The Bushman | Page 2

an excellent parent, and
moans and murmurs over the ingratitude of her troublesome offspring!

Like many other parents, she means to do well and act kindly, but
unhappily the principles on which she proceeds are radically wrong.
Hence, on the one side, heart-burning, irritation, and resentment; on the
other, disappointment, revulsion, and alarm.
Is she too deeply prejudiced, or too old in error, to attempt a new
system of policy?
In what single respect has she ever proved herself a good parent to any
of her Colonies? Whilst supplying them with Government Officers, she
has fettered them with unwholesome laws; whilst giving them a trifling
preference over foreign states in their commerce, she has laid her grasp
upon their soil; whilst allowing them to legislate in a small degree for
themselves, she has reserved the prerogative of annulling all
enactments that interfere with her own selfish or mistaken views; whilst
permitting their inhabitants to live under a lightened pressure of
taxation, she has debarred them from wealth, rank, honours, rewards,
hopes -- all those incentives to action that lead men forward to glory,
and stamp nations with greatness.
What has she done for her Colonies -- this careful and beneficent parent?
She has permitted them to exist, but bound them down in serf-like
dependence; and so she keeps them -- feeble, helpless, and hopeless.
She grants them the sanction of her flag, and the privilege of boasting
of her baneful protection.
Years -- ages have gone by, and her policy has been the same --
darkening the heart and crushing the energies of Man in climes where
Nature sparkles with hope and teems with plenty.
Time, however, too powerful for statesmen, continues his silent but
steady advance in the great work of amelioration. The condition of the
Colonies must be elevated to that of the counties of England. Absolute
rule must cease to prevail in them. Men must be allowed to win there,
as at home, honours and rank. Time, the grand minister of correction --
Time the Avenger, already has his foot on the threshold of the
COLONIAL OFFICE.
-----------------
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER.
1. -- COLONISTS.
2. -- ST. JAGO.

3. -- THE MUTINY.
4. -- THE PRISON-ISLAND.
5. -- FIRST ADVENTURES.
6. -- PERTH. -- COLONIAL JURIES.
7. -- BOATING UP THE RIVER.
8. -- FARMS ON THE RIVER.
9. -- THE MORAL THERMOMETER OF COLONIES.
10. -- COUNTRY LIFE.
11. -- PERSECUTIONS.
12. -- MICHAEL BLAKE, THE IRISH SETTLER.
13. -- WILD CATTLE HUNTING.
14. -- WOODMAN'S POINT.
15. -- HOW THE LAWS OF ENGLAND AFFECT THE NATIVES.
16. -- REMARKS ON THE PHYSICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE
NATIVES.
17. -- SKETCHES OF LIFE AMONG THE NATIVES.
18. -- THE MODEL KINGDOM.
19. -- TRIALS OF A GOVERNOR.
20. -- MR. SAILS, MY GROOM. -- OVER THE HILLS. -- A SHEEP
STATION.
21. -- EXTRACTS FROM THE LOG OF A HUT-KEEPER.
22. -- PELICAN SHOOTING. -- GALES. -- WRESTLING WITH
DEATH.
23. -- THE DESERT OF AUSTRALIA. -- CAUSE OF THE HOT
WINDS. -- GEOLOGY.
24. -- COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
25. -- ONE OF THE ERRORS OF GOVERNMENT. --
ADVENTURES OF THE "BRAMBLE".
26. -- SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES. -- KANGAROO HUNTING. --
EMUS. -- LOST IN THE BUSH.
27. -- THE COMET. -- VITAL STATISTICS. -- METEOROLOGY.
28. -- THE BOTANY OF THE COLONY.
29. -- MISFORTUNES OF THE COLONY.
30. -- RESOURCES OF THE COLONY: -- HORSES FOR INDIA. --
WINE. -- DRIED FRUITS. -- COTTON. -- COAL. -- WOOL. --
CORN. -- WHALE- OIL. -- A WHALE HUNT. -- CURED FISH. --
SHIP TIMBER.

31. -- RISE AND FALL OF A SETTLEMENT. -- THE SEQUEL TO
CAPTAIN GREY'S DISCOVERIES. -- A WORD AT PARTING.
(PLATES.
KANGAROO HUNTING (Frontispiece). THE BIVOUAC.
SPEARING KANGAROO. DEATH OF THE KANGAROO. EMU
HUNT (woodcut).)
THE BUSHMAN;
OR,
LIFE IN A NEW COUNTRY.

CHAPTER 1.
COLONISTS.
The Spirit of Adventure is the most animating impulse in the human
breast. Man naturally detests inaction; he thirsts after change and
novelty, and the prospect of excitement makes him prefer even danger
to continued repose.
The love of adventure! how strongly it urges forward the Young! The
Young, who are ever discontented with the Present, and sigh for
opportunities of action which they know not where to seek. Old men
mourn over the folly and recklessness of the Young, who, in the fresh
and balmy spring-time of life, recoil from the confinement of the desk
or the study, and long for active occupation, in which all their beating
energies may find employment. Subjection is the consequence of
civilized life; and self-sacrifice is necessary in those who are born to
toil, before they may partake of its enjoyments. But though the Young
are conscious that this is so, they repine not the less; they feel that the
freshness and verdure of