AND THE TASMANIANS

“So long as the past and present are outside one another, knowledge of the past is not of much use in the problems of the present. But suppose the past lives on in the present: suppose, though encapsulated in it, and at first sight hidden beneath the present’s contradictory and more prominent features, it is still alive and active; then the historian may very well be related to the non-historian as the trained woodsman is to the ignorant traveller.”

— R.G. Collingwood, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939, page 100 HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

35,000 BCE

Stone tools along the Nepean River near what is now Sydney, , indicate that aboriginal humans had been present there since circa 45,000 BCE. At this point, as Cro-Magnons displaced Homo sapiens neandertalensis in Europe, a “Mouheneener” band of aboriginals arrived at what is now the vicinity on the of Tasmania (Van Diemen’s Land). Twisted-fiber thread, jewelry, clay fertility figurines, and corrals were developed. Tally sticks appear at various locations around Eurasia and Africa (these are notched sticks or antlers, used to track how many domestic animals one has — the English word “score” refers to the notches cut into such tally sticks).

The Late Wisconsin Glaciation began in North America (meaning that while there were Homo sapiens sapiens in Europe and in Tasmania, there were nothing human as yet in what was to become New England).

In a human population in East Asia a mutation in a particular gene we now refer to as EDAR began to produce smaller breasts, thicker hair, distinctly different teeth, and an increased number of sweat glands (it may well be that the selective advantage offered by this mutation was increase in sweat). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

17TH CENTURY

1642

November 24 or December 13: Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, commanding 2 ships of the , sighted the west coast of the island we have known since 1853 as Tasmania. He named his discovery Van Diemen’s Land in honor of a superior in Batavia. He would sail south, then east, to the other side of the island, and anchor off a spot we now call Blackman Bay. He found evidence of human habitation but made no contact with the aborigines.1 THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN ABEL JANSEN TASMAN IN THE YEAR 1642 and NOTICES OF A SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY BY TASMAN. OF THE STADT-HOUSE MAP OF THE WORLD; AND OF THE NAMES HOLLANDIA NOVA AND ZEELANDIA NOVA * * * A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTH SEA OR PACIFIC OCEAN. PART III. From the Year 1620, to the Year 1688. ILLUSTRATED WITH CHARTS AND OTHER PLATES. By JAMES BURNEY, CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY. LONDON. 1813. * * * * * CONTENTS OF VOLUME III. CHAPTER IV. THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN ABEL JANSEN TASMAN IN THE YEAR 1642. Manuscript Journal of Captain Tasman’s Tasman sails from Batavia At the Island Mauritius Land discovered Is named Van Diemen’s Land Frederik Hendrik’s Bay Other Land discovered, and named Staten Land [since, New Zealand] Moordenaar’s Bay Drie Koningen Island Pylstaart Island Amsterdam Island

