Australia, its history and present condition Part 8

[95] Things are now, happily, better ordered. "There are frequent instances of vessels arriving from England without having had a single death during the voyage" to Sydney.--LANG'S _New South Wales_, vol. i. p. 58.

Soon after the arrival of the three transports, those of the convicts that were in tolerable health were settled at Rose Hill, and the town now called Paramatta was laid out; and the commencement of a system of free settlers was provided for, although the retired soldiers, those parties for whom it was originally intended, were not usually very persevering or successful in their attempts at farming. In September, 1790, Governor Phillip received that wound of which mention has been made elsewhere;[96] and this season the dry weather was so excessive, that the gardens and fields of corn were parched up for want of moisture. Five convicts left Paramatta in a boat, and got out of the harbour without being discovered, having provisions for a week with them, and purposing to steer for Otaheite![97] A search was made for them, but in vain, and beyond doubt they must have perished miserably.

At various times, the convicts, especially some of the Irish, set off to the northwards, meaning to travel by the interior of New Holland _overland to China_; and many were either starved to death or else killed by the natives, while pursuing this vain hope of escape from thraldom.

[96] See "Bennillong," in chap. vi. p. 151.

[97] Another instance of like folly is mentioned by Collins, Account of New South Wales, p. 129.

The next event of importance to the infant colony was the arrival, towards the close of 1791, of what is called the _second_ fleet, consisting of no less than ten s.h.i.+ps, and having on board upwards of 2,000 convicts, with provisions and other necessaries. These s.h.i.+ps came dropping into the harbour at short intervals after each other, and their arrival, together with the needful preparations for the additional numbers brought by them, gave an air of bustle and life to the little town of Sydney. Various public works and buildings had been carried on, especially some tanks were cut in the rocks to serve as reservoirs in dry seasons, and at Paramatta between forty and fifty fresh acres were expected to be got ready for Indian corn this year. By his Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Gorgon_, certain needful instruments and powers for carrying on the government of the colony were sent, and amongst others the public seal of New South Wales. Two or three of the vessels which had arrived from England, were employed, after discharging their cargoes, in the whale-fishery, and not altogether without success; so early did British enterprise turn itself to that occupation, which has latterly become most profitable in those regions. During this year, the governor for the first time exercised a power which had only recently been given him, and several convicts were, on account of their good behaviour, released from their state of bondage, on condition of their not returning to England before the term of their sentences had expired. Various allotments of land were also given to those whose terms had already expired, and who signified their willingness to become settlers in this new country. At the close of the year 1791, nearly four years from the first landing of the British in Port Jackson, the public live stock consisted of one aged stallion, one mare, two young stallions, two colts, sixteen cows, two calves, one ram, fifty ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows, and twenty-two pigs. The cultivated ground at Paramatta amounted to three hundred acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in barley, one in oats, four in vines, eighty-six in garden-ground, and seventeen in cultivation by the soldiers of the New South Wales Corps. Thus humble were the beginnings, even after some time, of that wealth in flocks and herds for which our Australian colonies are now so justly celebrated.

Very little, meanwhile, is recorded of the chaplain, Mr. Johnson, or his doings, but that little is to his credit. He was, it appears, in the habit of relieving from his own private bounty the convicts who were most in need; and some of them spread abroad a report that this was done from funds raised by subscription in the mother country; and upon the strength of this notion, in the spirit which the poorer cla.s.ses in England too often exhibit, they chose to claim relief as though it were their _just right_. This false notion was publicly contradicted, and Mr.

Johnson thought it necessary that the convicts should know that it was to his bounty alone that they were indebted for these gifts, and that, consequently, the partakers of them were to be of his own selection.

Another instance of the kindness of Mr. Johnson, and of the evil return it met with, has also been recorded, and though it occurred some years afterwards, in 1797, it may be noticed here. It happened that among the convicts there was found one who had been this gentleman's schoolfellow, and the chaplain, feeling compa.s.sion for his fallen condition, had taken him into his service, and treated him with the utmost confidence and indulgence. Soon afterwards, it was rumoured that this man had taken an impression of the key of the store-room in clay, from which he had procured another key to fit the lock. Mr. Johnson scarcely credited the story, but at length he consented that a constable should be concealed in the house on a Sunday, when all the family, except this person, would be engaged in Divine service. The plan succeeded too well. Supposing that all was secure, the ungrateful wretch applied his key to the door of the store-room, and began to plunder it of all the articles he chose to take, until the constable, leaving his hiding-place, put an end to the robbery by making the thief his prisoner.

