One of the greatest efforts to which the industry and powers of man can be directed is to change a lonely uncultivated wilderness into an enclosed and fruitful country,—to occupy with civilised human beings and comfortable dwellings those wilds which have hitherto been nearly deserted, or at best but scantily and occasionally inhabited by savage barbarians. The colonisation of New South Wales by the English has been one of the most successful of these efforts; and certainly never before did the change effected by industry so rapidly make itself visible in the face of the new country. But, although the settlement of this colony may now be most certainly pronounced to have been a very successful experiment, it was by no means without hazard, and disappointment, and suffering, to those who were first engaged in it. Indeed it would appear to be the lot of infant colonies to cope with difficulties known only to first settlers in uncultivated lands; and while the enterprising colonist has to endure and struggle against these early trials, his children or grandchildren, or often the stranger who has made a favourable bargain of his property, are the persons who reap the reward of his toils. It must assuredly be a subject of interest to every inquiring mind to trace the feeble beginnings of an infant colony, accompanying it through all its variations of hope and despondency, of good or ill success, until it is at length conducted to a state of greatness and prosperity quite unexampled, when the shortness of its duration is considered. And since that colony is our own, since Britain is, for several reasons, unusually concerned, both morally and politically, in the welfare of New South Wales, it cannot but be useful as well as interesting to inquire somewhat concerning the past history, previously to our entering upon the present state, of that settlement.
In the year 1770, Captain Cooke, in his first voyage, had touched upon the eastern coast of New Holland, at a bay which, from the number of curious flowers that were there found growing wild, received the name of Botany Bay. About sixteen years afterwards, when the American war had closed up the great outlet by which the mother country had been accustomed to get rid of the worst of its population, it was resolved to form a colony for this purpose elsewhere. The coast of Africa was thought of, but wisely abandoned; and at length Botany Bay was the spot selected by the English government, which despatched, in 1787, the Sirius and the Supply, with six transports and three store-ships, having on board 565 men and 192 women, convicts, besides 160 marines, with their officers, some of their wives, and the necessary crews for working the ships. Provisions for two years were taken out, tools, agricultural implements, and other articles deemed necessary were also furnished, and the little fleet was placed under the command of Captain Phillip, the future governor of the intended colony. Some live stock was obtained at the Cape of Good Hope, and plants and seeds likely to be useful were procured likewise at that place, (then under the Dutch government,) and at Rio Janeiro. In eight months and a week the voyage was, with the Divine blessing, completed; and after having sailed 5021 leagues, and touched at both the American and African continents, they came to an anchor on January 20th, 1788, within a few days’ sail of the antipodes of their native country, having had, upon the whole, a very healthy and prosperous voyage. Botany Bay did not offer much that was promising for a settlement, since it was mostly surrounded by very poor land, and water was scarce.[82] The governor, accordingly, went in person to examine the two neighbouring harbours of Port Jackson and Broken Bay, and upon drawing near to the entrance of the former the coast looked as unpromising as elsewhere, and the natives on shore continued shouting, “Warra, warra,”—Go away, go away. Captain Cooke, passing by the heads of Port Jackson, thought there might be found shelter within for a boat but Captain Phillip was agreeably surprised at finding there one of the finest harbours in the world; and since the goodness of the soil and the supply of water appeared to be sufficient, it was resolved to fix the new settlement in one of the coves of this large and beautiful inlet. The spot chosen was near a run of fresh water, which stole silently through a very thick wood, the stillness of which was then for the first time interrupted by the rude sound of the labourer’s axe; and fifty years afterwards so great a change had taken place here, that the lowest price of crown land was then 1,000l. an acre, and in eligible situations sometimes a great deal more.[83]
