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mm mk <&% :&^v 4P% ^k' Jft'irt- JPfc JPk- ■ V :: ... -v ft SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. AN AUSTRALIAN PARSONAGE; OR, THE SETTLEE AND THE SAVAGE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. By Mrs. EDWAED MILLETT. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD, 6 & 7, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 1 8 72. &L3 IY Ib3 PREFACE. Large in extent and varied in character as is that great district which is called by the general title of Western Australia, little has hitherto been known of it in England, and little interest has been felt either in its history or its progress. The intending emigrant who thinks of turning his steps towards New South Wales, or Victoria, or Tas- mania, or Queensland, finds no lack of guide-books and histories by which to form an opinion of the merits or disadvantages of these rival colonies, and it is easy for him to decide which of these divisions of the great Austral continent appears to present the most favourable prospects in his own especial case. But with Western Australia, or, to use the name by which it is more gene- rally known, Swan River, matters are altogether different. Until lately, no guide-book at all, of any later date than twenty years ago, was in existence, and all the information which could be of service to an emigrant was buried in parliamentary blue books and official pamphlets. The report of evidence which had been given before a Com- mittee of the House of Commons to inquire into the merits of Western Australia as a convict settlement was the chief source from which we were able to learn anything vi PREFACE. respecting the colony when, eight years ago, we first medi- tated a sojourn in the Southern hemisphere. The peculiar isolation of Swan Kiver, which is imparted to it by its physical geography, has also cut it off in great measure from free communication with its nearer neighbours, so that, even in the other portions of Australia itself, very misty ideas are entertained with regard to it. The follow- ing pages do not pretend to the character of either a guide or a history of the colony. They are simply, as their name implies, sketches of the writer's own expe- riences as a chaplain's wife during five years spent in a country where English colonists of a past generation were disappointed because their ignorance respecting it had induced them to cherish hopes which could never attain fruition, but where modem emigrants may find substantial good if they will confine their expectations to what the land is really capable of producing. The emigrant who desires to meet with minute and technical information will find that the blue book, containing the records of the census of the colony of Western Australia taken in 1870, together with observations upon the results of the census, published by the Registrar-General, Mr. Knight, will be of much service to him. He would also find it ad- vantageous to furnish himself with a little history of Western Australia compiled by the son of the Registrar, Mr. William Knight, containing tables of statistics upon every point on which the intending emigrant or settler could wish to be advised. Both these works PREFACE. vii can be obtained by post if ordered from the publisher, Mr. Pether, Perth, Western Australia. The writer ven- tures to hope that, as she has most carefully avoided saying anything in her pages which could be a cause of pain to any inc^vidual amongst her former neighbours and friends in the colony — a task not always easy in a country of such scanty population that everyone within it is known to everyone else either personally or by name — some little measure of good-will and kindly feeling towards herself may remain in the reader's mind when he has come to the conclusion of her unpretending though honest and truthful records. In the very few instances in which reference has been made to the official actions of public functionaries, the writer would wish it to be understood that she gives her husband's opinions as well as her own, as he, from his position as a chaplain upon the Government Establishment, had a fair opportunity of observing in what manner colonial affairs were transacted, and what influences were sometimes brought to bear upon them. