FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE COLONY TO 1821.

The month of August, 1795, was marked in the annals of New South Wales by the arrival of the second governor of the colony, Captain Hunter, who continued five years in power, and returned to England in the year 1800, after having seen the colony over which he was placed prospering and thriving enough in worldly matters, though in other more important points it continued poor and naked indeed. It was a great object with the new governor to check and restrain that love of liquor, which he saw working so much mischief among his people; and several private stills were found and destroyed, to the great regret of their owners, who made twice as large a profit from the spirit distilled by them out of wheat, as they would have been able to have gained, had they sold their grain for the purpose of making bread. So common was the abuse of paying wages in liquor,[107] that it was pretended that the produce of these stills was only to be paid away in labour, whereas it was sold for a means of intoxication to any person who would bring ready money for it. At the commencement of harvest, in the November immediately following the arrival of Governor Hunter, a regulation was made by that gentleman, which showed that the infant colony was now making rapid strides towards that point of advancement and independence, from which ignorant and designing men are at present labouring to thrust down the mother country. New South Wales was, in 1795, just beginning to supply its inhabitants with corn, and Governor Hunter wisely thought that the increasing abundance of the produce would now bear some little decrease in the high prices hitherto paid for new grain at the public store. England, in 1843, is able to supply its inhabitants with food, (except in scarce years, when corn is let in at prices varying with the degree of scarcity,) and many Englishmen unwisely think that this advantage and independence may be safely bartered away—for what?—for very low prices, and, their constant companions, very low wages, and very great and universal distress![108] Another addition to the means, which the country was beginning to possess of maintaining its inhabitants, was made by the regular, though far from rapid, increase of live stock, which, in spite of all obstacles, and notwithstanding great carelessness and ignorance on the part of many of those that kept it, continued to thrive and multiply.[109] But, besides the cattle to be seen upon the various farms and allotments in the settlement, a considerable herd of wild cattle were found, soon after Governor Hunter’s arrival, on the banks of the Nepean River, about thirty miles from Sydney, in a district still bearing the name of the Cow Pastures. These animals were clearly ascertained to have sprung from a few tame cattle which had strayed away from the colony at its first foundation; and the governor, pleased at this discovery, himself paid a visit to the Cow Pastures, where he found a very fine herd, upwards of forty in number, grazing in a pleasant and rich pasturage. The whole number of them was upwards of sixty, but the governor’s party were attacked by a furious bull, which, in self-defence, they were obliged to kill. The country where these animals were seen was remarkably pleasant to the eye; every where was thick and luxuriant grass growing; the trees were thinly scattered, and free from underwood, except in particular spots; in several beautiful flats large ponds were found, covered with ducks and black swans, the margins of which were fringed with beautiful shrubs, and the ground rose from these levels into hills of easy ascent. The advantages of having an increasing number of wild cattle within so short a distance of the settlement were obvious enough, and the government resolved to protect them to the utmost of its power. Accordingly, it was ordered that no part of the fertile tract of which these animals were in possession should be granted out to settlers; and at length the herds became too numerous even for the 60,000 acres, which the district was supposed to contain. But, in 1813 and the two following years, so severe a drought prevailed, that vast numbers of them died; and afterwards the government consented to grant away the land, and the remainder of the herds betook themselves to the mountainous ranges beyond.

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.!

After the landing of the few free settlers already mentioned, which took place while Captain Hunter was governor, the next arrival deserving of notice appears to have been about a dozen families of Scotch Presbyterians, who established themselves under similar conditions with the first emigrants, and whose place of abode was near Portland Head, on the banks of the Hawkesbury. These men seem to have been a quiet and orderly, as well as a prudent, set of people; and their industry was rewarded by success. The zeal and devotion which were exhibited by them in religious matters were also very praiseworthy, and not less so because, according to Captain Bligh, it was the only case of the kind he had ever heard of, during his government of the colony. A building for public worship was erected by them,[118] at a cost of upwards of 400l., and altogether the conduct of these Scotch emigrants reflected credit upon the country and religious body to which they belonged. But, while we award to these persons the praise which is their due, we are by no means entitled to place to the account of their being Presbyterians the good order and right feeling which they exhibited. Scotchmen are proverbially more fond of colonization than Englishmen, and hence it naturally occurred that almost the first respectable settlers were Scotch farmers; but there is no reason to question,—nay, experience has since proved,—that Englishmen of similar character, and placed in the like circumstances, can conduct themselves not less piously and properly, and will not yield to the disciples of John Calvin or John Knox in their reverence and devotion for a more apostolical Church than that of Scotland. However, it must be owned with sorrow that these instances of religious feeling and zeal were by no means common among the first settlers; nor is this a subject of surprise, when we recollect that, even now, Australia is frequently looked upon as a last refuge for those who can do well nowhere else; and if it be thought so now, much more must this impression have prevailed in the days of its earlier settlers. But, from whatever class, or with whatever failings, they might come, a few fresh settlers continued from year to year to find their way to the shores of New Holland; and, in due time, the tide of emigration was destined to set full into that quarter, carrying with it a portion of the population and wealth of the mother country, together with all its luxuries, its arts, its vices, and its virtues.

