IMMIGRANTS: OLD AND NEW.

NZ Truth, Issue 142, 7 March 1908, Page 7

IMMIGRANTS: OLD AND NEW.

TO AUSTRALIA IN THE FORTIES.

In the Good Ship Catherine Jamieson.

DEFYING THE SLAVE TRADERS.

Trojans Versus Twaddlers.

We break our series of "Tragedies of the Sea"' this week to publish the following . interesting account of a voyage from Leith to Australia, written by Alexander Nicholson, an octogenarian, now a hale and hearty resident of Sydney :— When one makes a comparison between the immigrants of to-day with those who arrived m Australia m early days, it must be confessed that the old ■ximers suffer m no way. The Governments of the various States seem to interest themselves wholly m bringing • out menials, such as farm laborers and servant girls, instead of the sturdy families that expected, and Were willing to put up with light hardships.. for the sake of the golden ; goal beyond. And the late cpmers, 1>00,.. expect to > be snoontod untiL situations' . satisfactory to them are secured. In the OM Country they travel by the flying mail to their port of embarkation, walk 'aboard a huge steamship, 'and steam off as though on a prolonged ferry trip, high- and dry all the way. and with nothing to grumble at but the food, -which is often superior a-nd more plentiful than what they were accustomed .to at their homes. .NOT. A SPRAY dashes on deck- to wet the toes of the deckhands- passengers, and when they reach here they know as much about sailoring as they do of colonial experience, or cooking m a colonial oven. *In fact, the whole voyage is. 'but a pleasant trip. But how different from the discomfort of the old days, when, an immigrant looked forward to from four to six months of sea life, amid genuine sailors,, and liviner upon sailors' provisions, quartered on a vessel the size of a modern schooner, and with no room to play cricket or relieve the monotony of calms.. Arrived here, the immigrants were glad to take whatever work could be obtained, and never thought, of flooding the few newspaper offices with complaints over nothing. Many of them, after battling alone; for a time, rose to be mem of influence, and founded sterling families of which any country would be proud ; and even the most lackadaisical of the new chums bettered | 'his position m life if he kept i * ON THE STRAIGHT TRACK. j Well I remember the year. 1841, when I got aboard the ship Kather- I me Jamieson at Leith, and bundled down to the lower deck amid a crowd of emigrants from all parts of Britain. There were about 60 from Ireland, and a like number from my own j country, Scotland, and the rest were made up of Taffies and Southerners. •J -was— but- fourteen -at the time, andthe fare, ,£2O; had been, paid by my father, who' had settled m New S^outh Wales for eight years prior to my packing up. The Catherine Jamieson bad been warped out into the Firth, her sails bemit on the yards, and everything ready lor sailing- at five minutes' notice. There were no railways then, and I had come down from Kirkcaldy toy coaob the preceding day.

The skipper ol the vessel was a • stumpy little man named Hutchison, termed by the sailors '' , "BULLY" HUTCHISON on account of his manner, when .giving; orders. It was the beginning of August, and the wind being fair, we catheaded the anchor, and stood down the Firth of t Forth. Arrived at the mouth, in tlie North Sea. .the breeze veered around to the southward, and Bully decided to take the northern . passage, instead of beating down to the English Channel, and 4.45 p.m., and she commenced to The Catherine Jamieson, with the wind off the quarter, and all her studding sails drawing, could run away from a modern steamboat, and in a couple of days she was off Duncansby Head, and heading into Pentland Firth. 'A strong tide sweeps through here, but we made good time to Cape Wrath ; then past the Butt of Lewis, and westward to the Hebrides, down to warmer latitudes. The West of Ireland soon dropped out of sight, as all hands > were getting used to the westerly -swell of the Atlantic. For some months previous to our departure THE MISSING- STEAMER "PRESIDENT,"

from New York to Liverpool, had been the topic of conversation ashore, and we were bid to keep a look out for her. The President, however, wiith her 120 souls, was never sighted. Spars now and again were passed floating by, but of course none of us could identify, any of them. A month later' the -Catherine Jamieson had crossed the line, and was making for Bahia, m the Braz^ ils, for water and provision. All emigrant ships then called at Bahia, or Rio de Janeiro, or the Cape, and Skipper Bully chose the former. We dropped anchor m the harbour afoput the middle 'of September. ■ Slayers and pirates were common enough at that ..time, and it was no uncommon thing to see the low-lying black hulls and towering canvas of the slavers crossing out bows on their way from Africa to South America with their human ( cargoes. It was rumored that there was no distinction between slavers and pirates when an opportunity occurred, and all vessels carried arms and kept a look-out for - SUSPICIOUS-LOOKING CRAFT. Three of these fast-sailing schooners were, lying m Bahia when we got m, and our passengers had little to do but discuss the slaves and everything connected ' with them. . V , About a. week after we left Ba-hia, as we were logging three or four knots an hour, one of these identical craft passed us, apparently, also bound, to the southward. She came close -to on our weather, and we could see only a few men on, her deck. Various conjectures were made as to her desinnation, when all of a sudden, not being more t&an half a mile ahead, she was noticed to haul her wind, lower -the foresail, and lie waiting for us to close up. Just, here, let me say, tba-t these soboon-

