Were ruffian stabbers and vile1 cutpurse knaves2;
Yet did this outcast scum of all the earth
Lay the foundations of the eternal city.
Before daybreak next morning the light of Port Jackson was visible from the deck of the Leviathan, and shortly afterwards that trusty vessel4 entered the Heads — two bold bluff5 precipices6, between which lies the entrance to that spacious7 harbour, supposed to be one of the finest on the surface of the globe. A pilot had come on board to direct the course of the ship to her anchorage; and during the run of nearly seven miles from the entrance of the Port to the site of the town of Sydney Rashleigh had ample opportunities of scanning the external features of the land in which he was destined8 to find his future home.
The shores of Port Jackson then possessed9 few charms, either natural or acquired: sandy bays opening to great distances inland, bordered apparently10 by stunted11 trees; rocky headlands between each inlet, crowned with similar foliage12; and far away, on either hand, a background displaying dense13 forests of sombre green. There were then none of those elegant mansions14 or beautiful villas15, with their verdant16 and ever blooming gardens, which now so plentifully17 meet the eye of the new colonist18, affording abundant proofs of the wonted energy of the Anglo-Saxon race, who speedily rescue the most untamed sods from the barbarism of nature and bid the busy sounds of industry and art awaken20 the silent echoes of every primeval forest in which they are placed.
Not a single patch of cultivated soil appeared in those days to refresh the sight of the wearied voyagers with evidences that here the foot of civilised man had ever trod prior to their arrival. One of the passengers, who had visited New South Wales before, called the attention of his companions on the poop to an isle21 called Garden Island, and Ralph looked towards the spot, expecting now, at least, to detect some proof of the reclaiming22 hand of man. But alas23, the so-called Garden Island presented nothing to his view but a doubly sterile24 mass of rugged25 grey rocks rising from the bosom26 of one of the numerous bays, and crowned with the same unvarying livery of russet green; but as they rounded the next projecting point they came in view of a small embattled building on a height, which was said to be one of the forts at the entrance of Sydney Cove27. Immediately afterwards they saw a straggling range of cottages, mostly of a very small size, which stretched along an eminence28, and which were declared by their informant to be a portion of the town of Sydney known as “The Rocks”.
The Magnet was shortly brought to anchor opposite a neck of land on which stood a slaughter-house, and our voyagers could survey the greater part of the town from a very favourable29 position. The dwellings30 appeared to he chiefly of one story; in fact, most of them deserved no better name than huts. The streets were narrow and straggling; nor did there seem to be more than half a dozen good or convenient private buildings in the town. There was no cultivated land to be seen from their station, and but a very few miserable31 cottages, peeping here and there out of the trees, stood upon the north shore of the harbour, in various parts of which there were then about six other large vessels32 at anchor, besides a good number of small cutters and boats which were passing to and fro continually.
The day after their arrival, the Colonial Secretary, the Principal Superintendent33 of Convicts, and other officers came on board to muster34 the newly arrived prisoners, who were each called separately into the cabin, asked their names, ages, religions, native places, trades and a host of other interrogatories, the replies to which were taken down and a personal description of each convict added. When this ceremony had been gone through with all the new arrivals, these official visitors departed and a number of other persons came on board, some seeking news from the “old country”, some to enquire35 after expected relations, a few of the great ones to ascertain36 what sort of men the new chums were, and whether there were certain descriptions of persons among them, according to the wants of each querist in the article of labour.
Among others who thus came was an elderly gentleman who kept an academy, whose object was to enquire for a suitable assistant in his scholastic37 labours. The surgeon superintendent accordingly recommended Ralph Rashleigh, who was at that moment writing in an inner cabin. Being called out, he was presented to the applicant38, who questioned him as to his attainments39. The answers appeared to prove satisfactory and the schoolmaster departed.
In about a fortnight from their arrival the prisoners on board were again mustered40 preparatory to their going on shore and received each a new suit of clothing, after which they were placed in boats, by divisions, and rowed to a spot of land near Fort Macquarie, where, being landed, they waited until all had arrived and then proceeded through a part of the public promenade41 known as the Domain42, up to the Prisoners’ Barracks, where they were placed in a back yard by themselves, and shortly afterwards again paraded. On their dismissal a host of the older prisoners insinuated43 themselves among them for the purpose of bargaining for clothes, trinkets or other property, and many a poor new chum — the distinctive44 name bestowed45 upon them by the old hands — was deprived of all his little stock of comforts by the artifices46 of the others, who appeared to pique47 themselves in no small degree upon the dexterity48 with which they could thus pick up (rob) the unwary new-comers.
