Читать книгу Early Tasmania - James Backhouse Walker - Страница 11

IN a paper which I had the honour to read before the Royal Society last November, entitled "The French in Van Diemen's Land", I endeavoured to show how the discoveries of the French at the Derwent, and their supposed design of occupation, influenced Governor King's mind, and led him to despatch the first English colony to these shores. That paper brought the story to the 12th September, 1803, when the Albion whaler, with Governor Bowen on board, cast anchor in Risdon Cove, five days after the Lady Nelson, which had brought the rest of his small establishment.

The choice of such an unsuitable place as Risdon for the site of the first settlement has always been something of a puzzle; and, in order to understand the circumstances which led to this ill-advised selection, it will be necessary to go back some years, and follow the history of English discovery and exploration in the south of Tasmania.

I have already noticed the elaborate and complete surveys of the Canal D'Entrecasteaux, and the Rivière du Nord, made by the French navigators in 1792, and again in 1802; but it must be remembered that the results of these expeditions were long kept a profound secret, not only from the English, but from the world in general. Contemporaneously with the French, English navigators had been making independent discoveries and surveys in Southern Tasmania; and it was solely the knowledge thus acquired that guided Governor King when he instructed Bowen "to fix on a proper place about Risdon's Cove" for the new settlement.

The English discoverer of the Derwent—a navigator who, though less fortunate than Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, yet merits the title of original discoverer equally with the illustrious Frenchman—was Lieutenant John Hayes, of the Bombay Marine, to whom I have already alluded. The occasion of Hayes' expedition is sufficiently curious to justify a few words of remark. It was the only exploring expedition ever sent out by the East India Company into Australian waters. In those days the great Company was at the height of its power. Its royal charter secured it an absolute monopoly of trade, not only with India and China, but with the entire East, including the whole of the Pacific Ocean. So exclusive were its privileges, and so jealously maintained, that the colonists of New South Wales could not trade with the home country except by permission of the Company. So late as the year 1806 * it successfully resisted the sale in England of the first cargo of whale-oil and sealskins shipped by a Sydney firm in the Lady Barlow, on the ground that the charter of the colony gave the colonists no right to trade, and that the transaction was a violation of the Company's charter and against its welfare. It was urged on behalf of the Court of Directors that such "piratical enterprises" as the venture of the owners of the Lady Barlow must at once be put a stop to, as "the inevitable consequence of building ships in New South Wales will be an intercourse with all the ports of the China and India Seas, and a population of European descent, reared in a climate suited to maintain the energies of the European character, when it becomes numerous, active, and opulent, may be expected to acquire the ascendancy in the Indian Seas." The Lords Commissioners of Trade decided that the action of the colonists was irregular in respect to the Company's charter. Sir Joseph Banks exerted himself strenuously on behalf of the colonists, and represented to the Court of Directors that the Lords Commissioners in future cases "are disposed to admit the cargo to entry, in case the Court of Directors see no objection to this measure of indulgence towards an infant and improving colony," and, further, that their Lordships intend, without delay, "to prepare instructions for the future government of the shipping concerns of the colony, on a plan suited to provide the inhabitants with the means of becoming less and less burdensome to the mother country, and framed in such a manner as to interfere as little as possible with the trade prerogatives and resources of the East India Company." It was mainly owing to Banks' diplomacy and energy that an Order of Council was obtained allowing future cargoes from Sydney to be landed and sold in England.

[* See Pamphlet containing a summary of the contents of the Brabourne Papers, Sydney, 1886, p. 11.]

It is, perhaps, not surprising that the Company should have contributed so little towards the exploration of regions which it held to be an appanage to its Indian dominions, for at that time the Southern Seas offered few or no temptations of profit to a great trading corporation. As to New Holland, and Van Diemen's Land, its supposed southern extension, they were merely obstacles in the way of the lucrative China trade—jutting out inconveniently into the South Sea, lengthening the voyage and increasing its dangers. For the sake of the vessels employed in this trade, a knowledge of the Australian coast and its harbours was desirable.** It was probably with the object of finding a convenient harbour of refuge for ships following the southern route to China in their passage round the stormy South Cape of the Australian continent, that, in the year 1793, the Company fitted out an expedition destined for Van Diemen's Land. Cook and Bligh had recently brought home reports which encouraged the idea that a suitable port might be found there, and it is quite possible that rumours of the visit of D'Entrecasteaux the year before had stimulated the Board of Directors to action.

[** It was considered a chief object of every exploring expedition to find harbours suitable for the East India Company's ships. When Flinders was about to sail in the Investigator to explore the Australian coast, the Court of Directors, on being "applied to, made him an allowance of £1200 as "batta money"—a practical recognition of their interest in his expedition.—Brabourne Pamphlet, p. 13.]