The royal commission appointing the governor was read, together with the letters patent establishing courts of justice; and the behaviour of the convicts soon rendered it needful to act upon these, for, within a month of their landing, three of them were tried, found guilty, and severely punished. The ground was begun to be gradually cleared, a sort of farm was prepared to receive the live stock, and a garden for the plants and seeds; and, in obedience to the orders of the government at home, the Supply, commanded by Lieutenant King, was sent to Norfolk Island, some few days’ sail to the northeast of Port Jackson, for the purpose of forming a colony there in which the flax of New Zealand might be cultivated. With respect to the first progress of the colony at Sydney, it was very slow, in consequence both of the idleness and ignorance of the great majority of the colonists, to say nothing of their wickedness. In spite of all the efforts of the governor to prevent it, misunderstanding soon began to arise between the convicts and the natives, and it seemed impossible in an infant colony to put a sufficient check upon some of the unruly spirits belonging to the former class, while, at the same time, the thievish temper of the natives began very early to show itself, and to provoke injuries from men possessed of fire-arms. It must be owned, however, that proper regard was not always paid to the rights of the poor savages; and even so late as in the year 1810, a person charged with shooting at a native and wounding him, was tried simply for an assault; whilst another, who had committed a similar offence against a European was tried on the same day for his life![84] In the beginning of May, not four months after the arrival of the British ships at Port Jackson, and at a time when death and disease were making sad havoc among the settlers, it was found needful to cut short the life of one very juvenile offender by the hand of justice. James Bennett, a youth of only seventeen years of age, was executed for burglary, and died confessing that the love of idleness and bad connexions had been his ruin. Soon after this, three convicts were killed, and a fourth dangerously wounded, by the natives; and upon inquiry it was found that two of them had robbed these people of a canoe, an act of injustice which was, no doubt, the cause of their death. The celebration of King George III.’s birthday, on June the 4th, gave an opportunity to the evil-disposed to commit several robberies, and two of these afterwards suffered death for their offences, while another, who had gone into the woods, was proclaimed an outlaw. For want of any overseers or police, except those taken from their own class, the convicts were getting beyond all discipline; and so utterly reckless and improvident were some of them, that they would consume their weekly allowance of provisions by the end of the third or fourth day, and trust for their supply during the rest of the week to the chance of being able to steal from others that were more provident.[85] One of these degraded creatures is stated to have made up his week’s allowance of flour (eight pounds) into cakes, which having devoured at one meal, he was soon after taken up, speechless and senseless, and died the following day. Among a population like that of which we are treating, while crimes were lamentably common, conviction was comparatively rare. There was so much tenderness to each other’s guilt, such an acquaintance with vice and the different degrees of it, that, unless detected in the fact, it was next to impossible to bring an offence home to the transgressors. And with respect to their intercourse with the natives, though the convicts who suffered from them generally contrived to make out themselves to be in the right; yet, even upon their own showing, every accident that happened was occasioned by a breach of positive orders repeatedly given. In New South Wales, no less than in every other country, obedience to lawful authority was proved to be the safest and best way, after all; nor could that way be forsaken with impunity.
Amid the mass of moral corruption, which the British ships had thus imported into the coasts of New Holland, the only hope of infusing health and purity was from religion. But, unhappily, the age in which that expedition left the English shores, was certainly not a religious age; if there was less hypocrisy then than there now is, certainly there was less real piety. In the great towns of the mother country, population and wealth were allowed to make rapid strides, without a single thought being entertained of applying a portion of the increasing wealth of the nation to the spiritual instruction of its increasing population. If there was no room for the poorer classes of society at the parish church, it was thought they might go to the meeting-house; and if there was no room for them there, they might stay at home on the Lord’s day and be idle; it was doing no worse than many of their betters, in a worldly sense, were constantly in the habit of doing.