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. Approach to Australia — Sea birds — Size of waves — Caught in gale' off St. Paul's — First sight of land — Keminiscences of voyage — Drown- ing of German sailor — Man overboard, but saved — Description of emigrants — Suspiciously short hair — Petty thefts — Captain asked to take charge of photographs — Channel weather — A Wick herring — Birth of children — Soiree in the steerage — Fortune-telling cake — Drop anchor — First sight of bush — A lonely landing-place — White beach — One-eyed native — Description of Fremantle — Scenery of Kiver Swan — Arrival at Perth — Profusion of flowers . . . . Page 1 CHAPTER II. Description of Perth — View over Melville Water — Old Government House and Gardens — 'New Government House considered by some persons to be too large — Employment of convicts in Perth — No chain-gangs seen there — Immigrants' home — Anecdotes of some of the emigrants from our ship — Mistakes amongst poor in England as to the geographical position of Western Australia, and distance from Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart Town — Difficulty experienced by Emigration Commissioners at home in procuring free emigrants for Swan Kiver — Additional public buildings in Perth erected during the last three years — Town Hall — Wesleyan Church 24 CHAPTER III. Journey through bush to Barladong — Eoad party — Sympathy of our driver — Kunaway sailors — Singular sound of wind passing through shea-oak trees — Crossing Darling Kange at Green Mount — Exten- sive and beautiful view — Inn at Mahogany Creek — Australian mag- pie — Burning of team of horses and load of sandalwood by bush-fire — " V " hut in bush — Grass-trees or Xanthorrhoeas — Inn at the Lakes — Kemain for the night — Sofa bedsteads — Journey resumed — Early start — Great heat — Paper bark-trees — Little inn among zamias, and red gum-trees — Kangaroo dogs and kangaroo breakfast — First sheep seen feeding forty miles from Perth — Poisonous plants — Change in character of forest — White gum-trees — Curious lizard X CONTENTS. — Descent of Cut Hill — View of Mount Bakewell — Arrive at Barla- dong — Description of Church and Parsonage — Deaf clerk's welcome — Early call for sick visiting — Melancholy noise of curlews in the middle of the night Page 38 CHAPTER IV. Description of Parsonage House — Multiplicity of doors — Verandahs the only passage from room to room — Difficulty in procuring necessary fittings — First visit to a country store — Beauty of native mahogany flooring if properly kept — Pensioners and wives — Convict depots in country districts — Depot at Barladong — Clocks and cocks — Climate in summer — Favourite riding-horse — Visits from the natives — Appearance and character of Khourabene — Difficulties as to dress — Habits of exchanging all things with each other — Natives' duties towards strangers — Love of dogs among the natives — Behaviour to the women — Matrimonial quarrel near Parsonage — " Bollia " men, or conjurors — Cruel custom of avenging a death — Native grave — Natives very trustworthy as messengers — Ned sent to carry a letter — His behaviour to his wife — Pepper-tea and sham poisoning — Use of grease and fat on the skin — Old Isaac's amusement at a lady's riding- hat — Eed earth or Wilghee used as ornament — Native dandy dress- ing himself for a dance — Khourabene's suit of mourning . . . . 59 CHAPTER V. A new servant — Make-shifts in cooking — Kaolin — Camp-ovens — A native "batch" — Variety of out-door premises — Nature of the Australian hard woods as fuel — Alarm of fire — Sandalwood and " stink-wood " as fuel — Trade in sandalwood — Licence for cutting wood in bush — Bush-fires — Sudden deafness caused by fright — Infant burnt — Beauty of bush-flowers, and want of any useful food — Great scarcity of edible roots in bush — Promise of dried fruits from vine, apricot, and other introduced trees — Oranges and lemons — Potatoes — Curious objection of settlers to eat spinach — Name of spinach growing wild — Dubbeltje — Origin of name — Pig-melons for apple-pies — Sugar-beer — Native brewing — Ned's fear of bad Spirit soothed by sugar-beer 89 CHAPTER VI. Drawbacks to progress of West Australia — " Dangerous " country — Mr. Drummond identifies poisonous plants — Land when infested by them useless for pastoral purposes — Evil partly remediable — Intelligence required in shepherds — Impossibility on many roads of employing CONTENTS. xi bullock-wagons — Scattered nature of cultivated districts — Narrow views of things in general — Difficulty of introducing tramways or railroads — Grain-bearing eastern districts — Kail road anxiously de- manded— Can be formed only by Government funds — Different interests amongst the colonists — Want of means of locomotion — Monotony of colonial life — Seasons in Southern hemisphere — Sunday Lessons seem inappropriate — Hot weather at Christmas — Trouble of cooking — St. Thomas seems out of place at Midsummer — An old- fashioned Christmas — Excitement caused by cow — Khourabene makes a well-timed visit — Boils plum-pudding — Khourabene's