TOWARDS AUSTRALIA.


Although my mother's family had lost heavily by him, her mother gave us
500 pounds to make a start in South Australia. An 80-acre section was
built for 80 pounds, and this entitled us to the steerage passage of four
adults. This helped for my elder sister and two brothers (my younger
brother David was left for his education with his aunts in Scotland), but
we had to have another female, so we took with us a servant girl--most
ridiculous, it seems now. I was under the statutory age of 15. The
difference between steerage and intermediate fares had to be made up,
and we sailed from Greenock in July, 1839, in the barque Palmyra, 400
tons, bound for Adelaide, Port Phillip, and Sydney. The Palmyra was
advertised to carry a cow and an experienced surgeon. Intermediate
passengers had no more advantage of the cow than steerage folks, and
except for the privacy of separate cabins and a pound of white biscuit
per family weekly, we fared exactly as the other immigrants did, though
the cost was double. Twice a week we had either fresh meat or tinned
meat, generally soup and boudle, and the biscuit seemed half bran, and
sometimes it was mouldy. But our mother thought it was very good for us
to endure hardship, and so it was.

There were 150 passengers, mostly South Australian immigrants, in the
little ship. The first and second class passengers were bound for Port
Philip and Sydney in greater proportion than for Adelaide There was in
the saloon the youthful William Milne, and in the intermediate was Miss
Disher, his future wife. He became President of the Legislative
Council, and was knighted. There was my brother, J. B. Spence, who also
sat in the Council, and was at one time Chief Secretary. There was
George Melrose, a successful South Australian pastoralist; there was my