months of 1831. No houses were, so far as is known, erected, and Kingston did not get beyond the paper stage.
The Lieut.-Governor gave instructions that the site of a town be laid out at King George's Sound soon after the settlement there was taken over by him. This was soon done, and about the middle of 1831 the pretty town of Albany was established, and now reclines on the slopes of Mount Melville and Mount Clarence, where Major Lockyer formed the first settlement in 1826. Only one lot was apportioned in 1831, that to J. Lawrence Morley on 17th December—Lot S 17. Messrs. A. Robertson, Thomas Bannister, W. Lamb, P. H. Dod, H. E. Henderson, D. Geake, J. Molloy, H. Bull, and J. S. Roe were awarded allotments early in 1832.
Augusta was declared open for distribution in lots late in 1830, but John Herring was the only grantee (December) in that year. Messrs. C. Bussel, J. Molloy, O. Smith, R. Heppingstone, T. Will, R. A. Green, K. Dewar, W. Henry, J. Langdridge, J. Welbourne T. J. Cook, F. Ludlow, H. and J. Kellan, and Janet McDermott were each granted allotments in 1831.
Fremantle was by this time possessed of about fifteen houses. A few stores for the receipt of goods had been erected there, and from that time the port became the distributing centre of the colony. The houses were not yet pretentious. On the beach and fringe of bush were several tents of new arrivals. Boats were owned by most of the residents at Fremantle, who let them out to people wishing to convey goods up the river. Messrs. Leake, Shenton, and Samson were the chief storekeepers; in fact they, in a manner speaking, were the pioneer distributors and retailers of goods. The settlers were convinced of the necessity of owning boats, and had ordered some from home, while those who could not afford that constructed small skiffs out of native wood. These boats plying up and down the river were an almost daily sight, and did Perth residents wish to visit settlers on the Swan towards Guildford, they commonly made the journey by boat. As they went by the quiet cottages on the banks they would hail their friends in hearty strains, and break the silence of the bush. A monthly service of boats was established to Guildford in 1831 for the carriage of supplies for settlers, and proved of much advantage. A plan was in progress to deepen the river over the flats, but was not carried out until some years later.
The life of Settlers in 1831, although their condition was little more hopeful, was rendered bearable and even enjoyable by an open-hearted hospitality. The genial currents of good-will permeated the social sphere, and the quiet routine of isolated settlers was often pleasantly broken in upon by visits from neighbours. Visitors would either walk through the bush in the evening to see their friends or call on them by day when returning from Perth or Guildford, or from the hunt. More often they arrived by boats, and after mooring them on the shore, the welcome visitors ascended the banks and slopes and were sure to be heartily received at the cottage. The humble bush fare was placed before them, and if they would stop all night they were welcome, and were given a bed on an old case, or a rough mattress was thrown on the floor by the fire, where they found it easy to obtain a good sleep. When there was no mattress the visitor merely rolled himself in rugs or blankets on the ground. Belated travellers were sure to receive a night's shelter at a stranger's door up the Swan, nor were drunk men turned away.
The higher grades spent many an evening well remembered at each other's cottages. The military and civil officers and settlers gave dinner parties, and pioneers write that several evenings in a week were sometimes spent in this way, when opinions were exchanged on matters inportant to the community, or conversation turned to what was transpiring in the old country as announced in back files of newspapers. The richer people were nearly all accompanied by their wives and families, and it was no unusual delight to pass a happy evening listening to classical representations on the plano, with violin or flute accompaniments.
Taken altogether, life was not so demi-savage and romantic as was anticipated by many pioneers. It was often civilised and ceremonious. These pleasant evenings were the more enjoyable because of the infinite silence and loneliness of the West Australian bush and woodlands. On ordinary days and nights when no visitors approached the awfulness of this solitude oftentimes pressed heavily and begot an enervating melancholy. Particularly on the pastoral grants the effect was so depressing as to unnerve and undermine the constitution, and even to cause an unhealthiness of mind. Towards the end of 1831, and in later years when the inland country was opened up—when the settler was scores of miles from his kind, shrouded by the sombre somnolent woods—he murmured loudly against his lot, and pined for the home circle more and more. The half savage natives were his daily companions, the immense unornamented plain his daily prospect; the spirit of them permeated his mind and made ingenuous simplicity his dominant characteristic.
On the grants at Swan River the life was occasionally primitive enough. We have the instance of a barrister, turned agriculturist, who brought his sick cow into the cottage at night to sleep in the apartment adjoining his bedroom. Moreover, it was no uncommon sight to observe the same barrister, who occupied a high civil position, walking from near Guildford to Perth with a basket on his arm or shoulder filled with dirty linen or vegetables for sale, or conveying his products to market astride a horse. During his welcomed respites from departmental duties he laboured constantly in the fields, and was imbued with a splendid determination to develop his grant. Nor did he confine himself to civil or pastoral walks, but in the absence of clergymen conducted divine service in huts or military barracks, and performed on occasion the burial ceremony. He was active in agricultural, pastoral, literary, temperance, journalistic, and exploration pursuits. This was Mr. G. F. Moore, whose excellent letters to his relatives at home, which happily have found publication, throw invaluable light on the life of pioneers, and simply and truthfully tell the stories of development and progress, success and disappointment, from 1830 to 1840, and offer poetical sentiments for local pastoral lays.
Captain Irwin was also imbued with the true spirit of colonisation. He closely studied farming and pastoral matters, applied his knowledge to his own estates, and gave advice to all worthy of receiving it. An "amiable and religious man," as Mr. Moore writes, he interested himself whole-heartedly in the colony, and advocated its cause with some success in London. He, too, often filled the office of chaplain.
In addition to the church established in 1829 in Perth, others were soon opened in Fremantle and Guildford, with a Sunday School in the capital. Services were occasionally held in the
