Chapter IV: Time of Trial and Triumph (1)

(1763-1815).

(1) TIGHTENING OUR HOLD ON INDIA.

1. The Seven Years' War, which came to a close in 1763, left Britain everywhere triumphant. But she was not left long to enjoy her triumph. Days of darkness came upon her, bringing defeat and disaster, and the loss of her principal colonies. Everywhere she had to fight to hold her own. And how well this was done for her in India by one of her ablest sons our story shall now tell.

2. If Clive was the founder of British rule in India, Warren Hastings was its preserver. Like Clive, he began his career as a clerk in the service of the East India Company. In the Bengal war he shouldered a musket and fought at Plassey; but Clive's quick eye soon perceived that there was more in his head than his arm, and he employed him as his agent at the court of the new nawab, Meer Jaffier. From this time Hastings steadily rose in the Company's service, until, in 1774, he was made Governor-General of India, the first to hold that office.

3. India at this time was a medley of nations under the nominal headship of the "Great Mogul"; but his power was very limited, and the princes who ruled in his name did much as they pleased. The most powerful of these native rulers were the Mahratta chiefs, and for many years it was a question whether the Mahrattas or the British should be the leading power in India.

4. The original seat of this fierce and cunning people was the wild range of hills that run along the western coast of India. When the Mogul empire fell to pieces, some time previously, the Mahratta chiefs made themselves masters of the central provinces, with Poona as their headquarters. They founded states which spread from sea to sea, and their sword was always at the service of the highest bidder. They were almost equally dreaded by friend and foe; the former were ruined by the heavy pay they extorted, and the latter had their country ravaged by fire and sword. Their cavalry moved in large bodies with marvellous speed, and wherever "their kettledrums were heard the peasant threw his bag of rice on his shoulder, hid his small savings in his girdle, and fled with his wife and children to the mountains or jungles, to the milder neighbourhood of the hyæna and the tiger."

5. Such were the people with whom Hastings had to contend for the safety of the British dominions in India. Hearing that France had sent an envoy to form an alliance with them, our governor-general determined to strike a decisive blow before a French force could arrive. The first general sent by Hastings bungled and failed. A new commander was appointed who spread the military renown of the British through regions where no European flag had ever been seen. Captain Popham, in particular, gained great applause by his capture of the great rock-fortress of Gwalior--a feat which all had thought impossible. At dead of night he led his forces, their feet wrapped in cotton, to the foot of the fortress. By means of ladders they silently scaled a smooth wall of rock, sixteen feet high. Above, a steep ascent of forty yards was climbed. A few of the sepoys were then drawn up a wall thirty feet high by ropes let down by some spies, and on being joined by their comrades, rushed forward and overpowered the sleeping garrison, thus gaining possession of the far-famed fortress.

6. Meanwhile our governor-general made all ready for the French. He knew that France had declared war (1778), and that a great French expedition was on the way. To Hastings' great delight there arrived from England, to take the chief command of the forces, Sir Eyre Coote, the hero of Wandewash, and the idol of the sepoys who had fought under him. An incident is mentioned by an English officer, half a century later, which shows the high honour in which Coote was held by the native soldiers. One of his veterans came to the officer who tells the story to present a memorial. Seeing a print of Coote hanging in the room, he at once recognised the face and figure which he had not seen for fifty years, and, forgetting his salute to the living, halted, drew himself up, lifted his hand, and made a solemn bow to the dead.

7. Coote's services were soon required after his arrival at Calcutta. A swift ship flying before the south-west monsoon brought the news that a great army of 90,000 men, under the direction of French officers, had poured down through the wild passes that led from the table-land of Mysore to the plains of the Carnatic. They had swept down under the command of Hyder Ali, a soldier of fortune, who had raised himself to the throne of Mysore, and who now sought, with the help of the French and the Mahrattas, to drive the British out of India. His squadrons had burst upon the Carnatic like a furious storm, spreading desolation and ruin far and wide, routing the small British force that stood in their way, and driving all before them up to the gates of Madras.

8. Such was the state of things in Southern India when Sir Eyre Coote arrived from Calcutta with all the troops that the governor-general could collect. He happily reached Madras before the expected French fleet appeared in the Indian seas. Without an hour's delay Coote sought the enemy, and brought him to battle at Porto Novo, a haven some forty miles south of Pondicherry. Though he could only muster nine thousand men to oppose a force ten times as numerous, yet after six hours of conflict the enemy fled in dismay. Every town on the coast under French rule was seized at once, so that when the French fleet arrived it found no port where it could refit. Its nearest station was in the Mauritius, two thousand miles away.

