Letter of Paul Wilkins.
We shall close these extracts with a letter, which we have had
permission to publish, from one of the exploring party, Paul Wilkins,
the sailor formerly mentioned, written after his return to Sidney to his
parents in England. Our reader will perceive from this letter that a
part only of the travellers had returned; two of them having determined
to prolong their stay in the newly-discovered colony, in order to gain a
fuller acquaintance with its singular customs and institutions.
The letter is printed exactly from the manuscript, because, if any
alterations had been made,—even though extending only to the style and
orthography,—or any omissions even of the most trivial matters, the
reader might have been left in doubt what degree of liberty might have
been taken with the original. And errors in language or in spelling,
such as may be expected in the composition of a person of ordinary
education in humble life, can excite no disgust or contempt; and must
disarm criticism, when occurring in a familiar letter designed for the
perusal of his own domestic circle, by one who never thought of aspiring
to come before the public as an author. Taking into account the station
and circumstances of the writer, there is nothing, we conceive, that
will be thought to do discredit to his head or heart.
“_Sydney, Novr. 23rd, 1835._
“DEAR FATHER & MOTHER
“This comes with my Love, hoping to find you a live & all well, as it
leaves me thank God, which I never expected sometimes to come Back a
live from a long and peralous Expidition into the Interier. But am
happy to say we suckseded & have been to the most Wonderfull country I
ever see in all my Voyages. I sho’d never have done if I was to go to
tell you every thing, but as their is a Vessel just going to Sail, and
I can send this by a safe Hand I take up my pen to give you some a
count of it.
“I hardly know how to be gin my Head is so full of all the queer
things I see. The two Lieut. Smiths who you remember my shewing you
one of them last time I was at Home, fine dashing felowes they are as
ever trod a plank, they and Mr. Sibthorp of the Colony and Mr. Jones,
they ingag’d me as a tendant to exploar in the Interier on a new plan
of their own. They said as no great Navigable rivers has been found by
coasting Expiditions, the only chance was to try in land, and if they
met with any considarable Stream to follow it till it come either to
the Sea or a great Lake which some thought there is a great in land
Sea in the Interier. So says they cout kick out they wou’d find wether
their is one or no. So off we sat & took with us the frame work of a
Canoe flat bottomed by reason of the Shallows were we was to Embark.
And when we come to the Lake which it is a kind of swamp like, more
weeds than Water, we put our canoe to gether & coverd it with Bark of
Trees & got in our Stores. Their was no room for much Provisions but
we trusted to our Guns & Fishing tackle, all the Party are pretty good
shots, & your Humble Servant no bad Hand tho’ I say it at striking
Fish or Hook & Line.
“It was hard work for some days, we were like a dab chick scufling &
flutering along among the Flags & Mud, & then we got into clearer
water & made Sail at a good rate, & then into a River which we thought
this will bring us to the sea, But no we got into more Lakes & swamps,
and then river a gain & so on, & then we had to get out and track the
Canoe with Ropes to steddy its coarse along the rapids, & once we was
forced to carry it overland to a void the Falls. And some times we
never thought but what we sho’d be lost an starved in the Wilds, all
the country round nothing but Rocks & Sands. But we all kep up a good
Heart, no want of Pluck among the Gent men, and I can’t say we wanted
for Vittles only going without Bread mostly thanks to the Fish &
Wildfowl.
“I sho’d never have done if I was to tell you All. Well after better
than a Month were do you think we come to at last, why to a Colony of
White men, that had been hid like in the Wilds best part of three
Hundred years & never seen no Christian peple all that time only them
selves. Its true I a sure you, & its compewted theirs nearer 4 milian
than three totell number of Soles in the Country. How serprised we was
to see em & hear em hail us in English, for their of English Dissent
mostly only some mixture of Duch & German & Swiss. Its an odd sort of
English too they speak, but we got usd to it in a little wile, their
lingo isnt worse than broaed Scoch or Yorkshire.
“Well you may be sure if they wonderd to see us we was wondring how
they come their. And it seems they came out in former times when their
was great trubles in Europe to make a settlement and live in Piece &
Quiet, And their Vessels was driven on the coast, & they got a shore &
landed all their stores safe, & then went up & setled in the Interier,
being they found the coast unhealthy. Its a fine Country they have got
to now, as big I am thinking as Great Briton & Ireland put to gether,
for they arnt no ways prest for room, but make a new Setlement were
they likes. They treated us very kindly in deed & seamed glad to see
us as if we had been brethren like, as they say’d. And very good Towns
& good Living their is among them, tho’ they arnt quite so high
civilised as English Peple, as stands to Reason being they have livd
so long out of the World like.
