The Poems of Henry Kendall | Page 4

and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand', published in the same year.
Returning to New Zealand, Kendall, in 1823, left the Missionary Society and went with his son Basil to Chile. In 1826 he came back to Australia, and for his good work as a missionary received from?the New South Wales Government a grant of 1280 acres at Ulladulla, on the South Coast. There he entered the timber trade and became owner and master of a small vessel used in the business. About 1832 this vessel was wrecked near Sydney, and all on board, including the owner, were drowned.
Of Basil Kendall's early career little is known. While in South America he saw service under Lord Cochrane, the famous tenth Earl of Dundonald, who, after five brilliant years in the Chilean service, was, between 1823 and 1825, fighting on behalf of Brazil. Basil returned to Australia, but disappears from view until 1840. One day in that year he met a Miss Melinda McNally, and next day they were married. Soon afterwards they settled on the Ulladulla grant,?farming land at Kirmington, two miles from the little town of Milton. There, in a primitive cottage Basil had built, twin sons -- Basil Edward and Henry -- were born on the 18th April, 1841. Five years later the family moved to the Clarence River district and settled near the Orara. Basil Kendall had practically lost one lung before his marriage, and failing health made it exceedingly difficult for him to support his family, to which by this time three daughters had been added. On the Orara he grew steadily weaker, and died somewhere about 1851.
Basil Kendall was well educated, and had done what he could to educate his children. After his death the family was scattered, and the two boys were sent to a relative on the South Coast. The scenery of this district made a profound impression upon Henry, and is often referred to in his early poems. In 1855 his uncle Joseph took him as cabin boy in his brig, the `Plumstead', for a two years' cruise in the Pacific, during which they touched at many of the Islands and voyaged as far north as Yokohama. The beauty of the scenes he visited lived?in the boy's memory, but the rigours of ship life were so severe that in after years he looked back on the voyage with horror.
Henry Kendall returned to Sydney in March, 1857, and at once obtained employment in the city and set about making a home for his mother and sisters. Mrs. Kendall, granddaughter of Leonard McNally, a Dublin notable of his day, was a clever, handsome woman?with a strong constitution and a volatile temperament.?Henry was always devoted to her, and considered that from her he inherited whatever talent he possessed. She helped in his education, and encouraged him to write verse.
The first verses of his known to have been printed were?"O tell me, ye breezes" -- signed "H. Kendall" -- which appeared in `The Australian Home Companion and Band of Hope Journal' in 1859. A number of other poems by Kendall appeared in the same magazine during 1860 and 1861. But in a letter written years afterwards to Mr. Sheridan Moore, Kendall says "My first essay in writing was sent to `The Southern Cross' at the time you were sub-editor. You, of course, lit your pipe with it. It was on the subject of the `Dunbar'. After a few more attempts in prose and verse -- attempts only remarkable for their being clever imitations -- I hit upon the right vein and wrote the Curlew Song. Then followed the crude, but sometimes happy verses which made up my first volume."
The verses on the wreck of the `Dunbar', written at the age of sixteen, were eventually printed in `The Empire' in 1860 as "The Merchant Ship". Henry Parkes, the editor of that newspaper, had already welcomed some of the boy's poems, and in `The Empire' of the 8th December, 1859, had noticed as just published a song -- "Silent Tears" --?the words of which were written by "a young native poet, Mr. H. Kendall, N.A.P." These initials, which puzzled Parkes, as well they might, meant no more than Native Australian Poet.
Kendall also sent some poems to `The Sydney Morning Herald'; there they attracted the attention of Henry Halloran, a civil servant and a voluminous amateur writer, who sought out the poet?and tried to help him.
Kendall's mother brought him to Mr. Sheridan Moore, who had some reputation as a literary critic. He was greatly interested in the poems, and promised to try to raise money for their publication. Subscriptions were invited by advertisement in January, 1861, but came in so slowly that, after a year's delay, Kendall almost despaired of publication.
Meanwhile Moore had introduced Kendall to James Lionel Michael, through