Scanty
As The Supply Of The Water Is Throughout This District, It
Becomes Still Scantier Further Inland.
22nd. - I commenced my return, and followed a new road
called Lockyer's Line, along which the country is rather more
hilly and picturesque.
This was a long day's ride; and the
house where I wished to sleep was some way off the road,
and not easily found. I met on this occasion, and indeed on
all others, a very general and ready civility among the lower
orders, which, when one considers what they are, and what
they have been, would scarcely have been expected. The
farm where I passed the night, was owned by two young
men who had only lately come out, and were beginning a
settler's life. The total want of almost every comfort was
not attractive; but future and certain prosperity was before
their eyes, and that not far distant.
The next day we passed through large tracts of country in
flames, volumes of smoke sweeping across the road. Before
noon we joined our former road, and ascended Mount Victoria.
I slept at the Weatherboard, and before dark took
another walk to the amphitheatre. On the road to Sydney
I spent a very pleasant evening with Captain King at Dunheved;
and thus ended my little excursion in the colony of
New South Wales.
Before arriving here the three things which interested me
most were - the state of society amongst the higher classes,
the condition of the convicts, and the degree of attraction
sufficient to induce persons to emigrate. Of course, after
so very short a visit, one's opinion is worth scarcely anything;
but it is as difficult not to form some opinion, as it is
to form a correct judgment. On the whole, from what I
heard, more than from what I saw, I was disappointed in the
state of society. The whole community is rancorously
divided into parties on almost every subject. Among those
who, from their station in life, ought to be the best, many
live in such open profligacy that respectable people cannot
associate with them. There is much jealousy between the
children of the rich emancipist and the free settlers, the
former being pleased to consider honest men as interlopers.
The whole population, poor and rich, are bent on acquiring
wealth: amongst the higher orders, wool and sheep-grazing
form the constant subject of conversation. There are many
serious drawbacks to the comforts of a family, the chief of
which, perhaps, is being surrounded by convict servants.
How thoroughly odious to every feeling, to be waited on by
a man who the day before, perhaps, was flogged, from your
representation, for some trifling misdemeanor. The female
servants are of course, much worse: hence children learn the
vilest expressions, and it is fortunate, if not equally vile
ideas.
On the other hand, the capital of a person, without any
trouble on his part, produces him treble interest to what it
will in England; and with care he is sure to grow rich.
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