|
Written by J. E. CALDER
published in three instalments in the HOBART MERCURY on Friday 2nd
April 1880, Thursday 8th April 1880 and Friday 9th April 1880. |
If I were desired by any summer visitor
to Tasmania, but delighting in crowded thoroughfares, to name a district
near Hobart Town where he might enjoy a quiet ride or all day stroll
at this season without meeting picnic parties every half mile or mischief-loving
youngsters out for a holiday, I should be inclined to ask him to take
his choice between the contiguous districts of Clarence Plains and
Cambridge, neither of which by being familiar to our summer immigrants
are widely known excepting to their indwellers and therefore to borrow
the phraseology of travellers, not yet overdone by this class of excursionists
like Mount Nelson, or the everlasting "Bower" or even Mount
Wellington itself are.
In the districts that I have named, the traveller will have the advantage
of fair roads under his foot, and pretty generally, though not uniformly,
sufficient cultivated land of high fertility around him to destroy
the sameness of bush travel which so oppresses one not having actual
business on hand when passing through the open woodlands of the colony,
such as are used exclusively for pasture. The highways of an undulating
country, however, are not always the places from whence good views
are to be had; but there are exceptions even to this, and I claim
both for Clarence and Cambridge, a large immunity from this general
and deserved censure.
Many a year has run off the reel of time since I wandered through
the district of Clarence Plains, and nothing but a general recollection
of it remains; but I fancy I can still see, through the gathering
mists and obscurities of four or five vanished decades of years, some
very pleasant and cheery places within it, that cannot have passed
away with one's own youth, but must still exist, for nature changes
but little. "Art, Glory, Freedom, fail but Nature still
is fair". These pleasant spots first flash upon you when - after
leaving the landing at Kangaroo Bay, and the estate, called in my
younger days, Claremont, behind you - you descend towards the vale
and village of Rokeby. Further on, also, where the highway approaches
pretty closely to the sea margin, the landscape is still very attractive;
for the southern shores of Tasmania, with their wide-spreading bays
are never otherwise; and here, if I remember rightly, a handsome lake-like
bay lay before you forming an agreeable counterpoise to the woody
heights on the land. From here, after passing Stanfield's windmill,
I should recommend the traveller to cross the isthmus called Muddy
Plains Neck and, after a ride or stroll along the sandy beach and
a long look over the glorious expanse of Norfolk Bay, to retrace his
steps homewards and I think he will hardly account the day to have
been misspent. The distance out is about 8 miles.
For a trip to Cambridge you take the Richmond road from Kangaroo Bay;
but as there are two roads leading away from near the landing place
(as I ought to have explained before), the one leading to Clarence
Plains and the other to Cambridge, the traveller, if a stranger, should
make inquiry at starting that he does not take the wrong one. That
leading to the left, and for some distance along the shore, is the
proper one.
About forty years ago I was pretty well acquainted with Cambridge,
but have not frequented it much since. I, however, travelled along
the first nine miles of the Richmond road a few days ago, on business
to be presently explained, which as usual refreshed my recollection
of this quarter, which had fallen greatly into decay.
It is astonishing how, after years of absence from once familiar scenes,
a visit to them recalls them all to recollection. Objects that you
thought had quite died out of memory are again presented to the mind,
and look as fresh as though you had never lost sight of them. Single
objects, as well as the general landscape, all return again. A tree,
for example, under which you may have camped for the night, a water
hole at which you may have rested, you then find had left their impressions
though unthought of by you, ineffaceably on the mind. And so again
it was, for the hundredth time in my bush experiences, that things
unheeded for a generation once more presented themselves to memory,
as old and welcome acquaintances.
For some weeks past I had contemplated paying a visit to one of Tasmania's
oldest colonists, Mr James BELBIN, a resident in the district
of Cambridge, who was described to me by his friends in Hobart Town
as "a living almanac" as indeed I found him to be; and whom
I wanted to consult, to enable me to clear up some doubtful points
in the history of the first years of settlement.
I suppose there are not many who would take a twenty mile journey
for the purpose named above and under a sun hot enough to scorch the
skin off you. But every man to his taste, and - so I started.
It was 4 o'clock of the afternoon of the 16th inst that I took passage
to Kangaroo Bay in the steam ferry boat Success, where, after landing,
I went on in one of the public conveyances to the Horse-shoe Inn,
which is nearly five miles from the landing place, and here I remained
for the night.
In looking round me, as we rattled along, and summoning up old recollections
that came at my call, the belief soon grew upon me that most of the
cultivated lands we were passing through, that lay within a couple
of miles, or less, of the bay, were familiar to me; and that not much
clearing had been done here for at least an average lifetime, which
I believe medical statistics fix at about five and thirty years. The
crops hereabouts did not seem to be heavy, though growing on soil
derived from the basaltic rocks, which is generally a good yielding
earth. But a change takes place when about half way to the Horse-shoe,
or a little more, where claystone predominates and a thin stratum
of inferior, whitish earth, the resulting product of its own decompensation
is spread over the surface. Cultivation now becomes more and more
scant, and for some considerable distance disappears altogether. The
bush grasses, or rather the herbage, here is dry and innutritious
and for nearly a couple of miles the forest - for all is woodland
now - has almost no product, but what indicates sterility. Once is
always glad to escape from such scenes of barrenness; and they, happily,
begin to disappear as you approach the Horse-shoe Inn; and some space
before you land on the beautiful estate of Uplands they are where
one always wishes them to be, that is, absent.
With plenty of daylight still before me, after bespeaking quarters
for the night at the inn, I strolled out as far as a newly-erected
stone building that I had spied out soon after alighting from the
conveyance I had travelled by. It stands at the junction of the Sorell
and Richmond roads; and on enquiring of a man, who was doing something
there, which the extremely good-natured and forbearing might call
"work", I learned that it was intended for the public school
of the district. The temperature of the day was almost tropical, which
even the approach of evening did not moderate very perceptibly and
the air, as the poets say, "was at rest", a combination
of things which, on many accounts, is most inimical to personal comfort,
and was especially so as day declined by calling into a state of most
mischievous activity an army of mosquitoes almost as countless as
the leaves of the forest around me, which never for a moment intermitted
their attacks until the lights were put out for the night.
