Zigzag Journeys in Australia; or, a Visit to the Ocean World ... Fully illustrated

Front matter

The Zigzag Series. BY HEZEK1AH BUTTERWORTH. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN EUROPE. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN CLASSIC LANDS. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE ORIENT. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE OCCIDENT. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN NORTHERN LANDS. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN ACADIA. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE LEVANT. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN INDIA. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE ANTIPODES. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE BRITISH ISLES. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE GREA T NORTH- WEST. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN AUSTRALIA. ESTBS AND LAURIAT, Publishers, BOSTON, MASS. A MAIL-CARRIER OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR. Zigzag Journeys IN AUSTRALIA; OR, A VISIT TO THE OCEAN WORLD. BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. FULLY ILLUSTRATED. BOSTON: ESTES AND LAURIAT, PUBLISHERS. Copyright, 1891, By Estes and Lauriat. All Rights Reserved. iHntiJcrsitg John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

PREFACE, T is the purpose of the Zigzag books to give a view of the political and moral progress of different countries, in order that young people may intelligently discuss the topics of the times. This volume seeks among its interpolated stories and incidents of travel to explain, — The Australian Ballot System, its history and influence ; the Wakefield Theory that the profits of the rise in value of waste lands caused by immigration should be shared by the immigrants ; the great reformation wrought in the lives of tens of thousands of transported convicts by the opportunity of securing new homes in new lands where their old tempters and errors did not follow them ; the teaching of temperance physiology in the Australian schools ; and the progressive ideas of young Australia, and their influence on the world.

The author is indebted to Mr. Douglas Sladen, the Australian poet, for courtesies and helps; to Mr. C. A. Stephens for the use of a part of his illustrative story on the Black Men ; and to the " Christian Union," " Chautauquan," and " Youth's Companion " for matter which he originally wrote for their pages, and which were first published by them ; and to the latter paper for the use of Mr. Eden's story, and the narrative of the late Captain Jordan. 28 Worcester St., Boston, Mass. CONTENTS. Chapter _ Page I. The Far Continent of the Sea .............. 13 II. The Wonderful Features of Australia 36 III. Grandfather Tamany's New England Home 57 IV. Captain Bridewell's Story of Life among the Black Australians . 80 V. Thanksgiving at Captain Tamany's - 103 VI. What Australia teaches in Regard to Moral Recovery . . . . 118 VII.

Chapter I. The Far Continent Of The Sea

The History of the Wakefield Theory and of the Australian Ballot System, and the Queer Story of the Old Gray Goose that kept a Flying School. CEANICA, — the fifth continent, the fragments of a once great ocean world ! "\ Strange animals and birds were found la there by the early voyagers and dis lHI coverers ; strange birds and flowers, **3 and stranger men. There once lived 33 the dodo ; there was found the emu, the wonderful kangaroo, and more remarkable yet, the platypus, — an animal half beast and half bird, that lays eggs, or in fact, a beaver with a bill. There the beautiful lyre-bird was found in the great reed fields and marshes, proud of his beautiful plumes, and charming his mate as he passed before her in the burning atmospheres. There the tawny tiger snake was discovered ; and the adventurer was warned against its deadly fangs.

There startled sailors saw animals flying through the air in the dusk of the even ings and under the dim moon, — animals like cats movina: about in the airy regions as upon invisible trees, seemingly all bodies and heads, without wings or feet. The odd pitcher-tree was there, and the curious grass-tree. There the people roamed about naked, and lived like the animals. There were the boomerang people, whose deadly weapons returned to them again, as evil deeds do to the dwellers in all lands. Men were there who ate raw flesh ; some who ate human flesh. Moral ideas there were none. Men were governed by their appetites and passions ; it was a vast region of war and blood, — an island world of human strifes, yet beautiful as the gardens of Hesper, full of fruits and flowers, ever glo rious with the sun and the rising and falling tides of the sea.

It was Captain Cook who made known to the world this vast con tinent of gardens of the sea. grass-trees. Capt. James Cook, one of the most celebrated of English navigators, was born in Yorkshire in 1728. He was a common sailor in his early years; but he entered the royal navy, and having an inquiring mind, he learned so many useful things that he was made a ship-master. While a marine surveyor he made charts that drew the attention of certain members of the Royal Society who were looking for some trustworthy commander to take charge of an expedition to the South Seas to observe the transit of Venus across the disk of the sun. They honored Cook with the com mission. He sailed from Plymouth, England, in 1768, and arrived at Tahiti after a voyage of some eight months. He visited New Zealand, and afterward New Holland, now called Australia, but which he THE FAR CONTINENT OF THE SEA. 15 named New South Wales.

