Australia, its history and present condition
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Title: Australia, its history and present condition
Author: W. Pridden
Release date: December 5, 2009 [eBook #30607]
Most recently updated: January 5, 2021
Language: English
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Transcriber's Notes:
1) Morrumbidgee/Murrumbidgee each used on several occasions
and left as in the original. 'Morrumbidgee' is the aboriginal
name for the Murrumbidgee.
2) Used on numerous occasions, civilisation/civilization;
civilised/civilized; civilising/civilizing; uncivilised/uncivilized:
left as in the original.
3) Same with variations of colonisation/colonization, and a few other
"z" words that should be "s" words in their English form.
* * * * *
The
Englishman's Library.
XXVI.
AUSTRALIA,
ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION;
CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT BOTH OF THE BUSH AND OF THE COLONIES,
WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE INHABITANTS.
BY THE
REV. W. PRIDDEN, M.A.
VICAR OF BROXTED, ESSEX.
"_Truth_, in her native calmness and becoming moderation, shall
be the object of our homage and pursuit; and we will aim at the
attainment of knowledge for the improvement of our reason, and not
for the gratification of a passion for disputing."--_Address of
the Bp of Australia in 1841 to the Church of England Book Society._
LONDON:
JAMES BURNS, 17, PORTMAN STREET,
PORTMAN SQUARE.
1843.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY R. CLAY, BREAD STREET HILL.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Map of Australia]
PREFACE.
A few words by way of Preface are requisite, in order that the objects
of the present Work may be stated to the reader, and that he may also
be made acquainted with the sources whence the information here
communicated is derived, and from consulting which he may still
further inform himself concerning Australia. The aim of the writer of
the following pages has been,--while furnishing a description of some
of the most flourishing and interesting settlements belonging to the
British Crown, which, at the same time, exhibit in contrast to each
other the two extremes of savage and civilised life;--to call the
attention of his countrymen, both at home and in the colonies, to
the evils which have arisen from the absence of moral restraint and
religious instruction in colonies of civilised and (nominally)
christian men. And although it must in many ways be a disadvantage
that the person professing to describe a particular country should
have gained all his knowledge of it from the report of others, without
ever having himself set foot upon its shores; yet, in one respect at
least, this may operate advantageously. He is less likely to have
party prejudices or private interests to serve in his account of the
land to which he is a total stranger. In consequence, probably, of his
being an indifferent and impartial observer, not one of our Australian
colonies wears in his eye the appearance of a perfect paradise; but
then, on the other hand, there is not one of those fine settlements
which prejudice urges him to condemn, as though it were barren and
dreary as the Great Sahara itself. And the same circumstance--his
never having breathed the close unwholesome air of colonial
party-politics--will render it less likely that his judgment
respecting persons and disputed opinions should be unduly biassed.
There will be more probability of his judging upon right _principles_,
and although his facts may (in some instances, unavoidably) be less
minutely accurate than an inhabitant of the country would have given,
yet they may be less coloured and less partially stated. Instead of
giving his own observations as an eye-witness, fraught with his own
particular views, he can calmly weigh the opposite statements of men
of different opinions, and between the two he is more likely to arrive
at the truth. With regard to the present Work, however impartial the
author has endeavoured to be, however free he may be from colonial
passions and interests, he does not wish to deceive the reader by
professing a total freedom from all prejudice. If this were desirable,
it is impossible; it is a qualification which no writer, or reader
either, possesses. But thus much may be stated, that all his
prejudices are in favour of those institutions with which it has
pleased God to bless his native land. In a volume that is intended to
form part of a series called "The Englishman's Library," it may be
permitted, surely, to acknowledge a strong and influencing attachment
to the Sovereign, the Church, and the Constitution of England.
The object and principles of the present volume being thus plainly
set forth, it remains only to mention some of the sources whence the
information contained in it is derived. To the Travels of Captain Grey
on the western coast of New Holland, and to those of Major Mitchell in
the interior, the first portion of this Work is deeply indebted, and
every person interested in the state of the natives, or fond of
perusing travels in a wild and unknown region, may be referred to
these four volumes,[1] where they will find that the extracts here
given are but a specimen of the stores of amusement and information
which they contain. Captain Sturt's "Expeditions" and Mr. Oxley's
"Journal" are both interesting works, but they point rather to the
progress of discovery in New Holland than to the actual state of our
local knowledge of it. Dr. Lang's two volumes upon New South Wales are
full of information from one who has lived there many years, and his
faults are sufficiently obvious for any intelligent reader to guard
against. Mr. Montgomery Martin's little book is a very useful
compendium, and those that desire to know more particulars concerning
the origin of the first English colony in New Holland may be referred
to Collins's account of it. Various interesting particulars respecting
the religious state of the colonies in Australia have been derived
from the correspondence in the possession of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, free access to which was
allowed through the kind introduction of the Rev. C. B. Dalton. Many
other sources of information have been consulted, among which the
Reports of the Parliamentary Committee upon Transportation, in 1837
and 1838; and that of the Committee upon South Australia, in 1841,
must not be left unnoticed. Neither may the work of Judge Burton upon
Religion and Education in New South Wales be passed over in silence;
for, whatever imperfections may be found in his book,[2] the
facts there set forth are valuable, and, for the most part,
incontrovertible, and the principles it exhibits are excellent. From
the works just mentioned the reader may, should he feel inclined,
verify for himself the facts stated in the ensuing pages, or pursue
his inquiries further. In the meantime, he cannot do better than join
the author of the little book which he holds in his hand, in an humble
and earnest prayer to Almighty God, that, in this and in every other
instance, whatever may be the feebleness and imperfection of human
efforts, all things may be made to work together for good towards
promoting the glory of God, the extension of Christ's kingdom, and the
salvation of mankind.
[1] Published, all of them, by T. and W. Boone, London, to whom it is
only just to acknowledge their kindness in permitting the use that has
been made of these two publications in the first portion of the present
Work.
[2] See Dr. Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, especially at p. 5, where it
appears that the judge was not quite impartial in one of his statements.
Dr. Ullathorne himself has, in his 98 pages, contrived to crowd in at
least twice as many misrepresentations as Burton's 321 pages contain.
But that is no excuse. The Romish Church may need, or seem to need,
such support. The cause defended by Judge Burton needs it not.
#Contents.#
INTRODUCTION.
[Page 1.]
Subject of the Work--Discovery and Situation of New Holland--Its
Interior little known--Blue Mountains--Conjectures respecting the
Interior--Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania.
CHAPTER I.
[Page 8.]
The Bush described--Remains of it near Sydney--North-western Coast
of New Holland--Sandy Columns and Fragments--Recollections of
Home--Gouty Stem Tree--Green Ants--Fine Volcanic District--Cure
for Cold--Travelling in the Rainy Season--Rich sequestered Valleys--
Plains near the Lachlan--Falls of the Apsley--Beauties of Nature
enjoyed by Explorers--Aid afforded by Religion--Trials of Travellers
in the Bush--Thirst--A Christian's Consolations--Plains of Kolaina,
or Deceit--Bernier Island--Frederic Smith--A Commander's Cares--Dried
Streams--Return from a Journey in the Bush--Outsettlers--Islands on
the Australian Coast--Kangaroo Island--Coral Reefs and Islets.
CHAPTER II.
[Page 42.]
Forbidding aspect of coast no argument against inland beauty and
fertility--River Darling--The Murray--Other Rivers of New Holland--
Contrasts in Australia--The Lachlan, Regent's Lake, &c.--Sturt's
Descent down the Murray--His Return--Woods--Difficulties and Dangers
of Bush travelling--Wellington Valley--Australia Felix--Conclusion.
CHAPTER III.
[Page 72.]
Comparative advantages of Europeans over Savages--Degraded condition
of Natives of New Holland--Total absence of Clothing--Love of
Ornaments--Peculiar Rites--Ceremony of knocking out a Tooth--Hardships
of Savage Life--Revengeful Spirit--Effect of Native Songs in exciting
Anger--Cruelty--Courage--Indifference to accounts of Civilized Life--
Contempt of its ways--Treatment of Women--Family Names, and Crests--
Language--Music.
CHAPTER IV.
[Page 97.]
Means of Subsistence--A Whale Feast--Hunting the Kangaroo--Australian
Cookery--Fish--Seal Catching--Turtles--Finding Opossums--Birds--
Pursuit of the Emu or Cassowary--Disgusting Food of the Natives--
Vegetables--_By-yu_ Nuts--Evils of European Settlements in cutting
off the native supply of Food--Native Property in Land--Inhabitants
of Van Diemen's Land--A word of Advice to Christian Colonists.
CHAPTER V.
[Page 120.]
First Shyness of Natives natural--Their perplexity between European
Customs and their own--Health and Longevity--Old Age--Funereal
Rites--Belief in Sorcery--The _Boyl-yas_--Various modes of
Interment--Tombs--Riches of a Native--Bodily Excellences--Secrecy--
Quickness of Sight, &c.--Kaiber and the Watch--The _Warran_ Ground--
Various Superstitions--Mischief of bad Example, for which the British
nation is responsible--The Church, the right Instrument, and the only
one that will be found successful, for civilising the Australian
Tribes, if they are ever to be civilised.
CHAPTER VI.
[Page 149.]
Bennillong--Barangaroo's Funeral--The Spitting Tribe--Mulligo's Death--
The Corrobory--Peerat and his Wives--Woga's Captivity--Ballooderry
and the Convicts--Native Hospitality and Philosophy--The Widow and
her Child--Miago.
CHAPTER VII.
[Page 186.]
Infancy of New South Wales an interesting subject to Englishmen--Arrival,
in 1788, of the Sirius, and the Supply at Botany Bay--Settlement
commenced in the Harbour of Port Jackson--Character of the
Convicts--Influence of Religion--Particulars respecting the Chaplain--
His peculiar situation and efforts--A Gold Mine pretended to be found--
Supply of Food precarious--Farming--Failure of Provisions--Erection
of a Flag-staff at the entrance of Port Jackson--Activity of
Governor Phillip--Emigration to Norfolk Island--Loss of the Sirius--
Departure of the Supply for Batavia--Arrivals from England--Cruel
treatment of Convicts on board--Paramatta founded--Arrival of the
Second Fleet--State of Agriculture--The Chaplain's bounty abused--
Attendance at Divine Service--A Church built--Its subsequent fate--
Scarcity of Provisions, and great Mortality--Profligacy of Convicts--
Harvest of 1792--Departure of Governor Phillip--Major Grose's
government--Captain Paterson's--Various occurrences--Drunkenness--Love
of Money--Spirit of Gambling.
CHAPTER VIII.
[Page 216.]
Arrival of Governor Hunter--His efforts for reformation--Advancement
of the Colony towards supplying its own wants--Wild Cattle found--Coal
discovered--Governor's regulations--Incendiarism--Natives
troublesome--Difficulties in governing New South Wales--Crimes
common--Laxity of public opinion--The gaols at Sydney and Paramatta
purposely set on fire--Departure of Governor Hunter--Captain
King succeeds him--Norfolk Island abandoned--Sketch of Norfolk
Island--Settlement of Van Diemen's Land--Free Settlers--Philip
Schoeffer--The Presbyterian Settlers at Portland Head--Resignation
of Governor King--Captain Bligh his successor--Great Flood of
the Hawkesbury--Unpopularity of the Governor--Seizure of his
person--Rebellion--Usurpation--Arrival of a new Governor, Colonel
Macquarie--Improvements in his time--Road-making--Passage across the
Blue Mountains--Public Buildings--Patronage of Emancipists--Discoveries
in the Interior, and Extension of the Colony--Continued neglect of the
spiritual need of the Colonists--Governor Macquarie's Departure--His
own statement of the progress of the Settlement under his
administration.
CHAPTER IX.
[Page 243.]
Subject stated--Day-dreams of Colonization--Local divisions of New
South Wales--Its Counties--Cumberland--Camden--Illawarra and the
Cow Pastures--Argyle--Bathurst--Northumberland--Coal Pits--Hunter's
River--Remaining Counties--Sydney--Port Jackson--Buildings,
&c. of Sydney--Commerce--Public Press--Paramatta--Windsor--Liverpool--
Conclusion.
CHAPTER X.
[Page 266.]
Description of Van Diemen's Land--Its local Divisions--Its general
Character and Aspect--Hobart Town--Launceston--Other Australian
Colonies--Port Phillip--South Australia--Adelaide--Western Australia--
Its Towns--North Australia.
CHAPTER XI.
[Page 286.]
Climate of Australia--Drought--Agriculture--Flocks and Herds--Government
of the Colonies--Discontent--Means of National Improvement--Bishopric
of Australia--Tribute of Thanks justly due to the Whig Government--
Effects of a Bishop being resident in New South Wales--Educational
provision made by George the Fourth--Dr. Lang's Account of it--Judge
Burton's--Church and School Corporation, established in 1826; suspended
in 1829; dissolved in 1833--Causes of this change of Policy--
Conclusion.
CHAPTER XII.
[Page 307.]
Inhabitants of Australian Colonies--What seed has been there sown--
Elements of Society in the Penal Colonies--Convicts--System of
Assignment--Public Gangs--Mr. Potter Macqueen's Establishment--Norfolk
Island and its horrors--These have been mitigated of late years--Means
of reforming Convicts--Prevalence of Vice among them--The class of
Convicts called _specials_ described.
CHAPTER XIII.
[Page 325.]
Emancipists--Their general Character--Their conduct in the Jurors' Box
no argument in favour of bestowing upon them a Representative
Government--Free Population--Ancient Nobility of Botany Bay--Prevailing
taste in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land--Love of Gain--Land
Sharks--Squatters--Overlanders.
CHAPTER XIV.
[Page 338.]
Importance of Religion--The Lord's Day--Habits of duly observing it
nearly lost among many of the inhabitants of our Australian
Colonies--Opposition to Improvement--Religious strife prevails where
religious union is needed--Sir R. Bourke's novel system of religious
Establishments--Its practical working--Efforts of the Church coldly
seconded or else opposed, by Government--Petty Persecutions--Similar
opposition to National Religious Education as to National Church--
Blunders respecting the Irish System of Education in 1836--Attempt
in 1840 to banish the Creed and Catechism from Protestant Schools
having Government support--Schools of a higher rank in New South
Wales--King's School, Paramatta--Sydney College--The Australian
College--The Normal Institution--Proposed College at Liverpool--Other
Schools--Population of New South Wales in 1841--Emigration--Conclusion.
#Illustrations.#
PAGE
Map of Australia _Frontispiece_
Reduced Map of Van Diemen's Land 1
Travellers in the Bush 8
Explorers finding the Bed of a dried-up River 42
Opossum Hunting 97
Natives of the Murray Islands in Boats 120
Sydney in its Infancy--View from the South 186
North View of Sydney 243
Hobart Town 266
Cape Pillar, near the Entrance of the Derwent, Van Diemen's Land 286
Conveying Cattle over the Murray, near Lake Alexandria 325
* * * * *
[Illustration: VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
INTRODUCTION.
The vast tract of country which it is the object of the present volume
to describe in its leading features, both moral and natural, may be said
to consist of two islands, besides many small islets and coral reefs,
which lie scattered around the coasts of these principal divisions. The
larger island of the two, which from its size may well deserve the
appellation of a continent, is called New Holland, or Australia; and is
supposed to be not less than three-fourths of the extent of the whole of
Europe. The smaller island, so well known by the names of Van Diemen's
Land, or Tasmania, (from those of the discoverer, Tasman, and the Dutch
governor of Batavia, Van Diemen) is not to be compared in size to the
other, being about equal in magnitude to Ireland, and, like that island,
abounding in fine and excellent harbours. Although, strictly speaking,
the name of Australia is confined to the former of these two islands,
yet it may be understood to include the smaller island also; and under
this name it is proposed to make the reader familiar with the chief
objects of curiosity in the natural world, and likewise with the state
of human society, whether savage or civilised, in the two islands of New
Holland and Van Diemen's Land, so far as both of these have been
hitherto known and explored.
It is by no means certain what nation may justly lay claim to the honour
of the discovery of New Holland, the coasts of which were probably seen
by the Spaniards, Quiros or Torres, in 1606, and are by some supposed to
have been known to the Spanish and Portuguese yet earlier than this
date, but were not regularly discovered until the Dutch, between the
years 1616 and 1627, explored a considerable portion of the northern and
western shores of that vast island, to which they gave the name of their
own country, Holland. To the Spaniards this land was known by the names
of Terra Australis Incognita, (The Unknown Southern Land,) or Australia
del Espiritu Santo, (The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit,) the meaning
of which last name does not exactly appear, unless it arose from the
discovery of Quiros having been made a little before Whitsuntide. Since
that time the coasts of this immense island, extending, it is said, to
no less than 8000 miles, have been gradually explored, although they
still remain in some parts very imperfectly known. Indeed, it was only
in the year 1798 that Van Diemen's Land was discovered to be an island
separated from New Holland, of which before that time it had been
thought to form a large projection or promontory.
New Holland is situated in the vast ocean extending to the south and
east of the Spice Islands, and it lies about even with the lower part of
the continent of Africa, only at an immense distance due east of it. Its
extreme points of latitude are 39 degrees and 10½ degrees S., and of
longitude 112 degrees and 153 degrees 40 minutes E. from Greenwich,
so that it includes in its huge extent climates both tropical and
temperate, but none that are decidedly cold. It must be remembered,
indeed, that the countries south of the equator become colder at
the same latitude than those that extend towards the north; but,
nevertheless, the nearest point towards the South Pole, 39 degrees,
nearly answering to the situation of Naples in the northern hemisphere,
cannot be otherwise than a mild and warm climate. The shape of New
Holland is very irregular, its coast being much broken and indented by
various great bays and smaller inlets; but it has been estimated to have
a _width_ from E. to W. of 3000 miles, and a breadth from N. to S. of
2000, containing altogether not less than three millions of square
miles. Of course, it is impossible, in so large an extent of country,
that the interior parts of it should have been explored during the few
years in which any portion of it has been occupied by Europeans.
Accordingly, almost all the inland tracts are still a vast blank,
respecting which very little is known, and that little is far from
inviting. Indeed many hindrances oppose themselves to the perfect
discovery of these inland regions, besides those common obstacles, to
encounter and overcome which every traveller who desires to explore
new, wild, and savage countries, must have fully made up his mind.
First among the peculiar difficulties which have opposed the Australian
explorer is the height and ruggedness of that chain of mountains,
called, in the colony of New South Wales, the Blue Mountains, which form
a mighty barrier of more or less elevation along most parts of the
eastern coast of New Holland, sometimes approaching as nearly as 30
miles to the sea, and at other places falling back to a distance of 60
or nearly 100 miles. These mountains are not so very high, the loftiest
points appearing to exceed but little the height of Snowdon in Wales, or
Ben Nevis in Scotland; but their rugged and barren nature, and the great
width to which they frequently extend, render it no very easy matter to
cross them at all. Indeed, although the settlement of New South Wales
was founded in 1788, it was not before 1813 that a route was discovered
across those vast ranges which shut in the colony to the west.
