Captain Hunter was rather fond of exploring the unknown country which extended behind, or to the northward or southward of, the narrow limits of the British colony: and during his administration its boundaries were considerably enlarged, and some valuable discoveries were made. One of the most important of these was a discovery which served to prove the claim of the colony to be called New South Wales, from its resemblance to the country whence its name was taken, in one production at least. In 1796, some persons returned from fishing in a bay considerably to the northward of Port Jackson, and brought with them several large pieces of coal, which they said that they had found at some little distance from the beach, lying in quantities on the surface of the ground. This was the first knowledge obtained by the settlers of the value of the productions of the coast at the mouth of the river Hunter, and at the place where coals were found so abundantly there now exists a township, furnishing the whole colony with a supply of that useful article, besides having a large trade in lime, which is made from the oyster-shells that are found there in immense quantities. The appropriate name of this township is Newcastle.
Many needful and praiseworthy regulations were made by Captain Hunter, who endeavoured to enforce attendance on Divine service, and the proper observance of the Sunday; and who took great pains also to discover and punish those encroachments upon the public stores which had been continually made. The convicts whose time of punishment had expired, but who were unable to get a passage to England, were frequently more troublesome and ill-disposed, being less under authority than the others were. These emancipists, as they were called, would occasionally indeed withdraw from receiving the ration allowed by Government; but then it was only in the hope of avoiding labour, and living by pillage. Or else these men, together with others not less ill-disposed than themselves, would play every possible trick to obtain their allowance from the public stores, when they were not entitled, or to get more than their allowances, when they had a certain claim. To put a check upon such practices, the governor, in 1796, had a general muster of all descriptions of people in every part of the colony at the same hour, so that it would be no longer possible, as on former occasions, for one person to manage to answer to his name in two different places, and to draw provisions from both stores. Very shortly after this general muster, the governor made a journey to the banks of the River Hawkesbury, where there is some of the richest land in the colony, but on his return, he had the mortification of seeing a stack of wheat belonging to Government burnt, containing 800 bushels, and it was not certain whether this fire was accidental, since the destruction thus caused made room for as many bushels as were destroyed, which must be purchased from the settlers who had wheat to sell. In reading of these atrocious acts—for if this fire was not intentional, others undoubtedly were—the inhabitants of England must not plume themselves upon their superiority to the outcasts of their country in New South Wales. Unhappily, the word incendiarism has become familiar to English ears, and, ever since the evil spirits of agitation and rebellion have been dallied with, they have made their deeds of darkness visible, from time to time, by the awful midnight fires which they have kindled in the land.
But it was not only in checking the outrages of the British inhabitants of New South Wales, that the governor was actively employed; the natives were also exceedingly troublesome, especially at the valuable farms on the Hawkesbury. Vigorous efforts were made to prevent that disorder, and disregard of private property, which seemed so prevailing; and certainly Governor Hunter appears to have been an active and energetic, but, as might be expected in a colony like that over which he was placed, not altogether a popular ruler. The vices of the lower classes were, in too many instances, found profitable, more or less directly, to those who are termed the upper classes in the settlement; and since both classes became to a fearful degree sensual and covetous, the evil was doubly aggravated by example and contagion. And when we consider, that, at that time, the population of the colony might almost have been divided into those who drank rum, and those who sold it;[110] when we recollect the covetousness of all classes, the hardened wickedness of many of the convicts, the idleness of the settlers or soldiers, the peculiar character of the natives, and the infant state of the British colony, it must be confessed, that the requisites of every good governor,—a wise head, a stout heart, and a steady hand,—were preeminently needful in the governor of New South Wales.
The list of crimes, which were continually occurring during the five years of Captain Hunter’s being governor, was a fearful and appalling one; nor can we wonder at the wish expressed by the historian of the early days of the colony, that future annalists may find a pleasanter field to travel in, without having their steps beset every moment with murderers, robbers, and incendiaries. Twice during Governor Hunter’s administration was a public gaol purposely destroyed by fire; once the gaol at Sydney suffered, although there were twenty prisoners confined there, who being mostly in irons were with difficulty saved; and the second time, the Paramatta gaol was destroyed, and one of the prisoners was scorched to death. Several of the settlers declined to pay anything towards the building of a new gaol, and it was not long a matter of doubt which article would be most likely to bear a productive tax; so a duty of one shilling per gallon was imposed upon spirits, sixpence on wine, and threepence upon porter or strong beer, to be applied to the above purpose. Building gaols is, beyond question, a necessary thing, especially in a colony chiefly formed of convicts: and perhaps a tax upon intoxicating liquors is no bad mode of procuring the means of erecting them, for thus the sober and industrious are not heavily taxed to provide for the support and punishment of the profligate and wicked. Nevertheless, if Christ’s religion be true, there is a surer and better way of checking crime, than by trusting to gaols and police alone; but, unhappily, this more excellent way of reforming the morals of mankind, has, in modern times, found little favour with the great ones of the world.[111] Certainly the power of the Gospel and Church of Christ had no scope allowed it for its blessed effects, when to a population, consisting in 1803 of 7097 souls, and constantly on the increase, besides being scattered over an immense tract of country, one clergyman only was allowed during seven years to wage, single-handed and alone, the war against evil. There were, indeed, many Irish Roman Catholics among the convicts, and one of these, named Harrold, was a Romish priest, but his character was too little to be trusted for him to be of any great spiritual advantage even to those of his own communion.
