Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Iii Part 2

The hospitality extended to the Austrian officers was not however confined to these public receptions, when they were thoroughly "lionized" during their stay, but also included a constant round of invitations among private circles, among which, without making invidious selections, where we can but feel a lasting recollection of the cordial kindness we everywhere experienced, we may specify those of H.E. Sir Wm. Denison, Sir D. Cooper, Speaker, Stuart A. Donaldson, Esq. Chief Secretary, Dr. G.

Bennett, the eminent physician and naturalist, M. W. Sentis, French Consul, and Captain Mann, chief engineer of the docks.

Here also our thanks are due to an estimable Austrian lady, a native of Vienna, who, wafted on the pinions of Hymen to Australia, has not a little contributed to uphold in that distant region the gentle dignity of the Viennese ladies, and the renown of Germany for musical supremacy. This lady, widely known in artistic circles as Mlle Amalie Mauthner, is now Madame R----, having a few years since married a German gentleman settled in Sydney. Quitting her home under the most auspicious antic.i.p.ations for the future, the newly-married lady arrived in Sydney just in time to see her husband's house of business succ.u.mb under the first of the great financial crises. Instead of a life of affluence and ease in the gold-country, the sorely-tried lady was compelled to display her irresistible energy and activity by availing herself of her eminent musical attainments. The charming artist was speedily recognized and cordially supported in Sydney. The wealthiest and most distinguished families considered it an especial favour to be permitted to place their children under Mad. R----'s tuition. Her concerts became the most fas.h.i.+onable of the season, and the dark cloud which had gathered above the young inexperienced wife on her arrival in Australia, had, thanks to her marvellous energy and activity, gradually been dispelled, leaving a bright sunny horizon of felicity and content.

We had but little opportunity of observing the phases of political life in Sydney, our arrival being coincident with the "dead season" of politics.

We were just in time to be present at the spectacle of the prorogation of Parliament. This ceremonial took place in the chamber of the Legislative Council, the Governor-general officiating in person. The second chamber, or Legislative a.s.sembly, was, as in England, represented simply by a deputation. Punctually at noon Black Rod threw open the doors and announced in grave but loud tones, "His Excellency the Governor-general of New South Wales," upon which Sir William Denison entered the apartment with much dignity, and a.s.sumed his seat under a sort of canopy. By his side stood the Ministers, his private secretary, and an aide-de-camp.

Before him sat the President of the Legislative Council, and other high dignitaries. Sir D. Cooper, Speaker of the a.s.sembly,--whom we scarcely recognized in his strange official costume, a black silk single-breasted coat, richly laced with gold, and an immense full wig,--delivered a short address, to which the Governor-general briefly responded, and the ceremony was over and the Parliament prorogued. Australia now enjoys such a free const.i.tution, modelled after the English form, the administration of the various colonies is so entirely autonomous, their duty to the mother country so insignificant (so far as outward form goes), that the colonists seem quite content with their present administration, and the mal-contents, who once advocated separation and independence, even to the length of ventilating the subject in Parliament, have now been reduced to utter insignificance.

Each colony has, by the "New Const.i.tution Act" of 1851, been provided with the utmost freedom of self-government, the British Government only reserving the right of veto in those cases where the colonial laws should happen to run counter to the common law of the Empire. One hears, it is true, many prognostications as to the result of dividing the country into so many independent colonies, and having so many parliaments, especially as to the immense preponderance that the inhabitants of the cities must have over the scattered country population. A few even seem to be of opinion that they must contain many elements eminently unsuitable to the vitality of a mutually reliant, cohesive, law-abiding confederation. But although some pa.s.sing blots and temporary defects may be dragged to the light of day, it must not be overlooked that the Australian continent is almost as large as Europe, and that each of these colonies covers more superficial area than most of the European states. As the laws and administration are the same for all these, it is more probable that the antic.i.p.ated break up of moral power will rather take the form of developing true political life, so that the ma.s.ses will more honourably and surely be enabled to appreciate their const.i.tutional rights and duties.