Frequently had the passage over the Blue Mountains been attempted
before, but never with any success; and the farthest point which had
been reached, called Caley's Repulse, was a spot that almost seemed
to forbid man's footsteps to advance beyond it. Nothing was to be
seen there in every direction but immense masses of weather-beaten
sandstone-rock, towering over each other in all the sublimity of
desolation; while a deep chasm, intersecting a lofty ridge covered with
blasted trees, seemed to cut off every hope of farther progress. But all
these difficulties have now long since been got over, and stage-coaches
are able to run across what were a few years ago deemed impassable
hills. Yet, when this dreary barrier of barren mountains has been
crossed, another peculiar hindrance presents itself to the exploring
traveller. In many parts of the interior of New Holland, which have
been visited, the scarcity of water is such that the most distressing
privations have been endured, and the most disagreeable substitutes
employed. And yet, strange to say, the very same country, which
sometimes affords so few springs, and of which the streams become dried
up into chains of dirty pools, and at last into dry ravines and valleys,
is, occasionally, subject to extreme floods from the overflowing of its
rivers, and then offers a new obstacle to the traveller's progress in
the shape of extensive and impassable marshes! To these difficulties
must be added the usual trials of adventurous explorers, the dangers and
perplexities of a journey through pathless forests, the want of game
of any kind in the barren sandstone districts, the perils sometimes
threatened by a visit from the native inhabitants, and, altogether, we
shall have reason rather to feel surprise at what has been done in the
way of inland discovery in New Holland, than to wonder that so much
remains yet undone.
In consequence of the interior portions of the country remaining still
unknown, fancy has been busy in forming notions respecting them, and
one favourite supposition has been that there exists somewhere in the
central part of New Holland an immense lake or inland sea; but of this
no proof whatever can be produced, so that it can only be said that _it
may be so_. Certainly, unless some such means of communication by water,
or some very large navigable river, should exist, it is hardly possible
to imagine how the extensive tracts of inland country can ever become
civilized or inhabited by Europeans. And of that portion which has been
visited a considerable extent of country appears to be shut out by the
natural barrenness of its soil and sandstone-rocks from any prospect of
ever supplying food to the colonies of civilized man. So that, while
the whole of New Holland is an interesting country from its natural
peculiarities, and even the desolate portion of it adds, by its very
desolation, a deep interest to the adventures of those persons who have
had the courage to attempt to explore it; yet the chief prospects of
Australia's future importance seem to be confined to its line of
coast,--no narrow limits in an island so extensive. Hence the colonies
now flourishing on the eastern, southern, and western shores of New
Holland, especially on the first, will form a chief object of attention
in the present work; although, as will be seen by its contents, the
"bush," or wild country, and its savage inhabitants, will be by no
means overlooked.
Respecting Van Diemen's Land much need not be here said, although,
however small in comparative extent, its population was in 1836 above
half of that of the whole colony of New South Wales. It is, therefore,
and always will be, an important island, though, from its mountainous
character and confined limits, it cannot, of course, be expected to keep
pace with the increasing population of the sister colony. Van Diemen's
Land was discovered in 1642, by the Dutchman, Tasman, who first sailed
round its southern point, and ascertained that the great Southern Land,
or Australia, did not extend, as it had been supposed, to the South
Pole. The island was apparently overlooked, until, in 1804, a colony
was founded there by the English, and it was taken possession of in the
name of his Britannic majesty. Since that time, with the exception of
those early hardships to which all colonies seem liable, it has been
flourishing and increasing. To many Englishmen its colder climate,
(which is yet sufficiently mild,) and its supposed resemblance in
appearance and productions to their native land, have appeared
preferable to all the advantages which the larger island possesses.
Van Diemen's Land is divided from New Holland on the north by Bass's
Straits, its extreme points of latitude are 41° 20', and 43° 40' S., and
of longitude 144° 40', and 148° 20' E. Its shape is irregular, being
much broken by various inlets, but its greatest extent from N. to S. is
reckoned to be about 210 miles, and from E. to W. 150 miles, containing
a surface of about 24,000 square miles. The native inhabitants of this
smaller island have entirely disappeared before the superior weapons and
powers of _civilised_ man.
[Illustration: TRAVELLERS IN THE BUSH.]
CHAPTER I.
THE BUSH, ON OR NEAR THE COAST.
All that country, which remains in a state of nature uncultivated and
uninclosed, is known among the inhabitants of the Australian colonies
by the expressive name of _the Bush_.[3] It includes land and scenery
of every description, and, likewise, no small variety of climate, as
may be supposed from the great extent of the island of New Holland.
Accordingly, without indulging in surmises concerning the yet unknown
parts, it may be safely said, respecting those which have been more or
less frequently visited and accurately explored, that the extremes of
rural beauty and savage wildness of scenery,--smiling plains and barren
deserts, snowy mountains and marshy fens, crowded forests and bare
rocks, green pastures and sandy flats,--every possible variety, in
short, of country and of aspect may be found in that boundless region
which is all included under the general appellation of _the Bush_. To
enter into a particular or regular description of this is clearly no
less impossible than it would be tedious and unprofitable. And yet
there are many descriptions of different portions of it given by
eye-witnesses, many circumstances and natural curiosities belonging to
it, and related to us upon the best authority, which are likely to
please and interest the reader, who can see and adore God everywhere,
and is capable of taking delight in tracing out and following the
footsteps of Almighty Wisdom and Power, even in the wilderness and among
the mountain-tops. It is proposed, therefore, to select a few of the
pictures which have been drawn by the bold explorers of the Bush, so as
to give a general idea of the character, the scenery, the dangers, and
the privations of that portion of the Australian islands. And, having
first become familiar and acquainted with these, we shall be better able
to set a just value, when we turn to the state of the colonies and their
inhabitants, upon that moral courage, that British perseverance and
daring, which have, within the memory of man, changed so many square
miles of bush into fertile and enclosed farms; which have raised a
regular supply of food for many thousands of human beings out of what,
sixty years ago, was, comparatively speaking, a silent and uninhabited
waste. When the troops and convicts, who formed the first colony in New
South Wales, landed at Port Jackson, the inlet on which the town of
Sydney is now situated, "Every man stepped from the boat literally into
a wood. Parties of people were everywhere heard and seen variously
employed; some in clearing ground for the different encampments; others
in pitching tents, or bringing up such stores as were more immediately
wanted; and the spot, which had so lately been the abode of silence and
tranquillity, was now changed to that of noise, clamour, and
confusion."[4]
[3] It is supposed that the word "Sin," applied to the wilderness
mentioned in Exodus xvi. 1, and also to the mountain of "Sinai," has
the same meaning, so that the appellation of "Bush" is no new term.
[4] Collins' "Account of the Colony of New South Wales," p. 11.
And still, even near to the capital town of the colony, there are
portions of wild country left pretty much in their natural and original
state. Of one of these spots, in the direction of Petersham, the
following lively description from the pen of a gentleman only recently
arrived in the colony, may be acceptable. "To the right lies a large and
open glen, covered with cattle and enclosed with _bush_, (so we call the
forest,) consisting of brushwood and gigantic trees; and, above the
trees, the broad sea of Botany Bay, and the two headlands, Solander and
Banks, with a white stone church and steeple, St. Peter's New Town,
conveying an assurance that there are Englishmen of the right sort not
far from us. And now we plunge into the thicket, with scarcely a track
to guide our steps. I have by this time made acquaintance with the
principal giants of the grove. Some are standing, some are felled; the
unmolested monarchs stand full 200 feet high, and heave their white and
spectral limbs in all directions; the fallen monsters, crushed with
their overthrow, startle you with their strange appearances; whilst
underfoot a wild variety of new plants arrest your attention. The
bush-shrubs are exquisitely beautiful. Anon a charred and blackened
trunk stops your path: if you are in spirits, you jump over all; if you
are coming home serious, weary, and warm, you plod your way round.
Well,--in twenty minutes' time you reach a solitary hut,--the first
stage of the walk: you pass the fence, the path becomes narrow,--the
bush thickens round you,--it winds, it rises, it descends: all on a
sudden it opens with a bit of cleared ground full twenty yards in
extent, and a felled tree in the midst. Here let us pause, and,
kneeling on the turf, uncovered, pour forth the voice of health, of
cheerfulness, and gratitude to Him who guides and guards us on our way.
And now, onward again. The land falls suddenly, and we cross a brook,
which a child may stride, but whose waters are a blessing both to man
and beast. And now we rise again; the country is cleared; there is a
flock of sheep, and a man looking after them; to the left, a farmhouse,
offices, &c.; before us the spire of St. James's, Sydney, perhaps three
miles distant, the metropolitan church of the new empire, and, a little
to the right, the rival building of the Roman church. Beneath us lies
Sydney, the base-born mother of this New World, covering a large extent
of ground, and, at the extreme point of land, the signal station, with
the flags displayed, betokening the arrival of a ship from England. Till
now we have met with no living creature, but here, perhaps, the chaise
with Sydney tradesman and his wife, the single horseman, and a straggler
or two on foot, begin to appear."
The general appearance of the coast of New Holland is said to be very
barren and forbidding, much more so than the shores of Van Diemen's Land
are; and it thus often happens that strangers are agreeably disappointed
by finding extreme richness and fertility in many parts of a country,
which at their first landing afforded no such promises of excellence.
One of the most dreary and most curious descriptions of country is to
be met with on the north-western shores of New Holland, quite on the
opposite coast to that where the principal English colony is situated.
The daring explorer of this north-western coast, Captain Grey, has
given a fearful account of his dangers and adventures among the barren
sandstone hills of this district. Its appearance, upon his landing at
Hanover Bay, was that of a line of lofty cliffs, occasionally broken by
sandy beaches; on the summits of these cliffs, and behind the beaches,
rose rocky sandstone hills, very thinly wooded. Upon landing, the shore
was found to be exceedingly steep and broken; indeed the hills are
stated to have looked like the _ruins of hills_, being composed of huge
blocks of red sandstone, confusedly piled together in loose disorder,
and so overgrown with various creeping plants, that the holes between
them were completely hidden, and into these one or other of the party
was continually slipping and falling. The trees were so small and so
scantily covered with leaves that they gave no shelter from the heat of
the sun, which was reflected by the soil with intense force, so that it
was really painful to touch, or even to stand upon, the bare sandstone.
Excessive thirst soon began to be felt, and the party, unprepared for
this, had only two pints of water with them, a portion of which they
were forced to give to their dogs; all three of these, however, died of
exhaustion. After a vain search of some hours, at length the welcome cry
of "Water!" was heard from one of the party; but, alas! upon scrambling
down the deep and difficult ravine where the water ran, it was found to
be quite salty, and they were compelled to get up again as well as they
could, unrefreshed and disheartened. After following the course of the
deep valley upwards about half a mile, they looked down and saw some
birds ascending from the thick woods growing below, and, knowing these
white cockatoos to be a sure sign of water very near, the weary party
again descended, and found a pool of brackish water, which, in their
situation, appeared to afford the most delicious draughts, although they
shortly afterwards paid the penalty of yet more intolerable thirst,
arising from making too free with a beverage of such quality.
The nature of the country near Hanover Bay, where the party belonging
to Captain Grey was exploring, is most remarkable. The summits of the
ranges of sandstone hills were generally a level sort of table-land, but
this level was frequently broken and sometimes nearly covered with lofty
detached pillars of rock, forming the most curious shapes in their
various grouping. In one place they looked like the aisle of a church
unroofed, in another there stood, upon a huge base, what appeared to be
the legs of an ancient statue, from which the body had been knocked
away; and fancy might make out many more such resemblances. Some of
these time-worn sandy columns were covered with sweet-smelling creepers,
and their bases were hidden by various plants growing thickly around
them. The tops of all were nearly on a level, and the height of those
that were measured was upwards of forty feet. The cause of this singular
appearance of the country was at length discovered by the noise of water
running under the present surface, in the hollows of the sandstone, and
gradually carrying away the soil upon which the top surface rests.
Formerly, no doubt, the level of the whole country was even with the
tops of the broken pillars, and much higher; and hereafter what is now
at the surface will give way beneath the wasting of the streams that
flow below, and no traces of its present height will be left, except in
those places where the power of the water is less felt, which will rear
up their lofty heads, and bear witness by their presence of the ruin
that will have taken place.
In wandering through a country of this description, how natural does the
following little remark of Captain Grey appear! A plant was observed
here, which, in appearance and smell, exactly resembled the jasmine of
England; and it would be difficult to give an idea of the feeling of
pleasure derived from the sight of this simple emblem of home. But,
while the least plant or tree that could remind them of home was gladly
welcomed, there were many new and remarkable objects to engage the
attention of the travellers. Among these the large green ants, and the
gouty stem tree may be particularly noticed. The ants are, it would
seem, confined to the sandstone country, and are very troublesome. The
gouty stem tree is so named from the resemblance borne by its immense
trunk to the limb of a gouty person. It is an unsightly but very useful
tree, producing an agreeable and nourishing fruit, as well as a gum and
bark that may be prepared for food. Upon some of these trees were found
the first rude efforts of savages to gain the art of writing, being a
number of marks, supposed to denote the quantity of fruit gathered from
the tree each year, all but the last row being constantly scratched out,
thus:
[Illustration]
But, miserable as the general appearance of that part of the
north-western coast of New Holland undoubtedly is, yet are there many
rich and lovely spots to be found in its neighbourhood; and, further
inland, vast tracts of fertile country appear to want only civilised and
Christian men for their inhabitants. What is wanting in the ensuing
picture but civilisation and religion, in order to make it as perfect as
any earthly abode can be? "From the summit of the hills on which we
stood," (says Captain Grey) "an almost precipitous descent led into a
fertile plain below; and, from this part, away to the southward, for
thirty to forty miles, stretched a low, luxuriant country, broken by
conical peaks and rounded hills, which were richly clothed with grass
to their very summits. The plains and hills were both thinly wooded,
and curving lines of shady trees marked out the courses of numerous
streams." This beautiful prospect was over a volcanic district, and with
the sandstone which they were just leaving, they were bidding farewell
to barrenness and desolation. It was near this beautiful spot, and in a
country no less rich and delightful, that the party of adventurers was
overtaken by the violent rains, which occur in those hot climates, and
which struck the men with so great chill, that they were driven to make
trial of an odd way of getting warm. Some of them got into a stream, the
waters of which were comparatively warm, and thus saved themselves from
the painful feeling arising from the very cold rain falling on the pores
of the skin, which had previously been opened by continued perspiration.
The rains appear during the wet season to fall very heavily and
constantly in North-Western Australia, and though a good supply of these
is an advantage to an occupied country, well provided with roads, it is
a great cause of trouble to first explorers who have to find a ford over
every stream, and a passage across every swamp, and who often run the
risk of getting into a perfectly impassable region. Of this sort, alike
differing from the barren sandstone and the volcanic fertile country,
was a third track through which Captain Grey endeavoured to pass. A
vast extent of land lying low and level near the banks of the river
Glenelg,[5] and well fitted, if properly drained, for the abundant
growth of useful and valuable produce, was found, during the rainy
season, to be in the state of a foul marsh, overgrown with vegetation,
choking up the fresh water so as to cause a flood ankle-deep; and this
marshy ground, being divided by deep muddy ditches, and occasionally
overflown by the river, offered, as may be supposed, no small hindrances
to the progress of the travellers. In some places it was quite
impossible, from the thickly-timbered character of its banks, to
approach the main stream; in others they appeared to be almost entirely
surrounded by sluggish waters, of which they knew neither the depth nor
the nature of their banks. Elsewhere, unable to cross some deep stream,
the explorers were driven miles out of their way, and sometimes even in
their tents, the water stood to the depth of two or three inches. On one
occasion, when the party was almost surrounded by swamps, their loaded
ponies sank nearly up to the shoulders in a bog, whichever way they
attempted to move, and from this spot they had two miles to travel
before they could reach the nearest rising ground. The river Glenelg was
at this time overflowing its banks, and, to the natural alarm of men
wandering in its rich valley, drift-wood, reeds, grass, &c. were seen
lodged in the trees above their heads, fifteen feet beyond the present
level of the water, affording a proof of what floods in that country
_had been_, and, of course, _might be_ again. However, this very soil in
so warm a climate, only about sixteen degrees south of the equator,
would be admirably fitted for the cultivation of rice, which needs
abundance of moisture. But little do the peaceful inhabitants of a
cultivated country, well drained, and provided with bridges and good
roads, think of the risk and hardships undergone by the first explorers
of a new land, however great its capabilities, and whatever may be its
natural advantages.
[5] This river must not be confounded with another of the same name in
South Australia.
But it was not in the plain country alone, that Captain Grey found spots
of great richness and fertility, as the following description of the
happy vallies frequently found among the mountain-ranges may testify:
One may be chosen as a specimen of many. At its northern end it was
about four miles wide, being bounded on all sides by rocky, wooded
ranges, with dark gullies from which numerous petty streams run down
into the main one in the centre. The valley gradually grows narrow
towards the south, and is bounded by steep cliffs betwixt which the
waters find an outlet. Sometimes a valley of this kind, most beautiful,
most productive, will contain from four to five thousand acres of nearly
level land, shut out from the rest of the world by the boundary of hills
that enclose it. How great a contrast to these lovely vallies does the
description, given by another traveller in a different district,
present! Nothing, according to Mr. Oxley's account, can be more
monotonous and wearying, than the dull, unvarying aspect of the level
and desolate region through which the Lachlan winds its sluggish course.
One tree, one soil, one water, and one description of bird, fish, or
animal, prevails alike for ten miles, and for a hundred. And, if we turn
from this to a third picture of desolation mingled with sublimity, the
contrast appears yet more heightened. Among the hills behind Port
Macquarrie on the eastern coast, Mr. Oxley came suddenly upon the spot
where a river, (the Apsley,) leaves the gently-rising and fine country
through which it had been passing, and falls into a deep glen. At this
spot the country seems cleft in twain, and divided to its very
foundation, a ledge of rocks separates the waters, which, falling over
a perpendicular rock, 235 feet in height, form a grand cascade. At a
distance of 300 yards, and an elevation of as many feet, the travellers
were wetted with the spray. After winding through the cleft rocks about
400 yards, the river again falls, in one single sheet, upwards of 100
feet, and continues, in a succession of smaller falls, about a quarter
of a mile lower, where the cliffs are of a perpendicular height, on each
side exceeding 1,200 feet; the width of the edges being about 200 yards.
From thence it descends, as before described, until all sight of it is
lost from the vast elevation of the rocky hills, which it divides and
runs through. The different points of this deep glen, seem as if they
would fit into the opposite openings forming the smaller glens on either
side.[6]
[6] See Oxley's Journal, p. 299.
Amid scenery like that which has now been described, varying from
grandeur to tameness, from fertility to barrenness, from extreme beauty
to extreme ugliness, but always possessing, at least, the recommendation
of being _new_, the wanderers in the Bush are delighted to range. There
is a charm to enterprising spirits in the freedom, the stillness, and
even in the dangers and privations, of these vast wilds, which, to such
spirits, scenes of a more civilised character can never possess. If it
be true,--and who has never felt it to be so?--that
"God made the country and man made the town,"
much more distinctly is God's power visible in the lonely wastes of
Australia, much more deeply do men feel, while passing through those
regions, that it is His hand that has planted the wilderness with trees,
and peopled the desert with living things. Under these impressions men
learn to delight in exploring the bush, and when they meet, as they
often do, with sweet spots, on which Nature has secretly lavished her
choicest gifts, most thoroughly do they enjoy, most devotedly do they
admire, their beauty. In travelling some miles to the northward of
Perth, a town on the Swan River, Captain Grey fell in with a charming
scene, which he thus describes: "Our" station, "this night, had a beauty
about it, which would have made any one, possessed with the least
enthusiasm, fall in love with a bush life. We were sitting on a
gently-rising ground, which sloped away gradually to a picturesque lake,
surrounded by wooded hills,--while the moon shone so brightly on the
lake, that the distance was perfectly clear, and we could distinctly see
the large flocks of wild fowl, as they passed over our heads, and then
splashed into the water, darkening and agitating its silvery surface; in
front of us blazed a cheerful fire, round which were the dark forms of
the natives, busily engaged in roasting ducks for us; the foreground was
covered with graceful grass-trees, and, at the moment we commenced
supper, I made the natives set fire to the dried tops of two of these,
and by the light of these splendid chandeliers, which threw a red glare
over the whole forest in our vicinity, we ate our evening meal; then,
closing round the fire, rolled ourselves up in our blankets, and laid
down to sleep."
