Four years aboard the whaleship / Embracing cruises in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic oceans, in the years 1855, '6, '7, '8, '9

by William B. Whitecar

Not feeling in the mood to cruise around much during the afternoon, the greater part of us remained about the house, wondering, from the sparsity of the landlord’s visitors, how he managed to eke out a living; but, as soon as night approached, we were convinced that he lacked not for customers, who now one after another dropped in to have a look at us, and imbibe the potations he had to dispense.

One thing is greatly in favor of this colony; that is, the government has as yet refused to grant a license for the sale of spirits in less quantities than a gallon; and, as a gallon costs two pounds sterling, (equivalent to nine dollars and eighty-eight cents of our money,) the ardent is not within the reach of everybody. During the time we remained in the place, I did not see a glass of spirits drank. Malt-liquors, comprising porter, ale, and beer, were however swallowed without regard to quality or quantity.

Here, as well as everywhere else that I have visited in these colonies, the males and females alike frequent the tap-room. They were all very hospitable, and it may be imagined how it sounded to our ears, for a matronly-looking woman, with a child held by the hand, to address us with, “What will you have to drink, Jack?” while everybody about seemed to regard it as a matter of propriety.

At night, as there were not beds sufficient for our accommodation, we took a shake down in the dining-room, using kangaroo-skins as blankets. We had scarcely got settled, before we were rolling, pitching, and tossing, by way of a forced accompaniment to the flea-bites that were being inflicted upon us: the numbers of these pests being myriads. Although they are little heeded by those who are acclimated here and inured to their tortures, yet to us thinner-skinned gentry these fleas now proved objects of real terror. For hours, sleep was out of the question. All of us had been accustomed to considerable blood-letting aboard from the bed-bugs that always infest old ships in warm weather; but we were by no means prepared for a wholesale depletion by these vampires. At length, towards morning, we managed to gain some intermission from their attacks, and the sun had made a great portion of his daily journey ere we broke our slumbers.

After breakfast was over, we took a tramp, and found that we were not deceived in our estimate of the country. Instead of the sandy surface we had been accustomed to see in the southern sections of the colony, there was here an excellent soil, and the appearance of the crops promised an abundant harvest; while the live stock we saw were in a good condition.

The trees here embrace all the varieties of the she-oak, bankshire, mahogany, peppermint, blackberry and raspberry jam, and some little way in the interior the precious sandal-wood is found.

The houses are of stone, and neatly fashioned: mahogany being applied to all the various purposes of the architect—its great plentifulness and durability rendering it preferable to any other wood they possess.

The following day, the wind still being unfavorable and precluding our departure, the officers in charge of the expedition began to feel alarmed as to the insufficiency of their funds—the whole amount of money brought being ten pounds, or fifty dollars; this amount would not go very far towards the support of thirteen men, for any length of time, in a place where all the necessaries of life were held at an exorbitant price. Now that their suspicions had worn off as to our true character, I do not think that they would have allowed us to want; still, we did not feel inclined to depend on their charity, so we asked them if there was any work that we could perform. The only branches of business open were wood-chopping and supplying the community with fresh fish; they possessing no boats, and the snapper banks being some distance from the settlement, it is only by chance that they are enabled to indulge their appetites for them. We, on this information, held a consultation, and one party, including the two officers, shouldered axes and went into the woods, where they gave the colonials a specimen of Yankee wood-chopping; the rest of us took the boats, and, having been supplied with tackle, made their hearts glad by a display of fish superior to any they had seen for a long time.

This was a pretty specimen of occupation for gentlemen’s sons to engage in; but it only verifies our national peculiarities: and the originator of the remark that a Yankee, with or without his jack-knife, could make a living anywhere, was not far from the truth.

The natives here, as elsewhere, are the same miserable, debased race; but are ruled by an iron hand—the early experience of the colonists forcing them to adopt severe measures to secure them against the depredations of these nomadic tribes. I was informed that little account was taken of the death of one of them, by a white man’s agency, if detected in any little peccadillo; but a few years since the whites were still more severe, shooting the natives down like dogs whenever they approached their habitations.