Caledonia

“ There's motintain, hill, and dale, in Caledonia,
There's mountain, hill, and dale, in Caledonia,
⁠There's mountain, hill, and dale,
⁠Where lovers tell their tale,
By the bonnie siller streams o' Caledonia.
The twilight hour is sweet in Caledonia,
The twilight hour is sweet in Caledonia,
⁠The twilight hour is sweet,
⁠When fa's the dewy weet,
On the bonnie banks and braes o' Caledonia.
The glens are wild and steep in Caledonia,
The glens are wild and steep in Caledonia,
⁠The glens are wild and steep,
⁠And the ocean's wide and deep,
That encircles thee, my native Caledonia. ”

“ But for weeks after that strange adventure, they spent a really good time in Scotland, and drew in the dollars too, for above all countries in the world, perhaps, Caledonia is the land of song and poetry. The love of{106} beauty lies deep down at the bottom of each far-northern heart, side by side with sentiment and true patriotism, a flower that can only bloom in a mountain land. ”

“ My love for Caledonia!
And what are a' their flowery plains,
If fill'd with weeping slav'ry's chains?
Nae foot o' slavery ever stains
My native Caledonia!
Though cauld 's the sun that shed's his rays
O'er Scotland's bonnie woods and braes,
Oh, let me spend my latest days
In ancient Caledonia!
My native land! my native land!
Where liberty shall firmly stand,
Where men are brave in heart and hand—
True sons of Caledonia!
[Pg 207] THE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL.
Land of my fathers, I leave thee in sadness—
Far from my dear native country I roam ”

“ At the distance of almost every little mile, numerous streams of smoke ascended from the brown moor; the sound and the hum of man, busied with the flail, the hatchet, or the hammer, was heard; the cry and the merriment of children abounded; and here and there a green tree-top or a chimney-head, a kirk-spire or a ruined tower, projecting above the horizon of blossomed heather, proclaimed to the traveller that Caledonia, amid her deserts, has her well-peopled glens and her fruitful places. ”

“ We lay to all night, in hopes that the weather would be more favourable the next day.
In the direction of the land of New Caledonia, we observed several islands surrounded with reefs, and connected together by sand banks and other shoals.
29th. During the night, the wind had made us fall off so much, that we lost sight of the northern extremity of New Caledonia, which we found to be in 19° 58′ south latitude, and 161° 10′ east longitude. That island presents a chain of mountains, extending about eighty nautical leagues, from the south-east to the north-west. ”

“ Our poor brothers of old Caledonia shall yet have another Scotland in the New World. Our dear country must possess in these seas a colony of her own, where she can find that independence and prosperity that are wanting in many European empires."
"That is well said, captain," replied Lady Helena. "It is a noble project, and worthy of a great heart. But this island——?"
"No, madam, it is a rock, only large enough to support a few colonists; while we need a vast territory, rich in all primitive treasures."
"Well, captain," cried Glenarvan, "the future is before us! Let us seek this land together!" ”

“ Here, both in the brief geographical description of Britain, chaps. x. and xi., and in the account of Agricola's campaigns, chaps. xxv.–xxxviii., Caledonia is unquestionably Britain north of the Firth of Forth. On turning to the geographer Ptolemy (circa 120 A.D.) , we fail to meet with the term except as the name of one of the many tribes among which he has parcelled out the “Bretannic Island, Albion.” To explain this it is not necessary to assume that Ptolemy was ignorant of the wider acceptation in which Caledonia had recently come to be employed among the Romans. ”

“ While these enjoy the Tempests, those the Gold.
Page 19
Hail Blest Conjunction, Brittain's last best Hour,
Shall Caledonia to her self restore;
Assert her long neglected Property,
Her Blessing, her Inheritance, the Sea.
In hopes of this, let's land and range the Shore,
And view the Nation that the World calls Poor.
Plenty's a doubtful Word mistook by most,
A modern Term for Luxury and Waste. ”

“ In less than a week the shed was built, the boat safely housed, and a flagstaff erected, and then the little islet was left to its loneliness again, and the never-ceasing roar of the surf upon the network of reefs and shoals which surrounded it, and once more the old brig's bluff bows were dipping into the blue, as he braced up sharp for her long beat against the trade wind to New Caledonia. ”

