Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies/Chapter 11
CHAPTER XI.
On calling upon our friends Isaac and Katharine Sherwin, they pressed us again to take up our quarters at their house, to which we consented: we continued their guests till the 21st of 3rd mo., making in the interval an excursion into the country, to the southward.
2nd mo. 1st. Washing is an expensive item in new colonies: here we are charged 5s. per dozen articles. To-day, our washerwoman laid out £3 in a coral necklace for herself, and a watchchain for her husband! forgetting, I suppose, that this foolish indulgence of pride would not alter her station in society.
2nd. The climate here is much warmer and drier than that to the westward; the harvest is ripe, and under the sickle, and the grass dry and brown upon the ground. Large Grasshoppers, with yellow underwings, margined with black, are very numerous, as are also several species of Lizard. In my walk this morning, I saw a lizard run into a hole with one of the grasshoppers in its mouth, and was induced to watch another, catching its more active prey. The lizard waited till a grasshopper alighted near it, and seized the insect with agility: it then broke off the wings, which it took up and eat; it afterwards laid hold of the grasshopper again, transversely, and by a few movements of the jaws, brought the head of the insect into its mouth, and by continued efforts it swallowed the whole grasshopper. The lizard was 8 inches long: it did not use its feet in capturing the grasshopper, which was two inches long, nor in arranging it in its mouth.
3rd. Our kind friend I. Sherwin invited a few persons, whom he knew to be piously inclined, to meet us for worship at his house. After spending a considerable time with them in silence, I called their attention to the greater profitableness of feeling our own necessity before the Lord, in this state, and of putting up our petitions to him in secret, according to our feeling of need, than of having the time occupied continually in hearing. I stated that I did not despise true, gospel ministry, but wished people to learn the way to the fountain set open in the blood of Jesus, for themselves, and not to lean unduly upon their fellow men.—In the evening, we met a little company, in a very humble cottage: they were persons professing with the Wesleyans, who at that time had no congregation in Launceston. We recommended them to meet regularly for worship, though they might be without a preacher, and to seek to know the Lord to teach them himself.
5th. On the way to Perth, we visited a company of prisoners, who were very destitute of religious instruction.—The road to this place is through open forest, except where there are habitations of settlers. The town of Perth consists of ten houses, two of which are inns; it is prettily situated on the high banks of the South Esk River, which is about 60 yards across, at the ferry.
From the 6th to the 14th, we visited the settlers in the vicinity of Perth, as well as on Norfolk Plains, and on the Macquarie and Lake Rivers, and held some meetings among them. Many of these people are in good circumstances, and are living in substantial, brick houses.—Norfolk Plains is a fine agricultural district: the wheat crops are often self-sown, and continue for several years in succession, till the land becomes almost overrun with Wild Oats; but these form useful hay in this dry country. The average yearly crops of wheat, are estimated at from twelve to fifteen bushels per acre; but this is perhaps from mismanagement, and there are places that yield much more abundantly.—Many of the original settlers on Norfolk Plains, resided previously on Norfolk Island: being generally intemperate, many of them killed themselves, or came to ruin, and their property has passed into other hands.—Some of the finest land, on the Lake River, belongs to various branches of a family of the name of Archer, who have been very successful, both in agriculture and sheep-farming.
At the house of Rowland R. Davies, the Episcopal Chaplain of Norfolk Plains, we met with a man who was transported from Wiltshire for rioting: he said that he was thoughtful on religious subjects before he left home; that his wife kept a little shop, and that he was a carrier; that he was about his lawful concerns when a mob passed his residence, and compelled him to accompany them; that he was seen among them by some one who knew him, and who appeared against him on his trial: he did not however say that he was altogether clear of blame; but he thought he saw the hand of the Lord in permitting him to be apprehended; for in calling at public-houses, &c. in connexion with his business, he had been gradually sliding into habits of intemperance, which he thought might have proved his ruin. By means of his apprehension, this snare had been broken; and he now enjoyed more comfort in his bondage, as the Lord's free man, than he did when free in body, but Satan's bond servant. He said also, that he was educated in a Sabbath-school, and that he now found the benefit of such an education, and was, with his master's leave, doing what he could in assisting in the Sabbath-schools at Perth and Norfolk Plains. Himself and a few others in the lower walks of life, meet occasionally for mutual edification. A short time ago this man was ill, and appeared as if near his end, and his master told us that he often visited him, not so much to give him counsel, as to be edified by his pious remarks, to which it was delightful to him to listen.
The country along the Lake and Macquarie Rivers, is generally open forest, except where it has been cleared. To the west, it is bounded by a high mountain range, called the Western Tier.
14th. We returned to Launceston, where we visited the prisoners in the jail, and penitentiary; the latter are about 170 in number; we also held a meeting for worship in the Court House, and distributed a considerable number of tracts.
17th. This morning the mountains visible from Launceston, to the north-east, were covered with snow. This was also the case in the south of the Island, down to 1,000 feet above the level of the sea. Snow is unusual in summer in this country, notwithstanding summer frosts are by no means of rare occurrence.