ers. carrying no cargo and having a large spread of canvas, could outsail square-rigged ships easily m a light wind, which accounted for this fellow's overtaking us. BUT BULLY HUTCHISON, our skipper, no sooner saw what was the matter than he armed the crew with blunderbusses and the emigrants with pikes, and ranged all hands up on the- weather side, so that they might be seen through the pirate's telescope. The Catherine Jamieson kept her course to put a bold front on the matter, though excitement ran high, particularly among the women, who had visions of seeing their husbands and sons being made to walk the plank, and themselves being taken captive by the pirate's' crew. 'As we ranged almost alongside the slaver, her deck was seen to be covered by men of all color, the scum of civilisation,. These villains/ hurled a shout of defiance at us, and then their vessel sheered off. . But -it was apparent that she didn't mean to get too far away. Probably she wished to lie m wait for passing ships, the crews of which might be easier overcome than she imagin.ed we would be. Many a missing ship, it was rumored, could be accounted for by THESE WRETCHED SLAVERS. As the afternoon wore^ away, and night wore on, . orders were given that no light whatever A should be used aboard our vessel, and, the wind increasing, the sMpper imagined the easiest way out of the mess was to give the slaver the slip. No one turned. in that night, but anxious immigrants, pike m hand, peered into the gloom, and threatened all sorts of dire things if- the pirate attempted to board m ,the dark-r ness. Nothing was seen of him, however, and the watch, ers were thinking, of turning m at midnight, when one of the saulors, glancing over the side, , saw the glimmer of- a light shining through an open port of our own vessel. Several men, then rushed below to ascertain thfe; causer but the decks were found tec be m -darkness. Searching each cabin, though, they discovered a candle Tnimin^; -m one, the inmate of which . had stuffed up the apertures to prevent him beinig detected, and had opened the porthole for ventilation, Here was an evidence of

but I had the satisfaction of seeing the culkxit booted but of the cabin quick and lively, and the candle, rammed into his mouth. lJust afterwards the moon rose, and plainly m the streak of faint : light that shone o'er the tops of th|e waves could be seen the low black hull of the slaver, under her immense spread of canvas, not far astern., But the Catherine Jamieson was petting a move on with the oncoming breeze, and the schooner had no chance to catch up m anything like a wind. What might have happened had he been ten minutes sooner, and had discerned the. light, heaven only knows; but when the dawn broke he was .nowhere to be seen. During the remainder of the voyage ' - , THE FOOLISH PASSENGER came m for a lot of contemptuous J jeering and sincere wishes for anything but his welfare, some going so far as to advocate a knee-hauling to cure his mania for reading at night; but he got off scathless. In the beginning of December, the Catherine Jamieson dropped anchor off Sandridge, having about the same number of passengers as when she started. Three died en route, and there were four births to compensate. Melbourne wasn't much, of a place then, two or three dozen cotT tages, some thatched, being all that appeared from our decks. As soon as the passengers had disembarked, the captain sent the mate with the longboat and about a dozen seamen, to fill the water casks AT THE YARRA FALLS, whence all vessels drew their water m the forties. I think the falls were not far from where Princes Bridge now stands. The bjoat was to return to Williamstown with the back tide, and I went with the boat for an outing. - After what seemed like an eight-mile pull, we reached the lalls and filled the casks, but the sailors were m no hurry to get back. What money they possessed they made fly, even if they were all Scotch. ''Laddie, we'll be doon directly ; wait a wee,' ; said the mate, and the whole gang cleared off TO THE NEAREST SHANTY. I waited, and waited, till night came on, when I tell asleep, hungry and all as I was. Before break of day, though, I woke, bat none of my shipmates were m sight. Rambling.* around m search of them, I met a youth of about my own age, and inquired, "Laddie, whaur are th' sailors?" The boy laughed. *'Do you belong to those sailors that were fighting last night ; if you do you will find themfall m the lock-up." The lad was one of . the good old stock of Australians, however, and, learning that I had no money, took me home to his mother's for a free breakfast. Then he accompanied me to the watchhouse to see the drunken Scottaes. The pqHce, wouldn't allow me to see any of them ; but m a little while whom should I see but Captam Bully Hutchison coming along puffing and blowing, like a grampus. He had taken a short *cut ACROSS THE SAND DUNES to discover the cause of the trouble ; but he, like me, had to wait till 10 o'clock. The courthouse was tbe only brick building m the place, and on th« Magistrate taking his seat, the skip;per pleaded hard for the men. He made out that he had no water, alroard, and thai; unless the men were discharged soon they would never be able to pull the boat back, as if the tide lowered, the Yarra would ret too shallow, for the longboat. The Bench relented, and assfuaeed Justice by ordering all the 'delinquents two hours m the stocks. I waited about, and kept them com- | panv. and a very battered crowd they were indeed ; few of our late passengers would have recognised m them the decent, well-behaved sailors who had accompanied them . out. • But

sailors WERE EVER THUS. We got back to Sandridge , eventually, and the* ship having a p-eneral cargo in the lower hold for Sydney, we got under weight without anothier visit to Yarra Falls. Sixty-five