86 THE WHALE FISHERY. 



intelligent race, and in their nsef ul labonr in boating and 

 the Yarions ardnons employments on board the whalers they 

 contradicted the hasty conclusions which so many superficial 

 writers had drawn in reference to the degrading tendency of 

 the faculties of the natives of New South Wales. 



Mr. Benjamin Boyd, who originated the whaling industrj^ 

 at Twofold Bay, w^as the descendant of an ancient Scottish 

 family. He arrived in Sydney in the year ISil commissioned 

 to orijanise branches of business for the Pi^oval Banking: 

 Company of Australia. In making a settlement at Twofold 

 Bay he had some of these objects in view. In the first place 

 he built a large store for the purpose of supplying his 

 extensive sheep stations in the Monaro district ; he also 

 erected a boiling-down plant, and in addition to these and 

 other matters as well, he entered largely into whaling, and 

 fixed the Bay as the rendezvous for his ships. On the 

 south head he constructed a light-house for the purpose 

 of directing his vessels coming to the wharf ; but this 

 scheme proved abortive as the Nev/ South Wales Govern- 

 ment refused to permit the exhibition of a light unless 

 a guarantee were given for its constant maintenance. 

 Mr. Boyd seems to have been possessed of unusual enterprise 

 and pluck, but somehow his efforts did not secure that 

 pecuniary success which tliey deserved, and so at last the 

 Company who had all along provided the capital for the 

 immense ])usiness which was beini? carried on bea^an to 

 manifest uneasiness in regard to it, and ultimately grew so 

 dissatisfied that a change in the management was demanded. 

 After prolonged negotiations a compromise was effected — 

 Boyd agreed to retire and to relinquish all claims upon the 

 Company in consideration of receiving three of the whale 

 ships, two sections of land at Twofold Bay and his yacht the 

 "Wanderer," a vessel of some 80 tons burthen, in which he 

 had sailed hither from England. Boyd's ultimate fate was 

 sad. He embarked with a gold digging party, mostly con- 

 sisting of Australian Aborigines on board the "Wanderer," 

 and sailed for California in 1850, the time of the gold excite- 

 ment there. His venture was unsuccessful, and on his way 

 back to Sj^dney he touched at Guadalcanar, one of the islands 

 in the Solomon Group ; there he went on shore with a black 

 boy to have some shooting, and it is supposed he was 

 murdered bv the natives as he was never seen acrain. 