9. Many forgotten battles, with varying fortune, were fought in the five years that followed this great victory; but by 1783 the war had burnt itself out, leaving the Carnatic a scene of desolation. In Bengal, however, our governor-general had been able to maintain peace and to insure to the natives the fruits of their labours. "Under the nawabs," says Macaulay, "the hurricane of Mahratta cavalry had passed annually over the rich plain of the Ganges. But even the Mahratta shrank from a conflict with the mighty children of the sea; and the rich harvests of the Lower Ganges were safely gathered in under the protection of the English sword." One homely instance may be given of the general security felt by the poor natives under British rule. "A good rain this for the bread," said one Indian peasant to another. "Yes," was the reply, "and a good government under which one may eat bread in safety."

10. In all his schemes for the success of his rule and the honour of his country, Hastings was constantly thwarted by a member of the Supreme Council, named Francis. The quarrel between them at last, according to the custom of those days, led to a duel. In this duel, we get a glimpse of the calm courage and high spirit of the man, who was as a pillar on which rested the whole fabric of our rule in India. The seconds in the duel had taken the precaution to bake the powder for their respective friends, nevertheless, Francis' pistol missed fire. Hastings obligingly waited until he had reprimed. This time the pistol went off, but the shot flew wide of the mark. Then Hastings coolly returned the shot, and the bullet entered the right side of his foe. As soon as he was well enough to travel Francis went home to England, and poisoned men's minds against him.

11. Hastings, indeed, had laid himself open to attack in his schemes for raising money to pay his troops. The means he adopted for this purpose has left a stain on his name, and an uncomfortable feeling upon the minds of his countrymen that our empire in India has not always been built on honourable lines. On Hastings' return to England he was brought to trial for the wrongs he had committed in the course of his government. The fact was clearly brought out at his trial that, whatever his measures for obtaining money, he had taken them with the object, not of enriching self, but of promoting the interests of his country. After the trial had drawn its weary length over a period of seven years, the accused was acquitted. The nation had by this time forgotten his faults and remembered only his great services, whereby he had preserved Britain from loss in the East whilst her fortunes underwent eclipse in the West.

(2) A GREAT LOSS TO THE EMPIRE.

1. The triumphs in the Seven Years' War had not been won without great cost. A long score had been run up by the nation, and to pay the interest on the National Debt heavy taxes had to be borne. If the money spent in the last war was not to be thrown away, it was necessary to spend still more in order to defend what British arms had won. The American colonies, also, were constantly exposed to Indian raids, and the savage use of the scalping-knife. It was, accordingly resolved by the British Government to keep a standing army in America of ten thousand men. And for the maintenance of such an army it was only just that the colonists should contribute.

2. A dispute now arose between the colonists and the Home Government, not about the amount which the former should pay, but upon the way in which the demand for payment was made. The British Parliament asserted its right to tax the colonists and insisted on levying a tax on tea. The colonists urged that they should be left free to tax themselves in their own colonial parliaments. "We will not allow," said they, "the British Parliament to thrust their hands into our pockets." The dispute ended in war. The thirteen American colonies banded together, and declared themselves free and independent states (1776).

3. In the war that followed the colonists gained the day. They owed their success, in no small measure, to George Washington, their Commander-in-chief. It was only as the weary fight went on that his countrymen learnt, little by little, the greatness of their leader--his silence under difficulties, his calmness in the hour of danger or defeat, the patience with which he waited for an opportunity, the quickness and vigour with which he struck home when it came.

4. But success was due still more to the help the colonists received from France and Spain. These two powers had been brought to their knees in the Seven Years' War, and now they resolved to take advantage of the family quarrel between Britain and her colonies to pay off old scores: "to avenge," as they said, "old injuries, and to put an end to that tyrannical empire which England has usurped, and claims to maintain, upon the ocean." The main object the French had in view was not, as we might suppose, the reconquest of Canada, but the transfer to herself of the British possessions in the West Indies. Spain's heart was set on the recovery of Gibraltar. Both nations made a solemn vow to grant neither peace nor truce until Gibraltar had fallen.

5. Spain set about the siege of Gibraltar the moment she had declared war (1779). The difficulty on our side was not to keep the enemy from landing, but to keep the garrison supplied with provisions and ammunition. Our fleets, however, proved equal to the task. They were led to victory by Admiral Rodney, one of the greatest of English seamen. He not only escorted his own provision ships into the harbour of Gibraltar, but on the way captured a Spanish squadron of seven ships-of-war and sixteen supply ships, which were added to his own for the victualling of Gibraltar. A week later, when off Cape St. Vincent, Rodney espied a Spanish fleet of eleven sail-of-the-line, gave chase, and cutting in between the enemy and his port, captured the Commander-in-chief, with six of his battle-ships, whilst a seventh was blown up.

6. The siege went on for three years. At last the allies, in September, 1782, resolved to bend all their energies to finish off the work. On the isthmus, joining the rock to the mainland, they planted 300 pieces of artillery, and in front of the rock ten floating batteries, which were supposed to be both shot and fire proof. War-ships, gun-boats, and bomb-vessels were to lend their aid. Thousands of French soldiers were brought to reinforce the Spaniards, all held in readiness for a grand assault as soon as the guns had made a breach large enough for troops to enter.

