XVIII. (continued 2)

The crowd of gold-seekers and adventurers, attracted by the discovery, was something tremendous. From the commencement of Sept. 1851, when 29 men were engaged in washing at Anderson's Creek, to the end of December, only four months, the population of the diggings reached 20,300; in 1852 they numbered 53,500, in 1853 75,626.

Shortly after the discovery of the gold-fields, the Colonial Government appointed special officers, the well-known "Gold Commission," to watch over these improvised settlements. They published "Regulations for the management of the gold-fields," and sold licenses, at 20s. or 40s. according to yield, for the privilege of digging within certain limits; the localities most in favour being Ballarat, Mount Alexander, Castlemain, Sandhurst, Beechworth, and Heathcote.

The gold obtained in 1852 was valued at from 58s. to 60s. per ounce. The banks made advances at the rate of from 40s. to 55s. per oz., or exchanged the gold-dust at from 8 ¹⁄₂ to 10 per cent. discount for coined money. The freight was 4 ¹⁄₂d. per oz. In 1858 the value of the ounce had risen at the "diggings" to from 70s. to 77s., and the discount had fallen to 1 per cent., and the Insurance Company charged for gold transport a premium of from 1 ³⁄₄ to 2 ¹⁄₂ per cent.

Since that period gold has repeatedly been discovered in fresh localities of the adjoining colony of Victoria, the "yield" and the number of diggers being also steadily increasing. Many thousands at present leave New South Wales annually to try their fortune in other fields than those of agriculture. In 1857 upwards of 26,000 persons left this colony for Victoria. Consequently, the price of labour has risen throughout Australia, and while it has thus increased in expense it has become more uncertain and unreliable. A large number of buildings, especially in the country, have been left unfinished, and the clearing and cultivation of numerous tracts of land have been abandoned. These temporary evils, however, cannot be permitted to outweigh the enormous advantages derivable from the discovery of the gold-fields of Australia. It has attracted the attention of universal mankind to a distant British colony, hitherto almost unnoticed, it has peopled the country with magic celerity, centupled the value of the land, made its results appreciable in the remotest districts of the globe, and raised the colony of Victoria within a few years, in national prosperity, increased trade, and extended cultivation, to a degree of importance usually the slow growth of centuries of industry.

The discovery of the gold-fields had at the same time important scientific consequences, chiefly in the way of geological researches, which resulted in proving that the widespread popular opinion, that the Australian continent belongs to the latest geological era, and had comparatively recently emerged from the sea, is entirely erroneous. Rich palæontological collections confirm the opinion that Australia is not the latest, but rather the earliest, continent. In several parts of the colony the fossil remains of various colossal animals have been discovered, which, as since measured, must have stood from 10 to 16 feet in height, and correspond to our diluvial Pachydermata in Europe. In like manner, with the exception of some quite insignificant tertiary strata of small extent, only crystalline rocks and primary formations (from the Silurian upwards) form the chief bulk of the continent. The entire series of secondary strata seems to be absent. From this fact it necessarily results that Australia has been a continent since the end of the primary epoch, that it never has been covered by the sea, but remained ever since the beginning of the secondary formations, through all those countless ages during which Europe was being convulsed by the most tremendous geological revolutions, a habitable soil, on which plants and beasts, undisturbed by change in the inorganic world, might have continued to flourish down to our own times. Viewed in this light the fauna and flora of Australia would be the most ancient and primitive in the world.

