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History of New South Wales From the Records
VOLUME 1 - GOVERNOR PHILLIP 1783-1789G. B. Barton - 1889
Preface
The attainment by the colony of the Centennial period of its existence, appeared to the Government of New South Wales an appropriate occasion for the preparation, at the public cost, of a comprehensive history, embodying information obtainable from all known sources, and of such an authentic character as to form a reliable basis for the labours of the future historian. The duty of preparing this important work having been entrusted to me, it seemed necessary, in order to do justice to the valuable collection of records placed in my hands by the Government, to make them the groundwork of a narrative written on an essentially different plan from that of any previous one on the subject (1).
In no account of the country yet published have the records relating to its early years been made use of, at any length. There is but one in which they are quoted or referred to (2); but the plan on which it was written did not permit of extensive references to them, and consequently an occasional paragraph from the despatches furnishes the only indication of the mine beneath. At the same time, the exigency of space apparently required the author to condense the history of the colony to an extent which rendered any adequate treatment of the subject impossible. The narrative of events from 1787 to 1792 - the term of Phillip's command - is compressed into some eighty pages. In three other well known works, not even a reference to the records can be found; and the narrow limits within which the writers moved may be seen from the fact that the period in question is disposed of in forty pages by one, in fifty by a second, and in less than seventy by a third (3).
It is obvious that the events connected with the foundation of the colony, extending as they did over several years, cannot be satisfactorily treated on such a plan, in any work pretending to be historical. When a mass of material, more than enough in itself to form a volume, is condensed into a few pages, the result cannot be history in the proper sense of the term; it is, in fact, nothing more than elaborated almanac. For many reasons, the period in question might be termed the most important as well as the most interesting in our annals; and the records relating to it cannot fail to command attention wherever the history of an infant nation is regarded with interest - whether as a matter of national concern, or simply as a field for the development of novel theories in politics and sociology.
No one can read the letters and despatches written by Phillip without feeling the varied interest - human as well as historical - that attaches to them. Extending as they do over the whole period of his connection with the colony, they contain all the essential facts connected with its foundation and its years of infancy, when its life seemed so often trembling in the balance; but at the same time we have something more than the essential facts; for we find them everywhere interwoven with many little details of social life, as well as of Phillip's personal experience, which often, no doubt, fall far below "the dignity of history," but are much too valuable as well as interesting to be omitted. His despatches were written out from his journal, and consequently they possess the peculiar charm which makes all journals more or less attractive; great historical events and little personal matters being mixed up in the narrative just as they are in daily life. Many of the trifling details with which the reader will meet in these pages may perhaps lead him to ask - why should such trivial passages be printed in a history? A little consideration, however, will show that they have their historical as well as their personal value. Even when we find Phillip repeating himself, as he often does, his repetitions are worth preserving, because they serve to show how his mind was working at the time, and in that way they reveal the character of the man as well as the circumstances by which he was surrounded. For similar reasons it has been thought proper to publish his written words exactly as he wrote them, without making any attempt to correct his spelling and grammar, or to smooth the rugged surface of his style.
The historical value of these records will be appreciated when it is remembered that no similar series exists in the case of any other country. If we turn for comparison to the history of the American colonies, the difference is as great as that between a landscape lying in the sunshine, and one dimly seen through the mists and clouds of winter. In the preface to a history of the province of New York, written in 1756, the author said - "Ecept some accounts of the settlements in Massachusetts Bay and Virginia, all other histories of our plantations upon the continent are little else than collections of falsehoods, and worse than none." It is not quite clear from this passage whether the exception was intended to include the most famous of all the American chronicles - "the General Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, by Captain John Smith, sometymes Governour in those Countryes, and Admirall of New England;" but it is certainly open to some such criticism. Captain Smith's work is the best specimen of a personal narrative of Americal colonisation which English literature can produce; and it is worth while to consider its literary character in order to appreciate our own good fortune in the matter of historical materials (4). The reader can form a good estimate of the Captain's value as a chronicler from a passage in his dedication to the duchess of Richmond, in which he recounts some of the romantic passages in his life:-
The beauteous Lady Tragabigdanza, when I was a slave to the Turks, did all she could to secure me. When I overcame the Bashaw of Nalbrits in Tartaria, the charitable Lady Callamata supplied my necessities. In the utmost of many extremities, that blessed Pokahontas, the great King's daughter of Virginia, oft saved my life. When I escaped the cruelty of pirates and most furious storms, a long time alone in a small boat at sea, and driven ashore in France, the good lady Madam Chanoyes bountifully assisted me.