1. From this year into 1644, Tasman was reaching not only this island that would be called Tasmania, but also New Zealand. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA Amamocka Island Island North of Amamocka Prins Willem’s , and Heemskerk’s Shoals Onthona Marquen Islands Groene Islands Island St Jan Ant. Kaan’s Island. Cape Sta. Maria. Gerrit Denys Island. Vischer’s Island Salomon Sweert’s Hoek Coast of Vulcan’s Island. Hooge Bergh Islands Jamna and Arimoa Islands Moa and Inson Willem Schouten’s Island Return to Batavia CHAPTER VII. NOTICES OF A SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY BY TASMAN. OF THE AMSTERDAM STADT-HOUSE MAP OF THE WORLD; AND OF THE NAMES HOLLANDIA NOVA AND ZEELANDIA NOVA. Second Voyage of Discovery by Tasman Extract from his Instructions Of the Name New ; 0n what occasion first applied to the Amsterdam Stadt-house Map of the World Zeelandia Nova * * * * * CHAPTER IV. THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN ABEL JANSEN TASMAN IN THE YEAR 1642. After the discovery of the Western coast of the _Terra Australis_ or _Great South Land_ by Theodoric Hertoge, which was in the year 1616, the Hollanders endeavoured at various opportunities to obtain further knowledge concerning the country and its extent, as well by their ships outward bound from Europe touching on different parts of the coast, as by vessels sent purposely from their Eastern settlements to make examination. Before the Presidentship of Governor Van Diemen, however, only the Northern and Western coasts had been visited: and to that time no limitation had been set by the track of any navigator to the extent Southward and Eastward of the _Terra Australis_. In 1642, the Governor and Council at _Batavia_ fitted out two ships to prosecute the discovery of the South Land, principally with a view to ascertain its extent. The command of this expedition was given to Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, and his Voyage proved to be one of the most importance to geography of any which had been undertaken since the first circumnavigation of the globe. The history of this Voyage will here be given in the Commander’s own words, or, to speak more precisely, in a translation of them from his Journal, concerning which some prefatory explanation HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA is necessary. In fact, all the published accounts of Tasman’s Voyage are derived from his own Journal. The earliest extant, or at present known to have been published, is a very abridged narrative in the , entitled, _een kort verhael uyt het journael van den Kommander_ Abel Jansen Tasman _int’ ontdekken van t’onbekende Suit Landt int Jare 1642_; (i.e. _A short relation from the Journal of the Commander_ Abel Jansen Tasman, _in the Discovery of the Unknown South Land, in the year 1642_), which was published at Amsterdam, in 1674; by Dirck Rembrantz Van Nierop. Translations of this abridgment were soon after printed in most of the European languages. In 1726, Valentyn published the Voyage at greater length, accompanied with charts and views, in the IIId volume of his East Indian Descriptions. Mr. Dalrymple, from a comparison and examination of Valentyn with the accounts before published, drew up a narrative of the Voyage, which, with a selection of the charts and views from Valentyn, he published in his _Historical Collection of Discoveries in the Pacific Ocean_. Subsequent to the publication of Mr. Dalrymple’s _Historical Collection_, a manuscript Journal of Captain Tasman’s, with charts and views of the lands discovered by him, was brought to this country, and was purchased of the then possessor by Mr. Banks (the present Sir Joseph Banks) shortly after his return from the _South Sea_. In Sir Joseph’s Library it has been preserved not merely as a curiosity. To facilitate the means of information from so valuable a manuscript, he procured it to be translated into English; and the Dutch original with the English translation are kept on the same shelf in his Library. From these, with the permission of the Right honourable owner, the account of Abel Jansen Tasman’s Voyage is now offered to the public. The English translation was made in 1776, by the Reverend Charles Godfrey Woide, who was then Chaplain to His Majesty’s Dutch Chapel at St. James’s Palace, and afterwards Under Librarian to the British Museum, and is done with much care and judgment. Mr. Woide, in a note, expresses his opinion that this Journal is not in the handwriting of Captain Tasman, though he remarks the manner of spelling to be of the time of Tasman’s Voyage. He makes the three following objections. 1st. That where Tasman’s name appears as a signature, it is accompanied with the word ‘_Onderstout_’ (_Undersigned_). 2dly. He notices the entire omission of three days in the Journal; and 3dly, he points out some inaccuracies which appeared to him more like the mistakes of a transcriber than of a journalist. Mr. Woide has given too much weight to these objections. The word _Onderstout_ accompanying the signatures, was a formality not unusually practised by those who subscribed their names; as appears by an example in this same Journal, where the opinion of one of the steersmen being demanded, is delivered in writing, _’Onderstout by my, Pieter N. Duytz.’_ i.e. Undersigned by me, Pieter N. Duytz.[*] The charge of three days being omitted, is immaterial, from the circumstance of the ships being on the days in question (Sept. 22d, 23d, and 24th, 1642) at anchor in port. With respect to the distinction between the inaccuracies of a transcriber and of a journalist, it is to be observed, that the journalist is frequently his own transcriber. It is a common practice with Voyagers, with Commanders especially, to keep two Journals, the last written of which is a transcript from the HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA first, generally with additions or corrections as the journalist thinks proper, and this, the latter written, is considered, not as a copy, but as the fair Journal. Such, almost invariably, are the Journals transmitted by Sea Commanders to their superiors. The Manuscript in the library of Sir Joseph Banks, by the manner in which it is concluded (which will be seen in its place) has the appearance of being the Journal delivered by Captain Tasman to the Governor and Council at _Batavia_. But nothing is a more convincing proof of this being an original Journal than that the particulars of the navigation, from leaving _Batavia_ to Tasman’s arrival at the scene of new discovery (a part of his voyage which has little or nothing to attract curiosity, or to repay the trouble of copying at length) are noted down in as full and circumstantial a manner as the more important occurrences and remarks when on the coast of newly discovered countries. On comparing the Manuscript with Valentyn, nearly but not all the charts and views in the Journal are found in Valentyn; but the copier or engraver has at times varied from the original, by substituting what he intended as improvements in lieu of supposed defects in the Journal. The figures in the original drawings it is true are so disproportioned as to he susceptible of alteration without danger of swerving wider from the truth; but the alterations have extended in a few instances to views of land, and to matters which relate to geographical positions, in all which, a copy cannot be too scrupulously exact. Valentyn has made another variation from the original, by relating all the proceedings in the third person. [* MS, Journal. February the 14th, 1643.] Such parts of the Journal as it would be wholly useless to publish, are here omitted; of which kind has been judged nearly the whole of the nagivation from _Batavia_ to the _Island Mauritius_; and generally, the common occurrences whilst not in sight of land. Such curtailment does not reduce a journal to an abstract, seeing the material parts are retained at length. Where remark or explanation has appeared necessary, it is introduced in the form of note at the bottom of the page, or deferred till after the conclusion of the Journal. The longitude is reckoned Eastward from the _Peak of Teneriffe_, (which is 16° 46’ W. of the Meridian of _Greenwich_, and was nearly so estimated in Tasman’s time). The distances are set down in Dutch or German miles, 15 of which measure one degree. A peculiarity in Tasman’s Journal, of which it is proper the reader should be timely advertised, is, that in the narrative of occurrences, he begins and ends the day at midnight: but the reckoning of the ship’s course or route is kept from noon to noon; the latitude and longitude being set down for each day at noon, with the course and distance made good from the preceding noon. * * * * * JOURNAL or DESCRIPTION By me _Abel Jansz Tasman_, Of a Voyage from _Batavia_ for making Discoveries of the _Unknown South Land_ in the year 1642. May GOD ALMIGHTY be pleased to give His Blessing to this Voyage. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA Amen. [1642 August] August the 14th, we set sail from the road of _Batavia_ in the yacht Heemskirk, in company with the fly boat the Zeehaan, for the _Strait of Sunda_: and it was resolved (in Council) to sail from the said _Strait_ SWbW to 14° South latitude; afterwards to steer WSW to 20° S; and afterwards, due West for the _Island Mauritius_. [1642 September] September the 4th, in the afternoon, we had variation 22° 30’ NW. At the end of the first watch of the night we saw land; whereupon we shortened sail and lay to for the rest of the night. The 5th, in the morning, we perceived the land to be the _Island Mauritius_. We stood in, and anchored there about 9 o’clock in the morning. We had latitude 20° S, and our longitude by reckoning was 83° 48’, we supposing ourselves to be 50 miles Eastward from the _Mauritius_ when we first saw it. The 6th, we sent one of our mates, with three of our seamen, and six-men from the Zeehaan, to the woods to assist the huntsmen in catching game. At four this afternoon, the ship _Arend_ from the mother country anchored here. She sailed from the _Texel_ the 23d of April last. The Captain of the Arend reported to the Commander on shore, Van Steelen, that he had spoken a French ship near the Island. The Commander therefore immediately dispatched some people to the Northwest part of the Island, being suspicious that the Frenchmen intended to cut ebony there, which would not be allowed. The 7th, we received from the shore eight goats and one hog. We sent four of the goats to the Zeehaan; and sent two more men to assist the hunters. The 9th, we sent our carpenters on shore to cut timber. The 10th [and at other times afterwards] we received goats, and hogs from the shore, half of which were sent to the Zeehaan. The 13th. This day we sent fish to our people in the woods. The 16th, the yacht Little Mauritius got under sail to fetch ebony from a place to the Eastward, to he put on board the Arend; but she was prevented from getting out by the high wind. The 21st, the Little Mauritius got out, having been detained till now by a strong ESE trade wind. The 25th, at day break we had a light breeze from NNE, and afterwards it blew rather fresher from NWbW, which is the first land breeze we have had since we have been here at anchor. Our chief steersman, Francis Jacobsz, and Mr. Gillemans, took a draught of the land.[*] The 26th, we held a Council, and we appointed the 4th day of the next month for our departure from this Port. [1642 October] October the 4th. This was the day fixed for our departure; but the wind being contrary, we were forced to lie still. We sent our first steersman with the steersman of the Zeehaan to sound the Easterly entrance of the Port, to examine if we could pass HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA that way; but they found the depth, with the highest spring tide, to be no more than 13 feet. [* This draught of the Mauritius SE Port, (a copy of which is annexed from Captain Tasman’s Journal) has neither scale nor soundings. The different sketches which have been, published of this Port, have less resemblance to each other than might be expected. According to a plan in Van Keulen, from the Islands at the South-eastern entrance, which is the entrance included in Tasman’s sketch, to the fort, the distance is one Dutch mile and a half. Van Keulen lays down sufficient depth of water in the Port for ships of any size; and the smallest depth of water in the channel towards the Eastern entrance, 3½ fathoms. The chart published in Viscount de Vaux’s History of the _Isle de France_, makes the distance from the islands at the SE entrance to where the Dutch Fort stood, nearly one-third less than Van Keulen; and the smallest depth, between the two entrances, three fathoms. By the observations of M. d’Apres and the Abbe de la Caille, the Island _Mauritius_ is in latitude from 19° 58’ S, to 20° 31’ S; and the middle part in 57° 30’ E longitude _from Greenwich_.] The 5th, our shallop went fishing, and returned with excellent fish for all the ship’s crew. The 6th, we endeavoured to get through the SE channel, but were obliged to give it up. Caught fish for all the crew. The 7th, the wind continued Easterly. In the evening, we came to anchor under the Islands which are before the Bay, and had 17 fathoms muddy bottom. It is very difficult to get out of this Bay, the South Easterly winds blowing here so continually. No vessel ought to come in here unless for business. The 8th, in the morning, we had a breeze from shore with rainy weather. We weighed anchor, but the wind came contrary, and we were obliged to anchor again. About 8 o’clock, the wind changed and blew from NEbE. We weighed anchor, and stood out South Eastward to sea: for which the Lord be praised. This _Island Mauritius_, its South part, is in 20° 12’ S, and in longitude 78° 47’ E from _Tenerife_. We kept our course SSE. The 9th, the wind was from between the East and SE, and we stood to the Southward. The 12th, the variation was 23° 30’ NW. [After the 12th, the winds were variable, and the course was directed South Eastward.] The 27th, in the morning, we saw a great deal of duck weed. We held a Council, and it was resolved to keep a man constantly at the topmast head to look out; and that whoever first discovered land, sands, or banks under water, should receive a reward of three reals and a pot of arrack. Our latitude this day by account was 43° S, and our longitude 88° 6’. In the afternoon, we had variation 26° 45’ NWesterly. [1642 November] November the 4th, at noon, our latitude by account was 48° 25’ S. In the afternoon on comparing with the master and the steersmen, we found our middle longitude[*] to be 107° 25’. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA [* The longitude by the mean of all the reckonings.] Saw several patches of duck weed: we had a great many thunnies about the ship, and we also saw a seal, which made us conjecture that some Islands might be hereabouts. At night we shortened sail. The 6th, we had a storm from the West, with hail and snow: the weather very cold. At noon, latitude 49° 4’ S. longitude 114° 56’. The variation was 26°. The 7th, the wind was Westerly with hail and snow. This morning we held Council; and the following was delivered to us by our first Pilot, as the advice of himself and the Steersmen. “According to the large map of the _South Sea_, the Eastern part of the _Salomon Isles_ is in 205°; the longitude beginning with the _Piko de Teneriffe_, being at present used by every body. 6 The longitude of _Batavia_ is 127° 5’; and the longitude of _Hoorn Islands_ 185° 45’. This is our advice: that we should keep to the parallel of 44° S latitude till we have passed 150° longitude: and then make for latitude 40° S, and keeping in that parallel, to run Eastward to 220° longitude: and then steering Northward, search with the trade wind from East to West for the _Salomon Islands_. We imagine if we meet with no main-land till we come to 150° longitude, we must then meet with Islands. “Undersigned, Francis Jacobsz.” Whereupon we resolved with our Council and Steersmen to steer NE to latitude 45° or 44° S. The 10th, we had fine weather. We supposed our latitude to be 44° S; but at noon we found we were in 43° 20’. Longitude 126° 45’. The variation was 21° 30’ NWesterly. The sea ran very high from the SW, and sometimes from the SE. The 17th, we continued to see much sea weed floating. The sea still ran high from the SW, wherefore we presume that there is no large tract of land to the South. Latitude at noon 44° 15’. Longitude 147° 3’. We believed we had already passed the South land at present known, or that we were at least as far Eastward as Pieter Nuyts had been. The 18th, we saw whales. The variation was 12° NWesterly. During the night, we lay to, and at day-light sailed on again Eastward. The 19th, our latitude at noon was 45° 5’ S. Longitude 153° 34’ E. In the morning the variation was 8° NWesterly. The 22d, at noon, we found the latitude 42° 49’. Our longitude 160° 34’. Our compass was not steady as it should be. It may be that there are loadstones hereabouts, as our compasses do not stand still within eight points. There is something which keeps the needle in continual motion.[*] We have found the great NW variation decrease very suddenly. The 23d, found our latitude at noon 42° 50’. Longitude 162° 51’. The 24th, we had fine weather and a clear sky, with light wind from SW and South. Held our course EbN. At noon found the latitude was 42° 25’ S. Longitude 163° 31’. In the afternoon, about four o’clock, we saw land bearing EbN, distant from us by conjecture ten miles. The land was very high, and towards evening we saw high mountains to the ESE, and to the NE two smaller mountains. Our compass here stood right. We had a light HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA breeze from SE, and resolved to run off in the night five hours to sea, and then to run back again towards the land.[+] We sounded in the night, and had ground at 100 fathoms, fine white sand with small shells. We sounded afterwards, and had black gravel. The 25th, in the morning, it was calm. Towards noon, the wind came from SE, and afterwards from the South. We steered towards the shore, and about five o’clock in the afternoon were within three miles, and had soundings at 60 fathoms, the bottom coral. We ran nearer the coast, and at one mile distance had fine white small sand. The coast here lies NbW and SbE, and is level. We were here in latitude 42° 30’, and middle longitude 163° 50’. When you come from the West, and find the NW variation suddenly decrease, you may then look out for the land. Near the coast here, the needle points true North. As this land has not before been known to any European, we called it _Antony Van Diemen’s Land_, in honour of our High Magistrate the Governor General, who sent us out to make discoveries. The Islands near us we named in honour of the Council of India, as you may see by the little map we made. [* A similar instance of unsteadiness in the needle was observed near _Cape Horne_ by the Nassau Fleet.] [+ The track on Captain Tasman’s chart of _Van Diemen’s Land_, is not so minutely drawn as to show all the variations of course mentioned in the Journal.] The 26th, we had Easterly wind with rain, and did not see the land. At noon, we hoisted the flag to speak the Zeehaan, and ordered Mr. Gillemans to come on board, to whom we declared the reasons mentioned in a letter, which we gave him to shew to Gerrit Janszoon, the master of the Zeehaan, and to the mates; and which is as follows. “The Officers of the Zeehaan are directed to mark in their Journals, longitude 163° 50’ for the land we saw yesterday, which we found it to be upon comparing our accounts; and therefore we have fixed this longitude, and shall begin again from here to reckon the longitude. The Commander of the Zeehaan is to give this order to the steersmen. The maps also made of this land should place it in longitude 163° 50’ as before mentioned. “Undersigned, Abel Jansen Tasman.” At noon, we judged our latitude to be 43° 36’ S. Longitude 163° 2’. The 27th, in the morning, we saw the coast again. The wind was NE, with foggy rainy weather. We steered ESE. Our latitude at noon by account 44° 4’ S. Longitude 164° 2’. At the fourth hour of the night, it being very dark, we lay to. The 28th, in the morning, we made sail Eastward. Saw the land NE from us, and stood towards it. The direction of the coast is here SEbE and NWbW. At noon, our latitude we supposed 44° 12’ S; longitude 165° 2’. The wind NW, a light breeze. In the evening, we came near three small Islands, one of which has the shape of a lion’s head, and is about three miles from the main land. During the night we lay to. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA The 29th, in the morning, we were still near the cliff which is shaped like a lion’s head. We sailed along the coast which extends here East and West. Towards mid-day we passed two cliffs, the Western of which resembles the _Pedra branca_ near the coast of _China_. The Eastern has the appearance of a high mishapen tower, [_Hooge plomp Tore_], and is about four miles from the large land. We passed between this cliff and the main land. At noon, our latitude by account was 43° 53’ S. Longitude 166° 3’.[*] We continued our course along the coast, and about five in the afternoon, we came near to a Bay which seemed to be a good Road, and we resolved to make for it. When we were almost in the Bay, a storm arose which obliged us to take in sail, and return to sea, it not being possible for us with so much wind to anchor the ships.[+] The 30th. We had been driven so far off in the night, that at daylight we could scarcely see the land. We had variable winds this day, and endeavoured to get in with the shore. At noon, the land bore NW from us. [1642 December] December the 1st, we found our latitude at noon 43° 10’ S, our longitude 167° 55’. In the afternoon, we had an Easterly breeze, and an hour after sunset, we anchored in a good port in 22 fathoms, the bottom fine light grey sand. [* According to Tasman’s Chart and the situation here noted, the ship was advanced at noon, near 4 leagues to the East or ENE beyond the two Cliffs.] [+ The Bay from which Tasman was thus forced by a storm, is named in his chart _Stoorm Bay_. The anchorage he aimed at, is the same where Captain Furneaux stopped in 1773, and which he named _Adventure Bay_. In Tasman’s general sketch of _Van Diemen’s Land_, there is no mark of any inlet or arm of the sea running into the land; but in a separate plan which he has given of _Stoorm Bay_, openings are left in the coast; and also Westward of the Bay, the coast is drawn receding Northward, corresponding with the discovery made in 17Q2, by M. D’Entrecasteaux, of a Strait or passage through to the NE, which separates the SW part of the land forming Tasman’s _Stoorm Bay_ from the other part of _Van Diemen’s Land_.] The 2d, early in the morning, we sent our first steersman with our shallop, and a boat of the Zeehaan well armed, to a Bay a good mile towards the North West from us, to look for fresh water, refreshments, or any other things. They returned three hours before night, and brought some greens of a kind which grow at the _Cape of Good Hope_ and may be used in the place of wormwood; and some of another kind which was long and saltish like sea parsley (‘_Pieter Celij du mair_’). The steersman and the mate of the Zeehaan gave the following account.--They rowed round the point a good mile, where they found good fresh water, but which flowed so slowly, that whilst they staid they could get only one pailful. The greens, such as they brought, grew in great quantity. They heard human voices, and a sound like that of a trumpet or little gong not far off, but they could see nobody. They saw two trees which were each from two to two and a half fathoms big,[*] and tall from the ground to the branches 60 to 65 feet. The bark had been taken off with flint stones, HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA and steps were cut for people to climb up to search the nests of the birds. These steps were full five feet one from the other, whence it was conjectured that the people here must be very tall, or that they used some artifice in climbing. They observed on the ground the traces of some animals resembling the marks made by the claws of a tiger; and they brought on board the excrements of some quadruped, as we supposed. They also brought pieces of good looking gums, which dropped from the trees, some like the _gumma lacca_. At the East corner of this Bay, they had soundings at 13 and 14 feet: the tide ebbed and flowed about three feet. Before the said corner they saw people; and some wild ducks, and geese. They took no fish except muscles which stuck to little bushes. The country was all over furnished with trees which stood thin, so that one might pass through every where, and distinguish objects at a distance, without hindrance from bushes or underwood. Many of the trees were burnt deep in near the ground. Smokes also were observed rising in several places in the woods. [* Most probably in circumference.] The 3d, we went with our shallop to the SE part of this Bay, where we found water, but the land was low and the water saltish. In the afternoon, we went to a little Bay WSW from our ships; but it came to blow, and the surf was high. We however let our carpenter swim to the shore, where he set up a post, and left the Prince’s flag’ flying upon it. This was nigh to four remarkable trees which stand in form of a crescent. When the carpenter had erected the post with the flag, he swam back to us through the surf, and we returned on board. In the evening, we observed 3° NE variation. We lay at anchor here in 43° S latitude, and longitude 167° 3O’.[*] The 4th, in the morning, we got under sail, with a NW wind, and steered to the Northward as close as we could, that we might look for a watering place. In the evening we saw a round mountain about eight miles NNW from us. We kept our course close to the wind N Eastward. Several smokes of fires were seen along the coast all the day. Here I should give a description of the extent of the coast, and the Islands near it; but I hope to be excused, and refer for brevity’s sake to the Map made of it and joined herewith. [* Names are not given in the Journal to the Bays or Capes seen of this land, or to the Islands near it. It is probable they were afterwards assigned on making the charts. In the chart of the Bay where Tasman anchored is inserted the name _Frederik Hendrik’s Bay_, but disposed in such manner as to cause a belief that it was applied only to the inner harbour, which the boats visited on December the 2d . In 1772, M. Marion anchored in the same Bay in which Tasman had anchored so many years before; and it appears in the short account published of his Voyage, that he considered it to be the _Frederik Hendrik’s Bay_ of Tasman. The late French charts however, apply the name solely to the inner port, which seems to have been the intention of the first discoverers; and to the anchorage of and Marion, assign the name of _Marion’s Bay_.] By some mistake in Valentyn, the ship’s place on the 1st of December at noon, is given for the situation of _Frederik Hendrik’s Bay_. The chart of _Van Diemen’s Land_, likewise, in HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA Valentyn, though the outline of coast is the same as in Tasman’s chart, is marked differently in longitude, and not agreeing with the Journal. The 5th, we kept our course as before, and lost sight of the land, the part last seen being the round mountain, which was then due West, six miles from us. We assembled the Council, and resolved to keep our course Eastward to longitude 195°. At noon, our latitude was by account 41° 34’ S. Longitude 169°. The 11th, the variation was 7° N Easterly. The 12th, we had a high sea from the SW. The 13th, our latitude was 42° 10’ S. Longitude 188° 28’. Towards noon, we saw a large high land[*] about 15 miles SSE from us. We steered towards it, but the wind was light and variable. In the evening, we had a breeze, and steered East. The 14th, at noon, we were about two miles from the shore. Our latitude was 42° 10’ S; longitude 189° 3’. This is a high double land. We could not get sight of the tops of the mountains for dark clouds. We sailed along the coast Northward, so close that we could see the waves break on the shore. We had soundings at two miles distance, 55 fathoms grey sand. In the evening and night it was calm, and a current set from the WNW which made us approach the shore, so we anchored with our stream anchor in 28 fathoms, muddy bottom. The 15th, in the morning, having a light wind, we weighed and stood farther from shore, and then kept our course Northward. At noon our latitude was 41° 40’ S; longitude 189° 49’. We did not perceive any people, or the smokes of fires upon the land: and we could see that near the sea-coast the land was barren. [* This discovery was at first named Stasten Land; but afterwards, NEW ZEALAND.] The 16th, we had little wind. Latitude at noon 40° 58’ S. At sunset, we found variation 9° 23’ N Easterly. The Northern extremity of the land in sight bore EbN from us. We steered towards it NE and ENE. In the second watch, we had soundings at 60 fathoms, fine grey sand. The 17th, at sunrise, we were about one mile from shore, and saw smoke rising in different places. At noon, latitude by account 40° 32’ S; longitude 190° 47’. In the afternoon we sailed EbS, along a low land full of sand hills; having soundings at 30 fathoms depth, black sand. At sunset we anchored in 17 fathoms, near a sandy point of land, within which we saw a large open Bay, three or four miles wide. From this sandy point, a shoal or sand bank runs off a mile to the ESE, which lies under water, with six, seven, and eight feet depth: when you have passed this shoal, you can enter the Bay.[*] Variation here 9° N Easterly. The 18th. In the morning we weighed anchor, and stood into the Bay; our shallop and a boat of the Zeehaan going in before us to look for good anchorage and a watering place. At sunset it was calm, and we cast anchor in 15 fathoms, good muddy ground. An hour after sunset, we saw several lights on the land, and four vessels coming from the shore towards us. Two of these were our own boats. The people in the other two called to us in a strong rough voice. What they said, we did not understand; HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA however, we called to them again in place of an answer. They repeated their cries several times, but did not come nearer than a stone’s throw: they sounded also an instrument which made a noise like a Moorish trumpet; and we answered by blowing our trumpet. This was done on both sides several times. When it grew dark, they left off, and went away. We kept good watch all night, with our guns ready. [* In a view given in the Manuscript Journal of the coast at this part, a remark is inserted that this shoal or bank extends three miles Eastward and Southward from the sandy point. The Chart, however, agrees with what is said-in the Journal, as above.] The 19th, in the morning, a boat of the natives having 13 men in it, came near our ship; but not nearer than a stone’s throw. They called to us several times, but their language had nothing in it like to the vocabulary of the _Salomon Islands_ given to us by the General and Council at BATAVIA. These people, as well as we could judge, were of our own common stature, strong boned, and of a rough voice. Their colour is between brown and yellow; their hair black, which they tie up on the crown of the head, like to the Japanese, and wear a large white feather upright in it.[*] Their vessels were two narrow long canoes fastened together, upon which, boards were fixed to sit on. Their paddles were more than a fathom long, and were pointed at the end. Their clothing seemed to us to be of mats, or of cotton: but most of them went with their breast naked. We showed them fish, linen, and knives, to invite them to come to us; hut they would not, and at length rowed back to the land. In the meantime, the Officers of the Zeehaan came on board us, and we resolved to go nearer to the shore with our ships, as here is good anchorage, and the people seemed to be desirous of our friendship. Immediately after we had taken this resolution, we saw seven vessels coming from the shore. One of them in which were 17 men, came very quick, and turned round behind the Zeehaan. Another with 13 stout men came within half a stone’s throw of our ship. They called out one to the other several times. We showed them, as before, white linen: but they lay still. The Master of the Zeehaan, Gerard Janszoon, who was on board of our ship, ordered his boat, in which were a quarter- master and six seamen, to go to his ship, to carry directions to the mates to keep on their guard, and that in case these people should come along side, not to allow too many of them to enter the ship at one time. When the Zeehaan’s boat put off from our ship, the natives in the _praws_ or canoes nearest to us, gave a loud call to those who were behind the Zeehaan, and made a signal with their paddles, the meaning of which we could not guess. But when the boat of the Zeehaan had gone quite clear from our ship, the canoes of the natives which were between our two ships made furiously towards her, and ran with their beaks violently against her, so as to make her heel and take in water; and the foremost of these villains, with a blunt pointed pike, gave the quarter-master, Cornelius Joppe, a violent blow in his neck which made him fall overboard. The others then attacked the rest of our boat’s crew with their paddles, and with short thick clubs (which we had in the beginning supposed to be clumsy _parangs_[*]) and overcame them. In this scuffle, three of the Zeehaan’s men were killed, and one was mortally wounded. The HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA quarter-master and two seamen swam for our ship, and we sent our boat which took them up alive. After the fight, these murderers took one of our dead people into their canoe: another of our dead men fell overboard and sunk. They let the boat go. Our ship and the Zeehaan fired at them with our muskets and guns, but we did not hit them, and they paddled away to the shore. We sent our boat to bring back the boat of the Zeehaan, wherein we found one of her men dead, and one mortally wounded. [* This part of the New Zealander’s dress is omitted in the drawing. In Valentyn it has been supplied on the authority of the narrative.] After this, there could no friendly intercourse take place between us and the natives, nor could we hope to obtain water or refreshments here; so we weighed anchor and set sail. When we were under sail, twenty-two of their boats put off from the shore and advanced towards us. Eleven of them were full of people. When they were come within reach of our guns, we fired two shot at them, but without effect. The Zeehaan fired also, and hit a man in their foremost canoe, who was standing with a white flag in his hand, so that he fell down. We heard our grape shot clash against their canoes, but we know not what the effect was, except that it caused them suddenly to retreat towards the shore, where they lay still and did not come towards us again. [* Parangs are knives used in some parts of the _East Indies_ for cutting wood.] We named this Bay _Moordenaar’s Bay_, [i.e. _Murderer’s Bay_.] The part in which we anchored is in 40° 50’ S latitude, and in longitude 191° 30’. Variation there, 9° 30’ N Easterly. From _Moordenaar’s Bay_ we steered ENE; but during the night we sailed backward and forward, having soundings from 26 to 15 fathoms. This is the second Land discovered by us. We named it _Staten Land_ in honour of the States General. It is possible that this land joins to the _Staten Land_;[*] but it is uncertain. It is a very fine country, and we hope it is part of the _Unknown South Continent_. The 20th, in the morning, we saw land nearly all round us, so that we have sailed perhaps 30 miles into a Bay. We at first thought the place where we had anchored was an Island, and that we should find a clear passage [Eastward] to the _Great South Sea_; but to our great disappointment we find it otherwise. The wind being from the Westward, we did all in our power to turn to windward to get back the way we had come. At noon we were in latitude 40° 51’ S. Longitude 192° 55’. In the afternoon it was calm, and the current ran strong into the Bay. The land all around seems to be good fine land. The sea coast is low, but the land within is high enough. We found a muddy anchoring ground, at 60, 50, and to 15 fathoms depth, about 1½ or 2 miles from shore. We had light winds all the afternoon. [* Meaning the _Staten Land_ to the East of the _Tierra del Fuego_, discovered and so named by Schouten and Le Maire. The supposition that both Schouten and Le Maire’s discovery and his own might form part of one and the same great Continent, led Tasman to apply the name on the present occasion; and singularly enough, in the last year in which it could have been allowable: HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA for in the year which next followed, the Expedition of Hendrik Brower to _Chili_, deprived Schouten and Le Maire’s _Staten Land_ of the honour of being any longer conjectured to be Continental Land. And Tasman’s _Staten Land_ being thereby proved a separate Land from Schouten and Le Maire’s discovery, its name was, not long afterwards, changed for that of NEW ZEALAND, which name it still retains.] The 21st, in the second watch of the night, a breeze came from the West, and we sailed Northward. We found the coast of the Northern land to extend towards the NW. In the morning, it began to blow fresh. After breakfast we put about, and stood towards the South coast. Towards evening, we ran for shelter within a small Island which we brought to bear NNW of us, and then cast anchor in 33 fathoms, the bottom sand and shells. We had other Islands and cliffs near us. Our latitude here was 40° 50’, and longitude 192° 37’.[*] It blew so hard in the night that we let go another anchor and got down the topmasts, as did the Zeehaan. The 22d and 23d, the gale continued strong from the NW, with dark foggy weather. The Zeehaan was almost forced from her anchors. The 24th, in the morning, it was calm. The Officers of the Zeehaan came on board our ship, and proposed that if the wind and weather would permit, we should examine if there is any passage through this Bay, as the flood tide was observed to come from the SE.[+] The 25th, the weather looked still very dark, and we remained at anchor. The 26th, in the morning, the wind came from ENE. We got under sail, and held our course North, and afterwards NNW, intending to sail round this land Northward. [* The situation here mentioned in the Journal is a quarter of a degree more Northerly than the anchoring place marked on the Chart.] [+ The uafavourable appearance of the weather seems to have prevented Tasman from making the proposed examination.] The 27th, we had a strong breeze from SW. At noon, our latitude was 38° 38’ S. Longitude 190° 15’. After noon we steered NE [to get in with the land]. Variation 8° 20’ NE. The 28th, at noon, we saw a high mountain EbN from us, which at first we took to be an Island, but we found it was a part of the main land, and that the coast here extends as much as I could observe North and South. This mountain is in 38° S latitude. Our latitude at noon, by account, was 38° 2’. Longitude 192° 23’. At five miles from the shore we had soundings in 50 fathoms, fine sand mixed with clay. In the night it blew hard. The 29th, we had a fresh gale. Latitude at noon 37° 17’ S. The 30th, the weather became moderate, wind WNW. At noon our latitude was 37° S. Longitude 191° 55’. We sailed NE, and towards evening saw the land again, bearing NE and NNE; we therefore steered more to the North. The 31st, at noon, found our latitude 36° 45’ S: longitude 191° 46’. The coast here lies SE and NW. This land is in some places high; and in some full of sand hills. In the evening we were HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA three miles from shore. Had soundings in the night at 80 fathoms. [1643 January] January 1st, 1643. This is an even coast, without shoals or banks, but there is a great surf on the shore. Latitude at noon 36° 12’ S. The 2d, and 3d, running Northward along the coast. The 4th. This morning we were near a Cape of land, and had an Island NWbN from us. We hoisted the white flag for the Officers of the Zeehaan to come on board, and we resolved to stand for the Island to look for fresh water and greens. We find a strong current setting Westward, and much sea from the NE, from which we hope to find a clear passage Eastward. In the evening we were near the Island, but could not observe that any thing we wanted might be got here. The 5th, in the morning, we had little wind and a calm sea. About noon, we sent Francis Jacobsz in our shallop, and the supercargo, Mr. Gillemans, in the Zeehaan’s boat to the Island, to try if fresh water could be got. In the evening, they returned, and reported that they had been at a safe small Bay where fresh water came in abundance from a high mountain; but that there was a great surf on the shore, which would make watering there troublesome and dangerous. They rowed farther round about this Island to look if there was any more convenient place. Upon the highest mountain of the Island, they saw 35 persons who were very tall, and had staves or clubs. These people called to them in a strong rough voice. When they walked, they took very large strides. On other parts of the Island, a few people were seen here and there, which with those already mentioned, were thought to be all, or nearly all the inhabitants of the Island. Our people saw no trees, nor did they observe any cultivated land, except that near the fresh water there were some square plots of ground, green, and very pleasant; but of what kind the greens were, they could not distinguish. Two canoes were drawn up on the shore. In the evening, we anchored in 40 fathoms, good ground, a musket shot distant from the Island. [On the North side.] The 6th, in the morning, we put water casks in the two boats, and sent them to the shore. As they rowed towards the land, they saw tall men standing in different places, with long staves like pikes in their hands, who called to our people. There was much surf at the watering place, which made landing difficult; and between a point of the Island and another very high cliff or , the current ran so strong against the boats that they could scarcely stem it; for which reasons the Officers held counsel together, and not being willing to expose the boats and the people, they returned to the ships. Before we saw them coming back, we had fired a gun and hoisted a flag as a signal for them to return. This Island we named _Drie Koningen Eyland_, i.e. _Three Kings Island_; [on account of this being the day of the _Epiphany_.] It is in latitude 34° 25’ S, and longitude 190° 40’. We called the Officers of the Zeehaan on board, and it was resolved in Council, to sail Eastward to longitude 220°, and then to steer North; and afterwards to get sight of the _Cocos_ and _Hoorne_ Islands. In the afternoon, we had the wind ESE, and HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA steered NE. At sunset, _Drie Koningen Island_ bore SSW distant six or seven, miles; the cliffs and the Island bearing NE and SW one from the other.[*] The 7th, 8th, and 9th,[+] steered to the NE, with light East and ESE winds. A swell from the SE. The 10th, found our latitude at noon 31° 28’ S. Longitude 192° 43’. The variation 10° 30’ N Easterly. [From the 10th to the 19th, the winds were variable; the courses sailed were towards the NE.] January the 19th, at noon, our latitude was 22° 49’ S. Longitude 203° 27’. About two o’clock this afternoon, we discovered land bearing EbN about eight miles from us. We could not get near it, the wind being from the SE and blowing fresh. It is a high Island, not more than two or three miles in circumference, and in the situation it was from us, it resembled the breasts of a woman. It is in latitude 22° 55’ S,[ ] and longitude 204° 15’. We called it _Pylstaart Eylandt_, [_Tropic Bird Island_] as we saw many of those birds near it.[**] The variation there was 7° 30’. The 20th. At sunrise, the Island, we saw yesterday was still in sight, SSW from us, six miles. At noon, found we were in latitude 21° 50’ S. About one hour past noon, we saw other land bearing East from us, distant eight miles. We made towards it, and at night took in sail and lay to. [* This was not an observed, but an estimated bearing. By the cliffs (_Clippen_) are meant the small isles and rocks S Westward of _Drie Koningen Island_.] [+ The Journal contains no remark of land being in sight on any of these three days.] [This latitude does not correspond with the noon latitude, it being evident the Island is more Northerly than the ship’s situation at noon. Late observations give the latitude of this Island 22º 23’ 30” S.] [**_Pyl-staert_ or _Pyl-staart_ signifies Arrow-tailed, and is the name by which the Hollanders distinguish the bird we call Tropic Bird. ] The 21st, in the first of the morning, it was calm. An Island bore from us EbS, distant five miles. Another Island lay to the North of it. We sailed to the NW part of the Northern Island, where we cast anchor in 25 fathoms, coral bottom. Here we lay in 21° 20’ S latitude, and in longitude 205° 29’. These two Islands lie about SE and NW one from the other, and one mile and a half apart. The SE Island is the highest: the Northern Island is like Holland, and we named it _Amsterdam_, for we found plenty of refreshments here. The Southerly Island we named _Middleburgh_.[*] At noon, three men [natives] came in a small boat or canoe near our ship. They were of a brown colour, and naked except a poor covering round the waist. They were taller than our common stature, and two of them had long thick hair: the other had his hair cut very short. They called out loud to us several times; and we did so to them. We showed them some white linen, and threw a piece about three yards long into the water to them. They came towards it with their canoe, but it HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA began to sink, and was already deep in the water when one of them jumped out of the canoe and dived after it. He was a long time under water, and at length came up with the linen. He put it several times upon his head as a sign of thankfulness. They then came a little nearer to the ship, and we tied two spike nails, a small Chinese looking-glass, and a string of beads, to a piece of wood, and put it overboard, which they took up, and in return reached to us with a long stick one of their fish- hooks and a small fishing-line. The fishhook was made of shell, and like a small anchovy. They laid the looking-glass and the beads several times upon their heads, and one of them hung the spike nails round his neck. But as the shutter was before the looking-glass so that they could not look in it, we reached them another, which they looked in and laid on their heads. We showed them an old cocoa-nut and a fowl, and asked them from our Vocabulary for hogs, and fresh water; but we did not make them understand us. At last, they left us and went on shore, and it seemed to us as if they went for the purpose of fetching something for us. In the afternoon, we saw many people running along the shore with white flags, which we took to be meant for signs of peace, and we hoisted a white flag at our stern; whereupon four strong men in a small canoe carrying a white flag, put off from the shore and came on board us. The men were painted black from the middle to the thighs, and they had coverings of leaves round their necks. They delivered to us some cloth made of the bark of a tree; and the white flag they fixed on the stem of our boat. We judged from their gift, and by their canoe being better than the common ones, that they came from the King or Chief of the Country; and we gave them in return, a looking- glass, a knife, a piece of linen, and two spikes. We filled a wine-glass with wine, and drank it, to show them that it was nothing hurtful, and then filled the glass again and gave it them: but they threw out the wine, and took the glass with them on shore. In a short time after, a great many canoes came to the ships, bringing cocoa-nuts, for which we gave old nails in exchange, at the rate of three or four cocoa-nuts for a double spike. Besides those who came in the canoes, several of the natives swam from the shore, bringing things to exchange. Presently, a grave old man came on board of us, to whom the other Islanders showed much respect, so that he seemed to be their Chief. We conducted him to our Cabin. He paid us his respects, by bowing his head upon our feet; and we did him honour our way. We showed him a cup of fresh water, and he made signs that there was fresh water on shore. We made him a present of a piece of linen and several other things. This afternoon we detected one of the natives in stealing a pistol and a pair of gloves belonging to the Master of our ship. We took the things from him without anger. [* The Northern, which is the largest of the two Islands, is called by the natives _Tonga-tabu_: the other _Eooa_. _Tonga- tabu_ is the principal Island of the group which Captain Cook named the _Friendly Islands_.] When it was near sunset, about 20 canoes came from the shore and took stations near our ship in a regular order. The people in them were very loud, and called out several times, Woo, Woo, Woo! whereupon all the natives who were in our ship sat down, and one of the canoes came on board, bringing a present from HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA their King, of a fine large hog, and a great many cocoa-nuts and yams. The bearer of this was one of the four men who had first come to us with the white flag and the cloth. We returned by him a plate and some brass wire. We continued to make exchanges for provisions, until it began to grow dark, when all the natives went ashore except one, who staid and slept on board of us. The 22d, in the morning, many canoes came off to us with cocoa- nuts, yams, bananas, plantains, hogs, and fowls, which they exchanged for nails, beads, and linen. Several women also came on board, both old and young. The elder women had the little finger cut off from both hands; but the young women had not. The meaning of this we could not guess. The person who yesterday brought the presents, came this morning with two hogs; and we in return gave him a handsome knife and eight spike nails. We likewise gave this old man a satin habit, a hat, and a shirt, which we put on him. We carried some of the natives below to see our ship, and fired one of our great guns, which frightened them a good deal, but seeing that nobody was hurt, they were soon easy again. About noon, a large boat with a sail, such as is drawn in Le Maire and Schouten’s Voyage, came to us. They made us a present of their cloth and some provisions, for which we made returns, and caused our music to be played, which they admired. In the mean time, we sent our boat and one of the Zeehaan’s boats to the shore with water casks, they being armed with muskets, and our Master and Mr. Gillemans going in them. Some of the inhabitants also went from the ship with our people to shew them where the fresh water was. They rowed a good way towards the NE coast of this land, and arrived at last at a place where there were three small wells; but with so little water in them that they were obliged to take it up with cocoa-nut shells; and what they took was of a bad colour. The natives who conducted our men, led them farther into the country to a pleasant valley, where they were seated upon fine mats, and fresh water in cocoa- nut shells brought to them. In the evening, the boats returned on board, bringing a live hog: but from the account they gave, we found we could not water the ships here. We got by exchanges in the course of this day, near 40 hogs and 70 fowls, at the rate of a spike nail and a yard of old sail-cloth for a hog, and a double middle nail for a fowl; yams, cocoa-nuts, and fruits we bought for coral or beads. These people have no idea of tobacco, or of smoking. We saw no arms among them, so that here was altogether peace and friendship. The women wear a covering of mat-work that reaches from the middle to the knees: the rest of their body is naked. They cut their hair shorter than that of the men. The tide here runs SW and NE; and by our account we make it high water with a SW moon: the current is not strong: the rise and fall of the tide is seven or eight feet. The 23d. This morning, myself and the Skipper of our ship, Gerard Janszoon, went on shore with the shallop and two boats to dig for fresh water. We made the Chief understand that the wells ought to be made larger, and he directly set his people to work to do it for us; and in the mean while, he went with us to the valley, and ordered mats to be spread on the ground, and when we were seated, cocoa-nuts and fresh fish and several fruits HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA were brought to us. He behaved to us with great friendship and enquired of us whence we came, and where we intended to go. We told him we had been more than a hundred days at sea, at which he and the natives were much astonished. We explained to them that we came to their country for water and provisions; and they answered us that we should have as much as we could wish for. We filled to day nine casks with water, and the Chief made us a present of four live hogs, a good many fowls, with cocoa-nuts and sugar canes. We presented him with two yards of cloth, six large spikes, and six strings of coral. I ordered a white flag to be brought, and we went with it to three of their Chiefs, to whom we explained that we wished it to be set up in that valley, and that it might remain there as a sign of peace between us: at which they were much pleased, and the flag was fixed there. The anchoring ground where the ships lay was steep and rocky; and about noon this day, whilst I was on shore, the Heemskerk was driven off the bank by the strengh of the trade wind, without being able to help it, and she drifted out to sea. There were but few people on board, and it was midnight before they got the anchor quite up and secured. We obtained by exchanges with the inhabitants this day, 100 hogs, 150 fowls, and a large quantity of yarns, and other fruits. As I could not get to my ship, I was obliged to pass the night on board the Zeehaan. The 24th, in the morning, the Heesmkerk was four miles to leeward of the Island. The Zeehaan therefore was got under sail and we went out and joined her. When I got on board the Heemskerk, we held a Council, and there being little prospect that we should be able to fetch up to the Island again, as the trade wind was strong from the SE, we resolved to proceed on our voyage, and to stop at some other Island, if we should meet with any. The place where we anchored at _Amsterdam_ we called Van _Diemen’s Road_; and the Bay where our boats went to fetch water we named _Maria’s Bay_; in honour of our Governor General, and his Lady. From our anchoring place at _Amsterdam_, two high but small Islands, about one mile and a half each in circumference, bore NbW, distant seven or eight miles. We directed our course NE, and about three in the afternoon, we saw a low and pretty large Island, distant four or five miles ENE from us. A short time afterwards, we saw three small Islands Eastward, and two others to the SE from us. They are all low land. We steered ENE for the largest Island, and anchored by the West side of it in 12 fathoms, shelly bottom, about a musket shot distance from land. NWbN from us, distant eight or nine miles, we saw two high Islands; and to the North and N Eastward we saw seven small Islands, distant from us about three or four miles. Most of these Islands have reefs of coral rock round about them: and the bottom also is rocky and steep, so that one must anchor near to the shore, The variation is here 7° North Easterly. The 25th, in the morning, several canoes came on hoard of us with cocoa-nuts, yams, and plantains, to exchange for nails, of which they were very desirous. It seems that but a few people live on this Island. Our chief pilot and the Master went with the shallop and both the boats for fresh water, one of the HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA inhabitants going with them to show them where it was. We gave small presents to some of the natives, that they might know we did not desire to take their water without paying them for it. About two hours before sunset, the Master and pilot returned on board. They reported that they found on shore 60 or 70 persons sitting down, whom they believed to be all the men on this Island: that they had no arms, and seemed a good peaceable people. They saw also many women and children, and were shewn a good path which led landwards two-thirds of a mile, to a piece of fresh water about a quarter of a mile in circumference, and which is a fathom and a half or two fathoms higher than the level of the sea. They walked round by the edge of this lake, and found that it lay within a musket shot of the sea on the North side of the Island, where there was a good sandy Bay, and smooth water for landing and for loading the boats. In the front of this Bay was a coral reef, in which there was an opening on the West side. At low water one can row along the shore to the calm water, but the tide must be risen 1½ or 2 feet before one can get to the sandy strand. As this was at the North side of the Island, and our ships lay at the West side, the boats had to row along the shore a full mile to come at the Bay near the fresh water. About three hours after sunset, our boats returned on board with water. The tide rises and falls here about eight feet. In the lake of fresh water were a good many wild duck, which were not at all shy. The inhabitants came to us with fruits and a few hogs. They are a thievish people, and steal every thing they can get at. Their clothing and manners are the same as those of the people of _Amsterdam Island_, except that the men had not so long and thick hair. The women seemed to he as strong in their bodies and limbs as the men. We named this Island _Rotterdam_. The natives called it _Amamocka_.[*] It lies in latitute 20° 15’ S, longitude 206° 19’.[+] The variation here is 6° 20’ NE. [* The name by which the natives call this Island, is not given in the Manuscript Journal in the regular course of the narrative; but in the drawings. Two of the drawings shew the name differently written. _Tabula_ XXI. of the Manuscript, is a plan and representation of the Island _Amamocka_, with small Islands near it of the names _Amo, Amoa, Amango_, and _Amatafoa_. _Tabula_ XXII. is a representation of the inhabitants of _Anamocka_. The navigators of our own time have understood the native pronunciation of the name to be _Anamocka_; but the number of names with the same commencement in _Tab_. XXI. have much appearance of some reference to one common meaning, and favours the probability of _Amamocka_ being the right native name.] [+ In Tasman’s Chart it is laid down a few miles more Eastward.] We continued at anchor taking on board fresh water, and making exchanges for provisions: and God be thanked, we were here well refreshed, and provided with water: but the eyes of an Argus are scarcely sufficient to guard against the thieving of the inhabitants. On the 31st, at noon, I went on shore with the chief pilot, the Skipper of our ship, and Mr. Gillemans, the merchant of the Zeehaan, to take our leave, and to make some more exchanges. When we landed, a great many of the natives assembled about us. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA We asked two of the principal among them to lead us to the Chief of the Island; and they conducted us by narrow paths, which were very dirty from much rain having fallen in the two last days, to the South side of the Island, where many cocoa-nut trees were regularly planted. From here they took us to the East side of the Island where six large vessels with masts were lying. They then led us to a pool of water which was about a mile in circumference; but we were not yet come to the _Aigy_ or _Latoun_, as they call their Chief. When we had rested, we again asked where the _Aigy_ was; and they pointed to the other side of the pool of water: but the day being far advanced, we returned by another way to our boats. In our walk, we saw several pieces of cultivated ground, or gardens, where the beds were regularly laid out into squares, and planted with different plants and fruits; bananas and other trees placed in strait lines, which made a pleasant show, and spread round about a very agreeable and fine odour: so that among these people who have the form of the human species but no human manners, you may see traces of reason and understanding. They know nothing about Religion or Divine Worship: they have no idols, relicks, or priests: but they have nevertheless superstitions; for I saw a man take up a water snake which was near his boat, and he put it respectfully upon his head, and then again into the water. They kill no flies, though they are very numerous and plague them extremely. Our steersman accidentally killed a fly in the presence of one of the principal people, who could not help shewing anger at it. The people of this Island have no King or Chief, and are without government; nevertheless they punished a man who was detected in stealing from us, by beating him with an old cocoa-nut on the back till the nut broke. [1643 February] February the 1st. This morning we weighed our anchors and sailed towards the NNW. The 2d, at noon, we were in latitude 19°20’ S; longitude 205° 55’. In the afternoon, we discovered an Island of a tolerable height, bearing NEbE from us about seven miles distant.[*] We had the wind from East, a weak breeze. Our course was North. On the 4th, being under 17° S latitude, it was resolved in Council to steer Westward, and to keep a sharp look-out that we might not pass the _Cocos_ and _Verraders Islands_.[+] The 5th, we held our course Westward with a light wind from the ESE, and kept a look-out for _Cocos_ and _Verraders Islands_. Latitude at noon 16° 30’; longitude 203° 12’. After three glasses of the dog watch had run out, we saw land, and immediately changed our course Southward till seven glasses were out, and then turned Northward. The 6th, in the morning, we saw the land again, which we found to be three small Islands, with many sand banks and shoals round them. A large reef was to the Westward, which extended to the South, and gave us some apprehension. We sailed Southward close to the wind, which was from ESE. This reef was eight or nine miles in length; and right before us we saw breakers, which we did not dare attempt to pass. We could not clear this reef, neither could we clear a reef which was to the Northward. We observed a small channel about twice the length of a ship wide, HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA where there was no surf; and as we had no other chance for safety, we steered for it, and passed through the [opening in the] reef, having four fathoms depth, being all the time under a great deal of anxiety. You meet every where hereabouts with shoals, and there are here likewise about 18 or 19 Islands which you cannot coast on account of the reefs. When we were clear within the opening, we wished much to anchor near one of the Islands, but could not find anchorage for the many shoals and reefs. At noon, our latitude by account was 17° 9’. Longitude 201° 35’. After noon, we directed our course Northward to try to get out of these difficulties before night. There were many sands to the North, which we could scarcely keep clear of; but at last we found a passage between the reefs. It was a great disappointment to us that we could not find anchorage among these Islands. In the evening we saw three hills, which we took to be so many Islands. Part of the first watch of the night we ran back to avoid sands. After five glasses [i.e. five half hours] we put about Northward intending to run that way for the rest of the night. The wind was fresh from NE, and blew strong with rain. Early in the morning we came close upon an Island, and therefore we turned again Southward till day-break. We then saw the Island which yesterday evening bore NbW, and again put about to the Northward. The wind was NE and stormy; and we went with shortened sail to the NW. At noon we conjectured our latitude to be 16° S, and longitude 200° 48’.[*] [* In Tasman’s chart, this Island is laid down due North from the anchoring place at _Amamocka_, and in latitude 18º 50’ S. ] [+ At the time of altering the course to the West, Tasman was a degree of longitude to the Westward of _Cocos_ and _Verraders Islands_.] The 8th. This day we held Council amongst ourselves in the Heemskerk, it being too stormy for our friends of the Zeehaan to come on board; and we came to a resolution to steer a [* The account of this day’s navigation does not well agree with the track in the Chart. The Journal assigns no name to these Islands. In the Chart the whole groupe is named _Prins Willem’s Eylanden_ (i.e. _Prince William’s Islands_); and the reefs and shoals are named _Heemskerk’s Droochten_ (i.e. _Heemskerk’s Shoals_).] Northerly course to 5° or to 4° of S latitude, that we might keep clear of the East coast of _Nova Guinea_, the present time of the year being the season when the North and South trade winds meet one another, which must be the cause of a great deal of rain and bad weather. In the large map of the _South Sea_, there are marked some Islands in the same latitude as the Islands we have met with, but differing in longitude above 200 miles from our accounts. However, as our voyage is very long, and we have sailed much East, and much West, it is possible there might be such a difference. The Islands by which we were so much encompassed on the 6th, are about 18 or 20 in number, perhaps more, as we could not exactly number them in the dark weather we had. [_From the time Tasman left the Prins Willem’s Islands to March the 21st inclusive, no land was seen, nor does the Journal HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA contain any occurrence particularly deserving notice, except what relates to the track sailed and the weather. For that interval therefore, the winds and the ship’s place on every day at noon, are here set down tabular-wise, as being best adapted for giving a clear view of the navigation. Tasman made the longitude of Amamocka 206º 19’ E. The longitudes therefore set down in this account of his track, if sub-tracted from 206° 19’, will give longitude by his Reckoning, West of Amamocka._] [TABLE] [1643 March] The 22d. Had a continuance of fine weather. The breeze light from the East and NE, with smooth water. We kept our course West, and at noon we saw land strait before us, distant about four miles; our latitude by account was 5° 2’ S. Longitude 178° 32’. We steered WbN and afterwards NW to go North of the land. In the evening, we sailed near to and along the North part of the land, which we found to be many very small Islands, about twenty. The largest of them is not more than two miles long, and they all lay within one reef. A reef runs off NW, upon which are three cocoa-nut trees, by which it may easily be known again. These are the Islands which are set down in the Map by , about 90 miles distant from the coast of _Nova Guinea_. We named them _Onthona Java_ for the great resemblance they have with it. In the evening we saw more land to the NNW; we therefore kept by the wind to the NNE in the night, with the foresail up. The 23d, when it was day, we set sail and steered West. The Islands we saw yesterday evening bore South, about three miles distant. At noon, we were in latitude by account 4° 31’ S, and longitude 177° 18’. At night we lay to, for fear of coming on the Islands named _Marken_. The 24th. In the morning we made sail again, and steered West. About noon, we saw land right before us, very low, and appearing like two Islands, SE and NW one from the other. The most Northerly appears like Marken which Jacob Le Maire has described. At noon, we were in latitude 4° 55’ S, by which we find a current sets Southward. Our longitude, 175° 30’. In the evening we steered to pass to the Northward of these Islands. In the night we floated with a calm sea which set us towards them. The 25th. In the morning watch before it was day-light, we heard the surf beating against the shore. It was still calm, and we got our boats out to tow, to keep us from the reefs; but the current and swell carried us towards them, and we could not find anchorage. About nine o’clock in the forenoon, a canoe with seven men in it came from the land to us. They brought about twenty cocoa-nuts of a wild kind and not very good, for which we gave them three strings of coral and some nails. These people were naked, except a piece of cloth which seemed to be of cotton round their waist. They were blacker than the inhabitants of the Islands we had been at, and not so civil or friendly in their behaviour. Some of them had their hair cut short, and others had it bound up like those villains at Moordenaar’s Bay. One man had two feathers on the crown of his head, like two horns: another had rings through his nose, but what the rings were made of we could not distinguish. They did not set much value on the things HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA we gave them. They were armed with bows and arrows. A breeze sprung up from the South, which happily carried us from the reef; and the canoe returned to the shore. There are 15 or 16 Islands in this groupe. The largest is about one mile long; the rest look almost like houses, and they lay all together within one reef. This reef towards the NW extends about a gun-shot beyond the Islands. At the NW part, is a small wood or cluster of trees growing on land that is level with the surface of the sea; and two miles thence farther to the NW, is a fragment or small clump[*], like a cape of land. The reef extends still farther N Westward half a mile. At noon we were in latitude by account 4° 34’ S, and longitude 175° 10’. We sailed on towards the West, and NW. The 26th. The latitude observed at noon was 4° 33’ S, by which we found that a current had set us Southward, and therefore we steered NW. Longitude 174° 30’. Variation 9° 30’ N Easterly. The 27th. At noon our latitude was 4° 1’. Longitude 173° 36’. We altered our course more to the West. The 28th. We had a weak breeze from East with fine weather and smooth sea. Towards noon we saw land strait before us. At noon we found we were in latitude 4° 11’ S; longitude 172° 32’. The land was then about four miles distant. This Island is situated in latitude 4° 50’ S,[+] and longitude 172° 16’; and is 46 miles West and WbN from _Marken_. At night we floated in a calm sea. The 29th in the morning, we found the current had set us towards the Islands. At noon we were in latitude 4° 20’, and longitude 172° 17’. In the middle of the afternoon, two small boats came to us from the shore: they had two wings [outriggers]; in one were six, in the other three persons. When they came within a ship’s length of us, a man sitting in one of the canoes broke an arrow in the middle, and put one half in his hair, which we supposed he meant as a token of friendship. These people were naked, their bodies quite black; they had curled hair, but not so woolly as the hair of the Caffres; and their noses were not so flat. They had bracelets apparently made of bones; some had their faces painted, and wore bands made of the bark of a tree round their foreheads. We spoke to them from our Vocabulary of the _Nova Guinea_ language, but they did not understand any thing we said except the word _Lamas_, which signifies cocoa- nuts. They brought nothing with them but their bows and arrows. We gave them some beads and nails. Towards evening a light breeze from the NE drove us towards the Islands, and kept us employed during the first part of the night in towing the ships. By the end of the second night watch, we had past clear. [* _Klyn brokje_.] [+ This is a disagreement from the latitude just before given of the ship at noon, for which no cause appears.] These are what Le Maire has named _Groene Islands_. There are five of them; to wit, two large Islands, and three small, which are on the West side.[*] They were so named on account of their being green and pleasant. We saw to the WSW another large island, and two or three very small Islands; and also to the Westward, very high land, which seemed to be of an extensive coast. Variation 9° N Easterly. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA The 30th. A light breeze from the NE. Observed a current setting us Southward. At noon we found the latitude 4° 25’; longitude 172°. In the evening, _St. Jan’s Island_ bore NW, about six miles distant. The 31st, very light wind East. We held our course West. [* The _Groene Islands_ are level land and near to each other, so that when seen from a distance, in many directions they appear as one Island. In Captain Carteret’s Voyage (A.D. 1767) they are described as a single Island, and named _Sir Charles Hardy’s Island_. It is to be observed that Captain Carteret saw and passed them in the night. Tasman, however, towards noon saw land, which at noon he calls an Island, and afterwards describes to be a groupe of five Islands. Tasman has given a view of the _Groene Islands_, which is copied in Valentyn: but Valentyn’s engraver has embellished this, and other of the drawings, with figures of the two ships, and has made this addition in a very uninformed manner; for at the _Groene Islands_ he has represented the ships lying at anchor; and in some other plates they appear sailing in the direction opposite to the track.] [1643 April] April the 1st, we were near the East part of _Nova Guinea_[*], which the Spaniards call _Cabo Santa Maria_. At noon, found we were in latitude 4° 30’ S; longitude 171° 2’. The 2d, we had light winds and calms. We endeavoured to sail along the coast which here lies NW and SE. About 10 miles distant from _St. Jan’s_ is another Island, which we named _Anthony Kaan’s Island_. It bears due North from the _Cape Santa Maria_. At noon we found we were in latitude 4° 9’, and our longitude was 170° 41’. _Cape Santa Maria_ then bore South; accordingly the longitude of the said Cape is 170° 41’. In the night we had a land wind with which we held on our course N Westward. The 3d, in the forenoon, we saw a vessel coming towards us from the land: she was curved at each end, and was full of people. They did not venture within reach of gun-shot, and after a little time, went back to the shore. Latitude by account at noon 3° 42’ S. Longitude 170° 20’. This seems to be a very fine land; but we could find no anchorage. In the night we had lightning and rain, and the wind variable. The 4th, we sailed along the coast, which extends NWbW with a great many Bays. We passed an Island which lies NW 12 miles from _Anthony Kaan’s Island_. We called it _Gerrit Denys Island_. At noon, we reckoned our latitude 3° 22’ S. Longitude 169° 50’. In the night had a land wind, with thunder, lightning and rain. The 5th, at noon, our latitude by account was 3° S. Longitude 169° 17’. We were near an Island that is about 10 miles distant to the WNW from _Gerrit Denys Island_. Some boats which we supposed to be fishing boats were lying close under this Island, and therefore we named it _Vischer’s Island_. About noon, six boats came in our wake. We threw some beads, nails, and pieces of sail cloth into the water to float towards them; but they did not mind these things, and pointed to their heads, as if they wanted turbans. They were very shy, and kept at a distance as if they were afraid of a shot. They paddled a good while round the ships, sometimes giving a loud call to us, which we answered; HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA and at length they returned to the land. [* The land at present named _New Ireland_ was then believed to join, and form part of _New Guinea_.] The 6th. In the morning it was calm. Eight small canoes came from _Vischer’s Island_, but they stopped at some distance, in the same manner as the boats which came yesterday, till one of our quartermasters took off his girdle and shewed to them; upon which, one of the canoes came to the ship. We made the people in her a present of a string of coral, and our quartermaster gave them his girdle: the other canoes then came to the ship. They gave us a little sago, which was the only commodity they had in their boats. We named to them _anieuw, oufi, pouacka_,[*] which signifies cocoa-nuts, yams, and pork; and they seemed to understand us, for they pointed to the land, and soon after departed. These people are black as Hottentots can be; their hair is of different colours, which is caused by powdering it with lime and ochre; they paint their faces red, the forehead excepted; and some among them had something white as big as a little finger sticking through their noses. They came without arms, and were without covering except some green leaves round their middle. Their canoes had each one outrigger. At noon, our latitude was 2° 55’ S; longitude 168° 59’. In the afternoon, we had a good breeze from the SE. At night the wind was from the land, and weak. The 7th, we had little wind. Some canoes came from the shore, and after signs of invitation being made to them, came along- side. We bought of them a shark (which they call _Isdaxa_) and a dorado, for which we gave three strings of beads, and a cap. At going away, they altogether set up a loud shout. At noon, our latitude by account was 2° 35’ S; longitude 168° 25’. Westward of us, the land begins to be very low, but the coast extends as far as we could see WbN and WNW. In the afternoon, we saw high land bearing WbN and West, distant by estimation 10 miles. We had a current setting along the coast always in our favour. In the night we passed a large Bay. [* These words are from Le Maire’s Vocabulary of the _Salomon_ and _Cocos Island_ language. The Islands at which Tasman had lately stopped, made these words familiar to him and his people, and occasioned their being now tried before the words of the _New Guinea_ Vocabulary. ] The 8th, in the morning, we sailed by four low Islands, and as we passed them, found three more small Islands together near them Westward, which we passed before noon.. Our latitude at noon by account was 2° 26’ S; longitude 167° 39’. Wind Easterly but variable. Found the variation here 10º N Easterly. In the afternoon, we came near a low point of land, to the North of which lie two small Islands. The coast of the main land begins here to decline to the South. At sunset, the two small Islands bore SbW; and the most advanced part of the main land in sight, which was flat and low, bore from us SWbS, distant about four miles.[*] We kept our course along the coast. The 9th, at sunrise, the most Southerly point seen of the main land bore SEbE, 2½ miles distant. Here the land is suddenly terminated. We saw likewise a small low Island SSW, about two miles distant. We endeavoured to sail by the point of the main HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA land, but it was calm. At noon we found our latitude 2° 53’ S; longitude 167° 4’. The variation here was 10° N Easterly. [* A view os this Cape is given here from Tasman’s Journal, in which it is named _Salomon Sweert’s Hoek_, after a Member,of the Council at Batavia. It would have been very satisfactory if Captain Tasman had made charts of all the lands by which he sailed, instead of limiting himself to be the hydrographer of his own discoveries; but after coming into the track of Le Maire and Schouten’s discoveries, his Journal contains views only of land unaccompanied with a single chart.] The 10th, at noon, we found our latitude 3° S; longitude 167° 4’. The land bore from NNE to ENE. We kept our course towards the South, partly to discover more lands, and partly to see if there was a passage here to the South. Had weak variable winds. The 12th, at noon, our latitude by account was 3° 28’ S, longitude 166° 51’. The 12th, in the night, there was a shock of an earthquake so strong that it awoke every person on board who was asleep, and they came terrified upon deck thinking the ship had struck against rocks. We tried for soundings, but, found no bottom. We afterwards felt several shocks, but less violent than the first. The weather was soon after rainy, but the wind soft and variable. At noon found our latitude 3° 45’ S. Longitude 167° 1’. Steered to the SE, and saw a small, round, low Island SbW from us, 4½ or 5 miles distant. The 13th, in the morning, we saw high mountainous land, and also low land, from ESE to SWbW. It appears to us as if we are in a large Bay; for the water here is as smooth as in a river. Our latitude at noon we supposed 4° 22’ S. Longitude 167° 18’. In the evening we directed our course towards some mountains that bore SSW from us. The 14th, in the morning, we saw land from ENE to SSW; and soon afterwards, we saw land in the WSW. We hoped to find a passage between them; but on coming nearer,we found a Bay, and that the land all joined.[*] We therefore directed our course Westward. At noon, observed the latitude 5° 27’ S. Longitude 166° 57’. About three o’clock in the afternoon, we met with a ledge or reef of rocks, some part level with the surface of the water. We conjectured this reef to be two miles distant from the main land. We had light winds and calms. Variation 9° 15’ NE. [* Many years after Tasman’s Voyage, a Strait was discovered here, which separates the land now called _New Britain_ from _New Guinea_.] The 15th, we advanced but little. At noon, our latitude by account was 5° 18’ S; longitude 166° 36’. In the evening, a high Island bore from us due NW, distant six miles. The 16th, we floated in a calm sea. The main land begins here to extend from one point to another nearly WbN. We saw on it high mountains and some fine vallies. The 17th. This morning we passed by the South of the high Island, and had other Islands in sight. Found our latitude at noon 5° 8’ S. Longitude 166°. Variation 8° 45’ NE. At sunset the high Island bore from us EbN six or seven miles; and the West part HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA of a high mountain on the main land of _Nova Guinea_ bore SWbS six or seven miles distant. The 18th, at noon, found our latitude 5° S; longitude 165° 37’. The high mountain on the main then bore SbE; and other high mountains SWbS from us. We kept our course Westward. The 19th, the latitude observed at noon was 5° 9’ S; longitude 164° 50’. A high round Island between us and the main land then bore South, distant 2½ miles. We had the wind from the SE, and steered WSW. At two in the afternoon we fell in with some rocky banks and reefs; and from our mast-head saw several small reefs to the Northward, between some of which there was apparently deep water. We ran Southward, and that way found a passage between the reefs, when we resumed our course WSW; the round Island which at noon bore South, at this time bearing SEbE, about four miles distant; and the Northern part of some mountainous land (which we supposed,and which proved: to be an Island) bearing WNW, about seven miles distant. The above-mentioned reef lies in latitude 5° 10’ or 5° 12’ S.[*] [* Tasman means here the part near which he passed; for by the defcription above, the reefs must be of considerable extent.] The 20th, the latitude observed was 5° 4’ S; longitude 164° 27’. In the night we came close under the _Vulcan’s Island_ mentioned by W. Schouten in his Journal,[*] and between this Island and the main land we passed. We saw a great fire continually rising out of the mountains. We saw also many fires near the waterside, and inland between the mountains, so that this seems to be a very populous Island. We heard the ripling of the current, which set us Westward. In sailing along this coast of _Nova Guinea_, we continually saw floating wood, such as trees and bushes; and we passed through muddy streaks which seemed to come from rivers. The 21st. In the morning the body of _Vulcan’s Island_ bore East distant three miles. We then saw NWbW from us, distant eight miles, the _Hooge Bergh_ (i.e. High Mountain), so named with reason by Willem Schouten. Our latitude observed at noon 4° 30’ S; longitude 163° 13’. In the night we sailed between the main land of _Nova Guinea_, and the _Hooge Bergh_ which continually cast out flames from its top. We observed that here the land of _Nova Guinea_ near the sea shore begins to be low; therefore for fear of coming into danger, at the end of the first night watch we took in all our sails and let the ship drift with the current, which we always found to run Westward. The coast extends from here to the WNW and NWbW. The _Hooge Bergh_ during the whole night was in violent flames. The 22d. We set our sails at day-light and steered WNW. At sunrise we came into quite black water, and for fear it should be a shoal, we altered our course Northward. The _Hooge Bergh_ then bore ESE and SEbE distant seven miles; a small high Island bore NNE from us four or five miles distant; the most Western part of the main land seen, bore WNW; and to the SSW, at two miles distance from us, was a great River. The course of this river was SSE and NNW between two small high Islands lying near to other Islands. Westward, we saw three more Islands. When we had sailed one mile Northward, and more distant from the low land, we sounded; and finding no bottom, we again directed our HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA course WNW along the coast. We passed this day six small Islands, all of which we left on our right hand. At noon, observed the latitude 3° 39’ S; longitude 161° 38’. Wind from the ENE, a fine breeze. The land hereabouts is low and full of rivers, whence come trees and brush-wood floating in whitish sandy water. The low land forms a Cape here, to the Westward of which is a large Bay; but the points bear WNW and ESE of each other. In the night, we passed a high Island which was between us and the main land. [* See Vol. IId. p.425.] The 23d, we continued our course WNW, the wind still Easterly. This morning we passed so many pieces of trees, bamboos, and shrubs, floating, that we supposed ourselves to be in a large river; and we found we were set off from the shore by a current. Latitude at noon by account 3° 1’ S; longitude 160° 3’. In the afternoon, we again came close to the land, and a boat of the country went near the Zeehaan. The 24th, we continued our course WNW. In the second watch of the night, we saw low land before us with fires on it. We took in sail and lay by the wind to wait for day-light. In the night we observed the latitude 2° 20’ S. The 25th, in the morning, we made sail towards the low land on which we had seen fires in the night, which we found to be three low Islands lying near the main land; and shortly after, we saw the Island _Moa_ which is about five miles farther along the coast Westward. In the forenoon we anchored by the West side of an Island, in 12 fathoms depth, on a good bottom of grey sand. We had much rain and a swell from the NW. A great many small canoes flocked round our ships, but they continued a long while paddling about us without venturing to come on board. We fastened some beads to pieces of wood and threw towards them; and at length they all came to the ships. They had with them only three cocoa-nuts; but they soon went to the shore and returned again with cocoa-nuts, unripe bananas, and fish both dried and fresh. These things they sold to us for nails, beads, and knives; giving 12 or 14 cocoanuts for a knife. Our latitude at noon was 2° 11’ S; longitude 156’ 47’. We found variation here 8° NEasterly. The current has constantly run Westward, and has set us along the coast at the rate of four, five, or six miles a day. From the anchorage we now lay at, two small Islands are in sight to the Westward; also the _Island Arimoa_ bearing NWbW, distant by conjecture eight or nine miles. In the evening, all the natives left our ships. Their canoes are very narrow, being not more than a foot in breadth. The 26th. In the morning, the natives came again with cocoa-nuts and unripe bananas. It seems that at this time they have no great plenty of provisions for themselves. We obtained however as many cocoa-nuts as served out five to each man of our crew. The wind during the day was from the NE, and in the night SE from the land. The 27th. In the morning, the wind was from the SW. Many boats or canoes came to us from the main land, and from different Islands near us, with fish, cocoa-nuts, and unripe bananas, to traffic. Among these vessels, two were large and carried each 18 or 20 men, armed with pikes, bows and arrows, and harpoons. The people here are almost quite black and naked. They could HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA pronounce after us the words of our language very exactly. In their own language they make much use of the letter R, and in some words pronounce it as if it were three times together. We bartered for as many cocoa-nuts to day as served to each man of our crew six, besides bananas. This day we observed the latitude 2° 10’ S. The 28th, early in the morning, we sailed from _Jamna_, and at noon anchored close to the _Island Moa_, in 10 fathoms muddy bottom. Immediately a great many small canoes came to us with cocoa-nuts and bananas. Our latitude here, we reckoned to be 2° 5’ S; our longitude 156° 28’. The cocoa-nuts purchased to day served six to each man. The 29th, the canoes of the natives came on board with provisions as usual, and we served out four cocoa-nuts to each of our men. We consulted this evening, and resolved to sail and proceed on our voyage as soon as wind and weather would permit. The 30th, the wind blew hard from WNW, and the sea was high, which prevented our getting under sail. We trafficked for as many cocoa-nuts as the natives brought. [1643 May] May the 1st. The wind continued to blow from the WNW, and the current set Eastward, therefore we remained at anchor. The 2d. In the forenoon we trafficked with the natives, but in the afternoon it blew hard and they did not come off. On the 3d, in the morning, the boats of the natives again came on board. We were busied in cleaning the ship; and as one of our seamen was standing by the shrowds to hand over the buckets of water, a native shot at him with an arrow, which went into his thigh. We fired muskets among their canoes, and wounded one man in the arm. Soon after, we took up our anchors and ran in between the two Islands [_Moa_ and _Insou_] to where Jacob Le Maire had formerly moored his ship; and we cast anchor there in six fathoms, muddy bottom, in calm water and safe from all winds. The inhabitants, when they saw the ships sailing towards them, were much alarmed, and held up branches of trees; and in a short time they sent on board to us the man who had shot the arrow, to make peace with us. When this was done, the natives came to the ships again as at first, but they did not dare to ask so great a price for their goods as before, and were satisfied with what we chose to give them. We bought so many cocoa-nuts this day that each of our crew had nine. The 4th, a great many canoes came on board. We served seven cocoa-nuts to each of our men. The 5th, the wind was still Westerly. We bartered for cocoanuts, but what we got were small and unripe. The 6th, about eight in the morning, a breeze sprung up from the land, and we took up our anchors to proceed on our voyage. At these Islands, _Jamna_ and _Moa_, we procured 6,000 cocoa-nuts, and about 100 bunches of bananas for the two ships.[*] To help us in our traffick with the natives, we took pieces of iron hoop, which we fitted with handles in the form of knives, and made them somewhat bright and sharp. Before we had sailed a mile, it fell calm, and soon after, the HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA Westerly wind returned. The 8th, in the morning at sunrise, we had the great Island _Arimoa_[+] right SW from us, distant about three miles. The 9th, we passed by the North side of _Arimoa_. At sunset the North point of the Island bore EbS, distant seven miles. We were here in 67 fathoms depth about three miles from the shore [of the main land of _New Guinea_], which is very low. The wind was NW, and we sailed slowly along [and slanting towards] the shore, having soundings at 50, 40, 30, and 24 fathoms, all good bottom, and then we put about on the other tack. [* On six of the days that Tasman stopped at these Islands, the numbers of cocoanuts that were shared out to each of his men are specified. On five other days the numbers distributed are not noticed, and it is probable they were in a smaller proportion. Making allowance under the average for the five days, will give for the number of men in both the ships at this time, about one hundred.] [+ Schouten’s Chart does not show the Island _Arimoa_ to be larger than other Islands near it.] The 10th, the wind was from the South. We sailed here along a low coast, in thick water of a greenish colour, which we supposed to come out of rivers, but we were too far from the land to distinguish exactly. We observed however, that the stream here set us continually off shore. At noon, found the latitude, 1° 17’ S; our longitude 155° 12’. The 11th at noon, the wind was SE; the land not in sight. Found our latitude 1° 3’ S; longitude 154° 28’. We steered WbS. Variation 6° 30’ NE. In the night we had a fine breeze, but at times light. It seems however as if this was the beginning of the Eastern Monsoon. The 12th, we saw _Willem Schouten’s Island_. At noon the North part of the Island bore from us due West distant six miles. Found our latitude 0° 54’ S; longitude 153°17’. In the night we sailed along the North coast of _Schouten’s Island_. The 13th, in the morning, the West point of Schouten’s Island bore nearly WbS from us, two miles distant; and a small Island bore from us NWbN, distant from the aforesaid point three or four miles. After we had passed _Willem Schouten’s Island_, we steered WSW to get sight again of the main land. At noon, we supposed our latitude 0° 54’ S; longitude 152° 6’. In the afternoon, we saw the main land of _New Guinea_ to the SSW, which was here low land. Wind from between the East and SE. The 14th. In the morning we came close to the land of _New Guinea_. The inner land is very high, like the Island _Formosa_; but near the coast, the land is almost every where low. We sailed West and WbN along the coast towards the _Cape de Goede Hoop_.[*] Eastward of the Cape the land begins to be very high, even close to the shore, and without any low land. It is as high as the land of _Formosa_. [* Tasman has mistakenly applied this name to a Cape of the main land of _New Guinea_; the _Cape de Goede Hoop_ of Le Maire and Schouten, being the West Cape of _W. Schouten’s Island_. See Vol. II. p, 432.] HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA The 15th, we had a light wind from ENE. At noon, the _Cape de Goede Hoop_ bore South, distant three miles. We reckoned our latitude 0° 41’ S; longitude 149° 53’. Variation here 6° NE. The 16th, we were sailing past the Bay into which W. Schouten went and was obliged to return. We had light winds and much calm, but we perceive by the land that the current every day sets us Westward. At noon the West point of the Bay bore SSW. Observed in latitude 0° 16’ S, longitude 149° 9’. We saw several small Islands near the aforesaid West point. The 17th. This morning we sailed by the North side of a small Island, at about a mile distance, and passed over a bank on which we sounded in nine fathoms, stony bottom. When we had passed this first bank, we had deep water; but soon after, we found ourselves, in seven fathoms, the Island then bearing SbE. We saw five or six other Islands before us Westward. At noon, the small Island we had passed bore East, distant about three miles. Our latitude by account was 0° 20’ S; longitude 148° 34’. At sunset, we saw NWbW from us, seven or eight Islands lying in one line WbN and EbS from each other. We left them on our right hand; and on our left we passed four small Islands which lay close to the main land of _New Guinea_. Along the coast are several small Bays, but with great depth of water. In the night we anchored in 40 fathoms sandy bottom, opposite to a Bay, and about three quarters of a mile from the shore, a large Island bearing from us WbS, distant about six miles. The 18th, early in the morning, we weighed anchor, and steered for a Strait between the main land and the Island. At noon, we had a weak breeze from the West and found a current setting against us, on which account we anchored, having bottom at 16 fathoms, coral. We lay here between an Island and a rock level with the surface of the water. We had sailed six miles [since yesterday noon], and our latitude by account was 0° 26’ S; longitude ----.[*] After we anchored, the current ran with more rapidity till four in the afternoon, when it began to change; running one way Westward, and the flood Eastward, so that we reckon a WSW moon makes high water here. We cannot be far from the West end of _Nova Guinea_, for the coast begins to turn Southward. This afternoon, several boats came near us. The people in them said they were Ternatans, and they spoke the _Ternate_ language; but they would not venture on board, and we believed them to be pirates. In the night we had a violent storm, and very irregular currents. The 19th, in the morning, we got under sail. We had Southerly winds and calms, and endeavoured to make our way to the Southward near the Coast of _New Guinea_. We saw much cultivated land, and had soundings from 25 to 50 fathoms. At noon we found the latitude 0° 35’ S; longitude ----. The 20th, we were endeavouring to get Southward between Islands. We sailed over a bank in 5 fathoms. We found the currents here running in so strange a manner that in my judgement there is no possibility of giving a description of them. This West point of _New Guinea_ is extraordinary hilly land. The coast here is full of turnings, with innumerable Bays and Islands near it; and the currents in many places are as strong HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA as the tide before _Flushing_ pier head, the flood running Northward, and the ebb Southward; but the stream following the windings of the coast, and the direction of the Straits between the Islands. We landed at different places to get firewood, which is in abundance. We found traces of people, but did not see any body. The fishermen it appears come here at one season of the year to dry their fish. Observed the variation here 4° 30’ N.Easterly. [* In the Manuscript, the longitude is not given after the 17th, but is mentioned with a blank left for the numbers, in manner as above; and the same is done for some days following. In Valentyn, the longitude is omitted for several days preceding the 18th of May, and on that day it is set down 147° 55’; which is a quarter of a degree more Westward than the distance above specified to have been sailed on the 18th, applied to the longitude on the 17th, will give; and was apparently calculated with an allowance for a Westerly current.] The 24th, we found our latitude at noon 1° 6’ S; and determined to steer for the _Island Ceram_. The 26th, we saw the coast of _Ceram_. [1643 June] June the 15th, we arrived at _Batavia_. God be praised for this Happy Voyage. Amen. In the ship Heemskerk, dated as above, Your most Humble and most dutiful Servant, (Undersigned) Abel Jansz Tasman. * * * With the Commander’s signature the Journal concludes. It is written in the most plain and intelligible style, and abounds in traits characteristic of the nautical fashions of the time. Such indeed, is the encomium merited generally by the early Dutch Journals, The Lands discovered by Tasman are, _Van Diemen’s Land_, under which name are comprehended the smaller Islands seen by him in that neighbourhood. _New Zealand_; but whether Continent or Island doubtful. _Pylstaart Island._ The Groupe now called the _Friendly Islands._ A single Island due North of _Amamocka_, in latitude 18° 50’ S. _Prins Willem’s Islands_ and _Heemskerk Shoals._ Land seen NNW of _Onthona Java_, in about 4° 30’ S, and longitude 158° 30’ E from _Greenwich_. [The lands seen in the neighbourhood of _New Guinea_ are not reckoned among the discoveries made in this Voyage, they having been seen before by Schouten and Le Maire.] The foregoing list is to be respected more according to the magnitude of the Countries comprized in it, than for its length. All the discoveries made by Tasman have been seen since his time by other Europeans, except one or two small Islands. The _Prins Willem’s Islands_ and _Heemskerk’s Shoals_ have been generally avoided in the later South Sea navigations, on account of the surrounding dangers of which Tasman’s Journal has given such HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA ample warning. In 1797, however, the Missionary ship the Duff grounded on a shoal in 16° 28’ S latitude, and 180° 40’ E longitude from _Greenwich_, which no doubt was part of the _Heemskerk Shoals_. Tasman has placed the whole of the Islands and Shoals seen by him of this groupe, in longitude 4° 3’ to 5° 30’ W from his anchorage at _Amamocka_, which applied to the longitude of that place, as determined by modern observations, is 179° 45’ E to 181° 12’ E from the Meridian of _Greenwich_. This longitude cannot be liable to much error, as Tasman was only five days in sailing from _Amamocka_ to _Prins Willem’s Islands_. Tasman marked the longitude in his Charts, and also daily in his Journal, as reckoned from _Tenerife_. His longitudes, however, are to be computed from the Meridian of the Island _Mauritius_ at the _South East Port_, which according to modern observations is 57° 40’ E from the Meridian of _Greenwich_, and which Tasman reckoned to be 78° 47’ East from that of the _Peak of Tenerife_. The difference of these numbers, i.e. 21° 7’, subtracted from the longitudes in Tasman’s Journal, will adapt his reckoning to the Meridian of _Greenwich_, and will shew the situations which his discoveries would have occupied on the present Charts, if they had not been seen by later Voyagers. The following comparisons will serve as a test of the general correctness of Tasman’s reckoning. From the Island _Mauritius_ (the _SE Port_) to his anchorage at _Frederick Hendrik Bay_, Tasman made longitude 88° 43’. The difference of the meridians of those places as determined by late observations is 90° 28’. The comparison made at the principal points of Tasman’s track, between the longitudes deduced from his reckoning, and those received in the present Charts as established from late observations, stands thus From the Meridian of Greenwich. By Tasman’s Reckoning. By late Observations. Frederick Hendrik Bay 146° 23’ E. 148° 8’ E. Three Kings Island 169 33 172 25. Anchorage at Amamocka 185 12 185 15. Cape Santa Maria, 149 34 153 26. East end of New Ireland It is observable in Tasman’s Voyage, that whilst he was sailing Eastward, without the Tropics, his reckoning in longitude was less than the truth; and when within the Tropics he directed his course Westward, his reckoning in longitude was always too great. The latter circumstance seems to have proceeded from his making too large allowance for leeward drift of the sea or current, in the trade winds. The longitude by his reckoning between _Amamock_ a and _Cape Santa Maria_ is nearly four degrees more than the difference between those places as found by late observations; and between _Cape Santa Maria_ and Salomon _Sweert’ s hoek_, Tasman’s reckoning is a degree more in longitude than Schouten’s. It was remarked in the introductory part of this Chapter, that some of the less important parts of Captain Tasman’s Journal would not be inserted in the Copy now published. It is proper also to notice the omission of Drawings. In the Manuscript Journal, the Charts and Drawings amount to 38 in number. Copies will be found here of all the Charts; but of the Views of Land and other Drawings, only a small portion has been taken. The HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA superior importance of Captain Tasman’s Discoveries, and the advantage of delivering them from his own Journal, would have justified fuller publication than is here given. Pains, however, have been taken, that nothing of consequence should be wanting. In conclusion, it must be allowed, that Abel Jansen Tasman was both a great and a fortunate Discoverer, and that his success is in part only to be attributed to Fortune. The track in which he sailed, and the careful Reckoning kept by him, which so nearly assigns the true situation to each of his discoveries, shew him to have been an enterprizing and an able navigator; and it is to be esteemed no small addition to his important discoveries, and indeed no slight evidence of his merit, that be explored a larger portion of Unknown Sea in a high latitude, and thereby restricted the limits of a supposed Southern Continent, more than any other navigator between the time of Magalhanes and the time of Captain Cook. * * * * * CHAPTER VII. NOTICES OF A SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY BY TASMAN.--OF THE AMSTERDAM STADT-HOUSE MAP OF THE WORLD; AND OF THE NAMES HOLLANDIA NOVA AND ZEELANDIA NOVA. [1644] We shall conclude this series of the expeditions for discovery undertaken by the Hollanders during the Presidentship at _Batavia_ of Antony Van Diemen, with the notice of a second voyage made by Abel Jansen Tasman. This is one of those of which only a faint remembrance has been preserved, of which no account has been published; and though it is known to have benefited geography by causing additions to be made in the chart of the _Great South Land_ or _Terra Australis_, yet those additions cannot be claimed with certainty, and are only in part and doubtfully to be recognized by some of the names imposed upon headlands and other parts of the coast marking the time, or being similar to the names given in his former voyage. The discoveries of Tasman have been so ill understood, that in some of the charts published in the eighteenth century, his two voyages are confounded by a representation of them in a single track. The object of the second voyage was 4 to make more full “discovery of _New Guinea_, and of the unknown coasts of the discovered East and South Lands.” A copy of the Orders and Instructions given to the Commander by the Governor General and Council at _Batavia_, came into the possession of Sir Joseph Banks at the same time with the manuscript Journal of Captain Tasman’s first voyage. These Instructions in the original Dutch, accompanied with an English translation, were published in Mr. Dalrymple’s _Collection of Memoirs concerning the Land of Papua_. They are dated January the 29th, 1644, and are valuable both for making known the proposed plan of Tasman’s second expedition, and for the quantity of information they furnish concerning the antecedent expeditions and discoveries; brief notices of which were inserted in the Instructions, to serve as an additional guidance to the Commander, Abel Tasman. This second voyage of discovery by Tasman was intended to penetrate into the _South Sea_; but it does not appear that this HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA intention was fulfilled. It is proper nevertheless, to notice here the plan of the undertaking, and it shews that the Hollanders at this time had formed very just conceptions of the extent and figure both of _New Guinea_ and of the _Great South Land_. The antecedent expeditions which are recited in the Instructions were all made on the Western side of _New Guinea_ and the _Terra Australis_: to particularize them here would be too great a digression; therefore the readers desirous to be informed respecting them are referred to Mr. Dalrymple’s publication. The Instructions to Tasman say: It now only remains to be discovered, whether _Nova Guinea_ is one continent with this _Great South Land_, or whether it is separated by channels and Islands lying between them; and also, whether the new _Van Diemen’s Land_ is the same continent with these two great countries or with one of them.”--For which purposes, After fulfilling your orders at _Amboina_ and _Banda_, you shall in the latter end of February (or sooner if possible) begin the voyage you are ordered upon, and sail Eastward to the _Ture hoek_ or _Cape Valsche_, situated in 8° S latitude on the South Coast of _Nova Guinea_; whence you are to continue Eastward along the coast to 9° S, crossing carefully the shallow Bight or Cove (vlakke bogt) at that part, and examining with the yacht about the _High Island_ or _Speult’s River_ for a harbour, also inspecting the state of the country; and in the interim dispatch the De Brak Tender to look into the Cove for two or three days, to examine if within the _Great Inlet_ there is an entrance into the _South Sea_, which may be soon known by the course of the currents. It is apprehended you will in these parts meet the South East trade-wind, which will make it difficult to keep in with the coast; nevertheless, endeavour by all means to proceed, that we may be certain whether this land [of _New Guinea_] is divided from the _Great_ and _Known South Land_, or not; and you shall try (if possible) to run to the SE as far as to the new _Van Diemen’s Land_, steering along the East coast of the _Known South Land_ according to its trending; and from _Van Diemen’s Land_ to the Islands _St. Pieter_ and _Francois_[*], and following the direction of the coast Westward to _De Wits Land_ and _Willems River_, in 22° S latitude, when the known _South Land_ would be entirely circumnavigated, and discovered to be the largest Island in the globe. But as it is possible the Land of _Nova Guinea_ is joined to the _South Land_, you are then, which the SE trade-wind will enable you to do, to run along the North [NW] coast from 17° to 22° S, whence you shall steer along the _Land of Eendragt_ to _Houtmans Abrolhos_; and when you have found a proper place thereabouts for anchoring, you are to endeavour to find a chest containing 8,000 rix dollars, that was lost in the wreck of the ship _Batavia_ in the year 1629. Likewise make search on the main land thereabout, after two Netherlanders, who, having forfeited their lives, were put on shore by their Commander Francisco Polsert, if they are still alive, in which case you can enquire of them concerning the country; and, if they entreat you to that purpose, give them a passage hither. On this occasion you ought to search for a good watering and refreshing place in 26° or 28° HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA S latitude, which would be very desirable for our outward-bound ships. [* The most Eastern part of _De Nuyts Land_ on the South coast; diseovered in 1627.] The foregoing are the principal of the orders which related to the navigation. With respect to the proposed discovery of the Eastern coast of the _Great South Land_, it was no small step towards effecting it, that in his former voyage Tasman had discovered the East coast of _Van Diemen’s Land_. The examinations of his second voyage, however, are supposed to have been employed wholly on the Northern and Western coasts. Hitherto the name of New Holland had not been given to any part of this land. Throughout the Instructions to Tasman for his second voyage, the _Terra Australis_ is called the _Groote Zuid- land_, or _On-bekende Zuid-land_. i.e. The _Great_ or the _Unknown South Land_. The earliest mention that is found of the name of _Nova Hollandia_ or _New Holland_ is in the year 1665, when it appears to have been adopted by direction of the Government in Holland for all the Western side of the _Terra Australis_. Three years prior to that time, the Stadt-house, or Town Hall, at _Amsterdam_ had been destroyed by fire; in consequence of which accident, a new Stadt-house was built. Among the embellishments to the new building were three Hemispheres cut in stone-work, one for a representation of the Celestial Sphere, the other two for a Map of the World; and they were each twenty-two feet in diameter. The circles were of brass inlaid; and the whole was executed under the direction of Arius Quellius d’Anvers, a sculptor of eminence. Through a strange misapprehension of the nature of grandeur, this beautiful piece of geography was destined to decorate the floor, or, strictly speaking, to be itself the floor in the most public place of resort in the new Stadt-house, being made the pavement of the great hall between the two court yards. In a printed description of the building, this disposition of the three Hemispheres is extolled, one, might almost imagine ironically, as an example of magnificence, the more grand for that it exposed them incessantly to be trodden upon by a concourse of people[*]. The three Hemispheres have long been completely effaced. In the year 1773, Sir Joseph Banks, being then at _Amsterdam_, was at much pains in making enquiry concerning the Stadt-house Map; but he could obtain no proof of the work having been visible within the memory of man. Fortunately, owing to the good taste and judgment of M. Thevenot, a copy of the most material portion to geography of one of the terrestrial hemispheres has been preserved in his _Divers Voyages Curieuses_; and much acknowledgment is due to him on this account. In the part thus saved by M. Thevenot, is included all that was then known of _New Guinea_, of the _Terra Australis_ or _South Land_, and of Tasman’s _State Land_. _New Guinea_ is not made to join the _South Land_, neither is it drawn as a separate land; but at three degrees to the East of.the _Valsche Cape_ the line of coast is discontinued and a chasm left of about a degree in latitude, from 7° 45’ to 8° 45’ S, at which last parallel the coast of _Carpentaria_ is made to begin. We have here, and also in what has been cited from the Instructions, to admire how completely unknown to the world was the discovery which had been HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA made by Luis Vaez de Torres, of a Strait running between _New Guinea_ and the _Terra Australis_. In this preserved part of the Stadt-house Map, the Western side (comprehending more than one half) of the _Terra Australis_ is distinguished by the name _Hollandia Nova_ (or _New Holland_); and Eastward on the same land, but without defined limits, is inserted the name _Terre Australe_, which being in the was probably an explanatory addition introduced by M. Thevenot himself. Farther East is Tasman’s _State Land_, which is here named _Zeelandia Nova_ (or _New Zealand_); by which name it has always been known since. [* _Description de l’Hotel de Ville d’Amsterdam_. An imperfect copy in the _British Museum_, title page and date wanting.] Dampier has mentioned, having in his possession a Chart of the discoveries made by Tasman on the West coast of what in Dampier’s time was called _New Holland_, which chart was most probably a copy of what Thevenot had published. THE END

