You have been pleased many times, in very decided terms, to express your
ever-to-be-respected conviction that I should eventually come to something;
haply to the woolsack--possibly to the gallows; from which prophetic
sentiment, I have naturally inferred that my genius was rare, and that
your eagle eye had discovered it.
Before my letter reaches your generous shores, twelve months will have
elapsed, most reverend Christopher, since we parted in the Hibernian city.
Then we were as near to one another as firmly grasped hands could render
us; now sixteen thousand miles effectually divide us; and whilst I sit
silently wishing you ages of health and mortal happiness, the mercury of
my thermometer stands lazily at freezing point, whereas your own sprightly
quicksilver rushes up to 92. All things tell me of our separation. We
sailed, as you will find by referring to your pocket-book--for you made a
memorandum at the time--on the 14th day of November last from Cork;
sighted Madeira--about thirty miles abreast--in eight days, and out of
sight of it on the 22d. A fine fair wind was sent to us, and we crossed
the Line, all well, on the 14th of December; then steering pretty far to
westward, we luckily caught the trade-wind, and rounded the Cape in a good
gale on the 15th of January. And here it came on to blow right earnestly;
but we kept the gale for about eight days on our larboard quarter, and we
scudded on our course at a fearful rate. Our mizen mast was carried
away--both our mainsails split--and we smashed a few spars, and lost some
running gear; nothing more serious happened, save the loss of as fine a
young fellow as ever trode shoe-leather--a seaman. He was caught sharply
by one of the ropes that gave way, and it carried him overboard like a
feather. We saw him drop--the sea was running mountains high--we could
render him no assistance; and he perished under our very eyes. The wind,
fortunately for us, continued on either quarter of our ship; and it is a
remarkable fact, and deserving of notice, that, during the whole of our
voyage, we had occasion only _to put the ship about_ TWICE. We cast anchor
in Hobson's Bay, Port Philip on the morning of the 21st of February,
having made our voyage in the short space of ninety-nine days, and the
land within a quarter of an hour of the captain's reckoning. The events of
the passage may be given _paucis verbis_. We had nine _accouchements_ in
the steerage amongst the emigrants, some of them premature from violent
sea-sickness, and seven deaths--all children.
Our deaths, as I have said, were confined to the children. The adults kept
free from fever; an astonishing fact, when the confinement and closeness of
a steerage birth is taken into account. The voyage was agreeable. We were
good friends in the cabin. The captain, a prudent, temperate man, took his
three glasses of grog per diem, and no more; the first at noon, the second
at dinner, the third and last at _"turn-in_." Your obedient servant, ever
mindful of your strict injunctions, and of your eloquent discourse on
sobriety and self-denial, and believing that he could not do better than
regulate his watch according to the captain's chronometer, followed
precisely the same rule. We maintained a glorious state of health after
the first week; and if all future voyagers would do the same, let them
neither eat nor drink aboard ship to the full extent of their appetites.
This is simple advice, but I reckon it the first great secret which my
nomadic experience enables me to put down for the benefit of my
fellow-creatures; especially on board of a ship, _leave off with an
appetite._ We passed our time--not having the fear of the Ancient Mariner
before our eyes--in shooting albatrosses, Cape pigeons, and the like; in
picking up a porpoise, a bonnitta, or a dolphin. Books, backgammon, and
whist, filled up the measure of the day. _Mem_.--had we been favoured with
less wind, we should have got more porpoises. We speared
many--_first-raters_; but the speed at which we cut along, prevented our
securing them.
But we have cast anchor. The harbour of Hobson's Bay is a splendid inlet
of the sea. The bay is very narrow at the entrance, but the moment you get
past the Heads, it extends to a breadth of eight or ten miles, and to a
length of twenty-two miles, from the mouth to the anchoring place. The
land around the bay is flat and sandy, and covered with wood almost to the
water's edge. The tree there resembles our common mountain fir: it is
exactly like it in the bark; but it is called by the settlers, _the
she-oak_. I reckon it to be the beef-tree, for it has its appearance when
cut up, is hard, and takes a beautiful polish. Inland, this wood grows to
a considerable height and thickness; but the principal part of the
interior is thickly covered with the various species of the gum and
peppermint trees, many of them of a singularly large growth: but more of
the interior anon. Immediately opposite to the anchorage ground, there is
a pretty little town called _Williamstown_, in which the water-police
magistrate, an old seafaring gentleman, Captain ----, has his residence.
The gallant captain has enough to do with the jolly tars, who invariably
attempt to cut and run as soon as they have got here. A sailor
misconducting himself on the voyage, has at least two months' reflection
in the jail of Williamstown, commencing immediately upon his arrival. The
news of this prison establishment will probably reach England before my
letter. Should it be spoken of in your presence, say that it has been
found absolutely necessary for the protection of shipmasters, and that an
act was passed accordingly for its erection. _Gordon law_, so called after
the first magistrate, is proverbial, and very summary. Every fellow found
drunk gets two hours in the stocks, and he becomes sober there much sooner
than if he had been simply fined five shillings.