A few days before our departure some of the scientific staff had further opportunity of communicating with the "blacks." It was important to extend our collection of craniological specimens for that branch of study, by comparing the various races of men with each other, so as to enlarge our knowledge of the physiological peculiarities of either s.e.x and every race; and as we had been told that numbers of skulls could be procured among the _Gunyahs_, or sandstone cavities of Cook-river Bay, which had been a favourite burial-place of the aborigines, we made an excursion thither, still accompanied by our staunch friend, Mr. Hill.

Our light vehicle rattled merrily through the suburbs of New Town, a sort of suburb of Sydney, thence over the Cook-river Dam, 1000 feet wide by 200 feet in length, to Coggera Cove, where several of the aborigines had pitched a temporary camp. These were two Mestiza women with their children, and Johnny, the last of the Sydney blacks, who might be about 40, and was a cripple in consequence of an injury sustained in childhood.

In 1836 there were 58 still alive; now Johnny is the last remaining survivor!

We set off from Coggera Cove in a small, but safe, and well-built boat, rowed by Johnny and some white colonists, bound for Cool-river Bay, but our search in the sandstone caverns was unfortunately fruitless. Johnny then conducted us to a spot where Tom Weiry, one of the last of the chiefs, who lived at the mouth of Cool River, and died about twelve years previous, had been buried. Tom Weiry, or Tom Ugly, as the English named him, was a very athletic man, whose skeleton was a real prize for the purposes of comparative anatomy. Close to the spot where, according to Johnny, the last remains of the Australian chief reposed, were large quant.i.ties of empty oyster-sh.e.l.ls, indicating that the place in question had once been a favourite resort of the "blacks," attracted thither by the prolific yield of this place in those sh.e.l.l-fish, one of their most highly appreciated articles of food. At various spots traces of fires were visible. The aborigines of the coast usually bury their dead clothed in the woollen blanket they wore in life, with the heads seaward, and near the coast, with but a few feet of earth over them. Unfortunately we had our pains for our reward, although Johnny repeatedly a.s.sured us he had himself, in picking up sh.e.l.l-fish, on that very spot seen projecting from the sand human bones, that frightened the superst.i.tious fellow from prosecuting his search in that direction. Indeed, Johnny was positive some other exploring naturalist had been there and walked off with our contemplated anthropological prize.

We returned, our object unachieved, to our boat, and so back to Coggera Cove, where we found tea and chocolate prepared in the renowned "black pot," that figures so much in bush life, off which we made an excellent repast. With true kindliness Mr. Hill shared what we had brought with us with the aborigines, who, on their part, showed themselves very obliging and attentive.

A second excursion, still in Mr. Hill's company, was made after craniological specimens to Long Bay, twelve miles distant, among whose thickets a few natives had been residing for some weeks. The road thither pa.s.sed through gum tree forests, varied by wide gra.s.s plains covered with the many-blossomed _Metrosidero_, with its long deep red stamens, and brilliant _Melaleuca_, its twigs also nearly covered with white flowers, among which rose the tapering flower-stem, ten or twelve feet high, of the _Xanthorrhea_, something like reed-mace, surrounded by flights of humming-birds, which were imbibing its delicious nectar with their long bills. Great quant.i.ties of little birds were swarming about the brushwood and rushes, occasionally coming quite trustfully so close to us that we could have caught them with a b.u.t.terfly net. We had been riding perhaps an hour or two when Mr. Hill suddenly began to call in the native manner.

Those forthwith summoned by this quite unique sound replied from the thicket, as if recognizing the approach of a friend, and in a minute or two more we found ourselves in the midst of a number of aborigines of both s.e.xes, mostly naked, or with a coa.r.s.e woollen cloth around them, lying at full length on the ground in listless ease. Close by was a fire, over which was suspended a kettle filled with water. A couple of mangy hounds covered with sores were basking in the sun, heedless of the footfall of our horses, lying as indifferent as their masters till we had dismounted and seen our beasts attended to.

