THE APPROACHING AUSTRALASIAN CENTENARY. AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT OF EVENTS BY B. A. HEYWOOD, M.A., TRIN. COLL., CAMBRIDGE, Author of "A Vacation Tour at the Antipodes," etc. LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, EC. 1885. Price One Shilling. 2467. €.1. 13! OXFORD Recently published, by the same Author. MEMOIR OF CAPT. P. W. STEPHENS, R.N. Small 8vo. with Portrait, 8 illustrations, and 2 maps, price 6s. J. NISBET & CO., 21, BERNERS STREET, W. "The subject of this memoir was a 'worthy' indeed. Mr. Heywood has fulfilled his task admirably."-Spectator. "Open the book where one may, some passage of bright, manly, affectionate enterprise is sure to catch the eye. The volume is printed in delightfully clear type, and has illustrations and good maps."-Churchman. "The adventures of Captain Stephens in striving to put down the slave trade will arouse the enthusiasm of the reader."-Eccles. Gazette. "This is the history of a man' both as to his inner and outer life. A fine spirit breathes through the book, and we congratulate Mr. Heywood upon having done his work so well."-Sword and Trowel. "An excellent and well-written memoir of more than ordinary merit."— Brighton Examiner. The reader will find it difficult to withstand the simple pathos and manliness of the closing scene. The book will doubtless be appreciated by a large circle of readers."-Bookseller. "A very interesting record of Christian life. The accounts of his travels and adventures will be read with enjoyment by old and young."-Christian. "His adventures are of thrilling interest."-Church Intelligencer. "A very interesting and edifying book. Mr. Heywood has produced a book in which there is not a dry page."-Church Missionary Intelligencer. "Much of the information given has never, we believe, been published in this country."-Leamington Courier. "The story of his life will throughout sustain the attention of the reader. As a gift-book or for school prizes, it will be found most excellent."-Leicester Advertiser. "We very cordially recommend this volume."-Liverpool Mercury. "There is a good account of the Oroya Railway over the Andes, one of the most remarkable feats of engineering in the world."--Morning Post. "The book deserves to have a place beside the lives of Captain Hedley Vicars and other Christian heroes in the army and navy."-North British Mail. "This memoir may safely be said to possess general interest. ventures and hairbreadth escapes are recorded."- Northern Whig. "Cannot fail to interest."-Perthshire Advertiser. All sorts of ad "Full of interest from beginning to end."-S. Amer. Miss. Magazine. "Captain Stephens set a noble, though unobtrusive example, and proved that it is possible to combine the excellent naval officer with the good man, and the record of a good man's life cannot but be beneficial to the world."- United Service Gazette. SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. NOTE. TO Clergymen and Ministers wishing to have copies for School prizes, the Author will be happy to supply grants at half a crown a copy (carriage not included), when not less than a dozen copies are taken. Letters to be addressed to the Author, care of Messrs. J. NISBET & Co., 21, Berners Street, W. THE APPROACHING AUSTRALASIAN CENTENARY. "WELL JELL, it is many a fine fellow besides you who was sent that way," remarked the driver of a Dublin car, in the year 1848, to his passenger, Mr. Therry, an Australian Judge, who was chatting about his recent return from Botany Bay, after an absence of twenty years. During the drive the Judge had occasion to remonstrate with the man for reckless driving, whereupon the latter burst out with-" Ah, hould your tongue, man! why, you ought to be as bould as a bulldog, coming from Botany Bay." Some twenty years later, Miss Jane Whately, in the memoir of her father, the late Archbishop of Dublin, when referring to the state of Alban Hall, Oxford, before he was its principal, gave a point to her remarks by stating that it was a kind of Botany Bay' to the University-a place where students were sent who were considered too idle and dissipated to be received elsewhere." "Botany Bay," indeed, was a proverbial expression. Happily, however, for the present generation, "Botany Bay," with its sad associations of convict hardship and brutality, is a tale of the past, and the Australian world now ranks as the most highly favoured of the British dependencies. At first thought we might be inclined to regard the early history of the Australasian Colonies as having no particular interest for us at the present time; and this seems to have been the opinion of our leading educationists, for the late Professor Green, in his "Short History of the English People," a volume of 800 pages, referred to the Australasian world merely as a place where English "settlers were to wrest New Zealand from the Maori, and to sow on the shores of Australia the seeds of great nations." But this is a grand mistake, for we cannot fully sympathize with or understand the present status of the colonies, unless we can enter somewhat into their experiences of the past. We propose, therefore, to give a brief survey of the origin and early history and trials of the great Austral Empire, ever bearing in mind the hand of God in its growth. Early in the sixteenth century Portuguese ships navigated the Southern Seas, and possibly they may have discovered