In August, 1806, Captain King resigned his office, and was succeeded in the government of New South Wales by Captain Bligh, also of the royal navy. His name is well known from the history of the mutiny of the crew in the ship Bounty, which he had formerly commanded; and he was not less unfortunate on shore, in the art of governing his fellow-creatures. With many good qualities and excellent intentions, his manner of ruling men was not either happy or successful. But before we proceed to the great event in colonial history, which brought to a sudden termination the reign of Governor Bligh, it will be well to notice a remarkable occurrence which happened soon after he came into power. The banks of the river Hawkesbury have already been stated to be distinguished for their fertility; and at this time they formed the chief source from which the supply of wheat for the colony was drawn. Many acres of land had been cleared there, and the whole district, with smiling farms scattered about upon the rising banks of the beautiful stream, offered one of the most pleasing scenes in the whole settlement. But, within the first year of the government of Captain Bligh, the farmers on the Hawkesbury, and indeed the whole colony, were doomed to undergo a severe trial.[119] In March 1799, the river had been known to rise suddenly to the enormous height of fifty feet, and the destruction of property which had been then occasioned was very great.[120] But now, without any considerable rains having fallen upon the eastern side of the Blue Mountains, between that range and the sea, the river rose, in one place at least, to the enormous height of ninety-three feet, so that buildings, stock, or corn, which were not secured upon rising ground equal in height to that of an ordinary church-tower, must have been overwhelmed and borne away by the flood. It is said that a settler, whose house stood on an eminence at a beautiful bend of the Hawkesbury, saw no less than thirty stacks of wheat at one time floating down the stream during a flood, some of them being covered with pigs and poultry, who had thus vainly sought safety from the rising of the waters. The consequences of this unexpected disaster were very calamitous, and before the ensuing harvest could be begun, wheat and Indian corn attained an equal value, and were sold at 1l. 8s. or 1l. 10s. per bushel. Even eleven years afterwards, when a similar overflow, though not equal to “the great flood,” occurred, prices were raised enormously, and but for an importation of wheat from Van Diemen’s Land, they would have been very little short of those in the year 1806. Governor Bligh appears to have done all that a governor could do to lessen the distress that prevailed, by ordering a number of the cattle belonging to government to be slaughtered and divided among the sufferers, and by encouraging, to the utmost extent of his power, the cultivation of a large breadth of land in wheat for the ensuing season. By these means, under Divine Providence, the colony again became able to supply itself with daily bread; a capability of which, like many other blessings, nations scarcely know the value and importance, until they are deprived, or deprive themselves of it.[121]

From whatever cause it might arise,—whether from his opposition to the practice of all the chief persons in the colony making a profit by the sale of spirits,[122]—or from his dislike of the New South Wales Corps,—or from his own harsh and tyrannical conduct,—whether, in short, we listen to Governor Bligh’s admirers or enemies, thus much is certain: he was excessively unpopular with a large and powerful party of men in the settlement. Without entering into the particulars of the extraordinary treatment to which his Majesty’s representative in that distant colony was subjected, it may be sufficient to state that, in consequence of the imprisonment of Mr. Macarthur, an old officer, and a rich and influential settler, great disturbance was excited, which ended in the seizure of the governor’s person, and in the occupation of his office and authority by Major Johnston, the commanding officer of the New South Wales Corps, who assumed the authority of lieutenant-governor in January, 1808, and issued some proclamations ordering various changes among those in authority. In one of these proclamations a day of thanksgiving is appointed to be kept for the recent transactions; and in the same precious document the Rev. Henry Fulton is suspended from discharging his duty as chaplain to the colony,[123] because, whatever may have been the faults of his former life,[124] like most other clergymen of the Church of England, on most other occasions, he had at this time stood fast to his loyalty.

