Discoveries in Australia Volume II Part 43

The effect, therefore, of the gradual pouring of a superabundance of convict labour into this island, must naturally be, first, to check free immigration; and secondly, to drive away those who have actually established themselves on it as their second home, and may perhaps have abandoned comfort in England in hopes of affluence there. So great is the number actually leaving the place every year, that it is calculated that in six years, at the same ratio, there will be absolutely none left.

COMMERCIAL DISTRESS.

And yet, no further back than 1841, the Legislative Council voted 60,000 pounds to encourage immigration, thus needlessly taxing the colony to aid in producing a disastrous result, which certainly, however, no one seems to have foreseen.

Who, indeed, four years ago, could have believed that, above all other things, there should arrive a glut in the labour market? Such an event was looked upon as absolutely impossible in the full tide of prosperity that covered the island. Everything wore a smiling aspect. The fields were heavy with harvests, the roads crowded with traffic; gay equipages filled the streets; the settler's cottage or villa was well supplied with comfort, and even with luxuries; crime, in a population of which the majority were convicts or their descendants, was less in proportion than in England; in short, for the first time, in 1840 the exports exceeded the imports; trade was brisk, agriculture increasing, new settlers were arriving; everything betokened progress; no one dreamed of retrogression or decay.

In four years all this has been reversed. We now look in vain for the signs of prosperity that before existed. In their place, we hear of complaints loud and deep; of insolvency, of reduction in the Government expenditure; of a falling off of trade; of many beggars, where none before were known; of large agricultural estates allowed partially to return to their natural wildness; of cattle and all stock sold at half their original cost, and of every symptom of agricultural and commercial distress. I may further add, that the funds derived from the sale of Crown lands in Tasmania in the year 1841, amounted to 58,000 pounds; in 1844, to 2000 pounds; and in 1845, to nothing. The revenue, in the same time, has decreased one half; and, to close the financial account, at the end of 1844 the colony was in debt to the Treasury, 100,000 pounds.

REMARKS ON CONVICT DISCIPLINE.

Though many other causes may have co-operated in producing this change, it seems acknowledged by most persons, that the result is chiefly traceable to the disproportionate increase of the convict population, acting in the manner I have already described; and this is itself encouragement to reconsider the system of 1842. But if, as some maintain, this plan has inflicted serious evils, in a moral point of view, both on the free population and on the convicts themselves, there is still greater inducement to examine whether some better mode could not be devised.

I do not intend, however, to enter into the question of convict discipline. It would be beside my purpose to do so; and want of s.p.a.ce, moreover, forbids it. But I cannot refrain from observing, that one feature in the new plan--that of congregating criminals during one period of their punishment in probation gangs, almost isolated from the free settlers--seems productive of anything but good. Under the system of a.s.signment, whatever other objections there may have been to it, the convict had at least an excellent chance of becoming a better man, especially when drafted to a pastoral or agricultural district. Whereas, now that the well-disposed and the irreclaimably bad are often brought constantly together in the same cla.s.s, it is much more difficult for them to regain that self-command and those moral sentiments, the loss of which brought them to their degraded position of prisoners. Having constantly before their eyes the garb and stamp of their infamy, reformation, if not impossible, is extremely difficult. Pa.s.s them on the highways at any time; and, in obedience to an irresistible impulse, they will leave off their work to look at you, and the comparison of your dress and condition, with their own distinctive costume and forced occupation, instead of awakening a spirit of hope and a determination to regain freedom, induces melancholy and despair. A dogged and sullen silence soon becomes the characteristic of these men; their features are stamped with the worst pa.s.sions of our nature; and in many cases despondency is triumphant, and they make no proper or continued efforts to reclaim themselves.

