Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

A HINT TO RETIRING CITIZENS.

YE Cits who at White Conduit House,
Hampstead or Holloway carouse,
Let no vain wish disturb ye
For rural pleasures unexplored,
Take those your Sabbath strolls afford,
And prize your Rus in urbe.

For many who from active trades
Have plunged into sequester'd shades,
Will dismally assure ye,

That it's a harder task to bear
Th' ennui produced by country air,
And sigh for Urbs in rure.

The cub in prison born and fed,
The bird that in a cage was bred,
The hutch-engender'd rabbit,
Are like the long-imprison'd Cit,
For sudden liberty unfit,
Degenerate by habit.

Sir William Curtis, were he mew'd
In some romantic solitude,

A bower of rose and myrtle,
Would find the loving turtle-dove
No succedaneum for his love
Of London Tavern turtle.

Sir Astley Cooper, cloy'd with wealth,
Sick of luxurious ease and health,
And rural meditation,

Sighs for his useful London life,
The restless night-the saw and knife
Of daily amputation.

Habit is second nature-when
It supersedes the first, wise men
Receive it as a warning,

That total change comes then too late,
And they must e'en assimilate

Life's evening to its morning.

Thrice happy he whose mind has sprung From Mammon's yoke while yet unwrung,

Or spoilt for nobler duty ;

Who still can gaze on Nature's face
With all a lover's zeal, and trace

In every change a beauty.

No tedium vitæ round him lowers,
The charms of contrast wing his hours,

And every scene embellish :

From prison, City, care set free,
He tastes his present liberty

With keener zest and relish.

RAMBLES IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

LETTER X.

In my last I gave you some account of the desirable country connecting Bathurst on the north with Hunter's River, by Mudgié, Daby, Pylong, &c.; we will now, if you please, take a short trip to the south of Bathurst, up Campbell's River. It is the junction of this with the Fish River which forms the great and interesting river Macquarie.

We were rather late in starting from the pseudo-town of Bathurst, having been detained by the difficulty of procuring a new shoe for one of our horses, as well as a heavy but welcome storm of rain. Our time was not, however, altogether lost, as we were entertained with an excellent dinner, &c. by my worthy and intelligent friend M. It was here I tasted, for the first time, a bottle of excellent Bathurst ale, superior to any thing of the kind made in Sydney, and quite equal to that brewed in Hobart Town, which I consider is no small praise. I don't know the name of the Bathurst brewer, but I would caution him against the druggist's shop; the excellent barley and hops of his neighbourhood requiring no assistance from Quassia or Coculus Indicus. In a fine grain country like Bathurst, no settler should be without a cask of home-brewed; this would materially abate that restless desire for ardent spirits, which runs through the working population, and which supports in this part of the country one licensed publican, and about ten unlicensed ones, to the great loss and annoyance of the respectable settlers; and which they can only hope to see abolished by the constant vigilance of a permanent Police Magistrate.

As we mounted our horses, I could not help taking another and last look at the gentle Macquarie, which murmured at our feet, and which excites so much interest from its unknown termination.

"Flow on, thou shining river,

But, ere thou reach the sea,
Pray tell us, shall we ever

Know what becomes of thee?"

We galloped across the Government farm and the beautiful and clear country called Queen Charlotte's Valley, for about five or six miles, when, getting into the forest country, we soon arrived at the ford over Campbell's River, and stopped for the night at Mitchell's Plains. On the return of daylight, this beautiful little spot showed to the greatest advantage: the placid and peaceful lake at the bottom, covered with wild-fowl, not being the least prominent feature in the view. Fine as a New South Wales morning is in general, a Bathurst sunrise cannot be surpassed in summer-time. A strong breeze comes off the mountains during the night, and refreshes the open plains with the most agreeable coolness. The wheat lands in this district, although not extensive, are highly productive. I saw twenty-eight stalks, the produce of a single grain; and a settler assured me, last season he had thrashed fifty-eight bushels from five pecks of seed wheat! Our horses having wandered off the farm during the night, a constant misery in this uninclosed country, we were compelled to halt until they were found, which was not until late in the day, they having gone on a visit to the Government mares, some eight or nine miles. This prevented us seeing George's Plains; a very rich, and, as I was told, beautiful tract of country on the west side of the Campbell. This is an interesting river, and runs through a hilly, thinly timbered, sheep country. There are few resident settlers, the good spots being occupied as stations, and the persons in charge of the stock living the life of Dutch cattle-boors, in the remote districts of the Cape of Good Hope. We slept or rather stopped at one of these craals, as they might be called, at the head of Campbell's River; the owner of which carried his hospitality too far, by refusing to go to bed the whole night. Between twelve and one o'clock, at midnight, we were surprised at the arrival of two friends, on horseback, who had lost themselves in crossing the country, and, although

[ocr errors]

well mounted, had been five or six hours in coming a dozen miles. They had lost themselves in a place called Dead Man's Valley,' which obtained its horrid name from five of Mr. men, several years ago, being attacked here by the black natives, and murdered, mangled, and scalped. Lord Byron somewhere says

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods"

but we settlers know better; and, having tried both, prefer the turnpikeroad. When we came to look about us in the morning, for it was dark when we got in the preceding night, we could not see our hands before us for the fog, and it was so excessively cold that we could scarcely be induced to leave the fire. This was in the height of summer, the month of February. The fog dispersed about eight o'clock, and we saw we were getting again into the mountains; vast lofty hills, and narrow slips of valley of small extent, though fertile, forming the character of this highland district. The cattle which one of our party had purchased, and expected to see here, were all out dispersed towards Balubula, and the banks of the Lachlan, and could not be seen without many days labour and loss of time. The style of country and of living, in this distant region, having no particular attractions, and not being provided for bushing it in these early frosts, we made up our minds to return.

