Wonderful Discovery.—The Adventurers.—Marshy Lake.—The
Canoe.—Troublesome Navigation.—Chain of Lakes.—Party of
Natives.—Reception of the Travellers.—Singular People.—Early
Emigrants.—The Settlement.—Exploring Party.—Encounter with
Natives.—Native Allies.—Attack of Savages.—Defeat of the
Assailants.—Savage Life.—Treaty of Peace.—Education of
Savages.—Election of Senators. Page 1
CHAPTER II.
Increase of the Settlement.—Separation of the
States.—Ecclesiastical Communities.—Concord among
Sects.—Houses and Towns.—Penal Colonies.—Southlanders’
Hospitality.—Mode of receiving Company.—Feasts.—Animal
Food.—Tame Animals.—Surprise at English Customs.—Carnivorous
Propensity.—Lighting the Streets.—City of Bath. 25
CHAPTER III.
Duels.—Judicial Combats.—Existing Code of Honour.—Appeal to
Arms.—Discussion on Duelling.—Mount Peril.—Noxious
Vapours.—The Cavern. 41
CHAPTER IV.
Superstitious Notions.—Abolition of Duelling.—Interference of
Providence.—Challenge to the Ordeal.—The Trial.—Conviction of
the Offender.—Uncertainty of the Ordeal.—Ineffectual
Prohibition.—Check against Slander.—Exclusion from
Society.—Absurd Alternative.—Personal Courage.—Imputation of
Cowardice.—Public Opinion.—War between
Nations.—Challenges.—Fear of Disgrace. 53
CHAPTER V.
Female Honour.—Agreement among Women.—Penalty of Exclusion.—Law
of Honour.—False Dignity.—New Penalty.—Compact against
Duelling.—Ruffians and Calumniators.—Association against
Duelling.—Court of Honour.—Abolition of Duelling. 70
CHAPTER VI.
Rough Notes.—Public Entertainments.—Dancing.—Grotesque
Dance.—Throwing the Spear.—Female
Dress.—Decorations.—Ear-rings.—Wedding-rings.—Anomalous
Costume. 83
CHAPTER VII.
Forms of Government.—Senatorial Regulations.—Speakers.—Peculiar
Debate.—Fundamental Laws.—Unwise Legislators.—Timely
Improvements.—Legislative Problem.—Legislative
Expedient.—Error in Government.—Division of Laws.—Repeal of
Fundamental Laws.—Guard against Precipitancy.—Laws of
Treason.—Mature Deliberation.—National Will. 95
CHAPTER VIII.
Mode of Election of Senators—of Representatives.—Personal Votes
and Property-Votes.—Voting by Ballot.—Eligibility of
Candidates.—Aboriginal Blood.—Mixed Blood.—Government
Rent.—Public Expenditure.—Unwise Economy.—Choice of
Statesmen.—Explanations. 112
CHAPTER IX.
Prediction Office.—Prophecies.—Useful Register.—Political
Bustlers.—Disposal of Land.—Rents.—Laws of Tenancy.—Government
Loans. 130
CHAPTER X.
An Arrest.—Criminal Jurisprudence.—Jurymen.—Qualification of
Jurors.—Syndics.—Royal Privilege.—Proceedings in
Court.—Witnesses.—The Verdict.—Unanimity in Juries.—Decision
of the Judge.—Prevarication.—Oaths.—False
Witnesses.—Inconsistency in requiring Oaths.—Public
Opinion.—Marriage.—Succession to the Crown. 140
CHAPTER XI.
Punishment awarded to Criminals.—Capital Punishments.—Plea of
Insanity.—Penitentiaries.—Houses of Correction.—Improvement in
Laws.—Periodical Publications.—Editors of Newspapers.—State of
Literature. 164
CHAPTER XII.
Schools.—Reform of the Calendar.—Art of Teaching.—General
Education.—Religion and Politics.—Inconsistency of the
Jesuits.—Unbelievers.—Direction of Electors.—Political
Churches.—Violation of the Laws.—Infidelity.—Obedience to
Law.—Enforced Religion.—Persecution.—Hypothetical
Case.—Treatment of Insanity.—Professed Inspiration.—Impostors
and Lunatics.—Changes in Europe.—Founders of the Colony. 176
CHAPTER XIII.