“And some queer ways they have among them to be sure, quite different
from ours. Theirs not a bit of Bacca to be had for love nor money, nor
Grog neither, as for Rum or Whisky or the like they dont know what it
means. I usd to tell em how theyd stare if they was to come among us &
see writen up every were Dealer in Tea Coffee To Bacco & Snuff, &
Dealer in Spirtuos Liquors, for they havent nothing of the kind. But
how ever they have good ale that I must say & Wine & Cyder to plenty,
& very hospy table peple, but no way given to liquor, I never see a
drunken Man all the time, & they say its like the Savages to get
drunk. And theirs truth in that I can testyfy, for those Black felows
will drink as long as they can stand in the Colony and longer two if
they can come at liquor. They say wo’dnt you reckon it a Great Miss
fortune if you was to go out of your Mind & have to be put in a mad
House, and if a Man gets drunk he goes out of his mind, & ought to be
shut up in confinement, & they say if a Man was a reglar drunkard they
wou’d shut him up two.
“They are good farmers I must say & good breeders too. you tell Mr.
Evans, & my respects to him hope he is well & all his family, I
haven’t for got all the farming I learnt under him tho’ I was but a
lad, I wish he cou’d see the fine cows like the Holderness in the low
grounds, and a breed like the alderney on the Mountaneous parts, &
sheep to both long & short wool, such fleeces as I think he never see.
But as for Mutton I can’t speak, for only think they never heard tell
of Mutton, for theyd think it a most as big a sin to kill a Sheep or a
Bulock & eat it as we shou’d to kill a Christian & eat his flesh like
the Cannibles does. Theirs a queer peple for you. But they goes out
hunting the Wild Cattle and wild Hog, theyve plenty of them, & they
dont object by no means to a bit of wild pork or beef.
“A nother fancy of theirs is they never will have Joints of meat servd
up nor any thing done hole, not a pig or a foul or a fish if its ever
so small, but all done in chops or Hash or the like of that. And they
said we must be like the savages to feed on hole carcasses & Limbs of
Annimals, as Egles & Woolves does. They calls a Dingo a woolf, thats
the Newholland wild dog.
“We went out with them several times, Hunting & shooting. They have
guns only not so good as ours, but they shoot with Bows & Arows be
sides, & wonderful good shots some of em is. Sometimes when we went
out we had only to look on at them shooting, because they woudnt have
no firing for fear of scaring away the game. But sometimes we had a
grand Battoo & then all had guns & our Gentmen shot as well as the
best of them. Mr. Jones made a present of his double baril Gun to one
Gentman of the Country & mightyly pleased he was, for their workmen
arnt up to a double Baril. And I shewd them a thing or too about the
build & rigging of their fishing-boats that they wasnt up to. And very
great full & handsome they was I must say, for they gave me as much in
their money & other things as comes to better than 50£ besides several
curosities as a sort of Keep sake like, I got new rigged from top to
toe all in cloaths of their fashion hat & all & a comical hat you’d
think if you was to see it.
“Mr. Jones he said at first all the peple looked like musheroms they
have hats as big as a small table, but that is to keep off the sun
which it is very glearing in new Holland.
“Then it was so strange to hear all about Kings & Sennates &
Parliments & Piers & Lord mayers, just like being in a new World like.
The thing is they have eleven states something like the States of
America, only some is kingdoms & some is republicks & what not. I
harly knew weather I was a sleep or a wake, it seam’d a kind of dream
like.
“Then I went several times to parties of pleasure something in the
Nature of our Wakes they calls them Rebels & I a tended my Masters to
wait upon them at some of the Rebels of the Gentry, and high & low
their was plenty of mirth at all. But the first time I went with the
Gentmen I thought their was to be a Ball or the like of that just as
the gentlefolks have in England, & sure anuff their was Gentmen &
Lords & Lady’s a playing at Bowls or something like, & some shooting
at a target, & some at other games in the nature of tenis & trap-ball,
all as fond of the sport as boys & girls, & they all grown up Gent
folks & no mistake. And the best of it is they thinks dansing is only
fit for children & Savages. It’s as true as I am sitting hear.
“Its a fine country as I told you for pastur & corn & for gardens &
orcheards to, & we see a good shew for fruit, only they havent got all
the fruits as are in our colonies, being I suppose they wasnt known in
former Times. And they are great Hands at Iragation as its calld thats
leting the Water over the Land same as our Water Meadows, They’ll dam
up a stream were it comes down from the high Ground, & So let it off
by Canalls, & smaller Canalls out of those & so on, & then lower down
there will be a nother dam, & so the River keeps wasting a way as it
goes on, & some never gets to the Sea a tall. And its my belief they
are one cause why no body has found any large river falling into the
sea, for they say themselves, some that was in former times good sizd
Rivers flowing to’rds the coast are now next to nothing. There is a
great many Lakes tho’ & a sight of fine Fish in them, its wonderful to
see how some of them will shoot fish in the shalows with Bow an arow.