[86] While notions and practices of this nature prevailed at home, it was not to be expected that any very extraordinary attention would be paid to the religious instruction of the convicts and other settlers in New South Wales. Yet since, even then, it would have been thought shocking to have left a large gaol, with 757 prisoners in it, altogether destitute of the offices of religion, so it could not have been expected that the same number of convicts would ever have been cast forth as evil from their native land, and their souls left to perish on the other side of the globe, without a single chance, humanly speaking, of receiving those blessings of forgiveness and grace, which Christ died to procure for all men. But, whatever might have been thought before hand, or whatever may have been the immediate cause of such neglect, it positively appears, that, “when the fleet was on the point of sailing, in the year 1787, no clergyman had been thought of,” nor was it without a strong appeal to those in authority from one whose conduct in this instance is worthy of all praise, Wilberforce, aided by the interest of Bishop Porteus with Sir Joseph Banks, that the Rev. William Johnson was appointed chaplain.[87] From whatever cause this oversight may have arisen, whether it was intentional, or (what is more likely) merely the consequence of forgetfulness and carelessness, it speaks pretty plainly for the religious indifference of the government. However, the colony was, happily, not permitted to be founded without any one present to administer the sacraments and ordinances, and enforce the duties of our holy religion among the first settlers and convicts.[88] By Divine Providence, acting through the instrumentality of man, the British nation was spared the sin and shame, which it had well nigh incurred, of casting forth from its own shores a vile mass of uncleanness and corruption, and forgetting at the same time to place amongst it the smallest portion of that good leaven by which alone its evil might be corrected. Accordingly, one chaplain[89] was sent out to officiate among about 1000 souls, who were at first dispersed in eleven ships, and more than two-thirds of them were in a state of extreme spiritual need, inasmuch as they had been guilty of gross and flagrant offences. And thus, thanks to the zeal and good feeling which had gained a victory over the supineness of government, the discharge of religious duties on the Sunday was never omitted at Sydney, Divine service being performed in the open air whenever the state of the weather would permit. All seems to have been done by the chaplain which could be effected under circumstances of great discouragement.[90] When our blessed Redeemer sent forth his disciples, he sent them by two and two, and how encouraging, in the midst of an evil world, is the conversation or counsel of a christian friend that is dearer than a brother! But the chaplain of New South Wales had no such assistance to fall back upon; he was left alone and single-handed—yet not alone, for Christ is ever with his authorised ministers, to fight against the mighty power of evils by which he was surrounded. He visited the sick and the convicts, going from settlement to settlement, and from hut to hut; travelling to the more distant stations, that were afterwards formed, as far as he could reach, and assembling as many as he could for divine service. With what success these efforts were attended we shall be better able to judge hereafter; but one truth must be borne in mind, which is, that, in the very nature of things, evil will make itself more prominent and noticed in the world than good; so that, whilst it may almost appear from the history of the colony, as though there was not one godly man left in it, we shall do well to remember that there may have been, nevertheless, many a one who was profited by the ministry of Christ’s Church among them, many a Naaman who had been taught to forsake the evil thing which he once delighted in worshipping, many a knee which had not bowed to Baal, and many a mouth which had not kissed his image.[91]
However, it cannot be denied that the greater number of the settlers of every description were but little disposed to listen to the words of eternal truth, although they were ready enough to listen to any falsehood which promised well for their worldly interests. Thus, before the first year of the colony had expired, it was pretended and believed that a gold mine had been discovered. The specimens of this which the impostor produced, were manufactured out of a guinea and a brass buckle; and his object in deceiving was, that he might get clothes and other articles in exchange for his promised gold dust, from the people belonging to the store ships. But his cheat was soon discovered, and all that his gold dust finally procured him, was a severe flogging, and before the end of the year he was executed for another offence. Yet it would not be far from the truth to state, that the British had indeed discovered a gold mine in Sydney, by working which with industry, ability, and perseverance, enormous riches have been obtained. When the story of the mine was invented, the land around Port Jackson was unproductive, and the hills wild or barren, but in little more than fifty years from that time the imports into the Port of Sydney amounted in 1840 to £2,462,858, while the amount of goods exported from the same place during that year was valued at £1,951,544.[92] Where was there ever a gold mine that was known to make a return so profitable as this to those that worked it?