The attention of Mr. Johnson to his ministerial and public duties appears to have continued in a quiet and regular way, but its fruits were by no means so manifest as could have been wished. In 1790 he complained to the authorities of the want of attendance at divine service, which, it must be observed, was generally performed in the open air, exposed alike to the wind and rain, or burning sun; and then it was ordered that a certain portion of provisions should be taken off from the allowance of each person who might absent himself from prayers without giving a reasonable excuse. And thus, we may suppose, a better congregation was secured; but, alas! from what a motive were they induced to draw near their G.o.d. And how many are there, it is to be feared, in our country parishes in England, whose great inducement to attend their church is the fact that the clergyman generally has certain gifts to distribute: how common a fault, in short, has it been in all ages and in all countries for men to seek Christ from no higher motive than that they may "eat of the loaves and be filled!"[98] In proof of the single voice that was raised in the wilderness of New South Wales being not altogether an empty and ineffectual sound, we are told that in 1790, when the female convicts who arrived by the _Lady Juliana_ attended divine service for the first time, Mr. Johnson, with much propriety, in his discourse, touched upon their situation so forcibly as to draw tears from many of them, who were not yet hardened enough to be altogether insensible to truth. Another instance of very praiseworthy zeal was afforded by the voluntary visit of the chaplain of New South Wales in 1791 to Norfolk Island, which small colony had never yet been favoured even with the temporary presence of a minister of the Church of Christ.

[98] Religion, of course, concerns all equally, only the guilty and the wretched seem to be the last persons who can afford to reject its consolations, even in this world. However, the conduct of those in authority was pretty much on a par with that of the convicts, and it was only when one of the earlier governors was told of but five or six persons attending divine service, that "he determined to go to church himself, and stated that he expected his example would be followed by the people." See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 7.

But a yet better proof of the chaplain's earnestness was given, after the colony had been settled for six years, in his building a church,--the first that was raised in New Holland for the purposes of christian wors.h.i.+p. Even now, we often may hear and lament the ignorance which chooses to reckon the _clergy_ as the _Church_, and which looks upon the efforts recently made in favour of church extension, as lying quite beyond the province of the laity; and this deplorable ignorance was much more common in Mr. Johnson's days.[99] Accordingly, to the disgrace of the colony and of the government at home, no church was raised during six years, and when at last that object was accomplished, it was by the private purse and the single efforts of an individual,--the chaplain of the colony. The building was in a very humble style, made of wood and thatched, and it is said to have cost Mr.

Johnson only 40_l._; but all this merely serves to show how easily the good work might have been before done, how inexcusable it was to leave its accomplishment to one individual. A few months before this necessary work was undertaken the colony had been visited by two Spanish s.h.i.+ps, and it is possible that an observation made by the Romish priest belonging to one of these s.h.i.+ps may have had some effect towards raising the first church built at Sydney. At the time when the Spanish s.h.i.+ps were in the harbour, the English chaplain performed divine service wherever he could find a shady spot; and the Spanish priest observing that, during so many years no church had been built, lifted up his eyes with astonishment, declaring (truly), that, had the place been settled by his nation, a house of G.o.d would have been erected before any house for man. How disgraceful to the English nation, how injurious to our Reformed Church, that an observation like this, coming from the lips of one who belonged to a corrupt and idolatrous church, should be so true, so incapable of contradiction! However, if the remark had any effect in exciting the efforts of the Protestant chaplain, and in thus supplying at length a want so palpable as that of a house of G.o.d in the colony, it was by no means uttered in vain; and supposing it to be so, this is not a solitary instance of our Church and her members having been aroused into activity by the taunts and attacks of those that are opposed to her.

[99] It would appear almost as though some men _will_ not see that churches are not built for clergymen to preach in, and live (or starve) upon the pew-rents, but for laymen to hear G.o.d's word and join in His solemn wors.h.i.+p.

