NEW SOUTH WALES.
BUSH-RANGERS--THE DROUGHT OF 1838-9--THE SETTLER'S
TROUBLES--ORNITHOLOGY OF AUSTRALIA--ABORIGINAL
TRIBES.
On the Paterson, we were never troubled with those dangerous characters
called in the Colony, Bush-rangers. I can give no reason for their
avoiding this neighbourhood, but know that they did avoid it, and that
none of the residents in the district ever gave them a thought. Other
parts of the Colony are not so fortunate; and loud complaints are
constantly being made, of want of protection against those daring
marauders. They are runaway convicts, who take to the bush, either to
get clear of hard masters, or from a love of old habits; and, now and
then, they keep a whole county in a state of alarm. Frequent instances
of their daring occurred during my residence in Australia, some of a
ferocious character, while others tended more to excite laughter. Three
of those scamps visited, at noon-day, a settler's house, and, coolly
walking in, called for luncheon, and made themselves quite at home.
While thus regaling themselves, they happened to see a violin hanging
against the wall, and asked their _host_, whether he could play. On
being answered in the affirmative, they made him strike up, while they
danced to his music. When tired of this amusement, they helped
themselves to whatever struck their fancy, and then went to the stable,
picked out three of the best horses, leaving their own tired jades
behind, and rode off. The master of the house was the only person at
home at the time, and was unarmed; all his men were engaged in a distant
field; and he was threatened with instant death, should he give the
slightest alarm. Resistance, therefore, was impossible. Such
depredations have latterly been much checked by the exertions of the
mounted police. This very efficient body is composed of men drafted from
Her Majesty's regiments stationed in the Colony, who are mounted and
dressed at the expense of the local Government, and trained for their
work. They patrole the country in all directions, and have captured and
brought to justice many of the most desperate Bush-rangers, as well as
given a check to the several organized bodies of cattle-stealers.
Those parts of the Colony most distant from the capital, are, naturally,
most annoyed by bad characters of all description; and many of the
settlers trust to their own strength, more than to the police, to defend
their property. A friend of mine residing in Wellington Valley, three
hundred and fifty miles west of Sidney, used to arm himself and his
groom, and sally out in search of any desperate character he might have
heard of as being in the neighbourhood: he was more than once
successful, and became quite a noted man among the Bush-ranging
fraternity, who took good care to keep at a respectable distance from
him. Were some other settlers blessed with as much nerve and courage as
the gentleman I allude to, Bush-rangers would soon become less numerous.
A settler's life in an agricultural district, is pleasant enough, but it
has its drawbacks. A season of drought makes sad work in his fields, and
among his flocks. In the season of 1838-39, water became so scarce, that
many of the best pasture-lands in our neighbourhood were of necessity
abandoned, and the sheep as well as cattle were kept down on the banks
of the river, then reduced to a mere chain of pools, the intervening
channel being quite dry. The herbage was completely eaten up, and the
trees in many parts were cut down, in order that the hungry animals
might eat the leaves. One of my neighbours, to save his flocks, turned
them on his half-grown crop of wheat, by which means he saved some
thousands of sheep, but lost his wheat. Tens of thousands of sheep and
cattle, all over the country, died during this season; and grain crops
failed everywhere, except on the banks of my three favourite rivers;
namely, the Hunter, the Paterson, and the Allyn. There was scarcely a
settler on either of these rivers, that had not a little to spare;
while, in less favoured parts of the Colony, the farmer had to pay
enormous prices for flour to feed his men; and the cart-hire came to
nearly as much as the cost of the flour. I knew one gentleman who
despatched from Sydney four drays loaded with stores for his stations
near Bathurst, each dray drawn by seven oxen; and so great was the
scarcity of water and fodder on the road, that only four of the poor
animals reached their journey's end, the others having died on the road
from sheer starvation. Flour rose during this season to 60l. per ton,
and the quartern loaf in Sydney was sold at 3s. 4d.
One of the greatest discomforts attendant upon a summer's residence in
the bush of Australia, arises from the swarms of flies, large and small,
that infest the house. The large blow-fly is a serious nuisance: many a
good joint of meat they spoil, in spite of every precaution. These
insects find their way everywhere, and destroy whatever they come near.
In the dairy, the greatest care is necessary to prevent these pests from
reaching the milk and butter, which they will taint in a second.
Scarcely less of a plague than the swarms of flies, are the myriads of
fleas which torment the tired farmer, and cheat him out of many an
hour's sleep: these noisome disturbers are in the soil, and not all the
care the best housewife can bestow, can diminish the number.