The very same feeling of religion, which heightens the pleasures and
gives a keener relish to the enjoyments of life in these lonely places,
can also afford comfort, and hope, and encouragement under those perils
and privations which first explorers must undergo. Religion is the sun
that brightens our summer hours, and gives us, even through the darkest
and most stormy day, light, and confidence, and certainty. And when a
small body of men are left alone, as it were, in the wilderness with
their God, whatever occurs to them, whether of a pleasing or of a trying
character, is likely to lift up their souls to their Maker, in whom
"they live and move, and have their being." When the patient traveller,
of whose adventures in Western Australia so much mention has been made,
had waited weather-bound on a lonely coast, never before trodden by the
foot of civilised man, until eight days had been consumed in watching to
no purpose the winds and the waves,--when, at a distance of thousands of
miles from their native country, and many hundreds of miles from the
nearest English colony, he and his little party were wasting strength
and provisions in a desert spot; from which their only means of escaping
was in one frail boat, which the fury of the sea forbade them to think
of launching upon the deep,--when the men, under these circumstances,
were becoming more and more gloomy and petulant, where was it that the
commander sought and found consolation? It was in religion. And the
witness of one who has successfully gone through trials of this kind, is
well deserving of the utmost attention. "I feel assured," says Captain
Grey, in his account of this trial of patience, "that, but for the
support I derived from prayer, and frequent perusal and meditation of
the Scriptures, I should never have been able to have borne myself in
such a manner as to have maintained discipline and confidence amongst
the rest of the party; nor in all my sufferings did I ever lose the
consolation derived from a firm reliance upon the goodness of
Providence. It is only those who go forth into perils and dangers,
amidst which human foresight and strength can but little avail, and who
find themselves, day after day, protected by an unseen influence, and
ever and again snatched from the very jaws of destruction, by a power
which is not of this world, who can at all estimate the knowledge of
one's own weakness and littleness, and the firm reliance and trust upon
the goodness of the Creator, which the human breast is capable of
feeling. Like all other lessons which are of great and lasting benefit
to man, this one must be learned amid much sorrowing and woe; but,
having learned it, it is but the sweeter from the pain and toil which
are undergone in the acquisition."
The mention of these trials to which travellers in the bush are
peculiarly liable, brings naturally to mind that worst of all
privations, a want of water, to which they are so frequently exposed.
The effects of extreme thirst are stated to have been shown, not merely
in weakness and want, in a parched and burning mouth, but likewise in a
partial loss of the senses of seeing and hearing. Indeed, the powers of
the whole frame are affected, and, upon moving, after a short interval
of rest, the blood rushes up into the head with a fearful and painful
violence. A party of men reduced to this condition have very little
strength, either of mind or body, left them, and it is stated, that, in
cases of extreme privation, the worst characters have always least
control over their appetites.[7] Imagine men marching through a barren
and sandy country, a thirsty land where no water is, at the rate of
about two miles in an hour and a quarter, when, suddenly, they come upon
the edge of a dried-up swamp, and behold the footmark of a native,
imprinted on the sand,--the first beginning of hope, a sign of animal
life, which of course implies the means of supporting it. Many more
footsteps are soon seen, and some wells of the natives are next
discovered, but alas! all appear dry. Kaiber, a native companion of the
party, suddenly starts up from a bed of reeds, where he has been burying
his head in a hole of _soft mud_, with which he had completely swelled
himself out, and of which he had helped himself to pretty well half the
supply. It is so thick that it needs straining through a handkerchief,
yet so welcome, after three days and two nights of burning thirst,
under a fierce sun, that each man throws himself down beside the hole,
exclaiming "Thank God!" and then greedily swallows a few mouthfulls of
the liquid mud, declaring it to be the most delicious water, with a
peculiar flavour, better than any that had ever before been tasted by
him. Upon scraping the mud quite out of the hole, water begins slowly to
trickle in again.[8] As might be expected, game abounds here, driven by
the general dryness of the country to these springs. But the trembling
hand of a man worn down by fatigue and thirst is not equal to wield a
gun, or direct its fire to any purpose; so it seems as if thirst were
escaped for a time, in order that hunger might occupy its place. At
length, however, the native kills a cockatoo, which had been wounded
by a shot; and this bird, with a spoonful of flour to each man, and a
tolerable abundance of liquid mud, becomes the means of saving the lives
of the party.
[7] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. p. 38.
[8] An expedient used by the natives in Torres Strait, on the
northern coast of Australia, for getting water, may here be noticed,
both for its simplicity and cleverness. "Long slips of bark are tied
round the smooth stems of a tree called the _pandanus_, and the loose
ends are led into the shells of a huge sort of cockle, which are placed
beneath. By these slips the rain which runs down the branches and stem
of the tree is conducted into the shells, each of which will contain
two or three pints; thus, forty or fifty placed under different trees
will supply a good number of men."--FLINDERS' _Voyage to Terra
Australis_, vol. ii. p. 114.
A different plan for improving the water that is hot and muddy, is thus
detailed by Major Mitchell. To obtain a cool and clean draught the
blacks scratched a hole in the soft sand beside the pool, thus making a
filter, in which the water rose cooled, but muddy. Some tufts of long
grass were then thrown in, through which they sucked the cooler water,
purified from the sand or gravel. I was glad to follow their example,
and found the sweet fragrance of the grass an agreeable addition to the
luxury of drinking.
Such is the picture, taken from life, of some of the privations
undergone, during dry seasons, in certain portions of the bush, and we
must, at the risk of being tedious, repeat again the witness of a
military man, of one who has seen much of the world, respecting the best
source of comfort and support under these distressing trials. At such
times, upon halting, when the others of the party would lie wearily
down, and brood over their melancholy state, Captain Grey would keep his
journal, (a most useful repository of facts,) and this duty being done,
he would open a small New Testament, his companion through all his
wanderings, from which book he drank in such deep draughts of comfort,
that his spirits were always good. And on another occasion, he shared
the last remaining portion of provision with his native servant; after
which he actually felt glad that it was gone, and that he no longer had
to struggle with the pangs of hunger, and put off eating it to a future
hour. Having completed this last morsel, he occupied himself a little
with his journal, then read a few chapters in the New Testament, and,
after fulfilling these duties, he felt himself as contented and cheerful
as ever he had been in the most fortunate moments of his life.
As in life, those objects which we have not, but of which we think we
stand in need, are ever present to our fancy, so in these thirsty soils
the mere appearance of that water, of which the reality would be so
grateful, is frequently known to mock the sight of man. A remarkable
specimen of this was seen at the plains of Kolaina (Deceit), in
North-Western Australia. From a sand hill, not very far from the
coast, was seen a splendid view of a noble lake, dotted about with many
beautiful islands. The water had a glassy and fairy-like appearance, and
it was an imposing feeling to sit down alone on the lofty eminence, and
survey the great lake on which no European eye had ever before rested,
and which was cut off from the sea by a narrow and lofty ridge of sandy
hills. It was proposed at once to launch the boats upon this water, but
a little closer survey was thought prudent, and then it proved that the
lake was not so near as it had seemed to be, and that there were
extensive plains of mud and sand lying between it and the rising ground.
It appeared to be about a mile distant, and all were still certain that
it was water they saw, for the shadows of the low hills near it, as well
as those of the trees upon them, could be distinctly traced on the
unruffled surface.[9] As they advanced, the water retreated, and at
last surrounded them. The party now saw that they were deceived by
_mirage_,[10] or vapour, which changed the sandy mud of the plains they
were crossing into the resemblance, at a distance, of a noble piece of
water. In reading the history of mankind, how often may we apply this
disappointment to moral objects! how very frequently do the mistaken
eyes of mortals eagerly gaze upon the _mirage_ raised by falsehood, as
though they were beholding the living waters of truth itself! What
appearance, indeed, does the whole world present to one who rests upon
the everlasting hill of the gospel,--the rock upon which Christ's church
has been built,--except it be that of one vast plain of Kolaina, or
deceit? It was no long time after the explorers of the north-western
coast of New Holland had been mocked by the _mirage_ or vapour which has
just been spoken of, that they had a fearful lesson of the vain and
shadowy nature of human hopes and expectations. When they had first
arrived off the coast, on that expedition, they had chosen an island,
named Bernier Island, upon which to bury, for the sake of safety, their
stores and provisions, so that they might return to them whenever it
should be necessary. Bernier Island is a barren spot, formed of
limestone, shells, and sand, and without a single tree or blade of
grass upon it, but only wretched, scrubby bushes, amidst which the light
sand and shells are drifted by the winds. Such was the remote spot,
surrounded by the ocean's waves, yet not very far from the main shore,
upon which it was resolved to conceal their store of necessaries,
secure, as it was supposed, from every enemy. In little more than three
weeks, during which the adventurers had gone through many perils, and
much stormy weather, they returned again, not without some difficulty,
to their stores. But on approaching Bernier Island with their boat they
scarcely knew it again, so vast a difference had the recent storms made
in its outward appearance, so fearful were the pranks which the
hurricane had played upon a land which was, in fact, nothing but loose
sand, heaped upon a bed of limestone. The place where their stores had
been securely left was gone, the remains of the flour-casks, salt
provisions, &c. were scattered about in various directions; and the
whole spot so entirely altered that it could hardly be ascertained,
except by the fragments that were seen near it. How to get back again to
Swan River, the nearest British settlement, without provisions, without
water, without strength, was indeed a perplexing inquiry, and to answer
this the leader of the party, having left his companions for a while,
set himself seriously to work. Sitting down upon a rock on the shore,
he felt the gale blowing fiercely in his face, and the spray of the
breakers dashing over him; nothing could be more gloomy and dreary.
Inland, no objects were to be seen but a mere bed of rock covered with
drifting sand, on which were growing stunted, scrubby bushes; and former
experience taught him, that no fresh water was to be found in the
island. Several plans of escape, all apparently alike hopeless, offered
themselves to his mind, and, more fully to compose himself, he took
forth his constant companion in the wilderness, and read a few chapters
of Holy Writ. Contentment and resignation were thus in some degree
gained, and he soon joined the rest of the party, having resolved upon
that plan, which God's providence and mercy finally enabled him to carry
out, without losing, from a party of twelve, constantly exposed during a
very long journey to most dreadful toils, hunger, and thirst, more than
one man only, who died at no great distance from the English colony.
That one person was a youth of eighteen years of age, who had come out
from England, led solely by an enterprising spirit, and not with any
view of settling. On the return of the party under Captain Grey towards
Swan River, they were so sadly pinched by want of provisions, and by
thirst, that five of them were obliged to start with their leader, in
order to reach the British colony by forced marches, and Frederick
Smith, the youthful adventurer, was one of those that remained behind.
After undergoing extreme trials, which from his age he was less able to
bear than the others, he, at last, became quite worn out, and sat down,
one evening, on a bank, declaring that he could go no further. He was
behind the rest of the party, and the man who was with him went and told
his companions that he thought Smith was dying. The next morning that
man went back for him; but, being himself very weak, he did not go far
enough, at all events he did not find him. Probably, the poor sufferer
had crawled a little out of the track, for, afterwards, when a party was
sent from Swan River in search of him, they traced, with the help of a
native, his footsteps up a bare sand hill to the height of twelve or
fourteen feet, and there, turning about to the left, they found the
object of their search stretched lifeless upon his back, in the midst of
a thick bush, where he seemed to have laid down to sleep, being half
wrapped up in his blanket.[11] All his little articles of baggage were
very near him, and, from the posture in which he was found, it appeared
that the immediate cause of his death was a rush of blood to the head,
which would occasion no great suffering in his last moments. A grave was
scraped in the sand by the searching party, and Frederic Smith was
buried in the wilderness wherein he had died, and which he had been
among the first to explore, about seventy-six miles northward of the
Swan River. The grave was made smooth, and a piece of wood found upon
the neighbouring beach was placed at its head, and then the solitary
spot was forsaken for ever by the mourning companions of the departed
youth, who left
"Heaven's fresh gales, and the ocean's wave,
Alternate to sigh o'er the wanderer's grave."[12]
[9] "The most singular quality of this vapour or _mirage_, as it is
termed, is its power of reflection; objects are seen as from the
surface of a lake, and their figure is sometimes changed into the
most fantastic shapes."--CRICHTON'S _Arabia_, vol. i. p. 41.
[10] See two other curious accounts of the effects of _mirage_
and refraction in Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp.
56 and 171.
[11] The artless description of this sad discovery, given by one of
the natives who accompanied the party, may be not unworthy of the
reader's notice. "Away we go, away, away, along the shore away, away,
away, a long distance we go. I see Mr. Smith's footsteps ascending a
sand-hill, onwards I go regarding his footsteps. I see Mr. Smith dead.
We commence digging the earth. Two _sleeps_ had he been dead; greatly
did I weep, and much I grieved. In his blanket folding him, we scraped
away the earth. We scrape earth into the grave, we scrape the earth
into the grave, a little wood we place in it. Much earth we heap upon
it--much earth we throw up. No dogs can dig there, so much earth we
throw up. The sun had just inclined to the westward as we laid him in
the ground."--GREY'S _Travels in Western Australia_, vol. ii. p. 350.
[12] See a like melancholy history of the death of Mr. Cunningham, in
Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 180, _et seq._ How thrilling
must have been the recollections of his fellow-travellers in the
wilderness at the simple incident thus related: "In the bed of the
river, where I went this evening to enjoy the sight of the famished
cattle drinking, I came accidentally on an old footstep of Mr.
Cunningham in the clay, now baked hard by the sun. Four months had
elapsed, and up to this time the clay bore the last records of our
late fellow-traveller."
It was only six weeks before this untimely end of the young explorer,
that he had set out, full of hope, on the long journey by the coast,
which the party made on their return, and had been a leading character
in such beautiful pictures of life in the Australian wilderness as this
which is given by his friend Captain Grey. "We soon found ourselves at
the foot of a lofty cascade, down which a little water was slowly
dropping; and, on climbing to its summit, it appeared to be so well
fitted for a halting-place for the night, that I determined to remain
there. The men made themselves comfortable near the water-holes, and
Mr. Smith and myself crept into a little cave, which occasionally served
as a resting-place for the natives, the remains of whose fires were
scattered about. A wild woodland and rocky scenery was around us; and
when the moon rose and shed her pale light over all, I sat with Mr.
Smith on the edge of the waterfall, gazing by turns into the dim woody
abyss below, and at the red fires and picturesque groups of the men,
than which fancy could scarcely imagine a wilder scene."
It is no uncommon mistake, with persons who ought to know better, to
magnify the toils and hardships endured by the body, while those labours
and anxieties that the mind undergoes are disregarded and forgotten.
Every man engaged in an exploring party in the bush, for instance, has
his severe trials to go through, but their trials are not to be compared
to those of the commander of the party. How often when the rest are
sleeping must he be watchful? How frequently, while others are gay, must
he feel thoughtful! These remarks may easily be applied to the following
description of the coast near Shark's Bay, in the N. W. of the island of
New Holland. There was great beauty in the scenery, both the sky and the
water had that peculiar brilliancy about them to be seen only in fine
weather, and in a very warm climate. To the west lay a boundless extent
of sea, to the eastward was a low shore fringed with trees, not only
down to the water's edge, but forming little green knots of foliage in
the ocean itself; behind these trees were low wooded hills, and in
front of them were numbers of pelicans and water-fowl. There was only
about three feet depth of clear transparent water, through which were
seen many beautiful and large shells, and various strange-looking fish,
at some of which last one or other of Captain Grey's men would sometimes
make an attack, while loud peals of laughter would rise from the rest,
when the pursuer, too anxious to gain his object, would miss his stroke
at the fish, or, stumbling, roll headlong in the water. The fineness of
the day, the novelty of the scenery, and the rapid way they were making,
made the poor fellows forget past dangers, as well as those they had yet
to undergo. But this was more than their commander was able to do.
"My own meditations," adds Captain Grey, "were of a more melancholy
character, for I feared that the days of some of the light-hearted group
were already numbered, and would soon be brought to a close. Amid such
scenes and thoughts we were swept along, while this unknown coast, which
so many had anxiously yet vainly wished to see, passed before our eyes
like a dream, and ere many more years have hurried by, it is possible
that the recollection of this day may be as such to me."
Among the wonders of Nature to be met with in the Australian bush, the
large rivers occasionally dried up to their very lowest depth by the
extreme drought, are very remarkable. Few natural objects can equal in
beauty and utility a river in its proper state,--
"Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full;"
but few can exceed in terror and destruction a large river in time of
flood; while nothing, surely, can surpass in horror and desolation the
same object when its stream is wasted, its waters disappeared, its
usefulness and beauty alike gone. This spectacle is, fortunately, but
rarely seen, except in Australia, and even there only after very dry
seasons. One river seen in this state consisted of several channels or
beds, divided from each other by long strips of land, which in times of
flood become islands; the main channel was about 270 yards in breadth,
and the height of its bank was about fifteen feet. After the exploring
party had passed the highest point in the channel to which the tide
flowed from the sea, this huge river bed was perfectly dry, and looked
the most mournful, deserted spot imaginable. Occasionally water-holes
were found eighteen or twenty feet in depth, and it is from these alone
that travellers have been enabled to satisfy their thirst in crossing
over the unexplored parts of the bush, where no water could elsewhere be
obtained. Still, notwithstanding the extreme drought by which they were
surrounded, the strangers could see by the remaining drift wood, which
had been washed high up into the neighbouring trees, what rapid and
overpowering currents sometimes swept along the now dry channel.
On another occasion the same singular object is powerfully described,
and the feelings of men, who had long been in need of water, at
beholding a sight like this can scarcely be imagined. Beneath them lay
the dry bed of a large river, its depth at this point being between
forty and fifty feet, and its breadth upwards of 300 yards; it was at
times subject to terrible floods, for along its banks lay the trunks of
immense trees, giants of the forest, which had been formerly washed down
from the interior of the country; yet nothing now met their craving eyes
but a vast sandy channel, which scorched their eyeballs, as the rays of
the sun were reflected back from its white, glistening bed. Above and
below this spot, however, large pools of water were found, and even
here, when a hole of a few inches depth was scraped in the dry channel,
it soon became filled with water which oozed into it from the sand. At
another stream, which the same exploring party afterwards fell in with,
they were less successful, and found all the pools entirely dry. The sun
was intensely hot, and the poor men grew faint for want of water, while
it heightened their sufferings, that they stood upon the brink of a
river, or wandered along its banks with eager, piercing eyes, and an air
of watchfulness peculiar to those who seek for that on which their lives
depend. One while they explored a shallow, stony part of the bed, which
was parched up and blackened by the fiery sun: their steps were slow and
listless, and it was plainly to be seen how faint, weak, and weary they
were; the next minute another pool would be seen ahead, the depth of
which the eye could not at a distance reach; now they hurried on towards
it with a dreadful look of eager anxiety--the pool was reached--the
bottom seen; but, alas! no water: then they paused, and looked one at
the other with an air of utter despair. The order to march from this
distressing spot was unwillingly and slowly obeyed. So fondly does the
human soul cling to the very faintest semblance of hope, that the
adventurers would rather have wandered up and down these barren and arid
banks, in vain search after water, than tear themselves away by one bold
effort from the deceitful expectations held out to them by the empty
channel.
It was on his return from a journey attended by perils and privations
like these, that Captain Grey relates the following simple occurrence,
which may help to make men value more highly, or rather prize more
justly, the many little comforts they may possess: The Captain had
left some of his men behind, and was hastening with all speed to the
settlement of Perth, in Western Australia, in order to get assistance
and necessaries for them. Starting an hour and a half before daylight,
he reached the hut of Williams, the farthest settler, north of Perth, in
time to find the wife and another woman at breakfast. He had known Mrs.