The confusion resulting from the seizure of the governor was lamentable indeed in a colony at the best of times so difficult to be managed. All public meetings were forbidden by the party in power, and our old friends, the Presbyterians at Portland Head, whose loyalty to the governor on this occasion was very creditable, had well nigh got into trouble from their meeting together on “the Sabbath” for public worship. The object of the intruders was to get rid of Captain Bligh as well as they could, and accordingly he was sent off to England in command of the Porpoise, but he remained from March to December, 1809, off the coast of Van Diemen’s Land, daily expecting despatches from the home government, until at last, on December 28th, his intended successor, Colonel Macquarie, arrived at Sydney. This last gentleman was ordered to reinstate Captain Bligh in the government of the colony for the period of twenty-four hours after his own arrival; but in consequence of Bligh’s absence from Sydney, this was not done. However, Major Johnston was sent home under strict arrest, and, after various delays, he was tried for mutiny, by a court-martial, in May 1811, and found guilty, but was only sentenced to be cashiered, the court considering the peculiar circumstances of the case sufficient to excuse him from a more severe punishment. Captain Bligh was, upon his return to England, immediately promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and employed in active service; while the New South Wales Corps, which had certainly been long enough in the colony from which it drew its name, was ordered home, and the 73d regiment sent out to supply its place.

The first acts of the new governor, Colonel Macquarie, were to declare the king’s displeasure at the late mutinous proceedings, and to render null and void all the acts of the usurping party, most of whose measures were, however, ratified, their bills upon the Treasury honoured, and their grants of land confirmed. The continuance of Governor Macquarie in power for no less than twelve years, during which peace and tranquillity, undisturbed by any very severe trials, prevailed throughout the settlement, offers but very few of those events which make a figure in the history of the past:—

“Famine and plague, the earthquake and the storm,
Man’s angry passions, war’s terrific form,
The tyrant’s threatenings, and the people’s rage,
These are the crowded woes of History’s page.” During the period of which we are now treating, vast improvements and extensive discoveries were made in New South Wales; and in all these, or similar, arts of peace the governor delighted to bear an active and leading part. Availing himself of the means at his disposal, and of the abundance of convict-labour, he made, it is said, no less than 276 miles of good roads during his administration; and, when the nature of the country along which many of these were carried is taken into account, this exploit alone reflects no small credit upon Governor Macquarie. In the year 1813 the colony was enabled, by the courage and perseverance of three gentlemen, to burst those bonds by which it had hitherto been hemmed in within the limits of a narrow strip of land running along the sea-coast. In that year a passage across the Blue Mountains, hitherto thought insuperable, was at length made good; and the hungry sheep and cattle which had been suffering from the prevailing drought in the settlement, were speedily driven over the hills to enjoy the less withered pastures and green plains of the western country. No sooner was this district thus opened than the governor commenced making a road over the mountains, and in this he succeeded after no very long delay, so that a good communication was formed between Sydney and Bathurst Plains, a distance of more than 100 miles, about 50 of which cross an extent of country the most rugged, mountainous, and barren, that can be imagined.

In public buildings Governor Macquarie showed no less activity than in road-making, although his efforts in the former line have not met with unmingled and universal approbation. Certainly, the means by which, what was then called, “the Rum Hospital” was built were, if they are correctly reported by Dr. Lang, disgraceful and mischievous in the highest degree.[125] However, the improvements that were made in the rising towns, especially in the capital, of the colony, may well demand our admiration, even though, as usual in estimating the deeds of fallen man, we must allow that much evil might have been avoided, and that a large proportion of moral mischief was mingled with the improvements.

The great and distinguishing feature, after all, of Colonel Macquarie’s government appears to have been the studious, and not always judicious, patronage extended by him to the emancipated convicts, whom he generally considered in preference to the free settlers. In consequence of this, the last-named class were thrown into the background, a kind of check was given to emigration, and, what was worst of all, two parties were set on foot within the settlement, altogether opposed to each other;—the exclusionists, who were free settlers, refused to associate at all with those that had ever been convicts; and the emancipists considered that a convict, after his time of punishment had expired, was just as good as any other man. It was absurd, indeed, although no more than usually happens, to see men of the humblest, if not of the lowest, classes in the mother country, suddenly aspiring to become exclusive and grand in the colony. And, on the other hand, it was a pretty sure sign that the convicts, though emancipated from their shackles, were not well rid of their vice or impudence, when they laid claim, even with the aid of a governor’s encouragement, and often of great wealth not very scrupulously acquired, to the highest society and most important offices in the settlement. Undoubtedly, one great object in a penal colony should be that of gradually purifying the population from all disgraceful or vicious associations; but the hasty attempts of a governor to elevate a class like that of the emancipated convicts were sure to end rather in their depression. Time, and a succeeding generation, would have done quietly what Colonel Macquarie, with all his power, was unable to accomplish. If a governor cannot make pickpockets become good farmers, still less likely is he to succeed in endeavouring to make good magistrates of them; but a few years, under judicious management, might easily produce from among their children admirable specimens of both. And nothing can be a greater hindrance to this desirable result than hasty and ill-timed, though well-intended, attempts to force out of their proper sphere those persons, who, if they are really possessed of any sense, would, of all men, desire to keep within it.