It is extraordinary to see how few necessaries these people seem to have, and how little ambition they have to better themselves, so long as they can indulge their vagabondizing propensities. There is a.s.suredly no nation on earth that so aptly ill.u.s.trates Goldsmith's words,

"Man wants but little here below,"

as the black race of Australia.

Those we were now visiting had come from the districts of Shoal Haven, Port Stephens, and Illawara. There were three men and as many women, one of whom, a Mestiza, named Sarah, with two half-blood little children. One of these, which, although above two years of age, was still at the breast, had a skin quite white, red cheeks, and light-blue eyes, and could scarcely be distinguished from the child of white parents. These presented so characteristic a type of the race, that we could not resist an attempt to make with them some of those admeasurements of the body already alluded to, while the artist attached to the Expedition delineated their appearance.

The skull of the Australian black is tolerably regular, the forehead broad and high, the bridge of the nose pretty high, the eyes dark, brilliant, and sunken; the nose and cheek-bones well marked. The mouth generally is broad, the upper lip overhanging the under, and the upper teeth also project beyond the under. The face, like the entire body, is hairy in an unusual degree; the hair of the head is black, thin, often very fine in texture, and slightly crisped without being woolly. The skin is usually dark or dirty brown, or brownish black. The custom of marking the outer arm from the shoulders downwards with three or four marks, from 1 to 1-1/2 inch long, and rather thick in the cicatrix, and continuing over the back with similar incisions, is pretty universal, and seems to be considered as a personal decoration. The elder people have the nasal cartilage bored through, and wear in the orifice kangaroo bones, or other bones, or even pieces of wood as amulets. We did not however remark this among the younger generation; this hideous custom seems to have died out, apparently on account of its discomfort.

The stay of the _Novara_ in Australia was, as already remarked, so brief, that it did not admit of the scientific staff making more distant tours to the great cattle "stations," or gold districts. At the same time it appears to us important to make some few observations on these two products, to which Australia is indebted for her present prosperity, and the former of which is fraught with even more of its future destiny than the latter. At the commencement of the present century England used to procure all her wool from Spain, and somewhat later from Germany[21] and Hungary. Since that period the production of wool in the Cape, the East Indies, and Australia, has so enormously increased, that Great Britain is enabled to get from her colonies the entire consumption she requires for her woollen manufactures, averaging from 60 to 70,000,000 lbs., thus utilizing the agricultural energies of her emigrating children for the behoof of the mother country and her industrial cla.s.ses.

New South Wales produces at present (1858) above 17,000,000 lbs. of wool, the whole of Australia about 50,000,000. The number of sheep has increased from 29, imported by the first colonists in 1778,[22] to 8,139,160 in New South Wales alone, the total for all Australia being about 15,000,000.

Some proprietors have upwards of 100,000 sheep, which they divide into flocks of from 2000 to 3000, which are in charge each of its respective shepherd, who keeps them in their own special "runs."