December 3, Wednesday (Old Style): Captain Abel Jansen Tasman had a flag planted and claimed formal possession of Van Diemen’s Land. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

18TH CENTURY

1770

April 19, Thursday: Austrian Archduchess Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna got married by proxy with Louis, le Dauphin before the Papal Nuncio in Vienna. Louis was proxied by one of Maria’s brothers. Maria would henceforward be known as Marie Antoinette, Dauphine of France.

Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were guests of Prince San Angelo of Naples, in Rome. They met the Scottish Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart.

Australia was “discovered” by the British (though the Dutch had already named the area New Holland and had experienced at least 15 landings since 1606). Captain James Cook had in 1768 set out on the Endeavor on a scientific mission, with the young naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Charles Solander (a pupil of Carl von Linné), as well as artists. On April 29, 1770, his ship stood into Botany Bay, which Cook originally called Sting Ray Harbor — but the great collection of new botanical materials by Banks and Solander provoked him to change the name.

BOTANIZING

JOURNAL: THURSDAY, 19th. In the P.M. had fresh Gales at South- South-West and Cloudy Squally weather, with a large Southerly Sea; at 6 took in the Topsails, and at 1 A.M. brought too and Sounded, but had no ground with 130 fathoms of line. At 5, set HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA the Topsails close reef’d, and 6, saw land2 extending from North- East to West, distance 5 or 6 Leagues, having 80 fathoms, fine sandy bottom. We continued standing to the Westward with the Wind at South-South-West until 8, at which time we got Topgallant Yards a Cross, made all sail, and bore away along shore North-East for the Eastermost land we had in sight, being at this time in the Latitude of 37 degrees 58 minutes South, and Longitude of 210 degrees 39 minutes West. The Southermost point of land we had in sight, which bore from us West 1/4 South, I judged to lay in the Latitude of 38 degrees 0 minutes South and in the Longitude of 211 degrees 7 minutes West from the Meridian of Greenwich. I have named it Point Hicks, because Lieutenant Hicks was the first who discover’d this Land. To the Southward of this point we could see no land, and yet it was clear in that Quarter, and by our Longitude compared with that of Tasman’s, the body of Van Diemen’s land ought to have bore due South from us, and from the soon falling of the Sea after the wind abated I had reason to think it did; but as we did not see it, and finding the Coast to trend North-East and South-West, or rather more to the Westward, makes me Doubtfull whether they are one land or no.3 However, every one who compares this Journal with that of Tasman’s will be as good a judge as I am; but it is necessary to observe that I do not take the Situation of Vandiemen’s from the Printed Charts, but from the extract of Tasman’s Journal, published by Dirk Rembrantse. At Noon we were in the Latitude of 37 degrees 50 minutes and Longitude of 210 degrees 29 minutes West. The extreams of the Land extending from North-West to East-North-East, a remarkable point, bore North 20 degrees East, distant 4 Leagues. This point rises to a round hillock very much like the Ramhead going into Plymouth sound, on which account I called it by the same name; Latitude 37 degrees 39 minutes, Longitude 210 degrees 22 minutes West. The Variation by an Azimuth taken this morning was 8 degrees 7 minutes East. What we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand. HIS 3 VOYAGES, VOL. I HIS 3 VOYAGES, VOL. II

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

2. The south-east coast of Australia. See chart. 3. Had not the gale on the day before forced Cook to run to the northward, he would have made the north end of the , and probably have discovered , which would have cleared up the doubt, which he evidently felt, as to whether Tasmania was an island or not. The fact was not positively known until Dr. Bass sailed through the Strait in a whale-boat in 1797. Point Hicks was merely a rise in the coast-line, where it dipped below the horizon to the westward, and the name of Point Hicks Hill is now borne by an elevation that seems to agree with the position. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1777

December 31, Wednesday: Thomas Anstey was born at Highercombe near Dulverton, Somerset, England to John Anstey and Elizabeth Branscombe Anstey. He would in 1823 emigrate to Van Diemen’s Land where he would be assigned 2,560 acres on a tributary of the Jordan River near Oatlands, which he would proceed to name Anstey Park. The fine home he would erect there would be known as Anstey Barton. He would die in Oatlands on that island on March 23d, 1851 at the age of 73. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1788

King Kamehameha I acquired a large quantity of Chinese iron from some British sailors wintering at Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. According to Kamehameha’s descendants, this iron was then made into weapons that would help Kamehameha’s army win its subsequent campaigns (that explanation may be an example of reading history backward, since the British explorer George Vancouver wrote in 1798 that only the king’s bodyguard carried iron daggers and that everyone else carried wooden clubs and spears).

Near Port Jackson (the modern Sydney), Australia, Royal Marines held impromptu wrestling matches in opposition to the convicts of Australia’s First Fleet (wrestling matches would not become popular there until the 1890s). The local champion was William Miller, a boxer and weight-lifter.

Captain James Cook having claimed Australia for Britain in 1777, by proclamation Van Diemen’s Land was in this year included in this claim despite the fact that it would be another 15 years before any British colonists would be settled there. (Eventually, prompted by fear that the French would usurp their claim, the British would send a party, including convicts, from Sydney that would put ashore at Risdon Cove, up the Derwent River estuary, on September 7, 1803.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1789

The armed brig HMS Mercury of John Henry Cox charted Great Oyster Bay, , and Marion Bay on the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1793

During this year the 1st free, which is to say, non-convict, British settlers were reaching Australia.

French explorer Bruni d’Entrecasteaux surveyed the Derwent area of Van Diemen’s Land, naming it’s rover the Riviere du Nord.

John Hayes, unaware of the previous visit of this year to Van Diemen’s Land by French explorer Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, sailed up the island’s primary river, which he named the Derwent River. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1797

February 9, Thursday: The Begum Shaw, renamed as the Sydney Cove, a full-rigged merchant ship on its way from Calcutta to Port Jackson, Australia, was beached on a previously unnamed island north of Van Diemen’s Land after springing a leak at sea, with no lives lost in the immediate wreck. Many lives would be lost on this island as castaways, and in a small boat and overland trek venture to Sydney. The low island would come to be known as and in 1977, 26 of the world’s oldest bottles of beer would be recovered from this wreck buried in the sand (a brand of beer known as Preservation Ale would be brewed from the yeasties inside those bottles). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1798

January 2, Tuesday,The strait between mainland Australia and Van Diemen’s Land was navigated by George Bass and Matthew Flinders. Rounding Wilson’s Promontory, they would proceed to circumnavigate the island. On February 25th they would return across Bass Strait to Port Jackson with this grand news.

October: Governor Hunter sent Bass and Flinders back from Australia to survey Bass Strait. They circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land. In November they would discover Port Dalrymple. In December they would anchor at Risdon Cove. They would return to Port Jackson on January 12, 1799.

The 1st of the 6% subscription ships, the Merrimack built at Newburyport, was delivered to the US Navy.

The US federal Congress produced a draft of its “Kentucky Resolutions,” that would be finalized in the following year. READ THE FULL TEXT HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1799

January 12, Saturday: The Wiener Zeitung announced publication of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 3 violin sonatas op.12.

Bass and Flinders arrive back in Port Jackson, having circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land. Bass would return to England with this news, arriving by the end of the year.

Hugh Cargill, an Irishman who had come to the Bay Colony in connection with the British army and made his stake trading in Boston, died in Concord at the age of 60 and left a goodly property to the town for use as an Alms House and Poor Farm. Here is his grave marker:

HERE LYES INTERRED THE REMAINS OF MR. HUGH CARGILL, LATE OF BOSTON, WHO DIED IN CONCORD JANUARY 12, 1799, IN THE 60TH YEAR OF HIS AGE. MR. CARGILL WAS BORN IN BELLYSHANNON IN IRELAND, CAME TO THIS COUNTRY IN THE YEAR 1774, DESTITUTE OF THE COMFORTS OF LIFE; BUT BY HIS INDUSTRY AND GOOD ECONOMY HE ACQUIRED A GOOD ESTATE; AND, HAVING NO CHILDREN, HE AT HIS DEATH DEVISED HIS ESTATE TO HIS WIFE, MRS. REBECCA CARGILL, AND TO A NUMBER OF HIS FRIENDS AND RELATIONS BY MARRIAGE, AND ESPECIALLY A LARGE AND GENEROUS DONATION TO THE TOWN OF CONCORD FOR BENEVOLENT AND CHARITABLE PURPOSES. HOW STRANGE, O GOD, WHO REIGNS ON HIGH, THAT I SHOULD COME SO FAR TO DIE; AND LEAVE MY FRIENDS, WHERE I WAS BRED, TO LAY MY BONES WITH STRANGERS DEAD. BUT I HAVE HOPES WHEN I ARISE TO DWELL WITH THEE IN YONDER SKIES. Mr. Hugh Cargill bequeathed to the town the “Stratton Farm,” so called, which was valued, in 1800, at $1,360, “to be improved as a poor-house, and the land to be improved by, and for the benefit of the poor, and to be under the special direction of the town of Concord, for the time being, for the purpose aforesaid for ever.” This is now [1835] used for the pauper establishment. He also gave several other parcels of real estate, valued at $372, the income of which, “to be solely applied for the support of the poor.”4

4. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

19TH CENTURY

1802

Robert Brown arrived at Sydney, Australia on the Investigator, along with botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer. George Caley, who had already been sent to collect plants in New South Wales by Banks, was furious (in 1803 Banks would receive seed of 170 species from Caley).

A party of whites including François Péron, a carrier of good will who happened to be a carrier of the tuberculosis bacillus, landed at Port Cygnet in Tasmania. He meant no harm.

Native Tasmanians

1802 5,000

1830 300

1847 47

1876 0

The initial British convicts to be transported to Van Diemen’s Land were sent following a partial demobilization of the army and navy during the short-lived treaty of Amiens (during periods of peace, demobilization tended to create hardship in urban areas, and cause an increase in crime). Between 1803 and HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA 1853 approximately 75,000 British convicts would serve time there. Of these 67,000 would be shipped from British and Irish ports and the remainder would be either locally convicted, or transported from other British colonies. This represents about 45% of all convicts landed in Australia and 15%-20% of all those transported within the British Empire during the period 1615-1920. In the years to the ending of the Napoleonic Wars prisoners would arrive intermittently, due to the fact that warfare was increasing military recruitment and thus producing lower rates of unemployment and thus a lower incidence of crime. The next convict transport to arrive direct from Britain would not be dispatched until 1812, and it would be only after the post-1815 general demobilization of the British armed forces that Van Diemen’s Land would become a regular port of call for convict ships. As a result the number of serving convicts there would rise from just over 400 in 1816 to a peak of over 30,000 in 1847. Thereafter numbers would decline rapidly, especially following the cessation of transportation in 1852, and by 1862 only just over 1,000 serving convicts would remain.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE HISTORIAN TYPICALLY SUPPOSES NOW TO BE THE WHY OF THEN. THE REALITY IS VERY MUCH TO THE CONTRARY, FOR NOW IS NOT THE WHY OF THEN: INSTEAD, THEN WAS THE HOW OF NOW. ANOTHER WAY TO SAY THIS IS THAT HISTORIANS WHO ANTICIPATE OFFEND AGAINST REALITY. A HISTORY WRITTEN IN THE LIGHT OF SUBSEQUENT EVENTS AMOUNTS TO SPURIOUS MAKE- BELIEVE. TO DO A GOOD JOB OF RECORDING HISTORY, ONE MUST BECOME IGNORANT (OR FEIGN IGNORANCE) OF EVERYTHING THAT WE NOW KNOW TO HAVE FOLLOWED.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA April: In Saint-Domingue, for purposes of mass executions of blacks, the invading French converted the hold of one of their vessels into a crude but effective gas chamber. The vessel was known as The Stifler. Hunting dogs were brought from Cuba that had been trained to hunt down, kill, and devour human prey. General Henri HAITI Christophe defected to the French forces.

Captain Matthew Flinders and a midshipman, John Franklin, visited a cairn on Arthur’s Seat, a small mountain just inside Port Phillip Bay, Van Diemen’s Land. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1803

September 7, Wednesday: Prompted by fear that the French would usurp their claim to Van Diemen’s Land, the British in Australia sent a party of settlers, and convicts, from Sydney that put ashore at Risdon Cove, up the Derwent River estuary. They would name their settlement Hobart. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1804

A Van Diemen’s Land shipwreck: Hebe, a 250-ton full rigged ship, was launched at Chittagong and ran onto a reef approaching the entrance of the , with one life lost.

Soldiers refused guard duties at Risdon Cove on Van Diemen’s Land due to fear of convict rebellion.

After soldiers mistakenly killed aborigines at Risdon Cove, the settlement was abandoned.

Colonel William Paterson established Port Dalrymple on the Tamar River in Van Diemen’s Land (1st at George Town, then at York Town). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1805

When supply ships failed to arrive on time at Van Diemen’s Land, the British settlers resorted to rationing. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1806

Colonel William Paterson transferred York Town settlement on Van Diemen’s Land to site of modern Launceston.

Largest Scale Global Weather Oscillations 1800-1817 Southern South Pacific Oscillation current reversal 1800 absent cold La Niña 1801 absent cold La Niña 1802 very strong cold La Niña 1803 very strong warm El Niño very strong 1804 very strong warm El Niño very strong 1805 absent cold La Niña 1806 moderate warm El Niño moderate 1807 moderate warm El Niño moderate 1808 absent cold La Niña 1809 absent cold La Niña 1810 moderate warm El Niño moderate 1811 absent cold La Niña 1812 moderate + warm El Niño moderate + 1813 absent cold La Niña 1814 strong warm El Niño strong 1815 absent cold La Niña 1816 absent cold La Niña 1817 moderate + warm El Niño moderate + The / atmosphere “seesaw” links to periodic Indonesian east monsoon droughts, Australian droughts, deficient Indian summer monsoons, and deficient Ethiopian monsoon rainfall causing weak annual Nile floods. This data is presented from Tables 6.2-6.3 of Quinn, William H. “A study of Southern Oscillation-related climatic activity for AD 622-1900 incorporating Nile River flood data,” pages 119-49 in Diaz, Henry F. and Vera Markgraf, eds. EL NIÑO: HISTORICAL AND PALEOCLIMATIC ASPECTS OF THE SOUTHERN OSCILLATION. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

The British colonies in southern Australia were flooded. ENSO HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1807

Thomas Laycock led a 5-man party from Launceston to Hobart, which was the 1st overland journey on the island of Van Diemen’s Land. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1809

The deposed governor of New South Wales in Australia, William Bligh, arrived in Hobart on Van Diemen’s Land, temporarily disrupting the authority of David Collins as lieutenant-governor. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1811

At Van Diemen’s Land, Governor Lachlan Macquarie designed plan for Hobart streets, and ordered construction of public buildings plus the signal station atop Mount Nelson. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1812

The initial British convicts to arrive on Van Diemen’s Land had been sent in 1802 during the temporary peace created under the Treaty of Amiens (be careful what you wish for: peace meant unemployment, you understand, and unemployment meant indigent crime in the cities, and indigent crime in the cities meant transportation). There had followed a hiatus due to the fact that warfare increased military recruitment and thus produced lower rates of unemployment and thus a lower incidence of indigent crime in British cities. However, at this point –again be careful what you wish for, due directly to the winding down of the Napoleonic Wars– such transportation of convicts to this remote island would be beginning in real earnest.

November: Australia received 40,000 Spanish dollars shipped from India by the East India Company under contract from the British government, with instructions from the Earl of Liverpool that they were to take measures to ensure that this coinage remained in the colony. To achieve that objective they punched out the center of each coin, yielding a “ring” and a “dump.” Each piece was counterstamped with its nominated value, 5/- Spanish dollars for the ring and 1/3 Spanish dollars for the dump (thus coinage originally valued at £10,000 would achieve a local circulation value of £12,500). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1814

The Argo, a 4-gun barque, was taken to sea by 13 or 14 convicts in Derwent on Van Diemen’s Land who would never be heard from again — a presumed shipwreck rather than a successful escape.

The Reverend Samuel Marsden, a British Protestant missionary, made his initial visit to New Zealand. An Anglican mission was established there. The Maoris seemed more interested in acquiring whiskey, tobacco, blankets, iron axes, and muskets than Christianity and whalers were more eager than parsons to supply such provisions. The rate of exchange at the time was two hogs for an ax, or 150 baskets of potatoes and eight pigs for a musket. Maori offensive weapons included tomahawks, wooden spears, and whalebone clubs. Their defensive weapons included spear-resistant flaxen cloaks and “pas” or palisaded earthworks that could be breached only with suicidal courage, or by artillery. The Maori carried the first muskets as displays of power and prestige but also knew very well how to fire them. Honga Hika, who would be headman of the Ngapuhi during the 1820s, owned at least five muskets plus a double-barreled gun, and would have his slaves load as he fired. The Maori mostly obtained their firearms from Australians, who during 1830-1831 would provide them with 8,000 Brown Bess muskets and 70,000 pounds of powder. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1815

On Van Diemen’s Land, Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey was troubled by criminal gangs of “bushrangers,” such as a group led by Michael Howe. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1816

The Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land Gazette was published, known initially as The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter.

September 20, Friday: A treaty was entered into by Major General Andrew Jackson, General David Meriwether, and Jesse Franklin, Esq. representing the United States of America with the Chickasaw Nation in council assembled, to settle territorial controversies and perpetuate that peace and harmony which has long happily subsisted between the intrusive nation and this indigenous one.

John Adams wrote to Richard Rush about “A profound Calm, through the World! The Storm Finch Scarcely titters or giggles an approaching Gale. Yet Europe and Asia may be at War, within a Year! I hope We Shall not engage in Crusades.”