Lieutenant John Hayes was appointed to the command of the expedition, which consisted of two ships, the Duke of Clarence and the Duchess, and was despatched from India to explore the coasts of Van Diemen's Land and its harbours, and to make its way back to India by the South Sea Islands and the Malay Archipelago. This service Lieut. Hayes performed in a very satisfactory manner. He surveyed the coasts of Tasmania, parts of New Caledonia, of New Guinea and other islands, his voyage extending over two or three years. Unhappily, the results of these valuable surveys were lost to his employers and to England, for the ship taking home his charts and journals was captured by a French man-of-war, all his papers were taken to Paris and have never since seen the light.* A rough sketch of the Derwent made by Hayes found its way to Sydney, and is frequently referred to by Flinders in the account of his voyage. This is all we know of his exploration of Tasmania, and of the Honourable East India Company's first, last, and only discovery expedition to Australian waters.

Chart of Van Diemen's Land: The Southern Extremity of New Holland from Capt. John Hayes, 1798.

[* There is good reason to believe that Hayes' charts and journals are in the National Library in Paris, or, possibly, in the Department of Marine and Colonies. It would be well if an effort were made to discover them and have them published. See Appendix.]

Lieut. Hayes' ships reached Storm Bay in the year 1794. He had heard of the visit of the French to these shores two years before, but knew nothing of what D'Entrecasteaux had done. He explored and surveyed the approaches of the Derwent, and sailed up that river nearly as far as Bridgewater; while, in the belief that he was making an original discovery, he gave new names to various localities. These have in some instances superseded those bestowed by his predecessor D'Entrecasteaux. Thus it is to Hayes that we owe the name of the Derwent, which has replaced the French appellation of the Rivière du Nord, and D'Entrecasteaux Channel was long known to the English by the name of Storm Bay Passage, which it bears on Hayes' chart. Other names which are still remembered are Betsey's Island, Prince of Wales Bay, Mount Direction, and, lastly, Risdon Cove.** It is said that Risdon Cove and River were named by him after one of the officers of the ship, but this I have not been able to verify.***

[** Adamson's Peak, Mount Lewis, Cornelian Bay, Taylor's Bay, Court's Island, Fluted Cape, Ralph's Bay, were also named by Hayes.]

[*** Mr. Justin Browne informs me that Risdon is a name borne by a county family of Devonshire; (see "Marshall's Genealogist's Guide", p. 524), and that it occurs also as a place name in Gloucestershire, (see also Burke's Armoury, Ed. 18.) The popular derivation from, a supposed "Rest-down" may, perhaps, be credited to the fancy of the enterprising and pugnacious printer, Andrew Bent. So far as I have been able to discover, it first occurs in "Bent's Tasmanian Almanac" for 1827. It has been copied by West and other writers.]

It was in the early spring of the year 1798 that Governor Hunter gave to Flinders—then a young Lieutenant of H.M.S. Reliance—the Norfolk**** a little colonial sloop of 25 tons, to try to solve the vexed question of the existence of a strait between New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. Flinders secured Dr. George Bass as his companion in the expedition, and on the 7th October, 1798, the Norfolk sailed from Port Jackson with a crew of 8 volunteers, taking twelve weeks' provisions. . They examined the North Coast of Tasmania, entering Port Dalrymple, and sailed for the first time through the Straits, to which, at Flinders' request, Governor Hunter gave the name of Bass' Straits.*****

[**** The Norfolk, which has the credit of having first circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land, was built at Norfolk Island, of the pine for which that island is celebrated. She was afterwards used by Flinders in his exploration of Moreton Bay. Labilliere's Early History of Victoria. Vol. i., p. 26.]

[***** "No more than a just tribute", says the generous Flinders, "to my worthy friend and companion for the extreme dangers and fatigues he has undergone in first entering it in the whale-boat, and to the correct judgment he had formed from various indications of the existence of a wide opening between Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales."—Voyage to Terra Australis, Intro., p. 193.]

