Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume II Part 16

OPENINGS TO WEALTH IN NEW COLONIES.

The tide of emigration coming in from the older colonies is a certain sign of rapid success; those who arrive from these places are men who have done well in the first country of their adoption; but to this they had repaired when it was thinly inhabited, when land was of very low value and to be procured near the capital; there they have realized largely, but it appears to them that nearly all the good things have now been picked up; property has attained such a value that it rises but slowly, indeed is almost stationary in price; and the country is so largely stocked that they are driven to establish their sheep-stations at such a distance from the sea coast that the expense of the transport of their wool thither greatly detracts from its value. Under these circ.u.mstances once again do they emigrate, to repeat in a new land the operations which have before yielded them so lucrative a return; and, strong in past experience, they smile at the errors committed by the younger settlers, from which they reap many advantages.

ITS EFFECTS UPON ALL CLa.s.sES.

But time and intellect are all worth much more in Australia than they are in England, and everyone can realize upon his capital and speculate profitably upon his intelligence, activity, and strength; for all of these he gets paid, hence but few men are willing to follow professions.

Clergymen too often turn farmers and speculators, even if they do not altogether throw aside their sacred character. Medical men but rarely pursue their practice, when such remunerating fields of enterprise are laid open to them; soldiers abandon their calling; and the government officers are all virtually farmers and stock-owners.

This is to be expected, from the character of man. In a new colony everything increases rapidly in worth--a landed estate which can be bought in the early stages of its existence at a mere nominal price grows yearly in value without a penny being expended upon it; stock increases in a geometrical ratio, at little or no cost, for there is plenty of land to pasture them upon. Nothing of this kind either does or can take place in England; and when the settler finds how changed his prospects are, and how new means of acquiring wealth are opened to him, he too often devotes his every thought and energy to the one object; and so far will this pa.s.sion lead men that I have known an honourable member of council and leading magistrate in a colony take out a retail license, and add to his already vast wealth from the profits of a gin shop.

But as stock is that species of property from which the largest returns are realized, and that with the least labour, it is to this branch of industry that settlers generally direct their attention; indeed until plenty of stock is introduced into a new colony its success is wavering and uncertain, and its inhabitants are generally compelled to undergo a degree of poverty and privation which contrasts strangely with the affluence of the people occupying the more settled countries. The degree of care and attention which is bestowed upon the breeding of stock necessarily ensures both a constant supply of it and its rapid diffusion over all accessible portions of the continent.

It is extremely difficult to convey to a mind which has never contemplated the subject an idea of the rapid advance of stock stations over the continent of Australia; there is something about it which bears an almost fabulous character; and the same circ.u.mstance takes place with regard to the rise in the price of town and country lands. Those who have not witnessed such things can scarcely give credit to them. In Western Australia town land was bought for twenty-three pounds an acre in the month of December 1839; and in the month of February 1840, large importations of stock having taken place, the same land was sold for sixty pounds an acre. But in other colonies, where overland communication takes place, this would be regarded as a very small increase in price for a new colony; there are many instances in South Australia of people realizing, in less than two years, sums of money to the amount of from ten to twelve thousand pounds from the sale of town acres in the city of Adelaide.

RAPID SPREAD OF STOCK STATIONS.

To endeavour to give some idea of the rapid extension of stock stations over the face of the country I must begin by premising that farming stock somewhat more than double themselves in two years; or at the end of two years they occupy double the s.p.a.ce of territory; at the end of four years, four times; at the end of six years, eight times; at the end of eight years, sixteen times; and thus, at the end of ten years, thirty-two times the s.p.a.ce of country which was originally taken up by stock becomes occupied by civilized man.

Exactly in the same ratio as the amount of occupied territory increases so does the amount of wealth in the country advance, as well as the demand for labour; and the natural increase of population falling far short of this, and not supplying a sufficient number of persons to absorb the wealth which the country is capable of producing, a demand for emigration arises, and a stimulus to it is given by the ease with which wealth and comfort are acquired in the Australasian colonies.

