# The Boy Travellers in Australasia/Chapter 13

CHAPTER XIII.
BOUND FOR SYDNEY.
STEAMERS of the Union Steamship Company run weekly between the principal ports of New Zealand and the Australian ports of Sydney and Melbourne. The Melbourne steamers usually come from that ​city direct to "The Bluffs," the port of Invercargill, or to Hokitika, and then make the circuit of South Island; while the steamers from Sydney run to Auckland, and make the circuit of North Island, both lines touching at Wellington as a common and central port. Our friends were fortunate in finding at The Bluffs a steamer which was going direct to Sydney, and in less than six hours after their return from Lake Wakatipu they were afloat and away for their destination, about fourteen hundred miles distant. Six days later the coast of New South Wales was in sight, and they entered the Australian continent through the famous Sydney Heads.
ENTRANCE TO PORT JACKSON.
​This blending of the practical with the boastful and poetical did not fail to amuse the listeners. It was overheard by a Melbourne man, who remarked that it was no more than you could expect of those fellows in Sydney, who were always on the lookout for something to bolster up the decaying village they lived in.
GENERAL VIEW OF SYDNEY HARBOR.
​The city stands on Sydney Cove, one of the numberless bays or harbors of Port Jackson, about four miles from the entrance from the ocean. We will further remark that fortifications have been erected at the Heads, and the authorities are confident that a hostile fleet or army coming to attack them could be successfully resisted. Doctor Bronson told the youths that the harbor which resembled Port Jackson more nearly than any other of which he knew, was Avatcha Bay, in Kamchatka. "It has," said he, "several little bays or harbors around it, just as Port Jackson has, and is fully as capacious and easy of access. I wish we had a diagram of it to show to our Australian friends."
"Before we left New Zealand," said Frank in his journal, "Doctor Bronson telegraphed to an old friend, Mr. Donald Manson, telling him by what steamer we expected to arrive. Mr. Manson was at the dock to meet us; he had secured rooms for us at the best hotel, and under his care we saw everything that was worth seeing in Sydney. Later, in Melbourne, where he was equally well acquainted, he was similarly attentive, and we hereby record our unanimous vote of thanks to him for his unvarying and unwearying politeness. If we tried his patience at any time he never allowed us to know it, and we found him a perfect encyclopædia in everything relating to Australia, where he has been a resident for a goodly number of years.
"One day when a proposition was made to go on a hunting excursion, Fred innocently suggested that he had read about Sydney ducks, and would like to shoot some, provided, of course, they were in season. Mr. Manson suppressed a smile as he answered that the shooting of those peculiar birds was no longer practised; he then explained that Sydney ducks can hardly be said to exist at present, the term having been applied to runaway convicts, ticket-of-leave men, and other waifs and strays, of the time when Australia was the receptacle of transported criminals from England and the other British Isles.
"Sydney seems to have been founded by or for these unfortunates. Mr. Manson told us that the settlement was made here in January, 1788, by Captain Phillip, who came here with a fleet of store and transport ships, for the purpose of founding a convict establishment. He had previously landed in Botany Bay, but finding it unsuitable, had abandoned it for the future site of Sydney. The name of the place was given in honor of Viscount Sydney, who first suggested the colonization of New South Wales, and the bay was called Port Jackson, after Sir George Jackson, who was then Secretary to the Lords of the Admiralty.
STATUE OF CAPTAIN COOK, SYDNEY.
GEORGE III.
"St. James's Church, the one just mentioned, is old and uncomfortable, but the cathedral is just the reverse. The public buildings of Sydney would take several or many pages for their description, and the account would run the risk of being tedious before reaching the end. When we remembered the age of the colony they surprised us by their magnificence. The Government buildings in Macquarie Street, the Post-office in George Street, the Town-hall, the University, AVENUE IN THE BOTANICAL GARDENSthe Crown Lands Office, and several other edifices would well adorn cities of much greater age than Sydney, and yet some of the residents complain that their buildings are not sufficiently grand for their wishes, and suggest the demolition of some of these structures to make way for finer ones. St. Andrew's Cathedral was begun in 1819, and has been three times pulled down and re-erected!
