George Fletcher Moore

“ Cheerful looks and spirits light,
Eve, our late protracted greetings,
As we whispered a "Good night."
And when, in sacred hour of prayer,
Blessings are asked on bended knee,
Give, of that hour, sufficient share,
To ask a blessing too, on me.
Then, though to the world be given,
All that you may, of mirth and glee,
I shall be sure that next to Heaven,
And Heavenly things, you think of me.
G. F. MOORE. May, 1830. ”

“ This sow had been among the wounded pigs, but perfectly recovered. Escorted my little flock of sheep to the flat, keeping a sharp look-out for natives, with a good supply of balls in my pocket, but saw none of them: nor was I fasting altogether on this day, having had two eggs and some goat's butter at breakfast. But my cow, like Mrs. Shandy's, "puts off calving terribly." I shall soon have cauliflowers and turnips for dinner; in short, we shall all soon have an abundance of everything; and as to wheat, it will be so plentiful that we must see about mills of some kind or other. ”

“ The thirsty soil absorbs, and the unclouded sun of summer evaporates, the moisture in its progress; and this, I take it, is the solution of the apparent paradox, with respect to rivers—that they are sometimes greater at their source than at their mouth. Such is the state of the river in summer; but what must it be in winter, when every valley and ravine pours forth its tributary streams into one common channel, the sole outlet of the accumulated waters of an extensive district? ”

“ Have I ever before mentioned that our cows and sheep are furnished with bells, not for the mere sake of the tinkling sound, delightful as it is in the stillness of evening, but as indispensable for guiding us through the woods to the places where the cattle are grazing? ”

“ The truth is, every one wishes him taken, but no one likes to be the captor. How could any person, unless a professed blood-hunter, spring upon a man in cold blood, and lead him to the death? How could any one who has a heart fire upon him treacherously from a secure ambush, though he be an unfeeling and reckless savage? There is something in his daring which one is forced to admire. ”

“ Nothing is more satisfactory than a good hearty grumble; it is like the safety-valve of a steam engine which lets the superfluous power escape harmlessly, though noisily, and which would be destruction if pent up unliberated. The yard and kitchen look like a hospital with sick sheep and lambs. The dogs and pigs fare all the better at this time, for I boil the dead ones for them. It is an ill wind, &c., and I suppose I have lost 30 or 40 lambs, and perhaps 15 sheep between the old one and the new flock,—another grumble. ”

“ We are in a dilemma about the trial of the settler for the murder or manslaughter of the native boy named Gogaly. The natives are desirous of seeing him severely punished, and if he be acquitted they will take revenge. It is a most extraordinary thing that we are not furnished here with the Acts, or amendments in the laws, which are taking place every day at home. How we are to know anything about them is difficult to conjecture. Yet we are bound to act according to the law of England. Another of my sheep has had twins. I have now 32 lambs alive from this new flock. ”

“ The white cockatoos are very numerous, and now feed upon the flower of the red gum tree, which lately came into blossom. There are three or four species of the cockatoo, white, black, grey, and black with a red tail. The parrots are small and green, the neck ornamented with a gold ring. The pigeons are beautiful, with a bronze-coloured wing. Many birds have singular calls or cries, and our crow makes a most dismal noise, terminated by a long doleful cry. The white cockatoo screams like a clucking hen disturbed from her nest, and the black one whines like a discontented pug dog. ”

“ If there were adequate capital to stock and till the soil around it, the capabilities of improvement are considerable; and if we had the means of developing our own resources, we should undoubtedly be a flourishing colony in a few years. Even as it is, we have advanced exceedingly. Did ever a colony make such a struggle as ours has done, without extraneous assistance? Sidney and Van Diemen's Land were aided by forced labour, and stimulated by Government expenditure; but we have had no such support; we have relied solely on our own efforts ”

“ You would consider it a delightful summer.
16th.—This is like a March day in Ireland, and I experience the novel sensation of cold feet.
The goat has had two kids; a pig is nearly fit to kill; a cask of pork has arrived at my house, and I have wheat and vegetables coming in, and the goat gives me a little milk, and the hens are beginning to lay, so that I am getting out of all danger of starvation. My plough is at work for the first time, and answers remarkably well. ”

“ When we read of the difficulties, the trials, and privations which attended the settlement of New South Wales, South Australia, New Zealand—colonies possessing rich natural resources to assist the pioneers—it should be with a feeling of profoundest admiration that we turn to the story of the settlement of the Swan. The Pilgrim Fathers of Swan River lighted upon a corner of the continent more infertile probably than any other, where they had to contend against sand and scrub and poison, and nearly every drawback with which it was possible to meet. ”

“ I have had several Acts to prepare for the Council. One of them has been troublesome, not so much from the length of it, as the finding out some mode of adapting the machinery of old countries to our infant state. I allude to an Act to regulate the management of roads and streets and all other internal communications.
We are in a most absurd state for want of more population. Not a sailor can be obtained to man our colonial schooner; she lies idle, and there are a number of persons sentenced to transportation lying in gaol, a useless expensive dead weight upon us. ”

“ How much has been effected by the unassisted, unencouraged industry of a few individual settlers! We are all eating the produce of our own fields, and how sweet our bread! This is made in the simplest way—we grind the wheat in our own hand-mills, troubling neither flour-dressers nor millers, for a reason we have. ”