While on the subject of the settler's troubles, I may mention, that the
cockatoos annoy the farmer in Australia, as much as the crows do in
England: they attack his wheat and maize when the grain is ripening, by
hundreds; indeed, I may say, by thousands; and it requires a very active
watchman to keep them from doing serious injury to the crop, not so much
from the quantity they eat, as from what they destroy and scatter. These
birds, which, by the bye, furnish an excellent dish that occasionally
formed part of our dinner, are remarkably cunning: while the flock are
busily feeding on the farmer's wheat, two of their number are left on
some neighbouring trees to keep watch; these, on the approach of danger,
give a loud, shrill scream, which at once puts the thieves to flight,
and renders it very difficult for the sportsman to get a shot at one of
them. Besides the common white red-crested cockatoo, the woods are the
home of the black species; a rare bird, that I have never seen
elsewhere. Those brought to Singapore by the Celebes traders, are a
bastard species. On what they feed, I am not aware, never having seen
them in the wheat or maize fields. During the winter months, neither
white nor black cockatoos are to be seen; nor have I ever heard to what
place they migrate. The bird-fancier might here make as beautiful a
collection as I have ever seen. The different varieties of the parrot
tribe are countless, and extremely pretty: the king-parrot, the lowrie,
and the mountain parrot, are, perhaps, the most beautiful. Then, there
is the pretty little diamond sparrow, so called from its size, its
habits, resembling those of the common sparrow, and its plumage, which
exhibits a diamond pattern of black, white, and blue. Of the hawk tribe,
the varieties are numerous: the largest is the eagle-hawk, which now and
then carries off a lamb from the flocks of careless shepherds. Were I an
ornithologist, I might write a goodly volume on the birds of this
country; but I must content myself with these few notices; not
forgetting, however, to mention the stately black swan, a bird becoming
every year more rare.
We used frequently to be visited by tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants
of this vast continent. They are, without exception, the most complete
savages I have ever come across. They have no homes, no occupation
beyond procuring food for the day, and think nothing of to-morrow, which
they literally leave to take care of itself. They resist almost every
attempt to induce them to labour, and, if clothed to-day by some good
Samaritan, will, in all probability, appear naked at his door to-morrow,
having given away their clothes to some convict, in exchange for a pound
of flour or an ounce of tobacco. In their habits, they are literally
wanderers on the face of the earth, shifting their camp from place to
place as game grows scarce. In rainy weather, the only precaution I ever
saw them take, with a view to protect themselves from wet, was the
building a small hut, not much larger than a bee-hive, constructed of
the boughs of trees, with a small aperture on one side, into which the
"black-fellow"[17] thrusts his head and shoulders, and sleeps as sound
as a top, his legs and the lower half of his body being exposed to wind
and rain. In winter, they may be seen encamped round a fire after their
day's hunting, all naked, and stretched on the ground, with their feet
towards the fire; the men smoking, if they have any thing to smoke, and
the wretched-looking women composing themselves to sleep in the same
_natural_ state as their lords and masters.[18] They suffer much,
occasionally, from hunger, and may then be induced to do a day's work
about the farm, for which they will consider themselves well paid by a
pound of flour and an ounce of tobacco each. This reward must not be
given them, however, till their work is done: give it beforehand, and
not a hand's turn will they do, but decamp at once to enjoy their
dinner. As soon as they have eaten their bread, they light the pipes,
and never cease smoking till their tobacco is finished. Some of the men
are remarkably well made, and strong, able-bodied fellows. One who spent
a week now and then in my kitchen, doing any thing the cook told him,
for the promise of a supper, was a tall, good-looking fellow, named
Jamie. They are one and all christened in the bush by any European they
may ask for a name. A father applied to me one day for a name for his
little boy, and I forthwith called him "Donald;" at which the old man
and the rest of the tribe laughed heartily, saying, "All same your
horse." I had then a pony called Donald. To resume: Jamie was frequently
clothed by me, and was asked to sleep in the kitchen, or in one of the
out-offices, but all to no purpose: his clothes, he never kept a week,
and he invariably took his departure at sun-set to sleep in the open
air. In our district, I believe, the blacks were harmless people; but,
on the Upper Hunter, on Liverpool Plains, they have been not only very
troublesome, but even dangerous neighbours. Many settlers have suffered
severely from their depredations; and several shepherds and
stock-keepers have been murdered by them. Would they content themselves
with killing a single bullock or two or three sheep, when suffering from
hunger, one might excuse them; but I have known twenty-five cows killed
by a single tribe in one night, the fat and kidneys taken away, and the
carcases left on the ground. This, to say the least of it, was a
mischievous waste of property; and such proceedings naturally led the
settlers to retaliate. The consequences were serious, and led to extreme
measures, ending, in more than one instance, in bloodshed. There seems
to be no room for doubt, that many of these poor creatures have been
murdered by stock-keepers on the mere suspicion of being concerned in
such crimes. This fact, however, does not justify the Government in
offering a hundred pounds reward for the discovery of the offender, when
a black happens to be murdered by a white, and only twenty-five pounds
reward, when the murderer is black, and the victim white.
