BOTANY BAY. 



3.57 



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death. In the infliction of injury, the lex taliuuis is 

 observed with punctilious nicety, and precisely to 

 the same extent is the injury returned. There does 

 not seem any necessity that enmity shall subsist be- 

 tween the victim who thus suffers, after the death of 

 an individual, and him who draws his blood : it ra- 

 ther appears an indispensible ceremony, and the 

 sufferer may be afterwards cherished and protected 

 by his assailant. Whoever sheds blood, must submit 

 to expose himself to have spears thrown at him, but 

 he is entitled to employ a shield in his defence, and 

 to practise all possible agility in avoiding them. 

 Nevertheless, persons in this predicament are often 

 unsuccessful, and dangerous wounds ensue. 



S<> tar as can be collected, the aborigines of Bo- 

 ti , n y j> a ,, arc ut ter strangers to religion, and no be- 

 ! e e a T, -, i T 



her or a Supreme Being prevails among them. In- 



distinct gesticulations, indeed, have prompted some 

 Europeans to suppose the reverse, and also that they 

 entertained vague ideas of a relation between the 

 heavens and a person deceased ; but it is not clearly 

 known that any thing like the belief of a future 

 state has hitherto engrossed their reflection. Per- 

 haps our knowledge of their language and customs 

 is still too imperfect to decide on the fact ; yet there 

 is reason to conclude, that mankind must have made 

 a certain progress from barbarism, before religious 

 sentiments occupy their minds. Nevertheless, super- 

 stition is extremely prevalent among the rude and un- 

 cultivated savages of Botany Bay ; they believe in 

 spirits, and are averse to 1 pass a grave. In the dis- 

 posal of their dead a remarkable variety is observed, 

 according to the state of the departed person. The 

 young are deposited in the earth, while the bodies of 

 those who have passed the middle age are reduced to 

 ashes ; and on both these occasions many ceremonies 

 are practised. A husband has been seen to raise a fu- 

 neral pile to his wife; first the ground was excavated 

 some inches deep, and the cavity covered with sticks 

 and brush-wood three feet high ; then a sufficient quan- 

 tity of wood having been procured, grass was spread 

 over the whole, and the corpse, borne by men, placed 

 on it, with the head northward. The fishing appa- 

 ratus, and other little articles belonging to the de- 

 ceased, were put in a basket by her side ; and the 

 husband having laid some large logs over the body, 

 one kindled the pile, which soon blazed into a flame. 

 On the following day, the husband raked together 

 the ashes of his wife, and formed a small tumulus, 

 with scrupulous attention to its shape and neatness ; 

 after which he placed a log of wood on each side, 

 and deposited on the top the piece of bark with 

 which he had accomplished its construction. His 

 work being finished, this untutored savage stood, with 

 folded arms, intently gazing on what the natural affec- 

 tions of man told him contained the only remains of 

 what he had once held in love and estimation. But 

 the disposal of the dead by the natives is not always 

 equally simple : the surviving infant is buried alive 

 with its departed mother, a custom which scarce ex- 

 ists in all the world besides : the father himself lays 

 it in the grave, and is the first to heap the earth 

 upon his trembling child. 



It is not preserved in geographical records, that 

 any navigator preceding Captain Cook had visited 



Botany Bay ; nor was it thtn supposed that it would 

 be a place of much importance to Britain. The se- 

 paration of the American colonies, however, whither 

 criminals from this island were wont to be transport- t | ' 

 cd, rendered it necessary to select some other distant uient. 

 region for the same purpose. After an interval of 

 several years, Botany Bay was condescended on by 

 government : and the advantages of a fertile country, 

 a salubrious climate, and a safe and capacious har- 

 bour for shipping, counterbalanced the inconveniences 

 attendant on the length of time which voyages would 

 necessarily occupy. 



Ample preparations were therefore made for esta- 1787. 

 blishing a settlement at Botany Bay, which might 

 reach to an unlimited extent. Stores, utensils, and 

 the materials essential in founding a town, were col- 

 lected together ; and an entire hospital was construct- 

 ed in England, portable, because the pieces might be 

 disjoined, and requiring nothing more than simple 

 union on attaining the place of destination. A fleet 

 of eleven vessels, containing 760 male and female con- 

 victs, banished for crimes of every description, sailed 

 from Portsmouth in May 1787, and in eight months 

 cast anchor in Botany Bay, without any intervening j-ga 

 accident. In the course of the voyage, a design, 

 which has been since frequently renewed, was har- 

 boured by the convicts for taking the vessels, but it 

 was discovered in good time, and the ringleaders pun- 

 ished. 



Though all was ready for debarkation, and for found- 

 ing the projected colony, it appeared, on more minute 

 examination of the bay, that no part of it was free of 

 objections. On one side, the shipping would be too 

 much exposed to the violence of easterly winds, and its 

 immediate environs were, in many places, too marshy for 

 cultivation. It was therefore resolved to establisii the 

 settlement at Port Jackson, five miles distant, one of 

 the finest harbours in the universe, stretching thirteen 

 miles inland, provided with numerous creeks, and suf- 

 ficiently capacious for a thousand ships of the line. 

 Here, therefore, the whole individuals composing the The colony 

 colony, amounting to 1030, were landed. A town established 

 called Sydney was founded in a favourable situation Bt 1 " ort 

 at the base of two hills, and with a rivulet running 

 through its center : rapid progress was made in the 

 houses and public works; and soon after another town 

 called by the same name that the natives give its site, 

 Paramatta, was also built. 



In the next place, different small settlements were 

 portioned out for private persons, as well as for the 

 use of government, the ground cleared, land enclosed, 

 and crops sown. A quantity of live stock was intro- 

 duced into the colony, and preserved with the utmost 

 care, for the purpose of supplying future wants; and 

 the whole began, in a time wonderfully short, to ex- 

 hibit a pleasing picture of industry and activity. 



But the successes of the colony were far from be- 

 ing uninterrupted. Notwithstanding the laudable 

 exertions of government, and the fruitful returns of 

 agricultural occupations, many vexations arose from 

 the conduct of the colonists. Accustomed to an idle 

 and dissolute life, and familiarized with wickedness, 

 they in general f hewed an aversion to labour; and by 

 the commission of new crimes, interrupted the peace 

 of the settlement. Sometimes, also, the government 



