by John Marsden
The course of my life during this period was in marked contrast to the grinding hardship of quarrying and crushing rock that Johnny experienced. Working in weather which, in the course of a year, ranged from fierce heat to sharp frosts proved deleterious to the health of many a man on the road gangs. The Revd Mr Haddock’s cottage, on the other hand, was quite an elegant affair, built of brick, with a tiled roof, whilst I was allotted a wattle-and-daub hut with thatched roof out the back. Although this leaked prodigiously when I moved in, I soon learned how to seal the gaps and felt much delight in occupying my own quarters for the first time in my life. Indeed, I was well content.
I spent most evenings in the company of the Revd Mr Haddock and his small family. Amelia, Mrs Haddock, was a demure, rather shy young lady, devoted to her husband and her infant. The baby had been endowed with the formidable name of Clarissa Josephine Emma Millicent Florence Muriel Haddock, after her grandmothers and great-grandmothers, and she thus epitomised the desire of the Haddocks to give pleasure to all, to cause distress to none. Better to burden the child with the names of half-a-dozen forebears, whether deceased or no, than to risk causing offence to any. This was how they lived their lives, seeking to satisfy all about them, in which endeavour, I hardly need to say, they failed dismally, for certain it is that the more we seek to placate our neighbours the more they take pleasure in criticising us.
I asked Mrs Haddock one evening: ‘How did you determine the order of the names you gave Clarissa?’ and she put down her knitting, sighed deeply, and said ‘Alas, we unwittingly caused great disharmony among our dear family, for we placed them in the order we thought most pleasing to the ear, only to find that Great-Grandmother Clarissa was the only one satisfied by our choice.’
Rough and ready as I was, and hardened by the life I had led, I found it difficult to accustom myself to the gentleness of the Haddocks’ manners, and even thought them somewhat innocent in their understanding of the world. On a number of occasions I intervened to stop them being swindled by rascally shopkeepers, and twice I chased thieving convicts out of the house. In turn, however, the Haddocks softened me somewhat by their influence. My learning continued apace under their tuition. They were both well-educated and well-read, and they seemed to take pleasure in my progress, and I in turn learned to share their appreciation of fine literature. I do not believe any lad or lass in the colony could have been better instructed.
During the day I worked as best I could, cleaning the house, chopping wood, tending the garden, running errands, and, my favourite task, taking care of Clarissa. I was moved beyond measure that on so many occasions the Haddocks entrusted me with she who was most precious to them.
It is at this point that I find I must lay down my pen. The telling of these early years of my life has been, as I said, at the request of the colony’s chief chaplain, the Revd Mr Johnson, whom the Revd Mr Haddock serves as assistant chaplain. I did not expect to take so long about the narrative. It has awoken many memories for me, and many of them are painful. Yet I am still here, unlike a number of those whose paths crossed mine, and I am grateful for that. Despite my fears that we are subject to the random and mysterious workings of the universe, I nonetheless believe in the providence of the Divine Creator who watches over us, and I place my trust in the benevolence of His intentions for me.
I am tired now, and so will leave the telling of subsequent stages of my life, and indeed of Johnny’s further adventures, until another time.
Author’s Note
The historical details in this story are accurate, although occasionally liberties have been taken with the truth. Among the books consulted in the preparation of this story were:
A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Watkin Tench
The Colony: A history of early Sydney by Grace Karskens
Bound for Botany Bay by Frank Clune
Their Chastity Was Not Too Rigid: Leisure times in early Australia by J. W. C. Cumes
Sydney Cove 1788: The First Year of the Settlement of Australia (original diaries), edited by Dr John Cobley
For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke
Orphans of History: The forgotten children of the First Fleet by Robert Holden
The Diary of Joseph Sams, edited by Simon Braydon and Robert Songhurst
The Journal of John Sweatman, edited by Jim Allen and Peter Corris
The Oxford Book of Australian Letters, edited by Brenda Niall and John Thompson
The Long Farewell: The perilous voyages of settlers under sail in the great migrations to Australia by Don Charlwood
Phillip of Australia: An account of the settlement at Sydney Cove by M. Barnard Eldershaw
Botany Bay by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
Joseph Mason: Assigned convict, 1831–1837, edited by David Kent and Norma Townsend
Guilty Wretch That I Am: Echoes of Australian bushrangers, from the death row memoirs of Richard Burgess with historical notes by Ken Byron
Dancing With Strangers by Inga Clendinnen
Early Australian History: Convict life in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land by Charles White
The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, foreword by Max Harris
Farewell to Old England by Hugh Anderson
Sources of Australian History, selected and edited by Manning Clark
For the description of the treatment, cooking and distribution of animals by some Australian Aboriginal groups, and for information about the play of Aboriginal children, I am indebted to the book Children of the Desert by Géza Róheim, based on observations made by Róheim in 1929. Several paragraphs in my book that relate to animal cooking and distribution are merely paraphrases of Róheim’s descriptions.
Many websites, too numerous to list, were also consulted. Outstanding among these were www.londonlives.org and www.oldbaileyonline.org.
About John Marsden
From an early age, John Marsden found books to be a source of joy, comfort, humour and wisdom. When he ran out of ‘boys’ books’, he read his sister’s ‘girls’ books’. When he ran out of children’s books, he read adult books. When he ran out of books completely, he went back to his favourites and re-read them – until in some cases he knew them by heart.
John developed an admiration for the great storytellers: Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, John Buchan, Ethel Turner, Mary Grant Bruce. In his adolescent years, writers like J.D. Salinger, Franz Kafka, Herman Hesse, Jane Austen (and Agatha Christie!) were among his favourites.
As well as writing more than 40 books, including Tomorrow, When the War Began, and selling five million copies worldwide, John has his own school, Candlebark, in Victoria, which he founded in 2006 and which has more than 150 students.
John is married to Kris, and they have six boys, Fletcher, Oliver, Wilson, Harry, Charlie and Alex.
This is a work of fiction. Characters, institutions and organisations mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe actual conduct.
First published 2014 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Jomden 2014
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
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EPUB format: 9781743531570
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Internal text design and endpapers by Debra Billson
Cover design by Debra Billson
Cover images: York Coins Inc/www.yorkcoins.com and Liliya Kulianionak/Shutterstock.com
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