Upon the opening of the humble building, which had thus tardily been raised for the purposes of divine wors.h.i.+p, and to consecrate which according to the beautiful forms of our English church there was no bishop in the colony, the chaplain preached a suitable sermon, we are informed; but, if it may be judged from the scanty record that is preserved of it, this discourse partook of the cold and worldly spirit of the age in which it was delivered. Mr. Johnson began well with impressing upon his hearers the necessity of holiness in every place, and then lamented the urgency of public works having prevented the erection of a church sooner. As though a building for the public wors.h.i.+p of Almighty G.o.d were not the most urgent of all public works in every christian community! He next went on to declare, that his _only_ motive in coming forward in the business was that of establis.h.i.+ng a place sheltered from bad weather, and from the summer-heats, where public wors.h.i.+p might be performed. The uncertainty of a place where they might attend had prevented many from coming, but he hoped that now the attendance would be regular.[100] Surely, the worthy chaplain might have had and avowed a higher motive for building a house of G.o.d, than that of keeping men from the wind, and the rain, and the sun; and, undoubtedly, as the inconvenience of the former system was no good excuse for absence from divine service, so neither could the comparative convenience of the new arrangement be at all a proper motive for attendance upon it.

[100] See Collins' Account of New South Wales, pp. 223-4.

However, many allowances are to be made for Mr. Johnson, and it becomes us, while we condemn the faults, to spare the persons, of the men of that and of other past generations; especially when we look at our own age, and see, notwithstanding the improvement that has unquestionably taken place, how many conspicuous faults there are prevailing among us, which those of future generations will justly pity and condemn. It may be well, before the subject of the church raised by Mr. Johnson is finally quitted, to acquaint the reader with its fate. In 1798, after having stood only five years, it was discovered one evening to be on fire, and, all efforts to save it proving useless, from the combustible nature of the materials, it was consumed in an hour. "This was a great loss," observes the historian of the colony, "for during the working days of the week the building was used as a school, in which from 150 to 200 children were educated, under the immediate inspection of Mr.

Johnson. As this building stood alone, and no person was suffered to remain in it after the school hours, there was not a doubt but the atrocious act was the effect of design, and in consequence of an order enforcing attendance on divine service." The governor, however, with praiseworthy zeal, would not suffer a single Sunday to be lost, but ordered a new store-house, which was just finished, to be fitted up for a church. One brief observation may here be added. How powerful a witness do the enemies of Christ's Church, and of our English branch of it, bear to the usefulness and effect of its doctrine, even in its most helpless and lowest condition, by the ceaseless and unscrupulous pains which they take in trying to silence its testimony!

No apology is necessary for detaining the reader so long upon these little details, since if the religious state and progress of an infant colony be not an interesting feature in its history, what can we hope to find in it that is deserving of the attention of a thoughtful and well-regulated mind? But we return now to the temporal affairs of New South Wales. The year 1792, which began with reduced rations of provisions, was a time of great suffering and scarcity in the colony, nor was it until the latter part of the year that any relief for the wants of the settlers arrived. Meanwhile the mortality that took place was very alarming, and notwithstanding the sickness that prevailed, there was no abatement in wickedness and crime. At one time during this year no less than fifty-three persons were missing, many of whom never returned, having perished, no doubt, miserably in the woods, while seeking for a new settlement, or endeavouring to find their way to China! An execution for theft took place in January, and the unhappy man declared that hunger had tempted him to commit the crime for which he suffered. Many instances of profligacy among the convicts occurred, but one stands forth distinguished by especial wickedness. A woman had been trusted to carry to the bakehouse the allowance of flour belonging to two others; and after having run in debt for flour taken up on their account, she mixed a quant.i.ty of pounded stone, in the proportion of two-thirds of grit to one of flour, with the meal belonging to the other women.[101] Fortunately, the deceit was found out before the flour was mixed with other meal at the bakehouse, and the culprit was sentenced to wear an iron collar for six months. In April, a convict was killed by a blow from the limb of a tree, which fell on his head as he pa.s.sed under it, and fractured his skull. He died on the spot, having earned from those who knew him the character of being so great a reprobate, that he was scarcely ever known to speak without an oath, or without calling on his Maker to witness the truth of the lie he was about to utter. Are these poor creatures, if may be again asked, to be cast out from their own country, and left (as they too often have been,) to their own evil devices and to Satan's temptations, without involving the nation that has thus treated them in a load of guilt too fearful to contemplate?