"We can't say much in favor of the street-railways, or tramways, of Sydney, most of which have steam locomotives to draw the cars. Two cars are coupled together and drawn by a noisy, puffing engine, stopping at every other block to receive or discharge passengers. Accidents are said to be frequent, but of course the managers of the tram-ways always declare that the fault is due to the carelessness of the victims. They have flagmen at some of the more dangerous crossings, but in spite of them somebody is occasionally run over. Strangers are especially liable to injury from this cause, as they are often unaware that locomotives are allowed in the principal streets.
​"Our ride was extended to the suburbs; and, without question, no city we have thus far seen in the Southern Hemisphere has suburbs at all approaching in attractiveness those of Sydney. First we come to Wooloomooloo—what a funny word that is to write!—and then we wind along the coasts of the little bays between the promontories; Elizabeth Bay, Rose Bay, Double Bay, Rushcutter's Bay, and I don't know how many other bays and coves, where the well-to-do residents have their villas. One hundred thousand people are said to live in Sydney proper, and one hundred and fifty thousand in the suburbs, so that the city, with its suburbs, has a population of a quarter of a million.
"Fred suggested that he would like to see the park or public garden. Mr. Manson asked, "Which one?"
"Fred didn't know, and then our host explained that he had a considerable number to choose from. 'There is Albert Park,' said he, 'of forty acres, with a statue of Prince Albert, and opposite to it is Hyde Park Square, with a statue to Captain Cook, the discoverer of New South Wales. Then there is the Domain, of one hundred and twenty-eight acres, surrounding the little bay known as Farm Cove, the Botanical Gardens, of thirty-eight acres; and we have, in addition, Belmore Park, Prince Alfred Park, Callan Park, Moore Park, Wentworth Park, and the National Park; and a few years hence, if you come here again, there will doubtless be "more parks to hear from."'
"During our stay at Sydney we saw most of the parks named in the foregoing paragraph, and can testify to their beauty and the appreciation in which they are held by the inhabitants. The Domain and the Botanical Gardens were especially attractive; their sites are beautiful, and the Botanical Gardens contain every plant known in Australia, together with exotics from nearly every country in the world. For a student of botany these Gardens would furnish opportunities for months or years of study.
"In the Botanical Gardens our attention was called to three Norfolk pines that are said to have been planted here nearly seventy years ago; one of them is ninety-five feet high, and its circumference, three feet above the ground, is within a few inches of five yards. The other two of the cluster are taller than this one, but not so large in girth. Then they showed us a she-oak tree, which is said to give forth, when the air is perfectly still, a sound like the murmur of a sea-shell. Another curious growth is the Australian musk-tree, which constantly gives out an odor which is perceptible several yards away. Trees and plants from tropical and semi-arctic regions grow here side by side; the ​Canada fir almost touching the Indian bamboo, and the Siberian larch mingling its branches with those of the palm and the banyan.
"In the evening and on the following day, Mr. Manson introduced us to all the officials of prominence, and to many of the leading citizens. It was a severe brain-tax to remember all their names, but we shall try to do honor to our country in this particular. We have been invited to so many houses that if we should stay here a month we could not exhaust the list, and probably by the time the end was reached a new list would be formed. The Australians are certainly a hospitable people, and the stranger has a 'lovely time' among them."
At their first opportunity Frank and Fred informed themselves about the early history of the colony. Among other curious things Fred made the following note:
"It seems that the people of the United States are indirectly responsible for the settlement of Australia by convicts. Here is a paragraph from page 18 of 'The Official History of New South Wales,' by Thomas Richards, Government Printer, and Registrar of Copyright.
"'… Whilst America was subject to England, British offenders, political or otherwise, were transported to the southern colonies of that continent, CANDIDATES FOR TRANSPORTATION.or to the West Indies, where they were in the first instance employed chiefly in the production of tobacco. The consumption of tobacco was large, and the revenue derived therefrom considerable, Virginia and Maryland being the chief producers. The American colonies having revolted against British rule in 1776, and after a long and severe struggle gained their independence, England sought a new field for colonization, and first tried the coast of Africa, but found it unhealthy. Her attention was then turned to Australia, the eligibility of which for the purpose had been spreading since Cook's famous voyage thither in 1768. Accordingly, a fleet of eleven sail, carrying more than one thousand souls, was assembled at Portsmouth, in the month of March, 1787, to proceed to Australia.'"