The young reader should procure the " Life of Captain Cook," which may be found in almost any good library. This explorer's adventures are more marvellous than the story of Robinson Crusoe. He was a real Sinbad the Sailor, and a review of his life, if the reader has any adequate knowledge of the con dition of these islands at the present time, shows how wonderfully nations change under civilizing influences. Captain Cook was killed by the natives of Hawaii in 1779. The latter had stolen a boat from his ship, and he went to the shore to recover it. The wild men fell upon him and overcame him before he could re ceive assistance. His death filled England with great sorrow; and his memory has been honored by many memorials, among them a noble monument at Sydney. captain cook Capt. John Tamany was a sea-captain of New Bedford in the years of the conquest of the whale.

He bore the name of Captain Jack in port, and he spelled his name Tamany, though he was captain and part owner of a ship which was named " Tammany." Capt. Jack Tamany of the " Tammany " comprehended his simple his tory for many years. New Bedford became a flourishing seaport town through the whale fisheries; she grew rich through the harvests of the sea. After the war of 181 2, and until the finding of wells of oil in Pennsylvania and the oil regions of the middle west, Buzzard's Bay, on which New Bedford is situated, was full of whale ships. The port at one time harbored some four hundred vessels. Some of the captains of these vessels met with reverses, but they, as a rule, became well-to-do, if not rich men, and retired from their perilous occupation to spend the afternoon of life on fine estates.

Captain Tamany had made many prosperous voyages, and he was able to purchase a fine farm near New Bedford overlooking the bay. death of cook He had sailed round the Horn — "doubled Cape Horn," as he called his voyages to the Pacific Ocean — many times. He had visited the Northern Pacific Ocean three times ; and he did not meet with losses when a great number of New Bedford vessels were wrecked at one time in that far ocean world. He had visited Fiji. " Beautiful Fiji " he used to call the island ; and wonderful were the stories that he used to relate to his grandhildren of the shores of that " quiet sea.' " Talk of sowing turnip-seed," he used to say to his gardener, " why, man, in Fiji seed sprouts and bursts in the ground in one day. Plant turnip-seed one morning, and the next morning it is up, and ON BUZZAKJJ'S bay. in four weeks the turnips are all ready for eating.

There bread grows on the trees. What do you think of that, man, — what do you think of that ? " If his gardener stopped to stare at such a statement, the indus trious captain would say, " Work away, work away. 'T was nothing uncommon; work away." Captain Tamany, like Tammany, the old Delaware chieftain who gave the name to the Tammany Halls of Philadelphia, New York, and other places, had a local reputation for sound judgment, and people often came to him for advice. Every land that he had visited had taught him something new. Fiji had. He had seen the King of the Cannibal Islands converted to Christianity, and used to say, " Any man can reform if he has a sufficient reason for it. Offer a drunkard a thousand dollars to keep from his cups a week, and he can do it. If not, offer him ten thousand.

The missionary offered heaven to the poor cannibal, and it was enough. Any man can over come his sins if he has a sufficient inducement." Captain Tamany had many social and political theories. He used to talk of them almost constantly when in port. One of these he called — THE WAKEFIELD THEORY. About the year 1830 there arose in England some enthusiastic political theorists, now known as the " Theorists of 1830," who taught that the waste land of the British empire should be occupied by set tlers ; and that as immigration was the cause of the rise in the value of new lands, the profits of such increased values belonged to the immigrants themselves. Therefore, according to this theory the Gov ernment should use such profits to assist emigration, and to build homes, institutions, and towns for the immigrants, and thereby add to the wealth, power, and glory of the British nation.

The leader of these theorists was Edward Gibbon Wakefield. He published a book which may be found in many libraries, advocating these ideas. The result of these theories has been reviewed in a book entitled " New Zealand after Fifty Years," by Edward Wakefield. kangaroo battue. The Wakefield theory met with strong opposition at the time, but was favored by the Duke of Wellington. For this reason the great commercial city of New Zealand was named Wellington. The colonies of New Zealand and of Adelaide in New South Wales were the results of the ideas of the "Theorists of 1830." Captain Tamany held that these were the right principles of colonization. " Look at Adelaide," he used to say ; " she is the model city of the world. Look at her schools, churches, gardens, and parks ; and look at her homes.

I believe in giving subsidies to ships, and farms to the poor, and on the same principles, in helping the poor build houses. Homes are the, strength of a nation. England was wise when she helped her colonists build homes. I would have it so here. I would have the Government become the father of the poor." Captain Tamany seemed to anticipate much of the speculative thought of recent times. He was never more happy than when he could secure some sympathetic listener to the views suggested by the Wakefield Theory. He once wished to be nominated for Con gress on the principle that the Government ought to loan money to poor people at very low rates of interest, to build homes. He claimed that such an enactment would enrich the nation and make good citizens and build up noble communities more readily and rapidly than in any other way.