During many years of bush travel, it has ever been my practice to
start on a journey with what the poet Campbell calls the "level
sun" and whilst the atmosphere is still cool. If you are riding,
this may make no difference to you whatever it may to your horse;
but the foot traveller will always do well to get over all the ground
he can in the early hours of the day when one is most certainly more
capable of endurance than at any other time, and when you seem - so
to speak - to have the world all to yourself, which, to say the least
of it, is a very pleasant sort of illusion. I was therefore early
astir, and on the road whilst the district was still in its first
sleep; for I am bound to say that the people here seems to take life
very easily; but then my acquaintance with them is but slight, and
I may be mistaken. The walk along that portion of the highway that
leads through the beautiful undulating fields of Uplands was very
pleasant, but I could see very little change in the condition of the
grounds since I last passed through them two score years ago. A few
acres, say fifteen or twenty, in a hollow as you enter on the estate,
have indeed been added to the clearings of the farm. The ancient barn
that stood here, as I believe, in the days of Colonel Davey - "Mad
Tom, the Governor" as he was called by his compotators - has
been replaced by a better one; the open space in front of the house
enclosed, and the garden gone to the devil, are all the changes of
forty years, that I could see.
The view from the road itself, as you turn your head in the direction
of the "seven" and "five mile beaches" and the
hills of Sorell on the other side of Pittwater, is very agreeable;
but the same expanses of land and water, as seen from the higher parts
of the fields where the landscape is necessarily more enlarged, are
magnificent; but this height is fenced off, and therefore unapproachable,
except under permission, but which, I presume a traveller, if unaccompanied
by dogs, would have no difficulty in obtaining and which I should
probably have asked had I never been there, or had I seen anyone about
like establishment at this early hour to have addressed myself to;
but neither sound nor movement of any kind could I observe, and so
I passed on.
A walk of a mile and a half from Uplands House brings the traveller
to the residence of a family name Evans, where I was so fortunate
as to find a young woman awake and up - the first person whom I had
seen this morning. I now enquired the way to Mr BELBIN's residence,
which she pointed to, for it was within sight, about a mile off to
the right, and which I quickly reached.
Mr BELBIN's residence stands on gently rising ground, and is
as prettily situated as any homestead that I have seen. The trees
hereabouts are the she-oak and late-flowering nimosa, the latter just
now in bloom, and producing such a profusion of flowers that I feel
pretty sure some of the trees would have yielded enough of these golden
garlands to have gone far towards filling a cart.
I carried an introductory letter to the proprietor from his brother
in Hobart Town, and was received with much kindness. He is one of
Tasmania's early pioneers, and came hither with his father, at the
time of the first breaking up of Norfolk Island and the dispersion
of its free settlers, in 1808. He was born at Norfolk Island, on the
29th of August 1803.
I was not slow in acquainting Mr BELBIN of my business, namely
to obtain information on some questionable points to Tasmania's early
history, which he alone, of living colonists, could satisfactorily
clear up.
I remained with him until noon; and during my stay he dictated to
me the particulars that are embodied in the following paper, which
I wrote down as he spoke. I have this day made a second visit to him,
to hand him the MS in its present form for his perusal with which
he expressed his satisfaction and afterwards handed me a note avouching
its fidelity, and consenting to its publication. |
I remain, sir,
Your very obedient servant,
December 31, 1879 J .E. CALDER |
The following narrative embodies the
particulars of Mr James BELBIN's father's first troubles in
Tasmania.
It will not be out of place to begin this paper by saying that the
family is of German origin, but he himself was a native of London,
where his father was a brewer; the son was born on the 11th February
1771 and emigrated to New South Wales in the early years of its settlement,
and removed from thence to Norfolk Island as a settler, where a fair
sized farm was given him, as was customary to free persons at that
time.
On the compulsory evacuation of that island, about the year 1807,
he again emigrated and came down to Tasmania with his family.
It is known that the forced removal of this people from their happy
island home and pleasant little homesteads to commence life anew in
a land of convicts and savages, was most displeasing to them; and
some of them even ventured to resist or rather to evade the Imperial
mandate for their expulsion. Of these recusants the only two whose
names have reached me are, firstly, the plucky old fellow whom I am
writing about and Mr Robert Nash, who took the bush for it sooner
than be evicted from their lands. But according to the practices of
the good old times, they were hunted down by the crew of the boat
employed to take them on board the vessel, the Estramina, or City
of Edinburgh, that was sent thither to remove them, on to the decks
of which they were finally pitched like a couple of dogs; and in this
manner it was they were embarked on the 3rd of September 1808 reaching
Sullivan's Cove on the 2nd of the following month.
Mr Nash became in the end one of the most useful of the pioneers of
the colony, so much so, indeed, that even Colonel Collins, who was
at all times a much stricter economist of praise than punishment,
acknowledges his great merits as a settler in a letter of his that
I have preserved, which he wrote exactly a couple of months before
his own death. It was Mr Nash who constructed the first flour-mill
in the colony, which he planted on the New Town Rivulet, where it
was demolished by the terrible floods of 1809. Directly after this
loss, the brave old settler built the one still in operation on the
Hobart Town Rivulet that stands about 150 yards above Mollestreet.
This one he put up in 1810 and though it has been repaired since then,
in consequence of a fire, much of the first structure still remains
as well as the ancient mill-face, to repay antiquarian research.
This fine old settler afterwards pitched his tents in the noble district
of Sorell, where he became wealthy; and where, after a life passed
in useful occupation, he died on the 19th March 1819 before he had
well passed middle life, for he was only 48 years old.
From this digression, if such it be, I take up the narrative of the
early misfortunes of the BELBIN family and which commenced
a few months after the debarkation of the founder of this old Tasmanian
family from the Estramina.
They began with what at first may be thought a very trivial circumstance,
namely, his meeting a bullock-cart proceeding along the street that
I am now writing from, but which was then undistinguished by any name
and it so continued until the 1st of December 1811 when Governor Macquarie
who was then in this colony, called it after himself.
Trivial however this circumstance was not, for a temporary prominence
was given to it by the dreadful spectacle of a half-naked woman being
attached to the back of the lumbering vehicle and enduring the merciless
infliction of a public flogging in the usual manner of the Government
of the time, that is by the drummers of the detachment.
