Charles Darwin visits Hobart
Charles Darwin in the Beagle.
30.1.1836 Left Sydney.
5.2.1836: Arrives in Hobart Town.
17.2.1836: Leaves Hobart town.
Collects 119 species of insect. 63 were new. Discovers a new species of skink and flat worm. Collects 5 lizards and one snake.
He wrote about:
Biology. The plants and animals he saw.
The convict society.
Tasmanian aborigines.
Charles Darwin: Near its mouth, there are extensive Basaltic platforms, the sides of which show fine facades of columns; higher up the land becomes mountainous & is all covered by a light wood.- The bases of these mountains, following the edges of the Bay, are cleared & cultivated; the bright yellow fields of corn, & dark green ones of Potato crops appeared very luxuriant.
Charles Darwin: Late in the evening we came to an anchor in a snug cove, on the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania, as Van Diemen’s Land is now called.- The number of Ships was not very considerable.- The first aspect of the place is very inferior to that of Sydney; the latter might be called a city, this is only a town.- In the morning I walked on shore,- The streets are fine & broad; but the houses rather scattered; the shops appeared good: The town stands at the base of Mt. Wellington, a mountain 3100 ft, but of no picturesque beauty: from this it receives a good supply of water, a thing which is much wanted in Sydney.- Round the Cove, there are some fine Warehouses; & on one side a small Fort – Coming from the Spanish Settlements, where such magnificent care has generally been paid to the fortifications, the means of defence in these parts appeared very contemptible.”
Charles Darwin: 7th…10th During these days I took some long pleasant walks examining the geology of the country. The climate here is much damper than in New S. Wales & hence the land is much more fertile. Agriculture here flourishes; the cultivated fields looked very well & the Gardens abounded with the most luxuriant vegetables & fruit trees. Some of the Farm houses, situated in retired spots had a very tempting appearance. The general aspect of the Vegetation is similar to that of Australia; perhaps it is a little more green & cheerful & the pasture between the trees, rather more abundant.
Charles Darwin: I had been introduced to Mr Frankland, the Surveyor-General & during these days I was much in his Society. He took me two very pleasant rides & I passed at his house the most agreeable evening since leaving England. There appears to be a good deal of Society here: I heard of a Fancy Dress Ball at which 113 were present in costumes! I suspect also the Society is much pleasanter than that of Sydney. They enjoy the advantage in there being no wealthy Convicts. … The Colony moreover is well governed; in this convict population, there certainly is not more, if not less, crime than in England.
Charles Darwin: Whereas ex-convicts poisoned affairs in New South Wales, there is a better class of Society here.
Charles Darwin: It is a most admirable place of emigration.
Charles Darwin: The Australian colonies far outstripping in civilization those of S. America.
Charles Darwin: I would be very loth to emigrate. The moral state of the lower orders is of course detestable, the society of the higher is rancorously divided by party feeling & the country is not to me pleasing.
Charles Darwin: The hunting skills of Australian Aboriginals were chief among attributes that prompted him to declare these people far from being such utterly degraded beings as they are usually represented.
Charles Darwin: Aboriginals’ skills sufficed only to make them appear to me to stand some few degrees higher in the scale of civilization than the Fuegians[1].
Charles Darwin: The Australian aboriginals’ population decline as inexorable, an instance of the rule that contact between ‘the varieties of man’ led to ‘the stronger always extirpating the weaker’.
Charles Darwin: When two races of men meet, they act precisely like two species of animals. They fight, eat each other, bring diseases to each other but then comes the most deadly struggle, namely which have the best fitted organization, or instincts (i.e. intellect in man) to gain the day.
Charles Darwin: The Tasmanian Aborigines’ bush skills caused the Black Line of 1830 to fail in the short term, yet thereby was conveyed to them the power and numbers of the whites. So the way opened for the intrepid exertions of George Augustus Robinson and Aboriginal deportation to Flinders Island.
Charles Darwin: The removal as ‘most cruel’ with the infamous conduct of some of our countrymen. The only alternative would have been total slaughter of the Aboriginals and Van Diemen’s Land enjoys the great advantage of being free from a native population.
Charles Darwin: I do not know of a more striking instance of the comparative rate of increase of a civilized over a savage people.
Charles Darwin: The extinction of races: the grade of civilization seems to be a most important element in the success of competing nations.
[1] Fuegians: Indigenous people of Tierra gel Fuego. The most southerly people in the world.