The town of Melbourne is beautifully situated on the face of a hill, in
the hollow of which runs the noble river called the _Yarra-Yarra_, words
which signify in the native language, _"flowing constantly."_ It is
distinguished by its title from the large majority of rivers, which are
nearly _still_, and which, after extending only for a mile or two, form at
length a species of swamp. Such rivers are generally styled _lagoons_. The
_Yarra-Yarra_ is navigable up to the town of Melbourne for ships of a
large size--say 400 tons; but the seven miles of distance being circuitous,
and the banks of sand at the mouth of the river occasionally shifting, the
larger class of ships generally remain at the anchorage ground in the bay,
and discharge by common lighters. At the present moment, from twenty to
thirty very large ships are riding in the bay. A pretty little steamer
plies three times a-day between the towns of Melbourne and
Williamstown--price five shillings, up and down. Another steamer, "The Sea
Horse," plies between Melbourne and Sydney once a fortnight; the passage
is made in three days, and the fares £12 for cabin, £6 for steerage. The
communication is a vast accommodation to this district. The steamer is in
private hands, and did not answer at first; she now carries the mail, and
promises to turn out a profitable _spec_. The coast is very dangerous, and
at _every_ season of the year liable to very violent gales. Even in the
bay the squalls are sudden, violent, and dangerous, and many lives are
lost for want of proper precaution and care, on board of small boats. Only
yesterday, my friend, Mr G----, and three men, were out in a pleasure boat;
in five minutes they were swept off to leeward, the boat was upset, and
they were all drowned.
Melbourne is perhaps the most surprising place in her Majesty's dominions.
Nothing, in the history of colonization, approaches her as regards the
rapidity of advancement and extent. Six years ago there were not twenty
British subjects on the spot, and at the present hour, Melbourne and its
suburbs boast of a population of ten thousand souls. There are already
built four splendid edifices for public worship--Episcopalians,
Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Independents, are provided for--and there is
in addition a very large Roman Catholic chapel in the course of erection.
There are three banks all doing excellently well--"The Australasian," "The
Union Bank of Australia," and "Port Philip's Bank"--and there is yet a
good field for another, under prudent management. The rate of discount is
£10 per cent; and the interest given on deposit accounts £7 per cent. The
common rate of interest, given with good mortgage security, is £20 per
cent; and in some instances, where a little risk is taken, £25 and £30.
Bills past due at the bank, are charged £12 per cent. A court of law (by
act of Council) allows £8 per cent on all bills sued upon, with a
discretionary power of extending the rate to £12 per cent, to cover any
damage or loss sustained. There are two Club houses, a Royal Exchange, and
some very large buildings for stores. A spacious new jail is building in a
most commodious situation, and a public court house will soon follow; the
one existing being but small and temporary. The new customhouse, which has
been completed since my arrival is a fine building, and forms one side of
the Market Square. In front of this, and about four hundred yards distant,
stands the wharf. Melbourne rejoices likewise in its theatre, or, as it is
called, "_pavilion_," which place of amusement, however, the governor does
not think proper to license. His refusal is, I believe, very properly
founded upon the questionable condition of the morals of the great body of
the population. Two hours at the police-office any morning, afford a
stranger a tolerably clear insight into this subject generally, and
acquaint him particularly with the over-night deportment of the
Melbournese. The police magistrate holds any thing but a sinecure. We have
three newspapers in Melbourne, namely, _The Patriot_, _The Herald_, and
_Gazette_, each published twice a-week; the first on Monday and Thursday,
the second on Tuesday and Friday, the third on Wednesday and Saturday; so
that we have a newspaper every day. The advertisements are numerous and
varied in matter. I have heard upon good authority that the proprietor of
any one of these journals draws at least £4000 to £5000 per annum from the
profits of them. It is not difficult to account for these enormous gains.
Every thing here is sold by auction, and the advertisements are in
consequence more numerous than they would otherwise be. An auctioneer
alone, in good business, will pay each of the papers about £1000 per annum
for printing and advertising his numerous sales. We have a supreme court
with a suitable establishment of officers. John Walpole Willis, Esq., was
resident judge. He is now amongst you, for, by the slip which carries this
letter, he starts for England, circumstances having occurred that render
it necessary for him to vindicate in person a character which requires no
vindication. The people of Melbourne part with the upright and learned
judge with infinite regret, softened only by the certain hope they
entertain of his immediate return. The resident judge holds civil courts
as in England during the several terms, and criminal courts of general
jail-delivery every month. The pleadings are conducted by barristers at
law, who have been duly admitted in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Isle of
Man. The agents or attorneys and solicitors are those duly admitted at
Sydney, at courts of Westminster in England, High Courts in Ireland, and
_writers to her Majesty's Signet in Scotland_. Others who may have served
a regular apprenticeship of not less than five years to any such agent,
after undergoing a necessary examination, are likewise suffered to
practise as attorneys. The supreme court has been established about twelve
months. Before that time all suits were carried on in Sydney. Conveyances
of land may be prepared by any one, and, before professional men appeared
amongst the settlers, there were some rare specimens of deeds in this
branch of English law. Now they are of course better--and those to which I
have adverted have fortunately paved the way for endless litigation. We
have a sprinkling of military and mounted police; two very large steam
mills for grinding flour and sawing timber; and in a word, all the
concomitants of a large and flourishing city. I should, however, except
the public streets. These are still unpaved, and consequently in wet
weather, in some places, impassable, and in dry weather insufferably dusty.
I have spoken of the sudden squalls which arise often in the Bay. Whilst
one of these prevails, clouds of dust are carried from the streets so
dense that you cannot see half a yard before you. If you are exposed to
the whirlwind, and chance to wear clothes of a dark colour, you issue from
it with the appearance of a man who has been confined in a mill for a week.
A house of furniture well cleaned in the morning, looks at dinner-time as
if it had been coated with dirt for a twelvemonth. Should there be a
sudden mortality among the ladies of Port Philip, it will undoubtedly be
occasioned by this warfare with the dirt, which is carried forward day
after day without any prospect of retreat on either side.