[101] A similar scheme was to have been practised by some Irish convict women, who were to have taken their part in a proposed mutiny on board the _Marquis Cornwallis_ during the pa.s.sage out, by mixing pulverized gla.s.s with the flour of which the seamen made their puddings!

See Collins, p. 324.

Towards the end of the year 1792 the harvest was gathered in from the 1540 acres of cleared ground, which were sown in the preceding seed-time. The produce was tolerably good, and since no less than 3470 acres of land had already been granted to settlers, it was hoped that before very long the colony might cease to be almost entirely dependent for its support upon the precarious supply which it received from s.h.i.+ps.

The colonists then learned by sad experience what many Englishmen in the present day seem unwilling to believe, that _it is one of the worst evils to be dependent upon other countries for daily bread_. In December, the governor, Captain Phillip, left the colony from ill health, having acted with much prudence and vigour during his administration, and leaving behind him a respectable character; he returned to England, where his services were rewarded by a pension of 400_l._ a-year, and he retired to Bath, at which city he died. His activity in exploring the neighbouring country and discovering its capabilities, his courage and firmness on many very trying occasions, his steady opposition to every proposal of abandoning the settlement, together with his general character, sufficiently ent.i.tle his memory to regard and respect from those who are now living in New South Wales, and reaping in comparative ease the fruit of that harvest which it cost him and others great pains and many trials to sow.

Before the first Governor of New South Wales left that country, he had the satisfaction of seeing its prospects of a future sufficiency of provisions very greatly improved; and a work of charity, the hospital at Paramatta, was completed in the month before that in which he sailed.

With the year 1793 began a new government, for as no successor had been appointed at home to Captain Phillip, the chief power now came, according to what had been previously provided, into the hands of Major Grose, of the New South Wales Corps, who a.s.sumed the style of Lieutenant-Governor. During nearly three years things continued in this state; only Major Grose left the settlement, and was succeeded by Captain Paterson; nor was it until 1795 that a regular successor to the first governor arrived in the colony. In this period many things occurred which were, no doubt, of the highest interest to the settlers at the time, but few events which deserve our particular notice now.

A fire, which destroyed a house worth 15_l._, and thirty bushels of new wheat;--the alternate scarcity and comparative abundance of provisions;--the arrival or departure of s.h.i.+ps from the harbour;--the commission of the first murder in the colony, and other sad accounts of human depravity and its punishment;--the gradual improvement and extension of the colony;--the first sale by auction of a farm of twenty-five acres for the sum of 13_l._:--these and similar subjects occupy the history of New South Wales, not merely during the three years that elapsed between Governor Phillip's departure and the arrival of his successor, but also during the long period of gradual but increasing improvement which followed the last event.