Another Austrian naturalist, the well-known botanist Professor Unger of Vienna, has come to the same conclusions from the fossil remains of some Australian plants, accompanied by the further singular deduction, that Europe must have been at one period in much closer accordance with this remote region. Many forms of plants, especially Proteaceæ, which at present form such a peculiar feature of its vegetation, seem to have been similarly prevalent in Europe at that remote age of the globe. But if even it be accepted that during the Eocene or earliest tertiary period there existed in Europe under similar climatic conditions flora of Coniferæ, Proteaceæ, Myrtaceæ, and Casurinæ, such as Australia now possesses, the question still arises as to how the vegetation of a locality so remote should have been transferred to antipodean Europe? Making all due allowance for the astonishing influence exercised by winds, waves, and the migration of animals over the diffusion of vegetable species, yet the means of transport by the ocean or by currents of water is confined within narrow limits, and under the most favourable conditions is limited to the very few plants which can maintain their powers of reproduction uninjured by immersion in water, and those on the other hand which, on being transported to a strange shore, find there the means of existence and increase. As, moreover, the observations which Professor Unger has made upon the diffusion of species of plants at that remote period, and their very accurately circumscribed limits, run directly counter to the opinion of those naturalists who hold to a variety of centres of development, (instancing a case where one species of plants is found in two widely separated regions,) have never been satisfactorily refuted, the learned botanist thereupon proceeds to the conclusion, that during the Eocene period Australia was united to the mainland through the Moluccas. This land route has been followed at one period by Araucarias, Proteaceæ, sandal wood, and a hundred other varieties of tree and shrub, which till that connection was made could not diffuse themselves, so as thus to reach the European continent, where they are even now found, despite the lapse of myriads of years, in the shape of well-preserved fossils. Thus too, for similar reasons, the geologist to our Expedition, like Professor Unger, regarded Australia as not a youthful, lately-born continent, but a country decaying with antiquity, which had played its part in the physical history of the globe, and had spread its scions far and wide. Some alteration of level is not merely indicated by the numerous coral reefs encircling Australia and its island groups, pointing to a similar sinking among them as that already noticed among the smaller Polynesian islands:—The whole characteristics of the soil, the wastes of the interior, the innumerable salt lakes, the rivers which lose themselves in these, &c. &c., tell of a coming geological transformation, which however—we mention this for the consolation of the settlers—may yet be postponed for myriads of years.

The system of transportation, concerning which so loud an outcry has recently been made, has so materially assisted in developing the resources of the country, that it would hardly be right to quit Botany Bay without a few remarks on the penal colony which was in existence there till 1840. For there is no spot on the globe better adapted than New South Wales to serve as a stand-point, whence any one might accurately study the advantages and drawbacks of the English transportation system, as also its influence upon a strongly recalcitrant society. In brief, we purpose to subject the system as it subsisted for half a century in Australia to a thorough analysis, inasmuch as it seems to us that, in our present unnatural social conditions, transportation, i. e. the sudden transference of the criminal to totally new conditions of external life, seems to furnish the much-desired turning point whence we may expect a lasting moral improvement of the individual. Our Austrian prisons, especially those in which the cell system has not been introduced, are simply houses of detention, not penitentiaries, still less reformatories. The incarcerated criminal is a burden to himself and to society, to which he is only in the most exceptional cases restored improved by confinement. The charge of maintaining him increases year by year, without any return being made by utilizing the labour of the prisoner. In penal colonies, on the other hand, the convict works as much for his own benefit as for that of society. He throws open new immeasurable tracts of land to civilization, trade, and industry. The evil effects of certain climates upon the health of the convict can be corrected by proper ordinances, till it is reduced to a barely appreciable minimum. The free settler is also exposed in unsettled countries to dangerous illnesses, but as his circumstances improve these disappear before the cleared forest, the cultivated patch, the drained swamp.

We do not believe that were the option left them there is one solitary individual in our Austrian prisons, condemned to periods of imprisonment of ten years and upwards, who would not willingly exchange his sojourn at home for one in even the insalubrious islands of the Indian Ocean, if the prospect were held out to him after a series of years of steady labour and honest activity, that he might make his new-found activity available to secure his liberty. What may be made, however, of a valueless wilderness by means of compulsory labour, we have at this day an example of in the case of the first penal colony of New South Wales. Even the objectionable manner in which the system was administered during more than fifty years in Australia and Van Diemen's land could not entirely destroy its beneficial effects upon the criminal, or blind an unprejudiced observer to the advantages and general utility of transportation as a means of punishment. In 1787 the eastern coast of Australia, chiefly in consequence of the too glowing accounts of the suitability of the harbours, and the fertility of the soil of Botany Bay, was selected by the British Government as the site of a penal colony, and on the 26th January, 1788, the first batch of convicts was landed there. These consisted of 600 males and 250 women, and were accompanied by an escort of 200 men. Forty of the latter were married men, who were accompanied by their wives and children. The whole expedition was under the command of Captain Phillip, the first Governor of the new settlement.[25]

The colonists had scarcely settled down after their arrival on, as was speedily found, the anything but safe or fertile shores of Botany Bay, ere they were removed to another harbour, lying about seven miles further north, beautifully situate, and fulfilling every requirement, which they named Port Jackson.