John Quincy Adams wrote to his mother Abigail Adams that “I have long been of opinion that there were too many sympathies of various kinds between New and Old England; but the sympathy of chilling frigidity of a cold ungenial, unprolific, and churlish summer must now be added to the ungracious list. We have had lately a few barely comfortable days, but not one Evening and scarcely a day in 1816, when a fire would have been superfluous — In one respect there has been a difference — for while you complain of dry weather, I have been listening every Sunday untill the last, for more than two months, to a prayer that we might be relieved from the plague of Waters. Last Sunday it was changed to a thanksgiving for fair weather — but the cold still continues — There were several sharp frosts in July and August, and the Newspapers are filled with accounts of Snow in Harvest, and of ice an inch thick in dog-days within a hundred miles of London. What agency the spots upon the Sun have had in all this, is more than I, or perhaps any body else is astronomer enough to know — In Europe, as you must have heard, the Spots on the Sun, portended the end of the world until the 18th. of July; and since then, there has scarcely been seen enough of the Sun to know whether it was spotted or not. — It is pretty certain however that the harvests have been much affected by the weather in a great part of Europe; though not so much as by your account they have been with you. The oddity of the thing here is, that it is a rancorous party question between the Jacobins and the legitimates, who pledge their words and their honour, on one side that there will be a great failure in the harvest, and on the other that there will be no failure at all. You mention some of our forefathers who figure in Mather’s Magnalia — I begin to feel something of the genealogical maggot myself, and want to know something more about my ancestors than I have ever yet discovered. I remember the round robin of that great Genius Cousin Elijah Adams Esquire of Medfield, and hope you have it in safe keeping. Perhaps that and Williard’s Body of Divinity, contain as much of the Adams Annals before my father, as are to be gleaned after the Harvest old father Time has reaped of them — It traces them back to England; which for us is going back to Noah’s flood — But of the female branches of the ascending line, I should be glad to know more — For example, who were my father’s grandmothers, paternal and maternal — I suppose my father knows, but if I ever heard, I do not remember — Again who was your grandmother Smith, and who was the wife of the said Thomas Shephard, whose daughter was your Grandfather’s mother — When you have leisure, I wish you would write me all the family history that you can remember. The rage of royal matrimony seems to be spreading beyond its natural bounds. According to the rumours in circulation here, it has even reached His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of England. Although I have satisfied myself that very little of what is said about him ought to be believed, yet his design of obtaining if he can a divorce from his present wife has become so notorious that it will no longer admit of a doubt. The Princess of Wales has been living these two years abroad, with his consent, and scandal which had always been nibbling at her reputation, has been gorging upon it, since she left England, like an Alderman upon high venison — All the English Ladies who accompanied her when she first went, have left her, and returned to HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA England, and she is now travelling about, living publicly with an Italian adventurer, in such utter contempt of all decorum, that some of the Captains of English Men of War have refused to admit the paramour with her at their tables. These are the Stories about her now in circulation; and it is further said that the Regent has now in his possession positive proof against her, such as by the ecclesiastical Laws of England will entitle him to a divorce. When he first proposed it to his Ministers, the Chancellor and the Earl of Liverpool are said to have been so averse to the measure as to tender the resignation of their Offices; but since the return of Mr Canning, and his reinstallation into the Ministry he has become the manager of the Transaction, and there is now little question that it will be brought before Parliament at their next Session — The public take very little interest in the Princess of Wales, herself, the appearances are so much against her, that it is universally taken for granted, the proofs in the Regent’s possession will be ample to warrant a divorce, but the multitude enquire why he wants it, and the Attorney’s Clerks ask how he is to obtain it? As if a husband was bound to find a justification of his wife’s frailties in the supposed consciousness of his own; or as if the Parliaments of George the third had ever shewn themselves less omnipotent, or less complaisant to the personal wishes of the Sovereign, than the Parliaments of Henry the Eighth. Opposition to the measure there will undoubtedly be, and if Ministers should find their power in Parliament staggering upon other and national objects (which is not probable) they may take this opportunity to go out at a good door, as Pitt when he got frightened in 1801. went out upon the Catholic question — That the Regent wishes a divorce for the sake of a second marriage there is nothing as yet but conjecture, and the fears of the Princess Charlotte’s partizans to indicate — The Princess Charlotte had a show of popularity at the time of her marriage, but she has few if any friends, and after more than four Months of Marriage, it is a question as unsettled as that about the harvest whether she is in the way of increasing the family or not. Those who assume as a fact that the Regent is bent upon a second Marriage, suppose that he looks to the Princess Sophia of Gloucester who is in her forty-fourth year, but much the handsomest of all the females of the Royal Family.”

The 1st emigrant ship arrived on Van Diemen’s Land with free settlers from England. This ship, the Adamant, had been chartered by settlers James, William, and Thomas Salmon to bring out their families. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1817

The 2d emigrant ship, the Harriott, arrived on Van Diemen’s Land with 45 free settlers from England.

The “ring,” worth 5/- Spanish dollars, and “dump,” worth 1/3 Spanish dollar, coins of Australia were introduced into Van Diemen’s Land. They would come to be referred to as “the holey dollar.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1820

The 3d and 4th emigrant ships, the Caroline and the Skelton, arrived safely from England at Van Diemen’s Land. Such immigrants brought letters of recommendation from the Home authorities. Lieutenant-Governor Arthur was encouraging the immigration of wealthy settlers, who could be expected to support his island’s penal economy by taking full advantage of the local convict labor — accepting responsibility for numbers of convicts. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1822

When a full-rigged vessel, the Actaeon, struck a reef in D’Entrecasteaux Channel off Van Diemen’s Land, no lives were lost off the ship but then a salvage boat capsized and 2 lives were lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1824

This was the final year of an extended drought across North America (since 1818) that had radically lowered the level of water in Walden Pond, and there was also drought in Australia: Largest Scale Global Weather Oscillations 1824-1832 Southern South Pacific Indonesian Australian Indian Annual Nile flood Oscillation current reversal monsoon droughts monsoon 1824 strong warm El Niño moderate + drought deficient extremely poor 1825 strong cold La Niña adequate deficient extremely poor 1826 absent cold La Niña adequate adequate adequate 1827 very strong cold La Niña adequate deficient adequate 1828 very strong warm El Niño very strong drought deficient quite weak 1829 absent cold La Niña adequate adequate adequate 1830 moderate warm El Niño moderate adequate adequate quite weak 1831 absent cold La Niña adequate adequate adequate 1832 very strong warm El Niño moderate + drought deficient low The southern ocean / atmosphere “seesaw” links to periodic Indonesian east monsoon droughts, Australian droughts, deficient Indian summer monsoons, and deficient Ethiopian monsoon rainfall causing weak annual Nile floods. This data is presented from Tables 6.2-6.3 of Quinn, William H. “A study of Southern Oscillation-related climatic activity for AD 622-1900 incorporating Nile River flood data,” pages 119-49 in Diaz, Henry F. and Vera Markgraf, eds. EL NIÑO: HISTORICAL AND PALEOCLIMATIC ASPECTS OF THE SOUTHERN OSCILLATION. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

Young Kable became the first Australian pugilist to defeat an English professional. Other noted Australian boxers of the era included Ned Chalker and George Hough.

Australia’s longest continuously operating brewery, Cascade Brewery, opened. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1825

January: The stone Richmond Bridge, Australia’s oldest existing bridge, built by convict labor, opened for traffic over the Coal River on Van Diemen’s Land.

A negrero flying the Spanish flag (as shown below), the Constante, master unknown, on its one and only known Middle Passage, delivered a cargo of 500 enslaved Africans at the port of Trinidad.5

THE MIDDLE PASSAGE

5. Clearly, there’s a terminology problem here. In an effort to resolve this terminology issue, at the Republican National Convention in New York during August 2004 –at which the Republican Party would for four days make an effort to strip from its face its mask of hostility to the plight of the downtrodden and reveal its true countenance of benevolent conservatism and concern– these people would be sensitively referred to by a Hoosier Republican running for the US Senate as “involuntary immigrants.”

So, perhaps, this is a good point at which to insert a story about involuntary immigrants that has been passed on to us by Ram Varmha, a retired IBM engineer whose father had briefly served as Maharaja after the independence of Cochin. He relates the story as narrated to him by his paternal grandmother who lived in Thripoonithura, Cochin: “When my grandmother (born 1882) was a young girl she would go with the elder ladies of the family to the Pazhayannur Devi Temple in Fort Cochin, next to the Cochin Lantha Palace built by the Dutch (Landers = Lantha), which was an early establishment of the Cochin royal family before the administration moved to Thripoonithura. My grandmother often told us that in the basement of the Lantha Palace, in a confined area, a family of Africans had been kept locked up, as in a zoo! By my Grandmother’s time all the Africans had died. But, some of the elder ladies had narrated the story to her of ‘Kappiries’ (Africans) kept in captivity there. It seems visitors would give them fruits and bananas. They were well cared for but always kept in confinement. My grandmother did not know all the details but according to her, ‘many’ years earlier, a ship having broken its mast drifted into the old Cochin harbor. When the locals climbed aboard, they found a crewless ship, but in the hold there were some chained ‘Kappiries’ still alive; others having perished. The locals did not know what to do with them. Not understanding their language and finding the Africans in chains, the locals thought that these were dangerous to set free. So they herded the poor Africans into the basement of the Cochin Fort, and held them in captivity, for many, many years! I have no idea when the initial incident happened, but I presume it took place in the late 1700s or early 1800s. This points to the possibility that it was, in fact, a slave ship carrying human cargo from East Africa to either the USA or the West Indies. An amazing and rather bizarre story. Incidentally, this is not an ‘old woman's tale’! Its quite reliable. My grandmother would identify some of the older ladies who had actually seen the surviving Kappiries.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

December 3, Saturday: Van Diemen’s Land was separated from New South Wales, Australia. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1826

A Van Diemen’s Land shipwreck: Sally, a schooner, was wrecked near Cape Portland, with 13 lives lost.

M. René-Théophile-Hycinthe Laënnec, the researcher who had who had invented the stethoscope and who had first recognized various forms of tuberculosis as a single disease, died a TB victim at the age of 45. Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, pianist and composer, at the age of 16, began to show signs of that disease. A man of good will, François Péron, died of that disease.

Presumably, however good his intentions, it had been he who had, when his party landed at Port Cygnet in Van Diemen’s Land in 1802, carried to the 5,000 residents of this island the bacillus for tuberculosis which alone had been the death of so many of them (the ones, that is, who had not been gunned down in cold blood).

Native Tasmanians

1802 5,000

1830 300

1847 47

1854 16

1876 0

TRALFAMADORIANS EXPERIENCE REALITY IN 4 DIMENSIONS RATHER THAN 3 AND HAVE SIMULTANEOUS ACCESS TO PAST, PRESENT, AND HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA FUTURE. THEY ARE ABLE TO SEE ALONG THE TIMELINE OF THE UNIVERSE TO THE EXACT TIME AND PLACE AT WHICH AS THE RESULT OF A TRALFAMADORIAN EXPERIMENT, THE UNIVERSE IS ANNIHILATED. BILLY PILGRIM, WHILE CAGED IN A TRALFAMADORIAN ZOO, ACQUIRES THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARD TIME, AND SO WHEN HE RETURNS TO EARTH, HE BECOMES A HISTORIAN VERY LIKE ALL OUR OTHER HISTORIANS: ALTHOUGH HE CANNOT HIMSELF SEE INTO THE FUTURE THE WAY THE TRALFAMADORIANS DO, LIKE ALL OUR OTHER HUMAN HISTORIANS DO HE PRETENDS TO BE ABLE TO SEE ALL PERIODS OF OUR PAST TRAJECTORY NOT WITH THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE LIVING DURING THOSE PERIODS, BUT WITH THE OVERARCHING EYE OF GOD. THIS ENABLES HIM TO PRETEND TO BE VERY VERY WISE AND TO SOUND VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE!

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1827

A Van Diemen’s Land shipwreck: Dotterel, brig, wrecked near Tamar Heads, one crewman drowned. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1828

The beginning, in Tasmania, of the “Black War,” as Lieutenant Governor George Arthur sponsored the capture of all remaining aboriginal natives and their confinement on .

THE AGE OF REASON WAS A PIPE DREAM, OR AT BEST A PROJECT. ACTUALLY, HUMANS HAVE ALMOST NO CLUE WHAT THEY ARE DOING, WHILE CREDITING THEIR OWN LIES ABOUT WHY THEY ARE DOING IT.

February 10, Sunday: A fire in Havana, Cuba destroyed 350 houses.

At Cape Grim in Van Diemen’s Land, 4 white men ambushed 30 aborigines who were gathering food on a beach. They pitched some of the bodies off a cliff. They were shepherds, and would explain that this was payback for something or other, and that this group of aboriginals, or maybe some other aboriginals, had in some manner or other gotten them irritated.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1830

It had been enacted in England in 1827, that any person breaking or destroying any machine employed in any manufacture would be liable to transportation for 7 years, or imprisonment for any term not to exceed 2 years (in the case of a male such punishment might also include flogging, either public or private). In this year a special commission for the trial of such Luddite machine-breakers would be set up in Hampshire.

The Port Arthur penal settlement was established. The Van Diemen’s Land Company offered a bounty on Thylacinus cynocephalus, the local “tiger” (some termed them “wolves”). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1830

By this point only about 300 Tasmanians remained alive (of the original 5,000 the balance having been reduced by open-season genocide as well as by introduced European diseases such as TB) and the white government was making efforts to round up this remainder to make caring for them more convenient. More than half this remainder would be killed during the roundup, of which Charles Darwin would witness the final stages.

Native Tasmanians

1802 5,000

1830 300

1847 47

1854 16

1876 0

CONTINGENCY ALTHOUGH VERY MANY OUTCOMES ARE OVERDETERMINED, WE TRUST THAT SOMETIMES WE ACTUALLY MAKE REAL CHOICES. “THIS IS THE ONLY WAY, WE SAY, BUT THERE ARE AS MANY WAYS AS THERE CAN BE DRAWN RADII FROM ONE CENTRE.”

April 23, Friday: A convict ship, the Manlius, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 200 convicts undergoing transportation, 26 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 8 years.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 23 of 4 M / Our frined Moses Brown had a severe ill turn yesterday & last night - I visited him today & found him comfortable and pleasant. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

The ship from Haiti, bearing Fanny Wright, docked in Philadelphia. There had been an unfortunate dalliance, and she arrived pregnant. She would go on to New-York in an attempt to assist her troubled sister Camilla, whose life had been wracked by tragedy and illness and who was “visibly sinking.” The only person with whom she was hanging out was Robert Dale Owen, and the two were very possibly in love but he was attempting to cope with “the impossibility of their situation by burying his emotions in work.” He was commuting every day 5 miles on horseback from their rural home in the upper reaches of Manhattan Island to “the city” (south of Houston Street), and working there 12 hours a day.

Harriet Arbuthnot was the wife of a Tory MP and a great friend to Wellington. She secretly became his “social secretary” at No. 10 Downing Street. According to THE JOURNAL OF MRS. ARBUTHNOT 1820-1832, as edited by Francis Bamford and the duke of Wellington (Macmillan, 1950), The King goes on much the same. The Doctors say he is a little better, but I think Halford is persuaded he will die. He gets black in the face & his pulse alters when he has these attacks on his breath, which they think shows something wrong about the heart. They took him out airing ten days ago &, when he got to the Lodge, he was so bad they were frightened to death & thought he would die. They gave him quantities of brandy, & he rallied so completely that he got into his carriage & drove 20 miles. His mode of living is really beyond belief. One day last week, at the hour of the servants’ dinner, he called the Page & said, “Now you are going to dinner. Go down stairs & cut me off just such a piece of beef as you would like to have yourself, cut from the part you like best yourself, & bring it me up.” The page accordingly went and fetched him an enormous quantity of roast beef, all of which he eat, & then slept for 5 hours. One night he drank two glasses of hot ale & toast, three glasses of HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA claret, some strawberries!! and a glass of brandy. Last night they gave him some physic and, after it, he drank three glasses of port wine & a glass of brandy. No wonder he is likely to die! But they say he will have all these things & nobody can prevent him. I dare say the wine will not hurt him, for with the Evil (which all the Royal Family have) it is necessary, I believe, to have a great deal of high food, but the mixture of ale & strawberries is enough to kill a horse....

April 29, Thursday: Adolph Sutro, who as mayor of San Francisco would build its Cliff House, and railways, and tunnels, was born.

In the concert hall of the King’s Theater in Haymarket, Johann Nepomuk Hummel gave the initial concert of his current stay in London.

A convict ship, the David Lyon, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 220 convicts undergoing transportation, 39 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 8 years.

May 27, Thursday: President Andrew Jackson wrote his veto message on the Maysville Road bill.

A convict ship, the Mellish, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 118 convicts undergoing transportation, 19 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 9 years.

Fromental Halevy’s “Attendre et courir,” an opera comique to words of Fulgence and Henri, was performed for the initial time on the composer’s 31st birthday, in Paris’s Theatre Ventadour.

June 23, Wednesday: A convict ship, the Southworth, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 160 convicts undergoing transportation, 47 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 10 years.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 23rd of 6 M / Rode with my H to Smithfield to attend Monthly Meeting - It was a pleasant Ride & a good Meeting Wm Almy, Hepzibah Harris & Anna A Jenkins bore good & precious testimonies. — In our ride home we took a rode which brought us to one of the Locks of the Worcester Canal & we had the satisfaction of being there & saw two boats pass the Lock, one up, & the other down - This is the first time I ever saw a Boat pass a Canal lock. - It was an interesting sight to us both. —

June 25, Friday: Greece achieved independence.

A convict ship, the Royal George, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 215 convicts undergoing transportation, 72 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 9 years.

June 26, Saturday: A convict ship, the Persian, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 198 convicts undergoing transportation, 55 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 10 years. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

Summer: Thomas Carlyle posed, in his journal, an abstract question, what the “idle rich do for their wages.” The answer he managed to come up with was that in England, some noble who had an income of £200,000 a year and thus was earning the same as 6,666 ordinary Englishmen, was justifying such a benefit by killing partridges.

Over the tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road, tracks which were ordinarily used for horse-drawn 1 carriages, a strange new experimental machine puffed as far as Ellicott Mills (12 /2 miles). This was the Tom Thumb, which had been built in 1829 by Peter Cooper:

John Ruskin spent the summer touring the Lake District of England, writing a 2,000-line poem as a record of this. He was eleven years of age.

Bronson Alcott wrote OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF INFANT INSTRUCTION:

Infant happiness should be but another name for infant progress. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA The Quaker philanthropist Robert Vaux, president of the board of directors of the public schools of Philadelphia, would be impressed by this and would help Alcott find a publisher.

It was winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The Europeans in Tasmania were alarmed because 20 Europeans had recently been killed by members of the Big River group of Tasmanians in the Ouse district. All the aboriginals were equally guilty, it goes without saying, since they cannot be told apart. A number like “20” is a rather significant number, when it is deaths among Europeans who are important not only to themselves but also to the world at large, although it is a number of no significance when it is deaths among aboriginals, who are not important except to themselves, and whose deaths therefore go unremarked. There was talk, that Something Needed To Be Done.

IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT IT IS MORTALS WHO CONSUME OUR HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS, FOR WHAT WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO DO IS EVADE THE RESTRICTIONS OF THE HUMAN LIFESPAN. (IMMORTALS, WITH NOTHING TO LIVE FOR, TAKE NO HEED OF OUR STORIES.)

August 20, Friday: A convict ship, the Clyde, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 216 convicts undergoing transportation, 89 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 9 years.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 20 of 8 M / Towards night Yesterday Sister Ruth returned from Foster & Scituate where she had been with Gilbert Congdon to attend Meetings with our friends Elizabeth Wing. She has had an agreeable travel of many Miles which I hope will be of use to her health - She left us by the Steam Boat at 12 OC & I trust at the time I am writing this (3 OC PM) she is safely landed in Newport My health has been so poor & I have suffered so much pain in my head & some other distress of body that I have not had the enjoyment of her visit which I might otherwise have done. — I know it is a hard lesson to learn “In whatever state we are in therewith to be content.” but I trust I have laboured for Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA patience & been favourd with a good degree of it - & now feel thankful - tho a pretty large bleeding, active Physic, & a large blister on my Arm has not yet removed the pain from my head & eye. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Fall (in the Southern Hemisphere, Spring): A “Black Line” was created, of White Men With Guns, military and civilians stretched across a large section of the island of Tasmania, in order to drive all surviving aboriginal Tasmanians toward the , which Lieutenant Governor George Arthur was setting aside as their reservation. This formation would manage to capture one elder and one child.

ONE COULD BE ELSEWHERE, AS ELSEWHERE DOES EXIST. ONE CANNOT BE ELSEWHEN SINCE ELSEWHEN DOES NOT. (TO THE WILLING MANY THINGS CAN BE EXPLAINED, THAT FOR THE UNWILLING WILL REMAIN FOREVER MYSTERIOUS.)

October 9, Saturday: Felix Mendelssohn arrived in Venice.

A convict ship, the John, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 200 convicts undergoing transportation, 66 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 9 years.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 9 of 10 M / This Morning our friends who left on 3rd day to attend Sandwich Quarter returned bringing with them the Satisfactory account that things went well & apprehended difficulty was averted & things probably in a better State but it is feared not long to be depeneded on RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

October 21, Thursday: A convict ship, the Red Rover, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 168 convicts undergoing transportation, 68 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 9 years.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 21 of 10 M / Attended Preparative & Select Meetings held at the Meeting house in Providence. — Wm Almy was engaged in an ancouraging & instructive testimony to those who are Young. —- Dined at Doctor Tobeys - after which had an opportunity with a young man on acct of his marrying out of the order of Society - in company with Elisha Bowen. — These are generally hard cases RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA December 30, Thursday: Wilkes Allen was born to Mary Morrill Allen and the Reverend Wilkes Allen in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Hon. Wendell Davis died in Sandwich. The body would be interred at Plymouth.

A convict ship, the America, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 122 convicts undergoing transportation, 23 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 9 years.

Hector Berlioz reluctantly left Paris for Rome to fulfill his Prix de Rome obligations. He intended to stop at his home, La Cote-St.-Andre along the way.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 30th of 12 M 1830 / This day 49 Years ago I was born in Newport - I do not know as I can say much on the event. — I have much to be thankful for - have passed thro’ some trials & recd many blessings & favours — & my heart is often deeply fraught with gratitude, & desires raised that some due returns of devotion may be made to HIM who has cared for & protected & preserved me all my life long — Thro’ the step - by paths of youth, to sober man hood, & to the advance of Old Age. — But I have nothing of my own to offer. - all is thro’ his mercy & the Intercession of Christ our Holy Redeemer — For some time past it has been a season of favour with me. — The love of my youth & the days of mine espousals have been remembered & in some degree renewed - We are now situated at the Yearly Meeting Boarding School in Providence where we have an ample field to exert ourselves in the promotion of the good cause & devote ourselves to the service of the Society which both me & my dear wife love & wish to serve. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1831

The Reverend William Apess was appointed by the New-York Annual Conference of the Protestant Methodists to minister unto his people, the members of the Pequot tribe. His book THE INCREASE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST: A SERMON would be published in this year, and a revised edition of his 1828 autobiography A SON OF THE FOREST: THE EXPERIENCE OF WILLIAM APES, A NATIVE OF THE FOREST, COMPRISING A NOTICE OF THE PEQUOT TRIBE OF INDIANS under the shortened title A SON OF THE FOREST: THE EXPERIENCE OF WILLIAM APES, A NATIVE OF THE FOREST. Although this does not appear on the title page, the new INCREASE book included what might as well have been a separate writing, titled THE INDIANS: THE TEN LOST TRIBES. On at least one occasion by 1833, he would be permitted to preach of the injustices committed against people of color by white people not to the usual African-American and native American audience, but instead to a white audience.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA At this point the various Tasmanian aboriginals who had been rounded up by the white intrusives were transferred to a settlement at the Lagoons on . They would be later resettled at Wybalenna where, restricted to a compound, they would die in such large numbers that by 1847 there would be only 47 left. There were still, however, even at this point some natives hiding out on the main island. George Augustus Robinson of Hobart Town “went bush,” was successful in gaining trust, and gathered together many of the island’s remaining native inhabitants.

The Cayuga and Mingo nations of the Iroquois ceded their Ohio reserve to the United States, relocating to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. A few New York Seneca moved to the Kansas Territory at this time but, after the US Civil War, would join the others in northeast Oklahoma to constitute the modern Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma.

YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT EITHER THE REALITY OF TIME OVER THAT OF CHANGE, OR CHANGE OVER TIME — IT’S PARMENIDES, OR HERACLITUS. I HAVE GONE WITH HERACLITUS.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1833

The Portland, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked east of Tamar Heads, Van Diemen’s Land with the loss of 2 lives. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1832

The end of the rule of martial law against aborigines in Van Diemen’s Land.

This was a warm El Niño moderate + year in which the Southern Oscillation was very strong: Largest Scale Global Weather Oscillations 1824-1832 Southern South Pacific Indonesian Australian Indian Annual Nile flood Oscillation current reversal monsoon droughts monsoon 1824 strong warm El Niño moderate + drought deficient extremely poor 1825 strong cold La Niña adequate deficient extremely poor 1826 absent cold La Niña adequate adequate adequate 1827 very strong cold La Niña adequate deficient adequate 1828 very strong warm El Niño very strong drought deficient quite weak 1829 absent cold La Niña adequate adequate adequate 1830 moderate warm El Niño moderate adequate adequate quite weak 1831 absent cold La Niña adequate adequate adequate 1832 very strong warm El Niño moderate + drought deficient low The southern ocean / atmosphere “seesaw” links to periodic Indonesian east monsoon droughts, Australian droughts, deficient Indian summer monsoons, and deficient Ethiopian monsoon rainfall causing weak annual Nile floods. This data is presented from Tables 6.2-6.3 of Quinn, William H. “A study of Southern Oscillation-related climatic activity for AD 622-1900 incorporating Nile River flood data,” pages 119-49 in Diaz, Henry F. and Vera Markgraf, eds. EL NIÑO: HISTORICAL AND PALEOCLIMATIC ASPECTS OF THE SOUTHERN OSCILLATION. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1834

A Van Diemen’s Land shipwreck: Jane, schooner, St. Helens Bar, East Coast, 3 or 4 lives lost.

Founding of the London Statistical Society. Average family expenditures for bare necessities in this decade in England were being said to be:

Rent 1s 2d Bread 9s Tea 2d Potatoes 1s Sugar 3.5d Soap 3d Thread 2.5d Candles 3d Salt 0.5d Coal and Wood 9d Butter 4.5d Cheese 3d Total 13s 9d6

The actuary of the Equitable Assurance Company of London constructed the first mortality expectancy table based upon data from the insurance industry itself.

Backers of the New Poor Law being enacted in this year were arguing that indiscriminate relief had the effect of demoralizing its beneficiaries, abolishing outdoor relief, and maintaining workhouse inmates at a salary level below the lowest paid workers. A group of farm laborers of Dorset, England was chanting:

“Hedging and ditching, To plough and to reap How can a man live On nine shillings a week?”

At first the Dorset farmers agreed to increase the daily wage of their labor force to ten shillings, but then attempted to cut the pay to eight. The protesting laborers joined a London society named The Grand National Consolidated Trade Union and swore a solemn oath of loyalty to the Union they were forming, to be known as their Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The Government proceeded to prosecute them under the

6. To get a sense of what that amounted to in today’s money, consult HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA Mutiny Act of 1797, a naval enactment, for their having taken an oath of loyalty other than to their Monarch, and they were sentenced to 7 years convict labor in Van Diemen’s Land. In London, there were protests against the transportation of these “Tolpuddle Martyrs.”

(The Times of London was campaigning for the rights of such trade unionists, and in 1836 while the laborers were still being held in a British prison at Dorchester awaiting transportation, Lord Russell, the Home Secretary, would pardon them. Thoreau would write, in “Civil Disobedience,” “... If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and....” Would that have been a reference to the “Tolpuddle Martyrs” of 1834-1836, or would it perchance have been a reference to the Newgate case of 1831 in which a 13-year-old had been offed for the nine shillings he was carrying home?) HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1834

September 5, Friday: Great Britain and Russia agreed to respect the independence of Persia.

At the end of the first week in September, the “Institute of 1770” resolved to ask “the poet of last year,” Jones Very, to deliver a poem at their next meeting.7 David Henry Thoreau was among those delegated to deliver this request at his room on the top floor of Holworthy Hall.8 Question selected for debate at the next meeting: “Ought there to be any restrictions on the publication of opinions?” “A vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Lane for his donation of voting balls. Declaimers, Holmes 2d, Hale, Davis 2d, Clapp, Barnes, Allen. Debaters: Vose, Wheeler, Treat, Thoreau. Treat and Clarke were chosen to constitute a committee to request the poet of last year [Jones Very] to deliver his poem before this society on the next evening.... Voted to adjourn to Wednesday evening Sept. 17th to the South Inner dining hall. That morning the schooner Jane, carrying general cargo and the mill machinery of William Green from Hobart to the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land, arrived off Falmouth and found conditions there were too rough, so they headed for the more sheltered Georges Bay. The vessel became stranded on the bar at the entrance to that harbor and the people aboard set out in the ship’s boat, but it capsized and only the master and one or two of the crew managed to swim back to their schooner.

Aboard ship, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. gazed as they passed another ship.

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, A REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR: After speaking the Carolina, on the 21st August, nothing occurred to break the monotony of our life until– Friday, September 5th, when we saw a sail on our weather (starboard) beam. She proved to be a brig under English colors, and passing under our stern, reported herself as forty-nine days from Buenos Ayres, bound to Liverpool. Before she had passed us, sail ho!” was cried again, and we made another sail, far on our weather bow, and steering athwart our hawse. She passed out of hail, but we made her out to be an hermaphrodite brig, with Brazilian colors in her main rigging. By her course, she must have been bound from Brazil to the south of Europe, probably Portugal.

December 14, Sunday: The George III, a convict transport, Captain William Hall-Moxey, sailed from Woolwich, England for Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land with 220 male convicts on board, plus guards, their families, and crew, for a total of 308 souls.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 14th of 12 M 1834 / Silent & solid Meetings It was a stormy day & the gathering small RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

7. Active member Freshmen and Sophomores automatically became honorary members when, as Jones Very had, they reached their Junior year. 8. I don’t show Holworthy Hall on my map of Harvard. Where was it? HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1835

January 8, Thursday: The Neva, a 327-ton convict transport, sailed from Cork, Ireland for Sydney, Australia with 150 female convicts, their 33 children, and 9 free women with 22 children (perhaps these were the wives and children of male convicts transported aboard other such vessels), under the care of Surgeon Superintendent John Stephenson, R.N., and 26 crew under the command of Captain Benjamin Peck. With the deaths of a crewman, a convict and a free woman, and a birth during the voyage, by the time the vessel reached the far side of the Pacific Ocean its total complement had become 239 souls.

January 27, Thursday: As the convict transport George III neared the equator a fire broke out. It was extinguished only with great difficulty after consuming part of the ship’s stores. Captain William Hall-Moxey would be forced to put all on board on reduced rations. An outbreak of scurvy would kill off 14 of the convicts before the vessel would be shipwrecked in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, off south-west coast of Bruny Island in Van Diemen’s Land waters.

Clara Wieck played her Caprices en forme de valse pour le piano op.2 publicly for the initial time, in Hanover.

According to the records of the “Institute of 1770”, at this monthly meeting of his debating society Huidekoper lectured on “Education,” and then David Henry Thoreau took the affirmative in the debate “Is political eminence more worthy of admiration than literary?” The other assigned debaters being absent, various volunteers rose to supply the negative, and the club’s eventual vote was that the negative had won the debate: ... “the question ‘Is political eminence more worthy of admiration than Literary?’ was discussed in the affirmative by Mr. Thoreau (the other regular debaters being absent or excused from the debate) and by several volunteers. The decision was in the negative.”

YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY ACADEMIC HISTORIAN INVITES YOU TO CLIMB ABOARD A HOVERING TIME MACHINE TO SKIM IN METATIME BACK ACROSS THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PAST TIMESLICES, WHILE OFFERING UP A GARDEN VARIETY OF COGENT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PROGRESSION. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU SHOULD REFUSE THIS HELICOPTERISH OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL PAST, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD THINGS HAPPEN ONLY AS THEY HAPPEN. WHAT THIS SORT WRITES AMOUNTS, LIKE MERE “SCIENCE FICTION,” MERELY TO “HISTORY FICTION”: IT’SNOT WORTH YOUR ATTENTION.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

March 12, Thursday:Waldo Emerson wrote to inform Thomas Carlyle that by that point “some thirty or more intelligent persons understand and highly appreciate” the four stitched copies of SARTOR RESARTUS which had been posted to America.

SARTOR RESARTUS STUDY THIS STRANGENESS

Achille Charles Leonce Victor, Duc de Broglie replaced Edouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, Duc de Treviso as prime minister of France.

At the Theatre-Italien of Paris, Gaetano Donizetti’s tragedia lirica Marino Faliero to words of Bidera after Delavigne was performed for the initial time.

That evening, to avoid being blown offshore and thus prolonging their difficult voyage, the unfortunate George III, a convict transport, Captain William Hall-Moxey, ventured to enter the torturous D’Entrecasteaux Channel between Bruny Island and Van Diemen’s Land. At about 9:15PM the transport hit a rock, and over a period of several hours would break up in heavy swell. The convicts were kept below to allow the women and children to be safely evacuated by the ship’s boats. The guards fired their guns in order to quell rising panic; this gunfire is believed to have killed perhaps as many of 3 of those convicts who yet survived. Many others, including many of the sick in their cots, would drown below decks (of 133 lives lost,128 were convicts).

May 13, Wednesday: At 5:00AM the Neva, a 327-ton convict transport out of Cork, Ireland, hit the Navarine Reef northwest of in Bass Strait, and broke up rapidly. Many of the women, having became hopelessly drunk on rum being carried as cargo, would be unable to save themselves. 22 survivors would drift ashore at the northern end of King Island on a couple of rafts formed by the fore and aft decks of the collapsed ship, but 7 of these would died of exposure “aided if not abetted by the inordinate use of rum” during their initial night. The remaining 15 survivors, including Captain Benjamin Peck and the chief officer, would find refuge with local sealer John Scott and his aboriginal wives and children until, a fortnight later, the schooner Sarah Ann would carry them to Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land. A total of 224 lives were lost.

The 1st foreign embassy in Hawaii was established.

Lysander Spooner placed an advertisement in the Worcester Republican: Lysander Spooner. Offers to the public his services In the Profession of the Law. Offices in the Central Exchange. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA July 17, Friday: On November 21, 1783, in a garden in the Bois de Boulogne, the Frenchmen Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Mongolfier had ascended into the skies in a hot-air balloon for a period of 26 minutes. But things they had been a-changing. So, when during this year of 1835 a French gunboat received orders to shoot down a hostile hot-air balloon — it would be discovered that what it had been ordered to shoot down was instead the planet Venus. Also, in this year of 1835 John Wise rode by balloon from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, a distance of some 9 miles. (“Now to figure out how to steer this thing.”) And, on this date in this year, the citizens of Boston got involved in the rage of the age, as their goldbeater Louis Lauriat made his first ascents.

The Reverend Henry C. Wright paid $15 to become a life member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He borrowed a volume of Blackstone from the Boston lawyer David Lee Child in order to read up on the law of Theft, with the objective of ascertaining what was the legal definition for human slavery. (He wouldn’t find much in the book that was helpful –of course– and would settle on a definition of slavery as consisting in involuntary and uncompensated labor — a definition which could only be described as “personal” as it would to this day never be codified either in federal jurisprudence or in federal legislation.)

The Enchantress, a merchant barque on a voyage from London to Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land under the command of Captain Roxburgh, hit rocks and sank head-foremost in 15 or 20 minutes in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, very close to where the George III had been lost, off south-west coast of Bruny Island, with the loss of 17 of its 18 passengers, and 1 of its 21 crewmen. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA July 18, Saturday morning: The survivors of the Enchantress had been in boats all night, and at 8AM made a landing on Partridge Island off the coast of Van Diemen’s Land.

The Liberator.

Penny Magazine:

http://www.history.rochester.edu/pennymag/211.htm

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. observed the departure of the Mexican ship Fazio from the port of San Diego, bound for San Blas and Mazatlan. He met the new master of the Alert and of the Pilgrim, Mr. Edward H. Faucon. According to the crew list he was 5 ft. 6 in. in height, had dark complexion and brown hair. This man would be Dana’s choice skipper. He would serve along the California coast until 1837, and would later wind up in the opium trade between India and China.

TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST: Wednesday, July 18th, brought us the brig Pilgrim from the windward. As she came in, we found that she was a good deal altered in her appearance. Her short top-gallant masts were up; her bowlines all unrove (except to the courses); the quarter boom-irons off her lower yards; her jack-cross-trees sent down; several blocks got rid of; running-rigging rove in new places; and numberless other changes of the same character. Then, too, there was a new voice giving orders, and a new face on the quarter-deck,- a short, dark complexioned man, in a green jacket and a high leather cap. These changes, of course, set the whole beach on the qui-vive, and we were all waiting for the boat to come ashore, that we might have things explained. At length, after the sails were furled and the anchor carried out the boat pulled ashore, and the news soon flew that the expected ship had arrived at Santa Barbara, and that Captain T--- had taken command of her, and her captain, Faucon, had taken the Pilgrim, and was the green- jacketed man on the quarterdeck. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, A REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR: Saturday, July 18th. This day, sailed the Mexican hermaphrodite brig, Fazio, for San Blas and Mazatlan. This was the brig which was driven ashore at San Pedro in a southeaster, and had been lying at San Diego to repair and take in her cargo. The owner of her had had a good deal of difficulty with the government about the duties, etc., and her sailing had been delayed for several weeks; but everything having been arranged, she got under weigh with a light breeze, and was floating out of the harbor, when two horsemen came dashing down to the beach, at full speed, and tried to find a boat to put off after her; but there being none on the beach, they offered a handful of silver to any Kanaka who would swim off and take a letter on board. One of the Kanakas, a fine, active, well-made young fellow, instantly threw off everything but his duck trowsers, and putting the letter into his hat, swam off, after the vessel. Fortunately, the wind was very light and the vessel was going slowly, so that, although she was nearly a mile off when he started, he gained on her rapidly. He went through the water leaving a wake like a small steamboat. I certainly never saw such swimming before. They saw him coming from the deck, but did not heave-to suspecting the nature of his errand; yet, the wind continuing light, he swam alongside and got on board, and delivered his letter. The captain read the letter, told the Kanaka there was no answer, and giving him a glass of brandy, left him to jump overboard and find the best of his way to the shore. The Kanaka swam in for the nearest point of land, and, in about an hour, made his appearance at the hide-house. He did not seem at all fatigued, had made three or four dollars, got a glass of brandy, and was in fine spirits. The brig kept on her course, and the government officers, who had come down to forbid her sailing, went back, each with something like a flea in his ear, having depended upon extorting a little more money from the owner. It was now nearly three months since the Alert arrived at Santa Barbara, and we began to expect her daily. About a half a mile behind the hide-house, was a high hill; and every afternoon, as soon as we had done our work, some one of us walked up to see if there were any sail in sight, coming down before the regular trades, which blow every afternoon. Each day, after the latter part of July, we went up the hill, and came back disappointed. I was anxious for her arrival, for I had been told by letter that the owners in Boston, at the request of my friends, had written to Captain T______to take me on board the Alert, in case she returned to the United States before the Pilgrim; and I, of course, wished to know whether the order had been received, and what was the destination of the ship. One year more or less might be of small consequence to others, but it was everything to me. It was now just a year since we sailed from Boston, and at the shortest, no vessel could expect to get away under eight or nine months, which would make our absence two years in all. This would be pretty long, but would not be fatal. It would not necessarily be decisive of my future life. But one year more would settle the matter. I should be a sailor for life; and although I had made up my mind to it before I had my letters from home, and was, as I thought, quite satisfied; yet, as soon as an opportunity was held out to me of returning, and the prospect of another kind of life was opened to me, my anxiety to return, and, at least, to have the chance of deciding upon my course for myself, was beyond measure. Beside that, I wished to be “equal to either fortune,” and to qualify myself for an officer’s berth, and a hide-house was no place to learn seamanship in. I had become experienced in hide-curing, and everything went on smoothly, and I had many opportunities of becoming acquainted with the people, and much leisure for reading and studying navigation; yet practical seamanship could only be got on board ship; therefore, I determined to ask to be taken on board the ship when she arrived. By the first of August, we finished curing all our hides, stored them away, cleaned out our vats, (in which latter work we spent two days, up to our knees in mud and the sediments of six months’ hide-curing, in a stench which would drive a donkey from his breakfast,) and got in readiness for the arrival of the ship, and had another leisure interval of three or four weeks; which I spent, as usual, in reading, writing, studying, making and mending my clothes, and getting my wardrobe in complete readiness, in case I should go on board the ship; and in fishing, ranging the woods with the dogs, and in occasional visits to the presidio and mission. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

THE REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR DANA, CONCLUDED: A good deal of my time was spent in taking care of a little puppy, which I had selected from thirty-six, that were born within three days of one another, at our house. He was a fine, promising pup, with four white paws, and all the rest of his body of a dark brown. I built a little kennel for him, and kept him fastened there, away from the other dogs, feeding and disciplining him myself. In a few weeks, I got him in complete subjection, and he grew finely, was very much attached to me, and bid fair to be one of the leading dogs on the beach. I called him Bravo, and the only thing I regretted at the thought of leaving the beach, was parting with him.