Captain Phillip had not any such conquests as these to boast of; we do not know that he captivated a single princess among the sable tribes he met with in such numbers on these shores, and so far the tale he has to tell derives no charm from romance. No blessed Pokahontas figures in his story; but what it wants in point of sentiment is more than atoned for by its realistic pictures of the life around him. The American chronicler leaves his reader in doubt as to when he is relating plain facts and when he is merely filling up gaps with imaginery adventures. Phillip never leaves us in doubts as to any matter he deals with; although his language has neither point nor polish, it is minutely circumstantial and therefore free from suspicion - free, too, from the stilted phraseology of official correspondence.
Similar criticism might be applied to those of his contemporaries, - Collins, Hunter, King, Tench, and White - who wrote their journals from day to day during the first years of the settlement. The sketches left by these men, each of whom wrote from a different point of view, combine to make up a perfectly faithful picture of the great event in which they were concerned - a picture as accurate in every line as a photograph; for had the sketchers been using sunlight instead of ink for the scenes they described, their work could not have been more true to nature than it is. Where in the history of colonisation shall we look for equally faithful work on the part of chroniclers? In the records left by Phillip and his companions, the natural evolution of that complex organism which we call society may be studied as minutely as the naturalist examines the movements of an insect under a microscope. The rudimentary limbs and organs may be seen slowly developing themselves out of the embyro; struggling into existence, it is true, under the most unfavourable conditions, and frequently threatened with death from inanition; but still showing a native vigour which enabled them to survive the perils that surrounded them, and attain their full development in later years.
For the purpose of constitutional study in particular, the importance of such records as these cannot be overestimated. Every one who has sought to master the constitutional history of England knows how difficult it is to get any clear understanding of the origin of those institutions, legal and political, which make up what is called the English Constitution. It was not until the scholars of the present day made their laborious investigations among the records of the Saxon and the Norman period that the student was enabled to trace those institutions back through successive ages to their earliest forms; to see, for instance, the right of trial by jury, of personal liberty, of parliamentary government, of free speech, and every other right valued by Englishmen, growing out of their rude surroundings as easily as he can follow the gradual developments of vertebrate life in the collections of a museum. Great as the difference is between a colony and its parent State, there is no absurdity in comparing the constitutional growth of one with that of the other. The lapse of a hundred years has given this country a history, and the peculiar circumstances under which it has grown to its present dimensions lend an unusual interest to the examination of its successive stages - from the small military camp under Governor Phillip, to the great group of colonies in the present day (5).
The final section of this volume contains the Bibliography of Terra Australis, New Holland, and New South Wales to the year 1820, in which many historical references of some interest will be found, as well as a catalogue of all the various publications on the subject. "Knowledge," said Dr. Johnson, "is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we inquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and the backs of books in libraries." The force of this remark will be appreciated by every one who has paid any attention to the history of this country. To know what books have treated of it, from the earliest times to the present day, is an essential preliminary to the study; but hitherto the bibliography of the subject has been left almost untouched. The present attempt being the first of the kind that has been made here, the result cannot pretend to be complete; like the rest of the work, it has to contend with very adverse conditions as regards time and materials. Before such a catalogue can be made, it would be necessary to search the public libraries of Holland, France, Spain, and Portugal, as well as those of England; because there can be no doubt that many publications relating to this part of the world - from the first indications of its existence down to recent periods - have appeared from time to time in those countries, of which we know nothing.