7. For four days the guns on the isthmus bombarded the fortress in vain. Then the floating-batteries were brought into action. A furious cannonade raged for hours between the batteries afloat and the batteries on the rock. General Eliott, who was in command of the fortress, served his guns with red-hot balls, and at last, in spite of the enemy's frantic efforts to extinguish the fire, one of the batteries was well ablaze, and soon the same fate overtook the others. In the end, nine of the ten blew up, and about two thousand poor fellows were blown into the sea. Our commander then showed that he was as humane as he was brave. The British guns ceased firing, and boats, rowed by willing British hands, rescued four hundred from death. Thus ended the last attempt to take Gibraltar by storm.

8. A few months before her triumph at Gibraltar, Britain won a signal victory over the French in the West Indies. A French fleet, under Admiral De Grasse, consisting of thirty-six war-ships, with five thousand troops on board, was ordered to join a Spanish fleet of fourteen men-of-war, carrying eight thousand troops, off Hayti, and then clear the British out of Jamaica and all their West India possessions. Had the junction taken place, the combined armada of fifty ships might have accomplished the task. But the scheme came to nought in consequence of a splendid victory over the French fleet by Admiral Rodney.

9. The battle was fought in April, 1782, near a group of islets called the _Saints_, which gives its name to the battle. For four days the two fleets manoeuvred, circling round each other like two birds of prey on the wing, each admiral trying to place his antagonist at a disadvantage. At last Rodney's chance had come. The signal was given for attack. The British fleet glided on, each ship a cable's length, or about two hundred yards, from her neighbour; and so perfect was the line, we are told, "that a bucket dropped from the leading ship might have been picked up by almost any ship that followed." Rodney drew his ships within musket-shot of the enemy's, and then began a cannonade that soon wrapped the two lines in smoke and flame through their whole length. All the time the ships are in movement, the two lines sailing in opposite directions, and pouring in their shot as ship passes ship.

10. At length the crisis has come. One of the French ships is disabled and leaves a gap between itself and the next. Rodney immediately pushes his ship through the gap, thus breaking the French line. In breaking the line, says an eye-witness, "we passed so near the lame French ship that I could see the gunners throwing away their sponges and hand-spikes in order to save themselves by running below." The captains coming next to the admiral follow him through the fatal gap, thus crumpling up the French centre, and placing the French flag-ship and six others between two fires.

11. De Grasse fought his flag-ship like a gallant sailor. She was the finest ship afloat carrying 106 guns and a crew of 1300 men. In vain he signalled for help. The ships that had formed his van and his rear were flying in opposite directions. The British ships, one after another, drew round the doomed ship. When his cartridges were exhausted, De Grasse ordered powder barrels to be hoisted from the hold, and loose powder to be poured into the guns with a ladle. By sunset there were but three unwounded men on the upper deck. More slain or wounded men lay around her guns than in Rodney's whole fleet. At six o'clock, the unfortunate admiral, with his own hands, hauled down his flag.

12. Six ships fell to the British, but one caught fire and burned to the water's edge, while three were so mauled that they foundered before reaching port. The battle of Saints is famous for the skilful tactics of the victor and for the important results of the victory. Combined with the successful defence of Gibraltar, it induced the allies to bring the war to a close by the Treaty of Versailles (1783). By this treaty the independence of the United States was acknowledged. But beyond the loss of her American colonies, Britain had weathered the storm with little damage to herself.

13. The forcible separation, however, between the mother-country and her colonies bequeathed for many generations a feeling of bitterness between the two nations. But a better day has now dawned. A new bond of sympathy has arisen between them as two branches of the same Anglo-Saxon race. They are divided by a wide ocean, but at critical times it has been plainly proved that "blood is thicker than water." A voice has passed across the ocean from either side, and this is the message it tells:--

"Kinsmen, hail!
We severed have been too long:
Now let us have done with a worn-out tale,
The tale of an ancient wrong,
And our friendship last long as Love doth last,
And be stronger than death is strong."

(3) AUSTRALASIA BROUGHT TO LIGHT.

1. Britain had now lost her chief colonies in the New World, but a newer world was waiting for her to occupy. This newer world was Australia, whose existence was not known until fifty years after Columbus made his famous discovery. The first to get a glimpse of Australia were the Dutch, who called it New Holland; but they only touched on its northern and western coasts, and knew nothing of the extent and character of the interior. To a Dutchman also, named Tasman, is due the honour of having first lighted on New Zealand and Tasmania, but he did little or nothing in exploring these lands and mapping out their coasts. It was reserved for an Englishman, the famous Captain Cook, to explore the coasts and definitely fix the situation of those southern lands that now form so important a part of King Edward's Realm.

2. This celebrated explorer was the son of a day-labourer in Yorkshire, and, when a boy of six or seven, was set to work at bird-scaring on a farm. The farmer's wife, taking an interest in the lad, taught him to read and write, which few poor boys in his days were able to do. A year or two later we find him ship-boy to a collier. Whilst serving as a sailor before the mast, James Cook did what was seldom done by men in his position, he went on with his learning, and mastered the rules of navigation and the mode of making charts. For thirteen years he went on learning his business as a mariner, and training himself to take things as they came and to look on hardships and coarse or scanty fare as matters of no account in a seaman's life.