Having read thus far, you will very likely tap the floor impatiently with
your foot, and say--if you have not said it already--"Well, but what is
the fellow about himself?" Patience, gentle Christopher. I will tell you
now. Upon my arrival with a pocket, as you are aware, not very
inconveniently laden, I kept of course "my eye ahead" for any thing
suitable in the farming way; sheep-stock or cattle. But it would not do.
_Capital_ was required to get a sheep-station, and employment as an
overseer, in consequence of the depression that existed in the markets
_for all kinds of stock_, altogether hopeless. No man is idle here longer
than he can help it, unless he have the wherewithal to look to; and there
are fifty modes of gaining bread here, if a man will turn to them? What
could a briefless barrister do better than throw himself upon the law? I
smelled out the attorneys to begin with. The first with whom I came in
contact was one Mr ----, from a northern county in England. He had been
here only three years, and was already rattling about in his carriage. He
arrived without a shoe to his foot, or a sixpence in his pocket. Another
was my old and respected friend Mr ----, writer to the signet, of
Edinburgh, who had been here about eighteen months, was living like a
gentleman, and on the point of entering a fine new dwelling-house, which
he had himself erected out of his own honourable gains. Upon him I waited,
and from his kindness I obtained all the information I stood in need of;
and not only this, but immediate profitable employment in his office,
which, with his leave, I hold until something offers--whether I shall
claim admission as attorney, solicitor, and proctor, as some have done
before me, or resort to my old calling of advocate, is as yet an undecided
question. I am now in the receipt of more than is necessary for
subsistence, and I shall look before I leap. The rents of houses are
extravagantly high. The poorest tradesmen pay fifteen shillings a-week for
his small house--and he must pay it weekly; the better class of tradesmen
pay twenty and twenty-five shillings, and the higher class from two to
four pounds a-week; for a petty dwelling containing only three rooms and a
kitchen. A small brick cottage held by a friend of mine, and consisting of
sitting-room, bed-room, servant's room, and kitchen, is considered a great
bargain at a hundred pounds per annum. The hours of business are limited
with strictness to seven--_videlicit_, from nine in the morning until four
P.M. You are your own master after four o'clock, and need fear no
business-calls or interruptions. Whilst business, however, is going on,
the excitement and bustle compel me to regard Cheapside on a Saturday
afternoon, as a place of great quietness and an agreeable promenade.
Fellows are riding as hard as they can tear from one end of the town to
the other--cattle are driving to and fro--bullock-drays are crowding from
the interior with wood--auctions are eternally at work--settlers are
coming from their stations, or getting their provisions in. Tradesmen and
mercantile men are hurry-skurrying with their orders. A vast amount of
work is done up to four o'clock, and afterwards all is silence, and the
place looks unlike nothing so much as itself; and yet, notwithstanding all
this bustle, _money_ is altogether out of the question. From what exact
cause or series of causes, I cannot tell you now--but the fact is certain
that the mercantile community here is nearly _bankrupt_. There is a glut
of goods, a superabundance of every thing in the market. It has been
wrongfully supposed in England that every thing would sell here, and the
consequence has been that an overflow of every kind of commodity has
poured in upon us. The supply has doubled and trebled the demand. Upon the
first establishment of these settlements the wants of the people were of
course many, and their prices for stock were so good, and their
speculations in land so profitable and bright, that they could afford the
indulgence of a luxury, no matter what price was asked to purchase it. It
is very different _now_. The staple commodity of this colony is wool. Well,
so long as all the stations or sheep-runs continued unoccupied, and new
settlers arrived, the price of sheep kept naturally very high; but every
station that can command a due supply of water, is now in occupation, and
consequently the demand for stock has ceased. Sheep, which three years ago
sold for twenty-five and eighteen shillings, command now, for first
quality, eight shillings and sixpence only; ordinary quality, six
shillings; and middling as low as five shillings. For cash sale by
sheriff-warrant, I have seen beautiful ewes, free from all disease--2000
of them--sold for two and sixpence each! Cattle three years ago sold for
ten, twelve, and sometimes fifteen pounds per head. At this moment they
are so plentiful that I could purchase a drove of fat cattle, two to three
hundred head--and some of them weighing eighty stone--for eight pounds a
beast, and that on credit too by approved bill at four months' date. Such
are a few of the reasons why a damper has come over the Port Philip market,
reducing amongst other things the price of wages by nearly a third.
Emigrants continue to pour in, and they stare and are grievously
disappointed at the rate of wages, so very different to that which they
expected. Twelve months since, a single labouring man got forty pounds per
annum, with weekly rations of provisions; now with his rations, he
receives only twenty-five, or at most thirty pounds per annum. Married men
with young families will not be hired at any rate, for they are only
burdens on a station. A good thorough-bred shepherd maintains his price.