The offence for which she was undergoing this shameful indignity was
just as slight a one as could have been, a mere quarrel with the favourite
of an officer of the garrison who, in the wordy battle that took place
between them, got a good deal the worst of the argument.
This siren was under the protection of a Lieutenant Lord who, like
a good many of the military then in these colonies, combined the trade
of a shopkeeper with the profession of arms. The lady herself was
one of many acquirements but the most serviceable of all was her capacity
for business, and aptitude for driving hard bargains, and thus almost
perforce she became the manager of the lieutenant's huckstering establishment,
which was all it was at this period of his colonial life. The victim
of the cruelty now enacting was a Mrs Roberts, who dealt at the shop
of the merchant militant, where it was the wordy encounter between
the ladies took place. Both of them were eloquent at all times but
especially so when put on their mettle, and such a row took place
over the counter as was heard half way down the street. But Mrs Roberts,
who was one of those who thought everything fair in a fight, annoyed
the enemy most effectually by ripping up a lot of old stories,, of
which she kept up such a fusilade across the counter, that the shop-keeping
lady was at last fain to fly to cover into some distant recess of
the residence, into which even Mrs Roberts vociferation's could not
penetrate.
The swell that always follows the storm was still running high when
the lieutenant returned to his quarters from abroad, and heard with
much concern the details of the uproar of the morning, and the defeat
of his mistress. In the heat of his passion, a file of soldiers was
dispatched to the humble domicile of the victor, with orders to bring
her before him (he being a man of many occupations and a magistrate
amongst the number), and a mockery of justice ensued, in which Mr
Lord composed the court; his wife (by courtesy), the prosecuting attorney,
the victor of the fight, the defendant, and the military piquet the
audience.
The principal items of the proceedings of this prejudged case were
the accusation and sentence; the defence, though listened to with
a great show of attention, going for nothing, of course. It is unnecessary
to repeat the result of this enquiry.
The old Norfolk Island settler, like his son James, from whom I received
these particulars, was a person whose habits were too retired to be
a frequenter of public places, and thus it was that he had never seen
a woman thus punished before. Indeed this sort of spectacle was never
very common here, not that the authorities cared much about what they
did, but people would talk about it afterwards, and sometimes a little
too outspokenly so, as a rule, it was generally abstained from, though
not always.
On witnessing the scandalous scene spoken of above, BELBIN's
feelings got the better of him entirely and his blood being up, he
shouted "Shame, shame" on all who took part in it, and then
added a remark still more offensive by asking "Can this be a
land of Christians, or one of savages only, where such an exhibition
is permitted?" The ice being thus broken through, some others
took up the matter, especially a prominent officer of the Government,
Mr. George Prideaux Harris, who declared that he would report the
occurrence to head quarters, meaning Governor Bligh at Sydney.
The indignation of a mere cockatoo settler like BELBIN went
for nothing, of course but not so the public declaration of the other;
for Harris was a person of influence here, and not unknown at Sydney,
whose threat was not to be disregarded, so it became necessary to
appease him, which, though not easily done, was managed at last, by
the process of "talking one over". In the end he became
the panegyrist of the Lieutenant-Governor, for he it was who delivered
his funeral oration, or in other words, who wrote the seventh number
of the Derwent Star newspaper, 3rd of April 1810, which, while it
records his death, extols every act of his life.
From this moment BELBIN was a man marked out for official persecution;
one who, at any cost, was to be sacrificed to the hatred of the Governor,
and of Lord also, who was the next to himself in military rank, either
by annoying him into some punishable indiscretion, or luring him into
some snare, of which the old police force of the colony, even so recently
as forty years ago, had generally one or two set in the paths of the
unwary and offending of which the most ingenious one in use in Collins'
day, was what was called the "Sundown Bell", the revival
of an old device first introduced into England about eight centuries
ago after the overthrow at Hastings (a sort of curfew arrangement),
on the ringing of which all persons, but a privileged few, who were
not off to their quarters for the night were snapped up by the night-patrol,
clapped into the guard-house, and next morning introduced to some
such discriminating and merciful magistrate as Parson Knopwood. But
BELBIN knew what they were after, and kept out of their reach
for a long time, but it was impossible for so impulsive and outspoken
a man as he, to steer clear of the rocks altogether, in a place where
some act of official cruelty was ever in perpetration to arouse him;
so the persevering scoundrels caught him at last.
It was not long after the flogging of the woman that Governor Bligh,
who had just been deposed from his command at Sydney by a rebellious
military, arrived in these waters, not a passenger, but the captain
of a man-of-war, the Porpoise, which post he had assumed in virtue
of his superior rank, which could not be disputed, any more than his
strict legal right to the Government of New South Wales could be denied.
At this period, Tasmania was but a dependency of that colony, and
Bligh its legitimate, if not its acknowledged ruler.
Neither Bligh nor Collins were amiable men; and as the ex-Governor
more than suspected that all the military in his command were banded
together against him (which indeed the other hardly concealed), their
first meeting was not a cordial one; and it was soon seen that the
coming together of such inflammable bodies; like the too close contact
of fire and gunpowder, would end up in an explosion.
It is not easy at this time to ascertain in what way it was the misunderstanding
between these two worthies originated, but where there is a mutual
predisposition to take offence, a quarrel is soon got up. However
one would have thought that Collins, with his long military and official
experiences, would have foreseen that in the end Bligh must triumph
over his enemies, and have deported himself more courteously and circumspectly
towards him than he appears to have done. Bligh, it is stated, wanted
to interfere in the government of the other, as I suppose was his
right to do, if he chose to exercise it. But this, it is also said,
was not only disallowed but insolently resented by Collins ordering
him to quit the shore, failing which he would compel him to do so
by force; and next, as if by way of adding indiscretion to indiscretion,
and thus giving the clever but vindictive Bligh another advantage
over him, he issued a proclamation forbidding every individual of
the settlement to hold any intercourse whatever with the Porpoise,
on pain of receiving five hundred lashes. This rebellious act, we
may be assured, would have cost him not only his government, but his
commission also, had not his unexpected death saved his memory these
disgraces.