“ Little proof, indeed, is required to establish this—if we set aside the opinion, assumed without any investigation of the evidence, that the natives of ancient Caledonia lagged far behind the other races of Northern Europe in the arts of civilisation—for their primitive arts precluded the construction of fleets fitted for the navigation of the intermediate seas, and shut them up to their own native ingenuity. ”

“ The population of Caledonia had already increased from twelve hundred to ten thousand. The riches of the country,—these are the words of a newspaper of that time,—were great beyond imagination. The mania in Scotland rose to the highest point. Munitions of war and implements of agriculture were provided in large quantities. Multitudes were impatient to emigrate to the land of promise.
In August 1699 four ships, with thirteen hundred men on board, were despatched by the Company to Caledonia. The spiritual care of these emigrants was entrusted to divines of the Church of Scotland. ”

“ Now these eyes, illumed with gladness,
⁠As they scanned thy beauties o'er,
Ne'er again shall melt in sadness,
⁠Parting to return no more.
Caledonia! native land!
Native land! I'll love thee ever. ”

“ New Caledonia, while not without its natural advantages, such as a nearly perfect climate, freedom from reptiles and animal life inimical to man, is not very richly endowed except in unprospected and undeveloped mineral wealth. The island consists of a rugged backbone of mountains clothed with dense forests and grooved with rushing torrents, along whose banks lie the only cultivable ground. ”

“ On the way to Aden the Caledonia only met a few ships—all English. Several transports with troops on board and a few men-of-war passed her; as she travelled on the average twenty-two knots an hour, no vessel overtook her. On the morning of the sixth day the reddish brown rocks of Aden appeared, and the Caledonia cast anchor in the roadstead. A number of small vessels darted towards her. Naked, black Arab boys cried for money and showed their skill in diving, fishing up pieces of silver thrown from the ship. ”

“ He shows that, in the 60wedge-like shape attributed to Britain by previous writers, Caledonia was excluded as still unknown to them. In the language put by the historian into the mouth of the Caledonian leader Calgacus, he implies in the strongest manner that the tribes embraced in the designation he usually gives them of inhabitants of Caledonia, were the most northerly of the British nations; that no other people dwelt beyond them ”

“ Only New Caledonia, the most southerly of the larger islands, differs somewhat from the rest in its comparatively cool climate and scanty flora.517 The natives of the islands belong to the Melanesian race. They are dark-skinned and woolly-haired and speak a language which is akin to the Polynesian language. In material culture they stand roughly on the same level as the natives of New Guinea, a considerable part of whom in the south-eastern part of the island, as I pointed out before, are either pure Melanesians or at all events exhibit a strong infusion of Melanesian blood. ”

“ All the natives of the South-Sea islands, excepting those only which Tasman found on Tonga-Tabboo and Annamocka, (and those perhaps had been informed of what had passed between Le Maire, and the natives of Horne, Cocos, and Traitor's island, some years before,) made some attempt to drive away the strangers who came to visit them. But the people of New Caledonia, at the first sight of us, received us as friends; they ventured to come on board our ship, without the least marks of fear or distrust, and suffered us to ramble freely throughout their country as far as we pleased. ”

“ At the two extremities of New Caledonia, parallel longitudinal ranges of mountains enclose valleys; for the rest the island consists essentially of confused masses and ranges of mountains, rising to an extreme elevation of 5387 ft., the plains being chiefly the deltas of rivers. The landscape is rich and beautiful, varied with grand rock scenery, the coast-line being broken by numerous small bays, into which flow streams rarely navigable even for short distances, but often skilfully utilized by the natives for irrigation ”

“ New Caledonia was discovered by Alexander Mackenzie in 1793; its posts were begun under Simon Fraser (1805-06) . During the fur-trading period, it was an important division of the Hudson's Bay Company's Pacific provinces; but was dependent upon the Columbia district, with headquarters at Vancouver. The chief posts of New Caledonia were St. James, Stuart Lake, and Alexandria. For its boundaries, etc., consult Ross's Oregon Settlers, in our volume vii, p. ”

“ The natives of New Caledonia are in general of the middle size, we however, saw one who was more than six feet in height, but very ill built. Their hair is woolly; their custom of pulling it up by the roots is very general; but we saw some of them who let their beards grow. The colour of their skin is as dark as that of the inhabitants of Diemen's land. ”