[Footnote 17: The name given to the aborigines in Australia.]
[Footnote 18: It is a singular fact, that the aboriginal
natives of New South Wales, as well as the cattle that roam at
large in its woods, invariably choose the top of a moderately
elevated hill to sleep on during the winter months. The reason
is, that the hills are _always_ warmer than the valleys, and
are consequently resorted to in winter; while the latter are
chosen in summer as camping-ground by man and beast. I have
often been surprised, when riding about the bush in winter, at
feeling a current of warm air on the top of a range of hills,
having myself just ascended from the neighbouring valley where
the breeze was chilling. These warm breezes on the hill tops
blow from the north-west, and may be nearly related to the
summer hot winds, cooled on reaching the latitude of 34° in the
winter season. Be that as it may, they are not strong enough to
warm the valleys, though their influence on the hills is very
agreeable to the traveller.]
What would my fair countrywomen say to the "black-fellow's" mode of
taking unto himself a wife? On making up his mind as to the object of
his choice, he proceeds by night to the camping-ground of the _fair_
one's tribe; searches her out among the sleeping beauties; deals her a
blow on the head with his club, (to which an Irishman's shillelah is a
twig,) and carries off the stunned and senseless wretch to his own camp.
This ceremony makes them man and wife, and no further notice is taken of
the affair. The different tribes are constantly at war: but I have never
heard of any very serious consequences arising from their feuds. The day
of battle is generally spent in painting themselves red, dancing the
war-dance in presence of their foes, and, probably, exchanging a few
spears towards its close. Their arms consist of spears, clubs, and the
_boomerang_. The latter is a very extraordinary weapon, which they throw
to a great distance, making it _return to the thrower_ when it has
described its revolution, and probably hit some unfortunate wight on the
head in its course through the air. This weapon is of hard wood, about
three feet long, two inches broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and in
the form of a crescent: it is thrown against the wind, and describes a
circle in its course. The spear is of cane, hardened by fire at the
end, and is thrown with great force and dexterity. No black who can by
any means obtain a tomahawk, is ever without one, generally of English
make: with this, they are very expert at felling trees, and, with its
aid, will climb a tree which it would take two pair of arms to encircle.
The "black-fellow" cuts a small notch about three feet from the ground;
in this, he inserts the toe of one foot, holding on by one hand while he
cuts another hole three feet further up to receive the other foot; and
thus he proceeds till he reaches the top. The dead trees of Australia,
which are all hollow, are a favourite resort of the opossum. In search
of them, the black-fellow will ascend a tree in the manner just
described; and there he will sit while his companions below dig under
the roots, and light a fire, the smoke from which ascending the trunk of
the tree, as a chimney, speedily dislodges the game. This is dexterously
pounced upon by "blacky," the moment its head appears peeping from the
aperture at the top of some of the branches. I have never known the
tomahawk thrown by them, as it is by the Indian of America.
My family was once thrown into considerable alarm by an ill-looking
tribe of blacks who formed their camp immediately in front of our
cottage: they were strangers, and had no business there. On making
inquiries about them, I found that they came from a neighbouring
district, and were endeavouring to evade the police, who were in search
of them for the murder of an unfortunate shepherd. Not at all liking
such neighbours, I took advantage of their absence, one day, when they
were gone kangaroo-hunting, and set fire to their bee-hive huts. On
their return at sun-set, they took the hint, and we saw no more of them.
Among these tribes, it is a rule, that blood must be had for blood; and
this leads them, when one of their number falls by the hand of a white
man, to kill the first European they happen to meet, in retaliation. It
would scarcely be reasonable to expect these ignorant savages to see the
injustice of this proceeding; yet, it is hard, that an unoffending
person like the shepherd above referred to should be slaughtered in
revenge of the murder of a man he had never seen.