July 19, Sunday: After a journey through the Swiss countryside of over a month, Franz Liszt and Marie d’Agoult arrived in Geneva and took up residence together.

That evening Captain Roxburgh of the sunk Enchantress, with 2 or 3 others, arrived at Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land in one of his ship’s boats. The Port Officer, a Captain Moriarty, departed for Partridge Island as quickly as possible by steamboat with food, clothing, and comforts for the survivors.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 19th of 7 M / Father Rodman bore short testimonies in both Meetings, & both were solid good meetings to me — tho’ I was not as much favoured with life in the Afternoon as in the Morning RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

July 20, Monday morning: The survivors of the Enchantress were found on Partridge Island near Van Diemen’s Land by a Mr. Madden in the sloop Friends. Captain Roxburgh, his first officer, his steward, and 3 boys in the crew were the only members of the crew who survived. The following passengers survived: Mr. Anstey, Mr. and Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Yates, Miss Dixon, Miss Smith, Mr. and Mrs. and Miss Rens, Dr. Lightfoot, Mr. McArthur, and Mr. and Mrs. Burns with their 4 children. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1836

A Van Diemen’s Land shipwreck: Louisa, schooner, sank off Bruny Island, with several lives lost.

In Van Diemen’s Land, 11 counties and some parishes were proclaimed. Sir John Franklin was appointed Lieutenant-Governor (he would be removed from office in 1843, but Lady Jane, with the intent of civilizing the colony, would attempt to set up a university).

February 6, Saturday: The Liberator.

The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin reached Van Diemen’s Land, Australia.

The publication of John Field’s Nocturnes nos.14-16 was advertised in BIBLIOGRAPHIE DE FRANCE.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day Morning I went to Town & after attending to some buisness their - took the Stage & came by the way of Slades ferry to Fall river where I dined at Wilders public House & from thence home, by the way of the Stone Bridge - finding our family & concerns, all well. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1837

The schooner Mars foundered in , Van Diemen’s Land with 4 lives lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1838

Ships went missing in Bass Strait near Van Diemen’s Land: the Lady Franklin, a schooner named, obviously, in honor of Lady Jane Franklin, with about 20 lives lost; the Port Philip Packet with 6 lives lost, and the Yarra Yarra, a schooner, with about 25 lives lost.

The Bruny Island, Van Diemen’s Land lighthouse was completed.

A new light tower, 42 feet above the water, was erected on Plum Island to replace the one that had been raised in 1788. This new tower was “on Castle Neck, south side of entrance to Ipswich Harbor.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1839

When the Agnes, a schooner, foundered in Bass Strait, Van Diemen’s Land, its crew was lost (about 6).

When the Britomart, a barque, foundered in the Furneaux Group, Van Diemen’s Land, its crew was lost (about 30).

September 12, Thursday: The Hindostan, that had sailed on the 2d of its 3 voyages from England on May 6th, arrived at Van Diemen’s Land with its 179 to 190 involuntary passengers, 6 of whom had been sentenced to life in exile there as slaves (the average sentence being 9 years).

Sept 12th Thursday Rowed to the northern part of Merrimack near the ferry, to a large island near which we camped.

September 12, Thursday-13, Friday: The brothers made a rapid return voyage downstream before the wind. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1840

James Rennie emigrated to Australia, where he would wind up in Sydney, running the College High School in Elizabeth Street, placing his school’s emphasis on the arts and on Natural History.

An economic depression began on Van Diemen’s Land.

The Echo, a schooner, was wrecked in gale off the west coast of the Tasman Peninsula, with all hands lost (about 8). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1841

The gas lighting of certain principal streets of the city of Sydney, Australia. LIGHTING THE NIGHT

A Van Diemen’s Land shipwreck: the Humber, a schooner, went missing between Port Arthur and Hobart, with all hands lost (about 6). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1842

The Edward, a schooner, went missing between Circular Head and Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land, with all hands lost (about 15).

Hobart in Van Diemen’s Land was proclaimed a city. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1843

After a disappointing stint as the governor of a penal colony in Van Diemen’s Land since 1836 (running penal colonies is messy business), Sir John Franklin was commissioned to search out a Northwest Passage. THE FROZEN NORTH

The Charlotte, a cutter, went down at Falmouth, Van Diemen’s Land, with the loss of 2 lives.

Shortly after his removal as Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Franklin revisited a cairn on Arthur’s Seat, a small mountain just inside Port Phillip Bay, Van Diemen’s Land, that he had visited as a midshipman with Captain Matthew Flinders during April 1802. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1845

Friedrich Gerstäcker got married with Anna Sauer, daughter of a painter from Dresden (this marriage would produce 3 children). He translated Captain Thomas J. Farnham’s TRAVELS IN OREGON TERRITORY as WANDERUNGEN NACH DEM OREGON and it was published in German in Leipzig by Gustav Mayer. He translated Charles Fenno Hoffman as WILDE SCENEN IN WALD UND PRÄRIE. His DIE ABENTEUER EINES AUSWANDERERS. ERZÄHLUNGEN AUS DEN COLONIEN VON VAN DIEMENSLAND.

The Mary, a barque, hit rocks and broke up north-west of Flinders Island with 17 lives lost, and Van Diemen’s Land’s worst shipwreck, the Cataraqui, a full-rigged ship transporting assisted emigrants, struck jagged rocks during a heavy storm off King Island with 400 lives lost (8 crewmen clinging to floating wreckage reached the shore, where they encountered the sole emigrant survivor, Solomon Brown — these castaways were stranded on King Island for 5 weeks until rescued by the cutter Midge and delivered to their destination, Port Philip of Melbourne, Australia).

April 20, Sunday: The Cataraqui had been purchased and registered in Liverpool, England by Smith & Sons, for the purpose of transporting assisted emigrants to Melbourne’s Port Phillip in the colony of Victoria. When it sailed from Liverpool on this day it had 41 crewmen, including Captain Christopher Finlay and 369 assisted emigrants. The voyage would be uneventful except that a member of the crew would be lost overboard. By the time the vessel would reach Australian waters, 6 babies would have died aboard, and 5 new infants would have been born.

August 4, Monday, 4:30AM: As the Cataraqui entered Bass Strait off the north-western coast of Van Diemen’s Land during a severe storm, it struck some jagged rocks off Fitzmaurice Bay on King Island. Floating pieces of wreckage helped 8 of its crew and Solomon Brown, the sole emigrant survivor, to reach shore (400 lives were lost). These 9 castaways would be stranded on King Island for 5 weeks, until rescued by the cutter Midge and conveyed to Melbourne, Australia. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1846

February 11, Wednesday: Charles Melvin (1) died in Lowell MA. THE MELVINS OF CONCORD

The barque Maria Orr, a whaler of 288 tons, drifted onto a reef east of Kelly’s Point at , Van Diemen’s Land during a heavy squall at 4:30PM. One life was lost but the remainder of the crew would be rescued by the whaler Abeona. (William Orr had named the vessel, the initial ship-rigged vessel to be built in Australia, after his wife in 1838 at Macquarie Point. The vessel had been part of the whaling fleet out of Hobart and had ventured as far as Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, bringing cargoes of oil and whalebone to Hobart. On February 4, 1846 she had sailed for England. On February 10th she had taken shelter from northerly winds in Recherche Bay, but the storm had further deteriorated into a southerly gale.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1847

On the far side of the globe only 47 Tasmanians remained alive of the original some 5,000, to eke out the remainder of their term on a reserve at Oyster Cove on Flinders Island.

Native Tasmanians

1802 5,000

1830 300

1847 47

1854 16

1876 0

HISTORY’S NOT MADE OF WOULD. WHEN SOMEONE REVEALS, FOR INSTANCE, THAT A PARTICULAR INFANT WOULD INVENT THE SEWING MACHINE, S/HE DISCLOSES THAT WHAT IS BEING CRAFTED IS NOT REALITY BUT PREDESTINARIANISM. THE HISTORIAN IS SETTING CHRONOLOGY TO “SHUFFLE,” WHICH IS NOT A PERMISSIBLE OPTION BECAUSE IN THE REAL WORLD SUCH SHUFFLE IS IMPOSSIBLE. THE RULE OF REALITY IS THAT THE FUTURE HASN’T EVER HAPPENED, YET. THERE IS NO SUCH “BIRD’S EYE VIEW” AS THIS IN THE REAL WORLD, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD NO REAL BIRD HAS EVER GLIMPSED AN ACTUAL HISTORICAL SEQUENCE.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1848

There were 4 shipwrecks during this years in the waters around Van Diemen’s Land: the whaler Abeona broke up at New Harbour, with no loss of life, the schooner John Pirie was wrecked off the Furneaux Group in Bass Strait with all hands lost (about 10), the government brig Governor Phillip, sank at in Bass Strait, with the loss of 16 lives, and the schooner Harriett went missing in Bass Strait with 7 aboard. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA May 25, Thursday: Waldo Emerson’s 45th birthday.

John Mitchel and his eldest son John C. Mitchel Jr. were convicted under the new Treason Felony Act and sentenced to 14 years transportation. Within the hour, as his friends rushed around the docks trying to find

some way to rescue him, he was in chains and on his way to the convict depot off the Cove of Cork (), en route via Bermuda to what was then known as Van Diemen’s Land and is now known as Tasmania.

(He expected that his sentence would provoke an insurrection, but nothing more ensued than a skirmish in County Tipperary.) IRELAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1850

April 17, Wednesday: Although South Australia held itself aloof as a colony not based upon the labor of transported convicts, its practice was that when people were locally convicted they would be sent to Van Diemen’s Land secured below decks on commercial sailing vessels. The 158-ton barque Lady Denison had been constructed by the use of convict labor as a speculation by the Colonial Government at Port Arthur in 1847 and was owned in Hobart by Nathan, Moses & Company. It had traded extensively around south-eastern Australia and the Pacific before being placed in a regular run between Port Adelaide and Hobart. It was carrying 11 convicts as passengers below decks under the control of 3 prison guards, from Port Adelaide for Hobart under Captain Hammond, with a crew of 12 plus 16 paying passengers, when it disappeared. The vessel presumably foundered in heavy seas, somewhere off the far northwest coast of Van Diemen’s Land, with the loss of all 40 aboard. At the time the supposition was that the convicts had murdered the other passengers and crew and headed for San Francisco (there were rumors that James Coyle, one of the convicts, had been seen in Victoria, Australia, and that another of the convicts had sent letters to Australia from California, but such rumors were unsubstantiated). A large amount of flotsam positively identified as from this vessel would be found along the coast south of Cape Grim. Weather conditions at the time Lady Denison approached the Tasmanian coastline were extreme, two other vessels being lost in the vicinity at around this time (the schooner Albert foundered with the loss of about 6 lives, and the cutter Resolution was wrecked with the loss of about 6 lives). There is circumstantial evidence that wreckage and corpses was found by sealers in the vicinity of , but that these sealers rather than reporting their find, disposed of the corpses after stripping them of valuables. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1851

The schooner Fairy sank off Tamar Heads, Van Diemen’s Land with the loss of 3 lives.

An influenza epidemic swept through Van Diemen’s Land.

The Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land Chamber of Commerce was established.

Initial publication of THE AUSTRALIAN CAPTIVE; OR, AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE OF 15 YEARS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM JACKMAN. IN WHICH, AMONG VARIOUS OTHER ADVENTURES, IS INCLUDED A FORCED RESIDENCE OF A YEAR AND A HALF AMONG THE CANNIBALS OF NUYTS’ LAND, ON THE COAST OF THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN BIGHT. ALSO INCLUDING, WITH OTHER APPENDICES, AUSTRALIA AND ITS GOLD, FROM THE LATEST AND BEST AUTHORITIES. WITH VAR IO US ILLUSTRATIONS. EDITED BY REV. I[srael] CHAMBERLAYNE (New York: Lyndonville, Orleans County). THE AUSTRALIAN CAPTIVE

Wedding Photograph, Photoshopped, of William Jackman’s “First Marriage”

June 11, Wednesday: Henry Thoreau continued reading in Charles Darwin’s journal of his voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle: VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE I VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE II HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA When Darwin left England for his round-the-world voyage in 1831, he carried with him a departure gift: Volume I of Lyell’s PRINCIPLES, published in its first edition the previous year. Before reaching the Cape Verde Islands, he had already been swept into Lyell’s orbit. Thrilled, he preordered copies of Volumes II and III for pickup in ports of call as they were published. So influential was Lyell’s thinking during the voyage that Darwin dedicated his JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES to him with this comment: “The chief part of whatever scientific merit this journal and the other works of the author may possess, have been derived from studying the well-known and admirable PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY.” This dedication may have jumped out at Thoreau when he read it in 1851, because he, himself, had been smitten by Lyell’s great book in 1840, eleven years earlier.

June 11, Wednesday: Last night –a beautiful summer night not too warm moon not quite full9 –after 2 or 3 rainy days. Walked to Fair Haven by RR returning by Potter’s pasture & Sudbury Road. I feared at first that there would be too much white light –like the pale remains of day light –and not a yellow gloomy dreamier light –that it woud be like a candle light by day but when I got away from the town & deeper into the night, it was better. I hear whipporwills & see a few fire flies in the meadow I saw by the shadows cast by the inequalities of the clayey sand-bank in the Deep Cut, that it was necessary to see objects by moon light –as well as sunlight –to get a complete notion of them– This bank had looked much more flat by day when the light was stronger, but now the heavy shadows revealed its prominences. The prominences are light made more remarkable by the dark shadows which they cast. When I rose out of the deep Cut into the old Pigeon place field, I rose into a warmer stratum of air it being lighter. It told of the day, of sunny noon tide hours, an air in which work had been done –which men had breathed. It still remembered the sunny banks –of the laborer wiping his brow –of the bee humming amid flowers –the hum of insects Here is a puff of warmer air which has taken its station on the hills which has come up from the sultry plains of noon I hear the nighthawks uttering their squeaking notes high in the air now at nine o’clock PM –and occasionally what I do not remember to have heard so late –their booming note. It sounds more as if under a cope than by day –the sound is not so fugacious going off to be lost amid the spheres but is echoed hollowly to earth –making the low roof of heaven vibrate– a sound is more confused & dissipated by day. The whipporwill suggests how wide asunder the woods & the town– Its note is very rarely heard by those who live on the street, and then it is thought to be of ill omen –only the dwellers on the outskirts of the village –hear it occasionally– It sometimes comes into their yards– But go into the woods in a warm night at this season – & it is the prevailing sound– I hear now 5 or 6 at once– It is no more of ill omen therefore here than the night & the moonlight are. It is a bird not only of the woods but of the night side of the woods. New beings have usurped the air we breathe –rounding nature filling her crevices with sound– To sleep where you may hear the whipporwill in your dreams. I hear from this upland from which I see Wachusett by day –a wagon crossing one of the bridges– I have no doubt that in some places to-night I could hear every carriage which crossed a bridge over the river within the limits of concord –for in such an hour & atmosphere the sense of hearing is wonderfully assisted & asserts a new dignity –& become the Hearalls of the story– The late traveller cannot drive his horse across the distant bridge but this still & resonant atmosphere tells the tale to my ear. Circumstances are very favorable to the transmission of such a sound– In the first place planks so placed & struck like a bell swung near the earth emit a very resonant & penetrating sound –add that the bell is in this instance hung over water, and that the night air, not only on account of its stillness, but perhaps on account of its density –is more favorable to the transmission of sound. If the whole town were a raised planked floor –what a din there would be! I hear some whipporwills on hills –others in thick wooded vales –which ring hollow & cavernous –like an apartment or cellar with their note.– as when I hear the working of some artisan from within an apartment. I now descend round the corner of the grain field –through the pitch-pine wood in to a lower field, more inclosed by woods –& find my self in a colder damp & misty atmosphere, with much dew on the grass– I seem to be nearer to the origin of things– There is something creative & primal in the cool mist –this dewy mist does not fail to suggest music to me –unaccountably –fertility the origin of things– An atmosphere which has forgotten the sun –where the ancient principle of moisture prevails. The woodland paths are never seen to such advantage as in a moonlight night so embowered –still opening before you almost against expectation as you walk –you are so completely in the woods & yet your feet meet no obstacles. It is as if it were not a path but an open winding passage through the bushes which your feet find. 9. The moon would be full on the night of the 12th. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA Now I go by the spring and when I have risen to the same level as before find myself in the warm stratum again –The woods are about as destitute of inhabitants at night as the streets in both there will be some night walkers– Their are but few wild creatures to seek their prey. The greater part of its inhabitants have retired to rest. Ah that life that I have known! How hard it is to remember what is most memorable! We remember how we itched, not how our hearts beat. I can sometimes recall to mind the quality the immortality of my youthful life –but in memory is the only relation to it. The very cows have now left their pastures & are driven home to their yards –I meet no creature in the fields. I hear the night singing bird breaking out as in his dreams, made so from the first for some mysterious reason.10 Our spiritual side takes a more distinct form like our shadow which we see accompanying us I do not know but I feel less vigor at night –my legs will not carry me so far –as if the night were less favorable to muscular exertion –weakened us somewhat as darkness turns plants pale –but perhaps my experience is to be referred to being already exhausted by the day and I have never tried the experiment fairly. It was so hot summer before last that the Irish laborers on the RR worked by night instead of day for a while –several of them having been killed by the heat & cold water. I do not know but they did as much work as ever by day. Yet methinks nature would not smile on such labors. Only the Hunter’s & Harvest moons are famous –but I think that each full moon deserves to be & has its own character well marked.– One might be called the midsummer night moon The wind & water are still awake at night you are sure to hear what wind there is stirring. The wind blows –the river flows without resting– There lies Fair Haven lake undistinguishable from fallen sky. The pines seem forever foreign; at least to the civilized man –not only their aspect but their scent –& their turpentine. So still & moderate is the night –no scream is heard whether of fear or joy –no great comedy nor tragedy is being enacted. The chirping of crickets is the most universal if not the loudest sound. There is no French revolution in Nature.– no excess– She is warmer or colder by a degree or two. By night no flowers –at least no variety of colors– The pinks are no longer pink –they only shine faintly reflecting more light Instead of flowers under foot stars over head.11 My shadow has the distinctness of a 2nd person –a certain black companion bordering on the imp –and I ask “Who is this?” Which I see dodging behind me as I am about to sit down on a rock No one to my knowledge has observed the minute differences in the seasons– Hardly two nights are alike– The rocks do not feel warm tonight for the air is warmest –nor does the sand particularly. A Book of the seasons – each page of which should be written in its own season & out of doors or in its own locality wherever it may be– When you get into the road though far from the town & feel the sand under your feet –it is as if you had reached your own gravel-walk –you no longer hear the whipporwill nor regard your shadow –for here you expect a fellow traveller– You catch yourself walking merely The road leads your steps & thoughts alike to the town– You see only the path & your thoughts wander from the objects which are presented to your senses– You are 10. This appears to be Thoreau’s first mention of the mysterious night warbler. 11. William M. White’s version of the journal entry is:

So still and moderate is the night! No scream is heard, whether of fear or joy. No great comedy nor tragedy is being enacted. The chirping of crickets is the most universal, If not the loudest, sound. There is no French Revolution in Nature, No excess. She is warmer or colder by a degree or two.

By night no flowers, At least no variety of colors. The pinks are no longer pink; They only shine faintly, Reflecting more light. Instead of flowers underfoot, Stars overhead. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA no longer in place. In Charles Darwins Voyage of a Naturalist round the World –commenced in 1831– He gave to Ehrenberg some of an impalpably fine dust which filled the air at sea near the Cape de Verd Islands & he found it to consist in great part of “infusoria with siliceous shields, and of the siliceous tissue of plants” –found in this 67 dif organic forms.– The infusoria with 2 exceptions inhabitants of fresh water. Vessels have even run on shore owing to the obscurity. Is seen a thousand miles from Africa– Darwin found particles of stone above a thousandth of an inch square. Speaking of St. Paul’s Rocks Lat 58´ N Long. 29 15´ W– “Not a a single plant, not even a lichen, grows on this islet; yet it is inhabited by several insects & spiders. The following list completes, I believe, the terrestrial fauna: a fly (Olfersia) living on the booby, and a tick which must have come here as a parasite on the birds; a small brown moth, belonging to a genus that feeds on feathers; a beetle (Quedius), and a woodlouse from beneath the dung; and lastly numerous spiders, which I suppose prey on these small attendants and scavengers of the waterfowl. The often-repeated description of the stately palm and other noble tropical plants, then birds, and lastly man, taking possession of the coral islets as soon as formed, in the Pacific, is probably not quite correct; I fear it destroys the poetry of this story, that feather & dirt-feeding and parasitic insects and spiders should be the first inhabitants of newly formed oceanic land.” At Bahia or San Salvador Brazil took shelter under a tree “so thick that it would never have been penetrated by common English rain” but not so there. of A partridge [Ruffed Grouse Bonasa umbellus?] near the mouth of the Plata– “A man on horse back, by riding round & round in a circle, or rather in a spire, so as to approach closer each time, may knock on the head as many as he pleases.”– refers to Hearne’s Journey, p.383 for “In Arctic North America the Indians catch the Varying Hare by walking spirally round & round it, when on its form: the middle of the day is reckoned the best time, when the sun is high, and the shadow of the hunter not very long” In the same place “General Rosas is also a perfect horseman –an accomplishment of no small consequence in a country where an assembled army elected its general by the following trial: A troop of unbroken horses being driven into a corral, were let out through a gateway, above which was a cross-bar: it was agreed whoever should drop from the bar on one of these wild animals, as it rushed out, and should be able, without saddle or bridle, not only to ride it, but also to bring it back to the door of the corral, should be their general. The person who succeeded was accordingly elected, and doubtless made a general fit for such an army. This extraordinary feat has also been performed by Rosas.” Speaks of the Gaucho sharpening his knife on the back of the armadillo before he kills him. Alcide d’Orbigny –from 1825 to 33 in S. Am. now (1846) publishing the results on a scale which places him 2d to Humboldt among S. Am. travellers. Hail in Buenos Ayres as large as small apples –killed 13 deer beside ostriches –which last also it blinded. –&c &c Dr Malcomson told him of hail in India in 1831 which “much injured the cattle” Stones flat one ten inches in circumference. passed through windows making round holes. A difference in the country about Monte Video & somewhere else attributed to the manuring & grazing of the cattle. refers to Atwater as saying that the same thing is observed in the prairies of N. America “where coarse grass, between five and six feet high, when grazed by cattle, changes into common pasture land” V Atwater’s words in Sill. N. A. Journ. V. 1. p 117 I would like to read Azara’s Voyage Speaks of the fennel & the cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) introduced from Europe, now very common in those parts of S. America. The latter occurs now on both sides the Cordillera, across the Continent. In Banda Oriental alone “very many (probably several hundred) square miles are covered by one mass of these prickly plants, and are impenetrable by man or beast. Over the undulating plains, where these great beds occur, nothing else can now live. – – I doubt whether any case is on record of an invasion on so grand a scale of one plant over the aborigines.” Horses first landed at the La Plata in 1535 Now these, with cattle & sheep have altered the whole aspect of the country vegetation &c.– “The wild pig in some parts probably replaces the peccari; packs of wild dogs may be heard howling on the wooded banks of the less frequented streams; and the common cat, altered into a large and fierce animal, inhabits rocky hills.” At sea eye being 6 ft above level horizon is 24/5 miles dist. “In like manner, the more level the plain, the more nearly does the horizon approach within these narrow limits; and this, in my opinion, entirely destroys that grandeur which one would have imagined that a vast level plain would have possessed.” Darwin found a tooth of a native horse contemporary with the mastodon –on the Pampas of Buenos Ayres – though he says there is good evidence against any horse living in America at the time of Columbus– He speaks of their remains being common in N America. Owen has found Darwin’s tooth similar to one Lyell brought from the U States –but unlike any other fossil or living & named this American horse equus curvidens –from a slight but peculiar curviture in it. The great table land of Southern Mexico makes the division between N & S America with ref. to the migration of animals Quotes Capt. Owen’s Surveying voyage for saying that at the town of Benguela on the west coast of Africa in a time of great drought a number of elephants entered in a body to possess themselves of the wells, after a desperate conflict & the loss of one man the inhabitants –3000 –drove them off. During a great drought in India HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA says Dr Malcomson, “a hare drank out of a vessel held by the adjutant of the regiment.” The Guanacos wild llama –& other animals of this genus –have the habit of dropping their dung from day to day in the same heap– The Peruvian Indians use it for fuel and are thus aided in collecting it. Rowing up a stream which takes its rise in a mountain you meet at last with pebbles which have been washed down from it when many miles distant. I love to think of this kind of introduction to it. The only quadruped native to the Falkland Islands is a large wolf-like fox. As far as he is aware, “there is no other instance in any part of the world of so small a mass of broken land, distant from a continent, possessing so large an aboriginal quadruped peculiar to itself.” In the Falkland Isles where other fuel is scarce they frequently cook their beeef with the bones from which the meat has been scraped Also They have “a green little bush about the size of common heath, which has the useful property of burning while fresh & green.” Saw a cormorant play with its fishy prey as a cat with a mouse, 8 times let it go & dive after it again. Seminal propagation produces a more original individual than that by buds layers & grafts. Some inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego having got some putrid whale’s blubber in time of famine “an old man cut off thin slices and muttering over them, broiled them for a minute, and distributed them to the famished party, who during this time preserved a profound silence.” This was the only evidence of any religious worship among them. It suggests that even the animals may have something divine in them & akin to revelation. Some inspiration, allying them to man as to God. “Nor is it easy to teach them our superiority except by striking a fatal blow. Like wild beasts they do not appear to compare numbers; for each individual, if attacked, instead of retiring, will endeavor to dash your brains out with a stone, as certainly as a tiger under similar circumstances would tear you.” “We were well clothed, and though sitting close to the fire, were far from too warm; yet these naked savages, though further off, were observed, to our great surprise, to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing such a roasting.” Ehrenberg examined some of the white paint with which the Fuegians daub themselves –and found it to be composed of infusoria, including 14 polygastrica, and 4 phytolitharia, inhabitants of fresh water –all old & known forms!! Again of the Fuegians “Simple circumstances –such as the beauty of scarlet cloth or blue beads, the absence of women, our care in washing ourselves –excited their admiration far more than any grand or complicated object, such as our ship. Bougainville has well remarked concerning these people, that they treat the “chef-d’oeuvres de l’industrie humaine, comme ils traitent les loix de la nature, et ses phénonomènes.” He was informed of a tribe of foot-Indians now changing into horse-Indians –apparently in Patagonia. “With the exception of a few berries, chiefly of a dwarf arbutus, the natives (i.e. of T. del-Fuego) eat no Vegetable food besides this fungus.” [Cyttaria Darwinii] the “only country where a cryptogamic plant affords a staple article of food.” No reptiles in T. del Fuego nor in Falkland Islands. Describes a species of kelp there –Macrocystis pyrifera– “I know few things more surprising than to see this plant growing and flourishing amidst those great breakers of the Western Ocean, which no mass of rock, let it be ever so hard, can long resist. – – A few [stems] taken together are sufficiently strong to support the weight of the large loose stones to which, in the inland channels, they grow attached; and yet some of these stones were so heavy that when drawn to the surface, they could scarcely be lifted into a boat by one person.” Capt. Cook thought that some of it grew to the length of 360 ft “The beds of this sea-weed even when not of great breadth,” says D. “make excellent natural floating breakwaters. It is quite curious to see, in an exposed harbor, how soon the waves from the open sea, as they travel through the straggling stems, sink in height, and pass into smooth water.” Number of living creatures of all orders whose existence seems to depend on the kelp –a volume might be written on them. If a forest were destroyed anywhere so many species would not perish as if this weed were – & with the fish would go many birds & larger marine animals, and hence the Fuegian himself perchance. Tree-ferns in Van Diemen’s Land (Lat 45) 6 feet in circ. Missionaries encountered icebergs in Patagonia in lat. corresponding to the Lake of Geneva, in a season corresponding to June in Europe. In Europe –the most southern glacier which comes down to the sea is on coast of Norway lat 67 20 or 1230 nearer the pole. erratic boulders not observed in the inter tropical parts of the world.– due to ice-bergs or glaciers. Under Soil perpetually frozen in N. A. in 56 at 3 feet in Siberia in 62 at 12 to 15 ft In an excursion from Valparaiso to the base of the Andes– “We unsaddled our horses near the spring and prepared to pass the night. The evening was fine, and the atmosphere so clear, that the masts of the vessels at anchor in the bay of Valparaiso, although no less than 26 geographical miles distant, could be distinguished clearly as little black streaks.” Anson had been surprised at the distance at which his vessels were discovered from the coast without knowing the reason –the great height of the land and the transparency of the air. Floating islands from 4 to 6 ft thick in lake Tagua-tagua in central Chile –blown about. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1852

March 4, Thursday: The editor of the National Antislavery Standard, Sydney Gay, prophesied that if the antislavery people resorted to violence, the perceived issue before the nation would deteriorate from “liberty versus slavery” into “rebellion versus order,” and that such a deterioration of the issue at hand would in effect “fasten upon a suffering people the very gigantic wrong which it was intended to remove.”

The Tasmanian Colonist reported that gold had been discovered near Fingal in Van Diemen’s Land.

March 4, Thursday: The gold-digger among the ravines of the Mts. is as much a gambler as his fellow in the saloons of San Francisco– What difference does it make whether you shake dirt or shake dice? If you win society is the loser. The gold-digger is the enemy of the honest laborer – whatever checks and compensations a Kind Fate? has provided. The humblest thinker who has been to the mines sees & says that gold digging is of the character of a lottery – that the reward is not proportionate to the labor – that the gold has not the same look, is not the same thing, with the wages of honest toil – but he practically forgets what he has seen – for he has seen only the fact – not the principle– He looks out for “the main chance” still–he buys a ticket in another lottery nevertheless, where the fact is not so obvious.12 It is remarkable that among all the teachers and preachers–there are so few moral teachers–. I find the prophets & preachers employed in excusing the ways of men.13 My most reverend seniors Doctors deacons & the illuminated14 – tell me with a smile betwixt an aspiration & a shudder not to be so tender about these things – to lump all that – i.e. make a lump of gold of it – I was never refreshed by any advice on this subject – the highest I have heard was grovelling. It is not worth the while for you to undertake to reform the world in this particular– They tell me not to ask how my bread is buttered – it will make me sick if I do – & the like.15 It is discouraging to talk with men who will recognize no principles. How little use is made of reason in this world! You argue with a man for an hour – he agrees with you step by step – you are approaching a triumphant 12. Henry Thoreau would add a reference to PROVERBS and utilize this entry in his lecture “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” as:

[Paragraph 44] The gold-digger in the ravines of the mountains is as much a gambler as his fellow in the saloons of San Francisco. What difference does it make, whether you shake dirt or shake dice? If you win, society is the loser. The gold-digger is the enemy of the honest laborer, whatever checks and compensations there may be. It is not enough to tell me that you worked hard to get your gold. So does the Devil work hard. The way of transgressors may be hard in many respects.1 The humblest observer who goes to the mines sees and says that gold-digging is of the character of a lottery; the gold thus obtained is not the same thing with the wages of honest toil. But, practically, he forgets what he has seen, for he has seen only the fact, not the principle, and goes into trade there, that is, buys a ticket in what commonly proves another lottery, where the fact is not so obvious.

1. PROVERBS 13:15

13. Permuting Milton’s agenda of justifying the ways of God to men in Book I, line 26 of PARADISE LOST. 14. Echoing Shakespeare’s OTHELLO, 1.3.78-9. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA conclusion – you think that you have converted him but ah no he has a habit – he takes a pinch of snuff – he remembers that he entertained a different opinion at the commencement of the controversy – & his reverence for the past compels him to reiterate it now. You began at the butt of the pole to curve it – you gradually bent it round and planted the other end in the ground – and already in imagination saw the vine curling round this segment of an arbor – under which a new generation was to recreate itself– –but when you had done just when the twig was bent it sprang back to its former stubborn and unhandsome position like a bit of whalebone. This world is a place of business – what an infinite bustle. I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the steam-engine. It interrupts my dreams. There is no Sabbath– It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once.16 Concord Fight! 2 killed on the patriots’ side – & Luther Blanchard wounded – ! Why here every ant was a Buttrick– “Fire for godsake, fire” – and thousands shared the fate of Davis & Hosmer – I have no doubt it was a principle they fought for–as much as our ancestors and not a three-penny tax on their tea.17

10 A M Up river on ice to Fair Haven Pond. The steam of the steam engine rises to heaven this clear morning The other day when the weather was thick I observed that it hugged the earth– Was the air lighter then? Some refer the music of the telegraph harp to the electricity passing along the wire! others to the air passing through the glasses. AEOLIAN HARP –The air is fresher & the sky clearer in the morning– We have this morning the clear cold continent sky of January. The river is frozen solidly & I do not have to look out for openings Now I can take that walk along the river highway & the meadow–which leads me under–the boughs of the maples & the swamp white oaks &c which in summer overhang the water–there I can now stand at my ease & study their phenomena–amid the sweet gale & button bushes projecting above the snow & ice. I see the shore from the water side– A liberal walk–so level & wide & smooth without under brush. I easily approach & study the boughs which usually overhang the water. In some places where the ice is exposed I see a kind of crystallized chaffy snow–like little bundles of asbestos on its surface.– I seek some sunny nook on the south side of a wood which keeps off the cold wind among the maples & the swamp white oaks which are frozen in–& there sit & anticipate the spring and hear the chicadees [Black-capped Chicadee Parus Atricapillus] & the belching of the ice– The sun has got a new power in his rays after all–cold as the weather is– He could not have warmed me so much a month ago nor should I have heard such rumblings of the ice in December.– I see where a maple has been wounded the sap is flowing out–now then is the time to make sugar– If I were to paint the short days of winter–I should represent two towering icebergs approaching each other like promontories for morning & evening–with cavernous recesses & a solitary traveller wrapping his cloack about him & bent forward against a driving storm just entering the narrow pass– I would paint the light of a taper at mid-day–seen through a cottage window–half buried in snow & frost–and even some pale stars in the sky– & the sound of the wood cutters axe– The ice bergs with cavernous recesses. In the foreground should appear the harvest–& far in the background through the pass should be seen the sowers in the fields & other evidences of spring The ice-bergs should gradually approach & on the right & left the heavens should be shaded off from the light of mid day to midnight with its stars. The sun low in the sky. I look between my legs up the river across Fair Haven. Subverting the head we refer things to the heavens– the sky becomes the ground of the picture and where the river breaks through low hills which slope to meet each 1 other /4 of a mile off appears a mountain pass–so much nearer is it to heaven– We are compelled to call it something which relates it to the heavens rather than the earth. But I think that the mirage is not so great in the morning. Perhaps there is some advantage in looking at the landscape thus at this season–since it is a plainer white field hence to the horizon. 1 I cut my name on the Bee tree. Now–at 11 /2 perhaps, the sky begins to be slightly overcast– The N W is the god of the winter as the S W of the summer. Interesting the forms of clouds– Often as now like flames – or more like the surf curling before it breaks–reminding me of the prows of ancient vessels which have their pattern or prototype again in the surf as if the wind made a surf of the mist.– Thus as the fishes look up at the 15. Thoreau would combine this with an entry made on October 26, 1853 and copy it into “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” as:

[Paragraph 45] It is remarkable that among all the preachers there are so few moral teachers. The prophets are employed in excusing the ways of men. Most reverend seniors, the illuminati of the age, tell me, with a gracious, reminiscent smile, betwixt an aspiration and a shudder, not to be too tender about these things, — to lump all that, that is, make a lump of gold of it. The highest advice I have heard on these subjects was grovelling. The burden of it was, — It is not worth your while to undertake to reform the world in this particular. Do not ask how your bread is buttered; it will make you sick, if you do, — and the like. A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence in the process of getting his bread. If within the sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one of the Devil’s angels. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA waves–we look up at the clouds. It is pleasant to see the reddish green leaves of the lambkill still hanging with fruit above the snow–for I am now crossing the shruboak plain to the cliffs. I find a place on the S side of this rocky hill where the snow is melted & the bare grey rock appears covered with mosses & lichens & beds of oak leaves in the hollows–where I can sit–& an invisible flame & smoke seems to ascend from the leaves & the sun shines with a genial warmth–& you can imagine the hum of bees amid flowers–that is a near approach to summer. A summer heat reflected from the dry leaves which reminds you of the sweet fern & those summer afternoons which are longer than a winter day. Though you sit on a mere oasis in the snow. I love that the rocks should appear to have some spots of blood on them. Indian blood at least–to be convinced that the earth has been crowded with men–living enjoying suffering–that races past away have stained the rocks with their blood– That the mould I tread on has been animated–aye humanized. I am the more at home. I farm the dust of my ancestors–though the chemists analysis may not detect it– I go forth to redeem the meadows they have become.– I compel them to take refuge in turnips.18 The snow is melting on the rocks–the water trickles down in shining streams–the mosses look bright–the first awakening of vegetation at the root of the saxifrage As I go by the farmer’s yard the hens cackle more solidly, as if eggs burdened the strain. A horse’s fore legs are handier than his hind ones–the latter but fall into the place which the former have found. They have the advantage of being nearer the head the source of intelligence– He strikes & paws with them– It is true he kicks with the hind legs–but that is a very simple & unscientific action–as if his whole body were a whiplash & his heels the snapper. The constant reference in our lives–even in the most trivial matters, to the super human is wonderful. If a portrait is painted–neither the wife’s opinion of the husband, nor the husband’s of the wife–nor either’s opinion of the artist not man’s opinion of man–is final and satisfactory. Man is not the final judge of the humblest work– though it be piling wood. The Queen & the chambermaid–the king & the hired-man–the Indian & the Slave– alike appeal to God. Each man’s mode of speaking of the sexual relation proves how sacred his own relations of that kind are. We do not respect the mind that can jest on this subject. If the husband & wife quarrel over their coffee–if the pie is underdone–if your partner treads on your toes– there is a silent appeal to the just & eternal Gods–or to time & posterity at least.