3. On the outbreak of the Seven Years' War Cook's chance came to him. He entered the royal navy, and by his talents attracted the notice of his captain and was appointed "master" of the _Mercury_. Whilst holding this post he was sent to the St. Lawrence to prepare for Wolfe's expedition to Quebec, by taking soundings of the river and laying down a chart. So well was this work done that not only did the fleet reach Quebec without a mishap, but the work has needed but little re-doing from that day to this. This service to his country was not forgotten; and when it was resolved to send an exploring expedition to the Southern Ocean, James Cook was placed in command.

4. Between 1768 and 1779, Captain Cook made three voyages of discovery from end to end of the great Pacific Ocean, from the impassable barrier of ice in the south to that in the north. During that time he did more to fill up the blanks on the map of the world than any man before or since. In his first voyage Captain Cook set sail in the _Endeavour_--a mere collier of 370 tons, but stout and strong, built for safety rather than speed, and worked by a crew of eighty-five men. The explorer made direct for Tahiti, and after refitting his ship and refreshing his men at this earthly Paradise set sail for New Zealand.

5. Though discovered long ago by Tasman, no white man had yet set foot on it. During his three voyages Cook thoroughly explored and mapped out its coasts. He often landed and made the acquaintance of some of the chiefs. The natives, who called themselves _Maoris_, proved to be a warlike race of cannibals, who not only ate human flesh, but boasted of the practice. The natives derived much benefit from the visits of the explorer; for he introduced many useful animals and plants, including pigs, fowls, potatoes, and turnips.

6. The captain in his Journal tells us that the Maoris paid no attention to musketry fire unless actually struck, but "great guns they did, because they threw stones further than they could comprehend. After they found that our arms were so superior to theirs, and that we took no advantage of that superiority, and a little time was given them to reflect upon it, they ever after were our good friends." He also found in them a sense of honour which kept them true to any bargain or agreement they had made.

7. The great explorer next sailed for Australia, then almost an unknown land. Cook was the first to visit the East Coast, which he explored with great care. The first point of Australia seen by his look-out man was Cape Howe, in the south-east corner of the country. A few days later the _Endeavour_ anchored in Botany Bay, which owes its name to the great variety of new plants seen there.

8. The English made there their first acquaintance with the natives, who on seeing the strange vessel near the shore did not seem to take the slightest notice; "they were," says Cook, "to all appearance wholly unconcerned about us, though we were within half-a-mile of them." And even when the sailors threw among them little presents of beads and pieces of cloth, they regarded such things with indifference. The only thing they cared to accept was food, and this, when given them, they greedily devoured. They were neither excited to wonder by the ship nor overawed by the sound of its guns. They were evidently savages of a low order, not intelligent enough to be curious. They stood sullenly aloof, and would enter into no relation with the stranger.

9. For the next three or four months the explorer proceeded northwards, making a careful survey of the coasts. At one time it seemed likely that the ship and its crew would perish. After sailing 1300 miles along the East Coast without meeting with any accident, the _Endeavour_ suddenly struck on a part of the Barrier Reef, whose existence at that time was unknown. A great hole was knocked in the vessel. A sail, with a quantity of wool and oakum lightly stitched to it, was placed beneath the ship with ropes, and served in some measure to stop the leak. The ship was at length got off the rock, brought to land and beached for repairs, at a spot in Queensland where now stands Cooktown.

10. Cook afterwards completed the survey of the East Coast and gave the name of New South Wales to the whole country, from Cape York to Cape Howe. Already at Botany Bay, and at other landing places, Cook had hoisted the British Flag, and now, before quitting Australia on his homeward way, he once more landed and took formal possession in the name of King George. Thus he added what turned out a whole continent to the British Empire, and that without sacrificing a single life in battle; and thus in great measure he made up for our loss in the New World by opening the door of a newer world which our people might enter and occupy.

(4) FIRST SETTLEMENT IN AUSTRALIA.

1. In former times we used to get rid of our criminals by sending them across the seas to work, as forced labourers, on the farms of our colonists in America. But when the colonists rose in rebellion and fought for independence, they refused to take any longer our thieves and vagabonds. As the war went on our prisons became crowded with convicts, and by the time it came to an end (1783) every one saw that some other field for convict labour must be found.

2. An empty continent, whose whereabouts Captain Cook had made known, was waiting to receive any who came from our shores; but it was situated on the opposite side of the globe, twelve thousand miles away. At length, in spite of the distance, Australia was selected as a suitable place for our convicts. And in May, 1787, the first convoy set sail. It carried nearly 800 convicts, with a guard of 200 marines, and was placed under the command of Captain Phillip, who had been appointed governor of the new settlement.