The number of dialects, or apparently different languages, spoken by the
aborigines of Australia, is very remarkable. Those residing in and about
Sydney cannot converse with those on the Hunter, who, in their turn, are
ignorant of the dialect spoken on Liverpool Plains; and this is the case
throughout the Colony. When Sir Edward Parry was manager of the
Australian Agricultural Company's affairs, he made a tour of inspection
through its estates, taking with him some few black followers as guides.
They were not fifty miles from their home, when, to Sir Edward's
astonishment, he heard them speaking English to their countrymen of the
districts through which they were passing. On inquiring the reason, he
was told, that the two parties were entirely ignorant of each other's
language.
I never could make out the religious notions of these aboriginal tribes,
further than that they believe in a future state. They do not appear to
have much affection for their children, if one may judge from the way in
which they treat them; yet, the mother bemoans the loss of one of her
little ones very piteously, daubs her face and arms with lime in token
of mourning, and spends many days in the neighbourhood of the grave. In
common with all savage nations, the Australian blacks treat their women
ill. These poor creatures get the worst of all their food, with the
hardest of all their work; and are frequently very severely beaten by
their hard and ruthless taskmasters. Degraded as are these aborigines
generally, those in the immediate vicinity of Sydney are a more abject
race than their more fortunate brethren who inhabit the distant parts of
the Colony. This may be partly, if not wholly accounted for, by the
facility with which at Sydney they can obtain ardent spirits, to procure
which they will do almost any thing. I have never seen human beings
elsewhere reduced to a state of such utter degradation and misery as
these poor people exhibit. To shew how much they dislike any thing like
labour, I may mention, that Government, on one occasion, set aside a
piece of land for a tribe near Sydney, and had it cleared, tilled, and
planted with maize for their use, exacting from them a promise that they
would tend the growing corn, keep it clean, and gather the crop when
ripe: they did neither the one nor the other, but, when called on to
gather the grain that was to be their own, said, it was too much
trouble. The result was, that the corn was plucked for them; and no
further attempt was made to induce them to work.
Several praiseworthy individuals have from time to time endeavoured to
educate and civilize young boys of this unhappy race. One was sent to
England, where he was kept at school till he was fifteen years of age;
and he then returned to his native country. He had not been two days on
shore in Sydney, when, meeting with some of his countrymen, he threw off
his European clothing, and started for the bush, whence there was no
getting him back.
Like most savages, the natives are seldom if ever known to express
surprise or astonishment under any circumstances. Shortly before leaving
the Colony, I saw a native, early in the morning, standing on one of the
heights overlooking the harbour of Sydney. On my asking what he was
about, his reply was: "I belong big river (300 miles distant); first
time come Sydney; come here see ship; _budgerie su_ (pleasant sight);
never see ship or salt water before." This poor savage had come three
hundred miles on foot, assisting a drover with a herd of cattle; he had
never before seen either the sea or a ship in his life; and yet there he
stood, looking at these, to him, most extraordinary objects, with a
countenance as placid and unmoved as if they had been daily sights from
his infancy. On questioning him, I could extract nothing further from
him: he _would not_ allow that he was astonished, but simply repeated,
"_budgerie su_." While idling away an hour one day in the criminal
court, I saw an aboriginal black tried for murder. Nothing could exceed
the perfect indifference that he exhibited throughout the whole scene.
When called upon, through an interpreter, to plead guilty or not guilty,
his reply was: "I did it because he (the deceased) stole my wife." He
would not condescend to deny an act which he considered himself
justified in committing. This plea of justification, the learned Judge
directed to be taken as one of not guilty; and the result was, the
prisoner's acquittal.
Sir F. L. Mitchell, the Surveyor-General of New South Wales, in his
admirable journal of his three celebrated expeditions into the interior
of Australia, has described the aboriginal inhabitants of that portion
of the country named by him, "Australia Felix," as a race of men
altogether superior to those found in other parts of this continent.
This race may, and probably will be found formidable neighbours for the
first settlers to encounter. Their country, from the description given
by its discoverer, must be a very fine one; and should it prove to be
regularly refreshed by rain, it will be an invaluable addition to the
Colony.
The fate of the tribes I have been endeavouring to describe, is a
melancholy one: they are fast disappearing from the face of the earth;
and one or two more generations will, in all human probability, see the
last of them.