Stories of Australia in the Early DaysHutchinson & Company, 1897 - 200 pages "A series of sketches of the lives and exploits of the early voyagers to Australia" [introductory paragraph to 'William Dampier: navigator']. |
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Common terms and phrases
adventures appeared arms arrived ashore Atkins Australian Barker Barrington blacks Bligh boat brig brought Buckley bush bushranger called Cape Cleveland Captain coast Colonel colony command constable convict crew death deck Diemen's Land England English escape fire fortune gaol gave gentleman Goodridge Government Governor hand harbour head Hobart Town irons island Jorgenson journal labour Launceston letter literary lived London Lord Macarthur Macquarie Harbour Marcus Clarke Melbourne miles Mitchel months morning Murrell natives night Norfolk Island Oatlands officers party poor Port Port Arthur Port Jackson Port Phillip Princess of Wales prisoners provisions received returned Ross round sail says seemed seized sent sentence settlement settlers ship shore soldiers South Wales South Wales Corps story Sudds Sydney Tasman Thompson took Van Diemen's Land vessel voyage wife
Popular passages
Page xiii - Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?
Page 115 - The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts Among the palms and ferns and precipices; The blaze upon the waters to the east ; The blaze upon his island overhead ; The blaze upon the waters to the west ; Then the great stars that globed themselves in Heaven, The hollower-bellowing ocean, and again The scarlet shafts of sunrise — but no sail.
Page vii - I've had my share of pastime, and I've done my share of toil, And life is short - the longest life a span; I care not now to tarry for the corn or for the oil, Or for the wine that maketh glad the heart of man. For good undone and gifts misspent and resolutions vain, Tis somewhat late to trouble. This I know I should live the same life over, if I had to live again; And the chances are I go where most men go. The...
Page 14 - Captain-General and Governor-in-chief in and over the territory of New South Wales and its dependencies...
Page 31 - Officers civil and military, clergy, every description of inhabitants, were under the necessity of paying for the necessaries of life, for every article of consumption, in that sort of commodity which the people who had to sell were inclined to take: in many cases you could not get labour performed without it.
Page 47 - I could not lie at full length on either side without contracting my legs. I could not stand upright with the irons on. The basil of the irons would not slip up my legs, and the chains were too short to allow me to stand upright. I was never measured for the irons ; and Sudds' collar was too small for his neck, and the basils for his legs, which wore swollen.
Page 5 - The merchants were so sensible of his want of conduct, that they resolved never to trust him any more with a command.'* The bad success of Dampier's expedition, however, did not prevent the fitting out of another with similar designs against the Spaniards of the South Seas; and about the middle of the year 1708, two vessels, the Duke and the Duchess, the property of Bristol merchants, set...
Page 47 - About ten o'clock he was very ill ; I requested a fellow-prisoner to get up and look at him, thinking he was dying. The fellow-prisoner, whose name I do not know, did look at him, and said he was not dying, but he did not think he would live long. I then asked Sudds if he had any friends to whom he would wish to write. He said he had a wife and...
Page 146 - ... and who were regarded by the Adelaidians with something of the feeling which greeted " the arrival of a party of successful buccaneers in a quiet seaport with a cargo to sell, in old Dampier's time," had not only the gratification of being the cynosure of neighbouring eyes, but of making considerable profits on their original outlay. But in the midst of this picturesque extravagance came the final crash. In order to meet the expenses of Utopia—in the way of buildings, roads, and bridges—Colonel...
Page xxi - Prologue — though he cannot but be harrowed by the long agony of the story, and the human anguish of every page, is unable to lay it down ; almost in spite of himself he has to read and to suffer to the bitter end. To me, I confess, it is the most terrible of all novels, more terrible than ' Oliver Twist,' or Victor Hugo's most startling effects, for the simple reason that it is more real.