old master — Servants' wages paid in live-stock — Temporary prosperity of colony — Reminiscences of hard work and poverty — Listening for coach-wheels — Grinding flour by hand — Colonial-made steam- engine — Weddings and "traps" — More luxuries and less comfort — Shepherds and March-winds — Gin in the sheepfold — Shepherdesses — Spears in thatch — Poisoned sheep — Bringing home pigs — Gen- tleness necessary in tending sheep — Anecdote of little swineherd. Page 107 CHAPTER VII. Opinion of our shipmate on the subject of educating natives — Success of Roman Catholic bishop — Wesleyan Mission school — Its failure — Mrs. Camfield — Causes of her success with natives — Her difficulty in establishing her pupils in life — Anxiety of the Bishop of Perth to undertake guidance of institution at Albany, and to resign his See foi that purpose — Petition to abandon project of resignation — Our inability to undertake missionary work at Barladong — Mingee and her mother — Protest against name of Sally — Mingee handed over to her betrothed — Mingee elopes with half-caste — Family complica- tions — Khourabene left in charge of Parsonage — Dying native woman — Binnahan — Khourabene's opinion of legs — Native funeral — Hasty interment — Going to school — Hen and duckling — Quick- ness in learning to read — Backwardness in sewing — " Squeak " in boots — Forlorn little native — Names suitable to good society . . 127 CHAPTER VIII. Length of summer and winter — Rapid change of weather — Bull-frog — Perplexing sounds — Healthiness of hot weather — No palliatives to heat except sea-breeze — Flies — Ants — Housekeeping difficulties — Fleas — Flowers — Raspberry-jam blossoms — Cow-keeping — Goats and Sabbatarianism — Churning — Scarcity of cheese — Cow-tenting — Bells and herd attractive to cow — Sameness of diet — Australian mutton tastes differently to English mutton — Bunbury beef — Pink everlastings — Road making and mending — "Governor Hampton's xii COX TEXTS. cheeses " — Horses and foals — Colonial gates — Aptness of horses to stray — Horse hunting — Obliged to hobble our horse — Horse gets rid of side-saddle — " Gum-suckers " — Headlong riders — Eating a dolghite — Description of one — Evergreen trees — Clearness of atmosphere — " Choosing frocks out of the sky " — Southern Cross — Thunder-storms — Chimney struck — Twisted trees do not attract lightning — Suitability of climate to consumptive patients — Pecu- liarities of climate — Bishop Salvado's opinion of it . . . . Page 149 CHAPTER IX. Natural history often considered a dry study — People of this opinion had better skip Chapters IX. and X. — Garrison of cats — How it is disposed of — Cats as playthings — Cat brings in yellow lizard and green snake — Bob-tailed Guana — Scarcity of scorpions and abundance of lizards — Ubiquity of bronze lizard — " Mountain devil " — Similarity to granite lichens — Timothy missing — Brought back by smiling boy — Dies, and obliged to be buried for want of arsenical soap — Untameable Noombat — Supposed pig in cabbages — Impossible to identify, satisfactorily, creature called Bunny-ar — Tra- dition of alligator — Black snake — Binnahan's escape — " Bunch of black-puddings " — Palmer-worms — Trap-door spiders — Walking- stick insects — Present of kangaroo — Kangaroo's mode of self- defence — Dangerous guest at meal-times — Jacky drinks sugar- .beer — Little old native brings dog — The chase — New propensity — Jacky succumbs to privation from beer — Kangaroo hops away with baby — Modes of dressing flesh of kangaroo — Fur counterpanes — Kangaroo rats and " boodies " — Dog fails to make distinctions — A domestic tyrant — Emu's feathers — Opossum — Bishop Salvado's opinion to be taken with reservation — Opossum's noiseless mode of walking — Supernumerary claw — Various hiding-places tried by Possie ; finally selects carpet-bag — Fondness for flowers — I am obliged to admit that Possie eats birds — Possie plays truant — Keturns to supper — Opossum's mode of eating apricots — Possie and her daughter — Domestic duties — Fondness for society — Possie sup- posed to have rejoined her relations — Tender retrospections . . ITS CHAPTER X. WHEREIN NATURAL HISTORY MERGES INTO AN ACCOUNT OF SCARCITY OF WATER. Parroquets — Twenty-eights — Eosella parroquets in pomegranate-tree — Native brings Kosella nestling — Love of pancakes — Wild Kosellas decoy away my tame one — Supposed single specimen of parrot — Crows — Silver Tongue — Wagtails and swallows — Bell-bird — CONTENTS. xiii Cockatoos — Swans — Cockatoo broth — Startled in the dark — A thankless offer — Kylies used in killing birds — Painting a kylie — Bronze- winged pigeons — N<jowa — Method in which JSfgowa prepares nest — Eare