The most suitable place for breeding sheep is Moreton Bay, lately raised into a new independent colony by the name of Queen's Land. The sheep there need but little attention, and the maladies to which they are subject in the west and south never occur in that colony. Were it not for the ravages of the wild dogs, the rearing of sheep would be attended with hardly any expense. These are pastured on the crown lands, for the use of which each squatter pays 10 per annum for every 4000 sheep, or 800 head of cattle. In the north, "Darling Downs" are considered the best, consisting of an open undulating table-land, broken here and there by occasional clumps of trees, and much resembling the States of Minnesota and Iowa, north and west of the Mississippi. On these Downs from 3000 to 4000 sheep can easily be kept by a single shepherd, whereas in Bathurst 800 would call into play all the watchfulness of a single individual. On Darling Downs the annual increase of a flock of 100 ewes is 96 per cent.; in Bathurst it is only 80. The value of a sheep is about 15_s._ to 20_s._, and the shearing usually begins in October and lasts till December, the average weight being 2-1/2 lbs. to the fleece. Innumerable teams of oxen carry the wool in bales of 200 or 300 lbs. from hundreds of miles in the interior down to the seaports, where the oxen and carts are usually sold, as, owing to the low price of cattle, it would not be remunerative to take them back without a freight. While we were in Australia an attempt had been made, at much cost of time, trouble, and expense, to import from their native Cordilleras a large number of Llamas or Alpacas, with the view of increasing the value of Australian wool by a cross with the Peruvian. An enterprising English merchant of Valparaiso, named Joshua Waddington, who had been 40 years resident in Chili, was a chief promoter of the undertaking. In 1852 another Englishman had undertaken to convey 500 alpacas to England, but, despite the utmost care during the voyage, only three were landed alive. Waddington attributed this disaster to the want of fresh food, and therefore hit upon the expedient of accustoming those animals which he intended to send to Australia to the use of dry fodder, such as barley, bran, and hay, for some time before their embarkation. As soon as they had become somewhat inured they were s.h.i.+pped at Caldera, near Copiapo, and entrusted to the care of Mexican Indians accustomed to their habits, for transport to Australia. The vessel was of 800 tons burthen, and was chartered at 6000 dollars for the voyage. The fitting up of the vessel for her novel cargo cost about 300 dollars. Each animal, in addition to its ration of dried food, had a quart of water per diem. The voyage from Caldera to Sydney took 70 days. Of 316 llamas s.h.i.+pped or born on the voyage only 36 died, 280 arriving in excellent health at Sydney, and were with all speed turned into a large pasture on the Government domain.[23] For weeks the negotiations remained in an anxious suspense, in consequence of the original projector of the undertaking, an adventurous Yankee, named Ledger, who had purchased the animals in the interior of Peru, and after four years of unwearied a.s.siduity had accompanied his charge hither, standing out for a large sum by way of reward. Long after we had left Sydney we learned that the 280 llamas were sold to a company of sheep-breeders at 25 a head, or for 7000 sterling the entire herd, the value of an animal in Peru being two or three dollars.

The yield of the various gold-fields[24] in the west, north, and south of the colony, though nothing like so great as in the neighbouring colony of Victoria, yet contributes in no inconsiderable degree to the annual revenue of the state, and maintains a considerable commerce with other countries. According to official reports, the amount of gold taken out since its first discovery in March, 1851, to the end of July, 1860, was 2,587,549 oz., worth about 9,600,000. Besides this, however, a considerable quant.i.ty of money was brought to the coast by private conveyance, where it was smelted down, since the entire yield of New South Wales in nine years was 12,696,231, besides 3,096,231 in the State Treasury and Mint, according to official returns.

The rumour that gold was to be found in Australia was first set on foot by the Rev. H. F. Clarke, a Protestant missionary and well-known geologist, who so far back as 1841 found gold in the hills W. of Vale of Clyde, and had even then proved to several influential personages by unmistakeable evidence the existence of gold-quartz, with the remark that in Australia, especially the province of Victoria, all scientific indications were in favour of there being a great amount of gold. But the learned country parson found at that time little attention or interest, as well in consequence of its then being still a penal colony, as of the ignorance at that period universally prevalent as to the value of such indications.

Ten years later a certain Mr. Hargrave adopted the rational course of visiting California, where he made himself master of the various means of obtaining gold, after which he returned, and commenced to wash for gold in Summer Hill Creek, Victoria, and thus became the practical discoverer of the gold-fields, the special contributor to the development of the resources of the country. The committee of the Legislative Council, to whom was entrusted to examine and report upon the claims of individuals as to the honour of having discovered the Australian gold-fields, added to the minute of 10th March, 1841, that Mr. Hargrave, who had so disinterestedly thrown open to all this inexhaustible mine of wealth, ought to receive 5000, and Rev. W. H. Clarke 1000 in recognition of his mineralogical researches, which had conduced to the same result. The first Australian gold, 18 oz. in weight, was landed in London by the _Honduras_ on 20th August, 1851. Thenceforward the importation increased with each month, the amount by the end of the year having reached 240,044 oz., worth 871,652. The following year the amount extracted was 4,247,657 oz., value 14,866,799.