In reckoning up the principal occurrences during the twelve years in which Colonel Macquarie ruled the colony, the vast additions which were made to our knowledge of the country are by no means to be overlooked. Bathurst Plains and the pass to them through the Blue Mountains were, as we have already seen, discovered; the district of Argyle to the south-westward was also made known. Two rivers, named after the governor, who was (it is reported) fond of such compliments, the Lachlan and the Macquarie, were traced westward of the Blue Mountains, until they were supposed to lose themselves in endless and impassable swamps. Northwards, the River Hastings, and a large extent of country suitable for flocks and herds, called Liverpool Plains, were discovered. Besides which, three penal settlements for the punishment of unruly convicts were formed, one at Emu Plains, another at Newcastle, near the mouth of the River Hunter, and a third at Port Macquarie, at the mouth of the Hastings. But the mention of new penal settlements, in which the punishment and removal of gross offenders were the only objects, while the reformation and salvation of those poor men were never thought of, forcibly recalls us to a subject of which we have for some time lost sight, and which must be once more noticed before the history of the rise and early progress of the colony of New South Wales is completed. Where was the Church all this time? What was the Church of England doing in the now flourishing settlement of Australia? How far did the state follow at once both its duty and its interest, and employ in the work of reformation in this land of criminals those heavenly instruments, the Bible and the Church? The reply to all these inquiries is briefly made, but the national sin and shame involved in that short reply it might need volumes to unfold.

In 1821, at the end of Macquarie’s government, there was scattered about in the colony a population of 29,783, of whom 13,814 were convicts, and among these were found ministering seven clergymen of the Church of England, with no bishop of that Church to “set things in order”[126] nearer than the Antipodes,—the very opposite side of the habitable globe! Nor, if we look (as unhappily now in every English colony we must look,) beyond the pale of the English Church, shall we find either Romish superstition or Dissenting zeal working any of their usual wonders. Though the number of Romanists from Ireland was very great in the colony, yet they had, in 1821, only one priest residing among them; the Presbyterians at Portland Head had a catechist only, and with respect to the other “denominations” little or nothing is recorded:—the establishment had taken as yet so poor a hold of the soil of New South Wales, that the voluntary system, which seems often to need its support, as ivy needs the support of a tree, had scarcely been transplanted thither. One observation, before we quit for the present this painful subject, forces itself upon the mind. How utterly unlike are the ways of an All-Perfect God from the ways of imperfect fallen men! The King of kings desireth not the death of any sinner, and has wrought miracles upon miracles of mercy to provide for his salvation; whereas man regardeth not the spiritual life of his brethren, earthly monarchs and nations care chiefly about the removal of the offenders out of their sight, and, so long as this is effected, they trouble not themselves about the future lot of those outcasts; money is more willingly parted with for “penal settlements” than for religious instruction, and, although the earthly wants of the criminals are attended to, here humanity stops short;—if their bodies are not cast out to starve and to perish their souls are. And who cannot read in holy Scripture the just doom of those that have acted, or are acting, thus? “The wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand.”[127]

Having now brought down the history of the colony of New South Wales to a period when it might be said to be firmly established and flourishing, both party feeling and needless details may best be avoided by stopping here, yet it will not form an unsuitable conclusion to this chapter to borrow General Macquarie’s account of his own doings, although this may be somewhat tinctured with that vanity, which is said to have been his greatest weakness:—“I found the colony,” he states, in a Report to Earl Bathurst, “barely emerging from infantile imbecility, and suffering from various privations and disabilities; the country impenetrable beyond 40 miles from Sydney; agriculture in a yet languishing state; commerce in its early dawn; revenue unknown; threatened with famine; distracted by faction; the public buildings in a state of dilapidation, and mouldering to decay; the few roads and bridges formerly constructed rendered almost impassable; the population in general depressed by poverty; no public credit nor private confidence; the morals of the great mass of the population in the lowest state of debasement, and religious worship almost totally neglected.[128] Such was the state of New South Wales when I took charge of its administration on the 1st of January, 1810. I left it in February last, reaping incalculable advantages from my extensive and important discoveries in all directions, including the supposed insurmountable barrier called the Blue Mountains, to the westward of which are situated the fertile plains of Bathurst; and in all respects [?] enjoying a state of private comfort and public prosperity, which I trust will at least equal the expectations of His Majesty’s Government. On my taking the command of the colony in the year 1810, the amount of port duties collected did not exceed 8000l. per annum, and there were only 50l. or 60l. of a balance in the Treasurer’s hands; but now (in 1822,) duties are collected at Port Jackson to the amount of from 28,000l. to 30,000l. per annum. In addition to this annual colonial revenue, there are port duties, collected at Hobart Town and George Town in Van Diemen’s Land, to the amount of between 8000l. and 10,000l. per annum.”[129]