COURSE OF THE OVERLANDERS THROUGH AUSTRALIA.

If the reader casts his eye upon a general map of Australia it will be an easy task to follow the march of stock for the last four years:

Port Phillip was occupied in 1836, Portland Bay in 1835, South Australia in December 1836.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

The first step taken by the Overlanders was the connexion of Port Phillip with Sydney, and they thus, as it were, established a great base line from which their subsequent operations could be carried on; at this period they did not however bear the name of Overlanders, which was only given to them after Adelaide had been reached in 1838.

EARLY ENTERPRISES OF THE OVERLANDERS.

The Overlanders had hitherto been occupied in merely pus.h.i.+ng their stock stations to different portions of the colony of New South Wales; but a new and fertile field for enterprise opened to them in the establishment of the colony of South Australia, which as before stated was in December 1836; and many an enterprising mind instantly turned thitherward with earnest longings which soon ripened into action. In November 1837, that is, in eleven months from the foundation of the new colony, several hardy adventurers had laid, matured, and commenced carrying into operation plans which some deemed insane when they heard of the amount of capital invested in so new an undertaking, but which were undertaken by the adventurers in full confidence in their own powers.

THEIR FIRST EXPEDITIONS TO ADELAIDE, AND TO THE WESTWARD OF PORT LINCOLN.

Two expeditions started almost at the same time for this new market. In February 1838 Mr. Hawdon moved from the Goulburn and Mr. Eyre from Port Phillip. In April 1838 Mr. Hawdon arrived in Adelaide and shortly afterwards was followed by Mr. Eyre, who had attempted to take a direct route from Port Phillip to Adelaide, but coming upon an impa.s.sable country he had been compelled to turn to the northward, and then to make it by the same route which Mr. Hawdon had pursued. Just eight years before this period a hardy party of explorers under Captain Sturt had first ventured in a whale-boat to descend a river traversing this unknown land. Rapidly had the fruits of this enterprise ripened to maturity; the river was now made a highway of commerce, a connecting link between two countries.

In the remaining portion of 1838 and in 1839 the energies of the Overlanders were fully employed in supplying South Australia with stock; and during this period several new and shorter lines of route were struck out, the last great improvement of this kind being made by the adventurous C. Bonney, Esquire, who connected Port Phillip with Adelaide by a direct road running nearly parallel to the coast, so that the portion of the continent of Australia which lies between Moreton Bay and Adelaide is now connected by a pa.s.sable route.

During 1839 it was felt however that the markets of South Australia no longer afforded such large profits; but Port Lincoln was then occupied and a new country opened, to which cattle and sheep were conveyed across Spencer's Gulf. This for a time afforded some employment to the Overlanders; but their spirits were secretly chafed by the thought that the limits of their career were attained. Several expeditions to the westward of Port Lincoln were undertaken, and in August 1839 Mr. Eyre, still anxious to open a new market, pushed as far to the westward as Denial Bay; but the journey to King George's Sound seemed so vast an undertaking that although such a scheme was often contemplated the hazard and risk of property appeared, even to a daring Overlander, to be too great.

Yet although none ventured, many an eager heart turned that way, and many a thoughtful face lighted up when a promising plan was unfolded.

Whilst the Overlanders were thus speculating upon the possibility of connecting the Eastern and Western portions of Australia by one great line of communication, the new settlements of South Australia and Port Phillip were making such rapid advances in prosperity as almost exceed belief.

The settlements of Swan River and King George's Sound, which had now been established nearly ten years, were truly in a most miserable condition.

So late as the month of September 1839, when I landed at King George's Sound to a.s.sume the situation of Government Resident there, the population had been in a state bordering upon want.

But in the lapse of years the mismanagement and other causes which had weighed down the settlers in Western Australia had been swept away; and in 1839 an ameliorated system began to be introduced, the energies and resources of the colony were allowed to unfold and develop themselves, and a period of colonial prosperity commenced which bids fair, if not again checked, to run as rapid and astonis.h.i.+ng a career as it has done in South Australia and Port Phillip.