The crowd of gold-seekers and adventurers, attracted by the discovery, was something tremendous. From the commencement of Sept. 1851, when 29 men were engaged in was.h.i.+ng at Anderson's Creek, to the end of December, only four months, the population of the diggings reached 20,300; in 1852 they numbered 53,500, in 1853 75,626.

Shortly after the discovery of the gold-fields, the Colonial Government appointed special officers, the well-known "Gold Commission," to watch over these improvised settlements. They published "Regulations for the management of the gold-fields," and sold licenses, at 20_s._ or 40_s._ according to yield, for the privilege of digging within certain limits; the localities most in favour being Ballarat, Mount Alexander, Castlemain, Sandhurst, Beechworth, and Heathcote.

The gold obtained in 1852 was valued at from 58_s._ to 60_s._ per ounce.

The banks made advances at the rate of from 40_s._ to 55_s._ per oz., or exchanged the gold-dust at from 8-1/2 to 10 per cent. discount for coined money. The freight was 4-1/2_d._ per oz. In 1858 the value of the ounce had risen at the "diggings" to from 70_s._ to 77_s._, and the discount had fallen to 1 per cent., and the Insurance Company charged for gold transport a premium of from 1-3/4 to 2-1/2 per cent.

Since that period gold has repeatedly been discovered in fresh localities of the adjoining colony of Victoria, the "yield" and the number of diggers being also steadily increasing. Many thousands at present leave New South Wales annually to try their fortune in other fields than those of agriculture. In 1857 upwards of 26,000 persons left this colony for Victoria. Consequently, the price of labour has risen throughout Australia, and while it has thus increased in expense it has become more uncertain and unreliable. A large number of buildings, especially in the country, have been left unfinished, and the clearing and cultivation of numerous tracts of land have been abandoned. These temporary evils, however, cannot be permitted to outweigh the enormous advantages derivable from the discovery of the gold-fields of Australia. It has attracted the attention of universal mankind to a distant British colony, hitherto almost unnoticed, it has peopled the country with magic celerity, centupled the value of the land, made its results appreciable in the remotest districts of the globe, and raised the colony of Victoria within a few years, in national prosperity, increased trade, and extended cultivation, to a degree of importance usually the slow growth of centuries of industry.

The discovery of the gold-fields had at the same time important scientific consequences, chiefly in the way of geological researches, which resulted in proving that the widespread popular opinion, that the Australian continent belongs to the latest geological era, and had comparatively recently emerged from the sea, is entirely erroneous. Rich palaeontological collections confirm the opinion that Australia is not the latest, but rather the earliest, continent. In several parts of the colony the fossil remains of various colossal animals have been discovered, which, as since measured, must have stood from 10 to 16 feet in height, and correspond to our diluvial Pachydermata in Europe. In like manner, with the exception of some quite insignificant tertiary strata of small extent, only crystalline rocks and primary formations (from the Silurian upwards) form the chief bulk of the continent. The entire series of secondary strata seems to be absent. From this fact it necessarily results that Australia has been a continent since the end of the primary epoch, that it never has been covered by the sea, but remained ever since the beginning of the secondary formations, through all those countless ages during which Europe was being convulsed by the most tremendous geological revolutions, a habitable soil, on which plants and beasts, undisturbed by change in the inorganic world, might have continued to flourish down to our own times. Viewed in this light the fauna and flora of Australia would be the most ancient and primitive in the world.