There was at this time in Hobart Town an old man whose name I cannot
discover, who eked out a precarious livelihood by hawking vegetables
and other small wares about The Camp, as this town was then called.
He was past ordinary work, being nearly seventy years old; and now
either in ignorance of the order, or believing it to be a mere threat,
he visited the proscribed ship in prosecution of his humble calling.
Such a delinquency as this was soon discovered by the lynx-eyed police,
who, in their overstrained zeal for the good government of the colony,
lost no time in confronting the old pauper with His Honor, who soon
gave him practical proof of the pretty notorious fact, that what he
threatened he very generally executed. His Honor was an economist
of time, and in cases like the present none of it was ever thrown
away in empty forms; such as summoning witnesses, hearing defences,
or other trifles of that sort, but came to the point at once, and
sentenced him off-hand to the full punishment threatened in the proclamation.
Directly afterwards, or nearly so, the old culprit was removed by
the patrol and committed to the merciful charge of a couple of stalwart
drummers, to undergo such an infliction as these professional torturers
well knew how to administer.
Colonel Collins, as I am assured by more than one of his contemporaries,
still living, was seldom absent from the infernal spectacle that followed
a sentence; in which, indeed, he seems to have taken much the same
kind of pleasure that Sixtus Quintus is said to have found in signing
death-warrants; and in the present instance, he stood by the sufferer
from first to last. Whether the old hawker took his punishment all
at once, or by instalments only, I have no information but that none
of it was remitted is quite certain.
I may add that the story of this flogging, now first told me by BELBIN,
I have, since my last week's interview with him, read in Bonwick's
"Curious Facts of Old Colonial Days" p.216, but in less
detail than in BELBIN's relation of it. Bonwick says "Lieutenant
Governor Collins urged Captain Bligh to put to sea, and to proceed
to Europe as he had engaged to do. This the other would not consent
to. Then all communication was stopped between the ship and the shore.
Captain Bligh told the Court Martial in 1811, that rations were refused,
and that even a man was flogged for selling fowls to him. It was in
an order dated December 7, 1809, that Collins expressed surprise,
that some were so "infatuated as to consider Captain Bligh the
Governor still" .
In a community where such barbarities as the one described above were
not uncommon, compassion for the sufferer is not easily aroused. But
it has ever been observed that when the sympathies of a generally
apathetic people are once kindled into activity, they become forcible
in the proportion of their former inertness. And so it was in the
present instance, and old BELBIN was amongst the first to take
fire at this fresh example of violence; the more especially so, as
it was committed on a man whose age he considered should have shielded
him from any such excess; and who, moreover, had done so little, according
to his plain manner of thinking to deserve it; and it was soon afterwards
made apparent that there were some others in the camp besides BELBIN
who greatly disapproved of Collins' conduct in this last severity.
Despotic and practically irresponsible to official authority as Governors
then were, public opinion was not so completely crushed down as to
be quite powerless, and many began to think the time was at hand when
some check should be imposed on the extravagances of the local authorities,
and whose cruelties of which they were the almost daily witnesses,
should not be inflicted as they were; that is, according to the mere
will of the Governor, the magistrates, or military officers, all of
whom did pretty nearly as they liked, even with those who, like BELBIN,
were just as free as themselves. In fine, that sentence should be
preceded by judicial enquiry, and not administered, as it too frequently
was, either vindictively or from caprice.
I believe that never yet was there assembled together a community
of British in which the stiff-necked element was not represented;
that is, where men were not to be found ready at any moment to make
large personal sacrifices in resistance of overstrained authority;
and so it was here, where the people - heartily sick of military domination
- wanted only leaders to direct them, to raise the standard, not of
rebellion, but of opposition to the despotism of their Governor.
They who were ready to risk their safeties in disarming him of his
assumed power were, primarily, BELBIN and a fine old man-of-war's
man, Mr James Dodding, whose name, it may be, still lives in the recollections
of about a score of old people; and they laying their heads together,
drew up a memorial to Captain Bligh (whom they still acknowledged
as the legitimate Governor of both colonies), who was then on board
the Porpoise, laying at anchor, off that point of North Bruny Island,
that still bears the old tiger's name (Bligh's Point) to interpose
his power between them and their immediate chief.
I pause here for a moment to say that the late Mrs Ferguson, who passed
most of her life at Tinder-box Bay, opposite Bligh's Point, once told
me that the ex-Governor and future admiral all but lost his life here.
He was rambling unattended on the narrow point, where a detachment
of the tribe of Bruny natives "formed line" across it, and
thus cut off his retreat and that he had much difficulty to reach
the Porpoise.
That the unscrupulous Bligh would have sailed to their relief had
the petition reached him, there can be little doubt of; for that petition
would have showed him that he had a party here - just, indeed, as
he had in New South Wales - a circumstance that might have told in
his favour at home, whenever a day of reckoning came round. His own
inclinations too, were in favour of resuming his government, if only
in a dependent province like this was; while his personal feelings
were most unfavourable to Collins, on account of the hostile action
of the latter towards him, on his arrival in Sullivan's Cove. But
Collins, thanks to the report of a spy, knew what was going on in
the camp, and determined to thwart the machinations, as he styled
them, of those who desired to see his protracted misrule abated.
After the removal of the Norfolk Islanders from their old homes, they
were furnished with house accommodation by the Government; and in
most instances two families were billeted in one residence. A person
named Ankers shared a cottage along with BELBIN's family and
thus became acquainted with what was going on in the quarters of the
latter, of which he carried intelligence to the police. Collins therefore
(as Arthur's agents once did at a future time) took immediate steps
to get the petition into his own hands, and thus defeat the action
of the seditious amongst his subjects, and, if successful in this,
to "sheet it home" as he styled it, to the originators of
the movement.
An officer of the little garrison, a man of some assurance and bluster,
was therefore instructed to proceed to the residence of the offending
settler, BELBIN, where it was known that the petition was deposited;
and "in the King's Name" to demand its immediate surrender
for delivery to His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, and a lot more
such staff; or, failing of success by these gentle means, then to
take it by force.
But the more to impress the malcontents with the majesty of the Governor's
Envoy, and to overawe them into submission, he was directed to make
his appearance at the wigwam of the chief offender, not in the dilapidated
mud-stained suit that he wore customarily about the camp but in the
full costume of a second lieutenant of His Majesty's Marine Forces,
which I can assure my readers was funny enough even less than seventy
years ago.