Williams, and, forgetting how strangely want and suffering had changed
his appearance for the worse, he expected her to remember him again. But
he was mistaken for a crazy Malay, nicknamed Magic, who used to visit
the houses of the out-settlers. Hurt at his reception, "I am not Magic,"
exclaimed he. "Well then, my good man, who are you?" inquired they,
laughing. "One who is almost starved," was his solemn reply. "Will you
take this, then?" said the hostess, handing him a cup of tea she was
raising to her lips. "With all my heart and soul, and God reward you for
it," was the answer; and he swallowed the delicious draught. Who can
fail of being reminded, upon reading this anecdote, of those gracious
and beautiful words of his Redeemer--"Whosoever shall give you a cup of
water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say
unto you, he shall not lose his reward"? (Mark ix. 41.)
The mention of the out-settler's hut, in which Captain Grey met with
this small, but most acceptable, kindness, may serve to remind us of an
object, which, although not, strictly speaking, belonging to the bush,
is, nevertheless, very frequently seen in that part of the wild country
which is most visited,--the portions of it which are adjoining to the
British settlements. In these parts of the bush the small hut of the
humble out-settler may often be espied; and, while we speak of the toils
and privations frequently undergone by this class of people at first, we
must not forget that they are thus opening to themselves a way to future
wealth and comfort. Nor, be it recollected, is the condition of an
out-settler in the Australian bush any more a fair average specimen of
that of the inhabitants of the colonies than the owner of a mud-hovel
raised on some English heath would be of the inhabitants of the parish
in which he happens to dwell. One strong difference may be seen in the
two cases. In England the cottager must, in all likelihood, live and die
a cottager, as his fathers have done before him, and his children will
after him; whereas, in the Australian colonies, with prudence and the
Divine blessing, (without which a man can do well nowhere) the humble
out-settler may gradually, yet rapidly, grow up into the wealthy and
substantial farmer and landowner. Bearing in mind these facts, the
following sketch of the premises of an out-settler on the river
Williams, at the back of the Swan River settlement, in Western
Australia, may be at once instructive, and not unsuitable to the subject
of this chapter. The house was made of a few upright poles, to which, at
the top, cross poles were fastened, and a covering of rude thatch tied
upon the whole. It was open at both ends, and exposed to the wind,
which, as the situation was high, was very unpleasant. Here, however,
were the elements of future riches, a very large flock of sheep, in fair
condition, also a well-supplied stock-yard, and cattle in beautiful
order; while upwards of twenty dogs, for hunting the kangaroo, completed
the establishment. The settlers were four in number, and, except four
soldiers quartered about sixteen miles from them, there were no other
Europeans within fifty miles of the spot. All stores and necessaries
were sent from a distance of 120 miles, through a country without roads,
and exposed to the power of the native inhabitants. In this but might
be seen a lively picture of the trials occasionally endured by _first
settlers_; they had no flour, tea, sugar, meat, or any provision
whatever, except their live stock and the milk of their cattle, their
sole dependence for any other article of food being the kangaroo dogs,
and the only thing their visitors were able to do to better their
situation was to leave them some shot. All other circumstances were on
the same scale with them, and one, supposing them to have been faithful
members of the Church of their native land, must have been the most
grievous privation of all:--
"The sound of the church-going bell
Those valleys and rocks never heard;
Never sighed at the sound of a knell,
Nor smiled when a sabbath appear'd."
They had but one old clasp knife; there was but one small bed, for one
person, the others sleeping on the ground every night, with little or no
covering; they had no soap to wash themselves or their clothes, yet they
submitted cheerfully to all these privations, considering them to be
necessary consequences of their situation. Two of these out-settlers
were gentlemen, not only by birth, but also in thought and manner; nor
can it be doubted that they were really happier than many an idle young
man to be seen lounging about in England, a burden to himself and to his
friends. Idleness and vice have often in England been the means of
levelling with the dust the lordly mansion, whilst industry, in the
wilds of Australia, can rear a comfortable dwelling on the very spot
where once stood the hut of the out-settler.
Scattered round the shores of New Holland at various distances are many
small islands and rocks, the prevailing appearance of which is that of
extreme barrenness. On many of these it would seem that no human beings
had ever set their feet before the Europeans, and especially the
English, explored those coasts. In several parts the natives were
without any means of conveyance across even a narrow arm of the sea,
and thus the brute creation were left in a long and undisturbed
possession of many of the isles which lie near the main land. In the
more barren and miserable of these the bird called the _sooty petrel_,
and the seal, are the principal animals to be found, whilst in those
that are somewhat more fruitful, kangaroos, also, and emus are to be
found; the smaller breed of kangaroos being usually met with in the
smaller islands, and the larger species on the main land or in islands
of a greater extent. The following short account, by Captain Flinders,
may serve as a specimen of the lesser isles: Great flocks of petrels
had been noticed coming in from the sea to the island, and early next
morning, a boat was sent from the ship to collect a quantity of them for
food, and to kill seals, but the birds were already moving off, and no
more than four seals, of the hair kind, were procured. Upon the men
going on shore, the island was found to be a rock of granite, but this
was covered with a crust of limestone or chalk, in some places fifty
feet thick. The soil at the top was little better than sand, but was
overspread with shrubs, mostly of one kind, a whitish velvet-like
plant, amongst which the petrels, who make their nests underground,
had burrowed everywhere, and, from the extreme heat of the sun, the
reflection of it from the sand, and frequently being sunk half way up
the leg in these holes, the sailors, little used to difficulties in
land-travelling, were scarcely able to reach the highest hill near the
middle of the island. It was in the neighbourhood of scattered sandy
spots of this description that the sailors of Captain Flinders would
often endeavour successfully to improve their ordinary fare by catching
a few fish. On one occasion they were very much hindered by three
monstrous sharks, in whose presence no other fish dared to appear.
After some attempts, and with much difficulty, they took one of these
creatures, and got it on board the ship. In length it was no more than
twelve feet three inches, but the body measured eight feet round. Among
the vast quantity of things contained in the stomach was a tolerably
large seal, bitten in two, and swallowed with half of the spear sticking
in it, with which it had probably been killed by the natives. The stench
of this ravenous monster was great, even before it was dead; and, when
the stomach was opened, it became intolerable.
Quite contrary, in many respects, to these sandy islands, and yet but
little superior to them in fruitfulness, are some of those which were
visited by the same enterprising voyager on the eastern coast of
Australia. Their shores were very low, so much so, that frequently a
landing is impossible, and generally very difficult, on account of the
mud; and often a vast quantity of mangrove trees are found growing in
the swamps that surround the shores, and choking the soil with a rank
vegetation. On one of these islands when a landing had been effected
without a very great deal of trouble, and a rising ground was reached,
the sides of this little eminence were found to be so steep, and were so
thickly covered with trees and shrubs, bound together and interlaced
with strong plants, resembling vines in their growth, that all attempts
to reach the top of the hill were without success. It appeared to be
almost easier to have climbed up the trees, and have scrambled from one
to another upon the vines, than to have threaded a way through the
perplexing net-work formed by these plants, beneath which all was
darkness and uncertainty.
There are, however, some few islands, which promise to become, at a
future time, inhabited and cultivated spots, being neither so entirely
naked, nor yet so choked up by a poor and hungry vegetation concealing a
thin soil, as those already described. Of these more smiling spots the
large island, off the western coast, called Kangaroo Island, may serve
for a specimen. A thick wood covered almost all that part of the island
which was seen from the ship by Captain Flinders, but the trees that
were alive were not so large as those lying on the ground, nor as the
dead trees still standing upright. Those upon the ground were so
abundant, that, in ascending the higher land, a considerable part of the
walk was upon them. No inhabitants were seen in the island, but yet it
seemed, from the appearance of the trees, as though, at the distance of
some years, the woods had been destroyed by fire. The soil, so far as it
was seen, was thought very good, and the trees bore witness of this by
their size and growth; yet so frequently do travellers, like doctors,
disagree, that another explorer, Captain Sturt, pronounces this spot to
be not by any means fertile. The quantity of kangaroos found here was
remarkable enough to give a name to the island; and so entirely were
these harmless animals strangers to the power of man, that they suffered
themselves to be approached and killed without any efforts to escape.
Captain Flinders, on the first day of landing, killed ten, and the rest
of his party made up the number to thirty-one taken on board in the
course of the day, the least weighing 69 and the largest 125 lbs. The
whole ship's company were employed that afternoon in skinning and
cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful feast they afforded to men
who for four months had scarcely tasted any fresh provisions. Never,
perhaps, had the dominion held here by these creatures been before
disturbed; the seals, indeed, shared it with the kangaroos on the
shores, but they seemed to dwell peacefully together, each animal
occasionally wandering into the haunts of the other, so that a gun fired
at a kangaroo upon the beach would sometimes bring forth two or three
bellowing seals from underneath bushes a good deal further from the
water-side. The seal, indeed, was the most knowing creature of the
two, for its actions bespoke that it distinguished the sailors from
kangaroos, whereas the latter not uncommonly appeared to mistake them
for seals. Indeed it is curious to trace the total absence of all
knowledge of man in these distant isles of Australia. In another island
a white eagle was seen making a motion to pounce down upon the British
sailors, whom it evidently took for kangaroos, never, probably, having
seen an upright animal, (except that, when moving upon its hind legs,)
and naturally, therefore, mistaking the men for its usual prey.
In another part of Kangaroo Island, which was afterwards visited, a
large piece of water was discovered at the head of a bay, and in this
water an immense number of pelicans were seen; upon some small islets
were found many young birds yet unable to fly, and upon the surrounding
beach a great number of old ones were seen, while the bones and
skeletons of many lay scattered about. So that it appeared to be at once
the breeding-place and death-bed of these birds, who, in the hidden
bosom of a quiet lake, in an uninhabited island, had long continued to
extend their race, generation after generation retiring to the same spot
where they were first brought to light, and there ending their days in
tranquillity. In this part of the island kangaroos were less plentiful
than in the other, but the soil appeared equally promising, and in all
likelihood, before many years have flown by, trees, seals, kangaroos,
and pelicans will all be forced to give up their old domains, and be
destroyed before the pressing wants and daring spirit of the British
emigrant. One important hindrance is noticed by Flinders,--the scarcity
of water,--but the presence of so many animals shows that there is an
abundance somewhere, though he could find but a scanty supply in one
single spot. In Kangaroo Island only one accident occurred which showed
any disposition or power on the part of its old inhabitants to wage war
with the intruders. One of the sailors having attacked a large seal
without proper caution, was so severely bitten in the leg, that he was
not merely laid up in consequence of this hurt, but was obliged to be
discharged, three months afterwards, when the ship was refitted at
Sydney.
In addition to the numerous barren rocks and the few tolerably large
wooded islands, which encircle the shores of Australia, there is a third
description of isles or rocks, which must not be passed over altogether
without notice. The substance called _coral_ is well known in Europe,
but with us the name connects itself with very different objects from
those to which it is related in Australia. _Here_ female ornaments and
toys for infants are almost the only objects to be seen that are formed
of coral; _there_ it forms the most stupendous rocks or reefs, which
serve frequently for a foundation to islands of no mean size; indeed, in
one part of the north-eastern coast of Australia, the coral reefs are
known to extend not less than 350 miles in a straight line, without a
single opening of any magnitude occurring in them.
Among these, surrounded by dangers, did Captain Flinders sail, during
fourteen days, for more than 500 miles before he could escape into less
perilous seas. Upon landing on one of these reefs, when the water was
clear, the view underneath, from the edge of the rocks, was extremely
beautiful. Quite a new creation, but still not unlike the old, was
offered to the view. There appeared wheat-sheaves, mushrooms, stags'
horns, cabbage-leaves, and a variety of other forms, glowing under
water with brilliant tints, of every shade betwixt green, purple, brown,
and white; equalling in beauty and surpassing in grandeur the most
favourite flower-bed of the curious florist. These appearances were, in
fact, different sorts of _coral_, and fungus, growing, as it were, out
of the solid rock, and each had its own peculiar form and shade of
colouring, but yet the spectators, who knew their ship to be hemmed in
by rocks of this material, while considering the richness of the scene,
could not long forget with what power of destruction it was gifted.
The cause of these coral rocks and islands, which are slowly, but
certainly, increasing, is a very small marine insect, by which the
substance called coral is formed. These work under water, generation
after generation contributing its share in the construction of what, in
the course of ages, becomes a solid rock, exalting its head above the
face of the surrounding waters, and rising sometimes from the depth of
200 fathoms, and perhaps even more. To be constantly covered with water
seems necessary to these minute animals, for they do not work, except
in holes upon the reef, beyond low-water-mark; but the coral and other
broken remains thrown up by the sea lodge upon the rock and form a solid
mass with it, as high as the common tides reach. The new bank is not
long left unvisited by sea-birds; salt-plants take root upon it, and a
kind of soil begins to be formed; a cocoa-nut,[13] or the seed of some
other tree, is thrown on shore; land-birds visit it, and deposit the
seeds of fresh shrubs or trees; every high tide, and still more every
gale, adds something to the bank; the form of an island is by degrees
assumed; and, last of all, comes man to take possession.
[13] "A cluster of these trees would be an excellent beacon to warn
mariners of their danger when near a coral reef, and at all events
their fruit would afford some wholesome nourishment to the ship-wrecked
seamen. The navigator who should distribute 10,000 cocoa-nuts amongst
the numerous sand banks of the great ocean and Indian Sea, would be
entitled to the gratitude of all maritime nations, and of every friend
of humanity."--FLINDERS' _Voyage to Terra Australis_, vol. ii. p. 332.
[Illustration: EXPLORERS FINDING THE BED OF A DRIED UP RIVER.]
CHAPTER II.
THE BUSH IN THE INTERIOR.
It needs only a single glance at the map of New Holland to see that,
like most other countries, and even more than most others, the coasts
are well known, while the interior parts are comparatively undiscovered,
and, to a great extent, totally so. And, although a much more minute
description of the shores of this immense island might easily be given,
although we might accompany Flinders or King in their navigation of its
intricate seas, and survey of its long line of coast, yet this part of
the subject must necessarily be passed over without detaining us any
further. A very considerable portion of the sea-coast of New Holland is
not much unlike that in the Gulph of Carpentaria, in the north part of
the island, where, when Captain Flinders had reached the highest spot he
could find in 175 leagues of coast,--this loftiest hill did not much
exceed the height of the ship's masthead! And where the shores are not
of this exceedingly level character, they are usually sterile, sandy,
and broken, so as to offer rather an uninviting aspect to the stranger.
It is obvious that, in either case, whether the coast be flat or barren,
there may be many beautiful and lovely districts within a day's journey
inland; and nothing is more absurd than to take exception against the
whole of a country merely because its borders and boundaries are
forbidding. In the case of New Holland, it is true, the same sort of
barrenness extends itself very much into the interior of the land; but,
if we pursue the patient footsteps and daring discoveries of those few
Europeans who have penetrated far into its inland parts, we shall find
many interesting scenes described, and much both of the sublime and
beautiful in nature brought before us.
One of the principal scenes on which have been displayed the
perseverance and courage of the explorers of the interior is the banks
of the river Darling. This stream, which has its source on the western
side of the long range of mountains running parallel with the coast, and
called in the colony the Blue Mountains, carries off the drainage of an
immense extent of country, to the westward and north-westward of New
South Wales. In fact, except in the southern parts of that colony, where
the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee carry off the waters which do not fall
eastwards to the coast, all the streams that rise upon or beyond the
Blue Mountains, and take a westerly direction, finally meet together in
the basin of the Darling.[14] It might be imagined that a river into
which is carried the drainage of so extensive a district would be always
well supplied with water, and so it would be in other countries, but the
streams of New Holland are altogether different from those in other
parts of the world. Comparatively, indeed, the Darling does assert its
superiority over most of the other water-courses of that country; for,
at a season when their channels were, in general, absolutely without
water, or dwindled down into mere chains of muddy ponds, the Darling
still continued to wind its slow current, carrying a supply of excellent
water through the heart of a desert district. Along the weary plains
by which its course is bounded, it proceeds for not less than 660
miles,[15] without receiving, so far as is known, a single tributary
stream; and, from its waters being occasionally salt, it is supposed to
owe its support, in its reduced state during very dry seasons, chiefly
to natural springs. Its bed is, on an average, about sixty feet below
the common surface of the country. There are no traces of water-courses
on the level plains, and it would appear that, whatever moisture
descends from the higher grounds, which (where there are any at all,)
are seldom less than twelve miles from the Darling, must be taken up by
the clayey soil, so as scarcely to find its way down to the river,
except it be by springs. The average breadth of the stream at the
surface, when low, is about fifty yards, but oftener less than this, and
seldom more. The fall of the country through which it passes, in that
part of its course through the interior, which was first explored by
Major Mitchell, is very trifling; and it is the opinion of that officer,
that the swiftness of its course never exceeds one mile per hour, but
that it is in general much less. At the time of the Major's expedition,
the water actually flowing, as seen at one or two shallow places, did
not exceed in quantity that which would be necessary to turn a mill.
But, with all this scantiness of supply during the dry season then
prevailing,[16] the marks of tremendous inundations were plain upon the
surface of the country, frequently extending two miles back from the
ordinary channel of the waters. And everywhere the banks of the river
displayed the effect of floods in parallel lines, marking on the smooth
sloping earth the various heights to which the waters had at different
periods arisen. The surface of the plains nearest the river is unlike
any part of the earth's face that the travellers had elsewhere seen. It
was clear of vegetation, like a fallow-field, but less level, and quite
full of holes, big enough to receive the whole leg, and sometimes the
body, of the unfortunate persons who might slip into them. Galloping or
trotting in such a country was out of the question, and as the surface
of this dry and cracked soil was soft and loose, it was very fatiguing
for draught. Six of the bullocks accompanying the expedition never
returned from the Darling. Yet, how much preferable was the country,
even in this state, to that in which a flood would have placed it; for,
had rainy weather, or any overflowing of the river, happened, travelling
upon the banks of the Darling would have become absolutely impossible.
[14] Although the basin of this river extends so far towards the east,
on its westerly bank, that is, _towards the interior_, a desert country
stretches itself to an unknown distance, from which it does not appear
to receive any increase of its waters at all deserving of notice. From
two hills, seventy miles apart, extensive views were gained of this
western desert, in which no smoke was seen, indicating the presence of
natives, nor even any appearance of trees; the whole country being
covered with a thick bush or scrub. For the four winter months spent
by Mitchell near the Darling, neither rain nor yet dew fell, and the
winds from the west and north-west, hot and parching, seemed to blow
over a region in which no humidity remained.
[15] So in Major Mitchell's work, vol. i. p. 298; but the same author
is quoted (more correctly it would seem from the map), by Montgomery
Martin, as stating that "The Darling does not, in a course of _three_
hundred miles, receive a single river."--See MARTIN'S _New South
Wales_, p. 82.
[16] By _dry season_, or _wet season_, in Australia, we are not to
understand, as in England, a _dry_ or _wet summer_, but a series of
_dry_ or _wet years_. At the very bottom of some of the dried-up lakes
were found sapling trees of ten years' growth, which had evidently been
killed by the return of the waters to their long-forsaken bed.