Another Austrian naturalist, the well-known botanist Professor Unger of Vienna, has come to the same conclusions from the fossil remains of some Australian plants, accompanied by the further singular deduction, that Europe must have been at one period in much closer accordance with this remote region. Many forms of plants, especially _Proteaceae_, which at present form such a peculiar feature of its vegetation, seem to have been similarly prevalent in Europe at that remote age of the globe. But if even it be accepted that during the Eocene or earliest tertiary period there existed in Europe under similar climatic conditions flora of _Coniferae_, _Proteaceae_, _Myrtaceae_, and _Casurinae_, such as Australia now possesses, the question still arises as to how the vegetation of a locality so remote should have been transferred to antipodean Europe?

Making all due allowance for the astonis.h.i.+ng influence exercised by winds, waves, and the migration of animals over the diffusion of vegetable species, yet the means of transport by the ocean or by currents of water is confined within narrow limits, and under the most favourable conditions is limited to the very few plants which can maintain their powers of reproduction uninjured by immersion in water, and those on the other hand which, on being transported to a strange sh.o.r.e, find there the means of existence and increase. As, moreover, the observations which Professor Unger has made upon the diffusion of species of plants at that remote period, and their very accurately circ.u.mscribed limits, run directly counter to the opinion of those naturalists who hold to a variety of centres of development, (instancing a case where one species of plants is found in two widely separated regions,) have never been satisfactorily refuted, the learned botanist thereupon proceeds to the conclusion, that during the Eocene period Australia was united to the mainland through the Moluccas. This land route has been followed at one period by _Araucarias_, _Proteaceae_, sandal wood, and a hundred other varieties of tree and shrub, which till that connection was made could not diffuse themselves, so as thus to reach the European continent, where they are even now found, despite the lapse of myriads of years, in the shape of well-preserved fossils. Thus too, for similar reasons, the geologist to our Expedition, like Professor Unger, regarded Australia as not a youthful, lately-born continent, but a country decaying with antiquity, which had played its part in the physical history of the globe, and had spread its scions far and wide. Some alteration of level is not merely indicated by the numerous coral reefs encircling Australia and its island groups, pointing to a similar sinking among them as that already noticed among the smaller Polynesian islands:--The whole characteristics of the soil, the wastes of the interior, the innumerable salt lakes, the rivers which lose themselves in these, &c. &c., tell of a coming geological transformation, which however--we mention this for the consolation of the settlers--may yet be postponed for myriads of years.

The system of transportation, concerning which so loud an outcry has recently been made, has so materially a.s.sisted in developing the resources of the country, that it would hardly be right to quit Botany Bay without a few remarks on the penal colony which was in existence there till 1840.

For there is no spot on the globe better adapted than New South Wales to serve as a stand-point, whence any one might accurately study the advantages and drawbacks of the English transportation system, as also its influence upon a strongly recalcitrant society. In brief, we purpose to subject the system as it subsisted for half a century in Australia to a thorough a.n.a.lysis, inasmuch as it seems to us that, in our present unnatural social conditions, transportation, i. e. the sudden transference of the criminal to totally new conditions of external life, seems to furnish the much-desired turning point whence we may expect a lasting moral improvement of the individual. Our Austrian prisons, especially those in which the cell system has not been introduced, are simply houses of detention, not penitentiaries, still less reformatories. The incarcerated criminal is a burden to himself and to society, to which he is only in the most exceptional cases restored improved by confinement.

The charge of maintaining him increases year by year, without any return being made by utilizing the labour of the prisoner. In penal colonies, on the other hand, the convict works as much for his own benefit as for that of society. He throws open new immeasurable tracts of land to civilization, trade, and industry. The evil effects of certain climates upon the health of the convict can be corrected by proper ordinances, till it is reduced to a barely appreciable minimum. The free settler is also exposed in unsettled countries to dangerous illnesses, but as his circ.u.mstances improve these disappear before the cleared forest, the cultivated patch, the drained swamp.