He was also an enthusiastic advocate of the secret ballot, or the — AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. Long before the secret ballot was adopted by the Legislature of Massachusetts, Captain Tamany used to go to the polls in New Bed ford, saying, " You ought to see how they do it in Australia ! " Nothing at this time so much offended him as to be asked how he was going to vote at an impending election. " I shall wait until the evidence of how I ought to vote is all in, and then I shall vote according to my convictions," he used to say, and add, " He who instructs me how to vote insults my intelligence." The ways to the voting precincts in New Bedford used to be lined with political workers offering ballots. Captain Tamany was a very even-tempered man, but he used to quite lose self-control at such times, and exclaim, " Oh, I wish that I were in Australia!

" The Australian Ballot System, or the privilege of voting secretly, owes its beginning to Francis S. Dutton, of the Legislature of South Australia. He was a member of this body from 185 1 to 1865. He found the will of the common people overborne by organized political societies, who bribed men or caused them to vote by influence. The political condition became so bad that independent voting became almost impossible. The right of manhood seemed to be lost. Popular tyranny ruled the polls; riots and bloodshed were common. Mr. Dutton proposed to the Legislature in 1851 the secret ballot as a remedy for these evils. It became a law in 1857. " I can safely say," said Mr. Dutton before an English committee, " that no act of my life ever gave me so much satisfaction." The bill giving to the people the right of secret ballot was at first opposed by Sir Robert R. Torrens, a member of the Government of South Australia ; but he became a convert to it when he saw the excellent influence of the working of the system.

This method of voting was adopted by England in 1872, and by Canada in part in 1874. It became a part of the political systems of Belgium and Italy. It was really used by the Massachusetts Legislature at the time of the election of Charles Sumner to the United States Senate. Twenty-five unsuccessful ballots had been cast. " Go to your hesitating friends in the Legislature, and labor with them, and you will be elected," said a politician to young Sumner. " Never ! " was the answer. " I will go to Cambridge, and I will allow no member of the Legislature to see me until the contest is decided." It was proposed that the twenty-sixth ballot should be taken by the use of secret envelopes. On this ballot, taken in this manner, Charles Sumner was elected. The Australian Ballot System became the law of Massachusetts in 1888, and it has since been adopted by nearly all of the States.

The Farmers' Alliance has given much effort to advocating schemes much like the Wakefield Theory ; so it is an odd fact that in our recent political methods, and in much of our public thought, we have not led, but followed, the island continent of the sea. Captain Tamany of the " Tammany " was a fluent story-teller. At the age of sixty, he lost his only daughter, who left two children, sumner's sarcophagus. Eric and Mary Hartwell, whom he took to his home and heart. His wife was an excellent woman, of Quaker parentage. The com munity loved her, and pitied her as well, for she was an invalid. It was Captain Tamany's delight to relate sea stories to his grand children and to his patient wife, who was always happy when he was in port. It was a pleasant picture to see this family in the long summer evenings, as they sat on the cool verandas overlooking the city, the port, and Buzzard's Bay, enjoying a sunset on the water.

The sea birds drifted through the crimson sky; the bay was white with sails; old ships lifted their masts here and there, like the tall trees left in a hewn forest ; and the cool sea winds came through the orchards and over the long meadows. Eric and Mary were almost always to be seen on such evenings near their grandparents. Eric thought that there never existed a man, except Solomon, who possessed so much wisdom as Captain Tamany of the " Tammany ; " and the captain was sure that Eric was the most remarkable boy that he had ever met in all his travels by sea or land. Each loved the other, and each was happy in the other's love. Captain Tamany's stories were often peculiar. He was a man full of sympathy with new and progressive ideas, and he used to laugh at his neighbors for telling people what they already knew.

There was one queer story that he once related to an advocate of some old idea, which so much pleased his grandchildren that they often used to ask him to repeat it. It was about a certain — OLD GRAY GOOSE THAT KEPT A FLYING SCHOOL. There was once an old gray Goose that had led a very lonely life. She had wandered for years about the green pastures all alone. She had read in the poets the cheerful promise, — " There never was a goose so gray But sometime, soon or late, An honest gander came that way, And took her for his mate." But that gander never came. Every spring and fall the wild geese crossed the sky; but no polite gander ever dropped down to speak with her, or to propose mateship to her. At last she lost all faith in the poet, and she said, " Since I shall never have any family of my own, I will make myself a mother to the whole feathered sunset on the bay THE FAR CO.XTINENT OF THE SEA. 27 world.

