I with pleasure embrace this first Opportunity of addressing these
few lines to you hoping by the blessing of God they will find you in
the perfect enjoyment of Good Health as it leaves me at present thank
God for it. I wrote you a letter to you while our stay at the Cape
of Good Hope which I hoped you received. We abode there one week and
we arrived at Port Jackson in Sydney on the 8th day of June after
a fine and pleasing voyage for 4 Callender Months wanting two days
only. Nothing worth Mentioning happened all the Voyage. Only 2 of our
unhapy Number was taken away from us by death. While lying in Sydney
Harbour I engaged for one twelve Month and am now for the present
time situated up in the country, in not so quite a comfortable
position as I should wish but I must bear it for a short time, and
as conveniences will allow I shall be in Sydney to work. Dear Wife
You can come out to Me as soon as it pleases you and also my Sister
and I will provide for you a comfortable Situation and Home as a good
one as ever lies in my power, And When you come or send You must
come to My Masters House at Sydney. He is a rich a Gentleman known
by every one in this colony, and you must come out as emigrants, and
when you come ask for me as a emigrant and never use the word Convict
or the ship Hashemy on your Voyage never let it be once named among
you, let no one know your business but your own selves, and When you
Land come to my Masters a enquire for me and thats quite sufficient.
Dear Wife do not you cumber yourself with no more luggage than is
necessary for they are of no use out here you can bring your bed and
bedclothes and sufficient clothes for yourself and family. You can
buy for yourself a tin hook pot to hang on before the fire in the
Gally to boil tea at times when it is required. And a few Oranges
and lemons for the Sea Sickness or any thing you please. Dear Wife
this is a fine Country and a beautiful climate it is like a perpetual
Sumer, and I think it will prove congenial for your health, No
wild beast nor anything of the Sort out here, fine beautiful birds
and every thing seems to smile with pleasure Cockatoos as plentiful
and common as crows in England Provisions of Every kind is very cheap
you can buy Beef at 1_d_ penny per lb flour 1½_d_ per lb tea 2_s_
per lb and Sugar at 2_d_ per lb and other things as cheep, but this
is every poor mans diet. Wages is not so very high out here not so
much as they are in England. I have Nothing more to Say at Present
more than this is just the country where we can end our days in peace
and contentment when we meet. I send my kind love and best of wishes
to you all and every one related to you and me, to your father and
Mother. Sisters and Brothers, aquaintences and friends and to every
one who may ask for me. I send my kind love to you all and especially
to my wife and children.
Farewell.
These ‘simple annals of the poor,’ written for no eyes but those to
which they were addressed, are surely very pleasant to read, and
very affecting. We earnestly commend to all who may peruse them,
the remembrance of these affectionate longings of the heart, and the
consideration of the question whether money would not be well lent or
even spent in re-uniting relatives and friends thus parted, and in
sending a steady succession of people of all laborious classes (not of
any one particular pursuit) from places where they are not wanted, and
are miserable, to places where they are wanted, and can be happy and
independent.
MILKING IN AUSTRALIA.—This is a very serious operation. First, say at
four o’clock in the morning, you drive the cows into the stock-yard,
where the calves have been penned up all the previous night, in a hutch
in one comer. Then you have to commence a chase after the first cow,
who, with a perversity common to Australian females, expects to be
pursued two or three times round the yard, ankle deep in dust or mud,
according to the season, with loud halloas and a thick stick. This
done, she generally proceeds up to the _fail_, a kind of pillory, and
permits her neck to be made fast. The cow safe in the fail, her near
hind leg is stretched out to its full length, and tied to a convenient
post with the universal cordage of Australia, a piece of green hide. At
this stage, in ordinary cases, the milking commences; but it was one of
the hobbies of Mr. Jumsorew, a practice I have never seen followed in
any other part of the colony, that the cow’s tail should be held tight
during the operation. This arduous duty I conscientiously performed for
some weeks, until it happened one day that a young heifer slipped her
head out of an ill-fastened fail, upset milkman and milkpail, charged
the Head Stockman, who was unloosing the calves, to the serious damage
of a new pair of fustians, and ended, in spite of all my efforts,
in clearing the top rail of the stock-yard, leaving me flat and
flabbergasted at the foot of the fence.—_From ‘Scenes in the Life of a
Bushman.’_ (_Unpublished._)
METAL IN SEA-WATER.—The French _sarans_, MM. Malaguti, Durocher, and
Sarzeaud, announce that they have detected in the waters of the ocean
the presence of copper, lead, and silver. The water examined appears
to have been taken some leagues off the coast of St. Malo, and the
fucoidal plants of that district are also found to contain silver.
The _F. serratus_ and the _F. ceramoides_ yielded ashes containing
1-100000th, while the water of the sea contained but little more than
1-100000000th. They state also that they find silver in sea-salt, in
ordinary muriatic acid, and in the soda of commerce; and that they
have examined the rock-salt of Lorraine, in which also they discover
this metal. Beyond this, pursuing their researches on terrestrial
plants, they have obtained such indications as leave no doubt of the
existence of silver in vegetable tissues. Lead is said to be always
found in the ashes of marine plants, usually about an 18-100000th
part—and invariably a trace of copper. Should these results be
confirmed by further examination, we shall have advanced considerably
towards a knowledge of the phenomena of the formation of mineral
veins.—_Athenæum._
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Published at the Office, No. 16. Wellington Street North, Strand; and
Printed by BRADBURY & EVANS, Whitefriars, London.
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=TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:=
Italics, bold letters, blackletter font, superscript
and small capitals are represented by _ = ~ ^{}
and ALL CAPS respectively.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Perceived typos have been silently corrected, while
archaic or variant spelling and punctuation have been
retained.
The above excludes the section ‘A Bundle of Emigrants’
Letters’, in which all potential errors were retained,
as the number of contributing authors made it
challenging to separate genuine errors from individual
spelling habits.
The totals in the table ‘Feb. 14th, 1850.’ are inaccurate
in the original text, and this has been retained.