The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811)Mann, D. D. (David Dickinson)
History
The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811)
Mann, D. D. (David Dickinson)
New South Wales -- History; New South Wales -- Social life and customs
characters as are to be found in this colony, are not to be
intimidated by punishment, nor discouraged by failure from the
pursuit of that career of depravity, which is become dear to them
from habit; nothing short of death can destroy, in those minds,
the affection for vice, and the determination to gratify their
ruling passion, in spite of obstacles, however alarming, or
opposition, however strenuous and vigilant. Mr. Dixon, a Roman
Catholic priest, who had been sent under an order of
transportation from Ireland, for his principles, accompanted
Colonel Johnston on this service, and proved to be of some
utility in bringing back the insurgents to a proper sense of
their duty. It cannot be too much to say, that the conduct of Mr.
Dixon, before and after this business, was strictly
exemplary.
In May, the blessings of vaccination were introduced into the
settlement, and all the young children were inoculated with
success; but unfortunately, by some means as yet unaccounted for,
the virtue has been lost, and the colony has been once more left
without a protection from that most dreadful of all disorders,
the small-pox; of the fatal consequences of which the natives
have more than once afforded the most dreadful evidence, their
loathsome carcases having been found, while this disorder was
prevalent amongst them, lying about the beach, and on the rocks.
In fact, such is the terror of this disorder amongst these
untutored sons of nature, that, on its appearance, they forsake
those who are infected with it, leaving them to die, without a
friend at hand, or assistance to smooth the aspect of death, and
fly into the thickest of the woods. Their superstition leads them
to consider it as an infernal visitation; and its effects are
such as to justify this idea, in some degree, for it seldom fails
to desolate and depopulate whole districts, and strews the
surface of the country with the unburied carcases of its wretched
and deserted victims.
In September, the limits of Northumberland, and of Cornwall
and Buckinghamshire, on Van Diemen's Land, where a settlement had
been made during the last year, were defined; and the lines of
demarkation were fixed as follow:--The line of demarkation
between Cumberland and Northumberland is the parallel of 33. 2.
south latitude; and the line of demarkation between
Buckinghamshire and Cornwall, on Van Diemen's Land, is the
parallel of 42. south latitude. On the 15th of the following
month, Lieutenant-Governor Paterson sailed to make and command a
settlement at Port Dalrymple; and, in the course of a short
period, the colony had the satisfaction to hear of the foundation
of two towns, Yorkton and Launceston, which are making their
progress to perfection with considerable rapidity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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