3. The voyage lasted eight months, and in January, 1788, the fleet arrived at Port Jackson, which struck the new-comers as "the finest harbour in the world." All being landed, governor Phillip gathered his subjects around him and made them a little speech, in which he tried to inspire the convicts with new hope, and to make them feel that their future fortune was in their own keeping. He also reminded the marines that after three years' service, they would be at liberty to settle there as colonists with free gifts of land for cultivation. The ships fired three salutes, and the rest of the day was spent as a holiday.

4. This was the last cheery time for many years to come in the lives of the settlers. Hard times lay before them. The first settlement was made on the site of Sydney. The task which lay before the governor was a gigantic one; roads to make, trees to fell, houses to build, crops to plant; and the men and women to help him in the work, for the most part idle and dishonest. Indeed, many of them, as the governor said, "dread punishment less than they fear labour." To add to his troubles, for the first two years a great drought, aided by a fiery sun, baked the soil till it became hard and sterile. The settlers had brought with them seeds and cattle as well as stores of provisions; but the seeds failed to grow, and the cattle broke loose and were lost in the "bush."

5. Within a few months the danger of starvation came so near that the whole colony was put on short rations. To the credit of the governor, in this time of distress, he threw his own private stock into the common store, and shared alike with the rest. To lessen the chance of starving, the governor sent a large party by sea to Norfolk Island, where the soil was less sterile, and more food could be obtained by fishing and fowling. There also it became necessary to collect all private stores of food, and to throw them into one common stock, and deal out a certain quantity daily to each person.

6. Happily the firm government and wise measures adopted in each settlement kept the wolf from the door until fresh supplies came from England. Governor Phillip having shared the privations of his men, and borne the heavy strain of his responsible post for nearly five years, returned home in December, 1792. Few men have been placed in a more difficult position for such a length of time, and none have brought to the fulfilment of such a thankless task as his more courage, devotion, and humanity. "The consideration alone," he says, "of doing a good work for my country could make amends for being surrounded by the most infamous of mankind." The name of Arthur Phillip deserves an honoured place on the roll of the founders of the British Empire.

7. Another convict settlement was soon afterwards made in Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land, as it was then called. And here the worst characters were sent. As early as 1804 a batch of criminals was sent there from England, and a settlement made where Hobart now stands. Through mismanagement the young colony was brought to the verge of starvation. Luckily there were large herds of kangaroo in the island. The governor, being unable to feed his prisoners, permitted them to hunt the kangaroo for their food. In fact, at one time, there was little to eat but kangaroo flesh, and little to wear but kangaroo skins. Many of the convicts became fond of this hunter's life, and preferred the wild freedom of the "bush" to the restraints of convict life under the eye of the governor.

8. Fortunately, before many years had passed, free emigrants came "to try their luck," some to Australia, others to Tasmania, being tempted by the offer of free gifts of land, and the services of well-behaved convicts to help in farm-labour. The free colonists of Tasmania soon found themselves in evil plight. Many of the convicts assigned to them fled into the "bush," where they lived in gangs, as "bushrangers," on violence and robbery. The evil grew to such an extent that, at last, every homestead became the scene of terror and dismay. Nor was "bushranging" the only evil from which Tasmania's early colonists suffered. The native blacks were naturally cruel and crafty, and they had been goaded on to take revenge on the white strangers by the barbarous way in which they had been treated by the runaway convicts.

9. From this desperate state the colony was delivered by Colonel Arthur on his appointment as governor. To him Tasmania owes the foundation of its prosperity. He spared no pains to ascertain his duty and was as rigid as rock in doing it. Under his leadership the settlers banded together against the bushrangers, and defended their homesteads as soldiers in regular warfare. They loopholed their buildings, posted men as sentinels, and held themselves in readiness to fight, both by day and night. The governor rewarded the capture of any bushranger with a grant of land, and before the end of two years the whole gang was taken and executed.

10. Arthur's next care was to relieve the colony of the blacks, between whom and the whites a deadly feud existed. His desire was to collect all the natives and confine them to one district. He assembled all the settlers to aid his troops in driving the poor savages out of their haunts. He placed his men at intervals, so as to form a line stretching across the island, with orders to advance and either catch the blacks or coop them up in a corner of the island. After two months of marching, at an expense of £30,000, the whole operation resulted in the capture of a man and a boy. But kindness succeeded where force failed. They were persuaded by George Robinson, who had proved himself their friend, to withdraw to Flinders Island in Bass Strait. There, to his grief, they rapidly dwindled, and in the course of a few years became extinct.

11. Both natives and convicts have long disappeared from Tasmania, and the colonist can now live there in peace and quietness, in a land of natural beauty with an agreeable climate. It is not a country where a fortune can be rapidly made, but where food is plentiful and labour well paid.

(5) PIONEER WORK IN AUSTRALIA.

