1822
It was a lovely moonlight night, and all was novelty and delight to the elder children. Immense fires were made in all directions. We gave them their supper, and after putting the younger ones to bed, I came from the tent, in front of which was a large fire, our drays and carts close in view. The men – nine in number – were busily employed in cooking in one place, our own man roasting a couple of fowls for our next day’s journey; at another the men (convicts), not the most prepossessing in their appearance, with the glare of the fires and the reflection of the moon shining on them, in the midst of a forest, formed altogether such a scene as I cannot describe. It resembled more a party of banditti, such as I have read of, than anything else. I turned from the view, took the arm of Hawkins, who was seated at the table with the storekeeper, and went to the back of the tent. Here we saw Tom and the three eldest girls trying who could make the best fire, as happy as it was possible for young hearts to be. Then I seemed to pause. It was a moment I shall never forget. For the first time for many a long month I seemed capable of enjoying and feeling the present moment without a dread for the future. ’ Tis true we had in a manner bade adieu to the world, to our country and friends, but in our country we could no longer provide for our children, and the world from that cause had lost its charm. You . . . and all my friends and acquaintances, I thought of with regret, but the dawn of independence was opening on us . . . [We had] a home to receive us, and the certainty under any circumstances of never wanting the common necessaries of life. You, my dear Ann, must have suffered in mind what we had long suffered, to form an idea of what we then felt. After a little while we returned to the table. These were moments of such inward rest that Hawkins took up a flute belonging to one of the party, and, calling Eliza to us, she danced in a place where perhaps no one of her age [no English child, that is] has ever trod before.
The Commonwealth of Speech: An Argument about Australia’s Past, Present and Future,
Alan Atkinson, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2002