​Fred read the foregoing extract to Frank. The latter listened earnestly, and then remarked:
"I don't see that times have greatly changed after all. England still sends us her convicts and paupers, the only difference being that she turns them loose upon us instead of deriving something for their forced labor. Her example is followed by most of the continental nations, and thus we get the human rubbish of the Old World, just as we did before the Revolutionary War."
Fred then went on to say that the colony by which Sydney was founded numbered one thousand and thirty persons, including seven hundred and fifty-seven convicts, among whom were one hundred and ninety-two women and eighteen children. Besides the officers, there were one hundred and sixty soldiers, with forty of their wives; the live-stock included cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, and goats; and there was a large stock of seeds from the tropic and temperate zones. The natives did not oppose the landing, as they supposed it was only temporary. When they found that the settlement was a permanent one they became hostile, and many murders resulted, caused, no doubt, in great measure by the outrages committed by the convicts. Ships from England followed steadily, each one bringing its quota of convicts, and in a few years Sydney had quite a city-like appearance.
SYDNEY AND ITS HARBOUR.
In the early part of this century Australia had three classes of inhabitants—free settlers, convicts, and emancipists—the latter being convicts who had served out their sentences and become free men. The free settlers refused to associate with them, and they in turn would not associate with the convicts; the free settlers were inclined to be tyrannical, and wished to have the emancipists deprived of civil rights, and long and bitter quarrels were the result of their demands. The governors generally took the side of the emancipists as a matter of justice, and thus made themselves unpopular with the rest of the colony.
While studying the early history of the Australian colonies, Frank and Fred obtained considerable information from a gentleman who seemed to be thoroughly familiar with the subject. As he made no allusion in any way to his ancestry, the youths thought it just possible that he might be the son or grandson of one of the "involuntary emigrants" of early days. Desiring to respect his reserve as much as possible, they did not make any entry of his name in their note-books. Their suspicions were strengthened by a remark which he dropped, that it was not considered polite in Australian society to ask who and what a man's father was.
"The term 'convict' is of course odious," said he, "no matter what the circumstance that has caused it to be applied to a man. Many of the convicts who were sent to Australia owed their transportation to no worse offences than sympathizing with a rebellion, snaring a hare, or catching a fish out of somebody's preserved pond. I knew a man who was transported for seven years for nothing else than twisting the neck of a partridge, and his case was very far from being a solitary one. In the eye of the British law he was a criminal, a convict; but in the eye of common-sense and humanity his respectability was not greatly tarnished. The Irish rebellion of 1798 caused great numbers of Irishmen to be transported; they were treated as criminals, and all sorts of indignities were heaped upon them, but their only crime was that of seeking to free their country."
Frank asked how the convicts were treated on the voyage from England to Australia and after they arrived there.
THE TOWN HALL, SYDNEY.
"Settlements were formed at several places along the coast of Australia and in Van Dieman's Land (now Tasmania). The first convict settlement in Tasmania was on a peninsula, and a row of bull-dogs was chained across the narrow isthmus that connected the peninsula with the main-land, so close together that it was impossible for a man to pass between any two of them."
"I suppose the prisoners rarely managed to escape?" said Frank.
"Very rarely," said the gentleman. "There were many runaways, but they were generally brought back and punished, and if their escape was accompanied with violence they were hanged or shot. In the bush they were liable to starve, and many a convict's bones are whitening where he perished of hunger; the natives were hostile, and if a runaway escaped recapture and starvation, he was very likely to fall before the spear of a black man.
"Some of the Irish convicts of 1798 were so struck by the similarity between the Blue Mountains, about eighty miles from Sydney, and the Connaught Hills of Ireland that they rushed off expecting to reach their homes without difficulty. One man who had tried on the voyage out to fathom the mystery of the mariner's compass felt sure that he could find his way home if he only had the thing to steer by. He stole a copy of a work on navigation, and tore out the first leaf, which had the picture of a compass upon it. His theft was detected and punished, and he never had an opportunity to try his system of paper-compass navigation.