Near the head of Campbell's River, in the direction of the Lachlan, there is a small part of the country known by the name of the "Wild Horse." When the Commissioner travelled from Bathurst to Argyle, in October 1820, one of the baggage horses was so much hurt as to be rendered useless, and after distributing his load among the other horses, he was let loose and abandoned, and the travelling party proceeded on their journey. The horse recovered, and may now be seen in the same place where he was abandoned, fat and sleeky, though perfectly wild, with his tail sweeping the ground in the most majestic manner. He is thought never to leave his little domain, of about two miles diameter, which is the cause, no doubt, of his excellent condition, as he has been constantly seen by different parties, and always near the same spot. He gallops off at the sight of man or horse, and prefers his freedom to all the trappings of civilization.

It is here, in this bleak and distant country, that cattle-stealing has flourished, undetected, and unknown; and where it has become a sudden source of wealth to the most undeserving and obscure persons. Thinly scattered over a wide and difficult country, the entire population has hitherto only consisted of men in charge of great herds of cattle, seldom visited by the owners; and with no leaven of respectable residents to keep them in check, these stockmen have lived hail-fellow-well-met with each other, in the utmost gaiety, while in the idle and solitary vacancy of a herdsman's life, some of them have deserted their companions, and evinced a love of letters quite remarkable. A predilection for such studies, you will say, has frequently signalized the pastoral life; but don't be deceived, it is not a Fergusson, a Burns, or an Ettrick Shepherd, that we can boast of in our remote pastures at the source of the Lachlan. If we have any Helicon, it is, I think, nearer the capital. The learned leisure and studies of these Bathurst stockmen, of which it may be truly said, "non impediunt foris-peregrinantur, rusticantur," is confined to the alphabet, and all their research and ingenuity is how to alter the brand marks on their neighbour's property. A bit of iron-hoop, made hot, and applied to a cow's side, soon alters a C or a G into an O or a Q; and while a B, an M, a W, and R, oppose considerable difficulties, and excite the highest flight of genius, an easy conquest is gained over your F's, your I's, L's, O's, P's, T's, and V's.

Thus are bits of old iron tortured in the kitchen fire to effect their guilty purposes; it is the only precious metal, in the eyes of these deluded men, at all essential in acquiring their ill-got wealth. Another plan, with those cattle-stealers, is to drive away from their pastures any cows nearly ready to calve; and, as soon as the calf is two months old, to return the mother back

again into the old herd, the calf being detained and branded with as little delay as possible.

On our return from Campbell's River, we passed through the country which last winter proved so fatal to the sheep, as many as twelve or fifteen thousand having died in the course of the season. The year 1826 was unusually wet. The rains of January and March had been very injurious, ploughing up the public roads, breaking down bridges, and producing floods. These rains had saturated the ground all over the colony, both high and low, and when they had subsided, left the country about Campbell's River full of springs, the course of which may be traced down the hollows by long verdant strips of rank grass, not many yards wide. These waters afterwards stagnate, producing a rank and dangerous vegetation. If the sheep are suffered to feed near these ribbons of grass, their livers become rapidly diseased and full of small flat animals called flounders, and the sheep generally die off. Some sheep I saw opened had very unsound livers, and in one, in particular, I think I counted sixty or seventy of these animals all alive, about the size of a sixpence. The gall also swells to a great size, and the heart and intestinal parts assume a whiteness and wateriness, denoting the highest stage of the disease. This is the rot; which it is hardly possible to cure, and which is sure to be the result of depasturing flocks in flooded lands, especially when flooded in summer, the sheep filling themselves with the premature and unsubstantial grasses, the rapid growth of heat and moisture. The celebrated Mr. Bakewell made a practice always to rot his fat ewes previous to selling them, on purpose that they should be slaughtered by the butcher, and not get into the hands of other breeders. This was simply effected by overflowing his meadows in summer-time; and, when in autumn the water was let off, the sheep were let in. There is no reason to think this mortality among the sheep at Bathurst will occur again, after the dearly bought experience of last winter. There will no doubt be some deaths as soon as the frosts set in severely; but it will be chiefly among those sheep which, though infected, escaped by reason of the present dry summer.