Even when a probation pa.s.s has been obtained, it is grievous to reflect that, in numerous instances, except in the single quality of industry, not only has no improvement taken place in the character of the prisoner, but that he has become more hardened and corrupt than when he left England. The horrible scenes of depravity he has witnessed in the barracks whence he has emerged, must have produced their natural effect on his mind. I cannot help thinking that this system of concentration is extremely impolitic. We all know what a detrimental influence the a.s.sociating of men, punished for an offence comparatively trifling, with others convicted of the most flagrant outrages upon society, exerts upon the former. The experience of our prisons testifies to the fact. Can it be expected, then, that the same agglomeration of bad characters in Tasmania should be harmless? I foretell that this part of the new system will be shortly abandoned, and that at any rate the men will be provided with separate cabins for sleeping berths. The granting the prisoners occasional holidays of a week, would have a great effect in whetting their desire to finally obtain their liberty; and a change or improvement in their apparel, in proportion to their good conduct, would also be very beneficial.

In my opinion, however, the system of concentration is radically defective. It supposes the existence in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of criminals of a principle of action, and a desire of improvement and of a change in their condition sufficiently powerful to enable them to resist the temptations to vice held out by habitual intercourse with the depraved. No doubt there are individuals to be found, even among those who have incurred the penalty of banishment from their native country, of firm character and strong sympathy for virtue; but the majority must of course consist of men almost incapable of resisting momentary impulses, of weak or perverted understandings, of strong animal pa.s.sions, naturally or from habit averse to what is good, and p.r.o.ne to that which is bad. In such cases a.s.sociation must inevitably be pernicious; and pardon can only be obtained by comparative, not absolute reformation. By the dispersion of convicts, under the a.s.signment system or otherwise, the effects of evil communication will be guarded against, and those of intercourse with the virtuous and the honest subst.i.tuted.

I am not of course, as I have said, prepared here even to sketch a new plan of convict discipline; but I think that the suggestion I have made with reference to the employment of prisoners in the construction of railroads, the capital to be supplied by a private company, would afford a temporary relief to the labour market, whilst it would confer a lasting benefit on the colony. During the diversion thus created, time would be afforded for digesting a plan of convict discipline, which should be consistent with economy, with a due regard to the interests of the settlers, and with the moral improvement of the prisoners.

LIGHTHOUSES IN Ba.s.s STRAIT.

I would also suggest another mode of employing the probationers. They might be dispersed through the islands in Ba.s.s Strait, and engaged in constructing the lighthouses which are so much wanted there. Six years ago his Excellency Sir John Franklin drew the attention of the Government of New South Wales to the necessity existing for these lighthouses. On this occasion a ma.s.s of evidence was given before the Legislative Council as to which would be the most eligible sites; but up to this period only two have been founded, both by the Tasmanian Government, one on the Chappell Isles, another in Banks Strait. The important ones for the eastern and western entrances of the Strait have been neglected, although the fullest information was obtained on the subject. Opinions concur in representing Kent Group as the best position for a light at the eastern entrance, where certainly one is most required, the Strait being there so much impeded with rocks and islands. I gave my opinion to this effect before the Legislative Council, in September, 1842. At the same time, for the western entrance, I recommended Cape Otway in preference to the north end of King Island, for reasons already a.s.signed.* The melancholy wrecks that have of late occurred in Ba.s.s Strait will, it is to be hoped, direct immediate attention to the construction of these lighthouses, and I think that the collateral benefits to be derived from the dispersion of the convicts ought to be given their due weight. The expense would, in consequence of the ample supply of labour, be small; some of the islands afford stone in abundance; and the convicts might raise part of their food in the vicinity of the proposed buildings. I cannot but think that this, in the end, will prove a lucrative undertaking for Government; as on the number of vessels that pa.s.s, light-dues of about a penny a ton might be levied.

(*Footnote. The following is the Report of the Committee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, on lighthouses proposed to be erected in Ba.s.s Strait: Your Committee have the honour to report, that having been favoured with the attendance of Captain Stokes, of her Majesty's ship Beagle, lately returned from a survey of Ba.s.s Strait, and ascertained his ideas as to the best position for placing a lighthouse at the western entrance thereof, they are induced to change their opinion as set forth in their Report of the 1st September, 1841, and to coincide with him in thinking that Cape Otway would be a better site for a lighthouse than King Island, as being equally advantageous to the trade at large, and much more so to that of Port Phillip.

It would appear, too, that no danger could accrue to vessels endeavouring to make the former, while much mischief might arise in trying to sight the latter, should there be any error in their reckoning; and that it is therefore desirable to keep them as far as possible to the northward of King Island, instead of inducing them to risk the danger of approaching it, to ascertain their true position.