But the river Darling itself, though it appears as a principal and
independent stream during so long a course, is, we have little reason to
doubt, no more than an important tributary to the chief of Australian
rivers, the Murray. This last channel collects eventually all the waters
flowing in a westward direction upon the eastern side of New Holland,
between the latitudes of 28° S. and 36° S. The Darling, the Lachlan, and
the Murrumbidgee, without mentioning streams of minor importance, all
find their way southwards into the basin of the Murray, which is really
a noble river, and does not seem subject to the same deplorable
impoverishment, which most of the others suffer in very dry seasons. It
was very earnestly anticipated that the mouth of a stream like this
would probably form a good harbour, and thus afford a reasonable
prospect of its hereafter becoming a busy navigable river, the means of
furnishing inland communication to a considerable distance. This is, of
all things, what New Holland appears most to want, but the want is not
(as we shall shortly find) adequately supplied by the entrance to the
Murray. A like failure occurs at the entrance of other Australian
rivers, as in the instance of a much smaller but very beautiful stream,
the Glenelg, which falls into a shallow basin within the sandy hills of
the southern coast, the outlet being between two rocky heads, but choked
up with the sands of the beach. We cannot, while we read of the scanty
means of inland navigation, with which it has pleased Divine Providence
to favour an island so enormous as New Holland, but feel thankful for
the abundant advantages of this kind which our own native islands
possess; but at the same time there is no reason to despair, even yet,
of a navigable river being discovered in New Holland;[17] or, at the
worst, the modern invention of rail-roads may supersede, in a great
measure, the need of other communication.
[17] "I have myself no doubt that a large navigable river will yet be
discovered, communicating with the interior of Australia."--M. MARTIN'S
_New South Wales_, p. 99.
It would be impossible to compress into a moderate compass the various
interesting particulars, which have been related of the rivers of New
Holland and their neighbouring districts; but for this and much other
pleasing information the reader may be referred, once for all, to the
works of those travellers, whose names have been already so frequently
mentioned. It is a curious fact that almost every stream of the least
consequence in New Holland, appears to have its peculiar features, and a
character and scenery of its own, which continue throughout its course,
so that it could often be recognised by travellers coming upon it a
second time, and at a different part of its career towards the sea.
The beautifully-timbered plains, or the limestone cliffs of the noble
Murray--the naked plains that bound on either side the strip of
forest-trees of huge dimensions, by which the Lachlan is bordered,--the
constantly full stream, the water-worn and lightly-timbered banks, the
clear open space between the river and its distant margin of reeds,
which mark the character of the Murrumbidgee,--the low grassy banks or
limestone rocks, the cascades and caverns, the beautiful festoons of
creeping plants, the curious form of the duck-billed platypus,[18] which
are to be found on the Glenelg; the sandstone wastes of the Wollondilly,
the grassy surface of the pretty Yarrayne,[19] with its trees on its
brink instead of on its bank; the peculiar grandeur of the tremendous
ravine, 1,500 feet in depth, down which the Shoalhaven flows; these and
many more remarkable features of scenery in the Australian rivers, would
afford abundance of materials for description either in poetry or prose.
But we can now notice only one more peculiarity which most of these
streams exhibit; they have, at a greater or less distance from their
proper channels, secondary banks, beyond which floods rarely or never
are known to extend. In no part of the habitable world is the force of
contrast more to be observed than in Australia. A very able scientific
writer[20] has ingeniously represented three persons travelling in
certain directions across Great Britain, and finishing their journeys
with three totally different impressions of the soil, country, and
inhabitants; one having passed through a rocky and mining district, the
second through a coal country peopled by manufacturers, and a third
having crossed a chalky region devoted entirely to agriculture. An
observation of this kind is even still more true of New Holland. And,
consequently, when, instead of _pursuing_ the course of certain similar
lines of country, the traveller _crosses_ these, the changes that take
place in the appearance and productions of the various districts are
exceedingly striking and follow sometimes in very rapid succession. A
few examples of these contrasts, which arise in Australia from the
nature of the seasons, as well as from that of the soil or climate, may
here be noticed. How great a change did the exploring party under Major
Mitchell experience, when, after tracing for forty-nine days the dry bed
of the Lachlan, they suddenly saw a magnificent stream of clear and
running water before them, and came upon the Murrumbidgee. Its banks,
unlike those of the former channel, were clothed with excellent grass;
a pleasing sight for the cattle--and it was no slight satisfaction to
their possessors to see the jaded animals, after thirsting so long among
the muddy holes of the Lachlan, drinking at this full and flowing
stream. And yet, so different are the series of seasons, at intervals,
that, down the very river of which Mitchell speaks in 1836 as a deep,
dry ravine, containing only a scanty chain of small ponds, the boats of
its first explorer, Mr. Oxley, had, in 1817, floated during a space of
fifteen days, until they had reached a country almost entirely flooded,
and the river seemed completely to lose itself among the shallow waters!
During the winter of 1835, the whale-boats were drawn by the exploring
party 1,600 miles over land,[21] without finding a river, where they
could be used; whereas, in 1817 and 1818, Mr. Oxley had twice retired
by nearly the same routes, and in the same season of the year, from
supposed inland seas![22] So that, in fact, we rise from the perusal
of two accounts of travellers of credit, both exploring the very same
country, with the impression, from one statement, that there exists an
endless succession of swamps, or an immense shallow, inland lake; where,
from the other, we are taught to believe, there is nothing but a sandy
desert to be found, or dry and cracked plains of clay, baked hard by the
heat of the sun.
[18] This remarkable animal, called also the Ornithorynchus, is
peculiar to Australia, it has the body of a beast combined with the
mouth and feet of a duck, is to be seen frequently on the banks of the
Glenelg, and that unusually near the coast.
[19] Water is proverbially "unstable," but what occurred to Major
Mitchell's party on the Yarrayne, may serve for a specimen of the
peculiar uncertainty of the waters of Australia. In the evening a bridge
across that stream had been completed, and everything was prepared for
crossing it, but in the morning of the following day no bridge was to be
seen, the river having risen so much during the night, although no rain
had fallen, that the bridge was four feet under water, and at noon the
water had risen fourteen feet,--a change that could only be accounted
for by the supposed melting of the snow near the sources of the stream.
[20] See Professor Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i.
Introduction, pp. 1, 2.
[21] See Mitchell's Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. p. 13.
[22] See Oxley's Journal, pp. 103, 244.
Changes of this sort in the seasons, affecting so powerfully the
appearance of whole districts, cannot but have a proportionable effect
on particular spots. Regent's Lake, the "noble lake," as its first
discoverer, Oxley, called it, was, when Mitchell visited it, for the
most part, a plain covered with luxuriant grass;[23] some good water, it
is true, lodged on the most eastern extremity, but nowhere to a greater
depth than a foot. There ducks and swans, in vast numbers, had taken
refuge, and pelicans stood high upon their legs above the remains of
Regent's Lake. On its northern margin, and within the former boundary
of the lake, stood dead trees of a full-grown size, which had been
apparently killed by too much water, plainly showing to what long
periods the extremes of drought and moisture have extended, and may
again extend, in this singular country. And some of the changes in
scenery, within a short distance, and frequently arising from the same
causes, the presence or absence of water, are very remarkable. In Major
Mitchell's journal, at the date of April 10th, may be found the
following observations: "We had passed through valleys, on first
descending from the mountains, where the yellow oat-grass resembled a
ripe crop of grain. But this resemblance to the emblem of plenty, made
the desolation of these hopeless solitudes only the more apparent,
abandoned, as they then were, alike by man, beast, and bird. No living
thing remained in these valleys, for water, that element so essential to
life, was a want too obvious in the dismal silence, (for not an insect
hummed,) and the yellow hues of withering vegetation." On the next page
of the journal, under the events of the following day, what a contrast
appears:--"The evening was beautiful; the new grass springing in places
where it had been burnt, presented a shining verdure in the rays of the
descending sun; the songs of the birds accorded here with other joyous
sounds, the very air seemed alive with the music of animated nature, so
different was the scene in this well-watered valley, from that of the
parched and silent region from which we had just descended. The natives,
whom we met here, were fine-looking men, enjoying contentment and
happiness, within the precincts of their native woods." They were very
civil, and presented a burning stick to the strangers, at the moment
when they saw that they wanted fire, in a manner expressive of welcome
and of a wish to assist them. At a distance were the native fires, and
the squalling of children might be heard, until at night the beautiful
moon came forth, and the soft notes of a flute belonging to one of the
Englishmen fell agreeably on the ear, while the eye was gratified by the
moonbeams, as they gleamed from the trees, amid the curling smoke of the
temporary encampment. The cattle were refreshing themselves in green
pastures. It was Saturday night, and next day the party was to rest. How
sweet a spot to repose from their toils and sufferings, and to lift up
their hearts towards the mercy-seat of Him,--
"Who, in the busy crowded town,
Regards each suppliant's cry;--
Who, whether Nature smile or frown,
Man's wants can still supply."
[23] Another lake, called Walljeers, at no very great distance
from this, was found, with its whole expanse of about four miles in
circumference, entirely covered with a sweet and fragrant plant,
somewhat like clover, and eaten by the natives. Exactly resembling
new-made hay in the perfume which it gives out even when in the freshest
state of verdure, it was indeed "sweet to sense and lovely to the eye"
in the heart of a desert country.
One of the greatest victories over natural difficulties that was ever
gained by British courage and perseverance, was the exploring of the
course of the Morrumbidgee and Murray rivers by Captain Sturt and his
party, in the year 1830; and since their route was through a new
country, and their descent from the high lands south-westward of Sydney,
to the southern coast of New Holland was an amazing enterprise to
project, much more to accomplish, an abridged account of it may not be
unacceptable to the reader. And when it is remembered that the sight of
the gallant officer commanding this expedition, was sacrificed almost
entirely to "the effect of exposure and anxiety of mind in the
prosecution of geographical researches,"[24] this fact may add to the
interest which we feel in his adventures. The Murrumbidgee is a river
which runs westerly from the district called Yass Plains, situated very
nearly at the south-western extremity of New South Wales. It was for
the purpose of exploring the course of this fine stream, that Captain
Sturt was sent out at the latter end of 1829, and he had reached by
land-conveyance a swampy region exactly resembling those marshes in
which the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers had been supposed by Mr. Oxley to
lose themselves. To proceed further by land was impossible, and, since
they had brought with them a whale-boat, which had been drawn by oxen
for many a weary mile, it was resolved to launch this on the river, a
smaller boat was built in seven days only, and both boats being laden
with necessaries, and manned with six hands, arrangements were made for
forming a depôt, and the rest of the party were sent back; and when the
explorers thus parted company in the marshy plains of the Morrumbidgee,
it appeared doubtful even to themselves whether they were ever likely to
meet again in this world. Of the country, whither the stream would carry
the little crew of adventurers, literally nothing was known. There
might be a vast inland sea,--and then how could they hope with their
frail barks to navigate it in safety for the very first time? Or, even
if they did so, how were they to force their way back again to the
remote dwelling-places of civilised man? The river might gradually waste
itself among the morasses; and then, with their boats become useless for
want of depth of water, how were they to walk across those endless
levels of soft mud? or, supposing that to be practicable, how were their
provisions to be conveyed, or whence, then, except from their boats,
could they hope for a supply? Questions of this nature must have offered
themselves to the minds of the daring spirits, who accompanied Captain
Sturt; nor can due justice be rendered to their courage without a
careful consideration of the dangers which they deliberately braved.
[24] See Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. Dedication, p. 4.
Two oars only were used in the whale-boat, to the stern of which the
skiff was fastened by a rope; but the progress of the party down the
river was rapid. Having passed, in the midst of the marshes, the mouth
of a considerable stream (supposed to be the Lachlan, here emptying its
waters out from the midst of those swamps wherein it appeared to Mr.
Oxley to be lost,) on the second day of their journey the voyagers met
with an accident that had nearly compelled them to return. The skiff
struck upon a sunken log, and, immediately filling, went down in about
twelve feet of water. Damage was done to some of the provisions, and
many tools were thrown overboard, though these were afterwards regained
by means of diving and great labour, and the skiff was got up again. In
the very same night a robbery was committed by the natives; and a
frying-pan, three cutlasses, and five tomahawks, with the pea of the
steelyards--altogether no small loss in the Australian desert--were
carried off. The country in this part is "a waving expanse of reeds,
and as flat as possible," and the river, instead of increasing in its
downward course, seemed rather to be diminishing. After some days,
however, the party had passed through this flooded region, and reached a
boundless flat, with no object for the eye to rest upon, beyond the dark
and gloomy woods by which it was occupied. Several rapids occurred in
the river; and, during great part of two days the channel was so narrow
and so much blocked up with huge trees, that, in spite of every effort,
the adventurers were expecting their boat every moment to strike. For
two hours in the afternoon of the second of these days of anxiety, the
little vessels were hurried rapidly along the winding reaches of the
Morrumbidgee, until suddenly they found themselves borne upon the bosom
of a broad and noble river, in comparison with which that which they had
just quitted bore the appearance of an insignificant opening! The width
of the large stream thus discovered was about 350 feet, and its depth
from 12 to 20 feet, whilst its banks, although averaging 18 feet in
height, were evidently subject to floods. The breadth of rich soil
between its outer and inner banks was very inconsiderable, and the upper
levels were poor and sandy. As the party descended, the adjoining
country became somewhat higher and a little undulating, and natives
were seen, while the Murray (for such was the name given to their new
discovery) improved upon them every mile they proceeded. Four natives
of a tribe with which they had met followed them, as guides, for some
distance, and, after having nearly lost their largest boat upon a rock
in the midst of a rapid, the British travellers continued their onward
course, and a sail was hoisted for the first time, in order to save, as
much as was possible, the strength of the men.
The country in this part of their voyage was again very low, and they
fell in with a large body of savages, with whom they were on the point
of being forced, in self-defence, to have a deadly encounter, when
suddenly the four natives who had accompanied them appeared running at
full speed, and, through their assistance, though not without some
difficulty, bloodshed was prevented. Very shortly after this adventure,
when the men had just pushed their boat off from a shoal, upon which it
had struck, they noticed a new and considerable stream coming from the
north, and uniting its waters with those of the Murray. Upon landing on
the right bank of the newly-discovered stream, the natives came swimming
over from motives of curiosity; and there were not less than 600 of
these, belonging to some of the most ferocious tribes in Australia,
surrounding eight Englishmen--Captain Sturt, his friend M'Leay, and the
crew--which last had been preserved by an almost miraculous intervention
of Providence in their favour. The boat was afterwards pulled a few
miles up the recently-discovered river, which is reasonably supposed to
have been the Darling, from whose banks, some hundreds of miles higher
up, Captain Sturt had twice been forced to retire in a former
expedition. Its sides were sloping and grassy, and overhung by
magnificent trees; in breadth it was about 100 yards, and in depth
rather more than twelve feet, and the men pleased themselves by
exclaiming, upon entering it, that they had got into an English river. A
net extending right across the stream at length checked their progress;
for they were unwilling to disappoint the numbers who were expecting
their food that day from this source. So the men rested on their oars in
the midst of the smooth current of the Darling, the Union-Jack was
hoisted, and, giving way to their feelings, all stood up in the boat,
and gave three distinct cheers. "The eye of every native along the
banks had been fixed upon that noble flag, at all times a beautiful
object," says Captain Sturt, "and to them a novel one, as it waved
over us in the heart of a desert. They had, until that moment, been
particularly loquacious, but the sight of that flag and the sound
of our voices hushed the tumult; and while they were still lost in
astonishment, the boat's head was speedily turned, the sail was sheeted
home, both wind and current were in our favour, and we vanished from
them with a rapidity that surprised even ourselves, and which precluded
every hope of the most adventurous among them to keep up with us."[25]
[25] Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110.
Cheered with the gratification of national feeling thus powerfully
described, the patient crew returned to their toils in descending the
Murray, whose banks continued unchanged for some distance; but its
channel was much encumbered with timber, some very large sand-banks
were seen, and several rapids were passed. The skiff being found more
troublesome than useful, was broken up and burned. On one occasion,
during a friendly interview with some of the savages, some clay was
piled up, as a means of inquiring whether there were any hills near; and
two or three of the blacks, catching the meaning, pointed to the N. W.,
in which direction two lofty ranges were seen from the top of a tree,
and were supposed to be not less than 40 miles distant, but the country
through which the Murray passed still continued low.
The heat was excessive and the weather very dry, while the banks of the
river appeared to be thickly peopled for Australia, and the British
strangers contrived to keep upon good terms with the natives. After
having passed one solitary cliff of some height, they met with stormy
weather for a few days, and several tributary streams of some size were
perceived mingling their waters with those of the Murray, the left bank
of which became extremely lofty, and, though formed almost wholly of
clay and sand, it bore the appearance of columns or battlements, the
sand having been washed away in many places, while the clay was left
hollowed out more like the work of art than of nature. After a continued
descent of 22 days, the party, who were pleased with the noble character
of the river upon which they were, though disappointed at the poverty of
the country through which it passed, began to grow somewhat weary; but
upon inquiries being made of the natives no tidings could be gained
respecting their approach towards the sea. The navigation of every
natural stream is rendered tedious, though beautiful, by its devious
course, but, "what with its regular turns, and its extensive sweeps, the
Murray covers treble the ground, at a moderate computation, that it
would occupy in a direct course." The current became weaker, and the
channel deeper, as they proceeded down the stream, and the cliffs of
clay and sand were succeeded by others of a very curious formation,
being composed of shells closely compacted together, but having the
softer parts so worn away, that the whole cliff bore in many places the
appearance of human skulls piled one upon the other. At first, this
remarkable formation did not rise more than a foot above the water, but
within ten miles from this spot it exceeded 150 feet in height, the
country in the vicinity became undulating, and the river itself was
confined in a glen whose extreme breadth did not exceed half a mile. An
old man, a native, was met with hereabouts, who appeared by his signs
to indicate that the explorers were at no great distance from some
remarkable change. The old man pointed to the N. W., and then placed
his hand on the side of his head, in token, it was supposed, of their
sleeping to the N. W. of the spot where they were. He then pointed due
south, describing by his action, the roaring of the sea, and the height
of the waves. A line of cliffs, from two to three hundred feet in
height, flanked the river upon alternate sides, but the rest of the
country was level, and the soil upon the table-land at the top of the
cliffs very poor and sterile. The next change of scenery brought them to
cliffs of a higher description, which continued on both sides of the
river, though not always close to it. The stream lost its sandy bed and
its current together, and became deep, still, and turbid, with a muddy
bottom; and the appearance of the water lashing against the base of the
cliffs reminded the anxious voyagers of the sea. The scenery became in
many places beautiful, and the river was never less than 400 yards in
breadth. Some sea-gulls were seen flying over the boat, and being hailed
as the messengers of good tidings, they were not permitted to be shot.
The adverse wind and the short, heavy waves rendered the labour at the
oar very laborious, but the hope of speedily gaining some noble inlet--a
harbour worthy to form the mouth of a stream like the Murray--encouraged
the crew to pull on manfully, and to disregard fatigue. The salt meat
was all spoiled, and had been given to the dogs; fish no one would eat,
and of wild fowl there was none to be seen; so that the provisions of
the party consisted of little else but flour. And already, though
hitherto they had been performing the easiest part of their task, having
had the stream in their favour, it was evident that the men were much
reduced, besides which they were complaining of sore eyes.
