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First Twenty Years of Australia This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you. Usage guidelines Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. We also ask that you: + Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes. + Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help. + Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it. + Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http : //books . google . com/ 1/ W. Balwain, J.P.t Sydney. N.S.W.Corfs. \r-ly Merchant. Smyth* Provost Marshall, Sydney. Wi Discovery Ship John Blax land, an early Free Settler. y x8oa. 'fy6f$>W*J j, Discoverer of King George's Sound. 7**, who sought to go out Commissary Millet•, Sydney, l»787 FIBST TWENTY YEABS AUSTRALIA. & Pistorg Jfoixntrttr on (Social gotmrimtz. BY JAMES BONWICK, F.R.G.S. AUTHOR OF " THE LAST OP THR TASMANIANS," ETC., ETC. JCxmban: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINQTON Jttelbaurne anb <SBitt*g: GEORGE ROBERTSON. 1882. [All Rightt of Trantlation and Reproduction ure re$erved.) SBoxfe* bg the znmz Author. GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIA. DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF PORT PHILLIP. BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN. JOHN BATMAN, THE FOUNDER OF VICTORIA. THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS. 16*. DAILY LIFE OF THE TASMANIANS. 12s. 6d. CURIOUS FACTS OF OLD COLONIAL DAYS. 2s. 6d. MORMONS AND SILVER MINES. 5s. PYRAMID FACTS AND FANCIES. 5s. EGYPTIAN BELIEF AND MODERN THOUGHT. 10s. 6,1. CLIMATE AND HEALTH IN SOUTH AFRICA. Is. RESOURCES OF QUEENSLAND. With Map. Is. OUR NATIONALITIES: WHO ARE THE IRISH ? WHO ARE THE SCOTCH? WHO ARE THE WELSH? WHO ARE THE ENGLISH? Is. each, or 5s. hound. 'sv,r'-- PREFACE. THE story of the Early Days in Australia is one full of interest to many more than Australian settlers or the Australian born. It so differs from the tale to be told of present life there, as if centuries had passed in the interval. Dark as the chronicle may be, it is highly instructive and suggestive. We have in that gloomy and often forbidding picture of humanity a means of gauging the immense social progress of the colonies. Even in the worst phases of society at that remote period we fail not to detect some bright and pleasing features, indications of that struggle between light and darkness which ultimately led to the opening day. We have seen men and women, steeped in vice and misery, from neglect of Church and of State in Europe, emerging from poverty and moral degradation into respectability and purity. As some in America affect to be annoyed at any reference to the convict origin of not a few settlers in that part of the world, so some in Australia seem shocked at the supposition that bondsmen once dwelt beneath their sunny skies. Is it not rather to the honour of North America and the colonies of the South that they have been the happy means of trans­ forming the neglected, ignorant, and criminal population of the British Isles into healthy, happy, virtuous citizens $ Is it not a matter of honest pride that some of the descendants PREFACE. of those unfortunates are now occupying influential and useful positions in both America and Australia ? The material for the present work was partly gathered in the colonies, but mainly derived from the fine Library of the Colonial Office, and from that interesting collection of National Archives, known as the London State Eecord Office. To the assistance of the Hon. Mr. Herbert, Under-Secretary for the Colonies, a devoted friend to Australia, the author was greatly indebted for access to such sources of information. Among the means of research open to the student of colonial history, Barringtoris Voyage to New South Wales has occupied an important place. It was published in 1795, at 20, Paternoster Eow, for half-a-crown, and contained 140 pages. On the title-page it is stated that the author was then " Superintendent of Convicts at Parramatta." The Sequel to Barrington1 s Voyage appeared in 1800 from Lownde's shop, Drury Lane. It is hardly necessary to say that Barrington was not the writer, but that the compiler got his facts from the works of Collins and Hunter. The celebrated pickpocket 'turned over a new leaf on his voyage out, as we learn from Captain King's letter, sent from the Cape, July 29th, 1791, "The convicts," says that naval commander, " on board the different ships have behaved extremely well, and Mr. Barrington is now a religious convict; he performs service, and gives a \ sermon twice a day on Sundays." He subsequently occupied a respectable position in the colony. By one account he died in 1803; another gives a later date. Several old pamphlets are alluded to in the course of the present work. One of the most curious is that called Slavery and Famine punishments for Sedition. Printed in Cambridge, 1794, the preface, of 46 pages, was written by G. Dyer; PREFACE. T while the rest of the pamphlet, 23 pages only, contains the Journal of George Thompson, Gunner on the Royal Admiral, who was in Sydney, during 1792. Sydney itself has considerable literary treasures for the hunter after early records. But the three ORDERLY BOOKS were by far the most interesting to the writer. They look like common memorandum-books, or, in shape, like a carter's receipt-book. The length is about ten inches; the breadth, five; the thickness, three-quarters of an inch. The first written volume runs over a period between July 27th, 1802, and March 27th, 1803. The second gives the history from March, 1803, to January, 1804; and the third, from January 26th, 1804, to October, 1804. The first begins thus :— " General Orders. July 27th. Tuesday. P. {Parole) King. C.S. (Qounterrign). Parramatta." Then follows a brief record of the meeting of the Court, which consisted of the Judge-Advocate and two others. The New South Wales Colonial Secretary's Office, at the time of the writer's visit, nearly twenty years ago, did not appear to have a succession of these books; but one, thicker and wider than the rest, is called the GENERAL ORDERLY BOOK, andkeats of the time between March 8th, 1809, and January 1st, 1810. All these precious manuscripts were extracted, in the writer's presence, from a heap of rubbish and old documents, laden with the undisturbed dust of many years. The books were not well kept, and were often very indif­ ferently written. Neither Parole nor Countersign appeared from January 31st to February 6th. There were often great lapses. Sometimes the Countersign was given, but the Parole was omitted. All the Governor's Public Orders and VI PREFACE. Proclamations, with other important news, were entered in the Orderly Books. But the Despatches from the several Governors, the Orders transmitted to the Governors by the Home Ministry, with letters addressed to the Secretary of State from individuals interested in the colonial affairs of the period, furnished the author with the most reliable sources of information for the present work.
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