Page:History of West Australia.djvu/95

Rh different soldiers' barracks scattered over the more populated farming centres of Swan River, and were well attended by the settlers. Captain Irwin was exceedingly active in securing these privileges, and in the absence of clergymen personally conducted service in the barracks on Sundays.

A literary society was inaugurated in 1830 or 1831, and proved a great attraction and source of pleasure to the educated, who discussed ancient and modern literature as calmly at Swan River as they would have done at home. A journal was issued by this society, which fulfilled many of the functions of a newspaper. Another splendid institution—a hospital—was also opened in Perth, but except for accident cases was not largely attended. Dr. Milligan, M.D., who was attached to the civil establishment, in his report on diseases in Western Australia in 1831, states that under the natural conditions of the atmosphere fevers were almost impossible and other ailments comparatively unknown. The climate and the general habits of settlers' life were inimical to bad health. In 1830 a manuscript newspaper was issued, and continued to intermittently appear throughout that and following years. On one side of two sheets of paper half the size of foolscap were advertisements, shipping, and commercial news, and the remainder was taken up by news of the day, quaintly written, tersely and at times strongly put. A charge of 3s. 6d. was made for this pioneer effort. In 1831 the first newspaper—The Western Australian—was published. It was similar in character to its predecessor, the manuscript. In this year also a book on Western Australia was issued in London, written by the Rev. J. G. Powell, M.A., price 8s. 6d.

The first Governor's ball was given at Government House, Perth, on September 2, 1831, and was attended by a fashionable and spontaneously happy assembly. Such entertainments had long been unknown to the settlers, and dancing was vigorously prosecuted until six in the morning. A meeting of the Agricultural Society was held earlier in the day, when the petition to the English Government was read and approved of. A banquet followed prior to the evening's entertainment. Several gentlemen had just arrived in a small brig from India, and their presence added piquancy to the gathering. These gentlemen—particularly Quarter-Master-General Colonel Hanson, Lord F. Beauclerk, and Captain Parker, R.N.—together with Western Australian notables, helped to form a select party. Government House was crowded with 180 ladies and gentlemen; four rooms and an arcade were filled. Supper was served in an ornate tent, decorated and festooned with naval flags. Dancing was continued almost without interval all night long, and the centre dances, quadrilles, Spanish dances, and gallopades were conducted with such verve as had never been experienced before by those present. The supper, says one record, was "an elegant and superb one." The gentlemen from India, who had heard the most gloomy reports of the Swan River country, proposed to send provisions, "as a preventive against starvation," to the Governor, believing that the menu would be meagre; but their amazement was great "at seeing ample supplies of butter, eggs, vegetables, poultry, and butchers meat." One of them was an invalid, but so delighted was he that "he was actually frolicsome all the evening." Colonel Hanson returned to India and wrote very interesting and useful pamphlets on the Swan River Colony, which combated the many injurious reports abroad.

The native question continued to absorb much of the attention of Lieut.-Governor Stirling. He recognised that if the depredations of 1830 were repeated a very serious difficulty lay before settlers and the Administration. So awkward was the situation that he debated long without deciding on any definite course of action. His humanity would not allow him to shoot down thieving natives in cold blood, nor was he anxious to place the struggling colony at the expense of imprisoning and feeding them for long periods. The settlers were so isolated, by reason of large grants, that the expenses and difficulties of providing military protection were largely increased. In fact, this matter of distance was an immense source of trouble to the Administration, who could not possibly protect and satisfy all alike.

The military was soon scattered. A barracks was opened on the Murray, another at Augusta, another at King George's Sound, while the country contiguous to the extensive grants on the Swan, Canning, and Helena Rivers demanded more protection just then than all the others put together. Soldiers were stationed at the head of navigation on the Swan, on the Canning at Kelmscott, and at several other points. It was their special duty to be ready for any emergency, to even visit the different grants, and to perform the ordinary duties of police.

As to the natives, it was soon recognised by most settlers that they were not so despicable a race as was at first supposed. Their intelligence, and particularly their shrewdness, was often demonstrated, and when attacked they seemed to offer the most dogged and determined resistance. Such onslaughts were weekly being made on their kangaroo and other foods, that even so early as 1831 they were compelled to either hunt beyond the boundaries of their own tribal district, or subsist on purely vegetable foods with an occasional change to animal, or prey upon settlers' flocks and herds. As a tribe they did not kill stock, for a few of them appear to be specially to blame for such outrages. Most of them could beg and steal, and often when the settler was out his hut was entered, and flour, damper, biscuits, and meat were removed, and provided the thieves with much enjoyed feasts.

A murder or two was committed in 1831, and stock was killed. In September and October a party of natives made sad havoc among the flocks on the Upper Swan. They destroyed eleven sheep in Mr. Brown's flock, and even speared his cow. The delinquents were detected and were fired at, but seem to have escaped injury. In return for the indignity they stealthily approached Mr. Brown's estate and killed his shepherd. Becoming bolder they drove away sixty-seven of Mr. Bull's sheep. Numbers of settlers were soon in hot pursuit, but before a rescue could be made forty-seven sheep were slaughtered.

Governor Stirling, after these serious attacks, appointed magistrates to act with the military upon sudden emergencies. It was proposed to raise a body of yeoman cavalry, and several prominent people offered themselves as officer or privates. An additional party of soldiers was stationed on the hills near Guildford. So the position remained until the end of 1831.

After the discoveries of Dale in 1830 and the allotment of grants on the Avon, it was decided to postpone settlement until the spring of 1831. The route over the Darling Ranges was known to offer difficulties to the transport of stock and provisions, and so far away was the goodly land that the Lieutenant-Governor believed that strong protection was necessary before settlement was safe. During the year 100,124 additional acres were alienated in thirty-four grants. The largest of these were 14,223 acres to Lewis, Yule, and Haughton, and 12,513 acres to Alfred Waylen, both on the 22nd January. The others ranged from 50 to over 7000 acres.

The expedition to settle the country left the Swan on 6th September, and comprised, according to one statement, about twenty persons. They were the pioneer settlers of the Avon