"A goodly portion of the emigrants thought China was only a little ​way overland from Sydney, and many tried to reach it. There used to be a story of a runaway who had wandered for days in the bush, and suddenly came to a hut in which was an acquaintance. He anxiously asked how his friend had got to China, and was much astonished to learn that he had reached a farm a few miles from Sydney, and his acquaintance had been hired there as a laborer.
SENTENCED TO HARD LABOR.
​"If you wish to learn how the convicts were brought from England to Australia," continued their informant to Frank and Fred, "how they lived when they got here, and how they were treated, read a story entitled 'His Natural Life,' by Marcus Clarke, an Australian journalist and littérateur. In the form of a novel he has preserved much of the history of the old convict days. It is not altogether agreeable reading, though it is instructive.
"All the colonists except the convicts themselves, and they had no voice in the matter, protested against Australia being peopled by these objectionable individuals, and protest after protest was made to the Home Government. These protests had their effect, and in 1840 transportation to New South Wales came to an end; an attempt was afterwards made to renew it, but was never carried out. It was continued later in Van Dieman's Land and other colonies, and in West Australia until 1868, when it was brought to an end, not so much at the wish of the people of West Australia as of those of the other colonies.
"And let me say in conclusion," he remarked, "that there are many prominent citizens of Australia whose fathers or grandfathers were transported, and nobody in his senses thinks any the worse of them in consequence. There are some gentlemen high in official position—of course it would not be polite for me to name them—who are thus descended, and so are some of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens in civil life. Everybody may be aware of it, but nobody talks of it in public.
"In our political contests the opposing candidates use as hard language about one another as the same class of men do in political contests in the United States; they may say anything they please except that the man they are denouncing is the descendant of a transported convict. Whenever this is done, although the statement may be perfectly true, the injured man can bring a suit for slander, and be certain of high damages. Only a few years ago an aspirant for office was compelled to pay ten thousand pounds for saying in a public speech that the man against whom he was contending was the son of an 'involuntary emigrant' from England."
The gentleman paused, and Fred took the opportunity to ask what a ticket-of-leave man was in the days of transportation.
VIEW OF SYDNEY FROM PYRMOND, DARLING HARBOUR.
HOME OF AN EMANCIPIST.
The conversation terminated here, and the youths thanked their ​informant for what he had told them on this interesting subject. They closed their note-books as soon as the interview ended, and then went out for a stroll. Curious to see the shipping in the harbor, they directed their steps to the Circular Quay, the modern name of Sydney Cove, where the original expedition landed, in 1788. The founders of the settlement could hardly recognize the cove should they revisit it to-day.
"Circular Quay," said Fred, in his account of their walk, "is at the head of the cove, and has a length of one thousand three hundred feet, available for the largest vessels. It has piers and pavilions for the ferry-steamers, which are numerous and active, and the Government has made a liberal expenditure for extending the wharfage accommodations and erecting sheds for the storage of goods. The Australian Steam Navigation Company have their wharves here, and several of their vessels were loading or discharging at Circular Quay all at once.
"To give an idea of the commerce of Sydney with other parts of the world, let me mention the various steamship lines whose vessels A TICKET-OF-LEAVE MAN.were visible from this quay. One of the first to come within our line of vision was a great steamer of the Peninsular & Oriental Company, familiarly known as the 'P. & O.,' and not far from it was another equally large steamer belonging to the Orient line. Each of these companies has a fortnightly service each way between England and Australia, and the sharp competition between them has had the effect of reducing the price of passage and securing rapid voyages. A little farther away was a steamer flying the tricolor of France; it belonged to the 'Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes,' a rival of the P. & O. in Asiatic waters, and at the principal ports of Asiatic and Australasian lands. The Austrian flag was visible on a steamer of the Austrian Lloyds, and the German flag upon a magnificent vessel of the North German Lloyds, or 'Bremen Line.'
JUST ARRIVED IN PORT.
SHIP-YARD SCENE.
