Travels and Adventures in SA 1836-1838 

by W. H. Leigh

(extract)

CHAPTER VII. 

KINGSCOTE. 

The aspect of Kingscote at the time of our landing was thus :-Before us were the hills, on the slope of  which lies the town. These hills are covered entirely with wood, having, from the sea, the appearance of one impenetrable jungle, with here and there a group of dead trees, rearing their gaunt and withered limbs above their fellows. A little patch had been cleared at the slope of one of these hills, and there stood a solitary white cottage, the property of S. Stephens, Esq. On the brow of the hill, looking down a steep precipice into the sea, were some half-dozen wooden huts, which contained farmer emigrants. On the beach was the skeleton of a store-house then under erection, around which were four or five huts built of bushes; in one of them they were performing divine service, the summons to attend which was given by means of a bell hung up in a tree. I soon landed, and then, for the first time, rested my foot on this distant region. We were met on the beach by T. Beare, Esq., settler there, who hospitably invited us to his house. We accompanied him to the door, where, in spite of good breeding, we indulged in a hearty laugh. I must describe the rich scenes. In the centre of five or six gum-trees was a canvass tent, very much like an  eating booth at a country fair; before it was a fire-place made with a few stones, and a pot swung a-la-gipsy. There was on a bench, which ran along the front, a pigeon-house with its inhabitants; there were also two or three native parrots cawing away;  agricultural implements, &c., and all around you were his poultry. The tent was upon a kind of  stage, and we were invited, good humouredly, to walk up and secure our places, "as the performance inside would commence immediately." Notwithstanding the ludicrous figure the tent cut outside, it looked very respectable within, for he had, in his kind hospitality, spread his table, whereon was very good cheer, to which we did ample justice. 

Quentin Durward made not greater inroads into the astonished Maitre Pierre's pie than did we into a gammon of bacon and " soft tack" [white bread.]  Our potations were equal to our gluttony, for, in a very unlucky moment for poor B-, he discovered his bottled ale. This was corn in Egypt, and we all agreed that Kangaroo Island was a first-rate place. 

After this our impatience to have a stroll began to manifest itself, and the whole party, headed by B-, sallied forth. A description of the island I shall give in another place. After our rambles we were invited to dinner with S. Stephens, Esq., where we were introduced to a very elegant drawing room, the windows of which commanded a fine view of the Bay.

 . . . 

" Where is he that cannot note a sigh-
A tear that tricked down a friendly cheek"
He draws largely upon the bank of futurity.
His ideas of the undertaking are visionary and poetical; he cannot view it in any other light than a pleasant one. Many; yes, very many, are the unpleasantnesses, and unforeseen privations and annoyances that no traveller can guide him against. An emigrant must be fully prepared to begin life, as it were, in the primitive state. He must not think of and part of the Island. Here, again, we were in for fortune’s way, for in the afternoon we were summoned to an adjoining apartment, where was a table arranged in hotel style, and, astonishing to relate, a leg off mutton thereon. This was a luxury not always to be obtained in the infancy of a new colony, and its appearance surprised us all. Arguing from  what had already transpired, we could not but augur well of the undertaking; our conjectures, however, were greatly at variance with the opinions that prevailed among the emigrants who had not yet landed. They had been listening attentively to an islander, whose description of the place was a "plain, unvarnished tale," and one by no means encouraging. 

The feelings that take possession of an emigrant during his long and tedious voyage are various and conflicting ; the hopes that buoy him up, and cause the imprisonment and privations to which he is unavoidably subject to be disregarded; the recollection of his separation from the land of his sires, and of his abandonment of the hearth that for him will smoke no more, and of his early associates and friends. ... luxuries; he must not assure himself of any thing:  for instance who would not, in looking over, in England, the chart of Kangaroo Island, point to its bays, and say to his family, "You see there is an absolute certainty of our always being well supplied with fish; depend upon it; that Nepean Bay abounds with them! " All this is very natural; we all thought so, and, consequently, the Company employed two fishermen from Plymouth, and their wives and two brothers. The fishermen were to receive some 100l. per annum each, their assistants so much weekly,  and good wives, like all fishermen's ribs, were to  make and mend their nets, a very large supply of which, of course, was sent out with them. 

These gentry made a great fuss when they landed at Kangaroo; they informed the people who they were. Away the party went with all their apparatus, and, after remaining out some twenty-four hours, they returned with damaged gear, one of their best company's nets having been torn into useless shreds, and exposed afterwards on the beach till it was rotten. 

During the whole time I remained on the Island, which was some five months, I never heard of these 100l. a-year men catching a fin; if they did they very wisely took them home themselves, and kept their own counsel. In spite of gravity, there will enter, through some unstopped crevice of the brain or other, a little dribbling of romance; it is an ingredient ever to be found-more in educated emigrants,  I believe, than in any other class; and one frequently notices that the genteeler class are not only educated, but scientific philosophers. 