Captain Stokes perfectly coincides with the Committee, in the opinion formerly expressed by them, that the eastern island of Kent Group, is the best position for a light at the eastern entrance of Ba.s.s Strait; and they beg leave respectfully to recommend to your Excellency and honourable Council, that immediate steps may be taken for commencing so desirable an undertaking as the erection of a lighthouse on that spot.

(Signed) J. GIBBES, Chairman. Council Chamber, 6th September, 1842.)

In another part of this work I have adverted to the desirability of forming other convict establishments than those at present existing, particularly on the north-west and north-east coasts; and I would especially recommend the neighbourhood of Hanover Bay on the former, and Halifax Bay on the latter.* By these means many hitherto untrodden lands may speedily be adapted to the purposes of colonization, and reclaimed from their present unprofitable state. In a country like Australia, where the proportion of bad land predominates, it is almost necessary, in the first instance, to force settlements by means of convict labour. A number of buildings is always a cheering sight to a settler on his first arrival, and gives him encouragement to exertion; whereas, if the country wears its natural arid, desolate, uninviting appearance, dejection and despondency ensue.

(*Footnote. We have just learned that it is the intention of Government to form a settlement of the kind mentioned in the text on the north-east coast; and that the province is to be called North Australia, the southern boundary of which is to be the 26th parallel. I have already expressed my opinion, that convicts should not be sent to Port Essington, as the proximity of the islands would afford them facilities of escape.)

COMET.

During our stay in the Derwent, perhaps one of the most splendid comets that has ever appeared, illuminated the southern hemisphere for several nights. We did not see it until the evening of the 5th of March; but it was observed on the 2nd at Launceston; and by a ship at sea, off Cape Leeuwin, on the 27th of February. Several observations were made with it, when the nucleus, which was of a deep red colour, somewhat resembling the planet Mars, was visible.* The length of the tail (on the 5th) measured forty degrees; but was afterwards ten degrees longer. Towards its centre it showed great intensity of light, becoming visible in the crepusculum before stars of the second magnitude. Through its more attenuated extremity, the stars were plainly seen, the coma seeming to be much less dense, showing the sky through the centre like a dark line.

(*Footnote. On the evening of the 5th its right ascension was found to be about 0 hours 13 minutes 0 seconds, and declination about 13 degrees 0 minutes South. The following evening it was observed to have had a motion of above three degrees and a half in the direction of the constellation Orion; the right ascension being 0 hours 26 minutes 0 seconds, and the declination 12 degrees 50 minutes South. On the following night it was found to have had a further motion in the same direction, and with much the same velocity. Its position, shortly before setting, was as follows: right ascension 0 hours 41 minutes 0 seconds, declination 12 degrees 30 minutes South.)

COLONIAL CORN.

Whilst we were in the Derwent, a ship was loading with corn for England; and I could not help regretting that, although grain from these colonies, on account of its dry nature, is well adapted for a long voyage, the heavy duty almost shut it out from the English market. It was impossible not to feel, that justice as well as policy should have dictated the admission of Australian wheat on the same terms as Canadian. The injury inflicted by the exclusive system pursued, is, that less land is put under cultivation, and fewer people are encouraged to go there; both the colony and the mother country are sufferers thereby.

CHAPTER 2.14. AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND.

Sail from Tasmania.

The South-west Cape.

Monument to Flinders.

Rottnest Island.

Lighthouse.

Penal Establishment.

Longitude of Fremantle.

Final departure from Western Australia.

Rodrigue Island.

Effects of a hurricane at Mauritius.

The crew and pa.s.sengers of a foundered vessel saved.

Bourbon.

Madagascar.

Simon's Bay.

Deep sea soundings.

Arrival in England.

Take leave of the Beagle.

The Surveying service.

The barometer, which had been rising gradually within the last three days, now standing at 30.20, showed that the opportunity of getting round the South-West Cape, had at length arrived. We therefore left Sullivan Cove on the morning of the 15th; and by the following midnight pa.s.sed the above-mentioned storm-beaten headland with a fine northerly wind.

