Chapter XXI: Section III: The Far South

[Sidenote: The far South]

That vast and wonderful responsibility, the burden of Australia, was laid so lightly upon the Anglo-Saxon's shoulders that he has scarcely felt the weight of it at all. Although second to none, and equalled only by one, namely America, in its immense possibilities, it has been less costly in blood and treasure than any other. Partly this is because Australasia lies so remote that no other nation has contested its possession with Great Britain, and partly because the Australian native himself is (or was, for he has nearly disappeared) so poor a specimen of humanity that he could put up no effective fight for the home lands from which the white man was evicting him.

That is a remark, however, which by no means applies to the native people of New Zealand, the Maoris. They were and are a fine people of a very quick intelligence, very brave, and distinguished for their oratory. We need not be surprised that they are so different from the Australian natives, because, although we often think of Australia and New Zealand as near neighbours, they are, as already mentioned, twelve hundred miles apart. It is tolerably certain, from the likeness of the language and other indications, that the Maoris are of the same stock as the Samoans, in Polynesia.

It was not until the eighteenth century that the white man began to take much notice of these great lands in the South. New Zealand was the first to be proclaimed a British possession, in 1787, and the {238} following year is the date of the beginning of the settlement of New South Wales. The founding of the next Australian colony, Queensland, was not until 1824, and five years later again began the colonisation of Western Australia. South Australia was recognised as a separate colony in 1834, and Victoria in 1851.

[Sidenote: Australia]

Of the settlement, and the claiming for the Anglo-Saxon, of these glorious and vast possessions, there is but little to say in this story, because each successive settlement was accomplished with comparatively little interference by the natives and with none whatever from any other white nation. The coast was found to have some splendid harbours, most of the interior was excellent grazing land, and later, profitable gold mines were discovered.

The chief drawback of Australia as a cattle and sheep producing country has always been its liability to long droughts when no rain falls and the grass perishes and the stock dies for lack of food and water. Much trouble arose at one time from the foolish and short-sighted action of the Government at home in transporting criminals thither. In the first instance they were sent to New South Wales and later to Queensland also. Many of these convicts escaped into the bush, and, banding themselves together, became a terror, by the name of bushrangers, to peaceful farmers. Obviously the families of the convicts could not have been brought up in circumstances likely to turn them into good citizens. It is all the more to the credit of the country that it has such a fine population to-day.

The folly and the wickedness of thus filling up a grand new country with the refuse ejected from the old was gradually realised. Transportation of criminals ceased in 1868.

The Australian colonies continued to govern themselves as separate units, under a constitution granted them by the Crown in 1850, for just fifty years. In {239} 1900, by their own request, they were welded into the Commonwealth of Australia, with a Governor-General appointed by the Crown. The federated States are six, that is to say, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Western Australia on the main land, with the island State of Tasmania to the south.

Thus, shortly, it is possible to relate the story of the white man's acquisition of this great continent of the South; but though its story is so short and simple the importance of the part that it is likely to play in the future of this Greatest of all Stories is quite beyond our estimate, but is certain to be very large. Its vacant spaces, ready for the immigrant, are vast. The difficulties created by the droughts are being gradually overcome, as the means of irrigation are improved. The population is vigorous and efficient. Australia sent fighters of splendid bravery and splendid loyalty to aid the mother country in the Great War. The world has yet to learn the possibilities of this young and still undeveloped continent.

The story of New Zealand is very much the story of Australia, except that the New Zealand white settlers did, for a while, suffer much anxiety in their protracted warfare with the coloured race that they found there. It was not until 1861 that the Maoris took up arms in any force against the whites who were gradually driving them out of their ancient territories. Had they known how to combine and act together, and to take advantage of the concealment of the bush, they might have been really dangerous to the white man's rule. But jealousies between the tribes prevented their combination, and a Quixotic pride in braving death and danger seems to have caused them to deem it the act of a coward to creep upon the enemy undetected. They chose rather to dash themselves upon {241} the defence in frontal attacks which cost them very heavy losses. Even so the war dragged on, in a series of intermittent fighting, for ten long years, and in the terms of peace which ended it the Maoris secured for themselves better conditions than before. Their bravery and fine qualities had made an impression, and they received a liberal recognition of their rights. They have proved themselves good friends and citizens of the Empire in the years since.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