He is still in great demand, and may command from sixty to seventy pounds
per annum, with rations, cow's milk, free hut, and a portion of produce of
stock in addition to all, if he chooses to put his wages to that mode of
profit. Women servants were formerly much wanted. They are now at a
discount. The filthy drabs ejected from Ireland are scarcely worth their
meat. I am proud to say it, and you should be proud to hear it, gentle
Christopher, that a Scotch servant, male or female, is forty per cent
above every other in value in this colony. Scotch servants get ahead in
spite of every thing. The Scotch tradesmen have almost all of them made
money; some abundantly. I have met many here from the North who brought
nothing but their energy, moderation, and unconquerable perseverance with
them, and they are affluent, and are becoming daily more so. Donald ----,
who was a servant lad at home, and is now a respected and respectable man
in Melbourne, is independent. He went first to Van Diemen's Land, and came
here some three years ago. "And had you arrived," he said to me the other
day, "at the same time, you might now have been moving home a prosperous
gentleman." However, _nil desperandum_. There is still a fair opportunity
for an industrious man, who above all things has resolution to be SOBER in
his habits. The mischief with the labouring man has been, that having
suddenly discovered his wages to be high in comparison with those he
received in the mother country, he has considered himself entitled to have
a proportionate extra amount of enjoyment at the public-house, where drink
is very high. Good tradesmen would infallibly make money, but for this
great failing. The bullock dray-drivers, certainly the best paid of all
the working men, absolutely think nothing of coming from the Bush into
Melbourne, with twenty or thirty pounds in their pocket, and spending
every farthing of the sum--in _one night_--champagne to the mast-head. The
innkeepers make fortunes rapidly. Shall I tell how much Boniface will draw
in a week? No--for you will not believe me. Certainly as much as many an
innkeeper in a country town would draw in twelve months. An innkeeper's
license to Government is thirty pounds per annum. This entitles him to
keep his house open from six in the morning until eleven o'clock at night;
ten pounds more enables him to have open house during the night; and an
additional ten pounds enables him to keep a billiard table. There are a
great many houses with tables and a number of light houses; but, as I have
hinted before, our police courts exhibit abominations, and a police court
is a good criterion of the morals of a people. In the first formation and
early beginnings of this colony, a man having sheep took up his abode in
the interior, on any spot which he considered suitable and agreeable, and
he was called a _squatter_. Now no individual may pasture sheep or cattle
of any kind without receiving a license from Government, for which he pays
ten pounds annually, and making a return every year of all his stock,
servants, and increase--the license, by the way, not being available
within three miles of Melbourne. The holder of such a license is called a
_settler_. A settler is entitled to cut wood upon his own station or run,
for firing for himself and servants; but if he cut it for sale--and we
have no coal here--he pays, in addition to the ten pounds, three pounds
more per annum for the permission so to do.
You shall now receive a faithful account of the settling of a settler.
Suppose him to have a station in the interior, or as it is invariably
styled, "in the _Bush_." The distance is forty, fifty, or it may be eighty,
miles from Melbourne, and the stock consists of from four to five thousand
sheep, and from one to two hundred head of cattle. The settler, in all
probability, has been accustomed in early life to good society, has been
well educated and brought up. Living at his station he sees none but his
own servants, his _chère amie_, (always a part of a settler's stock,) and
perhaps a few black natives, not unfrequently hostile visitors. Business
calls the settler to Melbourne; he puts up at his inn; any thing in the
shape of society rejoices his heart, and forthwith he begins "the lark;"
he dines out--gets fuddled, returns to his inn, finds a city friend or two
waiting for him, treats them to champagne, of which, at ten shillings per
bottle, they drink no end. Very well. His horse is in the stable at seven
shillings and sixpence a-night, his own bill varies from six to eight
pounds per diem, and at the end of a fortnight my settler is called upon
to hand over a cheque upon his banker to the tune of a hundred pounds, or,
if he has no bank-account, his promissory note at a very short date. Away
starts the settler back to his solitude; he has given his bill, and he
thinks no more about it; but the bill finds its way quickly into the hands
of an attorney, and in eight days there is an execution out for recovery,
with an addition of ten pounds already incurred in legal expenses. The
sheriff's bailiff rides to the station and demands payment of the whole.
He gets no money, but settler and bailiff return in company to Melbourne:
a friend is applied to; he discounts a bill for the sum required. The
attorney is paid the amount by the hands of the sheriff. The bill once
more becomes due, and is once more dishonoured; expenses run up like
wildfire. This time there is no escape, and a portion of the stock must be
sold to avoid ruin--and it is sold sometimes at a fearful sacrifice. This
is no insulated case. It is the history of nine-tenths of the thoughtless
fellows who dwell away in the Bush. Such gentlemen at the present hour, in
consequence of the depressed state of the stock market, are all but ruined.
Any one of them, who twelve months since purchased his flock of two
thousand sheep at eighteen or five-and-twenty shillings, can only reckon
upon a fourth of the amount in value _now_. It is increase only that
enables him to pay his servants, and he has as much off the wool as
affords him the means of living. The sale of his wethers would not pay for
the tear and wear of bullocks and drays; and if any profit does by any
chance arise, it can be only from occasionally catching a few head of
cattle, which, as they run wild in the woods, the settler can keep no
account of, and only with difficulty secure when they come to a lagoon for
water, where they are watched, because at one time or another they are
certain to appear. Horses are very dear in Melbourne: a useless brute,
which in England would be dear at ten pounds, sells here quickly for
thirty; a good saddle horse will fetch a hundred, and I have seen some
tolerable cart horses sold for fifty and sixty pounds. In a new colony,
where almost all the draught is performed by bullocks, cart horses must
realize a good price. The hire of a horse and cart in Melbourne is, one
pound four shillings for the day.
In addition to those above spoken of there is another class of settlers,
who were the original stock-holders and land-purchasers in the district.
They have large tracts of country in the Bush, and thousands of sheep and
cattle on then, and all managed by servants and overseers. These
proprietors live at the clubs in Melbourne and constitute what is here
termed the _élite_ of society. A short time ago these gentlemen
entertained the pleasing notion, that there was to be no termination to
the increase and extent of their wealth; and one very young member of the
society was heard to exclaim, in apparent agony at his excessive good
fortune, "upon my soul, I am become most disgustingly rich." But mark the
difference The _élite_ have been living in the most extravagant manner.
They discounted bills at their own pleasure here at ten per cent; and
knowing well that these bills would not be honoured at maturity, they sent
them to London, and cashed them there: with the funds thus raised, they
speculated in the buying of land and stock, hoping to get (as in many
instances they did) at least eighty per cent profit by their transactions.