I have before alluded to the excellent journal of that enlightened scholar, Mr. Moore, who was at the Swan. After sweating, and poking, and tearing up the earth, he looks around him, finds a stump of a tree in the shade, takes out his pocket book, and makes this note: "24th. I find there is very little romance in this kind of life, it is downright hard  plodding." He was much relieved by the discovery, doubtless, but a person reading his journal would deem him some hair-brained poet or novelist, and never think of their own full-moon visions. I have said thus much upon the subject, because, not only in England, but on the voyage out, did I hear the most childish absurdities uttered about what they proposed to do upon their arrival. Oh ! they would keep a cow-they loved milk; only think of a Yorkshire pudding! and, you know, that little Portugal oven ! -well, we'll have it baked in that, with a fillet of kangaroo over it-Capital!! Hereupon we rummaged our guns, saw the locks in good order, went upon deck, and shot at a bottle, so as not to lose our marking. 

Capt. Flinders tells us the island abounds with kangaroos and emus, and Capt. Sutherland seconds the assertion there was nothing to be feared. Accordingly I purchased a splendid rifle, double-barrelled gun, single gun, pistols, powder, and shot. 

N ow mark the interpretation of our dreams. There is not a kangaroo within twenty or thirty miles of the settlement; if you want to shoot one you must prepare for a fortnight's march in the interminable bush; and when shot, how is it to be got home?  According to men who have lived there, there has no emu been seen these ten years; and, as it regarded the cow-jobbing business, when we landed our two goats, the manager said, "Pray send some corn with them, for we have not a blade of grass upon the island! !!" Nor was there; for what little grass springs up, is a long way from Kingscote, and is only periodical, the dry weather destroying it,-so, 

" Away went the cow, and the joint was not done!
The dreamer awoke !-and the pudding was gone!" 

I shall have occasion to remark, anon, on several other visionaries and their adventures; but at present  we will return to the emigrants, whom we left on board with the islander, who interpreted their dreams. 

"What are you all come here for?" he enquired. This was a very natural question, but it proved a poser. "And how do you mean to live?" he added. 

"Oh, why we mean to land to-morrow, and go into our houses-where are they?" 

" I don't know that there are any other houses than those you see; and they are all inhabited. Perhaps you don't know the prices of provisions here ?" 

" No." 

"Well, then I will tell you. We pay 9~d. for Irish salt pork wet out of the pickle; pickled bacon from Sydney 2s. 4d.; ham 2s. 10d.; cheese, when there was any, 2s. 4d.; seaman's junk, alias salt horse,- alias mahogany, 6d.; with this additional advantage, that if you purchase at the stores two pounds of pork, you are obliged to purchase also six pounds of the junk, or you are not allowed to be a customer at all !  You are not permitted to buy flour, unless you buy with it biscuits which are scarcely eatable. A kind of bird, purchased by the monopolizing storekeeper at a 1d. each, is retailed by him at 10d., -and none but the strongest stomachs can endure them. Salt butter,  and that not of the best, is 1s. 8d. There is no fresh water to be had near the settlement: what we use is fetched across the Bay from Point Marsden, a distance of seven miles, and we pay a penny a bucket for it. We seldom get any fresh meat, but an animal called a wallaby, and one called a bandicoot, resembling a large English rat. We have no vegetables of any description, not even a potato." 

This information was productive of fervent benedictions, on Squire this, and Squire that, who had so grossly misrepresented the whole. The committee, it was repeatedly argued by them, had pledged their word-the bond of honourable men,-that good provisions of every description should be retailed to them at 5 per cent. above the Sydney prices-that houses, such as there are in New South Wales, should be ready for their reception until, with their own and others' assistance they erected more suitable dwellings. 

Upon the faith of these promises they had left their homes, and had arrived. They had come, 'strangers, in a land of strangers,' after a long voyage without a morsel of fresh meat or vegetable, and without a place to rest their heads. They were informed, that on the morrow they should be turned into a part of the wood which is to be cleared; a small tent is to be assigned to them, into which two families are to be thrust, without the prospect of any other during the rainy season, which is now about to commence. 

Such was the state of affairs on our arrival in the land to which, for so long a time, every thought was in the heat of the day to no purpose. They did not land in the best of humours, and this example of fickleness did not tend to soothe them. An unanimous anathema upon the island and all connected with it, relieved their indignant feelings, and they suffered themselves to be escorted to the other location. However, they sent their compliments to the rulers, and they should not like to shift about many more times if it were all the same to them." 

Here was a renewal of hostilities on the bush and gum-trees; in a very few days there was a tent or two inhabited, and others in a forward state. Before a week had passed, everyone heartily repented having emigrated. 

. . .