Leaving Bass' Straits the Norfolk sailed southwards along the West Coast—Flinders naming Mount Heemskirk and Mount Zeehan after Tasman's two vessels—and on 14th December, arrived at the entrance of Storm Bay. Flinders had with him a copy of Hayes' sketch chart of the Derwent, but had never even heard of D'Entrecasteaux's discoveries six years before. Bass, in speaking of Adventure Bay, says—"This island, the Derwent, and Storm Bay Passage were the discovery of Mr. Hayes, of which he made a chart." More than a fortnight was employed by Flinders in making a careful survey of Norfolk Bay, and of the Derwent from the Iron Pot to a point some 5 miles above Bridgewater. In the Introduction to his Voyage to Terra Australis, he gives the result of his observations. Bass devoted his attention more particularly to an examination of the neighbouring country, its soil, productions, and suitableness for agriculture. He took long excursions into the country, having seldom other society than his two dogs, examining in this way the western shore of the river from below the Blow Hole at Brown's River to beyond Prince of Wales Bay, visiting various parts of the eastern shore, and ascending Mount Wellington and Mount Direction. His original journal has never come to light, but the substance of it was published in 1802, by Collins, in the second volume of his Account of New South Wales.

It is interesting to learn how the country with which we are so familiar struck the first visitor to its shores, when as yet the land was in all its native wildness, and untouched by the hand of man, and I shall therefore give some of Bass's observations on the country about the Derwent. The explorers had some difficulty in getting the Norfolk as far up the river as the mouth of the Jordan, which Flinders named Herdsman's Cove. Thence they proceeded in their boat some 5 or 6 miles higher up. They expected to have been able to reach the source in one tide, but in this they were mistaken, falling, as they believed, some miles short of it. I regret to say that Bass did not show the good taste of the Frenchmen who were so enthusiastic on the grandeur and beauty of the harbours and rivers which they had entered. He describes our noble river as a "dull, lifeless stream, which after a sleepy course of not more than 25 or 27 miles to the north-west, falls into Frederick Henry Bay. Its breadth there is two miles and a quarter, and its depth ten fathoms." He further remarks, "If the Derwent River has any claim to respectability, it is indebted for it more to the paucity of inlets into Van Diemen's Land than to any intrinsic merits of its own." Yet his impression of the country on its banks was distinctly favourable. "The river", he says "takes its way through a country that on the east and north sides is hilly, on the west and north mountainous. The hills, to the eastward arise immediately from the banks; but the mountains to the westward have retired to the distance of a few miles from the water, and have left in their front hilly land similar to that on the east side. All the hills are very thinly set with light timber, chiefly short she-oaks, but are admirably covered with thick nutritious grass, in general free from brush or patches of shrubs. The soil in which it grows is a black vegetable mould, deep only in the valleys, frequently very shallow, with occasionally a mixture of sand or small stones. Many large tracts of land appear cultivable both for maize and wheat, but which, as pasture land, would be excellent. The hills descend with such gentle slopes, that the valleys between them are extensive and flat. Several contain an indeterminate depth of rich soil, capable of supporting the most exhausting vegetation, and are tolerably well watered by chains of small ponds, or occasional drains, which empty themselves into the river by a cove or creek." Black swans were seen in great numbers, and kangaroo abounded, but Bass came to the conclusion that the natives must be few in number, as although they frequently found their rude huts and deserted fires, during a fortnights' excursions they fell in with none of the aborigines, except a man and two women, with whom they had a friendly interview some miles above Herdsman's Cove. Bass contrasts New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land in respect of their fitness for agriculture: his opinion was that they were both poor countries, but in point of productive soil the preference was to be given to Van Diemen's Land. He founds on the banks of the Derwent various tracts of land which he considered admirably adapted for grain, for vines, and for pasturage, and no place combined so many advantages as Risdon Cove. Bass grows almost enthusiastic in describing Risdon. "The land at the head of Risdon Creek, on the east side," he remarks, "seems preferable to any other on the banks of the Derwent. The creek runs winding between two steep hills, and ends in a chain of ponds that extend into a fertile valley of great beauty. For half-a-mile above the head of the creek the valley is contracted and narrow, but the soil is extremely rich, and the fields are well covered with grass. Beyond this it suddenly expands and becomes broad and flat at the bottom, whence arise long grassy slopes, that by a gentle but increasing ascent continue to mount the hills on each side, until they are hidden from the view by woods of large timber which overhang their summits The soil along the bottom, and to some distance up the slopes, is a rich vegetable mould, apparently hardened by a small mixture of clay, which grows a large quantity of thick juicy grass and some few patches of close underwood."

Flinders was, however, disappointed with Hayes' Risdon River, and notices the insignificance of the little creek, which even his boat could not enter, and at which he could barely manage to fill his water casks. Among "the many local advantages of the Derwent" to which King alludes in his despatches to Lord Hobart, and which determined him to choose that place for a settlement, there is no doubt that Bass's glowing description of the beauty and fertility of Risdon filled a large place, and induced him to direct Bowen to choose its neighbourhood for the new colony.