1. The chief source of wealth in Australia is, and always has been, its excellent wool. The founder of the wool industry was Captain McArthur, whose quick eye saw from the first that the country was best adapted to sheep-farming. He also saw that the value of sheep in this far-away country, with its scanty population, would depend upon their wool rather than their flesh. He accordingly introduced some Spanish merino sheep, and succeeded in producing a breed of animals that thrived well on the grasses of the country and grew wool of the finest quality. MacArthur, therefore, is entitled to the credit of having laid the foundation of Australian prosperity. With the same stroke of business, he did a great service to the mother-country. The war then raging with France and Spain--just before their defeat at Trafalgar--had cut off from English looms the supplies of Spanish wool on which they had hitherto relied. Thus the colony that had been chiefly valued by the Home Government as a dumping-ground for criminals, rose high in their estimation as a country to which our woollen manufacturers would be able to turn for their much-needed wool.

2. Sheep-farming is an industry that demands great stretches of suitable land for sheep-runs. The sheep-farmers of New South Wales, soon found it difficult to get enough elbow-room. You may think this strange, considering the vast expanse of Australia. But in the early days of the colony, the settlers occupied merely a narrow strip between the mountains and the sea. The Blue Mountains, which rose at the back of Sydney, seemed to hem them in, and to cut them off from the unknown country beyond.

3. For the first quarter of a century, few serious efforts were made to cross the range. The early governors, indeed, discouraged all such attempts; for they were afraid of its being made too easy for the convicts to escape, since they were not kept in prison, but put out to farm-labour. But with the coming of Macquarie, as governor, in 1810, all this was changed. He made it his chief business to prepare the colony as a suitable place for free settlers from home, and for such convicts as had served out their time and became free men. He at once set to work to rebuild Sydney, to make roads and bridges, to clear the forests, and to improve the public property in various ways.

4. Seeing the importance of enlarging his domains, he encouraged the free settlers to range as far afield as possible, and induced Blaxland and two others to face the perils of the mountains, and try to find a way to the interior. All previous explorers had failed because they tried to find passes, as is usually done, by following the valleys. But in the Blue Mountains the valleys end in perpendicular cliffs, which say, as plainly as a man can speak, _No road this way_. Blaxland and his companions determined to try the ridges, keeping as high as possible all the time. For several days they pushed through a wild and barren land, cutting every afternoon the track along which their horses, with their packs of provisions, would travel the next morning. On the seventeenth day they stood on the last summit, and saw with great joy the grassy plains that lay beyond.

5. On their return the delighted governor sent off another party to follow the same route and to explore still farther. They reported, on coming back, that the new country was "equal to every demand which this colony may have for extension of tillage and pasture lands for a century to come." The convicts were forthwith set to work to make a road across the Blue Mountains. This difficult undertaking was finished in two years, and in 1815, two months before the Battle of Waterloo brought peace to Europe, the road was ready for traffic.

6. News of the bright prospects of the colony reached England in the nick of time, when the end of the long war with France threw thousands of soldiers, sailors, and workmen out of employment. A stream of emigrants soon began to flow into Australia and to clamour for gifts of land. From this time the colony began to prosper. The work of exploration went steadily on. Little by little it became clear that behind the mountain-range that skirts the east and south-east coasts, there stretched far into the interior vast plains capable of feeding countless flocks, where now millions of sheep furnish wool for the looms of our manufacturers.

7. Many years passed before any explorer came upon an important river. There is, in fact, but one really fine river in Australia, and that is the Murray, which was discovered, in 1830, by Captain Sturt. Sailing down the Murrumbidgee, he found the river take a sudden turn to the south. "We were carried," he writes, "at a fearful rate down between its glowing and contracted banks.... At last we found we were approaching a junction, and all of a sudden we were hurried into a broad and noble river." It was the Murray, and Sturt endeavoured to follow the river to its mouth, which proved to be a distance of a thousand miles.

8. The natives as a rule were few in number, weak, timid, and harmless; but on this occasion they gathered, to the number of six hundred, in a well-chosen position on a shallow reach of the river to dispute its passage, and made their intention clear by yelling and brandishing spears. "As we neared the sandbank," Captain Sturt relates, "I stood up and made signs to the natives to desist, but without success. I took up my gun, therefore, and cocking it, had already brought it to the level. A few seconds more would have closed the life of the nearest savage, for I was determined to take deadly aim, in the hope that the fall of one man might save the lives of many. But, at the very moment when my hand was on the trigger, my purpose was checked by my companion, who directed my attention to another party of blacks on the left bank of the river."

9. "Turning round, I observed four men running at the top of their speed. The foremost of them, as soon as he got ahead of the boat, threw himself from a considerable height into the water. He struggled across the channel to the sandbank, and in an incredibly short time, stood in front of the savage against whom my aim had been directed. Seizing him by the throat he pushed him backwards, and driving all who were in the water upon the bank, he trod its margin with a vehemence and agitation extremely striking. At one time pointing to the boat, at another, shaking his clenched hand in the faces of the most forward, and stamping with passion on the sand, his voice that was at first distinct and clear, was lost in hoarse murmurs." After a river journey of thirty-two days, from this spot, Sturt reached, without further adventure, the coast of South Australia. He observed that near the sea, it widened into a shallow lagoon, which he named Lake Alexandrina, and that its course thence to the sea, was, by shallow channels of shifting sand, difficult to navigate.