These circumstances all combined to increase the natural anxiety felt
by the little band of adventurers to reach the termination of the
Murray; and as its valley opened to two, three, and four miles of
breadth, while the width of the river increased to the third of a mile,
the expectations of the men toiling at the oar became proportionably
excited. The cliffs ceased, and gave place to undulating hills; no
pleasure-ground could have been more tastefully laid out than the
country to the right, and the various groups of trees, disposed upon the
sides of the elevations that bounded the western side of the valley,
were most ornamental. On the opposite side, the country was less
inviting, and the hills were bleak and bare. At length a clear horizon
appeared to the south, the direction in which the river was flowing;
Captain Sturt landed to survey the country, and beneath him was the
great object of his search, the termination of one of Australia's
longest and largest streams. Immediately below him was a beautiful lake,
of very large extent, and greatly agitated by the wind. Ranges of hills
were observed to the westward, stretching from north to south, and
distant forty miles. Between these hills and the place where the
traveller stood, the western bank of the Murray was continued in the
form of a beautiful promontory projecting into the lake, and between
this point and the base of the ranges the vast sheet of water before him
extended in the shape of a bay. The scene was altogether a very fine
one; but disappointment was a prevailing feeling in the mind of the
explorer, for it was most likely that there would be no practicable
communication for large ships between the lake and the ocean, and thus a
check was put upon the hopes that had been entertained of having at
length discovered a large and navigable river leading into the interior
of New Holland. The lake, called Lake Alexandrina, which was fifty
miles long and forty broad,[26] was crossed with the assistance of a
favourable wind; its waters were found to be generally very shallow, and
the long, narrow, and winding channel by which it communicates with the
ocean was found, as it had been feared, almost impracticable even for
the smallest vessels. This channel unites itself with the sea on the
south-western coast of New Holland, at the bottom of a bay named
Encounter Bay, one boundary of which is Cape Jervis, by which it is
separated from St. Vincent's Gulph,--the very part of the coast where a
ship was to be despatched by the Governor of New South Wales to afford
the party assistance, in case of their being successful in penetrating
to the sea-shore. Flour and tea were the only articles remaining of
their store of provisions, and neither of these were in sufficient
quantities to last them to the place where they expected to find fresh
supplies inland. But the first view of Encounter Bay convinced them that
no vessel could ever venture into it at a season when the S. W. winds
prevailed, and to the deep bight which it formed upon the coast (at the
bottom of which they then were), it was hopeless to expect any vessel to
approach so nearly as to be seen by them. To remain there was out of the
question; to cross the ranges towards the Gulph of St. Vincent, when the
men had no strength to walk, and the natives were numerous and not
peaceably disposed, was equally impossible. The passage from the lake
to the ocean was not without interruption, from the shallowness of the
sandy channel, otherwise Captain Sturt, in his little boat, would have
coasted round to Port Jackson, or steered for Launceston, in Van
Dieman's Land; and this he declares he would rather have done, could he
have foreseen future difficulties, than follow the course which he did.
Having walked across to the entrance of the channel, and found it quite
impracticable and useless, he resolved to return along the same route by
which he had come, only with these important additional difficulties to
encounter,--diminished strength, exhausted stores, and an adverse
current. The provisions were found sufficient only for the same number
of days upon their return as they had occupied in descending the river,
and speed was no less desirable in order to avoid encounters with the
natives than for the purpose of escaping the miseries of want; into
which, however, it was felt, a single untoward accident might in an
instant plunge them. With feelings of this description the party left
Lake Alexandrina and re-entered the channel of the Murray.
[26] The dimensions given in Captain Sturt's map. The South-Australian
Almanac states it to be sixty miles long, and varying in width from ten
to forty miles.
It will be needless to follow the explorers through all the particulars
of their journey upwards to the depôt on the Morrumbidgee. The boat
struck, the natives were troublesome, the rapids difficult to get over;
but the worst of all their toils and trials were their daily labours and
unsatisfied wants. One circumstance ought, in justice to the character
of the men, to be noticed. They positively refused to touch six pounds
of sugar that were still remaining in the cask, declaring that, if
divided, it would benefit nobody, whereas it would last during some time
for the use of Captain Sturt and Mr. M'Leay, who were less able to
submit to privations than they were. After having continued for no less
than fifty-five days upon the waters of the Murray, it was with great
joy that they quitted this stream, and turned their boat into the gloomy
and narrow channel of the Morrumbidgee. Having suffered much privation,
anxiety, and labour, and not without one or two unpleasant encounters
with the natives, at length the party reached their depôt, but they
found it deserted! During seventy-seven days they could not have
pulled, according to Captain Sturt's calculation, less than 2000 miles;
and now, worn out by fatigue and want, they were compelled to proceed
yet further, and to endure, for some time longer, the most severe
privations to which man can be exposed. But, under the guidance of
Divine Providence, the lives of all were preserved, and now the reward
of their deeds of heroism is willingly bestowed upon them. Among the
boldest exploits ever performed by man, the descent of Captain Sturt and
his companions down the Murray, and their return to the same spot again,
may deserve to be justly ranked.[27] Nor, however disappointing the
result of their examination of the mouth of the Murray may have been,
was their daring adventure without its useful consequences. The lake
Alexandrina is said to be navigable across for vessels drawing six feet
of water, and the entrance to the sea, though rather difficult in heavy
weather, is safe in moderate weather for vessels of the same size. The
Murray itself is navigable for steam-vessels for many hundred miles, and
probably it will not be very long before these modern inventions are
introduced upon its waters.
[27] For the account of this voyage, see Sturt's Expeditions in
Australia, vol. ii. pp. 72-221.
Whoever has seen any recent map of New Holland must have been struck
with the curious appearance of a vast semicircle of water, called Lake
Torrens, near the southern coast, and extending many miles inland from
the head of Spencer's Gulph. A range of hills, named Flinders' Range,
runs to a considerable distance inland, taking its rise near the head of
the gulph just mentioned, and Lake Torrens nearly surrounds the whole of
the low country extending from this mountainous ridge. This immense lake
is supposed to resemble in shape a horse-shoe, and to extend for full
400 miles, whilst its apparent breadth is from 20 to 30. The greater
part of the vast area contained in its bed is certainly dry on the
surface, and consists of a mixture of sand and mud, of so soft and
yielding a character as to render perfectly unavailing all attempts
either to cross it, or to reach the edge of the water, which appears to
exist at a distance of some miles from the outer margin. Once only was
Mr. Eyre, the enterprising discoverer of this singular lake, able to
taste of its waters, and then he found them as salt as the sea. The low,
miserable, desert country in the neighbourhood, and Lake Torrens itself,
act as a kind of barrier against the progress of inland discovery at
the back of the colony of South Australia, since it is impossible to
penetrate very far into the interior, without making a great circle
either to the east or to the west. The portion of the bed of the lake
which is exposed is thickly coated with particles of salt; there are few
trees or shrubs of any kind to be found near, nor are grass and fresh
water by any means abundant. Altogether, the neighbourhood of Lake
Torrens would seem a very miserable region, and forms a strong contrast
to the smiling and cultivated district of which it forms the back
country.[28]
[28] These particulars are taken from the South-Australian Almanac
for 1841, pp. 68-73.
Although Australia, in its natural and uncultivated state, abounds in
trees, like most other wild countries, nevertheless, there are vast and
extensive tracts where the plains are entirely bare, or covered only
with a low, thick, and often prickly, bush, or else are what is termed
"open forest," that is, are dotted about with fine trees, dispersed in
various groups, and resembling the scenery of an English park. The
greatest peculiarity of the native forests appears to be, that the
whole of their trees and shrubs are evergreen,[29] although European
trees will flourish in the land of the south without acquiring this
peculiarity, or losing their deciduous character. But it is rather a
subject of complaint against the woods of New Holland, that they have
very little picturesque effect in them, which may be partly owing to
the poverty of the foliage of the prevailing tree, the _eucalyptus_,
(commonly called the _iron-bark_, or _blue gum_, according to its
species,) which seldom has anything ornamental to landscape, either in
the trunk or branches. These sombre trees are, however, very useful for
timber, and they grow to an astonishing height, often rearing up their
lofty heads to 150 feet or upwards. The woods, in general, are very
brittle, partly, it may be, owing to the number of acacias which are to
be found among them; and no experienced bushman likes to sleep under
trees, especially during high winds. We must by no means form our ideas
of the appearance of an Australian forest from that of the neat and trim
woods of our own country, where every single branch or bough, and much
more every tree, bears a certain value. Except that portion which is
required for fuel or materials by an extremely scattered population in a
very mild climate, there is nothing carried off from the forests, and,
were it not for the frequent and destructive fires which the natives
kindle in many parts, no check worth mentioning would be placed upon the
natural increase and decay of the woods of New Holland. The consequence
of this is, that trees are to be seen there in every stage of growth or
ruin; and, occasionally, in very thickly-planted spots, the surface of
the ground is not a little encumbered by the fallen branches and trunks
of the ancient ornaments of the forest. Nor is it by the hand of Time
alone that these marks of destruction are scattered about in the vast
woodlands; the breath of a tremendous storm will occasionally
accomplish, perhaps, as much in a few hours as natural decay would in
many years.[30] Altogether, the forests of Australia may be said to be
in a purely natural state, and thus do they offer to the eye of the
inquiring traveller many objects less pleasing, it may be, but
nevertheless more sublime and solemn, than those with which the woods
of more cultivated countries commonly abound.
[29] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 3.
[30] See Account of the Effects of a Storm at Mount Macedon,
(Mitchell's "Three Expeditions," vol. ii. p. 283.)
To travel without any beaten track through a country clothed, in many
parts, very thickly, by forests like those just described, is in itself
no easy undertaking, and the operation of hewing a way for a mile or two
through the surrounding woods, during the very heat of the day, and
sometimes after a long march, is very trying. But when the exposure
to burning thirst, and to the uncertain disposition of the native
inhabitants is added, the patient endurance of successful explorers
is still more strongly displayed. Nor, although it be only a minor
annoyance, must the pain and inconvenience felt by wanderers in the
bush from the prickly grass, which is found abundantly in the sandy
districts, be forgotten. In those barren sands, where no grass grows,
there are frequently tufts of a prickly bush, which tortures the horses,
and tears to pieces the clothes of the men about their ankles, if they
are walking. This bush, called the prickly grass, and a dwarf tree, the
_Eucalyptus dumosa_, grows only where the soil appears too barren and
loose for anything else; indeed, were it not for these, the sand would
probably drift away, and cover the vegetation of neighbouring spots less
barren and miserable. Against this evil, nature seems to have provided
by the presence of two plants so singularly fitted for a soil of this
description. The root of the _Eucalyptus dumosa_ resembles that of a
large tree; but it has no trunk, and only a few branches rise above
the ground, forming an open kind of bush, often so low that a man on
horseback may look over it for miles. This dwarf tree, and the prickly
grass together, occupy the ground, and seem intended to bind down the
sands of Australia. The size of the roots prevents the bush from growing
very close together, and the stems being without leaves, except at the
top, this kind of _Eucalyptus_ is almost proof against the running fires
of the bush. The prickly grass resembles, at a distance, in colour and
form, an overgrown lavender plant, but the blades of it, consisting of
sharp spikes, occasion most cruel annoyance both to men and horses.
Another inconvenience and danger to which exploring parties are liable,
are those fires in the bush already alluded to; which, whether caused by
accident, or designedly by the natives, are not uncommon events.[31]
"The country seemed all on fire around us."--"All the country beyond the
river was in flames; one spark might have set the whole country on our
side in a blaze, and then no food would remain for the cattle, not to
mention the danger to our stores and ammunition." "Fires prevailed
extensively at great distances in the interior, and the sultry air
seemed heated by the general conflagration;" these expressions convey
rather alarming ideas of the dangers to which travellers are exposed in
the bush, and from which it is not always easy to make good an escape.
[31] On one occasion the progress of the fire was _against the wind_.
See this stated and explained by Major Mitchell, "Three Expeditions,"
vol. i. p. 19.
It may have been observed, possibly, in what has been related of the
country and scenery of New Holland in its natural state, that the
descriptions of very beautiful or fertile spots have been comparatively
few. Now, although it is true that a very large portion of the known
surface of that island is occupied by the sandstone rock, which is in
its very nature utterly barren, nevertheless, it is by no means to
be supposed that there is any scarcity of most rich and beautiful
land--some of it fit for immediate occupation--to be found in most
parts of Australia. In attempting to draw a picture of a distant and
remarkable region, we are almost sure to mark and bring distinctly out
its most peculiar and striking features; the scenes resembling those of
our own quiet and happy land are passed over as tame and familiar, while
the dreariness of the desert, the horrors of a "barren and dry land
where no water is,"--the boundless plains, or the bare mountain-tops,
the lonely shore or the rocky isle--scenes like these, are commonly
dwelt upon and described. In short, the very spots which are least
enticing, _in reality_, for the colonist to settle in, are often most
agreeable, _in description_, for the stranger to read of.
But, since the reader must not be left with the erroneous and unpleasant
impression that the country of which we have been treating is, for the
most part, a mere wilderness, if not a desert, we may select two
recently-discovered districts of it to serve for a favourable specimen
of the beauty and fertility of many others, which cannot now be noticed.
The following description of Wellington Valley (now recently included in
the limits of the colony,) is from the pen of its first discoverer, Mr.
Oxley, and other travellers bear witness that it is not overcharged: "A
mile and a half brought us into the valley which we had seen on our
first descending into the glen: imagination cannot fancy anything more
beautifully picturesque than the scene which burst upon us. The breadth
of the valley, to the base of the opposite gently-rising hills, was
between three and four miles, studded with fine trees, upon a soil which
for richness can nowhere be exceeded; its extent, north and south, we
could not see: to the west, it was bounded by the lofty rocky ranges by
which we had entered it; these were covered to the summit with cypresses
and acacias in full bloom, and a few trees in bright green foliage gave
additional beauty to the scene. In the centre of this charming valley
ran a strong and beautiful stream, its bright, transparent waters
dashing over a gravelly bottom, intermingled with large stones, forming
at short intervals considerable pools, in which the rays of the sun
were reflected with a brilliancy equal to that of the most polished
mirror. The banks were low and grassy, with a margin of gravel and
pebble-stones; there were marks of flood to the height of about twelve
feet, when the river would still be confined within its secondary banks,
and not overflow the rich lands that bordered it. Its usual width is 200
feet; in times of flood it would be from 600 to 800 feet."[32]
[32] See Oxley's Journals, pp. 184-7.
In Australia Felix, as it has been called by its discoverer, Major
Mitchell, which is a much larger district than that just described,
almost every earthly delight and advantage would likewise seem to have
combined to make it a perfect dwelling-place for man. The temperate and
mild climate; the neighbourhood of the sea; the variety and fertility of
its surface; the ranges of lofty and picturesque mountains by which it
is backed; the number of rivers, small and large, by which it is
watered; the comparatively open nature of the country, yet not without
an ample supply of timber close at hand; all these and other advantages
unite in rendering Australia Felix one of the most desirable spots upon
the face of the globe. And the beauties and blessings of a spot like
this, must have stood forth in bold contrast with the dreary, lifeless
plains of the Darling, or Lachlan, which the discoverers of Australia
Felix had so long been engaged in exploring. One of the first harbingers
of the better country, to which the travellers were drawing near, was a
very curious height, called Pyramid Hill, which is formed of granite,
and, being a triangular pyramid, standing quite alone, closely resembles
the monuments of ancient Egypt. It rises 300 feet above the surrounding
plain; its point consists of a single block of granite, and the view
over the neighbouring country was exceedingly beautiful. The scene was
different from anything the travellers had elsewhere witnessed. "A land
so inviting, and still without inhabitants![33] As I stood," continues
the explorer, warming with the thoughts of his discovery, "the first
European intruder on the sublime solitude of these verdant plains, as
yet untouched by flocks or herds, I felt conscious of being the
harbinger of mighty changes; and that our steps would soon be followed
by the men and animals for which it seemed to have been prepared."
Twelve days afterwards, the whole of which had been spent in traversing
a district rich and lovely in the extreme, the first view of a noble
range of mountains (the Grampians) was obtained; they rose in the south
to a stupendous height, and presented as bold and picturesque an outline
as ever painter imagined.[34] And, during a journey of many days, the
same rich and sublime scenery still appeared, mingled together in
beautiful and endless variety. Every day the party of travellers passed
over land which, for natural fertility and beauty, could scarcely be
surpassed; over streams of unfailing abundance, and plains covered with
the richest pasturage. Stately trees and majestic mountains adorned the
ever-varying landscape, the most southern region of all Australia, and
the best. On the river Glenelg, which was discovered about a month after
they had left Pyramid Hill, the land appeared everywhere alike good,
alike beautiful; whether on the finely-varied hills, or in the equally
romantic vales, which opened in endless succession on both banks of the
river. Further on in this lovely district, the British explorers came
upon fresh scenes of surpassing sweetness. A small party of them were
out upon an excursion, when they perceived before them a ridge in the
blue distance--rather an unusual object in that close country. They soon
after quitted the wood through which they had been passing, and found
that they were on a kind of table-land, approaching a deep ravine coming
from their right, which terminated on a very fine-looking open country
below, watered by a winding river. They descended by a bold projection
to the bottom of the ravine, and found there a foaming little river,
hurrying downwards over rocks. After fording this stream, they ascended
a very steep but grassy mountain-side, and, on reaching a brow of high
land, a noble prospect appeared; a river winding among meadows that were
fully a mile broad, and green as an emerald. Above them rose swelling
hills of fantastic shapes, but all smooth and thickly covered with rich
verdure. Behind these were higher hills, all having grass on their
sides, and trees on their summits, and extending east and west
throughout the landscaper as far as could be seen. After riding about
two miles along an entirely open, grassy ridge, the party again found
the Glenelg, flowing eastward towards an apparently much lower country.
The river was making for the coast, (turning southward some miles below
the hill on which they stood,) through a country far surpassing in
beauty and richness any part hitherto discovered.
[33] Not quite so; they soon fell in with a few of the scattered
wanderers of the bush.
[34] See the interesting account of Major Mitchell's ascent to Mount
William, the highest point of these hills.--MITCHELL'S _Three
Expeditions_, vol. ii. pp. 171-181.
What, in fact, is there wanting to the charming and extensive region
just described, or what to hundreds of other fruitful and lovely
districts under the power of the British crown, except _civilised
inhabitants_, and the establishment of _a branch of Christ's "one
Catholic and Apostolic Church_?" The population is ready, nay, even
redundant, in England; nor are the means deficient in a land abounding
beyond all others in wealthy capitalists. But the will, the wisdom, the
understanding heart, the united counsels, are, it is to be feared, and
are likely still to be, wanting with us. May that God who maketh men to
be of one mind in a house or nation, so dispose events, that in due time
the valleys and hills of Australia Felix may be dotted with churches,
and filled with faithful members of Christ! Then will it become a
_happy_ land indeed. Then may its inhabitants feel a lively interest,
both in the _social_ and _religious_ welfare of their country; and each
one may join, from the distant shores of the once unknown Southern Land,
in the holy aspirations of the Royal Prophet: "For my brethren and
companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good."[35]
[35] Psalm cxxii. 8,9.
CHAPTER III.
NATIVES OF THE BUSH.
In most instances in which a country is taken possession of, and its
original inhabitants are removed, enslaved, or exterminated, the party
thus violently seizing upon the rights of others is considered the
superior and more civilized nation of the two. The very means by which
this advantage is gained are, usually, boldness, and worldly talent,
without which a conquest or successful invasion is impossible; and
these, when prosperous, are qualities which awaken very powerfully the
admiration and attention of men. So that, while earthly prosperity and
excellence are combining to cast a splendour around the actions of the
successful nation, adversity and inferiority do usually join in
blackening the cloud which hangs over the character of that which is
unfortunate. It is not for us to defend these judgments of the world, as
though they were, in any case, altogether righteous judgments, but this
we may safely affirm, in the particular instance of Australia, that,
upon the whole, it is a gain to the cause of truth and virtue for
Christian England to possess those wilds, which lately were occupied by
miserable natives; and, while we own that it is wrong to do evil that
good may come, yet may we, likewise, confess with thankfulness the
Divine mercy and wisdom which have so often brought good out of the
evil committed by our countrymen in these distant lands. It must be
confessed, too, that, whatever may be the amount of iniquity wantonly
committed among the natives of the other portions of the globe, for
which Europe is responsible, still, the Europeans, upon the whole,
stand higher than the inhabitants of the remaining portions, and, of
course, in proportion, very much higher than the most degraded and
least-improved race of savages, the Australian natives. True, indeed,
these despised Australians may, hereafter, rise up in judgment against
Europeans to condemn them; and when that which has been given to each
race of men shall be again required of them, those that have received
the most may frequently be found to have profited the least by the gifts
of Divine Providence. Still, without pretending to pass judgment upon
any, whether nations or individual persons,--without affecting, either,
to close our eyes against the miserable vices by which the Christian
name has been disgraced, and our country's glory sullied, among distant
and barbarous nations, we may with safety speak of the inhabitants of
those heathen lands in terms that are suitable to their degraded state.