The first free settlers did not make their appearance till 1794. The officers of the garrison were merchants also, and trafficked in whatever merchandise they could find. Rum especially was a chief article. A Government regulation required every ship which should put into Port Jackson, to deliver a certain proportion of her spirits to the officers according to their rank!! They also received a list of the merchandise brought by each ship, from which they selected whatever seemed most profitable, which they disposed of again at retail to the soldiers, settlers, and convicts at an immense profit. Further, the officers enjoyed the entire monopoly of importing spirits, as also the exclusive privilege of selling them to the retail merchants. By these devices many of them amassed considerable fortunes by trade, and thus the repeated efforts made by a succession of Governors to effect a reform in the colony were rendered fruitless. During the administration of Captain Bligh, so widely known in connection with the tragic fate of the mutineers of the Bounty, rum was the most valuable article of exchange, and the colonists found by bitter experience that there were no other sellers of this destructive drink than the privileged few.

The utmost anarchy and violence reigned supreme throughout New South Wales at that period; the power of the Government was set entirely at nought, license and violence usurped the place of law and order; the convicts found they were not under any effective control or supervision; whole bands of them infested the country as "bush-rangers," till they grew so bold as to enter the dwellings of peaceful settlers in broad day, where they perpetrated the most cruel excesses.

In 1807 Mr. McArthur and Captain Abbot of the 102nd introduced the first distilling apparatus into the country for cheapening the production of ardent spirits. The Governor forthwith confiscated the apparatus, and forbade distillation in any part of the colony. This prohibition gave rise among those interested to dissensions, which gradually rose to such a height, that about a year thereafter it led to Bligh being placed in confinement by some of his own officers. The English Government however now began to perceive that such a state of carelessness could no longer be endured, and not only reinstated Bligh, but promoted him to the rank of Admiral.

On their arrival in the colony the prisoners were sent to barracks in Sydney, where the Government selected from their number such handicraftsmen as they required for the public works, while the remainder were distributed as land cultivators, labourers, artisans, &c., among such private individuals as had made themselves agreeable to the Government. As free labour was rare and expensive in the colony at that period, the requests for such allocations of forced labour were greatly in excess of the number of workmen so available.

Those consigned to private individuals were taken into the interior in charge of a constable or overseer, where they were required to build a shelter for themselves, which, owing to the mildness of the climate, could be very speedily accomplished. The hours of work were from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., and the main feature was that the convict durst not leave his employer, whether kind and good-tempered, or harsh and cruel. When there was no further occasion for their services they were remitted to Government, who found another employer for them.

All land-holders in the colony were entitled, on preferring a request to the Governor to that effect, to have assigned them, according to the current quantity of disposable labour, in the proportion of one workman to every 320 acres of land; but no settler, no matter how extensive his holding, could "take on" more than 75 convicts. Each employer had to engage to keep the convict assigned him one month at least, and provide, at his own cost, food and clothing according to a scale fixed by Government.

The weekly rations consisted of nine lbs. wheaten flour, or at the option of the employer, three lbs. Indian corn, and seven lbs. of wheat flour, seven lbs. of beef or mutton, four lbs. salt pork, two oz. salt, two oz. soap. The clothing consisted of two jackets annually, three shirts of canvas or cotton, two pairs of drawers, three pairs of shoes of stout leather, and a hat or cap. Each labourer was also allowed the use of a counterpane and mattress, which however remained the property of the employer. These legal privileges had however been extended through custom or the favour of the employers to various little articles of luxury, such as tobacco, sugar, tea, grog, &c. In particular, with the object of ensuring the utmost zeal on the part of the workman during the harvest season, it was almost imperative at that season to show him those little relaxations and favours which at length became customary, and in no slight degree enhanced the cost of his maintenance.