21st. We set out for Hobart Town, and had a religious opportunity with Nottmans Road-party, consisting of 130 prisoners, several of whom work in chains. They are lodged in huts of the humblest character; twenty-one to twenty-eight in each hut. They were very still and attentive while we revived among them the invitation, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." We became the guests of Theodore B. Bartley, of Kerry Lodge, a pious man, who had previously invited us to resort to his house when in the neighbourhood.
22nd. On the way to the Eagle Inn, a solitary house in the forest, we passed through Perth, and round one end of the Hummocky Hills, which form the only striking exception to low country, in this part of the extensive vale of the South Esk and Macquarie Rivers.
23rd. We proceeded to breakfast to an inn, by the side of a rushy lagoon or pool, such as is common in this part of the Island, and were grieved on entering it, to hear a man cursing and using blasphemous language, because one of his horses had strayed, as they often do in a country so sparingly intersected by fences.—The conduct of a poor black native, who cut the feet of seven women, whom he attacked as they slept, because his wife had broken a bottle that he valued, has been referred to as a proof of savage character and want of intellect; but what is it when compared with the conduct of persons, who, because offended by a fellow-mortal, or perplexed by the straying of a beast, will insult the Majesty of Heaven?—After breakfast we pursued our route over a second Epping Forest, a sandy track more thickly timbered than the generality of this part of the country; and emerging from it near a good looking house called Wanstead, soon arrived at the dwelling of John Mc. Leod, a hospitable Scotchman, residing upon the Elizabeth River, near Campbell Town.
24th. In the forenoon, we had a meeting with about two hundred persons in the Court House at Campbell Town, a place consisting of a Court-house, a small wooden jail, and about a score of houses, some of which are of brick. Being helped on our way by J. Mc. Leod, who provided us with horses, we had a meeting in the evening at Ross, eight miles further from Launceston: this, like the one at Campbell Town, was a general assembly of the neighbouring settlers and their servants, to whom the Gospel was freely proclaimed.—We lodged at the. house of George Parramore, a venerable and pious settler, whom we considered it a privilege to visit.
25th. We breakfasted at Mona Vale, with William Kermode, an opulent sheep-farmer, who accompanied us across Salt Pan Plains, an open grassy district, over which a low, drooping species of Gum-tree is thinly scattered. Upon W. Kermode's estate, near the junction of the Blackman River with the Macquarie, there is a piece of ground that yields about forty bushels of wheat per acre, but it is of small extent.—Salt Pan Plains are more valued as sheep pasture, than for agriculture. These plains are terminated southward by woody hills, among which is an opening called St. Peter's Pass, through which lies the road to Oatlands, a town of about twenty houses of freestone, adjoining a rushy lagoon, called Lake Frederick.—About eight miles further is a little scattered settlement named Jericho, upon a small periodical stream, designated The Jordan. Here we found comfortable accommodation at a respectable inn.
26th. We proceeded by another little settlement called The Lovely Banks, and by the Cross Marsh, to Green Ponds. The Cross Marsh is a rich flat, intersected by the Jordan, which in the drier seasons of the year, is reduced to a chain of pools. On the margin of this river, there is an elegant willow-like Eucalyptus, called the Black Gum, forming a tree of moderate size. Green Ponds is a scattered village, with an Episcopal place of worship, and a good inn.—In the evening we continued our walk, by moonlight, along a winding woody pass to Constitution Hill, where we lodged at an inn.
27th. Early in the morning, we visited a road-party of 120 men, and then pursued our route along the vale of Bagdad, much of which is enclosed with post and rail fences, and in which there are several decent houses, and a good inn. Soon after leaving this vale, the road crosses the Jordan, by a handsome wooden bridge, on stone pillars, over a deep ravine; it then continues over low woody hills till it reaches the Derwent, opposite to Bridge-water.—We crossed the Derwent in a small boat, to the Black Snake Inn, where, being very foot sore, we tried the experiment of drawing a double, unbleached, linen thread through the blisters, by means of a needle, and cutting off the thread so as to leave it protruding at each side. This allowed the water to pass out when the blister pressed the ground, by which means the pain was greatly alleviated, and the thread produced no inconvenience by remaining till the blister was healed. Sometimes a thread of white worsted is used for the purpose. Probably, so long as it is undyed, the material is not of much consequence, but the relief to foot-sore pedestrians is very great. We subsequently walked ten miles to Hobart Town, at the rate of a mile in sixteen and a half minutes.—On the way, we met several persons with whom we were acquainted, and passed two good stage coaches going to New Norfolk, which had an enlivening effect at the conclusion of this long journey.—There was at this time no coach to Launceston; but an open four-wheeled carriage performed the journey of 120 miles, in two days, not running at night: the fare was £5.—On reaching Hobart Town we found our friends T. J. and S. Crouch in a larger house, in Bathurst-street, where they willingly allowed us again to become their lodgers.