We do not believe that were the option left them there is one solitary individual in our Austrian prisons, condemned to periods of imprisonment of ten years and upwards, who would not willingly exchange his sojourn at home for one in even the insalubrious islands of the Indian Ocean, if the prospect were held out to him after a series of years of steady labour and honest activity, that he might make his new-found activity available to secure his liberty. What may be made, however, of a valueless wilderness by means of compulsory labour, we have at this day an example of in the case of the first penal colony of New South Wales. Even the objectionable manner in which the system was administered during more than fifty years in Australia and Van Diemen's land could not entirely destroy its beneficial effects upon the criminal, or blind an unprejudiced observer to the advantages and general utility of transportation as a means of punishment. In 1787 the eastern coast of Australia, chiefly in consequence of the too glowing accounts of the suitability of the harbours, and the fertility of the soil of Botany Bay, was selected by the British Government as the site of a penal colony, and on the 26th January, 1788, the first batch of convicts was landed there. These consisted of 600 males and 250 women, and were accompanied by an escort of 200 men. Forty of the latter were married men, who were accompanied by their wives and children.

The whole expedition was under the command of Captain Phillip, the first Governor of the new settlement.[25]

The colonists had scarcely settled down after their arrival on, as was speedily found, the anything but safe or fertile sh.o.r.es of Botany Bay, ere they were removed to another harbour, lying about seven miles further north, beautifully situate, and fulfilling every requirement, which they named Port Jackson.

The first free settlers did not make their appearance till 1794. The officers of the garrison were merchants also, and trafficked in whatever merchandise they could find. Rum especially was a chief article. A Government regulation required every s.h.i.+p which should put into Port Jackson, to deliver a certain proportion of her spirits to the officers according to their rank!! They also received a list of the merchandise brought by each s.h.i.+p, from which they selected whatever seemed most profitable, which they disposed of again at retail to the soldiers, settlers, and convicts at an immense profit. Further, the officers enjoyed the entire monopoly of importing spirits, as also the exclusive privilege of selling them to the retail merchants. By these devices many of them ama.s.sed considerable fortunes by trade, and thus the repeated efforts made by a succession of Governors to effect a reform in the colony were rendered fruitless. During the administration of Captain Bligh, so widely known in connection with the tragic fate of the mutineers of the _Bounty_, rum was the most valuable article of exchange, and the colonists found by bitter experience that there were no other sellers of this destructive drink than the privileged few.

The utmost anarchy and violence reigned supreme throughout New South Wales at that period; the power of the Government was set entirely at nought, license and violence usurped the place of law and order; the convicts found they were not under any effective control or supervision; whole bands of them infested the country as "bush-rangers," till they grew so bold as to enter the dwellings of peaceful settlers in broad day, where they perpetrated the most cruel excesses.

In 1807 Mr. McArthur and Captain Abbot of the 102nd introduced the first distilling apparatus into the country for cheapening the production of ardent spirits. The Governor forthwith confiscated the apparatus, and forbade distillation in any part of the colony. This prohibition gave rise among those interested to dissensions, which gradually rose to such a height, that about a year thereafter it led to Bligh being placed in confinement by some of his own officers. The English Government however now began to perceive that such a state of carelessness could no longer be endured, and not only reinstated Bligh, but promoted him to the rank of Admiral.

On their arrival in the colony the prisoners were sent to barracks in Sydney, where the Government selected from their number such handicraftsmen as they required for the public works, while the remainder were distributed as land cultivators, labourers, artisans, &c., among such private individuals as had made themselves agreeable to the Government. As free labour was rare and expensive in the colony at that period, the requests for such allocations of forced labour were greatly in excess of the number of workmen so available.

Those consigned to private individuals were taken into the interior in charge of a constable or overseer, where they were required to build a shelter for themselves, which, owing to the mildness of the climate, could be very speedily accomplished. The hours of work were from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., and the main feature was that the convict durst not leave his employer, whether kind and good-tempered, or harsh and cruel. When there was no further occasion for their services they were remitted to Government, who found another employer for them.

All land-holders in the colony were ent.i.tled, on preferring a request to the Governor to that effect, to have a.s.signed them, according to the current quant.i.ty of disposable labour, in the proportion of one workman to every 320 acres of land; but no settler, no matter how extensive his holding, could "take on" more than 75 convicts. Each employer had to engage to keep the convict a.s.signed him one month at least, and provide, at his own cost, food and clothing according to a scale fixed by Government.