It is recorded that the rainfall in Tasmania of 1809 was an unusually
heavy one; but it was pretty fine on the morning of this impressive
visit, though, as it has been raining cats and dogs nearly all of
the three preceding days, the camp was literally a field of sludge
and puddle, so that by the time the officer had finished his outward-bound
jaunt, what with jumping into a couple of the many waterholes he had
come to cross, for every one that he got safely over his scarlet coat
and white spatter-dashes were so begrimed with the mud of the narrow
paths of the camp, as to detract very largely from the dapper figure
it was expected he would make, when vis-Evis with the rough and ready
settler, but who, to say truth, looked rather the smarter fellow of
the two.
It was only the day before this that Mr BELBIN had received
from the Commissariat depot the weekly dole of "corn" customarily
meted out to every settler, whose family was "on the store",
as it was styled; corn, that is either wheat or barley being served
out in the place of flour, of which latter article there was usually
none in the camp, until manufactured by the settlers themselves, out
of their weekly allowance of grain, for which purpose hand mills were
lent them; and in this patriarchal employment it was, that Mr BELBIN
was engaged at the time of the arrival of the military ambassador
at his house.
Having reached the humble tenement of the enemy, he enquired of his
son, the present Mr James BELBIN, of Cambridge, then about
six years old, if his father was within and if so to tell him he wanted
to see him directly, and then marched himself in without more ceremony,
and immediately commenced a hasty but general rummage amongst a number
of books and private papers that lay on a shelf of a kind of open
cupboard, and, as ill-luck would have it, he lighted on the offensive
document almost directly. BELBIN was not very much
pleased with the curt style of address used by this officer to his
child, which he had overheard, though not indoors at the moment; he
was therefore in no haste to attend upon him. This delay was, however,
unfortunate as it gave the visitor time enough to make a hasty inspection
of the obnoxious paper, which he found to contain a long string of
complaints against his chief, and conveyed in such positive language
as drove every drop of blood from the cheek of the military magnifico.
BELBIN was not very much pleased with the curt style of address used
by this officer to his child, which he had overheard, though not indoors
at the moment; he was therefore in no haste to attend upon him. This
delay was, however, unfortunate as it gave the visitor time enough
to make a hasty inspection of the obnoxious paper, which he found
to contain a long string of complaints against his chief, and conveyed
in such positive language as drove every drop of blood from the cheek
of the military magnifico. BELBIN was not very much pleased with the
curt style of address used by this officer to his child, which he
had overheard, though not indoors at the moment; he was therefore
in no haste to attend upon him. This delay was, however, unfortunate
as it gave the visitor time enough to make a hasty inspection of the
obnoxious paper, which he found to contain a long string of complaints
against his chief, and conveyed in such positive language as drove
every drop of blood from the cheek of the military magnifico. BELBIN
was not very much pleased with the curt style of address used by this
officer to his child, which he had overheard, though not indoors at
the moment; he was therefore in no haste to attend upon him. This
delay was, however, unfortunate as it gave the visitor time enough
to make a hasty inspection of the obnoxious paper, which he found
to contain a long string of complaints against his chief, and conveyed
in such positive language as drove every drop of blood from the cheek
of the military magnifico. BELBIN entered whilst the
intrusive visitor was still poring over the offensive petition which,
to speak truth, read more like a "Bill of Rights" and demands
than a respectful request, and of course only added fuel to the burning
indignation of the ceremonious lieutenant. BELBIN entered whilst the
intrusive visitor was still poring over the offensive petition which,
to speak truth, read more like a "Bill of Rights" and demands
than a respectful request, and of course only added fuel to the burning
indignation of the ceremonious lieutenant. BELBIN entered whilst the
intrusive visitor was still poring over the offensive petition which,
to speak truth, read more like a "Bill of Rights" and demands
than a respectful request, and of course only added fuel to the burning
indignation of the ceremonious lieutenant. BELBIN entered whilst the
intrusive visitor was still poring over the offensive petition which,
to speak truth, read more like a "Bill of Rights" and demands
than a respectful request, and of course only added fuel to the burning
indignation of the ceremonious lieutenant.
There is nothing in this world more catching than ill-humour and BELBIN,
though he could not have given any reason for it, was in a temper
directly. At this moment he did not know what the officer wanted with
him, or what it was that he was reading, and no doubt would have kept
a civil tongue in his head but for the solemn air and scowling look
of the other, which put his back up in a moment and he commenced the
quarrel that followed, by abruptly enquiring "What are you doing
there?" Now this was too much for the martial visitor, and on
an embassy of importance too, to bear with and he treated the enquiry
as anyone else would have done whose dignity was thus trifled with
- that is, with a solemn wave of the hand expressive of contempt for
the querist, and a look that would have gone through the armour of
a cuirassier.
But he was obliged to say something, lest BELBIN, whose looks
were getting unpleasant, might resort to something harder than words.
Still he did not deign a direct reply, but merely held out the letter,
and enquired, "Pray, sir, did you write this?" and then
"paused for a reply", as the newspaper people say.
It was not long coming, for BELBIN was one of those who always
went straight to the point at once, and was not likely to equivocate,
now that he recognised the paper, and answered off-hand, "Yes,
I did". "So I thought", said the lieutenant,
with a more satisfied look than he had hitherto worn, adding, "and
I shall now take it away with me for the perusal, consideration, and
decision of His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor", speaking slowly,
and emphasising every syllable as if to give weight to his words.
"But not without my leave", said BELBIN hastily
and next followed up his words by making a snatch at the precious
document, too sudden for the other to withdraw it, so between them
it got torn in two, each retaining what he had got hold of. A sharp
scuffle for possession now took place, and, after shoving and knocking
each other round the room about a dozen times, they rolled out of
the house together and down they came to the ground, the half liquefied
mud displaced by their fall descending on them in a shower, and so
completely disfiguring both of them as to require some discrimination
for any one to tell which was the soldier or which the civilian.