IMPORT STOCK TO WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

These changes were not unmarked by the Overlanders. Those symptoms of uneasiness which always precede new eras of events began to exhibit themselves at both ends of the proposed line of communication. My official situation enabled me greatly to forward these, and all persons who landed at the Sound on their pa.s.sage to South Australia recognised the advantages to be derived from s.h.i.+pping stock to it from Adelaide, and thus avoiding the pa.s.sage to Swan River round Cape Leeuwin; these persons carried numerous representations to this effect to some of the princ.i.p.al stock-proprietors of South Australia; and at the same time Dr. Harris, one of the oldest and most adventurous of the Swan River settlers, drove a flock of sheep overland from King George's Sound to the inland districts of the Swan River, thus demonstrating the feasibility of this part of the plan. The news of his safe arrival at Swan River had only just reached the Sound when Mr. Eyre arrived in Princess Royal Harbour with a vessel laden with sheep; he was followed in a few days by Lieutenant Mundy, who came in a larger one laden with horned stock and sheep; and they immediately despatched another vessel for 1000 more sheep.

STATE OF THE CATTLE MARKET THERE.

Thus was a sort of communication established between the two colonies; but the profits arising from the sale of stock brought in a vessel were in a great measure absorbed by the expenses of transport, and in the winter season the pa.s.sage is too rough to allow of the risk of s.h.i.+pping stock. Were they driven overland, instead of being transported by sea, horned stock could be sold at about 5 pounds per head, and sheep for 15 s.h.i.+llings per head less. Moreover the price of the different colonial markets would be equalised, and new settlers in all the colonies would start with an equal chance; whereas at present if two settlers with equal means go the one to Western and the other to Southern Australia, for every 100 head of horned stock and 100 head of sheep that the settler in Western Australia can buy with his capital the settler in Southern Australia can buy 200 head of horned cattle and 800 of sheep; this scarcely appears to create so vast a difference between the two as it really does until we regard the relative position of the two settlers at the end of some given term of years, for instance five; they would then stand thus:

(TABLE OF RELATIVE VALUES OF SOUTHERN AND WESTERN AUSTRALIAN STOCK.)

GENERAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE SPREAD OF COMMERCE AND EMIGRATION.

The rapidity of communication from point to point has introduced such vast effects in the march of improvement among distant lands as only eye-witnesses can believe. The merchant in London who lays on a vessel for a certain port regards the affair as a mere mercantile speculation, but could he trace out the results he effects in their remotest ramifications he would stand astonished at the changes he produces. With the wizard wand of commerce he touches a lone and trackless forest, and at his bidding cities arise, and the hum and dust of trade collect, away are swept ancient races; antique laws and customs moulder into oblivion.

The strongholds of murder and superst.i.tion are cleansed, and the Gospel is preached amongst ignorant and savage men. The ruder languages disappear successively, and the tongue of England alone is heard around.

Such are the ultimate effects of the daily occupations of many men in the City of London, who, seated in a dark and dingy counting-house in pursuit of gain, form and execute schemes the eventual tenor and bearing of which are not to enrich themselves but the human race. No doubt amongst the ma.s.s are n.o.ble minds who have a perception of the true object of their calling, who feel a just and laudable pride that they are the employers and benefactors of mankind; whose names, even amongst distant hordes of untaught men, pa.s.s current, as a security for probity and honour; who write a few lines in London and move the antipodes; who within the last fifty years have either actually erected or laid the stable foundation of six great empires, offsets of that strong nation who, together with her progeny, is overspreading the earth, not by the sword but by the gentle arts of peace and beneficence.

GENERAL RESULTS OF GREAT MERCANTILE OPERATIONS.

In the earlier Colonies, founded by the great maritime powers of the world, national hatred prevailed to a great degree, although war existed not between the parent states: still, at distant points removed from the immediate control of the law, the hatred of races found vent, cruelties were committed, reprisals took place, and Europeans warred one upon another. But England and America, as they progress in these regions, spread a common language and a common faith, and no national antipathies can be strictly said to exist between them.