I never see the like, but for striking them with a spear I was up to
that as well as them, & hook & line two.
“And they always serves up fish for second coarse, when theirs any
meat for dinner or foul as their generly is, fresh or salt, pork beaf
ducks & Geese plenty, then up comes fish after meat, & soupe last of
all, & only think chese the first thing of all to begin dinner. They
say its a wonder how any Body can degest chese after a Meal, & to be
sure there is a saying that chese dejest all things but it self. But
its all contrary to our ways as many things is hear, perhaps youll
think it stands to reason were the north wind is hot & the south cold
& Chrismas come in summer & the shortest day falls in June, tho’ the
folks dont walk with their heads down & heals up in the air neither as
the old nurses used to tell us.
“Well I cant tell you all nor half, but I must tell you of one great
curosity we all went to see, near the town of Bath called Mount
perril, its a good high mountain & they say was in times past a
Burning mountain, & there is great caverns in the side, & out of some
of them their ishues a noxuous vaper like what Ive heard talk of in
coal pits wich they calls it chokdamp. We went a long with the
worshipfull Christopher Adamson one of the Sennaters as they call im
of the state of Bath, & stood a top of a cliff over one they calld the
Gobbling cave, & let down in an iron Great a litle heap of dry chips &
brush wood all a light & blazing, & wen it got into the caves mouth
out it went as black as night jest as if you’d sousd it into the Sea,
only there was no Hiss, and they said if any body was to go close to
the mouth at some times hed drop down sufficated by the vaper. And in
times past they said it was a fassion for Gentmen & Ladies two, if
they had a Quarril to challenge one a nother to go their, by way of
fighting a Dual, they calld it an Or Dual & they behovd to go to
gather past the Gobbling cave & take their chance wich of ’em sho’d be
Sufficated, & some times both. I said I thou’t it better than that or
pistols either, to go and box it out fairly & then shake hands, & be
freinds, tho’ to be sure that wouldnt do for the Ladys. But however
theres no Or Duals now no kind of Duals at all their now a days. Their
all to gather a very peicable well behaved set of peple as ever I see,
And their a well looking peple to, tho’ some of them has a lick of the
Tar brush as they say in the West Indies that is a mixture of Black
blood in them, but they ar’nt no ways asham’d of it, for they say
their not savages at any rate, & all men are children of Adam.
“Well I must conclude tho’ I havnt tolld you half what I see, So Mr.
Sibthorpe he was for staying a bit longer if he could but let all our
freinds know we were safe, for they wo’d be sure to give us up for
lost. So it was setteld for Mr. Sibthorpe to stay & Lieut Robt Smith,
to stay behind & the rest of us to return, and a long with us young
Squire Adamson a son of the old sennator. And there was several more
talkd of coming to visit Sidney & paraps England to, along with Mr.
Sibthorpe. Well it was about six weeks in all we’d been thear, geting
toards the latter part of Octr wen we set off to return and the peple
had sent a party on befour, with two Canoes & provisions to wait for
us some way on, & we went over land on horse back by a short cut that
the Hunters knew of. And that saved us a good bit. And when we
imbarked we knew the rout & saved a deal of time that we had lost in
coming. But then again we was forced to land in some places were the
water was to shalow, or dried up since we was thear be fore. And some
hard work we had to get a long over the rocks & weeds. So after great
fatigue it was passed the middle of Novr before we ariv’d, which we
did all well thank God, & glad our friends was to see us, for they
given us up for Lost.
“And so now as their’s a Vessel to Sail Day after To-morrow Morning I
send this in haste hoping it will find you well & my Love to sister
Jenkyns and her Husband hope is doing well & the boys who I supose
they are grown out of my knowlege, And love to sister Nancy hope she’s
a good girl & must be a help to you as you get old. So no more at
present from your dutifull
“Son dear Father & Mother
“Paul Wilkins.
“P. S. I send Nancy a work bag I brought with me, made & embroided by
a southland woman, she’d never gess what its made of, for its the
poutch under a Pellicans Throat, what he keeps fish in. I send you
also some peaces of their Money what they Give me, it is nothing very
perticuler curious only for the shape, wich all they have is the Same
that is not Round peaces like ourn is but Oval, wich they say it is
not liabel to role away and be Lost if you drop a Peace, & so I think
it is Better.”
THE END.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.