BELBIN, being rather the stronger man of the two, and
less encumbered than the other, fell uppermost; but the conditions
of the ground preventing him rising at first, gave time for the ever-prowling
patrol, which the lieutenant now called loudly for, to come to his
relief, and they were separated.BELBIN, being rather the stronger
man of the two, and less encumbered than the other, fell uppermost;
but the conditions of the ground preventing him rising at first, gave
time for the ever-prowling patrol, which the lieutenant now called
loudly for, to come to his relief, and they were separated.
Many angry things were now addressed to BELBIN, quite enough
to raise the bile of a quieter man then he, but as the odds were so
much against him, he held his peace; but not, by way of putting an
end to the unseemly fracas he had been dragged into, he threw over
his part of the paper which they had been scuffling about, to his
antagonist, saying, "He made him a present of it, and that he
might use is as he saw fit". He next turned to enter his dwelling,
but this was not permitted, for the soldiers of the patrol, enraged
at the defeat of their officer, seized on his victor, and carried
him off to the guardhouse.
At this time the military guard of Hobart Town mounted at a small
cottage that served both for guard-house and gaol, and stood just
outside the present bonding warehouse, and on that front of it facing
Macquarie Street. This venerable building was removed only a few years
since, when the warehouse underwent external renovation that may have
improved its appearance, but which by sweeping away what old Cobbett
calls "the hoar of antiquity" has divested it of all antiquarian
interest.
As soon as possible after exchanging his mud-besprinkled regimentals
for his ordinary suit, our officer presented himself to the Governor
in his office: and after explaining the cause of his appearance in
his present guise, he handed the document he had secured to his superior,
who, having put the pieces together as well as he could, read it from
beginning to end, with a look, the sourness of which was somewhat
softened down by one of satisfaction at having got the disparaging
missive into his possession.
Collins, having mastered the contents of the paper, next proceeded
to instruct his auditor to summon a bench of magistrates for the morrow,
to try, or more properly punish, BELBIN and Dodding for their
officiousness.
But, fortunately for Dodding, a murder, or some such trifle of the
time had been committed in the settlement a little before this, and
he was absent at Sydney, in attendance on the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction
as a witness against the offender; so one of the two birds whose wings
he meant to have clipped had made its escape.
The "Bench" consisting of two as pleasant fellows as you
could find to try an offender, namely Mr Adolarius William Henry Humphrey
and the Reverend Robert Knopwood, assembled at the police office to
hear and decide the case of Rex -v- BELBIN, and though I believe
that the offence which the latter was charged with had no place in
the Statute book, that did not signify in the least, and the enquiry
went on. The trial was, of course, nothing but a repetition of the
old farce we read of in Ęsop of the wolf and some other flesh-loving
beast sitting in judgement on their destined prey. This solemn mockery
ended, the two magistrates pretended to confer together in whispers
for about a minute, when the senior one proceeded to deliver the sentence
of the Court, which he prefaced by about a quarter of an hour's harangue
on the subject of his great respect for the prisoner and all his family
(of whom, by the way, he knew almost nothing), his general good conduct
in the past, the position to which he had now descended through his
disloyalty to our Sovereign Lord, etc. etc. but that, in consideration
of his former respectability and its being a first offence (which
was not true), the Bench was disposed to deal leniently with him;
and therefore only ordered him to receive - at such time and place
as His Honor might be pleased to appoint - the mitigated punishment
of five hundred lashes, which he hoped would be a warning to him for
the future, as no doubt it was.
That there may be amongst the readers of The Mercury some who will
receive the account of his sentence as an exaggerated one, or even
dismiss it as altogether fabulous is very possible; but they may rest
assured of its truth; or, if still sceptical, let them enquire about
it of any of the immediate descendants of the late Mr BELBIN,
and hear what they say about it, for by them the abominable outrage
committed on the founder of their family is made no secret of.
But that such excesses as the above were common enough in the past
in Hobart Town is easily proved, more particularly by an old Garrison
Order Book of 1810-12, now at my hand, wherein many Courts Martial
are ordered, and the particulars of some of them reported in full.
As it may be that some of your subscribers have never read the details
of any such remarkable trials as these, I will take leave to copy
one of them out for their satisfaction.
Justice, though as blind as ever in 1812, never faltered in her paces
in administering the law, but got on with the work of a rapidity hardly
credible now. Instead of taking entire days to decide a case, as her
servants the judges do now, the judges of old got to the bottom of
a dozen of them in an hour. Addressing juries, examining and cross-examining
witnesses, summing up and all minor matters of this nature went with
a run then. Indeed, when we cast a glance backwards at the glorious
speed of the judges of yore - Captain Murray, Lieutenants Gumming,
Breedon, Campbell and Ensign Greenshields - it makes one blush scarlet
for the Smiths and Dobsons of our own day, who, in a contest of speed
with any of the brave old fellows just named, would be left out of
sight in a twinkling.
The case which I shall copy, exactly as it stands in the Order Book,
is that of a soldier, charged with getting drunk, damning the Commandant,
and fighting with the patrol. |
Garrison Orders
Government House, Hobart Town
24th March 1812
Patrol Oxley - C.Sign Oakhampton
Detail of the guard, 73rd Regt 1s.4c.29p
Proceedings of a Garrison Court-martial, held by order of Major Geils,
73rd Regt. Commandant, etc. etc. At Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land,
this 23rd day of March 1812, for the trial of such persons as may
be brought before it.
President - Captain Murray, 73rd Regt |
Lieut Gunning |
) |
|
( |
Lieut Campbell |
73rd Regt |
) |
Members |
( |
73rd Regt |
Lieut Breedon |
) |
( |
Ensign Greenshields |
Royal Marines |
) |
|
( |
73rd Regt |
|
JAMES DEVAN, private in 73rd Regiment,
brought before the Court on a charge of appearing very much intoxicated
on parade on Friday, the 20th instant, bidding defiance to the guard
when taken to the guard house using insulting gestures, and abusive
and mutinous language, towards the Commandant and other officers in
the execution of their duty
Evidence: - Sergeant McClure being duly sworn: That on Friday, the
20th instant, Devan was brought to the guard house. He was very abusive
and riotous, and also very drunk.
James Devan, being put on his defence: - I was so intoxicated that
I do not know what I did. I have been five years in this regiment,
and eleven years a soldier, and have never been brought before a Court-martial
and beg to throw myself on the clemency of the Commandant.
