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| The Reverend Dr. J.D. Lang |
The first free sellers in the Moreton Bay Colony were German missionaries recruited by the Reverend James Dunmore Lang. Dr. Lang, a Presbyterian clergyman from Scotland, managed to get his proposal approved by the Church Synod in Sydney despite some objections.[1]
SYNOD OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Some stress was laid upon a recommendation to the
Government in favour of the German Mission to the Aborigines; which two of the
dissentient ministers had been induced to sign on Dr. Lang's own suggestion.
The Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies
was pleased to advance the sum of £450 from the Colonial Revenue for
the outfit and passage of the three educated missionaries.
The expense of their passage from Berlin to Greenock,
together with their expenses in Scotland, the cost of their outfit, the
purchase of implements, &c., have been partly provided for by the religious
public in the West of Scotland.
As to the future, Lord Glenelg has authorised the
Colonial Government to afford the mission such assistance from the Colonial
Revenue as it will be found to merit, but its primary establishment and its
maintenance in the first instance must depend upon the voluntary contributions
of the colonial public.
Considering the widespread belief in the danger of emigrants ending up
as slaves once they had left the Fatherland, there were some in Germany who
suspect ted Dr. Land’s motives.[3]
After the German
missionaries had arrived in Scotland, it was loudly asserted in Berlin, on the
authority of the Rev. Dr. Blumhardt, of Basle, in Switzerland, who had taken
the trouble to write Mr. Gossner on the subject, that Dr. LANG intended merely
to sell the missionaries as slaves; and certain very Christian exhortations
were addressed to them by the simple-minded man, on the supposition of their
unexpectedly finding themselves reduced to slavery in a far distant and foreign
land.
Why Moreton Bay and
why German Missionaries? Lang gave his reasons.[4]
1st, that no efforts of the kind had previously been made
by any religious body in that part of the territory;
2nd, that the great extent of the Bay and the number of
navigable streams flowing into it afford a peculiarly eligible central position
for a Christian mission;
3rd, that the distance of Moreton Bay from the settled
parts of the territory would subject the natives to fewer of those
deteriorating influences arising from the vicinity of a convict population than
were likely to be experienced in any situation within the present limits of the
colony, and
4t,. that the extension of missionary stations along the coast
to the northward of Moreton Bay, was peculiarly desirable for the colony of New
South: Wales, even in a commercial point of view, from the dangerous character
of the coast, the frequency of shipwrecks and the ferocity of the natives.
And it was argued in favour of German rather than English
missionaries that whereas the latter would be tempted to leave their proper
work as missionaries to the black natives, by accepting appointments in the
colonial churches, the former, being foreigners and comparatively ignorant of
our; language, would be under no such temptation.
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| Emigrant ship between decks |
The “Minerva”, from Greenock, with 235 emigrants on board,
arrived on Tuesday. Among the passengers are thirteen German Missionaries with
their families, come out to establish a mission to the wretched aborigines to
the northward of this Colony under the superintendence of the Synod of New
South Wales.
Two of the Missionaries are ordained Clergymen, and the
remainder, who come in the capacity of Catechists, have also, in conjunction
with their theological studies, been instructed in various mechanical arts with
a view to the communication of the arts of civilized life to the aborigines in
conjunction with Christian knowledge.
The missionaries were
not Lutheran but members of the Moravian Church, also known as the Bohemian
Brethren a Protestant denomination. It originated in the mid 15th
Century in what is now the Czech Republic. The Moravian congregation focussed on
Christian unity, personal piety, music and missions. Their missionary work
continues in various parts of the world continues to the present day.[6]
The missionaries
chosen to work among the Aborigines of Moreton Bay were:[7]
Rev. EDWARD WILHELM SCHIMIDT, a regularly ordained
clergyman of the Prussian Church, educated at the Universities of Halle and
Berlin.
 |
| Reverend Christopher Eipper |
Rev. CHRISTOPHER EIPPER, a native of the Kingdom of
Wurttemberg, educated at the Missionary College of Basle in Switzerland and
ordained conjointly by the Lutheran and Presbyterian ministers of the German
and French Protestant Churches in the City of London.