It is much to be wished that some effort should be made for the purpose of obtaining as complete a collection of those publications as can now be made; and also that the Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese archives should be carefully searched for the purpose of procuring authentic copies of all State papers relating to this country. It is not until these materials shall have been obtained that we can hope to arrive at any satisfactory conclusions with respect to the only portion of our history that still remains buried in obscurity. By a remarkable fatality, almost every writer who has had to deal with the past ages of Australia has felt impelled to begin with an account of the early voyages of discovery - on much the same principle that historians of old used to commence with the creation of the world. To deal with the subject of discovery, in the darkness which still surrounds it, is hardly a less difficult task than that of the learned Burgomaster Witsen, when he undertook to write on the Migrations of Mankind. We have only to recall the various theories with respect to the question of priority among the discoverers in order to see the existing state of confusion. There are at least five such theories still in existence: one sets up the Malays and the Chinese as the first discoverers; another the French; a third, the Portuguese; a fourth, the Spaniards; and a fifth, the Dutch. Each of these theories is supported by a great deal of argument and some evidence; but nothing seems to come of either but doubt and despair. To show how unsettled the question still remains, it is enough to mention that Major, in 1859, considered it highly probable that the Portuguese discovered the country between 1511 and 1529, and almost certain that they discovered it before 1542; but having found a mappemonde in the British Museum two years afterwards, he came to the conclusion that the country was positively discovered by the Portuguese in 1601 - the Dutch being thus summarily dispossessed of an honour they had enjoyed for more than two centuries. Further researches enabled the lucky discoverer of the map to satisfy himself that it was "an abominable imposture," and the laurel crown was thereupon handed back to the Dutch (6). Unfortunately, however, the detection of the imposture escaped the notice of many who had read the account of the map - among them being the author of a valuable work on the History of Australian Exploration, in whose pages it appears as unquestioned evidence of "a Portuguese discovery of Australia immediately preceeding the Dutch one (7)." However interesting the point of priority may be, it is a matter of little importance compared with a reasonably accurate knowledge of the whole subject - for which we must wait until it is treated, like any other branch of inquiry, according to the critical methods of the present day.
NOTE:
I have to express my obligations to Mr. D. R. Hawley, Assistant Librarian of the Free Public Library, for his cordial assistance in the examination of authorities, which has been greatly facilitated by his extensive knowledge of books; to Mr. T. A. Coghlan, Government Statistician, for the statistical returns compiled by him on the subject of transportation; to Mr. F. M. Bladen, of the Government Printing Office; and also to Mr. Charles Potter, the Governemtn Printer, whose proposal for a new edition of the Official History of New South Wales (1883), in commemoration of the Centennial Year, led to the present work.
G. B. B.
Notes:
(1) The collection comprises authentic copies of the records relating to New South Wales, preserved in the Public REcord Office in London, and also in various departments of the State; the copies having been made under instructions from the Colonial Secretary (Sir Henry Parkes, G. C. M. G.) by Mr. James Bonwick, an experienced archivist, whose contributions to Australian history are well known in the colonies. It also includes original records in the office of the Colonial Secretary at Sydney; others lent by the Hon. Philip Gidley King, M. L. C., grandson of Governor King; and lastly, the valuable letters and other documents left by Sir Joseph Banks, which came into the possession of the present Lord Brabourne and were purchased from him by the Agent-General (Sir Saul Samuel, K. C. M. G.) on behalf of the Government.
(2) Rusden, History of Australia, 1883.
(3) Lang, Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales, 1834, vol I, pp. 21-60; Flanagan, History of New South Wales, 1862, vol I, pp. 21-71; Bennett, History of Australian Discovery and Colonisation, 1867, pp. 107-171. The fact mentioned in the text does not detract in any way from the merits of these works, which were all written with definite ends in view.
(4) Doyle, The English in America, pp. 554-8
(5) In the course of his letter to Lord Knutsford, of the 28th February, 1889 - in which he discussed the relations between the Home government and these colonies, with particular reference to the Commission and Instructions issued to their Governors, - Chief Justice Higinbotham, of Victoria, remarked: "I have not seen a copy of an Australian Governor's Commission and Instructions of an earlier date than 1850." It is a curious fact that although Governor Phillip's Commission and Instructions form the foundation of our political system, they have never been published until the present day.
(6) Early Voyages to Terra Australis, p. lxiv; Archaeologia, vol. xxxviii, p. 438; Prince Henry the Navigator, p. 296 n.
(7) Favene, History of Australian Exploration (Sydney, 1888), p. 21.
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