The Book of the Bush

Book of the Bush, The

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Title: The Book of the Bush Containing Many Truthful Sketches Of
The Early Colonial Life Of Squatters, Whalers, Convicts, Diggers, And
Others Who Left Their Native Land And Never Returned
Author: George Dunderdale
Illustrator: J. Macfarlane
Release Date: July 24, 2005 [EBook #16349]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK
OF THE BUSH ***

Produced by Amy Zellmer

THE
BOOK OF THE BUSH
CONTAINING

MANY TRUTHFUL SKETCHES OF THE EARLY COLONIAL
LIFE OF SQUATTERS, WHALERS, CONVICTS, DIGGERS, AND
OTHERS WHO LEFT THEIR NATIVE LAND AND NEVER
RETURNED.
By GEORGE DUNDERDALE.
ILLUSTRATED BY J. MACFARLANE.
LONDON: WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED, WARWICK HOUSE,
SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE.
[ILLUSTRATION 1]

CONTENTS.
_____________
PURGING OUT THE OLD LEAVEN.
FIRST SETTLERS.
WRECK OF THE CONVICT SHIP "NEVA" ON KING'S ISLAND.
DISCOVERY OF THE RIVER HOPKINS.
WHALING.
OUT WEST IN 1849.
AMONG THE DIGGERS IN 1853.
A BUSH HERMIT.
THE TWO SHEPHERDS.
A VALIANT POLICE-SERGEANT.

WHITE SLAVERS.
THE GOVERNMENT STROKE.
ON THE NINETY-MILE.
GIPPSLAND PIONEERS.
THE ISLE OF BLASTED HOPES.
GLENGARRY IN GIPPSLAND.
WANTED, A CATTLE MARKET.
TWO SPECIAL SURVEYS.
HOW GOVERNMENT CAME TO GIPPSLAND.
GIPPSLAND UNDER THE LAW.
UNTIL THE GOLDEN DAWN.
A NEW RUSH.
GIPPSLAND AFTER THIRTY YEARS.
GOVERNMENT OFFICERS IN THE BUSH.
SEAL ISLANDS AND SEALERS.
A HAPPY CONVICT.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
ILLUSTRATION 1. "Joey's out."
ILLUSTRATION 2. "I'll show you who is master aboard this ship."
ILLUSTRATION 3. "You stockman, Frank, come off that horse."

ILLUSTRATION 4. "The biggest bully apropriated the belle of the
ball."
* * *
"The best article in the March (1893) number of the 'Austral Light' is a
pen picture by Mr. George Dunderdale of the famous Ninety-Mile
Beach, the vast stretch of white and lonely sea-sands, which forms the
sea-barrier of Gippsland."--'Review of Reviews', March, 1893.
* * *
"The most interesting article in 'Austral Light' is one on Gippsland
pioneers, by George Dunderdale."--'Review of Reviews', March, 1895.
* * *
"In 'Austral Light' for September Mr. George Dunderdale contributes,
under the title of 'Gippsland under the Law,' one of those realistic
sketches of early colonial life which only he can write."--'Review of
Reviews', September, 1895.
* * *
THE BOOK OF THE BUSH.
---------------------
PURGING OUT THE OLD LEAVEN.
While the world was young, nations could be founded peaceably. There
was plenty of unoccupied country, and when two neighbouring
patriarchs found their flocks were becoming too numerous for the
pasture, one said to the other: "Let there be no quarrel, I pray, between
thee and me; the whole earth is between us, and the land is watered as
the garden of Paradise. If thou wilt go to the east, I will go to the west;
or if thou wilt go to the west, I will go to the east." So they parted in
peace.

But when the human flood covered the whole earth, the surplus
population was disposed of by war, famine, or pestilence. Death is the
effectual remedy for over-population. Heroes arose who had no
conscientious scruples. They skinned their natives alive, or crucified
them. They were then adored as demi-gods, and placed among the
stars.
Pious Aeneas was the pattern of a good emigrant in the early times, but
with all his piety he did some things that ought to have made his
favouring deities blush, if possible.
America, when discovered for the last of many times, was assigned by
the Pope to the Spaniards and Portuguese. The natives were not
consulted; but they were not exterminated; their descendants occupy
the land to the present day.
England claimed a share in the new continent, and it was parcelled out
to merchant adventurers by royal charter. The adventures of these
merchants were various, but they held on to the land.
New England was given to the Puritans by no earthly potentate, their
title came direct from heaven. Increase Mather said: "The Lord God has
given us for a rightful possession the land of the Heathen People
amongst whom we dwell;" and where are the Heathen People now?
Australia was not given to us either by the Pope or by the Lord. We
took this land, as we have taken many other lands, for our own benefit,
without asking leave of either heaven or earth. A continent, with its
adjacent islands, was practically vacant, inhabited only by that
unearthly animal the kangaroo, and by black savages, who had not even
invented