30.1.1836 Left Sydney.
5.2.1836: Arrives in Hobart Town.
17.2.1836: Leaves Hobart town.
Collects 119 species of insect. 63 were new. Discovers a new species of skink and flat worm. Collects 5 lizards and one snake.
He wrote about:
Biology. The plants and animals he saw.
The convict society.
Tasmanian aborigines.
Charles Darwin: Near its mouth, there are extensive Basaltic platforms, the sides of which show fine facades of columns; higher up the land becomes mountainous & is all covered by a light wood.- The bases of these mountains, following the edges of the Bay, are cleared & cultivated; the bright yellow fields of corn, & dark green ones of Potato crops appeared very luxuriant.
Charles Darwin: Late in the evening we came to an anchor in a snug cove, on the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania, as Van Diemen’s Land is now called.- The number of Ships was not very considerable.- The first aspect of the place is very inferior to that of Sydney; the latter might be called a city, this is only a town.- In the morning I walked on shore,- The streets are fine & broad; but the houses rather scattered; the shops appeared good: The town stands at the base of Mt. Wellington, a mountain 3100 ft, but of no picturesque beauty: from this it receives a good supply of water, a thing which is much wanted in Sydney.- Round the Cove, there are some fine Warehouses; & on one side a small Fort – Coming from the Spanish Settlements, where such magnificent care has generally been paid to the fortifications, the means of defence in these parts appeared very contemptible.”
Charles Darwin: 7th…10th During these days I took some long pleasant walks examining the geology of the country. The climate here is much damper than in New S. Wales & hence the land is much more fertile. Agriculture here flourishes; the cultivated fields looked very well & the Gardens abounded with the most luxuriant vegetables & fruit trees. Some of the Farm houses, situated in retired spots had a very tempting appearance. The general aspect of the Vegetation is similar to that of Australia; perhaps it is a little more green & cheerful & the pasture between the trees, rather more abundant.
Charles Darwin: I had been introduced to Mr Frankland, the Surveyor-General & during these days I was much in his Society. He took me two very pleasant rides & I passed at his house the most agreeable evening since leaving England. There appears to be a good deal of Society here: I heard of a Fancy Dress Ball at which 113 were present in costumes! I suspect also the Society is much pleasanter than that of Sydney. They enjoy the advantage in there being no wealthy Convicts. … The Colony moreover is well governed; in this convict population, there certainly is not more, if not less, crime than in England.
Charles Darwin: Whereas ex-convicts poisoned affairs in New South Wales, there is a better class of Society here.
Charles Darwin: It is a most admirable place of emigration.
Charles Darwin: The Australian colonies far outstripping in civilization those of S. America.
Charles Darwin: I would be very loth to emigrate. The moral state of the lower orders is of course detestable, the society of the higher is rancorously divided by party feeling & the country is not to me pleasing.
Charles Darwin: The hunting skills of Australian Aboriginals were chief among attributes that prompted him to declare these people far from being such utterly degraded beings as they are usually represented.
Charles Darwin: Aboriginals’ skills sufficed only to make them appear to me to stand some few degrees higher in the scale of civilization than the Fuegians[1].
Charles Darwin: The Australian aboriginals’ population decline as inexorable, an instance of the rule that contact between ‘the varieties of man’ led to ‘the stronger always extirpating the weaker’.
Charles Darwin: When two races of men meet, they act precisely like two species of animals. They fight, eat each other, bring diseases to each other but then comes the most deadly struggle, namely which have the best fitted organization, or instincts (i.e. intellect in man) to gain the day.
Charles Darwin: The Tasmanian Aborigines’ bush skills caused the Black Line of 1830 to fail in the short term, yet thereby was conveyed to them the power and numbers of the whites. So the way opened for the intrepid exertions of George Augustus Robinson and Aboriginal deportation to Flinders Island.
Charles Darwin: The removal as ‘most cruel’ with the infamous conduct of some of our countrymen. The only alternative would have been total slaughter of the Aboriginals and Van Diemen’s Land enjoys the great advantage of being free from a native population.
Charles Darwin: I do not know of a more striking instance of the comparative rate of increase of a civilized over a savage people.
Charles Darwin: The extinction of races: the grade of civilization seems to be a most important element in the success of competing nations.
[1] Fuegians: Indigenous people of Tierra gel Fuego. The most southerly people in the world.