Australia; but in 1601 the Spaniards, and a few years later the Dutch, certainly did visit the northern and western and southern portions of that vast island from Carpentaria in the north to that great bight in the south, of which part is even now called Nuyts' Archipelago, after the Dutch navigator, Peter de Nuyts. Early in the year 1642, a few months before the day when Charles I. raised his royal standard in opposition to the Parliamentarians, Tasman, a Dutch navigator, discovered (as he imagined) the southernmost part of Australia, and called it Van Diemen's Land,1 in honour of the Dutch GovernorGeneral of Batavia. Subsequently he discovered New Zealand, where some of his men were murdered by the aborigines—an event which impressed him with the ferocity of the latter. Tasman made a careful chart of his discoveries, and in the year 1744 it was published by Harris in his work on " Voyages." In a remarkable note by Harris, inserted in the centre of the chart, attention was drawn to the position of the great Terra Australis as compared with that of other gold-yielding countries, and the author added: "This continent enjoys the benefit of the same position, and, therefore, whoever perfectly discovers and settles it will become infallibly possessed of territories as rich, as fruitful, and as capable of improvement as any that have been hitherto found out either in the East Indies or the West." More than a century elapsed before these anticipations were realized, as it was not till the year 1851 that gold in Australia was discovered; and we have no reason to suppose that Edward Hammond Hargreaves, the discoverer, had ever seen or heard of Harris's note. As a nation we were very slow to engage in Southern Ocean voyages; but in 1768 Captain Cook (who was a Yorkshire peasant by birth) was despatched on an expedition to observe the transit of Venus, and to make explorations in the South Seas. Accompanied by two distinguished naturalists, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, he set out well equipped and full of hope as to the results of the expedition. Early in the year 1770 he discovered the south-easterly extremity of Terra Australis, or Hollandia Nova, as it was called in Tasman's chart, and this he named Cape Howe, in honour of Lord Howe. Steering northwards, he explored the coast, giving names to bays and headlands, and keeping a carefully written diary of his discoveries. Early in May he entered a bay, which, in consequence of the rich vegetation in the neighbourhood, he named Botany Bay. On 6th May 1 This designation, so long associated with convictism, has been discarded for "Tasmania," in memory of the discoverer. he left Botany Bay for the north. "We steered (he wrote) N.N.E., and at noon our latitude by observation was 33° 50′ S. At this time we were between two and three miles distant from the land, and abreast of a bay or harbour in which there appeared to be good anchorage, and which I called Port Jackson. This harbour lies three leagues to the northward of Botany Bay." The wonderful capabilities and beauty of Port Jackson could not be realized, of course, by any passing its entrance in this manner. It must be interesting for those who delight in tracing God's hand in history to notice how opportune for the interests of our country were the explorations by Cook, for the Declaration of Independence by our North American Colonies in 1776 deprived us suddenly of our only outlet for convicted criminals, and, as the sequel shows, our statesmen in their perplexity were led to conceive the bold idea of substituting Australia for America. At first, the scheme had been to form a convict settlement on the shores of Western Africa; and a Parliamentary Committee, after taking the evidence of several persons acquainted with the coast, reported in its favour; but thoughtful persons, like Burke, dreaded the idea of consigning the convicts to one of the most unhealthy climates in the world, and through their opposition the scheme was abandoned. Sir Joseph Banks strongly urged the formation of a settlement at Botany Bay, in New South Wales; but it was opposed with great vigour by the Gentleman's Magazine, the great organ of literature and science in those days. Referring to the proposal of Sir Joseph Banks, which it was believed the Government were ready to adopt, the editor wrote: "If this report is true, the expense will be equal to that of an expedition to the South Sea against an enemy; and if it is to be continued with every freight of felons, it will annihilate the surplus that is intended for augmenting the payment of the National Debt. It is certainly a most extravagant scheme, and will probably be reconsidered." The strength of the opposition may be measured by the pertinacity with which it was renewed, even so late as the year 1803, when the penal settlement had actually been in existence sixteen years. At that date a writer in the newly formed Edinburgh Review wrote as follows: It may be a curious consideration to reflect what we are to do with this colony when it comes to years of discretion. Are we to spend another hundred millions of money in discovering its strength, and to humble ourselves again before a fresh set of Washingtons and Franklins? The moment after we have suffered such serious mischiefs from the escape of the old tiger, we are breeding up a young cub whom we cannot render less ferocious or more secure." 66 |