102 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



And the colonising of Eastern Australia was a success, 

 but only because the existence of convict labourers 

 enabled and facilitated the pastoral occupation of the 

 country. 



The convicts thus figured in a capacity that directly 

 concerns us here. The majority of them were assigned 

 to settlers who desired servants in their homes and on 

 their farms, and were distributed all over the Colony. 

 In 1835 over 20,000 convicts were thus assigned. There 

 was romance in the assignment system, and there was 

 tragedy. The convict might be assigned to his wife, 

 who evinced her devotedness by following her convict 

 husband oversea. 



One of the largest pastoralists, John McArthur, had 

 from 90 to 100 ; William Cox had as many as 120, 

 besides free labourers, while D'Arcy Wentworth and a 

 wealthy emancipist named Terry, who held the two 

 most extensive estates in New South Wales, had more 

 still. Sometimes the whole of the servants on a run 

 were convicts or ticket-of -leave men. One pastoralist at 

 Tumut in 1839 had twenty " Government men " and 

 about 1,200 head of cattle. Another sent sheep from 

 Tasmania in 1835 with, successively, six, five, and 

 seven freedmen as shepherds. We observe their 

 numbers gradually diminish. Eight years later there 

 were 49 ex-convicts on the 40 stations in newly dis- 

 covered Gippsland, among 327 of a population. As 

 free immigrants arrived, runholders replaced their 

 convict-servants by freemen.* 



Fustel de Coulanges has spelled out, imperfectly and 

 with difficulty the status and conditions of the unfree 

 workers on the large Roman domains. We are more 

 happily situated with respect to the convict servants 

 assigned to the great landowners in the early days of 

 Australia. The elaborate reports of Chief-Commissioner 

 Bigge, the evidence given before him, the letters ad- 

 dressed to him, together with innumerable publications 



* Victorian Pioneers, pp. 169, 11, 12, 199. 