Yet, while the improvement of the little colony was evidently steady and increasing, when its affairs are regarded in a temporal point of view, in morals its progress appeared to be directly contrary; and, painful though it be to dwell upon the sins and follies of men, whose bodies have long since pa.s.sed away to their parent dust, and their souls returned to G.o.d who gave them, nevertheless, there are many wholesome lessons of instruction and humiliation to be gathered from the history of human depravity in New South Wales. One of the crying sins of the mother country,--a sin now very much confined to the lower cla.s.ses of society, but fifty years ago equally common among all cla.s.ses,--is that of _drunkenness_; and it could scarcely be expected that the outcast daughter in Australia would be less blamable in this respect than the mother from which she sprang.[102] Accordingly, we find that as soon as it was possible to procure spirits, at however great a sacrifice, they were obtained, and intoxication was indulged in,--if such brutality deserves the name of indulgence,--to an awful extent. Whether all that a writer very intimately acquainted with New South Wales urges against the officers of the New South Wales Corps be true or not, so far as their dealings in spirituous liquors are concerned, there can be no question that these mischievous articles became almost entirely the current coin of the settlement, and were the source of worldly gain to a few, while they proved the moral ruin of almost all, in the colony. But, without giving entire credit to all the a.s.sertions of Dr. Lang, who deals very much in hasty notions and exaggerated opinions,[103] we may sorrowfully acknowledge that, if the convicts in New South Wales gave way in a horrible manner to drunkenness and its attendant sins, the upper cla.s.ses, in general, either set them a bad example, or made a plunder of them by pandering to their favourite vice. The pa.s.sion for liquor, it is stated by Collins,[104] operated like a mania, there being nothing which the people would not risk to obtain it: and while spirits were to be had, those who did any extra labour refused to be paid in money, or in any other article than spirits, which were then so scarce as to be sold at six s.h.i.+llings a bottle. So eagerly were fermented liquors sought after, and so little was the value of money in a place where neither the comforts nor luxuries of life could be bought, that the purchaser has been often known, in the early days of the colony, to name himself a price for the article he wanted, fixing it as high again as would otherwise have been required of him. When the few boat-builders and s.h.i.+pwrights in the colony had leisure, they employed themselves in building boats for those that would pay them their price, namely, five or six gallons of spirits. It could be no matter of surprise that boats made by workmen so paid should be badly put together, and scarcely seaworthy.

[102] Whatever may be the improvement of the middling and upper cla.s.ses, _nationally speaking_ the pa.s.sion for strong liquor continues to bear sway in the British islands to a deplorable extent. Lord Ashley has stated in the House of Commons during the present session, 1843, that there is good authority for estimating our annual consumption of spirituous liquors at twenty-five millions sterling! Compare the _gross_ amount of the revenues of the English Church, about four millions, and those of the _poor_ Kirk of Scotland, the _plundered_ Church of Ireland, and the "voluntary" efforts of the hundred and one sects of Dissenters, together with those of the Romish Church:--and what is the result?

Probably, nearly three times as much is spent in these islands upon spirituous liquors as the whole cost of religious instruction of every kind amounts to!

[103] Dr. Lang's opinion here is, however, confirmed by Judge Burton; see p. 7 of his work on Education and Religion in New South Wales.

[104] Account of Colony of New South Wales, p. 235.

But, however commonly the standard of value might be measured by spirituous liquors, yet it is evident that these, being themselves procurable for money, could not altogether supersede the desire of money itself. Hence arose those numerous acts of theft and depredation, that improvident thirst after present gain, that total disregard of future consequences by which many of the first inhabitants of the colony were disgraced and ruined. The contagion of evil example forced its way into Government House, and the steward of Governor Hunter became an awful instance of the mischief of bad society. Against this he had been often cautioned by his master, but to no purpose, until at length he was discovered abusing the unlimited confidence which had been placed in him, and making use of the governor's name in a most iniquitous manner.

At this discovery the wretched victim of evil communication retired to a shrubbery in his master's garden, and shot himself through the head.

From the love of money, which no mean authority has p.r.o.nounced to be "the root of all evil,"[105] arose likewise that spirit of gambling, which ended in murder on one occasion before the settlement had existed more than six years; and which on many occasions was the manifest cause of misery and ruin to those in whom this evil spirit had taken up its abode. To such excess was the pursuit of gambling carried among the convicts, that some had been known, after losing provisions, money, and all their spare clothing, to have staked and lost the very clothes on their wretched backs, standing in the midst of their a.s.sociates as degraded, and as careless of their degradation, as the natives of the country which these gamblers disgraced. Money was their princ.i.p.al object, for with money they could purchase spirits, or whatever else their pa.s.sions made them covet, or the colony could furnish. These unhappy men have been seen to play at their favourite games for six, eight, and ten dollars each game; and those who were not expert at these, instead of pence, tossed up for dollars![106]

[105] 1 Tim. vi. 10.

[106] Collins' Account of New South Wales, pp. 243, 244.

CHAPTER VIII.

FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE COLONY TO 1821.