birds driven into inhabited districts by want of water — We lose turkey — Painted snipe — Cat's tribute to fidelity of artist — Cinnamon-coloured heron — Moths and other marauders — Fish called Coblers — Snappers and mullet — Crawfish — Fresh-water turtles — Frying turtle-eggs proves a bad experiment — Affectionate disposition of aborigines — Wild ducks — Khourabene's complacency at a well-filled bag — Game laws — " Father and mother, I must hook it away ! " — Strong feeling of ownership with respect to land on part of natives — Metempsychosis — Forest laws less severe amongst Australians than amongst ancient Normans — Accumulation of water in consequence of felling timber — Amends made by white man — Corohberies — Mortality and early deaths amongst natives — Bishop Salvado's way of dispersing combatants — His remonstrances ' produce no effect with native husbands — Drought — Want of tanks — Floods — Swollen river renders farm-yard impassable — Washing on river bank — Inconvenience of distant wells — Temptations to gossip at wells — Anecdote of encamping at night without water — Enthusiastic welcome of boy and pony — Custom capable of sweeten- ing brackish water Page 216 CHAPTEK XI. Winter a favourable time for exploring parties — Explorers turn back for want of water — Second expedition — Excitement at setting out — School copies — Second disappointment — Wild puppies give great umbrage — Bushrangers — Impassable bush serves as prison wall — Fire-arms indispensable to bushrangers — Fatal occurrences — Native trackers — Chain-gang — Conditional pardons — Fact of having been in Western Australia suppressed by immigrants in Adelaide — Tale of escape — Discontent of ticket-of-leave men on cessation of conditional pardons — An oppressive state of law — Truck system — Anecdote of shoemaker — Benevolent master — Tendency of truck system to destroy gratitude — Archdeacon Paley's opinion of paying ready money — Girl thinks it high time bucket should be worn out — Reck- less expenditure of wages — Savings' bank discouraged, and why — French convict saves money — Barter — Paying one's creditor with eggs — Dressmaker paid with melons and almonds — Hospital ad- mission— Nursing the sick — Presents to patients forbidden — Hos- pital orderlies — Dentists — French colonel — Ophthalmia — "Bunged" eyes — Squints — Measles and hooping-cough — Mortality from measles amongst natives — A " corporal act of mercy " — Native hops and tea — Hollow ay's pills — Woman severely burnt — Broken XIV CONTEXTS. leg — Dislocated Mp — Answer to coo-ee — Finding of human bones — Lost child — Discovery of relics — Keasons for easily losing one's way in bush — Anecdotes of Irish neighbour and the poor maid- servant — We spend a night out of doors — Silence of bush at night — A perplexing adventure — Horse brought back by Khourabene — A "dropped hip" — We are thrown out of cart and feel injured by horse's indifference to what has happened — Traces repaired with knitting-cotton Page 235 CHAPTER XII Bishop Salvado's history of Australia and of the Benedictine Mission of New Norcia in Western Australia — Missionaries dispatched by "Pro- paganda"— Rudesindo Salvado and Giuseppe Serra obtain leave to quit La Cava — Commencement of native vocabulary — Sad incident on reaching Perth — Formation of Missions — Captain Scully's pro- posal— Missionaries leave Perth and soon present travel-stained appearance — Disappointment in finding no water — Lengthened walk in search of it — Building of hut — Approach of natives — Insupport- able suspense — Mode of propitiating natives — Natives assist in completing hut — Provisions almost consumed — Eating of grubs — Bishop unable to provide shoes — Musical entertainment — Help arrives too late — Patching clothes — Present of flour — Missionaries in character of stu-geons — Tales by fire-light — " Jingy corobbery " — New views of Missionaries — Cannibalism — Infanticide — Tilling ground the best remedy — Scheme for founding monastery and native village — Perplexity about ways and means — Remittances from "Propaganda" — Laying the first stone — Pompey provides dinners for builders — Allotments — Wages — Habits of saving inculcated — Naming of heifer calf — Obstacles to success of Mission — Cordon sanitaire — Marriage of converts — Aristocratic ideas — Drinking tea in bush — Orphan child carried to Perth — Meeting between Father Salvado and little travelling companion 273 CHAPTER XIII. Names upon shore-line of West Australia in three different languages — Legend of Great Java — Spanish admiral invents name of Australia — Pioneers of West Australia exclusively Dutch — Discovery of Swan River — Finding of inscription on Dirk Hartog's Island — Dampier's