{240}

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Sidenote: New Zealand]

The products of New Zealand are very similar to those of Australia. On the whole its climate is more agreeable, because cooler, to the European. As a stock-raising country it has the advantage of not being subject to the same risk of droughts. Assuredly the white race thrives there and produces grand specimens of humanity. Even New Zealand has perhaps not yet begun to play its full part in this Greatest Story, but it has relatively little or none of the vast empty space of the great Australian country. We may know, more or less, the role that New Zealand is to play. Of Australia's share in the drama of the future it is scarcely possible to make even a conjecture.

Thus then, in broad and simple lines, I have tried to sketch the manner in which the white man, and the Anglo-Saxon more than all other white men, has been shouldering the world's burden. That is a political sketch, showing the movements of some of the societies of men and some of the changes in the boundaries of States. But during the last hundred years of our Greatest Story the principal events have been five, of which three only have been of this political character. There is the unification of Italy into a nation, that is the earliest. There is the consolidation of the German States into the national unity of Germany, that is the second. There is the assumption of his burden by {242} the white man, and especially of the Anglo-Saxon, all the world over--that is the third.

The fourth and fifth are not of a political character at all; though more important in our story than any political event. First of these last two, because it came first in time, though I am not sure whether we should rate it first in importance, is the application of steam power to the working of machinery. The second is the discovery of evolution, with all that the word implies, and its turning of men's eyes with glad hope towards a splendid future for human life on the earth, instead of a despairing regret for a vainly imagined splendour in the past.