But now stock has fallen to a trifle; bills are falling due, rushing back
from England under protest--and the bubble bursts. The banks are drawing
in their accommodation, and the _élite_, who were a short time back so
disgustingly rich, are, whilst I write, most disgustingly poor. This is no
imaginative statement; it is a sober fact. But I do not suppose that the
present state of things will last long. Speculation and the rate of
interest must come down. When the human body is disordered, it is a happy
time for the doctor; when the body mercantile is diseased, it is the
attorney's harvest time. If an attorney has any business at all, he must
do well in Melbourne, for his fees are inordinately high. Protesting a
bill is five-and-twenty shillings; noting, half-a-guinea; every letter
demanding payment of account, if under twenty pounds, half-a-guinea; above
twenty and under a hundred pounds, one guinea; above a hundred, two
guineas. Every summons (a summons being a short printed form) before the
supreme court, is charged six guineas; and the clients pay down at once,
without any questions, too glad to do so, provided they can get rid of
their temporary difficulties. Litigation is short and quick. Conveyancing
is downright profit; a deed, however short, conveying a piece of land,
however trifling, costs five guineas. There are no stamps, and the work is
done in an hour. More valuable properties are conveyed by a deed generally
charged nine guineas. My friend ---- has drawn twelve such deeds in his
office in the course of one day; and with these eyes I have seen him earn
six guineas in as many minutes, by appearing at the police-office when a
dispute has arisen between a master and his servant. All quarrels of this
kind are arranged at the police-office, when the amount of wages received
by the servant does not exceed thirty pounds annually. An attorney with
brains cannot fail to get ahead. He has only to use dispatch, and to begin
and continue in one even and undeviating course. Our barristers are few in
number. There are but four of then. There is still a glorious field for a
barrister of talent, and especially if he be conversant with the nicer
points of conveyancing. Any clever barrister up to the business and a good
speaker, might rely upon making immediately at least a thousand a-year;
the community are looking and waiting for such a man. A fellow with no
capital and no profession had better not show his face in Melbourne. It is
a thousand to one against him. Compared to his position that of a labourer
is an enviable one; yet any respectable and intelligent man tolerably well
educated, coming here with four or five hundred pounds in his pocket, may
certainly, in a couple of years, and in twenty different ways, treble that
capital. The best and most promising is the following:--Buy in any
_growing_ part of the town of Melbourne, a small piece of town allotment.
This will cost fifty pounds, upon this you may erect two small brick
cottages, containing each two rooms and a kitchen, and well fitted for a
respectable tradesman. Two hundred and forty pounds will build them up;
thus the whole expense of cottages and ground is two hundred and ninety
pounds at most. Each cottage will, for a moral certainty, let for one
pound five shillings per week, and thus return you a clear rental of
sixty-four pounds per annum, for the sum of one hundred and forty-four
pounds laid out. Some capitalists are not long in discovering this mode of
adding to their fortunes, and it is not surprising that such men, with
ease, get speedily rich. Many individuals are personally known to me who
arrived here with small means a few years back, and who are now receiving
an income of fifteen hundred pounds a-year from houses, which they have
raised upon their profits and by not slow degrees. Their returns are
certain for, mark you, every tradesman pays his rent every Monday morning,
there is no delay. If it be not paid the hour it is due, the landlord is
empowered by law to send a bailiff to the house, to keep him there at an
expense to the tenant of three shillings per day--and to request him, at
the end of five days, to sell off the goods and chattels provided the
demand is still unsatisfied. I know no better investment for capital, be
it large or small, than that of which I speak. There are no taxes, no
ground-rents, and the tenant is bound to keep his premises in repair. If a
mistake has been made in the building of houses, it is because some have
overshot the mark, and built dwellings that are _too large for the
purposes required_; these large houses cost a large sum of money, and
neither let readily nor nearly so high in proportion, as the smaller
houses occupied by the working-classes.
I am unable to give you an accurate notion of the general appearance of
the country. Speaking in broad terms it is wooded, but not so densely as
on the Sydney side, Van Diemen's Land, or New Zealand. The peculiar and
beautiful feature of this country is the open plain which is found at
every ten or twelve miles spreading itself over a surface not less than
three miles in length and half the distance in breadth. It is as smooth as
a lawn. A magnificent tree rears itself to a great height here and there
upon the sward, on either side of which appears a natural park, the finest
that taste could fashion or art could execute. Nature has done in fact
what no art could accomplish. Gaze upon these grounds, and for a moment
imagine that the enormous bullocks before you, with their fearful horns,
are a gigantic herd of deer, and you have a sight that England, famous for
her parks, shall in vain attempt to rival. But against this royal
scene--set off a melancholy drawback, one which I fear may never be made
good even by the ingenuity and indomitable energy of man. The land has an
awful want of _spring water_. There are a few small holes, called lagoons,
the remains of ancient rivers, met with now and then; and strange to say,
one of such holes will be found to contain salt sea-water, whilst another,
within a very few yards of it, has water quite fresh, or nearly so. In the
former are found large seafish, such as cod, mullet, sea-carp, and a fish
similar to our perch. I an speaking of holes discovered at a distance of a
hundred and twenty miles from the sea, and having no visible communication
with it. In several districts there are large rivers, but their course is
uncertain, and it is impossible to say that any one river empties itself
into the sea. Goulburn is a fine river, and ninety miles from this on the
banks of that river, are found very large lobsters, and other shell-fish.