“ The natives of New Caledonia are said to believe that all evils are caused by a powerful and malignant spirit; hence in order to rid themselves of him they will from time to time dig a great pit, round which the whole tribe gathers. ”

“ It appears to us that all the conclusions which it is safe to draw from the few facts stated by the contemporary Roman historians are, that at the commencement of the Christian era Caledonia proper, or the Highlands, was inhabited by a people or peoples apparently considerable in number, and who in all probability had been settled there for a considerable time, part of whom at least were known to the Romans by the name of Caledonians. ”

“ There is New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, the Friendly Islands, the Societies' Islands, the Marquesas, Tahite, and the Pelew Islands; but each navigator gives them a new name, so that it is hard to say which is which; all you can do is to say that there is an island in latitude so and so and longitude so and so, but the name is almost out of the question. ”

“ Callandar.Here we saw for the first time the really wild and mountainous scenes of Scotland and perceived how very "stern and wild" Caledonia is. Standing on an eminence you see around yon nothing but high hills, craggy precipices and long chains of lofty mountains. Here and there perhaps you see some small village in a valley or some acres of green pasture fields, but beyond them again, eternal mountains and ridges raise their lofty heads to the skies. Meet indeed is this country to nurse a poetic child. ”

“ How would Your Commerce all Your Sons restore,
And they'd seek Home that shun'd that Home before?
With Wealth and People, Happy, Rich and Free,
You'd first Improve the Land, and then the Sea;
Be Strong, be Great, be Rich, be Europe's Fear,
Their War, their Wealth, their Trade, their Honours share.
But let's Retreat, Who can the Scene survey,
And View this Wealth the Neighbour Nations Prey;
What Eye, that's Caledonia's Friend, can see
Her Sons on Shore, and Strangers spread the Sea?
Who can, with Patience, View her People Poor,
And Mines of Wealth snatch'd up at ev'ry Door? ”

“ Had we been stronger than we are we should long since have made the presence of the French Government in New Caledonia a casus belli.
The Mother Country is so indifferent to our aspirations and our needs, that she has never given herself the trouble to recognise the gravity of this special cause of complaint. At least 300 cases of escape from New Caledonia to Australian shores are known and recorded. In the case of the ‘exiles’ we naturally rejoice. ”

“ A few hours later the chiefs of the expedition went on shore, took formal possession of the country, and named it Caledonia. They were pleased with the aspect of a small peninsula about three miles in length and a quarter of a mile in breadth, and determined to fix here the city of New Edinburgh, destined, as they hoped, to be the great emporium of both Indies. The peninsula terminated in a low promontory of about thirty acres, which might easily be turned into an island by digging a trench. ”

“ Let us, for instance, suppose, that the people of New Caledonia are the offspring of a nation, who, by living in affluence and in a genial climate, have not been stinted in their growth; the colony which removed into the barren soil of New Caledonia, will probably preserve the habit of body of their ancestors for many generations. The people of Tanna may have undergone a contrary revolution, and being descended of a slender and short race, like the Mallicollese, the richness of their present country may not yet have entirely taken effect. ”

“ On the abolition of the stamp-duty on newspapers in 1855, Mr Brown originated the Bulletin and Workman, a daily and a weekly newspaper, both published in Glasgow. [Pg 160]
CHARLIE 'S COMIN'.
Charlie 's comin' o'er the sea,
Soon, he 'll set the country free
From those that bear the rule and gree
In bonnie Caledonia!
Gentle breezes, softly blow,
We burn until we meet the foe,
And strike the bold decisive blow
For king and Caledonia!
Noble hearts are beating high,
All will fight, none basely fly,
For if they conquer not, they 'll die
For ancient Caledonia! ”

“ New Caledonia has long been a thorn in the Australian side. It is only 700 miles from the coast of Queensland, and the northern colony and its parent neighbour have long since tired of being overrun by escaped French convicts of the vilest type. You, in England, have little conception of the resentment which is inspired in the breasts of the most loyal Australians by the supineness and folly which allowed the Home Government to sit idly by whilst a French penal settlement was established so near our shores. ”