In a Brig a Hundred Years Ago VI RS. CHARLES
BRUCE MARRIOTT, who writes -OA- under the name of Ida_ Lee, came into possession of a journal describing the voyage of the Caroline ' * to Van Diemen's Land and Batavia in 1827-28, and she has reproduced it and added much complementary material. In bulk the journal is but a small part of the book, but, it has some historical worth, as it throws light on the early days of the Circular Head settlement in Tasmania—then called Van Diemen's Land. The writer of the journal was an Ipswich girl, only eighteen years old, who married Captain Hare, the master of the brig ' Caroline ' of 330 tons burden. Captain Hare took his • wife upon their adventurous voyage immediately after they were married. The ' Caroline ' had been chartered by the Van Diemen's Land Company to take out from England passengers, live stock and stores. She carried about sixty emigrants from Yorkshire, English short- horns and horses, and more than 300 Saxony sheep. In the early records of Tasmania the arrival of the' Caroline' is mentioned as a notable event, as the Saxony sheep provided a valuable type of wool.
Mrs. Hare's journal shows that she was a simple, loyal, pious soul who could use her eyes vigorously though she lacked a scientific or historical sense. Five days after * The Voyage Of the Caroline' from England to Van Diemen'e Land and- Batavia in 1827-28. By Rosalie Hare, with chapters on the Early -History of Northern Tasmania, Java, Mauritius and St:Tilele,na by Ida Lee (Mrs. Charles Bruce Marriott). (Longrnans. l‘i.) leaving Hull the 'Caroline ' grounded on the Brake Sand. Fortunately she came off as the tide rose. Presumably this happened at the southern end of the sand, as assist- ance came from Deal and not from Ramsgate. Within a few days Mrs. Hare knew that the emigrants were very rough customers. For instance, Mr. N— v as stabbed by his wife with a pen-knife and the woman declared that if he came near her again she would cut his throat. Mrs.
was then put in irons on the poop, where she extended her threats to the lives of those who had cap- tured her. Apparently the Captain thought that the safest policy was to keep husband and wife apart "for the duration," and he therefore built a special cabin for Mrs. N on the quarter deck. What must have been the exultation of Mrs. N—! When she entered the special cabin she declared that she would never leave it, as it was the most comfortable place she had been in.. She offered to reward the carpenter by assigning to him her ration of grog. Her satisfaction, however, lasted for only one day. She was soon trying to break down the cabin door in order to get at her enemies. Mrs. Hare does not say whether the door withstood these attacks, but men- tions that Mrs. N broke up the Venetian blind and threatened the Captain and Surgeon with the sticks. This was on August 25th, 1827. Under the date August 31st we read : "Mrs. N liberated on promise of better behaviour in future and sorrow for the past and reconcilement with her husband." Captain Hare, who, we are to suppose, produced this comprehensive settle-. ment, including such an imponderable ai "sorrow for the past," must have been a diplomatist as well as a navigator.
On Sunday, September 9th, the 'Caroline' was over- taken by a pirate ship, which when sighted was .flying a French ensign and pendant. When the pirates came alongside they lowered the French flags and hoisted a Spanish flag. The Caroline,' being unarmed and much slower than the pirate ship, could offer no resistance. The account of the negotiations is most instructive, for it suggests that the pirates had no settled hope of escaping the law and were intensely anxious (if in the circumstances one may fairly put it so) to produce a good impression. The First Officer of the 'Caroline' was ordered on board the pirate ship and was at once required to sign a paper declaring that the 'Caroline's' company had not been injured. Next he was ordered to bring one bolt of canvas and two sheep; but the pirate captain was careful—still . in pursuance of his policy of establishing his reputation— to send two other sheep in exchange for the well-bred Saxony animals. To the end the pirate captain seemed to be signifying what a poor and nerve-racking business piracy had become. "Remember," he called out as the First Officer departed, "we have not injured you ; we have not hurt you."
This episode, though it ended so tamely, naturally caused fear and consternation among the 'Caroline's' passengers. When the brig was allowed to proceed in safety Mrs. Hare wrote : "Those who had daily denied the power of God now supposed there certainly was a God." Alas ! that we should have to tell it : . it was the old story of" When the Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be," for within a few hours the passengers, as Mrs. Hare says, renewed their quarrels. She adds in the same sentence, as though she were describing offences of equal dimensions, that "songs and mirth finished up the eventful day."
For realism, aided by the absence of conscious, art, the following description would be hard to beat :- "Saturday, December 29th, 1827.—Strong gales with high sea the
last fortnight. At 6 o'clock in the morning Mrs. delivered of a son, a fine child. This miserable, wicked woman would not take -the trouble to make a few clothes for the infant, begging what she could, being too much engaged in smoking a short pipe in the cook-house from morning till night. Her husband and her three other children ran about half naked and covered with dirt: This woman had had eleven children, the others the husband assured the Surgeon had died of neglect. This inhuman mother was soon about . . . the Surgeon after repeated orders at last obliged her to go below to see to her infant. He discovered the child's flesh burnt in two places from her pipe. . . . The Surgeon supplied tier with sago for the child, but she fed it with cold tea and biscuit.
• • Sunday, January 6111, 1828.—The Surgeon informed Mrs. B [that her] infant was ill. Mrs. B begged that it might be
baptised as she dared say it would die.' In the afternoon my husband baptised the neglected baby by the name of John. Weather too unsettled for Divine service.
Monday, January 7t5.—One of the women on passing Mrs. B—'s bed awoke her telling her that her bairn was dead. She carelessly lifted it up and said : "No, it has life in it yet." At twelve her husband told her to feed it. She stuffed large pieces of soaked biscuits into its mouth without ever moving the little creature. The food was found in its throat and the women supposed it was . then dead. Her husband expressed much sorrow. . . . John B- asked that the burial service might be read. .
The emigrants were dismally disappointed with Circular Head and felt that they had been taken out under false pretences. Probably their descendants are prosperous men to-day. "Young men mechanics," writes Mrs. Hare, "were stamping with passion, wishing themselves with their mothers, and all wishing themselves at home and the Directors of the Company in Heaven." "In Heaven" Was certainly the pious gloss of Mrs. Hare. She writes • a good deal about the relations of the settlers and the Tasmanian natives. There is no more regrettable page in British colonial hist5ry than the annihilation of the Tasmanian natives. No doubt they were " dangerous," ; no doubt they were " treacherous " ; but accusations• which cannot be scientifically applied to the unexplored minds of a primitive people could not provide even an approximate excuse for massacre. Too late an attempt was made to nurse and save the natives. The last man died in 1869, the last woman in 1876.
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