In describing their darkened and almost brutal condition, we are but
describing things as they really exist;[36] it changes not the actual
fact to prove that, in many more respects than would at first sight
appear, the behaviour of men of our own _enlightened_ nation is scarcely
less darkened or less brutal than theirs. Nay, the Australian savage, in
his natural state, may be a far higher and nobler character than the
British convict sometimes is in his degraded state; and, nevertheless,
it may be correct to class the nation of the former among barbarians,
and that of the latter among civilized people. But in forming our
judgment respecting the real character of the natives of the Bush we
must beware lest we try them by our own standard,--a standard by which
it is unjust to measure them, since they have never known it, nor ever
had the means of reaching it.[37] Every wise man will make all possible
allowance for the effect of many generations of ignorance and
degradation upon the human soul, and when this has been fairly done, the
truly wise man, the humble Christian, whilst he reads of the deplorable
condition to which the human soul may be reduced, (as it is shown in the
instance before us,) will feel disposed to ask himself, "Who made thee
to differ from others? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?"
[36] One crime, in which the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands of
New Zealand notoriously indulge, has been charged also upon the people
of New Holland; but, since no mention of their _cannibalism_ is made by
those British travellers who have seen most of the habits of the
natives, it is hoped that the charge is an unfounded one. See, however,
M. Martin's New South Wales, pp. 151-2, and the instance of _Gome Boak_,
in Collins' History of New South Wales, p. 285; and Sturt's Expeditions
in Australia, vol. ii. p. 222.
[37] Nay, our fellow-countrymen in the Australian colonies, can, by no
means, endure a strict trial, even by their own rule of right. Take,
for instance, the following very common case:--The kangaroo disappears
from cattle-runs, and is also killed by stockmen, merely for the sake of
the skin; but no mercy is shown to the natives who may help themselves
to a bullock or a sheep. They do not, it is true, breed and feed the
kangaroos as our people rear and fatten cattle, but, at least, the wild
animals are bred and fed upon their land, and consequently belong to
them.
The native population of Australia is very peculiar in many respects,
not exactly resembling any other known race of human beings in the
world. They are more nearly akin to the Africans than to any others, and
they have, accordingly, been sometimes called _the Eastern Negroes_,
having the same thick lips, high cheek-bones, sunken eyes, and legs
without calves, which distinguish the native of Africa; but, with the
exception of Van Diemen's Land, and the adjoining coasts, the woolly
hair of the negro is not to be found among them, nor is the nose usually
so flat, or the forehead so low. They are seldom very tall, but
generally well made; and their bodily activity is most surprising; nor
is their courage at all to be despised. The Australian native has always
been pointed out as being the lowest specimen of human nature, and,
since, in every scale of degrees, one must be lowest, this is probably
correct enough; yet we are by no means to give too hasty credit to the
accounts of their condition, which have been given by those whose
interest it may have been to represent them in as unfavourable a light
as possible, or whose opportunities of judging have been few and scanty,
compared with their hasty willingness to pass judgment upon them. Men,
more or less busily engaged in killing and taking possession, are not
likely to make a very favourable report of those poor creatures into
whose inheritance they have come; mere self-defence would tempt them to
try to lessen the greatness of their crimes, by asserting the victims of
these to be scarcely deserving of a better fate, and, in the present
instance, the actual condition of the native population would be very
favourable to excuses of this kind. Or, even without this evil intention
of excusing wrong by slandering those that suffer it, many men, with but
few means of understanding their character, may have spoken decidedly
respecting the Australian natives, and that, too, in language even
harsher than their degraded state would justify. Disgusting and horrid
many of their habits and customs undoubtedly are, yet they appear even
more so at first sight, and to one only imperfectly acquainted with
them; especially when (which often happens) not the slightest allowance
is made for the peculiar situation of the savage, but he is taken at
once from the midst of his naked barbarity, and tried by the rules of
refinement and civilization. Recently, indeed, public attention and pity
have been more turned towards the unhappy race of natives, and many
traits have been discovered in their character which would not dishonour
more enlightened nations. The degraded position of those who are in the
midst of the white population affords no just criterion of their merits.
Their quickness of apprehension is often surprising, and nothing,
however new and strange, seems to puzzle or astonish them; so that they
follow closely the advice of the ancient poet:
"Wonder at nought:--the only rule I know
To make man happy, and to keep him so."
"They are never awkward," says Major Mitchell, who was well qualified
to speak from experience; "on the contrary, in manners, and general
intelligence, they appear superior to any class of white rustics that
I have seen. Their powers of mimicry seem extraordinary, and their
shrewdness shines even through the medium of imperfect language, and
renders them, in general, very agreeable companions." We may, therefore,
if our inquiry be accompanied by humility and justice, be able to form a
fair and impartial opinion respecting these people; and the result of an
inquiry of this sort must be, in every well-regulated soul, not merely a
feeling of thankfulness (still less of self-sufficiency,) that we are
far removed from the savage state, but, likewise, a sense of shame,
that, with many of our fellow-countrymen, their superior advantages
have been productive of little or no fruit.
One very remarkable distinction of the natives of the Bush is, the
entire absence of clothing, unless the cloak, made of opossum-skin, worn
by some tribes, can deserve to be thought an exception. Their climate
being, generally speaking, a dry one, and exposure to the air, even at
night, being much less hurtful than in most other countries, this habit
of going without clothing, after the fashion of a brute beast, is by no
means so dangerous in Australia as it would be elsewhere. But, while
they can dispense with _clothes_, like most other savages, they are
extremely fond of _ornaments_,--at least, of what they esteem to be
such: these are teeth of kangaroos, or men, jaw-bones of a fish,
feathers, tails of dogs, pieces of wood, &c., fastened on different
parts of the head, by a sort of gum; while scars, and marks of various
kinds, are made upon the breast, arms, and back; or, upon certain
occasions, as going to war, or mourning for a friend, the body is
streaked over with white and yellow paint, according to the taste of the
party concerned. In two very distant parts of Australia, namely, the
gulf of Carpentaria, and the eastern coast of St. Vincent's Gulf, the
natives practise the rite of circumcision--a remarkable agreement, when
we consider that they are about 1200 miles apart, and have no means of
communication with each other. It is no uncommon custom, either, for the
natives to pierce their noses, and to place a bone or reed through the
opening, which is reckoned a great ornament. But there is another
custom, almost peculiar to Australia, which, from its singularity,
may deserve to be noticed at some length. Among many of the native
tribes,[38] it is usual for the males to have a front tooth, or
sometimes _two_, struck out at the time of their arriving at manhood,
and this ceremony is performed in a most solemn and impressive manner.
The following account of it, from the pen of an eye-witness, may be not
unacceptable to the reader: Lieutenant Collins, the historian of the
infant colony of New South Wales, was present during the whole of this
curious operation, and thus describes the accompanying ceremonies
practised by the natives of that part of Australia:--For seven days
previous to the commencement of the solemnity, the people continued to
assemble, and the evenings were spent in dancing, for which they adorned
themselves in their best manner, namely, by painting themselves white,
and especially by drawing white circles round their eyes. When the field
was prepared, and the youths who were to be enrolled among men were all
placed together upon one side of it, the business began with a loud
shout, and a clattering of shields and spears, from the armed party,
whose office it was to seize the patients about to undergo the
extraordinary operation. This was done one by one, until the whole
number, fifteen, were brought forward, and placed in the midst of the
armed body of men; then each youth was made to sit down, holding his
head downwards, with his hands clasped, and his legs crossed under him,
in which painful posture it was said they were to remain all night,
without looking up or taking any refreshment whatever.[39] The
Carrahdis, or persons who were to perform the operation, now began some
of their strange mummeries. Each one of these, in his turn, appeared to
suffer most extreme agony, and put himself into every posture that pain
could occasion, until, at length, a bone was brought forward, which was
intended to be used in the ensuing ceremony; and the poor youths were
led to believe that the more pain these Carrahdis suffered in obtaining
the bone, the less would be theirs in losing a tooth. The following day
began with the ceremony of the fifteen operators running round upon
their hands and feet, in imitation of the dogs of that country, and
throwing upon the boys, as they passed, sand and dirt with their hands
and feet. The youths were perfectly still and silent, and it was
understood that this ceremony gave them power over the dog, and endowed
them with whatever good qualities that animal might possess.
[38] Speaking of a tribe which he found upon the banks of the Darling,
Mitchell says, "The men retained all their front teeth, and had no
scarifications on their bodies, two most unfashionable peculiarities
among the aborigines." (MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 261.)
The same intelligent traveller accounts for the custom of knocking out
the teeth, by supposing it a typical sacrifice, probably derived from
early sacrificial rites. The cutting off the last joint of the little
finger of females, (he adds,) seems a custom of the same kind. It is a
curious observation, that the more ferocious among the natives on the
Darling were those tribes that had _not_ lost their front teeth.--Vol.
ii. p. 345, and vol. i. p. 304.
[39] This was not the fact, however, for Lieut. Collins found them in
a different place, when he went to the spot early in the next morning.
The next part that was performed, was the offering of a sham kangaroo,
made of grass, to the fifteen lads, who were still seated as before. One
man brought the kangaroo, and a second carried some brushwood, besides
having one or two flowering shrubs stuck through his nose, and both
seemed to stagger under the weight of their burdens. Stalking and
limping, they at last reached the feet of the youthful hunters, and
placed before them the prize of the chase, after which they went away,
as though entirely wearied out. By this rite was given the power of
killing the kangaroo, and the brushwood, most likely, was meant to
represent its common haunt. In about an hour's space, the chief actors
returned from a valley to which they had retired, bringing with them
long tails of grass, which were fitted to the girdle. By the help of
this addition, they imitated a herd of kangaroos, one man beating time
to them with a club on a shield, and two others, armed, followed them
and affected to steal unnoticed upon them to spear them. As soon as
these pretended kangaroos had passed the objects of their visit, they
instantly got rid of their artificial tails, each man caught up a lad,
and, placing him upon his shoulders, carried him off in triumph to the
last scene of this strange exhibition.
After walking a short distance, the men put down their burdens, placing
them in a cluster, each boy with his head upon his breast, and his hands
clasped together. In a few minutes, after a greater degree of mystery
and preparation than had been before observed, the youthful band was
brought forward to a place where a number of human beings were seen
lying with their faces to the ground, as if they were dead, and in front
of these was a man seated on a stump of a tree, bearing another man upon
his shoulders, both having their arms extended, while two men, in a like
attitude, were seen also behind the group of prostrate figures. These
first two men made most hideous faces for a few minutes, and then the
lads were led over the bodies lying on the ground, which moved and
writhed, as though in great agony; after which the same strange grimaces
were repeated by the two men who were placed on the further side of the
apparently dead bodies. All the information that could be gained of the
meaning of this, was, that it would make them brave men; that they would
see well and fight well. Then followed a sort of martial exercise with
spear and shield, in the presence of the future warriors, to signify to
them what was to be one great business of their lives--the use of the
spear; and, when this was finished, the preparations for striking out
the tooth commenced. The first subject of this barbarous operation was
chosen, and seated upon the shoulders of a native, who himself sat down
upon the grass; and then the bone was produced, which had cost so much
apparent pain to procure the evening before, and which was made very
sharp and fine at one end, for the purpose of lancing the gum. But for
some such precaution, it would have been impossible to have knocked out
the tooth, without breaking the jaw-bone. A stick was then cut with much
ceremony out of some hard wood, and when the gum of the patient was
properly prepared, the smallest end of the stick was applied to the top
of the tooth, while the operator stood ready with a large stone, as
though about to drive the tooth down the throat of the youth. Here a
certain attention to the number three, which had been before shown, was
again noticed, for no stroke was actually made, until three attempts to
hit the stick had taken place; and, notwithstanding repeated blows, so
firmly was the tooth of the first boy fixed in his gum, that it was full
ten minutes before it was forced out. The sufferer was then removed, his
gum was closed, and he was dressed out in a new style, with a girdle, in
which was stuck a wooden sword, and with a bandage round his head, while
his left hand was placed over his mouth, and he was not allowed to
speak, nor, during that day, to eat. In this manner were all the others
treated, except one only, who could not endure the pain of more than one
blow with the stone, and, breaking away from his tormentors, he managed
to make his escape. During the whole operation a hideous noise was kept
up around the patients, with whom, generally, it seemed to be a point of
honour to endure this pain without a single murmur. Having once gone
through this strange ceremony, they were henceforth admitted into the
company and privileges of the class of men.
And as the commencement of manhood in this way, requires no small
exercise of courage and endurance of pain, so the remainder of the life
of an Australian savage is usually abundant in trials calling for the
like qualities, and demanding both bravery and patience. Whatever may
be the particular evils of civilized society, and however some wild
imaginations may be tempted by these to regard with regret or envy the
enjoyments of savage life, after all it must be confessed, these
enjoyments are, at best, very scanty and very uncertain, whilst the
miseries attendant upon such a state are of a nature continually to try
the patience and weary the spirit of him who has to endure them. Without
dwelling just at present upon the natural wants and sufferings to which
savage men are perpetually exposed in the wilderness of Australia, it is
deplorable to think of how many evils these thinly-scattered tribes are
the cause to each other; enormous and sad is the amount of suffering,
which, even in those lonely and unfrequented regions, human beings are
constantly bringing upon their brethren or neighbours. War, which seems
almost a necessary evil, an unavoidable scourge to man's fallen race, in
all ages and in every country, wears its most deadly aspect, and shows
its fiercest spirit among the petty tribes, and in the personal
encounters of savages like those of whom we are treating. Various causes
of misunderstanding will, of course, arise among them from time to time,
and every trifling quarrel is continued and inflamed by their amazing
and persevering efforts to revenge themselves, which appears to be with
them considered a matter of duty. The shedding of blood is always
followed by punishment, and only those who are _jee-dyte_, or
unconnected with the family of the guilty person, can consider
themselves in safety from this evil spirit of revenge. Little children
of seven or eight years old, if, while playing, they hear that some
murder has taken place, can in a moment tell whether or not they
are _jee-dyte_, and even at this tender age, take their measures
accordingly. An example of this unsparing visitation of offences
occurred not long after the settlement of New South Wales had commenced.
A native had been murdered, and his widow, being obliged to revenge his
death, chanced to meet with a little girl distantly related to the
murderer, upon whom she instantly poured forth her fury, beating her
cruelly about the head with a club and pointed stone, until at length
she caused the child's death. When this was mentioned before the other
natives, they appeared to look upon it as a right and necessary act, nor
was the woman punished by the child's relatives, possibly because it was
looked upon as a just requital.
When a native has received any injury, whether real or fancied, he is
very apt to work himself up into a tremendous passion, and for this
purpose certain war-songs, especially if they are chanted by women, seem
amazingly powerful. Indeed, it is stated, on good authority, that four
or five mischievously-inclined old women can soon stir up forty or
fifty men to any deed of blood, by means of their chants, which are
accompanied by tears and groans, until the men are excited into a
perfect state of frenzy. The men also have their war-songs, which they
sing as they walk rapidly backwards and forwards, quivering their
spears, in order to work themselves up into a passion. The following
very common one may serve for a specimen, both of the manner and matter
of this rude, yet, to them, soul-stirring poetry:--
Yu-do dauna, Spear his forehead,
Nan-do dauna, Spear his breast,
Myeree dauna, Spear his liver,
Goor-doo dauna, Spear his heart,
Boon-gal-la dauna, Spear his loins,
Gonog-o dauna, Spear his shoulder,
Dow-al dauna, Spear his thigh,
Nar-ra dauna, Spear his ribs,
&c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c.
And thus it is that a native, when he feels afraid, sings himself into
courage, or, if he is already in a bold mood, he heaps fuel upon the
flame of his anger, and adds strength to his fury. The deadly feeling of
hatred and revenge extends itself to their public, as well as to their
private, quarrels, and sometimes shows itself in a very fierce and
unexpected manner. In the valley of the Wollombi, between Sydney and
Hunter's River, some years ago, three boys of a certain tribe had been
persuaded to reside in the families of three of the British settlers
there. These were marked out for vengeance by the natives belonging to
a tribe in a state of warfare with them, about 100 of whom travelled
between 20 and 30 miles during one night--a thing almost unheard of
among the natives--and reached the neighbourhood of the settlers on the
Wollombi very early on the ensuing morning. Two or three of them were
sent to each of the houses to entice the boys out, but these, it
appeared, somewhat suspected the intentions of their enemies. However,
they were at length persuaded to join the native dance, when suddenly a
circle was formed round them, and they were speedily beaten to death
with _waddies_ or clubs. Immediately after which deed, the troop of
natives returned back again to their own neighbourhood. A European
happened to pass by, just as the boys were dying, but being alone and
unarmed, his interference might have been dangerous to himself, without
proving of any the slightest advantage to the unfortunate sufferers.
Another instance of that cowardly cruelty, which will take every
possible advantage of a helpless age and sex occurred many years before
this, when the colony of New South Wales was quite in its infancy. The
father and mother of a little native girl, aged about seven years, had
belonged to a party by whom many robberies had been committed on the
banks of the river Hawkesbury, but an armed troop of Europeans was sent
in pursuit of these robbers, and when a meeting took place, the child's
parents were among those that fell, while she accompanied the victorious
party to the British settlement. Here she behaved herself with
propriety, being a well-disposed child, she was a favourite at
Government-house, where she resided under the protection of the
governor. This circumstance, and the fact of her belonging to a
different tribe from their own, awakened the jealousy of some of the
natives, who belonged to the neighbourhood of Sydney, and she was
consequently put to death in the most cruel manner. Her body was found
in the woods, speared in several places, and with both the arms cut off.
The murderers of the poor child escaped.
But, while we justly condemn and pity the cruel and cowardly acts of
this description, which, unhappily, too often figure among the deeds of
the natives of the Australian Bush, we are by no means to suppose them
wanting in all feeling of kindness and humanity, still less would it be
correct to consider them deficient in true courage. Every allowance
ought to be made for the disadvantages of savage life, for the complete
ignorance of these people, for the difficulty which they frequently have
in procuring necessary food, and for the consequent cheapness in which
life is held among them; and when these and other like arguments are
duly weighed, we may learn not to abominate less the crimes of savages,
but to pity more the unhappy beings who commit them. Indeed, if we go
somewhat further, we may take shame to ourselves and to all civilized
nations, in many of whose practices a counterpart may be found for the
worst sins of the uncultivated, uncivilized heathens.
Within the last few years many crimes have been recorded in our
newspapers, which, though committed in those large English towns,
by some conceived to be centres of civilization, refinement, and
enlightenment, might rival in horror and atrocity the very darkest
deeds of savages.