Catechists or Assistant Missionaries:
Peter Niquet - stonemason and bricklayer, and his wife
Maria.
August Rode - joiner and cabinetmaker, and his wife
Julia.
Leopold Zillmann - blackmith, and his wife Clara.
A. W. F. Hartenstein - weaver, and his wife
Christina.
Gottfried Hausmann - butcher and cook, and his wife
Wilhelmina.
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| Gottfried Wagner |
Gottfried Wagner - shoemaker.
Ludowig Doge - gardener.
Theodor Franz - tailor.
Christopher Albrecht - shoemaker and bookbinder.
Mr. Moritz Schneider medical attendant and assistant
missionary, was seized with typhus fever after the arrival of the vessel, and
died at the Quarantine station. His wife Dorothea being left to lament his
loss, and to proceed with her countrymen to their destination at Moreton Bay.
The missionaries had not wasted their time on the long sea voyage,
learning the English language.[8]
Under the superintendence of Mr. GOSSNER, the catechists
or assistant missionaries who have come out by the ”Minierva”, were employed
for a considerable time in acquiring such qualifications as would fit them for
the work in which they were to be engaged as missionaries to the heathen,
endeavouring especially to conjoin with their other acquirements, a knowledge
of the English and Hebrew languages.
The missionary party arrived in Moreton Bay in 1838. At the time the settlement was still a penal
colony and there were no free settlers.
The Moreton Bay Penal Colony would be officially closed in 1842 and the
area opened to free settlement. The Commandant told the missionaries to
establish themselves to the north of the penal settlement so that the
aborigines would not identify them with the convicts and soldiers. [9]
They should fix themselves in some eligible locality
about seven or eight miles to the northward of the settlement, in the direction
of the Bay.
It is fortunate that the German Missionary settlement
will be strong enough to protect itself in case of aggression from the natives;
for while it is acknowledged on all hands that it could be of very little use
to the natives at Brisbane Town, where the Missionaries would be confounded
with the other Europeans both free and bond, it is unsafe at present for one or
two individuals to be living at any distance from the Government settlement.
Given the depth of skills and experience possessed by the Germans, it
was expected that the mission would soon become self–sufficient and attract the
local Aborigines to the benefits of the European life-style and religious
practice.[10]
As there is a bricklayer, a carpenter, a blacksmith, a
gardener, a shoemaker, and a tailor, among the lay missionaries of the German
Mission, on the principle of the
Moravian Missions that have proved so successful in other parts of the
world, it is evident that the Mission will ere long be comparatively
independent, as far as the lay are concerned. On the whole, this is
unquestionably the most promising effort that has ever yet been made for the
black natives, and we earnestly hope that it will be attended with the
wished-for success.
Meanwhile in Sydney, in order to raise more funds, Lang continued to
talk up the great venture of the mission to the aborigines.[11]
Reverend Dr. Lang gave a most interesting account of the
origin of this German Mission - he dwelt eloquently upon the fact of its being
the most interesting experiment ever yet made in the history of Christian
Missions - an experiment to solve the great problem whether the Aborigines of
New Holland are capable of being stamped with the Divine impress; or, whether
they are, as some say, like the brutes that perish.
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| Aboriginal couple near bamboo at Nundah 1894 |
Despite the best efforts of the missionaries, it soon became evident
that the local aborigines of Moreton Bay took a liking to the produce of the
mission and not to their religious message.[12]
Since Europeans have cultivated the ground, and
introduced grain and vegetables, they have become exceedingly fond of potatoes,
maize, pumpkins, melons, &c.; but they have never imitated their practice
in raising a supply of food for themselves by tilling the ground. They prefer
robbing the gardens, if they can, to earning their bread by the sweat of their
brow. Such as have mixed much with white men will eat anything they see them
eat. They find also great delight in smoking a pipe of tobacco, for which there
has of late been a great demand, which has not, however, been complied with on
the part of the Missionaries, who do not use any themselves.
By 1841, the writing was on the wall for the mission. Three years in, there were still no converts. The German clerics were accused of being more
interested in establishing their farm than in pursuing converts.[13]
THE ABORIGINES-COMPLETE FAILURE OF THE MISSIONS.