The Court, having considered the evidence for and against the prisoner,
are of the opinion that he is guilty of the crime laid to his charge,
and sentence him to receive nine hundred lashes, when and where the
Commanding Officer may think proper. "Signed" J
MURRAY, Capt 73rd Regiment, President, Approved A GEILS, Major and
Commandant.
On the same day, a couple of other gallant fellows were brought before
the same merciful tribunal for breaking into the guard house - liberating
a woman confined therein, and half killing the constable in charge
of her; but as this was a case of assaulting "only a civilian"
- to use military phraseology - the Court, in its clemency, let them
down light, with only 1,200 lashes between them.
To return to the case of the prisoner BELBIN. He was removed
after sentence to another apartment of the little cottage in Macquarie
Street, mentioned foregoingly, which then had as many uses as the
cobbler's stall, mentioned in the old song, being the Police Office,
Guard House and Gaol of the Colony of the time, and more remotely
the Hospital also.
After reading the accounts that have reached us about the placable
character of Collins, as sketched by his panegyrists and writers who
have copied them, it is with a feeling of reluctance approaching to
diffidence that I reveal what I have learned of it from the oral relations
of very irreproachable witnesses, who had abundant personal opportunities
of knowing it; by several of these, I have been assured that he was
a man of obtuse sensibilities and cruel practices - that many of the
punishments inflicted during his government were ordered by himself,
and that he was always present at the time of their execution, at
the place where they were being inflicted.
His demeanour on the occasion of Mr BELBIN's sufferings, as
it was described to me, was most unpardonable. Whether, in delaying
the execution of the torture he was to undergo (for he lay in gaol
for ten weeks, in hourly expectation of being led out to receive it),
he meant to increase the anguish of the prisoner, by exciting false
hopes of pardon, could be know to none but himself. But if so, he
cruelly undeceived his victim at the end of that time, by suddenly
handing him over to the executive servants of the Provost Marshal,
namely, the drummers of the garrison.
Young BELBIN stayed with his father throughout his imprisonment,
and was with him on the day when the fatal order arrived for his removal
to the place of punishment. He was, of course, too young to know how
to act on so trying an occasion, and perhaps, but for the intervention
of others, might have followed his father. But the soldiers of the
guard commiserated his situation, and with more humanity and kindly
feeling than the Governor had shown, separated them and afterwards
took him home.
The details of the punishment are too horrible for relation; but there
are one or two incidents connected with it that cannot be suppressed,
and must therefore be faintly touched upon.
The spirit of BELBIN rebelled against the order of the Provost
Marshall to prepare for punishment and he sternly refused. He was
therefore stripped and tied up by force, and the terrible process
commenced. But the conflicting passions of the man, more than his
corporeal sufferings, produced an unexpected interruption that grievously
disappointed the Governor, who, throughout stood by his victim almost
as closely as the medical men in official attendance.
The executioners had scarcely got through a tenth part of their task,
when the pulse of the patient grew feeble for he had suddenly fainted.
The surgeons, I'Anson and Bowden, instantly interfered and ordered
him to be taken down. But at this stage Collins himself interposed
and ordered the drummers to go on. Here, however, he found that even
his tyranny had its limits, for the surgeons were inflexible. "At
your peril" shouted one of them, but which, is not now remembered.
"At your own peril, sir, be it that he receives another stroke.
You have done too much already". But however incredible it may
appear the Governor's hardihood did not leave him and he still insisted
on being obeyed, but to no purpose, for the doctors were firmer than
he, and he at last retired, but was heard to mutter as he went away,
"He shall have the rest another day", and so the savage
scene ended.
What were the motives that weighed with the Colonel to order, or at
least connive at, the remission of the rest of the sentence can only
be conjectured. It may have been that the private expostulations of
the surgeons had their weight, or more probably still, the open and
menacing demonstrations of Bligh who now lay in the stream, and who
favoured BELBIN and his party, had a deterrent effect on him;
or some forewarnings of the consequences certain to follow the official
enquiry into the expulsion of his superior officer from New South
Wales, into which that vindictive spirit would be sure to introduce
the story of the inhuman act related just above, may all have concurred
to turn his thoughts, however unwillingly, to mercy, and BELBIN
was soon afterwards liberated.
I have mentioned Bligh above, and may here say that it had become
known to him some weeks before, that he had a party in the settlement
who looked to him for support against the misrule of their immediate
chief.
The Porpoise had at this time quitted her anchorage at Bligh's Point
and was not in Sullivan's Cove, where her impatient commander lay,
watching the progress of events of the settlement which no doubt he
had hoped might yet take such a turn as to justify his landing, and
under pretext of restoring order, or some such excuse, of dealing
Collins a blow for his unjustifiable conduct to him as already related.
He was now in constant correspondence with the discontented, and having
an armed ship under his foot, and plenty of willing fellows at his
back, he offered to liberate BELBIN from gaol by force, keep
him on board the Porpoise, and give him a passage to England, where
he thought his presence might be useful to his own cause, as a witness
at the Court-martial, which Collins, like Major Johnstone, McArthur,
and others in New South Wales were not to escape from.
As well as I can make it out, Bligh remained in the Australian seas
for about fourteen months after his deposition and finally left for
Europe on the 4th May 1810. BELBIN did not accompany him. But
as he and his son, James, we accommodated with passages in another
ship, The Friends, through the influence of Bligh's future son-in-law,
Colonel O'Connell, it seems not unlikely that this arrangement was
made from some motive of policy. It may have looked better that Bligh
should seem to have held no communication with a witness.
>BELBIN> remained ten months in London, I believe, seeking
redress for his sufferings. But, as a rule, our experiences scarcely
justify the belief that the Colonial Office is the place where a colonist,
having real grievances to redress, make look to, too hopefully for
justice; but his case was too grave - too exceptional - an one, to
be passed over, and he received at least some reward for his loyalty
and humanity. He then turned his face homewards, via Sydney, where
he was detained another nine months. Thus was his separation from
his friends extended over a period of much more than two years. >BELBIN
remained ten months in London, I believe, seeking redress for his
sufferings. But, as a rule, our experiences scarcely justify the belief
that the Colonial Office is the place where a colonist, having real
grievances to redress, make look to, too hopefully for justice; but
his case was too grave - too exceptional - an one, to be passed over,
and he received at least some reward for his loyalty and humanity.