The great object, and generally the most difficult to be obtained, in forming altogether a new colony, is to make it begin to produce a sufficiency to supply its own necessary wants. But, although this object was kept steadily in view from the very first in New South Wales, yet were there many hindrances to be overcome, and much suffering to be endured, before it was finally gained. The land near the new settlement is none of the best for farming operations, and persons at all acquainted with agriculture appear to have been very scarce among the settlers and convicts; besides which, the prevailing idleness was so great, that it seemed almost impossible to make the men exert themselves; and, perhaps, nothing less than the want and privations, which they subsequently endured, could have had this effect. A regular supply of provisions had constantly been issued from the government stores, and the convicts, with that short-sighted imprudence by which the vicious are generally distinguished, had never given themselves the trouble of looking forwards to the necessity of raising a supply of food for themselves. Meanwhile, although farming operations were going on but slowly, and not very successfully, the stores were being lessened at a rapid rate, not only by the ordinary issue of provisions, but likewise by rats and pilferers. Six soldiers, and an accomplice who turned king’s evidence, were discovered, after eight months of impunity, by means of a key which was left by one of them in the lock, upon his being disturbed by the patrol; and these men, having betrayed their trust as sentinels, and carried on a regular system of plunder for the purpose of indulging themselves in vice and drunkenness, were all executed. In April 1789 the Sirius returned, bringing the first cargo of provisions received by the colony, which was, however, only equal to four months’ supply at full rations. But full rations were not to continue much longer in the infant settlement. In November, 1789, very nearly two years after the arrival of the colonists, it was found needful to reduce the allowance to two-thirds of every sort of provisions, spirits alone excepted. No alteration was made in the allowance of the women, who were already upon two-thirds of the full ratio of a man; and it was eagerly and confidently expected that, after having waited so long, it would be but a short period more before an ample supply of all that was necessary would be received from the mother country.
In November, which is one of the summer months of the Australian calendar, the little harvest of the colony was got in. At Rose Hill, (or Paramatta, as it is now called,) where the best land had been found, upwards of two hundred bushels of wheat, about thirty-five bushels of barley, besides a small quantity of oats and Indian corn, were harvested; and the whole of this produce was intended to be kept for seed. At Sydney, the spot of cleared ground called the Governor’s Farm had produced about twenty-five bushels of barley. But the evil spirit of thieving was still as rife as ever among the convicts, and the young crops of wheat were the objects of plunder (especially after the reduction of the allowance,) notwithstanding the immense importance of preserving seed sufficient to crop a larger breadth of land for the following year. In the very beginning of 1790 the provisions brought from England wholly failed, having just about lasted during the two years for which they had been calculated; and the colonists then became totally dependent upon the slender stock brought for them by the Sirius from the Cape of Good Hope. Great anxiety began to be felt for an arrival from England, and a flagstaff[93] was erected on the south head of the entrance to the harbour of Port Jackson, so that a signal might be there made upon the first appearance of the expected vessel. In hope of this welcome event the eyes of the colonists were often directed thither, and often must their hearts have grown sick from the tedious delay of the hope in which they indulged. Certainly, it is a remarkable instance of the hard-heartedness and corruption of man’s nature, that, even under these circumstances, with the horrors of famine daily in view, left alone on a remote and desolate coast, and, as it appeared, forsaken by the rest of the world, they did not profit by the lessons thus forcibly brought before them, nor listen with any good effect to the warnings taught them by sorrow and trouble, those great and awakening preachers of righteousness.