10. Colonists followed close on the heels of the explorer. As fast as the news spread of the discovery of suitable lands for crops or sheep-runs, men moved on from less favoured districts to take possession, and the lands thus left vacant, were soon occupied by immigrants from Britain. The arrival of so many free labourers made convict labour no longer necessary, and the feeling of the colonists against the reception of our rogues and scoundrels constantly grew stronger. Accordingly, in 1840, the transportation of convicts to New South Wales came to an end, and a few years later, every colony in Australia shut its gates against them.

(6) REMARKABLE INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

1. We must now return from following the fortunes of our kinsmen on the opposite side of the world, and see what had been going on, meanwhile, at home. There is a vital connection between what was happening here and what we have stated about events out there. If our countrymen were permitted to settle down quietly in Australia, and to take undisputed possession of the whole continent, it was not because no other nation had a desire to appropriate any part of it, but because we alone commanded the great highway that led to its shores. And this command of the seas our forefathers had with might and main to fight for while our countrymen were laying the foundations of a new British state in the Southern Seas.

2. When the Treaty of Versailles was signed (1783), by which Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, it was widely thought that she was ruined, and that she had fallen for ever from her proud place among the nations. The real greatness of a nation is never so well seen as in her conduct after defeat and disaster. In seven years from the loss of the American Colonies, the Prime Minister was able to say, "The country at this moment is in a situation of prosperity greater than in the most flourishing period before the last war." The world was startled to find that Britain, instead of being ruined by her loss, was fast becoming stronger and greater than ever.

3. This marvellous recovery was due, partly to the enterprising character of our countrymen; partly to the vast resources of our country in its stores of coal and iron; and partly to a number of remarkable inventions that enabled us to make the most of those resources. Indeed, the ten years that followed the Treaty of Versailles saw a display of industrial activity in England such as the world had never witnessed before.

4. Owing to inventions by Arkwright and others of machines for the spinning and weaving of cotton, England began to manufacture calicoes and cotton prints for half the world. About the same time Josiah Wedgwood set his wits to work to make porcelain as good as that from China, and became the father of the potteries of Staffordshire. The iron manufacture now began its prosperous career; for the mode of smelting iron with pit-coal, instead of charcoal, had lately been discovered.

5. But the extraordinary advance in British manufactures was due more than to anything else to the improvements made in the steam-engine by James Watt. Under his clever hands the steam-engine became the most powerful and obedient servant of man; and steam became, in consequence, the great motive-power in most of our factories. It would hardly have been possible, however, to make an extensive use of this steam-power unless there had been some cheap way of conveying coal to the seats of manufacture. There were in those days, we must remember, no railways, for no locomotive engine had yet been invented. The place of railways was supplied, in respect to the carriage of coal and other heavy goods, by a network of canals.

6. The introduction of the cotton machines had, at first, a cruel effect upon the work-people. In the long run, however, it brought them vastly more work; for machine-made things being much cheaper than those made by hand, it usually happens that the demand for the cheapened article becomes so much greater as to give more employment than before in its production. But even if this were not so, it is well known now-a-days that it is useless to fight against the introduction of machines. What, for instance, would be the result, if the shoemakers of Northampton set their faces against the introduction of certain labour-saving machines commonly used in America? Unless such machines were used here, the English masters would be undersold by those in America, and the trade in consequence would fall into American hands; for, of course, people will buy where they can get most for their money.

7. But when the new machines for spinning cotton were first set a-going, the uselessness of fighting against their employment was not understood. The hungry workers only knew that the bread was taken out of their mouths by the new machines, and therefore they regarded the inventors--poor men for the most part like themselves--as the enemies of their fellow-workers. Their anger often blazed forth into open violence; machines were smashed and mills wrecked. Baulked in one place, the inventors set up their machines in another, and it was soon found that the bulk of the trade followed the machines.

8. Whatever may have been the effect that the new machines had upon the happiness and well-being of the old hand-workers, it is certain that the country at large gained immensely in wealth. And it was soon to stand in need of every penny it could get. For in 1793 began "the great French war," which ended only with the victory at Waterloo in 1815, a war lasting, with two short intervals, two and twenty years, and so costly that it left us with a National Debt amounting to £880,000,000. That England was able to raise such a huge sum was due in no small measure to the cotton-mill and steam-engine. England, indeed, might well place the statues of Arkwright and Watt side by side with those of Nelson and Wellington; for had it not been for the wealth which the former created, there would have been no well-equipped fleets and armies for the latter to command.