On the arrival of a convict ship a crowd used to hurry down to await the moment when the convicts were to be allotted to applicants. As no special memoranda were made during the voyage of the offence for which each man had been transported, or his subsequent conduct on the voyage, the administration were not in a position to make such a selection as should classify the prisoners, and assign them according to nature of crime and subsequent behaviour to a determined or a more gentle employer. Hence resulted the most lamentable injustice; the most truculent of these men occasionally were assigned to the gentle masters, while a less hardened criminal came under the yoke of a hard-hearted task-master, and thus had an infinitely more severe lot to bewail than he in fact deserved.

Such a harsh, and in too many cases unjust, method of dealing with them, drove the convicts to the commission of fresh offences, or even crimes, and, in desperation at the wrongs to which they were exposed, they not merely neglected utterly the interests of their temporary masters, but in many cases, impelled by a fierce thirst for vengeance, they burned house and property over his head at the harvest time!

The chronic alarm and anxiety of the colony during a long period was not however traceable to the principle of the system itself, but to the method in which it was worked by self-seeking natives, greedy of gain. No sooner had the most glaring of the evils been rectified, and by means of a powerful government law and order resumed their wonted sway, ere the young colony began to make most unexpected strides in developing its capabilities, and both in the unfolding of its natural resources and in its trade and commerce ere long attracted the attention, not merely of England and her manufacturers, but of all Europe.

In 1840 New South Wales ceased to be a convict settlement, at which period there were 130,856 souls in the colony, 26,967 of whom were convicts. In 1857, when the last census was taken, there were in all 305,487, of whom 171,673 were males, and 133,814 females, who inhabited 41,479 houses, 1725 huts, 50 waggons, and 75 ships, and subsisted chiefly by pasture and agriculture.

The morality of this population diffused over 321,579 square miles has greatly improved, thanks to the unlimited freedom of individual power to develope itself, and the opportunities afforded for leading an independent, comfortable life, and in the interests of Truth we must add, that in no part of Europe would any one be left so unfettered to travel about alone and unarmed, or require less precautions, as in this once penal colony.

The number of criminal cases of all sorts in the colony during the last ten years, during which the population has increased from 189,600 to 266,189, is as follows:—

1848...445accused, ofwhom wereexecuted4

1849...534———4

1850...555———4

1851...574———2

1852...527———5

1853...604———2

1854...637———6

1855...526(one of these a woman)5

1856...461———0

1857...395———4

One must not forget to take into account that by far the larger portion of the population are recruited from the lower class, as measured by education. On the whole we may assume that of the 305,487 souls, 30,000 men and 20,000 women can neither read nor write.

As to the intimate connection between crime and ignorance, most striking confirmation is obtained from investigations made in England and Wales in 1842-44, in the case of 69,616 criminals, of whom 21,799 or 31.3 per cent. could neither read nor write, 41,620 or 59.8 per cent. could read and write imperfectly, 5909 or 8.5 per cent. could read and write well, and only 308 or 0.4 per cent. had received a good education.

The present population of New South Wales, despite all their burdens and difficulties, furnish an instructive and cheering example of what may be made of even hordes of fallen man under certain conditions, if they can be afforded the opportunity of working and showing their powers.

Confined in gloomy cells between high walls, chained hand and foot with heavy iron fetters, condemned in their wretched state to life-long inaction, the convicts sent out to Botany Bay during fifty years would have cost the State directly, and society indirectly, an enormous sum; while their existence would have passed in silent brooding over their fate, and speculations as to the means of avenging themselves on mankind.

Placed on a remote, healthy, fertile shore, with the cheering prospect of inaugurating for themselves a new era of existence by labour and industry, and thus being enabled to attain competency and respectability, these very same men raise themselves, at but little cost, to the position of valuable subjects to the state and to society, by causing to smile, under the gold crop of agriculture, lands hitherto all but unknown, and thus becoming the founders of a community, which bears within itself the germ of such a marvellous development in the future, that political seers even now designate it as "the Great Britain of the Southern Hemisphere."

