During Davey's government, two hundred female prisoners were brought down from Sydney, in the brig Kangaroo: proclamation was made, and the settlers were invited to receive them. There was little delicacy of choice: they landed, and vanished; and some carried into the bush, changed their destination before they reached their homes. Yet such is the power of social affections, several of these unions yielded all the ordinary consolations of domestic life!
The conveniences of civilisation were not wholly neglected. The ports were opened for general commerce (June, 1813): houses of trade were established, and Messrs. Kemp and Gatehouse, Messrs. E. Lord and J. H. Reibey, supplied the colony with English goods: the most necessary articles had often been wanting. The settlers purchased even the clothing of the prisoners, as preferable to the skins of animals by which they were often clad.
The resources of the colony were developed: Mr. Birch, an enterprising merchant, fitted out a vessel to survey the western coasts (1816), and Captain Kelly discovered Macquarie Harbour and Port Davey: Captain Florence found a new species of pine, very highly valued by artificers. Mr. Birch was rewarded with one year's monopoly of the trade he had opened.
The whale fishery was considerably enlarged: corn was exported; the plough introduced, and gradually superseded the hoe; a mill erected; and (February, 1817) the foundation of St. David's Church was laid. Passage boats connected the banks of the Derwent; a civil court for the recovery of debts, not exceeding £50, was established. A newspaper—a second time attempted in 1814 without success, when the commercial strength of the community was indicated by two or three advertisements—was at length published under better auspices. On the 1st June, 1816, Mr. Andrew Bent issued the first number of the Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter, and thus brought into permanent action an agency which has promoted as well as recorded the advancement of the community. Nor can it be recollected without regret, that he, an undoubted benefactor of the colony, is left to an indigent old age, cut off from the prosperity to which his early labors contributed.
The welfare of Van Diemen's Land was greatly retarded by the number, daring, and prolonged depredations of the bushrangers. In some districts, the inhabitants offered a sanctuary to criminals, and, as their scouts, gave notice of the approach of danger; while in others the settlers were driven before them. To check their ravages, Colonel Davey declared the whole colony under martial law: he punished with flogging persons, whether free or bond, who quitted their houses by night. Several offenders were captured, and suffered death.[76] The inhabitants, to the number of six hundred, expressed their approval of this stretch of power, but it was promptly disallowed by the governor-in-chief. On many previous occasions the same course had been pursued. To constitutional law, the lieutenant-governor was both indifferent and a stranger.
Colonel Davey, when he relinquished his office, remained for some time as a settler; he was not, however, successful. He returned to England, where he died on the 2nd May, 1823. His contemporaries speak of his character in terms of eulogy. The modern colonist will remember, that the tastes of society have since that period been modified, even in Great Britain; and that character can never be fairly judged when separated from the circumstances in which it is developed. Then, the town was a mere camp: the etiquette of office, necessary when a community is advanced, would be folly in its infancy.
FOOTNOTES:
[73] Collins, according to most authorities, died on the 24th March, 1810.
"To his Excellency Lachlan Macquarie, Esq., Captain-General
and Commander-in-chief of his Majesty's Territory of New South
Wales and its Dependencies, &c. &c. &c.