The day after Rashleigh’s landing the dispersion of his shipmates began, and in four days there remained but himself and two others out of about 140 who had safely reached the Colony with him, the remainder having all been sent, or, as the phrase ran, “assigned”, to the service of private individuals, by tens, fours, threes, or single individuals, according to the priority of application or degree of interest possessed by the masters. Most of these men were employed at the trades or occupations to which they had been brought up or accustomed, except such as had been used to trades which were not then in existence in New South Wales. They were assigned as labourers and sent into the interior. Of these the most numerous class was the weavers49, who subsequently made but sorry shifts at using the axe50 or the hoe, the latter being by far the most usual mode of tilling the soil in that early period of Australian agriculture.
As for Rashleigh, he was in a few days sent to the schoolmaster whom he had seen on board the ship, and after a long lecture from his employer touching51 his future conduct, was duly installed into office, which, truly, was all but a sinecure52, for the system or rather no system, of education pursued at this “classical and commercial academy”— for such, in sooth, it professed53 to be — was full easy for both instructors54 and instructed. It was most true that in Ralph’s after experience he never found any of his quondam pupils had attained55 any very high grade of scientific or literary acquirement; but then, the meeting was always a pleasant one, nevertheless, because the pseudo-scholars ever remembered their tutor with gratitude56 as one who was always ready to do his devoir at obtaining them a holiday, if he could, upon any pretence57 or no pretence at all.
The chief of this “educational establishment” was much more fond of his amusements by day and the allurements58 of the social glass by night, than the toil59 inseparable from that “delightful task” which Mrs Barbauld has sung so sweetly. His assistant, Rashleigh, who was now, once more, respectably clad and enjoyed a good deal of liberty out of school hours, began to form acquaintances among other educated prisoners, chiefly clerks in government offices, who were wont19 to meet, after they had concluded the small share of what they were pleased to call work that fell to the portion of each, to discuss matters of more weighty and deep moment, no less than the affairs of the State, which, being everybody’s business, were, as is usual in the opinion of such sages60 at least, most shamefully61 neglected.
But alas, no prophet is honoured in his own age or country, and the political disquisitions of these learned pundits62 at last attracted the attention of the Sydney police, who were so illiberal63 as to take umbrage64 at them. And one evening, when our hero, who began to feel the full fervour of amor patriae for his adopted country, was loudly descanting upon her wrongs under the iron sway of General Darling, then Governor, an addition to the auditory, equally unexpected and unwelcome, was made in the persons of half a dozen constables65 under the command of a chief who had formerly67 been a member of that fraternity, so useful to anatomical science, yclept stiff-hunters, or body-snatchers.
This man of office, with awful brow, began to question all of the amateur politicians as to their appellations68 and places of residence, but specially69 honoured Ralph Rashleigh, whose oratorical70 display he had so cruelly marred71, with a double portion of his scrutiny72. No further steps were taken that night, the party of embryo73 Demosthenes’ being permitted to repair to their several abodes75, marvellously discomfited76 at this malapropos interruption.
After this Rashleigh dared not seek the same society for a while, and confined his amusements to walks in the town and neighbourhood, for though accustomed, as he had been, latterly at least, to scenes of vulgarity and to association with the lowest of the human race, even his mind revolted from mingling77 with the only sort of companions accessible to him.
The town at that time contained but two classes, one comprising the high government officers and a very few large merchants, who formed at that period the aristocracy of Australia. The other was composed of men who, like Ralph, either were or had been convicts, or, to use the milder colonial phrase, “prisoners of the Crown”. Many of the last, who were now free, had become very wealthy; but Heaven knows, they formed no exception to the description given by Pope of those on whom riches are generally bestowed, they being, he says,
Given to the fool, the vain, the mad, the evil,
To ward3, to waters, chartres, and the devil.
And surely, the men among the freed convicts of New South Wales who had acquired riches offered abundant evidence of the truth of the above couplet, the nucleus78 of their gains having been acquired either by the exercise of every art of fraud, or at least by chicanery79, and in some cases by pandering80 to the grossest vices81 of their fellow-convicts, whose chief luxuries. and in fact the grand prima mobile or summa bona of whose existence were rum and tobacco, to wallow in beastly drunkenness being to them the very acme82 of earthly bliss83! As our adventurer was thus debarred from such male society as he preferred, he would fain have sought for solace84 among the gentler sex, who were beneficently bestowed by the creator to soothe85 the cares and enhance the blessings86 of man; but here the case was even worse, for the only females accessible to a person in Rashleigh’s situation had also reached the Colony as prisoners, and in pity to the frailties87 of the softer part of the creation the author willingly draws a veil over the description given by Ralph of the “ladies” of Sydney in those early days.