A system which, despite the many serious deficiencies caused by individual selfish short-sightedness, has produced such results, cannot be considered by any unprejudiced inquirer as altogether objectionable or aimless;—on the contrary, it seems to us it has proved its utility in founding new oversea colonies in portions of the earth as yet little visited, the first colonization of which is attended with local difficulties. We have but to avail ourselves of the experience acquired at Botany Bay, avoiding the canker under which the system has hitherto been worked in the British colonies (with the exception perhaps of that pattern convict settlement at Singapore, which we have already described), and draw up such regulations, keeping in view the sole object of transportation, viz. PUNISHMENT BY EXILE, AND REFORMATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL THROUGH LABOUR, as shall facilitate its being carried out in an efficient manner, and suffer ourselves neither to be diverted from our course by the selfish warnings of interested administrators, nor by the objections of ill-advised philanthropists.

With respect to the carrying out of a system of transportation, such as formerly existed in the British colonies, especially Australia and Van Diemen's Land, the following modifications seem to be advisable:—

1. The abandonment of the convict to the employer, i. e. the "assignment system," must be entirely given up, as the prisoner by such an arrangement degenerates into an article for speculation, out of which it must be the task-master's interest to get as much as he can, so as to be able to return him upon the hands of the State so soon as his capacity for labour begins to fail. The convicts who were thus "assigned" in New South Wales, stood to their employers in the same position as negro slaves in the Southern States of North America, or the island of Cuba. They were fed like beasts of burden, without the slightest remuneration for the heaviest work. The State had, it is true, a right to punish the criminal, but it seems to us unjust in the extreme to make him the slave of his fellow-man. Accordingly this practice was the source of unutterable mischief, and was followed by most deplorable results as regards the moral development of the colony.

2. The case is very different when the labour of the criminal, instead of being devoted to the aggrandizement of a private individual, finds its expansion in forwarding parochial or national public works, in clearing and cultivating tracts of land, and preparing them for the future labour of free colonists, in the laying out of roads, in the erection of churches, schools, hospitals, and barracks, in the construction of docks, quays, &c. &c. So soon as private interest disappears,—so soon as the energies of the criminal are no longer made available to put money in the pockets of private speculators, but are utilized for the general good, by far the greater number of those minor drawbacks will disappear, which press with all the more force on the compulsory labourer, in proportion as he feels conscious that he is regarded by him who has purchased his labour not as a FELLOW-MAN, but as a CHATTEL, to be employed while he is of any value, and then to be cast aside, as one might throw a dried twig into the fire. What may be accomplished in this direction, even in colonies of comparatively recent foundation, is evidenced by the splendid roads of Cape Colony, traversing mountain passes 6000 to 8000 feet high, the numerous public buildings in Singapore, Hong-kong, Sydney, &c. Edifices, which in consequence of the high price of free labour, might not have been erected under the lapse of many years, actually at present rear their imposing forms like so many ornamental memorials, now of the worship of the loving Saviour, now of our charitable duties to the sick and afflicted, but all serving to instruct and civilize the rising generation!

3. As to the subsistence of the criminals, we do not believe that the principle of giving them the same descriptions of rations, no matter whether they worked much or little, would be found conducive to the attainment of the great object of making them feel an interest in their labour. We would rather see the present system departed from in this particular, and a marked difference made in the food provided for the industrious, as compared with their more indolent companions.

4. Of great importance in penal colonies, as tending to produce a lasting and decided improvement of the individual, is the FAMILY TIE. What is independence or even affluence to the exile, if he has no one to care for, or think of, but himself? His slow and laborious earnings would greatly tend to plunge him once more into excesses, till he quickly sank back into his former state of war with civilization.

5. It seems to us imperatively necessary in the interests of this great design of a penal colony, that provision should be made for a certain proportion of female population, which might consist partly of female criminals, and partly of the wives of such of the male criminals as should, after a sufficient probation, be permitted to have their wives and children conveyed at the cost of Government to their place of exile. Lastly, the nucleus of a female population thus already formed might be added to from time to time, by sending out such discharged female criminals as had no visible means of making an honest livelihood in the mother country. It were a noble object for Christian activity and religious harmony to provide the means for sending these wretched outcasts to the new home that was thus being formed.