"All these steamship lines receive subsidies from the colonial governments, and all, with the exception of the American one, receive subsidies from their home governments. It is a curious circumstance, and a humiliating one, to Americans in Australia or having relations with the antipodes, that the American line between San Francisco and Australia is subsidized by the colonies, but receives nothing from the United States, under whose flag it sails. Our commerce with Australia and New Zealand now exceeds twelve millions of dollars annually, and could be greatly increased by the encouragement of regular and permanent steam communication with the colonies.
"An officer of one of the steamers running to San Francisco spoke to us, and remarked that he had met us in the last-named city just as we were taking passage for Honolulu. He told us we could start from Sydney for 'Greenland's icy mountains or India's coral strand,' or for any other mountains or strands on the globe. 'That wharf to the east,' said he, 'is called Wooloomooloo; it was built at a heavy cost, but the water near it is too shallow for sea-going vessels of the deepest draught, and it is principally used for coasting-vessels, of which you see there are a great many.'
​"Then he told us that Darling Harbor, on the western side of the city, had its entire frontage covered with wharves and quays. Grafton Wharf, with its building, covers an area of more than three acres. As for dry-dock accommodations, he pronounced Sydney one of the best ports he had ever seen. There are two or three docks that were good enough for the ships of twenty years ago, but are of less importance to-day. A few years ago the Government built a dock four hundred and fifty feet long, and wide in proportion, and it was thought sufficient for all necessities for years to come; but hardly was it completed before it was found too short for the largest modern steamships, and so another has been built that is six hundred and eighty feet long, one hundred and eight feet wide between the walls, and eighty-five feet in the entrance-gate. How long will it be before they will find this dock too small for the wants of commerce?
ON THE PARAMATTA RIVER.
"In one year (1885) the number of British and foreign ships that entered Port Jackson was 2601, with an aggregate tonnage of 2,088,307 tons. There are several ship building and repairing establishments here; that of the Australian Steam Navigation Company alone covers more than six acres, and employs nearly five hundred persons. A hundred years ago this was a howling wilderness; that is, if the Australian savages were accustomed to howl, and I presume they were.
IRRIGATING AN ORANGE-GROVE.
Our friends went on a steamboat excursion to Paramatta, which lies up the river of the same name, about fifteen miles from Sydney. Next to Sydney, it is the oldest town in the colony, having been founded ​in November, 1788; it was originally called Rosehill, but the name was afterwards changed to the aboriginal one of Par-a-mat-ta. The first grain raised in the colony was grown at Paramatta, and here the earliest grants of land were made to convicts who had served their time at hard labor and were entitled to become colonists. It is now a prosperous town with from eight to ten thousand inhabitants, and has a considerable business in manufacturing. Along the banks of the river and in the neighborhood of Paramatta, there are many flower-gardens, from which Sydney is abundantly supplied with boutonnières, bouquets, and huge baskets of flowers at all seasons of the year.
"Our chief interest in Paramatta," said Fred, "was to see the orange-groves, which have made the place famous throughout Australia. We were accompanied by a gentleman who was well known both in Paramatta and in Sydney, and he took us at once to the orangery of the late Mr. Pye, who devoted the greater part of his life to the introduction and cultivation of this excellent fruit. They told us that more than ten thousand oranges had been gathered in one season from a single tree! We have never eaten finer oranges in any part of the world than at Paramatta, and the other fruits grown in the orchards of the place are said to be equally good in their season. The oranges are best in December, but they are gathered ripe during every month of the year. Of course they wanted us to inspect some of the factories, hospitals, and other public buildings, but our time was too limited, and were returned to Sydney by railway instead of taking the steamboat back again."
Other excursions were made in the suburbs of Sydney, and Doctor Bronson and his nephews received invitations to visit some of the interior towns of the colony. One of their excursions was to Botany Bay, which lies five miles from Sydney by land, the distance by sea being fully fifteen miles, A horse-railway connects the village with Sydney, and the ride is quite a pretty one. The chief object of interest is the monument which marks the spot where Captain Cook landed in 1770, and took possession of the place in the name of the British Crown.
The consideration of the up-country invitations was postponed until the return of the party from Queensland, whither they went as soon as the sights of Sydney were exhausted. How they went and what they saw will be told in the next chapter.