shark — M. de Bougainville — Reasons of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux's voyage being undertaken — Captain Baudin's ideas about names — Tale invented by colonial John Bull — Naturalists lose their way — Captain Baudin' s inhumanity — Pewter plate carried to Paris — Captain Stirling sails to Swan River — His favourable reports of it — Cockburn CONTENTS. xv Sound — Garden Island — Plans for colonization — No convicts to be admitted — Large grants of land — Deplorable condition of first im- migrants — Scurvy — Early cutting of cabbages — Governor Stirling's activity — Unsuitability of goods and furniture — Travelling carriages turned to good account — Deal packing-cases found useful — Harp re-shipped — Tents blow loose in windy weather — Boys fasten ropes — Vessel on sand-bank — Boat capsized — Merits of twins not recog- nized by Colonial Government — Australind projected — Repetition of disappointment — Western Australia acquires a bad name — Dis- covery of mineral districts Page 300 CHAPTEE XIY. Swan River immigrants begin to see their position — Valuable commer- cial products of Western Australia — Scanty means of turning them to account — Settlers decide upon asking Home Government for convicts — Suitability of colony as vast jail — Rations — Schemes for im- proving circumstances of colony — Superior class of prisoners in early convict ships — Long sentences — Government expenditure required in West Australia for many years to come — Frequent allusion to Government — Government men — Proposal scouted for introduction of Government women — Difficulty of procuring female immigrants — Women disheartened on landing — Bigamy — Situation of convicts' wives — Ultra-Protestantism — Child surreptitiously carried out to be christened — Matrimonial disputes — Social inequalities — Small number of respectable women — A convict's wedding — Shifting nature of population — Glazier cannot come — Effect of familiarity with crime — Causes assigned by convicts for being transported — The tax-cart, and other anecdotes — Convict geologist — " Addicted to sharpening of «a knife " — Convicts in church — No rule without exception — Religious instruction of convicts on road parties much overlooked formerly — Present position of chaplains — Impossibility under existing circumstances of chaplains' visits being of much benefit to road parties — Books craved for — Warder's disappointment on examining box — Convicts' notions on week-day and Sunday services — Sort of books preferred by convicts — Sitting near the pulpit — Effect on personal comfort produced by convict servants — London pickpocket — Preference for machinery in place of convict labour 324 CHAPTEE XY. Schools on the Irish system — Roman Catholic schools — Schoolmasters — Scholastic squabbles — Convict tutors — Difficulties to educated con- victs in earning livelihood — Festival of the Barladong Fair — Want of recreation — Silver mugs — Popular entertainment — " Paddle xvi CONTENTS. your own canoe " — Natives attracted to fair — Different costumes — Glass spears — Fights occasioned by betrothal and polygamy — Native laws respecting marriages — Sheep-shearers interrupted at dinner — Pitched battle in barley- field — Holding beard between teeth — JEsop's donkey — Khourabene in position of Mr. Swiveller — Khoura- bene brings home wife — Legacy of brother's widow — Khourabene's past history as married man — His escape from policeman — Finally acquitted — Reasons for contracting additional marriage — First wife deputes making of dampers to second wife — Ladies' quarrels — Khourabene and his wives — Khourabene an outlaw — His aunt's lamentations Page 354 CHAPTER XYI. West Australia regarded as the "ugly duckling" by sister colonies — Contains, nevertheless, best timber in the world — Jarrah wood — Its indestructible nature — Blue gum — Formation of timber company — First railroad — York gum — Casuarina — Suitability of Jarrah for railway sleepers — Improvement of Cockhurn Sound — Shingling of roofs — Sandalwood trade — Whale fisheries — Whaling almost mono- polized by Americans — Ball on board the whaler — Registrar's state- ment of abundance of whales — The "gentleman from Tasmania" — Overland expedition to Adelaide — Incidents related by M. Rossel — Government geologist — Discovery of new pasture land — Tommy Winditch's announcement — Pearl fisheries — Hawk's-bill turtles — Sponges — Western Australia viewed as a field for emigration — Neces- sity for raising loan — Manner of carrying on business in the colony — Influence of merchant-class : when and how injurious to a colony or beneficial to it — Instance of labourer desirous to clear land — Help from storekeeper — Reason of land being rented — Small farmers often little better than carriers — Clearing lease — Necessity for great variety of information — West Australia unattractive to large sheep- owners — Presents a different aspect to small capitalist — Prospects offered to the hard-working immigrant — Great preponderance of convict over free inhabitants — Antagonism between classes to be dreaded — Colony unsuited to persons possessing small fixed incomes — Storekeeping ten or twelve years ago — Expense of imported goods — Suitability of West Australia to labouring men and invalids . . 