Preachers.—Divine Service.—Divisions of the Bible.—Funeral
Service.—Burial in Cities.—Absurd
Interments.—Monuments.—Private Mausoleums.—Harmless
Absurdities.—Church Endowments.—State of the Clergy.—Religious
Communities.—Admission Fees to Institutions.—Ecclesiastical
Societies. 213
CHAPTER XIV.
Letter of Paul Wilkins. 229
ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION
TO THE
INTERIOR OF NEW HOLLAND.
CHAPTER I.
Wonderful Discovery.—The Adventurers.—Marshy Lake.—The
Canoe.—Troublesome Navigation.—Chain of Lakes.—Party of
Natives.—Reception of the Travellers.—Singular People.—Early
Emigrants.—The Settlement.—Exploring Party.—Encounter with
Natives.—Native Allies.—Attack of Savages.—Defeat of the
Assailants.—Savage Life.—Treaty of Peace.—Education of
Savages.—Election of Senators.
Our readers will, no doubt, be interested by the few particulars we have
been able to collect of the late wonderful discovery, in the interior of
New Holland, of a civilized nation of European origin, which had, in so
remarkable a manner, been kept separate hitherto from the rest of the
civilized world.
Mr. Hopkins Sibthorpe, who planned and conducted this singularly
fortunate enterprise, was accompanied, it appears, in the expedition by
another settler, Mr. William Jones, and Messrs. Thomas and Robert Smith
(brothers), of the navy; who, together with Wilkins, a sailor, hired as
their servant, constituted the whole party.
It was in the early part of August 1835 that these adventurous explorers
took their departure from the settlement at Bathurst: this, as our
readers are aware, is the last month of the winter of that hemisphere;
though, from the greater mildness of the climate, it may be considered
as spring. This season was chosen as the most suitable for an expedition
in such a country as New Holland; in which, not only the heat of summer
and autumn is often very oppressive, but also the scarcity of water is
one of the most formidable impediments: and, on this occasion, a
plentiful supply of water being essential, not only with a view to their
personal wants, but also to the accomplishment of the peculiar plan they
had resolved on trying, it was thought best to take an early advantage
of the effects of the winter’s rains.
Their plan was no other than to construct a canoe, to enable them to
proceed in a direction in which farther progress had hitherto been
precluded by a vast expanse of marshy lake. This, as our readers are
probably aware, from the published narratives of former expeditions, is,
in moist seasons, a sort of Mere, or shallow water, encumbered with
aquatic plants; but in times of great drought is, for a considerable
extent, dry, or consisting of mud rather than water; constituting a sort
of swampy plain, so choked up with a rank vegetation of reeds and flags
as to present an almost insuperable obstacle to the traveller.
In the present expedition, accordingly, it was determined to choose a
time when there might be a sufficiency of water to enable the
adventurous explorers to proceed in a canoe; and they accordingly
carried with them one or two horses (which they proposed afterwards to
turn loose)—the iron-work, and as much as was thought necessary of the
frame of a canoe, which they proposed to put together and complete on
their arrival on the margin of the lake. And as it was impossible to
carry with them a sufficient store of provisions for the whole of their
contemplated voyage, they boldly resolved to trust in great measure to
their guns and fishing tackle, providing only a sufficiency of salt to
preserve such game and fish as they might procure in their way.
The details of the expedition, curious and highly interesting as they
are in themselves, we are compelled to omit, lest they should occupy the
space wanted for a far more valuable and important portion of the
narrative. It will be sufficient, therefore, to say, omitting
particulars, that they were enabled to put their design in execution;
and having constructed a kind of light flat-bottomed boat, of poles
covered with bark (of the kind the natives use for their canoes), and
fitted up with a slight awning, to afford shelter from the sun and the
dews, they embarked on the above-mentioned shallow lake, and proceeded
in a north-west direction; sometimes rowing, assisted occasionally by a
sail, and oftener pushing themselves on with poles through the tangled
aquatic plants which grew on the muddy bottom.
