Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/333

1837.] high price in the London market. Salt mines have been met with in this district, near the site of a town called Beverly.

After giving these hints on the natural history of the colony, I should proceed next in order to describe the manners and customs of the inhabitants.

In the month of June 1829, His Excellency Sir James Stirling, Governor and Commander in Chief, with the Civil Officers in the ship Parmelia, attended by His Majesty's Ship Sulphur, having on board a detachment of the 63d regiment, under the command of Captain Irwin, arrived and took possession of the colony. Soon afterwards, the settlers commenced to arrive, and continued to pour in rapidly, until the latter end of 1830; at which period the population amounted to about two thousand. The ships which carried them out bore a strong resemblance to Noah's ark, being crowded to excess with all manner of beasts, birds and plants, as well as men, women and children, and provisions. If we suppose the population of one of the agricultural parishes in England, with a sprinkling of half pay officers of the navy and army, some gentlemen from the East and West Indies, and a few cockneys, put down on the shores of a wilderness, it will give some idea of the individuals who were destined to become the founders of this interesting new Colony.

The settlers may be divided into two classes, viz. gentlemen and labourers, many of them married and having young families, others single. Amongst the former, were a large proportion of highly respectable individuals, who were accustomed to refined society, with the comforts and luxuries of life; amongst the latter, were some industrious, able and valuable servants, but with these were mixed up a large number of idle and worthless men, amongst whom drunkenness was a constant vice. Perhaps it will be expected that I should say something here of the soldiers, but I may not say with Cleghorn, it is a task I would rather avoid,—pudet hæc opprobria nobis, &c. To say the least, the leaven of good amongst them was in much greater proportion than amongst the lower classes of settlers; and the complimentary address, voted to the detachment by the respectable inhabitants on its quitting the colony, is a strong proof of their good conduct.

The first object of the settler in landing was to get up a temporary shelter for himself and those in his establishment; these were for a time of a wretched description. Some used single tents, which afforded but little protection from the heat of the sun by day, and the cold and winds by night. Others were accommodated in huts built of