6. The importation of spirituous liquors, that fruitful cause of so much crime, must be confined within the narrowest limits. One cannot believe that even in unhealthy places, where the water frequently is very impure and unhealthy, owing to vegetable matters held in solution, the use of strong spirituous liquors must needs be unavoidable. Tea and coffee will in such places, as I experienced myself during several years' residence in unhealthy climates, be found excellent substitutes.

7. No official of the colony, civil or military, should be permitted to trade in any article except the natural products of the soil. On the other hand, it would be advisable that each employé should have assigned him by Government, a tract of land for cultivation corresponding to his rank.

There can be little doubt, and it may well be advanced as an argument on the other side, when the rapid progress made by the Australian colonies under the influence of this transportation system is adduced as an example in point, that nowhere probably on the earth would external circumstances, position of the country, and development of the colony to such a pitch of prosperity, combine so wonderfully to produce such a result, as was the case with New South Wales. But even the clumsy method of carrying out this form of punishment, and the immense use made of it for selfish ends by men who had every opportunity for studying close at hand the influence it might have been made to exercise upon the development of the Australian colonies, could not weaken the conviction that, under more judicious management, it would have answered every anticipation that could reasonably be formed of any mode of punishment, and that it is better calculated than any other to prove conducive to the amelioration of the criminal himself. We might, while upon this subject, specially refer to the valuable and comprehensive work of Dr. Holtzendorf upon transportation as a means of punishment,[26] which embraces all that can be said on either side of the question, all put together in an attractive and exhaustive manner, and who, contemplating the great example presented to the world by Australia, has arrived at a similar conclusion, "that the working power of the criminal may, under proper management, be made to produce results, able to accelerate the progress of a generation, while furnishing at the same time a lever by which to effect a moral reformation in the disposition of criminals." He foresees the time "when the colonists of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land need no longer feel ashamed at the historic recollection of their original convict associations, but might rather, viewing the prosperity of their country, and the tone and extent of their civilization, feel grateful to the criminals who landed in 1788 to become the pioneers of the country, and do them the justice of believing that the good which they were compelled to do to the soil still existed, while the evil they might have done was left undone of their own accord, or was gradually assimilated under substantial progress."

The greatest obstacle to be encountered by the transportation system will be found in the difficulty of hitting upon suitable localities. When we consider the many conditions which must be satisfied, some referring to the general objects aimed at in all punishment, some to considerations of humanity and utility, when selecting a site for a penal colony, such as climate, soil, distance, importance of the country as a market for the products of the mother country, &c., it will be found that the number of unclaimed or unbespoken territories, in which a scheme of compulsory colonization could be carried out on a large scale, is exceedingly limited.

For Germany, however, at least under her present political composition, the foundation of penal colonies oversea seems all but entirely impracticable. She must, in the first place, have her maritime power more developed. On this subject the agreement is of importance which was entered into in 1836 between Mr. James Colquhon, Consul-General for the city of Hamburg, and the agents of the Australian Agricultural Society on the other, as, although nothing resulted from it, it nevertheless indicates how States that have no colonies can set about the system of transportation. The gist of that scheme was the subscription of a sum for the passage of such convicts as voluntarily accepted the offer, on their engaging to remain for a certain period at compulsory labour in Australia on the same terms as those of English convicts.[27]