16. Thoreau would add a reference to the phrase “work, work, work” which he used in his letter of December 19, 1853 to H.G.O. Blake, a phrase which recurs in an anonymous contribution to Punch “Song of the Shirt,” and copy it into “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” as:

“WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT”: This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no Sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work—work—work.

17. April 19, 1775. According to Lemuel Shattuck’s A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;..., Luther Blanchard was a fifer in the Acton company, and was slightly wounded. Major John Buttrick was a farmer who lived to the north of the river, and Shattuck reported that he exclaimed “Fire, fellow-soldiers, for God’s sake, fire” after the first British volley had killed Captain Isaac Davis (1745-1775) and Abner Hosmer (1754-1775) of the Acton company. Major John Buttrick was the grandfather of Stedman Buttrick (1796-1874), the Concord justice of the peace, town treasurer, and county treasurer of Middlesex county, who had inherited the ancestral Buttrick farm in north Concord near the Concord River (map, A4). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA Clearly, Thoreau could not have begun to reprocess the “Battle of the Ants” paragraphs he wrote into his journal in January of this year into Draft D of his WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS manuscript prior to this date of March 4th, for the above entry constitutes the end of the first paragraph in D. Here is my inferred, reconstructed intermediate unattested form of this battle of the ants, first half of paragraph 1 of 3, on its way

18. William M. White’s version of this is:

I love that the rocks should appear To have some spots of blood on them, Indian blood at least; To be convinced that the earth has been crowded with men, Living, enjoying, suffering, That races passed away have stained the rocks With their blood, That the mould I tread on has been animated, Aye, humanized.

I am the more at home.

I farm the dust of my ancestors, Though the chemist’s analysis may not detect it. I go forth to redeem the meadows they have become. I compel them to take refuge in turnips. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA out of the journal and into Draft D:

One day when I went out to my wood-pile ^, or rather my pile of stumps– ^, I observed two ^large ants– on the chips ^, the one red, the other much larger & ^, and black, fiercely contending with one another, and rolling over ^and over on the chips. It was evidently a struggle for life & death which had grown out of a serious feud. Having once got hold they never let go of each other– ^, but struggled & ^and wrestled & ^and rolled on the chips each retaining his hold with mastiff-like pertinacity. Looking further ^farther, I found to my astonishment ^surprise that the chips were covered with such combatants — ^, that it was not a duellum but a bellum ^duellum, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants– ^, the red always pitted against the black– & ^, and frequently two reds ones to one black. They covered all the hills and vales in my wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn with the dead, both red and black. It was the only war which I have ever witnessed– ^, the only battle-field I ever trod while the battle was raging.– ^; internecine war.– The ^the red republicans & ^and the black despots or imperialists. On every side they were engaged in deadly combat ^, yet without any noise that I could hear– ^, and never human soldiers fought so resolutely. I watched a couple in a little sunny valley amid the chips– ^, that were fast locked in each others ^other’s embraces– ^, now at noon^-day prepared to fight till the sun went down. The smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to his adversaries ^adversary’s front¼– & ^, and through all the tumblings on that field never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of his feelers near the root, having already caused the other to go by the board– ^; while the stronger black one dashed him from side to side– & ^, and, as I saw on looking nearer ^, had divested him of several of his members. None ^Neither manifested a ^the least disposition to retreat from the combat equal or unequal. It was evident that their battle-cry was conquer ^Conquer or die. They fought like mastiffs or bull^-dogs, who ^that will not let go though all their legs are cut off. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

And here is my inferred, reconstructed intermediate form of the battle of the ants, second half of the first long paragraph:

In the mean while their ^there came along a single red ant on the side hill of this valley– ^, evidently full of excitement– ^, who either had despatched his foe. or had not yet taken part in the battles– The latter the most probable ^battle; probably the latter, for he had lost none of his limbs. ^; whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it. He saw this unequal combat from afar ^, –for the blacks were nearly twice the size of the red. ^,– He ^he drew near with rapid pace — till he stood on his guard within half an inch of the combatants– ^; then ^, watching his opportunity ^, he sprang upon the black warrior & ^, and commenced his operations near the root of his right fore-leg, leaving the other ^foe to select among his own members– ^; And ^and so there were 3 ^three united for life & ^until death ^--apparently. United for life — until death. As ^--, as if a new kind of attraction had been invented, which put all other locks & ^and cements to shame.– I should not wonder more if ^have wondered by this time to find that they had their respective musical bands stationed on some ^eminent chip & ^, and playing their national airs the while ^, to cheer the dying combatants.– (Whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it) I was myself excited somewhat even as if they had been men– ^. The more you think of it — ^, the less the difference. And certainly there is no other ^not the fight recorded in Concord ^history if in the history of the world that will bear a moment^’s comparison with this ^, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or the heroism and patriotism displayed. For numbers and for carnage it was an Austerlitz or Dresden. Concord Fight! Two killed on the patriots’ side, and Luther Blanchard wounded! Why here every ant was a Buttrick, EDMUND HOSMER –“Fire! for God’s sake fire!”– and thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer. I have no doubt they had as just a cause — one or even both parties as our forefathers –& that the results will be as important & memorable– And there was far more patriotism & heroism– For numbers & for blood it was an Austerlitz — or Dresden. I saw no disposition to retreat ^that it was a principle they fought for, as much as our ancestors, and not a three-penny tax on their tea; and undoubtedly the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of the battle of Bunker Hill. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

Here is my inferred, reconstructed intermediate form of the second of the three long paragraphs of the battle of the ants in WALDEN, as of this date leading out of Thoreau’s journal and in the direction of Draft D:

I took up the chip on which the 3 ^three I have particularly described were struggling ^, carried it into my house & ^, and placed it under a tumbler on my window^-sill, wishing to see the issue. Holding a microscope to the first^- mentioned red ant– ^ , I saw that ^, though he was assiduously gnawing at the near foreleg of his enemy ^, having severed his remaining feeler ^, his own breast was all torn away ^, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black warrior– ^, whose own breast-plate was apparently too thick for him– ^to pierce; and the dark carbuncles of his eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite. They strug^gled for half an hour longer under the tumbler ^, and when I looked again the black soldier had severed the heads of his foes from their bodies & ^, and the former ^still living heads were hanging on either side of him ^like ghastly trophies or ornaments, still apparently as firmly fastened as ever– ^, and he was endeavoring with feeble struggles– ^, being without feelers & ^and with only one or two ^remnants of legs– & ^, and I know not how many other wounds– ^, to divest himself of them ^; which at length ^, after half an hour more ^, he had accomplished ^. I raised the tumbler & ^, and he went off over the window^-sill in that crippled state– ^. Whether he finally survived that combat^, & had a pension settled on him^, I do not know. But ^; but I thought that his industry would not be worth much thereafter. Which party was victorious I never learned ^, nor indeed EDMUND HOSMER could it be of much importance to mankind, nor the cause of the war; but ^. But I felt for the rest of that day as if I had had my feelings harrowed & excited ^excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle ^, the ferocity & ^and carnage ^, of a human-battle before my door. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

This is the final paragraph of the battle of the ants as it originated as an interlining in Draft D. Note that as of this point Thoreau has not yet fudged the date of his observation of the ant war in the manner in which the observation appears in WALDEN:

Since making this record I learn from Kirby and Spence that the battles of the ants have long been celebrated and the date of them recorded, though they state that “Huber is the only modern author that appears to have been witness to these combats.” “Æneas Sylvius,” say they, “after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with great obstinacy by a great and small species on the trunk of a pear tree,” states that ^adds “‘This action was fought in the pontificate of Eugenius the Fourth, in the presence of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an eminent lawyer, who related the whole history of the battle with the greatest fidelity.’ A similar engagement between great and small ants is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in which the small ones, being victorious, are said to have buried the bodies of their own soldiers, but left those of their giant enemies a prey to the birds. This event happened previous to the expulsion of the tyrant Christiern the Second from Sweden.”

TIMELINE OF WALDEN HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA August 16, Monday: The shipwrecked Alfred Russel Wallace was rescued but all his biological specimens had been lost at sea, and the cargo vessel that had rescued the contents of their 2 leaking lifeboats off the face of the ocean was itself in bad shape and very slow.

The 61-ton schooner Zephyr, Captain Tanner, was reported as having wrecked near Bream Creek, Van Diemen’s Land with the loss of 8 lives.

In the afternoon Henry Thoreau went rowing on the river with George Partridge Bradford.

August 16, 1852: Pm Down river in boat with Geo. Bradford Zizania aquatica Ind. or Canadian rice or Water oats – like slender corn. How long? Hibiscus Moscheutos(?)Marsh Hibiscus ap. N Barrets. Perchance has been out a week. I think it must be the most conspicuous & showy and at the same time rich colored flower of this month– It is not so conspicuous as the sun flower but of a rarer color– “pale rose-purple” they call it – like a holly-hock. It is surprising for its amount of color – & seen unexpectedly amid the willows & button bushes – with the mikania twining around its stem you can hardly believe it is a flower So large & tender it looks like the greatest effort of the season to adorn the august days & reminded me of that great tender moth the atticus luna which I found on the water near where it grows. I think it must be allied to southern species– It suggests a more genial climate & luxuriant soil– JOHN S. KEYES It requires these vaporous dog days. Galeopsis Tetrahit common Hemp nettle – in road side by Keyes’ –How long? flower like hedge nettle – Apios tuberosa Ground nut – a day or two. These are locust days. I hear them on the elms in the street – but cannot tell where they are – loud is their song – drowning many others – but men appear not to distinguish it – though it pervade their ears as the dust their eyes. The river was exceedingly fair this afternoon – and there are few handsomer reaches than that by the leaning oak – the deep place, where the willows make a perfect shore– At sunset the glow being confined to the north – it tinges the rails on the cause-way lake color, but behind they are a dead dark blue. I must look for the Rudbeckia which Bradford says he found yesterday behind Joe Clarks. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

December 2, Thursday: On the 48th anniversary of the coronation of Napoléon I, the 47th anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz, and the 1st anniversary of his coup d’etat, French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaimed himself to be the Emperor Napoléon III.

The 343-ton barque Rebecca, Captain George Sheppard (or Shepherd), sailed from London for Sydney, Australia with a cargo of wines and beers and 20 souls, including the captain’s wife.

In Concord, New Hampshire, the Countess Sarah, Benjamin Thompson’s one legitimate child, died and willed what remained of the Von Rumford estates to the New Hampshire Asylum for the Indigent Insane and to a home for bastard children. Father’s version of the Golden Rule, in his “An Account of an Establishment for the Poor at München,” had been –and as a first approximation I suppose this isn’t so bad–

To make vicious and abandoned people happy, it has been generally supposed necessary first to make them virtuous. But why not reverse this order? Why not make them first happy, and then virtuous? If happiness and virtue be inseparable, the end will be as certainly obtained by one method as by the other; and it is most undoubtedly much easier to contribute to the happiness and comfort of persons in a state of poverty and misery, than, by admonitions and punishments, to reform their morals.

Dec. 2. The pleasantest day of all. Started in boat before 9 A.M. down river to Billerica with W.E.C. Not wind enough for a sail. I do not remember when I have taken a sail or a row on the river in December before. We had to break the ice about the boat-house for some distance. Still no snow. The banks are white with frost. The air is calm, and the water smooth. The distant sounds of cars, cocks, hounds, etc., as we glide past N. Barrett's farm, remind me of spring. It is an anticipation, a looking through winter to spring. There is a certain resonance and elasticity in the air that makes the least sound melodious as in spring. The old unpainted houses under their trees (Joel Barrett's?) look as if winter had come and gone. There is one side of Abner (?) Buttrick's, painted as if with the pumpkin pies left over after Thanksgiving, it is so singular a yellow. The river has risen since the last rain a few feet, and partially floods the meadow. See still two ducks on the meadow. Hear the jay in distant copses, and the ruby-crowned wren(?) flies and mews over. Some parts of the meadow are covered with thin ice, through which we row,- which yet lasts all day, — and the waves we make in the river nibble and crumble its edge, and produce a rustling of the grass and reeds, as if a muskrat were stirring. We land behind Tarbell's and walk inland. How warm in the hollows! The outline of the hills is very agreeable there; ridgy hills, with backs to them, and a perfect cow-path winds along the side of one. They have such weight to carry that they select the easiest course. Again embark. It is remarkably calm and warm in the sun, now that we have brought a hill between us and the wind. There goes a muskrat. He leaves so long a ripple behind that in this light you cannot tell where his body ends, and think him longer than he is. This is a glorious river-reach. At length we pass the bridge. Everywhere the muskrat-houses line the shores, — or what was the shore, — some three feet high and regularly sharp as the Peak of Teneriffe. C. says, “Let us land” (in an orchard by Atkins's (?) boathouse). “The angle of incidents should be equal to the angle of reflection.” We did so. By the island where I formerly camped, half a mile or more above the bridge on the road from Chelmsford to Bedford, we saw a mink, a slender black (at ten rods' distance; Emmons says EMMONS they are a “dark glossy brown”), very like a weasel in form. He alternately ran along on the ice and swam in the water, now and then holding up his head and long neck and looking at us. Not so shy as a muskrat, but I should say very black. The muskrats would curl up into a ball on the ice, decidedly reddish brown. The ice made no show, being thin and dark. Mink's head is larger in proportion to body than the muskrat's, not so sharp and ratlike. Left our boat just above the last-named bridge on west side. A bright dazzling sheen for miles on the river as you looked up it. Crossed the bridge, turned into a path on the left, and ascended a hill a mile and a half off, between us and Billerica, somewhat off from the river. The Concord affords the water prospects of a larger river, like the Connecticut even. Hereabouts I found a spear-head, by a mysterious little building. Dined on the hill, HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA from which we saw Billerica centre, a mile and a half northerly. We had crossed what by the map must be the brook from Nutting's Pond. On the west side of the river in Billerica here, is a grand range of hills, somewhat cliffy, covered with young oaks, whose leaves give it a red appearance, even when seen from Ball's hill. It is one of the most interesting and novel features in the river scenery. Men commonly talk as if genius were something proper to an individual. I esteem it but a common privilege, and if one does not enjoy it now, he may congratulate his neighbor that he does. There is no place for man- worship. We understand very well a man's relation, not to his genius, but to the genius. Returning, the water is smoother and more beautiful than ever. The ripples we make produce ribbed reflections or shadows on the dense but leafless bushes on shore, thirty or forty rods distant, very regular, and so far that they may seem motionless and permanent. Again we see the mink, plainer than ever. The smooth river-reaches, so calm and glorious in this light, “I see, not feel, how beautiful they are.” All the water behind us as we row (and even on the right and left at a distance) is perfectly unrippled, we move so fast; but before us, down-stream, it is all in commotion from shore to shore. There are some fine shadows on those grand red oaken hills in the north. What a fine color to last through summer! We look at Atkins's boathouse, ugly, like a barn carried off and lodged in the river. A muskrat had made his cabin in the bathing-apartment. Man's boathouse is a deformity, but the muskrats' cabins are an ornament to the river. The squareness of the former building, roof and all, offend. Could not the architect take P” Joint from the pyramidal or conical farm of the muskrat's house? Something of this form and color, like a large haycock in the meadow, would be in harmony with the scenery. The muskrat's house is made in the midst of weeds or bushes commonly, which protect it from the waves. When a muskrat comes to the surface too near you, how quickly and with what force he turns and plunges again, making a sound in the calm water as if you had thrown into it a large stone with violence! Long did it take to sink the Carlisle Bridge. The reflections after sunset were distinct and glorious, -- the heaven into which we unceasingly rowed. I thought now that the angle of reflection was greater than the angle of incidents. It cooler grew. The stars came out soon after we turned Ball's Hill, and it became difficult to distinguish our course. The boatman knows a river by reaches. We ran part way into several holts, or poke- logans. Got home in the dark, our feet and legs numb and cold with sitting and inactivity, having been about eight miles by river, etc. It was some time before we recovered the full use of our cramped legs. I forgot to speak of the afterglows. The twilight, in fact, had several stages to it, and several times after it had grown dusky the twilight acquired a new transparency, and the trees on the hillsides were lit up again. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1853

During this year a square-rig whaler, the Litherland, went down on rocks off , Van Diemen’s Land without loss of life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA January 17, Monday: Henry Thoreau made no entry in his journal.

The 630-ton St. Vincent, Captain John Young, Surgeon Thomas Sommerville, sailed from Spithead in Hampshire, England with 212 male convicts, 5 of whom would perish enroute to Van Diemen’s Land.

Solomon Northup arrived back in Washington DC at the end of a kidnapping amounting to twelve years.19 REVERSE UNDERGROUND RR

19. There would be over fifty slave escape narratives such as this one published between 1815 and 1865. (Waldo Emerson would term such the 1st truly American literary genre.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

“The capacity to get free is nothing; the capacity to be free, that is the task.” — André Gide, THE IMMORALIST translation Richard Howard NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970, page 7

Solomon Northup. TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE. NARRATIVE OF SOLOMON NORTHUP, A CITIZEN OF NEW-YORK, KIDNAPPED IN WASHINGTON CITY IN 1841 AND RESCUED IN 1853, FROM A COTTON PLANTATION NEAR THE RED RIVER IN LOUISIANA. Auburn: Derby And Miller. Buffalo: Derby, Orton And Mulligan. London: Sampson Low, Son & Company, 47 Ludgate Hill, 1853. (Osofsky, Gilbert, comp. PUTTIN’ ON OLE MASSA; THE SLAVE NARRATIVES OF HENRY BIBB, WILLIAM WELLS BROWN, AND SOLOMON NORTHUP. NY: Harper & Row, 1969) TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE

January 18, Tuesday: Henry Thoreau was surveying Turner Bryant’s woodlot in Stow, Massachusetts and made no entry in his journal. He made this survey for a Mr. Hale, whose family owned land on the Concord-Carlisle Road in 1852 according to the survey of Humphrey Hunt’s land. (In his journal for August 26, 1856, Thoreau would mention that Ai Hale of Carlisle had the right kind of dog for keeping pigs.)

The barque Rebecca, Captain George Sheppard (or Shepherd), having needed to put in at Fowley in Cornwall to repair storm damage, set out again for Sydney, Australia with a cargo of wines and beers and 20 souls, including the captain’s wife. They would pick up fresh provisions in the Cape Verde Islands.

February 19, Saturday: The 131-ton brigantine Antares, Captain Henry Bull, out of Melbourne, Australia sailing for Hobart, was wrecked on a reef of the Furneaux Group, Van Diemen’s Land. Using the vessel’s longboat, 3 members of the crew managed to reach Launceston and initiate a rescue effort. Meanwhile the last 2 survivers aboard the wreck built a makeshift raft from wreckage and made their way 5 miles to . There they built a better raft and made their way to Flinders Island, from which a sealer took them to Launceston in his boat. From Launceston the PS Yarra Yarra took them to Melbourne. In total 8 lives had been lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA April 29, Friday: By the calculations of Captain George Sheppard (or Shepherd) at noon, his barque Rebecca was still a good 200 miles west of Van Diemen’s Land. However, at about 9PM, coasting along at 8 and a half knots in stiff north-westerly breezes, the vessel ran aground without warning about quarter of a mile offshore about 10 miles south of the Arthur River. At about 10PM the vessel rolled over onto its beam-ends. A boat containing the master’s wife, a ship’s boy, and 7 of the crew capsized and but 3 of the crew managed to get ashore.

It was reported that when Gerrit Smith had been elected to Congress, he had been advised by Henry C. Wright not to associate with congressmen who held slaves. Instead, Wright had urged, demand that Congress expel these men. And if it fail so to do, resign and return home. But Smith and his wife had come from slaveholding families, and Smith’s brother currently held slaves, and these slaveholding Congressmen were welcomed into Smith’s home although he of course made it very clear to such guests that he was boycotting all commodities produced through the labor of enslaved persons. This came as no surprise to Wright, who had commented on April 15, 1840 that “Bro. Smith is influenced — it may be unconsciously.... His conscience and reason are with nonresistance, but his circumstances battle against it.”

The Junta Cubana of New-York called on a former associate of Narciso López, General John A. Quitman, to lead yet another American invasion of Cuba, proposing that as his reward for success he would become “exclusive chief of our revolution, not only in its military, but also in its civil sense.”

April 29: Return to Concord. At Natural History Rooms in Boston. Have I seen the least bittern? It is so brown above and yellowish, woolly, white beneath. The American goshawk is slate above, gray beneath; the young spotted dark and white beneath, and brown above. Fish hawk, white beneath. Young of marsh hawk, reddish-brown above, iron-rusty beneath. Summer duck with a crest. Dusky duck, not black, but rather dark brown. The velvet ducks I saw, hardly large enough for this. My whiter ducks may be the Merganser castor, or the red-breasted. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA April 30, Saturday: Around 4AM the barque Rebecca, wrecked a quarter of a mile off the shore of Van Diemen’s Land about 10 miles south of the Arthur River, began to break up. Those still surviving attempted to get ashore using floating wreckage. In total 11 were successful, but Captain George Sheppard (or Shepherd) was drowned as his wife had been. Chief Officer William Hirkus took command of the 11 survivors. Recovering the bodies of the 9 who had drowned, they buried then above the hightide mark. Eventually they were able to kill some kangaroos and start a fire and cook them. They came across a friendly dog that had a collar and, tying a message to its collar, drove it away. Government surveyor Gordon Burgess and his party would see this note and find the 11 survivors 23 days after they had been cast away. They would be led overland to Woolnorth, and the cutter David Howie would convey them to Circular Head.

Samuel A. Jackman was born in Madison, Wisconsin.

Henry Thoreau surveyed, for Frances R. Gourgas, some land conveyed by E.R. [Elizabeth Rockwood?] Hoar probably from the Agricultural Society land on Bedford Street between New Hill Burying Ground and Reuben Brown’s.

View Henry Thoreau’s personal working drafts of his surveys courtesy of AT&T and the Concord Free Public Library: http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_Surveys/Thoreau_Surveys.htm

(The official copy of this survey of course had become the property of the person or persons who had hired this Concord town surveyor to do their surveying work during the 19th Century. Such materials have yet to be recovered.)

View this particular personal working draft of a survey in fine detail: http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_surveys/44.htm

Thoreau surveyed for the Mill Dam Company, showing their land with buildings, additions, and elevations. He showed the Mill Brook as Bound-In Brook under the present Anderson’s Store on the Mill Dam. This work continued into October-November 1855.

View this particular survey in fine detail: http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_surveys/88a.htm

April 30. Concord . — Cultivated cherry in bloom. Moses Emerson, the kind and gentlemanly man who assisted and looked after me in Haverhill, said that a good horse was worth $75, and all above was fancy, and that when he saw a man driving a fast horse he expected he would fail soon.

The Reverend Samuel Ringgold Ward sighted the coast of Ireland: On Saturday, the last day of April, we saw land on the coast of Ireland. We then moved gracefully along the coast of Wales, telegraphed our approach at Holyhead, took a pilot early on Sunday morning, and, at eleven o’clock precisely, anchored in the Mersey, after a passage of ten days, fifteen hours, and fifteen minutes, mean time. I was in England — the England of my former reading, and my ardent admiration. I was at Liverpool — that Liverpool whose merchants, but sixty years before, had mobbed Clarkson for prying into and exposing the secret inhumanities of their slave trade. I was in a land of freedom, of true equality. I did not feel as some blacks say they felt, upon landing — that I was, for the first time in my life, a man. No, I always felt that; however wronged, maltreated, outraged — HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA still, a man. Indeed, the very bitterness of what I had suffered at home consisted chiefly in the consciousness I always carried with me of being an equal man to any of those who trampled upon me. My first experience of English dealing was in being charged treble fare by a Liverpool cabman, a race with which I have had much to do since. Acting upon the advice given me by John Laidlaw, Esq., I went to Clayton Square, where I found good quarters at Mr. Brown’s very genteel Temperance Hotel. The Rev. Dr. Willis had very kindly given me a note of introduction to the master of the Grecian Hotel; but I found no reason to desire a change, and therefore remained, while in Liverpool, where I first lodged. Several things arrested my attention upon the first day of my being in England. One was, the comfort and cleanliness, not to say the elegance of appearance, presented by the working classes. I had always, in the United States, heard and read of the English working classes as being ground down to the very earth — as being far worse in their condition than the American slaves. Their circumstances, in the rural and the factory districts, I had always heard described as the most destitute. That they wrought for sixpence a day I had been informed by I know not how many Americans, who had visited England. How many times have I heard from the lips of American protectionists, and seen in the columns of their journals, statements such as this — “If we do not maintain a protection tariff, English manufacturers, who pay their operatives but sixpence a day, will flood our markets with their products, and the factory operative in America will, in consequence, be compelled to work for sixpence a day, as the English operative now does”! When I was an American protectionist, how I used to “take up that parable,” and, believing it, repeat it! How others with me believed the same too often told falsehood! Here was before me, in Lancashire and her noble port — Lancashire, the head quarters of British, if not European, factory interest — almost a manufacturing kingdom in itself — a most abundant refutation of what, on this subject, I had nearly a thousand times heard, read, believed, and repeated. But this was Sunday. The next day, having occasion to cross the Mersey, I saw nearly as many well-dressed working men, with their wives and sweethearts, enjoying the holiday of that Monday, as I had seen the day before. This led me, as I travelled further into the factory district, to make definite inquiries into the condition of the operatives; and, as I may not again recur to it, I will put down here, in few words, a sort of summary of the information I obtained. I learned — indeed, saw with my own eyes — that throughout Lancashire the young women in the factories dress as well as the young women I had seen at Lowell, Dover NH, Manchester, Nashua, and other manufacturing towns in New England. I had been in those towns but a year and a half before; and now, at Manchester, Bolton, Preston, Wigan, &c., had a fair opportunity of comparing them. I learned as well, that the wages of the different grades of operatives varied from highest to lowest, each respectively being about the same as in New England. The hours of labour were not greater; and upon visiting several factories (among them that of Sir Elkanah Armitage, at Pendleton, Manchester), I found the work as easy, and the health and cheerfulness of the operatives as good, as I HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA had seen in the same class on the other side of the Atlantic. What was true, comparing the English with the American female operative, is equally true of the male. I was agreeably surprised to learn that the condition of these people, as I had heard of it at home, was a misrepresentation of the condition in which I found them. Formerly, the operatives had suffered much from the want of care exercised by themselves, and more from the want of humanity on the part of their employers; like some persons of other business, of whom we have been speaking, humanity was made to succumb to business: but, by the perseverance of Lord Shaftesbury (then Lord Ashley) and others, Government exerted an influence between the employer and the employed, and led to the adoption of many very important improvements. Here were two truths which the pro-slavery portion of the Americans did not at all like to tell, and therefore cleverly and conveniently forgot them: 1, That the improvements referred to do exist. 2, That the British Parliament shows an interest in behalf of these people, who “are worse off than our slaves.” It better suits their purpose to state matters as they were, than as they are; and to state the truth, that the Government of Great Britain, through its legislature, looks after these people, would rather spoil the parallel between the British free labourer and the American slave! It is a clever thing to forget just what one chooses not to recollect! Another thing that attracted my attention was, the beautiful twilight of this latitude. Forgetting that I was eleven degrees further north than ever before, I wondered why at eight o’clock it was so light. I then learned how to join Englishmen in the enjoyment of that most delightful part of the day. But when I went to Scotland, subsequently, I was still more charmed, especially at midsummer, in the far north, with this pleasing feature of a northern residence. I wondered, also, that I could not realize the vast distance I had come, and the mighty space between me and those loved ones I had left behind. I seemed to be simply in a neighbouring town, when in Liverpool. I could see in this town, and in the appearance of many of its inhabitants, some resemblance to Boston and the Bostonians. Nothing wore, to my view, the strange aspect which I had expected. This, I think, was owing partly to my having travelled so much before, constantly visiting strange places and constantly seeing new faces; partly to the strong resemblance of the New England people to those of Liverpool; but, more than either, to the fact that in Canada, especially in Toronto, we are English in habits, manners, &c. I beg to add, too, that I could not have anticipated how much my faith would be strengthened, by trusting in God amid the exposures of a voyage. Faith grew stronger by its own exercise. For nine consecutive nights I had lain my head upon my pillow at sea. In the midst of the vast deep, where our great vessel and all it contained might, like the “President,” go to the bottom in an hour, leaving none to tell the story of our fate, and no traces of even the whereabouts of our destruction —to trust God in these circumstances —to hear the rolling heaving ocean, at deep dark midnight, and still to trust him —to listen to the hurried commands, and the rattling of ropes and sails, and the hundred and one accompaniments of a storm, and still to trust him —give faith a strength peculiar only to its trial amid HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA dangers. I could not help writing to Mrs. Ward, that, having long before learned to trust our Heavenly Father as the God of the land, I had now learned to rely upon him as the God of the ocean. I know not how far this accords with the experience of other voyagers, and have now no means of knowing whether the same feeling will continue with myself; but I do know that it at present is far from being one of the least striking or the least pleasing incidents of my first voyage.

May 25, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson’s 50th birthday.

With free settlers protesting that they needed the work and did not need competition from fresh cadres of transported criminals, the final convict transport ship arriving at Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land was the 630-ton St. Vincent out of Spithead in Hampshire, England by way of Gibraltar. The vessel had conveyed 212 male convicts 5 of whom had died in transit. In the 1st half-century of this young colony, 89 wrecks had occurred around the island, a number of which had involved the deaths of convicts. In all, some 74,000, give or take, had survived the process of transportation and arrived on this remote island for a duration there of unremitting toil. (Norfolk Island was in this year also closed to convicts.)

An influential “Exposition of Sentiments” document was adopted by the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends at Kennett Square. Friend Lucretia Mott helped draft this, although she remained with Philadelphia’s Hicksite Yearly Meeting. Friend Joseph Dugdale, one of the Clerks who signed it, later removed to Illinois and became a major figure in the new Illinois Yearly Meeting. Friend Jesse H. “Ducky” Holmes, a Swarthmore professor and Clerk of the Progressive Yearly Meeting during its final two decades, was also a member of Swarthmore Meeting, and would be a very active figure in the Friends General Conference until his death in 1940. This Progressive reformation of liberal Quakerism would come to fruition in 1926, when the Friends General Conference would adopt a Uniform Discipline. This document would become the basis and template for new editions of all the Friends General Conference yearly meetings, which emerged in rapid succession thereafter, and closely resembled it. The Uniform Discipline codified such Progressive principles as the idealization of the individual seeking conscience, a congregational polity, the quiet abolition of Ministers and Elders, the near-total abandonment of disownment, and a renewed emphasis on humanitarian reform as the goal and sign of authentic religion. The result would become “meetinghouse” or “unprogrammed” Quakerism as we know it today. EXPOSITION OF SENTIMENTS ADOPTED BY THE PENNSYLVANIA YEARLY MEETING OF PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS, 1853 To the Friends of Pure and Undefiled Religion, and to all Seekers after Truth, of whatever name or denomination, the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends sendeth Greeting;

DEAR FRIENDS: Having been led, as we trust, through obedience to the revelations of truth, to form a Religious Association upon principles always too little regarded and often trampled under foot by professing Christians and popular sects, we are constrained to address you in explanation of our leading sentiments, purposes, plan; and hopes. If, as we believe, the basis of our organization, and the arrangements we propose for the culture of man’s religious powers, are in harmony with the Divine laws, and adapted to the wants of human nature and the demands of the present age, it is certainly incumbent upon us to diffuse true knowledge thereof as widely as possible; and if, on the other hand, “the light HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA that is in us be darkness,” it is proper that we should invoke your earnest efforts to redeem us from our errors, and turn our feet into the highway of holiness and truth. We, therefore, ask your serious and unprejudiced consideration of the matters presented in this Exposition, so that, whether you shall accept or reject our propositions, your conclusions may minister to your own peace of mind and growth in the love and practice of the truth. In our efforts to apply the principles of Christianity to daily life, and to social customs and institutions which we deemed subversive of individual and national morality, as well as in conflict with the laws of God, we encountered the hostility of the popular sects, to one or another of which most of us belonged, and to which we were bound by ties that grew with our growth and strengthened with our strength. Mingling with the chime of church bells and with the tones of the preacher’s voice, or breaking upon the stillness of our religious assemblies, we heard the clank of the slave’s chain, the groans of the wounded and dying on the field of bloody strife, the noise of drunken revelry, the sad cry of the widow and the fatherless, and the wail of homeless, despairing poverty, driven