Their progress was at first tediously slow; but they were at no loss for
provision, as the waters abounded with fish and wildfowl, of which they
continued to obtain a sufficient supply throughout the voyage. After two
days of troublesome navigation they found the water become deeper, and
gained a sight of some elevated land towards the west, which they
reached on the evening of the third day: they here found the lake not
terminated, but confined within narrow limits by hills, for the most
part of a rocky, sterile, and uninviting character: at length it became
a broad river, flowing in a northerly direction, and serving evidently
as a drain to the great expanse of lake they had passed. This gave them
hopes of reaching (which was their great object) some large navigable
river, which they might follow to the sea: they proceeded, therefore,
though with considerable delay and difficulty from shoals and rapids,
till, after more than two days’ navigation, the high ground receded, and
they found themselves entering on another great expanse of water, so
extensive that, in pursuing their adventurous course nearly in the same
direction, they were, for the greater part of one day, out of sight of
land.
They now arrived at another course of rocky hills, of considerable
elevation, through which the waters found an exit by a narrow gorge:
through this they proceeded in a direction northwards for a considerable
distance, when they found the river again expanding itself at intervals
into a chain of lakes, smaller but deeper than those they had passed,
and surrounded by a much more agreeable country, which continued to
improve as they advanced. They landed in several places, and in one
instance came in contact with a party of natives, who were of a less
savage aspect than those in the vicinity of our settlements, and showed
no signs of hostility, and much less of alarm and astonishment than had
been expected. From this circumstance, and also from steel knives being
in the possession of two or three of them, on which they appeared to set
great value, it was conjectured that they must, in their wanderings,
have, at some time or other, approached our settlements: their language,
however, was perfectly unintelligible to Mr. Jones, though he had a
considerable acquaintance with that of the natives near Sydney.
Some days after, as they continued their progress, they fell in with
another party of natives, who excited still more wonder and speculation
in our travellers, from their having among them ornaments evidently
fashioned from the tusks of boars; these (as it was understood from the
signs they made, in answer to the questions put to them by the same
means) they described themselves as having hunted with their dogs, and
speared. But all doubt was removed the next day, by the travellers
actually obtaining a sight of a wild hog in the woods, and afterwards of
a herd of wild cattle, which they distinctly saw with their glasses:
these animals being well known not to be indigenous in New Holland,
afforded strong indications of the vicinity of some European settlement;
though, as they felt certain of being far distant from the coast, they
were utterly lost in conjecture.
After proceeding in the manner above described, through a long chain of
lakes connected by the river which they were continuing to navigate,
through a country continually improving in beauty and fertility, and
presenting a strong contrast to the dreary rocks and marshes they had
left behind, they were at length surprised and gratified, on entering a
lake somewhat more extensive than the last, to see several
fishing-boats, the men in which they ascertained by their glasses to be
decently clothed, and white men. They ventured to approach and to hail
them; and, to their unspeakable surprise and delight, they received an
answer in English: the English was, indeed, not precisely similar to
their own, but not differing so much from it as many of our provincial
dialects; and in a short time the two parties were tolerably
intelligible to each other.
We are compelled to pass over the interesting detail of the meeting,
which was equally gratifying and surprising to both the parties; of the
eager curiosity of their mutual inquiries; and of the hospitable
invitation given, and, as may be supposed, joyfully accepted by the
travellers. Accompanying their hosts in one of the fishing-boats, they
found before them, on turning the point of a wooded promontory which had
intercepted their view, a rich and partially cultivated country,
interspersed with cheerful-looking villages, having much of an English
air of comfort; though the whole was in a far ruder condition than much
of what they saw afterwards, as the point they had reached was the
extreme skirt of a comparatively recent settlement.
The reception they met with was most friendly and every way refreshing,
after an anxious and toilsome journey of above a month. They found
themselves, on the second day after their arrival in the colony, the
guests of the chief magistrate of a neat town of considerable size,
where they were surrounded by visitors from all parts, eager to obtain
and to afford information, and overwhelming them with pressing
invitations.