9. Another great source of wealth, during the war itself, was the immense share which England gained of the carrying trade of the world, owing to the security which her merchantmen enjoyed in consequence of the victories of her fleets. While her mines, her looms, her steam-engines were giving her the principal share in the manufacture of goods, ships flying the British flag spread her own products through the world and carried to every part of it the products of other countries. England, in fact, was at once the workshop of European manufactures and the ocean-carrier of its commerce.

(7) NELSON AND NAPOLEON.

1. "The great French War," which began, as we have said, in 1793 and lasted almost two and twenty years, ended triumphantly for the British at Waterloo; but whilst the war continued, it was a great drain on England's resources, and a great strain on her powers of endurance. The war had not long gone on, when it became evident that a great military genius had arisen among the French in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, and that in Horatio Nelson the British had an equally great leader in fighting on the seas.

2. Nelson seems to have been sent into the world to frustrate the proud schemes of Napoleon, though one fought only on land and the other at sea. Nelson's name only appears in our annals between 1793 and 1805, but his career lasted long enough for the fulfilment of his mission, which was to sweep the French war-ships from the sea, and thus save his country from invasion, and its colonies from capture. Such horror and alarm had the French caused by the torrent of blood they had shed in shearing off the heads of their sovereigns and nobles, and by the triumphant tramp of their armies over the neighbouring states, that Nelson only expressed the general feeling of Europe when he said, "_Down, down with the French_, ought to be posted up in the council-room of every country in the world."

3. Nelson first drew the eyes of the whole world upon himself, in 1798, by his famous victory of the Nile. Napoleon Bonaparte had sailed from Toulon with 30,000 troops on board 400 transports, escorted by a fleet of thirteen men-of-war. Nelson who was sent in pursuit with a squadron, also numbering thirteen ships-of-the-line, found the transports empty in the harbour of Alexandria, and the French fleet anchored in the Bay of Aboukir.

4. Imagine thirteen great battle-ships drawn up in a single line parallel with the shore, but on account of the shallow water three miles from it, with the _Orient_, the French flag-ship, in the centre. The ship in the van, at one end of the line, was anchored so close to an island, which stands at the western entrance to the Bay, that no one in the French fleet imagined that there was room for a ship to pass in between them. But as Nelson said, "Where a French ship can swing, an English ship can either sail or anchor."

5. Ship for ship, the French had a decided advantage in the number and size of their guns. Nelson, however, took care not to engage the whole line, but brought the whole weight of his guns to bear upon a part only. This he was able to do by sailing between the French van and the island, five of his ships taking up their stations on the inner side of the enemy's line, and the rest on the outer side. Thus the French van and centre were caught between two fires, whilst the rear ships, being at anchor to leeward, were unable to come to the rescue of their distressed sisters.

6. It was already dusk when the first broadside was fired. Not a moment had been lost in getting into action. Three of Nelson's ships were miles off when the battle began. It was so dark when the _Culloden_ arrived that it struck on a shoal and there lay useless right through the battle. The other two, warned by her fate, reached the scene of action in safety. They came just in time to take the place of the _Bellerophon_, which was retiring maimed and disabled after a combat of more than an hour with the _Orient_, the largest ship afloat. The two new-comers, placing themselves on either side of this monster, made up for delay by the rapidity of their fire.

7. At the end of an hour flames were observed on the poop of the _Orient_. The nearest English ships brought their guns and musketry to bear upon the blazing poop, and made the task of extinguishing the fire quite hopeless. The flames spread rapidly, upward along the masts and the tarred rigging, downward to the lower decks, where her undaunted crew, still ignorant of their approaching doom, worked at the guns. Nelson, who had been struck on the forehead by a flying piece of iron, and for the time almost blinded, demanded to be led on deck, where he gave orders for the boats to be lowered to help in saving the unhappy crew. He then remained watching the progress of the fire. In less than an hour the flames reached the powder-magazine, when a terrific explosion shattered the great vessel into fragments, and hurled the brave seamen into the air. Ten minutes of death-like stillness passed before a gun dared to break the awful pause. In the meantime our sailors were busily rescuing the unfortunate French sailors that had been blown out of their ship.

8. At dawn it was found that the six ships of the French van had hauled down their flag. The _Orient_ having blown up, there were six survivors. Of these three were ashore and helpless; but the other three, being in the rear, had received little injury, and now got under way to make off. On setting sail one of them ran aground. The crew escaped to the beach, and she was then set on fire by the captain, her colours flying as she burned. The two other ships escaped, for only one British ship was in condition to give chase.

9. The crews were so worn out with their night's work that "as soon as the men," writes Captain Miller of the _Theseus_, "had hove our sheet anchor up they dropped under the capstan bars, and were asleep in a moment in every sort of posture." Nelson took the earliest opportunity of returning thanks to God for this great victory:

"_Vanguard_, 2nd August, 1798.

"Almighty God having blessed His Majesty's arms with victory, the Admiral intends returning Public Thanksgiving for the same at two o'clock this day; and he recommends every ship doing the same as soon as convenient.

"HORATIO NELSON."