30 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



The journal of the Rev. Robert Knopwood, the chaplain of 

 the settlement, portions of which were first printed in 1852, as an 

 appendix to Morgan's Life of William Buckley, but which was 

 subsequently published in full by the Victorian Government, under 

 the editorship of Mr. J. J. Shillinglaw, does not contain much in- 

 formation of value. It presents, however, in very slipshod English, 

 and with much bad spelling, a minute and almost daily record of 

 the dreary round of resultless labour and official routine. The 

 writer would appear to have been an easy-going, not to say lazy 

 bon vivant, and through all his pages there runs the standing 

 complaint of trying heat, insufficient water, and the unpleasant 

 frequency of alarming thunder-storms ; with indications of the 

 solace obtainable from occasional presentations of bottles of port, 

 and invitations to convivial feastings. 



The chief source of information is naturally to be found hi the 

 official despatches, and the general and garrison orders of the 

 Lieutenant-Governor. The former were addressed to Lord Hobart, 

 and to Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales, and 

 for the dissemination of the latter, the first printing press set up 

 in Victoria was erected under the shade of a gum-tree. These 

 issues are redolent of a spirit of admonition against " grog ". 



Apparently all the disciplinary troubles of the settlement were 

 largely due to the facility with which both the convicts and their 

 guardians were enabled to get supplied with this aid to forgetful- 

 ness. It might be supposed that half a pint of spirits daily, which 

 was the official quantum for the soldiers, was rather a liberal pro- 

 vision in such a warm climate. At any rate, it became necessary 

 to warn the marines thus : " The Commanding Officer is surprised 

 to observe the unsteady appearance of the men at the evening 

 parade. This can only proceed from their determination to evade 

 the regulations which he adopted in the hope of preventing this 

 unsoldierlike appearance that he complains of in them, and which, 

 if persisted in, will compel him not to increase the quantity of 

 water, but to reduce the quantity of spirits which is at present 

 allowed them." Again, a month later, a garrison order says : " The 

 Commanding Officer is concerned to observe the shameful conduct 

 of several of the soldiers of the detachment. Drunkenness is a 