We are compelled to pass over the particulars of the several steps by
which the travellers arrived at the knowledge of the singular country
and people in the midst of which they found themselves. We have only
space for a brief summary of the results.
They found themselves, then, in a nation of European, and chiefly,
though not entirely, of English extraction, which had had no intercourse
with Europe, or with any other portion of the civilized world, for
nearly three centuries. Their numbers were estimated at between three
and four millions; and they were divided into eleven distinct
communities, existing in a sort of loosely federal union, or rather in a
friendly relation, sanctioned and maintained by custom more than by any
formal compact. And they found these several states, though in some
respects differing in their governments and other institutions, agreeing
in the manifestation of a high degree of civilization, considering the
disadvantage they laboured under in their seclusion from the rest of the
world. “Many points too,” says Mr. Sibthorpe, in his journal, “in which
they differ the most widely from the customs and institutions of the
people from which they sprang, are such as can hardly be reckoned marks
of barbarism, even by those who regard them with surprise, and even with
disapprobation; but are rather the result of the singular and, as some
would consider them, whimsical notions of the extraordinary persons who
took the lead among the first settlers.”
These were two men of the name of Müller; one a German, settled in
England, and the other his nephew, the son of an Englishwoman. The
former appears to have been one of those unions of enthusiastic
wildness, brilliant genius, and sanguine credulity which periods of
great excitement—such as the commencement of the Reformation—are often
found to call forth. He possessed great eloquence, and a power of
exercising an unbounded influence over minds of a certain description.
His nephew, with much of the uncle’s eccentricity, united a much clearer
judgment, and seems gradually to have established a complete ascendancy
over the mind, first of his uncle, and ultimately of all his followers;
and to have used his influence in a manner which indicates most enlarged
public spirit, and a great mixture, at least, of political wisdom.
It appears, that during the various tumults which took place during the
early periods of the Reformation, several persons in England, and some
in Germany, (the parties holding communication through the means of
Müller and his connexions in both countries,) meditated a removal to
some distant region, in which they should escape finally from strife and
oppression, and establish a civil and religious community on such
principles as they were fondly cherishing. After the proposal and
rejection of various schemes, and after many delays and disappointments,
the projected departure in search of a new settlement took place, under
the guidance of their enthusiastic and adventurous leader. Instead of
proceeding to America, as had been originally proposed, they were
induced by some glowing descriptions they had heard, but which proved to
consist chiefly of fable or exaggeration, to seek for the long-famed
southern continent, the “Terra Australis Incognita.”
The curious and interesting particulars of their voyage, their various
adventures, disappointments, and reiterated attempts, we are compelled
to pass over. The result was their being ultimately driven by a storm on
the coast of New Holland, somewhere, it is supposed, between lat. 10 and
20 south, and lon. 130 and 140 east, where one out of the four ships was
wrecked on a coral reef, and two of the others driven ashore with
considerable damage. They saved, however, not only their lives, but
nearly all their property, including the live stock with which they had
provided themselves; and it appears that their first idea was to repair
their vessels, and proceed along the coast, in an endeavour to find a
suitable spot for a settlement; the part on which they were cast being
not only barren and uninviting but excessively marshy. This last
circumstance compelled them to forego their design; for a fever broke
out, and affected so many of them that they lost no time in removing to
a healthier situation, eight or nine miles from the coast. Here the sick
speedily recovered; and, as the spot seemed highly salubrious, though
for the most part barren, with only a small proportion of land fit for
cultivation near the banks of small rivers, they proceeded to build
log-houses and cultivate the land; designing to make their settlement
either temporary or permanent, as circumstances might determine.
Their decision was ultimately fixed by means of the intercourse they
succeeded in establishing with a native tribe. Mutual good-will and
confidence having been completely established between the settlers and
the natives (chiefly, as it should seem, through the judicious exertions
of the younger Müller),—and an increasing knowledge of each other’s
language having established a free communication between the
parties,—the settlers were interested by the glowing colours in which
their new friends described a region in the interior, which they—that
is, some of the very individuals who spoke of it, and the ancestors of
the rest,—had formerly inhabited, and from which successive portions of
their tribe had been from time to time expelled by more powerful hostile
tribes. They were anxious to induce their European neighbours to settle
there themselves, and enable them to reinstate themselves in their
ancient abode. They easily perceived the vast superiority which European
arts and arms would give to their new allies over enemies who had proved
too powerful for themselves, and they hoped through their aid to
re-establish themselves in a country which they had quitted with regret.