The weekly rations consisted of nine lbs. wheaten flour, or at the option of the employer, three lbs. Indian corn, and seven lbs. of wheat flour, seven lbs. of beef or mutton, four lbs. salt pork, two oz. salt, two oz.

soap. The clothing consisted of two jackets annually, three s.h.i.+rts of canvas or cotton, two pairs of drawers, three pairs of shoes of stout leather, and a hat or cap. Each labourer was also allowed the use of a counterpane and mattress, which however remained the property of the employer. These legal privileges had however been extended through custom or the favour of the employers to various little articles of luxury, such as tobacco, sugar, tea, grog, &c. In particular, with the object of ensuring the utmost zeal on the part of the workman during the harvest season, it was almost imperative at that season to show him those little relaxations and favours which at length became customary, and in no slight degree enhanced the cost of his maintenance.

On the arrival of a convict s.h.i.+p a crowd used to hurry down to await the moment when the convicts were to be allotted to applicants. As no special memoranda were made during the voyage of the offence for which each man had been transported, or his subsequent conduct on the voyage, the administration were not in a position to make such a selection as should cla.s.sify the prisoners, and a.s.sign them according to nature of crime and subsequent behaviour to a determined or a more gentle employer. Hence resulted the most lamentable injustice; the most truculent of these men occasionally were a.s.signed to the gentle masters, while a less hardened criminal came under the yoke of a hard-hearted task-master, and thus had an infinitely more severe lot to bewail than he in fact deserved.

Such a harsh, and in too many cases unjust, method of dealing with them, drove the convicts to the commission of fresh offences, or even crimes, and, in desperation at the wrongs to which they were exposed, they not merely neglected utterly the interests of their temporary masters, but in many cases, impelled by a fierce thirst for vengeance, they burned house and property over his head at the harvest time!

The chronic alarm and anxiety of the colony during a long period was not however traceable to the principle of the system itself, but to the method in which it was worked by self-seeking natives, greedy of gain. No sooner had the most glaring of the evils been rectified, and by means of a powerful government law and order resumed their wonted sway, ere the young colony began to make most unexpected strides in developing its capabilities, and both in the unfolding of its natural resources and in its trade and commerce ere long attracted the attention, not merely of England and her manufacturers, but of all Europe.

In 1840 New South Wales ceased to be a convict settlement, at which period there were 130,856 souls in the colony, 26,967 of whom were convicts. In 1857, when the last census was taken, there were in all 305,487, of whom 171,673 were males, and 133,814 females, who inhabited 41,479 houses, 1725 huts, 50 waggons, and 75 s.h.i.+ps, and subsisted chiefly by pasture and agriculture.

The morality of this population diffused over 321,579 square miles has greatly improved, thanks to the unlimited freedom of individual power to develope itself, and the opportunities afforded for leading an independent, comfortable life, and in the interests of Truth we must add, that in no part of Europe would any one be left so unfettered to travel about alone and unarmed, or require less precautions, as in this once penal colony.

The number of criminal cases of all sorts in the colony during the last ten years, during which the population has increased from 189,600 to 266,189, is as follows:--

1848 ... 445 accused, of whom were executed 4 1849 ... 534 -- -- -- 4 1850 ... 555 -- -- -- 4 1851 ... 574 -- -- -- 2 1852 ... 527 -- -- -- 5 1853 ... 604 -- -- -- 2 1854 ... 637 -- -- -- 6 1855 ... 526 -- (one of these a woman) 5 1856 ... 461 -- -- -- 0 1857 ... 395 -- -- -- 4

One must not forget to take into account that by far the larger portion of the population are recruited from the lower cla.s.s, as measured by education. On the whole we may a.s.sume that of the 305,487 souls, 30,000 men and 20,000 women _can neither read nor write_.