THE deplorable fate of the aboriginal inhabitants of this
territory, and the failure of every attempt that has been hitherto made to
protect or enlighten them, must form a constantly recurring subject of grief to
every Christian mind.
The mission at Moreton Bay is conducted under the
auspices of the Presbyterian church, and was established by Dr. Lang in 1837 ;
it consists of eleven missionaries (clerical and lay), with their wives and
children, amounting to twenty souls.
Their labours will be best described by one of
themselves: "The labours of the missionaries have hitherto, from sheer
necessity, been confined in great measure to the preliminary operations of
clearing ground, erecting houses, and other buildings, and fencing in, and breaking
up ground for cultivation.”
Now, if the Rev. C. Eipper had been sent out to Moreton
Bay as a squatter, this report would no doubt have been quite satisfactory to
his friends ; but we do not at all admire this category of
"clearing," "erecting," "fencing in,"
"breaking up," and "stocking," as the sole fruits of a
numerous and expensive Christian mission to the aborigines.
According to the missionaries it was the wandering lifestyle of the
aborigines that frustrated their ministry.
The only option was to follow the aborigines as they moved camp about
the bush and this was totally impracticable.
The over-riding principle of a mission was to attract indigenous people
to settle down with the missionaries and be instructed not only on the
Christian religion but also to adopt a “civilized” European way of life and all
that it entailed. Still the Germans
remained hopeful.[14]
The missionaries, however, do not consider that they have
done all that is requisite when they have got the means of attracting the
aborigines, and inducing them to stay with them whenever they are in their
vicinity; this is only one part of their object; they wish to follow them in
their wanderings - for they are often absent for months together - to go
amongst them in their camps, and there to preach to them the everlasting
gospel.
The German missionaries struggled on for a few more years without
converts until the Colonial Government finally withdrew funding. What the Reverend Dr. Lang described eight
years earlier as “the most interesting experiment ever yet made in the history
of Christian Missions” was at an end.[15]
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| Abandoned old missionary cottages on Zions Hill |
The German Mission is abandoned. Sir George Gipps, we
think wisely, finding its utter uselessness, has discontinued the assistance
which it formerly received from the public revenue.
Most of the former missionaries stayed in the area and became very
successful farmers, providing essential produce to the newly arrived new
settlers of Brisbane Town.[16] They were the pioneers of what would become a
long tradition of German settler farmers in Queensland in the 19th
Century, instrumental in the establishment of enterprises such as the sugar and
wool industries.
The German missionaries, phlegmatic and philosophical,
have become the German graziers and market-gardeners. Located on the rich land
of Eagle Farm, commanding an extensive back run, paying neither license nor
assessment, it may be gratifying to their friends at a distance to know that
they are "doing well:" that is, that they have much cattle, and their
butter and vegetables are highly prized in Brisbane; that, if their spiritual
harvest has been small, their vegetables are most luxuriant; and that if,
during their Mission, they have made no converts, their last increase of calves
is at least ninety per cent.
 |
| Estate map of German Station Estate |
The aborigines continued to help themselves to the produce of the German
farmers.[17]
THE NATIVES.-A few days ago, a number of blacks
surrounded the huts occupied by the Germans, at Eagle Farm, and forcibly
carried off a large quantity of provisions, consisting of flour, potatoes, and
other articles. The natives have taken advantage of the pacific dispositions of
the Germans, to fleece them on several occasions, and the probability is, they will
renew their outrages the first favourable opportunity, knowing well, as they
do, that they are sure to come off scatheless.
© K. C.
Sbeghen, 2011.
[1]
The Colonist 14.12.1837
[2] The Colonist 10.3.1838
[3] The Colonist 10.3.1838
[4]
The Colonist 7.3.1838
[5]
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales
Advertiser 25.1.1938
[6]
Wikipedia.
[7]
The Colonist 10.3.1838
[8] The Colonist 10.3.1838
[9]
The Colonist 12.5.1838
[10] The Colonist 12.5.1838
[11]
The Sydney Herald 21.5.1838
[12]
The Sydney Herald 5.5.1841
[14]
Australasian Chronicle 6.5.1841
[16] The Moreton Bay Courier 27.6.1846
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