To stand on an eminence, and to cast your eye down into the valley beyond
and beneath you, is to have an enjoyment which the ardent lover of nature
alone can appreciate. Far as the eye can look, there is uninterrupted
harmony. Splendid plains covered with the fleecy tribe, and here and there
(alas! only but _here_ and _there_) a speck of water, enough to vindicate
nature from the charge of utter neglect--and no more. A glance thrown in
another direction brings to your view an endless tract of country deprived
even of these solitary specks, where the grass grows as high as your knee,
and where no man dare take his flocks and herds for lack of the sweet
element. If the surface of this land were blessed with spring water as
England is, the wealth of this colony would surpass the calculation of any
living man. As it is, who can tell the ultimate effect of this important
deprivation? There are one or two stations, on which spring water has been
discovered, but it is a rare discovery, and dearly prized. In Melbourne
we have no water, but such as is carted by the water barrel carters from
the river _Yarra-Yarra_. Every house has its barrel or hogshead for
holding water. The _Yarra-Yarra_ water is brackish, and causes dysentery.
The complaint is now prevailing. In many parts of the interior puddle
holes are made, and water is thus secured from the heavy rain that falls
in the early part of summer. Water saved in this manner never becomes
putrid. The leaves of the gum-tree fall into the pool abundantly, and not
only give to the water a very peculiar flavour, but preserve it from all
putrefaction. This gum water is safest when boiled with a little tea, and
drunk cold. Every settler in the Bush drinks water in no other way,
and--for want of better things--he takes tea and fresh mutton at least
three times a-day. His bread is a lump of flour and water rolled into a
ball, and placed in hot ashes to bake. The loaf is called "_a damper_."
The country, as far as I have seen it, bears evident marks of great
volcanic change. You meet with a stone, round like a turnip, as hard as
iron, like rusty iron in appearance, and on the outside honey-combed.
There are large beds of it for miles. You then come to the flat country
where the soil surpasses any thing you can conceive in richness, fit for
any cultivation under heaven, and upwards of fifteen feet in depth. Before
I quitted London, I heard that the climate of Australia was fine and
equable, seldom varying, and well suited to a delicate constitution. I am
satisfied that many consumptive persons _live_ here, who in Scotland would
be carried off in a month. You seldom hear a person cough. In church I
have listened in vain for a single _hoste_; no, not even before the
commencement of a psalm do you find the _haughting_ and _clachering_ that
are indispensable in England. All pipes are clear as bell. I noticed this
as a phenomenon on my first arrival. We are now, as you would say, in the
dead of winter; a strange announcement to a British ear in the month of
July. The air is chill in the morning and evening, before sunrise and
after sunset, but during the day the weather is as fine as on the finest
September day in Scotland. Notwithstanding what I have said, I would not
have you ground any theory upon my remarks as yet--or deceive Sir James
Clark, and the rest of the medical gentlemen, who are looking on all sides
of the world for a climate for their hopeless invalids. I have stated
facts, but those which follow are no less authentic. On the 30th and 31st
of December last, the thermometer at the observatory stood in the shade at
70 deg. and 72 deg. noon. On the 1st of January at noon, and up to three
o'clock, P.M., it stood in the shade at 92 deg. and 93 deg. On the 2d it
rose to 95 deg. at noon, and fell at sunset, eight P.M., to 69 deg. In the
middle of the foresaid month of December the thermometer was 86 deg. at
breakfast time, and before dinner down to 63 deg. These memoranda, gained
from undoubted sources, would show the climate--in summer at least--to be
more variable than my reference proves it; yet I am told that even in
summer time you hear of little sickness amongst grown up people. New
comers suffer from dysentery, and children are attacked in the same way. I
have had two visitations, from which I rallied in the course of four and
twenty hours, with the aid of arrow root, port wine, and laudanum. A free
use of vegetables is always dangerous to strangers, and they are obtained
here in perfection. The weather is too hot for apples, pears, and
gooseberries in the summer. Grapes and other English hot-house fruits come
to delicious maturity in the open air. The melons are inconceivably
exquisite, and grow, as they were wont in Paradise before the fall,
without care or trouble spent upon them. The seed is put into the earth; a
little water is given to it at that time, and the thing is done--"_c'est
un fait accompli_." Potatoes grow at any season of the year, and
cauliflowers and turnips spring up almost in a night like mushrooms. There
are some five farms in cultivation around Melbourne, and the crops of
wheat are very fair in quality but fall off in quantity. Thirty bushels
per acre is considered a good crop. Oats grow too much to straw, and are
generally cut in the slot blade, winnowed, and carted to Melbourne and
sold for hay. Rye-grass hay does not answer, and clover is not more
successful; but vetches have just been introduced on a small scale, and
nothing yet grown has succeeded so well as green food for horses and cows.
Hay of fine quality is brought from Van Diemen's Land, but it is very dear.
A cart load of good oaten hay sells here for about forty-five shillings.
Van Diemen's Land hay is at present eleven guineas per ton.