I have been asked which is the finest country, Bathurst or Hunter's River. Till we can say to the Blue Mountains, " Be thou removed and cast into the midst of the sea," there is no difficulty in answering this question. The mountain-road, though as smooth as ice, will always be what it is, in point of elevation, barrenness, and extent. No doubt, when you are there it is a desirable and beautiful country, and better adapted to the feeding of sheep than the lower parts of Hunter's River; but to pay twenty pounds sterling per ton carriage to Bathurst, on such articles as salt, iron, sugar, household furniture, &c. is much against it. The one, as I said before, is the Milanese, this is the Tyrol: and every year the contrast will become greater. That population will flourish most in the fertile and accessible parts of the colony, is amply proved by the present well-peopled districts of Morpeth and St. Patrick's Plains; though not settled half the time that Bathurst has been, the number of inhabitants on those two spots is already larger than the entire population of Bathurst.

The River Hunter, though so forbidding at its mouth, and as far up as the water continues salt, shows afterwards that we must not judge by first appearances. From its great extent, excellent natural pastures, fruitful soil, good water, delightful climate, easy travelling, picturesque scenery, salt, coal, cedar, building timber, and three navigable rivers, Hunter's River will be the garden of New South Wales.

If four years have produced so much, what will forty? After seeing Bathurst and Van Diemen's Land, commend me to a farm at Hunter's River.

"Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart untravell'd fondly turns to thee."

LETTER XI.

JOURNAL OF AN EXCURSION TO BRISBANE WATERS.

X. Y. Z.

SUNDAY, eight o'clock A. M. started from the King's Wharf, in a waterman's boat, for Manly Beach, the head of the north harbour of Port Jackson, a

servant carrying two or three small bundles, containing cold ham and tongue, bread and cheese, a couple of bottles of Cognac, with change of linen, &c. Landed and began our march, with coats across our arms, for the South Head of Broken Bay, through the bush. After rather a difficult path of two miles we found, by the roar of the surf, that we were near the coast, when the trees getting thinner, all of a sudden we found ourselves on a fine sandy beach, called Cabbage Tree Beach, with a lagoon at the north end of it, running out with great rapidity into the sea. Here we were obliged to take off our shoes and stockings and walk across the water up a little higher than our knees. The head land jutting out too far into the sea, we were compelled to climb over the top, three hundred feet high; but the view of Port Jackson and its hundred coves, its bold and fearful heads, with the coast to the north, and all the successive beaches and promontories we had to pass, amply repaid the trouble of the ascent. We soon got in sight of Long Reef, seven miles, which appeared, on inspection, to be a very superior farm, considering its sandy situation, and standing very happily with a commanding sea-view, both north and south. It is the property of a person of the name of Jenkins, whose improvements, plenty, and hospitality, evinced him a farmer of some substance. It was nearly one o'clock at noon, and rather singular to our Sydney notions to be asked if we would have a cup of tea; we preferred a good English cheese and a glass of brandy and water, and after resting ourselves, resumed our journey, which lay through the Narroby Lagoon, a most beautiful spot, and more resembling the lakes of Keswick and Ambleside, than any thing we had seen in the Colony. There having been no rain for three months, and a very low tide at the time, there was no occasion to take off more than our shoes and stockings, and we walked a quarter of a mile through the water, not deeper than our knees, over a fine sand, that felt so velvety to our naked feet that we almost regretted it was not broader. Another head-land, as usual, succeeded to this sand, and after ascending it, we turned to our left through the bush and arrived at the head of Pitt Water, and regaled ourselves at the farm of one Geary. Here a Sydney boat was at anchor, and, very fortunately for us, had no objection to accept 15s. for putting us across to Brisbane Water. This is not the usual place for crossing the Bay, but seven miles lower down, at the mouth of Pitt Water, at a projecting rock called Barren Joey; but we preferred the boat and the smooth placid inlet, at sunset, to the rocky unpleasant journey by land. Pitt Water is an old settlement, although it has very scanty signs of cultivation. The few spots about it cleared are mostly for the rearing of onions, which, on account of the rich accumulation of sea shell, the soil is enabled to produce in great perfection. On our arrival at the fisherman's hut, the usual place for ferrying passengers across Broken Bay, the moon had just risen, and threw an agreeable but uncertain light over the broad expanse of water, the lofty crag of Mount Elliott, the entrance of the River Hawkesbury, and the numerous head-lands about the bay, which caused Captain Cook to give it its name of Broken. It was well we were provided with a boat, for the fisherman had none, which much excited our surprise; and, in a passage of so much importance, so much danger in bad weather, and such increasing traffic as Broken Bay, the Government, we hope, will not be long in establishing a competent and safe conveyance across this stormy estuary. From the South Head to the North is eighteen miles, almost as wide as the entrance of the Mediterranean between Gibraltar and Ceuta; and yet travellers are left to find their way across in little cockleshells of boats, when the fishermen think proper, and at a rate of more than 1s. per mile each passenger. The inconveniencies in winter must sometimes be serious; for instead of finding a decent or convenient ferry-house, it is hardly credible that human beings can exist in such perpetual filth and darkness, as in the fisherman's hut at Broken Bay. Those who have crossed the Pentland Frith, and had the happy luck of being weather-bound a week or ten days at the Ferry-house at Houna, might be able to make a comparison; but the house at Houna is a Shropshire dairy by the side of this

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »