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Today we are reading the first few chapters of the 1837 Book, Account of an expedition to the interior of new HOLLAND.

The Author, Lady Mary Fox, was born the 19 December 1798 and died the13 July 1864, was an illegitimate daughter of King William IV of the United Kingdom by his mistress Dorothea Jordan. In later life she became a writer. Lady Mary published a utopian feminist Gothic fiction narrative titled An Account of an Expedition to the Interior of New Holland. Lady Mary's treatise is the most representative example of the portrayal of New Holland, now known as Australia, as a mysterious and "unreal" place.

ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION

To The INTERIOR OF NEW HOLLAND.

Chapter One.

Our readers will, no doubt, be interested by the few particulars we have been able to collect of the late wonderful discovery, in the interior of New Holland, of a civilized nation of European origin, which had, in so remarkable a manner, been kept separate hitherto from the rest of the civilized world.

Mr. Hopkins Sibthorpe, who planned and conducted this singularly fortunate enterprise, was accompanied, it appears, in the expedition by another settler, Mr. William Jones, and Messrs. Thomas and Robert Smith, brothers, of the navy; who, together with Wilkins, a sailor, hired as their servant, constituted the whole party.

It was in the early part of August 1835 that these adventurous explorers took their departure from the settlement at Bathurst: this, as our readers are aware, is the last month of the winter of that hemisphere; though, from the greater mildness of the climate, it may be considered as spring. This season was chosen as the most suitable for an expedition in such a country as New Holland; in which, not only the heat of summer and autumn is often very oppressive, but also the scarcity of water is one of the most formidable impediments: and, on this occasion, a plentiful supply of water being essential, not only with a view to their personal wants, but also to the accomplishment of the peculiar plan they had resolved on trying, it was thought best to take an early advantage of the effects of the winter’s rains.

Their plan was no other than to construct a canoe, to enable them to proceed in a direction in which farther progress had hitherto been precluded by a vast expanse of marshy lake. This, as our readers are probably aware, from the published narratives of former expeditions, is, in moist seasons, a sort of Mere, or shallow water, encumbered with aquatic plants; but in times of great drought is, for a considerable extent, dry, or consisting of mud rather than water; constituting a sort of swampy plain, so choked up with a rank vegetation of reeds and flags as to present an almost insuperable obstacle to the traveller.

In the present expedition, accordingly, it was determined to choose a time when there might be a sufficiency of water to enable the adventurous explorers to proceed in a canoe; and they accordingly carried with them one or two horses, which they proposed afterwards to turn loose, the iron-work, and as much as was thought necessary of the frame of a canoe, which they proposed to put together and complete on their arrival on the margin of the lake. And as it was impossible to carry with them a sufficient store of provisions for the whole of their contemplated voyage, they boldly resolved to trust in great measure to their guns and fishing tackle, providing only a sufficiency of salt to preserve such game and fish as they might procure in their way.

The details of the expedition, curious and highly interesting as they are in themselves, we are compelled to omit, lest they should occupy the space wanted for a far more valuable and important portion of the narrative. It will be sufficient, therefore, to say, omitting particulars, that they were enabled to put their design in execution; and having constructed a kind of light flat-bottomed boat, of poles covered with bark (of the kind the natives use for their canoes), and fitted up with a slight awning, to afford shelter from the sun and the dews, they embarked on the above-mentioned shallow lake, and proceeded in a north-west direction; sometimes rowing, assisted occasionally by a sail, and oftener pushing themselves on with poles through the tangled aquatic plants which grew on the muddy bottom.

Their progress was at first tediously slow; but they were at no loss for provision, as the waters abounded with fish and wildfowl, of which they continued to obtain a sufficient supply throughout the voyage. After two days of troublesome navigation they found the water become deeper, and gained a sight of some elevated land towards the west, which they reached on the evening of the third day: they here found the lake not terminated, but confined within narrow limits by hills, for the most part of a rocky, sterile, and uninviting character: at length it became a broad river, flowing in a northerly direction, and serving evidently as a drain to the great expanse of lake they had passed. This gave them hopes of reaching, which was their great object, some large navigable river, which they might follow to the sea: they proceeded, therefore, though with considerable delay and difficulty from shoals and rapids, till, after more than two days’ navigation, the high ground receded, and they found themselves entering on another great expanse of water, so extensive that, in pursuing their adventurous course nearly in the same direction, they were, for the greater part of one day, out of sight of land.

They now arrived at another course of rocky hills, of considerable elevation, through which the waters found an exit by a narrow gorge: through this they proceeded in a direction northwards for a considerable distance, when they found the river again expanding itself at intervals into a chain of lakes, smaller but deeper than those they had passed, and surrounded by a much more agreeable country, which continued to improve as they advanced. They landed in several places, and in one instance came in contact with a party of natives, who were of a less savage aspect than those in the vicinity of our settlements, and showed no signs of hostility, and much less of alarm and astonishment than had been expected. From this circumstance, and also from steel knives being in the possession of two or three of them, on which they appeared to set great value, it was conjectured that they must, in their wanderings, have, at some time or other, approached our settlements: their language, however, was perfectly unintelligible to Mr. Jones, though he had a considerable acquaintance with that of the natives near Sydney.

Some days after, as they continued their progress, they fell in with another party of natives, who excited still more wonder and speculation in our travelers, from their having among them ornaments evidently fashioned from the tusks of boars; these, as it was understood from the signs they made, in answer to the questions put to them by the same means, they described themselves as having hunted with their dogs, and speared. But all doubt was removed the next day, by the travelers actually obtaining a sight of a wild hog in the woods, and afterwards of a herd of wild cattle, which they distinctly saw with their glasses: these animals being well known not to be indigenous in New Holland, afforded strong indications of the vicinity of some European settlement; though, as they felt certain of being far distant from the coast, they were utterly lost in conjecture.

After proceeding in the manner above described, through a long chain of lakes connected by the river which they were continuing to navigate, through a country continually improving in beauty and fertility, and presenting a strong contrast to the dreary rocks and marshes they had left behind, they were at length surprised and gratified, on entering a lake somewhat more extensive than the last, to see several fishing-boats, the men in which they ascertained by their glasses to be decently clothed, and white men. They ventured to approach and to hail them; and, to their unspeakable surprise and delight, they received an answer in English: the English was, indeed, not precisely similar to their own, but not differing so much from it as many of our provincial dialects; and in a short time the two parties were tolerably intelligible to each other.

We are compelled to pass over the interesting detail of the meeting, which was equally gratifying and surprising to both the parties; of the eager curiosity of their mutual inquiries; and of the hospitable invitation given, and, as may be supposed, joyfully accepted by the travelers. Accompanying their hosts in one of the fishing-boats, they found before them, on turning the point of a wooded promontory which had intercepted their view, a rich and partially cultivated country, interspersed with cheerful-looking villages, having much of an English air of comfort; though the whole was in a far ruder condition than much of what they saw afterwards, as the point they had reached was the extreme skirt of a comparatively recent settlement.

The reception they met with was most friendly and every way refreshing, after an anxious and toilsome journey of above a month. They found themselves, on the second day after their arrival in the colony, the guests of the chief magistrate of a neat town of considerable size, where they were surrounded by visitors from all parts, eager to obtain and to afford information, and overwhelming them with pressing invitations.

We are compelled to pass over the particulars of the several steps by which the travelers arrived at the knowledge of the singular country and people in the midst of which they found themselves. We have only space for a brief summary of the results.

They found themselves, then, in a nation of European, and chiefly, though not entirely, of English extraction, which had had no intercourse with Europe, or with any other portion of the civilized world, for nearly three centuries. Their numbers were estimated at between three and four million; and they were divided into eleven distinct communities, existing in a sort of loosely federal union, or rather in a friendly relation, sanctioned and maintained by custom more than by any formal compact. And they found these several states, though in some respects differing in their governments and other institutions, agreeing in the manifestation of a high degree of civilization, considering the disadvantage they labored under in their seclusion from the rest of the world. “Many points too,” says Mr. Sibthorpe, in his journal, “in which they differ the most widely from the customs and institutions of the people from which they sprang, are such as can hardly be reckoned marks of barbarism, even by those who regard them with surprise, and even with disapprobation; but are rather the result of the singular and, as some would consider them, whimsical notions of the extraordinary persons who took the lead among the first settlers.”

These were two men of the name of Müller; one a German, settled in England, and the other his nephew, the son of an Englishwoman. The former appears to have been one of those unions of enthusiastic wildness, brilliant genius, and sanguine credulity which periods of great excitement—such as the commencement of the Reformation—are often found to call forth. He possessed great eloquence, and a power of exercising an unbounded influence over minds of a certain description. His nephew, with much of the uncle’s eccentricity, united a much clearer judgment, and seems gradually to have established a complete ascendancy over the mind, first of his uncle, and ultimately of all his followers; and to have used his influence in a manner which indicates most enlarged public spirit, and a great mixture, at least, of political wisdom.

It appears, that during the various tumults which took place during the early periods of the Reformation, several persons in England, and some in Germany, the parties holding communication through the means of Müller and his connexions in both countries, meditated a removal to some distant region, in which they should escape finally from strife and oppression, and establish a civil and religious community on such principles as they were fondly cherishing. After the proposal and rejection of various schemes, and after many delays and disappointments, the projected departure in search of a new settlement took place, under the guidance of their enthusiastic and adventurous leader. Instead of proceeding to America, as had been originally proposed, they were induced by some glowing descriptions they had heard, but which proved to consist chiefly of fable or exaggeration, to seek for the long-famed southern continent, the “Terra Australis Incognita.”

The curious and interesting particulars of their voyage, their various adventures, disappointments, and reiterated attempts, we are compelled to pass over. The result was their being ultimately driven by a storm on the coast of New Holland, somewhere, it is supposed, between latitude 10 and 20 south, and longitude 130 and 140 east, where one out of the four ships was wrecked on a coral reef, and two of the others driven ashore with considerable damage. They saved, however, not only their lives, but nearly all their property, including the live stock with which they had provided themselves; and it appears that their first idea was to repair their vessels, and proceed along the coast, in an endeavor to find a suitable spot for a settlement; the part on which they were cast being not only barren and uninviting but excessively marshy. This last circumstance compelled them to forego their design; for a fever broke out, and affected so many of them that they lost no time in removing to a healthier situation, eight or nine miles from the coast. Here the sick speedily recovered; and, as the spot seemed highly salubrious, though for the most part barren, with only a small proportion of land fit for cultivation near the banks of small rivers, they proceeded to build log-houses and cultivate the land; designing to make their settlement either temporary or permanent, as circumstances might determine.

Their decision was ultimately fixed by means of the intercourse they succeeded in establishing with a native tribe. Mutual good-will and confidence having been completely established between the settlers and the natives chiefly, as it should seem, through the judicious exertions of the younger Müller,—and an increasing knowledge of each other’s language having established a free communication between the parties,—the settlers were interested by the glowing colours in which their new friends described a region in the interior, which they—that is, some of the very individuals who spoke of it, and the ancestors of the rest,—had formerly inhabited, and from which successive portions of their tribe had been from time to time expelled by more powerful hostile tribes. They were anxious to induce their European neighbors to settle there themselves, and enable them to reinstate themselves in their ancient abode. They easily perceived the vast superiority which European arts and arms would give to their new allies over enemies who had proved too powerful for themselves, and they hoped through their aid to re-establish themselves in a country which they had quitted with regret.

Moved by their representations, the settlers dispatched two active young men, in company with some native guides, to explore this highly-vaunted region; they proceeded accordingly, nearly in a direct line from the coast, to a range of mountains, about ninety or a hundred miles in the interior, which they surmounted, not without difficulty, and then found themselves in an elevated plain of a most sterile character, extending for more than a hundred miles in the same direction: this they traversed with some difficulty, and arrived at another chain of rocky mountains, forming a still more formidable barrier, which they would have had great difficulty in surmounting but for the local knowledge of their guides.

On passing this, however, they were rewarded by the view of a most extensive and delightfully fertile region, watered with numerous streams from these mountains, and interspersed with beautiful lakes. The whole appearance of the country fully justified the descriptions given; and the accounts of these first explorers were so favorable that a second expedition was undertaken, with a view to a more complete examination of the country, by young Müller himself and four others, who passed a considerable time in exploring the district, not without some narrow escapes from the hostility of some of the wandering native tribes; and the result of their examination was so favorable, that the settlers were induced to come to the resolution of finally removing the colony to the interior.

This, after due preparation, they accomplished, moving in two separate divisions; the first consisting of the greater part of the most active of the adult males, both of the Europeans and their native allies, who were to prepare habitations, and break up land for tillage, and company, ready to receive the rest after an interval of some months. The entire removal was completed in the course of the third year from their first arrival on the coast. Their numbers appear to have been between three and four hundred, in all, of white people, besides a somewhat smaller number of natives; the country in which they had first settled admitting of only a small and scattered population, of tribes subsisting by the chase.

Very soon after taking possession of their new abode they were attacked, in spite of all their endeavors to preserve peace, by the native tribes of the interior, moved by their inveterate animosity against their ancient enemies: the settlers, however, gained an easy and complete victory in every encounter; their fire-arms, though only the old-fashioned, clumsy matchlocks of those days, being sufficient to strike terror into savages unacquainted with gunpowder; though, independent of their guns, their bows would have given them a decided superiority. It is well known how skillful and how formidable were the English archers of those days; and they could annoy the natives, among whom the bow is unknown, at three times the distance to which these could throw their spears. The native allies also, having been taught by the Europeans to use the bow, which, even in their less skillful hands, had an advantage over the spear,—and being also furnished with cutlasses, hatchets, and steel heads to their pikes,—now proved greatly an overmatch for their former conquerors, who had only wooden swords and bone-headed spears.

A peace ensued, which, however, was for several years interrupted from time to time by predatory incursions and irregular renewals of hostilities. This state of things, with all its inconveniences, appears to have had the advantage of cementing the friendship between the settlers and their native allies; each party feeling the other’s importance for security against a common enemy. The whites, accordingly, seem to have been assiduous and successful in civilizing these natives, with whom they were thus thrown into close contact.

Ultimately, the colony was delivered from all danger from the hostile tribes by an event which threatened disaster. A formidable combination was secretly formed among all the tribes for a considerable distance round, for the purpose of making a united attack, by surprise, with all their forces. It was so far successful that a band, far outnumbering all that the settlers could muster, unexpectedly attacking one of their villages, obliged the inhabitants to fly in the utmost haste, and spread the alarm through the whole colony. This success, however, proved their ruin; for, with the genuine improvidence of savages, instead of rapidly pushing forward their forces, they eagerly fell to plundering the various stores, especially of provisions, which had been abandoned; and, as an army of savages is never well provided with a commissariat, gladly betook themselves to feasting on what they found.

Among other things, was a large supply of beer; for the settlers had brought with them, and successfully practiced, the art of brewing, with which they had been familiar at home. Wine, they had not as yet attained to, though they had begun the cultivation of the vine, as well as of several other European fruit-trees. The savages indulged in the liquor with characteristic excess; and, while they were lost in intoxication, set fire, either accidentally or intentionally, to the wooden houses and stacks with which they were surrounded. The fire raged fiercely in all directions; and most of the men were too much stupefied with liquor to escape the flames, and were either stifled or burnt; a considerable number, however, were rescued by the settlers, who had by this time come together, and who at once saved and took prisoners most of the survivors, who were too helplessly drunk for either resistance or flight.

This event, which at once and for ever broke the power of their enemies, has been ever since annually commemorated in the colony; a day of solemn thanksgiving being concluded by the lighting of large bonfires in the evening, by parties who pass round among themselves a spear, such as the natives use, and a cup of beer, of which each tastes, in memory of their deliverance. This festival which the Müllers instituted, accompanying the celebration with apposite reflections on drunkenness and its effects, has probably tended, along with other circumstances, to keep up an almost universal habit of sobriety throughout the colony.

This interesting portion of their early history, thus impressed on their minds and familiarized to their thoughts from childhood, creates an indelible association of the idea of drunkenness, not only with those of helplessness and disaster, but also with that of the character of brutish and stupid savages. Indeed, in several other points also, our travelers found the idea of savage life so associated with some others in the minds of these people, as to influence considerably their conduct and habits of thought. They have a deep-seated and habitual contempt for every thing which, according to their notions, savors of barbarism; and this shows itself in many points, which to a modern European would be likely to appear whimsical. The younger Müller, though indefatigable in his kindness towards the native tribes, appears to have cherished this feeling in his own people. He labored strenuously to reclaim and civilize the savages, and was equally anxious to guard against the reverse process—the approximation of the white men towards the habits of the savages: and, as he seems to have been a very able though eccentric man, and possessed boundless influence over the colonists, who were under his government for above half a century, he succeeded in effectually stamping his own character on the nation, and perpetuating his institutions.

The hostile tribes, after the above event, surrendered at discretion; and they consented, those of them who had a considerable proportion of able-bodied men remaining alive. to remove beyond a certain specified boundary, far beyond the then limits of the colony; but several tribes, which now consisted almost entirely of women and children, and were consequently hardly capable of providing for themselves, were, at their own entreaty, received as subjects, and incorporated, along with the previously-allied natives, into the body of the settlers.

This principle has been in great measure adhered to in the several states into which the settlement was afterwards divided, though differing from each other in many respects in their forms of government. And yet, as Müller used himself to observe, one man may be much superior in fitness for certain public offices to another, who may be far beyond him in proficiency in a prescribed course of studies, and in everything that can be ascertained in any regular examination; but then, he used to add, when you come to a greater number, one hundred men well taught will always be superior to a hundred untaught, and fitter to govern the community. In all the states, accordingly, their senates are always required to consist of men who have given proof of their proficiency in a prescribed course of study; but these are left free to choose, and sometimes do choose, for the discharge of important offices, men who are inferior in this respect, but qualified by natural sagacity and practical habits of business.

CHAPTER Two.

The settlement, on being thus, about five or six years from its commencement, freed from all external molestation, increased in prosperity, and extended itself rapidly in several directions inland. Towards the sea they had no temptation to advance; being separated from it by an extensive district of great sterility, and of difficult passage. Inward, the abundance of fertile land, and the numerous lakes with which our travelers had been struck, and which afforded easy intercourse even between settlements at a considerable distance, invited them to overspread the country as fast as their rapidly-increasing population required. Their numbers seem to have advanced at about the same rate as those of some of the North-American settlements.

The division into separate states was not, as the travelers found to their surprise, the result of discord, but had been planned and commenced by their founder himself. He had, it seems, foreseen, or fancied that he foresaw, an ultimate necessity for such a separation; and he judged it best that it should begin even in his own lifetime, before there was any advantage in it, except that of setting an example and establishing a precedent for amicable separation. He founded, accordingly, within forty years from their first settling, a second perfectly independent community, on the opposite side of the lake, near which the first had been located. The original settlement still forms one of the states, and retains the name of Müllersfield, which it received from the founders: the new one, from its singular beauty of situation, he called Eutopia, fine place, probably with something of a covert allusion also to the well-known fabulous Utopia, no place. The most perfect friendliness and freedom of intercourse continued between the two states; and, without owning any common authority, they consulted together, like any two individual neighbors who are on friendly terms, respecting any matters in which they had a common concern: and the principles of the procedure having been clearly laid down, and practically established, the example was afterwards repeatedly followed as the colonization extended itself; and fresh swarms, as it were, issued forth, till the number of the separate states amounted to eleven.

A similar principle has been acted on with respect to ecclesiastical communities. The number of separate churches amounts to no less than seventeen; though some of these consist chiefly of converted native tribes, together with the missionaries residing among them. These churches are, of course, not coextensive with the several states, but on the footing of the early churches founded by the apostles, who instituted several distinct ones,—for instance, in the single province of Macedonia; viz. those of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berœa, and company. They are all, and have ever been, with a few temporary exceptions, in concord and communion with each other, but under distinct governments, and differing in some non-essential customs and institutions. They seem to have made good a favorite maxim of Müller’s on that subject;—that men are always most likely to live in friendly agreement in essentials, when they are not so closely connected as to be obliged to agree in matters intrinsically indifferent. “Two men,” he used to observe, “who may be very friendly as neighbors, might quarrel, if they were obliged to live together, as to the hour at which they should dine,—the keeping of the windows open or shut, &c.;—in which one party would necessarily be compelled to give way to the other: whereas they may be very good friends while each follows his own taste in such matters.”

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We shall subjoin such scattered extracts as our space will admit, of those portions of our travelers’ Journal which illustrate the more strange and singular particulars of the habits of this interesting people.

Nearly all their houses—in the towns, all, without exception—are flat-roofed, like those in the East; whether from a fancy of imitating the custom they read of in Scripture, or for the convenience of having an airy unconfined place to walk or sit on. In the towns, there is, as in those of the East, a thoroughfare for foot-passengers along the tops of the houses; and, in the larger towns, the streets are crossed occasionally by light bridges.

The houses in the towns, and all but the meaner sort of cottages in the newly-settled part of the country, are without any chimneys opening to the air: the smoke from the fireplaces of one or two, or more, adjoining houses, passes into a sort of chamber, swept from time to time, from which it is forced out by machinery into a flue branching off into pipes, which carry it back to the bottom of each fire; so that it burns its own smoke. When the visitors were describing to some Eutopians the European towns, these people remarked that London, for instance, though so much improved since the times of which they had historical records from their ancestors, must still have a very smoky atmosphere; and that, to walk along the streets, shut in by houses on both sides, must be very unpleasant, for want of open prospect and free circulation of air.

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It was with much difficulty that these people were brought to understand the nature of the colony from which their visitors came; not that they were in general dull of apprehension, but they could scarcely satisfy themselves that they had rightly understood the accounts given them. To people a new settlement with convicted criminals,—to form a new nation of the scum and refuse of mankind,—appeared to them so preposterous, that for some time they could not help supposing they must have misunderstood their informants. “To bring together a number of villains,” they said, “to a country where good character is not the rule, but the exception, allowing them free intercourse with each other must be the most effectual mode of hardening and confirming them in wickedness, and entailing the same character on successive generations:” and though it was explained to them that one great object of the plan was to reform the criminals, the accounts which truth constrained their visitors to give of the actual state of morals in the colony did not seem to satisfy them. They had wondered at first, they said, that such a scheme should have been originally thought of, and now they wondered still more that it should be persevered in.

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The travelers were entertained with the kindest and most liberal hospitality, according to the notions of the Southlanders, such is the general name by which the inhabitants of all the states distinguish themselves from their European ancestors and other Europeans; but their hospitality differs considerably from ours. When residing as guests with any family, they partook of the family meals; but when invited to a party, as they frequently were, to meet the principal gentry of the neighborhood,—who were anxious both to show attention to the strangers and to gratify their own curiosity,—it was found that there is no such thing in this country as what we call a dinner-party; that is, the company did not sit down together to a regular meal, but partook of refreshments something more of the character of an English luncheon, which was provided in all the superior houses in a separate room. The guests dropped into this eating-room irregularly, and seating themselves in small promiscuous parties at small tables set out there, were served by the attendants with the various dishes provided. They stayed as long as they pleased; conversed occasionally with their neighbors, as we do at an irregular luncheon, and returned to the “company-room,” as it is called, without ceremony, whenever they chose. No refreshments were brought into this last, except such as correspond to what we have at evening parties,—such as cakes, lemonade, wine and water, ices, in those districts which are near the mountains, dried or fresh fruits: this they consider as what they call the most “honorable”—what we should call “stylish”—mode of receiving company.

When our habits were described to them, they expressed their wonder that a civilized people should make feasts as the savages do. “The half-reclaimed native tribes,” they said, “invite their friends whom they wish to honor to a solemn feast, at which, having provided a large quantity of their best provisions and liquor, and exerted what skill they have in cookery, the guests all seat themselves, with sundry formalities, round the food that is dressed, and regale themselves altogether; but with the Southlanders such an arrangement as this is only adopted as a convenience, when there is a large number of persons to be fed in the least troublesome way.” They accordingly promised, laughingly, to take their visitors to something like an English dinner-party; and the party to which they invited them, it was during the season of hay harvest, consisted of about two dozen mowers, with several of their wives and children, seated round a long table, with the master at the head of it, and supping on an ample supply of substantial food, served up in five or six huge dishes.

The cookery among the higher classes is for the most part plain and simple, and the few who have refined much upon the luxuries of the table are exposed to something of the same sort of contemptuous ridicule that the being called a dandy incurs among us. But a circumstance which early attracted the attention of the visitors was, that they found the animal food to consist, besides eggs, cheese, and various preparations of milk, entirely of fish and game. The pork, which they often met with, they found to be always the flesh of the wild swine: these were derived from those brought over by the first settlers, who turned them all loose into the woods; and the chase of the wild-boar is eagerly pursued by many of the gentry. Wild cattle are also met with in some parts, descended from such as had accidentally strayed; and the flesh of these is eaten, as well as that of the kangaroo, emu, and other indigenous animals: but the visitors one day, in the course of conversation in the eating-room, expressed their surprise at having never seen any mutton served up, though sheep were not uncommon. The Southlanders had never heard the word mutton; but, when it was explained to them that it meant the flesh of the sheep, they replied, “That they kept their sheep very carefully for their wool, and that there were no wild sheep in the country: but when it was explained to them that we kept both sheep and oxen chiefly for the purpose of feeding on their flesh, they were both astonished and disgusted that we should have retained such a barbarian custom, for they regard themselves as many degrees more civilized than their European ancestors, as that of killing and eating domestic animals.”

It was urged, and they freely admitted it, that the loss of life is no greater to a tame than to a wild animal: “That is true,” they said, “as far as the animal is concerned; but it makes a great difference to our feelings. A tame animal is a sort of friend, a member of the family: it seems a sort of treacherous breach of hospitality to kill in cold blood a creature which you have reared and fed from its birth, and then devour its flesh.” They expressed still more surprise, for they are keen sportsmen, at learning that some Europeans were vehement in their censures of hunting, fowling, and fishing, as cruel; and yet fed without scruple on beef and mutton. “We declare war,” they said, laughing, “perhaps an unjust war, against wild animals, and kill them as enemies; but you assassinate your friends.”—“We urged,” says the journalist, “the necessity of keeping within bounds the numbers of our domestic animals; and expressed our apprehension that the Southlanders would in time find themselves quite overstocked with sheep, oxen, and fowls.” They replied at the moment, merely, “that no such apprehension had ever occurred to them.”