“ I gave him three young pigs for eight bushels of wheat, worth fifteen shillings a bushel, which will afford me an ample supply of seed. A sad misfortune has occurred to me: my thermometer has fallen, and is irreparably broken to pieces! It was a great comfort to me; I looked at it every night since I left Ireland, when I was noting my journal. I cannot get one here at any price, and beg that you will send me one.
28th.—Nothing surprises me more than that we never baked our own bread at home. Nothing is more simple. The produce of an acre of wheat would supply your family for a year. ”

“ It is a work of time, expense, and difficulty to explore the windings of a coast; more an object for Government to accomplish, than for an individual to undertake. You conjecture that this is a desirable part of the continent to select for a settlement, but it may be long before this place shall be located, and a solitary settler would labour under many disadvantages in his isolation. ”

“ There has been a very singular disease among some flocks this year at York, something like apoplexy. They die very suddenly. I think it arises from eating too freely of the young grass, which springs as if by magic after the first showers. Several sheep on the Swan have been attacked by blindness, which appears to me to be only a milder form of the same sort of illness, caused by the rupture of a small blood vessel about the eye. I have had one lamb and two goats affected, but by copious bleeding they appear to have been relieved. ”

“ A number of natives from King George's Sound have been in Perth for some time past. They set out this day on their return, but first came to know if I had any commands, and I sent a letter by them. They are almost civilised. My poor old goat "Jenny," which I have so often spoken of, died on Monday last, of a surfeit of wheat. She was a valuable and affectionately familiar creature, and, as one of the original stock brought here by me from the Cape, was quite one of ourselves. ”

“ There must be enthusiasm and there must be steadiness, energy, and patience, quickness, and perseverance, courage, and forbearance, promptitude, and prudence, and many other opposite qualities; and, at the back of them all, there must be—money. I mean for one who sets up for himself, and not as the servant or steward of another. I think few situations could be much more trying than that of a person arriving here now with but a small capital, unless his ideas were proportionately adjusted. You could not get a grant on the Swan under from £100 to £1000, according to the size and quality. ”

“ Brown for some carrot seeds; the weather was lovely, like one of your summer days; towards evening it becomes cool, and in the morning there is some frost. Every day now my garden claims my labour: I have transplanted my young carrots, rape, cabbages, and French spinach between my wheat drills, which are eighteen inches apart; and I expect that they will all thrive, especially where manure has been supplied to them. ”

“ A river runs fresh to a certain point, where it terminates; and if you trace its bed for one hundred yards, you find it occupied by a salt water lake, without any apparent outlet: some miles further down we found a long and deep lake in the reach of the river quite fresh again!
This day we had the last of our rice with a loin of pork, washed down with a glass of spiced grog; the only new delicacy we could command. ”

“ June, 18th.—To-day I have been busy preparing wheat for sowing. I am getting the holes of the drake riddle made a little larger, by pushing the alternate wires close together; the drake or darnel did not pass through before * * * Acted as a shepherd for a little to-day; there are now 84 lambs. What confusion of sounds and voices as the sheep are driven out! Such bleating of lambs, such searching of the mothers for their young—such laughable mistakes—yet how soon discovered. A lamb is not very scrupulous, but will accommodate itself with almost any mother which will stand quiet. ”

“ There is, now, a strong and growing disposition to be impatient of the "old settler" element in the colony. The old settler is supposed to be a man who, by reason of his long local residence, considers himself possessed of certain prescriptive rights which the younger generation objects to recognise. He is supposed to be ultra-conservative in his views; to be imbued with all those instincts and prejudices which grew up under old Crown colony government ”

“ Those who speculate on keeping large flocks speak of going next summer over the hills, which are of trifling elevation, and present no serious obstacle to carriage, or the formation of roads, when the colony is strong enough to make or require them. The expense and labour of conveying goods up the river, at present, is very great; boats in summer must be unloaded, and dragged over the flats, but above these the water is deep, and the navigation only occasionally impeded by fallen trees, which may easily be removed. Every settler should have a boat, and learn how to manage it. ”

“ The natives disappeared immediately before a shot could be fired. The spear which killed the man went right through his body, struck the wall against which he was sitting, and in some extraordinary way rebounded so as to fall out of his body. It was an armed spear, serrated near the point with pieces of quartz. We are all in indecision as to what is the best course to pursue. Our Government seems so nervous as not to know what to do, but I am sure no settler will now feel any compunction in putting Weeip or his associates to death if they could be found. ”

“ I had a gentleman from Sydney breakfasting with me yesterday. He had driven over 800 cattle from the Sydney settlement to South Australia. His party was attacked on the River Murray by an immense body of natives—he computes them as 500; but by boldness and good management they beat them off, and shot several of them. He says immigration to Sydney is overdone. The land is raised now to 12s. per acre; few or none buy at that; squatting is very precarious and inconvenient, as you must go to such a distance for land that is vacant. ”

“ Somebody in Sydney threatens to send a cargo of sheep and cows here—I hope he will—but when?
My men requested a bottle of rum for new year's night. I sent it; and they are now enjoying themselves over it. Some questions have already arisen here about executions. No person can be got to act as sheriff. You could scarce believe what legal intricacies are familiar here, in this early stage of the settlement. Though it is a new country, settlers retain all their old manners, habits, prejudices, and notions of a sturdy, free, commercial, litigious people. ”