The aboriginal natives of this colony are a very savage race, and all the
efforts hitherto made by missionaries, protectors, and others, have never
given promise or warrant of effectual civilization. The males are tall,
and of fierce aspect; the skin and hair are exceedingly black--the latter
very smooth. In many instances, the features are striking and good. The
women are slender, and during the summer, naked; in winter, the females in
the immediate neighbourhood procure clothes from the inhabitants of
Melbourne, and cut, as you may suppose, a very original figure. Nothing
will induce the natives to work. They live in the Bush, and the bark of a
large tree forms their habitation. There are three distinct tribes around
us in a circuit of about a hundred miles, and the difference of features
amongst these tribes is easily observed. The three tribes speak three
different languages unintelligible to one another. They meet at different
periods of the year, and hold what they term a "_corroborice_,"--that
is--a dance. Their bodies on these occasions are covered with oil, red
paint, and green leaves. I have seen two hundred at a meeting, but they
assemble double that number at times. The festival concludes in pitched
battle. There is a grand fight with clubs, or arrows and spears. Three or
four are generally killed in the onslaught, and as many of the survivors
as are fortunate enough to get a bite, feast upon the fat of the victims'
hearts. This fat is their richest dainty. Those who are able to form an
opinion on the subject, pronounce the aborigines of this colony to be
_cannibals_. Many of their children disappear, and it is generally
supposed that they are devoured by their friends and acquaintances. In
many districts of the interior, the blacks have lately committed many
depredations amongst the sheep, and many of the devils are shot without
judge or jury. Two natives are now in the jail of Melbourne under sentence
of death, for committing a dreadful murder upon two sailors who were cast
ashore from a whaler. These savages had been for thirteen years under the
instruction of a protector and others. They belonged originally to Van
Diemen's Land, but migrated to a part of this colony called Portland Bay.
They spoke English quite well, yet, notwithstanding all their advantages,
they perpetrated this cruel and cold-blooded murder, and then cunningly
hid the bodies in the ground. They were detected by the merest chance, in
consequence of their having in possession of a few articles which had
formerly belonged to the unhappy mariners. None of the natives is allowed
to carry fire-arms, and a heavy fine is inflicted upon any individual who
is known to give them spirits. They are passionately fond of spirits, and
next to these of _loaf bread_. The females are called by the males
"_Loubras_," and the males are designated "_Coolies_." There is not
promiscuous cohabitation. When a _Coolie_ reaches the age of twenty-one,
he is allowed to choose his own "_Loubra_." Every male who then takes
unto himself a helpmate, loses a front tooth, which is knocked out of him.
The natives generally tattoo their arms and breasts, but not their faces;
many carry a long white wooden pin, or a feather, pierced through the thin
part of the nose; and they all twist kangaroo teeth and the bones of
fishes more or less in their hair. Every thing small and diminutive they
call "_Pickaninnie_," and any thing very good, "_Merri jig_." Their
language is a queer, rattling, hard-sounding gibberish, incomprehensible
to most people; they speak as fast as possible, laugh immoderately at
trifles, and are excellent mimics. Their own children they stile
"_Pickaninnies_."
From all that I have seen, I do not hesitate to say, that this country
will prove a splendid field for future generations. At the present time,
no man should venture here who is unprepared for many privations and a
numerous list of annoyances. The common necessaries of life he will
certainly find, but none of his ancient and English luxuries. Society is,
as you may guess, very limited. You may acknowledge an _acquaintance_ with
any one, without committing yourself. To say that you know a man
intimately is hazardous; I mean--a man whose friendship you have
cultivated only since your arrival. There are many whom you have known at
home, and whose friendship it is a pride and a pleasure to renew in your
exile. But, as a general rule, "_keep yourself to yourself_" is a
serviceable adage. If it be attended to--_well_. If it be neglected--you
run your head against a stone in less than no time.
If any man have a competency, let him not travel hither to _enjoy_ it. If
he has a little money, and desires with a little trouble and inconvenience
to double his capital in the shortest possible space of time--let him come
out, and fearlessly. Living is cheap enough as far as the essentials are
concerned. Butcher meat, not surpassed in any part of England, Scotland,
or Ireland, is to be had at twopence per pound; the fine four pound loaf
for sixpence halfpenny; brown sugar, fourpence; white, sixpence; candles,
sixpence per pound; tea, the finest, three shillings the pound; fresh
butter, one shilling and threepence per pound. Wild fowl in abundance.
Vegetables are cheaper than in any part of England. Wines of moderate
price, but not of good quality. Spirits first-rate, and every kind cheaper
than in England, except whisky, which is seventeen and eighteen shillings
per gallon; very old at twenty-one and twenty-two. The wine most wanted
here is claret. A great deal of it is drunk during the summer, but the
quality of it is bad. Fish are abundant in the river and pools, but the
people will not trouble themselves to catch them. However, for
eighteenpence or two shillings, you may get a good dish of mutteel, carp,
or a small fish called "flatties." I have never seen any of the salmon
tribe, or any fish like a sea or river trout. Wild swans--both black and
white--quails, snipes, cranes, and water-hens, are everywhere abundant,
and in the Bush, the varieties of the parrot kind are out of number.
Kangaroos, opossums, and flying-squirrels, are common near the town, and
afford plenty of amusement to the sportsman. No game license required!
_Sunday_ used to be the tradesman's day for shooting, and to a new comer
the proceeding had a very queer appearance. By act of council, Sunday
shooting is prohibited under a heavy penalty, which has been inflicted on
several transgressors, but, like most laws, this is evaded. _Shooting_ is
forbidden, but _hunting_ is not. Accordingly numerous parties sally forth
on the Sabbath to _hunt_ the kangaroo. The dog used for the sport is a
cross between a rough greyhound and a bull; but others follow in the pack.
Every man, woman, and child, keeps a dog. Some families have eight or nine
running over a house, and the natives have them without number. A few
months ago these animals congregated so thickly in the streets, that the
magistrates directed the police to shoot all that were not registered and
had a collar with the owner's name; as many as fifty were killed in a
morning. It costs nothing to feed a dog; the heads of bullocks and the
heads and feet of sheep are either thrown away or given to any one who
asks for them. The _bone manure system_, if brought into operation, would
help to keep the streets from a bony nuisance. _Memorandum_: Let the next
emigrant to this colony bring a good strong fox-hound bitch with him; he
will find it to his advantage. A cross between her and a Newfoundland or
large greyhound would do any thing. There are a couple of fox-hounds here,
but no bitch. It would do your heart good to see the pace at which the
fellows ride. Twenty miles on horseback they think about as much of as we
do of five. There is nothing to obstruct the animals; they are not even
shod, and they fly over the smooth sward. A hundred and twenty miles is
reckoned a journey of a day and a half. A dray, with eight, ten, or twelve
bullocks in it, according, to load, will travel thirty miles a-day. When
the folks travel, they take no shelter in a house or hut for the night.