The month of August, 1795, was marked in the annals of New South Wales by the arrival of the second governor of the colony, Captain Hunter, who continued five years in power, and returned to England in the year 1800, after having seen the colony over which he was placed prospering and thriving enough in worldly matters, though in other more important points it continued poor and naked indeed. It was a great object with the new governor to check and restrain that love of liquor, which he saw working so much mischief among his people; and several private stills were found and destroyed, to the great regret of their owners, who made twice as large a profit from the spirit distilled by them out of wheat, as they would have been able to have gained, had they sold their grain for the purpose of making bread. So common was the abuse of paying wages in liquor,[107] that it was pretended that the produce of these stills was only to be paid away in labour, whereas it was sold for a means of intoxication to any person who would bring ready money for it.

At the commencement of harvest, in the November immediately following the arrival of Governor Hunter, a regulation was made by that gentleman, which showed that the infant colony was now making rapid strides towards that point of advancement and independence, from which ignorant and designing men are at present labouring to thrust down the mother country. New South Wales was, in 1795, just beginning to supply its inhabitants with corn, and Governor Hunter wisely thought that the increasing abundance of the produce would now bear some little decrease in the high prices. .h.i.therto paid for new grain at the public store.

England, in 1843, is able to supply its inhabitants with food, (except in scarce years, when corn is let in at prices varying with the degree of scarcity,) and many Englishmen unwisely think that this advantage and independence may be safely bartered away--for what?--for _very low prices_, and, their constant companions, _very low wages_, and _very great and universal distress_![108]

[107] The crops of the first settlers were paid for by the Government in spirits, but Captain Hunter endeavoured to put an end to this practice, for it was not possible that a farmer who should be idle enough to throw away the labour of twelve months, for the purchase of a few gallons of injurious liquors, could expect to thrive, or enjoy those comforts which sobriety and industry can alone procure.

[108] It may not be out of place to quote in support of this opinion the sensible words of an Australian writer. "I confess I like to hear of high wages, and of good prices of provisions--of the productions of the country,--for where they prevail for any length of time, the country must be prosperous. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is no less true, that the poorest country is always that where provisions are sold at the cheapest rate. To the same purpose is the testimony of Sir G. Gipps, the present Governor of New South Wales, appointed by Lord Melbourne in 1837, who says:--'The total amount of the grain' (imported) 'even at these prices, amounted to the fearful sum of 246,000_l._; but that, it must be remembered, was only the prime cost in the countries where the wheat was grown, and to that must be added the charges for freight, insurance, and commission, probably as much more, so that in two years the colony would expend upwards of half a million of money for foreign bread. _The distress of the colony was owing to these immense importations._"--See Speech of Governor Gipps in Council. Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. iii. p. 163. See also ROSS'S _Van Diemen's Land Almanac and Annual_, 1836, p. 177.

Another addition to the means, which the country was beginning to possess of maintaining its inhabitants, was made by the regular, though far from rapid, increase of live stock, which, in spite of all obstacles, and notwithstanding great carelessness and ignorance on the part of many of those that kept it, continued to thrive and multiply.[109] But, besides the cattle to be seen upon the various farms and allotments in the settlement, a considerable herd of wild cattle were found, soon after Governor Hunter's arrival, on the banks of the Nepean River, about thirty miles from Sydney, in a district still bearing the name of the Cow Pastures. These animals were clearly ascertained to have sprung from a few tame cattle which had strayed away from the colony at its first foundation; and the governor, pleased at this discovery, himself paid a visit to the Cow Pastures, where he found a very fine herd, upwards of forty in number, grazing in a pleasant and rich pasturage. The whole number of them was upwards of sixty, but the governor's party were attacked by a furious bull, which, in self-defence, they were obliged to kill. The country where these animals were seen was remarkably pleasant to the eye; every where was thick and luxuriant gra.s.s growing; the trees were thinly scattered, and free from underwood, except in particular spots; in several beautiful flats large ponds were found, covered with ducks and black swans, the margins of which were fringed with beautiful shrubs, and the ground rose from these levels into hills of easy ascent. The advantages of having an increasing number of wild cattle within so short a distance of the settlement were obvious enough, and the government resolved to protect them to the utmost of its power. Accordingly, it was ordered that no part of the fertile tract of which these animals were in possession should be granted out to settlers; and at length the herds became too numerous even for the 60,000 acres, which the district was supposed to contain.

