Peter Biddulph | Page 7

the people I met who knew anything about the
country. One and all combined in asserting that it was a very fine
country, and that large fortunes were to be made in one way or another,
but they chiefly spoke in praise of the fine pastures for sheep which
existed. From what I could pick up, however, I surmised that the sheep
in general were of a very inferior quality, and that if some of the best
breeds could be introduced, not only would the colony be benefited, but
the person who brought them over. For some weeks I turned the subject
in my mind. I had plenty of time to think about it in my passages up
and down the river when obliged to bring up for the tide, and at last I
broached it to my wife, and told her that my opinion was that a far
better livelihood might be made in the new country than such people as
ourselves could hope for in England.

"You see how it is, my dear Martha," I said, "for many years your good
father toiled on in this trade, and though he lived comfortably and
brought you up well, he saved no money; and had he met with any
reverse like the loss of his vessel the case might have been different,
and he might easily have been ruined. Now, although I have worked
harder than he was able to do, and consequently have kept my head
above water, with a large family and greater expenses, I also have
saved little, and am sadly puzzled to know what to do with our boys,
and I shall be unwilling to send our pretty girls out to service; yet if
they do not marry I can never expect to leave enough to support them.
"I have been thinking of a hundred different ways of improving our
fortune in England, but not one has occurred to me in which the risk of
loss has not been too great. Thousands of families are exactly in our
position, and the fathers must feel that not only have they no chance of
rising in the world, but that when they die they must leave their
daughters exposed to all the dangers of a life of dependence. For the
boys I fear less; they will if they survive make their own way in life as I
have done, and are more fitted to bear its ups and downs. Now, my dear
wife, I know you would be ready to follow me to the end of the world,
even if it were to penury or death, but I am not going to ask you to do
that. I am going to propose to go to a far distant land, where I trust we
shall not only gain wealth, but happiness and contentment, and see our
family happily settled."
My wife, as I knew she would be, was ready to enter into my views,
though, as she had never been at sea further than Ramsgate, she could
not help looking with some dread at the long voyage, and she had read
some rather exaggerated accounts of bush-rangers and savages in
Botany Bay which were enough to frighten her. I soon, however,
quieted all her fears about the voyage as well as about the savages and
bush-rangers, and though I did not conceal from her that there were
many difficulties to be overcome, and dangers to be encountered, I
pictured the future to her in the bright colours it appeared to my own
imagination. My eldest boy was at sea, but we expected his return
every day, and at all events I determined to wait his arrival. The two
next were accustomed to sail with me in the schooner, where I did my

beat to give them all the learning I had gained from the good curate, Mr
Hamlin, and had since then picked up by my own exertions. Though
they were still boys, they were very useful on board, and could take the
helm and work the vessel as well as any grownup man. I had eight of
them, four boys and four girls, and the two youngest were still children.
The elder ones were delighted at my proposal,--the boy, at the thought
of making a long sea voyage, of seeing strange lands, and hunting the
kangaroo; the girl, at being able to accompany me and their brothers,
and having to tend a farm, and live under a bright blue sky. Whether it
entered into the calculation of the eldest that she might be able to pick
and choose a husband from the number of young men who were certain
to be on the shore with speaking-trumpets to beg her to marry them, I
do not pretend to say, but it