its quality. The Commissioner Bigge recommended the bounty should be entirely abolished, distillation permitted, and supplies purchased by tender. A deficiency could be no longer apprehended. There were 7,400 inhabitants, at the close of 1821, who possessed 15,000 cultivated acres, 35,000 horned cattle, 170,000 sheep, 550 horses, and 5,000 swine. With such resources, the danger of famine finally disappeared.

The herds were composed chiefly of Bengal cattle, imported at an early period; but the emigrants introduced the most valued of the English breeds, which have entirely supplanted the early stock. The herbage and the climate are equally favorable to the increase of cattle.

The interior of the country being quiet, tickets of occupation were granted to settlers, who were enabled to establish large herds and flocks on the lands of the crown. The scarcity of provision in New South Wales soon created a considerable demand for the produce of this country, and in 1820 meat, to the value of £10,000, was purchased by the crown for exportation.[110]

Macquarie, when his administration was drawing to a close, came on a tour of inspection to Van Diemen's Land. He arrived in the Midas. The squally weather, which prevented his immediate landing, gave time to prepare for his reception. He disembarked on the 24th April, 1821, saluted from the battery, and by the military, who lined the road to the government house. At his former visit in 1810, the population did not exceed 1,500. A few scattered and miserable huts, separated by thoroughfares but half recovered from the forests, then constituted the capital, which had now acquired something of an English aspect: there were 426 houses, and 2,700 souls.

Few scenes are more pleasing than those which, assisted by memory, display the growth and triumph of industry. The gratification of all parties was visible, and a general illumination closed the day. It was a day of pardons and bounty: when the prisoner received his liberty and the settler his heritage: every inhabitant who had no plaint to prefer, had yet thanks to pay. The bachelors of Hobart Town gave a public ball to the governor: one hundred and fifty sat down to supper, and the gentlemen danced together until the morning.

On the 29th June, Macquarie sailed in the Caroline: he was accompanied to the water's edge by a large concourse of people, and carried with him applauses which his amiable vanity prized, and which his beneficence deserved.

Macquarie inserted in the Sydney Gazette the details of his progress, and observations. Whatever he described, he lauded: the architectural taste of the private buildings; the handsome church; the commodious military barracks; the strong gaol; the well constructed hospital. The enterprise and industry of the people; their spacious harbour; their battery, signal post and pier—are all distinguished with the minuteness of an auctioneer's catalogue, and nearly in its phrases.

During his progress he gave names, among which many remain memorials of his love of country: Staffa Ulra, and Olmaig; Perth, Campbell Town, Oatlands, Strathallen Creek, Roseneath. The townships of Sorell, Brighton and Elizabeth, were designated by him: the last in honor of his wife. His own name is found everywhere.

FOOTNOTES:

[108] There is nothing new under the sun. The following description of a New England cottage, on the Penka-tang River, in 1704, is given in the journal of Madame Knight:—"It was supported with shores (posts), inclosed with clapboards laid on lengthways, and so much asunder that the light came thro every where; the doore tyed on with a cord in ye place of hinges; the floor the bare earth. No windows but such as the thin covering afforded, nor any furniture but a bedd with a glass bottle hanging at ye head on't. An earthen cupp, a small pewter bason, a bord with sticks to stand on instead of a table, and a block or too in ye corners insted of chairs."

[109] Wentworth, vol. ii. p. 93.

[110] The following is a list of exports from Van Diemen's Land to Sydney in six years:—

Wheat valued at 10s., and Meat at 6d.

Year. Bushels Wheat. lbs. of Salt Meat. £

1815 1,770 — 885

1816 13,135 10,000 6,817

1817 15,240 8,000 7,820

1818 7,990 64,640 5,611

1819 24,768 346,800 21,054

1820 47,131 386,000 33,225

Wentworth, vol. ii. p. 32.

Lands granted from 1818 to 1821, from 25,000 to 273,000 acres; population from 3,557 to 7,360; in cultivation, from 5,080 to 15,005 acres.

SECTION VI

The Australian colonies owe their pastoral wealth originally to Captain John Macarthur, of the 102nd regiment: he was assisted by the enterprise of Captain Waterhouse, of the royal navy, who, though a sailor and confessedly ignorant of pastoral affairs, conveyed to the colony the stock which laid the foundation of its fortunes. The sheep brought by the first fleet to New South Wales, were sacrificed to the necessities of the time: the cattle strayed, and were discovered long after grazing on the Nepean, increased to many hundreds. Several efforts were made by the New South Wales Corps to introduce a stock, chiefly for the knife; but the transmission was attended with considerable difficulty, and the greater portion died.

The basis of the New South Wales flocks was the Bengal: these, bearing hair, were mixed with sheep originally from Holland, and imported from the Cape. Mr. Macarthur having obtained some sheep from Ireland,[111] remarked the great, though accidental improvement in the fleece, which exhibited a mixture of wool, and gave the first hint of a great possible improvement. He then requested Captain Kent to procure sheep from the merino flocks of Colonel Gordon, at the Cape. These were forwarded by Captain Waterhouse (1797), who delivered to Macarthur three rams and five ewes, and retained a proportion himself.

