March 25.
We moved the ship to Rottnest Island, to collect a little material for the chart, and select a hill for the site of a lighthouse. The one we chose lies towards the south-east end of the island, bearing North 76 degrees West (true) twelve miles and a quarter from Fremantle gaol. The Governor and Mr. Roe accompanied us to Rottnest, where we found that a penal establishment of Aboriginal prisoners had been formed during our absence.
ABORIGINAL CONVICTS.
No one would say that the Australian natives cannot work, if they could just see the nice cottages of which this settlement is composed. The Superintendent merely gives the convicts a little instruction at first, and they follow his directions with astonishing precision. They take great pride in showing visitors their own work. It is an interesting though sorrowful sight to see these poor fellows--some of them deprived of their liberty for life, perhaps for crimes into which they have been driven by the treatment they receive from those who have deprived them both of their land and of their liberty. Many, if not most of them, are in some measure unconscious of guilt; and they are almost incapable of appreciating the relation between what they have committed and the punishment which has fallen on them. Their minds are plunged in the darkest ignorance; or if they know anything beyond the means of satisfying their immediate wants, it is that they have been deprived of their rightful possessions by the men whose chains they wear. Surely this reflection should now and then present itself to the white man who is accustomed to treat them so harshly, and induce him to judge more leniently of their acts, and instead of confining himself to coersive measures for protection, make him resort to the means which are within his reach of raising the despised and oppressed savage more nearly to a level with himself in the scale of humanity.
The native prisoners at Rottnest collect salt from the lagoons, cut wood, and at present almost grow sufficient grain to keep them, so that in a short time they will be a source of profit rather than of loss to the crown. Some of them pine away and die; others appear happy. Generally, however, when a fresh prisoner comes among them, great discontent prevails; they enquire eagerly about their friends and families; and what they hear in reply recalls vividly to their minds their wild roving life, their corrobories, the delights of their homes; and of these, too, they are sometimes compelled to think when a blue streak of smoke stealing over the uplands, catches their restless eye, as it wanders instinctively forth in that direction from their island prison. They will often gaze on these mementos of their former free life, until their eyes grow dim with tears and their breasts swell with those feelings which, however debased they may appear, they share in common with us all. On these occasions they naturally turn with loathing to their food. Those who suffer most are the oldest; for they have ties to which the younger are strangers.
The rapidity with which the young ones grow up and improve in appearance, in consequence of their regular food and the care taken of them, is astonishing. They are allowed to have a common kind of spear, though without any throwing stick; and sometimes receive permission to go to the west end of the island to endeavour to kill wallaby, which are there rather numerous.
We were happy to find that the attention of the public, and the Government at home, had been drawn to the wrongs and sufferings of the Aborigines of Australia; and that a desire of preserving them from deterioration and ultimate destruction, had been evinced. Protectors had been sent out for the purpose of attending especially to their interests, so that it was evident that what was wanted was not goodwill towards them. It was easy, however, to perceive that the system was a bad one, and to foretell its failure. The most prominent feature in the plan adopted, was the gathering together of the natives in the neighbourhood of settlers without previously providing them with any means of subsistence, so that they were in a manner compelled to have recourse to depredations.
AMERICAN WHALERS.
To show to what extent whaling is carried on in these seas by foreigners, I may mention that during our stay at Swan River, I at one time counted as many as thirteen American whalers at anchor. It was to be regretted that this department of industry had been abandoned by the colonists, who however derived considerable advantage from the barter trade they carried on with the whale ships.
At Perth we found our old shipmate Miago, and were sorry to observe that he was as great a savage as ever. He had got into considerable disgrace among his fellows on account of his having performed one of these feats of which he was so continually boasting on the North-west coast, namely, carrying away a woman. He was hiding about, in momentary fear of being speared by those whom he had injured.