He then turned his face homewards, via Sydney, where he was detained
another nine months. Thus was his separation from his friends extended
over a period of much more than two years. >BELBIN remained ten months
in London, I believe, seeking redress for his sufferings. But, as
a rule, our experiences scarcely justify the belief that the Colonial
Office is the place where a colonist, having real grievances to redress,
make look to, too hopefully for justice; but his case was too grave
- too exceptional - an one, to be passed over, and he received at
least some reward for his loyalty and humanity. He then turned his
face homewards, via Sydney, where he was detained another nine months.
Thus was his separation from his friends extended over a period of
much more than two years. >BELBIN remained ten months in London, I
believe, seeking redress for his sufferings. But, as a rule, our experiences
scarcely justify the belief that the Colonial Office is the place
where a colonist, having real grievances to redress, make look to,
too hopefully for justice; but his case was too grave - too exceptional
- an one, to be passed over, and he received at least some reward
for his loyalty and humanity. He then turned his face homewards, via
Sydney, where he was detained another nine months. Thus was his separation
from his friends extended over a period of much more than two years.
West, in his History of Tasmania, has something to say about BELBIN
- of the conduct of Collins towards him - and the effect that conduct
had on the future life of the latter, which was suddenly cut short
on 24th March 1810* as it was and still is, believed, by the agitations
and forewarnings of conscience, which must have presented to his mind
a gloomy picture of the future; but death surprised him suddenly,
and thus relieved him of his anxieties and the disgrace of an enquiry
from which he could not have anticipated escape. I quote as follows
from West (pp43-46):- "Bligh arrived at Hobart Town. ..... Collins,
Bligh stated, intended to arrest him; at all events he re-embarked,
and the settlers were interdicted from holding communication. A free
man, Mr BELBIN, was flogged for the infraction of this order,
but afterwards received a grant from the Crown for his loyalty".
Again - "The share he (Collins) accepted in the responsibility
of the deposition of Bligh disturbed his tranquillity, and, it was
thought, hastened his end". BELBIN, who had nothing to
suffer from the upbraidings of a guilty conscience, survived his persecutor
for the long period of thirty-eight years, as I gather from the inscription
on his monument in the untidy cemetery of St David's, Hobart Town.
This inscription is as follows:->BELBIN, who had nothing to suffer
from the upbraidings of a guilty conscience, survived his persecutor
for the long period of thirty-eight years, as I gather from the inscription
on his monument in the untidy cemetery of St David's, Hobart Town.
This inscription is as follows:- |
IN MEMORY OF JAMES BELBIN, SENR
CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT AND INSPECTOR OF STOCK
OF TASMANIA
DIED 8TH OF MAY 1848, AGED 77 YEARS |
The remains of this worthy gentleman
have been recently removed, with those of some of his descendants,
to another cemetery.
Religion and patriotism have had their martyrs, who may be counted
up by tens of thousands, but Humanity has scarcely a score on its
rolls. Of such men as Las Casas, our own Howard and Wilberforce, they
of course did more to relieve human suffering than the unnoticed Tasmanian
settler; but they periled nothing in the good causes they fought for.
They also may be named by hundreds. But of those who have risked their
personal liberties and safeties in their attempts to check the oppressor,
like BELBIN did, hazarding everything and suffering much to
arrest the brutality of the irresponsible, one could count all on
his fingers and have some to spare. Of this little band of real humanitarians,
BELBIN stands amongst the front rank, and his name should not
be allowed to die, but have a place in the recollection of all who
hold brutality, like that of our first Governor, in hatred. His sufferings
may indeed darken the memory of Collins, but they shed no disgrace
on his own; and if to the qualities that are faintly sketched out
above, it be added that his private life was a blameless one, his
career may be safely taken as an exemplar by which to regulate our
own conduct.
I have introduced into the foregoing narrative a passage from the
historian of Tasmania, West, in which he says that Mr BELBIN,
sen, was rewarded for his loyalty, etc. The following copy of a letter
that I have been permitted to take from one in the possession of his
son, Mr William BELBIN, of Hobart Town, is now given to show
that even in this matter West was not misinformed.
The Government might have been more open-handed; but it was too liberal
in rewarding meritorious service here. Even at a later period, 1818,
and just after the close of the career of Michael Howe, it did no
more than direct the issue of a few nips of spirits "free of
duty" to the officers of the garrison for their share in leading
a most harassing six-year chase after the most notorious of bushrangers.
The letter in question issued from:
The office of the Colonial Secretary of N S Wales
Secretary's Office, Sydney
November 20, 1813
Sir - I have the honour to inform you that bearer, James BELBIN,
formerly a settler at Norfolk Island, and some time since a resident
at Hobart Town, Van Die Man's Land (sic), having lately returned
from England, with a recommendation from the Secretary of State
to His Excellency the Governor to extend certain indulgences to
him in Van Die Man's Land, in consideration of injuries and losses
sustained by him there during the administrations of that Government
by Colonel Collins and Lieut Hall.
In pursuance of this recommendation it is His Excellency's desire
that you do put James BELBIN, his wife and child, on the
King's stores for eighteen months, and give each of them one suit
of slop clothing, when a fresh supply shall reach you from England.
You will please to direct further that a location of eighty acres
of land be made to him in some eligible situation at the Derwent,
so soon as the Deputy Surveyor of Lands shall have arrived with
you from hence.
I have the honour to be
Your Honour's most obedient humble servant,
J .T. CAMPBELL, Secretary
His Honour Lieut-Governor DAVEY
Van Diemen's Land.
P.S. In reading over the foregoing I find that I have omitted
one of the principal instructions of the Govenor, which I have
to request your attention to. Mr. BELBIN, as a settler
of the 2nd class at Norfolk Island is entitled to the services
of two Government men, to be fed and clothed, for two years, at
the expense of Government; and it is His Excellency's desire that
you will furnish him accordingly with two Government men, when
they can be spared for that term to be fed and clothed in the
usual way at the expense of the Crown.
J.T. CAMPBELL, Secretary.
* The inscription on Collins' monument names another day as the
date of his death, but that given above is correct.
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