In the year 1800, Governor Hunter left the settlement for England, and was succeeded in his office by Captain King, who had been Lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, and had conducted with great care and success the establishment of that smaller colony. However, Norfolk Island was abandoned altogether during the government of Captain King and his successor; and it is said this step was taken in compliance with the advice of the former gentleman. It was a saying attributed to him, that “he could not make farmers of pickpockets;”[112] and whatever truth there might be in this maxim, certainly it appears that the progress of agriculture was unfavourable, and that the colony continued still subject to seasons of scarcity, approaching to famine, and obliged to put up with coarse loaves, which were feelingly called scrubbing brushes;[113] and was always in a state of dependence upon foreign supplies for daily bread. But if there were no corn laws, there was abundance of discontent and misery in the colony of New South Wales; and during the time of Captain King’s government, a rebellion broke out among the convicts, who had been induced by some of their number, rebels from Ireland, to strike for their liberty. The revolt was soon crushed by the military, but not without the loss of life to some of the unhappy men who had been partakers in it.
The six years during which Captain King held the office of governor of New South Wales, under the crown of Great Britain and Ireland, were rendered remarkable, as has been already stated, by the partial abandonment of the colony of Norfolk Island; and, it may be added, yet more remarkable by the commencement of another settlement, the first ever attempted in Van Diemen’s Land.
Norfolk Island, which is situated about 1000 miles from the eastern shore of New Holland, was settled almost immediately after the first foundations of Sydney had been laid; and although but a speck in the ocean, and without any safe or convenient landing-place, the first-named colony was altogether more flourishing in its early days than the other. The natural fertility of the land, the abundance of food supplied by the birds of providence,[114] the number of free settlers, and the wise arrangements of Lieutenant-governor King, may all be recollected among the reasons of the superior prosperity of Norfolk Island. However, its career of prosperity was doomed to be but a very short one. Partly upon the plea of its having no convenient harbour, and partly because of its very limited extent, it was decided by the home government that it should be abandoned, and this decision was acted upon in 1805 and 1807, when the free settlers were compelled to leave the island, which remained unoccupied for about twenty years, and at the end of this time it was made a penal settlement for the punishment of refractory convicts, which it still continues to be,—one of the finest spots upon earth degraded into the abode of the vilest of human beings,—the scum of the outcast population of a great and civilized nation. And, to heighten the horror of the contrast between things natural and things spiritual in Norfolk Island, there was not, until recently, a single minister of Christ’s Church resident within its bounds; so that where Nature’s sun was shining most beauteously, and Nature’s sights and sounds were most lovely and enchanting, there the outcast souls[115] of a rich and christian population were left to perish, without being able to catch a ray of the Sun of Righteousness, without a chance (so to speak) of hearing the sound of the gospel of Christ: they might there listen in their lonely wretchedness to the rise and fall of the tide of that ocean by which their little island is surrounded, but they were shut out for ever, it would seem, from the voice of the great multitude of the faithful, “as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!”