375 Appendix 411 SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. CHAPTEE I. Approach to Australia — Sea birds — Size of waves — Caught in gale off St. Paul's — First sight of land — Eerniniscences of voyage — Drown- ing of German sailor — Man overboard, but saved — Description of emigrants — Suspiciously short hair — Petty thefts — Captain asked to take charge of photographs — Channel weather — A Wick herring — Birth of children — Soiree in the steerage — Fortune-telling cake — Drop anchor — First sight of bush — A lonely landing-place — White beach — One-eyed native — Description of Fremantle — Scenery of River Swan — Arrival at Perth — Profusion of flowers. Ship * Taetae,' December 10, 1863. — We were now rapidly approaching the shores of Australia. The great ocean birds, which had proved our chief source of amusement ever since we had passed the Cape, had vanished of a sudden. Whether the same identical flock had followed us for the last few weeks, or whether it had been daily replaced by a fac-simile, it would be hard to say ; at all events, each morning seemed to bring back the familiar feathered friends of yesternight. In them, and in the wild-looking Southern Sea on which they were at home, we had found inexhaustible attractions, for what the scene had lost in colouring as we proceeded southwards it had gained in grandeur. Even when there was but little wind the waves appeared to us to be of far greater size than any which we had previously seen, and it was pleasant to know that this was no mere landsman's fancy, but that their magnitude B 2 SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. had long ago been chronicled by Captain Cook, in his account of his first voyage on the great Southern Ocean.* When we could dispense with the deadlights, on days when a strong breeze was blowing, I used to spend many hours gazing at the view from our open stern-window, and watching its alternations as the vessel rose and fell. At one time I could see nothing but a huge hill of water shutting out all other objects than itself; then, as the ship rose upon the wave, would appear an immense fur- rowed plain, enlivened by birds of all sizes, from the alba- tross to the stormy petrel; some following close in our wake, others hovering around us in all directions, whilst others sat tranquilly upon the heaving waters, clustered together as quietly as ducks and geese upon a pond. On one occasion, when near the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, we were caught upon the edge of a heavy gale from the south-west, before which we might have run merrily onwards towards our port, had not our lower deck been filled with emigrants, rendering it impossible to batten down the hatches. We were, therefore, obliged to " lay-to " for some hours — a somewhat provoking delay ; but one which enabled us to store up in our memories another picture of the sea, never to be forgotten, its waves all foam and rage, whilst the albatrosses kept holiday amongst them. We had now come so near to our journey's end that our friends the birds deserted us, not liking the warm sea and air of Australia. Having watched and admired them so frequently and so long, we took leave of them with regret, and did not consider the Cape Leeuwin pigeons and the seagulls which met us near the land at * See Harkesworth s ' Cook's Voyages,' vol. iv., p. 171. Edition third. DROWNING OF A GERMAN SAILOR. 3 all good substitutes for the albatrosses, frigate-birds, and other mid-ocean wanderers. Early on the morning of the 13th of December, 1863, we espied from our cabin port-hole a lighthouse, standing upon a long green ridge of land, which we knew at once to be Kottnest Island. As this little island is the pilot station for the port of Fremantle wTe might now consider our voyage as completed, since a very few more hours would bring us to the anchorage. I was not tired of our ship life, but the sight of land, after being so many weeks at sea, brings with it a sensation of pleasure which can scarcely be imagined by those who have never experienced it. Unhappily our pleasure was not shared by all with whom