TRADE OF THE AMERICANS WITH OUT-STATIONS.

The Americans, who are decidedly a more enterprising mercantile people than ourselves, have almost engrossed the profits of the seas surrounding the Indian Archipelago and the western and south-western portions of New Holland. Their vessels in these parts are to ours in the ratio of at least ten to one. They constantly frequent the out-stations of Western Australia; supply the wants of those retired portions of the world, and where, legitimately, the British manufacturer should command the market, little besides the produce of America is to be seen. The settlers at these stations derive the largest portions of their supplies from the American whalers, who give them in exchange for potatoes and vegetables--and this species of barter is so profitable to both parties that it would be impossible to prevent it (nay the attempt would be cruel) by any other means than by inducing British whalers and merchant-vessels to secure some portion of those advantages which are at present wholly monopolized by others.

EFFECTS OF THE SPIRIT OF SPECULATION.

The masters of the American whalers partic.i.p.ate in a great degree in the feelings of the out-settlers; from the impressions generated in their infancy they are disposed to look with a fraternal eye upon the few adventurous spirits who have located themselves far from their fellow men to reclaim a home from the wilderness. They have seen, lived amongst, and shared the benefits which result from such commencements, and it is not therefore to be wondered at that at all the out-stations the most friendly relations exist between the settlers and the American whalers; and when, during the five months of the bay whaling season, an American vessel lays at anchor in some bay where there are one or two settlers'

families, a constant exchange of mutual acts of kindness takes place, equally creditable to both parties; whence result friends.h.i.+p, and perhaps an intermarriage; and when the period of the vessel's sailing arrives there are numerous deserters from her crew, who readily find employment at the different sheep stations.

DIFFUSION OF EMIGRATION.

Thus a species of emigration of which nothing is known in England takes place in the colonies. Men, from the force of poverty, from the desire of gain, or of founding a family and property in a new land, or for some other reason, quit their homes and enter another portion of the globe.

There they find many who, having in the commencement of a settlement realized the largest profits, are discontented with the percentage they can now gain upon their capital; and what to the newcomer appears to be a highly remunerating return they despise; gladly therefore do they dispose of everything to the new emigrants and, animated by that restless spirit of adventure which is common to all first settlers, away they start for the last new colony or for unsettled lands--New Zealand, the Sandwich Islands, the Indian Archipelago, it matters not which--a fresh field of speculation has been opened, the tide of emigration from Europe seems to be setting towards a certain quarter where there are numerous new arrivals who can never compete with old and practised colonists. He who has seen several cities rise can judge to a nicety, from local circ.u.mstances, upon what site the capital of the new province must be built; and in the same way he can foresee which must become the business street, and hence knows exactly the relative value of every acre of land in the province. In vain for him are reports spread that the capital is to be built in such or such a spot, he but encourages them; in the meantime rapidly and noiselessly his purchases are made, and a fresh acquisition of fortune secured.

This cla.s.s of men, amongst whom are many Overlanders, are never satisfied or settled; they are constantly engaged in contemplating changes in the prosperity of colonies and means of enriching themselves, they positively disregard personal comfort, and a restless spirit of activity and love of change animates them wholly. In these respects there is a great similarity of character between them and the Americans, and it is inconceivable in how short a period of time such a change is brought about.

THE ABORIGINES.

CHAPTER 9. NATIVE LANGUAGE.

RADICAL UNITY OF THE AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT THE CONTINENT.

In the preceding narrative of my Expeditions I have occasionally introduced some casual incidents relating to the manners and social condition of the natives of Australia, a race generally considered to occupy too low a position in the scale of humanity to be worthy of any peculiar regard. In the following pages I shall bring together such observations as my intercourse with them enabled me to collect; arranging my remarks under the heads of Language, traditional or customary Laws, and social Habits and Manners; and to these I shall add some desultory anecdotes ill.u.s.trative of their superst.i.tions, and of some other peculiarities of thought and action; and shall conclude with a short review of the influence that the settlement of Europeans among them has, or is likely to have, on their condition.

CAUSES OF A CONTRARY OPINION.