But, in 1813 and the two following years, so severe a drought prevailed, that vast numbers of them died; and afterwards the government consented to grant away the land, and the remainder of the herds betook themselves to the mountainous ranges beyond.

[109] About the time of Captain Hunter's taking the reins of government a cow was sold for 80_l._, a horse cost 90_l._, and a Cape sheep 7_l._ 10_s._ Other prices were in proportion; fresh meat was very scarce, and the various attempts to import live stock had been far from successful.

Still a _beginning_ had been made, and it is astonis.h.i.+ng how rapidly rural wealth began to multiply in New South Wales, after the difficulties of the first eight or ten years had been overcome.

Captain Hunter was rather fond of exploring the unknown country which extended behind, or to the northward or southward of, the narrow limits of the British colony: and during his administration its boundaries were considerably enlarged, and some valuable discoveries were made. One of the most important of these was a discovery which served to prove the claim of the colony to be called New South Wales, from its resemblance to the country whence its name was taken, in one production at least. In 1796, some persons returned from fis.h.i.+ng in a bay considerably to the northward of Port Jackson, and brought with them several large pieces of _coal_, which they said that they had found at some little distance from the beach, lying in quant.i.ties on the surface of the ground. This was the first knowledge obtained by the settlers of the value of the productions of the coast at the mouth of the river Hunter, and at the place where coals were found so abundantly there now exists a towns.h.i.+p, furnis.h.i.+ng the whole colony with a supply of that useful article, besides having a large trade in lime, which is made from the oyster-sh.e.l.ls that are found there in immense quant.i.ties. The appropriate name of this towns.h.i.+p is Newcastle.

Many needful and praiseworthy regulations were made by Captain Hunter, who endeavoured to enforce attendance on Divine service, and the proper observance of the Sunday; and who took great pains also to discover and punish those encroachments upon the public stores which had been continually made. The convicts whose time of punishment had expired, but who were unable to get a pa.s.sage to England, were frequently more troublesome and ill-disposed, being less under authority than the others were. These emancipists, as they were called, would occasionally indeed withdraw from receiving the ration allowed by Government; but then it was only in the hope of avoiding labour, and living by pillage. Or else these men, together with others not less ill-disposed than themselves, would play every possible trick to obtain their allowance from the public stores, when they were not ent.i.tled, or to get more than their allowances, when they had a certain claim. To put a check upon such practices, the governor, in 1796, had a general muster of all descriptions of people in every part of the colony at the same hour, so that it would be no longer possible, as on former occasions, for one person to manage to answer to his name in two different places, and to draw provisions from both stores. Very shortly after this general muster, the governor made a journey to the banks of the River Hawkesbury, where there is some of the richest land in the colony, but on his return, he had the mortification of seeing a stack of wheat belonging to Government burnt, containing 800 bushels, and it was not certain whether this fire was accidental, since the destruction thus caused made room for as many bushels as were destroyed, which must be purchased from the settlers who had wheat to sell. In reading of these atrocious acts--for if _this_ fire was not intentional, _others_ undoubtedly were--the inhabitants of England must not plume themselves upon their superiority to the outcasts of their country in New South Wales. Unhappily, the word _incendiarism_ has become familiar to English ears, and, ever since the evil spirits of agitation and rebellion have been dallied with, they have made their deeds of darkness visible, from time to time, by the awful midnight fires which they have kindled in the land.

But it was not only in checking the outrages of the British inhabitants of New South Wales, that the governor was actively employed; the natives were also exceedingly troublesome, especially at the valuable farms on the Hawkesbury. Vigorous efforts were made to prevent that disorder, and disregard of private property, which seemed so prevailing; and certainly Governor Hunter appears to have been an active and energetic, but, as might be expected in a colony like that over which he was placed, not altogether a _popular_ ruler. The vices of the lower cla.s.ses were, in too many instances, found profitable, more or less directly, to those who are termed the upper cla.s.ses in the settlement; and since both cla.s.ses became to a fearful degree sensual and covetous, the evil was doubly aggravated by example and contagion. And when we consider, that, at that time, the population of the colony might almost have been divided into those who _drank_ rum, and those who _sold_ it;[110] when we recollect the covetousness of all cla.s.ses, the hardened wickedness of many of the convicts, the idleness of the settlers or soldiers, the peculiar character of the natives, and the infant state of the British colony, it must be confessed, that the requisites of every good governor,--a wise head, a stout heart, and a steady hand,--were preeminently needful in the governor of New South Wales.