During the anxious interval that succeeded, everything that was possible to be done for the public advantage was done by the governor. Occasionally, a fair supply of fish had been brought in, and accordingly a boat was employed to fish three times in the week, and the whole quantity that was taken was issued out in addition to the rations, which were equally distributed to every person, no distinction being made in favour of the governor himself, who, when he had a party at Government House, always requested his guests to bring their bread with them, for there was none to spare;—in February, 1790, there were not four months’ provisions in the colony, even at half allowance. These circumstances required thoughtful and vigorous measures to be promptly taken, and since Norfolk Island was a more fertile spot, and much better supplied with provisions at that time, it was resolved to send some of the convicts thither, unless the expected supplies from England should arrive before March 3d, the day fixed for their departure. 116 male and 68 female convicts, with 27 children, were thus sent away, and the colony wore quite a deserted appearance. Every effort was made to prevent the destruction of live stock, which was very rapidly taking place, and towards the end of March a yet further reduction was necessary in the allowances, which were then to be given out daily; an alteration at the same time was made in the hours of public labour, and the afternoons of each day were given up to the people to work for themselves in their own gardens. The fish that was caught was also issued out as part of the allowance, but at a more liberal rate,—ten pounds of fish being deemed equal to two and a half pounds of pork. In the midst of this necessity it is gratifying to find that the witness of the Church, though, as usual, too little heeded, was yet not silent; “attention to religious duties,” i.e. to Divine worship on Sundays, “was never omitted, and service was performed on Good Friday.”[94]
But the early settlers of New South Wales were taught by sad experience the truth of that common saying that bids us to “welcome the sorrow that comes alone.” It had been arranged that the Sirius should return immediately from Norfolk Island, and then should sail direct for China to procure a supply of provisions immediately. But Providence never permitted the Sirius again to float upon the quiet waters of Sydney Cove. The vessel was lost upon a reef at Norfolk Island, after having landed most of those on board, and the others escaped with their lives, but the ship was totally destroyed. Disgraceful to relate, it was set on fire by two convicts who had been allowed to go on board on the second day after the wreck, in the hope of saving the live hogs, but these men got drunk with the liquor they found, and set the ship on fire in two places, nor was it without great difficulty that they were themselves rescued. This sorrowful intelligence was brought by the Supply,—the only remaining hope of procuring relief for the wants of the colony. After various precautionary measures had been taken, the Supply was despatched to Batavia, under orders to procure, not only a quantity of provisions, but also to hire a vessel, which should accompany the English ship on its return, and should bring to New South Wales a second cargo of necessaries. Meanwhile, the allowances were yet further reduced, and the governor, having reserved 300 bushels of wheat for seed, gave up 300 lbs. weight of flour, which was his own private property, for the public use; besides which, the expedients of fishing and shooting wild animals were tried, but with no great success. Crime appeared rather to increase than to diminish with the increase of temptation and opportunities; and at this awful period of trial for the whole population, it was judged necessary to execute one criminal. A female convict was at this time robbed of her week’s provisions, and she was left to subsist upon the bounty of others, since it was impossible to replace them from the public store; and if it was a cruel offence of one to rob the poor woman, it reflected credit upon many, that, under such circumstances, she was preserved from starvation.
At length, after six months of indescribable anxiety and privation, the expected signal was made, and a boat was sent off (in very rough weather) to direct the ship how to get safely into the harbour. It was the transport-ship, the Lady Juliana, which had been no less than ten months upon the voyage, and which brought news of the almost total destruction of another ship, the Guardian, which had been sent out previously, and well supplied with every thing necessary for a rising colony. The Lady Juliana brought very little addition to the supplies, compared with the additional number of consumers, above 200 female convicts, which she had with her; these had been sent upon the reckoning of the Guardian’s stores arriving beforehand; and if this had been permitted, probably the colony would never more have experienced want. It was unfortunate, at a time when a cargo of any thing but of convicts would have been serviceable, that scarcely any thing else should arrive. Before the end of June, however, another ship laden with provisions arrived, after having very narrowly escaped a wreck off the heads at the entrance of Port Jackson; and upon the welcome arrival of this supply the immediate scarcity ceased. Three other vessels shortly followed, and things were thus for a time restored to their former course; but repeated trials, arising from want of provisions, were afterwards, at intervals, the lot of the colony. In 1794, on the very day when the doors of the provision-store were closed, and the convicts had received their last allowance which remained, the signal for a sail was made; and it was the third day before the two vessels then in sight could be got into the harbour, but their arrival brought comparative abundance to the starving population of 3,000 people, who were beginning seriously to reckon up how far their live stock would go towards the supply of their necessities. Several other similar seasons of famine have been recorded, and it is curious and instructive to look back upon the day of small things in a country abundant as New South Wales at present is in the necessaries, comforts, and even luxuries, of life.