By foul Oppression’s ruffian gluttony Forth from life’s plenteous feast;

and when, in obedience to the voice of God, speaking through the holiest sympathies and purest impulses of our Godlike humanity, we sought to arouse our countrymen to united efforts for the relief of human suffering, the removal of giant wrongs, the suppression of foul iniquities, we found the Church, in spite of her solemn professions, arrayed against us, blocking up the path of reform with her serried ranks, prostituting her mighty influence to the support of wickedness in high places, smiling complacently upon the haughty oppressor, “justifying the wicked for a reward,” maligning the faithful Abdiels who dared to stand up for the truth and to testify against popular crimes-thus traitorously upsetting the very foundations of the Religion she was sacredly bound to support and exemplify, and doing in the name of Christ deeds at which humanity shuddered, obliterating her indignant blushes only with the tears that welled up from the deeps of her great loving heart. For a time, though not without deep mortification and discouragement, we bore this appalling delinquency, thinking in our short-sightedness that it was mainly the result of a temporary mistake, and not of an incurable leprosy tainting the whole body. In the “patience of hope” we toiled on, seeking to reform alike the Church and the world, and deeming it certain that the former would speedily abandon her false and sinful position, and “come up to the help of the Lord” against the hosts of unrighteousness and oppression. Our hopes in this respect were doomed to a sad and bitter disappointment. The leaders of the Church, instead of retracing the false step which they had taken, grew more and more hostile to the cause of Christian Reform, while there was not found in the body enough of moral principle to reject their counsels and repudiate their impious claims to a Divine warrant for their criminal apostasy. Inflated with spiritual pride, and claiming to be the anointed expounders of God’s will, they mocked at Philanthropy as no part HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA of religion, exalted in its place the Dagon of man-made Disciplines, charged obedience to the decisions of Yearly Meetings or other ecclesiastical assemblies, as the sum of human obligation, bade us stifle the gushing sympathies which link us to our kind, and passively “wait God’s time” for the removal of the evils that afflict and curse our race; as if God had not revealed his purpose of doing this work by human instrumentality — as if there were times when deeds of charity and mercy are offensive in His sight — as if the cry of suffering Humanity and the emotions it stirs within us were not a sufficient revelation of His will, and we were bound to wait in listless inactivity for some supernatural or miraculous manifestation of His authority and power! Alas! how many have thus waited, until at last the spiritual ear has become too dull and heavy to vibrato under the gentle tones of the “still, small voice,” and the head so hard and cold, that it has ceased to beat at the cry of mortal woe! Superstition has woven around their souls her impenetrable veil, excluding the warm sunlight of God’s presence, paralyzing their moral energies, and leaving their holiest sympathies to stagnate for lack of use; thus unfitting them for the work the good Father sets before them in common with all His children, and defeating the great end and purpose of their earthly life. When we refused to obey the mandate of our ecclesiastical rulers, choosing to hearken to the voice of God rather than unto the voice of man, we found our worst foes in our own religious households; the rod of ecclesiastical power was lifted above our heads, and some of us were made to understand that excommunication was the price to be paid for he exercise of that liberty which Jesus proclaimed as the birthright of his disciples. We might have devoted our energies, to the acquisition of wealth, and, in imitation of the example of many who stood high in the Church, entered into close relations with men devoid of religious principle in the pursuit of that object and no voice of censure or reproof would have been lifted against us; but when we associated with noble men and women, not of our sect, for the purpose of abolishing slavery, war, intemperance, and other crying abominations, and our zeal for humanity made us indifferent to the forms of the Church, though more than ever alive to the great principles she had so long professed to believe and revere, we were treated as offenders; and the strange spectacle was witnessed of bodies, claiming to be God’s representatives on earth, excluding from their pale, men and women of blameless lives for loving peace, purity and freedom so devotedly, as to be wiling to co-operate with all whose hearts prompted them to labor for the promotion of those heavenly virtues. Thus were the great and ennobling principles of our common humanity subordinated to sectarian shibboleths, and that Divine charity, which is the essence of the God-like, and the sum of every virtue in man, narrowed down to the dimensions of a particular creed, or smothered under the petty limitations of speculative theology. Driven thus to choose between our loyalty to sect and our allegiance to God, and feeling still the need of some outward helps in the cultivation of the religious sentiment, we were naturally led to investigate the whole subject of religious organization, its nature, uses and sphere, and the source and extent of its powers. The result of our inquiries is a clear HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA conviction, that Churches, however high their pretensions of authority derived from God, are only human organizations, and the repositories of only such powers as may have been rightfully conferred upon them by the individuals of whom they are composed, or derived from the laws of our social nature. It is time that this truth, so long obscured by the sorcery of priestcraft, were clearly understood and boldly proclaimed. Too long have the common people been deluded with the idea that the Church holds a mysterious or organic relation to the Infinite, — a relation distinct from that existing between the soul and its Creator, and conferring special powers and prerogatives. Perhaps no error has done more than this to debase and enslave the mind of man, to fetter his godlike powers, and make him the ready instrument of superstition and priestcraft. It is the most vicious element of Popery, from which our Protestant sects are not yet delivered. Our religion, which should make us free and self-reliant, willing to bend the knee only to God, as he stands revealed to our own consciousness, withered by the touch of this superstition, becomes, in the hands of ambitious and designing men, the instrument of our degradation the symbol of littleness, meanness, bigotry and hypocrisy. The Romish Church sets up for herself a claim of absolute infallibility, and the various Protestant sects, professing to deride her pretensions, yet tax our credulity scarcely less. From the Episcopal Church, with her imposing ritual and elaborate ceremonials, down to modern Quakerism, with its professed abjuration of all forms, its rustic garb and look of “meek simplicity,” all seem deluded with the idea that the Church, being made after a Divine pattern, is supernaturally preserved from error. Even the Quaker regards the decision of his Yearly Meeting with a superstitious reverence scarcely inferior to that which the Catholic awards to the decrees of the Pope and the Cardinals. Do his reason and common sense suggest that the Yearly Meeting has decided erroneously or unjustly, he banishes the thought as little less than impious, becomes silent if not acquiescent, and mayhap lays his reason and common sense a sacrifice on the altar of the Church. Poor man! let him be once fairly convinced that ecclesiastical bodies, however sacred their professions, however worthy of esteem within their legitimate sphere, are yet only human, and without authority to bind the conscience even of the humblest of God’s children, and he will no longer dare to offer such a sacrifice, to dishonor his Creator by debasing his powers. It would be easy to show that this claim of supernatural power, on the part of the organized Church, is at war with the whole genius and spirit of Christianity as exhibited in the life and teachings of Jesus, and without warrant in the writings of the Apostles and primitive Christians, as well as subversive of individual rights and responsibilities. Jesus nowhere indicated an intention to organize a Church clothed with such power. Indeed, it does not appear from his recorded words that he even contemplated any organization whatever of those who should embrace his doctrines, He specified no such work as incumbent upon those whom lie sent forth as witnesses of the truth, but left them to adopt such instrumentalities as might Recur to them adapted to promote the object of their mission The Apostles did indeed organize Churches, but they did not HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA pretend that they were framed after a Divinely prescribed pattern, still less that they were clothed with a supernatural power. “It was not,” says a learned writer, “until the number of personal followers of Jesus increased by thousands, and the need of some organization began to be felt, that any thing like the institution of a distinct and permanent religious society appears to have been definitely contemplated. And then nothing more was done, than was necessary to that present exigency. Thus the whole institution of the Church at Jerusalem grew up by degrees, as one step after another was called for by a succession of circumstances altogether peculiar.” A religious periodical of high authority in matters of ecclesiastical history, testified, some years since, as follows: Men have clung as with a dying grasp to a few shreds of ancient tradition, and deemed it sacrilege to meddle with these consecrated relics. They have attached a peculiar sacredness to their own constitutions, councils, ordinances, creeds and decisions, as if they rested on Divine right and apostolic authority.... The beautiful theories of Church government, devised with so much care and put together with so much skill and art, have, we are sure, no manner of resemblance to the Churches mentioned in the Acts and Epistles. The primitive Christians, could they come among us, would be not a little surprised to hear their assemblies, gathered by stealth for worship, with or without particular standing officers, referred to as the models after which the superstructure of denominational Churches is supposed to be fashioned. They were simple- hearted men and women, exposed to continual persecution, and bound together in Christian love; forming and modifying their regulations exactly as was needed; never once dreaming that they or their successors were bound to a single system by some great code, provided by Divine authority.... The reason of associating together was, to further this great end, mutually to enliven the feelings of devotion, strengthen the principles of piety, and aid in, and urge to, the discharge of duty.... Some things were practiced in some Churches and not in others. Some officers existed in one and not in another; some met in one place and not in another; and all had a right to do whatever might be conducive to the general good. We have dwelt at some length on this point, because we deem it of fundamental importance. This claim of organic communion with God lies at the root of many evils in the Churches around us, and hence we desire to make our denial of its validity as emphatic as possible. We would impress upon the minds of all whom our voice may reach, the truth, that there is no mysterious alchemy whereby a company of men, mean and selfish as individuals, are transmuted into a holy body; no Divine afflatus vouchsafed to them in the mass, superseding the necessity of personal conformity to the will of God. Such a claim is the acme of superstition and imposture. It is amazing that it should for so long a period have deceived and befouled the nations! When will the people learn that there is nothing Divine, nothing too sacred for investigation, In the HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA artificial arrangements and prescribed formalities of sects? Alas! what multitudes join the popular Churches, submitting to their rites and paying the expenses of their administration, deluding themselves meanwhile with the idea that they are thus ensuring their eternal salvation, even though their daily lives are deified by sordid and debasing acts, and they scarcely lift a finger or breathe one honest aspiration for their own or the world’s moral improvement! Our inquiries into the nature and uses of Religions Organization have also brought us to the conclusion, that the Churches around us have made a vital mistake in demanding uniformity of belief in respect to scholastic theology, ordinances, rites and forms, as a condition of religious fellowship and the basis of associated effort. It would hardly be possible to exaggerate the evils resulting from this mistake. It has led the Church into dissensions, hypocrisy and all uncharitableness, and instead of promoting a manly, vigorous and healthful piety, which ever manifests itself in works of practical benevolence and would make her a burning and a shining light in the presence of surrounding darkness, it narrows the scope of her vision, dwarfs the intellect, smothers the heart, and makes her the purveyor of traditions and shams, a covert for meanness and treachery, and a hiding-place for the perpetrators and apologists of popular wickedness. It reverses the arrangements proposed by Jesus and his early followers, putting that first which should be last, the incidental in place of the primary, the temporary in place of the eternal. Jesus enjoins it upon his bearers to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness;” but the popular Church practically tells us, on pain of eternal perdition, to seek first of all the theology of that kingdom, assuring us, with impious tongue, that if we only master that, get its different parts properly arranged and labeled, and learn to believe them, however inconsistent with each other, and contrary to our reason and common sense, the righteousness may safely enough be left to take care of itself! Instead of requiring as the evidence of our piety the “fruits” demanded in the Gospel of Jesus, it sneers at “good works” as “carnal” and inefficacious, bids us mind our catechisms, disciplines and confessions of faith; to come regularly to its assemblies, and worship according to its prescribed forms! It is no wonder that politicians, bent upon schemes of selfish aggrandizement, mock at the Higher Law, and declare their own oppressive statutes a finality, when the Church is found thus corrupt and apostate. No marvel that insatiate Wealth tramples upon lowly Poverty; that War’s “red thunders” reverberate round the world that Drunkenness counts its victims by tens of thousands; that Land Monopoly grinds humanity in the dust; that Lust is doing his work of defilement and shame with impunity; that immortal beings are driven to their daily toil tinder the lash, and even sold in the shambles, when the Church proffers absolution for such crimes upon terms so easy of fulfilment. The natural counterpart of this false and superstitious devotion to creeds and forms is an unnatural sourness and melancholy — a Pharisaical spirit, which frowns upon amusements as an offence to God, and which would cover the face of society with a sanctimonious gloom as repugnant to Religion as to unperverted human nature. The victims of this spirit converse about religion, not in manly and natural tones, indicative of HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA sincerity and earnestness, but in a whining, canting manner, as if it were a burden hard to be borne, but which they reluctantly consent to carry during their mortal life, as the only means of eternal salvation! We are persuaded that the exhibitions of this spirit on the part of the Church have produced incalculable mischief, by exciting the prejudices of the young against all Religion as necessarily of an ascetic character, and by placing amusements beyond the pale of Christian influence, thus making them liable to excesses which might otherwise be avoided. The Christian, of all other persons, should not be of a sad countenance, but ever cheerful and hopeful in his demeanor, making the very atmosphere he breathes a witness of the serene joy that dwells in his heart. No false idea of sanctity, no superstitious or fanatical “worry” about his soul, should ho ever suffer to make his presence distasteful and unwelcome to the young. We cannot undertake to particularize all the errors of principle and practice in the popular Churches, which our investigations have revealed to us; but there is one more which we must not pass in silence. We allude to that vicious and despotic feature in the organization of most of them, which, beginning in the subordination of the individual to the local Church, or to Elders. Overseers, or other officers thereof; ends in the subjection of local bodies to some larger assembly or central power. There are, indeed, some Churches which have attempted to abolish this system, but they are still too much bound by usage to practices inconsistent with their theories. Experience, as well as observation, has taught us that local organizations should in the first place be formed upon principles which will offer the best possible safeguard to the equal rights of the individual members, and discourage tyranny, whether of the many or the few; and, in the next place, that they should never allow any other body, however numerous or imposing, to exercise authority over them. The forms of Church organization, instead of being such as are suggested by the ideas of individual freedom and responsibility which pervade the teachings of Jesus, would seem to have been borrowed from anti- Christian and despotic systems of civil government, whereof force is the vital and controlling element. Under such forms religious tyranny, always difficult of repression is sure to spring up into a vigorous life. It would be easy to illustrate this truth by a reference to the history of any of those Churches in which the affiliated and subordinating system of government prevails, but the experience of many of our number naturally leads us to point to the Society of Friends as a warning against this lamentable evil. The setting apart of ministers as a distinct order of persons, and for life; the appointment of Elders to sit in judgment upon the services of the Ministry, and to determine officially what is and what is not inspiration; the subjection of individual liberty to official dictation; the subordination of Preparative to Monthly, of Monthly to Quarterly, of Quarterly to Yearly Meetings; all this affords a covert for despotic authority. It is an arrangement whereby the few are enabled to control the many, and to carry into successful operation their plans for keeping the Church popular with the world, while she is trampling upon her own most vital principles, and obstinately refusing to do the work for which she was originally HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA established. It aggravates, moreover, all the other evils which have crept into the body, and renders the work of reform extremely difficult, if not impossible. But while we thus earnestly deny the claims of Religious Associations to Divine authority, and maintain that they form no exception to the rule, that “institutions are made for man, not man for institutions,” and while we would fearlessly expose all that is wrong in existing Churches, we do not therefore repudiate such associations as necessarily evil. Founded upon right principles, adjusted to the wants of our social nature, within their legitimate sphere as the servants and helpers, not the masters of the soul, as a means and not an end, we esteem them of great importance. It is only when they interpose between our consciences and God, assuming to tell us authoritatively how much and what we must believe, and virtually trampling under foot the right of private judgment, that our manhood prompts us to reject them The mistakes which men have made in their efforts to realize the benefits of Religious Association, however strange and even preposterous they may appear to us at this advanced period of the world’s history, were only the incidents of Humanity imperfectly informed and developed. They should not therefore discourage us, still less lead us into other errors at the opposite extreme. Men have also made great mistakes in science, and in things pertaining to physical life — in astronomy, chemistry, and the mechanic arts, and even in agriculture; and it would be no more absurd to urge these mistakes as a reason for abandoning all associated effort in such matters, than it would be to allege the similar blunders into which men have fallen in regard to Religion, and the abuses growing out of them, as a reason why we should resist the strong impulse of our nature which prompts us to combine our efforts for the promotion of piety and good morals. Past errors and present imperfections, instead of affording an argument against organization, are only illustrations of its necessity, as a means whereby the strong may help the weak, the highly cultivated soul minister to the edification of those less enlightened, and social influence become the aid and support of individual virtue. Beavers do not more naturally combine to build their habitations, than men and women, inspired by a common love of God and Humanity, and a common thirst for religious excellence, mingle and combine their individual efforts for the promotion of pure and undefiled religion among themselves and throughout the world. In forming The Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, we have followed the instincts of our moral and social nature, and acted Upon the settled conviction, that such an organization was necessary to our highest efficiency in the work which our Heavenly Father has given us to do. We seek not to diminish, but to intensify in ourselves the sense of individual responsibility — not to escape from duty, but to aid one another in its performance — to lift up before all who may be influenced by our words or actions a high standard of moral and religious excellence — to commit ourselves before the world as the friends of righteousness and truth, and as under the highest obligations to labor foe the redemption of mankind from every form of error and sin. It has been our honest endeavor to avoid, if possible, the HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA mistakes into which previous organizations have so generally fallen, and especially those radical errors which are pointed out in this address. To this end we have made our association as simple as possible, having done little more than to provide for an annual assembly. We claim for this organization no other powers than such as we ourselves have conferred upon it in consistency with our own and others’ individual freedom. We make no draft upon the veneration of our fellow-men for any arrangement that we have adopted, or may adopt hereafter. Veneration is due only to God, and to those eternal principles of Rectitude, Justice and Love, of which He is the embodiment. We have set forth no forms nor ceremonies; nor have we sought to impose upon ourselves or others a system of doctrinal belief. Such matters we have left where Jesus left them, with the conscience and common sense of the individual. It has been our cherished purpose to restore the union between Religion and Life, and to place works of goodness and mercy far above theological speculations and scholastic subtleties of doctrine. Creed-making is not among the objects of our association. Christianity, as it presents itself to our minds, is too deep, too broad, and too high, to be brought within the cold propositions of the theologian. We should as soon think of bottling up the sunshine for the use of posterity, as of attempting to adjust the free and universal principles taught and exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth to the angles of a man-made creed. Churches which undertake this impious and impracticable work doom themselves thereby to barrenness and death. Instead of being warmed and animated by that living faith which “works by love” and overcomes the world, they lapse into bigotry and intolerance, and their formularies, having no life in themselves, become at length mere petrifactions, fossil remains of ideas, which, however significant once, have no longer any adaptation to the condition of the race. It is sad to behold a Church, with Christ’s name upon its brow, turning away from the wells of immortal truth, and clinging with superstitious pertinacity and veneration to the shell of an ancient creed, or the letter of an ancient Discipline, from which the original soul long since took its flight; swift to frown upon the slightest departure from its forms and theories, but slow to utter a testimony against a popular sin; ever zealous in tithing “mint, anise and cumin,” but heavy of step and slow of speech when the great interests of Humanity are at stake. Our terms of membership are at once simple, practical and catholic. If we may be said to have a test, it is one which applies to the heart and the life, not to the head nor to any of its speculations. Our platform is broad as Humanity, and comprehensive as Truth. We interrogate no man as to his theological belief; we send no Committees to pry into the motives of those who may desire to share the benefits of our Association; but open the door to all who recognize the Equal Brotherhood of the Human Family, without regard to sex, color or condition, and who acknowledge the duty of defining and illustrating their faith in God, not by assent to a creed, but by lives of personal purity, and works of beneficence and charity to mankind. If, by any possibility, there should be found here and there a sincere inquirer after truth, who may not feel himself included in this invitation to membership, we shall HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA still bid him welcome to our assemblies, and listen with patience to whatever his highest convictions may prompt him to offer. We do not seek to bind our Association together by external bands, nor by agreement in theological opinions. Identity of object, oneness of spirit in respect to the practical ditties of life, the communion of soul with soul in a common love of the beautiful and true, and a common aspiration after moral excellence, — these are our bond of union; and when these shall die out in our hearts, nothing will remain to hold us together; and those who shall come after us will not be subjected to the trouble of tearing down a great ecclesiastical edifice, constructed by our hands, before they can make provision for the supply of their own religious wants. The name of our Association is suggestive of its history and principles. As a sign of our adherence to the great moral testimonies which the Society of Friends has so long professed, as well as for historical reasons, we have adopted in part the name chosen by Fox, Penn, and other reformers of a past generation, for the Societies which they founded, and which, we regret to say, have in our day widely departed from the spirit and principles of those illustrious men. The term “Progressive” is intended as a recognition of the fact, that our knowledge of truth is limited, and as an indication of an honest purpose on our part to “go on unto perfection,” and to avail ourselves from time to time of whatever new light may be shed upon our path. Our meetings are at present conducted very much like those of the Society of Friends, except that they are not ruled by Elders, and that we have among us no privileged class called Ministers. We welcome alike the word of exhortation, the voice of prayer, and the song of praise and thanksgiving, whichever may well up from the “inner fulness” of the devoted heart; and if at any time words shall be uttered that appear to us to savor not of life but of contention and speculation, while we may feel called upon to speak our own sentiments with freedom, we hope not to be found denying the liberty of speech to others. Some may fear that liberty so unrestricted may lead to disorder and confusion, but we are persuaded that gentleness and forbearance are more potent than official dictation, and that the instinctive sense of right and wrong, in the breast of even a misguided and obtrusive man, will afford the best safeguard of propriety and order in our assemblies. As a Yearly Meeting, we disclaim all disciplinary authority, whether over individual members or local Associations. We shall, from time to time, declare our sentiments on such subjects as may demand our attention; but they will be armed with no other force than that which our moral influence may impart, or which may belong to the nature of truth when earnestly and honestly spoken. It will be our aim to cherish freedom of thought and speech, on every subject relating to man’s highest welfare. In saying this, we have no mental reservations to mock the earnest seeker after truth. We have no thunderbolts to launch at those whose perceptions of truth lead them to different conclusions from those of the majority; no edicts of excommunication to scare the soul from its researches; no sanctimonious scowl to dart at him who carries the torch of free inquiry into the very holy of holies. We know of no question too sacred for examination nor in respect to which human reason should yield to human HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA authority, however ancient or venerable. Our organization is formed upon such principles, that while the body will not be responsible for the acts of individuals, so, on the other hand, individuals and minorities may avoid responsibility for any acts of the body which they do not approve, by recording their votes against such acts, or, if they think the case demands it, by a protest. It will, more-over, be the right of any individual to withdraw from the Association at any moment, without being required to give reasons for so doing, and without being subjected to censure on the part of the meeting. Believing that local Associations, similar in their principles and aims to ours, would meet the wants of multitudes at the present day, and that they would be likely to accomplish great good, we hope to see such established in every community where a sufficient number of persons are found ready for the work. The men and women who are engaged in the various moral reforms of the day, and who have become weary of the prevalent sectarianism, might, we believe, gain strength for their special labors by establishing regular meetings on the First day of the week, for mutual edification and improvement for an interchange of the sympathies growing out of common pursuits and trials, and for the cultivation of their moral and religious powers. The principle of human fraternity would be thereby strengthened among them, and their children be preserved from many unhealthful influences, and prepared to meet the responsibilities of, life in a spirit becoming to the age in which their lot has been cast Surely, these are objects worthy of our earnest thought and most careful attention. Our province is not that of iconoclasts alone. We must build as well as destroy. If there are evil institutions to be overthrown and pernicious customs to be uprooted, so also is there need of a new social fabric, of which righteousness and peace are to be the foundations. If there are vices to be done away, so also are there virtues to be promoted; if there are corrupt frees to be hewn down and cast into the fire so also are there plants of godliness to he trained, and flowers of heavenly beauty and fragrance to be nurtured. And in this work we must help each other, not occasionally and incidentally alone, but regularly and systematically. The arrangements for meetings should in every case be adapted to the peculiar wants and tastes of the communities in which they are respectively held, care being taken to keep forms subordinate to works of practical goodness and beneficence. It is neither necessary nor desirable that one meeting should be an exact copy of another. Adhering closely to fundamental principles, there will still be scope for a variety of modes and forms. The local Associations should do more than hold weekly meetings. They should regard it a sacred duty to provide for the visitation and help of the poor in their respective neighborhoods, to lend their sympathy and encouragement to such as are borne down under heavy trials, and to afford prompt and efficient aid in every right effort for the promotion of Temperance, Peace, Anti- Slavery, Education, the Equal Rights of Woman, &c.; that thus the public may be convinced that the Religion they seek to diffuse and establish is not an aggregation of mysteries, abstractions, and unmeaning forms, but a Religion for practical, HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA every-day use, whose natural tendency is to fructify the conscience, intensify the sense of moral responsibility, purify and ennoble the aims of men, and thus to make society wiser, better, and happier. Such Associations, moreover, ought to regard it as their special function to cultivate and develop the religious sentiment among their members, and, so far as possible, in the community generally. For this purpose they would do well to establish libraries, in which the works of eminent anti-sectarian writers upon moral, ethical, and religious subjects might become accessible to all classes, especially to the young. Such Associations would naturally communicate, by letter or otherwise, with the Yearly Meeting, each giving That body the results of its own peculiar experience, and receiving in return the experiences of others, with such suggestions as the Quarterly Meeting, upon a careful comparison of the whole, may be qualified to make. The various Yearly Meetings may also strengthen one another’s hands by fraternal, correspondence and counsel; and thus, without ecclesiastical authority or domination on the part of any, the whole body of believers in practical Christianity throughout the country may be cemented together in Christian love, and prepared to labor in harmony for the redemption of mankind from every evil and false way, and for the establishment of universal righteousness, purity, and peace A Church thus united would wield a moral power like that of the Apostles and immediate followers of Jesus, and the means by which it would conquer the world are those which an Apostle has described: BY PURENESS, BY KNOWLEDGE, BY LONG-SUFFERING, BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, BY LOVE UNFEIGNED, BY THE ARMOR OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ON THE RIGHT HAND AND ON THE LEFT. Dear Friends! are these ideas of a Church Utopian? Are we dreamers and enthusiasts? or is the day foretold by ancient prophets and bards beginning to dawn upon our darkness and to light the dull horizon with its reviving rays? Are we always to walk amid shadows and shams? Do we not hear the voice of God speaking to us in the deep silence of our souls, and uttering itself in the events that are passing before us, bidding us awake from our slumbers, to cast away our doubts, and purify ourselves for the work of building up a pure Christianity upon the earth Are not the fields every where white unto the harvest? and are there not all around us men and women, whose hearts God hath touched with holy fire, and who stand ready to enlist with us in this glorious cause? Let us, then, not falter, nor hesitate. What if our numbers are few, and the hosts of superstition and sin stand before us in menacing array? What are their boasts to us, when we know that the truth we promulgate is “a part of the celestial machinery of God,” and that, “whoso puts that machinery in gear for mankind hath the Almighty to turn his wheel?”

O, brother man I fold to thy heart thy brother Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there; To worship rightly, is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. Follow with reverent steps the great example Of Him whoso holy work was `doing good;’ HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA So shall the wide earth seem our Father’s temple, Each loving life a psalm of gratitude. Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangor Of wild war music o’er the earth shall cease; Love shall tread out the baleful five of anger, And in its ashes plant the tree of peace.

Signed on behalf and by direction of the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, held at Old Kennett, Chester County, by adjournments, from the 22d to the 25th of Fifth Month, 1853. Joseph A. Dugdale, Sidney Peirce, Clerks

May 25: I quarrel with most botanists’ description of different species, say of willows. It is a difference without a distinction. No stress is laid upon the peculiarity of the species in question, and it requires a very careful examination and comparison to detect any difference in the description. Having described you one species, he begins again at the beginning when he comes to the next and describes it absolutely, wasting time; in fact does not describe the species, but rather the genus or family; as if, in describing the particular races of men, you should say of each in its turn that it is but dust and to dust it shall return. The object should be to describe not those particulars in which a species resembles its genus, for they are many and that would be but a negative description, but those in which it is peculiar, for they are few and positive.

August 12, Friday: A fleet from Egypt arrived to support the Ottomans against Russia.

When the wreck of the barque Rebecca was auctioned by Mr. Weedon at Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land, the high bid was merely £5, submitted by Dr. Grant, lessee of the Van Diemen’s Land Co.’s Woolnorth estate. There was no particular salvage carried out, and casks of beer would be found by passers-by for decades afterwards. The scene of the wreck was clearly locatable by the presence of one of the ship’s anchors on the beach (most of the bottles of a case of beer were still drinkable when found in 1899). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1854

In this year there were 4 shipwrecks near Van Diemen’s Land: the Alert, a schooner, ran aground in the Arthur River during a violent storm, without loss of life (the remains of this vessel would in 2005 be exposed by a storm), the Lioness, a schooner, was lost at Clarke Island on the Furneaux Group, with 4 lives, the Brahmin, a full-rigged ship, was lost off King Island, with the loss of 16 lives, and the Dolphin, a cutter, was wrecked in Louisa Bay, with 11 lives lost.

Severe floods and fires ravaged Van Diemen’s Land.

The surviving Van Diemen’s Land aboriginals of pure blood were 3 men, 11 women, and 2 children.

Native Tasmanians

1802 5,000

1830 300

1847 47

1854 16

1876 0

FIGURING OUT WHAT AMOUNTS TO A “HISTORICAL CONTEXT” IS WHAT THE CRAFT OF HISTORICIZING AMOUNTS TO, AND THIS NECESSITATES DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE SET OF EVENTS THAT MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE BEFORE EVENT E COULD BECOME POSSIBLE, AND MOST CAREFULLY DISTINGUISHING THEM FROM ANOTHER SET OF EVENTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA THAT COULD NOT POSSIBLY OCCUR UNTIL SUBSEQUENT TO EVENT E.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1855

There were 2 shipwrecks at Van Diemen’s Land: the Whistler, an American full rigged ship, was wrecked with 2 lives lost, and the Maypo, a brig, was wrecked with 4 lives lost, at the northern end of King Island.

Mary Howitt’s BIRDS AND FLOWERS AND OTHER COUNTRY THINGS and THE PICTURE BOOK FOR THE YOUNG.

Publication by Ticknor & Fields in Boston of William Howitt’s LAND, LABOUR, AND GOLD; OR TWO YEARS IN VICTORIA WITH VISITS TO SYDNEY AND VAN DIEMEN’S LAND, which would come to be available at the Concord Public Library and from which Henry Thoreau would learn of the gold-diggings at Ballarat and Bendigo in Australia — diggings about which he would wax sarcastic in “LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE”. LAND, LABOUR, AND GOLD I LAND, LABOUR, AND GOLD II After reading Howitt’s account of the Australian gold-diggings one evening, I had in my mind’s eye, all night, the numerous valleys, with their streams, all cut up with foul pits, from ten to one hundred feet deep, and half a dozen feet across, as close as they can be dug, and partly filled with water –the locality to which men furiously rush to probe for their fortunes, –uncertain where they shall break ground, –not knowing but the gold is under their camp itself, –sometimes digging one hundred and sixty feet before they strike the vein, or then missing it by a foot, –turned into demons, and regardless of each other’s rights, in their thirst for riches –whole valleys, for thirty miles, suddenly honey-combed by the pits of the miners, so that even hundreds are drowned in them, –standing in water, and covered with mud and clay, they work night and day, dying of exposure and disease. Having read this, and partly forgotten it, I was thinking, accidentally, of my own unsatisfactory life, doing as others do; and with that vision of the diggings still before me, I asked myself, why I might not be washing some gold daily, though it were only the finest particles, –why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold within me, and work that mine. There is a Ballarat, a Bendigo for you, –what though it were a Sulky Gully? At any rate, I might pursue some path, however solitary and narrow and crooked, in which I could walk with love and reverence. Where-ever a man separates from the multitude, and goes his own way in this mood, there indeed is a fork in the road, though ordinary travellers may see only a gap in the paling. His solitary path across-lots will turn out the higher way of the two. Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction; but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful. Is not our native soil auriferous? Does not a stream from the golden mountains flow through our native valley? and has not this for more than geologic ages been bringing down the shining particles and forming for us? Yet, strange to tell, if a digger steal away, prospecting for this true gold, into the unexplored solitudes around us, there is no danger that any will dog his steps, and endeavor to supplant him. He may claim and undermine the whole valley even, both the cultivated and the HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA uncultivated portions, his whole life long in peace, for no one will ever dispute his claim. They will not mind his cradles or his toms. He is not confined to a claim twelve feet square, as at Ballarat, but may mine anywhere, and wash the whole wide world in his tom. Howitt says of the man who found the great nugget which weighed twenty- eight pounds, at the Bendigo diggings in Australia: –“He soon began to drink; got a horse and rode all about, generally at full gallop, and when he met people, called out to inquire if they knew who he was, and then kindly informed them that he was ‘the bloody wretch that had found the nugget.’ At last he rode full speed against a tree, and I think however nearly knocked his brains out.” I think, however, there was no danger of that, for he had already knocked his brains out against the nugget. Howitt adds, “He is a hopelessly ruined man.” But he is a type of the class. They are all fast men. Hear some of the names of the places where they dig: – “Jackass Flat,” –“Sheep’s-Head Gully,” –“Murderer’s Bar,” etc.

William Howitt’s book amounted to a collection of the letters he had written to his wife, Mary Howitt, and contemporaries in England.

The well-traveled author was intent to dispel much of the “rose water romancing” that Australian newspapers used to describe their new gold rich colony. “All this sludge and filth and confusion, swarms of people, many of them gentlemen of birth and education, all labouring as for life.” Of Bendigo he wrote that “There is an appearance of a more thorough mining population here than I have seen at any other digging ... huts and people all busy among the hills, reminding you a good deal of the lead mines of Derbyshire.” “We diggers are horribly destructive of the picturesque.” “Neither the snows of Canada or the heats of India present any obstacles to them.” “Others had nothing but a pick and shovel. These you see are rough fellows, who can live any how, and who can lie out of doors in winter pretty much like horses and cows. The lighter they travel the faster they go.” “Drunkenness therefore goes on in reality on the diggings uncontrolled ... you can not avoid running your heads against crowds of drunken diggers, your noses against the fumes of vile rum and your ears against the din and uproar of dozens of the dens of debauch.” “One of them [the “hairy hairystocracy” of the suddenly HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA rich] the other day asked the fare for a cab for the day. ‘Perhaps more than you like’ said the Jarvie, for the digger was a very common looking fellow. ‘What is it?’ asked the digger. ‘Seven pounds for the day,’ ‘There is ten,’ said the fellow; ‘you can light your pipe with the difference’.” “A gentleman high in government, told me the other day that he was about to take one of these carriages for some distance; but the man said ‘We don’t drive the likes of you now ’a days’. ‘Well but what is the fare? My money is as good as another’s I suppose’, ‘oh!’ replied the fellow hesitating ‘I don’t know — in fact we don’t drive the likes of you now!’ And that was all he could get out of him.”

Thoreau transcribed a section from volume two of the book that surely must have reminded him of his own epic about the ant battle:

January: Friend William Henry Harvey visited Tasmania, where some of his dredging for marine specimens would be performed for him by chained convicts guarded with dogs (new transportations of convicts to this island had ceased only a couple of years earlier).

BETWEEN ANY TWO MOMENTS ARE AN INFINITE NUMBER OF MOMENTS, AND BETWEEN THESE OTHER MOMENTS LIKEWISE AN INFINITE NUMBER, THERE BEING NO ATOMIC MOMENT JUST AS THERE IS NO ATOMIC POINT HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA ALONG A LINE. MOMENTS ARE THEREFORE FIGMENTS. THE PRESENT MOMENT IS A MOMENT AND AS SUCH IS A FIGMENT, A FLIGHT OF THE IMAGINATION TO WHICH NOTHING REAL CORRESPONDS. SINCE PAST MOMENTS HAVE PASSED OUT OF EXISTENCE AND FUTURE MOMENTS HAVE YET TO ARRIVE, WE NOTE THAT THE PRESENT MOMENT IS ALL THAT EVER EXISTS — AND YET THE PRESENT MOMENT BEING A MOMENT IS A FIGMENT TO WHICH NOTHING IN REALITY CORRESPONDS.

October: The North American Review, Volume 81, Issue 169, reviewed William Howitt’s LAND, LABOUR, AND GOLD; OR TWO YEARS IN VICTORIA WITH VISITS TO SYDNEY AND VAN DIEMEN’S LAND (Boston: Ticknor & Fields): We are sorry that we have not room for an extended analysis of this book, undoubtedly the most trustworthy sketch of Australian life that has yet appeared. One of the author’s leading purposes is to exhibit the needs of the Australian colonies, the inefficiency of their present political administration, and the expediency of granting them constitutions, nuder which they may administer their own affairs, conduct the plans of internal improvement essential to the development of their resources, and hold under due restraint as heterogeneous a population as that of Noah’s Ark. The work is in the form of letters, and evidently is a republication of letters actually written; for its only fault is the very repetitiousness and redundancy which would result from one’s forgetting in a subsequent what he had written in a previous epistle. With this exception, the author fully sustains, and sometimes perhaps exceeds, his previous reputation as a descriptive writer. AUSTRALIA The North American Review also reviewed in this issue a new edition of Margaret Fuller Ossoli’s WOMAN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, AND KINDRED PAPERS RELATING TO THE SPHERE, CONDITION, AND DUTIES OF WOMAN, issued as Part I of an extended volume AT HOME AND ABROAD, OR THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN AMERICA AND EUROPE as edited by her little brother the Reverend Arthur Buckminster Fuller, with an introduction by Horace Greeley (Boston: John P. Jewett & Co.): No true word on the themes treated of in this volume can fail to awaken a deep interest. It comes to every home with its voice of counsel, perhaps of warning. The treatise which occupies the first half of the volume whose title is given above, was published by Margaret Fuller, shortly before her departure for Europe, and at that time was widely read and much valued by thoughtful persons, many of whom did not agree with its solution of one of the great problems of the age, but sympathized with its noble and pure spirit, and admired its unmistakable genius. The first edition, we learn, was soon exhausted, but the author’s absence from the country prevented another edition at that time, and her tragical death by shipwreck, which is so well remembered by the public, still further postponed its republication. We are now indebted to her brother, Rev. Arthur B. Fuller, for a new edition, carefully prepared, and enriched Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA by papers, previously unpublished, on the same general theme. Every page is loaded, we had almost said overloaded, with thought, and the subject is one which the writer had so near her heart that it commanded her best powers and warmest sympathies, and cannot fail to instruct and interest the reader, even when there is not perfect agreement with the views advanced. There was much in the social position of Margaret Fuller to qualify her to speak wisely on this subject. Her Memoirs show her to have been surrounded by a very large circle of female friends, married and unmarried, with whom she occupied the most confidential relations. She had, too, a quick sympathy and a generous heart, which made her feel as her own the experience of others. The general aim of the book is to elevate the standard of female excellence and usefulness, and to point out the means by which these may be promoted and their obstacles removed. While the writer clearly distinguishes the diversity of the sphere and characteristics of woman from those of the other sex, she would open for her every mode of activity for which she finds herself adapted, widening much her present range of avocations. The gross and selfish sentiment, seldom avowed in theory, but too often exhibited in practice, that woman is made solely for the advantage and service of man, is indignantly and justly rebuked, and woman is exhorted to live first for God, ever remembering herself to be an immortal spirit, travelling with man on the same pilgrimage to eternity, and preparing for that state where “they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels.” The marriage relation, like every other, is one of those positions which, to be filled worthily, requires one to be ever noble and holy, and should never be lightly viewed; but its duties are not all that requires the earnest activity of woman, nor can even these be fulfilled without culture of both mind and heart. Viewing marriage and the relation of mother growing out of it as of the most sacred consequence, the writer impresses us with the importance of preparing for and fulfilling these relations with the most elevated motives. And here she finds enough to reprehend in the general customs of society. Parents are too apt to shape the whole education of the daughter so as to make her attractive to the other sex, and this by the conferment of showy and superficial accomplishments, as if it were the last of all misfortunes for a female to fail of being married, and as if her fate after that event were of comparative insignificance. Wherever society is unjust to woman, the author is eloquent in her indignation. She severely deals with that social unfairness, which makes of woman, as soon as she falls, a hopeless outcast beyond the pale of sympathy or reformation, while the serpent who has been her ruin is hospitably received and permitted the opportunity to do more of the work of destruction, and even to make his boast of the evil he has done. At the same time, she attributes this state of things to the want of a proper public opinion among women, who ought to make the seducer aware that he has fallen with his victim, and to exclude him, no less than her, from respectability. The views of the writer are illustrated by many shining examples, from both ancient and modern times, of true women. The author, while acknowledging the sphere of woman not to be identical with that of man, does not yield to the common notion, HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA that woman is without equal intellect, or that it is improper to cultivate it. She holds that woman has a mind as noble as that of man, and is entitled to every fair opportunity to store it with useful knowledge, and to develop it in a legitimate exercise of its powers. In short, woman is, in her view, a soul preparing for eternity, and while on earth her position should be so noble, and the employment of all her powers so definite and earnest, as to call forth what is highest in her nature, and to fit her for a sphere yet wider and nobler in eternity. The “Kindred Papers,” which the Editor has judiciously selected, and which occupy some two hundred pages of this interesting volume, afford not merely a varied and enlarged expression of intellectual endowment and culture, but –exhibiting as they do the author herself as a daughter and sister, then as a wife and mother, and in all other relations as a faithful and true woman– furnish a valuable illustration of her principles, and give additional interest to what she has written. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1856

November 1, Saturday: As a former British Army officer, William Champ, was seated as the initial “Premier of Tasmania,” the island previously known as Van Diemen’s Land officially became “Tasmania.”

When Persia occupied Herat, Great Britain declared war on Persia.

Antonín Dvorák completed his apprenticeship to be a butcher, in Zlonice, Bohemia.

Henry Thoreau wrote home to Sophia Elizabeth Thoreau while at the Eagleswood community near Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

Direct Eagleswood–Perth Amboy N.J. Sat. eve Nov. 1st ’56 Dear Sophia, I have hardly had time & repose enough to write to you before. I spent the afternoon of Friday (it seems some months ago) in Worcester, but failed to see Blake, he having “gone to the horse race”! in Boston;–to atone for which I have just received a letter from him, asking me to stop at Worcester & lecture on my return— I called on Brown & Higginson, & in the evening came by way of Norwich to N.Y. in the steamer Commonwealth, and though it was so windy on land, had a perfectly smooth passage, and about as good a sleep as usually at home. Reached NY about 7 Am, too late for the John Potter (there was’nt any Jonas) so I spent the forenoon there, called on Greeley, (who was not in) met Bellew in Broadway and walked into his work-shop, read at the Astor Library &c &c– I arrived here, about 30 miles from N.Y. about 5 pm saturday, in company with Miss E. Peabody, who was returning in the same covered wagon from the Landing to Eagleswood, which last place she has just left for the winter. This is a queer place— There is one large long stone building, which cost some $40000, in which I do not know exactly who or how many lurk–(one or two familiar faces, & more familiar names have turned up)–a few shops & offices, an old farm house and Mr Spring’s perfectly private residence within 20 rods of the main building. “The City of Perth Amboy” is about as big as Concord, and Eagleswood is 1 1/4 miles S W of it, on the bay side. The central fact here is evidently Mr Weld’s school–recently established–around which various other things revolve. Saturday evening I went to the school room, hall, or what not, to see the children & their teachers & patrons dance. Mr Weld, a kind looking man with a long white beard, danced with them, & Mr Cutler his assistant, lately from Cambridge, who is acquainted Sanborn, – Mr Spring– and others. This Sat. eve-dance is a regular thing, & it is thought something strange if you dont attend. They take it for HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA granted that you want society! Sunday forenoon, I attended a sort of Quaker meeting at the same place– (The Quaker aspect & spirit prevails here— Mrs Spring says “–does thee not?”) where it was expected that the spirit would move me (I having been previously spoken to about it) & it, or something else, did, an inch or so. I said just enough to set them a little by the ears & make it lively. I had excused my self by saying that I could not adapt myself to a particular audience, for all the speaking & lecturing here has reference to the children, who are far the greater part of the audience, & they are not so bright as N.E. children Imagine them sitting close to the wall all around a hall– with old Quaker looking men & women here & there. There sat Mrs ANGELINA EMILY GRIMKÉ Weld (Grimke) & her sister, two elderly grayheaded ladies, the SARAH MOORE GRIMKÉ former in extreme Bloomer costume, which was what you may call remarkable; Mr Buffum with broad face & a great white beard, looking like a pier head made of the cork tree with the bark on, as if he could buffet a considerable wave;–James G. Birney formerly candidate for the Presidency with another particularly white head & beard–Edward Palmer, the anti-money man (for whom communities were made) with also an ample beard somewhat grayish. Some of these I suspect are very worthy people. Of course you are wondering to what extent all these make one family–to what extent 20. Mrs Kirkland, another name only to me, I saw– She has just bought a lot here. They all know more about your neighbors & acquaintances than you suspected. On Sunday evening, I read the moose-story to the children to their satisfaction. Ever since I have been constantly engaged in surveying Eagleswood–through woods ravines marshes & along the shore, dodging the tide–through cat-briar mud & beggar ticks–having no time to look up or think where I am–(it takes 10 or 15 minutes before each meal to pick the beggar ticks out of my clothes–burrs & the rest are left–rents mended at the first convenient opportunity) I shall be engaged perhaps as much longer. Mr Spring wants me to help him about setting out an orchard & vineyard— Mr Birney asks me to survey a small piece for him, & Mr Alcott who has just come down here for the 3d Sunday–says that Greeley (I left my name for him) invites him & me to go to his home with him next saturday morning & spend the Sunday. It seems a twelve-month since I was not here–but I hope to get settled deep into my den again ere long. The hardest thing to find here is solitude & Concord. I am at Mr Spring’s house— Both he & she & their family are quite agreeable– I want you to write to me immediately–(just left off to talk French with the servant man–) & let Father & Mother put in a word –to whom & to aunts– Love from Henry. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1857

William Howitt’s TALLANGETTA, THE SQUATTER’S HOME. A STORY OF AUSTRALIAN LIFE.

