Two Years in New South Wales: Comprising Sketches of the Actual State of Society in that Colony; of Its Peculiar Advantages to Emigrants; of Its Topography, Natural History, &c. &c

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Henry Colburn, 1827 - Convicts - 346 pages

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Page 61 - Free-will they one way disavow, Another, nothing else allow. All piety consists therein In them, in other men all sin. Rather than fail, they will defy That which they love most tenderly, Quarrel with minc'd pies, and disparage Their best and dearest friend, plum-porridge; Fat pig and goose itself oppose, And blaspheme custard through the nose. Th...
Page 61 - When strolling through the streets of Sydney on first landing, very singular reflections will naturally intrude upon the mind, on perceiving the perfect safety with which you may jostle through the crowds of individuals now suffering, or who have suffered, the punishment awarded by the law for their offences : men banished often for the deepest crimes, and with whom, in England, you would shudder to come in contact.
Page 75 - ... the town containing twenty-two agents for the management of shipping affairs ; eleven auctioneers for expeditiously disposing of colonial and foreign wares ; a chamber of commerce to push forward and watch over colonial enterprise, effect insurances, and arbitrate in matters relating to shipping ; two flourishing banks, dividing forty per cent, on their advances ; and three newspapers, (one weekly, and two printed twice a week,) in one of which I counted one day 124 advertisements.
Page 241 - ... telling me they had never been half so well off in their lives before. It was most amusing to read the letters they sent to their friends on being fairly settled on board, (all such going through the surgeon's hands,) none ever failing to give a most circumstantial account of what the breakfast, dinner, and supper, consisted of; a minute list of the clothes supplied, and generally laying particular emphasis on the important fact of having a blanket and bed to " my own self entirely," which seemed...
Page 74 - ... distilleries ; — while four steammills, ten water-mills, eighteen windmills, and two horse-mills, furnish us with an abundance of excellent flour from our own wheat ; two very extensive distilleries, with several hundred thousand gallons annually of a pure spirit from our barley' and maize ; and thirteen breweries, with ale and beer from our various descriptions of colonial grain, — eight thousand hogsheads being the average yearly amount of this wholesome beverage supplied to the public....
Page 104 - ... push with his hind legs, that it is two to one but he drives you heels over head! This is all done in what he considers facetious play, with a view of giving you a hint to examine your pockets, and see what...
Page 312 - The young are attached by the mouth to the nipple in somewhat the same way as the placenta of other animals is attached to the uterus, the mouth being contracted round the nipple, which swells out like a cherry inside it, nourishing the foetus by means of absorption through this indirect channel, the mouth and nipple adhering so strongly that it requires considerable force to separate them.
Page 54 - They grow up tall and slender, like the Americans, and are generally remarkable for that Gothic peculiarity of fair hair and blue eyes which has been noticed by other writers. Their complexions, when young, are of a reddish sallow, and they are for the most 294 part easily distinguishable - even in more advanced years - from those born in England.
Page 268 - Several went out with me on these very terms ; and among them, one merry youth of two-and-twenty, whose father had been transported while he was a child in arms, and a brother at a later period. This brother had followed the fortunes of the father by special invitation, to assist him in the cultivation of his farm, and the youngster I speak of was therefore the second son induced to entitle himself to a seven years
Page 46 - Paramatta frocks and trowsers, or grey or yellow jackets with duck overalls, (the different styles of dress denoting the oldness or newness of their arrival,) all daubed over with broad arrows, P.

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