VI
9 ,
ill ■ !
Jan. 1836.
exists wliat may be called a legal reform, and comparatively
little wliich the law can touch is committed, yet that any moral
reform should take place appears to be quite out of the question.
I was assured by weU-informed people, that a man who
should try to improve, could not while living with other
assigned servants:—his life would be one of intolerable
misery and persecution. Nor must the contamination of the
convict ships and prisons both here and in England be forgotten.
On the whole, as a place of punishment the object is
scarcely gained; as a real system of reform it has failed, as
perhaps would every other plan: but as a means of making
men outwardly honest,—of converting vagabonds most useless
in one hemisphere into active citizens of another, and
thus giving birth to a new and splendid country—a grand
centre of civilization—it has succeeded to a degree perhaps
unparalleled in history.
V A N D I E M E N S L A N D .
J.VNUARY 3 0 t h .—The Beagle sailed for Hobart Town in
Van Diemen’s Land, On the Sth of February, after a six
days’ passage, of which the first part was fine, and the latter
very cold and squally, we entered the mouth of Storm B a y :
the weather justified this awful name. The bay should rather
be called an estuary, for it receives at its head the waters of
the Derwent. Near the mouth there are some extensive basaltic
platforms; but higher up, the land becomes mountainous
and is covered by a light wood. The lower parts of the
hills which skirt the bay are cleared; and the bright yellow
fields of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes appeared very
luxuriant. Late in the evening we anchored in the snug
cove, on the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania,
as Van Diemen’s Land is now called. The first aspect of the
place was very inferior to that of Sydney; the latter might
be called a city, this only a town.
In the morning 1 walked on shore. The streets are fine
Feb. 1836. A I 5 0 R I G I N E S .
and broad; but the houses rather scattered: the shops appeared
good. The town stands at the base of Mount Wellington,
a mountain, 3100 feet high, but of very little ]>icturesque
beauty; from this source, however, it receives a good supply
of water. Hound the cove there are some fine warehouses,
and on one side a small fort. Coming from the Spanish settlements,
where such magnificent care has generally been paid
to the fortifications, the means of defence in these colonies
appeared very contemptible. Comparing the town to Sydney,
I was chiefly struck with the comparative fewness of the large
houses, either built or building. This circumstance must indicate
that fewer people are gaining large fortunes. The growth,
however, of small houses has been most abundant; and the
vast number of little red Ijrick dwellings, scattered on the hill
behind the town, sadly destroys its picturesque appearance.
Hobart Town, from the census of this year, contained 13,826
inhabitants, and the whole of Tasmania 36,505.
All the aljorigines have been removed to an island in
Bass’s Straits, so that Van Diemen’s Land enjoys the great
advantage of being free from a native population. This most
cruel step seems to have been quite unavoidable, as the
only means of stopping a fearful succession of robberies,
burnings, and murders, committed liy the blacks; but whicli
sooner or later must have ended in their utter destruction.
I fear there is no doubt that this train of evil and its consequences,
originated in the infamous conduct of some of our
countrymen. Thirty years is a short period, iu wliich to
have banished tlie last alioriginal from his native island,—
and that island nearly as large as Ireland. I do not know a
more striking instance of the comparative rate of increase of
a civilized over a savage people.
The correspondence to show the necessity of this step,
which took place between the government at home and
that of Van Diemen’s Land, is very interesting: it is published
in an appendix to Bischoff’s History of Van Diemen’s
Lamb Althougl) number.s of natives were shot and taken
prisoners in the skirmishing which was going on at intervals