{243}

INDEX

ABOLITIONISTS, and Anti-Abolitionists, 212, 213

Abraham, Plains of, 133

Abyssinia, 223

Act of Settlement, the, 109, 115

Act of Supremacy, the, 49, 61

Afghanistan, 32 _et passim_, 104, 226, 227, 228

Africa, 4 _et passim_, 218 _et seq._

Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 114, 119

Akbar, Grand Mogul, 34, 67

Alaska, 182

Algiers, 45, 219, 223

Alsace, 206

Alva, Duke of, 57

Angola, 223

Anne, Queen, 101, 109, 110

Anne Boleyn, 47

Appomatox, 214

Assam, 208

Atlantis, 9

Aurungzeb, 104

Austerlitz, battle of, 171

Australia, 237 _et seq._

BALKAN States, the, 182

Barbadoes, 81

Bastille, the, 158

Batavians, the, 155

Bavaria, Elector of, 118

Beluchistan, 227

Bengal, 103, 104

Bermuda, 81

Bismarck, 205, 206

Blake, Admiral, 90

Boers, the, 221

Boer War, the great, 222

Bombay, 103, 104

Boston, U.S.A., 139, 141

Bourbons, the, 58, 60

Boyne, the, battle of, 100

Brahmans, the, 27

Brandenburg, Elector of, 112

Brazil, Emperor of, 208

Bristol, 107

Buddha, 22, 28, 29

Buddhism, 25 _et seq._

Bunker's Hill, battle of, 142

Burgoyne, General, 143

Burma, 208

CABOT, Sebastian, 11, 12

Calais, lost to England, 59

Calcutta, 104

Calendar Stone, the, 17

Calicut, 3, 4

Calvin, 58, 64

Cameroons, the, 224

Carolina, 102

Cashmere, 225

Catherine of Aragon, 41, 47

Catholic League, the, 73

Cavaliers, the, 84 _et seq._

Charles I., 65, 84, 85

Charles II., 94, 95

Charles V., 38 _et seq._

Charles XII., of Sweden, 112, 113

Chatham, Lord, 142, 143

Children of the Sun, the, 18

China, 19 _et seq._, 228 _et seq._

Clive, 131

Cloth of Gold, Field of, 39

Columbus, 1 _et seq._, 9

Commonwealth of Australia, 239

Confucius, 20, 21

Condé, Prince, 74, 81

Congo, the, 223

Congress, in America, 139

Constantinople, 36 _et passim_

Continental system, the, 173

Copenhagen, battle of, 171

Cornwallis, Lord, 143

Corsica, 119

Cortez, 10

Covenanters, the, 85

Crimean War, 203

Cromwell, Oliver, 65 et seq., 84 _et seq._

Cromwell, Richard, 92

Cromwell, Thomas, 48

Cuba, 216

Culloden, battle of, 120

Cumberland, Duke of, 120

DA GAMA, Vasco, 1 _et seq._

Daimios, the, 26, 230

Dannoura, battle of, 26

Darwin, 193

Declaration of Independence, 143

Declaratory Act, 140

Dettingen, battle of, 118

Diet of Worms, the, 44

Directory, the, 164

Drake, Sir Francis, 63, 88

Dual Control, the, 219

Dupleix, 124, 131

EAST India Company, 225 _et seq._

Edict of Nantes, 59

Egypt, 219 _et seq._

Elba, 175

El Dorado, 10

Elizabeth, Queen, 58 _et seq._

Eric the Red, 11

Eritrea, 219

Eugene, of Savoy, 118

Evolution, 193 _et seq._

FAMILY Compact, the, 127

Ferdinand, of Spain, 9

Ferdinand, Emperor, 55

First Consul, 169

Flodden, battle of, 40

Florida, 82, 101

Fontenoy, battle of, 118

Formosa, island, 107, 223

Francis I., 37 _et seq._

Francis Joseph, 197, 198

Francis, of Lorraine, 117, 118

Franco-German War, 205, 206

Frederick the Great, 117 _et seq._, 128 _et seq._

French, character of, 154 _et seq._

French Indo-China, 208

Frobisher, 62

"Fronde," the, 81

GARIBALDI, 203, 205

Genoa, 119

George I., 115

George III., 137 _et seq._

George V., 115

Georgia, 102, 182

German Colonisation Society, the, 224

German East Africa, 224

German Emperor, the, 206

German South-West Africa, 224

Ghurkas, the, 125

Goa, 8

Gold Coast, 103

Good Hope, Cape of, 104

Gordon, General, 240

Grand Alliance, the, 110

Grand Army, in Russia, 174

Grant, General, 214

Great Armada, 62

Great Llama, 32

Great Wall of China, 21

Great War, 227, 235

Grenville, Lord, 107, 139

Guinea, Gulf of, 5

Guises, the, 58

Gunpowder, discovered, 21

Gunpowder Plot, 72, 73

Gustavus Adolphus, 74 _et seq._

HABSBURGS, the, 78 _et passim_.