The relinquishment of the settlement at Norfolk Island, under Governor King’s administration, after the money that had been spent upon it, and the success which was attending that expenditure, might well appear to be a hasty and imprudent act; but, undoubtedly, in its consequences it turned out beneficial to Great Britain. Instead of Norfolk Island, another much larger, and far more important spot, which might otherwise have been occupied by foreigners, was colonized by British subjects; and Van Diemen’s Land, from the extent of its present wealth and population, besides its nearer resemblance than other Australian colonies to the climate of the mother country, may justly be esteemed one of the most valuable possessions of the British crown. The history of the foundation of this new colony may here be shortly detailed. It was resolved that a fresh settlement, which might be free from the objections brought against Norfolk Island, should be formed; and, in 1804, Port Phillip, an extensive harbour on the southern coast of New Holland, was the spot chosen for this purpose. But Colonel Collins, who had the command of the party of colonists, found the eastern side of Port Phillip very little suited to his object; and without examining its western side, which has been lately very rapidly and successfully settled, the colonel sailed at once along the western coast of Van Diemen’s Land, took possession of that extensive island in the name of his Britannic Majesty, and, after various surveys, decided upon the spot where Hobart Town now stands, for his headquarters. The little settlement then consisted only of a few gentlemen holding official situations, fifty marines, and four hundred prisoners. The place selected for headquarters was well chosen, being upon the Derwent, a beautiful and navigable river, and having a good supply of water. In the same year, 1804, another settlement was formed on the opposite, or northern, side of Van Diemen’s Land; it was situated at the mouth of the River Tamar, near George Town, and was called York Town, but it was afterwards abandoned. The usual trials to which newly-planted colonies are exposed, fell also to the lot of that settled by Colonel Collins in Van Diemen’s Land; but its struggles into life were by no means so intense, or so prolonged, as those of its sister colony. At one time when a disappointment occurred in the usual supplies, the hind-quarters of kangaroos were received into His Majesty’s store, at sixpence per pound, and it is said that in six months no less than 15,000lbs. of this meat were there tendered. After some years of occasional scarcity, during which, once, even kangaroo flesh was sold at one shilling and sixpence the pound, and sea-weed, or any other eatable vegetable, was equally dear, the colony began to take root and to increase, still continuing, however, its original character of a penal settlement—a place of punishment for the convicted felons of New South Wales. Cattle and live stock rapidly increased, land became more and more cultivated, houses were built, farms enclosed, free emigrants began to arrive, Hobart Town became a place of some trade and importance, and at last, in 1821, or thereabouts, only seventeen years after the first establishment of the colony, St. David’s Church, at Hobart Town, was, we read, “completed and opened.”[116] What attention was paid to the spiritual welfare of the poor creatures in this new penal colony during the long interval that elapsed before the occurrence of that great event, it seems hard to say; but, judging from what we have already seen, we may be quite certain of this, that no less care was taken of them, than had formerly been bestowed upon those of a similar character in Norfolk Island.
While Captain King held the government of New South Wales, a subject began to attract the notice of the colonial authorities, which afterwards proved to be one of the highest importance, both to the settlement and likewise to the mother country, namely, the introduction and increase of free settlers. According to Dr. Lang, the first free settlers who emigrated to New South Wales arrived there during Governor Hunter’s administration, which began in August, 1795; but by other writers it is stated that five settlers and their families arrived by the Bellona, in January 1798, so that these may justly be considered the first free emigrants that removed from Europe to Australia.[117] The conditions under which they engaged to settle were, that their passage out should be provided by government, that an assortment of tools and implements should be furnished them, that they should be supplied for two years with provisions, that their lands should be granted free of expense, and that convicts should be assigned for their service, and provided with provisions for two years, and clothing for one. Besides these few emigrants, many of the soldiers and officers, and some of the released convicts, had grants of land given to them; but, generally speaking, their agricultural efforts were not very successful, and military men seemed as little capable of becoming good farmers as pickpockets were. Yet, as if to show what might have been done by prudence and thrift, in many cases, a few instances of proper carefulness and attendant success are recorded; and one man, to whom, in common with many others, Governor Phillip had given an ewe for breeding, in 1792, having withstood all temptations to part with this treasure, found himself, in 1799, possessed of a flock of 116 sheep, and in a fair way of becoming a man of property.
But there was an individual, whose name and history are upon record, to whom the claim of a yet earlier settlement, as a free person, must be assigned. His history is instructive, and may be worth repeating, since it is, probably, a specimen of what afterwards occurred in a vast number of instances. Philip Schoeffer was a German, who had been sent out with the first fleet that ever sailed to New South Wales, in the capacity of an agriculturist, and chiefly with a view to the cultivation of tobacco (to supersede that of Virginia,) in the proposed settlement. His first grant of land was one hundred and forty acres; but, unhappily, he fell into habits of intemperance, and got rid of it all. Afterwards, he obtained another grant of fifty acres, in what now forms a very valuable situation in the town of Sydney; but this he was induced to give up to the Colonial Government for public purposes, about the year 1807, receiving in return twenty gallons of rum, which were then worth 60l. and a grant of the same extent with his former one, but situated at Pitt Water, one of the inlets of Broken Bay—a large harbour to the northward of Port Jackson. Schoeffer then married a wife, a Scotch woman and a convict, and settled on his farm at Pitt Water, where he lived many years; but old age, poverty, and intemperance induced him to sell it by piecemeal, and he died at last in the benevolent asylum or colonial poor-house. This short history may serve to show upon what mere accidents the foundation of wealth frequently depends, and especially in a new country; for, if the German could only have kept his farm of fifty acres in Sydney for about thirty years longer, he or his successors might actually have sold it for 100,000l.!