I came of a high family; the wild Geese, my ancestors, all fly high. I will pride myself on my old family history, and will open a school of art and philosophy, and teach all the birds in the world to fly." This seemed a very happy and useful plan, and it made her cackle with delight, " Quack, quack, quack ! " Her cackle caused a little Duck to lift up her head and turn it aside, and say, — " How now, Mother Goose ! You seem to be very happy to-day. What has happened? " " Lucky Duck, Lucky Duck, rejoice with me ! I am going to teach all the birds in the world how to fly. I am going to open a flying school." " But, Goosey Lucy, you don't know how to fly yourself. You never have flown, except when chased by a dog. You have just waddled about the pas. tures all your life. You might keep a swimming school for Ducks, but not a flying school for Eagles.

That would never do, Goosey Lucy." " I guess you don't know what a high family I came down from," said old Goosey Lucy, proudly. " The whole world knows that the Goose family can fly. If some Geese don't fly, it is because they do not need to, not because they are not highly connected." So old Goosey Lucy wrote an essay on the " Art of Flying," and read it to an assembly of birds called a symposium. The birds listened to the learned essay with wonder. They all rejoiced that the art of flying had at last been discovered, and that when Goosey Lucy should open her College, the little birds and great birds and all the birds would be taught how to fly. " We have been waiting many thousand years for this new philosophy school," said the Guinea-hen. " What an age we live in ! The Eagle was the King of birds at this time, and he dropped down from the blue sky with the sun on his wings, to attend the Symposium.

He heard what Goosey Lucy had to say on the new art of flying, and screamed, — " Flying is not an art; it is an inspiration." And he mounted royally aloft out of the atmosphere of quackery, and was soon lost to view in the brightness of the sun. Goosey Lucy was a happy bird. She looked upon herself as the phi losopher for which the bird world had waited for ages ; and she wondered how it was that the great gift of teaching birds to fly had been kept waiting all these years, and discovered by her. She asked Lucky Duck how it was so. " It is because there never was a wise Goose before," said Lucky Duck. " That is a very far-seeing remark," said Goosey Lucy. " It shows your wisdom. You are a very wise bird ; I will make you one of the professors in my College of the New Philosophy." So Goosey Lucy opened her Flying School in the herony under the tall trees near the lake ; and all the bird families were delighted at the new wisdom that had come to the world, and came to the School to learn how to fly.

The School grew, and its fame filled the air. It was a wonderful science, said they all. As soon as a bird received its diploma, it was able to fly. The air around the College became full of birds flying about with diplomas on their wings, signed by Goosey Lucy. Each little diploma read, — diploma. You can now fly. (Signed) G. Lucv, LL.D., F.R.S. Then the whole world could see what an excellent thing it was to have a diploma stating that one could fly. The fame of the Flying School under the herony grew and grew. All the birds came to it for wisdom, even the Jackdaw, the Wren, and the Owl. The Thrushes came to Goosey Lucy to learn how to sing. Such is fame ! The little animals came also. One little mouse came to learn how he might become as big as a lion. The question is often asked yet. " A mouse in a fog is as big as a lion," said wise Goosey Lucy.

" Then I '11 become a poet," said the mouse ; and Goosey Lucy said that he was a very wise little mouse, and had the insight of success. A little kitten came to study how little kittens might find their tails, for it had been discovered that when little kittens turn round to put their paws on their tails, the tails turn too, and leave nothing behind them.. This was a hard question for the new School of Philosophy; but the ancient preceptress was equal to it. " Get under the feet of the cook," said she. " That will make your tail jump, so you will not have to jump for your tail." The little kitten the next day got under the feet of the cook, and soon found where her tail was, and one lesson was quite satisfactory ; she never jumped for her tail again. A little dog came to learn how his tail could be shortened without' causing him much pain.

" Have it cut off piece by piece at a time, until it is the right length," said Goosey Lucy. The little dog was as happy in thus learning the art of curtail ment as the little kitten had been in solving the problem of angles. There was evidently great improvement going on in the world. THE FAR CONTINENT OF THE SEA. 29 The College of the New Philosophy was a lovely one. There was a great colony of Herons in the tall pine tops above it, and a silvery lake stretched before it in the sun. Around the lake the red-winged Blackbirds swung from the alders, and the brown Thrushes sang on the witch-hazels. Afar were green hills and cool elms, where the Orioles lived; and below the Bobolinks toppled in the wild grasses. In the evening, as the great moon rose behind the dark herony, the Owl would come and talk with Goosey Lucy about the progress of philosophy in the world, and give lectures to the School, telling the pupils how he had taught the Moon to rise (illustrated by the stereopticon of the Moon herself).