Hastings, Warren, 146

Havre, handed to England, 60

Hawaiian Islands, 216

Hawke, Admiral, 133

Henry VIII., 37 _et seq._

Henry IV., of Navarre, 59

Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 7

Herat, 227

Holland, 60 _et passim_

Holy Alliance, the, 195

Holy Roman Empire, dissolved, 171

Hongkong, 208

Huguenots, the, 73 _et seq._, 82

Huns, the, 22, 24

INCAS, the, of Peru, 18

Indian Mutiny, 226

Indulgences, sale of, 43

Industrial Era, 187 _et seq._

Inquisition, the, 56 _et seq._

"Interim," the, 50

Ireland, her ill-treatment, 121; Secret Societies in, 122

Isabella, of Spain, 9

Italian Parliament, the first, 203

JAMES I., of England, 69

James II., 93, 94, 109

Japan, 24 _et passim_, 230 _et seq._

Jesuits, the, 53, 54 _et passim_

KAFFIRS, the, 223

Keenlung, 125

Khakan, the, 24

Khartoum, 220

Kitchener, Lord, 220

Korea, 25, 233, 235

Kossuth, 197

Kublai Khan, 24, 26, 228

LA HOGUE, battle of, 93

Lama, the Grand, 100

La Vendée, 161

Laws of Manu, 28

Lee, General, 214

Leipsic, battle of, 176

Lepanto, battle of, 46, 68

Le Roi Soleil, 80

Leszynska, 113, 116

Leuthen, battle of, 131, 132

Lhasa, 106

London, 107

Lord Mayor, the, 71

Lorraine, 206

Louis XII., 37

Louis XIV., 80 _et seq._

Louis XVI., 157 _et seq._

Louis Napoleon, 200 _et seq._

Louis Philippe, 200

Louisiana, 82, 101 _et seq._, 180, 181

Luther, 38 _et seq._, 58, 64

Lutzen, battle of, 77

MADAGASCAR, 223

Madras, 88, 103, 124

Magellan, 12

Magyars, the, 197

Mahdi, the, 220

Mahrattas, the, 104

Malacca, 8

Malay Archipelago, 235

Malay Peninsula, 235

Malplaquet, battle of, 111

Mamelukes, the, 135, 183

Manchuria, 133, 234, 235

Manchus, 25, 106

Maria Theresa, 117 _et seq._

Marlborough, Duke of, 99 _et seq._

Maoris, the, 237, 239, 240

Mary, Queen of England, 55 _et seq._

Mary, Queen of Scots, 60

Mary, wife of William III., 99, 100, 109

Maryland, 102

Massachusetts, State of, 14

Maximilian, of Mexico, 215

Mazarin, Cardinal, 80, 81

Mazzini, 199, 201

Mexico, 208, 214, 215

Middle Class, the, 71

Mikado, the, 26, 230, 231

Minden, battle of, 133

Ming, dynasty, 24

Mississippi Bubble, 123

Mississippi, river, 103, 132

Mobile, 103

Moguls, the, 67

Mongols, the, 24 _et passim_; their decline, 51

Monroe Doctrine, the, 208, 214, 215

Montcalm, 132, 133

Montreal, 102, 132

Montenegro, 135

Morocco, 223

Mozambique, 223

Muscovy, 52, 66

NANTES, Edict of, revoked, 95

Napoleon Bonaparte, 119, 163 _et seq._

Naseby, battle of, 85

Natal, 221

National Assembly, the, 158

National Guard, the, 164

Navigation Act, the, 90, 92

Nawab, the, of Bengal, 131

Nelson, Lord, 171

Nestorians, the, 22, 23

Netherlands, the, 53 _et seq._

Newfoundland, 82

New Orleans, 103

New South Wales, 149, 238, 239

New Zealand, 149, 237 _et seq._

Nigeria, 223

Nirvana, 30

Northern League, the, 153

North German Confederation, 198, 205

North, Lord, 137

Nova Scotia, 88

OHIO, 103

Oldenburg, Duchy of, 134

Old Pretender, the, 120

Orange Free State, 221

Oudenarde, battle of, 111

Oudh, 225

PAVIA, battle of, 40

Peace of Alais, 78

Peace of Paris, 129

Peace of Religion, the, 51

Pekin, 106, 107, 209

Peninsular War, the, 173

Pennsylvania, 102

Persia, 226, 227

Peter the Great, 98, 113

Philip of Aragon, 99

Philip II., of Spain, 55 _et seq._

Philippine Islands, the, 88, 216, 235

Pilgrim Fathers, the, 65, 82, 84

Pitt, the elder, 129, 139 _et seq._

Pizarro, 10

Plassey, battle of, 131

Poland, 66 _et passim_

Polo, Marco, 24

Pondicherry, 124

Port Arthur, 234

Potala, the, 105, 106

Poyning's Act, 149

Prince Edward's Island, 88

Printing, in China, 21

Protestant Union, the, 74

Prussia, increasing power of, 116 _et seq._

Pultowa, battle of, 113

Punjab, the, 225

Puritans, the, 65 _et seq._, 84

QUEBEC, 82, 132

Queensland, 238, 239

Quiberon Bay, battle of, 133

RALEIGH, Sir Walter, 62

Renaissance, the, 35 _et seq._

Rhodesia, 223

Richelieu, Cardinal, 77 _et seq._

Robespierre, 161

Rodney, Lord, 144

Romanoffs, the, 75

Rosbach, battle of, 131, 132

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 156

Royalists, the, 84 _et seq._

Russia, 66 _et passim_, 226 _et seq._

Russo-Japanese War, 227

Ryswick, peace of, 93, 108

ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S Day, 59

St. Helena, island, 177