The results surpassed expectation. The flocks of Bengal yielded to three or four crossings, and produced the finest wool. Thus the heaviest fleece, in 1801, was 3½ lbs.: the next season it improved to 5 lbs. The ewe produced wool worth 9d., her lamb's wool was valued at 3s.; and even the merino improved by the exchange of climate: its wool produced at the Cape being worth 4s. 6d., and at New South Wales 6s. The rate of increase was not less encouraging: the produce of fifty ewes, in seven years, was two thousand.

In 1803, Captain Macarthur visited England, and presented a memorial to the lords of the committee of the privy council on the pastoral capabilities of New South Wales. He requested the crown to grant the use of public lands and servants, and offered to supply the commissariat at a given price, and to sustain the entire risk or loss of his experiment. The statement of increase was doubted: the testimony respecting the quality of wool could not be disputed, as Macarthur had procured the certificates of eminent manufacturers. It was, however, asserted that the natural pasture would be unable to subsist flocks, and it was necessary to combat this objection. Macarthur proposed to sell his flock at their value to a company, and on credit; on condition that the company procured a grant from the crown for pasture. This was declined; but Lord Camden was requested by their lordships to encourage Macarthur, and he received in consequence permission to occupy the cow pastures, where natural fences prevented the intermixture of his flocks. A grant of 5,000 acres—ultimately of an additional 5,000—was made to him. Never was a reward more justly due, or given with less sacrifice.[112]

Mr. Macarthur procured from the royal flock at Kew, one ewe and nine rams:[113] with these he raised his flock to 6,000 (1818), and frequently sold pure merino rams at from £14 to £28 per head.

The merino stock of George III., from which the Australian stocks were partly drawn, was sent to that monarch by the Spanish cortes. The king's love of rural pleasures was thus instrumental in adding immense wealth to his empire.

It was not until 1820, that settlers of Van Diemen's Land entered the career of improvement. The original stock were introduced by Colonel Paterson: a mixture of Teeswater, Leicester, and Bengal breeds. The lieutenant-governor was anxious to improve the quality by an importation of merino lambs. By an engagement with Macarthur, three hundred were shipped at Sydney;[114] but more than one-third died: the rest were distributed to the settlers by lot, who gave the engagements to repay at the stipulated sum, and who received facilities for the experiment in suitable tickets of occupation. Macarthur received, at 7s. 6d. per acre, 4,368 acres of land for the 300 lambs, valued to the crown at £5 per head.[115] From this date the wool of the Tasmanian flocks became known to commerce.

Van Diemen's Land wool was not an article of export until 1819. Only 71,000 pounds had been sent to London from New South Wales, but some had realised even 7s. 6d. per lb.; in one instance 10s., it is said, by a friendly competition: a sum three times greater than the English price of the finest continental wool. A specimen had been manufactured for George IV., and which so pleased him that he directed Sir J. Bloomfield to enquire if more could be obtained in England. There seemed now no hesitation in giving credit to Macarthur's prediction, that the boundless pastures of New South Wales would relieve the manufacturers of dependence on Spain.

That great encouragement had not been afforded, and greater progress accomplished, may be considered surprising. The wool of commerce was still inconsiderable; although the flocks of both colonies amounted to 200,000. Before the merino was first introduced, the fleece was considered worthless. The operation of shearing was often delayed until the sheep were injured: it was a deduction from the profit. The wool was burned, or thrown into the stock-yards as manure.

In 1819, the captain of the Regalia accepted a proportion of Van Diemen's Land wool, in exchange for merchandise: it had no market price, its expenses were considerable, and a duty of 3d. was levied at London. A sample was seen by Mr. Hopkins lying in the docks in the worst possible condition: the speculation was a failure. The colonial government bought several tons a few months after at 3d. per lb. for mattresses, a sum that scarcely paid for its conveyance from the interior. The duty, formerly 3d., was reduced, on the recommendation of the commissioner, to 1d. per lb.

To Mr. Henry Hopkins the public are indebted for the first appreciation of Tasmanian wool. In September, 1821, he offered by advertisement a price in money, and bought at 4d. per lb. Twelve bales sold in London, the entire wool export of the colony, for 7d. per lb., or £88: the expenses were nearly half that sum. The merchants, however, continued to purchase, and the settlers to improve their flocks. In 1823, five hundred and fifty bales were exported in the Deveron, and an equal quantity in other vessels; and the wool of Clarendon rivalled the flocks at Port Jackson.

FOOTNOTES:

[111] Bigge's Report.

[112] Par. Pap.

[113] Bigge's Report.

[114] Bigge's Report.

[115] Par. Pap.

SECTION VII

The Britannia, a vessel the property of Messrs. Enderby and Sons, first discovered the whale fishery.[116] On doubling the south-west cape of Van Diemen's Land the crew saw sperm whales: in their progress to Port Jackson they fell in with prodigious shoals, as far as could be seen from the mast head. On arriving at Port Jackson the captain secretly informed the governor, who facilitated his preparation for a cruise. The sailors, however, did not conceal their observation, and two other vessels, the Mary Ann and Matilda, sailed one day before the Britannia and the Salamander, on the 1st November, 1791. On their departure they encountered bad weather, but saw whales in great plenty. The attempt was, for the moment, unsuccessful. Great expectations were formed by

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