Moved by their representations, the settlers despatched two active young
men, in company with some native guides, to explore this highly-vaunted
region; they proceeded accordingly, nearly in a direct line from the
coast, to a range of mountains, about ninety or a hundred miles in the
interior, which they surmounted, not without difficulty, and then found
themselves in an elevated plain of a most sterile character, extending
for more than a hundred miles in the same direction: this they traversed
with some difficulty, and arrived at another chain of rocky mountains,
forming a still more formidable barrier, which they would have had great
difficulty in surmounting but for the local knowledge of their guides.
On passing this, however, they were rewarded by the view of a most
extensive and delightfully fertile region, watered with numerous streams
from these mountains, and interspersed with beautiful lakes. The whole
appearance of the country fully justified the descriptions given; and
the accounts of these first explorers were so favourable that a second
expedition was undertaken, with a view to a more complete examination of
the country, by young Müller himself and four others, who passed a
considerable time in exploring the district, not without some narrow
escapes from the hostility of some of the wandering native tribes; and
the result of their examination was so favourable, that the settlers
were induced to come to the resolution of finally removing the colony to
the interior.
This, after due preparation, they accomplished, moving in two separate
divisions; the first consisting of the greater part of the most active
of the adult males, both of the Europeans and their native allies, who
were to prepare habitations, and break up land for tillage, &c. ready to
receive the rest after an interval of some months. The entire removal
was completed in the course of the third year from their first arrival
on the coast. Their numbers appear to have been between three and four
hundred, in all, of white people, besides a somewhat smaller number of
natives; the country in which they had first settled admitting of only a
small and scattered population, of tribes subsisting by the chase.
Very soon after taking possession of their new abode they were attacked,
in spite of all their endeavours to preserve peace, by the native tribes
of the interior, moved by their inveterate animosity against their
ancient enemies: the settlers, however, gained an easy and complete
victory in every encounter; their fire-arms, though only the
old-fashioned, clumsy matchlocks of those days, being sufficient to
strike terror into savages unacquainted with gunpowder; though,
independent of their guns, their bows would have given them a decided
superiority. It is well known how skilful and how formidable were the
English archers of those days; and they could annoy the natives, among
whom the bow is unknown, at three times the distance to which these
could throw their spears. The native allies also, having been taught by
the Europeans to use the bow, which, even in their less skilful hands,
had an advantage over the spear,—and being also furnished with
cutlasses, hatchets, and steel heads to their pikes,—now proved greatly
an overmatch for their former conquerors, who had only wooden swords and
bone-headed spears.
A peace ensued, which, however, was for several years interrupted from
time to time by predatory incursions and irregular renewals of
hostilities. This state of things, with all its inconveniences, appears
to have had the advantage of cementing the friendship between the
settlers and their native allies; each party feeling the other’s
importance for security against a common enemy. The whites, accordingly,
seem to have been assiduous and successful in civilizing these natives,
with whom they were thus thrown into close contact.
Ultimately, the colony was delivered from all danger from the hostile
tribes by an event which threatened disaster. A formidable combination
was secretly formed among all the tribes for a considerable distance
round, for the purpose of making a united attack, by surprise, with all
their forces. It was so far successful that a band, far outnumbering all
that the settlers could muster, unexpectedly attacking one of their
villages, obliged the inhabitants to fly in the utmost haste, and spread
the alarm through the whole colony. This success, however, proved their
ruin; for, with the genuine improvidence of savages, instead of rapidly
pushing forward their forces, they eagerly fell to plundering the
various stores, especially of provisions, which had been abandoned; and,
as an army of savages is never well provided with a commissariat, gladly
betook themselves to feasting on what they found.