we had lost sight of the Lizard, since some of our fellow-voyagers had not lived to reach the shore. An emigrant's child had died on board of illness, and a poor young German seaman had fallen overboard. Whilst em- ployed in painting some part of the ship's prow, he fell from a seat slung over the bows, and was drowned before our eyes. We had crossed the southern tropic about a week before, and though the day was fine there was a strong breeze, and a considerable swell upon the water. Five minutes nearly must have been spent in lowering the boat and getting the cork jackets for her crew, so that when the ship's head was brought round, and the boat was able to get away, but very small hope of saving the poor fellow remained. The sailors who manned the boat did their best, remaining so long absent on their search that all sight of them from the maintop was lost, and the captain began seriously to fear that they too had perished. Their re-appearance was, therefore, a great relief to us all ; but 4 SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. they came up the ship's side with tired and disappointed looks, unaccompanied by their poor comrade, and not having been able even to recover the life buoy which had been thrown overboard the moment that the accident was discovered. The irrepressible curiosity of the emigrants, (of whom we had a good many on board) during so much excitement and alarm led them to invade the forbidden precincts of the poop itself, where they created so much confusion that the captain not only ordered them all off at once, but, as a punishment, sent them down below under hatches, to remain there until the return of the boat. A little time afterwards, as I was descending the poop- ladder, my eyes encountered the strange apparition of a female head upon a level .with the quart er-deck, reminding me of the heads without bodies ranged upon the shelves of Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors. To strengthen the resemblance, the throat of the solitary head was bound by the narrow red rim of a deck- ventilator ; but the illusion thus created was counterbalanced by the strong expression of curiosity in the wide open eyes, utterly unlike the closed orbs of the decapitated models in Baker Street. I recog- nized the features as those of one of the emigrant girls, who, having pushed her head through the orifice as if it had been a chimney, was now resting her chin in a raised position upon the edge of it — an attitude which would have been considered martyrdom if otherwise than self-imposed, but cheerfully sustained, in the hope of circumventing the captain by obtaining a glimpse of what was going on. It takes but a little time to wind up the worldly affairs of the poor, and, in the evening of the same day on which the poor young seaman was lost, his very small chest was A MAN OVERBOARD. 5 sealed up and stowed away in an empty cabin, to be sent hereafter, if possible, to his relations at home. These sad circumstances received additional pathos when we heard from another of the crew, who was also a German, that the poor fellow had sailed upon his voyage without his parents' knowledge, and that he had of late expressed much regret on this account. His death, though a sad and solitary one, was not without its tribute of tears, for one of the emigrants' children, to whom he had often given part of his Sunday dinner, cried very bitterly for his loss. Though we lost but one man by drowning, it was not the only time that the agitating cry of " man overboard ! " was heard. We were roused early one morning by a great noise on deck, as of all the yards and sails being let fall at once, and, on looking from our stern window, we saw a boat rising and falling on the waves, first hidden for a few seconds, and then again the red shirt of the steerer rising into view. Our inquiries received for answer that a man had tumbled into the water through sheer negligence, and a minute or two afterwards we heard the doctor bidding the steward to have plenty of hot water and mustard ready, in case they should be wanted. All this care proved quite needless, as the missing man was soon seen returning, not only in his senses, but in such excellent case as to be hard at work baling out the boat which had picked him up. Being a good swimmer, he had easily kept himself afloat, and the sea was so warm, as we were then in the tropics, that his fear of drowning was very secondary to his dread of sharks. He did not obtain much sympathy for his ducking, as he was known to have gone overboard through gross carelessness once if not" twice before, and it seemed 6 SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. the general opinion