A Tasmanian shipwreck: Viola, brig, on Friendlies Beach, no lives lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1858

The cutter Blanch was last sighted off Tasmanian’s east coast before disappearing at sea, with its crew of 5 presumably lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1860

A Tasmanian shipwreck: the brigantine Annott Lyle drifted onto rocks at , with no loss of life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1861

T.S. Mort of Sydney, Australia created the 1st machine-chilled cold-storage unit, thus relegating spices to the role of flavor-enhancement rather than the role of preservation. Louis Pasteur challenged the theory of SPICE spontaneous generation of M. Félix Archimède Pouchet, Director of the Museum of Natural History at Rouen, that organic beings are spontaneously generated about us constantly through the processes of putrefaction, by putting forth an entirely naturalistic theory of fermentation that involved the agency of “germs,” which is to say, pre-existing germinal particles.

A Tasmanian shipwreck: the schooner Tyne, near Cape Pillar, 4 lives lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1862

Two Tasmanian shipwrecks: the George Marshall, at Flinders Island, no loss of life, and the schooner Reindeer, foundered in Bass Strait, all (about 10) lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1863

Three Tasmanian shipwrecks: the schooner Red Jacket, missing in Bass Strait, about 8 lost, the brig Creole, foundered off Swan Island, 29 lives lost, and then dead and wreckage plundered, a 378-ton brig, the Grecian Queen, missing in Bass Strait, wreckage found at Swan Island, all hands lost (perhaps 10 persons). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1864

While a warden at the Blue Mountains goldfield near Trentham, Australia, Richard Henry Horne produced a lyric drama PROMETHEUS THE FIRE-BRINGER.

A Tasmanian shipwreck: the barque Sea Breeze, at Circular Head (Stanley), one life lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1865

A Tasmanian shipwreck: the cutter Glimpse, on a voyage from Wynyard to Launceston, lost with all hands including 5 passengers. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1866

Returning from the gold fields to Melbourne, Australia, Richard Henry Horne created the lyric drama PROMETHEUS THE FIRE-BRINGER. He was, with Henry Kendall, Adam Lindsay Gordon, George Gordon McCrae, and Marcus Clarke, a member of the Yorick Club, and at one point was president of the Garrick Club.

A Tasmanian shipwreck: the Netherby, off King Island. All 504 on board were saved.

The cadaver of a 6-month-old thylacine pup (Thylacinus cynocephalus, known as the Tasmanian tiger) was preserved in alcohol in a museum specimen jar in Sydney, Australia. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1869

March 3, Wednesday: The federal government of the United States appropriated $12,500 to carry out its treaty with Great Britain proclaimed on July 11, 1862, stipulating that the salaries of judges were to be paid only when they were residing where their courts were held, and stipulating in addition that Great Britain be asked to consent to abolish mixed courts (STATUTES AT LARGE, XV. 321).

The last known full-blooded Tasmanian male, William Lanne, known as King Billy, died. He was survived by a few women.

Native Tasmanians

1802 5,000

1830 300

1847 47

1854 16

1876 0

THE FALLACY OF MOMENTISM: THIS STARRY UNIVERSE DOES NOT CONSIST OF A SEQUENCE OF MOMENTS. THAT IS A FIGMENT, ONE WE HAVE RECOURSE TO IN ORDER TO PRIVILEGE TIME OVER CHANGE, APRIVILEGING THAT MAKES CHANGE SEEM UNREAL, DERIVATIVE, A MERE APPEARANCE. IN FACT IT IS CHANGE AND ONLY CHANGE WHICH WE EXPERIENCE AS REALITY, TIME BEING BY WAY OF RADICAL CONTRAST UNEXPERIENCED — A MERE INTELLECTUAL CONSTRUCT. THERE EXISTS NO SUCH THING AS A MOMENT. NO “INSTANT” HAS EVER FOR AN INSTANT EXISTED.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1873

John Boyle O’Reilly’s initial book of poetry, SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN Seas.

At a public banquet in Australia, poultry, fish, and meat that has been frozen for 6 months was offered to the guests, with no ill effect reported.

A Tasmanian shipwreck: City of Hobart, fishing boat, lost between Hobart and Blackmans Bay, 1 life lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1874

Three Tasmanian shipwrecks: the steamer British Admiral, wrecked on reef off King Island with the loss of 79 lives, the ketch Albion, disappeared off northwest coast, 2 lives presumed lost, the schooner Eclipse, near Hobart, 2 lives lost.

At Launceston, Tasmania rioters protested against a rates levy for the Deloraine railway. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1875

In Ireland, Parnell was elected for Meath.

There remained at this point 6 military Fenians still confined at Fremantle Prison on the western coast of Australia. When John Devoy sought John Boyle O’Reilly’s advice on how Clan na Gael might best effect their rescue, O’Reilly suggested that the group simply purchase an American whaling vessel and send it under the cover of legitimate business to the port of Fremantle (this recommended rescue plan would be implemented, and would be successful).

The barque Comet went under between New Zealand and Hobart, Tasmania with 13 lives lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1876

On the island of Tasmania, the Hobart-Launceston railway opened. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1876

There were 14 diehards still in residence at the intentional Christian community of Hopedale near Worcester.

Trucanini, who was regarded as the last of the full-blooded native Tasmanians, died on May 8, 1876. The genocide was completed and the “score” is that despite everything which had taken place, while the original group of 5,000 had been declining to zero at a 10-15% annual rate over a period of 74 years, no European had ever been placed on trial for the murder of a Tasmanian native — despite the fact that from time to time survivors back in the bush had been hunted for sport with high-powered rifles, as if they were big game.

Native Tasmanians

1802 5,000

1830 300

1847 47

1854 16

1876 0

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

Tasmania “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1877

Two Tasmanian shipwrecks: the collier steamship Bulli struck rocks off in Bass Strait and the collier steamship City of Hobart sank off Wilsons Promontory, but in neither case was there loss of life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1878

Tin mining began at Mount Heemskirk, Tasmania. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1882

Silver lead ore was discovered at Zeehan, Tasmania.

The Hobart, Tasmania stock exchange opened. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1883

A typhoid and diphtheria epidemic on the island of Tasmania prompted public health legislation.

Three Tasmanian shipwrecks: a cutter, the Beryl, capsised off Tamar Heads, with 2 lives lost, a steamer, the Tasman, struck the Hippolyte Rocks off the Tasman Peninsula and sank, with no loss of life (this hulk would be rediscovered in about 2004), and the 500-ton barque Asterope ran onto Hebe Reef before sinking at Tamar Heads, with no loss of life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1884

A Tasmanian shipwreck: Farningham Composite barque, collided with iron barque Vanguard, and an order was given to abandon ship. The crew of the Farningham Composite was transferred to the Vanguard but 3 were trapped in its forecastle and lost their lives. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1886

On the island of Tasmania, copper was found at Mount Lyell.

Launceston, Tasmania was proclaimed a city. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1888

From this year until 1909, the government of Tasmania would be offering £1 each (the equivalent of perhaps £100 or more in today’s currency) for the heads of adult Thylacinus cynocephalus, known as the Tasmanian tiger, plus 10 shillings per pup head. In all 2,184 bounties would be paid out — although this most likely is far fewer than those actually killed by these white intrusives with attitude problems and projectile weapons. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1890

The iron barque Carlisle struck rocks off Wilson’s Promontory but in Tasmanian waters and sank quickly, but no lives were lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1891

The brigantine Circe was wrecked upon a sand bar at Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania without loss of life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1894

The Australian and Tasmanian governments introduced the sort of regressive flat-rate income tax that would help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1895

Tasmania embraced Australian Eastern Standard Time. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1897

December 31, “Black Friday”: On New Year’s Eve a 3-day bushfire reached its peak in Tasmania. Devastating fires burned around Hobart and across the Mount Wellington ranges, in which it is estimated 6 people died and of course thousands of animals; 43 properties were destroyed between Oyster Cove and Mount Wellington, including the Longley Hotel, a police station, and the post office. Only the tower and its bell remained of one of the churches — and 70 years later, during February 1967, history would repeat itself — again this church would be consumed leaving only the tower with its bell. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1898

Four Tasmanian shipwrecks: the ketch Annie Ward sank in a storm off South Arm, with the loss of 3 lives, the schooner Annie McDougall and the steamer Grafton struck the same north spit of Hell’s Gates within two months of each other, with no lives lost on either vessel, and the SS Grafton sank at Macquarie Head on the west coast. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

20TH CENTURY

1900

Macquarie Island became a Tasmanian dependency. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1901

January 1, Tuesday: A grandfather clock ticked and finally the 20th Century began. Rose Macaulay, who had been born in 1881, would recall in 1923 in TOLD BY AN IDIOT the general disappointment that had obtained in the year 1900 when the Astronomer Royal had announced that the new century had not already begun as of January 1, 1900, that it would not in fact begin for another year, until this date of January 1, 1901: “At all events,” said Imogen, “we can write 1900. We can say, ‘It’s 1900.’” But what one could not say was, “I remember last century, going to the sea-side for the holidays...,” “Last century, bicycles and steam engines came in ...,” or “We, of the twentieth century.” That would have to wait. It would be only after the passage of another year that finally Rose Macaulay would be able to write: “The nineteenth century did actually end at last. Probably everyone over twelve and under seventy sat up to see it out, to see the twentieth in, to catch that elusive dramatic moment and savour it.” “Meanwhile, the most august representative of the Victorian age wavered wearily between her own century and this strange new one, peering blindly down the coming road as into a grave. It did not belong to her, the new century. She had had her day. A few days of the new young era, and she would slip into the night, giving place to the rough young forces knocking at the door. The great Victorian century was dead.”

The Commonwealth of Australia was formed from the British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and West Australia. The 1st elections for Federal Parliament were held. John Adrian Louis Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun was sworn in as the initial Governor-General and asked Sir William Lyne, and afterward Sir Edmund Barton, to function as Prime Minister.

The German Crown Land of North-West Africa was renamed Kamerun. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1903

On the island of Tasmania, women were granted voting rights.

A Tasmanian shipwreck: Chris, fishing boat, unregistered, lost between Hobart and Adventure Bay, 3 lives lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1904

Two Tasmanian shipwrecks: the cargo barque Acacia broke up without leaving any trace after hitting the “Acacia Rocks” on the west coast north of Port Davey, with the loss of 9 lives, and the barque Brier Holme sank off southwest Tasmania after striking a reef and having its cargo of dynamite explode onboard, with the loss of 17 lives. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1907

Two Tasmanian shipwrecks: the hulk Derwent Hunter, formerly a whaling barque, at the dock alongside laid- up steamship Beautiful Star, with both destroyed by fire at Hobart slipyards, with no loss of life, and the iron barque Alfhild smashed against cliffs in wild seas off Port Davey, with 4 lives lost, but then 13 men made it into boats and of them 7 were lost at sea, presumed dead. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1908

May 5, Tuesday: Raymond Dodge received U.S. patent #886,772, “apparatus for testing eyes,” to measure visual acuity and diagnose astigmatism. Dodge’s apparatus had received its initial public demonstrated on May 14th of the previous year before the Scientific Association of Middletown, Massachusetts.

When the wooden steamship SS Orion, Captain Arthur Lloyd of Hobart, heading from Smithton for Melbourne, foundered during a westerly to south-westerly gale in Bass Strait, Tasmania all aboard (11 crewmen and a stewardess, and 8 adult passengers with 7 children) were lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1909

When the steamship Kawatiri hit the breakwater at Macquarie Harbour Heads, Tasmania, 6 lives were lost.

In this year the government of Tasmania discontinued its payments of £1 each (the equivalent of perhaps £100 or more in today’s currency) for the heads of adult Thylacinus cynocephalus, known as the Tasmanian tiger, plus 10 shillings per pup head. In all 2,184 bounties had been paid out — although this most likely is far fewer than those actually killed by these white intrusives with attitude problems and projectile weapons.

June 20, Sunday: Errol Leslie Flynn was born at Battery Point, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1912

October 12, Saturday: Delegates from Crete were seated in the Greek assembly.

An die Hoffnung op.124 for alto and orchestra by Max Reger was performed for the initial time, in Eisenach, the composer conducting.

An article appeared in Musical America written by conductor and composer Kurt Schindler, extolling the virtues of John Alden Carpenter. He was described as “of such unusual accomplishments and culture, such gifts of melody and harmony that, to my mind, his success all over the world was already a matter of certainty.”

At the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company operation on the west coast of Tasmania, between 11:15AM and 11:30AM, a fire stared in the pumphouse at the 700-foot level and trapped a crew underground, killing 42. In a nearby shaft, a number of miners would be found still alive and one of these surviving men, while expecting death, had pegged up a note: Seven hundred level. North Lyell mine, 12-10-12. If anyone should find this note convey to my wife. Dear Agnes. - I will say good-bye. Sure I will not see you again any more. I am pleased to have made a little provision for you and poor little Lorna. Be good to our little darling. My mate, Len Burke, is done, and poor old V. and Driver too. Good-bye, with love to all. Your loving husband, Joe McCarthy. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1914

The iron barque Svenor was abandoned at sea off Tasmania after having become dismasted, and drifted ashore on the west coast. It remains visible to this day in “Wreck Cove.” There had been no loss of life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1915

A Tasmanian shipwreck: Nord, cargo steamer, struck Hippolyte Rocks off the Tasman Peninsula, no loss of life. This has become a popular dive wreck. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1916

On the island of Tasmania, a 1st national park was created at Mount Field and Freycinet.

February 16, Wednesday: The worst rail disaster in Tasmania occurred when the Launceston/Hobart express crashed near Campania, killing its driver and 6 passengers.

An American application to send relief to the Armenians was rejected by Turkey.

Talaat sent a circular letter to Urfa, Aintab, and Kilis requesting documents to indict the Armenians.

The Russian Army occupied Erzerum. In the entire province, only a very few of the captive Armenian women still survived.

U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing asked the German Ambassador Bernstorff to stop the Armenian tragedy. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1920

The schooner Amelia J. went missing at sea in the Bass Strait off Tasmanian, with its crew of 12. A biplane was sent out in search for this vessel off the Furneaux Group, and also was lost without trace.

The present baseball era of the “lively ball” began. These new balls were of uniform size, had corked centers, and were wrapped in Australian yarn (the “corked bat” would for unknown reasons remain anathema). This 1st year of their use, Babe Ruth’s 1st year with the Yankees, the slugger hit all of 54 home runs. The “Black Sox” scandal erupted as 8 member of the previous year’s Chicago White Sox were indicted for fraud on account of their loss to Cincinnati in the World Series. SPORTS

September 11, Saturday: The schooner Southern Cross, a engineless 3-masted barquentine-rigged schooner that had originally been built in the form of a steam yacht at Wivenhoe, Essex, England by Forrest & Sons in 1891 using funds estimated at £9,000 contributed by Bishop John Richardson Selwyn and others, for the Melanesian Mission of the Anglican Church and the Church of the Province of Melanesia, set sail on this day from Melbourne, Australia for Hobart, Tasmania with a general cargo including 1,000 cases of benzine stored on its main deck. None of these would ever be heard from again: the vessel’s master F.R. Hodgman, its mate T. Watts, its boatswain C.F. Makepeace, its cook and steward William Brown, its cabin boy Stanley Bell, and its able seamen D. Dinehy, W. O’Connell, L. Sward, and W. Moody.

September 22, Tuesday: A large quantity of wreckage was found on the north coast of King Island, Tasmania. Continued searching would discover wreckage around the island, but concentrated at its southern end. Since the wreckage bore traces of burning, and since the Southern Cross, a engineless 3-masted barquentine-rigged schooner carrying a deck cargo of 1,000 cases of benzine, had gone missing, it would be speculated that on some date between September 11th and September 22d, perhaps this cargo had caught fire, or, the vessel had struck one or another of the more than 450 mines that had been scattered by the German commerce raider Wolff IV, Fregattenkapitän Karl August Nerger, (the SS Port Kembla had gone down off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand after hitting another of these mines scattered in 1917 by the Wolff IV) — clearly, whatever had happened, all 9 persons aboard the Southern Cross had lost their lives, as none of them would ever be heard of again. WORLD WAR I HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1925

The fishing boat Clyde went under in huge seas off Recherche Bay, Tasmania, with the loss of 3 lives.

The literary remainder of the “beachcomber of Dunk Island,” Edmund James Banfield, now deceased, was produced as LAST LEAVES FROM DUNK ISLAND. A local newspaper, reviewing this literary production, commented that their Banfield had had none “of the egoism discernible in Thoreau.” AUSTRALIA HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1928

Henry S. Salt’s OUR VANISHING WILDFLOWERS and MEMORIES OF BYGONE ETON.

The Tasmanian Advisory Committee for Native Fauna recommended creation of a reserve similar to the Savage River National Park to protect any Thylacinus cynocephalus, the Tasmanian tiger, that remained, on suitable habitat such as the Arthur-Pieman area in the west of the island.

(We always lock the barn door, after our horse is gone.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1929

While assisting Heinrich Hoffmann, the Third Reich’s official photographer, in his shop at No. 50 Schellingstrasse in Berlin, Germany, Eva Braun, 17 years old, first met Adolf Hitler.

During the late 1920s, although perhaps not in this particular year, Henry Ford, an American excessively fond of good ol’ boy Adolf, purchased the 3-story gambrel-roofed home occupying the grounds once occupied by the Red Horse Tavern, the wayside inn, along the track between Boston and Marlborough, which had once been visited and described by Longfellow. He named this creation the “Wayside Inn” in order to capitalize on the famouski poem “Tales of a Wayside Inn.” Tell ’em Hank sent ya and ask for one for the road.

By the late 1920s Thylacinus cynocephalus, the Tasmanian tiger, had become extremely rare.

Its extinction has been popularly attributed to these relentless efforts by farmers and bounty hunters but it must be noted that this species had already become extinct on the Australian mainland long before the arrival of any white people with attitude problems and projectile weapons. It may well have been multiple factors that led to its decline and eventual extinction in Tasmania, such as declines in prey species, competition with wild dogs introduced by white intrusives, habitat erosion, plus a distemper-like disease that was afflicting many species at the time. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA February 18, Monday: When the large steamship TSS Kanowna20 ran into rocks near Cleft Island in Bass Strait, Tasmania while on a voyage between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, it transferred its passengers to the SS Mackarra. Although it was initially hoped that the steamer could be saved by beaching, its boilers had gone out, so its crew were taken aboard the SS Dumosa.

February 19, Tuesday morning: The large steamship TSS Kanowna went under near Cleft Island in Bass Strait, Tasmania. A court of inquiry would find the ship’s master at fault for this loss, since in foggy conditions he had neither slowed his vessel nor exercised due caution. The exact location of the hulk would not be known until 2005.

20. The TSS Kanowna was an Australian 6,993-ton, 413-feet twin-screw steamer constructed during 1902 by William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton, Scotland. The Australian United Steam Navigation Company used it to serve its Sydney, Australia to Fremantle route. During August and September 1914 the Australian military used the TSS Kanowna to transport 1,000 soldiers to German New Guinea. Sailing from Townsville on August 8th, 1914 the vessel had been forced to anchor off Thursday Island until August 16th, and had not arrived off Port Moresby until September 6th. When the expeditionary force sailed the following day for Rabaul, the TSS Kanowna fell behind the rest of the convoy and the ship’s master signaled to HMAS Sydney that his boiler stokers and firemen had mutinied. An inquiry by the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board would reveal that the troopship had been on short rations of food and water because of the delays sailing north and because of only minimal resupply in Port Moresby, and the stokers and firemen had become desperate because of needing more water to remain hydrated in the heat from the boilers, plus needing to wash coal grime off their bodies. The vessel transported soldiers and supplies to Egypt, then made for England where it was modified. As a hospital ship the TSS Kanowna would be able to carry 452 wounded in cots and a medical staff of 88, in addition to its regular crew. Sailing in September, it would transport Royal Army Medical Corps personnel to locations throughout the Mediterranean, then collect wounded Australian personnel for transport home. This was the ship’s role for the following 4years, although some runs were made to England with British wounded. During May 1917 unrestricted submarine warfare campaign forced the ship to sail around Africa instead of through the Mediterranean, while the nurses and medical staff were transported overland from Durban to London and used to supplement hospital personnel until the vessel arrived during July 1917. During October 1918 the vessel was sent to collect 900 British and Commonwealth prisoners-of-war that had been interred in Turkey. The vessel was returned to the Australian United Steam Navigation Company on July 29th, 1920 to resume commercial passenger and cargo service. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1930

The last seen wild Thylacinus cynocephalus, the Tasmanian tiger, was shot by Wilf Batty, a farmer at Mawbanna who had for several weeks seen the animal in the vicinity of his house.

At the end of the movie “All Quiet on the Western Front,” the Hollywood actor Lew Ayres took a sniper bullet HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA through his helmet, upon which butterflies alighted.

! OHNE MICH

In World War II, this actor would register as a conscientious objector and would instantly be fired by L.B. Mayer of MGM, He would wind up a labor camp and from there volunteer to serve as a combat medic, HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA accumulating 3 battle stars for courage under fire in the rescue of wounded soldiers. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1933

The following, which was penned in 1933, will give fresh meaning to the remark that is frequently made, that to read WALDEN truly, you must almost write it yourself:

I am going to China because I wish to live deliberately. New Guinea offers me, it is true, satisfaction for the tastes I have acquired which only leisure can satisfy. I am leaving economic security and I am leaving it deliberately. By going off to China with a paltry few pounds and no knowledge of what life has in store for me there, I believe that I am going to front the essentials of life to see if I can learn what it has to teach and above all not to discover, when I come to die, that I have not lived. We fritter our lives away in detail but I am not going to do this. I am going to live deeply, to acknowledge not one of the so-called social forces which hold our lives in thrall and reduce us to economic dependency. The best part of life is spent in earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.... To hell with money! Pursuit of it is not going to mould my life for me. I am going to live sturdily and Spartan like; to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if I find it mean, then I’ll know its meanness, and if I find it sublime I shall know it by experience, and not make wistful conjectures about it, conjured up by illustrated magazines. I refuse to accept the ideology of a business world which believes that man at hard labour is the noblest work of God. Leisure to use as I think fit!

The above is from Errol Flynn’s diary of the gold rush in New Guinea in 1933, after Flynn has been kicked out of school for theft at Shore School in Australia. Flynn wasn’t any more judicious in lifting material than was Emerson, or for that matter Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Charles Higham, this movie idol’s biographer,21 appears unaware that his youth is plagiarizing. Flynn wanted to title his autobiography IN LIKE FLYNN, and we may excuse such innocence among callow swashbucklers, and exclaim “Copy Like Flynn!” — but we may not excuse innocence among presidents, or among the biographers of swashbucklers such as Charles Higham. For even such propounders of fulsome platitudes and biographers of movie stars qualify as writers, and writers must know sin. TIMELINE OF WALDEN

21. Higham 1980, page 41. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

WALDEN: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1936

September 7, Saturday night: The last known specimen of Thylacinus cynocephalus, the Tasmanian tiger, died in Hobart Zoo. Although the press had assigned this specimen the name “Benjamin,” actually it had been a female. It had been trapped in the Florentine Valley by Elias Churchill in 1933 and had been at the Hobart Zoo for 3 years. Probably it died of neglect, for it had been locked out of its sheltered sleeping quarters, and the day had been extremely hot whereas that night there had been a freeze.

The Van Diemen’s Land Company had introduced bounties on Tasmanian tigers (some termed them wolves) beginning in 1830, and between 1888 and 1909 the Tasmanian government had been offering £1 per head (the equivalent of perhaps £100 or more in today’s currency) for dead adult thylacines, and 10 shillings per pup head. In all 2,184 bounties had been paid out, although this is most likely a considerable undercount. The species had become extremely rare in the Tasmanian wild by the late 1920s. Its extinction has been popularly attributed to these relentless efforts by farmers and bounty hunters but it must be noted that this species had already become extinct on the Australian mainland long before the arrival of any white people with attitude problems and projectile weapons. It may well have been multiple factors that led to its decline and eventual extinction in Tasmania, such as declines in prey species, competition with wild dogs introduced by white intrusives, habitat erosion, plus a distemper-like disease that was afflicting many species at the time. In 1928 the Tasmanian Advisory Committee for Native Fauna had recommended a reserve similar to the Savage River National Park to protect any thylacines that remained, on suitable habitat such as the Arthur-Pieman area in the west of the island. In 1930 the last seen wild thylacine had been shot by Wilf Batty, a farmer at Mawbanna who had for several weeks seen the animal in the vicinity of his house. In 1983 the American media mogul Ted Turner would offer a $100,000 reward for proof of the continued existence of the thylacine, but after a considerable time without any confirmed sightings, he would withdraw this offer. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1937

The hulk of the Otago, formerly an iron barque, was beached in the of Tasmania at the end of its useful career. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1943

February 6, Saturday: A Los Angeles court acquitted the Tasmanian actor Errol “In Like” Flynn of 3 counts of statutory rape. Go thou and sin no more.

Red Army troops captured Yeysk on the Sea of Azov and Lisichansk on the Donets River.

North African Theater of Operations (Lieutenant General Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower) was established. WORLD WAR II HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1958

December 17, day: The ketch Willwatch Auxiliary, Master George McCarthy, from Ulverstone for King Island with general cargo, was lost in a gale off the far north-west coast Tasmania, between the Hunter Group and King Island. Despite radio distress messages that allowed would-be rescuers to follow the vessel’s throes in graphic detail for hours, the appalling weather conditions prevented any effective rescue operations. Only the large trawlers Olympic and V.S.P. working off King Island were in a position to head toward the stricken vessel and by the time they arrived the Willwatch Auxiliary had been sunk for at least an hour. Despite extensive air and sea searches extending over several days, no trace of the missing 5 crewmen would be found. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1959

A Tasmanian shipwreck: An explosion in the engine room of the 138-ton cargo ship Blythe Star killed its engineer, and an ensuing fire burned the vessel to the waterline before the hull went under, but 10 crewmembers survived. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1961

Melvin Calvin was awarded the Nobel Prize. In association with Andrew Benson, James Bassham, and other scientists he had described the light-independent reactions (often called the dark reactions, or the Calvin cycle) of the photosynthetic system. Beginning with carbon dioxide, these reactions synthesize organic compounds (3-carbon phosphate sugars) that become glucose and other sugars.

Henry Morris’s and J.C. Whitcomb’s THE GENESIS FLOOD attracted new supporters to their previously insignificant Biblical Literalist movement.

A Tasmanian shipwreck: Flying Scud, fishing boat, entangled in heavy kelp off Fluted Cape and smashed onto the rocks in the swell. 1 life lost.

Tracks appearing to be those of a Thylacinus cynocephalus or Tasmanian tiger were found in a rainforest near Pyengana in Tasmania.

Martin Glaessner determined fossils in the Ediacara Hills of South Australia (the Ediacaran fauna) to be Precambrian in age (approximately 600,000,000 years old) — the oldest-known multicelled organisms. PALEONTOLOGY

Gene Shoemaker and E.C.T. Chao determined the Ries Basin in Bavaria to have been shaped by a meteorite impact (this would help pave the way for the deus ex machina explanation that extrinsic chance events, asteroid and comet impacts, had been what had produced the various mass extinctions). THE SCIENCE OF 1961 HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1962

A Tasmanian shipwreck: Gondwana, fishing ketch, foundered off , 2 lives lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1967

February 7, Tuesday: Chinese authorities advised Soviet diplomats in Peking that they could no longer guarantee their safety outside the walls of their embassy compound.

Modules I&II for orchestra and 2 conductors by Earle Brown was performed for the initial time, in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris.

Bushfires ravaged southern Tasmania. More than 120 fire-fronts fed on high temperatures and strong winds, causing devastation particularly in the Hobart area. In the space of a few hours 62 people died, more than 900 were injured, tens of thousands of animals died, and more than 1,200 homes, 1,500 vehicles, and 80 bridges were destroyed. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1973

The new Blythe Star, a 144-ton cargo ship intended as a replacement for one of than name that had gone down, bizarrely just 14 years after the sinking of her predecessor became overdue after leaving Hobart for King Island and despite the most extensive air search conducted in Australian waters up to that time, could not be located. 7 members of its crew were found 11 days later on the Tasman Peninsula, having escaped to their life raft when the vessel had suddenly capsized and gone down off South West Cape, Tasmania (with the loss of 3 lives). HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1975

Two Tasmanian shipwrecks: the sloop-rigged yacht Bunyip was swamped in Bass Strait with 1 life lost, and the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra sank in the River Derwent after colliding with the Tasman Bridge with the loss of 12 lives.

January 5, Sunday night: A 7,000-ton ship traveling up the Derwent River brought down the concrete central spans of the Tasman Bridge at 9:27PM. The Lake Illawarrah sank and 7 crew members were killed. 4 cars on the bridge went over the edge and 5 occupants were killed. For nearly 3 years eastern-shore residents and businesses would be isolated from the services of the city center. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1976

February: On Little Oyster Bay at the outskirts of a bad-luck small town in Tasmania south of Hobart, Kettering, in the middle of the night, a man awoke to witness a “plane” coming down on the shore of Little Oyster Cove, with a widespread glow spreading across the area. When he went in his night-robe to investigate, he found “an extraordinary dome-shaped object.” “Windows around the object gave off a bright light. The exterior looked like aluminium [sic].… Through the three or four windows, the witness saw a tall cylindrical object [which he likened to a ship’s compass mounting] and ‘motionless grey [sic] shapes’… perhaps entities.” As the witness drew close he could hear a humming noise, like that of an electric motor. The object slowly rose from the ground humming, increased its speed, became a dot in the sky, and disappeared. “The whole incident lasted about seven minutes.” The next morning this witness noticed that the grass on which the UFO had rested was scorched in a circle. This grass died and was replaced by a “tougher-cutting grass.” As a speculation, since once upon a time someone suspected that there was real gold among the feldspathoid rocks near Kettering, these aliens may have been after Kettering’s gold, and had been, as a number of humans had been, sadly disappointed, and had flown away. In any event, this flying-saucer sighting would be turned into an 8-episode television miniseries that was not less interesting than the famous Hollywood movie “The Boy with Blue Hair” in which after swimming in an over-treated swimming pool a swimmer’s hair had a mysterious tint until someone figured out that the tint was due to all that chlorine.

It was during this month that the American nation became aware of a scary remark that President Richard Milhous Nixon had made in a White House meeting while being impeached during the summer of 1974. The remark surfaced in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on February 7th, 1976 followed by an article in the Washington Post by Murray Marder on February 9th “Nixon ‘A-Threat’ Clarified.” Representative Charles Rose (Democrat, North Carolina) had recalled after the meeting that what the President had said was “I can go in my office and pick up the telephone and in 25 minutes, millions of people will be dead.” Representative Clem McSpadden (Democrat, Oklahoma) had recalled after the meeting that what the President had said was “I can pick up the phone and 70 million Russians can be killed in 20 minutes.” Clarifying this, these Representatives would point out that they had not considered the remark to have been an attempt to deliver a threat, Representative Rose explaining that “my concern at the time was why he found it necessary to make the statement at all.” Senator Alan Cranston (Democrat, California), who had not himself been present at this meeting, told the media that he recalled 2 Congressmen informing him that the words the President had uttered had been “At any moment, I could go into the other room and press a button and 20 minutes later 60 million people would be dead.” Senator Cranston recalled that subsequent to hearing such accounts of the White House conversation, he had gone to Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger with a concern about “the need of keeping a berserk President from plunging us into a holocaust.” It had been his understanding that the President had made the statement after averring to these congressmen that his work in maintaining world peace was far more important than any “little burglary.”

News items relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • Bill Gates wrote software routines for BASIC that enabled the Altair to use diskettes for storage. • David Bunnell published an open letter from Bill Gates to microcomputer hobbyists, complaining about software piracy. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1979

The yacht Charleston disappeared in Bass Strait off Tasmania, evidently with 5 lives lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1980

A Tasmanian shipwreck: Aqua Enterprise, Trawler, began taking on water before sinking 100 kilometers south of Hobart, no loss of life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1983

E.O. Wilson’s PROMETHEAN FIRE: REFLECTIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF MIND (Harvard UP). Big thoughts from a lightweight.

Cabbage patch dolls were all the rage.

Ted Turner offered a $100,000 reward for proof of the continued existence of the Thylacinus cynocephalus, the Tasmanian tiger — but after a considerable time without any confirmed sightings, he would withdraw this offer.

Adolf Seilacher noticed how very unrelated most of the Ediacaran fossils discovered in the 1940s were to any modern forms. Calling them vendobionts, he suggested that such forms would have been driven to extinction with the emergence of large predators. PALEONTOLOGY

Private collectors found an exceptionally well-preserved primate fossil at Messel, Germany. Over the next 26 years this fossil would be split into 2 pieces (one of which would get prettied up), then the 2 pieces would be reunited, and this would be described amid media hoopla as “the missing link” and a potential human ancestor. THE SCIENCE OF 1983 HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1995

January 25, Wednesday: Zhan Vasilev Videnov replaced Reneta Ivanova Indzhova as Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

An Australian National Parks and Wildlife ranger confirmed that he had sighted a live Thylacinus cynocephalus or Tasmanian tiger. Charlie Beasley had been identifying birds in bushland in Tasmania’s north- east when he noticed what he reported to be unmistakably a juvenile thylacine across a gully. He watched in amazement through his binoculars for two minutes and said the black stripes across its back were clear.

At 9:28 AM in Moscow, a briefcase containing a device termed “the nuclear football” was passed to the President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. The screen of the device was conveying the intelligence that at 9:24 AM, four minutes earlier, a missile had begun to rise in the vicinity of the Norwegian Sea that appeared to be proceeding in the direction of Moscow. Yeltsin had 4,700 nuclear warheads under his authority. If he pressed a button an immediate nuclear retaliation could be launched upon targets around the world. His Chief of the General Staff, General Mikhail Kolesnikov, had such a device as well, and was similarly monitoring the situation. Judging by the radar sighting of stages of the rocket falling away as it ascended, this was likely to be an intermediate-range missile in the “Pershing II” class, maintained by NATO all over Western Europe. General Kolesnikov urging President Yeltsin to press the button. They had less than six minutes before it would be too late. As they watched the progress of the missile they noticed that its trajectory was not proceeding toward Russian territory and their tension began to ease. (Actually it was a weather rocket launched to study the aurora borealis. Actually, Norway had followed normal procedures and alerted Russia before launching this rocket, but this reassuring message had not been communicated within the war command.)

An editorial in the American Legion’s home town vigorously called for Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Director Martin Harwit firing: “Americans who love their country are increasingly disgusted with the carping of elitists dedicated to tearing down national morale, insulting national pride and debasing national achievements.”

In regard to the Enola Gay exhibit, “History and Hokum,” by Rose Kennedy, Indianapolis Star, A12 WORLD WAR II HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1990

January 4, Thursday: The sloop Great Expectations set sail to return from Tasmania to Melbourne, Australia following a successful completion of the Melbourne to Devonport yacht race. This vessel would disappear somewhere in the vicinity of Cape Portland without trace. It would be believed that she had been swamped by a giant wave. Only personal effects would be recovered. 6 lives had been lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1996

April 28, Sunday: President William Jefferson Clinton gave 4 and a half hours of videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners. GOVERNMENT SCANDALS

A deranged young man armed with 3 automatic weapons rampaged through the township and historic site of the colonial prison of Tasmania. He slaughtered 35 and injured many others before being captured. He is now serving life in prison with no possibility of parole and Australia has embraced some of the strictest gun controls in the world. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

1997

Two Tasmanian shipwrecks: the fishing boat Eastern Star was swamped in freak 15-meter waves while at anchor in the mouth of the with the loss of 3 lives, and the fishing boat Helen J. broke up in heavy weather off the Pieman River with the loss of 2 lives. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

2002

April: Samples of heart, liver, muscle, and bone marrow tissue were obtained from the cadaver of a 6-month thylacine pup that had been preserved in alcohol in a museum specimen jar in 1866, and a team of evolutionary biologists in Sydney, Australia began working to unravel the genetic code of the Thylacinus cynocephalus, known as the Tasmanian tiger. Australian Museum director Professor Michael Archer’s project would be to obtain a genetic blueprint that might be inserted into the egg of a close surviving relative of this marsupial, perhaps the Tasmanian devil or the numbat, for incubation.

The British Meteorological Office honored the memory of Luke Howard by mounting a plaque at 7 Bruce Grove in Tottenham, North London, where this Quaker meteorologist had spent his retirement with his eyes HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

on the sky. HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

2005

April 23, Saturday: When 4 divers found a huge hulk in approximately 260 feet of water 31 miles into Bass Strait, this was inferred to be the former merchant steamer TSS Kanowna that had sunk in the vicinity in 1929 as one of Tasmania’s largest shipwrecks.

Ted Porter had been alerting everyone that the Second Advent would take place on either this day or the subsequent one, he wasn’t sure which. (He also had predicted that The Rapture would occur at 6:13PM Jerusalem time on April 23d, 2002, but that date had already come and gone.) MILLENNIALISM HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA

2006

April 25, Tuesday: When a tunnel collapsed at the Beaconsfield Mine in northern Tasmania, Larry Knight was killed immediately. Brant Webb and Todd Russell would be trapped for 14 days while frantic rescue efforts were mounted. The men would survive for an initial 5 days of total darkness on one Muesli-bar, and some groundwater that was seeping into their cramped space. When they were found to be still surviving, the world would wait in suspense as delicate rescue drilling proceeded for more than a week (you presumably remember this).

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2017. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: May 26, 2017 HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in HDT WHAT? INDEX

TASMANIANS TASMANIA the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.