Many proofs that the disposition of the native Australians is naturally
brave and courageous (however cowardly some of their barbarities may
appear,) could easily be brought forward; but none can be a stronger
proof of this than the coolness and self-possession which they have so
frequently exhibited upon meeting with Europeans, and encountering their
fire-arms for the first time. An example of this occurred in Western
Australia, when Captain Grey's party were on their return home towards
the British settlement of Perth. They were winding their way along on
the summit of a limestone hill not very far from the coast, which formed
a terrace about half a mile in width, with rich grass and beautiful
clumps of trees to adorn it; and while, on the side towards the land,
another terrace arose exactly like it, on the opposite side they
overlooked a bay surrounded by verdant and extensive flats. Their
enjoyment of the lovely scenery of this spot was soon disturbed by the
appearance of a large body of the natives on the high ground to the east
of them; and, although these strangers boldly advanced to within 200
yards of them, all endeavours to bring about an amicable meeting proved
in vain, for the savages shouted to their companions, and these again to
others yet more remote, until the calls were lost in the distance, while
fresh parties of natives came trooping in from all directions. The
question was, how to get rid of these people without bloodshed; and
when an attempt to move quietly forward had been disappointed, by the
Australians hastening on to occupy a thick piece of bush, through which
the English party must pass, at last, Captain Grey, advancing towards
them with his gun cocked and pointed, drove them a little before him,
after which, to complete their dispersion, he intended to fire over
their heads. But, to his mortification and their delight, the gun missed
fire, upon which the natives, taking fresh courage, turned round to make
faces at him and to imitate the snapping of the gun. The second barrel
was then fired over their heads, at which they were alarmed, and made a
rapid retreat, halting, however, upon a rising ground about 300 yards
off, and preparing in earnest for action, when they perceived that they
had suffered no loss. But since they had thus learned to despise the
weapons of European warfare, prompt action was needful to prevent fatal
consequences on both sides. The captain, accordingly, took his rifle
from the man who was carrying it, and directing it at a heap of
closely-matted dead bushes, about two or three yards from the main body
of the enemy, he drove the ball right through it; the dry rotten boughs
crackled and flew in all directions, and the poor savages, confounded at
this new and unfair mode of fighting, hastily dispersed, without any
loss of life having been sustained by either party.[40]
[40] A less serious but even more effectual method of dispersing the
natives, when they became troublesome, and would not quit the settlers'
camp at night, is mentioned by Mitchell. At a given signal, one of the
Englishmen suddenly sallied forth wearing a gilt mask, and holding in
his hand a blue light with which he fired a rocket. Two men concealed
bellowed hideously through speaking-trumpets, while all the others
shouted and discharged their fire-arms into the air. The man in the
mask marched solemnly towards the astonished natives, who were seen
through the gloom but for an instant, as they made their escape and
disappeared for ever.--MITCHELL'S _Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 290.
On another occasion, not long after this encounter, and in the same
neighbourhood, the party of English explorers fell in with a native
carrying his spear and a handful of fish; he was lost in thought, and
they were close to him before he saw them, but, when he did so, he took
no notice of them. Without even quickening his pace, he continued in his
own course, which crossed their path, and, as he evidently wished to
avoid all communication, the men were ordered to take no notice of him,
and so they passed one another. He must have been a very brave fellow,
observes the captain, to act thus coolly, when an array so strange to
him met his eye. In like manner, when Major Mitchell was riding upon the
banks of the Gwydir, he fell in with a tall native, covered with
pipe-clay, who, although he could never have seen a horse before,
nevertheless, put himself in a posture of defiance, and did not retreat,
until the traveller galloped at him to prevent his attack.
In a different part of New Holland, on the eastern coast, when Flinders
was exploring Pumice-stone River, near Moreton Bay, he was by no means
successful in striking the natives with awe and astonishment. A hawk
having presented itself to view, he thought this afforded a good
opportunity of showing his new friends, the inhabitants of the Bush, a
specimen of the effect and certainty of his fire-arms. He made them
understand what he intended, and they were so far alarmed as to seem to
be on the point of running into the woods, but a plan of detaining them
was discovered, for the seamen placed themselves in front of the
savages, forming a kind of defence; in which situation they anxiously
watched the British officer, while he fired at the bird. What must have
been his feelings at the moment!--the hawk, uninjured, flew away![41]
[41] On a similar occasion, near the Darling, where the inhabitants are
remarkable for their thievish habits, when a crow was shot, in order to
scare them by its sudden death, the only result was, that, before the
bird had reached the ground, one of them rushed forward at the top of
his speed to seize it!--See MITCHELL'S _Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 265.
It is, certainly, no easy task to awaken in the soul of the completely
savage man any great interest or concern in the ways and habits of
civilized life. The fallen nature, of which all mankind are common
partakers, renders it, unfortunately, easy to copy what is evil;
and, accordingly, the drunkenness, the deceitfulness, and general
licentiousness of depraved Europeans find many admirers and imitators
among the simple children of the Australian wilderness; but when
anything good, or decent, or even merely useful, is to be taught them,
then do they appear dull and inapt scholars indeed. Living, as they do,
in a peculiar world, as it were, of their own, they feel little or no
pleasure at hearing of what is going on elsewhere, and it has been
observed by one who had mixed very much with their various tribes, and
had gained considerable knowledge of their language, that, while they
cared not for stories respecting man in his civilized state, anything at
all bearing upon savage life was eagerly listened to and well received.
Once, having described to them some circumstances respecting England and
its inhabitants, the traveller took occasion, from the mention of the
length of days there in summer, to speak of those lands near the North
Pole, where, in summer, the sun never sets, while it never rises for
some weeks during the winter. The natives agreed that this must be
another sun, and not the one seen by them; but, when the conversation
turned upon the people of those northern regions, and the small
Laplander, clothed in skins of the seal, instead of the kangaroo, was
described to them, they were exceedingly delighted; and this picture of
half-savage life, so different from their own, threw quite into the
shade all the other stories they had heard. It is, indeed, really
laughable to find with what cool contempt some of these natives, who
have never had any intercourse with Europeans, treat our comforts, our
tastes, and pursuits. We may contemn and pity them, but they seem to
have very much the same feelings for us. We are horrified at the
greediness with which they devour grubs, and many of them are shocked at
our oyster-eating propensities! A remarkable instance of this occurred
to Captain Flinders in 1798, when he was exploring the eastern coast of
New Holland, and surveying Two-fold Bay. While measuring a base line
upon the beach, the English sailors heard the screams of three native
women, who took up their children and ran off in great alarm. Soon after
this a man made his appearance, armed only with a _waddie_, or wooden
scimetar, but approaching them apparently with careless confidence. The
explorers made much of him, and gave him some biscuit; in return for
which he presented them with a piece of gristly fat, probably of whale.
This was tasted by Captain Flinders, but he was forced to watch for an
opportunity of getting rid of it while the eyes of the donor were not
upon him. But the savage himself was, curiously enough, doing precisely
the same thing with the biscuit, the taste of which was, perhaps, no
more agreeable to him than that of the whale to the Englishman. The
commencement of the trigonometrical operations necessary for surveying
the bay was beheld by the Australian with indifference, if not with
contempt; and he quitted the strangers, apparently satisfied that from
people who could thus seriously occupy themselves there was no great
danger to be feared.
But, whatever may be urged respecting the variety of tastes and the
want of a settled and uniform standard of appeal respecting them;
however it may be argued the rich and luscious fat of a noble whale may
intrinsically surpass the lean and mouldy flavour of dry sea-biscuit;
nevertheless, in many other matters of greater importance, it must be
confessed that the manners and habits of the natives of the Bush are
extremely wretched and evil. And the Christian European, while he dares
not _despise_ them, cannot do otherwise than _pity_ them. The fact has
been already noticed, that these miserable children of nature scarcely
ever wear anything deserving of the name of clothing; and, in many parts
of New Holland, their huts, usually constructed by the women, and
composed of little better materials than bark, or wood, and boughs,[42]
reeds, or clay, scarcely merit the title of human habitations. But it is
not so much in their outward state, as in their moral and social habits,
that this race of men are most pitiable and degraded. One subject which
has been frequently observed to mark the difference not so much between
civilized and uncivilized men, as that between Christians and heathens,
must especially be noticed. Cruel as is _the treatment of women_ in many
other parts of the globe, the inhabitants of Australia seem to go beyond
all other barbarians in this respect. From the best and wisest people of
christian Europe down to the vilest and most degraded tribes of heathen
Australia, a regular scale might be formed of the general mode of
behaviour to the weaker sex among these various nations; and, mostly, it
would be found that the general superiority or inferiority of each
nation is not untruly indicated by the kindness or cruelty with which
their females are usually treated.
[42] See Nehemiah viii. 14, 15.
From their earliest infancy the female children are engaged or betrothed
to a future husband, and in case of his death, they belong to his heir.
But this arrangement is frequently prevented by the horrid practice,
common among these barbarians, of stealing their wives, and taking them
away by main force. Indeed, it seems a rule for the women to follow the
conquering party, as a matter of course; so that on the return of an
expedition into the interior of New Holland, the friendly and
neighbouring natives, being informed that some of the distant and
hostile people had been shot, only observed, "Stupid white fellows! why
did you not bring away the gins?"
Polygamy is not uncommonly practised; and an old man, especially, among
other privileges, may have as many _gins_, or wives, as he can keep, or
maintain. Indeed, the maintenance of a wife is not expensive, since they
are expected to work; and all the most laborious tasks, including that
of supplying a great part of the necessary food for the family, are
performed by them.[43] Hence, they are watched with very jealous care,
being valuable possessions; but, in spite of all precautions, they are
frequently carried off, and that in the most inhuman manner. The _lover_
steals upon the encampment by night, and, discovering where the object
of his affection is, he frequently beats her on the head till she
becomes senseless, and then drags her off through the bushes, as a tiger
would its prey![44] This, of course, is an undertaking attended with
considerable danger; for if the intruder is caught, he will be speared
through the leg, or even killed, by the angry husband or relatives. Thus
many quarrels arise, in which brothers or friends are generally ready
enough to bear a part. But--unlike the courteous and christian customs
of our own country--the poor female, whether innocent or guilty, it
matters not, has no one to take her part; the established rule with
regard to women among these brutal creatures being, "If I beat your
mother, then you beat mine; if I beat your wife, then you beat mine,"
&c. &c. The consequence of these ferocious habits is evident enough in
the appearance of most of the young women, who have any good looks or
personal comeliness to boast of. The number of violent blows upon the
head, or of rude wounds inflicted by the spear, form so many miserable
trophies of victories dearly won by these Australian beauties, and the
early life of one of these unhappy beings is generally a continued
series of captivities to different masters, of wanderings in strange
families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other females, amongst
whom she is brought a stranger by her captor; and rarely is a form of
unusual grace and elegance seen, but it is marked and scarred by the
furrows of old wounds; while many females thus wander several hundreds
of miles from the home of their infancy, without any corresponding ties
of affection being formed to recompense them for those so rudely torn
asunder. As may be well imagined, a marriage thus roughly commenced
is not very smooth in its continuance; and the most cruel
punishments--violent beating, throwing spears or burning brands,
&c.--are frequently inflicted upon the weaker party, without any
sufficient provocation having been given. It is evident, that treatment
of this kind, together with the immensely long journeys which they are
compelled to take, always accompanying their husbands on every
excursion, must be very injurious to the constitution and healthiness of
the weaker sex. And to these trials must be added the constant carrying
of those children that are yet unable to travel, the perpetual search
for food, and preparation of it when it is obtained, besides many other
laborious offices performed by the women, all which being reckoned up
together, will form a life of toil and misery, which we may hope is
endured by no other human beings beside the females of Australia. Nor is
such treatment without its ill effect upon the tempers and dispositions
of the female sex. The ferocity of the women, when it is excited,
exceeds that of the men; they deal dreadful blows at one another with
their long sticks, and, if ever the husband is about to spear in the
leg, or beat, one of his wives, the others are certain to set on her,
and treat her with great inhumanity.
[43] The men frequently indulge a great degree of indolence at the
expense of the women, who are compelled to sit in their canoe, exposed
to the fervour of a mid-day sun, hour after hour, chanting their little
song, and inviting the fish beneath them to take their bait; for without
a sufficient quantity to make a meal for their tyrants, who are lying
asleep at their ease, they would meet but a rude reception on their
landing.--COLLINS' _Account of Colony of New South Wales_, p. 387.
[44] Playing at "stealing a wife" is a common game with the Australian
children.
One custom, which to Europeans seems extremely remarkable, is that of
the family name of the _mother_, and not of the _father_, becoming the
surname of the children of either sex. And another, connected with this,
forbids a man from marrying with a woman of his own family name. Each
family has for its crest or sign, or _kobong_, as they call it, some
animal or vegetable; and a certain mysterious connexion is supposed to
exist between a family and its _kobong_; so that a member of the family
will never kill an animal of the same species with his _kobong_, should
he find it asleep; indeed, he always kills it reluctantly, and never
without affording it a chance of escape.[45] This arises from the family
belief that some one individual of the species is their nearest friend,
to kill whom would be a great crime, and is to be carefully avoided.
And, in like manner, a native having a vegetable for a _kobong_ may not
gather it under certain circumstances, and at a particular period of
the year. It is said that they occasionally exchange surnames with
their friends, a custom which is supposed to have prevailed among the
Jews; and they have another practice resembling the same people, which
is, that when a husband dies, his brother takes the wife.[46] Among
beings who hold life so cheaply, it cannot be a matter of surprise that
the destruction of infants should be occasionally practised, more
especially in cases where the child is born with any natural deformity:
nor is it an excuse for these barbarians that the polished nations of
ancient Greece and Italy habitually committed the like atrocities, or
even greater,--considering it in their own choice to rear up their
offspring or not, exactly as it suited their convenience. In fact,
we may learn from this and many other instances, that it is not
_civilisation_ alone, but yet more than that, _Christianity_, by which
the difference between the European and the Australian is produced:--
"In vain are arts pursued, or taste refin'd,
Unless Religion purifies the mind."
[45] These facts may account for the statement mentioned by Collins, of
a native throwing himself in the way of a man who was about to shoot a
crow, whence it was supposed that the bird was an object of worship,
which notion is, however, contradicted by the common practice of eating
crows, of which birds the natives are very fond.--See COLLINS' _Account
of the Colony of New South Wales_, p. 355.
Two young natives, to whom Mr. Oxley had given a tomahawk, discovered
the _broad arrow_, with which it was marked on both sides, and
which exactly resembles the print made by the foot of an emu. Probably
the youths thought it a _kobong_, for they frequently pointed to
it and to the emu skins which the party had with them.--See OXLEY'S
_Journal_, p. 172.
[46] The command in Deut. xxv. only extended to the case of eldest sons
dying without children.
Respecting the languages spoken in different parts of New Holland, it is
doubtful whether they have all a common root or not, but the opinion of
Captain Grey, who was not unqualified to judge, is in favour of their
kindred origin. In so vast an extent of country, among wandering tribes,
that hold little or no communication with each other, great differences
in language were to be expected, and are found to exist. If three men
from the east, the west, and the north of England meet together, they
occasionally puzzle one another by their various dialects; what, then,
must be expected by way of variety in a country between two and three
thousand miles across, without much communication, and totally
differing, at its extreme points, in climate and in animal and vegetable
productions? For new objects new names were, of necessity, invented; but
the resemblance between words signifying objects common everywhere, as,
for instance, the parts of the human body, is said to be remarkable. The
Australian languages are stated to be soft and melodious in their sound,
and their songs, though rude and wild, have amazing power over the
feelings of the soul. _Noise_ would appear to have great charms in
savage ears, and, sometimes, from the high key in which our English
songs are occasionally pitched, it would seem to have charms also for
"ears polite." But an elegant and refined European song would only be
laughed at and mimicked by the musical blacks, some few of whom are not,
however, quite insensible to the sweets of civilised melody. Warrup, a
native servant, was once present when "God save the Queen" was sung in
chorus, and it so affected him, that he burst into tears. He certainly
could not have understood the words, much less could he have entered
into the noble and loyal spirit, of our National Anthem: it must,
therefore, have been the music, and, perhaps, the excitement prevailing
around him, which affected him.
[Illustration: OPOSSUM HUNTING.]
CHAPTER IV.
MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE IN THE BUSH.
One of the most important occupations of every man in this present state
of things, is the pursuit of food and necessary sustenance for himself
and those belonging to him. But this occupation, being in some respects
more difficult, or at least, more uncertain and engrossing, stands more
forward in savage life, and appears more important than ever; while, at
the same time, the contrast upon this subject between the rude child of
nature and the civilized inhabitants of the earth, becomes even stronger
than usual. In glancing over the condition of the native of the Bush in
Australia, with respect to his supply of needful support, and his means
of obtaining it, several truths are to be borne in remembrance, obvious
indeed when pointed out, and yet not unlikely to escape a casual
observer. First, the vast extent of country, compared with the thin and
scattered population it maintains; next, the very different sort of food
required by a savage and a European; and lastly, the various kinds of
food which are used by the inhabitants of the wilderness--are all
matters which must be recollected, if we would form a fair judgment upon
the subject, and do justice to the humble, and apparently scanty, bill
of fare which Nature has provided for those that dwell among her wildest
scenes and in her most secret, recesses. In these spots it is but
rarely, of course, from the mere absence of sufficient provisions, that
any large body of natives can assemble together; but, occasionally, a
feast is prepared for a considerable number, either when some particular
article of food abounds at a certain place and is in full season, or,
especially, when a whale (a fish very common on the coasts of New
Holland) is thrown ashore. In the latter case, it is impossible for us
entirely to enter into the feelings of the savage, for we have never,
unexpectedly, had so large a quantity of what is considered the greatest
delicacy placed at once before us. Hence, when the Australian finds a
whale thrown ashore in his own district, his heart warms and opens with
kind feelings of hospitality; he longs to see all his friends about him,
and large fires are immediately kindled to announce the fortunate and
joyful event. Notice of the feast having been thus given, and a due
invitation forwarded, he rubs himself all over with the blubber, and his
favourite wives are served in the same manner, after which, he begins to
cut his way into the flesh of the whale, the grain of which is about the
firmness of a goose-quill; of this he chooses the nicest morsels, and
either broils them on the fire, or cooks them by cutting them into small
pieces, and spitting them on a pointed stick.
Other natives, attracted by the flaming signal of revelry, soon assemble
in gay companies from all quarters: by night they dance and sing, and by
day they eat and sleep, and the feast continues unchecked until they at
last fairly eat their way into the whale, and may be seen climbing in
and about the carcase choosing their favourite pieces. The fish, in a
few days, becomes more disagreeable than ever, but still they will not
leave it, until they have been completely gorged with it,--out of temper
from indigestion, and therefore engaged in frequent quarrels. And, even
when they are, at length, obliged to quit the feast, they carry off with
them as much as they can stagger under, to eat upon the way, and to take
as a rarity to their distant friends. Such is a true picture of a native
Australian feast, and the polished sons and daughters of Europe will
turn away from it with feelings of unmingled disgust. But, with how many
of these is life itself a perpetual series of feasting, less gross and
disgusting indeed, but not less really sensual than this! How many
inhabitants of civilised countries live continually as though the
saying, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die" were the whole sum
and substance of practical wisdom! Yet if it were so, who would be more
happy, who more blessed in his situation, than the savage devouring, day
after day, the food his heart delights in?
But a whale-feast is an event of no ordinary kind in the life of an
inhabitant of the Bush, and, if we would know how the common sustenance
of life is procured by him, we must follow him through a variety of
scenes and pursuits, of which, by no means the least important or
interesting, is the chase of the kangaroo.[47] This singular and
harmless creature is now so well known to Europeans, from specimens that
have been brought over and placed in our public collections of animals,
and also from numberless pictures, that it would be waste of time to
stop to describe it. In truth, being one of the productions peculiar to
Australia, it may be said, from the figures of it to be seen upon the
back of every book relating to that country, to have become almost the
_kobong_ or crest of that southern region. In many portions of New
Holland, particularly where the country is wooded and the soil tolerably
fertile, kangaroos are very abundant; but so great havoc is made among
these defenceless creatures by their various enemies, especially by man,
that their numbers appear to be upon the decrease.[48]
[47] The wild dog is also an object of chase, and its puppies are
considered great dainties; but they are sometimes saved, in order to
bring them up in a tame state, in which case they are
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