[110] Promissory notes were given, payable in rum instead of money.--JUDGE BURTON _on Education and Religion in New South Wales_, p. 7, note.

The list of crimes, which were continually occurring during the five years of Captain Hunter's being governor, was a fearful and appalling one; nor can we wonder at the wish expressed by the historian of the early days of the colony, that future annalists may find a pleasanter field to travel in, without having their steps beset every moment with murderers, robbers, and incendiaries. Twice during Governor Hunter's administration was a public gaol purposely destroyed by fire; once the gaol at Sydney suffered, although there were twenty prisoners confined there, who being mostly in irons were with difficulty saved; and the second time, the Paramatta gaol was destroyed, and one of the prisoners was scorched to death. Several of the settlers declined to pay anything towards the building of a new gaol, and it was not long a matter of doubt which article would be most likely to bear a productive tax; so a duty of one s.h.i.+lling per gallon was imposed upon spirits, sixpence on wine, and threepence upon porter or strong beer, to be applied to the above purpose. Building gaols is, beyond question, a necessary thing, especially in a colony chiefly formed of convicts: and perhaps a tax upon intoxicating liquors is no bad mode of procuring the means of erecting them, for thus the sober and industrious are not heavily taxed to provide for the support and punishment of the profligate and wicked.

Nevertheless, if Christ's religion be true, there is a surer and better way of checking crime, than by trusting to gaols and police alone; but, unhappily, this more excellent way of reforming the morals of mankind, has, in modern times, found little favour with the great ones of the world.[111] Certainly the power of the Gospel and Church of Christ had no scope allowed it for its blessed effects, when to a population, consisting in 1803 of 7097 souls, and constantly on the increase, besides being scattered over an immense tract of country, _one clergyman only_ was allowed during seven years to wage, single-handed and alone, the war against evil. There were, indeed, many Irish Roman Catholics among the convicts, and one of these, named Harrold, was a Romish priest, but his character was too little to be trusted for him to be of any great spiritual advantage even to those of his own communion.

[111] Thus writes the Bishop of Australia in 1840.--"Neither can I comprehend or approve the policy which thus leaves mult.i.tudes without moral or religious guidance, under every inducement to commit acts of violence and rapine, which are not only the sources of infinite misery to the unhappy perpetrators, and to their wretched victims, but _actually bring_ upon the government itself ten times the pecuniary charge which would be incurred by the erection of as many churches, and providing for the support of as many clergymen, as the necessities of every such district require."

In the year 1800, Governor Hunter left the settlement for England, and was succeeded in his office by Captain King, who had been Lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, and had conducted with great care and success the establishment of that smaller colony. However, Norfolk Island was abandoned altogether during the government of Captain King and his successor; and it is said this step was taken in compliance with the advice of the former gentleman. It was a saying attributed to him, that "he could not make farmers of pickpockets;"[112] and whatever truth there might be in this maxim, certainly it appears that the progress of agriculture was unfavourable, and that the colony continued still subject to seasons of scarcity, approaching to famine, and obliged to put up with coa.r.s.e loaves, which were feelingly called _scrubbing brushes_;[113] and was always in a state of dependence upon foreign supplies for daily bread. But if there were no _corn laws_, there was abundance of discontent and misery in the colony of New South Wales; and during the time of Captain King's government, a rebellion broke out among the convicts, who had been induced by some of their number, rebels from Ireland, to _strike for their liberty_. The revolt was soon crushed by the military, but not without the loss of life to some of the unhappy men who had been partakers in it.

[112] "More labour would have been performed by one hundred free people from any part of England or Scotland, than had at any time been derived from three hundred of these (convicts), with all the attention that could be paid to them."--COLLINS' _Account of the Colony of New South Wales_, p. 415.