that any repetition of the manoeuvre was to be regarded as an aggravation of an old offence. I have mentioned the emigrants as forming a large proportion of the passengers on board our ship, and we could not avoid thinking that some of them were not exactly of a character to make a favourable impression when they should land in their new home. They were divided into three classes, — married couples with their families, single women, and single men. The three classes were berthed apart, and all communication down below carefully cut off. The married folks were mostly decent, respectable people, but both the single men and the single women were decidedly wanting in propriety of behaviour, though the women were worse than the men. They were all under the official charge of the doctor, and a great deal of trouble did they give both to him and to the captain. My husband had offered to act as chaplain while on board, if given the necessary official authority and position, but he was told at the Emigration Office that chaplains were no longer appointed to either emigrant or convict ships, " religious instructors " being substituted for them in the latter vessels, while the former are left to take their chance ; he accordingly possessed no. official character whatever on board, although he usually performed divine service on Sunday whenever the weather would permit. Of the single girls we had more than sixty on board our ship, and one fortnight's acquaintance with them had sufficed to show us that they were a most unpromising set ; and, moreover, our early impression that several of them had made acquaintance with the inside of a jail was not at all effaced by the experience and events of the FEMALE EMIGRANTS. 7 voyage. One of them, whose hair when she came on board was cropped suspiciously short, accounted for it by saying that her sister-in-law used to pull it out when they had a quarrel ; but she was not the only one who might have been supposed to have been under the hands of tbe prison barber, for several others were in a similar predica- ment as to the paucity, or rather brevity, of their lochs. There were perpetual complaints throughout the voyage, caused by tbe petty thefts committed upon one another by these damsels, such as purloining the steel from each other's crinolines, appropriating articles of clothing, little brooches, and such- like ; but tbe favourite objects of cupidity were tbe photographs of other people's sweet- hearts, the abstraction of which was an act of aggression which seemed to demand the taking of some especial precautions for the general security, and accordingly the girls came one morning in a body to the captain, bringing with them a pile of likenesses, of which they solemnly requested him to take charge until the ship should reach Fremantle. The first of these girls whom I addressed when we joined tbe ship at Gravesend was, I noticed, eating eagerly, and she told me, in reply to my questions, that she had been much weakened and pulled down through the want of food which she had endured during the cotton famine at Manchester. Her face then bore witness to her story, for it was quite thin and wrinkled, though she was, she told me, but three-and-twenty. When we had been at sea a few weeks she had grown quite fat and young-looking, and, in company with her saucy, good-for-nothing companions, was seen pitching her allowance into the sea on pretence that the meat was bad, 8 SKETCHES IN WESTERN AV STB ALT A. although it was out of the same cask of pork then in use in the cabin, the goodness of which we had especially noticed. In fact all the arrangements for the food and general comfort of the emigrants were so good, that I often used to wish that some of the respectable poor whom I had known at home were there to enjoy them; but this was before I knew the colony to which we were sailing, and the dangerous prospects it presents to re- spectable women if unmarried and without parents. Our voyage had, upon the whole, been a most pros- perous one. Since we had left the Channel we had enjoyed a succession of lovely weather, and had only been forced to "lay-to" on one day — that which I have already mentioned; but while in the Channel the weather had for ten days been very stormy and severe. Indeed, on one or two occasions during that time, we had had to encounter very serious gales, accompanied with some real danger and with much discomfort to the emigrants. During the worst of the weather my husband used to go down into the married people's quarters to look after the women and children, and to give them biscuits and raisins and any little dainties with which we had pro- vided ourselves for our own use on the voyage. 