But, on returning to what we should call the drawing-room, we soon found that much interest was excited by the accounts of what appeared to this most singular people our strange custom. We were surrounded by ladies, who inquired, with an amusing mixture of good-humored ridicule, wonder, and horror, into all the particulars respecting mutton; and one lady surprised us by asking, among other things, what kind of flesh was that of horses, dogs, and cats, and by what name we called it. When informed that, though we kept these animals, we never thought of eating them, she replied, “Why, I had understood that you ate the flesh of domestic animals, and that you found it necessary to do so, for fear of their overstocking you with their numbers! How comes it that you are not overrun with horses, dogs, and cats?” To say the truth, we were rather dumbfounded by this question; having, in fact, assigned as a reason what we had been accustomed to hear and repeat without any examination into its soundness. We could only allege that, in all these points, we conformed to what had always been the practice of our ancestors and theirs, and of almost all other nations: in this we were borne out by the testimony of those of the company who were well read in antiquities.

Several of these people, indeed, are good scholars, and well acquainted with the history (as far as was known three hundred years ago) of other nations, besides their own. They adverted to the descriptions of Homer’s heroes: one of them would, when about to entertain his friends, have a sheep brought into his tent, cut its throat with his own royal hands, and then, with a skillful hand,—which the poet never fails to celebrate,—cut it up into slices and broil them on skewers over a charcoal fire. They remembered, also, the accounts given of some East-Indian tribes, who, when their relatives are grown old and infirm, kill them, to save them from lingering decay, and hold a pious and solemn feast on their flesh. But as these customs had worn away in the early progress of civilization, they wondered that a still further refinement had not, among us, confined the carnivorous propensity of man to wild animals exclusively, and led us, as it had them, to regard with disgust the eating of (as they expressed it) one of the family, whose eggs, milk, labor, or wool had long ministered to our comforts.

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The description of our cities in their present condition, as contrasted with that of the sixteenth century, and of our whole mode of life, was exceedingly interesting to these people; but nothing did they admire more than our description of the gas-lights. In the midst, however, of their enquiries and admiration, one sly-looking old gentleman observed, “that if we would honor him with a visit in his city of Bath (capital of a state of the same name), he would excite even our admiration by the spectacle of an illumination still more splendid.” In our visit there, where we were most kindly received, our host walked through the streets with us, showing us the principal buildings, and introduced us into the Senate-house, where the public business was going on.

On our return to his house, he asked us (this was about seven o’clock in the morning) what we thought of the lighting of the streets. We answered, that we observed neither any lighting of them, nor need of it, as it was a bright sunshine. “And is not this,” said he, “as good a light as your gas? We have not,” he added, “gone so far as you in arts; but we have the advantage of you in availing ourselves of the gifts of nature; for, as you must have observed, we are all alert and about our business at day-break; while you, by your own account, allow three or four hours of daylight in the spring and summer to be utterly wasted, while you are abed; and then go about your business at night, like owls and bats, but without their advantage of being able to see in the dark; so that you are forced to light yourselves with gas. It was,” said he, “a very ingenious contrivance you were telling us of t’other day, by which you distil fresh water from the sea; but pray do you, when there are plenty of fresh springs, let all the water run to waste, that you may have the triumph of distilling from the brine?”

We endeavored to explain to him the causes of our late hours; but we were astounded when he had made us compute the saving in oil, and gas, and tallow, which might be effected by a general resolution to use daylight as far as it would go.

The city at which this conversation took place is named from its celebrated warm baths, supplied by springs issuing from a mountain in the vicinity; one of the greatest curiosities in the country, both from the natural phenomena it exhibits, being evidently an extinct volcano, from which it received its name of Mount Peril, and from the extraordinary tradition of the superstitious ordeal formerly connected with it.