St. Lawrence, the, 82, 101, 102

Samoan Islands, 216

Saratoga, 143

Schleswig-Holstein, 134, 198

Secession, War of, 213

Sedan, 206

Seleucus, 31

Senegal, river, 5

Seven Years' War, 128 _et seq._, 198, 204

Shah Nadir, 125

Shakespeare, 66

Shanghai, 208

Sikhs, the, 104

Silesia, 117, 119

Silkworms, 23

Slavery, 211

Somaliland, 223

South Australia, 238, 239

South German Confederation, 198

South Sea Bubble, 123

Spanish-American War, 216

Spice Islands, 88

Stadholder, the, 153

Stamp Act, the, 139

States General, the, 157

States of America, Constitution of, 138

Steam Power, 185 _et seq._

Straits Settlements, 225

Suez Canal, 219

Summer Palace, sack of, 209

TAJ MAHAL, the, 124

Tartars, the, 24 _et passim_

"The Fifteen," 115

"The Forty-five," 120

Thirty Years' War, 75 _et seq._

Tiberine, Republic, 168

Timour, the Lame, 33

Tongking, 208

Tories, 111

Torgau, battle of, 129

Toulon, 164

Trafalgar, battle of, 171

Transvaal, 221

Treaty of Westphalia, 78, 79

Tripoli, 219

Tuileries, the, 164

Tunis, 45, 68, 219

Turkestan, 226

Turks, the, 36 _et passim_

UGANDA, 224

Union of South Africa, 224

United Provinces, 60

Utrecht, peace of, 111, 112, 114

VAN TROMP, 90

Venice, 37 _et passim_

Versailles, palace sacked, 158

Vespucci, Amerigo, 12

Victoria, 238, 239

Victoria, Queen, 115

Vineland, 12

Virginia, 81, 101

Vishnu, 30

Vladivostock, 234

Voltaire, 130

WALLENSTEIN, Count, 77

Wandewash, battle of, 131

Washington, George, 142, 144

Waterloo, battle of, 176

Wellington, Duke of, 173

Western Australia, 238, 239

Whigs, 111

William of Orange, 57 _et seq._

William III., 94 _et seq._

Wolfe, General, 87, 133

Wolsey, Cardinal, 39, 47

Wilberforce, 211

XAVIER, 230

YORK Town, 144

Young Italy, party, 119, 201

Young Pretender, the, 120

ZULUS, the, 223

THE END

THE GREATEST STORY IN THE WORLD

By HORACE G. HUTCHINSON, B.A.

Vol. I--From the Beginning of History to the Dawn of the Christian Era. With Map and Illustrations. 3_s._ 6_d._

It is admittedly difficult to give to beginners just the proper modicum of knowledge of ancient history to make the later ages understandable, but such a task should not be impossible, and it is hoped that this book, which has avoided dates, names and details as far as is consistent with sensible teaching, may not fail entirely in its object.

The scene is laid in that centre of all early civilization, the Mediterranean, and the fortunes of all the mighty nations that lived and fought round its shores are traced in bold outline: Egypt, Crete, Babylon--the Jews, Greeks and Romans--all contribute their chapters to this wonderful story. The author finally gathers all the threads together, and leaves the reader at Rome at the dawn of the new era of Christianity.

Vol. II--The Further Story of the Old World up to the Discovery of the New. With Map and Illustrations. 3_s._ 6_d._

The "Greatest Story" is here taken up at the point at which it was left in the first volume; that is, about the year 100 A.D. Throughout that first volume our land of Britain scarcely had a place. In the latter part of the period--100 A.D.-1500 A.D.--which this second volume covers, men of Britain played a great role. The World story thus becomes, in some measure, England's also. Moreover, where there have seemed to be two or more ways open for the telling of the story, the author has always tried to adopt what he calls the English way, the way which seemed likely to bring it most warmly and intimately to English hearts and minds. He has tried to adapt it for scholars perhaps a year or so older than for those for whom the first volume was written.

Vol. III--The Development of the Modern World. With Illustrations. 3_s._ 6_d._

This third and final volume deals with the period which must appeal more forcibly than any earlier time to all of Anglo-Saxon race.

The author, in his preface, explains how his work has been inspired by Green's famous statement--that "England is only a small part of the outcome of English history. Its greater issues lie, not within the narrow limits of the mother island, but in the destinies of nations yet to be. The struggles of her patriots, the wisdom of her statesmen, the steady love of liberty and law in her people at large, were shaping in the past of our little island the future of mankind."