Once the wish and the necessity shall arise in Germany, owing to the expansion of her population, for possessions beyond sea, and her navy shall increase on a scale adapted to their protection and defence, then, although the choice of locality may be limited, the idea will no longer remain impracticable. In the Indian Ocean as well as the Pacific there are numbers of island groups, which, by their hypsometric conditions, geographical position, and fertility of soil, are admirably suited for settlement by white labour. The prejudice against the climatic adaptability of the majority of these falls to the ground, when we recollect what entirely altered conditions in that respect have been brought about by the industry and energy of the colonists of Singapore and Pulo-Penang, on islands which, from being in the worst possible repute for their deadly climate and dreaded forest malaria, are now favourite invalid resorts of the wealthy white residents of the islands of Eastern Asia. But German statesmen must no longer hesitate, or continue to sacrifice the future to the exigencies, even the most pressing in political eyes, of the present, for England noiselessly but systematically is possessing herself one after the other of all the islands that are as yet untenanted by the white man, as, for instance, quite lately of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, or, as in the case of the Feejee Islands,[28] accept a suspicious protectorate got up by an influential missionary; while the Emperor of the French, with his irresistible inclination for annexation, is incessantly occupied in seizing on points important either by geographical position or for trade purposes, of which New Caledonia furnishes the latest example. Too long delay and expectation may have for the contemplative German results similar to those which in Schiller's beautiful poem, punished the dallying of the son of the Muses, whose fate, as compared with the actual political circumstances of Germany, suggests but too many painful analogies!

On 6th December the frigate was made ready for prosecuting her voyage, and the same evening all was ataunto. The following morning we were to be towed out of the many-coved port, till quite clear of "the Heads." The steamer, however, sustained an accident to her machinery, and we had her services little more than half a day. Early on the 7th, a breeze had sprung up from S.W. by S., accompanied by squalls and rain, which gradually freshened into squally weather from the S., and determined the Commodore to make all sail at once. Already, even while we were still in the port, the weather began to be stormy; we had to take in a reef in the mainsail, and by 9 A.M. found ourselves outside of "North Head." By the afternoon the low flat coast of Australia had sunk below the horizon, and the south wind had now become a gale. It seemed as though winds and waves had conspired to put to the severest test the operations of the caulkers, carpenters, and sail-makers of Sydney. But although the frigate rolled tremendously, and the frequent squalls propelled the sea against her hull with frightful violence, she did not ship a drop of water below. The repairs in dock had been most effectually performed. After a couple of days both wind and sea fell, the sun shone out with the mildness of early spring, and we bowled along in the most delicious weather and with every stitch of canvas set, swiftly careering towards our next goal, New Zealand.

On the 9th at 5 P.M. we buried the corpse of one of the gunners, who had died the same morning of dysentery, the remains being committed to the deep with the customary ceremonies and marks of respect.

On the morning of the 19th we sighted Barrier Island off Cape Butt, distant 35 miles. The more we neared the land, the more balmy did the atmosphere become. Innumerable Albatrosses and Procellariæ swarmed around us, and the result of half an hour's shooting from a small boat dropped over the side for the purpose, resulted in our securing eleven different species of storm-birds. A whale about 50 feet in length also came close under our quarter, and only retreated after he had been repeatedly fired upon and had received a number of balls in his carcase.

We steered for the South Point of Barrier Island, the outline of which is very beautiful, relieved as it is by two hills, of which that to the south is about 2000 feet in height, running up into a sharp peak, while the more northerly rises gradually, being only precipitous on the northern face. The broken conical rocks which ascend out of the sea near the northern point of the island unmistakeably indicate their volcanic origin.

Our arrival off New Zealand was signalized by most unusual calms, which indeed materially delayed our entrance into Huraka Gulf, a sort of lateral bay, entering from the harbour of Auckland. A bark, which had sailed from Sydney three days before us, had, as we were informed by our pilot, been one day in harbour. We now had to tack slowly up under faint puffs of wind towards the anchorage, which we reached finally at 5.30 P.M. of the 22nd December, 1858.

The country round Auckland has none of those majestic features which are presented by New Zealand further south. The enormous volcanic peaks, such as Mount Egmont, 8000 feet high, have dwindled down in this region to numerous but small extinct cones, rarely rising above 800 feet. Instead of the hills covered with perpetual snow of the central island, one sees here only low chains of hills, about 2000 feet high, and a rolling country, which dips into the sea in steep cliffs of sandstone. In the various bays and channels of the wide gulf might be seen numbers of natives in their elegant canoes engaged in fishing. We found but five ships in harbour, and here also the Novara was the largest man-of-war that had ever entered the port. The population of Auckland turned out on the beach as we approached, and began to exchange the usual salutes with the little fort.

FOOTNOTES:

Maori