The lectures were very luminous, and gave a very wonderful insight into the forces of nature. The Mocking-bird — the tree poet — sometimes came, and, like other poets, recited what he heard everywhere. The Mocking-bird is a very great poet. Mistakes were sometimes made in this new school of wisdom and art. One day a poor Hen who had been bereft of all of her children by a Hawk came to the new school. " What shall I do to rid myself of the Hawk? " she asked. Many Hens have asked the question since these historical happenings. "Quack! quack! When you again see the Hawk coming," said Goosey Lucy, " fly up into the air toward him, and he will think that you are trying to catch him!' The problem seemed solved, on the principle that like cures like. Lucy picked her feathers, and said, " Quack ! quack !

" The next morning the poor Hen saw the shadow of the Hawk on the grass, and she flew up into the air, with her feathers all ruffled, so as to seem twice her usual size. But alas and alas ! That Hen was never seen again, but " only the feathers where the Hawk had been." Some theories don't work well at first. It takes time. The College grew and grew, as before ; nothing grows like the fame of a new success — for a time. All the birds in the world came to the new School of Philosophy ; even the Skylarks came over from England to build their nests about the hill meadows, that their little ones might learn the new art of flying. The great Auk came from the North, the Rain-dove from the Carolinas, and the Ibises from Florida. Some Parrots also came from the Amazons to learn how to speak English.

The Crows came to learn how to pull corn, and re ceived their diplomas at once for excellent scholarship. One day there was a great flutter in the School. The professors had received a message from the Eagle. He sent it by the Skylark. He announced that the next day at noon he was coming down from the sun to visit the School. The old gray Goose was all feathers and excitement. "Quack! quack!" she said. "The King himself is coming down from the sun. Cackle ! cackle ! I must have my spectacles cleaned." So she had her spectacles cleaned. " Quack ! quack ! " She arranged the School for the descent of the Eagle, just like a village school-mistress for the coming ofthe Esquire and the Committee. She had the Ibises stand on one leg, in high-art fashion, in a long row in the pond. The Thrushes were assigned to the witch-hazels, and the Larks to the alders.

She put a chorus choir of Orioles in the elms. The Herons all sat by their nests in the tops of the trees. The Woodpeckers looked out of their holes in the old trees. The Robins all had orders to sing, " Cheer up ! Cheer up ! " from the orchards. The old gray Goose, in her tortoise-shell spectacles, stood upon the stump, and the little birds sat in rows around her on the brakes and ferns. On the margin of the pond were gathered the Ducks and Waterfowl. Now the Peacock had proved a very stupid scholar in the new School of Philosophy. He had aspiration ; he was ambitious to soar to the sun like the Eagle. He would rise up beautifully on his wings a little way into the air, and then he would come down again with a squall that made the old gray Goose nervous. The Peacock was told to hide under the blueberry bushes during the descent ofthe Eagle.

It was a beautiful day. The sun blazed, and the Ospreys wheeled in the sky. There was a speck in the sky, and the birds all began to sing ; the Eagle was descending from the sun. The speck became a shadow, and the shadow a cloud of wings. The great Eagle dropped down into the herony, and sat above the old gray Goose on a blasted pine bough. The old Goose sat reading her essay on Occult Forces as the Eagle came down. Then she raised her spectacles and said, " Quack! quack! Have you any questions to ask? Quack!" The Eagle looked very grave, and at last said, — " Who taught you the art of flying? " "No one. Quack! quack! I discovered it." Then the gray Goose wiped her spectacles and waited for a more difficult question. " Where is the Peacock? " asked the Eagle. " Come out here, Peacock; the King calls for you.

Quack! quack!" The Peacock came out of the bushes, and looking up to the Eagle, spread his tail, as a matter of " very distinguished considerations," as the old letter writers might say. NATIVES OF AUSTRALIA HUNTING THE KANGAROO. " Fly ! " said the Eagle. The old Goose was greatly ruffled. The poor Peacock dropped his tail. " You will have to excuse him," said the old gray Goose, greatly mortified. " Quack ! quack ! " Then the poor Peacock retired to the bushes again. Birds with fine feathers never roost in the sun. "Where are the young Skylarks?" asked the Eagle. " They have just entered the new School," said the old gray Goose. " They have not yet learned the art of flying. Quack ! quack ! " " Call one of them up," said the Eagle. So the old gray Goose called up a plain little Skylark ; and it came out of the grass and flew up on a bush near the old gray Eagle.