When night approaches, they alight, and tie their horses to a stump; they
draw down some of the thick branches of the gum-tree, and peel off the
bark of a large tree, kindle a fire with a match, or, for want of this,
rubbing two sticks together, get up a blaze, and fall to sleep beside it.
If the traveller be accompanied by a dray, the tarpauling, is drawn round,
and he sleeps beneath it.
Not amongst the least of the annoyances found here are the ants. There are
three species of the insect, and they are all very large. Many of them are
an inch long, and they bite confoundedly. A hand bitten by some of the
monsters will swell to the size of a man's head. Along the coast, and in
every house, smaller ants prevail, and fleas innumerable. The number of
the latter, which you shall find upon your blanket any day of the year, is
literally not to be computed. No house is free from this little disturber,
who spares neither age nor sex. I have stood upon the sea beach adorned
with white trousers, which in less than ten minutes have been covered with
hundreds of the vermin. It is an easy transition from the trousers to the
inner legs. But this is nothing when you are used to it. The _grey horse_
won't live in the colony. So it is said; at all events none are seen; and
I am very sure that every emigrant ship brings its fair stock. It is a
wise ordination that forbids _their_ settling. The _mawk_ fly is
indigenous, and thrives wonderfully, as you shall hear. This fly is very
like our British bluebottle, with a somewhat greener head, and a body
entirely yellow. I have seen two _mawk_ flies strike (as it seemed) a
joint of meat, just as it was removing from the spit, leaving their fly
blows there. Before the joint had been ten minutes upon the table, small
white mawks were moving upon the surface of the meat in considerable
numbers. If by any chance these animals are suffered to accompany the meat
to the safe or larder, in the course of twenty-four hours the small white
mawks increase to the length of one-eighth of an inch, and are found
crawling in hundreds and moving about, as you have observed the yellow
flies buzzing over the old and rotten carcass of a horse that has been
exposed for weeks. In the winter these creatures are, of course, less
troublesome than in summer. Wire meat-covers are in constant use during
the latter season.
Thus far had got in my epistle, when a torrent of ill news rushed in upon
us, and compelled me to delay my scribble. I am sorry to say, that in
addition to the account which I have already given of the depressed state
of the markets, I must add some dismal intelligence. The markets are in a
deplorable state, and so is the mercantile community in general. Every day
there is a fresh bankruptcy, and the heaviest yet has just taken place. I
cannot but believe that if more emigrant laborers come out just now, they
must starve. Any man with ten or fifteen thousand pounds could buy half of
the district for ready cash. The moneyed men are making fearful hauls as
it is. Let emigration stop for a time, and the markets must look up again.
At the present moment every thing is selling cheaper here than in England;
men's wages are down to the ordinary English rate. So long as the banks
afford seven per cent for deposits, moneyed men will lie in wait for
bargains, and until such present themselves, will lock up the capital
which at first was in circulation through the immense speculations in land
and stock. The men who saw no end to speculation are gone and floored,
every one of them. Will you believe that Messrs ---- sent out three
thousand pounds worth of brandy to Sydney, and so glutted the market that
part of the cargo was bought low enough to make it a good spec to reship
it for England. Such is the fact. There never was a better moment than the
present for a _hit_ in land--sheep are at so low a figure, and settlers so
hard run. The former I still believe will gradually rise; for, on the
Sydney side, the process of boiling down sheep for the sake of the tallow,
has commenced, and if it succeed, as I believe it will, the standard value
of a sheep will be fixed at something like eight shillings. So much for
the fleece and skin, so much for the bones, so much for the kidney fat,
and so much for the tallow or fat recovered by boiling the carcass. The
great object of this colony must be to increase the export produce, and to
bring capital in its place. Wool no doubt is, and will prove to be, the
staple commodity; and in time, the settlers will pay more attention to the
getting up of it, and to the packing. But above all they must speedily rid
themselves of their bloodsuckers, a set of men who charge enormous
commissions for anticipated sales, and what not, amounting to thirty and
forty per cent; a sum that is nothing short of utter ruin to a poor fellow
who has nothing but his wool to depend upon. Had Judge Willis remained
amongst us, he would have rooted out whole nests of these hornets. I have
no fear of the ultimate success of the colonist, if they will but be
faithful to themselves. They have a splendid country, and its capabilities
are now only beginning to be known. Before the end of the present year,
our exports will consist of wool, bark, tallow, gum, hides, furs, and last,
although not least, the finest cured beef in the world. If the latter
article of produce is acknowledged as it deserves to be, and finds and
establishes an _eastern_ market, nothing will prevent the colony from
rising to importance. As far as price is concerned, we can compete with
any country in the world. We have no politics in Port Philip. The
community are far better employed in attending to their commercial affairs.
Let them but persevere honestly and prudently in their course, and they
must do well.
And so much for my first epistle, honoured Christopher. If it afford you
amusement, you shall hear from me again. I have spoken the truth, and have
writ down simple facts. As such, receive them, and communicate them to
your neighbours. And now, with affectionate remembrances to yourself and
all enquiring friends,
Believe me,
Reverend Christopher,
Your grateful and attached,