Previous, however, to so doing, we had soundings in 84 fathoms, six miles South-West of the Mew Stone. From the result of others we had obtained at different times off the south coast of Tasmania, it appears that soundings of a moderate depth extend out only a short distance, and that a ship in 60 fathoms will be within ten miles of the land.

MONUMENT TO FLINDERS.

It had been my intention, on our pa.s.sage to the westward, to have examined the south and west sides of Kangaroo Island, with the rocks lying off the former. I was also anxious to visit South Australia for another meridian distance, those already obtained not being satisfactory, I wished, moreover, to comply with Sir John Franklin's desire, that we should set up a monument, dedicated to the memory of poor Flinders, which he had sent to Port Lincoln, the centre of his honoured commander's most important discoveries on the south coast of Australia.* The performance of such a task would have const.i.tuted an appropriate conclusion to our labours on the sh.o.r.es of this great continent; and certainly nothing could have been more agreeable to our feelings than to be instrumental in paying a tribute of respect to our distinguished predecessor in the career of discovery. I shall always regret that we were prevented from doing so. At the same time I must say, that it will reflect great discredit on the colony of South Australia, if some portion of its wealth be not devoted to the erection of a suitable monument to the memory of Flinders in one of the squares of Adelaide.

(*Footnote. Sir John Franklin was a midshipman with Captain Flinders when he discovered this part of Australia.)

Strong northerly winds prevented us, as I have above hinted, from closing with the land, we consequently continued our course to the westward; and on the twenty-third day arrived at King George's Sound, whence, after completing our wooding and watering, we sailed on the morning of the 21st of April. At noon we pa.s.sed between Bald Head and Vancouver Reef.*

(*Footnote. See plate.)

ROTTNEST LIGHTHOUSE.

In the forenoon of the 23rd we saw the lighthouse of Rottnest; and regarded it with great interest, as the work of the aborigines imprisoned on the island. I could not avoid indulging in melancholy reflections as I gazed upon this building, erected by the hands of a people which seemed destined to perish from the face of the earth without being able to leave any durable monuments of their existence, except such fabrics as this, constructed under the control of a conquering race. The time indeed, if we may judge from past experience, seems not far distant when the stranger, on approaching the sh.o.r.es of Western Australia, and asking who erected that lighthouse to guide him in safety to the sh.o.r.e, will be told it was the work of a people that once were and are now no longer.

Pa.s.sing over the foul ground extending off the Stragglers, we ran into Owen's anchorage during the first watch. Whilst waiting to rate the chronometers several soundings were added to our plan of this place, and a three-fathom patch, about a quarter of a mile in extent, was discovered, with nine on either side of it, lying nearly two miles and a quarter North 39 degrees West from Fremantle gaol.

PENAL ESTABLISHMENT.

We also visited Rottnest to inspect the establishment. It had now been a penal settlement for four years; besides erecting the buildings, the aboriginal labourers had cleared thirty-four acres of land, chiefly in detached valleys. These grew thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre (in the Port Phillip district the return is about five more to the acre) and from thirty-four to forty bushels of barley. There are about two thousand acres of available land in the whole island. The average number of native convicts is about seventeen, and the expense of the whole establishment to Government is about 200 pounds per annum; but, under the good management of superintendent Vincent, it has realized 1500 pounds by the sale of corn and salt, and allowing for the value of the buildings erected.

His Excellency Governor Hutt had done a great deal for the improvement of the natives; the schools established for their instruction work exceedingly well; and I am happy to see that a most important step towards civilizing them has since been made, a white having taken a native woman as his wife. This may be regarded as in a great measure the result of the notice bestowed on them.

No opportunity occurred during our stay of adding to the observations I had previously made for the longitude of Fremantle (Scott's Jetty); which, however, is the only part of the continent absolutely determined during the Beagle's voyage. It is considered to be in longitude 115 degrees 47 minutes 50 seconds East.

Before leaving we received a letter of thanks from his Excellency and the members of the Legislative Council for the services we had rendered the colony. My friend Lieutenant Roe presented me, also, with two specimens of the Spined Lizard Moloch horridus, which I intended to present to Her Majesty; but, unfortunately, I did not succeed in bringing either of them alive to England; one, however, lived beyond the Western Islands.