Among other things, was a large supply of beer; for the settlers had
brought with them, and successfully practised, the art of brewing, with
which they had been familiar at home. Wine they had not as yet attained
to, though they had begun the cultivation of the vine, as well as of
several other European fruit-trees. The savages indulged in the liquor
with characteristic excess; and, while they were lost in intoxication,
set fire, either accidentally or intentionally, to the wooden houses and
stacks with which they were surrounded. The fire raged fiercely in all
directions; and most of the men were too much stupified with liquor to
escape the flames, and were either stifled or burnt; a considerable
number, however, were rescued by the settlers, who had by this time come
together, and who at once saved and took prisoners most of the
survivors, who were too helplessly drunk for either resistance or
flight.
This event, which at once and for ever broke the power of their enemies,
has been ever since annually commemorated in the colony; a day of solemn
thanksgiving being concluded by the lighting of large bonfires in the
evening, by parties who pass round among themselves a spear, such as the
natives use, and a cup of beer, of which each tastes, in memory of their
deliverance. This festival which the Müllers instituted, accompanying
the celebration with apposite reflections on drunkenness and its
effects, has probably tended, along with other circumstances, to keep up
an almost universal habit of sobriety throughout the colony.
This interesting portion of their early history, thus impressed on their
minds and familiarized to their thoughts from childhood, creates an
indelible association of the idea of drunkenness, not only with those of
helplessness and disaster, but also with that of the character of
brutish and stupid _savages_. Indeed, in several other points also, our
travellers found the idea of _savage_ life so associated with some
others in the minds of these people, as to influence considerably their
conduct and habits of thought. They have a deep-seated and habitual
contempt for every thing which, according to their notions, savours of
barbarism; and this shows itself in many points, which to a modern
European would be likely to appear whimsical. The younger Müller, though
indefatigable in his kindness towards the native tribes, appears to have
cherished this feeling in his own people. He laboured strenuously to
reclaim and civilize the savages, and was equally anxious to guard
against the reverse process—the approximation of the white men towards
the habits of the savages: and, as he seems to have been a very able
though eccentric man, and possessed boundless influence over the
colonists, who were under his government for above half a century, he
succeeded in effectually stamping his own character on the nation, and
perpetuating his institutions.
The hostile tribes, after the above event, surrendered at discretion;
and they consented (those of them who had a considerable proportion of
able-bodied men remaining alive) to remove beyond a certain specified
boundary, far beyond the then limits of the colony; but several tribes,
which now consisted almost entirely of women and children, and were
consequently hardly capable of providing for themselves, were, at their
own entreaty, received as subjects, and incorporated, along with the
previously-allied natives, into the body of the settlers.
The European and aboriginal races became in time completely blended
together; for it appears to have been one of the principles most
earnestly maintained and inculcated by their extraordinary leader, to
allow of no hereditary degradation; no subjection of one race of men to
another on the ground of colour or caste, but to make all subjects of
the state necessarily admissible to the rights of citizenship. Yet, on
the other hand, he was well aware of the actual inferiority of the
aborigines as individuals and as a race, and was fully alive to the evil
of placing inferior men on a level with those morally and intellectually
superior. The maxim, accordingly, which he continually dwelt on, and
laboured to embody in practice, was, that it is not the colour of the
skin, but the heart and head, that makes a man savage or civilized.
Education, accordingly, was the means adopted for reclaiming and for
preserving men from barbarism: and examinations, to ascertain how far
each had profited by the education bestowed, were made the test for
admissibility into the highest public stations.
This principle has been in great measure adhered to in the several
states into which the settlement was afterwards divided, though
differing from each other in many respects in their forms of government.
And yet, as Müller used himself to observe, one man may be much superior
in fitness for certain public offices to another, who may be far beyond
him in proficiency in a prescribed course of studies, and in everything
that can be ascertained in any regular examination; but then, he used to
add, when you come to a greater number, one hundred men well taught will
always be superior to a hundred untaught, and fitter to govern the
community. In all the states, accordingly, their senates are always
required to consist of men who have given proof of their proficiency in
a prescribed course of study; but these are left free to choose, and
sometimes do choose, for the discharge of important offices, men who are
inferior in this respect, but qualified by natural sagacity and
practical habits of business.