But the time was now at hand when a new phase in the life of a convict was about to open upon our hero. In about a month after the occurrence before related, when the police had interrupted his diatribe88 against the Governor, a constable66 came one day to the school with an order from the Chief Superintendent of Convicts that Ralph Rashleigh should accompany the bearer to Hyde Park Barracks; a mandate89 with which he was fain to comply, though sundry90 misgivings91 as to the purport92 of the recall shot athwart his mind. When he reached that establishment he was placed in strict and solitary93 confinement94, and the next day, before sunrise, having been handcuffed, was dispatched in the care of a messenger, on the road to a Government Agricultural Establishment situated95 at Emu Plains, about thirty-five miles from Sydney. He was not to be permitted to call at his former abode74 or to obtain from thence any clothing or other necessaries. The messenger in whose charge he was proved obdurate96 to all his entreaties97 or offers of a bribe98 if he would only allow him to diverge99 a few yards from his road for any purpose; and thus he was compelled to march along in the slight dress he wore while teaching and having on a thin pair of shoes, which, long before he reached the end of his day’s stage, at Parramatta, were dropping from his feet in tatters. The day following he was obliged to march the remaining twenty miles barefooted over miserable apologies for roads, the greater part of which lay along stony100 ranges, so that his feet were cut and bleeding from twenty wounds before they reached their destination.
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1
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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4
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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5
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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precipices
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| n.悬崖，峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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7
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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8
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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9
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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10
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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verdant
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| adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的 | |
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plentifully
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| adv. 许多地，丰饶地 | |
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colonist
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| n.殖民者，移民 | |
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19
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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21
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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22
reclaiming
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| v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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23
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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24
sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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27
cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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29
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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30
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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31
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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33
superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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35
enquire
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| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
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ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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applicant
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| n.申请人，求职者，请求者 | |
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39
attainments
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| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
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40
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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42
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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43
insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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44
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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45
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
artifices
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| n.灵巧( artifice的名词复数 )；诡计；巧妙办法；虚伪行为 | |
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47
pique
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| v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气 | |
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48
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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49
weavers
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| 织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 ) | |
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50
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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51
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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52
sinecure
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| n.闲差事，挂名职务 | |
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53
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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instructors
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| 指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 ) | |
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55
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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56
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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57
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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58
allurements
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| n.诱惑( allurement的名词复数 )；吸引；诱惑物；有诱惑力的事物 | |
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59
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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60
sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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61
shamefully
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| 可耻地； 丢脸地； 不体面地； 羞耻地 | |
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62
pundits
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| n.某一学科的权威，专家( pundit的名词复数 ) | |
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63
illiberal
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| adj.气量狭小的，吝啬的 | |
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64
umbrage
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| n.不快；树荫 | |
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constables
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| n.警察( constable的名词复数 ) | |
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66
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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67
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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68
appellations
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| n.名称，称号( appellation的名词复数 ) | |
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69
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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70
oratorical
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| adj.演说的，雄辩的 | |
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71
marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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72
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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73
embryo
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| n.胚胎，萌芽的事物 | |
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74
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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abodes
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| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
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76
discomfited
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| v.使为难( discomfit的过去式和过去分词)；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
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77
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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78
nucleus
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| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
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chicanery
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| n.欺诈，欺骗 | |
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80
pandering
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| v.迎合（他人的低级趣味或淫欲）( pander的现在分词 )；纵容某人；迁就某事物 | |
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81
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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82
acme
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| n.顶点，极点 | |
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83
bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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84
solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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85
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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86
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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87
frailties
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| n.脆弱( frailty的名词复数 )；虚弱；（性格或行为上的）弱点；缺点 | |
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88
diatribe
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| n.抨击，抨击性演说 | |
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89
mandate
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| n.托管地；命令，指示 | |
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90
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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91
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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92
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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93
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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94
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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95
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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96
obdurate
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| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
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97
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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98
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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99
diverge
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| v.分叉，分歧，离题，使...岔开，使转向 | |
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100
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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